Shadow Of A Dream (3/?)
“Morning Counselor,” Elliot greets the blonde. “Hope you´ re in a better mood than Liv is. She seems kinda out of it.”
The ADA’s piercing blue eyes fall onto the brunette but as soon as their eyes meet, the detective looks away and seems suddenly very interested in the coffee cup she’s still holding in her hands.
“I’m sure Olivia is just fine,” Alex tells Elliot, still looking at Olivia, trying to will the brunette to look at her. She has no success, though and so she continues “Maybe she’s just a little shaken up by something,” she puts an extra emphasis on the last word and is very pleased to see the brunette flinch the slightest bit.
“Um, okay. Cryptic much, Cabot, you know something we don’t?” Elliot asks more than a little bit confused by the odd behavior of both women.
“No, not at all Stabler, just assuming, that’s all,” she says innocently while again trying to will Olivia to look at her. “So about that warrant,” she says half turning towards the others but still keeping Olivia in her peripheral vision, “you better find something in that apartment, detectives or else there will be no case to try, for a lack of evidence.”
“Don’t worry Counselor, there’s no way his apartment is clean,” Elliot assures her. “But just in case you don’t trust us to do our jobs properly, just come along. I’m pretty sure-“,
“NO WAY!” Five faces turn to Olivia, four with a mixture of confusion and shock written into them and one a picture of sheer disappointment.
“I mean,” the brunette begins, her face as red as a tomato on her best day “I’m sure Alex has more important things to do than searching for evidence with us, haven’t you?” the sentence comes out harsher than intended but it´ s all the detective can do to not let her confusion and insecurity show. Somehow she even finds the courage to finally look at the ADA directly.
Alex, still speechless, searches Olivia’s face, searches her eyes for any sign of regret for being so harsh, or an apology even. But she can find nothing so she turns away from the brunette.
“If you say so detective,” she answers sharply, her voice as cold as ice. She puts the warrant on the desk closest by, nods her head in the direction of the four speechless men and leaves.
Olivia sits motionless in her chair, not able to do anything but think fuck, fuck, fuck.
Then she jumps out of her chair with a start, grunts “Fuck” aloud, grabs her jacket and runs after the hurt ADA, leaving four heavily confused men to just stand and stare.
“What the hell was that?” asks Munch who is the first to remember how to speak.
“I don´ t have the slightest idea,” Cragen answers “but I sure don´ t like it. Elliot you know something?”
“Nah cap, just that Liv was kinda edgy since we stepped into the precinct. But what that has to do with Cabot? Not a clue,” he says shrugging his shoulders.
“Okay then. Fin, Munch you take that warrant and go search through the apartment. Elliot I want you to stay here and wait for Liv. She has to come back eventually and when she does, I want you to talk to her. As long as you wait you can do some DD5’s.” With that the captain retreats to his office, leaving Fin and Munch to smirk at Elliot for being restricted to desk duty, before grabbing the warrant Alex left on Elliot’s desk to go search the apartment.
Elliot lets himself fall into his chair and sighs deeply before asking the empty desk belonging to his partner “What happened Liv?” It is then that his eyes fall onto an obviously recently unfolded piece of paper. He looks up to see if everybody’s gone and then stands up to take the note into his hands. He looks around again, pondering whether it would be okay to read it. Deciding that it probably wouldn’t but way too worried and curious to really care he eventually begins to read.
Olivia catches the elevator Alex disappeared into in the last second. “Alex, wait,” the brunette quickly steps between the closing doors. “I’m sorry,” she says quietly.
“Just,” the blonde shakes her head slightly. “Just leave it, detective.”
“No please, I really didn’t mean to be so harsh. I’m just-“
“You’re just what, Olivia?” Alex interrupts, anger rising in her voice. “I think you made perfectly clear what you wanted to say and you’re words really don’t require any kind of explanation. So if you would please step away from the doors because like you so gloriously concluded, I have more important things to do.” The harshness of her voice betrays all feelings of hurt and disappointment she desperately tries to suppress.
The words sting, but Olivia doesn’t move. Shit, I really screwed up. I have to fix this, she thinks before begging “Alex, please, I really didn’t mean it. It was just,” searching for the right words she stutters, “this note, never in the world would I have thought-“
But the ADA interrupts her again. “Forget about that note. I clearly misinterpreted certain things,” the coldness now dominating the blonde’s voice is even harder to handle than the harshness from before.
“But,” the brunette tries again when they hear Fin and Munch approach. Alex shakes her head and turns away from Olivia.
Fin steps up to Olivia “Hey there, you haven’t come all too far, ‘s everything okay?” When he doesn’t get an answer he pushes Olivia, who’s still standing between the doors, a little to the side, adding “In or out, Liv?”
The brunette’s eyes never leave the blonde in front of her. When she doesn’t look at her again, she takes a defeated step back and watches Munch following his partner into the elevator, both throwing her worried glances. She turns to leave but decides otherwise after taking the first step in the direction of the squad room. In helpless desperation she turns around again “You want to catch me, counselor? Then why are you walking away?” But her words only hit the closed doors of the elevator.
“I guess that’s an out,” she mutters to herself while walking back to her desk.