Work Text:
The phone rings faintly as Elliot holds his cell to his ear, leaning back on the couch in dim light coming from the kitchen.
When she picks up Olivia hears a scratching sound on the receiver and immediately feels like she’s right there with him. “Hey you.”
He breathes out a heavy sigh. “Hey, sorry to call so late.”
She shakes her head and looks around her empty living room before continuing to clean up a few toys. She shoves Noah’s homework papers into a purple folder and drops it in his backpack on the floor by the entryway. “What’s going on? How’s the new assignment? How’re you?” Their conversations are like this now; they’ve progressed from work to something more. Something more personal. It feels right; it feels comfortable - back to how it used to be, sort of.
Elliot brushes his hand over his chin and it makes a muffled scratching sound again. She can tell he’s hesitating, but doesn’t want to push him. He’s always so patient with her. “You probably don’t remember me talking about my dad’s commendation medal…”
“Of course.” Olivia sits down on her own couch, not allowing herself to relax just yet. “He took a bullet for his partner…”
“Yeah, listen, about that— Turns out my dad was a dirty cop too.”
“What?” She says in honest shock.
“So I’m out with Donnelly tonight and he starts telling me this story of the night my dad was shot. It was a set up for a job gone bad. His partner popped him in the leg, and that honor was a complete farce.” Elliot’s voice gets louder as he talks. “All this time I thought— I looked up to him— None of it was ever really real.” He leans forward, his head in his hands, barely hanging on to the phone now.
“Oh Elliot,” she whispers. Olivia holds the phone delicately, like she wishes she could hold him. There is a long pause and she thinks she might be able to hear him crying. Then she says, “You might not remember this, but one time you told me it’s about more than just blood.”
Neither one of them speaks for a minute. It’s like they’re transported back in time. She can almost feel his hand on the back of her neck.
She is very quiet when she talks this time. “Elliot, there’s nothing that says we have to become our fathers.”
He wipes his eyes brusquely and sits up, suddenly aware that Eli is just in the other room and he needs to keep it down.
“Liv…” he trails off, lost in memories. All the times she expressed this same kind of doubt— "I love you," he says it simply, as if it's as easy as hello. "You and me— you just get me. You always know what to say…"
"Sometimes it feels like we're the same person." She doesn’t need him to finish any of his sentences. Olivia acutely knows this place he’s in right now, and she’s not afraid to jump in the hole with him. But the difference this time is that she knows the way out.