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"Captain Benson."
Olivia looked up from her case file and over the top of her dark-rimmed glasses, "Sergeant Bell." Something in Bell's face, and the file clutched in her hand, told her she was not going to like what was about to be said and Stabler was definitely the cause.
Ayanna took a step further into the office and closed the door behind her, trying to fight the awkward as hell feeling. "I… need your help."
Taking off her glasses and folding them into her hand, Olivia asked, "My help as Captain of SVU, or as Elliot Stabler's ex-partner?"
"Both. …Mainly the latter."
Olivia gave a sigh while gesturing to the seat opposite and clearing her desk of her work. "What's going on?"
Bell explained that Elliot was undercover with an Albanian gang, how well he had integrated and how beneficial the relayed intelligence had been thus far to the investigation.
Until two weeks ago.
"All communication just stopped. We've tried to make contact with him, be where he's going to be, not make ourselves known but make him know."
"Did he acknowledge you?"
"Eye contact, that's it."
A quiet voice in Olivia's mind told her that that would have been enough for them to have had full conversations. "And what do you think I can do?"
She was trying hard to look stoic and professional, but Olivia could see how awkward Bell was feeling as she said, "We want you to meet up with him. Undercover. In a bar."
"...Excuse me?"
Bell handed her the casefile and explained her reasoning; she would be mistrusted and mistaken for a Marcy Killers plant, Jet was too young, and the guys would just turn into a pissing contest and Elliot didn't know enough of the other UC's to be able to recognise them. "But you know him better than any of us. You worked with him long enough that you'd know from the look of him if we need to pull him. You can get him a message."
Olivia hated that that small voice within was just parroted back at her out loud. She scoffed, trying to find the words, "That may be so, but how do you expect me to get anywhere near him if he's so deep undercover?"
"It's Reggie's birthday today. They're going to a bar in the Meatpacking District to celebrate. Elliot - Eddie - wouldn't miss it."
Incredulous, Olivia looked back at the casefile, flicking through the ream of pages of police history of the subjects. She hadn't seen nor heard from Elliot in a few weeks and the time apart had been good to sort out her head, this just threatened to unravel all that hard work.
"Olivia," Bell's voice was low, "I'm really concerned. I wouldn't put you in this position if I wasn't."
Olivia sighed, "What's the name of the bar?"
'The Chesterfield' looked like it might have been classy sometime in the nineties, when the floors had last been cleaned and leather booth seats last repaired. There were televisions behind the bar with whatever live sport they could find and the spirits were definitely more water than alcohol, but it was packed with people.
Olivia had already clocked at least two women on the game and a drug deal in the doorway of the gents' bathroom and that was while waiting for the bartender to grab her a bottle of beer from the fridge.
And yet, she'd been in - both socially and professionally - worse bars. There was a good atmosphere and the music wasn't too loud or bass-driven.
With what little research she could do in the interim two hours from Bell's impromptu meeting and the cab dropping her off, Olivia had decided her character for the night would be the business woman blowing off steam from a stressful day, obviously looking for a good time but not with just anyone. With any luck, just with Elliot…
Lindstrom was going to have a field day with this one.
Olivia took a swig of the beer and looked around. A pool table, that could work. It was on a little platform at the end of the room, she'd have a clear view of the whole bar area and she could figure out a way for Elliot to get a clear view of her.
"Hello boys," she smiled, climbing the few steps to the table and the two guys, probably around her age if not older, shooting a round. "Any objections if I take the winner?"
Olivia had already heard the response in her head before the shorter of the guys even said it, she almost wanted to mouth along with "You can take whatever you want, darlin'."
As much as the two guys made her skin crawl, it was almost nice to have the attention again. And be working for it. She'd been focusing so hard for so long as Mama Benson and Captain Benson that it'd been a while since she'd been Olivia: single, female, attractive.
The black dress she had quickly poured herself into was suitably not suited to the game of pool, so Jeff and Geoff - work buddies from Wall Street, felt the 'irony' of their names was funnier than it was - were enjoying the show that she hoped would get Elliot's attention. Whenever he showed up.
She was beginning to worry that the whole night had been a waste when the doors slammed open and two men almost literally fell into the room. They erupted into laughter and telling anyone who looked at them wrong to fuck off as they fought their way through the throng to the bar.
Elliot.
No, Eddie.
Olivia bent over the table to line up a shot, her eyes flitting between the white ball and the bar to get first indications of how he was. Well, alive was a good start. He was drunk, or at least giving it a good show; while his partner, who she recognised from the casefile as Reggie, was definitely drunk, covered in lipstick and missing some buttons on his shirt.
Elliot seemed to know the bartender, shaking his hand vigorously and shouting over the din for "two beers and two chasers for the birthday boy!"
Eddie was a bit obnoxious, she decided.
Sinking the ball off the cushion in a shot perfected during her years in college, Olivia smirked at the confused looks on the faces of her smitten competitors.
Lining up the next shot, she watched as Eddie and Reggie clinked shot glasses before downing them and slamming the glasses to the bar. "Jimmy! Jimmy! Another round!"
Olivia missed the next ball on purpose and pouted to her competitors, receiving the typical responses as she stroked Jeff's arm as he passed her.
Jeff managed to pot a ball so Olivia applauded loudly, laughing too loudly at whatever Geoff had said.
It didn't take long before she realised Elliot was watching her. His eyes were still, dark, boring into hers like there was no one else in the entire bar. It was enough to almost make her breath hitch in her throat. She brought the beer up to her lips, remembering to flirtaciously smirk and tilt her head as Reggie followed Elliot's gaze.
She flicked her hair over her shoulder as Jeff missed the next shot and she seductively bent over the table. She could imagine the view the angle gave down her dress from Elliot's stiffening posture.
She'd seen him undercover enough times over their years together to know he was skilled in the act. He could pull off another character while keeping the wherewithal to gather evidence, remember incidents in minute detail and get himself out of hairy situations almost effortlessly. But there was a darkness in his look that was new. That was Eddie. The beard she could get past, though the salt-and-pepper look of it did make her mind flash to deliciously dangerous thoughts. But it was his eyes that concerned her.
She moved the cue, sinking a ball to the far left pocket and over-egging her celebration just a slight for the watching men's benefit. Elliot included.
"Holy fuck she's hot," Reggie's drink-sloppy voice announced in Elliot's ear, both hands on his shoulders.
"Yeah…"
"You going over there?"
"What? No, it's your birthday, brother, we're here for you."
"Brother, the hottest woman in this bar is giving you the come on. If you don't get your ass over there I'm gonna think you've got a secret to tell me."
"Hey, I got plenty of secrets but none like that," he added the edge of homophobia needed, despite the secret he knew about Albi.
"Then get your ass over there," he was practically pushing him off the stool.
"But, your birthday-"
Reggie grinned into his beer bottle, "Yes, as it's my birthday I think you should let me watch..."
"Fuck off," Eddie laughed. "Y'fuckin' perve."
Olivia was doing subtly obscene things to the pool cue while talking to one of the Wall Street bozos who was really not getting as far as he thought he was. God, she looked incredible. Black stilettos, tanned, toned legs, black dress to above the knee with an unhealthy amount of cleavage - unhealthy to anyone with a heartbeat; male, female or whatever in between - but still oozing class, taste. She was sex personified. Had been for the 24 years he'd known her.
Eddie waved a dismissive hand towards the Jeffs, "Go away."
While Geoff very much took the hint and stepped back at the dark look in Elliot's eyes, Jeff began "Hey man, she-"
He diverted from his path around the table with an even darker look, his hands in fists as he barked "Fuck off."
That landed and the cues were balanced against the table as they quickly scurried away. Elliot sat against the table, his back strategically to Reggie, and pulled Olivia between his legs. "Is he watching?"
Olivia's eyes flicked over his shoulder to where Reggie was trying to focus on their direction. She kept up the pretence and swiped her hair behind her ear, smirking as she said, "he's trying to."
"What are you doing here?"
"Bell came to see me," she smoothed her hand down his arm, squeezing his bicep on her path. "You haven't checked in in a few weeks."
His hands settled on her waist, "It hasn't been convenient."
"She's concerned."
"What, that I've turned?"
She flicked her head to the side, a coquettish smile that her eyes belied, "Wouldn't be the first."
She twisted out of his grasp and bent over the side of the table to line up a shot. Elliot sidled up behind her and bent to her ear, his body covering hers. She would swear the shiver that ran through her was purely for show.
"There's a big job coming up," his hoarse voice was deep in her ear. "A shipment of girls coming in from Albania." His hands snaked down her body and shifted her hips into his groin, "They're watching my every move so I gotta play the game to get their trust to be there as the girls come in."
She swallowed as she hit the white ball, it missing its intended path entirely. She turned to face him and he put his hands on the table either side of her hips, enclosing her in. "When do they arrive?"
He leant into her ear, "They won't tell me. They'll just tell me where to collect when it's done."
"You'll need a wire. And backup." Her hands rucked the tee shirt from his jeans and hooked onto the belt loops. "It's too dangerous to go alone."
Elliot glanced over at Reggie with a wink before burying his face into her neck. "I can't take that risk."
Her breath hitched, "you can't take the risk not to."
He smoothed his hand down to her thigh and pulled it up against his hip, "Sorry, I need to sell it as Eddie."
Throwing her head back, she clutched the back of his shirt in her fists, "It's fine, do what you need to."
The groan sounding into her neck was definitely Elliot not Eddie.
His fingers clenched into the bare skin behind her knee, "You look incredible, by the way."
Olivia smirked away from his view, "Had to sell it." She scratched her fingers through his scalp and felt him falter.
"Tell Bell," he breathed deeply as she shifted, inadvertently pushing herself further into him. "Tell her 8am at the hardware store on Greenwich. I'll tell them I needed supplies for another job."
She breathed "mmhmm" and he felt the vibrations of her voice through his lips on her neck. If he hadn't been half way to hard by then, he sure as fuck was now.
It was another minute before either of them spoke, lost in the selling it of his lips on her neck, her shoulder and jaw, her nails scratching over his scalp and under his tee shirt. A thousand warning bells were ringing in her ears, vibrating through her body, but God it felt good. His large hands instinctively knowing where to press, where to tease.
It had been a long time since she'd done anything anywhere near this level of PDA, probably not at this level even then, but this wasn't her and definitely wasn't Elliot. Right? This was Eddie. And being Eddie right now was saving Elliot's life.
She breathed his name, Elliot's, and it spurred him back to reality. "You're going to have to sell it," he growled.
She swallowed, "Hardware store, Greenwich, 8am."
"Right."
"Be careful, Elliot."
With that, she planted both hands on his chest and pushed him back. He faltered on his step and just managed to grab on to the wall behind him before he fell on his ass.
He reared back at her, as an embarrassed Eddie would have done, but a firm slap landed across his face before he got any closer to her. It wasn't her full strength but it was enough to make him lose his balance and fall to the floor, his cheek stinging like a mother and ear ringing just a bit.
Olivia stood over him and shouted, "You fuckin' pig!"
"You fuckin' tease!" He hollered back.
Olivia flipped him off and bounded down the steps and from the bar. Reggie was stood by his stool at the bar and giving Eddie a wobbly applause, laughing heartily at the floorshow.
"Her loss," Eddie laughed, downing the proffered Tequila shot.
"She was fucking hot, too."
–
"I owe you, Olivia."
"I'll collect, don't worry," she smiled into the phone as the cab took her home.
"He's alright though?"
"Ignoring the ringing ear and handprint to the face, he's…okay. Keep an eye on him though, he can go deep in cases like this."
"Right, right. ...How'd it feel to slap him after all this time?"
"Pretty damn good, not gonna lie!"
Bell laughed, understanding only a fraction of what had transpired over the last quarter-decade.
"I'll let you go, thanks again."
"Anytime."