suspect

chapter 2

What she meant as a shut-down ended up putting a small smile on Elliot's face. "So I hear," Elliot said. "Congrats, Lieutenant. I knew you'd run this place one day."

She was struck by his sentiment and by how time seemed to have stood still on his features. So much time had passed and so much in her life had changed that for some reason she expected him to have changed too- to look different. But there he was, in jeans and a white, bloodied undershirt, his blue eyes with the stare and confidence of a Spanish bull—her partner.

After realizing she was holding his gaze too long, she snapped back to the case file. She read through a few sentences before closing it and throwing it down on the table. Nothing in that case file compared to what she already knew and could use on him.

"Sit down," she commanded. He did, then she sat across from him. "Why'd you do it?" she asked plainly, keeping any semblance of emotion out of her voice.

Elliot stared at her, his expression flat. "You know I didn't."

"Actually, no. I don't know that."

He huffed in disbelief. "You do know that. And you have no proof linking me to this, so you can't keep me here."

"Then why haven't you left?"

Elliot paused. "You mean apart from the cuffs?... Liv, I swear. This wasn't me."

She refused to get caught up in the use of her nick name this time. "You have his blood on your clothes, Stabler," she pointed out.
"And when Warner finishes the autopsy, you'll see that the guy was dead long before I was found at the scene! He was already in rigor when I got there, Olivia. His blood is on me because I went to see if he was alive."

"That's an incredibly convenient story," Olivia said.

Elliot rolled his eyes. "You know that I'm not capable of doing something like this," he said, leaning in.

Olivia raised her eyebrows. "No?" she played. Now she was sinking into her rhythm as a detective. Not only was she good at this in general, but she also knew how to push Elliot's buttons better than anyone, and he just threw her a pop-fly she could easily catch. She remained calm as she challenged him. "I could gather one hefty jacket of an ex-detective that would say differently… a jacket with enough excessive force complaints to last him a lifetime."

One side of Elliot's lips raised slightly. "And in every one of those complaints, you'll see the written support of his partner- one Miss Olivia Benson."

Olivia shrugged the comment off, even though she did feel like he one-upped her. "Maybe she was just a naïve, young detective, hiding behind the thin blue line one too many times."

Elliot just shook his head in disbelief when a tap on the other side of the mirror paused their conversation.

"Excuse me," Olivia said. She stood and walked out of the interrogation room to find ADA Barba waiting on the other side. Fin, Amanda, and Carisi were with him, watching through the glass.

"Barba, I'm glad you're here," she began. "We have a new case involvi—"

"What the hell are you doing?" Barba asked.

Taken aback, Olivia's head jerked. "What do you mean? I'm interrogating a murder suspect."

"You're interrogating your ex-partner," he corrected.

"So?"

"So, there are five-hundred reasons why this is a horrible idea, Olivia. Any good defense attorney could get a confession thrown out because of the history you two have."