Operation Heart

Ghost of Shooting(s) Past

Ayanna, Amanda, and Carisi were all surprised by the look of pure shock on Olivia's face when she saw the man. "Okay, I clearly need sleep, I must be hallucinating," she muttered to herself as she reached for her cup of coffee, accidentally knocking it over, spilling the scalding liquid on her hand, and the desk. Within seconds she was back in that hospital bathroom, sobbing into Cragen's chest. Fin moved the papers off the desk so they didn't get messed up, while Alex grabbed paper towels, and ice for Olivia's hands. "I'm hallucinating," she repeated as Alex placed the ice on her burned hand.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Liv, but you are not hallucinating, it's really him," Alex whispered and hugged her friend tightly. Olivia shook her head, in denial.

"No, he's not here. I'm hallucinating, or just dreaming, but he's not here, he can't be here, it isn't possible."

The next words caught Amanda's attention, and explained to her why Olivia seemed to be on the edge of a mental breakdown. "It's possible, partner, because my death was faked," the man said.

"Don't call me that, you son of a bitch," Olivia said softly as she started to walk away, not wanting to be in the same room as him, but she stopped, knowing that they had a job to do.

Ayanna looked from the man, to Olivia, and back again. "Which one of you wants to tell me how the hell you two know each other?" The man sighed and started to speak, but Jet spoke first, holding a tablet in her hand. She seemed to be reading off of it.

"Detective Elliot Stabler Sr. born on October 20th, 1966 was killed in the line of duty. On Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 he was shot by a sixteen year old girl named Jenna Fox. Stabler and his partner, Detective Olivia Benson had been investigating the murder of Annette Fox, Jenna's mother, and had even caught the men responsible. Believing seeing her mother's killers behind bars would help Fox move on, Benson and Stabler brought Fox in to see them, Fox then brought a handgun into the precinct, attempting to kill her mother's killers. Stabler was shot in-between two of his ribs, and Benson ended up shooting Fox in defense of everyone in the precinct. Detective Stabler died Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 at 2:16 am. Benson did not return to work for three weeks, pending an investigation by IAB, and bouts of both PTSD and survivor's guilt following her partner's death. Following the all-clear from IAB, Benson was put on desk duty for two months while she continued to work through her PTSD and her survivor's guilt." Jet let out a breath as she closed her tablet and set it back onto her desk before turning back to her boss, and everyone else in the room. "That report was written by Captain Donald Cragen four months after Stabler's death," she explained.

Ayanna's jaw dropped as she looked from the man to Olivia again, this time it was from understanding. "You two were partners. That's why both you and Captain Cragen told me to never include Manhattan SVU in this, isn't it, Elliot?"

That time the shocked expressions came from both Alex and Fin. "Oh, shit," Fin muttered as Olivia's eyes widened in surprise. She was no longer in shock, or even sad, she was pissed.

"Are you telling me that Cragen knew you were alive? You know what, we have work to do, I'll unpack that shit later." Olivia spun on her heel and got back to work looking through files.

"You should have at least given me a head's up before bringing them all in on this, Sarge."

"And what good would that have done, Stabler? You still would have had to face the music eventually."

"That wasn't me facing the music, Ayanna. That was me having one last meal before being sat in front of the firing squad. I'm just lucky Alex hasn't tried to take either Liv or Fin's gun to shoot me."

"Captain Benson to you, only my friends call me Liv, and I don't befriend liars or zombies," Olivia commented, her nose in a file.

"And the only reason I haven't tried to kill you is because I don't want to risk traumatizing one of my closest friends, again." Alex knew that comment was a low blow, but when she remembered Olivia crying, she didn't care if Elliot's feelings got hurt.

Amanda and Carisi were both standing off to the side, watching the scene unfold. Olivia had never opened up about her old partner, but now Amanda understood Olivia's caginess back when Amanda first joined the unit, and the time Olivia had spent on desk duty. "We don't have time to rehash the past right now, Liv. We need to find out who is hurting these children," Carisi stated, and she nodded. Elliot looked at the two of them, and a small flash of anger shot through him.

Was that her new partner?

His replacement?

He didn't like that idea, Olivia was his partner, even when he was supposed to be dead, and he was forced to partner up with Sergeant Bell, the only partner he had ever had was Olivia, his Liv. "We have the leader of the ring narrowed down to three people, but we can't figure out which one it is because of how heavily involved each person is in this ring," Elliot stated, trying to avoid looking at Olivia, but it was hard. In the past decade she had gotten even more beautiful than when they had been partnered before.

"Can't all three of them be the leader? It's like how we're all working together right now. Sergeant Bell is the leader of her unit, and Liv is the leader of our unit. They're both the bosses of this joint unit for this case, right?" Amanda asked and looked to Olivia and Ayanna to make sure she was explaining things correctly. Elliot didn't like that everyone from SVU called her Liv, since it was something he or Cragen, he couldn't remember which, had started. But now everyone except for him was able to use it.

"We've thought of that possibility before, but it doesn't fit with how their organization works. They seem to be working together, but one of them is the leader, sort of like Benson and Stabler were as partners," Jet said, and Elliot had to bite back the smallest hint of a smile.

"What if none of them are the leader? Organizations such as these have multiple lieutenants, what if these three are just the lieutenants for the real boss?" The question came from Olivia, and Ayanna, Elliot, and Jet all turned to look at her.

Ayanna let out a small groan as Jet ran to her computer. "Why didn't we think of that sooner?" Elliot opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it at the very last second, surprisingly.

"No, no, no, don't clam up now, peanut gallery. What were you about to say before common sense prevailed, for once?" Alex questioned, raising her eyebrow as she looked at Elliot.

He rolled his eyes before answering, "I was going to say that we didn't think of it sooner because Bell's overworked, Jet only really sees the computer side of things, and I don't think about little things like that, which is why me and Captain Benson made such good partners for so many years."

"Son of a bitch, Captain Benson was right. There's no way any of them could be the leader, but their conversations with the real leader are all encrypted, so I don't know how easy it will be for me to get access to all of their conversations, which goes for voicemails, text messages, and emails, along with any other social media chats they have," Jet said, not looking up from her computer. She was typing furiously.

"Call me Olivia. Alex, Carisi, do you guys think we have enough to get a warrant so we can search their phones? It might be easier for Jet to decrypt their conversations if she has one of their phones in her hand."

Alex and Carisi both stepped to the side, having a hushed conversation, and that was when it hit Elliot. This Carisi guy wasn't Olivia's new partner, he was an ADA. He didn't know why, but a rush of relief flooded his bones, knowing that there had been no new male partner for her that he would ever have to deal with. Whatever Carisi and Alex were arguing about, it seemed Alex was winning because she turned back to the group with a triumphant smile on her face. "I believe we can get the warrant, but we need to be careful about how we do this. Out of the three lieutenants, which one seems like the weakest link?"

"That would be Jacob Tyler, born August 9th, 2000," Jet told Alex as she pulled up a file on her computer.

"Alright then, Carisi and I will go secure the warrant, and then you guys bring him in, or at least his phone." With that, Alex turned on her heel and walked out of the room, with Carisi following behind her.

He turned back to the group momentarily. "Fin, Liv, how the hell did you two put up with her for so long?" He questioned, seeming genuinely confused, and slightly scared of Alex.

"By not arguing with her when we could help it," Fin answered before Carisi left.