Close To Home - Chap 3 (Law & Order: SVU)

Author’s Note: I don’t own Law and Order: SVU.

Elliot rolled over to stare at his blinking alarm clock. He was slightly perturbed at being rudely awakened by a pounding on this door, but now realized he had no idea what time it was, the disturbance may have actually been a blessing. Chris once again peeked through the crack in the doorway, “Elliot. Get up. It’s dinner time.” He refused to verbally acknowledge her and continued to stare at the doorway. He thought he would be lucky enough to ignore her and get away with it before he had to get up and get changed, but she wasn’t giving up that easy. The door flew open causing him to jump from his bed. “I made dinner, now get off your ass and get out here. Thank you,” she added the polite ending and even a smile causing him to once again shake his head at her. They were so much a like, it was frightening.

He checked his watch that laid flung on the side table. 7:30 pm. He rolled out of bed with watch in hand. Knowing full well he might end up on a stake out he went to the laundry basket that sat in the corner of his room and picked through it pulling out a semi-clean pair of blue jeans and a button down shirt. There was no way he was going to sit in either his or Olivia’s uncomfortable car for possibly hours in one of his only clean suits. He looked around his room for his white tennis shoes and realized he had left them in the living. Now he was going to have to face his rude awakening awaiting his presence at the breakfast bar. He stuck his head out the door as the smell of spaghetti sauce filled the tiny apartment.

He took a seat at the mini-bar as she played servant placing a plate in front of him and dishing out a pile of noodles and spooning sauce over top. “Since when do you cook?” he inquired. She gave him a little smile as she dished herself out some spaghetti and sauce as well, “You’d be surprised at what I have picked up since I got out. I’ll tell you. Eating MREs everyday makes you appreciate home cooking so I took the opportunity to learn. Besides, the electricity went out so all there was to use was the gas stove. Came back on about five minutes ago.” He stared at the huge lump on his plate and debated whether or not he was ready to give it a try. She used to experiment making cakes and even tried rice, which she had successfully managed to destroy every time she tried. She watched as he inspected the meal, “Come on Elliot. I promise. It won’t kill you.” He shook his head at her and tentatively pushed his fork into the pile. Only pulling out a small amount and wrapping it around his fork, he stuck it in his mouth as she stared at him.

As he removed the fork from his mouth leaving the food behind his expression went from fear to one of shock. “Not bad,” he commented with a smile. “No faith,” she replied back. They both heartily dug into their meal, “Heading back to work, soon?” she questioned. He simply nodded and kept his attention focused on the food. “Wanna talk about it?” she continued to stretch out the questions. He looked up in almost a sad expression, “Not something I really like discussing.” “Alright,” she added, “Anything you want to talk about? I’m not a fan of eating with someone in silence.” He continued to glare at her, “Why don’t you tell me what you’ve been up to for the past two years? No phone calls and all I get are a few postcards, all with a different return address.”

She shrugged and it was now her turn to focus on the meal in front of her. “Working a lot of odd jobs. After our blow up I decided I was going to search the city and try to find myself. Never really stayed in one place for too long. Sorry I couldn’t write more. I didn’t call because I wasn’t sure you would want to talk to me,” she continued to stare down at her food. He noticed the almost sad look that appeared on her face. He got the distinct feeling there was something she didn’t want to tell him, “So, did you find yourself?” he asked. She shook her head, “Not really,” she paused trying to find the right words. “Things got complicated. I realized I had lost myself in the shuffle of things, so I decided to get back to my roots and here I am.”

He continued to feed from his plate, “Care to elaborate on exactly what the ‘shuffle of things’ was?” She let out a little smile, “Care to elaborate on why you and Cathy separated?” He simply shook his head ‘no.’ That had been a conversation he had avoided since everything happened chalking it up to occupational hazard. She simply stated, “I didn’t think so. Maybe one day, but for the moment, I just want to forget all that and focus on the here and now. Mind if I ride your couch for a while?” He took a second to ponder the question knowing full well he was placing her on the edge of her stool. He liked the thought of having someone around to come home to again. The peace and quiet of his new found freedom was not something he cherished. He smiled up at her, “Of course.” She shook her head in appreciation as she spooned a full fork of spaghetti into her mouth.

He picked up his now empty plate and brought it over to the sink behind her. Splashing some water on it he dropped it into the wide opening. “I need to head out.” She nodded to him. “I’m not sure when I’m going to be back.” She nodded again, stating through her full mouth, “Yes, I know the life of a detective. Go.” He grabbed the door knob and looked back to her. He had to chuckle to himself as he watched her stuff her face with the very well prepared dinner. She truly was a mixed blessing.

Sticks and Stones Night Club

Elliot and Olivia kept their eyes intent on the door of the club. The two sat sharing Olivia’s car and tried their best to keep themselves entertained. They counted out the number of club goers that had visible nipple rings or how many walked in dressed in something other than leather. Elliot was not sure if he truly wanted Jack Dent to show up because that would mean he would have to be witness to what a club like this had to offer someone and he wasn’t sure that was something he wanted inside knowledge of. Three hours had passed with no sign of him.

“What time did he say Dent was supposed to show?” Elliot addressed to Olivia. “Owner said he had to work at 10:30 pm. Obviously he’s not employee of the month.” Elliot let out a little frustrated grunt as he continued to watch the front doors. “Get a chance to talk to Chris?” He nodded to Olivia keeping his eyes focused ahead, “Yea. She’s not very forthcoming about where she’s been. She disappears for two years and just expects to skate by with ‘Hello.’ I don’t feel like pushing it right now, besides, she makes some great spaghetti. I could use a good cook.” Olivia smiled at him, “The same girl you told me burned rice?” He laughed and nodded back to her, “The very same one.” His smile quickly faded as he picked up the guest of honor entering the club. “There he is.”

The partners were out of the car in a flash. Carefully they made their way down the street avoiding the oncoming traffic. Elliot entered first with Olivia close behind. She made sure to keep her gun within range of her hand. There was no telling what they were about to find inside. They needed to be ready for anything. The smoky room was accented by the strobe lights attached to the walls now disrupting their view of the suspect. The safe bet was to hit the bar. As they broke through the crowd, they realized how badly they must have stuck out seeing everyone else was scandally dressed in studs and black leather. Elliot asked the bartender where Dent had gone. The bartender pointed to the back of the room.

Through the random flashes he could make out the flat top Dent was known to sport. The two walked toward him as they came in close enough to get his attention. “Jack Dent?” The recognizable face turned in the direction of his name. As soon as he connected the voice to the face Dent ran for the back of the club. Elliot high tailed it after him while Olivia headed for the front door. Elliot trailed him through the back kitchen. He had to catch himself at the sudden shift in bright light. He quickly recovered and headed out the back door after the suspect.

Once outside he was within feet of Dent. Elliot took a nose dive head first wrestling him to the ground. Olivia was quickly on top of him as well. Dent was not about to make it easy. Olivia grabbed hold of his arm as Elliot did his best to get him stable, but Dent managed to get his arm free. He back-handed Olivia across the face slamming her into the wall. Elliot in turn pushed him into the wall and managed to get a few punches to Dent’s face and stomach with a final kick to his groin. He hit the ground like a ton of bricks. Olivia placed the handcuffs on him. Elliot noticed the blood dripping from Olivia’s mouth. “You alright?” he asked. She nodded to him as she wiped the blood from her lip and grabbed Dent’s arm again. Elliot grabbed the other arm and they both lifted him to his feet escorting him to the car.

Jack Dent sat in the interrogation room chair completely devoid of any obvious emotion. He seemed frozen off to the world with no luck of a quick thaw. Elliot and Olivia had taken turns trying to break him. Either this guy was stronger than them or just wasn’t human. Five hours had gone by with absolutely nothing out of his mouth other than random obscenities. When the abuse Shondra had suffered was mentioned all he could do was smirk, but not response; no denial and no confession. Captain Cragen finally had the sense to break in to the session letting the detectives know that they were going to need an ID from the victim. This girl couldn’t even talk let alone face down the man that had abused her, but there was no other way they could arrest him. The two partners took a second to discuss and decided that they needed a change of clothes to go visit Shondra. They both took off for the quick drive home.

Elliot came to the front door of his apartment. From outside he could make out the loud sounds of The Dave Matthews Band rumbling through the door. He was sure if he could hear it his neighbors were ready to go insane. This early in the morning nobody wanted to be awakened by someone else’s sense of selfishness. He picked up the newspaper that was dropped on his doorstep, unlocked the bolt and walked inside. He began yelling for Chris, but there was no answer. He threw the paper onto the coffee table and headed into the bedroom. He took off his jacket flinging it onto the bed as he approached the bathroom door. How could she possibly find any comfort in listening to any music this loudly? It was ridiculous.

Elliot knocked on the door, but received no response. He knocked a second time louder with still no response. He realized there was no way he was going get any response if she couldn’t hear him. He grabbed onto the door handle and cracked open the door. He peered through the tiny crack hoping to get her attention. What he saw sent his mind racing. He quickly closed the door and walked away without giving up any further attempts to get her attention over the loud music. He now had more important issues to deal with.

Thought after thought ran through his head. Who? Why? When? Question upon question piled up in his brain. The image of his sister now stuck in his head. Pictures of all the horrible sights he had ever heard of happening to a young girl now ran through his mind. Her face was now plastered on the face of every victim he ever encountered. He couldn’t escape the sight. There she was, with her back to him, drying herself off and on her back were horrible purple and black bruises. Not small bruises, but long lines of marks all over. Bruises on her arms and around her wrists. What had she escaped? What was she hiding? Why didn’t she tell him? Suddenly The Dave Matthews music was lost to the clouds building in his mind as he sat on his bed staring at the door that now separated him from the next SVU victim.