After All This Time

From Love To Reality

One week later...

Olivia walked into the precinct, her mind racing like it had been for the last couple of days. She couldn't stop thinking about Kathy, the kids, and...Elliot. So much had happened in barely a week and it was starting to overwhelm her. After ten years, her partner was back...and barely clinging to life. Along with Kathy. It was like the universe was trying to take more people from Olivia, as if she hadn't lost enough people in her life already.

"Cap?" Fin called, knocking on her office door lightly.

"What's up, Fin?" Olivia asked, snapping out of her thoughts as she set her laptop down on the desk and took a seat in her chair.

"The Chief is here to see you." Fin informed her, giving her a warning look.

Well, that can't be good. She thought to herself. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Send him in. Thanks, Fin." She replied, nodding slightly.

"Good morning, Captain." Chief Garland greeted, sitting in one of the chairs in front of Olivia's desk.

"Chief, what can I do for you?" Olivia asked, bracing herself for whatever he was about to say.

"I heard you're investigating a physical assault and a car bombing? That's not SVU's territory." Garland said, stating the obvious.

"I know." Olivia replied, pausing for a moment. "The assault victim is my former partner and the car bombing victim is his wife." She explained, trying to keep her emotions in check.

"So, this is personal." Garland surmised.

Olivia didn't say anything, only nodding slightly.

Garland sighed. "You can investigate but do it quietly." He ordered.

"Thank you, sir." Olivia responded, slightly relieved. She wanted to be the one investigating this; she didn't want to hand it over to some other precinct where the case would be forgotten about.

"We'll talk again soon." Garland said, standing up and leaving the office.

Fin walked in a moment later, closing the door and sitting in the chief's vacated seat as he looked at his boss with a furrowed brow. "Everything okay?" He asked, concerned.

"Yeah, he just wanted to know why I was investigating what happened to Elliot and Kathy. He's letting us investigate but we need to do it quietly. Speaking of, did the lab get anything from the note that was sent to Eli?" Olivia asked.

"Yeah, the prints belonged to Chad's cousin, Richard Weiss. Chad gave him up pretty quick when we told him he was gonna do hard time for Elliot's assault and Kathy's car bomb. He said that Richard was his accomplice in Elliot's assault, too, but we might need Elliot or Eli to I.D. him just to make sure." Fin explained.

"So, it's all connected." Olivia surmised, watching Fin nod in confirmation. "Well, this should be easy, then. Have Amanda and Kat charge Weiss with threatening a confidential informant and attempted murder of a police officer." She ordered, a fierce look in her eyes.

"You got it, Cap." Fin replied, standing up and leaving the office to give Amanda and Kat the captain's instruction.

Olivia watched him leave then sighed as she went back to filing paperwork. After a few minutes, her phone dinged, signaling that she received a text message. She frowned slightly when she didn't recognize the number, then opened the message.

Hey Liv, it's Maureen. I was just about to leave the house to get some lunch and go shopping for some baby clothes. Wanna come with me?