Rules and Ruins (MA) ~ SVU ~ Chap 7
I really have no excuse for how late this is...all I can say is that my laziness and general lack of motivation have reached epic proportions. Sorry.
Enjoy!
Chapter 7: Bomb
Song: Bomb by Band of Skulls
The sense of déjà vu is mildly overwhelming for a second, although not all unpleasant. She loves this. She loves the chase of a suspect down a dark alley. She loves knowing that she has the drop on some chicken shit lowlife. She vaults over some crates in the alley and nearly wipes out.
“Stop…fuck,” she takes a big breath and continues. “Listen, it would be better if you came in easy.” She looks up and realizes he has ducked into a doorway at the end of the alley. She stops short and considers going back for a second-waiting for backup or Elliot. But she can’t. She still wants the tackle, the catch to be hers. She wants it more than anything right now. All those hours in that tiny room with that dirtbag who’d most likely walk for his part in the death of that little girl. She wants to take that energy and plow into the fuck who’d hurt Susan for days; who’d taken away the innocence of one daughter and the life the other.
She runs through the door and is immediately outdoors again. The building is old and apparently the walls are not actually holding up much structure anymore in some places. She curses again and calls to Potter.
“Give it up, asshole. We can keep running in an out of doors on these damn docks, but it’s not gonna do you any good in the end.” She pauses and hears a siren in the distance. She hopes Potter can hear it, too. “You hear that? This place is gonna be surrounded in a minute! There’s not gonna be anyplace for you to go!”
She continues weaving through the maze of old walls crumbling around her.
The sirens are growing louder and she knows Elliot will find her here soon. That the paramedics will be there to help Susan and Elliot will hurtle towards Olivia with a scary velocity, the way he always does when he thinks she’s in over her head. Her mind is on the one way she wants this to end and she isn’t as cautious as she should be stepping out from a low overhang. A slight shuffle snakes towards her from the left and she hears a ragged breath in her ear as an arm snakes around her from behind.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Elliot leaves Susan in the ambulance and fends off their attempts to clean up his wound. He’s got to find Olivia. Fuck. He’s got to fucking find her now.
The uni’s are clattering around the scene clearing small sections of the warehouse behind him. He notices others fanning out to the surrounding area, trying to see if the suspect and his partner are anywhere close by. He doesn’t want to call her phone for fear of compromising her position.
He runs a hand through his hair and growls in frustration for a moment. Then he looks around and tries to figure out the most likely path they would have gone. He grabs two uniforms he knows can handle themselves and starts out for a warehouse on the right, praying his instincts are right.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Olivia claws at Potter’s arm and face, the lack of oxygen turning her red and shiny with sweat. His arm is like a metal hook around her neck, hard and unyielding. She just wants to breathe, but she can’t find any purchase on his slippery skin. Her fingernails connect with his eyes briefly, but he doesn’t seem to flinch the way a normal person would and easily moves his head back out of the way.
She feels the sudden sharp point of a knife in her side and she twists her body in time so that it just slices the skin of her stomach and doesn’t actually penetrate. She sags back against his body, trying to throw him off and then uses her heel to slam down on his foot. His boots must be steel-toed though, because she doesn’t feel the yield of flesh beneath her. She struggles with his knife hand, knocking the object to the floor with a clatter, but the arm around her throat refuses to budge.
She thinks she hears Elliot’s voice as the sparking light of her consciousness starts to fade, blackness dragging her fight down with the reverberation of his panicked voice saying her name. She holds the sound in her head, digging her nails into Potter’s rough arm one more time, trying to make him ease so she can get a sound out-anything to let Elliot know she’s there. She gets out a pitiful groan as she slumps to the floor, hoping it will be enough.
++++++++++++++++++++
The last two warehouses are empty and clear, and Elliot’s stress level has reached a breaking point. He feels fractious and dirty and split down the middle with worry. It’s been fifteen minutes and he has no idea where she might be. Between his little posse and all the others, they are running out of places to look and he’s feels the panic starting to suffocate him.
He steps through the next door and sees that the space in front of him is not quite a complete building. It seems to be more of a collection of stone structures, connected by a series of cobwebs and moldy boxes that have obviously been scavenged of any treasures long ago. He’s surprised the boxes themselves are still there, most of them look like prime homeless real estate.
A crunching sound, like scattered glass catches his attention. He motions the two patrolmen to fan out on either side and he goes right down the middle. It could be a rat, he knows, a drug addict sleeping it off, or any number of other things…or it could be her. It has to be her.
He comes to the wall in front of him and takes two short breaths before launching himself around the other side. He sees the wharf off to the left, the wall obviously part of an old loading bay door. Potter stands on the dock, a slumped form in his arms, poised to dump his load into the Hudson.
“Potter, stop,” Elliot’s voice comes out like sandpaper. A piece of Olivia’s shiny locks are swinging over his arm and for some reason that fuels Elliot’s rage even more. That scumbag isn’t allowed to touch his partner.
“You want her,” Potter’s lazy drawl intones, “go and get her.” He tosses Olivia over the side and Elliot hears the resulting splash as she hits the water. He shoots before he even has time to think, clipping Potter in the shoulder as he turns and flees. Elliot doesn’t even think about going after him, he’s already stripping his jacket and gun holster as he races for the water.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Elliot feels the breath rush from him as the cold water hits his face. He takes a second in the water, looking around for a sign of her on the surface before diving down. He spots a shadow bobbing nearby and swims quickly towards it. She surfaces and sputters out the dirty river water as he gets closer and he reaches her just as she’s about to go under again.
“Liv!” His hand clamps roughly around her arm, hauling her up against him to keep her steady. Her eyes are dazed and there is a dark ring around her neck where Potter must have choked her.
“Liv, c’mon…talk to me,” he shakes her a little, trying to get her to snap out of her stupor. She focuses in on where his hand is gripping her and she tries to shake him off.
“I’m fine,” she glares, trying to free herself so she can swim towards the dock.
He looks at her warily for a moment, trying to decide if he should fight with her here or later. He spins her in his arms and begins towing her back to shore.
“Elliot,” he hears her sputter, “I can swim over to the dock myself.”
He ignores her and keeps going, his arms securely locked around her upper torso. He can feel the fight in her at first, the urge to break his hold and assert her capability, but it’s a quick trip back and she doesn’t have time to really lodge a protest before he’s handing her up to a couple of different uniforms above them.
The paramedics are waiting nearby and she’s handed off quickly to them. She struggles briefly to turn around and make sure he’s out of the water okay, before she’s led away, but Cragen is suddenly there at her side, assuring her that Elliot is fine and she needs to get checked out.
Another couple of medics are waiting for him, but he brusquely pushes past them and tries to wring out his soggy clothes as he makes a beeline for Olivia. Off to the right, he notices them loading Potter into the back of a second ambulance, cuffed to the stretcher. He thinks about going over and using his fists until he breaks the knuckles of both hands. He thinks about choking the life out of the sick fuck, and doing it with a smile. He thinks about going over and shooting him again, but all of these witnesses might make it messy.
They have her sitting on the ambulance steps and her coat is off, a blanket secured around her shoulders. He sees a slash of blood on the front her shirt and his heart rate skyrockets. She looks up and finds his eyes. They share a moment of relief and then she notices the panic creeping up his face, making his eyes go wide with how he’s unable to help.
“It’s just a scratch, El,” she says quietly. It’s loud in the area. At least twenty patrol cars and a few unmarkeds are crowding the stretch of the river. The blare of the ambulance lights and sirens are giving him a headache; and the incessant chattering of his teeth isn’t helping the situation. But through it all, he hears her murmured assurance. Not that he’d put it past her to lie to him, but he hears the paramedics talking and zeros in on one of them saying she probably won’t even need stitches. They place a bandage over the area and wrap some gauze around her waist, securing it in place.
“I don’t need to go in,” Olivia starts, as they tell her she still needs to get checked by a doctor.
“For fucks sake, Olivia,” he growls low in his throat. Her breath catches and she looks up at him. “Just go to the goddamn hospital.”
“Elliot,” Cragen warns.
“No,” he doesn’t take his eyes off of Olivia. “You’re going to the hospital.”
“You both are,” Cragen says, his voice calm, though his eyes are stormy. “I’m sick of this bravado bullshit you two pull every time something like this happens. You go to the hospital, you get checked out and you do it now.” He pauses and puts his hands in his pockets, the anger and exhaustion now evident on his face. “And the first one of you that “But Captain’s” me is fired.”
Olivia gives Elliot a quick glance, then lets them help her up onto a stretcher. They load her in and clean up their supplies, and Elliot looks on for a second, thinking briefly of getting a ride in from a patrol car. At the last second he grabs the hand of the man about to close the door and hops up into Olivia’s ambulance.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
tbc
Enjoy!
Chapter 7: Bomb
Song: Bomb by Band of Skulls
Click to viewThe sense of déjà vu is mildly overwhelming for a second, although not all unpleasant. She loves this. She loves the chase of a suspect down a dark alley. She loves knowing that she has the drop on some chicken shit lowlife. She vaults over some crates in the alley and nearly wipes out.
“Stop…fuck,” she takes a big breath and continues. “Listen, it would be better if you came in easy.” She looks up and realizes he has ducked into a doorway at the end of the alley. She stops short and considers going back for a second-waiting for backup or Elliot. But she can’t. She still wants the tackle, the catch to be hers. She wants it more than anything right now. All those hours in that tiny room with that dirtbag who’d most likely walk for his part in the death of that little girl. She wants to take that energy and plow into the fuck who’d hurt Susan for days; who’d taken away the innocence of one daughter and the life the other.
She runs through the door and is immediately outdoors again. The building is old and apparently the walls are not actually holding up much structure anymore in some places. She curses again and calls to Potter.
“Give it up, asshole. We can keep running in an out of doors on these damn docks, but it’s not gonna do you any good in the end.” She pauses and hears a siren in the distance. She hopes Potter can hear it, too. “You hear that? This place is gonna be surrounded in a minute! There’s not gonna be anyplace for you to go!”
She continues weaving through the maze of old walls crumbling around her.
The sirens are growing louder and she knows Elliot will find her here soon. That the paramedics will be there to help Susan and Elliot will hurtle towards Olivia with a scary velocity, the way he always does when he thinks she’s in over her head. Her mind is on the one way she wants this to end and she isn’t as cautious as she should be stepping out from a low overhang. A slight shuffle snakes towards her from the left and she hears a ragged breath in her ear as an arm snakes around her from behind.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Elliot leaves Susan in the ambulance and fends off their attempts to clean up his wound. He’s got to find Olivia. Fuck. He’s got to fucking find her now.
The uni’s are clattering around the scene clearing small sections of the warehouse behind him. He notices others fanning out to the surrounding area, trying to see if the suspect and his partner are anywhere close by. He doesn’t want to call her phone for fear of compromising her position.
He runs a hand through his hair and growls in frustration for a moment. Then he looks around and tries to figure out the most likely path they would have gone. He grabs two uniforms he knows can handle themselves and starts out for a warehouse on the right, praying his instincts are right.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Olivia claws at Potter’s arm and face, the lack of oxygen turning her red and shiny with sweat. His arm is like a metal hook around her neck, hard and unyielding. She just wants to breathe, but she can’t find any purchase on his slippery skin. Her fingernails connect with his eyes briefly, but he doesn’t seem to flinch the way a normal person would and easily moves his head back out of the way.
She feels the sudden sharp point of a knife in her side and she twists her body in time so that it just slices the skin of her stomach and doesn’t actually penetrate. She sags back against his body, trying to throw him off and then uses her heel to slam down on his foot. His boots must be steel-toed though, because she doesn’t feel the yield of flesh beneath her. She struggles with his knife hand, knocking the object to the floor with a clatter, but the arm around her throat refuses to budge.
She thinks she hears Elliot’s voice as the sparking light of her consciousness starts to fade, blackness dragging her fight down with the reverberation of his panicked voice saying her name. She holds the sound in her head, digging her nails into Potter’s rough arm one more time, trying to make him ease so she can get a sound out-anything to let Elliot know she’s there. She gets out a pitiful groan as she slumps to the floor, hoping it will be enough.
++++++++++++++++++++
The last two warehouses are empty and clear, and Elliot’s stress level has reached a breaking point. He feels fractious and dirty and split down the middle with worry. It’s been fifteen minutes and he has no idea where she might be. Between his little posse and all the others, they are running out of places to look and he’s feels the panic starting to suffocate him.
He steps through the next door and sees that the space in front of him is not quite a complete building. It seems to be more of a collection of stone structures, connected by a series of cobwebs and moldy boxes that have obviously been scavenged of any treasures long ago. He’s surprised the boxes themselves are still there, most of them look like prime homeless real estate.
A crunching sound, like scattered glass catches his attention. He motions the two patrolmen to fan out on either side and he goes right down the middle. It could be a rat, he knows, a drug addict sleeping it off, or any number of other things…or it could be her. It has to be her.
He comes to the wall in front of him and takes two short breaths before launching himself around the other side. He sees the wharf off to the left, the wall obviously part of an old loading bay door. Potter stands on the dock, a slumped form in his arms, poised to dump his load into the Hudson.
“Potter, stop,” Elliot’s voice comes out like sandpaper. A piece of Olivia’s shiny locks are swinging over his arm and for some reason that fuels Elliot’s rage even more. That scumbag isn’t allowed to touch his partner.
“You want her,” Potter’s lazy drawl intones, “go and get her.” He tosses Olivia over the side and Elliot hears the resulting splash as she hits the water. He shoots before he even has time to think, clipping Potter in the shoulder as he turns and flees. Elliot doesn’t even think about going after him, he’s already stripping his jacket and gun holster as he races for the water.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Elliot feels the breath rush from him as the cold water hits his face. He takes a second in the water, looking around for a sign of her on the surface before diving down. He spots a shadow bobbing nearby and swims quickly towards it. She surfaces and sputters out the dirty river water as he gets closer and he reaches her just as she’s about to go under again.
“Liv!” His hand clamps roughly around her arm, hauling her up against him to keep her steady. Her eyes are dazed and there is a dark ring around her neck where Potter must have choked her.
“Liv, c’mon…talk to me,” he shakes her a little, trying to get her to snap out of her stupor. She focuses in on where his hand is gripping her and she tries to shake him off.
“I’m fine,” she glares, trying to free herself so she can swim towards the dock.
He looks at her warily for a moment, trying to decide if he should fight with her here or later. He spins her in his arms and begins towing her back to shore.
“Elliot,” he hears her sputter, “I can swim over to the dock myself.”
He ignores her and keeps going, his arms securely locked around her upper torso. He can feel the fight in her at first, the urge to break his hold and assert her capability, but it’s a quick trip back and she doesn’t have time to really lodge a protest before he’s handing her up to a couple of different uniforms above them.
The paramedics are waiting nearby and she’s handed off quickly to them. She struggles briefly to turn around and make sure he’s out of the water okay, before she’s led away, but Cragen is suddenly there at her side, assuring her that Elliot is fine and she needs to get checked out.
Another couple of medics are waiting for him, but he brusquely pushes past them and tries to wring out his soggy clothes as he makes a beeline for Olivia. Off to the right, he notices them loading Potter into the back of a second ambulance, cuffed to the stretcher. He thinks about going over and using his fists until he breaks the knuckles of both hands. He thinks about choking the life out of the sick fuck, and doing it with a smile. He thinks about going over and shooting him again, but all of these witnesses might make it messy.
They have her sitting on the ambulance steps and her coat is off, a blanket secured around her shoulders. He sees a slash of blood on the front her shirt and his heart rate skyrockets. She looks up and finds his eyes. They share a moment of relief and then she notices the panic creeping up his face, making his eyes go wide with how he’s unable to help.
“It’s just a scratch, El,” she says quietly. It’s loud in the area. At least twenty patrol cars and a few unmarkeds are crowding the stretch of the river. The blare of the ambulance lights and sirens are giving him a headache; and the incessant chattering of his teeth isn’t helping the situation. But through it all, he hears her murmured assurance. Not that he’d put it past her to lie to him, but he hears the paramedics talking and zeros in on one of them saying she probably won’t even need stitches. They place a bandage over the area and wrap some gauze around her waist, securing it in place.
“I don’t need to go in,” Olivia starts, as they tell her she still needs to get checked by a doctor.
“For fucks sake, Olivia,” he growls low in his throat. Her breath catches and she looks up at him. “Just go to the goddamn hospital.”
“Elliot,” Cragen warns.
“No,” he doesn’t take his eyes off of Olivia. “You’re going to the hospital.”
“You both are,” Cragen says, his voice calm, though his eyes are stormy. “I’m sick of this bravado bullshit you two pull every time something like this happens. You go to the hospital, you get checked out and you do it now.” He pauses and puts his hands in his pockets, the anger and exhaustion now evident on his face. “And the first one of you that “But Captain’s” me is fired.”
Olivia gives Elliot a quick glance, then lets them help her up onto a stretcher. They load her in and clean up their supplies, and Elliot looks on for a second, thinking briefly of getting a ride in from a patrol car. At the last second he grabs the hand of the man about to close the door and hops up into Olivia’s ambulance.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
tbc