Method to the Madness: An Elliot Stabler Story

Chapter Ten

Lana sat on the granite countertop in her kitchen that was unnecessarily oversized for a girl who hardly cooked. An old Elvis album played on her record player as background music while she stared straight ahead, dazing in the middle of a low-grade high. She was thinking about sunflowers and how much they actually resembled the sun. She thought about the coincidence (or maybe it was irony, she debated in her mind) of that fact, but was promptly interrupted by the vibration of her cell phone in her pocket.

"Hello?" Lana answered, hazily.

"Hey, it's Olivia," the voice on the other end spoke.

"Hey, Liv!" Lana replied happily, suddenly very aware of her surroundings. She liked Olivia, and it was nice to get a random phone call from someone unexpected. A little bit of surprise in an otherwise predictable day.

"Look," Olivia sighed. "I just wanted to warn you about Elliot."

"What's wrong?" Lana asked, growing increasingly worried by the second. "Is he okay?"

"Yeah, he's okay, but we encountered a pretty tough crime scene today," Olivia answered. "I won't go into too much detail, but it really ate Elliot up inside. He barely spoke the rest of the day unless he had to. And I just wanted to give you a heads up so you kind of knew what was going on, because I know he's headed over there, and he'll probably be acting strange, so I just didn't want you to worry or push the topic too much."

"Ohmygosh, okay," Lana nodded even though Olivia couldn't see her. "Thank you for letting me know."

"Take care of him, okay?" Olivia requested.

"Of course," Lana reassured her, knowing how much Olivia cared for and worried about Elliot.

They said their goodbyes and hung up.

Lana remained on the counter, anticipating when Elliot would arrive. Though she was curious about what had happened, she figured she probably didn't want to know the details of the crime scene they had to endure that day. Elliot had been a sex crimes detective for years and had bravely encountered many traumatizing crime scenes before, so she knew it had to be bad if he was shaken up by it.

She tried to take deep breaths and sober up quickly before he got there. She mostly wanted to be fully aware and present so she could be there for Elliot in his time of need, but she also wanted to avoid a fight, which happened often when he could tell she was high. She didn't want to make his bad day worse.

Nerves swiftly bubbled up in her stomach when she heard keys jiggling in the door. She jumped off the counter and waited impatiently until Elliot appeared in the hallway. He came to a halt when he walked into the kitchen on the opposite end from Lana.

"Hey babe," she greeted with a smile, trying to be inconspicuous despite the fact that she had been obviously waiting for him in the kitchen.

"Hey," he replied emotionless and dry, very much unlike his usual happy demeanor. His appearance was unusually disheveled; his tie hung loosely around his neck, the first few buttons of his shirt were undone, and his sleeves were rolled sloppily up his forearms.

Silently in her mind, Lana scrambled for what to say next. She cursed herself for still being high. She wanted to say something comforting but didn't want to expose Olivia for calling to inform her of what was going on.

"I was just about to make some coffee," she said. "Do you want some?"

She mentally kicked herself, unable to believe that making coffee was the best she could come up with at the time.

He nodded his head then said, "I'll be out on the balcony." Already, he was feeling overwhelmed, unable to breathe, and in need of fresh air.

Lana began to make a pot of coffee as Elliot stood on her balcony, leaning over onto the rail and gazing out into the parts of the city that her apartment overlooked. She moved slowly; she wanted to give him time to grieve or think or be alone or whatever it was that he needed to do at the time.