*Mercy Hospital: New York*
". . .So the victim was in the process of getting into a rental car when a bomb went off, injuring her severly." Olivia explained while leading Ana down a hallway.
"And why is SVU handling this case again?" The younger woman inquired as she stopped and turned to face the elder.
"Well, the victim is the wife of a cop, for one. And two, we happen to know the Detective in question fairly well." The Captain replied, trying very hard not to let a smirk slip onto her lips.
The shorter woman was now a little worried to say the least.
"Liv?" She prodded, gently. "Who is it?"
Before the taller could answer, another, familiar, voice spoke up from a few feet away.
"Hey, Shorty."
Ana froze, staring at her sister with wide eyes. It had been a little over 10 years since she last saw or heard the owner of that voice and the younger woman needed to know that she was not hearing things.
Olivia just smiled and nodded at something over her shoulder. The Sergeant swallowed and turned, slowly, finding none other than Elliot Stabler grinning back at her. She barely even registered Fin standing to his right before she was taking off towards her ex-partner.
The shorter woman wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug and he, being a foot taller than her, bent down to return it almost immediately. They stayed like that for a few seconds before Ana suddenly gasped and pulled back as Olivia's words slammed into her like a train.
"Oh, my God, Kathy!"
"She's fine. She's awake, she's talking." Elliot assured with a small chuckle.
The younger woman just sighed in relief and hugged him again. Olivia gave them a few more moments and cleared her throat, forcing them to seperate once again.
"So, uh, the lab found DNA on the cell phone used to trigger the bomb." The Captain informed.
"Any matches?" Elliot wondered.
"There's nothing in the system, so they're checking for close kin DNA." Olivia sighed.
"Do you have enough of a sample for long-range familiar?" Fin inquired.
"Not to match the perp once we find him." The Captain shook her head.
"SVU does genealogical now?" Elliot asked in surprise.
"It has to be backdoor for the ancestry sites and new DNA banks." Ana explained with a smile.
It faded quickly, however, as a shrill beeping filled the area and a bunch of doctors rushed into one of the rooms.
"Hey, what's going on?" Elliot demanded as he ran over in an attempt to join them. "That's my wife."
"Step back, sir." One of the nurses pushed him back.
"Yeah, but I just spoke with her." He argued.
"Sir, you have to move back." The nurse insisted.
"Elliot." Ana called, appearing on his left and grabbing ahold of his hand.
That, alone, was enough to keep him in place.
"Let them get through." Olivia advised, calmly, as she walked up on his right.
The three watched in horror as Kathy flatlined right before their very eyes.
*A Little While Later*
The two sisters were seated in a small waiting area while Fin was standing a few feet away with his phone pressed to his ear.
"Okay, thanks. You too." He smiled, hanging up a few seconds later.
"You too?" Ana scoffed.
"Phoebe just said 'I love you' and you couldn't say it back?" Olivia asked in disbelief.
"Her ex-husband was a cop. She knows the drill." Fin retorted.
Ana suddenly stood up and walked forwards. The other two looked down the hallway to find Elliot heading in their direction.
"How is she?" The shorter woman prodded, gently while placing a comforting hand on his arm.
"Cardiac arrest." He muttered. "But her heart rate's stable now."
"Thank God." Olivia sighed in relief.
"Just trying to figure out what caused it." The Detective murmured.
He moved to walk off but the Captain spoke up once again.
"Elliot, we hate to ask you in the middle of all this. . ." She trailed off.
"You need my case files." He guessed. "I'll ask Intel to get 'em to you."
Elliot turned only to pause again and look back at Ana.
"Thanks, Shorty. It was good seeing ya again." The Detective cracked a small smile.
"Of course and you too." She nodded.
And with that, Elliot finally walked away.
*SVU Headquarters: Olivia's Office*
"Right, anything you can send will be great. And we'll keep each other in the loop. Great, thanks." The Captain hung up her desk phone with a sigh. "Turns out Stabler has been working anti-terrorism, international sex trafficking, and organized crime."
"That doesn't really narrow it down." Amanda, who was standing over by the door, pointed out.
"Nope." Ana shook her head in agreement.
"Well, this particular cell trigger, it's common in the Middle east, the Mediterranean region, North Africa." The blonde listed.
"Kat, put in a call to Threat Assessment and see if there are any groups or individuals who were targeted by NYPD overseas." Olivia instructed. "See if they might have a presence here."
"On it." She nodded and left the room.
It looked like Amanda was about to follow her but she just closed the door and turned back to the two sisters.
"Hey, do you think Stabler was the target?" The Detective inquired, gently.
"We don't know, but it definitely looks like it." Ana shrugged.
Olivia just scrubbed a hand down her face in reply.
"Are you two. . . doing okay?" Amanda wondered.
"You know, I've been better." The Captain admitted.
"I'm. . .conflicted." The Sergeant confessed. "I am absolutely overjoyed at seeing Elliot again but I'm also scared and worried for his wife. I. . .just don't know which I should be expressing right now." She sighed.
"Were you two and Kathy Stabler friends?" The blonde prodded, gently, walking forwards a bit.
"You know, not at first, and it's such a long story, but over time, we got really close." Olivia nodded.
"Kind of like us." Amanda commented.
"Yeah." Ana smiled.
"You never talked, uh, much about Stabler." The blonde remarked as she took a seat in one of the chairs.
"In my defence, that was just so I didn't accidentally upset her." The shorter woman gestured at Olivia and Amanda let out a small chuckle.
"All I know is when I got here, his desk was empty- a. . .shrine." The Detective recalled, waving her hand about.
"Yeah, Stabler had a pretty big presence in the squad room." The Captain whispered.
"I know Nick always felt the brunt of trying to fill his shoes. From what he told me, you both had a . . . complicated relationship with Stabler." The blonde smirked.
"We did. You know, back then, other than Ana, nobody looked out for me the way he did." Olivia smiled, fondly.
"And I wouldn't talk to anyone, whether I trusted them or not. As long as I had Liv and Henry I was happy." The Sergeant shrugged. "But Elliot, he just wormed his way into my carefully guarded heart and broke down every single wall I had built."
"I get that." Amanda assured.
The door suddenly opened again and Kat poked her head back in.
"Hey, I think we caught a break. The lab found a familial match to the DNA on the cell phone trigger." She reported and the other three women all stood up to follow her out.
*Outisde of Mercy Hospital: Nighttime*
"Sacha Lenski, 26." Olivia informed as Ana handed Elliot her phone which had a photo of the suspect on it.
"Means nothing to me. Who is he?" The Detective wondered.
"No record. No known connection to any radical groups. As far as we can tell, he is a low-level earner for random crews." The Sergeant replied, taking her phone back. "He used to do odd jobs in electrical, and now he's working at an auto body repair shop in Willets Point."
"This guy's DNA is on the phone?" Elliot asked in confirmation as they strolled down the sidewalk.
"Well, we're waiting for the lab to confirm, but it is likely." Olivia nodded. "He's got no alibi. He says he had nothing to do with it, but he hasn't lawyered up."
"He's no mastermind." The Detective replied.
"Yeah." Ana agreed.
"Well, let's check his financials in the Iron Triangle: that's Russian mob, Italian mob, Albanian." Elliot suggested.
"He did live in Malta for three years as a teenager." The Captain recalled.
"You know, maybe the question isn't who paid him, but why." The Sergeant pointed out. "Aside from the all defendants you're testifying against, who else knows you're here?"
"Joint Task Force, my boss at Intel, my kids." The Detective listed in reply.
"Any way they posted on the internet, social media?" Olivia wondered.
"Accounts are locked, and I told them not to." Elliot shook his head and suddenly paused, turning to face the sisters completely though he focused more on the elder. "Give me five minutes with Lenski."
"Do you hear yourself, Elliot?" The Captain hissed. "Not a chance."
"Then we go in together." He offered.
"I already told the deputy chief that I wasn't letting you back in that room." Olivia retorted.
"Garland?" Elliot scoffed. "When was the last time he put cuffs on anybody?"
"How's Kathy?" Ana chimed in, rendering him speechless for a few seconds.
"That was a good left turn." He smirked. "She's fighting like you said."
"What do the doctors say?" Olivia inquired.
"Well, what do they always say?" The Detective sighed. "They got a new machine, and they can't wait to use it, and they're gonna do a CT scan on her spleen now."
"And the kids?" Ana prodded, gently. "How are they taking it?"
"Scared. It's their mom. Visiting is hard with COVID. You know, you're only allowed one family member in the room at a time." Elliot muttered.
"That's why you need to be here with Kathy." Olivia reasoned, glancing at the floor. "We gotta get back."
She walked off and Ana gave her ex-partner a quick hug before following after the Captain.
*Olivia's Office: The Next Morning*
"How long has this kid been shadowboxing with them?" Dominick wondered.
"All night." Ana sighed as her sister moved over to her desk.
"Keep him talking." The ADA advised. "He thinks he's brighter than he is."
"Captain, I made some calls. Turns out young Sacha isn't connected. He's more of a wannabe." Kat revealed, appearing in the doorway. "That Iron Triangle garage has been linked to VIN switches on stolen cars and insurance fraud."
"That's all penny ante." Dominick pointed out. "That's a big step up from that to a hit on a cop's wife."
"Or a cop." Olivia corrected. "It's more likely that Elliot was the target."
"There's another possibility here." The ADA shook his head. "What if Sacha was set up?"
"Carisi, Sacha is still our guy." The Captain insisted.
"That's still true, Liv, but that doesn't mean he didn't know it was a hit on a cop." Ana retorted.
"Who knows what they told him." Dominick nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, they might have told him it was an arson job for insurance." Kat shrugged.
"Either way, I think it's time we arraign him." The ADA decided.
"You do that, he's gonna lawyer up." Olivia warned.
"And that's exactly what he's hoping for." Ana smirked while the silver haired man did the same.
"Listen, if he's a patsy, and he's looking at years. . ." Dominick trailed off.
"Then a lawyer will get him to cooperate." The Captain realized.
*A Little While Later*
Things quickly went south when another lawyer arrived to replace the one Dominick had retained for Sacha.
"Spencer Cochran?" Olivia scoffed, pacing in front of the one way mirror. "Guy's a major player."
"Yeah, there's no way that Sacha's family could afford him." Ana pointed out from where she was sitting on her sister's desk.
"No." The ADA agreed. "Whoever he was working for brought Cochrane in."
"Where is Sacha now?" Amanda wondered from the couch.
"He's on his way to Rikers." Dominick replied. "He pled not guilty. I did manage to get the bail set at 1 million."
"You better get him in protective custody." Fin chimed in from the doorway.
"It's already been arranged." The ADA assured, not missing a beat.
Olivia moved over to her chair but her phone started ringing the second she sat down.
"Ah, that's Stabler. I'll let him know." The Captain informed and answered the call. "Hey, how's it going?"
The older woman's face suddenly morphed into one of shock and horror and Ana swore she felt her heart drop into her stomach.
*Mercy Hospital*
The two sisters sprinted down a hallway and towards their ex-partner, who was staring into an empty hospital room that used to belong to his wife.
"Elliot." Olivia whispered while Ana remained speechless.
The man turned to face them with red eyes and wet cheeks.
"We're so sorry." The younger woman murmured.
Elliot suddenly lunged forwards and wrapped his arms around both sisters, bringing them in close. He let out a sob and once they started, it seemed like they couldn't stop coming. The two women held onto him tightly and comforted the Detective as best as they could while he cried for the loss of Kathy.
*A Little While Later*
The three cops had moved in the small waiting area from before and Elliot took what little time he had to compose himself before speaking.
"Her spleen ruptured. They took her into surgery, but it was too late." He shook his head. "I didn't get to say good-bye."
"We're so sorry, Elliot." Ana murmured, holding back tears of her own.
"I just don't get it. We were happy." The man whispered in disbelief.
"Elliot, where are the kids?" Olivia wondered, changing the subject for his sake.
"Uh, yeah, I gotta call them. I gotta- I gotta. . ." He sniffled, wiping at his nose and bringing a hand up to his forehead.
"If there's anything that we can do." Ana offered.
"I don't know what to tell 'em. Oh, my God, Eli is in Rome. I gotta get him back." Elliot realized, suddenly, and let out a sigh before glancing up at the ceiling.
"How about I call Dickie and-"
"No, no, I'll do that. You just make sure this son of a bitch goes down for murder." The Detective growled, staring at the two sisters with an extremely dark look on his face.
Ana swallowed and gazed down her lap. It was times like these that Elliot reminded her of Hank and sometimes it was vice versa.
*Back in Olivia's Office*
Fin had just finished explaining to everyone how he and Amanda had found Sacha dead in his cell at Rikers.
"Cause of death?" Olivia sighed.
"They made it look like an overdose." The male Sergeant replied.
"Is there any way that he could have done this to himself?" The Captain wondered.
"We all know what this is." Dominick retorted.
"Yes, we do." Ana agreed, darkly.
"Find out who got to him." Olivia ordered, standing up from her seat.
*Mercy Hospital Once Again*
Ana was waiting outside of the Chapel for something when her sister walked up on her left.
"Liv? What's wrong?" The younger woman prodded, gently, after noticing the angry and upset look on her face.
"Just had a meeting with Garland." She replied, bitterly. "He pulled SVU off the case."
"What?" The Sergeant asked in disbelief.
"He said it was because I'm too close." Olivia shrugged. "He's not wrong."
Ana placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and gave it a small squeeze. The older woman nodded in thanks and both sisters turned towards the door, peering in through the windows.
Elliot was inside, holding tightly onto two of his children: Dickie and Kathleen. Olivia pushed the wooden entrance open and stepped inside. Ana mimicked her movements and the Detective suddenly looked up through teary eyes. The three ex-partners locked eyes and all the sisters could do was stare at Elliot sadly.
A/N Apologies for the late update. My crappy internet has struck once again. But aside from that, I hope you enjoyed! See you all on Thursday!
~Princess <3