Author: SilentG
Title: He left
Fandom: Takes place in the SVU-verse, but it's LO:CI
Rating: K
Spoilers: YES! For the upcoming SVU episode featuring Eames. DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED!
Archive: Anywhere – no need to ask – just attribute, and let me know if possible
Disclaimer: Not mine
Summary: Liv thinks they have a lot in common.
A/N 1: My response to some of the spoilers regarding the upcoming episode of LO:SVU featuring Alex Eames. The repeated phrase in this fic has been reported to be Eames's response to a question about what happened to her partner.
~.~.~.~.~
He left.
"I didn't know you were married." The flash of gold caught Liv's eye as she stepped out of the bathroom stall. It was after 7, time for dinner or home or something, but as usual Liv was feeling stuck and the only thing she seemed to know how to do was freshen up, have a mouthful of water and go back to her desk.
A few times over the past few days working with Alex Eames, Liv thought she saw flashes of a fellow traveller. A career cop, used to working harder than her colleagues, nobody to go home to. Hoeing a row of long-worked land, the path of least resistance.
Maybe she'd been wrong about that.
Eames tossed her head in that funny way that made Munch of all people blink and look twice, and glanced at Liv in the mirror. "I don't wear my rings at work."
Liv stared back at her, feeling awkward. "How long?"
Eames's expression turned soft and almost goofy, and though she looked down and let her hair fall in front of her face, the joy Liv's question evinced was impossible to disguise. "We're newlyweds, actually. A couple of months."
Liv found herself floundering, struggling to figure out what to say, what to feel. Newlywed, at their age. Carefree and sexy dabbing on lip gloss, with their job. Wise and experienced, but willing to risk. Difficult to please, but clearly pleased.
She found herself catching her own eye in the mirror.
"Well I'd love to meet him sometime," she said, not really sure if she meant it. Of a sudden, the landscape of this interaction had tilted and shifted. Her planned evening alone with phone calls and paperwork now stood in stark contrast to the cosy future of her unexpectedly-coupled counterpart. Wrangling a social call out of those two undiscovered countries seemed almost pathetically sad.
Eames shrugged, oblivious and unconcerned. "He's picking me up, so you can meet him now if you like."
o.o.o.o.o
"He left."
Liv had been asking about how Eames had ended up with Anti-Terrorism after her legendary partnership with Bobby Goren.
Just like that. 'He left'. There was no tightening of the muscles around her eyes, no tension in her voice, no rigidity in her mouth. Eames shrugged like it was nothing, looked up and smiled. "It happens. Change isn't always bad, sometimes good things can come of it."
Like career advancement, moving to a new squad, Liv thought. She'd wanted to broach the topic of her own loss, of Elliot; something she almost never spoke of to anyone, but Detective Eames's carefree shrug had put her off. Either she was so in denial that such a conversation would be painful for her, or so uncaring that it would be painful for Olivia.
"You didn't want to say in Major Case?"
"Nah," Eames said with a shake of her head. Liv paused, waiting for more.
Nothing was forthcoming. "Too many memories?" She finally asked, looking for something she could understand, grasp onto, about this woman's experience.
"Noooo, nothing like that. Just wanted a – a fresh start."
It took Liv a few days to realise she'd been triggered by the conversation. She'd been ruminating – unhealthily – about what Eames's partner had been thinking and feeling when he left her. Had he gotten fed up with her? With the job? Had it been easy for him to leave her? Did they keep in touch?
Was he carefree and smiling when he spoke of her?
o.o.o.o.o
Eames's gait noticeably bounced as she led Liv in a beeline for the black Mustang with its four-ways on, double-parked on a side street. The figure within loomed such as to be almost unrecognisable, but Liv did recognise him, from pictures anyway.
"Hey you," Eames said warmly, putting her little hand into the big one that reached out through the open driver's side window. "This is Detective Olivia Benson, she's one of the SVU detectives I've been working with."
Shock, envy, anger, disbelief… so unexpected was her own reaction (and she shouldn't have been surprised, she'd heard the rumours) that her greeting was abrupt and artless. "You're…"
The driver tilted his head and met her eyes with amusement. "…Her husband. Nice to meet you." He said the words with relish, and Liv took a moment to evaluate her feelings. Why did this bother her so much? Two people she'd known of only by reputation mere days ago?
He left.
Nobody found their soul mate at work. The two things were mutually exclusive. If you worked with them, they weren't your soul mate, full stop. No matter how you felt.
He left.
Nobody made major career compromises for love without regretting it. Change meant setbacks, resentment. It was never worth it.
He left.
A car behind them honked, then two others joined in. Eames looked up at Liv with a rueful twist to her mouth. The gold and diamonds glittered in her husband's hand.
"Well um, it was nice to meet you. Congratulations," Liv said, feeling like she should move but rooted to the spot.
"Let's go!" He said with a sweet smile, belying the fact that he was still holding fast to his wife's hand.
Eames tugged a bit, a big grin on her face, then said, "You gonna pull me in thru the window?"
He eyed the aperture with a calculating gaze. "Well you'd fit."
Witnessing their patter, Liv felt almost dizzy. She could literally feel in her bones the years of familiar rhythm they were vamping to. Their groove not a rut but a siren song that called them from wherever they found themselves. The pulse moving through their joined fingers.
That loose grip was unbreakable, the power behind it taking their world and shaping it to fit them, making space for their dance.
She thought of her own groove, a different kind, and wondered what it would take to shake her out of it.
They left.
~.~.~.~.~
A/N 2: I'm too terrified to watch or even read any more about that epi. No matter what happens, if they sink the ship the shippers will claim it's not Canon, and if the B/A relationship becomes more explicit the no-romos will say the same. I choose to remain oblivious, so I can keep writing.
Please review! There's enough sand for all of us.
WORDS: 1118 UPLOADED Thursday, September 13, 2012