Disclaimer: They don't belong to me.

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It was the singularly worst day of her career, a career which had seen a plethora of bad days. There were so many synonyms she could use to describe it; abominable, atrocious, awful, crappy, deplorable, distressing, dreadful, frightful, intense, lousy, painful, rotten, stinking, terrible, tough, but she opted for bad, it summed it all up.

"Olivia, where are you?" Elliot called once he stepped out onto the roof top.

She didn't answer; she didn't want to talk to him. It took Elliot a few moments to spot her sitting on the brick work on the edge of the roof, her legs dangling over the street below.

"Olivia?" She remained motionless. "Liv?" She felt his warm comforting hand on her shoulder but shrugged it away; she didn't want him or his touch.

Elliot studied his partner, she was still wearing the blood stained shirt and blazer from the earlier incident. It was icy cold outside and she had no overcoat. Her face was pale, her eyes red rimmed and her lips had a bluish tinge to them.

"Olivia, how long have you been out here?" He removed his overcoat and put it around her, holding it in place when she tried to push it away. "Olivia," he growled. "You're freezing! Doing this to yourself is not going to change the events of today."

Olivia turned slowly to look at him. "No, but maybe jumping off would make me feel better." She watched as an unfamiliar look of fear crossed his face.

"Tell me you're kidding, Liv?" he begged, his hand surrounding her wrist and gripping tightly. She just shook her head but he couldn't read it. "Liv?"

"Elliot, just go…leave me alone and take your damn coat with you. I don't need you here…" She attempted to swing her legs back around to make a get away but she'd been sitting too long on the cold concrete and her legs weren't cooperating.

Quickly he grabbed hold of her and pressed his body close to hers, running his hands around her body in an attempt to warm her. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there today…I really am,' he whispered into her ear.

"Sure!" she snarled before pushing him away.

"I am…Olivia, it couldn't be helped," he tried to explain but she'd had enough.

The door opened and Fin came out onto the roof.

"Liv, there you are! Anything I can do?" he asked as she approached him.

"Please, get me out of here…" she begged, allowing him to wrap her in a warm embrace and comfort her.

Fin looked over at Elliot confused, Elliot just shrugged he had no idea what was going on. Olivia had known he was at the OBGYN appointment with Kathy, he had explained it and she had been fine with it…or at least he thought she was okay with it.

Fin escorted her downstairs and back into the squad room to collect her things. Don came out of his office when he saw her return.

"Olivia, do you have a minute?" he asked.

Reluctantly she nodded, although he had phrased it as a question she knew he wouldn't accept no as an answer. Fin released her arm so she could go but Olivia took his hand, she didn't want to do this alone.

Fin just shrugged at his boss as Olivia led him through the door. Don stood in front of his desk, looking at his two detectives.

"Olivia, you are going to take some time off as of now…" he started to explain and was surprised when she simply nodded, he was sure she'd put up an argument.

"And I think you should see George Huang at some stage…" he continued.

"Yeah, but not today," she lied, her eyes fixed on his desk. She had no intention of speaking to the psychiatrist.

"Olivia, it wasn't your fault…IA has said the same thing, it wasn't your fault…" Don repeated but he knew she wasn't listening.

"Is that all, sir? I really want to go home and change," Olivia said, looking down at her clothes.

"Sure…I'll ring you tomorrow. Fin, will you…" Fin nodded before Don finished his question, he'd definitely be looking after Olivia, her performance in this office worrying him considerably.

Silence ensued for the entire journey, neither one prepared to talk until the other one did. Fin pulled up in front of her apartment building and waited for her to move, she didn't. He unclipped both their seatbelts, climbed out of the car and headed around to her side. Opening the door, he pulled back the belt before offering Olivia his hand and helping her out of the car.

Not wanting to leave her until he knew what was happening, he wrapped his arm around her waist and walked into the building with her. They were in her apartment two minutes before she spoke to him.

"I'm going to have a shower, is that alright?" she asked him.

"Sure Liv," he replied, following her gaze down to her stained clothes. "Take your time."

Fin waited until the water started before grabbing the remote and switching the TV on, he surfed through some channels looking for anything sports related and finally settled on a college basketball game. A quick glance at the clock told him it was 6:10 and he contemplated dinner. Knowing he wouldn't get much of a response from Olivia he rang the Chinese restaurant, whose flyer was stuck on her fridge, and ordered for them both.

He glanced at the clock again, 6:21, settling back on the sofa he began to doze off before his cell rang startling him.

"Tutuola," he grumbled.

"Fin, it's me. Where are you?" Elliot asked.

"At Liv's," he replied, glancing to her bedroom doorway.

'How is she?" he asked very concerned about his partner.

"Beats me. She's barely said two words and she's been in the shower for …" he paused to check the time. "For nearly thirty minutes now."

"Is she alright in there?" Elliot asked, his anxiety reaching new levels.

"Well, I haven't exactly been in there to check," Fin replied.

"Why not?!" he retorted.

""Well, for starters, I didn't think she'd appreciate the intrusion…" he began.

"Stuff what she'd appreciate – go check..." he demanded before adding 'please'.

Fin groaned but decided it was probably something he should do. "Hang on." He walked through Olivia's bedroom before knocking quietly on her bathroom door.

"Liv…Livvy?" Fin called and Elliot could hear him down the line. "Girl, are you okay?" He didn't get an answer. "Olivia?!" Still no response. "Liv, I'm comin' in." Slowly he opened the door to be engulfed in the foggy steam created by the too hot water.

"Liv?" he called again before spying her sitting on the floor, still fully dressed, her knees drawn up to her chin and her face tear stained.

"Oh, baby girl," he soothed dropping down beside her and forgetting about Elliot as he put the phone on the vanity. He wrapped his arms around her tightly and pulled her to him, gently squeezing her as she sobbed in his arms. When the tears abated, he reached behind them and turned off the water. "Talk to me, Livvy?" he said, holding her once more.

Olivia dried her eyes and took several deep breaths before beginning.

"Amy Macintosh died this afternoon … raped and murdered by her son-of-a-bitch landlord, Marcus Freeman … who Elliot and I had been investigating. He raped her repeatedly and then sliced her neck open with a carving knife…she bled to death in my arms." Olivia stopped and took a few more deep breaths.

"That's not the whole story though, is it Liv?" Fin asked, John Munch already sharing the details of their day with him.

She shook her head. "Nuh, Munch and I went to see Freeman this morning and he spun us some cock and bull story about his whereabouts when another tenant Joan Morris was raped and murdered. I didn't believe a word of it but Munch insisted we check it out and get all the evidence we could."

"Aha," was all Fin offered.

"Nothing against Munch but El and I knew we had everything we needed and then he had to go take the morning off and leave me with Munch," she grumbled.

"Liv, you knew Kathy had the OBGYN appointment this morning, not much Elliot could do about it," Fin replied, trying to defend his friend and colleague. Olivia only rolled her eyes, he could have not gotten her pregnant, that's what he could have done. "What?"

"Nothing," she replied, not wanting to voice her thoughts.

"Yeah, there is…spit it out," Fin prompted, wanting to get to the bottom of the matter.

"It's just…" she sighed. "If he didn't go get her pregnant he would have been there today, we would have got Freeman before he even touched Amy and he wouldn't have been looking at me when he slit her throat telling me he'd rather it have been me than Amy …that he's sure he'd have had a better time screwing me than her … and then asking where my 'pretty boy' partner was."

Fin pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. "Sorry you lost Amy today," he whispered.

"Thanks," she muttered back.

"And I'm sorry Kathy's pregnant again," he added knowing that was part of the issue too.

Olivia looked up at him confused. "Why are you sorry about that?"

"Because you're sorry about it, aren't you?" He looked at her for a moment. "You don't have to answer, Liv. I know what you'd been thinking … I was thinking the same about you and him for all of five minutes before he screwed her again and blew his chances with you."

Olivia shook her head. "No, no…it's not as if there was anything between us…I mean anything like that…"

"You can't tell me you didn't consider it," he said and stared at her, daring her to lie.

"No I can't tell you that," she replied quietly.

"So, as I said, Liv, I am sorry." He kissed her head again.

The doorbell rang. "That'll be dinner, I ordered Chinese. How about you actually have a shower this time and it will be ready whenever you are?" Fin said, moving to the door.

"Thanks Fin," Olivia called.

"You're welcome, Liv … and for the record, Stabler doesn't realise just how much he screwed himself in all this."

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