Author: My first Law and Order: SVU fanfiction. This was written around... four or five in the morning. As of now, I am working on the other chapter and have been up all night. Go figure. I thought I would post this before I headed off to Western Humanities to see how many hits I would receive before Psychology. So, I hope that you do enjoy this.

Changes
Prologue: The Background To Falling Out

"You've yelled at me enough, don't you think?" Olivia turned, narrowing her eyes at Elliot. They were in the House, having an argument over the latest case that had been handed to them. He'd been raging all day, the 'impossible to deal with Elliot' that came out sometimes. Fin and Munch were watching from their desks, just seconds from intervening. It wouldn't make a difference, anyways.

"If you'd just listen to me-" he shot back, following her down the hallway. This case wasn't difficult, just damaging. Four children dead, and a possible two more children were missing from their homes. The parents were either dead or didn't care, and a single teenager on the rampage was the cause of it all.

"I have been listening to you, Elliot, and it's getting old." she turned, just about to get on the elevator. Fin and Munch were moving in behind her partner, looking worried. The fighting had been bad lately, but there hadn't been a knock down, drag out like this in a long time between Elliot and Olivia. It was disconcerting.

"Then why aren't you here?!"

Olivia paused, her hand hovering just inches above the button she needed to press. Fin and Munch had stopped behind Elliot, confused and curious. Don Cragen was standing at the door of the work room, throwing cautious glances at his detectives.

It wasn't supposed to be this way, but Olivia didn't need anyone to tell her that. Elliot was having it rough, even with the new baby Eli in the world, things still weren't going so grand. She knew that her partner regretted a lot of things and wanted so much to change, but change wasn't happening fast enough and his patience happened to be wearing thin.

She stepped away from the elevator, turning to look at Elliot. Why did this have to be so hard? Being friends had been so easy at one point… and being partners had always been a flawless execution. Why now, when so much stress was present, was these hard earned relationships falling into the smallest of cracks?

"Elliot, I am here." she whispered softly. Her brown eyes searched his face, barely connecting with his baby blues. All the color was gone from his skin, even the angry red that she had seen just moments before. His hands were still forming fists, but now they seemed more relaxed than previous.

"… just go home, Benson." he ground out, turning from her.

Olivia couldn't understand the exchange, but she let it go without a fight. If he wanted to talk, he would come find her later. He always did, if it was worth talking about. Stepping into the elevator, she watched as Fin and Munch headed back to their desks. They had just exited the hallway when the doors came to a close.

"Elliot, what's your problem?" Fin asked, watching the other detective with curious, and protective eyes. Olivia meant a lot to him, almost like a sister. He'd seen her take a lot of shit in their days together, and lately, more and more of it was coming from the one person she had always trusted to bag the shit and hide it away.

"There's a not problem, Fin-"

"Then why yell at Olivia so loud the whole precinct can hear?" Munch added, sitting down at his desk.

Elliot fell silent, sitting down at his desk without even an attempt to reply. He didn't know what was wrong, or if a problem even existed. This morning, he'd woken up semi-happy, until Eli started crying and Kathy started bitching and his other kids woke up with attitude problems.

It had been the horrible start to a Monday morning, even worse than usual.

Sitting at his desk, Elliot sighed heavily and ran his hand across his face. He would have to go apologize to Olivia, but later sounded a hell of a lot better than now.

At least, that's what he kept telling himself.

Instead, it played out with Elliot never making it to Olivia's apartment that night to apologize.

Fin and Munch didn't seem too worried, after all, everything usually went back to semi-normal state by the next day.

Cragen figured that letting them fight was the best way to get some things out, in the end.

Elliot never gave apologizing a second thought until Tuesday morning, after he'd fed Eli and dealt with bitchy Kathy again.

He hadn't tried to call his partner, or go to her home. After all, he'd see her at work in just a little while and they would be back out on the field together. It would be flawless work until his patience ran thin and he was left yelling again.

Things weren't going to be so easy.

"Elliot, have you talked to Olivia?"

Cragen's voice carried across the precinct, causing Elliot to look up from his paper work. It was only now that he noticed the lack of a female presence across from him.

"Not today, Captain. Have you tried calling her?"

"No answer."

Elliot glanced over at the clock, surprised to see that it was almost lunch.

Where was Olivia?

"Take your lunch break and go by her apartment, Elliot. She might still be upset." Cragen advised.

Stabler nodded, and without another word he got up and grabbed his coat. It wasn't cold outside, but it definitely looked like rain.

It took him twenty minutes to get to Olivia's apartment, and he praised how good the traffic had been. He still had a little of his lunch break left. There was enough time to sort out a small bit of their problems and get back to the office to finish up paperwork before the trial tomorrow.

Elliot couldn't understand just how complicated things would be.

Making it to her door, he knocked.

"Liv, it's me, Elliot. Come open the door!" he called out, knocking again.

Five minutes, and numerous knocks later, he didn't hear a sound.

Something, however, coached him to go in.

Elliot reached down, turning the doorknob. The door came open, to his immense surprise. Olivia always locked her door.

"Liv?" he called out again, stepping cautiously into the apartment.

Nothing seemed extraordinarily out of place. He moved forward, letting the door close behind him. He walked through the living room, glancing around for any sign of his partner. Four minutes later, having searched most of the open areas, all he had left was her bedroom, and as private as that happened to be, his gut was telling him to go in.

Elliot was a man who followed his gut instinct.

"Liv?" he barely pushed on the door, watching as it gently, and yet very slowly, started to open.

His heart jumped into his throat.

For all of his training as a cop, he wasn't prepared for this.

His senses were failing him, and there was nothing he could do to restore them in a timely manner.

If only he could remember how to breathe.