A/N: The holiday season is here! It brought Holiday one-shots!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters, I just own this story about them. Don't sue me. K?

"A watch," Casey Novak said, the olive from her dirty martini hanging on the tip of it's toothpick-skewer as she ran it along her lips.

Olivia made a face and rolled her eyes. "He already has five watches and only two wrists," she mused. "No. Is that all you got? I need help, here!"

"Well, maybe next time, don't wait until the fucking day before Christmas to get him his present!" Casey hummed, finally popping the olive into her mouth. She chewed as she thought, and then said, "A new suit! Lord knows, the man needs one."

Chuckling, Olivia shook her head again. "The ones he has are…" she licked her lips and narrowed her eyes. "He looks amazing in them, he has a few brand new ones in his closet, anyway."

Casey's eyes glimmered as she swallowed her olive and sipped from the angular glass. "A heart attack," she said with a raised left eyebrow.

"Come again?" Olivia scoffed, then screwed up her face at her friend, crossing her arms and tilting her head. "What the hell are you…"

"You tell him," Casey cut her off and pointed a long, manicured finger, "How you really feel about him. You make it clear, you wear a skimpy little…"

"That won't give him a heart attack," Olivia interrupted, sighing and dropping her head into her hands, "It'll give him nightmares."

It was Casey's turn to scoff. "You don't see it?" She leaned closer and lowered her voice, but grew irritated. "You don't fucking see how in love with you he is?" She chuckled lowly. "We all see it. All of us. Except the two of…"

"We do!" Olivia yelled. Then she looked around nervously, hoping no one had shifted their gaze toward her. She cleared her throat, sighed softly, and slumped in her chair. "We see it, okay? We just...we know it's never gonna happen. It can't happen. He'd risk his family, we'd lose our jobs, neither of us wants to change what...what we have." She shrugged and shoved a hand into her pocket, pulling out crumpled dollar bills. She unfurled them, trying to find one large enough to pay for the lunch and drinks. She threw a folded fifty down, and then looked her friend in the eyes. "As great as I'm sure it would be, we both know…"

"Kathy left him, Liv," Casey whined, rolling her eyes. "And his kids worship you! As for work, I think you both know that nothing would happen! It's an excuse you used to keep yourselves from shoving your tongues down each other's throat years ago!"

"Classy, Case," Olivia huffed, a short burst of laughter mixing with the annoyed breath. "His kids hate me, and Kathy'll probably be back in a day or two, she pulls this shit all the time. I gotta get back to work. Call me if you have any ideas that won't get me fired or make my partner murder me, okay?"

Casey swallowed the last sip of her martini, shook her head, and looked up at Olivia as she stood by the table to put her jacket on. "I'm telling you, the best gift you could give him...and yourself... is honesty. Lay your cards on the table and see if he checks or raises."

Olivia laughed again, this time in pity, then dropped her hands into her coat pockets and walked away from Casey, out of the bar, and into the city winter.

"Jesus," she shivered, immediately zipping up her coat and shrugging her shoulders up against her ears. "Fucking cold as fuck!" She sped up, walking with longer strides and quicker steps until she rounded the corner. Stopping in her tracks, her body went from frozen solid to unbearably hot, her face reddened, her throat and mouth went dry.

On the steps of the precinct, her partner and his wife stood on either side of a lawyer they'd worked with a few times, one of the youth and family services attorneys. She tried to swallow, her sawdust tongue almost making her choke. She gasped and coughed when his head turned, his eyes meeting hers, his lips curling into a smile, his hand coming up high to wave her over to him.

"Great," she spat, kicking at the small pile of snow at her feet, and she shuffled across the street toward the trio of people she'd really rather have bypassed. She nodded at him, but turned to the lawyer first. "Bill," she said, "You need us? A kid or…"

"No, no, Benson," Bill Parker, Attorney-at-Law said with a smirk. "This is, uh, personal." He gestured to the two people perched at his sides.

Olivia turned her head, offering Kathy a polite smile. "Hi,Kathy," she said with a small nod and chattering teeth, her shivering coming back in full force.

"Afternoon, Liv," the blonde said, smiling back. "I don't…" she looked at her husband, because at the moment Elliot was still her husband. "We…" she shot her gaze back to Olivia. "We don't blame you. We both know how hard you tried to keep this from happening."

"Keep what from…"

"Liv, uh," Elliot scratched a spot behind his ear as his weight shifted fully to his right foot. He looked like a child about to confess to stealing cookies out of the jar. "Divorce." He wagged the finger that had been digging at the skin of his neck back and forth in the space between himself and Kathy.

Olivia pressed her lips together, keeping them in a flat line, as her eyes widened and her heart thudded against her chest. "Wow," she breathed. "I'm sor...what? Wow, sorry, I'm...I'm sorry."

Elliot laughed and nudged her with his elbow. "Are not," he said in a whisper, his head turned and tilted down to her.

She whipped her head toward him, meeting his amused eyes. Her own narrowed, but when he winked at her, she felt the heat rise again, and she wondered briefly if the constant shift in body temperature would give her pneumonia. "You're...this is happening?"

"Already happened," Elliot shrugged with a crooked grin. "The night Kathy left the house...the signed papers were in the safe, I brought them down to the courthouse the next morning, it's been a few weeks, so we are…"

"Hey!" Cragen's voice yelled, echoing through the alley as he leaned out the window of his office.

Olivia and Elliot, along with Bill and Kathy, looked up at him sheepishly.

"You two planning on coming back to work any time soon?" Cragen asked snidely, unconcerned with the other people down below. "Your lunch hour was over long ago, we're two down tonight, and there's a body on Warner's slab getting colder by the minute, waiting for you two to stop fucking around!"

Elliot looped one hand around Olivia's back as he nodded at Kathy and Bill and said, "Thanks, we'll be in touch."

"Fifty-fifty, right? The whole way?" Bill looked at Kathy first, and then Elliot, and when he was answered with happy affirmations, he whistled and strutted down the steps, heading back to his office.

"I won't…" Kathy started, calling up to Elliot as he led Olivia up the steps. When he turned to look at her, her smile faded, her words soured. "I won't come tonight or tomorrow. I'll give them Christmas." A single tear fell and she swiped it away coolly. "But Wednesday, I'm coming to get the rest of my things, and we need to put the house up…"

"Yeah," Elliot stopped her, "But as you said, you'll give us Christmas."

"Don't make me regret this, Elliot," Kathy said softly. "Do what you need to do, tonight, because if you don't get what you want, we can…"

"Even if I don't," he cut into her words, "This is still the right thing, Kath. I'm not stopping this if...well if I don't get...my pony."

"Figured as much," Kathy laughed, more tears slipping down her cheeks. She waved and smiled at Olivia, and then turned to leave. She didn't look back once.

"So you're getting divorced," Olivia said, turning to look at him.

He moved closer, his hands slipping around her waist, a sneaky smile spreading across his face. "I am," he said sternly. "I, uh, I kind of promised myself something, that I would get myself something for Christmas, and I couldn't...unless…"

"Oh, Christ," Olivia huffed, pushing herself away from him. "You talk to Novak? She put you up to this?"

Elliot stared at her, confused and hurt, as he watched her pulling on the door handle. "No, I...I wouldn't talk to Novak outside of a courtroom! Well, you know, unless our lives depended on it." He ran up the last few steps and cupped his hand over hers, keeping her from opening the door and going into the building. "I promised you, a long time ago, that I would never lie to you. You asked...this is me answering." He took a deep breath. "I couldn't stay with her, not when she kept leaving and coming back like me and the kids were some park she had season tickets to, ya know? Besides, it wasn't fair...to us. For me to be trapped in a loveless marriage when I was really...when I am...in love with…"

The door shot open with such force, it knocked Elliot over, the man rushing by so fast he was little more than a blur.

"Oh, my God," Olivia leaped over to him, kneeling down beside him. "Are you okay?" Her hands ran over his face and chest, looking for any sign of damage. "He didn't hit you, did he? I swear if he…"

Her words were stopped by his lips. A kiss that once again took away the chill and filled her with pure warmth.

His mouth caught her gasp, his tongue took advantage of her parted lips and snuck in, deepening the kiss as his hands wound around the back of her head and tangled in her hair. Slowly, and with a frustrated moan, he pulled away. "Cragen's gonna kill us for taking our sweet time, here." He kissed her again, twice, quickly and softly.

She helped him get to his feet and stared at him. "What the fuck did you just…"

"Kissed you," he said, a single nod. "Couple of times." He tugged on his tie and then pulled her jacket zipper up higher for her. "That's...what I wanted for Christmas. You." He took her smile and bright eyes as permission and then moved in to kiss her again. He moaned against her lips, looping his arms around her and pulling her into him, as snow began to fall around them. Soft flakes landed on their heads, pooled at their feet, and even caught on their skin, melting on contact. He pulled back slowly, looking up with a chuckle.

Flakes fell into his eyelashes and landed on her nose, and they shared a moment of nervous laughter. "So," he asked smugly, pulling her even closer, nuzzling her nose with his, "What did you get me for Christmas?"

Her eyes darkened, her breath hitched, and as she moved in to kiss him again, she whispered, "A heart attack." She winked at him and kissed him slowly, leaving him to wonder what, exactly, she meant.

A/N: A tame and mild start to what is going to be a rough and spicy series! Thanks for reading!