TRUTH BE TOLD

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. I just like to play with them.

Summary: Olivia's diary is stolen and someone is using it to reveal embarrassing aspects about her life. E/O of course

A/N: Please read and review

Olivia Benson's Apartment

Monday 19th September 6:17pm

Olivia looked around frustrated at the sight going on around her. CSU were going through her things. Though they were trying not to disturb her personal items too much Olivia still felt a twinge of violation settling in her stomach.

"Sorry Detective Benson, not long 'till were out of here." One of the tech guys smiled sympathetically. Olivia just nodded and wondered out of the room.

"Hey Liv! I came as fast as I could."

Olivia smiled in spite of what was going on around her as she looked at her partner who had just entered her apartment.

"Hey El."

"Someone's been in my apartment. I don't think anything's missing, but it looks like they were looking for something. And I don't even want to talk about what they left on my comforter" She smiled wearily.

"What they leave so I know what type of person we are dealing with here"

"Well, let's just say it's something only you men can deposit."

"Liv..."

"Don't say it, it still could be some random break and enter"

"What with all you stuff still left here, I don't think so. Are you sure nothings missing? Nothing personal to you?"

Olivia walked back into her bedroom Elliot following closely behind. The room looked fine, a little bit worked over. Elliot thought it was nothing that his partner couldn't have done herself in a rush to leave earlier this morning.

"So nothing's missing?" He asked fingers brushing lightly over her jewellery box.

"No, I'm telling you everything's here, nothing's really of value you anyway. It's only really sentimental things and my..."

Olivia stopped mid sentence as a thought crossed her mind. She quickly went across to her bedside table and opened the top draw. She looked in here before but she couldn't be sure if she had seen it. She sucked in a deep breath as her eyes scanned the draw. It was gone.

"Shit" she said softly.

Elliot turned to her and saw the expression on his partner's face. He quickly moved to her side.

"Something's missing. What is it?"

She blushed slightly. This was a little bit embarrassing for her. She reasoned with herself that it was no big deal and that millions of women kept one. But Olivia liked to think of herself as different to most women. Not one that would indulge in such a vice.

"He took my umm...diary" Olivia looked up at Elliot who had almost a relieved expression on his face.

"Phew, is that all. When I saw you going for that top draw I was sure we were going to be searching for something of the mechanical kind" He laughed wiggling his eyebrows.

"This isn't funny Elliot." She huffed. Her mind started drifting over all the things that were in her diary, each remembrance more embarrassing then the last.

"Oh my God, Elliot. I needthat diary back. You have no idea how bad it will be if certain people read it." She moaned.

Elliot watched his partner in fascination. How bad could her diary be? She seemed to live a quiet life as far as he could tell. Not out raving to all hours of the night. At worst it may contain details of her working life and the horrors that she saw.

An hour later the tech guys all had left leaving Olivia and Elliot alone. Olivia had been a little quiet since the realization of the missing diary. Her mind spinning out of control of all the people she did not want to see get a hold of her diary. IAB, Don Cragen, Casey, Elliot to name a few But mostly Elliot, she would be mortified if he ever knew what she had written about.

"Are you staying here tonight?" Elliot asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"No, I'm just going to spend the night in the crib. I'm going to need a whole new bed." She said scrunching up her nose at the thought of some strange man on her bed.

"Maybe you should come back to my place" he spoke softly. He knew what her answer would be but he had to make the offer.

Olivia snorted. "Oh yeah sure. Kathy would just love that, right?"

Every since he moved back home Elliot and Olivia had seemed to come to a silent agreement about the amount of time they spent together. Olivia knew she was a target of Kathy's rage more than once in their marriage and since Elliot had decided to give his marriage another ago Olivia felt like she had no choice but to pull back from their thing. She didn't even know what their thing was. It was more than a partnership and more than friends, but it had no clear definition.

"Yeah, might not be such a good idea to bring you home. She was kinda shitty when I left to come here tonight in the middle of dinner."

Her big brown eyes looked into his sea blue ones. She squeezed his arm. "Thanks for coming tonight. I'm sorry if I got you in trouble." She smiled a sad small smile. How the Hell did they end up like this?

"No problem partner. Call me if you want to talk or you just get lonely in the crib." He kissed the top of her head as he walked out the door.

SVU Squad Room

Tuesday 20th September 9:15 am

The squad room was quiet as the detectives went silently about their work. Quiet times were cherished and used as a way to catch up on paper work. Olivia was sitting at her desk going through her papers when she was interrupted by the sound of her cell phone. She looked at the screen but did not recognize the number.

"Benson."

Elliot watched as his partner took the call. He was surprised to see her look up at him and quickly move her way to the back corner of the squad room. He watched trying to determine his partner's facial expressions as she took the call. She shook her head frustrated and ran a hand through her hair.

Elliot tried to look busy as she came back over. He watched her from his lowered eyes as she nervously flicked her nails against each other. Finally he couldn't take it anymore.

"What's going on Liv?"

She looked in his eyes trying to judge on whether or not to tell him. She wanted to tell him, she needed to talk to someone about it but she didn't know if Elliot was the right someone. She decided to take the plunge. He was her best friend after all.

"That was this guy Declan, a journalist, from the Manhattan News. He received a fax this morning. It was an excerpt from my diary."

"What? Why would someone steal your diary and send bit's of it over to a journalist."

Olivia shrugged though she had a fair good idea why it went to Declan.

"Well let's get over there."

Manhattan News

10:21am

The ride over had been fairly silent. Olivia debated on whether or not to tell Elliot exactly how she knew Declan. In the end she decided to keep quiet hoping that there was still a way that she could get away with meeting with Declan and not having Elliot know about them.

"Olivia!" Declan called out when he saw her walking toward him through a row of occupied cubicles.

Olivia smiled a genuine smile. She liked Declan, thinking back she couldn't quiet remember why they had ended things.

Elliot felt himself tense up as he watched his partner hug this man. Elliot looked him up and down. I could take him, he thought.

"Elliot, this is Declan, an old friend. Declan, Elliot my partner"

The two men shook hands sizing each other up. This did not go unnoticed by Olivia and she suddenly realized there was a good chance of not getting out of here without explaining how well she new Declan. She had to act fast.

"So hey, can I see what was sent to you?" She said a little too quickly. Declan reached across to his desk and picked up a piece of paper. Olivia's eyes scanned to sheet in her hand and shook her head. She handed the piece of paper to Elliot to let him read for himself.

It was Olivia's thoughts about how a case went down and how in her opinion the NYPD screwed up resulting in letting a killer walk free.

"He wanted you to print that?" She asked angrily

"Yeah, in my column tomorrow. Hey look, don't worry. As far as I'm concerned it doesn't exist. You can take it"

She smiled gratefully at Declan who reached across and squeezed her hand. None of which was lost on Elliot.

"Why would he send this to you?" He asked suspiciously.

"Maybe he thought I would print it considering...Olivia's and my history"

Olivia groaned inwardly. Here we go, she thought

"Was he mentioned in your diary?" Elliot turned to look Olivia in the eye.

"Yeah he was."

"So maybe whoever took your diary was thinking an old...lover would print this" Elliot concluded. He hated to think of Olivia with this guy, not that there was anything wrong with him; Elliot just did not like the thought of his partner with any man. He would not let his mind delve into the reasons why he did not want her with anyone, but he was pretty sure he knew.

They were headed back to the precinct in silence. Olivia had not said much since they left Declan, with him promising to call if he received anymore faxes from Olivia's diary

"Are you Ok?" Elliot placed a hand on Olivia's knee to get her attention.

Olivia glanced down at Elliot's hand resting softly on her knee. She could feel the heat radiating from his touch sending shivers down her spine. God how she wished she could have those hands all over her body. She shook her head to concentrate on what Elliot was saying.

"Huh?"

"I asked if you were ok" He smiled to himself. He knew she was distracted by his hand on her but he was enjoying the feel of her too much to remove it.

"Yeah I guess. It's just that those are my private thoughts Elliot. Someone is reading my most private thoughts and probably having a good laugh." She huffed.

"Hey look. It won't get printed tomorrow. So maybe this guy will just give up. Throw your diary in some dumpster never to be seen of again. Ok?"

She nodded her head in agreement. "Let's hope so."