Nick Amaro realizes one thing very quickly as he watches them together, and it's like a punch in the gut, but also makes perfect sense. He doesn't know his partner at all.
He's seen her cry, he's pulled her out of some of the most horrific moments of her career, that much he knows, but when the other man showed up minutes ago, he'd realized as he'd watched her sob in the other's arms that she'd never fully let go with him the way she'd done with the other man, never fully expected him to catch her if she could no longer stand they way she trusts her former partner to, never let the dam completely break because she trusted him to repair it.
She doesn't. And never will.
But, he clearly sees now that she does and always will in Stabler's case, no matter what.
Amaro has also never known his partner to ever have a twinkle in her eye. But when the other man had managed to help her dry her tears, promising, from what Amaro could barely hear, that he was here, in her life for the rest of it, and that he was going to support her as she healed, she'd brightened. Barely, but the dimness that Amaro had always thought was natural to her eyes, faded slightly and he was shocked to see the faintest twinkle in them, as the other man told her in a voice laced with the most reverent, yet somehow non patronizing, gentleness, something that caused her to laugh,
It was a small sound, and still very pained, but it and the faint twinkle he glimpses even now as she talks to Elliot Stabler makes him realize that he wants to get to know the Olivia Benson he sees across the room from him now, the one who he'd only heard about once, late at night, when the now former Captain Cragen had told him about life before he and Rollins had entered the one-six,. A tale of an Olivia Benson whose self assurance, and dry wit was in synch with that of the man beside her, how the dour, and lost partner he now knew had been filled with a light that got her through helping those they aided with the drive to continue, and that when things had been unbearable back then, Olivia had coped by having Elliot at her side, even though the old captain had said his partner hadn't always wanted to talk to Stabler about what was bothering her either.
Amaro had thought the older man was exaggerating and it had made him slightly angry that Stabler was always talked about like he owned the planet, when it was himself and Rollins who were doing the hard work now.
But he sees now what the captain meant, the older officer had just been trying to tell him who Olivia Benson was in case he never got to see it. And as he strolls over to meet Elliot Stabler for the first time, he feels a smile grace his features, knowing he's also about to meet the Badass Benson of lore for the first time too. He wonders if he's up to the challenge of being her on duty partner. He decides that he doesn't know if he is, but he's waited three years to find out and he's going to try.
He does know that he has to pass inspection by the partner of her heart first though and he'll do that too.
Because today, he'd learned that it's true what they said: There is no Benson without Stabler.
And in the end, the reality of that doesn't hurt his pride as much as his friend's happiness makes him grin.