A/N: I decided to write a Christmas related short story, partly to celebrate coming to the end of 2011 (aka, maybe the worst year of my life) but also as a thank you to all my ever-patient readers and reviewers, and to everyone who's supported me at any point during the year.

There'll be four chapters updated over the Christmas period, and this story will, to put it mildly, be the smuttiest thing I have ever written in my entire life. Seriously. At this stage we're talking over 6000 words of smut, and I haven't even finished writing it yet.

So, hopefully you'll all enjoy it.

The title of the story, 'Nollaig Shona Daoibh', is pronounced 'No-lig ho-nuh djeev' and is Irish for 'You have a happy Christmas.'

The title of this chapter, 'Drualas', is pronounced 'Droo-ar-lus' and is Irish for 'Mistletoe.'

Anyhow... give it a read, send me a review to let me know what you think, and I hope you all enjoy it and have a good Christmas!

Drualas

(Mistletoe)

Olivia walked out of the precinct, hugging her thick down coat tighter around her shoulders and glancing around as she headed down the steps. Damn Christmas parties. She'd only been at the precinct to work, but then Elliot had found her, and then once he'd left Casey had turned up and drunkenly demanded she come to the main conference room and join the party... Olivia sighed. For some reason she'd actually gone along with it for a while, although she'd finally drawn the line and left after they'd all started doing Jagerbombs.

Oh well. At least she wasn't the only one who'd had a miserable evening. Fin had spent the first half of the party dodging Judge Donnelly as she pursued him relentlessly around the room brandishing a sprig of mistletoe, and the second half of it hiding from her while his partner sat there and laughed his ass off. Munch had found the whole thing absolutely hilarious... at least, until he'd ended up sat in the corner looking dejected and downing shots of absinthe after striking out with every woman there.

Olivia shook her head. Only John would bring his own absinthe to a Christmas party.

The evening might have actually been bearable if she'd had Elliot to talk to, but he'd spent most of the night uncomfortably loitering around the edges of the party and stubbornly refusing to even make eye contact with her.

She sighed. Fuck knows why the moody sonofabitch didn't want to talk to me. It's not like a Christmas kiss under the mistletoe isn't a long-time tradition or anything...

Hell, he'd initiated it. She'd still been happily working in one of the side rooms in her usual off-duty baggy tank top and sweatpants when he'd come in to see her, and the first thing he'd said to her was that she wasn't anywhere near any mistletoe.

'Mistletoe?' Olivia laughed. 'Have you been drinking, El?'

Elliot shook his head. 'Sober as a judge.' He paused for a minute. 'Well, most judges. Not Donnelly. She's knocking them back out there faster than Munch can mix them.'

Olivia put down her pen. 'Really?'

'Yup.' Elliot laughed. 'She's stalking Fin around the room. He looks terrified.'

Olivia smiled and got to her feet. 'Now, that I'd quite like to see...' She winked jokingly at him. 'And maybe there's some mistletoe out there, huh?'

He smiled back and moved in front of her. 'I brought my own.'

Olivia blinked in surprise. 'You did what?'

'I brought my own.' He smiled again and produced a small, rather battered sprig of mistletoe out of his pocket. 'Sorry it looks like crap. I forgot it was in my pocket and accidentally sat on it on the way here.' He held it up over his head and looked at her.

Olivia snorted with laughter, put her hand on his shoulder and stretched up to kiss him quickly on the lips. 'Happy Chris-' She stopped, bit her lip and wrapped her arms around his waist, kissing him hard on the mouth and pressing her body firmly against his. She felt Elliot hug her tightly against his chest, pushing his hips into hers, the mistletoe crushed against her back as he wrapped his arms around her and the juice from the berries beginning to trickle down her bare back and soak into the neckline of her tank top. She slid her hand up to the back of his neck and pressed her face in even closer, pushing her lips harder against his and slipping her tongue into his mouth... and then he'd suddenly pulled away and stepped back, shifting uncomfortably on the spot.

Before she could say anything he turned and left the room, leaving her standing there awkwardly as she felt the juice from the crushed mistletoe berries rapidly drying against her bare skin.

Olivia shook her head, briefly glancing up as she passed a darkened alleyway, carefully watching out for the predators she knew were everywhere-

She stopped suddenly. Is that Elliot's car? Why is he still here? She moved further into the shadow of the building and walked down the alleyway until she could read the licence plate. OK, that's definitely Elliot's car. She frowned. Why the hell is he hiding in here?

Elliot was sitting in the driver's seat with one hand on the ignition key when he heard the passenger door open and Olivia slid into the seat next to him. Shit. He cleared his throat, not turning to look at her. 'I'm sorry, Liv. That was a stupid idea earlier.'

She ignored him. 'What are you doing sitting in the dark, El?' And why are you hiding in a filthy back alley?

He just kept staring ahead through the windshield. 'It's not dark. There are streetlights.' Can you fuck off now? The whole point of me being parked down here is that no one will bother me.

Oh great. He's in one of THOSE moods... 'That doesn't answer my question.'

Oh, for God's sake... Elliot rolled his eyes angrily. 'Jesus, Liv, can you not think like a cop for once?'

'I don't know, El, can you not be a stubborn, cagey ass for once?'

Damn her. Elliot rested his elbows on the steering wheel and massaged his temples. 'I just don't feel like going home, that's all.'

Olivia raised her eyebrows at him. 'That doesn't explain why you're parked in an alleyway at one in the morning, Elliot.'

For fuck's sake... 'Well, I went to my car, I started my car, and then I realised that not only did I not want to go home, but that I have nowhere else to go,' he snapped. 'So, rather than sit there in the street waiting for the world and his wife to walk by and stare in at me all night, I decided to just pull into this alleyway for a while to sit and think, is that OK?'

'El-' Olivia hesitated. Maybe you should just go and leave him alone... No. Something's definitely not right here, and I'm not going anywhere until I find out what it is. 'Do you want to talk about it?'

He kept staring straight ahead. 'Not really.'

Olivia felt a twinge of hurt. 'Why not?'

He sighed again, taking his hands off the steering wheel and folding them in his lap. 'Because you really don't want to hear about it.'

Oh, El... She smiled gently at him and put her hand on his shoulder. 'El, if I didn't want to hear it, then I wouldn't have asked.'

He just shook his head.

Olivia sighed to herself. 'Is that why you kept avoiding me tonight? Because you were upset about something and you knew I'd want to make you talk about it?' Or was it just because you were embarrassed about the whole thing with the mistletoe?

He sighed. 'You could say that.'

'Well, El, maybe if you tell me then I can help-'

He cut her off. 'You can't.'

'What?'

He finally turned to look at her, his eyes tired and resigned. 'You can't, Liv. As much as I'd love you to, you can't help.' Not with this.

Olivia rolled her eyes. Why does he always have to be so cryptic? 'Look, just tell me what's wrong-'

'Liv, I can't.' Now please just drop it and leave me alone.

Olivia wasn't giving up. 'Can't or won't?'

For Christ's sake... 'Can't.' And won't.

She smiled gently and rubbed his shoulder reassuringly. 'El... you can tell me anything, you know that.'

He sighed again. 'Liv... you're the one person I can't tell this to.' And believe me, I want to, I want to so, so much...

'OK, El.' Olivia nodded. 'OK.' She paused thoughtfully. 'I'm just going to sit here with you, OK, just until you feel better and until you feel up to going home to see your kids-'

'They're not there,' snapped Elliot curtly.

Olivia's heart sank. Oh no... 'What?'

'I said, they're not there. They're in Long Island with Kathy and her parents.'

Olivia bit her lip. Don't jump to conclusions, you might make things worse. 'Well, then, I can understand why you don't want to go home, I mean, Christmas with your in-laws...' She managed to force a weak laugh. 'Probably your worst nightmare, right?' Not that I'd know...

He shook his head bitterly. 'I'm not invited.'

Jesus. Olivia's jaw dropped. 'What, Kathy left you just before Christmas? God, I mean, talk about harsh-'

Elliot cut her off mid-sentence. 'No. I left her. Four months ago. Just wasn't right.' He was staring straight ahead of him again.

Olivia wasn't sure what to say to that. 'Oh.' Does that mean you're single? She immediately felt a heavy rush of guilt. You selfish bitch, how is that the first thing you think of when- Hang on. 'But El, you're still wearing your wedding ring-'

He sighed heavily. 'Shut up, Liv.' Now drop it, before I say something stupid.

Olivia felt a stab of hurt. 'Oh. OK.'

There was an awkward silence in the car.

Fuck this. Olivia finally cleared her throat. 'El... why didn't you just tell me?'

My God, don't you ever shut up? Elliot closed his eyes and massaged his temples with his fingertips. 'Because I couldn't. Because if I did, I'd end up telling you why.'

Olivia felt a bizarre twinge of hope. 'Oh?'

'Yes. Oh.' Elliot shook his head, his eyes fixed on a patch of graffiti on the wall blocking the end of the alley 20 feet in front of them.

Olivia swallowed awkwardly. 'So... what happened?'

He started to pick at his fingernails, his shoulders sagging. 'Did you know my wedding ring said 'eternity' inside it?'

Olivia blinked. What? 'Uh, yeah, actually I did-'

'Well, I realised one night that it had started to sound more like a curse than a promise.'

Oh, El... Olivia reached out and squeezed his hand reassuringly. 'What made you think that?'

He cleared his throat uncomfortably. 'You remember that night in the swingers' club?'

Olivia stifled a laugh. 'I do.'

'Well, when we got back to the precinct, and we were changing out of our outfits, you'd just finished putting all your own clothes back on and you were about to leave when you said 'Oops! Nearly forgot this!' and then you laughed and twisted the fake wedding ring off your finger and chucked it in your locker.'

Olivia frowned. 'OK...' Where the hell is he going with this?

'It felt like...' He sighed and stared at his knees, and she squeezed his hand again. 'It felt like you were laughing at the whole idea of the evening we'd spent together, at the sheer ridiculousness of it all, at the thought of your being my wife, when for some reason... it had meant more than that to me.'

Olivia nodded silently, stroking the back of his hand with her thumb.

'I was standing right there next to you, and I couldn't stop thinking about how the fake ring on my finger was half of a pair, and that yours was the other half, and trying to get my head around what that made me feel and what that meant, and... and then you just laughed and threw yours roughly into your locker and slammed the door.'

She felt a twinge of guilt. 'El-'

'Liv, please just let me finish.' Elliot rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. 'Anyway, you left when I was still in the locker room and I stood there, looking at the fake ring on my finger, at my half of the whole, and then I picked up my heavy, scratched-up gold one from the top shelf of my locker and looked at the word 'eternity' engraved inside, and...' He paused, and then the rest of his words poured in a chaotic rush. 'And I kept the fake one on and threw my real one in the East River on my way home that night.'

Olivia's jaw dropped. 'You did WHAT?'

He smiled awkwardly. 'I know, right?'

Olivia shook her head disbelievingly. 'Didn't... didn't Kathy NOTICE?'

'Nope.' He shook his head and laughed bitterly. 'Guess Kathy isn't as observant as she thought she was. She certainly didn't notice my falling in love with you over the past thirteen years.'

Olivia's eyes widened. Oh... oh God... 'Elliot, I think maybe you've had too much to drink-'

He looked her right in the eye and tightened his grip on her hand. 'I haven't drunk a single drop of alcohol all night, Liv, and you know it.' I was scared of what I might do or say if I did...

'But... but El...' Olivia's mind was racing. Does he... is he...

He sighed. 'You see, Liv, this is why I didn't want to tell you, because I knew you'd get upset, and it just wasn't worth-'

Do it. Olivia took a deep breath, leaned in and kissed him, pressing her lips firmly against his mouth and squeezing his hand tighter, moving her other hand up to stroke the side of his neck with her thumb.

A/N: I'll see you all for the next chapter, when the smut will begin in earnest... are you looking forward to it?