Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Post Underbelly...What if Olivia had been at the bar that night? How would their relationship change?

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own anything involved with SVU. If I did, Elliot wouldn't have kissed Dani!

It was 6:30 am when Olivia's alarm clock went off, rustling her away from her deep sleep. "Arrgghhh"

Olivia moaned as she rolled over to hit snooze.

'Why did I decide again that I would tell everyone that I was ready to come back today, and at such an early time?' she thought to herself. 'No one actually knows I'm coming back to the 1-6, maybe I could just sleep a little while longer, and then go in, hell, maybe I should just wait until tomorrow to go back'.

Her emotions were killing her. This was so uncharacteristic of her. Normally she would have jumped at the opportunity to return to work, and get right back in the middle of things, but not this time. She had been back from Oregon for a couple of days now, and the only person that even knew that she was back was Casey. Casey was also the only person that knew about Olivia waking up in the hospital mumbling for Elliot. After a long girl talk with Casey, and a couple of beers, Olivia had broken the news to her.

XXX Flashback XXX

"God, I'm so glad you're back Liv" Casey blurted out after taking a long drink of her ice cold beer.

It was later that night after Olivia had testified in court and Casey had invited her back to her apartment to catch up with her best friend. The two were curled up on the couch, catching up on everything that had been missed during Olivia's absence.

"I know, I am definitely not the roughing it type, I mean Oregon is beautiful and so pure and untouched, but days without a shower are not my idea of a good time" Olivia laughed, remembering all of the times she had traveled with her group, to protest a good cause, and had been unable to enjoy a hot shower for days at a time. Her face then shifted into a more serious stare. She traced the rim of her beer with her finger, lost in thought. After a minute, Casey interrupted her thoughts.

"Liv, you ok?"

"Oh, yeah, just thinking about how so much has changed while I've been gone, hell, I've changed"

With a puzzled look, Casey pulled her legs up onto the couch, now facing Olivia directly

"How so?"

"I don't know, I mean, I just, I..." she let out an exasperated sigh, "I just did a lot of finding myself while I was gone. There were hours at a time where I had nothing to do but sit and think, about you, about Munch and Fin, and Cragen, about SVU, about..." she trailed off and after a brief pause, Casey tentatively broke the silence.

"About Elliot?"

"Yeah, him" Olivia said with a bit of uncertainty in her voice, and a sigh. Casey took another drink and continued to stare at Olivia, urging her to go on. After a couple of minutes of uneasy silence, Olivia set her drink down on the coffee table and snuggled back against the other side of the couch, taking in a deep breath, preparing to release everything she had been holding inside her since she had left.

"I mean, when I left, I was so pissed at him. At that point I didn't care if I ever saw him again. What gives him the right to accuse me of not doing my job well enough? Anyways, after about a week of being gone, I started to feel differently. I started to wonder what he was doing, if he had a new partner yet, if", she paused, "if he missed me. And then I stared to think about all the what if's we'd been through. What if Gitano had shot him? What if he was still married to Kathy? What if I hadn't left? What if something happens to him while I'm gone and I never get the chance to say 'I'm sorry'? I would have never forgiven myself if anything had happened. I don't think I would have been able to live with the guilt of never knowing if he was still mad at me."

"But, you're home now, and nothing happened to him while you were gone. He's still the same old ass-hole Elliot we all love and hate at the same time"

"Yeah I know, but there's more,"she paused, contemplating if she really wanted to go on, but it was now or never, "It was at that point that I really started to miss him, I wanted to come home and make everything ok again. I wanted to see him, to touch him, to laugh with him again, but not as his partner or his best friend. Case, I think I'm in love with him."

Casey was thankful that she had not just taken a drink, because otherwise she would have spit it out all over the place in surprise.

"What?" she gasped, "You're in love with Elliot? Elliot Stabler, Elliot? Your partner, Elliot?" She stopped for a minute, taking it all in, almost thinking that Olivia would then inform her that she was just shitting her, and then they would laugh, but that never happened. "Wow, you really have changed! Not that it's a bad thing, I'm just surprised, but really happy for you"

"I know, it just happened. I think I've loved him for a long time, but I've just never admitted it to myself until now. Hell, I woke up in the hospital mumbling his name. I was having some dream about being able to hold him, and it just came out."

"Have you talked to him yet?"

"No, I haven't gotten up the courage. He doesn't even know that I'm home. No one does but you. I don't know what to say to him, and I don't know if I can look at him without him knowing that something's up, so I have to be ready to talk to him as soon as I go back to work."

"Oh my gosh" Casey giggled.

"What?"

"Nothing, its just, wow, I never thought you two would actually see what everyone else does, and now, 8 years later, it's happened!"

"How could everyone else possibly see it, when it hasn't even happened yet, or might never happen?"

"Trust me, we just know."

Casey and Olivia continued to catch up on everything that had happened while Olivia was gone and after a few hours, Olivia had gone home.

XXX End Flashback XXX

That had been three days ago. Casey had promised to keep Olivia's return a secret from everyone, and although she almost slipped a couple of times, no one else knew she was back.

'Its now or never' Olivia thought as she slid out of bed, her feet hitting the cold hardwood floor. Every day for the past three days, she had set her alarm clock, and planned on going in to work. Every day for the past three days, she had chickened out, coming up with some pointless excuse as to why she shouldn't go in that day. First it was that she had ran out of conditioner in the shower, and couldn't go into work without properly conditioning her hair, then it was that her favorite t-shirt was dirty and she could only wear that one shirt to work that day, finally it was that it was just too cold and cloudy out for her to leave her apartment. Olivia laughed at herself for coming up with such useless excuses that were about as far from her normal personality as possible. Again today, she figured that she could come up with some other excuse for not going in and instead lay around watching TV, go for a jog, and maybe take a bubble bath, but enough was enough. It was time to be Olivia, the take no shit, hard ass cop, and stop hiding out because she might, no, not might, definitely has feelings for Elliot.

Olivia hopped in the shower, and relaxed under the warm spray. She let her mind wander off to Elliot again. 'Does he look any different? I wonder if he's wearing that blue shirt that I really like on him?' She then began to fantasize about what was under the shirt. Sure, she'd seen him shirtless before, a couple of times after they'd been in the gym working out, but then it was just her partner, now it was different. She thought back to his rock hard six-pack, and how chiseled his entire body was. She thought about his lightly tanned skin glistening from the sweat, and suddenly she longed to run her fingers down his chest and stomach. She shuddered with intense desire for him, hoping that if she imagined it long enough, it would actually come true. Her fantasy was ended abruptly as the water in the shower became cold.

"Damn" she muttered out loud. She stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself in a tan fluffy towel, enveloping its warmth. After blow drying her hair, and applying her makeup, she threw on her favorite pair of jeans, low rise boot cut, which fit tightly in all the right places, and her favorite black t-shirt, with the low neckline, and headed out the door.