"You ready for this?" he asked as the front of the precinct came into view. It was still mostly dark out and the tiny knot of people huddled together in front of it looked like they'd rather be anywhere else at such an ungodly hour on Sunday morning.

"Eight hours trapped in this SVU with all the bitching that's about to ensue? No. Can't we go separately?"

"You heard the captain. This trip is meant to be both educational and fun."

"My ass," his partner said with a decidedly unladylike snort. She rolled her head on the headrest to face him and batted her big brown eyes at him. "Puh-leeez, El?"

"Is this you flexing your feminine wiles, Liv?"

"That depends. Is it working?"

She was gazing at him from under her dark lashes, her full bottom lip slightly protruding. In the thirteen year balancing act that had been their partnership, he'd never seen that look on her face. He found it disarming and wholly appealing.

"Jesus, yes. Stop," he said gruffly, shaking his head. She smirked and sat up in her seat.

"Bets on who'll bitch first? Alex or Casey. Coffee."

"You're on but lunch not coffee and my vote's for Munch making some smartass comment that will start it all off."

"I'll go wiiiith," she said, drawing out the word as she studied the group who was now gathering their personal items to load into the approaching vehicle. "Alex. She's so not a morning person and she looks especially pissy this morning."

"You're on."

He eased the vehicle up to the curb and held his little finger out to her pinky-promise style. She hooked hers around his. It was a habit they'd fallen into after witnessing his twins perform the ritual several years before. They waited patiently as the other four shoved their bags into back.

When the backseat passenger door was opened, Casey shoved the seat forward and crawled into the third row of seats awkwardly. She muttered a curse after bashing her knees against the seat in front of her and Alex plopped her hands on her slim hips, shaking her head vehemently.

"No. Hell no. What the actual fuck? I am not sitting back there with my knees shoved up around my ears."

"But Alex, that's not what you said last night," Munch quipped.

"Fuck off, Munch," she retorted hotly.

"Look, I'll sit back there. Just shut up. Both of you," Fin growled, trying to push her out of the way.

"Oh no, forget it. I'm not sitting next to Munch." She hauled herself into the back somehow managing to sock Munch in the gut on her way past him.

Olivia leaned across the console and whispered "I win" into Elliot's ear so the others couldn't hear. Her breath on his ear sent shivers and chill bumps chasing down his neck. What the hell was going on?

Sure he knew that Olivia Benson was an attractive woman. Hell, half the world knew it. He was a man, after all, and neither blind nor stupid. But she was also Liv. Good ol' dependable Liv—best friend, partner extraordinaire. And yet he was suddenly very aware of her as a woman, a sexual being. One who had just gut punched him with her sex appeal whether she meant to or not.

Maybe it was because his divorce had been finalized and he hadn't had sex in a very long time. Maybe it was all women that were appealing to him. He glanced in the rearview mirror to catch a glimpse of Casey and Alex. Nope. They were both beautiful but they didn't make him shift uncomfortably in his seat. It was just Liv.

The Liv who was sitting sideways in her seat with her elbows on the console they shared, her wrists crossed over his arm, smelling like sin, and talking animatedly to Munch. The Liv whose cleavage was peeking at him from the low V of her purple t-shirt giving him brief glances of black lace against the olive toned globes of her perfect breasts.

Jesus Christ, he thought to himself unsure if it was a prayer or curse. This was going to be a very long trip.

Once they got settled in and got out of the city the incessant bitching from the back row stopped and everyone either zoned out or slept. He could faintly hear the music from Fin's headphones. Casey's head was back against her headrest, mouth agape, snoring softly and he could no longer see Alex. He assumed she lay down and put her head in Casey's lap. Munch was messing around on his iPad and Liv was reading quietly.

She was still turned sideways facing him but had somehow folded herself into the seat. It baffled him that she could be comfortable like that but he'd catch her nodding off every once in a while so she must. When his stomach rumbled loudly she shot him an amused look.

"Wow."

He grinned at the laughter in her voice and gave a sheepish shrug.

"Breakfast was a long time ago and there's no way I'm stopping now that the kids are asleep."

"You should have said something," she said replied, digging through the bag at her feet. She pulled out a bag of pretzels.

"Yeah, Dad, Mom's always prepared," Munch quipped.

Liv shot the older man a bemused look and offered him a bottle of water. She popped the bag and produced two more waters. They crunched merrily while Munch read trivia questions to keep them occupied. Once that grew old, Munch decided to watch a movie.

"You can take a nap," Elliot said in a low voice, knowing no one could hear them now.

"I'm not going to sleep while you do all the hard work."

"Well there's a first." He was unable to hide his smirk until Liv gave him a hard pinch. "Ow! Hands off!"

"Really?"

He gave his head a hard shake feeling like he'd stepped into Bizzaro world. Was Liv flirting with him? Surely not. But for all the world her dark eyes were sparkling at him with humor and something he couldn't quite name.

"If they're going to be mean touches—yeah."

"And if they're not?" she asked coyly, her index finger stroking his forearm lightly.

"Are you fucking with me right now, Olivia?" he growled, glaring at her before turning his eyes back to the road. She tipped her head back and laughed.

"You're so easy, Stabler. You really need to get laid. You're wound like a top. And I owe Casey a drink."

"I…you…I don't even know what to address first," he said flustered much to Liv's obvious delight. The tips of his ears began to burn. She had him feeling like a freaking 16 year old kid again. It wasn't like he thought he was God's gift to women or anything but he was mature enough to know he appealed to a great many of them and no one ever threw him off balance. "Why do you owe Casey a drink?"

"She said you were so hard up right now that even I would appeal to you."

"That's fucking insulting to both of us." His blue eyes flashed in anger as he glared at Casey's sleeping form in the rearview mirror thinking she deserved a good ass chewing for saying something so asinine.

"Well, she phrased it nicer than that. It wasn't meant to be insulting and don't worry, I assured her you'd never be that hard up. Although you just kinda blew that theory out of the water so…" She punctuated her sentence with a one-shoulder shrug.

"I don't ever want to hear that stupid shit come out of your mouth again, Olivia Benson. Anyone would be lucky to have you and you are no man's last resort. That's just fucking stupid."

"Relax, El. That's not what I meant. Just…we've been partners for a long time. You've been separated before. We're best friends and we both know where we stand when it comes to screwing up this partnership."

Her reference to the fallout from the Gitano case was like a slap in the face. It was one of his dumber moments when his anger and insecurities had turned him into a Grade A ass hat.

"Look, it was all said in fun. You know Casey isn't mean spirited. Maybe a little perverse but certainly not mean. Let's …play a game! I spy with my little eye something yellow."

I spy with my little eye something beautiful, Elliot thought to himself. This was going to be a long damned trip. He'd been fooling himself earlier when he thought that he'd never looked at Olivia as a woman. He had and it had nearly cost him his partner, his friendship. He damn sure wasn't going to make that mistake twice. So Liv and Casey thought they could pull a fast one on him? He'd show them and give Liv a huge dose of her own medicine. He was about to launch a full scale war. He'd show her what hard core flirting was really like.