Home

Nothing else has the power to calm, comfort, and care for you better than home.
 Richelle E. Goodrich

"Elliot!" Dani's soft voice suddenly called him back, "I forgot to tell you, there was someone at the precinct looking for you. A woman."

With a frown on his handsome face, the detective walked back to his partner, "Who?"

"She didn't say her name, just that she was looking for you. Then she went straight into Cragen's office." Dani seemed just as helpless with that information as he was.

"What did she look like?"

"Very pretty. Dark skin, brown hair, brown eyes..." Elliot didn't need to hear more, he could picture her right now standing in his office, her hair shining in the sunlight, a smile playing around her mouth when she saw him and amusement flaring up in her eyes.

"I need to go." It was abrupt and frankly quite rude to leave Dani standing there like that. Especially after what had just happened, but he couldn't bring himself to act any differently.

If Olivia was back then he had to see her.

Once safely inside his car he decided to call Cragen first.

"Cap?" He said immediately, once the husky voice on the other end spoke, "Is Olivia back?"

"Elliot do you know what time it is?" His Captain sighed, "Yes, she came by my office today. She asked me not to tell you, she wanted to tell you herself."

"Thanks. And sorry for waking you." He hung up, before his boss could elaborate on that and drove Olivias house.

Elliot let himself in with the spare key and then stood in front of her apartment nervously. It irritated him that he was nervous. This was Olivia, she had been his partner for years, they were best friends. Seeing her again was like coming home.

Why would anyone be nervous about coming home?

Finally he was beginning to get impatient with himself and the thought that Olivia might have spontaneously opened the door and see him standing there, scared him so tremendously that he knocked three times.

At first he thought she wouldn't answer, thought perhaps she was asleep, but then he heard her shuffling footsteps. She opened the door and didn't seem all too surprised to see him. She was surprised, but not in a way as if she hadn't expected him at all. No, it was more as if she just hadn't expected him that night.

So much had happened that night.

"What are you doing here?"

That was a valid question, what was he doing here?

"You're back. I wanted to see you, I was worried."

"I'm fine."

Of course she was. He hadn't expected a different answer.

"I know, I still wanted to see you though."

Olivia stepped back to let him into the familiar apartment. It was tidy. The kind of tidiness that had a shine to it, as if she had only just cleaned it.

She looked well, the way he remembered her. She hadn't changed and that was so relieving to him he wondered if that was secretly the reason he had wanted to see her. To make sure she was still the same.

His partner.

"How have you been?"

"Fine." She closed the door behind him, "I'm not allowed to talk about the case, you know that."

"I'm not asking about your case, I'm asking about you."

Olivia's eyes met his and he saw something inside them, a kind of vulnerability he had seen before, but only on rare occasions.

"I'm OK, I got into something and was hurt, but not badly. Then I broke the FBI's rules and solved a different case, a sex-crime. That was awesome."

A smile played around his lips, "You came back."

"It was unavoidable." She looked more relaxed after she had said those words and walked past him, "Do you want a beer?"

"Yeah, thanks."

They sat down on the couch, side by side, in a way they had done many times before. But it was different that night. There was something about it he couldn't quite explain. He couldn't grasp it properly.

"How have you been?" She spoke causally, "How's Kathy?"

"Nothing has changed. We're still separated."

"And you're OK?"

"I'm OK." He took a sip of his beer and the silence lay between them like a heavy cloak threatening to cover and bury them.

"I saw you with your new partner today."

His heart began to race and he suddenly felt nervous again, but in a different way. A heavier, more demanding way.

"At the parking lot?"

"At the precinct."

It would hurt Kathy to see him with Dani at the port - kissing, because she was his wife. But it hurt Olivia to see him working with somebody and getting along with her, because she was his partner.

"I want you to come back. I can work well with Dani, but she's not you. We're the best team there is, you know that."

"Yeah," Olivia agreed, "But I don't know if it's that simple Elliot."

"It is. Just tell Cragen you want your job back and Dani will get a new partner it's not a problem." Something was rising up in him and he could feel it needing to come out and needing to be said, "I really missed you Olivia, you're my best friend and I felt so...so...lost without you. I couldn't even talk to you on the phone, because you just hung up and it's so hard to get through even one day without you and I just..." A sigh escaped his lips, "I need you more than I thought. I may need you more than you need me and this might sound pathetic, but I just missed you so much."

His honesty was touching to her. It wasn't easy for him to say all of these things and she wasn't sure in how far it had been clever, but that didn't matter. In that moment it was unimportant whether this conversation was intelligent or not, if it would bring consequences or not.

He had been honest and the blush in his cheeks told her this honesty had been embarrassing for him, so she decided to do his boldness justice by speaking the truth also:
"While I was hurt, I was brought to a hospital and a friend told me I had...muttered you name in my sleep. Over and over again. Elliot, Elliot, Elliot...she thought it was funny. I don't remember what I dreamed, if I dreamed anything at all that is. The only thing I know is that I missed you too and I needed you, I called out for you then and I still need you now."

There was a silence between them once more, but it was not weighing them down any longer.

"I hung up, because it was the day after I had said your name. I wasn't sure how to talk to you."

"Oh, you just could have said so over the phone!" Elliot joked, "I totally would have understood."

She smiled and he smiled back.

"I'll see you around." Elliot said, as he stood up to leave.

"Thanks."

"Oh, and Liv?" At the door Elliot turned around to face her one last time, "Welcome Home."

This is my second Law and Order Fanfiction I have decided to upload. For my first one "When Darkness Falls" I received a large amount of positive comments (and messages) encouraging me to continue. My goal is to really capture the character's essence and to write realistic stories and I think this scene could have happened between El and Liv like this. It just seemed like they ought to have spoken about how they had felt during the separation in season 8 and then the tense atmosphere in the following episodes could have been avoided. But in "burned" they finally did talk and kind of got back together again, if you guys know what I mean.

I had fun writing and editing this story, so I hoped you enjoyed reading it. Do tell me what you think, via messages or leave a review.

Oh and how do you spell Elliot? One L or two? Eliot or Elliot?

Cheers!