Detectives Night Out

Author: Mistress Sara

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Law & Order SVU belongs to Dick Wolf. However Sara Cohen-Munch is my original character, so hands off! (If you want to know about the original character you can check out my other SVU stories:

A Killer Reunion, In Love With the Night, An Engaging Conversation, and Shot.)

This is for Katie, enjoy.

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Olivia Benson sat at her desk, staring blankly at the file in front of her. Another case solved, a trial date was set and for the most part her involvement was done. Her thoughts were still on the woman in the case. She was killed by a jealous boyfriend, it made Olivia wonder how someone could claim to be in love but still be able to cause someone so much pain.

That's when her thoughts turned to her partner, the recently divorced Elliot Stabler. The gold band that she had always seen on him was long gone. She couldn't help but wonder if he still loved Kathy after she cheated on him. It was obvious that Kathy didn't love him anymore, how could you cheat on someone and still say that you love them. Especially when that someone was Elliot who had always been so faithful and reliable.

Olivia shook her head, trying in vain to rid her mind of these thoughts. She needed to stop seeing Elliot in this way. They would never been anything more then partners and friends, it would never work on another level.

"Liv? Hey earth to Olivia." The man in question was standing in front of her wondering why she seemed so vacant.

"Oh… sorry Elliot… I was just thinking."

"You okay?" He asked, looking at her with a hint of concern.

"Fine. Did Munch leave already?" Olivia asked, standing up and pulling her jacket off the back of her chair.

"Yeah, as soon as the clock hit five he was out of here." Elliot said, putting on his own jacket.

"Who would have figured that Munch would be the happily married one." Olivia said lightly as the two of them walked towards the elevator.

"I know. Weird how that happened." The two rode the elevator and walked out of the main entrance of the station house. Olivia started to walk one way but Elliot stopped. "Hey… I was going to go meet Cragen and Fin at O'Riley's… you want to come with?"

Olivia thought about it for a minute then smiled. "Sure." Elliot just returned her smile. They walked in silence to his car and drove to the bar. Elliot opened the door to the building and held it for Olivia. It was surprising to see it was such a slow night at the bar.

There were a few people sitting at the bar having a cigarette, a man fighting with the jukebox in one corner and in the other corner… "Munch?" Elliot asked, surprised to see the sarcastic detective sitting in a corner booth with his arm wrapped around his wife Sara. Both had glasses of beer in front of them and it seemed that they had been having serious conversation.

"Hi guys." Sara said looking up at Olivia and Elliot with a smile.

"Hey, what are you two doing here?" John asked.

"We're meeting Cragen and Fin. What about you two?"

"I work here part time and John just swung by after he was done at work." Sara said. That's when Olivia and Elliot noticed that Sara was indeed wearing the same uniform as the other waitresses in the bar.

"Do you guys want to join us?" Munch asked, taking a sip of his beer.

"Uh… sure if you don't mind." Olivia said, not wanting to interrupt them if they were on a date.

"Of course we don't mind." Sara smiled again at them.

"Thanks." Elliot said, pulling up two chairs for Olivia and himself.

"So how's married life treating you?" Olivia asked Sara.

"It's fantastic." She replied with a laugh.

"Is this your first marriage?" Elliot asked, trying to get the waitresses attention.

"First for me… what is this number ten John?"

"Ha ha, number five. And it seems to be the charm." John replied, winking at his wife and pulling her closer to him.

Olivia felt a pang of jealousy. She had never really felt a love like the one sitting in front of her. Elliot too felt something when he saw John so happy with his wife. He felt upset and almost jealous. His own marriage that had seemed so strong was suddenly gone… although it didn't feel too sudden. Probably because he's spending the same amount of time working with Olivia as he always did.

"Well, I'm done." Sara sighed, putting her empty mug back down on the table.

"Are you sure you don't want another one?"

"You know that whole 'courtship' period is over, we're married, you don't have to try and get me drunk anymore."

"Thank God, cause you get very sarcastic when you're drunk."

"Oh you don't even get to start on sarcasm. Come one, we'll discuss this at home." Sara said, getting out of the booth. "I just have to go grab my paycheck and stuff from the back."

"Everything going good John?" Elliot asked after Sara was gone.

"It really is. Best marriage I've had so far."

"That's saying something coming from you." Olivia quipped, taking a sip of her own drink.

"I know." John admitted, finishing his beer then getting out of the booth just as Sara was returning to the table. "You kids behave now." Elliot and Olivia just chuckled at John's comment.

"Bye." Sara smiled at them. John put his arm around her and they began to walk towards the door. Out of the corner of his eye Elliot saw John whisper something to Sara then press a small kiss against her forehead as they walked out of the bar.

"It's strange… I never thought I would be jealous of Munch." Olivia muttered, taking a sip of her beer.

"Why would you be jealous of Munch?" Elliot asked, slightly confused by the statement.

"He's happy… and he's got someone to love. Who wouldn't be jealous of that?"

"You're happy aren't you? I know that there are plenty of people who love you."

"Yeah, thrilled to go home to no one at the end of the day." Olivia was still staring at the doorway where their friend and his wife had just left through. She too saw what Elliot saw, however she was unaware that it had had a similar affect on her partner.

"I am finding out that that does suck… going home to no one." Elliot admitted. After the divorce he moved out of the house and into a small apartment. Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his cell phone ringing. "Stabler." He said, pulling the phone from his pocket.

"Hey, it's Fin. Where are you at?"

"I'm at the bar, where are you?"

"We're at O'Brien's, what bar are you at?"

"You guys said O'Riley's."

"Pretty sure it was O'Brien's. Well are you coming over?"

"Nah, we'll just hang out here I guess."

"We?"

"Yeah, Olivia is here too." Olivia looked up from her drink at the mention of her own name.

"Okay, well we'll see you tomorrow." Fin said

"Alright, later." Elliot shut the cell phone and put it into his jacket pocket. "They went to the wrong bar."

"They did or we did?" Olivia asked.

"Perfectly debatable question. One that I think we'll need more beers for." Elliot smiled, waving down the waitress. A few drinks later they had left the realm of work talk and entered the personal life topic.

"How have you been doing since the divorce?" Olivia asked, sipping on her second beer.

"It's been weird… I don't care too much for going home to an empty apartment."

"Well I can sympathize with that."

"Of course… it is kind of nice to not have to go home to another fight."

"What did you fight about?"

"Everything. The kids, work… you."

"Me? How did I get pulled into a marital brawl?"

"Kathy was always suspicious. She thought that we were having an affair." This statement caused Olivia to choke on her beer.

"What?" She sputtered.

"When she ran out of things to get mad about she would start accusing me of having an affair with you." Olivia looked at him, mouth slightly gapping. "Don't look so shocked, stranger things have happened."

"Sorry… it's not that it's just strange to think about." They spent the next few moments in silence, just thinking about what had been discussed in the past few minutes.

"Do you want to get out of here?" Elliot asked suddenly.

"Sure." They both stood up, Elliot helped Olivia with her jacket and they walked outside. The cold air felt harsh on Olivia's face and she tried to tuck down into her jacket more. "Where did you want to go to?"

"Well…" Elliot began to say before he turned to look at her. He couldn't ignore it anymore; swiftly he leaned down and kissed her hard on the lips. They pulled away and shared an intense stare.

"Elliot…" She started to say, but then she realized that this was what she had wanted all along. Her partner's arms wrapped around her, holding her close to his body. Suddenly anything that she could have said would be pointless so she kissed him instead.

"We could go to my place." Elliot managed, pulling away for a moment.

"Good." She whispered quickly, not wanting to break the kiss again. They quickly made their way back to his apartment.

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The next morning Olivia woke up to the sound of her cell phone ringing. Some how Elliot slept though it. She reached across the tangled bed sheets looking for her pants where the phone was still in the pocket.

"Benson." She said, loud enough that it woke Elliot with a start.

"Hey it's Munch. Captain is looking for you. Stabler isn't here yet either."

"Yeah… I had some car trouble last night so he's on his way to pick me up." Olivia lied quickly. "Tell Captain that we should be there in a little bit."

"Sure thing." Munch replied, Olivia could tell that he was smirking. He knew… some how he knew.

"Bye." Olivia said quickly, hanging up the phone.

"How late are we?" Elliot asked, looking around at his room noticing how their clothing was strewn through out the room.

"Not too late. But late enough that they noticed. I think that Munch might know."

"Munch also believes that lemonade stands are a conspiracy. Don't worry." He said, getting some clothes out of the chest of drawers.

"I would much rather sleep in." Olivia said wistfully as she began to put her wrinkled clothes back on.

"Tomorrow's Saturday… we can give it another try." Elliot smiled at her.

"Another night out?"

"Nope, tonight we stay in."

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That's all. Reviews are welcomed.