Disclaimers: I do not own. That would be Mr. Wolf.

Spoilers: "Surveillance", Season 3


Ch 1

Once upon a time an old dead white man said something about love being blind. While true, he also forgot to add that love is sometimes late, deaf, dumb, stubborn, pig headed and otherwise unruly. Elliot Stabler looked across at his partner and scratched at his canine with a toothpick. It had been a while since Elliot had picked up a school book, so he had forgotten who the old dead white guy was, but as he looked at his partner – her chin resting in her hand, her brown eyes roaming over a file—he was pretty sure Olivia Benson was all of those things.

He leaned back in his chair and folded the one arm across his chest while he kept picking at his tooth. He had no desire to unearth plaque, but it kept him busy while he watched his partner. She ran short nails through equally short hair sending spikes of hair in every direction. She furrowed her brow and sighed. Finally, she arched a slim eyebrow and lifted her eyes to meet curious blue.

"Is there something on my face, El? Or am I growing a horn or my forehead, cause you've been staring at me for about five minutes."

Elliot shrugged and leaned forward as he pulled himself to his desk via his desk chair and tossed the toothpick in the trash. "Just lost in thought. I guess your face was in the way." He smirked.

Olivia rolled brown eyes and pushed back from her desk. "Now, Elliot I thought we talked about this," she began with a gravely serious expression on her face. "I'm not singing the happy birthday song to you dressed up as Marilyn Monroe. It's not happening." She winked and headed for the coffee machine.

"Ha, ha!" He wadded a blank sheet of paper and threw it in her direction.

Reflexively, Olivia swatted at the paper ball and deflected it right into the face of ADA Alexandra Cabot. The startled counselor let out a faint yelp and Olivia's eyes grew huge as her face turned red. Elliot suddenly found the space under his desk very interesting.

"Oh, Christ! Alex, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" Olivia was near frantic as she put her coffee down and practically ran over to slender counselor.

For her part, Alex managed to look unphased as she straightened out her crooked glasses. She bit down on her lip to keep from smiling at the dark-haired detective who looked as if the sky was falling. "It's okay, I promise." She let a thin smile come to her lips.

"Alex, I apologize really." She bent down and scooped up the paper. "It was stupid, so stupid. We, uh, I mean, Elliot is an ass." She punctuated her words by hurling the wad of paper at the man conspicuously crouched behind his desk. She chuckled. "It won't happen again." She took a deep breath and smiled sheepishly.

"Olivia," she reached out and touched the detective's wrist. "I'm perfectly fine." An involuntary shiver ran up the ADA's spine at the contact and for a brief second she thought the detective could see right through her.

Simultaneously, both women found the floor more interesting. Olivia put her hands in the back pockets of her dark slacks, lest Alex see her hands trembling. "So, what can we do for you today?"

Alex met her eyes and got lost in the warm swirl of brown. Her brain literally shut off as she lost her words. Instead she inwardly mused, "what you can do for me detective is shut up and kiss me. Or at least stop wearing these tight sweaters! You're killing me!"

"Alex?" Olivia waved her hand in front of the blonde's face. "You okay?"

Alex snapped out of her thoughts with a jolt. "Oh wow, forgive me. My day has been hectic." She managed a smile. She quickly held up the file she had been holding in her left hand. "I need you to go over your testimony for the Simmons case."

"Again?" Olivia sighed. "I thought we were done with this." She grumbled.

"New lawyer. He's making a fuss and well, I want to put you- this to bed a.s.a.p." She covered up her word stumble so fast that she hoped the detective hadn't noticed. "Thursday afternoon sound good? Great." She didn't wait for the detective to answer as she kept talking and handed the file over. "Good luck tonight." And just like that, the ADA turned on her heels and disappeared down the hallway.

Olivia stood completely still for a long three seconds as her brain registered all the words the woman had said. Mostly, she remembered that she was going to have to meet with the counselor in her office tomorrow afternoon to prep for a case. That meant that for at least an hour she was going to have to suffer the delicious torture of being incredibly close the woman who had been the star of her nearly nightly fantasies. Olivia gulped. "I'm in trouble." She whispered the words.

"With a capital T, partner!" Elliot who had sidled up to his partner as she stared off into space whispered the statement into her ear and then chucked her hard on the shoulder before walking off.

Olivia just gave him the evil eye and rubbed her shoulder as Elliot practically skipped off to the bathroom.

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