I Wanna Come Home

Disclaimer: I don't own them and well I kind of wish I did.

A/N: So the end of tonight's episode got me really upset. I was online telling people how I was going to delete all my stories and that I had stopped believing in love. But then I realized that it's stuff like this that means that you have to believe even harder because if we stop believing then Dick Wolf wins and I'll be damned if I'm gonna let that self important ass win. LOL… can you tell that I've gotten all my anger out? Anyway, I wrote this to make everyone believe again.

A/N: This story is dedicated to Dramawitsvu17, SVU101 and freestyler9125 for listening to me bitch and trying to talk me out of deleting my stories. You guys are the best, thank you so much.

He stood on the steps of a home that had once been his, bearing his soul to a woman who had also once been but was no longer. In the back of his mind he wondered what he was doing. He wanted his family back. He missed his kids. He missed knowing what was going on in their lives. He didn't miss Kathy though.

"I wanna come home," he admitted softly and watched the surprised expression on Kathy's face as her brow furrowed.

"Elliot," she began. She could hear the movement behind her and knew she had to get him to leave soon.

"Can I come in and talk?" Elliot asked but Kathy refused to budge.

"Now's not a good time," she explained, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice. What she was doing wasn't wrong but still, she knew it would hurt him if he knew.

And a moment later it was too late to protect Elliot's feelings. "Is everything okay?" the male voice interrupted the uncomfortable silence as the man's face appeared over Kathy's shoulder.

Kathy turned to him and blushed slightly "Yeah," she whispered uncomfortably. "Why don't you head back inside, I'll be there in a minute."

"Okay," the man whispered with a gentle kiss pressed to Kathy's cheek.

She turned back to Elliot, her eyes unable to meet his gaze; she knew the hurt she would see there. She cared about this man. She just didn't love him anymore. She knew that the only reason he wanted to be home was because of the children. She knew the divorce had been hard on the kids but there was no way she would stay in a loveless marriage simply for their children. "I'm sorry Elliot," she whispered "I've moved on."

"I'm happy for you," Elliot couldn't stay standing there. He turned and walked quickly back to his car as he felt tears sting his eyes. He slid into the driver's seat and stared back at the house. Kathy had gone back inside. He took a moment to compose himself before he started his car and drove back to his lonely little apartment.

He pulled up and noticed a familiar someone sitting on his front steps. He smiled softly to himself; ever since they had started working together, there was not a moment that he wasn't happy to see her. "Hey," he greeted as he stepped out of the car and walked towards her.

She looked up and smiled "Hey," she whispered. She had been sitting there a while, wondering if he was even home. She didn't know why but she wanted to be near him.

He sat down on the stoop beside her. He subconsciously scooted closer to her as a gust of wind chilled him slightly. "Melinda told me that you yelled at her," he grinned slyly.

"She was wrong," Olivia stated plainly.

"Yeah," Elliot nodded. He slid his hand across the concrete until it made contact with hers "Thanks for sticking by me."

"You're my partner," she said simply even though deep down, she knew it was more than that.

They sat in silence for a while before Elliot spoke next. "I went to see Kathy tonight."

"Oh," Olivia whispered. She tried not to be hurt by the thought of Elliot going to see the woman who had left him. She still remembered when Kathy had called her a few weeks ago. She had told Olivia that a piece of paper didn't stop you from caring about someone but Olivia thought that if Kathy truly cared, she wouldn't have left in the first place. Elliot was the sweetest man that Olivia had ever known and she couldn't imagine how anyone could stand to hurt him so deeply by taking away his family.

"I asked if I could come home," he admitted. Elliot had no idea why he was telling her this but for some reason he just kept going "She was with another man. She's moved on."

"Oh," Olivia said again. If Elliot had been hurt before, she knew that he must have been torn apart to see his ex-wife with another man. "El, I'm so sorry," her fingers wrapped around his hand and squeezed gently.

Elliot looked at Olivia in the light cast by a nearby lamp post. For a moment he almost thought of moving on himself with Olivia if only to show Kathy up. But he dismissed that thought quickly. It wasn't fair to Olivia. He didn't know exactly what he felt for her these days but he knew that it wasn't fair to use her simply to hurt Kathy. She was his partner, she was his friend, whether or not they could be more, he wasn't ready to know the answer yet.

Olivia shivered. The night air had dropped at least ten degrees in the time that they'd been talking. She stood up "I should probably get going."

Elliot stood up as well. He watched her turn away and wondered if he was ready to let another good thing slip through his fingers. She had taken only two steps when he called out to her "You wanna come up for a cup of tea?"

She turned and smiled "Sure," she walked back to where Elliot stood and the two of them walked inside together.

A/N: So that's it. Not full on romance but enough to light the flames of belief again I hope. It's awful when something shakes your faith but if you can get past it, that faith becomes stronger than ever.