"Benson, Stabler my office now" Captain Cragen barked. I shot El a questioning look as we headed to the captains office.
"Liv, El have a seat, you remember FBI agent Star. There is an undercover job that FBI has specifically requested the two of you." Cragen explained
"What's the case? Why did they request us and not one of their agents?" El questioned
"There is a perp that targets newly engaged couples and forces them to work as prostitutes. This guy has victimised seven couples already. The FBI has sent in two undercover couples were made. They want the two of you to go undercover because you two would make the perfect couple especially after seeing the two of you at the Police Gala ball." Star explained
"How long would we be undercover for?" I asked star
"Well we know that he likes to research his victim's for about two weeks before he makes a move, so mostly likely about a month." Star stated
I looked over to El, trying to read him. The last eight months had been tough on him; Kathy had divorced him and he only got to see his kids every second weekend. He had only started to get back to his normal self about a month ago; maybe this assignment isn't such a good idea. I must have been staring because his blue eyes bore into my brown ones and we had a conversation.
Captain Cragen watched his two best detectives interact; they were so close maybe two close as Dr Hendrix said they had a mutual reliance that made them unusually close. They could have a conversation without uttering a single word.
"We'll do it" El and I told Star
"Ok, here are your aliases take the next few days to learn your back story. Everything will be arranged for you. Just be at the precinct normal time next Monday." Captain told us, while star handed us our information packets.
El and I spent the next few days at my apartment learning all we could about the case and testing each other on our new identities. We were Beth and Stan, engaged two weeks ago. We meet in college and dated steadily. We live on the upper west side. I worked as a legal aid assistant and El worked as a banker.
After we thoroughly knew our new identities, we hung out like we used to before our relationship had been strained a few years back. Both El and I freely talked about our lives and problems before watching the game with beer and Chinese food.
Monday morning came quickly and El and I headed into the precinct. The captain and Star greeted us. Star handed El and I a change of clothes. We changed quickly; Star informed us that the house had been set up with a car, clothes and pictures to make it look believable. Captain handed us two cell phones and told us to handover our personal ones as well as our id which was replaced with our new identities and new cell phones. Munch and Fin will be on suvervaliance on the house around the clock.
"Stabler, come over here for a minute." Star called and slipped something into his hand "look after her and just a word of advice don't wait too long"
"You know I will protect her. I don't plan to just waiting for the right moment to tell her" El said with a smile
"Liv" El said
"Yes" I said turning to face him
"Will you do me the honour of being my wife" he asked kneeling down in front of me with a ring
"Yes, I will" I told him allowing him to slip the ring on my finger. With that he laced our fingers together and we walked out to start our case.
We arrived at the house a short time later. It was beautiful brownstone house. The inside was decorated beautifully and pictures of the two of us hung on the walls and lined the mantels.
This is what it would be like if El and I had a life together. Snap out of it I told myself and just enjoy being his wife for the time being.
After checking out our new home the captain had instructed us to get to know the neighbourhood.
"Babe, do you want to go and get some lunch?" El asked
"Sure thing hun" I replied giving him a dazzling smile
We walked a few blocks hand in hand before settling on a café. Inside we took a seat in a booth closest to the window and ordered. It wasn't weird that we were having lunch together or that we were still holding hands it felt natural. When the food came El and I shared like we normally would, but instead of me eating off his fork he fed me. Throughout lunch the flirting and little touches increased- I had completely forgotten that we were only pretending to be engaged.
Feeling quite full after lunch we decided to keep exploring our new neighbourhood; hand in hand. We had walked nearly three blocks when someone called out to El.
"Elliot". We turned around to see Ell's ex-wife Kathy standing there.
"What the hell Elliot! It didn't take you long to run to your partner or officially announced your relationship." Kathy spat
"Hi Kathy nice to see you I'm good thanks" El said sarcastically "And what do you even care our marriage failed and it took me a while to get over not being able to see the kids but I am finally in a good place" El squeezed my hand and pulled me closer.
"How have you been Kathy?" I asked trying to be polite and give El a chance to calm down
"What's that?" Kathy said ignoring my question and grabbing my hand "Omg you are getting married. What the hell how long were you guys having an affair before we got divorced?" Kathy spat
"We..." I went to tell her the truth but remembered that I couldn't tell her "We never had an affair Kathy. I have loved El since the day I met him but nothing ever happened when he was married to you I wouldn't disrespect you like that." I explained as I felt El slip his arm around my waist and kiss me on the temple.
"Well?" Kathy said and turned to El
"I love Liv, she understands me in a way you never could, and she is my best friend. We never had an affair I took my vows seriously. Now I would have thought that you would be happy for me and Liv, the kids love her and she loves them and she has done so much for them, me and you. Now if you will excuse us we have to go" El told his ex and with that we continued to walk down the street.
"Liv" El said turning to face me "what I said to Kathy back there I meant it every word and I know you meant what you said. I have been waiting for the right time to tell you how I feel." He said tilting my face to his, our lips brushed in a sweet kiss.
"Your right" I told him "I do love you" I said kissing him
"I'm always right" he said with a chuckle
We slowly made our way back to the house, El kept pulling me into an alley and we would make out like teenagers. Because we had been out for lunch we decided that we would stay in and watch a movie. El cooked the most amazing diner; we snuggled up and watch a movie. About halfway through the movie I began to fall asleep. El shut off the movie and we went to bed, I snuggled up against his chest and he draped his arm around my waist.
The sun streamed in through the curtains, I opened my eyes trying to get my bearings I rolled over to face El. "Morning sleepyhead" I said dropping a kiss on his lips
"Mhhmm, morning beautiful" he said returning the kiss "how'd you sleep?"
"Great" I told him getting up and heading for the bathroom.
I emerged from the bathroom twenty minutes later to find El cooking breakfast, it smelled amazing.
"Hun that smells and looks amazing" I complemented him
The day progressed normally, El and I followed up on meeting with a potential perp, and then we went to dinner and a late night movie. The following days were much the same; romantic walks through central park, vacation to Cony Island, eating out at the exclusive restaurants. I was having a blast with each "date" I fell more in love with El.
The days went quickly El and I explored the city and went out for dinners, our relationship was growing stronger every day. I loved when we were out how he introduced me as his fiancée it just sounded so natural even though we had only started dating a few weeks ago, our relationship was twelve years in the making. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until we got a call from Cragen telling us to come down to the precinct that he wanted to talk to us about something.
El and I headed down to the precinct hand in hand. In the evaluator I asked El what he thought Cragen wanted, he replied that he didn't know before pulling me into a hug and kissing the top of my head. We stepped out of the evaluator hand in hand and on our way to see the captain we ran into Casey in the hall.
"Liv, Elliot I thought you guys were undercover what's going on?" Casey asked eyeing our intertwined fingers
"Hun, do you mind if I chat with Casey for a bit?" I asked him
"No, not at all babe, I will be with Munch and Fin when you're ready" he said kissing me sweetly
"Well Liv you have been holding out on me. I thought this was just supposed to be an undercover act. Looks like more to me, Liv and El sitting in a tree k I s s I n g" Casey said
"Shush it was, I swear, but we ran into Kathy and she said some stuff about us having an affair while El was still married and we couldn't tell her about the case so I told her how i really felt about El and he said the same thing about me to Kathy and then we were walking back home after that and he told me that he meant what he said. But no one knows that we are actually in a relationship so please don't say anything. "I explained
"I understand. But you do know about the rumours that have been going on for years about you and El being more then partners. Everyone could see how in love the two of you were with one another but you guys couldn't or wouldn't act on it. Oh and how is being with the man of your dreams?"
"Yeah i think it was more like wouldn't act on them. But the last few weeks have been amazing. We have been to the most beautiful restaurants and places together or even just staying in he cooks me dinner and makes me breakfast in the morning. I love going to sleep snuggled up against him and waking up in the morning with his arms around me. I know him so well and he knows me; I just can't believe how happy I am and we haven't even you know" I gushed
"Wow Liv I am so happy that everything is working out, you two are perfect for one another. I can't believe Stabler has been able to keep himself restrained." Casey said
" it's been hard for both of us but we wanted the first time to be special and not while we were undercover" I told my best friend "Anyways it was good seeing you and we will definitely have to catch up once I am done with this case but I have to go, can't keep the captain waiting. Bye"
"Bye" she called as I meet El in the bullpen. Together we walked into the captain's office
"Captain, you wanted to see us" I said
"Yes, have a seat. How is the case going? "He asked
"It's going good captain" El said smiling at me "we have a few suspects that could our perp"
"Was that all you wanted to talk about?" I asked thinking we could have done this over the phone
"Well I got a call informing me that my two lead detectives are in love and aren't pretending to be engaged. So Haung and I have watched the two of you over the last week as well as spoken to Fin and Munch about your behaviour. Haung and I have decided for the sake of the investigation that the two of you are being taken off the case to ensure your personal relationship doesn't interfere." Captain said
El and I sat there in utter silence; whilst the captain had been talking El had laced our fingers together. "Well if you think that is best then I guess we can't argue" El told the captain
"We didn't mean for this to happen, it just did. Were sorry for jeopardizing the case." l said
"I know and don't worry about the case the FBI caught the guy breaking into your house, they got him. Oh and I am glad you guys are finally together."
After being undercover our relationship was still strong, we told Ell's kids who were thrilled, three months later El and I bought an apartment just outside the city which was big enough for all his kids to stay and to add a nursery if needed. El proposed to me on my birthday and we got married on New Year's Eve; Casey, Mel, Alex, Mor and Katie were bridesmaids, Fin, Munch groomsmen, Lizzie was the flower girl and dickie the ring man. Cragen gave me away and the entire precinct attended our wedding.
18 months later
I was awoken by the cries of the newest edition to the Stabler clan. Eli Stabler was the spitting image of El with those beautiful blue eyes, with my colour hair. The day Eli was born was one of the greatest days of my life; I had always wanted to be a mother. El still works at SVU fulltime and is being promoted to captain at the end of the year, whilst I have a specialist position that links all five precincts SVU and provides information and identifies patterns, allowing me to still work with my husband, Fin, Munch and best friend ADA Casey whilst allowing me to care for Eli.