A/N: The beginning of this fic comes to you from a corner table at Rue la Rue, a café dedicated to one of my other TV loves—The Golden Girls. This is my new happy place.
This "adventure" I'm about to take you on…it'll be a series of drabbles. Some connected, some not. The timeline will vary, as will the theme & rating. I was listening to Brad Paisley's New Favorite Memory, and something clicked, and now, here we are…
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1.
Running Late
Timeline: Between S16/S17
WC: ~1300
"I know, I'm late," Olivia called from the door, before grumbling under her breath. "I swear, Dodds has the worst possible timing…"
Busting into the apartment, she carelessly tossed her coat onto the rack by the door and dropped her bag.
"Sorry, sorry," she breathed, stepping into the living room and leaning down to kiss the top of Noah's head where he was coloring at the coffee table. She paused from running her fingers through his short brown hair to look at him more closely. "You're already dressed?" Her surprised gaze shifted to Ed, who was watching her from the couch with a small smirk.
"Lucy gets the credit for that. I just got here." Ed gestured over his shoulder at the young woman, who was steeping a tea bag in an oversized mug in the kitchen.
"Thank you, Lucy," Olivia smiled warmly. She appraised Ed, who was dressed in charcoal slacks and a crystal blue oxford shirt that perfectly matched his eyes, before looking down at her own attire. "Let me go get changed. I'll just be a minute." She'd hoped to have more time to get ready but had gotten held up with the Chief and now just barely had enough time to change clothes and freshen up her makeup.
"Take your time," Lucy assured her, laying a soft hand on Olivia's forearm before she kneeled on the floor at the coffee table with Noah. She had agreed to stay a little later than normal before the trio met Ed's mother for dinner.
Taking advantage of the sitter's presence, Ed turned to follow Olivia back to her bedroom, stifling a groan when he turned the corner down the hallway just in time to see the white blur of her blouse as she whipped it over her head.
…
She was stripped down to a navy blue bra and panty set by the time Ed made his way back into her bedroom. Sensing his presence, Olivia started talking to him through the doorway from the bathroom, where she was hunched over her vanity re-applying her makeup and dismantling the updo she'd sported for work.
"What time do we need to be there?"
From his perch at the end of her bed, only her shadow was visible to him moving around the bathroom, but by the sound of her voice he could clearly see her in his mind's eye, leaning over the vanity, mouth ajar as she touched up her eyeliner.
Absently, he glanced at the watch on his wrist, the second hand completing a revolution, the watch face reading 6:40. They would be cutting it close, depending on how easy it was to grab a cab outside. "Reservation's at 7. We can be a little late," he dismissed. "Don't worry about it."
At that, her face reappeared around the doorframe and he smirked at the look of incredulous disbelief decorating her features. "Ed, we're meeting you're mother. I'm meeting your mother," she emphasized. "We can't be late…"
Ed let out a dry chuckle and ran a hand down his face, his body falling back onto her bed. "My mother's never been on time for a damn thing," he muttered, more to himself than to her.
"We can't be late," she repeated succinctly, stepping out of the bathroom and making her way to the closet. As he watched her quietly from the bed, he was struck by the revelation of just how much had changed between them in the months since they'd gotten together.
In the beginning, she'd been painfully self-conscious, Ed being only the second person besides Brian to see her in a state of undress post-Lewis. But now… he smiled appreciatively at how she was completely uninhibited in her near-nakedness in front of him. It was almost like he wasn't in the room at all, only he was, and she knew it—otherwise why would she be torturing him so?
He listened half-heartedly as she vented to him about the latest hoops Dodds was forcing her and her squad to jump through. It wasn't due to lack of interest; he was just mesmerized by her. Trying his best, he offered somewhat coherent responses where necessary as his eyes devoured her soft curves and perpetually tanned olive skin; losing himself in the subtle scent of the lotion she'd applied to her skin.
Olivia felt a flush spread across her upper chest and neck, knowing he was ogling her from his perch on her bed. Enjoying the attention, she took her time pulling out and smoothing the dress she'd chosen carefully for this occasion.
When Ed had mentioned his mother wanted to meet her, she'd been nervous. She didn't meet mothers. That was one of the plus sides of having so few long-term relationships in her twenties and thirties.
No commitment meant you didn't really have to meet family.
Her relationship with Brian had lasted just long enough to warrant the introduction, and she hadn't been able to find her way out of it.
But Ed…granted, they were still on the new side, but there was something different about him, and she found herself wanting to do this, even if the thought of it & what it meant still scared her.
Pulling the dress up over hips and slipping her arms through the capped sleeves, she stepped in front of the full-length mirror on her closet door, watching him in the reflection and pulling her hair off to one shoulder, before smoothing the material over her stomach and down the front of her thighs.
He propped himself up on his elbows and watched her silently; lust building in his clear blue eyes and enflaming his skin, a telltale sign of his arousal.
Her hands stopped moving and he looked up to find her eyes already on him, a knowing smile curving her lips.
"Zip me up?" He was surprised by the softness in her voice; it bore no traces of the frenzy that had been there when she'd arrived home.
Despite the initial rush of the evening, time slowed, and her eyes never left his as he got up from the bed and made his way toward her, stopping when he could feel the heat of her body against his.
He let his hands feather up the supple skin of her upper arms, massaging her shoulders gently before sliding down her back toward the open zipper, his fingertips just barely grazing her spine on the way down. At the sensation, her body was wracked with a head-to-toe shiver, and he smirked when she let a small moan escape.
In that moment, with her soft brown waves cascading over one shoulder, smoldering eyes piercing his in the mirror, her scent surrounding him and the warmth of her in his arms, he cursed the dinner with his mother that they were about to be late for. It was the only thing stopping him from pushing the dress back down her body and taking his time showing her that, in this moment and all moments that would follow, she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.
He knew Olivia Benson belonged to no one, but he was comfortable in the knowledge that she was his just as much as he, hers, and this awareness culminated in a sense of gratitude that overcame him.
Years of loneliness, of feeling like something was missing, were worth it for the completeness he felt in this moment with her.
He lowered his head until his lips barely grazed the soft material at her shoulder and lifted his hand; the sound of the zipper as it ascended her back interrupted the charged silence that had fallen in the room.
As his eyes continued to pierce hers through the reflection in the mirror, Olivia's gaze containing the promise of what was to come when they returned later, Ed was sure that of all the memories they'd made together in recent months, this one was rapidly becoming his favorite.
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