(takes place in Season 11)

December 23th

10:34

Elliot Stabler was seriously in need of a beer. No, not serious need. He was in complete and utter desperation for some sort of alcohol in his system. It was well past ten o'clock of the 23rd and he knew somewhere in the deep depths of his heart that he would not be making it home in time for Christmas. It just wasn't possible. And he would think that Cragen would give him a little leeway having kids of his own and all, even though they were all grown up. That wouldn't stop him from seeing his situation from a father to a father. Obviously Elliot had thought wrong. Only at around 4 o'clock in the evening-six hours ago- Cragen had swooped in on him and Olivia dropping a stack of heavy, yellowing files on their desk, bitching about how it hadn't been completed. Normally, Elliot would have understood the captains anger and frustration at his two finest detectives, yet one odd fact stuck out to both he and his partner; the files were from 1998. To make things worse, Cragen even brought some files that Munch and Cassidy hadn't done the same year. He assured them that Munch would get hell when he got back from his vacation in the Bahamas.

Of course, Elliot didn't go down without a fight, insisting that they were only rookie detectives then and they must've somehow gotten lost in the shuffle. But Cragen wasn't biting it. He yelled at them more, Elliot's pleading only seeming to anger him more. At one point Elliot even had the nerve to ask what the urgency was and that seemed to drive Cragen over the edge. There was another case that had the same profile in Rhode Island, bodies carved with a cross and all, and they needed to have the files on the killer completed before he raped and tortured some other young girl.

Olivia had merely taken her punishment as needed, hanging her head and answering politely back to him. Elliot knew that was only because she didn't have a family to go home to, so completing work at the precinct throughout Christmas Eve day and night probably wouldn't matter much to her anyway. Elliot was too self-absorbed in his thoughts to have even a pang of guilt and sadness for her at the moment, but now that his misery was slowly wearing down, he realized how truly sad it was that someone like Olivia would have no one to snuggle with in bed and open presents with. It was heartbreaking, but it somehow other seemed to spur the goosebumps he got when he went over an especially gory detail about the rapes and murders of the 14 year olds.

So here they were now, stuck with filling out information from every single database the bastard had ever been put into. Technically this wasn't their case, it was Rhode Island's, but they were the ones with the everlasting paper work, not them. The man, Franz Slaski, was in prison anyway up in Sing Sing, probably not enjoying himself so much. They were obviously looking for a copycat; one who violently raped girls who were around 14 years old, beat them up until most of their bones were broken, slit their throats, and carved a cross on their abdomen. Usually he dumped them in the river, but there were a few girls found in dumpsters or on the side of the road. After killing nearly eight girls, one of them got away and reported to the police exactly where he had taken her. They busted into his house to find him sitting on the toilet. Ignorant son of a bitch thought the girl would never tell anyone.

And annoying beeping ring cut through the eerie silence of the precinct and Olivia's eyes shot up to Elliot's as he dug his phone out from somewhere under the piles of paperwork on his desk, all revolving around the same disgusting person. When he saw the caller i.d., Elliot began to massage his temples, his headache growing even bigger with every waking moment he was here.

"It's Cragen," He growled before he hesitantly pressed the answer button. "Yeah. Are you serious?" Elliot's face had turned a bright red and he seemed upset at whatever Cragen was telling him, but Olivia knew that it could be that they ran out of hotdogs at the stand outside and Elliot would flip out so she didn't exactly think it was a tragedy. "Isn't there anyone else-." She saw him roll his eyes and clench his jaw. "Okay, yes. No, I'm not complai-." Cragen must have cut him off once more. "I get that, but-. Yes. Yes, I will." Elliot sighed heavily and lay his head on the desk without so much as a qualm that he now looked like a hurt child. "Yes sir. Okay I'll tell her." The next moment, Elliot's iphone was flying across the room and shattering into about a thousand pieces as it his the rails on the stairs.

"Elliot, I uhm, don't think that was the smartest move ever." Olivia's voice was soothing and calm like it always was, even in situations when she saw her partner completely lose his head over something she knew nothing about. He knew it must have surprised her to see him smile weakly at her cute words.

"Thanks for the advice, Liv." Elliot reclined in his chair and lifted his feet up to rest on the desk, completely neglecting his paperwork and call from Cragen. Olivia knew that he recognized her intelligence. More so even when the "her" Elliot had been referring to in the phone call was obviously Olivia and he had so clearly overlooked telling her whatever it was.

"Elliot," her voice cut through the air and she was up from her seat with her hands on her hips, standing in front of him, "what did you have to tell me?"

"There's complaint in the Upper East Side of some guy flashing people."

"And?" Olivia was crossing her fingers and hoping to God that he wasn't about to say what she thought he was.

"We have to go arrest the fucker." Olivia groaned, something Elliot found incredibly sexy and erotic, but now wasn't the time for getting a boner, especially when they already had to collar some sick, creepy pedobear.

With an equally seductive groan, Elliot got up from his chair and swung his jacket onto himself, not wanting to fight the bitter cold outside. Olivia reached for her fluffy blue one, the one that she wore almost everyday because it reminded her of constantly being hugged, but before she could get it fully onto herself, Elliot was behind her, helping her ease her arms into it. He gently pulled her hair out of it like he saw her do everyday and placed his hand on her forearm guiding her towards the elevator before she got the chance to argue.

On the ride down, Olivia playfully smacked his hand that was still tightly gripping her arm.

"You know I can put my jacket on myself, right?" Elliot grinned and removed his hand, taking it as an interpretation that enough was enough with the flirty romance shit, but Olivia craved his touch the moment he was away from her. Even though Elliot was married and with kids, she could only have one of her fantasies of him leaving Kathy for her, not the kids. Of course she'd never expect him to do any of that, but she wished for some twisted, sick reason that Kathy was a bitch at home, so that maybe one day he'd realize that he was too good for her. But if it already wasn't obvious, she wasn't, and Olivia could only hope that Elliot was happy. Because he deserved that.

11:50

"Do you see him yet?" Olivia's voice rang out in the cramped, nicely heated car as she gazed out the window at the lines of shops lining the street that they were told to investigate.

"Nope." Elliot grumbled a few curses as he admitted his defeat. They had been circling the same four or five blocks for over an hour and their eyes were starting to water. It was obvious the guy was still out since there was still a reasonable amount of women carrying last minute shopping bags for kids or husbands. Besides this wasn't the first time something like this had happened, Olivia and Elliot usually just weren't the ones to collar the perps. Usually they stuck the rookies with it, but they both had assumed by then that they were all on vacation or Cragen just wanted to really, really annoy them. Elliot suspected the latter remembering clearly, Cragen's snarky voice on the phone.

After a few moments of uncomfortable and frustrated silence, Olivia decided to suggest something, anything to get her mind off of the papers they had to finish filling out when they got back and the distraction that would almost definitely plague her of his eyes.

"Maybe I should walk around or something." Elliot looked at her with a confused and slightly irritated look, as though she was just talking to annoy him. And that annoyed her. "An unsuspecting women would stand no chance against a flasher." With that Olivia took off her gun, placed it on the dashboard, and was out in the swirling flurries. She threw Elliot an angry glare as she walked across the street, shoving her hands into her pockets only hoping that the bastard would go for the bait and flash her.

December 24

12:13

Olivia had been walking for over twenty minutes and she was scared to admit to herself that her teeth were chattering and her toes had gone numb. Her hair was damp considering the fact that the snow had become impossibly heavy and she knew that boots were ruined as well. And she had spent a fortune on them. Olivia swore to herself that she was going to kill Cragen with her bare hands if she saw him any time in the next week. Anytime after that her anger might have worn down to only paralyzing him for life.

A noise behind her distracted her from her aggravating thoughts about her captain. It was the sound of footsteps matching in step with her own. Playing the innocent civilian, Olivia glanced behind her at a tall, lanky man in a long brown overcoat. She turned back around, pretending not to think anything of it. The chances that it was him were certainly higher since he was being shady and weird looking. Yes, there were a lot of people like that especially in the city that never slept, but the overcoat kinda gave him away.

"Hey baby." His voice was gravelly and rough and it gave Olivia the shivers. "Doing some last minute shopping eh?" Once more Olivia chose to ignore him, knowing that his anger would soon become unbearable and he would pounce, not in the literal sense of course. "Well, I don't see any bags, so I'll take that as a no." She kept on walking, hoping that this guys ego would burst soon because the thoughts of the files were back and she certainly wasn't in the mood to have to explain to Cragen why she had collared a man they had no proof committed the flashings. "I think you want some dick?"

Before she got the chance to puncture his deflating pride even more, by telling him to fuck off, she felt his hand clamp around her wrist and yank down forcefully. Her ass was instantly wet as she fell into the icy snow and was faced with one of the most unattractive penises she'd ever seen. God, something must have gone wrong in his conception.

"Do you wanna suck it, baby?" Olivia felt her heartbeat quicken. They'd gotten a report on flashing, not sexual assault. Besides Olivia was not in the mood to go through another Seal View happening again. Her reflexes quickly taking over, Olivia swung her leg up as hard and as fast as it would go, aiming for his manhood and succeeding. The man collapsed groaning and clutching at his crotch while Olivia quickly recovered her handcuffs from her back pocket and cuffed him with ease.

"Get your ass up." Elliot's voice was cutting and seemingly more irritable than it would normally have been. "Now." Olivia's teeth continued to chatter as she hoisted the man up. After several minutes of him complaining of police brutality and dragging his feet, Olivia saw Elliot snap.

"You little fuck." He grabbed the collar of his overcoat and pushed him back against a car that just so happened to be theirs. "You just assaulted my partner and flashed dozens of other women tonight. You're gonna be lucky if I let you come out alive after the shit you've been pulling." Elliot's grip tightened and bit his tongue in an attempt to control himself. He didn't want to be that asshole that got them both yet another pile of shit to shuffle through and desk duty for the next month. Cragen would be livid, but Elliot's mind was beginning to not care what Cragen thought at the moment.

"Elliot-" Olivia was cut off by more threats from him.

"And if I were you, I wouldn't even think of looking at Detective Benson tonight, got it?" Olivia was more than shocked when she saw the man's toothy grin and his watery eyes flickered to her then back to Elliot.

"Whoops."

The next moment there were limbs flying, bodies struggling, and the sound of fists hitting flesh. Before Elliot could completely knock out the defenseless asshole, Olivia jumped in front of Elliot's threatening muscles and the next moment her cheek was throbbing and tears of embarrassment filled her eyes.

"Damn it, Elliot!" Her hand flew up to where he had accidentally punched her. She saw hardened face become instantly soft and worried once more as it had been so many other times she had been hurt.

"Oh my god, Liv." Olivia rolled her eyes at him and he knew that she was angry, not necessarily that he had punched her, but that he had lost control like he did. There was no getting around Cragen's wrath tomorrow since perps weren't exactly the most quiet of people, especially when they were caught committing the act against an officer.

"Shut up," Olivia grumbled as she grabbed the perps cuffed hands and shoved him in the back seat of the car and glaring at him.

Elliot only wondered if he could ever make it up to her.

And he doubted he could.