A/N: Chapter 2, in record time... feel free to shower me with adoration but please, no flowers, and do not throw money. The coins hurt. But seriously, read it, review it, and thanks for all the feedback I got from the first one - it encouraged me to keep on going to get this one done faster!

It was almost midnight by the time they finally arrived outside Olivia's apartment building. She'd been completely silent for the whole trip, staring out of the window. Outside her apartment block, he had to spend almost ten minutes trying to coax her out of the car, and then, once they had actually gotten up the steps into her building, she refused to go into the elevator. And no, she didn't want to talk about it. Elliot knew better than to try to push her, so just focused on getting her up the stairs in one piece.

'Liv, it's OK.' He guided her carefully into her apartment and closed the door behind them. 'Do you want to go to bed?'

Olivia shook her head silently and went and hunched over on the sofa, hands clenched around her knees, staring straight ahead. Elliot sighed and went to sit beside her, putting one arm around her shoulders. 'Liv, I know, I know this is awful, but you know I-'

'Elliot... I was standing there and all I could think was that there's no one to care,' said Olivia quietly. 'I could see you guys all packing up my apartment and giving all my stuff to Goodwill or whatever, because...' she sniffed, 'because I've got no one to take it. No family, or kids.'

She paused and bit her lip. 'Not that it matters much anyway, losing all this stuff, because it's not exactly a home, is it? I ordered it all out of catalogues and just shoved it wherever in the room it would fit. If I needed a couch, I bought one, and if I needed a lamp, then I'd get one as soon as I got around to it. There's no sentiment to it. It's just... stuff. It doesn't feel like mine.' Tears began to run down her face again. 'I could live with that, but... Elliot, I don't want to die knowing that nobody loves me.'

'Liv...' Elliot pulled her towards him and hugged her tightly. 'Lots of people love you, and what happened today, well, it wasn't great but you're OK, you're fine!' Olivia sniffed again, wrapped her arms around his back, closed her eyes and pressed her left cheek against the front of his sweatshirt. He smiled and stroked her hair. 'You're fine, Liv, you're just not one of these people who needs to have a lot of stuff. There's nothing wrong with that, and there's nothing wrong with waiting a while to have kids. Just because you don't have a family now doesn't mean you never will. And even if you don't ever have the traditional family, you still have Alex, and you still have me. I promise I'm not going anywhere.'

Olivia opened one eye and peered up at him. 'I thought you were supposed to be trying to make me feel better.'

He laughed and kissed the top of her head. 'That's the Olivia I know.' He felt her smile as she rested her face against his chest again. She sat there breathing in the comfortingly familiar smell of his sweatshirt as he stroked her hair, and then felt his index finger under her chin, tilting her face up towards him.

She blinked. 'El?'

He leaned in slowly and kissed her, slipping both hands down to her waist. Olivia's brain seized up. What the hell? This was... this... this was Elliot. It was Elliot. They didn't do this. SHE DIDN'T DO THIS WITH ELLIOT. THIS WAS NOT GOOD.

'Elliot, what the fuck!' Olivia sat upright and pushed him away from her, wiping her mouth with the back of her sleeve.

He just looked at her. 'Liv, I'm sorry-'

'You figured that I'd just forget about today?' Why had she let herself get so upset? She should be angry, it was all his fault, he'd been the one who'd wanted to go to that damned apartment in the first place looking for Moore, he was always so goddamned pigheaded! 'You figured I'd just forget that you told some psycho to shoot me less than four hours ago?'

'I didn't want to, you know I didn't want to, but I didn't have any other choice...' Elliot trailed off. He wasn't sure what else he could say.

'Didn't you?' She was sure that she could think of a few.

Elliot looked her straight in the eye. 'It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, Olivia, and you know it.'

She snorted. 'Clearly it wasn't hard enough.'

'Oh come on, Olivia, what else would you have wanted me to do? I know you. You would have wanted me to save the girl.' Wouldn't she?

'Yes,' she snapped, 'but...' You should have wanted to save me. I know you had to protect her but you should have needed to save me more. Why do you always pick every other girl over me? I need you too, sometimes maybe even more than they do. She immediately felt guilty. Was it bad to think that? Probably. She sighed. 'Elliot... that's not the point.'

'Liv, I...' He figured that now was not the best time to mention how unreasonable he thought she was being. 'I just-'

Olivia cut him off. 'Look, just shut up, Elliot, we both know that you don't really give a fuck, and nothing you can say right now is going to get you out of this.'

That was enough. 'Olivia, if you think I don't care, then why the hell did I come back to your apartment with you tonight? I could have left you outside, hell, I could have asked some uniform to take you home, but I-'

'You what? You thought I'd be easy right now so you might as well give it a shot?' Her eyes narrowed. 'You son of a bitch.'

Now he just looked shocked. 'Jesus, Liv, no-'

She slapped him. 'Fuck you, Elliot. You don't get to fuck around trying it on with me just because Kathy decided she doesn't want you right now.' She stood up and brushed herself off. 'I'm going out. You'd better be gone by the time I get back.' She grabbed her bag and slammed out of the apartment before Elliot could even get up.

A/N: Thanks again for all the feedback last time, I adore each and every one of you!