A/N: The end of the date, if it even was one. And a new case, with that mysterious redhead, who gets a surprise of her own.

DISCLAIMER: Sadly, the characters are not mine. Dick Wolf owns SVU and its characters. TStabler©, me, owns the story: plot, narrative, idea, dialogue and the computer I wrote it on.

"I don't think I've ever seen you smile, or laugh, as much as you have in the last three hours," Elliot told Olivia, as he laughed himself.

Olivia chuckled as her eyes widened. "Three hours? It's four in the morning? Shit!"

Elliot laughed, again, never letting go of Olivia's hand. He leaned a bit closer to her on the couch, and nodded. "And I'm not the least bit tired."

"Me, either," Olivia admitted, finally calming her laughter. Elliot had her in stitches all night, telling jokes, and bringing up personal humiliations from their six-year partnership and friendship. "I had a great time tonight, El."

"Ditto, Liv," Elliot told her, discreetly scooting closer and wrapping his arm around her.

Olivia noticed. He wasn't as discreet as he thought. She looked up at him and their eyes locked. They both stopped breathing. Six years of waiting, she thought, and she would finally know. She smirked at him as she saw him inching closer, but she backed up a bit. "El," she whispered. "This is gonna change everything."

"Yeah," Elliot said, softly, nodding. "I think, after six fucking years, it's about damn time something changed. I'm ready, Liv. Now that I'm able, I'm ready. Whatever consequences we have to face from IAB, or Cragen, we'll handle. I mean, if you're…we're partners, Liv. You gotta back my play, here."

Olivia knew what he was asking. She closed her eyes briefly, opened them again and looked into his. "When have I ever not backed your play? I just don't wanna lose you, El."

"Liv, don't you get it?" Elliot asked, whispering, closing the gap between them so his lips were brushing against hers as he spoke. "I'm yours. You're mine. Losing each other, baby, will just never be possible." His phone rang, and he felt Olivia jump, pulling back from him. "Oh, no," he said, holding her in his arms. "I'm kissing you. I'm kissing you now. Whoever it is can kiss my ass."

Olivia's eyes widened, then fluttered shut, as his lips touched hers, tentatively at first. She tensed up when he swept his tongue along her lips, but as the kiss deepened, she relaxed, wrapping her arms around him. She kissed him back with everything she had. They were lost. Gone. So completely giving themselves to each other, holding, kissing, caressing, kissing, feeling, and yes, kissing. They were kissing. His lips were on hers, so soft, so warm, so perfect. His tongue was in her mouth, dancing with hers, massaging it, making her physically feel that he was dead serious about making the jump from partner and friend to lover.

Elliot was going to get carried away, he was going to take it too far, he knew it. He snaked his hand up her body, brushing the side of her breast, his thumb grazing her nipple making them both gasp, and moan, and he wanted to show her he loved her so desperately. Thank God his phone rang again. "Wow," he gasped, pulling away from her, breathlessly, reluctantly. "Holy…I mean…just…wow," he stammered, gazing into her warm chocolate eyes.

Olivia, her hands gently caressing his face, nodded. "Wow," she breathed. The only word she knew at the moment. She bit her bottom lip as Elliot reached for his phone.

"Don't move," he said, pointing warningly at her.

"Don't worry. Couldn't if I wanted to," Olivia said, smirking, now that she remembered she knew how to speak English.

"Stabler," he spat. "Sorry, I was sleeping, like you do at four in the morning. No, I'll call her. I can go get her, too. Yeah. Close. Got it, Cap. Bye."

Olivia made a tiny whimpering noise and Elliot chuckled. "Not fair," she scoffed. "Now? We have to go deal with a fucking rapist now," she grumbled. "Figures," she said, bitingly.

Elliot laughed again. "Yeah, it does, doesn't it? But," he said, pausing to look her in the eyes again, his feelings for her not hidden deep within his own anymore, "When we're done dealing with it, we can come home, together, and comfort the shit out of each other." He kissed her, tenderly. "No more lonely nights for you," he whispered, pecking her on the lips. "No more miserable nights wishing I was with you instead of that cold-hearted, soul-sucking, bitch for me," he said, placing another gentle but emotion-filled kiss on her mouth. He rose off of his couch, held out his hand, which she gladly took, and pulled her to her feet. He gave her one last kiss before stepping back into the night. It killed them that they had to pretend their universe hadn't just shifted a full foot to the left.

"What have we got?" Olivia asked, stepping under the crime scene tape Elliot was so chivalrously holding up for her.

"Guy called in a body-dump when he opened his restaurant," a uniformed officer said, leading them toward the scene. "He was lying in front of his patio, and the Chef was yelling about nobody wanting to eat Al Fresco with a rotting corpse beneath their feet. We got here, called the medical examiner, she saw the state the body was in and called you guys."

Elliot furrowed his brow. "Why us, exactly?"

"It's fitting they dropped the guy in front of an Italian joint," the stout cop said, smugly. "He's missing his sausage," he snorted.

Olivia simply dropped her eyes, sighed, and shook her head. "If I had a dollar for every time this happened…"

"Who the hell is that?" Elliot said, interrupting her musing about hypothetical millions.

Olivia looked up and followed his gaze. Her mouth dropped open and she made a choking sound. "Hide me," she said, trying to pull Elliot in front of her.

"What? Liv," Elliot said, confused, "What's going on?"

"Olivia," the woman cheerfully called, walking over, "Or do I have to call you 'Detective Benson'?"

Olivia smiled sheepishly at the woman as she peeked out from behind Elliot. "Hey, Casey," she said, sounding somewhat annoyed. She glanced up and saw the amused expression on Elliot's face. "Detective Benson, while we're working, if you don't mind. This is my partner, Detective Elliot Stabler. El, this is the new A.D.A, Casey Novak." She tensed her lips and widened her eyes a little as she said it, trying to make him understand something.

"It's nice to meet…oh," Elliot paused, a realization sinking in. "Oh!" he yelled, his eyes wide. He looked from Olivia to Casey, then back to Olivia. "Right, Casey Novak." He looked back to Casey and said, "Yeah, I've, uh, heard about you. I hope you can handle Special Victims. It's not for the weak of heart, ya know."

"Oh," Casey said, smirking, "Trust me. I'm absolutely following my heart by being here. What have we got?"

Olivia suppressed a snicker and the urge to roll her eyes. "Well, a sexual assault, murder, probably an act of rage or…"

"No, I mean, what exactly have we got?" Casey asked, raising her eyebrow.

Elliot, smirking, said, "Male vic. Someone chopped his dick off. Whether he was alive when it happened or not, we don't know yet. If he was alive, that means when we get over there, there's gonna be a lot of blood. He's gonna be purple, bruising does that, and the guy's face is gonna be…"

"Okay," Casey interrupted, suddenly turning pale, "Maybe I shouldn't be involved from beginning to end. You just, uh, find me when we have a suspect."

Olivia nodded and gave her a small smile. "That's why you're the lawyer, and we're the detectives. We'll handle this, Casey."

Casey looked at Olivia, smiling sincerely but weakly, and nodded. "I'm just, uh, I'm gonna go." She walked away, shaking her head.

"Wow," Elliot said, chuckling. "That's the lawyer who hit on you at that seminar?"

Olivia nodded and sighed. "Yeah," she said.

"So, remind me," Elliot said, raising an eyebrow at Olivia, pulling a latex glove on. "How, exactly, did she hit on you?"

Olivia laughed. "I told you this story, El," she said, tugging a glove of her own on and heading toward the body.

Elliot smirked at her. "I wanna hear it again," he said, kneeling over the bruised, bloody, puffy man, pulling on Olivia's pant leg to get her down to his level.

Olivia rolled her eyes and kneeled beside him. "When she found out I was an SVU detective in Manhattan, she hung onto every word of my speech like it was the fucking Gospel. Then, she found me during dinner, sat down, uninvited mind you, and started telling me how excited she was to transfer into the division, pick up where Alex left off, seek justice for those who truly deserved it. At first I thought it was cool to have an A.D.A. who was passionate about what we do, so I had a conversation with her. But then she tried to kiss me."

"Ah," Elliot said, chuckling. "That's the part I wanna hear."

Olivia smacked him in shoulder. "Tried to! El, I almost pulled my gun on the woman. I backed up a solid five feet and said the first thing I could think of."

"Which was…" Elliot said, drifting off and upwards, rolling his eyes. He knew what she said.

"I'm married," Olivia said, narrowing her eyes at him.

"And now she works with you. Liv, you're not married. She's gonna find out, sooner or later. What do you think she's gonna do when…"

Olivia gasped, cutting him off. "Oh, fuck me," she spat, covering her mouth with her hand as her eyes widened.

"Well, she'll try, but I'll fucking kill her," Elliot joked. "What are you gonna do, Liv?"

Olivia shook her head. "Keep her out of my personal life, I guess. Never talk about it, if she asks I'll tell her my ring is getting sized or engraved, make her think that…why are you looking at me like that?"

"If you ever need to introduce her to your husband," Elliot said, leaning over and whispering to her, "I think I know the perfect guy who'd be willing to play along."

"Yeah," Olivia said, rolling her eyes, "Because making the A.D.A. think that we're married wouldn't cause trouble for us at all," she said sarcastically.

Elliot chuckled. "Fine, deal with the lesbian who wants to shag you nine ways from Sunday knowing you're single."

"El, there is only one person who has any hope of shagging me in any way on any day of the week," Olivia whispered to him, seductively.

Elliot smirked at her and cleared his throat, then turned his attention to their vic. "Well, Liv, it's certainly not this guy, right?"

Casey, still queasy from her attempt at seeing a crime through from investigation to sentencing, headed to her new place to start unpacking. She was through half a bottle of wine and three boxes of her clothes when she heard footsteps. Her breath caught in her throat, and her face lit up as she heard the footsteps stop right outside her door. "Olivia," she whispered. She got up off of her floor and ran to her door, looking out of the peephole to watch the girl across the hall. The girl who'd stolen her heart. And, it seems, broken it.

She watched Olivia smile as Elliot turned the key and opened the door. Why was he going into her apartment? She gasped when she watched Elliot press his lips to Olivia's, the way she had longed to do. And she was near tears when she heard him speak.

"Ya know, Liv, Cragen only gave us an hour. We both need to shower, change, we need coffee. We could save a lot of time if," he paused to pull her into his arms, kiss her, and brush his hands over her head, down her back, and cup her ass. "We showered together."

Olivia bit her bottom lip and chuckled as she shook her head. "You're the most impatient man I've ever met."

"Baby, I'm not making love to you in the shower," he laughed, kissing her, still in the doorway, still as Casey watched from her peephole. "As least, not right now. We don't have enough time. That'll take a lot longer than a fucking hour." He kissed Olivia again, pushing her into her apartment, kicking the door behind them.

Casey turned away from her door slowly, reaching for her wine glass. If she ever needed a drink in her life, it was now. "She married her partner?" she asked herself. Then she gasped. She smirked. She chuckled. "They're having an affair," she said. "She's gonna get caught. She's gonna lose both of them. She's gonna break. And I'm gonna be right here to fix her."

A/N: Will living across from Olivia and Elliot, and working with them, convince Casey they're married? Or that they're having an affair? What will Casey do about it? And, yes, someone else moves in to the building, but he is certainly not a friend. Not an enemy either. Confused? Review and I'll clear it all up!