A/N: I'm sorry this is so late. I thank you guys so much for reading. This is full of mess-ups, and I'm actually looking for a beta to even out my dyslexia, so anyone interested, hit me up! Also, go check out Lyricara. She's FAMOUS for writing Atlantis, the best SVU fic of all time, and she's just returned. Thank you for sticking with me!

"You want a club soda or anything, Cap?" Olivia points to the bar, as she unintentionally meets him in the middle of the floor.

"Yeah, I appreciate that." Cragen tries to catch her eyes. "You okay?" He inquires and shifts his position, uncomfortable. She knows what his silent question is. She relaxes her stance a little, and sees him exhale a little bit in response. It's a silent exchange, and he knows she's not going to be miserable tonight.

"I'm good." She nods. He nods back, and heads to the table. She knows that's all he's going to say about it. He's never probed her, because he knows that she can handle whatever she has going on inside her head.

Olivia moves forward and curses internally for wearing the heels from hell she'd decided to put on, and she makes her way closer to the bar, and she exhales when she sees that they have her beer.

"What can I get you?" The male behind the counter asks her.

"Ah, a club soda and a Corona, please." She smiles and he turns to get her drinks. She moves her eyes around the room, and sees a few people she recognizes. Elliot's former partner, Jo, walks in with her husband. Other ones, she can't name. She doesn't try. Her bartender has said something to her and she didn't hear.

"I'm sorry?" She turns back to him and apologizes.

"Tap or bottle?" He repeats.

"Bottle." She responds, and raises her eyebrow. He turns around to go to the 15 foot cooler behind him to grab her beer. The young guy is familiar. She can't decide where she's seen him before, and she assumes it wasn't under good circumstances, considering that she only sees people during her work hours.

"Still on the job?" He asks off-handedly. So he recognized her, then.

"Fifteen years and counting." She smiles. He turns around and puts the drinks in front of her. "Thank you." She nods once and picks the drinks up.

"Can I help you?" The bartender says to a man who walks up to the counter as Olivia leaves. She heads back toward her table and balances the open beer and soda unsteadily. Her dress fits a little bit more loosely. She realizes she doesn't feel constricted inside of it. Air moves freely through her lungs.

She doesn't think about him. Just knows he's here, and it's enough. Tonight, she will know he's still okay. She might reminisce to herself. She might even talk with him once everything starts dying down. She'll maybe even have a beer with him once she's had a good enough amount of beer to convince her that it's even remotely a good idea. She feels comfortable. She remembers that he's somewhere here, and her feet don't hurt, and neither does her head.

She doesn't think about tomorrow.

"John," Olivia bumps his shoulder with her elbow as she comes to her table. "Did you recognize that kid bartending?" She asks him, and she hands Cragen his soda, and she takes a sip of her beer, and sits back down in her seat.

"Yeah. Don't know who he is though. We might have questioned him before. Thanks for the drink, by the way." He jibes. Olivia chuckles, and shrugs. She takes another drink of her beer and sets it down in front of her.

"I only have two hands, Munch. I'm sure if you try hard enough, you could have a wife by the end of tonight to grab you a beer." Olivia nudges him and nods toward a woman a few years older than her.

"The chances of that are the chances of you getting married before I retire." He returns the dig and they laugh. Munch looks around, and stands up with his empty glass. "They should be done with pictures soon. It's 9:30." He sighed. "What possessed this girl to get 'married under the stars'" he quotes the wedding invitation "is beyond me. You need a lime?" John asks Olivia as she makes a face when she swallows her beer again.

"Yeah, thanks." She laughs and presses her beer against her cheek.

"Where's Fin?" Don asks both of them.

"On a case. He took Rollins with him." Olivia answered, and Munch turned to go get another drink. "Harroner case. Apparently, Wilson now has a property owned under his name. It's a storage space, but it's something. He's been under our radar for, what, six months? He must've thought by now that we weren't on him." She puts her hand out and back in her lap.

"Who found this out?" He raises his eyebrows.

"I think Fin did. He keeps tabs on this case, runs Wilson's credit, checks to see if he's in CODIS. It's still open, and he's persistent." She lolls her head side to side and picks at the label on her bottle. "He bailed last minute. Once Kathleen gets here, and I get a chance to congratulate her, I think I'll let Rollins off and take over for her."

"Well, he doesn't have a search warrant, so he better not do anything stupid." He shakes his head. "They both should've taken tonight off. You're to go home. Take tomorrow. It's been a while. If they're not back by ten, pull them." He instructs Olivia. She nods in agreement, and crosses her legs.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" A female voice shoots out of a speaker. "Can we give a welcome to the best damn couple here tonight?" She yells. Everyone in the room cheers and they all stand up. She realizes how the room has filled. There are a lot of people. She wouldn't be able to find… Olivia panics for a second before she sees Kathy. If Kathy is there then, he's near. Calm down. What is your problem? She scolds herself. Olivia shakes her head. She spots Elliot in the front, grabbing the mic. Her throat loosens, and she breathes. She knows that her not seeing him for a split second, and then having this reaction, is not a good thing by any means. But she shakes her head again, and pushes that thought aside, because it doesn't matter. He's here. He's still here.

"Katie and J.J Levi!" Elliot, Kathy, and a woman beside him yell at the same time, he assumes the groom's mother. His voice washes her from head to toe. All the aches in her joints flow out of her body, and a smile effortlessly and accidentally crawls onto her face. Her stomach rolls inside of her, and she feels him protecting her for twelve years. Tonight, they would talk. It would be like nothing had happened. Just once. For tonight, they're partners. He's protecting her. She's nowhere near him, but she feels safe. Olivia and her captain stand up and everyone bursts into applause and hoots and whistles as Kathleen and her husband run into the crowd of people, holding their intertwined hands high in the air.

Olivia tosses her head back a little and laughs at her boss with Munch. She likes these moments. The rare moments when she'd listened to Munch or Cragen's stories from their time before SVU. Their rookie days. Everyone has embarrassing rookie stories. She smiles, knowing that some of hers are less than attractive. She's a little loosened up from the scotch and 3 beers she's had. Dinner was good. Salad. Fish. Soup. Crème Brule. She can't remember what kind of fish it was, but it was definitely Catholic cuisine, and it was good. Kathleen had thanked her during her speech, briefly, with little detail, but enough, along with the other fifty people in her speech, but Olivia smiled and waved at her, and walked over to Kathleen a few minutes later after she'd walked away from her place at the wedding party's table. Olivia smiled to herself and replayed Kathleen's comment in her head.

"…Olivia Benson for getting through my hard head years ago when no one else could and helping me kick off a new start."

"Congratulations, Kathleen." Olivia had hugged her back when Kathleen enthusiastically embraced her.

"I'm really glad you're here, Liv." Kathleen smiled and held on to her for a second, and pulled back. "Before the night is over, you're gonna dance with me." She smiled and nodded with her eyes wide, trying to encourage Olivia into the idea, as if she had a choice.

"Oh, I don't know about th—"

"I'll get her to, baby." Elliot called from a few feet away. "Give it a few beers." He laughed and went back to talking to the guy in front of him Olivia didn't recognize. She'd shot him a look and shook her head, but he didn't see.

"We'll see." She laughed and patted Kathleen's back with the hand she still had placed there.

"I gotta go to the bathroom like you wouldn't believe. I'll see you later, Liv!" Kathleen smiled and called as she'd walked away, her bridesmaid jogging over to her to probably help her maneuver her dress in the restroom.

She'd talked to Kathy about forty minutes after that. Kathy had spotted her from a few feet away, and Olivia heard her name being called. She had walked over with a man on her side that she did not recognize.

"Matt, this is Olivia Benson. She's Elliot's old partner." Kathy introduced her without a greeting. Liv felt a little more than awkward, as he took her hand and shook it.

"I've heard a lot about you from this woman over the last couple years." He smiled warmly and released her hand. "Eli's savior, huh?" He commented.

"Ah, so that's what she's been telling you?" Olivia chuckled and put her hand on Kathy's arm. "How are you, Kathy?" She smiled and tried to look as comfortable as possible.

"Pretty good. You look good, Olivia. Still with the unit?" Kathy'd asked. Olivia had been totally thrown off by her demeanor until she smelled the wine on her.

"Fifteen years and counting." She'd repeated what she told the bartender earlier. "You look good. How's Eli?"

"He's great. He's started kindergarten a week ago, can you believe it?" She sighed and laughed. "I got one married and one just starting school." She shook her head and a woman called her name from behind her, and Kathy turned and gave her an enthusiastic hello.

"It was good to see you." Kathy smiled and waved her hand up once, in goodbye. She'd walked forward and Matt had put his arm around Kathy's waist and walked away with her, and the air rushed out of Olivia.

"You too!" She called after her, a little too quietly, and she wasn't sure she was heard.

It doesn't matter, Olivia. Their marriage had been rocky all the years you'd known them. Why should this be surprising? She'd spoken to herself internally.

"I don't want to see you tomorrow, Benson. You come in, and you're getting sent right back out." Cragen directed her as he stood up to leave. It was 11:30 by this point. "Either you need a ride?" He offered, knowing she's had four beers. She hadn't drank in about an hour, and she felt fine. A little tired, but fine. Olivia smiles and nudges John with her shoulder.

"He's trying to parent us, Munch." She teases lightheartedly. John chuckled.

Cragen rolls his eyes, and pointed at both of them. "If I see you tomorrow, I'll have you arrested. Take a cab, Olivia."

She nodded and walked to where she'd taken residence for most of the night. "I'm actually gonna get going too, in a mi-" Olivia reached down to pick up her purse from her chair, but her purse was grabbed by someone else to her left, and she looked up.

"She's gonna have a beer with me first, and then I'll take her keys and put her in a cab, Cap." His voice spoke from behind her. She hadn't felt him approach, and it sent a slight panic through her that she didn't realize he'd been standing behind her.

"All right. Thanks for the invite, Stabler. Better see your ass around more than just at weddings." Cragen half smiled and turned to walk out.

"You can come to my next one." Elliot called after him. "Or Munch's." He hollered his direction, and laughed. Munch nudged Elliot with his shoulder and laughed.

"Or his next divorce party, maybe we'll actually get invited." John challenged loudly for Cragen to hear it as well.

Don laughed and looked over his shoulder. "Everyone get home safe." He returned the holler, and pointed back at the three of them, and he walked out the door.

"Well, old friend, I'm gonna head out, myself." Olivia heard Munch say, and she heard a slight noise, that she assumed was them shaking hands.

"Hey, it was good to see you, John." Elliot's accent was so much more defined than she remembered. Munch said something back, but she didn't hear the words he said. She still listened to Elliot's voice, and she played it back in her head. It sounds like he's never been in Manhattan a day in his life, and she tried to swallow, but her throat closed a little too tightly. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she turned her head and smiled at John.

"Hey, drive safe." She patted his back with her hand, and he put his arm around the middle of her back for a moment.

"You got it, kid. Call me if you need a ride." He offered and stepped out.

"Congrats, Stabler. See you around." He waved his hand once and turned, and went to make his way through the crowd, out of the room. She kept her eyes on his back until he left the reception, and she felt the misplacement, and the awkward set into her skin. She leaned forward again and pulled up her purse strap from the table, where she hadn't realized Elliot had set it, and put it on her shoulder.

She heard Elliot turn and thank someone behind him, and she realized. She's been here for three and a half hours and was so reassured by the fact he was here, that they barely spoke. She didn't feel the need to speak. It was like nothing of the last two years had happened. She just had a good time with her colleagues. She had a few beers, and they swapped stories, and she hadn't acted like that in years. She felt a growing irritation, because she felt too loose. She turned around and waited for him to turn around again and face her. Her mind raced. She tried to form words inside her head, but it was static, and flying too quickly, and she couldn't grip herself. Beyond her inability to form a coherent sentence, she realized that she also couldn't conjure up the strength to say goodbye. She couldn't find the strength to admit that having him in the same vicinity gave her the first pain-free day she's had in years. Nothing in her body hurt, even slightly. She didn't want to ask him what he is doing now. She refuses to believe that he and Kathy didn't make it work for their kids. She knows that they could've tried harder. She wants to yell at him, and ask him why he let go of everything. Why he left everything. She wants to make him understand that he's - she feels the familiar ache in her neck return, and she watches him. He nods and puts his hand on this man's shoulder and pats him, and she again, reminds herself to shut up. She feels the balls of her feet shouting at her to take these damn shoes off, and instantaneously decides she can't tell him goodbye.

He had never told her goodbye. And that realization threatens hits her like a ton of bricks, and she shuts herself up as tightly as she ever has before she feels it, and she turned on her heels, and walked forward.

She smiled to Kathy and Maureen as they looked up at her. She breezed past them talking to Elliot's mother, who has her back to Olivia. She waves a goodbye to them, and mouthed a congratulation. They both wave back and return immediately to their conversation. She turns her eyes back toward the edge of the room before she has to make any goodbye contact with anyone else, and sees the door a few paces in front of her, and she inhales, because she feels how tight her chest is becoming.

She doesn't want to feel this again. She liked - Shut up, Olivia. Keep walking. These shoes are hell. She rambles to herself again. And she passes through the door, out onto the walkway. She felt her throat tighten, and her eyes had a dry sting. Tomorrow, I'm going to take down the old shelves, and put up those new ones that have been sitting in the living room for two weeks. She distracts herself, and listens to the rhythm of her steps as she walks slightly downhill. They aren't exactly the right color. She recalls. She exhales for the slight distraction that is working momentarily. I have that paint in the closet that would work with the color of the walls. I just want to say goodbye to – Shut up. I could pick up different curtains tomorrow. I can't remember the last time I got new curtains. 2001? It was right after 9/11. Yeah. Mom had bought me them after she realized I wasn't dead under a tower or –

"God damn it, I said 'Stop!'" She feels a hand wrap around her upper arm, and she stumbles sideways on her too-high shoes.

"Damn it." She hissed and she waved her left arm to try to pull herself upright, but he adjusted his position, and his other arm reaches out and steadied her in half a second. In the process, she turned more to him, and gone completely numb, physically.

Irish Spring. Two years later, and it's still Irish Spring.

She felt her hand squeezing something, and she couldn't see it. It felt like cloth. Cloth in her hand.

His jacket.

She was holding on to him. Heartache slid into her chest and she knew she was holding on to him. Felling returned to her in the form of a tsunami. She felt his warmth through the cloth, and realized the air was bitterly cold everywhere. It was so cold outside, and she forgot to bring a coat. She didn't think to. She remembers that she doesn't think anymore, and she needs to remember to more often. She was freezing, except for her upper right arm, and her back. She's been so cold. She's never been this cold.

And something else slid up her legs, and her hips. A flowing heat that was just like the one she felt when he'd looked at her, when she first saw him again. It crawled up her stomach and thawed her inside. It slid up inside her ribcage, through her breasts, and in her neck, through her hair, and under her skin. It took away the numbness, the sting, the pins-and-needles. He was holding her up, she knew. It has only been about two seconds since his hand grabbed her arm. Her reaction to his was so fast, she held her breath and braced against it.

Her fingers tightened. Again, her pain was she was aware of Elliot.

He was aware of her.

His hand loosened around her arm, and she looked like she was bracing herself. Her eyes were closed and she clutched the side of his suit jacket, and his body woke up. They were both in an upright position and he saw inside her closed eyes and knew she had no idea what she was doing. She braced herself against her back, and she was so tense. He felt the muscles in her back against his arm, she was so tightened. Her nose was reddening from the chill, and Elliot wanted to hold her, and thaw her. God she's beautiful. She's in hell inside her head, and she's still beautiful. He pressed his lips together and exhaled through his nose. Her eyebrows were lowered and she had them pinched like she was fighting a headache with her mind, or trying to concentrate so hard that she'd disappear. Vanish. For an irrational second, he believed she could. His hand completely dropped from her arm, and when that happened, hers tightened, and she leaned forward slightly. So slightly, he knew it was involuntary. His arm stayed wrapped around her back. He felt her weight get a little heavier, and he absorbed it easily. He knew she didn't know she was falling. Even a little. She was falling in so many ways. He adjusted it so his fingers could fingers could reach the curve on the left dip of her waist, and he tried to clear his throat. He couldn't. He parted his lips and exhaled. Her hair blew back a little, and her lips pushed together and momentarily pulled inward. Olivia slightly shook her head.

She unclenched her muscles and he felt why she had been in the first place. As soon as she let go, a faint vibration covered her entire body, and she was shaking. He wouldn't know it if his hand wasn't on her, but he felt it. He felt her. Her body was six inches from his at most, and neither of them moved. He felt how soft she was. He remembered how she felt. He burned this into his mind so he wouldn't forget. Because she'd never forgive him for this. He just easily racked up one debt to another that he has to her.

Her eyes blinked steadily. Other than feeling her tremble, her body language was completely blank. He couldn't see the color in her eyes, because she kept them down, and her eyelashes fanned her cheeks. He wants to melt her. He wants to warm everything and side of her, and take her makeup off, and give her back shoes that don't kill her, and he hates everything about himself in this moment because he has no right. Her dress covered her, but her arms and legs were left bare. The band just underneath her chest made the dress flow over her hips. Her hips are as incredible as the last 15 seconds that he's had his hands on her. His hands on her.

He thinks about pushing her body toward him, and feeling her legs touch his suit pants, and her breasts push into his chest. He wants to feel her heartbeat against him. Proof of life. The best proof he knows exists. He thinks about dropping his hands to her waist, and roaming them up her back, and winding his arms around her bare shoulders and warming her from the inside out.

He wants to tell her why he left.

He thinks about apologizing, and burying his face against the side of her head, when her breath exhales against his neck. He wants to put his hand on her bare skin, and warm her. He thinks about it. About putting his lips against her hair and apologizing so many times that the words stop sounding like words and he slurs them, and tries to remember how to properly say them.

He wants to pick her up, and wrap her around him, and take those damn shoes off of her.

He cleared his throat, and her eyes shot open, but stayed angled down. Her teeth audibly grind together, and the sound gives him goosebumps.

"You're a selfish sonofabitch with a lot of nerve." Olivia spoke evenly before he could talk. Her voice doesn't shake, or crack. She doesn't need to clear her throat. Her hand dropped from his jacket, and by automatic response, his arm left her body.

"I know." He agreed and he shoved his hands into his pockets. He cleared his throat again. His wrists ached, and he wanted to take that stupid necklace off of her neck and rub away the red marks, the indents from the weight of it that he knows are there. He wanted to choke against his urge to touch her.

Her eyes met his and she glared. He felt like the wind was knocking the hell out of him. He wants to talk to her and whisper everything he wants to say into her hair, and he wants to break the glass she has protecting herself. He can see through her. He wants to break her, and take care of the fragile her tonight, right now. He wants to promise her so many things. He wants to take those stupid shoes off of her. She backed away from him, and turned forward again.

"We're not gonna do this, Elliot. Go back to your daughter's reception and don't be selfish." She sounded like she was patronizing him. She started to walk forward again, and he didn't follow her. He watched her move, and watched the way she rubbed her left temple when she thought she was out of sight from him, but she wasn't.

He watched her vanish, and he bit back a smile.

Because he has her keys.

1:02 AM

Olivia slid backward and clapped with Kathleen, who had rounded up anyone she could to dance. Fin, Kathy, J.J., Elizabeth, Maureen, two of Katie's bridesmaids and Amanda Rollins, whom he'd met an hour ago, tapped their feet on the ground in unison. A lot of the reception had gone home, and the people who were still here were mingling around. He takes another drink of his beer, and chuckles when Elizabeth's left hand smacks into Olivia's right hand, because she's doing the electric slide wrong. Olivia smiles and points the right direction for her hand to go.

Kathleen had pulled her the braids around her head out, and let her hair down. She'd put it up in a ponytail and ditched her shoes. The bride appearance wasn't the most important thing to Kathleen by a long shot. Second to her husband, it was being comfortable and having fun. He smiled when Kathy looks his direction, and she laughs and they all turn to the left. Kath did the same thing at their wedding. She danced and took her hair down, and kicked off the heels she hated. He'd danced with her tonight.

"You look great, Kath." He nodded as he moved back and forth with her. Her hand slid up his shoulder, and he'd felt her smile against him. He didn't want to hold her. He didn't want her back. He just felt okay. After 25 years of marriage and watching their daughter's wedding, it felt okay and it didn't feel forced. They weren't forcing anything anymore.

"Thanks." And she chuckled as his hand slid slightly lower on her back. He didn't understand her laugh, and she said, "My husband is to our left with his eyes shut. He looks like he's gonna break the beer bottle." She inhaled her laughter and shook her head.

"That's the first time I've heard you call him that." He comments and sways closer to the left, to get a reaction out of her.

"Took a minute to adjust to. It's only been two months, El." Kathy notified him, and she laughed. "I'm happy with him. Eli calls him Buddy. I'm trying to get him to stop punching Matt." She shakes her head and smiles. "He's definitely a Stabler."

"I'm glad you're happy, Kath. He's a good guy." He commented as he spins them a little. They move back in forth in a comfortable silence, and he feels nostalgic. He doesn't want her back. He doesn't try to think or pinpoint why he feels homesick. He just dances with the mother of his children and remembers 25 years in a few minutes. She pulls her arms down around his waist and hugs him.

"We made a good team." She spoke quietly and knows that half the room has their eyes on them. She looks up at him and the song ends. "Thanks for all the good years." She smiled and he hugged her back for a second.

"Thanks for being the tougher one out of the two of us." He chuckles and lets her go. She'd pat his chest and walk to her husband after that, and Elliot noticed Fin Tutuola and a blonde woman he immediately made as a cop by the way she looked around. She seemed familiar, but he couldn't decide from what.

"Tutuola, you sonofabitch." Elliot called toward Fin's direction. They both grinned widely, and the woman walked forward beside him, and he knew this was the cop who was shot a few months ago by a sniper taking out police.

"Stabler." Fin laughed and their hands smacked together in a masculine manner and smiled. "How the hell are you?"

"Pretty good, man." Elliot nodded then turned toward Amanda. "How's the shoulder?" He'd asked Amanda. "You were in every paper, detective." He commented as he took her hand. She smiled warmly and shook his hand back.

"I'm his partner. Amanda Rollins." She smiled and nodded. "It's gettin' there." She slightly twanged.

Elliot nodded and pointed to his own left shoulder where he's been shot twice. "It gets better." He smiled to encourage her. She had to be 30, maybe 33.

"Man, you might wanna go find a place to lay low. Benson's mad as hell." Fin chuckled and warned him. "She wants her keys, and she says you got 'em. Sent me to get 'em for her." Elliot laughed, and Amanda's eyes widened.

"She'll come get 'em when she gets cold enough." He chuckled and pointed to the bar. "Grab a drink and sit. You guys are workin' too damn late."

"It's your neck, Stabler." Tutuola shrugged. "Man this had'ta been expensive. Congrats though. Won't be too long 'til you're Grandpa Stabler." Fin jokingly punched Elliot's arm, and he and Amanda walked to the bar.

They all clapped when the song was over, and Olivia laughed at something Kathleen said when she'd pointed to J.J. Her shoes were off and beside her purse at Table 8, with Rollins' stuff beside it.

After twenty minutes and not seeing her, he assumed she was freezing or she wasn't there anymore. He told Maureen he'd be right back, and she waved her hand and went back to talking to her new brother-in-law. Elliot rolled his eyes and walked out of the room reception. He knew how stubborn she was.

She was leaning against her car, wrapped around herself at the waist and she rubbed her upper arms with her hands. Her cell phone was in her left hand.

"Who's comin' to get you?" He called from about twenty feet away. She didn't even flinch. The wind lifted her hair and she ignored him for a minute.

"My partner." She spoke nonchalantly and shrugged. She said this to try to burn him a little. To make him back up, and go back to wherever he'd come from.

"Yeah? You call him?" He asked as he walked closer to her.

"Texted."

"He text back?" A smile teased the corners of his mouth, and he knew that her partner was probably asleep. She didn't respond right away, and he cleaned against her car beside her.

"He will." She nodded. He sighed and handed dug out the keys to her car. He made sure that his hand didn't touch hers. It wouldn't help a damn thing. He dropped them into her waiting fingers and half-smiled. She took them and sighed, but didn't say anything or move. He wanted to tell her to stay. She said she'd dance with Kathleen, and she didn't. He knew. He knew that after tonight, she would make sure that she didn't see him again. He wanted to tell her why he left.

Olivia picked her purse up from the hood of her car, and turned to him. He didn't want to see this. He stared forward. He felt his homesickness find definition.

"I need a cup of coffee before I go." She admitted and stared straight ahead. He smiled, and his chest relaxed. She shot him a glance and raised her eyebrows. "You could get it and bring it back here." She suggested and she reached around her neck, and pulled her necklace back so it looked like it was going to choke her. Then he understood she was trying to take it off.

"3 packs of Domino sugar, the blue packet ones, the tiniest amount of cream I can manage, and let you stir it?" He suggested, reciting her coffee routine from years ago. Her necklace plopped in her hand, and she dropped it into her purse.

"You would remember how you made it." She chuckled. "I never could figure out how. I tried different brands of sugars at the precinct and cream amounts and I stopped drinking coffee altogether about a year and a half ago." She looked up at the sky that was starting to cloud over and involuntarily twitched from the cold. Elliot rubbed his forehead and put his hand back on the car.

"You gotta come in, you know." He turned to look at her. They were positioned exactly the same way. Their shoulders were up, and their hands were against the car. He wanted to take his right arm and cross it over her body. He wanted to trap her in between the car and him, and feel her move on to him. He wanted to mesh their bodies and wrap his jacket around her, and put his hand on her thighs and position himself between her legs. He wanted to warm her body, and make her legs wrap around him, with her ass against the car. He wanted her breasts against his chest, and his arms secure around her back. And he wanted to tell her why he left.

She'd stared at him for a moment and bit the inside of her cheek.

"I know." She'd nodded. "Let's go."

1:28 am

He laughed and tried to finish the story.

"…and this woman gets shoved out of the house without a shirt on, and from that point, I was kicked out of my boss's car, and he put two shots in my shoulder."

"He didn't duck like he should've." Olivia laughed and nudged Amanda. "This one had an excuse. Snipers are different than smugglers."

"We all get shot in shoulder, what's that about?" Fin shook his head and took a drink of his beer. "Liv's never been shot." He points out.

"Stabbed, Fin." She points out, and lifts her left elbow, where a jagged scar shows. "in my own apartment, and once in public." She points to her neck.

"This is exactly why I'm in teaching, and not criminal justice." Maureen laughed and nudged her boyfriend, who Elliot knew was in a criminal justice major. Olivia took a drink of her second cup of coffee and let her eyes slipped closed. He watched her sigh, and a curl falls down to her cheekbone. She rested her chin on her coffee cup in her hands, and doubts he's ever seen anything prettier.

2:00 am

Kathleen and J.J. pulled away ten minutes ago to go home and sleep before their 6am flight to Los Angeles. Kathy's mom and a few others were picking up trash and throwing things away. Olivia wiped off a few tables. Tomorrow, the cleaning company would come in and clean everything else out; they were just making their jobs easier. Fin hovered protectively near Rollins as she helped Olivia wipe off tables.

2:20 am

Fin and Amanda, Kathy and Matt, and Elliott and Olivia all walked out of the dark area where the wedding reception had been, and now all separated toward their cars

"I guess ya know when you're gettin' old." Amanda laughed. "We're all drinkin' coffee, and it's what? 2:30 in the mornin'?" Amanda nudged Olivia. "So much for our day off tomorrow, gettin' some sleep early." Olivia nodded.

"That's usually how it goes."

"Cap make you guys take off?" Elliot asked Fin as they walked.

"Arrested if we come in tomorrow." Tutuola frowned and walked forward. "He's giving my case to a rookie for the next 24."

They reached the bottom of the walkway where it emptied into a parking lot, and they all started branching off to go to their cars, yelled goodnights back and forth, exchanged handshakes. The detectives congratulated Kathy on her marriage and her daughters'.

Everyone tapered off and left. Except Elliot and Olivia. When Fin and Rollins car was out of sight, Olivia turned to him.

"It was good to see you, El." She nodded and headed towards her car. He followed her to her it, and when she put her hand on the door handle and slightly opened the door, his right hand reached in front of her and shut it. She turned around and he was so close to her.

He stared at her face. She stared back directly into his eyes. She didn't move. He swallowed and rested his left hand on her car window and she backed against it. He watched her expression change from confusion to fear, and he swallowed hard, and ran his right hand down his face.

He wanted to tell her why he left.

"I didn't mean to do this to you, Liv." He gave her space and he watched her breath labor. She looked at him and nodded while she chewed on the inside of her cheek. She wanted to say something, but the effects of the alcohol are long gone. She doesn't have the courage to say what she wanted to. It doesn't matter anyway. What's done is done. She thinks to herself. She just nods to him again, and opens her car door.

He doesn't close it. He backs up. And he gives her space. He starts to walk backward to his car, and he feels his heart emptying. She reaches down, and unhooks her shoes, and he watches her toss them in the back seat, and put her head back in relief. He starts to turn to walk toward his car, and he feels her eyes on him.

"Stabler?" She calls out. He stops and spins around to face her and he raises his eyebrows when he sees her expression. Her eyes are narrowed and she looks like she's biting back a smile.

"You could buy me a drink for all the shit you owe me." Olivia suggests, and shrugs. He knows exactly where she means, and narrows his eyes back at her, turns, and heads for his car. Their engines start at the same time, and he smiles and looks her direction and she's smiling back, pushing her hair back out of her eyes and into a ponytail clip that she'd pulled out of her purse.

Elliot turns his car and drives out of the parking lot, and looks in his rearview mirror to make sure hers is pulling out behind him.

He drives forward and knows that sometime, maybe not tonight, but soon - he's going to hold her again.