Elliot tried to explain the rules to Olivia again, but he saw that she wasn't really working very hard to understand.

"You don't really care, do you?" he said, shaking his head with a smile.

Olivia looked over at him and gave him a close mouthed smile. "Sorry." She said. "You know I wasn't raised on sports." She said. With a mother that was an English professor, her childhood had been filled with visits to art museums and poetry readings.

"I know Liv. But you would think that after 7 years together, something would have rubbed off on you." He said.

She laughed. "You know I always tuned you guys out when you were talking about sports."

"Yeah." he said. "Do you miss it?" He hadn't asked her much about her job. He knew it had something to do with working with victims of domestic violence and sexual assault; a kind of social worker. Helping them find the services they need, talking them through court appearances, helping them find housing and jobs and getting them on their feet.

Olivia nodded. "I do, but I feel like I'm still making a difference. I'm still helping victims."

"That's what you do best." He said.

"But I miss it. Putting the perps behind bars. Getting justice." She sighed. "I don't get that kind of adrenaline rush anymore."

"You ever think about being a cop here?" he asked.

Olivia shook her head. "I can't. I have Elise to think about. It's too dangerous when you're a single mom." She winced as the words left her mouth.

"Yeah, I get that." He said. "But I'm here now so…"

Olivia sighed. "I'm OK. Maybe someday, but I'm happy with what I'm doing.' She paused a second. "But I do miss the guys…and Casey. All of them were my family." She felt like the discussion was getting too heavy again, and she just wasn't up to another deep conversation. "You know what else I miss?"

The first thing that popped into his head was sex, and he almost blurted it out as a joke. But that may hit a little too close to home…and he really didn't know if she had dated anyone.

"Chinese takeout."

Elliot laughed at the wistful sound in her voice...and at how far away that was from what he was thinking.

"What are you laughing about?" she said. "I do. No place delivers here and Elise really doesn't like Chinese food, so we almost never have it."

Elliot was still chuckling. "It's just not what I expected to hear." He said. "Tell you what. Next time I come up, I'll bring your favorite, and we can split our meals like old times."

Olivia sighed. "That sounds heavenly." She said, sounding more satisfied than she intended, and she blushed slightly.

Elliot chuckled again. "Really? That's all it takes? A little Chinese food?"

Olivia was really embarrassed now and she picked up a pillow and threw it at him. It sailed past his head and hit the floor.

"Wow. The mighty Olivia Benson has lost her touch!" he teased.

Olivia gave him an incredulous look and her foot shot out, but Elliot was too fast and he grabbed her around her ankle and pulled her down on the couch. "That was a cheap shot Benson." He said, tugging her further down the couch and grabbed her shins to keep her from kicking him again.

"Maybe I was trying not to hurt you." She grabbed another pillow from under her head, and threw it, nailing him in the head.

"Oh you're going to pay for that." He said. He pushed himself up and climbed over her body and she tried to scramble out from underneath him but he was too fast. He grabbed her arms and pinned them by her head. He stared down at her with a huge grin on his face, and suddenly they were goofing around in her apartment five years ago.

"Don't forget that I know where you're ticklish." He said. "Payback is a bitch."

Olivia's eyes got wide, knowing she was most ticklish on her knees and inner thighs and her breath hitched with the thought. He wouldn't.

He suddenly realized the awkward position he had put them in, but he couldn't seem to move. He saw her eyes get wide, but he saw something else there as well. Want? Fear? Maybe a mixture of the two.

He knew he shouldn't kiss her. His mind was screaming at him not to do it but his desire won out and before he could talk himself out of it, he leaned down and captured her lips, moaning as memories flooded his body with the feel of her mouth against his. He released her lower lip and then he was opening her mouth with his and he heard a small moan escape from deep inside her…the sound captured by his own mouth. The next thing he knew, she was swiping her tongue against his with a low moan, and the sound went right to his groin.

He released her arms, propping himself up on one elbow as he continued to ravage her mouth with his. He was running on autopilot as his left hand ran down her arm and landed on her waist. He smoothed his hand over the exposed skin where her tank top had ridden up. He rubbed his thumb back and forth, letting his hand wander up over her rib cage.

Elliot was kissing her hard, the stubble on his face scratching hers and the only thing she could think of was that she wanted more. Olivia could feel his hot hand on her skin and she arched her back into him, wanting to feel his hand on her breast. She felt Elliot knock her thighs with his knees and she complied, spreading them slightly so he could put one knee between her leg. The man knew her bod…knew what made her come hard and fast…or how to prolong the torture…making her come again and again before he buried himself inside of her. He pressed his knee against her core and she let out a sound from deep inside her. It had been so long…but then it seemed like yesterday. The ache between her legs was almost unbearable and she let out another moan.

Elliot ripped his mouth from hers, needing to catch his breath. He was already hard, his body remembering hers. He kissed his way down her jawline and then trailed his tongue down her neck. Olivia closed her eyes and tipped her head back. He pulled the strap down her shoulder and then kissed his way down the swell of her breast. Olivia was moaning beneath him, pushing her hips against him and her hip connected with his erection and he groaned.

"Fuck." He growled against her neck. He pulled her tank top down, exposing her right breast. He trailed his tongue down until he reached her nipple. He teased her with his tongue before he placed his warm, open mouth over her. His other hand found her other breast under her tank and he tweaked and pulled at her nipple.

"El." She moaned, arching back into him, wanting more contact. God, she wanted his hands between her legs. She was so wet. She knew if he kept this up, she was going to come and right now, she needed that relief. She was breathing hard, and grasping at his shirt. She needed to feel his skin against hers. Her hands slid down his back and she latched on to his belt. "Take them off." She rasped.

Elliot released her breast and kissed his way back up to her neck, placing open mouthed kisses along the way. He lowered his hips, grinding his erection into her. God, he wanted her.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a phone ringing. He lifted his head, trying to figure out what the sound was…his mind and body focused on one thing. It took him a second to realize it was his cell phone and he looked down at Olivia with a bewildered expression on his face.

He shook his head slightly. What was he doing? What the hell was he doing? One minute they're goofing around and the next minute he's got his tongue down her throat and his erection pressed intimately between her legs?

"Liv." He rasped, pushing himself up, separating their bodies. "I'm…God, I…"

He saw her lips, red and swollen. Her body was flushed; her breast exposed and wet from his mouth.

Olivia saw the look on his face; he looked guilty as the realization of their compromised position slammed into him. She wanted to tell him that it was OK…she hadn't stopped him. The ache between her legs told the whole truth. While she had no intention of sleeping with Elliot tonight…she would have. She wanted to. So she had to a share of the guilt.

"El.." she said, pulling her tank top over her breast and scooting back on the couch as Elliot climbed off the couch. She could tell that he was struggling with what to say, when she heard his phone ring again.

"Goddamnit." He said as he pulled it out of his back pocket. He looked at the caller ID and saw that it was his daughter Kathleen and he swore again under his breath. He looked at her and then back at the phone.

"Take it." She said. She could use the distraction to make her getaway.

Elliot answered the phone. "Hey Kathleen." He saw Olivia get up off the couch and he tried to snag her as she rushed past him. But he missed her and he heard her make record time up the stairs. "What?" He tried to focus on what Kathleen was saying. It took her three times. " . Yeah, I'm headed back to the city now but it will be about two hours." He listened some more. "Yeah, I'm out of town, but I'll head out now." He ended the call with his daughter and let out a heavy sigh.

He had certainly fucked things up now. Things had been going well. They were getting along and he felt like they were making progress and then all of a sudden he's like a hormonal teenaged boy…mauling her on the couch. What the hell was his problem?

His problem was that even after all this time…after everything that had happened…he still loved her. And there was a part of him that longed for things to be how they were…to just pretend that the past four years hadn't happened, and he and Olivia and Elise had been a family all along.

He sighed. Life wasn't a fairy tale.

And he owed her an apology.

He trudged up the stairs and saw her bedroom door was closed. He put his ear to the door and thought he could hear water running. She must be in the bathroom.

He knocked lightly on her door, and when she didn't answer, he cracked it open. "Liv?" he said softly. He pushed the door open a little more and saw the door to her bathroom was closed. He let himself in and walked over to the door, repeating the soft knock. "Liv?" he said.

"Give me a minute." She said.

He was surprised she had answered. The Olivia he had known before probably would have stayed holed up until he left. He stepped away from the door and sat down on the bed. Then he felt self-conscious about that and he got up right away. He rethought the whole thing…he shouldn't even be in her bedroom. He left the room and went back downstairs, and paced back and forth between the foyer and the family room.

Olivia splashed cold water on her face. What the hell had she been thinking? She had let things go too far. She had promised herself that she wouldn't put any pressure on him to be anything more than a father to Elise, and then she went and paraded around the house in a skimpy tank and thin pajama shorts. She'd told herself that it didn't matter; that it wasn't anything he hadn't seen before. But now she thinks that maybe she wanted him to want her…that she wanted to drive him over the edge. Tempt him.

She heard him knock on the door, and she knew she wouldn't be able to avoid him. She asked him to give her a minute. She had to collect herself. Her body was on fire and she needed to calm down. She took a deep breath and headed out of the bathroom. She expected Elliot to be in her bedroom, but he wasn't there, so she assumed he went back downstairs.

Elliot saw her come down the stairs. But now, she was wearing a pair of baggy gray sweatpants and a large SVU sweatshirt that hung loosely on her. He let out a heavy sigh, upset that she felt like she had to do that.

"Liv." He said, before she even reached the bottom step.

Olivia shook her head. "Let's not." She said. She really didn't want to talk.

He knew what she was telling him, but he didn't really want to leave things like this. "But I have to go. Kathleen's been trying to get a hold of me. She needs to crash at my apartment tonight and she's been waiting at a coffee shop down the block for the last couple of hours."

"Well then you'd better get going." She said, walking into the family room. She grabbed the blanket that had fallen in the floor and started folding it up, her back to Elliot.

"Liv. I shouldn't have kissed you."

She laughed because they'd practically had sex on her sofa and he was copping to kissing her? "I kissed you back." She said. She could play this game.

He came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off and took a step away, setting the blanket on the couch. She turned around and looked at him. "It's fine El. No need to make a big deal out of it."

"But…" He started to object. It was a big deal. He didn't want this to impact the kind of peace they had reached.

"You'd better get going. Kathleen's waiting." She said, crossing her arms in front of her. A clear indication that the conversation was done.

He stood and looked at her for a moment, but he knew the conversation was over. This wasn't how he'd expected this evening to go. He had wanted to talk some more. He just wanted to spend time with her and now he felt like maybe he had pushed them all the way back to square one.

He let out a heavy sigh. "OK. Got it." He was slightly frustrated and he tried to keep the irritation out of his voice, but with little success.

He gave her one last look and then turned and headed for the door. Olivia had heard the frustration in his voice and she felt badly. They'd had such a great weekend. She really didn't want it to end like this.

"El." She said, walking towards him as he opened the door. He paused and looked back at her. She stopped a few feet away from him. "Text me when you get back to the city?" she asked. "Just to let me know you made it."

Elliot gave her a tight smile, happy that had extended the olive branch. He didn't want to leave with any issues between them. "I will." He started to open the screen door, but then changed his mind. He turned around and closed the gap between them. He wrapped his arms around her quickly, giving her a quick squeeze. He placed a quick kiss on the top of her head and then released her. "Good night."

EOEOEOEO

It took Elliot over two hours to get home due to a pile-up on the expressway. He had called the building super to let Kathleen in the apartment, and he she was curled up on the couch with her laptop.

"Dad!" she said as he walked through the door. "Took you long enough."

Elliot set his duffle bag down and walked over, planting a kiss on her forehead. "Working on homework or goofing off?" he asked, sitting down on the other end of the couch and turning to face her.

"Homework. I told you that."

Elliot hadn't really been paying that much attention when he had talked to her on the phone, but he knew she'd said something about exams and needed a quiet place to study. He nodded. "Oh yeah."

Kathleen looked over at his duffle bag by the door. "You were out of town?" she asked. "Where were you?"

Shit. He should have thought of a plausible story before he got home.

"Dad." Said Kathleen, a big smile on her face. "Do you have a girlfriend?" she teased. She wasn't stupid. She could see he didn't want to tell her where he had been.

"No. I do not have a girlfriend." He said. He figured he was telling the truth. Just because he was dry humping his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child didn't mean he had a girlfriend.

"So where were you then?" she said, not believing him. "You know, I'm not a little girl anymore. You can tell me."

Elliot looked at her and realized five years had really made a difference. When he and Olivia had been involved before…when there had been so much drama…they were so much younger. They weren't able to understand anything except that their lives were being torn apart. But now she was an adult. They had lives of their own and were probably less concerned with who shared his bed.

He wondered if he could tell her about Elise. What her reaction would be. Of all of his kids, he thought Kathleen might be the most understanding. Was he obliged to tell Kathy first? Did he have to break the news to all of his kids at once? He didn't know; there was no handbook on this kind of shit.

Suddenly, he wanted to tell her. He wanted to tell someone about her.

"Dad?" Kathleen said, her hand on his arm. "Are you OK?" she asked, seeing the look on his face. "I was just teasing you."

"I know." He stared at her for a second, trying to decide what to do.

Kathleen furrowed her brows. "Dad. You're scaring me. What's wrong?"

"If I told you something…something really important…do you think you could keep it to yourself? Just for a little while?"

Kathleen looked at him warily, worried about what he could possibly have to tell her. Was he sick? Did he lose his job? She wasn't sure she wanted the responsibility of knowing something like that. But she trusted him not to tell her something if he didn't think she could handle it. "Yeah." She said, nodding. She set her laptop down on the coffee table and turned to face him.

Elliot tried to gather his thoughts and figure out how to tell her. He really hadn't put any thought into it at all, and now he thought maybe this was a bad idea.

"Dad. You always told us it's just best to get it out." She said. "So just tell me. I promise I'll keep it to myself until you tell Mom and Mo and the others."

"How did you get to be so smart?" he asked.

"Quit stalling." She said, giving him a crooked smile.

Elliot took in a deep breath before he plunged in. "OK." He rubbed his hands up and down his thighs. "Do you remember when I was seeing Olivia?" He watched Kathleen's expression, but it remained neutral.

She nodded.

"You know that Olivia broke things off with me."

Kathleen nodded again. She remembered that time very well. Her mother had been so upset about her Dad and Olivia. She was convinced that they had been having an affair for years, and took every opportunity to rant about how the two of them. She had been so confused. She didn't know what to believe, because she had always liked Olivia. It was such a mess. The only thing she knew for sure was that when Olivia had broken up, her Dad came home and there was some peace in the house. Peace, but not happiness. She could tell her Dad was affected by it.

"I remember." She said.

"She moved away. She lives in Connecticut."

"So that's where you were? Visiting Olivia?" she asked. It didn't surprise her. She knew they'd been close.

"Well. Kind of."

"Dad." Kathleen said impatiently. "Would you just tell me already?"

"Olivia moved away after we broke up because she was pregnant." There. It was out there. "She had a baby." God, this wasn't coming out right because Kathleen was just looking at him, still not comprehending what he was saying. "You have a sister. A half-sister."

He saw it click then and she opened her mouth and closed it again, trying to process what he had said. It took a minute but then she pulled herself together. "I have a sister?" she whispered.

Elliot nodded.

"So…she's how old?"

"She just turned 4."

"I've had a little sister for four years and you're just telling me now?" she asked.

"I just found out myself." He said. "About two months ago." He couldn't tell if she was mad or angry or something else.

"Olivia didn't tell you?" she said, a surprised look on her face. "Why would she do that?"

"Olivia and I are working that out. That's why I've waited to tell you. And your Mom and everyone else. I needed to get to know her and work through my anger with Olivia."

"And have you? Worked out your anger?" she asked.

Elliot tilted his head back and forth. "We're working on it." He said. "But it's better than it was two months ago."

Kathleen nodded. "So." She had about a million questions but she wasn't sure what he was going to tell her. And she was still sorting out how she felt about it. "What's her name?

"Elise."

"Hmm." She said non-commitally. "Do you have a photo of her?"

Elliot pulled out his phone and pulled up the photo app. He paged through the photos until he found one of her on her birthday. She was hamming it up for the camera and he had to smile. He showed the photo to Kathleen.

"Wow. She looks just like Olivia." She said. "Are you sure she's yours?"

Elliot furrowed his eyebrows. "Of course I am."

Kathleen shrugged her shoulders. "I'm just asking." She said. She paged through some of the other photos on the phone. "Oh. Olivia looks great." She handed the phone back to Elliot. "I always liked Olivia Dad." She shook her head. "It was just such a crazy time."

"Yeah. I've been thinking about it a lot. And Olivia and I have talked about it too." He said. "It still makes me mad but I've come to realize that there's nothing I can do to change it."

"So, are you and Olivia like…together?" she asked.

Elliot thought about what happened at Olivia's earlier tonight. "No."

Kathleen didn't say anything for a minute. "So why did you decide to tell me first?"

"Honestly?" he asked. "I don't know. I guess because we've always been close and I thought you might be the one person that wouldn't have a complete meltdown."

"Kind of helps because I'm medicated." She joked.

"That's not what I meant." He said, shaking his head and giving her a smile.

"I know."

"So tell me what you're thinking right now."

"Well, if we're being honest…I'm still trying to figure that out." She said.

"I guess that's fair." He said.

"Will we get to meet her?" she asked.

"I want that to happen, if you want to."

"How are you going to tell Mom?"

"I have no idea." He said. "Because I don't think she's going to be easy on me." He sighed. He wanted to tell her that her Mom had a big role in this entire mess, so he didn't expect it was going to go well at all because he was going to tell her exactly that. But this was her Mom, and he wasn't going to share that with her.

"Want me to tell her for you?" Kathleen joked. She leaned over and gave him a big hug. "It's going to be OK Dad." She gave him a kiss on the cheek. "I love you."

"Thanks honey." He said, kissing her on the forehead. "I'm a lucky guy to have such a great daughter."