When a Tornado Meets a Volcano

Disclaimer: I don't own blah blah blah.

A/N #1: Thank you to all of the reviewers and those who have favorited this story/me! It means a lot to me. :)


Chapter Six: As Long As the Wrong Feels Right

They didn't sit together for much longer after that, instead she had pulled away from him and found herself sitting, pressed tightly into the corner opposite of him, against the wall. Olivia curled into herself with her knees pulled up to her chest, eying Elliot contemplatively as he sat, legs stretched out towards her, against the door. This was the part where they talked, she thought. The part that she wasn't looking forward to.

"Shockingly, you don't look too busted up." He croaked, smiling slightly as he picked at a loose string on his shirt. "Not a lot of bruising."

"Unlike you." Olivia slid a hand through her hair slowly, letting her eyes linger on that spot just below his baby blues that was rapidly shifting from a slight yellow to a deep purple. She grinned softly as he rolled his eyes at her, "Yeah, thanks."

"Don't mention it... You know…I… Hm."

Elliot looked up, "What?"

"Nothing. I just… Wanted to know what happens next."

He nodded slowly, allowing his gaze to fall, yet again, to his seemingly unraveling shirt. "I don't know, Olivia."

God, this was going to be so difficult.

"Well… I don't think… It should happen again. I KNOW it shouldn't."

"Which part?"

Her fingers twitched slightly and she glared down at them, as though that would make them stop.

"All of it. Tonight… Tonight should just not be repeated."

Elliot bit his lip, angry at himself for even allowing the events that had led up to this moment to have happened, and angry that he hadn't at least tried harder to make those moments… Well, better. Less… Strange and hasty, less rough. He wished he could have done that for her, he wished he could have at least done that so that the memory of them finally being together wouldn't have to be a bad one. "I agree."

"Good." She nodded, swallowing softly. "Good."

Then they were silent, looking anywhere but each other. At the walls, at the floor, at the loose strings on a shirt or the dried blood on the hardwood that they had neglected to clean up, anywhere. Just not at each other.

"Olivia…" Elliot sighed quietly, lacing his fingers together and resting them on his chest. "Will you… Will we be ok?"

She thought about that for a moment. Would they? She knew she could forgive him, after all, he had tried to leave before he had hit her. He had warned her, yet she still egged him on. Yes, she could forgive him for hitting her. She could forgive him for dragging her to the floor and pinning her beneath him, all of that was easy. Forgiveness was so simple. It had been done already… It was the forgetting that would give her trouble. Forgetting how terrified she had been, for the first time, of her partner instead of for him. Forgetting the look in his eyes as he swung at her, as he held her, as she let him have her. Olivia shrugged, because honestly, she didn't know.

"I hope so." She whispered, looking at her aching fingers. "Do you think we will be?"

"I think…" He said, slowly, hoping not to word anything the wrong way. "We've gotten through other tough times… And we've only gotten through them together… So… Yes. I think we will be ok. I'll be ok if you're ok. You're all I really care about, if you're hurting then I'm hurting, and if you don't want to try and make sure we survive this I'll understand."

They were quiet again. She was thinking, wondering if she did want to make this survive, their friendship, their partnership, and he was just hoping, praying that she would. He watched her, his eyes scanning her face as she broke out into a smile.

"Hey…" She laughed softly, bringing her eyes up to meet his. "Remember that time, a couple years ago, when you had to choose between helping me and saving a hostage, and you chose me?"

Elliot scoffed, almost insulted that she would assume he didn't think of that day often, let alone remember the incident. "Of course I remember that."

"And remember how you didn't think we should work together, because if it came down to it I'd do the same thing for you? And you thought that we were too attached, that it'd be a bad idea if we cared more about each other than the job?"

"Yes, Olivia, I remember all of that. Why does it-"

"And," Olivia cut him off, her smile growing ever so slightly. "How you said that me and the job were about the only things you had anymore? And how you said we couldn't be partners if we were going to take care of each other first and foremost?"

"Liv. I remember. What's… What's your point?"

She shrugged slightly. "I think that… You were an idiot."

He furrowed his eyebrows, looking at her incredulously before he started laughing, and soon after she was laughing too.

"Well thank you, Olivia. I'm glad you felt that way. If it makes you feel any better, I think I was an idiot too."

"Yeah well…" She sighed, her chuckles dying down as she leaned her head heavily against the wall. "I was an even bigger idiot. Transferring like I did. That… That was a bad decision."

"It set me straight. I realized I didn't want to work with anyone else but you."

"Exactly, a-and the same with me. So… I'm just… I'm just thinking, you know… We couldn't lose each other then. We can't do it now."

"Yeah, except the situation is… um… a little… different."

"Yes, I know, we hadn't fucked then."

Elliot looked at her again, a slightly guilty look on his face. "Yeah. To put things bluntly."

"I was in love with you, though." Her sigh leaked out shakily through her teeth. "I had been for a long time by then, and if that isn't an emotional investment that could influence any decisions I made pertaining to you then I don't know what is. This… This whole tonight was… it was wrong. It was a mistake, the past few weeks have just been riddled with so many God damn mistakes, and if we can't work through this one then I think the past twelve years have been a big fucking waste."

He smiled at her, marveling at the way she thought about things, "Well, we can't throw away twelve years."

"Even if you could, I couldn't." She laughed. "I don't have anything but this job… And you."

"Right…" Elliot paused as he gulped softly. "You know I love you too, right?"

"Yeah. But it's not the same kind of love."

"No." He shook his head, almost saddened by the revelation and that she saw it even more clearly than he did. "It's not."

Olivia licked her lips softly, looking tiredly into his eyes as she did her best to smile. "But that's ok. It's better that way. It's how it should be, you know? Yours is the right kind of love."

And they were quiet again. It was comfortable this time, though, and so it didn't bother them. Instead they basked in it, knowing that, even though they would still be a little fucked up that they'd be ok. So they smiled at each other tiredly, the events from the previous hours catching up to them and wearing them down.

"Liv?" He whispered as he watched her close her eyes, her breathing steady, as one's who is about to fall asleep would be.

"Hm?"

"What are we going to say on Monday?"

She laughed softly, not opening her eyes as she curled up a little bit tighter in her corner. "You'll figure something out, hot shot."

He smiled slightly as she fell asleep, happy that she had chosen to remain partners with him, to work through this, because God, he couldn't lose her on top of everything else. And his eyes closed as he drifted off into sleep, smiling slightly at all the figuring he was going to have to do the next day.


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A/N: Most difficult chapter to write ever. Please review if you enjoyed, or even if you didn't!