A/N: "It takes a strong woman to admit that she's wrong, and an even stronger man to admit that she's right."

DISCLAIMER: Dick Wolf owns the characters. That's pretty much it. Everything else written before you is pure TStabler©

"Are you sure you wanna be spending your lunch hour with me, Olivia?" Casey asked, dangling a martini glass in front of her face. "You could be spending it with this fiancée I know nothing about, or with your partner with his grabby hands."

Olivia sighed, pushing the tomatoes in her salad away from the rest of the vegetables. "First of all, stop bringing up Elliot smacking my ass, okay? It's just something he does. Like how football players whack each other all the time. We're a team, he appreciates me."

"He appreciates your ass," Casey said, biting into a fry. "You sure you don't want any…"

"Diet," she mumbled bitterly, shoving a forkful of foliage into her mouth. "Second thing, this whole open marriage you've got…it isn't healthy. It's not really what Ryan wants, and you know it."

Casey rolled her eyes. "I thought we were letting it go."

Olivia shook her head as she swallowed. "No, the ass-grab we're letting go, this we are very much hanging on to. Do you love him, Casey? Do you really love him?"

Casey looked into Olivia's eyes. "I used to," she said. "It was like a short-wicked candle. Hot, fiery, and dangerous, but it burnt out sooner than I thought. I just…I don't have the heart to…"

"Hurt him," Olivia said.

Casey nodded.

"I thought you two were made for each other," Olivia sighed. "I never would have pushed you to go…"

"You didn't do this," Casey interrupted. "You gave me four great years with an amazing man, Olivia, and I really did love him. A part of me still does, it just isn't the kind of love you need to be married to someone."

"He, uh, he was talking to Elliot at George's party," Olivia said, jabbing her fork into a cucumber. "You know he feels that way, too, right? He would rather you both put this marriage out of its misery than have to sit there and pretend he's okay with you and what's-his-name."

Casey's eyes widened as she watched Olivia bite into the green veggie. "He does? I thought that…wow. Why didn't he say anything?"

"He doesn't wanna be the bad guy, here," Olivia said. "He was hoping that you would get the hint and leave when he actually suggested you sleep with someone else. Who does that, Casey?"

"Kathy," Casey scoffed. "Elliot was smarter than me, I guess. He understood that it meant it was over."

Olivia smirked. "Please, you know he was already sleeping with someone else."

Casey shook her head. She took a breath, a bite of her burger, and asked, "Have you ever met her? The other woman, I mean. Did he ever introduce you to her?"

Olivia took a long sip of her water. "I know her, yeah," she said.

"You okay with all of that?" Casey asked, smirking. "I mean, you're getting married so obviously you're not still hung up on Stabler, but is she…"

"She's a bitch. She's bossy. She's a little bit on the arrogant side, and she can't keep her fucking hands off of him." She looked at Casey and smiled. "She's perfect for him."

Casey raised an eyebrow and shook her head again. "I always thought it would be you, ya know? After Kathy. Hey. Do you still have feelings for the guy?"

Olivia blinked once. "I have to get back to the…"

"Olivia, come on," Casey said harshly. "You don't think I notice how you look at him? How you are with him? Granted, I'm still pissed off at him for what he did to you, but..."

"What did he do to me?" Olivia asked, honestly not sure.

Casey raised both eyebrows. "You don't remember? You were out on this hot date, you got the guy into bed, and Elliot called you to some crime scene…you were bitching about it for days."

Olivia held in the burst of laughter. "Oh," she said, nodding. She remembered that first night with Elliot; they were seconds away from him being inside of her for the first time when his cell phone rang. Cragen had called him, needing them at a brutal scene on Fifty-Third Street. She couldn't tell Casey that, so she made it seem like Elliot had interrupted her night with some hunky doctor. "Elliot really didn't know I was about to…"

Casey eyed Olivia with surprise and cut her off. "Yeah, but I'm still mad at him for it. Your sex life was seriously deprived, Benson, you needed to get laid."

"I'm not mad about it anymore," Olivia said. "You shouldn't be. And my sex life was, and still is, fucking incredible." She threw a twenty dollar bill on the table and got out of her seat. "I have to get back to work before Elliot starts whining. Talk to Ryan, Casey. Let him go."

Casey watched her friend leave as she downed the rest of her martini. She sighed, realizing how right Olivia was about her marriage. She had to find a way to make Olivia see how wrong she was about her own. Olivia belonged with Elliot, and as Casey threw another thirty dollars down and rose to her feet, she vowed to make it happen.


Olivia walked into the squad room, chuckling to herself. She plopped a cup of coffee in front of Elliot and winked at him.

Her cheerful mood made him sit up straighter and smirk at her. "Lunch went well, I take it?"

"Casey understood what I was trying to say," she said with a nod as she sat. "I think she's gonna talk to him, and this will..."

"No, I mean, for you. You look happy," he interrupted. "Like, really happy."

"I am really happy," she replied, smiling at him.

He leaned forward, lowering his voice. "I love to see you smile," he said. "You know I do, but what's got you so…"

"Casey's still pissed at you for interrupting my first night with my fiancée," she interjected.

He chuckled and leaned in even closer. "I seem to recall you and your fiancée finishing what you started, a few times actually, as soon as ythe case was closed."

She smirked at him as she sipped her coffee. "That we did," she said with a lusty gaze in her eyes. "But what I'm smiling about is I was halfway here when she ran up to me, swearing on her life that she would make me realize getting married to him was a mistake. She thinks I belong with you, and she's gonna call you tonight, demanding you tell her all about your new girlfriend, and she's going to list the thousand ways I'm better for you."

Elliot scoffed. "And this makes you happy because…"

"Because we mailed the invitations this morning," she told him, chuckling. "We already know we're gonna piss off a lot of people, El, but I think she's gonna have heart-attack."

He rolled his eyes and leaned back, picking up and sipping his coffee. "We'll see," he mumbled. "While you were out, we got another suspect in the McNally case. Munch and Fin are bringing him in; they want us to pull our Starsky and Hutch act." He lifted a file into the air and smirked at her.

"Are you Hutch again? You play dumb a lot better than I do," she joked.

He furrowed his brow and swatted the file at her playfully. "If I didn't love you, I'd hate you."

"You could never hate me," she countered. "I'd make you regret it."

"I know you would." He smiled at her, looked over his shoulder, and whispered, "I love you. I really do."

She held up her left hand, her ring glimmering in the dim bullpen light. "I know you do, El." She dropped her hand and whispered a quick, "I love you, too," as Fin and Munch brought in their guy.

"Stabler," Fin yelled, struggling to hold onto the man in cuffs at his side. "A little help?"

Elliot rolled his eyes, then his demeanor changed. He grimaced and got up, walking over to them. He grabbed the perp by the collar, stopping his struggles instantly, and lifted him an inch off the ground. He carried him into an interrogation room. Olivia, proud and slightly turned on by Elliot's "cop-mode," got up and followed. It was days like this she really loved her job.


They walked through the door at half-passed midnight, hearing nothing but the low hum of electricity running through the house. "Where do you want these?" Elliot asked, holding up the flowers George had delivered. A thank you for her help.

"I guess on the kitchen table for now," she answered, moving to sort through the mail the kids had brought in. "You got a letter from your Uncle Amos," she said with a laugh.

"Oh, goody," he bemoaned sarcastically. He walked out of the kitchen and over to her, taking her into his arms from behind. "Anything else in that pile of paper for me?"

"Um, electric bill, cable bill, cell phone bill, something from a travel agent, car payment, postcard from your sister…travel agent?" she snapped, flipping back to the red envelope.

"Open it," he whispered.

She slipped a finger under the side flap and yanked, then pulled out the letter and brochure. "Dear Mister Stabler, thank you for choosing to book your honeymoon with BMC Travel and Victorian Cruiseline. Enclosed, you'll find your itinerary and a brochure filled with information about your destination and amenities. Congratulations on your nuptials, and we hope you think of us at least once during your two-week cruise." She dropped the letter and turned around, meeting his cocky expression. "Two week cruise?" she gasped with an excited smile.

"You love me," he told her with a bit of playful arrogance.

"I love you," she said, throwing her arms around him. "Honey, how did you…"

"George's partner," he said, struggling to talk against her powerfully kissing lips. he tugged away from her with a grin. "The man's a travel agent, baby. He got us the last seats on the plane, the last room on the ship, and the last honeymoon suite on the island. Baby, there's a few days between the flight to Miami and when the ship leaves for the Bahamas. Look at the schedule, find Friday, and then tell me how much you love me."

She raised an eyebrow, and then glanced down at the papers in her hands. "Thursday, mountain climbing...Friday, Swimming with…Oh, El!" She wrapped herself around him, kissing him fiercely as images of the two of them swimming with majestic dolphins swirled in her mind. "I love you," she mumbled against his lips. "I love you so much."

"I love you, too, baby," he said softly. He ran his hands down her back and said, "He got us a great deal, Liv. It's not costing as much as we thought, and it's gonna be everything you want."

She kissed him again, moaning softly into his mouth, and grabbed the back of his with both of her hands. "You are everything I want, El," she whispered, trailing her lips down his neck as she kissed and nibbled.

"Baby," he whispered, his eyes rolling backward as she found a spot to suckle on. He pushed forward, hearing the wobble of the table as she fell into it. "Sorry," he uttered, grasping at her clothes. He had her blazer off and on the floor, and was working on the buttons of her shirt when his cell phone rang. He didn't stop, no, he kept right on pulling her shirt open with one hand as he answered the call with the other. "Stabler," he gruffed, gripping the fabric of her pants with his usable hand.

"Hang up," Olivia moaned, struggling with his belt.

He grunted as he yanked her own pants over her hips. "What?" he said into the phone. "Does it sound like I was asleep? What do you want, Casey?"

Olivia's eyes widened, both in response to the phone call and his teeth latching onto one of her nipples through her bra.

He moaned softly, then said, "I know, you're right. You're absolutely right." He stopped sucking on her chest and picked up his head, looking into her eyes. "She's beautiful, and she's smart, she's funny and kind and generous. She's sexy and strong, gutsy and powerful, but she has this…this incredibly feminine side that shows only when she wants it to. She's everything a man could possibly want or need, I know that."

She was looking back into his eyes, her own filling with tears at his words, and she brought her hands up to his face.

He turned his head and kissed one of her palms, then met her eyes again. "I'm in love with her, Casey. That's why I have to let her marry him. She's happy. If she's happy, I'm happy. If he ever hurts her I'll kill him."

Olivia, still cupping his face, chuckled quietly. She watched as he hung up the phone, and then his lips came down upon hers, backing her further into the wall. "He's not gonna hurt me," she said as her eyes slid closed.

Dipping a finger into the waistband of her panties, he grinned. "I know, that's why I made that promise. You know my views on suicide." He chuckled and slipped the fabric down, turning his hand to stroke her, feeling her wetness and moaning in reaction.

She moved, as carefully as she could, away from the table and backwardly led him into the bedroom as they kissed and touched each other. Her knees hit the mattress as he kicked the door closed behind him. He fell onto her as she flattened out, and he worked the rest of their clothes off and away.

He pulled away from her, suddenly turning around to face the hallway from which they came. "Do you hear that?"

"Your phone again?" she questioned, panting slightly as she propped herself up on her elbows.

He shook his head. "Yours," he said, flinging himself off of the bed. He walked out for the briefest of moments, and came back in with her ringing phone and their rumpled clothes. He tossed her the device as he threw the clothes into the hamper.

"Benson," she said, annoyed. She didn't want the interruption. "Oh, God, okay, uh, we'll be right there. Tell her to stay calm, and we'll be right there."

"What happened?" he asked, reaching for a tee-shirt from the pile of clothes on the corner chair.

Olivia, naked, searched in her drawer for a tee shirt big enough to hide the fact she was braless and a pair of sweatpants. "Melinda's in labor, Fin's phone is off, Ken has no idea what to do. he called me to ask if..."

"What?" Elliot spat. "Fin left before we did, he should be home. Why the hell is his phone off and why the fuck is Ken…"

Olivia gasped, turning as she tugged on her clothes. "El, didn't he tell you that he was worried? he said he didn't even tell Ken she was…"

"He lied," Elliot interrupted. "Son of a bitch." He kissed her forehead and said, "I'm gonna tell the kids where we're going, I'll meet you in the car."

She exhaled harshly, wondering why the hell everyone's life seemed to be falling apart just as she was finally putting hers together. She walked into the living room, grabbed the keys off the coffee table, and left the house to start the car. She got into the driver's seat as she saw Elliot walking out, and she smiled. She knew she would never have such problems with him, or he with her. At least, that's what she was telling herself.

A/N: Where was Fin? It's not where you think! And when the invitations start arriving, the reactions range from enthralled to heartbroken. Who's what? Review here or on Twitter: TMG212