Who Could Have Known

Chapter 10: Whatever round they were on

A/N: Okay, so I haven't heard from Belzer but Diane March, is a whole nother animal entirely. I put a call into her and she told me that she would absolutely help me out, she gives me a number to call…Ha ha ha Diane very funny, having me call a psychiatric clinic, Good one! J/K

Olivia kept her weapon raised and called out against the smoke again, "Elliot?"

"Please Olivia" His voice was calm, "Just dinner."

"Dinner?" She asked incredulously as she lowered her weapon, "I could have shot you Elliot!" she barked as the adrenaline flowed through her body.

"But you didn't" He lowered his arms walking to her with his famous cocky smile.

"I should." She ran her hand through her hair, "Why are you following me?" She asked irritated.

"I told you – dinner." He shrugged his shoulders.

"ELLIOT!" She yelled in frustration and then calmed her self enough to speak through tight lips, "What do you really want?"

Elliot cringed knowing she knew him all to well. As much as they hurt one another and tried to push one another away they both knew they were made specifically for the other.

"What do I really want?" he whispered stepping closer, "I want you Olivia…but I'll settle for dinner tonight…please, just give me that much."

"I should have shot you." She offered a weak smile. "I'm not really dressed for a dinner outing Elliot."

"Okay, go home and shower, I'll meet you there with…Chinese?" He offered.

"Pizza." She shook her head; I can't believe your agreeing to this Olivia. She scolded herself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Olivia stepped out of the shower and dried herself quickly but was careful of the burn on her leg. It wasn't healing as fast as it should and she knew it was due to the suffocation of her riding pants as well as the fact that she was having to constantly ride the horses.

She coated her inner thigh as well as the top with a lotion that stung so badly her eyes teared and she wished she had brought home the horse branding cream. She wrapped it tightly and pulled a pair of track pants carefully over her legs. She clasped her white bra and slipped a tank top over it. Her hair was still damp when the doorbell rang.

Olivia ran through a mental checklist before she opened the door. Teeth…check. Deodorant…check. Fight Face…absolutely.

"Hi" he smiled awkwardly holding the pizza in one hand as he tilted his body to keep his workbag from falling off of his shoulder.

"Hello." She said turning to allow him to let his self in. She forced herself to be cold in spite of wanting to embrace him and tell him she wanted to be with him, that she'd wanted that since the day at the diner. But what she also needed him to understand was the devastation she felt when he pushed her away, offered her no explanation and spent six years ignoring the longing they had to be with one another. She grew angrier with Elliot each time she slept with Jeremiah. It was her own decision, she knew that. But she also knew it should have been Elliot in her bed, not Jeremiah.

Elliot walked through the door and placed the pizza on the coffee table and his bag near the sofa.

"How have you been?" He asked as she retrieved two waters from the refrigerator.

"Good." She shook her head but offered nothing in the way of a smile as she sat on the couch pulling her legs into and Indian style position facing him.

"I called a million times and sent hundreds of emails Olivia." He stepped closer and sat next to her mimicking her position.

She bowed her head in guild. Actually, you called me 197 times and sent me sixty-three emails.

"I was on vacation." She offered an excuse as she grabbed for the pizza box.

"Planning on sharing that pizza?" he raised a brow.

She involuntarily giggled. "Yeah, I just don't want to do dishes. So, eat over the box." She instructed as she placed it between the two of them. She thought it unfair that her heart still wanted to be with him after so long.

"How's vacation treating you?" Elliot entertained her lie. Wondering what she would do if he suddenly showed up to the stables.

Olivia looked at him and stammered. "Um…its good, I've been spending time with old friends." She smiled referring to Smetana, "and making new ones." She thought of the progress she'd made with the gray horse.

"It's good to see you smile Olivia." He spoke softly closing the pizza box after she retrieved a slice and placed it back on the coffee counter. As he moved closer she new it was his way of challenging her.

"I needed a break from everything." She stared at the slice and then took a bite. Hoping her remark would provide enough sting for him to back down.

"You mean from me, don't you?" he asked.

She took a deep breath and responded in a whisper, "Yeah."

"But you managed to call my voice mail at work every Sunday knowing I wouldn't be there to pick up…you wanted to hear my voice." He smiled at the fact that he couldn't even recognize his own number on her call records until he called it himself. Funny thing was she never left a message.

"How did you know that?" She spoke slowing her chewing.

"The same way I know you went to Charlie's Pub every Sunday…stop fighting Olivia." He leaned closer to her smiling at the sauce that rested in the corner of her mouth.

"You dumped my financials…that's cheating." She didn't' know whether to be angry or happy he was trying to find her.

Elliot gently took the half eaten slice of pizza out of her hand and tossed it on the pizza box. He returned to see her head was bowed.

"Look at me." He whispered.

"I can't"

He tipped her chin gently causing her eyes to look at him.

"Please don't." Her intellect forced her to whisper but her heart caused her to lean into his touch. Her pupils dilated through her pooled eyes causing him to ignore her intellect and answer the call of her heart as he pressed his lips against the sauce filled corner of her mouth.

Where the hell is your fight face Olivia? She scolded herself.

Elliot moved his hand grazing her knee while he kept his lips centimeters from hers, to timid to engage them any further. He slid his hand further up her leg to her thigh causing her to cry out in pain as she withdrew her face from his and gripped his offending hand. "Ahhhhh." A tear fell at the pain that ripped through her burned thigh.

"Olivia what's wrong?" he asked backing away.

"Nothing." She tried to assure him through tightly shut eyes as she held her thigh.

"Liv." He touched her softly taking her hand from her thigh, "What is it?"

"I burned myself …with coffee." She scoffed at how stupid it sounded.

"Coffee?" He was surprised. "Where'd you find hot coffee in New York?" he smiled.

"Tell me about it." She said standing and still holding her thigh. "Hundreds of cups of coffee and they're never hot enough, then the one that is, ends up in my lap." She walked into her room aware that Elliot was behind her.

"First time I've been in here." He smiled at her.

"Shut-up Stabler," She smiled, "I just need some type of lotion, this thing is killing me."

Elliot walked behind her and timidly embraced her not sure what her reaction would be. When he was certain he was still alive and all limbs were in tact he whispered to her. "Let me see." Taking the lotion out of her hand he gathered the scent of her neck.

"Elliot-"

"Liv, burns scar if you don't handle them right…let me see." He pulled the drawstring to her track pants, "Lay down, I'll fix you up." He smiled giving her control of her own pants. He didn't' want to push anything; he knew she was in a world wind of emotion.

Elliot smiled slightly disappointed she was wearing boy shorts instead of some exotic form of panties, but she was gorgeous nonetheless. She lay nervously on her bed, his touch confusing her senses. What are you doing Olivia? Did you forget that he hurt you?

"How did you do it?" Elliot asked removing the last of the gauze and looking at the raw flesh that had blistered painfully since Olivia rubbed the stinging lotion on it. Elliot knew it would scar.

"I just wasn't paying attention." She told the truth. She knew better than to drop the reins on an unfamiliar horse. She watched him frown as he read the back of the lotion bottle.

"This hurt when you put it on huh?" he tossed it aside looking at the blisters.

"Like a swarm of bee's attacking." She scoffed.

"It's got alcohol in it Liv, you blistered up pretty good." He spoke softly. "Hold on I'll get something better." He left her alone and her mind raced realizing she had lay in front of him in her underwear and allowed him to handle her thigh. She got up quickly and put on the baggiest pair of shorts she could find and exited the room to meet him on more neutral grounds in the kitchen.

Elliot smiled noticing she'd put short's on but they would still allow him to treat her burn. He stopped mixing the concoction in the bowl and set it on the table. "Take a seat." HE smiled motioning to a kitchen chair. She sat down and pulled the fabric higher exposing the burn. She saw the blisters and winced knowing she should have read the label before she put it on.

He was entirely too tender with her as he smoothed the mixture over her wounded thigh and dressed it with gauze. It evoked a sense of intimacy that she wasn't' ready for and they only thing she knew to do was sabotage the moment. The only way she knew to do that was to get him where it would hurt.

"I see you brought your work bag," she motioned to his black bag by the couch, "I bet I know what's in it." She folded her arms as he stood to his feet.

"Liv- please don't." he turned to put the bowl in the sink. "You should wrap the burn loose, not tight."

Olivia found her fight face and was ready for round…well whatever round they were on. "Kind of hypocritical isn't it? She offered in a seemingly friendly voice, but Elliot caught her tone and he knew better.

"What? I'm not a hypocrite Olivia." He furrowed his brows at her accusation.

"Yeah ya are." She moved a tendril of hair behind her ear. "Come on Elliot, you have me confess my past to you, you preach that our circumstances shouldn't change or define us."

"Olivia-"

"You know I'm right Elliot, you've been lugging the same case file around in that bag for what? Seven years now?" She smirked. "I told you my demon's but you, in all your glory, won't even bother to tell me why that bag consumes you…why you spend every free minute looking through the case file inside."

"Olivia ple-"

"Come off it Elliot!" she moved as if she were interrogating him. "You don't think I see how your rage increases just a little more every time you look at it?"

She leaned over the counter and spoke in a crescendo of anger. "You can't even tell me what haunts you but you want me to tell you how devastated I was when you took your love away from me?" She stopped immediately realizing her blunder and knowing the only way to fix her stumble was to drag him down further.

"What happened huh?" she asked him as if she were springing a trap for a perp. She saw the frustration in his eyes and the hurt and anger that was flowing but she couldn't stop. "Did a suspect elude your grasp Elliot?…No, that's not it is it?" she offered him a smirk at his quietness, "You loose a victim Elliot? We all loose Victims!" she yelled.

"Olivia," his voice was low but brewing with anger. "Back off."

"Back off?" she asked incredulously. "Who was it Elliot? A woman, you got too close to? No? Maybe a child then?" her voice increased pushing him to cave. "Who'd you loose Elliot!" she barked.

"MY PARTNER DAMNIT!" he finally fought back in rage. "I froze when I saw the gun." His veins pulsated as his eyes darkened and his voice rose. He pointed to his chest, "I didn't get to him in time and he's DEAD!"

Olivia was certain that if she were to look up the phrase 'insensitive jackass' in a lexicon it would say 'see Olivia Benson'.

"Elliot, I'm sor-"

"No, I don't need your pity Olivia!" he hissed

"I'm not pi-"

He had a second wind of anger and hurt. "It's what you wanted to hear right?" He yelled picking up his bag and walking backwards to the door shouting at her. "I was a bad boyfriend, I'm a terrible friend…well now you can add to your list 'bad cop'."

"Elliot." She tried to pull him down from his mountain of rage but she knew she deserved it.

"NO! I get it Olivia," he opened the door. "You don't want me…fine…were done!" he yelled.

"Wait!" she called for him but was answered only with the slam of the door.