Law and Order: SVU is the intellectual property of Dick Wolf. The use of the characters, settings, and plotlines is not malicious. This is a work of fiction.

Office of Captain D. Cragen, Special Victims Unit, Sixteenth Precinct, Manhattan

"How did you figure out it was his father?" Cragen asked, watching Olivia nervously pull at her clothes. "Relax, please? Just tell me..."

"You want me to relax?" she spat, her eyes narrow. "I feel like I'm on the other side of the table, here! Not exactly easy to relax."

Cragen sighed. "I just need to know, how you knew it was his father."

Rolling her eyes, she started drumming her fingers on the table. "When I was chasing him...before he threw that shit at me, he yelled at me for accusing his son and getting him into trouble. The only person young enough to be his son was the little pis-ant at the apartment complex, the schmuck who posted those videos on the internet." She brought her irritated eyes up to meet Cragen's. "Maybe he was trying to make his father famous, I don't know, but if you're not going to let me work the case, then can I please..."

"You're not suspended," Cragen interrupted. "You're taking the next two days off because you want to, not because..."

"Why?" she interrupted, scrunching up her face. She gave him an acrimonious glare.

Cragen tilted his head and crossed his arms. "Why, what?"

"You suspended him, not me," she said, leaning back in the chair. "He told me it was for insubordination, because he lied to you, but I wasn't exactly forthcoming about my relationship with him, either."

"You didn't lie to my face and yell at me for treating you like shit," Cragen countered. "Besides, you didn't need a suspension in your jacket, I figured you..."

"But he did?" she said, cutting him off again. "He has more black marks than I do, and you know Tucker just needs needs an excuse to..." her eyes narrowed again as she stopped speaking, and then widened. "You're not trying to get him..."

"No! God, no," Cragen held up a hand and stopped the absurd thing she was about to say. "I couldn't overlook what he did, Olivia. I asked him, more than once, and he lied. He needed the same slap-in-the-face he gave me, it was deserved. You can't tell me it wasn't."

She bit her lip again, then, and nodded as she looked away from him. She got out of her chair and moved toward the door, but stopped. "Why does it matter?"

"Excuse me?" Cragen dropped his arms and moved away from his desk, toward her.

Turning to look at him, there was a more distraught look in her eyes, but she eased some of the tension in her body. "Why does it matter so much? God, years ago, you knew something happened with Cassidy, and that didn't..."

"Yeah, and then suddenly, he talks to a vic, he can't handle the conversation, and he's outta here," he said, looking at her pointedly.

"You...you sent him to talk to her, knowing it would be enough to make him leave? Because of me?" She looked somewhere between surprised and sick.

Cragen scratched at the back of his for a moment. "He was losing his grip on the job anyway, and he let his personal feelings for you affect how he worked, how the two of you worked together." He looked at her, almost as a father would look at his daughter. "I had to stop it before it got out of hand, do you understand that? He was about to sacrifice an entire case because he couldn't put his wounded ego and feelings for you aside."

Olivia shook her head incredulously and said, "You really have no idea..." she swallowed and licked her lips, took a breath, and said, "Have Elliot and I ever screwed up a case? I mean, because of each other, not...not something clerical."

Cragen had to think, hard, and then he whispered, "Gitano."

Olivia held her breath, nodded once, and said, "Yeah, well, that was...that was different. I couldn't..." she shook her head, shirking away the memory. "The point is, no matter how pissed at him I was, or how in love with him I am, or whatever, it has never been a problem to the point of costing us the case." She chuckled to herself, almost cruelly. "God, we may have done things a little unethically, or used a couple of unorthodox methods, but whatever we did it was for the vic, to nail the perp, and we have never, ever, let a case come second."

Cragen let out a breath he'd only just realized he'd been holding. "How long has this been going on? You and him, huh? What exactly am I missing, here?"

Without hesitation, without even batting an eyelash, she glared at Cragen and said, "Years. I knew it was serious after Gitano. It's why I left, because I was...or at least, I thought I following your asinine rules! It's also why I came back, because I am shit without him and he's goddamn useless without me!" She saw the astounded look on his face and clarified. "It's only been an honest-to-God relationship since Kathy left him, but it was everything but physical for...years."

"You've been in love with him...the whole time?" Cragen blinked, confused. "You didn't care that he was married, or that you..."

Her rancorous laugh cut him off. "I told you nothing really happened until Kathy left, we were a couple of little angels, but the feelings? They've always been there, and they just got stronger, and more intense, and when that ring came off his finger...we did something about it."

Exhaling sharply and staring at Olivia, Cragen shrugged with outstretched arms and asked, "Now, what am I supposed to do about it?"

"Well, we know the stunt you pulled with Cassidy isn't going to work," she said with a scoff. "He already thinks you're..."

Cragen held up a hand and closed his eyes. "You're the best team I've got, and you were right, before, when you said you...you always put the case first, no matter how violently you argue about it, so I..." he looked into her eyes, a slight warmth hidden behind the annoyance. "The first time I see, even the slightest hint that your personal relationship is getting in the way, one of you is out of here. But he already talked to Tucker, so until then...I can't stop you."

"You couldn't anyway," she said, turning on her heels again and grabbing the doorknob. Cragen's voice stopped her this time. She gripped the brass handle, willing herself to leave and ignore the question, but she'd hidden enough from him already. She looked over her shoulder and smiled as she answered his question. "Yes," she said, a half-whisper, "I love him more than anything." She didn't say another word, and she didn't wait for a reaction, she simply turned the metal knob in her hand and walked out of Cragen's office, heading home, to Elliot.

Apartment of Olivia Benson, 203 W. 89th Street, 4D, Manhattan, New York

"Jesus Christ," Elliot panted, his chest rising and falling fast and hard. He laughed, staring at the ceiling. "What the hell brought that on?" He gave a sidelong glance to Olivia, who was grinning smugly.

She ran the tip of her index finger in spiraling patterns over his glistening chest, chuckling when his muscles twitched and his moans hit her ears. "I love you," she said.

"You got into it with Cragen," Elliot surmised, raising his hand and brushing her hair back. He gave a gentle, teasing tug and scraped his teeth along his bottom lip. "What did he say that warranted you coming home and, uh, having your way with me?"

With a gleam in her eye, she pushed aside the bed-sheets, looped one leg over Elliot's body, and worked her way atop him, in a straddle. Her hands fell to his waist, one teasing up and down his chest and the other slowly stroking his still semi-hard cock back to full rigor. "It wasn't what he said," she told him, eyeing him wantonly. "It's what I said to him, baby." She brought the tip of his dick to the perfect spot, and then slowly rocked her body, taking him in with a soft, low, long moan.

"Oh, my God," he seethed, sliding his hands up her sides and down her back, watching her eyes as she started to slowly ride him. "What did you say?"

"I realized," she bit her bottom lip and her glare grew more prurient, lustful, and needy, "how long I've been in love with you, how long I've needed you, El, right here, like this."

He got a grip on her hips, almost moving her body himself, moaning her name softly. "Liv, baby, I think you know..."

"You've been in love with me just as long," she finished for him, nodding as she picked up some speed. She bent over just a bit, letting her hair fall around Elliot's face. "Right, baby?" she asked, breathless, her lips brushing against his.

"Damn right," he said firmly, nodding, and then he craned his neck and kissed her hard, still ushering her hips, urging them to move harder and faster. He groaned against her lips and then bucked his body upward, making her squeal just a bit.

They shared a laugh and Olivia felt Elliot pushing her back upright. She raised an eyebrow at him and offered a wicked grin.

He was hitting up, forcing himself deeper into her each time, and he moved his hands to her breasts, squeezing and rolling her nipples between his fingers. He watched her head drop back, her jaw fall open, and he heard his name, sounding more incredible and miraculous than it ever had before. "Fuck, baby," he growled.

She smiled down at him, moving her hands down his chest, and then up her own body until she curled them over his hands. She pressed her fingers into his, forcing him to squeeze her breasts harder, making her cry out his name again. "Tell me," she moaned, and she let out a whimper that told him she was close to exploding.

He twisted his wrists and grabbed her hands, linking their fingers, and he pulled her down to him, hard. He felt her clenching, clamping around him, and slammed upward, thrusting into her harder. Each hit of his body against hers was punctuated by a grunt. He nuzzled her nose for a moment and then whispered, "I love you."

"Yeah?" she asked coyly, rolling her body over his, taking him in deeper.

"Fuck, yeah," he said with a nod, and then he kissed her, a powerful, passionate kiss that was meant to pass everything he was feeling along to her. He felt her tighten, felt her body go rigid, and her guttural cry reverberated in his mouth as he caught it with his kiss. With one final thrust, he came, growling against her lips and firing a hot stream into her.

She stopped moving, stopped breathing, and gripped him tighter as she felt him pulsing and twitching inside of her. She convulsed again, moaning his name softly over and over, as another easy orgasm flowed over her. "Oh, my God," she breathed against his lips.

The pair laughed and kissed, relishing in the post-coital moment of sheer happiness, knowing how few and far between they always were, treasuring it.

She pulled away from a sweet kiss and rubbed her nose against his, her smile reaching the corners of her eyes, and when she saw the swirls of emotions in his eyes, mirroring her own, she gave him one small peck. "I love you, too, El." She took a breath. "So much."

He inhaled slowly, trying to regulate his heartbeat, and he shifted to his left, rolling onto his side and draping his arm over her body. He kissed her again and a long yet blissful moment of silence passed between them. "Forever, right?"

She moved closer to him and nodded. "Longer than that." She kissed him one last time as her eyes closed and her head dropped to his chest. "I promise."

Lobby of the West End Apartments, Riverside Drive, Manhattan, NY

"Do you want to tell them?" Munch asked, looking down at his phone in his hands. He placed a finger over the 'send' button and held the phone out to his partner.

Fin looked at him as if her was crazy. "You're out of your goddamned mind, man," he snapped. "I like breathing. I'm not breaking this to them."

Munch shook his head. "I just can't believe this guy would kill his own son. For what reason?"

"Better question, why was this punk out of the lockup? Someone bailed this guy out? It wasn't Daddy Dearest." He shot his eyes toward Fin. "He wouldn't spring him from the clink just to kill him, would he?"

Fin looked down at the sealed bag in his hand, the bloody scalpel glistening in the lobby's light. "Maybe," he hummed and looked up at Munch. "This guy is going after people who are trying to bring down his company. He thought his kid was a liability." He looked around and then moved closer to Munch. "Here's a question," he said, licking his lips. "Where is he getting the stem cells in the first place? We find the supplier, man, and that is a whole new set of charges to bring up."

Munch hung up the phone and looked at Fin, puzzled. "Neither one of them is answering their phone." He tilted his head. "Stem cells...those are found in umbilical cords and..."

"Yeah," Fin said nodding, "So we go back to Violux. See if that nurse is feeling chatty." He moved, heading out into the night.

Munch, his brow furrowed, looked down at his phone again. "Strange," he mumbled, and then sighed as he took off, following his partner.

Peace and Love

Jo

MarchCommaJo on Twitter