A/N: What's on the tape? Are there more? What will happen to Kathy, if she was even caught?
DISCLAIMER: Dick Wolf owns SVU and its characters. TStabler© owns the narrative, dialogue and plot of this story.
"Hey, guys?" Fin said, as Olivia and Elliot came in through the bullpen door. They had been up all night siphoning through tapes and watching as Cragen and Fin interrogated Kathy, they had gone to get some fresh air. It didn't help. They still looked like death warmed over.
Munch welcomed them back from their sojourn, with fresh coffee, and said, "You've got IAB forms and paperwork, then you can go back to hating each other."
"IAB forms?" Elliot asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, uh, yeah. They just wanna make sure that everything that happened at that hotel was by the book, ansd that you two haven't gone and really fallen in love or anything. They lose more detectives that way," Fin said, shaking his head.
Olivia chuckled. "Are you nuts? Me and Stabler? We did not fall in love during an undercover op," she said, shaking her head.
"I know that, they know that. They just need it in writing." Fin held out two forms, one to each of them, and slapped them on the shoulders. "You two certainly did convince people though, and those tapes? Man, if I didn't know any better...shit looked real."
"Tapes?" Olivia yelped. "What tapes?"
Fin nodded. " Ya know, they taped you when you got there, day one. Your interviews. Shit you two were sayin', it was almost like you really loved each other."
"Yeah," Olivia said with a smirk. "Almost." Fin went back to his desk as Elliot and Olivia looked down at their sanctioned statement forms. They dropped, wordlessly, to their seats.
"I can't fill this out, Liv," Elliot whispered, "I can't lie to..."
Olivia interrupted him. "We're not lying. They need us to say we did not fall in love during this operation. They need us to say that no personal attachments were developed while we were undercover," Olivia declared. "We were involved before we were given this assignment, and they don't need to know that."
"Very true," Elliot said with a smirk. "What about the tapes? What about your apartment?"
"You have the tape, IAB has all of the footage from the hotel and thinks we're damn good actors, and my apartment has been de-camera'd by Morales. My fucking landlord, the son of a bitch, was paid, by Kathy, to install the cameras and then he gave her that tape. The other five he kept for himself. I,uh, persuaded him to give them back to me, and he volunteered to come in and give us a statement, without, of course, telling anyone what was on the tapes."
"You're being very calm about this," Elliot said, filling out his form.
Olivia nodded. "I'm just thinking like a detective. If I start thinking like a victim, I'll freak out, and then I'll have to face what we've done. What I've done," she said with a sigh. She signed her IAB form with a flourish, Elliot scrawled his name across his, and they were placed into a waiting folder
Elliot furrowed his brow and tilted his head at her. "What have you done?"
"Blessed is the woman that endureth temptation," she said with a scoff, throwing her pen onto the desk.
Elliot put his own pen down and looked at her, dead in the eyes and replied, "But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. James, 1:13. Don't try to out-Catholic a Catholic, Liv. What's your point?"
Olivia sighed, ran a hand through her hair and shook her head, at a loss for words.
"Can I talk to you? Privately?" Elliot asked, concerned. He stood, and waited for her to do the same, then he led her to the conference room. He shut the blinds and closed the door. Taking two steps toward her, he placed a finger under her chin and lifted her head up, forcing their eyes to meet again. "You think you're responsible for this, don't you? Kathy's always been a little bit crazy, Liv. She would have been watching any girl I chose over her." he hugged her tightly and said, "Don't blame yourself, baby."
Olivia held her body to his for a moment, feeling their magnet-pull instantly, then pushed him away with a frustrated grunt. "No, El, if you and I weren't so damn...she never would have..." she grunted and waved a hand at him, as if it to tell him he knew what she was trying to say.
Elliot vented. "Liv, it was over between me and Kathy long before you and I even met, you were the kick in the ass I needed, my reason to really leave her." He sighed. "Baby, we did nothing wrong, and if anyone finds out about us, that's exactly what we tell them. Besides, we can just throw Brian Cassidy in her face, because she has been sleeping with him for over a year."
Olivia's eyes widened, and Elliot chuckled. "Don't look so shocked. Why do you think he hated me so much?" he asked. "Liv, being with you, it feels right. Nothing has ever felt so right in my whole life, so how could anything we have done been wrong?" he asked stealing a quick kiss from her before she pulled away.
"Don't," she said. Elliot had pure hurt in his eyes. Had something changed? Had he done something wrong?
"Liv, what...what's the problem?" he asked, worried.
"This," she said, waving a hand in between them. "Elliot, we are damn lucky that IAB bought our crock of shit 'I was totally acting' excuse. We were at work! Granted we were supposed to be acting like a couple, but one that was having severe problems, and we couldn't keep our damn hands off of each other. What would have happened if I didn't see those cameras? If we would have thought we were completely free to..." she paused. "We can not do this. Not here." She pointed a finger at him and declared, "At work, I am just your partner. No more fighting, no more fucking, no more furtive glances. We're friends and partners and that's it until whatever job we're on is finished and Cragen says we can go the hell home." She looked at him, saw the expression on his face, and her resolve was quickly fading. "Don't look at me like that," she said with a defeated expression of her own.
Elliot took two steps toward her and rested his hands on the sides of her body, holding her still, looking intently into her eyes. "I love you."
"Don't do this to me," she pleaded.
Elliot leaned in, bending his head slightly, brushing his lips across hers with featheriness. "What am I doing to you?" he asked with a smirk.
"Don't tempt me, El. Not here. Not now. We are so..."
As she spoke, he nipped at her neck and tugged at her brown pants, sliding them down just enough to gain access to her underwear.
"Fucked," she finished.
Elliot chuckled. "Not quite yet," he mumbled as he took her bottom lip into his mouth. He ran a finger lightly into the elastic waistband of her silk panties and just as he was about to press on, there was a loud, intrusive knock at the door. Elliot leaped back as Olivia pulled up and re-zipped her pants. The door opened just as they appeared innocently decent.
"You got your warrant," Cragen said. "Go back to that office and get those files. We need names and numbers. We're arraigning Kathy and Novak wants an exact count, including you."
"Us?" Olivia asked.
"No, just you, Benson. Your landlord is in interrogation room two, with Munch. He said Kathy was trying to prove you were having an affair with Elliot, which is the most absurd thing I have ever heard, and he gave us tapes. It's all innocent stuff, really, you in the kitchen, watching TV, you reading an awful lot, and Stabler's there way too much. Still, it's another count of voyeurism," Cragen explained. "Get going, both of you. Oh, and I'm glad to see you two getting along again. Guess that marriage seminar helped save your partnership." He smirked and walked out.
Olivia sighed. "Three more seconds and he would have gotten a pretty good idea of just how well we get along," she said, shooting a warning glance at Elliot.
"Okay, baby," he said. "I get it. No more romance while we're working."
"Thank you," Olivia said, reaching for the doorknob.
Elliot smirked and snickered. "Unless we remember to lock the door of the room we're in first." He stole another kiss, laughed as her eyes rolled and smiled when she looked at him and said, "I love you, too, by the way."
As they walked out to the blue sedan, a whole new slew of questions pervaded Olivia's mind. Now that Kathy would be going away for a very long time, and Elliot was going to be a full time father, when the hell were they going to see each other outside of work? She sure as hell wasn't ready to meet the kids, and there was no way she could give him up. Not after finally admitting to herself that it was more that just a sexual attraction. Elliot saw the pensive look on her face as they got into the car, and when he pulled out of the parking lot, he spoke.
"Thinking about me, I hope," he said with a smug grin.
Olivia raised her eyes to meet his. "Yeah. When are you going home?"
"Wow. That eager to get rid of me, huh?" he chortled.
"No," she looked down, unwilling to admit, out loud, the fact she had grown so attached to him so quickly. "I'm that eager for you to stay."
Elliot got quiet. He felt a surge of…happiness? Yes. That was it. She wanted him around. He meant just as much to her as she'd come to mean to him. "Liv, Maureen and Kathleen are old enough to watch Lizzie and Dickie. I can leave my kids alone for a few hours after work. Or, ya know, you can…come to my place."
"What?" she asked, her heart stopping as the word left her mouth.
Elliot laughed. "What do you mean 'what'? I have a house, with a much bigger bed, we wouldn't have to worry about that cranky neighbor of yours…"
"You want me to meet your kids?" she asked.
"Liv, they have a right to meet the person in charge of keeping their father alive, don't they? We can leave out the bit about us being head over heels for each other. Just until they get to know you, love you like I know they will, and until they get over the fact that their mother is a fucking lunatic. It'll take time, but at least it'll be time I get to spend with you," he explained, hoping his argument was convincing.
Olivia smiled at him, and then shook her head. "You are unbelievable. Are you sure you're Catholic?"
"Yeah! Why?" he asked, startled by her question, as he pulled in front of the luxury office building. Olivia chuckled. "Divorce, jumping into bed with someone you just met, seduction, you're a walking sin, Elliot Stabler. That's hardly moral."
Elliot narrowed his eyes. "But I'm the happiest I've ever been in my entire life and I'm not giving you up because you're afraid we're moving too fast, or that we're gonna get caught." He got out of the car and around to her side of it.
"El, we almost were, babe. Twice." She opened the door and got out, starting up the steps, when she felt Elliot's hand around her wrist.
"Liv," he laughed, paused, looked at her, and pulled her in for a hard, rough, desperate kiss that left her stunned and aching for more. "Almost doesn't count." He winked at her and that's when she knew. She was powerless against him, really, and she knew there was no use trying to resist. "Fighting this, whatever this is, is futile, isn't it?" she asked as they walked down the hall, flashing their badges and the blue folded warrant to the man at the front desk.
"Oh, yeah," he replied with a wink. "And this, Liv, is love." He opened the police seal with a small knife and pushed the door open, heading immediately to the filing cabinet. "And we haven't fought in two days, in case you haven't noticed, unless you count that little outburst of yours in the conference room." He heard a loud click, and turned to face her, and was met with a smirk and narrowed eyes as she stepped forward. She pulled the files out of out his hands and pushed him back against the wall. "What are you doing? You're the one who said while we're working…"
She interrupted him. "It's okay. I locked the door."
He gave her a shit-eating grin and said, "Welcome to the dark-side, baby." He tugged her shirt over her head and assaulted her neck with bites and kisses.
She moaned and raked her fingers through his hair. "Are you gonna tell me to use the force, too?" she laughed, pushing his jacket off of his shoulders.
His eyes widened. "You got the Star Wars reference?"
"El, I could quote that movie for hours," she said. "If you'd rather talk about Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, I can put my clothes back on…"
"No," he said, shaking his head violently. "I just didn't think you could get any more perfect for me. You proved me wrong." He pushed her slacks down and ripped her panties down with them, as he fumbled out of his own black pants.
"Shut up," she said, kissing him, "And show me how to use that light saber of yours."
He chuckled. "You're already an expert, Liv, but practice does make perfect," he quipped as he lifted her leg around him and slid into her. She closed her eyes and moaned in pleasure, pressing her lips to his throat, as the realization that she, too, had never been happier in her entire life, and she wasn't so ready to give him up, either.
"Excuse me," a man in a stiff-looking suit said as he walked into the 1-6 SVU squadroom.
Cragen looked up. "Agent Porter? What are you doing here? This isn't a federal..."
"No, Sir, I know that. Actually, I'm looking for Olivia Benson," he said, shaking Cragen's hand. "I heard she was a part of this unit now?"
"Yes, she is. She's out on a call with Stabler," Captain Cragen informed him.
Agent Porter nodded, then said, "Oh, she got stuck with Stabler? Pity. Um, will you tell her I stopped by?"
"Yeah," Cragen said. "How do you know Benson, by the way?"
Porter smirked. "We used to date. I asked her to marry me the night she got her gold shield, she, uh, flipped out and ran out of the restaurant. I haven't heard from her since," he said. "I came to get an answer."
Cragen's eyes widened and he knew that Porter was going to get the shock of his life when Olivia not only said "no," but gave him the reason. "Good luck with that," Cragen said with a grin. "You'll need it."
A/N: What? I would think running out and never calling him again would BE an answer. Oh, Porter. Want more? Review and I shall continue! Thanks for reading!