I know this is not how it happened, but for the sake of the plot of this story, the changes are necessary. Please forgive me.

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.

Closure

She had been giving them both the silent treatment, for hours now. She was sitting at her desk, her eyes wandering from Elliot's face to Cassidy's, back again. The moments replaying in her head. She rubbed her forehead, her eyes clouded over in confusion and worry, and she heard Cassidy's voice again.

"How long you been sleeping with Stabler?" He had pulled her over to the side of the room, near the lockers. His heart was pounding and he prayed he was wrong, prayed she would tell him he was so, so very wrong.

She narrowed her eyes, folded her arms, and gave him a confused smirk, but the truth was she was suddenly feeling very sick. "Uh, I'm not."

"Your stomach just dropped two floors, Olivia." He said her name as though it burned, spitting it out venomously. He took a breath, crossed his arms, and sighed. "The unconscious does not lie."

"I'm not lying." Yes, she was. She looked over at Elliot, obliviously writing up a DD5. "Not much."

"Mm-hmm." Cassidy scoffed, knowing that whatever had happened between the two was more than she would ever admit, to him or anyone else.

"Is it that obvious?" she asked, praying that it wasn't. If Cassidy could tell, then so could Cragen, and that was a headache she just didn't need.

Cassidy glared at Elliot for a moment, then looked back at Olivia. He shrugged and shook his head slightly, telling her it was just something he noticed. "He's your partner, for better or worse." He laughed at the way it came out, but then dropped his head, defeated. He tried to smile, but his heart was breaking. "Look everybody knows too much about everybody else in this office anyway."

"I broke a rule, Cassidy. A personal one." She gave him an apologetic expression, hoping to convey that the reason she'd always rebuked his advances was, in fact, because she had that personal rule. Hoping he would just assume this thing with Elliot was nothing more than a one-night-stand. She bit her lip, and the pretense came easy to her. "And now he wants to see me again."

He smiled at her, soft and sincere, wishing like hell he could make her forget all about Elliot Stabler. "Can you blame him?" he asked. He shot her another warm look, seeing the stunned expression on her face, and he turned, leaving her by the lockers, alone.

She sighed and rubbed her eyes. Her head was splitting and the paranoia had sunk into her so deeply that she hadn't said a single word to Elliot about anything except the case, for the last three days. Every time Cragen came out of his office, she'd made sure there was a solid foot between her and her partner. Frustration built, and as a result, they'd been combative, disagreeing on things and arguing over Harper Anderson's rapist's guilt, or was it innocence?

She looked at him, sitting across from her, a scowl on his face. Even his typing seemed angry. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She heard a small bang from the other side of the room, and she snapped her head toward the source. It was Cassidy, slamming things around on his desk and giving Elliot the stink-eye. She hadn't been having much luck dealing with him, either, since she'd finally let him know there was no hope of romance with her. He'd been bitter, resentful, snapping at her and demeaning Elliot. He almost blew the case because he couldn't separate his personal feelings from the case and its evidence.

She watched as Cassidy turned away, sticking his nose in a file. It was then that something else Cassidy had said to her echoed in her ears. Something that hurt, cut so deeply, that it could truly be the entire reason for her current frame of mind.

Cassidy had glared at her, harshly, and pointed at her. His voice dripped with hurt and a vile quality she couldn't place. "When you get married..."

"If I get married," she cut him off, revealing part of her was afraid it was, in fact, an if.

Cassidy shook his head, disgusted, slanted his eyes at an even more evil-looking angle, and he hissed, "As long as you have this job, your marriage will be an affair."

It was that last word, that final spattering from his voice, that had killed her. She blinked and swallowed hard, and she leaned over to Elliot. "Can we..."

"Yeah," he didn't even let her finish. He threw his chair back, stood up fast, and led her up the stairs to the bunk room. He pushed the door in, not bothering to hold it open for her, and he kept his back to her as he leaned against the metal frame of the first bed he saw.

Holding her breath, she closed the door and stepped closer to him. She trembled as she reached out her arms, and when her hands fell to his shoulders, she felt him relax. "Cassidy, he..."

"I know," he hissed, turning around. "I know what he said, and I know why, but fuck, why did you let him get to you? Huh?" He ran a hand down his face and glared at her. "You know me better than that, you know I...that this was never..."

She ran her hands up and down his back, trying to calm him. "I know, but hearing it...from him, after he figured out that we..."

"What we are, what we will be, is none of his fucking business," he interrupted, his eyes dark. "The only person you have to trust, have complete faith in, and believe...is me."

She nodded, choking back tears, again. "I know," she whispered, tears threatening to fall. "And I do." She slid her hands up his arms, up his neck, and cupped his face. "I love..."

Again, he didn't let her finish. He kissed her, his body enveloping hers, his arms pulling her against him as tightly as he could. His lips ravaged hers, one of the most deeply passionate and fervent kisses they'd shared. He spun her around and gave her a light push onto the mattress, climbing over her. He knew it couldn't escalate, but he needed this, taking it for what it was, right now. "Please, just say it."

"I love you," she whispered, arching upward and rubbing herself against him. She gripped him, almost begging him. With her teeth tugging on his bottom lip, she moaned his name and, again, she said those three words he needed so badly to hear.

He smiled as he kissed her again. "I love you," he breathed. He pressed into her and rocked his hips, making her moan, trying to prove that she had no reason to doubt it. No reason to doubt him. He pulled back, and then he panted, keeping his head against hers. "I...I do. So much."

She nodded, kissing his lips quickly. "God, El," she said, feeling him thrust against her again. She felt him stiffen, then, and noticed his eyes had gone red. He was on the verge of tears. She ran her hands through his short hair, nuzzled him, and asked, "Is everything okay? Besides...besides what happened with us."

He sniffled and shook his head as he sat up. "No," he said to her on a breath. He pulled her to a sitting position as shifted over to the edge of the mattress. "My lawyer called."

"Oh," she said with slight panic. "And?"

"The judge...thinks the kids are old enough to decide who...who they want to live with." He wiped his eyes and sniffled again. "We had a helluva Halloween, and thanksgiving is Thursday, but after that...I..." He shrugged, not wanting to voice the fear. With another sigh he got off the bed. He kept hold of her hand and said, "She, uh, well, we, I guess...we sold the house. Now we can start looking. I may, uh, need a co-signer. You know anyone who might wanna go halfsies on a townhouse with me?" He smiled, seeing the shock on her face.

She stood up, still staring at him, stunned. "Are you asking if..."

There was a swift knock on the door, preventing her from answering. "You two cooled off, yet?" Munch's voice carried through the heavy metal.

Elliot laughed and opened the door. "Yeah, we worked it out. What's up, man?"

"You caught something," Munch said, handing them a slip of paper. "On your way out, Stabler, can you slap some sense into Cassidy? He's starting to get under my skin."

Elliot narrowed his eyes and smiled. "Munch," he said, straightening his tie, "I absolutely can."

Reviews are much appreciated, and very motivating.

Peace and Love

Jo.

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