A/N: What does she talk to him about now? Did Elliot give Olivia the red box? Not yet. What happens when he does? Ed uses the investigation to score some alone time with Olivia, but fails. What will Elliot have to say about it? He starts to sound a little like his father, and his mother.

DISCLAIMER: SVU and related characters belong to Dick Wolf. Story, dialogue, narrative and plot belong to TStabler©

"What do you want, Mom?" Elliot asked, walking into her living room. He inhaled, noticing that it still smelled like cloves and cinnamon. It had for as long as he could remember, she was always baking something. "You called me out here, I had to leave Liv with Fin, and you know how much I hate that."

Bernie smirked at him. "Yes, dear," she said, handing him some coffee. "That's exactly why I wanted to talk to you."

"Because I don't trust Fin?" Elliot asked, sipping the flavored coffee.

Bernie laughed. "No, Elliot," she said. "The reason you hate leaving Olivia. I noticed, as we left the hospital the other day, that you haven't given her that ring yet."

Elliot sighed. "Mom, it's way too soon to give her something like that. Especially since…Olivia doesn't do well with commitment, and she gets freaked out when things get too serious. She…" He paused, trying to find the words. "She loves me, I know she does, but we need time. She needs time, and I have to get the kids settled, make them understand that their mother isn't a horrible woman like they thought…"

"Why?" Bernie asked, interrupting. "They should think so." She sipped her coffee and looked seriously at her son.

"Mom," Elliot began, leaning forward, "What do you have against her? Where's all this resentment coming from?"

Bernie shook her head and tilted it, looking warmly at him. "Honey, she trapped you. She got pregnant on purpose, and she trapped you. I know you don't believe that but…"

"I don't," Elliot said, nodding. "You're right."

"Elliot, a mother knows. Trust me," Bernie said. "She did whatever she could to keep you, and she controlled you for years, you know she did. For most of the years you were with her you were miserable, you had an attitude, you were bitter and cold. It wasn't until that partner of yours walked into your life that I started to see you smile again."

Elliot froze. Had he been that transparent? He cleared his throat and said a curt, "So?"

"So?" Bernie repeated, her eyes wide. "You don't think it's funny that your wife of almost nineteen years can't get you to smile, but someone you had only known for a week did? You don't think it's odd that you couldn't bring yourself to tell Kathy about those nightmares you were having, but in your first stakeout with Olivia, the whole story came pouring out of your mouth? You don't think…"

"Okay!" Elliot snapped. "I get it! I was a shitty husband and I have an incredible, intense, unbreakable connection to my fiancée. Are you going somewhere with this?"

"You just went there for me," Bernie said with a smirk. "Go over what you just said in your head, and gasp audibly when you realize what you just said."

Elliot furrowed his brow, then one eyebrow shot up. He looked pensive for a moment, and then both brows rose high and he gasped.

"Figured it out, have you?" Bernie asked, chuckling to herself as she sipped her coffee.

Elliot nodded. "Why did I say that?" he asked himself softly.

Bernie rested a hand on his knee. "You want it," she said. "You've wanted it for years, and you couldn't do anything about it until now. I know you want to take things slow for her, but Elliot, think of yourself, too. You haven't done that in such a long time."

Elliot bit his lip. "What if I scare her?" he asked, his voice breaking. "You're right, Mom. You're…you're always right," he said, shaking his head. "I want her, and I want to be the one she ends up with, and I know if that ring's on her finger she'll never take it off, but…what if I push her too far too fast? What if…"

"You sound like your father," Bernie told him, sighing.

"Dad was a bastard," Elliot said. "How do I sound anything like him right now?"

Bernie looked her son in the eyes and said, "He had his moments. He was always wondering so much about the 'what-ifs' and the 'coulda-woulda-shouldas.' He never relaxed enough to enjoy the things that were really happening, the people he really had in life. You get so mixed up worrying about things, and being afraid of the bad things in life, that you miss out on the good."

Elliot tilted his head and said, "You and Liv have a lot common."

"We know you better than you know yourself, and we love you unconditionally," Bernie said, reading his mind. "Why on Earth do you think I like her so much, sweetheart?" she asked, sipping her coffee. "You finally found someone who is absolutely worthy of you, who deserves you, and whom you deserve. You have my blessing, I give my approval, now go give her that ring."

Elliot tried to interrupt her. "But Mom, I…"

"She knows your Social Security Number, your ATM pin, the password to every computer account you have, and she has never used any of them without your consent. You wouldn't even tell Kathy the combination to your locker in high school."

Elliot chuckled. "You have a point. Trust her. I trust her, and she won't run. Is that what you're saying?"

"No, I'm saying if you don't marry her and you break up, you're gonna have to change an awful lot of passwords," Bernie joked.

Elliot laughed and kissed his mother on the cheek. "I love you, Mom," he said. "I really do."

"I love you, too, dear," Bernie replied. "Why do you think I'm doing all of this?" she shrugged.

Elliot smiled at her and waved as he left, heading back to the station, thinking of how, exactly, he would slip the ring on her finger, and what he would have to tell her when he did it.

"Will you stop that?" Olivia chided, watching Elliot pace back and forth in front of her.

"I can't help it," he told her. "I have a lot of nervous energy right now, and when Fin gets back with Tucker I…"

"You will do nothing," Olivia said, pointing to him. "This was not Fin's fault. We were chasing different people. It's just a cut, Elliot. A couple of stitches."

Elliot turned and looked down at her as she sat behind her desk. "Stitches you wouldn't have gotten if I was with you. He shouldn't have taken off like that," he said, angry.

Olivia sighed. "I told him to, because there were three of them and two of us, and we needed to take them down. You would have done the same thing."

"I was talking about Tucker! I had to go deal with my mom, so he took you, without me," Elliot spat. "Doesn't that mean anything to you? God, Liv, he just wanted you alone! And when Fin showed up..."

"Elliot, calm down," Olivia scolded. "Yeah, Ed may have wanted..."

"Stop calling him that," Elliot interrupted, demanding.

Olivia pressed her lips together for a moment. "That's his name," she said with a shrug.

"You didn't call him that before," Elliot said, turning back to her. "You started calling him that when you started..."

"It's his name, El," Olivia cut in again. "You have to get over this, all right? You know nothing could possibly happen between me and him, not again," she said, sounding annoyed. Then she smirked. "You're cute when you're jealous."

Elliot ran a hand down his face. "How's your hand?" he asked. He turned around and looked her in the eyes and said, "I promise you, if I was there, you wouldn't have gotten hurt."

Olivia scrunched her face a bit, in confusion. He was acting so odd. "Okay," she said, not wanting to argue anymore. "Whatever you say," she finished.

"God, I can't…" Elliot paused and pulled Olivia out of her chair. "Come with me," he said, leading her out of the squadroom, into the hallway. He dragged her up the stairs and led her out onto the roof.

"The roof," she hissed. "You only wanna go up to the roof when it's…"

"This is important," he said, taking her toward the edge. "I know this has happened…fast. Out of nowhere, and I get that you're probably still trying to get used to me...us…"

Olivia reached out for him, ignoring the bandage on her hand, and said, "I'm used to it." She looked into his eyes and said, "Kissing you, being with you like this, if I ever have to live without you again…El, I don't think I can do that."

"You mean that?" Elliot asked, hopeful.

Olivia nodded. "I've been waiting for you for a long time," she said. "Who would have thought your mother would be the one to push us together?"

Elliot smiled and said, "She was just doing her job." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the little, red box that had been with him for days. He took a breath as he popped it open and turned it toward her. "I'm not asking," he said. "But I want you to know that I want to, and I will, when I think the time is right. This…this means I'm yours. You're mine. And once you put this on, it's a done deal. My mother had some crazy dreams, Liv, but I can't say I haven't had the same ones."

"It's beautiful," Olivia whispered looking down at the purple and blue clusters of stones, her fingers tracing the band as he lifted the ring out of the box and held it out to her. "Incredibly beautiful," she said.

Elliot looked at it for a moment, then looked back up at her. "I'm not gonna put this on your finger if you're not…"

Olivia held out her hand, looking into his eyes, telling him she was whatever he needed her to be, then. "I love you," she whispered, feeling the metal slide onto her finger. She wasn't sure what it meant, only that she was ready to wear it, and she had to thank Bernie for picking out such a beautiful and delicate ring.

"I love you, too, Liv," Elliot said. He bent his head to kiss her, smiling against her lips as he held her close. "More than you know. I think…I think we were meant to be here, like this, you and me."

Olivia nodded at him, then she furrowed her brow as her phone rang. She looked very confused as "I'm Too Sexy" filtered through the air. "Um…do you have your phone?" she asked.

Elliot furrowed his brow as he felt around his jacket pockets. "Shit, no, why?"

"Benson," Olivia said, answering her phone. "Oh, wow, uh, yeah…I'll…I'll tell him. Thanks." She looked up at him and said, "You left your phone at your mother's."

Elliot smirked. "So that's my ringtone?" he asked, chuckling.

"What can I say?" she shrugged. "Even my phone thinks you're sexy. And it thinks you have an ego," she teased. She kissed him and took his hand, leading him back down into the station, hoping the rest of their night would be easy, and hoping that the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach would go away.

It would, but only after a nice chat. With her mother.

A/N: How does Olivia talk to her mother? When the kids move in, what do they say about their mother that comes as a shock to Olivia and Elliot? Review here or on Twitter: TMG212