A/N: My super-beta deserves a cape! And thanks to Lauren for getting Tucker back into this mess! LOL To all those reading, I appreciate reviews more than you realize, so keep them coming por favor! :)

"Fuck, Olivia…I can't keep doing this! I need to think." Elliot stood from the pull out couch and began to pace around Olivia's living room. She watched his face, illuminated in the moonlight, his chiseled features causing her breath to catch in her chest. She knew everything was a mess and knew the only thing that made sense was to let him go, but…she couldn't. She wouldn't.

Damn, love sucked sometimes.

As much as she tried to resist him, Olivia could not separate herself from Elliot. He made her feel irresponsible. Reckless. The emotion and fire he ignited in her was beyond anything she could compare.

But her job. Her job was her life. It was what she was born to do. Could she give that up for him? For anyone?

The piercing gaze of his bright blue eyes met her own, causing her to soften. "El –" Olivia grabbed his arm, pulling him back toward the couch. Elliot allowed himself to drop back down onto the thin mattress. She wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her body against his and sliding onto his lap. "I don't know what to say to make this all okay."

Elliot exhaled into her hair, causing the soft strands to shift around her temple. "I know, Liv. I don't either." He enveloped her into a warm embrace, pulling her even tighter against him. "Unfortunately what we want and what we can have are two different things." He gripped the hair at the nape of her neck and pressed his lips against hers once again. As the kiss deepened, he tasted the salt of her tears on the tip of his tongue before pulling away.

Elliot brushed his thumb over the apple of her cheek and smiled sadly. "I should go."

"I know."

{EO}

Olivia was in no way looking forward to her first day back at work. With Elliot. The man she loved for years, but could never have even now.

Fuck her life.

She procrastinated getting out of bed. Procrastinated taking her shower. Procrastinated heading to the precinct. She dreaded having to sit across from him, work beside him, and pretend as though nothing had changed.

He walked in looking like a man on a mission, heading right into Cragen's office without stopping at their desks first. His jaw was set, fists balled at his sides, as he glanced at her briefly before knocking on the door.

She couldn't read him…a feeling she rarely had, but hated nonetheless. Cragen called for him to enter and then he disappeared behind the wooden door.

Twenty minutes later, Elliot emerged looking as downtrodden and exhausted as Olivia felt. He hung his coat and kept his eyes trained on her own as he walked over to his desk. She had to look away from the intensity of his stare. As she began to type up a DD5, she offered an overly casual "hey" as he sat down before her.

Elliot's brow furrowed inquisitively at her attitude before he spoke. "We need to talk."

Her breath hitched as she raised her eyes to meet his. "El, this isn't the time or the place…"

"At lunch. We'll go to the diner down the block, okay?" He gave her the look that she could never refuse.

"Yeah. Okay."

They worked all morning with the air between them filled with a palpable tension. Avoiding any further eye contact, Olivia must have glanced at her wristwatch a dozen times until it was one o' clock. Elliot cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow at her. "Ready?"

She exhaled as though she had been holding her breath for a long time. "Let's go."

{EO}

The diner was bustling and overcrowded with people on their lunch breaks, but Elliot and Olivia managed to snag a booth tucked away in the back of the brightly lit room. Shifting uncomfortably on the cracked, vinyl seat, Elliot opened his mouth to speak for the first time since they left the precinct, only to be interrupted by their usual waitress, Peggy.

"Hey, hun, the usual?" Peggy was an attractive woman in her late fifties that always made it quite clear that she had a bit of a "thing" for Elliot. She only addressed him whenever he was there; ignoring whomever else he happened to be sitting with. Olivia found it amusing normally, but at the moment, she found it nothing short of irritating.

"Hi, Peg…yeah, the usual for me." Elliot smiled brightly at her as he motioned toward Olivia. "How about you, Liv?"

Olivia narrowed her eyes at both Elliot and Peggy before answering. "Just coffee and the turkey club for me."

Peggy continued to look at Elliot as she scribbled down Olivia's order without paying attention to what she was writing. "Okay, sweetie. Be right back with your order." She twirled her auburn hair around her index finger and smiled back at Elliot flirtatiously before heading off to the kitchen to place their orders.

Elliot's grin faded as his eyes landed on Olivia's sour expression. "What?"

"Really?"

"Come on, Liv. It's just Peggy being Peggy," he chuckled and rolled his eyes.

"I'm just not in the mood today, okay?" Olivia crossed her arms over her chest and sat back in the booth, looking a bit like a petulant child. "What did you want to talk about?"

Elliot sighed and stood up to slide into the booth beside her. "Liv," he breathed into her ear sending chills down her spine. "I talked to Cragen…asked him if there was any way we could work something out so that we could still work together and explore a relationship. He –"

"Have you lost your damn mind, Elliot?" She shouted and sat up straight, scooting away from him, garnering attention from more than a few fellow patrons.

"Fuck, Liv, my eardrum!"

"Fuck your eardrum! What the hell were you thinking? What did Cragen even say?"

"Calm down, will you? He suggested the three of us talk to Tucker about working something out on a trial basis to start. He needs us to prove that a personal relationship won't affect our work in the field. Did you know that there is no actual formal written rule anywhere saying that partners can't date? It's just frowned upon…"

"Oh my God, El…this is a huge mess! How could you not talk to me about this first? Maybe I'm not willing to chance this, have you ever thought of that?"

"Lover's quarrel?" Tucker's voice startled them both, their heads whipping to the right to see the smug looking Sergeant smirking at them.

Shit.

Elliot scrambled up from his seat, standing in front of Tucker, chin tilted forward. "Back off, Tucker."

"Now here I thought you'd invite me to join you for lunch, but I see you've decided to be your usual pleasant self." Tucker, not intimidated, took a step closer to Elliot, further antagonizing the situation. "Didn't I warn you two? Obviously you can't keep your hands off each other during work hours…"

"This is none of your business," Elliot growled as he widened his stance, starting down at the IAB prick.

"Oh, but I think it is, Stabler. Your Captain called me in for a meeting with you two, scheduled for two o'clock. I just was grabbing a sandwich to go before I headed over to the precinct. I'm guessing this meeting has something to do with your inability to keep it in your pants?" Tucker smirked again as he eyed the detectives.

"You have no fucking clue what you're talking about." As Elliot made a move to step even closer, practically placing him and Tucker nose to nose, Olivia grabbed his arm, halting the action.

"It's not worth it, El," she whispered into his ear while giving Tucker a dirty look. "Let's just go." Olivia threw some cash onto the table and proceeded to drag a reluctant Elliot out of the diner.

Once they were outside, she released his arm and began to walk briskly ahead of him, tossing over her shoulder a short, "I can't believe this!"

"Slow down, Liv and just talk to me will you? No shouting or arguing. We have to deal with this before we see Cragen again." He jogged to catch up to her and grabbed onto her wrist, slowing down her pace.

"I just can't believe you put me…us in this situation. There's no going back if we tell Cragen and Tucker everything; do you realize that? There is a huge chance that we will lose our partnership, possibly get written up if we let this affect our work, and possibly lose each other in the whole process! Did you think about all of this Elliot? Did you think about what would happen if you got transferred to a department with less overtime or that's even further from your kids? What about –"

Elliot silenced her with his mouth on hers. They were standing in the middle of the sidewalk as pedestrians bumped into them, some suggesting they get a room. He didn't care. He only saw Olivia. Cupping her head, he smiled against her lips as he felt her stop resisting, allowing her lips to move against his own. Finally he tore himself away from the heat of her body, the softness of her full lips.

"Do you love me?"

She was breathless. "You know I do Elliot, but that's not always enough."

"It can be. We can at least try and see what Tucker and Cragen say before making any drastic decisions. How can you just let this go so easily?"

"This is anything but easy for me, El." Olivia scrubbed her hand over her face in frustration. "What changed your mind?"

He wrapped his arm around her waist, resting his hand low on her hip as they began to walk again. He pulled her as tight against him as possible without causing her stride to falter. "This. You. I can't imagine never having it again."

Releasing a shuddering breath, she looked up at him, the corner of her mouth lifting ever so slightly. "Okay…let's do this. Let's talk to Cragen and Tucker."