A/N: Pulse: when you lose the one thing that matters to you, you no longer have one.
DISCLAIMER: Dick Wolf owns SVU and its characters. TStabler© owns the narrative, dialogue and plot of this story
"McShane isn't talking," Munch said. "He was staring at Benson, growling at Stabler, he punched Langan and he wants to make a phone call." Munch and Olivia had walked out of the interrogation room and were leaning on the wall, waiting for a response.
Cragen nodded. "Give him a phone. Let's see who he calls. Tap it, though. Record it. Benson, go up to TRU, hack into the system and trace it." Olivia nodded, and ran.
Olivia came back from the Technical Response Unit with a harrowed expression on her face, ten minutes later, biting her lip. "We have a problem," she whispered to Elliot.
Fin was watching intently, he couldn't hear what they were saying, but he saw them look at him, he saw Olivia glance over at him twice. "What?" he asked. "What's happenin'?"
Elliot sighed. "Fin, McShane called Kenny. Their conversation wasn't exactly friendly, and it looks like Kenny may have..."
"He lied to us," Olivia said bluntly. "I'm going to Hudson University. El, stay here, work on McShane. If I'm not there to distract him, maybe you'll have more luck." Before anyone could protest Olivia was out the door. Elliot sighed, he shot a horrid glance at Fin and stormed back into the interrogation room, ready to make McShane rue the day he was born.
An hour and a half later, Elliot had knocked a confession out of McShane. Olivia was right. Scott was discharged from the Army and sent home a week ago, and he came home to surprise his first wife, Tanya. He walked in on her in bed with Kenny and flipped out. He stormed out of the building. He went back later that night, killed Tanya and the two kids in a fit of rage, but knew that Kenny would be able to implicate him, so he hurried across town to kill his second wife and child, they were getting divorced, anyway, not that it was a good excuse. He had a friend of his call Kenny from a prepaid, untraceable phone, and tell him to run so the cops would think he was guilty when Scott pinned it on Kenny.
The phone call to Kenny had revealed, not only that Kenny knew Scott killed her, but that one of the kids was his. Kenny ran, and let the man who killed his son almost get away with it.
Olivia brought Kenny back, three hours later, at three in the morning. They both looked exhausted and he had been crying. He looked at Fin. "Dad," he said, "Can we talk?"
Fin looked at Cragen, who nodded, and walked with Fin and Kenny into the interrogation room. Olivia yawned and plopped into her seat as Elliot walked over with hot coffee. "Hey," he said softly.
"Hey, yourself." She took the mug, gratefully, and sipped as her eyes closed in pleasure.
Elliot gruffed. "I'm jealous of the coffee, now. Anything that makes you make that face that isn't me instantly pisses me off," he quipped. "What happened with Kenny?"
"We talked. I went to him as a friend, not a cop, and gave it to him straight. Told him what kind of trouble he was in and what he needed to do to make it right, and after he broke down and told me everything, I told him he needed to come here and tell it to the Captain. I took myself off the case," Olivia explained, sipping the coffee again.
Elliot ran a hand through her hair, something he only did because they were alone. "You're an incredible cop, and an even more incredible woman."
"You noticed," she said looking up at him. "About time." She winked and smirked at him.
"Oh, Liv. I've noticed for years, you know that." He leaned in, slowly, carefully, to kiss her, but the metallic door to the cribs swung open and Elliot backed away. "Hey, Munch! Nice nap?"
"No, those things are lumpy and squeaky," Munch said, clomping down the stairs. "Your turn." He pointed to Elliot.
Elliot gave Olivia a soft look and climbed the stairs, hoping she'd take a break soon and join him.
He had rolled over and blinked his eyes open when he heard the door open. He heard voices, one of them was Olivia's. "What are we doing up here Fin?" she asked, sounding tired and mildly annoyed.
Fin looked at her and smiled. "Thank you, Baby-Girl. Whatever you said to him, removing yourself from the case so you couldn't take his statement and have him feel betrayed, it means so much. After everything...you do care, don't you?"
Olivia smiled. "Fin, you're my big brother, of course I still care about you. Ken is good kid. He made a few mistakes and when he was threatened he ran. He was scared, he just lost his son, he needed help."
"And I am so thankful that you were there to help him," Fin said. Taking a step closer. "You're really somethin' else, baby-Girl. I love you."
"I told you I..." she was cut off, her next words sounded muffled and panicked.
Elliot bolted up and jumped out of the bed, reaching for the light. He was heartbroken when he saw Fin kissing Olivia, running his hand down her shoulder, over her arm, caressing her and Olivia trying desperately to push him off of her, but too stunned and exhausted to have any strength behind her attempt. Elliot grabbed Fin by the collar and pulled, then tossed him across the room, he landed on a bunk. "What the hell is going on in here?" Elliot yelled. He looked at Olivia, who looked terrified. "Liv?"
Fin's eyes widened. "Stabler? What the hell are you doing up here?"
"I was taking a nap. Your turn!" Elliot yelled, fuming.
Fin got up, smirked. "What did it look like?" he asked, getting in Elliot's face.
Elliot pushed him back, hard, into the wall. "Fin, don't fuck with me right now!"
"Oh, what?" Fin furrowed his brow and took a swing at Elliot, landing a hit to his right cheek. Elliot swung back, knocking Fin in the left eye. Fin swung again, but Elliot moved and Fin hit Olivia.
Elliot shoved a shocked Fin out of the way. "Oh, my God! Liv?" He grabbed Olivia. She was pale. Shaking. "Are you okay?" he asked her. Olivia nodded, rubbing her shoulder where the blow landed.
"Baby-Girl, I'm sorry! You have to tell him. Tell him, Liv. Tell him you love me," Fin said, stepping closer. "What you did for me proves it."
Olivia's eyes widened, the tears in them blurred her vision. Her heart raced, pounding violently in her chest. "What? Fin, you ass! I did what I did because I love you like a brother! I care about Kenny! It doesn't mean I wanted you to come up here and grope me! Jesus Christ, I can't take this shit anymore. If this is what it's going to be like, then I can't...Elliot, I'm sorry," she said, the tears finally falling, pushing him away. "I love you, but I..."
Elliot's heart stopped. "No, no, no. Liv, do not do this." Elliot said, his own heart starting to shatter and shake. "I saw you trying to fight him off, I know you didn't...baby, come on," he begged.
Olivia shook her head. "I don't want to have anything to do with either one of you. Not until you can act like adults." She gave Elliot a heartbroken look, but there was something in her eyes. Something that he understood. Something he found an incredible amount of comfort in. As Olivia stormed out of the crib door, Elliot turned to Fin. "Are you happy now? She was fucking happy for the first time in her entire life. She was happy with me, and you ripped it all away from her."
Fin, his heart shattering, knew he was right. As Elliot ran out to try to find Olivia, Fin watched two people he loved walk out of his life. His heart stopped, too.
The banging on her door was loud. Incessant. Insistent. She had just gotten home and was cranky and tired and upset, but she knew who it was. She sighed, padded softly to the door and took a deep breath. She opened the door and he was standing there, looking hopeless. Helpless.
"Liv?" he choked.
She sobbed and threw her arms around him. "I'm sorry. God, I am so sorry!"
His eyes closed and he squeezed, taking a few steps, pushing them into the apartment. "I knew, when I looked into your eyes, what you were doing, but I hated hearing it. Before I relaized...when I thought you were really...you killed me, Liv."
"I know, baby, I know," she said stroking the sides of his face with her hands. "But, it's the only way he's gonna stop. He really scared me tonight. You both did." She pulled him toward the bedroom and made him sit on the bed. "I watched the two of you fight, and then he hit me, and he was fully convinced that I helped Ken because I had romantic..." she paused and shook her head. "I just needed to stop it, El. I'm so glad that you know what I'm thinking. That you can read me," she said with a chuckle. "I couldn't last one day without you."
Elliot kissed her, running his hands over her, smiling. He pulled away, slowly. "I know the feeling, baby." He watched, dazed, as she got up off the bed and started to undress, but he got up and moved next to her when she walked to the dresser.
"Liv," he said as he put a hand over hers, stopping her from opening the drawer. "Don't bother." He spun her around and kissed her, wrapping her in his strong arms. She moaned into his mouth, tracing the outline of every one of his muscles with her fingertips as they kissed. She helped him shed his clothes. He picked her up and carried her over to the bed, laid her down and crawled on top of her. "I can't lose you, ever," he whispered to her
"You won't. Ever." She kissed him again, but this kiss felt different. There was something new, surprising. A different feeling. A new life. They pulled apart and looked into each other's eyes. "What...was that?" she asked, a smirk threatening to form.
"I don't really know," Elliot said. "You were talking about that kiss, right? It felt..."
Olivia nodded. "Yeah," she whispered. She pulled him down to her again, and felt the same surreal energy. Their kisses held meaning, and depth, it sped up their hearts and cleared their minds and surrounded them with warm, white light. It was almost like magic, really. Elliot deepened the kiss and skimmed his hands over every curve of her body, loving the way she moved beneath him. When he was sure she was wet enough, he teased her juicy center with one finger, smirking against her lips.
"Oh, God, El," she cried into their kiss.
Elliot rested his forehead against hers, and replaced his finger with the tip of his hot, thick, ready member. She looked into his eyes and she saw the love, the true love, the promise to never leave her, and the fear that she would leave him. She knew what seeing Fin kiss her did to him, because she'd been there, every time she watched him with Kathy. "El, I'm never really leaving you," she whispered, feeling him start to stretch her.
"Promise me," he whispered, pushing further inside. "Say it."
"Oh, El," she moaned, "I promise."
Cragen sighed as Fin waited impatiently for an answer. "I'm sorry, Fin, but there aren't any openings in the Queens SVU. If there were, don't you think..."
"But, there's gotta be somethin' else, somewhere," Fin said, huffing. "Anywhere."
"There isn't, Fin. What's the hurry to get out of here? You love it here. You're part of this family." Cragen folded his arms.
Fin shook his head. "No, man. I'm tearin' the family apart, Cap."
"Well, even if there were available spots in another unit, I wouldn't sign jack shit, so you do what you have to do to fix whatever mess it is you think you made. Am I clear?" Cragen pointed to the door. "It won't be easy, but it needs to be done."
"Yeah," Fin said. Sighing. "It does." Fin got up and walked out of the office, finally admitting that he'd been wrong and foolish. His heart pounded as he realized the perfect way to make it up to Elliot, and get his Baby-Girl and his best friend back together.
A/N: What does Fin do? Does it work? Will he find out that Liv and El aren't really over? If you'd like to read more, lemme know with a review!