AN: I know this chapter has been a long time in coming and I apologize. I have struggled and wrestled and fought with it for awhile because I couldn't get the storyline to adapt to my writing format so a compromise was made. The format shifted from a straight third person narrative to a quick story within a story type format. In concession, my story had to cut out a scene and reduce it to flashbacks in the next chapter because I wasn't about to do a scene within a scene occurring at the same time as another scene. It's too confusing and this 'day' has lasted for enough chapters already. So I apologize. I know a lot of you were expecting to discover Elliot's deep dark secrets in a blubbering confession to Olivia, but that's just not his style. I have something gritty and raw and angsty and oh so Elliot and Olivia planned just for that in the next chapter :) Happy reading!

Disclaimer: They aren't mine. They belong to the Wolf.

Olivia slumped back in her chair. Elliot was avoiding her. Granted, it wasn't as if she was purposely seeking him out or anything, but still, he wasn't suppose to be avoiding her. It was suppose to be the other way around. She was supposed to spend the day ignoring him.

Elliot had successfully avoided eye, foot, hand, breath, and every other humanly form of contact with her since he arrived at the 1-6 two hours late, soaked, and angry at the world. She had rather hoped, in the far recesses of her mind of course, that she was the one who had caused him so much anguish, but that bubble was quickly shot to hell when she heard him swearing at Rebecca and Cragen under his breath as he passed by her desk to Cragen's office without so much as a sideways glance in her direction. He had, in fact, spent the entire day avoiding their desks at all costs, or, when he absolutely had to sit at his desk, ignoring her presence completely. Hell, she'd even go as far as to wager he never even lifted his gaze from his feet in the entire six hours he'd been there!

He was intentionally refusing to acknowledge her or her anger and it wasn't fair! He stole her thunder and she was livid. After all, she was the avoidant one. He was the repressor of the two. She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at his empty chair. "Pussy."

Munch, who was the only one in the room in ear shot of her expletive and had been watching their little soap opera unfold for the better part of the day, lifted his eyebrows at her in reply. "Is that an invitation?"

She turned toward him with a highly angry and annoyed glare.

"I take that as a 'no' then."

"Looks more like a 'fuck off dirty old man' ta me," Fin interjected taking his seat across from Munch.

Munch cut his eyes over the rim of his glasses and gave Fin a tight lipped huff. He turned back toward Olivia whose posture had noticeably straightened. He smirked in amusement as he watched Elliot cross the room with his head hung avoiding any and all eye contact. "Awe, lover's quarrel then?"

"Fuck off," Olivia growled before pushing out of her seat in pursuit of her wayward partner. "Dirty old man," she added over her shoulder before turning and meeting Elliot head on.

Elliot grabbed her upper arms, bracing the majority of her weight as she struggled with her balance. "You okay Liv?"

She bit her bottom lip and chanced a glance into his cool, blue eyes. "Just fine," she bit off, pulling her arms from his grasp and pushing past him.

He grabbed her left wrist. "Liv I…"

"No! Don't you dare 'Liv' me Stabler!" She pulled her arms out of his grasp and jabbed him in the chest with her ring finger taking care to pierce the skin peeking through his unbuttoned, loosened shirt collar. "You don't fucking get it." She added with as hiss as she seized his wrists, dragging him from Munch's prying eyes and Fin's sudden interest in the coffee pot two feet from where they were standing.

"Look, Liv…" She cut her eyes at him. "…Olivia… I've just…"

She shook her head in disbelief and gave him a tight, bitter smile. "No, you listen. Listen to me Elliot! For once this isn't about you, or what you want, or what you need, or how you feel!" She gave him a hard shove as he tried to placate her with his hands on her lower back. She backed out of his personal space very aware of mood shift in him. The man went from zero to horny in under 2.5 seconds! She narrowed her eyes at him and clenched her fists at her sides. That was half of the whole fucking problem with them! Sex was always lurking just beneath the surface of everything and it was driving her crazy…and… and she couldn't think straight with him so god damned near!

"Liv…" Elliot tried once more to reel her back in with his hands.

Olivia once again shook her head unconvincingly as he wrapped his hands around her hips pulling her close.

"Livia." He placed his forehead against her neck and sighed and she closed her eyes, her baser impulses winning out over her better judgment as she slid her hands up his forearms with her hands coming to rest just below the crook of his elbows.

"We aren't getting married Liv, and we aren't dating, and I'm not going to let this interfere with our partnership. We're just having sex, that's it. We're just keeping each other company."

His declaration from their first night together reverberated through her mind and she pushed herself out of his embrace. "No Elliot. This isn't… this isn't what I wanted." She continued to back away from him as he ran a hand over the back of his head and neck in frustration.

"I can't do this right now." She muttered, swiftly grappling for her jacket. "I have to go."

"Olivia, Christ… what? Damn it, talk to me! I don't understand."

She stopped dead in her tracks, turned, and stomped back toward him. Elliot stood straighter as she calmly regarded him, her eyes darting side to side drinking him in.

"That's your problem El, not mine," she hissed. "You've ignored me all day, ALL DAMN DAY ELLIOT, and now that you're suddenly in the mood to talk to me, you expect me to what? Jump for joy? Or is it into your arms?" She sneered. "You know what, go fuck yourself. There's an explanation for you." She turned on her heels and headed for the door. "And if you know what's good for you Stabler, you'll leave me the hell alone." She tossed over her shoulder never slowing her pace.

He held his breath as he watched her disappearing figure and swore under his breath before fiercely pounding a fist into the brick wall behind him. "Fuck me."

EOEOEOEOEOEO

Cragen's grimace tightened for the umpteenth time today. This just wasn't his week. "So let me get this straight. You think Benson and Stabler are… are sleeping together?"

"I didn't say that," Rebecca replied folding her arms over her knees. They'd been at this for an hour, most of which was spent calming Cragen down after he learned Elliot had stormed out of their session with fourty minutes left on the clock. "I said there is a depth of intimacy in that relationship that goes much deeper then their partnership."

"And…" Cragen prompted pinching the bridge of his nose in attempt to reign in his temper and his migraine.

"And it doesn't necessarily constitute a sexual relationship. You know better then anyone else the complexity of their relationship."

Caragen sighed and leaned back in his chair. "So, what you are telling me Dr. Hendrix is…"

Rebecca inhaled a shallow breath. Dr. Hendrix. Cragen wanted honesty, wanted black and white, wanted Elliot's demons on a silver platter. Damn. Right now, she felt like every inch of the bitch Olivia believed her to be. But what could she do? She'd lost her psychiatric license and could only be used as a consultant which meant she was hired for her professional opinion, confidentiality not included. Her hands were tied.

"What I'm saying is Elliot has revealed very little, and what he did, it wasn't directly conveyed. I think he does need counseling but it needs to be on his own volition and with a therapist of his choosing and not one he's forced to see. When backed into a corner with his hands tied, he naturally reverts to a defensive state of anger and barely contained aggression, which as you can imagine in neither productive nor conducive toward any type of therapy." She sighed at Cragen's thinning, tightening grimace of annoyance. "And as for his relationship with Olivia, the only revealing glimpse he gave me is the fact that he gave none at all. He actually did his best not to mention anything that had to do with Olivia and whenever I brought up her name, he skirted over it like she was never brought up."

"Dr. Hendrix…" Cragen growled in warning.

Right. That's not what he wanted to hear. She didn't figure that would work but it was worth a try. "Alright. I think they're too close." She leaned forward in her chair. "There may or may not be a relationship, but there is a mutual dependency there that is a cause for concern for me."

Cragen nodded and leaned back in his chair. "How much?"

Rebecca tilted her head and her mouth opened then closed. What was Cragen's angle on this? He had just pulled a 180 in his line of questioning and she was perplexed. First he demanded proof of a relationship between his best detectives, now he wanted to know just how concerned to be about this 'relationship' "Bottom line?"

Cragen nodded. "Whatever you feel comfortable signing off on to OnePP Rebecca."

She closed her eyes and nodded. Unofficially, he wanted her all her thoughts on Elliot his partnership with Olivia. Officially, he wanted her to white wash her sessions with Elliot in her report. It finally made sense to her. After all she had done to this department, this was her redemption. This was why Cragen asked her to evaluate Elliot. She licked her lips. "I think they are two parts of a whole that work optimally together. They thrive off of one another. Separate them Captain, and you loose your two best detectives."

Captain Cragen stood and opened his office door. "Thank you Dr. Hendrix."

Rebecca hesitated just inside the doorway and dropped her hand discreetly onto his forearm. "They are a time bomb Don. You understand?"

He understood. Hell, the fuse had already been lit. Sparks of denial and heat and anger and frustration and want were rolling off the two in plumes so heavily you couldn't breathe without inhaling it. They were going to combust. Sooner or later, Elliot and Olivia were going to explode. He just wasn't sure when or how, and he sure as hell didn't know what to do to stop it or if that was even plausible at this point. Rebecca hit the nail on the head. They were a time bomb no doubt, but if he separated them, he loses them anyway. It was the nature of the job, of this unit, and unfortunately he couldn't do a damn thing about it. "I learned to accept my hand when it comes to these things a long time ago Rebecca."

She dropped her head and nodded in understanding, offering a soft smile in parting. "Please let me know if there is anything else I can do for you in the future Captain."

He gave her a nod of acknowledgement and closed his office door to the two leering detectives to his right and the lone, shame ridden detective lost in his thoughts on his left.

"A ticking time bomb indeed," he muttered as his blinds swayed with the final movement of his door clicking shut.