A/N: And we have finally come to the thrilling conclusion to this tale. I hope ya'll like and please let me know what you think ;)

After this chapter and the epilogue I will be posting a new shirt story. It'll be my take on an EO reunion, post-Noah but pre-fostering him. I hope to see ya'll then.

Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah…

Be sure to review :)

Chapter Twenty: Endgame

7:18 AM, July 15th, 1969; Cape Canaveral, Florida

After searching every nook and cranny of the floor Elliot Stabler had come to the conclusion that Kathy Stabler, his erstwhile wife, work partner, and Colonel in the KGB had bolted the facility. Briskly striding down the corridor, Elliot knew he shouldn't have trusted Kathy to head out alone. 'She could be leaving for parts unknown… Yeah, and I'm the Dictator of Portugal.' Unless he was there to make sure she very well could be off to help Fin and Kurt Moss destroy the rocket. A hand reached up and clasped over his beating heart. Underneath his palm Elliot felt it going a mile a minute underneath his skin and ribs. He had to rendezvous with Olivia and stop them; too many things were at stake.

Bursting out to the parking lot, sunlight beginning to stream from above the oceanic horizon to the east, Elliot immediately knew something was wrong. 'Where's Olivia?' She was supposed to wait outside for him. 'There's no way she abandoned me. Maybe a guard asked her to move it along.'

A guard station straddled the entrance/exit to the lot, the small hut manned by a single MP with a Colt .45 clipped to his belt. "Excuse me sir," he asked politely, noticing the ID badge Elliot had clipped to his shirt and identifying him as a member of the NASA Apollo Program.

"Did you see a brunette woman leave the parking lot recently?" he rattled off as quickly as he could. Elliot was starting to have a bad feeling though he willed himself to hope for the best. "She has long auburn hair and olive features, drives a rented Chevy."

The guard paused to think for a moment. "Oh yes, I remember her. She drove out of here in a hurry with her passenger."

There was that pit of ice in his gut. "Passenger?" he choked out. 'This is bad.'

"Yeah, he was a black man, middle aged and clean shaven. Now that you mention it she looked rather agitated… Sir!"

Elliot ran off, not registering anything after the MP gave him the description. Fin was here and he took Olivia. "Fucking son of a bitch!" he screamed. They were going to pay; if that asshole harmed a single head on his fiancée's head then Elliot was going to rip his throat out with his bare hands.

'First you have to find them,' a voice that sounded surprisingly like Munch told him. He searched around the lot blindly. Parked in a spot about thirty feet away was a green-grey colored jeep with the Army star painted on the driver's side door. Closer inspection found the keys in the ignition.

"And it is a sunny day here in Cape Canaveral, Florida as Apollo 11 prepares for its morning…" The MP fell out of his chair, radio chatter forgotten, as a jeep barreled through the checkpoint, snapping the guardrail like a twig.

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…

9:21 AM, July 15th, 1969; Cape Canaveral, Florida

Sweat drenched her forehead, hands gripping the wheel until they were white. Kathy knew she had mere minutes before the rocket launched, and there was no doubt Elliot would be pursuing as fast as he could. 'Fin and Kurt can't destroy the rocket without the new frequency.' She had to get there, she had to.

The beach road was packed with parked cars, dozens of spectators lined up with soda, burgers, and other picnic foods as they waited for the moment of a lifetime. 'Oh it'll be a moment of a lifetime alright," she thought with a grin.

'Was it worth destroying Elliot's life?' another voice told her. She hung her head, focusing on the road.

The number of people trailed off until nearly a mile passed with no one except a red vehicle… There was Fin. She quickly pulled off the road, Kurt's new car parked right next to him. "I got the new frequency!"

"Good! Now let's get this fucking thing set up!" Kurt popped the trunk to begin removing the transmitter.

It was then that Kathy noticed a bound Olivia in the backseat of the car, shooting her a death glare. "What is she doing here?" she asked, wanting to hate this woman but failing.

"Insurance," Fin smirked, pulling Olivia out of the car and setting her beside a small sand dune. "It really is a pity Olivia, I always liked you. You really should have stayed out of where you don't belong."

The brunette stared back at the man, not close to resembling the kindly young man she had gone out with for a while. Had that even been the real Fin. "Fuck you. Elliot needed me so I came for him, not that you would know anything about loyalty Fin. I'm not the one who betrayed his friends and his country."

"Everything was for the greater good Olivia. However everything was going fine for all of us. Munch and Alex are married, Casey has her own life, Elliot was with Kathy…"

"Fin, can you stop," Kathy hissed. "Forget this sadistic crap and help us over here. The sooner we're gone the better."

The agent waved her off. "Please, like anyone is coming after us," he shot back in a fatal miscalculation. "In fact the only person who hadn't moved on is you Olivia. You couldn't be content with what you had could you? Everything would have been fine if you had just let it all go like I planned it."

'Planned it?' Olivia was confused even though that couldn't have a good explanation.

"I knew you wouldn't get an abortion Olivia, you were always too much a sentimental fool. I had to get Kathy married to Elliot so she could infiltrate the Apollo Program, those were my orders. Your miscarriage provided the perfect opportunity."

Her brain making the connection, Olivia's eyes shot open. "You set it all up." 'He told Elliot and his father I had an abortion so we'd destroy our relationship. For what? The fucking Soviet Union?'

"Bingo," he said, a superior smile on his face. Moss chuckled at her idiocy while Kathy only looked pained. Despite her dislike of Olivia and desire to be with Elliot anything that caused him pain caused her pain. 'What did I do?' She turned away and continued setting up the transmitter.

A snarl formed on Olivia's face as she began pulling violently at her restraints. "You fucking bastard!"

He was about to retort when a loud monotone rang out across the landscape. 10… 9… 8…

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…

9:32 AM, July 15th, 1969; Cape Canaveral, Florida

3… 2… 1… And liftoff for Apollo 11! It was the most momentous occasion in Elliot's lifetime, the one he had strove his whole life to see but at this point he couldn't care less. Zipping along the beach road at the jeep's top speed he searched in vain for the rental vehicle. Where it was could pinpoint where the transmitter would be. 'And Liv.'

Just the thought of his beautiful fiancée in danger terrified him to the bone. Time slowed to a near snail-like pace as he gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white. The wind whipping into his face thanks to the open air cab kept him focused however. Eyes scoured the vast sandy beaches for his love and her captors but all he could see were dunes, beach grass, waves, and cheering onlookers.

"Come on Liv where are you?"

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…

Olivia was mesmerized by the sight. Even several miles away the rocket and the resulting roar of the engines filled her senses, the tall Saturn V racing skywards to break the cradle of the mind Earth for so long was. Seeing the red-orange flame leaving behind a white-grey trail of smoke behind it, Olivia couldn't hemp remembering the line from the national anthem. And the rocket's red glare!

The trouble was only feet away her three captors were doing their best to make the following line come true.

"Hurry the fuck up!" Moss yelled, eyes shifting to the rocket every few seconds. They had barely any time to hit the switch before the first stage separated from the rest.

"Stop rushing me Kurt," Kathy hissed back. She knew the gravity of the situation and the time crunch she was on but one tiny slip up and the transmitter would be useless. Since the fuck-up yesterday Cragen and the rest of the launch team had switched around the frequency and thusly the transmitter needed to be recalibrated. Just one wire out of place and the machine would be useless.

"You won't get away with this," Olivia said darkly, tugging at the ropes hoping they would give. They didn't. "Eventually you reap what you sow." 'All that time, all those years of misery because of them.'

"It won't be today," Fin said confidently. Olivia prayed he was wrong.

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…

There! He could see it clearly. They were about half a mile away but his senses were heightened, reactions boosted by the adrenaline coursing through his veins.

Crunch time had come. In mere minutes the first stage of the Saturn V would separate and any chance to self-destruct Apollo 11 would be lost. Hell, Fin, Kathy, and Moss were likely ready to transmit the message right now.

Elliot had to think fast. If he came in guns blazing they might hurt Liv, but if he came in restrained then they'd surely destroy the rocket. 'The only way would be to hit them hard and fast before they can do anything to respond.' Sweat beaded on his forehead as he wracked his brain for possible answers. Suddenly it came to him.

'God, please protect Liv,' he prayed briefly before gunning the jeep into the sand.

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…

"Got it!" Kathy exulted, finishing the last plug.

"Do it! Do it damn you!" Fin screamed. They were running out of time.

Moss raced for the transmitter and flipped open the control panel. Inside were two switches, one marked: Arm, and one marked: Destroy. He flicked the Arm switch and saw a green dial light up. 'Excellent.' His finger journeyed to the Destroy switch.

Counting the seconds passing by Kathy immediately picked up a sound. Not the dull boom of the faraway Saturn V but a closer roar of an internal combustion engine. Her head turned to see a jeep barreling toward the rear end of the car; Kathy barely threw herself out of the way as it zoomed past, a sickening crunch registering in her ears.

A figure lay groaning on the sand several yards away, clearly having leapt from the roaring vehicle. "Elliot."

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…

Kurt Moss was dead, this Olivia clearly knew. It didn't take a doctor to pick up on the blown pupils, the motionlessness, or the fact he was wedged in-between the shattered remnants of his car and the jeep that had barreled out of nowhere. 'El, you crazy maniac,' she thought even though a smile crossed her face. That was the man she loved alright, charging headfirst yet thinking while he did so.

Said man shook his head several times, trying to reclaim his sense of balance after tucking and rolling out of the jeep. 'God, I'm too old for this shit.' His preferred idea of a vigorous time was a night of making love to Olivia, not pulling a bunch of stuntman crap.

His thoughts were evaporated when a well-placed boot smashed into his kidneys. "You motherfucker!" Fin snarled as he kicked his former friend in the stomach. Elliot toppled with a groan, struggling to keep his breath.

Olivia's eyes widened, terrified for her love. She scanned everywhere in the vicinity for something to break free of the restraints, a knife, an axe, something.

"I was so close! So damn close," Fin yelled as he jabbed his boot heel into Elliot's back. "If only you could have just accepted the fact you were a bum back in New York…" The agent pulled a silenced pistol out of his jacket pocket. "…But you didn't. Goodbye Elliot."

Elliot however was not about to go down lightly. With a lightning fast sweep of his legs he broke Fin's balance and sent him crashing to the sand.

Watching her fiancée and their former friend duking it out several yards away Olivia finally spotted something she could use. Sliding until she was behind a jagged piece of bumper sheared loose by the crash the brunette frantically slid the ropes that bound her along them, praying it might break. Elliot was stronger but after toppling from the speeding jeep Fin had the advantage of clarity and anger, so this was going down to the wire. 'Almost, almost… YES!'

Now free, Olivia found Fin on top of Elliot raining blows to his face and chest. There was a Colt .45 wedged between the seats of the jeep. She reached for it.

Standing, wobbling slightly from the right hook to the jaw Elliot had delivered a few seconds before, Fin grabbed the silenced pistol and pointed it again at Elliot. "Goodbye old friend."

Closing his eyes and knowing that this was the end, Elliot let his last thoughts drift to Olivia when a loud crack rang out. 'It's done, I'm dead. I've passed on to Heaven… wait?' If Fin had a silenced pistol then why had there been a crack?

His eyes opened to find the agent crumpled in the sand, blood pooling out from a hole drilled right in the center of the chest where the heart was supposed to be. "Liv." Standing several yards away was Olivia, a pistol clutched firmly in trembling hands. He slowly rose and made his way over to her, her face frozen in a combination of fear and shock. "It's ok baby, it's ok," Elliot told her softly, his loving nature coming out in full force. Gently, he took the gun out of her hand and dropped it to the ground. "Honey." A hand moved to cup her cheek which Olivia leaned in to.

The cocking of a revolver hammer pierced the din. It may have been quite anticlimactic compared to the noises only seconds past but to Elliot and Olivia they rang louder than the largest rocket. There was Kathy, a revolver in hand. If Liv had seemed shocked and scared Kathy was far worse, clothes rumpled, hair in wild sheets, eyes rimmed red, and tear stains along her cheeks. "Kathy, please," Elliot reasoned. He could tell that a kind hand could get through to her. "It's all over. Please put down the gun. Too many people have been hurt."

Shoulder's sagging, Kathy's eyes shifted from Elliot, to Olivia, and back to Elliot. The fact the cause that she dedicated her entire career to had failed wasn't even in her thoughts. All she could focus on was that even with a gun being pointed at them, even with all the terror that they must be feeling their hands were entwined. In this dark hour they sought themselves for comfort.

Kathy knew at that moment that Elliot was never her's, that she never really had a chance. He loved Olivia and only Olivia. Her pursuit and marriage had only hurt him, devastatingly so. 'What have I done?' In the end all she had wanted was to give the man that she loved everything and she had done the opposite. 'What did I do?' Her mind made a split second decision.

Elliot noticed the change in Kathy's eyes and somehow realized what she was about to do. "NO!"

Before either of them could stop her Kathy raised the pistol to her temple and fired once, collapsing to the sand. Running over, Elliot felt for a pulse but could find none. His wife was dead; a tear fell from his eye. Though she had hurt him Elliot would never have wished this on anyone.

Rising, he felt Olivia step beside him. Wordlessly they embraced, Elliot burying his face in Olivia's neck and Olivia shedding soft tears into his shoulder.

It was over, it was all over.

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…

4:45 PM, July 15th, 1969; Kremlin, Moscow

One of the perks of being a Politburo member was the access to nearly everything denied to the rest of the Soviet Union's population. Many members considered it their due for piloting the Socialist Revolution in and out of the various pitfalls that would come its way. For them the wants of the people didn't even register, all suborned for the greater good of Communism and the USSR itself.

Access to the forbidden Western news feeds was one such perk, but inside the Kremlin each of the most powerful men of the World's second Superpower wished they could bury their heads in the ground and delude themselves with a fantasy of how things might be different.

"Well Yuri Vladimirovich," said General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev to his Chairman of State Security. "It appears your agents have failed."

"It was always a long shot Comrade General Secretary," Andropov replied. This was going to hurt him in the near future, but things elsewhere were going well. 'I might survive this, but this was supposed to be my triumph!' His mind drifted to what he would do to the agents that botched this operation.

'Doesn't matter, they're probably dead anyway.'

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…

9:51 AM, July 15th, 1969; the White House, Washington DC

Where one leader was pensive and disappointed the other was the complete opposite. Tuning out the excited chatter and joyful cheers of his staff Richard Nixon closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief. The last night had been a rather nerve-wracking one for him, worry over the launch banishing any thought of sleep from his mind.

'Now everything is back on track.' A gut feeling of his said that this was, as the Duke of Wellington said about his decisive victory at Assaye, a "Near Run Thing." While this was going to stay a national secret for the interests of security, Nixon made a silent promise that whoever was responsible was going to get their proper reward.

'Unsung heroes, every one of them.' Smiling slightly, the President opened his eyes and joined in the celebration.

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…

2:15 PM, July 20th, 1969; Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

"Copy Houston," came the crackling voice from the Lunar Module on the big screen in front of the control center. This was it, the pinnacle moment of human history. Elliot was honored to be a part of it all, and overjoyed he could share it with the two most important people in his life.

"You see Mo-Mo, this is where all the rockets are controlled from," he told his beautiful little girl.

Maureen's eyes were wide as saucers. "Wow." Olivia felt a little catch in her heart at seeing the love of her life hold the jewel of her life up on his shoulders. 'This is what everything is supposed to be,' she thought. "Is that the moon?" She was always an intelligent child. 'The best of Elliot and I.' Her azure blue eyes never ceased to melt Olivia, just like her father's.

"It sure is Mo-Mo," Elliot whispered back. She didn't know yet that Elliot was her father but Olivia could tell she had a special connection.

"Cool."

Beaming, Elliot couldn't help but turn his head and look at Olivia. She was smiling at him, smiling that beautiful smile he had fallen for. Aside from a short debriefing with the FBI about the incident on the beach and a trip to New York to thank Munch, Alex, and Casey for their help and pick up Maureen, the last few days had been nothing but family time. 'Among other things.'

"What are you grinning about Stabler?" Olivia asked, taking in his cocky grin.

"Oh, just that thing last night," he replied cryptically, causing Olivia to blush.

"Not in public baby," she whispered, her face flushing at thoughts of last night. After buying a new mattress and sheets (and dumping the old ones he shared with Kathy) they had further consummated their engagement, Olivia proving to make plenty of new memories for her sexy fiancée. If anything their passion and love for each other had only grown since then.

"So that's little Maureen." Heads turned to spot a balding older man in an Army dress uniform, the single star denoting his rank as a Brigadier General. "She is a cutie alright."

"Thanks Don," Elliot replied. "Oh, Mo-Mo, Liv, this is General Donald Cragen. Don, this is my fiancé Dr. Olivia Benson and her daughter Maureen."

Having been explained everything by both of them, Cragen greeted both Benson girls warmly. "Nice to meet you young lady."

"Hi," Maureen said shyly. "Nice to meet you too."

"Polite one isn't she?" Cragen moved on to Olivia. "The famous Dr. Benson I presume." He shoot her hand. "It is the utmost pleasure to meet the woman who has captured the heart of my best scientist."

"Thank you General Cragen." Apparently Elliot had met with him the day before; there was talk of the President giving both of them some kind of decoration for their actions back in Florida, but Elliot had told Cragen that he needed some time with his family first. At least until the astronauts had returned.

"And my thanks to…" He turned to look at the screen. "They're almost landed, excuse me."

All eyes in the room riveted to the screen as the module stopped moving, planting firmly on the ground.

"Houston," crackled Neil Armstrong. "Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

A cheer went up in the control room as operators pumped their fists in the air and hugged their coworkers, losing themselves in the moment. Olivia was about to clap her hands when she felt a strong arm snake around her waist, pulling her in. "Mmmm, congratulations Stabler," she husked, turning to face her handsome fiancée.

"Why thank you Benson," he responded, leaning in to kiss her. "I love you Liv."

She smiled against his lips. "I love you too El." Their lips met again, two souls that had been apart for so long finally finding each other once more.

A/N: Whew! That was surprisingly difficult to write, but I'm glad they had their happy ending. How bout you guys?

Up next is the epilogue, and then my Reunion short story.

Please review with your thoughts. I'd love to know what you thought about the ending I made all of you wait for ;)

God Bless

Alex