AN: I'm not saying a word. Just read it.

Sensations

"Olivia. Liv, you awake?"

She shot up from the bed to see Don Cragen standing next to her. "Don? Arrh, I must have dozed off. What time is it?"

"9am."

"Oh man," she laid her head back on the pillow and rubbed her salty tear stained eyes. "Did we get a call?"

"No. I just thought you might want to have some Champaign."

She looked at him puzzled. "At 9am? Somebody better be getting really old."

"That would be me. Now get up," he said before leaving the room.

Olivia pulled back her hair and cracked her bones to a standing position. Before she took one step a sensation from deep inside her stomach made her pause.

It wasn't the first time that had she felt it, but like all the other times she ignored its' flutter and headed for the office.

Voices could be heard from around the corner, and Olivia yawned sleepily through the doors.

There, in the center of the room stood Munch, Fin, Casey, Don, Chester Lake, the commissioner of the task force, one of the state marshals, and Elliot, who stood in the center of them with a smile on his face and a baseball cap pulled over his eyes.

Fin patted him on the back and laughed. "Hey man I'm just glad to see your ugly mug again."

"Yeah after that explosion, I was glad to see my ugly mug too," he laughed.

Everyone stopped when Olivia entered the room. She certainly wasn't expecting this.

All eyes were on the two of them.

Olivia's mouth felt dry from sleeping, her stomach was in an uproar, and her hair was a tangled mess. If her superiors weren't standing ten feet away from her, she may have had a small breakdown right there on the brown linoleum.

Elliot turned and without skipping a beat pushed through the small party and the empty desks.

The unit's superiors watched their every move.

Olivia ran a hand through her hair and tried her best to hold back the excitement and emotion running through her body.

Elliot didn't seem to care about anything but holding her in a tight embrace. He pulled her into his arms and she wrapped herself around his neck.

It was the kind of hug that could only truly end with him lifting her off the ground and doves circling their head as an orchestra played loudly in the background.

Of course, in all seriousness, none of those things would happen in the company of the cold stare coming from Commissioner Hallsaner's face. Olivia got one glimpse of his hairy eyebrows and was forced to hold back anything more than a quiet ", Welcome back partner," followed by a few headstrong tears.

Elliot, whose face remained unseen to their crowd, kissed her neck and softly replied ", It was all you, my lady. It was all you."

They held each other for what seemed like five minutes.

Casey, who had already started planning their first date in her mind, noticed the awkward silence. Finally she broke up the tension and cleared her throat. "Ahem, um, anybody up for some breakfast?"

"Yes," Elliot said loudly without taking his eyes off of Olivia's face.

The Commissioner tipped his hat to the group of them. "That sounds lovely Novak, but I got a day. I will see all of you around. Keep up the good work." He then looked at Elliot and Olivia, who ended their embrace but remained next to each other subtly touching as they stood side by side. "Benson. Stabler. Thanks for another happy ending."

Olivia pushed Elliot to the side. "Thank you, Commissioner."

Elliot walked up to the Marshal and the Commissioner and shook their hands with a strong grip. "Thank you. Thank you for all of your help. My family and my life have never felt so safe. You all are wonderful."

"Anytime, " smiled the Marshal and the two of them headed for the doors.

Fin looked as Casey and lifted his brow. "I'm down with Casey's idea. Anybody coming?"

"Sure, let's take this party outside before we all get fired," Don said winking at Olivia and leading the pack of them towards the elevators.

Munch stood next to Fin brooding in his dark attire. "Honestly! If I have to sit next to them playing footsies one more time I'm gonna ask for a new desk."

Olivia smacked Munch on the arm and jokingly replied in a sweet voice ", I don't know what you're talking about."

Fin laughed and then in a high pitched voice, that sounded nothing like Olivia's voice, said ", El, I have a bad feeling about this. Can you get me some coffee?"

"Only if you promise to hold my tooth pick the next time I punch somebody," Lake added in an almost guttural Will Farrell-esc voice.

"Oww sounds like a deal, " Fin replied. "Add sugar and I'll let you sleep on my couch."

Everyone, including Elliot and Olivia, laughed at the mockery they made of the two seriously hard working detectives.

Munch pushed the elevator button and started the next dig. "Wait, wait, you can't forget the silent conversation stare."

He pulled his dark glasses off and stood in front of Casey, who then mirrored his blank expression.

The stare turned into an exaggerated fake kiss. Munch held his hand over Casey's mouth and the two of them moved their heads around and quickly broke it apart.

Casey dramatically flipped her hair to the side and said breathlessly", My gut says he's guilty."

Olivia laughed and shook her head. "Ok, now you guys are just making things up."

"What do you mean," Elliot asked with his pretend serious face on. "Are you saying those kisses weren't real?"

The elevator doors opened and everyone filed in. Cragen sighed and rubbed his forehead sadly.

"You ok," Olivia asked.

Don smiled and touched her arm. "I'm great, Liv. You just keep smiling."

He wanted to laugh at the practical jokes going around, and to support the two people he cared for the most, but he knew that this conversation was the beginning and end of their unmasked charade.

He hated knowing that he was going to have to break them apart, and he just hoped they had prepared for it.

Olivia felt her pockets and hit the elevator door with her arm. ", I left my purse. I'll meet you at the restaurant."

"I'll wait," Elliot said leaving the four detectives and their sassy ADA in the crammed elevator. "We'll be there in five," he added nodding towards them.

Olivia ran to her locker and pulled out her purse causing most of the locker's contents to spill onto the floor.

"Slow down, Benson, we have our whole lives to eat pancakes, " Elliot smiled as he helped her pickup a pile of strewn about papers and several miscellaneous toiletries.

"At the rate my life is going those pancakes will be gone by the time I get there."

Olivia shoved her belongs into the metal square locker and held her hand out for the last objects that Elliot had collected.

"Liv, what's this?"

"Huh?"

When she turned he was looking at a small piece of photo paper. Her heart skipped a beat.

She grabbed the fuzzy black and white photo from his hand, frightened that he'd found it.

She looked at his face attempting to read his thoughts.

"It's…"

He looked at her eyes and waited for the answer. "Well you know what it is," she finished unable to say the words.

His eyes grew soft and he whispered close to her face. "Really?"

She nodded with a fear still hanging in her mind.

"Yours and mine?"

She speechlessly stood there nodding and growing red with anxiety.

He touched her stomach gently and looked at the small bloated bump under her shirt.

"How long have you known?"

"Since right after you went. I'm four months in. Are you upset?"

Elliot's head fell slack towards his chest and he smiled and shifted in front of her grasping her hands and kissing them. "No. This…this is...why would I be upset?"

Tears started to flood from her eyes.

"Don't cry," he said kissing the tears from her face.

"I've been so scared."

Elliot grabbed her face and kissed her lips over and over again. "You just took down a posse of drug dealing thugs and you're scared of a little baby. I refuse to believe you."

She wiped her nose and choked out a nervous laugh. "I don't want to be the mom that's never home. I don't want you to feel obligated. I have no idea how I'm going to do this. You can't even find time for your first family and now I'm going to burden you with a second one. How can I possibly go through with this?"

Elliot pulled a chair out form under a desk and forced her into the seat while knealing beside her. "Liv, you are never a burden to me. Secondly, we will go through this together, miss independent cop. And, my god, Liv, if there is one thing in this world that I could give to you besides my complete love and devotion, it would be this tiny life changing bundle of joy that you've waited so long for. Olivia, you're going to be a mom," he smiled rubbing the front of her shoulders and shaking her to feel something other than numb. "Don't you ever let my past keep that away from you."

"What about my job? I don't want this child being raised by two people who are never home."

Elliot swallowed hard almost offended by the thought of it. "Boy I wish I could answer that. I don't want to do that again either." His face fell to the floor and she touched his cheek, lifting his eyes to hers.

Her dark brown stare was soft and apologetic. He lightly kissed her lips and pulled her into his arms. "We'll have to make some changes. Decide what's more important."

She leaned the side of her face to his chest. It felt good to be supported by another person.

His validation was all she needed to find her barrings. As she held onto his torso she looked around at the empty office.

The pictures of the victims they'd stayed in touch with over the years hung on the back wall, the desk she grew to love and hate for stealing her life away, the faded memories of long nights and heated debates followed by laughter caused by sarcastic jokes.

She would always hold this job at a special place in her heart, but the change felt right.

Grabbing Elliot's hand from her side she placed it on her stomach. The light kicking started up inside. This time she acknowledged it with great pride.

"I sure am gonna miss this place," she said to her stomach with a soft smile.

Elliot kissed her head and squeezed her tightly. "You'll be back."

With that they headed to breakfast, each step was in sync. Their lives were about to begin again. This time they were ready for it. This time they were a little wiser, a little warmer, and a little more willing to trust each other in every way.

The End

AN: I have plenty of ideas that could take this story even further, but I feel like this book needs to end here. If you want more - let me know, and when I get some time I will start a new one. And to all of you who were screaming "Olivia's Pregger's" yeah yeah yeah- you were right- But I will say- that I tried really f---ing hard to make it different and surprising. Of course, it didn't work, because you guys are so obsessed with babies and Olivia Benson. I almost gave her some weird freaky STD just to piss you all off. But I just couldn't do it to Liv. Anyone else though, and, BAM they'd of had Cancer of the Clitorous or something. I mean, Damn, I think the only way I could have surprised you all was by just having the baby randomly pop out during a fight scene. Yeah, that would have made for a good ending. I'm taking Improv at the Second City Conservatory right now and one of the joke rules for Improv is "When in doubt, have a baby." So you know, you're in the middle of a scene about roommates fighting over a boyfriend and it's not going anywhere so then -BAM- the roommate turns into Olivia Benson and then has a baby. LOL! Ok, that's only funny to me. AH- at least I can humor myself. Anyhoo, drop me some lines. R&R