A/N: A surprise, an ultimatum, and a mistake.
DISCLAIMER: SVU and characters belong to Dick Wolf. Tstabler © own this story.
Elliot stormed into the bullpen, Olivia about a foot behind him, and he slammed into his seat. "Sorry," he spat loudly. "My fault. It's totally my fault, I was at this doctor thing, and..."
"Stabler," Cragen said, not wanting to hear it, "You're late, end of story. You, in my office. Benson, you and Fin head down to Mercy, meet up with Munch. Case is huge, no talking to the mass of reporters waiting down there, got it?"
Elliot's eyes widened. "Cap, I was just late by a few minutes, you can't..."
"Elliot, don't argue with me, just go in there and wait!" Cragen yelled. "You two," he said, pointing to Olivia and Fin, "Go."
Elliot stood up, angry now. "The last time she went anywhere with Fin, she got hurt!"
"She's been hurt by being with you, too, Stabler," Cragen said, a snide look on his face. "Move," he commanded.
Olivia and Elliot shared a look, then she left with Fin, leaving Elliot to wander into Cragen's office. He sat on the chair in front of the desk with a sigh and a small groan as he closed his eyes. "What?" he asked, discouraged.
Cragen folded his arms. "Where were you?"
Elliot narrowed his eyes. "You kept me from a high-profile case with my...partner...just so you could ask me why I was late?" he asked, poking the inside of his cheek with his tongue.
"No, I kept you out if it because if your mental health isn't up to snuff, you can't be on-duty!" Cragen yelled.
"Oh, what the...who the hell have you been talking to?" Elliot asked, fury rising.
"Lawyers, Elliot. Divorce lawyers, and someone working out a custody agreement for your kids! You've been going to therapy for, quote, 'work-related' issues. I think if your job is giving you..."
"I can't believe..." Elliot shook his head. "Shit, Cap, I was seeing Doctor Bond for a while! It had nothing to do with work, but I couldn't tell the lawyers that I..."
"Wait, back up," Cragen interrupted. "You lied to these people?"
"No, not legally, no. The issues were...are...were work-related, but nothing involving my actual job."
Cragen squinted, confused. "You had to see a reproductive and sexual health specialist...for work related issues that aren't about work." He bit his lip and said, "Explain this to me?"
Elliot sighed again, slumping in the chair. "It wasn't about my job, Cap, it was all about my partner," he finally admitted. "I have this...some call it unhealthy...addiction to her, and at first I was going to therapy to try and stop it, but I..."
"So it's not about the nature of the job, but who you had to work with," Cragen muttered, nodding. "Work-related. Okay. I'll call the lawyer back and tell him I approved the whole damned thing and you're fine now, perfectly competent and able to..."
"Cap, I just told you I am physically and emotionally obsessed with Olivia," he said, wondering where the anger, disappointment, and ultimate firing was.
Cragen picked up the phone and said, "I didn't need to know that much, and I'm going to forget you said it," he said. Then he looked up at Elliot, dropping the phone back onto the cradle. "On one condition."
Elliot cleared his throat, a lump of fear unable to be swallowed, and he nodded, only once, hoping it was an ultimatum he could live with.
Olivia and Fin got back to the station a few hours later, looking exhausted and slightly nervous. Elliot noticed, and walked over to Olivia's desk. "What's that look on your face supposed to mean?" he asked, resisting every urge to kiss her.
She looked at him and said, "Ashley Townsend."
"The girl from that bird movie?" he asked, "She just won an Oscar."
"And she was just raped and beaten to within an inch of her life," she said, shaking her head. "Media was all over it. It was a circus down there."
Elliot nodded. "Would be," he shrugged. "But that doesn't explain the look in your eyes right now. What happened?"
"Nothing," she said too quickly, moving to head for the coffee pot.
"Liv," he said, something in his voice making her stop. "What happened?"
She turned, slowly, and said, "Fin...just forget about it. I'm fine, we're fine." She lowered her voice and said, "You're taking me out for a nice, romantic dinner tonight. Forget the games, forget hiding it, just you and me after work. That cafe in The Village, the one we went to when..."
"I know what one," he said with a smile. "Uh, Liv, Cragen knows."
"What?" she asked, her chipper mood and slight smile fading. "How much does he know?"
Elliot took the carafe out of her hand and poured her coffee for her. "He knows why I was in therapy, he knows that what he saw upstairs that night wasn't really just us fighting, and now he knows that...that it's happening, and that it's...serious."
Olivia sipped the coffee he handed her and scoffed. "Great."
"No, it's...it's okay...he told me he'd forget he knew anything about it, if...if I did something for him."
She smirked. "You have to kill someone for him? I'll help you hide the body," she joked.
"No," he said with a laugh. "I just had to make a promise to him, one that is gonna be pretty easy to keep, I hope. I just...you wanna go to dinner tonight?"
She chuckled and sipped her coffee. "Nice, just change the subject." She looked at him and it her lip. "Yeah, I do. I think we have to, ya know? It's been a while, and if we don't start making things a little more clear to other people, then..."
Elliot's head snapped around to Fin. "What did he do?"
Olivia was stunned. "How did you come to...I never even told you that..."
He looked back at her and folded his arms. "You said his name before, when I asked you what happened, and you all of a sudden wanna come out of the, forgive me for saying it, closet. You wanted to hide this for as long as possible last night." He moved closer to her. "What did he do?"
"He just...he asked me if I was seeing anyone, if there was anything going on with you, and when I denied everything, he...asked me to dinner," she said as she shrugged and sipped her coffee again. "Nothing horrible, just...uncomfortable."
"Oh, he doesn't know how big of a mistake he just made," he said bitterly. "You are mine," he said, looking into her eyes.
"I know that," she said, eyeing him strangely. "It isn't me you have to convince," she shrugged.
He cleared his throat as he felt his left eye twitch, the possessiveness and the fear overwhelming him. "Where do you need to go now?" he asked.
"I was supposed to head to the movie set, where the girl was filming when she was attacked, talk to people," she said. "I'm supposed to take Fin."
"Fat chance," he spat, grabbing her hand. He yelled to Cragen, snarled at Fin, and pulled her out of the door. He was firm and fast in his guidance, leading her down the stairs and out of the building.
He ushered her into the car, almost as roughly as he would a perp, and he slammed her door shut before running around and getting behind the wheel. He turned the key, peeled out of the lot, and pushed the car as fast as it would go.
"El," Olivia said, struggling to clasp her seatbelt. "Elliot, come on, slow down. You...you jut passed up the..."
"I know where I'm going," he said, serious, not taking his eyes off the road as he weaved in out of the lanes and between cars.
She raised an eyebrow as he turned left, heading toward her apartment, which she hadn't set foot into in weeks. "You're taking me home?"
"It's closer than the house," he spat, coming to a screeching halt in front of the building. He parked, making the car jerk, and got out of the car with a grunt. He walked to her side, opened the door, and pulled her out of her seat fast.
"What the hell is going on with you, right now?" she asked, a little irritated and a little turned on.
He pushed his way into the building and tugged her up the stairs. "Something I gotta do," he said, leading the way toward an apartment she was abandoning to stay with him and his kids.
She watched as he opened her door, and she gasped when he pushed her into the cold room. "What the hell is..."
"You," he said, ripping off his jacket and giving her a shove toward the couch, "Are mine."
She nodded, trying to breathe as he peeled the rest of his clothes away from his body. She gasped again as he moved his hands to her body, undressing her, and he slammed his lips over hers.
He was pissed, so incredibly angry at Fin for making a move, though he knew it was pointless. No one knew they were together, no one. Fin didn't really do anything wrong, and Elliot knew it, but he couldn't control his reaction.
Olivia, pinned beneath him, struggled for air under his assaulting kiss and she moved and shifted to accommodate his body, which was working into hers.
He groaned into her mouth as he pushed into her, one move, rough and fast, and he swallowed her half-moan-half-yelp. He grunted as he moved, working her over as hard as he could, getting deep, moving somewhere between way too slow and not slow enough.
She grabbed him, gripped him with her fingertips, demanded more as well as she could in her position. She wrapped her legs up and around his body, and she moaned.
"Mine," he said as he kissed her. "Yeah?"
"Yes," she whispered, her eyes closed and her head tilted back.
He watched as her bottom lip was pulled into her mouth, scraped with her teeth, and dismissed. He heard the luscious moan escape, from deep in her throat, and he moved faster. "Tell me," he demanded.
"Yours," she panted, her back arching. "God, El, just yours. You know that, damn it, I shouldn't..."
He cute her off with another scorching kiss again as he moved with yet more power, letting out his anger at Fin, and the lawyers, and Kathy, and Becky, and anyone else who had tried to make what he had with her a problem.
"El," she whimpered, tightening and quivering beneath him. "El, please, you have to...oh, my God," she moaned, shifting as her back arched and her body froze, unable to move anymore.
It was violent, almost painful, as it ripped through her. She let out a loud cry of his name and a few words in a language that sure as hell wasn't English.
That reaction was Elliot's undoing and he slammed hard into her. "God, baby," he grunted. "Oh, God," he spat as he let go, cumming furiously inside of her.
She felt him drop to her, almost collapsing, and he kissed her chest and neck where he landed. Her limp hand flopped onto the back of his head, she stroked his hair, and she said, "Holy shit."
He chuckled, kissing her neck again. "Mine," he whispered softly, lifting his own hand up to caress her cheek. "All mine, and I will never understand how, or why."
"You don't have to understand," she whispered, still trying to regulate her breathing. "You just have to be mine right back."
"I am, baby," he promised her, "I am. All yours."
She smiled, and she kissed, him, and she heard both of their phones ringing, bringing them out of their stolen moment and into the reality around them. She sighed as he moved out of and off of her, and they scrambled to grab their phones.
A simultaneous spitting out of nothing but their last names brought on the two conversations, and the drama the night would bring.
Hanging up, she looked at him. "Munch is down at the set waiting, says he found something."
Elliot held up his phone. "Someone's waiting at our house, too," he said, shaking his head.
"Our house?" she questioned.
He smirked. "Yeah, honey. Part pf the promise I made to Cragen. I want you to stay with me and the kids, for good. Think of what just happened here as kind of saying goodbye," he laughed.
She chuckled as she dressed. "So, who's waiting for you at home?"
He sighed as he pulled on his pants. "Kathy."
A/N: What does Kathy want? Their sweet dinner and what else does the promise to Cragen entail? Elliot talks to Fin, and a report from Doctor Bond. Next. Review here, or on Twitter: TMG212