Alright, let's get to the good stuff at last! Well, at least part of it. ;)

25.

They both froze briefly when they were suddenly face to face. Liv wasn't sure what to say and simply stepped back to give him room to enter her apartment. He walked in and waited for her to close the door. Liv hesitated but she knew she would have to start the conversation.

'El, about Saturday ...' she began but Elliot rushed over to her and placed two fingers on her lips. She shivered under his touch, which she had not expected at all.

'Liv, before you begin, please tell me we're okay.' he asked, an intense look in his eyes. 'I can't concentrate unless I know we're okay!'

She took his hand in hers and squeezed it gently.

'We'll be okay El, I promise. Just hear me out.'

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, relief written all over his face. Then he took a step back, giving her room to speak.

Liv walked over to the window. While looking outside and with her back turned to him, she started to explain quietly what had happened at lunch that Saturday. How she had only been able to focus on the rejection, on the fact that he had not chosen her back then. Her voice was trembling but she was able to form coherent sentences as long as she didn't look at him. She had gone over things with Dr Lindstrom before leaving his office but it was all still very fresh. She reminded Elliot of the rejection she had known all her life, to the point where she simply didn't expect anything else anymore. She asked him to understand that all of it had come out at once at that moment and that she knew he really did not deserve that.

'All you were doing was being true to your word.' she said. She heard him walk up to her and tensed up a little.

'Please hear me out El,' she asked, and he stopped a few feet behind her.

She turned around to face him but didn't look at him directly. She fixed her gaze on the buttons of his shirt in stead, while she continued.

'What I don't understand is why you couldn't at least pick up the phone and talk to me. We could always talk to each other and I have been wondering ever since what I did wrong for you to treat me like that ...'

Elliot took a deep breath. She could hear tears in his voice when he said: 'I was a coward Liv. I can never apologize enough for not talking to you. You didn't deserve that. It was wrong. I'm sorry. If I could go back and make it right, I would. But I can't. I'm sorry.'

Part of her wanted to put her arms around him, to comfort him and let him know it would be alright. But she wasn't finished. She looked at his face briefly while she said, 'I'm sure it will come up a few more times El. We both have issues from our past and they aren't just going to go away. But we will have to deal with them if we want to move forward. But there is more ... if you can take anymore?'

He started pacing and was trying his best not to invade her personal space, however much he wanted to reach out to her right now. She turned around to face the window again, swallowing hard because of the emotional tension hanging over them.

'Please continue Liv. I want us to be okay.' His voice was deep and trembling with emotion. Liv spoke again.

'When you told me about the choice you had made, I felt ... I was upset because I am not your first choice. I had always dreamed of finding someone for who I would be the most important thing in life, not the second best solution. Every girl really wants to be a princess you know,' she said, half-smiling at him over her shoulder before turning back to the window. 'No matter how tough she pretends to be.'

Elliot couldn't listen to her putting herself down anymore and took the final steps towards her. He wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and pulled her gently against his chest. She put her hands over his instinctively. He leaned on her right shoulder with his chin and spoke softly near her ear. Liv held her breath and listened.

'Liv, you have to listen to me carefully and don't ever forget what I am going to tell you now. You are most definitely not my second choice. It is just a matter of timing. My life had already been planned before you and I ever met. I assure you, and you have to believe this: if I had met you first, I would never have looked at another woman again. Ever. I did love Kathy and I always will. She is the mother of my children. But what I feel for you ...'

He pulled her in a little closer and brushed his cheek against hers.

'It is beyond words. Don't ever think of yourself as just an extra option or as a substitute for someone else. You are it for me Olivia Benson.'

Liv relaxed and leaned against her former partners chest, feeling the truth of his words wash over her like a cool shower, rinsing away the doubts and the rejection that had weighed on her so heavily. He pulled her even closer to him and placed a small kiss on her collarbone. She smiled, realizing this was the most intimate they had ever been with each other in all the years they had known each other. And it felt good.

They stood like that in silence for a short while with their eyes closed, just enjoying being so close to each other. Elliot had noticed how Liv had relaxed in his arms but she was beginning to stir a little bit and he wondered if she was going to pull away again. But she quickly turned around before he could let go of her and placed her hands on his hips.

'Hi,' she whispered, looking deep into his eyes.

'Hi,' he whispered back and they both smiled. He leaned his forehead against hers and moved his hands up and down her back.

'You know,' Liv said. 'My psychiatrist asked me what I wanted.'

'You talked about this with your shrink?'

'Yeah ... I was a mess El. I didn't know where else to turn.'

He continued stroking her back while they spoke softly, their foreheads glued together.

'So what did you tell him? What do you want?'

She laughed and he felt a shiver down his spine.

"I am scared to death El ... but I told him that I wanted a certain insanely faithful husband that I know to be mine!'

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. 'Liv ... you got him. I will never leave you again.'

She smiled and a few deardrops found their way down her cheeks. He wiped them away with his thumbs and looked into her eyes while he held her face in his hands.

Their eyes remained locked while she told him, 'You may have to tell me that a few times more before I stop being scared El. But for now, it's all I needed to hear.'

He smiled too and saw himself reflected in her eyes. So close ... He hesitated. Now what? This was new territory for him and he wasn't sure what Liv was expecting him to do right now.

'So, are you going to kiss me or not?'

Now he knew.

He was almost shocked but he should have known. Liv wasn't a shy person. Her eyes were darker now than he had ever seen them. He could get lost in those eyes ... She tilted her head slightly and he moved in to kiss her very softly on the lips while closing his eyes. He let out a shaky sigh and smiled. Then he felt her lips on his again, much firmer than he had dared to kiss her. She was soft and strong at the same time and he responded with the same force. She really was his mirror image and he felt a passion course through his body that he had never felt before. As their kiss deepened Liv pushed him against the back of the couch. It gave them some much needed support as they continued exploring each other's mouths and bodies. He pulled her in even closer, almost crushing her but she did not seem to notice or to mind. Her hands ran down his back and his ass and back up again. He couldn't get enough of her lips, her tongue, her taste, her smell, her body pressed against his and the way she was touching him ...

When they finally broke off the kiss to catch their breath, she had a dazed expression on her face. It took a while before she could speak again and she just leaned against him, her head resting on his shoulder. Then she said: 'You were right Stabler. We would never have been able to stop ourselves,' reminding him of what he had told her at the restaurant two days ago. They both laughed and hugged each other tenderly.

'I could get used to this,' Liv whispered in his ear, as a single tear trickled down her cheek.

'Me too,' he admitted and he gently kissed the tear away.

'I love you, Elliot.'

'I love you, Olivia.'

Almost as if on cue, Elliot's phone beeped three times, reminding him that it was almost time to pick up Eli from school. He looked at Liv, sorry to have to break up the intimate moment.

'You wanna come?' he asked her. She nodded, giving him a beautiful smile. He suggested she pack a few things for herself and Noah.

'You know, just in case,' he said, trying not to make it sound too suggestive. He noticed a very brief hesitation in her eyes but it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. She just smiled at him again and poked him gently in the shoulder with her first.

'Right, just in case,' she said, a lot more suggestively than he had. She walked to her bedroom to get a few things and Elliot sat down on the couch. Wow, he thought. Just, wow.

...

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