A/N: She's never seen what he's like at work when she's not there to keep him calm. Until now. It was unavoidable, I guess.
DISCLAIMER: Dick Wolf owns SVU and its characters. TStabler© owns the narrative, dialogue and plot of this story
It was getting harder and harder for Olivia to move without getting tired, and she felt useless half of the time. She wasn't working, and she wasn't doing much around the house. Most people would kill for this kind of life, but Olivia Stabler hated it with every ounce of her humanity. She decided that she'd take this boring Saturday morning and go visit her husband, since the kids were all at a friend's birthday party.
Now, however, as she waited in traffic in the back of a smelly taxi, she was regretting that decision. "You can let me out here," she said. "I'll walk." She handed the driver a twenty, told him to keep the change, and plodded the remaining block and a half to the station.
"Oh, hi, Detective Benson!" the receptionist shouted. "Or, uh, Mrs. Stabler, right? You ready to be a mommy?"
Olivia smiled at the woman and shrugged. "I don't know about that, Joan, but I'm ready to not feel like I'm carrying a large watermelon in my uterus anymore, that's for sure." She walked toward the elevator and as it opened, she got a surprise.
"Olivia!" Alex yelled, hugging her. "What are you doing here?"
Olivia raised an eyebrow. "Going to see Elliot," she said. "Are you arraigning someone?"
"Yeah," Alex said. "They got Doctor Skoda on conspiracy charges. You might not wanna go up there right now."
"Conspiracy? To do what?" Olivia asked, stepping into the elevator.
Alex rolled her eyes and stepped back into the lift with Olivia. "I shouldn't tell you. You're not on the job, Olivia. But, it pissed everyone off, and this guy is going down, hard. He got his own son killed..."
Olivia held up a hand and furrowed her brow. "Wait, he knew about the shooting at Trinity?"
"He planned it, Olivia," Alex said, sighing. The doors opened and the two girls walked off the elevator and down the hall, turning into the SVU squadroom.
Olivia's eyes widened as she found an empty bullpen, but heard shouts and slamming metal. "Is that...that's Elliot!" She ran into the pit and pushed Cragen and Fin aside. When the two-way-mirror came into view she was terrified. Her husband, her partner, her Elliot, had the man by the throat, against the wall, which wasn't unusual. However, the way he was clenching the man's throat was! Skoda was turning red and Elliot wasn't letting up. He was actually grinning and there was something dark and evil in his eyes. She heard the things that he was saying, through gritted teeth, and she almost cringed. A grown woman, a detective no less, was about to blush at mere words. "Aren't you gonna stop him?" she yelled at Cragen.
"What?" Cragen asked, looking at her. "Oh, Olivia, when did you...what are you doing here?"
Olivia was shocked. "What the hell does that matter? Go stop Elliot! He's going to kill Skoda!"
"We tried to stop him, Baby-Girl," Fin said, rubbing his jaw. "He punched me when I tried to pull him off of Skoda, he threw a chair at Munch, he didn't even acknowledge Cragen's presence."
Olivia's eyes grew wider and she shoved her way toward the door.
"Olivia! Don't," Cragen yelled, but it was too late.
Olivia threw the door open and walked into the interrogation room. "Elliot!"
Elliot turned, sharply, dropping Skoda to the floor. "Get outta here, Liv!"
"What the hell has gotten into you?" she asked, stepping toward him with her face screwed up in anger and fear. It only grew into confusion when he ran over and pulled her into his arms. "Okay, I'm the one that's supposed to have the mood swings."
"Liv," Elliot said. "You don't understand. He sent his son into the school to target our kids. Ours, and Fin's son. He was trying to make us all crazy," he told Olivia, holding her tighter. "He wanted to make sure we'd need to see him, and that we'd need his fucking medication."
Olivia narrowed her eyes at him as he pulled away. "El, are you serious?" When he nodded, she had to push down the anger and emotion and be his voice of reason, as usual. "El, I know what you're going through, baby, but stop, okay? Think like a detective, and do your job."
"I can't," he spat in a harsh whisper. "Not without you. I told you that. This is what happens to me when you're not around to keep me sane." He whipped his arm back and gestured to the man who was still crumpled on the floor, struggling to breathe.
Olivia shook her head and pulled him out of the interrogation room. "He's leaving," she said to Cragen as they breezed through the pit. "Don't call him for three months. Finish this without him," she demanded.
Cragen watched them leave and shook his head. "I actually wish she didn't stop him," he sighed before heading into the room to pick up the beaten, bruised and barely breathing man. "Would have saved us all a whole lot of trouble."
Once home, Olivia stared at Elliot across their dining room table, decaf tea in hand, and waited for him to talk. She was trying to find the warmth and love that was always in his eyes, but it hadn't returned yet.
"I..." and that was all he could manage. He took a sip of the beer he'd been given and shrugged. "Damn it, Liv. I haven't been that bad since before you."
"Before me? You weren't that bad when you were with Kathy," she said, scoffing and shaking her head.
No," he said, sipping his beer again. "Liv, before you got to SVU. With my old partner, I was uncontrollable. When you arrived, I mellowed out, and when we got together, romantically, it was a whole new level of calm. Without you there these past two days, baby, I was acting like I was when I just got my shield. It didn't help that the man was..."
"Okay," Olivia interrupted. "I get it." She got up and walked over to his side of the table. She ran her hands over his shoulders and his hands shot up to clutch hers. "El, why did you even agree to help them with this?"
"I was in the school building, Liv," Elliot said. "They needed me. I didn't think that Skoda had planned it all, I didn't know I would get this involved." He craned his head over his shoulder and looked up at Olivia. "Or this emotional."
She bent her head and kissed him, squeezing the tension out of his shoulders. "You need to relax, El. You've been carrying around more stress than necessary, not just because of work. You're worried about me, and the baby, and the kids and you've gotta take it easy because I need you to be the stable one when I start to crack."
"You don't crack," Elliot said, rising to his feet.
Olivia scoffed. "Oh, really? Let's see, I've beaten the crap out of quite a few people in the last three years, myself, El. And in the last year, I killed a guy, met my psycho brother, I've kicked a desk repeatedly until it fell apart, I cried like a little girl into my captain's shirt while I called him 'Daddy,' and last night I had a dream where Josh was eaten by a giant squid."
Elliot laughed and pulled her close. "Okay, so we're both a bit stressed-out. We knew this would happen, though. Thanks for stopping me before I actually killed Skoda. What were you doing at the station, anyway?"
"I wanted to see you, I wanted to see Don, and I wanted paperwork. I was bored out of my mind!" Olivia rolled her eyes as she ruffled Elliot's hair. "It's frustrating being here alone, all day."
"Liv," he said, brushing her hair back, "I'm sorry I left you alone. I thought they really needed me. But, I'm here now, so tell me what you wanna do, and we'll do it."
"I wanna take a nap," Olivia said, pulling Elliot up the stairs.
Elliot raised an eyebrow and followed her. "A nap?"
Olivia nodded. "I want to put on some comfortable clothes, curl up in our big, beautiful bed, and cuddle. I would suggest having wild and passionate sex, but..."
"I like that idea," Elliot butted in. "Can we do that?" he asked with a chuckle and a wag of his eyebrows.
"El, look at me! I'm huge. I look down and all I see is belly, I feel like the abominable, pregnant snowwoman. No way am I getting naked right now," she said, walking over to the dresser.
"Liv," Elliot said, taken aback. "Are you crazy? You're gorgeous." He walked over to her and pulled her toward him by the hand. He ran a hand through her hair and down her back, over her hips and up and around her baby-bump. "You're glowing, and you may be about eight months pregnant, but you are an absolute goddess. Your body is just as incredible as it always was, and can we please talk about these?" He ran his thumbs lightly over her nipples and groaned as her head fell back and she moaned. "Your new curves are such a turn on. I told you when I found out you were pregnant that I was gonna have a hard time keeping my hands off of you, Liv, and I meant it. Seeing you like this, baby, does astonishing things to me." He kissed her, deeply, as he pulled the tie on the empire-waist shirt Kathleen had chosen for her a few Sundays ago. He pulled away from the kiss just long enough to pull the shirt over her head.
Olivia ran her hands through his hair and let him slide her elastic maternity jeans off of her hips. She nibbled lightly on his lip as he turned them around and gently flattened her out on the bed. He kneeled for a moment and pulled off his shirt and wormed his way out of his pants. He stuck a finger through each side of Olivia's panties and slid them down her body, and kissed his way back up.
"You're so beautiful, Liv," he said. He bent his head to kiss her and lifted her gently, placing all of the pillows under her head. He ran his hands over her, softly, as he pushed into her and he heard her cry out his name on a low moan. "Never, ever, think you're not."
"I love you, El," she said to him, holding him tightly.
Elliot smiled and kissed her as he started to move. "I love you, too, Liv."
He held her close and caressed her, kissing her tenderly with every stroke, and as they built up their speed and strength and the tension in their bodies rose, Olivia had never felt more loved, more wanted, or more beautiful. She clamped around him, tightly, and he shot off inside of her as he kissed her feverishly, grunting, panting and crying her name. He stroked her hair back and kissed her lazily as their ragged breathing returned to normal and their pulse-rates dropped back down.
"Oh, damn, baby," Elliot said with a laugh. "My phone was ringing the whole time," he said, reaching for it. He grabbed it and flipped it open, answering it with his usual barked out, "Stabler." He waited for a few moments and then said, "No, Cap. I don't need to talk to her. Thanks, though. Yeah. Me, too. She's fine. Beautiful, perfect and absolutely fine. I will, thanks." Olivia raised an eyebrow when he hung up and Elliot sighed, "Doctor Rebecca Hendrix has been reassigned as our head shrink, so if..."
"Woah, hold it," Olivia said. "Hendrix. That's the psychologist who has a raging crush on you?"
Elliot nodded. "Next time I see her, I'll be the proud daddy of a three month old boy, and still madly in love with my sexy, gorgeous, perfect wife," he said, punctuating each word with a kiss. "Don't get jealous, baby."
"I'm not," Olivia said, smirking. "I'm just thinking how much I'm going to love rubbing her nose in the fact that I got you. She once told me that she thought you were not at all emotionally attached to me, and that you and I had no sexual chemistry."
"I think she needs to seek mental help, herself," Elliot said, scoffing. "Everyone noticed we were in love, even before we did."
Olivia laughed and kissed him as she slid out from underneath him and snuggled close. "I'm pretty sure she was just trying to get me to back off, El," she said, kissing Elliot's chest.
"Thank God it didn't work," Elliot said, kissing the top of her head. "In an hour and a half, I'm waking you up." He set the alarm on his cell phone and plopped it on the end table.
"For what?" Olivia asked.
"Sex, round two" Elliot said, kissing her. "And then we have to go pick up the kids, I'm taking my family out to dinner, and then I have a surprise for you."
Olivia smiled as she closed her eyes. "You know I hate surprises."
"Oh," Elliot said, smirking, letting his eyes fall closed as well. "You're gonna love this one, Liv. Trust me." He kissed her on the forehead again.
A/N: What's the big surprise? When they go back to visit the squad, what is Hendricks gonna say? Josh will be here in 2 Chaps!!!