A/N: As long as I got you by my side, I know what I wanna do in this life (Soldier - James TW)

DISCLAIMER: SVU and all related plot/characters originally belong to Dick Wolf. This story is allllllllllllllll mine. © TStabler

"Are you sure you're okay?" Olivia's voice is soft as she speaks, her hand is wrapped around the woman's fingers, her eyes are red and dry with the refusal to cry. She drags her left hand down the front of her blue shirt, trying to stay calm.

The woman nods, trying to smile. "I knew I wasn't in any real danger, I knew I was...what did Elliot call it? Bait," she laughs through her tears. "Just because I knew it was coming doesn't mean I wasn't…" she shakes her head and lifts her other hand off the exam table. "I'm still shaking," she admits. "You were right, then? You know the guy?"

Olivia nods once and licks her lips. "We know who it was, but we need you to verify it. Try to remember. His eyes, you saw his eyes. What color were they?"

The woman blinks, her hand squeezes Olivia's again, and she sighs. "I think they were blue. No, um...green. Hazel, maybe? Light. Not brown." She squeezes Olivia's hand again and shakes her head, sniffling. "I don't know," she cries. "God, I don't know! Everything happened so fast, I just did what you guys told me I should do, and then when the cops came up to us, he ran off...I don't know."

"Okay," Olivia soothes, running a hand over the woman's blonde hair. "Kathy, the officers who were following you said that it looked like he was trying to hold his pants up. You need to tell me if he…"

"He didn't...um, I wasn't…" Kathy spits in harsh sobs. "He didn't do much more than scare the crap out of me. Please, tell Elliot I wasn't…"

"I will, okay. He knows, but I'll tell him," Olivia quiets her. She tries to smile, and she wonders momentarily why Kathy thinks it's important enough to make a point of telling Elliot she wasn't raped even though there was never a chance she would be. "You were smart, okay? You did exactly what was asked of you. You bit him, we got his DNA, we got him."

"I never told you…" Kathy stops and she sighs. "You were always nice, no matter how rotten I was to you, and you...you didn't have to be."

"You were my partner's wife," Olivia shrugs, another small smile gracing her lips. "I thought we needed to be...friends or…" she licks her lips. "Look, that...it's in the past, okay? Whatever happened, it's over, and right now, you need to know that I'm here, okay? So is he."

Kathy looks up and clears her throat, she blinks and her tears fall, she winces when they run over the cracks in her dry lips. "Did you...I mean, the two of you...are you…"

"What are you asking me, Kathy?" Olivia lowers her voice, the panic rising. This is it, she realizes. The moment when she has to either face the truth or lie to Kathy.

"You're marrying him, right? He told me...the last time we had an actual conversation, he wanted to…" Kathy bites her stinging lip and shakes her head again. "I'm not upset, I'm just...regretting a lot of things, right now. Doing what I did...hurting him, betraying our marriage...those are pretty high on the list," she scoffs. "I need to know, right now, Olivia, if you have any intention of walking away from him the way I did. Because if you do, I can't let you go out there and let him think he's finally getting his happily ever after."

Olivia squeezes her hand again, shakes her head slowly. "Not a chance in Hell," she says with a wink. "I think you know that, don't you? There's nothing...nothing that could ever make me…"

"Do what I did," Kathy almost whispers, dropping her gaze. "You love him like I couldn't," she asks with another soft stifled cry. "Do that for me? Love him the way...the way only you can." She twists her hand out of Olivia's grip, chuckles softly at her own emotions, and wipes her eyes as she says, "Um...I remember, he had a scar. A small one. Underneath his left eye."

"Thank you, that'll help hold him," Olivia says, and she leans over to hug the woman who was once a sworn enemy. "Call me if you need anything. I mean it, Kathy, not just because you're a…"

"I'm not a victim," Kathy says with a gleam in her eyes. "I bit the bastard, scratched the fuck out of him, screamed at the top of my lungs. You had your guys with me, I was a part of your...what do you call it? Sting Op?" She chuckles as Olivia nods. "I channeled my inner Benson." She winks at Olivia and says, "Kiss the kids for me."

"I will," Olivia smiles, and she heads out of the exam room, dropping her stern facade and keeling over once she rounds the corner. She breathes heavily, harshly, with her hands on her knees and she shakes her head telling Elliot not to touch her at the moment. "I'm fine, I'm just...I can't believe...I'm so sorry."

"Why are you sorry? Using her was my idea," he whispers to her. "We knew he was gonna do this, we had someone tailing Kathy, she was never in any real danger, you know that, right?" He brushes the hair out of her eyes as she straightens up. "Lab called, by the way. Said it was a fast trace because he's in the federal system. You know he only did this to get to us, so we either give him what he wants or…"

"No more games," she snaps. "He attacked your ex-wife, hoping to get far enough for the case to officially land in our laps, and…"

"And he didn't hurt her," he whispers, cupping her chin. "You heard her story, you talked to the doctor, there's not a scratch on her, she's just shaken up. She did more damage to him, honestly," he chuckles. "And because Reynolds and Garcia were tailing her, they nailed the son of a bitch."

"Then I'm leaving it up to you," she bites her lip and folds her arms, pulling back from him slightly. There's something about having intimate proximity while his ex-wife is in a hospital room that doesn't seem right or kind. "You want to run it, we will. You want to leave it in someone else's hands, I'm with you." She looks over her shoulder. "If you want to go in there and be with Kathy, then I will go…"

"Hey," he speaks and there's something much different in his voice now. He reaches for her, hooking his fingers around her arm, his ring catching on a button on her sleeve. "I told you...I asked Kathy to do this because if it was you, I would be furious, devastated, torn between running after the son of a bitch to kill him myself and holding onto you for dear life. I'm sorry we used her as leverage, but I'm not feeling guilty or like I owe it to her to run into her arms." He blinks. "You think...that's what Porter wanted?"

Biting her lip, she nods. "Dean is a lot of things, but he's not violent. Not like this. He never would have gone far enough to…" she shakes her head and takes a breath. "I'm pretty sure he wanted to do exactly what he did, scare her enough that she called us, figuring you'd feel responsible, you'd go back to her because she would need you with her."

"He didn't know we knew he'd try it, that we told Kathy to…" he curses under his breath and he runs a hand down his face. "You're with me, right? My decision. You said it was up to me?"

She nods again, holding her arms out in submission. "Yeah," she huffs.

He checks his watch, grins, and says, "We'll give the bastard what he wants," and he looks into Olivia's eyes. "After we swing by Judge Carter's office. I'll be damned if I let Porter stop us a second time." He kisses her cheek, pokes his head into Kathy's room and offers a smile and a wave, and then grabs Olivia's hand. He pulls her down the hall, their heels clicking on the sterile tile. There's a skip in his step, he's humming and dancing as he walks with her through the glass doors.

"You okay?" she asks, tugging on his hand. She stops him before he unlocks the car.

He turns with a laugh. "I'm fucking happy, I'm excited!" he chuckles, and he pulls her to him, wrapping himself around her. "I can't fucking wait to make you mine."

"I'm already yours," she whispers, her heart lurching at his words, knowing how much he means them and how fucking serious he is. "But I know you mean…"

"Permanently," he interrupts, kissing her softly. "Legally." He nips at her lower lip. "Forever." He opens the door for her and winks at her, and once she's in the passenger seat, he closes the door and whistles a happy tune as he walks around to the driver's side.

She smiles as she watches his face, the way his grin reaches his ears, the light in his eyes and the brightness of the blue in them. She sees the pure joy on his face and reaches a hand out to cup over his on the gear shift. "I love you," she tells him, and she notices when he turns to look at her that there are tears in his eyes. "Okay, what...why are you…"

He shakes his head, holding up a wagging finger, and he needs a minute to compose himself. "I just…" he exhales and moves his shaking hands to the steering wheel, pulling away from the curb and heading in the direction of the courthouse. "I've always been the guy that had to sacrifice, that had to settle. I gave up so many dreams and spent half my life with a woman I only sort of loved because I didn't know what true love really was. I had to work my ass off to keep my life together because nothing ever came easy." He smiles as tears slowly roll out of the corners of his eyes. "Not with Kathy."

She moves her hand and it's almost in her own lap before he snaps back for it, clutching it tightly.

"With you...God, with you it always all came so fucking easily. I didn't have to try, I didn't have to sacrifice anything or hide who I was, I didn't have to bite my tongue or pick my battles because you and me, baby, we know how to fucking handle compromise and when we fight it's never personal. This...what we're about to do...it means everything to me," he sniffles and he blinks, turns the wheel with one hand, and he inhales sharply. "When we were in Syracuse, fuck, it felt like I was finally getting something I want, what I need...I couldn't give you up, and I'm not taking the chance of losing you, not after finally fucking doing something that's the absolute best for me, for the kids, and...I get to take care of you, love you, and no one can fucking tell me it's wrong. Not anymore."

She squeezes his hand and she has no words that will make any sense other than, "I love you," and they come out of her mouth on an unstable breath.

"I love you, too," he almost whispers, and he drives faster, weaves in and out of lanes, never letting go of her hand. He brings it up to his face and kisses her knuckles as he pulls in front of the courthouse, and he blinks once as he parks. "Is this...what you want?" He looks at her and his heart breaks just a bit. He realizes he never asked her, he just expected her to follow his lead, and she did. "Baby, tell me, right now. We don't have to go in there if…"

She doesn't even let him finish his sentence. She's out of the car and halfway up the stairs, and she looks over her shoulder at him. She holds up her left hand. "Right now, these are just symbolic. You wanna move your ass a little faster so they can actually be…" she laughs, her words falling into harsh chuckles, watching him run up the stairs as though he's running for his life. She yelps when he picks her up and spins her around, and she can't help the moan that escapes when he kisses her. "Come on," she says, pulling his hands as she walks backward toward the doors. "We don't have a lot of time."

He grins as he follows her, his nerves decaying and leaving sheer happiness in their wake. He strides ahead of her and leads her toward the door with Carter's name on it. He raises a hand, knocks three times, and kisses her with everything he has, just as the judge opens the door.

"Detectives," Carter says with a small laugh, "Please stop, uh, collecting evidence in my hallway." He raises an eyebrow as the two turn toward him. "You are here, I assume, for the same reason you were coming to see me yesterday?" He watches them nod, and he can't help but see them as young children who are about to meet Mickey Mouse at Disneyworld. He steps to the side, lets them into his chambers, and he gestures to his desk. "Sign them," he commands, and he takes his place in front of them.

Olivia swirls her name in every blank space, then hands Elliot the pen as she starts to shiver.

"We, uh, we have to be at work in ten minutes," Elliot says, dropping the pen to the surface of the desk. "So, uh, if you don't mind, can we just skip to the good part?" He smiles sheepishly at the judge, and hands him the signed license and certificate of intent.

"The good part, huh?" Judge Carter laughs, and he pretends not to know what he means. He lifts a very large, heavy, leather-bound book into his hands, raises one brow and nods.

With innocently eager chuckles, Elliot and Olivia each raise their right hands and place their left palms over each other on the top of the Bible. They share a simultaneous breath, a sweet look, and they wait for Carter to speak.

The judge clears his throat and smiles. "The two of you have caused me more trouble than any other cops I have ever worked with," he speaks. "And long ago, I knew why. It has been an honor to call you both colleagues, to watch you not only grow together as partners on the job, but to be the lucky one who gets to be privy to this special union. Thank you for trusting me with this, just as you now must trust each other with your lives, your hearts, your souls. Believe in each other, always, honor each other and value each other above all else. Promise to care for each other, your family, in only the most tender and gentle ways. Never take each other for granted, and never cast each other aside. Are these vows you swear, on this Bible, on this day, to keep for as long as you both shall live?"

"Yes," Elliot declares loudly and firmly, his heart beating so hard against his chest he's sure it's about to burst.

"Yes," Olivia affirms at the same exact time, in the same exact way.

Carter eyes them, then notices their hands, "I see you're already wearing your rings. You weren't kidding when you said you needed to skip to the good part, were you?" He watches them both shake their heads and laugh, and then he says, "By the authority vested in my by the State of New York, I now pronounce you husband and wife." He looks at Elliot, winks, and says, "Kiss her."

Elliot lets out the most satisfied noise he's ever made, and when his lips touch Olivia's, his tears fall again. He cups her face, he can feel her tears rolling over his fingertips and he swipes them away as he deepens the kiss just a bit more. "I love you," he whispers. "My wife. You're mine." He pulls away from her with a soft sound, and he turns with a sniffle. He shakes Carter's hand and says, "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"An absolute pleasure, Detective Stabler," Carter says, "I will have these filed as soon as possible, we will mail you a copy of your license, and when you do have that lavish ceremony you spoke about, don't forget I need a vegetarian entree."

"You got it, Your Honor," Elliot laughs, and he takes Olivia's hand and pulls her out of the office, down the hall, passed the paintings and photos, through the lobby that suddenly looks so much brighter and more welcoming than it ever had before, and he stops her on the steps. "Wow," he breathes, "This is...I mean, I felt married to you for so long, but this is...our first case as…"

"Husband and wife," she says, winking at him, and she kisses him softly. She walks with him toward their Ford, hoping the pile of shit that's waiting for them at work won't be brutal enough to bring her down from this high. She gets into the car and lets out a deep long-held breath. "Syracuse," she says with a small laugh, shaking her head. She looks over at Elliot as he starts the car. "I love you," she whispers.

He smiles, leans over the console, and kisses her. "I love you, too."

A/N: What happens when they get to the station? Is it almost over?