A/N: When you kiss me I know who I am (Meaning of Life - Kelly Clarkson)
DISCLAIMER: SVU and characters belong to Dick Wolf. This story belongs to TStabler©
February 28, 2008
Things had been different since Christmas. Awkward, at times. Tucker was falling into fatherhood almost as easily as Elliot had, almost seven years ago, and it changed him almost completely. He'd been calmer since little Daniel was born, but more exhausted. Life for the entire family outside of work had definitely been more hectic, but at work things had been pure hell.
Fin and Melinda never gave anyone a decent explanation for their holiday absence, only saying that they had other plans. Since the new year, Fin didn't seem to want to talk to anyone after hours at all, and it worried the unit, Elliot in particular. He'd been looking forward to getting his friend back, watching Eli bond with his Godfather, but it clearly wasn't going to happen.
Olivia had been trying harder to repair the damaged relationship she had with Alex, forcing herself to forgive too much, but she couldn't forget anything. In fact, at the moment, it was impossible to forget a few of Alex's more vindictive past transgressions. "I don't…" Olivia sighed, shaking her head. She tossed the wrinkled letter down onto the coffee table and folded her hands, resting her elbows on her knees. "How many times have you read this, and why the hell does it look like a dog tried to eat it?"
Elliot scoffed as he looked down at his wife and shot her a hard look. "Once," he hisses, "And as soon as I read it, I crumpled it up and threw it out." He ran a hand through his short hair, grunting once, and he plops into the space beside her on the couch. "I fished it out of the can, read it again, crumpled it up again...and then thought...you needed to read it before you made the mistake of trusting her again." He brushed her hair back and leaned into kiss her forehead. "I'm so sorry," he whispered, brushing his lips across her temple.
"Why did she even think you'd be there?" She looked at him and though she had no doubts in her mind whatsoever where he was concerned, it came out accusatory and almost jealous.
He shook his head and kissed her lips. "No idea," he shrugged and said, "Maybe because we went last year, but I figured no one would expect us there this year with the baby…" he saw her eyes flicker. "What?" He knew something was on her mind.
She turned and shifted closer to him, wrapped her arms and legs around his body, and hiked herself upward to fully straddle him as he leaned back on the sofa. "You don't think...Trevor married her because being with her gives him an edge in the courtroom, and they can share information and claim spousal privilege, but maybe he thought it would keep her from making a move on you."
He gave her a cockeyed look, his hands slipped up her shirt and splayed over her back, and he hummed in realization. "He doesn't like me enough to do that." He moves fast, kissing her again. "But he likes you enough to," he whispers. "I know...he says he loves her, Liv, so maybe he doesn't know she was trying to pull this shit. I can't bring myself to tell him." He nuzzled her nose with his. "The little weasel grew on me."
She chuckled and brought her hands up to his face. Cupping his cheeks, she leaned in slowly, her lips brushed over his a few times, tantalizing. His quick, hot breath hit her mouth, hers mixed with it, and finally she pressed to him.
He moaned, gripping her body tighter, prying her lips open with his tongue. Yes, they had issues with some people who were once considered their friends, but as he moaned her name into her mouth his thoughts split themselves in two.
Part of his brain registered nothing but the here and now, the temptation of slipping his hands into her flannel pants and making her cum so hard she forgets all about Alex Cabot's foiled plans to seduce him at the Bar Associations annual gala, make her scream his name so loudly it wakes up the neighbors across the street, bury his dick so deeply in her that he feels entirely new parts of her surround him.
The other half of his consciousness focused on his life, his family. Four perfect children sound asleep upstairs, the most incredible woman on Earth in his arms, his religious integrity fully intact and a lifetime commitment so easily made and kept and fulfilling and blissful. His parents, both of them, together and happy despite challenges that robbed them of decades. His brother and sisters found happiness of their own after teasing him relentlessly about his for years. His nieces and nephews who were born into the most complicatedly compassionate family in the universe. His job, which, despite the obvious downfalls, was more rewarding and exciting than he'd ever imagined it would be, especially with his wife fighting at his side.
For everything that had ever gone wrong in his life he'd had so much more go right. He chuckled as one side of his brain overpowered the other and he gave a hard tug on her pants.
Her yelping laugh was caught on his tongue and she moaned lowly when she felt his hands creep between her legs, slip toward her inner thighs, graze her slit.
"Bad girl," he whispered, nipping lightly on her lip. He brushed his knuckles over her bare, waxed skin. He groaned as his thick fingers were coated in slickness and he shivered slightly. "No, good girl," he corrected with a kiss, and then against her lips he mumbled, "Very good girl." He smirked and thrust a finger into her, loving the way she whimpered and bucked against him.
She bit his bottom lip and tugged, feeling him working another finger into her, and she whispered, "The only one," as her eyes slipped closed. Her lips wrestled with his as she thought about how he was the only person in the world who'd ever touched her, loved her, knew her inside and out, but he had so many different moods and aspects of his personality that in being with only him she had more lovers than any of her more promiscuous friends. She had more stability and more true love and trust than anyone she knew at all, an impenetrable and unbreakable bond with her husband, who was her best friend, her partner, her protector, her savior. "Only you," she said softly.
"Only you," he whispered back to her, his left hand pulling her pants down further as his right worked another of its fingers into her heat. He raised his hips and laughed as Olivia shoved his sweats over his hips, just as eager as he was. He sighed and looked into her eyes, grinning at the specks of metallic gold that peppered shades of brown. His promise to keep her happy enough to have that beautiful light in her eyes was one he knew he would never break. "I love you," he told her, slipping his fingers out of her.
When she felt him hike her up she dropped her head back, and as he thrusted and filled her the way only he ever had or will, she moaned. "I love you," she told him, and they stilled, waited, hoped they didn't hear any tiny feet or crying babies, that this would go uninterrupted.
He began to move, his left hand fisting into her hair and pulling as he rocked upward. "My God," he whispered.
Through shitty childhoods, abusive parents, legal battles, deaths, births, they've always had each other, kept each other standing strong. Through time apart, the military, college, they defied odds and stayed faithful. Through Lizzie and Dickie, Eli, and Mia they battled exhaustion and frustration and let their passionate emotions ignite a deeper bond instead of tearing a rift. Through marriages and divorces and separations and reconciliations, they were the one pair that survived unscathed, came out the other end with more combined power and control.
Her lips parted slightly as she rolled her body in waves, taking him deeper, feeling him grow and pulse inside of her. "El," she breathed, lowering her head to his.
"Liv," he panted back at her, pulling her hair harder, rougher, and he smiled. "My Liv," he whispered.
"Always yours," she promised. "Only yours."
And the pathetically catty letter from Alex lay forgotten on the coffee table, because as had been the most important rule in their relationship since the moment they'd met, nothing mattered enough to come between or before them. They'd sacrificed for each other, killed and lied for each other, and it all led to the most incredible family, the most sacred relationship, and truly, the most beautiful life. Now and always, la vita Bella.
A/N:This has been a long and wild run, and I thank you all so very much for sticking it out to the very end. Will I see you on the journeys of my other fics? You're all so truly beautiful.
