Hello everyone!

So...I'm here with a new update. It's not as dramatic as I was originally thinking, but a certain past figure will pop up and prompt a discussion between our favorite couple. Things are all well for now, but the peace can't last forever - can it?

ALSO...THANK YOU FOR 300 REVIEWS! I am blown away by the support on this fic and I'm so thankful for y'all! YOU ARE AWESOME!

Enjoy chapter eighteen of Better Circumstances :)

Better Circumstances

EIGHTEEN

The next few weeks passed in a blur; spring set in completely over New York City which meant the frigid cold weather was finally gone, and the comfortable somewhat warm weather with a nice breeze had settled in. Olivia and Edgar's relationship was still going strong; one month together had turned into two, and now they were halfway towards being together for three months. They spent as much time together as possible – sometimes date nights, sometimes it was the two of them and Noah on little "family" adventures. The more she saw how Edgar doted on her son and saw their bond strengthen, the more she seemed to fall in love with this man.

Truthfully, she had never been this happy in her life and she was hoping with everything in her that this happiness would last.

Today was a strangely relaxed Wednesday, which meant that Olivia had been able to get away for lunch with Edgar of course which she had been grateful about. They'd had a nice meal together at the diner that wasn't far from the precinct, and of course he had walked her back as he always did. They talked for a little bit and she'd just been about to give him a quick peck on the cheek, when suddenly she heard;

"Liv!"

She turned around and inwardly groaned; Fin was coming towards them with a bag in his hand from a nearby food spot. However, it was the silly smirk on his lips that made Olivia want to disappear. 'Ground swallow me up.' She thought to herself. She loved Fin, but she knew he would question her about talking to Edgar. She and Edgar hadn't exactly disclosed to anyone yet, which meant Olivia hadn't even told Fin that for nearly three months, she had been seeing this man.

"If you're out for lunch then who was left in charge of the squad room?" she made a lame attempt to joke with him, but he was having none of it as he simply nudged her before sticking his hand out to Edgar;

"Counselor, good to see you man."

"Good to see you, Sergeant Tutuola…" Edgar shook his hand before then looking to Olivia; "Um…I'll catch you later, Liv."

"Catch you later." She murmured. She gave him a look and he gave her a smile before walking towards his car. Olivia stared after him for a minute, before looking up as Fin had draped an arm around her shoulders. He was giving her a cheesy smile and she could see that his eyes were swimming with questions, leading her to groan as she rolled her eyes; "Come on, let's head back up."

"Oh hell yeah, 'cause we need to talk…" Fin chuckled away as they walked up the steps; "You ain't gettin' outta this."

Olivia simply muttered an expletive while heading back into the precinct with him. The two went back up to the squad room and immediately went into their little break room. Fin closed the door behind them, then the pair sat down at the table. Fin still had that stupid smile on his face as he got his food container out of the bag, while Olivia was trying to feel less awkward as she felt like she was about to be interrogated or something.

"Now you know normally, I don't ask questions because shit…what you do outside of these walls ain't my business," he spoke up as he flipped open the lid for his food; "However, you was out there cheesin' at the Counselor, and I ain't seen you smile like that in a while. So…you got 'bout five seconds to tell me what's up with that."

Olivia rolled her eyes again, but she had to smile; at least Fin wasn't being annoyingly overprotective. He just seemed genuinely curious, and she knew she could trust him. She simply shrugged, then spoke up;

"So…because I trust you and know you won't tell anyone, I'll admit it; Edgar and I have been seeing each other."

"Oh shit, so he has a name. He ain't just Reverend Chase's lawyer no more?" Fin teased, giving her a look.

"Yes, he has a name…Edgar Pierce," she replied, a light chuckle escaping her lips; "You remember that day he came by here and you almost didn't let him into my office?"

Fin nodded, so Olivia continued; "Well we talked and cleared the air, and then we just happened to run into each other a couple weeks later and hit it off…so…" She trailed off and simply shrugged.

Fin chuckled and nodded his head, then suddenly raised an eyebrow as it dawned on him; "Didn't that happen like three months or something ago?"

Olivia tilted her head to the side, and Fin simply groaned while staring at her; "You kept this from me for three months? Damn Liv; we practically brother and sister – what the hell?"

"I didn't know what you were gonna say and I wasn't sure about it so I just didn't say anything…" she replied with a simple shrug of the shoulders; "And we haven't disclosed, so…I mean the only people who know are Noah and Lucy, and Edgar's sister."

"Wow you really kept this from me; I'm hurt…" he feigned a hurt look, then started laughing; "Nah, you look happy so I'm happy for you. I'm just perplexed though; you got a type, and he don't even fit it."

"I don't have a type!"

"Yeah you do; it's that 'always angry, receding hairline, cop' type…" Fin was still chuckling away, amused by the smirk that was threatening to spill across her face; "Hold on let me just go down the list – Stabler, Cassidy, Tucker."

"You know what, all I have to do is make one goddamn phone call and your ass is out the door…" she joked, playfully kicking him underneath the table; "Leave me alone, and for the record Stabler and I never dated, so shut up."

"But you was just…" he trailed off, seeing the raised eyebrow on her face; "Nevermind; I'm gon' shut up before you fire me for real. All jokes aside though, this is a good look on you. I ain't seen you smile like this in some years, Liv; so, I'm real happy for you."

"I'm so happy, and I'm terrified that it won't last but I'm just going with the flow…I guess." she shrugged.

"And that's all you can do, just go with it. He did come all the way here just to talk to you after that case though and apologize, so that must mean something…" he paused to take a sip of his drink, then he continued; "But by the way, if he break your heart, I'm gon' bust his ass."

Olivia burst out laughing; Fin really had such a way with words sometimes and it never failed to amuse her and warm her heart all at once. She knew that he meant well by his comment; he had always been protective over her anyway, but the protectiveness had more so increased in recent years. He had seen a lot of highs and lows of Olivia Benson, had seen her cry more times than he wanted to, so he hoped that this wouldn't end in disaster.

Then again, he had seen the way Edgar looked at her when they were outside. He had a pretty good feeling about this.

"Wow…" he let out a chuckle; "So…you and the counselor, eh? I thought you ain't date lawyers."

"I don't normally, but he changed my mind…" she had let out a cliché loved up sigh, and her mind briefly wandered to Edgar and that loving look that was always present in his eyes whenever he gazed at her. She hadn't realized that she had slipped off into a little daydream until Fin started laughing;

"Benson goin' soft over a dude; never thought I'd see the day."

Olivia simply rolled her eyes and kicked him under the table;

"Shut up."

The rest of the day ran pretty smoothly for Olivia and for Edgar as well. While Olivia was busy on her side of Manhattan simply tying up some loose ends of cases, Edgar was busy at his own law firm looking over notes for a couple upcoming court cases he had. He had glanced at the clock on the wall and realized that it was about quarter past four, and he had an idea – he would leave work around five and maybe go meet up with Olivia, if she wasn't busy of course.

He had just finished jotting down some more notes when his phone rang. He glanced at the screen, and he smirked when he saw who it was, leading him to immediately answer; "Hey Liv."

"Hello counselor," she immediately replied, a certain flirtatious undertone being heard in her voice; "You busy?"

"Well I won't be if you plan on coming to see me."

"Well I plan on it, because I'm on my way out the door," she giggled away; "I'll see you in about ten minutes."

"I look forward to your visit." He replied. The two then rounded off the call and hung up, and Edgar simply chuckled and shook his head. He went back to his work, deciding to hurry up and finish so he could just leave with Olivia when she did arrive.

It was only some minutes later that his office door opened, leading him to look up. His secretary was poking her head in and she had a confused expression on her face; "Um…Mr. Pierce, there's a lady here to see you; she says she needs to talk to you."

Edgar raised an eyebrow as he too was now confused. He knew this couldn't have been Olivia already, and his secretary would have just sent her in considering she knew who Olivia was. He simply told the older woman to send this person in, but he wasn't the slightest bit prepared for who was about to walk in;

The woman was dressed in her grey dress slacks and a blush pink blouse, with sky high blush pink heels on which added a few inches to her height. Her lips were adorned in a pink matte lipstick, and nude colored eyeshadow were on her lids. Her reddish-blonde hair was in a trendy updo, and those green eyes held a mixture of sadness yet slight hope as he stared back at him.

Heather McKnight – his former fiancée.

They hadn't seen each other in about three years, since Heather had left him at the altar after admitting to him – in front of many guests and families – that she could not marry someone that she didn't love. She had run out then and he hadn't seen her since, and it had taken a while to get over such heartbreak. He had always wondered how he would react if he were to see her again. Would he be mad? Would he be sad again? Would he want to hug her? Would he want to throw her out and demand that she never shows her face gain?

He told his secretary that all was well, so the older woman nodded and closed the door behind her. Now, the two individuals were standing here face to face. Edgar could hear the sound of his own heart beating as anger began to course through him. Heather had opened her mouth to speak, but he beat her to it;

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"I…I'm back in town," Heather stammered, still looking at him; "Defense attorney job opened up for Buchanan and Cranston, and…I don't know, I guess I thought it was fate."

"And why would you think that?"

"Because it brought me back here…to you…" there was a pause, then Heather sighed; "Um…listen can we talk? Like go somewhere and talk? I just…I need to explain."

"What about Charles? Does he know you're here?"

"We split up about a year ago," Heather explained; "Look, Edgar I'm sorry…I am so sorry. I made the biggest mistake of my life leaving you, it just took me a long time to realize it."

"Good for you; now get out."

"I just want to talk to-"

"I said get out, I don't want to talk to you." He then went to step around her to go open his door, but she grabbed hold of his arm;

"We were engaged; you're telling me you feel nothing and really don't want to talk?"

"Yeah, I'm saying exactly that…" Edgar snatched his arm away, shooting her a glare; "Just go, leave before I call sec-"

As he was speaking, the door suddenly pushed open yet again. Both he and Heather looked up, and Edgar felt like he wanted the ground to swallow him up now; Olivia was standing there in the doorway, and she was looking between them both as if she were trying to decipher this interaction before she reacted.

"You busy?" she asked, eyeing Heather for a minute before looking back at him. Edgar shook his head in an instant;

"She was just leaving."

"Yeah…I was leaving…" Heather replied. She then looked back at Edgar, "I'll see you around, Edgar." She then looked back at Olivia before rushing out of the office, and Olivia watched her go before stepping further into Edgar's office. Edgar ran his hand down his face as he watched Olivia close the door behind her. She then looked back at him, and her eyebrow was arched;

"Who was that?"

Edgar already saw that look on Olivia's face; her detective instincts were kicking in as she tried to figure out about the woman whom had just left his office. He sighed to himself; he hadn't exactly told her about his past relationship because that wasn't something he really liked to talk about, plus they really hadn't gone into much details about their pasts. But since Heather had decided to show her face, tonight was going to obviously be the night that he would tell Olivia about her.

And she was a defense attorney, which meant there might be a chance of her running into Olivia again for work purposes. He definitely needed to warn her.

"You in a rush to get home?"

Olivia shook her head, so he continued;

"Let's go get a drink and talk; you need to know about that woman."

The bar was pretty quiet for a Tuesday night; there were a few patrons here and there at the tables throughout the establishment, and a few people were sitting at the bar enjoying a drink together and watching whatever sports highlights were on the television. Edgar and Olivia had gotten their drinks then sat at a table in the corner where the chances of their conversation being heard would be slim to none. Olivia was curious about the woman from earlier, but now Edgar was going to explain.

"So, you know, me and you haven't talked a lot about our past relationships – well not in detail anyway."

"This is true." She nodded.

"It is; we just touch on things and that's…that's it…" Edgar paused to take a sip of his beer, then he continued; "So I'm just gonna tell you…the woman you met earlier, she is a past relationship of mine. In fact, she is my ex-fiancée."

Olivia immediately lowered her beer. She had gotten the hunch that this woman was an old flame, however she hadn't expected her to be more than such. Fiancée was a huge word, a huge part of someone's life. The fact that this former fiancée of his had come back to New York and had been at his firm today was almost blowing her mind, so she needed to know the story there to try and ease her anxiety that was starting to creep in.

She would not run. They were going to talk about this.

"Okay…okay…" she took a much-needed deep breath, flicking her gaze from the label on her beer bottle and back to him; "So…what's the story there? Well first of all, has she always been in New York or?"

"The last I heard was she had moved to Connecticut with her boyfriend, and that was about two years ago now…but she's back now..." he rolled his eyes; "She's a defense attorney."

"Interesting," Olivia replied with a nod; "So tell me – what's the story?"

Edgar took a sip of his beer, then he began; "So Heather and I met about twelve years ago…"

He then went on to explain the whole situation – about how they'd met through mutual friends and had been friends for a couple years before starting to date. They'd been together for about six years before he proposed, and for the next year, they had planned their wedding down to the last detail and organized everything. Then, came that day three years ago, when he had watched the woman that he had considered the love of his life walk down the aisle to him, only for her to crush his heart when she admitted that she no longer loved him and could not marry him. She had rushed out of the church then, and Edgar never saw her again – until today obviously.

Olivia was listening intently, finding herself more irritated each time as Edgar told the story. She hated what Heather had done to Edgar as he was such a good man and didn't deserve the heartbreak he had experienced, but on the other hand, she was partly grateful for Heather and her selfish behaviors. If things hadn't happened the way they did, Edgar would have been very much off the market and they wouldn't be experiencing this beautiful thing they were having together now.

"You didn't deserve any of that, I hope you know that…" she told him, gazing into his eyes as she spoke; "I hope you know that if…if anything were to happen…I wouldn't leave you like that."

"I know you wouldn't, baby; I trust you and honestly, I'm glad she did do what she did…" he reached over and placed his hand over hers, lightly rubbing over the small chain bracelet on her wrist with his thumb; "If she hadn't done this, I wouldn't be able to be with you…and I like being with you."

"Just like?"

He chuckled at her light teasing, then leaned towards her as he whispered; "I love being with you." He dropped a delicate kiss to her lips, and she giggled against his lips before pulling away. They gazed at each other for a few seconds, then he spoke up again; "I'm sorry I didn't mention it sooner."

"I'll let it go because you're cute…" she winked, which caused him to chuckle; "Seriously though, I'm just glad you were honest and upfront with me; I appreciate that…"

She then paused to take a sip of her beer, then she spoke; "But for the record, she better stay in her lane because I'm a damn good shot – that's all I'm saying."

Edgar simply laughed and squeezed her hand; "I'll pretend I didn't hear that simply because I'm a lawyer."

The conversations switched to other things as they finished up their drinks; Olivia told Edgar about the fact that she had confided in Fin about their relationship, but she assured him that things would be fine since Fin wouldn't tell anyone. Both of them were cautious about this thing getting out, as a defense attorney and a cop being in a relationship was bound to be a conflict of interest at some point. However, Edgar didn't necessarily have any intention on trying Manhattan SVU cases anymore, so they were sure that whenever they would actually disclose, it wouldn't be much of a problem.

After a short while, the two figured that they best head out as Olivia needed to get home to Noah. Edgar sweetly walked Olivia to her car, then pulled her in for a hug. He held her against his chest, and she was snuggled into his embrace while breathing in his scent.

"Noah is having a sleepover at Jeremy's on Friday night, so how about me and you have a date if work doesn't get in the way?" she wondered, tilting her head to look at him.

"Hmm…" he pretended to think, then leaned his head against hers as he continued to hold her; "How about I come over and cook us dinner, have some wine, just relax – among other things?"

She let out a slight laugh as she reached up to drape her arm around his neck; "Sounds like a plan, counselor." She then tilted her head more and pressed her lips against his, and he immediately slid his tongue into her mouth as he held her tighter.

The two were so lost in each other that they had no idea that they were being watched by a patron that had been on the other side of the bar. She had noticed them earlier, had watched them all throughout their time together, and then was still looking out the window and watching them now. She eyed the brunette that was currently wrapped up in Edgar's arms, and she felt jealousy starting to course through her.

Edgar was supposed to be hugged up with her, not that brunette cop from earlier.

Heather McKnight slammed her glass down onto the table and sighed; she had to have Edgar back, and she would get him one way or another.

Well...let me know what you guys think. I appreciate all your reviews, I appreciate your love for this couple, I appreciate everything. Thank you again for my 300 reviews! I'll be posting again asap! Stay safe! xo