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"Morning, Fin." Olivia greeted when he walked into the OC conference room for their weekly rundown of what was happening with the case. She sat next to Elliot, hands wrapped around the warm coffee cup from the shop she and Elliot had stopped by. He was looking through files beside her, brows furrowing at the pieces of information they had highlighted in the transcript from Diamond.

"Morning, thieves." Fin grumbled before taking a seat beside Amanda, crossing his arms over his chest. He saw the smirk from Elliot and the eye roll from Olivia, but they both looked like they hadn't slept much. They both had their hands on their coffees, obviously needing the caffeine today. He knew exactly why they needed more sleep, had to hear about their plans during their first date when he already thought they'd slept together. So, he tilted his head towards them, almost challenging. "Why're so tired, El? Liv? Didn't sleep well?"

Olivia shrugged, picking up the transcript from the table in front of her. "Actually, I slept very well, but it's exhausting counting and spending so much money." She snickered when Fin frowned. "Noah has become quite fascinated with cooking now. I think he ate more than he actually served and cleaning up the kitchen took twice as long. How was your weekend?"

"I just wanna know," Fin started slowly, "was the money truly mine, or was it still Munch's?" He saw the flare of anger in Elliot's eyes as he pulled on his reading glasses. "What? Before or after midnight?"

Elliot clenched his jaw, but sighed with a shake of his head. "You have a real problem."

Reagan glanced between their captains and Fin. "What on Earth are you guys talking about?"

"The six grand in cash that Fin used in a dirty bet." Elliot kept it vague, not wanting to talk about his and Olivia's personal relationship with his squad. He wanted to tell everyone, but he wanted to do it on their terms. Not because of a brown paper bag filled with cash. "Things didn't go his way."

"It got dirtier after you guys took it." Fin mumbled.

Elliot sent another glare his way. "Not what we're here to talk about. As you guys know, we went to the restaurant where Louie was having dinner Friday night. Thankfully, Captain Benson speaks Italian, so we have the transcript due to her coming in over the weekend. You guys have had a chance to read things over. We came up with an idea that this guy isn't a client, but that he's working for Louie."

Olivia nodded, pulling on her own glasses. "On page eight of the transcript, you can see that Louie seems to threaten this guy, Francis, by alluding to his family. Francis admitted to having a wife and a couple kids, but do we know anything else about this guy?"

Jameson raised his pen in the air. "Reagan and I did some digging over the weekend as well. He runs the butchery that Louie owns on his block. It actually used to be owned by Francis, but Louie muscled him out to take over the block. He must've felt sorry for him though, because he's kept Francis around to run the butchery and to do odd jobs for him."

"Like make a drug deal to hand deliver back to him." Reagan added. "He's married with three kids. Two boys and a little girl. Knowing Louie the way he does, I'm sure he's petrified to even breathe without Louie's permission." She pulled out another sheet of paper from in front of her. "We have been aware of him in the past, but he's never had this big of a role in Louie's activities. He might be grooming Francis to take on more tasks. One of Diamond's close inner circle members was hospitalized a couple weeks ago." She pointed over to Amanda. "Rollins actually saw him in pretty bad shape when she was following up on another case."

Amanda nodded, swiveling her chair slightly. "I was following up on the Hallan case when I saw Oliver Kinney, on oxygen, talking with one of the oncologists." She took out a photo from her own stack of papers. "I was there Friday and managed to find out he'd been there for a while. It doesn't sound like he's getting out alive."

Elliot picked up the photo, holding it up between Olivia and himself. "Kinney is his right hand man."

"Sounds like he's still his best confidant." Amanda sighed. "Found out that Louie visits him nearly every day. He'll even kick Kinney's wife out of the room if they're there at the same time. And, it doesn't matter which wife it is either."

Olivia glanced over at Rollins. "If he's willing to order the torture and death of his wife, I'm sure he doesn't even believe he does anything inconsiderate by kicking them out." She shook her head, glancing at the pictures they had of Francis when scoping out the butchery Diamond owned. "Francis won't tell us anything unless we can guarantee the safety of his family. Where does he live?"

Jameson scrambled through a few files, finding what he was looking for after a moment. "Five blocks from Louie's hub. I'm sure his place is watched. His wife works at a boutique near Central Park. Kids go to private school. One of them is in the same class as Diamond's youngest daughter."

"How do you want to do that?" Olivia asked, turning her gaze to Elliot.

He peered at her over his glasses. "She picks the kids up school. We could pull her over and set up a place to safely take her in the kids where Diamond's people couldn't see." Elliot pointed to Fin. "There's a parking garage not far from SVU. Can we set up a car there to take her and her kids to a safe location?"

Fin nodded. "I can arrange that."

Elliot took off his glasses, setting his transcript back on the table. "Once we have them, we can reach out to Francis and figure out where to go from there."

Fin frowned when Elliot tossed a duffle bag into his backseat along with a couple bags of takeout. "Um, I didn't agree to this relationship, man. Besides, Liv would kick my ass if she found out I stole you right after you two slept together."

Elliot chuckled, smacking his shoulder before buckling up in the passenger seat. "You'd be so lucky." He glanced into the backseat, making sure he didn't forget anything as Fin pulled away from the curb. "Thanks for the ride. I didn't think you'd be heading back to the precinct this late."

"Usually, I'm not, but this joint case has Rollins and I working a few hours overtime to work on our other cases." Fin explained with a shrug. "We haven't been doing that much lately, so it's a nice change in pace than the regular nine to five." He muted the radio. "But, enough about work. You've got talking to do, Stabler. You had your first date with Benson AND your first real night together. I don't want details, but how was it?"

Elliot chuckled, glancing over at his friend. "You do realize you're asking about your boss now, right?"

Fin's eyebrows raised. "Oh, I'm more aware of that than you know, but she's been my friend a lot longer. I've known two longer than my actual career at SVU has lasted, so I'm asking you as a friend."

"Alright," Elliot grinned, "you were right. Liv and I have done everything together. Sleeping together was the only thing we hadn't done, and it wasn't awkward or even clumsy. We went back to her place, and it was like we had been together for years. It felt like we'd been together for years. It felt like our first time, but. . .we were familiar with each other like I'd been with her, like really with her, my whole life." He shook his head. "I'm still working on gaining back her complete trust, to make any and all doubts go away."

Fin scoffed. "You know Liv. She's the queen of doubt when a good thing comes along. You ruined many of her relationships, but she ruined them just as much." He patted Elliot's shoulder. "Her relationships may have lasted longer without you around to get possessive, but she ended things even if she wasn't the one to say it. She wears her heart on her sleeve, and people see it.

Elliot ran a hand down his face. "Yeah, I know, but she's never doubted me." He looked down at his hands. "I don't want her to ever have to doubt me. We ended up having a fight about it. Well, sort of a fight. It was strange. She was fighting for me. I was fighting against her. It led to some mind blowing make up sex, but I'd rather fight over who forgot to get milk than whether or not she trusts me."

"Ah! I said I didn't want details." Fin grimaced. He rubbed at his temple, shaking his head. "I don't know why I do anything for you two." He glanced over at Elliot, seeing him lost in thought. "El," he seemed to abandon whatever train of thought he was on to look at Fin, "she trusts you, man. More than anybody else in her entire life. Just give her time. She's talking to you more about her feelings. Just don't fight with her about what she's going through. If she says she trusts you, just take it. She may have a doubt every now and then, but it's not about you. It's just how things have panned out for her when it comes to relationships. You're working on changing that pattern, and she sees it. Pretty soon, you two will be closer than ever, and I will have to learn Bensler language just to understand what the hell you two are talking about right in front of me."

Elliot laughed. "Let me know when you do, because Liv and I tried for a long time to figure out Finch. . .or Min. . .or whatever you want to call you and Munch."

"If I wasn't driving, I would smack you for saying that." Fin stated plainly before reaching over and punching Elliot's side anyway, making him groan in the middle of his amusement. "Munch and I don't have a secret language."

"You're the only one who understands his crazy rants." Elliot huffed out, smiling while guarding his side with his hand. "He could talk about conspiracies for hours, and you're the only one who can follow along and actually keep conversation going."

Fin scoffed but kept quiet as he thought about it more and more, his eyes widening with every detail he hadn't thought of. "Oh my God. I speak Finch."

Elliot, duffle bag slung over his shoulder and takeout bags dangling from the hand on his side, grinned when Fin walked over to Olivia standing by his and Amanda's joint desks. The two were talking while Amanda packed up, most likely talking about a case, but he caught both their gazes when he got close to them. "I just need to know one thing. Do Munch and I have a weird way of communicating?"

"Absolutely." Olivia stated without missing a beat. "I speak five languages, and even I have problems following his insane logic behind some of his biggest ideas and theories. Hell, Cragen has problems understanding him and has known him longer. Why do you ask?"

Fin glowered at her before grabbing his things from his desk. "I am never driving your boyfriend anywhere ever again." He pointed back at her as he started following Amanda out of the squad room. "Still happy you're happy though."

Olivia chuckled, shaking her head, as Elliot walked up to her. "What on Earth did you say to him?"

"Only enough to rile him up." Elliot smirked before leaning close and pecking her lips. "You almost ready? It's late, so I got food for us."

"Yeah, Amanda and I were just talking about when I was a detective. More specifically, she was asking what it was like to work with you for as long as I did." Olivia smiled before glancing down at Fin and Amanda's desks. "It's hard to describe to other people. There's not really a label for it, not even a code of ethics. We did things our way, and it just happened to work for us."

Elliot brought down his duffle bag from his shoulder. "We were partners, for better or worse. We went to lengths for each other that not many partners would do for each other, and we lasted longer than any other set of partners. Luck or fate, I'm not going to question it." He set down his things before pulling out the chair to Amanda's desk. "Humor me?"

Olivia smiled gently as she sat down in the chair, scooting herself to the desk as Elliot hurried around to sit at Fin's desk. She snorted softly to herself when he adjusted his tie, something he often did even though he didn't care how his tie laid on his chest. It was a habit, almost as if he couldn't grab a file without fiddling with his tie for the brief second. Once he was seated though, the nostalgia of just how far they had come since they last sat across from each other overwhelmed her. "I miss this."

"What? The detective work?" Elliot asked with raised eyebrows. "The stakeouts? Do you remember that time we spent five hours under the hot sun in our squad car? I thought I was going to die in that metal box. You got sick from overheating-"

Olivia shook her head. "No, not the grunt work." She tapped her fingers on the desk, the desk that used to be hers. "I miss just working with you. Sitting across from each other. Even if we were silently working, we had this internal clock that was ours." She shrugged. "I liked seeing your frustrated frown when you had troubles reading your own scribble you call handwriting. I enjoyed just sharing this space with you. I just. . .I never thought we'd be like this again."

"Me either." Elliot breathed, resting his chin on his hand and gazing back at her with a reassuring smile. "My handwriting has gotten better." He was glad that got a giggle out of her. "You know what I miss most?" She met his eyes again with a curious arch of her eyebrow. "Well, I miss everything, but I miss the discoveries the most. Mainly, your realizations. We could be digging through statements, combing through files. I would look up at you just to give my eyes a break from reading and see this wave of knowledge almost hit you. All frustration would just drain from your face, and you would be left completely shocked by something we had missed or something overlooked or dismissed. It was like you had stumbled on treasure, but, instead of enjoying your prize, you turned into this determined badass detective who wanted nothing more than to slap a set of cuffs on our perp."

Olivia smirked. "Says the guy who kill with one look if prompted in an interrogation room." She sighed, running a hand through her hair. "We may not have been textbook by any means, but we did make good partners."

Elliot nodded, his free hand playing with a pen from Fin's keyboard. "Wouldn't have wanted anyone else. Actually, I did fight if they tried to set me up with anyone else, fought harder when you were working with anyone else." He saw the almost sarcastic look she was shooting his way. "I admit I was possessive, territorial. Maybe even a little jealous. I couldn't have told you exactly why. I just knew you were my partner, and I didn't want anyone trying to take over for each other."

"Even with time apart, no one has ever taken your place. Nobody will." Olivia whispered, giving him a genuine smile. "Doesn't matter who I've worked with or who I've dated. You pop into my head like you're living there, just waiting for the opportunity to remind me of you." She shook her head, glancing down at her hands. "I thought of you every time I ate carrots."

Elliot laughed with a shake of his head. "Serves you right going up to meet my mother without me." He met her eyes, gleaming with mischief remembering her secret trip. It made his heart swell to know that she went to great lengths to help him and his family when they wouldn't help themselves. She made him a priority just like he had made her his priority. It didn't matter what was going on in their partnership or friendship. He'd go to the ends of the world for her, and he hoped she knew that. "I love you."

"I love you too." Olivia breathed before she stood and walked towards her office to grab her things. She stopped though in the doorway, turning back to see him admiring her as she walked away. It was a look she had seen many times throughout the years, but it was the first time she didn't feel guilty about wanting more of him, more for them. "Just so you know, I don't think it was luck that partnered us together."

Elliot grinned, his cheeks reddening a little bit. "Even if it was fate, I'm still pretty lucky, Liv."

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