A/N: Finally finishing this story, the longest piece of fiction I've ever written, undoubtedly the most complex, riddled with insights from my own personal growth which is what grants it such a special place in my heart. Writing this story was an experience, that extended for over a year, and while it was painful at times to get the words out (or not being able to), I feel like the story really needed the time it took to come to life in order to mature enough and become what it did. I'm really happy with the result and would really like to thank everyone that came along with me in this ride, as well as anyone who ever reads it afterwards. Writing this story meant a lot to me, and it means the world that anyone would be interested in reading it, and that anyone would come to like it. Please do let me know your final thoughts, I'll be eagerly waiting for reviews as I finally sit back feeling accomplished!

Breaking Point finally comes to a close, and this epilogue could be the spark to a possible sequel, as well as put the lid on everything that happened here. Time will tell... Thanks for reading!

EPILOGUE

"I'm sure you all have better things to do on a Friday night, but how about a drink to celebrate what's looking like a weekend off ahead of us?" said Munch, standing up and putting his suit jacket on.

"Oh man, shut up!" Fin whined in protest, his hands on his face. "Don't say that, you're gonna jinx it!"

Olivia chuckled, exchanging a quick but meaningful look with Elliot across their desks.

"Then I guess we better get going before the phone rings," she said, standing up as well, followed by Elliot.

"One drink, in case the phone rings anyway," he corrected cautiously, exchanging another look with her as they unspokenly shared the memory of the last time they had decided to go for a drink on a slow night, the corners of his mouth turning up in a hint of a smile as he remembered how that had been the first time he'd kissed her – he looked away when she blushed, smiling knowingly.

As Olivia put on her jacket, she noticed the captain standing by his office's door frame, and as their eyes locked, he gave her a barely perceptible nod that said he wanted a word with her – a discrete one.

"I'll be just a minute," she warned, ignoring Elliot's surprised frown and walking towards Cragen's office. "Captain?" she called lightly at the door as he'd already walked back in towards his desk.

"Calling it a night?" Cragen smiled, and the calculated lightness of his tone raised a flag in Olivia's mind.

"We're going out for a drink," she cautiously walked in towards him since he hadn't instructed her to close the door. "I know you don't drink, but would you like to come along?"

"Rain check?" was his reply, eyes squinting, as Olivia had predicted. He sighed, and as he walked slowly towards her, with his hands in his pockets, she felt that apprehension growing and her heart racing.

"What's wrong?" she couldn't help but ask, and his hesitation made her impatient. "What is it, Captain?"

"I just…" he started, looking down as if gathering courage. "I've been holding on to this," he said, taking one of his hands out of his pocket and revealing that it held a small evidence bag with what looked like an SD card inside. "Elliot found it in Downey's freezer, but forensics wasn't done with it until after... everything."

Olivia shuddered at the mention of that name, a name that hadn't visited her thoughts in so long. "His freezer?" she repeated, reluctantly receiving the card from the captain's hand, aware that looking at it wasn't going to help her understand anything.

"He had all his pictures and journals in plain view, the apartment was a mess, it didn't look like a place he brought any visitors to, and yet, he took the trouble to hide this well."

"What's in it?" Olivia asked restlessly, nodding her comprehension of the importance the captain seemed to want her so badly to know the piece of evidence held while purposefully expressing her annoyance at the suspense.

"You," he said simply, returning his hand to his pocket with a sigh. "Your whole life. Where you studied, worked, every place you ever lived in, your boyfriends, friends, everything about your mother…"

"And?" She knew just her bio wouldn't be enough for him to act like this – but she wasn't prepared for what he added next either.

"Your father."

"My…" she mumbled. "What do you mean, my father? I don't…"

"The man you found out was your father. It seems Downey did his own digging. He gathered detailed information on who the guy was, where he'd been and how he crossed paths with your mother, as well as other women he might have raped…" he took a long pause before finishing, his voice an octave lower, almost as though he hoped she wouldn't hear that part. "And other children he might have fathered."

Other children. The words echoed in her head as their meaning sunk in, the weight of everything they entailed suddenly crushing her, physically, shortening her breath. Olivia took another look at the SD card, turning it around as if there was something she could see in it to help her understand, help her mind grasp what that little piece of plastic contained, what its contents could mean. Was Eric ever going to disclose that information to her? She had finally been able to silence his words in her head, and yet she was standing right before a whole new world of questions she would never be able to ask him.

"I figured this wasn't relevant to our case," Cragen added, his voice back to that soft, careful tone. "You can keep it if you want… Or I can hold on to it for you. I thought long and hard about this, if I should even tell you about it… I think it's probably best not to dwell into it any further, but you have the right to choose what it is you want to do about it."

When are you gonna stop torturing yourself with what that guy said to you? She remembered Elliot asking her that question, it had become a mantra in her head that played whenever Eric threatened to come to mind with his hurtful words and actions, she just hadn't been aware that there was anything new he might come to haunt her with. As if conjured by her thoughts, claimed by her anxiety, Elliot appeared then with a knock on the glass.

"Aren't you guys coming?" he said, cheerful at first, then stiffening when he took in the mood in the room, his smile fading instantly. "Is everything all right?" He detected the SD card he'd found in Downey's apartment in Olivia's hand, then looked up at her.

She stared at him blankly for a second, a fine coat of tears welling up in her eyes, not enough to roll down, only to stress the panic she already knew he had easily identified as she felt once again pulled towards a dark place, maybe even darker than the one Eric had last left her at. As Elliot stood there, at the door, he was the very threshold between that place and a lighter place, a happier one, a real place where she could be with him, in the present, where she'd been living, blissfully ignorant to whatever lay beyond its boundaries.

"Yeah, everything's fine," she swallowed, then smiled, turning to Cragen to hand him back the card, her eyes and the almost imperceptible break in her voice conveying the importance of the choice she was making, and in that moment they connected, from one addict to another, because Olivia knew that, very much like the captain's struggle to keep himself from drinking day after day, choosing to let go of the past was something she was going to have to deal with forever, one day at a time. "Thank you, Captain."

He just nodded, in acceptance and understanding, wrapping his hand around the small plastic bag and making it disappear from view into his pocket like it had never existed, allowing Olivia to rush out of the room; Elliot knew to simply walk with her until they were as far away as possible from whatever lay inside that small plastic square he wished he had never found or had been able to destroy just for making her feel whatever it was that was making her look like that, all color removed from her face, the glint of tears that he hadn't seen in her eyes for weeks now.

"What was that all about?" he asked as soon as they were outside the building.

Her only reply was to interlock her fingers with his and squeeze tight, her eyes staring into nothing in particular, trying to catch her breath, the cold wind playing with her hair as a couple of tears finally rolled down her cheeks. Elliot wanted to wipe them off, but he just stood there, waiting, watching her as the color came back to her features, as the heaving of her chest subsided, as her breaths became less ragged. Eventually, she looked up at him, letting out a relieved sigh that brought out a smile. With her free hand, she wiped the tears herself.

"Tell me what you need," he pleaded, trying to control his own anxiety.

Smiling, she shook her head and squeezed his hand again. "Nothing else," she whispered, her voice choked with emotion.

Elliot yanked her by the hand into his chest, and for a moment, he didn't give a damn that they were just outside the precinct, that someone could see them. He just pressed her against him, feeling her arms squeeze him back as she buried her face into the crook of his neck, focused on breathing him in to find her bearings, reset her balance.

Munch and Fin were just walking out then and, upon seeing him and Olivia, they hesitated, then exchanged a look; Munch then turned to Elliot and, with a gesture, said goodbye for the night, nudging Fin into walking off with him, probably to the bar for that drink they'd all decided to go out together for in what seemed now like a completely different night, a long time ago, several miles away.

Olivia pulled away from him, just enough to look at his face like someone looking for a direction, some kind of instruction on what they're supposed to do next.

"Let's go home," he replied to the question she never asked, and he could tell by her grateful smile that it was the right answer.

"Please," she mouthed, barely audibly.

She started to stride away, leaving her hand behind for him, which he grabbed, picking up the pace until they were walking side by side.