"Olivia."

"Hey." Olivia said, dropping her hand to her side. "I'm sorry. Were you going somewhere?" She asked, motioning towards the keys in his hand.

"What?" Elliot asked, still surprised to see Olivia standing outside his door.

"Your keys."

"Oh." Elliot said, lifting his hand and looking at the keys, as if surprised they were there. "No." He said, shaking his head as he looked back at Olivia. "No. I was just…" He let the sentence trail off. "How did you know where I live?"

Olivia cocked her head and gave him a look that told him it was a stupid question.

"Yeah." He said. "You're a cop." Elliot saw Olivia look away glancing up and down the hallway, and he could tell she was unsure about being there. "Come in." he said, taking a step backwards and holding the door as he motioned for her to come in. She hesitated a few seconds and then across the threshold.

Olivia's nerves were on overdrive. The moment the door closed behind her she felt a moment of panic, but she pushed it back down. She had already turned around two times on her way here but had convinced herself she needed to have this conversation. She wasn't going to turn back now.

Olivia took a moment to look around. The entry was small with a narrow galley kitchen to her right and the living room straight ahead. There was a dining room table to her left, big enough for four and beyond that, she saw a hallway that she assumed led to a bedroom and bathroom. It wasn't a large place but looked like it had been recently renovated. The room looked and smelled like him, and she wondered how long he had lived in this spot.

"Do you want the grand tour?" Elliot asked, brushing by her as he walked farther into the living room.

"Um…maybe later." Olivia appreciated Elliot's attempt to put her at ease, but she was nervous. "Maybe a beer?" She knew she probably shouldn't have a drink, but she just needed to relax a little. A beer seemed like a safe option.

"Sure." Elliot said. He walked past her again and disappeared into the kitchen. She heard the clink of glassware and took another opportunity to look around. The apartment was sparsely furnished, but she saw several family photos decorating a long table beneath the windows. There was a small plant on the table as well. She didn't know why that struck her as odd. Maybe she couldn't see Elliot keeping a plant alive.

As she got closer, she saw a photo of a small boy at the front of the table that she assumed was Eli. She leaned over to take a closer look at the little boy with the mop of blonde curls.

"He's a handful." Elliot said with a laugh.

Olivia straightened up and turned around. "He's gotten so big."

"Almost five." Elliot handed one of the glasses of beer to Olivia, keeping the other for himself.

"Hard to believe it's been that long."

"Kathy is anxious for him to go to school in the fall. Full day kindergarten. He's ready for it and so it she."

Olivia loved the way Elliot beamed with pride whenever he talked about his children. She was glad that at least that hadn't changed. "Sounds like he's a full-blooded Stabler."

"He has a lot of energy." Elliot said as he sat down on the couch. "Or else I'm just getting old." He watched as Olivia settled on the edge of the oversized chair. He saw her bite back a smile and he knew there was a comment there, but she let it pass. He took a drink of his beer and set it on the large, wooden coffee table. "I'm guessing you didn't come here to talk about Eli." He saw Olivia's smile fade.

Olivia glanced down at the beer she was holding in her hands. "I don't know why I came here."

Elliot didn't respond. Olivia had said it under her breath, and he wasn't sure he was meant to hear. "I'm glad you're here." He thought about what he'd been planning on telling her as he had headed for the door, but he knew now that he had to tread carefully. "When you called…before…I figured it might be a while before I'd hear from you."

"I thought so too." Olivia took a long drink of her beer, draining one-third of the glass. She set it down on the coffee table to keep herself from downing the rest of the glass. She stared at it for a moment, avoiding Elliot's eyes. She had been trying to figure out how to tell Elliot what was on her mind, but hadn't landed on anything specific, other than to just dive right in. "I got suspended today." Olivia's eyes flicked up to his to gauge his reaction. She caught the look of surprise and the question in his eyes before he resumed a neutral expression.

"That helps explain what you're doing here at four in the afternoon drinking a beer." He had been wondering, but he hadn't dared ask. He had assumed, rightfully so, that it would come out.

"I messed up on a stakeout and people got hurt."

"You messed up?" Elliot said. It was just like Olivia to take all of the blame. "That partner of yours had to have something do with it."

Olivia shook her head. "It was me." She ignored his remark about Nick as she reached for her beer. She stared at the amber liquid, took a sip, and then glanced back up at Elliot. "And you."

"Me?" Elliot asked, confused.

Olivia looked back at her beer. Somehow it was easier not to look at him, but she could still feel his eyes on her. "I was distracted." She pressed her lips together, knowing that she needed to end this once and for all. "I let myself get distracted."

Elliot didn't need her to tell him the details. The fact that she was here told him all that he needed to know. "I'm sorry."

"I didn't come here for an apology." Olivia closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, searching for the will to do what she had to do. She lifted her head and looked across the coffee table at Elliot. "I came because I can't stop thinking about everything that's happened since I ran into you that night at Jensen's. And that's the problem." She set her beer glass back on the table. "Everything you've told me, everything you've said, it just runs on a constant loop in my head and I just haven't had enough time to sort it all out."

"I said I'd give you space. If you feel like I've been pushing you, I'm sorry."

"I told you that I'm not here for an apology." She snapped back, a little louder than she'd intended. She ran her hand through her hair, trying to tuck it behind her ear and failing as she regained her composure. She ran the palm of her hands down her thighs, summoning the strength to ask the question that she'd landed on during her taxi ride to Elliot's. "I just need to put an end to this. So, I can stop thinking about it."

"And end to what?" Elliot asked, feeling the first thread of panic settle in his gut.

"This." Olivia motioned between the two of them. She saw Elliot was about to say something…to object…but she pushed on. "I can't stop thinking about everything you said, and everything I thought I know, but it all comes back to one question. What if you hadn't walked into Jensen's that night?"

Elliot wasn't sure if it was a rhetorical question or not, but he couldn't keep himself from answering. "But I did."

"Yes, but if you hadn't, I wouldn't be sitting here right now." Olivia said pointedly.

"What's your point?" He knew Olivia had something she wanted to say; he just needed her to say it, so he knew what he was dealing with.

"My point is that all of this is due to pure chance. You never intended to call me. Or see me." She held up her hand when she saw that Elliot was about to interrupt. "I don't want to rehash all the reasons. It's just that while all of this has been running through my head, I just realized that none of this would be happening if you hadn't walked into that restaurant on at that particular time."

Elliot scrubbed his hands down his face. "So, you're saying that because I didn't plan on running into you, what? We shouldn't be talking to each other?" He shook his head.

"Yes." Olivia almost choked on the word. She pushed herself out of her chair and walked towards the window, turning her back to Elliot. Her eyes fell on the photos laid out in front of her and landed on one of the two of them. She picked it up, looking at both of them, smiling, their arms slung carelessly around each other. She remembered the moment, taken some time before Gitano, Oregon, Sealview. Eli. She felt tears well up in her eyes. Tears for who they used to be, and who they used to be to each other.

She heard Elliot get up and seconds later, he was standing beside her, peering down at the photograph as his arm bumped into hers.

"That's one of my favorite photos of us." He said quietly.

"This seems like so long ago."

"It was."

"So much has happened since then." She said with a sigh.

"Good and bad." Elliot said, knowing she was thinking about all of the things that had gone wrong in the past five or six years since that photo has been taken.

"We can't go back." Olivia said, shaking her head. "We can't get back to where we were then." Her voice was barely a whisper, affected by her thoughts and Elliot's proximity.

"I don't want to go back." Elliot said. He leaned over and tried to capture her eyes, but she avoided his stare. "Liv. We're different people now. Circumstances are different. I just want to figure out how to go forward. Can we just put the past behind us and try to figure that out?"

Olivia looked up at him, searching his eyes. "You're just asking me to forget everything that happened?"

"No. I'm not saying that." Elliot sighed. "I'm just asking you to stop fighting this. People say that everything happens for a reason, so maybe I was meant to run into you that night. Maybe it was God's way of saying wake up you asshole. You know you're missing your best friend and the love of your life and you need to get over your shit and find her. Talk to her. Work this out." Elliot took a chance and reached out, placing his hand lightly on her lower back. "Please, tell me that we can just keep talking and seeing each other."

Olivia was still reeling from his outpouring. She knew it was emotional, but the words best friend and love of your life had made an indelible mark on her heart. Her mind had been telling her all of the reasons why she shouldn't give him another chance, but she knew her heart had been in charge the entire time. Maybe she just needed him to convince her…to plead and beg.

Elliot could see the tears on her lower lashes, and it hurt. He never wanted to see her cry. "Liv." He said in a rush of breath. "You've always been smarter than me. Braver than me. Don't let my stupidity get in the way of what we both want."

Olivia swallowed hard and closed her eyes for a moment, causing her silent tears to stream down her face. She clutched the picture of them to her chest and leaned in. It was only seconds later that Elliot's arms wrapped around her in an embrace and pulled her to him. She lay her head on his chest and took a deep breath, the first one in what seemed like a long time.