Hi guys, this is just a short chapter - the E/O return that some of you have been hassling me for. Hope you like it, more to come as soon as I have more spare time.

Olivia sank down in to her desk and closed her eyes for a moment. She was tired. She had hoped that she could take off early but now that they'd caught a case, she knew it wasn't going to be possible.

She was tired. Noah was tired; neither of them had much sleep. He had bad dreams, she had bad dreams, he ended up in her bed kicking her in the back all night.

And then there was Trevor, she'd stayed up a little later than she should have texting back and forth with him, flirting and feeling like she was 30 again. It was silly and a kick to the back from Noah was all she needed just to sober her up.

She wondered how it would never work – how she could slot him in to her life; he came with a daughter too, how would she manage to make that work? There was just not a great deal of time.

But she wanted to make the time.

A knock on her office door made her eyes fly open. She sat up straight. "Liv, umm… there may be a little problem,"

"With what?" she asked, looking up at Fin who stood, grimacing in the doorway.

He hesitated. "There's someone here to see you…" his voice trailed off.

Her stomach dropped and she knew who it was. She had been waiting for it, anticipating his arrival. She knew by Fin's trepidation.

"Elliot?" she asked as casually as if she were offering him a cup of coffee.

"You knew?"

Olivia stared down her friend, irate that he, of all people, hadn't bothered to talk to her about it. "As if you didn't know, I know you and Melinda talked," she shot back at him, "I guess you better just send him in."

"Did you want me to stay?" he asked, his protective nature coming over him. He was mad that Elliot had shown up without any warning. He was angry for Liv and angry with himself for not attempting to bring it up as soon as she got back from Chicago.

"No Fin, just send him in," Olivia replied, trying to sound bored. Her hands felt tingly with nerves and her heart was in her throat. Her stomach felt like it'd fallen out of the soles of her feet.

She picked up a pen, poised to pretend she was busy working. She found it slightly easier to not be as cut up about him now that she had someone else to focus on who she knew for sure actually cared about her; but the gravity of what Elliot had done to her; what he had left her with and what he had left her without seemed to hit her all at once.

She breathed slowly and evenly as she heard his voice first before she saw him. Her throat tightened and the pen dropped from her hand. She looked away as she saw his tall, broad frame grace the door with his gainly presence.

"Olivia…" she heard his voice say in softly as if he couldn't believe it was really her.

She could feel his blue eyes staring at her, intrusive and foreboding. She concentrated on the rise and fall of her own chest, counting to herself as though she was having a panic attack.

"You must hate me…" she heard the click of the door behind him. She ignored him and looked at her computer screen as if her email was the most important thing she'd seen that day, as if it took precedence over the biggest crime of all; his decade long disappearance.

"Yes," she said at last, "I do hate you. Why are you here?" she peeled her eyes away from the computer screen and back at him, her face stone-cold without an ounce of the warmth that he'd missed so much.

She knew immediately that she didn't mean her sharp words when he glanced at her, slightly wounded by the jagged edges of them.

"Ouch…" he remarked. "I guess I deserved that."

She snapped the lid of laptop closed and folded her arms on the desk. "What do you want Elliot?" she asked him bluntly, "why are you here?"

"I came to …" he paused, thinking suddenly that it was all just a stupid fucking idea. He didn't blame her from the fury that emanated from her, burning him from all the way across the room.

"You came to what?" she pressed, his presence seemed to ignite something within her that she wasn't hadn't been prepared to experience. He had aged, not in a bad way, but just in a way that she also hadn't expected. His face was slightly fuller, his neck thicker and his body filled out his suit a little better than it had back when they worked together.

"I came to apologize…"

"For what?" she shot back, "It has been ten fucking years, Elliot, what do you think you could possibly say that would be an appropriate apology for turning to fucking dust?" she asked, standing up to match the power play. She didn't appreciate him getting closer, staring down at her.

"I don't know where to begin…" he said, having expected her to react in the exact way that she was; her fight mode, the way he had seen her react when she had been hurt in the past. He just never quite expected that he would be on the receiving end. "All I know is, I have to have a place to start."

"Start by walking your ass right back out that door just like you did the first time," Olivia shot back. "I don't need your fucking apology, Elliot."

"C'mon Olivia, you might not need it but I fucking owe it to you," he replied bluntly, "you sure as hell didn't deserve what I did."

"And it took you ten years to work that out?" she shook her head, her insides turning to lava. She was so angry she was afraid that her eyes were about to betray her with angry, hot tears.

"No," he said, frustrated too.

"Elliot, you need to go," she said slowly; concisely as if she said them in any other way, she might lose her temper and say things she couldn't take back.

"I'll go, but we are not done, I am going to be around here whether or not you like it, Liv… I'm the Captain of Organized Crimes and I have a case that I know you're going to be interested in," he finished; arrogantly, full of ego as if her reaction seemed to only bother him for a moment.

"Get the fuck out of my office, Elliot. I'm not interested in your case, you stay in your lane and I'll stay in mine," she snarled at him.

He shrugged. "Liv, you have every right to be angry and I'm angry with me too, but I am trying to do the right thing!" he said, showing his own frustration with her lack of regard for his regrets.

Olivia clenched her teeth; her anger red hot, "Get. The. Fuck. Out."

He knew that she wasn't going to budge and he was surprised. He thought he might see tears. He was hoping that there would be an embrace; some anger, yes, but it would be replaced by the happiness to be reunited again.

He knew he'd been a fool for thinking that would be the case.

They stared each other down, Olivia was pleading with him to leave – to give her this, to not allow him to see her cry, to fold or cave within his presence. She needed time to reconcile the ghost of the past to the man that stood before her. His eyes were familiar, the tension that crossed his face was the same only before it was with fewer lines and creases.

After all the years, Elliot still understood what was going on within her without the need to verbalize; there was still that connection – his mother had told him it was because they were soul mates and maybe one day he could have shared that with her.

Clearly it wasn't going to be this day, he thought. He gave in to her, he let her win. He knew if he kept going she would have folded, but he let her have it, she deserved not to be the one who kept getting hurt.

"Okay," he said finally. "I hope you'll change your mind," he added.

"I won't," she snapped; the feeling starting to come back to her legs as she saw his back. He walked out of the office and closed the door behind him without another word.