A/N: Couldn't leave you hanging too long there.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

"I think that was a really good dinner to attend," Dani said as they laid in bed that night. "Especially if we're going to work on advancing our careers."

Elliot didn't agree. He would have rather been anywhere but at that dinner tonight. He hadn't wanted to go in the first place. Kissing Brass ass had never been on his radar. If his superiors thought he was worthy of taking the sergeant's exam or rising up through the ranks in any way, they'd let him know.

But Dani had her sights set on bigger and better things. She felt like she could just "do more" as she always put it, if she ascended to the Puzzle Palace.

"And being able to introduce myself to Ed Tucker," Danie said. "That was good too since everyone thinks he's slated to be the next IAB captain."

Stabler and Tucker had been at war since day one, with things getting progressively worse during the period of his divorce. He was angry, so yeah, a few times he'd bumped a perp into a wall or two before jamming him into the squad car. They were hardened mob boss criminals he dealt with everyday, not just some little five year old picking up a candy bar from the drugstore and walking out with it, not realizing they were stealing. Elliot couldn't listen to Dani stroke Tucker for another second, so he crawled out of bed.

"Where are you going?" she asked, leaning over to turn out her bedside light.

"I'm not really tired," he said. "You get some sleep."

The other events of the evening had been weighing on him too. He felt a bit guilty about what he'd said to Benson about using her body to get confessions out of perps, and insinuating that it was how she got her job, too. He was completely surprised but also not at all surprised to find she was Tucker's date either. Explained a lot about how she got her role at SVU.

And there it was again. Even if she was jerking him around with the Lithuanian case, it wasn't right of him to make assumptions about how she got her job. He worked with and highly respected both Bell and Jet. He was dating a female cop. He had three daughters and he'd completely murder anyone who insinuated the same things about them. Plus, with what Persephone told him in her letter about the assumptions. He was no better than those asshole cops he told her to ignore.

It was hard though, reconciling the Olivia Benson he'd heard about through the grapevine and the one he saw dangling off Tucker's arm tonight with the woman from the bookstore. There, she had been kind, warm, and open. She was clearly a natural with children, which probably made her amazing with the SVU victims. How could they be the same person? All the thoughts were making Elliot's head spin, and the only thing he could think to do was to write about them to Persephone. So he did:

Dear Persephone,

Do you ever feel you become the worst version of yourself? That all those emotions you try to lock up inside you on a daily basis, like your arrogance, and spite, and condescension, just spring to the surface and they spill out of you without control? Someone provokes you and instead of just letting it roll off your back, you engage and you zing them. I don't like feeling this way, like I have no control over my own self. People don't deserve the things I say to them, or the things I think about them, and yet, I do it anyway.

I'm sure you don't have any idea what I'm talking about. You seem to be all the good things in the world, Persephone, and the NYPD and the city of New York are so lucky for it. Thank you for listening to my thoughts out into the void this evening.

Sweet dreams,

SemperFi

Olivia couldn't help but chuckle a bit at her latest email from SemperFi. She'd been feeling down all night about not sending some witty comeback flying like a dagger at Elliot Stabler last night when he was just the latest in a long line of coworkers insinuating all she was really good for was her body. And yet here her pen pal was upset about the exact opposite, saying too much. She had to respond right away:

SemperFi,

I know what you mean, but I have to say, I'm completely jealous that you don't hold back. I can hold my own in an argument. I can sly talk a perp into a corner until he's crying and sputtering out a confession. But when confronted with a personal situation where I have to stand up for myself, more often than not I just completely fold. I get provoked and I don't even get tongue-tied. My mind just goes blank and then I'm kicking myself for days after when the thoughts come rushing back and I know exactly what I should have said in the moment, but it didn't come to me.

What should I have said, for example, to another one of our joyful brothers in blue who recently belittled my career? Again, this isn't something new and maybe it was something I should have even expected coming from him. But instead of having the perfect, scathing one-liner ready to roll off my tongue, I froze.

If you can find a solution to the situation, please, let me know. Until then be safe, as always,

Persephone

Elliot couldn't help but smile as he read her email while Dani was out picking up dinner. He knew she was a good person, and he wasn't going to wait to tell her so:

Persephone,

Wouldn't it be great if I could just pass all my zingers to you. Then you'd always have a comeback and I'd never say something stupid again. But on the other hand, I must warn you, when you finally have the pleasure of saying the thing you want to say at the moment you want to say it, remorse inevitably follows.

A bit off topic, but I've been thinking: Do you think we should meet?

SemperFi

After hitting send, Elliot slammed the lid shut on his laptop like it was on fire. Where'd that come from? What if she didn't want to meet him? What if she was perfectly happy with the way things were. She was the one person in his life he felt like he could talk to and here he was screwing it all up.

Meet? Olivia balked at the last line of the letter. Why did they have to change things? They couldn't possibly meet… could they? On the one hand, they got along so well. It wouldn't necessarily be a crime to meet. But what if they met in real life and hated each other? How tragic.

And speaking of tragic, today was the first day that the SVU and OC task forces were meeting to discuss the plans for obliterating the Lithuanian drug and sex rings.

She knew it was going to happen eventually, but she had been dreading it from the beginning and even more so now since her encounter with Stabler at the bookstore where she made herself look like a damn fool for not knowing who he was, and then at the Brass event where she didn't even stand up for herself against his scathing remarks. Everything with him was a test and she'd failed miserably, twice.

She and Fin rode together to the site of task force headquarters, an abandoned warehouse in Long Island City. When they got there, Stabler was standing all macho against a beam, big wide stance and arms crossed, staring at the evidence board set up against the one wall. Olivia mentally slapped herself for thinking how good he looked in his dark wash jeans and that long-sleeved t-shirt that hugged him just enough to show that he worked out without being too obvious about it.

Surely he heard them walk in, because everyone else turned to introduce themselves and make an attempt to be social.

"What are the Fibbies doing here?" Fin whispered.

"I think they're just here to be in the loop," Olivia said. "Last I heard they're supposed to take a hands-off approach."

"Well if it isn't the one that got away," Dana Lewis said, coming up and shaking hands with Olivia. "You know, we still got undercover gigs all the time if you're interested."

"I'm really not, Dana," Olivia said. "Once was definitely enough."

"You were barely gone a week," she said. "Sheesh you didn't even have time to get used to your new name."

"Didn't take me long to find out that solo UC work isn't for me," Olivia said. "I'd much rather be chasing down the scum when they know exactly who I am."

Olivia heard Stabler scoff from his place on the beam and she wanted to lash out at him, but she bit her tongue again. No need to start a war with both their bosses hanging around. It could get them both kicked off the operation.

Cragen cleared his throat and everyone assembled around him and Moennig to hear the plan of attack. Stabler wouldn't even look in her direction. That was fine. She didn't need him.

"Benson and Stabler," Moennig addressed them, as if he could read her mind. "You'll be paired up for these assignments."

"Captain," Stabler started.

"I think Fin and I have a better rapport," Olivia said.

"What, are you too good to work with me?" Stabler said.

"Just want to know if I'm paired up with someone in a firefight that that person is going to have my six," she said.

"That's enough you two," Cragen said, stepping in. "Listen, Olivia, you're inside Bagdonas' head, and Elliot you know the intricacies of the drug side better than anyone. We need to use all that information together to get the drop on them."

Olivia and Elliot glared at each other, but neither responded.

"Now, we have to get a few more details before we can go in for a bust," Moennig said. "I'm thinking meet up again after the holiday to reconvene?"

"Sounds good," Cragen said.

Oh right. The holiday. Thanksgiving was coming. Ed was going to his sister's place out in Connecticut. He left right after work today. He'd tried to persuade her to come, but she just wasn't "there" with Ed yet. Yes, they were practically living together and she called her bedroom their bedroom, but he still paid rent on his own place not too far from 1PP. It was a safety net for both of them.

With him gone, she'd tried to pick up shifts but there was nothing available. Go figure, someone wants to work a holiday and they can't beg, borrow, or steal a shift.

That's how Olivia found herself at Zabar's on probably their busiest night of the entire year, the day before Thanksgiving, because she got the brilliant idea to try to cook a small meal for herself. She's trying to weigh the options of canned crescent rolls vs. bakery fresh ones when she spots something, or rather someone, out of the corner of her eye.

Elliot frickin' Stabler.

As if this grocery trip hadn't been fun enough. Damn crescent rolls and anything else that wasn't already in her cart. She'd eaten Chinese takeout on holidays before and she'd just do it again. Olivia did her best to dodge him in the aisles and made her way back to the checkouts at the front of the store. She looked for the shortest line and slid into it, putting all her items up on the belt and trying to keep her face hidden and pulling out her credit card.

"This is a cash only line," the woman behind the counter said.

"What?" Olivia said, not realizing.

"Cash only," the woman said.

"I only have my card," Olivia said, quietly.

"That's not okay," the man behind her in line said. "There's a sign. She doesn't have any cash."

He huffed, as did the rest of the people behind her and Olivia tried to decide if showing her badge would get her anywhere when she felt someone approach behind her.

"Oh, hi," a voice said over her shoulder and she knew exactly who it was.

"Hello," she grumbled.

"Do you need some money?" Stabler asked.

"No, I don't need any money, thank you very much," she said.

"Get in another line," the cashier said.

"Hi Rose," Stabler said to the cashier. "Happy Thanksgiving."

The cashier just looked at him for a few seconds.

"Now it's your turn to say Happy Thanksgiving back," Stabler said.

"Happy Thanksgiving back," the woman deadpanned.

"Rose, this is Olivia. I'm Elliot. We're both NYPD officers. And this is a credit card machine," Stabler said. "Now, I know it's busy tonight so do you think you could do us a favor and just run the card through here real quick? Keep the line moving?"

Rose looked at Elliot skeptically and he flashed her a smile and leaned against the side of the counter, allowing his muscles to flex. Rose smiled and blushed and snatched the card from Olivia's hand and ran it through the machine, completing her transaction. And Olivia had never been more appalled in her life. Who was using their looks now to get something done?

"So you're fine?" Elliot asked as Olivia signed the receipt.

"Just fine," she muttered.

Olivia absolutely refused to thank him for any of it.

"Happy Thanksgiving, Olivia," he said, grabbing his bags and walking out.

The rest of the patrons in line and Rose were giving her dirty glares as she collected her things. How dare he step in like that. She wasn't some damsel in distress. She could handle herself. She was an NYPD detective damn it. And that flirting with the cashier. Ugh, it made Olivia want to barf. So what if he was kind of good looking. Wasn't it against his own rules to show it and use it to your advantage?

Olivia stomped up the stairs to her apartment and slammed the door.

Screw Elliot Stabler. Screw this holiday. Screw the Lithuanian mob. Screw SemperFi for wanting to meet and blindsiding her with no warning. Just screw everything.

Olivia tossed all her groceries into the fridge, bags and all, popped the cork on a bottle of Moscoto and headed into the bedroom.

A/N: Forgive me at all for the 1PP event yet? Review and let me know!