A/N: Posted yesterday but it wasn't a full 24 hours so there may not have been alerts. If the last thing you saw was the police party, go back and check Chapter 5 :)

Thanksgiving had been fine for Elliot. Dani was working so Kathy invited him to spend it with the kids. It was weird, feeling out of place in what used to be his own house. Elliot liked Kurt, he really did and if anyone was going to be a stepfather to his kids then this was a great man for the job, but it was always strange to go to the house now where he was just "everywhere." His stuff by the front door, his shaving crap in the bathroom. It was like being somewhere totally familiar but feeling like a ghost was following you.

Ever since the divorce Elliot had not been bitter about the holidays exactly, but they didn't bring him joy like they used to. He missed the full day of things, getting the kids to bed the night before all wrapped up in anticipation, hearing their giggles and squeals outside the bedroom door in the morning. The laughs and the fights and the chaos. That all belonged to Kurt now, and Elliot was just the guy that they deemed permission to visit. It was just as well. Kathy was the one with the big family. Elliot's dad was dead, he'd fallen out of touch with his mother years ago, and his siblings were scattered across the country and rarely, if ever, came home, especially not during the holidays.

So Elliot would show up Christmas morning, likely after they'd already started opening gifts, and he'd be there for breakfast and a few hours and then they'd have to go to Kathy's parents' and he'd either go home or go to the precinct. This year he thought maybe at least he'd be able to go home to Dani, but she'd be working again, too.

Plus, he hadn't heard from Persephone since he asked her to meet. She never told him no. She just simply hadn't acknowledged the message. It'd been two weeks, so he wasn't expecting much when he logged into his email that morning, but there it was:

SemperFi,

It's that time of year again where you can't walk more than 15 steps in the city without hearing some kind of Christmas song blaring from inside a store or a homeless person singing off-key on the street corner. I never cared much for Christmas music. It's supposed to make you happy, joyful, but somehow it always just made me sad. My mother wasn't one to listen to it in our home on the holidays. She'd play Joni Mitchell's "River" often though. And today, I'm feeling very much like that: "I wish I had a river I could skate away on."

As you already know, things for me at work haven't been going the best. Things in general, actually. So I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you. I was surprised by your question at the end of your last letter and I just… I don't know if I can take one more change right now. I like being able to come home and slip away to my computer where you exist and I'm just afraid that if we meet, in the middle of everything happening in my world right now, that it just wouldn't be what we were expecting. Is that okay? I'm not saying never, but just not for now. I value this, whatever this is, very much, and I'd never want to do anything to destroy it.

I hope you can understand. Stay safe out there,

Persephone

Elliot read her words and he wished he could crawl through the computer and hug her, hold her. He wanted to give the perp treatment to anyone who was causing her pain, or harm, or doubt. She deserved the world, but it seemed the world was being unkind to her. He was just about to reply to the email when he glanced at his instant messenger friends list, and Persephone was online.

Olivia sent her email to SemperFi about 20 minutes ago, but she'd just been sitting there with her email open, staring at the screen ever since. She didn't even feel like she had the energy to get up and go do anything else. Tomorrow she was supposed to go on her first stakeout with Stabler and she simply didn't want to. She didn't want to be stuck inside a car with him for hours, sitting in silence with all his macho cocky attitude taking up all the oxygen in the car. She'd much rather be going on a stakeout with…

"I had a gut feeling you'd be online now," a message said, appearing on her screen with a ping.

It was from SemperFi and it made her heart speed up. They hadn't talked in real time since the first night they met. Olivia felt a little frozen looking at the screen because she'd just been thinking about him and here he was.

"Do you need some advice?" he asked. "I'm great at advice."

"I don't think you can help," Olivia answered. Unless SemperFi knew how to tame the beast that was Elliot Stabler, he wasn't going to be any help.

"Is it about love?" SemperFi asked.

Olivia thought it was cute that he wanted to give her love advice. While things hadn't been great with Ed lately, he was lower on her list of concerns right now.

"I got a new temporary partner at work," she said.

"You in love with him?" SemperFi asked.

"Oh, far from it," Olivia said. "He's one of the pompous jackasses I've told you about before. He wants nothing to do with me but we have no choice but to work together for the foreseeable future."

"Can you be more specific?" SemperFi asked. "Unit? Case?"

"Uh uh, no," Olivia said. "We said no specifics."

"Without specifics it's hard to tell you what to do," SemperFi said. "Except 'Go to the Mattresses.'"

"What the hell?" Olivia responded.

Did SemperFi just tell her to sleep with Elliot because he annoyed her?

"It's from the Godfather," SemperFi said. "It means you have to go to war."

"What is it with men and the Godfather?" Olivia responded. Stabler had quoted the Godfather at her at that party, and now SemperFi. Olivia knew it was a book before it was a movie. Maybe she'd have to pick herself up a copy.

"The Godfather is the sum of all wisdom," SemperFi said. "It's the answer to any question. And the answer to yours is 'go to the mattresses.' You're at war with whoever this partner is. It's not personal, it's business. Recite that to yourself every time he gets under your skin. Anytime you think you don't know what to say to him. I know you worry about being brave when you think something is personal. But this isn't. So fight, fight to the death."

Olivia wanted to respond but she heard Ed unlocking the door. She was able to dash off a quick reply.

"Thanks for your help. I just got called in. Gotta go," Olivia said.

"Stay safe, Persephone," SemperFi wrote before she slammed the laptop lid shut.

"Hey hon," Ed yelled walking into the bedroom. "Are you doing okay?"

"Fine," Olivia said, trying to sneakily slide her laptop onto the bedside table.

"You worried about your stakeout with Stabler tomorrow?" Ed asked, coming to sit on the end of the bed.

"A little," she admitted. "But I've decided to go to the mattresses. Do you know what that means?"

"From the Godfather," Ed answered.

Of course he knew.

"Well, I'm going to fight back," Olivia said. "I have just as much right to be on this operation as he does. Would it be a total conflict of interest for you to pull his jacket, tell me the things I need to know about him so I'm prepared."

"Oh, I've got a long list on him," Ed said. "Let me go change and I'll tell you everything you need to know."

Ed disappeared into the bathroom and Olivia leaned back against the pillows. It's not personal, it's business. She repeated the mantra in her head. The things Stabler said, that most of these men said, felt personal to her, but SemperFi had been right. It was all just business. They were threatened by a woman on the job. They didn't like to be shown up period, let alone by a woman, and they tried to make things personal to set her off-kilter. Well, she wouldn't let it happen anymore.

Fight to the death she could do. Elliot Stabler had no idea what was about to hit him.

A/N: Fight! Fight to the death! Or review instead.