A/N: Another little baby chapter to tide you over.

Olivia was thankful the stakeout with Stabler hadn't lasted very long. The information Bagdonas gave them panned out in a little less than an hour and they had rounded up three medium-sized players in the ring and hauled them back to the OC station for questioning because it was closer. Bell and Jet took one, Fin and Munch took another, and Olivia was currently leaning against the wall in another interrogation room while Stabler circled their perp and the table he was sitting at like a lion stalking his prey.

"What were you doing up in Harlem today Matty?" Stabler asked, stopping on the other side of the table and crossing his arms.

"I don't know," Matty said.

"You don't know?" Stabler asked. "You don't know how you just happened to wind up in an old factory with an entire storeroom of bootleg cocaine and a roomful of what looked like prison cells filled with makeup and short little dresses?"

"Musta went to the wrong building," Matty said.

"So where did you think you were going," Olivia said, pushing off the wall.

"My cousin's job," Matty said. "He works nights hauling packages for FedEx. He forgot his wallet last night. We were picking it up."

"He give you the address ahead of time?" Stabler asked.

"No," Matty said. "Just told me where to drive."

"And you and your cousin are close?" Olivia asked.

"Not like super close," Matty said. "But we both take care of grandma."

Now that was something they hadn't heard before. As far as they knew there weren't really family ties within this ring, but maybe there were. Getting to grandma could be the key to their undoing.

"And where does your grandma live?" Olivia asked.

"Lower East Side," Matty said.

"And you go visit her a lot?" Olivia asked. She could see Stabler staring at her out of the corner of her eye, but these guys could be stashing things at grandma's house. She wouldn't be the first older woman to think her baby boys could do no wrong. Plus, it was a different point of contact, far outside their radar area. They could be missing a whole chunk of surveillance.

"I guess," Matty said. "She got the dementia. She don't remember things so well."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Olivia said, sitting down in a chair at the table. "Did she help take care of you and your cousins when you were little?"

"Yeah, Grammy was always the one who made us food and helped us with our homework," Matty said.

"That's great, that's great," Stabler interrupted. "But I don't really need to hear about your gushy family memories. I care about why you were in a warehouse with cocaine and possibly a holding ground for sex trafficked girls."

"Is he always this rude?" Matty asked Olivia.

"In my experience, yes," Olivia said.

Stabler glared at her.

"Either he goes or I want my lawyer," Matty said.

Olivia looked at Stabler but he didn't look like he was going to budge.

"Detective, I can take it from here," Olivia said.

"Hell no," Stabler said. "This piece of crap doesn't get to dictate how we run an interrogation."

"Then I want my lawyer, now," Matty said, sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms.

Olivia saw red. She was close. She could have had him just like she had Bagdonas. But no, Stabler got his pride hurt and now they were frozen out. She screeched her chair back against the floor, stalked to the door, and threw it open. She made it back out to the OC bullpen and she felt Stabler right behind her. And she couldn't take it anymore.

"We had him," Olivia yelled. "He was going to confess something important."

"About his grandmother," Stabler yelled back. "What the hell does she have to do with anything?"

"She's important to him," Olivia said. "She might be the most important person in his life, the one he doesn't want to lose, and making it personal like that may get him to reveal more than he intended to."

Stabler didn't have a retort for once. It was almost as if this was something he never considered.

"Not to mention the fact that Grammy has dementia so her apartment in the East Village, completely out of our original surveillance area, might just be where they have their really big meetings that we haven't been able to pin down yet," Olivia said. "But now we'll never know because he called for his lawyer."

"So this is my fault?" Stabler yelled.

"Of course it is," Olivia said. "He was just about to tell me more but you just wouldn't listen. Wouldn't just trust that I had it. God, I can't even look at you right now. I need air."

Olivia stalked out of the bullpen, yanking on the door to the roof and taking the steps up two at a time.

Olivia was retreating and Elliot felt kind of stupid. He'd never thought about the fact that Matty's story about Granny could have anything to do with the case. Personal stuff didn't usually matter in OC. Most of the criminals they dealt with didn't have family, or didn't care about human life at all. But he guessed in SVU that probably wasn't the case. They had a lot more live victims than dead ones, so maybe there was something to making a connection that he never recognized.

"What the hell was that about?" Bell asked, coming out of the other interrogation room.

"Benson flipped on me because the guy lawyered up," Elliot said.

"I'm sure you had nothing to do with that," Bell said, sarcastically.

"Hey, she's not as nice as she seems," Elliot said. "She's kind of a pill."

"Yeah, you probably think she isn't attractive either," Bell said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh no, she's beautiful," Elliot said. "But she's a pill."

"So you don't feel the least bit bad about dragging her the entire time she's been on this task force?" Bell asked. "Because come to find out she knew something you didn't?"

"It's not personal, Bell," Elliot said.

"It's business, yeah sure whatever," Bell said. "All I'm saying is, you could stand to give her a bit of a break. She's good at what she does and I know you ain't that sexist because I wouldn't be able to stand your ass if you were."

"So you think I should apologize?" Elliot asked.

"I think if you go up there right now she's going to castrate you with a rusty butter knife," Bell said. "Just do better next time and think with your head instead of your dick."

"What the…" Elliot sputtered.

"I ain't blind, Stabler," Bell said, walking away. "Just don't be dumb."

Bell had it all wrong. He wasn't attracted to Olivia Benson. That's not why he did what he did around her. It wasn't about showing her just how macho he could be, proving to her that he was tough and smart and strong. He wasn't that insecure. Or was he? And what did it matter? He had Dani.

But there was something about the way Bell insinuated it all. And she usually wasn't wrong.

Well, shit.

A/N: We couldn't have Elliot and Olivia in any universe without some kind of precinct fight scene. Review if you're up to it.

For those asking when Dani and Ed are getting out of here, and for those wondering when our two loveable idiots are going to figure out they're talking to one another... in due time.

For those wondering the timeline for this, yeah around season one/late 90s. Trying to keep it a little vague but You've Got Mail did come out in '98, right around the time SVU came out so that's a good era to imagine while you're in this universe.

For those wondering about "The Godfather," and if it's truly the source of all wisdom, I've never read it or seen it, but like Olivia in the story, I actually have a copy taunting me from my to-read shelf!