Pandora.
"Greek myths…that's intense for a six-year-old" Elliot muttered as he fumbled with the pile of Noah's schoolbooks strewn over Olivia's kitchen island.
"He's a very advanced reader for his age group if you must know." Olivia retorted. It was funny, she mused, despite not sharing any blood, she figured Noah inherited his love of reading from Serena.
"Like his momma." Elliot smiled, holding Olivia's gaze as she diced carrots without mercy. Averting her eyes to prevent the inevitable blush that Elliot's flattery infallibly spurred, Olivia glanced to the book in question. "Pandora's box" she said.
"What?" Elliot puzzled.
"Pandora's Box… that's the myth he's reading in class this week." Apt, she thought to herself, it had not yet been a week since she and Elliot had opened their proverbial 'Pandora's box', and dinner this evening was her way of letting him know she was still in this- whatever that meant…
Five Days Earlier –
Olivia walked up to the threshold of Elliot's new apartment. Situated across the ground and basement floors of a tasteful brownstone in Brooklyn, it was much more cosmopolitan than his suburban patch in Queens. He had clumsily let slip last week that, between the return he made on the Rome apartment and Kathy's life insurance, he could afford to provide Eli with a home that at least somewhat compensated for the loss of life in Europe.
"Knock knock" Olivia called, peaking her head around the ajar door letting herself in.
"Hey" Elliot beamed as he caught sight of her.
"Hey yourself" she returned his smile "It looks great in here El." She nodded, inhaling as she took account of the space. As if on cue, their attention simultaneously turned to the cardboard box tucked under Olivia's arm.
Elliot's face scrunched with curiosity. "Whatcha' got there?" he asked.
Olivia swallowed her nerves. Since his return she had been working up the courage to return the contents of Elliot's desk to him, but she had been more concerned about pulling him back from whichever brink his trauma led him to. However, slowly yet surely, Elliot Stabler had reached the stability that is his namesake.
"Liv?" he pressed.
"It's your stuff." Their eyes locked; she didn't need to verbalise the implication.
"You kept it?" he spluttered in disbelief.
"When Cragen made me clear out your desk I didn't exactly think I'd be waiting ten years to return it to you…" she fidgeted awkwardly. Navigating the tightrope of the past decade was an unperfected art, both cognisant that tipping the balance of their new relationship too far would end in pain.
"Right" he could only nod in response, for far too many times had she asked him to stop apologising.
"I thought maybe you'd want the photograph of you and Eli that used to be on your desk? It might be good for you to see that blonde haired baby and figure out who the hell that imposter you returned from Rome with is." At that they laughed in harmony. The lack of Elliot's looks in Eli had been a running joke between the two of them, catalysed by a deft observation he had made about Noah's resemblance to Olivia.
Beaming, Elliot retrieved the box from Olivia and gestured for her to join him on the couch. Olivia sat down, deliberately putting space between the two of them for she knew what was coming. Her actions did not go unnoticed, but Elliot didn't press her on it; he was too busy tentatively unsealing the duct tape that separated him from his memories of SVU.
"Let's see…ah, I'd forgotten about this" he smiled as he pulled out a piece of artwork that had hung in his locker. "Maureen drew this for me when she was in 7th grade" he recollected, looking over his shoulder to Liv who sat perched, looking slightly more relaxed at his easy bemusement.
"Now that is a historical artefact." Olivia smirked.
"You calling my daughter old Benson?"
"Never, because that'd make us fossils" she volleyed.
"Speak for yourself." Elliot winked as his concentration returned to the excavation at hand. Pulling out pens, more artwork, some old notebooks and cheap tourist mugs he continued to fiddle with the remaining contents. "Hmmm" he puffed, looking lost.
"The photo's right there El" Olivia directed, leaning forward to tug the brown frame from its resting place.
"No, I can see that, it's just…" his voice trailed off as he brought his index finger to his scalp in confusion.
Sensing the atmosphere in the room shift, Olivia inched closer, turning her body towards Elliot's and resting a hand on his shoulder supportively. "What is it?"
"Did you not get it?" he frowned.
"Get what?" Olivia asked coyly.
"My letter." Elliot said.
"You're going to have to be more specific-".
"Liv" Elliot interjected, no longer amused by her coyness. "You know what letter; the one with my medallion and mini-badge, I, I sent it to you, so you'd know that I'd come back to you…eventually." His blue eyes burned into her brown orbs, alarmed at the fact his most prized possessions may be lost under the paperwork of the NYPD.
Olivia withdrew her hand from where it had settled and ran it through the thick tendrils of her hair. She inhaled with deference and took his hands in hers before speaking: "I got it El, but there's something I have to tell you…"