Sometimes the most desirable situations come with a risk.

Sometimes those risks aren't worth the end result, but on the off chance that it is...Embrace those situations, embrace the moment.

That's what she should have done two years ago.

One of the best nights of her life and she had to be taken away and into witness protection after yet another attempt on her life earlier that day. Had she stood a few inches to the left, she would have taken that bullet to the chest and died before the very eyes of her partner, Detective Stabler.

As a cop, she's certain that it would have been fatal. It's what she has to believe to make it all seem worth it.

After returning to the precinct, Elliot offered to take her back to his apartment, for hers was an active crime scene.

They started the night off like they normally would, knocking a few drinks back and watching some horrible sitcom dating back to the early nineties, shows that were on the air well before either of them began their careers in sex crimes. They laughed and continued to make jokes until a moment of seriousness occurred within the plot of the episode.

"You know, I would never forgive myself if something happened to you today, right?"

"I know. You're my partner, you're not getting rid of me that easy." She offered a smile to soothe his concern, but it didn't help. He continued to look at her like she was a ghost; like she actually had been shot in the heart as intended.

"Liv, it's more then that." He rasped, his eyes were glass-like and brimming quickly with tears, "I love you."

"El..."

Elliot leaned in closer, capturing her lips and erasing every negative thought that flickered through her eyes. She kissed him back, begging for more of the silent proposition he was offering. She pulled away, she needed to finish her sentence.

"I can't do this job without you, El."

"I can't do it without you either."

A solitary tear ran down her cheek, "It's scary to think how long I've wanted this, how long we've waited to cross the line. Today I almost lost any chance of it with you. I love you too."

"I'd wait forever for you."

"Just take me, El. I'm tired of waiting." She leaned close to his lips, "Make love to me."

That night, Olivia Benson tugged her partner, Elliot Stabler, into his bedroom, and all through the night, he tendered to her need for him in the most contemptible ways.

For the first time, She let herself fully be free. There was no more holding back rivers or exploring with their eyes closed. He satisfied not just her body, but her soul. She could only hope she did that same for him.

Tangled in bedsheets and miscellaneous linen, she can still remember the way he felt inside of her even after they disconnected. Olivia could have stayed in that bed forever if she had no obligations to attend to. So few words were spoken. So few in fact she could count each sentence on one hand.

"What just happened?" she whispered, a heaviness in her voice.

"Something long overdue." he stroked the skin of her back, tracing random patterns and shapes with his fingertips.

"I can't mess this up."

"You won't"

"How do you know?"

"I just do."

They laid there wrapped in each other's arms for the remainder of the afterglow.

Olivia got a call at four in the morning from Cragen.

"Benson"

"Liv..."

"Cap, everything okay?"

"Olivia, where are you?"

"I'm staying with Elliot"

"Is he asleep?"

"Soundly" "Did we catch a case?"

"Olivia, I hate to do this to you, especially right now."

"Do what?"

"I am putting you into witness protection, someone is on their way to his place to come and get you"

"Cap-"

"The guy is still out there on the run and there are not enough eyes on you Olivia, I don't want to lose you, this is for your safety."

"Where the hell does witness protection want to place me?"

"Location is classified, but last I was informed it was Wisconsin."

"Cap, how long?"

There was a long pause and a deep sigh on his end of the line, Alex was under for years, and even after she came out from it she wasn't the Alexandra Cabot they all remembered. Life in witness protection changed her.

"When we have this guy in custody and positive that he will never get out, I will send someone out to get you."

"Don, that could take years..."

"Alex was under for 6 years but she's alive, isn't she? I'm not taking chances with you, Olivia."

"Elliot needs to know where I am."

"He can't"

"Why?"

"The list of people who know where you are is limited to two under the orders of Tucker. Him and I, that's it."

"So I just disappear? Alex was clinging to life when she put under—"

"We thought about that, in a similar fashion like Alex-"

"No-"

"FBI has a squad car on the side of the road waiting to blow just before seven this morning. It's your assigned squad car. It will be written off as an accident. Engine fire in combination with a leaky gas tank, nothing left."

"He's going to lose his fucking mind, Cap."

"You can't tell him. Is he awake?"

"No, He's still asleep" she glanced over to her side, sure enough, he was snoring lightly, his arm splayed above his head.

"A car should be at his apartment in about a half-hour, be ready."

"Cap"

"Yeah?"

"Please don't make him go through this alone."

"I won't. Good luck, Liv."

That night she left with nothing but the clothes on her back and a suitcase that contained what would be her new life. They drove for hours and hours until they reached an apartment complex in the middle of Wisconsin. It was nothing special, but that would be home.

Margaret Jane Kellerman

Her new name.

"Ms. Kellerman, what do you do for a living?" Tucker questioned. It was a test. Did she really look at her file? Did she understand that the file was her life now?

"I work as a receptionist at Anderson Associates, a law firm based just outside of Milwaukee."

The response was automatic, with no hesitation, but it dripped with melancholy.

Her life for the first few weeks was a rough adjustment. She almost walked out the door with a gun at her hip at least a handful of times but the new routine became easier as more time passed.

Wake up, Go to work, come home, Sleep, and repeat.

Until Matthew came into the picture.

Besides the clothes she was wearing, Matthew was all she had left of her life in New York. No pictures of friends, no high school yearbooks, or movie stubs, just Matthew.

Matthew was her nine-month-old son. She found out she was pregnant with him shortly after being thrust into this new way of living.

Olivia had options, but disclosed to Ed Tucker, the man behind this operation, that she became pregnant as a result of a one-night stand she had prior to living as Margaret. It wasn't a complete lie, but it ensured that it would protect the identity of the father. Not that he didn't know. She didn't want him to find out about it this way. Especially since she couldn't be the one to tell him.

Seven short months later, Olivia laid eyes on her sweet baby boy wrapped tightly in a hospital blanket and a blue cap, curled up so tightly in her arms. She refused her epidural, seeing as nothing was more painful than him not being by her side. Olivia cried because of the pain, she cried because of how beautiful her new son was, and she cried because Elliot missed witnessing her fulfill her dream of becoming a mother.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy"- Matthew 5:7

Elliot

A/N: I was sitting in a lecture thinking about this scenario and HAD to play it out. Please be nice, its my first EO story *sad eyes* Review!