Law and Order: SVU is the intellectual property of Dick Wolf. CSI is the intellectual property of Anthony E. Zuiker. The use of the characters, settings, and plotlines is not malicious. This is a work of fiction.

In the small, silent lab, Elliot hovered over Olivia as she worked. Something was weighing on him, and he had to bite the bullet."So, uh, you and Mick…"

"Nick," Olivia corrected, her rubber-gloved hands filtering through a pile of trash on the back-lit table.

Elliot scoffed. "Nick, right, sorry." He shoved a metal prod into the pile and separated the plastic bottles for her. "Something there you're not telling me?"

She shifted her eyes toward him, glaring through her lab goggles. "You have something to ask me, Stabler, just ask." She shook her head and resumed organizing the garbage, looking for something specific.

"You sleep with him?" he asked, doing as she'd asked.

"Literally? No, never," she answered. She unfolded a piece of yellow paper covered in brown, sticky stains. "Receipt from Starbucks," she said, tossing it aside."Not his."

"Liv, you know what I mean," he said gruffly, irritated. "You fucked him, yeah?"

She rolled her plastic-shielded eyes. "Christ," she spat. "Yeah, I did. A couple of times. In college. I told you this story, Elliot. You know all about him."

He narrowed his eyes, folded his arms, and then suddenly, it made sense. "He's the guy…you were going to…"

"I didn't," she said. She looked at him sharply. "Congratulations, you're the first, and only, now can we drop the subject? It was college, it was a decade ago, and it was…"

The lab's glass door swooshed open and they stiffened, immediately straightening up. Elliot nodded at the man who'd just walked in, offering a smile. "We didn't find anything," he said, "Except this." He held up a sealed evidence bag containing a white ATM receipt with black-dusted prints on it.

Grissom took the bag and scrutinized it. "Olivia," he said, looking over at her, "You still got it."

"Got what?" she chuckled, resting her hands on the table as she looked at him.

Grissom waved the bag at her. "You've got a very distinctive method. I could tell by the brush strokes, you found this print." He laughed and gave her a sideways smile. "I still can't find anyone who does this the way you do."

Olivia blushed a bit, lowered her head, and resumed poking around in the garbage. "Print is White's," she said. "Time on the receipt is at least six hours before he died, if your ME is right about TOD."

"Doc Robbins," Grissom said with a single nod, "Is always right." He laid the bag gently down on the corner of the table and looked to his right. "Elliot, a word?"

Elliot send a cautious look toward Olivia. "Should she…"

"She knows what she's doing," Grissom said. "Nothing is truer than that. My office," he said, pointing toward the door.

Elliot nodded, licking his lips nervously. He took of his plastic goggles, set them on the table, and followed Grissom out of the lab and into the hall. "If this is about White, Liv and I already told you…"

"It's not," Grissom interrupted. "Not entirely." He walked briskly, knowing Elliot would keep his pace, toward and then into his office. He gestured for Elliot to sit. He leaned against his desk, crossed his arms over his chest and his feet at the ankles, and said, "Does Olivia know you had someone watching White?"

Elliot was taken aback. "Um, no, and I have to ask…how you know that."

Grissom smiled again. "I asked," he said simply as he shrugged. "What you didn't know, Elliot, is the guard you had in your pocket was killed six months ago. No one has been monitoring him for you, since then, and that's why you didn't know he'd gotten out." He took a slow breath. "It scared you more than it scared her, didn't it? Having someone so obsessive focused on her."

"Yeah," Elliot said, nodding. "I had to know…that she was safe. That he couldn't…" he stopped. "Wait, you think I killed him?"

Grissom made an offended face and shook his head. "No, of course not. Nor do I think you had anything to do with it. I'm simply stating…I know why you did what you did, and I understand it. But she would have been really pissed off if she found out." He reached behind him, grabbing a folder off of his desk. He held it up, as if it was show-and-tell, and he twisted his wrist, handing it to Elliot. "I'm giving this to you, so that she doesn't find out, until you decide to tell her."

Elliot opened the folder and his chest rose and fell in gross realization. "Um, thank you, but…why? I mean, the way you are, I thought you'd put her first and…"

"I am," Grissom interrupted again. His eyes were now severe, his smile flat and almost threatening. "I know what you mean to her. I know that you may think you've managed to keep some sort of monumental secret, but I pride myself on not being susceptible to secrets. I'm giving you this, not to protect you, but to protect her."

"Yeah, I…I get it," Elliot said. He closed the folder and looked up at Grissom. "Forgive me if I'm overstepping, here, but…I've met people she's worked with, I've met a couple other former professors, and old friends, but you…" he shook a finger at him and tilted his head, smiling inquisitively. "Something about you. You're almost too…"

"She's like a daughter to me, Elliot," Grissom interrupted, straightening up. He walked around his desk, grabbed something off of one of his shelves, and sat in his cushioned chair. "Did she ever show you this?"

Elliot reached out and took the leather-bound book which Grissom was offering. "No, uh, she told me she never got one. She couldn't afford it." He flipped it open, looking page-by-page for any mention of Olivia. He stopped, running a finger down a black-and-white photo of Olivia, wearing a white lab-coat and holding a mangled bullet between her thumb and forefinger. He traced the outline of her face with his fingertip, smiling. "She looks happy, here."

"She was," Grissom said, smiling, too. "She was in her element, in that class. She could have had a brilliant career in forensics. But, she had her mind made up, and her heart set on the Special Victims Unit. No matter how many times I asked, how much I begged her to come back to Vegas with me after graduation, work here, she refused."

Elliot looked at Grissom. "You know why," he said, assuming. "Don't you?"

"Unfortunately," Grissom said sadly, nodding. "It didn't stop me from working for it. I pushed her, hard, and she almost dropped my class, that last year, but she…was the best student I'd ever had. So much talent, potential, and brilliance." He shrugged a bit and laughed as Elliot flipped through more pages. "You won't find it," he said.

"No?" Elliot asked. "Why not? Didn't she take..."

"She skipped picture day," Grissom said, smirking. "Turn to the back, read it, and then tell me why you think I am the way that I am with her."

Elliot scrunched up his face. He turned the book over completely and flipped open the back cover. He looked down and grinned, seeing the entirety of the panel filled with Olivia's swirly script.

Grissom,

You will never truly understand, and I don't think I will either, how much you have meant to me. My time here at Sienna has been turbulent, to say the least, but the constant – the thing keeping me in control – has been you. Your guidance, in and out of the classroom, has been such a Godsend. You have saved my life, and I am not just being dramatic. You've helped me find confidence I didn't think I could or would ever possess, courage I didn't believe existed, and have fanned a fire within me that, until I met you, had only been bare embers. Because of you, I am certain of the path I need to take in my life, and I know that I won't walk it alone. Thank you for being there when I really needed you. Grissom, thank you for every bit of advice and the true compassion you've shown me. I never had a father, and as a kid, whenever I thought of him, I imagined him to be a monster. The truth is, now, I imagine him to be something more like you. This is going to sound silly, maybe even insane, but there I times when I do think of you as my father. You've given me something to hold onto, memories I can be proud of, instead of afraid. The conversations we've had will forever be favorite quotes I not only repeat to myself but to others, imparting your wisdom on those not lucky enough to have met you. You've taken me under your wing, these past four years, and I don't pretend to know why, but I am thankful. I've thought a lot about your offer, and while it is incredibly generous and enticing, I must refuse. I'm still compelled to follow my heart, back to New York City, to keep what has happened to my mother, and to me, from happening to someone else. You've given me the strength to do it, Grissom. If I become half the person you are, I will be truly honored, blessed, and I will owe it all to you. If you ever make it back to New York, please, find me. You'll know how. Just as I would know, immediately, how to find you if I ever head out to Vegas. Follow the evidence. It never lies.

Olivia Benson.

He looked up at Grissom, a new understanding in his eyes. "She said…you were there when she needed you, what does that…" he cleared his throat. "What happened? I know her, and I know, even then, if she said something like that, there was a damn good reason."

Grissom folded his hands and looked away from Elliot. "Did she tell you…her sophomore year, her mother had an…accident?"

Elliot shrank in the seat, his head falling back as the memory hit him, the conversation coming back to him. "You were the…damn, I didn't…yeah, she told me. She told me everything, except, I guess…she never mentioned any names, and I didn't put two and two together. You drove her all the way to Jersey, paid for…" he stopped, watching Grissom, with closed eyes and a bit-in lip, nod. "Thank you. Grissom, thank you for everything you've done for her."

Grissom smiled and opened his eyes. "I never felt a responsibility for anyone like that, and I can't explain it, it hasn't happened since." He looked at Elliot, directly, and leaned a bit closer to him. "I wish we could have met, before this, but every time I asked her to come out here, she never could. We had a few quick lunches together, when I was in New York for conferences, but…she had you." He pressed his lips together for a moment. "See, when she met you, she didn't really need me, as much, anymore. You did everything I did for her, and more. Elliot, so, so much more. Understand this, Elliot, I don't intend to let this much time pass before seeing her again, and I know as well as you do that she confides in me just as she does you, so if she ever tells me that you…"

"She won't," Elliot said fast, stopping him. "I promise, I will never hurt her. I think you know that."

"I do," Grissom said. "And she does. Has she told you that?" He saw Elliot's eyes light up. "A few years ago, the last real heart-to-heart I had with her, she told me about you. She said she found someone who pushed her the way had, who aggravated her in ways no one ever did, and who…who she had absolute faith and trust in, and she knew that he would never hurt her, never let her down." He grinned. "You feel the same way?"

Elliot smiled. "What does the evidence tell you?"

Grissom moved first, reaching out a hand. Elliot shook it firmly, a silent promise between the two men, a contract. Grissom's office door swing open, then, and both men turned sharply, smiling at the woman who'd come through it.

"Gris, you need to see this," Olivia said, jutting a thumb over her shoulder. "Two of your guys brought in a few of, uh, White's missing parts."

Elliot rose, walked over to her, and without explaining why, or warning her, he pulled her into a tight hug. He whispered something in her ear and kissed the spot of skin just behind it.

Olivia shot Grissom a confused look over Elliot's shoulder as she hugged him back, scraping her nails down his back, knowing there were small goose bumps forming under the cotton. "El. I didn't know finding the body meant so much to you."

"It doesn't," Elliot laughed, pulling away from her. "But you do. You…you know that, already, though." He sighed and let his hands fall away from her, regretting it almost immediately. "I'm sorry about before, in the lab, I was…"

"Jealous," she said. "I know." Tilting her head a bit, she nodded, and her left brow arched. "What happened in here?"

"Grissom put me in my place," Elliot said, turning to look at the older man. "And, uh, I think I put him in his, too."

"Well, uh, I'm glad you guys are getting along," she said, giving each one a smile that meant something different. "Anyway, we should get to the lab before they make a mess of things."

Grissom got up and walked over to the pair, as he said, "What did they find?"

Olivia looked back at Elliot. "A leg, a foot, and…" she cringed. "His tongue."

Peace and Love

Jo