A/N: So i have re-written and edited this chapter 3 times, i hope it does it justice, that's all i'm going to say. Please enjoy :)

Chapter 20: Dinner

Olivia had started to doubt herself now, she had been doing so for the past couple of hours and she knew it was because of how nervous she felt. But she didn't understand exactly why she was feeling so nervous. It was just dinner. It was just with the Stabler's. But that was exactly the reason for her nerves – because she was having dinner with Elliot. She shouldn't have said yes, she shouldn't have agreed as this was going to ruin everything. They were friends, but they weren't the kind of friends that did dinner like this. Elliot was sending his car for her any minute now and Olivia was still standing in front of her bathroom mirror, going over the final parts of her outfit for what was likely the millionth time. She was doubting her outfit choice for the night as much as she was doubting the whole idea of the dinner.

"Relax" Alex said as she appeared in the doorway.
"You look lovely, and I'm more than sure Elliot will agree" Alex continued, to which Olivia just gave her a look. She hadn't dressed for Elliot tonight, she simply dressed to look nice. She knew that there was a dress she currently had at the back of her closet, that she'd wear if she was dressing for Elliot. Stop it Olivia reprimanded herself, as she started to think about that dress. She'd only ever worn it a couple of times to impress men in specific situations. She'd bought it after leaving Brian and losing her baby weight. She'd bought it when she thought she was ready to get back into the dating game. She'd worn it on a few nights out but not followed through in any of the attention she had received. She hoped that one day there was a time she would wear it again with the right reason to do so and the right man to want to impress.
"I didn't dress for Elliot, it's dinner with him and his kids" Olivia replied.
"Just remember what we discussed last night" Alex remarked before walking away from the bathroom once more to leave Olivia to finalise her outfit.


Olivia and Alex had stayed up for hours last night, talking everything through. Alex had been the shoulder to cry on and the best listening ear that Olivia needed with the whole attack and the situation with Dani and Elliot. They had discussed in detail about the things which Dani had screamed at Olivia in the hotel lobby. Alex had explained that this woman was so obviously disturbed on deeper levels than anyone would have know about and nothing that she had said could really be taken to heart. However Olivia had already spent hours playing it over in her mind after it happened, questioning if the things she had been called were what the rest of the world just saw of her, if it was what Elliot and the kids saw her like. Olivia had expressed this to Alex who instantly denied it, she had explained that Elliot clearly thought a lot more of her if he was texting her all the time and wanting her over for dinner. Olivia couldn't accept that though.

The conversation had then shifted to something much, much lighter and less traumatic for Olivia, the conversation shifted to Elliot. Alex wanted to know everything about what was going on with that situation. She wanted to know everything, including the details about whether or not Olivia was actually interested in him like he was showing he clearly was for her, with the dinner invitation. Olivia didn't see the dinner invitation as a sign that Elliot wanted something with her, she knew he was just doing it out of courtesy to say thank you for everything she had helped him with. But Olivia had been honest with Alex, she had told her friend about the way she truly felt towards Elliot. She had told Alex that she had really enjoyed all the time she spent with Elliot, she told her about the way Olivia had thought for ages about what it had felt like to be hugged by him, the feeling of being close to him. Olivia had even confessed about how she had found herself thinking about Elliot way more than she'd like to admit. It was clear as anything to Alex that Olivia really did have developing serious feelings for this 'Elliot' and she had told Olivia to just follow her heart. Alex advised Olivia to go with what her heart was telling her in any moment. It was the way that she had become involved with Micah and that relationship between Alex and Micah was really special right now. Olivia couldn't necessarily agree with this advice though and just take the moment if it arises, but she appreciated Alex's help and assistance and the opportunity to just talk it through.


"Daddy, Miss Benson's here!" Dickie called up the stairs to where his father was finishing getting ready. Elliot's driver had messaged when he'd collected Olivia so that Elliot would know the rough time they would get back to his building. Surprisingly, they were here a couple of minutes early to Elliot's assumption based on what his driver had said it had taken before, to get from Olivia's place back to the hotel. Elliot didn't know where Olivia lived as it wasn't like he'd ever been there but he was grateful for the insight from his driver. Elliot heard Olivia's voice downstairs, as he appeared at the top of the stairs and he watched as she interacted with his children as he walked down. The minute he laid eyes on her, he thought she looked absolutely beautiful. Olivia was dressed in a nice dark blue dress with black heels and her hair was actually down and appeared to be curled. Elliot had only ever seen Olivia with her hair up, as she always had it up at school and the time they saw at the park, but he really liked this look with her hair down. He could tell that she had make up on but it didn't appear to be quite as much as the other day, at least not around her eye, which he hoped meant it was getting better. The swelling definitely appeared to have gone down from when he saw her at the precinct.
"Hi" Olivia greeted, as she spotted standing watching her on the stairs.
"Hey, thanks for coming" Elliot greeted as he continued down the last few stairs. He was a little embarrassed that he'd been found out staring at her.
"Thank you for the invitation" Olivia replied.
"Daddy, how pretty does she look?! I really like your dress Miss Benson" Elizabeth spoke up and Olivia just smiled appreciatively. Elliot always thought she had a beautiful smile.
"I think you look very nice" Elliot replied as Olivia smiled at him again. But on the inside, Olivia was really hoping that he couldn't see that she was blushing from his compliment.

"Um, would like a drink? Dinner is still going to be about 20 minutes, sorry" Elliot asked, trying to think of what next to offer her. He was normally good at being a host but apparently not tonight. He blamed the nerves that he was still feeling.
"That is perfectly fine and thank you, a drink would be lovely" Olivia replied as she walked towards the living room with the twins, where Elizabeth was desperate to show her something.
"What would you like? We have a selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages? Wine, Beer, Spirits, Soda…?" Elliot offered.
"I want an alcohol…alcoholic beverage?" Dickie spoke up, almost questioning whether he'd even said the words right.
"Yeah not till your older buddy" Elliot replied, causing laughter amongst the two adults from the boys efforts.
"A wine would be lovely" Olivia replied though and Elliot just nodded before setting about getting the drinks organised whilst Olivia had a conversation with the twins about their day.

Richard was desperate to tell Olivia all about his soccer game today and the two goals he scored for the team, Olivia listened very intently to the little boy and asked questions. Elliot couldn't help but admire the way that Olivia was so invested with his children and he knew that she cared a great deal for them and their needs. She was an amazing woman all around basically and he felt very lucky to personally know such an amazing woman.


When dinner was ready, the four of them were more than ready to eat. Elizabeth and Olivia sat on one side of the dinner table in the dining room whilst Elliot and Dickie sat on the other. Dickie wanted to sit opposite Olivia as he couldn't sit next to her, but Elliot managed to steal the seat just before his son. Olivia could see the slight smirk on his face as he did so, simply over the fact that he had secured the seat first which made her laugh to herself, she didn't think her attention was quite so fought over. She did like that she could look up from time to time and steal glances towards Elliot though.

The conversation around the dinner table was light but entertaining, largely being kept by the twins with the different stories they were desperate to tell. But there was a second conversation going on between the adults in the room simply from the looks that they were giving each other across the dinner table. Olivia felt a small flutter in her stomach with the way that Elliot would softly smile at her when he saw her watching him. She had never been quite so glad that the twins were here like she was at the moment as they could distract attention easily for the adults. It wasn't that Elliot and Olivia didn't want to talk to one another, it was more the fact they likely had the same thing on their minds right now.

"So daddy, now Lizzie and me talked to the police man and Miss Benson has too…is Dani going to come back?" Richard asked, drawing attention from the adults and Olivia could easily see the little boy was rather scared with the thought of Dani coming back.
"I don't want Dani back" Elizabeth replied.
"I don't know exactly what will happen yet but I don't worry, I promise you I'm not going to let Dani anywhere near you" Elliot tried to comfort the fears of his children.
"Can you come look after us when daddy has to work again Miss Benson?" Elizabeth asked, putting Olivia on the spot. She'd not thought of being the one to care for the twins again after the attack and Elliot had never asked her to.
"I-" Olivia stuttered.
"Lizzie, honey miss Benson and I haven't talk about that and I don't want you to pressure her into it. Besides, I have a surprise. I spoke with Nanny last night and she is going to come to New York to stay with us for a while next Saturday" Elliot stepped in before Olivia could finish, he didn't want her to feel like she had to look after his kids, he wasn't intending to ask her to do so either.
"But…it's Saturday now daddy and who is going to look after us when we finish school till then?" Richard asked, concerned for what would come next.
"Me" Elliot replied.
"Daddy but you have work?" Richard asked and even Olivia was intrigued as to what Elliot would say next. She had expected that he was going to ask her to look after the twins again or he would put something else in place to support the twins. It didn't appear to be that way though.
"I do and I will be going to work in the mornings and when you are at school but I've been able to look at my time these past couple of days and I've moved things so I can pick you up every day" Elliot explained whilst both twins were shocked they would actually be picked up by their dad instead of a babysitter or someone else.


Later that evening, both twins were upstairs in bed and Elliot had already tucked them in for the night. Olivia had shared a quick joke with him about being the favourite when Elizabeth asked for Olivia to be the one to tuck her in rather than Elliot. But Elliot had enjoyed the joke in good humour and he'd still checked on the little girl. Now, they were sitting in the living room just Elliot and Olivia. Both of them had a glass of wine and were talking about a range of different things, enjoying the company since the twins had gone to bed. Olivia knew it was getting rather late and she should look at going home but she was in no rush to leave.
"Thank you again for coming to dinner" Elliot spoke up after the pair had been sitting in silence for a couple of minutes.
"Thank you again for the invitation. You know it really wasn't necessary to go to such effort just to say thank you. I honestly didn't mind looking after the kids and I wasn't going to let anything happen to them" Olivia replied,
"That may be but I didn't invite you to dinner just to say thank you, in fact if I'm honest here, I did it as an excuse to spend time with you. But I wanted to make sure we did something proper to say thank you for everything you have done for us" Elliot tried to explain, feeling the need to confess to Olivia his true intentions behind dinner.
"Well either way, I appreciate the invitation and the effort you went to" Olivia replied, smiling at Elliot again.
"Even if you didn't accept right away?" Elliot teased.
"Well no, but I had my reasons?"
"Like?"
"It's not exactly common for teachers to be going to students houses and having dinner" Olivia explained, reminding herself about how truly inappropriate this situation really was.
"But it's not exactly common for parents to be inviting their child's teacher over for dinner either? Or is it?" Elliot replied.
"Well no, that is also true" Olivia stated before taking another sip of her wine and watching Elliot over the wine glass. She could sense something was different with him now the kids were in bed, there was something different in his gaze. It was in the way he was looking at her and she couldn't help to wonder what was on his mind, was there something he wanted to tell her?

"So you're not working as much next week then?" Olivia asked, trying to change topic of the conversation.
"I have no one who can look after the twins outside of school and I feel like they aren't really in a position to be comfortable being left with someone else at the moment" Elliot explained.
"But you're not doing the morning drop off? Who are they going to be with then? I mean I think your decision is wise as I think they may need you more than you realise at the moment" Olivia explained, Elliot couldn't help but smile, this woman had taught him so much about seeing his children's needs.
"I've discussed it with Bertie and Parker and they are going to make sure the twins get off alright, Lizzie and Dickie know Bertie and Parker so they should be fine and I know Lizzie will be fine knowing she can see you when she gets to school" Elliot paused.
"But I think you are also right about them needing me and well we have you to thank for that" Elliot continued.
"Excuse me?" Olivia asked, what was Elliot trying to get at now? Was he saying that the attack and the fragile state his children were in was her fault?
"No, sorry, that came out wrong. What I meant was that we have you to thank again for opening my eyes to see what my children need and want. I think I'd still be my old business focused self if it wasn't for you" Elliot apologised.
"My stubbornness to find out who was mystery dad you mean?"
"What? Mystery Dad? And no I mean your care and your dedication towards the children that you teach. I've honestly never met someone who has quite as much determination to see things right with their students, as you do" Elliot explained.
"I have seen what happens with students who don't get the support and love from their parents that they deserve. Your two children are far too special for that to happen to" Olivia explained.
"Well they're very lucky to have someone who cares so much about them and would help out with whatever she could, we all are" Elliot replied as he locked eyes with Olivia. He could feel this pull towards her and couldn't fight it. Olivia was feeling the same thing and couldn't fight it either. Go with your heart Olivia remembered from what Alex had told her yesterday. She had an idea what was coming and she wanted it, it was something she had thought about a lot. Elliot's eyes were drawn down to Olivia's approaching lips whilst Olivia felt like she couldn't breathe with the closer she and Elliot got. Was this really going to happen?

3…Their heads were almost touching, and it wasn't going to be long till Elliot's lips connected with Olivia's but still neither pulled away.
2…Elliot couldn't stop now and he just prayed that this wouldn't ruin the friendship they already had. Maybe this would bring the start of something better than what they ever had before and maybe it was what was meant to happen. He just couldn't fight the urge to want to kiss her.
1…

A/N: *Gasp* what is going to happen? Are they going to kiss? Is it going to ruin everything? Will one of them pull away at the last moment? Guess you'll have to wait to the next chapter to find out! Leave me a review and let me know what you think ;) Thank you as always, for all the wonderful reviews you leave for me and i hope you liked this chapter!
Until Next Time :D