Prompt #45: Elliot and Olivia decide to see "if there's more there." The first date starts off terrible, but it doesn't take long for them to fall in sync.
Into The Night
~oOo~
Eli Stabler [5:47pm]: he's acting insane.
Eli Stabler[5:48pm]: more than usual
Kathleen Stabler[5:52pm]: leave him be, he's nervous
Eli Stabler[5:53pm]: no shit, he's a senior citizen, woulda thought he was done dating. One of you needs to come talk him off the ledge. I'm trying to keep Grandma away from him
Rich Stabler[5:55pm]: relax Eli, he'll be fine. Just leave him be and text us when he's back
Kathleen Stabler[6:01pm]: I have Grandma's prescription to drop off. I'll be there in 20. And before you say anything, shut up Dickie or I'll tell everyone about your crush on Olivia.
"Eli, have you seen my," Elliot popped out onto the patio, a navy blue three-piece suit with a matching paisley tie, "shoe?" He held up one of his Italian, brown dress shoes.
"Did you check by the door?" Eli answered, looking obviously annoyed. He instantly took his grandmother by the hand as she tried to stand up to go help. "No Grandma, I've got this. You sit down. I'll be back in a minute, ok? Need more tea?" Bernie nodded her head appreciatively as Eli went to help his father. "Dad, did you even look? God, haven't you been on dates since Mom died?" Eli walked to exactly where he thought the shoe had been and found it, dramatically standing up and shoving his arm out towards his father.
"S'not a date," Elliot bristled, his face went bright red as he felt a little bit embarrassed that he apparently hadn't seen the shoe even though he had just looked there. "Just gettin' dinner with Liv."
"Dinner with Liv." Eli rolled his eyes. "Well, whatever it is Dad, you have no chill and you need to calm down otherwise she's gonna think you're insane."
"Oh, like she doesn't already know about all of his proclivities." Bernie came from behind them, moving slowly to the table where she braced herself on a chair. "Olivia has known all about your Dad and how stupid he can be for a long time…she hasn't run off yet."
"Thanks, Mama." Elliot was on his knees now putting his shoes on. "As encouraging as this has been, I've gotta get going." He finished the laces and stood up, scanning the kitchen for his cellphone, keys, and wallet.
"Your room," Eli exhaled, running a hand through his hair. It felt like he was the parent and his dad was the child. His father mumbled a thank you and walked into the bedroom leaving Eli to turn the kettle on for his grandmother. "Peppermint or chamomile?" the teen asked with a smile.
"Peppermint," Bernie answered. "Don't be too rough on him. He's worried…"
Eli shrugged, he could hear a key jingling in the door and he figured Kathleen must've been close by to drop off the meds when she had said she would come check in. "Everyone says they've got this unbreakable bond, so I don't get what has him so freaked out."
"Olivia Benson is something that your father thought he would never be able to have a go at."
"Yeah because I came along," Eli mumbled as he dropped some loose leaf tea into a stainless steel filter.
"And you made your parents so happy." Bernie smiled, reassuring him in a way that only a grandmother could. "But he doesn't know how to navigate this…the only women he's ever loved are your mother, your sisters, and Olivia Benson."
"Don't be silly Grandma," Kathleen made her presence known with a kiss on the cheek to her grandmother, plopping the brown paper bag from the pharmacy down on the table, "you make the list too."
It was only a moment later that Elliot interrupted the trio as they giggled about some of his more nervous behaviors that afternoon. He had asked Olivia to dinner the week before after they had stumbled upon each other at the courthouse. She had been rushing down the steps, nose in her cellphone, rushing back to the precinct as Elliot came up to testify in a case that related back to the Kosta Organization and the Albanians. He saw her first, of course, he always found her first, and had he not put his arm out to stop her, she would've barrelled right into him (or any anonymous stranger) and taken them both out on the stone stairs. She had been flushed (of course), and beautiful, wearing a fitted white shirt and black dress pants along with a pair of boots with a small heel, her hair down and wavy, he thought it might've been his favorite of all the ways he'd ever seen her hair, the effortless waves and caramel strands that had existed since he came back. She was beautiful and she was stressed and kept apologizing for almost barrelling into him, so he took his chance. 'Make it up to me Liv, let me take you to dinner. A…a proper date. Please,' he had added for good measure. She had agreed, first, she had awkwardly put her phone in her bag, and then she had given him a smile, a smile like the one she had given him when he'd asked her to join them for Christmas (even if she hadn't shown up), but it gave him hope. She'd told him to text her the details and then she was on her way, this time he rested easy knowing that her phone was put away for the moment so hopefully, she wouldn't take out any innocent strangers.
"I'll be back later," Elliot sat through a few minutes of playful ribbing at the expense of his children and mother before kissing them each on the head and declaring that he was done with it. He was driving, of course, so he grabbed the keys to his Tahoe and stepped outside. Maybe it was too hot for a suit, maybe it was the fact that he thought asking Olivia fucking Benson out on a date was a great idea, or maybe it was that she had said yes…or maybe it's a bit of everything, but he was bursting at the seams with anticipation. He had called her to tell her he was on his way and once again she had told him she could just meet him at the restaurant, and he had insisted that he was on his way. After all, this was a date. It was explicitly a date. He had left no room for confusion when he asked her out and now he was falling all over himself and he hadn't even seen her yet.
He thought of texting her when he pulled up in front of her building, miraculously finding a short-term parking spot a couple of buildings away. He hopped out of the car and locked it before heading to the door, a quick nod to the doorman who had at least seen him a couple of times since his drug-fuelled late-night visit nearly a year earlier. He made it to the elevator, his index finger jabbing into the button at least three times before it dinged and this time it was him staring at his own shoes as he barrelled into Olivia before she could get out. "Jesus, Liv, what're you—?" His hands went to her shoulders for a moment to ensure they were both steady and then he looked her up and down. "Sorry," he mumbled, bending down to grab her clutch as she stepped out of the way of the elevator, "was coming up to get you…"
Olivia thanked him for retrieving her purse and gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "I just thought I would come down," she explained. "You know how parking is." Not to mention for all the years he had come to get her before, he had normally just waited for him to come down, except for a few occasions when he had come up to her old apartment when she was running late and he had managed to find a spot.
"Parking, yeah." Elliot rubbed his neck and then for the first time since he had seen her less than a minute earlier, he really took her in. Her hair was down and loose and beautiful, she was wearing a pink floral dress (she would tell him later it was chiffon) and strappy red heels covered her feet, he wanted to remind her about the ankle break from the year before and how those probably weren't the best choice, but he refrained. "Liv, you look…" he didn't even have the words, "beautiful. I mean…y'always look beautiful but…you look really nice."
Olivia blushed. "Jesus, El, don't lay it on too thick," she joked as she leaned forward for a hug. Of course, he went left and she went right which led to them knocking faces and Olivia cursing under her breath, hand rubbing her nose for a moment. "Sorry."
"No, no…uh that was, Jesus…I'm really off to a great start here, aren't I?" He tried to make it seem like he was joking but the heaviness in the air around them wasn't lost on either of them.
"Let's just," Olivia gave him another smile, once again reminding him that he was El and she was Liv and they were them in an effort to smooth the ripples that had appeared since he barrelled into her in the elevator, "one step at a time."
Elliot offered her his arm and he was relieved when she took it, maybe this wasn't a lost cause, maybe the disastrous first few minutes of their date would just be a blip, a story to tell at a dinner party or something. That would be a much better first date story than 'I secretly pined for this woman for over a decade while I was married to someone else' which was the current version in his head of what he would have to say to someone if by the grace of God he ended up in a relationship with Olivia Benson.
They walked arm in arm past the doorman who nodded at Elliot and happily wished Olivia a nice evening, and he successfully swung the door to his SUV open to let her in before getting in on his own side and buckling his seatbelt. "Where's Noah?" he asked, he wasn't sure where else to begin, plus he supposed it gave him a baseline of what to expect. If she told him she had a sitter until 9 it was a pretty good indication of where she expected this date to end. Not that he had expectations, but he wasn't opposed to the idea of wandering the city holding her hand and eating gelato from one of the many dives he had found since he returned, or maybe back to one of their old haunts from back when eating gelato and holding hands was forbidden.
"He's having a sleepover," Olivia answered quietly. She didn't tell him with who because she knew it would cause a fight, and if it worked out, if they worked out, Elliot would need to come to terms with Rafael Barba being in her life. She and Rafa had fought and they had made up (barely), but she had always known how much Rafa cared for Noah and how much Noah cared for his uncle. So when Rafa had offered to babysit, Olivia had accepted the offer and smiled weakly when asked what her plans were. She knew Rafael could guess what her plans were and she appreciated that he didn't push it. She hoped one day maybe she could talk to her friend about this part of her life, but for right now she would accept that he was a friend and an uncle to her child.
"Lucky kid," Elliot glanced over his left shoulder as he pulled into traffic. "Swear I hated when my kids went to sleepovers. I uh…tried to say they couldn't go, but you can imagine how well that went over."
"Probably helps that you weren't home often enough to notice." Olivia cringed as the words came out of her mouth. "Sorry El, I didn't…I just…god, I know we worked a lot of nights, a lot of weekends."
"You tried to get me home." Elliot smiled, she wasn't wrong. He normally wasn't there to say that the kids couldn't go to a sleepover, but Kathy did her best to keep a finger on the pulse of who the kids were spending time with. "Reminded me of where I needed to be…"
"Didn't always get you there." Olivia nodded. "It's hard," she admitted, she hadn't understood back then just how hard it was, but now, having Noah, she knew how hard it was to get back home to her child. She was thankful for her nanny and her squad, for her people who made sure that she could do her job and raise a well-adjusted, loved child. "I uh…I didn't understand back then."
"Well I wasn't always too understanding of you, was I?" He laughed. It was true. He didn't understand a lot of aspects of her life back then. Early on he was certain she couldn't understand what it was like to be a parent, to love something so much you would do anything for them, but eventually, he understood that she could understand, even when he didn't always want her to understand. Then there was when he fell in love with her and it made him question even more of her decisions. Her whatever it was with Dean Porter, her decision to accept a date with Dick Finley, even if it hadn't actually happened. The thought of another man with Olivia had made him sick to his stomach for longer than he would care to admit.
They chatted, they talked about work and the weather and their plans for Labour Day until they arrived at a restaurant. It was a hole in the wall, a little Italian joint, and Olivia couldn't imagine Elliot knowing about some small place like this. "This is cute," she smiled as she took a seat at their table in the back corner, "have you been before?"
Elliot shook his head. "No." He gave her a confused look as the waiter came and offered them water. "Flat," Elliot answered.
"Sparkling," Olivia answered at the same time. She laughed awkwardly as Elliot tried to correct himself, he hadn't meant to assume or overstep. "Flat is fine, sorry."
"You sure?" Elliot raised his brow. "You uh…never used to like sparkling?"
She shrugged her shoulders, she couldn't quite remember when she had started drinking it. Maybe it was when she was dating David all those years ago, all she knew is that with a slice of lime she had come to enjoy it, and it had certainly done her some good when she had been trying to keep a low profile and not consume much alcohol. "I guess it's one of the things," she paused as the waiter filled their water glasses with flat water and the pair chuckled uncomfortably, "that has changed a bit. Not to mention I have decidedly more grey hairs now, and you have finally succumbed to your receding hairline."
"Hardy har," Elliot laughed. "Sometimes I let it grow in a bit."
"I can tell," she smirked. The waiter came back a moment later and Olivia ordered herself a glass of wine, smiling when Elliot did the same, suggesting a bottle which she happily agreed to. "Why'd you think I'd been here?" Olivia asked with a confused look.
"This is the place you mentioned," Elliot told her. She raised her eyebrow, confusion evident on her face. "Years ago, it was in the paper, some…celebrity chef opened it…"
"El," Olivia laughed, she had absolutely no recollection of this. "Are you sure…"
"Course I'm sure," Elliot told her as the bottle of wine arrived and once again they were interrupted for a moment, Elliot happily tasting the wine and nodding his approval to the waiter who poured for Olivia next. Elliot smiled at her, their glasses clinking gently. "C'mon Liv, you cut it out, it was on your fridge…when Calvin was around, wasn't it?"
Olivia thought back for a moment, trying to recall, she could remember a lot from back then, the feel of Calvin being torn from her, Elliot holding her back, the wine she drowned herself in after the boy was gone. "Elliot it wasn't me," she told him as the realization came to her and Elliot looked at her with confusion as they both took another sip of the wine. "Tt was Kathy. Kathy saw it, she clipped it out and you asked me if I'd ever heard of it. I said no," she remembered it vividly, "you uh…you were going to take Kathy here."
Elliot froze, he went to tell her she was wrong, but the more he thought about it the more he questioned his own memory. He remembered it. Talking to her about it at the precinct. He remembered seeing it on a fridge…was she right? 'Fuck' he thought to himself. "I guess I never made it either," he tried to lighten things and Olivia gave him a terse smile. As if the existence of his five children, one of whom she helped deliver weren't a constant reminder of the life he had before her, parallel to her. "Liv, I'm sorry."
"You lived a whole life, El," she told him, "I can't blame you for getting some of it…"
"I'm sorry, Liv." This time it was different, he wasn't sorry for messing up a restaurant his wife wanted to go to, well, he was but that wasn't it. "You know we barely get a chance to talk. It's chaos or a case or the kids, my mom…all that. I uh…I'm sorry for how I left. I'm sorry for the letter. M'sorry for all of it."
"You uh," Olivia took a sip of her wine, "you don't have to keep apologizing Elliot. If we're…whatever this is…friends for now, more…whatever, we've gotta let some of it go."
"Yeah, sure," Elliot smiled. "You know what you're gonna have?" He tried to change the subject in hopes that they could move on.
"I'm thinking the carbonara," Olivia answered, it had long been one of her favorites and she liked that his lips curled upwards when she told him. "Let me guess," she continued down the menu, "the spaghetti and meatballs? Or the steak? Medium rare…"
Elliot smiled involuntarily, he could feel it in his cheeks, and shook his head. "Hate to break it to you Benson, but my tastes have evolved over the years. The salmon or the linguine pescatore."
"Oh, Mr. No Raw Fish suddenly eats cooked fish?" She knew enough to know that even then he didn't love fish by any stretch of the imagination, it certainly wasn't one of his top choices. She supposed that maybe she wasn't the only one who had changed over the course of a decade.
It was awkward, the silences…they were awkward and he couldn't understand why. They had never been awkward before, when they were partners it was always comfortable. Even when they were furious with each other, they were still on the same page, and now here they were, floundering for conversation in a nice Italian restaurant that his dead wife had wanted him to take her to. "Noah doin' any sports this summer? Baseball? Soccer?"
Olivia shook her head. "No, he was into baseball for a while, but…that faded. He dances." Olivia's face lit up. "Loves it." She watched as Elliot processed the information and a smile crossed his own face as she spoke about it. "He's really great, he's been invited to this elite dance camp in a couple of weeks and he just cannot wait. God, I never thought I would be a mom, much less a dance mom, but here I am."
"Dance," Elliot nodded, a genuine smile on his face, "good for him."
Olivia felt her heart swell, she never knew how people would react when she told them about her sweet boy and his love of ballet, but unsurprisingly, Elliot seemed genuinely interested. "He's really good, made some great friends…it can be hard," she admitted, "the working mom thing, missing things, but Lucy, my nanny…she helps so much and makes sure he's where he needs to be."
"You've got your people." Elliot grinned and enjoyed that Olivia was blushing under his gaze. He was glad of course, that she had her squad, her family, the people around her that kept her grounded, kept her safe. "I'm glad, really." He stopped short of admitting he wished he had stayed one of those people. Olivia's phone rang and she gave him an apologetic smile as she pulled it out. He knew the drill, of course. He had known the drill many moons ago before it was her squad to run and he knew her list of responsibilities had only grown since then. He listened as he took a sip of his water, 'is anyone hurt?' and then a long pause, some hums and haws, 'you'll call me with an update…no, I know…I appreciate that. Just keep me in the loop, and if you catch wind of McGrath, you call me first, am I clear?' She pressed the red button to end the call and this time her phone went beside her on the table instead of on back in her purse and Elliot was all too familiar with where this night would likely end up. "Everything alright?" he asked.
Olivia picked up her wine and nodded as she took a long sip. "We've just got a…" She paused, did she talk to him like a normal date? Like someone who didn't know just how horrifying her line of work could be, or did she talk to him like he was the man by her side for these atrocities for 13 years. "A situation. Under control right now, but…"
"They might need you?" Elliot assumed and Olivia nodded. "S'okay," he assured her before she could apologize. He was pretty sure that in his mind, Olivia would never need to apologize to him for anything ever again, not after the shit he had pulled. "You like it?" he asked quietly. "Being a Captain?"
Olivia shrugged. It had its moments. "Most of the time." She nodded. "I have a whole new respect for the hell on wheels we were to Don though. He uh…put up with a lot."
"You wouldn't do the same for your squad?" Olivia laughed. "He was family. He is family," Elliot told her honestly. "Saw him a few months ago. The Combat Cross thing."
"The one you didn't invite me to?" Olivia asked playfully, relieved that they were back to bantering. This was awkward. It had been awkward since they bumped into each other, literally, in the elevator and it hadn't stopped being awkward since. There were moments, sentences, stories that felt safe and normal, but they were both tiptoeing around all of it, and maybe this stuffy Italian restaurant that Kathy had wanted to try wasn't helping that. "I'm kidding," she assured him, his face had frozen and then softened when she promised him it was a playful comment. "I think I was busy that day anyway, getting my hair done."
"Something I obviously have no experience with," Elliot grinned. It was then that their appetizers came. "Thought you woulda gotten a Caprese salad?" he admitted as the beet salad was presented to her. She always used to get the Caprese, she didn't like the texture of the mozzarella but she liked everything else and how the flavors worked with each other so she would faithfully eat around the mozzarella before sliding her plate over for him to take the cheese, which of course was his favorite part.
"Don't get it anymore." She shrugged. It was one of the (many) things that had lost its appeal after he left. She remembered being at dinner with David Haden, some restaurant near his place that served a mix of everything she had ordered a Caprese salad and half expected David to share the offering on her plate, but he had agreed with her that he hated the texture of the cheese and so it had sat on her plate untouched. She didn't think she had eaten it since then, not in the soft form of a Caprese salad, not without her partner who knew her order inside and out. "I, uh…guess it felt like a waste, throwing out all the cheese, I'd never eat it…"
"Too slimy." He laughed, thinking back to the first time she had told him about her distaste for the texture.
"Right." Olivia nodded, handing Elliot the pepper when he asked for it to garnish his own choice of house salad. They reached at the same time and Elliot was sure life was happening in slow motion. Their hands touched just as his forearm knocked her wine glass over and even though it was happening slowly and right in front of his eyes, there was nothing he could do to stop the clamor and then the inevitable spill of burgundy liquid all over the skirt of her pink dress. "Shit," she groaned as she used her napkin to try to stop the flow of liquid off the table. Elliot for his part was up immediately with his napkin, knelt behind her trying to do the same without also pawing at her in a restaurant where they were already making more commotion than either of them would've liked.
"Jesus, Liv." Elliot was practically breathless, shoving things out of the way, passing her his napkin and the one that had been secured around the neck of the wine bottle, anything that would help as Olivia pushed away from the table slightly and blotted at the large stain in her lap. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean…"
"I know El." She smiled at him, she wasn't sure what to do. To laugh or to cry. It seemed that this date, the one they both seemed to desperately want to be on was nothing short of a shit show and the train just wasn't stopping.
"Is there anything I can do?" He stood up slowly as they both surveyed the damage, Olivia pulling her chair back in now that the dripping had stopped and Elliot re-arranging the table, offering to pour her a glass of wine, he knew he had really shit the bed when she shook her head and told him no thank you. "God, Liv, let me…send me the dry cleaning bill, m'kay?"
Olivia exhaled. "It's chiffon, it'll never come out," she admitted. "I promise, El," she wanted to reach for his hand but decided it was too risky, didn't need red wine all over his fancy Italian suit, "just a dress. I have plenty."
"Yeah, but you didn't…I mean, fuck, Liv, I basically ran you over in your lobby, then I took you to a restaurant my wife wanted to go to, now I've ruined your dress…"
Her phone began to ring and once again she apologized and he assured her it was fine. "Benson," she answered, back to her business voice, "is she alright?" Olivia asked, panic rising in her voice. "Okay, so she wasn't hit? She's what? Velasco, I will be right there. You tell her to sit her ass down." Olivia slammed the phone on the table a bit more aggressively than she had intended to. "Elliot, I'm sorry," she told him honestly.
"Hey, I wouldn't blame you if you faked that call and you were going home to watch paint dry."
"Rollins got into it with a perp. He had a gun, took a shot. In the chaos, I guess a bookshelf fell down on her. Velasco got the guy in custody, Amanda is refusing to go to a hospital."
"And you've gotta go to the scene," he finished for her.
"S'my squad."
"Can I drive you?"
Olivia shook her head. She put her phone back in her purse as she stood up and walked to his side of the table, leaning down and giving him a kiss on the cheek. She couldn't help but notice that it felt like they had been doing it forever, not something that they had barely allowed themselves in all the years they'd known each other. "Raincheck?" she suggested after she told him not to get up and make a fuss.
"Let me drive you," Elliot held her arm gently, "please?"
"I'll take an Uber," she told him. She didn't need the drama of him showing up at a scene with her, wine all over her dress. "I'll call you when I get home, ok? I promise?"
Elliot accepted her answer and watched as Olivia walked out of the restaurant, her fingers diligently typing into her phone, he assumed she was getting an Uber that would no doubt be available nearly instantly when she stepped outside, and there he was with a mess of a table, a salad he didn't want to touch anymore and a half bottle of wine that he had no interest in drinking. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, dropping more than enough bills on the table to cover what had already come out as well as what they had ordered and then he waited another few minutes to leave as well. He wondered as he looked at the street if Olivia was in one of the cars zooming away into the night, or if she was already long gone by the time he had come out. God, what a fucking disaster it had been. He wanted to go home, pour himself a whiskey and get in bed, maybe do a quick workout and ignore any and all questions from his well-intentioned family members, but he knew that would never happen. He would return home to the Spanish Inquisition, and if he knew his second oldest and his youngest children well, he wouldn't be surprised to find that they had called their three siblings over to see what they could pull out of their old man.
So he walked. He walked until an hour turned into two and then three, and then he couldn't ignore the grumbling in his stomach. He hadn't even realized that he had walked to the precinct. To the 16th Precinct to be exact. It was like his feet had just taken him there. Once he realized where he was, he noticed his stomach rumbling and he made his decision. There was a good chance she wasn't there. It had been three hours. She could be at the scene still, she could be at home, she could've taken Rollins to the hospital…or maybe, just maybe she was up there in her tower having not eaten anything except for the two bites of her salad that she managed to eat before he dumped her wine on her. Elliot walked a couple more blocks to an old deli that he was certain had been there since the beginning of time. At the very least, it had been there since their beginning and that was good enough for him. He ordered two sandwiches, his with fries, hers with a salad, and then an extra order of fries because he knew there was a good chance she would want some of his. Topped it off with a couple of (shitty) coffees, but he knew they would be better than the crap they had at the precinct, and maybe more than anything, something about it all felt so normal.
The elevator ride up to SVU was quiet. The officer working the desk had confirmed she was upstairs once Elliot had flashed his badge and given his name. Elliot saw Velasco sitting at his desk writing something up, then there were a couple of unis he didn't know from a hole in the wall, and he could hear Fin yelling' at someone on the phone, from the sounds of it he was checking in on his partner at the hospital and Elliot could certainly relate to that kind of concern.
Her office door was closed so he adjusted all of the food into his right hand and awkwardly used his left hand to knock on the door while balancing his bags. He heard her voice, tired this time, decidedly different than it had been hours earlier and he let himself in. "Hey," he breathed as she looked up at him and gave him a relieved smile as he shut the door behind him. "I thought maybe you hadn't eaten… you uh… you never used to eat when we worked late…can't imagine that got any better when you got the unit to yourself…"
"The vending machine has top-notch snacks now," Olivia joked. "Jamaican patties, shitty samosas, KitKat bars…"
Elliot laughed. "Guess you don't need me then?" His smile grew as she stood up and walked towards him, grabbing the coffee tray from his hand first, smiling as she noticed that they were still the same as all those years ago. She had gotten changed. Must've kept a spare outfit (or two) at the office. She was in dark skinny jeans now and a white v-neck t-shirt. Her glasses were sitting on her nose and her hair was now clipped up and away from her face. He noticed a blazer sitting on the back of her chair and he supposed she would probably throw it on if her chief decided to walk in. For both of their sakes, he hoped McGrath stayed away.
"Wouldn't go that far." Olivia sipped the coffee and sat down on her couch, gesturing for him to join her. "You have me feeling a bit underdressed," she noted that the was still in the outfit she had left him in, which led the detective in her to believe that he hadn't gone home after their (failed) dinner date. "Extra fries?" She grinned as she pulled the contents of the bag out and spread them out over her small table, nodding for Elliot to sit down with her. "You remembered?" She felt her heart swell, this hadn't changed. Her order from the diner down the street. She didn't go often. Sometimes when John came to meet her and Fin for lunch, or sometimes Fin would pick it up for them when they were both being hit by a particularly tough case, one that reminded them of the old days. But he never knew exactly what to order. He would get it mostly right, or he would know exactly what Noah would want if he was meeting them in the office for lunch (and God bless Fin for loving her son the way he did), but Elliot being able to order the perfect dinner from that spot so many years later…it meant something. It meant more than the flat and sparkling water, it meant more than the Caprese salad and the cooked fish…it meant everything.
"Don't eat all of em'." Elliot smirked as he popped one into his mouth as he plopped down beside her, both of them relishing in the normalcy of the moment. She explained that Carisi had managed to get Amanda to go to the hospital, the girls were with Barba (she felt him cringe when she said that), and then she admitted it was good because Noah was there too and surprisingly he relaxed a bit. "Good with your boy?" Elliot asked as he took a bite of his sandwich, hunched over the table with his vest unbuttoned.
"The best," she admitted, digging her fork into her salad. "This salad, forgot how good it was."
"It's the feta." Elliot nodded, both of them accepting the previous sentiment about Barba and moving past it. "Somethin' bout how they salt it. She got a concussion?" He returned the conversation to what was going on with Rollins.
"Observation for one," Olivia nodded. "She doesn't like being away from the girls. Her mom is a mess, can't really stay with the kids, her sister is useless. Feels bad for getting the nanny in on her time off…Carisi has to stay with her…"
"Good that you guys have people." Elliot nodded. He wouldn't have known who Kathy would've called to watch their kids back then. Elliot would've likely had Olivia with him until Kathy could get away, and for the more serious incidents, Katie and Maureen had been old enough to watch the twins for a couple of hours.
"Didn't like her at first," Olivia admitted. "She uh…we butted heads." She took a bite of her sandwich, "She came in right after you and Jenna and everything, her and Nick Amaro…I didn't want to train anyone new, she had her problems, her skeletons…"
"Don't we all," Elliot mused with sparkling blue eyes and his trademark smirk.
"But eventually…after some not-so-great times, we started understanding a bit more about each other, and now…well, I couldn't imagine her not being here. You know? We uh…we're good. She's a great mom, an aunt to Noah, a friend…"
"Seems like a good cop," Elliot nodded, "and I certainly trust your judgment."
Olivia laughed as she leaned back and took another bit of her coffee. "Makes one of you," she refrained from pointing out that it was Amanda who had suggested that she and Elliot get a room and get it out of their system…a suggestion she had not taken her up on for a variety of reasons, but between Amanda and Lindstrom and hell, even Barba's misplaced comments about her feelings for Elliot, it hadn't taken her much to agree to a date with him when he had asked her earlier in the week.
Elliot laughed, a laugh from his belly and he loved the way Olivia lit up right alongside him. "She doesn't like me?"
"Doesn't trust you," Olivia countered honestly. "Doesn't trust anyone when it comes to me," she admitted. "And I only trust her and Carisi because he was one of mine."
"Partners?" Elliot smiled, his cheeks puffing up as Olivia nodded. "Good for them."
They finished their food and Olivia took a moment to put the garbage in her trashcan and then took a quick call while Elliot watched her. Watching her in her own environment, in her office, amongst her people, commanding her people. Velasco came in for a moment and gave his report, Olivia dismissed him, telling him it was late and to go home, Velasco nervously agreed and reminded her of the same. He made brief eye contact with Elliot who nodded at him and then it was just the two of them.
"Another coffee?" Elliot asked, Olivia was at her desk working on paperwork, mumbling to herself about various things and shooting questions to Elliot. It was easy, it was simple. They talked, they laughed, they reminisced about all the nights they had spent on the other side of that wall with Cragen inside mumbling over paperwork.
"You know what," Olivia closed her laptop and pulled her glasses off her face, placing them absently on her desk. "If I haven't bored you to death yet," she put her laptop, notebook, some files, and phone into her bag and then sauntered back to Elliot, "do you wanna grab a nightcap?"
"Really?" Elliot had to admit he was surprised, the date had been nothing short of a disaster. She reached her hand for him, either way, he needed to get out of her office if she was going to leave, but she was relieved when he took her hand and stood up, his hand moving to the small of her back as he led her out of the office. "Where's the dress?" he asked as they went through the door, she locked it after they were out.
Olivia leaned in slightly to him, they were alone, the squad room was quiet and he still felt safe. After all those years, he felt like her port in a storm. "Garbage," she told him, "between the wine and the crime scene…"
"Some first date," Elliot cringed. He wanted to offer to replace it but he knew what she would say and he couldn't blame her. She didn't need him to take care of her. "Chances I can get you to agree to a second?"
Olivia stopped him before they reached the elevator, she turned and looked up at him, his sparkling blue eyes staring at hers for just a moment. "I think," she moved slowly, giving him every opportunity to step back if in fact things had been ruined irretrievably between them, "the first isn't quite over yet."
"You think?" Elliot grinned. He knew what was coming but the part of him that was still the jealous son of a bitch he was a decade ago wanted to be the one to make the move. And so he did. His hands on her waist, he closed the gap between their lips, and in just a matter of mere seconds, none of the rest mattered. The disastrous date, the years of longing, the words they never said, and the decade of absence. It didn't matter, because his lips on hers and her hands on his cheeks, they were finally where they were supposed to be.
