Summary: Amanda Rollins suggested that Olivia get a hotel room with Elliot to "get it out of her system." There are a few ways that could go. Here's one take on it…

Disclaimer: Dick Wolf owns everything; I just take the characters out and play with them once in a while.

Chapter 6C - Ed

He heard the gunshot and raced through unfamiliar halls. He wanted to fire his own weapon when he saw where the shot had come from, but he couldn't. He kept pulling the trigger, but nothing happened. In front of him, William Lewis was on top of Olivia - HIS Liv - thrusting into her. Her head had turned do the side, and her lifeless eyes stared blankly at the wall as blood slowly slid down her face from the hole in the side of her head.

Tucker's eyes flew open, and his breath hitched. The glow of the city lights illuminated the room just enough that he could see his surroundings. He recognized Olivia's duvet covering him, and to his right, she was beside him, hair swept back and her arm was flung across his chest. It was the most content and peaceful he had seen her in months, possibly ever. He reached over and stroked her hair and listened to her rhythmic breathing until the horrific images in his head subsided.

He couldn't tell her, though. She could never know this was bothering him, or that her story had stirred a nightmare for him. He knew what it had taken her to trust him to help her remember everything that had happened to her, and he also knew that she would never forgive herself if she knew that it affected him in any way. She needed him to be able to hold this, and not react to it, unless it was possibly for him to protect her. This was *her* story. She was allowed weakness to build back up into strength. He needed to be the strong, steady support she needed until she got there herself.

She shifted in her sleep and mumbled his name, pulling him closer to her and burying her face into his chest. He loved the way his name sounded as it tumbled from her lips. He wrapped his arms around her, and fell asleep, with the scent of her hair teasing him back towards sleep.

At least her nightmares had subsided.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

A week had passed since he had taken her out to the beach house. Spaghetti Night had become something of a regular event at her house, since Noah seemed to enjoy it so much. But something was…different. She couldn't put her finger on it, really, but something was off. He wasn't distant *exactly*, but he wasn't fully with her either. At first, she suspected he might be cheating on her, but that didn't feel right. He wouldn't even look another woman with the same hungry look he gave her.

And yet…

She wanted to fix it. She wanted things to be the way they were before she had told him anything about Lewis. If she was right, and this was why he was weird now, then she had been wrong to trust him. She had put images in his head that never should have been there in the first place. Cassidy had asked her, BEGGED her, to talk to him, but she couldn't. She couldn't bear that look of pity or seeing him struggle with it. Ed, though…Ed hadn't shown any sign of being bothered by it. It was just more of a sense, but the timing went back to when they started really talking about Lewis.

Once she had Noah bathed and tucked into bed for the night, she went back to the kitchen and reached for a bottle of wine.

"He finally go down?" Ed asked absently from the couch. He was knee deep in a file, as had become his normal routine.

"Three stories, two lullabies, and I had to lay down with him, but he finally fell asleep," she said, joining him on the couch, kicking her feet up on the coffee table, and taking a sip of her wine. Ed chuckled.

"He was pretty keyed up tonight," he remarked.

"Yeah, I'm just glad I got to deal with him instead of cleaning the spaghetti off the walls," she said.

"It wasn't that bad." The smile faded from her face, and she let her arm drift over the back of the couch to his shoulder. His hand came up and covered hers giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Hey…" she whispered.

"Hm?" Ed asked, still not looking up at the file.

"Noah isn't the only one here that wants to be put to bed," she teased. He smiled, and finally put the file away and turned his attention to her. He pulled her into his arms, and she immediately pulled him towards her for a kiss. The kiss was searing with heat. Yes…this was what she wanted, more than anything. A sound came from her, but it wasn't one that he had heard before. He loved when she whimpered or moaned with need, coaxing him to take her further. He lived for those sounds. But this was strangled, almost…was it pain? Oh, he didn't like that. He wasn't sure what he was doing with her. He didn't know where her mind was going, but he didn't want to push her towards places that caused her pain or anguish.

She was intent on a hot, heavy make out session that always led straight to the bedroom, but this…no, he was more gentle than he had ever been with her. One hand was planted on the small of her back, and the other was barely touching her arm. Where was the passion? Where was that instinctive knowledge of her body and her arousal? Where was the slow build that nearly drove her insane, leaving her panting and ready for more? She pulled back and tried to read whatever was going on with him in his eyes, but she couldn't. She still hadn't learned how to dig past the stoicism and figure out what he was thinking.

"Ok, I need to ask you something," she said. Her heart hammered in her chest as the question formed in her mind.

"Anything," he said.

"Are you…Ed, are you cheating on me?" Her head swam and her heart practically leapt out of her chest while she waited for his response.

"What!? No, of course not! How could you…why would you think that?" he asked. She believed him. Not because she wanted to, but because her cop instinct told her that he was telling the truth.

"Then what the hell is going on? You've barely touched me in the last week, and even just now, you were kissing me like you didn't really want to." She was so confused. Actually, no she wasn't. If he wasn't cheating on her, then it had to have something to do with Lewis. But she wanted to give him a chance to admit it before making the accusation. Ed sighed.

"I don't know what I'm doing," he said. Her brow furrowed in confusion.

"But you…we…I mean, we've had amazing sex before. What's going on?" she asked. "It's ok, really. Whatever it is, talk to me."

"I don't know your triggers. I don't want to do anything to put you back in that place, and when I was kissing you just now…" he shook his head.

"What? What happened?" she asked gently.

"You made a sound, and I wasn't sure if I was hurting you or not," he confessed.

"Ed, I'm the same woman I was a week ago or a month ago and every other time we've been together. You've never triggered me in the past," she explained.

"But I don't know what to avoid, and I'm having a hell of a time figuring it out," he said.

"You could touch me exactly the way Lewis did, and it wouldn't trigger me," she said. She was rather confident in her answer, too.

"How do you know?" he asked.

"Because you already have, and nothing happened. No flashbacks, no fear, no anxiety…nothing." He furrowed his brow in confusion. "Whatever sound I made that confused you wasn't pain or, or anything to be worried about." He was trying to understand what she was saying, but it just wasn't quite making sense.

"You told me when we first started sleeping together that you were a hedonist. You get off on your partner's pleasure." He nodded in acknowledgement. "Lewis was the exact opposite. He was a sadist. And…the most extreme one I've ever encountered. It was the pain and the torture that drove him."

"So…what are the rules here? Is there…what shouldn't I do? Do you even know what your triggers are?"

"Some of them, yes. But, you've never hit on any of them because you're not that kind of lover," she explained. "You don't pin my wrists down, you don't pull my hair, or use it to control my head, and I sincerely doubt you're going to put a gun to my head." she explained.

"That's it?" he asked. He wouldn't dream of doing any of the things she had just mentioned. It just seemed so easy.

"That's what I know about," she confessed. "And the rest, if there are any, I guess we'll just have to learn together, if you're willing."

"What do you mean, 'if I'm willing?' Do you honestly think I would end whatever this is because of that?" he asked.

"You'd be surprised." Her words hung heavy in the air. "….you meant what you said, right? At the beach house?" His head snapped up.

"That I love you? Of course I did." He took her face gently in his hands, but nothing that she couldn't resist easily, if she wanted to. "I don't ever want you to doubt that, Olivia. I love you so much." She leaned in to kiss him again, and this time, he returned it in the familiar, heated way she expected the first time.

"Are we ok?" she asked when he broke off the kiss.

"We are more than ok," he answered. "But…I, Christ, Liv. Talking about Lewis. I think I just want to hold you tonight."

"…you know what? That sort of killed the mood for me, too," she confessed curling up onto the couch to cuddle with him.

"But tomorrow…maybe you could put on that Super Bowl thing? Hm?" She laughed, remembering the undercover outfit he had practically ripped off her.

"Oh, I have something I think you'll like even more. I was out the other day, and I picked up something I thought was a scarf. Turns out, it's a top. A very, very small one…" she teased.

"Ohhh…I think I'm going to like that." He kissed her again. "I can't believe you thought I was cheating on you. How on earth did you come up with that?"

"Easy. You stopped undressing me with your eyes every time you saw me. I just assumed some other woman was occupying your imagination," she said.

"Absolutely not. Do you have any idea how beautiful you are? Or how much I love watching you in a state of pure ecstasy, knowing I'm responsible for it? There's no other woman in the world I want to be with."

"I know," she said, grinning.

"You didn't an hour ago."

"That's because you started undressing me with your eyes again."

And there it was. That gorgeous smile coupled with the sparkle in her brown eyes, filled with trust and love. He hadn't seen that look in a while, but she was back. His Olivia was home again.