AUTHOR'S NOTES: so this was written partly on my flight during vacation and my brain didn't concentrate enough to finish it, so here i am writing on my flight home now. again, no beta reader, all mistakes are my own! i apologise for the wait as i've been on vacation for a bit now.

\O.o/

Elliot and Delaney had gotten in a fight. Calling it a fight was an understatement if he was honest with himself. By the end of it he had holed himself up in his office. Every time that they had an argument he asked himself why he was still with her. He wasn't sure if he could call it love because he wasn't sure he had felt that in a while.

If he was completely honest it was because he thought that Kathleen needed a mother. A mother that was going to be there for her. Her mother, Kathy, was a free spirit that didn't listen to take orders from anyone. She did what she wanted when she wanted, how she wanted and there was no wiggle room.

She had always been the fun parent that would never no consequences of any sort. It always fell on Elliot to do and be the bad guy. She just couldn't make herself the bad guy. There was a knock at the door breaking him from his thoughts as he groaned to himself, steeling himself for when Delaney entered the room again.

He was pleasantly surprised when his mother came through the door. A smile on her face as she closed the door behind her.

"Mama. How was your play?" he asked as he was glad that she hadn't been home for when Delaney blew up on him. She didn't like the fighting and if he could spare his mother he would. She stood there for a moment, not answering as he could tell that she had her thinking face on. "What are you thinking about?" he questioned as he closed the laptop lid that sat in front of him.

He had thought that he might try to do some writing, but his mind wasn't in it. He kept thinking about the fight that he and Delaney had. The silence between son and mother was starting to stretch longer than it should have and he was about to say something when she other finally broke the silence.

"Why are you with Delaney?" she asked as the question startled Elliot. He wasn't sure why she was asking it.

"Uh–" he shuddered and he wasn't sure if she was testing him somehow. Somehow there was a right or wrong answer. Bernie closed the distance between the two of them, as she sat down in the chair that was across from his desk. Her eyes searched his as if the two of them communicated through just their eyes. It was clear that the pain that he was in, but didn't know how to respond.

"Kathleen texted me that you and Delaney were fighting again," she admitted as she finally broke the eye contact. "So I again ask why you are with her? She obviously doesn't make you happy," Bernie gave him a small smile. She had always wanted nothing but the best for him, but he had set himself down this path that he seemed to be hellbent on continuing down.

"Kathleen needs a mother. Someone that she can rely on and Delaney has been that," he nearly whispered. As it became apparent to his mother that he was sacrificing his happiness for what he thought was a good decision for Kathleen. This man loved his daughter more than anything in this world and Bernie always loved that about her son.

The moment that Kathleen was born, his entire life turned upside down and he did everything that he could for that little girl.

"You can't sacrifice your happiness for her," Bernie spoke in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Of course, I can, I would do anything for her," he whispered as his hands cupped his face as he looked down at his desk. His eyes don't focus on really anything in particular as he just can't bare to meet his mother's eyes right now.

His mother continues to sit across from him, as Bernie finally reaches her hand across the desk, gently placing it on his face. Elliot drops his hands from his hand, as her hand cups his cheek.

"Parents will always do whatever possible for their children, but you can't give up on your happiness and expect Kathleen to be okay with it," his mother gave words of wisdom as she gently stroked his face. Elliot brought his digits to cover her hand as he gave her a small smile.

"So when are you supposed to have your auction date?" she teased, as he groaned leaning back away from her hands and leaning back in his chair.

"I still cannot believe that you signed me up for that," he chuckled as he looked at his mother. He had always been proud to be Bernie's son, as he always had a wonderful childhood. Chaotic at times, but it was overall a good one. "I think we are going to be meeting tonight actually," he spoke as he picked up his phone, checking his notifications. He had actually messaged her earlier in the day to confirm that they were still meeting tonight, but he hadn't heard back yet.

He knew that he should dwell on it that much, but there was just something about her that drew him in and he wanted to get to know her better. There was some sort of force like he was a planet and she was the sun and he just gravitated towards her. His mother nodded her head as if she wanted to say something but didn't. A comfortable silence stretched between the both of them.

"Well, darling, I will let you get back to your writing," she got up from the chair quietly leaving the office. Elliot knew that he wasn't going to get any writing done, but it was nice to mull over what they had just spoken about. Was he willing to throw away his happiness for Kathleen? Was she even happy with who he had chosen? These types of questions milled in his mind as he stared at his closed laptop.

\O.o/

Olivia had gotten the text from Elliot earlier in the morning and hadn't responded yet because she still had a few things that she wanted to get done before fully committing to this date. The sun was shining brightly down, as Olivia climbed out of her rental car. She had been told to meet a contact at a location, that really seemed to be the middle of nowhere, and her boot crunched under the gravel as she exited the car. The heat immediately assaulted her face, as her sunglasses only did so much to protect her eyes.

The building looked to be abandoned if she was completely honest, but again, that was probably a good thing. Olivia's boot crunched with each step against the gravel, as she made her way towards the door. Before she was even able to knock, a loud click, as if a lock was disengaging sounded and the door swung open.

Without so much as a second thought, Liv walked through the door as all she saw was a hatch that looked to go underground. For a moment, Olivia bit her bottom lip, thinking about if she was really going to climb down this hatch. After engaging in a small war with herself, she decided she was going to.

She turned the giant wheel, unlocking it, as she grunted, lifting the lid. It was heavier than she thought it would be. Glancing down the hole it was pitch black, as she reached into her pocket fishing out her cellphone. Quickly turning on the flashlight she looked down the hole again, seeing that it was quite a climb.

Bracing herself for the climb down, she started her journey. Holding onto her phone with one hand, and slowly made her way down. She was starting to think that maybe this might not have been worth all this effort. Finally, she reached the bottom, leaping down from the last few rungs. Her boots landed on the ground with a thud. She looks around at her surrounding as she notes that there is only one door with a faint light by it. Not offering much light, she pocketed her electronic device, closing the distance between them.

Once again, as if they knew where she was, which wouldn't have surprised her at all. Just because she didn't see the cameras didn't mean there weren't some somewhere down here. The door swung open, however this time, there were things and a person on the other side.

"Glad you could make it, Liv," a twenty something year old spoke to her as she stopped in her tracks. They were nothing like she had imagined she had imagined them to probably be an older hermit-like gentleman.

"Since when do you give me nicknames?" she questioned as the young woman just nodded her head. "You were not what I was expecting at all," she admitted as she closed the distance between them. As her eyes glanced around the room. Taking note that the only exit that she could see was the one that she had come in from. Oliva's eyes caught sight of some art as she continued to look it hearing Jet typing in the background giving a non-answer of a shrug.

"We have nothing but thoughts and memory between us," she explained as Olivia just gave a grunt as a response. "I am almost just finishing up doing some of those searches that you wanted me to do. Do I want to know why you are asking?" she quirked a brow at her. Normally, Jet wasn't the type to even question anything, but usually, if it involved looking up police officers she was a little hesitant. Olivia wasn't sure about how much she wanted to share with the hacker, her trust issues rearing their head.

After a few moments of a debate, Liv decided she would share a bit as she had worked with Jet a couple of times in the past.

"It is just a small job and I wanted to check out some of the players in the game," she spoke as if that could have answered anything that would have been asked.

"I could see why with some of what I have found," Jet quipped back, which caused Olivia to perk her ears at the remark. She felt her gut drop a bit as she was worried that she had been wrong about Elliot. "The guy you had me look up, I didn't have to look up too much, because I have heard of him before," she started to speak as her fingers danced across the keyboard. "I actually read a few of his books. I guess you could call me a fan," she admitted which caused Liv to chuckle a bit.

"So what did you find? And I mean really find?" she questioned as she leaned over Jet looking at the screen she had up.

"The usual. He was arrested once for stealing a police horse, but the charges were dropped. He had been married twice and divorced twice. He has one daughter, Kathleen Stabler. She seems to be a super smart kid, as she is on the honour roll each semester at her private school. Basically, he seems to be a pretty average person. No hidden skeletons that I can find. Not so much as a bad word really said about him," she finished, pulling up a few things on the screen. His smiling face smiled back at the two of them.

"Mmhm," she hummed as she started to process everything that was being said. With what Captain Beckett had told her and the information that Jet was telling her, she knew that someone was attempting to play her and she didn't have enough of the puzzle pieces yet to know who it was.

"The fiance though, I found some stuff on her," Liv quirked an eyebrow as she was sure that she was about to hear the same things that Kate had told her.

"Yeah like what?" she questioned as she leaned over Jet a bit more, as the young woman, shifted her eyes to stare at the women invading her space.

"I can tell you with about three more feet of distance between us," she quipped, as Liv took the hint and took a side step to the left.

"She had an ex-girlfriend that apparently had called the cops on a few occasions for domestic violence, however, she would never want to press charges when the time came," Jet muttered as her eyes scanned over the documents. "It seemed that it went on for a while and nothing ever happened because she was with the NYPD. Eventually, it looks like they broke up and then she started to date the author," the younger woman finished speaking but continued to scroll through the documents she had.

A good length of silence filled the room as neither of them spoke, Jet finally being the one to break the silence because it was becoming too awkward.

"Why are we looking them up and I want the truth," she tried to sound as serious as she could. Though, Jet was pretty sure why she was asking. Or at least in the realm of the possibility of that, she was hired for a job.

So that the older woman would take her seriously. For a moment Olivia stood there, looking at the younger woman debating if she should tell her. Olivia had worked with Jet several times in the past for the last couple of years. However, if anything her job has taught her that she shouldn't trust people, but there was something in Jet that made her want to trust her. Almost feeling like a daughter.

"I'm supposed to kill him and I don't know how I feel about it," she admitted as she decided that she could trust her. Jet let out a sigh as it was clear that she didn't know just yet how to respond to the admittance.

"Why are you conflicted?" the question hung between the two of them. Liv moved from the spot she was in as she started to pace the small room. The brunette brought her hand to her mouth, as she nibbled on her thumbnail.

"I had gotten a file that he was a terrible man. That he was beating his fiance and he was," she paused as she hated saying this, especially since it was starting to sound not true. "That he was molesting his daughter. So of course, I wanted to accept the job," as Jet seemed to just be listening to what was being said. She didn't say anything as Olivia mentioned the accusation that was against the man.

Olivia continued to pace the room, she ran her fingers through her hair as she continued to think about all the different things that she had found out since she had taken this job.

"So I'm supposed to go on a date with him tomorrow and kill him," she stopped pacing as she turned to look at Jet. This was the first time that she had ever felt conflicted about what she did for a living. It made her wonder if she had ever killed someone that didn't deserve it. She had always had rules about the kind of jobs she took. They had to deserve to die. She had a code that she followed because without it she would be a monster.

"I say that you go on the date and we find out who is trying to frame him," Jet remarked as she rested her arm on the computer desk. Liv was surprised by what she was saying as they didn't really work together like that. However, she thought on it for a moment before nodding her head that she was agreeing to work with her.

That meant that she was somehow supposed to get this date to last more than a day so that she could stay close and they could figure out what was going on. Olivia pulled out her phone as she finally was replying to his text message agreeing to the arranged time for him to pick her up.

"What if we are wrong and he is a bad person?" she questioned Jet. Her eyes stared into hers, refusing to break contact.

"We kill him," she simply stated.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: i am so sorry that you all have waited this long. i went on vacation and am just getting back. and there is a new svu on tonight! so exciting! hopefully i'll have the next chapter up quickly.