The characters aren't mine.
Sorry that it's taking me so long to get this written. I really have no excuse other than I'm trying to write too many stories in too many fandoms at once and my muse is very picky about what I write!
Glad that you all are enjoying the story.
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She was still outside. I could see her headlights through the curtains, illuminating the neighbourhood. Chances were good that her heart was pounding just as hard as mine, and that her hands were trembling just as much as mine. Given our current condition, perhaps her not driving was the best choice.
Though being privy to her accident report would be interesting. I failed to yield on account of my hands were shaking and my heart was palpitating because my partner had kissed me.
"Gone out for a quickie?" Kathleen's voice startled me from my musings. She was looking at me, as though trying to zap me into nothing with the sheer force of her glare.
"I went out for a run." I informed her and then realized that her assumption wasn't based upon nothing. I was sweating and trembling and had I mirror, I'm sure that I would have seen a red flush on my face.
"Right." she said. "A run in the middle of the night after Olivia's been by."
I wiped my forehead with the sleeve of my jacket and then unzipped it, hanging it up in the closet where it had been before. "What do you want to say, Kathleen?"
"The truth." she stated. I looked at her, standing before me, clad in her pyjamas. I could almost believe that she was my little girl again.
The truth. Alright, I could do that. "I went out for a run, after you chased Olivia out."
Kathleen rolled her eyes in the way that only teenaged girls could. I figured that it was probably a required course in school. Eye Rolling: 101. Learn how to use it effectively. "For starters, Dad, I did not chase her out. And if that's all you did, then how come there's a car sitting outside?"
I glanced through the curtains again, she was still there. "Probably someone lost. Go back to bed Kathleen, you have to be up for school in a few hours."
She made a noise of pure disgust. "Since when do you care about what I do? I'm surprised that you even know I go to school."
My head was starting to hurt and I was beginning to wonder if Olivia was okay. Having a full blown argument with Kathleen was not high on my list of things that I wanted to do right at that moment. "This conversation is over." I said firmly, looking right at her.
Kathleen attempted to stare me down, but she eventually tired of it and turned on her heels. She slammed her door with such force that a breeze blew through the house. I pulled back the curtains a bit and peered outside. Olivia was sitting in her car - thankfully, not slumped over the steering wheel - with her headlights shining brightly into one of the neighbour's houses. I was sure that they were appreciating the light show.
I still had my shoes on, so I quietly opened the door and hurried over to her car. No doubt Kathleen was watching me from her window, but seeing as she already had the wrong impression (or was it really so wrong?), it couldn't do any harm.
I knocked on the window, motioning for Olivia to roll it down. She complied and stared at me. Her eyes prompted me to speak. "Having trouble remembering which pedal in the gas?" Great. I just had to go out there and make bad jokes.
Olivia shook her head. "No, I uh..."
"Just couldn't leave, huh?"
A small smile graced her lips. "Something like that."
"Well, if you're going to stay here, you might as well shut off your engine and headlights." I told her.
She nodded and twisted the ignition off. The light disappeared and I could almost hear the neighbours breathing a sigh of relief. Then, to my surprise, she opened the door and got out. "Guess that I'm still trying to figure out what exactly happened between us." she murmured.
I gestured toward the stairs leading up to my house. She nodded, and we sat down. "Kathleen's probably watching us." I said quietly. "She was waiting for me when I ran into the house."
"Let her watch." Olivia said with a shrug. She propped an elbow up on her leg and resting a cheek on her hand, she turned to look at me. "She can write a book when she gets older. How my father killed my mother and then had a torrid affair with his partner. It's got best seller written all over it."
I chuckled, out of relief that Olivia was handling this so well, more than because of what she had said. I could find little humour in the statement that I had killed Kathy. It wasn't me that pulled the trigger...
"Elliot," Olivia said softly. "Do you really think that anything between us could work?"
"Truthfully? I'm not sure, Liv."
She let her arm fall to her side where she began to trace paths on the porch. "That's what I'm afraid of." she said, looking down at her paths rather than at me.
Off in the distance, a dog began barking. The noise rang through the quiet streets. "Besides, I don't think that now is the best time to make any life altering decisions." I said and then taking what I figured to be a great risk, I put my arm around her and tried to pull her closer to me.
Olivia stiffened under my touch, but soon relaxed her body against mine. "When is a good time?" she asked. "There never seems to be a good time. Our jobs, the stress..."
She had a point. Now, in the quiet darkness, we were ourselves. We weren't Detectives Benson and Stabler; we were Olivia and Elliot. No death, no assaults, no victims, no criminals. Maybe now was the best time.
Her fingers found their way to my face and she began to do what I had done to her earlier. She traced the lines of my face, the light brush of her fingers tickling ever so slightly. And she took me completely by surprise as she replaced her fingers with her lips.
She was Olivia. I was Elliot. And we had a decision to make.