A/N: Well, I've actually got a decent little plot drawn up, should be fun. Thanks for the reviews, got me into the mood to actually type this up rather than let is sit, scrawled out in my lecture books. This chapter actually has events and dialogue, who would have thought?

Chapter One

The day was bright and freezing, the two aspects working with each other to give everything in Manhattan a more jagged edge than usual. It was a quarter to eight and the bullpen at the precinct was about to bubble to life.

For the first time in what felt like years, there was little to do; Munch was convinced that it was the month of November that caused this. Too cold for anyone to be bothered to commit a crime and not a particularly religiously or otherwise important time for anyone, he claimed. The rest of the squad was scared to admit that he was probably right.

"Morning, Elliot," Olivia said, face spilt with a fresh smile, as she slipped out of her coat.

With no excuse to scowl, Elliot felt his facial muscles slip comfortably into a grin he'd forgotten was part of his repertoire. He tapped the steaming cup of coffee next to him, glad he'd had the foresight to grab one for her as well as himself.

"Thanks," she replied, perching on the corner of his desk and taking a tentative sip as she watched him over the rim of the cup. She'd been worried about her partner and she missed the free-flow conversations they'd used to have. The divorce had been hard on him and no matter how often he told he still got his kids most weekends, she knew he was terrified that he would eventually lose them. Not to Kathy, perhaps, but it was just difficult to keep a decent relationship when 'most weekends' was only a slim amount of hours when compared to the time they were spending with his ex-wife. And Olivia knew how much he hated having to go home to an empty house.

But he looked good today, better. Half a week of boring as all hell paperwork and only several minor sexual assaults, none of which they'd been needed on, and the world was looking peachy. God, that smile, the one that melted your insides like hot honey but still with a little bit of spice to it: Olivia hadn't seen it in a very long time and now it was right there in front of her. The break was doing them both a lot of good.

Taking several seconds too long to strike up a conversation, Elliot ended up answering the question she would have eventually asked, "Nothing's in yet. Looks like another day of paperwork."

She made a point of turning around to motion towards an empty in-box not aware of the glimpse of tanned hip that Elliot got the chance to take in. Turning back, she said, "Yeah, well amazingly, we've both got nothing."

"Good." The single word spoke on several levels and the pair indulged in a few moments of nothingness in the world of special victims and the bliss brought on by such a notion. They were pulled from their thoughts as Munch and Fin walked in, glancing around at the weirdly silent bullpen.

"Still nothing, huh?" Fin fell into a chair looking like he would like nothing better than to go back to sleep.

"Nope. Gonna have to wait to see what the captain wants us to do 'cause I think we're all out of paperwork."

As if in response, the man himself suddenly appeared in his office doorway and stepped forward to greet the squad and inform them that they were to spend the day catching up on cold cases and paperwork.

Olivia felt a pang of guilt as she sighed at the prospect of another day couped up inside the office. She should have been happy there was nothing to do; it meant that the sex crimes weren't happening. But she was a detective, not a desk jockey and her mind was slowly devolving into an autopilot state with all the boring work.

The captain took note of the bored responses from the team before returning to the office. He was expecting a rather important call.

Three hours later, they had exhausted all possibilities for real work and with the weight of the world lifted from their shoulders were engaged in a disorganised game of 'chuck the scrunched up paperwork as hard as you can'. This stopped abruptly when Huang entered quietly and tried to make his way to the captain's office undetected.

This didn't work very well and in truth he had no right to think he could slip past four of New York's finest detectives. Usually they wouldn't have been all that interested, but he didn't really show his face at the precinct unless they needed his help and they weren't even running a case, yet alone one that required his expertise. All four sets of eyes followed his form as he knocked and then went straight in, careful to close the door behind him.

A/N: Please tell me what you think, even if it is negative. It this is too implausible or out of character, inform me and I'll take any advice you feel I need. Thanks for the reviews so far, I love knowing that someone is enjoying my work.