(A/n: Hey to all you wicked people out there who keep reviewing! You rock. But I do have a question for you. See, I don't think it says this in my profile, but I do live in Canada. I'm just wondering if any of my readers live in my part of the world or am I all alone? Just drop me an answer in an review. I just feel kind of alone, surrounded by all of these American writers.)
I wake up in the morning, curled up into a warm body. I'm tempted to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. I'm so used to waking up alone that this feels like a dream.
He's got one arm draped over my waist, casually, his free hand resting against my upper arm. But he's got one leg draped over mine, possessively, trapping me and preventing me from moving.
I'm just beginning to doze off again, when he pulls me against his chest. "Hey." He kisses the top of my head.
I sigh, quietly and stifle a yawn. "Hey." I know this is all going to end when that clock on my night table goes off. We'll have to get up.
"You wanna call in sick? Hmm?" He kisses my ear. "It's not gonna hurt anything. Turn the phones off and stay here."
He's tempting me. And he knows it. Bastard. I turn over to face him and grin.
He kisses me on the nose. "Well?"
"Do you think we can get away with it?" I question, softly, looking at him.
"When's the last time you took a sick day?" Elliot questions, softly.
"God." I yawn, again. "I don't even remember."
"Exactly. Neither do I." He grins and reaches for the phone on my bedside table. I roll over and turn off my alarm, before it can go off.
"Liv?" He runs his fingers through my hair, lazily.
"Huh?" If he keeps that up, I'm going to be asleep.
"Why didn't you tell me you felt that way? Hmm?"
I open both eyes and look him in the face. "I couldn't. You were married. I didn't want to be the other woman. The one taking you away from those kids. And then, when you and Kathy spilt up, I wanted to give you some space. Time to work things out for yourself. I didn't want to be the rebound girl."
He touches my cheek. "You know you wouldn't have been."
"I didn't know that. I've been a guy's rebound girl before. And it hurts. He used me to get back on his feet, to help him through it. I gave him a shoulder to cry on, when he couldn't handle it. But the second he was back on his feet, he was gone. It wasn't going to happen again."
"Point taken." He sighs.
"So what about you? You could have told me." I protest.
He grins at me. "I was afraid to tell you. I didn't wanna blow it all to hell. And I didn't know how you'd take it."
I shrug. "I guess I was worried about what might happen at work, too. Let's just say I did something kinda stupid once and I didn't want it to happen again."
"What did you do?" He asks me, seeing the look on my face.
"Munch didn't tell you?" I raise an eyebrow.
"Liv . . . " I can see the wheels turning in his head, as he goes over the possibilities. "You're starting to scare me. Just spit it out."
So he doesn't know. I always thought he did. I thought Munch or someone had told him years ago, but he never bothered to bring it up. I shake my head. My stupidity that night still embarrasses me. "I slept with Brian."
"Cassidy? You're kidding me." Elliot looks at me, startled. "You're serious."
"Yeah. We were both drunk and it happened. It was just a one-time thing. But it was one of the stupidest things I've ever done. It was a mistake I made when I was drunk off my ass, to me, but he was looking for something serious."
"Cragen knows?" He raises an eyebrow.
"Yeah. He picked up the gossip and called me in. I couldn't lie about it. He gave me a lecture on professionalism and told me not to let it happen again. I didn't know what he'd do, if I started something with you."
"But you did." He points out, quietly.
"I know. I got myself in over my head again." I sigh. "But you know, if we've both been feeling this way for hell knows how long, Cragen's probably noticed each of us trying to hide it."
"You're right." He grins and kisses me, softly. "I don't know about you, but I'm starving."
I raise an eyebrow. "Want me to cook?"
"Oh, no. I've tasted what you call 'cooking', Liv." He protests, laughing.
I roll my eyes at him and sigh. "Fine. You see what you can find. It's not my fault my cooking's so bad."
"Isn't it?" He looks at me.
I shake my head. "I never have the time to cook, so I've forgotten everything I was taught."
Elliot glances at me. "Who taught you in the first place?"
"I learned some stuff at school and then there was this old lady, Mrs. Levin, who lived down the hall when I was a kid. She taught me the rest. When I went over, she was always feeding me. I was one of those tall, skinny teenagers who constantly fell on my ass, so she didn't think I ate enough."
"Were you clumsy?" He questions.
"Yeah. I couldn't go one day without walking into something or tripping over my own feet or something like that. It was like I didn't have control of my own body."
He grins. "Maureen was that way. It was almost like she was growing too fast and she couldn't keep up with her body."
I shake my head. "Yeah. I think I was the kid who discovered that you can fall up the stairs. And it hurts."
Elliot shakes his head. "You can tell me about that later. Right now, let's get something to eat."
(A/n: Another short one. I'm not going to apologize again. And I kind of took liberty with the fact that Elliot doesn't know about the whole Olivia/Brian thing. I wasn't sure if he does or not, so I decided to write it that he doesn't.)