Help Me Help You

Disclaimer: I don't own them.

Author: Purity85

Summary: Takes place a few months after "Weak" as if Elliot has basically frozen Olivia out of his personal life. He thinks he can't talk to her about his divorce because he blames her and because he wants to be with her as more than a friend or a partner if you get my drift. Things get more complicated when they have to go undercover. Thoughts are in italics.

Author's Note: I have been moving all week and have not had time to write. I wanted to thank all of you for your great reviews and give you this short next installment. I promise that I am already working on the next chapter and it will be longer and will be up soon.

Part Seven

"Chinese." Elliot mumbled deciding it was the safest of all the answers he could've given Olivia in response to her question.

She looked at him as if his behavior was very peculiar and she called the Chinese food place. She placed an order for the food she knew Elliot would enjoy because of how often the two of them ate together. She smiled at him as she hung up the phone and said, "I don't even know where to start." She shook her head and laughed uncomfortably.

He felt bad for the space he'd created between them so he looked at her with a soft expression. "We should finish our conversation from the other night before we try to tackle today, don't you think?"

She looked back up at him, "That last thing you said the other night has really been bothering me. About Kathy not having your heart?" She tried to jog his memory and get him to open up to her again. "What did you mean by that?"

"Oh that…" Elliot began nervously. He'd actually hoped she hadn't picked up on his slip up the last time they spoke like this. He cleared his throat and looked down at his hands trying to think of how to proceed. "I meant that over the past few years I've thrown my whole heart into my work and I just had enough left for my kids, not Kathy. I don't blame her for any of this. She was too jealous thinking that you had some sort of spell over me and we were involved."

"Didn't you tell her that we'd never even kissed?" Olivia asked exasperated and kind of disappointed that his said his whole heart was in his work, not realizing that he also meant it was with her.

"She knew it was deeper than that." He slipped. He watched her face for a reaction. The one he got was rather shocked. He shook his head, ready to backtrack his slip-up. "She was upset because I could talk to you about things that I could never discuss with her. She was shut out of an entire portion of my life, you're my best friend and in a lot of ways you and I are a lot closer than she and I ever were." He said honestly.

She couldn't help but feel a little shocked at the honesty of his statement. But somewhere deep down guilt plagued her at the space between Elliot and his wife that she had apparently occupied. "You're my best friend too El." She said staring into his sparkling blue eyes and needless to say her feelings for him in that moment were not limited to those of a friend.

He resisted the urge to kiss her in that moment; instead he decided that it was time to cut the personal talk, "So what did you find out about the case today?"

She sensed the need for the subject change and complied. "Not much yet, I think there are a few of the girls I can get to open up about it. What about you?"

"I think Steven was involved and I think he's stupid enough to slip up so it should be soon. I'll be glad when we are done with this because I hate seeing you dancing in front of all those men." Elliot said almost growling with jealousy.

She felt a little hurt that he didn't enjoy seeing her dance but she realized that he just didn't want other guys to see her. She smiled at his jealousy and looked at him as if she was mentally undressing him, "You seemed to enjoy my dancing for you earlier." She stated as the doorbell rang.

He just stared at her feeling himself blush again. He watched as she paid the guy in ones she gotten as tips and took the food. She set the food down on the coffee table in front of him and plopped back down on the couch. He cleared his throat, "Where did you learn to dance like that?"

"I don't know." She shrugged innocently. "I took a few dance classes when I was in school. You mostly just let the music move you."

"Well it did a good job of moving you." He said winking at her as he picked up a container and a pair of chopsticks.

Now it was her turn to blush as she grabbed her own food. "Thanks I know, the way I moved tonight paid for dinner."

"You didn't have to do that, I made some tips myself." He said pulling out his wallet and handed it to her.

She browsed through it and found a lot of tip money and five scraps of paper with women's names and phone numbers on them. She cocked an eyebrow and looked at him, "You seem to be a popular boy, why did you keep all of these?" Olivia asked skeptically.

"I thought maybe I'd take a few of them out and see what they know about the case." He explained.

She had to bite her lip in order to keep her jealousy in check and decided to be pro-active about the situation. "I was thinking I would try the same thing with some of the guys."

"No you won't." Elliot said unable to check his own jealousy.

"Excuse me?" Olivia chuckled slightly. "Since when do you tell me what to do?"

"I just don't want you getting hurt. Any of those guys could be our prep, you can't go anywhere near them." Elliot said letting his concern come through his voice.

She couldn't hear his concern all she heard was her partner telling her how to do her job. "Don't tell me how to work my case Stabler." She growled under her breath.

He frowned and look into her angry brown eyes with soft blue ones. He tucked a piece of her short hair behind her ear and let his hand linger there for a moment, "You should know how much I care about you and worry about you. I could never forgive myself if anything happened to you."

She leaned into his hand a little and caught herself. She scooted away from him on the couch and sighed knowing that they were partners and they needed to try to remain professional. "Fine!" She laughed rolling her eyes trying to keep things light picking up one of the beers. "I'll stay away from the guys; you stay away from the girls. Now just drink your beer and let's watch some TV." She shoved the beer into his hand and started flipping through the channels on the TV.

He smiled appreciating her nonchalant attitude on the professional side and despising it on the personal side. He took a swing of the beer and stared at her from the corner of his eye.

"Oh X-files!" Olivia exclaimed in an uncharacteristically giddy tone.

Elliot couldn't help but laugh out loud at his partner's outburst. "You know some people would try to save their pride by just settling on this channel without the joyful outburst." He explained to her taking another drink of his beer.

She laughed back at him taking a swig of her own beer. "I don't need to impress you, I've done enough of that today." She said scooting a little closer to her as she became more and more comfortable with the situation.

He smiled and nodded, "That's very true. You know that you're a great kisser, right?" He said pretending to only be half serious as he scooted closer to her.

She blushed, "Hey I had to stop you from blowing our cover." She said turning to face him and poke him in the chest as she defended her actions.

He caught her hand with his and held it softly at his chest for a moment, "Was that the only reason you did it?" He asked point blank, he was tired of the games.

Her eyes got wide and she had no clue how to proceed. She pulled her hand away and grabbed her beer finishing it. She turned to look at him again, "Do you want there to be another reason?"

"Do you?" He prodded, proving that obviously he wasn't as tired of dancing around the subject as he thought.

She rolled her eyes, "We are not twelve year-olds Elliot. If you have something you want to say to me say it." She lashed out at him.

He reached up and cupped the back of her head pulling her to him in a passionate kiss. She was caught off guard, but she returned the kiss and pulled herself closer to the point where she was practically in his lap for the second time that night. Then just as she had done to him earlier that night, he quickly broke their kiss. "Does that answer your question?"

She ran her hand through her hair trying to collect herself, "What does that mean Elliot?" She looked at him with hope emanating from her chocolate brown eyes.

He returned the same hopeful look to his partner, "It means that I've wanted to do that since Kathy left me, actually a long while before that but when she left it was finally possible. You're my best friend, you're the most gorgeous woman I've ever seen, and I want to be with you. Is that a sufficient explanation?"

She was completely in shock by what he was saying and the step he was taking in both of their lives by admitting his feelings for her and how unfair he was being to throw all of this on her in the middle of such an important case. She shook her head and looked into his shimmering blue eyes shocked by the pure truth that was coming through them and as much as she hated to crush it she knew she had to. "We can't do this Elliot."

TO Be Continued.