Elliot took his daughter home that night, but had to go back to work.
"Thanks for helping Kathleen out, and fixing things at her school" Elliot said when Olivia and him were alone in the squad room.
Olivia smiled, but it soon went away, "I've been thinking about something, something I wanted to ask you about"
He nodded, "shoot."
"You said something about Kathy to me, about how she didn't call- and I didn't understand why you thought she didn't call on purpose… I talked to Kathleen for a little bit…" Olivia really wanted to talk to Elliot about what was going on, help him figure things out, but her cell phone always went off at the wrong time.
She answered it stubbornly, "Benson… oh, Kathleen… don't cry…" Olivia tried to comfort Kathleen as Elliot sat up, "…No, your dad isn't around…" Olivia spoke as she stood up to leave, when Elliot grabbed her arm.
"What's going on!" he had a right to demand. Olivia covered the phone so Kathleen couldn't hear what she was saying to him.
"Don't worry, it's just a girl thing" She told him as she smiled and put her hand lightly on his cheek like she had before. He stared into her eyes as she peered in to his. She rubbed her thumb lightly on his cheek, not realizing, and he closed his eyes. It was relaxing. Her thumb slowly moved closer to his lips until she realized what she was doing. Not that what she was doing was bad, but as he opened his eyes she felt a pull. Like he was pulling her closer with just his eyes, and she turned away quickly.
"Don't worry about Kathleen, I'll help her out" she told him before closing the door to a room she could talk privately in. Kathleen talked to Olivia for awhile, and since it was late already, the two detectives were alone at the precinct again.
"Is everything ok!" Elliot stood as Olivia came back into the room.
She sat down at her desk and nodded, "…she had a few things on her mind, I think we're getting closer, and that's typical for a girl to depend on a mature woman" Olivia smiled.
"Woman? yes. Mature?..." Elliot questioned.
Olivia's moth dropped open "Hey!" she leaned on her desk to look at him, sitting across from her.
Elliot leaned on his desk too, "Well from what I saw today, I wouldn't call it being 'mature'."
Olivia leaned back in her chair again, "That wasn't being immature, that was having fun" she corrected him.
"Something I don't see you getting enough of" Elliot raised his eyebrows.
"Hey that can go both ways. When's the last time you've taken a vacation?" Olivia folded her fingers together and tilted her head.
"Well I have a perfect explanation" He told her.
"Uh huh" she muttered, "and that would be?" she waited his answer.
"I don't need a vacation" he told her leaning on his desk again.
Olivia lifted her head understanding, "So, you're so full of yourself that now you don't want a vacation, you don't even need a vacation. Is that right?" she smiled.
Elliot leaned in closer, "exactly" he smirked.
"Well Elliot Stabler, we just found three new things in common between us" She smiled holding her hand out to shake his.
"And what are these three common things?" He asked placing his hand onto hers.
"We don't need vacations…" she started and he nodded.
"We're both full of ourselves, and we're both utterly immature" she smiled.
"Well, not only do we need to shake on this, we need to drink to this" he let go of her and went to Cragen's office. Olivia got up and followed him to the room, he shut the door behind her.
"What are you doing!" Olivia whispered. Elliot snuck around behind Cragen's desk and pulled out a bottle of liquor and two shot glasses.
"Elliot!" Olivia got wide-eyed.
"Shhh" He sat next to her and poured the liquor into the shot glasses on the desk. He held up his small glass, and she held up hers.
"Cheers to our new common interests" he smiled as they clinked their glasses against each others.
"Cheers to Kathleen" Olivia said.
Elliot smiled "Good one". He held his glass back up again, "Cheers to Cragen's secret stash of alcohol."
"I got one more…" She spoke seriously, "Cheers to us". Elliot nodded after a pause, then pushed his glass against hers and they both threw down the rest of what was in their glasses.
A few hours later
Olivia and Elliot sat in the chairs in Cragen's office still. They had practically finished the whole bottle of liquor, and both held on to their almost empty glasses.
"so… he asked me to the dance. I was so happy. So we get there right, and his ex-girlfriend comes up to us and they 'rekindle'. He leaves me right. Well one of my friends had a cousin and he needed a date. He was handsome. But he tried to have sex with me, and I ended up pepper-spraying him. So I'm at the party, alone, and this other guy comes up to me and asks me to dance. So we're dancing, having a good time, and before I know it we're going out to his car… and that's how I lost my virginity…" Olivia looked down at her glass a little saddened.
"Can I ask you a personal question?" Elliot spoke quietly. Olivia looked up at him with a smile, "sure".
"When you lost your… when you had sex for the first time… was it how you thought it be?"
Olivia took in a deep breath, "not one bit. I had always imagined it to be something special, something that would make me feel a certain way… it was just sex though."
Elliot nodded, "I thought I was the only one who felt that way." She looked up at him, tilting her head, he knew that was a sign of compassion and concern.
He took in a deep breath, "You know, when you're a guy there's standards. I belonged to a group of guys who were tough, and were partiers… I couldn't say I didn't like it. Because I did like it, I enjoyed it, but it wasn't what I had hoped it would be" He looked down at his glass this time. Olivia nodded understanding.
"I've gone out with a lot of men, slept with some… it's never what I hope it to be. So I imagine it being awful, just to make it seem better…maybe we want too much from something that isn't real." Olivia suggested.
Elliot looked up at her. Then looked away with a smile.
"What!" Olivia smiled at him.
"This is going to sound stupid…" Elliot began, "But… do you believe in… in…" he stopped talking. He leaned forward closer to her. She didn't know what to think. It looked as though he was going to kiss… but he moved his lips to her ear. "Love" he said quietly, almost trying to ignore that he said it. He pulled away a little to look her in the eyes. She could tell that he could see into her, that he could see into her mind, and that he knew what she was going to say.
She licked her lips thinking, "I think after so long of not loving, people can no longer love" she told him as she turned her head away. Elliot nodded as he leaned back in his chair.
"Do you?" she wondered looking at him again. He threw down the last of his drink, "no."
The next morning
Cragen got to the office a little late the next morning. Munch watched him as he came in, obviously tired. He leaned back in his chair, "You ok?"
"Don't mess with me today" Cragen muttered.
Munch put his hands in the air, "Oh-kay."
Cragen looked around, "Where's Olivia and Elliot?"
"Haven't seen them" Munch turned to Fin, and he nodded, not seeing them either.
"Would one of you please find where they are" He asked as he went to his office. He opened the door, not noticing the guests slumbering in his chairs. It wasn't until he sat down and looked up to see Olivia and Elliot snoozing. It startled him at first but then he let out a little laugh.
"Hey! Tweedledum, Tweedledee- wake up!" He said loudly.
Elliot opened his eyes a little, "hey Liv"
"Huh" Olivia turned away from him. He sat up putting his head in his hands, Cragen got some files out to work on as the two woke up.
"Liv" Elliot repeated.
"Just five more minutes honey" Olivia waved her hand at him. He smiled a little, still dead tired.
"Hey" He put his hand on her knee. She snapped out of her sleep and looked at him. She realized where she was and sat up gripping her head like he had.
"I can see you liked my liquor" Cragen said as the two tried to straighten out their clothes.
"Sorry about that" Olivia said as she stood up. "Yeah sorry" Elliot felt bad.
"Hey, it's not like I was going to drink it" Cragen smiled. "I think you two need a little sleep. And I don't mean in the bunk room or in my office, why don't you both go home"
"I'm perfectly fine" Olivia told him and Elliot nodded.
"You two need to learn when enough is enough." Cragen warned them as his phone rang.
Elliot and Olivia started to leave, to give him some privacy, when Cragen called to Elliot. "Yeah?" Elliot turned back around to face Cragen.
"It's your wife" Cragen handed him the phone. After Elliot paused, looking at Olivia, he took the phone. She left and went out to the squad room.
A few minutes later Elliot came out, "top of the morning to ya" Munch smiled. Elliot rolled his eyes, as he grabbed his coat.
"Where you going?" Olivia asked.
"I got to take Kathleen to school" He told her.
Olivia nodded, "want me to?"
"No I got this one" he said turning back around to leave, when he stopped again, "thanks though" he finished before he left the building.
Elliot's House
"Mom said you didn't want to go with her" Elliot arrived at his home, which he hadn't been at in a couple days. Kathleen shrugged her shoulders.
"Why is that?" Elliot questioned sternly. "Tell me."
"You don't get it dad… Olivia gets it… you don't and mom doesn't" Kathleen turned away from him.
"I'm really trying to understand Kathleen, but it's hard to try and understand when I don't know what's wrong" Elliot spoke quieter.
Kathleen didn't speak for a minute, "if I could pick any dad in the world, it wouldn't be you" Kathleen snarled as she headed for the front door, to go to his car. She stopped and turned back to him again, "and it wasn't that I didn't want to go with mom, she forget me…again" Kathleen shook her head and went out to his car.
It was like re-living the days before, he went out to his car and could tell she had been crying again. While he took her to school he spoke up, "you want to call Olivia?"
Kathleen turned to him and then looked away, "We can't use cell phones at school"
Elliot nodded, "Well you could call her now, I promise not to listen, I'll turn on the radio…" He just wanted his daughter to feel better.
"If it's ok with you dad, I want to ask Olivia if I can spend the night at her apartment" Kathleen told him more then asking.
"Well… lately me and Olivia have been working late, as you know, but Cragen does want us to get some rest. Here" He said giving her his cell. Kathleen called Olivia and immediately showed a better side to her. She smiled and laughed and Elliot tried his best not to listen. After she hung up and gave the phone back to her dad she seemed in a bit of a better mood.
"I'm sorry Dad" Kathleen spoke up as he pulled up to the school.
Elliot turned to her with a smile, "Don't be sorry. I have to admit I don't know what's going on with you right now, but know that I'm here for you no matter what, ok?" She nodded and he kissed her on the forehead, "Now go dot some t's and cross some i's" he smiled and she smiled back.
TBC
