I Love You With All My Heart!

Maybe I should just go into Narcotics or Homicide. At least I can't hurt Olivia if I'm not in the same squad with her. Elliot seriously contemplated transferring as he saw Olivia's gorgeous face tracked with tears, tears that he had been responsible for. She was already going through so much, trying to get back to normal after her attack, that she didn't need him adding to that.

Reaching out to grab the coffeepot from the little station set up next to the staircase, he realized he'd just lost any taste for the stuff. Dropping his hand, he was too preoccupied to notice the figure silently creeping up behind him.

Elliot was caught completely off guard as he felt his arm grabbed and jerked backwards. Unable to react in time, he recognized the feel of a handcuff slipping onto his right wrist. His unknown assailant took Elliot's other hand and wrenched it back until he had space enough to slap the other cuff on. The detective instinctively tugged against the restraints, only to be met with a wooden 'thunk'. His stomach dropped to the floor as he realized that he'd been handcuffed to one of the banisters along the staircase.

"What the hell's going on!" He demanded in fear, thrashing against the metal bindings and ignoring as they dug into his skin. "Who are you!"

"Hey, relax." Elliot felt a familiar pair of hands rest themselves on his wrists as an even more familiar voice floated to his ear.

"Olivia?" He craned his neck over his left shoulder to find his partner standing behind him, a handcuff key poking out of her closed fist. "What the-?" He watched on in wide-eyed bewilderment as she searched through his belt until she'd recovered his key as well. "What are you doing?" His anxiety and anger was completely overshadowed by his bafflement at the moment.

Olivia watched him with an empty stare, causing the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. After walking around the incapacitated Elliot, she faced him and finally spoke. "In the entire time I've been your partner, I always tried to hide things about my personal life from you. And every single time, you would either grill me, hound me, or stalk me to get me to talk, and I always ended up eventually telling you." She accusingly pointed her finger at his chest. "Stabler, I've shared practically every bit of my personal like with you. And through all that, you never tell me anything about yours. I mean, you didn't even tell me about you and Kathy separating. I had to hear about it from a victim's lawyer instead of from you. Frankly," she crossed her arms, "I'm sick and tired of it. I've known you long enough to know that something is bothering you. Don't even deny it, because you're the one that gave me that huge speech about us knowing each other better than we know ourselves. And yet, you refuse to talk to me. So, here's the deal. I'm not uncuffing you until you talk to me and tell me what's wrong." Her eyes darted back and forth across his face, searching for some small piece of information to hold onto.

Elliot just gazed straight ahead with a dumbfounded stare as he grasped everything Olivia was saying. Everything she said was absolutely and completely true. He did know everything about her life while he rarely, if ever, shared any of his with her. But just because she was right didn't mean he would simply comply. Maybe his separation with Kathy was one thing, but he couldn't tell her how he'd fallen head over heels for her. And it wouldn't escape his lips if he had any fight left in him.

"Taking the fifth?" She studied him as she slipped her hands into the pockets of her black slacks.

Elliot took a deep breath and locked eyes with his partner. This was going to have to be convincing as hell if he expected to get a lie past Olivia. "First of all," he began quietly, "nothing's wrong and I'm not hiding anything from you. Second, I can't believe you handcuffed me to the staircase! Unlock these now!" He rather foolishly demanded, tugging his arms forward.

"Suit yourself," she shrugged unscathed, heading across the room to her desk. "Though it's your wrists you're rubbing raw." As she fell into her swivel chair, the rather disquieting truth hitting him. Olivia was being serious.

"Olivia! I can't believe you're serious!"

She merely shrugged again and took a sip of coffee from the mug on her desk. "I didn't feel like stalking you, so I figured this was the next most effective thing."

"I wasn't stalking you!" He insisted again. "I was just trying to figure out what was wrong."

Olivia hesitated before answering in a low whisper. "Join the club."

Elliot simply shook his head in amazement as he assessed his situation. It took him seconds to see the hopelessness. The only option to get the cuffs off was with the key, both of which Olivia had, and there was no way to remove himself from the banister. Just as Elliot was about to literally starting screaming for help, Olivia's voice stopped him.

"Don't bother trying to yell for someone. It's pushing eight o'clock and everyone's long gone." She never met Elliot's eyes as she spoke in a calm and collected tone.

Staring at her, Elliot felt his mouth open in awe. "You really thought this through, didn't you?" The question was half impressed, half scared.

"Yep," was her simple response.

--XXX--

"I've got to admit, you have quite the endurance," Olivia remarked, glancing up at the clock on the wall. "It's been over a half an hour."

Throwing bloodshot eyes towards the time as well, Elliot saw she spoke the truth. As he shifted uncomfortably, he felt the physical affects taking their toll on his body. He arms and legs were cramped up and every time he moved his shoulders, a shooting pain passed through them. But his physical pain was nothing compared to the emotional anguish he would cause if he told her the truth. While he'd been tied up, he'd even thrown a few weak reasons at her, all of which she saw right though. Now he was banking in the chance of her growing weary and releasing him without an answer.

"You might be stubborn, but you know that I am the indisputable queen of stubbornness." Olivia stated with a tired grin. "I can stay here all night if that's what you want."

"I want you to let me go," he snapped, fatigue getting the better of him.

Olivia suddenly stood up from her chair and began walking in the direction of Elliot. She stopped so that she was a foot in front of him. "Just tell me what's going on and I will."

"Nothing is going on." His contradictions were becoming instinct to him. "What will it take for you to believe that?"

"The truth," she whispered, moving closer towards him. "Why can't you tell me the truth?" Olivia waited for him to answer, and continued when she didn't get one. "What happened Elliot? What is so taboo that you can't trust me to know?"

"You don't understand," Elliot's voice cracked as he hung his head, shaking it back and forth. "I can't…"

"No Elliot, you don't understand." She leaned back and crossed her arms, pain pulsating through her blurry eyes. "God…" Olivia bit the side of her tongue and glanced away, a forced smile on her lips as she shook her head as well. "This doesn't even have anything to do with whatever you're not telling me." She began pacing slowly in a small circle, not meeting Elliot's stare. "I guess I should have seen this coming," she shrugged miserably. "I should have known it would only be a matter of time before you finally starting hating me too. I shouldn't be surprised after everything I did to you, but I just thought you were different." The all too familiar teardrops starting falling down her cheeks again as she started pouring her heart out to Elliot. "You know what the really sad thing is?" She locked tearful eyes with Elliot as an ironic smile curled the corner of her lips. "I actually thought there was something between us. How pathetic, right? Broken, screwed-up rape victim falling for her handsome coworker? And now I'm telling you…" she lamented miserably, watching as she single-handedly crumbled her world in her fist.

"Liv…" Elliot barely managed to squeak that one word out as he stared with wide eyes and an open mouth, absolutely floored by Olivia's sudden confession. There were so many different things he wanted to say in response that he ending up saying nothing at all. He yearned to finally confess his own feelings, tell Olivia how wrong she was about herself, and so much more that he couldn't even put into words.

A sob shook through Olivia as she interpreted Elliot's silence as a sign that she was right, that he was almost disgusted by her revelation. Fumbling through her pockets despite the tremors shaking her, she managed to find the key to the handcuffs. Somehow, she awkwardly unlocked one of the cuffs and stuffed the key into Elliot's free hand before dashing towards the exit.

Elliot quickly found himself and his voice as he watched the woman he loved dash out the door. He instantly took off after her, fiddling with the other cuff as he ran, barely noticing where he feet were flying to as he caught sight of Olivia.

"Olivia!" He shouted as they burst through the front door and onto the darkened streets, lit only with a few soft glowing street lamps. "No Liv, wait!" He stretched his arm out and grabbed her shoulder before she stepped off of the sidewalk. "Liv…" He felt her shaking underneath his hand as he turned her around to face him. There were rivers of tear flowing down her face of perfection as her deep sensual eyes stared into his.

Overwhelmed by the beauty and innocence enveloping Olivia at that instant, Elliot slowly lowered his face towards hers, finally meeting her lips with his. After a moment, he pulled away from the kiss just as delicately. Staring into her eyes, Elliot took Olivia's hands in his. "I don't hate you," he whispered so quietly that it never escaped from their embrace. "Olivia, I love you with all my heart. That's what I've been hiding from you."