A/N: Reposting this to fix a discrepancy near the end.

Disclaimer: See previous chapters. (Still not mine. Just borrowing.)

Chapter 8

As she climbed into bed her head was spinning. She knew there was no way she was going to be able to sleep. What the hell was she going to do now? With everything else that had happened, now she had to deal with these new feelings.

She tried to think back to a specific moment that she fell in love with him and found that all she knew was that she'd been in love with him for a long time and never admitted it. She knew there were a handful of reasons for that. He'd been married, had a family, they worked together and he was her partner, they were best friends, not to mention the self esteem issues that she carried around.

The more she thought about it the more she realized that being in love with someone wasn't as scary as she'd always thought it would be. It probably had a lot to do with the person you were in love with. It also helped that she knew that Elliot loved her too. She didn't have to wonder or worry about one-way feelings. She'd trusted Elliot with her life everyday that they'd worked together. When she'd first met him and learned that he was married she'd told herself that he was the kind of man that she one day hoped to fall in love with. Never in a million years would she have imagined that he'd be the one. She fell asleep with a small smile on her face.

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The next morning by an unspoken agreement, the conversation from the night before was not mentioned. Nor any aspect of it. Elliot knew that Olivia needed time to adjust and he was willing to wait. He knew not to push her. As much as he wanted to tell the world that Abby was his daughter he knew the time wasn't right. If Olivia wasn't ready to face their personal relationship and feelings right now he would wait. Not forever, but for now he could wait for her. And Olivia did not want to continue their conversation when they had things to do that day. The next time they talked about it she knew they would need a lot of time. So they got ready to leave without saying much to one another.

Once they were on the way to the station Olivia spoke up and speculated on the captain's request for her presence. "So he didn't give any hints about what he wanted?" she asked Elliot.

Elliot huffed. "I'll give you the same answer that I gave the first ten times you asked me, no, all he said was to see if you could come in to see him sometime today. I swear, if I knew I'd tell you, if for no other reason to get you to stop bugging me." Olivia could tell he didn't mean it. She saw the smile tugging at his lips.

"It's probably just an excuse to see Abby anyway."

"Yeah well he's going to have to share. She has the entire station wrapped around her finger. I've never seen so many people fall in love with a baby so fast in my life. If I'm not careful they are going to spoil her rotten."

Elliot pulled into a parking spot and turned off the car. "Well here we are. We can find out in a few minutes." Elliot climbed out and grabbed the carrier while Olivia grabbed the diaper bag and her purse.

They walked in and the first person to see them was Munch. "Well if it isn't my favorite niece in the whole world. Come to Uncle Munch sweetheart." Olivia laughed as he took her out. "Don't you think that she'd getting kind of tired of the car seat, Liv?"

"Yeah I know. But Elliot and I are having my friends bring our stuff down today. So by tonight I'll have her stroller and I won't have to carry her everywhere."

Fin walked in and strolled over to Munch. "You going to share that baby. I'm sure Liv doesn't want her to be corrupted by your conspiracy theories." Fin winked at Olivia. She grinned back. He had a point, but it couldn't hurt her now, later it could be a problem.

Munch looked dejected. "It's got to be better than the stories that you tell her about your undercover work in Narcotics. Talk about scary stuff."

As the two partners argued, good naturedly of course, Olivia heard her name being called. She turned around and saw that Cragen was standing in his office doorway. She tried to read his face for some sort of clue but found none. She looked at Elliot who just shrugged his shoulders. She gave him a small smile and walked to Cragen's office and sat down once Cragen closed the door.

Fin and Munch having seen the whole scene looked confused. "What's that all about? She can't be in any trouble yet, she just got back." Fin pointed out.

Elliot explained the phone call from the night before. "I guess we'll find out when she come back," he said sitting down at his desk, keeping one eye on Abby and one eye on Cragen's door.

Elliot got absorbed in a case file and lost track of time. The next time he looked at the clock he realized that Olivia had been in Cragen's office for about forty five minutes. He looked over to Munch and his heart skipped a beat when he didn't see Abby. Then he looked at Fin and saw him softly talking to her. he felt guilty for leaving Abby with them for so long and also for forgetting about her. But he knew she was in good hands here. Just then the door opened and she stepped out. He stood up as she walked over to his desk.

He searched her face for some clue to what had been going on, but found that for once he couldn't get a read on her. "Everything okay? You were gone awhile." He kept his voice low so the others couldn't hear just in case it was bad news.

She smiled at his concern. "He wanted to go over some paperwork that I need to take care of to get me back in to the land of the living. You won't believe all the forms that I have to fill out. Oh, and there's something else."

He narrowed his eyes at the gleam in her eyes and the tone of her voice. "What's that?" he asked suspiciously.

"He wanted me to let you know that he found you a new partner."

Elliot groaned. "Not another one. I'm doing fine on my own. The one guy they gave me didn't last 10 months." 'He wasn't you.' he thought but didn't say it out loud. "I'll probbaly get some rookie detective. Just what I need." Frustrated Elliot sat down in his chair. "So who is it? Please tell me it's not a rookie. I hope it's someone with some experience."

Olivia looked down at him and shook her head. "If you'll stop your ranting for five seconds I'll tell you. I believe that they have about seven years experience as a dectective."

Elliot let out a breath and leaned back in his chair. "Well that's something good at least. So when do I get to meet him?"

For a moment she didn't answer, then just before he could ask again she turned around and walked to the other side and sat in the empty seat and looked up at him with a grin on her face. "Not him...her."