Without waiting for an answer, she took a deep breath and wrapped herself in the feeling that Elliot's strong body pressed against her caused in her. But just before she fell asleep, she heard a quiet and soft voice reply:

"I love you too, Liv."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Olivia woke up the next time, she was still so tired that she felt like she hadn't slept at all. Sleepily, she turned to look at the clock on the bedside table. It was 3 pm. Despite the sleep creeping into her body again, she knew it wasn't very smart to sleep all day, and she forced her eyes to stay open, concentrating on staring at the ceiling.

She had turned onto her back at some point, but Elliot seemed to have stayed without moving at all. His other arm was still around her, he was sleeping on his side, and Olivia turned her head to look at him. He looked so relaxed, peaceful and content that it almost made her heart burst with affection.

He looks happy.

When he's sleeping with me.

The thought of it made her almost feel dizzy, and she had to resist the temptation to kiss him. However, she didn't want to wake him up, because looking at his sleeping face caused an inexplicable peace to spread to her heart as well.

And she realized that if she had to stay here forever, it wouldn't bother her one bit.

She didn't want to wake him, but Elliot's stomach had another opinion. It began growling so loudly that it nearly scared Olivia, and Elliot's face crumpled ever so slightly. However, the first growl wasn't enough to wake him up, but then when the second, even louder growl started, he shifted and groaned.

"Oh c'mon."

Olivia chuckled softly, and at the same time she realized that she was starving too.

"I think if you're running for your life for a day, you need more food than just one omelette," she stated and then leaned in to plant a kiss on Elliot's forehead. "You can sleep, it's my turn now."

But when she tried to sit up, Elliot's hand tightened around her waist, and he pressed herself against her even tighter. Then came a sleepy voice:

"No… Stay."

"El," Olivia answered, and even though her heart was protesting against her with all her might, she managed to sit up. "We really need to eat."

"Do you even know how to cook?" Elliot asked without opening his eyes, and Olivia snorted as if offended.

"Excuse me? Of course I can cook!"

"Just asking," Elliot yawned, and a light grin spread across his face. "You know, I've seen your fridge, and it didn't convince me of your cooking skills."

"And that…" Olivia removed Elliot's arm from around her despite his protests and swung her legs to the floor. "… That cost you your "teddy bear"". Then she grabbed her pillow off the bed and threw it on Elliot's face. "And if I hear a single critical comment about my food when you come to eat, you get to sleep with that pillow from now on."

"Yes, ma'am," was the answer when Olivia stepped to the bedroom door, and with a tingling warm feeling inside her, she shook her head with a smile.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Olivia and Elliot were just about to finish their quite late breakfast when Olivia's phone rang. Seeing Sheriff Gold's number, she remembered at the same time that she hadn't called Cragen yet and decided to do so as soon as possible.

"Be-…" She was about to slip out of an old habit, as her focus was half on Elliot, who dropped the yogurt onto his lap, and he looked up at Olivia. His expression was the same as a small child's, who had just accidentally done something wrong, and a smile forced its way onto her lips. "Emily Murray."

"Hi, Emily," there was Gold's tired voice. "Did I wake you?"

"No, no, it's fine," she replied while handing Elliot the paper roll. "We just ate breakfast."

Gold sighed. "At least some of us get to sleep. We've been working since I brought you two back to the farm, and we just finished interrogating Nicholas."

"Really?" Olivia raised her eyebrows, but the sheriff's tone didn't convince her. "Did he talk?"

"Actually, yes," Gold answered, and made Olivia surprised. "He said he acted alone, and according to his phone, he is telling the truth. If there have been several perps, they have at least not been in contact with each other via phone."

"So…" Olivia's mind was about to get completely distracted when Elliot pulled off his dirty shirt and moved shirtless next to the table, and she had to shake her head lightly and look away from him so she could focus on her conversation with Gold. "So we can't be sure?"

"No, but almost. Nicholas officially lives in Houston, but his bank card information revealed that he had been in Crowell at the time of the first murder."

"Right," Olivia answered and suddenly felt a weight lift off her heart, even though she hadn't even noticed it had been there. "So it means..."

"So it means there is just a very small chance that there would be another child serial killer in such a small town," Gold finished the sentence Olivia had started. "We will have to interrogate him again, because he didn't tell his motive or anything more detailed about the events, but we are all so tired that we need sleep before we continue the interrogation."

"How about Gilbert? Did Nicholas tell where he is?"

Gold sighed. "Not more specifically. All he said was "he took care of it", and I'm afraid that means only one thing."

Olivia swallowed and nodded, even though the sheriff couldn't see it. She stayed silent for a moment, but then a thought flashed into her mind, and she said:

"The abandoned house. He said he had spent time there. Is there still someone guarding there?"

"Yes, there are two men still there. But they can't leave the house…"

"No problem, I'll take El- James with me, and we're going to search around the house."

"That would be a great help," Gold answered with obvious relief. "Let me know immediately if you find something. I'm going straight to bed now. See you!"

"See you," Olivia ended the call and looked up at Elliot, who was still standing in the kitchen shirtless, looking at her questioningly. Olivia raised her other eyebrow and announced: "I recommend you get dressed, Detective, because we're leaving to the house that saved our lives yesterday."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

There was only one "but" in the plan: Elliot's car. It was standing muddy and battered in front of Elliot's apartment, refusing to start. Elliot slammed the door shut and crossed his arms with a sigh as he looked at his car.

"Well, this buddy isn't much help. Thomas lives in the next cabin and has a similar car; I'm going to ask if he could borrow it."

However, Thomas was not at home, and they walked into the farmyard, hoping to find him there. However, he was nowhere to be seen in the yard, and they turned to look for him by the animal enclosures, but then they heard a car drive into the yard, and almost immediately a shout was heard:

"James!"

Olivia felt her heart skip a beat as she recognized the voice instantly.

Hannah.

"James!" There was another scream, closer, and a second later a blonde woman rushed over to them and clung to Elliot like a child who had found her lost parent.

And Olivia couldn't help it as jealousy washed over her like a poisonous wave.

"Hey, Hannah…" Elliot lightly patted her back with his other hand. "How's Mike?"

"He's… He's fine considering the situation," she answered against Elliot's chest and then raised her tear-sparkling blue eyes to his face. "Thanks to you," she whispered and lifted her hand to his cheek. Olivia saw Elliot swallowing, but she didn't say anything, just bit her lip. Under normal circumstances, she would have gone to interrupt them, but because of what happened to Hannah and Mike, she forced herself to silence the voice inside her head that was screaming "Mine!". They couldn't reveal their true identities either, not yet.

But then a sob escaped Hannah's lips, and completely without warning, completely by surprise, she moved her hand to the back of Elliot's neck and kissed him.

The situation surprised Olivia, whose mouth dropped open, and she let out a stifled sound without realizing it. But the situation surprised Elliot even more, whose eyes widened, and he stepped back.

"What's wrong?" Hannah frowned and tried to touch Elliot's cheek again, but he pulled his head away.

"Hannah… I… Don't…"

Hannah looked hurt when she finally pulled away, and she crossed her arms.

"Have you met someone? Because I can tell that last summer you had no problem…"

Olivia felt as if someone had punched her, she saw Elliot blush as he glanced at her so quickly that Hannah, in her irritation, didn't notice.

"I… Uh…"

"You know what?!" Hannah snapped. "I don't care. I'm tired of assholes who pretend to be something else, but in the end, they want only one thing!" Then she started leaping towards the steps of the barn attic, leaving Olivia and Elliot standing in the yard.

"Well…" Olivia cleared her throat. "That was… A plot twist."

"L- Emily," Elliot's voice was strained, but Olivia didn't want to talk about it, not now with the anger burning inside her. She knew she had no right to be angry, Elliot hadn't done anything wrong, but she couldn't help the fire raging inside her, and she knew she shouldn't talk yet. She didn't want to take a risk that she would say something in anger that she would later regret.

"We really need to find Thomas," she replied and turned on her heels, leaving Elliot to bite his lip.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They had found Thomas eventually, and in silence they had driven back to the abandoned house. After greeting the cops who were guarding it, they had looked at the house in silence for a moment, wondering how it was still standing despite the fallen wall.

They hadn't mentioned Hannah a word when they had made a plan to search for Gilbert, and then they had diverged to different sides of the house. They were about to look for the old man within a few hundred yards of the house, because they believed that if Nicholas had killed his father, the body should lie somewhere nearby.

After about half an hour of checking the surroundings of the house, Olivia found herself so deep in thought that she had to force herself to come back to reality. Every time she closed her eyes, the image of Hannah kissing Elliot returned into her retinas, and time after time she found herself slipping into increasingly dark images of Elliot confessing his love to the beautiful blonde woman, and finally she got so angry with herself that she wanted to slap herself.

Elliot had rejected Hannah's kiss, Elliot had said he loved her, and now was not the time to start drama.

Because there was no reason for it.

"Get it together, Benson," Olivia growled to herself, and forced her thoughts to focus solely on finding Gilbert.

And then, as if fate had given her an order to interrupt her uncontrollable spiraling thoughts at just the right moment, her eyes, returning to reality, noticed something. It was almost hidden in the bush, but something was there, and slowly Olivia walked over to it.

It was a well. An old, stony well, the wooden cover on top of which had rotted over time.

She gulped, took a deep breath, and gathering her strength, she moved the wooden cover aside.

And then a strong, sharp smell hit her nose, almost making her gag. The smell was familiar, she had encountered it countless times before, and she knew what was in the well before she even looked in there.

And in the light of the phone's flashlight, she saw it in the nearly dry well, what proved her suspicions right.

There was a body in the well.