Prompt #16: Follow up fic to the "I want you to come home" scene, where Elliot doesn't let Olivia leave


Come Home To Me

•••

"I agree with Bernie Elliot, I want you to come home."

"I intend to."

Olivia rolled her eyes before speaking again, making sure to get her point across. "Before it's too late."

Elliot reached for the latch of the gate as she turned to him. "Liv—" he pulled it open, resting a bit of his weight on it, "I'm being careful."

"I mean—" she whispered, emotion threatening to take over as she reached out to rest her hand on the side of his face, "before Eddie Wagner takes over, and Elliot Stabler is nowhere to be found."

Olivia pulled back, staring at him. He could feel his cheek tingling from where her hand was moments ago. In the entire twenty-three years they'd known each other, albeit there had been a ten-year absence during that time, this had been the most intimate gesture either of them had ever made and he couldn't stop thinking about it. He watched as she looked him over, sadness written across her face when she realized she wouldn't be getting another response from him. She took a step back and began to turn before he was finally able to pull himself from his thoughts, quickly reaching for her.

"Hey, Liv, wait—" He reached out, grabbing her upper arm and turning her back toward him. "Don't go. Not, not like this."

"Elliot—"

"I need someone to help me clean this cut." He gestured toward his forehead, giving her small smile.

Olivia let out a deep breath. "Thought you said you were fine."

Elliot gave a small shrug. "Yeah, but you know me—my idea of fine is using a damp towelette to wipe away the blood and throwing a bandaid over it."

Truthfully, Elliot did think he was fine. But he also knew his idea of cleaning the cut would not suffice for her, and if it meant getting even just a few more moments with her, then he wouldn't protest it. He watched as she tossed the idea around in her mind, before finally giving a small nod and allowing him to lead her back inside.

The lights inside were now turned off, aside from the light above the stove.

"Elliot, maybe this is a bad idea. Bernie must already be in bed and—" Elliot turned toward her, grasping her hand to get her attention.

"Ma is a heavy sleeper. We'll whisper and it'll be fine."

"Elliot I don't—"

"We can go in my room." Olivia opened her mouth to speak, before looking down at him in shock. He could feel his face go red as he realized what his words seemed to imply.

"No— I just meant so we didn't wake Ma, Liv I didn't mean—"

She couldn't help but laugh at him as he stumbled over his words but chose to save him from embarrassing himself any further.

"I—know what you meant. It's okay, um—" She motioned toward his room before speaking again. "I'm going to get the peroxide and some cotton swabs but I'll meet you in there."

Elliot cleared his throat, stood up as he gave her a slight nod before heading toward his bedroom. He looked over at his bed, and then the chair that sat in the corner of his room. Deciding the chair was the safest option, not wanting her to feel uncomfortable, he walked over to the nightstand and flicked the light on before walking over and taking a seat in the armchair. He looked up at the sound of Olivia entering his room. "Nice set up you have here. That shower looks like it must be heaven."

"Yeah, it's really nice. I haven't spent many days here so I've only gotten to use it a couple of times but it does wonders for sore muscles."

"Hmm." That seemed to be as much of an acknowledgment he was going to get on the matter. As she motioned for him to tilt his head back and grabbed the bottle of peroxide, shaking some out onto the cotton swab before placing the bottle on the nightstand.

Elliot let out a hiss as the first sting of the peroxide-soaked cotton made contact with the gash on his head. "Sorry,"

"S'ok—Um so I was debating if I was going to say anything but it's sort of been driving me a little crazy."

Olivia tilted her head to the side as his eyes fluttered open and they made contact with hers. "What has?"

"Something my mom said when Ayanna first called me about her. She brought up Kathy, or I thought she had."

Olivia shook her head, not knowing where this was going but continued to listen to his story. "She said what happened to my beautiful bride was terrible—"

"Elliot, it was—"

"No. Just let me finish, please." He watched her until she gave him a nod to continue. "After that she asked how the funeral was, but—she asked…" He stopped talking, because although she was standing right here in front of him, and clear as day—the very thought of a world where he had to go to Olivia Benson's funeral was enough to break his heart.

"Elliot, what'd she ask?"

"She asked how your funeral was. Like, she thought you were my wife."

"Oh."

He looked up at her, his eyes immediately trying to find some sort of answer amongst them. "Liv, how do you know her?" He watched her inhale, holding it for a moment before letting it out.

"She had asked me not to say anything at the time." She turned from him, reaching for more cotton swabs and continuing to busy herself with cleaning his cut.

"I went to see her, back when Kathleen was um—" She didn't have to finish though as realization dawned on him.

"You got her to talk to Kathleen." Olivia gave a small nod. "You never said anything."

"Bernie asked me not to. I think she felt like she should do it to help Kathleen, but I don't think she was ashamed of herself. I know there's history there and I'm not making excuses, but I think she wanted to help without feeling like she was saying she was embarrassed of herself or anything."

Elliot let out a breath. "God, I'm such an asshole. You were always there for my family and—I just up and left and I took them from you. I'm so sorry." He looked back up at her, tears in his eyes as she shook her head.

Willing her own tears away, she wrapped her hands around his head bringing her close to him. The familiarity of their current position and the night he showed up to her apartment, drugged off his ass not lost on either of them.

"Elliot, listen to me, I would do it all again. I love your family and I love you."

"Liv—" He looked up, bringing a hand up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, before bringing it to rest along her cheek. "You love me?"

"Are you going to tell me that after all this time you still haven't caught on?"

He gave a small, shy shrug. "It just seems a little unbelievable that after all my mistakes—" He trailed off, knowing that he wasn't worthy of her love, and yet still having it was an indescribable feeling.

"Elliot, I'm not going to pretend I understand why you left. It hurt a lot, but I know you, and I know that you must have had your own reasons for it—even if I don't necessarily agree with them."

Olivia brought her forehead to his, making sure to avoid hitting his now cleaned-up cut, before slowly bringing her lips halfway, to meet him in the middle. It wasn't frantic or passionate like they had both imagined their first kiss would be. It was gentle, soft, and a promise for more.

"I meant what I said, Elliot, I want you to come home."

"I know Liv, I—"

"I know you. So I know you're going to finish what you started but if this is going to happen, Elliot, I need to know you're not going to keep disappearing."

"No, Liv, I promise okay? I know you don't have any reason to trust me right now or to believe what I say but I'm done after this. No more UC assignments, I'm going to make that clear to Bell tomorrow."

Olivia nodded, bringing her lips down to his once more, before trailing them to his ear and whispering, "I have to go, come home to me."

He could hear the emotion in her voice, he didn't have to look at her to know there were tears in her eyes. She slowly pulled back, holding onto his hand as she stepped backwards. Elliot followed her to the terrace, leading her over the same path he had less than an hour ago, but this time he had hope for their future.

"Stay safe, Elliot."

"I will, Liv, I promise. I'm going to come home to you."

It had been a couple weeks since that night on the terrace and in his room. Olivia and Elliot had communicated briefly a few times. He had let her know last week that things were feeling like they might be coming to an end soon, and she hadn't heard from him since. She halfway wanted to attempt to snoop and dig up information; but she wouldn't put him at risk, so she waited patiently, praying to a God she wasn't sure she even believed in, but he did and that was enough for her.

Olivia was broken from her thoughts when her phone buzzed on the coffee table. She smiled when she saw who it was. "I was just thinking about you."

"Oh yeah? Anything good?"

"Mmm maybe. How are you?"

"I'm okay, Liv. I was actually downstairs, and I wanted to see if I could stop up? I'm not drugged this time, I promise." Olivia smiled, she wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to see him, even if it was only for a minute.

"Text me when you're up here, I don't want you to wake Noah."

They hung up the phone, and as soon as they had, Olivia ran down the hall, doing a quick once over, brushing back any fly away hairs. Her phone buzzed on the counter, a simple, "I'm here"

She walked down the hall to the front door, but when she opened it she was overwhelmed with emotion. "El—" If it wasn't the dead of night her whisper would have gone unheard. She was staring at Elliot. Not Eddie Wagner, but a clean-shaven Elliot Stabler. "What—"

"It's over, Liv. I'm home."

She took two steps toward him, wrapping her arms around his waist and pulling him close. "For good?"

"For good." As he brought his lips down to meet hers, she lifted her hands to his cheeks. While she had enjoyed the beard, this was the man she wanted, the one she would always want.

"Liv, I can't stay, I haven't told Ma or the kids that I'm done but—I wanted you to be the first to know I was done, and…I wanted to ask you to go on a date with me."

Olivia laughed, smiling as she gave an excited nod.

"Good, I'll call you tomorrow and we'll work out the details. Goodnight, Oliva. I love you."

"I love you too, Elliot."