Chapter 9: You take my breath away

(Narrator POV)

Monday Dec. 13

Edgar and Olivia hadn't talked to each other at all that day. They both were extremely busy. They both tried to at least send a text but they never did.

Tuesday Dec. 14

It was the same as Monday they had little to no time to even think about each other let alone, call. That night Olivia had a hard time going to sleep she cried. This case it was putting her through the ringer. She thought about Edgar said at the hospital about calling him. But she knew since the hadn't talked that he was equally as busy but she really wanted to hear his voice because Lord knows she need him in that moment. So she went ahead and called him. The phone rang four times before he picked up.

"Olivia, hey. I was just walking into my house when I saw your call. Is everything Okay?" He asked concerned.

"Yea everything's fine... I just haven't seen or talked to you in a while. I've missed you voice. I've been really busy at work with this case." Her voice betrayed her and it choked as she was trying to talk and it didn't go unnoticed by Edgar.

"Liv what's really going on?" He's really concerned now. "You know you can talk to me." And as usual Liv brushes it off like it was nothing and said. "It's really nothing, ya know what i'm sorry I called you. Its late have a goodnight." She heard Edgar try to say something back but she hung up the phone. And cried. This case was really taking a toll on Olivia. A little girl was a product of rape. And she was abused as a little girl by her mother. Who hated her. And she had taken so much abuse she passed from blunt forced trauma. Olivia had gone through the same thing with her mother and when that child died she though of how lucky she was to be alive.

She decided to go get herself together and have some hot tea. As she was washing her face someone knocked on her door. she walked up and opened it without looking out of the peephole and Edgar was standing in a blue t-shirt some black joggers and some jordan 11s and a backwards Brooklyn Nets hat. Very different from his usual attire. With a bag filled with what looked like ice cream and chocolate.

"I brought the goods." He said holding the bags up. She didn't say anything she just stepped up and hugged him. He hugged her back. He pulled her back and looked into her eyes and saw the pain behind her tears and hugged her even more. She invited him in and they sat on her sofa. He spoke first. "I don't know what's going on, If you wanna tell me that's fine if you don't that's fine too. But there was no way we were gonna get off the phone like that without me making sure you were at some what okay. So I picked up your candy and I didn't know what ice cream you liked so i got one tub of chocolate, on tub of cookies n' cream, one tub of vanilla, one tub of neapolitan. And I've tissues to wipe all of your tears away." He said while pulling all of the ice cream out of the bag. "I just had to come see you for myself to make sure you were gonna be fine. Because I know you would have just told me you were fine even if you weren't." He finished putting an arm around her shoulder.

Olivia was overcome by emotion. She didn't cry but she was in awe of Edgar. He showed her time and time again that he truly cared about her. "Thank you." She whispered He smiled back and then got up and went into her kitchen and grabbed two spoons. Olivia was glad that La'Mai let Noah stay over there since him and Abby had a project for school tomorrow. Edgar came back and sat on the sofa gave Olivia a spoon and asked "Well which we are we gonna eat?" He said laughing which made Olivia laugh. "How about Neapolitan?" She suggested. Edgar opened it and said "My favorite. You never told me yours."

"It's cookie dough. But these are good too!"

"I debated on cookies n' cream or cookie dough. Man I grabbed the wrong one." he laughed

"It's okay this is perfect... you're perfect. You are truly one of a kind." She finally let some of her feelings flow.

"You are the perfect one Olivia. You are beautifully designed. You are the definition of perfect." Edgar started with honesty.

"If only you knew..." Olivia started. Knowing where she was heading. She didn't want him to know she was a product of rape feeling that if she told him he would feel the same way anymore.

"If only I knew what?" Edgar asked wondering if this had anything to do with why she was so upset.

"I don't want to tell you I like what we have going on here I don't want it to stop." She said getting emotional.

"I will never stop- Liking you. I will always think you are beautiful and there's nothing you could ever say to make me feel any different." He said laying back against the arm of the sofa. "Come here." Olivia moved into the open spot between his legs and rested the back of her head on his chest. He grabbed the ice cream from the coffee table. And asked "Now what is it that you think that I'm gonna stop liking you for?"

"There are so many reasons."

"You don't have to tell me tonight I'll understand. But I want you to know that you can be honest with me."

"I'm not sure which one to tell you first but i know that if i want this to work out I have to be honest with you. One of the reasons is apart of why I was upset today I guess I could tell you that one."

"We can sit up if you want?"

TRIGGER WARNING*

"No I don't think I'll be able to look you in the you beautiful eyes and tell you this." She cleared her throat and started. "Our case at work involves a little girl who was born due to a violent rape. Her mother constantly abused her and told her how much she hated her. Well we got to the little girl she had been beaten by her mother. But we were too late she passed away from blunt force trauma. And it made me think about how I'm lucky to be alive. Because my mother was also raped and I was the collateral damage." She had some tears fall down her face. She turned around and looked at Edgar. He opened the tissue box and wiped her tears then handed it to her in case she needed it. Then she continued.

"My mom was always drunk. She drunk her pain away. She said that I was a constant reminder for her of what happened. She had hit me many times and I even ended up in the hospital a few times. But when I was 16 She came at me with a broken bottle and stabbed me and that's when I finally got the courage to leave. My second year at SVU she died. She feel the subway stairs."

She finished and looked up at him and thought he was gonna wanna leave but he said "That was supposed to make me change the way I feel about you? It only made me more attracted to you. You are so strong but that is would be an understatement. And you now protect people like your mother. I'm just in awe of you Olivia Benson." She started to tear up. but he cut it off. "Hey what I say about these tears a beautiful lady like you should not be crying this much." He laughed. Which made Olivia laugh with the tears falling out of her eyes.

That's when Edgar whipped out his phone. "What are you doing?" Olivia asked. He said "I said strong was an understatement so I'm searching for the word to say you take my breath away." He smiled then embraced her in a hug.

"But that's not all of it. But that conversation needs to be on a different day. We would really have to sit down and talk about it together." Edgar nodded and said okay. Then they just laid there enjoying each other's presence It wasn't long before Olivia fell asleep so he picked her up and took her to bed and kissed her forehead and said "good night beautiful."

He walked back out into the living area and grabbed the ice cream and put it in the freezer. And put chocolate in a bag on the counter since they didn't have any. He was about to walk out but he realized there was no way to lock the door so he had two options to wake Olivia up or stay. There was no way he was leaving it unlocked. And he didn't want to wake her up so he locked the door and laid on the sofa.