A/N: So I don't know about anybody else, but I need Fin and Ayanna in the same room watching our favorite partners and making smarty-pants comments. This doesn't have quite the level of sass I was going for, but I think it still gets the point across.

Fin heard it before he saw it. He'd gone down the hall to grab some coffee for the team, and something for Liv to eat because he knew she'd have to take some more Advil soon for her ankle.

SVU had been working with the joint Organized Crime and Narcotics task force to try to bring down the larger-than-life ring involving Howard, Gold, and apparently a bunch of drug smugglers and the Albanian mob.

He was rounding the corner when he heard something he hadn't in 10 years. Liv's voice an octave higher than usual, becoming more shrill as she spoke. Then a gruff, gritty growl from somebody else. It couldn't be good, whatever was going on.

"Radio silence for three months, huh?" Liv said as Fin entered the room.

"Didn't know I needed to check in with you, Captain," Elliot sneered. "Last I heard, I don't report to you."

"Cute, Elliot, cute," she said. "Did you at least tell your kids you went under, or did Eli wake up one morning to find you weren't in your room and he couldn't get you on the phone?"

"Excuse me?" Elliot said, taking what anyone else would have perceived as a threatening step forward but Liv looked at it like a challenge, standing at full height (or as full height as she could in her boot), practically daring him to come at her.

Fin deposited his breakroom spoils on the nearest table and was ready to jump into action. Ten years had passed, but the instinct to hop between them before Cragan came out of his office and Munch made a horrible joke never quite faded. But before he could make it over to where they stood, Sergeant Bell cleared her throat and shot them both a look.

Olivia's shoulders sank and Elliot cast his eyes to the floor.

"We're done for the day," Liv said, yanking her coat off the back of a chair.

"I'll be in the car," she said to Fin as she walked by him, grabbing one of the coffees and the wrap on her way out.

Fin watched Elliot watch her leave.

"I'm uh… I'm gonna go make sure I don't have any missed calls from Reggie," Elliot said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and heading for the stairs instead of the elevator.

When Fin and Ayanna were alone, she finally spoke up.

"Now, what the hell did I just watch?" she said.

"The same thing I sat back and watched for 11 years," Fin said. "The Benson and Stabler show."

"Are they always that…" Ayanna trailed off, looking for the right word.

"Loud? Mean? Insane? Take your pick," Fin said.

"Yes, yes to all of that," Ayanna said. "I knew Stabler was intense. I know he's still dealing with stuff. But every time he's around Captain Benson it's like he's on an entirely different wavelength than the rest of us."

"That's because the two of them have a wavelength all their own," Fin said.

"I tried to tell him maybe he should stay away from her," Ayanna said. "I mean, his head wasn't right, and by the looks of it, it still isn't. I thought he was doing better before I sent him under but now I'm not so sure."

"Just when exactly did you think he was getting better," Fin asked, curiously.

"About three months ago, right before the project kicked off," Ayanna said. "The week before everything happened with Angela Wheatley at the hospital he seemed… normal. He wasn't great at the hospital but I mean his wife had just died, our friend had just shot himself, our suspect was dying. We were all out of sorts. But in a day or two he was composed again."

"And at the hospital, what happened?" Fin asked.

"Liv and I tried to wake up Angela, he went out in the hall and yelled for help," Ayanna said. "Somebody in the elevator heard, got off on our floor. Backup came. He and Benson went into another room for a bit and when they came out we gave our statements, they shared a cab home. Then he was back at work the next day and fine."

"You noticing a pattern?" Fin asked her as he walked over to the floor to ceiling windows of the command center.

"What, that Stabler's bipolar or something?" Ayanna said.

"Nah," Fin said, looking down to the street. "And I wouldn't make that joke to him. He might not find it funny. I'm talking about how he acts when Liv's around."

"He gets reckless, it seems," Ayanna said, watching Fin by the window, suspiciously.

"Or more relaxed, am I right?" Fin asked.

Ayanna thought for a minute. The man had a point.

Fin didn't wait before he started talking again.

"When they are on the same side, fighting for a victim or if one of them really needs the other, like when Kathy died or Liv broke her ankle, they have this freaky calm effect on one another," Fin said. "When they are on opposite sides or one of them doesn't like something the other did, it's a nuclear war."

"Then how did they work together for so long and not burn your precinct to the ground?" Ayanna asked, finally walking to join Fin at the window.

"Oh they almost did, more than once," Fin said. "For both reasons actually. They either wanted to one up each other, or they were working so fiercely to protect each other they didn't think about anybody else."

"And your Captain just… let it happen?" Ayanna asked.

"He made them each get a psych eval," Fin said. "It was after Liv found out she had a brother and he was involved in some rape case in Jersey. They both lied to cover her ass and Cap made them go to the shrink."

"And they got split up?" Ayanna asked.

"Hell no," Fin said with a laugh. "Shrink told Cap they were too close and when he told her he'd break them up she said if he did he'd lose his two best detectives."

"That's… weird," Ayanna said.

"And that's," Fin said, pointing down to street level, "exactly what I expected."

Ayanna looked down where he was pointing to see both Olivia and Elliot standing by Fin's SUV. She had the passenger side door open with her wrap sitting on the seat. She and Elliot were both standing outside the car. Her arms were crossed and his arms and hands were in the air. It looked like they were still arguing.

"Checking his messages my ass," she said. "How am I supposed to trust him that he's not going to do something rogue in the field?"

"Stabler's a good cop," Fin said. "I haven't always liked the guy, and I am always Team Olivia first. But he's good at his job. And the only time he's ever done anything rogue in the field is either to save a victim's life or to save Olivia's."

Both of them looked down on the scene below. They saw Olivia wince in pain and wobble, probably from standing too long on the ankle. Elliot noticed right away and helped her sit down in the car, legs dangling out the door.

Elliot now stood across from her, so the peanut gallery could only see Olivia's reactions to the conversation. She no longer looked angry, just tired. Her shoulders were sagging, eyes drooping.

"She doesn't look so good," Ayanna said. "You need to go?"

"Give them another few minutes," Fin said. "He's not going to let anything happen to her."

As if Fin was a psychic, Elliot leaned around her, retrieving her water bottle, the wrap, and a bottle of Advil from inside the car. He handed her the water bottle, popped a few pills into his hand and passed them to her as well. As she swallowed, he took the cellophane off the wrap and handed that over as well. She ripped it in half and passed part of it to him.

She said something and Elliot crouched down so they were eye level. He brushed her hair behind her ears and then slid his free hand down to her free hand. He must have said something because she nodded. Then he pulled back real fast and yanked his phone out of his pocket. He paced up and down the sidewalk a bit before hanging up. He walked back over to Liv and said something else that she nodded at, then kissed her forehead before taking off down the sidewalk.

"Probably a call from Reggie," Ayanna said.

"That's my cue," Fin said. "I guess we'll see you back here tomorrow unless something breaks before then."

"How'd you take 11 years of this?" Ayanna asked him as he put on his coat.

"Those 11 years were a lot easier than the 10 where they were apart," Fin said. "She got better after the first two or three, but there were still times and cases where I could tell she missed him. I'd rather see them strangling each other than ever see her that broken again."

"So broken is when I have to worry?" Ayanna asked?

"With Stabler, you have to worry when he gets aggressive," Fin said with a laugh. "Well, more aggressive than usual."

"Amazing," Ayanna said in a total deadpan.

"See ya, Bell," Fin said, walking to the elevator. He turned around and yelled one more thing before he left.

"Hey, Bell. You want in on the pool?" he asked.

"What pool?" she said.

"The one on how long it takes them to get together," Fin said.

"Put me down for $50 and within the next three months," she said.

"Copy that Sarge," Fin said, smirking to himself all the way back to the car.

A/N: Literally just to hold me over until we get to find out about THE LETTER next week. Don't really know if I can take it. Review if you choose, but that could be something else to hold me over until Thursday :)