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"You're out of your mind. Jungle Love is a classic." Elliot laughed as Olivia giggled uncontrollably in his arms. "When it comes on, there's no way you could just sit still. It's a dancing song, drunk or sober."

"I agree with that, but it's not like I play it every time I feel like dancing." Olivia stated, leaning back against his chest as they sat together on the floor. She gazed down at their intertwined left hands. "Plus, I have Noah. He's not even old enough to know who the Backstreet Boys are." She snickered when Elliot groaned, dropping his head back against the concrete wall. "You remember them, don't you?"

Elliot scoffed, poking at her ribs playfully with his free hand. "Do I remember them? I listened to that CD you gave the girls more than I heard my mother's heartbeat in the womb. I heard it so many times; my dreams started to have the soundtrack playing in the background. Liv, Maureen and Kathleen played it so much that they were embarrassed when they found out I actually knew the words to the songs as if me knowing made it uncool." He smiled despite himself, seeing her continue to laugh. "It's not funny. They were harsh critics."

Olivia shook her head, laughing to the point where her body physically couldn't take a breath. "I'm just imaging you singing 'Backstreet's back, alright!'"

"I'll have you know," Elliot chuckled, tapping his finger into her thigh to further his point, "I was a real talent. Who knows, Liv. I could've been a boy band rockstar. I could've sang Jungle Love!" He could feel her laughter against his chest and grinned down at her as her body fought for oxygen despite her constant giggling. Instead of egging her on more, he watched amused as she calmed herself. She wiped the joyous tears from her eyes before letting her head rest back against his chest. "I sing in the shower. I could've given you a show this morning to start off your day."

Olivia hummed softly, another short giggle coming out like an aftershock. "Pretty sure we both would've called out if I had stayed this morning."

Elliot felt her squeeze his hand, a silent apology he knew he was not entitled to. He leaned down and kissed her head, wrapping his arms around her to hold her tighter against him. "You deserve the break." He felt her turn her head, her eyes closed, and let his lips skim across her forehead, only stopping when her head settled. "Next time the kids have a break from school, we should go somewhere. Get away from the city. Find a cabin on a lake or stay in a small town along the coast and just relax. The boys would have a blast."

"They would." Olivia murmured. "Their next breaks are Thanksgiving and Christmas. It'll be too cold then, and the kids would have to drive farther to spend the holidays with us." She smiled softly when he lifted their still joined hands to his mouth and kissed the back of hers. "But, we should do that. Maybe take a couple weeks off around the Fourth of July. The city is so hot and stuffy then."

Elliot grinned. "Oh, I remember. The old precinct had an AC as old as a dinosaur that didn't work. There were some days I went through three shirts just from sweating so much." He lowered his head slightly, feeling her forehead against his cheek. "I'm going to have to get a table big enough for all of us during the holidays though. With spouses and eventual grandchildren, we may need more than one table."

"I'll add it to the list." Olivia murmured, enjoying his embrace. She'd been in his arms very few times, but the feeling of his arms around her reminded her of just how much she felt like she belonged in those moments. "You still hold me the same."

"As in like ten years ago?" Elliot asked, slightly confused by her sudden statement.

Olivia smiled. "Well that too, I guess." She felt his arms around her tighten and felt her heart swell a little bit more. "Last night, this morning, you held me as if it'd be painful to let me go. I had to pry your arm from my waist just to sneak out the way I did." She brought their tangled hands up to her mouth this time, kissing his knuckles. "After I was found, Brian treated me like I was made of glass. Ed was better with it, but he was different for a while after I told him about Lewis. You hold me like you always have, like I'm not going to break."

Elliot turned his head slightly, making her eyes open to gaze up at him with her head still resting on his chest. "Of course not. You're the strongest person I know. What happened to you was horrible, and I wish I could take it all away, but that doesn't change you in my eyes. It doesn't change the essence of who you are. You're still Liv. I've waited twenty-two years to hold you like I am now. There's nothing anyone could say about you or do to you that would make me change my mind about you. I'll hold you like the man who loves you should, the way I do."

"Oh my God! Just make up already." Kat begged, sniffling as Amanda wiped her eyes beside her. "I wasn't a fan of his when he first showed up and ended up charging her trying to get to the perp, but I can't see anybody else better for her than him."

Amanda huffed out a breath before grabbing another tissue. "I thought Ed was the one for her. He seemed perfect. We know Elliot's not, but he's perfect for her. Flaws and all." Her vision clouded again when her chest constricted seeing Elliot nearly wrap himself around Olivia tightly. "He'd die for her."

"Alright, I think I got it." Fin announced as he walked back in. He stopped though seeing Amanda and Kat both teary eyed. "What happened here?"

"Where have you been?" Amanda questioned as Fin moved to stand behind them and watch the two inside again. "They made it through all the Lewis stuff. What were you looking for to try and stop it?"

Fin shook his head, holding up a single piece of paper in his hands. "I wasn't looking to end it. I was hoping to remind them that they were still on the same page even if not on the same continent." He let Amanda take the paper, watching her skim over the words on the page. "It's part of the trial transcript."

"She really did talk about him to Lewis." Kat breathed, reading over the page as well in Amanda's hands.

Fin nodded, walking around them to lean against the wall and peer through the window. His two friends sat on the floor below the window. Elliot with his back to the wall and legs propped up. Olivia against his chest, between his legs, wrapped up in his arms with their noses nearly touching. "She knew what he would do."

"I'm sorry you felt like that." Elliot breathed, running his thumb along the side of her neck. With her head tucked into his neck and his arms holding her close, it was the only part of her he could reach without breaking the embrace. "I wish I could've been there, Liv. Even if only to make you feel like you were still yourself when you probably didn't. I should've been there."

Olivia gently kissed his jaw before tucking her head back into the crook of his neck. "As happy as I was when the squad got there, I hated the way they looked at me differently. I was a mess, in a lot of pain. Broken bones, burns, bruises. I'm sure it was a shock, and I don't blame them, but I hated them looking at me that way. Like I was damaged. I already felt that way."

Elliot couldn't even imagine. She admitted that Lewis had broken her in those days, and it took a long time for her to heal from it. He felt like a part of him had shattered hearing everything she had been through, especially knowing that she took her anger out on Lewis when she had him handcuffed. When it came to that stuff, she was usually by the book. Handcuffed, defenseless, not a threat. Protocol would've ordered her to call it in right away. Instead, she taunted and beat on Lewis the way he taunted and beat her down. "You called the squad after that."

Olivia nodded slowly, swallowing hard. She could already feel where this conversation was going. The only reason she didn't try to deter it was because he wouldn't judge her for it. Her colleagues outside may judge her for what she wanted, but he wouldn't. He would never. He'd be the first one to jump on that wagon with her, even if the wheels were falling off. "Yeah."

"If I had been around, would you have called me?" Elliot asked, wondering if she still would've done to Lewis what she did if she had him to call, to back her up even if they broke every rule in the book. He wondered if she still would've taken the metal bar to Lewis even if she did call him. If she hadn't, he probably would've offered if he showed up to help her, to be her partner again and protect her. Even if she had, he wouldn't have blamed her one bit. Dare he say, it was probably a little therapeutic for her. He knew hurting people was wrong. They both knew that. That's why his knuckles often bloodied on locker doors, smashed through walls, or even bruised after hours of pounding on a punching bag. But after all Lewis had done to her, he would've gladly watched him suffer at her hands.

"Yeah, I would've called you." Olivia whispered before untangling herself from Elliot and standing. It was a confession she'd only told one person. He told it to a whole court room, but his lies made it easy to dismiss to many, including her closest friends. This truth had been hers for so long. It scared her in the beginning how willing she was to let someone die, to almost order the death of someone if she had made that phone call. If she could've made that phone call. After a while, she almost resigned to it. When it came to Lewis, she would've done whatever it took to end the nightmare, and she still believed she would've had peace with her choice if she could've gone through with it."I even told him I should call my old partner."

Elliot watched her go back to the table, crossing her arms over her chest as she leaned back against it. He could tell she wasn't proud of her thoughts, but she wasn't upset with them either. She just seemed content with the conclusion that never happened. To him, the thought of calling him to take care of Lewis seemed completely justified even if it completely didn't to her. "Would you have told me to tell the squad where you were?"

Olivia stared back at him for a moment, noting only curiosity. She knew he wouldn't judge her for it, but to see him completely at ease with the idea helped more than she thought it would. They'd asked a lot of each other throughout their years as partners, but nothing like this. "No, I would've asked you to come alone."

"No witnesses?" The two words from Elliot confirmed the track they both knew was the only one they would've taken.

She ran her hand through her hair, pushing it back and out of the way. His blue eyes never strayed from her brown ones. "Elliot, I told him exactly how you would torture and kill him before I took the metal bar to him. If I had called you, I knew he wouldn't see the sun come up the next morning. I knew if I called you," she took a deep breath, never having actually said the words out loud, "I knew if I called you I would be killing him. Honestly, even now, I wouldn't be sad or even feel guilty for calling you. Him taking his own life was too easy. Even if we had been caught for it, I wouldn't regret calling you to end his life."

Elliot pushed off the floor, slowly walking over to her. "I would've made sure nobody found him too. Buried him alive after everything I'd done to him. Liv, I would've broken every bone in his body, made him suffer the way you had suffered. I would've killed him without a second thought, without a question."

"I know." Olivia breathed. "That's-" She stopped when she saw a piece of paper slide up from underneath the door. Her frown caused Elliot to turn and see the paper too. She was the first one to approach it though, bending down to pick it up and read it to see what was going on outside these four walls that were so important.

Elliot rested his hands on his hips, waiting a moment as her frown faded from her features. "What is it?"

Olivia went back to him, her eyes still looking over the paper. "It's a transcript from court." She turned the paper around, holding it out for him. "I know that you would've broken every bone in his body, because that's what I told him all those years ago."

Elliot frowned before taking the paper, quickly seeing the name of the trial printed at the top. "This was from his trial about you." He read through the notes, seeing what Lewis said to Olivia and how she responded. It was there in black and white. The words Olivia probably uttered to him in that beach house spat back at her in front of a court room. A court room he wasn't in, but yet he was. "That's what you told him."

Olivia nodded, waiting until his eyes lifted off the paper to meet hers again. The recognition of it all registering in his eyes. Even with everything they'd been through, together and separately, they knew each other better than anyone. They would do anything and everything for the other, even if it broke every moral they had. Their love and devotion for one another had stood the time and distance away from each other. If there was any doubt before, there definitely wasn't now. "That's what I told him."

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