Title: Risks, Chapter 6

Author: Sorsha711
Fandom/Pairing: JM/OFC

Rating: M, adult content
Disclaimer: The Munchkin isn't mine, except in my dreams! Sigh! DW owns him and the others.
Summary: A sequel to my Halloween fantasy, Whispers. Everything of worth has risks; what would you risk to find true love? JM/OFC & OE

Feedback PLEASE!!! Happy New Year!!!

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Risks, Chapter 6

"I'm so sorry about that, Johnny," Rella groaned, stepping onto the elevator after leaving her parent's condo. Collapsing against the far wall, she complained, "I knew Papa and Josif would be relentless, but… I can't believe Mama all but demanded you set a date for our wedding!"

Chuckling, John tapped the button for the third floor and the access to the skywalk to the parking garage across the street from the Kirpachi's building. "Frankly, I think I got off pretty light all things considered, baby. You had me expecting bamboo splints under my fingernails and thumbscrews. Your family is sweet. I enjoyed meeting them."

"Light? How could you enjoy that… torture session? They asked you all sorts of personal questions they had no right to ask!" she exclaimed. "They asked you about your ex-wives for God's sakes!!!"

Following her off the elevator, John pulled her to a stop and tugged her into his arms. "Be honest… you're just mad that they asked before you did. You wanted to grill me about them too, but had been biding your time. Did you get answers to all your questions or do you want to continue the questioning over a bottle of wine at your place?"

"How can you joke about it?" Rella demanded. "They had no right…"

"Of course, they did. I suspect you haven't brought many men home to meet the family over the years… for good reason I might add. An evening with the Kirpachi clan isn't for the faint of heart!" he teased, tilting his head to wink at her over the top of his glasses. "Showing up with me told them we are serious about each other, Rella. They are worried you're throwing yourself away on someone that doesn't deserve you… and they're right."

"Stop doing that!" she exclaimed, squeezing his shoulders. "Why do you always make comments about yourself like that? You are a wonderful man and I'm lucky to know you!"

Bending to kiss her, he whispered, "I'm glad you think that. As long as you do, I'm satisfied."

Leaning limply against him when he finally broke the kiss, she murmured, "You really don't have a problem with making that trip to Baltimore?"

Holding her close, John shook his head. "No, I usually visit my family over New Years. I generally work Christmas to leave the others free to celebrate with their families. My mother will be excited to see your folks again. But I warn you… Mom will be worse than your mother ever thought about being. The prospect of a daughter-in-law she might actually approve of is making her giddy. Get the two of them together… do you speak Romanian?"

"Da." Looking up to meet his gaze, she cautiously asked, "She approves of your seeing me… knows I'm not Jewish?"

"Good. Mine's only so-so. Yiddish I can cover since they will probably enlist my brother and his wife. One of us needs to keep an ear on them at all times so we know what they are plotting," he joked. "And, yes, she's thrilled we are seeing each other. You're Romanian… and part Roma to boot. I'm not sure how to act having her approve!"

"That's a relief." she whispered, finally relaxing. "My Romany is pretty weak. How's yours?"

"Mom refused to teach me… bad memories. She didn't want her children persecuted for that heritage, but she still takes great pride in being part Roma," he admitted. "Odd mix of emotions."

She was silent for a moment, filing that piece of information away for discussion at a later date. "You do realize that setting a date is only the first demand we will be hearing from them don't you?"

"Yep… the wedding toasts will be followed by 'when are you giving us grandbabies?'. We won't even make it out the door for our honeymoon without them exacting promises," he predicted.

Hesitant green eyes lifted to meet his. "Do you want children, John?"

Smiling softly, he nodded. "Actually, I always did… not that I was willing to admit it then, but my ex's didn't… so, no children. I guess it was for the best given how things turned out. Do you? If not, I'm OK with that."

A hopeful smile preceded, "I've always wanted children too. My pets were substitutes on some levels… not that I will give them up even if we have children."

Nodding in agreement, he rested his forehead against hers. "Well, I guess that's settled… except for dates, names, and numbers. I'm sure they will tell us what they have decided once they confer."

"You're taking this awfully well," Rella noted, fascinated by his twinkling gaze.

"I've had a lot of years to dream of you, Rella," he murmured. "Now, I'm just thankful to finally have the chance to see if dreams really do come true."

Their kiss was interrupted by, "Good thing Mom and Dad took a cab home. Somehow, I doubt Dad would approve of John making out with his baby sister in a public place."

Breaking apart, they found they had been joined by Sophie and David McAlister. David smirked as he added to his wife's observations. "I doubt your father would approve of him making out with his baby sister in private either… at least until he makes an honest woman of her. He and your father still think she should be living at home and have a chaperone at all times."

Grinning, Rella demanded, "Speaking from experience, David? I seem to remember Josif kept giving you the evil eye for years… until DJ was born. He's actually smiled at you a few times since Eva and Maria came along and became the darlings of his life."

"Damn right I'm speaking from experience! I have scars! In my opinion, John got off way too easy tonight," the stock broker complained. "They must be getting worried you're getting a little long in the tooth and… Hey! No hitting!"

Shaking her head at her husband's teasing, Sophie offered, "The kids are with David's parents tonight, so we have a rare night out. We were thinking of going to that jazz club in the East Village you were telling us about. Care to join us?"

Trading a look, the new couple nodded their heads in agreement. Rella insisted, "But no more talk about tonight's dinner or our parents! I don't care what you say, they were far harder on John than they were on you! Mama actually demanded a wedding in the near future!"

Grinning at John, David motioned for them to lead the way. "If you say so, Auntie dear. I still think they are worried you've been on the shelf too long."

Used to the banter that routinely flowed between her husband and aunt, Sophie ignored them both. "John, why don't you two leave your car at Rella's and we can all drive to the club together in our car. It is always so hard to find parking in the Village at this time of night and we will be close to Rella's on the way back to our place anyway."

"Fine by me," he agreed, cheerfully embracing the welcome her family was giving him. /Another first! I always worried Gwen's mother would hire a hit man to knock me off if we had stayed married much longer. She hated me on sight!/ "Where do you live…"

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"What are you playing at, Olivia? You've been lying and telling all of us that you were seeing someone that you made up?" Elliot demanded, confused and angry with her. "I have to trust you and now I find out you've been lying to me! How do any of us trust you after this?"

Sighing, Olivia tried to place a calming hand on his arm, but he shrugged it off with an impatient hand. "It's not like that, Elliot. I didn't make up someone to play you. I was confused and hurting and… I needed to feel less vulnerable. You've been holding me at arm's length since long before I left to go undercover and I needed…"

"Needed what? And you did more than your share of closing me out… have for at least as long as that," he demanded. "Why? I need to understand this, Liv. Otherwise, I can't trust you."

"My feelings for you, El… they got way too complicated a long time ago. You were married, so I never expected anything… I honestly didn't want anything to happen because you aren't the type of man to cheat. I didn't want to ever see you in that position because of me," she whispered. "Then, you and Kathy separated and you were going through hell. There was no place for me in that other than as a friend, but you pushed me away when I tried to be supportive."

"I had to work that through myself," he insisted, feeling defensive.

Nodding, she acknowledged, "I know, but you were my partner and I felt helpless not being able to help. You made it very clear that was all you wanted, so I tried to live with the situation, but it got to be too hard and I started building a wall around myself. When, you told me we could never let our partnership get in the way of doing the job… that you would have shot Gitano and probably killed me in the process, I had to take a break from you. I was devastated by that. I never got over it."

"Olivia…"

Holding up her hand to halt his response, she took a deep breath before admitting, "When I got back to the City after my FBI stint, I came by the office… and saw you with Dani. It was pretty clear to me how things stood between you two and it hurt like hell. I asked Don for some more time and went home to try to regroup."

"You came by and didn't let me know you were back?" he exclaimed, raking his hand through his hair in an agitated manner. "I was worried about you, damn it! What could you have seen that made it ok to keep me in the dark that you were safe?"

"I saw how you were looking at her," she whispered. "You had never looked at me like that. I had been telling myself you would never let yourself get involved with your partner… that this was the reason you kept pushing me away, but seeing you with her blew that theory out of the water. You two were having an affair and she was your partner. I was devastated, so I hid."

"You know about… about me and Dani?"

Looking away, she murmured, "Everybody knows, Elliot. It was obvious."

"The Cap… John and Fin know?" he pressed, stunned. He had been so sure he had covered his tracks.

"Yeah," she confirmed, risking a sidelong glace at him. "They also knew how I felt about you and… they were caught in the middle. When I came back, you made it clear I wasn't welcome that close… told me you didn't need me…"

"I never said that!" he insisted, angry and confused.

"Not in so many words, but… that first case back, you asked if Cragen had sent me to look after you… said you didn't need a handler." Taking a swallow of her beer to ease her suddenly dry throat, she continued. "You gave off mixed signals and I had no clue of how to react to you anymore, so I decided to hide… pretend I had someone in my life. I needed time to figure out what was going on with you… and Dani. I didn't know if you still wanted me as your partner, even if that was all we ever had together. Yes, I guess I did lie, but I didn't do it to betray you or to make things difficult. It was self-preservation, not some major conspiracy."

"The others know there is no mystery man don't they?" he demanded, feeling his emotions bubbling out of control. "They were having fun watching me make an ass of myself."

"Not really; they were stuck in the middle and didn't know how to help." Sighing, she reached for her wallet and pulled out enough money to pay for her share of the tab. "They were the ones to tell me to stop hiding and be up-front with you, so they sided with you in the end. If you want, I'll transfer so you can get a new partner… one you trust."

Elliot grabbed her arm before she could leave. "How… how do you feel about me, Liv? You haven't really said."

Looking into his eyes, she murmured, "I love you, Elliot. I have for a very long time."

Elliot caught up with her outside the bar. Pulling her to a stop, he urged her around so that they were facing each other. "You love me?"

"Yeah." Oblivious to the tears that were streaming down her face, she whispered, "I need to go, Elliot. Don't make this harder on either of us than it has to be. I'll ask Cragen for a transfer on Monday."

Reaching up to gently caress her cheek, wiping away her tears in the process, he pressed, "Do you want a transfer, Liv?"

Unconsciously nestling her face into the curve of his palm, she admitted, "It's the last thing I want, but… one of us will have to leave after this and I don't expect it to be you."

Smiling slightly, Elliot proposed, "So you don't think we can have both a professional and a personal relationship? You don't think we can do both?"

Stunned brown eyes lit with cautious hope. "Elliot… what are you saying?"

Bending his head to rest his forehead against hers, he whispered, "I'm sorry I hurt you for so long, Liv. I was confused too."

"And?" she breathed.

"I love you too."

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The front door banged against the wall as they stumbled inside, both too consumed by their need for the other to care that they were disturbing the neighbors with the noise. Shoving the door shut with his foot, he pushed his lover against the wall and began to trail kisses from her ear to her throat.

Unwilling… unable to passively allow him to control their lovemaking, she raked her fingers through his hair, letting her nails scrap and bite at his scalp. He growled in response to the stimulation, easing away from her body just enough to let her shove his heavy winter-coat and jacket off of his shoulders. He took the opportunity to so the same for her.

Freed of the insulation of the bulky outer garments, the heat of each others bodies reached out to enflame already over-sensitized flesh. Moaning loudly, frantic fingers tore at the remaining clothing keeping them from feeling the heat of skin-on-skin. Clothes, some of them with buttons missing, fell in a heap around their straining bodies.

Unable to wait for the time it would take to reach the couch or the bed, their bodies twined together… fused like molten metal. The storm didn't last long enough to truly satisfy either of them. It did little more than stoke the flames of their passion.

Lips still locked, they tried to make their way to the bed. The clothes wrapped around their legs and ankles hindered their progress and they fell to the floor, rolling together, oblivious to their location. It was some time before they rose and made the trip the rest of the way to bed.

Wicked, sated grins wreathed both faces as they joked about what had happened. Falling into bed, the humor of but a moment ago vanished and their passion took control once again.

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A/N --- I deliberately didn't name the above couple. Reader's choice of who they are… or if a similar scene is playing itself out in more than one apartment in New York City! It's a very big place after all, so who knows! WEG! Maybe it was Don and his date! Am I the only one that didn't need that mental image?!!