March 1998

'Detective, this is your new partner, Detective Elliot Stabler. Elliot, this is Olivia Benson.'

'It's nice to meet you Elliot.' Olivia smiled and stuck her hand out to shake. Elliot looked at it for a moment, shook it, then stuffed his hand back into his suit pocket.

Olivia noticed the other detectives in the room exchanging glances. Boy, this looked like it was going to be fun...

Olivia sighed. She'd only just gotten transferred into the unit she was really interested in, and she'd managed to get partnered with some stubborn macho-man. At least she'd managed to get him to go sit with her in the diner over the street after work, just to try and get to know each other.

Actually, thinking about it, maybe that was even worse. So far all they had done was sit in silence, her trying to think of something, anything to say, and him picking his fingernails and grousing about the coffee.

'So, uh, Elliot,' she started awkwardly. 'How long have you lived in Manhattan?'

He looked up at her. 'I don't. I live in Queens.' Elliot took another sip of the coffee and wrinkled his nose. 'This diner is just-'

'Queens, huh? That sounds nice,' said Olivia cheerfully. 'What part of Queens?'

He stared at her again. 'Its armpit.' He went back to examining his fingernails.

'That's... interesting.' They returned to sitting in awkward silence. About five minutes passed before Olivia finally ran out of patience with him. 'Elliot, stop sulking.'

Elliot took a short break from glaring at his coffee to glare at her instead. 'I'm not.'

'Yes you are. In fact, I think you might actually be pouting.'

Elliot chose to ignore her and muttered to himself about crappy coffee, sticky tables, and something about women.

'Elliot, while spending my time sitting in a cramped diner with a man who does nothing but sulk, whine and curse under his breath is nothing if not exciting, I do have better things to do with my time.' Olivia snatched his coffee mug away and handed it to a passing server. 'Now, we don't have to be best friends, but we could at least be civil.'

He looked vaguely surprised. 'You took my coffee.'

'You said it was terrible. Oh no, I'm sorry, that it 'tasted like someone had mixed it with their dirty feet.''

Elliot opened and closed his mouth a few times, then sat back in silence and crossed his arms.

Another couple of minutes of silence followed, and Olivia had finally had enough of putting up with Elliot's crap. 'Goodbye, Elliot, I suppose I'll see you at the precinct tomorrow.' She grabbed her bag and stood up. 'It was lovely meeting you.'

'You married?'

'Excuse me?'

Elliot looked up at her and gestured at the seat she had just left. 'Are you married?'

Olivia paused, then sat down again. 'No, I'm not, I've found that it doesn't go well with the job.'

Elliot smiled wryly and nodded. 'Yeah, you got that right.'

Olivia smiled back. 'Are you?'

'Yeah, to a girl called Kathy. Well, a woman I guess. We got four kids.' He smiled his first actual genuine smile of the evening. 'Three girls and a boy.'

'Wow, three girls, that must be interesting to live with.' Olivia still hadn't forgotten the joys of sharing a tiny Manhattan one-bedroom with four other girls after college.

'Eh, it's not too bad. Main problem's getting into the bathroom on a weekday morning.' He laughed and sat forward again. 'So, how'd you get interested in working for Special Victims?' He paused and signalled to a server. 'Can we have two more coffees here please?'

Olivia smiled.

A/N: One more chapter to go, guys, then I'm done on this one! I hope you enjoyed it anyway, and that you like the rest of my stuff that you read! I've got two more still updating and another two currently in the works, so there is much more E/O to be had!