Chapter Seven

Elliot woke up with a feeling that something was missing. Of course, he's always had that feeling when he wakes up since Kathy left him, but this time there really was something missing. Olivia. Elliot stumbled getting out of bed and hurried down the hall. He sighed in relief. There she is. Olivia was sitting on his sofa tying her shoes. She was wearing some of his clothes; Rebecca's in a bag next to her.

"I borrowed this. I knew you wouldn't mind," Olivia said pulling at the t-shirt that was obviously too many sizes too big. Elliot just nodded. After a couple minutes of silence Elliot decided to ask.

"Where are you going?"

"Oh, well, I thought I'd- uh- go down to the station. You know I have to do it eventually."

"They won't need you to come down for another hour or so."

"Oh. Well, I'll just wait there at the crib and-"

"Let me take you to breakfast, we need to talk."

"Okay," Olivia said. She was too tired to fight with him. They fought enough already.

Olivia sat blowing on her coffee. She took a sip and set it back down. Elliot picked at his pancakes. He head already finished off his coffee and took a sip of hers without a second thought. It's just a small, unnoticed gesture of how close they've become over the years.

"Look, Liv, we need to talk about this. I'm not gonna candy-coat this. I thought we were best friends, but you couldn't even come to me when you were raped. I thought we had built trust. I don't even want to hear about the rape, right now, can we just talk about us?"

"Jealousy, confusion, lo-" she almost said love.

"What?" Elliot asked caught off guard by her quick answers.

"It starts way back…" Olivia stated truthfully.

"She's gonna need a shrink if we find her," Elliot had said.

"I already have a job," Hendrix said back.

"I know you wanna catch this guy as much as we do," he said smiling his heart-melting smile. Flirting. It wasn't what he said. It wasn't the words. That's normal conversation. It was the smiling and practically begging her to come. Olivia confronted him later.

"I know your on the rebound and everything, but if you can keep it out of work, that would be great."

Later on Elliot and Rebecca didn't think Olivia was listening, but she was.

"Elliot, the last thing I want to do is come between you and your partner"

He responded with, "Don't worry about it."

How could he not worry about it? She worried about Rebecca coming between them.

"Is that it, Liv?"

"No," she said avoiding his eyes, "There was that day. You said you expected me to shoot him. Cause your death. Then you said we needed space. I gave you space, you got angry; shut me out. When Starr offered the job, I had to take it. I was confused. You told me to leave but when I did you were mad. Then I came back and things didn't really get any better."

"Olivia, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I told you we should have some space, but I didn't want it. I was afraid I was falling in lo- wait, that's not it is it?" Elliot said catching her eye. She shook her head no and then continued with another story. One she hasn't told anyone. Ever.

"Well, when I first came home, I did stop by the station," she started, "I asked this lady where you were. She said she was your partner and because you weren't there, I went in to talk to Cragen. Don was telling me about how she was adjusting to the SVU lifestyle, but I wasn't really listening. I saw you walk in and lean over her shoulder smiling. I was jealous. That's why I didn't talk to you."

"Okay…" Elliot said knowing there was still more.

Olivia decided she'd have to talk to Elliot sometime so it might as well be now. She called Casey. Casey said she was just at the bar with Elliot and Dani, but just left them to talk to some other people. Olivia drove there to talk to Elliot but was nervous and ended up sitting in her car longer than she had planned.

At some point she saw them exit together. She wished she changed her mind and turned around. For any reason just not to see what she did. Him kissing her. Them kissing. Olivia saw them kissing.

"Olivia, we drank, we were both hurt-" Elliot said defensively.

"So that explains it. I fell so much better now, Stabler. I hope you both took care of that 'hurt' because it caused me more 'hurt' than you'll ever know. And then not too long after that he- he attacked me" Olivia lowered her voice a little avoiding causing a scene. She now had tears streaming down her face. She felt ashamed. Once again she showed him her vulnerability, but this time wasn't because she couldn't keep her feelings to herself. This time was because of him.

"I'm sorry, but what about when you were with Cassidy. That made me jealous… that hurt me, too."

"Elliot! You were still with Kathy and the kids."

"I- I know!" His phone went off. He let it ring once.

"Answer it!" Olivia yelled exasperated.

"Stabler… yes, yeah she brought her over my place and… yeah I took her to breakfast… okay we're on our way."

Olivia got up and started walking towards the car.

"Damn!" why couldn't he just tell her the way he feels?