A/N: Hey, so here it is. Let's see how it all plays out. Thank you sooo very much to all of you who've reviewed! I love you all!! So without further ado I give you... chapter 5!!

Disclaimer: Not mine.

When Elliot flew out of the door Olivia was just climbing into the cab in he drive way. He ran as fast as he could towards the drivers side. He tapped on the window and the cab driver rolled it down irritably. "What?" he asked in his thick accent.

"I'll pay you double the fare of the trip back into the city if you go and leave without her." Elliot said trying to catch his breath. The man just shrugged and stuck out his hand for payment. Elliot paid him and he drove away.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Olivia bit. He approached her and took her bag out of his arms and placed it on the ground. She immediately picked it up again and began walking down the driveway.

"Olivia!" he called after her, she didn't turn around though. She imply stared straight ahead and pulled out her cell phone. He vaguely heard her mention a cab, and he deduced that she was calling another one. H went after her and tried to grab her arm but she yanked it away from him with such a force that it scared him.

He was about to speak when Bernie came running out of the house and towards them, "Wait!" she ran passed Elliot and straight to Olivia. "Can we talk?" there was a certain sincerity in her voice that Olivia had yet to see from her, and under any other circumstances she would have agreed, but she couldn't.

"I don't think that's a very good idea…" she said half heartedly, her voice still shaky from her previous tears.

"Please?" the desperation in Bernie's voice broke through her and she finally agreed.

"Fine, but I don't have long. My cab will be here soon."

"Elliot, go in the house. Olivia and I need to speak privately." Elliot was going to object but decided against it when he heard the seriousness in his mother's voice, so he simply turned around and sulked back inside.

"He loves you, you know." Olivia nodded but didn't speak as the tears welled in her eyes again. "I wasn't sure that he really did, but the way he talks about you… the way he looks at you. A mother knows."

Olivia wanted to shake her by the shoulders and ask why she'd treated her so poorly if she knew that Elliot loved her.

"Listen to me," Bernie sighed. "I know we haven't been very good to you today, and I'm sure that you'd rather be anywhere other than here right now-"

Olivia cut her off as her tears begin to flow, "No," she shook her head. "That's just it, you don't understand, I don't want to be any where other than here right now. Elliot's here, and if he's here that's where I want to be. I'm not an expert on love, and I don't know what it's like to love and be loved unconditionally, but I promise you that I do love him. I know that you don't think that I'm good enough for him, and I know that I'm not Kathy, but I love him, and I used to think that was enough… but apparently it's not."

"Oh honey, you could hate him and he'd still love you. Until today I'd never seen him so happy, but I'd also never seen him so upset. For whatever reason that man loves you and it's plain to see that you love him." Olivia nodded in agreement as she wiped away her tears. "I want to apologize to you… for everything, and for all of us. We were just trying to protect him."

"I know." Olivia whispered, her eyes fixed on the ground.

"Contrary to what you may think I don't hate you Olivia." Olivia scoffed in disbelief. "I like you a lot actually, but I didn't take your feelings for Elliot seriously. I do now, and I'm asking you to accept my apology, and stay with us. Please?" she smiled softly at Olivia.

"Something tells me Lisa wouldn't like that very much…"

"Oh screw Lisa!" Olivia's eyes widened at her obscenity "Honey, I love my daughter but she can be a real bitch. She's just jealous of you. So please, will you stay with us?"

Olivia shook her head, "I don't think Elliot-"

"I don't think Elliot would survive if you didn't. Please?" and with that Olivia nodded slowly.

"Thank you Mrs. Stabler." she smiled through her tears.

"Oh please, you're practically family now… call me Bernie." she said as she pulled Olivia into an embrace that Olivia was happy to return.

******* Back in the House********

Elliot walked in the house looking like a mess. He sat down on one of the chairs in the living room where the rest of his family sat waiting silently and in shock at Elliot's reaction. Elliot was always the strong one, nothing upset him, and nothing ever upset him to the degree of grief that he was in now.

"Elliot, honey are you okay?" Amy asked gently. Elliot didn't respond, he just sat there staring off into space looking the epitome of a broken man.

"You're better off without her El…" Lisa said. This was enough to break his trance and set him into a fit of rage.

"How can you say that?!?"

"But-" Lisa tried.

"NO! I don't care what you think, because you'll never get it! When she walks into a room it's like everything else disappears and it's only us, and when I'm not with her all I can think about is being with her. I just want to be with her all of the time, because when I'm with her I get that butterfly feeling that people in the movies always talk about, but it doesn't go away. I love her, and now she's gone. She's gone and I feel like right now I'd be better off dead! She's my whole world… everything, and without her I would have been dead a long time ago. I know I don't deserve her, and she probably deserves so much better than me, but I'm too selfish to let her go. I need her, she… she's everything." tears had built in his eyes and they were threatening furiously to break free.

"Oh…" he heard a muffled sob behind him and turned towards it. There Olivia stood in the doorway with her hand over her mouth and tears cascading down her cheeks. He stared straight through his tears and into her own. He couldn't believe that she'd heard him, and couldn't blame her for wanting to run even further from him.

But to his surprise and relief within seconds he found her in his arms. "Oh you're so corny sometimes." she said laughing through tears as she kissed him. "I love you though."

As soon as she had run to him he wrapped his arms around her so tightly that he couldn't imagine anyone ever being able to pry them apart. He savored the feeling of her lips on his own, and as soon as they parted for oxygen he buried his face into her hair and inhaled her sweet aroma.

"I'm sorry." he whispered. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"

"Me too… me too." they kissed again, and as soon as they parted Elliot's entire family rose up in applause.

A/N: Yay!! They're fnally happy again!! haha. So I know that this seems like it could kind f be the last chapter, but I'm not ready to let this go yet, so there's still more to come. Haha anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and don't forget to review!! - xox Sam