Disclaimer: I don't own a thing.

She's been home two hours. Two fucking hours, on this, the one day she has had off in two weeks without a call in…. And some moron was at her door. Needless to say, she was pissed

On top of the non-stop parade of sickness she's been lucky enough to be a part of for the last two weeks; she's been up for 36 hours straight on this last one. Not even the cribs could offer as a solace, so she finally sulked home merely two hours ago, leaving her paper work for, fingers crossed, Monday. God, her life was hell sometimes.

Moving from her bed, she made her way to her front door, swinging it open, only to be met face to face with non-other than Elliot Stabler. She asked who it was, twice, on her way to the door but no answer. So gun in hand, safety off, she took the chance and swung it open. Only to feel like she couldn't shoot someone if she wanted to, because she was just too damn surprised. She really should have looked through the peephole though, hindsight.

"You know, there's this great thing called a phone, try it some time." She tells him as she turns around, flicks the safety back on, sets her gun on the counter, and moves back into her apartment, as he shuts the door and follows.

"Sorry. Figured I'd surprise you."

"I don't like surprises."

"Right."

"Forget that much about me already Stabler, it's not even been two years. Getting old?" She teases.

"Funny." He replies.

"Figured I'd come over," he says, holding up a 6 pack of beer "And we could watch the game."

"What time is it?" She asks

"3:30." he tells her, glancing down at his watch.

"In the afternoon?" She asks, he nods.

"Whoa." She says, and he gives her a questioning look as they move to sit down on the couch. "Work." She answers.

"Oh." He says, adding "How long?"

"36 hours."

"Damn."

"Yeah."

They watched the game, and they laughed. But not in the way they laughed in their previous visit, but real, un-pained laughs. They were comfortable, it almost felt like them. Like whom they used to be. It felt unexplainably amazing. But after the game, after all the yelling at the TV, after all the laughing, explanation set in. They were sitting there on her couch engrossed in another game, or so she thought, when he decided to speak.

"I ended up at confession."

"What?" She looks over to him, and this is when she notices he's staring off into space, his eyes fixed on her wall in front of him.

"After I left. That night. I couldn't go home, and I couldn't come here, and I just needed somewhere to go. So, before I knew it, I'd ended up at confession."

She didn't think they were still talking about this, not after that night, nearly a month ago. Not after she showed up on his door step and he explained everything he could to her.

"El, you don't have to say any more about th.…"

But she never got to finish, because his voice came in interrupting.

"Liv. I…. I need to."

That was all he had to say. She got it now, and she wasn't about to stop him. He needed her. So a simple nod was given, and he continued.

"When I got there, and I realized where I was, I went in with the intention of only speaking of Jenna. But it went so much further than that." He tells her, shaking his head back and forth. But when he looks up at her, confusion is written all over his face. And she knows why.

The expression on her face couldn't be anything other than shock. And maybe a little bit of pride. He just called her by name, without wincing.

"What? What I'd say?" He sounded pretty panicked, and her expression couldn't be helping.

"You called her by name. Jenna. Without wincing." She tells him.

"I'm healing." He says, shrugging his shoulders.

"I'm glad. Really glad." She says, giving him a small, but proud smile.

He chuckles slightly and returns the smile, then asks "What's that look?"

"I'm just… I'm just proud of you El. You're healing, and you're not resisting it or anything that comes with it. And you seem to be putting everything back together again, and I'm just…." Trailing off, he finishes her sentence for her.

"Proud." She nods. "You're fucking amazing, Liv. You really are."

She gives him a questioning look so he continues. "After everything, after all of this, you still have the ability to be invested enough in what's happening with other people, and you're still selfless enough, even though you have all the right in the world not to be, to be proud of me." He lets out a breathy laugh and shaking his head again, he turns and smiles at her. "And you wonder why I fell in love with you."

Eyebrows raised, she turns to face him, shifting so her elbow was propped up on the top of the couch, and her head leaning into her hand.

She couldn't wait to watch him try to get himself out of this one.

"I…" He starts, looking as if he was just busted with his hand in the cookie jar, with absolutely no explanation, "Just backed myself into a corner with no way out." He finishes, shaking his head and frowning slightly.

"Oh, please try though. Please do, I could use the entertainment." She tells him chuckling slightly.

"Hey, no making fun of a man who just wrote his own death sentence." And now, he laughs slightly too.

God she wants to scold him. But when he laughs like that, and that damn thousand watt smile lights up his face, she just… Can't. She doesn't have the damn will power anymore.

Damn him. "You know, it might have been nice to not have had to find out this way…" She says, giving him a pondering look.

And he knows she's messing with him, but he walks right into it anyway. "What, would have a formally written letter worked better?"

"Yeah, yeah. That would have worked." She can't help it now, she's full on laughing. And so is he.

Her heart still feels like it's about to fall right out of her chest, like it's holding on by the smallest of arteries, but it just feels so light hearted that it doesn't matter. Neither of them are being serious or freaking out, so it feels like if it does drop, it won't do too much damage on its way down, or upon its landing.

"I'm sorry though. I really shouldn't have said it like that. I didn't even realize it was coming out of my mouth until it already had."

"El, it's alright. I get it."

"Yeah?" He asks, eyebrows raised.

"Yeah." She tells him.

"I don't need to go ahead and call a bus in advance?"

"Well…"

"Liv!"

"Oh shut up, you know you love me anyway." She says, a smirk coming over her face.

"That was low. REAL low." He says. But she can still see him smiling.

"Oh shut up, Stabler." She can't help but smile, and blush a little. Then she notices he's giving her a look.

"What?" She says, laughing nervously.

"You're beautiful when you smile." He says, nonchalantly.

And now she's pretty sure her heart HAS dropped right out of her chest. He's gonna end up killing her.

"El…"

"Liv, look. I'm…"

"Still married." She cuts him off.

"What?"

"You're still married El, and I don't know how comfortable I am with you saying that kind of stuff right now. Not when you still have a wife."

He takes in a breath, and all she just said. And his face shows understanding.

"Right, right. Sorry."

"Don't apologize. Just…"

"Watch what I do say before I do have to call that bus?" He finished for her.

"Yeah, yeah. Watch it Stabler."

"Oh, feisty." He says, giving her a smile that she's pretty sure is flirty, but she doesn't say anything. It's not like he hasn't done it before.

"Always have been." She says.

"Damn straight." He replies, shifting in his seat, and suddenly seeming a hell of a lot closer to her.

That better not have been intentional. She will kick his ass right off this couch. Literally.

She notices now, how goddamn hot he looks in that t-shirt. Plain white, but it still seems to send her hormones in a damn frenzy. And sweet lord those jeans, she swears she was two seconds from jumping his bones when he turned around to shut her door and she caught a glimpse of that damn unholy ass….

She looks up from the southern direction her gaze has seemingly wondered, only to meet eye to eye with him. Swallowing hard, she tries to keep her focus on the fact that he's still married. About that time, he speaks…

"You know, it finalized a week ago."

Apparently he's showing off his damn mind reading skills again. She wants to scream at him with all she has, but suddenly she has lost all ability to speak. So she just swallows hard again, and gives him a shaky but questioning look.

"I didn't want to tell you because…. I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want you to get the wrong idea when I showed up on your doorstep today. I didn't want you to think I had ulterior motives. That's why I hadn't called after you showed up. That's why I dropped off the face of the earth again for a month. I was dealing with all that shit finalizing."

Taking it all in, her train of thought suddenly stops… Wait a second, if it just finalized a week ago, that means when she came to him a month ago it was in the process. He lied. The hell? About that time, she can tell she's starting to look all panicky, because she's getting all panicky. And then him and his bastard "I can read your face like a book" self-starts speaking again. Explaining.

"I lied to you. I know. And that probably just hit you and you probably feel like decking me. But just hear me out. I figured if I told you about it, if I didn't lie, karma would fucking kick in for all the shit I've done over the years or something and something would happen. It would get delayed or Kathy would change her mind or something, and I was just trying to get it over with as smoothly as possible. It's not any easy process. Especially when you have five kids together. I'm sorry Liv, I really am. I just didn't want to screw this shit up, or drag you into something you shouldn't have to be a part of."

She didn't know what to say. She got it, she really did. And she wasn't mad, she understood. But she still just didn't know what to say.

"You're pissed. Damn it, I knew you would be. I knew I should have told you I just…"

"El!" She interrupted him and his little rushed and desperate rant. She really wasn't mad.

"Take a breath. It's alright. I'm not mad."

He looked so damn relieved, she just had to smile. He just looked so cute.

"Really?" He asks.

"Really."

"Oh thank God." He says, running a hand up over his face and letting out a breath, "I've felt like such a serious ass-hat this entire time for not telling you. "

All she has to do is smile at him, and he suddenly looks like the entire weight of the world is lifted of his shoulders. It's nice.

She looks up, and into his eyes again, and then suddenly he's moving and she's not breathing and then his goddamn lips are on hers and she swears she's about to pass the fuck out. But then his left hand finds her left hip, and those damn hormones kick in again. And suddenly she's kissing him back and she has no idea what the fuck she's doing, but God does she know it feels good. And she knows she can't even begin to explain how much she shouldn't be doing this right now, and she knows she'll pay for this, but she doesn't care. She just doesn't care. Because she does know now though, that her little theory about moving on with her life without Elliot, is shit.

AN: Ok, so he didn't call her the next day. But he did show up on her door step with a damn six pack of beer looking all hot in his white t-shirt and unholy ass flattering jeans. So, that makes up for that missing phone call right? Right? Pretty please? Ok, anyway. Review my dears, much appreciated.