Hey you guys! I'm back with another story for you! This may stay a one shot, but I explain more about this idea in the A/N at the end of this!

How are we feeling about the season finale? I personally BAWLED MY EYES OUT.

I wonder what this case is?

Enjoy reading my alternate ending to OC's episode!! :)

He walks tentatively to her door.

Captain Olivia Benson.

He takes a deep breath and peeks inside of her office to make sure she's there. He's still reeling from the loss of Detective Whelan, and it causes him to clutch the paper bag inside his coat tighter. His eyes look over her to make sure she's there, she's okay, and he knocks before opening the door.

"Hey," she looks up from her computer, and she's definitely not sitting down. Her ass still hurts from that bullet, and she's not going to try to put herself in any more pain than she already is. Besides, she's heard that standing is so much better for work than sitting.

"They got you working already?" He's questioning her. What he wants to say is that she needs to be home, resting, taking up time with Noah. She'd been shot for God's sakes, and Elliot almost lost it in the exam room until Ayanna called him to tell him about Kyle.

"Yeah, well, unfortunately sexual assault doesn't stop because some doctor in Ohio tells me to take two weeks off."

She's watching him as she speaks, him moving towards her desk slowly. His eyes are downcast, and grief is weighing on his shoulders and fuck. She's realizing she'd forgotten about his detective. She gives him a sympathetic look and tilts her head.

"Aw, I'm so sorry... about your guy Whelan." She's careful. She doesn't want to see him upset. She's already witnessed it too much since they've picked up this case. Now, with it closing, it just doesn't seem fair that he's having to say goodbye to another person.

"Me too." He finds her eyes then. He knows he can draw from the comfort they bring, the warmth and empathy they can give. He's stoic for a few seconds and blinks, taking a deep breath. He's thinking about Whelan, but he's thinking about her, and he doesn't care that it is or isn't the right moment for this because he has to say it. He speaks before she even has the chance to.

"It's got me thinking again." He gives a grim smile and turns away. He's trying to gather the strength and the courage to tell her, but he can feel himself chickening out, and he's trying really hard to say what he needs to tell her.

"About?" She can see the grief in his stature, the painstaking way he pauses before he speaks. And she knows. She knows he's come to say something to her, something she isn't prepared for. But she's ready. That's what she tells herself because she loves him. She knows she does, and she knows he feels the same, but he's giving her space to figure things out because he's already fucked up once in her kitchen after Bx9.

He's shaking his head and trying to pull himself together to say what his mind is screaming at him to shove down and pack away for a later time. He starts to bite his lip because his heart is beating profusely and he feels himself breaking, but he can't do that. Not here. Not now. He licks his lips in anticipation, and he lifts his brows and lowers them just as quick.

She knows he's trying to maintain a face where he appears calm, but she knows him. He's hurting. He's scared. She is too, but she doesn't know what's coming out of his mouth, and she can only prepare herself for the unexpected. He steps a little closer. He looks at her then as he speaks.

"How precious life is." He hands her a gift then. She can see the hesitation, but it isn't because he doesn't want to; it's because he's nervous, and now she is too, and her heart is beating 90 miles a minute.

"El," she starts to say, but she can hear the quiver in her voice, and luckily, he decides to step in and say something else because he's not done. He hasn't said what he wants to say.

"It's also got me thinking about us." He's surprised that he said it. He finds her eyes and she's staring back. He can see the fear pooling in them, and he wants so badly to squelch whatever she has conjured in her mind, but he still needs to bare his soul to her, and he can't do that and comfort her and still say what he wants to say before time runs out for the both of them.

"W-What about us?" He can hear the stammer in her tone. She's gearing up to run or push him away and he won't have that. Not this time. He's tired of running from her, and he's tired of not being with her and living his life. She makes him happy, but she infuriates him; she completes him. She makes him want to be better. She pushes him to do and to just be. When he'd been Eddie Wagner, she'd wanted Elliot Stabler.

"Our lives. Like I said in the exam room back in Ohio, I thought I'd lost you." He's tentative, watching her as she shifts her weight from side to side. He's observing her now, seeing the way her eyes flutter open and closed, the way her chest rises and falls. Her hands have found a place on top of the bag he had placed on her desk just moments ago.

"Olivia, when that gun went off, and I felt you go down, I thought that was it. That I had lost my partner. And when you told me you'd been hit, I panicked. I couldn't see a thing, and you'd been hit, and there wasn't a thing I could do. I was scared, Liv. Scared I was going to be losing you for good."

She sees the tears swimming in his eyes, and she walks around the desk, slowly because she's still in a good amount of pain, but his pain outweighs hers far more. She could see the weight of everything in his stance, and she wants nothing more than to shoulder some of that burden. She reaches up and wipes away a tear that had fallen from his eyes. She touches her hand to his chest, carefully like she had done in the exam room in Ohio. She can feel the steady beat of his heart start to accelerate.

"El, I'm right here, thanks to you. If your gun hadn't been pulled, neither of us would be standing here. You did that. You protected me. You protected us."

She puts emphasis on the latter two sentences because she wants him to realize just how grateful she is that he was sitting beside her in that diner. That he had protected her like he's always done. A piece of her hair falls across her face, and Elliot is quick to swipe it behind her ear. She blushes slightly at his contact; it's intimate now. Where it had been friendly in her office just a minute ago, they were now in a moment.

He cups her face in the hand that had tucked her hair, and he cradles it gently, as if she'd break. To him, she means the world, and he knows in his heart that he would have gone through heaven and hell to make sure she was safe. That she is safe.

"Liv," he takes his other hand from the coat pocket and cradles her other cheek. He's observing her as her pupils dilate. Everything in his head is screaming at him to stop this right now but his heart is gently pushing him along and telling him that this is right. That she is right. She takes the hand that isn't against his chest and holds his wrist. She's staring back at him and can see in his eyes what his words can't convey. What he's been trying to say this whole damn time he's been in her office.

"Liv, I can't lose you."

"You won't. you haven't. I'm right here." She takes the hand that she's holding and places it against her heart, and now they are both feeling the drumming of the other's heart. He's processing that she's actually here and alive instead of in a body bag somewhere in Ohio. She's soaking in that he's not going to leave her without goodbye ever again.

"Olivia, I care for you. I care for your son."

His voice is a soft whisper of the usual booming voice. She can feel every emotion and hear it in every breath. She is locking eyes with him now.

"El," she starts, and she looks down quickly at their shoes, not knowing how she's going to tell him what she so desperately needs to say before he walks out of here.

"Elliot, do you remember that night in January? When I asked you to pick up Noah?"

"I do. I also remember that it wasn't a good moment for me."

He's smiling, and she's taking that as a good sign. She looks back at him and gives him the same soft smile she had given him in front of the courthouse just a few days prior. When they first realized that their cases were one big case.

"I'm ready." She is quiet in the way she says it. He's staring at her, not sure if he's heard her correctly or if she's even talking about that night anymore.

"You're ready?" He's moving closer to her, and he can feel her heartbeat thrumming against his palm, and he's sure that she can feel his because his heart is panicking.

"What if things work out?" She's watching as his eyes widen in realization that she is talking about that night and her comment. She's parroted what he told her in the kitchen that night.

"Then we will take it step by step and do this the best way we know how," he responds simply. She takes her hand from his chest and slides it to the back of his head. He can feel her pulling him to her, and he's taking the hand that's cradling her face and drawing her to him. Their lips meet, uncertain and nervous. She pulls away first, not meeting his gaze. He tilts her head back to him and dives in for another. She's taking both of her hands now and placing them against his face and pulling him back to her. Now, their lips meet hungrily, more fiercely than before. He slides his hands from her face to her sides and pulls her flush against him. They both pull away, breaths heavy with desire, but hearts knowing that it needs to stop there before anything else can occur inside her office.

"I think I can manage step by step."

He smiles at her, still holding her against him and silently thanking God that she is ready and that she is here and alive. He kisses her once more before releasing his hold on her body. She slides her hands down back to his chest and lays her cheek against it. He wraps her in his arms and hugs her, the weight of the moment being that they're so happy that they're here.

"What's in the bag, Stabler?"

"You won't know until you open the pretty red Christmas present."

FINNIS

I may post a second chapter that follows up a few months after this. We all know that Elliot essentially tells Olivia goodbye after this because he's got a case. Well, I'm thinking of adding something here that is adjacent to it!

Let me know what you think!