Disclaimer: Law & Order SVU/OC and its characters don't belong to me. This story has been written for fun only, not for money.

Spoilers: SVU24 & OC3 finale crossovers speculation

Summary: Benson and Stabler fight about Oscar Papa. A small cameo from the GHOL. Not related to my other story with a similar prompt !

Notes: I had a need for them to fight I guess hehe I focused on the dialogue a bit more.

Please enjoy and review!

Power of the GHOL

By musical-Aven

Olivia stormed through the heavy door. The crispy air hit her face, making her both shiver and close her eyes. Elliot followed her a few steps behind. It turned out, the SVU precinct wasn't the only office with a rooftop they could go to for this.

They had come back to OCCB earlier that evening, after a meeting with the US Attorney. Sergeant Bell had made a quick exit once they debriefed together. Benson was fuming at her former partner and could barely contain her anger during the debriefing. Once Bell left, Olivia had taken the stairs up to the roof, not even bothering bringing her coat.

Now, the humidity of the night and the imminent rain ran through her blouse straight to her bones, but she didn't care about it at all.

"I can't believe you did that." She said, finally turning to Elliot.

She found him a few steps from her, in the middle of the rooftop. The space wasn't clean, it had a couple of metal boxes and ramps around, debris on the floor. His eyes met hers in a similar anger.

"Liv-" he tried but was quickly shut down.

"I can't believe you went behind my back like this!"

"I had to! Oscar Papa wasn't going to give information to anyone else." He raised his voice as the wind picked up.

"He was willing to!" she shouted back. "To me. He asked to see me, Elliot."

"Yeah, like I was allowing you to get into that room."

"You don't get to say in which room I go into, Detective!"

"Well, not in this one! He came at you before, he wasn't getting the satisfaction of seeing you again."

"The US Attorney benched us, Elliot! Because of you!"

"I don't care, Liv."

"Well, my career does! We're not simple detectives anymore…well I'm not. I'm a Captain and if I can't get you to follow my orders-"

"I don't follow orders, everyone knows that. They won't put this on you."

"Omg…" Olivia pinched the bridge of her nose in pure anger, it took everything in her not to explode at him.

After his impromptu meeting with Papa, the US Attorney had met them both and Olivia had to explain why a detective went into the interrogation before all of the teams involved made a plan on the approach. Without telling the real reason Stabler had gone in, the partners had formulated a plausible explanation which let them off the hook of a serious reprimand. The US Attorney had then decided to remove them from the case because of their closeness to Oscar Papa. Bell and Tutuola were now the ones leading the operation.

Olivia had managed to keep her frustration to herself long enough, but it had to come out. At the peak of their argument, raindrops had started to fall on them. They were both getting wet but neither made a move to get inside. Out of the corner of her eye, Olivia saw Elliot extend his arm towards her. She hadn't noticed it until now, but he had come up with a jacket on his shoulders and a sort of soft jacket with a grey hoodie attached to it in his hand.

"Put this on." He said, their argument still very much alive.

Olivia stood her ground.

"I'm fine." She said, fighting a shiver and crossing her arm.

Elliot stared at her but understood she wasn't going to let him help her in any way, so he threw the jacket on a metal ramp near her instead.

"Fine." He paced a few steps away.

They both took a moment to gather their emotions. Olivia sent a quick look at the warm hoodie when Elliot was turned away but stubbornly refrained from taking it.

"I told you not to get involved with Papa." Benson tried to keep her voice down but still let him know why she was mad at him.

"I went in to get the information." He said in return, half convincingly.

"You went in there to *avenge* me, Elliot, let's get real!" The frustration came back.

He fully turned towards her now, assessing.

"Get real?!" he stepped closer and stopped a few feet in front of her. "Why won't you let me protect you?"

His eyes conveyed more pain than anger now and it threw Olivia off balance for a second.

"I didn't ask you to protect me!"

"You don't need to ask, Liv! I'm your partner, I protect you."

Olivia sighed in frustration and broke eye contact to start pacing herself. But Elliot continues speaking.

"It's what I do. What I've always done."

"Not always…" despite herself, Olivia spoke out loud, looking down at her feet.

She wasn't sure Elliot had heard her through the rain, because of the long silence that followed.

"Is this what it's all been about, then?" he asks, fully ready to open that can of worms.

His absence. The thing they never really talked about since his return. They both knew it had hurt her and that it was the main reason she was keeping him at arm's length for the last 2 years. But they never talked about it. And now, Elliot bringing it out tonight, while they were both so fired up, so emotionally raw already, it was dangerous. And it made Olivia even more angry that he would push her into a corner like this.

He wanted to have this argument, Olivia thought, let's have it. The rain was stronger now, soaking her blouse even more, but she didn't let it affect her.

"Would it be so unreasonable?!" she fired back, her eyes boring into his.

Elliot held her gaze, assessing if they were really going there tonight.

"Not at all." He said softly and it threw her off yet again. She was looking for a fight, but he wasn't going to give it to her it seemed. "It would make total sense that my leaving is the main source of this, right now. Of everything else, too."

Her face showed the surprise at his honesty. She was speechless for a moment and Stabler took advantage. He took the hoodie on the metal bar and approached her with it. This time she accepted the offer and put it on, shivering at the warmth. His scent engulfed her, but his voice brought her back to their conversation.

"When I came back, I half expected you to either punch me or worse, refuse to talk to me at all." He said, his voice softer both because he was closer to her but also because the anger was replaced by sadness.

Olivia swallowed but didn't let herself be swayed by it. She didn't want to feel anything else right now than anger. Couldn't deal with any other emotions.

"Well, even if that's what you would have done if the situation was reversed, it doesn't mean we all react the same…" she said, trying to keep the fight alive.

Elliot noted her tone and her refusal to his attempts to shift the conversation. So he did the only thing he *knew* would make her completely mad again. He laughed.

Boy, was he right. The look she gave him could have stopped any perp on the street.

"What *I* would have done?" he picked up her words. "If you'd left without a word for ten years and came back out of nowhere?" he asked, defiantly. "You don't wanna know what I would have done, Olivia."

Olivia frowned. Oh this ought to be good.

"Let's hear it, Stabler." She crossed her arm.

Chapter 2 coming soon!

Appreciate the reviews guys! :)