Law and Order: SVU is the intellectual property of Dick Wolf. The use of the characters, settings, and plotlines is not malicious. This is a work of fiction.

"El," Olivia said, biting her lip as she stared at him from the kitchen doorway, "Come on, maybe he's not coming after us, after all. You've been standing by the door with your gun drawn for hours."

"And I'm staying right here until I blow Haven's head off," he responded, unblinking, gritting his teeth.

Sighing, she moved toward him. "Sit down," she said, bringing her hands up to rest on his rigid shoulders. "You're scaring me."

"Well, that phone call scared me," he snapped back at her. Then, he exhaled and blinked slowly. "Sorry, I...I didn't mean to yell at you. But I'm not moving. Not until..."

He was silenced by a scratching sound at the door. He aimed his gun, took a step closer, and said, "Either brace yourself or get out of the room."

Suddenly scared, she gripped and raised her own weapon. She moved to stand next to Elliot, but he shot a hand out and told her to stay behind him. She wasn't in the mood to argue, but she also wasn't in the mood to play damsel-in-distress, so she pushed his arm away and moved beside him.

The scratching got louder, the knob began to twist slowly. The stillness, silence between them made them even more nervous, and at the same moment, they took another step and raised their guns a little higher. The door opened, the smallest crack, and Elliot's sharp intake of breath almost made Olivia pull her trigger too soon.

She watched the door open a bit more, and her instincts told her something wasn't right. "Gun," she said, leaping on top of Elliot and slamming him into the floor, just as the nose of a pistol peeked around the wooden door. Shots rang out as Elliot, now on his knees, returned fire, clear through the door, not really caring who was on the other side.

Olivia tried to pull him with her, toward the kitchen, but he was determined. She heard a gruff voice curse and moan in pain, and the stranger's weapon fell to the floor of what should have been the safest house in the world. She leaped to her feet and kicked the gun away from the open, bullet-shredded door, and yanked on the knob, swinging it wide. "Elliot," she called to him, a slight waver in her voice.

Elliot ran to her, looking down, then around, confused. He swore he'd shot someone, but there was no body, no blood. "What the fuck..."

"Diversions," a voice from behind them called, followed by a short but evil laugh. "As New York's Finest, I would have assumed you'd be smarter than that."

Without hesitation, Elliot raised his gun and fired, hitting the man in the shoulder. "Get behind me," he said to Olivia, trying to cover her in case the man got up and tried something.

"Fuck you," she spat, raising an eyebrow as she raised her gun. "When have I ever..." she stopped talking when she saw, out of the corner of her eye, the man on the ground crawling toward her. She trained her gun on him. "Don't you dare, you son-of-a-bitch."

The man chuckled again. "I guess this means you know who I am?"

"Haven," Elliot spat, kneeling down and pressing the barrel of his gun to Haven's head. "Give me a reason."

As if he suddenly realized what was happening, Haven's grin faded. "I didn't think you'd be this hard to take out."

"Give me," Elliot snarled, his jaw clenched as he pressed his gun deeper against Haven's temple, "A reason. Why? Why us?"

Haven laughed again. "Like I was gonna turn down five million dollars."

"Someone hired you?" Olivia asked, stunned. "Who?"

"This didn't have anything to do with your mother?" Elliot questioned, confused, but still holding his gun steady.

Haven shook his head. "I went to the cops, when I found that report in Koehler's office. I just wanted to talk to you, at first, ask her...what she was like, if I could go visit her just so I could ask her why she gave me away."

"But that somehow turned into you trying to kill us?" Elliot almost yelled.

Haven took a breath and gulped, closing his eyes, feeling as though Elliot would pull the trigger. When he didn't, one eye opened. "No, just...just you, Stabler."

"Who hired you? Why?" Olivia asked, the color draining from her face. This was supposed to end, finish. She was supposed to get her life back, but now she was being thrown into something even more terrifying, more dangerous. Biting her lip, she took a step forward. "If he doesn't shoot you, I will, now answer the..."

"I don't know why!" Haven yelled, narrowing his eyes at her. "I didn't ask for a reason. The man offered me five mil, said all I had to do was follow you around and take the chance when I got it, and fuck, you two are hard to kill." He laughed snidely. "I wasn't even trying to kill you. You, Benson, would just be a bonus. Collateral damage, as they say."

"Who?" Elliot snapped, hitting his gun into the side of Haven's head again, reminding him his life could be over any moment. "A name."

"Don't know that either," Haven said, side-eyeing Elliot as beads of sweat dripped down his forehead.

Olivia furrowed her brow, dropping her gun. "Something...something isn't right, here." She looked around the house. "El, Porter said he was going to be out front, waiting. He would have seen Haven rigging that gun, or wouldn't he come running if he heard shots?" She turned to look at the shelving unit, where the security camera lay hidden, and she didn't see the usual blinking lights. "Camera's are off. You don't think..."

"All right pal," Elliot grunted, pulling Haven to his feet, keeping the gun where it was. "You're coming with me." He dragged Haven, who was now moaning in pain and bleeding from his shoulder wound, toward the front door. He looked across the street, his eyes narrow. "Son-of-a-bitch," he said. "No car. No Porter." He looked at Olivia. "I'm gonna...have a little man-to-man chat with our friend, here, uh, go into the bedroom, baby. Call Cragen."

Olivia gave him a concerned look.

"You probably shouldn't be here," Elliot said to her, venom in his words and fire in his eyes. "Cameras aren't on, no one would believe anything this little piss-ant says, and you'll have..."

"Plausible deniability," she said, catching on. "Don't...don't kill him," she said, a half-whisper, almost pleading.

Elliot shook his head. "You know me," he told her, and then he turned his head and gave Haven a threatening look. "I know when to stop, but...if you ask me to put you out of your misery, I will." He looked back at Olivia. "Go."

Fear in her eyes, hidden behind slight arousal and a tinge of menace, she nodded once at him and walked toward the stairs. Halfway up, she heard a loud crunching sound and Haven's blood-curdling cry. She momentarily thanked God they were on an empty street, remote, away from anyone who would have heard him. She made it to the bedroom and closed the door, which didn't do much to muffle the screams and sounds of Elliot's tortuous actions. Cringing, she took her burner phone out of her pocket and dialed. She waited through only one ring. "Cap?No, no, we...we're okay. We thought that you...no, Porter isn't here. He never was, but...Haven is." She paused and heard another scream. "Elliot's...dealing with him. He said someone hired him, and I know you're going to want us to move somewhere else, but this time I just want to come home. We'll stay at the station, just...please?"

She listened to what Cragen was saying, his rapid explanation and promise to be there to pick her and Elliot up within minutes. And then he asked her a question. A question about Elliot. One she wasn't even ready to answer for herself. She froze for a moment, thinking. She thought about the way the sound of his voice made her weak in the knees, the way the mere mention of his name made her heart grow wings, the way his touch made her feel whole.

She remembered how her nights used to be spent on the phone with him for hours, and her mornings spent the same way. She recalled late dinners at diners and after work drinks at bars that felt more like real dates than her actual ones. His eyes were her home, and his arms...her safe haven. "Yes," she finally whispered, answering her captain as a tear rolled down her cheek. She sniffled, and then repeated, "Yes." She heard Cragen mumble something to himself, and then, as he told her he was on his way, he hung up on her.

"You're crying," the voice that turned her to jelly hit her ears.

She turned to him. "You're bleeding," she said, wide-eyed, running to him. She ran her hands over his face, his body. "Oh, my God, El, there's...so much blood..." she lifted his shirt and smoothed her fingers over his skin, trying to find a wound.

"None of it's mine," he assured her, kissing her hard. "He's...he's unconscious, cuffed to the banister. He gave me a description of the guy, but it...it could be a few people, baby." He looked at her for a moment, kissed her again, and ran his fingers through her hair. "Why are you crying?"

She shook her head, sniffling again, and said, "I just...Cragen asked me if...if what he saw at the diner meant what he thought it meant. He asked me...if I was in love with you." She looked up at him, tears still rolling out of her eyes and down her cheeks. "I told him...I told him the truth, and when I thought about how much...how deeply in...and how I almost lost..." she choked on a sob and dropped her head to his chest, shaking in his arms.

"Shh," he consoled, rubbing her back and kissing every bit of her face and head that he could. "I'm not going anywhere. No one's going to hurt us, and you're not going to lose me. Ever."

Taking a deep breath, she nodded. "But I almost did," she whispered. "More times in the past month than ever, and I can't...not now, I mean, we have plans." She laughed and wiped her eyes. "Pretty fucking amazing plans."

He nodded, smiling. "Ones I intend to follow through," he told her. He kissed her lips again, his thumbs wiping away her tears, and he said, "Did you tell Cragen we need a bus?"

She shook her head but said, "He figured that out for himself when I told him you were alone with Haven." She chuckled and wrapped her arms around his neck. The sirens wailing in the distance grew louder, closer, and she said, "Before we get tossed into the middle of a shit-storm..."

He stopped her with a deep, powerful kiss. His moan melded with hers, his hands gripped her skin as hers tore at his, and he pulled her so close to his body it hurt. He pulled away, breathing hard, and said, "I love you. I love you so much." He drew one hand away from her and wiped his own eyes, the bottled up emotions getting the best of him now that Haven was no longer a problem.

Looking into his eyes, she saw her entire world, swirling in a sea of blue love and devotion and desire, and she said, "I love you, too."

He kissed her again, this time it was desperate, acknowledging that he almost lost her, too, and he couldn't live with that. Someone yelled their names, a familiar voice, and Elliot begrudgingly pulled away from her. "Up here!" he yelled back, still staring into Olivia's eyes. His own thoughts and feelings were reflecting back at him, and he smiled.

"Man, what the hell happened?" the man walking into the room asked.

"Fin," Elliot said, turning and pulling the man into a small, brotherly hug, "I'm so fucking glad to see you, but why are you here?"

Fin eyed Olivia for a minute, and then said, "All our communication went out, I drove my ass out here because I couldn't wait for Morales to fix it. You guys okay? How the fuck did that bastard get in? You're supposed to have detail outside."

Elliot licked his lips and nodded. "Yeah, we know. We were just, uh, kinda wondering where the fuck Porter went, actually."

"Porter was your detail?" Fin asked, seeming perplexed. "He, uh, he's in the hospital. He got into an accident on the...oh, man, he was on his way here. Damn."

Olivia looked at Elliot. "That's why he wasn't out there when Haven got here." She looked back at Fin. "Is he okay?"

"He'll be fine," Fin told her. "I got EMTs checking on Haven. Did you push him down the stairs or something? He's got a lot of broken bones."

Elliot bit his lips together to keep from grinning. "Yeah, totally in self defense."

Fin pulled on Elliot's shirt. "I see that, man, but even if it wasn't, ya know, no one would blame you." He looked at Olivia and smiled. "Cragen called me while I was driving here, he's coming. Let's get you guys cleaned up and ready to go home."

Olivia looked at Elliot, who returned her strained gaze, and she knew that he was thinking the same thing she was. Not caring that Fin was in the room, she kissed him. "I am home," she whispered, "As long as I'm with you."

Fin looked at Elliot, one eyebrow raised. "Damn," he said, "You're explaining this when we get back."

Olivia laughed as she followed Elliot and Fin out of the bedroom, listening to them bicker and babble, and it was a bit of normalcy that gave her some comfort after a tumultuous month. Her smile faded, though, when they reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Baby," Elliot said, "What's the matter?" He saw the look in her eyes, and he knew. Going home didn't mean they're ordeal was over. It only meant they had bigger problems, someone else that wanted him dead and would be close enough to do it himself, and the heavy consequences of their shifted relationship would have to be dealt with. He took a breath and smiled at her, gave her a wink, and took her hand.

She relaxed and squeezed his hand, and then settled against him, looping her arms around his waist as they walked out onto the porch to wait for Cragen.

If he didn't give her the impression he was just as scared as she was, he would give her strength. That alone was worth stifling his own fears. At least, until he really had to face them.

Peace and Love

Jo

MarchCommaJo on Twitter