Disclaimer: I wish I owned them...*sobs* The song "How Strong Do You Think I Am?" is by Alexz Johnson, which is from Instant Star. Search it up on YouTube if you're interested!

A/N: Sorry for the long wait! Here is chapter 5!

Manhattan District Attorney Building
ADA Casey Novak's Office
Friday, November 5

Olivia walked through the halls of the DA office, passing by many ADAs and Das. She passed by an office door that belonged to ADA Alexandra Cabot. She stopped quickly and stared at the door. She smiled as she thought about her dear friend. Alex left for a business conference yesterday so the current case she was working on with Olivia had to go to Casey for the time being.

Olivia continued her walk down the hall passing by a few more offices. The entire building was busier that usual today. She finally approached Casey's office. She knocked on the door three times and waited for an answer.

"Come in," she heard a voice say from inside. Casey looked up from the files on her desk to see Olivia walk in. She gave her a quick smile. "Hey, Liv. Take a seat."

"So what's up, Casey? What else do you need for the case?" Olivia asked as she took off her coat, placing it in the chair next to her.

"I know Alex doubled, tripled check everything you and Fin gave her about Shauna Vera's rape, but I wanted to check it again for myself." Casey searched through the files on her desk to look for the case file regarding Shauna Vera, a fifteen-year-old girl from Alphabet City. She was raped and killed in a local off-Broadway theater outside the theater district. She looked at Olivia, who seemed to be very happy. She stopped and studied Olivia's face. She was smiling big as she played with her necklace.

"Who's the lucky guy?" Casey asked grinning.

Olivia broke out of her small trance and realized what she was doing. "What—what do you mean? I don't have—it's nothing, Case." she said dumbfounded.

"Olivia, don't play with me. Who gave you that?" she asked getting up from her desk. She took the necklace into her own hands and looked at it, smiling. "It's beautiful, by the way."

"It was a gift… from a friend."

"Hmm, a friend you say? I don't know Liv… this guy must be more than a friend."

"I guess you can say that…" she responded quietly.

Casey studied the small medal on the chain. SemperFidelis… alwaysfaithful, she thought. "So is this friend a marine? One of my ex-boyfriends was a marine. I recognize this medal."

"He is—well, was a marine." Olivia could feel her heart beating rapidly in her chest. She knew Casey was figuring it out. She was going to know who this guy was.

"Well, that's pretty lucky. I love the marine guys."

Casey walked over to her mini-refrigerator to grab a water bottle. She turned around to see Olivia looking through the Vera case folder and noticed something shiny sitting on Olivia's hip. It looked familiar to the small medal around Olivia's neck. She looked closely to see what the badge said, and sat four numbers under the badge. 6313.

"Where have I seen those numbers?" she asked quietly. That's when it hit her. Hard.

"OLIVIA BENSON!" she squealed as she ran back to her.

"What? What is it?" Olivia asked frantically.

"Elliot gave you that!" she said. Olivia's face instantly turned red and was not able to form any words.

"When did he give that to you? How did he give it to you? What did you say? What did you do? Was it romantic?" Casey asked excitedly. Her happiness quickly turned to anger as she finally realized whom the mystery man was. "Elliot gave you this? After leaving you without a good-bye? Without a damn phone call? That son of a bitch… wait till I get my hands on him."

Olivia stood up quickly and placed her hands on Casey's shoulder. "Casey, calm down and sit. I'll explain… I'll explain everything."

Casey sat in the chair next to Olivia quietly. "So…"

"I got the necklace yesterday. One of the uniformed officers said a girl dropped it off for me. He gave it to me as I was heading to the locker room to clean out Elliot's locker. When I was in the locker room I opened it and saw the necklace. I cried. He wrote me a note apologizing for leaving and everything. He said he'd contact me, but didn't say when exactly. So that night after I went out with everyone, I went back to the station and cried… again. At some point I noticed the badge at the bottom of the box. I cried even more. When I left to go to the bathroom and came back, he was there sitting at my desk."

"Oh my…" Casey gasped.

"Well I didn't know it was him at first, but once I heard him speak I knew. We hugged. We cried. We started talking, but we decided to go back to my apartment to talk. So we got there, he told me why he didn't keep in touch, he apologized over and over again, he told me him and Kathy were over, and basically professed his love for me."

"Olivia! That is the craziest thing I've heard! But so romantic! What else happened?" Casey asked eagerly.

"Well… we ended up sleeping together." Olivia said quietly.

"Oh my God, Olivia Benson!" Casey screamed as she took her friend into a tight embrace. She pulled back and smiled. "So, what was it like? Was he great?"

"Casey!" Olivia exclaimed.

"What? You can't blame a girl, Liv. Stabler is one sexy ass man."

"I can't believe you just said that."

"You obviously had to think about it though. I know you have!"

"That is besides the point, Casey!"

"Enough talk about that. What else happened?" Casey asked redirecting the conversation.

"After that, he stayed. When we got up I asked him about Kathy again and he went into more detail about it. They separated about seven months ago, but he stayed at home for the kids. He signed the divorce papers so he's been waiting for it to be finalized. I asked him what he was going to do about his living situation, he said he was looking for an apartment, then I told him to move in with me."

"No you didn't! Moving fast already, Benson." Casey said, giving her a wink.

"Want to calm down?" Olivia laughed. "Anyway, I told him he could stay with me until he found an apartment."

"And are you two okay now? I mean… he hasn't talked, messaged, or called you within the past nine months, and then out of nowhere he sends you a box with his marines' medal and badge and shows up out of nowhere. Then you two go back to your place, tells you he's not with his wife anymore, have sex, and wake up like nothing really happened. That's kind of strange, don't you think?"

"Yes, it is weird… we still have a lot to talk about though. So nothing is set in stone yet."

"Well Liv, I hope everything works out for you. You deserve to be happy." Casey said giving Olivia a tight hug.

"Thanks, Case. I appreciate that."

"I can't wait to tell Alex! She's going to flip!"

"I think it'll be best if I told her. No need for her to come back early just for this."

"I don't know, Liv." Casey responded as she got up from the chair. She walked around the desk and sat in her chair. "This could be the happy ending you've been looking for."

"How so?"

"Well Elliot isn't working in SVU anymore, which means you two aren't partners anymore."

"Yeah, don't remind me, Casey."

"I'm sorry, but it's true. He's single now too, so the two of you have the chance to give it a shot. I know he loves you just as much as you love him. So why not?"

"Why not? Maybe because it might not work out. So why go through the heart break?"

"You won't know till you try, Liv. Give it a chance. Get your man!"

Olivia shook her head and laughed. "Okay seriously, let's go over this so I can get home."

"Home to your lover boy." Casey said in a low tone. The two laughed and finally began talking about the case.

Special Victims Unit
Squad Room

Captain Cragen and Amanda Rollins stood outside the interrogation room looking through the windows, watching Fin interrogating another suspect for the Vera case. Things were getting intense between Fin and the suspect.

"Tell me again, Mark… where were you the night Shauna Vera was raped and murdered?" Fin asked slamming his fists on the table.

"I was at the Sherman Theater."

"Doin' what exactly?" Fin walked around the table so he was now next to the man.

"I told you already, I was fixing the stage lights. I was there all night."

"Yeah? You just happened to be the only person there with Shauna. We've got your prints fool. This dumb ass game your playin' is over."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"We've got your damn DNA! Don't play games with me!" Fin yelled as he picked Mark up by the collar. "So tell me again what exactly you were doin' that night with a fifteen-year-old girl?"

"Alright, alright… I'll tell you." Fin threw him back into the chair and moved back to the other side of the table. "I had sex Shauna, but I didn't rape or kill her! She wanted it!"

"Still counts as statutory rape, dumbass. So who the hell raped and killed her then?"

"I don't know." Mark responded. "There was some guy lurking around the theater before I got there. I assumed it was a custodian because he was dressed up in a custodian uniform. I didn't think anything of it. He just happened to reappear outside the back storage room Shauna and I had sex in, claiming he was cleaning the stage. After we finished, I went back to the catwalk to finish the lights and Shauna said she was going to one of the dressing rooms upstairs. That was the last I heard from her."

Cragen walked over to the door and knocked on it. Fin gave Mark a disgusting look and walked out the interrogation room. He joined Cragen and Amanda at the window.

"So now what? We collar this guy for statutory rape?" Amanda asked.

"We'll see what Casey says. Fin, call her with the update." Cragen ordered. Fin nodded and made his way to the bullpen.

"Hey Cap, where's Benson?" Nick asked as he approached the two.

"She took the rest of the day off." Nick gave a small nod and walked out. Amanda looked at Cragen with the same confused look he had on her face.

StablerResidence
72-12 Castleside Street, Glen Oaks Queens, NY

Elliot opened a new box and threw it on the bed. He began packing it with the remainder of his clothes. He had just about everything he needed to take back to Olivia's place. He stopped for a quick second, wiping the sweat off his forehead with his arm. He continued to pack his clothes when Kathy walked in and threw a manila packet on the box. He glanced down at it and picked it up. He opened the folder and pulled out a sheet of paper. And there it was—the finalized paper that indicated he and Kathy were officially divorced. He looked at the date and noticed that it was dated from a few days ago.

"Why am I just getting this now?" he asked.

"I got it yesterday, after you left. That's why I called you last night."

"I see," he said placing the paper back in the folder. "Why did it come so late?"

"Not sure. William actually came here to drop it off."

"Okay then."

"So… I guess this is it." Kathy said quietly.

"Yeah, it is." Elliot sighed. He looked at his wife, ex-wife, and he could see that she was trying to fight back the tears. "It's better for the both of us, Kathy."

"Yeah… I know. Doesn't mean I wouldn't feel upset about it."

Elliot gave a small sheepish smile and then continued to pack his clothes. "What do you want to do about Eli?"

"Obviously joint custody. We'll work out everything later on…" Kathy walked up to Elliot and touched his shoulder. She sighed deeply and slowly moved her hand away. "I'm going to go take Eli to daycare now. You can keep your key to the house, you know… just in case."

"Yeah…" Elliot mumbled. With that, Kathy walked out the bedroom and headed to Eli's room. A few minutes later, Elliot heard the door close shut and the car pulling out of the driveway.

Once Elliot was done packing everything, he packed his car and made his way back to Manhattan. He pulled up in front of Olivia's apartment building. He unloaded his car and brought everything to the apartment. Once the boxes were placed in a corner, he went back downstairs to move his car to the parking garage.

When he walked back into the building, he noticed that someone was following him. He went up to the fourth floor and walked to Olivia's apartment. He slowly unlocked the door again with his spare key and walked in, closing the door behind him. He walked into Olivia's room and got the spare handgun that sat in her nightstand drawer. He rushed back to the door and peaked through the small hole in the door. He saw a shadow of the mystery person around the corner. He opened the door and jumped into the hallway.

"Freeze right where you are! Drop your weapon!" he shouted.

"Hey man, I'm not here to cause any harm." The mystery man exclaimed as he appeared from the corner. "I'm just looking for Olivia Benson."

"And who the hell are you?"

"Detective Nick Amaro. I'm her partner. Who the hell are you?"

Elliot lowered his gun and chuckled. "Her ex-partner, Elliot Stabler."

AH! So Elliot and Nick finally meet... how is Elliot going to handle this? Why is Nick at Olivia's apartment in the first place?