Author's Note: I want to give a big, big, big thanks to my best friend, Faith! She not only helped me write this chapter but the last chapter as well. Thank you, beautiful!

Chapter Seven: C'est La Vie

Her gaze travels around the room as her head rests against her palm. She looks around at all of the little things that she glanced over when she first arrived to Seattle. Of course it was odd seeing Mark for the first time in a while, but they put their petty differences aside when they realized there were lives on the line. It didn't hurt that the detective loved being around babies either. He had shown her a little bit of Seattle but never the details around his apartment. She reaches over and increases the soothing and seductive melodies that escape the stereo. Her eyes glue themselves to the picture of Sofia that April took the first time she sat in a car seat and it makes Olivia's strong heart fall weak. Mark's gaze clings to Olivia sitting just a few feet away, looking at the single picture of Sofia while holding her stomach. He figures it must be a subconscious reflex because she had mentioned that she doesn't have any children.

"Olivia?" She hears. Her eyes tear away from the picture and turn to where the voice is calling from. The kitchen. She pulls her hand away and reaches for the glass of white wine that he had poured earlier. "What's it like?" She asks, getting up from the, now warm, seat on the couch to sit beside Mark. Her bare feet are cold against the floor but she tries to ignore it. Mark's new talent had become cooking and it works out for the both of them considering that she doesn't know much about it. The most she had ever done was take something out of a bag. Terrible but also the life of a Special Victims Unit Detective. Mark is adorable though - when he isn't a player.

Mark looks over at her sitting close by, watching her eyes follow his hands as he plays with the knife, cutting fast. It's obvious that their relationship has changed in the time Olivia has been here, especially with Elliot two thousand miles away. Backing away, he motions for her to get up. Once she does, she follows his movements and stands in front of him. His body wraps around her as he places the knife in her hands.

"Being a father?" He responds with a smile. When she looks back at him with an eyebrow raised, the smile never leaves his lips, "I saw you looking at the picture I have over there." She turns her head away and blushes as she feels his hands slide over hers, causing chills to run down her spine.

He feels like everything she had imagined he would. Strong. Warm. Loving. As his arms wrap around hers, she takes in a deep breath, immersing herself in the scent of his cologne while he glides her fingers in the right position. "It's amazing," she hears him whisper in her ear. Olivia lets him press her hand down, cutting the carrot in thin slices. "You always see people with children and you think that's enough until you come home to an empty apartment with no wife or child," he continues. She licks her lips before turning to Mark. She feels his hands grip tighter to hers, making her heart beat faster.

Her grip on the knife loosens as she turns her head away and moves out from in front of him. "Sofia's a lucky little girl," Olivia says while she tries to get her thoughts back in order.

Mark follows her to the couch after he put all the vegetables in the pot, leaving them to simmer together. His choice of a meal is beef stew because it gives them time to talk while it cooks on its own. She sits down first, allowing himself to do the same. He looks over to the woman beside him, who is looking down at her glass with a little frown. She is perfect, everything he has always wanted. Mark knows she's dedicated to saving other people and he loves that about her, more than anything.

There are so many things that he wants to say to her, especially when her big brown eyes look up at him and asks for more wine. Everything seems casual, like they are a couple just enjoying a dinner together that they helped each other make. He wants to create more things with her. He wants a bigger family. He wants Olivia. What freezes him is reality. They can't have everything, especially if she doesn't feel the same way. Mark wants to know more than anything but as he reaches for the wine, he sees something peeking from behind the wine bottle. He moves the bottle aside and examines the plane ticket. A single ticket back to New York City. Olivia looks up at Mark when she doesn't hear any movement from him. All she sees is a blank stare at the plane ticket she had stupidly left out.

"You're leaving," he mutters. He finally pulls his stare away from the ticket to look at her face, "Tomorrow morning."

Olivia bites the inside of her cheek hard and lets out a sigh when she releases, "God, you weren't supposed to see that yet." A strange sense of relief rushes through her. It's not one she's proud of but it's better for her that he found out this way rather than conjuring up a way to tell him.

"Were you even going to mention that you were leaving anytime soon? Or were you going to trick me into driving you to the airport?" His voice sounds angry but his body language is calm.

"Before I came, I told you that I was only staying until Callie got better." Her eyes narrowed in on him as she watched his movements closely, "Mark, I have a life in New York. I took this extra time to make sure that you'd be okay before I left. I didn't want you to be alone while Callie was still in the hospital," she finishes, her words barely above a whisper.

Mark pulls himself off the couch and back into the kitchen, stirring the contents that are in the pot rigorously. "Did you think about what would happen after you left? Where I would be?" She too stands up, but this time not moving her body. "Of course I did. You'd focus on your family. We went from hating each other to being...I don't even know what we are." Olivia moves her feet gracefully across the floor, taking his arm and holding it still. "Did it ever occur to you that you could be my family too, Olivia?" he retaliates, yanking his arm from her grasp. She watches his grip tighten on the wooden spoon and his jaw clench while he thinks of what else to say, "That over these last few weeks, that you became more than just a house guest to me?" He looks up at her, letting her into his life a little more. He takes the pot off the stove and sets it on the counter, his anger only rising every passing second.

"What about Elliot? Are you going back because of him? Because you love him? I noticed how close you two were last time you came," He says in a tone of voice that is low enough to show his irritation and hesitancy of saying it but loud enough for her to hear. There is no doubt that Olivia is attracted to her partner back in New York but that's a different ball game. He's married and has five kids with his high school sweetheart. She would never, or even attempt to, break that. Especially not for her own gain.

"Fuck you," She finds herself quickly blurting out. Her only fault is that she doesn't say she is sorry. But she isn't. Later she knows she will be, but not now. "You have no idea what my life is like and frankly, I had no idea of yours until Arizona called me about Callie. You have no right to judge me," she says, turning her back to him. Looking down at the island in the middle of the kitchen, she grabs her ticket and then proceeds to the living room.

He turns to face her, crossing his arms over his chest while he watches her put her coat on, covering her perfect silhouette.

His voice grew angrier as he started to yell, "You never answered my question, Olivia!" he shouts until she looks in his direction. "Do you love him?"

The truth is, Olivia thought she could love Elliot, but then she got to know Mark. And now it comes back down to the ticket or her feelings. Which one is she willing to risk? A life she knows for a life she could grow to love. Olivia turns her body around, wrapping a scarf around her neck before she grabs a pen and the napkin her wine glass sat upon.

She walks into the kitchen, leaving her hand written note on the island before she turns her on her heel, "I'm going to go find a hotel, something I should have done in the first place. Maybe if things cool off we can go to breakfast or something but I need time away from you. We both need it," Her fingers reach for the door, pulling it open before she looks back at him. She knows what he wants but she needs him to say it. "My life is in New York and your life is in Seattle," she says in a whisper. "What did you think was going to happen? That something good would come out of this?" After grabbing her phone, Olivia slides out the doorway and into the hall. Her body falls limp against the concrete wall as she waits to see if he would come after her.

He doesn't.

"Never as much as I'll love you," she replays in her memory, wishing she had said it instead of writing it on a napkin. It's a cheesy mistake. Olivia feels the ticket that is placed in her pocket and sighs. She is cautious and doesn't want to lose it within her baggage. What she doesn't realize, is that she is losing something much greater.