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.

"You can't be in there for this," Fin said, narrowing his eyes at Olivia as he let go of her shoulders. He'd been holding her back for ten minutes already. "You're not his partner, anymore, you do realize that, don't ya?"

Her eyes shot daggers at him, her lips pressed and flattened into a thin line. "No shit," she spat. "God, I'm reminded of that every goddamn day!" She threw her arms in the air. "It doesn't mean it's not still my case, Fin! I started this! I should be in there with him, ending it!"

"She's a cop," Fin told her. "Not from this unit, either. You're not the arresting officer, or in IAB, so you have no reason to be in there, Captain," he said the moniker with a sarcastic lilt, as if mocking her with it. "Just do your job. Or is the job too much for you?"

She scoffed and her eyes rolled toward the ceiling. "Oh, fuck you, Fin," she hissed, shaking her head. "Just tell him...tell him I need to see him in my office when he's done." She didn't wait for a response. She dismissed his apology with a waved hand over her head, and she ignored his attempts to call her back into the observation room. She stormed into her office and slammed the door, and it only took a moment of hard and heavy angered breathing before she closed her eyes.

She knew why Fin was snippy. She'd been a brat ever since two other men from IAB found Bishop. After Elliot told her she had to stay out of the interrogation room and let him and Amaro handle it, she blew up at him. Fin had tried to calm her down, and keep her that way, but when she lost her temper, so did he, and what he said was right, she knew it. "Damn it," she huffed, slapping a hand up against the white wall of the office. Her eyes still closed, she moved and fell into the leather couch. She rolled a bit of tension out of her shoulders and for a minute her mind was completely blank. It was blissful.

But then the clarity became clouded with doubt, fear and memories, questions of why certain things had happened and why others had not. She thought back to the day Cragen walked away from his job, his home, his family. The tear-stained letter he'd left on her desk, which had since been read a hundred times at least, made her head spin, and it made her question everything she thought she knew. Except one thing.

Elliot.

"What?" she heard his voice say, her head popped up and her eyes shot open She saw him, standing over her, that pissed off expression on her face that simultaneously scared her and made her weak. It was then she realized that she must have fallen asleep. "What happened?" she asked, sitting up.

"You called me a prick and insulted my mother," he sneered at her, his arms folded.

She let out a small laugh, knowing he was half-joking and trying to worm an apology out of her. "You deserved it," she shrugged. But she looked up and winked at him. "You know why I was mad."

He coughed and nodded as he sat down. "Full confession," he said, looking at a spot on the floor. The expression on his face was blank, his color was off. "What she said...the things she did..." he swallowed hard. "You...I'm glad you weren't in there."

"What did she say?" she asked, more worried now. She turned her body to angle toward him, dropped her hands into his lap and cupped his knees, and she bit her lip as she studied his face.

With a sigh, he turned his head to look at her, and his left hand met her cheek. The cold of his platinum wedding band made her jerk away for a second, but he smiled when she settled against his palm and nuzzled him. "I love you," he told her. "I would kill for you. Die for you."

"Ditto, Stabler," she said with a smirk. She kissed the side of his hand as it stroked her cheek "Why are you..."

"But I swear to God, I swear on everything we have, baby, I wouldn't survive if you ever..." he stopped and his words fell away, giving out under the weight of his emotion. He choked back a sob and pulled her into him fully.

"Hey, hey," she tried to comfort him, rubbing her hands over his chest and back, dropping soft kisses to his cheeks and chin, finally kissing him full on the lips. "Baby, breathe. Just tell me what she told you. What did she say to you?" she cupped his face in her hands and held him steady, knowing if he was looking into her eyes, he had to tell her.

He took a deep breath, tried to stop shaking, and said, "She did it all for Goren."

She squinted. "He wanted her to..."

"No," he shook his head, not letting her finish. "She fell in love with him, and when he chose Eames over her, she freaked. She did everything she could think of to make him notice her, she thought he'd..." he paused, swallowed. "And then she said...she heard that he'd been shot. No one told her he survived, and she thought he died. She went crazy. This whole time she was trying to..."

"She wanted to get caught?" she questioned, confused. "I know you're upset, I don't...I don't even know why, but you have to talk to me, baby."

He took another slow, deep breath. "She was self-destructive," he said softly. "She didn't want to get caught. Not...not the way she did. She was trying to make other people feel what she was feeling, and when she found out Goren was alive, she sent Sarah to ruin his life, the way he'd ruined hers. She wanted him to hurt, the way she hurt him. She made him believe Valerie was his daughter, then she hired someone to rape her, kill her, to rip someone he loved away from him, the way she thought..." he shook his head again. "I don't know what I would do. If I ever lost you, I would..."

She kissed him, preventing him from saying anything else. "I'm right here," she whispered. "I'm not going anywhere. It took me too fucking long to get you where I want you, so you bet your amazing ass I'm not giving you up."

He laughed and nodded, kissed her, and said, "It just got to me. Hearing her talk about...what she went through when she thought he was dead, it felt like...when you left me, Oregon, after Gitano...I know you came back, you always came back, but there were chunks of time, there, where it felt so endless...so hopeless. That's why...when I knew I had to leave, I promised myself I would still have you, the only way that would guarantee my survival." He pressed his lips to hers again. "I could lose everything I have, the house, my job, the car, all of it. I'd be perfectly fine, as long as I still have you."

"You will always have me,"she whispered, kissing him again. "I need you, too. Just as much. More." She scratched patterns into the skin of his back and dropped her head to his. "But...I have to ask...who killed her?" her voice broke. "Who killed that little girl?"

Elliot inhaled, looked at her, and said, "Devlin. He was Bishop's messenger boy, and he sent the most important message she had to deliver." He cleared his throat. "He wasn't told to rape her. This entire case...this was never supposed to get kicked to SVU. It was always meant for..."

"Oh, my God," Olivia gasped, one hand flying to her heart. "She wanted Goren to be the one that..."

"Yeah," Elliot cut her off and let out a harsh puff of air. "But, uh, the...the case is closed, so..." he licked his lips. "Barba scheduled a Seven-Thirty for her, and her arraignment will be on the calendar as soon as Skoda sees how crazy she is."

"Skoda?" Olivia asked. "We aren't calling George?"

Elliot raised an eyebrow. "Honey, I think George has his hands full with Sarah Bramson," he laughed. He kissed her forehead. "We both have a fuckload of paperwork to do."

"You had to remind me," she whined, dropping her head to his shoulder again. She couldn't resist; she nipped at his neck lightly. Hearing him moan, she knew that paperwork was quickly being forgotten. She bit him harder, suckled gently, then worked her mouth up to his lips, covering them with hers.

"Baby," he mumbled, "We can't...fuck, why do you...you drive me fucking..." the babbling continued as he kissed her back hungrily, working his hands into her clothes. He tugged on her pants, fishing for the side edges of her underwear, when the loud knock on her office door made him freeze. "Shit," he hissed, backing away from her. He eyed her as she straightened out her clothes and he struggled to hide his now-painful erection.

"Come in," Olivia shouted, standing and trying to appear professional.

"I was trying to," Elliot grumbled under his breath, folding one leg over his knee and scooting toward the side of the couch.

Fin walked in, a sheepish look on his face. "Liv, look, about what I said..." he stopped, noticing Elliot. "Oh, hi."

Elliot nodded and gave him a small wave, tugging on his tie with the other hand. He looked at Olivia, mentally screaming at her to do what she had to do to get Fin out of the office.

"So, uh, I'm sorry," Fin said, stepping further into the office. He dropped his arms. "I didn't mean for it to come out so...wrong. I think..." he looked at her with a softer expression. "You're doing what you need to do, and you're good at it. It's just...hard for me to think of you as anything other than an equal, ya know? I don't think I'll ever get used to looking at the desk next to mine and seeing someone...who isn't you."

"Now, you know how I felt," she said, tilting her head. "I'm sorry, too, Fin. I let personal feelings get in the way of my job," she paused and then rolled her eyes. "As usual."

"No, that...that's what makes you great," Fin told her. "Don't doubt that."

Olivia nodded again. "Thanks," she said, smiling at Fin.

Fin waved to her with a smile, then shot Elliot another look before leaving the room.

Elliot's head slowly turned toward Olivia. "What did he say to you, exactly?"

"Don't worry about it, I deserved it," she laughed, finding his protectiveness amusing. She sat back down beside him, kissed him softly, and said, "You were amazing."

He grinned. "I love hearing you say that," he told her. "I love it more when you're naked." He chuckled and kissed her again. "So were you. This whole time, you've been pushing and fighting, and when someone else would've given up or handed the case to a different unit, you...you fought for that girl, baby. Like you always have."

She bit her lip and looked down at the diamond ring adorning her left hand. "Because of you," she said. "I wouldn't fight this hard...I wouldn't have the balls to fight, if I didn't have you." She looked back up at him. "You make me who I am."

Stunned, he kissed her with more fire than he had before, and he pulled away gripping her arms. He looked into her eyes and said, "Ditto, Stabler." His lips fell over hers again, and as he kissed his wife, his hands smoothed over her toned body and he gripped her harder. He knew they'd always have to fight, prove themselves, and tell the world that sometimes, the underdogs do come out on top. As long as they had each other, they'd always fight to win.

Peace and Love

Jo

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