A/N: So I wasn't too sure where I was going with this story for the longest time, and I had a lot of problems writing this chapter. Apologizing in advance

Ch. 3

As he drives home, Elliot can't get Olivia out of his mind. When did he start feeling like this? Like he is so empty when she's not with him? He thinks about how beautiful she is. Not just her physical appearance, but her soul. He's never met anyone so passionate in his entire life. He doesn't understand why she thinks so little of herself and puts others' needs before her own. She is so fucking perfect and she doesn't even realize it.

When he gets to his apartment, he pulls out his cell phone and contemplates whether or not to send her a text message.

But what would he say?

"Hey Liv, I can't get you out of my mind and all I want do is get my hands and mouth on you again"

He's not an idiot. He knows that Olivia doesn't jump head first into anything concerning relationships. She's experienced so much heartbreak in her life that she can't risk being hurt again. The last thing he wants is to scare her away again.

So he shuts his phone closed, places it in his bedside drawer, and climbs into bed to get ready to sleep.

It's been a week since they shared that kiss in the bar, and Olivia has been trying to push it out of her mind ever since. She convinces herself that it was just the alcohol and that Elliot would never had done that if he was sober.

As much as she may have wanted him to.

All week she's been having dreams about Elliot, and she can't seem to get the feeling of his hands all over her out of her mind.

Monday morning Olivia heads into work, takes a seat at her desk, and turns on her computer. Her captain, Captain Mitchell, greets her as she walks in and calls her into his office.

"Good morning Olivia, go ahead and take a seat," the Captain says as he motions towards the chair in front of his desk.

"SVU needs some help tracing a cyber predator and I'm sending you to go help them out with this case. I understand you transferred from SVU, so I figured you'd be the most helpful to them. They'll brief you when you get there, so I'll see you when the case is closed."

Olivia just nods silently and heads out of the captain's office. Nervousness builds in her stomach as she makes her way up to her old unit, and she feels conflicted over seeing her old partner again. The man who kissed her a week ago. The man who has embedded himself under her skin over the past 8 years. The man that's started haunting her dreams for the past week.

She walks through the doors labeled 'Special Victims Unit" and immediately sees Captain Cragen.

He walks up to her and greets her, saying, "Good morning Olivia, it's great to see you again. I really appreciate you coming in to lend a hand with this case, it's a tough one."

Olivia smiles and responds "Oh no problem Cap, it'll be a nice change to riding a desk all day."

As she turns toward the rest of the squadroom, Olivia immediately makes eye contact with Elliot. Her insides seem to go numb and she can feel a slight tingle run through her body. He smiles at her, and she brings up her hand in a slight wave and walks over to his desk.

"Hey, Elliot," Olivia says casually as she approaches his desk.

"Hey, looks like we're going to be working together huh?"

"Yeah, seems like it."

"Look, I'm sorry about what I did last week, I just-"

Olivia cuts him off, waving her hand and says "No, don't worry about it, let's just get through this case and then we can talk."

Two days later, it's nearly 2 am and Olivia is sitting at her desk trying to finish up the paperwork for the case, when Elliot walks in from the breakroom. He sees Olivia with her pen in her hand and her head on the desk fast asleep. He walks slowly over to the desk and lightly touches her shoulder to try to rouse her. The case had been exhausting, and he knew that Olivia would be wiped out.

"Liv," he whispers as he lightly shakes her shoulder.

He takes a good look at Olivia and he thinks that she's never appeared so vulnerable as she does now. Her face seems relaxed as her dreams are likely plagued with gruesome case details. Seeing her like this, Elliot's never felt a greater need to just gather her up in his arms and protect her from the horrors of the world. But he shakes away these thoughts because he knows Olivia would kick his ass if she ever heard him say this.

She moans softly and starts to cover her face with her arms.

"Olivia, " Elliot says a little bit louder, and Olivia opens her eyes and turns to groggily look at him.

"C'mon Olivia, it's late. This paperwork can wait a few days. Let me drive you home."

"Hmm?" She groaned and picked her head up off of the desk and stretched her arms over her head.

Elliot chuckles and holds out his hand to help her out of her chair. As Olivia stands up, Elliot hands her her coat and leads her to the elevator down the hall.

As they walk through the parking lot to Elliot's car, Olivia breaks the silence, asking him, "Have the cases become any easier? Or does it never get any better?"

Surprised by the randomness of the question, Elliot sighs and says "I don't know. I think if anything they've become worse. It's hard enough dealing with the depravity on a normal basis, but when you left, I just…" He drifts off, looking away as he unlocks the car for the both of them.

As Elliot starts the car, Olivia reaches over and stills his hand, "You just what, El?"

He takes a deep breath and starts "Look, I don't mean to sound like I'm blaming you for getting out of SVU, I mean I'm glad you don't have to see this kind of thing anymore, but it's been a lot harder than I imagined it would be not working with you. I mean, we were partners for almost 8 years! And now I have to deal with this shit on my own, and I realize how much I took you for granted."

At a loss for words, Olivia looks at him and says "I'm so sorry El, but you know you can talk to me about this stuff still, right? I mean, just because I don't work in SVU anymore doesn't mean I forget what it's like."

Elliot just stares out the window and replies "You say that now, but there was a reason you left SVU, and I just don't want to subject you to the details again."

She gives him a weak smile and says "But it's not about whether or not I want to hear the details anymore, it's about whether or not I want to be there for you."

Elliot turns to give her a weak smile and quickly pulls out of the parking lot taking in what she has just said. Olivia pats his hand and brings it back into her lap as they sit in a comfortable silence for the drive home.

When they reached her apartment, it was almost 3 am, and Olivia decided to invite Elliot up for some coffee. When they walked into her apartment, Elliot walked straight into the living room and collapsed on her couch.

"Thanks, I probably would've fell asleep at the wheel if I didn't stop."

"No worries. Why don't you just crash here for the night? Your apartment is across town and we have the next few days off anyways, so you're welcome to stay if you'd like."

He stretched out on the couch and turned to look at her in the kitchen.

"That'd be great, I really appreciate it."

"Okay, let me just grab you some blankets. Feel free to use the shower in my bathroom or whatever you want around the apartment."

Nearly an hour later, after both Olivia and Elliot had showered and said goodnight, Olivia was lying in her bed unable to fall back asleep. Suddenly she felt way too warm under the covers, so she shoved them off of her and just layed on her sheets. The apartment was silent, and she could only hear the light rain falling outside. She turned onto her side and looked out the window. The lights of New York City were so different from Oregon, and she still wasn't use to this change. Just as she had gotten used to camping out under the stars and falling asleep to the sounds of nature, she had been shipped back to the concrete jungle, where it was never completely silent. She listened for a few seconds trying to see what she could hear from the living room. There was so much she didn't know about Elliot, like what he wore to sleep (if he wore anything at all), whether he slept on his side or his stomach, or whether or not he snored. But honestly, she had never thought about these things until tonight. Why was she suddenly desperate to know all of these little details about Elliot? Attributing her unusual thoughts to her lack of sleep over the past few days, Olivia rolled over to face the wall, forcing herself to fall asleep.

Still wide awake and feeling a bit thirsty by now, Olivia quietly got out of bed and tried to tip-toe to the kitchen without waking Elliot up. As she reached up to grab a glass of water from the cabinet, she slipped on the cool tile beneath her feet and dropped the glass on the ground. The loud smash caused Elliot to sit straight up. He had heard Olivia shifting in bed for the past hour, and just knowing she was awake in there had kept him from falling asleep himself.

"What's wrong?" Elliot asked, as he quickly made his way over to her in the kitchen.

"Damn, I slipped and accidentally dropped this glass on the ground. Sorry for waking you up, just go back to sleep and I'll just quickly clean this up."

"Nah, I'm wide awake now, I'll help you out." he said.

He looked around her feet and saw all of the glass splinters surrounding her. Suddenly, he placed his hands on her slim waist and lifted her onto the island countertop behind her.

"Wait, what are you doing?" she asked with her eyebrows raised.

"It's dark, and I don't want you cutting your feet on the glass," he said, before carefully stepping into the hallway.

As he walked away he called out "Hey, do you still keep a broom in the cupboard back here?"

"Yeah, it should be the first one on the left!" she replied.

Sitting on the counter, Olivia had a perfect view of Elliot's back from the hallway. She noticed that he's taken off his white shirt and he's now only in his boxers. She studied his toned back and noticed that he's much more muscular and toned than he was before she left (not that he needed it; he's always been quite fit.) As she waited for him to come back, she thought about everything that was happening tonight. It was as if they had both forgotten about the awkwardness of their kiss and they had entered this new zone of familiarity. They had never done this before- the whole "best friends crashing on each other's couches" thing.

After he found the broom, Elliot returned to the kitchen, carefully sweeping the glass into the pan and dumping its contents into the trash. When he finished, he stood up and looked at Olivia. She looked so small sitting up on the countertop, wearing a thin tank top and pajama shorts.

She looked up at Elliot's eyes and when she realized he was staring at her, a deep blush developed across her face, visible even in the dark room. She had never seen his eyes look so dark before. It was almost a lustful look in his eyes as he studied her body.

Elliot stepped even closer and leaned against the counter with his arms on either side of Olivia, his gaze still set on her.

Starting to feel uncomfortable under his scrutinizing stare, Olivia shifted a bit and joked, "So, is it safe to come down yet?"

Elliot smiled and glanced down at the floor quickly, and then returned his gaze to Olivia.

"Well, I'm not sure yet, we can't be too careful," he said before quickly scooping her up in his arms and carrying her to the couch.

"Hey! What are you doing-" she started to say, trying to wiggle out of his arms.

Elliot just tightened his hold on her and placed her onto the couch. Then he walked back to the kitchen, grabbed her a glass of water and handed it to Olivia.

She took the glass from his hand, and said "Thanks, but I'm perfectly capable of using my legs"

Elliot just smiled and sat on the couch, leaving very little room between himself and Olivia. Olivia handed him the remote and said "Why don't you find something on tv to watch, it might help us fall asleep."

Elliot took the remote and flipped through the channels until he found some channel showing reruns of "Seinfeld." As the television droned on, Elliot felt his eyes start to droop shut, and he looked over to find Olivia fast asleep with her body contorted in a strange position. Careful as to not to wake her her up, Elliot slid over to the other side of the couch, carefully laying Olivia's head in his lap and allowing her legs to stretch out. He gently swept Olivia's hair out of her face and leaned back into the couch, finally falling asleep to the sound of Olivia's gentle breathing.