Chapter 4

It was closing in on 6.15 and there was no end in sight. Olivia kept looking at her watch every few seconds hoping time would slow down. If she had any hope on getting home to get ready in time for her dinner she had to leave now. Fin noticed her mind was somewhere else "Everything okay Olivia?" He hadn't seen her this distracted since Elliot left. "Yeah, yeah I'm okay, I just ran into an old friend as was supposed to meet them for dinner soon that's all" Olivia said checking her watch again for the 20th time in 2 minutes. Fin wasn't buying it something was wrong and he knew it. "Well there isn't really much else we can do tonight, you go and if something's comes up I'll call you okay?" Olivia grabbed her coat and rushed out. Texting Elliot 'May be a bit late, only leaving work now, see you soon xoxo'

Elliot smiled when he saw the text from Olivia 'xoxo, what does that mean?' he thought as he sat in his seat waiting for Olivia to arrive. He looked up and saw her walk in, she looked amazing. Olivia was wearing a dark blue for length dress that hugged all her curves and was just low enough to show cleavage but not too low to draw too much attention. Elliot couldn't stop staring, she was gorgeous.

"El, hello, earth to Elliot" Olivia was waving her hand in from of him trying to get his attention. "Sorry! My mind was somewhere else" Elliot said standing up to give her a hug. "Man, I haven't been here in years not since your last birthday" He said as they sat down at their table. Olivia laughed, damn he loved her laugh, when she laughed it was like all his problems just floated away. "I wonder if the menu is still the same" Olivia said picking up the menu and opening it up to look, she was nervous, this would be the first real conversation she and Elliot would have since he left. She would finally be able to find out where he has ben and why he left and maybe convince him to stick around and get to know their daughter. Ruby was her world and she wanted nothing but for her to know her father.

"Ready to order?" a waiter asked as she pulled out her handheld ordering device. "Yes thankyou, I'll have the chicken parmigana with a ceaser salad, no olives and a glass of your house red thankyou" Olivia said as she put down her menu. "And for you sir?" the waiter said as she entered Olivia's order. "I'll have a veal snitzel with white wine mushroom sauce and chips and vegetable on the side and I'll have a schooner of whatever's your best on tap, thankyou" Elliot said handing the waiter his menu. "Any appetisers?" "Garlic bread" Olivia and Elliot both said at the same time followed by a chuckle. "No worries" the waiter said and walked away.

After they ordered they sat in silence for a while. It was Elliot that finally broke the silence, "Liv…" He started to say before Olivia came out on top "Where have you been Elliot?" He took a deep breath. "Liv, I'm so sorry, I made a mistake I know that now"

"You think sleeping together was a mistake?"

"No no of course not, leaving was a mistake, I never meant to hurt you. I got scared and I ran, I ran to what I always knew, I was scared you'd think it was a mistake, or that I was still married. I thought you'd hate me or worse hate yourself."

'I hated you for leaving, for never calling, never coming to my aid when I needed you most. I hated that I had to raise our daughter all alone. That she would grow up knowing that her father never knew about her or even cared to see how her mother was. Knowing she had siblings out there that she would never meet. I was scared I would turn into my own mother." Olivia had started getting very upset know, her voice was cracking and she had a few tears running down her face. She grabbed her napkin and dried her eyes.

"Liv, you are a great mother, don't let anyone ever tell you any different"

"But you still haven't answered my question. Where have you been? What have you been doing for 3 years? You can't have just fallen off the map, New York is big but it isn't that big."

"Well at first, I went back home, after the shooting I was so depressed. I had killed an innocent girl. All I could think about was saving you and I killed her. I tried to make it work with Kathy, I got a job as a security officer at the mall and we went back to everyday life. Kids went to school, Kathy and I went to work, we were always home for dinner the kids loved it. But then I found out Kathy had been cheating on me with a doctor from mercy hospital"

"I'm so sorry El" Olivia said taking his hand in hers, by then their food had arrived.

"I filed for divorce the next day, packed up and moved to an apartment in the city, and got a job doing specialised security at 4 seasons, I have Eli week on week off, it's tough but were getting there. I was actually on my way to meet a guy about a new job when I saw you and Ruby at the park."

"What happened at the meeting?" Olivia asked

"I never made it, all those memories came flooding back and when I saw Ruby I lost it, I went to the nearest pub and well after that you know what happened" by then Olivia was so shocked she couldn't even talk. They sat in silence for the rest of their dinner. The truth was finally told and Elliot now felt at peace he was finally ready to tell her how he felt. "Would you like desert?" Elliot asked Olivia as she finished her glass of wine. "No thankyou, if I eat any more I'll burst" Olivia said giving Elliot a shy smile.

By now it was almost 9. "Well I better get going, I need to pick ruby up and get to bed, we have a huge case at the moment, Thankyou for dinner El" and with that she was gone.