Author's Note – I come bearing new chapters! Hurray. I figured while I'm giving you new chapters I might as well give you an update as well. I am currently working on writing chapter 52 of this not so short anymore story, and there is still a ton to go. Be looking forward to it. Also, I mentioned this before but I'm going to do so again. If there's something you'd really like to see, an idea you want incorporated, or something you are looking forward to please let me know! There is more than enough room to keep adding things in.

Chapter Fourteen – That Secret Smile

The laughter and camaraderie were infectious, especially when beer was added to the mix. Every one of the detectives from the SVU and Olivia were feeling it. Olivia was near glowing. It was a level of happiness that both Nick and Amanda knew couldn't be completely related to their evening at the bar. Sure, she hadn't seen any of them in a long time, and they were all enjoying themselves, but that just didn't seem like enough for that level of smile. The SVU crew was great and all, but definitely not that great. Amanda met Nick's eyes and nodded her head toward Olivia. He immediately got the hint.

"Alright, Liv. Spill."

Her eyes flickered away from Fin and toward Nick, the warm, truly happy smile still on her face.

"Spill what?"

"Whatever it is that caused that look on your face."

"What look? There is no look."

Amanda buried her face in her glass of beer so she didn't outright laugh. There was obviously a "look" on Olivia's face, and she didn't know how Olivia could insist that there wasn't. From the amused grin on Fin's face he thought the look Nick was talking about was obvious too. Olivia wasn't going to get one over on them this time.

"Yeah there is," Nick countered. "It's on your face right now."

"He's right, Liv," Fin added.

Olivia sighed and shook her head at them. They really could be incredibly frustrating. Just because she apparently looked happy didn't mean that she needed to explain why that was happening. She looked at Amanda with a raised eyebrow.

"Let me guess. You agree?" she asked drily.

"You do look genuinely happy. More than I've seen in a long time. Like when Haden was working with us."

"Close," Nick confirmed. "It's not quite to that point, but very close."

That time Olivia actually rolled her eyes. She knew what time they were talking about, and she knew that they had known she'd been sleeping with David. If that was seriously what they were all thinking right now she was going to kill them.

"If you are going where I think you are going, Nick, you better stop now," she warned as she brandished her beer bottle at him.

Nick held up his hands in surrender. If she didn't want to talk about it then he would try to restrain his curiosity. At least for the time being of course. He may have let the discussion thread end, but Fin wasn't quite ready to drop it now that he understood where the others were going.

"You seein' someone, Liv?"

Olivia turned to stare at him, a flicker of fury dancing through her eyes.

"Are we seriously going to have this conversation, Fin?"

"One question doesn't make a conversation, an' that's all I want."

She seriously wanted to tell Fin to shove it. This was her personal life, and the key word there was personal. They had no right to push that far into her business despite the fact that they'd helped dig her out of a really deep hole. Even so, she figured she had a better chance of ending the conversation if she answered the question. Olivia knew she was the gold medalist when it came to being stubborn, but the rest of her former squad was easily in the running for a close silver. There was no easy way out.

"He's just a friend."

"A friend that could be more?" Fin pushed.

"Maybe. I don't know." She really didn't know if her relationship with Ben could become more than friendship. He could easily turn away from her or do something to make her leave at any time. There was no point thinking about it now though. "And I thought you said one question."

"One, two, what's the difference?"

"Remind me never to have another one question conversation with you," Olivia told him before taking another swig of her beer.

She should have suspected that it would turn out like this. Part of her had known that it would, but unfortunately there hadn't been any way to prevent the problem from happening.

"How about me?" Nick asked.

"The same goes for all of you," Olivia retorted. "Keep pushing and you'll find your asses on the ground instead of those bar stools."

"Gonna risk us landin' on your dog?" Fin asked.

"He's more than smart enough to get out of the way if he needs to."

"Could see 'im helping too," Amanda added.

"True."

All she would have to do was ask, and he would more than happily shove one of her idiot former co-workers off their stool. She suspected he would really enjoy doing it too. They'd been at the bar long enough for him to be getting a little fed up with the noise and not having his normal, relaxing night at home and off duty. He would still behave of course, but entertainment would be welcome. Olivia looked down to check on him briefly and found him right where she had left him, twined between the stool legs. His head was resting on his paws as he watched the activity in the bar.

"So we gonna meet this friend?" Fin pressed.

Olivia eyed him darkly, shifted a bit, and pressed her foot against his stool, rocking it a little in warning.

"Okay, okay!" Fin protested as he grabbed the counter to steady himself.

Suvi lifted his head to look at them in confusion, but quickly dropped his head back down again when he realized everything was alright. Humans. They could be so weird sometimes.

"Would think you would know better, Fin," Nick laughed.

"He should, but so should you," Olivia returned. "You were the idiot that thought it was a good idea to start this conversation."

"You were the one that answered the first question."

"Yeah, because I figured it was my best chance to get all of you to stop asking."

Not that that plan seemed to have worked. In fact, it had pretty much backfired on her.

"Or it could have opened more doors."

"Speaking of doors, maybe that's where I should head."

If they were going to keep this up she was out of there. Her relationship with Ben was something she was still trying to figure out in her own head. About the last thing she wanted to do was discuss even the most basic details with Fin and Nick. She didn't really want to talk about it with Amanda either, but at least the other woman wasn't being anywhere as pushy as the guys. Olivia suspected she had just as many questions though, if not more.

"No, stay. We're done," Nick returned.

"I've heard that before. It hasn't worked out so well for me."

"We mean it this time," Fin assured.

"True or not, I think I'm going to need another beer if you want me to stick around for this."