AN:Starts at season 8. Episode Dependent.

I do not own any of these characters or some of the script.

The Parallel Universe

Chapter 1: Dependent

Olivia stood in the back of the courthouse with a wide smile directed at Elliot, who was exonerated for the death of Ryan Bedford. She held his humble gaze and then nodded as he jogged toward the exit. He couldn't leave the courthouse any faster.

Something in him felt lighter, like he had been given a second chance and he was going to get his life right this time. The weight of the last year as he stumbled through it questioning his purpose and arguing with the people he loved, seemed minimal after the trail he just barely won by the skin of his teeth. He watched the sun fade into stars as he drove home to his family for the first time in 8 months.

The street was quiet and the moon was full. The light of the moon brightened the sky and he looked up to Oryan's Belt like a free man.

"Thank you," he said to the heavens.

A rare shooting star passed across the blackness of the night.

He smiled at it and then looked at his modest home, where his kids and Kathy sat in the protection of the walls he provided for them. He practically hopped up the stairs of the front porch and tapped on the screen door.

Kathy peaked out from inside of their house. His house.

"Elliot, what is it?"

Elliot nodded for her to move out onto the porch so the kids wouldn't hear. "We need to talk."

She looked into the living room where Elizabeth was still finishing homework and then slipped outside. The door closed behind her.

"I saw the news. I knew you didn't kill that boy."

"It's been a rough couple days. I've had time to think about what's important to me. I love my job. I love my family. I nearly lost both of them. I want to come home."

Kathy averted her eyes. "I…oh…Elliot."

"I want to do whatever I can to keep you and the kids in my life, Kathy."

She sighed heavily. "I've been seeing someone."

He wasn't expecting that response. "Huh...sure. Of course you are. Kathy I want to make things different for us this time."

"What would be different this time, Elliot? Would you transfer to a different department or an office position?"

"Transfer..to an office position? I mean, I was thinking more like a higher position like Sargent. I would get an extra day off."

"Mmm," was all she could mutter.

"Come on, I'd be a shell of a man if I weren't doing detective work and you know it, and what about all the time I've put in there. What about Olivia."

"And there it is."

Elliot could see he was losing her. He said he wouldn't look back and then he did. Just the notion of his life at SVU and Olivia was like watching his entire life with Kath crumble into sand before him.

"Kathy, let's talk about it? Please."

"Elliot, I'm in love with another man. He's actually here now, so I should go."

"Ah..," he stuttered. The blood drain from his skin.

"I was afraid to tell you, but I sent in the paperwork. We'll have a court hearing soon and we can decided about the arrangements with the kids and…the house and all of it…"

"You ah…wow…you're sure about this."

"I am."

He nodded in shock and she said goodnight and closed the door behind her.

He walked back to his car. He could have slammed the door open and beat the life out of the man in his living room, but Olivia's words rang in his mind.

"If you keep letting your anger and your ego get the best of you, and you'll lose it all."

A week later and another day in Manhattan came to an end.

A crowd of people gathered outside of courthouse. The sun was but an orange pink ball of light fading behind the skyline.

Olivia watched it from the east side of 53rd.

"Manhattanhenge. So magical. I love summer solstice."

It was one of the most magnificent views in New York City. You could only catch it's beauty twice a year. So hard to catch, but Olivia caught it often. It was her favorite thing to watch.

"It's a sign. We're going to have a good year."

Elliot sat in his thoughts. The world could have been burning around him and he'd still be there following Olivia, lost in his thoughts. His brow tensed up between his eyes as he processed his life and the case they just left behind. She knew that look all too well.

"You okay?," Liv touched his arm.

"Yeah," he said quickly with that tone that gave Olivia the clear signal he wasn't ready to talk about it.

"See you tomorrow then?," she asked with some concern.

He nodded as he started to walk towards his car, but he was too torn up inside to go home alone. "Kathy's been seeing someone."

"Ah," Olivia stepped back. She had already spoken to Kathy a week ago, who spilled everything in her mind all at once like their conversation was a free therapy session. Olivia was relieved she no longer had to keep that a secret. "Wow….You need to talk about it?"

"Nothing to talk about," he turned away from her, but then immediately changed his mind. "I hadn't even signed the paperwork, and she's already in love with someone else. That's how she said it. In love. "

"Yeah…," is all Olivia could muster up.

He could tell she was disinterested.

"Ah well. Now, I'm complaining," his lips tweaked.

"I'm sorry, El. I don't know what to say. You want to…grab a coffee and talk about it."

He shook his head in silence. "Naw, I'm good. Really, it was always a possibility. I just, ha, thought she would wait for me. You know…to figure things out."

Olivia knew how stubborn Elliot was and how angry he'd been over the last year or so, she couldn't blame Kathy for not waiting for him to come to his senses. "You still seeing that therapist?"

"What do you think?'

Her eyebrow lifted in that all knowing judgmental way.

"Well, I can't blame her, then."

That hit him in the gut harder than he probably deserved, but he took it and nodded in agreement.

"Will I see you tomorrow," she lightly asked.

"I have the kids tomorrow. I think."

"Okay. That's good. Then you won't be alone. You can do something nice for your kids."

He sucked at his teeth. "Yeah."

She nodded and held him with her warm brown eyes.

"How do you do this?," he asked before leaving.

She blinked with confusion. "Do what?"

"This job…and then…the long weekend. I can't go back to that empty apartment."

"Mmmm. You'll get used to it. Sounds like you need a hobby. I go kayaking on Saturday mornings. Want to come with me one week?"

He rubbed his tired face, thought about his new found unwanted freedom, and how exhausting Kayaking seemed, and then shook it all off with a macho angst.

"I'd rather go to therapy."

"You got something against boats?," she smiled with an attempt to lighten the mood.

Elliot lifted a sarcastic eyebrow in her direction.

Olivia was not the type of woman to encourage negative complaining, nor would she have ever put up with a man baby, and right now, the man she had always looked up to, was being a big baby about his divorce. "Tell Dr. Wong I give my love. I'll see you on Monday then."

"Monday," he sulked.

Olivia didn't much like kayaking either. She started going because occasionally Dean Porter would show up. And when Dean showed up they would almost always make a day of it. Kayaking, sometimes lunch, and always good quick uncommitted sex. It wasn't love for Olivia, and she wasn't typically into quickees, but the days were long, good men were scarce, and she could trust him.

Her Saturday rendezvous with Dean went as planned, Sunday was all day cleaning and laundry day, and by Monday Olivia was back at her desk going over the caseload that had come through the office while she was on break.

It was a simple life, a selfish life, often a lonely life, but it's what she was used to. Sure she would have loved to have known what it was like to go home to a family. To have a husband and a few kids that loved her to the moon and back. Family was the reason to live, so they say, whoever they are, but for some reason she couldn't quite figure out how to make that happen for herself.

When Melinda brought in the Kinship blood analysis, she couldn't keep her mind off of trying it. She was hoping for a long lost aunt or cousin, but then….

"Warner asked me to give this to you," Elliot said standing in front of her desk with the envelope. "You had the ah..kinship analysis done?"

"Yeah," she avoided his eyes. "For a cold case," she lied.

"You're not working any cold cases right now. What is it," he called out her lie.

She hated him for that. She forced open the paper inside, and quickly forgot about Elliot, calling her bluff. She was stunned into silence.

"Liv, whose DNA did you have tested?"

"Mine. I have a brother."

It was the tie that bonded them for the next month. The two of them could only focus on her brother. Elliot was fully invested. It kept his mind off of his own divorce, and he was genuinely happy for Olivia. When Cragen found out and nearly fired them both, he didn't even flinch. He would have lost his job to make sure she had family. And she was a mess without him.

"Elliot, Olivia, my office," Cragen barked from his open office door.

"As you know, I've had my doubts about your performance for a while now, but IBA assures me that if I split you up, I'd be losing my best detectives…and they're not wrong. Don't let your personal life interfere with your work again, understand? You do that on your own time, and I don't want to know about it. Now go home."

They nodded and grabbed their coats. The day had been especially long, but nobody died, so it felt like a win.

"Thank you," she whispered as they walked to the elevator.

"Anytime," he said holding her coat open as she put her arms through.

"You doing anything this weekend," he asked as they rode the elevator to the first floor.

"Nope. You?"

"I have an appointment with a therapist."

"Oh wow! Good for you."

"Yeah.. Well we'll see how it goes. Still not sure it's ever helped me."

"Want to grab dinner," Olivia said with an accidental sultry tone. It sounded innocent in her mind, but in the silence of the elevator it came out all wrong. "I mean, I was going to grab something, and I owe you for helping me with my brother."

"Sure," he smiled with his eyes, and Olivia knew he caught her fix, which made her want to kiss him and punch him at the same time. Instead she just let him hold the door for her.

"This week was crazy," She sighed. "I felt like those IAB interviews made the day so much longer and harder than they needed to be. I don't know why Cragen had to be like that. It felt a little overkill."

"Hey…ah..one thing, though," Elliot interrupted. "And don't' take this the wrong way. Just trying something new with you."

"Are you hitting on me," she joked.

"You wish," he joked back. "No, I have one rule when I'm off the clock," he said as they walked simultaneously arm to arm.

"Ah, oh…you have a rule," she smiled. "Okay and what is the rule?"

"Off the clock, I don't talk about work."

"Hmmm. I can do that. If…you don't talk about your divorce."

His mouth tightened in agreement. He wasn't exactly sure how to take that, but he liked her ballsy move. "Geez, no work and no divorce. I guess we're gonna have to talk about football."

"No! No football! The Jets are sooooo bad this season!"

He pushed her with his shoulder playfully. "No football!? Well, what's left then? Musical theater," he said in a frilly mocking voice.

She laughed and then he laughed, and that continued to the bar and throughout dinner.

"Thanks for all the help with my brother, by the way."

"You would have done the same for me."

"I would have but..," she touched the side of her face and pulled that hair from her mouth as he watched her talk. It was hard not to be taken by her little qorks. Her hair and her dark skin and the way she delicately placed the fries in her mouth with her perfectly polished fingers. She was practically exotic to him. Like a curvy classic Bond girl. He had always wanted to be James Bond. "If only he could pull that off, they would have made a handsome couple," he thought to himself often.

"I mean," she continued. "It was nice to have my partner back."

She took another sip of bourbon. He followed her lead. "Family is something that scares me. Probably because I've never had it."

"Family is everything," he looked at his bourbon and downed the whole thing.

"Can I have another," he asked the bartender. "So did you make any plans to see him?"

"I did," she beamed. "I'm going to go with them to the zoo. His girlfriend has a little girl. I just hope it works out."

"It will," he replied.

"How was the weekend with your kids?"

"Great. Really great. Weirdly I'm able to focus on them better this way. Not going to know what to do with myself on the weekends they aren't around."

"You asked me how I do it," she drank again. "and the answer is that somedays I love being completely independent of another human being."

Elliot gulped the swig of Bourbon at that notion as he felt like he was more dependent on her than anyone else these days.

"But also, it's really hard to be alone. Unbearable even. And you find ways to enjoy the hours, even if that means going to kayak groups or running marathons." She downed her bourbon, and before she could refuse another the bartender filled her glass. "Oh. I guess I'm having another one."

"What do you want out of life?," he asked and tapped on the bar for another round.

"Hang on. Did you just ask me what I wanted out of life? "

"Seriously, I've never heard you talk about…what you want."

"Ha. Eh. Same thing you want, El. Same thing you want…"

He rubbed her back and lifted his glass. "Cheers to that."

She clinked the side of his drink, and the night got longer. Before they knew it, they'd both put down 4 bourbons and Olivia won 3 rounds of darts. The room was spinning and they were both sloppy drunk.

"Damn," Elliot puffed out his chest and tossed the darts into a cup. His face was flush from the booze and he grinned at Olivia who just made a second bullseye to win the game. "Your aim got better with bourbon. Do we need to keep a flax handy at work, just in case," he jested.

"Ah, ah, ah, no job talk," she grinned back at him with an equally drunken face. Her hand touched his chest to hold herself up. "Woooh, I think I had one too many," she wobbled.

Her hair had fallen out of it's ponytail and lay wild around her shoulders. Every-time she bent over he would get a glimpse of her cleavage, and though it never bothered him before, the mix of her body with the bourbon was making him uncomfortable.

He unconsciously touched her hand as he grabbed the darts from her to clean up the game. Their eyes met for a moment.

"Yeah, we may have overdone it," Elliot said feeling the buzz. "Hopefully, Cragen doesn't call."

They both laughed like they were young and twenty.

She leaned against the bar and turned away with a big happy sigh.

Elliot breathed happily too. "We calling it a night?"

She could have lost herself in his arms right there, but instead she turned her face away from him and pulled her purse up from the stool. She then tossed a credit card onto the bar.

"Yeah, calling it."

"What are you doing?," Elliot hovered. "Put that away. I'm buying your drinks."

"No, no. You have 4 kids and alimony. I got this," she insisted.

"Liv," he pushed the card away and slapped a $100 bill on the counter. "Just let me buy the drinks, Kelly Clarkson."

She looked him right in the face and knew she was in trouble. His smile filled her soul, but there was always that wall she was so desperate to keep up. Because she had to. He sensed her think it and they both pulled away. She fixed her hair back into it's modest ponytail and pulled up her shirt.

The bartender slid two shots in front of them and took the $100. "Here this one's on the house."

"Ah, thanks, Sid," Elliot nodded. "We're good. Too good. Give them to someone down there."

Sid smiled at them and then poured himself a shot. "Come on, one for the road. It got chilly out there. You wouldn't leave me hanging, would you."

Olivia could never say no to Sid. "Az elet akkor szep, ha megtortenik."

Sid had no idea what she just said. "Yeah, same to you. Cheers."

"It's Hungarian for 'Life if beautiful, if it's happening.''

With that she grabbed the shot and slammed it. Elliot followed her lead and immediately regretted it.

"Ahhh," she scrunched her face up like she'd just swallowed acid.

"Yeah I'm gonna feel that in a bad way," Elliot groaned.

"Goodnight, Sid," She smiled.

"Good night you two."

"I'll walk you home," Elliot jumped in front of her to open the door.

"You already bought my drinks. I'm good."

"You're wasted," he said with a bit of a slur, holding himself together.

"Elliot, I do this all of the time."

"You get wasted and walk home alone from bars all of the time?"

"No, I never do that like this, but I'm good" she slurred. "Eh, that shot was strong."

He grabbed her arm lightly. "I know. That's why I'm going to make sure you get home."

His face was close to hers again, and their eyes locked. He wasn't too sure he could make it home either.

"I might have to crash on your couch though."

"Okay," she said as she pulled herself together.

His eyes were crystal clear even though the world around her was spinning. She was embarrassed that she let herself get this drunk.

It was messy of her, and he wasn't someone she should be flirting with. He was single now, and he was her whole world, and one kiss could end that forever.

She pulled away and nodded for him to walk her home.

The streets were dark, but they were in the city that never sleeps, so there were plenty of people having the same night they were having.

The wind was blowing harder now and the fall evening had made the night air cold. Elliot walked close to her. His body kept her right arm warm. His hand touched her fingers. It was a tease if nothing else. She shivered.

"It got cold," he mumbled.

"Mmhm," she shook. "It did."

He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her tight against him. "Better."

"Yeah."

As complicated as their lives could be, they knew one thing, they could count on each other.

"I don't want to be your sloppy seconds, Stabler."

"No. No. I wouldn't do that to you. I already did that with the IAB agent, anyway."

She slapped him. "What!? You're joking!"

"Hell yeah. Did you think we just got out of that interview with honesty and a prayer?"

"No, you didn't!"

"No. That happened. Wish it hadn't. But… "

Olivia was wildly laughing at him as he spoke.

"It's not funny. She had a lot of cats."

"Are you still dating her," she uncomfortably laughed and half truly wanted to seriously know.

"No! Cat ladies are...a different breed. Boring sex too. Not that you asked."

Olivia was in tears of laughter and then she stopped suddenly and threw up. The world got black after that.

When she woke her head was pounding. The booze was practically steaming from her pores. Her eyes could barely open as the light from the sun burned through her open window.

"Mmmmh," she grumbled and stretched her arms expecting to find empty bed, instead she hit a warm body.

She panicked, grabbed for her gun, and shot up from the pillow with a scream ", AHuh!"

Elliot jumped up, his eyes were glued shut. "Eh! What! What happened!"

His eyes squinted open to the gun, and he held out his hands. "Liv! Stop! It's just me."

Olivia registered his face and put the gun down. "Jesus! Elliot!"

They both took in a sip of air before realizing they were both completely naked.

Olivia grabbed for her blanket, and he pulled one of her pillows to his crotch. They stood in silence for a moment.

"Did…we," she started to ask.

"No," he interrupted. "I don't think we did…No!"

"You don't think we did, or you know we didn't?"

"I…don't remember."

He watched Olivia's face fall and he reached out towards her with one free hand.

"Liv, I'm so sorry this happened."

Olivia wrapped the comforter around her in a huff and headed for the bathroom. "Just please get clothes on."

Elliot was mortified and severely hung over. He searched the room for his clothes, and then the kitchen, which is apparently where everything went south. He quickly pulled himself together and awkwardly sat at the kitchen island waiting for her to come out.

When she did, she was in sweat pants and a T-shirt. "You want coffee?"

He wasn't certain how to answer that. "Eh…I can just grab something on the way home…"

She gave him a confusing look.

"Unless it's not a problem for me to be here. Because I'm not sure if you invited me or if this just happened because we were drunk. In which case, I would love a coffee, but I can leave."

"I'll make coffee," she mumbled as she shuffled to the cabinet.

"Liv," he started in like a fool with a broken heart. "I just…want you to know that whatever happened last night…I hope that I had your consent, because I can't remember any of it."

"Elliot," she grabbed her throbbing head as she started the coffee pot. "Please don't explain. I would like to pretend this never happened. Is that possible?"

Elliot watched as she pressed the button and faced him from the other side of the kitchen. She was perfection, and he totally messed this up. Her messy hair and her perfect skin and those eyes. He could not believe this had happened.

"Yeah," he responded with a hint of sadness. "I'll never let myself get this way again."

"Same," she nodded. "You want a to go mug?," she asked as she turned to the coffee pot again. Avoiding his eyes.

He couldn't really say no to that. She had already closed herself off to him, and he was backed into a corner with his actual tail between his legs.

"Sure," he lightly replied.

The coffee dripped in the silence, and Elliot sat on her tall kitchen stool looking out the balcony window, wrecking his hung over brain for the right words in a moment like this. His thoughts came up empty.

She filled a to go mug and he grabbed his keys and wallet and headed for the door.

"See you Monday?," he asked with a that puppy dog face he sometimes got.

"See you Monday," she nodded back.

AN: Review if I should continue.