He stood behind her, hands situated at the bones of her hips, lips brushing the length of her neck. She felt a familiar fire begin to burn within her as his hands slowly drifted beneath her shirt. He tugged her back gently so her entire body was pressed into his. She could feel all of him.

As he brushed her hair over her shoulder, lips landing at the top of her spine, she was struck by how right this felt. His hands moved up her sides, leaving goosebumps as they went, and she realized she had never felt so totally and completely connected to another person. She had men in her life that she'd cared about deeply. Men she loved. But this was different. This was Elliot.

He lifted her shirt over her head and his lips began working down the length of her spine. His tongue mapping every dip and curve. She had always wanted her relationships to work, but despite her best efforts she could never feel the way she felt when she spent time with Elliot. He provided a sense of safety and security she never found in anyone else.

He dropped to his knees, tongue teasing the space just above her leggings. His rough hands pressed against her so she was now facing him. His mouth continued its exportation of the line above her leggings, and she ached for him to take things further.

Sex with Elliot was different. It wasn't all about desire and self satisfaction. It was, but it was also more. It felt deeper on every level. His tongue teased a circle above her belly button before he grasped her forearms and pulled himself back into a standing position.

His lips were immediately on hers, warm and wet. She pulled at the hem of his shirt, needing to spread her fingers over his warm skin.

Her fingers fiddled with his belt, and she deftly pulled it from his belt loops. His mouth ran the length of her neck sucking and nipping his way down, pausing to give her collarbone extra attention. He was leaving a mark, but she was distracted by working open the button of his jeans. "Off," she breathed out. "In the way," she obviously couldn't articulate words at the moment. As she tugged his jeans down, he ran his tongue the length of her bra line.

He chuckled at her unintended gasp, and his hands drifted behind her back and deftly unclasped her bra. The straps fell off her shoulders and she moved her arms so it could drop to the floor next to his jeans. She closed her eyes as his hands pressed down her back. His fingers pressed into her ass, and he lifted her with ease as he completed the last few steps to her bed.

He settled over her, kissing her deeply. When he withdrew, his eyes roamed over her face and down her body. She met his gaze, but almost couldn't take the intensity. He brushed his fingers lightly across her cheek. "You're so beautiful," he muttered huskily when he dropped his lips to her jaw.

She brought a hand to the back of his head, caressing the skin lightly. "I love you." For the first time the words felt natural, without fear, and full of trust. She loved him. It was true today, and it was true twenty years ago. Whether she knew it or not, she was his, body and soul, long before this moment. And somewhere deep inside of herself she knew he had always been hers.

-000-

Sleep evaded Elliot. Olivia's comforter was tucked around them, and she was sound asleep next to him, wearing nothing but a compass necklace. In the dark of the night he brushed his fingers up and down her arm. He silently thanked God for this, for them. For allowing them to finally find their way to each other.

He couldn't help himself from landing a light kiss on her warm shoulder. She was everything, and had been for as long as he could remember. Sometimes he wished he had made different choices along the way, but they were here now, and she was ready.

For a moment, his mind drifted to his dead wife. Kathy. He loved her. He did, but not like this. His life with Kathy fell together when they were just kids. Their experience with love was light, young, and slightly superficial. He was happy with what they had on some level, but when Olivia came along he finally knew what it meant to love someone. Completely. Selflessly. Unconditionally. What he felt for her came from some deep place within, a place he couldn't identify. She was a part of him. An inextricable part of his soul.

"You're thinking loud again," she mumbled.

She chuckled, he thought she was still sleeping. "I'm sorry."

She rolled and wrapped her arms around him and pressed his bare chest against hers. Her lips brushed against his shoulder. "Everything okay?"

He pushed the wild hair away from her face. "Yeah," he grinned, "Just thinking about how completely perfect you are."

She blushed and laughed a little. "That so?"

"Absolutely." He pressed his lips to hers. "I don't think you could ever understand how much I love you."

She nuzzled beneath his chin. "I love you too." They laid in comfortable silence, but then she asked, "Do you think Noah will wander in here tonight?"

He instinctively glanced at the door. "Probably. Maybe? It's the first night he's even tried sleeping in his room."

She scooted away from him a little, "I'm proud of him for trying at all."

"Me too." She scooted further away. "Where you goin'?" He complained.

She chuckled. "I'm getting dressed. You probably should too." She made her way across the room with her back to him, and he couldn't take his eyes off her perfect ass. "Unless you want to make another naked sprint to my bathroom," she teased, her back still turned.

He flipped the comforter off of himself and all out ran towards her before she could turn around. She let out an unexpected screech, when he wrapped his arms around her and roughly lifted her off the floor. "What the hell?"

He couldn't keep his laughter from escaping his lips, and he squeezed her tighter against him. After a quick moment he set her back on the ground. When she turned she was holding back her own smile. "What was that for?"

He ran his hands from her hips down the outside of her bare thighs, and laid his forehead against hers. "I couldn't stop myself. You can't show off that perfect ass, and expect me not to touch you."

She shook her head and rolled her eyes in mock disbelief, but she couldn't hold back a smile. She stepped away, keeping a hand on his forearm. Her other hand pointed her thumb back to her dresser, "Okay if I cover up now? I mean I'd like to get dressed before my son inevitably pounds on that door."

"Fine," he said with an exaggerated sigh. She smiled and pecked his lips before digging through her drawers for clothes. He watched her for another moment before he wandered over to the duffel bag he had been living out of for a week.

His head whipped around when she spoke without facing him. "The bottom drawer is empty…you can use it if you want." He knew she was deliberately trying to keep her voice nonchalant, like she wasn't offering him something completely invaluable.

He matched her casual tone, but he couldn't keep the smile off of his face when he answered. "Thanks. I'll organize it in the morning."

-000-

For the first time in a long time, the morning didn't feel like a frantic rush. Elliot woke for his morning run, kissing Olivia goodbye before he left. Noah hadn't made it the entire night in his room, crawling into bed sometime around 3:30am. Her exhaustion must have caught up with her because after Elliot left she almost immediately fell back asleep next to Noah.

Her next awareness was Elliot talking on the phone while slipping into her bathroom. He spoke to whoever was in the other line quickly and then she heard the shower turn on. After a few minutes she decided to peel herself from bed. She reached for her phone, but it wasn't where she left it. Careful not to wake Noah, she flipped the comforter off of herself, and padded to the bathroom. She tried the knob quietly, and found it unlocked.

The bathroom filled with steam as the shower had been running. Not wanting to startle him, she called, "Hey, did you bring my phone in here? It wasn't on my night stand."

He rinsed the soap off of his face so he could open his eyes before answering her. "Yeah, you slept through it ringing so I figured you were super tired. When I saw that it was Fin, I thought it would be fine to answer." He seemed a tad nervous, like he might have overstepped. "It's on the counter there," he leaned his head to the vanity. "He said call him back when you have a second. They are working out a deal for Ethan and he knew you'd want to give some input."

She moved to the vanity and picked up her phone. He had overstepped a little answering a work call, and she would have laid into any other…boyfriend or whatever…for answering her phone for a work call, but she honestly didn't mind that Elliot answered the call. He knew the case well, and it wasn't like it was some lawyer or a member of her squad who didn't know him well. It was Fin, and it was fine. Well it was mostly fine. She knew Fin would give her an incredible amount of crap for Elliot answering her phone. So, instead of getting angry, she smiled and gave him a simple, "thanks."

He smiled in return, but then raised his eyebrows suggestively, "Shower with me?"

She laughed. "Noah's still in bed…on the other side of the door…"

"The door has a lock," he said as if it were obvious. She knew he was teasing more than anything, and he didn't expect her to shower with him, which they both knew would be more than just showering, with her son only feet away. It made it more fun to watch his face when she wandered toward the door, but instead of opening it, she clicked the lock.

His grin was so stupidly goofy that she couldn't keep a straight face when she stripped off her clothes and climbed in with him.

-000-

Olivia met Fin at the precinct. Ethan had finally been discharged, and he and his parents planned to meet with them, and Jane that afternoon. Fin explained that the psychologist over Ethan's case would be filling them in on everything before everyone met together.

Fin met her as she entered the squad room. They were the only two there since it was a weekend. He wasted no time.

"So. Stabler's answerin' your phone now." His smile made her cheeks burn, and that was exactly the reaction he was looking for.

"I slept through your call, sorry."

"And your personal secretary decided to answer your phone for you… in your bedroom."

She rolled her eyes, but decided to lean into it. Apparently she was full of surprises this morning. "Oh yeah. He answered it on the way to my bathroom after his morning run." She grinned cheekily. He wanted to make her uncomfortable? Two could play that game. "You know, I was exhausted after mind blowing sex last night, but that didn't stop either of us from going another round in the shower after you called."

For a moment Fin blinked silently. Then once his brain caught up with the turn the conversation took he complained, "Awww man! I don't need those images in my head." He groaned again, "I really don't need to have the idea of Stabler's naked ass in the shower parading through my mind all day!"

"Well…you were the one who seems hellbent on prying into my sex life." She shrugged. "Serves you right."

Fin shuddered. "Okay you win. No more details please." He shook his head and his eyes fell to his feet. "There is such a thing as too much information." He groaned. "Imma need to find a way to scrub my brain before that psychologist gets here."

She glanced at the clock on the wall. "She should be here any minute right."

Fin's eyes followed hers. "Five minutes. She met with Jane this morning, hoping to work up an appropriate deal."

Olivia sighed. "This one's tough."

Fin nodded, "Doesn't feel like there's satisfying justice with things like this."

"Not at all." She agreed.

Both their heads turned when the sound of footsteps entered the squad room. The psychologist had arrived.

-000-

"When will mom be home?" Noah asked with a sigh.

"She shouldn't be long today." Really that was more of a hope than a reality. She only had a couple meetings, but sentencing negotiations were notoriously unpredictable.

Noah opened his mouth to say something, but the ping of his phone distracted him. He pulled it from his pocket. "Oh, it's a video…" Noah clicked the play button. "It's from my dance friends…" Noah stood closer so Elliot could see the video too. He hit play and they both watched as a bundle of twelve year old faces lit up his screen.

"Hi Noah!" They said in unison.

A blonde girl with her hair wound tightly in a bun pulled the camera to focus on herself first. "We miss you! I know it's only been a week, but," the girl pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, trying not to get emotional. "I hope you can come back soon. It's weird without you here."

"That's Paisley," Noah said, without taking his eyes off the screen.

The phone passed to another girl with delicate features and the same tight bun situated on top of her head. "I almost got that combo down," she grinned. "I might need you to help me the last part though. I think I'll have it by recital though. Miss you!" She waved into the camera before handing it to the next child.

"That was Bella." Elliot tried to remember the faces and names. Noah seemed to want him to know the names of his dance friends.

Next up was a lean boy, who looked slightly taller than Noah. "Come back!" He complained. "You're the only other boy in this class and all the girl talk is killing me." Noah laughed at that. "Come back soon. My arms are starting to hurt from helping with all the lifts." His face turned more serious. "I miss you man."

"The girl talk doesn't bother him that much," Noah said. "It's a little funny when the girls talk about all that stuff."

"What was his name?" Elliot asked quickly, trying to get an answer before the next child popped up on the screen.

"That's Liam."

Elliot nodded and listened while several other kids passed the phone around. Finally, the phone passed to a soft spoken girl with vibrant green eyes. Her blonde curly hair didn't cooperate with the standard ballerina bun, a few pieces managed to wiggle loose. Unlike the other kids she moved away from the group, taking the device with her to what looked like a quiet costume room.

"Hey Noah," her eyes watered a little. "I miss you. I know it's kind of hard right now, and it's um," the girl quickly blinked back the tears welling in her eyes. "I don't like being here without Clem either. It's weird and I just want to leave, but my mom is making go. She says I can't miss classes. I think she wants me to try out for the lead." She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't really want to though. Um. Clem really wanted it, you know, and I just…I don't want it." She shook her head and she accidentally loosened another frizzy curl from her bun. "Anyway," her eyes dropped away from the screen. "Come back when you're ready. I miss her a lot. But I'm missing you too." She lifted her hand and waved. "Feel better Noah. Uh, call me if you want. You know if you want to just talk about stuff. I guess I'll see you later."

The screen blackened when the video ended. Noah leaned into Elliot and Elliot gave him a half hug, "you okay bud?"

Noah nodded, but his eyes had reddened in his attempts to hold back his tears. " I'm okay. It was really nice of them to send that."

"It was," Elliot agreed.

"Yeah. Her name is Hazel. Clem was," he swallowed the emotion that rose with the mention of Clem's name. "She was her best friend at dance."

"Oh," Elliot acknowledged the heaviness of the girl's demeanor. "That's gotta be really hard."

"Yeah." He thought for a moment. "I want to go back. Especially for Hazel, but..but…" he stammered a little. "I'm…I just…I'm not ready yet."

"That's okay Noh. You don't have to go back until you're ready." Elliot had an idea. "You don't have to go to dance to help Hazel. You can call her, or I can take you to visit."

Noah nodded. "Okay. Maybe we could do that next week?" His face fell a little, "but you're going back to work next week."

"I am," Elliot gave Noah's shoulder a squeeze, but I talked to my sargeant. She knows that I'm helping out your mom with you here. I have to go back, but she promised I could come home early most days, and leave if you or your mom needs me."

"Okay," Noah sounded a little deflated. "Are you going to stop sleeping here then?"

"I'm not sure," Elliot admitted. "Your Mom and I haven't really talked about it yet. I'll probably spend a lot of nights at my place, but I hope I'll be invited here a lot too."

"I want to ask her to let you stay," he seemed pretty set on the idea.

"Hey, let me talk to her first." The last thing Elliot needed was for Olivia to feel too pressured by her child. "Whether or not I stay a lot is a pretty grown up decision, and a big deal for your mom. Let's give her some space to make the choice on her own okay?

Noah looked as if he might press the issue more, but he finally nodded. "Okay fine."

I'm alive!! It's been a minute- I had a ton of family things this weekend and I didn't have one minute to write! I should be able to get back on track now. Hope you are all enjoying this- I'm thinking it will be complete at the end of the next chapter!