July approached and the sun shone over New York as the people of the city enjoyed a warm Summer. Everyone seemed in a better mood this time of year, but it was a bitter sweet time for Elliot and Olivia. Cragen had recently informed them that a replacement had been found and he could start in a couple of weeks. Elliot had accepted an opening at major crimes.

They'd had a busy weekend and ended it by going out to dinner on Sunday night with Elliot's kids. It was the first time they had all gone out with Olivia since she started seeing their father and all in all, Elliot thought that it was a success. It was a little awkward at first, but eventually they all settled into conversation and laughter like they had when Olivia was just Elliot's partner. She wasn't a stranger to them after all and they'd known her most of their lives. Olivia would give them birthday cards every year and had even had dinner at their house a couple of times when they were growing up. She could understand if they'd acted a little stand off-ish with her. It was only natural that they'd want to protect their mother. But that wasn't the case at all and Elliot suspected that Kathy probably explained to them that she was ok with this if they were.

After the meal, Olivia went with Maureen, Dickie and Elizabeth to pick out ice cream from the counter. Kathleen waited at the table with Elliot.

"How's your Mom?" he asked.

"She's fine. Great actually. She's..." and then she stopped, biting her bottom lip.

"She's what?" Elliot asked "Kathleen, it's ok you can tell me"

"Well, she's been seeing someone. His name's David and he seems like a really nice guy" she glanced up at him, not knowing how he'd take it.

"That's great. I'm happy for her and as long as you all like him that's all i care about. What's his name again? His last name I mean?"

"Dad" Kathleen rolled her eyes "you're not doing some weird background check on him. He's just a normal guy!" Elliot smiled and looked over fondly at Olivia, paying for the ice creams.

"We're all ok with this Dad. You know that right. Olivia's great and if you were going to find someone else after Mom, I'm glad it's her."

On the Monday, the squad continued working a case involving a rapist who was drugging women in bars and taking them back to his house. It was a hard case to prosecute because the women had no memory of the attack and the perp was a wealthy hedge fund manager on wall street who claimed it was always consensual. But today, Casey had secured a warrent for his arrest and Elliot and Olivia headed over to the upper east side to bring him in. His housekeeper answered the door and Elliot pulled out his badge.

"I'm detective Stabler, this is my partner detective Benson. We're here to speak to Mr Capello please." He suddenly thought to himself that this was probably going to be the last few times he'd refer to Olivia as his partner and it pulled at his heart a little. As the housekeepr let them in, they heard some shuffling under the brownstone steps. A man suddenly emerged from the door to the basement and started to run. Olivia immediately recognised him as Capello and the housekeeper had moved in front of Elliot, blocking his view.

"He's running!" Olivia shouted, and bolted down the steps to chase him. Elliot wasn't far behind her and rounded the corner to see she'd tackled him to the floor and pulled out her handcuffs. He somehow managed to pull his arms from her grip and pushed her so hard into the fence that he winded her. Elliot never moved so fast in his life and dove onto Capello. Rage erupted inside of him and before he could think about what he was doing, he punched Capello in the face. As he brought his fist up to land another one, Olivia caught her breath and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Elliot! Elliot stop. It's ok, I'm ok"

Elliot took a deep breath and calmed himself before flipping Capello over to put cuffs on him and read him his rights.

As he shoved him into the back of the squad car, Elliot ran his hand down Olivia's arm;

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine, you shouldn't have done that Elliot you could've jeopardised the case" she answered.

"I know, I'm sorry. I just lost it when he hurt you back there."

They drove back to the precint in silence and waited for Capello's lawyer to speak to him. Elliot and Olivia waited outside of the interrogation room with Casey when his lawyer left the room.

"Why does my client have a bloody nose detectives?" she asked angrily.

"He attempted to evade arrest and got hurt in the struggle" Olivia quickly answered before Elliot could say anything. When the lawyer went back into the interrogation room, Casey turned to the two detectives;

"maybe you two should sit this one out and I'll get Fin or Munch in here." She too looked angry and brushed passed them without another word.

Later that day, Elliot came back into the squadroom with lunch but Olivia was nowhere to be found. He looked all over for her and eventually found her in the cribs lying on one of the cots.

"Hey, I've been looking all over for you. Are you alright, are you still in pain from the hit you took earlier?" He asked, concerned.

"I'm fine, I just needed a minute" Olivia sat up and smiled at him and he sat down next to her.

After a minute she spoke, looking around the room.

"It's gonna be strange not seeing you around here every day. I thought I'd miss working cases with you and spending hours upon hours in that awful car with you. But now i know i'm gonna miss the smallest things most. Like waking you up in here when we're working a long case, or bringing me coffee in the morning. Or even just seeing the look of concentration on your face when you're filling out a DD5" she smiled. Elliot grabbed her hand and rested it on his lap.

"I know" he sighed "I'm not looking forward to going either but then I think about why I'm going and I feel so happy. We'll always be partners Liv, but now we're partners in both senses of the word" he smiled "plus, now I know why the department doesn't allow relationships within a squad. After my reaction to that scumbag hurting you today, it's probably for the best. I just hope your new partner will look after you."

"Yeah, well. He's got big boots to fill" she laughed. They hugged and Elliot kissed her head. She tilted her head up and they kissed deeply.

"Has anyone ever told you you're a great kisser" she sighed into his soft lips.

"Among other things" he smirked "and for the record, I'll still be bringing you coffee in the morning. And I might even have kisses to go with it!" They stood to go back to the squadroom and on the way they saw Capello being escorted to the tombs. Olivia gave him a look of disgust.

"God I could do with a break away from this place" she sighed.

"You know what. That sounds like a great idea" Elliot turned back to her and leaned against the wall of the corridor. "How about you and I take leave for a week? We've both racked up plenty of OT so I don't think Cragen can complain." Olivia looked at him and her eyes widened at the idea. "An old marine buddy of mine has a place out in Long Island that we could stay at over 4th July weekend?" he asked.

"Yeah, why not. That sounds great" Olivia smiled. She hadn't taken a vacation in so long and some time away from the city was just what they both needed.