I Know This One
Chapter 11--New Suspect?

Apartment of Elliot Stabler

Elliot fumbled with his keys, juggling a handful of grocery bags and a six pack of beer. He finally got the door open, stepped inside and pushed it shut with his foot. "Liv?" he called into the dark apartment. Only silence answered him. 'Must have beat her back here,' he thought. After a quick sweep of the rooms he knew he was alone and set out to ready his apartment for the night ahead.

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Olivia held the piping hot box in her left hand as she knocked on Elliot's door with her right. "It's open," came his voice from the other side. Olivia laughed before twisting the knob and stepping inside. "How did you know it was me? It could have been some pysch…" she stopped mid sentence when her eyes finally adjusted to the dimmed lights. There Elliot stood in the middle of the room in black dress pants, a baby blue shirt and a royal blue tie. His hands held a bouquet of yellow and white roses; a trademark Stabler smirk on his face.

"What is all this?" Olivia asked her eyes nearly as wide as her mouth.

"This is our pizza and beer night," Elliot laughed. He stepped towards his partner, took the pizza box from her and handed her the bouquet of flowers. He set the pie on the coffee table and stepped behind Olivia, wrapping his arms around her waist. "This is my way of telling you that you are the most wonderful person in my life and I am so happy we are finally together."

Olivia let out a soft sigh as she leaned back into Elliot's embrace. So many things in her life were not the way they should be. In a perfect world everything would always turn out the way she planned, the bad guys would always get caught, and they would always pay for their crimes. Everyone would be loved and no one would ever know the feeling of being left behind. But this world wasn't perfect and she was walking proof of that. If it wasn't for the unspeakable crimes of man she wouldn't be standing here, in the arms of her loving partner holding this beautiful bouquet of flowers. A small laugh escaped her lips as these thoughts crossed her mind.

"What's so funny?" Elliot whispered into her ear.

"Nothing," she giggled. "Just thinking about how contradictory my life is." She broke from his embrace and kicked her shoes off. She placed the flowers gently on the coffee table and returned to Elliot, this time facing him and sliding her arms around his waist as his encircled hers.

"Care to explain what that means?"

She kissed him softly on the lips and smiled. "The one thing that makes me so happy, being you, is the one thing I shouldn't have. Everything in this world has worked against us and yet we've beaten them all."

Elliot smiled as he lost himself in her deep brown eyes. He'd loved this woman for longer than he could remember and it had nearly killed him to keep those feelings bottled up. Leaning forward he captured her lips with his own, like magnets that refused to be parted. If it wasn't for the need for oxygen Elliot would have been perfectly happy to stay in that position for all eternity.

"Elliot we need to slow down," she gasped.

"Why is that?" he asked, attacking her lips once more.

"Because," Olivia smirked as she playfully pushed him away, "our pizza is getting cold and our beer is getting warm." She smiled as she took a piece of the pizza out of the box, folded it in half and stuffed it into her mouth. She moaned in delight at the savory mixture of cheese, sauce and meat.

"Enjoying that?" Elliot asked.

"More than you could ever know," she smiled wiping the sauce from the side of her mouth.

Elliot picked up a piece of pizza and devoured it quickly. He disappeared into the kitchen and quickly returned with two chilled bottles of beer. "Your drink madam."

Olivia took the bottle graciously and gulped half of it down, smiling as the cool liquid soothed her throat. The pair ate in comfortable silence until both bottles were dry and nearly half of the pizza was gone. Soon the coffee table was littered with sauce-ridden napkins and empty beer bottles.

"So what do you have on the agenda for tonight Mr. Stabler?" Olivia asked.

"Well now that our stomachs are full I thought a little entertainment would be in order," Elliot said with a sly wink.

Olivia brought both of her legs onto the couch and moved into a kneeling position. Elliot was still facing forward as she ran her fingers seductively down the length of this tie. "And what might we do to entertain ourselves?"

Without acknowledging her question, Elliot picked up a small remote from the coffee table. He pressed a few buttons and soon after the first chords of a slow jazz tune filled the air. Elliot stood and extended his hand to Olivia who was still seated on the couch. "May I have this dance?"

Olivia stared at his hand with bewildered amusement before slipping her palm against his. "You may."

They danced slowly, their feet barely lifting from the ground but merely shuffling on the hard wood floor. Olivia laid her head on Elliot's shoulder, breathing in the intoxicating aroma of his aftershave. Her left hand lay flat on his chest while the right slung to his shoulder. Elliot's arms intertwined around her small waist and lay gently on the curves of her hips.

"Thank you," Olivia whispers after they had been dancing for some time.

"For what?"

"For making this night so special." They continued to dance slowly even after the music ended until gradually they made their way into the bedroom.

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Elliot awoke to the sound of an irritating buzz. It took him a few seconds to place the sound as that of his front door intercom. Untangling his body from Olivia's still sleeping form, Elliot slipped on a pair of flannel pajama pants and made his way to the front door.

"Yeah?" he called into the intercom.

"Daddy it's me," came Maureen's voice through the crackling wires.

"Maureen? Come on up," he said pressing the small button that would unlock the main entrance to the building. A few moments later a soft rapping sounded and Elliot opened the front door and let his eldest daughter inside. "What's wrong honey?"

"They're making him a suspect!" Maureen blurted, thrusting a blue folded paper towards her father.

Elliot took the paper and looked over it. He had seen enough subpoenas in his life to know how to decipher the legal speak and get down to the actual meaning behind the words. "The defense is introducing Nate as a possible suspect," he read more to himself than to Maureen.

Maureen felt the tears begin to swell in her eyes. "What do we do now?"

"I don't know honey," Elliot whispered pulling his daughter into his arms. "I really don't know."

Okay so I know it's been a long time since I've updated, but hopefully this story will be finished by the end of summer. Feed me more reviews and maybe it will make the process go faster ;)