Disclaimer: I don't own them.

A/N: I get the feeling I'm going to be getting a lot of these out of my system ... so I'm going to put them all in one story. Title from a wonderful song by the Goo Goo Dolls. Oh, and I thought Olivia's last line was awesome...things had been so intense and then she said that and I laughed like she'd broken some kind of spell. Am I crazy?

At home he's still sleeping on the couch; the kids are giving him sad looks that clearly communicate I'm not about to cross Mom. By the time Elliot goes back to work, all he wants is for somebody over the age of one to look at him like nothing ever happened.

Apparently this is too much to ask.

Today he and Olivia have closed one of their easy cases – "easy" meaning that the victim will be in therapy for years but at least they arrested the perp within twelve hours. She's sitting across from him typing up her report and he's supposed to be doing the same, but he keeps getting distracted by Maybe God remembered how cute you were as a carrot, keeps following that statement to a conclusion.

"I was about six when I was a carrot," he says, abruptly, when he can't take the silence any longer.

"Mmm," Olivia says, noncommittal. "I don't remember what I was when I was six. I missed the school play, I know that, and I think that was the year we skipped trick-or-treating. Too much vodka."

He will not be sidetracked. "Kathy doesn't even know I was a carrot."

Unfortunately, Munch has chosen this moment to walk past. "Good thing, too," he cracks. "Wouldn't want her to know her children are half vegetable."

Olivia lifts her head to glare at John the way only woman can. When he has fled she returns to her work.

Elliot shifts, uncomfortable. He should pinch himself. If he's not there to his partner, maybe he's not really there at all. "You talked to my mother."

At this she looks at him, eyes wide in surprise. "What's that? Your mother's alive?"

"Liv –"

"Oh no, that's right, I forgot, you told me about her, let's see, never, all those years ago."

He holds up both hands. "Okay, okay, I get it. You're pissed."

"Took you long enough," she snorts, turning back to her report.

Elliot stares at the top of her head, his own anger mounting. "I've only been back for a day – "

"It took you a day?"

"I don't need this," he snaps, shooting to his feet.

"Oh, you sit your ass back down, Elliot Stabler," she says calmly. "You need this, and now's as good a time as any."

He stands rigid for a moment with his back to her, then draws in a deep breath and sits. She ignores him. Elliot feels rather foolish and hates her for making him feel that way. "Well?" he prompts.

"I'm not going to lecture you, Elliot. We were having a conversation."

Some conversation. He counts to ten, is still annoyed, counts to a hundred by fives, and finally manages to repeat in a reasonably civil tone, "You talked to my mother."

"Mmm." She points her pen at him, still without looking up. "I didn't tell you that. As far as you know, that never happened. Clear?"

"Crystal." At least they're getting into territory he can navigate. "So then Kathleen made a miraculous turnaround."

"She's a good kid."

He shakes his head. His daughter's a good kid all right, a good kid who up until three days ago was hell-bent on her own destruction. "What did you do, Liv?"

Olivia sighs, then says, "Reminded you that you don't get to do these things alone. There are at least three people you should have talked to before returning that necklace, and that's not even counting me."

Who asked you to get into it? he thinks, but he's not mad enough to make the mistake of saying it.

"You going to question my involvement now?"

Damn her and her mind reading. "No," he mutters. "It never would've turned out right without you."

"You're welcome," she says shortly. "Now get your head out of your ass."

In spite of himself he rolls his eyes. "You're pissed."

"No," she scoffs. "Hurt, confused, embarrassed, angry – oh wait, that does add up to pissed. Congratulations, Stabler, you're batting a thousand."

Pissed and sarcastic. Maybe he really did do something wrong. He takes a shot. "Because I never told you about my mother?"

Silence. That's what he gets for hitting a nerve.

"I don't know everything about you, Liv."

"You know all the big important stuff."

"No," he murmurs, thinking of the secret glances she and Fin sometimes share.

"You have the general idea there."

"How you sleeping?"

Caught off guard, she glances up. "Where did that come from?"

Duh, he was following the unspoken conversation. "How you sleeping?" he repeats.

"Better. But we're talking about your problems."

"Yes, ma'am." He pauses. "What are my problems again?"

She's not going for the levity. "That it's not fair. And nothing you can say now can change the fact that all those years we weren't even. That's not a partnership."

His blood runs cold. No. Not again. "What are you saying?"

"Relax. Nothing drastic." This time when she looks at him, he gets the sense that she is letting him see her for the first time all day. "El. Why?"

He honestly doesn't know why, but that's not a good enough answer for those eyes so he gives her one of the rationalizations he's come up with in the past few days. "I don't want to lay any more on you than I have to. You don't need that."

"Maybe I wanted it," she retorts. "Did that ever occur to you?"

"No," he whispers, shaking his head.

"Bastard," she mutters, turning back to her computer screen.

Elliot lets her be for a few minutes, trying to picture what has been going on in this room in his absence. "So," he says finally. "Whose side are the others on this time?"

"Yours," she says promptly, without looking up. "They're sick of me, but they won't say it to my face."

"I wouldn't either."

"Except that you are."

Of course, he's automatically on his own side. Even if he sometimes wishes he weren't. "Fine. You win this one."

"I win in general."

She's got a point and he wants her to stop looking at him like he disgusts her, so he says, "Fine."

"That doesn't earn you any points." Olivia types a final sentence with more force than is strictly necessary. "I'm done and I'm gone."

Elliot keeps his head down and marks her familiar dance between the lockers and desk and coatrack. "You and Kathy," he says as she passes him on the way out, and she turns.

"What was that?"

After a brief internal struggle he raises his face to her. "I'm just gonna have to work my way back into your good graces, aren't I?"

"Yeah, you are," she agrees without a trace of a smile. "Start by doing your half of our report. Oh, and tell Kathy you were a carrot. Good icebreaker, you know, if you ever want to get off the couch. Maybe get her a copy of the picture. 'Cause you did make an adorable carrot, and I am never gonna let you forget it." She hefts her bag higher on her shoulder and heads out the door.

"See you tomorrow?" he calls after her.

"Yeah."

Please R&R. Thanks for reading! More will probably come eventually, but not necessarily related to what happened in this chapter. If that makes sense.