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“You know, you didn’t answer his question, Liv,” Elliot said, a cocky grin spreading across his face. “You in the market for something like that?”
Olivia closed her eyes and massaged the space between her eyebrows with two fingers. This day needed to be over. It started with McGrath up her ass in the morning to bust up a rape ring that preyed on OnlyFans models and ended with Elliot busting into the 1-6 like he owned the place telling her that her investigation could compromise a six-month op into some cybercrime thing he’d been involved in if they didn’t work it together.
And that’s what landed Spud McGrew, the tattoo extraordinaire and piercer, in her interrogation room.
Spud didn’t have much visible skin left that wasn’t covered in ink. He had metal bars and studs shoved in almost every face orifice. And he wasn’t smart enough to find his way out of a paper bag, much less mastermind a rape ring.
The reason his DNA had been on one of the victims was because he’d stuck himself with the needle when he’d pierced her nipples earlier in the day.
But it was the last thing he said to Olivia before she left the interrogation room that really brought the whole day home.
“When I get outta here, I could do yours. Ya know?” Spud said.
“Excuse me?” Olivia asked.
“You know, pierce you up,” he said, his eyes falling on her chest. “You’ve got a great rack and I’ve got these bedazzled bars that would look great when they’re…”
“We’re done here,” Olivia said, rolling her eyes, leaving Velasco to finish up and send Spud the Dud on his way.
When she’d gone back into her office to meet Elliot on the other side of the two-way mirror, his look was part guard dog and part complete amusement.
To his credit, he waited until they finished the interrogation debrief before he cracked his joke.
“Am I in the market for nipple rings , Elliot?” Olivia asked. “Are you kidding me?”
“I don’t know, Liv,” Elliot said. “You’re full of surprises these days. Maybe while I was gone you dated some guys who were into that.”
“This again?” Olivia said, flopping down in her desk chair and rubbing that spot between her eyebrows again. “You think I went from dating cops and journalists to guys who were into body jewelry?”
“We both know Eckerson had a wild side,” Elliot said.
“You’re insane. Has anyone ever told you that?” she asked. “You’re the one with the tattoos. Doesn’t seem like you’re afraid of needles. You go first. Tell me how it feels.”
Elliot let out a belly laugh.
“That a challenge, Captain?” he asked.
“Yeah, sure,” she said. “Get the hell out of my office, Stabler.”
“I’m going, I’m going,” he said. “Nice necklace by the way.”
As Elliot shut the door behind him she looked down at the compass resting against her chest.
“We all know he wasn’t looking at that,” she grumbled under her breath, sliding her glasses onto the bridge of her nose.
Olivia had actually forgotten the exchange after she’d gone home that night. Noah had a dance thing so it was rushed homework and rushed dinner to get him out the door. Thankfully he was spending the night at a friend’s house and she only had to worry about dropoff, not pickup.
That’s why it was so shocking to hear a knock on her door at 10:30 at night when she was just trying to catch up on her guilty pleasure shows.
Olivia walked to the door and peered through the peephole to see Elliot on the other side.
“You couldn’t text first?” she asked.
“I was in the neighborhood,” he said.
“Sure you were,” she said.
“I was,” he answered. “I have something to show you.”
It wasn’t until Elliot stepped into her living room and started taking off his coat and shirt that Olivia remembered their conversation from earlier and the words he took as a challenge.
“No, Elliot,” she said. “You didn’t. You’re not stupid enough to go get your nipples pierced.”
“You don’t like the industrial look?” Elliot asked, his back still to her.
“God, Elliot you can’t wear that shit to work,” she said. “Not out in the field. You’ll rip your nipple clean off.”
“I was going to go through with your challenge, Captain,” he said, sliding his undershirt off and turning around. “But I thought of something better to get instead.”
Olivia cocked an eyebrow and looked at his exposed chest. His nipples were still intact, but there was a new tattoo.
Her name. Tattooed right over his heart. In her own handwriting.
God, this was so much worse than nipple rings.
“Are you out of your mind?” she said stepping forward and poking at the ink with her finger. Elliot winced.
“Jesus, Liv,” he said, backing away. “It’s still new, still sore. You can’t go jabbing at it.”
“How completely idiotically stupid can you be putting someone’s name on your body,” she said.
“It’s your name,” he said like she couldn’t tell.
“Yeah, I know,” she said. “I can read. But my name, or anybody else’s doesn’t belong on your body. You never put something permanent like that on your skin.”
But when she finally tore her eyes away from the script and looked into his face he had a goofy smile on.
“It’s not a risk, Liv,” he said, stepping toward her and taking her hands in his. “Even if you’d dump me, my heart… It’s always going to belong to you.”
Olivia almost hated herself for the way her chest and stomach fluttered at his words.
“Did you plan that line all the way over here?” she asked, lifting a finger to trace the letters more gently.
“No,” he said. “But it’s still true.”
Olivia bit her lip. It all came crashing down on her at once that even though they were in the living room, they were standing almost the same way they’d been this time last year in her kitchen. She hadn’t been ready then. So much shit had happened between then and now and she wasn’t sure if she was ready yet, even now.
But Elliot was. And that was one of the things she loved about him. When he made up his mind about something, that was it. If he chose to love you or to hate you. If he chose to leave you because he thought he was saving you. When Elliot Stabler committed to someone or something he went all in.
And he’d done it on her, time and time again. He’d just decided to prove it with permanent ink.
So what exactly was she waiting for?
Before she could stop herself, Olivia placed her hand right over the tattoo, rose up on her tiptoes, and placed a soft, sweet kiss on Elliot’s lips. It was over before it really began and she pulled back to look in his eyes.
“So you approve?” he asked.
“Not at all,” she said. “But I’m grateful for what you did. For everything you’ve always done for me.”
Elliot gave her another lopsided smile.
She slid her hand into his.
“Let me show you how much,” she said.
Elliot’s eyes went wide as she moved away from him, tugging him by the hand into her bedroom and shutting the door behind them.