Work Text:
"How are you doing?" Elliot asked.
She shrugged with deliberate nonchalance. "I left it behind." That was the rule with every undercover assignment. Shedding the persona like a snake sheds its skin, leaving behind any trappings of the domestic life that they'd spent the past week and a half playacting in.
"I left you behind," Olivia added, under her breath, more for her benefit than his.
The neighbors had come over for dinner. They were on their second bottle of Chianti. "What about you, Olivia? No children yet?"
"Not yet," she answered lightly, starting to clear the table.
"We just haven't been blessed," Elliot added, reaching for her with a possessiveness that surprised her. "But you know that could always change." He kissed her then, raking her lower lip deeply between his before releasing it. "Sorry," he breathed into her ear and stepped away.
"Yes," she agreed. Albeit she wasn't sure at that moment to what.
"It's always nice to see a couple so deeply in love."
"That we are," Elliot affirmed, once again drawing her close. "The one true love of my life." He placed a soft kiss on the crown of her head.
It was him she had to leave behind. She told herself that wasn't her partner, he was playing a persona.
She told herself it was the wine, even as she'd been carefully rationing the intake so that she and Elliot remained sober.
She told herself any of a number of beautiful lies, but none of them worked.
Instead, she stood under the shower and cried as the the remnants of what could never be and what never would be went down the drain.
~end~