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Olivia closed her eyes and sighed as she retreated to the silence of her office, away from the prying eyes and listening ears of the squad room. The weariness of the last few days enveloped her like an unwelcome hug. The case was tough and seemingly unending and was finally taking a toll on her. Today was supposed to be a good day, but once again she was stuck in the office too busy being Captain and not Liv.
She felt his presence before she heard the quiet click of her office door and the sound of his boots on the tile floor.
“Liv?” His voice was soft and comforting, yet questioning as if he was gauging what she was thinking.
She looked up and smiled at him, already knowing he was going to follow her. She had wanted him to follow her, follow her to the one place she could be Liv as long as the door was shut and the blinds were closed, which they were. She had seen him subtly checking during the briefing, knowing she would retreat as soon as the group went off to perform their assigned tasks before the press conference.
She leans against the corner of her desk, her shoulders slumped as she throws out a quick, “I’m sorry.”
His brow furrows in confusion as he looks at her with gentle concern written across his face. “For what?”
“Today was supposed to be a good day.” She nods toward the red box sitting on her desk, before quietly adding, “I was looking forward to Valentine’s Day for once.”
His brow relaxes a little and he grins. He steps closer to her, invading her space as he steps in between her legs. She follows the path of his hand as he pushes the hair out of her face and leans in. “I got exactly what I wanted for Valentine’s Day.”
She leans into his touch as he runs his palm over her cheek. “And what’s that?”
“Spending my day with you.” He leans in further, kissing her.
She melts into his touch and lets him deepen the kiss before reluctantly pulling back as a loud knock sounded on her office door. She had to stifle her laughter as Elliot tripped on his own feet in his haste to move away from her. Their relationship was still unknown to their squads.
“Come in!” she called out as she sat down in her office chair, wondering who had drawn the short straw to interrupt her.
Her door slowly opened with Carisi sticking his head in through the crack, embarrassment on his face. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but the press is here and McGrath wants everyone to be ready in the next five minutes.”
She almost wanted to roll her eyes in amusement as Sonny kept quickly glancing between both her and Elliot, studying them both very intently before sweeping his eyes around her office. He was looking for any evidence to find out just what he had interrupted, and if she had to guess, Fin was waiting on the other side of the door for whatever information Carisi had to provide.
She snuck a glance over at Elliot, only to find he was already looking at her. He had a huge smile plastered on his face, and she smiled back at him. Happiness fighting to push out the weariness that she was feeling from the case.
“Thank you, Carisi.” Carisi stood rooted in his spot, biting on his lip like he wanted to say something more but didn’t quite know how to say it. “Anything else we can help you with?”
“I—uh,” she grinned at Dominick’s clear uneasiness. She had to bite back a laugh as Carisi quickly glanced back out the door to where she was sure Fin was waiting. “We were, I mean,I was wondering—"
“Carisi!” Fin’s voice bellowed from the squad room. “Amanda’s callin’!”
The relief that washed across Carisi’s face was almost too much as he practically ran from her office.
“You think they know?”
Elliot shifted from where he was sitting on her shelf. “Probably.” He grinned as he got up and reached his hand out for her. “Come on. The quicker we get this over with, the more time I get to spend alone with you.”
“You know there’s paperwork after, right?” she questioned as she took his offered hand.
“Hmm, paperwork, sandwich halves, and coffee.” He squeezed her hand before releasing it as they walked through the door of her office. “Sounds like old times, partner.”
She glanced back over her shoulder at him and smiled, taking the compass in between her fingers and rubbing her thumb over the face. She opened her mouth to say something back, but McGrath was already rushing toward her in preparation for the press conference.
~oOo~
“Please be cautious as you travel out tonight. Don’t go anywhere alone and be aware of your surroundings. If you see something suspicious, please contact the Manhattan SVU at the number on your screens. Chief McGrath.”
Olivia turned her attention toward McGrath who had stepped up to answer questions and finish out the press conference. As he began to speak, she quickly returned to her spot slightly off to the side. She schooled her face to make sure it looked like she was paying attention but her eyes quickly roamed the room, looking for one face in particular.
She couldn’t help the smile that formed when she spotted him in the back of the room standing between Fin and Bruno. She had hoped to take the brief moment in time to sneak a peek at him, to check him out if she was honest, but she really shouldn’t have been surprised that he was already looking at her.
He always did that, she realized. Anytime they were in the same room, he would always, no matter what, turn his attention toward her. It wasn’t until after he left, that she realized just how much he did that, and just how much she had come to automatically look for his smile in the sea of faces no matter the size of the crowd. For years, even when she shouldn’t, she would look at him, try to sneak a peek at him, but she always found him looking at her first, smiling at her. And it was the same smile he always had on his face, a smile that she soon realized was only for her.
The look he gave her, that never-ending smile made her happy and it reminded her of what it was like to truly feel loved.
~oOo~
Olivia yawned as she filled out the next piece of paperwork before her. It was later that night, Valentine’s Day almost passed, and the squad room had finally quietened down. The joint case was still ongoing, but for tonight, they had done all they could do without sleep and fresh eyes. She ran her thumb over the compass face as she signed the next report. As her finger ran over the smooth glass, she was thinking of his smile. The smile of his that made her happy; the one that made her feel loved. The one is was using right now as once again he watched her in element. She looked up to see him smiling at her from her office doorway. He stood there balancing two coffee cups in his hands while holding up a bag of takeout. Takeout from the sandwich shop they both loved.
“What do you say, partner?” Elliot walked forward, smiling at her as he placed the goods down on her coffee table. “I promised you paperwork, sandwich halves, and coffee just like the old days.”
She got up from her desk to meet him. “So you did.”
“I did.” He glanced at the clock. “And if your clock is correct, I still have twenty minutes of Valentine’s Day left. What do you say, partner?”
“I would say it sounds like a date.”
Elliot grinned at her words and began moving things around on her desk to make space. She watched him work as he neatly stacked and moved her files to the shelf, closed her laptop and set it to the side, and moved some of the trinkets to the coffee table so they wouldn’t get knocked over and broken. She watched him as he pulled the sandwiches from their containers and split them up in the same way they used to do years ago when neither one of them could settle on just one kind of sandwich. He picked the coffees up, double-checking which one was hers, and she knew he had it made just the way she liked without having to ask. He had taken such care to make sure today was good after all. To make sure they hadn’t completely missed out on their first Valentine’s Day, and truly to her, this was much better than a restaurant with required reservations. It made her happy because this, this was them. It’s the small gestures, the knowing, the stolen glances, the normalcy of it all that was them. This was Elliot and Olivia.
She felt Elliot's hands wrapping around her waist, pulling her closer to him. “I can hear you thinking.”
“Oh yeah,” she questioned as she felt his hands sliding up her body to rest on her hips.
“Mmhm,” he responded, now completely distracted on his quest to pull her in for a long kiss, to salvage as much of Valentine’s Day as they could.
She rolled her eyes good-naturedly at how quickly he was distracted, but she couldn’t deny she enjoyed the feeling of his hands on her body. She pushed him back just enough to look into his eyes. “Elliot?”
“Hmm?” She could tell he was listening, but he wasn’t looking at her, too distracted by her to properly focus.
“Why does it make me so happy that every time I try to sneak a peek at you, you are already looking at me?”
He stopped then and looked at her, really looked at her. He studied her for a few seconds before tenderly picking up the compass that hung around her neck. He reverently ran his fingers over the face. “It’s because I love you. I’ve always loved you.”