Work Text:
'Something is up with Olivia,' said Elliot from the mudroom.
'Good or bad?' asked Kathy, who was at the sink, washing the last of the dishes from the Stabler's Fourth of July barbecue.
Elliot came into the kitchen, brushed off his hands and poured a cup of coffee. He'd finished cleaning the Weber grill and now settled down at the kitchen table. 'Good, I think. With Olivia it's sometimes hard to tell.' He took a sip of coffee.
'El – why didn't you invite Alex today? You invited everyone else.'
'Alex? I don't know. Figured she gets enough of us during the week. Besides, she's a Trust Fund girl – she's not going to want to hang around in our backyard.'
'You're a snob, Stabler,'
'And you love me for it,' Elliot retorted. 'You talked to Olivia a lot today – she tell you anything about what's going on?'
'Elliot!' Kathy turned around to stare at her husband, holding her hands up to try to stop the drips.
'What?'
'If she told me anything, if she told me anything, maybe she told me in confidence.'
'But she knows you tell me everything.'
Kathy raised her eyebrows.
'Well, I tell you everything.'
The eyebrows went even higher. Elliot hadn't thought that was possible.
'Okay, okay.' He took another sip of coffee. 'Did she say anything at all?'
Kathy turned back to the dishpan. 'Get over here and dry some dishes.'
Elliot stood up and grabbed a dish towel. 'Will you tell me what she said if I do?'
'I certainly won't tell you anything if you don't,' said Kathy. 'Not that I'm saying there's anything to tell.'
Elliot wiped and put away five plates in complete silence.
'Well,' he said, after he'd put away the sixth.
Kathy shook her head. 'I shouldn't be saying anything.'
'So there was something.'
'Olivia wanted my advice.'
'On?'
Kathy bit her lip while Elliot watched. 'On how you'd react to something.'
Elliot waited for a minute or two, and dried a plate and two glasses. 'God, Kathy.'
Kathy turned to face him directly. 'Don't ask, don't tell, Elliot.' Kathy took off her rubber gloves and left the kitchen.
'Oh.'
Elliot thought he understood. It wasn't until a few weeks later, when he forgot his coat in the bar and had to return to the table where he'd left Alex and Olivia at the end of a post-case celebratory drink, that he finally grasped Kathy's point.