Advantage

Chapter 5

Olivia's quickly dropped her hands to the sash of her robe, tightening it to make sure she was covered as she saw Elliot's eyes drop down and then quickly return to meet hers. She really hadn't been expecting company, and his presence here astounded her.

"What the hell are you still doing here?" she asked. She took a few steps back, distancing herself from him as he swung his legs off the couch and sat up more fully. "I thought I told you to leave." She brought her other hand to her forehead, wincing as she felt her headache suddenly intensify.

"Well, actually, you never really told me to leave." Elliot said. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he wanted to take them back. He hadn't meant to sound so cocky, and he could see the look of annoyance on her face. This wasn't how he wanted to start this conversation...which he could see was going to escalate quickly into a confrontation.

Maybe he should have left.

But he couldn't shake this feeling that once he walked out that door, something they had would be irrevocably lost.

Olivia furrowed her brows, amazed by his hubris. She placed one hand on her hip, keeping the other firmly clasped at the opening of her robe. "I never asked you here in the first place! In fact, how dare you come into my apartment uninvited. That is NOT why I gave you a key. Why..." She stopped talking and shook her head slightly, wincing at the pain. She wanted to ask him why he was there in the first place, but she remembered his voicemail from the night before, threatening to show up here. "Never mind." She said.

"I was worried about you." Elliot repeated the phrase he had uttered earlier, ignoring her comment to never mind, and answering the why instead.

"Yeah, well, it's not your job to worry about me." She said, her annoyance ratcheting up a notch. She headed towards the kitchen. She needed something carbonated to drink and she definitely needed more pain meds.

She heard, rather than saw, Elliot get up from the couch and follow her into the kitchen. She opened the door of the refrigerator, ignoring him completely. She hoped to see a can of soda but knew it was highly unlikely for one to magically appear since she didn't drink the stuff on a regular basis. She pushed some jars aside in vain hope that she had something to drink, but slammed the door shut when she couldn't find anything. She turned back to the sink and filled an empty glass with more water, downing it all. She refilled it and took some more ibuprofen, setting the glass on the counter as she kept her back to him.

"You were drunk." Elliot asked. "You know as well as I do what can happen. People don't make good decisions and..."Olivia turned around quickly...too quickly...and she grabbed at the counter for support. "I know damn well what can happen and I don't need you to tell me. I'm not the same as most people. I understand the risks and I was covered." She leaned back, resting her arms on the counter behind her. Then she realized her robe was probably gaping open and she corrected her stance, wrapping her arms loosely around her waist.

"You were covered?" he asked. "What does that mean?" He knew she had no idea how she got home last night and while he didn't want to start a fight, he intended to let her know just how wrong she was.

"Fin was there. When I realized I was starting to get drunk, we talked and he said he had my back." She had a vague memory of Fin telling her that maybe she should slow down...but it was fuzzy. "I made it home just fine without you."

"So you remember coming home?" he challenged, even though his brain was telling him to let it go. Just let it go and talk to her. Tell her what he wanted to say. But she was the one pushing the point, and he needed to let her know exactly why his actions were justified.

She realized Elliot's eyes had suddenly shifted and he was focused on something else. She followed the Elliot's vase to see he was staring at her body . She looked down to see her robe was gaping point and she was giving him quite the show. She was getting angry now.