Addicted

Ch.1

A/N: Hello All! I am happy to be back at it and to finally be posting this story. I have been working on this for quite a while and am excited for you all to read it.

Shout out to LoisAndClarkSuperfan for putting up with me throughout the long journey that got us to this point and for helping me along the way! Check out her work if you haven't already, you won't regret it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Law & Order SVU or any of the characters

He's exhausted. If nothing else is certain, exhaustion is something definite. Elliot Stabler has had one hell of a day...scratch that, week. Having your teenage daughter arrested for breaking and entering would put any parent on edge, let alone a seasoned detective with more than enough to deal with on his plate. Both professionally and personally. The past few days have been nothing but a roller coaster.

His mother, being the woman she was and having the relationship he had with her, or lack thereof, and along with the baggage of his past being brought up in full force simply added to the stress.

Even though knowing his daughter was safe and getting the help she needed was all he had wanted in the first place, he had left a destructive wake in his path getting there. His wife was beyond furious with him, pushing her to the extreme limits of any woman to understand her husband, especially when trying to protect her child, but this was nothing new to him. The decades long marriage had suffered through its fair share of hard times, but they had always made it through, even if it wasn't something that he had always wanted ...and it was most certainly not what he wanted now.

Out of all the relationships he had practically ruined in the span of days, all of the bridges he had burned down, the relationship he had with his partner was the one he wanted... no needed, to fix the most.

Elliot had spent the last few hours after the trial had ended in the cribs, his mind going over what she had said: Maybe God remembered how cute you were as a carrot. Olivia had talked to his mother, and he was slightly taken off guard when that revelation hadn't pissed him off but had brought him a sense of comfort and a feeling of something else he wouldn't let his mind ponder for too long. Even after leaving her in the dark about his mother, allowing her to believe she was dead and not doing a thing to clear the air, Olivia still had his back...cared enough about Kathleen to go to the one person she knew could help him and his daughter. That was the kind of person, woman, she was though and he shouldn't have been surprised. However bad he had fucked up, he needed to make it right and he owed her an explanation.

SVU

Olivia Benson sat on the counter in her kitchen, sipping on a glass of wine, emotionally and physically drained on all levels. Taking a slow sip from her glass, she didn't even know where to start on trying to work through what she was thinking... feeling.

That word, feeling, was never one she had enjoyed dealing with. It brought on confusion and lack of understanding, among other unwanted things. One Elliot Stabler was at the forefront of her mind, and if she was being honest with herself, he always was. It was astonishing to her that one man could be as infuriating as he was.

Taking another long sip from her glass she rolled her head from side to side, working out the knots in her neck. Working through her feelings she decided that she was more hurt than angry. All she wanted to do was help him, help his daughter and his family because she never wants to see him suffering. She can't remember seeing him as lost as he did this week. It was heart breaking.

She sighed, setting her glass down next to her and running her fingers through her hair, pulling it back into a short pony tail. His mothers words rang through her head, My son plays it pretty close to the vest. She shook her head as a ghost of a smirk danced across her lips, understatement of the year. The worst part of it all was that she felt like she didn't have his trust, that he felt like he couldn't talk to her when he was the first person she always ran to. It was complicated, in so many ways.