A/N: Missing scene from Assaulting Reality. Who knew a fraction of a minute could utterly destroy a legion of Tuckson fans? Bravo, writers. Now – make 'em kiss!

##

"Have I mentioned lately that I love seeing you in red?"

Ed's gravelly voice interrupted her thoughts and she looked up from answering emails, a surprised smile on her face.

Not missing a beat, she flirted, "Why do you think I wear it?" She stood as he made his way fully into her office and closed the door behind him. She smiled at him, quirking her head. "Did I know you were coming?"

He shook his head and put his hands in his pockets, still standing a good distance from her. "Nah. I was just in the area and wanted to see if you needed a lift home."

She arched an eyebrow, the corner of her lips twitching in a knowing smirk. "Just in the area?"

His head dropped to hide his smile and he rocked on his feet.

Busted.

"I might've wanted to see if you wanted to do dinner," he conceded, meeting her eyes again.

She took a half step closer to him but stayed behind her desk and he ambled up to stand to her side. "What did you have in mind?" Her voice was low, her timbre betraying her arousal already.

"We could order in, have it ready by the time we got to your place," he suggested. His eyes were focused on his own hands, busy fiddling with random items on her desk to tamp down on the nerves that he was trying not to let get the better of him.

No woman had ever made him nervous. No woman before her.

As he spoke, her eyes never strayed from his face. Her gaze was loving, but hungry. She bit at the insides of her lips in restraint before she settled into an easy, satisfied smirk.

Finally, he met her eyes and she replied. "Sounds romantic."

He had been inching closer to her. Though they weren't touching, they may as well have been with the way every nerve ending was on fire. She felt him everywhere.

They were leaning in ready to steal a kiss in the privacy of her enclosed office, when the door burst open and Carisi invaded their moment. They both turned their heads at the intrusion.

"Hey, Lieu," he started. Ed backed away from her, leaving a couple of feet between them. "Sorry—"

"Yeah," she stammered, slightly flustered, but trying to play it off.

"—Didn't mean to interrupt—"

"No," she said, dismissively.

"—But you gotta see this." He waved over to the media area and turned away.

"Okay." She slid between Ed and her desk to follow her detective and she could feel that Ed was not far behind her.

…

Essentially, hidden cameras filmed their entire investigation. Olivia was livid – not just at that, but the Prince's spinning the story to make it look like Lizzie was the mastermind behind everything. It was a crock of shit. Olivia shook her head, outraged. She pointed to the monitor in disgust, spitting, "Turn that off!"

She turned and stormed across the squad room back to the shelter of her office, Ed hot on her heels.

He let the door shut behind him and watched her pace the open area between her desk and the one-way glass. She was fuming, one hand to her forehead, the other on her hip, wearing a hole in the carpet beneath her feet.

"Liv," he started.

She interrupted him with a humorless laugh, shaking her head and dropping both of her arms with a frustrated slap against her thighs. "They are so full of shit."

Ed shrugged one shoulder. "Of course they are," he agreed. He stepped forward, closing the distance and moving into her personal space, his hands landing on her upper arms. "But there's nothing you can do about it now." He pecked her lips, keeping the kiss brief in case Carisi decided to have a repeat performance of the worst timing ever. "Let's go, huh? I'll call in the food on the way." He smiled at her, enticing her.

She leaned in, giving his lips another peck, her anger ebbing in the calmness of his presence. "Take me home."

##

Their delivery guy is walking up to the building just as they are.

"Perfect timing," he says, winking at her.

When they get inside, she chats with Lucy about Noah's day, locking the door behind her sitter when she leaves, and makes a beeline for her son's bedroom.

She doesn't announce where she's going. This has become such a fixture of her routine - especially on nights like tonight, when she misses the bedtime process - he already knows where she's headed.

She kisses her son on the forehead, lingering in his room for a few minutes just watching him sleep before changing out of her work garb and into her favorite leggings and oversized t-shirt.

Ed's already poured two glasses of wine and is bringing their takeout containers to the couch when she emerges again.

He's made himself comfortable and removed his shoes and tie. His white dress shirt is un-tucked and unbuttoned and he's fiddling with her iHome. She smiles when she hears one of the songs from her favorite playlist emanating through the speakers of the TV.

"You finally figured out how to work that thing!" she marvels, teasing him.

At the sound of her voice, he spins around, and she smirks as his eyes rake over her appreciatively, from her bare feet to her freshly washed, makeup-free face.

"It's not that hard," he replies.

"I've been telling you that for weeks," she retorts, laughing.

He loves the sound of her laugh. To think, all the years he'd known her and it was only in the last two that he'd become privy to that sound.

They settle on the couch on opposite ends, facing each other, with the takeout containers between them, each casually picking bits and pieces from them: a smorgasbord of their favorites.

She sips her wine and asks him about his day. He's already got a good idea of what hers looked like, based on what he'd seen at the squad earlier. They talk about Noah, about weekend plans, about finally sitting down and planning that trip they've been talking about…

When they finish eating, he moves the food from the couch to the coffee table, scooting closer to her so that their knees are touching. He drapes his arm across the back of the couch, and she rests hers on top of his, her fingers absently drawing lines on his forearm through his shirt.

He puts his wine glass on the table and his now free hand comes to cup her cheek. She recognizes his intent in his eyes and leans forward, meeting him halfway as he captures her lips in a sweet kiss. When he pulls away, she doesn't open her eyes but leans back in and kisses him again, parting her lips at the insistence of his tongue.

She tilts her head to deepen the kiss further as she removes her hand from his arm, instead placing it on the side of his neck, just below his ear, to hold him to her. His tongue slides along hers, and she groans into his mouth before pulling away, resting her forehead against his.

She's been waiting for that kiss since he showed up in her office.

"I've been wanting to do that since Carisi busted into your office," he confesses with a chuckle.

She smiles, at his words and the parallel in their thoughts, but keeps her reply simple. "Me, too." He pulls her hand from his neck and intertwines their fingers as she watches. "I bet you Carisi will never walk into my office again without knocking," she muses, smiling.

"He got a little more than he bargained for," Ed agrees with a chuckle. Tilting his head and raising an eyebrow, he adds, "Though it could have been much worse."

She leans back into the couch a little further, but staying close to him, still touching him. She closes her eyes and listens to the soft music from the speakers. Helplessly, Hopelessly by Jessica Andrews.

She loves these nights with him. They go out, sure. But this…ordering takeout and cuddling on the couch? This is their romance.

"Whatcha thinkin'?" he asks her.

"I'm thinking… that this has been perfect," she answers him honestly, opening her eyes again to find his blue ones staring intensely at her. "You know what my favorite part about us is?"

"It's not the sex?" he asks seriously, and at her narrow-eyed look, he laughs, waving his hand for her to continue. "Sorry. No, enlighten me."

"It's always been so easy." He smirks at her in surprise. Running through their history in his mind, easy would not have been his first choice in words. But before he can interject, she continues, correcting herself, "Well, maybe easy isn't the right word…but even the hard days? They haven't been that hard." She's looking at him, trying to read his response to her words. "I don't know what I expected, but we just…work."

"There's a lot of history with us," he says, shrugging. "We both knew who we were dealing with."

"That's not entirely true," she says with a smile.

"No?"

She shakes her head. "You," she points at Ed, "have thoroughly surprised me." He smiles proudly. "I look at the you I knew years ago next to the you I know now, intimately," her eyes sparkle devilishly, "and they are completely different people."

"That's a good thing, right?"

She nods. "That's why I don't get that stupid show." Just thinking about it draws her ire up again. Bastards. "How do these people really expect to find love," she uses air quotes, "in a setting like that?" She is incredulous. "It's bullshit."

"First of all, no one hates that show more than I do." He is emphatic. "But I think love means different things to different people," he reasons.

She smiles. Philosophical Ed makes an appearance. "And what does love mean to you, Captain?"

He looks her square in the eyes and doesn't hesitate when he answers. "You."

One syllable, and it hits her right in the gut.

"Me," she repeats in a whisper.

He nods in confirmation as he leans toward her. "You," he says again.

Her breath is already quickening by the time his lips reach hers and both of her arms wrap around his neck as she returns his kiss with equal fervor.

She shouldn't be surprised. This was how their relationship - the intimate one - always was. They flirt, they tease, and then he completely floors her with something sweet or heartfelt, and the depth of his feeling blows her away.

He bites her lip as he devours her mouth, and the kiss is intense, but it's not hurried. They have all night. One of his hands finds it's way under the hem of her t-shirt and she feels goose bumps erupt across the flesh of her abdomen as his hand ascends, eventually covering her left breast and giving her a gentle squeeze.

She breaks their kiss on a moan, and regaining some coherence now that there is oxygen getting to her brain, her hands start their own exploration. She is silently thankful that he's already unbuttoned his dress shirt and un-tucked it. It makes things easier for her when she slides her hands beneath his undershirt, desiring to feel his skin. She smiles against his neck when his abdominal muscles twitch and contract under her fingertips, pleased that she has the same effect on him as he does her.

He finds the spot under her ear with his tongue and her eyes roll back in her head. She's pushing him off of her, just slightly, so she can rearrange her position on the couch and make it easier for her to lie down and pull him on top of her.

"No," he gasps. She looks at him. No? He smiles at her affronted expression and clarifies. "Bedroom," he rasps against her neck, and there is something so erotic about this moment to her. But then again, she's been in this mood since earlier.

"Good call." She pushes him more fully off of her as they both get up from the couch, and they stumble back toward her bedroom, knocking into her dinette set as she struggles to shimmy out of her leggings while still staying upright and keeping her lips attached to his. Her t-shirt was lost almost as soon as they were off the couch.

The way she falls onto the bed isn't the most graceful she's ever been in her life, but it does the job, and she smiles up at him as he drops his dress pants and briefs around his ankles.

This is another of those "pinch me" moments, for the both of them.

Her scars are faded but still visible, and Ed is only the second person to see her like this. Post-Lewis. Naked, exposed in more ways than one. But there is something in his eyes when he looks at her and it's been there even from the first time.

She knows innately that what he's seeing when he looks at her goes so much deeper than skin, and that knowledge warms her from the inside out.

"C'mere," she beckons to him, spreading her legs slightly as he climbs over her, giving him a place to settle.

"I need you."

…

"I think Rollins and Carisi have something going on," she murmurs. He lets out a quick bark of laughter, and the sudden jolt of his body underneath her is jarring. She throws a hand to the bed to steady herself. "What the fuck?"

"I'm sorry," he runs his hand through her hair, still smiling. "You have the most random post-coital thoughts, Liv." He chuckles again. Who says post-coital?

"Well," she starts, defensively. "This is when my head is clearest."

"Okay," he says, humoring her. "So, Rollins and Carisi?"

She nods, still affronted. "Yeah."

"I could've told you that," he says sardonically, and she narrows her eyes at him.

"And when, dare I ask, did you become such an expert in relationships?" She smiles, teasing him.

"I could tell you were into me after that night in the bar," he said matter-of-factly, wiggling his eyebrows.

"That first night?" She asks, and he nods. "Ed, honey," she pats his chest, chuckling. "I love you… But I wasn't even sure about you after that night."

It's not the complete truth. There was something there. But it had taken her a while to realize it, to open herself up to it, to see him in a new light.

"I'm wounded," he presses his hand to his heart in mock pain.

She lifts herself into a straddling position atop his body and smiles down at him, closing her eyes when he reaches to touch her breasts. Consolingly, "Hey, we got here, didn't we?"

He nods. "We did."

She leans down to kiss him and he moves one hand from her breast to thread his fingers through her hair at the back of her neck. Her scalp tingles under his touch. Before him, she didn't know a scalp could tingle.

"And we're going to be here forever, right?"

He nods imperceptibly, pulling her lips back to his.

"Always."

##

A/N: Meh… I'm not crazy about it. It fought me tooth-and-nail for some reason, but this is as good as I could get it without throwing my laptop through the window. Hopefully it scratches a Tuckson itch for some of you until I can get the latest You and I chapter proofed, edited and updated. Thoughts?