Here's a new story that's been running through my head. This is set in Season 7, probably pre Gitano. Kathy and Elliot are separated. I hope you enjoy it. I know not a lot of people like to write reviews, but they really encourage me to keep going…or not! Thanks!

EOEOEOEOEO

Olivia walked into the emergency room at Mercy Hospital and was greeted by a number of familiar faces. That's what happened when you spent as much time here as she and Elliot did. The head nurse pointed her towards one of the examination rooms without even asking, and Olivia pushed her way through the door.

"I swear to God Elliot. They should give you a private room with how often you end up here." She said, shaking her head as she walked up to her partner propped up on the exam table.

The doctor turned towards her and Olivia was surprised by an unfamiliar face. "Mrs. Stabler?" he asked.

Elliot saw Olivia give the doctor a thin lipped smile; Olivia absolutely hated it when people assumed she was his wife, even though the thought of that always made him smile.

"Actually, no. I'm his partner. Detective Olivia Benson." She made sure she let him know she was a detective.

"Oh. I'm sorry. I just thought…" He smiled. "Never mind. I'm Dr. Collins. Adam Collins." He held out his hand, and then realized he still had latex gloves on and put his hand back down.

Olivia walked closer to the bed and put a hand on Elliot's arm. "How bad is it?" Elliot had taken a knife in his arm apprehending a suspect, and the ambulance had carted him away before she'd had a chance to catch up.

"It's just a flesh wound." Elliot said.

Olivia rolled her eyes and looked at the doctor. "How bad?"

He smiled at her. "It's more than a flesh wound. It took 9 stitches to close it up, but it didn't cut through any major arteries or muscle, so recovery should be relatively quick."

"At least it's your left arm El." Olivia said. "You won't have to requalify."

"Yeah, small favors. I'm still gonna be on ass duty though." Elliot grumbled. The nurse was placing a clean bandage over the stitches. "I'll be ready to go in a few minutes." he said.

The doctor looked over at her and nodded his head towards the door. "Can I talk to you a minute?" he said, and Olivia furrowed her brow, wondering what he had to tell her that Elliot couldn't hear. She looked at Elliot and saw he had a similar expression on his face.

"Um. Sure." She looked back at Elliot as she walked towards the door. "I'll be right back."

The doctor stopped just inside the door to the exam room and Olivia stood next to him, so they were both facing each other, their profiles to Elliot.

"Is something wrong?" Olivia asked, a slight sound of panic in her voice.

"Oh...no. Sorry. Nothing's wrong. I just wanted to apologize for before. I shouldn't have assumed…"

Olivia smiled. "It's fine. It happens. We're just used to dealing with the same doctors when we're here… and we're here a lot. I didn't mean to be so short with you. I was just worried about my partner."

"I understand. I am new here. I just moved here from Chicago."

"Oh. Well, welcome to New York." She looked over at Elliot. He was watching the interaction between the two of them, eyebrows raised. She turned back to the doctor. "Is there anything else?"

"Yeah, so I don't really know anyone in town and I was wondering if I could call you sometime. Maybe we go out for dinner?"

Olivia was stunned. Did he really just ask her out? She hadn't been expecting that and she wasn't quite sure what to say. She looked back over at Elliot, who had a scowl on his face; almost as if he knew what was going on. She turned back to the Dr. Collins, really looking at him for the first time. He was a couple of inches taller than her. He had dark wavy hair and hazel eyes and Olivia found she was smiling back at him. "Um…sure. That would be nice." She pulled a business card out of her pocket. "I just have to warn you though; I've had more dates interrupted than I care to think about. Its part of the job…so don't take it personally if I can't make it or end up canceling on you."

Dr. Collins smiled, taking her card. "I promise I won't take it personally. I'll talk to you soon." He pushed the door open and walked out of the exam room and Olivia turned and walked back towards Elliot.

"What was that about?" asked Elliot as she approached.

"Nothing." said Olivia, shaking her head. "Just getting acquainted with the new doctor."

Elliot narrowed his eyes at her. "Getting acquainted?" He didn't like the sound of that. He had seen the way the new doctor was checking her out.

Olivia sighed. She didn't want to get into this with Elliot. He was so overbearing and overprotective sometimes. If she was honest, he was overbearing and overprotective most of the time. They had a very complicated relationship. They were best friends; probably closer than partners should be. But that was it. Despite what everyone else thought, they were not sleeping together. They had never even kissed. Hell, they barely even touched each other unless it was necessary. It was if they knew it was too dangerous…their feelings for each other lurked beneath the surface and they couldn't do anything that might blow their carefully constructed relationship out of the water.

"El, drop it." she said in a tone that let him know she wasn't going to put up with his questioning. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah. Help me with my shirt." he said as he climbed off the exam table. Olivia grabbed his shirt, and saw the slash and the blood.

"Are you sure you want to wear this?" she asked. They should get a budget for all of the clothes that got ruined by theirs' or someone else's blood.

"I don't really have a lot of options. I can't walk out of here without a shirt."

Olivia smiled. "I think there are some nurses out there that wouldn't mind." She wouldn't mind herself she thought, taking in the hard planes of his chest and his muscled arms. She'd had quite a few dreams starring Elliot Stabler with his arms around her; and there may have been other body parts involved as well.

"Yeah, well. Don't want to give them a cheap thrill." He reached for the shirt. "Are you going to help me or not?" His left arm was stiff and he wasn't able to get his arm through the sleeve.

"Fine. But you know, I'm really tired of picking you up from the emergency room." She said as she helped in get his shirt on. He stood there with his shirt hanging open.

"It's not my fault Liv. What am I supposed to do? Let the perp go?" He motioned towards his shirt. "I can't button this up by myself."

Olivia rolled her eyes and stepped in to button his shirt. As she did, Elliot closed his eyes, enjoying the fact that she was so close. He loved her scent. He didn't know if it was her shampoo or soap or lotion or perfume. Maybe it was the combination of all of them…but it was a scent that was uniquely Olivia and when he got a chance to be this close to her, he inhaled it like a drug. He must have moaned a little because Olivia pulled back.

"Are you OK? Did I bump your arm?" She gave Elliot a strange look.

Elliot recovered quickly, opening his eyes. "No. I just…it hurts like a son of a bitch."

"OK you big baby. Let's get you home. Can you walk out to the car?" she asked.

"I might need some help." he said, wrapping his right arm around her waist.

"Uh-huh, sure you do." said Olivia, laughing as they walked out of the exam room together and headed for the car.

EOEOEOEOEOEO

Olivia had dropped Elliot at his apartment and made sure he was settled before she headed back to her apartment. She looked at her watch and saw it was almost 11PM and sighed. She hadn't had dinner and she had to work tomorrow. Elliot was ordered to stay home for the next 2 days; he could return to desk duty on Friday. She hated working without him, so tomorrow was going to be a long day. She was getting ready for bed when she heard her phone ringing. She groaned, hoping she wasn't getting called in. Then she realized it wasn't Cragen's ring tone. She grabbed the phone and saw it was an unknown number.

"Benson." she answered, giving her customary greeting.

"Olivia?"

"Yes."

"This is Adam Collins."

Olivia smiled. The good doctor worked fast. "Hi."

"Hey, I know it's late, but I was thinking about dinner. I don't suppose you're free on Friday?" he asked.

Olivia hesitated a moment; she certainly didn't want to seem too eager. "Uh, yeah, I think that should work. I'm not on call this weekend, so I shouldn't get called in. The only potential issue would be if I caught a case and ended up staying late."

"OK. What time works for you?" he asked. "Is 7:30 too early?"

"No, that should be fine." Olivia said. "Just let me know where to meet you."

"Oh, I guess I thought I'd pick you up at your place."

Olivia didn't like to let anyone know where she lived; at least not before she got to know them a little better. And she wasn't sure she wanted him to pick her up at the precinct.

"Adam, I'd really prefer to meet you there, if you don't mind."

"That's fine. It's a date. I'll call you tomorrow after I make a reservation."

"Sounds great." Olivia said, and she meant it. It had been a while since she'd been on a date and the doctor seemed like a nice guy. "I'm looking forward to it."

She hung up and climbed into bed, smiling and looking forward to her date.

EOEOEOEOEOEO

When Olivia got to the station house on Friday morning, Elliot was already there. She saw a coffee and a muffin sitting on her desk. She smiled over at Elliot. "Thanks El." She sat down in her chair and took a bite of the muffin. "Mmm. You take such good care of me." she said.

Fin looked over at Munch. "How come you never buy me coffee and a muffin?" he asked.

"Cuz you don't look like Benson." Munch quipped and Olivia laughed.

"Thank God." said Fin. "I don't want Stabler staring at me all day long."

"Hey." said Elliot, and Olivia saw him scowl at Fin.

"Leave him alone El. He's harmless." she said, taking another bite of her muffin.

"Yeah, yeah. Anything I need to know? Any new cases?" Elliot asked.

Olivia shook her head. "Nope. The last few cases we've had have been pretty straightforward, so not much to do except for the paperwork. So that's what I've been doing." She took a sip of coffee. "And I hope it stays that way today. I am not working late tonight."

"Oh yeah? Got big weekend plans?" Elliot teased, knowing Olivia spent the majority of her time at work. And when she wasn't at work, she was at the gym, running errands or hanging out with Casey, Alex or him.

"Ah, you know. Just the usual." She wasn't going to tell Elliot about her date with Adam. She didn't want to get into it with him; he always got in a mood when he found out she was going on a date or had been on a date. "You?"

"I'm going to take Dick and Lizzie to a movie tonight but other than that, I don't have anything going on. Maybe we can get together and watch a movie tomorrow night? Order some Chinese?"

Olivia nodded. "Sounds good El." She looked back down at her paperwork and Elliot watched her. She was twisting a strand of her hair, and tapping her pen on her bottom lip. He loved watching her from across the desk; especially when she was caught up in her work and didn't notice the attention. He guessed he wasn't as discreet as he thought though, if Fin had called him on it. He watched as her phone buzzed; she had gotten a text message. She read it and smiled, texting something back. He didn't really think much of it until she got a few more messages. She had a little smirk on her face.

"Whose texting you?" he asked. She got texts from him and Casey and Alex, but she didn't normally text back and forth like this. And not with that little smile on her face.

She looked up at him. "What?"

"I asked who was texting you." he said.

"Why?" she asked. It really wasn't any of his business, but she saw suspicion in his eyes. Sometimes she hated the fact that they were so connected.

"Just wondering." he said. "I don't normally see you text that much."

"Hmm." she said, standing up and picking up her phone. If Elliot was going to spy on her, she would take it outside the squad room. When she was out of the squad, she dialed Adam's number and leaned against the wall in the hallway.

"Hey." she said when she heard him answer. They had been talking a lot since he had first called her on Tuesday night, and she was really looking forward to dinner tonight. "I can't really keep texting you back and forth today. It's really busy here today." she fibbed a little. "But I'm looking forward to seeing you tonight."

Elliot poked his head out into the hallway and saw Olivia leaning up against the wall. She was talking on the phone and smiling. He furrowed his brow, wondering who she was talking to. He saw her hang up the phone and he ducked back into the squad room and sat back down just as she walked in.

"Everything alright?" he asked.

Olivia smiled at him. "Couldn't be better." she said.