Thank yall for patiently waiting... let's dive in!

The two detectives had just finished talking with Mrs Bullard outside of their victim's hospital room. They had gotten on the elevator trying to process their next step after finding out about a new suspect, an old flame of Mr Bullard's mysterious swinging buddy.

"Okay so, to make sure we're on the same page. We need some ground rules." Olivia said, breaking the silence in the small space of the elevator.

He nodded in agreement. "We are going together and will leave together".

She nodded at him, listening to his words echo the one rule the Bullard's clearly didn't adhere to.

"Um, and how about one more rule. Stay near by or at least in the same room this time..? Can't have you breaking your toys when you're 'playing' unsupervised again." She said with a soft laugh, glancing down at his belt. The memories bringing a noticeable blush to her cheeks trying not to make eye contact as he nods in agreement.

"You trying to keep an eye on me or do you want to make sure Cassandra keeps her hands off of me..?" He pushed off the back wall of the elevator to move closer to Olivia as he talked as he aimed for the opposite corner. Making sure to slightly brush into her from behind as she refused to look back to him. "I mean, if needed, we could do more than just watch. If it's necessary for the cover of course."

"Of course." Olivia turned her head towards him to make clear it wouldn't be "necessary" to do anything outrageous. Rolling her eyes as she returned to face the matte reflective doors.

"But as much as we need to watch out for each other, we have to be comfortable splitting up. Especially if we want to get intel on this Doug guy. I'm pretty sure Cassandra is more willing to give you details if I'm not hovering over you…" Or under you, she thought to herself. That small elevator felt like it was shrinking with each floor it descended, and he was just too close to her for her to think straight.

"I can't have a partner who gets the pants charmed off of him two nights in a row. Makes me look like a bad wife." She said with a raised eyebrow, knowing he'd raise his right hand like a good Boy Scout to agree.

"No problem with that." He playfully shook his head as he leaned into the corner of the elevator as they neared their floor.

"Are you sure you're okay going back tonight? I mean, it won't be uncomfortable with you talking to more members of the club..?" He said subconsciously hoping she'd be mingling with anyone other than a certain tall defense lawyer.

Nodding as she pulled a stray hair to tuck behind her ear. "I'm not uncomfortable with the case El."

"You sure did winch like you are. You know more than anyone how sensitive victims get about their preferences... especially a defensive wife." Referring to Mrs Bullard's hushed rant towards Olivia after the partner's shared a look of surprise when asking her about their patronage of the club together.

"I did not give her a look." She couldn't see him clearly in the reflection of the doors as he stood behind her. But ishe didn't have to turn around to see his reaction. "I just hope we can nail the perp soon. I don't know if we can handle many more surprises." But oh where they just beginning.

"Fair enough. Hopefully the sketch artist can get enough detail on this creep Doug." Now walking towards the parking garage as the partners left the elevator, Elliot keeping a few steps behind Olivia.

The seasoned detective knew she should have been more understanding to Jane when she confronted her about going to the swingers club with her husband. She didn't mean to sound so harsh, but immediately regretted accusing the wife of holding back information. She just hopes there wasn't anything else she was overlooking.

Outside the hospital, the partners walked towards the squad car. Elliot was on the phone, giving an update to their captain. Olivia already reached for the passenger seat to review her notes before they took off. As she reached into her coat pocket, she feels a crumbled note from earlier that morning. A curious look catches Elliot's attention as she reads over the note for the first time.

He shifts his weight towards the cement support column between the vehicles while he changes the subject with his Captain.

"So we'll set up another rendezvous with backup tonight. And uh, Cap. About what was said on the wire..." Elliot said, a little nervous that some of the audio was mostly static at one point, but he still didn't know what was audible. He hoped that maybe the game part of the night wasn't recorded at least.

Cragen is silent a beat... "What stuff?"

Elliot huffed a sigh of relief.

Back in the car, Olivia mindlessly pulls out her notes of the case, shoving the crumbled note into the her notepad. As if his ears where burning, Olivia gets a text from Trevor asking if he can treat her to lunch. She sees the notification but still continues to organize her paperwork before thinking of a response.

Meanwhile, Elliot grins that he knows everything had already been reviewed but not everything had been submitted as evidence. He peers into the passenger side window from the corner of his eye and watches his partner. She's completely unaware of him looking at her. From time to time he gets a moment like this. He can actually study her features without having to look away. She's changed slightly during their partner ship, a new haircut, a few more laugh lines with each year, but one thing that always caught his eye was more than skin deep. ... his eyes roamed over her, seeing her intensity of reviewing every piece of information, flipping through her notes about the case he assumed.

In an instant the thought of his mouth against her skin flashes in his mind and he is reminded that his boss is still on the phone.

Elliot hears Cragen interrupt his thoughts "You two take the afternoon off but be ready to hit the club again. Wired and armed. I'll send Munch and Fin to catch up with the sketch artist. We'll have surveillance on the look out tonight. I'll text you details when we get them positioned."

He ends his call, intending on asking Olivia if she'd want to grab lunch at their favorite diner since they now have a few hours to kill, but she puts down her notes to look at her phone.

Elliot continues to look at Olivia sitting in the car. After many years of seeing her with victims, she's so naturally aligned herself with them to get them to open up. But knowing that she just made the victim's wife uneasy, she loses herself in trying to jump back into the case.

He likes seeing this side of Olivia. Intense. Passionate. Sometimes unaware at how attractive it is to see her so involved. He watches her as she stares at her phone on top of her notepad in her lap, quickly writing a text. He realizes they need to get them ready for tonight. Before he gets a chance to get her attention, Olivia is on the phone talking so he takes his time walking behind the car to open the driver's side door to get in.

"I'll see if I can take half an hour for lunch. I'll let you know." Olivia says as she hangs up quickly, not looking at Elliot but acknowledging that he just entered the small bubble a personal space cluttered with her notes in the front seat.

Without thinking she grabs her paperwork to organize it back together.

"Well if you have lunch plans, you have all afternoon. Cragen is giving us a few hours to get ready for tonight. I figured I can get ready at your place before we head down to the club again. That'll give Fin and the tech crew enough time to get set up for surveillance. That is if you don't already have plans tonight". Elliot says as he's surveying the dark circles under her eyes even though they are concealed my makeup. These back to back late nights are starting to take a toll.

"Um, I don't have plans for tonight but I did want to follow up on something after you drop me off at my apartment." Olivia says still avoiding Elliot's look. Obviously holding back the question he wants to know.

What does she have planned to do this afternoon? But he ignores it and begins to pull out of the parking structure to head to her apartment.

"I figure I can bring you dinner early about 7 and then we can look over any details about this Doug character before we get in to the club tonight. I'm sure a guy like that has a record, can't risk this going sideways. I don't want you without protection again."

She doesn't respond, preoccupied by something in his peripheral vision. So he continues.

"So make sure to pack the Magnums, okay honey? Don't want the guys at the club thinking your husband isn't packing some heat." He waits to see if any of that registered, half ready for her to swat at him if it did.

Olivia was obviously distracted and didn't hear a word he just said but nods while she responds to a text that just came through her phone. It continues to vibrate again with another notification as Elliot comes to a stop sign and looks over at her screen. He sees the contact name across the top of her messages and just laughs to himself.

That.

That laugh is what she heard and closed her screen, putting the phone back in her pocket.

"I'm just going to see if there's any other angle we can look at this from. That's all." Olivia said, still avoiding looking at the curious look her partner as giving her.

Elliot looks back at traffic, almost at her building already. "Alright."

"And don't worry... after what I felt last night on the couch, I'll be sure to bring plenty of protection. Hon." She said with a straight face as she put the rest of her notes into her bag, preparing to exit soon.

Elliot bites back a sly grin. A few moments later, he pulls the car close to the curb to let her exit safely.

"We have a couple hours before we're expected to be there so take your time. Tell Trevor no games until dark." He doesn't say it with any accusation but he knew that his partner would still take offense to his snooping.

Less than an hour later, Olivia walks into the Swing Set to meet Trevor for lunch. His note and texts asked if he could offer any help. "Off the record".

Before she could get inside the club, she gets a text.

Trevor - "Still stuck in a meeting before my next court appearance. I have something I want to show you, but it will have to wait. Tell Suzette that you need to go to my office."

A little vulnerable that not only had she walked into the Swing Set alone, now she was being stood up for a lunch date at the place she was supposed to be investigating! She hoped it would be dead mid-day, which surprisingly there was a few couples at the bar already. But she tried to look for the hostess without raising suspicion. Making sure her coat covered over the badge on her hip.

Finally she spotted the blonde.

"Ah, the temptation brings you back already..?" The hostess greets Olivia.

With a smile, "Well it seems I'm on a mission. Trevor said he found something of mine from last night, but put it in his office…?" Olivia said pointing at her phone as if it was a treasure map that lead her to a confusing landmark.

"So no pleasure today then? No worries, let me get him on the phone and I'll show you the way upstairs. The partner's have their own wing for their other businesses, but usually no one gets Mr Trevor's attention long enough to see past the Playroom curtains." Suzette says as she shay shays towards a different hallway.

The two women wait at a dark door until Suzette gets an answer on her Blackberry phone. She dials in a code on a pin pad and the doors open to an elevator that takes them to the partner's offices a floor up.

"He said to look for a package with your initials on them. He must really like you to know your last name after one night." Suzette says as she opened a door for Olivia, allowing the detective to walk in.

"The elevator will let you down when you push the ground floor. Yell if you need anything else doll. Oh, and be sure to bring that yummy husband of yours next time. I think the two of you will fit right in." The hostess says with a wink as she leaves Olivia in the office alone.

She takes in the new surroundings. If you didn't know better, you'd think you where uptown in an upscale loft. The tall solid oak desk had a huge plush office chair, which sat opposite a couch large enough to be a bed. And possibly was used as one in a building like this, she thought to herself.

To keep from snooping further, she saw another neatly packed Manila envelope that had the initials "O.B.". She picked up the folder and headed back downstairs to get back to her apartment. If she was being ditched for lunch, she'd need to get something on her stomach soon.

Once she was back home, she opened the envelope to find a mini-DVD. Looked like it was security video, but Olivia unfortunately didn't have a converter to play it at her apartment. Instead of going back to the station to see if there was a tech around who could play it, Olivia called Trevor.

He answered after the first ring.

"Hey, I am not sure what's on this, but I can't play this at home. Can I bring this to the station..?" Olivia said.

"Hi, well, um… my security lead said he wanted me to look at it. I'm not even sure if it's relevant to why you where at the club last night. But your new friend apparently was on it. I haven't even looked at it myself." Trevor said, rushing to get a cab to make his court appearance on time.

"Well, technically I'm not supposed to be back at the club alone. I can't just go back and ask a hostess 'I need to investigate an assault victim, can I use your security playback without a warrant?' Trev." Olivia said in a huff, not realizing that she just slipped.

"Then it's a good thing you have friends in high places. I can get that playback for you when I'm off. Are you coming by again tonight? I may have a plan that shouldn't get you into trouble." Trevor said, shuffling around, keeping his voice low.

Uh oh, what kind of plan is Olivia signing up for? Tell me what you think, and I'll update with some romance before Valentine's!