EO oneshots//1998//2022

does he love you?

Set a few months before Elliot returned, so roughly 2020
Loosely based on the song "does he love you" by Reba McEntire
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Olivias moves around her apartment picking up around her living room, she looks up when she hears a knock at the door, she chuckles "Noah did you forget your key?" She hollered as she went to the door, she opened it without looking out the peep hole

Kathy stands in front of Olivia, her arms in front of her holding her purse "hello Olivia" she said

Olivia takes a deep breath "Kathy, wha-is everything okay?, are the kids okay? Is-" she said before Kathy cut her off

"Everyone...is fine" Kathy said as she watched Olivia's face, of course she was worried about the kids, about Elliot

Olivia nods slowly "okay..um, what's going on then?" She said and moved out of the way for Kathy to come in

Kathy steps inside, glancing around at the apartment "I wanted to talk to you.." she said and paused "uh, sorry, I don't have a mask with me, but I'm vaccinated, I promise" she added

Olivia shook her head "that's okay...and so am I" she said and motioned to the couch "Kathy, cut to the chase please, I highly doubt you came here to talk to me about covid protocols" she added

Kathy sits down in the chair across from the couch, the same one Elliot would sit in months from now, in a parallel universe. "I'm- I dont want to come off as the crazy wife, Olivia..I hope you know that" she said

Olivia scrunches her brows slightly "Kathy-" she said before Kathy cut her off again

"Elliot doesn't know I'm here" Kathy said quickly "he - we are planing on coming back for your award ceremony..Elliot wanted to be there, and I have family I want to see here, Maureen had kids, two boys" she added

Olivia feels her heart drop at the mention of his name, of him coming back, for her...award ceremony, "wow..uh, tell Maureen congratulations.." she said, choosing that part to comment on

Kathy chuckles softly at Olivias attempt at a subject change, she nods "Olivia..Elliot and I are happy, we have a good thing going now" she said as she watched Olivia, waiting for a reaction, for a flinch, for something

Olivia sat up straighter "Kathy, you and Elliot left new york 12 years ago, I haven't spoken, nor seen him since, he didnt even say he was leaving, so unless you're here to tell me he's dead, I suggest you get on with whatever you came here for" she said

Kathy swollows hard, not breaking eye contact with Olivia "I just wanted you to know that when you see him..when he sees you...whats done is done, you have your life, and he has his..do you understand" she said

Olivia shook her head "you come to my home--I dont even know how you found out where I moved to, you come here and you accused me of, of what ? Kathy despite what you made up in your head, he and I never did anything. Like i said I haven't spoken to him in 12 years and quite frankly I've spent majority of those 12 hating him, mad at him" she said

"It was always you Olivia" Kathy said

Olivia scoffs as she stands up from the couch "you're unbelievable, I had respect for you, for your marriage, he was my best friend, yes, but that was as far as we ever went" she said as she paced around her couch

Kathy shook her head "physically, I know that's true, but you two had something he and I didn't, you two were bounded together, you were emotionally invested in each other" she said

Olivia turns to her, she leans her hands against the back of the couch "you're married to him Kathy, you have his kids, you have his last name for god sakes" she said

"And you had his heart...you had his time, his focus, his trust. He spent more late nights with you than he ever did with me, you were the only one who could talk to him, really talk to him.." Kathy said

Olivia bit the inside of her lip as she squeezed the back of the couch "what do you want me to say Kathy?" She whispered

Kathy leaned forward "I want the truth Olivia, the full truth about what you felt for him in those 12 years" she said

Olivia sighs as she shook her head "fine Kathy, he was my best friend, he was there for me when no one else was. did I love him as a friend? Yes, was I in love with him?...yes. but did I ever act on it ? No, did I ever tell him?, no, did I wish he would leave you and the kids for me?...never" she said

Kathy goes silent, the truth is finally out, she thought she would feel anger..instend she feels..relief, that it's finally out, that she didn't make it up in her head

Olivia looks at her watch on her wrist "my son, he's about to be home from school...you got what you came here for" she said

Kathy stands from the chair "please don't tell him about this...when you see him in a few months" she said

That hits Olivia, weirdly, causing immediate anger..or pettiness inside her, before she could stop herself she asked the question "what did he say about me?" She asked

Kathy tilts her head "excuse me?" She asked

"You wouldn't have come all this way from wherever you've been, just to ask me about my feelings for him 12 years ago, ..unless he said something" Olivia said

Kathy hesitates for a second

Olivia tries to suppress the smile on her face, he did, he said something about her that struck jealousy in Kathy, enough jealousy to cause her to come to Olivia after all these years

"We've been living in Europe, a few days ago we got into a discussion about some building, he mentioned John and his conspiracies...and then he got quiet" Kathy said as she looked down at her purse in her hands "I asked what was wrong, he didn't answer, that night I went to go into our room when I heard him talking..to someone, about your awards ceremony, he said he was nervous about seeing you" she added

Olivia remembers Fin being the one who told him

Kathy shrugs "he said he was nervous about seeing you, that even now he still loved you...that's why I came here Olivia, to save my marriage...again, to get ahead of it this time" she said

Olivia stoped listening after 'he still loved you' she nods slowly "I won't mention this to him when I see him" she said

Kathy nods as she turns to head towards her door, she stops at a photo of Noah on the wall "your son?" She asked staring intensely at the photo

Olivia nods "yes, Noah" said crossed her arms "Kathy, he's adopted" she added

Kathy looks back at her "you can't blame me for wondering, it's the eyes" she said

Olivia nods towards the door "get out" she said