Adding Fuel to the Fire: An Elliot Stabler Story

Chapter Five

The atmosphere of the special victims unit was surprisingly calm the following Wednesday morning. No new extreme cases had come in overnight, so Elliot and Olivia decided to spend the day catching up on paperwork while things were calm.

Elliot glanced up from his file to the clock on the wall behind Olivia to check the time. Something he had been doing all morning.

"What's going on?" Olivia asked, not looking up from her file, still writing.

"What?" Elliot looked up again, but this time he was looking at his partner.

"You check the clock every ten minutes. I know it's a slow morning, but you can't be that antsy," she commented as she looked up at him.

"Am I distracting you?" He retorted, feeling a little unnerved that his partner called him out.

"No, but every time you pick your head up, I think you're going to say something to me, so I notice it," she shot back.

"I'm just not used to time going by this slowly," he sighed, easing up. That wasn't a lie. He definitely was not used to spending workdays at his desk. Time seemed to move much slower.

"Yeah," Olivia relented as she went back to writing in her file, but she wasn't convinced. She wondered if it had to do with the girl Elliot's been somewhat seeing. Or maybe something happened with his ex-wife or one of his kids. She knew he would tell her eventually, and if he hadn't told her already, it probably wasn't a big deal.

When the clock hit 11:30, Elliot stood up from his desk. "I'm going to get some coffee, you want any?"

"I'm good, thanks," Olivia replied.

Elliot made his way into the break room and shut the door softly behind him then pulled out his cell phone. He took a deep breath and dialed a familiar number.

"Hello?"

Elliot smiled when he heard the sweet voice on the other end of the phone.

"Hey, you," he said softly.

"Hey, Stabler," Johanna replied as she smiled hearing his voice as well.

"I know you're on your way to take your test, and I just wanted to wish you good luck," he told her genuinely. "You don't need luck, I know you're going to do great, but I...I just wanted to let you know I was thinking about you."

Johanna stopped walking and nearly melted into the sidewalk. She hadn't heard from him since they parted ways on the sidewalk after sharing those romantic kisses outside the bar. She didn't really expect to hear from him or anything, but he was on her mind a lot lately after their last rendezvous.

"Thank you," she responded. "I really appreciate that. That was...really sweet."

"Don't stress too hard, okay?" He reminded her.

"Okay."

"Bye," Elliot sighed.

"Bye, Stabler."

She was dazed for a moment after she hung up the phone. She remained still on the sidewalk as the rest of the world moved on, walking around her. She couldn't remember the last time someone was so genuinely nice to her for essentially no reason.

She smiled and continued walking, giddy at the thought of Elliot sitting at his desk thinking about her.

Elliot returned to his desk feeling much less fidgety than before. He hadn't talked to Johanna since he kissed her so impulsively last week, so he had been worried about their next Thursday night meeting being awkward, but after that phone call, he was no longer concerned.