The ride to the airport was dead silent. The tension in the back of the vehicle felt like spider webs hanging between the two of them. She had quickly shut her phone off, eliminating any chance of Elliot seeing the photos.

She should tell him about it, she knows that. But on the other hand, how could she? It would ruin their trip, it would send him into a nervous and angry spiral. Hell, maybe he'd even leave again to go back to Westchester and not come back.

It was selfish not to tell him, that much she knew. After all, the pictures had involved him too. What if by the time they landed in New York, the pictures were on the cover of every media site in the country? And if she had known about it before it happened? God, he'd never forgive her. At least that was what the anxiety told her and right now, the anxiety was the only thing talking.

He'd be so furious that he didn't have time to control it. Rush some sort of injunction against the press, not allowing them to display the scandal of violated privacy.

It was selfish and she hated herself for it. She just had to get back to New York first. That was it, right? Simple. Once Paris was behind them, they could handle it. She'd change her number and then tell Elliot or Skylar or someone so that it could all be fixed.

She was going to protect him, just like he protected her. If she could just get him home first, then she could tell him. But several hours on a plane where he could do nothing but panic would not help.

Reaching the tarmac felt like reaching the halfway mark of a marathon. Something lightened in her chest — maybe it was the guilt of not telling him? She was one step closer to being able to figure this out with him.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Elliot asked, opening up her door for her. She hadn't even realized that they had parked, let alone him exiting the vehicle to help her out.

"Uh huh," she nodded, not convincing anyone in the slightest. She took his offering hand and slid out of the SUV "Y'know, just tired. We've got a long trip ahead of us."

"Okay," he cautiously acknowledged. She tried not to flinch when his arm came to wrap around her back. She wanted to beg her body to get the fuck out of fight or flight mode if she was going to keep this from him.

She didn't want to go through this; not again. She barely made it out the last time, a second time was just cruel.

Elliot's hand on her back quickly became a saving grace since she barely trusted her trembling legs to walk up the staircase to board the plane. She gripped the metal railing like it was a lifeline, leaving behind a sweaty palm print behind with each grasp.

Sensing her 'tiredness', Elliot reclined one of the seats for her and retrieved a warm blanket from the back of the jet. She took full advantage of the opportunity to buy herself a couple of hours of quiet time to process and think about what had happened and what was to come.

Now, all she had to do was get through an 8 hour flight.

It couldn't have been more than an hour on the plane. She was sure of it. Except, she'd packed her watch and her phone was off. So, any measure of time was as good as a guess. One of the flight attendants had nervously walked over to the adjoining seats where he and Olivia sat. Pretending to be asleep, Olivia listened as the stewardess politely alerted Elliot that the pilot was looking to speak to him.

She felt him carefully shift out of his seat, trying not to bump into her and wake her from the sleep he assumed she was in.

Her curiosity got the best of her as he walked up to the head of the jet. She peeked over the seat in front of her, seeing the pilot step out of the cockpit while the co-pilot took over. It was the genuinely concerned look on both of their faces that was enough to throw her fake-sleep act out the window. She sat upright, trying to catch what they were saying.

"Everything was fine when we departed, I don't understand?" she heard Elliot say.

The pressure in the cabin was pounding in her ears, making it harder to hear the conversation.

"Mr. Stabler, do you trust me?"

"You're the only pilot I've trusted to fly this plane in the last ten years, of course I do."

"Then let me get you there safely, okay? I know it's further but it's a safer route and you'll be in much better hands there. But it's your call."

She heard Elliot pause and take a deep breath.

"Do what you've got to do,"

She put herself back into her fake state of sleep as the pilot jumped back into the cockpit. Elliot exhaled nervously as he sat back down beside Olivia, softly rubbing her shoulder to wake her up. "Liv, I need you to wake up."

"What's up?" she asked tiredly. "Is everything okay?"

The fear in his bright blue eyes was enough to send a chill down her spine. It wasn't an expression of his that she had ever seen before. Real, true fear. Nothing more and nothing but. He licked his lower lip, a nervous tic of his that she had mentally cataloged a while back. "Uh, we have to make a bit of a pit-stop."

She sat up in her seat to get a better look at him. "Pit stop?"

It was clear that he was trying to keep it together for her and only her. "Yeah," he nodded, taking her hand into his. "They're concerned because one of the engines is beginning to show signs of failure. It's too much of a risk to try to get back to New York or even north to England, we'd be over the Atlantic for most of it. We're going to Vienna."

A turbulent rocked the plane, earning an embarrassing yelp from them both.

"I- I don't understand. Vienna is in the opposite direction. And it's far from here, isn't it? Why aren't we stopping in Germany? Shouldn't we be going west out of France right now?" she asked, gripping tighter on his hand.

"The air traffic out of Paris was heavy so we were going north to avoid it, their plan was to circle around Scotland to go west back to the states with less traffic. We're still going north near Luxembourg right now but all of the airports are packed from the holiday, they can't accommodate us. Especially for urgent repairs. Vienna can."

Olivia looked far more concerned than she did convinced.

"It's not that far, I promise. I trust our pilot, he can get us there in one piece." Elliot said more urgently.

Olivia, still wide-eyed and out of breath felt her lip begin to tremble.

Another turbulent violently shook the jet. She looked around, spotting the flight attendants buckling into their seats with their own set of nervous glances. She looked back at Elliot who seemed to be pleading for her to trust him with nothing but his eyes.

His voice rose over the loudness inside the cabin. "Tell me you trust me, Liv!"

One last glance around before her terrified eyes started to water up. She nodded, squeezing his hand. He leaned to the side, embracing her tightly in his arms as if it would protect her any more than a seatbelt could.

He didn't want to tell her the truth. He didn't want to tell her that they were flying over the territory of his greatest international competitors. That any single one of them would be ruthless enough to find a way to damage their plane even further.

There were parts of the business that Olivia was learning when she shouldn't have had to. Just how bloody and cutthroat the competition could get was something he wanted to spare her from for as long as possible.

He didn't want to tell her that the only real safe way out was to seek help in Austria. Stepping foot anywhere in between France to Vienna was painting a bullseye on both of their backs.

They both had secrets.

Their plane had touched down in Vienna in one piece, as promised. Just barely. Any longer and it would've been a much more tragic outcome for everyone on board. Each turbulent had scared them out of their minds, holding each other tighter each time.

Everyone unloaded off of the jet, just about ready to kiss the ground beneath their feet. Even trying to mask it for professionalism, Olivia could see just how shaken up everyone was. She was pretty sure one of the flight attendants was busy getting sick on the other side of the plane.

The miracle worker that was Skylar had somehow gotten in contact with the airport before landing, making sure they had a car waiting on the tarmac for them. The staff had heard about the situation and had rushed to make all of the accommodations they could from clearing the runway to making sure that everyone had a ride to somewhere safe.

Unsure of how long it would be until the plane would be back in commission, they decided to unload the baggage from its designated compartments onboard.

In some strange way, Olivia felt stranded. Obviously Elliot would have them home as soon as possible. But standing on the blacktop in a foreign land with nothing but a small suitcase of belongings packed, there was an overwhelming sense of loneliness. Maybe that was from the fact that she had a huge weight on her chest over the photos that had been sent to her. Inside her head, there was only loneliness.

Elliot walked over to where she was standing, careful not to startle her. His sleeves were rolled up his forearms and his tie had been untied for quite some time now. He looked so exhausted and even more apologetic. Without saying anything, he enveloped her into his arms. A little for her sake, but a lot for his own. "God, I'm so glad you're okay," he mumbled into her hair.

She fought back tears as her arms tightened around his back. Her face was buried into his chest, the same place where her tears had fallen when they rode through turbulent after turbulent.

"Listen," he pulled away, moving a stray piece of hair out of her face. "Skylar's gonna take you to a hotel. It's not far from here. I'm gonna stay back here with the pilots so we can figure out what the hell happened and how we managed to get into the air with a problem like that."

"You- you're not coming with me?" she asked. She hated that somewhere deep down, she felt just a little bit relieved.

"I'll be there as soon as possible," he reassured her. "It might only be a couple hours before we're back in the sky. I'd just feel a hell of a lot safer knowing that I covered all of our bases before we step into another jet, let alone that one."

She hesitantly nodded, leaning forward into the kiss he pressed against her forehead. With that, he marched off empty handed with the pilot and co-pilot, moving in the direction of the massive hangers across the tarmac.

She felt Skylar relieve her death grip on the handle of her suitcase as he lodged it into the back of the trunk. He opened her door for her, just as Elliot had done before, waiting for her to get comfortable and buckled in before closing it behind him.

The ride to their destination was quiet and somber. Skylar was good at hiding his emotions — so much so that sometimes she wondered if he had any at all. Until she remembered how he had always treated her with kindness. Even wordless, it was always kindness. He didn't have much to say and only ever spoke after she had initiated conversation.

He was just a kid, really. A few years younger than her at most.

"Hey, Skylar?" she asked from the backseat, her voice sounding just as tired as she was.

His voice was the same as it always was - as if he hadn't been on that plane with them. "Yes, Miss Benson?"

She leaned forward just a little bit, trying to display herself as a somewhat comforting presence. "Are you alright? You know it's... it's okay if you aren't. What happened back there was really scary."

He took a moment to answer. She couldn't see his eyes in the rearview mirror since his usual tinted black sunglasses covered them. "Yes, ma'am. I'm alright." his voice faltered the tiniest bit at his confession. "And you, Miss Benson? Are you alright?"

She leaned back into her seat, watching the streets pass them by. The streetlights were so beautiful, just beginning to glow since the sun was preparing to set. She wanted to appreciate the beauty of the city, but her heart hurt in too many places. Taking her own advice, she decided to go with honesty. "No," she whispered. "I'm not. But I will be."

"If there's anything I can do to help, please let me know." he replied, making it sound a little less compulsory than usual. He always meant it when he said it, but this time he was saying it out of sincerity that wasn't part of his paycheck.

She turned her head back to the window, resting against the cold glass. Vienna was beautiful, but it was wrong. All they'd wanted was a few days away from it all. Now she was here, in another beautiful city, unable to enjoy it. At least not properly. It felt karmatic — but what the karma was for, she wasn't sure.

"Can I ask you something, Skylar?" she whispered. "Off the record?"

"Of course, ma'am."

She took a sharp inhale, trying to build up the courage to ask what she wanted to ask. "If you had to tell someone something... something stressful, but they were already incredibly stressed out, would you wait for the other stress to clear up first or would you tell them right away even though you know it would only add to their plate?"

Behind his steely exterior, she managed to see the cogs in his brain turning. He had a responsibility to his employer, which meant he had to assume that's who she was referring to and alter his answer to that. "Well, I suppose it depends. Could it somehow already be contributing to their original stress?"

She stopped to think about that for a moment, praying it wouldn't bring on a eureka moment that would open a whole new can of worms. "God I hope not."

It couldn't be... could it? This had to be a coincidence. The photos, the plane, if they were related in any way, she would never forgive herself.

"I suppose honesty is always the best policy, ma'am." he answered back, seemingly not too suspicious about where this was going. "Obviously if anyone is in immediate danger, it's best to say something as soon as possible."

She nodded, allowing the conversation to die right then and there. She was too tired and a little too traumatized to go down that road. For now, everything that had happened was a coincidence. A terribly ill-timed coincidence that would be dealt with separately.

The hotel room in Vienna felt more like a condo than a hotel suite. It managed to offer some sort of comforting and home-like feel to it. It wasn't in a massive location for visitors, instead it was more towards the edge of the city.

It had a balcony just like the suite in Paris did. Except this one overlooked more people living their lives, rather than tourists trying to take in everything all at once. She counted a few people walking their dogs, some of them walking home, and even a few couples walking home from restaurants.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket, knowing she was finally alone. Skylar was in his own hotel room, receiving updates from Elliot who was still at the airport. She didn't want to turn her phone on and potentially receive more messages that had been intercepted earlier from lack of service.

A little part of her wanted to die inside when she pressed the power button and the Apple logo lit up her screen. She was greeted with a picture of her and Monique smiling on her lockscreen, which never failed to warm her heart up just a little bit. She waited as the service connected, counting down the seconds until a swarm of unwelcome messages would come through.

They never came.

Little victories.

She leaned against the balcony edge, dialing the number she knew by heart. She wasn't sure what time it was back in New York, nor did she care. There was one voice she needed to hear now more than ever.

"Liv!" Monique's cheerful tone filled her ears. "Are you back? Tell me you're back and you're standing outside of our building with a boombox on your shoulder ready to sing me a song!"

Olivia sniffled, wiping away a tear from her cheek as she smiled. "No, sorry. Maybe next time though."

Monique huffed in defeat. "I thought you were supposed to be back tonight."

"I was," she agreed, nodding as if Monique could see her. Maybe she could – or at least sense it. "We ran into some issues."

"Issues?" Monique parroted on the other end of the line. "What kind of issues?"

Olivia felt more tears fall as she squeezed her eyes shut. Her voice was going to break soon, she could feel it. "Mid-flight engine failure kind of issues."

Monique heard the soft sob from Olivia, her own jaw dropping as she heard the words. "What?" she asked softly, in complete disbelief. Her voice immediately shifted to that of something much more sympathetic. "Oh, Liv."

Olivia let out a quiet sob, pulling her sweater tighter around her body as the oversized sleeves became soaked in tears. "I wanna come home, Mo."

There weren't many things that could break Monique, but the sound of Olivia hopelessly crying would always be at the top of the list of things that would shatter her instantly. She fought back her own tears for her best friend. "Are you safe?" she asked. Asking if she was okay would be a dumb question that she already knew the answer to.

"Yes," Olivia replied "I am now. We're in Vienna. El is still at the airport trying to figure out what the hell happened. They usually quadruple check these things before even considering taking off, and they did. So either it was a freak accident or..."

"Oh lord," Monique sighed on her end of the line. "I mean — you don't think... do you?"

She wanted to say no and mean it. However, with the amount of absolute shit piling up against them, she could never be certain. She couldn't tell Monique about the photos either. Not now, at least. She needed to do it where she could hug her best friend for as long as she needed. For now, a phone line wouldn't do. "I don't know," she replied dismissively, her voice becoming hollow.

She didn't need to see Monique's face to know exactly what it looked like. She was wearing her 'on the verge of making an executive decision' expression. Olivia could hear it in the way she breathed. "Liv, do you need me to book you a flight home?" she asked sternly. "Because if you do, I will. I will do it right fucking now."

Olivia cried more into her sleeve, trying not to let the sobs wrack her. She thought about Monique's offer for a moment, genuinely considering it. As much as she wanted to be home right now, she couldn't leave Elliot here. Sure, he could take care of himself. But if something happened, she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she had left him behind.

"No," she gulped, feeling some semblance of regret for not taking the offer. "No, it's okay."

"I love you, Liv. You're gonna be home before you know it." Monique reassured her.

Olivia felt another wave of tears coming on. "I love you too, Mo," she sniffled, not even recognizing the sound of her own voice.

"Come back to me in one piece, okay? And keep me updated on what's happening."

She should've told Monique about the pictures before they hung up. But if she had, Monique wouldn't have let it go. She would've wanted to know just about everything that had happened in Paris that could've led up to those texts. She wasn't in the mood to divulge that.

She wasn't in the mood for any of this.

At first, her suspicions turned to Louis, the obvious mark. He had been one of the only ones to know that Elliot had been planning a photoshoot. It added up a little too perfectly. Except for the fact that he had nothing to gain and Elliot really did seem to trust him or he wouldn't have put them both in the position to be compromised.

Then she wondered about Skylar – which didn't fit at all. Skylar was the most loyal to Elliot out of everyone. He had all of the opportunities to tear Elliot apart for his relationship with Olivia, yet he had even become complacent in their scandal.

She did want to consider the idea that maybe it was a coincidence. A very unlikely one at that. Maybe whoever had sent the photos of Santorini had no clue about the Paris photoshoot, but rather just wanted to freak her out.

No. That was wishful thinking. Coincidences didn't exist in the real world.

The worst case scenario was that whoever sent the pictures happened to be behind the engine failure too. That thought twisted her stomach into a million knots.

As much as she itched for the answer, she wasn't going to find it in a hotel room in Vienna. And she certainly wasn't going to find it all alone either.

She dragged herself away from the balcony, walking over to the suitcase that was on the bed. Unzipping it, she tried to carefully pull out a pair of sweatpants without disrupting the rest of the folded clothes. She wasn't going to be here long anyway, but her leggings were digging into her hips and she just wanted to take a nap.

As soon as she was lying on her side in the bed, her knees came up to her chest. She pulled out her phone, reverting back to the original text thread from the anonymous source. She read the words and read them again, as if some invisible clue would magically show up. Instead, her eyes just felt blurry and her skull throbbed from her headache.

There truly was no right answer. God, he had so much on his plate right now. But keeping this from him felt worse than lying.

Her phone slipped out of her hand as the screen clicked off. Her eyes closed but the sleep was far from blissful.

When Elliot arrived at the hotel room, his eyes were drowning in exhaustion. It was nearing somewhere around 10pm and they were far from where they were meant to be. When he first laid eyes on Olivia, he noted that she was sitting up against the headboard, a notebook and pencil in her hand as she scribbled away. She wasn't looking at him, only around him. As if he was there but only in her imagination.

"Well, thank God we didn't go straight west or else we would've gone down without a doubt," he sighed, ripping the tie off of his neck. "It isn't clear yet where the source of the tampering came from, there's a lot of damage to the engine so they're gonna have to dig around it to find where it all started. But it's looking intentional. The ICAO has been informed, they're running an investigation into the ground crew at Charles De Gaulle. Also put in a report with the FAA just to keep them in the loop."

Olivia didn't say anything, offering an acknowledging hum at the most.

"Enough about that though," Elliot quickly added, sensing that he didn't really have an accurate gauge of where she was right now after everything that had happened. He slipped off the button-up shirt and white tank under it, leaving his chest on full display. "How are you doing? Did you get some rest?"

She rubbed her eyes under her glasses as if it would somehow protect her from the contact she didn't want to make. "Mhm, yeah." She motioned towards her notebook. "Just trying to get back into work-mode, y'know?"

He eyed her from the corner of his eye, trying to figure out why she wouldn't look at him. She had her ways of dealing with trauma, he had seen it with his own two eyes. This was different, this was shutting him out, rather than her usual coping mechanism of shutting the whole world out.

"Anything you wanna talk about?" he asked, climbing into bed beside her.

She removed the pantos-style reading glasses from her face and set them on the bedside table along with the notebook. She managed to look over at him as he situated himself onto his side. She didn't turn to stone or melt into a puddle when her eyes met his. God, his stupid big eyes that had gone all soft as soon as he realized that she was hurting.

"I was uh... I was just working on a potential project for SE." she said, hoping that if she gained control of the conversation, it wouldn't hurt so bad to look at him and know that she was keeping a secret.

A small smile tugged at his lips as he looked up at her. "Share with the class?"

She shyly looked down into her lap, playing with a loose strand on her sweater. "Well, it's a rough draft, y'know. Nothing super planned out or whatever, but it's a separate branch of Red Light called Red Light U. Same core design, but designed specifically for college students and in its own app."

His tired eyes managed to light up with joy.

She continued on. "Kinda like each campus has their own database. Students can pair up in a buddy-system. Track their buddy's location. Alert authorities if there's issues. Request specific types of responders like only police or only EMTs, and other features offered on the existing app. Kinda like what kids are already doing, but just more organized, safer, and possibly even school-funded."

"It's brilliant," he said without hesitation. He reached out the arm that he wasn't lying on, stroking her leg. "You're brilliant. You know that?"

Dimples poked through her cheeks as she fought back a smile. It wasn't right to smile; not right now. She looked down at him, seeing so much hope in his tired smile. So much love in the weary eyes.

"El?" she whispered, feeling her heart begin to speed up. The words were right there, all she had to do was spit them out.

"Yeah?"

Big blue eyes. So stupidly full of hope.

Her mouth opened and closed a few times, but nothing but a breathy sputter escaped. "I — I love you."

He smiled. How could he smile on a day like today? Someone tried to crash his jet into the ocean and he was smiling. Because despite all of that, he loved her so much. He loved her ideas and her presence. She couldn't take that smile away; not right now. Whatever hope he was holding onto, she couldn't rip that away from him right now.

"I love you too," he reached for her hand, bringing her knuckles to his lips and pressing a gentle kiss against them.

She reached over, turning off the bedside lamp that was the last source of light in the room. Her body shimmied down under the covers, falling into his protective grasp with his body against hers. Her hand came up, wrapping around the arm that he had thrown over her.

The darkness of the room protected her from all that he could've seen in her face. The guilt was going to eat her alive until they got back home.

The night was somehow both far too long and way too short. Rest for either of them was sparse, mostly filled with tossing and turning as the hours ticked by. Both of them wanted to be home more than anything. They had an early flight to catch; something commercial so that whoever was trying to drown their jet would maybe think twice about doing it again and taking down 188 other people with them. Knowing Elliot, she assumed it would be a rank higher than first-class if that was even possible.

She didn't want to fly home. At this point, she'd rather fucking walk.

The idea of stepping foot onto another plane made her stomach twist and turn. Still, when 5am rolled around, she got herself dressed and ready to go to the airport. She tried to dress as inconspicuous as possible, but she hadn't packed for the occasion of actually having to go through American customs when they would arrive back home. God only knew who would spot the two of them together and allow their curiosity to wander.

Jesus, when had she become this person? Her mind flashed back to the days where even the idea of flying coach somewhere far far away felt like a dream.

Elliot didn't bother disguising himself. Part of her was a bit angry about that, wishing he'd be rational and try to avoid as many people recognizing him as possible. The gossip magazines always conveniently left out the fact that assistants were part of travel too. She'd be lucky if she got out of JFK without being on the Romance Radar for New York's most eligible billionaire 'bachelor'.

Nope. He had to wear a suit. Typical.

She was beginning to wonder where this frustration with him was coming from. If anything, she figured that the guilt of keeping the photos a secret would eliminate any annoyance she had towards him and replace it with fear. Maybe it was the stress. They had both been through a traumatizing ordeal while they both also pretended it hadn't happened.

Someone had intentionally tampered with the engine of the private plane they were on. Ignoring the weight of that was only going to turn into the world's worst ticking time bomb.

As Skylar loaded up their luggage for the millionth time this week, Olivia flipped her sunglasses down from the crown of her head and clutched her cup of coffee like it was a lifeline. Elliot opened the door for her first, sliding into the backseat beside her in the rented town car.

They had silently agreed that they weren't going to talk about what happened — at least not until they were back on familiar ground. She had left Monique a voicemail earlier, letting her know that she would be home by the end of the day. For the first time in a long time, she missed her own bed. And with her secret looming over her head, she wasn't sure if she could spend another night in bed beside him.

That thought pierced her as painfully as it could.

The drive to the airport was silent enough that they could've heard a pin drop. Olivia had her head resting against the window as she watched the beautiful city pass her by - unfortunately unenjoyed. Elliot was responding to a litany of emails wondering where the hell he was and why he wasn't back in the office after the long weekend had ended.

She hadn't stopped to think about what life in the office would be like once she got back. Dealing with the threat of the photos, dealing with Tucker's insanity, trying to figure out who the hell wanted their plane to crash. Hell, it'll be even worse if the people at work found out about the plane. They'd have endless amounts of questions like why was the CEO of the company on a non-business trip with his assistant?

It was a nightmare that was bound to come true. Maybe sooner than she could've feared.

It didn't matter how many times she flew, or what rank they were in. Anywhere from coach to a private jet was uncomfortable. She hated the tightness that formed in her neck and the ache in her unstretched legs. The sun was starting to set when they had touched down at JFK. It had been uneventful, thank God. Though, the few turbulence that did occur pushed a violent fear through her veins. Nobody else seemed too bothered by them.

She pulled out her phone, turning it back on and shutting off the airplane mode feature. She knew Monique was anxiously awaiting for her arrival back in the city. Elliot walked ahead of her with Skylar, sensing her desperate need to unwind and be alone. He wasn't too bothered about that, he knew Olivia felt stressed from the last day and a half. Though, it still worried him that this all seemed to start before they even left Paris.

Sliding her sunglasses over her face to offer some sense of anonymity, she started drafting a text to Monique.

Olivia: Just landed. All safe and sound. Heading towards baggage claim now.

Monique: Thank god. I've been pacing around all day

Olivia: Did you take a Xanax?

Monique: I took 3

Olivia giggled at her phone, tucking it back in her pocket as they headed towards baggage claim. Having gone through customs, they knew their luggage would be waiting for them at pickup rather than having to wait for it to come from the conveyor belt.

After everyone grabbed their respective bags and started heading for the exit, Olivia could hear the unmistakable sound of cameras flashing and people talking loudly.

Her heart fell into her stomach.

Elliot heard it too, and saw it first from how far ahead he was from her. He quickly turned around, guiding them towards a blind spot where the press and paparazzi couldn't see them speaking together. After all, a work trip wasn't on the books. Being spotted with him right now would be the holy grail of evidence of their relationship.

He took a sharp deep breath as they huddled closer together against the wall, just out of sight. "They found out."

"I kinda figured." Olivia replied curtly.

Elliot tried to brush off the annoyance in her voice. "I can have you go out first, I'll wait here. Skylar will take you home."

Olivia crossed her arms, looking over her shoulder with a sigh. Her head fell back against the cool surface of the wall behind her. "No. You go. I'll call Monique and have her bring a cab. She'll get me out of here. Besides, if you go first, they'll leave in time for me to slip out."

"Liv—"

"Please, Elliot?" she protested. "Just... please? Let me do this? If I go first, I'm walking into a swarm of people who may or may not recognize me. I'll text you as soon as I get home safely, okay?"

He stared at her, his eyes growing sad as he nodded gently. "Okay," he surrendered. She was right. If she walked through that crowd, people could easily put the pieces together of who she was. All it would take would be one determined member of the press to figure out that she was getting into a car with a license plate registered to him.

"Can I kiss you goodbye?" he asked, barely above a whisper as the sadness spread from his eyes to the rest of his face.

She glanced around the area, making sure that everyone that was around was looking in a different direction. They were too secluded to be spotted by the paparazzi who were waiting just outside the doors. She looked back at him, softening a little as she nodded.

It was slow and soft, almost foreign, the way he kissed her. He leaned down to her height with one hand on the wall behind her. When he pulled back, she could see that his eyes were still closed, as if he were savoring the moment for when he needed to remember it most.

"I love you, Liv." he took his hand off of the wall, brushing his thumb over her cheek. "And I'm so sorry this is happening."

The anonymous texts ran through her head and she wanted to banish them once and for all, because it shouldn't be this painful to tell him that she loves him too. But it is, and it makes her guilt even worse. "I love you too."

With that, he parted from her, heading towards the door where the paparazzi and press roared at the sight of him. Even standing back, she could see the bright flashes of the cameras. She stepped out from the small alcove where they were hiding, just enough to watch him walk through the crowd without them spotting her.

Olivia: Hey, I need a ride and I don't wanna ride alone. Can you grab a cab and meet me at JFK?

Monique: Hailing one as we speak.

They were out for blood with the microphones and cameras. They knew about the plane, so they knew about the trip. She didn't think anyone in Paris had cared enough to actually take pictures of them together in public, but now the press would be fighting to find out if someone had.

She watched behind the darkness of her sunglasses as he waded his way through the lion's den of press.

"Mr. Stabler, how do you respond to the rumors that your private jet was tampered with?"

"Mr. Stabler, do you have a competitor that you think is trying to kill you?"

"Mr. Stabler, can you tell us if your investigation with the ICAO and FAA has come up with any new information?"

"Mr. Stabler, do you believe that it was an international competitor who tampered with your engines?"

"Mr. Stabler, was your trip to Paris meant for business purposes?"

"Mr. Stabler, what is your plan going forward to ensure your safety?"

"Mr. Stabler, are you worried that your employees will also be subjected to the dangers that you're facing?"

Hey, Mr. Stabler... think you can save your relationship?