Spending the Day with Daddy
It was another busy morning in the Stabler household. Maureen and Kathleen were gossiping about school, life, and boys while forcing cereal down their throats, EJ was sitting in his high chair playing with his toys, and Dickie was listening to his iPod- which had been his best friend for the past few months. The three people who were missing from this picture were Kathy, Elliot, and Elizabeth. Kathy Stabler was in the living room watching the morning news, as she always did, and Elliot Stabler was still in bed - very tired from working an all nighter at the precinct - like he usually did on Friday nights. Elizabeth Stabler was probably in her room, where she'd spent the past few weeks. There was a scare in the Stabler household a few weeks ago, and Lizzie was abducted by a serial rapist/murderer. But that's another story for another day. Thankfully, Lizzie was rescued before she became another victim of murder.
Lizzie was having a bit of a hard time. She'd been to counseling, Elliot's good friend from the SVU precinct, Dr. George Haung, helped out there. But lately Lizzie had become very clingy, especially with Elliot, which Dr. Huang assured the family was very normal. Needless to say, this was supposed to be a "lazy" Saturday for Elliot, being that he didn't have to work today, but he decided to spend the day with Lizzie.
"Bye daddy, bye mom!" Kathleen, Maureen, and Dickie all cried in unison as they bustled out the front door. Kathleen and Maureen had Saturday college courses, and Dickie was going off to hang out with some friends for the day.
"I should be going to, El. I'll drop EJ off at the baby sitter and then go to work. See you tonight." After a quick kiss to both Elliot and Elizabeth, Kathy and EJ Stabler also left the Stabler house.
About an hour later, Elizabeth drug herself out of her bedroom and into her mother and fathers bed.
"Hi Daddy." She whispered, giving him a hug.
Elliot in return gave her a hug and a kiss on the head, "hey sweetie. Goodmorning.
Are you hungry? Want me to make you some pancakes?"
"No, daddy that's fine...I'm okay."
"
Lizzie, are you sure? I don't mind. Actually I think I might have some pancakes."
"No, really. I'm fine daddy. I'm not hungry."
Elliot sighed. For the past few weeks, Lizzie was acting like this. Haung said this was normal, her shutting down like this. Especially with her father. It was weird though, one minute Lizzie would completely shut down and not talk to Elliot, and the next minute all she wanted to do was be hugged by him.
Elliot just sighed again and smiled at his youngest daughter. He got up out of bed and patted her on the head.
"Suit yourself, kiddo. But I'm making myself some pancakes." He winked at her, and in return Lizzie gave him a painful smile.
Elliot walked into the kitchen, and images began to pop into his head, as they had for the past few weeks. Lizzie had not fully told Elliot or Kathy what all happened to her when she was abducted. In all honesty, Elliot didn't want to know what happened to Lizzie. He didn't want to imagine the horrors that his sweet baby had gone through. For the past three weeks of his life, he's heard about the pain Lizzie had gone through from various doctors reports - but he didn't want to hear those words come out of his own daughters mouth.
"Liz. Are you sure you don't want a pancake? I reeeeaaaly don't want to have to eat alone." Elliot winked.
Elizabeth sighed, "oooo-kay. But just one."
Elliot smiled, "that's my girl."
About twenty minutes later, three huge chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, and two glasses of milk waited on the table for Elliot and Elizabeth.
Once the two sat down, Elliot grabbed his daughters hand so that they could bless the food. The Stabler's were very religious people, and always prayed before meals.
"Father, thank you for this food we are about to eat. Please let Lizzie and I have a good day, and -
"And thank you, Jesus, for bringing me home to my family all safe and sound. Amen."
Elliot opened his eyes and looked up at his little girl with a smile on his face. And for the first time in nearly a month, Lizzie smiled back at him - a big, cheesy, Stabler girl grin.
"So kiddo, you ready to have a good day?" Elliot smiled, giving his youngest daughter a slight hug before they went out the door on that cold November morning.
"Sure!" Lizzie said almost too quickly.
"What do you want to do today?"
"It doesn't really matter."
"C'mon Liz, there's got to be something you want to do."
"Mhm...not really..just don't leave me, okay?"
"I would never sweetie. Don't worry, you're safe with me."
Elliot stopped after he said that last sentence. He'd always thought his children were safe with him, but were they really? Apparantly they weren't, considering what happened nearly a month ago. He decided to forget about his thoughts and just focus on having a good day with Lizzie.
"How about we go to the mall? I know you really like to shop." Elliot suggested.
Lizzie shrugged her shoulders, "Sure. Let's go to the mall."
Elliot grasped her hand, and the two of them walked slowly to his car and drove about ten miles to a small mall in Queens.
"Where do you want to go first?" Elliot said, standing in the parking lot with his daughter.
"You pick, daddy. I don't really want to look at anything."
"Are you okay, Lizzie? You feeling okay?"
"I'm fine...just a little tired."
Elliot knew right away his daughter was lying. Elizaebth Stabler was a terrible liar. All the women in the Stabler household were bad liars. He could see the deceit in Lizzie's eyes.
"Honey, I promise if you tell me what's wrong, you'll feel a lot better." Elliot said, crouching down to get eye level with her.
Tears began to well up in Elizabeth's bright blue eyes. Elliot almost regretted telling her she should talk to him. He really didn't want to get emotional.
"I-I'm scared."
"Why honey? We put that bad man in jail."
"H-he told me he was gonna kill me. What if he breaks out of jail and kills me, daddy?" She sobbed.
"Oh, Lizzie, come here honey." Elliot held her close to him, letting her cry on his shoulder, "that will never happen, I promise. Okay?"
She sniffed. Her emotional moment was over, and she wiped the tears from her eyes. "Okay, daddy." she tried putting on a brave face.
"Ready to have a good day?"
"Yes," she said, smiling, "race you to the front door!"