Law and Order: SVU is the intellectual property of Dick Wolf. The use of the characters, settings, and plotlines is not malicious. This is a work of fiction.

"Here," Kathleen Stabler said through a yawn, thrusting a hand out toward the brunette next to her.

Olivia took the coffee with a smile, bringing it to her lips and humming in exhausted appreciation. "Thanks," she said.

Kathleen brushed her long, blonde hair back with her now-free hand, and she looked at Olivia with a grin. "Quite the basketful of goodies, ya got there, Liv."

"Stop fishing," Olivia chuckled. "Your gifts have already been wrapped. These are..."

"For Dad," Maureen, another Stabler teen, said from behind Olivia. "Right?"

"Kind of," Olivia sighed. "Look, you guys have been through a lot, and this stuff...it isn't exactly for Christmas. Most of it will be opened and put away today." She shrugged. "I'm just...taking advantage of sales while I can. I'm a cop, living in Manhattan. I don't exactly have a ton of money to blow on..."

"Wait," Maureen said, interrupting Olivia and shoving a hand into the red shopping cart. She moved a few boxes around and looked up at Olivia, a smile on her face but tears in her eyes. "You're...Liv, you don't have to..."

"If I don't," Olivia said, cutting the sixteen year old off, "You know it wouldn't get done. Not anytime soon." She sipped her coffee and pushed her cart as the line moved. "Oh, we're next, Thank God."

Kathleen laughed. "Thanks for coming with us, by the way," she said, taking a gulp of her own coffee. "I guess, you were probably gonna be out tonight, anyway, but this is a tradition with Maur and me, and the last couple of years..."

"What she means," Maureen broke in, "Is that it hasn't been this much fun. Not in a long time. So thanks for reminding us why we loved Black Friday so much." She folded her arms and smiled. "Same time next year?"

Kathleen chuckled and nudged Olivia with her elbow. "Huh? Huh?"

Olivia rolled her eyes but laughed. "Why not?" she finally agreed, looking from Kathleen to Maureen. She loved the girls like they were her own daughters, and she loved their brother and other sister just as much. Lizzie and Dickie, twelve year old twins, stayed home in bed while the unlikely trio braced the crowds and the cold, and the New York City night, to shop till they dropped. She sighed, then, realizing why she loved the children so much. Why she was at a Target in Queens at two-in-the-morning with a cart-full of appliances and furnishings that were never going to see the inside of her own apartment. Why she didn't give a shit if they did or not. She smiled at Kathleen, took another sip of coffee, and pushed the cart forward again, letting herself fully form the reality of that thought in her head. She was in love with their father.

"I think this was the last place," Kathleen said, using her coffee-less hand to help Olivia and Maureen stack their goods on the register's belt. "We can go home."

"You staying again, tonight, Liv?" Maureen asked, something hopeful in her eyes as she bit her lip.

Olivia saw that fleeting glimmer in the girl's eyes. It made her heart stop, and momentarily, she wondered if her father would look at her the same way, if he would ever be the one asking her to stay. "Well," she sighed, "Someone has to put all this stuff away."

Maureen laughed, dropping the last few things onto the moving conveyor belt. "Okay, Liv," she said, hiding a more mischievous smirk. She knew why Liv would be staying, and she loved her for it. She looked over at her, then, and she softened. "Okay."

Olivia stifled another yawn and looked at Maureen. "How are you guys holding up? Have you talked to your mother? Did she explain..."

Kathleen interrupted her with a snort. "She's called, sent us all a bunch of e-mails and text messages." She tugged awkwardly at her sleeves. "She said she didn't leave us, just Dad. She's talking to a lawyer."

Olivia looked down, and then up at the cashier. Suddenly, words didn't matter so much. There was an uneasy feeling building in the pit of her stomach, her entire body now focused on Kathleen's last words. "Oh. I'm...I'm sorry."

Maureen shrugged. "Don't be. None of this was your fault." She stopped speaking, then, as she saw Olivia, poised to hand the cashier her credit card, without question. "Has he thanked you?" she asked. "I mean...any of us. Have any of us actually said thank you for everything you've done? That you're doing?"

"You don't have to thank me," Olivia said, giving the girl a warm smile. "Knowing you're all safe, and happy...well, as happy as possible given the, uh, circumstances...it's my job to keep you that way, so, please, don't..."

"It's not," Kathleen said, her coffee resting against her lips. "Don't get me wrong, we love you for it, we do. And we know Dad does. But...it's not your job. You don't have to feel oblig..."

"Hey, hey," Olivia said sternly, holding up a finger. "I don't, and you're not an obligation. Sweetie, you're a priority." She wrapped three fingers around the fifteen-year-old's chin, smiling. "Your family is my priority."

Kathleen, looking into Olivia's eyes, seeing how sincere she was, smiled. "And your ours." She smirked and wagged her eyebrows. "And Dad's."

"Okay," Olivia moaned and rolled her eyes, dropping her hand. "You've had too much coffee. Or not enough." She shook her head, swiping her credit card through the machine. She nodded to the young man at the register, and then pushed the red cart, filled with bags, toward the doors.

"Nice going," Maureen hissed at her sister. "I don't think she knows! I mean, I don't even think Dad knows!"

"They know," Kathleen said, rolling her eyes. The sisters followed Olivia out to her car, helped her load the bags, and got into the back seat, hoping the ride back to the house wouldn't be too awkward now.

He rubbed his eyes, annoyed, mumbling his displeasure as he padded barefoot over to the kitchen. He stopped in the archway, staring at Olivia, watching her rearranging things on the counter. "What are you doing?" his scratchy voice called from behind her.

She turned, wide-eyed. "Oh! Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up."

"I was getting up, anyway." He rubbed his eyes again, yawning. "I fell asleep on the couch, I guess I got used to it, but...I'm kinda looking forward to finally getting a good night's sleep in an actual bed." He laughed almost bitterly, but then walked toward her. He saw the glazed look in her eyes. "You okay?"

She nodded, impressed that she had enough control over herself to do so. He was shirtless, wearing a pair of flannel pajama pants, low-slung enough on for her to see distinctive cuts in his muscles, ones that meant there was nothing between the cotton and his bare skin. She knew she was staring at his body as she moved around the kitchen, but she couldn't help it. "I'm good."

He raised an eyebrow. "You just put the milk in the microwave."

She whipped her head over to the black box, cursing under her breath, and pulled the handle. She grabbed the gallon of milk and put it back in the refrigerator, and then turned back toward Elliot. "Being out with the girls all night is catching up to me. I'm...tired." She bit her lip, her eyes catching the carved dip in his hip again.

"Wait..." he scratched his head, realizing something. "We have a microwave." He pointed to the black box, then to Olivia, and back again. "Kathy took the..." and then, his eyes landed on several other items that had been pilfered and pillaged when his wife left the house, left the kids, and left him. "She also took the toaster and the..wait, that's not..." he tapped the top of a new-agey coffee pot with three different sized hot plates, one with the carafe nestled atop it, filled with fresh coffee. "This wasn't like the one we had before," he muttered, and then turned slowly to look at Olivia. "I take a power-nap and you buy half the shit they sell at Best Buy? Including the Viper of coffee pots?"

"It was Target," she said, shrugging and smirking at him. "Besides, the one you had before made your coffee taste like the swill we have to swallow at work. You deserved better."

He shook his head, flummoxed. "That's not what...what else did you do?" He ran out of the kitchen and into his bedroom, flicking the light-switch and looking around. Framed photos of him and his children hung where the ones from his wedding used to live. He smiled, and his gaze fell to the side of the room. The weathered, wicker hamper Kathy had taken with her had been replaced by a taller, broader fabric and wire one, two compartments labeled 'Light Side' and 'Dark Side' with dueling light-sabers embroidered into the cotton. He laughed, covering his mouth with his hand. He took a few steps and headed into the master bathroom, his hand wrapping around the Darth Vader shaped cup on the sink. He noticed the Yoda toothbrush holder and the C3PO soap dispenser, and he couldn't help it. He turned around fast and wrapped his arms around her, squeezing. "Thank you."

She was stunned. Frozen into stillness. Her brain was screaming for her arms to move, to hold him back, hug him as tightly as he was her, but her body refused to cooperate. "El...I...I was just..." she stopped, gasping slightly. feeling his muscles twitch against her. She smirked. One rather large muscle was pressing into her, making her want to wrap more than just her arms around him. "Don't mention it." She finally exhaled and her tingling arms looped around his waist.

He exhaled, pulling her tighter, wishing he knew how to show her how much the seemingly small gestures had meant to him. He pushed back a bit, looked into her eyes, and whispered, "Why?"

She pushed him away completely, raking her nails through her hair as she turned and walked out of his bedroom. She knew he was following, and she talked to him without looking at him. "She took everything that wasn't either too heavy or nailed down. I'm sure, if she could have, she would've ripped the cable out of the walls. I wasn't about to go home, leaving you all here without basic necessities."

"That coffeepot, Liv, is not a basic necessity," he said, folding his arms across his chest as he leaned against the wall.

She didn't even crack a smile. "It is if you want me to be a halfway-decent human being in the morning." She watched him laugh, and the smile she gave him lit up her world. It had been weeks since she'd seen him smile like that, and it sent shivers down her spine, and to other places. "Speaking of, uh, sleeping...you, you, um...you talk in your sleep."

"So do you," he countered, his usually bright eyes darkening as his smile stayed in place. He knew what she was trying to tell him, and he retorted by, in his own way, telling her he didn't care what she heard, because he heard some pretty choice things coming out of her unconscious lips, too.

"Okay, then," she said, her eyes widening, turning away from him. She finished plugging in the freshly unboxed gadgets, and then turned off the kitchen light. "I'll, uh, I'll sleep on the couch, then."

He furrowed his brow and shook hie head, confused. "No, no, you don't...we've been sharing the bed for weeks, and it hasn't..." he reached for her, grabbing her arm. "Unless it's making you uncomfortable. I can...I can take the couch, I told you, I'm used to it."

"I'm not kicking you out of your own bed," she said with a scoff. "It's...look, whatever you heard..."

"And should I ask what gems of wisdom I spout in the middle of the night?" he asked, interrupting. "I know what I dream about, and if I'm saying anything like what...well, then, Detective Benson, you need to arrest me."

She laughed and brushed her hair back, and then she rolled her eyes. She sighed, looked at him, and then her lightheartedness faded. "How could she just..." she bit her lip. "A month before Thanksgiving. Who does that?"

He sighed and rested his right hand on the small of her back, guiding her into the bedroom again. "It's common," he said, matter-of-factly. "Most people end unwanted relationships before Thanksgiving, so they avoid having to deal with family parties, you know, Christmas, New Year's, and of course, Valentine's Day. It saves money, emotional strain, and it saves face. I don't think...no one would have been happy, and the holidays would've sucked. She did us all a favor, because now, we get to enjoy them, right?"

Olivia exhaled slowly again, pulling the decorative pillows off of the bed and throwing them onto the chair near the door. "It's still a bitch move! I mean, if she wanted to leave, fine, great, Go With God, but to take everything with her...into an apartment she'd already had rented...meaning she planned this," she spat harshly and let out a loud grunt. "I don't cook a lot as it is, but I worked my ass off for the last two days, five side dishes with one pot that I kept having to wash out, a plastic spatula, and a roll of tin foil, so you would all have..."

"Liv, Liv, breathe!" he rested his strong, large hands on her shoulders, feeling them heave under his touch. He saw her nostrils flare and a small vein in the side of her jaw pulse as she clenched and tightened it. "Calm down. Thanksgiving dinner was...the best I can remember having in a long time. For a lot of reasons. I didn't even know you could make mashed potatoes, let alone a twenty-pound turkey, stuffing, and you baked pie."

"I can cook, El," she almost growled. "I don't feel the need to cook entire meals, since it's just me, so I order in. Takeout for one. It's cheaper and makes less of a mess, but it doesn't mean I'm incapable of..."

"Why," he said, covering her mouth with his hand, "Are you yelling?" He bent his head a bit and looked directly into her eyes, a playful but domineering smirk on his face. "I didn't say you couldn't cook, I didn't even say I was surprised that you can. All I said, was that I didn't know." He let his hand fall away from her mouth and rest against the side of her face. "It makes me wonder...what else I don't know about you." He scraped his teeth over his bottom lip, and as he left her go, and walked over to what had become 'his side' of the bed, he smiled. He watched her take a deep breath and then crawl into the bed, pulling the comforter up. He slid in beside her and turned off the light, and then rolled over to look at her, smiling. He had a feeling he would find out everything he didn't know, and more, as long as she would let him.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. And thank you all for reading.

Peace and Love

Jo

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