Title: Dinner Party

Author: ZombieJazz

Fandom: Law & Order: SVU

Disclaimer: I don't own them. Law and Order SVU and its characters belong to Dick Wolf. The characters of Will and Noah have been created and developed for the sake of this AU series.

Summary: Olivia and her family invite Cargen and his new lady friend over for dinner. This is a recast of the dinner party scene in Rapist Anonymous episode of Season. It is set in the Olivia/Will/Noah AU and would take place following the Her Negotiation story of that series.

"That will be them," Olivia said over her shoulder as she finished putting the last of the plates onto the table.

"They got up here quick," Will responded from the kitchen counter and pulled on the faucet, running his hands under the water and rather loudly shaking the surplus off before drying his hands and following behind her towards the door.

Olivia offered a smile as soon as she pulled the apartment door open and found her captain and his new lady friend that he'd seemed to rather hesitantly agree to bringing over for dinner. Cragen looked almost as awkward and nervous as she felt. But Olivia hoped she was doing a better job hiding it than him.

"Hi," she greeted genuinely. "Welcome," she said and held the door open more, as Will took over the weight of it with his arrival in their small foyer.

"Ah, thank you for having us," Cragen said as he sort of gestured to let his lady friend enter first. "This is Eileen," he said. "Switzer."

The woman was a bit of a mouse of a woman. A wispy brunette. But there also seemed to be a quiet dignity about her. She seemed a little intimidated by the introduction and the situation too – though she might not have looked quite as nervous as Cragen did.

As the woman started to unbutton her jacket, showing off her colorful blouse that appeared both artsy and 60-something woman all wrapped up into one, Olivia suddenly came to the realization that she was the only one wearing any color. Her and Will might as well have dressed for a funeral. They were both in black. That was partially her fault. Will had come out of the bedroom dressed in a pair of cords and one of his 'dressier' tshirts when she'd taken him back in and laid out a supposedly more mature set of clothing for their rather intimate dinner party. Apparently, though, black was her preferred color of the evening. She thought that might actually say a lot about where their minds were at. What was supposed to be a quiet celebration of their new home and new beginnings and they were dressed like death. But what might've said more about where everyone knew they were at was that Cragen had arrived in a black blazer too.

"Olivia," she provided though, without a commentary on anyone's attire, jutting out her hand in continued greeting. "This is my husband, Will," she gestured as she finished the not quite-firm-enough shake with the other woman.

"Hi," Will greeted and shook the woman's hand and then held his hand out to Cragen. "Captain," he nodded.

There was a click to one of the doors off their hallway and Olivia glanced over her shoulder to see Noah peaking out. He still had a toothbrush hanging out of the side of his mouth, as he eyed them through the crack. She offered him a smile and waved at him.

"Come say 'hello', sweets," she encouraged.

He still squinted at them from the crack for several seconds before pulling the bathroom door open the rest of the way and padding out in his pajamas, the toothbrush still clutched in his one hand. He decided to play shy, though, and leaned against his mother while he continued to eye up their arrivals.

"This is our son, Noah," Olivia introduced. "Can you be polite and say 'hello' to Captain Cragen's friend Eileen, please, Noah?"

"Hello," Noah offered quietly.

"Hello Noah," the woman offered back to him with a kind smile. "It's nice to meet you."

Noah didn't provide any further response to her and instead turned his attention to the Captain. "Is she your girlfriend?" he asked bluntly.

Olivia looked down at him and hushed him loudly. "Noah," she said sternly. "That's very rude. Eileen was just introduced as the Captain's friend."

Her son looked at her with innocent eyes. "But Mom," he said without any sort of apology in his voice, "you and Dad were friends and then you were boyfriend-girlfriend and then you got engaged and then you got married and then you were husband and wife and then you were Mom and Dad. And they are way older then you so maybe they are boyfriend-girlfriend at least."

She gaped at him a moment and then shook her head. "OK. Well, thank you for that explanation of the evolution of relationships, Noah," she said and gave their guests an apologetic look. "Please go finish brushing your teeth?"

He gave her a shrug and eyed the older couple for a few more seconds before turning on his heel and heading back to the bathroom.

"I'm sorry," Olivia said. "It's past his bedtime," she added, like it was any sort of explanation.

Eileen just gave her another soft smile, though. "It's OK," she said. "It's always out of the mouth of babes, isn't it?"

Olivia tried to return the smile but what she was really feeling was slightly embarrassed. Her son usually wasn't that rude. But they also hadn't had much interaction with people lately and all their social skills had suffered for it – as was apparent in her and Will's bumbling at welcoming their guests.

"Umm," Cragen stuttered again the foyer of his own accord, "we brought you a bottle from a winery Eileen supports. They use …" he looked at her.

"Biodynamical grown grapes," she finished for him.

Olivia took the bottle that was being held out by Cragen but looked to Will in her own brief stutter. She wasn't sure how to go about this. She didn't want to come across as rude but she also didn't want to wade too far into their family's recovery process with a stranger. She had told Cragen not to bring anything. She hadn't considered that he'd ignore that request or that his guest would bring a hostess offering. She really hadn't considered that it would be alcohol that her AA captain would potentially be handing her.

"Ah … " she stuttered, still eyeing Will. She could feel the Captain's eyes on her at that moment too and knew that things had just become awkward before they'd even managed to move beyond the awkwardness of the entire dinner party.

They'd never had Cragen over to their home before. Ever. The only time he'd come close to it was their wedding – and he'd appeared just as awkward and unsure about his presence there as he did now in their apartment. Olivia actually thought that this should probably feel more awkward. Cragen knew too much about what had happened and what had been going on in her life in the past several months. He knew that she and her family were trying to restart and trying to find their feet. That this apartment was part of that and that the invitation to him to join them for dinner was a big effort on her part. Beyond Will's family, he was the first person they were letting into their new home. But he had been so supportive in these early stages of her journey to try to reclaim some sort of normalcy. He seemed like the right person to have over – and really he was one of the only people she thought they'd trust in their home at that point too. They were still being cautious about who they let see glimpses of their home life and even more cautious about how they actually allowed access to their home – as was evident by their new apartment in a secure building with a doormen and cameras and an alarm system. None of it was fool-proof but it was better than what they'd had before and that helped them find at least a little bit of sleep at night. For the tiny segments of interrupted sleep that any of them achieved anymore.

She rubbed at her eyebrow for a moment and then tried to offer a smile. She hated to be adding to the rudeness just exhibited by her son by now turning down the party favor.

"This really does look like a beautiful bottle of wine," she said carefully, "but Will and I actually aren't really drinking these days. We'd hate for you to waste something this nice on us."

She could see Cragen looking embarrassed again – for her, for himself, for his invitee. Olivia felt bad and glanced again at Will. He gave her a reassuring thin smile that said he probably wouldn't have handled it any better. She inwardly sighed, though. It hadn't felt good saying it.

"Oh," Eileen said and her face had fallen a little. "I'm sorry," she offered, "I didn't realize."

Olivia tried to shrug and held the bottle back outward. "There's no need for apologies. We really do appreciate the thought."

Cragen took it back and Eileen then held out what she had clutched in her hands instead.

"Well, I brought dessert too," she said, "but Don warned me Will is health-conscious. So I won't be offended if you aren't able to enjoy it either."

Will gave her a smile at that and happily took the pie tin from her. "Oh, I'm not that health-conscious," he said and handed the tray to Olivia.

"If this is anywhere near as good as your preserves, I can guarantee the rest of us will have trouble getting a slice before he's finished the whole pie off himself," she said.

"It's because she never bakes for me," Will teased. "I have to stockpile when the getting's good." Olivia rolled her eyes at him but Will was ignoring her. "Here, let me take your coats," he said and held out his hand.

Cragen near immediately draped his across Will's arm and then followed after Olivia as she made her way back to the kitchen to deposit the pie.

"Olivia," he said quietly as they reached the counter. "I'm sorry. I should've told her it was inappropriate to bring the wine."

Olivia shook her head. "You really don't need to apologize. I'm sorry if we embarrassed her … or you. I just … didn't want to insult her by not opening the bottle tonight or by her being the only one drinking from it."

"I thought I'd seen you and Will with a glass at John's retirement so when Eileen suggested bringing the bottle, I just thought it would be nice," Cragen admitted, still sounding embarrassed.

She shrugged. "We had tried a drink there," she agreed. "We decided we're going to take a longer break from it."

The reality was that she half ways expected that the longer break from alcohol might end up as permanent abstinence. She thought she might be OK with wine. But she hadn't been. One sip and she'd set it aside. Really the whole smell of the bar and the wafting of the alcohol in everyone else's glasses had been a little much. She couldn't stand the taste. She couldn't stand the smell. It was even worse when she'd kissed Will later in the evening and the alcohol was still lingering on his lips, his tongue, his breath. It was more than she could take. So for now – maybe for always – she was forgoing it, and Will had agreed to as well. He didn't want to smell or taste like something (or someone) that was connected to such a horrifying ordeal. But they'd tried to joke that it was just better since Will could barely tolerate a single drink before he got buzzed. Neither of needed that. Olivia actually never wanted that buzzed feeling of incapacity and lack of control again – in any of their lives.

Cragen gave her a sad look but made no comment. He hadn't been pressing her on much of any of it. He'd only advised that she take her time. That had been about the most he'd said. She appreciated that. Still, some of his looks at time said more than he ever vocally needed to. She knew he had regret and guilt in him. She didn't want him to. But she didn't know how to have that conversation with him. She hoped maybe having him and his new lady friend over, though, might open some conversation with them before his retirement or at least help elevate some of the guilt she saw in him. She wanted him to know she and her family were trying to be OK and she wanted to get an idea that he was going to be OK when SVU and the NYPD were no longer a part of his life too.

"Ah…", he seemed to try to change topics, having clearly long past grown uncomfortable with the topic of the wine and her and Will's abstinent from alcohol. But he again looked embarrassed and held up a gift bag. "I brought a small house warming gift for Noah," he said. "I hope that's OK?"

Olivia didn't have a chance to answer, though. Noah had spectacular timing and had re-emerged from having brushed his teeth, wandering his way up behind Cragen unnoticed.

"You brought me something?" Noah blurted excitedly.

The Captain glanced over his shoulder and again looked embarrassed by the circumstances. Still, he gave her a look, again asking for permission. But Olivia just nodded. If she'd had another second, she would've told him that he really hadn't needed to bring her son anything. That wasn't going to happen now, though.

The Captain handed the bag over to Noah. "I thought you could use a new toy for your new room," he said kindly.

Noah looked excitedly into the bag and pulled out some tissue bag before dropping the bag to the ground and holding up a small boxed remote control helicopter.

"COOL!" he declared and held it up at her to see.

She gave him a small smile and directed the same to the Captain. "What do you say?" she reminded her son.

"Thank you," Noah said loudly but was already turning around and near running to Will. "Daddy, look what Captain Cragen brought me."

"Oh, wow," Will said taking the box from their little boy and examining it himself.

Olivia shook her head and rolled her eyes. She was pretty sure she just lost her help finishing up dinner – and Eileen seemed to notice. The older woman was already headed for the kitchen to join her.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" she offered.

Olivia looked at what they still had in a state of preparation on the counter. They were running behind schedule – as usual – before the arrival of their guests.

"I think I've got it about under control," she offered as a white lie and Eileen just gave her a small smile. Olivia, though, was still rolling her eyes at Will, who was now trying to work at extracting the helicopter out of the box for Noah who was doing it best to get it out of his dad's hand before he completed the job. "I bet the Captain neglected to mention I have two boys, not one," she said with a gesture into the living area.

Eileen just smiled and offered her own nod to where Cragen had joined Will and Noah and was digging through the discarded gift bag and telling them that he'd brought batteries as well. "I don't know," she said. "I got the impression on the way over that Don was looking forward to getting a chance to play with it too."