This is a story that came to me when I was listening to "Chasin' Girls" from Rodney Atkins' new CD…

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters you recognize nor do I own the song…

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As he sat on his front porch watching his grandchildren, he smiled. His oldest grandchild, Ryan, was 10 and chasing the neighbor, Kristina, around the yard with the hose. He thought back to his own childhood when he had done the same thing to his neighbor. What Ryan didn't know was that Elliot ended up marrying the girl he was chasing.

"What are you smiling about?" his wife asked, as she sat down next to him on the porch swing.

"Just thinking about how you and I got started. And how Ryan would probably gag if he knew it was just like that," he pointed to the child as he explained what was on his mind.

She smiled, "I remember that." She laid her head on his shoulder and he laid his head on hers. Just by looking, one could tell that both were lost in some distant memory.

**Flashback**

It started out
Summer fun
Chasin' Ally Brooke with a water gun
She'd laugh
And she'd scream
She'd run and say 'You can't catch me!'

Sneaking around the side of the house, Elliot held his water gun at the ready position. If he was a bit older and the gun held bullets, one would think he was a cop trying to scope out a suspect. He grinned as he saw his target and began to creep up behind her. He stepped on a stick at the last minute and Olivia turned around.

Her eyes got really wide and she began to run away from him. Not to be outdone, Elliot started to run after her and shooting water at her at the same time. Olivia ran across the yard laughing at him.

"You can't catch me!" she yelled and began to run faster. Elliot tried, but never did catch up to her until he finally put the water gun down.

Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson where 10 year olds who lived next to one another in Queens and had been friends since before either could remember. Elliot lived with his parents and 5 brothers and sisters. Olivia lived to the right of his house with just her mom. The two had always been friends, and their moms were convinced that one day the two would get married.

Well time passed, I turned sixteen
Cruisin' from the Sonic to the Dairy Queen, yeah
Runnin' the roads we ruled like kings
We'd say 'Here comes Ally with her hot friends,
They got water balloons in their hands,
Aw man they got me now lets get them…'

Chasin' girls
What a life
Man I love them
Can't get enough of them
From their toes up to their curls
Chasin' girls
Hard to catch
Sweet to hold
Even tougher to let them go
Nothin' like it in the whole wide world
Chasin' girls

When Elliot turned sixteen he bought himself a small pick-up truck and started crusin' the neighborhood with his teammates. He was on the varsity baseball team, as a sophomore, at Queens High.

They were hanging out at the Sonic when Chase, Elliot's best friend, saw a group of girls coming up the sidewalk.

"Oh man, here comes Liv and her hot friends," he said, speaking of Alex, Alex and Casey, Olivia's best friends.

Elliot turned and saw that Liv, the only one in the group he thought was hot, and then noticed her hands weren't empty. She was coming towards them, but too late did he realize that what they were carrying were water balloons. The four guys, Elliot and Chase and their teammates Tony and Jordan, were soaked before they could react.

Elliot smirked at Olivia and jumped from his chair, "Let's get'em boys!"

The girls squealed, laughed and ran back from where they came.

Caught Ally Brooke
And that was that
Bought a bungalow on a cul-de-sac, yeah
Settled in and I knew
My girl-chasin' days were through

Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson had started dating when they were seventeen. The two had finally given in to what everyone had already seen, and gave each other a chance. That day was six years ago. They had graduated high school together and then gone off to college, also together.

Elliot proposed the night before their college graduation, and Olivia immediately said yes. They had a rather short engagement and were married only two months later. They now lived in a nice neighborhood in Queens, close to the one that introduced them long ago.

Elliot turned to Olivia after having felt her hit his shoulder, "What was that for?"

"You were looking at that blonde. I just thought you should remember who you are married to."

"Liv, you are my one and only. I love you and only you. My girl chasin' days were over the minute we agreed to give dating a try."

Olivia smiled and kissed him on the cheek, "I love you too El. You know I trust you."

Until she handed me an EPT
I said 'Tell me what this blue strip means Al'
Well that was then and now our twins are three
And it's 'Who left the popsicle on the couch?'
'Don't let that dog lick you in the mouth!'
Up and down all around this house
And right back to where I started out

Chasin' girls
What a life
Man I love them
Can't get enough of them
From their toes up to their curls
Chasin' girls
Hard to catch
Sweet to hold
Even tougher to let them go
Nothin' like it in the whole wide world
Chasin' girls

Three and a half years ago Elliot had told Olivia that his girl chasin' days were over. What he never counted on was that those days would come back. He smiled as he watched his twin terrors, Elyse and Cameron, run across the yard. He vowed to himself that he would chase them around and love them for the rest of his life.

"Hey, hey, hey…don't let Rocco lick you in the mouth Elyse!" he yelled as he watched the girls play with their black lab.

"Girls!" he heard his wife call from the sliding glass door, "Who left their popsicle on the couch?"

Both girls bowed their heads, but neither spoke up. They wouldn't rat each other out and both parents knew that. They also came to the terms with the fact that they would never know who did what most of the time.

Last night I had a nightmare
The future was now here
My little girls were in their teens
And then these teenage boys appeared
Oh no… yeah

Elliot shot up in bed covered in a cold sweat. He had just had the worst nightmare he has ever had, and that is saying a lot with what he does everyday.

"El? You okay?" his wife asks sleepily.

He rubs his eyes and sighs, "Yeah. Just had a bed dream."

She puts her arm around his stomach and almost immediately retracts it because of the dampness of his shirt, "That must have been some dream for you to be that wet. Want to tell me about it?" she asks as she gets up to retrieve a new shirt for him.

"Not really, but I will. Don't laugh."

"Why would I laugh at your bad dream?"

"Well, it wasn't a nightmare in the sense of ghosts, monsters or being chased by gorilla sized chihuahuas dressed like clowns, but a real life nightmare." He glanced up at her, "Hey! You said you wouldn't laugh!" he said when he saw the smirk on her face.

"I said I wouldn't laugh at your dream, not the descriptions of what your dream wasn't."

He shook his head and sighed, "I had a nightmare about when Elyse and Cameron are older and teenage boys start coming around. I know that they will all be just like I was at that age, so I know what will be gong through their heads. I can't take that Liv, I can't just watch that happen to them."

Olivia smiled, "Honey, they are only three. It's going to be at least another thirteen years before that happens. You will have time to teach them what to look for and they will be smart young women who will make good choices in boys. I promise."

He sighed once again, "Okay."

Chasin' girls
Hard to catch
Sweet to hold
Even tougher to let them go
Nothin' like it in the whole wide world
Chasin' girls

Ooooooooh
Chasin' girls
Ooooooooh

Woo

**End Flashback**

"Grandpa! Grandpa!" Elliot was knocked from his thoughts by the shouts of his six year old granddaughter, Sammie.

He smiled and picked the girl up into his lap, after Liv moved off his side, "What can I do for you Sweetie?" he asked her.

"Ryan was chasing me with the hose when he couldn't catch Krissy," she complained, using her nickname for their neighbor.

Elliot grinned at the child and pulled her closer to his body, "Well, you just sit with Grandpa and I will protect you from Ryan."

"Okay," she said as she curled up into him and lightly drifted off to sleep.

Olivia smiled at the sight before her, "I love you El."

Elliot smirked and leaned over for a kiss, "I love you too."

Olivia then laid her head back on his shoulder carefully as not to disturb Sammie. Elliot extracted one arm and wrapped it around her shoulders. He smiled again and look toward the beautiful blue sky…

'Thanks you God for bringing Olivia into my life. I don't know where I would be without her. Oh, and thanks for the watergun."

…he chuckled as he finished and went back to thinking about the past, the present and everything the future will hold.

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