Authors Note – I am back, we are back! I really hope that some of the loyal readers from way back when I was originally writing this and who wanted and really deserved to finally see it finished are able to read.

I have stripped back the last couple of updates from 'Theirs' as I really wasn't happy with them and the way they were written. I didn't like the tone or the direction I had set and so I want to just do-over and take it back to before that last time jump.

For ease – Calvin and Evie have just had the twins, no further kids. Sophia has not made a reappearance.

I am hoping that everything else fits timeline and tone wise. I have re-read everything I had written previously and really tried to reimmerse myself with the characters and this little alternative reality so I hope that you enjoy reading. The previous stories are still out there, should anyone want a refresher, and I am happy to field any questions or fill any gaps!


"You are and will forever be the single most breathtakingly beautiful woman ever to walk the earth Olivia Stabler."

"The answer is still no."

"You're funny…." smirked Elliot, tossing his right ankle up onto his left knee and shrugging deeper into the hospital chair in which he was sat. "I'm serious though, not about the motorbike. You win there, I'm an old man and I don't need any help with rapid aging."

"Thank God that battle is finally over."

"You're taking my kidney though. I'm not even close to quitting that battle. It's war, Liv. You're having the operation come hell or high water, even if I have to knock you out and drag you in there."

"Wow, well, that's quite the statement Detective Stabler….." flashing a lopsided smile Olivia laughed, "… and probably not one that you want to toss around in earshot of anyone who isn't bound by spousal privilege."

"You half assing our golden years just isn't in the plans. I need you strong, healthy. I need you running around after our grandbabies. I need you at my side. That's how it's always been…." reaching out a flat, open palm for hers Elliot sighed, "… and I don't plan on that changing. Not now, not ever."

"I know, I know and I agree I do…."

"We're partners Olivia…." as she lay her palm on top of his he squeezed her hand tight, "…. that needs both of us to work."

"It's a risk, potentially a big one. You get that right?"

"No, no what I get is that not having the transplant. That's a bigger risk. That's a risk I'm not willing to take and you shouldn't be either. That's not who you are."

"Oh no, no you don't get to do that. It's clever, it's real smart of you to go there but it isn't fair."

"The kids agree with me. You're not the lie down and take it kind. You've stood up again and again and again to give people a second shot, a second chance at living their life. To stop something or someone taking it from them. Stand up now, Liv. Stand up and give yourself the best possible shot at being your old self again."

"I am tired of being tired."

"So is that a yes? You'll do it?"

"Having Evie and the babies back in New York this past month, getting to see their little family growing up, I don't want miss it El. Texas and Leni, Calvin and Fin and….." the words caught in her throat as she looked away, letting a curtain of bangs fall in her face and hide the tears welling in her eyes Olivia paused. "There is so much that I want to be a part of. I don't want to sit on the side lines. I don't want to miss….." turning back to him she choked, "… even a second of any of it."

"You won't, you won't Olivia…." sliding from his seat he knelt beside her chair as the dialysis machine gurgled on mutedly beside her, "… because we need you, all of us. Every single one of us."

"And I need all of you."

"So you'll put in for the transplant?"

"I have the family and the life I dreamed about El….." closing her eyes and letting tears escape with a relieved sigh she finally decided, "… so yes, yes I'll gratefully accept your kidney. I'll have the transplant."


"I think he's doing the right thing."

"Evie be careful, just go easy on your brother okay. I know you've got a lot of love and a lot of opinions about his relationship with Leah, and this decision he's making but…."

"But he knows I've never been her biggest fan?" offered Eve, wrapping her lips around the giant straw in her smoothie and taking a long gurgling sip. "I know."

"I just think it's kinder to give him a little room to breathe on this one. He knows you're on board, he knows what you think."

"It's kinda gonna sound like 'I told you so' right?" she smiled, a little sad to realise it. Though so often she had insight into her brother's mind, his hidden heart, it had often got her into trouble and she suspected that Olivia was right. "Mom can I ask you a question?"

"Always."

"Do you think he's planning this whole travelling thing for the right reasons? I guess I'm just scared he's running away. What if he comes back and just starts seeing her all over again? What if this is just another one of Sam's long and drawn out meltdowns where he winds up right back at the same place all over again?"

"Then that's what'll happen and we just keep being there for him."

"I just want him to figure out what he wants. He's not a kid anymore. It's been so long with him just being so lost and wandering from one thing or one girl to another without…."

"Evie you can't judge everyone by your standards. He's not like you. He's never been like you. You are cut from the same cloth but you're as different as two souls can be."

"I've missed this Momma."

"What? Me winding your neck back in?" quipped Olivia, slurping at her coffee and then pressing a tender kiss against CJ's head as he bounced in her lap.

"Getting coffee, hanging out, talking to you over a table not over a Skype connection."

"I've missed it too, baby girl."

"I guess I'm not so much of a baby anymore, huh?" laughed Eve, leaning down to pop Livi's pacifier back into her mouth as she sat contend in her buggy. "I've got my own babies now."

"One thing you'll learn sweetie, is that they're always your babies. No matter where they go, what they do, how old they get. It never changes, you never stop wanting to keep them close and protect them."

"Sammy will be just fine Mom, he will."

"I know, I know that, I still worry about you both though. It's my job, remember? What about you anyway?" though her ponytail still swung with the same gay cheer and her face was still that of a teenager the years hadn't always been kind to Evie Grace. Olivia felt sometimes as though no matter how strong she was there was a darkness chasing at her, the past she'd fought so bravely through was just a few steps behind her and it battled her light. "You still happy down at Fort Bragg?"

"Happier now Cal's home."

"Of course."

"It's good, it's great. I have Jules and a tonne of other friends, I get visitors sometimes. It's a good life."

"Evie…." tested Olivia, narrowing her eyes and pushing, "… you sure?"

"Cal isn't the same boy that enlisted. The tours aren't easy, the separation, the readjustment when he gets home. I'm not saying it's perfect. I'm not saying I want it forever. But Mom have you seen him? Have you seen how good he's doing?"

"I know coming home this last time was hard on him. It took a while for him to land fully, but yeah, yeah he seems great now."

"He's better than great. He's focused, and he's talking about the future and he walks tall. He's taller in that uniform Momma. It's like for the first time in his life he fits his own skin. He's a husband and he's an amazing father and he's a soldier and when he talks about those things to people he just lights up."

"Oh Evie…."

"I know…." they both took a moment to just laugh at themselves. Of all the things that they shared, one was a profound love for Calvin that knew no limits of depth or strength. Cuddling CJ closer to her chest Olivia felt her eyes fill with joy as Evie added, "It's like he's finally stopped apologising for just being him."


"My Dad is watching Elena for a couple of hours."

"Oh really?" breezed Texas casually, strewing laundry across the radiator and barely looking up as Gil entered their kitchen through the back door. "How come?"

"We need to talk."

"We do?" with a bright smile she turned around, but it soon faded as she saw the look on his eyes and the apology for what he was about to say written all over his face. "About what?"

"Oh Texas…." sighed Gil, taking a seat at the kitchen table and dropping his head in his hands. "I wish I didn't feel like this. I wish it was different. All of it; believe me. I wish that I could just wake up one morning and it be gone, this weight that's sitting on my chest."

"Gil…."

"No, no please just let me talk. I've been going over and over this in my mind. Lying awake trying to pin point the exact moment, the week, the day, the conversation where it all went wrong. Where we lost it, you know?"

"No, no I don't know but all I do know is that…."

"I know you love Elena, and that won't ever change. We're family and we were the moment that beautiful little girl was born but…."

"Just say it."

"It's not working Texas. This, us, our relationship, it's…."

"You're still angry about Johnny."

"That you slept with another man? You think!" he was furious, blind mad at her and she had known it for a long time. She had just tried painfully hard to convince herself that he understood the complexities of the situation well enough to forgive even if he couldn't forget. "But it isn't even just about that. We're different, so different, and at first I thought that was a good thing. We complimented each other. In reality we just don't agree, on anything, and some of those anythings are everything and that's when I realised that…."

"Fine."

"Tex…."

"You can pretend all you like Gil. You can lie through your teeth and tell me that it's because I'm opinionated, or I'm stubborn, or I don't like some of your politics or your City friends. It's bull. It's pretending. The truth is that you liked the idea of where I came from, who I became despite of it. The idea of what I have overcome. Just not the reality, huh, mi amor?"

"That isn't true, it isn't, I….."

"You're like the guy in the expensive suit that rescues a mongrel from the pound, and then acts surprised when it eats the couch." Gil smiled, not because any of it hurt less, but because her expressions and her still thick accent made some of the sentences that came out of her mouth painfully adorable.

"You're not a dog, Texas."

"Just Johnny Arliss' bitch, right?"

"I love you, I will always care more about you that you will ever…." rising from his chair he moved to be closer to her. Texas stepped further away. "Please don't do this, please let's try to hold onto something. The good in us?"

"As it turns out….." he would not get her tears, not now, not while she had so few cards left in her hands, "… as it turns out Gil there really is only one good is us."

"Elena."

"Have you thought about her?" she asked coldly, "Have you even thought about how this will affect our daughter?"

"Of course, of course I have and I think for now we change as little as possible for her. I'll take the couch until we figure out what the next steps are going to be and then whatever we decide it'll be with her best interests at heart."

"Fine, fine, well it sounds like you have it all sorted."

"Honey…."

"No, na-ah, don't 'honey' me….." wagging an index finger of fury and indignation Texas hissed, ".. don't you ever 'honey' me again."


"Now there's a sight for sore eyes."

"It's only been a few days!"

"You know it might have escaped your notice but I'm strangely fond of you Calvin Arliss."

"Huh, is that a fact…." sloping across the Stabler lawn, scuffing feet and that same old lopsided smile Calvin threw his arms around Olivia and kissed her cheek, "…. good to see you too."

"I know I'm not the only one living in the constant fear that they're gonna take you away from us again."

"Don't you start!" he laughed, a light beard having grown while he'd been home on leave. "Bambi never quits with the same thinly veiled question of when I'm going back to Bragg. Like it's a death sentence or something."

"Cal!" she said sharply, pausing in her rearranging of the outdoor plants to look him more closely in the face. "Where did that come from?"

"Sorry, sorry I didn't mean it come out like that." He'd still said it though, and she sensed something was unsettled inside him.

Deciding evasive action might be called for Olivia took a seat on the porch step and patted the place beside her, "Come on, sit down, no arguments. Take a pew and unpack whatever it is that you're carrying around with you."

"She belongs here, Livia."

"Oh sweetheart…." reaching to his shoulder she gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"We have a good life down at Bragg, we do. The house is great, having a yard is awesome. There's space to raise the twins. We've got friends down there, she's got friends, she goes places and does things. It's fine, it's great, it's a good life."

"And yet you sound so sad?" dipping her head, catching his faraway eyes she waited patiently for him to open up further.

"It's not her life. It's not the right life for Evie. It was fine for a while but…." shaking his head, running a hand thorough his hair and heaving a loaded sigh Calvin confessed, "… she belongs here."

"Honest to God truth, honey, she hasn't said that to me. She hasn't even come close."

"Doesn't mean it isn't true though."

"And what about you, love? How do you feel about it? What's the 'right life' for Calvin?"

"One where she's completely happy."

"You're wonderful…." reaching out with both hands Olivia cupped his face, squashing at his cheeks slightly and laughing, "… but that's not a good enough answer."

"I'm a good soldier. I do well in that world. I feel like I have a purpose, like what I do has….." it was more than he would say to most people, maybe even Eve if he was honest, but Calvin, "… meaning."

"Which is no small thing."

"I'm a father now, Livia. I have two kids who depend on me to feed them and clothe them and keep a roof over their heads. The life I want is one where I do all that, constantly, consistently. I can't mess this up, not even for a second."

"You wanna know what I think?" she asked, and his eyes replied always. He set more store by her opinion than any other on the planet. "I think that wherever you go and whatever you do you will find a way to give CJ and Livi all of those things and more. I don't doubt that for a second."

"Humph."

"Talk to Evie. Figure out what the two of you want; figure out what's most important. I don't want to put words into her mouth but I have a feeling if you asked her, she'd say she belongs wherever you are, sweetie."

"I just don't want her to have any regrets, that's all."

"Calvin?"

"Yeah?"

"One day, many years from now, when that tiny little girl of yours starts dating boys….."

"Not gonna happen."

"When she does…"

"No, nope, no m'am. I know boys, I am a boy, and I know what they think and all they think. My girl is going to have school and college and a career and maybe after all that, sometime around 45, she can maybe go on a date or something. Only if I get to meet him first, punch him a little, see if he gets back up."

"You're funny….." and then heart aching with love for men Olivia grinned, "… you're also Elliot, you do realise?"

"I'd take a bullet for all of them all three of them Livia."

"I know you would….." pulling him into a warm hug she added tenderly, "… and for me too, which I know because you proved it: literally."

"I just want her to be happy, that's all. I'm not being a martyr, it's what I want. Seeing her happy, makes me happy, that's the right life for me."

"One day, many years from now, when that tiny little girl of yours starts dating boys….." holding him at arm's length Olivia spoke slowly, deliberately, unequivocally, "… you will understand the power and the beauty of what you just said. I just hope you get as lucky as we did when Evie met you."