Title: A Complicated State of Happiness
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 his family) and Noah have been created and developed for the sake of this AU series.
Summary: With her son now two, Olivia moves into a new condo where she has a friendly but geeky neighbour. She continues to navigate being a single mom and her work - while now also trying to find her place in a new neighbourhood and figure out what she thinks of and wants from this Will guy.
Author's Notes: This AU series is for SVU fans and readers who want Olivia to have something that resembles a more normal life outside of work and a family of her own - hopefully somewhat realistically within the canon of SVU. Her relationship with Elliot is that of partner and protective older brother and colleague. It won't devolve from that - they aren't ever going to get together in this series. If you're an E/O shipper, you likely won't enjoy these stories. The timeline is a little loose and since most of the stories ultimately takes place outside of the work environment, there aren't too many references to cases from the show. But this series would generally be starting in about Season 10/11 of the show. Please let me know what you think and if you distribute elsewhere.
She put her hand out to keep Noah to the side while Elliot and Dickie maneuvered her sofa to get it through the door of her new condo.
She'd put off getting out of her one bedroom rental apartment as long as she could before it just reached the point of absurdity. Living with a two-year-old in her small place had become ridiculous. Though she knew getting me-time wasn't likely to happen again for another about 16 years, she was at least hoping the upgrade would mean occasionally having some of her own personal space. At least she'd get her own bedroom and more space to store his slew of toys.
She'd managed to talk Elliot into enlisting the help of Dickie and Lizzie with the promise of some extra pocket money for the teens. Munch had overheard the conversation and also volunteered his Saturday. She was starting to regret accepting that offer, as John brought up conspiracy theories upon seeing the boxes of Noah's new bedroom set that needed to be put together. She apparently had reason to be concerned about buying anything from the Swedes and anything containing the chemicals used in press together the wood in such "cheap" furniture. She wasn't sure she agreed with him on the cheap furniture part – or any other part of his rant. But he was good with Noah, and had been since the first time she'd brought him into the precinct. She never would've pegged John as a baby person but he'd been the first in the bullpen to greet the infant and had asked to hold him and babbled at him. Noah had seemed fascinated with him ever since.
They'd actually managed to make fairly quick work of the move so far. She'd made sure everything that could be in a box had been – and beyond that she really didn't have a lot of furniture. And, despite John's rant about her IKEA purchases, Elliot had seemed to feel they'd be able to screw the pieces of plywood together in short order once they got started on it.
She heard some movement behind her and glanced back from the door to see a man coming out of the next door condo. He was tall and fit looking – but in an almost too thin kind of way. He wore cords that were riding a little too low and sagging in the back – as he adjusted his messenger bag to lock the door she saw his shirt lift up slightly and could see the waist of plaid boxers. He wore a ratty looking cardigan and a faded Batman tshirt. She thought he looked just a little bit too hipster – especially for someone his age. She figured he was a few years her junior – but couldn't have been any younger than maybe 34.
He glanced up as he finished putting his keys away and gave her a small smile. He walked over. She thought he was just going to do the typical New Yorker and walk by on his way to the elevator. But he stopped and kind of awkwardly held up his hand.
"Hey," he said and smiled again.
It suddenly clicked that he reminded her of Leonard on the Big Bang Theory – only taller. Then felt silly that she watched the show enough that she actually knew that. This is what my life has become, she though, home watching sitcoms at 8 p.m. on a week night.
A comic geek neighbour, this should be interesting. Hopefully he doesn't have Sheldon as a roommate - and hopefully he isn't a comic per.
She'd done a careful check on the community and the building before signing the lease. There'd been some rapes in the area over the past year but only one murder – and no sex offenders were showing up as living in the building, or any of the surrounding ones. And it had been near a park, transit, a library, pharmacy and a grocery store. It seemed like it would be an OK place to raise her son, at least for the next few years until they needed even more space – if she could afford that.
Raising the baby was costing more than she'd imagined, even with Kurt occasionally providing child support. She was still waiting for the paperwork to go through to have his wages garnished. He wasn't happy about it. He felt she was trying to put a blemish on his career and his record of integrity with his readers. She could really care less about what stories he was writing or where he was. The reality was if she wasn't trying to raise a child in New York City, she'd likely do her best to try to forget who Noah's father was. Kurt was clearly trying his damnedest to forget Noah existed.
"Hey," Olivia said, pushing Noah through the door a bit and towards the others.
"Umm, I'm Will," the guy said and stuck out his hand. "I think we're neighbours."
She cautiously took it. "I guess so." She didn't introduce herself.
He noticed. "I'm Will," he said again, in a voice that sounded like he was questioning if he'd managed to get that out before. She was starting to think he didn't really talk to women – or anyone – much.
"Hi, Will," she said.
"Umm, OK," he stumbled and fiddled a bit with the clip on his bag. "Ah, well, I'll let you get back to your move. I just wanted to say hello." He paused. "Welcome," he said in feigned enthusiasm and then just kind of shuffled around Dickie who was coming from the opposite direction with a dolly containing a pile of boxes. Elliot followed behind him, carrying one of her lamps and a duffle that she'd packed linens into. He glanced back to where Will was waiting for the elevator that they didn't have on the service setting. He was shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, still fiddling with his bag, clearly aware he was being stared at.
"What was that?" Elliot nodded.
"I'm not sure," she said. "But he's apparently my new neighbour."
Elliot just grunted.
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