A/N: The first in this years Holiday one-shot series. Love and blessings to everyone.

DISCLAIMER: Dick Wolf owns SVU and all related characters. TStabler owns the following story.

"Maybe a little to the left?" Maureen wondered out loud. "No, the right!"

Dickie let go of the tree and folded his arms, giving his sister a look she'd only seen from her father. "Knock it off!"

Maureen chuckled. "They're gonna be home soon," she shrugged. "I just want it to be...perfect."

Lizzie stared out the window and sighed. "I got a bad feeling," she said, "That maybe they're not gonna make it home today."

Dickie heaved the tree back up into his arms and moved it into the corner. Dropping it with a sigh, he clapped his hands together and said, "Dad promised they'd be home by Christmas Eve." He looked over at his twin sister. "He hasn't broken a promise in a long time. Not since..."

"I know," Lizzie interrupted. "But it's getting bad out there, and we don't know where they are now, how they have to travel to get home. I'm just..."

Kathleen rested a hand on her sister's shoulder. "I know, kiddo. We're all scared."

The Stabler kids gathered around the window, watching the snow fall, hoping that the weather wouldn't keep their father from keeping his promise.

"You guys are out of your mind!" Cragen shouted over the wind. "Please, don't do this! Just wait it out! We can all go home in the..."

"I promised my kids!" Elliot yelled, helping Olivia into the back of a large truck. He grabbed a rail and the inner door handle and pulled himself up, too. Then he turned. "We'll be fine! Just...get our bags home for us, okay? We're gonna be fine!" he assured Cragen, and then he slammed the door.

He backed up and turned, then sat on the side seats, right next to Olivia. He took both of her hands in his and rubbed them together. "You okay?"

She nodded as he brought her hands to his mouth and blew hotly into them. She suddenly felt heat in more than just her hands, and she pulled her hands from his to cup his face. "Are you okay?"

He sighed. "I'm fine," he said, leaning his forehead against hers. "Once we get home, I'll be even better."

His hot breath so close to her lips made her shiver and moan, and she pressed herself further into him, brushing her lips against his.

"Baby, you're freezing," he whispered before kissing her quickly and then aiming a sharp look at the driver. "Hey, Mac, can you put the heat on or something?"

The driver looked over his shoulder. "It's a cargo truck, Detective. It's climate controlled. There are blankets under your seat, though. Don't mind the smell. We use them to cover the seats when we have to transport animals."

Olivia rolled her eyes then laughed in spite of the situation. "Well, we appreciate the ride anyway."

Elliot pulled the stiff wool blankets up off the floor and bundled himself and Olivia up tightly. "Really," he agreed. "Thanks."

"Hey," the driver said, starting to move the truck out of the airport lot, "I have a family, too. I know what it means to get home to them."

Olivia squinted. "So, why are you..."

"This is my last delivery," the driver interrupted with a smile. "Thought I'd make it an extra special one." He winked as he made a U-turn and pulled onto the highway. "So how many ya got?"

"Five," Elliot said with a smile. "Youngest is almost six, the oldest is...God, she's gonna be twenty-eight this year." He shivered.

"What? No way," the driver protested. "You're way too young to have a kid that old."

Elliot smirked. "I got an early start. Very early."

The driver laughed. "I gotcha. Detective Benson, I gotta say, and please don't take no offense to this, but you got one hell of a body for a broad that's got a brood like that."

Olivia opened her mouth to explain, but Elliot spoke up before she could. "She's incredible, isn't she?" He peered down at Olivia and brushed his lips over the crown of her head.

Olivia smiled as she leaned back into him, and she sighed deeply when she felt his arms wrap around her, pulling the blanket tight. She tilted her head to look up at him and gave him a soft grin.

He returned her sweet look, then kissed her forehead, and whispered, "We'll make it, Liv."

"I believe you," she nodded, curling herself up into him, and settling in for what she knew would be a very long, very bumpy ride.

"How does this look?" Kathleen asked, looking down from the step ladder at her brother.

Dickie looked up at her. "Like Rudolph and Vixen are way more than just friends."

Kathleen looked confused, but she gasped when she turned back to the sleigh decoration she was hanging in the window. "You're sick, Dick," she scolded, flipping the light-up Rudolph around the right way.

"Don't blame me! That's what it looked like!" he chuckled. "Besides, with what Dad and Liv do for a living, it's hard not to see the perversion in everything in the entire world."

Maureen hummed in agreement as she held up two plants. "Where?"

Lizzie stopped untangling the lights and looked up. "Uh, the mistletoe, on the ceiling in the doorway." She tilted her head. "And the poinsettias in the center of the coffee table."

"Hey, guys," Dickie said, his tone serious. "Look."

Slowly his sisters walked over to him. "Oh," Maureen said, her eyes low and dark, as she saw what her brother pulled out of the box of ornaments.

"I don't think we should put that one on the tree," Kathleen said, shaking her head. "Not this year, anyway."

Dickie tried to smile. "But we all look really awesome," he twirled the custom photo ornament in his fingers.

"We look happy," Lizzie sighed. "Shows how great we could fake it when we had to."

Maureen took the ornament away from Dickie. "Bad memories belong in the past," she said, wrapping tissue paper around the ceramic. "Speaking of Mom, did she call yet?"

Kathleen shook her head as she moved back to her reindeer. "No," she gruffed. "And she probably won't. If she was going to, she would have by now, right?"

"She called last year," Dickie said, staring down at the ornament in his hand sadly. "Every day for the entire week of Winter break. You don't think she's still mad about Dad and Liv, do you?"

Lizzie snorted. "She took off in the middle of the night two years ago! Who did she think Dad was gonna call? What did she honestly think was gonna happen?" She sighed. "We all knew if it was gonna be anyone after Mom, it was gonna be Liv."

"Mom knew long ago," Dickie grumbled. "Maybe that's really why she left. To let it happen." There was silence, until he sighed and said, "It really is time for new family pictures, isn't it?"

Lizzie resumed her light unknotting, and she gave a long exhale. "Dad said we'd go to the mall and take new pictures with..."

"Mall's closed, kid," Maureen said. "Parking lot is under two feet of snow, and the water pipes froze. Why do you think I'm home? We had to close the store and leave before it got too bad."

Lizzie looked disappointed, but Dickie spoke up. "We could still take them, though! We could all get dressed, take a few in front of the tree with Maureen's camera..."

"Hey, yeah!" Kathleen agreed. "No waiting in lines, no waiting for them to print, we could just plug the camera into the computer and print them here."

"I have a program that could make the pictures into stickers, too," Lizzie said with excitement. "We have some plain ornaments we could..."

The doorbell interrupted her.

Maureen looked around, then slowly moved to the door. She looked out through the peephole. "Are we expecting anything from UPS?"

"Yeah, just that thing Dad ordered for Eli that was on backorder," Kathleen shrugged.

"Oh, right," Maureen said, unhooking the lock on the door. She opened the door and smiled. "Hello," she said, greeting the delivery man.

"Special delivery for the Stabler family," he said, holding out a clipboard.

"Thanks," Maureen said, signing her name. "I'm surprised you guys come out in weather like this," she said, tapping the pen and handing the clipboard back to him.

The man grinned. "Well, this needed to be here by Christmas Eve." He stepped aside and Maureen squealed.

"What?" Kathleen yelled, running. "Oh, my God! Daddy! Liv!"

Elliot and Olivia both laughed, pulling his two oldest daughters into their arms. Lizzie and Dickie ran over fast, piling into the hug.

"Not that I'm not really happy to see you guys," Dickie began, "But why do you smell like wet dog?"

Bursting into a fit of laughter, Elliot and Olivia shook their heads. "It's a long story."

They all moved into the living room, Elliot and Olivia turned to wave to the man who saved their Christmas, but he was already gone. "We'll find him, baby," Elliot said, pulling Olivia's hand, reading her thoughts as he brought her into the warm house. He closed the door then took off her coat, then his. He hung them both on the rack, and let the last bit of chill roll off his shoulders.

"Wow," Olivia laughed as she looked around the room. "It looks great in here!"

Elliot wrapped his arms around Olivia as he squinted. "What's up with Rudolph?"

Kathleen rolled her eyes as she ran to fix reindeer again, and the rest of the kids laughed at her. "We've been up since six," Maureen said. "It just...didn't feel like home without all of this stuff."

Elliot smiled at his kids. "Better late then never," he said with a wink. "Where's Eli?"

"Sleeping," Dickie said, pulling the crystal angel out of the box and setting it on the coffee table. "I tried to wake him up and he kicked me in the stomach. Maybe you'll have better luck."

Olivia and Elliot laughed, then they sat on the couch and relaxed into the comfort of home, of each other.

"Oh! Your case! Did you catch him?" Lizzie asked.

Elliot cleared his throat, getting the flashing image of Olivia shooting the man. who was aiming a gun at him, out of his head. "Yeah," he said, nodding once. "We got him." He pulled Olivia closer, reassuring himself it was over.

Kathleen, walking back toward them, folded her arms. "Go shower, take a nap, then get dressed." She smiled. "Preferably in red and white. We've got cookies to bake, a tree to light up, and pictures to take."

Olivia chuckled. "Wow, you guys really planned..."

"Stabler Christmas traditions, Liv," Dickie interrupted. "It just isn't Christmas without them. We still have time, and Dad did promise us."

"And I swore I would never break another promise to them," Elliot affirmed, kissing Olivia quickly. "Or you."

The kids watched as Olivia and their father got off of the couch and padded up the stairs. They would never know what the last two weeks were like, they'd never know the details of the case that almost made them miss Christmas and everything after it, and they would never know the name of the delivery man who gave them a Christmas miracle. But what they did know, was that Christmas this year would be better than ever.

A/N: Next, someone ends up on Santa's "naughty" list ;)