Psychic Warfare

Chapter One
The World as It Should Be

The Stabler Residence
2581 Flatbush Ave., Brooklyn
7:25 A.M., Friday, October 28, 2011

The alarm went off and he moaned. Her arms snaked around his neck.

"Just ten more minutes?"

"We've been saying that for the past half hour."

"Pleeeease?"

"Sorry . . . Sweetheart . . . ," he said between kisses. "But I've got to go."

"But I love youuuu!" she whined in a sweetly teasing tone.

This had become their routine in the months since she'd been on leave, and he enjoyed every moment of it. Still, in the end he always had to go to work. At least he'd been spared his on-call shifts. He had some great colleagues who, as soon as they learned of her medical condition, had volunteered to cover for him and a compassionate captain who was willing to juggle the whole squad's work schedules just so they could.

"I love you, too," he said, kissing her lips. Then he slid down the mattress and kissed one side of her very pregnant belly. "And you." He leaned over and kissed her on the other side of her stomach, "And you, too." Then he French kissed her right on her navel.

She moaned in delight and he kept it up until she took him gently by the ear and pulled him away.

"That's cruel," she said. Ironically, her libido had increased dramatically with her pregnancy, but at the same time, early complications had made sex off-limits for the duration. "Can't you just hold me for five more minutes?"

He continued to place loving kisses on her tummy, but avoided doing anything to intentionally arouse her. Pausing to speak between the kisses, he said, "I would love . . . to just cuddle all day . . . but if I'm late again . . . my partner . . . will kill me."

She laughed. "Your partner? What about your captain?"

"Next to that woman, Cragen's a pussycat," he said, affectionately resting his cheek against her swollen abdomen. "Hell, even on one of my bad days, I'm a pussycat next to her."

"She isn't that bad, Elliot," she said smiling down at him.

"Yeah, well, you've never pissed her off." He replied, staring into her eyes and grinning. He was gazing up at her through the valley between her beautiful breasts and knew she would beat the crap out of him if she could read his thoughts at the moment. He was selfishly wishing he wouldn't have to give them up to the twins.

"I think you're afraid of her."

"Let's just say, she hasn't hit me with that impact baton yet, but I wouldn't put it past her."

He lay there for a moment, smiling, just enjoying the view. Then there was a thump against his palm.

"Oh," she grunted and grimaced in discomfort. "Did you feel that?"

"I sure did," he replied, moving to sit up beside her in the bed.

"That was Casey," she told him.

He gave her a disbelieving look and asked, "How can you tell?"

"Casey is the more aggressive of the two. She punches and kicks me all the time," Olivia explained. "Alexandra is more subtle. She squirms and moves around often, just to make sure I don't forget her, but she almost never strikes me."

"How will you know who is who when they come out?" he asked.

"We'll just have to watch them for a while and see which one shows potential as a kick boxer," she said simply.

"And that will be Casey?"

"Right."

"Which makes the other one Alexandra by default?"

"Right."

He grinned. "You've really thought this out rather carefully, haven't you?"

"I haven't had much else to do the past six and a half months."

"I wouldn't tell them that."

"Them who?" she asked teasingly. "The twins or their attorney godmothers?"

"Attorney godmothers," he echoed with a laugh. "That's cute, and both, or all four, however you want to count them."

He turned back the covers, and she pleaded with him, "Don't go."

He looked down at her and frowned in concern. "I'll call in sick if you need me here today," he said.

He watched as she considered his offer. He could tell by the way she pursed her lips that a very large part of her wanted to tell him to stay, but after twelve years together, he had learned not to make unilateral decisions if it could be helped.

Finally, she sighed and said, "You go on. I'll be all right; I just get bored being home all day."

Something about her tone said she was worried about more than boredom, but she didn't want to tell him.

"You're sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure!" she insisted.

"I thought you were looking forward to being a stay-at-home mom," he said, wondering if that was the issue.

"I am," she said, "but right now I'm a stay-at-home blob, and I'm getting sick of it!"

He smiled, thinking he understood the problem now. Leaning down, he gave her a long, sensual kiss, tangling his fingers in her hair and tracing the curves of one of her ears with his thumb. When they finally separated to catch their breath, he whispered in the sultriest, most seductive voice he could manage, "For the record, you are the sexiest blob I have ever seen."

"Mmm," she purred at first, enjoying the tickle of his breath against her ear. Then his words registered, and she clobbered him with a pillow. "Get to work before your partner beats you up!"

"Yes, ma'am," he chuckled as he plumped the pillow and replaced it on her side of the bed.

Olivia sighed and cuddled under the blankets, enjoying the view of her husband as he wandered around their bedroom in his birthday suit collecting the clothes he would be wearing that day. Once he had everything laid out on the armchair in the corner, he headed for the bathroom.

"Wake me when you're done in there," she called across the room.

"I won't have to," Elliot replied. "As soon as you hear the shower running, you'll have to pee like a racehorse and come barging in. Then you'll flush the commode and I'll get scalded in the shower."

"You don't know that!" she said indignantly.

"Yes I do," he said as he sauntered into the bathroom. "It's happened nearly every day for the past two months."

The door swung shut behind him, and she burrowed deeper under the blankets. She heard the space heater go on and the sound of Elliot's electric shaver. Then the whole house was silent for a moment. She heard the quiet thud of the pipes as he turned the shower on, and then the soft patter of water falling. Suddenly she felt a tremendous pressure deep inside her and a tingling between her legs. With a groan, she threw the covers off, grabbed her robe, and hurried to the bathroom.

"Told you so!" Elliot sang over the noise of the shower when she opened the door and slipped inside bringing the cold air from the bedroom with her.

"Sorry!" she replied as the steam swirled around her. She didn't mind him being right, but he didn't have to be such a smug bastard about it.

"It's all right," he told her. "It's not like I wasn't expecting it."

"Yeah, well, you try holding your water with an extra thirty-five pounds sitting directly on top of your bladder," she grumbled as she took care of her business.

"I don't mind you invading my privacy to handle your potty emergencies, Liv," he said good-naturedly, "but could you just not flush when I'm in the shower?"

"It's a habit, Elliot, and good hygiene," she reminded him as she admired the silhouette he cast on the shower curtain. "I always flush after I use the toilet."

"All I'm asking is that you have a little more regard for my skin. The water heater is just on the other side of this wall, and getting blasted with a hundred and fifty-five-degree water straight from the tank hurts," he explained.

"It's not like I'm doing it on purpose," she told him as she finished what she was doing and pulled her robe tighter around herself.

He didn't pick up on the note of exasperation in her voice because of the bad acoustics of the bathroom tile and noise of the shower. If he had, he would have considered his next words more carefully.

"I know that, and I know the pregnancy hormones have you all messed up, so you probably just forget, but could you try a little harder to remember not to flush it when I'm showering?" he requested.

"Ok, ok, I won't flush!" she said as she washed her hands in warm water at the sink. When she finished, she turned the cold spigot off and put the hot one on full blast.

She shut the door behind herself and slumped against it laughing when he heard him shriek like a girl in surprise as the unexpectedly frigid water hit his skin.

"Very mature, Liv," he yelled.

She opened the door a crack and called in, "At least I didn't flush!"

"Yeah, and payback's a bitch," he reminded her.

"Uh-huh," she said and shut the door again, smiling contentedly. He wouldn't do anything until she had recovered from giving birth, and by then, he would have forgotten the whole incident.

Author's note: Yeah, I know, it's EO, but EO isn't the story. It's just a vehicle for telling the story. I am trying to get this done for Halloween and had to take some shortcuts. Come along for the ride anyway, and if it's too much EO for your liking, you can tell me at the end. Please review. Thanks. -Jo