Olivia and Elliot were sitting in the Bullpen finishing up some work. They were on night call, so they were the only ones in the building minus a few uni's.

She looked across the desks at Elliot as his head laid gently in front of him. She sighed lightly thinking of the past month.

After giving birth to Eli, Kathy left needing a break, after her weekend was over, she came back and packed her stuff and left. Elliot was alone raising five children. Maureen was at Hudson, Kathleen was at NYU, Dickie and Lizzie were still in High School, and of course Eli was only a couple months old.

Elliot took off a month to care for his kids after Kathy left. Olivia requested desk duty while Elliot was out, so she could help him through his crisis. She would go straight to his place in Queens right after work, and end up staying the night. Every morning she would shower and have breakfast with the kids, than leave for work, changing clothes at her apartment on the way.

Maureen and Elliot took turns taking care of Eli at night. Elliot said that he would do it, to give Maureen a chance to study, but Maureen insisted on helping. Elliot didn't complain.

Eli was getting severely needy and Elliot wasn't getting a lot of sleep, and it was starting to take a toll on him at his age. Bags started appearing under his eyes, and his attitude was getting bitter, interrogations were Hell.

She came back into the life of reality and watched him as he slept on his desk. She didn't want him to sleep on his desk, so she decided that the cribs was the better choice. Maureen had Eli for the night so it was a perfect oppourtunity for Elliot to get some long awaited sleep.

She touched his shoulder lightly, "El?"

"Mm-hmm?"

"Come on, we can sleep in the cribs, don't sleep at your desk." He nodded and took her outstretched hand. She led them upstairs and he laid down on his favorite bunk. Olivia stood there a moment and watched him. She stood up and tried to move to the next bunk but Elliot's hand took hers.

"Stay." His eyes were open and begging. She nodded and laid next to him. "Thank you."

Olivia looked up at his face, "For what, El?"

"For everything." It was the simplest sentence, but it meant everything to Olivia. She kissed him lightly on the cheek and they fell asleep holding onto each other tightly.