Title: Frailty
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: As Olivia adjusts to her new squad, her family life is again shaken. She must struggle to find a way to balance her past and questions about her own lineage and her son's paternity while trying to find answers that her child's life are dependant on. Through it she's forced to re-examine the meaning of family, marriage, motherhood, and the significance her job plays in her life. This story takes place about a year after the conclusion of Undeserved in my AU series of stories and is a direct continuation of where Rollercoaster was headed.
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. My stories are not EO and never will be. You may want to read some of my other ones for context on the characters in this AU first - though, it's likely fairly self-explanatory on its own too.
WARNING: THIS STORY MIGHT KIND OF BE A SPOILER FOR READERS OF UNDESERVED AND A DEFINITE SPOILER FOR ROLLERCOASTER.
THIS STORY IS A CONTINUATION OF WHERE ROLLERCOASTER WAS HEADED. AS THAT STORY IS CURRENTLY AT A STANDSTILL BUT I GET SEVERAL REGULAR REQUESTS ABOUT THE STATUS OF THE LIV/WILL/NOAH STORIES, I DECIDED TO PROVIDE THIS GLIMPSE OF WHERE IT WAS/IS HEADED. THIS STORY MAY EXIST AS A STANDALONE OR MAY EVENTUALLY BE ABSORBED INTO ROLLERCOASTER AT SOME POINT IN THE FUTURE.
"She must be pregnant," May said as she began to wipe off the kitchen counter, giving Ted a glance where he was still working at drying off dishes.
"I think we should just wait and see and not be making any assumptions," he told her sternly.
May had been completely abuzz since Willie had called them in the middle of the afternoon and invited them into the city for dinner the next day. It'd been Ted who'd picked up the phone – so he hadn't asked many questions about the invitation. It hadn't struck him as overly odd. Though, he supposed it was a little odd. Usually if they were going to be headed into the city it was on a Wednesday afternoon and they usually didn't stay for dinner. But this was a direct invitation from their son to join them for a meal.
Still, Ted hadn't thought much of it at the time beyond calling across the house to May to make sure she didn't have any plans that evening with her woman-folk. When she'd confirmed she was free, he'd readily told William that they'd be there. End of story. It wasn't like they got a lot of invitations where they weren't the ones doing the cooking. And, they hadn't seen their grandson for nearly two weeks at that point.
That was too much of a stretch. You needed to keep on top of kids at that age or all of a sudden they'd grown-up right before your eyes and you missed it. Ted had missed too much of it with his own boys. He wasn't missing it with his grandkids. The goddamn Parkinson's was likely going to scheme so he'd miss some of it with some of the youngens anyways. While it was in his control – he was going to miss as little of it as possible. That took a bit more effort with Noey since Willie and Olivia insisted they liked living in Manhattan. As far as he was concerned that had to be the worst borough to live in – not matter what the two of them said, and no matter how nice their townhouse apartment was. But he didn't go at them about it the way May did. It was their life and their family and their child. They were adults with important careers. They were fully capable of making decisions that they felt worked the best for them and their boy. End of story. Again.
But when he'd told May after hanging up the phone that they were heading up to the Upper West Side for dinner the next evening, she'd acted like that was staggeringly shocking news. She'd wanted to know why.
"Because Willie invited us for dinner," Ted had told her.
"But why?" May had asked confused.
Ted had shrugged. "I assume because we didn't get in there today," he said.
"I thought they didn't want us in today," May pressed.
"Well, no," Ted said. "Willie had said it wouldn't be a good week for us to be in there today."
"But now he wants us to go in tomorrow?"
"Well, not to help with the cleaning or errands this week," Ted said. "He said they want to have us over for dinner."
"That's all?" May had asked.
"Well, he said they had something they wanted to talk to us about too," Ted said.
"What?" May pressed.
"Well, I don't know," Ted said. "I didn't ask. I figured we'd find out soon enough. Or that it was just a turn of phrase or something. Obviously we're going to talk to them while we're at dinner."
May looked at him like he'd completely missed the boat in that conversation with his son. "Did he sound OK?" she asked.
Ted shrugged. "He sounded like Willie."
"He didn't sound upset or sad?" May asked. "Like he and Olivia are fighting?"
"Oh, dear Lord, May," Ted sighed, knowing exactly where this was going. "They aren't having us in for dinner to tell us they're getting a divorce."
"Well, then, did he sound happy?" May asked. "Or excited?"
"When does Willie ever sound happy or excited?" Ted put back to her.
Their son had to be one of the most even-tempered people he'd ever met in his life. He didn't seem to get overly worked up about much of anything. Good or bad. His voice and personality seemed to be in a pretty permanent plateau. Ted had dealt with the kid his whole life and still wasn't an expert at reading his emotions – especially in the tone of his voice over the phone!
But that'd been when all the speculation had started – and hadn't stopped since. Ted had had to take some time-outs from it, because he could only tolerate it so much. He really didn't see the point of wondering endlessly about it when they'd be seeing them all the next evening. Clearly it wasn't that pressing.
Though, it was pressing enough for May that she'd started calling William and Olivia's phones. Ted was certain they'd been seeing her calls and knew exactly what was going on and had decided not to pick it up because they really didn't want to deal with May or talk about whatever it was just yet either. But May had taken that to mean they were avoiding her – so that clearly meant that something terrible was going on.
Ted had gotten sick of hearing that too so he'd suggested that maybe they weren't answering their calls because they were at work and didn't have time to be dealing with her 20 questions when they'd be seeing her in less than 24 hours. Apparently that wasn't a reasonable assumption – so he'd instead suggested that maybe it was really good news they had and they really wanted to share it with her in person and not tell her over the phone. That they wanted to see her reaction.
Ted hadn't put a whole lot of thought into what good news might be when he'd said it. He'd mostly said it in the hopes of getting her to stop fretting. But instead he'd created a completely different kind of monster. A baby monster. The baby talk had started and it hadn't stopped – and it was grating on his nerves.
"Well, they are trying to get pregnant, Theodore," she put to him – giving him that look that only his wife could make. The tell-off, put-you-in-your-place with one single glance and accompanying tone look.
"Robbie really shouldn't have told you that," Ted said.
May made a pishposh wave with her hand, like that wasn't of any consequence.
"He betrayed his brother's confidence," Ted told her sternly. "And, I don't much appreciate that you dragged me into it by telling me too."
"Oh, come now," May said, "us knowing they're trying to have a baby isn't a big deal."
"May, it's their personal business – and if they wanted us to know, we'd know," Ted told her.
"Well, they shouldn't have been telling Robert if they didn't want us to know," May said and scrubbed more at a spot on the counter that apparently had some sort of invisible dried food on it.
"Apparently," Ted muttered.
"Ted, I'm sure them wanting a baby isn't a state secret," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes ever so slightly at him.
"Not a state secret," Ted said, "but certainly their personal, private business. You know how Willie is with these things. AND – Olivia."
Olivia was quite possibly even worse than William when it came to these kinds of things. They were both so intensely private and secretive. This would not be an area of discussion that they'd be pleased he and May are having. And, Ted was sure that it would be damaging to his two sons' relationship if William ever caught wind that Robert had slipped up with his mother. Clearly what had been a private conversation had somehow got implied to May and after May knew anything – pretty much all of Staten Island did. Thankfully, Willie didn't spend a lot of time on Staten Island to know that.
"It's not a big deal," May said again. "They're a married couple, Ted. They're supposed to be trying to have a baby."
"May," he stressed to her, "they've been together for years and we have never heard so much as a peep from them about wanting to have a baby."
"Oh, Theodore. Can you imagine the kind of baby they'd make? They'll have a beautiful baby."
"They do have a beautiful baby," he put back to her. "Your grandson. Noah."
She huffed at him. "You know I love my grandbaby and that little boy is gorgeous. But another grandbaby with William's genetics mixed in with Olivia's? Can you see it? Oh. I hope the baby gets William's goldie locks. Those curls when he was a little boy."
She just glowed as she said it. It almost made Ted said – because if the news was anything other than this, May was going to take it so badly. Not to mention now it got him thinking about the possibility of another grandkid on the scene too. And just the some vague wondering about if his youngest even wanted a prodigy of his own. He wasn't sure his son was too bothered by it either way. It seemed that William had always treated Noey as his own – as long as he'd witnessed his son with Olivia and that boy anyhow. And now that they'd been watching Noey grow up for years too, Ted was pretty confident in saying that even though Willie's genes didn't make up the little boy, there was a pretty good amount of Willie in the boy. Noey was a McTeague – whether Olivia liked that muchor not.
"May," Ted sighed, "they aren't some 20-something newlyweds. It's not like they can just have a baby whenever they want."
May's eyes laughed at him. "Well, certainly not all 20-something newlyweds can just have babies whenever they want either, Theodore."
"You know what I mean," Ted told her a bit more certainly. "They aren't young people anymore."
"They aren't that old, Ted," she said. "William's our baby."
"Our baby who turned forty early this year," Ted put back to her. "And we both know Olivia has a few years head start on him too."
"They aren't that old," May pressed. "Women – couples – they're putting off having babies until later and later anymore. And they've got the McTeague potency going for them. Robert and Thomas certainly haven't had any problems growing their families."
Ted let out a breath and put down the plate he'd been drying. "Just because Robbie and Tommy had did the Irish Catholic thing, doesn't mean that's what Willie wants."
"Well, of course, it's not what William wants," May said. "Clearly. William is not his brothers. I only meant that fertility doesn't seem to be a problem among you men."
Ted let out another noise. "And just because it hasn't been an issue for me or the boys doesn't mean that it's not a problem for Willie. Or for Olivia," Ted pressed to her more firmly.
"Well, clearly Olivia doesn't have a fertility problem," May said. "She has Noey … with that … man …"
"May, please don't go implying that it was some one night-stand or unplanned pregnancy," Ted said. "It's none of our business and we don't know the details. And the details don't matter. We have a beautiful grandson who we love dearly that Olivia brought into our lives. That is all you need to know."
"Of course …" May said.
She seemed to get quiet for a moment and Ted hoped that maybe that meant that she was finally taking the hint and the conversation was being dropped. He took it as an opportunity to get back to the dish drying. He wanted to get it finished up so he could go downstairs and watch the game. Hopefully May wouldn't interrupt that with even more babble.
"What is they are having trouble getting pregnant, Theodore?" May lamented only moments after he started drying again.
Ted let out a loud sigh. "I really doubt that they'd be having us over to tell us they are having trouble getting pregnant," he said.
"Unless maybe William wants our blessing to try some fertility treatments or in-vitro or something of that sort? You know, because of the Church?"
Ted let out a sound. "May, we both know that William doesn't much care what the Church says about much of anything. And, they both do things their own way. We've respected that. That's how we've re-established our relationship with our son. So if they're looking into those kinds of options – that is their business and we aren't saying a word about it. Is that clear? We will be happy to have another grandchild – no matter how the child came into being. End of story."
May gave a little nod but then gaped. "What if it's that they need money to help with the fertility treatments?"
Ted let out a completely exasperated breathe and threw up his hands slightly. "MAY!"
"Well, could we help them?"
"I'm sure God will forgive us …"
"No, no, not that," May said. "Could we afford to help them?"
Ted sighed. "I'm sure we could work something out," he said. "But May, they both have good paying jobs and far too much pride to come asking us for money. They've never asked us for help or money before and they certainly might've had reason to while Noey was really sick."
May's mouth dropped a little more. "What is Noah is sick?"
"He is sick," Ted said flatly and gave a shake of his head.
"But he's almost done his treatment," May said. "But what if he's come out of remission or the cancer has spread or something of the sort?"
Ted looked at her. "May, you shouldn't even be thinking things like that. Not even speculating. Noey is fine. If he wasn't, we would've noticed. Will or Olivia would've said something."
May let out a quiet sigh and nodded and moved on to wiping down another part of the kitchen.
"It better not be that William got another job offer in another city," she muttered instead.
"Willie is always getting job offers in other cities," Ted said. "They aren't going anywhere. They both love Manhattan. I think we should likely just assume that Willie didn't even mean anything by it. That he's just inviting us over for dinner."
May gave him a glance. "Ted," she said quietly, "they never have us over for dinner on a Thursday."
He just looked at her and eventually nodded. It was true. But Ted thought it was best not to dwell on that too much or over think it. He was sure it would be nothing. But his gut just as surely told him it was.
It was going to be a long 24 hours – and not just because of May's fretting.