A/N: I wasn't going to update this until I got 10 but I got 8...so ah, here it is....I will not update again till I get 10 though. So please read and review. I still have a cold and feel like crap so reviews will help me feel better.
Disclaimer: Own nothing that you recognize.
"What are you going to do, Elliot?" Olivia asked her husband, carefully. Unsure.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Elliot barked, angrily before he could control his tongue.
Liam was picking up on his father's tension. He started to show his disapproval by screaming. Loudly. Face bright red and angry tiny fists clenched up tightly, waving around as he kicked his legs.
"Here, take him," Elliot said gruffly, holding out the baby.
Olivia sighed in frustration and gently took their newborn son in to her arms. She stood up and looked at her husband with the most evil glare, that he had ever seen her give him. Give anybody.
"I just asked a simple question, Elliot. I only gave birth about forty-eight hours ago and I'm exhausted and sore....I don't need this hostility," she snapped.
Their time alone was definitely not panning out. It has started out nice but now it was the complete opposite.
"Liv..." Elliot made an attempt to apologize to his exhausted, frustrated wife.
Olivia just ignored her husband. She didn't want to hear it. "Come on, baby," she murmured, rubbing the newborn boy's back softly, walking back upstairs in to the master bedroom to be alone. She needed time apart from Elliot.
Elliot sighed, slumping down on to the couch. He ran a beyong frustrated hand over his tired, aging face and exhaled a shaky, deep breath.
He was going to give his wife a couple minutes to settle herself and Liam down before he went up there to apologize for his rotten behaviour toward her.
He needed a break. Just himself and Olivia. They had not had a night to themselves the whole time that he'd been back home from his ordeal, so in other words not since early new years morning 2009. He loved Aurora and Liam with everything in him, but he needed time alone with his wife, but he knew it wouldn't be for at least a few more weeks, since Liam was only two days old, but they could arrange it and mark it on the calendar, hanging on the fridge.
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Some ten minutes went by somewhat slowly and Elliot gently tapped on the door.
"Go away, Elliot," a soft voice answered.
Elliot could hear the tears in her voice. He had made his beautiful wife cry. She'd done what she always did. Be strong in front of him, only to let herself break down in the seclusion and privacy of their bedroom, alone. The time when she needed him the most, but would always deny it. Deny herself the need to be held. To be hugged and loved.
Detective Elliot Stabler slowly reached out, put his hand on the balled door handle and turned it, surprised that his wife had not locked his sorry ass out.
He opened it slowly, cautiously. He found his lover laying on their bed. Curled up tightly on her side, a pillow in between her legs, since she was still sore. He could hear her crying softly and it broke his heart, especially since he was the one who caused her the pain.
Olivia saw her husband walk in to the bedroom slowly. She turned over, so her back was to him, so desperately trying to ignore the strong urge to look at him and beg him to hold her tightly and never to let her go.
Elliot tip-toed over to the bassinet and looked in. His youngest son was sleeping comfortably, with the mobile above it, still turning and playing it's soft, soothing tune.
He walked over to the bed and laid down behind his still crying wife, who was still trying to hide her tears from the man she married nearly twenty seven months ago. Two years of marriage and two children later, their marriage was still like a roller coaster ride. A lot of tears had been shed, a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of arguments but the love and passion was still definitely there.
He wrapped an arm around her middle, resting his hand on her belly and the other arm was being used to hold his head up, using his elbow. His hand was resting on his hand behind Olivia's head and higher up so he could see her. He kissed her cheek and whispered, "baby, I'm so sorry I snapped. I just need a break. We both do."
Olivia's head instantly snapped around with the top half of her body to look at him. Shock etched in her face. "You resent our children?" She hissed, "...hang on, do you mean a break from each other?"
Elliot gently turned his wife on to her back, so he could see her properly to look in to her eyes.
He fixed the pillow between her legs before he carefully wiped away her wet tears and kissed the tip of her nose.
"No and no. I don't resent our children, Liv, I love them so much with everything I have in me and no, I don't mean a break from each other."
"What did you mean then?" Olivia asked, searching his eyes.
"I mean a break together, just you and me. We haven't had much time alone since the night I was taken, baby. I'm surprised Liam was conceived without us waking Aurora up that night. You were so loud, Livvie," he answered, finishing with a quiet laugh.
Olivia laughed too, just as quietly, as to not wake Liam. "Yeah, but you were incredible that night...I agree about the night together but..."
Elliot silenced his wife by putting a finger to her lips. "I know it won't be for at least a couple weeks, with Liam being only two days old, but soon, Olivia. Let's make a date and I'll write it on the calandar."
"I thought you were going to see the boys?"
"I'll work that around our romantic date," he promised and gave her a quick, tender kiss on the lips. "So when do you want to set it, honey?"
"How about..." Olivia thought for a moment. They had already pasted Valentine's day, so that out of the question. Since she had been eight months pregnant at the time, they hadn't done much, especially with Aurora having a cold and Elliot rushing around after her since Olivia couldn't be around her for long periods of time, at the high risk of her catching it while heavily pregnant.
"How about May the first," she replied, just picking a random date.
She didn't care about the date, just as long as she was alone with her husband. "I should be cleared to have sex then, baby," she replied.
Elliot nodded with a grin. "I'll go write it on the calandar, I'll be right back." He kissed her on the lips and got off the bed to walk out.
Olivia watched her husband walk out of their bedroom. Just staring at his ass.
'If I hadn't just pushed an eight pound baby out of me two days ago, I' d so take you right now,' Olivia thought to herself.
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That night found Olivia trying to calm down a cranky Liam. She was pacing around the nursery gently bouncing him, but it just was not working. He'd been crying since just after two in the morning and it was now nearly four thirty. She had fed him, changed his diaper, sang to him, given him a relaxing bath and rocked him in the rocking chair. So now she'd taken to pacing and gently bouncing. Tears of fatigue and frustration were welling up in her drained caramel brown eyes.
"Come on, Liam. Baby, please tell me what's wrong? Mommy is so tried and I bet you are too," she murmured, rubbing his tiny, shaking back.
She turned, startled, feeling a presence behind her. It was Elliot with a sleepy Aurora perched on his hip. Her head on his shoulder, sucking her thumb.
"Sorry," she almost yelled her apology, so she could be heard, seeing that Liam's screaming was keeping them awake as well.
"Liv, take Aurora and you can both try to get some sleep in our bed. I'll try settle Liam down. You've been in here for about two and a half hours, three if you include the time you were nursing him."
Olivia was actually tempted. She wanted to spend some time with her daughter. She went to walk over but stopped, seeing that Aurora had turned her head away from her. Rejecting her own mother again. It stung. Broke her heart.
Elliot frowned as his wife backed away and went back to soothing her son.
"Liv?"
"On second t-thought, I c-can handle this. Go back to bed with Aurora. Close the door behind you," she answered and began to pace again with the still screaming newborn.
Elliot sighed and looked down at Aurora facing the other way and knew why his wife had acted the way she had. Their daughter has rejected her own mother yet again.
He closed the door and headed downstairs, to where it was a little quieter. He sat down on the couch with the toddler on his lap.
"Aurora. Aurora Dream Stabler, look at me. Look up at daddy," he softly instructed the young child.
The youngster looked up at her father. With the look of childhood innocence. "Yes, daddy?"
"What did Aunt Casey talk to you about yesterday afternoon, when you were over her house?"
The toddler pretended to think. "Hmm," she tought with a slight tilt of her head and scratched the side.
Casey had told him about the conversation that she'd had with Aurora and he had thanked her, hoping it would work, but so far no change. She was a very smart child, but liked to hide it.
"She told you that you're hurting mama's feelings by not talking to her, Aurora. Liam is not here to replace you. He's just your baby brother. Mama does not love you any less. You're still mama's little princess, you hear me?"
Tears began to well up in the toddler's tiny ocean blue eyes.
"You don't mean to hurt mama's feelings, do you?"
Aurora shook her little head. "Sowry. So sowry," she whispered.
"You need to say sorry to mama, honey. You want to now and try get some sleep with mama?"
Aurora pawed at her tears and nodded.
She was just like her mother, trying to be strong and independent twenty four seven.
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Olivia was still gently bouncing Liam and holding back hurt tears as she continued to pace. The door to the nursery opened and Olivia refused to look.
The next second she felt tiny hands wrap around her leg, just below her knee. She looked down to see the most gorgeous chocolate brown eyes looking up at her. Her baby girl was smiling up at her, tiredly, with messy bed hair.
"Hey baby."
Aurora smiled bigger, showing some teeth. "Mama," she whispered, reaching up to her.
Olivia didn't hear her over her son's screaming but she knew what Aurora had said.
She turned around to see Elliot waiting for her to hand over their son. "Thanks, El," she said and kissed him on the lips.
"For what?" He joked, "you're welcome, baby," he said, taking the boy.
Olivia leaned down and picked Aurora up. "Let's try to get some sleep, sweetpea," she said, carrying out of the nursery.
Aurora spoke just as her mother closed the nursery door. "Sowry, mama," she said softly and gave Olivia a sloppy kiss on the cheek.
Olivia hugged her little girl closer and kissed the crown of her head. "I love you so much, baby girl," she replied as she carried the toddler in to the master bedroom. "Don't ever forget that, princess. Mommy loves you so so much."