Stella's back! Hello free world, I am SO tired right now! It is three in the morning on July 10th, 2014 (We are officially (not) going to document our times down!) And we are in the middle of writing like... THREE different stories! I'm going insane (in a good way). Oh, before I forget, we have decided to take down our story 'Nationals' due to lack of interest... sorry. Nobody liked it, which is sad because I know Rachael loved writing about dance, her second passion (out of like seven! God she is like, superwoman USA edition or something I swear!) But oh well. We are going to keep our chapter one document for a few more weeks though just in case you all want it back, but we have our hands full already, one experiment going away isn't too bad. Alrighty, enjoy free world! See you later!
"Daddy, how come you never got married after mama left?" Michelle asked, picking some soup up with her spoon and watching it fall back in to her bowl.
Elliot looked over to Michelle with a curious look. She had never asked him a question so far fetched before. He looked over to Alex who just shrugged. She had this look in her eyes that kind of said 'your call, detective'. Elliot cleared his throat and tried to come up with a good answer.
"Well sweetheart, I guess I never married anyone after mama just because, mama was the only girl I ever loved. Well... I take that back, mama and you are the only girls I've ever loved." Elliot said honestly.
"But have you ever tried to fall in love again before?" Michelle pressed him, swinging her legs under the table with anticipation for his answer.
"I think what you father is trying to say Michelle, is that you don't always find your true love the first time you see them, and that you really have to look to find who you love." Alex covered for him.
"But I love you, and I love daddy, and grandpa Donny and Uncle Fin and Munch, it didn't take me long to find out that I loved you." Michelle stated curiously.
"That's a different kind of love honey, that's family. You're talking about... more of a grown up kind of love, that is a lot harder to find." Elliot explained.
Michelle pouted in frustration. Nobody was getting at what she was hinting at. She swung her legs back and forth a little harder to distract herself from the stress she was putting on herself. And also to get her mind off things, she started to picture the alphabet in her head. Her father always told her, when something is bothering you or you get stressed out, just start reviewing things in her head, like the alphabet right side up or how to jump off a swing.
"Something on your mind, bouncy?" Alex asked softly, referring to her swinging legs; since Michelle was like her dad with getting upset a lot, and kicking her legs was what soothed her, Alex always referred to her as bouncy or just plain bounce.
"Love sucks." Michelle said dully. Then she laughed at how funny that sounded coming out of her mouth, which made Alex and Elliot laugh too.
Michelle sighed contently and started to eat her soup again, remembering to tip her spoon slightly when she blew on it so it would cool faster, just like her father taught her. She finished her small bowl of soup quickly, then set her spoon down on her napkin. She then she smiled sweetly at her father.
"May I please be excused, daddy?" She asked politely.
Elliot chuckled at his small daughter. He knew that 'may I be excused' really meant 'can I go play now'.
"Go rinse your bowl out and then you can go play." Elliot agreed.
The small Stabler nodded her head and hopped up out of her set, grabbing her bowl and rushing into the kitchen to rinse it off and put it in the dishwasher. Not too long after, Elliot and Alex finished up as well and as they entered the kitchen, and little blonde haired hurricane came rushing past them. Elliot had to call out to her for her to be careful before he could start loading up the dishwasher with all the other dishes in the sink.
"OK seriously El, she literally gets cuter by the minute." Alex laughed and shook her head as she helped him with the dishes.
"Yeah I know. I'm gonna dread it when she turns thirteen and the little cute stage is officially over." Elliot smiled to himself. He knew that no matter what Michelle would always be his little girl, but she would only be his, she didn't say anything about staying attached to him for the rest of her life.
"But that's a long time from now.'' Alex pointed out.
"There is that." Elliot nodded, closing the door to the dishwasher.
He let the machine run while he and Alex both walked out into the living room to sit down and chat.
"So. This new Ms. Benson girl... is she cute?" Alex smiled playfully.
"Alex! Don't you start with me too." Elliot warned the blonde.
"What? I'm just curious. For all you know I could have dramatically become a lesbian overnight and am looking for a hot new girl to date." Alex joked with a big laugh.
"Well in that case, then yes. She is really cute. And smart and funny, just like most other teachers are." Elliot chuckled at his best friend.
Alex waggled her eyebrows at him and held two thumbs up. They continued to chat comfortably for the next few minutes before both Elliot and Alex were brought out of their conversation by a loud bang, then a high pitched cry. All of a sudden, Michelle came walking out of her room, hugging herself tightly. Elliot shot up and bolted over to her, crouching down to inspect his daughter. She looked relatively fine, except for the heart wrenching tears rolling down her face.
"Baby what happened? Are you hurt?" Elliot asked softly.
"No, but daddy! I'm sorry!" She wailed. She ran off to her room before he could ask what about.
He followed his young daughter down the hall into her bedroom to find out what was wrong, but she wasn't in there. He turned to look in his room, and once he looked towards his bed he knew what was wrong.
When Michelle was a baby, Elliot had gone out to go get some pictures of her taken, so he could keep them with him when he traveled, and some extras that he had mailed to his ex Kathy like he did with all of Michelle's photos, just in case she actually did care about her daughter. But one of the pictures he had ordered especially larger, and hung it up on his wall, right above his bed. Well, now the picture still stayed unharmed, but on the floor. The frame it was in had fallen down onto his bed and the back had knocked off of it, but fortunately there was no harm done to the frame, picture, or most importantly Michelle.
"Oh, Michelle. How many times do I have to tell you not to play around my bed, I keep telling you that there is dangerous stuff around here." Elliot sighed. Yes it was true there was dangerous stuff around his bed, like his gun that he would lay on nightstand just before he would go to sleep.
He walked over to the foot of his bed, where Michelle sat crying and whimpering softly. He scooped her up in his arms and cradled her softly back and forth until her crying subdued. He walked his way back out in to the living room, where Alex sat on the couch waiting patiently for Michelle and Elliot to come out. Alex spotted Michelle and smiled, walking over to Elliot and taking Michelle out of his arms and setting her back down on the couch, where she soothed the rest of her cries away.
'Was that a bang?' Olivia thought. She stood up straight in her bedroom, putting down the last of the boxes she had to unpack. She walked out to the living room and then out into the hallway to get a better sound. 'Yep, that's crying'. Olivia then remembered who was actually in the building next to hers, and looked over at the door shocked. She turned back into the house and walked over to her dresser in her bedroom. She decided to change from her short shorts, which she would almost always wear after she got home from work. into some actual pants since Michelle was only five and didn't need to be exposed to such short clothing.
Olivia then rushed back in to the hallway to check for the crying again. She didn't know if Mr. Stabler had left back for work or was inside, but all she knew was that the crying had stopped, but it only had subdued to a faint whimper. Olivia decided to knock on the door just in case, to make sure everything was alright. She heard feet shuffling to get it, but they definitely were not Michelle's. And suddenly, she was face to face with Elliot again.
"Oh! My goodness, I'm sorry! I just thought um, I heard Michelle crying and with your work hours and all I thought that you might not have been home. I was just stopping by to check up on her, see if she was alright." Olivia stammered as she looked up into his deep blue eyes.
Elliot nodded and smiled. What a sincere thing to do, but after all, she was a teacher. That's what she was paid to do.
"Ah, OK. Yes, she's just fine, she was jumping on my bed and the picture of her above it fell down. It just scared her a little bit." Elliot explained with a laugh.
Olivia totally understood that. Oh, the things her kindergarten class last year would cry over.
"Daddy? Who are you talking to?" The two heard a small voice ask.
Michelle came walking up behind Elliot, rubbing the rest of her tears away from her eyes. Alex stood next to her, just as curious to who was at the door. Michelle saw Olivia and smiled, running over to her dad and jumping onto his back so she could get a better look at Olivia from the door.
"I'm talking to the police, they've come here to arrest you for reckless adorablilty." Elliot laughed, tickling Michelle's fingers that were wrapped around his neck.
Olivia giggled and shook her head, then smiled at Michelle.
"Oh snap, I must have forgotten my handcuffs! Elliot, do you mind if I borrow yours?" Olivia played along.
Michelle squealed and hopped off of Elliot back and ran away to her room. The three adults laughed at the little girl and sighed contently. Olivia looked over to the blonde, a new face. Olivia smiled and held out her hand.
"Oh, you must be Elliot's girlfriend. Hi, I'm Olivia Benson." Olivia introduced.
Alex shook her hand kindly, but then stopped once she took everything in.
"Benson? Girlfriend? HA! He wishes I was his girlfriend, no I'm just a friend of his from work, visiting Michelle is all." Alex laughed.
Elliot put his head in his hands, obviously embarrassed by Alex. Olivia slowly shook her head, trying to process what the woman had just said. Then in the end, she just had to laugh too.
"Well I'm Alex. That's Elliot. You're Olivia. OK, well we should all go get some coffee sometime." Alex suggested.
"Yeah, that would be great. Would you like to join us in a heated lady session for coffee?" Olivia joked.
"Oh my gosh, yes I would love to!" Elliot mimicked the two girls.
"Shut up, you goofball. Alright, well it was nice meeting you, Olivia. But for now I have to go home, to my own life instead of barging into his. Oh Elliot, I talked to Cragen, he said meet him at the precinct Thursday next week if you still want your job." Alex reminded him, then brushed past Olivia and was out like a light.
"Ah, Alex Cabot. She's worse than Michelle." Elliot laughed sadly.
"I can tell. Well, I best be going back now, before Michelle comes back and pulls me in to her magical fortress or whatever she makes up next." Olivia smiled.
"Yeah, she tends to do that... Well, I'll see you around, I guess." Elliot chuckled. Olivia nodded and held up her hand, waving goodbye. Elliot grinned and closed the door, then started to walk back to his room to fix the picture frame.
A few hours later, when it was around ten p.m., and Elliot was just finishing unloading the dishwasher. He closed the door and dried off his steamed up hands, and set the dish towel down on the counter so he could go do his nightly checkup on Michelle. He quietly opened the door to his daughters bedroom and was suddenly lit up with the soft pink light coming from the nightlight on her wall. Michelle lay in her bed, peacefully sleeping with her favorite monkey wrapped up in her arms. She had named the monkey 'cuddle buddy', because when Elliot had given it to her he had said that he had to go away for a little bit and that the monkey was to remind her of him when he would cuddle with her. He had sprayed the over sized animal with his cologne when he first got him, and now every month to make Michelle feel safe and loved, he would spray more of it on it's shirt so the smell of him never went away.
Elliot walked over to her bed, and crouched down beside her. He ran his hand down her smooth rosy cheek and let it linger there for a while, then used both hands to pull the blankets on her bed up higher on her body. He bent down and peppered tiny kisses on her forehead, then her nose.
"I love you, my angel." He whispered to his sleeping daughter.
"Love you too, daddy." The light sleeper mumbled.
Elliot smiled and brushed his hand across her cheek one more time, then stood up and walked out of the room again, leaving the door open just a crack in case Michelle had needed him. He walked his way down the hallway and out into the living room again and stood in the middle of the room. Why did life have to treat him so well yet so unfair at the same time? Elliot sighed and padded over to the couch, plopping down on it like a child with an invigorating flu. He looked over to the corner to the coffee table, where he kept Michelle's baby photo album. Whenever Elliot would come home from work at night, if he ever did come home, the first thing he would do before he went to sleep would be tuck in his beautiful daughter, and then he would always look at her old photo album, which she loved to scan over with him at night. She would pick out one of her favorite pictures of her and Elliot, and after she would read him one of her practice reading pages from her doctor he would tell her a story about one of the pictures from the album. Like why he had taken the picture, or what the two were celebrating at the time.
He was just about to open up the photo album when something pulled him out of his deep thought. Shouting. Then a faint yelp, across the hall from what it sounded like. Elliot immediately went in to cop mode and set Michelle's album down. He shot up off the chair and ran into his room to grab his gun, just in case he needed it.
Olivia was getting ready for bed when she heard the all too familiar voice call her name. She was putting on her pants when she heard him; "Olivia?" He shouted. Olivia groaned at the sound of her ex boyfriends voice. She stomped out of her bedroom and in to the living room, where she was preparing herself to open up the front door to see her awaiting ex, but jumped up and gasped in shock when she saw her door busted open, and him walking around the living room, waiting for her.
"Really, you move again Olivia? How many time do I have to tell you! You can try to run you little bitch, but you will always be mine!" He snarled.
"What the hell, Dean? How did you even get in here?" She asked worriedly, oh god she could only hope that he didn't hurt anybody.
He shook his head impatiently and stormed over to her, grabbing his ex by her hair harshly. He bent her head down to the floor so she didn't look in to his eyes. He had always hated when he had to show her his darker side, but if that's what it took to get her back, then he was always willing to do so. She was good bragging rates to his friends, and he missed being the one with the sexiest girlfriend in the gang.
"Don't you know that I can get in to any building?! Especially one where your ass is hidden in." He screamed down into her scalp.
Olivia yelped out in pain as Dean slightly lifted her feet off of the floor by her head and threw her back down, letting go of her locks. She stumbled back into the wall, letting a few tears escape her eyes as Dean cooled himself off. When he was at least calmer than before, he turned around and walked towards Olivia, grabbing her wrists and pinning them up next to her head.
"I'm sorry I have to get violent like this, Livvie. You know that I would have a beautiful sexy girlfriend like you are right now than a bloody beat up one like you know you have been. But if you don't cooperate, you leave me no choice but to beat you into submission." Dean whispered in her ear, putting all of his weight against her and the wall.
"Why don't you just leave me alone, Dean? I don't love you anymore, you're just making a mistake." Olivia whimpered with another cry as Dean shoved his fist into her stomach to shut her up.
"No. Oooh no, I'm not the one making the mistakes here. You do love me and I can see it, so why don't you just give in, huh? Come on, it'll be nice. We can move in together, spend the whole day with each other. And then maybe, if you're lucky, we can try for that kid you've been bugging me about." Dean chuckled into her ear again, then backed away from her so she could breath.
That's when Olivia made the move to push him away from her, and kick him in the crotch to where he fell to his knees. She sobbed into her hands as air refilled her lungs.
"I would NEVER have a child with you! You would only treat them as horrible as you treat me, or worse. I DON'T love you Dean, get over it... go find someone else to fuck!" She shouted.
Dean slowly made his way off of the floor and stood up straight, directing his eyes towards his girlfriend, in his eyes. He scowled at her and shook his head doubtfully.
"Oh you little son of a-" Dean started, stomping towards her with every word. He had her up against the wall again in a matter of seconds, but was brought back down to his feet by a sharp pain in the back of his head. The gun.
Elliot grabbed the collar of Deans shirt and roughly pinned him up against the wall, right where Olivia used to stand, his face connecting with it. Just the close proximity itself made Olivia flinch and back away quickly, which didn't go unnoticed by Elliot. But he could guess why, this guy had probably been beating Olivia for months now, she already knew his name from what he had seen. He pulled out his handcuffs and slapped them on him, then turned Dean around so that he could see his face.
"What's your name, bitch?" Elliot shouted into his face.
Olivia turned away as Elliot read Dean Porter his rights, and walked over to her front door. She was just about to close it so the riot didn't wake up her neighbors, but her eyes suddenly got big at the little girl in the middle of the hallway, grasping the arm of her stuffed monkey and watching the scene in front of her carefully.
"Michelle? Sweetheart, are you alright?" Olivia asked the child. She walked over to Michelle and bent down in front of her, waving a hand in front of her face. That seemed to pull her out of her little trance.
"Miss Benson? What's going on in you house?" Michelle asked worriedly as she watched her father handcuff a man and talk rudely to him. She had never seen her dad like that, and it actually really scared her, like he was a big giant monster.
"Nothing, sweetie. Someone just broke in to my house and your daddy helped me catch him." Olivia lied to Michelle again.
"Is he Dean?" Michelle pointed to the one up against her living room wall.
"Yes, baby that's Dean... How did you know his name?" Olivia asked her worriedly.
"You said it a lot, and he said your name back, so he responded to Dean, I just assumed." Michelle said proficiently, smiling warily at Olivia. She always loved to surprise her with how many words she knew, and how many tricks her father had taught her.
"Alright, well let's get you inside, angel. It's late, and I want you focused tomorrow." Olivia gave the child the best smile that she could muster up at the moment as she picked the child up and walked her back into Elliot's apartment. As she closed the door she noticed how at ease Michelle seemed being in Olivia's arms, it actually made Olivia genuinely smile, something that wasn't always easy to do, especially on nights like these.
Olivia jumped up out of her thoughts when she felt a sting coming from the top of her head, then Michelle gasp. Michelle must have touched where Dean had pulled her up by the hair, because now instead of it being numb like before, it hurt like hell.
"Livvie your head is bleeding! Ope! Sorry, I didn't meant to call you by your first name, Ms. Benson. Daddy always said it was disrespectful, but I didn't mean it!" Michelle rambled and looked down into Olivia's chocolate brown eyes. Olivia smiled sadly at the little girl. Michelle looked just like a little puppy, only cuter.
"It's alright, Michelle. Just don't call me Livvie in class or the other kids will get jealous, OK?" Olivia grinned. She didn't mind Michelle calling her Livvie at all, she actually liked the sound of it coming from her mouth.
Michelle smiled and nodded at Olivia, pulling out her pinkie.
"I promise." She mumbled, waiting to lock fingers with Olivia. Olivia smiled and connecting their pinkies and shook Michelle's a little bit before she let go to open the door to what she assumed to be Michelle's bedroom, judging by the fact that it had pink butterfly stickers attached to the door. Olivia smiled as she opened the door to the dimly lit pink yellow and green bedroom. Everywhere their were roses decorating the wall on a bed of grass, there was a big yellow sun painted in the right corner of the room, toy chests on either side of her little princess designed bed, and above the light green headrest of her bed hung the large wooden pink and yellow butterfly Elliot had told her about. It was fairly large, with pink wings and a yellow center with four little green dots, two on each wing.
"This is my room! Daddy painted the walls a LOONG time ago with my three favorite colors and made a grass field with pink and yellow roses." Michelle stated proudly.
"I see Michelle, this is really nice. I think I might have your daddy paint my room like this!" Olivia joked with a smile.
"But I drew the sun on the wall so I have to help you too." Michelle giggled.
"Even better." Olivia grinned. She gently set down Michelle in her bed and stood up straight, getting ready to leave before Michelle stopped her.
"Livvie." She called softly before she left.
"Yes." Olivia turned around and crouched back down to Michelle's bed.
"Daddy always helps me read him my mini stories before I go to bed. To help me read right." Michelle started to explain. She sat up in the bed and reached over to a packet of paper on her nightstand.
"But since daddy's not here right now can you help me?" Michelle asked, giving Olivia her puppy dog eyes.
Damn those blue eyes! Olivia knew that she would never stand a chance against them.
"Let me see..." Olivia sighed, grabbing the packet out of Michelle's hands. She smiled at how excited Michelle was to read with Olivia.
On the cover of the packet was a note. It read:
Read one paragraph session. Stay on the same paragraph until the child can easily read what is on the page.
If there are words/letters the child does not know, skip them and replace them with your own words. Do not try to teach the word to the child.
Olivia nodded to herself and opened up the packet. She taught this kind of thing to children all the time, she had given that lecture to parents over and over again. She basically knew these paragraphs inside and out.
"What session are you on, sweetheart?" Olivia asked as she flipped through the packet. Michelle stopped her when she got to the right page and looked over her shoulder to begin. Olivia looked up at Michelle and smiled, then put her finger on the first word, to show Michelle that it was time to begin.
When there was a pause in the room she looked up at Michelle curiously and then almost whimpered at the look of embarrassment on her face. Olivia knew that she couldn't read the word, 'Whenever'. Olivia got up and then sat back down on Michelle's bed, setting her down on her lap. Michelle whined into Olivia's shoulder and Olivia rocked her back and forth. Elliot was right about Michelle beating herself up.
"I wanted to show you that I'm really smart! But I can't even read one word without help.'' Michelle cried into Olivia's shoulder.
"I know, sweetheart, but you're already so smart! You don't have to prove to me that you can read to show me you're smart. Nobody's perfect, Michelle... Now come on, we can finish this thing together, alright." Olivia said. Michelle slowly nodded and pulled her head out of Olivia's shoulder and wiped her tears away.
"Whenever.." They said together.
Olivia put her finger on the next word and looked at Michelle.
"Whenever y-you... Whenever you." She repeated. Olivia smiled and put her finger on the next word. They kept doing the same motion until the paragraph was done, and Michelle was giggling with pride and joy.
"Good job, Michelle! You see, I told you you were smart." Olivia stated.
Soon after the reading with Michelle, she had drifted back off to sleep, which left Olivia alone. She wondered where Elliot could be. Surely, it didn't take him that long to arrest somebody. She just shrugged it off though, why should she even care where he was? Olivia slowly stood up off the bed, being careful not to wake Michelle in the process. She tiptoed over to the door, and gently shut it on her way out. She quietly walked her way down the hallway, and was preparing to leave when she jumped up at the sight of a man in the house.
"Olivia! Oh thank god, me and my partner were looking all over for you and Michelle! When I was in your apartment I saw you out in the hall with her and then the next you were gone. We went searching all over the city!" Elliot. It was just Elliot.
Olivia sighed and smiled sadly at him.
"I'm sorry for scaring you... Um, Michelle's asleep in her room. Um... yeah, I think I'll just go now..." Olivia stammered. The previous events of the night were just reappearing in her mind from the sudden freedom of work, and she felt herself getting ready to cry. She took a deep breath in and tried to bite back her tears, but she just couldn't.
She started to quietly break down right in the middle of Elliot's hallway. Elliot rushed over to her side and grabbed her before she fell to her knees, she was exhausted from this night, and he could tell.
"Why does this stupid shit always happen to me." She mumbled quietly.
"What stupid shit? Olivia, are you alright?" Elliot asked her. He sighed and walked her over to the couch and sat the two of them down.
"No! This is the fourth time this year that Dean has found out where I lived and broken in to my apartment. And to be honest, if it weren't for you he would have probably raped me again..." Olivia sobbed.
"Rape? He raped you?" Elliot asked, already angered once more. How could someone rape such a nice and lovely lady like Olivia?
"Technically yeah. Not the first few times that he found me. The first two he convinced me to get back together with him and once I moved in with him again he didn't waste any time. The time I moved before this over summer he tried to persuade me again but I finally told him no. So he called me a bitch and tied me to my bed..." Olivia could not believe that she was actually telling her story to a STUDENT'S PARENT that she just met that day.
"Olivia why didn't you report it? I could have helped you, me! I've been working at SVU for the past ten months now, I would have never let him get away with raping you." Elliot huffed quietly into her hair. That's when he also noticed the line of dried blood running all the way down the top of her head.
"Oh god, your head is bleeding. Here, let me go get you some ice for it." Elliot offered, already walking towards the kitchen.
"Elliot... I think I should just go home. I've already bothered you enough for one day, And I don't want to wake Michelle again..." She called out to him.
He came back from the kitchen just a few moments later with an ice pack in his hands. It was wrapped around in a thin dish towel, so it wasn't too cold on her head but it was still cold enough to numb the cut. A typical move for a parent to do. He gingerly placed the pack onto her head and waited for her to stop squirming and seething before he responded to her comment.
"I'm not letting you go home, Olivia. Not while he's still out there..." Elliot grumbled. Olivia looked up into his eyes. They were that navy blue again.
"Still out there, what are you talking about?" Olivia asked confused.
"We didn't have enough evidence to book him. We had him pulling your hair, but that's not enough. We had to let him walk for now." Elliot said softly.
"And I'm not letting you stay by yourself while he is out there. Especially after what you told me. Trust me, I do this for a living; stay with me where I know you're safe until he's locked and then I'll be out of your hair... And by then I hope this blood is out of your hair, too." Elliot chuckled, making her laugh for the first time tonight. Ah that laugh was so addicting, and the way her lips curled into a smile as she did so, and her cheeks turned a bright pink. How she hung her head low so he just couldn't see the sparkle in her eyes. He would never admit it to her but he would always remember her laugh.
"Alright, I trust you. But if you don't let me shower tonight say so right now so I can go. The blood isn't gonna go away on it's own." She said, truthfully, but despairingly.
"Deal.'' Elliot smiled his charming smile at her. Just like Elliot, Olivia would never forget something about him. His smile. How he didn't smile really, it was kind of like a Cheshire Cat grin without his mouth going as wide. How his blue eyes brightened up even more, even when they were navy blue they turned back to a sky blue in the matter of seconds. How he smiled very rarely, except for when it came to Michelle or surprisingly herself, when he almost couldn't stop smiling. She would never admit it to him but she would always remember his smile...
And we're too busy to add anything else so we'll just end it right there! Lol. Good morning free world! Hope you slept well, as usual we didn't. We were too busy staying up for you all writing! It's ok, we slept last night... But anyways, here we are! 5:00 A.M. July 11th, just finishing a second chapter for Playing Matchmaker. Dean is officially a dick now, which kind of sucks. I used to like Dean, but STELLA HERE DOESN'T! (Don't know what's going on up in her mind, but... whatever...) Actually last night I thought I was possessed by Stella and she was possessed by me cause out of nowhere I started UNINTENTIONALLY speaking in an Australian accent as we wrote and she spoke in an American accent (Tennessee/California mixed to be exact) We sounded just like each other! Lol. Ah... I've got to get to bed before I become delusional. OK, goodnight/goodmorning! :):):)