Title: Before

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: Liv attempts a merry Christmas with her small son and neighbour friend. It proves a bit more complicated and less merry than she may have hoped. For the fans of my Undeserved stories who are in need of a Liv/Noah/Will AU fix. This is a stand-alone series of chapters that form an incomplete story that won't likely be updated. It is set about four months before UD.

Author's Notes: This story is part of the AU series that goes along with Undeserved and features Liv/Noah/Will. This series of chapters was written before Undeserved some time ago. It is set about four months before the start of UD and before Noah has cancer and before Liv/Will are in a defined relationship. These chapters are meant to stand-alone. They were written a year-ago and then it was decided that UD would start closer to Noah's diagnose and these were scrapped. I'll post the chapters over the next few days for those who need a Liv/Noah/Will fix. But please understand that this is an incomplete story and that it is not likely going to be updated at this time. However, fans of the series may enjoy the chapters for context and background on their relationship - and maybe it will hold you over until I update UD. For new readers, 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. Her relationship with Elliot is that of partner and protective older brother and colleague. It won't devolve from that - they aren't ever going to get together in this series. If you're an E/O shipper, you likely won't enjoy these stories. Please let me know what you think and if you distribute elsewhere.

THIS CHAPTER WAS RE-WRITTEN AND USED IN-PART IN UD SO ASPECTS OF IT MIGHT SEEM FAMILIAR OR REDUNDANT TO READERS OF THAT STORY.

She looked at the phone and smiled. He'd barely been at his parent's 12 hours and he was already calling her. She didn't think that was a good sign about how their holiday gathering was going so far.

"Hey," she said, answering.

"Hey, I'm just checking in," Will said, pressing the phone against his ear and still trying to work through the sink of dishes. "What you guys up to?"

She sat back in her chair and looked across at her son who was happily working his way through a giant Belgian waffle, piled with fruit.

"We are at Chez Cora's," she said.

"Oooh, no – without me?" he sighed with a bit of a tease in his voice.

But Olivia knew it'd make him a little jealous. They usually took any mutual days off as an opportunity to have a quiet morning at the coffee shop of bantering with Noah, reading the paper or their paperbacks, her working on a crossword and him working on a sudoku - and both of them arguing about sports and politics and dealing with her son's stomping dinosaurs and whooshing cars and general demands they play with him or let him help read the paper or complete their puzzles. But on the mornings she indicated she felt like something more substantial than a coffee and pastry, they'd transfer their setting to brunch at Cora's instead. It was always about the first place Will would suggest. She suspected he just assumed that they never went to the little French café that he'd introduced them to without him. He was wrong there. Usually, though, she didn't rub it in his face.

"Mmm … here, talk to Noah," she said.

Avoiding discussing their dining choices, she handed her phone across the table to her little boy. He'd barely had grabbed it when she started questioning that choice. His grubby little hands were near covered in whip cream and strawberry juice.

"Tell Will about your breakfast," she instructed, letting Noah be the one to rub their brunch in Will's face. "… and merry Christmas," she added as an after-thought.

"Merry Christmas Eve!" Noah stated happily into the phone.

"Hey Little Man," Will smiled. "I hear you're at Cora's without me."

"Yeah," Noah smacked into his ear, now pushing a strawberry into his mouth with his fingers – not trying to handle his fork and the phone.

"What you having?"

"Waffles," he said.

"Waffles? With strawberries?" Will asked. He didn't need to ask. He knew that any fruit platter or fruit eating opportunity wouldn't be complete in the little boy's mind unless it included strawberries. That was definitely the fault of his mother, who seemed to favor buying the berries even when they were well out of season and dry and sour after being shipped from across the land.

"Yeah! And whip cream!" Noah declared even more enthusiastically.

"You're making me jealous. What's your mommy having?"

"Eggs," Noah mumbled with a full mouth.

"That's kind of boring," Will said. Olivia wouldn't have him at Cora's if she'd just been craving eggs. That wasn't why they went there – and she near ALWAYS ordered the same thing, despite him having pointed out repeatedly there was a whole menu should could be taste-tasting.

"Umm. Omelet," Noah said after a short pause where he had to clearly consider and try to remember the word for his mother's breakfast.

"That's a bit more exciting. Spinach and Swiss?" he asked.

"Yeah," Noah smacked some more – rather loudly – into his ear.

"And is she sharing her breakfast potatoes?" Will teased.

"Yeah," the little boy added with a bit more glee. "And Mommy let me eat your potatoes too since you not here!"

"Oh, boo," Will smiled into the phone. "You ate my potatoes?"

"Yeah!" Noah stated clearly happy that he'd outdone him and beaten him to something he wasn't even there to enjoy.

"Geez Louise!" Will declared goofily.

"Swiss Cheese!" Noah giggled.

"Hmm," Will said. "At least she's not sharing that with you. I hope."

"No. That's gross," Noah informed him.

Will didn't understand how Olivia had a child who didn't like cheese. He thought cheese was a part of childhood. Much like Star Wars and Lego. He'd brought Noah over to the Dark Side on the other two. Though his Sith Lord powers of persuasion would likely be better used on tempting the little boy to expand his palliate. Olivia always just shrugged that her son was a picky eater, though.

"Is she having one of her fancy coffees?" Will pushed again a bit more teasingly with the boy.

"Yeah. It's biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggg," Noah informed him.

"Well moms need big coffees on Christmas Eve," he said. "'Kay you be good to her for the rest of the day and I'll talk to you tonight. Hand me back to Mommy, OK?"

"Yeah."

"Hey," she said into the phone again – holding it with the tips of her fingers and a bit away from her ear until she got a real chance to wipe off all the stickies her son had left on it.

"Your morning sounds way more exciting than mine so far," Will informed her.

She smiled. "Why? What are you up to?"

"I am doing dishes."

She snorted. "That's a good start to the day."

His parents didn't have a dishwasher. Though, she'd been informed they had three named: Rob-Tom-and-Will while he was growing up. It seemed like they usually had one named Will whenever he was over at their house too.

"Tell me about it," he turned his head a bit knowing his mother was still lurking within earshot. "I'm missing you guys."

She smiled softly. "We miss you too," she allowed.

She did. It was always a little strange to have a day off but to know that Will wouldn't be knocking on their apartment door wondering if they wanted to hang out. Him being part of their daily routine was just routine anymore. It usually felt like something was missing when she didn't see him over a period of more than 24 hours – even if spotting him had just been for a few minutes in the elevator on the ride down to the lobby in the morning.

In their brief pause and she could hear him sloshing around in the sink. "What are you plans for the rest of the day?" she asked.

"Well, I am going to finish up here and then help Mom with getting some stuff for the open house ready. Then I'm gong to go to the kids' Christmas pageant thing. Then come back and change. Put out more stuff for the open house. Get to deal with the open house. So basically drink as much as possible. Avoid people by going downstairs to watch Christmas specials with the kids. Stuff my face full of hors d'oeuvres and Chinese food. Then I'll try to be sober enough to go to Midnight Mass – endure my annual foray into religion. Have my brother's try to make me drink some more when we get home. Then I'll pass out for a few hours until all of them come back here. Try not to let the screaming kids annoy my hangover headache too much. After that I'll likely eat Mom's turkey and stuffing until I'm about ready to burst – and then my family will make me go outside anyways to play street hockey. I'll be roughed around. I likely will puke. But hopefully after that I might get to sleep at some point by the late afternoon tomorrow."

"Sounds like a busy couple days," she snorted. It actually sounded pretty awful. Yet, based on other descriptions he'd given her of his family's Christmases, she thought he was trying to tame it down a bit – likely because his parents were within earshot.

"Yeah, you have no idea," he looked around again and caught his mother eavesdropping. She turned away as he caught her eye. "What about you guys? You decided what you going to do with the rest of today?"

"Yeah, I have been thinking about it," she said. "A lot." She heard him make his listening sounds into the phone as the water splashed around some more. "You want to cut back on some of your busy schedule and come and get us?"

She didn't hear the water now.

He looked over his shoulder. His mom was still hovering in the next room. "You want to come over?" he tried to say a bit more quietly.

She wasn't sure that 'want' was the right word.

"I want to spend Christmas with you," she said instead. That was the truth. "I want Noah to get to spend Christmas with both of us."

She heard him fumbling a bit on the other end. "Well, yeah, that's not a problem. I can borrow one of my brothers' cars and come back and pick you guys up."

"I need some time," she said. "I mean, I haven't finished wrapping and need to put some stuff in a bag."

"Yeah, no, that's OK. We can do the wrapping here if you want. So you aren't rushed. Umm … what about like 2 p.m.? So I can still go to the kids' pageant?"

"Yeah, that'd be great. That's perfect."

"Umm, OK. Well, I'll see you then."

"Yep." She hung up and smiled at Noah, who was still working on his breakfast, completely oblivious to what was to come.

She hoped it was good things - a Christmas with Will and maybe a glimpse at what a normal family Christmas looked like. Though, she knew that was likely hoping for a little too much. Will may have grown up in a nuclear family but she didn't know she'd ever describe their dynamic as normal. And, if that was normal - having a family definitely wasn't a calming or relaxing experience. But, still, she'd get to let her little boy have Christmas with someone more than her. That seemed to count for something. Maybe having Christmas with someone more than Noah might count as something for her too.