A/N: A haunting one.
DISCLAIMER: Dick Wolf owns SVU and the characters; TStabler© owns the story you're about to read.
"Thank you for doing this with me, Liv," Elliot says with love clear in his eyes and voice. "It's his first time trick or treating, and if I went alone I'd go crazy, he's such a little handful now."
Olivia smiles as she tugs on the beak of his Angry Avian costume. "Nowhere else I'd rather be, El. You know that," she says. And then she sighs. She looks into the eyes of the child, the ones that mirror his father's down to the mischievous gleam in them, but she notices that he looks more like his mother every day, and the guilt eats at her.
She still has nightmares about the crash, the ambulance, delivering the baby and holding him as he cried while his mother slipped away a few feet from him. She's grateful, and always will be, that the boy survived, and she can't help feeling like his mother is watching over him, and her. She's felt it since she moved into Elliot's house three years ago to help him with his kids.
It's stronger now, though. She's more aware of it. A constant feeling of being watched gnaws at her when she slips into bed with Elliot, when she wraps her arms around him, when she kisses him like she has every night for the past two years, when things between them shifted. She shrugs off the thoughts and looks down, smiling.
She moves, hiking the red, round three year old up over her hip. "You ready?" she asks, turning to Elliot.
He smiles and nods, then moves to the stairs where he yells up to his other kids. "We're leaving!" he shouts. "Call me when you get to that party, and call me when you're on the way home!"
He waits for the mumbled yesses and he chuckles to himself as he grabs his keys off of the hook and opens the door. He takes hold of Olivia's hand, as has become his habit, and shuts the door behind them.
She lets Eli slide down her hip and grips his hand, letting the tot lead them toward the neighbor's house. She notices Elliot's hand wrapped around hers, then, but doesn't seem to mind. It feels weird, but in a good way. A very good way.
They manage to walk for a full thirty seconds before Elliot looks up at the orangey-pink sunset and sighs. "I tell ya," he begins, clearing his throat, "This is not where I saw myself at this age. I've got a kid in college, one in diapers, I'm a single father of five, starting life all over with the help of the best friend anyone could ask for, who, by the grace of God, hasn't run from me yet." He squeezes her hand and looks at her.
She stares back at him, but figuring it's only him sweet-talking her, she rolls her eyes.
"I'm serious," he says, reading her mind. "You've been…amazing. Whatever the kids needed, whatever I needed, and…whatever you thought I needed, you were there, you did it, you…I mean, you know I…"
"That's my job," she interrupts, following Eli's running feet to the neighbor's front door. "I'm your partner, El. In a lot of ways."
Eli reaches his little hand toward the doorbell as Elliot scoffs. "You make it sound so cheap," he whispers. "You didn't do everything…everything you've done…because you thought you owed it to me, did you?"
"What? No!" she shouts in a harsh, muted tone, as a cold wind blows over her. She shivers, but she hears the door open and turns with a bright smile.
Eli squeals in delight at the sight of the candy in the woman's hand. "Oh, your son is precious!" she says cheerfully.
Olivia and Elliot answer together. "Thank you. He really is." "He's not my son."
They turn, each confused at the other's answer, and they don't notice the door close. Olivia scoops Eli up and takes three steps down the path toward the next house. "Well," she begins, "He isn't my son, El. What did you expect me to say?"
"Come on," he groans in response. "You're the only mother he knows."
"He knows about…" she stops, unable to say the woman's name. She shudders against another chilly breeze and looks up at Elliot.
"Right," he nods, "But you were the one getting up with him in the middle of the night, you were the one who fed him and changed him and bathed him, you're the one helping me potty train him, you're the one reading him bedtime stories with me, so face it, Liv, you…"
"But I'm not his mother," she whispers loudly, almost angrily, keeping a firm hold on Eli's hand as he rings the doorbell on the house at which they'd arrived.
"What if you were?" Elliot asks, severity in his eyes.
She raises an eyebrow at him. "Just how the hell do you think…"
He interrupts her with a chuckle, pulling Eli away from the house where obviously no one is home. "Think about it," he says, lifting his son with one arm as the other loops around Olivia. "Things with us have been…incredible, yeah?"
"Yeah," she says softly, straightening Elliot's collar.
"So, if we…I mean eventually…I can see us getting serious. Getting married, even, and if and when that happens, I…I want you to legally adopt him." He sweeps his thumb just under her right eye and then over her lips. "I swear, he will know who his mother is, I won't let him grow up not knowing, but I want him to have you. Really have you."
Silence is thick between them as her eyes dart from Elliot's to Eli's. "El, I…"
"Just tell me," he cuts her off, "Is that something you would do, if I asked?"
"Yes," she says, a small smile on her face as a tear falls from her cheek.
He smiles back at her and wipes away the tear. "Good," he whispers. He leans forward, he presses his lips to hers.
She's kissed him before, many times, but this somehow feels different. She blames the emotional question he's just asked, and she feels the wind kick up around them again and she moves closer into him.
He takes advantage, smiling against her lips, and holds her tight against him with one arm as his son is tightly hugged with the other, at their side. He pulls away from her slowly, with his eyes closed, and he whispers, "God, Liv, I am not afraid to be in love with you."
She almost faints, a strong, cold breeze keeps her standing and pressed to him.
He brushes his hand through her hair, seeing fear in her eyes. "You held me when I cried, held my kids when they cried, you dried all those tears and you made us all smile when we thought we never would again, especially me. You put five broken hearts back together and made sure a sixth was never broken," he tells her, handing Eli to her and watching her take him.
"I…El…I…" she stammers, holding onto the child.
"We've shared a house for the last three years, and a bed for the last two, and you know damn well I never would have let that progression happen if I didn't fucking mean it, right?" He runs a hand down his face. "I didn't label this, I couldn't because I was terrified…so afraid of falling in love again, of falling in love with you, but it happened so long ago that…I've been in love with you longer than I realized, Liv. I'm not afraid anymore."
She blinks, saying nothing. A new tear rolls down her cheek and she feels her heart pound in her chest. This is the first time in her adult life that Halloween has ever truly scared her. She feels Eli wiggle and she lets him slide down her body, keeping his hand tightly wrapped in hers as she looks questioningly at Elliot.
He nods, sniffles, and looks up at the last moment of the sunset. He turns back to face her and he says, louder than he's said anything all night, "I love you, Liv." There's no denying it, it's clear. He sniffles again. "I thought that everything…everything that's happened with us, that you loved me, too, but I guess…"
"I do," she breathes, her palms now sweating so profusely that Eli pulls away from her. She turns sharply and chases his tiny, speeding body, scooping him up as he rings the doorbell of a new house.
She holds him silently as he collects his candy from the man that's opened the door, and she thanks him. When they turn to leave, she leans into Elliot and whispers, "I didn't think you wanted this to be…more than…well, more than what I thought it was."
He stops her. He cups her chin with the thumb and forefinger of one hand and he gazes into her eyes. "You know I never would have done anything, not even kissed you that first time, if I didn't really, deeply mean it."
She smiles but shivers against the cold air that seems to follow her. "I was scared," she shrugs. "I still am."
He kisses the end of her nose and says, "It's Halloween, you're supposed to be scared." He winks at her and takes his son out of her arms. He keeps Eli safely ensconced in one arm while the other wraps around Olivia's shoulders. He guides them to the next house with a happy sigh. "So, can we label this now?"
"What?" she laughs.
"Can I tell my kids, who have known about it for years and keep asking me why I deny it?" he asks her. "Can I tell Fin? Because he keeps trying to set me up with Casey and there's only so many excuses I can use."
She tilts her head. "You gonna ask me if we can tell Cragen, who will fire us?"
He laughs. "Okay, so maybe not Cragen," he says with a smirk. "What is this now, Liv?"
"It is what it is," she whispers, kissing him softly. "It's everything." She kisses him again.
Elliot is so lost in the kiss that he doesn't notice Eli ring the bell, but he does hear his son shout a very squeaky, "Twicky tweet!" It makes him stop kissing Olivia and laugh almost violently.
"Oh, your son is absolutely adorable," the woman exclaims, dropping candy into the bag.
Again, Olivia and Elliot answer together. "Thank you."
A hard, cold wind kicks up and blows around them as the door shuts, Elliot wraps his arms around both Olivia and Eli, an attempt to keep them warm. Their noses press together and he kisses her, unable to help himself.
She pulls away first, they spend a moment just blinking at each other. Eli breaks the silence with another loud laugh. "Twicky Tweet!" he shouts as he waves his arms.
Olivia and Elliot laugh with him, then, and each kiss one of his rosy cheeks. "El, if you want to tell the kids tonight…I mean, I think we're beyond dating, but you can…we can tell them…"
He silences her with another kiss, and he holds her tight for a full minute. He breaks away from her, and he leads her and his son to the next house. They walked together, oblivious to the cold, misty figure behind them fading away, smiling.
"Hey," Olivia says, looking up at Elliot then. "It's not windy anymore."
He kisses her forehead and whispers, "Even if it was, you know we'd keep each other warm."
"Twicky Tweet!" Eli yells, wriggling and trying to get to the doorknob.
Olivia laughs, as does Elliot, and she moves closer to the door for the boy. "Happy Halloween, El," she says, winking at him.
He nods once. "The happiest."
A/N: Next? What happens when the entire unit heads to a superhero themed NYPD Halloween party? You can guess.
