Chapter Four

Elliot's smile grew even wider. "Really? Liv, I'm so happy for you!" He gave Olivia a tight hug. "Do I know who the father is?"

Olivia looked at him confused. "El- Elliot," she stuttered. "It's you. You're the father." Elliot dropped his coffee and stumbled backwards, leaning on the kitchen counter again.

"But how? We used a condom." Elliot knew what he was saying was complete garbage, but he couldn't stop himself.

"And they're not one hundred percent effective, El. You know that." Olivia said.

Elliot and Olivia stared at each other in silence, and stayed that way for a while. Neither of them knew what to say, and Elliot didn't want to say the wrong thing. He didn't even know what to think. After a while of agonizing silence, he looked at Olivia and said "So what do we do now?"

"I'm not sure." Olivia said, thinking for a bit before she went on. "It's only been about six weeks. I'm not showing yet." Olivia rubbed her stomach. "I'm going to keep it, El." She couldn't help but smile.

"Good. I want you to. Ever since I met you, all you've ever wanted was to be a mother." Elliot said. He thought for a moment. "Look, I don't want to sound like a selfish ass, but what about Kathy? What am I supposed to tell her when she finds out?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, El. We've still got time to think and plan how we're going to tell—your family." Olivia looked down for a moment, suddenly realising that she really had no one but Elliot and her coworkers at the precinct to share her news with. Her mother was gone, she had no brothers and sisters, or extended family. She really had no one. She looked up at Elliot and said, "Everything will be okay." She placed a reassuring hand on Elliot's arm, but it made her feel uncomfortable, though she wasn't sure why, so she removed it.

The two of them fell into another silence before Elliot realised his spilt coffee was still on the floor of Olivia's kitchen and began wiping it up. "Does anyone else know?" He asked.

"Just Munch." Olivia replied. Elliot gave her a quizzical look. "He got it out of me. Don't worry, he's not going to tell anyone else."

Elliot put the rubbish in the bin and rinsed out the wet rag. "It's gonna be okay, Liv." He said. He wrapped his arms around her and enveloped her into a hug and kissed the top of her head. "Liv, no matter what, I'll always support you and stand by you. You're my best friend and I'll always have your back. No matter what happens when Kathy finds out, no matter what happens when the baby is born, I'll stick by you. I'll be dead before I leave you."

He kissed her head again and noticed the clock on Olivia's wall said that they were ten minutes late for work. "Liv, we need to go to work." He unwrapped his arms from Olivia and placed a reassuring hand on each of her shoulders. "Everything is gonna be okay, Liv. Trust me."

Elliot picked up his bag and gave Olivia hers and began their way to work.

The day at the precinct was fairly uneventful. No interesting perps, no overly interesting cases, things just went by smoothly. Olivia was happy that Munch had kept his promise of not telling anyone that she was pregnant. So far, it was just the three of them that knew.

Elliot finally got home just as Kathy was heading to bed. She had told him before that she was going to stop waiting up for him, but she never seemed to entirely follow through with that. He never said it, but Elliot somewhat preferred it when she was fast asleep when he got home. After a long day of dealing with dirt bags, it's better to come home go straight to sleep as soon as your head hits the pillow.

"Hey, Honey." Kathy greeted her husband with a kiss and a warm hug. "How was your day?"

"Tiring." Elliot said. He was desperate to get this morning's events off him. And he really didn't want to talk to Kathy about those events right now, Olivia would kill him if he did. "Nothing much happened. Just the usual pigs who think they can do whatever they want."

"Sounds great." Kathy said. She said it a lot. She wasn't a cop and had never been employed in law enforcement, so Elliot was never too annoyed when she didn't further the conversation. They sat in silence on their bed, wrapped up in each other, their minds worlds apart from each other.

"You're tense, El. What's wrong?" Kathy had started massaging Elliot's back. "Did something happen today?"

Yep! Olivia's pregnant, and it's my child Elliot thought to himself. He wanted to tell Kathy so bad. They'd had secrets in the past and those secrets have torn them apart before. But he owed it to Olivia to keep his mouth shut. "It doesn't matter." He said with a sleepy smile. "We should get some sleep, we've both got early starts in the morning. I love you, Kathy." Elliot kissed Kathy deeply and passionately. Soon, they were both fast asleep, curled up in each other's bodies, almost trying to become one.

The next morning came swiftly and Elliot could have definitely done with a few more thousand hours of sleep. He remembered though that today was Olivia's day to pick him up. They liked to alternate between the "chauffeur service" as they liked to call it. It was something they had been doing for years, and it always seemed to work out well for them. It definitely made things easier, that's for sure.

As Elliot and his family finished their breakfast, there was a knock at the door, signaling Olivia's arrival. Elliot opened the door and was greeted with a warm coffee and a cinnamon donut from his crime partner. "Hey, El. You look tired, are you okay?" Olivia's smile was warm and comforting, even when there was nothing wrong. It was written all over her. She was pregnant, and over the moon about it. Elliot hoped that Kathy wouldn't pick up on it though. It was early, and his brain hadn't woken up enough just yet for him to fetch some believable lies.

Kathy walked into the kitchen after getting changed and said her usual halfhearted "Hi" to Olivia. Olivia knew that Kathy had always felt threatened by her and her closeness to Elliot. There was never anything to it though. They were friends and that was it. Only now, they were friends who had decided to board the sex train and throw any idea of consequences out the window. Olivia didn't blame Kathy for her hostility. She would be stupid if she did. Olivia understood perfectly where she was coming from, she just hoped that her condition would go unnoticed by Kathy.

Unfortunately, Kathy did a double take when she said hi to Olivia. "Olivia, you're glowing! Are you pregnant?" Crap Olivia and Elliot thought simultaneously. Kathy walked straight over to Olivia and embraced her in a tight hug. "I'm so happy for you." She said. Elliot and Olivia gave each other a confused look while Kathy couldn't see their faces.

When Kathy pulled out of the hug, she asked Olivia who the father was and if she knew him. Elliot chimed in before Olivia could answer though. "You don't know him, Kath. He's a friend of Olivia's."

"Okay, but why are you answering? Surely Olivia can answer for herself?" Kathy was both confused and suspicious, and she hated that she was suspicious. She could trust her husband, she'd always been able to. But there was a pit in her stomach that told her otherwise.

"Kathy," Olivia said after a moment, "the baby is Elliot's."

The colour ran out of Kathy and Elliot's faces fast. A lump had grown in Olivia's throat and she was mentally beating herself up for not keeping her mouth shut. Why the hell did she do that? Olivia wasn't impulsive, she never had been, so what the hell was that?

A dead silence fell over the three of them. An agonizing silence that none of them wanted to break. No one could look each other in the eye, no one wanted to move or make a sound. Olivia had fucked up big time, and she knew it. She'd probably just singlehandedly ruined Elliot's marriage for good. And if so, was it wrong for her to be slightly happy about it?

When they had sex a few weeks ago, everything felt so perfect, so right. But, when Elliot came into the precinct telling everyone that he was back with Kathy, Olivia couldn't help but feel a little heartbroken.

Suddenly, Kathy's eyes latched onto Olivia's. She stepped forward until she was standing uncomfortably close to Olivia. So close that Olivia could feel the heat coming from Kathy's body.

In one quick movement, Kathy slapped Olivia, sending both of them stumbling backwards a little bit, the sound echoing through the house.