A/N: If they like Liv, then it's all gonna be okay. But what if they absolutely hate their mother? Uh-oh. Takes place one-week after the last chapter.

DISCLAIMER: SVU and its Characters belong to Dick Wolf. Storyline and dialogue, and original characters, belong to TStabler©

Olivia was walking down the hall after using the bathroom when she heard Maureen call her. She backed up a few paces and pushed open the oldest Stabler girl's door. The room, a typical thirteen -year-old's bedroom, was pink and white all over and decorated with posters of bands, actors and fuzzy animals. Olivia sighed. Her room was never this cool.

"Hey, Mo. You should be asleep," she said.

"I kinda wanted to talk to you before you left. I know that you didn't break up Mom and Dad. We all know. We knew she was seeing someone else behind Daddy's back," Maureen explained. "You've always been really cool, Liv. I know that you and Dad work with kids, like abused ones..." she stopped.

Olivia's eyes widened. "Mo, are you about to tell me that your parents..."

"No! Liv, Daddy never hit any of us. He gets mad a lot, but he would never touch us. Mom smacked us a lot, though. I don't know if that's abuse or not," Maureen said, shrugging, but I wanted to tell you because I could never tell Dad. Now that Mom's gone, though, I think it's safe to say it. She also said a lot of really horrible things about you, Liv. We never believed them, though. Pretty much because we just plain don't like Mom and never believed anything she said."

"Mo, why are you..."

Maureen looked up at Olivia. "Because, Liv, you make Daddy happy. He's been happier this week than we've ever seen him. He was smiling and laughing and I haven't seen him like that in so long. We have all been happy lately, Liv, and I don't know if it's because Kathy isn't here or if it's because you are, or both, but I think I speak for all of us when I say I'm happy you're here, and it's cool if you're here more often, too." She hugged Olivia, and Olivia hugged her right back. "Good night," Maureen said, laying back in her bed and pulling her blanket up to her neck.

Olivia left Maureen's room and jumped when she met Elliot out in the hallway. "God, El. Even crickets make noise!" she yelled in a whisper. "You're like the killer in a horror movie."

He chuckled as he pulled her toward him. "My kids really like you, huh?"

"Apparently," she said. "Maureen just told me..."

"Yeah," he said. "I heard her. I've been out here for a while, Liv." He kissed her, once, on the cheek. "I also think it would be cool if you were here more often."

Olivia rolled her eyes. "You would," she quipped. He chuckled again as he leaned in, kissing her neck, moving up to her mouth and laying a slow, loving kiss on her lips. She pulled away, stopping before she couldn't. "I have to go home, El. Not that I wouldn't love to stay with you, but you and your kids need more time. We need more time."

"I know that, Liv. I'm not rushing us. You're too important to me." He nuzzled her neck and dropped another little kiss onto her collarbone. "I'll walk you out to your car."

Olivia stopped and turned to him. "El, at the hospital the other day, you said...you really haven't slept with Kathy in..."

"Three years. Since the day we met, Liv. I tried, but, I just, couldn't. She wasn't what I wanted anymore. Then, when we got closer, and when I knew I was really in love with you, being with Kathy felt like I was cheating on you." Elliot caressed Olivia's cheek. "Sounds pretty crazy, right?"

Olivia blinked and smirked. "Everything you say sounds pretty crazy, Stabler." She wrapped a hand around his neck and pulled him down to her, their mouths meeting and melting together in a crash of emotion. "I love you. I think it takes a real man to not only remain faithful to a woman he doesn't love for the sake of his children, but to also, in his own way, remain faithful to the woman he does love. El, when we do, finally, sleep together, I know it's gonna be worth the wait." He watched her get into her car and drive away, silently hoping he wouldn't have to wait too long.


He woke up, thinking about the amazing week it had been, how in love he was with Olivia and how his kids had already started asking her over for dinner every night and bugging him to take them over to her apartment. He rushed to get the kids packed and off to school, since they all had an overnight field trip to some Planetarium, and he still walked into the precinct ten minutes late. It was as if he'd stepped into a three-ring circus. Phones were ringing off the hook, the place was swarming with uniformed officers and Cragen was in his office with four men from 1PP. Olivia, irritated and annoyed, thrust a file into his hands as she blathered into her phone. He read the file and his eyes widened as he heard her conversation. "No, ma'am. The child we're looking for is white." She rolled her eyes. "White. Blanco! El niño es blanco!" She slammed the phone down, and no sooner was it on the hook did it ring again. "Benson. Oy, no. Sir, we are not trying to find Siamese twins. Connected at the what? No this is not...this is Special Victims...you called the police, sir, not Ripley's Believe It Or Not," she yelled, slamming the phone down. "Did anyone get an actual sighting, here?"

Munch held up a hand, "Woman on Thirty-Fourth said she saw the kid running passed Macy's ten minutes ago. She described the jacket."

"That was our hold." Olivia grabbed her own jacket then grabbed Elliot. "You really need to get your ass to work on time," she barked as she ran down the hall, him following right behind her.

"Good morning to you, too, sweetheart," he quipped.

Olivia snickered. "Yeah, Cragen didn't call you in at four in the morning because of your truck-load of personal shit. I've been fielding calls from people who not only think they saw this missing kid riding a donkey, but that he was doing it with Elvis and he had a mohawk. It was so not a good morning."

"Sorry, Liv. I will try to have less personal shit from now on," he laughed. They were running at a clip toward Macy's on Thirty-Fourth street, then past it, trying to decide which direction to run in now. "If you were a six year old running from the man who kidnapped you, where would go from here?"

"I'd want food, El," she said, pointing to the diner across the street. They ran and pushed the door open, relieved to see the small boy at the counter, eating a stack of pancakes. "I bet theirs suck compared to yours," Olivia whispered to Elliot. She held up her badge to the waitress and gestured to the boy. The waitress nodded. "Nicky?" Olivia said, approaching the boy.

The boy turned around. His cheeks were both bruised, but he smiled at Olivia. "Hello." He shoveled a bite of pancake into his mouth and then offered one to her. "Wanna bite?"

"No, sweetie. Thanks," she said with a smile. She sat on the stool next to the boy. "My name's Olivia. This is my friend, Elliot. We're gonna stay with you until you're done with your pancakes, and then we're going to take you with us, okay?"

He nodded, shoveling another bite of pancake into his mouth. "Mommy and Daddy?" he asked through his full mouth.

"Yeah, buddy," Elliot said, scruffing the boy's hair. "We'll bring you to your mommy and daddy." He sat on the stool next to Olivia and wrapped an arm around her, resting his chin on her shoulder. "You'd want a bite of my pancakes, right?"

"Oh," she said with an eye roll and a light moan. "I want to marry your pancakes." She pulled out her cell phone and dialed. "Yeah, Fin. We got Nicky. Eating. No, uh, we're gonna let him eat. He probably hasn't in a while. We'll bring him in when he's done."


"Okay, Nicky. Did the man who took you from the school have dark hair like Elliot's, light hair like your mommy's or in-between hair, like mine?" Olivia asked.

Nicky shrugged, then pointed at Cragen. "Like him."

"Like him? No hair?" Olivia asked. Cragen narrowed his eyes at her. "Um, if it was really like my friend Don's it was magic invisible hair," she said, making a funny face at the boy, earning a laugh, and then smirking at Cragen.

Elliot, next to Cragen, absentmindedly said, "God, she is amazing."

"Yeah, she is," Cragen said. "There's an envelope on your desk that, according to Casey, says you can finally admit that out loud."

Elliot turned around and ran to his desk, picking up a rather thick envelope. He opened it and smiled. Casey's letter, which he pulled out first, said that an anonymous phone call to the judge handling his divorce gave convincing, credible and powerful character witness statements on his behalf and enticed the judge to process all of the paperwork and proceedings faster. Elliot was legally divorced, and his custody hearing date had been moved up. Casey also said, off the record of course, that he was definitely getting the children because Kathy's DUI and infidelity, along with allegations made by the character witness, were enough to declare her an unfit mother. No lawyer, no matter how good, would be able to fight successfully for full custody. His eyes, welling up with tears, shot up to the door of the interrogation room in time to see Nicky wrap his little arms around Olivia, then his mother shook her hand as they left.

Olivia walked toward him looking down at the drawing in her hand. "We got a full sketch. Nicky's description gave us this guy, who kind of looks like Mr. Clean with really big eyes," she stopped when she looked up and saw the look in Elliot's eyes, the look that was directed at her. "What?"

"I love you," he said.

"Elliot, you might not wanna say that while we're at work." She turned to walk away but he grabbed her arm. "Okay, ow," she said smirking. "What'd I do, Officer?"

He held up the papers. "You called Judge Donnelly?"

"That depends. If it was a good idea, I did it. If you're pissed off, it was Munch," she said folding her arms and raising an eyebrow.

Munch yelled from his desk, "I didn't do shit, Stabler."

"I know, Munch," Elliot said with a laugh. "Liv, you got the woman to push my divorce through a week ahead of time, and she moved the date of the...why are you smirking?"

"I'm not smirking. This isn't a smirk," she said, pressing her lips together.

Elliot chuckled. "Okay, Benson, what is that silly expression on your face, then?"

"Ask me why, El. Ask me why I went to a judge that we both despise and gave her enough personal and emotional information to consider her my goddamn therapist just so you could have that tiny, little piece of paper that declares you legally divorced a week early," she said with her this-is-not-a-smirk-smirk.

"I assumed it was because you love me, but, okay, I'll bite. Why, Liv?" he asked with a smile.

"Because, Elliot," she leaned into him and whispered, almost seductively, "It would have been terribly immoral of me to sleep with a married man while his kids are in upstate New York with their school tonight." She took the sketch with her and said something to Fin, leaving Elliot standing, dumbstruck at his desk. Olivia turned back to him and chuckled. "See, El. That, on your face, right there? That's a smirk."

A/N: Yeah, you dirty-minded folks, you will get it, and of course, Kathy has to ruin the happy, somehow.