"As soon as we have the results of these tests we'll call you back in and talk through what we've found. All being well everything will be normal, your blood work and scans will all be clear and we can really just talk about some lifestyle adjustments."

"Fingers crossed…" nodded Elliot, reaching for Olivia's hand as they sat side by side in the doctor's office.

"So you'll call me?" clarified Olivia, "And until then I just carry on making sure I drink plenty and monitoring for all those things you wrote on this list."

"Absolutely, yes, that's right. Try not to worry, try not to take on any unnecessary stress and we'll check back in later this week when we've got the full set of first round results to work from."

"Okay then, well, thank you very much and I'll just wait for your call."

"So you don't like him? Gil?"

"I didn't say that. He's okay, he's cool, he's a good guy…." and then, because Sam was his buddy and he trusted him implicitly Calvin flashed a mischief grin and tipped his head, "…he's just kind of a square, you know?"

"He is kinda boring…." smiled Sam, as he and Calvin sat building model military aircraft in the Stabler back yard like old times, "…. but Texas, she's pretty into him right? She has his baby so I'm kinda hoping so."

"Tex hasn't exactly had the best track record where guys are concerned but I reckon she did good this time. She loves the dude. She really does. I'm happy for her." There was something so refreshingly simple about the way Calvin approached things, and the way he lived life. Sam felt truest equilibrium around hm. "You want another beer, bro?" asked Calvin, leaning down into the cooler and cracking the bottle top with his teeth because he knew Sam hated doing so but would never admit it for pride's sake. "Have at it."

"So I talked to Leah again last night."

"And? Has Crazy cooled off any yet?"

"Don't call her crazy, she's not. She's just got a lot going on that's all. Anyways, she was calmer. I mean she didn't change her mind or anything but I figure we're not in a fight so that's something right?"

"You know I'm really not the best person to talk to about this. I mean you need junkie mom 101 or to stop your best friend whoring herself out to pay rent, out or you're accidentally in love with a minor then I'm absolutely your go-to guy but…."

"You're insane, you're such an idiot….." sighed Sam, though in truth he knew it was just his friend's way. Calvin had listened to him talk for hours and hours about Leah over the years and so he knew his flippancy was only for lack of something new to say. His humour was bone dry and it was when it bordered impropriety the closest that Sam knew he cared the most.

"Livia."

"My Mom?" asked Sam, having thought Calvin had entirely tuned out and returned to gluing the side panels on an Apache. In reality he had clearly been mulling over the situation and Olivia was his solution.

"I can't think of a better person to help you figure out how to help Leah."

"Yeah, no, I can't talk to her about this."

"Sure you can….." said Calvin without hesitation, taking a sip of his beer and handing Sam the propeller blade for his model Chinook. "Man up bro, stop being such a girl about it and give Livia a chance to do what she does best."

"Dude, be real, what twenty year old guy talks to his mom about stuff like that?"

"You do."

"Calvin I'm serious."

"So am I."

"I…." but before Sam could protest further Calvin interjected.

"This isn't about you getting your fingers burned, it's not about how Leah turned you down and bruised your ego. It's about how that kid is a train wreck waiting to happen and you're her guy, you're her best friend, you're the person she goes to. You can't freak out on her now. You gotta grow a pair and step up."

"I guess my Mom does kinda know about all that stuff from her job. She's helped people with HIV and stuff. She knows how it all works."

"Yeah, yeah there's that. I was more thinking about how there's just no judgement with Livia, she doesn't pity you, she just listens and helps and I reckon that might be just what your little friend Leah needs. So just talk to her, do it, small Stabler."

"Maybe you're right, maybe I should."

"I am right and you definitely should."

"Humph."

"Your Mom's a fucking legend, bro….." shrugged Calvin, as though he were stating something as simple as the sky being blue or the earth being round, "… so put her in Leah's corner."

"So it really was for the restaurant?"

"Yeah, yeah no there's nothing sketchy about it."

"Fin they borrowed thirty thousand dollars from a loan shark and were naïve enough to expect it wouldn't end in disaster. I gotta tell you that sounds pretty sketchy to me. I thought Ken was smarter than that. Alejandro has always been too nice for his own good but Ken's streetwise, he knows how things work." Shaking her head Olivia struggled to believe what she was being told. It made no sense. Both the detective and the mother in her wanted to ask a million follow up questions, but instead she simply began with, "How'd he ever think this was going to work out?"

"They had this great investor lined up. The loan was only ever supposed to be a temporary fix until he came on board and then his cut was going to allow them to pay this guy back with plenty to spare."

"Only this dream investor flaked on their agreement?" nodded Olivia, finally beginning to piece together the puzzle that had led to Fin's current crisis. "They didn't maybe think to have him sign off before they…." remembering herself, and that she was not discussing a case but her dear friend's son Olivia bit her tongue and adjusted her tone, "…. so how did things spiral from there?"

"They were trying to get the restaurant off the ground and pouring every dime they had between them into that and soon they were just flat broke. They could make the payments, they couldn't even make half. They've sold their apartment, their car, every damn thing they owned trying to stay afloat."

"My God…." the true depth of the situation was only now beginning to sink in for her. In Fin's eyes she could see the same could be said for him.

"They've lost everything, Liv…." it was so rare, so very rare that she saw him even close to tears. Where his kids were concerned, however, he was vulnerable. Be it Ken or Alejandro, be it Georgia or Sam or Evie his Achilles heel was exposed.

"So you bailed them out." She understood now, she understood it all. Though it didn't excuse his deceiving of Melinda, though his handling of the situation had been horrible she at least could now see that it had not been with malicious intent. His keeping her in the dark was bizarre, uncharacteristic and puzzling but his desire to help his son was nonetheless honourable.

"When I saw Ken lying there in that hospital I just thought of Peach. Remember? Those guys hounding her that time? They wouldn't have stopped, Liv. They would've just beaten and beaten and beaten on those two until they had back what they were owed. I had to stop it."

"How's Melinda? I mean I know she's furious and I have to tell you she has every right. If Elliot pulled this kind of stunt I'd struggle to hold as much grace as she has."

"She's hiding out at Rachel's. I tried to contact her but she wants some time, some space. I guess I just gotta respect that and wait it out."

"Yeah, yeah I think you do. I think you need to trust that she'll come to you when she's ready to talk it through."

"I don't know what I was thinking. I don't know if I was thinking at all, at least of anything other than getting the money to Ken. Maybe I thought she wouldn't agree, maybe I was scared of us not being able to get past that."

"Fin if you couldn't trust that she would come through for your son with something like this then….. " wondering whether to say that which they both knew was true, she hesitated, before going there trustingly, "… well, then you've got bigger problems than your empty bank account."

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry was that…." but no, no it wasn't too much, it was perhaps just enough. Anything less than the brutal truth from her would've been doing their friendship a disservice.

"Don't apologise, cheekbones. God knows I need my ass kicking and you're just about the only one other than Mel with the balls to do it."

"Fin are you okay?" she asked, because with him it was always so hard to tell. Between the situation still unfolding with Ken and his partner and the implications of his betrayal of Melinda there were so many question marks in his life. Even the strongest person would undoubtedly be blown off course.

"Tell me something good. Talk to me about baby girl. How's she doing? How's it going out West? She didn't call me yet and I'm pissed. You can give her that message from her Uncle Fin."

"She's pretty busy!" laughed Olivia, despite the thickness still blanketing the room. "She's doing really well though. Her job is good; the people are all nice and sound like they're being pretty welcoming and supportive. They keep inviting her to do things and helping her get to know her way around and make some friends."

"Well that sure as hell wouldn't happen in Manhattan!"

"She's got this cute little apartment she walked me round when we Skyped and she's sharing with a girl who works for some kind of environmental agency in the Bay. Oh, and on that note, she's now a cyclist."

"A what now?" smirked Fin sceptically.

"She rides her bike over the Golden Gate bridge every day to work…." clearly powerfully proud of her daughter Olivia nodded, "… so that doesn't sound awful."

"Good for her….." smiled Fin, his eyes sparkling with love as he thought of Eve, "… you go, baby girl."

"Morning!"

"Humph….." throat raw from too many cigarettes and a thick head Calvin peeled open his eyes and clicked his tongue groggily, "… what?"

"I said good morning sexy….." came the voice of a busty blonde who was languidly draped along the length of his body, "… so last night was pretty incredible….."

"You have to go."

"What?" she baulked, sitting up and dragging the white sheet of Texas and Gil's guest bedroom up around herself.

"You need to leave….." growled Calvin through still half open eyes as he escaped a heavy self-loathing sigh from deep in his soul, "….now."

"But I don't understand?"

"Which part are you struggling with?" he asked clearing his throat and reaching for the half bottle of warm beer on the nightstand. "We were drunk. We hooked up. Now it's morning and it's time for you to go home."

"So you really are that guy?"

"Yup."

"No, no you're not, you're…."

"What'd you think was gonna happen? I don't even know you're name. You really think we were gonna wake up and snuggle?" by God he missed the smell of Eve's hair when they cuddled. How he could fold her slender little frame into his bear like grasp and just lie with her, holding her, for hours and hours while time stood still. Sex was fine, sex was just physical but snuggling a sleepy, doll like Eve first thing on a morning was sacred.

"You're an ass. You're a total asshole…." she murmured, shaking her head and tearing up as she clambered out of the bed with her hair falling limply out of the previous evening's curls. "I hate you so much. You are exactly who all my friends warned me you were. I bet you do this all the time right? A quick suck and fuck and back to the desert?"

"I didn't hear you complaining last night."

"Go to hell!" she shrieked, now just about wearing her skin tight fuchsia dress and leopard print platform heels. "I hope you get shot in the eye! And my name is Donna!"

"What hell did you do this time, mijo….." came a fond but wearily knowing voice in the doorway as Texas wandered into his room in her pyjamas with Elena on her shoulder, "…. or rather should I say who did you do this time?"

"Donna….." replied Calvin drily, "… apparently."

"Donna doesn't really seem like she was having such a great time from the way she just ran out of here yelling and screaming?" rolling her eyes and picking her way across the chaos Calvin created every time he came home on leave to stay at her apartment Texas took up a perch on the end of the bed.

"Oh no, no you're wrong she had a great time."

"You can't 'f' away the pain Calvin…." she said, deliberately mouthing the letter while pressing a kiss against Elena's hair, "… you told me that, you always told me that."

"I'm sorry I brought her back. That was out of line. I was kind of faded and I didn't think. I won't do that again. It's messed up now Leni's here."

"It was messed up long before Leni was here, mijo, but I appreciate your apology all the same."

"I'm gonna grab a shower and then maybe breakfast? My shout…." twisting that lopsided smile that just automatically forced her forgiveness Calvin shrugged, "…. take my girls out?"

"I know you're hurting. I know Evie just broke your heart all over again."

"No, no I'm fine."

"Cal….."

"I'm moving on….." clearly he was as yet failing miserably in his attempts, but it shocked her still that he seemed determined to continue trying, "…. for real this time."

"You've been trying to move on from that girl since you were nineteen years old, babe. What makes you think it's gonna stick now when it never has before?"

"Because it has to."

"You really are serious, aren't you?" she asked, turning fully toward him and ducking her head to catch his eyes on hers. "You're honestly going to give up on Evie after all this time?"

"It's not giving up on her. It's not like that. I just can't keep doing this. It's fucking killing me, Tex."

"Oh babe….." holding Elena tight against her with one hand Texas reached her other across the bed and rested it on his knee, "… I'm so sorry things didn't work out. I know how madly you're in love with her."

"I gotta let her go…" he choked gruffly, taking another chug of warm beer and wrapping the sheet around his waist shuffled toward the bathroom with a rasping sigh, "… I just gotta start letting her go."

"Cal?" she called, but when he turned around she didn't need to say anything. He knew.

"Oh my Dad is just crazy for baseball. He loves it. He takes us all to games just as often as he can."

"You're really close with your family, aren't you?" jet black hair and dark green eyes there was no doubting that Jack Winston was attractive. Eve had met him at the coffee cart on her first day at the marketing firm and they had hit it off right away. Since then then had spent most of her first two weeks in San Francisco together as he showed her the sights and sounds of the city.

"Do I talk about them a lot?" she asked, suddenly self-conscious. Throwing her purse over her shoulder she pushed her hands into the pockets of her jeans and turned her face to the wind blowing across the bay. "Gosh it's just so beautiful here. There's no place like this in New York, not even Coney or Battery Park feel this free."

"Maybe we can make you into a West Coast girl….." he smiled, mirroring her gesture and pushing his hands lightly into the pockets of his khaki chinos. "I know I'd sure like it if you stuck around."

"Oh no, no I'm a New Yorker in my bones…." she laughed lightly, turning to him and meeting his gaze, "… but still, I think I might grow to like it here."

"So I've got tickets to the Giants game on Saturday, can I take you?" seeing her hesitate, seeing a flicker of some doubt, some nervousness, some fragment of her past he had yet to uncover in her eyes Jack quickly added, "Just as friends, if you don't want to make it a second date."

"I'd like that."

"So, just to be clear…."

"Jack I really want to be completely honest with you. Tonight was great, it was just so great. I had the best time. It was easy and fun and we have just tonnes in common and you're such a sweet guy."

"Oh God, uh oh, why does this sound like it's going to a bad place."

"It's not! Oh, I'm sorry did I make it sound that way? No, no I just, well, you see…." she was floundering, awkwardly, and so taking a breath she just fell quiet a moment. How could she ever find the words?

"Who is he?" by gosh he was smart, she thought. He was so nice, so kind and open she knew she owed him the same in return.

"It's pretty corny, it's so cheesy, it makes me sound like such a stupid kid…."

"Try me?" and so, taking a deep breath, she did.

"He was was my high school boyfriend. And just, well, he never really went away even when he went away. That doesn't make any sense, does it? I'm not making a very good job of this. I guess my point is that the Giant game sounds great, but can we maybe just see how things go as to whether it's a date or not? Is that awful? Am I being really unfair?"

"No, no actually Eve I think you're being about as fair as you could be. I really respect that, as it goes."

"Okay, okay good….." she nodded, almost coyly and feeling uncomfortable in her vulnerability when she spoke of Calvin and their past, "… well that's good then."

"Is he back in New York then? This Mr High School?"

"No, well, yes and no…." she barely knew Jack, she daren't confess to him yet how truly entangled Calvin was with her entire family, "….he's mostly down in North Carolina."

"A Southerner?" grinned Jack knowingly, with just a hint of playful teasing.

"No…." corrected Eve, and her sadness was as palpable to him as the profound love she clearly felt for this old flame, "… a solider."

"Oh, oh I see…." and, disheartened, he did so with perfect clarity.

"Anyways, we've talked enough about me. I think I could just about manage a dessert now….." she smiled warmly, "… you wanna go get ice cream at The Creamery and you can tell me all about growing up in San Jose? I'm sure you've got some stories to tell too?"

"Buddy you sure you don't want me to get Leah an extra ticket? She loves coming to ball games with us."

"Yeah, no, don't get her one."

"Sam, look, I know you're kind of going through it lately with your sister moving away and Cal leaving again but…."

"Dad can we, like, not do this?" asked Sam awkwardly, playing on his phone and deliberately avoiding his father's eyes. "It's fine, it's no big deal. Leah is just busy this weekend is all."

"Okay, okay sure no worries."

"By the way Vee was saying how now she's found a place to live it's cool for me to start thinking about getting out there to see her. I mean I've always wanted to see San Francisco and I'd love to check out Seattle if she was down for a road trip so….."

"I mean I think that's something we'd probably need to sit down with your Mom and talk about. Of course it'd be an awesome trip and you're old enough to make your own decisions with stuff like this now…."

"I feel like there's a 'but' coming?" observed Sam, finally putting his phone away and fully engaging in the conversation. "This is about me still not having gotten into a college yet isn't it? I'm just still figuring out what I wanna do with my life that's all."

"I know you are son and that's fine. That's okay and maybe this is the kind of trip that can help you get your head around stuff. We're just not made of money that's all. The flight will be expensive and then there's everything you'll have to pay for when you're out there. I'm not sure that your job at The Ice Shack is gonna be covering those kind of expenses."

"So I'll get another job."

"Right, right well now you're starting to think about things, that's good, that's what I…."

"Shit!" cursed Sam as a calamitous crash came from the bathroom and both men's heads whipped around.

"Liv? Olivia you okay? You drop something babe?"

"That didn't sound good…." noted Sam, following his father toward the source of the noise with his breath held.

"Olivia? Oh God! Liv? Liv….." falling to his knees beside Olivia who was collapsed on the bathmat with a nasty, bleeding gash across her temple.

"I'm fine! I'm fine I just got a little dizzy and I think I caught my head on the cabinet…."

"Sammy call 911."

"No! No I don't need that!"

"Do it, son!" yelled Elliot, as Sam whipped out his cell phone with trembling hands and did as instructed. Watching Elliot cradling his woozy, semi-conscious mother he explained the situation as best he could to the operator on the other end of the line.