Title: Welcome Home
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 Jack and Benji have been created and developed for the sake of this AU series.
Summary: Olivia continues to work at establishing her family and learning how to navigate motherhood while still serving with SVU. There's lots of challenges for her ahead as she adjusts to the changes in her life, surmounts new situations and legal troubles for her and her adopted children, and tries to find some time and space for herself in it all too. This is the sequel to Hello, Goodbye.
Author's Notes: 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. Most of the chapters will ultimately take place outside of the work environment, so there aren't going to be too many references to cases from the show. But this story would generally be starting in about Season 15 of the show. Please let me know what you think and if you distribute elsewhere.
Olivia was just sitting on the top of a picnic table near the playground as she watched her little boy run around like a full-blown maniac. As he was moving from play structure to play structure she was having to get up and move to another picnic table or bench – or pace along the edge of the play space. But she was giving Benji his space.
As clingy as her little boy could be – as shy and unsure as he could be at times, and as much of a loving, mushy, mama's boy as he'd proven himself to be – he also was pretty dedicated to his independence. She'd learnt quickly that when they were at the park he did not like mommy hovering over him – so she did her best not to be a hen-pecking, helicopter mom. Though, she still watched him like a hawk even if she did stick to the sidelines. He'd come and find her if he decided he wanted her to play. Usually it wasn't that he wanted her to play – it was that he wanted demonstrate to her what a big boy he was and whatever special skill or talent he had at a particular moment. It usually amounted to being able to climb up or hanging off something in an exceedingly fast and unsafe manner. But she usually expressed her admiration for his talents.
The park they were in at the moment was pretty incredible. She'd become a bit of an expert at Manhattan – and even Brooklyn and Queens – park spaces and playgrounds, especially over the summer. But the Dennis the Menace Playground in Monterey was putting New York City to shame. It was beyond expansive. It had about every type of play structure imaginable – everything from the usual slides and jungle gyms to a full-size locomotive, climbing wall and shrub maze. It was all divided up into different areas connected by bridges and tunnels – and what had started out as just a quick break to stretch the legs and let Benji run out some of his sillies before putting him in the car had turned into a multi-hour affair. When Benji wasn't running to find the next section to explore, he was flopped in the sand and digging a hole or making a run for the concession stand with the drinking-water fountain in a lion's mouth that almost seemed like it might be the highlight of the park for him.
The park and some of its features had been expansive and unique enough that even Jack had seemed enthralled when they first arrived. For the first about forty-five minutes of their stay there he'd been happy to trail around after Benji and use his little nephew as an excuse to try out the roller slide, demonstrate his superiority at the climbing wall, and cause the suspension bridge to bounce in a way that was sending Benji in the air and crying out in pure glee. But the novelty had seemed to wear off eventually. He'd wandered back over to her after he'd managed to scale the climbing wall.
"Can I borrow the car keys, Ma?" he'd asked.
Ma. It seemed to be his adopted term for her at the moment. She didn't think he'd called her Olivia yet. She was almost surprised. She'd really expected to be Olivia. But she'd been Mom and more consistently Ma. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. Ma seemed so short and sort of old. She liked the sound of Mom better. But she wasn't going to argue with him about it. Because really she just liked that she was something in the mother-realm to him at that point.
She'd looked at him for a moment, thinking he was going to get a drink out of the cooler. She thought about asking him to bring her a bottle of water as well and a juice box and some fruit for Benji. But he must've realized that's where her thought process was going.
"There's a skate park," he said and pointed. "It's on the other side of the train. I could see it from the top of the climbing wall."
She just nodded and moved to fish the keys out of her purse. He'd taken them and wordlessly disappeared back to where they'd left the SUV before returning several minutes later with his skateboard under his arm and handing the keys back to her. He also set a couple bottles of water next to her and a bag of grapes.
She gave him a smile. "Thanks," she allowed.
He just nodded. "I'll be back in a bit," he said. "Or it's just over there," he said again and pointed in the direction again, "if he gets bored or you're ready to go or whatever."
She just nodded and gave him a thin smile. "Have fun," she said and watched as he strode away.
It'd been interesting talking to and interacting with Jack so – even just watching him. He'd definitely grown-up a bit more. He seemed more confident and comfortable in his own skin. She thought he seemed more comfortable in their family unit than before too. In lots of different ways. So far he seemed to be being more patient with Benji and showing more interest in playing with him and doting on him. He was being more polite with how he spoke to her too. He was still saying and doing some typical teenaged boy and college student things – but at least they seemed more age appropriate. More like what she'd expect out of a 19- and 20-year-old and less so what she'd expect coming from a 15- or 16-year-old.
The first hint of the more things change the more things stay the same had come their second night at a hotel. Jack had actually willingly let Benji crawl into bed with him to watch an in-room movie that Olivia had consented to since Jack hadn't gotten to watch television or a movie in such a long time. It'd been some super hero movie that she didn't have an interest in watching and something that she normally would've vetoed Benji watching. But she'd brought a couple books with her that she thought she might actually have a chance to read on her vacation and she'd figured that Benji would be passed out before anything too nightmare inducing happened in the film.
She'd been right. Benji had fallen asleep quickly and she'd managed to get through about the first hundred pages of her novel, only managing to glance up a few times when something exploded on the television screen. She'd looked over the boys each time she did register that something was happening in the film. Jack had been lying fairly transfixed by the movie while Benji cuddled next to him. Jack's arm was loosely around him and once she'd even caught him (likely unconsciously) fiddling with the little boy's hair with his one hand while he still stared at the screen.
She hadn't really looked over again until she saw Jack getting up from the bed and had looked at the screen to see the credits rolling by.
"Was it good?" she asked.
Jack sort of shrugged. "It wasn't bad," he responded.
She allowed a small laugh at that. That was a pretty neutral answer. She thought he likely realized that she'd probably just had enough charged to her credit card that they could've taken the family to two or three movies for the same price as the privilege of laying in bed and watching one in a hotel.
"It likely would've been better on the big screen," Jack allowed quietly.
She nodded. "Most of those kinds of movies are. We'll see about going to something when we get home."
"That'd be good," Jack said and he'd stood with his back to her next to the bed he and Benji had been sharing and pulled his tshirt over his head.
Jack taking off his shirt in front of her was an indication enough of progress. Before he wouldn't even do that in the apartment – not even whipping from the washroom after his shower into his bedroom to get changed. But even more surprising from where he was standing, he unbuttoned his shorts, let them fall down his legs and then in his underwear – which he usually blushed about her even having folded for him after doing any laundry he left in the hamper – he crawled back into the bed and pulled the covers over top of him.
Jack didn't do any kind of nudity in front of her. She knew it came with multiple layers from what he'd experienced growing up. Abused he'd endured at the hands of his uncle. Abuse by proximity to his sister and her problems and seemingly hyper-sexuality. His own self-consciousness and discomfort in his own skin and with anything that he perceived as sexuality. His inexperience with being around adult women from while he was young and not being sure what was and wasn't appropriate.
She knew it was over-simplifying it but the general gist of Jack's bashfulness even around their apartment, she'd decided at boiled down to three things: she wasn't allowed to see his surgical scar; she wasn't supposed to know that men wore underwear; and, she likely wasn't supposed to acknowledge that he was male – lest it might mean that she consider him in some sort of context of his father, which apparently was gross.
So at home, she gave him lots of space and privacy. She certainly didn't want to see Jack naked or in any compromising position. But she also didn't think he should feel the need to wear his full body armor (hoodie and sleep pants) when he made traipsed the few feet from the boys' bathroom door to their bedroom door. And she would've sort have liked him to feel more comfortable with swimming with the family since Benji enjoyed being taken to the pool. She'd known that when he was leaving for camp some of his biggest fears were wrapped up around changing in front of people, being in a swimsuit around people, not having much privacy both in the cabins and in the showers.
But it seemed like the time at camp might've helped him with some of that – sleeping more comfortable in his own skin and more comfortable with how much or how little people actually looked at you ever. That made her feel better. She hoped it would make him more comfortable with their family. She hoped that it meant he'd be less bashful about using some of the gyms and pools and other fitness activities around the campus and the dorms and the city – and not just skateboarding. She hoped that a new comfort with his body might help him in terms of relationships too.
But even as she was processing that she glanced at the floor and realized that in typical teenaged boy fashion he'd just left all his day's clothes in a pile exactly where he'd been standing. She allowed a small snort at that and shook her head.
"You going to sleep now?" she asked, though, without commenting on the pile of clothes.
"Yeah," he mumbled. "I'm kind of tired."
She looked at him. "You have your socks on still?" she asked – apparently not fully resisting the urge to comment on his attire.
"Yeah," he said again.
"Don't lose them in the bed," she commented.
"I won't," he said. "I'll get them in the morning."
She nodded – but didn't believe him. The night before he'd done the same thing – wore his socks to bed to try to keep his ice-block feet warm and inevitably did the true-Jack-form of kicking them off and burying them somewhere. Apparently without having her sofa cushions to bury them in, the foot of the bed was just as good of place. It'd been her who'd in the morning pulled down the covers and retrieved them. And it had been her who'd pulled out his sleeping bag when they were working on his laundry and he'd commented about there not being many socks. When she'd unrolled the thing and dug to the bottom she'd found six pairs of dirty socks and shown them to him. Jack's comment: "Oh yeah, I forgot."
"You want me to move Benji?" she asked, sitting up straighter to see the sleeping little boy. He was already in his pajamas. "Or do you want this bed and I'll sleep with him?"
But Jack had just snuggled down into the covers and reached to turn out the light on his side of the bed. "Nah," he said. "He's fine."
And it had been fine – because Jack wasn't getting as worked up about things as he used to. He seemed much more laidback and relaxed. He really seemed to be going with the flow and she wasn't sure she could've expected that of him. Jack like structure and routines and he was a worrier. But maybe camp had knocked some of that out of him too.
She'd fully expected Jack to be anxious about when they were getting back to the city and to be rushing them down the coast and through their vacation. But he seemed happy to be just taking their time. And they were taking their time.
She'd really just intended to spend their first morning in Santa Cruz before starting to make their way down the coast. But they'd ended up taking the morning to walk down to the boardwalk. Both boys had been happy to wander along there and to play on the beach – splashing in the surf and digging in the sand. Most of the morning had really been eaten up before they even reached the amusement area of the boardwalk.
She'd done a bit of a test run with Benji at Coney Island earlier in the summer to see how he handled an amusement park with lines in preparation for if a stop at Disneyland would even be realistic. He'd survived – and had fun on the couple rides he did get to go on – so he immediately knew what was in front of them at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. He hadn't hesitated to look at her pleadingly.
"We go on ride Mommy?" he asked politely but with just a bit of a pout.
She'd known what she was getting herself into when they'd wandered into the amusement section. She knew she couldn't very well take the boys to the boardwalk – with the amusement park in sight – and then walk to the gates with them and expect them not to go on any rides. Besides, she'd seen how Jack's eyes had lit up too as he pointed out there were rollercoasters. It seemed like he now associated California with rollercoasters after his first experience riding one at the Santa Monica Pier during his internship interview, which seemed so long ago and far away now.
"Hmm … maybe one, Little Fox," she'd allowed and taken his hand tightly while they made their way through the area in search of the rides for children.
Jack had dallied as they went along. Apparently there were too many rides to choose from. But he'd pointed out that Benji was too short for all of them.
"You can still go on a couple," she assured him.
He'd gazed at her a little disappointed. "Alone?"
"Well, what am I supposed to do with Benji, sweetheart?"
He sighed and just kept looking around – not telling her which one he might like to ride.
Of course when they'd arrived in the children's section every ride that to be vehicle related – with the notable expectation of one, which was dragon related, which didn't help her at all either. So getting Benji to make a decision about which one he wanted to go on ended up being challenging. She'd eventually narrowed it down for him. Informing him he had the choice between a sports car and an old car. He picked sports car – and let Jack ride with him. Jack had initially seemed a little reluctant to go and squeeze his six foot frame into the vehicle but had eventually let his nephew drag him over to the queue.
"Have fun?" Olivia asked when they'd returned to where she was waiting – having caught their snail paced rounds on the little track on her phone.
"Oh yeah," Jack had said. "It was a real Indy 500."
"Mommy! Planes!" Benji had demanded without answering her question but apparently having decided to self-select out of fear he might not get another ride out of her.
The kids didn't get to have an adult with them on that ride so Jack was spared and stood with her as they watched Benji play the Red Baron as his vehicle crawled up and down in his slow circuit.
"That one looks more exciting than the cars," Jack said.
Olivia just shot him a smile. "Slightly," she conceded and then watched him. "You should go on one of the coasters. We'll wait for you."
"Nah," he said. "It wouldn't be fair to you guys."
Olivia shrugged. "I don't mind. We'll wait for you. You'll likely get on quick as a single rider."
"It's OK," he told her.
"Did you see anything else you wanted to do?" she suggested. "One of the games? We could walk through the arcade building and see what they've got." But he just shook his head, so she glanced around behind her back into the rest of the park – trying to catch the glimpse of the top of some ride that she thought she might be able to convince him to give a go. It was then she spotted it. She pointed back toward the entrance of the park. "The climbing wall?"
Jack looked but shrugged. "It's seriously OK," he said.
"Com'on," she said. "That's high. Go up it and get a panoramic picture for me. The view must be great."
"Ma, it's OK," he said and shot her a look.
"Think you won't make it?" she teased him gently.
He gave her another look. "I can definitely make it to the top," he said.
She shook her head – not at him but at the tower. "That must be at least 30 feet – and it's not a cake walk either. Look at some of those obstacles."
He finally gave the wall more than a passing glance and actually looked at it.
"You know I got practice this summer, right?" he said.
She nodded. She knew. He'd sent her pictures of the grappling trip he'd gone on and he'd shown off the climbing wall and rope course at the camp to her.
"So, show off," Olivia suggested. "Demonstrate your skills."
"OK," Jack agreed with that competitive edge to his voice that he usually reserved for when he was about to kick her ass in videogames. But she'd take it.
She just nodded at him and smiled. "Good," she said.
On the walk back to the climbing wall, she'd managed to spot a few rides they could go on as a family. So Jack did get a rollercoaster in – though, she doubted the twisty-turny sea serpent had exactly met his thrill factor. But he did seem to enjoy showing Benji to put his hands in the air as the ride bobbed along its track. The boys had delighted even more in the stop at the Riptide ride, that they'd got spinning so fast that she thought she might vomit. Though beyond stumbling a couple steps and giggling more when they stepped off the ride neither of the boys seemed the least bit effected. Olivia was just glad they hadn't eaten lunch before going into the park. She likely would've lost it. And then, as promised, Jack did make it to the top of the climbing wall and when he returned to her and Benji, he'd proudly shown her the picture he'd snapped up top.
"You looked like an ant, Peedg!" Benji had declared on his uncle's return.
Jack had beamed madly at the comment but contended, "It wasn't that high."
"You took a challenging route," Olivia said of having watched his efforts from the ground.
"I wanted to prove that I knew how to navigate some of the obstacles now," Jack said almost a little too smugly.
But she just nudged him in the shoulder and smiled. "Guess we'll have to see how you do at a real climbing gym now," she told him.
"Grappling," he said even more smugly.
She just smiled some more and shook her head at him and then started working on moving the boys further towards the exit of the park. She thought at that point they'd be grabbing some lunch and starting down the road but as they were walking back to the hotel and their vehicle, Jack had rather sheepishly admitted he hadn't done his laundry before leaving camp.
Olivia had sighed a little when he'd said that. She had wanted to get going and really starting their road trip. But she stopped and reminded herself they weren't on a scheduled. She'd purposely given them more time than they needed to get down the coast. They didn't have access to the beach house for almost a week and even if they arrived there a day or two late, it wasn't going to be end of the world. They were on vacation. They could go at their own pace. They weren't going to rush it. She was going to let the boys help define what their holiday was going to look like – and apparently their first afternoon of their holiday was going to include Jack's laundry.
After they'd managed to find a Laundromat Jack had decided to become Mr. Chatty again and had been babbling at her about how Santa Cruz was a real skateboarding town and how it was weird that they hadn't seen any skate parks and how there were supposed to be a ton of skate shops in the town. How there was even a skate company called Santa Cruz – how it'd be cool to get a Santa Cruz tshirt in Santa Cruz. So she'd told him that he should go and do that. She'd take care of his laundry – he should go and take a look around; he didn't know when he'd get back there.
He'd looked at her like he was considering it but then glanced at Benji. "Should I take Jamin?"
Olivia shrugged. "If you want to. You don't have to. He's fine," she said and gestured at where Benji seemed pretty engrossed in the coloring book she'd set him down with – at least for the moment.
He'd finally said, "OK" and again had come the request for the keys to the SUV. That time to retrieve his "long board."
Olivia wasn't exactly sure what a "long board" was – other than a giant skateboard and one that she was already contemplating just how exactly they were going to get it back home on the flight. It would likely have to be checked separately. That wasn't something that Jack was going to be able to strap to the back of his backpack and get through security or bury in some of his luggage. But her son seemed particularly proud of this new acquisition. He'd bragged about how he'd made it at camp – not just rigged it – made it. Pressed the wood for the deck together, gone through the gluing process and cutting it to shape. Decorating it and selecting all the hardware for it. Meticulously piecing it together for a smooth ride. When she'd asked what sort of tricks you could do on something that big he'd looked at her like she was crazy and like she clearly hadn't taken her skateboarding lessons seriously enough.
"It's for cruising MOM!" he protested.
"Oh," she allowed. She knew what cruising was. She just wasn't sure that was anything she'd previously related to skateboarding. Or that she thought the idea of 'cruising' on something that giant on the streets of New York was the brightest idea. But that was a discussion for another time. She was sure cruising on the streets of Santa Cruz was likely safe enough. So she'd let him disappear on his skateboarding mission.
It was getting late in the afternoon by the time he'd reappeared with his Santa Cruz tshirt and stories about the three shops he'd visited that would totally make Gecko jealous (Though he had managed to trade one of his Funky's tshirts for a tshirt from one of the local shops he'd stopped into and apparently was familiar with the New York shop). She'd been weighing in her head if they should just take another night but had decided to start the drive. They'd only gone about an hour down the coast to Monterey, though, before she decided they'd all had a long enough day and it was time to get them some dinner. Beyond that she hadn't wanted to miss out on Monterey.
Jack had humored her when in the morning she'd said that she wanted to look at Cannery Row. Though he had asked why she was interested in the touristy strip.
She shrugged. "It's from a book," she said.
"What book?" he asked.
"Cannery Row," she told him.
"Yeah. But what book?"
"Cannery Row," she said again. "It's by Steinbeck."
"He's Of Mice and Men," Jack said.
"And Cannery Row," she added. "And many, many more."
"Of Mice and Men was pretty good," Jack said.
She nodded. "I think you might like some of his other works too."
"And let me guess, you have his entire collection on the bookshelves at home?" he said. But it was teasingly – not the snark and sarcasm that had previously laced so many of his discussions. And, though, that had been nice to hear, what she'd really noticed was that he'd called the apartment home. He'd done it several times so far. He wasn't calling the city home – he was calling their home home – and she was so glad and relieved he was finally seeing it that way and understanding it was his place just as much as hers and Benji's.
"I don't quite have his entire collection," she said. "But there's a few on the shelves."
"They yours or your Mom's?" he asked.
She thought about it for a second. "They're likely from my mother's collection," she conceded. "But I really can't remember every book I've ever purchased."
"Because you own a library," he informed her.
She snorted. "And some day it will be all yours," she said.
"I think you will have brainwashed Jamin more than me that reading is where it's at."
"Reading is where it's at," Olivia said and rolled her eyes.
"We do summer reading challenge," Benji interjected at that. "We do pre-kidder-garden and kidder-garden list be-cuz I not pre-kidder-garden anymore and I not kidder-garden yet. But I between. So I read FIFTY books."
"You mean Mommy read fifty books," Jack put back to him. Olivia inwardly smiling at him saying 'Mommy' and not even sure if he'd realized it.
"No. I read," Benji said. "So I get badger and I enter raffle and I get sticker and bookmark. I even read FIVE grade one books. So I get extra special badges."
"What's extra special about them?" Jack asked.
"They Grade ONE!" Benji said – like it was obvious that that was clearly enough to make them extra special.
"Oh," Jack allowed and gave her a look. "Sounds like your summer was thrilling."
"I have to read him at least two stories a night," she commented. "Hitting fifty books wasn't hard. The hard part was getting the ones on the list checked out so he could get the badges."
"So he's got a pile of badges at home? Like Scouts or something?"
"No. They are just online."
"He's excited about online badges?" Jack asked.
"AND STICKERS!" Benji clarified.
"Oh," Jack said again and looked down at Benji who transferred from Olivia's hand to his, grabbing it tightly and swinging it.
"One book called VI-ZIT to da Fire Station," Benji said. "It about being a real firefighter. But I already viz-it the fire station and know how to be firefighter. But we read anyway. Then I tell firefighter Joe-din about book in case he need to read it too."
"I'm sure that must've been very helpful to him," Jack said.
Benji nodded hard. "Yes. Be-cuz he a pro-bee. So he still learning too."
Jack had laughed at that and given Olivia a look. "You're letting a four-year-old give advice to firefighters?"
She shrugged. "He didn't seem to mind."
Jack rolled his eyes. She'd fully expected the eye rolling to continue as they looked around Cannery Row and the Fisherman's Wharf. It really was more touristy than she wanted it to be. But it was still cute.
She'd bought the boys a small bag of salt water taffy as nearly a bribe to get them to let her look. It had more-or-less worked when she'd combined it with letting them look through an exceedingly tacky 'pirates treasure' gift shop – that she'd managed to escape having to buy anything in. They'd stayed outside the couple shops that she'd looked in chewing on their candy – and their mouths had been full enough that there'd been no comment from Jack about her purchase of a bottle of local wine that she intended to enjoy at some point over the vacation.
Jack had surprised her even more when she'd offered up lunch - rather than making their way back to the SUV and the cooler inside with its fruit and sandwich fixings – and there'd been no commentary that nearly everything on the wharf was serving seafood. Nor had there been the suggestion or outright insistence that they try to find another dining option. Still without comment they'd ordered the market-fresh fish and chips and sat on the patio overlooking the harbor in a positioning that finally let Benji see sea lions, after he'd shed so many tears about missing the seals on their Montuak trip. Benji was enthralled and called down off the deck to them throughout most of their meal – repeatedly asking if he could throw them fries, and apparently hoping that her answer would change from the a firm "no" and "Mommy is going to take your fries away and you aren't going to get to finish them" when he started dangling one when he thought she wasn't looking.
"How'd you feel about going out on one of those boat tours after lunch?" she directed more at Jack than Benji.
Jack had looked up from his meal. "Like the whale ones?"
She shrugged. "I think they look at more than that. Sea lions, whales, dolphins, otters."
Jack looked skeptical. So Olivia shrugged again. "Or there's the aquarium. We went to the aquarium on Coney Island. He liked it. Not as much as the zoo but still. This one is supposed to be good, though."
"I've never been on a boat," Jack said quietly. "I just … I don't know."
"Well, it's your chance to go out on a boat," she provided.
"Have you ever been on a boat?" he asked.
Olivia shook her head even though that wasn't entirely true. "Unless you're counting the ferries – not for a long time. Nothing like this."
Jack seemed to think about it for a bit – gazing more at his nephew and the chatter at the sea lions, and now a couple sea otters that were within sight too. Benji thought everything from firetrucks to bulldozers to every animal on the planet should think he was interesting enough to talk back too. And, he was just as convinced if he kept talking to them, eventually they would.
"I mean, I guess," Jack said. "If you want to …"
She gave him a thin smile. "I want to," she provided.
It'd been a bit longer tour than she anticipated and they hadn't been dressed properly. The chill from the ocean breeze was enough that at certain points on the tour she'd had the boys cuddled against either side of her as they tried to leech body heat. She actually thought she was getting more heat and protection from them than they were from her. But she'd still wrapped one arm around each of them and rubbed at their shivering biceps and backs, apologizing for not thinking through that plan quite well enough.
But they did get to see lots of wildlife. They'd seen the expected marine mammals and then had caught a glimpse of a sea turtle and a ray too. They'd been lucky enough to see both humpbacks and a blue whale. And they'd been exceedingly lucky that one of the humpbacks had breached and they'd been standing on the right side of the boat when it happened – seeing its great body hurl itself into the air and then crash back into the ocean. She didn't think Benji fully appreciated the magnitude of the sighting but Jack had stood there slack-jawed and had let a "Holy Shit" slip out.
It had been after the boat tour that she'd decided to take the boys to the outskirts of town to the Dennis the Menace Park that she kept running across when she'd been doing research about things to do down the coast. Benji had struggled with being confined to the boat for nearly four hours and she thought it'd be a good idea to let him run around for a while before putting him in the car and trying to get a little bit farther down the road. But they'd now spent so much time at the playground she'd already decided that when the boys decided they were done for the afternoon, they'd just find another hotel in the area and spend the night there. Start fresh in the morning.
They really hadn't made it very far in the first two days of the road trip. But Olivia still felt like they'd covered a lot of ground.
