Disclaimer: See previous.


They are thinking about transitions these days, about new people and new positions and new ways of life. Charged though the case has been, in the unit there is an air of admiration for Hailey, so young and so willing to plunge headfirst into a new and terrifyingly difficult reality. Sometimes they wish they were so strong.

While reviewing testimony Kim asks Melinda if Benson and Stabler always think with one mind. Warner's eyes light up. Not lately, she says, not for a long time, when did this happen? And Kim says Yesterday, they wanted me to plead her out, I just looked at them and I could tell, hasn't it always been that way. And Melinda says No, and Kim begins to realize how much she has left to learn.

Elliot lends half an ear to the complaints his twins trade over their homework and discovers that while Dick is struggling with reaction mechanisms and transition states, Lizzie is having her brother explain the Protestant Reformation. In this vein he spends more time with his second child. He tries to actually listen to what she's saying. He thinks maybe she notices.

Meanwhile Fin is muddling through the particulars of how Hailey will transition, a process he finds morbidly fascinating; Munch is trying to figure out how the hell he wound up alone, and Olivia is thinking that she may have actually adjusted to life after.


"Where've you been?" Olivia asks when Munch walks into the room. She frowns in thought. "I feel like I'm asking you that every time I see you."

"Clearly you have abandonment issues."

"He was hidin' from this case," Fin says sympathetically, "that's why he keeps leavin' you."

"So sorry, darling," Munch says airily.

"Relax." Elliot winks at his partner, who actually looks a little bit insulted. "I mean, it's understandable. Gender reassignment surgery didn't exist when Munch was a kid."

"Back when surgery meant choppin' your leg off on a battlefield," Fin adds.

"True," Munch says solemnly. "Why, I remember when they finally decided to give the public access to the idea of antiseptic…"

Cragen pokes his head out to give them all a stern look, and by tacit agreement they settle down, although Fin is heard to grumble, "Can't even let us make fun of him without bringing cover-ups into it."

"Munch is gone an awful lot," Elliot tells her later. "I noticed too."

Olivia rolls her eyes. "You don't need to tell me I'm right, El. I know."

"And you're so modest, too."

"I know."

"So do old men hit on you a lot?"

"That, my friend, is what we call a cheap shot." Olivia twirls a pen absently, frowning at the stack of old case reports before her. "You're just mad you're not pretty enough to be a dancer."

"I can come up with better shots if you want."

"No thank you," she says, laughing.

These moments of normalcy still hit him over the head sometimes. They were scarce for a while, a long while, and then they came back, and he can't figure it out but he doesn't really care what kind of transition he and his partner have made. What's important is that it happened.

Sensing his pensiveness, Olivia looks up. "Thinking about Eli?"

"Trying to figure out what his girl's name would be."

"I see your problem," she says seriously. "Elizabeth's already taken."

He smiles. He has been thinking about Eli a bit, but he reached the same conclusion as he told Hailey: that it would be hard, if his kid turned out different, and undoubtedly he'd screw it up because he excels at screwing things up, but he couldn't stop loving his children if he tried. So he stopped musing over Eli and thought instead about Kathleen.

"How are the kids these days?" Olivia asks, as though she's read his mind.

"Pretty good. Maureen got a new job. Lizzie doesn't get why Dick can't do chemistry, but he has to explain their history homework to her so they finally called it even."

"And Kathleen?"

She knows him too well. Elliot shakes his head but can't stop a slight smile. "She's doing a lot better."

"That's great."

"Yeah." He props his chin on one hand. "I never thanked you properly for helping her."

"I gave up on getting thanks from you a long time ago," she says, only half joking. "But you're welcome anyway."

Antsy all of a sudden, he stands and grabs his coat, "I'm gonna go for coffee. Want some?"

"Please. I don't think I'll make it through these reports otherwise."

"I've got the other half of the reports," he reminds her, already at the door. "Hence coffee."


"How do you do it?" Munch asks his partner.

"Do what?"

"Have all these plans for a kid, and then have him tell you he wants something completely different."

There is a beat of silence while they both think of Ken, and then Fin says, "Man, it's your kid," as though that explains everything.


Pleeeeeease review!...cuz I am having the Week From Hell.