A/N: The hunt is always harder than it needs to be, but the prize is always worth it.

DISCLAIMER: SVU and related characters/ideas belong to Dick Wolf. Original plot and dialogue belong to TStabler©

Elliot walked into the squad room and shook the snow off of his shoulders. He put the two steaming cups of coffee on his desk and pulled off his gloves as Munch spoke.

"Okay," the older detective said, "I'm getting a little tired of you either ignoring the coffee I make or only bringing two cups of the real stuff."

Elliot laughed. "I only have two hands," he said, taking off his jacket. "My priority is Liv, not you, man. And it always will be. Sorry." He hung up his jacket and looked around. "Speaking of Liv, where is she?"

Fin smirked. "Dunno," he said with a shrug. "She came in grumbling about having to deal with you being all merry, since it's Christmas Eve, left a note by your computer for you, then stormed out of here."

Elliot furrowed his brow and turned toward his desk. He played with his green tie, with images of Christmas lights all over it, as he bent over and peeled the sticky note off of his monitor. "El, I'm not feeling very holly or jolly. Went to cool off. Meet me in five minutes. Liv." He bit his lip and wondered out loud, "Where the hell did she go?"

"You're a detective," Munch said, trying to hide the smile on his face. "You figure it out."

Elliot glared at the old man, then looked back down at the note. "Went to cool off? The roof? We go there to talk when one of us is pissed off," he mumbled, leaving the bull pen, and he walked quickly down the hall.

He made his way up the stairs, pushing the door to the roof open, regretting that he'd left his coat downstairs. He looked around and was confused. She wasn't there. He turned back, and that's when he saw the sticky note on the door. "Not here, Frosty. The weather outside is frightful! I went to cool off, not freeze!" he read to himself.

He raised an eyebrow, confused, then he smiled. "Nice, Liv," he chuckled, shaking his head. He ran back down the stairs, whistling to himself, as he headed toward the gym. He walked in, passing the machines and punching bag, and he had almost pushed his way into the small room housing the tiny, heated, precinct pool, when a note on the door caught his eye.

He pulled it off and read, "You figured out, Rudolph, but you're a little late. Didn't anyone ever teach you and your shiny nose how to tell time?" He dropped his hands to his side, bit his lip again, and thought. "Time, watch, clock," he muttered to himself as he walked back out the way he came.

He took the stairs down even more, taking them two-at-a-time, getting out at the lobby. Out of breath now, he looked around, trying to find the large clock that, if memory served, was on the wall at one point.

"Detective Stabler?" a voice behind him called.

He turned and said, "Yes."

"Detective Benson asked me to give this to you," the young man in uniform told him. He handed Elliot a yellow note.

"Thanks," Elliot said, looking down at the slip of paper. "Nice try, Saint nick, but it's not here. It broke, remember? Your time is running out, find me before it's too late." His eyes widened and he ran, nearly knocking the rookie over.

He ran back toward the elevator, turning left down a small hallway. The old punch-in time-clock, which no one had used in years, was built into the wall to his right. He laughed, remembering the time he and Olivia had hidden away in this hallway, knowing no cameras could catch them. No one ever walked down here, so they had a few precious moments to themselves.

He pulled the small square note off of the lever and smiled. "Last Christmas. I remember it, too," the note declared in Olivia's girly script. "But you missed me again. I'm getting really tired of waiting for you."

"Tired?" he queried out loud. "Tire, like you're tired, or tire, like the wheel on a car?"
He needed to think, now, knowing no matter where he went he would just find another note. He didn't want to be wrong again. He wanted to get to the next clue in this Christmas hunt quickly.

He ran outside, into the bitter cold, ignoring the snow falling around him. He ran over to his car, and he sighed when he saw the note, stuck to the inside of the window. He brushed the snow off of the glass to get a better view and squinted to read it. "The other kind of tired," he read with a laugh. "Come inside, sit down, and open your present, El."

He turned and headed back into the station. He ran up the stairs, all the way to his unit, and he burst through the doors. He glanced up the stairs, hoping she would be up there, and ran toward the cribs. He took a few deep breaths before he opened the door, and when he did, he breathed a sigh of relief. "You were here?" he asked. "The whole time?"

She laughed and nodded. "You figured it all out, though," she told him. "Eventually."

"Oh, shit, Liv," he said, his eyes widening as he flipped through the notes in his hand. "I could have…cool off. Cragen sends us up here when we fight, to cool off. I should have just come up here to begin with!"

She chuckled. "Good job, Stabler," she said with a sigh and a nod.

"So what was all of this about? What present?" he asked, sitting next to her. He wrapped an arm around her and leaned in to kiss her, but she pulled away from him. "You didn't send me on a wild goose chase to find you so you could tell me you're leaving me on Christmas Eve, did you?"

"No," she told him rolling her eyes and shaking her head. "I wanted to give you one of your presents early. Get you alone for a few minutes. I think it's…well, I think it's pretty much the best present ever, but…I don't know how you're gonna react. I didn't wanna do this tonight in front of everyone at the party, or tomorrow in front of Kathy and the kids. God, especially not in front of Kathy."

He squinted at her and asked, "What? Baby, anything you got me is…ya know what? I don't even need presents from you. I have you, period, and that's enough. It always has been."

She reached behind her back and grabbed a box, then dropped it into his lap. "Say that after you open this, then I'll believe you."

He looked down at the box, beautifully wrapped, and said, "Liv, baby, whatever this is I'm sure I'm gonna…"

"Open it," she snapped, cutting him off and making him jump.

He looked at her, noticing she was nervous, petrified flickers in her eyes. "Okay," he whispered, "Just calm down, Liv. Look. I'm opening it."

She watched with fear and anticipation as he pulled the ribbon off of the box. She watched his fingers tear into the paper, and she watched, holding her breath, as he lifted the top off of the box.

He looked into the box, confused. He lifted the picture into his hands, holding it delicately between his fingers. "Please, tell me that this is what I think it is, and not an underdeveloped photo from the blackout in Vegas."

"No, it's…it's that. That is…what it is," she said, her words shaky as her voice broke.

He looked up at her, tears filling his eyes. "We're…we're gonna…you're…"

"Yeah," she said, cutting him off with a nod. "We are. I am. I'm sorry, I thought I was…"

"Sorry?" he interjected, turning to face her completely. "Sorry? I'm sorry this didn't happen sooner, baby!" He felt the tears running down his cheeks, and he sniffled as he looked into her eyes, threatening to leak, too.

She sniffled back at him. "You're not mad? Not upset?"

He scoffed. "Why would you ever think I would be?"

She shrugged again and sniffled once more. "You and I…El, we never talked about this, and…"

"We talk about this all the time," he interrupted, pulling her closer to him.

She sniffled and tried to look into his eyes. "We talk about having them someday, we talk about what it would be like one day, not today. Not now. We never said…you never said you wanted…that you were ready for…"

He kissed her, silencing her, and he ran one hand over her belly. "We're having a baby," he whispered, cupping her face.

She reached up and brushed away the tears falling from his eyes with her thumbs. "Yeah, we are." She smiled at him, seeing the light in his eyes, and said, "I think it's a pretty good gift."

"Shit, yeah it is," he laughed. "How long?" he asked, kissing her again.

"Four months," she said. "I just thought…with all of the stress and our workload I didn't think anything was wrong. We've been eating out a lot, and…"

"So that was, what, the end of August?" he questioned, stopping her.

"I guess, yeah," she laughed.

He kissed her again, grinning. "And we're talking, what, uh, May? Probably May, right?"

"The doctor said it could be April, May, or June. Depends on how eager he is," she said, carefully and deliberately, looking deeply into his eyes.

"He," Elliot whispered. "He. It's a boy?" he asked, suddenly looking down at the ultrasound photo in his lap. "Liv, we're…a son…this is…"

She cupped his chin and turned his head toward her. "Merry Christmas, El," she said softly, as another tear rolled down her cheek.

He kissed her, then smiled at her. "Merry Christmas," he whispered. He moved his hand, gently rubbing her belly, and took her left hand with his other. He ran his fingers lightly over her rings, sighed, and dropped his head to hers. Another kiss, another smile, and then another question. "How the hell do we explain all of this to Cragen now?"

She grinned. "We give him his Christmas present tonight, too," she said. She kissed him and held him tight, hoping Cragen would take the news just as well as Elliot had.

A/N: Part two: The precinct party, an unexpected guess, and Cragen's reaction!