Chapter 13

The loud buzzing of an alarm rang through the living room the following morning, waking both Elliot and Olivia from their peaceful slumber. Olivia felt a large weight around her waist as she woke and slowly sat up. She heard a groan come from beside her and looked over to see the still sleeping figure of non-other than Elliot Stabler. She didn't remember what time he'd come over last night, nor did she remember them discussing him staying over. But she had to admit that she'd slept better that night than she had in the past couple of weeks. Olivia grabbed her phone from the coffee table and turned the alarm off, suddenly grateful that she had remembered to set an alarm for her appointment now. If she hadn't set one and left it on, with how deeply she had been asleep just now, she was sure she would have slept right through everything.

"Good Morning" Elliot greeted as she looked down at him next to her.
"Morning, what time did you come over?" Olivia asked, trying to seek some clarity in what had happened last night as she didn't have a clue.
"I think it was about 2am" Elliot replied, sleep still evident in his voice.
"What did we talk about?" Olivia asked, she remembered texting with Elliot last night and she remembered asking him about if he ever thought about coming back. But she didn't have a clue about what they had talked about after that. Olivia was sure she didn't drink that much wine last night to make her memory foggy, otherwise she would certainly be feeling it now, which she wasn't.
"We had a talk about William Lewis and you were really upset, so I came over and we talked for a while longer. But then you fell asleep on me and looked simply too peaceful to move, so we stayed right here all night" Elliot explained.
"Thank you"

"Your welcome, I'm always here if you need me…I want you to know that. I know I wasn't before for a long time but I am now and I promise you that I'm not going anywhere" Elliot said, grabbing Olivia's hand in both of his and holding it in his lap. Their eyes were locked and Elliot was almost pleading with her through this, not to shut him out.

"Well unfortunately you're going to have to leave shortly. I need to get Noah up and ready as we're heading out. I've got an appointment with my physical therapist and then we're meeting up with Don for coffee" Olivia explained as she broke contact with Elliot.
"Right. You just going to kick me out like that?" Elliot teased.
"Well unless you want to stay here in my apartment…by yourself, then yes I have to kick you out. But thanks for being there last night…I really appreciate it" Olivia replied as she climbed off the couch and started heading towards the nursery to wake Noah as they really did have to leave soon.
"Can I call you later then? Check how your appointment went?" Elliot continued to ask, Olivia didn't' understand why it was that he was so persistent on following up with her later. But on the plus side she also found it really sweet. Olivia could hardly turn the guy down when he had come to help her last night and she had probably one of the best night's sleep she'd had in a while, because of it.
"If you want to, then sure"
"Alright" Elliot smiled at Olivia once more before grabbing his things from the coffee table and making his way towards the front door, leaving Olivia to get Noah and get ready for the day.

Olivia's physical therapy appointment went very well, and all the doctors and therapists were happy with Olivia's progress. It was a collaborative decision between everyone, that Olivia was ready to work again. But they gave her a similar rule that if she was going to go back to work then she had to take things easy too and understand that she was still healing. She had been through a large trauma and it wouldn't be fixed overnight but she was making incredible progress. It had been a little over 2 weeks since she had been hurt now and it was impressive that Olivia was going so well in her recovery. Olivia's doctor had stopped by her final appointment and even made the comment that he'd not seen someone bounce back so quickly in the way that Olivia had. But a large drive behind her recovery and everything, was due to Olivia's determination to get back to work as soon as possible. Olivia didn't want to wait around any longer than she had to, she had an important job and needed desperately to get back to it. Not to mention that she now had several important people in her life that she wanted to be there for and improve for, Noah in particular. Olivia hadn't mentioned it out loud but she was also sure that part of her wanted to improve for Elliot, show him that she would be alright. This, in a way, would test if she was truly going to stick around once she was better or if he was really here just to make sure she was ok.

Elliot had shown her in numerous ways that, whilst they were coming back from a really rocky history, he was here to stay. He'd been there for her when she was recovering, he'd come specifically to see that she would be alright and even checked on her almost daily at the hospital. Even when he had gone back to North Carolina to pack up his things, he'd checking in with her often. When Elliot was out of town, he had not been in touch as much as Olivia would have liked but he had still called and checked in with her often to explain where he was right now. He wanted to be there for her the day that she was released from the hospital but had simply not been able to. He'd even been there with her last night, when she went down the 'rabbit hole' of her past and brought down walls in relation to everything that had happened with the psycho William Lewis. Elliot had come right over to her, without her asking for him and he'd stayed the entire night right by her. He was her shoulder to lean on in that situation and she was grateful for that, he made her feel incredibly safe. Elliot hadn't tried to take advantage of her vulnerable state or even tried to take credit for any role in her recovery. He simply wanted to let her know that he was there and would always be there when she needed him, which she was grateful to have again.

Olivia loved watching Elliot and Noah interact, Elliot was so natural with children and Olivia could really tell that Noah liked Elliot. This was particularly clear with the shrieks of laughter that Noah had made when they were playing together at the park, as Olivia had taken a call to confirm her appointment today. Olivia could feel her worries about Elliot not being in her life for the long term, beginning to fade. She could tell that had he been allowed to stay, he never would have left her like that. He never would have left New York in the first place and maybe, just maybe things between them would have progressed to the point where they were discovering a partnership outside of work. But that was in the past, they couldn't do anything about that, they could however change the future if the situation where feelings were explored.

After leaving Olivia's apartment, Elliot headed home to his new apartment to shower and then to probably spend more time unpacking. He wanted to get everything unpacked and settled in as soon as possible, he had other plans that would not leave him time to unpack in the future. Elliot wanted to start looking at getting back to work with the New York Police Department. He didn't want to work in special victims or any particular unit at the moment if it required him to put in long hours or take him away from New York. He also had an interest in developing the future of the Police Department, he had an interest in working with new recruits at the academy. But with that he didn't know exactly who to contact to pursue thing, he knew people who used to work in that area before he left SVU but he didn't know anyone there anymore. However, Elliot was sure that Olivia probably had a contact for the academy and could recommend who to get in contact with. Elliot made a mental note to talk to Olivia about this when they spoke next.

Elliot's remainder of the day was uneventful in terms of everything, he spent most of the morning and some of his afternoon just unpacking and organising his apartment. It was almost surprising with how much he managed to get done in a single day, but the drive to get his apartment set up, was his biggest success today. Once this was done, Elliot decided to take a run and process this on-edge feeling that he had today and couldn't manage to shake. He planned to call Olivia later this evening to check how her appointment went and see how she was. Especially as he'd mentioned to her this morning when he was leaving that he was going to call her later. Elliot thought about asking her to meet up for a drink or something but then thought against it considering he knew that she had Noah who would be tired from a long day today most likely. He also didn't want to seem like he was coming across too strong or scaring her away.

Olivia sat on the couch in her living room, her phone in her hand and watching Noah play on the ground with some of his toys. She'd had a really good coffee catch up with Don today and Don had been able to provide numerous pieces of advice in regards to moving forward. Olivia had confessed that she was deeply conflicted about Elliot's return and the feelings around that, particularly with the more time they were spending together. However, when things for her had gone downhill last night, talking about her ordeal with Lewis, Olivia was glad to have Elliot come over like he did. Elliot had dropped absolutely everything that he might have been doing to come around and be with her, without her even asking him.

Don had told her to take things just the same way that she had in terms of her recovery from the shooting. No one is expecting anything to happen overnight or even at lightning speed. Elliot has been gone from her life for a long while, which had a big impact on her, bigger than she would really admit. Don advised to take things in small steps, everything at a day at a time kind of pace. He advised that Olivia should spend time with Elliot and focus on building their friendship, seeing where things go rather than rushing into something or completely denying herself the chance to be happy again and to be happy with Elliot.

Thus, Olivia was sitting with her phone in her hand, tossing up the idea of calling Elliot. She couldn't help but shake the feeling that she wanted to catch up with him again. She wanted to see how the rest of his day went and maybe arrange to catch up in person tomorrow. Olivia selected his name from her contact list and dialed his number, holding the phone to her ear and waiting to see if he picked up. She figured he might be busy at the moment, she was sure that he already had plans for the evening or something. But she wanted to give him a call all the same. However, to Olivia's surprise, Elliot picked up the phone within 2 rings.
"Hey Liv" Elliot answered.
"Hey, how's it going?" Olivia responded.
"Good, how was your appointment today?" Elliot asked, curious to hear how everything had gone today.
"Yeah, it was good. They are happy with my progress and I've been cleared to go back to work next week but still urged me to take it rather slow...So Finn will still be doing a lot of the hard work, at least in the beginning anyway"
"That's great" Elliot encouraged, he was really glad to hear things at her appointment had gone so well and that she was heading back to work. He knew how badly she wanted to be able to go back to work.

"These 3 walls are driving me crazy, so I'll be glad to go back to work"

"I bet, just don't push yourself too hard with all of it. Remember that there are other people outside of work who would like to see you happy, but need you around as well" Elliot responded. He wasn't so much referring to himself but more to Noah and how much the little boy still needed his mother and would continue to do so, even after she went back to work.
"I think, I'm going to spend more time delegating work to Finn, be involved when I can but also put a focus on spending more time with those close to me outside of work. Noah is just growing up so quickly and I don't want to miss any of it" Olivia explained.
"Those early years go by so quickly. But I can tell you that you are doing absolutely everything right with him. Liv you're such a great mother and Noah is very lucky to have you as his mom"
"Thanks" Olivia replied, unsure exactly where to take the conversation next.
"So...I was wondering...I had a really good time with you and Noah the other day at the park, would you like to do it again sometime soon?"
"Well, how about tomorrow? Noah ad I were going to spend time in Central Park and wondering if you wanted to come?"
"I would love to, I actually have something I need to discuss with you anyway. I need your professional advice on something" Elliot asked before the pair made plans to go to the park the following day, there were only so many days which Olivia had before she would be back at work. Elliot wanted to be as involved as he could in those days.

A/N: Thoughts? Let me know in your reviews. They bring so much joy to my writer heart. Until next time ;)