A/N: How will Elliot and Olivia react to the new that Cragen knows? Olivia's mother's condition takes a turn, but is it for the better or the worst? And the kids, with a big push from Dickie, surprise Olivia when they get home.
DISCLAIMER: Dick Wolf owns the characters. That's pretty much it. Everything else written before you is pure TStabler©
"You lied to him," Olivia said, following Elliot into the elevator.
"What was I supposed to do?" Elliot asked, sounding annoyed. "He gave us the address and told us not to fuck in the car on the way there! He is officially..."
"He didn't say it like that," Olivia cut in, sounding snippy. She folded her arms and shook her head. "He knows."
Elliot scoffed. "He can't do anything until we officially tell him, so as long as we keep lying to him, nothing..."
"He told us that he knew, El," Olivia said, interrupting him again. "And you flat out told him that nothing was going on with us." She bit her bottom lip and shook her head. "How the hell does he know? We don't act like a couple at work. We're still at each others throats one minute and laughing the next, no kissing or touching involved."
"I dunno," he replied, stepping off the elevator as it dropped. They were in the lobby, halfway out the main doors, when Olivia's phone rang.
She looked at Elliot as she answered it with a harsh, "Benson." She grabbed Elliot's arm, stopping his movements, and said into the phone, "What? When? Yes, I would have liked to...no, I will be right there. Don't do that, she hates...she doesn't?"
Elliot watched as Olivia's face went pale and she blinked. "Liv?" he whispered with screwed up eyebrows. "Baby, what is it?" he asked, turning and putting one hand on either of her hips, looking into her suddenly watery eyes.
"Thank you," Olivia said, ending the call. "You have to drop me off at the hospital," she whispered, her throat now dry and strained.
"Honey, what happened?" he asked, searching her eyes and cupping her face.
"She's awake," she said softly, "But she has no idea who she is. I have to go down there. The doctor thinks I'll jog her memory."
"Then we'll go," he said, taking her hand. He had almost pulled her through the door when a voice from behind them said, "I'll take her. You have a case to run."
They turned and saw Cragen, standing with Fin. "Cap?" Olivia questioned. "How did you..."
"They called your extension first, thinking you were in the squadroom," Cragen said. He gestured to Fin and said, "Detective Tutuola is here full time now, with Cassidy locked up," he said. "Take him with you. I'll take Olivia to the..."
"Cap, I really think Fin should take this by himself," Elliot protested. "I gotta go with..."
"You have a job to do, Stabler," Cragen said, stopping his words. "Do it."
Olivia looked at Cragen as if he'd just killed her puppy. "Cap, I can't do this without..."
"Olivia, it's not like he'd be allowed in the room," Cragen said, walking over toward her. "They only let family in when the patient's awake."
Olivia furrowed her brow. "What? No, they..."
"We should get there," Cragen hissed, nodding once at her before ushering her out the door and away from Elliot.
They looked at each other, shocked, but could do nothing but let what was happening happen. Olivia got into Cragen's car, while Elliot and Fin took the case. Neither one would concentrate on anything, not completely, not without the other.
Olivia was the first one home, having been dropped off by Cragen, to whom she was giving the cold shoulder. She dropped her keys onto the coffee table, hung up her jacket, and turned at the sound of Dickie's voice.
"Hey, Liv," the boy said.
"Hi, sweetie," Olivia returned, scruffing up his hair. "How was school?"
"Okay," the boy shrugged.
She put an arm around him and led him over to the couch, sitting with him. "How's your ankle?" she asked.
"Doesn't even hurt," he said. "Why were you crying?" he asked, tilting his head.
She looked at him, confused, and she chuckled. "I wasn't," she said. "Why do you..."
"Your collar's still wet," he said, pointing. "Your eyes are dry, which means they've recently shed all their moisture, in the form of tears. And they're red. Also, your nose is red, and it's not that cold outside."
"Man," Olivia said, looking up and shaking her head, "You are your father's son."
Dickie nodded. "I know," he said proudly. "So, why were you crying?" he asked again.
She sighed and tried to smile. "You know my mom was in an accident, right?" she asked, not hearing the door behind her open.
Dickie nodded, ignoring his father walking in, knowing if he said something Olivia would stop talking.
"Well, she woke up today," she said, she looked away from him for a moment and forgot she was talking to Dickie. She said what she would have said to Elliot. "She couldn't remember who or where she was, so I went down there...and she took one look at me...and she started screaming." She took a shaky breath and said, "I brought back memories, like the doctor said I would. But it was just...all the bad ones." She brushed the boy's hair back and said, "She started yelling at me, told me she didn't want to see me anymore, so...I left."
Dickie looked at her for a minute, then wrapped his arms around her and squeezed. "I'm sorry, Mom," he whispered. "I don't understand how anyone couldn't want you."
Elliot dropped the bag of food. His eyes widened and he took another slow step.
Olivia turned, hearing the noise, and said, "Hey," softly. "How long have you been..."
Elliot interrupted her. "He called you..."
"What?" Olivia asked, looking back at Dickie. She hadn't heard him. She was too lost in the gentle and loving hug he was giving her.
"I...I didn't think you'd mind," Dickie said, suddenly scared.
"None of us thought you would," Kathleen said, appearing in the room from the kitchen. "We, uh, we baked you a cake."
"It was Dickie's idea, Dad, so if Liv runs away, it's his fault," Maureen declared, stepping beside Kathleen with the cake on a platter.
Elliot walked around from the back of the couch and over to his kids. "Why would she run away from cake?" he asked, folding his arms.
Lizzie walked in, pushed her glasses up higher on her nose, and said, "We were talking, and we wanted to know if...because I do it sometimes, and they...we all kind of want to...we wanna know if..."
Elliot looked at the cake, silencing his daughter by putting a hand on her shoulder. "Liv, baby, look at this."
Olivia got up, sending Dickie another soft glance, and she walked over to Elliot. She gasped when she saw the cake. The writing was sloppy, but it was clearly readable. "We love you, Mom," she whispered, then she looked up at the kids, taking time to stare into the eyes of each child.
"We wanna know if you'd...if it would upset you or Dad if we started calling you Mom," Kathleen said, explaining what Lizzie couldn't.
Elliot looked at Olivia, whose dry eyes weren't so dry anymore. "Hey, Mo, honey, go put the cake on the table. And can you guys get the food? It's, uh, over there on the floor somewhere," he told them.
Olivia was soundless as she looked at Elliot. She leaned into him, dropping her head to his shoulder, and whispered, "They want me to...they want to..."
"Yeah," Elliot whispered back, his hands running up and down her shoulders and spine. "They do. I don't mind," he said. "If you..."
"It's so strange," she said with a sniffle, "How I could love them the way I do, and they're not even mine, and my mother..."
Elliot raised a finger and pressed it to her lips. "She's not the reason you are who you are. Everyone who's hurt you, Liv, your mom, the man who raped her, Cassidy, Kim, Kathy, they're all in the past now. Baby, you are who you are because you survived it all, and you have a bigger heart and stronger mind than..."
She stopped him this time, with a kiss. She pulled away slowly, blinking away the tears, and she sighed. "I needed you there," she said, her head dropping to his. "When she called me a monster, El, I needed you there to tell me I wasn't. I needed to hear you say the right things, and calm me down, because I..." she paused, swallowing. "I didn't say a single word to Cragen the whole time. He kept talking to me, I ignored him. God, El, how could he..."
"Shh," he whispered, nuzzling her nose with his. "I got you now, and I'm never letting Cragen do that again. I stopped in Tucker's office on the way home."
She snapped her head and her eyes widened. "What? What did you tell him?"
"I didn't tell him anything," Elliot defended. "I just asked him a few questions." He pulled Olivia by the hand into the kitchen, where the kids were fixing plates of Chinese food. "Baby, Cragen's been lying to us for the last two years."
"He's not our boss?" she asked with a hopeful face.
He chuckled. "No, he is, baby, he just...remember when you came to work, that first day, and he had us in his office blathering about fraternization and how we weren't allowed to date or, uh..."
"Yeah, I remember," she said. "You really do censor yourself around your kids," she whispered, chuckling.
He laughed and nodded, then said, "I asked Tucker, hypothetically, that if two partners started dating, what would happen. He said nothing, Liv. There's no law, no policy, no nothing that says we can't date, or get married, or anything."
"Really?" she asked, her eyes surprised but her face still stoic. "So we've been lying to him for nothing. He can't really do anything about this, not legally."
"That's what Tucker said," he told her with a smile. "He did tell me if we were going to take those steps, ya know, marriage and what not, we had to notify them, because of insurance and some technical..."
"Are you two gonna stop talking and eat?" Kathleen asked, folding her arms.
Olivia smiled. "Yeah, honey, we are." She grabbed a plate and handed another to Elliot. They were fixing their dishes when they heard Dickie shout from across the room.
"Hey, Mom!" the boy yelled.
Olivia looked at him, her eyes wide. "What?" she asked, a small surge of panic in her voice.
Dickie laughed and shook his head. "Just checking," he said with a shrug.
Olivia chuckled, then grabbed her dish and let Elliot pull her, by the hand, over to the table. She looked around at the happy faces and then she glanced at Elliot, engrossed in conversation with Maureen and Lizzie. She smiled, feeling, for the first time, that she wasn't incapable of loving and being loved, and that she wasn't going to make her husband and kids miserable. She had a family of her own now, almost, and she loved them with everything she had, and they'd just told her how much they loved her. She knew she was proving her mother wrong, and it felt so right.
She also knew that just as Cragen had told them he knew their secret, she would tell him she knew his. And she knew exactly how to do it.
A/N: What does she do? And something new happens between Olivia and Elliot, scary and exciting, all at once. But what is it? Review here, or on Twitter: TMG212