"You still awake down there?"

"Seriously?" asked Olivia with a contorted expression of disbelief, lying in Elliot's arms on her sofa while she fed Eve. "You imagined I could doze off on this job?"

"Oh shut up, grouchy..." smiled Elliot, brushing a kiss against the sweep of bangs at Olivia's temple, "... what are we having for dinner?"

"I'm having reheated lasagne from yesterday..." turning her head toward him and flashing a smirk, "... what are you having?"

"Huh." Replied Elliot, a little thrown off and clearly taking a moment to process the notion and consider his reply carefully as he stroked idly at her arm.

"Don't let the sweat pants and baby fool you, Blue Eyes..." eyes dancing Olivia warned, "... because I am no housewife. I don't tame that easily." If there had ever been any doubt in his mind before that moment, it was made very clear that they would never achieve domestic bliss. She would never be the archetypal cook, clean, stay at home mom and, he realised after a while of quiet reflection, he only loved her more for it.

"I guess I could make some pasta happen?" he proffered, testing the easy equilibrium of their newly redefined relationship. "Crap, is that me buzzing?"

"Either that or you're just happy to see me." Quipped Olivia drily, the corners of her mouth lifting to a teasing smile that Elliot couldn't help but sink his mouth upon. Kissing her hungrily, arms locked tightly around her as Eve fed hungrily at her breast nothing had ever felt so normal, so natural, and so completely right. It was almost possible to ignore the interruption from the outside world.

"I should take it."

"Really?" she murmured, closing her eyes and falling back into his kiss as their tongues danced with an insatiable urge to be one.

"I'll be right back..." he groaned, sliding out from beside her and wandering into the kitchen before sliding the vibrating cell phone from the pocket of his jeans and answering the call.

"Well?" asked Olivia, now burping Eve gently on her shoulder as he returned grave faced and apologetic.

"I have to go."

"Oh."

"Eli is sick and Kathy was supposed to be taking Lizzie to this Junior/Senior party tonight but she can't get him out of bed to drive her so..."

"So now you have to drive her instead." Statement not question from Olivia brought an abrupt end to their surreal evening of cocooned bliss. He was leaving them, again, and even with her best efforts to delude herself otherwise she was naive hope that it would ever be otherwise.

"I'm sorry."

"Go, it's fine..." she lied, flashing a less than convincing smile, "... we understand."

"Liv..."

"El you have a wife and a family..." recovering herself enough to acknowledge the obvious reality they faced she kissed Eve's cheek and forced a broad but painfully false grin, "... so just go."

"I'll call you."

"I know you will." She replied simply, knowing there was nothing more or less to be said in that moment as he took up his jacket and made a quiet exit. Hugging Eve even tighter into her body and fighting back cruel tears Olivia reassured her daughter that, despite evidence to the contrary, everything was going to be alright.

"She get there alright?"

"Dropped her right outside." Replied Elliot, taking off his jacket and tossing his cell phone and keys down onto the kitchen counter. "She met up with Gabby and that little blonde one she's started hanging out with lately at the door."

"Good, she was worried she'd have no one to walk in with."

"I'm just glad she's not walking in with one of the gangly, saucer eyed boys I had to avoid hitting on my way out the parking lot. If that's the level of smarts our daughter is hanging out with then we've got bigger issues than the length of her skirt..." and then, with unsmiling emphasis on a point that despite his earnestness amused his wife Elliot added, "... they're all morons, Kath!"

"Oh they're harmless!" came the quiet, staid little laugh from Kathy Stabler as she finished up folding a mountain of laundry and shook her head with loving weariness at her hot headed husband. "Don't be so hard on them, Elliot. We both know no boy will ever be good enough for your girls."

"I can just about hack that bookworm Maureen keeps bringing around." Offered Elliot, by way of some strange compromise.

"Well that's progress I suppose..." smiled Kathy, rolling her eyes, "...here's hoping Maureen has broken through the pain barrier for the other two then!"

Three.

Mentally correcting her statement Elliot fetched himself a bottle of water from the refrigerator and avoided Kathy's eyes. His thoughts were suddenly all of Eve. Her doll like eyes and her mother's thick, dark, just love me lashes. Those cheekbones and that smile, that all consuming smile of warmth, compassion and enchanting vulnerability he had fallen deeply in love with. There was little doubting that Eve could capture a room every bit as easily as Olivia, and that it would be his youngest daughter who posed far and away the biggest challenge to Elliot's protective paternal mistrust of men.

"El, you're phone..." called Kathy, after he had wandered off upstairs with his thoughts to get changed, "... it might be Lizzie. She probably forgot something, knowing her! Elliot?"

"In the shower!" came the distant call as Kathy furrowed her brow with concern, a million scenarios in which Lizzie might radio her father for help running through her mind in place of her initial fear of forgetfulness. Rationalising it as the lesser of two evil's she reached for his phone and saw instantly, to her initial relief, the message was not from her daughter.

"Mouse?" she asked herself, reading the sender's name. Unable to stop herself opened the message her face fell as she read it.

"Having bath, wish you were here. Bedtime isn't as fun without you. Love, Mouse."

"Having a bath? Bedtime fun?" winced Kathy, her heart thundering with horror struck fear, anger and humiliation. "What the hell are you doing Elliot?" and then narrowing her eyes disdainfully she murmured, "Or should that be who are you doing."

"Well?"

"What?"

"Well?"

"You said that already..." replied Olivia, not caring one bit for the knowing eyes Fin was casting across the coffee shop table a few mornings later, "... was it an interjection? Or an enquiry into my wellbeing?"

"You know you'd make a sick poker player, Liv."

"I'd take your money."

"Elliot seems to be doing better..." divulged Fin, showing just enough of his hand to gain her curious attention, "... he's got a dumbass grin on his face most days."

"He does?" she asked, attempting to fane casual indifference.

"And he doesn't twitch like a stroke victim when I bring you up in conversation so that says something I guess."

"You're sick and inappropriate and..." accepting a heated bottle of milk from the waitress and testing it on her arm Olivia handed it across the table to Fin and added reluctantly, "... so you've spoken to him about me?"

"Oh so now momma wants to play ball, does she?" chuckled Fin, bending down and kissing Eve's brow and holding out the bottle teat until her hungry little mouth grabbed a hold of it. "Well we've taken our bat and ball home, haven't we Evie baby?"

"I'm sitting here with a chest like a loaded arsenal letting you feed her with a bottle so you better..."

"Oh quit bellyaching, you know Uncle Fin needs his Evie time..." she wondered, watching Fin's gooey eyed gazing at her daughter, whether in many ways he was making up for time not spent with Ken as a baby, "... she's my girl, aren't you Baby B?"

"Fin you know I wasn't serious, right?" softened Olivia, relieved when he lifted his eyes to see her sincerity. "She's so calm and good around you and that's no coincidence. You've been right here with us from that very first ultrasound and I won't ever forget that. I won't ever take it or you for granted."

"Liv you don't have to..."

"She's your girl, Fin..." affirmed Olivia, reaching across the table and squeezing the cuff of Fin's leather jacket as he continued to hold the bottle out for Eve, "... and I couldn't be more thankful for that."

"I know shit's going down between the two of you."

"Oh, I..."

"El is a man of few words..." shrugging matter-of-factly Fin clarified, "... but it don't take a detective to read what's written all over his face."

"It doesn't?" she would've killed him for being such a tease withholding his theory if she hadn't needed him to continue his role as spy and mediator.

"Anything you wanna tell Uncle Fin?" asked Fin, challenging her own withholding.

"Okay just so we're clear it is really creepy when you call yourself Uncle Fin and you're not talking to the baby."

"You two are something again, aren't you?" he asked, shooting straight to the heart of the matter.

"I don't know..."

"Don't you dare lie to me Benson..." warned dark eyes, pinning her against the wall and forcing her to lay her cards on the table, "... that isn't how we roll and you know it."

"Maybe, I guess. It's a mess, it's..." she felt like an awkward school girl talking about such things in front of someone who had only relatively recently become party to her personal life, and awkwardly shifting in her seat Olivia mumbled, "... the truth is I don't think we ever stopped being something."

"Huh."

"The worst part is that I'm not sure we ever will."

"Oh I'm damn sure of it."

"Wh..."

"Liv..." he quipped darkly, lifting the child in his arms slightly to highlight his point, "... meet Evie."

"I didn't mean..."

"I know."

"Nothing changed. Things only got more complicated than the last time we were here. We're both still on the job. He still has Kathy and his kids..."

"He has your kid too now."

"Yeah but..."

"No, no don't do that. Don't be that mom."

"I..."

"Don't ever let Evie be a 'yeah but' to him, Liv. If you choose to take her out of his life then that's your call but don't you dare let him take himself out of hers. I don't care what anyone says you don't ever get over that with your kid. I don't care what some jumped up shrink says, I look Ken in the eye sometimes and I know..." throwing his eyes sideways for a moment and cursing himself for letting it cut him too close Fin mumbled, "... you don't ever get over it. You don't ever get that time back."

"I'm sorry..." she said quietly, sharing in his sadness and regret, "... about Ken."

"I know you love him, Liv..."

"I love her more." Said Olivia firmly, unflinchingly, without a heartbeat's pause.

"I ain't judgin'..." reassured Fin, lest she be in any doubt, "... you know that, right?"

"I know, but wouldn't blame you even if you were. I've been an idiot."

"No, no you..."

"Yeah, yeah Fin. Don't defend me. It was one thing letting myself get blindsided by whatever the hell Elliot and I are before she came along, but this isn't just about us anymore. I could just about justify living in a powder keg with him before..." realising that she owed it to her child to raise her expectations of Elliot she vowed, "... but I can't play his games with Evie."

"Sing it, mama bear." Grinned Fin, his mission accomplished. Though he cared about both his friends he didn't underestimate Elliot Stabler's ability to deliver empty promises in a bid to both appease his conscience and his blazing heart.

"He's either in or he's out. He has to make a choice but..."

"What?" he asked, seeing a sudden paleness fall over Olivia's olive skin. "What is it?"

"I just don't know what I'd do if he..."

"If he didn't choose you?" asked Fin, bluntly.

"I can't think about that. I can't let that change anything. I can't let my fear of losing him make me so weak I let him hurt her. I let him keep me a dirty little secret for the sake of his kids..." she murmured darkly, a strange but potent fire rising within her as she held Eve tightly and rose up like a lioness protecting her cub, "... but now maybe it's time he told the truth for the sake of mine."

"You're really gonna do this?" he asked, afraid that had had perhaps started something a little more than intended.

"If he wants to walk away then I won't fight it. If he doesn't want to be a part of her life then I won't force him. I can be all she needs if I have to."

"But?"

"But if he wants in then he has to be all in. I won't let him treat her like a mistake he just wants to brush under the carpet. I won't let my daughter grow up feeling like she's worth less than Kathy Stabler's kids."

"Damn straight."

"I grew up ashamed of who I was and how I got here..." bringing Eve up to her shoulder, pressing their cheeks together and needing the closeness of the infant's tiny heart beating against her chest Olivia swallowed, "... and I never want Evie to feel that way."

"What are you saying, Liv?" he asked, realising that he recognised this fighting talk in her more than he did her earlier girlish fretting over Elliot's intentions toward her. "What does this look like?"

"I'm saying that he and I were together, I got pregnant, and we had a baby. We're either acknowledging that it happened or we're not. There is no middle ground here. I'm saying either he's proud to be Evie's father and let the whole damn world know it or he's nothing at all to her. I'm saying..." beginning to falter she repeated, "... I'm saying..."

"Liv..."

"He tells Kathy..." finding her voice again Olivia set her price, "... or its game over."

"You can't deny the guy his kid."

"Yes I can, Fin. If he denies her..." gritting her teeth and steeling herself for a fight Olivia murmured, "...yes I can."

"Liv..."

"If he isn't man enough to own what we did, if he isn't man enough to stand up and say that this beautiful, smart, breathtaking little girl is his child..." pressing kisses against Eve's forehead as she murmured the affirmations of goodness into her daughter's soul so that she might always know them to be true Olivia added, "... then he doesn't deserve her."