Beautifully Broken

(Chapter Twenty Nine: Distracted)

Olivia sat curled up in her coach seat with her head resting on her husband's shoulder. It was near two o'clock in the morning and the redeye flight wouldn't put them back into LaGuardia until around half past four. Elliot stared down at her delicate fingers laced between his and the diamond that now resided on her left hand ring finger.

This was it, he thought to himself. Life could not possible get any better than this. He had finally married the one and only woman he had ever loved, making her his forever. And now they were on their way back home to Manhattan to start the rest of their lives together.

Olivia shivered a bit and he pulled the throw blanket up closer around her shoulders.

Elliot kissed her forehead and whispered softly against her ear, "I love you angel."

Olivia smiled as her eyes fluttered open.

"I love you too," she said as he kissed her tenderly.

"I cannot believe that you are finally my wife."

"Did you ever doubt that we would end up together?"

"Maybe for a little while when you were with Rick. I honestly thought I had lost you to him forever."

"Elliot," she said gazing into his eyes, "I never could have married Rick because I was in love with you."

"And I thank God every day for that."

Olivia smiled and kissed him again.

"It is after two in the morning. We should get some sleep before the plane lands."

"I have a better idea," she whispered in a sexy voice against his ear.

Elliot pulled back for a moment studying the look in her eyes. Olivia smiled and looked over her shoulder at the bathrooms in the back of the plane.

"Are you serious?" Elliot asked as she laughed playfully and kissed him.

Elliot looked around the cabin of the plane noticing that most of the staff and other passengers were sleeping or otherwise occupied. Olivia unbuckled her seatbelt and made her way to one of the tiny bathroom compartments. Elliot smiled and shook his head as she smiled and motioned for him to follow her, before pulling the door shut. Elliot took one more look around the cabin of the plane, then got up from his seat and walked back to meet his wife.

Two days later Olivia sat at her desk staring across the room at her new husband like a school girl with a crush. On her left hand was the diamond ring coupled with the gold band that matched Elliot's left hand ring. On a gold chain around her neck was the diamond engagement ring he had purchased for her just before he had been forced to leave her and go off to Iraq to fight for his country.

Elliot looked up from the file cabinet to catch her staring at him from across the room and winked at her. Olivia smiled and laughed as she returned her attention to the file in front of her.

Elliot's little daydream was abruptly interrupted when he heard a crash and found himself slammed up against the wall.

"What the hell, Fin?"

"Did you think we wouldn't find out? You just sneak off like that and….and …."

"Fin, let him go!" Olivia said pushing her way between the two men. "What the hell are you doing?"

"That was dirty!" Fin snarled as he stomped off across the room pushing Elliot's office chair out of his way.

"Are you okay?" Olivia asked straightening Elliot's tie.

"I take it Fin figured out our little secret."

"He was going to find out eventually, El. I was just hoping to find a way to tell him before something like this happened."

"I'm fine," Elliot said brushing off his suit jacket. "But what are we going to do about him?"

"I'll talk to him. He will come around."

"He was just coming around to the fact that we were even dating. I'm not so sure he will get over this one."

"You go work on this," she said handing him the file he had dropped and kissing him tenderly. "I will work on him. I love you, more than anything. He will come around."

"I love you too, baby."

Elliot kissed her forehead as she brushed her nose against his and smiled. Olivia walked across the room to where Fin stood by the coffee maker.

"We should talk about this," she said softly placing her hand on his shoulder.

"Olivia, don't!" he snapped pulling away from her.

"No Fin, I need you to listen to me. He didn't make me do anything I didn't want to do."

Fin pulled away from her once more and headed back toward Elliot.

"If your intentions were so good, why did you have to whisk her off to some other state instead of getting married here with her family?" Fin demanded in a loud voice.

"Olivia doesn't have any family. She isn't close to her mother."

"We are her family!" Fin said with a glare.

"Fin, we didn't mean to hurt anyone. We were in San Diego and picked out a ring."

"And it never crossed your mind to come back here and get married?"

"It was what I wanted, Fin."

Fin turned around and looked at Olivia.

"I didn't want to wait. Elliot wanted to plan a big wedding in San Diego. Getting married right then was my idea."

Fin shook his head and walked out to catch the elevator. Just before the doors closed, Olivia stepped inside. She waited until the doors closed behind her and pulled the emergency stop, forcing him to hear her out.

"What the hell are you doing?" Fin asked.

"Serving up my defense," she said blocking him from starting the elevator again. "Fin, please don't do this. I need your support in this. You're my partner, you are like a brother to me."

"It hurts, Olivia. We should have been there. We all should have."

"I know. I wasn't thinking about that and I am sorry that I hurt you. But I never meant to. And neither did Elliot."

"He should have thought about it."

"He was trying to make me happy. That is all he wants. He loves me, Fin. He loves me and he wants to make me happy. So in a sense, you both have the same goal, here."

Fin exhaled in annoyance as he leaned back against the wall and allowed himself to slide down and sit in the floor.

"How are you sure he is the right one for you?"

Olivia smiled and took a seat beside him.

"I just am. I have known it since I was fifteen years old, the first day I met him. I knew right away that I wanted to be with him forever. And now I have the chance to do that. Elliot is my soul mate. I have waited my entire life to be this happy and I was really hoping that I would have your support in this."

"Liv, I just…."

"Why don't you like him?"

"I don't dislike him. But I don't like that he hurt you so badly before. The things he did, choices he made, they caused you a lot of pain."

"But he has caused me a lot of happiness, too. He taught me how to love. He was my first love and he is the love of my life. Fin, none of the bad things were Elliot's fault. He did what he had to do. He didn't get a choice about going to Iraq. He didn't want to leave me, he had to. And if he could have come back to me like he promised, I know that he would have."

"What about Rick?"

"Rick was….I'm not really sure what Rick was. I loved him. Or I thought I did. Now when I look back on it I think that Rick was a way to get over losing Elliot. And Rick loved me, but I think he wanted me to be his trophy wife. He wanted something I couldn't give, because that wasn't who I was. But he is back in Boston now and the last I heard from Courtney, he is dating a really nice girl from his office."

"You are really happy with Elliot?"

"I have never been happier. It is like I didn't know how to live until he came into my life. And I don't know how to live without him in it. And I really hope that you will take to time to see what a wonderful person he really is and how good he is for me. Because he is a big part of my life now, he is my husband. You are both my family. I love you both and I need you both in my life. Fin, please."

"Alright, I'll back off him. But if he hurts you in any way…."

"He wont. You can trust him. He is one of the good guys."

Fin hugged her.

"I am happy for you, Olivia. If this is what you want…. what makes you happy, then you have my full blessing."

Olivia smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"Good! Because someday he will be the one to make you an uncle."

"Liv, are you pregnant?"

"No," she laughed. "Not yet. But I would love to be."

"Right now? You guys have only been married, what….seventy two hours?"

"I know. But I really want to have kids."

"Now?"

"Yeah, now. Well, as soon as physically possible."

"And how does Elliot feel about this?"

Olivia laughed.

"I have not exactly brought it up to him yet. We are still just kind of in our honeymoon stage of our marriage. This is all so new to us both."

"Don't you think you aught to tell him that you are trying to make him a daddy?"

"I will talk to him. Right now I am still on the pill. But I would like to start trying to get pregnant soon."

"I think you would make a great mother."

"Really?"

"Yeah. You have a very nurturing personality. I can picture you as a mommy."

Olivia smiled and laid her head against his shoulder again.

"He promised to make all of my dreams come true," she said softly.

"And what do you think about that?"

"I know that if there is anyone in the world who could do it, it would be Elliot. I think he is going to make a wonderful husband and father."

"I think you're right," Fin agreed.

"And you know, me getting married doesn't mean that you are losing a partner."

"No?"

"No," she said shaking her head. "It just means that you are gaining a partner in law," she said with a sly smile.

"It means Elliot Stabler is here to stay."

"He'd better be."

"You're damn right he's better be. So we now officially have a new edition to our little SVU family."

"We do," she agreed.

"Can I make a suggestion?"

"What is that?"

"You should go in there and pull Cragen and Munch aside and let them know so they are not sideswiped by this the way that I was."

"You make a very good point."

That night Elliot made his bride a romantic candlelit dinner complete with her favorite red wine. After dinner, he turned on some soft music and they danced slowly on the rooftop. He wrapped her tight in his arms and held her there as they swayed under the moonlight to the sounds of the city night.

"I'm really glad that you got things all worked out with Fin."

"I told you it would be alright. He is just a little over protective."

"That is an understatement."

"I hurt him, El. I didn't mean to. But I wasn't thinking of anyone but myself when I decided to get married right then and I can understand why he would be hurt. Cragen was a little disappointed, too."

"Did he tell you that?"

"He didn't have to, I could see it in his eyes."

"So everyone we work with is disappointed that you married me?"

"Not that. But I am sure that Cragen probably thought that the day we finally said our I do's, he would be there to give me away. He has been like a father to me, for as long as I can remember. And I took that away from him….from them."

"I know, baby. But our wedding should be about us. It was small and simple and just the way we wanted it. That is the important thing. I don't want them making you feel like we did something wrong here."

"They are happy for us, I know that. I just know that Cragen thought he was going to be able to give me away. Things are okay. And I don't regret it for a second. Our small ceremony was beautiful and absolutely perfect. You and I are legally married. We are now husband and wife, forever and Courtney was there to witness the entire event and I don't think that any big ceremony could have possibly been better than that."

"You know, if you want to we could always wait for our one year anniversary and have a big ceremony. That would give us an entire year to plan a real wedding. Fin and Munch and all of our friends from work could be there and Cragen could walk you down the aisle. Then we could have a big reception and we still have our little private romantic thing just for the two of us."

"I think that sounds like a great idea. A second wedding."

"This wedding was for us, you and I. And this one could be for the family. Well, for us, too."

"But what if something came up, between now and then. What if it wasn't quite a typical wedding?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I was kind of hoping that maybe I would be pregnant by then."

Elliot stared into her eyes.

"Pregnant?"

"As in with child."

"I know what it means. I just didn't know you wanted to have a baby right away."

"I was actually kind of hoping we could start trying now. I mean, if you want to."

"Right now?"

"You're not ready?"

"Well, no….I….I guess now is as good a time as any. I just thought you would want to wait a little while. Get used to being married before we added a child to the mix."

"Elliot, I learned the hard way that waiting for the right time for the things you want is a good way to never get them. I waited to make you my husband and that almost cost me my soul mate. I could have lived my life and died, never knowing how it felt to be your wife. I don't want to wait ever again. For anything. From now on if I want something, I plan to go after it. And I want to have a baby with you more than anything in the world. So if you are up for it, I would like to go off my pill and start trying right away."

"Alright. Then it is official. Starting tonight, my wife and I are officially trying to get pregnant."

Olivia smiled.

"I am so excited!"

"Me too, baby. But I do think that maybe we should limit our sex life to the bedroom."

Olivia laughed.

"Why? You like the excitement of doing something risky and possibly getting caught?"

"No, but you narrowly escaped a concussion from our first public sex attempt," he said brushing a bit of her hair back to reveal a small bump on her forehead from their little adventure in the airplane.

Olivia laughed again.

"But I'm okay. How could we have known that we would hit turbulence? And now we can both say that we are members of the mile high club," she said with a smile as she twisted his tie in her fingertips. "I will never forget the look on that flight attendant's face when you opened the bathroom door so that we could go back to our seats."

Elliot laughed.

"Me either. She stared at us for the rest of the flight and every time I looked at her she shook her head at me."

"She knew you were a bad boy," Olivia growled playfully.

"I was a bad boy," Elliot agreed.

Olivia laughed.

"Yes, but you were soooo good at it," she said stretching her arms out around his neck and smiling as she kissed him.

"Well, I am glad that you enjoyed our little counter top romp at thirty thousand feet. Not bad for a quickie under pressure, while some old woman bangs on the door the entire time and half way through the plane shakes violently threatening to turn over, then nosedives slamming us both into the wall. Me on top of you of course, cracking your head on hand dryer."

Olivia smiled.

"You tried. You tried for me and the effort was greatly appreciated. Definitely one of the more interesting sexual experiences of my life. But the sex part wasn't bad, though."

"Right. Probably because we were hot and horny newly weds. When you want it that bad any sex is good sex."

Olivia laughed again.

"See, we are perfect together."

"We are, huh?"

"Yeah. Between us, even bad sex is good sex. It's a sign."

"A sign that we shouldn't have sex in public places," Elliot laughed kissing the bump on her forehead. "But I am up for all of the bedroom sex you wish to partake in. And I am willing to do this as many times as it takes to get you pregnant."

"Well, aren't I a lucky lady to have a husband who is willing to sacrifice so much for my happiness? I love you so much," she said kissing him tenderly.

"And I love you. You and only you. Forever."

"Forever," she said with a smile as Elliot kissed her again.

"What do you say we head to bed, Mrs. Stabler?"

"I think that is an amazing idea," she replied as her eyes lit up.

"Maybe we'll get lucky," Elliot joked as picked her up in his arms kissing her and carrying her off to the bedroom.

"Lucky? Lucky would be getting pregnant."

"Tonight?"

"The very first time we tried."

"That would be pretty lucky," Elliot agreed.

He laid her down on the bed kissing her passionately as he turned out the light and began to unzip her dress.