Title: Undeserved
Author: ZombieJazz
Fandom: Law & Order: SVU
Disclaimer: I don't own them. Law and Order SVU and its characters belong to Dick Wolf. The characters of Will (and his family) and Noah have been created and developed for the sake of this AU series.
Summary: The bad hand Olivia's been dealt continues - this time with real implications for her son. She and Will, along with the help of her work colleagues, work at navigating the devastating news and the new developments it brings to their lives.
Author's Notes: This AU series is for SVU fans and readers who want Olivia to have something that resembles a more normal life outside of work and a family of her own - hopefully somewhat realistically within the canon of SVU. Her relationship with Elliot is that of partner and protective older brother and colleague. It won't devolve from that - they aren't ever going to get together in this series. If you're an E/O shipper, you likely won't enjoy these stories. The timeline is a little loose and since most of the stories ultimately takes place outside of the work environment, there aren't too many references to cases from the show. But this series would generally be starting in about Season 12/13 of the show. It assumes Elliot hasn't left SVU yet. Please let me know what you think and if you distribute elsewhere.
She looked at the phone and smiled. He'd barely been at his parent's 12 hours – not much more time to have gotten there, slept and gotten back up.
"Hey," she said, answering.
"Hey, I'm just checking in," he said, pressing the phone against his ear and still trying to work through the sink of dishes. "What you guys up to?"
She sat back in her chair and looked across at her son who was happily working his way through a giant Belgian waffle, piled with fruit.
"We are at Chez Cora's," she said.
"Oooh, no – without me?" he sighed.
"Mmm … here, talk to Noah," she said, handing her phone across the table and suddenly questioning what a brilliant plan that was as his sticky hands grabbed it. "Tell Will about your breakfast … and Happy Thanksgiving."
"Happy Thanksgiving!" he stated happily into the phone.
"Hey Little Man," he smiled. "I hear you're at Cora's without me."
"Yeah," Noah smacked into his ear, now pushing a strawberry into his mouth with his fingers – not trying to handle his fork and the phone.
"What you having?"
"Waffles," he said.
"Waffles? With strawberries?"
"And whip cream."
"You're making me jealous. What's your Mom having?"
"Eggs."
"That's kind of boring."
"Omelet."
"That's a bit more exciting. One of her fancy coffees?"
"Yeah. It's b-i-g."
"Well moms need big coffees on Thanksgiving," he said. "It's a rule. 'Kay you be good to her for the rest of the day and I'll talk to you tonight. Hand me back to her, OK?"
"Yeah."
"Hey."
"Hey," he said again. "Your morning sounds way more exciting than mine so far."
She smiled. "Why? What are you up to?"
"I am doing dishes."
She laughed. "That's a good start to the day."
"Tell me about it," he turned his head a bit knowing his mother was still lurking within earshot. "I'm missing you guys."
She smiled softly. "We miss you too." There was a pause and she could hear him sloshing around in the sink. "What are you plans for the rest of the day?"
"Umm. Well, I am going to finish up here and then help Mom with getting some stuff ready. Then I'm gong to go to the kids' Thanksgiving pageant thing, which I'm sure will be epically entertaining. Then come back and help get ready more. So basically drink as much as possible – avoid people by going downstairs to watch movies with the kids rather than football with my brothers. Stuff my face full of turkey. Then I get to go outside and play football. I will likely get tackled and I will likely puke – and after that I'll likely be forced to ingest more alcohol. But hopefully after that I might get to sleep and then convince someone to drive me home tomorrow afternoon."
"Sounds like a busy day," she snorted.
"Yeah, you have no idea," he looked again and caught his mother eavesdropping. She turned away as he caught her eye. "What about you guys? You decided what you going to do with the rest of today?"
"Yeah, I have been thinking about it," she said. "A lot." She heard him make his listening sounds into the phone as the water splashed around some more. "You want to cut back on some of your busy schedule and come and get us?"
She didn't hear the water now.
He looked over his shoulder. His mom was still hovering in the next room. "You want to come over?" he tried to say a bit more quietly.
She wasn't sure that wanting to go over there was exactly it.
"I want to spend Thanksgiving with you," she said instead. "I want Noah to get to spend Thanksgiving with both of us."
She heard him fumbling a bit on the other end. "Well, yeah, that's not a problem. I can borrow one of my brothers' cars and come back and pick you guys up. How about in like two hours?"
"Yeah, that's perfect."
"Umm, OK. Well, I'll see you then."
"Yep." She hung up and smiled at Noah, still working on his breakfast.
His mother was standing in the kitchen door now.
"Liv and Noah are going to come over," he told her. "For the day – and for the night, I think."