Thanks for being patient you guys, I meant to write this at Thanksgiving time but I became insanely busy so I'm still going to set in that time so this is them going to spend the holiday with family and what not, I will update before xmas I promise.

Before they knew it the holidays were just around the corner and by some miracle Olivia had managed to get a week off which allowed her and Alex to make plans to go spend the holiday with Alex's extended family and introduce to Haddie to them. The plan was for the three of them to head up to the house in the Hamptons in the afternoon the day before Thanksgiving. Before they hit the road Olivia had to swing by the office to drop off her completed paper work and just as she was about to leave the unusually quiet office Cragen poked his head out of his office.

"Hey Olivia can I talk to you quickly before you leave?"

Olivia had no idea what was so important that the Captain had to stop her from hitting the already traffic congested roads, but she walked into his office and sat down.

"I'm not going to keep you long Liv, I just had something I wanted to talk to you about." He leaned forward slightly resting his elbows on his desk, "Liv have you given any thought to your future here at SVU?"

Olivia was slightly taken aback by the question and it caused her some concern, "are you firing me?"

"Heavens no, quite the opposite actually, I was wondering if you were at all interested in maybe studying for the Sergeants' exam and moving up the ranks here and you never know, one day I may turn over the key of my office to you."

Olivia was still in a brief state of surprise, but she finally found the words, "I can't say that I've thought about it a lot, I mean I think we all kind of think that you're going to be here forever, but I mean with everything that has happened lately with filing for adoption of Haddie and everything at home, maybe looking to climb the job ladder might be a good idea."

"Look give it some thought, talk it over with Alex, a promotion would give you some better hours and put you in another pay grade, more time to spend with that growing family of yours. We can talk again after the start of the New Year ok. Go get out on the road before they get too bad. Happy Thanksgiving Liv."

"Happy Thanksgiving."Olivia grabbed her keys and jacket and left the building. She swung by the apartment where Alex and Haddie were waiting downstairs. They threw their bags into the car and headed off to take their chances with the traffic they knew was going to slow down their trip to the Hamptons. As they headed down the road the traffic slowed their journey by about an hour, but it certainly could have been worse. As they got closer to the house Olivia looked over and saw that Alex was asleep against the window and when she looked into the backseat she saw that Haddie had a panicked look on her face.

"What's on your mind honey?"

"What if they don't like me?"

"Haddie they are your family and they are going to love you. Baby, the first time I met them I was scared too, but they treated me like I was blood because they knew how much I love Alex and now you're part of our family and they are going to love you so much you'll wonder way you were so worried about it in the first place."

"You promise."

"Cross my heart." Haddie finally cracked a smile and as they pulled into the gated house Alex started to stir and finally woke up. "We here already?"

"What do you mean already, we were in traffic for almost two hours, but someone decided to sleep through the whole thing?" Alex smiled and gave Liv a quick kiss, "I had so much faith in your driving capabilities I fell asleep."

"You lucky I love you or I'd feel taken advantage of and don't even try not helping me unload the bags." Alex smiled and grabbed one of the bags and started toward the house. Olivia handed Haddie her bag and as they walked toward the open front door Haddie stopped dead in her tracks. Olivia turned around to see that the teen was almost pale, "honey it's going to be fine."

"What do I call them, do I hug them or shake their hands, do I tell things about my life or pretend that nothing happened?"

"Honey, slow down, first of all they will hug you no matter what you do and call them what you feel comfortable and you don't have to tell them anything ok. Alex and I are right there if you need us, but these are good people and they already love you, you are going to be fine, just give yourself time to adjust." Olivia walked through the door and knew Haddie would follow when she was ready. Haddie stood there starring at the house and feeling very small in comparison and the only thing that brought her out of her trance was her cell phone buzzing. She smiled when she saw a text from Josh, 'they are going to love you, just give them a chance to 3'. As she played with her phone, Alex was in the kitchen watching her out the window with Liv, Astrid and Emily standing around her.

"We should go out and get her Liv, she looks like she is paralyzed."

"Well, she's smiling at something, maybe Josh texted her or something, give her a minute Alex, meeting this many people and understanding that they are your new family is a lot to take in, give her a minute alone."

Emily looked up at Alex, "who's Josh?"

"Her not boyfriend."

Astrid almost spit out her water, "what in the hell is an not boyfriend?"

"We told her we didn't want her dating until she was closer to 15 and more stable, but this boy just fell into her lap and he as close to perfect as you can get and she totally has a thing for him. So right now he is her not boyfriend."

"That makes no sense at all, but hey she's your kid not mine. Someone should go tell her to get in here, we aren't that scary."

Alex jumped in, "you are to a 14 year old who has been hurt by everyone who was supposed to love her, she's freaked that you'll all think she's crazy because of what happened a few weeks ago."

The four women stood around trying to decide who would go get the girl from outside and none of them realized that Sam heard them talking and after grabbing her jacket she walked out the front door and over to the girl. Emily looked back outside the window to see her daughter talking to Haddie, "hey Alex, I think Sam found a way to get her inside."

Back outside Haddie soon realized that she was no longer alone in the front yard, "you should come inside, it's warm and there is enough food in there to feed a small army and tomorrow there is going to be a ton more of it."

"Sorry I guess I'm just a little…"

"Intimidated."

"That would be one way to put it."

"Come on, I'll show you where you can out your bag and then I'll give the low down on the family."

"Ok," Haddie followed Sam toward the front door, "you never told me your name."

"Sorry I spaced, I'm Samantha, you can call me Sam if you want, your mom calls me peanut though. I think technically we are some kind of second cousins, but I think cousins are cousin no matter what." Sam kept talking as she walked through the door and when she turned around she realized that Haddie was frozen at the door step. Sam couldn't tell what was wrong until she saw a few stray tears. She went over to Haddie and wiped the tear away, "no one in this house is going to hurt you, ever, I promise." Haddie nodded and finally came in the house and walked up the stairs with Sam following behind. Alex stood at the bottom of the stairs ready to follow them upstairs, but Sam turned around and mouthed that she would get her settled and for Alex to stay downstairs. Alex went back into the kitchen, "apparently Sam has it under control."

Emily laughed, "ever since we came up here a few months back she has the new found confidence and she thinks she can handle everything. I mean she is 16 and already thought she knew everything before she came out, now she takes it upon herself to share that vast knowledge with everyone else."

Olivia laughed, "Coming out can do that for people, they feel powerful and free, she seems to be using that power in a good way."

"That's what we figured and she's been doing good; they have been having a few issues at school with a few kids, but apparently Miranda grabbed one of them by the collar and said that if he ever said anything bad about her girlfriend again he would have to blend his meals for the rest of his life because she would break his teeth. That kid never bothered them again and now everything is fine."

Olivia was glad that things were going well for Sam, "do we get to meet this girlfriend?"

A new voice joined the conversation, "you would if you turned around." Everyone turned around to see Sam, Haddie and another young woman who they assumed was Miranda standing in the door way. Sam hugged Olivia and Alex and introduced them to Miranda, and then Sam introduced Haddie to Emily and Astrid.

"It's nice to meet all of you, sorry it took me a while to come in, I was a little, freaked out."

"This family has an uncanny ability to do that to a lot of people." Astrid smiled at the teen, "you get used to us and then we don't seem that crazy." Haddie smiled and joined the women at the dining room table. After talking for a while the rest of the family trickled in and Haddie met them all, all the while holding tight to Olivia or Alex. After she got comfortable with everyone she joined the kids in the living room to watch a movie while the adults finished dinner.

Every now and then Olivia would check on the kids and on one of these trips she heard a voice behind her, "she seems to have fit right into the family, kind of like you did." Bill was standing behind Olivia with a large smile on his face. "She seems to have settled in and she seems comfortable with everyone. I'm just glad she's happy and feels like she is safe here; I know it will take time for her to understand she this family isn't going to abandon or hurt her." As Bill was about to head back to the other room, Olivia stopped him, "Bill can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Of course, let go into the study." Once they ducked into the office downstairs Olivia sat down and got right to the point, "Alex and I are hoping that Haddie's adoption will be final by Christmas, which brings me to what I wanted to ask you, I was hoping you I could ask your help in setting up Alex's Christmas present."

"Sure, anything I can do to help, what were you thinking of giving her?"

Olivia put a box on the desk and opened it, "I was thinking an engagement ring."

I know, I know, cliffy. But this is going to be a two part chapter because its finals and I am going back home to California soon but I promised a chapter and here it is. The next one will cover the family getting to know Haddie better and enjoying the holiday. Let me know what you think and if you want to see anything in particular. Review if want to see more.