Hey guys. Glad so many are enjoying my story so far. To those who might be confused about Elliot's status for the past several years: When he was undercover, his family knew he was undercover for the FBI but nothing else. They couldn't get in touch with him. He was only able to contact them sporadically. Olivia only knew what Kathy told her which was Elliot was undercover with the FBI. That's all Kathy knew as well. Even She didn't know what the assignment was or Elliot's location. As for when he came back, He didn't contact his family right away. He was debriefed and everything first, but Eli is a kid. He only knew when he could go see his dad. He didn't think about the time in between. He was just going from the time his dad first made contact with him from Quantico. Hope that makes things more clear. Thanks for reading.
When Elliot came out to the living room, He found Olivia waiting for him.
"Hey. Feel better?" she asked.
Elliot nodded. "How much longer till Noah gets here?"
Olivia looked at her watch. "It should be about an hour."
"I think I could eat now. Do we have time to grab a bite?" Elliot inquired.
"Sure. Why don't we order in," Olivia suggested.
"Sounds good. I'll go get the take-out menus. They're in the kitchen," Elliot agreed, heading into the other room. He and Olivia looked over the choices together and decided what they wanted. Half an hour later, They were sitting down to enjoy the Thai food they had ordered.
They barely had enough time to clean up after eating before the doorbell rang. Olivia went to answer and Elliot heard her say, "Lucy, thank you so much for bringing him here."
"It was no problem at all, Olivia. Have fun with your mom and friends tonight, Noah," A younger voice responded.
"Ok. Bye, Lucy. See ya Monday," a child's voice piped up.
A moment later, Olivia returned with a little boy of about eight in tow.
"Elliot, this is my son, Noah," she told him.
Elliot smiled and approached the boy. "Hey, Noah. I'm a friend of your mom's."
Noah shook the man's hand excitedly. "Hi, Mr. Elliot! I know you. I saw you in the picture in the drawer in my mom's nightstand."
Elliot looked questioningly at Olivia.
"It was the one taken at Eli's christening," she clarified, "It's my favorite. I keep the others under the bed in a box."
Elliot raised an eyebrow. "That's an old one."
Noah's eyes widened. "There's more pictures?"
Elliot and Olivia chuckled.
"Your mom and I were friends for a really long time," Elliot explained.
"Can I see them?" Noah begged.
"I'll show you tomorrow at home, Sweet Boy," Olivia promised.
"Hey, Maybe I'll join you guys. It might be fun to remember the good times," Elliot stated.
"Can he Mom?" Noah required.
"I think that can be arranged," Olivia said, ruffling her son's hair. She looked up at her former partner over Noah's head and gave him a nod and a soft smile.
Elliot returned the smile before suggesting, "How 'bout we go outside and kick the soccer ball around before dinner?"
"Ok!" Noah agreed enthusiastically. Noah liked soccer almost as much as dancing, and both required fancy footwork.
Elliot got a soccer ball from the garage, and Olivia and Noah followed him to the back yard. They played for the next hour, and by then everyone was hungry."
"You know what sounds good to me? Pizza. I know my daughter has some meat in the freezer and some other ingredients in the pantry. I helped her get everything put away before we left to go into hiding. I'll need to run to the store around the corner for some fresh veggies, but after that, I'm gonna teach you and your mom how to make my famous Stabler Pizza. It was my mom's recipe," Elliot stated.
"Awesome!" Noah cheered.
"Sounds like a lotta fun. How about you go get the fresh ingredients while Noah and I get everything else ready." was Olivia's response.
"Sounds like a plan," Elliot agreed. He headed out and was back within fifteen minutes.
"So what happens first?" Olivia asked when Elliot had put the grocery bags on the counter.
"Well, wash up and then chop up the veggies. I'll thaw out the hamburger meat and the pepperonis. Noah, Turn on that radio over there," Elliot gave the orders.
A few minutes later, to the sounds of the seventies, Noah was laughing as he tossed some pepperonis onto a piece of flatbread that his mother had just slathered with tomato sauce. Elliot sprinkled the cheese on top and they danced over to another piece of flatbread to make a veggie pizza. By the time they were making the hamburger pizza, they were all singing along to Elton John. After piling the flatbread crusts with the pizza toppings, Elliot handed a cookie sheet to Olivia, who put the pizzas on it and stuck it into the preheated oven.
"So how long does the pizza take to cook?" Olivia questioned.
"About half an hour," Elliot told her.
"Hey, can we have a movie night while we eat the pizza?" Noah requested. Elliot grinned.
"Sounds like a plan. Why don't you go look through the movies and pick one? Maureen has Netflix and Disney +," was his suggestion.
"Cool!" Noah exclaimed, running into the living room to check out the movie selection. Less than ten minutes later, he called out,
"Found one!" Twenty minutes later, the two adults and the young boy were settled in front of the tv with their pizza and drinks, watching The Greatest Showman. Once that movie was over, Olivia had Noah get himself all ready for bed before they began watching Newsies Live. Noah fell asleep halfway through the second movie, so Olivia lifted him up and got him into Shay's room. She gently laid him down on his sleeping bag and covered him with a blanket.
"Love you, my sweet boy," she whispered, kissing him good night.
"Is he out?" Elliot asked when his friend returned to the living room.
"Like a light," Olivia replied as she helped him clean up from dinner.
After the dishes were washed and the garbage had been taken out and everything was wiped down, Elliot turned to his best friend.
"So, what do ya feel like doing? Game? Another movie?" he inquired.
Olivia shrugged. "I'm up for either."
"How about a game of scrabble?" suggested Elliot.
"Sounds great," Olivia agreed with a smile.
Elliot got the game, and he and Olivia played a couple of games before deciding to watch a movie until the kids got home.
Elliot scanned through the movie choices until he found a movie they could both agree on. Olivia made them both some coffee and the two settled down on the couch to watch A League of Their Own.
The movie was just ending when Elliot and Olivia heard the front door open.
Olivia had her hand on her gun and Elliot stood next to her protectively. Both of them breathed sighs of relief when a familiar face came into view.
"Dad. Olivia. We're back." Kathleen stated the obvious, before running into her father's arms.
The other kids followed suit and Olivia stood next to Alex, holding back tears as she watched Elliot reunite with his family.
"Thank you. Thank you for keeping them safe for Elliot," she whispered to her friend.
Alex offered her a tremulous smile and squeezed her shoulder before nodding her head in reply.
At that moment, Elliot broke away from his family and moved to hug Alex.
"Thank you. For everything," he softly uttered.
Alex nodded against his shoulder and replied, "Anytime. I'll always look out for my friends."
Ryan carried his sleeping daughter to her bed to give his wife some time with her dad and siblings. Olivia hugged all five Stabler kids and Elliot before heading off to get herself ready for bed. She knew Elliot needed time alone with his kids, and she was exhausted. While Elliot was enjoying time with his family in the living room, Olivia snuggled under a warm, soft blanket and drifted off to sleep on the comfortable sofa in the sunroom. Everything was right again.
Thanks for reading this chapter. I obviously do not own The Greatest Showman, Newsies Live, Scrabble, or A League of Their Own. I also of course do not own SVU. Those movies, the game, and the show all belong to their respective creators. Next chapter coming soon. There is more adventure to come.