"Why don't I take Noah to school. What time is parent day?" he asked curiously.

"It starts at 10:30 and goes for about 45 minutes, I guess," she explained.

"Is it weird if I came too?" he wondered, "I mean, is that too confusing for him?"

Olivia thought about it for a moment. "Mmm maybe a little. Maybe you can come to next years one," she winked, hoping he wouldn't be too hurt.

"No, that's fine babe, I totally respect that," he nodded. "I understand."

"Well..." she started, "maybe we should ask Noah, it's his special day where he gets to show everyone his family, goodness knows what he's showing everyone," she laughed.

"No but if it makes you uncomfortable, Liv…"

She smiled at him, "Well, I mean it's already weird that I'll be turning up with a little girl," she chuckled. "We'll just ask Noah," she sipped her coffee.

At that, Trevor and Olivia both heard some loud cries coming from the guest room where he was surprised that she had slept the entire night. "There it is…" he smiled at Liv. "She's always a bit upset when she wakes up," he said as if explanation.

"I can relate," she laughed. Trevor set his mug down and made his way down the hall. "Its okay honey, Daddy's right here…" Olivia smiled after him, loving to watch him in Dad mode.

He returned a few minutes later with a slightly calmer child, hiccupping from her tears. She cuddled her father as he stood in the kitchen, sipping his coffee, intermittently rubbing her back soothingly.

"Look baby," he said softly, "Noah is here… are you going to say good morning to Noah?" Noah was smiling, he waved at Eloise and came closer to them.

"Good morning Eloise," he reached up and patted her leg. "My Mommy is going to make us some toast, do you like toast?"

Trevor smiled at Olivia's son. Eloise nodded.

"Would you like to sit down at the table with Noah like a big girl and eat some toast?" Trevor asked her.

She nodded again. Noah took a seat and waited for Trevor to place Eloise down too.

"Eloise would you like to have peanut butter and jelly or would you like … some honey?" Olivia asked, getting up and putting a few slices of toast in the toaster.

She thought about it for a moment, "honey," she replied.

"Please," Trevor prompted her.

"Please," she added softly.

"Thank you for your good manners Eloise, I'll make you some toast with honey," Olivia made a big deal out of praising her, it was basically the same thing she had done to reinforce good manners in her son.

"Noah," Olivia began. "I'm going to be bringing Eloise with me to your parent day, okay?" she informed him. He nodded and smiled as she put some toast down in front of them both.

"Is Trevor coming too?" he asked hopefully, looking from his Mom to Trevor.

Olivia smiled at Trevor, "there's your answer…"

"Maybe you should ask Trevor yourself," she told him with a wink.

"Trevor would you come with Mommy and Eloise to my parent's day at my school?" he asked.

Trevor grinned at him. "I wouldn't miss it, bud, I'm gonna have to meet you guys there though."

"Trevor is going to take you to school this morning," Olivia informed Noah, "Mom is gonna stay here with Eloise and then we'll come down to the school later. How's that?"

"Oooh okay, Trevor will you meet my friends?" Noah asked, he was excited that finally his class wouldn't think he was lying about his Mom's boyfriend.

"I could do that if you like," Trevor told him, "but I do have to be at work on time," he said, "so we have to be ready to go in about 25 minutes, okay?" he warned Olivia's son.

Noah nodded, eating his breakfast up without too much chatter. Olivia watched Eloise poke at her toast.

"Does she eat a lot?" Olivia asked him.

"Nah, she picks, but if I-c-e-c-r-e-a-m is mentioned, she suddenly has a big appetite," he grinned.

Olivia smiled. "Daddy is going to work today," she told Eloise, sitting down near her, "and you and I are going to hang out, what do you think about that?" she asked Trevor's daughter.

Eloise smiled and nodded, chewing a tiny bit of toast.

"We can go and get a morning treat if you eat up as much of your breakfast as you can. And after that we'll go to Noah's school-"

"Noah's big school?" she asked, her eyes open with delight.

Olivia smiled and nodded. "Yeah, Noah goes to big school. That'll be fun, won't it?"

Eloise nodded, her fingers sticky from the honey. "I want to go to big school when I'm big too," she replied.

Noah finished off his breakfast and quickly brushed his teeth and let his Mom fix up his hair.

"I'm ready, Trevor!" he hollered, realizing Trevor was busy getting dressed in his suit for work.

"Wow kiddo, that's the fastest I've ever seen you get ready – why don't you do that for me?" Olivia questioned him with a smile.

Noah giggled. Olivia got up and put Noah's packed lunch in to his bag and zipped it up. "Here, you be really good for Trevor and don't harass him when he has to leave, okay?"

"Okay Mommy,"

Trevor came down the hall, carrying a leather messenger bag over his shoulder with his laptop and other devices. "Whoa, you really are ready!" he gave Noah a high five. "I'll be one moment," he told Noah.

Trevor came to Eloise and crouched down to meet her, "honey, Daddy is going to work now and you're going to stay with Olivia while I'm gone, is that okay?" he asked her.

"You stay with me too, Daddy?" she asked, framing her remark as a question.

"No baby, Daddy has to go to work, instead of going to daycare, I thought you could have a fun day with Olivia and Noah instead. Olivia is going to take you to get a special treat if you do as you're told, that'll be fun right?"

She nodded. "Okay my sweetheart," he kissed her forehead, avoiding her sticky fingers. "You be good, Olivia will tell me if you're not and I'll be very grumpy with you."

"Okay Daddy," she looked at Olivia who smiled back warmly at her, hoping that their day would go smoothly.

"Okay, say goodbye to Noah, Noah is off to school." Trevor told her.

She waved at Noah, "bye Noah!"

"Bye," he waved. "See you Mommy!" Olivia could tell that Noah was very excited about Trevor taking him to school. He was full of smiles. She gave her a son a hug and a kiss and waved them out the door.

"Thanks Trevor," she murmured. "For… all of this, I'm glad you trust me with Eloise,"

"Of course," he winked at her, "I love you."

They kissed on the lips. Noah was used to seeing it all and didn't seem to even bat an eyelid. "Love you too," she replied.

She watched them turn and leave, Noah, slipping his hand in to Trevor's as they headed to the lift.

Olivia closed the door and turned back to Eloise, she smiled at her – it was the first time she'd really spent any time alone with a little girl since the day Amanda gave birth to Billie and even then, it had been overnight, Jesse had been asleep for most of it. "You let me know when you're done with that, baby, okay?" she said, nodding toward the toast, "you've already eaten so much."

She could tell the way the little girl was pushing it around that she was already done. There was less than half of the slice left.

"I'm finished," she said, holding her fingers out as if they were covered in pesticide. It almost made Olivia laugh – a vast change from Noah as a toddler who's mission it was to get in to everything and not care about leaving grubby, sticky finger marks everywhere.

"Okay, let's go wash up in the bathroom and find some clothes to wear for the day, okay?"

Eloise nodded. She grabbed a wet wipe from the place beside her tissue box that she always had handy for Noah. She pulled one out and took Eloise's hands and gave them a gentle wipe since she seemed so uncomfortable having honey all over her fingers.

"Are we going back to my Mommy's house today?" she asked Olivia curiously.

"Not today, I think you're staying with Daddy and me for a few days," she told the little girl. She couldn't get over how cute she was. Her big blue eyes stared back at Olivia and Trevor was right, it would have been so hard to ever say no to her smile.

"My Mommy is sick," she told Olivia, letting her pick her up with ease and carried her in to the bathroom. She set her down on the countertop and grabbed a wash cloth.

"How long as Mommy been sick for?" she asked the little girl curiously. "Does she sleep all the time or just sometimes?"

"She's sick sometimes but when my other Daddy is home-"

"Who is your other Daddy?" Olivia interrupted, feeling betrayed for Trevor. "I didn't know you had another Daddy."

Olivia tried to sound calm and casual but she was furious for Trevor.

"Seany," she replied simply as if it was a stupid question. Liv pulled out the little step Noah used when to brush his teeth. "Mommy says he is my other Daddy," she explained.

"What happens when you're sick and your other Daddy is at home?" Olivia asked curiously. "Does he take care of your Mommy?"

"He yells and he gets grumpy and that's why he has to go to work farrrrrr," she spread her arms apart to gesture a big expanse of space, "far away for a long time!"

"Ohhhhh, so now it's just you and your Mommy at home."

Eloise nodded as if it couldn't have been more clear.

"I see," Olivia was more convinced than ever that Trevor had to intervene. He needed to get something in place to ensure that Eloise stayed with him—at least it explained Helena's erratic attitude and her irrational behavior toward her, she thought. "Okay baby, let's wipe your face and we can find some fun clothes to put on."

Olivia smiled when Eloise scrunched her face up as she wiped it with the warm, damp cloth. She cleaned her hands thoroughly and pulled her down. She opened up the little tooth brush case and put a little bit of the children's toothpaste Noah used. "Do you know how to brush your teeth or does Mommy and Daddy help with that?"

"I can do it," she replied.

She stood on the step and Olivia watched her do a poor job, brushing the front teeth of her teeth only. Liv thought it was adorable and found herself lamenting over the sweetness and innocence of when Noah was as little as Eloise. "Can I help a little?" she asked kindly.

Eloise looked at her and considered it for a moment and finally nodded. "Spit the toothpaste out of your mouth," she told the little girl. Eloise leaned over the sink and spat out the bubble gum flavored foam from her mouth. Olivia rinsed the brush and put a little more of the blue gel on it. "Ok, open up," she showed her by opening her own mouth.

Eloise comically opened her mouth wide and threw her face back. Olivia gently brushed the back of her teeth and the ones at the back on the top and the bottom.

"Okay all done, spit it out…"

Eloise spat it out and Liv wiped her mouth again for her. "Okay babe, would you like to get dressed and then we can do your hair."

"Can you do a braid in my hair?" she asked.

Olivia grinned at her, "Does your Mommy braid your hair?" she asked her.

"Sometimes," she shrugged.

"Guess what?" Olivia walked her to the guest room. "I can do something special with your hair today because I don't have a little girl, so I don't ever get to do anything special to Noah's hair."

Eloise giggled at the thought. "Can I wear this one?" she asked, as Olivia went through the clothes that they'd folded up after they washed and dried them the night before.

She pointed to a rainbow cardigan.

Olivia smiled, "I love that one. Would you like to wear these pants?" she picked up a pair of tiny black jeans, feeling a pang inside of her that yearned to be a mother and have her own little girl. She hoped her relationship with Eloise would blossom; it was a selfish thought, but in some ways she felt jealous that Trevor didn't have another father that he had to deal with when it came to Noah.

As far as she could see, Helena was always going to block her from getting too close – whereas Noah could potentially have felt comfortable enough to call Trevor his father.

She gave her head a little shake.

"Could I wear this?" she asked, pointing to a cute little white t-shirt that looked just like a mini version of the v-necks that Trevor slept in, only this had a pocket on the chest. Whatever feelings Olivia had about Helena, she certainly bought her daughter some very cute clothes.

She wished Noah would care more about the clothes she bought. He still waited for her to get his clothes out for him, he cared so little about them and took no interest in shopping.

"Of course you can, that's a great outfit, you have great taste!"

Eloise smiled with satisfaction. Olivia took a seat on the bed and helped her in to her clothes.

"What will you wear Oh-vilia?" she asked.

Olivia chuckled, "is my name hard to say?" she asked her. "It's oh-liv-ia"

Eloise tried again and said it correctly, but when she tried without sounding it out slowly, she got her syllables mixed up.

"How about you call me, Liv. Your Daddy calls me Liv. Is that easier?"

Eloise nodded. "Daddy calls me Elly! Mommy hates that!"

"Do you like being called Elly?" Olivia asked her. She nodded emphatically with a big smile.

"Can I call you Elly?" she asked, "would that be okay? We can call each other by our special names that Daddy calls us."

Eloise grinned, "yeahhhhhh," she said, "you call me Elly!"

"And you," Olivia gave her a gentle poke in the tummy, "you're gonna call me Liv." They sealed their deal with a high five. "And to answer your question, my little fashionista, why don't you come and help me pick out some clothes?"

Olivia laughed when they both looked in the mirror. She learned that Eloise had some very strong ideas on what she wanted. She had insisted that she and Olivia match clothes, Liv gave in, wearing a pair of black jeans, a white t-shirt and a colorful cardigan – it wasn't rainbow like Eloise's but it did have large blocks of primary colors on it.

Eloise and Olivia went to the living room and Liv put on a bunch of children's songs that Eloise had requested she find on YouTube. She cleaned up a little after the breakfast mess and watched Trevor's daughter dance around and play with some blocks. She was so sweet and happened to know a couple of the songs, she guessed she watched the same things with Trevor and at home.

"Elly," she began, trying out her new name for the little girl, "I've got my brush and I thought we could do your hair in some special braids now and then we could go and get a treat, how does that sound to you?"

"Ooooh what treat?!" she asked.

"I don't know, we'll have to see," she gave her a wink, "but we can't do that without doing our hair so, better come and sit down for me."

Eloise made her way to Olivia who sat on the couch. She patted a spot next to her and turned Eloise away from her. Olivia hadn't braided her own hair in years, something useful that one of the girls in her dorm had taught her to do during her freshman year, she wore two braids in her hair almost every day for a long spell.

She carefully parted Eloise's hair. "If I hurt you, you can say, 'ouch Liv, that hurts!', okay? But I'll be really gentle."

"Okay Liv," she replied simply as if it was something she'd dealt with before. Olivia combed through her loose curls carefully and softly, starting at the ends and making her way up until the comb dragged all the way through.

"Is that okay?" she checked with her.

"Uhuh," Eloise replied. Olivia began to weave the reverse French braid all the way down one side. The skill came back to her easily as if she had been doing it every day since college. It was neat and tidy and kept all of her hair in place. She worked on the other side and Eloise didn't complain once.

"There you go, all finished!" Eloise seemed happy, touching her hair curiously. "Do you want to go and have a look in the bathroom?"

Eloise nodded and ran ahead to see. "Oh! I loveeeee it," Olivia almost laughed. She was obviously mimicking something she'd heard, but the inflection in the child's tone was so sweet. She grinned excitedly, "Now you do it to your hair!"

"Oh, I don't know about my hair, I think I'm a little bit old for that hairstyle."

"But we have to match," Eloise insisted a little softly, she wanted Olivia to get her point, but she wasn't comfortable enough with Liv to be rude.

"I don't know… what if I did something else with my hair?" she thought, but when she saw the lower lip poke out, it broke her heart.

Quickly Eloise's eyes filled with tears and Olivia thought it was stupid for her to feel so self-conscious about having her hair off her face. She rarely wore her hair back, she used it as a shield for some reason.

"Okay honey," she said quickly, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize that you really wanted us to match…"

It was too late. Olivia crouched down to her level and drew her in toward her and gave her a hug and rubbed her back warmly. "So you reallllllly want me to braid my hair, huh?"

"Yes," she said, her voice affected by her tears, "I want Daddy to see we are matching." Olivia pulled away and smiled at her, brushing away her tears.

It all came flooding back to her just how irrational toddlers were, but still, she thought it was sweet. "Okay," Olivia relented, "I'll do my hair like yours," she kissed the little girl's forehead. "There's no need to cry." She hugged her again, giving her a little squeeze until she knew Eloise was alright. She knew she would be self-conscious wearing her hair like a 20 year old—or worse, a child, but she'd created the monster, so she went along with it.

It didn't take long for Eloise's tears to turn to smiles of satisfaction as Liv finished her own hair with Trevor's daughter's close supervision.

"Do you think we should take a pic for Daddy?" she asked Eloise.

"Yeaaaah!" she nodded. Olivia scooped her up and went back to her bedroom and opened her closet so that she could see the full length mirror. She turned the light on and balanced Eloise on her hip and reminded her to smile as she took the mirror selfie.

They put their shoes on and Olivia got her things together and they left to go to a children's café not far from Noah's school where she took him as a treat sometimes.

Trevor had was just about to walk in to court when he heard his message tone. He pulled it out and opened it up, noticing Olivia's name.

"This was all of your child's idea, by the way just so you don't think that this is totally creepy and when I tried to say no about this awful hairstyle, she insisted and cried…"

He was a little confused and replied with a bunch of question marks.

He saw a photo appear and couldn't have grinned any harder. Both Olivia and Eloise were smiling big, happy smiles, wearing almost identical outfits and had their hair styled the same way. It was the first time he'd seen his girlfriend wear her hair totally off of her face. She always had at least some wisps falling over her forehead.

He loved that she wasn't wearing any make up and was just looking happy and light just like his daughter.

He replied, "Well… this has totally made my day. My two favorite girls, oh my goodness… I love you both, I'd send something in reply but I'm about to walk in to court. I'll see you guys at 10:30. Big hugs."

He walked in to court feeling fairly confident. He didn't want to bother Olivia with it, but he had filed an emergency protection order which motioned that Helena would not be able to see Eloise without full supervision and that he would be sole guardian until she sought help for her drug problem.

It wasn't something he took pleasure in doing, but he had carefully gone through his bank history and realized there was a savings account that she'd still had access to and there were a lot of transactions as recently as a few days earlier. He saw that at least three of them were from a pharmacy delivery website.

He had copies of the texts between them and had meticulously written a report about what had occurred once he tried to introduce Eloise to Olivia including the arm grab and had to be careful not to make it more dramatic than it was. He included his willingness to hire a nanny and see to it that she had the best care at home.

"Ohhhhh Olivia! I didn't know you had a husband!" one of the mothers of the children in Noah's class gushed to her grinning and stepping a little too close inside her personal space. "And I certainly had no idea you had a younger one," she added nodding at Eloise.

Eloise was tired and had enough. Her head was rested upon Olivia's shoulder. She glanced at her son who was dragging Trevor to and from every art piece he'd ever worked on in the class room. He was so happy and Trevor seemed lighter too.

"She is so sweet!" another mother gushed. Olivia had very little time for the Upper West Side school Mom clique. She forced a smile and shifted Eloise to her other hip; she was getting heavy. "

"Hi Corine," she greeted the woman. "He's not my husband, he's my partner and this is Eloise, his daughter, not mine," she replied hating that she felt she needed to explain her own little dynamic.

Eloise lifted her head and looked at Liv, "Livvy can we go home soon?" she asked softly, shy in front of all the new faces.

"Yes sweetheart," Olivia cuddled her close to her chest and glanced up to find Trevor grinning at her. She grinned back.

"He is beautiful! How did you meet him?" the woman asked her, Olivia peeled her eyes away and turned to the woman who stood a few inches shorter than her.

She didn't fit in, she was aware of it, but she didn't care. She had seen it on their faces when they looked her outfit up and down. "Cuuuuuuuuuute!" the woman had remarked in a nasal tone which made her very aware that she did not think her outfit or hair was cute.

"We've actually known each other for 20 or so years," she replied, "in our professional lives," Olivia admitted. She was thankful for Trevor leaving Noah to his friends and coming to stand by her side. She knew that Trevor always made things just a little easier for her. He was way more charming than she was and he always knew the right thing to say to make her feel good.

"Hi baby," he greeted her softly. He smiled at the two other women that stood with Olivia. "Hi," he said, "I'm Trevor," he stuck his hand out, not waiting for an introduction.

"Corine," the woman who'd asked Olivia about him grinned cheesily at him. Olivia was worried the wind would change and her face would be in a permanent state of stupid. She would have started drooling if it was acceptable.

He turned to the other lady, "Karen," she replied, shaking his hand too.

"How great does this classroom look?" Trevor remarked, a smile still lingering over his lips. "Noah wanted to know if he could introduce this little one to his friends," he nodded at Eloise, giving one of the ends of her braids a little tug.

"I think she's done…" Olivia told him.

"She certainly does look tired!" Corine smiled at the little girl.

"She's just shy, but I'm sure she'll be okay with Noah." Trevor insisted. He turned to his little girl, "Elly, you want to go play with Noah?"

She lifted her head and looked at her father and back at Olivia, "Liv are you going to play too?"

"No but Dad and I can see you from right here and we're not going anywhere," Olivia replied. She called out to Noah who came running over to them. "Noah, Trevor said you would like to take Eloise to meet your friends."

He nodded. Trevor watched with a warmth inside him as Olivia and her son fussed over his daughter. Olivia smoothed out the little girl's clothes as she set her down and watched Noah take her hand and walk her over to his classmates.

Trevor moved closer to Olivia and rested his hand on the small of her back, giving her a little bit more confidence. He gazed at her with absolute adoration and she felt it reach her within. "You look great…" he told her bluntly.

"Oh you guys are so cuuuute!" the Karen interjected, but she sounded like she genuinely meant it. Olivia felt her cheeks heat up.

Olivia glanced up at him, suddenly feeling the fluttering in her tummy. "This was all Eloise," she laughed.

"What can I say? My little daughter has style!" he chuckled, including the two other women in on his joke. He made small talk with the two women while Olivia pulled back, concentrating on the kids, making sure Noah was being kind to everyone and that Eloise was being treated well by the other kids.

She was playing with building blocks and some wooden dolls that one of the other siblings had brought across with her sister. Noah kept her entertained, showing her all of the fun toys they had.

Olivia looked down feeling Trevor's hand in hers. He got the sense that Olivia was out of her depth within the circle of the private school upper west side mothers. She wasn't herself, she seemed shy and he had never known her to be, but he'd also never really seen her in a social situation outside of her work.

He gave her hand a squeeze. She squeezed back.

"I'm really sorry to do this, but I have to get back to work soon," he informed her and the ladies, offering her an out.

"No work for you Olivia?" Corinne asked nosily.

"No," she smiled, "I have a couple of days off."

"Oh great!" she exclaimed, "Why don't you join Karen and I and some other mothers for coffee and brunch after this?"

Olivia squeezed Trevor's hand so tightly that he almost flinched.

"Oh, I would have loved to," she said unconvincingly, "but I'm actually taking Noah home with me, we are headed away for the weekend," she told them, "we have some chores we need to take care of and I have Eloise today."

"What a shame!" Corinne replied, "you never join us! What do we have to do to tie you down!" her laughter was inane and even Trevor who was smiling pleasantly knew that the woman was trouble – the ring leader of all overly invested mothers.

"Ha," he laughed, "this woman works is a powerhouse, she's always working and when she isn't she's busy being a supermom to Noah and the best partner, we all zap too much of her time," he smiled at Liv who seemed embarrassed.

"Yes you do work a lot, you must see some awful things in your line of work," remarked Karen. "Olivia said you guys met a long time ago, are you a sex detective too?"

"Shhh!" Corinne shushed her rudely. "You can't say that in front of children."

Olivia widened her eyes in shock. "I'm the Captain of the Special Victims Unit, that's what we prefer to be called," she corrected her, "Trevor is the Assistant District Attorney."

"Wow, crime meets justice! What a compatible pair."

"Indeed," Trevor replied trying not to show his amusement. He could see Olivia had had enough. "Okay, we better round up the troops," he said to Liv, "I may have promised Noah that I would buy him some nuggests from Wendy's."

"I thought you had to go back to work?" Olivia asked, raising her eyebrow.

He wasn't a great liar, but he thought fast. "Wellllll, I thought we could all have a quick lunch, is that okay?"

Olivia chuckled, "Wendys? Come on, you can do better than that," she nudged him.

"We'll see."

Olivia and Trevor wrapped up their conversation with the women and grabbed the two kids. Olivia made sure Noah had his bag and all of his belongings. Eloise insisted only to be carried by her twin for the day and Noah and Trevor walked hand in hand.

"Look at us all being a blended family…" Trevor remarked as they walked together toward the same café that Olivia had taken Eloise to earlier. She knew Eloise and Noah could play for awhile before Trevor went back to work and they resumed their plans for his birthday.

"I know, I've had such a great morning with this little one," she told him, "she's so sweet."

"Mommy are we still gonna do the other stuff?" Noah asked her.

"Yes honey," she smiled, "Don't worry," she winked. She and Trevor exchanged glances.

They got ordered some food and sat down, Olivia let the kids go and play for a short time until the food arrived.

"So Wendy's huh?" she asked him.

Trevor laughed, "Baby I have never seen you look more uncomfortable, I just wanted to get you out of there."

"Thanks, I really don't do that circle very well," she admitted, "I don't know why, but they always have a way of making me feel so guilty and gross. You should have heard them pick apart my outfit, trying to make out as though they were complimenting me but, I'm not dressed from head to toe in Celine or Chanel so I'm not good enough."

"You are definitely good enough and I think you look so, so gorgeous," he replied, taking her hand and absently stroking her fingers. "I love your hair, I love that it's off of your face and I can see how beautiful you are – no make up, stripped back, honestly, you look so gorgeous I can barely stand it."

Olivia chuckled and kissed him softly on the lips. "Thanks for making me feel good about myself… especially when you are standing there looking like a freaking movie star next to homely little me."

"Don't be crazy, it's such a turn on to see how much effort you put in to keep Eloise happy, it really made me feel so grateful. I love you so much for that…"

He kissed her again and then lifted her hand to kiss the back of it. "I actually have something to tell you."

"Yeah?"

"I found over 13k missing from my bank account this morning and some of them are from online pharmacy deliveries," he told Liv, "and it was the bite I needed to do something, total confirmation. I was in court for myself this morning, I put an emergency protection order in to keep Eloise with me until CPS can go and check on the house and if they have reason, submit Helena to a drug and blood acohol test."

"Wow…" Olivia was surprised. "I should tell you something that Eloise told me as well."

"What?" he asked, a little concerned.

"This morning she told me that she has another Daddy and I asked who that was and she said it was Sean, that her Mom said to call him Daddy as well…"

"What the fuck…" Trevor was instantly angry, "are you fucking kidding me!?"

"Wait," Olivia tried to calm him down, "let me finish… she mentioned that Helena and Sean were yelling all the time and now he's gone to work far away and I took that to mean they've broken up."

"Fuck…" he swore angrily. "How can she do this to me? Imagine if Eloise called you Mommy and Helena found out about it? Fuck, I would never fucking disrespect her like that!"

"I know," Olivia nodded. "But Helena is clearly sick, I'm not defending it, but she's not in her right mind."

"She's never in her right fucking mind; I'm starting to realize that I had my head in the sand and she was probably off her face more than I thought, just functioning well…"

"I'm sorry, Trev," Olivia's voice trailed off.

He shook his head, taking some deep breaths. "I might contact Sean, I'll just say I'm worried and see if I can get something from him, at least if I have something written, like an affidavit, I might have a better chance at getting granted sole custody…"

Olivia nodded, "I think that's the right thing to do. How did you go with the protection order?"

"Based on what I said, the text messages, the bank stuff, the state I picked Eloise up in, they'll be doing a check on Helena either late this afternoon to make sure the house and home is fit and try to submit her to a test – if not, it'll be Monday morning and they may need to have an independent party speak with Eloise about home."

"That's fair…"

"It's a fucking mess is what it is. I have to find a nanny, I have to sort all of this out, Liv, it's just … the farthest thing from what I expected."

"I know sweetheart," she squeezed his hand, "but I know that you can handle it. I can help you with the nanny. Let me speak to Lucy maybe she can help us both out together if you're comfortable with the kid sometimes sharing her. If she can fit her schedule around it, I'm sure she'll be happy to take on extra hours…"

"Thank you," he gave her a smile. "I'm going to try to let all this go by the time I leave work today so that we can just get in my car and drive to Connecticut and forget all of our problems."

"Sounds good to me…" Liv replied.

"Oh, by the way, the sweetest fucking thing I've ever heard in my entire life was my daughter calling you Livvy."

Olivia laughed. "I know, right? I haven't heard that since I was a little girl, my Mom used to call me that when she was in a good mood."

"If you don't like it, you can tell her to stop," Trevor told her, just in case it brought up weird feelings, not really thinking.

"No, it's really sweet, I like it. It's a nice memory." She hadn't spoken much about her mother before with him. It wasn't that it was a particularly sore subject, it just didn't come up. "My relationship with my Mom wasn't always bad, you know. I don't want you to think I was raised by a sociopath; she just was an alcoholic because of what had happened to her," Olivia clarified.

"She must have loved you if after such a traumatic event, she still kept you."

Olivia nodded. "Funnily enough, that was one of our last conversations – she never really told me that she loved me or fussed over me, she could be really cold and a lot of the time I had to be the adult, but she did tell me once that she was so proud of me and that she loved me – it was like a new layer to our relationship; she warmed to me more after I joined SVU."

"Maybe she felt like you understood her better," Trevor pointed out.

She nodded. "She knew I had trouble with the victims in the first few cases and she helped me get perspective actually, and I think she realized that I saw her pain through the eyes of other victims… it meant a lot to me."

"At least you can hold on to that, right?" he asked.

"Yeah… I was kind of… excited for our relationship going forward and then just days later she died."

"Sorry, Liv…"

She gave a weak smile and shrugged. "Its okay. I loved my mother but she wasn't the best mother and she knew it, but I know she did the best that she could for the card she was dealt."

"I think you're amazing and I am sure deep down she knew you were too."

"Thanks sweetheart."

Olivia got a text from Trevor just as she was able to put Eloise down for an afternoon nap. She was tired and whiny and every time Olivia set her down she clung on to her legs.

"Let's try to be a little quiet and let Eloise sleep for about 45 minutes okay?" Olivia asked Noah. "Maybe you can have a special 45 min of mine craft time… with earphones."

"Thanks Mommy. Are we all done for Trevor's cake?" he asked.

"Yes honey, thank you for being such a big help today with Eloise. We had a nice day, didn't we?" she asked him.

He nodded with a smile. "Mommy is Eloise like my sister?"

Olivia considered his question. "I don't think she's like your sister, but maybe one day, for now she's like a friend that you help Mommy and Trevor take care of."

He seemed to accept it. She set him up with the iPad and checked her messages in the kitchen with a small glass of wine.

She nearly spat out her wine as she saw what he'd sent her.

"Do you like this?" the text was followed by a set of matching lingerie, it was black and lacy and tasteful; she was happy it wasn't over the top, no missing crotch, no extra straps or elastic that would make it too hard to put on or no amount of fabric so sheer that her crotch was showing.

"For you?" she replied smartly, "sure, it'd look cute."

There was a few minutes of nothing and she took a mouthful of her wine. Okay, we're doing this, she thought when another message came through.

"For you… if its too personal of a question or if you feel like I'm crossing a line, let me know, I just thought… I FEEL SO STUPID SENDING YOU THIS LIV."

She grinned at her phone screen and replied, not wanting him to sweat it out. "Its not crossing a line, do you want this as a birthday gift? Please don't feel stupid, I love that you are thinking about me like this, it's kind of hot and incredibly flattering even if you did fluster me a little. I love you."

She began to look at websites on her phone for some nice lingerie that she could get delivered ASAP.

"Don't worry about it for now, I don't need any gifts. I'm gonna go home and get all of my things, grab my car and I'll text you when I'm leaving in the car so you guys can be ready to go too. Should we make some snacks for the kids in the car?"

Olivia smiled, "Already on it my heart, I've put a Trevor style snack box together for the kids, some vegetable sticks, relish, crackers and some cheese. I also packed some potato chips and made us some stuff too. If there's anything in particular you'd like let me know, I can order now and have it by the time you get here. Eloise is currently sleeping, but I'll wake her up in 45 minutes and Noah is having some ipad time and Mama is having a wine, but only one in case you need me to drive."

"Have as many wines as you want my darling, I'm happy to drive. I love you, see you in a couple of hours. Maybe you should have a nap too."