A/N: Your life is a reflection of how effectively you balance potential and kinetic energy.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the show or the characters, but, oh, how I wish I did.

March 30th, 11:45 AM

"You're lying to me," Fin spoke, but he was not looking at Elliot at all. Instead, his focus was on the drill in his hands and the wood pieces he was fitting together. "You gotta be."

"Sat through the whole thing with a straight face," Elliot chuckled. "Even joined in the conversation about the sermon we had at Lenardi's. Man, I know she doesn't buy into any of it, but the fact that she even came with us…" he looked up from the crib he was straightening out against the wall. "That says a lot, right?"

"Says I'm not putting together a twenty-year-old changing table for nothin'," Fin quipped, drilling the sides of the furniture together. "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but, uh, half the squad thinks you two been fuckin' around for years."

With a loud scoff, Elliot smoothed out the crib sheets and said, "Shit, nothing happened. Not, ya know, physically. Not until…" he narrowed his eyes. "Okay, who's saying this, and when did it start?"

Chuckling, Fin held up both hands. "Don't shoot the messenger." He flipped the finished changing table upright and slid in the drawers. "Munch has been placing bets on the two of you since that mess with Jackson." He smirked at the look on his face. "Gotta admit, the way you two backed each other up, relied on each other…I was only in the unit for a couple of hours and thought you were married."

Elliot opened his mouth to protest, but he exhaled and dragged his hands down his white tee shirt. "Well, I do not deny it, me and Liv…have always had this…connection. Bond. Whatever you wanna call it. I fell for her fast and hard, and obviously, it was always mutual. That's why, uh…" he waved a hand around the small room. "This doesn't seem so insane. Or scary." His lips pulled into a wide and warm smile. "I'm pretty sure I never wanted anything as much as I want this." He turned his head and looked at Fin. "With Liv."

Fin sighed and dropped his hands into his lap, then ran his palms up and down his thighs, the sweat soaking into his jeans. "Are you sure you want it? Or do you think you needed to be the one to give Liv that baby she wants so badly before someone else did?"

"Both," Elliot said firmly. He draped a baby blanket over the side of the rib, and slowly his face fell into a soft, almost serene expression. "All four of my kids slept in this thing, and God willing…the little lives Liv and me…"

"Gotta ask you something, man," Fin interrupted, breaking into his friend's moment of nostalgia and wistfulness. "Kind of personal."

Furrowing his brow, Elliot turned to Fin, then knelt beside him to start picking up tools and hardware. "Shoot."

After taking a breath and clearing his throat, Fin asked, "You tell her everything? I mean, does she know about every skeleton in your closet?"

Laughing, Elliot shifted his weight and sat on the carpeted floor. He twirled a screwdriver around in his hand like a small baton. "And she still loves me unconditionally," he wagged his eyebrows and then slapped his hand down on his friend's shoulder. "I told Liv almost everything about me and my life, shit, practically the moment we met. Whatever was left came out little by little over the years; the more we got to know and understand each other, the deeper the feelings started to run. I was in love with her before I fucking realized it, and when I did…I made my move because she is the only person I have ever felt safe enough to share everything with." He tilted his head. "You still don't feel that way with Warner?"

Fin bit his lip and looked up at the ceiling, blinked twice, and said, "You got this noble history, of course, Benson forgave or overlooked any stupid shit you did."

"Noble history?" Elliot twisted his lips and tilted his head. "Who do you think you're talking to?"

"Seriously," Fin bowed his head and started fiddling with the handle of a hammer. "Young kid knocks up his girl, takes full responsibility and marries her, joins the damn Marines, all while maintaining a gold-star relationship with God and working his way through college three credits at a time in the middle of the night." He noticed the red tinge washing over Elliot's face and chuckled. "Then you became a hero cop, all that is fuckin' noble, man. So what could you have said to her that made any of that look…"

"I told her about my father," Elliot interrupted, staring across the room at a crack in the plaster under the window. "About every single time he hit me. I told her the truth about my mother, ya know, uh, eventually. She knows about the one and only time I smacked Maureen and about the time I had to arrest my own brother. And, uh…" he inhaled. "She knows how many people I've killed. How, when, why, and what it all did to me. Not everything I've done in my life was noble, man, and she loves me in spite of that." He let out a hard huff as he turned to look at Fin. "If you don't believe, with everything that you have, that Mel won't love you because of something you did…"

"You got out of a uniform and right into an SVU suit," Fin cut him off again, sounding almost jealous. "I spent eight years in Narcotics, drug unit ain't the same, man. I had to do a lot of shit I'm not proud of, shit that the unit had to redact in files and stuff you'd have to arrest me for if…"

"Part of the job, man," Elliot interjected, shaking his head.

"Nah, not just the job, I mean," Fin licked his lips. "You've only been with Kathy since high school until Liv. My list's a lot longer. I was never monogamous. Not really. My marriage to Teresa was rocky, and she had her own issues that I coulda supported her through instead of givin' up on her. I'm not winning any Father-of-the-Year awards, just ask Kenny. And my time as a ranger wasn't all medals of honor, ya know?" He sniffled and rubbed his chin with one hand. "I, uh, I love Melinda, man, but I can't…"

"And she loves you for who you are now, who you became after going through all of that," Elliot spoke. "You don't think I was scared out of my mind whenever I had to tell Liv something painful?" He scratched his neck and said, "I'm gonna tell you what she told me. We all have a past, and we have to live with what we go through in order to become who we are meant to be. Warner came into your life when you needed her most, after everything else, and it was for a reason. Trust her to know that who you were is not who you are."

Fin stared at him blankly for a moment. "Man, you talk like that when you're not at work, no wonder Benson fell in love with you." He shoved his elbow into Elliot's side and laughed. "Thanks."

Elliot chuckled back at him. "Talk to her," he said, "Before you lose her." He got to his feet and just as he was about to try to hang up the curtains, he heard excited shouting from the living room. He dropped the curtain rod out of his hands and ran out of the small room. "What the hell is all the…" he stopped, stilled, and blinked twice before turning his head and looking at Olivia. "Um," he looked back toward the open front door. "Hi, Ma, what are you…"

"I was halfway here when I remembered you said next weekend not this weekend," Bernie said quickly, dropping her bags and taking off her fringed shawl. "I left the house so angry and upset, thinking you were blowing me off, then…well, it seemed so silly to turn around when I realized I was wrong." She pulled a few wrinkles out of her floral print linen dress, then clapped her hands together and gave Olivia a wide, bright smile. "Let me look at you, lovely!"

Olivia smiled back but blushed slightly, tugging nervously at the hem of her black shirt hoping to cover whatever skin peeked between it and her jeans. Her heart sped up as Bernie gave her a long look up and down. Then, sending; you a silent plea to Elliot, she turned around.

"Ma, come on, she's not a side of beef, stop inspecting her," he laughed, stepping closer and pulling his mother into a hug. "How are ya, Ma?"

"Much better now," Bernie said, closing her eyes as she wrapped her arms around her son. "I brought you some groceries, a few things for the kids. And I brought my knitting. I'm making a throw for your new couch," she pushed herself away from Elliot slightly and winked at him. "You know why."

He rolled his eyes and dragged a palm down his face. "You're still convinced that…"

"Every single time I finished knitting a throw, Kathy found out she was pregnant. It's not a coincidence." Bernie turned to look at Olivia. "I stopped knitting them around the time the twins were born, and wouldn't you know." She shrugged knowingly. "But it seems my services are required once again," she patted her bag of yarn.

Olivia moved toward Elliot as Bernie plopped onto the couch. "You don't think she's…"

"Pure coincidence," he whispered, curling his arms around her waist. "She stopped knitting the throws the same time I transferred into SVU. Larger caseload, longer hours, things with Kathy and me weren't great…" his shoulders rose and fell, and he kissed her forehead.

"Grandma!" Lizzie gasped, watching as Bernie pulled a large, fleck-stitched blanket out of her bag. "It's beautiful! But it looks like you're almost done with it! When did you start it?"

Bernie dropped her hands, holding her needles, and looked up pensively. "Hmm, I believe I started this particular throw, oh, almost two weeks ago. Was supposed to be a housewarming gift for your new apartment out in Seattle, but that's when I assumed you'd all be going."

"Two weeks ago?" Elliot mumbled sheepishly, one finger crooning to scratch the side of his nose. "And how did you know about Seattle?"

Bernie looked over her shoulder. "Kathy told me when she got the job, wanted to know if I'd be upset if you all moved across the country. I told her, ya know, whatever decision made you happy, I would support. When she told me she was going by herself," she smirked and wagged a finger at her son, "I decided to knit this thing anyway. I knew exactly why you were staying." She returned to the task of readying her needles. "When you called to tell me you moved into this place and told me your plans, I knew I didn't have much time to finish it."

"You told your mother…what exactly?" Olivia folded her arms, her lips tilted sideways as her chin tipped upward.

He gave a soft growl, along with the arrogant challenge of his smug grin. "I didn't give her explicit details," he whispered, "But I told her we were expanding the brood, asked her if, uh, she wouldn't mind giving me my great-grandmother's amethyst ring when we go out to see her next week."

Olivia's bright eyes widened as her jaw dropped. She shook her head ever-so-slightly as she tried to process what he had said. "You...that's a family heirloom. Your mother wouldn't let you give it to Kathy, and you can't be…"

He pressed a finger to her lips. "Technically, I already asked you," he told her, a cautionary glimmer in his stare. "But I kinda like the idea of a ring being on your finger, telling every other guy who looks at you that you're off-limits, spoken for," he leaned closer to her, kissed her once, and whispered, "That you're mine." Brushing his nose against hers, he asked, "I know you, I know how you get. If you don't want to wear it, you…"

It was her turn to do the silencing, kissing him before he could finish speaking. Her hands slipped up his shirt, flattening on his back, and she mumbled against his lips, "I love you."

"Okay," Dickie walked into the living room with a book in his hand, making a disgusted face as he rolled his eyes. "I never had to deal with walking in on my parents kissing before, guys, come on!"

Bernie pointed a knitting needle at her grandson. "Richard, you never dealt it with it because your father wasn't as enamored with your mother as he is with your…" she gave Elliot a lopsided grin. "Stepmother."

"Close enough, Ma," Elliot laughed. He gave Olivia another quick kiss, then headed back into the den to finish turning it into a nursery with Fin.

Olivia watched him go, then cleared her throat and moved over to the couch. She sat between Bernie and Lizzie, bushed the younger girl's hair back, and kissed the top of her head.

Bernie smiled, knitting away, as she watched her granddaughter rest her head on Olivia's shoulder. "Your father didn't tell me," she started, "how you kids feel about everything that's happened in the last couple of weeks." She eyed Dickie, then looked at Lizzie with expectant blue eyes.

"At first," Lizzie swallowed, lifted her head, and looked at her brother for his approval. Then, seeing him nod at her, she continued. "We were all upset, then angry. At dad, at mom…" she licked her lips and pushed her glasses up on her nose, then shifted on the sofa. "We didn't know Mom was even going out to Seattle until a few days before she left. She asked us what we wanted, as though she didn't already have her plans." Her lips curled slowly into a soft smile. "Things worked out great," she said with a small laugh. "We're all...really happy with Dad and Liv, and there's no fighting, no tension, we're just…" she lifted her shoulders again. "Happy."

"Good," Bernie gave a hearty laugh and then winked at Olivia. "I think things are the way they're supposed to be now and aren't changing anytime soon." She nodded once. "My son has wanted this all for so very long," she intoned melodically, then resumed her knitting as if she'd said nothing at all.

Suddenly, Olivia felt as though things would be changing sooner than anyone could fathom. And she honestly couldn't wait.

A/N: A case that spurs a few of these changes...next.