A short update to help the story move along. I promise another one really soon!

Chapter 7: Beginnings

'When he reaches her belly, he leaves reverent kisses all over it, and her eyes fill with unshed tears again as she watches his warm smile while he kisses the place where their child grows.'

"I'm pregnant."

Laughter isn't the exact reaction she had expected from him. Surprise, trepidation, yes. Not laughter. Not at all. Olivia stares at him as he chuckles and the knot in her stomach gets tighter. The small Christmas tree he recently put up mocks her from the living room with its cheerfulness.

"What's so funny?" She finally asks. His first reaction has thrown her off balance, she feels as if she might get sick.

"You. Me. Us. This." Elliot lists, smiling at her. There's a loud sound in her ears and it takes her a moment to realize it's her own heart beating madly inside her chest.

'I can't do this.' Olivia thinks, swinging her legs to the side of the kitchen chair to stand up and run away, as she often does. She does not realize she must have been spoken out loud because in the next instant he stands up as well, and before she knows it, he's kneeling on the floor in front of her, his big rough hands holding onto her naked thighs.

Elliot lowers his head next to hers, his blue eyes searching for her brown ones as she uncomfortably looks at everything but him. Ever since he suspected she might be pregnant he waited for this moment, the moment she would pull away, the moment she would try to run. He's always been able to read her like a book, and he is not going to lose her again. Not now.

Especially not now.

"Look at me, Olivia." Never one for confrontation, she squirms in her seat and reluctantly complies. He has earnest eyes, her Elliot, transparent like his soul. "Did you really think I'd be upset about it? Did you forget anything I said a couple of months ago?"

She hadn't, but she still has a hard time believing it. "I don't know what to think."

"Yes, you do, Olivia. Yes, you do." He insists, his hands caressing the warm skin of her thighs up and down, reassuringly. "These past couple of months have been so great, Liv. Whatever this is, I don't think I have ever felt as free, as content... damn, even as happy as I do right now."

"Elliot-

"No, Liv. I'm happy right now, I am happy about this baby. We haven't been particularly careful, and I think deep down we both hoped we could make it happen, just us."

The smile she gifts him is bright but timid, she berates herself internally for feeling like a teenager informing her boyfriend he knocked her up. He senses it, her reluctance, as he always does. Olivia tries to hide the tears flooding her eyes, but he sees them too. One hand leaves her leg, his thumb and forefinger lift her chin and bring her gaze to meet his once more.

"It is a happy laugh, Liv. A grateful one. I expected you to say the words but actually hearing them?" He shakes his head in disbelief. "And I laughed because I truly hoped we could have this. For you, for us." He pauses, doesn't want to overwhelm her. "I hoped to be here with you, just like we are now, ever since you threw yourself at me in that exam room." Elliot jokes, trying to lighten the mood.

It works, she laughs.

"I threw myself at you?!"

"Well, yeah, you did. You gave me a hand, I gave you a hand, then we kissed... And here we are." She can't help it, she laughs out loud despite herself, and it's music to his ears. Her shirt -his shirt-is now bunched up around her hips as his hands resume his caress on her legs.

"I can't believe this is happening." Olivia lets out, running her hands up his arms and settling them on his shoulders, finally allowing herself to touch him.

"I know we have many things to talk about yet, but I am here and I can't wait to figure them all out at your side." Elliot parts her legs, settling himself between her thighs. "C'mere." His big hands grip her hips and tug her to the edge of the chair, making her yelp in surprise. She immediately wraps her arms and legs around him, she needs him close to her. His warmth, his scent, his strength. It surprises her just how much she needs him.

What was she even scared of?

'Oh, right.' Olivia remembers. Abandonment, rejection, failure. His and hers, mostly hers. It's all still there but, God, she wants him right now. Her lips, which had been brushing against the skin of his neck, begin kissing a path towards his hungry mouth. She knows he enjoys kissing her just as much as she does, they have spent several afternoons laying on his couch doing just that. The kiss is sweet and slow, sensual; not at all what she expected, he's being careful with her but she doesn't want careful right now.

It is cold in his kitchen, it always is oddly enough, and Olivia shivers, not entirely due to the temperature. His left hand is inside her shirt, halfway up her back as his right one grips her hip. She's almost naked and even in the warmth of his embrace, she unable to suppress another tremble.

"Take me to bed, El." It is her that initiates it, again. She's aware she tends to use sex when a conversation gets too overwhelming, preferring instead to express herself with her body.

He does not need to be told twice. Without hardly any effort he lifts her, clutching her generous ass; and with his eyes closed and his tongue deep inside her mouth, he carries her to his warm bed by muscle memory alone.

"Are you always gonna carry me to bed?" She asks after reaching the bed and both laying on top of the covers, she recalls their time earlier that evening.

"As long as you let me. May I?" Her shirt had been divested sometime during the trip to the bedroom and his mouth waters at the sight of her soft, generous tits. They look bigger already, slightly swollen.

"God, yes." Olivia sighs. "Just be gentle."

"Always." He promises.

At the first touch of his tongue on one of her pebbled nipples, she hisses, grasping the back of his head and increasing the pressure. Her breasts are extremely sensitive now and he knows that. Elliot sucks on her nipples deliberately slow, his eyes looking up at her to gauge her reactions. If her dilated pupils and her rapid breathing are any indications, he's doing things right.

"What about when I get too heavy?" Her voice is breathy, the talk is a part of the foreplay. Yet, they both don't miss that she might be implying a future together, even if said future is just a few months away. Dangerous territory, her mind warns but it soon shuts down when his mouth travels down her body.

When he reaches her belly, he leaves reverent kisses all over it, and her eyes fill with unshed tears again as she watches his warm smile while he kisses her skin.

He's so soft with her; he was when he offered to be her donor when they both left their inhibitions go in that clinic when she struggled with their changing relationship. He was there when the treatment failed and he all but confessed his feelings. Yes, she had hoped for this baby too but she had hoped for things her whole life, she just wasn't used to getting them; things manage to fall apart.

Still, Olivia is learning new sides of him every day and she feels the immensity of it all deep inside. That's their baby in there, just as she did the day she found out about her pregnancy, he's caressing their child for the first time.

His mouth continues its journey continues and he leaves a wet trail down to where she most wants him. "Olivia, I'll carry you to bed every single night if it means I get to be with you like this." Elliot murmurs inches away from her heat, she can only see his eyes from where she lays and they bore straight into hers. He means it.

So damn soft.

The feeling quickly evaporates when he places a kiss on each of her thighs and she then feels his tongue parting her folds.

"Fuck," She groans. That talented mouth of his finds her little nub quickly and begins to suck at it in between licks of his tongue, working her over and getting her sleek and wet for him. "More."

He loves her like this, uninhibited and demanding her wants and needs; her short manicured nails move through his hair and back encouraging and guiding him. Elliot has thick, long fingers, a fact that has never escaped her but has become dangerously distracting at work ever since they began sleeping together. He likes to drum or play with his fingers on his desk as he thinks or reviews a case file, and more than once she found herself getting wet just remembering what those fingers can do.

He slides his middle finger inside her just as his lips close around her clit and begin to suck in earnest.

"El, I need you inside me." As good as his mouth and hands feel on her, she wants the real deal. He climbs over her now pliant body, settling between her legs and kissing her mouth, her taste lingering on his tongue. Elliot pushes inside, feeling her body adjusting to him, her face contorting in a mix of pleasure and mild pain, she's sore from their earlier activities. When he feels her relax, he pulls back and drives back in, burying himself deeper. She's more than he can handle sometimes and he wants this time to last; it feels like a first time, a new beginning.

Elliot turns them sideways then, draping her right leg over his hip, starting a slow and entrancing rhythm; more aimed towards pleasure than release. Their arms surround each other, holding on tight as he drives in and out of her, their breath mingling. They kiss lazily and it's the closest they have ever felt to each other. Olivia realizes then, that they aren't simply having sex as they always do, they are making love for the first time.

Those same thick fingers grab her ass cheek when he comes and empties himself inside her, her leg is wrapped around his waist now, almost split open but she needs a little more. Her hand leaves his back and a few strokes of her own finger do the trick, she soon follows him into oblivion.

"I want to know."

They're still on his bed, their bodies cooling off when he says it.

"Huh?" The question surprises her. Her head resting on his chest and it is now the beating of his heart the one she hears on her ear, lulling her to sleep.

"I want to know everything your doctor told you. How's the baby, when are you due, when is the next ultrasound?" He explains, placing a kiss on her head as his arms pull her closer to him.

"Oh." She remembers that he now knows, she doesn't have to do it alone. That strange feeling gets ahold of her again and she quickly pushes it down. "My next ultrasound is scheduled for next week, on the 23rd."

"Right before Christmas Eve." He says out loud on purpose, he wants to ask her. Elliot can't wait to spend Christmas with her; the first of many, he hopes.

"Yes. She also gave me some prenatal vitamins I need to pick up at the pharmacy and take right away." She answers, moving on.

"Why didn't you?" It is not an accusation, but the question bothers her. "I'll get them tomorrow for you."

"I was a little busy puking my guts out, Elliot." She sighs. "It's okay, I can do it-"

"No, let me." He interrupts. "Please. Let me help you with something."

"Sorry. I just haven't been feeling well." She apologizes for her outburst.

It is his overprotective nature and her independent one that might cause some trouble, she worries. For now, she will let it pass; it is all too recent.

"As for the baby... Wait here." Placing a parting kiss on his lips, Olivia untangles herself from his arms, and picking his shirt off the floor she heads to his living room in search of the small bag she carries around. She finds it also on the floor, where it landed when they first arrived, and quickly removes what she has been looking for.

Back in the bedroom, she finds Elliot propped up against the headboard with an expectant look on his face. She crawls on the bed and kneels beside him.

"As for the baby... here's his -or her- first photo." She says excitedly, smiling and handing him the other copy of the sonogram. "I know you can't see much, I'm around three months along."

"So perfect." He says, staring at the small piece of paper with a solemn look on his face. "Christmas came a little earlier this year." He places the photo over his heart and tugs her body against him, he cradles her against his chest, his arms supporting her back as his mouth descends on hers. The sonogram and their baby cocooned between them.

TBC

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