AN: Hello my lovely peeps! Thank you all for your continued interest and support. This chapter is a bit messy (and I mean that in multiple ways), and I know that I get a bit out of character for Olivia.

It has come to my attention that sometimes a chunk of a sentence will be missing, or two sentences will be merged together. I think this happens when I copy and paste my document. I surprisingly do proofread, but I don't always catch it, so my apologies! I hope you enjoy and have a great day.

"True love is selfless. It is prepared to sacrifice" - Sadhu Vaswuni

Monday, January 8th

For the second time in a month, Olivia sat by herself in an unfamiliar establishment, patiently waiting for a Stabler to join her. At least she knew what this meeting was about. Kathy had called her early in the morning, practically begging her to meet up with her for lunch so they could talk. Despite every fiber of her being screaming at her to say no, Olivia agreed. She owed the woman a chance to talk at the very least. Kathy had asked her to keep this little meeting between the two of them, which had been hard for Olivia. Elliot had been trying to get in contact with Kathy for days, but she ignored every one of his calls, sending him to voicemail. So when Kathy asked Olivia if they could talk, she felt like she had to agree.

"Hey" The blonde greeted as she took a seat in the chair across from Olivia. "I'm sorry for taking up your lunch" She apologized as she set her purse down on the empty chair to her left. "I really appreciate that you agreed to come".

So far, things were a little too friendly for Olivia's liking. Part of her had expected Kathy to come in guns blazing, chew her out, and storm out, but that clearly was not the direction that this conversation was headed.

"It's not a problem, but I am curious" Olivia started as she nervously played with her menu, running her finger along the bottom so she could feel each page. "Elliot said that you've been ignoring his calls so I was surprised to hear from you".

Kathy sighed, "It's because I know that he would be disappointed if I did answer. He wants to come home and be with his kids". Olivia watched as Kathy began to cry. " I actually came from my oncologist's office, he told me that there is some cancerous cells left that they couldn't remove during the surgery. I start radiation next week, so trust me when I say that I'd really appreciate the extra hands at home" The blonde wiped her tears, apologizing profusely.

"I'm so sorry" Olivia whispered, feeling the guilt wash over her again.

"It is what it is.I'll get through it. I want Elliot to come home, but some things have to change before I can let him come 's actually why I wanted to talk to you".

Olivia looked at Kathy expectantly, waiting for her to speak. They were interrupted by a waiter coming over to take both their food and drink orders. Olivia ordered hers to go because of the very limited amount of time she had.

When he walked away Kathy began to speak.

"Elliot told me that this" She paused to make a circle with her arms to show that she was talking about their current situation, "happened while he was undercover".

"Yes. I went to see him after I got done speaking with you-"

"Trust me. I don't need to hear the whole story again" Kathy interrupted, which Olivia appreciated because she certainly didn't want to tell it again. "If that's the case then I think what's best for everyone is for one of you to transfer to a different department".

Olivia felt her mouth hanging open, but quickly regained her composure. "You want Elliot to transfer?"

Kathy nodded, but changed her mind after a couple of seconds. "That would be the ideal scenario for me, but you and I both know that Elliot would never leave you. I can't trust that he'll be faithful to our marriage if he's constantly around temptation. Besides, the work you guys do is very dangerous. Don't you want to work somewhere safer while you're pregnant?"

Olivia was speechless. Here she was sitting across from her partner's wife, listening while she tried to explain that transferring to a different unit would benefit everyone, when in reality it would only benefit her. Elliot would be miserable and impossible to work with for whatever sad sap Cragen assigned to be his new partner, but at the same time, he would have his wife and kids to go home to at the end of the day. Which was far more than Olivia could ever give him by being his partner.

How could she refuse Kathy's offer when it would make it so Elliot could be with his family? When Elliot was lying on the cold, hard ground bleeding from the bullet holes Bushido had put in him, she promised him that she would make things right. There was one major detail that she needed to address before saying anything else.

"You aren't going to keep him from the baby?" She asked, desperately trying to keep her voice steady despite the single tear that made its way down her cheek.

Kathy shook her head. "I could never do that, Olivia. It's one thing to be mad at Elliot, but that baby didn't do anything wrong".

Olivia wiped her face with her sleeve, letting out the breath that she didn't even realize she was holding. "Fine. I'll talk to Cragen when I get back".

She had to make things right.


When Olivia returned to work, she was greeted by Elliot waiting by the elevator for her.

"Everything okay?" He asked, noticing how upset she looked.

"I'm fine. Just not feeling well" She lied, offering him a small smile. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, guiding her in the direction of the cribs. "What are you doing?" She asked, stopping in the middle of the hallway.

"You trust me?" He asked, opening the door to the cribs.

"With my life" She whispered, feeling her heart crack.

She sat down on the bunk that he had been sleeping in since this mess started. He instructed her to hold out her hands and close her eyes, which she did without hesitation. Her arms dropped a bit at the weight of the box he had set in her hands, making her curiosity even stronger.

"Alright, open your eyes".

Olivia opened her eyes and gasped. "Elliot, you didn't". She was grinning ear to ear as she adjusted the box so that it was sitting in her lap.

A few days ago they had a conversation about when they'd get to hear the baby's heartbeat. It had been too early to be able to hear it at the first ultrasound, which meant that they would have to wait until the anatomy scan at eighteen weeks. Olivia was disappointed that she'd have to wait so long to hear her baby's heart, but she hadn't expected Elliot to do anything about it. He had bought her an at home fetal heartbeat monitor.

"I ordered that as soon as we were done talking. Now these things aren't guaranteed to be the most accurate, but I figured it was worth a shot" He admitted with a shy smile. "Open it up" He said as he took a seat next to her on the cot.

"Here? Anyone could walk in" She reminded him with a nervous look on her face.

"We're going to have to tell them soon anyway" He easily dismissed. She was eleven weeks along, and a tiny bump could be made out under her shirt if someone looked at her from the side. It was small enough that she could easily lie and say she had a big lunch, but they were running out of time to tell people before they found out on their own. Not that she would be working with them much longer…She couldn't let herself hop on that train of thought again. It would ruin this happy moment, and she had made up her mind already. She would transfer to a different unit so that Elliot could be with his family. It was a sacrifice that had to be made.

"Ok" She agreed, handing the box to him so that he could open it and get it all set up. It was rather simple, put in the batteries, plug in the headphones, and it was ready to go.

He slid off of the bunk and onto his knees, turning so that he was facing the bed. She took the hint and laid down, lifting her shirt to give him access to her abdomen. He put in an earbud and handed the other to her, waiting until she was settled.

"Ready?" He asked, making sure that she was okay with this.

"Yeah. I want to hear my baby".

Elliot gently pressed the doppler against her abdomen, slowly moving it around. It was in that moment that she realized how intimate of a moment they were sharing, and she didn't mind it. Tears brimmed her eyes the second she heard the steady beat of their baby's heart. It was a bit fuzzy, but she could hear it nonetheless. The sound was so beautiful that she could listen to it forever.

"That's our baby" Elliot sighed, looking her directly in the eyes. She could see that his eyes were watery too, which she hadn't expected. He had been through this four times before, but she supposed that didn't make it any less special. "According to this she's at 137 beats per minute" He announced, reading the number off of the device.

"She?" Olivia couldn't help but prod with a grin. "You seem pretty confident there, Stabler".

He shrugged, removing the doppler from her. "I haven't been wrong yet". He removed the bud from his ear and stood up, extending his hand to her to help her up.

"I don't think there's fancy device you can buy to verify that, so it looks like we'll have to wait and see" She retorted. "That was amazing, El. Thank you".

"Anything for my baby mama" He said with a wink, making her heart skip a beat.

Soon he'd know that she would do anything for him too. She was torn because she wanted to tell him before she talked to Cragen, but she knew that he would put her first and convince her to stay. His kids deserved to have their father at home, and he deserved to be happy. He pulled a duffle bag out from under the bunk and carefully placed the monitor in it with the rest of his clothing.

"I have to talk to Cragen" She announced, hoping that he didn't notice the slight quiver in her voice. "Thanks again, El".


As soon as she made her way into the squad room, Munch called to her, "Liv, will you please tell Fin here that the moon landing is a hoax that our government thought up-"

"Shut the hell up man, she doesn't care about your conspiracy theories" Fin interrupted, clearly tired of hearing about it.

She would miss hearing their daily squabbles. "I don't know Fin, it does seem a little suspicious" She shrugged, knowing damn well that she sparked another twenty minutes of Munch going over his theory. Fin narrowed his eyes at her, making her laugh. "Is the captain in his office?"

"Yup, working hard as always" Munched joked. Cragen was a good boss, and she'd miss him too. She'd miss everyone, but it had to be done.

She knocked on the door to his office, pushing it open when he told her to come in. He was searching through the drawer of his desk for something and didn't bother to look up when she closed the door behind herself.

"You look busy, I can come back later" She offered, already making her way back to the door.

"It's alright. I'm just looking for a pack of gum I bought this morning. How can I help you?" He closed the drawer and sat down, motioning for her to do the same. She toyed with the charm of her necklace, trying to keep herself calm so that she could do this as painlessly as possible.

"I'm pregnant, and because of that I feel that it would be in the best interest of my baby for me to transfer back to Computer Crimes".

She had decided fairly quickly that she wasn't going to bring up Elliot's role in the situation, that way they could still make the decision to tell everyone together.

"Wow. Well, congratulations" He stammered, caught off guard by the news. "So you want to temporarily transfer to Computer Crimes?"

Temporarily. She hadn't thought of that. Maybe Kathy would be okay with her coming back after some time had passed. "Yes. How soon can that happen?"

"Well, considering you made a good impression for the last time, I'd say that we could have you there by the end of the week" Cragen said with a small smile. "Elliot isn't going to take this well. Have you told him?"

Olivia shook her head. "I will after work".


Elliot held the door for Olivia as they made their way out for the day. She acted surprised when he told her that Kathy had called him and asked him to come home. Olivia was happy for him, but it still hurt knowing that they wouldn't be partners for much longer. Hopefully it wouldn't impact their friendship.

"That's great, El" She congratulated with a forced smile. "She's going to need you around more with the radiation starting soon".

Elliot stopped in his tracks, mumbling an apology when a man bumped into him due to the abrupt stop. He grabbed Olivia by the arm and pulled her over so that they were standing right in front of the precinct instead of in the middle of a busy sidewalk.

"What did you just say?"

She assumed that he had known. Of course she had messed something else up. "I'm so sorry, El. I thought you knew! Kathy asked me to meet her for lunch so that we could talk and she told me then" Olivia rambled, spilling all the beans. She was making things worse.

"At lunch? Kathy's appointment wasn't until three" He corrected her. "Maureen went with her. Kathy called me right after to tell me that she's officially cancer free. That's when she asked me to come home".

Then it hit her. She knew exactly what Kathy had done.

AN: One last thing that I didn't want to address in the beginning so I wouldn't spoil anything, all of my pregnancy knowledge is coming from the internet. If something is wrong, I'm sorry!