Prompt #17: Elliot takes Liv and Noah to The Feast of San Gennaro (Italian Festival in Little Italy)


L'incubo - The Nightmare

~oOo~

This wasn't the way that they saw this day going at all. Noah had been so excited he had barely slept the night before, and had woken his mother and Elliot up at dawn, dressed and ready. The entire car ride over he had talked their ear off with the rides he wanted to go on and the food stalls they had to try. He had been indoctrinated with tales of festivals past by the twins and Kathleen at dinner the week before. Elliot was relieved that Noah was excited to attend the festival, things had been a little off-kilter in the past month since Olivia and he had moved into Elliot's brownstown. However, he seemed to be adjusting and had nearly knocked over Elliot with his hug, when he had announced their weekend plans.

~oOo~

They had paid their admittance into the festival and started to make their way down the many stalls when Olivia had gotten a text from Amanda Rollins, she, her girls, and Carisi were at the festival as well. They had made loose plans to meet up at some point during the day to catch up and go on some of the rides. Now that Amanda was teaching at the academy, Olivia only got to visit with her friend outside the precinct.

~oOo~

There were hundreds of stalls and lots of people. Noah grew bored after an hour of browsing some of the stalls selling religious totems, and clothes and loudly exclaimed that he needed something to eat.

"You would think we starve him. He ate several pancakes and bacon this morning," Liv teased as they stood in line to get a bag of fried dough to snack on until they decided on what to get for lunch.

"This was the twins' favorite stand," Elliot said as the vendor handed them a hot bag of powdered sugar-covered Zeppole. "Dickie would run around covered in powdered sugar and run after Lizzie."

Noah giggled at the mention of Richard, as he now went by, covered in powdered sugar. "If he ate them now, he would get it all in his beard."

Eliott shook with laughter. "I suppose he would."

Noah excitedly pointed toward a stall. "Look mom, it's Aunt Amanda and Uncle Sonny!" He pulled his mother towards the Italian American Club stand that Serafina Carisi volunteered with.

Sonny greeted them dressed in an apron that said kiss the cook and a chef hat. His mom was next to Jesse and Billie who was helping her stir a big pot of sauce. Amanda was sitting on a bench behind the stall feeding their son, Dominick Carisi the third, now six months old, a bottle. After catching up, they were all loaded up with Serafina's famous meatballs, sausage and peppers, and pizza. They took some time to let the kids run around and burn off some energy while they let their food digest before deciding to tackle the many rides the festival had to offer. That was when Noah said that he had to use the bathroom, Elliot was surprised but happy when he insisted to his mom that Elliot be the one to take him.

~oOo~

There was a long line in front of several porta potties, and as they got in line Elliot was backed into by a man studying his phone. He was tall, on the lanky side, clean-shaven, and wearing a Hudson University hat. He looked up from his phone and gave both Noah and Elliot a smile as they passed. "Sorry," he said with a shrug.

As Elliot got in line, he noticed Noah staring at the man as if he recognized him.

Nudging him, Elliot asked, "You know him bud?"

The boy shook his curly blond head no but scrunched up his nose as he did when he was in deep thought. "No, but he seems familiar," he said with a shrug. The line quickly moved and soon Elliot was waiting for the boy to use the bathroom while he stood out front.

~oOo~

As he waited, he checked his work email and pandemonium struck.

It took a moment for people to realize that what sounded like several fireworks going off was not fireworks at all but gunshots instead. People started to run, almost stampeding over one another as they raced to get to safety. Elliot was shoved backward with the surging crowd as he tried to make his way to the porta potties to get to Noah.

He shouted the boy's name but the screaming crowd drowned out his voice. Finally, he broke through but when he made his way back to the porta-potties, the one Noah was in was empty. He felt a wave of nausea churn in his gut as he looked around and saw the man who he had bumped into standing a few feet away and to his relief Noah was with him. He felt tears of relief flood his eyes and called out, "Noah!" causing the boy to look up. He noticed the worried look on the boy's face as he made his way over to them. He was so focused on getting to Noah that he did not see the other man step out behind him and hit him over the head. As the blackness overtook him, his last conscious thought was of Noah and his mother.

~oOo~

Liv checked her phone for the tenth time in the last fifteen minutes before tossing it back in her pocket.

"The lines are pretty bad, I am sure they'll be back soon," Amanda said as she watched Jesse and Billy con their Nonna into another cannoli.

Liv ran her hand over baby Dominick's soft blond hair. "You can't tell me those kids aren't Italian," she joked, nodding to the girls who were excitedly talking to their nonna, gesturing with their hands.

~oOo~

"I caught Jesse using 'marone' when Billie was annoying her the other day. Carisi and I had to have a conversation that cursing is still bad whether it's in another language or not," Amanda said.

Suddenly Sonny walked over to them with a serious look on his face. "Bunch of gunshots went off, uniforms over there now checking it out. Caused a bit of pandemonium, and word is they are gonna shut things down."

Olivia immediately jumped up from the bench she was sitting at, and immediately pulled out her phone, and dialed Elliot's number. It went to voicemail and she felt a jolt of fear. She heard Amanda tell Carisi that Elliot and Noah had not come back yet as she dialed again, this time the call picked up but then dropped. She cursed in frustration as she went to dial again before seeing that Elliot was face-timing her. With a sigh of relief, she pressed accept.

"Where…" Her words died on her lips as she saw the man who was holding her partner's phone was not him. He looked familiar but she couldn't place him, not until he talked.

"Hey Liv, remember me? Last time we met you and Stabler got the best of me," the man said as he flashed a familiar crooked smile at her.

"Stuckey…" she said with a shudder. He had aged, his hair was dyed dark brown and he had several tattoos."

"Where is my son and Elliot?" she demanded loudly, catching Amanda and Carisi's attention, who moved closer to listen. The man went silent and she thought that maybe he hung up, the screen went dark for a moment as well before another man appeared on camera. Olivia felt sick, despite the man shaving his full beard and losing a good amount of weight she would recognize those eyes anywhere. "Rob Miller," she whispered.

"Hey Olivia, good to see you. You look well. I hear congratulations are in order, Captain," he said with a sneer.

"I wonder if your superiors knew how you and Peter Stone colluded to ruin my life and imprison me unethically would you still have gotten your big promotion? Well that's just water under the bridge, I have had a lot of time to think and plan and imagine my surprise when I realized my new cellmate Dale knew you as well. You really do make an impression, don't you, Olivia Benson," Miller said as he flipped the camera over. Elliot sat in a chair tied up and slumped over. "Dale may have hit him a tiny bit harder than we discussed," Miller said as he shot his conspirator an annoyed glare.

"He deserved it," Stuckey replied as he came into view behind Elliot. Olivia noticed a serrated hunting knife in his hand.

"Where is Noah?" Liv asked, she saw that both Amanda and Carisi were on their respective phones, hopefully calling backup and getting her phone traced.

"Right here," Miller said as he flipped the camera back, his hands on Noah's shoulder who looked terrified.

"Are you okay, sweet boy? "Olivia asked her son.

He nodded but his chin trembled as he spoke in a shaky voice. "I'm okay, but Elliot isn't moving, Mom."

"Enough of that," Miller said as his face came into focus. "What is going to happen is, Dale here is going to have a little fun with Elliot, and Noah and I are going to go on a plane. You have a choice to make, save Elliot and your son is gone forever, or you save your son and Elliot dies," Miller said with a grin before the call dropped.

~oOo~

Liv woke with a jolt. She felt her heart hammer in her chest as she heard El murmur something in his sleep. He pulled her closer to him and she nuzzled into his side. Who knew stubborn, bull-headed Elliot Stabler was a cuddler? She extracted herself from him so that she could go check on Noah, her dream had been so real. She could still smell the sauce and Zeppolis as she padded down the hall of the brownstone into the room that once was Bernie's but now housed Noah.

Her son was fast asleep in the bottom bunk of the bunk beds he insisted on. It was a good thing he had as he often had sleepovers with Kieran and Seamus.

She tucked the blanket around him that had slipped off him and kissed his curls as she slowly backed out of the room. She almost jumped when she bumped into a solid bare chest before two strong arms wrapped around her.

"Easy. You almost hit the ceiling," Elliot said in his raspy sleepy voice. "It is only three am, don't tell me Noah is already up and ready for the festival."

She explained her dream to him and he squeezed her when her voice cracked.

"Why don't I make you a cup of tea and then we call Rikers just to make sure both Stuckey and this Rob Miller are still locked up?" he suggested.

She smiled. "Noah is going to get us up in a few hours, and you know he is going to make us go on every ride they have. How about you take me to bed instead and make me forget all about my nightmare?"

She didn't even have to see his face to imagine the cocky grin on it. "Aye Aye, Captain," he said as he led them to their room.


Note: The author of this SVU: Fall in Love story will be revealed in November