Chapter 9
Disclaimer: I do not own Law & Order: SVU – I only wish that I did!
A/N: Thank you to all that have reviewed! And I bow down to Kukrae and thank her for all her help for being the best beta ever!!!! J
The first thing that Elliot was conscious of when he awoke was the smell of coffee. Then he let out a groan at the next, an aching pain in his neck. As he slowly sat up a mug of coffee appeared in front of his face.
"Good morning sleepy head." Olivia plunked down on the chair next to him after he took the mug from her with a lukewarm smile. "I was beginning to think that you would never wake up."
All she got in response was a grunt as he attempted to alleviate the pain in his neck by a series of strange body movements. Olivia just watched trying to keep from smiling due to the odd body contortions and then she decided to take pity on him. She put her mug down and came up behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders. At her touch he jerked and caused her to bite back a giggle.
"Relax, Stabler. I am just going to try to help you with the crick in your neck." Elliot let out a groan as she started to work her magic by massaging his shoulders, neck and head.
"My God Olivia," he groaned. "You have a gift!"
"You need to thank Julia, she was my roommate at school and she decided that she was going into physical therapy and she taught me all kinds of things." He tried to angle his head to look up at her, to see if he was supposed to read more into what she said. Again the thought that she could be flirting with him ran through his mind.
She stilled her hands and threatened, "I will stop what I am doing if you don't relax." He immediately stilled and became putty in her hands. He just sat there and managed to let his body relax and just enjoy the massage. Then he began to let his mind wander and to think about all the other 'things' that Julie could have taught her and he stiffened up as he realized that he was becoming aroused. 'Thank God I have a blanket over my lap!' he thought to himself and tried to relax again and get his mind out of the gutter.
"Now how does that feel?" Olivia inquired as she rested her hands on his shoulders.
He twisted his head from side to side as she took a step back. "Wow! The pain is almost completely gone! I wish that I had known about this talent of yours ages ago! When I think of all the massages that I have missed out on!" He paused, looked over at her and grinned, "Just wait until I tell Fin and Munch, they are going to love getting them!"
"If you EVER tell them about this I will deny it to my last breath and you will NEVER get one again!" She threatened and Elliot held his hands up in surrender.
"No problem, Liv. They will never hear about your magic fingers from me."
They sat there for a few minutes in a comfortable silence just enjoying their coffee and each other's company. Olivia broke the silence with the question that Elliot was dreading, "What are you going to do today?"
He took a deep breath and looked down at his coffee. "Well, I need to call Kathy today and figure out what we are going to tell the kids and where we go from here." He looked up and the pain that she saw in his blue eyes struck Olivia. "As a matter of fact, I might as well bite the bullet now and call Kathy before I think of some reason not to." He picked up his cell phone and looked back up at her, "Would it be okay if I called her from your room?"
"Of course you can. I will just straighten up everything out here." She stood up with him and stopped him with a hand on his arm. "I am here if you need anything." He gave her a short nod and slowly walked back into her room and shut the door behind him.
Olivia started picking up the blankets that she'd covered Elliot with after she had finally gotten up last night and gone to her room. She had been so tempted to stay with him on the couch but she didn't like the way that she had felt sitting there cuddled up next to him. It had felt too good and that scared her. She knew the last thing she needed to do was start to get 'feelings' for her partner that she had never experienced with one of her boyfriends, that feeling of contentment. As she started to really think about what that all meant to her someone knocked at her door.
She looked over at the clock and wondered who would be knocking at 9:00am in the morning. When she saw Maureen standing out there, she was in shock. 'How had she known to come here?' ran through her mind as she unlocked the door. "Hi, Maureen."
Maureen stood there looking uncertain, "Hi, uh, is my Dad here?"
"Sure is, come on in." She stepped back and held the door open for Maureen to enter. "He is on the phone right now but will probably be out in a few minutes. Would you like something to drink?"
"No, thank you." She nervously looked around and decided that she wasn't going to wait for her dad and leveled a look on Olivia that she just knew spelled trouble. "What is going on with my parents?"
"Uh, well, uh…" Olivia wasn't sure how to really answer that question since she knew that Elliot and Kathy hadn't decided what to tell the kids yet. "I'm not sure if I should be the one to answer that question."
"Oh, come on Olivia. I know you know about whatever is going on." Maureen was now pacing just like her Dad did when he got upset. "I know that my dad tells you things and it's obvious that he stayed the night here last night," she pointedly looked over at the blankets that Olivia had been folding. "Kathleen called me early this morning and said that Dad didn't come home last night and that Mom was crying and all upset. Will you please tell me what is going on?"
Olivia looked down the hall to her room and sighed. "Maureen, I really don't know what to tell you and I think that you just need to calm down and wait for your father and then…" she was interrupted by the shouting that started coming from her room.
"NO Kathy! You will not pin all this on me! I didn't force you to go and fuck someone else and get pregnant! You did that!" Maureen's shocked wide gaze flew to Olivia's face and she could by the look in her eyes that this was the problem. "Don't tell me that you did all this because I was never home! That is bullshit and you know it!" There was silence for a moment in the apartment and then they heard Elliot talking again to Kathy but it was much lower and the words weren't very clear.
"My mom is pregnant?" Maureen asked Olivia with tears forming in her eyes. "Please tell me what is going on, Olivia, Please!"
At the pleading sound of her voice Olivia decided that Maureen was an adult and had already heard the worst of it, so what could it hurt to tell her? She sat down with her on the couch and proceeded to tell her what she knew of the situation. During the conversation she was surprised when Maureen reached over and held her hand.
"That's a lot to take in, but I thank you for telling me what is up. I knew that Mom and Dad were having problems but I never imagined…" she let the last part of the sentence trail off as they heard the bedroom door open. "Daddy!" Maureen jumped up and wrapped her arms around him. Elliot let out a grunt of pain and she immediately loosened her hold. "Are you okay?"
He looked down at her, surprised that she was there and smiled. "I'm just a little sore from my fender bender yesterday." Olivia gave him a look at the phrase "fender bender" but he gave her a warning look not to elaborate any more than that to his daughter. "What are you doing here, honey?"
He led her back over to the couch and she waited until he was sitting before she started talking. "Dad, I came over because Kathleen called me. She was worried about you and about Mom and all the weird stuff going on at home. And now I know why."
Elliot whipped his head around to Olivia when she said that and she found herself on the other end of the famous Stabler interrogation look. "What did you tell her?"
Before she could defend herself, Maureen stepped in. "She didn't tell me Dad," she looked him straight in the eye, "You did." He just sat there looking back and forth between them trying to make sense out of what she just said.
Olivia took pity on him, "Elliot, she was here when you were yelling at Kathy on the phone and she heard you."
"Oh, baby, I never meant for you to find out like this." Elliot took his baby girl, his first born, into his arms and kissed the top of her head. "I am so sorry that you had to hear that. Your mom and I were actually on the phone trying to figure out a way to tell you guys that we are ending the marriage." He pulled back to look at her, "Are you okay?"
She shook her head and looked at him, "I think the more important question, Dad, is are YOU okay?"
Olivia felt very out of place and decided that she would give them some privacy. "Hey guys, how about I run out and get some stuff to make for breakfast and give you guys some time to talk?" As she stood up, Elliot sent her a grateful look and nodded. "Okay, I'll be back in a few." She grabbed her wallet and keys and headed out the door.
Elliot and Maureen just sat there for a few moments after Olivia left and looked at each other. Maureen broke the silence, "Are you okay? And tell me the truth Dad."
He looked her straight in the eye and tried to answer as truthfully as he could. "I don't know if I can honestly say that I am okay right now but I can say that I am going to be. How about that for an answer?"
She looked at him closely, "Why do you say that you are going to be okay? If I were you I would be totally flipping out! Why aren't you yelling and screaming?" She was thinking back to some of the many fights that her parents had and how bad his temper could get. "Other than what I heard on the phone, I wouldn't even have figured out that you were upset. I mean that you just look really tired, Dad."
He sighed and ran his hand over his face and decided to try to lighten the mood. "What is your major again? It seems like you are trying to psychoanalyze me here." The joke fell flat and he paused, "I really don't know why I am not going postal at the moment but maybe this is a good thing."
"Well, I am here Dad if you need me," she whispered as she enveloped him in a deep hug. They pulled back and smiled at each other. "So what did you decide to tell the others?"
Elliot sat up and started pacing around the room. "Your mother doesn't want to tell them about the baby right now, only that we decided to separate and are probably going to divorce. We were thinking that we wouldn't really give them the reason, just state that we just don't get along anymore." He looked up after he heard her unbelieving snort. "What? You don't think that will work?"
She shook her head in disbelief and decided to fill him in, "Dad, they are not stupid. Let me fill YOU in on a couple of things, okay?"
"Should I sit back down for this?" At her nod he began to dread what he was about to hear from his daughter. He looked over at her and suddenly realized that he was looking at a young woman, not his baby girl anymore. That thought rocked him almost as much as her next words.
"Kathleen already knows that Mom was seeing someone else," at his shocked look she held up her hand, "let me finish what I have to say before you interrupt me, okay?" At his nod she continued, "She called me early this morning and spilled everything to me. She had come home one day last month and basically walked in on what was happening. And before you ask, no, Mom didn't see her and she didn't bring it up to Mom. So Kathleen figures that you found out and that is why you left, she has no idea though about the baby."
While Elliot sat there and listened his heart went out to his second daughter for the pain she must have felt finding out like she did. It also explained why she had suddenly stopped giving him all the attitude and was constantly fighting with her mom over everything. All he could think was how could he have missed all the signs, how could he not have known? But he already knew the answer; he hadn't been there and hadn't wanted to see it. Looking back, it was all spelled out clearly but he missed it all.
When he realized that she had stopped speaking he looked up. "Do the twins know?"
Maureen shook her head no. "I don't think that they do but they know that something is wrong." She looked at him closely for a moment and then continued, "To be honest Dad, they won't be surprised when you tell them that you are leaving. They have been expecting it for a long time now."
Her words startled him, "You all expected me to leave?" The hurt he felt was indescribable that his children thought he would leave.
When she saw the look on his face she quickly set the record straight. "No Dad, none of us thought you would abandon us or anything. We just all thought that you and Mom would divorce." At Elliot's sigh of relief she continued. "We think that you two are good people but all you do is fight and neither one of you has really been happy for a long time. And your frequent nights on the couch just made it all the more clear."
"How did they know that I slept on the couch?" He inquired with a quizzical look on his face. "I always got up before they did and made sure all the blankets were up before the kids saw them."
"Again, Dad, they may be kids but they are not stupid." Maureen sat back and rolled her eyes. "You have to realize that they aren't babies anymore."
"I know, I know." He conceded.
"I think that you can tell the twins what you and Mom decided but I will warn you, there maybe some fall out when you tell Kathleen," she warned. "You may want to tell her separately from them, or they may find out all the details too."
"Thanks kiddo. What would I do without you?" He asked when he got up to give her another hug.
"You will never have to find out Dad. Do you realize that this is probably the most hugs I have gotten from you in one day before? What are we on like the tenth hug or something?" She teased trying to lighten up the mood. It worked, he grinned down at her and gave her yet another squeeze. "Why don't you go and take a shower Dad and I will sit out here and wait for Olivia," she suggested.
Going along with teasing mood she created, he inquired, "What? Are you trying to tell me that I stink or something?"
"Exactly, now go." She pushed him towards the door to what she thought was the bathroom. "I'll be here when you get out."
"Yes, ma'am," he headed for the showers and was surprised to see that he had a smile on his face. Then a thought hit him, "Maureen, how did you know that I was here?"
Maureen sighed and smiled quietly up at his questioning look, "Dad, knowing you would come here is a no-brainer. Olivia's your best friend and has been for a long time. I'm glad you have her to talk with and we all like her, too. She's always been there for you and us and that's a good thing that I don't see changing anytime soon."
Elliot just smiled at her and thought about what she said as he got into the shower. If only Kathy had been there for him like Olivia, then maybe things would be different now.