Part 5

Elliot rolled over and almost fell out of bed when he saw a pair of blue eyes staring back into his.

"Hi, Ewiot. Whatcha doing here?"

"Hey, Andrew," Elliot sighed, stretching a little. "What time is it?"

Andrew pointed to the clock. Elliot groaned. 5:30.

"You're up early."

"Aways."

"Where's your sister and your mom?"

"Sweeping. Mauween on f'oor."

Elliot nodded. "You didn't step on her, did you?"

Andrew grinned. "A'most."

"Wanna come up here?"

Andrew nodded and snuggled next to Elliot.
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Caroline carefully extricated herself from underneath her mother's arm. She was hungry. She checked in Andrew's room and found Maureen on the floor. So she went out into the living room.

"MOMMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The house turned into shambles. Olivia raced out from Caroline's room, terrified that something had happened to her daughter. Elliot almost fell out of bed. Maureen raced out from Andrew's room and Andrew rubbed his ears.

Elliot stood up and he and Olivia stared at each other for a moment.

She felt self conscious in her pajama pants and t-shirt. Elliot was wearing his boxers and a t-shirt.

Maureen yawned. "I'm going to make coffee." She took the twins by the hands and went into the kitchen.

Olivia and Elliot continued staring at each other for a minute.

"What…?" Olivia began.

"I was worried about you. After yesterday. I came here and Maureen told me to take the sofa." He found his work pants and pulled them on. "Sorry."

Olivia was about to shrug it off when she saw the open cabinet above the TV. Her eyes strayed back to him. "Maureen?"

"Don't be mad at her."

"I'm not." Olivia folded her arms. "I'm mad at you." With a sigh, she turned on her heel and went back to her bedroom.

Elliot frowned.
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Olivia turned around as she dug around in her wardrobe for something to wear.
"What are you doing?" she hissed, seeing him standing in her doorway.
"We have some unfinished business to discuss," he said, coming in and closing the door.
"Whatever it is, it can wait. The kids are here and I need to have a shower."
"The kids are with Maureen and frankly, I don't smell anything."
"Fine! What do you want?"
"I want some damn answers, Olivia!"
"What more do you want? You know your children! They know you! What the hell else is there?"
"Why are you so mad at me?"
"You know, the last case we did together, did you know it was a dead hooker?" Olivia smiled grimly. "Kind of ironic, don't you think?"
Elliot frowned. "I never, ever saw you as a hooker, Olivia."
"Well it certainly felt like I was one. The only thing missing that morning was the cash on the dresser."
"That's really low, Olivia."
She frowned at him. "Don't even get me started on the definition of low, Elliot Stabler. I felt cheap and used when I woke up that morning. And I really don't like that feeling."
"You know, this goes both ways, Olivia. All it took was one phone call. Hell, even a letter if you couldn't stand to hear my voice!"
"It was kind of hard to think about doing that, Elliot. See, as far as I knew, you regretted everything."
"Jesus, Liv. We were friends, and partners! If I had known you were pregnant..."
"I won't be pitied," she told him. "And yeah, we were friends and partners. Or so I thought."
"This isn't fair, Olivia."
"You watched the videos."
"Yes."
"What ones?"
"All of them."
Her eyes widened as she stared at him.
"Yeah, I saw you give birth. And I saw our kids. I watched them all."
"So what else do you want, Elliot?"
"I want things back the way they used to be."
She sighed. "Elliot, things can never be the way they used to be. We have two children."
"Two children who don't know I'm their father."
She frowned. "Don't start."
"What about us?"
"What us?"
"There was an us, Olivia. There still is. We're partners. We made two children together." He touched her cheek. "You were so amazing in that room."
She closed her eyes and forced herself to back away. "It was labor."
"It was hard."
"There were two of them. Of course it was hard."
"I should have been there."
"I had Maureen."
"Maureen isn't their father."
"Mommy?" Caroline had entered the room. "Hungy!"
"Of course you are," Olivia murmured, swooping her daughter up in her arms."Come on, Mommy will make you and Andy some breakfast."
Elliot watched her go and sighed.
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"MAUREEN!"
Maureen rolled her eyes. "WHAT?"
"THERE'S SOME GUY HERE TO SEE YOU!!!"
Maureen poked her head out of the door and smiled when she saw her father. "Hey, Dad. Come on in."
"I like your door woman."
Maureen grinned. "That's Sarah. She's always pretty good about getting the door."
She sat on the bed. "What's up, dad?"
"What was Olivia like when she was pregnant?"
"Behind the TV."
"Huh?"
"The photo albums. They're behind the TV."
"I don't know if I'm going to be let back inside that house anytime soon."
"She missed you, while you were gone. She never told me, but I could tell. And when the twins were born, she missed you even more."
"When did you first know I was the father?"
"I suspected it when she said she didn't want to know what was happening with you, or vice versa. But I knew when I held Andrew for the first time…"
Elliot put his head in his hands. "I'm sorry you got dragged into this mess, Maur."
"I'm not."
"Huh?"
"Dad, they're great kids. I love them to bits. If I hadn't gotten 'dragged into this mess' as you put it, I wouldn't know them."
"Olivia hates me."
"She doesn't hate you. And now you're just feeling sorry for yourself."
Elliot looked up into his daughter's eyes. "I keep forgetting you're a young woman now, and not a little girl."
Maureen smiled. "That's okay. I'm kind of used to it by now."

"You seem to know a hell of a lot more about this situation than I do."

Maureen shrugged. "I don't know what happened between you and Olivia, dad, and I don't think I want to know. But I do know that you have two great kids in Andrew and Caroline, and that Olivia is a great mom." She stared at her dad.

"And things can be fixed."