AN: I got a question in a review about when Elliot and Kathy split. It happened on the show this season (two or three episodes before the winter reruns began) and I think that she took the kids and moved out, but for my story, I wanted Elliot to have his own place, so Kathy and the kids have the house. Like I said, this story can either be building off of what's going on right now on the show (in which case, Elliot and Olivia would have had a lot of issues to work out before they were this good of friends again ;-) ) or it's just a random "E/K divorced, E/O together" fic.

The rest of the week flew by. Elliot took the kids for their first visit to their new psychiatrist, and everyone seemed to like her. They also had dinner on Friday night with Kathy in Queens. Elliot was pretty sure none of the kids blamed her for what happened. He knew Kathleen didn't trust her, though, and despite the problems between him and Kathy, he was sorry that trust had been lost.

The situation was further complicated by the fact that Olivia, whom Kathy did not like, was currently a lot closer to the kids than she was. Elliot called his partner every night after the kids were asleep to fill her in on the day's developments.

"You want me to make myself scarce for a bit?" she asked him on Friday night.

"No. That's the last thing I want. The kids trust you. Kathy can deal."

"Daddy?" he looked up to see Lizzie in his doorway.

"Hang on," he told Olivia. "Hey, baby, what's wrong?"

"I couldn't sleep. Who are you talking to?"

"Olivia. You want to say hi?" Lizzie nodded and climbed onto his bed. Elliot handed her the phone.

"Hi."

"Hey, Lizzie. Isn't it past your bedtime?"

"Yeah. I couldn't sleep."

"All right, well, tell your dad you can have him and I'll talk to him tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay. Night, Olivia."

"Night, sweetie." Lizzie handed Elliot the phone back.

"She said she'd talk to you tomorrow."

"Okay," Elliot said as he hung up the receiver. "Now, com'ere, you." He pulled Lizzie against him. "How come you can't sleep?"

"I dunno."

"Are you scared of something?"

"We never have to be scared with you, Daddy," Lizzie told him with a smile. "You'd never let anyone hurt us." Elliot tried to return her smile.

"I will do my best to make sure no one ever hurts you again," he promised. Lizzie thought about that.

"Were you mad that Mom started dating somebody?"

"Not until he hurt you guys."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Kathleen said that we shouldn't tell you about Tom. She didn't want to make you angry." Elliot sighed. Since when have I been so out of the loop?

"Lizzie, you don't ever have to be afraid to tell me something, okay? You can talk to me about anything."

"Anything?" she repeated.

"Absolutely." There was another pause.

"How come you haven't started dating, too?" Lord, deliver me…

"Because I haven't wanted to. Right now, I'm perfectly happy with my job, my kids, and my friends."

"Like Olivia?"

"Yeah, and the guys I play ball with." Lizzie gave him a mischievous grin.

"You think we could invite Olivia to go to the park with us on Sunday?"

"I think you will have to call her and ask her that, okay?"

"Okay!"

"Now, do you think you can get some sleep?"

"Maybe?"

"Maybe. Back to your room, you. Go." Lizzie hugged him.

"Night, Daddy."

"Night, princess."

Olivia smiled as she saw Lizzie, Dickie, and Kathleen with Elliot on a picnic blanket in Central Park. Luckily for them, it had turned out to be an unseasonably warm day, and perfect for a winter picnic.

"Olivia!" the three kids cried when they saw her, all running over to give her hugs.

"Hey, guys. Thanks for inviting me."

"We've got tons of food," Dickie told her, pulling her towards their picnic basket.

"The kids packed," Elliot informed her, turning away from trying to find a good station on the battery powered radio they had brought.

"I'm impressed," she said as she took in their stock of sandwiches, chips, fruit, a big thermos of hot chocolate, and cookies for dessert. "Everything looks great."

"Can we go play catch?" Dickie asked his sisters.

"I'll take you," Elliot offered.

"No!" all three kids said in unison, a little too quickly and a little too loudly.

"I'll go with them," Kathleen tried to cover. They all got up, and Elizabeth pushed 'play' on the radio's tape deck before they scampered off. Classical music began to play. Olivia smiled as she sat down.

"I have a feeling we've been set up," she told her partner.

"What would give you that idea?" Olivia laughed.

"I guess we oughta make the best of it," she said, pulling food for them out of the basket.

"You've been making a lot of things a whole lot better lately," Elliot confessed.

Kathleen, Dickie, and Elizabeth were tossing Dickie's Nerf ball around for good measure, but kept sneaking looks back at the picnic site. "You think this'll work?" Elizabeth asked her sister as she threw the ball.

"Just give them time," she told them.

"Kathleen?" Dickie asked as he caught a pass from her. "You think Dad'll make us go back to living with Mom if he starts dating Olivia?" She frowned.

"Why would he do that?"

"Maybe they'll want their own family."

"No way," she told her brother, but he had gotten her thinking.

"Hey, look!" Elizabeth said. The ball, which had been midair, fell to the ground as the three watched their father kiss Olivia.

"It worked," Dickie said with a smile.

After a couple weeks of the kids staying with Elliot, everyone was beginning to fall into a routine. When everyone woke up in the morning, it was Elizabeth and Dickie's jobs to get bowls and cereal boxes set out for breakfast. On the days that Elliot and Olivia got in from work early, they would all make dinner together, and make enough for a couple meals so that the kids had something to heat up on the nights Elliot worked late. Olivia usually came for dinner and they would all spend time together once homework was done. Some nights, she had to go back to the precinct after they ate to keep working on whatever Elliot wasn't there to help with. He felt guilty, but she knew his kids needed him.

On one such night where Olivia ducked out early, Elliot walked her out while the kids cleaned up dinner. "They're staying with Kathy this weekend," he told her as they stood in the doorway. "We'll have the place to ourselves."

"Sounds promising."

"Mmm."

"See you in morning."

"Yeah. Don't stay too late."

"I'll do my best." Elliot shut the door behind her and joined the kids in the kitchen.

"How come we have to stay in Queens this weekend?" Elizabeth asked her father.

"Because your mother misses you terribly and I know you guys miss her, too."

"We're coming back, though, right?" Dickie asked.

"Of course. Are you kidding me? This place would be so boring without the three of you. I wouldn't be able to stand the quiet. I'd go absolutely mad."

"I don't think that's too far of a stretch for you," Kathleen told him. Elliot grabbed the spray nozzle from the sink and hit her with water. Pretty soon, all four of them were in a splash fight.

"Bye guys," Elliot told his kids as he shuffled them out the door. "I'll see you on Sunday afternoon."

"Promise?" Dickie asked one more time, just for good measure.

"I promise." Elliot made sure they got on the elevator, knowing that Kathy was waiting for them downstairs, then shut the door and leaned against it. Olivia laughed at the expression on his face. "Alone at last."

"Alone, huh? You want me to go, too?"

"Don't even pretend. It has been a long week and the only thing that has kept me going is the thought of not having to share you with the kids all weekend." Olivia kissed him.

"Poor baby." Elliot trailed kisses down her neck.

"I know how you can make it better, though."

"Oh, really? How is that?" What he proceeded to whisper in her ear made her turn six shades of red. "You kiss your kids with that mouth?"

"You only live once."

"And I have a feeling you're planning on doing a lot of living this weekend."

Once the twins were asleep, Kathy went to check on Kathleen. She was reading on her bed. "I bet you're glad to have your own room again," she told her daughter.

"Actually, I like sharing a room with Lizzie," Kathleen replied.

"Oh…School going okay?"

"Yeah. Olivia's good with math homework."

"That's nice. If you have any to do while you're here, I – "

"I don't."

"All right…What are you doing tomorrow?"

"I dunno. Why?"

"I thought we could do something. Maybe have a nice dinner together." Kathleen shrugged.

"Whatever."

"Okay…Goodnight."

"Night."

"I love you, Kathleen." She finally had to give up on the stone wall façade.

"I love you, too, Mom."

Even Kathleen had to admit that Saturday was fun. They all went ice skating together, something they hadn't done in years. Afterwards, they got hot chocolate and then headed back to the house. All of the kids were surprised to see a car in the driveway when they got back.

"Who's that?" Lizzie asked her mother.

"That's a friend of mine." As they got out of their car, a man got out of the one that was waiting for them. "Guys, this is Jeff Carr. I invited him over for dinner so you could meet him. Jeff, these are my kids, Kathleen, Elizabeth, and Dickie." He smiled at all three of them.

"It's nice to meet you," he said, shaking Dickie's hand, then Elizabeth's. "I've heard so much about you." He turned to Kathleen, who was looking more uneasy by the moment. As he reached for her hand, "You look so much like your mother."

Kathleen stepped away. "What's wrong?" Kathy asked her.

"I want to go back to Dad's," she said.

"Kathleen, it's only Saturday."

"I don't care; I want to go back to Dad's!"

Elliot was at the counter in his kitchen, making a very late lunch for him and Olivia, when he felt her arms wrap around him from behind. "Hey."

"Hey. Whatcha fixing?"

"Just sandwiches. You and Kathleen are the chefs around here, not me." Olivia smiled, resting her chin on his shoulder.

"You miss them already, don't you?"

"Yeah. I mean…I've missed so much of their lives, but now…I can't imagine them not being here." They looked up at a knock on the door. Elliot went to answer it, and was surprised to see Kathleen and Kathy in the hall. "What's wrong?" he instantly asked. Kathleen wrapped her arms around him, and so Elliot looked expectantly to Kathy. She noticed Olivia behind him, and could very easily deduce what they had interrupted from the fact that she was only wearing an oversized NYPD t-shirt.

"I need to go; Lizzie and Dickie are downstairs in the car," Kathy finally said. "Kathleen, I'm sorry." She turned and left. Elliot pulled Kathleen inside the apartment and shut the door.

"Hey, sweetie, what happened?" Elliot asked as he took Kathleen over to the couch.

"Mom has a new boyfriend," Kathleen told him, wiping her eyes. "He didn't do anything, just…I don't know. I was scared anyway. So I asked Mom to bring me back. I'm sorry, Dad, I really am." She looked between him and Olivia. "I know you were looking forward to this weekend."

"Don't worry about that," Elliot assured her. "Don't worry about anything. You're fine."

In the end, Kathleen wound up spending Sunday morning with friends, so Elliot and Olivia were at least able to salvage some of their weekend. Elliot went to pick up the twins while Olivia went to get Kathleen, and they were all meeting with Maureen for dinner.

When Kathy opened the door, she instantly recognized the look in Elliot's eyes. He had his game face on. "Elliot, how many times are you going to make me apologize?"

"How about until our kids feel safe again? You think you can manage that?"

"I didn't think it would be a problem."

"Yeah, we'll you apparently haven't been doing much thinking lately."

"Elizabeth and Dickie were fine."

"Elizabeth and Dickie didn't nearly get raped in their bedrooms." Kathy looked up at him, almost as if it hadn't sunk in until he said the word.

"Is Kathleen okay?" she finally asked.

"She will be." Elizabeth and Dickie came down the stairs at that moment.

"Dad!" they both cried, running to hug him.

"Hey, guys. You ready to go?"

"Yup. Bye, Mom," they said as they grabbed their bags.

"Bye." Elizabeth and Dickie headed for the car, and Elliot was about to follow, but Kathy grabbed his arm.

"Will you tell Kathleen to call me?"

"I'm not going to make her to anything, but I'll let her know you want to talk to her."

At the end of a long, typical night at Elliot's apartment, he and Olivia headed into his room to watch TV and talk without waking up Dickie in the living room. Elliot was surprised when Olivia handed a picture of a house to him. "What's this?" he asked.

"It's just something to think about," she replied. "A friend of mine from college is in real estate."

"You're thinking of moving?"

"Maybe. It's a pretty nice place. Four bedrooms, dining room, living room. A fireplace."

"Sounds nice."

"Yeah…The kids could each have their own rooms." That statement made Elliot look up.

"What?"

"I know it's kinda fast, but the house isn't going to be ready for another month, and I figured we could use the space, you know? Everyone can agree your apartment's kinda cramped."

"I like the word 'close'."

"'Close' is synonymous with 'cramped'." Elliot laughed.

"So, let me get this straight: are you asking me to move in with you?"

"Yeah, I guess I am."

TBC...

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