"Dad!" Elliot looked up when he saw Kathy and the kids come into the waiting room at the hospital. All three ran to hug him.
"Where's Olivia?" Lizzie asked.
"In there," Elliot said, pointing to the door.
"Is she okay?" Kathleen asked.
"She will be. Why don't you guys go in and say hi?" He turned to Kathy once the kids were inside Olivia's room. "I know, I should have called them," he told Kathy, knowing exactly what the first words out of her mouth would be. "I meant to, I just…the doctor came and…it's been a long night."
"Why didn't you call me? They're my kids, too, Elliot, and you scared them half to death this morning."
"I'm sorry. I'll talk to them." Kathy pursed her lips.
"I'm taking them home with me."
"That's probably good. They shouldn't be hanging around the hospital all day."
"No, Elliot, I mean I'm taking them home. For good." He turned, eyes blazing.
"What?!?"
"You got your chance to play super dad, but you obviously have your hands full. I've spent too much time over the years trying to provide a stable life for those kids for you to ruin everything in one year."
"What are you talking about? The kids like staying with me and Olivia."
"You're their father. They want to make you happy. They don't like getting shuttled back and forth, Elliot. And they left behind their friends and their home when you moved them to Manhattan."
"We can work out a more structured custody agreement, then. And they have friends in Manhattan that they'll be seeing all the time once school starts in a couple weeks, plus they still see their old friends on the weekends." Kathy sighed.
"Do you know what Lizzie told me the other day? That she had two Moms now. I am sorry, Elliot, but I will be damned before…" She trailed off.
"What happened to you?" Elliot asked. "Who are you, because you're certainly not the woman I married."
"We both grew up, Elliot." He shook his head in disbelief.
"That's the truth. You haven't even asked if Olivia and the baby are all right." Kathy didn't reply, just went inside to collect the kids.
"I think it would be for the best if you went on leave now," Cragen told Olivia when he stopped by to visit later that afternoon. "I'm sure neither one of us would want to have to answer to Elliot if something else happened." Olivia smiled, squeezing Elliot's hand as he sat beside her.
"I'd have to agree with you, Captain. I never realized the chance I was taking until…" He nodded.
"Then it's settled."
"Yeah. I have no idea what I'm going to do with myself all day, but…"
"I have a feeling chasing after three kids will keep you occupied." Olivia smiled.
"Definitely. I can't wait to get home."
"Well, I won't take any more of your time. Elliot, take tomorrow off."
"I'll be there in the afternoon," he told him. Cragen shot him a look.
"Just take another day off. The bean counters are already wide-eyed at your amount of overtime." Elliot finally relented.
"You ready to get out of here?" he asked Olivia once Cragen was gone.
"I've been ready. Are the kids managing with dinner?"
"Kathy's got them," Elliot told her. "So you have my undivided attention." Olivia smiled.
"I like the sound of that."
She got released early in the evening, and Elliot took her back to the house. "You're going straight to bed," Elliot said as he unlocked the front door. "I'll bring you up something to eat."
"You're going to cook?" she teased as they went inside. She stopped, however, in the family room, looking around. "Elliot? What's going on?"
"What do you mean?"
"Where are Dickie's video games? And Lizzie's dance stuff?" Elliot sighed, wrapping his arms around her.
"I told you Kathy took the kids."
"But just for the night, right?" He shook his head.
"I don't think she's bringing them back without a court order." Olivia's eyes widened, filled with tears of compassion.
"Oh, Elliot…I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Olivia sighed as she sat down in the family room with her lunch. The house was extremely quiet and empty feeling, and she hated the look on Elliot's face when he came home at night to the silence. Not to mention, she was bored out of her mind all day. Sometimes Elliot would come by for lunch, bringing Munch or Fin with him, but he always had to work later on those days, so it wasn't a fair trade. It had been a difficult couple of months.
Olivia looked up when the phone rang, and reached over to answer it. "Hello?"
"Olivia?"
"Kathleen? Sweetie, where are you?" Olivia hadn't talked to the kids since they'd left, and she knew Elliot barely got to talk to them either.
"I'm at school." She laughed shortly. "In the bathroom. Sorry if the reception's bad."
"You're fine. Is something wrong? Do you need to get picked up?"
"No, I just wanted to call you, and this was the only time I could." Olivia could hear the tears in her voice. "I miss you. We all do. Lizzie and Dickie said to say hi."
"Tell them I said the same, and that I miss you guys terribly as well."
"Will you…will you tell Dad that we're sorry? That we didn't mean to be so much trouble?"
"What do you mean, sweetheart?"
"Mom says that taking care of us was too much work, and we're sorry. We didn't mean to make you and the baby sick. I won't fight with Lizzie as much if we can come home. Promise. Will you tell Dad that?"
"Oh, Kathleen…It wasn't your fault, sweetheart. You and your brother and sister had nothing to do with why I wound up in the hospital; that was my fault and my fault alone. And your dad…he wants you back here with us more than anything, I promise you that."
"So it was Mom's idea to take us?" The silence was her answer. "We can run away again. I can get Lizzie and Dickie after school, and we'll be there by dinnertime. We can help you cook."
"I wish you could, sweetie, but I don't think your mom would be too happy about that, and legally, you're supposed to live with her."
"But we don't want to. We want to go home."
"I know…I'll talk to your Dad, okay? We'll all figure something out."
Olivia put her hand over Elliot's to keep him from loudly drumming his fingers on the table while he waited for Kathy to pick up on the other end of the phone. She'd seen him pissed off before, but all the other times were paling in comparison.
"Lemme talk to the kids," Elliot demanded when his ex-wife answered the phone.
"Elliot, they're doing homework. Can we do this some other time?"
"So help me, God; Kathy, let me talk to the kids." He could hear the phone being passed off.
"Daddy?" Lizzie asked."Hey, sweetheart."
"Did you talk to Olivia?"
"Yep, I did. I am…I am so sorry you guys thought this was your fault. I never…I never intended for any of this to happen."
"Do we get to go home?"
"I'm working on it." He could then hear the phone get taken away.
"Elliot? What was she talking about?" Kathy asked.
"They want to come back here," he told her. "You never should have taken them in the first place. As you told me, they are our kids, the operative word being 'our.' So you have two options, Kathy: you and I can work out a new custody arrangement for them, or our lawyers can. You decide." He flinched at the sound of the receiver slamming into the cradle.
Elliot looked up as Casey Novak stopped beside his desk at work. "Something I can help you with?" he asked, leaning back in his chair. She smiled.
"This is personal, Elliot. How's the lawyer I recommended working out?"
"Great, thanks. I oughta be hearing from him this afternoon, actually." She nodded.
"I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you."
"That means a lot." His phone started ringing, and he reached for it. "Hello?"
"El?"
"Liv, what's up?"
"Can you come home?" Elliot was instantly worried.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Just…get the captain to let you take the rest of the afternoon off, okay?"
"Okay. I'll be right there."
"Olivia?" Elliot called as he came in the front door. "Where are you? What happened?" She appeared out of the kitchen, and he frowned at the sight of the light brown powder smudged on her face. "What the…"
"I wasn't expecting you to get home this fast," she told him with a smile, trying to wipe her cheek.
"Yeah, well, I was worried. What's going on?"
"Surprise!" Kathleen, Lizzie, and Dickie yelled as they came out of the kitchen as well. They all ran to hug their father.
"Hey, guys! What are you doing here?"
"Making brownies," Dickie told him, displaying his chocolate-covered fingers before licking one of them.
"Does your mom know where you are?"
"She dropped us off an hour ago," Kathleen told him. "Along with our clothes and our school stuff and all of Dickie's stupid video games."
"They're not stupid!" he protested.
"Does that mean you're staying?" Elliot asked.
"We have to go see Mom sometimes," Lizzie told him. "But she said you guys could work it out." Elliot grinned, pulling all three kids into his arms again.
"You guys look great," Olivia told Dickie and Lizzie as they modeled their Halloween costumes for her. Kathleen smiled at her siblings as she came down the stairs.
"Hey, GI Joe, did you borrow that stuff from Dad?" she asked Dickie, indicating the fatigues he was wearing. He smiled.
"Yup!" Lizzie was dressed up as a veterinarian, and was holding a stuffed dog under her arm. "Isn't that going to get annoying to lug around in addition to a candy sack?" Kathleen asked. Lizzie smiled and revealed that the dog was also a backpack.
"I can put my candy in it."
"That's slick," Kathleen told her sister.
"You guys ready to go?" Elliot asked the twins as he came out of the kitchen having finished the dishes.
"Oh, Dad, I'll take them," Kathleen volunteered. Elliot raised an eyebrow.
"You sure? I thought you were going out with some friends?"
"That's not till later. You stay here with Olivia; we'll be fine." Olivia rolled her eyes.
"I'm not porcelain, you know. I'm here by myself all day – a few more hours won't hurt." Kathleen shook her head.
"Stay, have an hour or two to yourselves. I've got my cell. Bye." And then all three kids were out the door. Elliot couldn't help but laugh.
"They are too much."
"Really. You're overprotective enough as it is."
"Am not," Elliot protested, but he was lying through his teeth and they both knew it. "So, now that we've got some time to ourselves, what do you propose we do with it?" Olivia couldn't help but smile at the wicked grin he was giving her.
"Down, boy. Considering that 'time to ourselves' is what put us in this position in the first place and that we have roughly two weeks left until my due date, I am sure that we can find something more productive that needs to get done."
"Ah, but see, I know your weakness."
"And what's that?"
"You can't get off this couch without help, and if I'm going to help you, there's gotta be something in it for me." He leaned over and kissed her. After a long moment, Olivia broke away with a laugh when they both felt the baby kick. Hard.
"See?" she said with a breathless smile. "You've got two of us telling you to find something else to do."
"Uh-huh," Elliot grumbled as he helped her up off the couch. "At least we know the little guy's learning early how to get the attention of a beautiful woman." Olivia smiled.
"Or, Daddy's little princess could be learning early how to wrap you around her little finger."
"Yeah, well, the three girls I've got didn't seem to require any practice at that particular talent. So, where are we starting? Clothes or furniture?"
"Clothes," Olivia told him as they headed upstairs. "You'll never believe what Munch gave us."
TBC...