Title- Healing Chapter Three
Author- garrettelliot
Rating- R, maybe
Summary- Home together and a little music
Disclaimer- You don't own, I don't own it. But we can all dream.
Author's Note- This chapter contains some pre-sexual content. If this is objectionable to you, please skip this one.

Elliot sat on the sofa smiling. He looked around at his family; Kathleen was talking on the phone with one of her friends. Lizzie was arguing with Dickie over a video game, and someone had turned on the radio. The radio must have been Dickie; he shared his mother's love of country music. The thought of a good Catholic girl from Queens enjoying that redneck noise always made him grin. Once this kind of racket would have had him sending the kids to their rooms, but he was enjoying the lack of quiet. The house had been empty for too long. He needed the racket his family produced.

"You know your grinning like a loon, don't you?" Kathy sat down beside him and handed him a beer.

"So are you." He pulled her close. "Welcome home, baby. I've missed you."

"I've missed us, for a long tome before I left." Kathy snuggled up beside him. "We need to talk about how to not make all the same mistakes again."

"I've been thinking about that. If you want me to, I'll transfer. Major Case and Homicide both have openings. The hours would be better." Elliot offered.

"Absolutely not, no transfers! You'd be miserable anywhere else and we both know it. You need SVU as much as they need you. You would feel lost if you didn't have someone to protect, to fight for. Elliot, you protect our children, Liv, and me. It doesn't surprise me that you want to protect every innocent in Manhattan as well." Kathy slid an arm around his waist. "You just need to remember that I'm a big girl and I can take whatever you need to talk about. Besides, Liv wouldn't transfer with you and I trust you to keep each other safe."

" Nobody needs what I see in their heads." Elliot said.

"El, I'm an ER nurse, I see that ugly shit everyday. Besides, I took the rape response training for work. I'm now the rape kit specialist on my shift. I do at least three a week. Hon, I don't need to be protected at the expense of your sanity. I thought you could talk to Liv and that would be enough, but obviously it's not. When you stopped talking about work, you just stopped talking to me. You shut down and that's what I couldn't take. It played into all the crap my mother fed me for years. It made me doubt you, me, our marriage. We need some new ground rules or we could be right back to the same mess again. We can't lose us, I'll die if we do." She looked up at Elliot with tears in her eyes. "Please, promise me you won't shut me out again. I need to know we're partners."

"I'll try babe, it's just hard to talk to you about the cases." Elliot brushed her hair back and kissed her. "You and the kids are my safe harbor in this mess and I hate to think of you knowing what I know."

"Sometimes you are such a guy. Putting your wife on a pedestal. What a Madonna complex thing to do. Don't you think I watch the news? It's an ugly world out there, my love, and I do know a lot of the same things you know. Do you think because I work in Queens, it's less ugly than Manhattan? The knife and gun club meets on the weekends here just like they do in Midtown." She sat up and looked him in the eyes. "You aren't naïve enough to think I don't understand what you do, are you? You work on putting away the dregs of society… and you risk your life to do it. Don't think it doesn't scare me to think about those things; it does. I live with the fear that someday I'll open that front door and see Don or one of the guys standing there to tell me your dead. But that is part of being a cop's wife and if I want you, I have to risk that. Some things are worth the price you pay."

"Kathy…" He started.

"Don't, we can't promise what we don't know. I love you and you love me and if this is all the time we ever have it's more than enough. Let tomorrow stay in the future. Just enjoy what we have. Besides you're gonna be beside me in the old folks home, ogling nurses so I can smack you for it." Kathy smiled at him. "And Liv'll be on the other side of you, keeping you in line when I doze off."

"How do you know I won't be ogling you? You're gonna be the sexiest old lady I know." He pulled Kathy onto his lap and started kissing her neck. "I may just buy stock in Viagra to keep you from worrying about those nurses."

"You are the most exasperating man." Kathy sighed. "Now I forgot what I wanted to say."

Elliot pulled away. "Sorry, what did you want to say?"

"Who cares?" Kathy said breathlessly as she pulled him down to kiss him. She stopped his hand as it crept up under her shirt. "Bedtime kids." Kathy called.

"Then bedtime Mom and Dad." Elliot whispered in her ear and traced the curve with the tip of his tongue. Kathy moaned and bit her lip.

"I have to go, Jenny." Kathleen told her friend. "My parents are sending me to bed so they can get gross on the couch. I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"You know Katie if it weren't for Mom and Dad 'getting gross', you wouldn't be here…and we'll still be getting gross when we're old and gray." Kathy laughed.

"Eww, do we have to talk about you guys and sex? It's too weird." Kathleen said.

"I remember not being able to imagine my parents having sex, don't you, El?" Kathy grinned.

"I still can't imagine your mother….OW!" Elliot stopped as Kathy slapped his arm.

"Behave yourself, or you can sleep on the couch." Kathy tried to scowl at him.

"I don't think so." Elliot said standing with her in his arms.

"Put me down before you hurt your back!" Kathy squealed.

"Not a chance, you must have dropped fifteen pounds. You can't weigh more than 110 now." Elliot gave her a grin. "Besides, you threatened my plans for the evening. Now you'll have to suffer the consequences."

"Body slam her, Dad!" Dickie called from the stairs.

"Oh don't worry, I'll 'body slam' her alright, upstairs." He whispered in Kathy's ear. "No body slamming girls, Bud. Now clear the stairs." El grinned.

Elliot carried Kathy to their bedroom and laid her on the bed. "Don't move. I'll be right back." He walked to the door and called down the hall. " Bed, kids, no stalling. That means you, Richard James."

"Yes, Dad. Night Mom!" Dickie yelled.

"Night Daddy. Night Mom." Lizzie called from her room.

"Dad?" Kathleen leaned out her door. "I'll get breakfast and drive the twins to school so you guys can sleep in."

"Thanks, Katie. Good night." Elliot stepped back in the room, locked the door and turned toward Kathy with a sexy smile. "Alone at last."

"I'm not sure I like that grin, Mister." She teased.

"Oh it's dangerous, baby. Goes with my mood." El stripped off his shirt.

"Why do I feel like a sacrificial lamb?" Kathy said.

"You are, and I'm the wolf that's gonna eat you up." Elliot pulled her up against his chest.

"Promises, promises." Kathy scoffed.

"You better believe it, lady, cause you're sure gonna feel it!" El kissed her hard, then pulled back and looked into her eyes. "I love you, and if there had never been a Maureen or any of the others, I would still love you. Never, ever forget that baby. You are the only woman for me and I never intend to let you doubt it again."

"I love you, El. More than anything in this world except our children, and I will never doubt you again." Kathy promised. "Now are you just gonna talk or do you have something else in mind?"

"Baby, you have no idea what I have in mind." El smiled wolfishly.

"Oh, my imagination is pretty good, but why don't you satisfy my curiosity anyway?"

"Honey, I intend to satisfy both of us." He began kissing her neck and shoulder.

TBC

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