Chapter 7

Tear

Olivia took a shower a few minutes later, hoping not to wake Elliot. His behavior lately was so erratic, he was even acting nocturnal. Her hair wringing et, she dried it with the towel, tip toeing into her bed room. She could still see his nearly bald head peaking over the couch, snoring like he hadn't got sleep in a week.

She grabbed a tee shirt and pants, and dressed quickly hoping that Elliot would not awaken. She hurried out to the living room to make sure Elliot was still there. She noticed his left hand touching the floor and the rest of his body stretched out like a corpse. She kneeled down beside him touching him lightly.

"Elliot, wake up." she whispered.

"Liv…" he moaned turning to his other side.

"El, come on, if you need to shower it's re…" she began but stopped when Elliot sat up sporadically and looked around confused like he didn't know where he was. He searched his body, grabbing the plane tickets from his coat pocket.

"Oh Thank God." he sighed. "I dreamt that I lost the tickets or something like that." Olivia laughed asking him if he was alright. "Yea I'm….I'm fine." he assured her.

"C'mon. If you need to shower, it's ready." she told him as she put her hands on her knees and got up from her squatted position. He acquiesced and rose up too. She guided him to the bathroom feeling that any minute he would fall asleep while walking. "Thanks" he told her closing the bathroom door. Olivia returned the gesture and walked back to the kitchen.

"If you want, you can change in my bed when your done." she suggested from the kitchen. "I'll be making coffee. Shout if you need anything."

"Thanks." he answered as she heard him start the shower. Olivia waited impatiently for the coffee to brew. Drip, drip, drip…"C'mon!" she pleaded. The shower turned off and Olivia turned her attention to the wet footsteps trailing into her bedroom completely ignoring the coffee.

"Liv?" called Elliot from her bedroom.

"What's up?" she answered.

"Uh, well I kinda need a towel." he laughed quite uncomfortably. Olivia tried to hold back her laughter as well while she answered him.

"Um, try the second drawer to the left."

"Top or bottom?"

"Either one." she answered while rushing to pour the coffee. "One or two sugars?"

"Black one sugar. Don't you know me by now?" he asked sarcastically.

"You always buy the coffee remember? I owe you over two hundred dollars in coffees." she laughed. Meanwhile, Elliot searched for a towel .He looked around and tried the top drawer. To no prevail he found Olivia's lingerie. 'C'mon Elliot, it's not like you haven't seen these before.' he thought to himself. He pulled out the other drawer, finding the towels. 'Bingo'

"You alright in there?" she called.

"Just fine." he smiled appearing from the dark hallway.

"Here's your coffee." she smiled handing the cup. He thanked her taking a sip and sighed in a delighted state.

"That's good." he smiled. Olivia always loved it when he smiled and how he gloated that he never got braces but his teeth were always perfect and straight. She watched as Elliot got up and put his mug in the sink. He only took a little sip of it.

"What? That's it? Was it too strong?" she asked.

"No, not at all, but it's time we get going." he suggested. "I didn't mean to offend you."

"Don't worry about it. I guess your right we better leave." she agreed. She grabbed her belongings and followed Elliot out the door and locked it. Before long, she made her way downstairs and Elliot was leaning on his car.

"It's a nice day wanna walk?" she asked.

"I'm going straight home after work, there's no point." he replied. Olivia agreed and made her way to the passenger side of the car. Elliot started the car and drove off to the precinct. He parked adjacent to the precinct and got out of the car remaining silent. When they entered the precinct they were greeted by a smile from Fin and a chronic remark from Munch.

"Ah, well look at this. For the first time ever, Elliot and Olivia on time, and together! Ha, and look at this Elliot is wearing the same suit as yesterday. So if I put A and B together, am I thinking sleep over?" Munch asked sarcastically. Elliot approached him upset and pointed his forefinger in his face.

"Can it, John." he ordered.

"Sorry….it's my job to taunt you guys." he replied sipping his coffee.

"And now it's your job to shut it." Elliot snapped.

"Sorry my intellectual side offended you." Munch apologized not seriously. Elliot smiled in contempt. The next thing that the four realized was that Cragen appeared out of his hibernation with an urgent look on his face.

"Olivia, Elliot. Get down to 71st and Broadway. We got a rape/homicide. Munch, Fin get your asses into my office now!" he ordered. Munch and Fin looked at each other confused and at Olivia and Elliot who looked equally confused. "Let's go!" Cragen ordered.

Olivia and Elliot got into the squad car and took off. "Munch can be an asshole at times. Agree?" Elliot asked. Olivia agreed by nodding her head but really didn't agree in her head. He just joked too much, that's all. Elliot stopped at a red light then changing his mind about Munch. "He takes full advantage of his badge." Elliot laughed. It was moods like these that made Olivia wonder if Elliot was really ok. First, he'd be in a god mood then in a bad one. He was totally out of character. Since he told her that Kathy was pregnant everything was changing. She was over third months along now, just in her first trimester. Everything was changing unlike this red light. The next thing they both realized was the chronic ringing of his cell. Olivia watched as Elliot looked at the number on the window.

"It's Kathy." he said putting the phone back on the dashboard.

"Answer it!" Olivia ordered. Elliot ignored his request and tapped the steering wheel, impatiently waiting for the light to go green.

"Elliot!" Olivia yelled.

"What?" he asked acting like he didn't know what was going on.

"Answer the damn phone!" she commanded but the phone ended its routine.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because it's your wife!" she emphasized. .

"She probably just wanted to know where I was last night." he replied.

"You didn't tell her? Elliot, she's pregnant." she pleaded with him to cut his abnormality.

"I'm in hot water with her already, Liv." he answered.

"I'm beginning to think you're the asshole." she told him referring to his comment about Munch.

"Why? Olivia, I'm forty years old, a cop, and barely making enough to support a family of six. Imagine supporting a family of seven. My wife is three fucking months pregnant, and I haven't cried since the twins were born. How am I supposed to deal with that? She thinks that every time I come home late, I'm having an affair…."

"An affair? With who?" Olivia inquired, her tone quieting down.

"……you." he replied looking at her shocked face rather than the light that turned green.

"Green." Olivia spit out.

"What?" Elliot asked confused.

"The light, it's green." she replied unable to close her mouth and her heart beating quicker and quicker. Elliot put his foot on the pedal and continued down the street getting to their destination.

"Is it that bad that you can't close your mouth?" Elliot asked.

"I'm shell shocked, El. Maybe it's best if you don't sporadically come over anymore." she informed him.

"Alright then." he smiled getting out of the car. Olivia arched her eyebrows. She suspected him to argue with her, but she guessed it was one of those mood things he was going through.

"What we got?" Olivia asked the medical examiner.

"Female, around thirty, burned and sodomized...in public, in daylight. Elliot's talking to the witness." she replied.

"Thanks" Olivia replied. She walked over to Elliot who was talking to a young girl who was obviously upset.

"This is my partner Det. Benson. Thanks for you information, you did great." he told her as he lead Olivia walking away.

"That's it? That was two minutes!" she exclaimed.

"She didn't know what the hell happened. She just saw the woman lit on fire. We're gonna have to get Huang on this to get the nature of the suspect. No leads as of now."

"So now what?" Olivia inquired.

"Good question. We'll have to go back to the precinct." he replied. They both got back into the car and drove back to the precinct.

"What the hell are you two doing back here?" Cragen asked. Elliot told the same story to Cragen as he did to Olivia. "Oh, alright then I'll get him on it."

"Where's Munch and Fin?" asked Elliot.

"They're getting taught a lesson." Cragen said not letting any other info out. "In the meantime, there's nothing here for you too to do so go home I guess."

"That's great. First thing I'm gonna do when I get home is nap." Olivia answered grabbing her stuff and leaving abruptly. "See ya's." she concluded walking out of the precinct. Elliot called Cragen as he left for his office.

"Captain…"

"What's up?" he asked.

"Um, I'm taking Kathy to Paris for about ten days. Is that ok? Just to catch up with our crazy situation." Elliot explained.

"Ok." Cragen agreed. "I'm glad you considered a break. You need one."

"Yea, I know." Elliot agreed. "So, we're going Monday. Tomorrow is the last day here, so if I don't get this new case cracked, Olivia will be…." he was stopped in mid sentence.

"Olivia will be fine, Elliot. Now go home." Cragen ordered. Elliot smiled as he walked away grabbing his things and leaving. He got into his car and took off. He got home in about fifteen minutes; traffic was brutal as usual.

When he got in Kathy was making a stew. He kissed her forehead but she ignored the gesture.

"Oh…I know what this is about." Elliot figured.

"Damn right you do." she snapped.

"Look, Kath I…."

"You're what? Sorry? You bet your ass you are. What do you expect me to let you walk out of here while me and the kids are asleep and then expect me to cook you breakfast, lunch, and dinner and let you screw me around? I'm getting tired, Elliot, I really am. How the hell is this one going to have a dad if the others don't have one half the time?" she said upset. Her eyes filled with tears as she started to scream at him. "You don't even answer the fucking phone when I call you!"

"Kathy, sweetie." he hugged her. She was bawling her eyes out now as she dropped the steak knife she had in her hands. "Here, sit down." he guided her to the seats at the kitchen table. "Sweetie, I love you so much. I know the past year has been really tough on you; on us. But I promise to make it up to you."

"How?" she wiped her tears. "Telling me you're "Sorry"? Elliot, I can't…"

"I know you cant take this, but one more day and…" he stopped trying to find the brochure he had in his pocket. She wiped all the tears that she had left.

"And what?" she asked.

"Hold on…" he replied still trying to find the brochure. "Ah ha, here we are." he planted the brochure in front of her as tried to figure out what was going on.

"It's Paris…" she said. "Elliot…..no." she smiled. "Paris? We're going to Paris! What about the kids? Staying by themselves I mean they…" she started to hyperventilate.

"The kids will be fine, they're staying with your ma." he told her.

"They knew?" she asked. He smiled to let her know yes. "Oh my God, Paris. Elliot, things are going to change from now on?" she asked him.

"I promise." he smiled. She leaned in to hug him and wiped a trailing tear ran down her face. "Well, since we're doing surprises, I have one for you."

"Really, what?" he asked. She pulled a piece an envelope out of her bag that had 'STABLER' written on it. "What is this?" he asked.

"Open it!" she encouraged. He opened the envelope and found the sonogram picture inside. "While you were at work I called you, and you eh, obviously didn't answer your phone. I wanted to remind you that we had an appointment with the doctor for the baby's first sonogram, but um, you missed out." she explained.

"I didn't remember, sorry sweetie." he said astounded by the photo.

"I didn't expect you to. I left a note on the table to let you know, but you obviously didn't get it."

"Oh my God" he whispered outlining the baby's features with his fingertips. "That's the….the uh, that's our baby?" he asked breaking up.

"Yea. Amazing huh?" she commented smiling at Elliot who was getting all wound up. A tear ran down his face and he tried to cover it up. He thought back to his conversation with Olivia that he didn't cry since the twins were born but now that was different. Now, he wasn't the same man he was when he first got up that very morning. He got up and stuck the picture to the fridge with a magnet. All he could think about that was in white bold lettering it said on the top of the sonogram 'BABY STABLER'; and to Elliot, that was such a beautiful thing.

A/N: Tell me what you thought. Personally this was my favorite chapter yet. Comments and Suggestions always welcome! Thanks.