Influenza

Chapter Seventeen

Disclaimer: The show, the characters; not mine. The plot, that belongs to me.


XXXX

Luckily for them, the next day turned out to be a slow one, as well. Munch and Fin had been assigned to a new case, but they were still in the process of a court case, and it was occupying most of their time-- so much, in fact, that they couldn't be sent out on any calls. And while they waited until it was time to head to the court house, they caught up on their paperwork, and had a quiet conversation.

"Are we going to tell him today?" Olivia questioned as she reached for a file, her eyes cast down at her desk, as to not attract a passer-by's attention. She looked up at him briefly before beginning to write, not holding eye-contact for more than two seconds.

"I don't see any other option," he replied just as casually as she had. "The sooner, the better."

She nodded, still looking downward. "Well then... what are we doing sitting here?"

"Procrastinating?" he asked, as if he wasn't sure if it was the correct answer.

A smile graced her face and she brought her eyes up, meeting his. "That's not doing us any good, is it?"

He shook his head, "I guess not... You want to go in now, then?"

Glancing at her watch, she nodded. "Might as well... we have to be at the court in an hour and a half. This might take awhile." breathing out a nervous sigh, she set down her pen and pushed back her chair. "Let's go."

Doing the same, he headed with her towards the captains office. After knocking softly, the man called out, allowing them entrance, and the two shared a uncertain look before opening the door. Cragen looked up at them as they entered, an expecting look on his face. "What can I do for you, detectives?"

Olivia was the one to answer him, "Uh, we need to... talk about... something."

The captain motioned for them to take a seat and they did. Crossing one leg over the other, Olivia sat, nervous and worried, but at the same time feeling a huge load being lifted from her shoulders.

"What is this about?" Cragen questioned after a moment of silence.

Elliot and Olivia exchanged looks; now or never. "Captain, Olivia and I, well... we kind of..."

"We're dating."

There was a blank look on the man's face for a second or two, before he spoke up. "Each other?"

"Yeah..." this was from Olivia. "We haven't been seeing each other for long. In fact, our first date was just the other day. But, we still thought that you should hear it from us before somebody--"

"You just got a divorce," Cragen stated towards Elliot. "Does Kathy know?"

He nodded, "Kathy knew before there was even anything between us. I've talked with her about it, and she's ok with it. But sir, we in no way intended for this to happen... It just kind of did."

"And this has been going on for...?"

"Like Olivia said, just a few days, officially. We discussed it a while back, though... we were just waiting for my divorce to be final."

"You two know that this is frowned upon, right?" he questioned for the sake of conversation. "It's going to make people look at you differently."

"Let them," Olivia declared. "We don't care what anybody else thinks. We just wanted you to know... to hear it from us, before somebody else told you."

The man sighed, "I can't say that I approve of this a hundred percent... but I don't think that it will affect your work in anyway, so I'm not obligated to do anything about it. On a more personal note; good luck."

Olivia wasn't completely sure she liked that last statement. Good luck? Why would they need luck? Still, she smiled lightly, "Thank you, Captain."

"Now, if there's nothing else... you two should get back to work."

After exchanging confused looks they two nodded and left the office, pausing briefly outside the door to talk. "That was... easy."

"Yeah," Elliot agreed. "Almost too easy."

"He's not mad?"

"Didn't seem that way..."

"Hmm."

"Yeah, I know... it's strange."

"You think Munch and Fin got to him already?" she questioned, heading back towards her desk. "You know, they've been hinting at you and me for the longest time about 'us'. Maybe they got him thinking the same thing and he figured it would happen sooner or later."

"Well, most of the people here think you and I were having an affair, and that's why Kathy and I divorced, so that wouldn't surprise me much."

She shrugged, sitting down at her desk and picking her pen back up. "Like I said, I don't care what anybody else thinks."

Elliot nodded, "Now all we have to do is tell Munch and Fin."

She sighed, "Not to mention your kids."

XXXX

Olivia stood in front of the door, smiling at the conversations that she could hear through the thin wood, and trying to gain enough courage to knock. She had been there for at least five minutes, and couldn't believe how incredibly silly and childish she was being. There was no reason to be nervous. She knew that his kids liked her. But, would they like the fact of her and their father?

A squeal of surprise and then the sounds of running suddenly filled the air, and Olivia knew immediately that Dickey had done something to his twin sister and she was seeking revenge. Figuring that if she stood out there any longer one of his neighbors would find her staring at the door, and that would be a bad thing, she brought a slightly shaking hand up to the wood and knocked lightly.

"I'll get it!" Kathleen's voice called out, moments before the door opened to reveal her face. "Olivia, hey. You're late."

"Yeah... I got stuck in traffic," she lied. "Sorry." Oh, by the way. I'm dating your father.

"No biggie, we're not done with dinner yet. Come on in, I think dad's around here somewhere trying to save Dickey from Liz."

With a smile she entered the apartment, looking around as she shed her coat. She had only been in his place once before, the last time she had come for dinner, and it hadn't changed much. It was a bit cleaner the last time, but she figured the kids were still getting used to moving from house to house so frequently. "How's school going?"

"Great," Kathleen replied, taking her coat and laying it over the back of a chair. "I can't wait for Christmas break though."

"When's that again?"

"Well, we have to go to school all next week. But, the two weeks following that we have off. We go back to school the third of January."

She nodded, "So how are you and your parents working it out?"

"Well... Christmas is on a Saturday this year, and mom wants us to spend it with her. So, I guess what we're going to do is come here that Thursday and stay until Friday night, so we can spend Christmas eve with him. Then, we have the entire next week off of school... but we're not sure who we're spending New Years with, because dad might have to work." She frowned, and headed off for the kitchen, motioning for Olivia to follow her. "It's going to be strange, you know? It's our first Christmas apart, and Thanksgiving was horrible. I can only imagine what my uncles will say about dad."

"You're mom's the one who asked for the divorce, though..."

"They don't care about that, Liv," the girl replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "They're her big brothers and they're going to be protective of her no matter what the situation."

"Maybe I would understand better if I hadn't been an only child," Olivia replied casually, sitting down at the small informal table in the kitchen.

Kathleen nodded and turned towards the spaghetti that she was making, "You didn't have a good childhood did you? I asked dad about it once, and all he said was that the world hadn't been kind to you."

Olivia smiled faintly, "It could have been worse. At most, I was lonely."

"But, your mother..."

"Was always drunk, yeah. After a while I learned to deal with it. It wasn't so bad."

The teen gave her a look, as if to say she didn't believe a word coming out of her mouth, but didn't press the issue. "Spaghetti is fine with you, right? Dad said you liked Italian."

"Italian is wonderful," she assured her with a nod. "Where is your father, anyway?"

Just as the words left her mouth, the door to the kitchen opened and Elliot walked through the door, ushering Elizabeth in front of him. He smiled at Olivia before turning to his middle child, "Put her to work in here before she kills him." he begged, practically out of breath.

"What did he do?" Olivia asked curiously.

Elizabeth frowned and crossed her arms over her chest, doing her best at looking furious. "Flushed all of my make-up down the toilet."

As she was getting ready to ask why on earth the girl wore make up when she was so young, she realized that the twins were thirteen already. Suddenly feeling old she kept the question to herself and looked up at Elliot, "Can I take to you in the living room?"

Kathleen and Elizabeth shared a questioning look before the older of the two ordered her younger sister to get the tea ready.

"Sure..." Elliot replied, heading back out the door, Olivia right behind him.

"You haven't told them yet?" she asked, just to be sure.

Elliot shook his head, "I was waiting for you to get here."

"Chicken," she teased, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "When are we going to tell them?"

He shrugged, "After dinner, I guess..."

"No use ruining the meal?"

"Olivia," he chastised, "they're not going to be upset by this."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because, they're old enough to understand." he replied, completely sure of his children's maturity. "Don't worry about it, please?"

"Worry about what?" Dickey questioned, walking out of his bedroom, after having put on a clean shirt. He stopped in the middle of the living room to observe his father and his father's partner, curiousness dancing in his eyes. Nothing about the situation was suspicious to him, however, because the two were standing at least three feet apart, possibly more, and they looked like they were having a discussion of sorts. They did that often, mostly about a case they were working, and that fascinated Dickey. He was going to be a cop just like his father one day. Although, he wouldn't work SVU, his goal was Narcotics. Possibly Homicide.

"It's nothing," his father assured him, although he continued looking at Olivia. "Go help your sisters-- and stay away from Lizzie. Alright?"

"Yes sir," the young boy replied, smirking just a bit. His dad had to admit, flushing her makeup was so cool.

After Dickey had gone back into the kitchen Olivia gave Elliot a look, "Oh yeah... you're kids are just so grown up."

"Dickey's a boy, he's supposed to be a bit immature at times. But, this is not one of those times. Ok?"

"Whatever you say," Olivia sighed, walking across the room to sit on the couch. "We'll find out in about an hour."

XXXX

The girls had finished dinner not long after that, and then the five of them had sat around Elliot's formal dining table and ate. While they were eating, they talked about the events of the past few days that there father didn't know about, and the little that Elliot and Olivia could tell about the court case they were still working. They had just gotten through the last day of the prosecution's case and were currently waiting for the defense to take over, and that would be a lot shorter than the prosecution's had been-- seeing as the defense only had three witnesses to match the state's 11.

After the adults had finished talking about their case, Dickey took the opportunity to annoy his sister further, "Lizzie has a boyfriend." he declared in a sing-song tone, smiling deviously at his twin, older than him by a mere two minutes.

The girl dropped her fork on her plate and stared at him, open mouthed. "I am going to kill you," she threatened finally, standing up from her chair and pushing it back.

"Sit down," Elliot ordered, and Elizabeth immediately obeyed. "Who is this boy?"

She sighed and folded her arms across her chest, once more looking furious. "His name is James."

"James what?"

"Washington."

"How old is this James Washington?"

Her eyes shifted and she shrugged her shoulders, "Fourteen..."

"He turns fifteen in two months," Dickey explained.

"Oh my god!" the other twin practically screamed. "You are so dead!"

"Nobody is going to die," Elliot informed her. "Does your mother know about this boy."

Liz looked at her father, her right eyebrow cocked, "Yes."

"And you weren't going to tell me?"

"No."

"How do you even know this boy?" he questioned of his daugther. "You're only in Middle School, he's fourteen, that's high school age."

"He went to school with me last year..." she explained. "And he goes to church with us."

Elliot sighed, "...You're off the hook for now. But I will meet this boy before you go out with him again."

Dickey looked at his father, stunned. "What?"

"I said for now," Elliot replied. "And that's only because I have more important things to talk about."

"More important?" Elizabeth questioned. What could be more important than her life? Especially to her father? Shouldn't he be yelling at her for dating a boy at her age?

"Yes, Lizzie," Dickey answered for his father. "You'll find that the universe doesn't actually revolve around you."

"Don't even say it," Elliot ordered before Liz could reply.

Kathleen and Olivia, who had remained silent through the whole ordeal, sat in a staring match with each other. The younger girl's face held what Olivia could only describe as a knowing smile, and her arms were crossed over her chest in a less threatening manner than her younger sisters. Her right eyebrow cocked, and her head tilting towards the side slightly, as if she was thinking of something important.

She knew. How did she know?

"Well," Elliot said with a sigh, after all was quiet for a few seconds. "Kids..." might as well just come right out and say it, "Olivia and I are dating."