Queens Mall – Saturday – 3:00pm

Olivia, Maureen, Kathleen, and Elizabeth got out of the car in the parking lot at the mall in Queens. The girls insisted that this was a great place to shop and hang out with their friends so they wanted Olivia to come here to Motherhood to shop for some maternity clothes.

"Oh, I'm getting so big," announced Olivia, seeing her reflection as they made their way to the door. She was wearing a light purple oversized sweater and jeans.

"No, you don't," said Maureen. "You look tiny for being five months along. I bet you haven't gained that much weight either."

"Ten pounds," muttered Olivia.

"I wouldn't mind if anyone saw you today," said Elizabeth. "Size doesn't matter. You're our step-mom and we love you." Even though Lizzie was only eight, she talked smart for her age and Olivia was impressed with her maturity.

"If I see some of my friends in here, I'll definitely introduce them to you, Olivia," chimed in Kathleen. "You're like a big sister, even though you have to set rules for us and take part in the parenting role to raise us since you're married to Dad."

Olivia smiled at her, "Thanks girls. You're too sweet."

"So, are we going to go to Motherhood first?" Maureen asked Olivia.

"You guys know this place better than I do, so honey, show me the way."

The girls giggled at Olivia's comment and made their way into Motherhood.

Meanwhile, Elliot and Dickie were walking around in the paint department at Home Depot looking at a few paint samples that the salesman had brought. Olivia had specifically told him that she wanted the nursery to be painted light pink with the wallpaper decorated with ladybugs and butterflies.

"Is this the wallpaper that you're looking for, Dad?" Dickie asked, holding up a small strip of paper.

Elliot looked at it and took the strip of paper, "Yeah, that's it." He showed Dickie one of the paint samples that he was holding, "What do you think of this color? Does it look like a light pink shade that Olivia had talked about for the baby's room?"

Dickie shrugged, "It's too girlie, but if that's the color that Olivia wants to paint the nursery, then it looks nice. She deserves to pick out what she wants the color of the room to be and so do you. It will be nice for my little sister to wake up in a room with a bright color."

Elliot smiled at his son. He was very much like his twin—smart and intelligent for his age. All of his kids had accepted Olivia into the family and he was glad about that.

"Why don't we go and get the paint and wallpaper?"

"OK." Dickie followed his dad to the paint aisle.

At Motherhood, Maureen and Kathleen were helping Olivia go through the racks of the casual clothes while Elizabeth helped looked for some work clothes.

"These shirts look really cute, Liv," said Kathleen, holding up a couple of long-sleeved layered shirts.

Olivia looked up from the racks to see what she was holding, "Oh yeah, those are cute." She herself was carrying several dress shirts, pants, and jeans.

"The corduroys are in style this fall," stated Maureen, showing her a pair of maroon colored pants.

"Good to hear from the fashion critic," said Olivia, smiling at her.

After finding all of the maternity clothes that she needed for the rest of her pregnancy, Olivia checked out and she and the girls went to Toys 'R Us, Lollipops and Lace, and Baby Gap to look at clothes, toys, and furniture such as a crib, swing, bouncing seat, stroller, and playpen. There were "ooohs" and "aaahs" that came out from everyone as they looked at clothes and other baby things. Olivia and Elliot had talked about registering at a few stores so the other detectives at work could get an idea of what they needed if anyone planned to get them anything. She went to do that at Toys 'R Us and then they went to Target at their baby registry department.

Stabler Residence – 6:30pm

Everyone had just come home from their shopping trip and was talking about their day out in the city. The girls and Olivia talked about the fun that they had looking at baby stuff, showing Elliot and Dickie all of Olivia's maternity clothes and a few baby clothes. On the other hand, the guys showed them the wallpaper for the nursery that would be put up in the room. A little while later, Elliot and Olivia went upstairs to the spare bedroom of what would soon become the nursery. They looked around to see where the furniture would go in their daughter's room and had a vision of what everything would look like when they painted and the wallpaper was put on in there. This was only the beginning of planning for the arrival of their daughter and life was going good.

Later on that night, Elliot was in the bathroom brushing his teeth while Olivia sat up in the bed under the covers watching Saturday Night Live. He turned off the light in the bathroom and walked into the bedroom wearing a white sleeveless muscle shirt and drawstring pants.

"You actually like to watch this?" he asked as he pointed to the TV and climbed into bed next to her. He moved the sheets and lifted up her tank top to kiss her belly. At five months, she already had a bulge in her tummy and Elliot could see her body changing, but she still looked tiny.

"Not really," she replied, grabbing the remote to turn off the TV. "I was just waiting for you."

Elliot smiled and leaned over to kiss her deeply. He moved on top of her carefully, trying not to put his entire weight on her. Olivia moved her hands from his cheek to the back of his head, sifting his hair with her fingers as Elliot lifted up her leg, reveling in their kiss.He then broke their kiss and gave Olivia a peck on the cheek and laid back on the bed next to her, feeling their baby kick against the palm of his hand and reaching over to turn off the lamp.

Life was definitely good, Elliot thought, as he and Olivia fell asleep in each other's arms.