A/N: Once again, thanks for all the reviews! I just want to say that this story has been quite the challenge to write, trying to juggle everyone's personalities and how they react to the events of the plot, but it's been very enjoyable. I truly appreciate all the reviews!
KrissXed: Wow, I don't think I have ever gotten such a bad and good review all rolled into one! I greatly appreciate the advice & compliments. I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer: Just playing with them, but they aren't mine. I guess the check I wrote to buy them bounced.
Oh yes, and the episode I reference towards the end isn't mine either. It's called 'waste' I believe, and couldn't resist the crack Olivia made at that guy.
"She's okay. She's at Mercy General. Evidently someone from the NYPD called her this morning told her what happened to Dominic, and it sent her into early labor." Natalie said, looking up at him.
"Oh my God, what happened?" Elliot questioned, and Natalie bit her lip.
"Well, I am not exactly sure, he hasn't woken up yet. But from what I gather, he was at the marina helping some guy get his boat tied off when some drunken man runs his boat into the back off them. Dom walks over, seizes the edge of the boat and ties it off so the guy can't get away, and then hops onboard. The guy wasn't very happy about that, and they end up getting in a fight and go right over the back of the boat. Dom, being the lucky person that he is, lands a knee right on the prop. Luckily the engine wasn't running, but the blade sliced his MCL and the force caused the PCL to tear. Then the guy attempted to drown him. Fortunately, the man Dom was helping out was in the army, so he ran over and dragged the guy off."
Elliot rubbed his hand through his short hair and asked, "Is he going to be okay?"
"Yes, they said he probably would. He's got bad pneumonia, but other than that his knee surgery has to wait a couple weeks for the swelling to reside. He's at Mercy too."
"Good." Elliot replied, looking over for Cragen. "Hold just one second." With that he ran into Cragen's office. "Captain? Olivia's having her baby today, do you mind if I take a personal day?"
"Oh, sure. Go ahead. Did you hear about that Coast Guard?" Cragen asked suddenly.
"Ya, I did. Not good."
"He was supposed to help us out with the undercover op. I hope he will still be up to it. It would be so depressing to hire the guy Darby suggested."
"No kidding." Elliot replied, and then turned to run out. "Come on." He said to Natalie as he grabbed his keys.
When they arrived, the ICU was the closest and so they decided to see if Dom had woken up yet. As they approached his room, it was quite clear that he had.
"No, I really don't need to stay. I have to clear about fifty boats for registration."
"Sit back down Mr. Liechtenstein. You aren't going anywhere for at least two days."
"Two days! No way, you don't understand… oh no I can't wear that thing on my knee… I can't move it!"
"Settle down, you have a 30 degree range of motion." The nurse replied in frustration, and Elliot and Natalie glanced at one another before knocking lightly on his door. "Come in."
Dom looked up at them, his eyes lighting up at the sight of Natalie. He certainly looked like he had had the crap beaten out of him, but it obviously wasn't affecting his demeanor. "Tell her that I don't need to wear a brace on my knee. I look like a freak in it."
Natalie folded her arms and glared at him. "You will wear it, Liechtenstein."
"Fine… so Elliot, I take it you read my letter?" Dom asked, deftly changing the subject just before he broke into a fit of coughs.
After they had subsided, Elliot replied, "Yes. I just wanted to say thanks."
"Olivia will probably kill me for telling you. But I just was thinking, if something did happen to me I should probably write what happened down. I just didn't want you to think she slept around. She doesn't. It was Darby's fault." Elliot opened his mouth to reply, and Dom seemed to take that as a cue that he wasn't being convincing. "No Elliot it seriously was. I mean she wasn't really drunk, but she had had some, plus I mean he was her boss, she didn't know what to do." He rambled on, making a valiant effort to come to his feet.
Elliot held out a hand to stop him. "I know. She's a great girl."
Dom gave a slight grin. "That she is. Take good care of her, or I will have to come after you."
Elliot laughed and replied, "Well I have to go do that now."
"What?"
Natalie laid a hand on his shoulder and told him gently, "Olivia's having the baby today."
Dom's eyes widened and he exclaimed, "I have to go see her! I really am not hurting that much…"
The nurse just scowled at him and then looked over at Elliot. "This is what he is like now that we gave him a sedative. You should have seen him before. Now, Mr. Liechtenstein, if you are good and get some rest, as soon as the baby is born, I will let you go up and visit it."
Dom instantly flopped onto his back, pulling the covers up around himself. "Promise?"
The nurse laughed and said, "Ya, I promise."
Elliot leaned back in his chair and chewed gently on the straw he had stuck in his mouth, eying the coffee in his hand with bored interest. It had been almost three hours and still the nurses refused to give him any information, much less let him in. Finally the door to the waiting room opened and Olivia's nurse came in. "Mr. Stabler, Ms. Benson is letting you come see her."
"So she had the baby?" Elliot questioned, leaping up and shoving his coffee onto the table.
The nurse smiled and nodded. "She did great. It's a little boy."
Elliot knocked lightly on her door, and upon hearing her okay, stepped inside. She smiled broadly at him, looking not to worse for wear and radiating the same amount of spirit that she always did. "Hey. Nice of you to stop by."
"I wouldn't miss this." Elliot replied, walking over and looking at the little baby resting in her arms. He was wide awake, blinking around at his surroundings with bright blue eyes. Elliot smiled at him and lightly touched his cheek. The baby responded by wriggling slightly in his tight swath of blankets.
"Do you want to hold him?" asked Olivia, looking up at Elliot. Elliot froze for a moment, surprised by the request. Olivia sensed it immediately and continued, "It's alright, I don't mind. Come on, he likes you."
Elliot slowly scooped him up carefully, holding him close to his chest. "I haven't held one this little in a while." He told her with a smile.
"He's little, that's for sure. A week early too."
"Who called you and told you what happened to Dom?" Elliot asked, sitting on the edge of her bed as he rocked the baby lightly.
Olivia rolled her eyes. "Who else? Darby found out and in his usual generosity thought that I might want to know."
"I'm sorry for what he did to you." Elliot said, looking over at her.
Olivia stared back and asked, "Who told you?"
"Dominic wrote it all down, and after the accident this morning Natalie gave it to me. You should have told me."
"I wanted too. But I felt like that would make me seem like… I mean, he's almost twenty years older than I am and was my boss. How does that look?"
Elliot sighed and said, "To me, it looks like you got into a situation you didn't know how to handle and he exploited that. It's not your fault. You don't deserve to be used like that."
Olivia gazed back at him in surprise and slowly scooted towards him. Elliot felt her hesitantly drape her arms around his shoulders and lean her head up against him. "Well…" she said slowly, smiling down at her son, "It wasn't all bad."
A few minutes later there was another knock at the door. Olivia grinned broadly at Dominic as he came marching in with just a slight limp. "Olivia! Oh my God, he is so cute!" Dom exclaimed, gazing down at the blue eyed baby. "And he doesn't look a thing like him!"
Elliot carefully handed him over and Dom picked him up, sitting down carefully in a chair next to the bed. "What's his name?" he asked as Natalie leaned over his shoulder, smiling as broadly as Olivia had ever seen her.
"Well, I bounced back and forth for a while, until I saw him. Then I knew for sure that he was a Daeman." Olivia said, and Dominic looked up in shock.
"You didn't have to do that, Olivia." He mumbled, looking down at the baby.
"Come on Dom, he's got blonde hair and blue eyes. He looks a lot like your twin."
"I didn't know you had a twin brother." Elliot said in surprise.
"Ya, Daeman and Dominic, identical twins." Dom said, and then got up to walk the baby over towards the window, where the last of the day's sunlight filtered through.
Olivia smiled over at them, suddenly realizing that she was still leaning up against Elliot. But he didn't seem to mind and merely laid one hand on her arm, lightly tracing his thumb across the smooth skin.
"You feeling okay, Dom?" Olivia asked gently, watching as handed the baby over to Natalie.
Dom nodded. "Ya, no big deal. I was just surprised- I didn't think that he could hit me hard enough to knock me overboard. But I landed right on the motor. I heard two pops of the ligaments rupturing, and then the guy was shoving me underwater. Then I of course sliced my leg up good on the prop. Don't worry about me. It was just a stupid mistake."
"You had me very concerned. I know you deal with drunk people a lot, but still… be a little more careful, okay?" Olivia said, giving him a small smile.
Dom didn't smile back and merely muttered, "He wasn't drunk."
At this, Olivia immediately let go of Elliot. "I heard that he was. You mean he knew exactly what he was doing? No alcohol whatsoever?"
"That's right." Dom replied, looking quite anxious to change the subject. "We can talk about it later okay?"
"Dom…"
"Liv…"
"Fine. But you will talk about it later, alright?"
"Deal. Look, I have to get back downstairs, my nurse is going to shoot me if I am not back to take my meds. But I will see you and Daeman soon." He said, standing and placing a kiss on her forehead. Olivia squeezed his hand gently before Natalie very carefully handed her the baby back.
"Thanks for letting me hold him." Natalie said, smiling at her. "Get some rest."
"No problem. You can anytime." Olivia replied, shifting Daeman slightly.
"Thanks." Natalie answered, a wide grin lighting up her features before she trotted out after Dom.
Olivia was out of the hospital the next morning, something that pleased her greatly. As soon as she got home Olivia sat down on the couch and held Daeman gently. He looked back up at her with blue eyes conveying a slight amount of interest but mostly exhaustion. She bit her lip and ran one hand across his forehead. "You're going to be okay, right?" she whispered to him, and he blinked a couple times before shutting his eyes. He was a very quiet baby, hardly ever cried, and when he did, it was very hushed. It hadn't taken the doctors long to figure out he had a heart defect.
Surgery was the only option, but it was safest to be performed when he was at least three months old. In the mean time, it just meant he had a higher likelihood of having a crib death. To Olivia, that seemed to be thoroughly awful, but the Doctors insisted that he would probably be just fine. With a bitter smile Olivia thought of how happy Darby was going to be when he found out how much more child support he was going to have to pay for all the extra medical bills.
That evening, Olivia heard a knocking on her door. Carefully setting Daeman down in his crib she got up and hurried across the room. "Elliot!" she exclaimed, opening the door to let him in. He was soaking wet- it had been raining all day. She quickly took his coat and hung it up. "What brings you down here?"
"I just wanted to say hi. How's baby?" Elliot asked, looking at her with brilliant blue eyes.
"He's good… a little sleepy." Olivia said with a slight smile. "How was work?"
"Oh you know, the usual. Munch let me be bad cop in interrogation, so that was fun."
Olivia raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you always?"
Elliot flashed his biggest grin and said, "What would make you think that?"
"Maybe that time I watched you interrogate that pedophile a few months back… that was priceless."
"I don't know… you had an extremely impressive one just before you were confined completely to desk duty."
Olivia flushed. "Oh… the one about the guy who worked in the funeral home and had sex with the stiffs, and we showed him the tape of it?"
"Ya, 'it only lasts a second but…'"
"'…I don't have to tell you that.'" Olivia finished with a grin, shaking her head slightly.
"Very harsh." laughed Elliot, "I don't think I have ever had to work so hard to keep from laughing during an interrogation." Olivia just shook her head again and flopped on her back on the couch. She shut her eyes and yawned slightly, opening them when she felt the couch shift.
"Sorry Elliot, I am still a little tired. Daeman's going to have me up in about two hours to feed him so I just need to lay down for a bit. You are welcome to stay of course." She said, looking over at him.
He nodded slowly and scooted so that he lay over top of her, supporting himself on his elbows. Olivia felt her breath speed up and she nervously looked away. He pressed a kiss on her neck, his breath making the moist area tingle. Then he shifted up to just below her ear and across her jaw. After a moment he placed his lips over hers and pushed slightly against her. Olivia wrapped her arms around his neck, moaning slightly as he deepened the kiss. She wasn't she how long they kissed like that, but after a good length of time she felt him shift his weight and slide one hand to her stomach. Olivia leaned her head back as he kissed down her neck, moving his hand up higher. She flinched only slightly from surprise and then let him continue to rub gently. It was after all, through her shirt, so she didn't feel as nervous as she would have been. Suddenly he moved again, pushing both of his hands against her chest, harder this time. "Tell me if you want me to stop." He whispered gently, breathing heavily against her ear.
Olivia barely nodded and kept one hand cradling his neck as he kissed her. And then his hands were off her chest. One went to her hip, pulling her slightly off the couch. The other came to rest high on her inner thigh. He stroked the fabric of her pants up and down until he felt her completely relax and begin to kiss his jaw. Elliot then moved his hands to her back, slowly pulling them both into a sitting position. He gave her one last passionate kiss before pulling away. "You okay?" he asked, stroking her cheek.
"I'm fine." Olivia replied, her breathing slowly returning to normal. She couldn't believe that she was still completely clothed and was this turned on. "Do you want to sleep on my couch tonight?"
"No, I better head out. No temptation that way." Elliot told her with a smile as he kissed her cheek affectionately.
"You sure?"
"Positive. But I want to see Daeman before I go."
"Of course. Look Elliot, I wanted to say thanks- for what you said in the hospital. It meant a lot to me."
Elliot looked up at her, running a hand through her hair. "It's true. You didn't deserve what he did to you."
"I know. But I just didn't know what else to do."
"I am so sorry." Elliot muttered, kissing the side of her head. Olivia wrapped her arms around him and buried her face against his chest. After a moment she looked up.
"I am sure glad they sent you that night, Stabler." She said with a smile, kissing him lightly before walking over to pick up Daeman. He was still asleep and only yawned when she picked him up and carried him back to Elliot. Elliot smiled broadly as he took him in his arms.
"Me too." He answered, looking from the baby to his beautiful mother. Olivia smiled back, her eyes dancing in the light.
...Two Weeks Later...
"Give me a break Elliot. Why would he turn himself in unless he was covering for someone?"
"It's because he feels really guilty, I can tell."
"Oh please. He's playing us." exclaimed Olivia, throwing down her pen.
"Whatever. I think he's our perp." Elliot answered.
"Ya… that sure would make it easier, now wouldn't it?"
"Excuse me?"
"If you don't want to keep working this, that's fine." Olivia snapped, and Elliot whipped around.
Munch watched the whole exchange with interest and quite reluctantly got up to give them the message. "Sorry to interrupt the marital spat, but Cragen wants you both in his office."
Elliot glared at him and Olivia rolled her eyes. "Come on Elliot." The walk across the squadroom was all they both needed to get over it, and were in much better moods as soon as they walked in.
Cragen looked up at them and said, "Well, you two have a new assignment. I figured that since Olivia already has a lot of experience with boats, you two were the best pair I could send. If you feel up to it, that is."
Olivia grinned. "I went undercover three times in Homicide. Of course I am up to it. Elliot though…"
"I'm in." Elliot interrupted.
"Good. Here's your profiles. You two have the first training session, and its all day today. Dominic, they are all yours."
They both turned around into the back corner of the room, where Dom sat in a chair, looking at them in amusement. He then stood and made his way over, the slight limp the only evidence of what had happened two weeks prior. "Ready?"
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