On the way back home Cragen made only one stop, for aspirin and two pounds of dark roast coffee.

Maureen felt as if she was in an alternate universe, like this couldn't possible be happening.

But it was happening.

Liv sat in the back, Elliot sleeping with his head in her lap and though he wasn't breathing on her she could smell the stench of alcohol all over him.

It brought back so many memories.

Looking down at him anger and hurt and, possibly, betrayal flooded her gaze and Liv had to look away for tears wanted to well up and escape but she had to hold it together.

The house was just as it had been hours ago.

Cragen parked the car on the street and got out, he went to the door behind him and opened it to drag Elliot out by his feet. Liv let her partner's head lower to the seat and she got out, went around and helped Cragen support Elliot as they both lifted him out. Slowly the trio went up in to the house.

Maureen remained behind.

Only alone did she shed any tears. Her mother would find out and so would her brother and sisters and then her whole life would be all the more worse than it was. The image of how low her father had fallen graffited her mind, but the pain that she couldn't turn to him was even worse.

She'd been hiding her own secrets for so long. Now the one person she had always gone to in the past couldn't be there for her. She had to be there for him instead.

"Maureen," Liv's voice was low and concerned.

The younger woman would not look up in to the detective's imploring gaze.

"Sweetie do you want to come inside? Or at least sit out here with me? Captain Cragen's got your dad upstairs and he's cleaning him up."

Wordlessly, Maureen eased out of the passenger seat and allowed Liv to guide her to the front porch steps.

"How could this be happening? Mom's gonna find out and the kids will find out and everything will fall farther in to Hell. What did I do wrong? How could I be so selfish and not have called more often to make sure daddy was OK?"

A painful glare invaded Liv's gaze, "Maureen, look at me, don't you dare think you did anything to bring this on. Your dad did what he did because he was hurting but he didn't, he wouldn't talk to anyone about it. I know this may sound harsh, but he's done this to himself."

Maureen simply looked off in to the distance.

Silence fell between them.

Leaning in to Liv Maureen allowed her weight to be held by her father's partner.

"Please, Maureen, talk to me" Liv spoke softly and encouragingly.

She hesitated, but only for a second, "My grades have started to drop and my best friend and my roommate Sandy, decided she couldn't help me so she started ignoring me or spending night's with her boyfriend... A few weeks ago, Andre got drunk at a party and we went upstairs to his friends apartment. We had sex but I didn't want to, I remember telling him no, but that's it and the next day he apologized but we broke up and now... now I'm carrying his baby..."

Liv wrapped her arm around Maureen and held her closer, she didn't know what to say because she was in shock.

"Oh, honey", Liv eventually murmured, "how far along?"

"A month and a half."

It was a difficult thought to comprehend, but Liv nevertheless processed what she'd been told.

"What now?" Maureen wondered.

To that Liv couldn't answer.

Cragen had gotten Elliot settled upstairs in bed drying out.

Now they began the task of cleaning up the mess.

Maureen decided it would be best to clean out her house before she could deal with her own issues and Liv allowed it.

It was a quick process, Liv garbage bagged all of the leftover food and Cragen tossed out the beer bottles. Maureen vacuumed and soon the house looked as it had when the Stabler's had lived under one roof together, clean and orderly.

Even though the roof was caving in around them.

The same question popped up in their minds, what now?