Food tasted good to Elliot and sleep had cleared his mind, if only by a small margin.

He was still tired and sore, physically and emotionally, and would be for a while, until he sobered up and sought help.

Liv and Maureen sat at the kitchen table with him as he ate small bites of eggs and toast, coffee was prohibited at the moment, which he could accept.

Funny, how days of fog and darkness made the fight in a person diminish.

Elliot accepted, for the first time he could recall, that he needed help and that in order to get his children, his work, and his life back he'd need long term help and support.

Liv and Maureen were there for him, he knew.

As were Cragen... and Munch and Fin.

"How does your stomach feel?"

Elliot pulled himself from rumination and looked up at Liv, "OK, I mean the food tastes good."

He smiled a sort of sad smile, a tired smile, and went back to his breakfast.

Cragen walked in from the backyard, "Munch and Fin have the squadroom under control and they send their best wishes. I talked to Huang who's going to get in touch with an old college buddy and fellow psychiatrist with rehab connections."

Elliot gave a nod.

"I'm going to go take a nap," Maureen informed them, accompanied by a yawn.

"All right," Liv rubbed her back as Maureen stood.

The three adults watched her go.

Elliot furrowed his brow, "Is-is Maureen holding up?" Elliot felt anxiety creep in to his chest at how his eldest daughter was acting.

Cragen nodded, "She is" was his response but he looked at Liv as he said it, for confirmation, "Yea, Maureen's been staying with me and I'm taking care of her, don't worry El."

And he didn't, he knew his baby girl was in loving, capable hands.

But where were Kathy and the kids?

He remembered her coming into the room, letting out something that made his whole body ache and then she went pounding down the stairs.

"Kathy? Kathleen, Dickie, and Lizzie?"

Elliot forgot his breakfast and looked up at his partner and best friend, then at his boss, the man who was like the father he'd never really had, for an answer.

The two exchanged a glance, "Uh, El... I don't know to be honest. Kathy was pretty angry when she came back down and the kids looked pretty wild-eyed, even Kathleen. They probably won't be coming around for a while."

A pain shot through his skull at Olivia's answer.

He'd screwed up, big time.

Breakfast was entirely abandoned as everything went through his minds processing system.

"Come on, let's get you dressed. Huang said he'd call back soon and let us know... I'm not gonna lie Elliot, but you're going in to rehab today. So we'll pack too."

Cragen moved to help him up, Elliot shrugged him off, not enjoying this one bit although accepting some of the humiliation, "Fine," he whispered, stood, and began to walk from the kitchen.

His boss followed, Liv motioning to grab the clean clothes off the stairs on his way up.

She went to sit with Maureen for a while.

"Uh-huh. OK. I guess we'll drive him there soon-and you'll meet us... OK, we'll call you when we leave here. Thanks, bye Doc."

Flipping his cell phone closed Cragen watched as Elliot put his things together, slowly, and then stood with bag in hand and look at Cragen.

"I'm, um-I'm ready."

"OK."

The two men walked downstairs.

"Liv... Maureen" Cragen called out.

The two women appeared, ready to go or as ready to go as any of them could be.

Elliot walked out first, he dumped his bag in the trunk of the sedan and slid in to the far side. Cragen followed, he was doing the driving; Liv looked around for anything they could have forgotten before heading outside as well, she would sit in the back-seat with her partner. Maureen was the last to leave, she checked the locks and made sure everything was turned off then she shut the front door and made her way to the sedan and got in to the passenger seat.

With a last lost gaze at the house Cragen pulled away from the curb and began the hour and half drive up to Tarrytown.

No one said a word except for Maureen who needed a restroom, their only stop on the way to the suburbs of the city.

"What place we going to?"

Cragen glanced in the rearview mirror at Elliot, "Phelps Memorial Hospital."

"Why not Bellevue? Or NYU? Or Mercy?" Elliot wondered, strangely unnerved by going away from the city.

"Because you need to get out of the city and out where there's some tranquility."

Elliot wanted to retort with a sarcastic remark that Tarrytown wasn't exactly what he'd call tranquil, but he kept it to himself.

Liv looked out the window and said nothing, her thoughts too wrapped around her brain to make her get in to the middle of the men's conversation.

She was thinking about so many different things at one time that it made her head sore and her chest want to burst like a balloon. Like Maureen, although unwilling to admit to it, Liv was numb too, and angry and uncertain. She couldn't let it show because she was the strong one, the lioness protecting her pride and who showed no weakness.

Tossing a glance up at the back of Maureen's head Liv wondered how she'd gotten where she is now.

It started out simply by picking up her partners daughter, but escalated in to a full blown crisis intervention.

And now with the intervention under way the numbness was wearing off and the anger was filling its place. The sadness for Maureen and the magnitude of what had happened hit Liv in the stomach like a perps sucker punch.

Outside the suburbs of New York City flashed by seeming like a dream or strange gray area where anything could happen if the right alarm went off.

Would it?

What would come next?

Wait, they were almost to Phelps where they were going to enroll Elliot in to rehab, so could anything else happen unexpectedly?

Liv was geared up for that unexpectation, but all the same turning off to protect herself from what had happened because it's what she had learned to do.

For now she'd close her eyes, take a deep breath, and continue hiding behind the mask of strength and calm.

"Where do we sign in?" Liv asked.

"George said he'd meet us in the main parking lot."

Maureen, Liv, and Cragen kept their eyes alert for the good doctor, "There, he's by the sliding entrance doors" Maureen pointed out.

Don pulled the car to a halt in front of George.

"Hi guys"

Maureen didn't know him, but everyone else did so Liv and Cragen said their hellos, Elliot remained in the back-seat not speaking.

"I'm Doctor Huang, you must be Maureen," he smiled warmly at her and extended his hand, she took it with a smile, "Nice to meet you, although it'd be nicer under different circumstances."

George nodded, a comforting gleam in his gaze.

"Is Elliot ready to go?"

"Yep," Liv retrieved his bag and handed it to Huang.

Elliot got out unaided, but hesitantly.

"Elliot has to do this on his own," George looked around at the group who each nodded and everyone looked at Elliot.

He grabbed his bag from the doctor and walked inside the hospital, George followed him in.

Liv, Maureen, and Cragen watched their retreating backs, Elliot didn't say or do anything, he didn't even look back.

All three, tired and drained, got back in to the car and again drove away.

I know a lot about admitting someone to a hospital for psychiatric reasons, but not a lot about alcohol rehab so correct me if I'm wrong about anything. Later Dayz :)...