"I have to go to the funeral home tomorrow night," Elliot told Kathy as they were cleaning up the dinner dishes.
"Oh no," Kathy said as she loaded the dishwasher. "Somebody from work?"
"Olivia's mom died," he said.
"That's terrible," Kathy said. "Were they close?"
"I don't think so, but you know how it is when it's a parent," he said.
Kathy, of course, didn't. Both her parents were still alive. Her dad still thought Elliot was a rat bastard for knocking up his daughter and it'd been nearly 11 years at this point.
"I should go with you," Kathy said, drying her hands on the towel. "I know I haven't met Olivia yet, but she's your partner. It'd be good if we go together."
Elliot wanted to argue. He really didn't want Kathy and Liv to ever be in the same room. He felt like if it happened Kathy would just automatically know what had happened between them. Ridiculous? Yes. Still scared the shit out of him? Absolutely.
"Couldn't hurt," he said eventually.
"I'll call Mrs. Dixon, see if she can come sit with the kids tomorrow then," Kathy said. "What time?"
"I think six to eight," Elliot said. "We can try to get there around seven."
It took awhile but Elliot finally got a parking spot near the funeral home, after going around the block ten or eleven times. He'd been tempted to put on the lights and double park, but Kathy would have hated that. Liv too.
Elliot hated everything about funeral homes. Somehow they were worse than the morgue. Everything smelled the same, like death chemicals, but like someone sprayed noxious floral air freshener over top of it. Plus, they were designed to look like the inside of fancy homes, to be "welcoming." At least at the morgue it looked like you were supposed to stare death in the face.
There weren't too many people waiting in line to talk to Olivia and Mark when they walked in. Elliot noticed it was a closed casket ceremony, which was weird for a viewing. He also noticed how well Olivia was handling the people that were in the room. Always the caretaker. But Mark, he just kind of hung back. Had his hands shoved in his pockets, like he was just waiting for the second they could get out of there. Elliot decided to approach him first.
"Mark," he said, stepping up to Olivia's husband. "Elliot Stabler, Olivia's partner."
"Oh, sure," Mark said, shaking his hand. "I remember."
"I'm sorry for your loss," Elliot said.
"Not really my loss," Mark said. "Serena and I never saw eye to eye."
Elliot was a little taken aback by the bluntness. From what he gathered, Olivia had a hard childhood and he could see why her husband wouldn't care for the woman, but a simple 'thanks' would have done the trick.
"This is my wife, Kathy," Elliot said, introducing them.
"Nice to meet you," Mark said, shaking her hand.
"Likewise," Kathy said.
They stood there in awkward silence for a few minutes until Elliot noticed Olivia wrapping up with the older couple she was speaking to. He walked over to catch her before she got involved with somebody else.
"You didn't have to come," she said, her eyes glistening when she saw him.
"'Course I did," Elliot said, taking her hand. "Have the guys been by yet?"
"Oh yeah," she said. "All three of them came together, right at six. Dinner break."
Elliot heard someone clear their throat behind him, and realized it was his wife.
"Olivia, this is my wife Kathy," he said, putting his arm around her and gesturing between the two women. "Kathy, this my partner Olivia Benson-Messer."
"So nice to finally meet you, Kathy," Olivia said. "Thank you so much for coming."
"I wish it was under better circumstances," Kathy said.
Olivia smiled and nodded, and he could tell she was getting choked up.
"We don't want to hold up too much of your time, just wanted to make sure we paid our respects," he said.
"It really means so much that you came," she said. "Both of you came."
"If you need anything," Kathy said. "We're a phone call away. Truly."
"Thank you," Olivia whispered.
Elliot grabbed for her hand once more.
"Take care of yourself," he said. "I'll see you at work."
She nodded and he and Kathy turned to leave, they were almost out the front door before he realized there was one person he didn't talk to.
"I wanted to check on Liv's daughter," he said. "I didn't see her in there. And Liv said she'd taken the news pretty hard."
"How about I go warm up the car and you can see her real quick?" Kathy said.
"Just a couple minutes," he said handing Kathy the keys and pecking her on the cheek. He went back inside to look for Chelsea. He was about to ask Liv where she was when he peeked into the room next door. It was empty and she was sitting in there all alone staring at her shoes.
"Well, what do you know?" he said. "There's a peanut in this room."
Chelsea's head snapped up and she smiled when she saw Elliot. Her eyes were red rimmed and he could tell she'd been crying. She hopped out of the chair so fast she almost knocked it over and ran to him. He scooped her up in his arms and gave her a hug.
"What are you doing in here?" Elliot asked, sitting down on one of the hard love seats with her in his lap.
"Daddy said I had to stay in the room with them, but I don't like being by grandma's big box," Chelsea said. "It smells funny. And before they closed it, grandma was inside and she didn't look like herself. So I told Mommy I had to go to the bathroom and suck in here."
"It's okay if you don't want to be in the room with the casket," Elliot said. "It's kind of scary, even for grown ups."
"But Daddy said I had to be polite," Chelsea said.
"Well it can be our secret," Elliot said, feeling his jaw clench. He wanted to go back in there and tell Mark how traumatizing it may be to keep a kid in a room with a dead body for two hours, but this wasn't the place to cause a scene.
Chelsea leaned her head against his shoulder and he felt her sigh.
"I'm glad you're here," she said, and Elliot couldn't stop the grin that spread to his face.
"I'm glad I found you, I almost missed seeing you," he said. "It's because you're such a good hider. But don't get too far away from Mommy, okay. You have to at least be where she can see you, even if you don't want to be in the other room."
"Okay, Elliot," she said. "I promise."
"That's my girl," he said. "I have to go because my wife is waiting in the car, but I'll see you soon?"
"I hope so!" Chelsea said. "I like when I get to see you."
"I like when I get to see you too, peanut," he said. Then he set her down off his lap and kissed her on the head before walking out. He thought he saw Mark pass the room, but he wasn't sure if it was him or not, so Elliot just kept walking.
When he got back to the car, Kathy already had it warmed up and picked a radio station.
"Olivia seems really nice," Kathy said. "Tired though."
"Well, funerals will do that to you," he said.
"Her husband's kind of out there, isn't he?" she asked.
"I'm not the top member of his fan club, but this is only the second time I've met him," Elliot said. "People grieve in a lot of different ways."
"I guess all women can't be as lucky as I am," Kathy said, sliding her hand onto his thigh, which he reached down to grab.
"Guess not," he said with a cheeky smile, but inside he was spiraling. Kathy probably wouldn't think she was so lucky if she found out just what happened about eight years ago, and why he was so determined to go back in to talk to Olivia's daughter.
No. She wouldn't be calling herself the lucky one at all.
A/N: This was the last chapter I actually had a plan for. We're back to winging it. How's everybody doing out there? Comments welcomed and craved.
