A/N: I know I'm going to be super busy for the rest of the week and might not have time to write, so I wanted to get this chapter out! This is our last roll at the party. It's been fun to write the same scenes from a multitude of perspectives. I'd love to know what you all think about that style.
Obligatory Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chelsea had been really excited for this party since Mommy told her about it at dinner last week. Finally, she was going to get to see Elliot's house and meet his daughters that he always talked about. She knew they were going to be lots of fun and really nice because they were related to him.
After Mommy told her that Kathleen liked Lizzie McGuire they spent hours in Wal-Mart picking out the perfect present: a T-shirt, the CD (which Chelsea didn't have yet but was going to ask for for her birthday) and two of the books in the series that were about the best episodes.
She barely slept the night before the party. She kept wondering what games they'd play, and what she and Elliot's daughters would talk about. Maybe someday since he and Mommy were friends, they could come over for a sleepover. Maybe it would be different than having the kids from school over and Daddy would agree to it because Mommy knew Elliot.
Chelsea skipped up the sidewalk at Elliot's house to the backyard. It was nice where he lived, and different from being in the city. It was quieter and people had yards and fences. Chelsea liked living in an apartment, but a house seemed really cool too. She looked down at the outfit she spent all morning picking out: her denim skort, yellow t-shirt, and sunglasses. And she had Mommy French braid her hair. She wanted to look like the cool girls in class so that Kathleen and Maureen and Lizzie would think she was cool too.
When Mommy opened the backyard gate and they stepped inside, and Chelsea saw all the people, she got a little nervous. She didn't like meeting new people very much, especially not a lot of them at one time. Mommy had told her about stranger danger and she always remembered those things in big crowds, and sometimes they made her feel overwhelmed.
"Hey, Chelsea," Mommy said. "Look who's behind the grill on the patio."
When she looked across the yard, she saw Elliot behind the grill. He was holding a spatula and smiling. She wanted to go say hi, so she grabbed Mommy's hand and started pulling her along to get to him, but an older woman stepped in front of them before they could get there.
Mommy seemed to know her, and introduced her to Daddy. Chelsea looked up at the lady. Her clothes were splashes of bright colors and patterns and she had nice eyes and a happy smile. Chelsea was pretty sure she liked her right away, but she was still somebody new.
"And is this that lovely daughter you showed me a picture of the first time we met?" the woman asked, looking down at her.
She heard Mommy take a deep breath and squeezed her hand. Maybe this woman wasn't as nice as she thought.
"This is my daughter, Chelsea," Mommy said. "Chels, this is Elliot's Mom, Mrs. Stabler."
That's why she seemed so nice. She was Elliot's mom. Maybe she was okay after all.
"Oh, call me Grandma B," she said. "All the kids here do, even Kathy's cousins."
"Hi, Mrs. Grandma B," Chelsea said shyly.
She only had one grandma. Daddy's Mom had never been around. But maybe it would be fun to call Elliot's Mom grandma too. It would be a little bit like she'd told Dr. Rebecca, that she wanted Elliot to be her Daddy. It would be kind of like they were family.
Grandma B said goodbye to Mommy and went into the house, and Chelsea grabbed her hand again so they could go see Elliot. They got further this time, but then another grown up got in their way. This woman looked a little familiar. She thought she saw her at the funeral home when she was hiding, but Chelsea wasn't totally sure. Mommy and Daddy both seemed to know her.
"So is this your daughter I've heard so much about?" the woman asked. "Elliot's been insistent for months that she'd get along well with the girls, so I'm glad they can finally meet."
"Me too," Olivia said. "Chelsea, this is Elliot's wife, Mrs. Stabler."
Chelsea knew what a wife was. It was the person that you married and loved more than anyone else in the world. And this lady was Elliot's. Chelsea didn't know how to feel about her. She secretly sometimes wished Mommy wouldn't be married to Daddy anymore so she could marry Elliot. But if he already had a wife that would never happen. She knew he did, she just didn't actually know the woman. She wasn't sure she wanted to look at her.
"Hi," Chelsea said, not really looking up, deciding maybe if she didn't see her then she didn't really exist.
"It's nice to meet you, honey," Mrs. Stabler said. "Most of the girls are playing on the swingset right now but we're going to have games and even a pinata later so hopefully you'll have a lot of fun."
Games and a pinata sounded like fun, but she really just wanted to go see Elliot. It had been forever since her spring concert and that was the last time she had seen him. Finally, his wife went inside.
"Mommy can we please go see Elliott now?" Chelsea asked.
"Go ahead if you're so anxious, don't wait for us," Mommy said.
That was good enough for Chelsea. She took off in a sprint to the patio before anybody else could get in her way and she ran right up next to him at the grill.
"Hey peanut," Elliot said when she got there. "I'm glad you could come."
"Me too," Chelsea said. "We brought Doritos, and a present for Kathleen. I think she's really going to like it."
"Doritos?" Elliot said, looking at Mommy with a goofy grin.
"Well, we couldn't just show up with nothing," she said, placing the chips on the picnic table behind Elliot and the present on the patio wall along with the others.
Elliot called over a man and a boy that was younger than Chelsea. He made the man take the spatula and stand at the grill, and then he picked the little boy up out of the grass.
"Bud, do you remember Olivia?" Elliot said to the kid.
"Yeah, I do," he said, looking up at Mommy and shielding his eyes from the sun. "Thanks for making me feel better when I was sick."
Chelsea remembered back when they got the stomach flu. Mommy said she got it from helping Elliot's kids feel better. This must be his son.
"This is her daughter, Chelsea," Elliot said to the boy. She was pretty sure Mommy told her his name before, but she couldn't remember.
He looked at her funny, like he'd seen her before but didn't know from where.
"Hi," he said, making a funny face and scrunching up his nose.
"Hi," Chelsea said back.
"Dad, can I go back and play catch with the boys now?" the boy said, turning to Elliot.
"Sure pal," Elliot said, scrubbing a hand over his face as the boy ran away.
Daddy said he was going to go sit down, and Chelsea got nervous. What if the girls didn't want to talk to her either, just like Elliot's son? She thought they were going to have so much fun, but what if they just ignored her? They were all sisters and their cousins were here, and as much as she wanted Elliot to be her Daddy and to be Mommy's husband, he wasn't. This was his family and they didn't belong.
"Chels, do you want to go play with the girls?" Elliot asked.
She bit her lip in the way she sometimes did when she was nervous. She didn't think she wanted to go meet them anymore. She just wanted to go home. Mommy bent down in the grass so they were eye to eye.
"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Olivia said.
"What if they don't want to play with me?" Chelsea asked. "They're all related and I'm not."
She didn't want to start crying like a baby, but what if they ignored her? What if it was like that week at recess when the girls decided she couldn't play with them because she wore pigtails?
"Listen peanut, you know your mom is my best friend, right?" Elliot said.
"Yeah," Chelsea answered.
"So when somebody is your best friend, they're pretty much your family," Elliot said. "So you and mom fit right in. And the girls are going to want to play with you, just like their cousins."
Chelsea wasn't completely sure. Sarah was supposed to be her best friend, but she ditched her that whole week of recess. She left Chelsea to sit on her own against the gym wall while all the other girls played house and other games without her.
"Are you sure?" Chelsea asked.
"Have I ever lied to you?" Elliot asked.
Of course not, Chelsea thought. He'd told her the truth about heaven, and even about Mommy having to work the night of her concert. Daddy always said Mommy liked work better than being with them, but Mommy said it wasn't true, and so did Elliot. He wouldn't lie to her.
"I don't think so," Chelsea said.
"Then let's go over there so you can meet them and start having some fun," he said.
Elliot put out his hand for her and she took it. It was big and warm and made her feel safe. He wouldn't let anything bad happen to her and he wouldn't let his daughters be mean to her either.
Mommy and Elliot were whispering over her head as they walked to the swingset. She trusted Elliot, but she was still nervous.
When they approached the swing set, one of the little girls was giving a detailed list of instructions about how they were going to play house and who would be allowed to play which roles. She reminded Chelsea of Kayley, her least favorite girl in class who always had to be the boss of everything. She was the one who decided Chelsea couldn't play with everyone because of her pigtails. She really hoped this wasn't one of Elliot's daughters.
"Hey Ashley, you don't always have to be in charge," Elliot said to the girl. "Why don't you give someone else a turn."
The little girl's eyes went wide after she'd been caught. Ashley wasn't one of his daughter's names so that was good. She was just a cousin.
"Hey Olivia," an older girl on the swing said to Mommy. Chelsea figured this must be Maureen, Elliot's older daughter.
"Hi sweetheart, how are you?" Mommy asked.
"I'm good," Maureen said. "Glad you guys came."
"They came for me," another girl said, jumping out from behind the slide.
"We did come for your birthday Kathleen, but I'm glad to see all of you," Mommy said.
"Girls, this is Olivia's daughter, Chelsea," Elliot said, putting his hands behind her shoulders and pushing her forward a little.
Chelsea knew she should talk, but she didn't know what to say.
"Chelsea, do you like to play house?" Maureen asked eventually.
"Yeah, we play it at recess all the time," she said.
"So we were going to play house where everybody gets to be a character from their favorite TV show," Maureen said. "Who do you want to be?"
Chelsea bit her lip. What if she said the wrong character that somebody else wanted to be, or picked a show that wasn't cool? She knew exactly who she wanted to be but what if someone else had already picked it?
"Miranda from Lizzie McGuire," she said, hearing her voice shake a little.
"I'm going to be Lizzie because it's my birthday," Kathleen said, excitedly. "That means we have to be in the same house because we're best friends, and we even look like Lizzie and Miranda, don't we Dad?"
Chelsea looked at Kathleen. She did look like Lizzie. She had long blonde hair and a pretty smile. And Chelsea knew compared to her, she looked more like Miranda with her dark hair and darker skin.
"Uh," Elliot said, looking confused.
"You definitely do," Mommy said.
"Yeah, exactly what I was going to say," Elliot said.
"C'mon," Kathleen said, grabbing Chelsea's hand. "I'm Kathleen and our house is going to be here under the slide."
Kathleen pulled her under the slide with her.
"So, we're going to live here because we're from the same show," Kathleen said, gesturing around to the worn grass. "Maureen is going to be Kate, but she can't live with us because Kate and Lizzie and Miranda used to be best friends until Kate got a bra and thought she was too important just like Maureen treats me now."
"I'm right here," Maureen said from the swing. "I can hear you."
"I wasn't trying to be quiet," Kathleen said.
"My sister Lizzie is going to be Susie from Rugrats because that's her favorite show," Kathleen said. "She's going to live by the tree over there. And Ashley, Bethany, and Deanna are sisters so they're all going to be Powerpuff Girls."
Chelsea was trying to keep track of everybody's names. She had Maureen, Kathleen, and Lizzie all figured out. They all looked alike. Maureen and Kathleen could have been twins, except Maureen was taller. Lizzie didn't look as much like them because she had reddish blonde hair, but she could at least tell they were sisters.
"Do you ever talk?" Ashley asked, ducking under the slide and getting in Chelsea's face.
"Back off Ashley," Kathleen said. "Why do you always have to be so mean to new people?"
Ashley blew a puff of air out of her mouth, causing her bangs to fly up, and she dipped back out from under the slide.
"Don't listen to Ashley," Kathleen whispered. "She's just mad this is my party and not hers. We don't like her very much so it's okay if you don't either. So what do you like to do for fun?"
"Um, I like Barbies, and drawing," Chelsea said. "And watching Lizzie McGuire."
"Me too!" Kathleen said. "I just knew when Daddy told us Olivia had a daughter my age that we were going to be friends."
That made Chelsea relax a little. At least Kathleen already liked her.
From under the slide, the girls heard Elliot yell for everyone to come get lunch. They slowly crawled out from underneath to see the boys running over to get first in line.
"C'mon Lizzie, let's go get Mommy to make our plates," Kathleen said, taking her sister's hand and skipping across the lawn.
Chelsea wasn't sure if she was supposed to go get Mommy to help her or just go with the other girls.
"I can help you get lunch if you want," Maureen said, smiling at her.
"Thank you," Chelsea said.
"Kathleen can be a little loud sometimes," Maureen said. "But she's really excited you're here. Dad has been telling us about you for a long time and she thinks it's cool you guys are in the same grade."
"Your Dad has told me about you guys too," Chelsea said to Maureen as they walked to the food line. "I want you guys to like me because I like him a lot. And if we all like each other then we can spend time together."
"I like your Mom too," Maureen said. "She was nice to me when she had to come over and help me take care of everybody when they were sick earlier in the year. I like you already and Kathleen does too. Don't listen to Ashley or her sisters. Their mom, our cousin Charlotte, is kind of dramatic and they are too."
Chelsea looked at Maureen and thought if she could pick a big sister for herself, this would be the one she'd pick.
"Thanks for being nice to me," Chelsea said. "I don't have any big sisters or cousins to hang out with like you guys do."
"Well, we'll be your big sisters and cousins," Maureen said. "At least for today anyway. I'll grab our plates and you get the napkins and silverware, okay?"
Chelsea nodded and did what Maureen said. Elliot passed them hamburgers and Mrs. Stabler got their side dishes and told them she'd come over with their drinks in a minute. Chelsea and Maureen sat down in the yard on the picnic blanket with the other girls and Kathleen took over the conversation again.
"Let's play 20 questions while we eat," she said through a mouthful of chips.
"I don't want to," Ashley said.
"Too bad," Lizzie said. "The rest of us do."
"Maureen, can you pick the first question?" Kathleen asked.
Maureen got a smile on her face.
"Since we have new people here today, we can finally break the tie," Maureen said. "Backstreet Boys or NSYNC? Who's better and who has cuter members?"
Chelsea had this debate before with the girls at school. Everybody else liked Backstreet but she liked NSYNC.
"We all know my answer is 100% Backstreet Boys," Maureen said.
"No WAY Maureen," Kathleen said. "It's NSYNC forever and Justin is the cutest."
"How many times do I have to tell you?" Maureen asked. "Nick is way cuter than Justin and his hair doesn't look like cooked spaghetti."
"Chelsea, who's your favorite?" Kathleen asked as Mrs. Stabler walked up to them with the drinks.
"I like JC from NSYNC," Chelsea said and Kathleen smiled.
"Aw, and I thought you were on my side," Maureen said with a fake pout.
"Obviously NOT," Kathleen said, smiling. "That's why she's my new best friend."
Chelsea's heart fluttered a little. She really liked Kathleen so far, even if she was loud. And she liked Maureen and Lizzie too. It made her feel good that Kathleen wanted to be best friends. She liked Sarah, but she didn't have very much in common with her other than sitting near each other in class.
"Kicking Julia to the curb are you," Mrs. Stabler said, standing next to their blanket and opening the box of Capri Suns.
"She's my school best friend," Kathleen explained. "But Chelsea is going to be my out of school best friend. Mommy, she likes everything that I do. NSYNC, Lizzie McGuire, drawing, Barbies. She has to come over for a sleepover some day. Or maybe I can go to her house because she doesn't have a hundred brothers and sisters everywhere and has her own room."
Chelsea really wanted to have a sleepover with the Stabler girls. How much fun would it be to come to this house, and make popcorn and watch movies and stay up all night talking? It would be like she had sisters!
"Well, we'll have to talk to Chelsea's parents about all that," Mrs. Stabler said. "But we can probably make something happen."
Chelsea and Kathleen both looked at each other and smiled. They'd have to talk more about it and get a real plan together later today.
"Who do you think is the cutest boy band member, Mom?" Maureen asked.
"Definitely Howie from the Backstreet Boys," Mrs. Stabler said, "He looks like your Dad did when we were kids."
Chelsea giggled along with the other girls. Elliot did look a little bit like Howie. She'd have to remember to ask Mommy later who her favorite boy band member was and why.
"Thank you Mrs. Stabler," Chelsea said as she accepted her juice pouch.
"You can call me Kathy," she said.
"Mommy said it's polite to call grown ups Mr. and Mrs. instead of their first names," Chelsea said. "Except I'm allowed to call Elliot by his name because he's Mommy's friend."
"Well, how about Aunt Kathy then," she said. "When you call me Mrs. Stabler, I feel like an old lady."
That caused all the girls to giggle and bossy cousin Ashley to say "Well you are, like, in your 30s." But if she called her Aunt Kathy, then she didn't have to think about her as Elliot's wife anymore. She was Maureen and Kathleen and Lizzie's mom and she could be her Aunt Kathy. She didn't have any aunts. Daddy's two brothers weren't married and Mommy was an only child just like her. It might be fun to have her first aunt.
"I think I can call you Aunt Kathy," Chelsea said with a smile.
"Sounds great," Aunt Kathy said, closing up the Capri Sun box. "Now, enjoy your food and in a little bit we'll do games, presents, and cake."
When she walked away the girls moved onto their next set of questions. They talked about everything from their favorite ice cream to what boys they liked at school. She'd even told the girls about her secret crush on Alex Fisher, which she couldn't tell the other girls at school because they'd make fun of her.
Maureen started to clean up everybody's garbage so Chelsea helped.
"You don't have to do that if you don't want to," Maureen said. "You're a guest."
"I like helping," Chelsea said. She secretly wanted to spend more time with Maureen. She liked Kathleen a lot, but she just thought Maureen was so cool. She was older, but didn't treat Chelsea like a little kid. She was smart and funny. Chelsea decided she wanted to be just like her when she grew up.
"I'm going to call you my mini me since you're doing everything I do," Maureen teased. "But I like it. Even though Kathleen and I look alike she never wants to do the things I do. I think she just likes bugging me."
"I guess maybe that's what it's like to be sisters?" Chelsea said. She didn't actually know.
"Maybe," Maureen said. "Mom feels that way about her sisters sometimes. But even when we fight, we're the only ones who can say or do stuff to each other. I'm the only one who can pick on my siblings and they're the only ones who can pick on me."
Chelsea thought that sounded so great, to have people that even when they don't like you that much they still look out for you. She really wanted siblings so they could be like that. Maybe she'd ask Mommy if she and Daddy could go get her one, wherever you get siblings from.
"Guys I'm ready to play games," Kathleen said after turning a cartwheel in the grass.
"Let's go get Mommy," Lizzie said.
The girls ran over to where Aunt Kathy and Mommy were talking at the picnic table.
"Mommy, can we start games now?" Kathleen asked.
"Sure," Aunt Kathy said. "Do you want to start with pin-the-earrings on Barbie?"
"Yes!" Kathleen cheered.
"Alright, well let's go get everything set up," Aunt Kathy said, standing from the picnic table and following the girls to one of the trees where they already had the game set up.
They played pin the earrings on Barbie, musical chairs, and Simon Says. Then they did the pinata and she helped Lizzie and Dickie get candy because they were the youngest in the group and the big kids were pushing them out of the way. Both Mommy and Elliot told her how nice it was of her to do that, and Dickie became her new best friend after she traded him her mini snickers for Dum Dum pops.
Then it was time for Kathleen to open her presents. Aunt Kathy got her set up at one of the tables and brought the bags around her while everyone else crowded into the grass and the grown ups pulled their lawn chairs over to watch. Mommy was sitting next to Grandma B, and Chelsea sat between them in the grass. Elliot had the camera and was taking pictures.
"Okay Kathleen," Aunt Kathy said. "You know you can have your brother or one of your sisters come up and sit with you while you open presents. They can help you put cards and stuff back in the bags. Who's going to help you this year?"
Chelsea had overheard Elliot telling Mommy about this earlier. When Maureen was younger after Kathleen was born, she always wanted to help Maureen open presents. It led to a lot of tears so they let each kid pick a "special helper" on birthdays to sit and help do cleanup so that they felt like they were a part of things without taking the moment away from the birthday boy or girl.
"Mommy, I want Chelsea to sit with me," Kathleen said. "Is that okay?"
Chelsea was nervous. She didn't know what she was supposed to do. What if she made a mistake in front of all these people?
"Well, she's new so you might want to ask her if she wants to come sit with you," Aunt Kathy said.
"Chelsea, if you come up here you can see the presents with me before anybody else," Kathleen said. "Please?"
Chelsea felt nervous. She looked up at Elliot who was smiling at her, then at Mommy who was doing the same.
"Go ahead, honey," Grandma B said. "You just sit up there with her and put the presents back in the bags when she moves onto the next one."
With shaky legs, Chelsea stood up and joined Kathleen at the picnic table. She started tearing into gifts, mostly Lizzie McGuire and Barbie stuff, and it was easy to put stuff in the bags and slide them over to Aunt Kathy.
When Kathleen finally got to her present she ripped the wrapping paper off and squealed.
"Yes!" Kathleen said. "I wanted this CD so bad and Mom said no! And I looked at this shirt the last time we went to Wal-Mart! Thank you so much best friend!"
Then Kathleen threw her arms around Chelsea and she threw hers back around Kathleen. They were both smiling and laughing when Elliot told them to say "Cheeseballs" and he snapped a picture of the two of them being silly.
After presents Aunt Kathy brought out the cake and everyone sang, and then after eating their cake most of the adults started to leave. Chelsea had been sitting on the swings with Maureen and Dickie while Lizzie and Kathleen stood at the gate and thanked everybody for coming. Chelsea started to look around the yard and realized that she hadn't seen Daddy in a while, but Mommy was walking over to the swingset now.
"Mommy where's Daddy?" Chelsea asked. "Did he go to the car?"
Mommy didn't answer right away and picked at one of the buttons on her dress before leaning up against the slide.
"Daddy had to go home and go to work," Mommy said. "And he's going to be on a business trip for a bit so we're going to have some girl time."
Chelsea smiled. She loved when Daddy went on business trips because Mommy usually came home from work earlier, they ate fun food, watched TV, and played games together. Sometimes they even both snuggled up in the big bed and played music while they went to sleep. They were some of her favorite times. And maybe, with Daddy away, she could have a sleepover with the Stabler girls too.
"If Chelsea's Daddy isn't home, you should stay with us," Dickie said from his swing. "Like you came and stayed with us that time Mommy had to go to Aunt Courtney's party."
Mommy laughed and ruffled Dickie's hair but didn't say anything.
"I'm going to help Elliot and Mrs. Stabler clean up before we go," Mommy said. "Then Elliot is going to take us home. Does that sound like a plan?"
"Sure Mommy," Chelsea said. "But she said I can all her Aunt Kathy so she doesn't sound like an old lady. I hope that's okay."
Mommy took a deep breath and tilted her head.
"If she said it's okay then it's fine with me," Mommy said.
"Olivia, dear," Grandma B said from the patio. "Can you help me with these bowls?"
"Coming Bernie," Mommy said.
When the rest of the guests left, Kathleen and Lizzie came back over.
"I want to go listen to the Lizzie McGuire CD," Kathleen said. "And I want to show Chelsea my room."
"Our room," Maureen said.
"Whatever," Kathleen said. "Let's go!"
She grabbed the CD from the present pile and all the kids followed Kathleen upstairs into her and Maureen's room. It was bigger than Chelsea's room at home, painted pink and purple with matching beds and lots of toys. It was easy to tell which side of the room was whose, based on the band posters on the walls.
Kathleen set up the boom box and put the CD in, turning it up a little louder but not too loud that Elliot or Aunt Kathy might come up and tell them to turn it down.
All the kids collapsed on the beds: Kathleen and Lizzie on one, Maureen and Chelsea on the other. Dickie had abandoned them about 15 minutes ago to go play LEGOS in his room.
"This is what a sleepover would be like," Lizzie said from where she was propped up on her elbows. "It would be a lot of fun."
"We should pretend we're having a sleepover right now," Kathleen said, lying on her back staring at the ceiling. "What would we do?"
"Make popcorn," Maureen said, trying to stop a yawn, "I'd paint all of our nails."
"We could play games like truth or dare," Kathleen said.
"Or watch our favorite TV shows or movies," Chelsea said.
"Until really late at night, when we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore," Maureen said.
"And talk about boys," Kathleen said.
"Yeah, that sounds fun," Maureen said.
"Really fun," Chelsea mumbled.
And that was the last thing she remembered before they all drifted off for naps right where they lay.
A/N: I'm pleasantly surprised to see most of you liked the Kathy chapter. Making her human and playing her and Liv off of one another was exactly what I was going for and I'm glad that came through. I see some predictions out there from our regulars... and ya'll will just have to wait and see what happens next. I have a semi plan for how I want all the things to come to light and who's going to bring what to the table. I still don't know exactly how I want to end it, but I have one idea that I'm kinda liking right now. Don't worry, it's still a bit of a ways off, but we're getting there.
Again, thank you all for your kind words and for coming on this ride. I saw a lot of my favorite fics that I'm following got updated today and I can't wait to check them out. Also can't wait for OC on Thursday because we're FINALLY getting out of the Albanian mob. Hallelujah! Bye Bye Eddie, Bye Bye Beard. And from the looks of Instagram, hello SVU/OC crossover in the near future!
