A/N: GUYS! I made an outline for the rest of this story. That means there's actually a plan, and it's really happening and it's likely to truly be finished at some point! If everybody cooperates (I'm looking at you Elliot), there should be 12 chapters left after this one!

Disclaimer: Just because there's a plan now doesn't make anything mine. Except for Mark. Unfortunately, I have to take ownership of him. Gross.


"Mrs. Stabler, after everything presented here today, I'm pleased with your progress," the judge said. "In accordance with the terms of the plea, the charges are dropped. No offense, but I hope never to see you back here again."

"Thank you, your honor," Bernie said.

The judge banged her gavel and Elliot breathed a sigh of relief. One crisis was over.

"How's it feel to be a free woman, Mama," Elliot said, putting his arm around her shoulder as they walked down the courthouse steps.

"I wouldn't call it free dear," Bernie said. "I'm going to be tied to this medication for life now."

"Yeah, but you're getting time with your grandkids," Elliot said. "And you found some new hobbies. It's not all bad."

"No, I guess it isn't," Bernie said. "Well, I guess you've gotta get me home and I've gotta get packing."

"Actually, Mama," Elliot said. "Kathy and I talked, and if you'd like to keep staying with us, that's an option."

"Oh, I wouldn't want to be a burden dear," Bernie said. "As you've told me, you have your own life."

"You're not a burden," Elliot said. "We love you. And we'd love for you to stay, as long as you're comfortable."

They stopped at the corner waiting for a green light and Bernie looked like she was pondering the idea.

"Well I guess it couldn't hurt to stay a little while longer," Bernie said. "Through the summer, at least. You know, all the tourists are out at the shore this time of year. It's crowded."

Elliot was pretty sure she didn't want to move back anyway. Olivia had slipped up last week saying something about how Bernie was talking about the holidays already at Kathleen's party and what traditions she was going to force them into.

Things were good, or as good as they could get. His mother was finally taking care of herself and their relationship was mending. The kids talked for a week straight about how much fun they'd had at the parties and Olivia said Chelsea had been doing the same. And Elliot had just been so in awe of Kathy, the way she was really trying lately to understand him and the job and his life. There were less accusations, more genuine questions.

Her behavior made him feel like maybe they had a real shot at they life they thought they were going to have when they were just two idiot high schoolers making out in the bed of his buddy's truck. Those nights they'd talked about kids and houses and white picket fences, but those dreams came slamming down around them with a positive pregnancy test. He felt like maybe if she was willing to be more understanding he could tell her the truth about Olivia and Chelsea and they'd still be okay.

Olivia, he'd noticed too, was happier in the weeks since Mark moved out and she'd called Langan to officially draw up divorce papers. She smiled and laughed more. She seemed more well rested. She'd been working modified shifts certain days, starting a little later or taking case files and data work home with her to do rather than sitting around in the precinct for late nights. It seemed like it was working for her and she was getting a handle on transitioning into the role of single mom. That thought still hurt him, that she shouldn't have to be a single mom. But every time it flitted across his mind he also thought that Kathy shouldn't have to be one either.

It was those thoughts that got him thinking maybe there was a chance to have it all. If Kathy knew, he'd be more free to help Olivia with parenting duties. If they could get the kids into the same school, they could get picked up and dropped off together, and Chelsea would have a little support team. Olivia would be his partner, and Kathy would be his wife, and everything would be fine.

He knew, of course, that he couldn't get that lucky. But it didn't stop him from dreaming.

But, as with any good thing, it was bound to be mucked up by the shit of the job. At the end of the week they caught a case involving kids, his least favorite kind. A three-year-old child was brutally murdered in the alley behind an apartment building in broad daylight and they didn't have a suspect, and they hadn't been able to positively ID the vic. Elliot had been working nonstop for nearly 72 hours, only taking a few short power naps in the cribs, and not even actually stopping to eat, but rather chomping down on cold pizza from the break room fridge while he sifted through papers and printouts.

"El," Liv said from across the desks. "You have to go home and get some real sleep."

"I'm fine," he said, running a finger down another sheet but finding nothing, just like the last 15 pages.

"You have dark circles under your eyes and you're on your way to a beard there," she said.

"You look beautiful too, thanks for noticing," he grumbled.

"Humor me?" Liv said, finally getting him to look up at her. When he did it, he felt his eyes burn from finally looking away from a screen or a document.

"Ok," he said, blinking and rubbing his eyes, trying to get some moisture back into them. "Point made. I'll go catch another half hour upstairs."

He slid out from behind his desk and trudged up to the cribs without saying anything else. He flopped face first onto the mattress and tried to get the images of the little boy whose family didn't even know he was gone yet, out of his head. But every time he shut his eyes, they were there again.

He heard the cribs' door squeak and if he didn't know who it was just by the footfalls, the instant mix of vanilla body spray and floral shampoo gave it away.

"You know you need more than just a nap," she said, standing over the bunk.

"Shh, I'm sleeping," he whispered.

"No, you're probably replaying the scene over and over in your head," Olivia said. "That's why you need to go home. Take a real shower, eat a real meal, see your real, live, happy, healthy children."

"Don't want to take this home to them," he mumbled into the stale pillow.

He heard her knees pop as she knelt down next to the bunk, but he didn't open his eyes. But he did nearly shoot off the bed when he felt her hand on the back of his neck.

"It's been three days and there hasn't been another body," Liv said, gently stroking his neck with her fingertips. "It doesn't look like a serial. While we want to get this solved, it's not a kidnapping either and we're not racing the clock. You're not going to see anything new when you're so overtired."

Elliot wanted to respond but her hands had moved to his shoulders and she was lightly kneading the muscles there that were exceptionally tight.

"This tension isn't good for you," she said, pressing a little harder into the blades with her thumbs.

Elliot refused to open his eyes because at this point, he knew he had to either be hallucinating or dreaming. There was no freaking way Olivia had her hands on him in the cribs, in broad view of anyone who could walk in the door, all while telling him to go home to his family. There was just absolutely no way.

But, Elliot was always a stubborn son of a bitch, so he cracked an eye and, no, she really was kneeling on the nasy tile floor with her hands on his back giving him a soft smile. He smiled back and then she dug her fingers harder into his shoulders and he yelped.

"Go home you pain in the ass," she said, using his back to push herself into a standing position and then smirking as he rolled over in pain.

"You're mean," he said, sitting up and cracking his neck.

"And you're difficult," she said. "There's a to-go mug of coffee on your desk so you don't pass out on the way home. Text me when you get there. We're gonna catch the guy, El. After you've cleared your head."

Then, she sauntered out of the cribs swaying her hips.

Elliot rubbed his eyes again and wondered if she did things like that on purpose just to freak him out, or if she was unaware of it. He had noticed in the few weeks Mark had been gone she had this new sexiness about her. She'd started wearing more colors, shirts that were a little lower cut or a little tighter. It felt like she was accidentally (or in this case, purposely) touching him more often, and the laughter added to it. It was good to see her feeling more confident, more willing to let her guard down, but it was doing things to him that he didn't know if he liked. Because she was just his partner. And even though he didn't have to necessarily imagine how she looked under those tighter shirts (although, pregnancy and time had probably changed her a little, and maybe even for the better, though he wouldn't admit that out loud) he knew he shouldn't be doing it. But it was a little hard not to.

He trudged downstairs to grab his coffee and jacket. She was on the phone and he waved to her on the way out. Luckily he made it home without incident, texted her to let her know he made it, and then went inside.

It was a little after 8:30 and the twins were already in bed. Kathleen and Maureen were on the couch with Bernie watching Nick at Nite, and Kathy was in the chair sewing the pocket on somebody's pants.

"He returns," Kathy said, not looking up from her stitches. "You finish the case?"

"No," he said. "Liv forced me to come home."

"Good," Bernie said. "That's too long of a shift even for you Superman."

"I'm gonna go shower and shave and then try to get some sleep," he said, passing by all four women and dropping kisses on their heads.

Despite her tactics to get him home, Olivia had been right. His body felt more relaxed after the shower and his mind felt clearer after the shave. When he came back into the bedroom Kathy was already waiting for him.

"You didn't have to come up to bed," he said.

"I got the girls settled then just wanted to come see you for a while," she said, pulling back the blankets for him. "I've missed you."

"I've missed being home," he said, sliding in, feeling the cool sheets against his bare back.

"You want to talk about the case?" Kathy asked. "Or is it one of those ones you'll keep to yourself?"

She'd never really asked about his cases before, just got mad when he wouldn't volunteer information. It was another nice gesture, and he thought he could at least tell her a little something.

"A child was murdered, and we don't know who he is or who did it," Elliot said.

"I'm sorry," Kathy said, sliding further down into the blankets as well, pulling him closer to her so he was snuggled up into her side. Her hands made their way across his back, and he wanted to kick himself for comparing her touch to Olivia's. What Kathy was doing was nice, and was, in some way, relaxing. But it wasn't making him feel anything. Olivia's touch electrified him, and while Kathy's was soothing and familiar it just… didn't affect him.

He could feel sleep pulling at the corners of his mind as he tried to remember if Kathy's touch had ever set him alight like Olivia's did. Even when they were teenagers, the thrill of doing what they were doing was exciting because it was new, but it hadn't ever felt like that night at the motel. Never before and never since.

The last thought on his mind before he finally drifted off, thankfully, wasn't the images of the little boy in the alley. But, instead it was that his partner, who made him feel like nobody else ever has both physically and emotionally would be a single woman soon, and that meant all those dreams he had of everything being nice and perfect, with coparenting and a happy wife and a happy partner were absolutely screwed.


A/N: All together now: "DUN DUN."