A/N: Short little filler. Little bit of fluff. We need it.


Olivia looked over to the other side of the couch where her two favorite people in the entire universe were zonked out. Elliot's head had drifted back to the top of the couch cushion, and Chelsea was in the fetal position with her head on his chest, still in his lap.

The truth was really out there now. The minimum details about Mark and about Elliot and Olivia's situation, anyway. She wasn't quite ready to get into the whole sex and rape and cheating conversation yet. Olivia knew change was hard for Chelsea, but she seemed to embrace this. It probably helped that it was something she wanted all along.

Olivia leaned over and coaxed Chelsea awake.

"Time for bed, baby," Olivia said.

"Wanna stay with Daddy," Chelsea mumbled.

"Daddy's asleep too," Olivia said. "You'll be more comfortable in your own bed, c'mon."

Slowly Olivia got Chelsea off Elliot's lap without waking him and got her to do a quick teeth brush and then got settled in bed.

"I love you, Mommy," Chelsea said as she got snuggled under the covers. "And I love my Daddy so much, too. I'm so glad it's real."

"It is," Olivia said. "And I'm sorry Mark wasn't the father you deserved all those years."

"It's okay," Chelsea said. "I was going to use my birthday wish this year to wish for Elliot to be my dad, but it already came true."

"I'm glad," Olivia said, kissing her curls. "Night night baby."

Chelsea mumbled something unintelligible and drifted back to sleep. Olivia made her way back to the living room and it looked like Elliot was still asleep too, which meant all was well. She knew he wasn't supposed to go home tonight and she hadn't wanted to ask where he was going to stay. She wanted to offer to let him stay with them, but she didn't know if that would be awkward. Or tempting. For either one of them.

She wondered whether she should wake him and try to get him to stretch out so his neck didn't cramp overnight, or if she should just cover him with a blanket.

"I woke up when she crawled off my lap, Liv," Elliot said with his eyes still closed, breaking into her logistical planning session.

"I knew that," she said, sitting back down on the couch.

"No you didn't," Elliot said, shifting positions and cracking his neck.

"I think that went well tonight," Olivia said. "I told you she was going to be excited."

"That really was one of the best feelings in the world," he said. "You have no idea. It's definitely something to hold onto going into tomorrow. I just wish I didn't have to break four hearts in exchange for one."

Olivia tried not to let on when they talked about it earlier, but she was nervous for him to tell the kids tomorrow too. There was nothing she could do to make it better, and there was no guarantee she could give him that things would work out fine.

"Do you want to talk about what's upsetting you most?" Olivia said. "Sometimes the fear seems smaller if you vocalize it."

"I just know I'm going to, at minimum, disappoint them," Elliot said. "And at the worst they might never forgive me."

"Why wouldn't they forgive you?" Olivia asked.

"Because I'm supposed to be their Dad," he said. "I'm supposed to be this superhero in their eyes and teach them right from wrong. But why would they keep listening to me when they find out I did something very wrong and I made a mistake? But I hate saying that because I wouldn't want Chelsea to hear and feel like she's the mistake, or it's her fault, or that she should have to take some blame for what we did."

Olivia understood. She probably understood better than anybody how it felt to take the blame for someone else's actions.

"I've told you the awful things my mother said to me during her drunken binges," Olivia said. "It was never the action itself that was so bad. I mean, yes, I was horrified to learn she was raped and that my father was the person who did it, even though I didn't know him. But what made it worse was that my mother treated me like the problem. We're not going to do that to Chelsea."

"All I've ever wanted to do was protect them," Elliot said. "And now I'm the one that's going to hurt them."

Olivia thought she actually felt her heart break with his words, and she couldn't help but feel guilty for playing a part in it.

Elliot was always too good at reading her emotions, and he reached for her hand.

"Do not shoulder this blame all by yourself, Olivia," he said. "If you remember correctly, I made the first move in the motel room. You just reciprocated. I could have stopped it at any moment, same as you. But we didn't. Team El and Liv, remember. Teams take wins and losses together. So do not put this all on yourself."

"I always wanted a father so badly," Olivia said. "Somebody to put me up on his shoulders as we walked through Central Park. Someone to patch up my skinned knees, and teach me how to hit a softball, and menacingly stare down any boy I wanted to take me to a dance. You are all those things for your kids, El. I don't want them to forget how great they have it because of one mistake. So if I have to take on this blame, alone, I will do it in a second."

Elliot moved over to the middle cushion so he could be closer to her.

"You don't know what it means to me to hear you say that," Elliot said. "Nobody looks out for me the way you do."

"Cragen told me today that you'd probably kill for me," Olivia said. "And he thought I'd do the same for you."

"No questions asked," Elliot said. "I'd sacrifice myself for you or the kids any second of the day. But in this case, I want to be 50/50. No sacrifice from either of us. Nobody has more control than the other."

Olivia was surprised how much that wording affected her. She hadn't realized until today in interrogation what a manipulative person Mark was. But his need for order and structure all made sense now. He wasn't just atypical and quirky, he was controlling. He couldn't roll with changes because he couldn't relinquish control. And he did what he did to Stacy, and possibly other women, to exert control over them. And the younger they were, the less likely they were to fight back. But Elliot wasn't like that. He didn't try to control her. He didn't play power games with her.

"What's going on up here?" Elliot asked, tapping the side of her head.

"I'm just thinking about the early days of my relationship with Mark," Olivia said. "I didn't see his organization and structure for what it was, a need for control."

"Well, wanting to be on time for dinner doesn't always correlate to being a rapist," Elliot said.

"But I remember he got so upset when I kissed him on our sixth date," Olivia said. "I'd had enough of waiting so I kissed him and he flipped out. I had thought it was cute at the time because he had been planning everything out. I thought he'd wanted it to be perfect, but it was all just another control tactic. He'd been telling me how he could help me pick classes and get internships and stuff. Just like he told Stacy."

"But that's over now, Liv," Elliot said. "You're going to get those papers signed and he's going to be out of your life. Then he's going to be in jail so he can't do it again."

"I know that," Olivia said. "But that's not what I'm thinking about. I'm thinking about how you're always so concerned about making sure we're equal. Even when we're balancing the scales for one another, covering, cleaning up a mess, it's always to keep that equilibrium, the equality. It's never so one of us can be more in control than the other. And I think maybe this partnership with you made me realize how wrong things were at home with him."

Elliot smiled one of his warm smiles at her where she felt like she could go swimming in the ocean of his eyes.

"That's all I ever wanted for you," he said. "For you to realize that you have power and you can use it. You're so confident in your work, but you have that same power in your personal life. You just don't realize it."

"It's easy to realize it when I'm with you," she admitted.

"And it's a lot easier to admit when something's wrong or bothering me when I'm with you," he said. "Don't tell anybody, but I think we make kind of a good match."

Olivia wanted to respond but she yawned and nodded her head instead.

"Why don't you get to bed," he said. "I'll leave you a note in the morning if I gotta go before you're up."

Olivia bit her lip. She didn't know if she could just sleep soundly in the other room knowing Elliot was here, on her couch, just a room away.

"You're going to need better sleep than what this couch can give you because you're going to have a long day tomorrow," Olivia said. "Maybe you might want to take the bed."

"I can't kick you out of your bed, Liv," he said.

"Who said I wouldn't be in it?" she said.

She couldn't be sure, but the strangled coughing sound he made seemed like a cover for a moan.

"I really don't want to sleep in Mark's bed," Elliot said. "Kind of grosses me out."

"Understood," Olivia said. "I just don't think I want to sleep alone tonight. And maybe I should think about getting a new mattress when we move."

She saw Elliot lean over the arm of the couch and reach into the basket under the end table. He pulled out a blanket and then motioned for her to get up. He pulled the throw pillow from behind her up, then swung his legs the length of the couch. Then with a blanket in one hand and pillow in the other, he motioned for her to crawl between his legs.

"You sure this is going to be okay, partner?" she asked, taking the pillow from him.

"Public space with a kid in the next room," Elliot said. "We'll be fine. But I like the idea of not sleeping alone tonight."

Olivia got situated so she was really more laying on top of Elliot and he was supporting her up against the back of the couch. It wasn't the most comfortable position, but having his arms around her and being able to be lulled asleep by the sound of his breathing made a little discomfort worth it.

"Goodnight, Liv," he said, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead. "Thank you for everything tonight."

"Goodnight, El," she said, tightening her grip on his chest. "Thanks for everything, always."

That was the last thing she remembered saying before his steady breath put her into a calm and dreamless sleep.


A/N: Four More! Be prepared for a little drama in the next chapter. Reviews are loved.