Summary: The Saturday lunch that Olivia set up in the last chapter. Elliot and Noah get a chance to meet.

AN: No Beta (as always) Thanks for reading.


Elliot walks into the 1-6 around a quarter to three on Thursday afternoon with three coffees. He drops one off at Fin's desk with a quick nod of his head. Fin raises his eyebrow in question, but Elliot just smiles at him and raises the two remaining coffees in his hands as if to say, "It's just coffee," before heading to the Captain's office.

"Coffee, Liv?"

"Elliot," she says, surprised as the man who just walked through her door. "What are you doing here?"

He shrugs, "Nothing really, I just thought you could use a coffee break."

"Uh huh, sure, just coffee," Olivia responds skeptically and takes a cautious drink of the coffee he had handed to her.

He sits on the couch, crossing one leg over the other, and watches as she enjoys the warm beverage, cupping the paper cup in her palms, and humming subconsciously as she sips the steaming liquid. It's early November, but it's not as cold out as it usually would be this time of year. It's unusually warm, actually, but he can't bring himself to join the ice coffee club (despite his daughters' best efforts).

"I'm glad your order has stayed the same. I don't know what I'd do if you were drinking those almond-cashew-coconutty milks or those fancy lattes."

She chuckles, "I do drink oat milk in my coffee lately," Elliot shakes his head at her admission, "but there is nothing wrong with old fashioned cream every now and then."

"Gross Liv, so gross."

"Just wait until you see my lunch order on Saturday,"

"What? Do you eat tofu or something now?"

"First, I've always eaten tofu. We've eaten Thai take out enough for you to know that. Second, the cafe is a bit more modern that you are probably used to."

"This isn't some vegan place, is it?" He asks, pulling a face.

Olivia just grins and shrugs, "I guess you'll have to wait and see."

"I have the name, I can google it."

"You mean have Jet google it for you," she counters.

"Hey! I know how to google," he fights through a chuckle then sips his own black coffee.

"Sure, you do, El. Sure you do," she gives into his protests and takes another drink.

As to prove a point, Elliot leans forward and pulls his phone from his back pocket and unlocks it one handedly.

"I believe you, El. No need to show me your mad googling skills now."

"I'm not doing that," he shakes his head as he sits back on the couch. "I'm just actually afraid of the cafe menu now."

"You'll be fine, they have 'normal food,'" she says with finger quotes.

"Good, otherwise I'd have to rethink our date," he responds as he sets his phone down on the couch next to his leg.

Elliot notices how Olivia tenses for a split second before she schools her features.

"I didn't mean a date, Liv. Just our plan to have lunch, all three of us, with Noah, and just as friends," he tries to backtrack to calm her. He doesn't want her to think that he's reading too much into their lunch. He knows what he wants, but he also knows that he and Liv have a lot to get through first and he can't spook her with being too pushy.

"I know, I know."

"That's why I stopped by, really. I just wanted to make sure we were still on for Saturday."

"We are."

Elliot claps his hand on his knee and stands, ready to leave before he actually puts his foot in his mouth, "Good, that's good."

"Yes, it is good. I'll see you Saturday, El."

"See you Saturday," he echoes, trying to hide his smile, as he leaves her office.


Saturday rolls around quicker than Olivia expects, despite the fact that it was less than 48 hours since Elliot popped into her office with coffee.

She anxiously follows Noah into the cafe, looking around to see if Elliot had already arrived and snagged a table. Olivia and Noah were running about 10 minutes late due to Noah's insistence that he show off his new dance bag to his classmates after class had ended.

Olivia texted Elliot before they headed to the cafe, but she'd hadn't had a chance to check for his reply.

She breathed a little easier when she saw him sitting at a table by a window and he waves at them. Using her hand on Noah's upper back, she guides him past the host stand and towards the table, nodding at Elliot still seated.

"There, Elliot's already got us a table."

"I see him there," Noah agrees, pointing towards Elliot as they make their way to the table.

"Hey there bud," Elliot greets Noah with a fist bump. "I see you are still rocking those awesome kicks," he says as he points to the green sneakers on the boy's feet, the same ones he had on when Elliot ran into them on Mother's Day.

Noah smiles and nods, "They are my favorite. But I think I'll need a new pair soon; my feet are growing."

"They do that," Elliot acknowledges before greeting Olivia, "Hello."

"Hey El."

"Alright Noah. Your mom said this is your favorite place. What's good here?" he asks as they all take their seats.

"The food is alright. I want to come here for the ice cream."

"The ice cream?"

"They have a banana split on the menu and it's ah-maz-ing," Noah answers.

"Well, then we will definitely have to get one of those today."

"Yes!" Noah shouts, pumping his fist in the air.

"Like you weren't going to get one anyway," Olivia jokes.

The trio sits in silence for a few minutes, looking over the menu and then ordering before Noah picks up the conversation again.

"Elliot, you were mom's partner at work, right?"

"Yup, for 13 years."

"Woah! That's a long time, longer than I've been alive."

"A very long time," Elliot agrees.

"And it was before she was the Captain?"

Elliot nods, "Sure was. It was back when she was just a detective."

"Does that mean you worked with her when she had her short hair?"

Elliot laughs, wipes his hand over his chin, and gives an ornery look to Olivia.

She explains Noah's question, "He saw a picture of me a few years into the department when I had the horrible haircut and he's been obsessed with it." Elliot thinks he knows the photo, it was one that he took as she stood next to Fin and John talking about a case.

"It wasn't horrible," Elliot tries to argue, disingenuously. Olivia tilts her head and lifts a brow. But it was Noah who responds. "Oh, it was terrible!"

Elliot laughs.

"Thanks Noah," Olivia answers.

"You always tell me to be honest," he shrugs and grins at Elliot.

"It was a different haircut, one I'm glad that she only had for a while. But yea, I worked with her when she had short hair and long hair."

Switching topics as only a kid can, Noah says, "Mom says that you've lived in Italy for a long time, and that's why I never met you."

"That's right. My wife and youngest son and I lived in Italy for 10 years."

"Youngest son? How many sons do you have?"

"Two, and I have three daughters."

"Five kids! That's a lot of kids. I don't think I know anyone with four brothers and sisters."

Olivia snorts trying to hide her laughter. Elliot smiles used to this reaction. Most families don't have that many kids, especially nowadays. He's not surprised that Noah doesn't know any families with more than one or two kids.

"And I have two grandsons. It is a lot. But I always wanted a big family. I love having a lot of kids."

"Where is your wife? Why didn't she join us for lunch?"

Olivia winces before leaning over to whisper in Noah's ear. "We talked about this, remember?"

"Oh yea," the boy half-whispers back before directing his attention to Elliot, a panicked look on his face. "I'm sorry Elliot, I forgot."

"It's fine Noah," Elliot tries to reassure him, but the boy continues to frown and look at the table, clearly upset by his mistake. Torn between trying to change the conversation or let Noah gather himself, Elliot looks to Olivia for help. But before she can say anything, their food arrives.

"I can't believe your food taste hasn't changed one bit after living in Italy for a decade," Olivia jokes when she sees the burger and fries sitting in front of Elliot. She'd ordered a seasonal salad and Noah ordered a kid's flatbread pizza.

"It has, but nothing beats a good burger with a side of hot, crispy fries." He breaks a couple fries to let the steam escape.

Olivia grins, snagging a fry from his plate, while teasing, "So you eat sushi now?"

"Oh hel…heck no," he corrects quickly looking at Noah, "But living in Italy wouldn't have helped that."

"You don't eat sushi!" Noah exclaims in surprise. "But it is so good!"

"See, even my kid's got better taste in food than you do."

Elliot just shrugs, and mutters, "Can't win at everything," before taking a large bite out of his burger.

"I just don't know how you eat like that and look like that," she comments with a short up-down of her head and takes a bite of her salad.

Elliot's chest swells a bit before he asks, smiling around his bite of burger, "Like what?"

Olivia cocks her head and crooks an eyebrow but doesn't answer. Luckily, she's saved by Noah.

"Elliot are you going to get a banana split too?"

"You betcha, I am."


It's about 10:30 that night when Olivia's phone rings and she's surprised to see Elliot's name on the screen.

"Hello," she answers tersely.

"Hey, Liv," he greets, but then asks, "Is this a bad time?" confusing her surprise with frustration.

"No, sorry. I'm just tired." And she was. After their lunch, she and Noah had an afternoon birthday party for a kid in his class at school and then she had to go grocery shopping for the week.

"Oh, okay. I can just let you go. We can talk later."

She hears the disappointment that he's trying to hide. "No, no, just," she breathes again, "It's good to hear from you."

"Yea?" he asks tentatively.

"Yea."

He grins. "Good. I just wanted to talk about today. I thought it went really well. I'm glad that I finally got to really meet Noah."

Olivia had just finished her end-of-the-night clean up and walks down the hall to her room with the phone to her ear. "Noah had a great time too. You are all he could talk about on the way to his friend's party."

"Really?"

"Why are you surprised? You are a tough cop with so many kids and grandkids and you lived in Italy. You are interesting to a 9-year-old."

"I just figured he'd see me as a boring adult."

"Nah, he doesn't get to spend that much time with adult men, so I think he gets really curious, and well…attached." She pulls back the covers on her bed and slides in, sitting up against her headboard.

"Liv," he starts softly, reading between the lines. "I promise you. I'll promise to you on anything, everything, I'm not going anywhere."

"You better mean that," she says, her tone serious.

"I do. I swear, Liv. I'm here to stay. My family is here. My mom, my kids, and grandkids, and you and Noah. You are my family too. I'm not about to leave you again."

Olivia tries to cover a small sniffle with a cough and reaches for a tissue on her night stand. She didn't know how badly she actually needed to hear the words from him. As excited as Noah was about meeting Elliot, she was terrified that she'd made the wrong choice and Elliot would leave them in the dust again.

"Please don't cry. I didn't call to make you sad. I was just so happy with how today went."

"I know, I know. Me too. I…uh, I was nervous about Noah meeting you."

"I know you were Liv. But I'm so glad that you did. He's an amazing kid, Liv. And you are such a great mom, like I knew you would be."

Olivia lets the compliment flow over her, recalling their tense conversations years before about her failed adoption efforts and fostering of Calvin. She knew that Elliot truly believed that she'd be a great mom, but there it stung deeply when he'd reminded her that Calvin was "temporary," and when, in anger, he'd tell her that she couldn't understand something because she wasn't a parent. As if she'd hadn't tried and tried and considered every alternative.

Then Elliot starts again, quietly interrupting her thoughts. He's anxiously playing with the edge of the throw pillow on the couch, but he can't help himself because curious about the other men in Noah's life, in Olivia's life. "You said Noah gets attached. Have you had to deal with people, someone, leaving him before? His dad?"

She doesn't know why she's surprised at his assumption. She's never told him about Noah, but she had assumed that he'd just know somehow. "God El, you really don't know?"

"Know what?" he asks.

"I adopted Noah when he was a year old."

He sits up on his couch, shocked. "What?"

She chuckles at his outburst. "How did you not know that? I thought your sources were better than this."

"Me too," he huffs. "Remind me to spit in Fin's coffee next time."

"Ah, Fin. That explains it. He might like you, but he wants you to put your foot in your mouth with me. He thinks it's funny."

"I don't need any help doing that. I just figured he would have mentioned it when we talked when I first came back. We met for drinks before…well, before everything. He told me that you had a son, and someone important in your life for a while. I just assumed the important person was Noah's father."

"No, it was someone else."

"Ed?" He dares, calling back to their awkward conversation almost a year ago in the hospital. Had it really been a year? Elliot thinks, mentally kicking himself for being so slow to really check in with Olivia. I've really got to look up this Ed guy.

"Yes, Ed," she confirms.

"Do you want to tell me more about him?"

"Not really," she answers quickly, before clarifying, "at least not tonight."

"Okay. Okay. Can you tell me more about Noah? I have to know how you became a mom."

"You bet," she answers and snuggles into her own pillows. "Get comfortable, it's a long story."

He leans back on his couch and puts his feet up on the coffee table in front of him. "I'm ready, Liv."