"Okay I don't know if I should be grateful or extremely pissed right now..." Olivia said as Elliot drove out of the parking lot of the precinct.
Elliot nodded a bit understanding where she was coming from as he turned the radio to a classic rock station and put the sound in the back for Izzabella "lets talk through it together shall we?"
Olivia nodded and laid her hand on his thigh "I appreciate Cragen changing his mind and deciding to let me come with you guys but I don't know how i feel about the squad talking about me behind my back."
Elliot nodded "what makes you think that that's what was going on?"
She chuckled slightly "come on El why else would he have called every one into his office but me, and why would Rollins have told him your bipolar? He had to have been asking questions about me," she said as she then noticed where her hand was and moved it as to not distract him while he was driving.
Elliot nodded "I guess you do have a point there but maybe he's just concerned?" he said as he put her hand back on his thigh and laid his hand on hers.
She smiled some as her hand relaxed underneath his "I guess that's possible although me wanting a vacation shouldn't be that alarming."
Elliot chuckled and smiled "for most people it wouldn't be but sweetheart you haven't taken a vacation willingly for as long as I've known you and I don't count maternity leave as a vacation."
She nodded and sighed "I guess you have a point and I'm glad that he cares... I'll be buying Fin a drink too for talking him into letting me come with you I'm just so pissed about what Rollins said."
He nodded "I know you are baby but I don't care what she thinks about me."
Olivia frowned slightly "Elliot how can you not? She accused you of having a mental illness for god sake I'd be offended if I were you."
He nodded , sighed and held her hand in his "I guess I am a tad bit offended... But I know I'm not and every one that I care about knows I'm not so why should I care what she thinks about me or let her bring me down?"
Olivia smiled slightly and gently squeezed his hand "I wish I was like you El, I wish I had that ability to just ignore what every one says and continue going on like nothing ever happened."
He nodded and smiled "you do sorta have it honey your a lot more even tempered than me 95% of the time... and I can honestly say if someone told me they thought you were bipolar I'd fly off my handle too.."
She nodded understanding "you know I think John was right about us yesterday."
"Oh?"
She nodded "yeah I think he was right when he said that we both care about each other more than we care about ourselves. That's the only thing that makes how we feel about this make sense."
He nodded "that's true I know I'll always stand up for you."
She nodded "me too Elliot, me too," she said as she kissed him while they were at a red light as he smiled and returned the kiss eagerly "you know what I'd love to do tomorrow?" he asked once they had pulled apart and he started driving again.
Olivia smiled "what's that?"
He kept his smile as he drove "I'd love to find Izzabella a babysitter for a few hours and take you on a real date night, we haven't gone out together in so long..."
Olivia smiled "I'd love that El, I've wanted to do that for a while just haven't asked."
He frowned "how come?"
She sighed "I guess I just felt a little selfish."
He shook his head and squeezed her hand "wanting a little time just us isn't selfish , it's only selfish if we have date nights every other day we haven't had 1 since our honeymoon."
"My god has it really been that long?"
Elliot nodded "yeah it has honey," he said as he stroked her knuckles with his thumb then pulled his hand out of hers to use his turn signal.
She nodded "that's insane... I'll say 1 thing though it's taught us how to be creative, remember our first Valentines day together after she was born? When you pulled up music on your phone , pushed the coffee table against the wall and we used our living room as a dance floor?"
He chuckled and smiled "yeah I remember that night, I remember I had a reservation booked and every thing, Cragen had told us he'd keep her for us but they caught a case and there went that plan. It was delivery and dancing in the living room instead."
She chuckled "that it was but you know what? I still had a blast even though we were in our living room instead of a fancy restaurant."
Elliot smiled brightly "so did I honey, so did I."
She smiled "maybe assuming Izzabella is stomach issue free tonight we could do it again? I know it's not Valentines day but..."
Elliot smiled and gently put a finger against her lips to stop her rambling "I'd love that honey as far as I'm concerned every day with you is Valentines day.."
Olivia smiled and nodded her head at that "sounds like a date then," she said as Izzabella could be heard trying to sing blinded by the light in the back of the truck.
"She got her singing voice from you Liv, she's great," Elliot said quietly in awe.
Olivia smiled and chuckled "I'm not that good of a singer El maybe she got it from you?"
He shook his head "god no I'm terrible, anytime I'd try to sing to Maureen when she was little she'd cry so I never tried again with any of the other kids."
"So you've never sang to Izzabella once?" Olivia asked shocked.
Elliot shook his head "nope didn't wanna make her cry, although I did have to promise her earlier when we thought you couldn't come that I'd try if she had to have blood drawn. I guess she's saved from it."
Olivia shook her head "no way are you getting out of it that easy mister. Just because Maureen cried doesn't mean that your not good at singing lullaby's, it might not have even been you that was making her cry."
He chuckled "maybe not but singing is your department."
Olivia smiled and chuckled "I think we'll let our daughter decide."
Elliot nodded "fair enough," he said as he then handed her his phone "will you put the address of the office into the GPS for me?"
She nodded "of course El," she said as Izzabella piped up from the back seat "can I have a milkshake daddy?"
Elliot sighed "sorry baby we don't have enough time to get you 1 right now you can have 1 after the appointment though."
She nodded "deal," she said as Olivia smiled "you know your spoiling her rotten right?"
Elliot chuckled "yeah part of me knows its just I wasn't able to spoil my older ones so I guess this is my way of making up for it."
She nodded and smiled "I get it just be careful. As much as we love to spoil her the preschool wont, she's gotta get used to being told no every now and then even if it's just to prepare her for that."
He nodded and sighed "I know I know," he said as after the gps sent them in a crazy circle for a while they finally pulled into the parking lot as they all got out together.
"It's not to crowded thank goodness," Olivia said as Elliot nodded agreeing and walked up to the front desk, "Izzabella Stabler", he said as he wrote her information down.
The lady nodded and handed him a stack of first time patient paperwork "fill this out then bring it back."
Elliot nodded his head and went to the waiting room where Olivia and Izzabella were waiting for him "help me fill this out?" Elliot asked Olivia as she nodded and he handed her half of the papers as Izzabella watched the cartoons that were playing on the tv.
Stabler home, 1:55 PM.
Lewis walked into the house using the spare key that he had kept in his pocket after getting inside of Elliot's truck that morning as he sat the 2 roles of ductape , blow torch and pack of needles that he had bought on the counter. "Damn this place is so nice, if only I ever lived in a place like that when I grew up," he spoke to himself as he started digging around in their refrigerator for something to eat.
"Ahh this is perfect," he mused out loud as he heated up the last of the left over ribeyes that Elliot had cooked the night before.
I don't know why i even wasted my money the other day buying pizza and stuff that man cooks so well I think I'll just eat the food he made, I might even make Olivia watch... Ahh that would be so fun he thought to himself as he finished the steak pretty quickly then found some cheese cake that Elliot had made as he ate all that was left of that too.
Pretty soon he found himself happily full as he burped obnoxiously then shot up some heroine and took a couple adderall.
A few minutes later he smiled okay now that I'm energized and full it's time to get this place set up, he decided as he then made his way to Olivia and Elliot's bedroom.
This bed is so big, so nice, I wander which side is hers... hmm... he wondered curiously as he opened the drawers in the night stand on the left as he found a few metals that came from the marine cores, a crucifix , some lubricant , a bottle of sleeping pills, a pair of handcuffs, a number two pencil , little pocket photos of 5 children and a book labeled dream diary.
This must be his side of the bed, I can have fun with those handcuffs, sleeping pills and those metals. He thought to himself as he laid the items out on the dresser then went over to the other side of the bed and opened the other drawers.
"Damn I just hit the mother load this drawer is definitely hers," Lewis thought aloud as he pulled out a set of keys, a bottle of vanilla bean lotion, a set of handcuffs, a lighter , a neckless , a bottle of might-all , an old pacifier and a couple of cheap rings as he randomly scattered most of the stuff around finding no use for it but put the second pair of handcuffs, the keys and the lighter on the dresser after unlocking the lockbox that was on top of the table with 1 of the keys that he had found.
"Okay she's freaky paranoid, I'm glad I found all this crap," he said pulling out a taser, can of pepper spray and a bunch of gun ammunition and putting it on the dresser as he then tossed their marriage license, birth certificates and other legal documents onto the floor with all the other stuff he considered useless in his mission.
After a little while longer he finished ransacking their bedroom and going through their things as he had successfully turned the room into a torture chamber "okay now I just wait," he said to himself with a victorious smile as he curled up underneath the covers on Olivia's side of the bed, turned the tv on and started to read Elliot's dream diary.
Gastroenterologist's office, 2:25 PM.
"I finally finished filling out my last sheet, you done with yours?" Elliot asked Olivia.
She nodded "yeah I just finished too, here hand me yours," she said as he did and she took all the paperwork up to the desk.
"Can we go soon daddy?" Izzabella asked with a small frown.
Elliot slightly chuckled "honey you haven't even seen the doctor yet it'll be a little while, what would you like to do while we wait?"
Izzabella slightly nodded, then smiled "can we play I spy?"
"Sure," he said with a smile as he picked her up "I spy something with my little eye that... has brown hair."
She chuckled and smiled "is it me?"
He shook his head "nope it has brown eyes."
She smiled "is it mommy?"
Elliot nodded with a smile "yes it's mommy," he said as Olivia sat down beside them "you guys playing I spy?"
Elliot nodded "yeah you wanna join?"
She nodded "sure, I spy with my little eye something that's shaped like a rectangle."
Izzabella smiled "is it daddy?"
The adults both chuckled "I'm not shaped like a rectangle sweetheart , I think that ones a little to hard for her," he said to olivia as she nodded and tried to think but before she could speak the doors opened "Izzabella Stabler!" The nurse called.
"Alright lets go," the adults said in unison as Elliot put her down and they all followed the nurse.
Before long she had been weighed and her blood pressure, temperature and oxygen levels had been checked as they all sat in the room as Olivia sighed when her phone rang.
"Stabler," she answered as Elliot smiled brightly since this was the first time she ever used her married last name in a situation regarding work.
"Okay it's weird as hell to here you answer like that."
"Well you better get used to it Nick because it's not changing anytime soon, what do you need?"
He sighed and chuckled "I was calling to let you know Lory Taylor's rape case is officially solved, it took some arm twisting but her ex boyfriend just confessed."
Olivia smiled slightly "that's good to here, I've gotta go the doctor is walking in, thanks for the update though and I'll see you later," she said as she hung up.
"Good news?" Elliot asked as he was still beaming.
Olivia smiled "yeah the perp confessed," she said as the doctor knocked twice then walked in "hi my name is doctor Erin Lee, you must be Elliot, Olivia and Izzabella Stabler."
"Yes ma'am that's us," Olivia said with a smile as she nodded "what brings you guys in today?"
Elliot sighed "well for the last 6 weeks or so Izzabella's been getting really sick at least 3 nights a week, sometimes it's 5 or 6 nights a week. She's been losing weight... It's really scaring us we just wanna know what's wrong so she can get better."
Doctor Lee nodded sympathetically "can you elaborate on the meaning of sick? Is it gas? Is she vomiting?"
Elliot nodded "it's mainly vomiting but sometimes she has diarrhea too and usually her stomach swells and gets hot to the touch."
She nodded "alright it sounds like bloating with gas, what sorts of medications do you give her when she gets like this? Actually which 1 of you is her primary caregiver?"
Elliot sighed "we're both her caregivers."
She nodded "I understand that but which 1 of you is with her most often when she's sick, I assume it's her?" She pointed at Olivia.
Elliot sighed "actually it's me... but Olivia is with her as much as she can be, why does it matter?"
Doctor Lee nodded and sighed "i only asked to make sure that I was getting accurate information, usually we want the parent that's around her most to answer all the questions."
Elliot nodded understanding "I usually give her liquid phenergan for the nausea, sometimes it knocks her out but sometimes it barely touches it, those nights I usually sit outside with her for some reason the cold air usually eases it a bit."
She nodded "that's interesting, have you guys been keeping a food diary?"
Elliot shook his head "no we haven't , usually she picks breakfast and Liv picks dinner. Most of the time she drinks chocolate milk, that's her favorite."
Lee nodded "when was the last time she had a stomach episode?"
"About 2 o'clock this morning," Elliot responded.
Doctor Lee nodded "when was the last time she drank chocolate milk?"
"Last night at dinner, she wanted chocolate milk this morning too but I gave her grape juice, figured the milk would be to heavy on her stomach."
She nodded "you made the right choice on holding off on the milk, I'm afraid she might be lactose intolerant, there are a couple ways we can find out for sure."
Elliot nodded slightly "w-what are they?"
"Well 1 way is the lactose tolerance test. Two hours after drinking a liquid that contains high levels of lactose, she'll undergo blood tests to measure the amount of glucose in her bloodstream. If her glucose level doesn't rise, it means her body isn't properly digesting and absorbing the lactose-filled drink."
"No needles..." p-please no needles," Izzabella cried as soon as she heard the words blood test.
"Shhh, shhh, shhh," Olivia soothed, cradling her in her arms as Elliot sighed "is there another way to test her for it with out a blood test?"
Doctor Lee nodded "yes there is, we can do the hydrogen breath test."
Elliot nodded "what does that entail?"
Lee sighed slightly "with this test after she drinks a liquid that contains high levels of lactose, I'll measure the amount of hydrogen in her breath at regular intervals. Breathing out too much hydrogen indicates that she isn't fully digesting and absorbing lactose."
He nodded "I think that's the test we'll go with."
"Mr. Stabler you should know it's not as accurate as the blood draw."
"I don't care as long as it is accurate that's the test we're going with."
"Mrs. Stabler?" Lee asked looking at Olivia.
Olivia nodded "do the hydrogen breath test there's no reason to put her through any unnecessary pain."
She nodded "alright then I'll set it up," she said as she then left the room.
"T-thank you mommy, t-thank you daddy," Izzabella said as she started to calm down once the doctor was gone.
"Baby you don't have to thank us for that we know how scared you are of needles and will never make you have 1 unless there's no other option," Elliot said softly as she slightly nodded and reached a hand out to him as he gently took it and rubbed it.
Olivia smiled as Izzabella relaxed in her arms "we made the right choice right?" She asked in a whisper.
Elliot nodded "yeah we did honey if the hydrogen breath test wasn't any good it wouldn't be offered, this test probably takes longer and is more work for them I'm sure that's all the difference is."
Olivia nodded "I hope your right El."
He slightly smiled "I'm sure I am," he said confidently as a nurse walked in with the drink "I'll need 1 of you to help her drink this please."
Olivia nodded and took the bottle from her "baby we need for you to drink this," she said softly to Izzabella who was almost asleep in her arms.
"Okay mommy," she said groggily as she used her free hand to take the bottle from Olivia as she started to drink the solution inside.
"This is yucky," she said after taking a couple sips.
Olivia nodded "I know it is baby but you've gotta finish it, this is gonna help us know why you've been so sick here lately," she said as Elliot just continued rubbing the hand he was holding.
She slightly nodded "can I still have a milkshake after we leave?"
Elliot sighed "that'll depend on the results of this test but it'll either be a milkshake or a lava cake."
"Yummy lava cake!" Izzabella said as she quickly drank the rest of the drink as Olivia smiled and the nurse chuckled "bribery really does wonders."
Elliot smiled "yes it does," he said as he handed the empty bottle to the nurse "how long till you guys test her breath?"
"We'll do the first test in 20 minutes," the nurse said as Elliot nodded then she left the room.
"Elliot do you want me to stay here till this is done or would you rather me go on back to work, finish up and be home by dinner?"
"Whatever you wanna do is fine honey the hard stuffs done so we'll be fine if you wanna go on."
Olivia nodded her head "alright El, if your sure your okay with it I think I'm gonna get back so I can be home at a decent hour."
He nodded "sounds good my love, I love you, I'll call you and tell you what the results are."
"I love you too El, sounds good," she said as she kissed him passionately then handed Izzabella over "what would you like for dinner tonight El? I think I might try to cook for you for a change."
"Oh honey you don't have too..."
She smiled "I know I don't but I want too, that's not saying that my cooking will be as good as yours..."
Elliot smiled slightly "your to hard on yourself Olivia whatever you fix will be amazing. I want you to surprise me."
She nodded and hugged him "your to sweet El... But surprise you I can do, love you guys," she said as she gave him 1 last peck on the lips and Izzabella a kiss on the forehead before heading out and hailing a cab.
16th precinct, 4:05 PM.
"Hey Fin, your still here," Olivia said a little surprised as she sat down at her desk and hung her purse on the back of her chair.
He nodded "of course I am I meant it when I said the files could wait till later besides I didn't have any plans tonight."
Olivia smiled "Fin what you did for us today... It means the world to me... Thank you."
Fin shook his head "no thanks necessary Liv that's what friends are for."
Olivia smiled slightly "well next time we go out for drinks it'll be on me," she said as she then pulled up the case files and began going over them with him.
About 45 minutes later he was completely up to speed "alright I think I'm good Liv, if I come up with any questions I'll call you tomorrow and ask."
Olivia nodded "sounds good Fin is Cragen in?"
He shook his head "nah he went home."
Olivia nodded her head "alright well I'm gonna head on home and try my hand at making a home cooked meal. Hopefully it wont be terrible."
Fin chuckled "nonsense Liv Elliot would love whatever you made even if it was cardboard."
Olivia frowned "I am not cooking my husband cardboard."
Fin nodded and chuckled "I know your not Liv it was just an expression, in all seriousness though I think as long as you don't fix sushi he'll love it, he's easy to please when it comes to you."
She smiled slightly and nodded "I know I know, it's just he goes above and beyond for me almost every night and I want to do the same for him but I'm scared I'll burn something or mix something wrong..."
Fin nodded "hey if you do you do, it'll be the thought that counts, he'll love it I promise.. Have a little faith in yourself baby girl."
She nodded and smiled "I'll try Fin, thanks for the pep talk, goodnight." She said as she got on the elevator with a smile on her face.
Stabler home, 5:20 PM.
Lewis woke up in Olivia and Elliot's bed having fallen asleep with the diary open on his chest it wont be long now until she's here, he thought to himself as he began reading again to pass the time.
July 4th, 2011.
Tonight was the worst dream yet, dream was almost identical to the 1 I had last night but instead of me shooting Jenna somehow I ended up shooting Olivia instead, need to contact my therapist ASAP, cannot tell Olivia about this dream, don't want her to be scared of me or think that I would ever hurt her. Would die before I hurt her.
Lewis smiled a crooked smile and continued reading.
July 18th, 2011.
Finally took doctor Olivette's advice and told Olivia about the dream, she was more understanding than I thought she would be about it. I guess in hindsight I was worried for nothing after all I've never doubted that she trusts me. Hoping I wont dream it again, going to Florida soon to see the kids , hoping getting out of the city is what I need for the nightmares to stop...
Lewis went to continue reading but saw a cab pull up and Olivia get out as he closed the diary and laid it on the table "it's go time, go time," he said quietly as he stood in wait.
Outside the house Olivia got out of the cab after paying the fair I wonder why there's a light on? She thought to herself.
Elliot must have been in a hurry when he left earlier, I'm overthinking this.
No there's something up, text Elliot, ask him if he left the kitchen light on! Her gut screamed at her.
No, no that's silly I'm not 5 and I refuse to act like I'm five, Elliot will think I'm silly.
No he wont he never does just ask him.
Olivia sighed as her brain fought with itself "okay Olivia, it's okay you probably have this feeling because Elliot is always here, this is the first time in almost a year that he hasn't been here when you got off work. That's why your nervous. Every thing's okay, 1, 2, 3," she said to herself as she then unlocked the door to the house and headed inside "welcome home detective Stabler..." Lewis said , catching her completely by surprise when the door opened as he aimed a gun at her head...
A/n: I'm sure you guys hate the cliffhanger but the show did it so I'm doing it too. Also the description of the different lactose intolerant tests belongs to mayo clinic. I wont leave you guys hanging for to awful long, I promise... Until next time every one.