Chapter 11: A Long Night

Stabler Residence – Saturday, Sept. 10th

Olivia woke up to a stream of sunlight shining in through the window. She rolled over to her other side where Elliot had his back turned, still asleep. She traced a finger down on his spine and drew a zig-zag line up towards his shoulders, trying to startle him.

"I'm awake," murmured Elliot. He turned to face Olivia with sleepy eyes and a rugged five o'clock shadow.

"Hey you," he said, kissing her softly.

She smiled at him. "Hey to you too."

"What time is it?" asked Elliot, squinting at the clock on the nightstand.

"It's 10:30," responded Olivia. She propped her head back on the pillow next to Elliot. "I haven't slept this late in forever, it feels nice." It had been a long time, or at least ever since the baby was born. She was always used to being woken up by her wailing or babbling into the monitor. She sighed and closed her eyes.

Elliot watched as she closed her eyes. The fun wasn't over yet. He ducked under the covers and traced his fingers on the curves of her body. Olivia opened up her eyes at the feel of his touch and laughed at Elliot, but she gasped when she felt his lips graze over her breast.

When his head popped out of the sheets, she giggled as she put both hands on his cheeks and kissed him.

"Last night was amazing. Want to do it again?" she teased.

"Baby, in a million years, I would do it," he sassed back. "Let's go take a shower and I'll make you breakfast."

Olivia raised her eyebrows, "Breakfast? I'm impressed. In the meantime, the shower is on 'cause I would pay anything to see your sexy little ass."

"You'll get to see it for free," grinned Elliot. He went in the bathroom and turned on the shower. "Are you coming Liv?"

Olivia jumped out of the bed and joined Elliot in the shower. She didn't have to be asked twice.

Within an hour, they were both dressed and Elliot had prepared some pancakes. While they were cooking, Olivia squeezed his shoulder and went towards the phone to call Rosa to check in on Kaitlyn. After she had talked to Rosa, Maureen called to let her know that she would be bringing Kathleen and the twins back home in a couple hours and had offered to go by Rosa's house to pick up Kaitlyn on her way.

Olivia hung up the phone and went to join Elliot at the table. He was already inhaling his pancakes when she sat down and poured herself a cup of orange juice.

"Well, I can see that someone must be starving," grinned Olivia.

"First, I was starving for love. Now I need food," said Elliot in between bites of his breakfast.

Olivia made a face at him and helped herself to the pancakes. When she didn't say anything, Elliot stopped eating his pancakes and looked up at her.

"What?" she asked.

Elliot looked at her lovingly. "Nothing. I was just thinking about how beautiful you are."

Olivia's face began to turn red. She was trying to get used to receiving compliments all the time from Elliot, but she still always blushed every time he gave her any kind of compliment.

"Did Maureen say when she was bringing back the kids?"

"Around 1:30. She's also going by Rosa's and picking up Kaitlyn on her way back here."

"I guess we have a little more time to ourselves before they come back," replied Elliot, hinting to her what was about to come next.

Olivia nodded, knowing what Elliot was implying.

"Why did we even bother get dressed? We should have just had breakfast in bed."

"Next time I'll take you up on that offer," stated Elliot, eating his last bite of pancake.

Later that afternoon, the kids arrived excited and talking about their weekend. They hugged Elliot and Olivia and told them about having an awesome time with Maureen last night. They talked about going for pizza and then to the movies.

Kathleen was holding the baby and pointed towards Olivia. "There's Mommy. You want to go see her?" She handed Olivia the baby, who gave her perfect toothless grin as she was being passed over to her mother.

"Hi baby. Mommy missed you." She pressed a kiss on her forehead and turned to Maureen. "Did Rosa say how she did last night?"

"She was good other than a little fussy, but she thinks Kaitlyn might be cutting teeth," Maureen said.

"We met your partner, Sandoval," Dickie said to Elliot.

"Oh yeah," said Elizabeth. "He is so cute, Daddy."

"He's more than cute," chimed in Kathleen. "Mike is a hottie."'

"I agree with Kathleen," said Maureen.

Elliot laughed, "It's good to know that you girls think that my partner is, in your words, a "hottie." I'll tell him that on Monday."

"Dad!" exclaimed the girls.

Stabler Residence – Wednesday, Oct. 5th --- 3 Weeks Later – 3:15am

Olivia woke up to a loud cry on the baby monitor. Elliot had been up the night before with the baby so tonight it was Olivia's turn to tend to her daughter. She got up and padded across the hall to the nursery.

"Hey, hey, what is it," she said softly to the crying baby, who had her fingers in her mouth. Kaitlyn had been teething for a couple weeks now and on top of all that, she was battling allergies and had been up every night.

Olivia picked her up out of the crib, trying to soothe her, and crooned in her ear, "Shh, it's okay." She walked and bounced Kaitlyn around in her arms, but nothing she did helped the baby.

She sat in the rocking chair and rubbed Kaitlyn's back gently. She grabbed a tissue and wiped the baby's runny nose, which was stuffy because of her allergies. Then, she found the bottle of Benadryl, opening it with one hand, and gave it to her through a medicine dropper, but Kaitlyn spit it out and began to cry louder and started screaming.

"OK, we won't take it now. Shh," Olivia said to the baby as she tried rocking her in the chair to console her.

Meanwhile, Elliot came in after hearing his daughter's crying to check in on Olivia. He came up behind the chair and rubbed Olivia's back.

"Is she alright?"

Olivia shook her head and stood up from the chair, "She wouldn't take the Benadryl. I can take care of this, El. You can go back to bed. I think her gums are bothering her so I'm going to give her some Orajel to see if that will help and then I'll give the Benadryl another try."

"OK," Elliot answered as he reached over to tuck a strand of hair behind Olivia's ear and patted the baby lightly on the head. He left the room and went back to bed.

Olivia turned her attention back on Kaitlyn, "I know, baby, it hurts. Yeah, I know. Mommy will make it feel better."

About that time, the baby settled down a little so Olivia decided to give the Benadryl another try. She put the medicine dropper back in the bottle and put it up to her lips. This time, it was successful as Kaitlyn took the medicine that she needed.

She then walked into the bathroom next to the nursery in the hallway. She grabbed the Orajel with one hand while holding Kaitlyn in the other. They went back into the room where Olivia sat down and rubbed a small strip of the gel on the baby's gums.

"Here we go, baby. Good girl. That will make you better."

Olivia sighed as she held her close, propping the baby's head against her arm. She began to hum a lullaby as she rocked her gently. Kaitlyn lay awake in her mother's arms for a little while until the Benadryl made her sleepy. She made a few noises as her eyes began getting heavy and she fell asleep.

TBC