Chapter Seven
(This chapter isn't good I know, but the part I want to write, I want it to be later in the story. If you have any suggestions on what you would like to see let me know.)
A few weeks had passed and everything seemed to be going well. Olivia, Noah, and Emma had been on a little weekend getaway to Jersey, leaving Elliot alone with Eli. He had taken a few personal days off of work, after Emma's court day, but today was the day he had to go back.
"Morning, Detective," Bell said.
"Hey," Elliot said, walking in. Everyone gave him a kind of weird look, something was off today. Did they know? Did Liv tell Bell about Emma? He knew he would have to tell Bell eventually, considering that it was a big part of their own case as well.
"Detective a word," Bell said, going into her office. Elliot followed.
"Were you ever going to tell me this?" She said throwing Emma's case file onto the table.
"Look, I was going to tell you-"
"Look, Stabler, I understand that in the past you used to withhold evidence to save your own ass or someone else's, but here we do things differently." Bell said, laying down the facts.
"I know," Elliot added. "I'll do better next time."
"Well, lucky for you this is out of our hands."
Elliot was still upset that he no longer was able to work Kathy's case, which was now Emma's case as well. But he had gotten used to not having control over most things.
A few days had passed and Olivia had suggested it was time for Emma to meet the rest of her family. Elliot was sceptical about this so soon, more so he was afraid that his kids weren't going to be accepting of her.
Back at Olivia's house she and Emma got ready, while Noah complained how he wanted to join them and not stay with Lucy for the night.
"But why can't I go? I'm family too!" Noah compalined.
"Noah, sweety, we talked about this, this is something Emma and Elliot's family need." Olivia said, putting on her earrings.
"So why are you going?"
"That's a good question," She thought to herself. "Noah, this is adult stuff," She knew he didn't like hearing that as an answer but she wasn't sure how else to explain it.
Emma came out of her room wearing a nice denim skirt and a white shirt tucked in, with her hair in loose curls. She wasn't too sure on how fancy this restaurant was, but decided to dress up a little.
"Are you ready?" Olivia asked.
"Yeah,"
They drove to a small restaurant where they were meeting Elliot and the rest of the family. "Liv!" she saw a tall girl waving at her.
"Kathleen," Liv said, hugging the girl.
"You must be Emma," Kathleen said, giving the girl a hug as well. Liv looked around and didn't see Elliot or Eli. "Dad said he and Eli would be a bit late, traffic." Emma and Olivia sat down. "So Emma, I guess I'll introduce everyone." Kathleen stated. "Ok, so this is Marueen, she is married to Carol, but for the sack of tonight he decided it was best not to come, Marueen is also the oldest child." Marueen gave Emma a warm smile. "Like I said, I'm Kathleen, I'm the second oldest, Olivia means a lot more to me than you think, she got me through some pretty tough times. And these are the 'twins' they hate when we call them that but it's true they are twins. This is Elizabeth and Richard, but we all call him Dickie."
"You can call me Dickie if you'd like, only my family calls me that now, most people call me Dick or Richard." Emma felt welcomed knowing that he was grandfathering her into his name.
"And Eli is the youngest, but he's not here yet." Kathleen added. "So Emma, where do you fall in the sibling line?" Kathleen mainly added this question because she was curious to know more about her new half sister.
"Uh, I think I'm between the twins and Eli. I was born in 2005, so I think that's about right."
Just at that moment Elliot and Eli walked into the room. Elliot hugged each of his kids including Liv and Emma. Eli also hugged everyone except Emma, he just shook her hand. Eli was still having a hard time processing it all.
"Eli, what do you say?" Elliot said, as if his son needed to learn his manners.
"Hi," Eli said, trying to make a smile appear.
"Eli, you and Emma are similar ages, maybe you guys have a lot in common," Olivia said trying to break the tension between the two.
"You like soccer?" Eli asked.
"It's ok, I played it when I was younger. I'm more of a baseball fan." Emma replied.
Eli wasn't too disappointed by the answer he had gotten, but not also pleased. That was about the extent of the conversation those two had all night.
The rest of the night was spent mostly with Liv, Elliot, Kathleen and Marueen talking. They talked about their lives and what they've been up to. After they ate their dinner, they all started saying their goodbyes. All the Stabler kids, except for Eli, hugged Emma goodbye.
"Hey Emma," Kathleen said, pulling Emma to the side. "I was going through some old photos of our mom, well I guess your mom too, and I put this together for you. Just some things you might want to know about us." Kathleen said, handing a little notebook full with pictures and jotted down notes.
"Thanks," Emma said, grabbing the book from her hands. Kathleen gave Emma another hug
