Chapter Sixteen

Elliot and Olivia had talked about going together to Fin's wedding in April. Elliot had also mentioned that he was going to be a chaperone at Emma's school dance. Olivia knew that Emma wouldn't be too thrilled about this knews.

Emma came barging through the door with anger in her face. Liv had seen this look on Kathy, when she would come to the precinct late at night asking Elliot to come home. "He can't do this!" Emma said, laying down the chaperone list on the breakfast counter.

"Right," Liv said. "I'll talk to him."

"Don't bother! The school loves the idea of having an NYPD detective there! They said he can make sure no one gets in trouble!" Emma said, storming off and slamming her bedroom door.

"Must be her time of the month." Noah chimed in.

"Noah, where did you learn that phrase?" Liv asked, furious.

"This kid at school,"

"Well it's not very nice Noah."

"Sorry," Noah said.

That weekend was the night of the dance. Emma wore a nice white long sleeve dress and had her hair in loose curls. Donavan came and picked up Emma. He brought her a corsage that matched her dress. Don drove them to the school. Emma got nervous as they got closer to the school. She was worried as to what Elliot would do at the dance.

Emma and Donavan walked into the school gym. The parents who volunteered to set up the dance did a nice job. Why couldn't Elliot have volunteered to do that instead? Emma saw Elliot, why was he in uniform, she thought.

"Why don't you get us some drinks?" Emma suggested to Don, "I have to go talk to someone."

"Ok," Don said, and walked away.

Emma walked over to Elliot and pulled his arm, dragging him towards the folded up bleachers. "What is this?" she asked, annoyed.

"What's what?" he asked.

"This! The uniform?!" she asked, even more annoyed.

"The school asked me to work security."

"And Bell approved it?!"

"She doesn't know."

"Whatever," she said, rolling her eyes.

"So is that Donavan?" He asked, pointing towards him.

"Yeah," Emma started walking away, then turned around and said,"Don't say anything stupid."

Emma walked over back to Don. They had a fun time dancing. Nothing too bad happened since there was a uniformed cop there. Although there were a few kids who tried to spike the drinks, Elliot caught them. He said he wouldn't charge them for underage drinking since they didn't actually drink any of it. He did take away the booz. It only started to get bad towards the end of the dance.

In the corner of the room he saw Emma and Don fighting about something. He seemed to want to go somewhere else, but Emma wanted to stay where they were. Elliot decided that she should stay out, unless it got bad. Don started getting a little physical towards her, but nothing too bad, yet. Don grabbed Emma by the arm wanting to leave the school gym, Emma pulled her arm away and started yelling at him. Don shoved her. Elliot quickly ran over towards them and pulled Don away from her.

"Hey, hey! What's going on?!" Elliot yelled.

"Nothing, I'm fine." Emma said.

"Like hell you are." Elliot said. "I'm taking you home."

Emma wasn't going to argue with him, yet she didn't want to leave either. "Go wait in the car," Elliot said.

"But-"

"Go!"

Emma did as she was told. Emma grabbed her things and walked to Elliot's car. She waited in his car for what felt like hours, but was only really 10 minutes. Elliot finally came into the car. He started driving towards Liv's apartment.

"You wanna talk about it?" Elliot asked, stopping at a red light.

"No," Emma said, looking out the window.

"Fine."

"You know I didn't need to be saved." Emma said.

"Yeah you did."

"No I didn't!" Emma yelled.

"Look, you don't know what could've happened." He explained.

"I wasn't going to get raped. It was just some argument about me doing his homework for him."

"Is that why he asked you to the dance?"

"Just shut up," Emma pleaded.

There was a moment of silence. "You know I was just looking out for you." he said, breaking the silence. He stopped the car in front of the apartment building.

"You know what? Don't." Emma said, taking off her seat belt. "You know what? Don't bother coming around again?!" Emma said, getting out of the car. She quickly turned around, "Eli was right, I shouldn't act like a teenager around you. Also, I wish I hadn't kept 'Stalber' in my name." She said, and slammed the door.

Emma got off the elevator to her floor with tears in her eyes. She opened the apartment door and slammed it.

"How was the dance?" Liv asked, looking up from her book.

"Horrible." She said, storming into her room.

Liv wondered if something happened between her and Don. But she also thought it could've been something else. She didn't think much of it. Just then she saw a piece of paper slide under her front door. Liv got up and picked up the piece of paper. It had Elliot's hand writing on it. She opened it.

"Liv, I'm sorry. This was a mistake, thinking that I could waltz back into your life like nothing ever happened. I almost lost you again. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. Things were better when I was gone. You're a good mom Liv, and I don't want to ruin your relationship between your kids. I'm sorry. -El" Olivia put this piece of paper down. She fell back onto the couch. She wasn't too sure what to say or what to do. She tried calling him but all she got was, "You've reached Elliot Stabler, I can't come to the phone right now. Leave your name and number and I'll get back to you shortly."

Liv went to bed, but didn't really get any sleep. The next morning she had Lucy take Emma and Noah to school while she tried to track down Elliot. She drove to his apartment building and knocked on the door. No answer. She knocked again. No answer. She knocked one more time. This time a neighbor opened their door.

"Do you know what time it is?" The lady said.

"Sorry. Have you seen Stabler?" Olivia asked.

"You must be Olivia." she said. "He and his son left last night around 1am. Told me if you asked where he was to not tell you. And then they left."

Olivia walked back down the hall and towards the stairs. She sat down on the first step and started crying. She felt that pain of him leaving all over again. After a few minutes she got a hold of herself and got up and went to work.

She arrived at the precinct and sat at her desk. The memories of Cragan telling her Elliot had put his papers in. Fin walked into her office and closed the door.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"No Fin I'm not. But I'll be ok."

"Look, whatever it is I'm here."

"Thanks Fin."

Fin told Liv to go home early and get her kids. He wasn't sure what happened but he knew it involved Stabler in some way.

"How about we get some ice cream?" Liv suggested, as she picked up Noah from his school.

"Can we see if Elliot can come?" Noah asked.

"You know, I think Elliot is busy tonight." Liv said. Emma in the passenger seat hadn't realized that Elliot would take her word seriously. She was upset and sad at the same time. She didn't mean for him to actually leave.

Liv took Noah and Emma for some pizza and ice cream. She then allowed them to watch a movie and she even let Noah stay up way past his bedtime. Liv tucked Noah into bed then got ready for bed herself. Emma came in and knocked on her door.

"Hey," Liv said.

"Can we talk?" Emma said, sitting on the bed.

"Sure, what's up?" Liv said, sitting next to her.

"It's all my fault," Emma said.

"What is?" Liv asked, confused.

"Last night, we got into a fight. More so, I was yelling at him. I said some things, and one of those things was to leave us alone." Emma had tears in her eyes. Liv whipped them away, "I swear I didn't mean it. I didn't know he was going to take it seriously." Liv hugged her, telling her it wasn't her fault. Emma didn't believe her, but took her word for it