Little bit later than I meant to post but I wanted to get a little more written before posting again. Thank you for the reviews on chapter 2, every review makes me smile :D

I'm not the best at multi-chap fics and usually what I write stays on my laptop never to be read again, so writing this is making me anxious bc I do want people to like it but I'm aware that most people will have different paths they want it to follow. Updates may not be weekly bc I spend a lot of time overthinking each chapter before I post it... But I'll stfu now and let you read, please let me know what you think, I'm always open to constructive criticism :)

~X~

Elliot's first thought when the car pulled up outside his new apartment building was that Olivia looked exhausted. He knew SVU had been working some tough cases recently but having a three month old baby on top of the heavy workload was taking its toll. He'd had Grace all day, since Olivia had frantically called him at five AM explaining that she'd been called in but her nanny was sick so she needed someone to watch the baby. He'd agreed immediately and given her his new address. He'd told her that whatever time she got off work, she was welcome to stay and eat something before she took Grace home. That was the selfish part of him he mused, he wanted to spend time with Olivia too, not just their daughter.

He buzzed her in before she could even reach for the button and she looked up at him with a tired smile before she pushed the door open and walked inside. It was barely two minutes later when she let herself into the apartment.

Olivia had shed her jacket and blazer and was unbuttoning her shirt before the door had fully closed and Elliot chuckled. "Little forward, no?"

Olivia rolled her eyes with but smiled and pulled the pump out of her bag, just as Grace began to fuss. She dropped onto the couch and leaned back against the soft cushions. "Don't joke, Stabler. I haven't managed to get near a pump all day and I feel like these things are about to explode. Can you give her to me?"

Elliot did as she asked, as he leaned down to pass the baby over, he couldn't help but come face to face with Olivia's breasts. He gave her a cheeky grin when he raised his eyes to meet hers, she'd never had a small chest but there was a noticeable difference in the size of her breasts since he'd last seen them.

"What? I'm just a guy." He joked with a shrug.

Olivia shook her head and laughed. It was nice that things seemed to be getting easier with him again. "I don't care, eyes up, Stabler. They're your kid's property now."

"Oh so you're saying they used to be mine?" Elliot teased. He knew he was pushing his luck but it was nice to have a little of their old banter back.

Olivia rolled her eyes again, smiling at his boldness. It was then that the question that had been on her mind for a while now resurfaced. She was reluctant to start the conversation, even if she knew it was important, regardless of how their relationship changed moving forward. "Hey, El?" He hummed in response as he moved around the kitchen plating up a simple pasta dish for them both. "What happened with Kathy? And the kids?"

Elliot sighed and put the plates and drinks on the coffee table. He and Liv had been spending increasing amounts of time together as he got to know Grace and he had been wondering when the topic would come up. He had been dancing around it since the night he'd shown up at her apartment over a month ago, deliberately avoiding mentioning anything about his home life.

"After the night I came to your place, I got home before Kathy had gone to work. Made the mistake of trying to give her a hug. She was pissed that I didn't come home the night before and then when I turned up smelling like your perfume, that was the last straw for her. We talked it over the next day and called it quits. It's been mostly mutual, but it's never easy. The kids are all old enough to know it's for the best but Eli is still wrapping his head around it. He's just confused that he has two apartments now."

"I'm so sorry, El." She couldn't help but feel a little guilty after all if she'd questioned him on his intentions that night, or had some self control then he'd still be married. But she also wouldn't have her daughter. "You still see Eli, though, right?"

He nodded. His new job at the local gym had much more flexible hours, and it had a kids club, too. It meant he got to spend a lot more time with his youngest son than he ever had. He got the boy every other weekend and they were alternating the holidays, on occassion when Kathy had to work extra, he'd keep Eli overnight, too. It was clunky but it was getting there. He felt the proud smile spread across his face when she asked about the older kids. They were doing great. Maureen had just moved into an apartment with her long term boyfriend, Kathleen was working as a support worker in a mental health clinic, and the twins were both doing great in college.

"You ever think about how to introduce them to Gracie? Do they even know she exists?" Olivia paused for a second. "Does Kathy?"

Elliot sighed. Kathy knew alright. It had been the one big fight they'd had since the separation. She wanted to know how many times he'd slept with Olivia, after all, it wasn't always easy to get pregnant. He'd shut her up by reminding her that she got pregnant with Maureen the very first time either of them had ever had sex. It remained a sore spot between them but the more time passed the more Kathy seemed to let it go. Eli was just plain confused, he thought only mommies and daddies could have a baby and neither Elliot nor Kathy had quite figured out how to explain it to a five year old.

He'd love for his older kids to meet Grace. Despite some friction in the past, they all truly loved Olivia and when he'd confirmed that yes, she had a baby and yes, it was his, they'd been happy for him and cautiously excited to eventually meet their new sister. He watched Olivia fix her bra and settle Grace back in the bassinet before she buttoned her shirt again and sat facing him, digging into her food.

"Liv it would mean more to me than you could imagine for them to meet her. They'd love it. They were so happy when I told them. Maureen and Kathleen were really, really happy when I told them it was you."

Olivia tilted her head a little, she'd always assumed that his kids knew she was Grace's mom, mostly because he'd found out about her through the twins. She'd never even considered that he'd kept that little piece of information from them. Now she wanted to know how he'd even brought it up with them.

"I was honest." Elliot shrugged. "They came here to help me paint and decorate Eli's room. We had pizza after and I said I'd understand if they needed time to deal with it, but I thought they should know that they had a new half-sister. Lizzie and Dickie immediately asked if it was you, and Maureen and Kathleen got really excited when I told them we had a baby. They said they can't wait to see you guys but they understand if you wanna take it slow."

Olivia's mind was spinning. She'd expected a little tension at least, if not an aggressive backlash from Dickie, maybe Kathleen, too. Why were they all so happy about it, how could they look at the woman who had wrecked their parents' marriage and be excited to meet the baby that had ended up in the middle of it all?

Elliot put a gentle hand on her leg in an attempt to reassure her that everything was okay. He reminded her how much she had done for each of his children over the years, she'd helped Maureen through her first real breakup when she was too scared to talk to him or Kathy. Not to mention everything she'd done for Kathleen. She'd managed to make amends with Dickie when he'd cooled down after Shane was killed, and she drove Lizzie to practice when Kathy was busy with Eli and he was in court, on more than one occasion. In the earlier years of their partnership, she'd even stayed overnight with them for a few nights to let him and Kathy have a weekend away for their anniversary. Add to that that she had helped save their mom and baby brother barely five years ago, they all held a lot of love and respect for her, even if their Stabler tempers did something get in the way. They loved her almost as much as he did.

They both froze when Elliot realized what he had said. Olivia let her fork clatter back down to the almost empty pasta bowl and he slowly removed his hand from her leg. The tension in the room was thick and neither wanted to be the first to break the silence. In the end it was Elliot who spoke first.

"Liv, you know I love you. I have for years. In one way or another from the moment I met you. This was never how I planned on saying I love you for the first time. But I do. I love everything about you."

Olivia was careful to keep her voice even when she replied, she wasn't sure what she wanted his response to be and part of her was almost begging Grace to start crying so she'd have a distraction. "You love me, or you're in love with me? There's a big difference, El. I love Nick and Fin, but I'm not in love with them."

"I'm in love with you." His voice was quiet and he was almost counting the seconds until she gathered up her belongings and her daughter and ran for the hills. "And you may love Nick and Fin, and you're not in love with them. What about me?"

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She was shaking like a leaf and her voice was full of emotion when she finally answered him. "I'm in love with you, too."

She opened her eyes and dared to look up at him, stuffing her hands between her knees in an attempt to hide the shaking. She was fooling no one, though. Elliot saw right through her and took her trembling hands in his own. Since he'd first met Grace, they'd talked on more than one occasion about the in-betweens.

In between the shooting and his retirement.

In between him leaving SVU and coming to her apartment.

In between their night together and when he met his daughter.

The one subject they had danced around endlessly was their feelings for each other. He knew how badly he'd hurt her when he used her and left her for the second time. He'd apologised and when they first fought over it, he took everything she'd thrown at him, knowing he deserved it. She had listened to his reasons for staying away and had tried to understand them, even when it had hurt that he had intentionally left her behind without so much as a goodbye.

"Liv, this doesn't have to change anything right now. Admitting our feelings for each other, it doesn't mean we have to suddenly jump into a relationship. We can continue as we are now. I'll keep getting to know Grace, we can let my kids meet her. Just take things as they come. I'll keep taking care of you and you can keep taking care of our girl and kicking ass at work. That's it. We'll take it day by day and just see what happens, then maybe one day, if you feel like it, I can take you out to dinner. That's all. We have dinner all the time, we just had it now. No big deal, okay?"

Olivia was still trying to wrap her head around the new and improved Elliot Stabler who used actual words to communicate. He'd started seeing a therapist after he shot Jenna and one of the things he'd been working on was using his words instead of bottling all of his feelings up inside. It was an adjustment for her. For fourteen years now she had known the Elliot Stabler who took his anger out on suspects, perps, and concrete walls, who never spoke about his true feelings, who had eventually ended the innocent touches at work when they both realised that they had not-so-innocent intentions. She was still getting to know the Elliot that would share his problems, talk through solutions, help her with her own struggles, and who wouldn't hesitate to rest a hand on her back when he leaned over her to say goodnight to the baby. Though she supposed some of the walls they'd spent twelve years building had been demolished when he fucked her senseless all night in her apartment to avoid going home to Kathy.

"Earth to Liv?"

She snapped out of her thoughts and brought her eyes to meet his. She let her eyes drift to his lips before they fluttered back up to the bright blues gazing at her. She leaned in slowly, giving him plenty opportunity to stop her before she cupped his jaw and placed a soft kiss on his lips. He brought his hand to her chin and kissed her back. When she pulled away, her eyes immediately fell to her lap, unwilling to meet his in case she didn't like what she saw looking back at her.

"I've wanted to do that for so long."

He smiled at her admission and ran a hand through her long hair. "Stay with me tonight?"

The flash of panic in her eyes didn't escape him and he quickly grasped her hand to stop her from retreating completely. "I didn't mean it like that, Liv. It's really late, you're exhausted and I don't want you and Grace having to drive all the way across town at this time to potentially have to come all the way back first thing in the morning. So stay here. You can have my bed, then Grace is in there with you. I'll take Eli's. No pressure, you get more sleep, less chance of disturbing Gracie and I'll watch her tomorrow for you. It's win/win." He smiled when she nodded after only a small moment of thought.

He stood and offered her his hands before he pulled her to her feet. He took a chance and pulled her into a tight hug, relishing the feeling of simply holding her in his arms. Of all the times they'd been close over the years, he could count on one hand the number of times it hadn't been part of a sting. His heart skipped a beat when she hugged him back and buried her face in his chest.

"Come on. Let's get you girls to bed. I'll tidy this stuff up tomorrow." Olivia carefully lifted Grace and let him guide her towards his bedroom, too tired to even think of the last time he'd taken her to bed.

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