So it's been an age since my last update but I've been struggling with motivation to do just about anything never mind proof read stuff... Hopefully it won't be so long until the next chapter but I make no promises. So here is Chapter 8, let me know what you think :D

Olivia ignored Nick's eyes on her as she collapsed into her chair and pulled herself into her desk. He'd been watching her carefully all week and this morning was no different. She had yet to figure out why, but so far he hadn't launched a barrage of questions at her so she wasn't about to call him out on it. His silent observation wouldn't last forever and the last thing she wanted to do was invite him to interrogate her. She rubbed her temples trying to stave off the building headache. It wasn't even lunchtime yet and she was already counting down the minutes until she could go home.

"You okay?"

There it was. The question that no matter how she answered, would bring a million more with it. He meant well but she was too tired and didn't have enough patience for this.

She nodded. "I'm fine. Just got a killer headache coming."

Nick frowned. He'd been watching her for a while now, and it was by no means the first time this week she'd come in and not only looked terrible but apparently felt it too.

"How's the house hunting going?"

Olivia couldn't help the small smile that graced her face when she thought of the weekend she and Elliot had spent wandering apartments with Eli and Grace.

"Earth to Olivia?" Nick's amused voice broke her from her thoughts and she shot him a smile. "I'm gonna guess by that ridiculously happy look on your face that it's going well? Found a place yet?"

Olivia shook her head. "Not yet. We weren't really looking for somewhere to move to. This was only our first outing and it was more just to get a feel for what we want and what we can afford, and what combinations of the two are available close enough to work."

Nick smiled. It was good to see Olivia grinning from ear to ear at just the thought of living with Elliot. He was almost willing to bet on how long it would be until she was announcing another pregnancy, but he knew that if she got wind of it, there would be no safe place in the city he could hide from her. He really didn't want that. If his spidey-senses were correct, it may be sooner than she expected.

His reasoning was that it had started the same way with Grace. Olivia had battled with constant headaches from the start, on a bad day the whole squad would be walking on egg shells to avoid being on the receiving end of her temper. Eventually the nausea kicked in and there had been a coffee ban put in place until after lunchtime, at that point the whole squad had been walking on egg shells around each other.

None of them were morning people and usually they relied on their caffeine fix to see them through until they woke themselves up. Luckily that had only lasted a few weeks before it had changed to a ban on anything relating to onions.

Before he could stop himself, he released a small laugh, drawing Olivia's attention away from the stacks of paperwork. Her questioning eyes met Nick's and he racked his brain for an excuse but came up empty. Telling the truth was a what he considered to be a bold move but he had stalled for too long to lie to her now.

"I was just thinking 'bout the first few months when you were pregnant with Grace. The mood swings, the coffee ban, the hellish mornings that brought, then the onion ban. Then all the obsessive cravings you had."

He said it with a nonchalant shrug but Olivia narrowed her eyes at him. She wasn't pregnant and she hadn't told a soul that she and Elliot had talked about another baby. But her partner was good at reading between the lines, and she knew as soon as the word pregnant had rolled off his tongue that he was onto her. And that as soon as she was pregnant, there would be no hiding it from him. Especially since Elliot would probably try to hire him to keep her chained to a desk or something stupid like that.

She rolled her eyes at Nick but as she continued with the work in front of her, she couldn't help but let her own thoughts drift back to her first pregnancy and how heart-achingly surreal it had been at the time. She'd been truthful when she told Elliot that she was happy to wait and really they had already pretty much failed at 'taking it slow', but she couldn't wait until the day she could tell Elliot face to face that they were having a baby. Together this time. The thought of having him by her side through it all, holding her hand as their baby was born, and choosing a name together, it made her heart swell and she had to bite her lip to keep a giddy smile from her face.

~X~

Elliot sighed in relief at the quiet that filled the apartment. He loved his son immensely, but when he was with Kathy, it was much easier to get some time alone with Olivia. Sure, they still had Grace, but at seven months old, once she was in bed, there was no chance of her wandering into the living room when her parents were acting like horny teenagers on the couch. She was sleeping better at nights now, another relief, especially since Olivia wasn't always the best at staying quiet. He laughed at the times she had woken Grace and gone off grumbling to settle the her only to return minutes later and pick up where they left off.

For once it wasn't past eight when Olivia finally arrived home. Her caseload had been intense recently and he was glad to see that while she looked tired, she seemed happy. More than happy.

Olivia flashed a smile at him as she deposited her jacket on the coat hook by the door and stepped out of her boots. Without a word she crossed the room to stand in front of him before she lowered herself down into his lap, straddling him as she gave him a kiss.

"Well hello to you, too." Elliot grinned when they parted. His hands trailed from her waist down to cup her ass through her pants, holding her against him. "Not that I'm complaining, but what brought this on?"

Olivia sat up straighter and bit her lip when she felt him beneath her. She looped her arms around his neck, holding one wrist with her other hand and shrugged. "Nick and I spoke to one of our vic's neighbors earlier, when we asked her if she heard anything she went off on a tangent. We sat there for twenty five minutes, unable to get a word in as she told us that she hadn't heard anything because she and her husband got this new sex book so they were trying all these weird and wonderful positions. She literally wouldn't stop going on about how good they felt. Been thinking about you ever since."

"So what, now you wanna get adventurous?" He moved ever so slightly, lining himself up with her center as she moved pushed against him. She sighed when he pressed a single hot kiss to her throat before he pulled back again to raise an eyebrow at her.

She shook her head. Any other night she'd be saying yes, but she was more than happy to take him then and there, it wasn't like Grace could walk in on them yet. She gasped and bit back a moan when his hands found their way to her sensitive breasts at the same time as his pushed his hips hard against her. Even through their clothes the slow rhythmic motion was enough to leave her breathless and she cursed when the ringing of her phone interrupted them.

"Benson." She held the phone away from her mouth a little as she tried to catch her breath, frowning as she listened to what she was being told. "I'll be right there."

Elliot grumbled and pouted as she climbed off of him. He could tell she was just as wound up as he was, and she didn't look happy at whatever had been said on the phone. He watched her get ready to leave again and just before she opened the door he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her in for a searing kiss. "To be continued. Be careful. I love you."

"I love you, too."

~X~

By the time Olivia got home she was exhausted and in no mood to do anything other than go to sleep. She had to be back at work in less than five hours and she already knew that whatever sleep she could get would not be enough. Her head was pounding and she felt like she'd been hit by a truck. It was tempting to send Cragen a message now, stay home wrapped in the comforter and watch something on Netflix all day but she immediately felt guilty. Their victims needed her and a headache wasn't a good enough reason to leave Nick to fly solo for the day.

She woke to the sound of her phone ringing. A glance at the time as she grabbed it told her she'd been asleep for almost six hours. "Fuck." She fumbled with the phone before she finally brought it to her ear. "Benson. Yeah, sorry, my alarm didn't go off. Come on up, you can wait here while I get ready."

A few moments later and Nick was sitting in her living room, waiting while she rushed to get dressed. He held her jacket out to her as she emerged from the bedroom only to freeze halfway to him. He frowned in concern when she turned on her heel and bolted for the bathroom. It wasn't until he heard her throwing up that he went after her.

Olivia sighed and leaned back against the cold tile wall just as her partner appeared in the doorway. He said nothing but held her hair back as she threw up once more before she flushed the toilet and moved to the sink. He seemed to be deep in thought while he watched her wash her hands and quickly re-brush her teeth.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer."

Nick shook his head at her sarcasm. "Something you wanna tell me, Liv?"

She whipped round to look at him and frowned when she saw no signs of a joke on his face. "What are you talking about?"

"This doesn't feel a little like deja vu to you? The headaches, the throwing up? Occasional shitty mood?"

Olivia stilled and rolled her eyes at him. "I'm not pregnant. Eli was sick when he was here last week and Grace hasn't been great either. Even Elliot wasn't too hot when we had Eli. Besides, I took a test a while back. Hasn't been long enough since then for anything to have changed."

"Okay, but I reserve the right to say I told you so if it turns out I'm right." Nick grinned as his miserable partner followed him down to the car.

She would never admit it to him but his comment had sent her mind spinning. She had to agree that he had a point, it was almost an exact replay of when she was pregnant with Grace. Except Eli really had been sick the week before. He'd been achey and grumpy with a side of puking everywhere too, he'd been kept home from school and had spent most of his time curled up either in bed or on the couch with her or Elliot.

Olivia ran a hand through her hair and closed her eyes against the too-bright sky, fighting another wave of sickness as Nick drove them through the city. Wondering about it wasn't going to get her anywhere, right now her main concern was trying to figure out how to explain to Cragen why she was two hours late and hadn't woken up until her partner showed up at her apartment to check on her.

~X~

Nick watched Olivia's brow furrow in confusion when Rollins breezed past her desk and dropped a small white carrier bag down in front of her. He watched the blonde circle back round to her own desk as Olivia picked up the bag and looked inside. Her face went blank for a moment before an annoyed scowl settled over her features.

She looked around, the squadroom was quiet. For once the only people there was her squad. "Does everyone in this fucking unit think I'm pregnant?"

Fin was the only one brave enough to answer. He shrugged. "It's like last time. You've had a headache going on three weeks now. You go from happy to pissed off in a second and you've thrown up three times this morning alone."

Olivia almost growled at his words. "I've got a ridiculous caseload, Eli was really sick all last week, Grace is starting to get sick now, and I've been on call all week. Until today I couldn't tell you the last time I got more than two hours sleep without being woken up by a call or a sick kid. Anyone would look and feel like shit. It doesn't mean I'm pregnant."

She sighed as soon as she had stopped talking. It wasn't their fault she was so tired. She muttered an apology to them and tried to bury herself in her work. It didn't stop her mind from going into overdrive again though. Was it really so obvious to everyone except for her? She thought about the contents of the bag Rollins had given her. Three boxes, three different, reputable brands of pregnancy tests. It was the only way to find out for sure but she couldn't exactly go now, especially not after snapping at the squad about it. They were all working quietly with their tails between their legs, if she went now she'd only be adding to the rumor mill.

She was glad a few hours later when everyone had disappeared. Fin and Rollins caught yet another case, Munch had been called in by the Barba to prep for court, and now she and Nick were left alone to go over their victim's statement from the night before. Granted Cragen was still in his office and a gaggle of unis had appeared from somewhere, but Nick was the only one who would know what was in the bag and why she was taking it to the bathroom with her. She trusted him to keep his mouth closed, regardless of the result, until she said otherwise.

Nick looked up as she stood and grabbed the bag from her drawer. Her face was set in a mix of annoyance and apprehension and he knew better than to stare as she disappeared down the hall toward the ladies' room. He prayed for all of their sake's that the tests came back positive, or they would have an absolutely livid Olivia Benson on their hands for the foreseeable future, because not only would she not be pregnant, but it meant she was actually getting ill.

It felt like an age before she returned. Her face looked paler and he wondered if she'd thrown up again, she did look a little clammy. She stuffed the bag back into her desk drawer and ran a hand over her face as she sat down. He knew she was deliberately refusing to meet his gaze, but he didn't know whether it was because he was right and she wanted to keep the news to herself, or because he'd been wrong and she was finding the strength not to throttle him on the spot.

They were both glad that the others weren't back yet. Olivia leaned back in her chair and put a hand to her churning stomach. She closed her eyes against yet another wave of nausea and grimaced when she thought for a second that she was going to have to make a run for the nearest trashcan that wasn't just a basket.

"You okay?" Nick's voice broke into her thoughts and she opened her eyes to look at him with an unconvincing nod.

He was still struggling to get a read on her when she moved forward and folded her arms on her desk. She looked around again, hearing the faint noise of Rollins and Fin returning, she flashed him a small, unconvincing smile.

"I'm pregnant."

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