Chapter 26

Cragen-Stabler residence, Manhattan, New York

Monday, January 13th 2016

7.49 am

Elliot dragged himself into the bullpen. He still didn't know where his wife and kids were and he was scared that he wouldn't, he was scared she'd left him for good and taken their kids with her. Munch, Fin, The Commissioner and George Huang were getting increasingly worried about Elliot, it was obvious he'd been drinking the night before and now he looked like he'd not changed his shirt.

"Stabler a word?" Rockwell called from the door of Olivia's office.

Elliot sighed and pushed his chair back and lazily walked into the office. When he looked around at all the pictures Olivia had put on the wall of their family he felt the tears build in his eyes, he missed them, he missed her more than he ever thought possible.

"Elliot you need to find your wife." Rockwell said and Elliot stared at him.

"What do you expect me to do she isn't answering any of my calls!" Elliot yelled angrily.

"She wouldn't have been able to get far without money, I want you to track her cards, see what she last spent money on and where." Rockwell explained.

"Ok." Elliot nodded. "Thank you."

"Get on it." Rockwell informed him and Elliot looked happier than he had since he'd discovered Olivia had packed up and taken the kids.

The Strand, Manhattan Beach, California

Monday, January 13th 2016

10.27 am

Olivia and Nanny Sue were walking down The Strand in Manhattan Beach. They'd had a relaxing few days and Olivia seemed happier than she had since before she'd lost her parents. She walked hand pushing George's pushchair while Liliana and Alexandra held onto the sides beside her. She had her hair coloured again, just some golden streaks throughout. She wore large sunglasses to shield her eyes from the blissfully warm January sun and a long white skirt with a simple white tank top and grey flimsy cardigan. Nanny Sue was witnessing a dramatic change in her employer but a good change that she would do nothing to stop, she walked beside Olivia pushing Alyah and Elysah in their double buggy with Nicole beside her. Melissa was staying with her aunt and they were heading to meet them. Olivia had spoken with Maureen since being in California and she'd found out they were in San Francisco staying with Kathy's parents and they would be joining them in the afternoon which all the kids were looking forward to seeing their siblings, and the Stabler's looking forward to getting to see George much sooner than they thought would be possible.

The group finally turned up Second Street and walked to the café that everyone had agreed to meet at on Manhattan Avenue. Olivia had laughed a lot, she was at Manhattan Beach and now going to Manhattan Avenue when she'd escaped from Manhattan needing a break.

Manhattan SVU, Manhattan, New York

Monday, January 13th 2016

11.11 am

"Yes!" Elliot yelled as he slammed down the phone gaining everyone's attention.

"What is it Elliot?" Fin asked in surprise.

"I found Liv!" He beamed.

"Well?" Munch called as Elliot typed more details into his computer.

"She's in Manhattan Beach California." Elliot grinned happily, just knowing where his wife and kids were made him feel better.

"Who does Liv know in California?" Fin frowned, he had a memory like a fish sometimes.

"Melissa's biological aunt and cousins." Elliot replied as he clicked print and rushed over to get the documents he wanted.

Once he'd printed what he needed he rushed to the office and he didn't even bother knocking choosing to drop the papers in front of the Commissioner visibly pleased with himself but still not quite looking like himself.

"So she's California." The Commissioner sighed as he flicked through the information. "She didn't even try to cover her tracks Stabler." He noted that Olivia had paid for everything with her cards which a cop who was running away wouldn't do.

"I know, but Sir I need to go and see her, try and save my marriage." He explained.

"I know, I want you out on a flight tomorrow, finish what you can of your paperwork and then hand it over to one of the rookie's this time tomorrow you will be well on your way to saving your marriage." Rockwell smiled.

"Thank you." Elliot said and the boss could see that the words spoken were sincere.

"I want her back too, she's too much of an asset to SVU, we can't afford to lose her Stabler so don't screw this up."

Manhattan Avenue, Manhattan Beach, California

Monday, January 13th 2016

11.36 am

Olivia smiled as she watched her kids with the Daniel's. She was sat beside Caroline Daniels, Melissa's biological aunt who she'd met when she had been heavily pregnant with Nicole and had stayed in touch with for Melissa's sake.

"So How's Elliot?" Caroline asked seeing that he wasn't there.

"Oh he's fine, working but I'm on maternity and thought I wanted a break." Olivia smiled.

"Oh that's good." Caroline smiled sensing Olivia didn't want to talk about her husband and so decided to change the subject.

"The kids are growing up wonderfully Olivia." She noted.

"Thank you." Olivia smiled. "So are yours I can't believe Samantha's a woman now, I mean she was hardly a teenager when we met." Olivia smiled.

"You're lucky to have caught her, she's in school up in Oregon." Caroline smiled.

"Well I'm glad I came when I did then." Olivia smiled, she adored Caroline's eldest, they spoke on the phone quite often.

"She's trying for a transfer to NYU though, she thinks the big apple is for her." Caroline smiled. "I'm just not too comfortable with the distance."

"We're there Carol, I'll make sure she's ok." Olivia smiled and Caroline nodded gratefully, she wouldn't expect anything less from the woman who had adopted her niece.

"Mommy when can we go swimming?" Lili asked across the table.

"Once everyone's had lunch Lil." Olivia replied, the kids were dying to go swimming yet again in the hotel pool and she wasn't going to deny them. "You'll come back with us?" Olivia asked Caroline.

"Of course, Samantha packed everyone's swimwear just in case." She used her fingers for inverted comas making Olivia laugh softly.

"It's so good to be back out here." Olivia smiled. "I don't know why I always seem to escape to Cali."

"It's a beautiful state." Caroline replied deciding not to comment on the fact Olivia had said 'escape'.

"Yeah and you guys are out here." She smiled as Montana came over to hug her.

Montana had been only four when Olivia had met her, the now twelve year old wrapped her arms around Olivia's neck and rested her head on her shoulder.

"You ok Monty?" Olivia asked as she ran her hand through her golden locks, she was a double of Melissa so it was obvious to anyone they were somehow related.

"Yeah I missed you all Aunty Livia." Montana sighed enjoying the comfort she was getting from Olivia's hand in her hair.

"I missed you all too Montana. So much." Olivia replied turning her head so she could kiss Montana's.

"When I'm older I want to come live in New York so I am by you." Montana smiled.

"Really? Well we'll see about that." Olivia laughed as she tickled Montana's belly before the pre-teen ran off back to her cousin.

"She thinks the world of you." Caroline told her.

"I think the world of her too." Olivia replied as she looked at her daughter and cousin talking with each other even though she couldn't hear them.

"I know, she still comments that you still have the picture she made the first time you came here." Caroline smiled.

"I keep everything the kids make or give me, I can't help it." Olivia shrugged.

"Your kids will love you for it when they're older and want to look back through their memories." Caroline told her. "They'll appreciate you just that little bit more."

"Maybe." Olivia smiled as she turned to look at George sleeping in his pushchair.

"He's beautiful Olivia." Caroline smiled. "I saw online about how he was born."

"Wow you really do keep checking up on us huh?" Olivia laughed.

"Well I have to know what the best cop in New York is up to as much as I can." Caroline smiled back.

Manhattan Hope Hotel, Manhattan Beach, California

Monday, January 13th 2016

2.14 pm

"Olivia!" Lizzie's voice echoed from the doorway to the roof pool.

"Hey Elizabeth!" Olivia smiled getting up to receive an embrace from her fourteen year old stepdaughter.

"Hey Liv." Dickie smiled as he walked over followed by Kathleen and Maureen with Kathy.

"Hey guys." Olivia smiled as they each gave her a welcoming embrace. "Oh I've missed you." She sighed as she looked at the four of them.

"We've missed you too." Maureen smiled as Kathy sat down unsure what to say.

"The kids are all in the pool I see you have your swimwear why don't you go and join them?" Olivia suggested and they all nodded and hurried off as there was no signs of George around for them to fawn over, he happened to be in the room with Nanny Sue having a nap.

"Hi Kathy how are you?" Olivia asked sitting back down in her seat beside the blonde woman.

"I'm fine Olivia and you?" She asked softly, it was hard to think this woman was the woman Olivia had punched and been arrested for seven years ago, since she'd moved with the kids she'd had a friendlier relationship with her ex-husband's new wife.

"Good." Olivia replied unsure how else to put it.

"So what happened?" Kathy asked pushing her sun glasses up and turning her head towards Olivia, her eyes squinting a little in the sunlight.

"What do you mean?" Olivia frowned.

"You run Olivia, when something goes wrong you run and you've ended up in California with your kids without any preparation so it's obvious you ran and seeing as Elliot isn't with you it's either for your safety or from him so which is it?" Kathy asked.

"You know me too well." Olivia sighed as she looked out over the pool at her kids and step kids playing with their cousins.

"I was married to your husband for fifteen years ten of those while he was in love with you. Of course I know you Olivia but you're not getting out of it that easy, what happened between the two of you?" Kathy asked keeping her gazed fixed upon Olivia.

"We fought." Olivia replied finally turning to look at Kathy, lifting her sun glasses too in the process.

"That's no surprise the two of you fought like dogs in the past, what was so different this time?" Kathy continued and Olivia sighed, she knew that there was no getting out of this one.

"We were arguing about neither one of us being around for the kids because we're always working, I asked him when was the last time he was at one of our kids events and I reminded him that they were our kids and that I wasn't in this to be a single parent and he said only five out of seven were his." Olivia explained trying to hide that tears pricked her eyes.

"Oh Olivia…" Kathy sighed. "If you didn't know Elliot has a disease commonly known as foot in mouth disease, seriously, he didn't mean that and you know it even if you chose to run away from it you know he didn't mean to say that at all." Kathy informed her.

"The kids heard Kathy." Olivia sighed. "Melissa and Nicole heard him say that only five of the kids were his and I wasn't going to sit there and let them have their hearts broken, they've already lost one father and I am not going to stand there and watch as they lose another."

"Liv get it into your head, he loves them, he loves Melissa and Nicole as much as he loves the other nine of his kids." Kathy was straight up with her, she wasn't going to sugar coat anything for her.

"I know but they heard him Kathy you should have seen their faces." Olivia whispered, she hadn't got that image out of her head yet, it was all too fresh in her mind.

"I can't imagine it Olivia, I can't begin to think how they must have felt but give him a chance to tell them himself, give him the chance to be their Dad again before it's too late." Kathy sighed. "He loves you and his kids more than anything else in the world and I bet he's worried sick not knowing where you are."

Olivia's head snapped towards her, she hadn't mentioned not telling Elliot where she was with the kids.

"I'm not stupid, if you run away you don't tell the person you're running from where your running to." Kathy smiled.

The conversation was changed as Nanny Sue came up with a bouncing George in her arms.

"I've got the float if you want to take him into the water Olivia, he's already in his swim nappy." Nanny Sue smiled handing the nineteen day old baby over to his Mommy.

"Thanks Sue, I think I'll do just that." She smiled as she had him lean on her bent legs at the thighs and held tight to his hands as he bounced happily.

"You wanna go swimming Georgie?" Olivia asked in a mock baby voice as she pulled happy faces towards her son.

"Pass him back so you can change." Nanny Sue smiled and Olivia quickly handed him over and took off her skirt and tank to reveal a simple white two piece.

"She's had seven kids and still looks like that." Kathy shook her head towards Nanny Sue as Olivia took George back in her arms.

"Kath…"

"No Olivia don't you dare say I'm as thin if not thinner than you, I know that but the point of the matter is that I have horrid stretch marks and skin that dangles all horribly, I could never wear something like that." Kathy smiled. "You can tell you did all the lotions and work outs throughout your pregnancies."

"I didn't do any work outs except for chasing perps and running all over New York chasing leads." Olivia laughed. "But I did do all the lotions."

"You're so lucky." Kathy sighed. "I'll go put on my one piece and join you and the kids." Kathy smiled picking up her bag.

"Sure come on it will be fun." Olivia smiled before walking over to the steps with George in her arms.

Olivia gently got into the water with George. She'd taken Nicole to Mommy and Me swimming classes out of boredom when she had been on maternity leave and had loved it so had continued to teach all her kids to swim, even at age three Ali and Eli were confident swimmers. Once in the water she held George in her arms and gently swooshed him through the water on his back. It was a bit premature for her to do much else as he was so young, with her other children they didn't start until four weeks old and George wasn't even three yet. He was happy in the water which was a good thing, the first time she and Elliot had taken Lexi and Lili they had screamed for the first twenty minutes which had made it very difficult to teach them anything but George was definitely a water baby.

As Kathy walked over she smiled seeing Olivia pull faces and blow softly on her son's face, it was obvious to Kathy that Olivia was a great Mom to her children and she was a little jealous that she hadn't had any more after her twins with Elliot even though she was remarried.

"He loves the water." Kathy smiled as Olivia put him into a float designed to have him lying on his back with about a millimetre of water on his back.

"Yeah he does." Olivia smiled as she gently rocked the float still maintaining eye contact with him as he giggled at her.

"You took all of them swimming?" Kathy asked looking over to where Alyah and Elysah where holding hands getting ready to jump into the pool.

"Yeah, had to find something to do over maternity, my Mom saw and add for Mommy and Me swim classes when I was off with Nicole and she suggested I give it a go, I liked swimming was on the swim team at school so I thought why not and I carried on with all the kids." Olivia explained as she gently pushed the float back towards where Nanny Sue was with the towel.

"You getting out?" Kathy asked.

"No just George, he's not even three weeks old yet he shouldn't be in the pool more than fifteen minutes." Olivia smiled as she kicked her legs so she was swimming while pushing the float. "Once he's out Nanny Sue will feed him and we can go join the others."

Kathy smiled, it was a rare occasion that she and Olivia could spend some time together and with their kids without Elliot, the awkwardness of talking since Elliot and Kathy's divorce was gone, the accusing and the strong dislike had passed and now they could actually start to consider each other friends, it was a strange day but little did Olivia know that tomorrow would be even stranger.

I have some ideas now thanks for those who sent me some they're good and I don't know if I'll use any but this chapter is just for the sake of it really I'm going on with the story in the next chapter.