A/N: Sorry! Life has been a little hectic. Back to our regularly scheduled weekly updates after this week! As always, thanks for reading and reviewing. Your comments keep me going!
"Braxton-Hicks? Sheesh… forgot about that," Elliot exhaled, making eye contact with his wife in the mirror before returning to his teeth-brushing.
"Tell me about it!" She exclaimed, exasperatedly for their poor daughter. "And it's specially worse cause it's Katie… like she needs anything else to think about."
"Well," Elliot said, after spitting his toothpaste and wiping his mouth. "There's a lot of induction methods happening in that house, I think, so hopefully not too much longer."
"Feel that," she chuckled, rubbing her bare belly.
She was wearing just a pair of his boxers, the waist band resting below the curve of their baby girl, and a sports bra that her growing breasts were just about spilling out of.
"Hear that girlie?" El asked, slowly stepped towards her and placing his hands on top of her's. "When it's time, no games okay? And the sooner the better!"
Liv giggled softly, leaning to rest her forehead against his hard chest.
"I hate to break it to you, but I don't think daughter number 5 will listen to you any better than the first 4."
"A man can hope," he teased.
"Speaking of four," she chuckled, "how was your day with our baby?"
"It was so nice," he said with a happy sigh. "We bought a bunch of stuff for Finley and we picked out paint colors and all sorts of stuff," he smiled.
"She said she was gonna come in and show me once she was sure Noah was asleep," she laughed. "You get to talk to her about the dance thing?"
"I did," he sighed. "It's not her I'm worried about… it's Hannah. I know she doesn't come from a great home so all of this is making me nervous."
"I know… and I agree. We just have to keep and eye on things and trust that our baby girl is going to be honest with us if the time comes."
"I think she will… I think she needs some time with me today, so I'm so glad that we got to spend that time together."
"I'm glad too baby," Liv smiled, tilting her head to peck his lips again.
"Plus… I think she's breaking up with Jake."
"I hope so," Liv sighed. "I love the boy, but even Dani agrees- it's become too much!"
"Agreed. We don't need another Eli and Sam through high school and college… speaking of…" he trailed off.
A soft knock on their bathroom door interrupted them.
"We'll revisit those two," Liv said with a playful eye roll before reaching behind her to open the door with a smile. "Hi baby… let me put a shirt on," she chuckled.
"Oh my gosh mommy don't worry, you're hot I get it," Emma laughed, taking her hand and pulling her out to the bedroom. "Noah's asleep, now come on!" She grinned.
"Okay!" Liv shrugged with a laugh, waddling out behind her daughter with both hands supporting her back.
"Long day at work, mom?" Emma asked, helping her climb into bed and get comfortable.
"Work or not, days are just long now," she laughed. "Now, tell me what you got!"
The pair got into it, and Elliot watched quietly from the door to their bedroom, arms crossed and simply quietly watching.
They were two peas in a pod, laughing and oohing and aweing over the adorable and frilly clothes.
"Oh you had something like this!" Liv laughed softly, wrapping her arm around her daughter. "Actually," she added, laughing a little harder. "Your Uncle Fin bought it!"
"No way!" Emma said with a loud giggle.
"Way! I have a picture, actually," Liv said, giggling and looking to Elliot.
She caught his eye, seeing him deep in thought; watching them bond and laugh, all with a warm and dopey smile on his face.
"Daddy?" Liv called with a laugh, pulling him from his trance.
"Hm?" He asked with a laugh.
"Can you go into my closet and get the little bin in the back with the photo album in the back?"
"Absolutely," he smiled, blinking quickly and gathering what she'd asked for before joining them on the bed.
"Dad come snuggle," Emma smiled, motioning for him to sit back on the bed with them before digging through the box and grabbing the baby book her mom had pointed out.
Slowly and carefully, Elliot crawled beside Liv and Emma settled between them, the pair looking through the books, laughing and discussing memories and moments he'd missed.
He was misty and half way through the album, wrapped his arm around them both and settled his face against the side of his daughter's head.
"Oh," Liv smiled. "There it is!" She laughed, pointing out the photo of Emma in a similar outfit to one they'd purchased that day.
She was just about 4 months old and in her laughing Uncle Fin's arms. Her blonde hair was wild and her blue eyes were shining, even in the grainy and aged photo.
"Daddy… are you crying?" Emma asked after a minute once a soft sniffle interjected the mother and daughter's giggled.
El quickly wiped his eyes and shook his head. "No," he laughed, nudging her.
"You big softy," she giggled, looking back to her photos while Liv looked over her head at him.
"Love you," she mouthed.
"Love you, more," he whispered.
The following day, El was up early with Teddy. Eli had come over, and the pair were hanging out in the living room, drinking coffee.
"She going into work today?" Eli asked, glancing down to where Teddy was playing on the floor the twins.
"Yes she is," Liv answered, rounding the corner, already dressed for the day.
"Hi mama," Teddy grinned, jumping up and running to her to hug her legs, followed closely by the fast crawling twins.
"Hi guys," Liv chuckled, slowly squatting to hug them all.
"Careful," El whispered, making her roll her eyes.
"I actually feel good today," she promised with a smile, standing with a little bit more ease than usual.
"You look like you've dropped," El said, wincing lightly.
"Have I?" She questioned, looking down at her belly.
"Yeah, definitely," Sam said, coming up the stairs in a pair of shorts and one of Eli's Princeton t-shirts. "Katie is having contractions for real," she announced, scooping up Teddy when he ran over.
The twins were still trying to get into their Cap's arms, and she sat on the nearest sofa while Eli placed them beside her.
"How far apart?" Liv asked, wrapping her arms around her grandbabies who snuggled into her side in sync.
"45 minutes. Doctor said to come in when they hit 30 minutes but it's for real, so possibly some time today."
"Shoot," she sighed. "Okay… I have to go into the office for a little bit but…"
"I'll go in with her and Beau if you guys don't mind taking Ted for the day?" El asked his son.
"Of course," he nodded. "What about Emma and Noah?"
"Dance all day," Sam said, popping down beside him and swinging her legs over his lap. "I can take them in." She nodded, smiling when Teddy snuggled into her.
Eli's eyes lit up. "Actually… I don't mind dropping them off."
All three adults in the room looked to him with raised brows.
He held his hands up quickly. "I'll be nice!"
"You'd better!" Emma said as she rounded the corner of the stairs, dressed and holding her and Noah's bags.
"He's all bark and no bite," Noah drawled, following behind her and yawning. "Coffee?"
"You're too young!" Liv reminded him, causing a dramatic sigh to fall from his lips.
"So lame," he grumbled, handing Liv her phone when it started to ring.
"Alright you guys, I need to get going, she said, standing after popping sweet kisses on her grand babies heads. "Everyone behave," she warned, looking between all of them.
"It's the Elliot's we have to worry about," Emma said only half teasing.
EJ looked up to her when his name was said, and everyone awed as Noah scooped him up. "You're sooooo smart," he lamented, squishing their faces together.
"So smart," Liv agreed, giving everyone hugs and kisses. "Keep me updated on Katie," she called with a smile before leaving.
"What happened to voluntary bedrest," Eli grumbled.
"That lasted a week. Now she's on two or three days in the office on desk duty," El grumbled back.
Sam looked between the pair and laughed. "You two are too damn much."
The day progressed just as slowly as Katie's labor.
Liv was stuck watching an interrogation while Elliot went to the hospital to be with his daughter and on-the-verge-of-puking son in law.
Eli had dropped the kids off, staying in the car under the promise of Emma pointing out Jules so that he could put a face with the nam, before spending a few hours running all the errands Sam had tasked him with.
"I have a bad feeling about today," Eli announced once he'd walked through the front door with all of the bags he'd gathered.
All there littles were down for their afternoon nap and Sam was folding laundry on the couch.
"Okay… why's that?" She asked, patting the seat beside her and putting a calming hand on his back when he popped down.
"I don't know, I can't explain it," he said with a soft sigh.
"Well," she said, leaning to peck his cheek. "You've got your parents instincts that's for sure. What are you worried about?"
"Emma, Katie, mom," he sighed, shaking his head. "She shouldn't be working."
"She's Olivia Benson, she'll be okay like she always is."
"Maybe… but Emma and Kate?"
"Kathleen is much stronger than anyone gives her credit for. She'll be just fine, too, and so will Emma. This is such an exciting time, Eli," she smiled, gently pushing him back so she could crawl into his lap.
"I know, I know," he sighed softly, settling his hands on her hips and looking up to her with a lazy smile.
"We've got some time before they wake up… how about we put the groceries away and then take a little time for us?" She asked, sliding her hands down the abs tucked away under his tshirt.
"Sounds perfect to me," he nodded with a smile.
Whatever was troubling her son… Liv felt it too.
She was on hour 6 of the interrogation, finally having entered the room after 2 hours or watching. She was flanked on either side by Fin and Joe for protection, and had been non-stop working the guy since she went in before finally announcing she needed to step out for a pee break and to check in with the family.
Ever the multitasker, during the break she scanned the message from Elliot that said Katie was still in labor with minimal progress and replied to the text from Eli about the weird feeling he'd been having all day.
She's just walked out of the bathroom when her phone lit up with a FaceTime notification from Eli.
Upon answering, Emma's guilty looking and Eli's proud dad face filled the screen as an enthusiastic chorus of Noah's reenactment rang from the speakers.
All Liv heard was "punch" and "blood everywhere" before Emma's quick "I can explain" was interrupted by a phone call from Elliot.
"That's your dad, I'll call you right back," she said sternly, clicking over.
"Hi baby, everything okay?" She asked quickly.
"Get here now, they're rushing her into a c-section."
TBC