171.

The bedroom Ed and Olivia were sharing had neither windows nor a traditional clock, so the only ways they were able to tell what time it was when they woke up were either to listen for sounds of others starting their day, tapping their phones, or checking Noah's level of consciousness. Since he'd chosen to bunk with Sarah and Brooke the night before and the house was silent, Ed guessed it was between six and seven when he first opened his eyes. The mattress was softer than theirs and sagged a bit in the middle which didn't bother him one bit. He welcomed any imperfection resulting in a higher likelihood of Olivia staying close to him during the night. One thought led to another and he chuckled when he remembered an Uber Facts tweet he'd read not too long ago-something about cuddling and addiction. Olivia appeared to be asleep, but she asked, in a mumble, what was so funny.

"Was thinkin' about a fact I learned recently."

"A fact?"

"Yeah. Couples who cuddle get addicted to each other. Somewhere along those lines. I'd look it up, but I don't want to let you go. Mmmm," Ed droned into her shoulder. The house was a little drafty but he was plenty warm under the covers with his wife.

"I'm very interested in learning more," Olivia said, "But I can wait."

Ed buried his face in her neck so his lips would touch her skin when he spoke, "Last day. You ready to get back?"

"In the sense I want to see Maggie and Wyatt, yes."

"Next time we'll bring them."

"A few years."

"Yeah." Ed threaded his fingers through hers and the familiar ache formed in his midsection. He kissed her a few more times and waited for a response.

Olivia's shoulders rose and fell. She rolled onto her back, gazed up at her bleary-eyed yet amorous husband, and touched his face. She smiled and raised her hips to his. "It's amazing," she murmured, "How, in a few minutes, I can go from being fast asleep to wanting you so badly."

Ed smirked and descended upon her lips. He kissed her hungrily, fiercely, and he had Olivia's pajama bottoms halfway off when the stairs outside their bedroom creaked under the weight of footsteps. There were no locks on doors, so, to be safe, Ed groaned and tugged Olivia's pants back up to her waist. On the way he brushed his fingers between her legs. She shivered and playfully glared at him.

"Daddy? You awake?"

"Yep," Ed replied in a labored voice.

Noah pushed the door open, but he wasn't alone. Sarah shuffled in as well and worked on twisting her behead into a ponytail as she spoke. "Up for breakfast?" She asked. "We haven't had a traditional Irish breakfast since we've been here!"

Noah held up Sarah's phone. He had his for taking pictures but Ed and Olivia had not applied international service to his device. "We found two places. We can walk," he said." And both five stars!"

"Fantastic," Ed muttered. He sat up a little but didn't relinquish his grip on Olivia.

Olivia started to say something in response to breakfast, but she saw another head poke into the room. "Good morning, Caroline," she said through a yawn.

"Morning!" Caroline said brightly, "I brought coffee up! A little booze in bed for two of us at least." She set two mugs on one of the night tables and scurried back near the door as if she'd broken an invisible barrier between the married couple and everyone else.

"You made coffee already?" Olivia asked. "We didn't hear anything or anyone."

"I work quietly."

"Did I hear coffee?" Brooke asked, joining the semicircle at the foot of the bed.

Doing his best to seem annoyed, Ed's eyes darted from Olivia to the rest of the group, and back to Olivia. He reached across for the mugs and handed hers over first. "Cheers," he whispered, gazing at her intently before turning back to his children and mother, "Are you gonna stand there all morning?"

"Oh, sorry," Sarah mumbled, "I guess we did, sort of, invade."

"At least get your coffee," Olivia said.

"So it doesn't feel like voyeurism," Ed added.

"It means looking at people in bed," Sarah answered, anticipating Noah asking for someone to define the unfamiliar word. "And yes! Let's all have our coffee with Livvie and Daddy!"

Olivia stifled a laugh, "Hopefully he'll forget that over the summer," she said under her breath.

"Hopefully they're not really coming back in here," Ed replied.

"Ed!"

"Where're they gonna sit?"

Olivia burst into a quick spurt of laughter as she imagined sharing their bed, which was much smaller than they had at home, with three other adults and Noah. "Maybe we should beat them to the punch and go downstairs?"

"I guess."

Olivia grinned and kissed him on the lips.

"You're cute when you pout, Ed Tucker."

….

Ireland was not left behind without reluctance and a few tears. Before getting into the car, Caroline stepped into the middle of the lane and slowly turned in a circle. Olivia watched her take in what was most likely her final in-person view of her birthplace and blinked back tears. Steely as ever, Caroline smiled and nodded toward the sea then dipped her head and took her place in the front seat. The long ride to the airport was taken mostly in silence. While Ed kept careful eyes on the road, everyone else watched the rural greenspace gradually give way to the city. By the time they returned the car, no more than a handful of words had been spoken since departing Cobh. Normalcy returned for a couple of hours while they waited to board the airplane. The family ate lunch, bantered, and scrolled through photographs. The reality of leaving didn't completely hit Noah until he was buckled in his seat. He started crying as soon as the plane started taxiing.

"I don't wanna go," He moaned, sniffling, in response to Olivia asking him what was wrong. "I wanna 'splore more!"

"Sweetheart," Olivia said, "I know it's hard to leave. We had so much fun. But, that's the deal we make when we take trips. They have to end. But," she continued in a cheery voice, "We'll take more trips! You're seven-years-old. You have a lot of traveling ahead." Olivia hugged him as best she could from her own seat and felt terrible, for she knew her words weren't good enough. She also sensed Noah, even at his tender age, understood this vacation was not one's typical getaway. It held higher significance than most trips he would take in his life. "And think about how nice it's going to be to see Maggie and Wyatt!" She added.

Noah's face, though tear-stained, brightened a bit. "They're gonna baby pile!"

"They sure are!"

"And they're gonna love all da presents."

"I'm sure they will." Olivia seized the opportunity to further distract him, "Do you think Justin's ready for us to come and get them?"

Noah giggled, "Yup! Those babies get hyper a lot and Justy's prolly super tired! You know what we should get Justy for a present?"

"What?" Olivia was keenly interested in Noah's idea, for the gifts they'd purchased didn't come close to repaying Justin for taking impeccable care of their three-year-olds.

"A nap!" Noah cracked up at his own joke.

Sarah and Brooke were behind them and Sarah overheard Noah's suggestion. "Noey!" She exclaimed, "You are amazing! We should totally get Justin a staycation! Or, well, a stayworkcation? Is that a thing?"

"I'm sure he barely got any writing done," Olivia admitted. "Not a bad idea. Ed? What do you think?"

"Sounds good to me," Ed replied from across the aisle, unsure of what exactly he was agreeing to.

By the time they landed, Justin was booked for a weekend in a hotel suite with strong Wifi and great views. Sarah planned to join him in the evenings and booked a couples massage and spa package for one of the two nights. "Brooke," she said, "You and Sonny should do the same thing. We'll watch Sof."

"Then do I need to buy you another weekend at a hotel?" Brooke joked.

Sarah shrugged, "I wouldn't mind."

"Sonny was with his daughter," Brooke pointed out. "Not exactly the same thing."

"True, true. Well, the offer stands."

After the plane had reached the proper altitude, the flight attendants started making rounds. Noah ordered a Cherry Coke and happily chose a couple of bags of snacks. Relieved he'd calmed down, Olivia leaned back against the headrest. Noah was back in good spirits and she was mere hours from seeing her precious twins. She looked over at Ed and smiled. He was already starting to doze off. Maybe he had the right idea. Tomorrow they'd have the whole family back together and the two little ones had no concept of jet lag or allowing travelers a couple of days to get back into a routine. Life would be exhausting in the immediate future, but she would not have it any other way.

….

FF

…...

Justin kept the twins up until everyone returned which wasn't a huge problem since they'd been staying up past their bedtime the entire week. Sarah texted the whole way from the airport, but he didn't tell Maggie and Wyatt anything was out of the ordinary. They knew their parents and brother were returning soon, but Justin nevertheless wanted it to be as much of a surprise as possible.

Hearing the knock on the door, both Maggie and Wyatt looked up from their toys and at Justin with wide eyes.

"Who's that?" He asked.

"Mama?"

"Dada?"

"No!"

The twins and Pearl rushed down the hallway. Sarah entered first. Pearl jumped on her, sending her flying back into the door. Wyatt stomped his feet, too excited to do anything else. Maggie plowed through a narrow gap in everyone's legs and was swept into Olivia's arms.

"Hi my sweet girl!" She said breathlessly, "My sweet, sweet Maggie! I missed you so much!"

Ed picked up Wyatt and tossed him in the air before wrapping him in a bear hug. Once both twins had soaked up the affection of their parents, they strained for Noah. Olivia watched the group hug with teary eyes. Ed kissed her cheek. The five of them didn't linger long at the Vidal residence. They profusely thanked Justin and reminded Sarah to give him the gifts they'd brought. Olivia and Sarah exchanged sly looks, thrilled with themselves for the hotel room idea. Ed promised they would all get together for dinner soon. And then they were on their way into the waiting cab.

Sarah wrapped her arms around Justin's neck and kissed him. "You are the most wonderful man in the world," she said.

He shot her a shy smile. "I'm happy to see you too," he said. "Welcome home."

"Thank you."

"Want me to help you unpack?"

"No, actually, I want to give you one of your presents."

Justin grinned. "Really."

"Not that," Sarah swatted his chest, "Well, yes that, but first...here!" She showed him the hotel confirmation page on her phone.

"What's this?"

"We got you a hotel room for the weekend! So you can write in peace! No dog. No kids. No me, well, me, but later in the night!"

Justin backed away from her and screwed up his face.

Sarah narrowed her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"You get back and you want me gone?" The gift stung in a way Sarah didn't, and couldn't, understand since she didn't know her boss had inadvertently told Justin about the Frankfurt offer-an offer which bothered him less and less as the week went on but now came right back and slapped him in the face. What was going on with her?

Had Justin's mind been clearer, he would've realized Sarah had used we when presenting the gift. He would have maybe asked another question, a different question, a less combative question, but instead he assumed Sarah was pushing him away at the precise time he wanted them to be close together. But he couldn't articulate any of this in the heat of the moment. All he heard was Justin I want you away for the weekend.

Sarah, too, was shocked for her own, separate reasons. "No I don't want you gone," she said in a cutting, sarcastic voice. "I want you to have some time that you didn't get in the past week to work. Remember? Your chapter? You've been talking about it for months and months?"

"When's this weekend start? Tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"Fine," he jerked his head at the phone, "Send it to me." Justin grabbed his jacket and jammed his feet in his sneakers.

"Where are you going?"

"To get a drink and dinner." He glared at her and shoved his keys in his pocket for emphasis. "Alone."

….

Brooke accompanied Caroline to Riverdale and waited at the house for Sonny and Sofia to pick her up. From the living room window she saw him scratch to a halt in the driveway and jump out practically before the wheels had stopped rolling. Sonny started bounding toward the door but stopped on a dime and spun around, for he had forgotten Sofia who was sleeping in her car seat. Brooke chose not to think about the zillions of stories she'd heard about parents leaving their children to die in hot cars and instead laughed along with her husband who was still chuckling when he flung open the door and opened his arms as wide as possible with Sofia in one of them.

"Gimme some sugar," Caroline said. She grinned when Sonny kissed her cheek, "And give me the baby." She carried Sofia into the living room and cradled her in the rocking chair leaving Sonny and Brooke alone on the enclosed porch.

"You were greatly missed," Sonny said in between kisses. "It felt like you've been gone a month!"

"Back to normal now," Brooke said.

"Nah," Sonny lifted her chin with a knuckle, "Back to a whole new appreciation of you by me."

Brooke tried to brush off the compliment with a laugh and another kiss, which Sonny gladly took but cut shorter than she'd intended. "I mean it," he said. "I always knew I had the easier role. The fun role. But actually being, or trying to be mom and dad? I was on the phone with my mom half the time. The other half I was calculating when I was gonna catch up on my sleep. And I don't even want to tell you what we've been eating! Brooke, baby, I love you but, I want you to know, I also admire and appreciate you. I don't say it enough. I didn't realize enough. But I do now."

"Boy you must have really had a hard week," Brooke joked. Sonny, though, looked crestfallen. She kicked herself. Here he was, pouring his heart out, pathetically so, but still doing it and she couldn't respond to the very sincere compliments with even so much as a thank you. Her face softened and she held his hands. "What I meant to say was, thank you," she said softly. "It was hard being away from you and Sof, but, I, um, I guess-"

"-your routine's your routine. It's second nature to you."

"Right. Anyway," she smiled at him and replaced part of his hair that was falling across his forehead, "Let's go home. I'm ready to be home with you and Sof."

"Should we get Caroline dinner?"

"She's going to card club."

"Tonight?"

Brooke let out an incredulous whistle, "The oldest and youngest members of our travel crew wore us out," she said, "Endless energy. I can explain Noah's. Not hers. But, I think, like all of us, she missed her people."

"We sure did."

A vibrating phone interrupted their sweet moment. Sonny patted his back pocket and announced it wasn't him. Brooke found her phone and rolled her eyes at eight messages from Sarah. But then she read them. One after the other, in all caps, Sarah told Brooke about Justin's reaction.

"What is it?"

"One reunion isn't so happy apparently." Brooke put the phone back in her purse without responding. "C'mon. I'll tell you on the way home."

…...

The draft of Justin's chapter turned out to be much better received than he predicted, and he bopped his head to music on the subway ride home. He bounded up the stairs and jauntily strode the two blocks to their building excited to see Sarah and tell her about the professor's feedback. He was also looking forward to apologizing for being so difficult about the hotel room. After storming from the apartment the night of her return he and Sarah barely said a word to each other the next day and she decided not to join him at all during the hotel stay. When he returned home Sunday night and through Monday morning they moved around the apartment stealthily, trying to avoid each other and speaking only when absolutely necessary. It wasn't a tough task. They both had to go back to work.

Over coffee, the members of his research team all screwed up their faces and told him he was being unreasonable in the way he initially responded. They all cheekily volunteered to take the room off his hands. Justin nodded, conceding their point, but also offered another perspective. It wasn't the first time he had to adjust to his life being very different from the way he grew up, he'd explained. In response, one of his classmates reminded him that his wife and her family weren't free from blame. She was right. Sarah and the others had always projected their values onto him. Justin was sure no one thought twice about giving him the hotel room for the weekend. But they probably should have. At the same time, he had also reacted out of the emotion of knowing Sarah had kept information from him. He left that detail out.

But he'd cleared his head. It was okay. It was all okay. He and Sarah loved each other. They had great families. After the week with the twins Justin was further elevated in the opinions of everyone, most of all Maggie and Wyatt. Olivia had been sending texts daily and reporting the twins were still talking about all the fun they'd had with "Jussy." It was time to set things straight with his wife, to get back on track, and he was practically floating on air thinking about resuming their happy life together.

So, the tense conversation between their building's doorman and another man on the sidewalk didn't register. At first it struck him as one of the ball-busting exchanges he'd heard hundreds of times over the years on New York's streets. But this was a fairly quiet, residential block near Union Square. Justin saw the two men facing each other, inches apart. Obviously, the doorman was familiar to him, but, immediately he recognized the other guy from the picture G had shown him during last week's early morning visit. He rushed over and intervened.

"What's goin on?"

"Oh, Mr., uh, Justin," The doorman stammered remembering how Justin hated the formal address, "You know this guy? He's sayin' he's a friend of Miss Mitchell but he's not on the list and she's not answering."

"Then he doesn't need to come in," Justin said.

"I have an appointment with her," the other guy sneered. "And I'll wait."

"Not here," the doorman replied, "I'll take your information."

"I'm waiting right the fuck here."

The profanity startled Justin. It was unnecessary and delivered with far too much venom than warranted. He stepped toward the man with a sneer on his face and images in his mind of him hurting their family friend. The guy had no idea what he knew. "You don't really wanna do this, do you?" Justin asked in a low, calm voice. The doorman stepped back.

"Who the fuck are you?" The man shot back.

"It really doesn't matter," Justin said, "But I know who you are and you need to get the fuck outta here." Had Sarah or any member of her family heard Justin's voice at that moment they would have been startled, maybe even frightened. It was a tone Justin had needed to survive in the old neighborhood from time to time when he was younger and even he was surprised how quickly he could pull it out of the quiver.

Justin was tall, lean, and rangy and he towered over his opposition, so the doorman audibly gasped at what happened next.

Out of nowhere, the man took a swing at Justin. It was wild, ill-timed, and indicative of the guy maybe having a few drinks before he stopped by. But Justin reacted with a punch of his own that landed on his left cheek with a smack. The guy reeled and stumbled. He tried to hit Justin again but, dizzied by either booze or the first hit, or both, missed and fell to the ground. Justin stepped to the side. For a few seconds he heard nothing but the echoey replay of his fist hitting the guy's skin. "Get this motherfucker outta here," He muttered to the doorman on his way inside.

The doorman regarded Justin proudly. "Yessir!"

In the elevator Justin took deep breaths and examined his hand. Oddly, it looked completely normal. Absolutely no cuts or swelling. He genuinely looked like he'd come directly from school with absolutely nothing out of the ordinary happening between there and here. Yet he vowed to tell Sarah. He had to. He couldn't be upset with her for keeping details from him and hide this, especially since he was in the right. He was defending G, their whole building really. Sarah would probably react with applause, that's how she was, she loved the old trope of a hero coming to the rescue. In fact, that was sort of how they met. He'd been her hero that night. And now he could step into the role once again.

He stepped out onto their floor with confidence. Chin up, he strode down the hall, eager to fix the past few days of their lives.

…

The bartender poured their third or fourth round, Ed wasn't sure, and muttered a workaday "cheers." Ed did not care one bit about the bartender. He was zeroed in on Olivia Benson who was, for the first time, letting her guard down while out with him. "Out there in Oregon," he said, "You musta made some friends."

"I did."

Ed raised his eyebrows, "I knew it."

"Not those kinds of friends," Olivia said, "I was UC. You can't make friends under those circumstances, well, if you're really doing the job."

"Lotta UC's toe the line. Go past the line." Ed was certainly drunk and didn't think twice about alluding to Cassidy. Olivia could take it and she was also perfectly capable of throwing it all back in his face. For some reason he was intent on pushing the envelope with her tonight.

"I think what you're saying is you wish you would've been out there in Oregon with me."

"I would not have minded being your handler."

"I was a lot more difficult then."

"I don't think that's true." Ed downed almost the entire freshly poured shot and smirked at her. "Do you have any idea how attractive you are?"

"Is this going to be one of those nights that make us avoid each other for as long as possible afterward?" Olivia retorted.

"I certainly hope not."

"You think all relationships need a night of drinking too much and asking uncomfortable questions?"

Ed signaled for another round. "What questions were uncomfortable?" He asked with an admirable degree of clarity.

"Um, the last one."

"About you being attractive? That is not uncomfortable for me and I sincerely apologize if it was uncomfortable for you."

"It wasn't uncomfortable for me. You don't think, minus a few bourbons, you'd be a little embarrassed or think twice about asking it?"

Ed twisted his lips and looked around at the ceiling pretending to ponder the question. "No I don't think so. I really want to know if you know how attractive you are."

"Why?"

Ed chucked. "I don't know. Either way it's unfair." He ran an index finger along one of hers, "Any guy'd kill to be me right now," he said, "Or, well, if you tell me to get lost after tonight maybe not."

"I'm not going to tell you to get lost," she said, "I may take you to get a coffee or some water, but, no, I don't want you to get lost."

"That's very good news."

"I am going to have to go soon."

"I'll walk you home."

"You sure? I thought you were going to watch the game here with Draper?"

"I'll be late. He'll understand."

"He knows about us?"

"He knows I've been much happier than usual," Ed replied, "Can you believe I closed three cases this week with warnings?"

"I hope it wasn't just to clear your desk."

"Nope. They genuinely needed a break."

Olivia rolled her glass between her palms. "Hm. I wouldn't know what that feels like."

"Hey," Ed leaned in close. "If you aren't making a difference you don't end up in my office."

"Is that what you and I and all of us were about?"

"Partially."

"And the other part?"

"I fucking hate Elliot Stabler."

Olivia burst into laughter, but she stopped suddenly when she saw Ed wasn't laughing. Rather, he was gazing at her with the silly smile on his face. "What?" She asked. "You're not the first guy to hate Elliot for all the wrong reasons, you know."

"I don't hate him because I think you two slept together. I know you didn't."

"How do you know?"

"He's an asshole. And also, I never read that between the two of you."

"Funny," Olviia said, "A lot of people did."

"I'm a lot better at my job than people give me credit for."

"So, Lieutenant," Olivia said, "If you were on the outside looking in right now what would you think?"

"I'd be real interested to see such a powerful cop with Ed Tucker. I'd want to know what that was all about."

"And what is it all about?"

Ed glanced around. "Maybe you like me?"

"You don't give yourself enough credit." Olivia kissed him on the lips and let it last much longer than their usual surreptitious public pecks. She'd settled back in her chair for what seemed like an eternity, yet his eyes remained closed.

"You okay?" She asked.

"Yeah," he slowly dragged open his eyelids, "It's just...I never want those moments to end."

Olivia smiled at him. "Maybe, someday, they won't."

Ed nearly fell over. Olivia had never so overtly alluded to a future together before. Maintaining composure, he merely offered a casual smirk and waved over the bartender for the final tab.

"Calling it a night?" Olivia asked. She'd been thinking they could squeeze in one more round.

"Yeah," he replied in his most gentle voice, "I promised you a walk home and I don't want to have to rush it."

…

Adjusting to the time difference had not been much of an issue in Ireland, but it had taken a while for Ed and Olivia and even Noah to get back on a regular schedule when they returned to New York. They'd been forcing themselves to go to bed early and made sure to set alarms even though Maggie and Wyatt would eventually wake them up if necessary. Still, they were discombobulated. Except the twins. They were perfectly normal, had been well cared for, and Ed and Olivia tried to structure their days around their routines in order to avoid nodding off during the day. So, when Sarah called at nine-thirty, she had to call multiple times because the Tuckers were all deeply asleep.

"Hey," Olivia answered, expecting Sarah to tell her something innocuous like one of their items had been found among her suitcases.

"Livvie, they just arrested Justin. Holy fucking shit they just took him. Can you help? I don't know what to do!"

"They-" Olivia flicked on the light and sat up. "Who is they?"

"The cops!"

"What's goin on?" Ed asked groggily, squinting against the light.

"Justin got arrested," Olivia said in a hushed voice. For the next minute or so she fielded questions from both Sarah and Ed. Finally, she told Sarah to try to stay calm, stand by while she made other calls, and hung up.

"She said he was getting the mail when they came. She's terrified. She doesn't know what's going on. The doorman told her he hit somebody?"

"I'm gonna call Draper."

"I'll call Rollins."

Ed jumped out of bed and started searching for clothes. "I'll go to the precinct."

Olivia gave him a resolute stare. "Get him out of there."

"I will."

…

#Tuckson