Fooling Ourselves

Chapter 8: Home Invasion

A/N: Okay people, I'm going on vacation next week so this is probably the last chapter for a while. I hope you like it and please review. I love hearing from all of you.

Olivia laid Zack in his crib and placed a gentle kiss on his head "Sleep tight sweetie," she whispered. She had given him another dose of medicine and only hoped that his fever would go away once again. She felt like such a complete idiot, dragging her infant son from New Jersey to Manhattan in the middle of the night. It was her fault that his fever had returned. She felt like the worst mother ever.

She turned to Elliot who had been kind enough to stay with her for a little while; when they had arrived at the house, she had started crying the second she stepped in the door and he had consoled her. She took a step closer to him in the nursery, illuminated by the small nightlight "I hope he'll be okay," she whispered, terrified that she might actually lose her son as well.

Elliot reached out and touched her cheek softly "He'll be fine Liv," he reassured her. Every muscle in his body ached to pull her close to him and kiss her but he scolded himself for even thinking that way. Her husband had just been murdered, it wasn't appropriate.

"Thanks," she said quietly, closing her eyes and enjoying the sensation of his hand against her skin. She wanted nothing more than to kiss him but it wasn't right. It felt like she would be cheating on Dean. Though she loved Elliot, she had grown to depend on Dean, come to love him as a necessity. She couldn't turn her back on the memories of the life they had made together so soon after his death. So she backed away from Elliot's touch after a few moments. "Won't your kids be worried about you?" she asked, hoping it didn't sound as if she was trying to drive him away and out of her life again.

"I called them when we first caught the case," he told her "They know it's gonna be a late night. Lizzie and Dickie can handle Rose until morning," then as if he felt he had to remind her he added "They're seventeen now you know."

Olivia nodded, remembering how old the twins would be very well without Elliot's reminder. She shrugged "Shouldn't you get home anyway? It's almost four in the morning and I bet you haven't slept since God knows when."

Elliot chuckled half heartedly "You know how it goes," he said "I'll just get some coffee in me and I'll be fine. Besides," he added "Downing wouldn't have let us get much sleep anyway. He's hell bent on making the front page," his expression morphed into one of disdain for his new captain but softened again quickly as he brought his gaze back to rest on Olivia's face in the glow of the nightlight. Again, he had to fight against himself when the urge to kiss her became to powerful.

Olivia nodded, looking down at the floor momentarily to escape Elliot's intense gaze. It was so hard not to move the extra foot and a half to where he was and wrap her arms around him. She looked back up, hoping that maybe he was looking at something else other than her now but no such luck. She cleared her throat "If Fisher manages to wrestle the case away from you guys, you won't have to worry about lack of sleep," she tried to force a laugh.

"Downing will do everything in his power to keep this one," Elliot murmured. He turned towards the door of the nursery, deciding that he had nearly outstayed his welcome "Are you going to be okay?" he asked.

Olivia nodded "Yeah," she whispered. That was a complete lie. She had no idea what she would do now as a single mother. That plus Elliot having come back into life on the same day that Dean had been permanently taken from her was all just too much.

Elliot knew she was lying. He turned to her, closing the gap between them and wrapping his arms around her tight, even though his brain screamed at him not to "Promise me you aren't going to run away again?" he nearly begged.

She looked up at him. She knew she couldn't make that promise. Running was what she did. Running from him had become second nature to her. But when she saw the pleading look in his eyes, she realized that she absolutely couldn't leave him again. No matter what they were to each other now, she couldn't abandon him. She took a shaky breath and truly meant it when she said "I promise."

Elliot bent his head, though every rational bone in his body told him that it was wrong, his lips grew ever closer to hers. She saw what he was doing and didn't pull away. Their lips were mere millimeters from touching when a noise separated them.

"What was that?" Olivia asked, suddenly afraid. The noise had sounded like broken glass to her. She instinctively stepped closer to the crib, wishing that her gun wasn't downstairs.

"You stay here with Zack," Elliot said, his hand already on his gun where it rested in its holster "I'll go check it out."

"Be careful," Olivia called softly after him as he left. Zack woke up almost at that exact moment and started to cry. Olivia automatically picked him up and began to rock him "Shhhhhhh," she soothed, nervously. She was scared, as scared as she had ever been. It wasn't fear for her own safety but for Elliot and her son.

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Elliot crept down the stairs as quietly as he could. He could hear the sounds of someone moving around in the kitchen. The person banged into something and Elliot heard a muffled curse. He reached the bottom of the stairs and felt around for a light switch; this was not his house, he was relatively unfamiliar with the layout, especially in the dark.

His hand made contact with a switch and he flipped it. The hallway outside the kitchen was immediately lit and it took Elliot half a second to adjust to the brightness. When his eyes could focus again, he saw a man, standing in the hall in front of him.

The man was dressed in black, with a ski mask covering his face. He carried a small black duffle bag over one shoulder and his hands were extended in front of him, attempting to shield his eyes from the light. His hands were clad in white latex gloves but Elliot could clearly see that the glove on the man's right hand had been shredded in several places, probably from when he had broken the glass. Through the rips in the glove, the man's blood was very apparent.

Elliot raised his gun and aimed it at the man "Freeze," he commanded.

The man did not obey and instead turned around and ran back into the kitchen, choosing to climb back out the window through which he had come. Elliot attempted to give chase but when the man scrambled through the window, Elliot knew it was hopeless to try and follow him without disrupting the evidence on the counter below the window.

Instead, he pulled out his cell phone and called Downing. He knew that technically this fell under the jurisdiction of New Jersey PD but he just couldn't bring himself to give this to anyone else. This was Olivia after all and her safety was more important to him than anything. And as he stood there, staring through the shattered glass, he found it hard to shake the feeling that this break in and Dean's murder were somehow connected.

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She stood on the porch with the light on. Her yard was full of cops and she felt safer being where they could see her. She clutched Zack tight to her chest. He was once again wearing his hat and jacket. Her resolve was nearly gone. This day had been one misfortune after another. The sun was beginning to rise over her home turned crime scene.

She watched as Elliot stood with O'Halloran, talking quietly about something. She looked down at Zack and wished she hadn't promised Elliot that she wouldn't run because now, that's all she wanted to do. She wanted to run, run somewhere where she could ensure that her son would be safe.

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"There's blood on the shards from the window he broke," O'Halloran told Elliot as they stood there in the cold.

"Good," Elliot breathed, looking over at Olivia. She looked so small, so shaken, her shoulders hunched as she tried to shield herself and her son from the world.

"We found this by the fence," a tech informed O'Halloran as he handed over the duffle bag that the man had been carrying when Elliot saw him in the hallway. "He must have dropped it when he jumped into the next yard."

O'Halloran took the bag and unzipped it. He and Elliot both stared at the items inside with horrified shock. The bag contained a pair of handcuffs, a large knife, a roll of duct tape and condoms as well as other implements that made the man's reason for entering the house terrifyingly clear.

"Put a rush on that DNA," Elliot said quickly as he turned and nearly sprinted to the porch where Olivia stood. He didn't even hear O'Halloran's response that it would take ten days at least to get the DNA back.

"Pack up," he said almost instantly as soon as he reached her. He immediately cursed himself. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her anymore than she was. She was already about twenty shades paler than she should have been and she hadn't even seen what was in that damn bag.

"What?" she asked, suddenly feeling more on edge "What's wrong?"

Elliot searched his mind for the right words. Finally, he spoke "It's gonna take a day or two for CSU to process all this," he lied "And you can't replace the glass in that window until they're done. It's not safe for you to stay here until that window is fixed," he explained, hoping that she wouldn't argue.

Maybe if it had just been her, Olivia would have shrugged Elliot's explanation off instantly but she had Zack to think of so she agreed "All right," she nodded "But where am I going to stay until then?"

"With me," Elliot answered immediately. He knew he was being too forward but he needed to know that she was safe.

"Elliot," she began to object, already having outlined in her head why this was a bad idea. But he cut her off.

"The kids would love to see you and you haven't even met Rose yet. You can have my bed and I'll sleep on the couch. I still have Rose's old crib and the changing table and-" he would have kept going if Olivia hadn't stopped him.

"Okay, okay Elliot," she laughed a little bit as she spoke "Thank you for your kind offer. It would be a pleasure to spend some time with you and your children. I'll go pack," she and Zack disappeared into the house.

Elliot stood there watching as the sun rose over the neighborhood. Olivia was going to stay with him. What had he just done? Could he trust himself to be a gentleman? They were already flirting with one another and what had almost happened in the nursery…

O'Halloran came up to Elliot "I thought you should know," he said in a serious tone that alerted Elliot to the fact that O'Halloran was about to give him bad news "We found these in the bag too." He handed Elliot two evidence bags.

Elliot took the bags and stared into them. Each bag held one of the wallet sized photos that Olivia had described. In the wedding photo, there was a thick black X over Dean's face and in the picture of Olivia and Zack on Simon's porch, Zack's face was the one crossed out. Elliot's jaw dropped "Oh dear God," he whispered just as Olivia appeared in the doorway. He quickly and surreptitiously handed the photos back to O'Halloran.

He turned to Olivia who had a look of confusion on her face "Ready to go?" he asked. She nodded, deciding that she would ask questions later and the two of them walked to Elliot's car.