A/N: Hi! Here's chapter 15…remember in like chapter 7 when I said this story had like two chapters left? Guess that didn't exactly happen, ha. This story will actually have 19 or 20 chapters, depending on how it all writes out. Hope you guys like this chapter! Everything goes to its rightful owners.
The next day, Calvin couldn't stop talking about how excited he was. He was a big ball of pure excitement. This was the Calvin everyone was used to. All of the Stabler's were happy to see him back to his perky self.
"When can we go, Elliot?" Calvin asked bouncing up and down.
"When it gets closer to two, Cal. We don't want to get to the park too early."
"I can't wait any longer," He whined.
"Find something to keep yourself occupied," The detective suggested.
"I already did all my homework this morning. And I cleaned up my duffel bag. I already did everything! I even offered to help Dickie clean his room but he said he didn't want help."
"Well that was nice of you."
Calvin drew a circle in the air over his head with a grin.
"I wouldn't go that far," Elliot teased.
Calvin pretended to act offended. "I'd ask Aunt Kathy if she needed help with anything but she and Lizzie went to the store…"
"Alright, well, let me go grab my keys. You go get Dickie. Then we can leave."
"Okay!" Calvin sped off down the hallway. Elliot could hear Calvin tell Dickie excitedly, "Come on, we're leaving!"
Fifteen minutes they were still driving when Calvin asked from the backseat, "Are we there yet?"
"No," Dickie called from the passenger seat.
A moment of silence before, "What about now?"
Dickie turned around in his seat, "Are you like this with your mom?"
"No," Calvin answered,
"Why not?"
"She threatened to handcuff me to the top of the car…"
Elliot started cracking up and Calvin grinned at him.
"What else has she threatened to do?" Elliot asked with a smirk.
Calvin laughed slightly, "Lots."
"Like?" Dickie prompted.
Calvin looked out the window, "We're here!" They all got out of the car and started the short walk to the playground. The park wasn't crowded, even with it being a nice Saturday afternoon. Calvin started looking around, "Do you see them?" He asked looking up at Elliot, covering his eyes with his hand to block out the sun.
"Not yet…oh, there," He pointed toward the direction of the slide.
Calvin started walking in that direction. Elliot followed, "I'll be right back, Dickie."
"'Kay, dad."
When they walked closer, Marcus was standing at the end of the slide encouraging someone. "It's okay, Maria, I'll catch you!" He turned around when he saw their shadows. "Hey, guys."
Calvin smiled at him.
"My four year old niece won't come down the slide," He explained.
"I know how that is," Elliot said with a grin. "We'll be right over in the field, okay Calvin?"
"Okay," Calvin told him. "See you in a little bit."
"How are you today?" Marcus asked him, turning back to the slide.
"I'm good…where is your other family?"
"Grace and Georgia are over on the monkey bars, and Michael is walking Abby around."
Calvin's eyes lit up. "You brought Abby?"
"Uh-huh. In fact, there she is now."
Calvin turned around quickly and saw a blond boy around his age walk up with a Golden Retriever.
"Hi," The boy greeted with a smile. "I'm Michael and this is Abby."
"I'm Calvin…can I pet her?" He asked, gesturing towards Abby.
Michael nodded enthusiastically.
Calvin kneeled down in front of Abby's face and was greeted with a lick across the face, he and Michael both laughed. "She likes you," Michael told him.
Calvin grinned up at him.
"Okay, I'm coming down now!" Yelled a small voice from inside the slide.
"Okay, I'm still here," Marcus responded patiently. Maria, the four year old girl, came flying down the slide, her blond hair sticking up with static. Marcus reached out and grabbed her before she flew off the slide. She giggled with delight and looked over at Calvin with interest, "Who you?"
"That's Calvin," Marcus told her softly. "He's Olivia's son, remember?"
"Oh yeah. Hi," She told him, waving bashfully.
"Hi," Calvin responded with a grin.
Two brunette twin girls came running over suddenly. "Uncle Marc." One of them whined, "Georgia pinched me."
"I didn't mean to," The other girl, Georgia, protested.
Marcus shot Calvin an apologetic look. "Both of you stop fighting, we have a guest."
The twins, Grace and Georgia's heads snapped towards him. "Is this your girlfriend's son, Uncle Marc?" Georgia questioned.
Marcus' face became a deep red. "This is Calvin and yes, he is Olivia's son."
"Where is Olivia?" Grace asked Calvin.
"She's working," Calvin replied quietly.
"Hey," Marcus said cutting in. "You guys want to go play baseball?"
"Yeah!" Michael, Grace, and Georgia yelled in unison.
Marcus looked at Calvin, "You want to play, Calvin?"
"Sure," Calvin said with a grin.
When they went over to the field, they asked Elliot and Dickie is they wanted to join. They agreed. They split up into two teams: Elliot, Dickie, and Calvin on one team, Marcus, Michael and Grace on the other. Georgia and Maria decided to sit on the sideline and watch with Abby. Maria declared herself cheerleader.
Michael was up to bat first, Dickie was pitching. Michael hit the ball on the first pitch and it flew towards the second base they had set up. Elliot ran to grab it and threw it towards Calvin who was standing by first base. He caught it and touched the base before Michael touched it. "Out!" Calvin said proudly.
"Good catch," Michael said impressed.
It was the last inning of their game, and the score was five to five. Elliot's team was up to bat and both Elliot and Dickie were on a base. It was up to Calvin to hit the ball so they could score and win. He stepped up to the home plate, holding the bat firmly with his good hand. Having his cast on didn't prevent him all that much from being able to hit the ball. He got ready as Michael threw the first ball, he missed. He threw the second ball, Calvin missed again. He made a frustrated noise.
"You can do this, Calvin!" Dickie yelled from third base. Calvin closed his eyes for a minute, took a deep breath, then nodded at Michael. Michael threw ball three and Calvin swung, it came in contact with the bat with a thunk and then it flew out toward the middle of the field. Calvin stood there, shocked.
"Calvin, run!" Dickie yelled, running towards home base. Calvin started running around the bases. He passed first and second base, Grace had gotten the ball and was about to throw it to Marcus. He started sprinting towards third base. His foot came in contact with third base when he saw Marcus coming towards him out of the corner of his eye. Calvin started running even faster towards home base, Marcus was just a few feet behind Calvin. Calvin jumped forward when he was a few feet away from the base and slid the rest of the way. A big dust could surrounded him.
"You okay, Calvin?" Elliot asked worriedly once the cloud of dust cleared.
Calvin sat up and coughed. "We won!" He said triumphantly.
Marcus reached down to help him up. "That slide was wicked awesome," He said with a grin.
"I've never actually done it before," Calvin admitted. "Just watched it on TV."
"Dude, you gotta teach me that!" Michael said, running up to him.
They all laughed and started packing up all the equipment. Packing the last of it into his car, Marcus turned to Calvin. "Thanks you coming, Calvin."
"I had a lot of fun," Calvin said grinning.
"You should join my baseball team next year," Michael told Calvin, slapping him on the back. "Uncle Marc is even going to coach it!"
"I said 'we'll see'," He corrected.
"You still should."
"I'll ask Olivia," Calvin said with a smile.
"Good. See you around, Calvin," Michael said, getting into the car.
"Bye! Bye, Marcus," Calvin added.
"Bye, Calvin," Marcus waved to Elliot and Dickie before getting into his car. They pulled away from the park.
"Can we go now?" Dickie asked. "I'm starving."
"Me too!" Calvin agreed.
"Yeah, let's go," Elliot said laughing.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
The next morning, the Stabler family headed back home from church in the morning. Calvin tried his best to pay attention, but he kept dozing off. Dickie had to keep elbowing him to wake him up.
"Sorry," Calvin apologized to Elliot after the service had let out. He, Dickie and Lizzie piled into the back seat of the car while Elliot and Kathy got into the front.
"S'Okay," Elliot told him. "I used to fall asleep too. Still do sometimes if I work the night before."
"So that means I can sleep during church?" Dickie asked.
"Absolutely not," Kathy told her son sternly.
Dickie huffed.
Calvin started up a conversation about the baseball game with Dickie as they drove down the Stabler's street, "Remember that home run you hit? How did you hit it that hard?"
"I don't know," He responded. "It was pure luck."
They got closer to the Stabler house and Elliot and Kathy shared a smile.
"What are you guys smiling about?" Lizzie asked. She looked out the window, towards their house and grinned. "Oh."
"What?" Calvin looked out the window as they pulled up to their house. A familiar looking car was parked outside of the house. Calvin squinted to look inside the car but it was empty. His eyes darted toward the house, and sure enough, there sitting against the front door of the house, was the brunette detective he hadn't seen in almost two weeks.