Disclaimer: Still not mine... though one day Mr Wolf and I may come to some arrangement.
Thanks for the tremendous support and because you were all so wonderful reading and reviewing quickly, and because my beautiful boys (the underdogs in the game) won, and because I will be out celebrating tomorrow ... here's the next chapter!
We're a happy team at Hawthorn
We're the mighty fighting Hawks
We love our club and we play to win
Riding the bumps with a grin at Hawthorn
Come what May you'll find us striving
Team work is the thing that counts
One for all and all for one
Is the way we play at Hawthorn
We are the mighty fighting Hawks
Go Hawks!! Premiers 2008!!
love Nettie
PS. If I posted too quickly and you didn't get a chance to read and review chapter 4 first, please do so.
xoxoxinnocencexoxox
It was ten minutes later Fin came back in, ready to wrap up proceedings. He pulled Elliot to the door.
"You may want to take a few minutes and check in with your partner?" he whispered.
"Where is she?" Elliot replied, his eyes still fixed on his son.
"I sent her up to the cribs. Liz is still asleep at Liv's desk, and I thought you'd like to talk to her first," Fin told him.
"Is Liv okay?" Elliot asked, glancing at his colleague.
"Yeah, she's good," Fin smiled, patting his shoulder.
Dickie turned around to the men who were standing at the door speaking in hushed tones. "It's alright, dad, go see Liv."
With another hug and a couple more reassuring words for Dickie, Elliot left and, after checking on Liz, ran up the stairs to the cribs. He opened the door to find Olivia sitting on the nearest bed, her back to the door. Caught up in inspecting her now bandaged hand she didn't react to his arrival.
"Hey, Liv," he called, moving over to her. Unsure as to whether he could touch her, should touch her.
"Hey," she said, standing to kiss his cheek, more comfortable in expressing her feelings than he was at this point.
"How's the hand?" he asked, holding it gently in his and studying it.
"Five stitches, a shot and a follow up appointment," she reeled off, staring at her hand.
"Hurt much?" he asked, his blue eyes locking onto her deep brown ones.
"Yeah, lots, but definitely worth it." She smiled as he raised her hand and kissed it twice.
Elliot stepped into her, his body brushing against hers, his face inches away. "Thank you," he whispered.
"Well," she said. "You promised you wouldn't and the bastard deserved it."
"Yeah, he did," Elliot replied. "Anything I can do for you?"
"You can kiss it better again," she whispered. Again he lifted her hand and tenderly kissed the white gauze bandage twice.
"What's with the two kisses?" she asked, lifting his face up.
"Two thank you's - One from me and one from Lizzie," he whispered. Olivia leant in and kissed him gently on the lips twice. "What were they for?" he asked.
"One because you love me … and the other because I love you."
Elliot pulled her to him, making sure her hand wasn't trapped between them, and wrapped his arms around her. While he wanted nothing more than to stay in this position forever, he knew the inevitable had to be dealt with and that Olivia had to do it.
"Lizzie wants you to go in with her, Liv," he whispered, his lips an inch from her ear. "That okay?"
"Yeah," she mumbled into his shoulder. "You spoken to Kathy?" she asked, wearily raising her face to meet his tired eyes.
"Not yet," he replied, "I'll do it when it's all official – only want to have to do it once."
"You okay?" Olivia asked, her bandaged hand caressing his face.
Slowly he shook his head, he was far from okay. "We get Liz and Dickie through this right now and then you let me get you through it, okay?" He sighed deeply and nodded. Right now the only thing he wanted was Olivia; he loved her, trusted her implicitly and, as his brain was awash with emotions he couldn't even name, he was going to trust her judgement and follow her lead.
"Let's go," she whispered before kissing his cheek. Despite the overwhelming urge to keep hold Olivia and never let her go, Elliot resisted and allowed her to walk out ahead of him and down to the bullpen.
Lizzie was still asleep when they returned downstairs, Dickie was slumped in Elliot's chair, his eyes closed and Fin was standing in Cragen's doorway talking to Casey. When Casey spotted Elliot she left Fin and moved to him.
"I'm so sorry, El. I'll do everything I can," she whispered, as they stood a foot away from Lizzie.
"Appreciate it, Case," he replied, watching as Olivia moved to his daughter.
Gently, Olivia placed her injured hand on Lizzie's shoulder as she leant down.
"Lizzie, honey, wake up," she softly instructed. "Hey," she smiled as Lizzie's eyes fluttered open to meet her own.
"Where did you go?" she yawned as she sat up and stretched.
"Had a little accident," Olivia said, holding up her hand as evidence.
"What happened?" Liz asked, studying the hand.
"Lizzie, you ready to come and talk to me now?" Fin asked, sparing Olivia any explanation.
Liz turned and grabbed Olivia's good hand. "Will you come with me…please?"
"Sure, baby," she said, holding her hand as she stood up.
Elliot went to say something as Lizzie followed Fin into the interview room but could think of nothing. He had found the words he needed for his son but when it came to his daughter his brain was drawing a huge blank. As they reached the door, Olivia whispered something to her and she dropped Olivia's hand and moved to her father.
"Love you, dad," she muttered as she hugged him briefly. Elliot kissed the top of her head.
"Love you too, baby."
It was the longest forty three minutes of Elliot Stabler's life as his youngest daughter sat in the next room and told the most difficult story of her life to his colleague. Once he went into Don's office and saw the tears streaming down Lizzie's face as she clutched Olivia's hand tightly and moved to be almost sitting on her lap. It was all he could take. He stormed out and straight to the interrogation room.
Flinging open the door, Elliot rushed in, grabbing Steve by his sweater and ramming him up against the wall, gaining a sick pleasure when his head bounced off the concrete and he groaned in pain.
"Right now, I am fighting every urge not to fucking kill you because that's what you deserve you perverted son-of-a-bitch," he growled, thrusting his hands deeper into Steve's chest.
"Look, Elliot…" Steve choked out.
"Don't …" Elliot hissed in response. "I'm not going to let you get away with this by doing anything now but believe me you'll get what's coming to you …" Elliot forcefully shoved him back into the chair. "If I see you within 100 feet of anyone I remotely know I'll shoot your goddamned dick off, got that?" he spat. Rowland's lawyer appeared at the door and Elliot stalked out before he said or did anything which would see the asshole walk away a free man.
Seeing the bullpen all but deserted, save for his son still asleep at his desk, Elliot went to the roof top, desperate to calm down before he saw his daughter again, and definitely before he called his ex-wife. He stood at the edge and planted his hands firmly on his hips and tried to breathe deeply; it wasn't helping. A hundred thoughts clouded his head as to how he would deal with Kathy, he wanted to yell and scream and blame her a thousand different ways for letting Steve Rowland into her life, and into the lives of his kids, but he knew she'd never have done it intentionally.
He tried to breathe deeply as he thought of his daughter in the room below him and what she had been through, but his breath caught in his throat and suddenly he felt he was suffocating. Bending down, he dropped his hands to his knees and gasped trying to force oxygen into his lungs, each effort a trial. He rode the wave of nausea as bile rose into his throat and he did his best not to gag.
"It's okay, man," Fin's voice soothed, as his hand rested on Elliot's back. "It's okay, just relax." Elliot tried but his chest felt constricted and his head was spinning. "Your girl did good, El." Elliot nodded and emitted a strangled groan; he'd never felt as ill in his life. He felt Fin guide him backwards to a crate and sat him on it. "Look, man," Fin said and continued to give him the details of Liz's statement. To Elliot's relief there was nothing in it he didn't already know.
Twenty minutes later, after Elliot had pulled himself together the best he could, they headed back downstairs to find three of the people he loved most at his desk.
"We're ready to go, El," said Olivia as he approached them. "Thought we might do brunch before getting some sleep," she said looking from him to Liz.
"Sounds like a plan," he said, forcing a smile, though food wasn't high on his priority list at the moment.
"Mom know yet?" Dickie asked, glancing at his sister.
"I'll do it after we eat," Elliot replied knowing he couldn't put it off forever. "Now, let's get out of here."
It was midday before Olivia unlocked her apartment door and let her three Stabler guests in. "I'm not tired," Lizzie said as she dropped onto the sofa.
"Me either," added Dickie.
"Well, I am," said Elliot yawning.
"And so am I," Olivia agreed, her brain and body screaming for some uninterrupted slumber.
"You guys go to bed and we'll watch TV," Dickie suggested, grabbing the remote control.
"You can if you want to," Olivia said, leaning against the wall. "But if you want to watch anything decent the one in my room has cable."
"Then where will you sleep?" Liz asked, looking at Olivia.
"In there," she answered, pointing to the guest room.
When the twins were settled on Olivia's bed, Elliot grabbed his cell and sat on the sofa. Flipping it opened he scrolled down the numbers until he got to Kathy's then he slammed it shut, before repeating the process twice.
"Do you want me to do it?" Olivia offered, standing in front of him.
"No, no, it's okay, I should do it," he replied. "I can do it," he amended.
"I'll be in there when you're done," Olivia said, raking her fingers through his hair as he sat hunched over. Elliot grunted and grabbed her hand as she went to move away. His eyes sought hers, hoping they'd bring him the strength he was lacking at this point in time.
"This is the easy part, El," she whispered. Elliot looked at her confused. "You've done the hardest part, being here for your daughter... and your son." He nodded; he never wanted to go through it again.
Flipping open his phone once more, he found Kathy's number and pressed call. "Hi Kathy, how's Florida?" Olivia kissed his head and disappeared into the guest room. She had fallen asleep when Elliot came into the room and slid into the bed beside her.
Being careful of her hand, Elliot nestled himself into her, smiling sadly when her eyes fluttered open.
"You okay?" she asked, noting his reddened, watery eyes. He nodded. "Kathy?" He shook his head. "If I promise to talk this through with you after, will you sleep with me right now?" she yawned, unable to fight fatigue any longer. He nodded and kissed her head. It was the best offer he'd had in years. Olivia reached up and brushed two kisses across his lips before sighing before falling back asleep.
xoxoxinnocencexoxox