I DO NOT OWN ANYONE OR ANYTHING IN THIS STORY BESIDES THE OC'S.
March 14th, Olivia's Birthday Party-
Leslie's Point of View-
Over the last two weeks, Olivia was getting more and more excited for her birthday and party. Neal and I took turns watching Olivia so we could go buy her a gift for her birthday. Not only that, Neal and I have spent a lot more time together and spent more nights at each others houses. I went to Olivia's school seeing Neal already there wearing a birthday hat and holding two in his hands, I chuckled as I walked closer.
"What's the deal with the hat?" I asked.
"I thought it was obvious..." Neal said.
"It is..." I said smiling as he wrapped his arm around my waist pulling me to his embrace pressing his lips against mine for a kiss, when the kiss broke I kissed him back before I went to standing beside him.
"Here, you got to wear one." Neal said handing me one and I rolled my eyes as I put it on as well when the bell rung seeing the kids running out, Olivia ran out and her face was priceless when she saw us with the hats on. She ran up to us and Neal helped her put the hat on.
"Is my party ready?" Olivia asked.
"You got one and a half hours until your party." I said.
"But we are going to go help Elizabeth set up, Peter is still at work." Neal said.
"I hope he likes me..." I said.
"He will...but don't worry if he doesn't, he never likes the girls I'm around..." Neal said.
"Why's that?" Olivia asked.
"He usually thinks their bad influences, but your not a bad influence are you?" Neal asked as he picked Olivia up setting her on his hip.
"No, I'm not bad...I'm a good girl." Olivia said.
"That you are...tomorrow your 7, are you excited?" Neal asked.
"Yes! 7 is better than 6." Olivia said.
"Is it?" Neal asked as Olivia begun to explain to Neal why 7 was better than 6 until we arrived to Elizabeth's house where we walked up the steps seeing a sign that says 'In backyard, come on in.' Neal opened the door setting Olivia down letting her walk for herself, "Elizabeth, we're here." Neal said loudly.
"Hey guys, just in time...I got to go pick up the cake and the last minute foods, can you guys finish decorating? I love the hats..." Elizabeth said smiling as she leant over the island grabbing her keys and purse.
"No problem..." I said.
"Thanks, everything is out there, Neal if you can start working at that grill." Elizabeth said as she rushed towards the door.
"Olivia, why don't you work on your homework and we will be out back." I said.
"I can't work on my homework, I'm too excited." Olivia said.
"You have to do your homework before your party." I said as she grumbled as she grabbed her bag from me going to the table that Elizabeth and Peter had in their house, Neal and I went into the other room grabbing the wrapped presents seeing that there was one extra one. "Who is this from?" I asked pulling out the gift.
"Mozzie wanted to pitch in." Neal said.
"How is Mozzie? I haven't seen him in a few weeks." I said as we both stood up trying to sneak out without Olivia seeing the gifts.
"He's busy working on our next 'project.'" Neal said.
"I thought you wanted to end your criminal ways?"
"I never said I would...I just cut down some..." Neal said as we went out back setting the gifts down on the table that already had one present on it.
"I'm guessing this is from Elizabeth, she really didn't have to." I said as we then grabbed the table cloth unfolding it putting it under the gifts and begun the organization and decoration process.
"Whoa!" Olivia said as I looked over seeing my daughter standing in the door way with her mouth open in shock.
"You like it?" Neal asked.
"Like it? I love it!" She said running out and up to the Hannah Montana pinata that was now hanging in the tree.
"I'm back!" Elizabeth yelled from inside the house, we walked towards the house helping unpack the groceries, she put the cake and ice cream in the freezer and fridge to keep cool as we took out the other food for people to eat when they arrived or thoroughout the party.
"I'll go start the grill and bar-be-queing these hamburgers and hot dogs." Neal said as he grabbed the meat leaning over giving me a quick kiss before he went out back to begin that.
"What can I do?" Olivia asked.
"You and I are going to go get you dressed into your birthday dress...Leslie, can you finish taking this food out?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yeah..." I said as Olivia excitedly went with Elizabeth upstairs to change into her birthday dress that I have yet to see when I went outback putting the food on the food table.
"What is Elizabeth and Olivia doing?" Neal asked when I walked up to him as he was setting the hamburgers onto the grill.
"Getting Olivia into her birthday dress..." I said when Neal wrapped his empty arm around me holding me near him watching the meat cook.
"She has a birthday dress?" Neal asked.
"I guess..." I said shrugging when the doorbell rung.
"The guests shall start arriving." Neal said when I gave him a quick kiss before I went inside and to the door looking through their peep hole recognizing the kid as Olivia's classmate letting them in along with their parents showing them outback where the kid begun chasing the dog and Neal and I struck up a conversation with the parents until the next person arrived. One by one everyone begun to arrive, Elizabeth and Olivia finally came downstairs and outback.
"Wow, that is a lot of people..." Olivia said.
"Your beautiful Olivia, I love the tiara." Neal said.
"Me too...I'm a princess today." Olivia said playing with the edge of her dress.
"Your always a princess." Neal said as Olivia smiled at that comment.
"May I go play?" She asked.
"You can do whatever you want birthday girl." I said as she ran off to play with her classmates and the other parents were talking.
"How's things going?" Elizabeth asked.
"Good, I think there should be 4 more people that had RSVP'd." Neal said.
"Okay, I'm going to go make the punch." Elizabeth said as she went back inside.
"We should check the meat." I said.
"Oh crap." Neal said as we went to the grill, luckily they weren't burnt that bad, I held out the plate for Neal as he pulled the last of the meat off the grill. I carried the meat over to the food table setting it far enough in so the dog couldn't reach it.
"Is dinner ready?" Olivia asked running up to the table with a few of her friends.
"Yeah, Elizabeth is making punch right now." I said.
"I'm hungry." Her classmate said as I begun handing out plates and helping them make their plates, Neal came over when he finished turning the grill off helping me make rest of the plates. We then walked around handing out plates of food to parents before we made our own plates standing aside talking to a couple parents when Elizabeth walked out with a male following behind her that looked like her husband.
"Is that Peter?" I asked shocked, I thought I knew him from seeing his picture but thought nothing of it but now that I am seeing him in person I now know where I know him from, I was trying to act normal and like I didn't know who he was.
"Yeah, that's Peter." Neal said waving for them to come over, Peter walked over and Elizbeth set the punch onto the table before she joined us. "Peter, this is my girlfriend Leslie, Leslie this is Peter." Neal said introducing us, I cautousily stuck my hand out to shake his smiling.
"Nice to meet you." I said.
"Finally I get to meet you, but I feel like I've met you before." Peter said.
"I doubt it." I said getting uncomfortable and pushing a strand of hair behind my ear nervously.
"Hm, you sure we haven't met?" Peter asked.
"Peter, you've never met her before." Neal said.
"Yeah...which one is the birthday girl?" Peter asked as I looked around the yard seeing my daughter now playing pin the tail on the donkey with fellow classmates and another parent supervising.
"The black haired girl with the tiara and blindfold on..." I said pointing towards that area.
"Oh...she's precious." He said.
"Thanks..." I said.
"Peter, can you come help me with the pinata?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yeah sweetie, be back." Peter said as he went with Elizabeth to do the rope on the pinata and Elizabeth went to get the bat, I stood aside watching this and trying not to think of what was to come after tonight. The party was a good turn out, everyone seemed to have a good time and the party ended up ending earlier than 6, but by the time we helped cleaning up it was about 6ish.
"You guys want to stay for a little while longer?" Elizabeth asked.
"I got to get her home, she has school tomorrow and tomorrow is her big 7th birthday." I said running my hands through her hair.
"At least take home the left over cake, if you don't I will have to finish it and I don't need that." Peter said chuckling.
"Why don't we split it?" I said.
"Sounds good..." Peter said as they put half of the cake onto a paper plate for us to take home with us, Neal helped gather all of Olivia's presents and candy she had gathered from the pinata.
"Mom, I don't feel good." Olivia said.
"You ate too much didn't you?" I asked picking her up.
"Yes." She said as she had tears in her eyes, which is a good sign that she was truly sick. I held her in my grip, she rested her head on my shoulder and I carried as much as I could in the other hand.
"Thanks for everything, what do you say Olivia?" I asked, Olivia sat up and looked at Peter and Elizabeth.
"Thank you Peter and Elizabeth." Olivia said.
"Your very welcome." Elizabeth said.
"Come on, let's get her home." Neal said.
"See you bright and early Neal, you better not be late." Peter said before taking a sip of his beer.
"Whatever." Neal said as he opened the front door for us and walked us home, Neal opened our apartment door and I laid Olivia down now that she was asleep. I set down the stuff in my hands before grabbing a bucket and putting it next to the bed for her.
"Thank you Neal." I said helping him setting the things down.
"No problem, why don't I take Olivia out to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate her birthday while your working?" Neal asked.
"We'll see." I said not knowing what to say.
"I'll come by your work tomorrow, good night." Neal said before he leant forward pressing his lips to mine, our kiss broke and I leant forward pressing my lips against his wrapping my hand around his neck holding his face there to continue our kiss. I felt his tongue begging for entrance, I slightly opened my lips letting his tongue into my mouth to let our tongues dance when I heard my daughter begin rolling over and I quickly stopped our make-out session.
"Good night." I said as I walked with him to the door wiping my mouth, I opened the door watching him walk out and turn to look back at me. He leant forward pressing his lips against mine for one more quick kiss.
"I love you..." Neal said which caught me off guard and didn't know what to say.
"I...I...I love you too..." I said unsure of how to say it and hard to believe that either one of us said it. Neal smiled before he headed towards the stairs heading down them to go home. I went back into my apartment locking all the locks cleaning up all the things that Neal and I just carried home before I pulled out the manila folders that I keep hidden from my daughter so she won't read up on her grandfather, I looked through the folder finding what I was looking for, written on the page was 'FBI Agent/Detective: Peter Burke.' My mouth dropped but kept trying to tell myself that I was wrong, I went up to the fridge pulling off Elizabeth's business card seeing her last name was Burke which only meant that her husband's last name must be Burke as well. This only meant one thing, Peter was the man that was working my dad's case and it only means soon enough he will catch me for the things I have done in my past due to my dad. I ran a hand through my hair as I begun pacing and thinking to myself. 'Shit...shit...shit! I don't want to move again...I don't want to move Olivia again...he knows who I am...dad, I hope you know what your doing to me...wait, Neal works with Peter, if Peter works with FBI, is Neal lying to me?' I thought as I heard Olivia moaning, I quickly shoved the folder away going to my daughter as she begun to get sick into the bucket. Right now that is back burner, I think tomorrow I will begin the process of getting us out of here before Peter figures it out, if he was able to figure out my dad's case and that means he can get me.