Further Down The Road

(Chapter Fourteen: Change For The Better)

"So what do you think?" Elliot asked as Olivia held walked around the much larger kitchen area with Landon on her hip.

"I like that the window here overlooks the back yard," she said pointing.

"And it is fenced. Good neighborhood. Close to a really good private school. "

"Five bedrooms," she added. "The kids could each have their own room and maybe a playroom."

"Or an office."

"An office," she said with a nod.

"Yeah, we turned ours into a nursery back when Abby was born. Now the girls are sharing a room and Landon is outgrowing the nursery."

"Three kids and two big dogs and they are all just going to get bigger. This place does have a lot more space. But is it in our budget?"

"It's close."

"How close?"

"It has been on the market for a few months and hasn't sold. The couple who own it moved and have already bought their new place, they really need this to sell. I'm thinking if we make a reasonable offer, maybe they will work with us on something. Lets take one more look."

Olivia smiled as she walked into the big family room and sat Landon down where the girls were playing with some toys on a blanket in the floor. "Hannah, keep an eye on your brother and sister."

"Okay, mommy."

Elliot leaned against the wall as he and his wife watched the kids playing together. "Nice, huh?"

"Yeah," she replied kissing him tenderly.

"Think how nice this will be around Christmas. Put a big tree in front of the window. A thousand gifts for the kids." He stood behind her and spun her around to look at the dining room as he wrapped his arms tight around her. "Christmas dinner with all of the kids right over there."

Olivia smiled again as Elliot lead her down the hall by the hand.

"I thought this could be Landon's room," Olivia said standing in the doorway and surveying the room. "This room is closer to the master bedroom, then put the girls in these two rooms side by side. And this one, would be the playroom."

"Or an office."

Olivia laughed. "We both have laptops and the printer is in the bedroom. Baby, what do we need an office for?"

"I guess you have a point. Playroom it is. Then our room," Elliot said with a big smile. "This bedroom is bigger than the living room, dining room and kitchen of the apartment put together. There is the private bathroom and the big garden tub. I could see you relaxing there with a few candles and a glass of wine. And think of all the amazing sex we could have in here," he whispered against her ear.

Olivia laughed. "It would be nice for the kids to be able to play in their own yard."

"And I can fix up a place for the dogs so we can just open the door and let them outside."

"I know, I know, the house is perfect. I just…I grew up in the city. I have lived there my entire life. It seems so strange, I never would have pictured me living in the suburbs."

"You could be a soccer mom," Elliot said with a grin.

"I know, El. This is what is best for our family, for our children. It is just going to be a big change for me. But a change for the better."

"So do you think we should make an offer on the house?"

Olivia exhaled and looked at her surroundings. "Yes, I do. I think we could make a really good life for our family here. And now that we have two large dogs," she placed her hand on her hip and stared at her husband. He was the one who was responsible for the addition to Cocoa, one of Brownie's puppies, to their family.

"The kids were heartbroken when we started giving away the puppies. I looked into their little eyes and Hannah begged, I couldn't tell her no. Cocoa was her favorite puppy because she looked just like Brownie."

"Your daughter has you wrapped around her little finger and she knows it."

"She does, I admit it. All of the Stabler women have that charm, including yourself. Little Landon has it, too."

"Elliot Stabler, you are seriously outnumbered!"

"Don't I know it? So final decision, should I call our broker and have him make an offer on this house?"

"Not so fast, I have a few conditions."

"You do?" Elliot studied the look on the face of his wife. "Lets hear them."

"I want Hannah to be able to stay in her school."

"Babe, there is an amazing school just a few blocks down the street."

"She is happy at this school, Elliot. And she has all of her friends there."

"Hannah is a very smart and outgoing child, she will make new friends. And with the space we'll have here and her having her own room, she can have sleepovers with her friends from this school. I could even put two twin beds in there."

"Are you going to tell her that she has to leave her school and all of her friends behind when we move? Or are you going to leave that up to me?"

"What if we let her finish out this school year at this school and start her at the new one next year? We have already paid her tuition and have all of her uniforms. And that will give her a little time with her friends."

"Okay. I'm just so nervous about moving her schools. She is happy here and I want what is best for all of the kids. Her school is important to her. She is about to enter second grade. Abby will start preschool soon and Landon is about to have his first birthday."

"How great would it be to have his first birthday party in our new house? This house."

Olivia smiled. "It would be pretty great. We're really going to buy our first house?"

"I think we are."

"El?"

"Yeah?"

"No more dogs," she said shaking her head. "I know that Hannah is going to hit us up because we will have more room. But those two are almost like having two more kids, they eat more than our kids. No more dogs."

"Deal," Elliot said with a laugh. "But now that we have the space and a yard I could build her a rabbit hutch. She could help me, I think it would be a nice little project for us. The we could let her pick out a couple of bunnies."

"Outside bunnies, not inside ones."

"Outside bunnies," he agreed.

"And no babies."

Elliot laughed. "We will get all girl bunnies. No babies."

Olivia smiled. "We need to learn to resist her charm," she confessed. "We went from going to pick out a rabbit, to getting a puppy and goldfish. The tiny little puppy got huge and had more puppies and we have two huge dogs, seven goldfish and now we're getting bunnies."

"She loves animals."

"Yeah, she does. And she does pretty good at taking care of them. Maybe I could take her to the library to read some books about bunnies and make this a learning experience."

"She is really good with animals. Who knows, she might grow up to be a Veterinarian or something some day."

Olivia looked around her and smiled again. "I love this house. I kind of don't want to leave."

"If all goes well, we soon wont have to. This will be home."

"But Hannah has homework and I still need to make dinner and all three kids need a bath. We'd better get going."

That evening just before sitting down to dinner, Elliot made the call to their broker who called and put in an offer on the house for them.

The next morning Olivia climbed from the bed and checked on her still sleeping children. She started the coffee then got into the shower. After her shower she woke the kids up and got them all ready for school and nursery school then fixed breakfast. Elliot joined his wife and three youngest children at the table as they enjoyed breakfast, then headed off to work.

It was around two o'clock in the afternoon when Olivia returned from court and her husband took her out for a late lunch. He couldn't help but smile as he stared at her from across the table.

"What?" Olivia asked taking another bite of her salad.

"I got a call around noon, from Eric."

"He heard about the offer on the house?"

"Well, there is a little complication."

"Complication? The offer wasn't enough?"

"The offer was reasonable, but…."

"But?"

"Baby, they sold the house this morning."

"What? No. I thought he said no other offers had been made?"

"I guess someone made an offer they couldn't refuse."

"Well, I guess it just wasn't meant to be. We'll just have to keep looking. Someone just bought a really great house."

"Yeah, they did."

Olivia looked up from the table to see the grin on Elliot's face as he dangled a set of keys in front of her. She tipped her head as a smile slowly spread across her face.

"We got it?"

"We got it," he said nodding. "We have a meeting to go and sign the paperwork after work. But they gave me the keys already."

Olivia laughed and smiled. "We own a house."

"We do."

"A great house!"

"Yes, it is. And I will contact the movers tomorrow. I want to get in there as soon a possible. I also talked to Eric about listing the apartment to rent out. That will cover a good part of our mortgage payment each month. I was thinking we could take Monday off and try to move this weekend. Monday while all of the kids are at school we can get the new place set up. And next weekend, I can take Hannah to get the stuff for our rabbit hutch project."

"That is a lot going on at once."

"Well, after we talked to her about it last night she is really excited. You know that she is going to bug me non stop until we get it finished. This is her last week of school before summer break. I think that will make a good little summer project, building the cage and learning to care for the bunnies."

"Hannah is going to have to become a vet, just so we can afford all of the medical bills on our pets."

Elliot smiled and kissed his wife's hand. "I actually got a little more money on the loan so we could get a few things for the house as well."

"Like what?"

"The rabbit hutch, a swing set for the back yard, an above ground pool for summertime, a new barbeque grill for the back deck and a new washer and dryer, for mommy."

"You are finally going to replace them?"

"We have had them for years and the dryer is thinking about going out anyway. I thought I could get a repair guy to fix it and just leave it with the apartment when we rent it out. Oh, and I managed to score a new dishwasher in the final price of the house."

"How did you do that?"

"They said the one that was there was broken. So, I had Eric talk to them for me. How good is your husband?"

"He's good."

"Yeah, he is," Elliot boasted as Olivia laughed.

"He is so good," she said with a seductive tone.

Elliot leaned across the table and kissed her tenderly. "I love you. And I promised you that I would make everything alright."

"You came through with flying colors. I never doubted you, you know that, right?"

"I know. But I also know how hard it is to have the faith to believe in things like this when you are worried. We make a great team. And we are doing a wonderful job on our beautiful family."

"You think so?"

"I do. All of the kids are safe and happy and healthy. Hell, so are the dogs. And now we are moving to a new home where they will all have the safety and space to grow."

"We really are doing a good job, huh?"

Elliot smiled and kissed his wife. "I cannot wait to tell Hannah that we got our new house."

"We should take the kids out for pizza to celebrate."

"That is a great idea."