Truth And Deception
(Chapter Nineteen: Seven Months)
"Elliot," he heard her whisper.
Elliot opened his eyes to look at his wife. "What baby?"
"Listen," she whispered as she picked up the baby monitor.
They could hear the cooing and baby noises from the girls in the next room. Then out of the blue there was a crystal clear "da, da, da, da."
Elliot smiled and laughed. "I'll be damned. Aubrey?"
"Umm, no I think it's Bailey."
They listened for a few more minutes to happy baby noises as the twins squealed and cooed at each other across the nursery from their cribs.
"Da, da, da, da, da." Once more this time followed by a little seven month old cackle.
Elliot and Olivia climbed quietly from the bed and walked down the hall toward the nursery and pushed the door open. Aubrey sat in her crib holding her blanket and sucking on her thumb as she smiled at her sister.
Bailey however, stood up in her crib holding on to the rail and cooing. She was talking her little baby gibberish then looked over at Elliot and smiled. "Da, da, da, da, da."
"That's right princess," Elliot said with a smile as he scooped his daughter up into his arms, "I'm your da da."
He kissed her and bounced her gently as he combed his fingers through her dark curls. Olivia picked Aubrey up from her crib and laid her onto the changing table.
"I think you two need a dry diaper, then mommy will get some breakfast."
Elliot pulled two little outfits from the girls' closet and handed one to Olivia with a fresh diaper. He laid Bailey back down in her crib and changed her diaper then put on her outfit.
They carried their daughters to the dining room where the sat the girls on matching high chairs for a breakfast of cheerios and a bottle of breast milk. Olivia slipped off to the nursery to pump breast milk for the girls as Elliot started breakfast for he and his wife.
After breakfast there was about half an hour of playtime before it was time for the girls to go to nursery school and mommy and daddy were off to work.
Elliot walked in to work with a big smile on his face.
"What are you so happy about?" Fin asked as Elliot took a seat at his desk.
Olivia sat a cup of coffee down in front of her husband.
"Thank you baby," he said with a smile.
"Don't you recognize that grin?" John Munch said nodding his head toward Elliot. "That is definitely a glow of fatherly pride."
"How do you know?" Fin asked.
"He's right," Olivia said sitting down at her desk and taking a sip of her coffee. "We got our first words this morning."
"You did?" Cragen asked from behind her.
"Yup," Olivia bragged with a smile.
"Which one?" Fin asked.
"We got a pool going," Munch added. "You know, which one will walk first and talk first, first words, yada, yada. I guess we have a couple of pools going."
Olivia smiled. "You guys are betting over my children?"
"Friendly little wager," Fin said.
"How much?" Elliot asked.
"Not much," Munch said trying to defend the wager.
"How much?" Elliot repeated.
"Twenty bucks," Munch confessed. "Who was it?" He asked as he and Fin each laid twenty dollars on the desk in front of them.
"Bailey," Olivia spoke up. "She said da da."
"Yes," Munch said opening his palm as Fin dropped the forty dollars into it.
"But," Olivia added, "Aubrey took her first steps last week. Two days before Bailey took hers."
"Ha!" Fin said reaching for the cash.
"I'll take that," Elliot said swiping up the cash from Munch's palm before Fin could get it. "Thank you uncle John and uncle Fin for the donation to the girls' toy and clothing fund. That is what happens when you bet over my kids. I hope you learned your lesson," he said pointing at them. "You should be ashamed of yourselves. You should be setting a better example for you nieces."
Olivia smiled and chuckled a little as she watched Elliot scold them for their behavior.
"Way to handle that El," she said with a wink as she uncrossed her legs and leaned forward to kiss him.
That afternoon Elliot and Olivia took their daughters to a baby store where they each got a new outfit and a toy, courtesy of uncle Fin and uncle Munch. They took there baby girls out for dinner where they nibbled on bits of French fry and chicken nuggets.
That evening as they tucked their little girls into bed, handing them each a bottle and turning on the nightlight. Elliot kissed each of his daughters as he tucked their little brown curls into place.
"I am the luckiest man in the world," he said to his wife as they stared down at Aubrey sleeping.
"They are pretty amazing kids, aren't they?" Olivia asked.
"Great kids. Both of them. They make daddy so proud."
"They are growing so fast," Olivia said as she turned to look in on Bailey who pulled her bottle from her mouth and offered it to her mother.
Olivia kissed her baby girl and put the bottle back into her mouth as she tucked her soft pink blanket in around her and handed her the baby doll that slept in the crib with her each night. The same baby doll that Elliot had bought for her on the day she was born.
"It is hard to imagine now," Elliot said smiling down at his little girl as her big brown eyes fell shut, "but they will be teenagers before we know it."
"Don't rush it, El. I want my babies to stay babies just a while longer," Olivia said as she hugged him.
"Well, you know we could always try to have another baby later down the road."
"I don't know. I think maybe seven kids is enough. And what if we had twins again?"
"At least we have a system now," Elliot said with a smile.
Olivia laughed. "We'll see," she said hugging her husband and kissing him tenderly. "Why don't you take your wife to bed?" She asked with a seductive look as she twisted his tie in her fingers. "It is still a little early, so we have a little time to play before we have to go to sleep," she said as she playfully bit his bottom lip.
"Baby, you read my mind!"
Elliot picked his wife up and carried her off to bed.