Chapter Five

Uncles

August 15th, 2004

"Alright, I'm assuming you didn't ask to talk to us in Captain's office just so we could make small talk, what's going on?" Munch finally asked.

Before Cragen had left he had given Olivia the key to his office and told her they could use it to tell Fin and Munch about the baby without having to worry about being overheard by anyone else that was still in the squad room. They had been making light conversation with the two for a few minutes since neither Elliot nor Olivia was sure of how to go about telling them.

Elliot shared a brief glance with Olivia before she gave him a nod, signaling for him to take the lead, "Well we've got some news, but it's something that we are going to ask that you don't share with anyone else."

The partners looked at each other, and then looked back at him, clearly confused.

"Why don't you tell us what's going on first before you ask us to keep it quiet?" Asked Fin, crossing his arms over his chest skeptically.

"Olivia's pregnant." He paused, briefly allowing the initial shock to pass before adding, "And it's mine."

There was a beat of silence before Munch held out his hand to Fin, "I told you it was going to happen eventually, pay up."

Olivia blushed furiously, as Fin pushed the older man's hand away, "Seriously John, not the time."

Munch rolled his eyes before looking back at them, "So you two are together then?"

Olivia shook her head, "No. It was just one night, we weren't thinking and made a mistake, but we've put it behind us and are going to do our best to raise this child together."

Mistake. The word left her lips so easily, no hesitation, not even a small pause. It hurt like hell to hear her describe that night as a mistake and part of him now second guessed his decision of slowly getting her to believe he loved her. If she'd already decided that, that night was a mistake, then maybe he was too late.

He pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind to contemplate later, turning his attention back to his fellow detectives, "We already told Cragen, and he has agreed to tell anyone that asks that Liv doesn't know who the father is because if Tucker or anyone in IAB found out, then we could both loose our jobs."

"We trust both of you enough not to lie to you, " Olivia continued, "it didn't seem right to hide it from you, but we know that involving you in this is asking you to risk your jobs for us, so if anyone asks we don't want you to lie for us."

Elliot looked at them nervously. He and John had always gotten along and he wasn't worried about the older man keeping this secret for them. On the other hand his relationship with Fin consisted of simply tolerating each other on a daily basis.

"C'mere, Liv." Fin held out his arms to her and gave her a tight hug. "I'm happy for you baby girl, both of you." Elliot was a little taken aback, but did his best to hide it.

Munch smiled and shook Elliot's hand, "Congratulations, what number is this now?"

"Five." He puffed out his chest a little when he said this, causing Olivia to roll her eyes at him.

"Really? You're going to get a big ego over impregnating your partner?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"This is Stabler we're talking about, 'course he's gonna get all proud'a himself." Fin joked, causing the group to laugh. "Anyways, I can't speak for boney ass over there, but you've got my word that if Tucker somehow suspects Elliot, I won't flip on you guys. It's not my business to tell and we're friends, I can always find some other gig if worse comes to worst."

"Same here, Tucker and his cronies can stick it." Munch agreed.

"Thanks guys, that means a lot." Elliot replied.

"Yes, thank you so much." Olivia said a little teary eyed, "Damn hormones."

Fin chuckled before pulling her in for another hug and then passing her off to Munch who hugged her as well. Elliot shook hands with both men, and they were about to leave when Olivia suddenly pulled something from her pocket.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" She handed Fin and Munch each a slip of paper, Elliot craned his neck in Fin's direction and smiled widely down at the picture of their unborn child.

"What is this?" John asked clearly confused as to why he had been handed a picture of a white blob.

Fin elbowed him in the ribs, "It's the baby ya moron."

"Well excuse the only non-parent here for not correctly identifying the peanut shaped thing." He groused, the other three doing their best to hold back their laughter.

"It's okay, just remind me not to tell our kid that his Uncle Munch called him a 'peanut shaped thing'." Olivia said, hiding her laughter with her hand.

"Uncle Munch?" His tone had changed from annoyed to touched and she nodded.

"Both of you will be uncles, I mean, if you want to at least. You're like family, it only seemed right that you would be." She looked over at Elliot questioningly, and he nodded whole-heartedly agreeing with her, knowing that this squad had become family to both of them.

"Of course we'll be uncles Liv, I'll be the nice one and Munch will be the old crazy one that the kid and I will make fun of all the time." Fin grinned at the older man's shocked expression.

"What you mean to say is that you will fill the kid's head with fairy tale nonsense and I will enlighten him on the millions of ways that this government is controlling his generation." Munch corrected once he'd found his voice again.

The two continued to bicker back and forth, so while they were distracted Elliot leaned against Cragen's desk and slid down to where Olivia was doing the same, "So where's my picture?"

She grinned at him, "Who says you're getting one?"

"The guy that is driving you home." He answered smirking.

"Great argument, except there's about a hundred cabs out there that would be willing to take me home." She countered.

"Yeah but do you love any of them as much as me?" He was just kidding and the question slipped out before he knew what he was saying. He saw her eyes widen momentarily and she pushed her hair behind her ear nervously.

"No." Her answer was so soft he almost didn't hear it, but it was enough to make him forget the doubts he'd been having earlier.

"Alright fine." Fin said loudly, bringing an end to their conversation as they both turned to see what was going on. "I won't paint you as a crazy old fool if you wait until the kid is at least fifteen to start spouting your conspiracy nonsense."

They both laughed when John grudgingly agreed with his terms and out of the corner of his eye Elliot saw Olivia trying but failing to cover a yawn with her hand, "I think it's time to get you home."

"I just keep getting more tired every day, " she tried to stifle another yawn, "I went to bed at eight thirty last night."

"You're growing another human being Liv, 'course you're gonna get tired." Fin joked, opening the door to Cragen's office before they all filed out.

Elliot stopped at their desks briefly before realizing he'd left something in his locker, "Hey I'll be right back, left my sweatshirt in my locker."

She nodded as he headed off in the direction of the locker room, quickly walking up to his locker and removing his grey hoodie. It was almost August and though he certainly had no use for it, he knew that she sometimes liked to borrow it when she crashed at the precinct so he planned to conveniently forget it at her apartment that night. He smiled as he pictured her wearing it to bed, hopefully thinking of him, and when he turned around to leave he was surprised to find Fin standing in the doorway.

His arms were crossed and he had a knowing look on his face, "When were you planning on telling her?"

"Telling her what?" The 'her' in question was obviously Olivia, but Elliot wasn't sure what Fin was asking.

"Come on dude, don't play dumb, it's obvious you're in love with her." His lack of response to this statement was enough of an answer for both of them. "When Liv said you two weren't together I was seriously confused. If it were me I would've used this whole baby thing to my advantage and just gone ahead and told her."

Elliot sighed leaning back against his locker, "It's not that simple, Fin."

"Why not?" He prompted, stepping further into the room so the door closed and their conversation would not be overheard.

"You know how for the past two months we haven't exactly been ourselves?" He asked and Fin nodded.

"Like I could forget it. It was like World War III with you two sometimes." He answered.

Elliot rubbed a hand over his face, not believing that he was actually having this conversation with Fin, "I slept with her the night Kathy and I finalized the divorce. She didn't realize it until the next morning and thought I was using her as my rebound and before I could deny it she told me she loved me."

"Whoa, that's a lot to deal with in one morning. What'd you say?" He asked taking a seat on the bench across from where Elliot stood.

"I didn't. " He sighed resting his head against his locker so he was looking up at the ceiling. "I've had feelings for her for a while, but I'd only just realized that I was in love with her and to have her say it like that, completely out of the blue... I was too overwhelmed to say anything. She stormed out, told me not to call, that she'd see me at work. I fucked up big time, Fin. "

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you can't fix it. It's not too late, I've seen the way she looks at you when you're not looking, it's the same way you look at her. " He paused, shaking his head. "You two really need to get better at expressing your feelings when you're both looking."

Elliot chuckled, "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. But I can't just tell her I love her now, she'll think it's because of the baby, that I feel obligated; which I don't."

"I see where you're coming from, but you're not going to wait till the kid graduates high school right?" Fin asked sarcastically.

He smiled, "No, my plan is to ease into it. I'm going to use these next seven months to prove to her that I'm not going anywhere and when the time is right I'll tell her."

"Alright I guess that makes sense." He stood and took a step forward leveling his hard stare on Elliot, "I have to warn you though Stabler if-"

"You coming, El?" They heard her voice through the door and footsteps that signaled her approach.

"If you hurt her, " Fin continued, hurrying to finish before she got there. "I won't hesitate to beat the living hell out of you."

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you Fin." He answered just as she opened the door, Fin casually moved over to his own locker so she wouldn't suspect anything.

"I didn't know it took you five minutes to grab a sweatshirt." She teased, gesturing to the article of clothing in his hand.

"Sorry, we were just talking." He replied, heading for the door, "See ya tomorrow Fin."

"Bye guys." He returned, waving as they left to catch an elevator down to the parking garage.

"What were you talking about?" She asked curiously as they stepped into the elevator.

"Names." He lied easily, hitting the button for the first floor. "He made me promise we wouldn't name the kid after him, didn't want someone else getting stuck with that name."

She laughed, "He does seem to have a certain distaste for his name."

He smiled at her, "Yeah, well he also made me promise that we wouldn't name him after me, said the world couldn't handle another Elliot Stabler."

"I think I'd have to disagree with him on that." She said as the elevator doors began to slide closed. "I wouldn't mind another Elliot Stabler."

A/N: Hope you liked their reactions to the news! Thanks for reading and I love reading everyone's reviews, you guys are great!

-Katie

Guest: Thank you for reading!

Giselle: Well thank you! I hope this early update will help with that! Thanks for the review!

kana117: Well I hope this was fast enough for ya! Thanks for reading!