Chapter Eighteen
Foreign Furniture
March 4th, 2005
"Are you sure you don't want me to help?" Olivia asked, leaning against the door to the nursery.
The baby furniture had been delivered and carried up to the nursery about an hour ago and she had just come up to check on how things were going and saw in amusement that so far Elliot had only accomplished the unpacking of the various parts and pieces to the crib and change table. The only furniture that had come assembled was the rocking chair and the dresser and if the look of frustration on his face was any indication, it was that he was kicking himself for not paying just a little extra to have the people from the store put the furniture together.
He looked up at her briefly before shaking his head. "No, I'm fine."
She raised an eyebrow at him, which of course he couldn't see because he was back to staring intently at the directions in his hand. "Alright, well I'll be downstairs if you change your mind."
He waved his hand in acknowledgement before picking up two pieces and fixing them with a hard stare. Olivia rolled her eyes and made her way back downstairs to the kitchen table where a small stack of baby shower invitations still waited to be addressed. She picked one up, smiling at the picture to the left of the information about the shower. Her exposed belly filled the small square with her and Elliot's intertwined hands resting under it. The photographer had used pink face-paint to write the following on her stomach; Baby Girl Stabler. Coming to a hospital near you, May 26th 2005. Whenever she read it out loud it made her laugh because it sounded like they were announcing the arrival of a new movie instead of a baby.
Olivia continued the easy, but somewhat monotonous process of sticking cards into envelopes and labeling them accordingly for the next twenty minutes until the peace and quiet of their big house was disrupted. A loud noise from upstairs caught her attention and she wasn't surprised when it was followed by loud a string of curses from Elliot. She sighed and got up from the table, heading in the direction of the staircase. It took her a good minute and a half to waddle up the two sets of stairs and she was dreading what the climb would be like as her stomach continued to expand over the next three months. When she finally reached the second floor landing she started walking down the hall to the nursery, the last room on the left, and the closer she got the more she could both hear and feel Elliot's frustration growing.
"What the hell does part C have to do with that?" Elliot muttered angrily as Olivia poked her head in the room.
Looking around she saw that he had abandoned the assembly of the crib, whose two sides were laying side by side on the carpet meaning the noise she had heard would most likely have been him dropping the pieces on the floor. She looked over at her fiancé whose attention was focused on a long piece of maple-colored wood that belonged to the change table and smiled sadly at the angry frown on his face.
Olivia took a few cautious steps into the room and when he still didn't realize her presence she walked up to him and placed a comforting hand on his forearm. "El?"
"What?" He snapped, not looking at her.
She bit back the impulse to respond with an equally angry reply and instead moved her hand to his face, simultaneously getting his attention and snapping him out of his angry stupor. "There you are."
His blue eyes gazed apologetically at her. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay." She soothed, kissing his cheek. "But I would like to know why you're getting so frustrated with this."
He sighed, looking down at his hands and shaking his head. "It's stupid."
"Hey," he looked back up at her, "I promise it won't be stupid, not to me."
He closed his eyes briefly and gave a small shake of his head, but still kept eye contact with her "I think I was trying to prove to myself that I could handle this."
Her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion, "Handle what?"
Elliot laid his hand on her stomach, "This."
"Oh." Olivia still held his gaze which had now taken on a somewhat guilty look, confusing her further. "I still don't understand, Elliot. Are you nervous? I mean, I know I am so I would understand if that's why, but I don't feel like that's what you meant."
"I'm not nervous." He confirmed before letting out another sigh. "Well, not exactly."
"Then what is it?" She questioned, laying her hand over his.
"It's been twelve years since I've had to take care of a baby and when I was trying to put the crib together everything seemed so foreign to me. It made me realize that maybe I'm not cut out for this anymore." He explained, looking away from her when he had finished.
"Elliot...Elliot Stabler, look at me." He turned back to her and it hurt her to see him so insecure of himself, but she pushed past the feeling and continued to speak. "So maybe everything is different than when the Lizzie and Dickie were born, but I promise you we can handle this. I mean, if anyone can take care of a new baby it's the woman who never has and the man who has already had four."
That got him to laugh, "We are kind of an odd pair when you put it like that."
She smiled at him and gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "Yes, but I think we'll be just fine."
Their daughter decided to give her input by kicking in the exact spot where their hands rested, causing them both to laugh.
"It looks like she agrees with me." Olivia said looking down at her stomach then back up at him. "Now, why don't we try this again."
"What do you mean?" Elliot asked as she walked back over to the door and turned around to face him.
She held up her index finger and leaned against the doorframe before repeating her question from earlier. "Are you sure you don't want me to help?"
Elliot smiled before walking over and gently grabbing her arm to pull her into the room. "I would love some help."
"Good." She smirked, giving him a quick peck on the lips as they walked over to the pile of parts that was meant to be the crib. "Why don't you hand me those instructions and I can figure out where you went wrong..."
The next two hours were spent with Olivia deciphering the instructions while Elliot did the assembling of the crib and change table. The old adage of 'Two heads are better than one.', proved to be true and they now stood back looking proudly at their work.
"See, that wasn't that bad." Olivia commented as she walked over to the dresser where the bag of bedding for the crib sat.
Elliot wiped a hand over his sweaty forehead and shot her a skeptical look. "Says the woman who sat in a rocking chair and told me what to do for last two hours."
She opened her mouth to retort, but was interrupted by the ringing of the house phone and wasn't surprised when Elliot quickly left the room to answer it. Rolling her eyes, she took the yellow, fitted bed sheet out of its package and started putting it on. When all four corners were secured onto the small mattress she smoothed her hand over the smooth material, smiling faintly at the red ladybugs that dotted the yellow fabric. She started securing the similarly patterned bumper to the sides of the crib and when she was finished she was extremely happy with their decision to go with a neutral color for the bedding and walls instead of the traditional pink. Olivia had never really been a pink girl herself and the idea of surrounding her infant daughter with the color hadn't been appealing and thankfully Elliot had agreed.
Olivia was just draping the matching blanket over one of the taller sides of the crib when Elliot walked back in, the phone pressed against his chest. "You have a call."
"Who is it?" She asked as he handed her the phone, a suspicious smile on his face.
"Um-"
"Olivia Benson!" Olivia looked down at the phone in her hand as the voice of Casey Novak rang clearly through the receiver.
Olivia let out a quiet sigh and shot Elliot a very unamused look as she put the phone to her ear. "Hello, Casey, what's up?"
"What's up?" She asked incredulously. "What's up is that you said I could be in charge of planning your baby shower, but I've yet to even receive an invitation to the damn thing."
Olivia rubbed a hand over her eyes. "I am going to take them to the post office this afternoon, I told you that when you called yesterday."
"I know," She huffed and Olivia held back a laugh when she continued in a whine, "but I want to know what the baby is now. It's not fair, I'm your best friend, I shouldn't have to wait until Monday to find out."
"Let me remind you that it was your idea to announce the gender using the invitations for the shower." She replied, smiling at Elliot who was laughing quietly at her response. "Plus, just because I put them in the mail today, doesn't mean they'll get delivered Monday. You've gotta account for the fact that there isn't mail on Sunday."
"Is it your mission in life to torture me?" Casey groaned. "You know, Elliot knows, heck even his kids know, but me, your best friend in the whole world can't even know if you're having a boy or a girl. It's completely unfair."
"Okay, firstly you're starting to sound like a teenager and I hate to have to break this to you Case, but life just isn't fair sometimes." Olivia said, unable to hold back a laugh. "Also, Kathleen, wanted me to tell you that you can text her, Maureen, and the twins as much as you want, but they still aren't going to tell you."
"Now hold on a minute-"
Olivia pulled the phone away from her ear and held it against her chest to quiet the rant she knew was coming. "As my fiancé it is your job to tell her I'm not here when she calls and sounds like that."
He sauntered over to her, smirking as he wrapped his arms around her. "Really? I had no idea."
"Whatever." She smiled, resting her head against his shoulder.
"Did she really try getting it out of the kids?" He asked just as a loud, but muffled sigh came from the phone.
"Mhmm." She confirmed pulling back so she could look at him. "I'm almost positive she got their numbers out of my phone when everybody was over helping us move in."
"So she's been bugging them for a month?" He asked with a laugh.
"Yeah, pretty much." She replied, laughing as well, but sobered quickly. "Oh god."
"What is it?" He questioned his eyes immediately full of concern. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine. I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you." She apologized, feeling guilty for having upset him.
He gave her a confused look, "Then why did you say that?"
She sighed heavily and leaned her head against his chest. "I just realized that if she's freaking out this much over the baby and the shower, think about what it's going to be like when we get married."
He chuckled and the deep rumbling in his chest soothed her. "At least we have a while to prepare for that since you told her you wanted to wait until the baby was a few months old."
"True." She sighed, smiling when he ran a hand over her hair.
"You know, we could always just elope."
She shook her head and looked up at him surprised. "What about your kids? Your mom?"
"We could take them with us." He answered easily.
She laughed, "Elliot, if we took them with us that would be planning and therefore we would no longer be eloping."
"Oh." He said, looking somewhat defeated.
She raised an eyebrow at him in scrutiny. "Why the sudden interest in all of this?"
He shrugged and added nonchalantly, "No reason."
"Okay, I'll let it go, but I can tell you're hiding something." She said, giving him a hard stare before holding up the phone so they could both hear Casey and her never-ending rant. "Now, how do we get her to stop?"
He held his hand out and she placed the phone in it. "I've got an idea."
Elliot put the phone up to his ear and smiled at her before saying, "Casey?"
"What?" Olivia was close enough to hear her response and smiled at her frustrated tone.
"I'm going to tell you something, but you can't tell anyone else." Olivia immediately caught onto what he was doing and tried to stop him but she was too late. "It's a girl."
He hung up before Casey could answer and Olivia's mouth fell open, half in a amusement and half in shock. "I can't believe you just did that!"
He shrugged a shoulder, but she could see the mischievous grin playing at the corners of his mouth. On one hand Olivia was frustrated that they'd gotten so close to making Casey wait find out when everybody else did just to have Elliot blurt it out over the phone. However she also felt extremely happy that she would no longer be bugging her about the baby.
Olivia leaned up and kissed his jaw, "What am I going to do with you?"
"Marry me." He said kissing her cheek.
"Love me." A kiss to her other cheek.
"Have a baby with me." Neck.
"Maybe have another baby with me someday." Other side of her neck.
He brought his head back up to look into her eyes and before he could say another word she covered his mouth with hers and kissed him fiercely. She didn't know how he did it, but lately he'd been taking normal, completely meaningless moments and turning them into something serious and passionate. Her arms snaked around his neck and when they had to break for air she began peppering his jawline, all the way down to his collarbone with soft, slow kisses.
Before she completely registered what was happening he was picking her up and carrying her down the hall to their bedroom. He shut the door with his foot before walking over to the bed and laying her down gently. He pulled his clothes off before joining her on the bed and helping to remove her own clothing. As he was leaning down to reach behind her and unclasp her bra she kissed the scar on his right shoulder that after a month was the only small reminder of his injury.
He pulled back suddenly, giving her a curious look. "Why do you do that?"
"Do what?" She asked, equally confused.
"Ever since I got shot, whenever we do this, you kiss my scar. Why?" He replied, his tone wasn't accusatory just simply interested.
"Oh, well I guess...I guess in my mind its like I'm trying to heal it." She looked away self-consciously. "I know that sounds stupid but-"
"No, it's not stupid." He interrupted. "Not to me."
His reply reminded her of what she'd said to him mere hours ago and she smiled. "Really?"
"Really." He replied, smiling back.
"Have I told you lately how much I love you?" She asked, gently pulling him down by his shoulders so their faces were almost touching.
He smirked, shaking his head, "No, but I'm sure you'll be able to show me."
Olivia smiled back and kissed him hard, but quick. "Oh you can count on that, Stabler."