"Lizzie! Lizzie wake up!"

Lizzie rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, stretched out and let out a big yawn before opening her eyes, only to find her sister leaning over her.

"Kathleen? What are you doing?" That's when she noticed it was still dark out. "And what time is it?"

"It doesn't matter," Kathleen said as she stripped her sister's blankets off of her. "You gotta come!"

Lizzie didn't have much of a choice as Kathleen basically ripped her arm from her socket to get her up. She got a quick glance of her bedside table clock that read 3:12.

"Seriously Kathleen? What the hell?"

Kathleen shushed her as they made their way down the hall and to the staircase. "So I woke up and was hungry so I figured I'd come steal some of the leftover cake, right? But I get to the bottom of the stairs and this is what I see."

Lizzie couldn't help but smile, even in her current state.

"They're so cute!"

Olivia and Elliot had both fallen asleep, wrapped in each other's arms on the couch. Olivia had her head on his chest, and Elliot his hand on her waist. Their breathing was synchronized.

"Come!"

Lizzie was pulled from the scene and into the kitchen, where to their surprise, they found Maureen and Dickie eating the cake.

"Seriously?" Dickie asked. "Everyone's up?"

Lizzie gave Kathleen a look. "I'm only up because she made me."

Kathleen shrugged as she pulled out a fork and started eating from Maureen's piece. "I woke up and was hungry. Nothing new."

Maureen nodded her head towards the direction of the living room. "I woke up and Olivia wasn't in her bed so I figured she had fallen asleep on the couch waiting up for dad. I thought I'd bring her some blankets, but I guess she found something else to keep her warm."

The girls giggled.

Dickie looked back and forth between the three of them. "Something tells me I'm missing something."

Lizzie finally joined in with a fork of her own and started explaining between bites. "We are convinced that Dad and Olivia are meant to be and we want them together."

Dickie nodded. "So I'm not the only one who approves?"

The girls all quietly squealed. "That's five for five!" Kathleen exclaimed. "I can hear the wedding bells already!"

Maureen rolled her eyes. "Just because we all approve, doesn't mean that that's what's going to make this thing real. They need to figure it out."

"Well if that's not figuring it out," Lizzie said pointing to the living room, "I don't know what is."

Maureen shook her head. "Give it time. The more people make comments and insist there's something, the longer it'll take for them to figure it out themselves."

Kathleen scoffed. "Since when have you become all analytical, or whatever."

Maureen shrugged and took a bigger bite so that she didn't need to answer.

"Do you guys think it'll happen?" Dickie asked, having stayed pretty quiet so far.

"I sure hope it does!" Lizzie said excitedly.

"I still say we make a plan," Kathleen added, glaring playfully at Maureen.

"I say how about you don't."

The four heads shot up at the sound of their father's voice and faces went white.

"Dad!" Lizzie said. "I... We..."

Maureen, still in control of her words took over. "How much did you hear?"

Elliot stole Kathleen's fork out of her loosened grasp, took a bite and shrugged. "Let's just say you guys aren't the quietest gossipers."

"Is Liv awake too?" Dickie asked, suddenly ashamed he was caught gossiping with the girls.

Elliot shook his head. "Nah, she's exhausted. She's been really worried about you guys."

They all nodded, still not sure what to say.

Kathleen couldn't handle the silence. Or the suspense for that matter.

"So... You and Liv? What's going on?"

Maureen was shocked. "Kathleen!"

Kathleen feigned innocence. "What? It's a perfectly legitimate question. If our dad is involved with someone, we, as his children, should be aware of it. Especially considering our mother didn't have the decency."

They all shook their heads. "That was low Kath," Dickie said.

Kathleen rolled her eyes. "Low, but true."

Elliot put his hand on his daughter's shoulder. "I know you're upset with your mother, and I promise never to put you through that. If there's anything going on between me and any woman, I promise you guys will be the first to know."

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "You say it like you're not totally and utterly devoted to Liv."

Kathleen gave her sister a high five while the other two couldn't help but crack a smile.

Elliot tried holding back, but he too couldn't help but smile at his youngest daughter's statement.

"Guys guys!" Kathleen exclaimed. "Dad's blushing! I don't think I've ever seen dad blush!"

Elliot was shocked. "I am not!"

They all laughed at their father and he laughed along with them.

"You guys are old enough and are clearly already aware of my feelings toward Liv, and from what I understand, you guys give me your approval."

He got a choir of nods and different forms of yeses.

"In that case, I will admit that I'm..." He watched as his children watched him, waiting for him to finish his sentence.

"You're...?"

And Elliot said it out loud for the first time in his life. "Totally and undeniably in love with Olivia Benson."

There were four excited figures who threw themselves on him in that second and he couldn't have asked for a better reaction. Except maybe one from the woman in question.

"But Olivia doesn't know that yet."

"You need to tell her!" Lizzie exclaimed.

Everyone nodded in agreement. "It's clear that she has feelings for you too dad," Kathleen added. "She wouldn't be spending so much time with you if she didn't."

"I know, she says it's for us," Maureen added, "but if it weren't for her feelings for you, there wouldn't be an us to worry about. Dad..."

Elliot nodded. "I will, I'll tell her. But right now, there's a lot of things going on that need to be handled first."

"Dad," Dickie started, looking straight at his father. "We love her too. A lot. She's already part of the family. And someday, we hope she becomes a permanent part. Take the time you need to do whatever you have to do, there's no rush. If you guys have stayed together for twelve years already, I'm sure a little bit of time won't change how you feel about each other. But, we definitely approve."

Elliot stared at his son, struck by a massive wave of emotions. He would have expected something like that from Maureen, maybe even Kathleen and Lizzie, but never from his boy who always seemed to keep to himself when it came to feelings and relationships. He smiled.

"I'm glad you guys approve."

"There's no one we would love to see you with more than Liv."

Elliot smirked. "Me neither."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Olivia stared at the living room ceiling from her spot on the couch. What do I do?

She had awoken suddenly, not really sure why. She took a look around, unfamiliar with her surroundings, and she suddenly remembered where she was.

At the Stabler's.

On the couch.

Where she and Elliot had fallen asleep the night before.

Together.

Shit.

She took a look around her and realized that she was now alone. The spot beside her was warm, so Elliot mustn't have left long ago. He probably woke up and decided he'd be better in his bed, she decided. She was okay with that.

Although she already missed his presence and had to admit, she hadn't slept that well in a long time.

Crap.

It was then that she heard voices coming from the kitchen. Somebody's up, she thought as she peeled herself off the couch and quietly headed towards the sound.

As she got closer, she could pick out Dickie's voice, however she couldn't hear what he was saying. Who was he with?

It was only when Elliot spoke that she could make out what was being said. "I'm glad you guys approve."

Olivia didn't think anything of it. That could mean anything, right? She was about to make her presence known when she heard Maureen. "There's no one we would love to see you with more than Liv."

Olivia went still, but just as quickly turned on her heels and went back to the living room before she hear anything else. She laid back down on the couch and just stared at the ceiling.

She couldn't believe it. Couldn't wrap her mind around it. Had Elliot said something? She couldn't imagine that he would, because he knew that she wanted things to stay the same between them, especially right now with everything going on. But she had heard him. Talking with Maureen and Dickie. And she figured Kathleen and Lizzie had been there too, cause she could hear whispering in the background. His kids knew something.

And they wanted her as much as Elliot did.

Her heart rate sped up. Was this really happening? Were she and Elliot really going to -

Her thought was cut short by the sound of her cell phone ringing.

"Benson," she answered.

"Detective, we have another victim." It was Whelan's voice. "We really need you and Elliot here. ASAP. The plane is already there waiting for you guys."

"We'll be there in ten minutes," she said. She saw Elliot come out of the kitchen, probably having heard her answer her phone. He nodded knowing exactly who was calling them at this god forsaken hour.

She hung up as Elliot grabbed his jacket, wallet and car keys, tossing Olivia hers in the process. The kids came out of the kitchen.

"We have to go to Philly," Elliot said on his way out the door. "We'll be back for our stuff. Love you guys."

There were a choir of love you's and byes, and Olivia stayed quiet, still trying to figure out where she belonged in all of this. She also didn't say anything when Elliot started the car and pulled out, and she was still silent while they made their way through the quiet roads.

Elliot didn't take very long before picking up on this. "You alright Liv?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Elliot kept glancing back towards her. He had noticed right away how awake she looked while on the phone. "You weren't asleep when the call came in, were you?"

Olivia shook her head slowly.

Elliot stopped at a red light and his head fell back against his headrest.

Shit.

"You heard us, didn't you?"

Olivia finally looked back at Elliot. "Not very much, I promise. When I realized what you guys were talking about I left."

Elliot reached over and took her hand in his. She didn't pull away like he had been expecting. "Liv..."

She smiled. "El, you have some very smart kids and I should have known they would figure it out. I... I'm not mad or angry by any means, and I'm glad that I have their approval for whatever it is that they approve of but we're - "

Elliot cut her off. "They know there is nothing going on. They just know that there are... feelings between us and I know you still need time and that we still need to talk and there is still so much going on... Olivia, I respect that. We'll figure it out at some point."

Olivia nodded, but smiled at Elliot. "I think I've finally accepted that there's something happening."

Elliot's eyes lit up. "Yeah?"

Olivia giggled at his excited expression. "Yeah. And El?"

"Yes Liv?"

"I'm glad your kids approve."

Elliot smiled. "So does that mean that there's a chance you let me in?"

Olivia nodded. "It means don't lose hope just yet."

Elliot squeezed her hand, the one that stayed nestled in his. "I'll never lose hope when it comes to us."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

They had stayed quiet during the entire flight. However, it wasn't the same quiet that other trips had been. They were okay. Their intertwined fingers that sat between them proved this.

A car was waiting for them at their arrival. The driver took them straight to the precinct, no questions asked.

"Lawrence!" Elliot exclaimed when he noticed the man waiting outside of the elevator for them. "It's another vic, isn't it?"

Lawrence nodded. "She came in early this morning. She'll go through everything with you guys. I've never seen a woman come through here as strong as her."

They both nodded and pushed their way through the doors that led to their precinct.

"Kate? Sean? What... what are you guys doing here?"

Olivia and Elliot looked at the couple in front of them, understanding what had happened.

"Lindsay! Zach!" Olivia exclaimed.

"Oh Kate! Don't tell me he got you too!" Lindsay said, taking Olivia's hands.

Olivia and Elliot exchanged a glance then looked over to their captain who stood behind the couple. He gave them a nod, knowing exactly what they were waiting for.

Olivia looked at Lindsay and Zach before pointing to the conference room. "Why don't we take a seat, shall we?"

It didn't take much to convince them and before long, they were sitting on the couches, coffees all on hand.

Elliot was the first to speak up. "I'm detective Elliot Stabler and this is my partner detective Olivia Benson. Sean and Kate are our undercover personas."

Lindsay went wide eyed. "You guys are cops? So everything... The other day..."

Olivia took her hand. "We go with the information that was put together in our profile."

Lindsay nodded. "Okay, I get it."

Olivia gave her a small smile. "Okay, so why don't we go through what happened."

Lindsay nodded. "Okay. Well, I went in last night for a one-to-one session with Carlos, like I've done on other occasions. I remember having lucked out on parking, because downtown on a Sunday evening isn't all that remarkable. I remember grabbing the door handle, but everything after that is gone."

Elliot gave her a questioning glance. "What do you mean by gone?"

Lindsay shrugged. "I don't remember a thing. The next thing I know I'm waking up, in my bed next to Zach and feeling discomfort... down there."

Olivia turned to Zach. "How about you? What do you remember from last night?"

Zach sighed as he squeezed his fiancé's hand. "I was watching the game in bed when Lindsay got home. She seemed a little off, but when I asked her about it, she brushed it off as just being tired. I took her word, keeping an eye on her. Usually, she has this whole routine before bed, but last night she just came straight to bed. I noticed that she cringed a bit when she shifted, and I inquired again, but she was already asleep. I had never seen her fall asleep as quickly in my life.

"It was around 1:30 when she woke up and told me about how she was in pain. She also confessed she didn't remember a thing from last night."

Lindsay cut in. "We went to the hospital since we both feared we knew what had happened. The doctors confirmed it with a rape kit. They found traces of lubricants from a condom... Don't ask whether we've had sex in the last few days," she added pointing back and forth between her and Zach. "We... We were waiting until our wedding day. I'm ... I was a virgin, so I... I was raped."

"We came straight here from the hospital... I... This is all my fault. I shouldn't have -"

Olivia cut him off. "This isn't your fault," she said to Zach. She turned to Lindsay. "Nor is it yours."

Lindsay nodded. She then looked back and forth between Elliot and Olivia. "I'm not the first, am I? That's why you guys are undercover."

Olivia and Elliot exchanged a glance. Elliot was the one to speak up. "Your right, it has happened before. But you guys are the first to come in with something concrete. None of the other woman were able to prove they had been raped. They'd all gone home and made love to their love ones, therefore getting rid of any proof."

Zach squeezed Lindsay's hand. He looked Elliot in the eye. "Catch him, for us."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

"What do you mean we can't question him?"

Elliot was enraged.

"We don't have enough evidence to hold him, and if he doesn't fess up, he goes free and we never get him. We need to find real evidence like a witness or DNA before we can throw the whole operation out the window."

Elliot wasn't having it. "She remembers going into the building! That puts her in Carlos's proximity."

Whelan sighed. "It doesn't mean it happened there. There's a 5 hour gap that Lindsay doesn't remember. It could have happened anytime during that span." He watched Elliot tremble. "I know that this is tough, but we need evidence."

Elliot was about to blow up again, but he felt hands press down on his shoulders and he instantly calmed down.

"El, let's get back to the apartment and we can sleep a bit, maybe that'll help? Sound okay?"

He nodded, not sure what had come over him. Had Olivia always had that power over him?

Once they were back in their Philadelphia apartment, Elliot realized just how tired he was. He had had a great weekend with his kids, but that didn't help that everything going on with this case and mostly, everything going on with Olivia, was draining him to the point where he couldn't think straight.

"El, are you okay?"

He looked up into Olivia's eyes.

"Olivia, there's something I need to tell you."

Olivia felt her stomach flip flop. She knew that look in his eye. She knew this was going to be big. She knew -

Elliot's phone started to ring, breaking the moment.

He kept his eyes glued on hers while he answered the phone. "Hello?"

His eyes shifted when Maureen's voice came over the line.

Two words was all it took to change his mood in an instant.

"She's awake."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Elliot sat in the chair beside his soon-to-be-ex-wife's hospital bed, leg shaking, hands being wrung to no end. The doctor gave him an update: she had been awake and lucid about an hour ago. By the time he had gotten back on the plane, come back to New York and made it to the hospital, she had fallen back to sleep. Now, he just sat patiently, waiting for her to open her eyes so he could...

Could do what?

He didn't know. Of course, he wanted to know how she was doing. He may not love her like he used to but she still was the mother of his children and he still cared for her. But if he was being honest with himself, the real reason he was here was to find out about the baby. The baby she didn't tell anyone about.

The baby that could make or break his relationship with Olivia.

"Elliot..."

He watched as Kathy's eyes fluttered open, a small smile building on her lips. He couldn't bring himself to smile, he was still furious with this woman for putting his world upside down, but his eyes softened a bit.

"Hey. How are you feeling?"

Kathy tried to stretch, but her body was too weak. "Like I haven't moved for weeks. I'm sore everywhere and my head is pounding."

Elliot nodded. "That's understandable. Has the doctor been by to update you?"

Kathy nodded. "Explained everything that had happened. He told me he wants to keep me in for observation for a few more nights, but that everything looks like it's healing just fine and that I shouldn't have any major problems."

Elliot looked towards the floor. "And the baby?"

Kathy went white at this. "Elliot..."

Elliot looked back up at her. "I'm sorry, you're recovering, but... Shit Kathy, you are three months pregnant and you didn't think to inform anyone?"

Kathy sighed. "You have a right to be mad..."

Elliot was fuming. "Hell yeah I do! I can't believe you'd do something like this. I..." he paused. "I wanna be the good guy here and say we'll talk about this when you're better, I just-"

Kathy shook her head. "No, we can do this now. You deserve that..." She paused. "Do... do the kids know?"

He shook his head. "No, but your David does."

Kathy went white. "I... Shit. When... How do you know his name?"

"He heard about the accident. He came to see you at the hospital. It didn't take me long to figure it out and I know for a fact that this kid could be mine as much as it could be his. Do you know how much that has screwed with my head since the moment I found out? We need to do a test, and I mean soon."

Kathy looked Elliot in the eye. "You don't think that I thought the exact same thing when I found out?"

Realization at what she was insinuating hit Elliot like a train. "You already know."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Maureen, Kathleen, Lizzie and Dickie sat around the kitchen table in silence. None of them knew what to say. It had been early when the house phone rang and none of them had said much since. It was now around 8:30 and the kids still hadn't decided what they were feeling in all of this.

"Do... Should we go visit?"

Everyone looked at Dickie in shock, but none of them really knew what to answer.

"She is our mom..." Kathleen said, trying to think of reasons why they should or shouldn't go.

"Our mom who could've easily ruined our family by keeping the world's biggest secret from us," Lizzie added, clearly angry.

"She didn't even apologize for it after we found out," Maureen added. "But... She... She could've died because of this, and we should probably go see her as to not make things worse. "

"Maybe while she was in her little coma world these past few days, she finally saw what she did wrong and is going to accept fault," Dickie said with a shrug.

"Or maybe," Lizzie added, "she realized that she didn't really care what we thought anymore and is planning on running off with her new man and leaving us all behind to fend for ourselves."

"Lizzie!" the three others exclaimed.

"What?" Lizzie asked. "I'm allowed to be pissed. I never get upset over anything. It was bound to happen someday."

Everyone around the table sighed.

"What do we do?" Kathleen asked, not really sure what to think.

Maureen got up. "Let's be the bigger people in this situation. Let's take a deep breath and do what she didn't have the decency to do. Let's show her we care."

It took a few seconds, but eventually, the four of them got up in silence and all headed for the door.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

It had been a while since Olivia had been to her apartment. Her actual apartment, that is, not the one in Philadelphia. The mail had started to collect, which she found odd since she wasn't used to getting mail.

She and Elliot had hopped back on to the plane, and once they had landed in New York, she drove him straight to the hospital. He had been shaking all along.

"You'll be okay El," she said as he slowly got out of the car once they were parked in front of the entrance to the hospital. He just nodded before closing the door and walking off towards the intimidating structure. He had been in and out so many times already in the past week, but this was definitely the most scared he had been so far.

Olivia shut her apartment door behind her, carrying the mail in one hand and the breakfast sandwich she had picked up in the other.

She put the breakfast sandwich on the counter and started flipping through her mail.

Bills. Bills. Bills.

She put them down and turned towards her phone. She watched as the blinking light indicated a message on the answering machine.

She hit the play button while she started to remove her sandwich from the paper bag.

"Hello Detective Benson. This is Dr. Bradley from the Philadelphia Medical Clinic. Your Friday test results are in."

Her bi-monthly check-up results. She found them pointless since they always had the same results, but the department required them. She had figured that she'd get them done last week while in Philadelphia since she didn't have much else to do with her time. The undercover operation was interesting and a whole new experience for her, but it seemed to leave her with a lot of free time since she couldn't do any other investigating.

She waited for the doctor to state the usual, the classic you're fine. She was surprised when it didn't come.

"I'd like you to give me a call when you get this. I'd like to give you these results directly."

The message ended and Olivia when rigid. What was that supposed to mean? She looked over at her clock. It was a little after 8. She figured she'd give it a shot.

"Hello, Dr. Bradley's office, Gina speaking. How may I help you?"

"Hi," Olivia said, a little shaky. She never got nervous. What was this? "I have a message from Dr. Bradley that wanted me to call her back. Would she be in?"

"Just one moment please."

It didn't take very long for the call to be transferred over, but it felt like an eternity to Olivia.

"Hello, this is Dr. Bradley."

Olivia took a deep breathe. "Hi, this is Detective Olivia Benson. You wanted me to call you regarding my test results."

"Of course! I have them just here. Detective?"

Olivia was stunned to hear the question in the doctor's voice. "Yes?"

"Are you sitting down?"

Olivia was shocked. "What?"

"You may want to sit down for this."

What?