HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
This is the last one shot of this story!
Also, I can't wait for it to be morning so I can watch the new SVU episode!
Ohh I have some SVU rambling: I was going through some pictures from the episode where Olivia and Haden wake up in bed together, and I noticed a bottle of wine and two glasses on the bedside... the exact same that were on season's 14th premiere! It might just be a stupid thing but it might also mean that it was Haden with Olivia on the bed! Oh Gosh, I just wish they would stop torturing us and let us know what went on that night!
Disclaimer: Nooope, not even close.
Lyrics: Waiting by Norah Jones
Hush now, watch the stars fall
Into a fire wall
I am waiting here
Waiting for you to come home
December 31st 11:58 pm
He watches the city lights and wonders, which one might belong to her. He closes his eyes and wishes that every single obstacle, literally and metaphorically would somehow vanish so he could finally reach her…
December 31st 11:59 pm
She stares at the object in her hands and then back at the clock that is sitting in front of her in the table. One more minute. She sighs and thinks that this might be the longest minute of her life.
January 1st 12:00 am
He closes the door behind him and sits still for a moment, listening to the fireworks in the distance. He turns and stares at his reflection at the window of the hallway mixed with the multicolored fireworks and wonders how far away one can go to finally let his tears fall free.
January 1st 12:00 am
She wipes away some tears and throws the stick at the table. This is it, she thinks. New year, new beginning. She takes some deep breaths and starts pacing up and down the living room. You can do this, she whispers again and again to herself. She stops pacing and looks outside the window to the lighted from the fireworks sky. You can do this, she whispers one more time and the tears run freely down her cheeks once more.
A year later…
Sinking embers glow
Melting icy snow
And I am waiting here
Waiting for you to come home
December 31st
9:00 am
Elliot gazed around taking everything in. Manhattan looked exactly as he had left it a year ago. The noise on the streets, the traffic and the yelling of the people passing by. Smiling he walked up the stairs and into his building, trying hard not to think about that thing, or rather, that someone that hasn't left his mind a year now.
10:00 am
Olivia opened her eyes at the muffled sound coming from the crib beside her bed. Knowing that before long it would turn into loud cries, she rushed to get out of bed. Leaning above the crib, she could not help but smile at the sight of her four-month-old daughter.
"Hey there baby girl" She cooed placing the infant against her torso. "Are you hungry? Yes you are. Mommy hears you. The whole building will hear you if mommy doesn't rush, right?" she said softly while unbuttoning her shirt with one hand when with the other she's trying to soothe her daughter's annoyed cries. When she had finally freed her breast and the baby latched and started sucking hungrily.
"Easy there Chloey…There's plenty and it's all for you" Olivia chuckles. "So what do you say we go for some grocery shopping? Because you may have everything you need here but mommy is going to starve." she went on, trailing Chloe's soft cheek with her finger.
12:30 pm
She was trying to maneuver two grocery bags and the stroller inside her building when she heard someone calling her name. Totally distracted with her efforts she just turned her head to see who it was. And then she saw him. He was standing at the base of the entrance stairs. He looked tired, thinner, even older, but it was him. It was Elliot.
She stood stunned with the bags hanging from her one hand but having the stroller where her sleeping daughter lay, on a death grip with the other, she watched him climbing slowly the stairs and approaching her.
"No… it isn't truth, no…" She said shaking her head when he came and stood beside her.
"Liv, it is… I am here." Elliot said and raised her hand to touch her but Olivia backed away. They stood in silence examining each other for some minutes, until Elliot's gaze fell at the stroller and Olivia's heart dropped.
"Olivia… did you have…"
Before he was able to finish his question, Olivia had pushed the entrance open at had proceeded on putting the stroller in.
"No." she said firmly "No. Go away Elliot. I want nothing to do with you" she said and slammed the entrance door on his face. She could hear him banging on the door while she was making her way to the elevator.
When she was inside, she took a deep breath but a few hot tears had already escaped her eyelids. Chloe had woke up and started fussing and so Olivia leaned forward the stroller dropping one bag on the way.
"Shit" She mumbled "Hey baby it's okay, shhh, we'll be home soon" She tried to sound as calm as possible, but her voice was shaking uncontrollably and more tears were running down her face. Chloe as if she had sensed her mother's discomfort, she started crying softly.
By the time they had reached their apartment door, Chloe was crying loudly. Olivia with trembling hands searched through her purse for the key but it wasn't an easy task to do while holding two bags, so she let them drop on the floor. Chloe's cries were echoing on the empty hall and Olivia heard a door opening.
"Make that damn baby stop! it keeps screaming through the night, now it has to scream on the hall too?" She heard her neighbor yelling. Olivia turn to face the annoyed man, while still searching for her keys.
"I'm sorry but she's a baby and that's what babies do, they cry!" She said with a trembling voice with tears running down her face. She finally found her keys and unlocked the door quickly. She went inside and closed the door, while her neighbor was still mumbling curses.
Olivia then immediately picked her screaming daughter up and brought her to her chest.
"It's okay baby, it's okay Chloey, mommy's here, everything is going to be alright." She cooed whipping away her tears. Only, she thought, she was lying through her teeth to her daughter. It was not going to be okay.
Elliot took one last look at Olivia's window and started walking away from her building. He couldn't really blame her. He was gone for a year, he had left without a word. After the shooting he just lost it. He became so distant at home, to the point where Kathy couldn't take it anymore and asked him to move out. He did and then turned his papers in. He needed to be alone, he needed to be away from everything. One night, he went to Olivia's. They hadn't talked since the shooting, he kept avoiding her calls. But that night, something dragged him to her door.
"Hey" her greeting was cold but she made way for him to get in. He walked in and stood in front of her. She looked at him with an expectant look.
"Everything is falling apart" he said and suddenly her heart melted, she couldn't be angry with him, not for that. He was avoiding her for almost three weeks but now he was there and that was all that mattered.
"I'm here for you El. You have to know that." She said placing a hand on his shoulder. He just stared at her with those crystal blue eyes she had fallen in love with from the moment she first saw him.
"I wish it could just be easier, you know?" he whispered finally, leaning closer.
One moment she was feeling his hot breath on her skin and the next, his lips were crushing on hers
"What are we doing?" he asked several hours later as they were laying naked on her bed.
" I don't know, but it feels so right." She mumbled burying her head on his chest.
She woke up some hours later on an empty bed.
Two weeks later, on New Year's Eve, after having isolate himself from everyone completely, Elliot decided to leave New York for good. The same night, Olivia found out that she was pregnant.
And I watch them burn
When will I ever learn?
If I wait it doesn't mean
You will return
8:00 pm
Olivia kept pacing up and down her small living room. She looked at Chloe who was sleeping on her carrier and sighed. He had left her, he had left her pregnant and scared and alone. She kept calling him for weeks after she found his note slipped under her door. Even now, a year later, she could not take the five words out of her mind.
I'm sorry, I love you.
And now he was back, just like that, and what he expected? That she would fall into his arms and pretend that the last year never happened? Only it happened, and she could never forget this year. Because she gave birth to Chloe this year. Because she gave birth to his daughter.
He kicked one box at the corner of the living room. He looked around. The whole apartment was a mess. Unopened boxes everywhere that he didn't even tried to unpack this morning when he arrived. The only thing on his mind was Olivia. And now after wondering around Manhattan for hours after she had slammed her door on his face, he was home. Home. But was it really home? After a year of travelling around Europe, he had come to believe that home was where his heart was. And he had given his heart a long time ago to her.
And the baby? Could it be his? Could he had run away leaving Olivia pregnant with his child?
He kicked the box again and threw his face on his hands.
11:30 pm
Olivia looked at Chloe who was strapped on her chest and was sleeping peacefully. Her daughter was her world. She had been from the moment she saw her on that very first ultrasound. She was her world and she deserved to have everything that Olivia never had. Now it was not only about her, it was about Chloe too. She took a deep breath and closed the door of her apartment behind her.
Elliot opened the door of his building and started walking fast. He could not abandon Olivia, he could not abandon that little baby. He loved her and she needed to tell her, she needed to know that he would never leave again.
11:45 pm
Olivia run past yet another group of half-drunk people. New York City on New Year's Eve was a mess. It was impossible to find a taxi and so she decided to walk to Elliot's apartment, hoping that Chloe would not wake up screaming.
11:50 pm
Elliot bumped into yet another person and kept going without even think to stop for an apology. He had to make it there, it wouldn't be long…
11:55 pm
Olivia started running as fast as the extra weight of her daughter allowed her. She ran and ran until she was out of breath. Cursing silently the extra weight she had yet to loose since Chloe's birth, she stopped panting.
11:59:30 pm
He could hear the crowd on Time's Square counting down. Elliot sped up and then, just like that, he stopped dead on his feet.
The crowd was yelling, people were walking past her, but her eyes were fixed on him. She silently started counting down with the crowd while she walked slowly towards him
10…
9…
8…
7…
He covered the last feet between them and came to stand in front of her.
6…
5…
4…
3…
Now all the stars have gone
Faded into cracks of dawn
And I'm still waiting here
Waiting for you to come home
Their eyes met and just like that, all the pain and sorrow and fear was erased.
2…
1.
Their lips met and as the people around cheered, they kissed passionately making up for all the lost time, all the unsaid words.
They broke apart and Elliot smiled but Olivia had tears on her eyes.
"Oh God, Elliot, she's yours. Chloe is your daughter. I was so scared and you were gone and…"
"I know and I am so sorry Liv. But I'm here now. And I would never leave again. I would never leave you again, both of you." He said and stroked the cheek of his sleeping daughter.
"She's beautiful Liv." He marveled.
Olivia smiled and leaned so as their foreheads were touching.
"She has your eyes." She whispered.
"Shall we go home?" Elliot asked and Olivia nodded.
They walked together holding hands through the people that were celebrating the New Year thinking that this year and every year to follow would be good, really good. Because they would be together. They would be home.
I really hope that you liked it! I added the lyrics of this wonderful song, that I came to know because of SVU :)
Thanks again to everyone that reviewed, followed and favored that story!
I'm waiting for your reviews on this last chapter!
Happy New Year!
xoxo Kate