AN: Sorry this update took so long. I've had job interviews and all kinds of stuff going on.
Christmas Day
Alex had to hide her present to Olivia. The detective kept searching for it while Alex and Casey were at work. Little did she know, Alex had hidden the present at work, so Olivia couldn't find it.
The sneaky Bureau Chief managed to get the present under the tree. She was just climbing into bed when Olivia woke up.
"Where did you go?" she asked half asleep.
Alex kissed her nose. "Just getting the coffee started," which was sort of true, Alex did put on the coffee.
Olivia pulled her lover in for a kiss. Alex hovered over her, careful not to smush their little girl.
The rustling under the sheets woke up Casey who was a bit miffed to see they had started without her.
"We were just warming up," Olivia said with a sheepish grin.
Alex tackled the redhead, kissing her deeply as she snuck her hand under the redhead's shirt.
"I'm still mad," Casey lied as Alex cupped her breast.
"Are you sure about that?"
"I Ooh …. Ung!" It was getting increasingly hard to speak or think.
Alex grinned before sucking a pink nipple into her mouth.
Casey growled, trying not to make any noise, but losing quickly.
Alex was just about to switch sides, when she felt a tugging on her hand. Olivia wanted her attention too. Alex had two hands, two lovers, and only one mouth. This was going to be quite a morning.
Willy and his wife had been sound asleep until they felt their bed shaking.
"Mama! Papa! It's Christmas!"
Little Maggie wanted to open her presents, and she planned on jumping in her parents bed until they got up.
"Why don't you wake up the others?" Willy didn't even open his eyes.
"Kay!"
His wife opened one eye. "Was that a good idea?"
"It bought us at least 10 minutes."
Three minutes later, Bill and Margo woke up to Maggie in their bed.
"Grandma! Grandpa! It's Christmas!"
"How about you go get your parents?"
"I did and they said to get everyone up!"
Bill could just kill his son. "How about you go downstairs and see if Santa ate the cookies we left out for him." Bill knew for a fact that he had eaten the cookies.
"Okay! I'm on the case!" She sprinted down the stairs.
"How long do you think she'll be distracted?"
"With our luck, she'll be back here in five minutes."
Maggie went on to wake up Uncle Alex, but when she came to Alexandra's room, it was locked.
She poked her eye in the hole, but she could not see in side.
"AUNTIE IT'S CHRISTMAS!" she yelled through the door.
"Christmas already came," Alex gasped out. She was exhausted.
Eventually, the blonde pulled herself into the shower. Casey eventually joined her. Olivia thought about joining her, but she really had no interest in getting out of bed.
They all convened downstairs where there was coffee, hot cocoa, and some oatmeal to tide them over until brunch.
They gathered around the tree where Maggie excitedly passed out the presents, i.e. she picked out all of hers and putting them in a pile.
"Maggie!" her mother prompted.
"I just happened to find mine!"
Casey helped her distribute the presents and then they were all set.
Maggie opened her first present and it was an interactive music toy.
"Thank you Grandpa!"
They went around the room, opening gifts from one another. They had gotten each other clothes, jewelry, toys (for Maggie anyway), and tasty treats.
Bill was very fond of the bottle of Scotch that he got from his niece. "You always were my favorite."
"Show off," Casey teased.
Alex stuck out her tongue.
Maggie matched her.
They thought they were all done, until Olivia found one more box, well two more boxes.
One said Olivia and one said Casey.
Olivia picked up her box and opened it. Inside was another box.
"What?"
She opened and she opened and she got box after box. The soon to be mother got increasingly frustrated.
"I swear to God Alex, if there's one more freakin' box!"
Olivia opened the box to see a "CAN!"
Alexander started cracking up as Olivia went to look for a can opener.
Casey found their present more amusing. "It must be good if Alex put it in a million boxes."
They got the can opener and opened the cans to find that each can had a ring box inside.
Olivia opened the box to see a gold band with three gems, a diamond in the middle, Peridot on the left, and sapphire on the right. They were their birthstones.
Alex knelt down in front of them. "Olivia, Casey, I can't describe how much having you in my life has changed me for the better. Will you make me the happiest woman alive and marry me?"
Olivia would later blame her pregnancy hormones when she couldn't stop crying. Her eyes were so full of water she could barely see the ring anymore.
"YES!" Casey yelped before pulling Alex into her arms. The trio shared an affectionate hug before putting on their rings.
"They're perfect," Olivia told her, beautiful but simple. They were classy.
The Cabot family had their own room for brunch. Alexander thought it would be nicer if they could actually hear each other. Once the mimosas arrived, however, all bets were off.
People shouted across the room to each other, asking for food or telling stories about Christmases past.
"Pass the salted caramel sticky buns."
"I'll trade you for the scones."
"One year, Mom had made a batch of scones for Christmas Eve, and Alex and I ate every single one before the guests arrived," Warren recalled. Caroline was not pleased.
Alex remembered those scones. "Sundried tomato, goat cheese, and basil." Damn those scones were good.
She missed her mother. The woman had loved Christmas like no other. She'd make eggnog from scratch, three different pies, and she'd go nuts buying presents for Toys for Tots. Every year, Alexandra gave them some toys in her memory.
On Alex's wrist was a bracelet that her mother had given her from Christmas long ago. The blonde seldom took it off.
I wish that she were here. She'd love being a grandmother.
Alex was pulled out of her thoughts when Olivia kissed the back of her ear.
The bureau chief turned to see a smiling Olivia.
"You look absolutely ravishing when you smile."
"This is the best Christmas a girl can ask for."
"You're finally making an honest woman out of her," Seth yelled at them.
"Shut up!" Wally bopped his head.
"Don't tell me to shut up! You shut up!"
They started to bicker.
Bill shook his head. These boys!
"I thought we could have a commitment ceremony. Maybe something simple on the beach." They had loved Hawaii so much that they decided every vacation should have a beach.
They'd have to ask Casey later. She and her mother were gabbing about something, but it was a wonderful idea.
Three hours later and they were all stumbling out of the restaurant, full of food (and booze for some of them) and ready to nap.
"I can't wait to get to bed," Olivia declared.
"Going at it this early?" Warren teased.
Alex and Vivian both bopped his head.
"Abuse!"
When the ladies got back to the house, they changed into pjs and went to bed. Koji came upstairs to join them. He had a giant bone that he had received for Christmas in his mouth.
"Merry Christmas Koji," Olivia said sleepily before she closed her eyes.
The dog laid down in front of the bed.
February 2008
It had taken Olivia two months to get everything figured out, but she managed to get Koji certified as a therapy dog.
Cragen blew a gasket when he got the paperwork from upstairs.
"OLIVIA!" He turned red as a tomato.
Munch and Fin looked at her. Oh girl!
"Yes Captain!"
He came out of his office waving a piece a paper. "What the hell is this?"
"Um I don't know."
He handed it to her. "You had Koji certified as a therapy dog!"
Munch was so excited. We're getting a dog.
"I thought he'd be great at helping the victims, especially the kids."
That was a fair point. "I swear if he ever has an accident in this office or if productivity falls."
"It wont … I promise."
Cragen frowned. He knew this would be trouble.
Koji was ecstatic when he got to come to work with Olivia. They had gotten him an NYPD dog vest that he wore proudly as he strutted around the squad room.
"He's so cute!" Dr. Wong instantly fell in love. He had come to profile a witness who was also a potential suspect.
Minutes later, their POI entered the precinct. Matthew Walker had claimed to be a witness to an aggravated sexual assault, but the crime scene didn't add up to his story.
Elliot told him that they had a suspect that they wanted him to identify, but first, they wanted him to tell his story again.
"We don't want the defense to try and say that we tainted the identification."
"Of course," he said coolly. Something about him made the hairs on the back of Olivia's neck stand up.
The witness was calm and collected, long brown hair slicked back with gel, well dressed. He was reasonably attractive and even seemed like a decent person.
"I had been walking home from the gym. I usually catch a cab, but there weren't any out. I decided to walk to a more popular street. …"
As he told his story to Elliot, Olivia and the other detectives listened through the speakerphone and tried to look for inconsistencies.
"He said he left the gym at 8PM, but the security camera shows him leaving just before 7:30."
"He'll probably just say his watch was fast."
They found more irregularities in his story, including where he was standing when he saw the attack and whether or not he came into contact with the suspect.
One version of the story was that he fought the guy. In another version, the guy ran before he could get to him.
Elliot noticed the bruising on the man's knuckles.
"Where did you hit him?"
"I got him right in the jaw."
Their victim had been hit across the face. Perhaps his knuckles were a match.
To keep the rouse going, they had an officer come in as a suspect with makeup on his face to resemble bruising.
"We need you to pick him out of a line up."
As they suspected, he picked the officer.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive, that's the man I saw."
"That would be Lieutenant Disher, and he was in Albany the other night."
Panicked, the suspect shoved Elliot into the table and ran for it.
The bugger was fast, and Olivia couldn't chase him right now. Bruiser, however, escaped her grasp and took off running.
"ROOF! ROOF!"
The man threw a chair at him but Bruiser evaded it before tackling the man at the ankles.
Their suspect howled in pain as the dog bit him. "Get him off me!"
Munch and Fin came around the corner to cuff him.
It was easy to hold him on an assault charge and after some more questioning, he confessed.
Olivia got Bruiser the biggest bone in the store, and Cragen never complained about him being in the squad room again.