it's starting to heat up!* Two chapters in one day!
On Christmas eve Calvin and his grandparents get into town for the adoption. Trevor meets them there at the courthouse.
"Do you Alex Cabot and Olivia Benson take this child to be treated as your own from this day forward. He will inherit from you just as any biological child. He will be cared for and loved in sickness and in health. He will be solely your responsibility from this day forward" The judge says.
"We do" Alex and Olivia say in unison.
The judge looks at Calvin.
"Calvin Arliss, do you accept Olivia and Alex to now be your parents from this day forward?" The judge asks him.
"I do" Calvin tells him.
"Sole granted, congratulations Calvin Benson" The judge says.
Trevor takes a picture of the three of them smiling wide with happiness at the camera to remember the day. They then take a picture of Calvin and his grandparents for him to have.
"Congratulations" Trevor tells them hugging Alex and shaking Olivia's hand.
Trevor turns to Calvin and his grandparents shaking their hands as well.
They all head back to Alex's apartment. The apartment is decorated with Christmas lights and the stockings are hung up on Alex's bookshelf. The tree is beautifully decorated. They all sit on the couch while Alex and Olivia go to grab something out of her room.
They come back out with a wrapped box and hand it to Calvin. Alex has her hands clasped together smiling at him and Olivia has her hands on her hips grinning at him. Calvin opens the gift and pulls out an ornament saying Calvin Benson 2011 on it. Calvin shoots up and flings himself in the middle of them both hugging them. Olivia makes lasagna and garlic bread for dinner and afterwards they make cookies listening to Christmas music. Once Calvin starts yawning he's ready for bed and hugs his grandparents goodbye saying he will see them in the morning, and hugs Olivia and Alex and heads to bed. Calvin's grandparents head back to their hotel. Alex and Olivia set out the few gifts they got for each other and Calvin. They also set out the card they got for his grandparents and head to bed.
Christmas morning Calvin comes running into their bedroom to wake them up. Alex groans, grabbing her glasses off the nightstand and looks at her phone to see what time it is, she blinks to clear her eyes, seeing 8am staring back at her. Olivia gets up and follows him out to the living room and Alex gets up a second later to follow them out. Calvin sits down on the couch. Olivia starts to make chocolate chip pancakes and Alex makes coffee. When breakfast is done they clean up the mess. There is a knock on the door and Olivia opens it to see his grandparents on the other side, she lets them in and they start opening presents. After presents and everything was cleaned up Calvin's grandparents left telling them Merry Christmas and hugging Calvin goodbye. Alex put on Christmas movies while they lounged on the couch with blankets and stocking candy. Alex put in the ham after the second movie and let it cook. They continued to watch movies all day until dinner time then they sat down together to eat. They knew everyday wouldn't be like this but in that moment everything was magical.
On New Year's Eve Calvin called his grandparents to tell them happy new year early on in the night. They stayed up all night playing board games and listening to music, while Alex and Olivia each had a glass of wine. At midnight Alex and Olivia kissed and then they each kissed one side of Calvin's cheek. It wasn't long after the ball dropped that they all went to bed.
Alex enrolled Calvin into the Calhoun school which started right after the holidays when winter break was over. Alex had already got him all the listed school supplies and five school uniforms. Olivia was already at work so on Calvin's first day Alex dropped him off. The day's Alex doesn't have court she picks him up and on the days she does either Olivia or the babysitter will. Even though Calvin is thirteen they still feel like he needs someone there with him until they get off work.
The first week of school went fine. Alex got him to and from school. Calvin would call Olivia every night before bed.
The second week of school Olivia got a high profile case and the second highest DA came to take on the case. Olivia's known of him for years but never worked with him. The case started out with a high profile assault and kidnapping which was why David Haden stepped in to take the case. They went up against a private military company. Haden was headstrong and didn't let them or the Feds push him from pursuing the case. They found a military doctor that corroborated the suspect's statement of his daughter getting brutally raped over seas. That night Olivia and Haden went out for drinks after work. He told her about his kids and ex but Olivia didn't tell him about Calvin or Alex. While they were being flirty when he asked her to stick around for another round she decided to call it a night.
When Olivia got home she saw a missed call from Alex and called her back as she was sitting down on the couch.
"Hey" Alex greeted
"Hey you, how was your day?" Olivia questioned
"It was good, I started preparing for the trial starting next week, Calvin came home and told me he made a friend in class, he sounded so excited" Alex says Olivia can hear the smile in her voice.
"That's great lex, I'm glad he's making friends" Olivia replied smiling back.
"So on another note I heard about your case, military contractors?" Alex asked
"Yea, we got one of the doctors to flip but you never know how these things go" Olivia sighs.
"Tell me about it, witnesses are unreliable" Alex tells her
"Ha, tell me about it" Olivia chuckles.
Alex lets out a yawn and Olivia looks at the time.
"We should both head to bed" Olivia says
"Yea, we should, good-night Liv, we love you" Alex says.
"I love you too" Olivia says back and hangs up.
The next day the case falls apart and the doctor lies on the stand. The military is closing ranks. They put their other witness up in a hotel hoping they won't get to him. That night the witness dies, the victim's dad gets stabbed in jail, the victim gets assaulted again, Olivia's apartment gets broken into and trashed. Olivia calls Cragen and CSU.
The next call she makes is to Alex. It rings three times and goes to voicemail, her heart is pounding in her chest. It takes CSU record time to get to her apartment. She hails a cab over to Alex's.
Olivia uses her key to unlock the door without even knocking first. Olivia hears the shower running and music playing down the hall.
"Alex! Calvin!" Olivia yells.
The music stops and Calvin comes out of his room looking confused at the worried look on her face.
"Hey Olivia, what's up?" He asks, walking down the hall towards her.
Olivia vaguely hears the water turn off as she rushes to him and hugs him tight, sighing in relief.
"Oh buddy, I'm just so glad to see you. Where's Alex?" Olivia asks, looking down at him.
"In the shower" he says as his face is squished against Olivia in a bear hug.
Olivia nor Calvin saw Alex standing in the doorway where the living room meets the hallway hair wrapped in a towel with her pajamas and slippers on staring at them.
"She's right here" Alex tells them and they both look her way.
Olivia lets go of Calvin and wraps Alex in a hug to which Alex just hugged her back just a tight. Olivia hung onto her for a few moments before letting her go. Alex saw the fear that was slowly fading from her eyes.
"Calvin, it's your turn to shower" Alex says cautiously not trying to scare him but needing to find out whatever has Olivia this scared.
The moment he shuts the bathroom door Alex turns back to look at Olivia.
"What's wrong?" Alex questioned.
"The case I've been working on with the contractors?" Olivia questions to which Alex nods
"They broke into my apartment tonight and I tried to call you and you didn't answer and I just thought-" Olivia says, tumbling over her words trying to get them out.
"You thought something might have happened to Calvin or me" Alex finished for her.
Olivia nods and holds Alex's face in her hands looking at her like she was trying to comment Alex's face to memory. Alex holds Olivia's wrists not moving them but just holding onto her.
"We're okay Liv, we're here and we're okay" Alex says reassuring her girlfriend.
Olivia puts their foreheads together, taking a deep breath.
"Okay" Olivia whispers back to her calming down.
Olivia pulls Alex closer and kisses her as hard as she can. Alex gives her just as much force.
Olivia's phone goes off and she breaks off the kiss. Olivia looks down at the message she received from Fin telling her they all need to meet at the station house.
"I have to go" Olivia says, looking up from her phone.
"Go, I got him, don't worry" Alex tells her understandingly.
"Lock the doors, don't open them for anyone" Olivia tells her sternly.
"Of course detective" Alex quipped back smirking.
Olivia grinned and gave her a quick peck before leaving and shutting the door behind her.
When Olivia leaves Alex does lock the front door and double checks all the windows. Alex makes popcorn and sets up Arrow for them to watch when Calvin gets out of the shower. A few minutes after the popcorn is done she hears the bathroom door open and Calvin comes down the hall. She puts a piece of popcorn in her mouth and looks over the couch at his disappointed face.
"Come sit down" Alex tells him, patting the couch seat next to her.
"Where's Olivia?" He asked with his face scrunched up like Olivia does when she is trying to figure something out.
"She had to go back to work but she just wanted to come check on us, that's nice of her, right?" Alex asks pointed.
Calvin shrugs.
"I guess" he pouts.
"We'll see her soon, but in the meantime let's watch your new favorite show" Alex grins at him and he can't help but grin back. He picks up the remote and presses play leaning into Alex's shoulder stealing some of the popcorn in her lap.
Cragen walks into the squadroom to see his team is all there. He asks them if they are all okay. They all agree. Cragen makes sure they all are good with continuing the investigation and they agree to not back down, he heads to his office while they continue investigating. The case gets a break when one of the guards agrees to flip on the higher ups in the company. They get his statement in front of a grand jury and they finally get to arrest the rest of the higher ups that were involved in covering up the rape that happened over seas. Olivia and Amaro bring the victim to watch their perp walks. Olivia does a sigh of relief that the case is over and they gave the victim the closure she needs. That night Olivia and Haden go out to a celebratory dinner for closing the case.
They are standing on the side walk laughing.
"I haven't worked that well with someone in a long time" Olivia quips.
"That makes two of us" Haden says, smirking back at her.
They are staring at each other, Olivia giving him a smile.
"Nightcap?" Olivia offers
"Well I have a seven am meeting with the mayor," Haden mutters back, closing the space between them giving her a kiss.
A taxi showed up ending their kiss.
"You know what they say, you can never find a taxi or a cop when you need one" Olivia replies smiling.
He opens the door for her and she gets in to leave.
