Quote Prompt #142: "Imagine a future moment in your life where all your dreams come true. You know it's the greatest moment of your life and you get to experience it with one person. Who's standing next to you?"
Imagine
~oOo~
August 7th, 2023, 5:45 PM, Apartment of Olivia Benson
"Mom! Yay, you're here!" Noah cheered, seeing Olivia walk inside as he ran over to her and wrapped his arms around her tightly.
Olivia returned the embrace, hugging him close and kissing his curls. "I've missed you too sweet boy...I've missed you too."
"You have? You really have?"
"Of course I have, Honey. I'm still taking this entire weekend off to spend with just you, I promise."
Noah nodded hopefully, though his eyes showed a little skepticism.
"You're a great mother," Martha said from the kitchen while making plates of ravioli.
"I try to be," Olivia said after letting Noah go, and started fixing their drinks. "Do you wanna stay for dinner, Martha?"
"I can't. My grandson has a peewee football game tonight and I promised I'd go."
"I understand. Have fun and know you're welcome to eat with us anytime."
Martha nodded, said goodbye to Noah, and then left with a smile.
Noah looked to Olivia. "Can we play Imagine while we eat, Mom?"
"Of course we can," she said with a smile as they both sat down at the table.
Imagine was one of their favorite games to play together. They started playing it when Noah was four and it still was a way to channel his active imagination in a healthy way.
"Who gets to go first today?" Noah asked with a bright smile.
"Hmmm, why don't we play a quick game of Rock Paper Scissors to decide that?"
Noah nodded eagerly and Olivia smiled. "Rock, Paper, Scissors, shoot!"
Noah did scissors and Olivia did paper.
"You won! Great job, Honey! Go ahead," Olivia said with a smile while taking a bite of food.
Noah nodded, smiled, and took a bite. "Imagine you live in a world where everything is made of cotton."
Olivia nodded, her expression growing thoughtful as she chewed, then swallowed. "Would the world have food and water?"
"Nnhnn, you would have to eat cotton."
Olivia nodded her head, understanding. "Well, if I moved there now, you would go with me and we would die without food and water. Unless I took some with us because cotton isn't meant for eating. If I took some though, we wouldn't need shoes because the cotton would be squishy under our feet. I would miss my TV though, and my friends. You would miss your toys and friends and we would be really bored together."
Noah nodded his head, understanding. "What if you were born in the cotton world?"
Olivia smiled. "If I was born in the cotton world that would mean that my mom had been able to survive there. So I would probably be a different species that could eat cotton and seek shelter in it."
Noah nodded, understanding, and chewed his food with a thoughtful expression. "Do you think you would feel safe in the cotton?"
"Probably so, Honey, because it would be all I know."
Noah nodded, then gave her a bright smile. "Your turn, Mom!"
Olivia nodded and took a half minute or so to think of one. "Imagine a world where you get one million dollars every day."
Noah gasped enthusiastically. "I'd buy everything I ever wanted, every day."
Olivia nodded. "What would you do with the extra money?"
"You think I would have extra?"
"Definitely. It takes a really long time to spend one million dollars."
Noah nodded, understanding, as he silently contemplated for a minute before speaking. "I think I would use my extra money to help people."
Olivia nodded proudly. "How would you help them?"
Noah smiled. "I would buy things that they wanted or needed. I would buy kids like me, all the clothes and toys they could ever need or want."
Olivia teared up slightly while continuing to smile. "That would be really good of you, Noah. It would be important though for you not to discriminate against anyone. For you to help anyone who needed help no matter what they looked like."
"I would, Mom, I promise. It's my turn."
"I know you would, Baby," she said as she nodded with a soft smile.
"Do you have dreams?" Noah asked.
She took another bite of food. "Of course I do. My biggest dream is to watch you graduate high school and grow up to be a happy, strong and self-sufficient young man who knows that he's loved more than anything in this world, and who feels comfortable trying to accomplish his dreams."
Noah nodded, understanding. "Well, imagine a future moment in your life where all your dreams come true. You know it's the greatest moment of your life and you get to experience it with one person. Who's standing next to you?" he asked brightly and with a touch of innocence.
Elliot.
But that's never gonna happen. He's too damn flaky nowadays and she can't just go undercover with him like she would've years ago. Where the hell did her son come up with that question? Olivia thought to herself as she put her plate in the sink. "That would be you, of course," she said brightly.
"No, Mom, you said your dream would be watching me. So who would be standing beside you watching me?"
"Nobody, sweet boy. We're Team Benson, you and me, remember?"
Noah frowned slightly. "We can't stay just Team Benson forever."
"Sure we can," she said with a soft smile as she saw his plate was clean and put it in the sink.
"We can't, Mom. I don't want you to be lonely when I move out."
"Honey, that's still a long ways away. I don't have to worry about that right now. Plus it's not like I'll never see you again."
"That's true. But Mr. Elliot was really nice. I think he loves you a lot."
She nodded as her eyes welled up. "I know he loves me a lot. He gave me a beautiful compass that told me so. But Mr. Elliot is bad about not staying in one place for very long, and being very busy all the time."
"You're really busy all the time, too. Wouldn't that make you guys perfect together?"
"No, Honey. Elliot stays a different kind of busy. You ready for movie night?"
"How is his business different?" he asked, ignoring her question.
Olivia sighed slightly. "Lets go to the couch and I'll explain it okay?"
Noah nodded and once they were sitting down she pulled him close.
"So, you know how police officers catch bad guys?"
"Mmhmm."
Olivia nodded. "Well, one way that some police officers do it, is by pretending to be bad guys. They change their names, appearances, and sometimes even go to different cities to do it. It's called 'going undercover' and Elliot goes undercover a lot. That's where he is now actually. In another city, undercover."
Noah nodded but then frowned. "That's what FaceTime is for, Mom. Just FaceTime him."
"It's not that simple, Honey. He can't answer to protect both his and our safety."
"Why wouldn't it be safe?"
"Because if a bad guy saw, he could figure out that he's not who he's pretending to be and hurt him. Come after us or do both. C—Can we watch our movie now, please?"
Noah nodded slightly. "I'm not trying to make you sad, Mom, but can I ask one more question? You can pick the movie."
"J—Just one more and you can still pick."
Noah nodded. "Have you told Mr. Elliot that you don't like it when he goes undercover? I think he might stop for you. When we talked about you in the car, his eyes got all soft."
"You guys talked about me?"
Noah nodded. "I told him you're the best mom in the world and that you let me dance. Have you though?"
"I haven't, sweet boy. I—I can't ask him to change for us."
"But isn't that what true love is? Don't people make sacrifices for the people they love?"
"They do if they really really love them, yes. But I don't know if Elliot loves me that much."
"I think he does," Noah said adamantly.
Olivia nodded slightly and her mind began racing with conflicting thoughts. "I'm gonna go make our popcorn, Baby. Do you want butter on yours?"
Noah nodded with a slight smile. "Extra please. I'm gonna turn on Star Wars."
"Sounds good," Olivia said and a few minutes later they were watching the movie together with smiles on their faces. Though Olivia now couldn't get Elliot Stabler off her mind.
The author of this SVU - Quills & Shutters story will be revealed in October