"Hey," Kathy greeted.
"Hey," he returned as he came around the side of his SUV. Things with Kathy were…tolerable. He wouldn't say they were friends or anything, but it turned out there was a lot less conflict when they didn't live with each other.
She opened the door and Eli barreled into Elliot for a hug. "Hey buddy," he returned the hug and rubbed his son's back affectionately. Squatting down so he was at Eli's eye level he said, "Guess what?"
Eli flashed a toothy smile. "What?"
"I know we've talked about Noah, but he's usually home with Livia…"
Eli's eyes widened. "You have him?!"
"I do. I'm thinking we should show him what the park is like."
Eli pumped his fist in the air. "Can I see him?"
"Hop in," Elliot tilted his head towards the backseat. "You get to hang out with him in the back."
"Cool," Eli couldn't contain his grin as he bounced towards the SUV.
Once he was safely inside he turned back to Kathy who was watching her son coo over the baby in the backseat. "Can I…" she began, but she cut herself off.
"You wanna meet him?" Elliot guessed. He wasn't really surprised. Kathy loved babies.
"Can I?" She started to step towards Elliot's SUV. "You don't mind?"
"Of course I don't mind." He almost told her that she should meet her son's hopefully half brother, but he held his tongue. He knew things between them were fragile, and the peace could easily be broken by the simplest comment.
Kathy opened the door and leaned in to view the baby. "Oh Elliot," her voice was all soft and gooey. "He's beautiful."
He smiled softly. "I know right?"
Kathy brushed Noah's curls away from his forehead. "You know," she said ruefully, "he kind of looks like what I imagine your baby would like if you and Liv had one."
He shrugged. "We get that a lot."
Kathy slid off the seat and shut the door. She crossed her arms and leaned against the cold metal of the SUV. "What's going on with his mother?"
Elliot knew what she was asking. She wanted to know if he put his foot down, and put an end to the maternal visits. After the events of the morning he couldn't deal with her judgment. "Ellie died this morning." He said simply. "Suicide by overdose." He turned on his heels, feeling completely done with the conversation.
He started for the drivers side door but she grabbed his forearm. "Wait. Hey." Her eyes dropped to the dirt. "I'm sorry. I know things weren't exactly black and white."
He pulled his arm from her grasp. "Look. It's been…" he blew out a long breath. It's been a shit morning, and I don't feel like talking about any of it." More specifically, he didn't feel like talking about any of it with her. "I just…let me take the boys to the park and enjoy the day with Eli. Okay?"
She nodded slowly and took a step back. "Yeah okay. I guess just call me when you need to meet back up or whatever." Her voice softened. "I can pick him up from your place if…if it's easier for everyone."
He sighed and yanked the driver side door open. Kathy was a good person. She had the best intentions, but God, he didn't want to talk about any of this anymore. Also, he really didn't want her to pick up Eli, run into Liv, and trigger another round of stress induced panic. "Thanks, but I'll just drop him off at your place later."
He slid into the driver seat, but hesitated before shutting the door. Kathy looked so…sad. Every instinct he had, yelled at him to make things better. She had been his wife, and that wasn't nothing…but he couldn't emotionally take care of one more person on this god awful day. "Bye Kath."
-000-
Olivia's stomach grumbled as she and Fin trudged back into the precinct. She remembered the only thing she ate all day was a handful of crackers and her stomach was protesting.
While in the elevator she dug through her bag, hoping to find a granola bar or something. Her stomach grumbled so loud that Fin commented. "Probably shoulda stopped for a sandwich or somethin."
"It's fine," she said. She didn't need to be babied. She sighed when her food search came up empty. She'd have to find something in the vending machine.
The elevator doors pushed open and Fin followed closely behind her as they entered the squadroom. As she approached her desk she noticed Nick and Amanda speaking to a young woman in one of their interview rooms.
The girl was young, probably early to mid twenties, she guessed. Her dark hair hung straight, and landed just below her shoulders. Her dark brown eyes nearly matched the color of her hair, but that wasn't what Olivia immediately noticed. The woman looked broken, a look Olivia was very familiar with. One she probably displayed herself.
After a moment of observing, Amanda's eyes met Olivia's through the glass. She watched as Amanda quietly excused herself, letting Nick finish the rest of what Olivia assumed was a disclosure.
Amanda approached Olivia, and Olivia cut her off before she could ask, "I'm fine. The lead was a bust though."
Amanda raised an eyebrow, but thankfully didn't push.
Olivia jerked her head towards the woman speaking with Nick. "Got a case?"
Amanda nodded, "I think so. It seems pretty straightforward. She's a nanny…."
Olivia sighed. She knew it was a story they heard a million times. "Her employer?"
"Yeah." Amanda shook her head. "The men that prey on these young women who come to care for their children…"
It was sickening. Olivia thought of the trust a family had to have in their nanny, and vice versa. She thought for a moment about their sweet nanny, Brit, who was currently out of the city for the week visiting her mother. For a moment she considered the inherent vulnerability for a nanny. Elliot could absolutely be intimidating, but Brit trusted him as she would her own father. She felt a righteous anger for the sort of man who would abuse that trust. "What's her name?"
"Lucy." Amanda's gaze drifted towards the young woman. "Lucy Huston."
-000-
Amanda jumped back in with Amaro so that Liv could find something to eat, and do research on Fin's case. The interview with Lucy wrapped up, and Amanda sat at her desk to begin the necessary paperwork to file the charges. Before finishing she glanced towards Olivia's desk, and noticed she was missing.
Fin still sat at his desk, tapping his pen with his eyes fixed on his computer screen. Normally Amanda wouldn't be concerned by Olivia's absence, but the events of the past twenty four hours had left Amanda with a hyper vigilant concern over her best friend and roommate.
On a whim, Amanda checked the bathrooms. Shr felt a little paranoid. Olivia probably just needed a bathroom break, but Amanda's concern felt justified when she heard the sounds of vomiting coming from the furthest stall.
Amanda leaned against the stall door. "Okay Liv, this is getting ridiculous. What the hell is going on?"
"It's just stress," Oliva groaned in the other side of the door.
Amanda sighed and pushed the door open. "If this is stress you need to see that therapist of yours and learn some more of those handy coping strategies. You're scaring the shit out of Elliot. You're scaring me too." Amanda dropped her attention to the ancient tiled floor.
Olivia leaned her forehead against the toilet. "I'm fine," she tried, but her voice indicated otherwise.
"Liv. Let's see your doctor, or you know what?" Amanda wasn't going to wait for her to make an appointment and then change her mind. "We're going to that urgent care a few blocks down." She reached her hand out for her friend to grab.
She expected the glare Olivia shot in her direction. "I'll just schedule with my doctor. This isn't urgent." Olivia insisted, "It's just stress."
Amanda rolled her eyes. "Okay well if it's just stress they will tell us and then I'll leave you alone."
"Fine. Whatever." Olivia groaned. "It's a waste of time. It's just my damn stomach doing what it does now."
Amanda crossed her arms. "Maybe, but if it's this bad again… it scared the hell out of me…that day in Cragen's office. And calling Elliot…" Amanda shook her head. The whole situation was more terrifying than staring down the barrel of a loaded gun. Her friend, her sister, had been vomiting blood, and she thought she was going to lose her. She couldn't go through that fear again. "Just…" she nervously shifted her weight. "If you won't do it for yourself, do it for me. For Elliot. For Noah."
Olivia closed her eyes and leaned her head against the toilet. After a moment she opened them again. "Fine."
-000-
Elliot tucked a fleece hat over Noah's curls. He chuckled a little at the right fit. All of his children started their lives with fine downy blonde hair. Noah's thickening curls had become a bit of a learning curve.
"Can I zip his coat?" Eli asked eagerly when Elliot picked Noah up from his car seat.
"Sure thing, but be careful. He likes to grab at the zipper. You don't want to catch his fingers." Elliot sat Noah on his lap at the park bench so Eli could easily reach.
"Okay," Eli's eyes held a solemn seriousness with the duty he was taking on. He carefully tugged the zipper up, and as expected, Noah's little fingers grabbed at Eli as he worked. "Hey," Eli scolded lightly, pushing Noah's fingers away. "I don't want to hurt your fingers." Noah bounced in Elliot's lap, making the task even more difficult, but Eli didn't seem to mind. When he successfully pulled the zipper to the top he almost yelled, "got it!"
Elliot patted his young son's shoulder. "Nice work. Noah's gonna love having someone like you looking out for him." Elliot knew that Eli loved the idea of being older than someone, since all of his siblings were significantly older than him.
Eli took Noah's hand for a moment, and then asked, "is he gonna be my brother?"
Elliot's heart swelled with pride over his youngest son's open heart. "Would that be okay?"
Eli grinned. "Yeah," he said as if it were obvious. "It's kinda cool having someone younger than me."
Elliot wanted to reassure Eli with a firm yes in response to his question, but there were still a lot of potential hoops to jump through before an adoption was finalized. "I hope he gets to be your brother," Elliot admitted. "Remember how we talked about how some babies are born into families?"
"Like me," Eli said with confidence.
"Right. And some babies, like Noah, they sort of find their families." Elliot tried to explain. "We think Noah should be a part of our family, but because he wasn't born into our family we need a judge to make him an official part of our family."
Eli seemed to understand the concept, at least in a basic level. "So if the judge says yes then Noah gets to be my brother?"
"Exactly."
Eli thought for a moment. "Will Mom be his mom too?"
Elliot sighed. Eli was old enough to understand divorce and what that meant for their family, but adding Olivia into the mix, and Noah…it made the whole thing a little jumbled and confusing. "No buddy. Your Mom will always be your mom, and I will always be your dad, but Noah will have a different mom."
"Livia?" He asked.
"Yeah. Olivia is going to be Noah's mom." Elliot watched his son process the flood of information.
"That's cool. I like Livia. She gives good presents."
Elliot laughed. "Yeah she does."
"Can I push Noah in the swing?" Eli seemed eager to get to the playing part of the afternoon.
"You sure you don't want to climb or do the slide? I can push him so you can play." Elliot knew the answer because he knew his son.
"Nah. I want to play with my little brother." He started towards the swings, and Elliot followed.
He quickly situated Noah in the infant swing, and took a step back so Eli could push the swing. "Careful okay? Start slow."
"Okay." Eli began pushing Noah gently as possible.
Elliot's phone buzzed, and he pulled it from his pocket. The message on his screen made his stomach clench in apprehension.
I'm in urgent care with Liv. You should probably get down here.
