Hi everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter break. In between doing a whole lot of nothing, I got some writing done. I'm aware I've been updating a lot recently, don't get too excited, it probably wont last - but we are on the business end of this story, maybe it has another 6 or so chapters left before it starts wrapping up, but who knows!

I hope you enjoy this little dramatic chapter :)


"Mom, could Adam stay over on friday night?" Noah asked, "we have a science exam on monday and we are gonna study and then if it's okay we want to take part in a Fortnite event…"

Olivia glanced at Trevor as if checking to see if he was okay with it. Trevor shrugged.

"I don't want you guys up making a lot of noise and keeping us up and more importantly, keeping Lexi up," she warned him.

"Well… maybe I could have the xbox in my room just for friday night," he negotiated as he ate his toast.

Trevor tried not to smirk as he encouraged Lexi to eat more of her omelette. "I don't know, Noah, I don't really want you up all night playing video games…"

"That's kind of the purpose of a sleepover, you stay up all night and hang out…. Come on, please."

Olivia sighed, "Noaaaaah," she was tired and frustrated and knew that he knew she would be more likely to agree. "Fine, let me speak to Adam's Mom later and I'll find out what her video game rules are and I will let you know when you get home."

"Okay, thanks."

"Next time ask Trevor, I can't make big decisions right now," she told him with a little laugh.

Trevor laughed too. "Noah doesn't want me to make video game decisions for him, trust me on that. I've had kids turn up to class wired from playing that game all night long."

"Yeah but I don't play it all night long," Noah replied, "I know the rules, but a sleep over is different and its a friday night so I'd make sure I just go to bed early on saturday night."

"I'm not gonna argue, I don't yet know the rules of sleep overs so I'm going to confer with Mom about this one later and she can fill me in, but until then, could you please get a little faster? We have to go…" he told Noah, getting up and putting his coffee cup in the dish washer.

Noah disappeared down the hall with Ruby chasing him hopeful that he would share one of the last few bites of toast that he had. He knew she would be running back the second the last morsel passed his mouth in hope that Lexi would throw some omelette at her.

"What are you gonna get up to today?" Trevor asked Olivia, "do you have any plans?"

"No…" she shook her head, "I'm feeling a little queasy so I think I'll just try to have a quiet day with little miss and maybe we'll take a walk and get some fresh air."

"Okay, if you need anything or want anything, give me a call, okay?"

She smiled at him, "thanks, I will." He came to her side of the table and kissed her lips. "Make sure you both eat all of your breakfast."

Olivia laughed. "Promise."

"C'mon Noah, I'm counting to ten!" Trevor shouted, grabbing his satchel and slinging it over his shoulder as he poured another coffee in to his travel mug.

Noah emerged from his room and hurried to Lexi, "Have a good day, little one!," he smiled, "go easy on Mommy, okay? She's tired and grumpy!"

"I'm not grumpy!," she remarked with irritation. Noah cocked his head at her. She started to chuckle. "Ok, Okay, maybe a little."

Noah kissed his Mom. "See you, Mom, don't forget to speak to Hannah."

"I wonnnnn't," she replied. They waved goodbye and headed right out the front door and off to school.

/

Olivia got up and sank down in to the seat that Trevor was sitting in beside Lexi, "You gonna eat the rest of that?"

She nodded her head as Olivia stood up her sip-cup. "Here is your water, sweetheart, don't forget to have a drink." Lexi took her water and took a long sip before setting it down. "How's your egg that Daddy made for you? Is it yummy?"

She nodded and jiggled in her chair with a smile for Olivia that was enough to melt her heart. "That's good, I'm glad you're enjoy it. Would you like Mommy to cut it up in to smaller bits?"

"Yessss"

Olivia smiled at her and reached across the table for her knife and sliced it up in more manageable pieces for the little girl. "Say thank youuuu Mommy," Olivia prompted her, reaching back to put the knife down.

Lexi stared at her and then picked up one of the pieces.

"Go on, we say thank you,"

Eventually Lexi mumbled something that was akin to the word thank you. It was a little hard, most 2 year olds could manage a few words, but so far all she had was yes no and Mama and Daddy, baby and some other random ones like expressing that she wanted to be picked up with arms raised repeating the word up. Noah had taught her to say, all gone when she was done eating which had actually been quite helpful rather than waiting for a tantrum.

It was suggested that perhaps her home life had been so neglected that she hadn't picked up a lot of words. They all tried word games with her and spent time learning colours and shapes. She could point out some colours and some shapes which was something, but Olivia hoped to have her speaking more. It made nighttime wake-ups sometimes hard to manage when she couldn't communicate what she wanted.

She just tried her best to speak to Lexi all day long, communicating to her what activities they were doing, counting out things as she went or singing songs to her but it was exhausting at times.

You let Mommy know when you're finished eating, okay? I'm going to go in to the kitchen and clean up while you do that, but you can still see me."

Lexi nodded. Olivia resisted the urge to put some children's music. It was Trevor's go-to, but she was wiped out when it came to nursery rhymes and repetitive tunes that started to drive her crazy when they got caught in her head.

She breathed a sigh, feeling a wave of exhaustion hit her. She rubbed her eyes. She picked up her phone and texted Amanda. "What are you up to today?"

She also saw a text from Nick. She had messaged him as she went to bed the night before. He was over the moon for her about her pregnancy and couldn't have been more excited to see all the photos of Lexi. "Promise with everything that I have I'll find a reason to make the trip to NYC for work before you give birth because I really have to bask in the joy of seeing Olivia Benson pregnant. I am incredibly happy for you, Olivia. And I cannot wait to meet her and Zara is excited to come and see you guys too. Love you guys."

She smiled to herself and sent a heart back to Nick.

Lexi dropped a piece of omelette over her tray, leaning over to watch Ruby eat it.

"Hey!" Olivia smacked the kitchen counter to get her attention. Lexi looked up at her, "No," she shook her head, "We don't give our food to Ruby. Ruby has her own food that Daddy gives her. You eat it, baby, it's your food, not Ruby's food."

As if to prove a point Lexi put plopped a little bit of the egg in to her mouth and showed Olivia her empty hand.

"That's better, thank you for listening."

Her phone rang. She glanced down to see Amanda's name. She hit answer and put her on speaker phone. "Hey Manda," she greeted her.

"Hey, how are you doing mama?," she asked with a little laugh, "how's parenthood? Has she driven you to hard liquor this early?"

Olivia started to laugh, "Tiresome, very, very tiresome… are you off today?"

"Sure am, do you need me to come over and help?," she wondered, wondering why else her friend was calling her first thing in the morning.

"Yeah… I also have some news I wanted to share with you but I'd rather do it face-to-face."

"Ohhh you're engaged? I can't wait to see your ring, I'll bet that's what it is."

Olivia laughed again, "its cute that you think that… it's a surprise and I just said I want to tell you face-to-face so… when are you free?"

"I am just taking Levi and Samantha to daycare so I can breathe. Levi has been a little shit all morning and Sam thinks its great to do everything her cousin is doing and Bella is at work… I've just had enough after how they behaved yesterday."

"Oh and now I'm asking you over here to endure another child, you don't have to, you can stay home and relax."

"No," Amanda replied, "its totally fine, Liv. I can leave when I want," she chuckled, "And I've not had much time to come and see Lexi yet."

Olivia rolled her eyes to herself as she realised her own sweet angel was feeding Ruby the remnants of her egg. She let it go and remembered that parenthood was about picking the right battles. Lexi had eaten the majority of her breakfast and still didn't fully understand why it was okay to share her food with her family but not Ruby. She decided it was an explanation for later and resolved that maybe Ruby needed to stay in another room during meal times.

"Its okay, you're busy… I understand."

"No but let me drop the kids off and I'll come over. Do you want something? Some snacks? A bottle of wine?"

Liv laughed. She would have loved a glass of wine, but knew that it was out of the question. "I'm okay. Trevor bought me home a lot of chocolate last night."

"What a good man. Okay, see you in twenty minutes…."

Olivia smiled and said goodbye and hung up. She grabbed a cloth and wiped Lexi's hands and lifted her out of the high chair and set her down. "Don't go too far, baby, it's almost time to get dressed." She took the tray off the highchair and watched Lexi gently patting Ruby. It warmed her through to see how gentle she could be with the dog. Ruby always sat still and accepted it, only slightly flinching if Lexi's movements became a little too exuberant.

She wiped down the chair and let Ruby take care of the mess on the floor before she could get to it during Lexi's nap time. She lifted the baby up and took her to her bedroom to dress her. She sat her down on her bed and pulled out two outfits. "Which pants would you like, sweetie? This one?" She held up a pair of green leggings with some pink flowers. "Or these?" They looked like a pair of jeans but were just tights.

Lexi looked for a moment and took the green pants. "Good job choosing," she smiled at her. She put the other pair back and pulled out two white t-shirts. One with a woodland animal and the other with a plain black motif of a green turtle motif. Lexi chose the turtle. Olivia grinned at her, "Good matching fashion sense, babe," she joked to herself, putting the woodland animal shirt away.

She got started dressing her, checking her diaper. "Would you like to sit on the toilet and do a poopy?" Since they had got back from Trevor's parents, Lexi had been informing them every time she pooped and Olivia took it as a sign that they could start some light toilet training. So far she had pooped twice but hadn't quite understood the urge to pee, but Olivia was taking it for a win, she wasn't quite two yet, so pooping in the toilet was quite advanced.

Lexi nodded and Olivia took her, slipping the potty seat over the toilet and letting her sit. "You sit there for Mommy and think about making a poopy."

"Mama, poopy," she told Liv right before she heard the sound. She tried not to laugh at how proud Lexi was. She began to clap her hands. "Poopy!," she exclaimed.

"You did such a good job, baby! Are you finished?"

Lexi nodded.

She cleaned her up and got her dressed and then got herself dressed in some sweats and pulled her hair back, pushing her glasses on to her face. She knew the house was a little untidy and normally she'd be on top of it, but not this time. She was too tired to care and Trevor had assured her that over the weekend he'd get on top of everything that she had been too exhausted to deal with including laundry. There was so much laundry

/

"Excited about Kaci coming back today?" Adam asked Noah quietly.

Noah nodded, "Yeah… I'm nervous for her though, she's so scared someone is going to say something about her face and if they do, I might lose it."

"Hopefully they won't," Adam replied. "She has barely responded to Katie and I, Katie is a little upset with her, but I've told her to just be patient."

"Katie has no right to be upset, she has no idea the extent of what Kaci went through, she needs to be understanding…"

"I know," Adam agreed.

"I told Kaci I would meet her at Admin so I'm gonna go down there so I can walk with her to class and make sure she's alright. I'll catch up with you later?"

"Sure. You're training tonight, right?"

"As if Coach will let me off to go hang out with Kaci," Noah laughed, "I'm the one who needs the most work on the team."

"Nah, you're actually not, but good point. See you later Noah."

/

Noah grinned at Kaci when he saw her. "Hey!"

"Hi Noah," she greeted him almost shyly. "Thanks for meeting with me."

"What are you doing out of class?" A voice asked, walking past them carrying a bunch of books. It was Trevor, he was looking at Noah disapprovingly.

Noah threw him a look. "It's Kaci's first day back, I am walking her to class to make sure nobody says anything."

"Okay," Trevor agreed. He glanced at Kaci and smiled warmly. "Good to see you back." He reached in to his messenger back and fished for a pen and for a notepad. Eventually he pulled it out and passed a text book to Noah to hold for a moment. He wrote him a hall-pass and one for Kaci too, just in case. "Here," he ripped off both and handed it to him. "Go straight to class, okay?"

"Yeah," Noah agreed. "Thanks."

"Thanks Mr. Langan," Kaci gave him a small smile. Trevor took his book from Noah and smiled at them both. "Kaci if there's any trouble with anyone, you come talk to me, okay? You can text me or you let Noah know and I will handle it." He stared pointedly at Noah.

"I will," she promised meekly before he let them off the hook and they headed in separate ways.

"How do you feel?" Noah asked, taking her hand. "Do you feel nervous still?," he asked as they walked toward her locker so she could put her things away.

"Yeah… I feel nervous and if I'm honest Noah, I was feeling really sad cos you haven't been texting me as much. Is everything okay?"

He stopped her, towering over her, he placed his hands on both of her shoulders and gave her a smile. "Yes, I promise everything is fine and nothing has changed, I just had some thing happen with Mom and Da-Trevor and Lexi that's kind of private but I'll be allowed to tell you about it soon, but I've had to help out more around the house especially with Lexi."

"Is your Mom okay?" Kaci asked, a little concerned.

Noah nodded, "Yeah, she's fine, I promise when Mom says I can, I'll talk to you about it. Lex is a bit of a handful still, she's dealing with a lot of problems because of the home that she came from, but it's getting better. I just like to try to help with her as much as I can at night because Mom needs the break and Trevor likes to cook for us…"

"Oh… promise?"

"I promise," Noah kissed her cheek. "Give me a hug, don't ever question how much I care about you, Kace, you're the number one person in my life besides my family."

"Wow, I even win the race against Adam?," she giggled.

Noah laughed as they got to her locker. "Well, c'mon, don't make me choose. I love you both, you're both the best humans."

Kaci smiled broadly at him. "Noah, you're special, did you know that?"

They stared at each other for a moment before Noah leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips. Finally he thought, it didn't feel as awkward as the other times. He waited for that magnetising feeling that made him want to lean more in to it, but he struggled to know what to expect, but he knew it would probably build up with time. Instead, he pulled away. They shared a grin, "You are the most special," he replied.

Kaci giggled girlishly, her cheeks flaming pink. "Better get my stuff before Trevor catches us."

Noah laughed. "Okay, come on…" he held on to her bag for her so she was able to pull out the things she needed for morning home room and for her first lesson. He helped her stack the rest of the things in - her locker was higher than his and with her ribs still sore and tender, it was a little difficult to reach.

"Hey I have an idea, we could trade lockers for a few weeks if you like, so you don't have to try to reach up so high. It's stupid why they'd give such a little person a locker so high, it seems cruel."

"Little person!" Kaci scoffed with mock-annoyance. "I'm not a little person," she protested.

Noah laughed, "Yes you are, anyway I think it's a good idea, what do you think?"

"That would be awesome, thanks Noah."

"You're welcome. Ok got everything?"

She nodded. He held his hand out so he could take her down the rest of the corridor to her home room — his was just next door.

/

Amanda greeted Olivia with a big hug. It felt like a long time since they'd seen each other even if it was only three weeks. "Hey stranger!"

"Hey," Olivia greeted her, pulling away. "Thank you for coming over…"

"You're welcome. If you don't mind me saying so, you look exhausted."

"Oh," Olivia laughed, "I am…" she turned behind her, "oh shit, she was right behind me a second ago," she groaned. Amanda laughed and watched Liv hurry down the hall, calling out to Lexi. She found her in the kitchen. She was obsessed with the drawers but Trevor had baby proofed them after her first attempt at getting in to things. "Lexi! Come away from there, you know better… Come on," she held her hand out. Lexi looked up and began to giggle. "Auntie Amanda is here, come say hello."

Lexi looked up shyly as Amanda appeared. She got down on to her haunches. "Hi baby, do you remember me?"

Lexi looked at Olivia and then back to Amanda. "Come on honey, come say hello."

She slowly made her way over, a little unsure. Amanda held her hands out, "come here, sweetheart, I won't hurt you, I promise." She took Amanda's hands and tried to lead her to the drawer, babbling away.

Amanda began to laugh, realising she was trying to get her help to open the baby proof lock.

"Oh jeez, she's a manipulator, she's got you figured out half a second later," Liv began to laugh.

"Aww no, I don't think we'll look in the drawers, Mama said no, maybe we go and play in the living room, huh?"

"No, no, no!," Lexi grumbled, trying again to pull Amanda's arm. Amanda looked up at Liv with a half smile. "So she's got the important word down," she remarked.

"Mmmhmmm. Come on, Lex, out of the kitchen, quickly, All done in here…"

Amanda picked her up, ignoring her wriggling around, leading them both to the living room where Trevor had put up a baby gate to keep her from running away and getting in to mischief while they were all relaxing.

"Isn't it funny how quickly the apartment goes from neat, lived-in, to hurricane baby?" She referred to the toys strewn about.

"Yep!" Olivia laughed, closing the baby gate behind her. Amanda set Lexi down on the floor. "Sweetheart, why don't you play with your blocks or your dollies?" They tried to keep the toy condensed to one area of the living room, but she and Trevor were forever putting things back.

She picked up the TV remote and put on one of her favourite baby shows as Amanda took a seat and Lexi made her way to the corner where all her toys were neatly packed up. Olivia sighed, "its so good to have adult company during the day…" she told her friend. "What's new with you? Please, please tell me something interesting."

"Hmmm…" Amanda thought for a moment, "well, Serafina is apparently thinking about moving to New Jersey, so that will be … something," she began to laugh.

Olivia laughed, "you've got a spare room, maybe she can move in?," she joked.

"Oh don't." Amanda shook her head, her blue eyes sparkling with amusement. "Don't even joke about it, Sonny was trying to present it as a positive, that she would be around more for the kids and that maybe Bella can live full time with her but… I can just see it now, everyone will be too much for everyone."

Olivia cracked up, "Yeah, that's a hard one. What brought all this on?"

"Oh, I don't know… she was talking to us all on FaceTime the other night as Bella and I were cooking dinner and the kids needed some amusement. Sonny was on his way home and then she was like, 'I don't know, Amanda, Manhattan is startin' to look really good to me these days, we could all be together and see each other all the time,'" Amanda smirked, "Bella and I just looked at each other with wide-eyed panic. I'm hoping it's just a phase. Maybe I'll put it out there that I could take the kids out of daycare and she could babysit them all day."

"Amanda, let's be honest, Serafina is not going to leave her bridge club, her Staten Island stitch-and-bitch circle and whatever volunteer stuff she's up to, she's too social, she has a foundation of friends, she isn't going to give that up on a whim," Olivia pointed out logically.

Amanda chuckled, "Stitch-and-bitch," she repeated under her breath with another laugh, "It's a craft circle, Olivia," Amanda imitated Serafina's tone of voice that she had used on Liv when she had accidentally referred to it as a stitch-and-bitch at dinner.

"Uhuh, there seems to be a lot more bitching than stitching going on in that group, we heard about five people's juicy gossip in the 15 seconds she spoke about it that night," Liv reminisced as they both laughed. "Even Sonny calls it that now."

The two women laughed, "it's true, they all love a good bitch. I think they all secretly hate each other. Someone in that group is just planning to shove a knitting needle through someone's eye. If I'm very honest, I think it'll be 'Fina."

"She's fiery, so you might be on to something…" Liv agreed. She glanced over at Lexi who was playing with her duplo, babbling away to herself. She smiled at the little girl who was slowly figuring it out, her motor skills had developed in the short month or so it was since they had taken her home.

"How's this going? Are you guys happy?"

Olivia's smile widened as she gazed at Lexi, marvelling at how smart she was in some ways - how quick she was picking up all the skills that had been neglected while she lived with Jedd Baker and the other children, isolated from almost everything. "Yeah… Trevor is just an absolute wonder dad to both Lexi and Noah, I can't believe how seamless it's been."

"So, what's the news? Where's the ring?"

"Oh yeah," Olivia remembered. "There's no ring, but he did give me something as good as a ring," she told her friend.

"What? Don't you dare say a promise bracelet or something pathetic."

Olivia laughed and stood up. She lifted her shirt slightly, revealing the skin of her stomach, covered slightly by the waist band of her leggings. Amanda looked confused until Olivia faced the wall, showing Amanda her profile. At 13 weeks pregnant, there was just a small swell in her belly, easily covered with a shirt but unmissable to her friend.

"Whaaaaaat!" Amanda exclaimed, drawing her hand up to her mouth in shock, "Noooooooo! Oh my gosh, Olivia! What are you going to do!?"

Olivia laughed, it seemed to be everyone's first question — what were her plans given that they had just taken Lexi. "C-section so I don't have to ruin my vagina," she joked.

"No! Olivia, you know what I mean, oh my gosh, is this good or bad?" She wanted to check with her first before she congratulated her.

"It's great," she admitted, "I think it's great. It took me a little longer to get there than it took Trevor and Noah but…. It's great. We are going to be a family of five thanks to me and our little oopsie-daisy baby."

"Fuck!," she cursed but was laughing, "were you shocked?"

"Uh, yeah…" Olivia started to laugh with her friend, "you could have knocked me over with a feather. But… everyone is on board now and we've only told Trevor's family and I really wanted a chance to tell you first out of everyone because you're probably my closest friend," she smiled.

"Aww, Liv…" she leaned forward to hug her. "I love you, congratulations to you and Trevor. I hope everything works out exactly as its supposed to… and if you need support or someone to help look after baby #1 while you sort out baby #2, I'm your gal."

Olivia smiled, "Thanks Amanda, I love you too…"

"Oh right, this is why you are so exhausted. Do you have any morning sickness?"

"A little bit," she replied, "I had at all until last week, it just came out of nowhere and then the past few days I think it's getting stronger."

Amanda made a face, "I hope it doesn't hit too hard. If it does, let me know, I can help out as much as possible with this little one."

"Oh, no… you have enough on your plate. Trevor said he's going to talk to his boss about dropping one of his classes which is a morning class two days a week and the other morning is a junior gym class so he said maybe one of the other teachers could take it and he'd be able to stay home potentially til around 10:30 or 11am most mornings."

"That would be a great help," Amanda agreed. "Has be been supportive so far?"

"Yeah," she smiled, "he's great, I didn't really doubt him but it's been hard to let go of trying to keep my guard up— I know you get that, you used to be the same when you knew Sonny was in love with you, it took you forever to just let yourself let go and allow yourself to be happy."

"Yeah…" Amanda agreed, "you're right. It is really hard when you've lived through so many shitty relationships or grown up around people who are awful to each other, it kind of colours your expectation for the worst."

"Well, hopefully we're both in a good place and I think it can only make our friendship better too."

"Im glad for that," Amanda replied.

/

"So what, your Dad is now a jail bird just like your little boyfriend's father? Wow… you both have a lot in common, maybe his Daddy will start banging your Mom too," Ryan chuckled, throwing his comments to Kaci.

"Ryan, get out of my class room," Mrs Henry raised her voice at the suspended football player who refused to remove his letterman jacket. "You have no right…" Katie scooted her desk over to her best friend's.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Kaci looked up from her math textbook with tears filling her eyes. "Don't cry," Katie whispered, "don't. They don't deserve your tears. They're just idiots, you are stronger than them."

Mrs. Henry made her way over to Kaci's desk. She crouched down, "Kaci, he's a moron, he's just trying to get a rise out of you because he's deeply unhappy with himself," she explained. "Would you like a minute to go to the bathroom and collect yourself?"

"No thanks," Kaci murmured, "I'm fine," she replied even though she wasn't fine. She felt like an alien. Everyone had stared at her all day and she had no idea how anyone had found out about the real reason she took so long off school. Even the well-meaning kids were upsetting, loaning their support, not realising how invasive it felt.

She was so relieved when class ended. Noah was waiting for her, the second she emerged and saw her friend waiting, she burst in to tears. Noah took her hand and pulled her aside, staring at Katie quizzically. "Oh no, what happened?," he asked softly, pulling her in to a hug. He kissed her head.

"Ryan happened," Katie muttered. "He said some stupid shit about you and her both having jail birds for parents."

"I'm really sorry Kace," Noah apologised, keeping a lid on the anger that he felt suddenly brewing. Peter had been suspended, but not Ryan, Ryan still hadn't learned his lesson. "Could you take Kaci to her locker? She swapped with me, it's near Adam's he can show you where it is. I'll be right back."

He broke in to a run, knowing exactly where to find Ryan, his anger rising as he made his way past the lockers where he usually hung out with Peter. Finally, he found him laughing and flirting with Celeste Mitchell, the school's most popular girl and cheer squad assistant captain. She was the one responsible for trying to oust Kaci and Katie for not participating with them outside of the team.

"Ryan!," he yelled out. Just as he looked up, Noah flung his arm out and punched him right in jaw, "don't ever say a fucking word to Kaci about her father again you stupid piece of shit." Ryan grabbed Noah by the shirt and threw him up against the locker and a crowd began to form.

Noah swung another punch, flinching from Ryan's own fist which grazed his chin, barely enough to do much. With a little more speed on his side and a lot more agility based on the fact that he was a little smaller, he ducked out of Ryan's grasp, realising he wasn't going to escape unscathed — but it had been worth it, nothing felt better than the sound of his fist connecting with his face.

Ryan grabbed him again, but Noah had been waiting and swung his fist again, landing him in the very spot he had missed Noah. The second time he didn't miss, Noah felt the sting of the punch searing his cheekbone. "Now you can match your fucking girl—" Ryan spat at him, referring to Kaci's healing facial fracture.

"Fuck you," Noah, infuriated began throwing punch after punch; some landed, some didn't but he ignored the feel of being on the receiving end until someone finally broke them up.

"You!" Mrs Henry told Ryan, "wait over there," she pointed toward the other end of the corridor. She looked at Noah, "and you-"

"Get in to my office," Trevor barked at Noah, "Now."

"Good, I will," he shot back, "hope your face hurts, you little bitch!" Noah yelled at Ryan from across the hall. Trevor grabbed him by the elbow, dragging him away. "You are in so much trouble," he told Noah.

"Good, I hope I am, it'll be worth it. He deserved it and you know it." He marched off, leaving Trevor behind him, steeling himself. Noah had a point; those guys did deserve a taste of their own medicine, but he had to be diplomatic. As a father he wanted to pat him on the back and say, good job, but the other part of him, the less-aggressive coach and father thought different.

Noah paced Trevor's office— adrenaline like he'd never felt before was coursing through his veins as the reality of what he had just done seemed to set in. He wasn't sure if he should feel proud or angry with himself — but he was tired of it all — nothing ever seemed to make them stop, no amount of suspension or trouble from teacher's was enough to keep their mouths closed when it came to Noah and by extension, his friends. He would have preferred not to have to get in to a physical fight, because his knuckles were aching and he could feel them swelling up already.

But did it feel good? Absolutely, he thought, it felt amazing.

Trevor opened the door and slammed it behind him, furious. "Noah," he breathed in, "you were wrong out there," he told him. "And I've been sticking my neck out to protect you from those guys-"

"I didn't ask you to do that," Noah shot back, "no wonder they keep bullying me, you keep stepping in. Maybe all they needed was for one of them to get smacked in their smart mouths."

Trevor looked ready to explode with anger. He opened his mouth to say something but instead he closed his mouth. "I have to call your Mom to come and get you. You're about to be suspended and you know that this means a two week suspension from the team, right? You won't be playing. I can't protect you from that."

"I don't care." Noah folded his arms and sank down on the couch. "I don't care because it was worth it. You haven't even asked how this started, because you don't care. All you care about is being right."

"Oh, Noah, I wish you had the maturity to see how very wrong you are about that," he told him. "Mrs. Henry already told me what was said and I'm doing my very best to keep to myself just how I feel about that. You can't just beat someone up because they're trying to get a rise out of you. You know, you just gave him what he wanted."

"No," Noah disagreed, "I smacked him in his mouth, he didn't want that and he didn't see it coming but maybe next time he will watch his damn mouth before he speaks about me or about Kaci. I can handle them talking all their shit about me, but I won't let them make the people that I care about cry…Kaci has enough going on."

Trevor drew in another deep breath before letting it out slow. "I have to call your Mom and she's going to have to get dressed, get Lexi dressed, leave the house despite how exhausted she's been-"

"Good, maybe it'll be nice to have some attention focused on me for the first time in months," Noah shot back. He didn't mean it, but he was aching in his face and in his fists.

"I think you need to calm down." He picked up a notepad and began to write on it as quickly as possible because he wanted to explode too. He ripped off the page and folded it in half. "Take that with you, go down and see the principal and I will meet you down there once I've spoken to your Mom."

Without a word, Noah took it from him and left the office.

/

"Sorry, one sec, it's Trevor—" Olivia picked up her phone. "Hey sweetie," she greeted him.

"Hi Liv," she could tell instantly there was something wrong — he sounded tense and not at all happy.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

Trevor let out a chuckle. "Am I that easy to read?," he wondered.

"A little… what's up?"

"Noah got himself in to trouble," he told her, "and it pisses me off that I can't protect him from it, but he's about to be suspended and I need you to come pick him-"

"What the hell, Trev, what happened?"

"One of those dickhead kids that have been giving him a hard time made some comment to Kaci in class, it got back to Noah and he apparently just went looking for the kid and let his fists fly-"

Olivia couldn't help it - a small smile spread across her lips, but she quickly pressed them together, as if she realised how inappropriate it was. "Oh no, that's terrible," she replied making no effort to sound upset.

"Liv," Trevor sighed, "come on, I'm walking a line here, I have to be as hard on him as I am on the other kids. I tried to talk to him and I just got nothing but attitude and it's hard to be in the role of teacher, but apparently being a smart-ass student was no thing for him… because I did not get Noah the son today, I got back-talk, rudeness and a complete lack of remorse."

"Well, these guys have been really just giving him a hard time for the past … however long its been since he's been on the football team, Trevor, what did you think would happen? I don't think it's okay, I don't like that they drove my sweet-heart kid to violence, but fuck, nothing else has worked has it?"

"Olivia please don't make this harder for me," Trevor murmured with a sigh.

She drew in a deep breath, "no, you're right, his behaviour was totally inappropriate, while I appreciate his loyalty to his friend, he can't just go and throw fists because he's angry. That's not how the world works."

"Thank you, that's what I needed from you."

"Well honey, I'm going to let you deal with this one, punishment wise. Your first solo gig," she tried to laugh gently. "I'm here for support, but you get to set the punishment."

"No sleep over on the weekend," he told her bluntly. "No sleep over and I'm going to collect some school work for him to do for the three days he'll be suspended."

"Or he could help me with Lexi and I could get a lot of sleep," she joked.

"Olivia!," he admonished her, "come on, stop it. I'm serious."

"Okay, okay… when do I have to get him?"

"Shortly. I'm going down now to talk to the principal. I'll text you. Please don't tell Noah this behaviour was okay."

"I'm not going to do that, because regardless of how I feel, you feel, he feels— it's not okay and he knows better."

"Love you… I'll text you in a little bit."

/

Noah sat glumly in the office directly across from Ryan waiting for the principal. Noah was bouncing his leg with agitation. Ryan did everything but look at him, avoiding his eyes as Noah stared at him, his eye burning a whole through his peer. He dared finally to glance up and look at Noah. Shocking him, Ryan's eyes were filled with tears.

"Turning the water works on so you can get some sympathy? I've got another couple of punches left in me," he spoke slowly and quietly so the admin staff wouldn't hear.

Surprising to Noah, was the nurse coming to meet him in the waiting area with an ice pack wrapped in a cloth. He had arrived a little after Ryan came in, so had obviously missed something. He mumbled a thank you, ignoring Noah, taking the ice pack and pressing it against one side of his face. She turned to Noah, "what about you Rocky, do you need me to look at your face?"

"No," Noah replied, "I'm fine."

And truthfully, despite getting hit in the jaw, his hands hurt more. He realised pretty quickly that Ryan was in pain and he had inflicted it. The guilt began to set in — it didn't matter how many times Ryan was responsible for hurting him, he never wanted to be the person responsible for hurting another person.

"Are you okay?," the words blurted out of his mouth as the nurse left them.

"What do you care?" Ryan muttered.

"Because clearly I'm an idiot," Noah shot back, "but I've never been in a fight and I don't like feeling this kind of aggression over someone who isn't worth it."

Ryan quickly wiped some stray tears that fell down his face. His face turned crimson with embarrassment and was glad they had been moved from the entryway in to a little waiting area tucked outside the principal's office. "Why do you do it? Why are you so cruel? Do you and that doofus-brain Peter ever think about how you make other people feel? What you said about Kaci's dad isn't funny. You can talk shit about me as much as you want, but leave her alone, she did nothing to deserve that."

"I don't know why I say stupid shit…"

"Yes you do. You think it makes you popular. It might make you popular with Celeste and a couple of those other girls and guys but everyone else thinks you guys are jack-asses and everyone is only nice to you because they're scared of you," Noah told him.

Ryan wiped his eyes. "My Mom is gonna kill me for getting suspended and it's your fault."

"Typical, you take absolutely no blame. You broke my phone months back because you and Peter thought it would be hilarious to trip me over after training. You guys have physically pushed me around, you all went as far as you could to find out information about my biological father to use it against me and created problems at home, you talk shit about poor Kaci who's Mom almost died, who herself is lucky to be back with us — and you think you're innocent, that you didn't at least deserve a taste of your own medicine." Noah spoke quickly and concisely, "you're embarrassing, if you don't see that you're the biggest part of this problem, you really will grow up being a bully who peaked in high school."

"I didn't know you didn't know about your biological father…"

"Yeah, well shocker, I didn't and you have no idea what you caused and what that did to me but you didn't care. You don't care about anyone you hurt and now you want to whine like a baby about your Mommy turning up and getting mad at you. My Mom and Trevor are gonna be rabid with fury because they taught me better than to resort to violence, and they're right, but I'm still not sorry about it."

He said nothing else, Ryan tried to respond but Noah shut him down immediately. "I'm not interested, don't talk to me. You have no remorse, no sympathy, it's like you're not even a normal person, you're a sociopath. I thought you might be slightly better than Peter, but no, you're both a cut from the same cloth."

/

Noah, your Mom will be here shortly to pick you up." The principal told him as he watched Ryan and his mother walk out. Ryan's Mom looked scary angry and he did feel a little more sympathy for him. She glanced at Noah, "this is the kid that nearly knocked you out?" She shook her head with annoyance, "maybe he might have knocked some common sense in to your dumb ass, lets go!"

He felt bad because he knew that no matter how bad he messed up, both Olivia and Trevor would never take that tone with him- they would talk to him and try to understand once everyone's anger had passed. He thought back to the way he'd snapped at Trevor immediately after the fight and felt bad about it. Trevor was right he had been put in a tough situation.

He glanced up and saw Trevor coming down the hall. "Hi," he greeted Noah, taking a seat.

"Hi," Noah replied. "Is Mom super mad?," he wondered.

"Mmmm, Mom is disappointed and so am I. Are you okay? How's your cheek?" He lifted Noah's chin and gently pushed it to the side so he could see.

"Its okay. I'm sorry for what I said before about getting some attention. I didn't mean it. It was a stupid comment to make."

"Don't worry about it. I guess I can understand that maybe you've been taking the backseat a bit in terms of attention, you can just tell us, you know? You don't have to act out."

"That's not why this happened," Noah replied. "I didn't fight Ryan to get attention."

"I know," Trevor replied. "I gotta go in and see the principal." He managed to flash Noah a little smile, "I think we're both in trouble," he said in a whisper as he got up and knocked on his boss' door.

Noah hoped it had absolutely nothing to do with him.

/

"Hey Trevor, how are you doing?" John Lattimore greeted the man who had been working under him for the past almost-9 years. "Take a seat," he motioned for him to sit.

"Hey, I'm okay," he took a seat, "what's going on?"

He sat down too across from Trevor and went through a few things on the computer before he stopped. "I got a formal complaint about you yesterday afternoon, Trev and I know parents will be parents and always want to believe their son is an angel, but I have to investigate it as part of my job."

"Wait- what?! Who?"

"The Blasko family. They said that they were visited by police and bullied in to making their child behave because he is the son of a police officer that the coach is dating."

Trevor laughed. "Yeah, they were visited by police because Noah went home and told his mother how he got a black eye and why he had a lump on his head. I am doing my absolute best to not cross the line of teacher-to-parent, but is it not my duty of care to Noah regardless of if I am being a teacher or a parent?"

"Yes but - how did it escalate from a silly school ground scuffle to a police matter. I wasn't even informed."

Trevor rolled his eyes and sucked in air. "Noah suffered two head injuries at the hands of this child, John. Whether or not his Mom wanted to press charges has nothing to do with the school and this wouldn't even be in front of you now if I wasn't dating his mother."

"There was also the complaint that you gave Noah a free ride on to the football team because of your affiliation with his mother."

"It's okay, you can say it, I'm dating his Mom. We live together, we have a child together," John raised an eyebrow in surprise. "I care deeply about Noah but I didn't know his Mom when he joined the football team and just like Ryan, he was invited to join to help out with some behavioural issues — that means training and discipline and some physical activity to get rid of some pent up anger or whatever they're dealing with. If I got rid of my mish-mash of kids on the team who I invited on, we'd be half the team we are. Noah is a good player and I'll stand by that decision."

"So you're saying none of this is true?!"

"I'm saying that Blasko was warned by me, by other teachers, by you to straighten up and worry about himself, but he couldn't do that and nothing else is important to him the way football is and that was the last bargaining chip I had."

"I just think there's a big conflict of interest here-"

"Oh bullshit," Trevor exploded. "Rita Feldman's two girls go here, they both got A+'s in their exams last year - she marked them. Did she get a conversation about that? We all know that Shauna Feldman is not getting an over-all, end-of-year A+ grade, can we be serious?"

"Trevor- for years I've been really understanding of everything you've got going on, but don't speak to me like this, I'm your boss."

/

Noah could hear voices being raised in the office, he started to feel very bad. He knew they were arguing over him. "What do I have to do? Marry his Mom who is carrying my child? What do I have to do to make sure Noah gets the same treatment as all the other kids here? Adopt him? Cos I'm willing to do whatever it is to make sure he's protected at all costs!"

Tears began to well in Noah's eyes as he overheard the exploding conversation.

"Don't you dare come at me with a baseless complaint from a parent who is more upset about her son losing his place on my team than his actual disgusting behaviour!"

"Trevor-" Lattimore tried again. "Your tone," he reminded him. "I have to investigate-"

"Fine, do what you have to do and you can find another coach and another teacher until you come to your own conclusions."

"Don't do this, Trevor, you are very valuable as a teacher, I-"

"Well, you're not making me feel very much like that," he shot back, "you're penalising me for what? For looking out for the underdog, something you seemed to love. I know you think Peter Blasko is the saviour of the team and makes this school look very good, but I am not going to put any of my students, including Noah at risk for the glory of a damn high school football competition. So you go speak to Blasko's parents and tell them whatever you need to tell them — investigate as you need to, but Blasko will not be back on my team until he has demonstrated real team work. As for Ryan, he will need to do the same to lift his suspension."

"And Noah? How are you going to punish him?"

"The same way I punished Peter and Ryan for their first stupid offence, two week suspension including training and games and I'm sure his mother and I will be dealing with more punishments at our own discretion because that's what good parents do, they don't pretend their kid is an angel and file complaints."

He felt himself shaking with anger as he found the exit and slammed it after him. He glanced at Noah and found him crying. "Hey kid, it's okay."

"I didn't mean to get you in to trouble," Trevor put an arm around Noah and kissed his temple.

"I know you didn't, but don't worry kiddo, it's been brewing for awhile. It's nothing you've done. Mom said Amanda is coming to sign you out, okay? She'll take you back home to Mom."

"K, I'm sorry I didn't mean to cause this— I'm just so tired of them messing with me and my friends."

"I know, I get it. We shouldn't be resorting to our fists, kiddo, but I understand your frustration when nothing else seems to be getting through."

Noah hugged him tightly and Trevor had to admit, it felt nice. He slowly released Noah as he noticed Amanda looking around. He gave her a wave. "Hey," he smiled.

She saw Noah and then looked at Trevor, "hey slugger, I'm to come and get you."

Noah wiped his eyes. "Hi Aunt Amanda," he greeted her weakly.

"Hey slugger," she looked up at Trevor, "do I need to do anything?"

"Yeah, I'll just take you to the front desk and get you to sign the student exit book." Trevor turned to Noah and reached in to his jacket breast pocket and reached for his handkerchief. "Here, everything will be okay, we'll talk more when I get home later. Try to clean off your face a little and we'll wait for you just by the office entrance, okay?"

Noah was grateful that Trevor understood that there was no way he wanted anyone to see his tears and needed a second to compose himself.

Trevor walked with Amanda to the front desk. "Is he okay?," she asked, "did he get hurt?"

Trevor shook his head, "No, he didn't. I'm afraid to say it, but he knocked the snot out of that kid," he muttered.

Amanda had to hide her smile. Trevor asked the office admin for the exit book and filled it out for Amanda and got her to sign it.

They stepped away once she was done and waited exactly where she told Noah she would. "He's upset because he heard me arguing with the principal which is actually a bit of an ongoing thing, but he's internalising it— so he thinks he's caused problems at work, just as a heads up. He's deeply apologetic about the fight."

"I know I shouldn't say it, but I met those kids and their family's and sometimes a taste of their own medicine is all that they need."

"Well… I'm trying to stay impartial, but I get it. I get why he did it. If anyone spoke about Olivia or anyone else that I care about the way those kids keep tormenting him and his friends, I'd probably react too, but… we're trying to set examples."

"Yeah. I understand," Amanda replied. She saw Noah coming toward them.

"Is Mom mad?," he dared to ask.

"Mmmm she's not happy," Amanda replied, "but don't worry, I'm sure you can discuss it with her when we get back."

"I'll see you guys back home. Amanda could you please tell Liv that I'll bring the paperwork for his suspension home with me? It looks like it'll be a 1 week suspension but I'll be confirming it later."

"Sure, thanks Trev, come on Noah."

/

"Hi Mom…" Noah greeted his Mom sheepishly.

"Hello," she replied. She glanced at Amanda who leaned down to pick up Lexi.

"Come on sweetie, let's go have a play in your bedroom and you can show me allll of your toys while Mama and Noah talk."

She made herself scarce to give Olivia some time with Noah.

"You better sit down, Noah, we need to talk."

Without a word he sat down on the armchair. He braced himself.

"Tell me what happened — from start to finish, don't leave a detail out and tell me what you were thinking."

"You're just going to yell at me, why bother?" He muttered.

"Am I yelling now?" Olivia asked him. "I want to hear it from your point of view, Noah and if I wanted to yell at you, I'd be yelling already."

"I'm just so tired of being picked on and pushed around," he spoke finally, resting his arms on his knees, covering his face. "Them telling me my business about Johnny Drake, it just really … made me angry about it all but I can handle it and then I saw Kaci come out of class and she was crying really hard and Katie told me that Ryan told her that now her father was a jail bird like mine and something about Trevor getting with her Mom…"

"Oh honey…"

"I hated to see her that upset and she doesn't deserve it just because they don't like me. It was her first day back and I just had so much anger and I wanted to just… smash him. So I did and it felt good. I'm not sorry I did it, Mom, I wish I was, but I'm not. I'm sorry that Trevor got in to trouble with his boss and I'm sorry that I put him in a weird position and that I disappointed you but I'm not sorry that I punch him because he deserved it."

"Back up, why did Trevor get in to trouble?"

"I don't know… he just went in to the office and I heard them yelling about me…" he sighed, "I felt really bad about that."

"Firstly, I hate that you got in to a fight and you could have been hurt," she told him evenly. "I hate that you reacted with violence against all better judgment," she continued. "And I hate that what you've done has to have consequences because I understand that you are being punished based on reacting to being constantly bullied and harassed for a long time now and that doesn't feel fair, but how those other kids are parented is beyond my control, I can only parent you in what I think is a healthy way."

"I know," he murmured, at least relieved to hear that there was no anger in her voice. He didn't even sense any disappointment.

"I haven't had the chance to talk to Trevo-"

"Dad," he corrected her, "you haven't had the chance to talk to Dad." The conversation he'd overheard of Trevor defending him despite being the instigator of the fight had convinced him that it was okay to trust him and any insecurities he felt that Trevor might leave them had all but flown out the window as soon as he vowed to adopt him to the principal.

"I haven't had the chance to talk to Dad, but I think that you can unfortunately kiss goodbye to your sleep over with Adam, but the rest of it - I think I'll wait to discuss with Dad."

"Okay," Noah replied. "I'm sorry that I've disappointed you, but I don't know how else to get them off my back, Mom, even you guys tried— aunt Amanda and Uncle Finn going to their houses— I thought for sure that would work but if anything it just made them a little worse."

Olivia was conflicted. On one hand she wanted to tell her son off, she wanted to tell him to be better than them, but on the other hand she was proud of him for standing up for himself; for exercising the kind of protection over a girl that no one had ever afforded her in the past. She knew she had to do something though, nothing was getting through to these boys and something else had to give before Noah or one of his friends were seriously hurt.

"Come over here," she patted a spot next to her.

Noah reluctantly got up and sat beside his Mom.

"Noah, I love you and you don't have to tell me for me to know that you are deeply upset over this. I know this is not what you wanted to happen-" she opened her arms to him and let him fall against her. She kissed his temple. "Did you hurt him?"

"Not long term," he replied, "but he did cry and I tried to talk to him and he kept telling me his suspension was all my fault because his Mom was gonna kill him, so I told him about how what he'd caused me was all his fault and that he should never have brought Kaci in to it, I asked him to put himself in her shoes after almost losing her Mom… and then he tried to say more but I was done listening to him…"

"I know this is going to be really hard for you, honey, but I want to organise a time to meet with Ryan's Mom and I want to take you with me and I think I would like you to apologise for hitting him."

"He didn't stand there with his arms by his sides, Mom, he tried to hit me back and he pushed me against the locker."

"Two wrongs don't make a right, baby, you know that," she told him gently. "I will speak to Ryan's Mom later because I really want to get to the bottom of this and maybe the fact that he was so upset about the fight means that like you, he has some regrets. Do you think maybe Peter Blasko bullies him too?"

"Maybe," Noah shrugged, "What if I apologise and then we go back to school and he calls me a pussy or something for standing down?"

"Well that just makes you the bigger person, honey and I always always want the kid I am so incredibly proud of to be the bigger person."

"Why are you not mad at me?," he asked, "I thought you'd be so furious."

"I think even though you haven't expressed it yet, you're mad at yourself. I know you, Noah, when you know you've hurt someone, it eats you up. Sometimes you need time to process that, but your kind heart always wins, that is the absolute best thing about you and you know, maybe some people see that goodness inside of you and feel a little repelled by it because they can't fathom how to be so pure-hearted, so they assume its not genuine, but that's on them… I love you. I know you'll do the right thing."

Noah said nothing, overwhelmed by the love that his Mom was showing him despite him fighting and using violence to resolve an issue. "I love you too," he replied finally.

"I want you to go and get changed out of your school clothes and if you think you're going to lounge around for the next however long you've been suspended for, you can guess again."

"I didn't expect that," he said quickly.

"Dad will probably bring you school work and when you're not working on that, I'm going to have chores for you. Hand over your phone too, please. You can have it at 4 o'clock when school ends so that you can tell Adam the sleep over is off and you can communicate with Kaci and let her know what happened."

"Okay," he agreed, reaching in to his back pocket and handing his locked phone.

"No video games. You can use the TV in your room and hang out in there if you like, or you can watch TV in here with Lexi while Aunt Amanda and I hang out."

"Can I please just be alone for awhile?"

"Yeah, of course," she kissed his temple again.

/

Trevor got home a little earlier than usual. Olivia could tell that he was in a bad mood but she didn't really have it in her to entertain it. He tossed his keys on the table which made Lexi jump in her arms. She winced, really not wanting to wake her from her afternoon nap.

He stuck his head in to the silent living room where Olivia was sitting on the couch, her legs outstretched on the chaise, angled in to the corner, cradling Lexi who had developed a habit of sucking on her thumb as she slept.

"Hey…" he whispered.

"Hi baby," she whispered back.

Despite his mood, he made his way over to Olivia and kissed her lips in greeting. "Do you want me to take her and lay her down?," he asked, despite the lightness he felt upon seeing the woman that he loved having a peaceful moment with their baby.

She considered it. "Okay…" she figured she and Trevor had a discussion to have. Very, very carefully, he lifted Lexi from her arms and placed her down on the couch lengthways. Olivia noticed Noah hovering, she knew what he was doing, he was gauging how annoyed Trevor might be with him.

She knew he was on tenterhooks, scared that Trevor may be very upset; angry enough to reject him, possibly.

Trevor straightened up and loaned a hand to Olivia to help her up. He caught sight of Noah and greeted him a little too breezily.

"Honey," Olivia began, "could you please sit in here and watch over your sister? You can turn the TV on but not too loud."

"Yeah, okay," Noah replied. "Dad, did everything go okay with the rest of your day?"

"Not really, Noah, no," Trevor replied, "I spent my day writing incident reports from all the kids who witnessed you attacking Ryan and then I had to assure my boss that there is no conflict of interest with you on the football team and that I don't need to kick you off the team or find a replacement coach."

Noah's shoulder's dropped. "I'm sorry," he murmured.

"You're sorry…" Trevor repeated beneath his breath, "well, I'm glad about that."

Without a word, he continued out of the family room as Noah's eyes filled with tears. Olivia looked back and saw her red-faced son, devastated by Trevor's attitude, but she could understand her boyfriend's anger too.

"Babe," Liv told him, "its okay, he'll calm down."

"No he won't, he'll grow to hate me, I told you that," Noah choked back a sob. Olivia was torn, she wanted to go and speak to Trevor but she didn't want to leave her son. She would never put Noah second again though, she told herself. She made her way back to where she was sitting, the same spot Noah had taken up.

"He doesn't hate you and he won't ever hate you, I promise. You both just had terrible days for different reasons. Give him some space to calm down and it'll be okay."

"K…" Noah replied, wiping his eyes.

Olivia got up and headed out to meet Trevor in the kitchen. "I think we should go and talk in the bedroom," she told him. She didn't want Noah to hear everything.

Without a word he followed her and closed the door behind her.

She turned to face him, "you can't do that, Trev," she blurted out.

"What?"

"Did you not just hear that conversation I had with him?," she wondered.

"No?," he glanced at her quizzically as he discarded his jacket, hanging it up on the coat hanger and slotting it in to the closet. "I was getting some food for Ruby from the back room."

"What's Noah's biggest fear? Tell me what Noah is most scared of about you and I being together?," she questioned him, folding her arms as she sat down, she was a little frustrated.

He stared blankly for a second, "breaking up?"

"Wrong," she replied, "he's scared of losing you. I know you're upset with him for a whole bunch of reasons I don't even know about yet and while I think that's valid, I think treating him coldly is triggering for him and he's in that living room bawling his eyes out and told me that you hate him or this is the start of you growing to hate him," she explained, "he didn't even have to say the words, but I know he's thinking here we go again, just like Elliot…"

"So am I never allowed to be angry with his behaviour?"

"No," Olivia replied, "trust me, I'm angry with what happened, but I also talked to him calmly about it. I heard him out and let him say how he felt without judgment and then I told him how I felt and what I thought might be the best solution in my opinion to rectify his wrongdoing and then I told him I loved him but there would be consequences like forgetting about his sleep over and other stuff that is yet to be decided because I wanted to talk it over with you."

Trevor saw that she had a point and he really did admire her parenting. "This is all just still new to me," he admitted, sitting down beside her on the bed. "I think… if you're patient enough, I might need some guidance with being a parent to a teen. I only know how to be the teacher… I don't want him to think his behaviour has anything to do with how I feel about him."

"You're already a great parent, but this is also the first time you've had to deal with an actual issue which clearly has affected your job, so you need to work out your own feelings and what you can do about whatever it is that happened at work-"

"That's not really Noah's fault. My boss received a complaint from Blasko's parents complaining that their kid has been unfairly treated because I'm dating the police officer who harassed their kid, that I let him on the team and have a problem being impartial… I can't even tell you how much fucking infuriates me."

"Me organising for colleagues to visit those family's was because they fucking assaulted my child and really, I could have pressed charges — none of that had anything the fuck to do with you!," she felt angry for him. "I'll take my badge down there and tell the dickhead to his face," she added.

Trevor laughed finally, "baby, its okay, I told him everything you've just said. I'm actually going to request a meeting with the super intendant, he and I have had meetings in the past and he's a genuinely good, understanding guy. I put in a request to meet with him before I left and he replied saying he will call me tomorrow."

"Good, and the incident reports?"

"I just had to show that I was taking Noah's fight as seriously as any other kid's fight - and I am, when I go to school, I go out of my way to be Mr Langan and I make sure Noah is not in any of my classes to keep that impartiality. I happen to think that the football team doesn't count."

"I agree."

He sighed, "Sorry Liv, it's been a tough day."

"That's okay, sweetheart." He hugged her, "how about you? How are you doing?"

"Okay, I'm really tired and I've been having some tummy cramps. I'm sure it's just my body doing its thing."

He nodded. "So, what do you have in mind for Noah's punishment?"

"The sleep over is off. I've told him he won't slacking off for a week, he'll be doing chores around the house. I just thought the usual stuff - no phone, no video games, he can keep his TV because I know it helps him sleep. He won't be going out after school. He's to come home with you every day and I'm going to speak with Ryan's Mom and see if I can go over with Noah so that Noah can apologise to Ryan. He mentioned Ryan was a little emotional which kind of tells me there may be some glimmer of hope for this kid so I guess we'll see."

"Wow, how did he take that?"

Olivia laughed, "not well, but I told him that even if Ryan doesn't accept his apology or if it doesn't change his behaviour, Noah will still be the bigger person and I know that he will always be the bigger person when he needs to be."

"I love you," he told Liv, "you're an amazing Mom and I am so lucky to have this family with you."

"Aww," she smiled at him. She pressed her lips against his. "Thank you… I feel lucky too…" He placed his hand upon her belly and smiled, "getting a tiny bit more noticeable every day…"

Olivia placed her hand over his and looked down at the small bump. She looked back up at him and they shared a smile.

"K… I better go see the kids and make sure Noah knows I'm not going anywhere and that I don't hate him." He kissed her.

/

"Hey…" Trevor greeted Noah once he had changed in to more comfortable clothes, "how are you doing this afternoon?"

Noah just shrugged. Trevor glanced at his fists. "How are your knuckles? Sore?"

Noah glanced down at his hands and saw how swollen his right hand was. It made sense as to why his knuckles had been stinging. "Yeah a bit," he shrugged.

"Hey kiddo, I want you to know something— I'm not really angry with you entirely. I'm angry with my boss and I'm angry with what happened leading up to what caused you to fight Ryan. I don't like any of it… but I certainly don't hate you and I will never ever grow to hate you."

"Okay," Noah murmured.

"I was put in a tough spot today at work, but that's alright. I'll get past it. I just wanted you to know that I love you and I want to reiterate what I said earlier - I don't love what you did but I can understand why you reacted…"

"It was stupid."

"It was," Trevor agreed with a nod, "but we all make mistakes, so don't get too upset for too long."

"Okay," he repeated.

"I love you. Give me a hug and then maybe you can come and help me make dinner."

Noah felt relief spread over him as he leaned in to Trevor hugging him tightly. "I love you too," he murmured. "Thanks for not staying mad at me."

"You're my kid, I could be steaming mad but I'd still love you, get that through your big head," he winked.

Noah chuckled. "Come on, let's get Ruby fed and dinner ready for little miss for when she wakes up and screams down the house for food…"

Noah laughed again and got up to his feet to follow Trevor out to the kitchen.