A/N: This is the next part of the last chapter titled "Nervous". For this one, Foster is still at 51. I don't own any of the characters.
Happy to See You
Olivia and Noah had waited until he was out of school before they went to Chicago. They were planning to be there for 2 weeks and they couldn't wait. She hadn't seen Hank since he left New York that last time but they talked regularly and skyped occasionally as well.
When their flight arrived in Chicago, they got off the plane and went to get their luggage. Hank was waiting for them in Baggage Claim. As soon as Noah saw him, he ran over to give him a hug.
"Hi Hank!"
"Hey, kiddo."
As soon as Olivia caught to them, she kissed Hank.
"I've missed you."
"I've missed you too."
Hank took their suitcases and they headed to his SUV. He put the suitcases in the back, while Olivia and Noah got in. Hank then headed home.
"Did you ever hear from Erin?"
"Yeah. She may come out next weekend. She wasn't definite. Olive and Daniel will be here towards the end of the week for a few days."
"It'll be good to see them again. I would love to meet Erin."
"She said she wants to meet you too. If she doesn't get here, she said she'd like to come to your apartment and meet you."
"She's with the FBI?"
"Yeah. She used to be in my unit but I pulled some strings and got her the job with the FBI. She needed the change of scenery and it's been good for her."
"Good."
Hank continued driving home but they ended up stopping for pizza first. After they were done eating, they went home.
"Here we are."
Hank carried the bags in and went upstairs. Olivia and Noah followed him up.
"This is Daniel's room but for the next couple weeks, it'll be Noah's too."
"Cool, bunk beds! Can I sleep on the top?"
"Sure."
Noah climbed up and took Eddie up with him and then he played with his tablet, while Hank took Olivia into his bedroom.
"A king-size bed, huh?"
"It was time for a new one."
"A new bed just for me, huh?"
"Maybe."
"I can't wait to try it out later."
"I'm sure you can't."
Hank kissed Olivia.
"You have no idea how much I have missed you."
"I think I have an idea because I have missed you just as much."
"Maybe we should do another cruise with Olive and Daniel and maybe Erin for Spring Break."
"I love that idea and hopefully the boys will have the same break again."
They started kissing again and then Olivia went to make sure Noah was getting ready for bed. Once he was ready, she and Hank both tucked him in and then the two of them made love. Afterwards they were holding each other.
"I wish I could be in your arms like this all the time."
"I do too. I've been thinking about putting my papers in, so I can move to New York to be closer to you."
"Hank, are you serious?"
"I'm very serious. I know that would put me farther away from Olive and Daniel but you've been in my thoughts a lot lately and I think I might be ready to retire. I love you, Olivia and I want to be anywhere you are and if that's New York, then fine. I'm ready to commit to you."
"Then it's not just me feeling that way."
"You do too?"
"Yeah. I've never felt this way in any of the relationships I've been in and you love Noah like he was your own son."
"He is helping to fill the void that Justin's death left in my life and being with you has made me feel things that I haven't felt in a very long time. Since I met you, I feel whole again for the first time since I lost my wife."
They started kissing and were about to make love again when Hank's phone rang. It was Jay telling him they had a major case. Hank said he'd be there as soon as he could.
"You have to go?"
"Yeah. I'm afraid so."
"Just be careful."
"I will."
Hank kissed Olivia and then he got out of bed to get dressed. He kissed her again and then he left. Olivia got ready for bed, put the TV on and found a movie to watch before she fell asleep. Hank had finally gotten home again at about 2am. He checked on Noah and he was sound asleep. He went into the bedroom and Olivia was sound asleep as well. Hank got ready for bed and got into bed with Olivia before falling right to sleep.
Noah had woken up around 7 and went to the bathroom. After he was done, he peeked into Hank's bedroom and saw that they were still asleep. He went downstairs and put the TV on. About an hour later, the doorbell rang, so Noah went to see who it was. It was Olive, Daniel and someone else he didn't know. He opened the door.
"Olive! Daniel!"
"Hey, Noah."
"Noah!"
"I'm Erin Lindsay, by the way. Hank is kind of like my dad."
"I'm Noah Benson. Are you the one that works for the FBI?"
"That's me."
Everyone came in and then Hank and Olivia came downstairs. As soon as Daniel saw Olivia, he gave her a hug.
"You're all here."
"Daniel and I came in last night."
"I came in last night too. I've already met Noah."
"This is Olivia. Olivia, this is Erin Lindsay."
"It's nice to finally meet you."
"You too. Has she met everyone yet?"
"No, not yet."
"Do they know?"
"They know there's someone in my life but I tell them as little as possible. I've been thinking about leaving Chicago to be closer to Olivia, so then they will have to know that."
"Are you going to transfer or retire?"
"Probably retire. My heart just isn't in it anymore."
"That makes sense I guess. You deserve to be happy and I hope Olivia is it for you like Camille was."
"Thanks."
Hank and Olivia went to take a shower and Noah went to get dressed, while Olive fixed breakfast. Once everyone was dressed, they had breakfast and decided what they were going to do. They decided to go to Navy Pier. They went on the Seadog lake and river architectural tour, so Olivia and Noah could see a lot of the city that way.
"Chicago is a beautiful city."
"This is awesome!"
Once the tour was over, they went to have lunch and then they all went on the Ferris wheel.
"Over by Soldier Field is where the CPD Memorial is."
"Noah I'm sure wants to see all the museums."
"There's the Field Museum of Natural History, the Shedd Aquarium, the Adler Planetarium and the Museum of Science and Industry. The Children's Museum is here too."
"Daniel already told me that he wants to go to the fire station near where Papa works."
"We can schedule all that in."
"I was thinking about heading up to Great America while I'm here."
"That sounds like fun."
"What's that?"
"An amusement park."
"Awesome!"
"Maybe we'll all have to do that and we can go in the middle of the week. How long are you here, Erin?"
"A week. I needed some time off."
"Yeah, you did. How long are you and Daniel here?"
"Same."
Adam and Kim came around the corner and saw them.
"Hey, Boss."
"Ruzek. Burgess."
"Erin!"
"Hey, Kim. How are you doing?"
"It's been rough but we're getting through it."
"Good."
Erin got up and gave Kim and Adam a hug.
"Ruzek and Burgess, this is Captain Olivia Benson and her son Noah. Olivia and Noah, this is Adam Ruzek and Kim Burgess, two of the officers in my unit."
"It's nice to meet you both."
"You too. Olive, it's good to see you again."
"You too."
"Hey, Daniel."
"Hi."
Erin, we'll have to meet at Molly's or something later?"
"Sounds like a plan."
"How long are you here?"
"A week. I came in last night."
"That's great."
"Boss, you're off unless we need you, right?"
"Yeah. Halstead knows that. We'll stop in, so they can meet everyone."
"Sounds like a plan. You're ok with Kim and me being together, right?"
"Yeah. I knew when she had told me she was pregnant. I appreciate both of you being honest with me about it. Unlike someone else who used to be in the unit."
Erin stuck out her tongue at Hank.
"You're still a pain in the ass. You know that?"
"Love you too!"
"We need to head out."
"Ok. Erin, I'll call you later."
"Sounds good."
Adam and Kim left and then once everyone was done eating, they went to the Children's Museum for a little while. After they left Navy Pier, they drove over to where the Police Memorial was. Olivia and Noah looked around.
"We've got something similar to this too."
"Mom, look, this one says 'Voight'."
"Yep."
"That's my dad."
"So, is he the reason why you became a cop?"
"Pretty much."
Hank told Olivia the story about what happened to his dad.
"Oh, Hank, I am so sorry."
"Thanks."
"This was your friend?"
"Yep."
Erin had tears running down her face when she saw Al's name. Hank wrapped his arms around her.
"It's been rough."
"I can imagine. This is the first I have seen this. When are you going to tell everyone that you're thinking about retiring?"
"Soon."
"Who takes over?"
"Halstead."
"That's scary."
"I have told him that the unit will be his to run someday. He knows more than most people."
"He knows?"
"Yeah. We seem to be getting along better since he lost his dad."
"I called him and we talked after that. I also called Will. I talked to Kelly after he lost his dad too."
"Good."
They headed back to Hank's SUV and they went to Willis (Sears) Tower. They went up to the observation deck and checked out the view of the city from up there. They checked out the gift shop and then they headed back to Hank's. They cooked out for dinner and then Erin, Olive and Daniel headed back to the hotel. Hank and Olivia tucked in Noah together and then they went into Hank's bedroom to make love before they fell asleep in each other's arms.
The next day, Erin, Olive and Daniel came over and they decided what they were going to do. Erin and Olive met Kim and Adam at Molly's, while Daniel stayed with Hank and Olivia. Monday they decided they were going to go to the District and the fire station. They arrived at the District and got out of the SUV.
"Hey, Hank."
"Hey, Trudy."
"This can't be Daniel."
"Yes, it's me."
"Wow, you're such a big boy now! You look like your grandpa."
"Thank you."
"Trudy, this is Captain Olivia Benson of the NYPD and her son Noah. Olivia and Noah, this is Sergeant Trudy Platt."
"It's nice to finally meet you. Hank has told me all about you."
"It's nice to meet you too."
"How are you, Erin?"
"I'm doing great, Trudy. How are you?"
"I'm great."
"How's Mouch?"
"Somedays he's a pain in the ass but I'll keep him."
They headed up the stairs and Hank put his code in. Hank took Olivia's hand and they headed up the rest of the way.
"Hey."
"Hey, Boss. Hey, Captain."
"Hey."
"Olivia, this is the rest of the squad. Detective Jay Halstead, Detective Hailey Upton and Officer Kevin Atwater. This is Captain Olivia Benson and her son Noah."
"Nice to meet you, Captain."
"You too but please call me Olivia."
"Hey, Erin."
"Hey."
"How long are you here for?"
"Saturday."
"How's the job, Erin?"
"It's going great. I'm out of town a lot but I was glad I could get away for a week to spend time with my family. This is the first I've met Olivia and Noah even though we live in the same city. Hopefully we can spend more time getting to know each other."
"I hope so too."
"I actually need to talk to you guys about something kind of important."
"Ok."
"I've been doing a lot of thinking since the last time I was in New York. Things have gotten pretty serious with me and Olivia and I might actually be considering putting my papers in and retiring, so I can be in New York closer to Olivia and Noah. I've had a rough time after what happened to Olinsky as we all have."
"Good for you, Sarge. Enjoy life while you still can."
"Thanks, Atwater. I appreciate that."
"Does that mean Jay will be taking over if you leave?"
"Yeah. He has seniority."
"Jay Halstead in charge of Intelligence. Who would have thought? Certainly not me."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Erin."
"No problem. I'm just teasing you."
"Yeah, I know."
"If you move to New York, can we come visit?"
"Sure."
"Do you like our city so far?"
"It's beautiful from what we've seen. We went to Navy Pier and rode the Seadog. We went to the Police Memorial and the observation deck at Willis Tower. We went to the Zoo yesterday. Noah wants to go to the museums and we're going to Great American on Wednesday."
"That'll be fun. How long are you here?"
"Two weeks. We go home a week from Sunday."
"We're heading over to 51 after this. Daniel wants to see the fire trucks."
"I do too."
Hank showed Olivia and Noah around and then they all headed over to 51. When they arrived, they got out of the SUV and went in. The Squad was sitting in their usual spot.
"Hey, Voight."
"Hey."
"Hey, Daniel."
"Hi."
"Hey, Erin."
"Hey."
"This is Olivia Benson and her son Noah. Olivia and Noah, this is Lieutenant Kelly Severide, Joe Cruz, Capp and Tony."
"It's nice to meet you."
"You too."
Everyone else came out.
"Voight."
"Hey, Chief. Olivia and Noah, this is Battalion Chief Wallace Boden, Captain Matt Casey, Randall McHolland or Mouch, who's Trudy's husband, Stella Kidd, Darren Ritter, Blake Gallo, Lieutenant Christopher Herrmann, Sylvie Brett and Emily Foster. This is Olivia Benson and her son Noah."
"Nice to meet you both."
"It's nice to meet all of you too."
Then Tuesday came running in.
"And this is Tuesday."
"Hey, Tuesday."
Tuesday jumped up on Noah and started licking his face. He started laughing.
"Tuesday, down!"
"Mom, can we get a dog?"
"Are you and Lucy going to take care of it?"
"Yes."
"What do you do, Olivia?"
"I'm a Captain with the NYPD and I'm with the Special Victims Unit."
"Wow! How do you know Voight?"
"We met on a cruise a few months ago and we're in a relationship."
"No kidding. Good for you. I've never been a fan of his but we've worked out our differences."
"He did tell me about that. We have no secrets from each other."
"That's good in a relationship and so is communication. My marriage didn't have that after a while. She thinks the only way we'd be able to have a family would be to have a baby, which wasn't really an option at this point. I wanted us to consider all of our options, like adoption."
"Noah is adopted and it was the best thing I could have ever done. He may not be mine biologically but I love him just as much as I would have if I had had a child of my own."
"You adopted him by yourself?"
"Oh yeah. It hasn't been easy and we've had our struggles. He's getting older and hates that I work so much."
"Gabby and I had fostered a little boy and wanted to adopt him but then his dad came back into the picture. I guess she didn't want to go through that again. She ended up going to Puerto Rico to help out with relief from the hurricane and we divorced. Her brother Antonio worked with Voight."
"Yep. He went down there too."
"Have you heard from him at all?"
"He checks in with me maybe once a week to see how things are going."
"Good. Come on, guys."
Everyone took Noah and Daniel around and let them climb on the truck. After staying at the fire station for a while, they left and went to have lunch before heading back to Hank's, so Daniel could have a nap. Noah ended falling asleep too. Hank had gotten a big inflatable pool, so the rest of them sat in the pool, while the boys slept.
"This beats working."
"I know. Doesn't it?"
"I'm surprised Noah still takes naps."
"He does sometimes."
"I mentioned to Olivia that I would like to continue the tradition of going on a cruise for Spring Break."
"Daniel would love that. Now he wants to go to Disney."
"So does Noah, actually."
""Am I invited this time?"
"You were invited last time but you didn't think you could get off work. It's up to you. If you want to go, I'll get you a ticket."
"I want to go."
"Ok."
"I'm looking forward to going to Great America tomorrow."
"I am too."
"I was looking at the rides online and I think Noah is tall enough for some of the big rides."
"That works. I'm fine with hanging out with Noah."
"I am too."
"I probably won't be going on roller coasters."
"Me neither, which means we get to spend time with Daniel."
"I don't mind. The water rides are more my speed anyway."
"Me too."
"You two are so great together. I'm so glad you finally decided to move on with your life and if you decide to move to New York, I'd like that."
"I'm glad I have your approval. I'm glad I took Olive and Daniel on that cruise."
"I'm glad I took Noah too."
They relaxed in the pool and then the boys woke up and joined them. They decided what they wanted to do for dinner and then they all turned in early, since they knew tomorrow would be a long day.
The next morning, they got up and got ready. Erin, Olive and Daniel came over for breakfast and then they loaded into Hank's SUV for the road trip to Great America. Noah could hardly contain his excitement when they got off at the exit for the park.
"That looks so awesome! I hope I can ride the roller coasters. I wanna ride everything!"
"Oh, yeah! Me too."
Hank paid for parking and then they found a place to park. They walked to the gate and bought the tickets. As soon as they were in the park, Noah and Erin went to see if Noah was tall enough for the first roller coaster they saw and he was, so they went on that. Olive caught up to them. Hank and Olivia decided to take Daniel on the carousel.
"I have a feeling we're going to end up staying until the place closes."
"Erin and Justin used to do that. They would come up here with friends from the time it opened until it closed."
Olivia too pictures of them on the carousel as they were riding it.
"Papa, this is fun!"
"Good."
After the carousel, Hank and Olivia took Daniel on other rides that he was big enough for including the log ride before they took him to the kids' area.
"I may be willing to go on the Eagle."
"If anyone shows up, we can go off on our own for a while."
"That sounds like a plan to me."
Olivia kissed Hank and then Olive found where they were.
"How's he doing?"
"Great. He loved the Whizzer and the log ride. So far, he's had a lot of fun in here."
"Good. Noah is like the Energizer Bunny."
"That doesn't surprise me. Where are they now?"
"I think they were heading over to ride Goliath."
"I think Olivia and I are going to go off on our own for a little while."
"Ok."
Hank took Olivia's hand and then they went to find some rides to go on, including the Eagle.
"That wasn't so bad."
Hank kissed her and then they walked around holding hands. They met for lunch and then they went on more. As Olivia suspected, they ended up staying almost until the park closed. Daniel had taken a nap after lunch but Noah kept going. They were barely out of the parking lot when Noah finally crashed. As soon as they got home, Olive put Daniel into Erin's car and Erin drove back to the hotel, while Hank carried Noah up to bed. Olivia decided to just let Noah sleep in his clothes. They went to get ready for bed and fell asleep in each other's arms.
The rest of the week they enjoyed their time with Erin, Olive and Daniel. By the time the 3 of them left, Hank, Olivia and Noah got to spend the next week together and that week went by quickly. Before they knew it, it was time for Olivia and Noah to head back to New York. Hank drove them to the airport. Hank didn't want them to leave any more than they wanted to leave. When they arrived at the airport, Hank pulled up and got out to get their bags out of the back.
"Thanks for a great two weeks, Hank. I had a lot of fun. Especially at Great America."
"You're welcome, kiddo."
Noah hugged Hank.
"Love you."
"I love you too."
Olivia had tears running down her cheeks.
"I don't wanna go home."
"I don't want you to go either but we'll see each other soon enough."
"I hope so."
Hank wrapped his arms around Olivia.
"I love you so much."
"I love you too. Call when you get home."
"I will."
They kissed and then she and Noah headed inside to get checked in, while Hank headed home. Olivia and Noah headed through security and then went to the gate to wait for their flight.
"Mom, this was the best vacation ever."
"Yeah, it was."
"I hope we can all be a family and do more vacations like this."
"I hope so too."
Once the flight started to board, they waited for it to take off. Once they arrived in New York and went home, Olivia called Hank and told her they were there. Noah went to bed and Olivia was going through all the pictures on her phone that she had taken throughout the two weeks they were in Chicago. It was hard for them to leave after being with Hank for two weeks. She really hoped Hank would make a decision soon as to whether or not he would be willing to relocate allowing them to be together all the time. She printed out some of her favorite pictures from the trip before she went to bed. She would put them in frames when she got to work.
In Chicago, Hank had gone through all the pictures he had taken and printed out some of his favorites. He missed Olivia and Noah already and he didn't want to be apart from them. He decided that he would put his papers in and officially retire, so he could be a full-time dad to Noah. There weren't too many people that he'd consider doing that for but he was truly in love with Olivia Benson and he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her and her son. Hank started looking at engagement rings online. He wanted Olivia to know just how much she really meant to him. He decided that he would go looking at rings and pick out the perfect one for her.
Stay tuned for more…
There will be one more chapter of this series. I probably should have just made an entire story out of it. As always, reviews and suggestions are appreciated.