Chapter Text
Olivia was exhausted. There was a never ending pile of paperwork on her desk, about five coffee cups and a dozen phone calls to and from Lucy to check on Noah. He was keeping her grounded.
She just wanted to see Noah.
It all started when SVU had to join a case with Organzied Crime. Missing child. Suspected sexual assault. What Olivia wasn’t aware was that it would lead to a mountain of paperwork and a still missing child.
So here she was, sitting at her desk, barely awake. Amanda and Velasco out in the squad room running on fumes, Ayanna volunteered to get more coffee, she was pretty sure that Jet was on an Instagram surf, Fin asleep on her couch five feet away, and Elliot-
Oh, God, Elliot.
Three hours ago he had walked into her office to find her head against her desk, asleep. She had woke up while he tried to move her to the couch and she snapped on him. The last thing she remembers was him telling her he was heading up to the cribs.
“Liv,” Amanda mumbled when the office door was opened, her arm doing everything in its power to keep her head on, “we haven’t gotten anything else.”
“It’s ok,” Olivia replied, looking between her and Velasco, “Ayanna will be back soon, just keep trying.”
“‘Livia,” Jet slurred, shifting in her chair.
“I know, honey,” she told her, running her hand through the girl’s hair, “if you can manage to wake Fin up or he does it himself, you can take my couch, okay?”
“M’kay,”
“Where you going?” Amanda asked as Olivia kept walking.
“Going to check on Elliot,” she told her, “I snapped on him awhile ago, just wanna make sure he’s okay.”
Elliot, who managed his way up to the cribs to lay down and get some damn sleep, was more than fine. He knew Olivia, he knew he was just trying to help her and she snapped. He knew that she was exhausted, and now he knew that she probably feels like shit.
But then he heard the door open, and his vision didn’t even have to unblur. He knew it was her.
“El,” Olivia whispered. Every step she took made her feel like she was going to fall over. At this point she hoped that she fell over and through the floor. I haven’t checked in on Noah in awhile. She thought. He was probably asleep though, so the phone call would most likely be Lucy telling her he was in bed, calming her nerves.
She padded her way to the bed that Elliot was in, taking all the strength she had left to slide in next to him. He immediately shifted to make room for her, wrapping his arm around her while she curled into his chest.
“Liv,” he said, listening to her hum in response, “there’s other beds, you know.”
“Missed you,” she mumbled against him, “m’sorry.”
“I know,” Elliot said, running his other hand through her hair, the one on her back scratching lightly, “you were tired.”
“I’m exhausted, Elliot,” Olivia said, sniffling quietly, “we have all of my squad and half of yours and we still have nothing.”
“We’re gonna get her, I know we will, Liv,” he told her, “what’s going on downstairs?”
“Fin’s knocked out on my couch, Ayanna went to get coffee, Jet is barely hanging on,” she replied, “Amanda and Velasco and the only ones trying to fight the exhaustion.”
“You gotta stop fighting it too,” Elliot reminded her, restating exactly what he had said to her in her office earlier.
“I just miss Noah,” Olivia sobbed, “our son is going to forget what we look like, Elliot.”
“Our son?”
“You know what I meant,” she hiccuped, only focusing Elliot’s grip on her, holding her close.
“It’ll all be over soon,” he whispered, placing a kiss to her forehead, “get some sleep, Liv. I’ll stay.”
And that’s what he did.
-
The next morning, Sonny rushed into the squad room, heading straight for Olivia’s office. He paused when he surprisingly only found Fin and Jet in a difficult attempt to share the couch in the Captain’s office.
He walked back out, catching Amanda’s eye.
“Where’s Cap?” he asked, placing a coffee cup in front of her.
“Last time I saw her,” Amanda started, “she went up to find Stabler. That was like last night, though.”
“Gotcha,”
“You got something?” she asked as he started up the steps.
“Hoping so,”
Sonny really wasn’t expecting to see what he did when he opened the door to the cribs, but couldn’t really, his gaze was focused on his phone as he entered the room.
“Hey Liv, I got the se-” he cut himself off when he saw Olivia, asleep, against Elliot (and of all people, he thought). Elliot’s eyes opened, meeting the ADA’s, and put a finger up to his mouth. Like he would make a noise, he was pretty sure this was the first time he’s ever seen the Captain in this state. “How long she been out?” he asked.
“Since last night,” Elliot whispered, motioning for Carisi to come over to his side of where they were both lying, “stay here with her.” He caught the man’s expression after he said that, “Not like how I am, Carisi. Just be here if she wakes up.”
“Where are you going?” Sonny asked, watching as Elliot attempted to get up without waking Olivia up.
“To get Noah,” he replied, “she misses him. Think she just needs to see him.”
“Okay,” Carisi said, nodding. He went and took Elliot’s spot, sitting down on the bed. He noticed how Olivia shifted, probably noticed that Elliot wasn’t there anymore, but didn’t wake. He also made sure to slip in the question right as Stabler was about to leave the room. “You two a thing?”
“Why?” Elliot asked, “you gonna go run to IAB?”
“No,” Sonny replied, “was just wondering.” Then when Elliot didn’t answer, “She’s been happier, I’ve noticed it. That’s why I ask.”
Elliot smiled a bit when he heard that. The thought of the fact that Olivia has been happier since they’ve been together, and that it’s been noticeable by her friends, made him happy.
“In that case,” he said, “yeah, we are.”
“Don’t screw up, Stabler,” Sonny said, “or you’ll get all of us coming for you.”
“Won’t be a problem,”
“Now go,” he told Elliot, “get Noah. She’ll be fine with me.”
“Thanks,”
-
Thirty minutes later, Olivia woke with a jolt, something internal in her realizing that Elliot was no longer lying next to her. Her vision finally focused, quickly ID’ing who was sitting next to her.
“Carisi,” she rasped, watching as he dug his face out of his phone to turn his attention to her.
“Morning,” he said, which sent her into a search for her phone.
“I slept for that long?” Sonny laughed at her panic.
“Guess Stabler is that good,” he said, making her freeze, “relax, Liv. No one else came in.”
“You know?”
“I used to be a detective, Liv,” he started, “it wasn’t that hard to figure out. You’ve been happier, it was strange. Only logical explanation was Stabler.”
“Where is Elliot?”
“Speaking of your boyfriend,” Olivia rolled her eyes as he chuckled, “he had to run out.”
“You have any updates?”
“Yeah,” Sonny said, “if you wanna wake your squad up, I can tell everyone.” Olivia groaned, feeling like she could just roll out of bed and fall onto the floor. Maybe she could roll all the way down.
“Let’s go,” she said, getting to her feet.
As they headed down the stairs, Olivia heard Carisi’s phone ringing, which he took, heading into the hall. She looked around the squad room, and chuckled when she got a glance into her office, seeing that Jet caved and took her advice.
“Look who finally decided to join us,” she heard Amanda say, who was still in the same location as last night. Olivia walked over to her desk, taking note that the only thing different was that Velasco caved and was knocked out.
“Why don’t you go home for a couple hours?” Olivia asked, “see your kids.”
“Liv, no,” Amanda told her, “it’s okay. They can spend some time with my mom, they don’t see her a lot.”
“If you change your mind,” Olivia replied, “offer still stands.”
“Why don’t you go see Noah?” Amanda asked, “I’m sure he misses you, and y-”
“Mom!” Olivia turned around to see her son running up to her, and she made her legs work quicker than they have in the past twenty- four hours to meet him more in the hallway.
“Noah,” her voice broke as she said his name, crouching down to his height, hurrying her face in the curly hair that Olivia hopes he never decides to finally cut. She tried to not fully start to cry, to keep it hidden from her son, but a couple of tears escaped from her eyes. “How’d you get here?”
“Elliot,” Noah said, and that was what made Olivia look up, to see Elliot standing outside the squad room with Eli, who both smiled. She shuffled Noah into the hall.
“Hey, Eli,” Olivia said, who received a hug from the teenager who was now taller than her.
“We’ve missed you, Liv,” he said.
“We’ll be home soon,” she replied, inching her way over to Elliot, who immediately took her in. She wrapped both of her arms around him, laying her head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat. “Thank you.”
“I love you, Liv,” Elliot said, in a whisper, “always.”
“We gotta make Carisi sign an NDA though,”