Chapter Text
Back when Noah had first gone behind her back to sign up for 23andMe, after finding out about Conner and the BX9 assault on the way back home from Woodstock, she’d forced him to change the email address associated with the account. She wouldn’t make him delete it - not that it did her any good anyway, his dna would be in the system forever. She wished Munch was still alive. He’d be a good punishment for Noah going behind her back, make him listen to Munch’s endless diatribes about the government having your dna in his lap and the human rights abuses that could create.
But Munch was gone, and the only one who could try and convince Noah about the dangers of online dna testing, was Olivia. So she’d made the lecture, one about going behind her back, and two for doing so without thinking about the long term consequences. But he was still eager to find out if he had any other living biological relatives out there. She’d agreed, but she would be the one to get the results first, and would share them with him as they came in.
There hadn’t been any since Noah found Connor, despite Noah’s near constant desire to see for himself, and she hadn’t expected any to come up. Sheila was the last of Ellie’s relatives, and she was in a psychiatric hospital as a permanent resident. They didn’t know much about Johnny D’s family, but as time went on without any more relatives popping up, she chalked Connor up to being a coincidence, and not the start of a pattern.
Oh how wrong she was.
When the alert rung out in her mostly empty office, with just Fin there as they discussed their current case, she was surprised to see that it was from 23 and me. “Huh…” She frowned, reading the email headline.
“What’s up?”
“That gift card you gave Noah is the gift that keeps on giving.” She glared at her number two.
“I just gave him the money, he chose what to do with it.” When she turned her phone around and showed him that there was a new relation found, he grimaced. “Ut-oh.”
“Oh gee thanks for the support.” Olivia huffed, but hadn’t clicked on the link to bring her to the profile.
“Put it this way, you already know his father was a murdering raping scumbag, how much worse can a relative get? If they’re still alive after all this time, then they probably aren’t quite as bad as that fucker was.”
“Are you trying to jinx me?” Sighing, Olivia clicked on the link, logged in and checked out who Noah’s latest family member was. Seeing the name listed, her face dropped. “What the fuck?” She exclaimed. “How in the world…”
“What, is it someone you know?”
“Uhh yeah. You could say that.”
“Who is it?” Instead of speaking it out loud, because she still couldn’t fathom how it was possible, she just passed her phone over to him, and when he saw it, he burst out laughing. “Oh this is just too good to be true.”
“This isn’t funny Fin!” Olivia said exasperated.
“Liv, this is the funniest thing that could ever come from Noah’s 23 and me test.”
“How do you figure?” She asked, and Fin just looked at and arched an eyebrow.
“Really? You need me to spell it out for you? How close of a match are they anyway?” He asked.
“Looks to be half cousins. But how?” She frowned.
“Don’t know. But I think you know the first place to start.”
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The first time Olivia is expecting to see Elliot, is when she first walked into the OCCB. When she didn’t, she walked over to Ayanna’s office and knocked on her door. Ayanna looked up and noticed her superior standing in the doorway. “Captain.” She said, standing up. “What are you doing here?”
“Stabler isn’t answering. Since he’s usually at home, here or undercover, I figured I’d stop here first before checking for him at home.”
“Ahh, yeah. He’s taking a few days.”
“Is he okay?” Olivia asked almost too quickly.
“He’s fine, Captain.” Ayanna said, amused. “He’s got some stuff going on at home and we’re between cases at the moment.”
“Oh.” the Captain said, relieved.
The second time she expected to see Elliot was when the door to his loft opened up, but instead of seeing the blue eyes of Elliot Stabler, she was looking into the brown eyes of Elliot Stabler Jr. “Eli. I didn’t know you were back from Colorado already?”
“Uhh yeah. Came back about a week ago.” He explained. “Let me guess, came here to see Dad?”
“Uhh yeah.” Olivia nodded. “But you might be a better person to talk to.”
“Me?” Eli asked. “Why me?”
“Well, this is going to sound crazy but… did you do a 23 and me test recently?” She asked hesitantly.
Eli frowned. “Yeah, my girlfriend wanted to do hers, and convinced me to do it too. I haven’t gotten the results yet.”
“Are you sure?” Olivia asked. The way she understands it, whenever a new match is found, they’re automatically sent out alerts.
“Yeah, I think so.” He said, letting Olivia into the room. “Hey Becks?” Eli called out, closing the door behind the captain.
A young woman came out of Eli’s bedroom, and looked up. “What’s up?” She asked and came to a halt when she saw Olivia standing there. “Whose this?”
“Oh right. Olivia, Becky. Becky, Olivia.” Eli explained. “Olivia is my dad’s…. What exactly are you?” Eli asked, and Olivia smirked, wondering just what they were to each other after all this time. They weren’t partners. Not officially. They had blown past the ‘friends… for now’ stage over a year ago… and since their talk the day she gave away the compass, Olivia didn’t know what they were now. She was ready to take the step she hadn’t been ready to a year ago, but hadn’t gotten to see Elliot in so long because of their work schedules.
“That’s a loaded question” Olivia chuckled. “Elliot and I used to be partners on the force… now we’re good friends.” She wondered what this newest revelation was going to do to their relationship. If the 23 and me test was right, then their whole relationship was going to be put to the test.
“Deal. So why’d you want to know about the 23 and me test?”
“Oh those results came in via email this morning!” Becky said. “You have a few distant relatives on there.” She explained. “Closest is a cousin or something.”
“Becky, can you bring those results up?” Olivia asked. “It’s important.”
“What’s going on?” Eli asked as Becky grabbed her phone and pulled up the account she’d made for Eli.
Sighing, Olivia pulled out her one phone, pulled up the app. “My son… my adopted son, took a 23 and me test two christmases again. Up until this morning, there had only been one relative on it. Now… there’s two.” Becky gasped when the profile finally came up, showing all of Eli’s relatives on the site.
“What’s going on?” Eli asked. “What are you gasping at?” When he walked over to check out the phone Becky was holding, and saw what was on it, he gasped too. Olivia came up beside them, and held up her phone next to Becky’s. And there it was plain as day.
Noah Benson and Eli Stabler are first cousins. Half first cousins, actually.
“How is this possible?” Eli asked.
“That’s what I’d like to know.” Olivia added. “I’ve met both of Noah’s biological parents, they’re both dead. I don’t know much about his dad, but I know more than I wish to about his mother’s family and I know it can’t be through them.
Just then the front door opened. All three turned to find Elliot and Bernie walking through the door. “Be careful Mama.” Elliot said.
“I’m old, not crippled.” Bernie snapped at her son. “I can walk into the house.”
“I know you can, but you already fell once today, I’d like to avoid it happening again.” As they turned the corner of the front hallway, three pairs of eyes stared at them as they entered. “Liv?” Elliot said, a little confused at why she was standing in his living room with his youngest son.
“Hey, El.” She began.
“What’s going on?”
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Once all the relevant people were in the room… the theories and facts were laid out like a case board.
Fact: 23 and me state that Eli and Noah are first cousins.
Fact: Joseph Stabler Sr had been known to chase the skirts of nurses.
Fact: Johnny Drake would have likely been conceived around 1979, 13 years after Elliot was born.
Fact: There was nothing anyone knew about Johnny D’s family, except that he fathered Conner and noah.
Theory 1: Joe Sr fathered Johnny D, and didn’t know about him.
Theory 2: Joe Sr fathered Johnny D, and did know about him, but never acknowledged him.
Theory 3: Joe Sr. fathered Johnny D, did know about him, and helped raise him until he took his own life.
Without a living relative of Johnny D’s to speak to, everything was conjecture. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t learn some more facts. Eventually, Olivia talked Melinda Warner to do a DNA swab on Elliot. “Maybe somehow he’s related through Kathy’s side?” Olivia had suggested, though didn’t put too much stock in it. “If he’s also related to Elliot Sr, then we know it has to be through Joe Sr. If they’re not, then it has to be through Kathy.” Melinda had been flabbergasted when she heard their theories. The odds of it happening, astronomical. But stranger things have happened.
In the end though, after Melinda compared Elliot’s DNA to both Noah and Johnny D, the results were clear. Elliot had a half brother, and Noah was his nephew.
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Eli, Bernie and Becky had been sworn to secrecy, not wanting any of this to get back to Noah before Olivia had told him. They also didn’t want the other kids to learn before they’d gotten the full results. But now that they did, Olivia was scrambling to figure out how to come to terms with these results. There weren’t many people she could confide in about this. She’d confided in Fin first, but he wasn’t taking it seriously, and making jokes that after 13 years as partners, 3 years apart, she still somehow managed to attach herself permanently to a Stabler.
“Liv, that man is fiercely loyal to his family. You know that. You saw how he reacted whenever his kids got in trouble. He’d die before he abandoned them.”
“But Noah isn’t one of his kids.”
“Elliot Stabler would die to protect any kid, the fact that the kid in question is biologically his nephew, and the son of the woman he’s in love with? Noah is going to have an overprotective Uncle from now until Stabler’s dead.”
“I guess you’re right.” She sighed, leaning back in her chair.
“So you’re not even gonna deny it?” Fin grinned to which Olivia just glared at him… and told him to get back to work.
Amanda and Sonny had both been shocked. Sonny had pointed out that considering Johnny D’s behavior, there were likely quite a few kids out there that he fathered who just haven’t gotten the money to do a test yet. “At least this way, you don’t need to do a background check.”
Amanda however, had come by Olivia’s office on one of the days she only taught in the morning. She listened to the tale Olivia revealed, and laughed.
“Liv, this is a good thing.” She said through her laughter. “This is an amazing thing.”
“How do you figure?” She asked.
“Do you remember what you said to me the first time you came to visit me in the hospital after Jessie was born?”
Olivia did remember. She was holding baby Jessie as Amanda rested in her bed. Jessie was currently fast asleep in Olivia’s arms.
“I miss the baby stage all peaceful and quiet.” Olivia whispered. “Noah has grown right out of the terrible twos, and into the thunderous threes.” She admitted.
“So does that mean I should call you when she’s up at 3 am crying and won’t go to sleep?” Amanda chuckled.
“God no. With Jessie, I’m strictly Aunt Liv. Hold her, play with her and hand her back to mom when she needs to be changed.” Liv chuckled. “Just like you were with Noah.”
“Guilty.” Amanda grinned.
“How’re you feeling?” Liv asked. Olivia had raised a baby before, but the one thing she’s never done was give birth, so had no frame of reference for how it felt, except for the numerou stories she’d heard over the years.
“I’m tired for sure. But what they say is true. Once the doctor puts that baby in your arms, the pain, the hard work, the exhaustion… is meaningless. Because there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her.”
“That’s how I felt when I first held Noah for the first time. Even before I started fostering him. When I picked him up out of that drawer in that hotel room… I felt drawn to him. Like he was supposed to be mine all along.”
“ It’s like the universe sent a long lost Stabler child to you, because it knew the safest place a Stabler could be was with Olivia Benson.” Amanda said softly. “Benson and Stabler, you two just… go together.”