THE RETURN

Chapter 7

Instead of Olivia waking up the next morning to the sound of her alarm clock buzzing, she woke up to two familiar voices in her kitchen. She tied her robe around her waist before walking towards the sound. In her kitchen stood Elliot and Noah. While the man moved around the kitchen cooking and making coffee, the two of them were engrossed in a conversation about dinosaurs. After they exited the bathroom the night before, she had offered Elliot the couch. There was nothing she wanted more than to sleep in his arms but the fear of Noah catching them in bed together won over. He was more than happy to oblige and they had even shared a pleasant good night hug prior to her returning to her room.

"Good morning mom." Noah said.

She smiled and sat on one of the barstools at the counter, "Good morning baby. You're awake early."

"I know. I had to go to the bathroom and then I saw Elliot sleeping on the couch."

"So you thought it would be a good idea to wake him?"

Noah sighed, "Mom, I didn't technically wake him up on purpose."

Her and Elliot both laughed, "What he means is that the opening of his door work me up. You know I've never been the deepest sleeper." She nodded her head, of course she knew that. "You still like your coffee the same?"

"Some things don't change El, and my coffee will always be one of them." She watched as Elliot nodded and turned around to make her a cup.

"Excuse me mom."

She pivoted her body around on the stool to face the boy who was now standing behind her. "Yes?"

"Do you work today."

She nodded, "I always work Mondays Noah."

"Well I was thinking, since Elliot doesn't work and I don't have school yet, I could maybe stay with him today, instead of going to Lucy's?"

She glanced up at Elliot who was sliding her cup of coffee to her. He looked just as surprised as she felt. Obviously, Noah hadn't taken the time to ask Elliot first. "You should ask Elliot. You don't know if he has any plans today." Always at perfect timing, her phone decided to ring at that moment. "I'll be right back." She glanced at Noah than at Elliot. If they wanted to spend the day together, they would have to figure it out.

They both heard her answer the phone with her signature, "Lieutenant Benson..." before they looked at each other.

"Can I Elliot? I promise I'll be good."

Elliot smiled, "Of course you can, only on one condition." When he saw Noah nod, he added, "we're gonna need to take a nap."

Olivia was practically forced to run out of the apartment after her phone call. They had a case about a young woman who was claiming she had been gang raped by cops. Every time cops were involved, it was chaos. She took the quickest shower she could, got dressed, gave Elliot a quick run down about what to do in case Noah had an asthma attack, kissed Noah's cheek, grabbed the food and coffee Elliot had made to go for her and took off.

It was now pushing 6:00 at night and she hadn't even managed a five minute break to use the bathroom. The whole squad was literally running around like chickens with their heads cut off, half of them taking the side of the victim and the other half taking the sides of the cops in question. She had already had to break up an argument between Fin and Carisi, and her patience was wearing thin. It didn't help that, thanks to her attack, she had barely slept the night before. She was sitting at her desk with her head resting in her hands when she heard the phone ring.

"Hello?" She answered without bothering to look at the screen.

"Hey mom."

His voice instantly brought a smile to her face, "Hey baby. I miss you."