Eleven Months [A Bensler Fan Fic]

Thirty-Seven

Even if she had the ability to walk again, Olivia still had a long recovery ahead of her. She had been in a chair for so long, that her legs had lost most of their muscle tone. She couldn't run anymore, but she planned on working on that. She wanted to get back to work and to where she had been before.

She stayed home and took care of the girls, while also pushing herself to her limits. She started to jog every day, ride a bike again, and she even made things more interesting by using her jogging stroller, which made her run while also pushing the weight of her two little girls.

"Olivia?" Elliot asked, confused, as his wife came in through the front door after going for a run. 

"Hi." Olivia smiled as she moved to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water.

"Where the hell were you? I swear that I saw you in bed beside me when I got up." Elliot spoke, as he followed his wife.

"Amy and Jules were in bed with us last night. So you probably saw both of them." Olivia replied.

"Okay, but that didn't answer my question. Where the hell were you?" Elliot asked, and Olivia turned around and eyed him.

"Uh, I went for a run."

"At five in the morning? Babe, that's dangerous. You should have waited until it got sunny and-"

"El, I'm fine. Completely unharmed. I wore my reflective vest, and I didn't get hit by a car. So don't worry." Olivia replied.

"Okay, but you never get up this early. Why are you starting to run before the sun has even come up? Before I even get out of bed?" Elliot asked, and Olivia shrugged.

"I don't know."

"Liv, are you okay?" Elliot questioned, since his wife had seemed off for the last month. He didn't know if it was because Julia was getting closer to turning one, which was today, or if she was just getting stir crazy since she was always home.

"Yeah, just fine." Olivia lied as she quickly moved past him. Elliot stopped her, before turning her around to look at him.

"Don't lie to me, Olivia. I'm your husband, and you can tell me anything. So please, spit it out."

"I love being a mother and a wife, but no matter how hard I work... how many miles I run every day... I still can't get cleared to go back to work, and it's pissing me off. So please, drop it. I need to shower and then start making breakfast. The girls will be up before we know it, and today is a big day."

///

Elliot lied to his wife and told her that he had gotten a call from work, so he had to run in real quick before going to get the cake and balloons for Julia's birthday.

"Stabler, what are you doing here?" John asked as soon as Elliot walked into the squadroom.

"Can we talk? It'll be quick." Elliot spoke, before following his CO into his office.

"So what's happening, Stabler?" John asked, as he sat behind his desk.

"Um, why haven't you cleared Liv for duty?" Elliot asked, and John swallowed hard as he looked down at his desk.

"She has only been able to walk for five months. I don't think she's ready to come back and work the way she did before the fall. She used to pull shifts that lasted for over a week with barely any sleep, and I don't think she can do that anymore. Let alone the fact that you two have kids at home."

"John, really? My wife is pushing herself way past her limits to make sure she can come back, but you aren't clearing her? She doesn't have pain from her surgeries, she is taking her medicine religiously, and she is doing everything in her power to get back to where she was before. She is in better shape now than she has been before. She has told me that multiply times. She could kick my ass if she wanted." Elliot frowned.

"Aren't you scared that something will happen? Because last time when everything got better after you two got married and got settled into a life together, she fell off of a building. Don't you worry that now that she's better, maybe she'll get shot again? Maybe she'll get the crap beat out of her? Kidnapped-"

"Stop that! Don't say things like that, Munch! If Olivia is strong enough to come back, let her come back! I will get your bosses involved, because this is just bullshit at this point! My wife is ready, so you better get ready too."

///

Julia enjoyed her birthday a lot. She made a mess of herself, but so did Amy and Harrison. By the time the kids had passed out, and the mess started to get cleaned up, Elliot pulled his wife to the side to talk real quick.

"What? I gotta go help. It was mostly our kids' fault that there is frosting in our carpet." Olivia sighed.

"John isn't clearing you for duty on purpose. He doesn't think that you are ready for how you worked before. Like the shifts that lasted for a week, how you were in interrogations for days depending on the person... how you'd have to be away from the girls more often. He also doesn't think that you have been walking long enough to get back into chasing perps."

"Okay? Like, I guess I'm not surprised. I want to go back, but I can't."

"You can't? Babe, you can go back if you want. I'll talk to Chief Dodds, maybe even try to contact Cragen. See if he can convince John into letting you come back."

"Maybe John is right. Maybe I'm not ready. And guess what, Stabler?"

"What?" Elliot asked nervously.

"I won't be going back to work for maybe a year or two, because you knocked me up again. That is another reason why I keep pushing myself. I'm trying to get used to the idea of us having another baby, and how I got pregnant incredibly easily this time. So yeah, I can't go back to work right now. But I sure as hell will go back to work once our third and final kid is here."