Growing Pains

10

A/N: Thanks MerDerMcdreamy, meredithgreyslover, and Shirls89 for all your Votes! <3

This takes place in season 15 for SVU, When Olivia just received custody of Noah as a foster parent. I haven't been able to keep up or rewatch shows with SVU, so my continuity may be off- so in my story Noah is just over a year old... For Greys we are looking at late season 10.

New York City June 2014

Olivia picked up Noah's diaper bag before scooping up her rambunctious foster son. He was just at that exploring stage, where they can get into everything, so it took him a moment to settle into her hip. She locked the door behind her. "Are you ready for the park Noah?" Olivia asked, smiling. Noah responded by knocking his head into her shoulder and sticking his fingers into his mouth.

"Olivia darling, how are you? And who is this?"

Olivia turned to see her neighbor Carolyn approaching her. "Oh, Carolyn! Hello!" She smiled, "I'm..." she paused. She was great. Wonderful, even. Holding Noah in her arms was the greatest feeling in the world. Her smile spread, "I'm wonderful. And this is my foster son, Noah."

"Oh, he's gorgeous," Carolyn leaned in to catch Noah's attention.

"Yeah," She looked at Noah again and brushed some hair out of his eyes. "Just gonna take him to the park."

"That's lovely. My daughter-in-law is down there with her kids too, it's beautiful out there."

Olivia nodded. Carolyn had just moved in a couple of years ago, 'downsizing' she called it. Although Olivia lived a very busy life and wasn't around the apartment much, Carolyn always seemed to check in on her.

"I'm just going to start dinner," Carolyn said, "You know, you should join us... my son had to run off to some meeting for a big project he's working on... so I have room for another, and a half," she winked at Noah.

"Um," Olivia started, she'd wanted to spend the day bonding with Noah, and wasn't sure she wanted to share it just yet.

"Well, think about it... just knock on the door if you want to come." Carolyn patted her arm and continued down the hall.

Olivia could only be impressed by the woman's hospitality, and happy that she had a neighbor like Carolyn. "Come on Noah," she said, "wanna go on the swing?"

xxx

The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, kids were playing, and Meredith was exhausted. First she'd been up all night due to a horrific five-car pile up that caused massive injuries. Then the five hour flight from hell with Bailey screaming in her ear, because of the pressure changes. She had a nap in Carolyn's guest room, which helped, but then Derek got called away for another consult with the NIH and the kids were antsy and begging for attention. When Carolyn mentioned the park just beside her building she decided to take Zola and Bailey there to wear them out a little so they'd behave for dinner. So right now, she was trying to keep her eye on Zola's antics while she sat and played in the sand with Bailey.

Bailey had just figured out that sand was much more interesting when it wasn't in his mouth, and was fascinated by the hole Meredith was digging with the plastic shovel. The game was, you dig a hole, throw a rock in it and cover it back up with sand. A second later, after wondering where the rock went, you dug it out of the sand and buried it again. She'd done this three times now and Bailey wasn't tired of it.

But Meredith was tired now, so she picked her son up and tried to look for something else to do with him. Maybe the swings? There was a set of baby swings in the corner. Meredith looked around for Zola. She'd just seen her go down the slide a moment ago. "Zola?" she called, looking for her familar purple and white striped shirt. "Zola?" Dammit, Where was she?

Meredith walked carefully around the perimeter of the the playground, trying desperately not to panic. "ZOLA!" She called. She couldn't have gone far, right? "ZOLA!"

xxx

Olivia put the diaper bag down by the edge of the swing and plunked Noah in, "There you go." she smiled as she gave it a little push. Noah rewarded her with a little smile and a happy squeal. "Yeah, the swings are fun, aren't they?" She gently pushed the swing again, pleased that he was enjoying this.

She was interrupted however, by a tug on her shirt. A little girl with a purple and white striped shirt looked up at her. "I think I lost my mommy," she said.

Thanks for reading! Please vote and comment if you like!