A parallel universe

Chapter Eighteen

A few weeks later
El and Liv had been together for nearly two months and they were both loving every second of it. But Elliot especially loved mornings like this one where he woke in naked in his girlfriends bed and got to make out with her before breakfast. 
"I love you" He murmured against her lips. 
"I can't skip work, El" She reminded him, her hands running along his chest. 
"Please, just this once-" 
"Mom, are you awake yet!? Can Elliot make pancakes!?" Noah called from the other side of the door. 
"Do you think he knows that we're awake?" Liv asked but before he could answer Noah shouted again. 
"I can hear you!" He called.
"Busted" She laughed before she shouted over her shoulder "We'll be out in a minute sweetie" 
"Do we have to get up?" 
"Yes" 
"Five more minutes?" 
"No, El. We're getting up now" She ordered, climbing out of bed, he watched her walk naked towards the bathroom "Get up now and you can get me in bed early tonight" She encouraged, hearing him shoot out of bed she closed the bathroom door and locked it behind her so that she could get ready without distraction. 
"Seriously?" He shouted to her through the door. 
"Go and make Noah breakfast" She laughed, his leaned forward to rest his head on the closed door, hearing the shower turn on, he grabbed his pants with a sigh. 
When Liv emerged from the bedroom she was dressed ready for work and Noah and El were sitting side by side at the counter eating their pancakes. 
"Did you leave me some?" She crossed the room towards them, placing a kiss to each of their cheeks. 
"Always" El replied as she took a seat next to Noah and dug into her pancakes. 
"I think we should always make him cook for us" Liv suggested as she nudged Noah.
"Definitely" He smiled. 
"You'd better get washed up for school, buddy. You don't want to be late, you've got that history test today" El reminded him, watching as he nodded.
"Ok El" Liv and Elliot froze at the sound of her nickname for him on Noah's lips "Is it okay if I call you that? Mom does" 
"That's because I made up that nickname for him" Liv told him. 
"I think I'd like it if you called me that" El smiled at him "Both of the Bensons have me wrapped around their fingers" He smiled as Noah wrapped his arms around his waist. 
"Thanks El" He smiled up at him before he disappeared off into his room. 
"You're seriously going to share my nickname for you?" 
"Only with the two of you" He placed a kiss to the top of her head before he started heading towards the bedroom. 
"We leave in twenty!" She called to them both, hearing them call back to her. 

Liv walked into work with her phone pressed against her ear. 
"Bell, texted me to come to SVU" That's when Liv spotted her. 
"Yeah, she's in my squad room" She put the phone on speaker as she approached them "Hey, what's going on? El said you texted him to come here"
"We have a bomb threat from a group tied to child pornography" 
"Yeah, you might want to get here quick" She said to the phone.
"On my way Liv, don't arrest them before I get there" 
"I'll try to leave some bad guys for you" She assured him before she hung up the phone "I'm not getting to bed early tonight am I?" 
"Probably not, and you might want to tell El to keep his hands to himself. McGrath is already on his way over here" 
"I'll text him, we don't need WW3 breaking out on top of a bomb threat" Liv sighed as she typed out her message "How credible is the threat?" 
"Honestly? It seems pretty likely" 
"Do we know where they'll hit?" 
"As far as we know, they'll never hurt children" 
"They make child pornography, they hurt kids enough" Liv sighed "El's five minutes out" 
"They're more likely to hit a mall or someplace else that is highly populated" Jet explained as McGrath joined them, fury in his eyes. 
"Captain Benson, are you waiting for the bomb to go off?"
"No, Chief. We were waiting for you" She tried to disguise the distain in her voice.
"What have you got?" He bit back. 
"A video of the Damascus gang where they tell us that they're going to detonate a bomb tomorrow unless we release a member of their gang from prison" Anaya explained. 
"El was telling me about them, a gang that's solely obsessed with children the only guy to ever flip gave you the name of the gang and a higher member. He must be important for them to call a bomb threat just to get him back" Liv suggested. 
"That much is obvious" McGrath bit. 
"Chief, is there anything of use that you can offer us at this time? Because if not, I think you should really leave us to our investigation" Liv told him, trying her best not to let her angry tone show. 
"If you would just do your job-"
"I will when both squads are here and without any distractions from you" 
"You're lucky I have to inform the media Captain. You're on thin ice" He bit before he stormed off.
"You two really are the best of friends aren't you?" Anaya joked. 
"If I could fire him, I would" She grumbled as Elliot joined them in the squad room. 
"Hey, what do we know so far?" 
"Nothing" Liv grumbled. 
"What's up with you?" 
"McGrath" She bit and he nodded, his hand aching to reach out and touch hers even though he knew that he couldn't, he still twitched. 
"We don't know about any of the other members, so why don't we press the two we've got?" El suggested. 
"You and Liv go see Rick and I'll take Fin to see Michael" 
"What about the rest of us?" Velasco asked. 
"Work on their backgrounds, anything that overlaps, any spaces that they own that looks suspicious" Liv ordered. 
"On it Cap" Bruno nodded as he, Velasco and Churlish got to work. Liv, El, Fin and Anaya headed for the elevator and when the doors closed Elliot reached for Liv's hand and squeezed it lightly, calming her.