Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Stephanie, time for school," Olivia says as she knocks on her daughter's bedroom door, she swings it open to find she is already up and doing her makeup. "Morning sweetheart," she smiles, catching Stephanie's eye in the mirror. She is a carbon copy of her mother, with deep chocolate eyes and olive skin. Her hair is wavy and deep brunette, almost black. Much like her mother's was at her age.
"Morning Mama," Stephanie replies. "You can leave the door open, I won't be long," she smiles.
Olivia removes her hand from the doorknob and steps away, moving to the next room, knocking much harder this time. "Eli, honey– time to get up," she says gently, pushing over the young boy's door open. He groans, pulling the duvet over his head and Olivia chuckles to herself, walking in and grabbing the duvet. "Up, come on," she says, and he snatches the duvet back and covers himself up again with a boyish grunt.
"Fine," Liv says, arms folded. "I'll call your father," she says as she steps out of the room. "Elliot! Come and get your son up!" she shouts, leaving the door open and heading down the stairs.
Olivia met Elliot by chance. She was in college, he was in his second year of the police force and was sent to fill in for another officer who was giving a talk at Siena College. He didn't want to do it, he wanted to be chasing real crimes and putting away the bad guys– not giving a talk about not driving drunk or not accepting drinks from strangers. That was for amateurs, Elliot was a serious cop. So off he went to give this talk, with the lowest of expectations about how this day was going to go. Never in a million years did he think that a beautiful dark haired woman would come up to him for follow up questions once he was done. She was beautiful, probably the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She wanted to know how she too could become a police officer. She wanted to know lots of things, more than Elliot had the time to tell her. So he gave her his card.
The last thing Elliot expected was to be meeting up with this college student and helping her get into the police academy. But he did, he was enchanted by her. The way her smile lit up her whole face, her eyes crinkled in the corners when she smiled and her laugh, her laugh made his knees weak. He knew then and there that he wanted to marry this girl.
Olivia successfully completed the police training and was on the job within her first year of finishing college. She and Elliot didn't see much of one another once they were both on patrol, but they dedicated an evening once a week to seeing one another after work. If they had no other time during the week, they at least had that one evening. It was during one of those evenings, at the ages of nineteen and twenty-one, that Stephanie Bernadette Stabler was conceived. They had never spoken about children, neither of them knew what to do but they made it work. They moved in together to a tiny shoebox apartment and they continued to work hard. Olivia stayed on the job as long as possible until she had no choice but to take desk duty. It wasn't ideal, but Elliot said she needed to keep their baby safe. So she did.
They got married when Olivia was five months pregnant. Elliot's Catholic family assured them that it was for the best– and they weren't wrong. Marrying one another was probably the best thing they ever did. Even now, sixteen years later, they are happily married and more in love than ever before.
