The Butterfly Effect

12. Stubborn

This one is a long one, hope it makes up for the late update  (:

Thursday, July 21

The month of July had flown by so quickly since Olivia had begun working again at the precinct. Since then, her and Elliot had grown used to spending nearly every night at her place, except for when it was his weekend with Eli and the twins. Things had begun to move really quickly between them since that weekend, but it had been comforting for Olivia. The idea of them being together for the long haul had become more appealing over the last few weeks, that is until Elliot had made plans to tell his children about them this upcoming weekend. He hadn't ran any of this by Liv, until after he had the plan set in stone for dinner on Saturday at 7.

"Olivia, I don't understand why you're upset?" Elliot stood at the doorframe of her bathroom suite, as she finished getting ready for bed.

"I just wish you would have ran this by me before you went and made dinner plans with the kids," she finished brushing through her damp hair, before taking off the towel she wore to change into her silk cami and shorts. "This is kind of a big deal El, it could make or break us depending on how they react," she brushed passed him, turning off the light before heading to bed. He followed close behind, sitting on the edge of the bed where she lay.

"I don't want you to worry about this, okay? The kids aren't babies anymore. They understand that their parents are divorced, and are moving on. This is gonna be great baby!" he threaded the tips of his fingers through her hair, and leaned down to kiss her forehead. She managed to give him a small smile, deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"How do you do that?"

"What?" he rested his head on her abdomen, the rest of his body between her legs.

"Manage to make things so much better," she ran her hand through his cropped hair, slowly lulling him to sleep.

"I just want to see you happy Liv," and he meant it. He found himself doing nearly anything to reassure her that this is right where he wanted to be. Elliot knew that it wasn't him that she doubted, but it was everything else around them that worried her. They were surpassing multiple milestones, and it was time to take the next and almost final step, so that they can finally just be. No more hiding, no more secret dates, and being able to do something as easy as go to work, without being cautious of every little thing they did.

"You already do that for me," she had only heard a mumbled response from him, when she realized he had already fallen asleep. She laughed lightly and reached to turn out the light. Letting sleep claim her too, as Elliot lay snuggled against her.

~

Friday, July 22

This morning had been particularly difficult for Elliot and Olivia, neither of them wanting to leave bed. They had spent a majority of their morning just simply snuggling in bed with Cecilia, that is until he had to leave earlier than Olivia. This had become their morning routine, avoiding showing up at work at the same time. But Elliot had grown tired of it quickly, only wanting to be able to spend his morning with his girls, and not have to rush to get out the door.

He had felt slightly guilty last night after confessing to Olivia that he had already made plans to tell the kids about them, but knew that if he hadn't taken the risk, they'd be playing this game of secrecy for much longer.

He was nearly thirty minutes into his work day, when he had noticed Olivia hadn't gotten into the precinct just yet. He didn't want to seem overbearing, like he was keeping track of her every move. But normally she would arrive not too long after he did.