Tangled Webs II: Normal For The Spider - An SVU fic

5.Protective measures

Olivia's office...

"Yes of course, please have her contact me as soon as she can...thank you." Olivia said into the phone before she hung up. She'd attempted to contact Elizabeth Donnelly to discuss Paul Faust.

"Well?" Casey wondered.

"She's out of the country - vacationing in Italy until September."

"Well, if Faust does have her in his sights then that leaves her safe for a few weeks" Casey reasoned, "Broke ex con with no passport..."

"...airports on alert; there's no way he's leaving the country. But where does that leave us?" Olivia asked

"Maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves"

"Meaning?"

"Meaning, we don't actually know that there's anything to be worried about" Casey said, trying to sound surer than she felt.

"You wanna take that chance?" Olivia asked "because I sure as hell don't, I have four babies to think about"

"No, of course not, but why freak ourselves out over what we don - four babies?"

"I meant three"

"But you said four"

"But I meant three"

"Don't bullshit me Benson!" Casey chided, Olivia went silent "Oh my god...are you...you're pregnant?"

"Shhhhh!" there were still a few officers hanging around the squad room and the last thing she wanted was for them to overhear before she was ready to announce.

"Holy shit!" Casey exclaimed, this time much quieter "Why didn't you tell me?"

"We haven't told anyone except Tricia...and Fin, they both figured it out; we wanted to wait until I passed my first trimester before we told everyone."

"How far along are you?"

"Seven weeks"

"Is everything okay? How've you been feeling?"

"Uh, so sick I wanna eat my gun most mornings but the doctor says everything looks good so far."

"They say the sicker you are, the healthier the baby so that's a plus"

"Plus?" Olivia laughed "Kinda hard seeing that silver lining when you're on your knees every morning and most nights, literally sobbing while your head's in the toilet but, I guess..."

"In a few weeks you'll be past it and enjoying your pregnancy." Casey smiled. "Trevor must be ecstatic!"

"He was"

"Was? What..."

"He thinks that I don't want the baby"

"What gave him that idea? I mean, is he right for assuming...?

"No, he couldn't be more wrong! We sort of had a fight this morning... I made the mistake of telling him that I feel overwhelmed, that I don't know how we're gonna handle another baby and that I thought we'd be done after Noah."

"Oh, honey" Casey sympathized.

"Then he asked me flat out if I wanted the baby and I froze but before I could answer, Noah's cries came over the monitor and Fin called about Dr. Russo... Case, the look in his eyes..." Olivia put her hand to her stomach and exhaled slowly

"Queasy?"

"Yeah. Are we really sitting here casually conversing about my pregnancy when this mess with Faust is happening?"