Chapter Text
Thursday, March 23rd, 2023
Olivia stands in her hallway, shoes on and bag still in hand, staring down at the invitation in her hand.
Nothing fancy, just love
Please join us for a casual
wedding celebration honoring
Kathy Stabler and Richard Firth.
Even the script is casual, black ink printed on white cardstock instead of hand embossed gold lettering on cream stationary. She flips the card over and finds details about the wedding and a QR code promising to take her to a wedding website where she can RSVP. She sighs, toes her shoes off and walks into the kitchen where she places her bag and the invitation on the island, figuring she’ll get to it at some point this coming weekend.
“Hey mom, what’s for dinner?” Noah yells, just the top of his head emerging from his bedroom.
“Nice to see you too honey. Ummm, we don’t have much,” she responds, opening the fridge. “I could make us eggs? Or tortellini? I think we have some meatballs in the freezer.”
“Pasta sounds good!” Noah shouts as he ducks back into his room.
“You better be doing your homework and not playing MarioKart!” Liv yells back, smiling to herself.
She leans down to shift some things around in the freezer to find the meatballs and thinks back to the Stabler’s reemergence in her life three years ago. That horrific car accident, showing up to the scene in a cocktail dress and heels, not knowing why she’d been the one called in… and then Elliot finally, it was Elliot saying her name after ten years of silence. Elliot staring into her eyes, their gazes only broken once she noticed movement to her side and turned her head to see Kathy being wheeled into a gurney.
Before she could ask him where he had been, what had happened to Kathy, anything at all, Elliot had jumped into the back of the ambulance with his wife. Liv had stared after him, shocked as the doors to the ambulance closed and it drove off, not knowing if she would ever see him again.
She had quickly gotten the low down on the accident from one of the unis on the scene. The Stabler’s were in town visiting and on their way to an event. A car bomb had gone off in their rental car as soon as Kathy had gotten in. Elliot had been still making his way out of their hotel across the street, preoccupied with his phone instead of helping his wife into the car. He'd been fine, not a scratch on him. He'd also been the one to call it in, and then once an officer arrived on scene, he'd been the one to request her presence.
Fin rolled up as the uni was finishing up the story, pissed as hell that she’d skipped out on her award dinner until she’d utter the words explosion and Kathy Stabler. She'd handed the scene off to a bewildered Fin and ended up at the hospital, where she reacquainted herself with the kids and sat through a piss poor apology as to why Elliot had left her without a word for ten long years. Honestly, it could have been a good apology, she couldn’t say. That whole week was still hazy for her. She remembered sharing a few awkward words with Kathy, then the relief at finding out she was going to be ok before her rage at Elliot had really really set in. She had gotten all geared up to really have it out with him, had even shown up at his hotel room so they could have it out.
But when she arrived he had been deep in despair and she was immediately forced to console him again. Kathy had woken up after her spleen repair, fragile but with a determination on her face that her husband had never seen before. She resolutely kicked Elliot out, barred him from returning to visit her, and asked for Maureen. A few days later when she was released from the hospital, she moved into Mo's house and wouldn't see anyone aside from her children for a week.
Kathy had a chip on her shoulder to anything NYPD related. She wouldn't consent to more than the bare minimum of police questioning about the explosion, absolutely wouldn't let Olivia be the one to question her, and was convinced that she hadn't seen anything helpful and was a victim of collateral damage.
On her seventh day home, Kathy asked for Elliot. He had moved out of their hotel and onto Kathleen's couch because it was closer to Mo's. But when Kathy was finally ready to talk to him he had been out of town, in the middle of chasing down a lead. It took him a few hours to get back home, stuck in traffic on the BQE.
His delay only further enraged Kathy who was done being the sacrificial lamb for the NYPD. When he walked in the door to Mo's house, Kathy had him sit on the couch and listen. She began her tirade by telling him she had enough. She had almost died for his job and wasn't going to chance it happening again. She wouldn’t leave her kids without their mother and an absent father. She yelled for an hour, dredging up grievances from decades past. Olivia hadn’t asked what kinds of grievances they were, and Elliot hadn’t offered. After Kathy had finished yelling, she explained that she was flying back to Rome, gathering her things and moving Eli and herself home.
And that was the end of their nearly forty year marriage. Elliot had taken it… well, Liv didn't really know how he had taken it because he'd disappeared undercover with the Albanians as soon as the ink was dry on the divorce papers. Olivia knew he'd never been good about confronting his feelings, but becoming someone else for a while wasn't exactly a marker of someone at peace with themselves.
Meanwhile, Kathy had started dating again and reconnected with an old classmate named Richard. His wife had left him for another man shortly before COVID and he'd finally felt ready to date again when he saw the pretty blond cheerleader he'd once sat next to in chemistry class had moved back to Queens. And charged her relationship status to “single” Facebook. He’d asked her out for coffee, and she’d nervously agreed.
They'd started dating slowly, both scared to jump into anything too quickly lest their feelings get hurt again. But despite their reticence, their relationship blossomed, both of them integrating into each other's lives and hearts.
Olivia had met Richard once, at Eli's high school graduation party. He seemed like a nice enough guy but Elliot was clearly not a fan, calling him “Dick” every chance he got. Olvia didn’t really see how he could use that as an insult when he had named his own son Dickie, but Elliot had suffered enough hits that day so she kept that one to herself.
Olivia and Elliot had reconnected slowly. She'd been so angry with him at first. She had done her best to shut him out of her life but he was persistent in his need for her. And Olivia had never been good at denying someone in need. First he was dealing with PTSD, jumping at every loud bang, spacing out while driving, and getting into scuffles on the street. Then he was going through a divorce and had to learn how to live by himself for the first time in 15 years. He needed someone to lean on, and Olivia was such a sucker for a wounded puppy.
He hasn't been dating anyone, at least not that he’s told her about. But she assumes he’s still hung up on Kathy. Well. Their moment in the kitchen had taught Olivia that at the very least he wasn't interested in moving on with her. But they’ve been good lately. He’s been showing up for her, he’s been consistent. At least he had been until last month.
Her timer chimes, breaking her out of her reverie.
“Noah! Dinner’s almost ready, can you come wash up?”
“Yea! And I'm gonna need help with my calc homework,” Noah says, walking into the kitchen.
“Haha, good luck with that. You let me know if you need me to call Lizzie and have her video chat with you again.”
“Yea ok”
Noah stuffed a meatball in his mouth and asked, “what's that?”
“What’s what?”
Noah picks up the invitation and waves it at her.
“Oh yeah, Kathy Stabler is getting remarried.”
Noah's eyebrows shoot up, “how is Elliot taking it?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t talked to him in a while.”
“Well you should call him! Maybe he could use a friend. Plus when he drove me home from Conner’s house last month he said he would come over for a MarioKart tournament.”
Olivia sighs. The last time she had seen Elliot had been the morning after he picked up Noah from the McCann's. And with the way that had gone, she’s not sure if he will ever want to see her again.