#eo fic

the redemption of dana lewis: chapter 6

“Mom, when does Elliot get back from his undercover job?” Noah asks her from the backseat of her SUV, his curly head buried in a video game. It’s too long now, in desperate need of a cut, but her son has entered an especially stubborn and particular phase of adolescence, determined to send Olivia to an early grave.

Everyone wears it long now, he informed her this morning after she gently suggested they schedule a hair appointment.

She had to bite her tongue before she broke the hard rule she made when she became a parent that she’d never be a mom who used phrases like, And if everyone jumped off a bridge, would you do it, too?

Life really comes at you fast sometimes.

Olivia startles, almost misses the traffic light switch to red. Her son hasn’t asked about Elliot in weeks, so of course, he chooses today.

“Uh,” she stammers, “he’s been back for a little while now.”

“Oh.” Liv flicks her eyes up to the rearview mirror, catching the frown that crosses his face. “Why don’t we see him anymore?”

Well, she sees him. Or did. 

“Elliot’s just been busy,” she says lamely.

There’s a long, suspicious pause from the backseat. He looks up from his video game, at attention, serious now. “Did something happen between you two?”

Fuck.

She hates lying to her kid, so she evades his question. “Why do you ask?”

“‘Cause you’re being weird.”

The redemption of Dana Lewis: chapter 5

“I look back at my life, and it’s filled with - god, so much regret. A career I entered out of some fucked up sense of loyalty and obligation, a marriage I fumbled into as a kid, children that deserved a better father than me.”

Elliot swallows roughly, his eyes starting to water. Shit, he refuses to cry in this bar.  

“I look at this man in the mirror, and I think, Christ, has there ever been anything in your entire fuckin’ life that you did because you wanted to, and not because it was the right thing?”

“I’m almost 60 years old. I’ve already made most of the major life choices there are to make in this world, and I have to find some way to make my peace with them.” He lets out a breath. “But when I look at my life ahead of me, I think… there’s only one thing I could ever want out of the rest of it, you know? The thing I’ve wanted more than anything, not because it was right but because it was real. The only one that could make all the bullshit before it worth anything.”

“And it’s her,” his voice breaks, much to his horror. “It’s her, Dana.” 

Olivia—his pillar of truth, want, and desire. 

The only thing he wants in this world that’s still—hopefully—within his reach.

It’s just sex. That’s what she’d told him that afternoon, her cheeks pink with embarrassment in the evening light of her apartment, and then she’d hurried him out before Noah got home.  But it’s been four months of them and a week ago, they’d finally decided it was time to disclose to prevent conflict.   She just hadn’t prepared herself for the firestorm that would come. 

In which Elliot and Olivia begin a friends with benefits relationship shortly after Kathy dies, only to discover that they can't be just friends. And naturally, the reaction that comes when they decide to disclose.

Where We Belong; an EO high school AU.

Summary: In a quiet Queens park, he finds her with her jacket pulled tight around her to protect against the harsh February snow. He sees something in her, something that tells him that she needs someone, But perhaps, through this messy thing called life, maybe she can show him that he needs someone too.

AN: This story contains multiple references to sexual assault, alcoholism, emotional and physical abuse, along with references to underage sex. Proceed with caution, as these themes will recur throughout this story.

Jesus, she’s going to think he’s a lunatic.

In this moment, it’s not about ready or not. Deserving or not. It’s here and it’s now and they’re both on the edge.