Family

By

18lzytwner

Chapter 1

It had been two months since the Stabler home had gone on the market. No one had bought the home yet so getting a new apartment for Elliot and the twins had been a bit tricky. Still the three had been making the best of it.

Olivia's landlord had an apartment that was emptying out two floors up, but it was only a two bedroom. Larry had offered her the unit at a steal, only a hundred dollars more than what she was paying for her place now. The apartment had been occupied by an older lady, who had had the apartment for a sweet rent-controlled payment. He could get a pretty penny for it, except it needed upgrading and more than just a coat of paint.

Olivia said that she and Calvin would take it, provided that Larry gave them a little flexibility with the paint and some of the upgrades. Larry was more than happy to let the two have at it, it saved him some money and he trusted the detective to not make any crazy choices. Plus it was a bonus to have a detective in the building.

"How'd we get roped into this?" Munch asked as he grabbed a small box of books off the kitchen table and headed for the hallway.

"Hey, the elevator is working and it's only up two floors. It could be worse," Olivia said.

"Besides, didn't you want to hang out Uncle Munch?" Calvin asked, helping Fin with the kitchen table chairs, heading out into the hallway as well.

"Of course I did kiddo. I was just thinking we'd be digging through the rabbit holes in the government policies," he teased.

"You filling his head full of stuff?" Fin asked.

"Good stuff," Munch said.

"That's debatable," Elliot chuckled. He and Olivia were busy holding boxes of sheet sets and towels. They climbed into the elevator, with Fin and Calvin taking the next one.

"You think we can get the bed and the couch in here?" Munch wondered.

"Well the bed comes apart so that'll be easy. The mattress and the couch… different story. The couch delivery guys carried it up the stairs," Olivia admitted as she exited the elevator and they headed down the hall to the new apartment.

"I got a guy who knows a guy," Sally said as the group entered the apartment's open door. She'd heard them as she was showing the two men with her the apartment layout.

"You do?" Fin wondered as they all set the items they had down on the floor.

"Yeah. Mark, Randy, meet the squad," Sally smiled. The two men were both fit and looking tan, like they'd just gotten back from vacation.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Elliot, that's Olivia, Calvin, Munch, and Fin," the detective introduced everyone and they shook hands.

"Fin huh?" Mark eyeballed the man, when he stood in front of him.

"Yes," the detective said, wondering why he was getting the eyeball from this guy.

"All right, enough playing big brother," Sally said, patting him on the arm.

"Oh honey, you know he can't help himself," Randy spoke up, while he was looking up the kitchen up and down.

"Well as long as he can help move some of the furniture from the apartment, let him look Fin up and down," Munch spoke up.

"Is that all we are? Mules?" Randy wondered, turning around and giving him a look.

"I'll forgive you. You haven't seen me try to lift anything heavier than the box I just set down," the eldest detective said.

"Yeah if it's heavier than Munch, he really struggles," Fin chuckled.

"He could use some meat on his bones," Randy nodded with a smirk.

"Well Calvin and I are thankful for the help. I'll show you where we have staged everything and what the plans are," Olivia smiled.

"Sounds good. I can see why Sally likes you," Mark shifted the conversation back to what they needed to be doing. Calvin was told to stay with the apartment and the adults headed down to the old apartment.

"There you guys are. I brought snacks and Gatorade. They're on the kitchen counter. It's a little sweaty out in that hallway," Cragen smiled at them. He'd had something he's had to handle in the morning but was more than happy to help on this Saturday afternoon.

"It's a weird winter we're having. Too much heat for an early March weekend," Elliot admitted, shaking the man's hand. The temperatures had crawled into the upper sixties when normally the weather would be in the forties or low fifties. The apartment buildings hallways were really conditioned but even if they were, Larry would not turn on the air conditioning when they were calling for forties by Monday.

"Thanks Cap. I appreciate you coming," Olivia smiled.

"Don, please. We're off the clock," he winked at her.

"Calvin is going to like these chips," Munch smirked at the selection of bags of chips, pretzels, and cookies – easy hand food. Olivia had promised everyone dinner when they were done so he figured that rather than stopping for lunch, a snack was better than starving. The group grabbed a snack and a drink and then it was back to work.

"I think this is the last of it," Olivia brought in a box of photographs and set it down on the kitchen table, a few hours later.

"So what's for dinner?" Calvin asked.

"I knew he'd ask that," Elliot chuckled.

"He's not wrong. The snacks are gone and the fridge was basically empty," Munch said.

"Grab the menus," Olivia winked at Calvin.

To Be Continued…