Title: Her Negotiation

Author: ZombieJazz

Fandom: Law & Order: SVU

Disclaimer: I don't own them. Law and Order SVU and its characters belong to Dick Wolf. The characters of Will (and his family) and Noah have been created and developed for the sake of this AU series.

Summary: What would happen if the Season 14/Season 15 finale and premiere were set in the AU of Liv/Will/Noah? Cragen sends Olivia home for a couple days after working the William Lewis case. She hasn't heard from her husband or son for several hours when she walks into their unusually quiet house.

Olivia walked up the steps to the townhouse and juggled her brown paper-bag from one arm to the other to fish her keys out of her purse. She'd stopped on the way home to pick up some things to make Will and Noah a nice breakfast in the morning since Cragen had banned her from coming in for the next few days.

She'd been calling Will since she left the squad. She'd touched base with him earlier in the afternoon - telling him she'd be late just via text. He'd responded with his usual, "Things OK?" And, she'd just responded with her usual, "Just a case. Home ASAP."

She likely shouldn't have stayed as late as she did. She'd been staying late all week with this Lewis case. It was eating at her - and she had wanted to see it through to the end of the day to hear what the judge decided about the court case. It'd been nearly five by the time they did heard back - and what they heard hadn't made her happy. The DNA evidence was inadmissible. The case was being thrown out - a mistrial declared - and it likely wouldn't end up back before the courts. Not with their evidence - or lack there-of. Worse Lewis was already out on bail.

There'd been some strong words. No one had been happy. But the others had filtered out quickly at that point - drinks, homes, dates. That was her usual M.O. anymore too - get out of there as quickly as the workday finished. They'd all settled into that their own way anymore. She thought a lot of it had to do with Elliot's sudden retirement or maybe more so with what had happened with Cragen a year ago and everything else that had come in that fall out. But she didn't think the squad trying to have more of a life - not just living for the job - was a bad thing.

But Olivia hadn't been ready to leave that night. Nick had noticed. He'd asked if she was OK. She wasn't - not really. He'd asked if she wanted him to stay - if she wanted to talk about. She hadn't. She wanted to be alone. For a while. He'd let her - and left. And, she'd just sat there at her desk for a while. Not re-examining the case file. Not working on another. Not even pretending to look or do anything. She'd just sat there. She felt so deflated and defeated. She was saddened, confused, angered about how much the system had failed so repeatedly for this monster - about all the carnage it'd allowed to be left in his wake.

She dealt with these cases everyday. She'd seen more and more the problems with the system. She'd had previous frustrations. She'd had some of them grow. But there was something different about this. About how she was reacting to it - how she was coping with it. The obsession, as Lewis had called it, that had set in. Something about it all was eating at her more than other cases. Something about it hit home more. Maybe it was the rape and torture of a 60-something woman. The fact she'd tried to be so strong only to die days later. Maybe it was how this guy - this beast - thought he could get away with anything and everything - and so far he had. She needed some alone time before she went home to her husband and son.

When she'd finally managed to stand from her desk and make herself leave the precinct she'd again texted him. "Leaving now. Be home soon." She hadn't heard back from him. That was a little odd for Will but she'd realized it was Thursday. They were likely at the pool. Noah had training with his competitive swim club on Thursday night.

So she's just left it - actually feeling bad she wasn't there watching and offering her support. Instead, she'd tried to reach him again while she was picking up the groceries. "At the store. Anything you want or we need?" Still nothing, though. She'd glanced at her watch. Unless the training was running late - they should've left the pool at that point. Will should be home getting Noah ready for bed. But she supposed he might've got caught chatting to someone at the pool. The coach had been trying to court Will for ages to either get involved with coaching or as a volunteer. She wouldn't get into some of the mothers there who liked to talk-up Will if he was watching practice. But she knew that the one posse was trying to convince him to get involved with the planning of a meet - apparently he'd be a much more helpful and better representative for their family than her. She supposed maybe there was something to that. Will's schedule was more predictable. But she also didn't think that was why the woman had approached him and not her. Still, the real reason he likely wasn't answering his phone was because he was just engaged with something else with Noah. So she'd just collected some food, stood behind three other people doing the same thing in line, paid and then finished her walk home.

When she managed to get the door open and was surprised to find the foyer darken and couldn't see any light or sound radiating from the television in the living room.

"Guys … I'm home …," Olivia called out and there wasn't any response.

She shook her head. She wondered if maybe Ted and May had come into the city for the evening and to watch Noah swim. That would put off any bedtime and likely keep Will from returning her texts. Though, when they randomly appeared without notice - he usually gave her notice of their sudden arrival to prepare her for that barrage when she walked in the door.

She set the grocery bag down on the entrance bench that her in-laws had given them at their wedding and braced herself against the wall slightly as she shifted her weight to take off her boots. She eyes fell to the floor and their boot rack as she did so and she again paused. Will's sneakers were sitting there though Noah's weren't. Weird that his were there. Though, he might've been on auto-pilot when leaving the house and just put on his work shoes. Or maybe they'd gone directly from work? She would've thought he'd mentioned in their exchange earlier in the afternoon that he was held up at work and getting Noah to swim team would be tight. He hadn't, though. It'd just been their usual short exchange - not a parenting or family exchange.

"Guys?" she called again and still got no response.

She sighed. She'd have to talk to Will about keeping Noah out this late on a school night. The mini fin kids weren't supposed to be kept late - and Will shouldn't be turning on the McTeague charm in his conversations with others at the pool on a weeknight and getting them held up anymore. They'd all be paying for that. At that rate, even if they walked in the door that instant they weren't likely to have Noah down for the night until almost 10 p.m. Way too late.

She picked up the bag and walked over to the kitchen, placing the bag on the counter. She glanced at the serving window's sill as she pulled the eggs out of the bag. Will's phone was sitting there. Olivia picked it up and looked at it. Her texts were sitting there unread.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. That explained the lack of response. He'd forgotten his phone. Sometimes he could be such an absent-minded professor. It still didn't explain why he had their son out so late, though. Or why he hadn't texted her before they'd left. She nearly always had a running commentary and timeline on her husband and son's movements when she wasn't with them. But that had stopped with their exchange around 4 p.m. She hadn't heard that he was leaving campus, that he was picking up Noah from the after-school program, what they were eating for dinner or that they were headed for the pool. But she'd been so lost in her own thoughts about Lewis and the case, she hadn't noticed until he didn't reply to her texts.

Olivia looked into the sink and paused again. The sink was half full with their dishes from dinner sitting in them. Will's ritual of 'rinsing' - aka why are you even bothering to put them into the dishwasher after that? - the dishes. But the dishes hadn't made it from the sink to the dishwasher. It didn't even look like he'd finished filling the sink - nor squirted the dish soap in. It was strange - unless they'd been running late and he just wanted to start them soaking. She dipped her fingertips in the water. It was barely even lukewarm.

She heard a creak above her from their bedroom and her eyes tracked to the ceiling examining it and waiting for another sound. The water in the bathroom. Will's voice reading Noah a story. His feet pounding against the treadmill. Nothing came.

"Hello?" she called out.

She thought about it for a moment and then headed for the stairs - looking up them briefly again for a sign of light or more sounds coming from the room. It was likely nothing. She was probably just hearing things. It was an old building. There were always little creaks and groans in it. She usually didn't heed them much attention. But still she started to mount the stairs.

She smiled a little as she realized she might get to the top of the stairs and find Will and Noah passed out asleep in bed. They likely fell asleep while Will read him a chapter from the novel that night. Noah usually spooled down fairly quickly after his swimming and training. He loved it. But it exhausted him. And, Will could sleep through anything. He wouldn't have even stirred with her coming into the house and calling for them. She'd known he'd been having a busy week at work too. She didn't know all the details. She hadn't been home enough for nearly two weeks now - even missing out on parts of their weekends - as she threw herself head-first into the Lewis case. They hadn't had much of a chance to talk. But her husband was likely exhausted too from juggling work and managing their home and son almost exclusively on his own. She'd have to work on making that up to him with the next few days off. Make sure he knew she appreciated it.

She squinted a little as she got to the top of the stairs. It was so dark on there too. The bedside light wasn't on to accompany their reading and even the blinds had already been closed for the night. The light from the streetlights outside was barely even streaming in through the cracks. Olivia squinted more at the bed as she stepped onto their bedroom floor - trying to spot the bodies of her two boys passed out under their covers. Noah likely sprawled in all directions while Will snoozed with the novel resting against his chest. But it really didn't even look like the bed was occupied. It looked like the covers may be skewed and bunched but the bumps and lumps she could make out didn't look large enough to be bodies.

She stepped to the left - preparing to go and see, to switch on one of the bedside lights. But it was movement to her right that flicked in the corner of her eye. That pit she'd felt eating in the pit of her stomach suddenly turned into fire ants screaming up her back and shoulders - down the backs of her arms and prickling each hair on the back of her neck. Her neck snapped around and her eyes widened. Her mouth was about to gape but not before the muzzle of a gun pressed into her jugular.

"Welcome home, Detective Benson," he said.