"Getting It", Mike Logan/Elliot Stabler
Title: Getting It
Author/Artist: hawkeyecat
Pairing: Mike Logan/Elliot Stabler
Fandom: Law & Order Universe
Theme: 02. News; Letter.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,214
Disclaimer: I own very little, and none of it is related to the Law and Order franchise.
Summary: Kathleen has thought about it. Now she knows for sure.
Author's Notes: Minor spoiler for Spider-Man ahead. The idea came from amazonqueenkate, who also beta-read, and it's much longer than either of us expected.
One of the last things Kathleen expects when Dad and Mike leave to pick up a pizza, leaving her in their apartment with Elizabeth and Dickie-Maureen is busy this weekend, working on a term paper-is for Dickie to turn to her and ask, “Why does Dad live with Mike?”
“Mr. Logan,” Kathleen corrects him automatically while she scrambles for an answer. She and Maureen have already talked about this, far from the twins and Mom, but they haven’t asked Daddy yet. Maureen isn’t sure she wants to know, even if Kathleen thinks they’re right about Daddy and Mike.
Dickie scowls at her, but Elizabeth interrupts. “He told us we could call him Mike,” she informs her sister. “So we are.”
Kathleen isn’t going to argue manners with her younger siblings. “Daddy can’t afford an apartment of his own, because he’s still giving Mom money to take care of us. So he shares with Mr. Logan.” Maybe if she calls him that, they will too. Kathleen isn’t sure she just wants to accept him, no matter what role he has in her father’s life.
“But Mike’s clothes are in the closet with Dad’s,” Dickie says, and Kathleen thinks she must go pale.
“Dickie, were you snooping?” she demands, setting aside what that says about the relationship between Daddy and Mike. She’ll have to ask Daddy now, maybe after the twins are asleep, because she wants to know the truth.
Dickie doesn’t look at all ashamed of himself. “I was looking for Dad’s Marines shirt.”
Elizabeth gives him a look she’s definitely learned from Maureen. “You told me you were curious,” she accuses him. “Don’t lie.”
Kathleen is getting a headache. Between Dickie’s snooping and his discovery, the calculus test she still has to review for, and the possibility that Daddy is sleeping with a man, it’s a little much to handle. She wishes Maureen was here, attitude and all, to help her deal with it.
“I wanted to know,” he defends himself. Then he gives Kathleen a look. “And Daddy had his own apartment before.”
He’s right there. Daddy had his own apartment for almost four months, before he and Mike got this one together, five months ago. It’s a two-bedroom, and Kathleen usually shares the pullout bed with Maureen if she’s staying the night, or with Elizabeth if Maureen isn’t. Dickie gets the floor, and Mike sleeps in the smaller of the bedrooms. The bed in there isn’t as big as Dad’s-Kathleen and Maureen are pretty sure Dad’s is a king, and they don’t think he needs such a big bed for himself-and Mike is always awake first, sometimes with Daddy. So Kathleen has never actually seen him sleep in the smaller bedroom.
“Maybe it got too expensive,” she temporizes. “He’s paying for Maureen and me to go to school, on top of everything else.”
Dickie seems to buy that reason, but Kathleen catches the speculative glance Elizabeth gives her. She makes a mental note to tell Maureen that she’s pretty sure Elizabeth is going to be a detective like Daddy, and switches on the TV.
Dad and Mike get back about twenty minutes later, when the twins are engrossed in some movie they’ve all seen a million times before. Kathleen is stationed at the kitchen table with her notebook, going over how to manage integrals. She doesn’t think she’ll ever actually use this in real life, but Professor Price will have them on the test. When she catches sight of the pizza box, she puts away her notebook and textbook-she’s hungry, and besides, it’s a good reason to not study.
“Daddy, can we watch a movie while we eat?” It’s worth trying.
“You have something in mind, besides the talking animal special the kids have on?” Score. He’s going to let them.
“It’s Homeward Bound, Daddy,” she says, feigning exasperation. “And…Spider-Man?”
“You just think the guy who plays Spiderman is cute,” Daddy teases her as he takes paper plates out of a cabinet. “Sure, let’s put it on.”
Only Elizabeth protests when Kathleen turns off the movie, and she’s silenced when Kathleen waves the DVD case for Spider-Man at her. Kathleen isn’t the only one to think Tobey Maguire is cute.
Forty-five minutes later, Uncle Ben just died, and the pizza is gone. So is most of a two-liter bottle of Sprite, and Kathleen decides to play the part of the good daughter and clean up. Besides, this part isn’t that interesting. Elizabeth and Dickie don’t budge as she stacks their plates and grabs the neck of the Sprite bottle between two fingers, except to look around her. Daddy and Mike both left a while ago, probably because they’ve seen the movie before, and Kathleen isn’t even thinking about them and the talk with Dickie and Elizabeth when she carries everything into the kitchen.
Daddy and Mike are standing at the sink, Mike washing dishes while Daddy dries them. They’re touching all the way, ankles to hips to shoulders, and it looks so natural. Mike is taller by about an inch, but Daddy’s bigger, wide-shouldered and muscled, and they sort of fit together. Kathleen doesn’t interrupt them, just throws out the plates and puts the soda away, but they hear something anyway, because when she looks again, they’re standing far apart, and Daddy is looking at her.
“Katie, let’s go for a walk.”
He looks tense and serious, and Mike’s back looks just as tight. Kathleen can’t see Mike’s expression, but she can guess it’s a lot like Daddy’s.
“Daddy, it’s okay,” she tries, not really expecting it to work.
“We need to talk,” he says, sounding like he did when she was twelve and her friend had gotten pregnant. Except this is a little different than a fourteen-year-old who screwed up; it’s the divorce and Mom finding out and how it’ll affect the twins, not to mention Maureen’s reaction.
She sends him the quelling look she learned from him. “After the twins are asleep, okay? I want to watch the movie.” She pauses for a moment, then adds, “We’ll all talk,” addressing Mike’s back.
Daddy holds her gaze for a minute, and when she doesn’t back down, he nods. “Once they’re asleep,” he agrees, and Kathleen nods before returning to the living room.
After a few more minutes, during which Kathleen can hear indistinct murmuring from the kitchen, Daddy and Mike come back out to watch the movie with Kathleen and the twins, and Kathleen notices for the first time how they carefully sit on opposite ends of the couch, bookending her and Dickie-Elizabeth is sprawled out on the floor. Kathleen doesn’t pay much attention to the movie, Tobey Maguire or no; her mind is on what she’s going to say to them when they talk. In theory, she has no problem with homosexuality, and is firmly on the gay rights side of matters. In practice, though…this is her father. He was married to her mom for more than twenty years. And maybe it doesn’t change anything about Daddy unless she lets it, but it’s going to take some getting used to.
That’s not even counting what’s going to happen when Daddy tells Maureen. Kathleen’s already decided she’s not lighting that powder keg.
Halfway through Spider-Man 2, Dickie is nodding off, and Elizabeth is asleep where she lies on the carpet. Daddy wakes them up and sends them to brush their teeth, and Kathleen unfolds the bed, spreading out blankets with help from Daddy. Mike disappears down the hall, and Kathleen guesses it’s so she has to talk to Daddy alone first. Smart of them.
Elizabeth crashes on the bed as soon as she’s in the living room again, and Dickie stops long enough to take a blanket before he does the same on the floor. Kathleen retreats to the kitchen, both to make a cup of tea and to talk to Daddy without keeping the twins awake.
“Katie, what you saw earlier,” Daddy begins, and Kathleen cuts him off.
“I’m an adult, Daddy. Kathleen.” She halts, unsure of how to continue. “You and Mike,” she says slowly. “Are you…together?”
Daddy keeps his eyes on her face, and she remembers what he once told her about lying-You can always tell when someone’s lying, because they don’t meet your eyes. He’s not lying. “Yes,” he says directly.
She swallows; she didn’t expect that, for all she thought she was prepared. “How-how long?”
“About six months.” He’s not moving toward her at all, just sitting backward in a kitchen chair, watching her make tea, and her hands tremble slightly.
“You didn’t say anything.” She doesn’t mean it to sound accusatory, but it comes out that way anyway, and she flinches slightly at her own tone.
“You didn’t ask,” he says, voice even, and Kathleen is suddenly furious with him.
“Why would I, Daddy?” she demands. “It’s not every day that my parents get a divorce because my mother can’t handle my father’s job, and then you move in with someone who isn’t Mom, and I’m supposed to know to ask?” She struggles to keep her voice down; she doesn’t want to wake Elizabeth or Dickie and have them find out this way. “I’m supposed to ask you if you’re sleeping with your male roommate? How am I supposed to know that, Daddy?” It’s not just her hands trembling now.
Daddy’s on his feet and crossing the small kitchen to her, and then he’s holding her, rubbing her back like when she was little, shushing her. “You’re not, Katie.” She can hear the regret in his voice. “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry, honey.”
She lets him hold her and forces herself to calm down. Talking to Mike will be pointless if she’s still angry. After a few minutes, she nods against his chest and pulls away. “I’m okay now. Can we go talk with Mike, too?”
Daddy studies her for a moment, then nods. “He’s in the bedroom.” He doesn’t say “our bedroom”, and she notices, but doesn’t say anything.
Mike is on the bed in the bigger bedroom, holding a magazine-Kathleen doubts he was actually reading it-when she and Daddy get in the room. He puts it down right away, not even bothering to mark his page. Daddy closes the door, and Kathleen hesitates briefly before crossing over to sit on the end of the bed, folding her legs under her. Daddy sits on the edge of the bed, on what must be his side, and isn’t that a new thought? Before, Daddy’s side was back before the divorce, when he still slept with Mom; now, it’s with Mike.
“How long?” she asks again, addressing both of them.
Mike beats Daddy to answering. “We’ve known each other for a couple of years now. Met on a case.”
That brings up an entirely unpleasant idea. “But there was nothing before you and Mom got the divorce.” Right? Please tell her she’s right.
Daddy’s shocked look answers that question. “Kathleen, I never cheated on your mother.”
Kathleen closes her eyes briefly. Good. “I didn’t think you did,” she admits, then opens her eyes again, focusing on one, then the other. “Are you-are you happy?”
There’s no way she can miss Mike’s nod. “As happy as I’m going to get without you kids living here,” Daddy says, and really, that’s what she wanted to know. Daddy hadn’t been really happy for months after the divorce, and she could tell easily.
“I’m not telling Maureen,” she warns him, and he groans.
“She’s not going to take it well,” Daddy predicts, and Kathleen grins at him.
“I don’t know. We guessed a few weeks ago, so she might be okay.” That’s worth their expressions. “Dickie and Elizabeth know something’s up, too.”
Daddy frowns slightly at that. “How?”
Kathleen twists her mouth. “Dickie snooped in here and realized Mike’s clothes are in your closet,” she admits. “And Elizabeth was putting it together before we put on the movie.”
She gets off the bed and turns toward the door-she’s emotionally exhausted at this point, and wants to go to bed. Once her hand is on the doorknob, she glances back at the bed. “I’m…happy for you.” She means it, too; she wants Daddy to be happy.
He’s off the bed and across the room at that, practically crushing her to his chest. “What’d I do to deserve you?” he whispers roughly, kissing her hair, and when she’s free again, she smirks up at him.
“At least you and Mike can’t have more kids,” she teases him, and slips out the door before they can react.
The thing is, she thinks as she slips under the blankets beside her sister, it’s good for Daddy. Mom wasn’t, not for the last few years, and the stress of his job was bad for her. With this, they understand what drives each other, and how to react. They’re almost the same, it seems to Kathleen, and maybe sometimes, that’s what people need-sameness. Familiarity. Most importantly, understanding and love.
She didn’t ask about love. She didn’t have to-she saw it, in the kitchen when they were doing dishes, kissing distance apart. And because of that alone, she’s happy for them.
Author/Artist: hawkeyecat
Pairing: Mike Logan/Elliot Stabler
Fandom: Law & Order Universe
Theme: 02. News; Letter.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,214
Disclaimer: I own very little, and none of it is related to the Law and Order franchise.
Summary: Kathleen has thought about it. Now she knows for sure.
Author's Notes: Minor spoiler for Spider-Man ahead. The idea came from amazonqueenkate, who also beta-read, and it's much longer than either of us expected.
One of the last things Kathleen expects when Dad and Mike leave to pick up a pizza, leaving her in their apartment with Elizabeth and Dickie-Maureen is busy this weekend, working on a term paper-is for Dickie to turn to her and ask, “Why does Dad live with Mike?”
“Mr. Logan,” Kathleen corrects him automatically while she scrambles for an answer. She and Maureen have already talked about this, far from the twins and Mom, but they haven’t asked Daddy yet. Maureen isn’t sure she wants to know, even if Kathleen thinks they’re right about Daddy and Mike.
Dickie scowls at her, but Elizabeth interrupts. “He told us we could call him Mike,” she informs her sister. “So we are.”
Kathleen isn’t going to argue manners with her younger siblings. “Daddy can’t afford an apartment of his own, because he’s still giving Mom money to take care of us. So he shares with Mr. Logan.” Maybe if she calls him that, they will too. Kathleen isn’t sure she just wants to accept him, no matter what role he has in her father’s life.
“But Mike’s clothes are in the closet with Dad’s,” Dickie says, and Kathleen thinks she must go pale.
“Dickie, were you snooping?” she demands, setting aside what that says about the relationship between Daddy and Mike. She’ll have to ask Daddy now, maybe after the twins are asleep, because she wants to know the truth.
Dickie doesn’t look at all ashamed of himself. “I was looking for Dad’s Marines shirt.”
Elizabeth gives him a look she’s definitely learned from Maureen. “You told me you were curious,” she accuses him. “Don’t lie.”
Kathleen is getting a headache. Between Dickie’s snooping and his discovery, the calculus test she still has to review for, and the possibility that Daddy is sleeping with a man, it’s a little much to handle. She wishes Maureen was here, attitude and all, to help her deal with it.
“I wanted to know,” he defends himself. Then he gives Kathleen a look. “And Daddy had his own apartment before.”
He’s right there. Daddy had his own apartment for almost four months, before he and Mike got this one together, five months ago. It’s a two-bedroom, and Kathleen usually shares the pullout bed with Maureen if she’s staying the night, or with Elizabeth if Maureen isn’t. Dickie gets the floor, and Mike sleeps in the smaller of the bedrooms. The bed in there isn’t as big as Dad’s-Kathleen and Maureen are pretty sure Dad’s is a king, and they don’t think he needs such a big bed for himself-and Mike is always awake first, sometimes with Daddy. So Kathleen has never actually seen him sleep in the smaller bedroom.
“Maybe it got too expensive,” she temporizes. “He’s paying for Maureen and me to go to school, on top of everything else.”
Dickie seems to buy that reason, but Kathleen catches the speculative glance Elizabeth gives her. She makes a mental note to tell Maureen that she’s pretty sure Elizabeth is going to be a detective like Daddy, and switches on the TV.
Dad and Mike get back about twenty minutes later, when the twins are engrossed in some movie they’ve all seen a million times before. Kathleen is stationed at the kitchen table with her notebook, going over how to manage integrals. She doesn’t think she’ll ever actually use this in real life, but Professor Price will have them on the test. When she catches sight of the pizza box, she puts away her notebook and textbook-she’s hungry, and besides, it’s a good reason to not study.
“Daddy, can we watch a movie while we eat?” It’s worth trying.
“You have something in mind, besides the talking animal special the kids have on?” Score. He’s going to let them.
“It’s Homeward Bound, Daddy,” she says, feigning exasperation. “And…Spider-Man?”
“You just think the guy who plays Spiderman is cute,” Daddy teases her as he takes paper plates out of a cabinet. “Sure, let’s put it on.”
Only Elizabeth protests when Kathleen turns off the movie, and she’s silenced when Kathleen waves the DVD case for Spider-Man at her. Kathleen isn’t the only one to think Tobey Maguire is cute.
Forty-five minutes later, Uncle Ben just died, and the pizza is gone. So is most of a two-liter bottle of Sprite, and Kathleen decides to play the part of the good daughter and clean up. Besides, this part isn’t that interesting. Elizabeth and Dickie don’t budge as she stacks their plates and grabs the neck of the Sprite bottle between two fingers, except to look around her. Daddy and Mike both left a while ago, probably because they’ve seen the movie before, and Kathleen isn’t even thinking about them and the talk with Dickie and Elizabeth when she carries everything into the kitchen.
Daddy and Mike are standing at the sink, Mike washing dishes while Daddy dries them. They’re touching all the way, ankles to hips to shoulders, and it looks so natural. Mike is taller by about an inch, but Daddy’s bigger, wide-shouldered and muscled, and they sort of fit together. Kathleen doesn’t interrupt them, just throws out the plates and puts the soda away, but they hear something anyway, because when she looks again, they’re standing far apart, and Daddy is looking at her.
“Katie, let’s go for a walk.”
He looks tense and serious, and Mike’s back looks just as tight. Kathleen can’t see Mike’s expression, but she can guess it’s a lot like Daddy’s.
“Daddy, it’s okay,” she tries, not really expecting it to work.
“We need to talk,” he says, sounding like he did when she was twelve and her friend had gotten pregnant. Except this is a little different than a fourteen-year-old who screwed up; it’s the divorce and Mom finding out and how it’ll affect the twins, not to mention Maureen’s reaction.
She sends him the quelling look she learned from him. “After the twins are asleep, okay? I want to watch the movie.” She pauses for a moment, then adds, “We’ll all talk,” addressing Mike’s back.
Daddy holds her gaze for a minute, and when she doesn’t back down, he nods. “Once they’re asleep,” he agrees, and Kathleen nods before returning to the living room.
After a few more minutes, during which Kathleen can hear indistinct murmuring from the kitchen, Daddy and Mike come back out to watch the movie with Kathleen and the twins, and Kathleen notices for the first time how they carefully sit on opposite ends of the couch, bookending her and Dickie-Elizabeth is sprawled out on the floor. Kathleen doesn’t pay much attention to the movie, Tobey Maguire or no; her mind is on what she’s going to say to them when they talk. In theory, she has no problem with homosexuality, and is firmly on the gay rights side of matters. In practice, though…this is her father. He was married to her mom for more than twenty years. And maybe it doesn’t change anything about Daddy unless she lets it, but it’s going to take some getting used to.
That’s not even counting what’s going to happen when Daddy tells Maureen. Kathleen’s already decided she’s not lighting that powder keg.
Halfway through Spider-Man 2, Dickie is nodding off, and Elizabeth is asleep where she lies on the carpet. Daddy wakes them up and sends them to brush their teeth, and Kathleen unfolds the bed, spreading out blankets with help from Daddy. Mike disappears down the hall, and Kathleen guesses it’s so she has to talk to Daddy alone first. Smart of them.
Elizabeth crashes on the bed as soon as she’s in the living room again, and Dickie stops long enough to take a blanket before he does the same on the floor. Kathleen retreats to the kitchen, both to make a cup of tea and to talk to Daddy without keeping the twins awake.
“Katie, what you saw earlier,” Daddy begins, and Kathleen cuts him off.
“I’m an adult, Daddy. Kathleen.” She halts, unsure of how to continue. “You and Mike,” she says slowly. “Are you…together?”
Daddy keeps his eyes on her face, and she remembers what he once told her about lying-You can always tell when someone’s lying, because they don’t meet your eyes. He’s not lying. “Yes,” he says directly.
She swallows; she didn’t expect that, for all she thought she was prepared. “How-how long?”
“About six months.” He’s not moving toward her at all, just sitting backward in a kitchen chair, watching her make tea, and her hands tremble slightly.
“You didn’t say anything.” She doesn’t mean it to sound accusatory, but it comes out that way anyway, and she flinches slightly at her own tone.
“You didn’t ask,” he says, voice even, and Kathleen is suddenly furious with him.
“Why would I, Daddy?” she demands. “It’s not every day that my parents get a divorce because my mother can’t handle my father’s job, and then you move in with someone who isn’t Mom, and I’m supposed to know to ask?” She struggles to keep her voice down; she doesn’t want to wake Elizabeth or Dickie and have them find out this way. “I’m supposed to ask you if you’re sleeping with your male roommate? How am I supposed to know that, Daddy?” It’s not just her hands trembling now.
Daddy’s on his feet and crossing the small kitchen to her, and then he’s holding her, rubbing her back like when she was little, shushing her. “You’re not, Katie.” She can hear the regret in his voice. “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry, honey.”
She lets him hold her and forces herself to calm down. Talking to Mike will be pointless if she’s still angry. After a few minutes, she nods against his chest and pulls away. “I’m okay now. Can we go talk with Mike, too?”
Daddy studies her for a moment, then nods. “He’s in the bedroom.” He doesn’t say “our bedroom”, and she notices, but doesn’t say anything.
Mike is on the bed in the bigger bedroom, holding a magazine-Kathleen doubts he was actually reading it-when she and Daddy get in the room. He puts it down right away, not even bothering to mark his page. Daddy closes the door, and Kathleen hesitates briefly before crossing over to sit on the end of the bed, folding her legs under her. Daddy sits on the edge of the bed, on what must be his side, and isn’t that a new thought? Before, Daddy’s side was back before the divorce, when he still slept with Mom; now, it’s with Mike.
“How long?” she asks again, addressing both of them.
Mike beats Daddy to answering. “We’ve known each other for a couple of years now. Met on a case.”
That brings up an entirely unpleasant idea. “But there was nothing before you and Mom got the divorce.” Right? Please tell her she’s right.
Daddy’s shocked look answers that question. “Kathleen, I never cheated on your mother.”
Kathleen closes her eyes briefly. Good. “I didn’t think you did,” she admits, then opens her eyes again, focusing on one, then the other. “Are you-are you happy?”
There’s no way she can miss Mike’s nod. “As happy as I’m going to get without you kids living here,” Daddy says, and really, that’s what she wanted to know. Daddy hadn’t been really happy for months after the divorce, and she could tell easily.
“I’m not telling Maureen,” she warns him, and he groans.
“She’s not going to take it well,” Daddy predicts, and Kathleen grins at him.
“I don’t know. We guessed a few weeks ago, so she might be okay.” That’s worth their expressions. “Dickie and Elizabeth know something’s up, too.”
Daddy frowns slightly at that. “How?”
Kathleen twists her mouth. “Dickie snooped in here and realized Mike’s clothes are in your closet,” she admits. “And Elizabeth was putting it together before we put on the movie.”
She gets off the bed and turns toward the door-she’s emotionally exhausted at this point, and wants to go to bed. Once her hand is on the doorknob, she glances back at the bed. “I’m…happy for you.” She means it, too; she wants Daddy to be happy.
He’s off the bed and across the room at that, practically crushing her to his chest. “What’d I do to deserve you?” he whispers roughly, kissing her hair, and when she’s free again, she smirks up at him.
“At least you and Mike can’t have more kids,” she teases him, and slips out the door before they can react.
The thing is, she thinks as she slips under the blankets beside her sister, it’s good for Daddy. Mom wasn’t, not for the last few years, and the stress of his job was bad for her. With this, they understand what drives each other, and how to react. They’re almost the same, it seems to Kathleen, and maybe sometimes, that’s what people need-sameness. Familiarity. Most importantly, understanding and love.
She didn’t ask about love. She didn’t have to-she saw it, in the kitchen when they were doing dishes, kissing distance apart. And because of that alone, she’s happy for them.