A/N: Hello my lovely readers! So a new chapter of 'Returning For You' is coming your way within the next 24- 48 hours (most likely – just finishing editing). But as 'Keeping Secrets' is on hold till further notice, I decided that I would upload the first chapter of this new story for you all. This one is different to my others as it's AU, meaning that I'm going to be using the characters from the show we all know and love but not necessarily in the way we know them for. So please, read on and let me know what your thoughts are by leaving a review? This story practically is writing itself at the moment, which means there should be lots of updates often (*fingers crossed*).

Chapter 1 – Making a Change

Every day is a part of the major journey which is life and there is always something to learn from each day, the journey is always evolving. This was the motto that Olivia reminded herself almost every day and she felt more familiar with it more than anything, particularly in the classroom. As an elementary teacher, she was familiar with learning and how the world provided numerous opportunities for growth in your learning and creating the version of yourself that you really want to be. She had a class of 25 little humans, each with their own personalities and required different things from her as a teacher. There were moments in her days where she did question her career choice though and seriously thought she would have been better to choose a career that didn't require so much from her. But then again, there were days where she also had incredibly sweet conversations with children on the playground or something would happen, and she could see the difference that she makes in their lives. Deep down, Olivia knew that she could never do anything else and get quite so much happiness as teaching brings her. Teaching was her passion and Olivia really believed that it was something she had been born to do.

But outside of the classroom and her role as a teacher, there was a whole different side to Olivia, a side which most people weren't familiar with. In particular, they had no idea that she was a single mother. Olivia was only 28 years old but she was mother to a beautiful little girl, Chloe. Olivia absolutely adored her daughter and couldn't believe the fact that the little girl was already 1 and a half. It wouldn't be long now till Chloe turned 2 years old and whilst some parents really look forward to that time as they believe it is when their children really start to become little people with big personalities. Olivia on the other hand, didn't like how quickly time was passing and her little girl was growing up. Olivia adored being a mother and whilst she did have days where she wasn't entirely sure how she even survived working as a full-time teacher and raising a little girl, there was nothing she loved more than to come home to her little girl with a big smile on her face after a hard day. She loved the discussions she could have with Chloe about her day, with everything that she had got up to at daycare. Although the conversations weren't always understandable as Chloe was still learning how to put words together, it was Olivia's favourite time of day.

Being a single mother and a high-quality elementary school teacher had its challenges, especially in terms of the hours Olivia had to work and the hours she spent planning what she would teach her students. But Olivia had a brilliant support network established around her with close friends and the nanny Lucy. Whilst Chloe went to daycare every day, Olivia managed to get away from school early enough to pick her up most of the time, but there were occasions that Lucy had to pick the little girl up as Olivia had to stay longer at school to handle something or to attend later meetings. But on the days where Olivia could leave school early enough to pick up her daughter, they would often spend time together in the park, playing.

It was early Tuesday morning, Olivia had a rough start with Chloe this morning and had already sent a message to Lucy in warning for this afternoon. Olivia suspected that Chloe was coming down with something and thus if she wasn't feeling good this morning then she was going to be even worse this afternoon and Olivia had to stay back late at school to attend a meeting. Olivia had a new teaching student who was going to be starting on her class in a couple of days, so this afternoon they were having a meeting to start organizing what would happen over the first week in the classroom. Olivia had recently been recognized for her high-quality teaching and thus when the school was placed forward to take a final year teaching student for the remainder of the school year, Olivia had been asked to take her on. This is normally a stressful experience for the first couple of weeks and being at one of the most elite private schools in the state, there was more pressure on Olivia to ensure that this student didn't fail their placement. Teaching was a rather difficult profession but Olivia had a belief to take all the future teachers under her wing, guide them on their placement and send them out as the best teachers they could possibly be.

However, before the meeting this afternoon and once all the children had gone home, Olivia was planning on spending a bit of time working out what the next approach to get in contact with the parents from her class was. There was one particular family that she was desperately wanting to get in contact with and no one at the school had ever properly spoken with the family in the whole time the children had been at this school. Elizabeth Stabler, was a bright and lovely little girl, she was currently in Olivia's second grade class and would often be the one to contribute most in class discussions. Due to her helpfulness, Elizabeth had previously been referred to as the 'teachers assistant' and Olivia thought she had a pretty special connection with Elizabeth because of this. Olivia was fairly confident the connection that they had was the type of connection that if something was going on at home, or something was wrong then Elizabeth would often tell her about it. However, something Olivia wasn't particularly happy with was with how Elizabeth was falling behind in her reading and spelling.

She was falling behind in the same way that Olivia had seen happen numerous times before, as students who are behind in reading are usually behind in spelling too considering that both of these areas work with each other. Elizabeth was currently testing as reading at about a kindergarten level and she was currently about a month into 2nd grade. Olivia had spoken with the 1st grade teacher for Elizabeth as well as her twin brother, Richard's teacher and neither had ever been able to contact the family successfully about this. Richard was not as far behind at reading as Elizabeth was but he was still below where he currently should be. Olivia had supervised pick up numerous times with her class and the other 2nd grade class, she had seen the twins go home with a lady but had been told that it wasn't their mother. Elizabeth had in fact told Olivia that the woman was their nanny, 'Dani'.

None of the other teachers even knew what the twins' father actually looked like, apparently, he'd never been at any of the school events and the mother had stopped attending herself about a year and a half ago. Elizabeth had told Olivia that her father was super busy, he ran his own company in New York and they didn't see him much. She hadn't talked about her mother at all in the time that Olivia had known Elizabeth, so Olivia had her suspicions that her mother wasn't on the scene anymore. Olivia could tell that Elizabeth's father learly cared for her and her brother as he ensured they were constantly looked after. Their nanny, Dani seemed to be working all hours with both of the twins. But Olivia knew that his lack of presence in their life was also affecting them developmentally. Parental attention and involvement in their life, is important for any child and without it they can be greatly affected. Olivia could tell that one of the things that was being greatly affected by the lack of a parent, for Elizabeth, was her reading. Olivia suspected there was a lack of reading at home which was affecting her reading development. Olivia knew that from Elizabeth's test scores and the other kids in her classes test scores, she wasn't being read to at home and that was affecting her vocabulary development. Whilst Olivia made sure to read to her daughter, Chloe every night, even in the nights when she was tired and only wanted to sleep herself. She always made sure to spend time reading to Chloe every night before she went to sleep, as she knows how important this was for the little girl's development. Olivia had a determination to get in contact with Elizabeth's family and get them in for a meeting as she knew this issue simply couldn't wait. It would greatly affect Elizabeth later in her school if they kept ignoring such a problem.

Elliot Stabler sat in a large office, on the top floor of his building, working away at a few designs for his brand-new hotel, which was due to start being built in Florida in a couple of weeks. He was due to fly out next week, to be there for the ground breaking ceremony and organise the final few things before the actual building commenced. Sapphire Suites currently had locations in New York, Los Angeles, San Diego and Toronto. Aside from Florida, there were also plans to expand to more international locations, with hotels also currently being built in Tokyo, Paris and a 2nd one in Toronto. Sapphire Suites were one of the highest quality hotels that people are currently choose to stay in. Elliot was taking every opportunity to expand his business whilst things were so good for them. However, apart from being a successful business man, he was also a single father to twins. Elizabeth and Richard were almost 8 years old now and Elliot would do absolutely anything for them, everything he did career wise was to provide them with a life where they had everything they could ever want.

He wasn't the kind of father who would just give them anything though, he was the kind of father that would make them consider all the options when they wanted something or work for what they wanted rather than immediately get it. But there was nothing that he wouldn't give to them if they really wanted it and had considered everything in relation to it. He adored being a father and part of himself hated the amount of time that he had to work and spend away from them but he always strived to maintain that they were looked after. Dani, his nanny whom he had hired a couple of years ago was supposed to be one of the best there is. She made sure that his children got to every appointment or after school activity that they had, she made sure that they were in bed before he got home at night, including having had a bath or shower and completed their homework. He would really be lost without Dani, that was for sure.

It hadn't always been that way though. 2 years ago, it had been him, the twins and their mother Kathy, with absolutely no need for a nanny because Kathy had been there and would do everything with the children. She loved being a mother and one of the reasons that they had tried so long to fall pregnant was the fact that Kathy had really wanted to be a mother. However, kids had turned out to be harder than anyone expected and twins was definitely more of a challenge than a single child would be. Elizabeth and Richard had kept both Elliot and Kathy up at all hours across the night when they were young. Elliot had started to see the cracks with Kathy a while before they actually happened. In fact, he had seen her leaving the way that she did, long before it actually happened. But he hadn't really been in a place to stop it from happening at the time. Now, he was a single father with twins and a successful business.

But he knew that he wasn't giving his twins the attention that they deserved, there simply wasn't enough time in the day for that. His business required him to work long hours with the things that had to be done and he felt really guilty about this. He didn't even know how they were going academically or emotionally, he didn't have enough time to check in with his kids or make appointments with their teachers. That was something that had always been Kathy's domain and he'd not been able to follow through properly on that after she left. In fact, he found himself spending less and less time with the twins after she left but he couldn't help feel an immense amount of guilt in the way that she left and the fact that he really didn't try to stop her. But how do you stop someone who doesn't want to be a mother anymore yet as young kids who need her attention? Elliot knew that if it had been him that was to do this, the outcome would have been even worse.

During her hour release from teaching today, whilst her students had been doing music lessons, Olivia managed to write up a letter for Elizabeth's father. She'd checked the school records and seen that they didn't have a current email address or phone number for Elizabeth's parents, so she figured that a letter home would be best and she included information about providing them with a current phone number to call in case of emergency. Olivia had given Elizabeth the letter to put in her bag right before home time and instructed Elizabeth to make sure that her daddy got the letter as it was very important that he get it. Elizabeth said that she would try really hard to get the letter to him but she didn't know what time her daddy would be home tonight. Olivia decided that it would also be beneficial that she let whomever was collecting Elizabeth today, know about the letter to ensure that the letter made it to her father. In the letter itself, Olivia had asked that Mr or Mrs Stabler get in touch about a time that would suit for a meeting, as this was important to discuss Elizabeth's education face to face and put strategies in place to help with her reading. Olivia knew that if she tried to implement strategies with the nanny then it likely wouldn't work too well, she needed to get the parents on board first.

When the final bell of the school day rang, Olivia escorted her class outside and watched carefully as each of them were met by parents or guardians, ensuring that they were all safely collected and any that weren't were to stay by her. She made her way over to Dani once all the other children had been collected, who had already greeted Elizabeth when they came outside.
"Miss Benson?" Dani greeted, clearly already familiar with who Olivia was.
"Hi, I just wanted to come over and say that I gave Elizabeth a note today which her father or mother needs to see. She's told me that Mr Stabler might be home really late tonight and after she's in bed, so can you make sure that he or Mrs Stabler gets this letter?" Olivia tried to ask.
"Mr Stabler is a very busy man and he does not have much spare time at home due to the requirements of his business. Whilst I can't guarantee that he will read the letter, I can try make sure he gets it" Dani explained.
"Thank you, I understand but this is a very important letter" Olivia explained before bidding the group farewell. She watched as Elizabeth, Richard and Dani made their way out of the school playground. Olivia wasn't completely sure that the note would get to Elizabeth's father but she had done all she could for now. She just really hoped that Mr Stabler would take an interest in his child's education or perhaps Mrs Stabler would, even if the school hadn't seen her in a while.

A/N: Thoughts? Opinions? Something to tell me? Let me know in a review please :D
Until Next time ;)