Chapter Text
Alex sometimes wondered if she would have still accepted this job if she’d known how much running would be involved. From the precinct, to the DA’s office, to the courthouse, to defense firms, and then back to the precinct— at this point, the only reason she was trying to get a promotion was so she could have an assistant to do the running for her.
The first floor of the precinct was packed, because of course it was. Probably solely to frustrate Alex, with how her day was going. She had to practically shove her way to the elevators. In fact, she was squeezing her way past two uniformed officers when she spotted the little girl.
The little girl was standing right in the middle of the lobby, as people weaved around her, paying her no mind. Alex looked around to see if there were any adults accompanying the child, who appeared to be around nine, but she saw nobody. A child alone in a police precinct was never a good sign. But the kid at least seemed to be well cared for, clean, wearing fitting clothing. Alex realized she was beginning to think like the detectives she spent so much time around and had to shake her head to clear it. The girl’s blonde hair was pulled back into two neat braids, she had a pale blue backpack covered in colorful pawprints. She looked around the lobby with big eyes, seeming a bit overwhelmed. Alex forgot about the elevators as she pushed her way back to the center of the room.
“Hello,” Alex said, crouching down in front of the girl. “Do you need help?” She didn’t seem to notice Alex’s arrival, still looking off to the side, and Alex noticed hearing aids in her ears. Alex moved a little to be in her line of sight and waved with a smile, trying to appear as non threatening as possible.
The girl stared at her with wide eyes, seeming a bit startled by her appearance, before she glanced away again and made a whining noise, reaching up to press a hand to her ear. Alex winced sympathetically, because she agreed that the precinct was far too busy. “Let’s go to the bench,” Alex offered, and the girl gave no response. Alex wondered if maybe her hearing aids were turned off. She put a hand on the girl's back to guide her to the side of the room, but the girl immediately turned and grabbed Alex’s hand, holding tightly to her instead. Alex was momentarily surprised, but squeezed the girl’s hand and walked them to the seat.
As soon as the girl perched on the edge of the bench, she began gesturing, and Alex realized she was signing. Alex did not remember any sign language beyond the alphabet. The girl seemed to pick up on that fairly quickly, biting her lip and thinking, before she turned to open her backpack and produce a cellphone. She turned on the phone and showed the lockscreen to Alex. Alex was surprised to see Olivia Benson smiling back at her. The photo was taken on the beach, the little girl standing tall and beaming in a pretty sundress. Olivia was behind her with an arm wrapped around her waist, sunglasses tucked into her dark bob, also grinning at the camera. So this girl clearly had some sort of close relationship to Olivia. While the detective was pretty tight lipped about her personal life, Alex was pretty sure she would’ve heard if she had a daughter. Maybe a niece?
Alex tried to dig up her basic knowledge of ASL to fingerspell the word “O-L-I-V-I-A”. The girl brightened and nodded quickly, so Alex figured she had gotten that part right. Alex then pointed to herself and then signed the letters for “F-R-I-E-N-D-S”, which went a bit more slowly and took a bit more thinking. Again, though, the girl seemed to be pleased and nodded. Alex gestured for the girl to follow, and couldn’t help but smile as the kid immediately grabbed her hand and hopped off the bench.
The girl spent the crowded elevator ride pressed into Alex’s side, clutching her hand tightly, and they were both grateful when they reached the floor of SVU.
“Visitor,” Alex called out as she led the girl in, which was their universal code for put away any bulletin boards with graphic images. The bullpen, though, was mostly empty, besides a few uniformed officers scattered about. The girl made a beeline for Olivia’s desk, so she must’ve visited before.
Alex suddenly remembered what she had been rushing here for in the first place and quickly whirled around to knock on Cragen’s door, but his office was empty, and she breathed a sigh of relief because at least she wouldn’t have to run back to the DA’s office just as fast. She dropped the folder on his desk and turned to make her way back to where the young girl was sitting. She had pulled a sketchbook out of her backpack and was drawing intently. Alex dropped into Elliot’s chair and tried not to stare as she watched her sketch.
They sat there for a while, Alex slowly spinning Elliot’s chair back and forth, before the girl looked up and around, getting somewhat bored of her book. Alex grabbed a sticky note off Elliot’s desk and clicked a pen, scribbling out: What are you drawing? and passing it across to Olivia’s side. The girl grabbed it and read it carefully, smiling brightly, before she wrote something down and passed the note back to Alex.
A seahorse :) it read. Alex looked up to see the girl holding up her sketchbook to show her, and it honestly was a very well-done drawing of a seahorse. Alex was impressed. She definitely could not draw a seahorse that well. Truth be told, she couldn’t draw a seahorse at all.
The girl grabbed a sticky note from Olivia’s desk and wrote another message, passing it to Alex.
My name is Sophie
Alex wrote back her own, I’m Alex.
Sophie took the note and read it, before something caught her attention behind the ADA, and Alex turned just in time to see Sophie launch herself at an emerging Elliot Stabler.
“Woah!” Elliot was momentarily taken by surprise, before catching the giggling girl. “Hey, Soph. Where’s your sister?”
“I found her in the lobby, she seemed a bit lost,” Alex informed him.
Elliot looked up, seemingly noticing Alex for the first time, but Sophie tugged his sleeve and backed up, starting to sign very quickly. Alex was surprised by the implication that Elliot knew ASL, but after a moment she realized that Elliot was also surprised by the implication that he knew ASL.
“Slow down,” he said, circling his hand on his chest, clearly trying his best and failing to keep up.
Sophie stopped and crossed her arms, huffing indignantly, and the look she gave him was such an Olivia Benson Glare™ that Alex had to bite back a laugh.
“Is that Baby Benson?” Munch’s voice called from down the hall.
Sophie dropped her scowl as soon as she noticed him, bouncing on the tips of her toes as Munch entered and gave her a high five, with a “Hey, kiddo.” He turned to Elliot. “Liv’s in interrogation with Fin.”
“I’ll take over for her. You keep the kid occupied?”
“Sounds good,” Munch agreed, which was a good choice because Sophie had already slipped her hand into his. “C’mon, Soph, Let’s go fill out some DD5s.”
Alex was sure if Sophie knew what she was agreeing to she wouldn’t look so excited about it, but the little girl just hummed happily and allowed Munch to lead her back into the bullpen, tiptoeing bouncily behind him.
Olivia appeared only moments later, looking first worried, but then relieved, as Sophie broke away from Munch’s side and ran up to her. She started signing immediately, even more passionately than before, but this time Olivia seemed to be keeping up as she gradually moved the enthusiastic girl towards her desk. Eventually, Sophie turned with a flourish, pointing directly at Alex.
Alex blinked, unsure exactly what to do. “Hey,” she greeted Olivia awkwardly.
“Thank you for bringing her up,” Olivia said with a soft smile, squeezing Sophie’s shoulder.
“Anytime.” Alex shifted in Elliot’s chair. “Is everything okay?”
Olivia sighed, smile fading. “She couldn’t get into our apartment building. I’m going to call the landlady in a minute.”
Olivia focused her attention back on Sophie, signing something and gesturing towards the stairs that led to the little upstairs lounge area. Sophie nodded eagerly, grabbing her backpack and bounding off.
“She loves it here,” Alex murmured, amused.
Olivia flashed her a smile in lieu of a response as she dialed the phone on her desk, chewing her bottom lip as she picked it up. “Hey, Ms. Costello…” she started, and Alex turned her chair away and tried her best not to eavesdrop. The words, “A fire?” had her turning back towards the detective, because she was nosy, dammit. Sue her. The rest of the conversation was a lot of “Uh–huh” and “Alright” from Olivia’s end, who looked like she really wanted to be done with the phone call as the landlady blabbered on. When she finally hung up the phone she sighed, running a hand through her hair. “There was a fire in our building,” she explained to Alex. “Some electrical damage. Nobody can go in for a while.”
Alex made a small sympathetic hum. “That’s not good.”
Olivia looked like she was only half paying attention, back to chewing her lip. “No, it’s not.”
“Do you need a place to stay tonight?” Alex blurted out, before she’d really thought it through. Sure, she’d been looking for an excuse to spend time with Olivia outside of work for a while. This hardly seemed like the time or the place, but what could Alex say? She liked to take advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves.
Olivia looked surprised. Before she could answer, though, they were interrupted by a “Counselor?” And Cragen appeared, Fin and Elliot dragging a perp— kicking and shouting— to lockup behind him. Alex was glad Olivia had sent Sophie upstairs.
Alex stood and half listened to Cragen as Elliot reclaimed his desk, leaning over to talk to Olivia quietly. She could hear bits and pieces of their conversation, and it was all far more interesting than getting a warrant for bank financials.
“Liv, she’s fourteen, she’s old enough to—”
“She’s not emotionally fourteen yet, she still thinks like a child. It’s not safe for her to wander around the—”
Alex had to refocus on Cragen for a moment to relay some information from Donnelly, before she could go back to tuning him out. Half of his justifications were unnecessary, anyway. She didn’t care why the guy deserved it, all that mattered was if there was a legal basis. Detectives tried to moralize damn near everything.
“I don’t think she should either, but it was an emergency, and she did fine—”
“She doesn’t get it, El. She thinks every stranger is her best friend, she could’ve been—”
“But she wasn’t. Cabot found her. It’s okay, Liv.”
“If it hadn’t been Cabot—”
“You can’t think like that.”
“She needs another emergency contact. If we can’t get to our phones…”
“Alex?” Cragen pulled her attention back to him, and she realized he was waiting for an answer. She plastered an unnecessarily large smile on her face and nodded, which she could’ve done about three minutes ago and saved him half his explanation, before taking the paper he held out. “Benson, Stabler,” Cragen called, gesturing them over, and Alex was officially dismissed. She stayed to scan over the form as Cragen talked about the warrant they were about to get, but he became distracted while he spoke, with a confused smile on his face and eventually a small wave, looking somewhere behind the two detectives. “Liv, is that your sister?” He finally cut himself off to ask, and Olivia and Alex both turned to see Sophie had poked her head over the railing, watching intently. She smiled and waved shyly before disappearing back into her chair.
“There was a fire in the apartment, she didn’t know where to go—” Olivia quickly started, but Cragen waved her off.
“Baby Benson’s always welcome. If you need to head out a bit early to take care of things, let me know.”
Olivia nodded, relieved. “I don’t need to leave early, but if she could stay up there…”
“Alright by me. I’ll have them keep the whiteboards down for now.”
“Thank you,” Olivia murmured, before her and Elliot returned to their desks and resumed their whispered argument.
Olivia had never actually answered whether or not she was going to stay over, but Alex decided for both of them when she paused next to her desk on the way out, interrupting her and Elliot by reaching over and squeezing her hand. “I’ll text you my address,” she said, before whipping around to begin her run back to the DAs office and not at all to hide the fact that she was blushing a little.
If she hadn’t whipped around, she would’ve seen that Olivia had a matching blush across her cheeks, seeming a bit stunned. Elliot had a shit eating grin, waiting for Olivia to recover enough for him to poke fun at her.