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A/N So in 'Childs Welfare', Ty was five and little Olivia (who, even though I would NEVER call Olivia Benson this, shall be known as 'Livvie' from here on out to halt any confusion) was one so for the sake of this story, Ty is now ten and Livvie is now six. This takes place smackdab in the middle of season 16 so Liv is still just Noah's foster parent instead of his adoptive mother. Please enjoy. And review. But mostly enjoy.
Olivia Benson got used to having no family. There was no one on her fathers' side, or so she thought, and the only people on her mothers' side was her grandparents who wanted nothing to do with not only a bastard but a bastard conceived out of rape who had ruined Serena's life, and her mother, who had to drink just to deal with the mere existence of her daughter.
Needless to say, family was something that the Sergeant had coveted more than anything else in the world her entire life… And eventually she found it in the form of Simon Marsden.
Simon made her life absolute hell. He almost cost Olivia her shield, he almost got her killed, and then he just stopped talking to her after she got him out of trouble. Then out of the blue he showed up in her life again, only to ask for her help getting his children back, but he was back nonetheless.
Then, just like before, the two siblings fell apart. Olivia with work, Simon with trying to keep his nose clean so that he could regain custody of his daughter, which, thankfully, he managed to do. But then William Lewis happened and Olivia's face was plastered all over the news, all over the papers first as a missing person and then as a victim of a sadistic psychopath not once but twice. The day she was found he came to the hospital to see her but she had refused to see him, and all other visitors.
The next day he tried again but still she refused, not wanting to single Simon out but she didn't want ANYONE to see her. But Simon took it personally and eventually just like before, he stopped trying and that was the last she heard of him.
Until today…
It was a car crash. A childless middle-aged drunk driving a four-door pickup after a night of drinking walked away with a few scratches while Tracy, whom he had gotten back together with two years after the supervised sentence was suspended, and Simon both were killed on impact.
A uni came to Olivia's door and told her what happened. When she heard the news, she didn't sob or break down in tears. She was just… numb. She couldn't believe the only family she had left was gone but at the same time it didn't hit as hard as she thought it would.
As a matter of fact, it barely made her feel anything. THAT was what upset her…
"Ma'am?" the uni asked after she stood there in stunned silence for a long moment. "Ma'am are you alright?"
Olivia swallowed hard as her mind whirled with a million thoughts and questions before finally committing to a single one. "The kids…" she whispered barely loud enough for her to hear herself.
"Excuse me?"
Olivia cleared her throat and spoke louder. "The kids… Ty and Olivia, where are they, are they safe?"
"We have them at the station right now," he informed her.
"Alright… Any other family members you've gotten ahold of?"
The officer shook his head. "Both sets of parents are dead, no aunts or uncles… Tracy has a sister in Atlanta but right now she's serving her second year out of a 15-25 sentence, and she has a brother who lives in North Carolina but as luck would have it he's staying in Manhattan for the next week. He's the one actually listed on the deceased will to get the children if anything should happen but right now but we can't get ahold of him."
The lieutenant swallowed hard before she spoke. Slowly, like each word was difficult to get out.
"They can't… They can't spend the night in a police station, not after their parents both died." The officer said nothing as Olivia took another deep breath. "I'm willing to take them in until you can find the brother."
"You sure?"
Olivia nodded, already feeling her heart begin to race, "I can't leave those kids alone right now."
"Alright. You wanna get dressed, you can follow me to the precinct?"
"I need to get my son ready first," she told him.
With the officer agreeing to wait until Olivia got Noah ready to go she headed into the baby's room, silently making up the diaper bag she would be bringing with her. Then she gently picked him up with the hope that she wouldn't wake him, trying to maneuver him into his coat which proved far more difficult than it looked.
Grabbing two bottles from the fridge and a blanket from his crib, she and the officer headed out into the night. The long drive back to the precinct Olivia's mind racing the whole time she followed the cop back to his place of work.
Her brother was dead. Her only family, her only sibling was gone. The only person she had right now was her son but even that was looking iffy since Miss Jackson, so it seemed to the Sergeant, made it her personal mission in life to take Noah away from her.
How could this have happened? How could life snatch away the one person related to her by blood? It wasn't fair.
As she got nearer the precinct the closer the tears got to falling and by the time she pulled up to the precinct she had to sit in the car for a moment so she could wipe her tears away and compose herself. After about a minute or so she took a deep breath, got a still sleeping Noah out of the car and headed into the police precinct.
"They're in the holding cell," the officer who had showed up at her apartment told her.
"Their parents just died and you put them in a jail cell?" asked Olivia a hint of anger in her tone.
The officer simply shrugged as he led her over to the holding cells where there were two young children, one a young black boy not older than ten and the other a small six-year-old mixed girl, both sitting on the hard metal bench used for sleeping but neither one of them were asleep.
The officer quickly opened the door which, thankfully, hadn't been locked.
"Hey you guys," the officer said as he and Olivia approached them. Both Ty and his sister looked up at the cop and the Lieutenant standing behind him. "We um… We weren't able to get ahold of your uncle, but we managed to find your aunt, you're gonna stay with her until we contact him."
Neither Ty nor the little girl said anything and instead just looked at one another before looking back at the officer. Olivia took a deep breath before she walked into the cell, shifting Noah to her other hip.
"Hi guys. I'm Simons sister Olivia."
Both children seemed to perk up slightly at the name. While they may not have seen her in years, they had clearly heard the name before.
"You're gonna spend the night with me. Is that alright?"
A shrug from the children.
"Did you guys bring anything with you?" asked Olivia.
"We um… We got a call as we were making the notification," the officer said, "we had to hurry them back here before they could really pack up."
The Lieutenant shook her head, eyeing the officer with disgust. "Real nice." She turned back to the two children. "You wanna get going then?"
Another shrug.
"Okay come on, let's get you guys outta here."
The two of them got up from the bed they were sitting on and followed Olivia out of the precinct and back to her car.
"Ty, you wanna ride up from with me?" the Lieutenant asked as she put a still sleeping Noah back in his car-seat. "It can get a little crowded back here with the car-seat."
Instead of answering he just shot her a small glare before he got in the back of the car, slamming his door shut behind him. Olivia raised her brow at the reaction before she turned to the little girl who was looking up at the brunette.
"How about you?" she asked the six-year-old. "You wanna sit in the front seat?"
Still saying nothing the girl nodded and Olivia opened the passenger side door, lifted her namesake up, made sure she was buckled, and away they went.
They drove in silence for a little bit, the tension as thick as metal before Olivia forced herself to speak. "You guys hungry?" No response. "Pizza, Chinese, burgers, whatever you two want I'm sure Manhattan has a late-night spot that serves it." Nothing but more silence. "Ty?" Olivia asked looking in her rearview mirror at the ten-year-old. "You want something to eat?"
He ignored her and Olivia pursed her lips for a moment before she turned to the young girl sitting beside her.
"How about you, Olivia?" the brunette asked. "You hungry?"
"Livvie."
It took the officer a minute to realize Ty had finally spoken up. She glanced at him in the rearview mirror and saw the ten-year-old looking back.
"Mom and Simon called her 'Livvie'," he explained a bit short, as if the Lieutenant should have already known. "She's only 'Olivia' when she gets in trouble."
"…Oh. Okay. Thank you for letting me know," Olivia said with a smile, trying to cut some of the tension between them but Ty just gave her another short-lived glare and looked back out the window.
She swallowed hard before she turned her attention back to the road in front of her.
"So how about it, Livvie?" Olivia tried once more. "Do you want anything to eat?"
Livvie shook her head before she turned to look out the window.
After a few minutes, Ty spoke up again. "Can you turn the radio on?" the young boy asked.
Olivia looked in the rear-view mirror and saw Noah still sleeping and bit her lip as she turned her attention back to the road. "Sweetie, I would but the baby's asleep, I don't want to wake him. I'm sorry but we'll be at the apartment soon okay?"
Ty glared at the back of her seat before he flopped back in his seat with a huff, crossing his arms.
There was an awkward tense silence the rest of the trip back to her apartment before they finally pulled into her spot in the parking garage. The Sergeant carried Noah and the diaper bag to the apartment with Ty and Livvie following her in.
She gave them a quick tour and, after they both insisted that they weren't hungry, Olivia gave them both an old large t-shirt Brian had left there to sleep in, and tucked them into her bed.
"Your uncle will be here in the morning to pick you guys up okay? I will be right in the living room if you need anything okay?" she told the two young children as she pulled the blankets over them. "You want me to stay with you guys until you fall asleep? I know how scary it can be in a new place."
"We're fine," answered Ty a bit short. Olivia sucked in her bottom lip before she turned to the small girl who looked even smaller in the large queen sized bed than normal.
"How about you Livvie? You want me to stay with you until you fall asleep?"
"She's fine," Ty said before Livvie could answer. "We're tired and just want to go to bed, just leave us alone."
The brunette Sergeant raised her brow but nevertheless just leaned over and kissed the young girl's forehead. "Good night, Livvie," she told the five-year-old before coming over to Ty's side of the bed. She reached down to hug him but he turned his back towards her.
"…Oh. Um… goodnight, Ty."
He offered nothing in response so she just turned and left the room, shutting the light off and the door as she left.
Olivia awoke hours later to a knock on her door. She groaned as she glanced at her watch noting that it wasn't even 6:30 in the morning yet and she had already told Dodds she was taking several personal days.
She slumped to the door and saw a very tall very muscular black male standing outside.
"You're Tracy's brother?" the Sergeant asked when she opened the door.
"Thomas Harrison," he told her, offering her his hand to shake. "Nice to meet you, Sergeant."
"Likewise, and please call me Olivia. I just wish it was under better circumstances."
She shut the door behind him and motioned to the chair in the living room. "You want to sit down while I put on some coffee or did you want to just take the kids and leave? Whatever you want is fine with me."
"I um… I think you should probably put on the coffee, we have some things we need to talk about. About the kids…"
Olivia furrowed her brow in confusion. "Excuse me?"
Thomas took a deep breath before he spoke. "The only reason why I'm up here this week is because I'm on my week leave from my base in North Carolina. Hell, that's why they couldn't find me last night, I was out drinking with my squad. I'm a Special Forces Sergeant in the Army, they're giving me an extra week furlough because of my sister's death but in two weeks I'm on an eighteen-month deployment to Afghanistan."
Olivia's face fell as the man's words registered with her. "Wait so… So that means…"
"I can take them after I come home, but Olivia… You're gonna have to take care of these kids until I get back…"
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