Title: Homecoming
Author: HermioneSparta
Rating: M
Disclaimer: The Law and Order: SVU franchise, fandom, characters, canon situations (et al) in the following story belong to Dick Wolf and NBC.
Summary: In the end, the only place we ever want to be...is home.
It's a cruelty, this reality he sees. They have become his family over the years, and while discord would became a mirror between them at times, he loved them.
It broke his heart to know they suffered, silent in their agony of pretentious happiness.
It was, he reflected with the bitterness of one ignored, why he now sat alone in his apartment with a cup of cold tea.
Except...he wasn't truly alone. Was he?
His eyes darted to her.
He was so damn proud of her, yet so very angry at them all.
It had been her call, made in the wee hours of the morning, which had brought him home. Oklahoma had been a nice change, but it...wasn't the same.
Not without them.
He sipped the cold, bitter brew without thought, grimacing as the oils coated his mouth.
She didn't move, hadn't since the last word had been drowned out by her sobs.
He knew she was awake. How could he not, when her breath hitched and shuddered every few moments?
He rested the cup on the table beside him and sat beside her. He wrapped his arms around her without pause, something he wouldn't have dared to do before.
Before.
Before Cragen and Munch retired.
Before he'd left.
Before Elliot resigned.
They'd all left her in their own way. She'd had plenty of support, they'd assumed.
He supposed that assumption hadn't changed. They all saw her taking care of Noah and commanding the Unit. The fire had returned to her eyes, and she held her head high.
They'd thought it enough.
She returned his hug, her arms pulling him tight as her face pressed against his shoulder. He stroked her hair murmuring nonsense any big brother would.
"Huang? Are you staying this time?" he heard her mumble.
"I'm staying, Olivia, I promise."
They needed him, he knew. Just as he needed them. The old team no longer existed, and the new one was fracturing under too many secrets and shared traumas.
Had they all forgotten they were family? They had to be, to do the job they did.
She sat up then, as if hearing his thoughts, and chuckled brokenly.
"Good. Here's a head's up," she began with a cracking voice. "Carisi's a hothead who doesn't always remember he's in SVU. Finn's not sure if he's comfortable with life or too stressed to realize he cares. Amaro's torn between his family and Rollins. And Rollins..."
She fell silent, unable to describe the younger female with any accuracy.
It was too difficult, he understood, because they were far more similar than different. Two stubborn women with crippling pain disguised as pride.
He smiled and stroked her hair again, hugging her a second time. "Thank you, but let me see them for myself, all right?"
She laughed tiredly and pulled away. "You always had to have your way. Must be the FBI's influence."
He hummed softly and felt his smile widen. "Maybe I just spent too much time around you and Elliot."
She considered it before nodding sagely, the dim light doing nothing to hide the new sadness in her eyes.
"Probably. We're influential like that."
He chuckled and leant back, steering them away from the truth. Though on their minds, they did not discuss why he had run, nor why she had begged him to return. For a few hours, they would be nothing but friends reunited, siblings together once more.
And when he woke just after dawn to her terrified screams of recollection, or she saw him reach for his gun when she startled him during breakfast, they didn't need to explain.
Sometimes, there was no need for words.
Sometimes, you simply...understood.
It was part of being SVU.
It was part of being family.
And for one Olivia Benson and George Huang, it was ultimately part of who they were.
[-]
[-]
AN: Just a little one-shot that came to mind as I was watching an SVU marathon today.