Urban Legends

Chapter 1: God Took Them, Mommy

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters or the Urban Legends.

A/N: I have no idea where I came up with this one. I was just thinking wouldn't it be cool to have SVU deal with some Urban Legends? Yeah, well…I haven't had much sleep the past five days so my mind is blank. I have no idea what to write for my Author's Note. So, I could either continue to rant about nothing in particular or we could get on with the story.

I choose story. I think you do too.

ENJOY!!!

"Munch! Fin! My office, now!!" Cragen shouted. Munch and Fin looked at each other as if asking what the other did. Both shrugged when they came to the conclusion that neither had done something worthy of the Captain's wrath.

Elliot and Olivia looked at the two other partners and laughed. Munch and Fin shot them identical looks of annoyance and continued on to Cragen's office. As Fin reached for the handle the door was abruptly pulled open again by Cragen.

"Benson! Stabler! You too!!" Elliot and Olivia stopped laughing and stood. Munch and Fin were now the ones quietly taunting the others.

"What's up, Cap?" Munch asked once they were in the office.

"We pulled in another case. I want all of you on it." Cragen replied shuffling some papers on his desk looking for the case's file. He pulled it out with a triumphant look on his face.

"All of us? Why all of us? I'm sure Elliot and Olivia can take care of this one alone." Munch protested. He loved his job, but he hadn't slept in three days and didn't really want to deal with rapists today.

"No. This case is extremely sensitive. I need all of you out there in case something goes wrong." Cragen handed copies of the file to Elliot, Olivia, Munch, and Fin. Munch, Fin, and Elliot were still looking at each other trying to figure out how the case was sensitive when Olivia opened the file and began reading.

"Guys, you might want to look at this." Olivia said. "Or you might not, depending on when you last ate."

Elliot looked at her curiously. Olivia never showed when she was feeling queasy over a case, but he always knew. He opened the file and looked it over, inhaling sharply.

Judging by the two detective's reactions, Munch and Fin opened the file cautiously. It was a child abuse case. These were always the hardest.

"So, who dunnit?" Fin asked before reading the entire file. "Mommy or Daddy?"

"Neither." Answered Olivia. "It was the daughter."

Fin flipped the file open again and finished reading. "Jesus." He breathed. The file didn't contain much. All it said was that a little boy had drowned and it was because of the older sister's obvious negligence. "How old are the kids?" he asked looking around at his fellow cops. Elliot and Olivia shrugged and Munch was still engrossed in the file, so he didn't hear Fin.

"The little boy was four and the girl is seven." Cragen said.

"Seven?" Olivia stared at Cragen in disbelief. A seven year old had let her brother drown? And they were calling it negligence? They should be blaming the mother for believing a seven year old is capable of making sure her brother doesn't drown in the bathtub.

"That explains why you need all of us there." Elliot said closing the folder and swallowing hard. "Kid kills another kid. Great." Elliot stood up and left the office leaving everybody to look strangely at him. He ignored them and grabbed his and Olivia's coats.

Munch and Fin looked at Olivia. She shrugged and said, "He's having trouble with the divorce. Any case involving kids is going to be a challenge for him."

Olivia left the office as well. She took her coat from Elliot and smiled a thank you. He nodded his head, barely acknowledging her presence. He turned away from her, grabbed his keys, and began to walk out of the squad room.

The three detectives still in Cragen's office watched as Olivia stood where she was. She sighed and put on her coat, slightly shaking her head. They all wondered how she had put up with him for the past two years. Sure, the first six hadn't been easy, but ever since Kathy had brought up divorce he had been even more obnoxious.

He was always cold and distant; even to his partner of 8 years. He treated her like crap and everybody knew it. Yes, he had his good days where the partners would be how they used to be. But, ever since Olivia had returned from her undercover assignment in Oregon, they hadn't been the same. Not really.

Olivia had always seemed to have this power over him. She could always make him smile. She could always make him forget, even if only for a moment, about the divorce. But on those bad days, which had become increasingly frequent, she still stood by him. She defended him when IAB began sniffing around after a suspect Elliot was chasing died. Of course, he was innocent, but in the backs of Cragen's, Munch's, and Fin's heads they all had a sliver of doubt in them. Elliot was strong and he did have a temper. Maybe he had killed him.

But, Olivia never doubted him. She fought like hell to get his good name back and how did he thank her? He nodded his head. Just like he had done a moment ago.

Olivia started to walk out of the room, but suddenly, she stopped and hurried over to her desk. She rummaged around for a minute in the top drawer and seemed to find what she was looking for. She slammed the drawer shut and raced to catch up with her partner.

Munch and Fin looked at each other before also vacating the office. Cragen shook his head and went back to his paperwork.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Olivia caught up with him outside the elevators. He was holding the elevator doors open, waiting for her. Olivia stepped inside and looked at him, surprised. 'Well, that was mighty chivalrous of him.' Olivia thought. 'He hasn't done that before. Usually he presses the door close button and laughs like a 12 year old when I have to wait for the next elevator.' This never bothered her of course because it got him laughing. And he did that so infrequently that she took it as a blessing when he did.

"Thanks." She said.

"Any time." Elliot smiled back at her, but he was still distant.

As they rode the elevator to the first floor Olivia bounced on her heels and Elliot leaned against the wall of the elevator.

"So…have you talked to Kathy?" Olivia asked looking for someway to fill the silence.

Elliot glanced over his shoulder at her, surprised. "About what?" he asked turning back around to glance at the flashing numbers.

"About going back home." Olivia clarified. "Last week when we had that case with the priest you said that you and Kathy were supposed to have a drink. You said that it was to talk about you're going back home." 'Why Olivia?' she silently chastised herself. 'Why are you asking about this? You don't want to know the answer. Dammit.'

"Um, I don't know. I haven't talked to Kathy yet." Elliot answered. He had turned around again, but his gaze was focused somewhere above her right shoulder. He wasn't meeting her eyes and Olivia knew that meant trouble. She didn't want him to feel pressured so she changed the subject.

"I'm dating Munch." Olivia said.

Elliot whirled to face her. "You're what?!" His eyes were dark and he was almost shouting.

"Chill, El! I was only kidding." Olivia was laughing so hard she was nearly doubled over.

"Why the hell would you joke about something like that?" Elliot had stopped shouting, but his eyes were still stormy.

Olivia shrugged. "Dunno. I just wanted to see you smile. You haven't been doing much of that lately." Olivia gave him a small smile to let him know she wasn't kidding.

Elliot opened his mouth, closed it and shook his head. A small smile did appear on his lips. And for a fleeting instant Olivia saw the old Elliot. "Yeah, well, smiling's for sissies." He grumbled as the elevator finally reached the ground floor and made a slight dinging noise.

Olivia smiled wider and shook her head. It wasn't a real joke, but it was good enough for her.

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

They arrived at the crime scene a little ahead of Munch and Fin. Apparently there had been a bad accident on one of the roads that lead to the house that Elliot and Olivia had just missed. Munch and Fin were probably going to be stuck in traffic for awhile.

The two detectives entered the house to find CSU and uniforms swarming the place. A medic was comforting a distraught woman. Olivia glanced at Elliot.

"You take the mom, I'll take the kid?" she asked jerking her head towards the weeping woman.

Elliot shrugged and nodded at the same time, giving him a sort of spastic, twitchy look for a second. Olivia nodded her confirmation and made her way to the back of the house where the little girl was being detained.

She entered the room to find three uniforms guarding the door and four more inside the room with the child. She nodded her head in an indication that they could leave. They hesitated for a moment until one of them said, "Detective, may we talk to you for a moment?"

Olivia nodded, silently interrogating the officer with her eyes. "Why the hell are seven of you watching her?" Olivia asked in a low dangerous voice.

"She killed her little brother. We just wanted to make sure she didn't hurt herself or others." The first officer said.

"It should only take one of you to do that. Besides, she's a seven year old who accidentally let her brother drown. She's seven! She's barely old enough to bathe herself whereas watch her four year old brother!" Olivia was pissed. They could be doing some serious psychological damage to the child with all the drama.

"Detective--," the officer tried.

"Out." Olivia hissed pointing at the door. "Get out, now."

Once again the officers hesitated, but this time, they did leave. Olivia sat on the bed next to the child. She was small for her age, not even four feet tall. She had a frail figure and a fair complexion. Her eyes were big and blue and she had white-blonde curls that fell into her eyes.

"Hi, my name's Olivia. What's yours?" Olivia asked gently.

The girl looked up at her with doleful eyes. "Summer." She replied never looking away from Olivia.

"Summer? That's a pretty name. Do you mind if I call you Summer?"

"It's my name." the girl said softly. She swept a hand across her forehead, moving her bangs away from her eyes.

"Okay Summer." Olivia pulled out her pen and notepad. "Can you tell me what happened tonight?"

"With my brother?" the child asked averting her eyes.

"Yes, sweetheart. With your brother. Do you remember what happened?"

Summer got off the bed and sat on the floor. She picked up the nearest Barbie doll and began playing with her hair. "God took him. God always takes them."

"God took who, honey? Your brother?" Olivia was still speaking softly, though a very unsettling feeling had formed in her stomach. Something wasn't right.

"God took him." Summer repeated never looking at Olivia.

"Who, Summer? God took who?" Olivia pushed.

Summer turned and glared at Olivia. "God took them all. He took my kittens twice and now he's taken my brother. God will always take them."

"What happened to your brother?" Olivia asked again, voice no longer gentle.

"I told you, God took him!"

"No, Summer. God didn't take him."

"God took him! God took him! God took him!" Summer screamed shrilly and threw herself at Olivia. She jammed one of Barbie's high-heeled feet into Olivia's finger.

"Ack!" Olivia wrenched her hand from underneath the doll's shoe. The officers who had been standing at the door rushed in and grabbed the little girl. She was still screaming and fighting to get away. Once they had gotten her out of the room the officer who had warned Olivia about the child entered.

"I don't usually tell people 'I told you so,' but—," he began.

"You're not going to start now." Elliot finished for him. "How about backing off a bit?"

"And you are?" the uniform asked stupidly. Brazenly, but stupidly.

"Detective," Elliot emphasized the word and flashed his badge. "Elliot Stabler. That's Detective Benson, my partner." He gestured towards Olivia who was wiping the little droplets off blood on her shirt. "If you don't mind I have important material to discuss with her."

The officer held up his hands and retreated from the room, shutting the door behind him.

Elliot waited until the other man was gone, then turned to Olivia. "Let me see that." He knelt down in front of her and examined her finger.

"Nothing. Just a cut." Olivia replied attempting to pull her hand from Elliot's, but he held her tight. "Elliot, I'm fine."

"She did this to you?" Elliot turned her hand over looking for any other injuries the child might have inflicted upon Olivia.

"Yes. El, please, I'm fine." She pulled her hand away from his and stood up. Elliot caught her hand again and took a handkerchief from his pocket. Ripping it in two with his free hand and teeth he tied one half around her finger.

"Elliot!" Olivia protested.

"I'm sure you're fine Olivia." Elliot said taking one last look to make sure that her hand was in working order, then allowing it to drop to her side. "I just want to stop the bleeding."

Olivia rolled her eyes. "You just wanted to touch me." She flipped her hair over her shoulder and smiled cockily.

Elliot's eyes snapped up to hers. "And if I did?" he asked raising an eyebrow slightly.

Olivia sucked in a breath. She hadn't been expecting an answer like that. She had no idea how to respond.

Elliot's face broke into a smile. "Relax. I'm just kidding." He said.

Olivia nodded. "Okay." Was all she could say as he started towards the door. She could feel a slight flush creep up her neck and she shook her head.

"That was payback for earlier in the car." He called over his shoulder. "Oh, and Munch and Fin say that the captain wants us back at the precinct."

Olivia stared after him. 'Payback? For what?' she wondered. 'Oh yeah! About the dating Munch thing…'

Olivia started walking and shoved her hands into her pockets. Her left fingers collided with something. Confused, she pulled out the offending object and looked at it. A light lit up her eyes and she ran to catch up with her partner.

"Elliot! El, wait!" she called as they reached the car.

He turned and looked at her, juggling the keys in his hands. "Yeah?"

Olivia ran up to him and handed him the object. It was a small teddy bear with a picture of his kids over the toy's heart. They were beaming and waving up from the bear. Olivia pressed a button on the hand and, suddenly, Elliot's kid's voices filled the air.

"When you're feeling sad and blue,

Just look at this,

And know we love you!" a chorus of laughter followed this little recitation. And in the back ground, ever so faintly, Elliot heard Olivia's voice.

"Perfect! He'll love it!" he heard her say.

Elliot couldn't look at Olivia. Instead, he put the toy into his pocket and wrapped his arms around Olivia. Momentarily stunned, she didn't react right away. She just kinda stood there, mouth hanging open and eyes wide.

Then, she smiled and returned Elliot's hug. He was crying she could tell and he was trying to hide it from her. But, a few stray tears had landed on Olivia's neck, alerting her to her partner's vulnerability.

"You like it?" Olivia asked. He nodded. They stood in silence for a moment still hugging. They both knew that they had been standing like that too long, but neither wanted to let go. Olivia finally pulled away.

"You want me to drive? Wouldn't want your tears to affect your driving capability." She said sarcastically. He laughed and shook his head.

"No, I think I can handle it." He said still laughing.

Olivia smiled and nodded in acquiescence.

The drive back to the precinct was uneventful and long. The accident hadn't been cleared up completely, so they were stuck at a complete stand-still for about 15 minutes. They had begun playing the license plate game, but because none of the cars were moving the game was a bit more difficult.

When they finally arrived and made it upstairs they found Munch, Fin, Casey, Huang, and Cragen waiting for them.

"This can't be good." Elliot muttered to Olivia.

Olivia shook her head and smiled faintly in response.

Before either of them could ask Cragen stepped forward and said, "We have a problem."

A/N: So whatcha think? Much reviews, please:D