Title: Jump Into The TV
Author: x.phile.anon (Aeryn)
Summary: When a teen is trapped in the TV, who helps her out? Our favorite detectives and our lovable agents! E/O MSR
Disclaimer: NBC owns Olivia and the rest of the SVU squad, and Chris Carter owns Scully and Mulder and Skinner and William. I'm only responsible for Mel Graves and Sammy, who are figments of my imagination.
"Come on Sheila, or you'll miss it!"
Mel Graves waited for a reply from her friend. She was in her living room, with the big screen TV on, a hot bowl of popcorn in her lap, and two sodas on the coffee table. She and her best friend Sheila were getting ready to watch Law & Order: SVU, their favorite TV show. They'd watched every episode thus far, and it was time for another fantastic episode, which promised to be good. The last episode they'd seen, where Olivia had asked for a new partner, had bowled the two over, making them question the strength of the partnership between Olivia and Elliot.
Mel was seventeen, and lived on her own, though Sheila was a roommate as well as a friend that helped pay rent. Mel had graduated the past summer, and moved out of her guardian's house as soon as she could. Shelia had been a life long friend, so sharing an apartment had been an obvious choice for the two. Both shared the first two seasons of SVU, though it was technically Mel's collection. The two were addicted to the show.
There was no answer from Sheila, who'd gone to the bathroom. Groaning, Mel stood, set her popcorn next to her soda, and headed for the bathroom, anxious to get back to the TV. They had five minutes before the show started, and Mel didn't want to miss a minute of it. But she couldn't let Sheila miss the beginning either, so she wandered down the hall and knocked on the bathroom door, then waited for her friend to reply. When there was still no answer, she sighed and shook her head.
"Come on Sheila, let's go!"
As she turned to go back to the living room, a wave of dizziness hit her and she fell, blacking out.
Olivia Benson yawned and changed the channel on her TV for the eighth time. She sat back on her couch, her feet kicked up on her coffee table, a cold beer in her hand. She took a drink and sighed. She'd asked Captain Cragen for a new partner this afternoon. Elliot had gone too far this time, saying that they'd gotten too close. And when they'd been alone later, she'd told him what she'd asked Cragen. She had never seen Elliot so mad; he looked ready to hit her.
Taking another drink, she winced when the stitches on her neck pulled a little. The bastard who'd sliced her was dead, but she couldn't help but think about him, standing there with a gun to Elliot's head, making her decide between her partner and a little girl. She'd been saved from making that choice by the sniper team, who blew the man's head off.
She closed her eyes and held the cold bottle to her forehead in an attempt to cool down. She was flustered. Just thinking of Elliot could do that to her. She was in love with him of course, and after a year of being a couple, she knew he loved her too.
At the thought of partnerships, Olivia thought of her new partner, Detective Riley Jones. She'd been assigned to be Olivia's partner by Cragen. Olivia had grown weary of Elliot's constant nagging, and after this last confrontation, she had known that a change of scenery was in order. Captain Cragen had been understanding, assigning Riley immediately.
A gunshot brought Olivia to her feet, the hair on the back of her neck raised in questioning and fear. It had sounded close, right outside her window. She ran over and looked out into the dark night, down into the alley, two stories below. And in the light cast by a streetlamp, she saw a terrible sight. A young woman was lying in a growing pool of blood.
Hurrying over to her coffee table, Olivia grabbed her service weapon, a Smith & Wesson 1076. She hurried to the door and sped down the stairs. Reaching the ground level, she stopped when she saw the crowd trying to peer at the girl without going outside.
"Excuse me!" she said loudly, but it did no good. No one listened. Growing frustrated, she grabbed the nearest person, a neighbor of hers.
"Mark, go call 911. Tell them there was a gun fired and a girl injured."
The neighbor ran off, and Olivia headed out to see about the girl. With her gun pointing before her, she stepped through the crowd and out into the darkness. Working her way quickly but carefully down the alleyway, she spotted the victim and went to her side.
She was young, not yet out of her teens, but not yet a full woman. Olivia saw the bullet's entry, in the teen's abdomen. Dropping to her knees next to the teen, she pressed firmly on the wound.
"Ma…" the teen whispered, and Olivia leaned over her, still keeping pressure on the bullet hole.
"Sweetie, can you tell me your name?"
The girl moaned softly, the sound of which nearly broke Olivia's heart. She pressed harder on the wound, and tried again.
"What's your name?" she asked. The teen whimpered, then spoke softly.
"Mel…Graves…"
Olivia nodded, whispering soothingly. She could hear the ambulance and cop sirens in the background.
"It's going be okay, Mel. My name is Olivia, and I'm not going to let anything else happen to you."
Olivia sat next to Mel's hospital bed, her hand entwined with the teen's. She was tired, not having slept for nearly twenty-four hours, but she hadn't been able to while Mel was in surgery. When the surgeon had come out and spoken to her, Olivia had felt relief beyond what words could describe. For reasons unknown, she felt connected to Mel.
Olivia felt bad for not calling Riley in, but she knew that this case would be hard, especially considering the young age of the victim and the lack of a suspect. And instead of calling in Riley, she called the only person she knew she could trust implicitly, but he hadn't arrived yet.
A sudden movement startled Olivia and looking up, she realized that Mel was awake, with a look of sheer terror on her face. Standing quickly, she hovered over the girl and brushed a strand of chestnut hair from Mel's stunningly gray eyes.
"Mel, it's Olivia. You have to calm down honey, or the doctor's going to give you a shot to make you settle down. Do you understand?"
Mel nodded, and then seemed to relax. She looked around, and when she focused on Olivia, she frowned.
"Do I know you? I can't remember where I've seen you, but I know that you're familiar to me," she said, her voice hoarse. Olivia smiled warmly.
"I'm Olivia Benson. I'm a-" she started but Mel cut her off, suddenly remembering who Olivia was.
"You're Olivia Benson, a detective with the Special Victims Unit. You've been there for almost eight years and your partner is Elliot Stabler. You investigate vicious crimes against children and teens, as well as sexual assaults. You just asked Don Cragen for a new partner, and he assigned Riley Jones to the job."
Olivia's jaw dropped, and she stared at Mel, so shocked that she had to sit.
"How…how do you know all that?" she asked, her cheeks going red. Mel blushed too, realizing that she'd said too much.
"I've been following your career closely. You're my role model," she said quickly, hoping to recover what she'd fumbled. Olivia sat back, still unsure. She was still shocked, but now for a different reason. She'd never known that people looked up to her.
"Well Mel, I'm honored that you'd follow my career."
Mel smiled and went to sit up, but stopped abruptly when a pain shot through her stomach. She whimpered, making Olivia stand quickly again.
"Mel, what's wrong?"
"My stomach hurts," she said, and Olivia nodded.
"Yeah, it probably will for a while. Do you remember what happened?"
Mel shook her head, so Olivia continued.
"You were shot in the stomach, just outside of my apartment building," she explained, and then added, "Sweetie, does your mom or dad know you're here?"
Mel shook her head, frowning at the thought of her mother and father.
"My ma died when I was twelve. She had lung cancer, which she got from smoking for thirty years. And my father…well, I never met him. Ma said he was a one-night stand without consent. She got drunk one night and she was angry with me, so she told me that I'm the product of a vicious crime," she said quietly, and Olivia sighed softly, remembering her own past.
"I'm sorry Mel. I know how that must make you feel."
Mel nodded, knowing that Olivia had been conceived in the exact same way. She kept this thought to her self, though. It was a private thought, and she was sure that Olivia would find it disturbing if she knew that Mel knew. She instead chose to look out the window, staring at the skyline and becoming very suspicious.
"Olivia, are we in New York?" she asked suddenly, startling the detective, who nodded.
"Of course we are. Why?"
Mel felt her self growing frantic despite her best efforts to remain calm.
"B-Because I l-l-live in California, and I can't remember how I got here!"
Elliot Stabler looked at his partner through the window in the hospital door. She was sitting with a victim, who looked horrified at the moment. Her face was pale and her eyes were wide. Olivia seemed to be trying to comfort her, but it appeared that nothing was working. After a moment, Elliot knocked on the door and waited to be acknowledged.
Olivia had called him in on the case, though why she didn't call her new partner, Elliot didn't know. Detective Jones had been left out of the loop for some odd reason. When she'd called, Olivia had given Elliot the victim's name, age, and description, with the hope that they could contact her legal guardian.
Olivia looked up at the knock and waved him in. As Elliot opened the door, he heard the girl's soft crying, and felt his heart go out to her. This victim's case was a particularly sensitive one. Thus far, no suspects had been arrested and her guardian, one Kelly Cobler, had seemed to disappear. No one could even get a history on the teen. She was "phantom" teen.
"Hey Liv," he said softly, then looked into the steely gray eyes of the young woman in the hospital bed.
"I'm Detective Stabler. I work with Detective Benson, and I need to ask you a few questions."
Olivia stood, shaking her head. Taking Elliot's arm gently, she pulled him to the side.
"El, something is wrong here. Mel Graves swears up and down that she's from California, and that her roommate is home. Yet every time I call the phone number she gives me, it comes back as disconnected. And she knows so much about me that it frightens me. Elliot, I think it's time to call Dana again," Olivia said, peering intently through the window at the girl who was crying in the bed.
It was snowing when Dana Mulder woke up Monday morning. There was nearly a foot of snow on the ground, and the large flakes falling from the sky promised to add to it quickly. Dana, being the summer lover that she was, groaned and buried herself farther under her blankets, and smiled when her elbow connected with something hard.
"Ouch! That was my stomach," she heard, and instead of apologizing, she snorted.
"Well, that's what you get for elbowing me in the side earlier," she said, then tenderly rubbed the stomach she'd elbowed.
"Are you okay?"
Fox Mulder peered down at her with a look of pure indignation on his face.
"Woman, you must be full of it. You elbow me in the stomach, and then ask if I'm okay? You know full well that I'm hurt. I shouldn't even have to say it!"
Dana ignored her rambling husband and climbed out of bed, whimpering softly as her once warm feet met the still cold floor. From the bed, Fox laughed.
"Having fun?" he asked, and got no verbal reply. Instead, Dana threw a throw pillow, loving the irony of the name. When she heard the yelp, meaning that the pillow had hit its mark, she continued on her quest to the bathroom. Halfway across the room, however, she stopped when her cell phone rang. Grabbing it off the dresser to her right, Dana answered it.
"This is Dana Mulder."
"Dana? It's your cousin, Olivia. How have you been?"
Dana was surprised to hear the voice on the other end of the line. Olivia lived in New York City, and was always busy, so the two cousins rarely talked. And the last time they'd spoken, Olivia had needed help on a case she had. With a tired yawn, Dana answered the question.
"I've been great. How have you been?"
Olivia sounded weary as she said, "Life's been crazy. And I need your help. I have another case unlike any I've had before, and I was wondering if maybe you could come up here and help me out?"
Dana looked over at Fox and nodded to herself. The two did need a vacation, and this would provide them the perfect excuse to use their vacations days. Smiling, she spoke quietly as to not alert her husband to what was going on.
"Liv, that sounds like a great idea. We'll be up later tonight."
Hanging up, she looked over her shoulder at her husband and smiled warmly. Fox had wanted to take her to New York City on their honeymoon, but circumstances had prevented that trip. Dana had been called on an assignment, and had had to skip the honeymoon altogether. So now, to be able to go to New York City, it was perfect.
Dana remembered why she'd gotten up and continued on toward the bathroom. The bathroom floor was cold, and she yelped when she stepped on it. From the bedroom, she heard Fox laugh, which made her mad.
"Shut up!" she cried, then slapped a hand over her mouth and froze, waiting to see if there was a noise from behind the door across the hall from her. Sure enough, two seconds later she heard crying. Crossing over to the door, she opened it and saw her daughter sitting up in her crib.
"Hey there Sammy…what the matter?" she cooed to the one year old, not expecting an answer back. Sammy just curled her lip and let out a wail. Dana's heart melted and she gathered the child in her arms. Rocking her back and forth, Dana thought of the birth of the child.
Years ago, Dana had been declared infertile. After tests and after having in vitro fail, she conceived her son, William. But Will was different, in ways that no one could explain. He could move things with his mind, like move his mobile and such. It had frightened them. To their relief, however, Sammy wasn't demonstrating any abnormal powers. She was just a little girl who loved her parents. And they loved her back.
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