A/N: Here is a one shot I thought of a few weeks ago while watching a movie. I hope you enjoy it. Please read and review.
Disclaimer: Don't own anything to do with the show.
Set- before season 1 and is mostly AU.
Elliot looked up at his partner of just eight weeks. He didn't know much about his mysterious partner. Olivia Benson had just been assigned to the Special Victims Unit and was a very private and stubborn woman.
Olivia's desk phone started to ring and Elliot watched her as she answered the private call.
"Detective Olivia Benson, SVU...Oh my Goodness...really? Thanks goodness...5:15 flight?...Thank you so much. Bye." Olivia hung up the phone with a smile. The first smile that Elliot had even seen on his partner's natural golden face.
"Olivia?"
Olivia shook her head and got up before walking out of the squad room, heading up to the rooftop of the 1-6 precinct. Elliot got up and followed the beautiful brunette upstairs to see what the call was about.
He found his partner standing near the ledge, silently crying and holding an aged photograph.
"Olivia?" Elliot spoke softly as he slowly approached her.
Olivia wiped her tears away and looked at her partner. "Hi Elliot. What do you want? Have we got another case?"
Elliot took a slow deep breath. "Olivia...who was on the phone? You can tell me."
Olivia licked her dry, cracked lips and passed a two year old photo to the handsome detective.
"This is my daughter Zoe. She would be six now. She was taken from me two years ago."
"She's beautiful, Olivia," Elliot said, looking at the little brown haired, hazel eyed girl with litte purple glasses, dressed in a pair of little blue jeans with flowers on them and a pink t-shirt.
"She's my little miracle. I almost lost her at birth...only for her to be taken from me at four years old. I hired a private investigator to find her. That's who was on the phone. He has found Zoe in a boarding school in Atlanta. I'm going to get her tonight. I can't wait to see her."
"I'll come with you."
Olivia shook her head. "I'll be fine, Elliot. You should stay with your wife and kids" she insisted, stubbornly.
Elliot put his hand on Olivia's and gently rubbed it in a friendly manner. "Olivia, my wife and kids will be alright for the night. I'm coming, ok?"
Olivia sighed and nodded, looking in to the man's ocean blue eyes. "Thanks, El. That means so much to me."
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Olivia and Elliot were sitting on the plane on the way to Alanta.
Elliot looked over at Olivia. She was wearing a pair of silver oval shaped wire rimmed glasses and reading a crime novel.
"Olivia?"
Olivia looked up from her book and looked at Elliot. "Yeah?"
"I didn't know you wore glasses."
"I wear contacts at work but I don't like to wear them all the time because they sometimes iritate my eyes. Zoe's need for glasses was inherited from me, same with her stubborn streak.
When she was a baby, she refused to sleep in the nursery, which was just the next bedroom over. Zoe insisted on sleeping in a bassinet right beside my bed until she was about three months old then she'd only sleep in her crib near the wall and insisted on sleeping in that till she was too big for it. So she slept in my bedroom for like the first year."
Elliot laughed. "What did her father say?"
Olivia scoffed. "Her father? He ditched me right near the end of my pregnancy. He was just immature bastard, who decided near the last minute that he couldn't handle being a father yet," she explained before going back to her book, indicating that the conversation was offically over.
Elliot sighed. "Why are you so private, Olivia?"
Olivia looked up again with a sigh. She moved her glasses and rubbed her tired eyes before putting them back on and looking at Elliot. "There's nothing to know," she insisted. Her voice was a bit harsh.
"Why did you pick Special Victims?" Elliot asked, hesitantly.
"Personal reasons," Olivia whispered and turned back to look out the window.
"Olivia?" Elliot gently pushed.
"Just drop it, you shouldn't have come."
"Olivia, please talk to me."
"No," Olivia replied, flatly, still refusing to make eye contact with the man in the seat beside her.
"Olivia," Elliot pushed once more.
Olivia looked at him, sharply. "I am the product of my mother's rape," she seethed in an angry whisper before getting up and rushing in to the airplane rest room.
Olivia looked at herself in the mirror, she had black bags under her eyes. She ran a shaky hair through her just above shoulder length dark brown hair. "I look like shit," she muttered to herself and sat down on the closed lid toilet.
Just as she sat down, there was a knock at the door. "I'll be right out."
"Olivia..."
"Go away, Elliot," she replied and waited a minute to compose herself before walking out and returning to her seat.
She sat down and grabbed her book again before Elliot began to grill her for more answers.
"Olivia..."
Olivia shook her head and continued to read. "Just shut up, Elliot. You driving me insane. Why the hell did you insist on coming with me?"
"Because I am your partner and I want to keep you safe," Elliot replied, simply and honestly.
"I can look after myself. I've done it nearly all of my life."
"What about your parents?"
Oliiva looked up at Elliot with anger in her coffee coloured eyes. "I was an only child to a single mother...who was a drunk. I looked after myself. Now. Drop. It!"
Elliot just nodded. He didn't want to piss Olivia off anymore.
The seatbelt light came on and Olivia put down her book before putting on her seat belt.
They had arrived and Olivia nodded to meet up with the Private Investigator, who would take her to Zoe's school. She was going to take her baby back home with her to New York.
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The private investigator pulled over in a front of a small building with a playground and a big patch of green grass.
"She was dumped in a shitty place like this? Unbelievable," Olivia said with aggression as she unbuckled her sealtbelt and opened the back passenger door to get out of the car.
Elliot could tell his partner was pissed off. He gently placed a caring hand on the brunette's shoulder, in an attempt to calm her down. "Olivia?"
Olivia shrugged it off and slid out of the car. "I'm going to collect my daughter," she said and rushed toward the main office.
"Olivia! Wait up!" Elliot called out as he and the private investigator tried to catch up to the restless and nervous woman. She was impatient. She wanted her daughter back in her arms, safe.
Olivia walked in to the building and saw a little brown eyed girl with purple glasses sitting behind the receptionist, colouring in.
"Can I help you?" An older grey haired woman sitting behind the desk asked.
"Yes. I've come to collect my daughter. Zoe Benson."
"Ms. Olivia Benson?"
Olivia nodded in response. "Yes I am."
"I'm sorry but could I just check your ID?"
"Sure," Olivia replied as she grabbed out her purse.
She took out her driver's license and showed it to the woman.
"Ok. Hold on a second," the lady said with a nod before getting up and went over to the young girl, whispering something in her ear.
Olivia watched as the little girl smiled and got up, nervously.
She walked out and stopped in front of Olivia, looking up at her with a nervous smile. Just looking at her, Olivia knew it was definitely Zoe.
Olivia squatted down so she could make it easier on her daughter.
"Hello Zoe. Do you remember who I am?"
Zoe nodded with an innocent smile, showing a missing front tooth. "Mommy?"
"Yes baby. It's Mommy."
"A bad man told me you didn't love me anymore," Zoe whispered with a few tears.
"Well the bad man lied, princess. He took you away from me," Olivia replied, wiping away Zoe's tears.
Zoe nodded and wrapped her small six year old arms around her mother.
Olivia returned the hug, never wanting to let go as she planted butterfly kisses on her face.
Elliot watched the interaction between mother and daughter and smiled. In the short two months he'd known Olivia Benson, he'd never seen her so happy.
"I missed you so much, Zoe," Olivia whispered once they pulled away.
Zoe took her mother's soft hand in her small one. "I missed you too, mommy. Take me home now?"
"Yes, baby. You're coming home with me," Olivia replied and stood up again, not losing contact with her daughter's small olive hand. "Elliot, could you please grabbed Zoe's things for me?"
"Sure," Elliot replied and picked up Zoe's black rolling suitcase.
"Come on, baby. Let's get to the hotel and get some sleep, we have an early flight in the morning," Olivia whispered as she picked up the little girl before they walked out of the building.
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In the car, Olivia sat in the back seat with Zoe while Elliot kept a close eye on them from the front passenger seat. Zoe was sitting in the middle, cuddled in to her mother with Olivia's arm around her.
"I'm so tired, mommy," Zoe whispered, five minutes from the hotel.
Olivia kissed her cheek. "I know, baby. We'll be at the hotel soon."
By the time they had pulled up out the front of the hotel, Zoe was sound asleep.
Elliot got out the car and opened Olivia's door. "I'll carry her in, Olivia," he whispered.
"Thanks," Olivia replied in a whisper and unbuckled both seat belts.
Elliot delicately leaned over Olivia and picked up the young child before carrying her inside. Olivia was close behind her with all their luggage.
As soon as they entered the two bed hotel room they had booked, Olivia laid Zoe down on one of the beds and she refused to let go of her mother, now that she had her back.
"Ok, Zoe. Mommy will lay down beside you, honey," Olivia whispered in her daughter's ear and Zoe let go.
Keeping her motherly promise, Olivia got in to the small bed beside her daughter. Zoe turned over and snuggled in to the side of her mother's warm body, resting her little head on Olivia's chest.
Olivia planted a soft kiss on Zoe's head, inhaling the scent of her shampoo. Raspberries. "I love you, baby girl," she whispered and started to rub soothing circles on her daughter's soft rhythmic breathing before ending up falling asleep herself.
Elliot just watched on from the other bed with a smile on his face. His partner was finally happy. Her young daughter was finally happy. Her young daughter, Zoe Sienna Benson had been lost and now she was found.
