Disclaimer: I don't own it, really.
Spoilers: Season 2, Episode 8, 'Taken'
A/N: Was watching that moment in Cragen's office during 'Taken' when he tells Olivia about her mom.
Daddy
Something was up. She knew it the minute that Cragen called her into his office and asked her to shut the door. She didn't even bother to look at the uniformed officer sitting by the door. It never crossed her mind that he would be important to what the Captain would tell her. He had a sad look on his face. It was one she'd seen before, never directed at her, always for the victims and their families. When he told her to sit down, she knew it was bad. That's why she refused. If she was standing then she wouldn't break down, it wouldn't hurt as bad because she was on her own two feet. She could stand tall, she wouldn't crumble under the onslaught of his words.
He looked her in the eye. He hated to have to be the one to tell her the bad news. But it was better that it come from him, than the officer standing next to him. The woman before him had already had a tough go of life, he hated to be the one to tell her that her last bit of family was gone. He hated to be the bearer of bad news for anyone. But this was worse because she was his, one of his own detectives.
"Your mother had an accident. She didn't make it."
"What happened?" Her voice already held the disbelief of someone who refused to acknowledge that someone they love is gone forever.
"She fell down the subway stairs at 110th and Lexington."
"But my mother never took the subway."
"The ones outside the Velvet Room."
"She was drunk." It was then that he had sudden insight into all the things that had gone wrong in Olivia's life. For all intents and purposes that could have been him, with her telling some member of his family about an accident with stairs because he'd been drunk. He was suddenly glad that he'd gotten the help that he did. He only wished that someone had done the same for Olivia's mother.
He waved the officer out the door. She didn't need an audience to her grief. He'd already drawn the blinds in his office and on his door. And in that moment when he saw that lone tear, the first sign of her anguish role down her cheek, he felt his own heart breaking. He wrapped a warm hand around the back of her neck, guiding her into his chest, and offered a shelter for her in that moment. It would probably be the only time he'd be able to offer her such comfort, but he wanted to take that opportunity to be there for her because he could, and because in some small way, Olivia had become like a daughter to him.
He felt her breaths become deeper and hitching, just before the warm wetness of her tears soaked the collar of his shirt.
Olivia felt herself being pulled into the Captain's embrace. She was usually strong and she would have shrugged him off if he had been any other person in her life. But this was the Captain, and he cared, and he understood. She let herself have a moment to grieve and take solace in the comfort of his arms. He was a father figure to her, to them all, really. And in that moment, it was like having a real father for the first time in her life.
Later on she would be back to her strong self, but just at that moment the little girl in her needed her daddy.