DISCLAMER: I own nothing that Dick Wolf owns, so anything ya'll recognize in my story does not belong to me.
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It was an unusually quiet Tuesday afternoon at the 1-6, but Olivia Benson wasn't complaining as this gave her time to catch up on all the DD-5's she had been neglecting over the past week and a half.
"Hey, I'm headin' over to Mulligan's for lunch, care to join me?" Elliot Stabler asked his partner as he passed by her desk on the way towards the door exiting the squad room.
Liv looked up from her paperwork and sighed at Elliot, "Thanks, but I have to finish up all this paperwork before I'm facing contempt charges, but you could always bring me back something if you're feeling generous."
Elliot smiled wide at his partner and slung his coat over his arm. "You got it. The usual?"
Liv smiled at him and nodded her head and called out a thank you to El as he walked out the door. Then Olivia sighed once more and got back into her paperwork.
It felt like she had been working for hours when Olivia heard Elliot coming down the hall talking to someone. She looked up just as he was entering the precinct with a woman who looked to be about 65-70 years old and was walking with a cane. Elliot had her lunch in his hands and he set it down on her desk as he addressed the older woman in his company.
"Mrs. Morrison, this is my partner, Detective Benson. Liv, this is Mrs. Morrison, I met her coming down the hall, she says she needs to speak with you."
Liv nodded at Elliot and gave a warm smile to Mrs. Morrison then pushed her paperwork to the side and got up off her chair to offer it to the older woman.
"Why don't you have a seat, Mrs. Morrison."
"Oh, thank you, dear." And Mrs. Morrison took a seat at Olivia's desk.
Olivia propped herself up on the edge of her desk and addressed the woman sitting before her.
"How can I help you?"
"Well, I…I don't really know how…I'm not quite sure how to put…" And then Mrs. Morrison started to cry.
Olivia thought the woman had been assaulted or raped, so she spoke to her like she would any other victim who came to the precinct.
"Okay, uhm,…why don't we go someplace more private and we can talk?" Olivia gestured for Mrs. Morrison to go with her to one of the interview rooms.
Mrs. Morrison looked around the precinct before nodding her head in agreement and getting off of the chair to follow Olivia.
Once they were in the interview room Olivia gently started asking Mrs. Morrison some questions.
"There ya go," Olivia said as she set a cup of water down in front of Mrs. Morrison who immediately grabbed it and took a sip.
"Now, Mrs. Morrison, can you tell me what brought you here today?"
Mrs. Morrison composed herself and looked into Olivia's eyes as hers started to tear up again. She reached across the table and took Olivia's hands in her own, which startled Olivia at first, but Olivia allowed the contact figuring the older woman needed it to feel safe and to open up to her.
"Oh, Olivia,…you don't remember me, do you?"
Olivia's face twisted into a look of confusion and she looked at the woman across from her briefly trying to place the name with the woman's face.
"No, uh,….I'm sorry, I….I don't."
The older woman sighed and patted Olivia's hands, dismissing Olivia's forgetfulness.
"It's not your fault, dear, it's been awhile since we've seen each other. I'm Paula's mother."
Olivia's eyes widened and she drew in a breath.
"Paula,...?" Olivia whispered more to herself than to Mrs. Morrison.
"Paula Grayson. Well,….Paula Dennison now, her married name. I went back to my maiden name, Morrison, when my husband, Phil, and I got divorced."
"Of course,….Mrs. Morrison. It's,…it's been a long time." Olivia whispered as it was all coming back to her who this woman was, but she was still unsure why Mrs. Morrison had come to see her.
"Mrs. Morrison, uhm…I'm still not sure why you came to see me. What can I do for you?"
Mrs. Morrison took her hands out of Olivia's and took another sip of water from the cup Liv had given to her earlier. She looked somber and drained and her eyes started to tear up again. Before she let the tears fall and overcome her again, Mrs. Morrison spoke to Olivia about why she had come to the precinct seeking her out.
"Pah…Paula was kill…killed…in a car crash."
Olivia's face went blank and tears rushed to her eyes. It had been quite some time since Olivia had seen Paula, but to hear of her friend's passing still hit the detective pretty hard. She let a single tear fall before she spoke.
"When?"
Mrs. Morrison swallowed hard before answering, almost as if she couldn't get the words out.
"About two months ago."
"Oh my God,…Mrs. Morrison, I am so…so sorry. I,…I didn't know."
Mrs. Morrison patted Olivia's hands once again.
"It's alright, dear, I know it was a long time since you and my daughter had been in touch with each other."
Olivia nodded her head as she continued to try and process what Mrs. Morrison had just said to her.
"Yeah, it…it has been a few years since I last saw Paula and…"
Olivia's eyes grew wide and her face concerned when she remembered her friend's daughter.
"Rylie," Liv whispered, "How is Rylie doing?"
Mrs. Morrison smiled at the mention of her granddaughter's name.
"I'm so glad you remembered Rylie, Olivia."
Olivia now also smiled.
"How could I forget her? She was Paula's life, and after Tim…." Olivia stopped and looked down, not wanting to drudge up any new painful memories of her friend and their past. Olivia cleared her throat. "Rylie always wanted to be a detective when she grew up."
Mrs. Morrison laughed.
"Yes, yes she did. Well, she had such good influential role models, between her parents and you, pointing her in that direction." Mrs. Morrison smirked at Olivia so Liv knew to take her statement with a light heart. But then her tone changed back to serious as she looked Olivia square in the eye.
"Rylie's the reason I came to see you, Olivia."
Panic coursed through Olivia's veins as she feared the worst had happened to the sweet little girl who was now invading her memory as flashbacks of the time spent with Rylie and her parents raced through Olivia's mind.
"Was Rylie...?"
Knowing what Olivia was getting at, Mrs. Morrison quickly assuaged Olivia's fears.
"Oh, dear Lord, no! Rylie wasn't in the car with Paula."
Olivia breathed a sigh of relief and smiled as happy tears welled up in her eyes and single one slipped past and down her cheek; she nodded at the child's grandmother.
"Paula was very fond of you, Olivia. You were there for her after what happened to Tim. She never forgot that, I want you to know that. You two may have lost touch as your lives went in different directions, but she always held you in a very special place in her heart."
Olivia's eyes were really welling up with tears now and this time she couldn't stop them from falling. She took Mrs. Morrison's hands in her own and squeezed them tight.
"She will always be in my heart," Olivia whispered.
"I don't doubt that for a second, dear.'
The two women sat there in silence for a few minutes, holding hands, and letting their tears flow freely as they remembered a daughter, a mother, a friend. When the tears of both women were under control it was Olivia who broke the silence.
"Mrs. Morrison,…"
"Oh for heaven's sake, Olivia, please, call me Sheila."
Olivia smiled at the older woman.
"Okay. Sheila. Sheila, you said that Rylie was the reason you came to see me. Why?"
Sheila took a deep breath and let out a sigh and cleared her throat.
"Yes, uhm,…after my daughter…passed away and I was going through all of her papers and documents, I found this."
Sheila took a folded piece of paper out of her jacket pocket and handed it to Olivia.
Olivia unfolded it and began to read, "I, Paula Dennison, being of sound mind and body, do hereby bequeath, to Olivia Benson, the most precious thing in my life; my daughter Rylie Elizabeth Dennison, should I become unfit to care for her or should my death precede her twenty-first birthday." Olivia looked up at Sheila. "She had it notarized."
"After she lost Timmy. She knew the nature of her job meant the same thing could happen to her and she wanted to make sure Rylie would be cared for and loved. She didn't know she wasn't going to continue in this line of work at that time."
"But she got out of this line of work, surely she must want someone else,…."
"She never changed it, Olivia. Paula never changed her mind about wanting you to take care of Rylie should something happen to her."
"If you don't mind me asking, why didn't she name you as Rylie's guardian?"
Sheila looked down at her folded hands on the table and began to rub her right hand over the left as if she were applying lotion to her left hand.
"I'm almost seventy-two years old, Olivia. I have M.S. and graciously it is progressing slowly and I will most likely live the rest of my life without having to be confined to a wheel chair, but I cannot be responsible for the care and upbringing of a thirteen year old child. I love my granddaughter very much, Olivia, and I want to be as much a part of her life as I always have been, but Paula left Rylie in your care. You are the one she has entrusted with my grandbaby and I know that I have sprung an awful lot on you today, so I want you to take all the time you need to think this over before you make your decision."
Sheila pulled another folded piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to Olivia.
"Our home address and phone number."
Olivia took the paper and without opening it put it in her pants pocket, then nodded at Sheila and gave her a small smile.
After a brief moment of silence Sheila got up from the table, gripping the edge of it to steady herself on her feet. Olivia immediately jumped up to help her by grabbing her arm and helping her stand. Mrs. Morrison reached for her cane and turned to face Olivia.
"I haven't spoken a word of this to Rylie, yet. I don't want to put my granddaughter through anything unnecessary if she doesn't have to be….she has been through enough."
Olivia nodded in agreement, and whispered, "I know."
Sheila smiled and she and Olivia walked out of the interview room together. Olivia walked her to the exit door of the squad room.
"Thank you for coming to see me, Sheila, and I certainly will be giving what you told me a lot of thought."
Sheila smiled and touched Olivia on the shoulder.
"That's all I ask."
Olivia smiled back at her.
"I'll be in touch. Do you want me to walk you outside?"
"No, thank you, I'll be fine. My driver is outside waiting for me. We will talk soon?"
Olivia nodded.
"Count on it."
And with one last smile cast in Olivia's direction, Sheila Morrison hobbled out of the precinct leaving Olivia standing in the doorway with tears once again welling up in her eyes.
"Who was that?"
Elliot's voice from behind her startled Liv out of her trance, and she jumped a little before turning to face Elliot.
"Who was that woman?" Elliot asked again.
"An old friend from college's mother."
"What'd she want?"
"To tell me her daughter was killed in a car accident a couple months ago."
Elliot's face dropped and his eyes got wide. Liv gave him a weak smile and passed him to go back to her desk; she needed to sit down as she felt a little dizzy. Elliot followed suit behind her.
"Olivia, I'm sorry."
"I didn't even know she died, El. I hadn't seen or really heard from Paula in over three years."
Elliot looked confused.
"So, what'd the mother want? Just came in here to tell you her daughter died?"
Olivia shook her head, still in disbelief at what Paula's mother came in to tell her.
"No, ah,…her daughter…left me something and she came in here to let me know."
"Well, what'd she leave you? Money? Her estate?"
Liv looked up at Elliot, straight into his eyes, and replied, "No. Her daughter."
