Disclaimer: If you've seen them on the show, they are unfortunately not mine, though I wish they were.
Author's note: This is completely AU. Alex and Olivia are both six at the beginning of the story. Allow me a bit of leeway here; this was just an idea I had.
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Olivia Benson bounced her makeshift ball against the brick wall outside her house. She had made it out of rubber bands she'd gotten from her teacher at school. She caught the ball and threw it again, shivering as a gust of wind ruffled her long-sleeved black shirt.
She looked up as she heard the gentle roar of an engine pulling into the driveway adjacent to hers. She caught the ball and walked to the edge of her lawn as a little girl with blonde pigtails and clear blue eyes hopped out of the backseat of the black Lexus. The girl was wearing a ruffled pink shirt underneath a heavy blue jacket and baby blue leggings. She clutched a blonde American Girl doll in her arms and pulled a pink Disney princess suitcase along behind her. She smiled when she saw Olivia and gave her a shy wave.
"Hi," said Olivia. "Are you moving in here?"
The blonde girl nodded her head.
"I'm Olivia," she said. "What's your name?"
"I'm Alex," said the other girl quietly.
"How old are you?" asked Olivia.
Alex held up six fingers.
"Me, too! Do you want to come over and play?"
A man climbed out of the driver's seat of the Lexus and walked over to Alex. "Hey, baby. Who's this?"
Olivia stepped back out of instinct. "I'm Olivia," she whispered. "I live here."
The man smiled at her. "It's nice to meet you, Olivia. I'm Devon Cabot, Alex's father."
"Daddy, can I go play with Olivia?" asked Alex, looking up at her father.
He put his hands on her shoulders. "Not right now, sweetie. Let's get unpacked first, okay?"
Alex nodded. "Okay."
Olivia went back to bouncing her ball against the house. "See you, Alex."
Alex trotted to the trunk of the car and pulled out a pink Disney princess backpack. She balanced it on top of her suitcase and started for the front door.
A shout suddenly came from inside the house. "Olivia Benson! What in the world are you doing?"
Olivia's smile disappeared as her mother appeared in the driveway. "N-nothing, Mom."
"You're making a huge racket," growled her mother.
"I – I'm sorry," whispered Olivia, dropping the ball and hugging herself.
Alex turned to watch Serena Benson grab her daughter roughly by the hand and yank her into the house.
Alex averted her eyes and looked at her mother. "Mommy, can we go in?"
Her mother fumbled through her purse for the key. "Here we go." She unlocked the door and Alex, trying to push Olivia out of her mind, skipped inside.
"Where's my room?" asked Alex, kicking off her sneakers.
"I'll show you," said her mother, taking off her shoes and arranging them neatly on the mat. She dropped her bags on the ground. "Daddy will be in with the rest of your stuff in a few minutes. Come on."
Alex followed her mother upstairs to a pretty bedroom that they'd gotten painted pink. Alex's princess posters from her old house lined the walls and there was a canopy bed with a princess bedspread in the room. Alex smiled and flopped down on it. "Daddy brought my posters!"
Jennifer Cabot beamed at her daughter. "That's right. Do you want some help unpacking?"
Alex nodded and opened her suitcase. She started taking out t-shirts and pants and laid them on the bed as her mother neatly folded them and placed them in Alex's white chest of drawers.
Her father came upstairs a moment later and dropped two more bags in Alex's room. "Jennifer, come into our room. Alex is a big girl and she can do it herself."
Alex's mother bit her lip. "You okay, baby?"
Alex nodded. "Yeah. I'm going to tuck Lissie into the bed. She needs a nap." Lissie was what Alex called her doll, who she had named Melissa.
Her mother nodded and followed Devon Cabot into their bedroom. Alex stared after them for a moment before closing her door and tucking her doll into bed. "See, Lissie, this is where we're going to live now," she said. "This is where we're going to sleep and that's where are clothes are going to go and that's where –" She cringed as she heard a cry and then a whimper coming from the direction of her parents' room. She covered her ears with her hands and hugged her doll to her chest.
Alex drew open her blinds and stared out her window in an attempt to ignore the shrieks coming from her parents' room. She noticed that her window looked directly into Olivia's. She saw the brunette lying on her bed, curled on her side in the fetal position. Alex tapped lightly on the window and Olivia looked up and smiled. Alex opened her window as Olivia walked over to hers and opened it as well. "Hi, Alex," she said.
"Hi," said Alex with a shy smile. She noticed a dark bruise on Olivia's face. "What happened to your cheek?"
"Nothing," said Olivia quickly, her face immediately clouding and closing off.
Alex changed the subject. "Are you going to start school next week?"
"Yeah. Are you?"
Alex nodded. "Are you going to be in grade one?"
"Yeah. Are you?"
"Maybe we'll be in the same class."
"It's so cool how we can talk to each other like this," said Olivia with a smile. "Your room is pretty."
Alex smiled back. She glanced around Olivia at her room, which was very bare. She had a single bed and a few pictures taped to the wall, but the rest of the room was bare.
Olivia pointed at Alex's doll, lying underneath the covers of Alex's bed. "Your doll is pretty, too."
"Her name is Melissa, but I call her Lissie," explained Alex. "She's an American Girl doll. I got her when we were in Manhattan, where we used to live. We went to the American Girl Place for my birthday. It was my best birthday ever!"
A wistful, longing expression flashed across Olivia's face for a moment, but it was gone as rapidly as it had appeared.
"What did you do for your birthday?" asked Alex.
Olivia shrugged. "I don't know."
Alex smirked. "How do you not know what you did for your birthday?"
She shrugged again. "I guess it wasn't that big a deal."
"Oh." Alex didn't know what to say to that. Her parents had always made a huge deal out of every single one of her birthdays.
She heard a crash coming from Olivia's house and the brunette stepped back from the window. "I gotta go," she said to Alex. "Maybe I'll see you tomorrow."
"Okay. Bye, Olivia."
She heaved a sigh as Olivia closed her window and closed her blinds. She collapsed on her bed and hugged her doll, covering her ears with her hands to block out the screaming from down the hall.
"Lissie," she whispered to her doll. "I'll tell you a story, okay? Would you like that?" She made her doll nod. "Okay. Once upon a time, there was a princess and her name was Alex. Alex had a mommy and a daddy who were the king and queen and they loved her very much. She had a little sister named Sarah and Sarah was her best friend. They got into all sorts of adventures together. One day Sarah and Alex were outside riding their purple ponies and they picked purple flowers and put them in their hair and when they got back –"
Her story was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Can I come in?" asked her mother's soft voice.
Alex sighed. "Okay."
Jennifer Cabot opened the door and sat down on Alex's bed. Alex averted her eyes from the dark bruises on her mother's wrists, as if someone had grabbed her harshly. "How are you doing, sweetie?"
Alex shrugged. "I'm okay. I was telling Lissie a story."
"What's the story about?" asked her mother.
"A princess."
Jennifer gave her a wry smile. "Do you want to play a game?"
Alex shrugged again. "Where's Daddy?"
Her mother sighed. "Daddy's not feeling too well. He's lying down."
"Mommy, did he hurt you again?" whispered Alex.
She tried to smile, but it came out as more of a grimace. "No, honey. I'm fine."
"Then Mommy, what happened to your hands?"
Jennifer pulled down her sleeves. "I did something wrong and Daddy got upset."
Alex sighed as if she was bearing the weight of the world on her shoulders and rested her head on her mother's shoulder. She couldn't help but think of Olivia. "I met the girl who lives next door," she told her mother.
"That's nice. What's her name?"
"Olivia. She's six, like me."
"That's good. Maybe you guys will be in the same class when you start school on Tuesday."
"Maybe," agreed Alex.
Her mother stroked he hair. "Do you want me to read to you?"
"Okay." Alex got up to choose a book. She was a good reader and could read most picture books and some short chapter books by herself but she still enjoyed it when her mother read to her.
Jennifer Cabot cleared her throat and started the story. Alex sighed and cuddled up to her mother. It was the same every time, but that didn't stop Alex from basking in her mother's warmth while she could. Devon Cabot was usually a good man, but he would occasionally snap and attack his wife. Alex, even when she wasn't a direct witness, always saw the bruises afterward. Her mother would always spend time reading or playing games with her after these incidents, feeling guilty that her daughter had heard her husband hitting her.
Jennifer closed the book when she finished reading. "One more story?" begged Alex.
Her mother glanced at the clock. "Not right now, Lex. I need to start dinner. Do you want to help me?"
"Okay."
Alex climbed off the bed and slipped her hand into her mother's. Jennifer smiled at her daughter and they walked down the stairs into the kitchen together.
"What are we having for dinner, Mommy?" asked Alex.
"Daddy wanted some steak, so I thought maybe we'd make a salad, too. You can help me with the fruit. Wash your hands, Lex."
Alex rolled up her sleeves and turned on the sink. She lathered her hands with soap and washed them off.
Her mother handed her a container of strawberries. "Will you wash the strawberries for me?"
Alex nodded. She took them out, one strawberry at a time, and immersed them carefully in cold water.
Jennifer laughed when she saw what Alex was doing. "Alex, you can wash them all together, you know."
She shook her head. "I want them to be really clean."
"Okay, then," said her mother with a smile.
Alex finished washing the strawberries, then moved on to washing grapes.
"Honey, is dinner almost ready?" asked a voice. Both Alex and her mother jumped when they noticed Devon Cabot standing in the doorway.
"Yes, dear," replied Jennifer. "Alex is helping me with a fruit salad."
Devon nodded. "Ten minutes?"
"Yes," agreed Jennifer. "Alex, honey, will you set the table?"
Alex nodded and carried three plates to the table.
They ate dinner, then Jennifer Cabot tucked her daughter into bed. Alex gave her mother a butterfly kiss. "I love you, Mommy."
"I love you, too, Lex."
"Mommy," whispered Alex as her mother started to leave. "Stay with me."
"I can't, Lex. I'm going to go spend some time with Daddy."
Alex sighed. "Okay."
"Goodnight, Alex."
"Goodnight, Mommy," said Alex quietly as her mother left the room, closing the door behind her.
Alex sighed and curled up on the bed, clutching her doll to her chest and pressing her lips to Melissa's head. She tried to muffle the sounds that came from her parents' bedroom every night, the ones that she should have been used to by now but bothered her anyway. She lay in bed, listening to her mother's soft whimpering through the thin wall. She looked up at the ceiling and prayed.
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