1

Forever

Chapter 2

Olivia and Munch found themselves at the bottom of the stairs very quickly, staring right into the Special Victims Unit squad room. The SVU squad room seemed to be staring right back. Fin and Elliot were giving them both curious and almost demanding looks. In an almost comic display, Cragen chose that exact moment to peak out at them from inside his office.

Still frozen to the spot, the two detectives gave each other a sideways glance and sighed. Olivia was reminded vaguely of a particular incident in her childhood, another more dramatic time where she was nothing more but a deer caught in the headlights. She winced in pain from just the memory of it...

"Johnny! Come on!" Olivia tiptoed through the dark corridors of the floor her apartment was on. John reluctantly followed.

"Why are we going in your apartment?"

"You are not going anywhere, mister. You're going to stand outside the door and wait. The only reason I brought you with me is because I didn't want to be ambushed by some creep on the way here."

"Gee...thanks." He drawled. "It's 12:30. Shouldn't you be in bed?" He asked, changing the topic.

"I'm twelve, Johnny, not five." She said impatiently as she reached into her pocket and brought out her apartment key, "I'm just going to run in and get something out of my room, I want to show you something. Wait here."

"Yes ma'am!" He laughed, saluting in an exaggerated fashion. She gave him a withering look, and went inside. Once she closed the door behind her, she immediately became nervous.

What if her mom woke up? What if she accidently broke something? Almost immediately, a horrifying thought struck her. Was one of her mom's boyfriends here? Oh god...if he found her sneaking around he might beat her up...or worse. Olivia shuddered, and began to back away, towards the door. She immediately decided that whatever she had come in for (she had forgot in her panic), was not worth risking a beating.

Lost in her nervous thoughts and determined concentration, she tripped clumsily over one of her mother's briefcases. She was falling backwards, just falling...falling...BANG!

The faint snoring she heard coming from her mother's room suddenly stopped, and she watched, frozen on her back like an overturned turtle, as a tall, darkly handsome man stepped cautiously out into the hall.

"Who's there?..." He flipped the light switch, and came face to face with her pathetic, pain riddled form.

"You!" He accused in a fury. "You're Serena's daughter! The little devil child...she told me all about YOU!" He kneeled down next to her, smiled maliciously, and grabbed her firmly by the chin. "You cause my sweetheart a lot of trouble, you know that?"

And then, without warning, he hit her. Olivia cried out in agony as his large fists came down on her face and chest again and again.

"JOHNNY!!!!" It seemed like hours before John opened the door, nearly kicking it down in his panic. He watched, frozen for only a split second as his best friend was brutally beat on. She screamed again, and he was immediately brought back to his senses. Olivia watched in shock and awe as John grabbed a vase on a nearby side table, and brought it down on the man's head. He crumpled to the ground, knocked out cold. Olivia squirmed out from underneath him, wincing and holding her head as she did so. John rushed over to her.

"Don't move, Livvie, it's okay, it's okay." He picked her up gently, carried her down the hall, up the stairs, and on to the roof. Adrenaline still making him feel stronger than he normally ever would be. He took off his jacket and set it on the ground, placing Olivia on top of it. Then he kneeled down beside her, brushed her hair away from all her wounds, and cradled her as she cried.

Olivia was startled out of her dreamlike state by a sharp poke in the shoulder from Munch. He looked at her with barely hidden concern, and then looked back at Fin and Elliot, who were still staring. Olivia looked at the clock on the opposite wall and blinked as she realized that only a minute had passed during the course of her daydream. With a sigh, she rolled her eyes at the two curious men before her and asked impatiently, "what?"

"Oh...um..." As if he just realized he was staring, Elliot looked towards the ground and pretended that he never even noticed they came in.

John smirked and addressed his partner, "What's wrong Fin? Is there something on my face? Is my shirt backwards?" Fin had no reaction to Munch's sarcasm. Instead, he asked with an authority that he didn't really possess,

"What the hell were you two doing up there for so long?"

Olivia and Munch looked at each other meaningfully. Olivia then turned back and said to Fin defensively, "What do you think? We were just talking!" Munch nodded in agreement, successfully hiding his smirk.

"Uh huh." Drawled Fin, still skeptical, at the same time Elliot coughed to cover up his laugh of disbelief.

'Well,' Thought Olivia, as they finally moved away from the stairs and approached their confused partners.

'I guess we have to tell them sometime.'

Munch's thoughts were along the same lines. He sighed, leaned down a bit as they were walking, and whispered in his (as of today) girlfriend's ear,

"Let's get this over with."

TBC