Title: Saving Christmas

Author: ZombieJazz

Fandom: Law & Order: SVU

Disclaimer: I don't own them. Law and Order SVU and its characters belong to Dick Wolf. The characters of Jack and Benji have been created and developed for the sake of this AU series.

Summary: Olivia takes her adopted son on a Christmas outing, giving her the opportunity to reflect on the season, the growth of her family and all the changes in her life in the past year. A short holiday story in the Olivia/Jack/Benji AU.

Author's Notes: This AU series is for SVU fans and readers who want Olivia to have something that resembles a more normal life outside of work and a family of her own - hopefully somewhat realistically within the canon of SVU. Most of the chapters will ultimately take place outside of the work environment, so there aren't going to be too many references to cases from the show. But this story would generally be starting in about Season 15 of the show. Please let me know what you think and if you distribute elsewhere.

WARNING: THIS STORY MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR READERS OF "WELCOME HOME". NOTHING HUGE OR UNEXPECTED BUT IT IS A FLASH FORWARD FROM WHERE THE STORY IS CURRENTLY AT. IF YOU ARE CONCERNED, YOU MIGHT JUST WANT TO WAIT UNTIL THAT STORY REACHES ITS CHRISTMAS CHAPTERS.

Olivia gripped Benji's hand tightly and strained her neck trying to gauge the end of the seemingly endless line. Thankfully she seemed much more impatient about the queue than her son did. Benji seemed perfectly happy gazing at the displays of antique fire equipment and pumper trucks as they weaved through the Fire Museum on their way to the party room and their opportunity to meet Santa.

Olivia was sort of wondering how many tickets they sold to this thing. The email she'd gotten from the museum – because her and Benji had been in the place so many times they were pretty much on their membership list – had made it sound like it was a special event with limited tickets available. Based on the length of the line, she didn't think it was that exclusive. Though, based on the number of families that had been gathered outside to watch Santa's rescue, she was glad for the tickets. She didn't think many of the people without a pre-booked spot at the Christmas Café and Santa photo-op were going to get in during the three-hour period that Kris Kringle was scheduled to be in the building. She just hadn't really been envisioning having to stand in a line to even get to the event. She thought they were going to have three hours in the event – not that she thought they'd need that long. As it was, though, she thought it was more likely they were going to be handed their hot chocolate when they got into the 'café' and then be herded to stand and drink it in another line while they waited even longer to see Santa. It was like one of those hidden lines at a theme park – where you thought you were almost to the front only to discovery you hadn't reached the halfway point.

She supposed that it was good practice for if she got Benji into Macy's again for a holiday photo. She'd like to go again but she wasn't sure seeing two rather distinctly different Santas in a season would be the best course of action in maintain the magic and the mystery with her child. And, this Santa – though the event was definitely right up her son's alley – was definitely of far lower quality than the Santas in Macy's Santaland. But she couldn't really expect a volunteer at the non-profit 'museum' to have the realistic appearance or highly fabricated costume that were toted at the department store. She was almost hoping that Benji didn't notice or comment on the decreased authenticity of Santa's attire and beard here. That might not happen, though. Her little boy already had lots of questions.

"Mommy, why Santa slay-eh crash?" Benji asked her, looking up at her with big eyes.

She gave him a little shrug. "I don't know, Benj. He must've have some sort of sleigh malfunction."

"What kinda mal-funk-in?"

She gave him a smile and thought for a moment. "It was likely a problem with his reindeer," she suggested.

Benji thought about that for a moment. "Why didn't da firefighters rescue the ran-deer too?"

"Because they fly, Benj. They don't need rescuing. They can just fly down."

"But they didn't," her little boy said. "They still on the roof?"

Olivia smiled a bit more and shook her head. "No, Benj. I think the sleigh malfunction might've been a reindeer malfunction. I think they might've gotten away from Santa and sent his sleigh crashing."

"They just flew away and left him?" he gaped at her.

She shrugged. "Maybe they didn't realize what happened. They had to get back to the North Pole really fast," she tried.

She saw the mother in front of her giving her a glance at her son's line of questioning and her attempts to mitigate it before Benji stumbled onto the great truth about Santa. She thought that the woman might ask her to try to hush up her son before Benji ruined it for the two small children she had with her. Though, they looked too engrossed in their whine about the line to be hearing anything her and Benji were talking about. And, ultimately the woman get gave her a small smile before turning back to her own children.

"Without Santa?" Benji said with some disbelief.

"Well, it wasn't an accident, Benj," she said. "I'm sure they'll come back to get him. It's just a good thing he crashed where the firefighters could help him so quickly."

Benji nodded hard. "Becuz firefighters brave and da bestest."

She gave him a smile and swung his hand in hers a bit. "That's what you keep on telling me."

"It true, Mommy. It not a lie," he assured her.

"Oh, I know, Little Fox. I believe you," Olivia said.

Benji glanced around the exhibit room they were in again and let out a little sigh. "Da line very long to look at all the firetrucks," her son told her. "It go soooooo slowly!"

She let out a little snorted and smiled down at him. "Sweetheart, we're standing in line to go see Santa and make sure he's OK. They're just letting us look at the firetrucks while we wait."

"It hard to see," Benji told her.

She smiled a bit. "It's a little crowded," she allowed. "But we've been here lots before. And we'll be back another time. So you'll be able to look better then."

Benji squinted at her like that was not an appropriate answer. She didn't know how many times they could visit the Fire Museum but apparently they hadn't reached Benji's threshold to become bored with it yet. Sometimes she wondered if they ever would. She knew she missed they got a new exhibit more often because she thought she could only look at the antique trucks and equipment and participate in the fire safety exercises so many times. But at least it was an easy – and cheap – way to keep her son entertained for an afternoon when she couldn't stand dealing with his rambunctiousness anymore.

"Can we go play on firetruck after we see Santa?" Benji asked.

Olivia let out a little sigh at that. "We'll see, Benjamin. This is going to take a while and lots of kids are likely going to be wanting to sit in the firetruck. And we've got to go and meet Brian."

"Where Brian?"

"He's at work, sweetheart," she told him again for about the hundredth time that day.

Brian had already missed his hockey practice that morning and Benji's established expectation that the man would be at his Saturday morning sports had meant that there'd been a constant stream of questioning about where he was. Olivia was a little pissed off too. Tucker had dropped sending him on some U.C. task with barely enough time for Brian to call her and let her know. Thankfully it'd just been Friday night. But he'd spent all Saturday at the office dealing with interviews and paperwork in the fall out of the case. But it was his job. He took it seriously. She understood that – and she wanted him to keep taking it seriously. She knew he still hoped he'd get to move out of the IAB eventually – and he had to be a team player and play by the rules to make that happen. And, she really couldn't be upset with him. She ended up getting called in on enough evenings and weekends that she was in no position to offer up any sort of commentary. It was just growing tiresome to have her son constantly asking.

It wasn't helped that Jack was at work too. But that was a usual Saturday phenomenon that Benji only needed a handful of reminders and reassurances about. And, even if Jack had had the afternoon off Olivia highly doubted he would've subjected himself to this outing. Santa, lines, crowds and firetrucks – especially when combined with Benji – was not her teen's thing. Though, of course, when she'd texted him to say that Brian would be getting out of work around the end of his shift too, and wanted to take them out for dinner, Jack had been quick to respond.

"Where?" he'd asked.

"Shake Shack," she'd provided.

"I'll be there," had come back almost instantly. She knew it would. She wasn't sure where exactly Brian had wanted to eat – not likely Shake Shack – but she also knew the best way to guarantee their family would be together for dinner, and that was to offer up burgers to her oldest.

"Buy-in catching bad guys?" Benji asked – again.

She nodded. "Yep. He caught a bad guy last night and now he's doing all the boring police work that you don't care about."

"De-tech-ive work," Benji muttered. Mommy and Brian's jobs were boring unless it involved catching bad guys. She'd attempted to explain to him that their jobs involved a lot more than that. It resulted in him deciding that 'real police' have much better jobs than detectives. Detectives were boring. Some days she wished her job was mundane and boring. It might make for a better day and workweek – and a safe, more justice city and world.

Benji continued to gaze at the displays as they inched forward. He asked her to read a few of the panels to him at his favorite ones. She'd read them to him so often before that she could almost recite them by heart. She was probably starting to know the history of some of the apparatus in the museum better than some of the historians onsite.

"Mommy, why Santa here?" Benji asked suddenly.

"Because he crashed," she clarified again while looking at one of the dates on the plaques that seemed new to her.

"No why he here when it not Christmas? Why him flying him slay-eh?"

"Oh …" Olivia allowed and looked at him, trying to collect her thoughts to talk circles around that one. "Well … Santa has to come to the city each year so all the children can tell him what they'd like for Christmas. He must've been on the way when he crashed."

Benji nodded like that was an acceptable explanation. She thanked God for that.

"Mommy, maybe he crashed becuz we not wearing jammies," he suggested after a moment.

She squinted down at him, giving him a questioning look. "I don't know, Benj," she said. "I'm not sure that would make him crash."

"But without magic jammies maybe his magic not working right!" Benji protested.

"Oh …" Olivia let out as his memory of the previous Christmas' 'magic PJs' dawned on her. "I guess maybe that could've been it, Benj. You could ask him when you get to talk to him."

"Maybe we should go home and put on magic jammies to help Santa fix him slay-eh!" Benji near yelled.

Other people glanced at them in the line and Olivia gave him a thin smile and reached to smooth down her son's messy and static hair that she didn't think she was going to have tamed in time for his picture with Santa. At least not unless her excused herself from the line and took him to the bathroom to wet it down. But there was no way she was going to lose their place in line to do that. So instead she was starting to contemplate using the spit and polish technique. Or she'd just leave it and settle on dragging him into Macy's for a better photo another weekend. He clearly had a lot of questions about Santa anyways.

So she just nodded. "OK, Benj. I'll see if I can find your magic jammies when we get home. But they might not fit anymore. You've grown since last Christmas."

Benji gaped at her. "MAGIC JAMMIES NOT FIT!" he yelled at the top of his lungs and attracted even more attention to them.

Olivia put her finger to her lips and hushed him. "Benjamin, we are inside. You use an indoor voice."

He squinted at her for a moment, clearly unimpressed with her not understanding the gravity of the situation. "Mommy! How can Santa come if magic jammies not fit? Then the magic not work and Santa cannot come becuz we might see him and he can not come then!"

She smiled a bit and stroked at his cheek. Apparently she'd established a fairly believable story for Santa and how he worked in the eyes of her little boy. But it also seemed she'd a little inadvertently established a Christmas tradition. She wasn't too upset by that, though. It'd be one she'd be happy to keep for him.

"Then I guess after Santa gets settled into Santaland we'll have to go see him at Santaland so you can make sure Dandy brings you new magic jammies for this Christmas Eve," she told him.

"Dandy not here?" he gaped.

"I haven't seen her," Olivia provided. She doubted they'd seen 'Dandy' at Macy's again either but she'd just shrub the name off on some other seasonal employee.

Benji let out a big sigh. "Santa never going to be able to fix him slay-eh."

"I'm sure the reindeer and the elves are working on figuring out how to fix it in time for Christmas," Olivia assured. "And, Santa needs to be in the city anyway. Remember, he's here so all the kids can tell him what they'd like this Christmas."

Benji sighed again like the situation was mounting to awful levels at which he had no idea how they were going to resolve themselves before Christmas. Olivia was going to have to come up with some sort of narrative to calm him or else he was likely going to stew. The funny Santa rescue was starting to seem like it was getting a little confusing for him. She'd have to get Jack to do up some mock news story that she could print out and read to Benji about the sleigh being fixed and Santa getting to Santaland and Christmas going ahead as scheduled. Or hope that the volunteer Santa had some sort of prepared narrative to give to inquisitive little kids. Surely Benji couldn't be the only child in line a little concerned about the status of the sleigh and Christmas preparations.

"What do you think you're going to ask Santa for for Christmas?" Olivia asked trying to change topics.

He looked up at her. "Rescue Bots," he said completely matter-of-factly.

Olivia rubbed her eyebrow. "Of course …" she allowed. She knew that was what he was asking for. What else would he ask for. "Are there any Rescue Bots you don't have, Benj?"

Benji nodded. "But I ask Santa for Rescue Bot Dinobot," he told her excitedly. "TREX OPTIMUS!"

Olivia smiled. The latest season of Rescue Bots was a winner. They'd clearly caught onto the popularity of the Switch and Go Dinos and were trying to cash in on that too. Or not. Brian claimed the original Transformer series went prehistoric at one point too. Olivia offered no comment on that. The combination of alien robots from another planet that could transform into dinosaurs and time travel was just too ridiculous to reflect on.

"No Heatwave brontosaurus?"

Benji puckered at that. "Asking for two toys greedy," he told her.

She smiled at that and smoothed out his hair again. "You're such a good and unselfish boy, Little Fox," she told him and he huddled against her with the praise. "You want Optimus T-Rex more than Heatwave Brontosaurus?"

Benji nodded against her stomach as he cuddled into a loose hug. She nodded in agreement too, though she was a little surprised by that assertion. Though, she supposed that nothing could compared to Heatwave the Firetruck so why dilute that awesomeness with a dinosaur? Little boy logic?

"That sounds like a good present to ask Santa for," she provided. "But, Benj, maybe you should come up with an idea that isn't a Rescue Bot? Just in case Santa's Workshop isn't making Rescue Bots this year."

"Santa bring Rescue Bots at Christmas," Benji said.

Olivia nodded. She hoped that wasn't one of Benji's routine impositions. Santa brings Rescue Bots at Christmas. Who knows how many Christmases she'd be buying Rescue Bots and Transformers if that's what he related to the Jolly Elf.

"I know he did," she said, "and I know how much you love the Rescue Bots Santa brought you last year. But I think you should ask him for a back-up toy, just in case."

The truth was, she'd really like to get some diversity in his toy box. It was pretty Rescue Bot and Hot Wheels heavy. There had to be some way to fix it up a bit.

"Lego," Benji finally provided after a lengthy pause.

Olivia smiled and looked down at him, caressing at his arm while he continued to lean against her. "Lego? That's a really good idea, Benj."

He nodded. "Firetruck Lego," he clarified

She gazed at him at that. "You got firetruck Lego for your birthday."

He nodded again. "More firetruck Lego."

Olivia rolled her eyes. "Ah … of course."

She was never going to escape the firefighter appeal. It just kept becoming clearer that this wasn't a phase he was going to outgrow any time soon. But at least it made gift picking easy.

Benji looked up at her with his puppy dog eyes. "It good," he told her, like he could almost hear her thoughts on the matter.

She gave him a more sincere smile. "It is good," she told him. "And you're a good boy. Good boys are on Santa's nice list."

"I good," Benji said.

She nodded. "You're my fantastic Little Fox. You're very good."