Disclaimer: Dick Wolf owns Law and Order SVU and the characters. I only own this idea for the story and the new characters.
Chapter 29: Knights
Olivia had asked Hannah a few times where they were going, but she hadn't really gotten a straight answer. Then again, the detective thought, what does a street kid do all day? Walk around, probably.
So far, she'd been talking to a bunch of people they passed. Shop owners, locals, homeless people and even kids. Olivia had to pull off some boy she got into a fight with over… Olivia didn't even know. But everyone seemed to know her: some yelled at her and some talked to her in a kind voice. Hannah didn't really seem affected by either. It was just part of an old routine.
'Hey,' Hannah greeted a guy, who was sitting on the sidewalk. 'Got one for me?'
He looked up and grumbled something. His dog woke up and started wagging his tale when he saw Hannah. Then he flashed his teeth once he noticed Olivia, growling at her to stay back.
'It's okay.' Hannah bend down and patted his rough coat. 'Look, I got you something.' She pulled out a piece of meat from her pocket and gave it to the dog. The homeless man smiled at her. Only then he gave Hannah the cigarette she wanted.
'Take care, kid.' He said to her, as she took it. Olivia protested, but Hannah ignored her.
Olivia was about to ask her where she got the meat from all of a sudden, but then remembered they passed a market. She knew all about Hannah's skills in that department.
'Give me the cig.' Olivia demanded.
'No.' Hannah refused simply, 'I might need it.'
'You're not smoking that.'
'What'ya gonna do about it?' Hannah got mad. 'Besides, I might need it to trade for food.'
Olivia didn't want to fight with her right now, but she stopped Hannah anyways. 'You know the story: I want you safe and healthy, so give me that thing.'
'You don't know shit about life on the streets! I'm not throwing anything away, just like that!' Hannah yelled.
'Give me.' Olivia repeated, holding out her hand, but she didn't raise her voice.
Hannah handed it over, while rolling her eyes, but she smirked internally when Olivia put the cigarette in her pocket.
Later, Olivia said she had to use the bathroom. Hannah directed her to the nearest McDonalds. It was interesting to Olivia, this insight into Hannah's life before she knew her. It seemed hell, even more so because of the ease with which Hannah moved through this hard world.
She trusts me enough to believe I'm not running away, Hannah thought, as she lit up her cigarette. A few quick drags made her head spin a little; it had been a while since she smoked, but still it relaxed her. She'd be half way through the smoke at least, before Olivia would come back, she figured. She'd get mad at her, but it was worth it.
And yes. 'Hannah!' Olivia yelled when she came out, 'Put that out, now!' But Hannah jumped away, as Olivia tried to grab at her wrist.
'It relaxes me!' Hannah emphasized, taking another quick drag.
'Well, it stresses me the fuck out!' Olivia threw back, then realizing she wasn't supposed to swear in front of her girl.
'I'll run.' Hannah threatened.
'No, you won't.' Olivia said, her anger fading. 'You're stressed?' She wrapped her arms around the little girl, holding her head with one hand, while she took the cigarette with the other.
'You don't need that shit.' She said, while throwing her smoke in the gutter. 'We'll be fine.'
Hannah let her head drop against Olivia's stomach and sighed.
'So what do we do now?' Hannah asked, sounding very young.
'Would it be okay if we go back to my place?' Olivia tried. She held her breath as she waited for Hannah's reply. 'Just so I can shower.' She added, casually.
Olivia felt Hannah stiffen in her arms. The little girl looked up at Olivia. 'Do whatever you want. You have an apartment. I don't get what you're doing here anyways.'
'I'm not going without you.' Olivia said.
'I need to pick something up.'
'It's not safe for you to be alone in the city.'
'It is for me,' Hannah's eyes seemed to burn, 'So trust me.'
Olivia shook her head. She didn't like this, she didn't like this at all.
'I can come to your apartment later.' Hannah said. She looked determined and left no room for argument.
'Come to my place in a few hours,' Olivia said sternly, 'If you don't show I'm sending the entire police squad after you!' Hannah sighed, so Olivia knew her threat had the desired effect.
'Fine.'
'And don't smoke!' she added.
'Fine.'
Can't wait till she's a teenager, Olivia thought.
'Hey, Liv,' Hannah started, 'Thanks for trusting me.'
Olivia smiled, even though she was still a little worried.
Back at her apartment, anxiety really set in. She swore to herself she'd never let Hannah go like that again. Or maybe she should, Hannah shouldn't feel trapped. Olivia was torn between Hannah's obvious independence in the big city and the memories of that little girl's abuse. She'd never seen a small back like hers beaten purple with a belt, with the imprint of a buckle scourged in her flesh…
Eventually Olivia decided she really needed a shower. She could smell herself and it wasn't pretty. Also, she needed to stop worrying. If Hannah hadn't come back after that, Olivia decided, she'd… truth was, Olivia didn't really have a plan. Being a mother sucks!
There was no need to worry after all, because when she came out of the shower, wrapped in nothing but two towels, Hannah was sprawled out on her couch.
'What do you do in that shower?' she called out, 'you took hours in there!'
'I just…'
'I take it back,' Hannah held up a hands, 'I don't wanna know.'
Olivia put her hands on her hips, squinting her eyes at Hannah's implication.
'Yeah, that really doesn't make you look more scary.' Hannah said, raising one eyebrow, 'dressed all… classy.' She chose the word with care, eyeing Olivia slowly.
'You're just looking for trouble, aren't you?' Olivia said. But inside she was jumping up and down with joy: Hannah, the confident troublemaker, was back!
'Always.' Hannah smirked, proudly. Olivia took off the towel that was wrapped around her head. She spun it around a few times and flicked it towards Hannah on the couch. She just dodged it.
As Hannah was about to open her mouth again, ready to make another smart comment, Olivia held up one finger, her eyes twinkling, 'You might want to reconsider.'
Hannah held up her hands, but she kept silent.
'Good choice.' Olivia turned around and walked off to her bedroom to get dressed.
'Just wanted to mention I loooooved your singing when you were in the shower.' Hannah called after her, cheekily.
'Just wait…' Olivia growled as she kept on walking. She looked over her shoulder, with what was meant to be a threatening look. Instead she just burst out laughing and Hannah did the same thing. 'Just wait!' Olivia warned again.
She quickly got dressed. Peeking into the living room a few times, just to make sure Hannah was okay, she saw a perfectly relaxed little girl flicking through the pages of her People Magazine. It filled Olivia's heart with joy to see her like that, and with just a little bit of embarrassment because of the magazines she read.
When she was ready, she came running out of the bedroom and jumped on the couch with a battle cry. Hannah screamed as well and laughed at the same time.
'You're crazy!' Hannah giggled, as she tried to get the upper hand on the couch.
'You're dealing with a police officer, sweetheart,' Olivia laughed, 'Show some respect!'
'O, well in that case..' Hannah picked up the nearest pillow and whacked Olivia round the head with it. Olivia gasped dramatically and Hannah tried to flip them over at the same time.
It all sort of went south, when Olivia tried to avoid the pillow the second time Hannah attacked. They rolled onto the floor and both girls screamed again. In a tangle of limbs, they lay on the carpet. It took a while before they were able to stop giggling.
'You act like a kid sometimes.' Hannah said, turning to Olivia. She looked so carefree and happy, Olivia thought
'It's fun.' Olivia said. She looked relaxed, Hannah thought.
'Yeah…'
'Wanna stay here?' Olivia asked her.
'On the floor?' Hannah asked her, not understanding.
'Yeah! We can order pizza and watch a movie or something.'
Hannah nodded enthusiastically, 'Oh! I have an idea,' The little girl jumped up, 'We need to build a fort!' She started throwing every blanket and pillow there was in the house towards Olivia.
'You're burying me alive here!' Olivia called out, sticking one hand out of the heap and waving it around as if she was calling for help.
Hannah uncovered her with a big smile on her face, 'You were squashing me, remember.'
'I'll go order that pizza. I'm hoping for a fort to return to!'
Olivia picked up the phone and started dialing the number. She pulled up her eyebrows as Hannah started dragging furniture everywhere. When the bell rang, a little bit later, Hannah sprinted after Olivia to the door. A scruffy teenager in a terrible outfit stood in the doorway, holding their pizzas. He looked out of it, until he saw Hannah.
'Hey, dude!' he called over to her, holding up a hand.
Hannah slapped his hand, followed by some complicated handshake, 'Hey, dude.'
'You two know each other?' Olivia asked surprised.
'Yeah, dude,' the delivery boy said to Olivia, 'me and her go way back.'
'I used to work there for a while.' Hannah explained.
'Until she ate her deliveries.' He grinned.
Olivia smiled. It was good to know that not the whole of New York City hated her little girl.
'Take care, dude.' He high-fived her again as he left.
'See ya!' Hannah took Olivia's hand and led her to their fort. It was an amazing structure of almost every piece of furniture in the house, covered with lots of blankets and Olivia also recognized some of her clothes in there. Inside she'd dumped all the pillows and her baseball duvet.
'That looks awesome, dude,' Olivia said, mimicking the delivery boy. 'No really, I've always wanted to build something like this when I was a kid.'
'So why didn't you?' They crawled inside.
Olivia shrugged. 'My mother…' she didn't really feel like explaining.
'Well, now you can!' Hannah said upbeat.
Olivia smiled at her and stroked her hair for a second. 'I'm lucky to have you.'
Then she realized with a shock she really didn't have any movies for kids. She didn't have that many movies at all, and most were very much not for kids!
'What're we gonna watch?' Hannah asked at once, looking at her with anticipation.
'Uhh…' Olivia stuttered, 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith?' she thought out loud. Hannah would love that one and it was one of Olivia's favorites. 'No, no, no, you're way too young for that one.'
'What's it about?'
'About a married couple, who are both secret agents, and both get the job to kill the other. But they don't really want to after a while, so they just fight the agency.' Hannah stared at her, not even eating her pizza. 'It's funny. It's just chaos of fighting and them yelling at each other and other people trying to blow them up.' Olivia added. She felt sort of dumb.
'I WANNA SEE IT!' Hannah turned to face the TV. Guess there was no changing her mind then.
Olivia had forgotten how much she actually loved this movie. It was crazy and just so funny. Hannah laughed at every action scene and seemed to enjoy every second of the movie.
'Wish we could live in this fort forever.' She said, after the movie was done.
'Ahh, that's why we need to defend the fort,' Olivia said. 'Tomorrow we'll face the attackers of our home.'
'Like we're knights.' Hannah nodded.
'Like knights, with our shield and sword.'
'We don't have those.' Hannah said, leaning closer.
'Sure we do! We have my badge: the golden shield, and your right hook: better than any sword.'
Hannah grinned.
'They don't stand a chance.' Olivia whispered, reassuring her. Hannah crawled into Olivia's arms, with her baseball duvet wrapped around her.
That night, both knights slept inside the fort.
I really don't want to sound ungrateful, so once again, thanks to all my followers and most of all the people who review: I seriously love you all! Every review is more of a reason to keep writing :D
