Title: Her Negotiation
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 Will (and his family) and Noah have been created and developed for the sake of this AU series.
Summary: What would happen if the Season 14/Season 15 finale and premiere were set in the AU of Liv/Will/Noah? Cragen sends Olivia home for a couple days after working the William Lewis case. She hasn't heard from her husband or son for several hours when she walks into their unusually quiet house.
"William," May sighed as she looked at him hunched over the dining room table – their laptop in front of him and his father's police scanner crackling next to him, "why don't you go back and lay down again with Noah?"
He didn't even glance at her. "He's fine," Will said flatly.
She wanted to scream at him that the little boy was no fine. Not after what he'd just been through – probably not ever again.
Noah had been holding it together in a way that seemed far too mature for a boy his age the day before. But it was clear that that was only because the full extent of the situation hadn't quite set in yet. The boy was traumatized. He was in utter shock. He was in denial for his own self-preservation.
It had only continued after they'd gotten Will and Noah back to their home. They'd both sat like statues on that living room couch – in the dark and unmoving, silent – for hours. May had thought their eerie blank presence in the room was almost more terrifying than what they'd heard of what they'd endured. It scared her – and it scared her more to think that that's what a few hours had done to her two boys. What would now more than 36 hours do to Olivia?
They'd both sat so quietly until the wee hours of the morning when there must've been a shift change on the officers parked in front of their house. Someone must've accidentally flicked the switch for the sirens ever so briefly. But it was like that wail had pulled Noah out of his chance and the sobbing had begun. The little boy had wept so that he near convulsed and hyperventilated. May was near at the point that she was about cry out to the officers that they needed go to the hospital. Instead she'd settled for calling over their EMT son from next door. His presence only threw Noah into a further fit. So her nurse daughter-in-law had been called instead and they'd gentle managed to get Noah to breath again in normal breaths. His crying had continued, though, until his body had finally collapsed exhausted.
The poor child had been awake for near two days at that point. He needed his sleep. But even in his sleep his body had writhed under its memories. May was sure he'd only be asleep for minutes before the monster entered his dreams and he was sent into another terror. But his mind and body must've had other plans and had taken his consciousness for several hours now.
She'd hoped that Will would lay in rest too. That he'd find some of his own sleep – a brief escape from the torment of the day. But, though, he'd laid with his son for some time and stroked gently at his back and head and face – trying to calm him – it had only lasted briefly. All too soon Will had appeared back on the main level of the house – leaving his son alone. May could only imagine the terror that might set into Noah again when he awoke in an empty room. She thought if Will wasn't going to go back up to be with his child – she would have to. Still, she loathed leaving her child alone in the dining room too.
Theodore had retreated to his work shed. She didn't know what he was doing. She suspected he was building some sort of crossbow or other instrument of torture for if they ever caught the man who harmed his daughter-in-law, further robbed his grandson of his childhood and had added more trauma to his son in his fleeting effort to find happiness and normalcy. Really, though, she suspected her husband was experiencing too much anger, too much sadness, and just too many emotions that might somehow betray his manhood that he'd retreated to be alone for the moment while he thought his son and grandson were sleeping.
"I really think you should be with Noah when he wakes up," May stressed to him.
Will's eyes shifted to her briefly from the computer screen but he made no comment. The radio scanner crackled again and a fractured voice could be heard over a transmission somewhere in the city. Her son's eyes snapped to it and he looked at it like he could see the words and they'd provide the piece of the puzzle he needed.
May sighed. "William, your father already told you that they are likely on radio silence about this," she said. "You aren't going to hear anything – and even if you did, they're speaking in code."
"Mmm…" he made a listening sound but clicked more on the computer.
The crackle came again and a voice started.
"William …" she spoke above it.
But he snapped at her. "QUIET," he near yelled. His eyes bolting to her, the radio and then his computer screen.
"11-99. 10-49 to East Northport. Address to follow," the voice over the radio crackled. "Code 2. 11-41. No 10-15. Reported 207. 217, possible 261."
May watched as Will clicked madly around on the computer, as his eyes grew wide and he bolted from his seat, near running to the front door.
"William?" she called after him.
He stopped long enough to look at their key hooks by the door and slam his hand against the wall as he fumbled around with them.
"The keys?" he demanded for her, his eyes filling with anger. "Where are the truck keys?"
"William what are you doing?" she near cried at him.
He gestured madly over at the table. "It's Olivia," he yelled at her. "They've found her."
May's tears did start at that. "Oh, William. You don't know that. They're speaking in code. Her captain will call as soon as they have word."
"Officer needs help," he said slowly and purposefully at her. "Proceed to East Northport. Address to follow," he said and his eyes grew wider and he bolted back across the room to snatch the radio up into his hand. "Urgent. No lights or sirens. Proceed with caution. Ambulance on standby requested. Prisoner not yet in custody. Previously reported kidnapping victim. Suspected assault with attempt to murder, possible rape. That's what it said."
May shook her head madly. "William – it could be anything. Anyone. You don't know what they said."
"I looked up the codes online, mother," he spat at her. "It's Olivia. WHERE ARE THE KEYS?"
"William …" she near begged him. "You shouldn't go. Let them do their job. They'll call when they have information for us."
He glared at her and then scooped all the keys off the hooks and pulled open the door and stormed out the front of it and down the steps to the pickup – pulling open their near always unlocked doors and throwing himself in to the point he winced on impact. She saw him then take on set of keys and start trying to determine which set belonged to their vehicle.
May heaved and hurried through the house to the backdoor and screamed out to the shed. "Ted! Ted!" He appeared looking startled and concerned. "Oh, it's William. It's William," she cried. "He thinks they found Olivia. He's trying to go."
Ted started jogging as much as his aged knees would take him across the back lawn. She pointed around the side of the house.
"He's in the drive," she said. "He's in the truck."
He nodded and made his way along the end of the house. May charged back through the house and stood on the front porch and watched while William continued to struggle with the keys.
"William," she cried. "Come back inside. Noah needs you. Please."
"Olivia needs me," he screamed at her and fumbled with another key until this time the engine revved to life and he slammed his door shut just as his father pounded his hand on the hood.
"Wait, Willie, wait," Ted pleaded. "I'll go with you."
Will seemed to stop for a moment as he eyed his father but let him round the hood of the car and pull himself into the passenger seat, giving his wife a glance. But then the vehicle revved again and peeled down the drive way.
May's tears started streaming more. She thought they should be relief but instead she was now more terrified about what her son and husband would be walking into – what it would all mean and what they'd see. What they didn't need to see.
As the truck squealed down the street she watched as the young uniformed officers in the cruisers watched it for a moment and then their sirens sprung to life and started to chase after her husband and son. She wondered how far they would get or if it would be a high-speed chase all the way to, and across, Long Island.
