Disclaimer: Dick Wolf owns Law and Order SVU and the characters. I only own this idea for the story and the new characters.

Chapter 36: Summer

At first, Hannah was a bit skeptical about the camp Elliot had talked about. She didn't really want to be away from Olivia for that long. But then Elliot told her about all the fun things they did at camp and, most important, it was a day camp: she would still sleep at home. Even Lizzie and Dickie tried to talk Hannah into going. They talked about the games they'd play, doing artwork, cooking and eating together with lots of kids and last year they even went sailing! Hannah was convinced.

The word 'summer' got a whole new meaning that summer. Hannah had never been to school, so she'd never had summer vacation. Summer meant nothing more to her than the temperatures going up and life on the streets getting just a little bit easier. Now it made sense to her why all kids counted the days till vacation started.

Camp was just awesome. The first day Hannah was shy for about a second; then she noticed all the kids fought to shout the loudest and that was one competition she was used to and good at. They played touch football on the first day and Hannah got quite a reputation after that. She refused to play with the girls and bossed the boys around. Elliot watched her telling Dickie what to do and was relieved when Dickie at least talked back to her.

'She's fast.' Dickie commented after the game.

'She sure is.' Elliot nodded.

'But I'm better at overseeing the game though.' He quickly added, 'She's a girl. She doesn't understand.'

Olivia and Elliot still had to work, so Olivia was glad Hannah could have fun all day long, even though she had little time for her. Just at night, around nine usually, Olivia or Elliot had to pick her up. Olivia loved seeing her then and it was clear the girl had missed her too. She'd spend almost an hour talking about what she did at camp; a lot of things were new to her. She's never played with this many kids, she'd never baked a cake and decorated it, she'd never done pottery or painted watercolors and she'd never made a macaroni necklace. Olivia had never gotten a macaroni necklace either.

'O, and I baked cookies too. Dickie didn't want to, he said it was for kids, so he and the older kids played some more football. But I baked a cookie in the shape of your golden shield! I wanted to show you, but I ate it…'

Olivia smiled at the little girl's rattling.

'Me and Kevin climbed a tree and swung this rope all the way down. It was so cool! And kind of scary, but we did it anyways. Kevin's my friend. O, and they taught me a song. They all knew it, but I didn't, because I never went to church. It was about Jesus being your friend and stuff… But it was fun! They taught us this dance with it too. A little girl taught me how to do it. Her name was Jess…'

Olivia opened up the fridge and tried to find something to eat in there. She took out a plastic bowl and took the lid off. Then she picked up a fork and started eating the salad, while sitting on the counter and listening to Hannah.

'You know what? Tomorrow we'll be doing arche…archerous…archy…whatever'

'Archery?' Olivia laughed.

'Yeah, shooting arrows! And I get to shoot with the big bow! I asked and he said it was okay. And we'll paint again and I get to paint a big picture this time. Last time I painted the church and I drew an elephant. Only I couldn't find the grey, so my elephant was orange…'

Hannah tried to climb up on the counter as well, but couldn't really pull herself up. She went over and started dragging a chair to the kitchen.

'Come here, baby.' Olivia motioned for Hannah to come to her. 'I'll help you.' And she lifted Hannah up and sat her down next to her. Then she put an arm around her.

'Do I get to see this orange elephant?' Olivia asked, 'It sounds very exotic.'

'Sure… O, wait. I left it in Elliot's car. You can have it later.' Hannah said.

'You're really having fun at camp, huh?' Olivia smirked.

'Yes!' Hannah exclaimed, 'But how was your day?'

Olivia laughed out loud at her sudden change of subject. 'It was fine, sweetheart.'

'I bet you saw terrible things again. You see terrible shit every day.' Hannah said, being very serious.

'But then I come home and have you and an orange elephant waiting for me.' Olivia nudged her gently, 'and you're all smiles and that makes it all okay.'

'Really?' Hannah smiled up at her.

'Really.'

On the forth day of camp the youth leaders took all the kids to the swimming pool, but Hannah refused. The leaders didn't understand what was going on at all; she'd been happy all week and now she simply refused and stopped talking all together. She just didn't want to go.

'But why don't you want to go?' Elias, one of the youth workers, asked her again.

'I just don't.' Hannah kept on repeating.

'You like me right?' Elias tried again. Hannah did like him; he was one of her favorites. 'I'll go as well.'

Still, she didn't say a word.

Then, after a few minutes, he suddenly understood. 'You can't swim.'

'Shut up!' Hannah got angry at once.

'That's okay.' Elias crouched down next to her, 'I'll teach you. I promise you it's easy; you'll be like a fish in no time.'

Hannah smiled a little. 'I don't wanna be a fish… they're slippery and freaky-looking…'

'Fine, no fish.' He laughed, 'but you'll be good very soon. I'll teach you somewhere else, if you want to, so the other kids won't know. Would you like that?'

Hannah nodded silently.

'Okay, let's go! It'll be fun.' Elias took her hand and led her to his car.

'I CAN SWIM!' Hannah shouted when Olivia came to pick her up. 'I SWEAR, I'M JUST LIKE A FISH!'

Elias smiled at Olivia and handed her Hannah's things. 'She's a natural, she was swimming around on her own after about an hour.'

'Thanks so much for teaching her.' Olivia said.

'No problem. She's a great kid.'

'This'll be great for her confidence.' Olivia said, as Hannah ran off again and talked to a little boy. He pulled out his handmade slingshot and Hannah shot a tree with it.

'Leave the tree alone!' Olivia joked, 'Let's go, Trouble.' Hannah said something to the kid and ran back to Olivia again.

After the last day of camp, Elliot picked Hannah and his kids up. He dropped the twins off at their mother's house and he took Hannah with him to the police station. They were still working on a case. This time it was his turn to listen to Hannah's rambling.

'We went canoeing down the river today. Ours fell over and I got scared at first, but now I'm the best swimmer there is, so I was fine. The water was cold and I nearly froze to death, but then we made a campfire back at camp. Lizzie showed me how to make these weird things with a cookie and chocolate and a marshmallow. I forgot what it's called… but it was good!'

'S'mores.' Elliot filled in.

'Whatever. I flew a kite as well, but it ended up in a tree. The youth leader told me to leave it, but I climbed up anyways. They kept shouting for me to come down, but I got it in the end. I didn't even fall, so I don't understand what all the fuss was about. O, and I did another drawing!'

They'd arrived at the precinct by then and got out of the car, as Hannah held up a big piece of paper. Expectantly she looked up at Elliot, waiting for his approval. They both stepped into the elevator and Elliot smiled while looking at her drawing.

'Hey, you're back!' Olivia hugged Hannah, when the little girl ran into her arms.

'I did a drawing.' She said.

'Of what?' Olivia asked.

'Of you all!'

Fin and Munch both looked up with suspicious looks.

'O, yeah.' Elliot grinned, 'You two are in there too.'

He held up Hannah's picture. She drew the police precinct with all five detectives standing in a row. They all had their arms crossed in front of their chest, looking very intimidating.

'My ears are not that big…' Munch said. His ears were quite big in Hannah picture, but still, Hannah looked at his ears with a doubtful look after his remark.

'No, they're bigger in real life.' Fin said dryly. He looked like a real gangster in Hannah's drawing, with a long ponytail and a mean look on his face.

'You know why they're that big?' Munch asked Hannah, as he bent down.

'Let me guess; to listen to all the conspiracies in the world.' Fin finished. Munch sighed theatrically and Hannah giggled at them.

'Well, I for one think you've captured me perfectly.' Elliot nodded.

'That's because you look like a bodybuilder.' Olivia smirked. 'But I look pretty.' She smiled at Hannah.

'Look, Captain, you've been made immortal in artwork.' Munch said, as Cragen came walking up.

'Is that macaroni?' Cragen asked, as he bent over the drawing. Because all five detectives were wearing dark sunglasses in Hannah's drawing. The frames of the glasses were made of macaroni and the glasses were made of black wax paper.

'So this is what we look like to a nine year old.' Cragen looked down on Hannah. She got a little nervous at his stare; she didn't want him to not like it. Then Cragen picked up the drawing and walked off with it. Hannah followed him with her eyes. He picked up a roll of tape and put it up on his door, for the whole of the precinct to see. Hannah lit up with pride.

'Perfect.' Olivia said, as she put a hand on Hannah's head.

Then Fin lifted Hannah up, grabbed a marker and walked over to the drawing, 'The artist needs to sign her work.' In big letters it now said: HANNAH underneath the drawing.

A few days later, the summer only got better and better; Olivia's week off started. That week they did everything together and Olivia was determined to make it the best week ever for Hannah. They went to the beach together to swim and build elaborate sandcastles. They went out for ice cream and went to the movies, or they just stayed in bed all morning, playing Clue. Olivia kept trying to convince Hannah that it made no sense for Colonel Mustard to kill Miss Scarlet, but Hannah replied stone cold that that was just cheating. They had a midnight feast, after Hannah had had a nightmare, complete with movie, which Hannah only saw halfway before she fell asleep, and midnight sausages. They went to the zoo, they went to the museum and they went to the park. The made pancakes and ate breakfast for diner. They did whatever they wanted, when they wanted. Olivia had the most relaxing week she'd had in years.

When the week was over, Olivia was glad to go back to work, but she'd miss spending so much time with Hannah. During the day Hannah would hang out at the precinct though, reading or drawing. Also, she'd started spending a lot of time with Elliot's kids, so she'd stay at their house as well. The twins had become close friends during camp and the other two girls had started to like her as well. They had to get used to her big mouth at first, Kathy most of all, but they all knew what her background was. Kathy felt bad for her and thought the structure of a family would be good for her. Hannah liked the big family and the chaos of it all.

The older girls treated Hannah like another little sibling. When Hannah hid behind the door and listened to Kathleen talking on the phone to her boyfriend, she threw a pillow over to her, angrily. 'I can see you, you know. Get out!'

Hannah stuck out her tongue and said, 'Say Hi to your boyfriend from me.'

Maureen opened her door at Kathleen shouting and pulled Hannah in. 'Hide in here, she might kill you when she's like this. Does Kath really have a boyfriend?'

'O yeah.' Hannah said, as she looked through Maureen's stuff on her desk.

'Stay out of my stuff.' Maureen warned her, as she pushed the little girl away from the desk.

'Do you have a boyfriend?' Hannah wanted to know next.

'Do you?' Maureen threw back.

'I'm nine!'

'Well, I'm eighteen. That's eighteen years of training with a dad who is a cop; don't even try to interrogate me.' She smiled as she sat down next to Hannah.

'Mine's a cop too.'

'Yeah, good luck with that.'

Downstairs, they could hear Elliot had come home. The heard him greeting Kathy and they heard Lizzie and Dickie jumping on top of him. Hannah got up, because she knew he would take her back home now. As Hannah got her things together to go back to Olivia, Maureen came running down the stairs. In her hand she held a little teddy bear.

'This was mine when I was little. Dad gave it to me.' She said to Hannah, 'You can have it.' She gave it to her.

Hannah took the bear and looked at it. 'I'm too old for stuffed animals.' She said, defensively. 'but thanks.' she added, softly.

Maureen smiled at her and Elliot looked at his daughter gratefully.

A few days later, Olivia asked Hannah, 'Where did you get that teddy bear? You carry it around with you everywhere.'

Hannah shrugged, embarrassed.

'It's cute.' Olivia said and Hannah relaxed a little.

Then Olivia's phone vibrated and she picked it up.

'Benson.'

Olivia looked at Hannah for a second. Hannah felt something was wrong straight away. She held the bear closer to her chest.

'Is there no other way?' Olivia asked the person on the phone. With a sigh, she hang up and sat down on the couch, facing Hannah.

'You know me and Elliot have a lot on right now.' Olivia started.

'Yeah. You're working on a big case.' Hannah was nervous.

'Yeah, well ACS heard about that. They also heard you sometimes sleep over at Elliot's place. So they want to make sure you're still doing okay.'

'I'm fine!' Hannah called out.

'I know you are, sweetheart. But ACS wants to keep you under observation at a home for a while, maybe only for one night.'

'No.'

'It's just for one night. They'll do some tests and they'll talk to you and then you'll come back here.' Olivia continued.

'No!'

Olivia looked Hannah straight in the eye. 'We have no choice.'

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