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

Chapter 38: Facing the consequences

The first thing both detectives noticed that was out of the ordinary about the woman, who opened the door for them, was of course the moustache. It was crudely drawn on her face with a black marker and it took a lot of willpower not to burst out laughing right there and then.

The woman looked like hell and didn't even ask them what they wanted; she just stared at the strangers on her doorstep with an exhausted look in her eyes.

'Can we come in?' Olivia asked, after an awkward silence.

She stepped aside. Olivia walked past her, but froze at what she saw. Behind her she heard Elliot making a sound that was something between a gasp and a laugh. Olivia didn't know whether to start cleaning at once, because she felt so bad for the woman, or turn around and run away as fast as she could. So she just stood there, looking at the chaos before her.

Kids were running around and screaming; the sound was deafening. As they ran, chasing each other, they made the feathers, which still covered the floor, fly around again. More shaving cream was on the walls and stairs.

Elliot walked over to the kitchen door and pulled at one of the shoes; it was glued immovable to the door. Then he pushed it open and more kids came out, with battle cries and painted faces. The kitchen was a mess of macaroni, pools of water and a thick layer of flower covering everything, including one of the social workers, who sat at the table.

Elliot turned around again and swept a few feathers away with his foot. 'Liv,' he pointed to what he'd found; the silhouette of the body, taped on the floor, 'I guess this proves it.'

Olivia nodded with a sigh. They had both feared from the start that this was Hannah's work, but Olivia didn't really want to admit it to herself that one little girl could do all this.

'How much damage can she do in one night, right?' Elliot repeated Olivia's words mockingly.

'But all by herself?' Olivia whispered back.

'I'm sorry, but what are you here for?" The woman asked them, sounding slightly annoyed. Elliot cocked his head to the side a little, thinking he spotted some shaving cream in her hair, too.

Olivia coughed once and a huge grin formed on Elliot's face. 'We're here too pick up one of the kids.'

'Which one?' There was definitely shaving cream and flower in her hair, Elliot concluded.

Olivia closed her eyes, in fear of the reaction, when she said, 'Hannah.'

Complete silence.

'We've come to pick up a girl named Hannah.' Elliot repeated, loudly. He was enjoying this way too much.

Then the woman broke down in what almost seemed sobbing. 'O my God, thank you! Take her, please, take her! Daniel!'

One of the other social workers came walking up. She said to him, 'They've come to take Hannah.'

'Praise the Lord…' he said, while rolling his eyes.

'I'm sorry,' Olivia said, bluntly, 'but you can't really expect us to believe that one little girl is responsible for all of this.' She gestured to everything around her.

Olivia elbowed Elliot in the ribs, to keep him from snickering.

As the woman walked off to find Hannah, the male social worker took a deep breath and hissing with anger, he told them the story. 'Do you have any idea what that 'little girl' you so fondly call her, is capable of? What she's done? First, she threw jelly waterballoons on the foster parents, after endangering everyone by setting off the fire alarms. Then she almost killed me, by throwing a bomb into the food and made all the kids go crazy by throwing the food around. She also broke most of our plates and messed with the showers and the adults taking a shower. She then caused another riot in the middle of the night, she pretended to run away, scared us half to death with that dead body stunt and broke our rules by leaving her bed. But that's not all. O, no, not even close.' His nostrils were flaring dangerously.

'She covered our beds ánd us with syrup and cream, she poured porridge into our shoes and drew on us with permanent markers.' He touched his upper lip for a second, embarrassed, where Hannah had drawn a perfect circus boss-like moustache.

Luckily, he then turned away, to talk to the other woman. So he couldn't see Elliot being unable to hide his laughter and hear Olivia's snort as she tried to hold back the giggles.

'El, stop laughing. This isn't funny.' Olivia hissed.

'You're right: it's brilliant!' He chocked out.

'What if this was one of your kids' doing?'

'I'd kill them.' He almost sounded serious this time, 'but it's yours, and that just makes it so much better.'

'You think this is a laughing matter!?' Daniel had spun around, facing Olivia all of a sudden. 'Because that is not all she did; she also glued our shoes to the wall, broke our central heating, put hot sauce in our food, covered the kitchen in flower and worst of all, turned all the kids against us!'

'I'm very sorry,' Olivia said. She still failed at hiding her amusement though, 'I think it's best if I just take her off your hands now.'

'Good luck finding her.' the woman scoffed, 'this place is a mess…'

Right at that moment, Hannah came skidding down the hall. She slid through the shaving cream, with a broad grin on her face, but froze at once when she saw Olivia and Elliot standing there.

Then her face went through three stages of recognition very fast. First there was the 'O shit they're here' stage: shock. Then there was the 'I'm in sooo much trouble' stage: acceptance. The final stage happened very fast, the 'it wasn't me' stage: denial. And Olivia Benson could see right through all three of them.

Elliot motioned to Hannah to come over, with his finger. Olivia looked at him for a second, and was relieved he had his strict and serious parent face on. All the amusement was drained from his look, she only thought she could still detect a hint of irony in his eyebrows.

Hannah walked over to them sulkily and as slowly as possible. She looked at her feet when she stopped in front of them.

'Are you mad?' She looked up at them, making her big brown eyes do their work. Olivia thought she even batted her eyelashes a few times.

Elliot opened his mouth to answer, but Olivia cut him off. 'Go get your stuff, right now!'

'But…' Hannah started.

'Right now.' Olivia repeated.

She sighed angrily and walked off to her room. The social workers stared at Olivia, with respect. If they'd tried something like that, the girl would've just laughed at them. Or worse…

Hannah appeared again, dragging her bag over the floor behind her.

'Liv…' Hannah tried again.

'Don't say another word.' Olivia held up a hand, 'We'll talk about this later.'

Hannah sighed and looked to the floor and was scared to meet Olivia's eyes again.

'Go wait in the car.' She gave the girl the keys and Hannah obeyed at once.

'She'll run away again.' The woman, who'd let them in, said with certainty.

'No she won't.' Olivia was even more certain.

'We'll be forced to write a report on all this,' Daniel said, 'and send it to ACS.'

'I understand.'

'We really don't want her back here again.'

Bothe detectives nodded, 'We'll be in touch.'

Outside Hannah sat on the hood of the car. A lot of kids were standing around her. They were all laughing and talking.

'Hannah! I told you to wait IN the car.' Olivia barked. She jumped off the hood and opened the car door, with a sigh.

One of the big boys blocked the detectives' way. 'Leave her alone.' He was sixteen, tall and obviously found himself to be very intimidating.

'You mind getting out of my face, boy.' Elliot walked up closer to him. The boy considered and decided wisely that detective Stabler was not the one to fight.

'Fuck off!' A girl took his place, 'You're not taking her.' Obviously, she didn't share her boyfriend's ideas.

Olivia took out her badge. 'Sweetheart, you don't wanna do this.'

'You think your little badge scare me?'

Hannah could see this was going wrong. They'd arrest Stella for obstruction and assault, because she would hit them if this continued any longer. Hannah didn't want to see that happen, or wanted Olivia getting punched, so she jumped in.

'Stella, leave it.' She said, 'They're cool.'

They're cops!'

'That's Olivia.' Hannah said and apparently that explained a lot, because all the kids made way for them to pass now.

'Thank you.' Elliot smiled at Stella in fake politeness and she returned the gesture.

'Where are we going?' Hannah asked them softly, in the car. They'd been silent for a long time now.

'Yeah, where are we going?' Elliot asked Olivia. He had started to feel sort of bad for Hannah. She seemed scared to death of what would happen next. He knew that the only opinion Hannah really cared about was the one Olivia had of her.

'My place.' Olivia decided. 'Hannah and I need to talk.'

Hannah slid down a little more in her seat at the prospect. Elliot looked at Olivia for a second and it was his turn to feel relieved: she was still trying to hide a smile.

The nerves got the best of Hannah after a while. 'Can't you just punish me? Or send me away or whatever. Just tell me, are you gonna send me away?'

'No, I'm not going to send you away.' Olivia said.

'Okay. Great. Awesome. Now punish me, then that's done!' Hannah didn't eant to talk about it. She got pissed and she got revenge; it was simple. It wasn't her fault if they couldn't understand that.

Both detectives were quiet and they could feel Hannah getting frustrated in the back seat.

'Hello! Still here!'

'O, we know you're there.' Elliot said, 'you leave quite a trail wherever you go, usually.'

Hannah sighed. 'O, I get it. This is one of your police techniques to get me to confess. By letting me know you know what I've done and then trying to get me all scared of what's going to happen next. Well, you fail.'

'We fail?' Olivia asked, amused.

'Yeah!' Hannah shouted. 'Because I don't give a shit: I DID IT. Okay? I made all the kids do that and I thought it all up. Happy now?'

'We fail.' Elliot repeated with a sarcastic look on his face. 'How did you even get the teenagers to listen to you?'

'I stole all the candy in the house and handed it out. They sorta liked me after that.'

Elliot was impressed.

'We already knew it was you.' Olivia said.

'Well aren't you the amazing detective…' Hannah grumbled.

Olivia turned around in her seat. 'You know, you said the same thing to me when I first caught you shoplifting.'

'I guess that means your skills haven't improved much.' She still had a dark look on her face.

Olivia ignored her comment. 'You remember what I said to you then?'

'Nope.' Hannah lied.

'Yeah, you do.' Olivia smiled and leaned in closer, 'I said: pipe down with the attitude, sweetheart.' Olivia pronounced the words carefully and Hannah tried to hide her smile. Then Olivia quickly snatched Hannah's cap off her head and put it on.

'Hey!' Hannah jumped forward in an attempt to get it back.

'Girls!' Elliot called out, 'I'm trying to drive here.'

Hannah leaned in between both their seats now, looking a lot more relaxed. 'So, you're not mad.'

Olivia took in a deep breath and Elliot said, 'Well, I'm glad you're not one of my kids.'

'Dickie would maybe do something like this.' Hannah considered.

'Don't talk to my son about this!' Elliot looked at her directly. 'Don't teach him any of this, or I will personally kill you, slowly and painfully.' Olivia grinned.

Hannah looked at Olivia. 'You better listen,' she said, 'I wouldn't be able to stop him.'

'Great, your partner makes death threats and you stand and watch as he kills me.'

'I wanted to kill you just now.' Olivia said.

'I said they'd be sorry…' She said, defensively.

'They are.' Elliot and Olivia repeated in unison.

'I was very unhappy and insecure in there.' Hannah nodded her head, with a professional look on her face.

'Really?' Olivia said, sarcastically.

'Yeah! They made me feel trapped, so I really had no control over my actions in there.'

'She's pleading insanity…' Elliot shook her head.

'So it would be unfair to punish you? Is that what you mean?' Olivia went along with it and Hannah nodded quickly.

'Maybe…' Olivia said.

'I'm not really an expert on these things, I mean I'm no ADA.' Elliot acted.

'Me neither…' Olivia said, 'Maybe we should ask someone who does know.'

'You mean Alex?' He asked her. They both pretended Hannah wasn't even there.

'Hmm, I don't think she's ever had a kid pleading insanity after something like this. We need someone with more experience.'

'Years of experience.' Elliot agreed.

'Hey, how about the captain!' Olivia feigned an eureka-moment.

'Yeah!' Elliot nodded, 'he knows how to deal with these situations.'

'What?' Hannah squeaked, in horror.

They both turned to face her. 'The captain knows what to do and you say it wasn't your fault, right?'

'You cannot tell Cragen!' Hannah practically yelled, 'He'll send me to juvi! He's the Captain of a police squad!'

'O, so now you start to get respect for authority.' Elliot joked.

'Actually,' Olivia decided, 'you are going to tell Cragen.'

What?' Hannah squeaked, even higher in pitch than the last one.

Elliot nodded approvingly at Olivia's parenting skills.

'You need to consider,' Olivia started, 'was it worth it? Was your one night of chaos worth the trouble you're in now?' Of course Olivia had hoped she'd say no.

But Hannah said at once, 'Hell, yeah!'

Elliot laughed and Olivia grabbed Hannah and lifted her over the seat onto her laugh, growling playfully. 'You're nothing but trouble, aren't you.'

'But you still love me.'

'I do love you, but,' Olivia playfully pulled her head down, 'don't think you're just getting away with this!' she waved a finger in front of her face.

'I know… Cragen, ACS…'

'And me!' Olivia added.

'And you…' Hannah sighed.

'But I can understand why you did it.' Olivia admitted and she saw Elliot nodding, behind the wheel, 'Those social workers and ACS really are annoying.'

Back at the precinct, Cragen had already talked to one of the social workers from the home, so he already knew what had happened, but he didn't want Hannah to know that yet. When she came walking in, Olivia pushed her forward and told her to explain to him what had happened.

Hannah looked back at Olivia, with pleading eyes. Go on!' Olivia just said, 'You got in trouble, now face the consequences.'

Munch looked up; he didn't want to miss this. Cragen was actually impressed Olivia strict ways with Hannah. He said to her, 'You got in trouble?' with his most intimidating voice.

'I got a little into trouble…' Hannah held up her hand and gestured with her fingers a millimeter apart how little the trouble was she'd gotten in. Fin smirked; this was gonna to be good.

'Hannah, I don't have time for bullshit. Now, the least you can do is have the respect to tell me exactly what happened.' Hannah nodded obediently. 'Start talking.'

Hannah told them the entire story and soon half the building was standing around listening, in spite of Cragen's attempts to keep them away. Everyone just listened breathlessly at Hannah's evil plans. When she was done, she looked up at the captain.

'I only have one question,' He said, 'do you plan these schemes, or just improvise along the way?'

'Both.' Hannah said, 'Why?'

'Those people are most dangerous.' Munch said to her.

'Really?' Hannah looked proud.

'What do you think will happen to you now?' Cragen asked her.

'I don't know…' she sounded insecure. 'Are you going to send me to Juvi?'

Cragen smiled, 'I'll just let Olivia deal with you.' He just got strict one last time, 'But if you ever, ever try something like that on me or anyone in my squad, I will personally drag you into the box and chain you to the wall and leave you there. You understand?'

Hannah nodded feverishly, with big eyes.

'Good. Now go, ACS wants you and your guardian.'

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