Title: In Case Of Emergency
Summary: When Rafael enlists Allison in middle school he is stumped when the teacher asks him for a second emergency contact in case they can't reach him. Considering his options he eventually decided to write down the one person he would call if he had the choice.
Disclaimer: I do not own SVU – if I did I wouldn't be writing fanfiction.
A/N: At end of story.
I think, in a way, I'll always need my Uncle Sonny, almost as much as I'll always need my Dad! You two are my superheroes. Even if you don't have super strength or invisibility.
– Allison Barba, 12-years-old
Rafael Barba wanted to hold his daughter's hand, but at 12 she rejected such a 'childish' and 'juvenile' gesture. When they stopped at the school gates, he smiled widely at her.
"I have to go to work now Ally. Ok? Estarás bien ahora bebé?" He whispered as he looked at her. Allison looked back at him and nodded slowly.
"Estaré bien Papi. Te extrañaré." She replied in perfect Spanish.
"Yo también te extrañaré Novio. Te quiero." He told her. A girl with long blonde hair paused at the Spanish, she recognised the pair immediately.
"Uncle Rafa! Allison!" The pair turned.
"Jesse! I didn't know your mom sent you here." Rafael said. Then he recalled Allison was only a few months before Jesse Rollins. So she was the same age as Allison.
"Yeah…Noah is here too. So all of us SVU kids are together." The blonde said with a wide smile. She had grown into herself. And since Amanda's accent had dissipated during her time in New York, Jesse had not inherited the accent. No matter how much time she spent with or how often she spoke to her Grandmother and Aunt Kim.
"I have to go to office and sign her in and she has to get her schedule, but maybe you two can catch up later?" Rafael said.
"Sure. See you later Ally. I'll let Noah know that you're here too." Jesse said before running off towards a group of young boys.
"There is a bit of paperwork you forgot to fill out Mr Barba." The secretary told him holding out the Emergency contact form again.
"There is?" He asked frowning.
"Yes. We need a second emergency contact for Allison. We understand that you have a demanding job and we may not be able to reach you at all times. So we always ask for a second person. It can be family or a close friend." She pushed the piece of paper towards Rafael. He looked down at it:
Second Emergency Contact
Who the hell would he put down? His mother was getting on and pulling her away from taking care of his grandmother wouldn't be hard but it's unfair and she had her own job.
Olivia was usually with him in court so that is no good and if they couldn't reach him at the office or on his cell they'd never get him.
Fin, he didn't know well enough nor did he know Rollins well enough.
There's no way he'd trust Buchannan or Rita with his child. Ni en sueños!
Maybe…did he really trust him? Really? He recalled telling Allison one day that if she was scared or hurt and couldn't get Papi to call…oh hell, it was better than no one.
Full Name: Detective Dominick Carisi Jr
Contact Phone Number: 555-7120
Second Contact Number: 318-467-7819
Relationship to child: Friend of Father
Name by which they are known to the child: Uncle Sonny
"Thank-you Mr Barba. Hopefully we'll never have to call you or…Uncle Dominick." The teacher said with a small smile. Rafael cast another glance back at the two kids before leaving and making his way to his office, the emergency contact form out of his mind.
Barba had always been busy, so he never got around to tell Carisi that if he couldn't be reached that Carisi would be called to help Allison. So when he was locked in the courtroom for a whole day, he didn't realise that only 6 weeks after putting Carisi down as the emergency contact – Allison would need him.
"Carisi." All business, he wished he could answer it in a fun way but not at work.
"Detective Carisi. My name is Emma Reynolds. I'm a junior teacher at Applewoods middle-school." A female voice replied.
"Applewoods? How can I help you Miss Reynolds?" He asked, Amanda looked up almost as if she recognised the name. Then Carisi recalled that Jesse went to Applewoods and Billie would follow her sister that when she was at the right age for Middle-school.
"You've been listed as an emergency contact for one of our students. Allison Barba." She said, she could hear someone yelling in the background.
"Okay." Carisi replied going to the break room to get a bit of quiet.
"Allison has had an accident. She had a fall and hit her head and her arm seems to be very sore as well – we suspect it may be broken. We think it would be a very good idea for her to see a doctor." She told him. Carisi made a noise of the affirmative.
"I'm on my way. Can you tell me the address, please?" Emma told him the address as he grabbed up his jacket and shrugged it on.
"Hey Liv." He poked his head into her office, "I got a family emergency. Can I take the rest of the day?"
"Go ahead Carisi. Hope everything's ok." Olivia said.
"Thanks Liv. See you tomorrow." Carisi ducked back out and left the precinct heading out to an unfamiliar school, so he could help out one of 'his' little girls.
His arrival at the middle-school wasn't unnoticed by some of the kids. Most of them were playing around outside after eating their lunch. Two kids almost ran into him as he made his way towards the office to find the small infirmary.
"Uncle Sonny!" The girl got up and jumped into his arms, since she was small he could hold her off the floor easily. He hugged her tight to his chest.
"What happened?" he asked the young red-head sitting with her.
"We're not entirely sure. All we know is the kids had just started to go to their bags for their lunches and suddenly we had Noah Benson and Jesse Rollins coming to us telling us that Allison here had fallen down the stairs. When we got there we saw fair amount of blood. Jesse was terrified Allison was dead. Noah reassured her that head wounds bleed a lot." Miss Reynolds told him. Carisi set Allison back on her feet and examined where the bandage was on her head, it was to one side and it looked like she was getting a black eye as well. She held her arm against her chest and looked very sad.
Carisi put his hand on her shoulder and when she raised her head he grinned at her, causing her to give him a small, slightly watery smile in return to her favourite 'Uncle'. She had always said that if she got into trouble or was hurt and couldn't reach her father she would call Uncle Sonny. Allison knew now that Uncle Sonny would look after her while her father was at work. That is why he was her emergency contact.
"You had your friends around. It's a good thing you grew up with Noah and Jesse. They are the best friends you ever had, right kiddo?" Carisi said.
"Mr Carisi, it's beautiful your relationship with her." Miss Reynolds said, seeing Allison's reaction to his smile.
"I'm her Godfather. Her father and I are good friends." He replied pulling the pre-teen against him to provide some comfort without picking her up again.
"I can understand that. Can you contact her father?" Miss Reynolds asked.
Carisi nodded, "He'll know. Is it ok if I take her out?" he asked.
"Of course. But when you sign her out you will have to provide ID for the office, only because you aren't a blood relative. Its protocol you understand." Miss Reynolds said.
"Oh yeah. Absolutely." Carisi said. Miss Reynolds led him to the office and told them he was there to sign Allison Barba out to look after her. Carisi held out his ID and didn't realise that Miss Reynolds who stood beside him spotted his badge.
"You're a police officer aren't you?" She asked suddenly.
"Yeah. NYPD SVU." He replied as he signed his name.
"Of course! You have been on TV before…that case about that little boy who was in the concrete…" She said, trailing off slightly. No one wanted to recall the Lewis Hodda case.
"Yeah, I shadowed her father for my own law studies." Carisi said.
"Ok, sir, that's all done. We hope to see Allison back next week."
"I'll get her to the doctor and get her checked out." Carisi said, "Come on, Tesoro." He led her out to his car and made sure she was feeling ok, before he pulled out of the parking lot and made his way to Mercy General Emergency.
"I don't want you to panic, Raf. She's perfectly fine." Carisi's voice told him calmly as he held the phone to his ear in his office, after hearing Carisi's voicemail message.
"FINE? You said she fell down stairs at school?" He snapped.
"Look, I took her straight to Mercy General. They said the headaches will stop with time, her arm needs six weeks in the cast, and the black eye will go down within three weeks. They gave her 15 stiches and she's fine. I took her to Forlini's for lunch." Carisi said.
"Forlini's? Really?" Barba barked.
"She begged me." Carisi said.
"Push-over." Barba grumbled.
"She's my goddaughter, aren't I allowed to spoil a little?" Carisi asked.
"Is that Dad?" Another voice asked.
"Yeah it is. Here you are Raf, here's Ally." There was muffled scuffling before her voice sounded.
"Papi?" Allison said.
"Ally, is Uncle Sonny looking after you?" Barba asked.
"Yeah of course. Uncle Sonny loves me Papi. He took me to the hospital, I got stitches and my arm in a cast – I'm going to get to SVU team to sign it – and I have a small headache but Uncle Sonny thinks that's from the noise in Forlini's – I wanted to go there so it's not Uncle Sonny's fault." Allison said.
"Alright. I won't be too hard on him." Rafael promised.
"Thanks. Te amo Papi." She said.
"Te amo, Ally." He replied.
"See Raf? Totally fine." Carisi's voice returned.
"I'm on my way home." Barba said.
Rafael hurried up the stairs to his apartment. He knew that Carisi had now been with Allison for most of the day. Allison was probably missing him, as long as she was ok. He trusted Carisi to look after Ally. He just didn't know why. He smiled softly as he unlocked his door, it was because in all honestly Carisi may be a big kid but he was a responsible one.
"Carisi. Where's Ally?" Rafael asked when he saw his daughter absent from the living area.
"She's asleep in your room." Carisi told him.
"My room?" He frowned after a pause.
"Didn't want to sleep in her own room. I hope that's okay." Carisi said.
"Yeah that's fine. I'm just surprised." Rafael said, hanging up his jacket.
"She missed you. I think it has to do with your scent. A lot of kids find it hard to fall asleep if they can't smell their parent." Sonny said, getting up.
"You think so?" Rafael said.
"Are you kidding? I know so. Trust me. I couldn't fall asleep unless my mother or my grandmother had sprayed their perfume on my pillow." He said quietly as they stood in the doorway of Rafael's room.
"I expected more of you, Carisi." Rafael whispered as he bent to kiss Allison's cheek. She stirred and slowly woke, she blinked her eyes open and yawned.
"Papi?" She whispered.
"Ally. I'm sorry did I wake you?" He asked.
"No…it's all right. When did you get home?" she asked.
"About thirty minutes ago." He said glancing at his watch.
"You didn't wake me then?" She asked.
"I didn't want to disturb you." He told her.
She nodded, "Uncle Sonny took good care of me."
"So I see. Maybe you don't need me anymore. You've got a superhero in Uncle Sonny." Rafael said seriously.
"Don't be ridiculous Raf. She'll always need her dad. That's what Dads are for. To chase away the nightmares and scare the monsters under the bed. Every little girl needs her Dad." Sonny said from the doorway.
"I think, in a way, I'll always need my Uncle Sonny, almost as much as I'll always need my Dad! You two are my superheroes. Even if you don't have super strength or invisibility." Allison said quietly settling back into her father's pillows and closing her eyes.
A/N: This is inspired by TeaGirl42's story of the same name. Her story is Olivia putting Rafa down as Noah's second emergency contact. This was my take on a similar situation.
Estarás bien ahora bebé? – Will you be ok now baby girl?
Estaré bien Papi. Te extrañaré. – I'll be ok Daddy. I'll miss you
Yo también te extrañaré Novio. Te quiero. -I'll miss you too, Sweetheart. I love you.
Tesoro - Sweetheart (Italian)
When working out Allison, Noah and Jesse's ages – I knew that Jesse was born in about 2016 – in season 17. So Allison was born then too, while Noah was 'almost two'. So he is two years older than the girls. I hope it's not too confusing. As for their friendship all three kids have known each other most, if not all, of their lives so not a stretch to be best friends.