Chapter 2

Olivia exited Cragen's office and called to Susan who had been engaged in a conversation with Amanda. Susan stood up from the chair that she had been sitting in beside Amanda's desk and walked over to her mother.

"What's up, Mom?"

Olivia couldn't help but smile at Susan calling her 'Mom'. It touched her heart that her daughter had adapted to doing so as quickly and as easily as she had. She reached up with her right hand and brushed a few bits of brown hair that had escaped from the simple French braid that the preteen currently had it styled in out of her ocean-blue eyes that were so much like her father's own.

"I wanted to introduce you to my captain before we leave here and then we will go by a couple of stores to get you some clothes and anything else that you might need for the time being and after that we'll swing by the grocery store for a few groceries before we head to my apartment. Does that sound like a good idea to you?"

"That sounds like a great idea, Mom. Thanks."

Susan smiled up at her mother before wrapping her arms around Olivia in a hug. Olivia immediately returned the hug. She also pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her daughter's head.

When they pulled apart after a moment or so, Susan looked up at her mother with a questioning look in her blue eyes.

"What is it, sweetheart?"

"Do you think that your captain will like me, Mom?"

Olivia was slightly taken aback by the question that her daughter had just asked her.

"Why would you think that my captain might not like you, sweetheart?"

Susan shrugged her shoulders but didn't exactly answer her mother's question. She was a bit afraid to tell her mother that she had been severely bullied by a group of girls in the same grade as herself at the private school she had been attending the past few years and as a result of that bullying, she had become extremely self conscious about herself in more ways than one.

It also didn't really help that her adoptive mother Melanie had recently begun trying to make her change almost everything about herself from the way she dressed to who she should be friends with. The latter was exactly why Susan wasn't able to hang out with her 2 longtime best friends, Gabe and his twin sister Jade, as much as she would have liked. In the eyes of Melanie, both Gabe and Jade as well as their middle-class family were beneath them simply because they didn't have as much money as she and her husband.

Susan was snapped out of her thoughts by Olivia wrapping her arms around her once again and pressing another kiss to the top of her head. Susan couldn't resist leaning her body against that of her mother's for a moment before pulling back.

"Why don't we actually hold off on you meeting my captain and other co-workers until tomorrow, sweetie? It's been a bit of a crazy day for you and I'm sure that you'd probably like to relax."

Susan nodded her head in response to her mother's suggestion. After a quick explanation to her captain about wanting to wait until the following morning to introduce her daughter to him and the other detectives, Olivia led her daughter back to the elevator and once they had arrived back in the lobby, the two made their way to the precinct garage where Olivia's car was.

Nearly two hours later, Olivia and Susan had arrived at the former's apartment building and after gathering together Susan's bags and suitcase along with the handful of shopping bags containing all the purchases they had made earlier at Target after leaving the precinct, the mother and daughter pair took the building's elevator (which was actually functioning properly for once) up to the fourth floor.

After using her key to unlock the door marked 4-D, Olivia led Susan inside. The preteen took a moment to take in the place her mother since she had never been there before.

She couldn't help but admit to herself that although the apartment was a bit on the small side, she actually liked it a lot more than the huge house that she had lived in with her adoptive parents. It felt more lived in than her adopted parents' house did.

After showing Susan the room that was going to be hers then helping the preteen unpack and put away everything she had brought with her to the precinct earlier that day as well as the things that they had purchased from Target, Olivia told her daughter that she was going to go change into some more comfortable clothes and that afterwards, the two of them needed to talk about a couple of things.

"Ok, Mom. I think I'll do the same too."

"Sounds good, sweetie. Join me out in the living room once you get done changing and we'll have our talk."

A few minutes pass as Susan quickly changes into her favorite navy blue Nike hoodie and a pair of short black leggings along with a pair of white ankle socks since she hated it whenever her feet got cold. She then made her way back out to the living room where Olivia was already waiting for her on the couch.

Susan sat on the opposite end of the couch from her mother, tucking her socked feet underneath her. Olivia couldn't help but notice how Susan refused to make eye contact with her.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?"

Susan lifted her head to look at her mother and when Olivia saw the unused tears in her daughter's ice-blue eyes, she couldn't stop herself from shifting her body until she was sitting next to the preteen.

"Come here, honey."

Susan could feel all of the tension in her body melt away the second she was wrapped up in her mother's embrace. In that exact moment, Susan felt something that she hadn't really felt much during the past year: safe.

She actually felt safe.

Sorry that it took me so long to produce a new chapter of this story. I am hoping to get another chapter out at some point this week or next week depending on how quickly I can get it written.