title: Next of Kin
author: SVUFanatic611
rating: PG, for some mild language.
a/n: You guys are the best reviewers ever! Thanks for all the encouraging words! I love you guys! Thanx 4 everything!
disclaimer: SVU and its associated characters are not mine.
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"The regular table, Olivia?" asked Marie, a waitress.
"You bet."
"So you must come here often enough to have a regular table." Corrine said, trying to break the silence, trying to find a way to break the news of her decision to her, as Marie took them to their seat.
"I come here and work on cases frequently. It's open 24 hours and it beats going home to an empty apartment."
"So is this like a cop's hangout? For when they have breaks?"
"Well, yeah, for the few times the detectives in my unit have breaks. We come, drink, talk. It relieves some tension we have from our jobs. It gives us an escape."
"Oh." Corrine said, soaking it all in.
"So what will it be for you guys?" Marie said, in her polite voice.
"I'm going to have what I usually do, the Caesar salad."
Marie took the down the order and looked toward Corrine.
"I'm not really hungry. I'm just going to have water."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, but thanks."
Marie left to go fill the order.
"I hate to sound like a mother, but you really should eat something."
"Why hate it? You're the closest thing I have to it." Corrine said, looking down.
Olivia didn't know what to say. She just decided to change the subject. "So how do you like New York so far?"
"I haven't seen much of it yet."
"Haven't you been here before?"
"Technically, I have, but it was for one day, for my dad's client, when I was seven. He was so dedicated to his job. He traveled anywhere if it meant a win. I think this is going to sound to weird, but I think it's good he died doing what he loved."
"What happened?" Olivia didn't know one fact of the case.
"He took on a case against a huge mob boss. He wouldn't plea him out, but decided to fight it all the way, thinking he had a strong enough case. Everyone told him to back off, that he was going to get himself hurt. He didn't listen. A few months after he took the case on, he got killed, shot twice in the chest." Corrine eyes were starting to tear up.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." Olivia said, regretting it all, handing her a napkin.
"It's okay, I'm fine."
"How far along are the detectives in California on your dad's case?"
"Not very far. I think they are afraid to go up against a group like that. They're afraid what happened to him is going to happen to them."
At that point, Marie came with Olivia's food. "Are you sure you don't want anything, sweetie?" Marie said, looking at Corrine.
"Actually, I think I'm going to have what she's having." Corrine and Olivia exchanged slight grins to each other.
"It'll be right out."
Marie left to go fill yet another order.
"Corrine, we gotta talk about the living arrangements." Olivia said, getting to the nub of the matter.
"You're right…I think I've…"
"Let me start. I think you are a great girl. You're father was one of the best people I ever met and my only regret in life was losing touch with him. I would love for you to come and live with me." Olivia said, almost in one breath. She was happy everything she really wanted to say was out on the table.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, that is, only if you want to."
"Absolutely…I would love to. Thank you so much." At that point, Corrine stood up, went to the other side of the table and gave Olivia a hug. Olivia welcomed her with open arms and knew for the first time that what she was doing was the right thing, the best thing.
"Well, now what do we do?" Corrine said, sitting back down.
"How about we go sight seeing? I don't know how much time we're going to have once we start moving you into my apartment. Sound good?"
"Sounds great."
--
Olivia and Corrine ate, and then headed off to Central Park.
"It must be great to live in a place like this everyday."
"Yeah, it's great. You'll have no trouble getting used to it." Olivia said, lying. She didn't like living in New York because she knew all the horrors that happened everyday. But, she wasn't about to bring Corrine into that world. "You said you're dad traveled a lot. How often did you go with him?"
"Every time. He always brought me along. I learned to love it. I think the best part of going to Oxford for college is living in somewhere other than the US."
They sat down on a bench and Corrine found herself just staring at Olivia.
"What? Do I have something on my face?"
"No, not at all."
"Then, what is it?"
"It's just that everything my dad told me about you has come to be true."
"It that a good thing?"
"Yeah…that's a great thing. He told me how great you were; how caring, compassionate, how strong you were – mentally, emotionally, physically, he told me you could beat his ass any day. Instead of telling me bedtime stories, he would tell me stories of how wonderful you were. To this day, I think you were the one that got away. And at eleven years old, I finally understood why he told me about you. He wanted me to have a strong woman figure to look up to in my life. He dated women – woman that had the body, just not the brains. Those were no role models. Who else was I going to look to? And in third grade, we had to write a report on our hero. Everyone wrote about people they knew- moms, dads, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles and the occasional teacher. But me, I wrote about my true hero, a person I barely knew, Olivia Benson."
Olivia was almost in tears. She never thought of herself as a hero.