Sorry it's taken me awhile to update but we're having our house renovated so it's total chaos, anyway I'm really thankful for the reviews so per- your- requests here is chapter two.
I'm almost done with Holes also, the last two chapters will be up ASAP. Anyway enjoy!
BTW: I don't own anything except what doesn't exist on the show.
"And how would we do that?", was the return.
To that Olivia didn't have an answer, not yet anyway.
In silence Olivia and Cammie occupied their own space, until Olivia tried to break it again.
"You know the cieling's gonna burst in to flames if you stare at it any harder", she spoke with some humor to lighten the tension.
Cammie stayed silent still, "What kind of things do you like to do?" Olivia dived back in. The girl shrugged, "Paint, Jog in the park". Finally the child was opening up even if it was only to this small point.
"Me too, although I'm not a very artistic person. What about movies?"
"Action, some comedy, romance comedies too."
Olivia nodded in agreement.
"What about your friends?"
"What friends?" Cammie sneered bitterly. Olivia realized she was now treading on gaurded territory.
"You know, friends from school, around here", Olivia took a seat at the desk next to the window overlooking the back courtyard. Kid's gamboled around under the watchful eyes of the home's staff.
Cammie was quiet, she sat up to reach for the pad and pencil on her nightstand. In her eyes Olivia saw only two things, emptiness and distance.
Sighing Olivia stood, she and Cammie weren't going to get farther today so Olivia pulled out her card, one of the ones that had her home, cell, and pager numbers on it.
"Cammie I want you to call me if you want to talk more or need anything. I'll see you tomorrow", Olivia placed the card on the nightstand. Before she left she reached down to rub Cammie's shoulder and then Olivia did leave.
A white glow stretched through the window playing against the objects in the apartment.
Liv yawned wide. She was tired, but sleep wouldn't come easily. Events of the day rewound and played countless times in Olivia's memory.
She saw so much of herself in Cammie. The distance was, perhaps, the emotion they would have had most in common. Now, twenty or so years later, Olivia allowed herself to get close and at the same time disassociate.
"I don't want Cammie to have to go through all those years," Liv spoke aloud, more to relieve her congested psyche than to talk to herself.
Her mother suddenly invaded, the smell of Serena's drunken stench filtering in in place of a face or voice.
This was the memory of her mother Liv had left and, no doubt the similar memory Cam would have of CJ.
Snuggling deeper in to the mound of blankets already covering her, Olivia closed her eyes and exhaled, trying to slow her mind. Usually deep breathing worked to calm her heart and clear out the debris littering her brain.
'Just my luck!', the phone ringing startled Liv from her process.
Groaning inwardly she hit the TALK button.
"Benson", Liv answered.
"Hey", Elliot's voice came through, "how'd it go today?".
She smiled faintly before answering, "It went, it's going to be a challenge, but I think we can work."
"Who're you mentoring?" Elliot wondered
"A teenage girl... she's a lot like me..." Olivia let her voice fade to silence.
In his partners voice El could hear the uncertainty, he knew her better than anyone...
"What's up?" he used his 'give it up' voice.
"Nothing!" Too quick and too abrupt of a response, she knew.
"'Livia."
"I'm just... it's... I see so much of me in Cammie and, I don't know but it's all compressing on me", there she'd said it.
Elliot's end of the phone was rested, he was waiting for her to continue.
"Cammie's circumstances are pretty much identical to mine except that her mother's a junkie and Cam is in foster care. I want to help this kid so much but she's so closed off, when I catch her gaze all there is is a void. I'm just so unsure", Liv explained to Elliot.
There was still nothing from the other end of the phone over in Queens.
"El?"
"If there's one thing out of many that I'v come to know about you all these years is that you sit with something until you feel it's appropriate to act. What I'm saying is follow your instincts", Elliot hoped Olivia understood what he just said.
She sighed on her end, he could hear the evident exhaustion contained in that simple act.
"I have faith in you. Now I gotta go, we'll talk tomorrow?"
"OK, yea. Night El. And thanks."
"Anytime. Night Liv."
They each hung up their phones then. Olivia lay back to contemplate what her partner had said, she did and didn't get it.
As sleep brought her eyelids down Liv still hadn't much clarity, but was thankful nonetheless that her body relented.
'Tomorrow, they'd figure it out tomorrow', was the detectives last full thought before darkness overrode her senses...
TBC? Oh and thanks to all you guys who are reviewing! it's encouraging.