A/N: Sorry, sorry, I haven't updated this in a while. I really didn't feel any incentive until receiving Archer Yi's review. So, thank you, Archer Yi!
Disclaimer: I own not Law and Order SVU. Who would get the idea that I did, is beyond me…
New Hopes: Chapter 2
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Elliot strained his ears to hear where that soft buzzing was coming from. Well, he certainly wasn't going to find out just listening. He reluctantly lifted his heavy head of the pillow and saw his cell phone vibrating on the kitchen counter. He looked at the device in surprise and grabbed for his watch on the side table.
"Shoot." He announced when he focused his eyes to see the present time. He looked around frantically for Aidan and found the boy snoring softly at the end of the couch. He quickly shook the boy then ran for his cell phone.
Elliot flipped open his phone and stated in his usual firm tone:
"Stabler."
"Elliot, we have a new case, we need you here at the station ASAP." The voice of his lady partner said in his ear.
Elliot sighed.
"I know, I need to get the kid to school first- Aidan, wake up! -It might be about half hour, forty-five minutes?"
"I'll cover for you with Captain then."
"Thanks, Liv, I owe you one," Elliot smiled.
"I'll see you soon."
The dial tone rung in Elliot's ear for a second before he rounded on the boy still sleeping.
"AIDAN!" He said loudly over the young man.
Aidan woke with a start, staring bewildered around the apartment, his hair swept every which way.
"We're going to be leaving in five minutes, hurry up and get dressed!" Elliot said while walking towards the bathroom located in his room.
Aidan took in his surroundings one more time before plodding tiredly towards his room.
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Aidan emerged from his room five minutes later, looking only slightly more respectable than before. He was dressed in a simple navy-blue sweater and jeans.
"Did you brush your teeth?" Elliot interrogated impatiently at the, to Elliot's dismay, still drowsy boy before him.
Aidan blinked at the older man before heading to the guest bathroom.
"Hurry!" Elliot yelled after him.
Aidan exited out of the bathroom two minutes afterwards. He yawned and stretched smacking his mouth a little.
Elliot rolled his eyes and handed the young man his school bag.
"Aren't we going to eat breakfast?" Aidan asked, staring perplexedly at the backpack.
"We don't have time," the older man replied impatiently nudging the bag into Aidan's arms.
"I've never missed breakfast before…"Aidan muttered loud enough for Elliot to hear.
The older man sighed exasperatedly.
"Look, we'll stop at Krispy Kreme on the way, but that's only if you hurry up and get your butt in the car," Elliot reasoned impatiently.
"My, my, such a grouch in the morning…" Aidan mumbled, walking towards the exit, slinging the backpack over his shoulder.
Elliot sighed once again, picked up his keys, wallet, etc. and followed after his charge.
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Elliot's phone buzzed from its place in the middle of the two front seats.
Elliot went to grab it at the same time trying to watch the road but the young man sipping a coffee got to it first.
"Stabler," Aidan said imitating the older man's gruff tone. Elliot cast him an irritated glance and clenched his jaw.
"Elliot, is that you? You sound a little off…" The voice of Munch said precariously.
"Oh, it's just a cold," Aidan said, coughing exaggeratedly.
Elliot scoffed and pried the phone from the younger man's ear.
"Hey!" Aidan complained.
"Stabler," he said, giving a warning Look to Aidan. The young man huffed and continued to eat his breakfast.
"How'd you get a cold?" Munch asked.
"I don't have a cold," Elliot defended while a certain young man snorted.
"Well, I think you should get over here then, Cragen is getting antsy." Munch exclaimed.
"Okay, I'm going to be there in about… twenty minutes," Elliot estimated finally.
"Sure,"
"Bye," He flipped closed his phone and glared for a moment at the anxious face of his charge.
"Are you nervous?" Elliot asked, not stressing the fact that he meant about school.
Aidan squirmed.
"A little…" Aidan said hesitantly. "Okay, maybe a lot."
Elliot smiled.
"Well, I think you'll be okay. Just be nice and you'll get along with the other kids." He exclaimed.
"Elliot, this isn't preschool," Aidan said, rolling his eyes.
"I know, but, still, the same rule applies," Elliot said.
"Yeah, yeah," Aidan said distractedly, staring out his window at the school to his side. It was a public school, something Aidan wasn't very sure about. You see, he had gone to the most prestigious prep schools in New York all his life. The said schools were much stricter with uniforms and difficult classes. This "public" factor was foreign to the young man. Did that mean the students would be rude? How do they dress if they don't have uniforms? How do the bathrooms look? Thoughts such as these festered at the boy the night before. He guessed he would make his first day like a measuring stick, and observe what would be happening for the rest of the year.
"Do you have everything?" Elliot asked, dragging Aidan out of his stupor, making him realize they had arrived at the dreaded school. "Forms, schedules?"
"Yep," Aidan said, staring open-mouthed at the building before him. Well, the buildings were certainly larger.
Elliot drove around the big fountain in the middle, halting at the entrance of the building. A few student gathered around the front glanced at them but then went back to there usual business of doing whatever.
Aidan grabbed his bag from the back seat and Elliot handed him some money for lunch.
"Just go straight to the office and give the secretary your form," Elliot exclaimed. "Okay, that's it. Have fun."
Aidan rolled his eyes as he got out of the car and walked towards the entrance. A few girls checked him out, some longer than others, as he walked towards the building, but he tried hard to ignore them. "God, please make this a good day," the young man silently prayed.
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Elliot entered the station doors the usual way, only to be met by the angry eyes of his boss.
"Where the heck have you been? I had Olivia call you an hour ago," Captain Cragen exclaimed angrily.
Elliot wasn't one to be at a loss for words but it was just something about being in trouble that did that to him.
"Ah, never mind. You're here now and that just means that you get to work." Cragen said, leaving to enter his office. "Don't be late again, Detective."
Elliot stared after him before transforming into cop mode and walking huffily to his desk.
"What do we got?" Elliot asked his partner who was poring over documents strewn about his desk.
Olivia jerked her head up and smiled.
"What took you so long?" she asked.
Elliot sighed and wiped a hand over his face.
"Well, it took me close to forever to get the kid up and then he started whining about never missing a day of breakfast before- Like that's true, you're bound to miss breakfast once in your life- and then he got all nervous about school and looked like he was going to barf up the breakfast we'd took so long getting in the first place!" Elliot said then exhaling deeply, like he was satisfied he had vented that.
"Ah, the joys of parenthood." Olivia said, smiling, to her partner's utter annoyance.
Elliot sighed and nodded.
"Anyway, what do we got?" he asked.
Munch, as if on cue, handed him a file with the words "Chad Rooney" labeled on the top. Elliot flipped it open to meet a picture of a boy about Aidan's age, now that he thought of it, the boy looked a little like his kid.
"That's Chad Rooney," Munch exclaimed to the man studying the picture. "He was a victim of a gay rapist named "Exta-C." Apparently, he has a thing for white male teens and usually kills them when he's done doing the "job." It's a vulgar tale, but luckily, our boy Chad was able to escape through an airshaft when he was tied in the bathroom. He was found by a couple collapsed, bleeding and naked about two blocks from the station."
Elliot nodded, not looking the least bit stirred by what the detective had just told him. It was just another case that was eventually going to be put to justice.
"We have the kid in the interrogation room right now," Munch said, nodding a head to the memorable door.
Elliot nodded once again and made his way towards the door. Inside he found the familiar-looking boy from the file, with the exception of a few nicks and cuts visible on his face. The young man stared a little taken aback by the muscular detective but quickly gained his composure. Chad nodded towards him, but flinched a little when Elliot took the seat across from him.
"Hey, I'm Elliot Stabler," Elliot said staring intently at the boy who had now decided on chipping at the worn table. "I just need to ask you a few questions about-"
"Look," the boy said firmly, looking up from the table. "I've already been asked about close to fifty times about what happened. Why do you people make me relive what I wanted to forget? If I knew this was going to happen I wouldn't have come here in the first place!"
"First of all," Elliot said sternly. "We need to ask you these questions so that we can get this guy and you could rest easier. Isn't that what you want?"
The young man nodded dolefully but opened his mouth again.
"And second," Elliot continued quickly, cutting of the Chad. "You didn't come here; you were brought here after you collapsed a few blocks away. Would you rather us have left you there?"
Chad sighed and shook his head in the same manner he nodded.
"Good," Elliot said, smiling at his success in making people see things his way. "Now do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"
"No," the teen answered, dropping his head again to pick at the table.
"First off, how did this happen?" he asked.
"Well, I was walking down my usual direction to get home from school," the young man exclaimed. "Then suddenly, this guy come out, he's about your stature, white, but less balding,"
Elliot twitched at the teen's bluntness.
The boy smiled and continued:
"He asked is I knew where a "hot-babe strip joint" was, and I replied no, I don't go to those things. He started following me when I tried to walk away, going on about how he doesn't go to those either. I stopped and asked what was he talking about, you don't ask some one the directions for a place that you're not going to bother to go to."
Elliot nodded at the logic.
"He said he knew that and that he was just testing me. I asked him what he was testing me for and that's when he knocked me out with chloroformed handkerchief."
The boy paused and looked up.
"Go on," Elliot said.
The boy fidgeted.
"Well, don't you know the rest? I found myself in a bathroom naked then escaped through an airshaft…"
Elliot sighed.
"He didn't, you know, rape you?" he asked carefully.
"Besides the fact that I was naked, I don't think so…" Chad said.
"How do you not know? Didn't they get you a rape kit?" Elliot asked incredulously.
"I didn't want one." Chad said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Well, then how do you know if you weren't raped!"
"I just know, okay? I'm not going to get one of those!"
Elliot groaned and rubbed his face. This kid was almost as stubborn as Aidan.
"Don't you have any parents or a guardian? You're only seventeen; this isn't really your choice." Elliot explained slowly.
"My uncle came- he's my guardian because my parents didn't want me- he said he'd agree with anything I thought was best for myself. And I think not getting a rape kit is best. I know I haven't been raped. The information I already gave you should be enough to catch this guy. He humiliated me, that's my only incentive for wanting you guys to get him."
Elliot rubbed the ridge of his nose. How am I going to deal with this kid? How am I going to deal with this kid?
Suddenly, a woman came in, Elliot and the younger man looked up immediately.
"Elliot, you have a call on line one, it's from Aidan's school."
Oh, boy…
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Aidan entered the school doors only to be swarmed by wall-to-wall teens.
This school is definitely a lot more crowded…
People were throwing all sorts of things and a ball hit him in the eye.
…Ow, and chaotic…
Aidan rubbed his sore eye and handed the ball to a tall jock who sneered at him and walked off, high-fiving his friend. Aidan stared off at him and continued to nurse his eventual black eye. He walked through the halls looking for the office and halted at the appointed number.
He opened the old wooden door with a creak causing the few people that were in there to look up. He gave a small smile at them, still holding his eye with one hand and his forms with another. He walked over to the secretary and handed her the forms.
"Here is your locker number and combination, memorize it, don't lose it." The parrot-nosed lady said to him, handing him a slip of paper. "Here are your books and your other things," She continued to hand him books and other files.
"Okay, thanks," he said, straining to carry his new load.
Aidan made it to his locker okay without any embarrassing run-ins with other teens. He took out his first two books for the beginning classes which he still had yet to locate. He stared intently at the map, plotting how he would get there. A loud snap to his right startled him and he looked up to see a very pretty girl. She had long brown hair and big green-gray eyes, accented by a twinge of purple shadow. She looked a little uncomfortable for surprising Aidan, and gave him a small smile.
Aidan smiled goofily back at her.
"Hey, sorry, I was a little mad there. I didn't mean to…" She started.
"Oh, no, it's alright. I was just kind of daydreaming. I should thank you actually, I'm going to be late for class," Aidan said, trying his best to make this conversation go smoothly.
"Oh, are you new here?" She asked.
"Yeah, this is my first day," he said.
She held out her hand and Aidan shook it.
"I'm Reseda, but people call me Ren. That nickname's never made sense to me really. I don't have an 'n' in my name. Where did it come form?..." Ren babbled on. Aidan watched in awe as her glossy, little lips rambled on about a name. He zoned out looking at them until she waved a hand in front of his face.
"Hello, earth to… Hey, you haven't told me your name yet," she said.
"Right, it's Aidan Connor," he said, smiling.
"Well, it was nice to meet you Ai-" suddenly Ren was interrupted by a huge body pushing her against a locker.
"Hey, baby, what's happening?" the mass cooed into the smaller forms head.
"Steve, get off of me. Get off!" Ren struggled to get "Steve" off of her.
Aidan watched the scene in front of him. This whale was smothering his dream girl. He wasn't going to stand for this.
"She said get off," Aidan said firmly, prying the guy off of her.
The guy was startled by his sudden involuntary movement and looked up quickly. He spotted Aidan with a fiery anger in his eyes and knew it was him who pulled him off his girl.
Steve stepped closer to Aidan, using his best towering effect. Aidan stood firm, staring with the same fire.
"What do you have here?" the guy taunted.
"You shouldn't do that to girls," Aidan said sternly, motioning towards Ren.
"This is none of your business," the bulkier boy said, jerking a finger back at Ren. "So why don't you just leave."
Aidan's stare faltered as he cast a glance at Ren. She was still huddled closely to her locker, as if she just wanted to melt into it. This guy really needs to back off…
"You need to back off," Aidan said, stepping closer and jabbing a finger hard into Steve's chest.
That was just about it for Steve. He threw a firm punch at Aidan's stomach, causing him to keel over. He then proceeded to kick the fallen young man.
Ren immediately came at his side to defend Aidan but Steve knocked her against a locker, making her topple to the ground, crying. Seeing this, Aidan grabbed Steve's legs and pulled with all his might, causing the bigger young man to fall down.
Aidan climbed on top of Steve and raised his fist to punch him but the bigger boy grabbed him and completely turned the tables. Aidan lay on the floor moaning with Steve on top of him, preparing to literally punch the snot out of him. He got in three strong punches, the first making his nosebleed, the second splitting his lip and the third giving him another black eye before finally completely knocking him out. The young man wasn't sure if he continued punching him after that, but the pounding of his head when he woke in the nurses' ward seemed to answer his question.
A/N: Okay, I'm too tired to continue so I left it at a slight cliffy here. Tell me what you think, I'll try to update sooner than my last! Oh yeah, click the purple magic button and review!