It's Time for a Change
A/N: This is my first Reba/SVU cross over. It's also my first AU. And my first Reba story. What would the Hart's life be like if Cheyenne was Reba's best friend's daughter but she was abused by her father and the Hart's adopted her when she was eight?
A/N2: I OWN NONE OF THE RECGONIZABLE REBA OR SVU CHARACTERS!!
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RIVERSIDE PLAYGROUND
QUEENS, NEW YORK
1:30pm JANUARY 16, 2009
Detective Elliot Stabler sat on a park bench watching his two eight year old twins play on the jungle gym at the playground. It was a beautiful Saturday and Kathy was at the mall with some friends, so he had the kids.
However, it wasn't a beautiful Saturday for eight year old Cheyenne Brown. She too was at the same park as the Stablers, but for a different reason.
Her parents got into a big argument the night before and she was scared she'd get hurt, again, so she escaped to the park, where she spent the cold, snowy night. She was huddled in the corner of the fire truck shaped jungle gym shivering.
Lizzie noticed her and tried to go talk to her and ask if she wanted someone to play with because she and some friends were playing hide and seek and wanted one more person. But Cheyenne just shook her head no and didn't say anything.
Lizzie knew something wasn't right with this little girl because of her father's job. She decided to say something but wasn't exactly sure what.
The brunette eight year old walked over to her father and said, "Hey dad, there's this girl over on the fire truck and I think she might be hurt."
"Did you try talking to her?" he asks his daughter.
"I asked her if she wanted to play hide and seek with me, Dickie and Bethany but she didn't say anything and she looked like she was really cold." Lizzie answers.
The man gets up and follows his daughter over to where the girl was huddled. Cheyenne took one look at Lizzie's father and hid her head in her knees. Elliot knew immediately that something was wrong.
Lizzie looked up at her father and he silently told her to say something first.
"Hey, are you okay? My dad's a police officer, he can help you." Lizzie says.
Cheyenne shakes her head no with her head still hidden in her knees and before Elliot says anything he sends his partner a text message, "Liv, I need your assistance at Riverside Park by my house. There's a girl, Lizzie found her, she's scared of something, or someone, she's not talking to anyone. Lizzie can't even get her name."
He looks at his daughter and says, "I just texted Olivia. She might be able to talk to her and get this straightened out. Try asking her what her name is."
Lizzie obeys her father and his phone beeps "Okay. I'm on my way. Thank god for the siren in my car." Olivia replies.
Elliot chuckles to him self as he reads her text message and replies, "Thanks. Sorry to bug you on your day off, but I think this may be serious."
Thankfully Olivia was fairly close to Queens. She had decided to do some shopping for herself and some of her favorite stores were up that way. She paid the clerk for her things and left the store. Once she got to her car, she put her bags in the trunk and found the siren in her back seat. She puts it on the dashboard of her
car and speeds off to Riverside Playground.
Lizzie had managed to get the girl to tell her what her name was, "Daddy, her name is Cheyenne. But that's all she'll tell me. She won't tell me her last name or how old she is."
Elliot smiles at his daughter and cautiously approaches the young girl, "Hi Cheyenne." he says calmly. She doesn't look up or respond.
"My name is Elliot. I'm a police officer. I'm Lizzie's dad. She told me that you might be hurt and that you needed help." he tells the blond girl.
He hears the siren from what must be his partner's car coming up the road and sighs in relief, "Lizzie, can you go get Olivia and bring her over here?" he asks his daughter.
"Okay." the brunette answers and walks across the snow covered playground to the gate, leaving her father with the terrified eight year old.
Olivia parks her car and turns off her siren. She kills the engine and grabs her coat, and an extra blanket. She gets out and sees Lizzie standing at the gate and makes her way over to the girl.
"Hi Olivia!" Lizzie says to the brunette detective.
"Your dad texted me about a girl who wouldn't talk." she tells the child.
"Yeah. I found her, she told me her name was Cheyenne. But she won't say anything else to me or daddy." Lizzie tells the woman.
Olivia takes Lizzie's glove covered hand and the two walk over to where Elliot was standing, in a protective manner, by Cheyenne.
Elliot sees his partner walking towards him wearing a long black coat, jeans and black Ugg boots. Her long brunette hair is blowing freely in the wind and he can't help but think how beautiful she looks walking alongside his own daughter. He shakes those thoughts aside and turns his mind back to the small girl huddled behind him.
He smiles when his partner comes within talking distance, "Hey Liv."
She smiles back and takes a hair tie from her wrist and quickly wraps her windblown hair into a low ponytail. "What's up?" she asks the man.
"This is Cheyenne. And that's all I know about her. She looks to be about Liz's age but I'm not sure. I have no idea why she's here, or how long she's been here, or what's up with her parents." he tells her.
"Let me give it a shot. I may be able to get her to say something." Olivia says, walking up to the blond girl, carrying her big NYPD blanket.
Olivia walks up to the small girl and sits down on the wooden platform of the fire truck jungle gym. "Hi Cheyenne." she calmly says.
Cheyenne immediately feels safer being talked to by a female voice. She slowly peeks up to see the brunette detective smiling at her, holding a blanket.
"Hi." is all the girl mumbles to Olivia.
"My name is Olivia. I'm a police officer. I'm friends with Lizzie and her dad." she says to Cheyenne.
Cheyenne continues to look at the detective, but doesn't say anything.
"Can you tell me why you're here?" Olivia calmly asks.
Cheyenne's eyes dart to Elliot, Lizzie and then back to Olivia. Olivia senses the girl's fear and whispers to her partner, "Give her some space. She probably won't talk when you're here."
Elliot motions for his daughter to follow him to the swings where Dickie is with his friend John while Olivia continues to talk to the girl.
Cheyenne opens her mouth to speak but nothing comes out. Olivia then realizes that this girl may have been here for a long time and asks, "Honey are you cold?"
Cheyenne nods her head yes and Olivia unfolds the blanket that was draped over her arms and carefully wraps it around the girl. She smiles at the detective and snuggles the blanket that has brought immediate warmth to her tiny body.
Olivia smiles back and asks, "Do you know how long you've been here?"
"I know that it was yesterday when I got here. I don't know what time it is though." Cheyenne slowly tells the detective.
Olivia sighs and says, "Sweetie, it snowed last night. All you have on is a long sleeve nightgown and socks. You have to be really cold."
"I am. But I had to leave. I was scared." she tells the detective.
"What were you scared of?" Olivia asks, realizing that this wasn't a joke, that this girl was really scared of something, and that she probably saved herself from being seriously hurt by coming out here on such a frigidly cold night.
Even though Cheyenne was now wrapped up in Olivia's blanket, she started shaking. Olivia realizes the girl's trembling and calmly says, "Honey, do you want to go sit in my car and talk, I'll turn on the heat. We won't go anywhere, I promise."
Cheyenne's eyes widen, but not in excitement, instead they're worried "if I talk to her, she's gonna find out. If I don't talk to her, he's gonna hurt me more. If I talk to her, he'll still hurt me even worse." she thinks to herself.
Tears begin to roll down Cheyenne's eyes as she mutters, "Don't take me home…" and starts coughing.
"I won't. but it's not good for you to be in the cold this long without a coat. Can I take you to the police station where we can talk?" Olivia asks.
Cheyenne is now crying and hesitantly asks Olivia, "Are.. Are you a real cop?"
Olivia smiles, reaches in her coat pocket for her badge and says, "Yes honey, look here's my badge."
Cheyenne takes the badge from the detective and looks at it, she notices it reads "Olivia Benson" and that the picture looks exactly like the woman sitting in front of her.
"Okay. I believe you…" Cheyenne mumbles and starts coughing and sniffling.
She hands Olivia back her badge and Olivia says, "Sweetheart, you sound like you're getting sick. Let's get you somewhere warmer."
Cheyenne scoots closer to the detective and Olivia hugs the tiny body, and realizes how cold she really is. Elliot looks over at his partner, who's hugging the little girl, makes his way back over to the two.
"What's up?" he calmly asks Olivia.
"I really don't know yet. She did ask me not to take her home. I'm voting on taking her to the hospital to get her checked out, then calling Cragen to let him know and to get John and Fin in on this. And hopefully finding out what's going on with her parents." Olivia tells the man.
"St. Mary's Children's Hospital is 15 minutes up the road. It's the closest one. You drive her, I'll call Cragen on my way home, I'm going to have to give the kids to Mrs. Jones. And then I'll meet you there." Elliot replies.
Olivia looks down at the body cradled on her left side, she's stopped shivering, but she's still coughing periodically. "Honey, I want to take you to the hospital, just to make sure you're okay."
Cheyenne looks up at the woman and tears stream down the girl's eyes, "Mommy's friend Reba is a nurse there. She'll tell mommy I ran away and I'm gonna get hurt."
A/N: CLIFFHANGER!!! Ha ha! Please tell me what you think, should I continue? This story is big time AU. Eli doesn't exist, Reba lives in NY instead of Texas, she's a nurse instead of a stay at home mom. This was a random idea I had in the middle of the night a while ago and I finally figured out the best way to write this. R&R! I've had a writers block in Volleyball Drama, please read and send me suggestions!