It's Time for a Change
A/N: I OWN NONE OF THE RECGONIZABLE REBA OR SVU CHARACTERS!! This is a Crossover AU story!
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PREVIOUSLY:
Cragen comes running out of the office when he hears Elliot yelling and immediately calls for back up. Fin tries to negotiate with Mr. Brown, "Come on Josh, don't do this. Cheyenne needs her mother, this is not the way to resolve things."
"Ashley cheated on me!" he yells.
"LIAR!" "YOU CHEATED ON ME!" she screams back, and Fin runs to Josh, knocks the gun from his hands and cuffs him, again.
Mrs. Brown is crying hysterically as Elliot leads her into an interview room, followed by Captain Cragen.
"I can't believe my husband just tried to kill me." she sobs.
"Ma'am, I'm Captain Donald Cragen, we're going to do everything we can to protect you and your daughter from your husband. Starting with a restraining order, if you want." the older man offers.
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ST. MARY'S CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL
QUEENS, NEW YORK
3:45pm
The doctors had finished Cheyenne's exam and she was sleeping. Olivia was sitting on the chair in the room with her, just watching her sleep.
Reba gently opens the door and sees the little girl, "How is she?"
"She's finally asleep. It took me a while to convince her that no one was going to do anything to her while she was asleep, and that she had nothing to worry about." Olivia answers the red headed nurse.
"She has two cracked ribs, and one is broken. That should explain some of the bruising, because they line up with the damaged ribs." Reba explains to the detective.
"If you don't mind me asking, how do you know her?" Olivia questions.
"We live across the street. I've babysat sometimes, but lately, I know her parents go out and don't call me. She comes over after school and sometimes she begs me to let her stay with me." Reba answers.
Olivia sighs and asks, "How often does this happen?"
"Oh, I'd say once or twice a week, but lately it's been three or four." the redhead replies.
"Do you think the problems at home have escalated?"
"Definitely. She sometimes cries when we have to send her home. I hate doing it, but I have to." Reba answers.
Cheyenne's eyes open and dart around the room, and then the tears come. Olivia notices and gets up. When she approaches the little girl, Cheyenne grabs her hand. "Honey, what's wrong?"
"DON'T HURT ME!" "I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!!" she screams.
Olivia looks at Reba and sighs, "Shhh, honey."
"MAKE HIM STOP!!! REBA!!!" the little girl continues to scream.
Reba rushes to the little girl's bedside and puts her hand on Cheyenne's shoulder and feels the child jump. "She could be dreaming." the nurse whispers to Olivia.
"Maybe."
"Cheyenne, honey?" Reba gently says.
The little girl's body relaxes and she lets out a loud sob. "I… I'm sorry."
"Don't be honey. We're here to help you. Everything's going to be okay, shhh, shhh." Reba calmly says.
Cheyenne sits up, hangs her head and cries. Olivia begins to rub calming circles on the little girl's back. Reba notices the beeping of the monitor slow back to normal and smiles.
Dr. Kennedy walks in the room to check on her and sees the two women comforting her, "What happened?" the woman asks.
"I'm not sure. We think she had a nightmare while she was sleeping. She woke up screaming." Reba answers.
"Her scans came back normal, thankfully the injuries weren't enough to cause internal bleeding. So that means she won't need surgery. We're going to keep her overnight to monitor her, because there is bruising inside of her body." Dr. Kennedy explains.
The little girl doesn't look up, or respond to Dr. Kennedy the entire time she is in the room and that concerns all three women. Dr. Kennedy quietly leaves the room and Olivia calmly asks Cheyenne, "Honey, did you see Dr. Kennedy?"
"yeah…" the little girl quietly answers.
"Did you hear what she said? You don't need surgery but you do have to stay overnight." Olivia explains.
"He… He'll find me here. I.. I can't." the little girl shakes her head no.
"No he won't. he's in Manhattan in jail right now. You're safe here." Olivia reassures her.
"Why is he there?" the girl asks.
"Sweetheart, my office is in Manhattan. My friend that found you at the park lives two streets behind you. He works at my office and he called me to come help you." Olivia answers.
"Oh." Cheyenne replies.
Reba looks at the monitors and notices that they've returned to normal and writes down the numbers on her chart and puts it on the table.
"Reba?" Cheyenne asks.
"Yes honey?" she calmly answers.
"Will you stay with me tonight?" the little girl asks.
"I'll try." the redhead answers.
"Please…" Cheyenne begs.
"Sweetie, listen, when you're ready to go to sleep, I'll come and stay with you. But when you do fall asleep, I'll have to get back to work. " the woman replies.
"Fine." the eight year old pouts.
Olivia's phone then rings. She looks at the caller ID that reads "Elliot". "I have to take this." she says and walks out of the room.
"Benson." she answers.
"Liv, it's El. How is she?" the man on the other end of the line says.
"Oh, Elliot. She's terrified of someone. When the doctor told us that they wanted to keep her overnight, she freaked out because she thinks the man that's hurting her is going to find her." the detective replies.
"Okay. But physically how is she?" he asks.
"She's got two cracked ribs and one's broken. Her fever is at 100.4 and they didn't find anything in the rape kit." Olivia sighs.
"He must wash her down after he hurts her. Or he may not be sexually abusing her, just physically." the man tells her.
"I don't know El. She was right about that Reba woman. She is a nurse here, she's actually Cheyenne's nurse. But I don't think she's going to tell the mother yet." Olivia replies.
"Actually we've found the mother. She came here and her husband pulled a gun on her. But Fin got in the way before he could shoot."
"Is Fin okay?" Olivia asks, concerned.
"He's fine. No shots were fired. But the mother's name is Ashley and she wants to get away from her husband, but has been too scared to do anything because she didn't want her or Cheyenne to get hurt." Elliot answers.
"He's threatened them. I can see it in Cheyenne's eyes. She's not talking. Maybe if you bring her mother up here, she might." Olivia suggests.
"I'll talk to Ashley again and see what she wants to do. Oh, and John took your car back." he says.
"Okay. That means I'm gonna need a ride back to Manhattan." she states.
"I know that. That's why I'm going to bring Cheyenne's mother up here and when I leave, I'll take you with me." he replies.
"That's great. Is the father still in lockup?" she asks.
"Yep. The mother filed a restraining order for both her and her daughter. But we can't charge him yet because she hasn't told us anything. But I've got him on assault of a police officer." he replies.
"Okay. Cheyenne was worried about that. I'm going to go back in and see if she's up to talking. Text me when you get close. We're in room 127." Olivia tells him.
"Kay. I will. I'm going to get Ashley and let her know what's up." he replies.
"Bye El."
"Bye Liv." he hangs up the phone, and walks upstairs to find Ashley.
A/N: I'm terribly sorry for the super duper long wait between chapters. I love this story and wish I could post sooner but lately I've been super busy. Oh well, here's something that's been in the works for almost a month… hehe. Next time I will update sooner. REVIEW TIME!!!!!!!!!