It's Time for a Change

A/N: I OWN NONE OF THE RECGONIZABLE REBA OR SVU CHARACTERS!! This is a Crossover AU story!

PREVIOUSLY:

"I took the night shift to stay with Cheyenne, I was afraid she'd wake up in the middle of the night screaming for me. She did that once yesterday afternoon, so I didn't know if she'd do it again…" Reba answers.

"Please tell me they're giving you tomorrow off…"

"Yeah, I tweaked my schedule so I work an hour after Cheyenne goes home, I have all of tomorrow off and then I come back Tuesday."

Dr. Adams nods, "Alright. I have an eight o'clock. It's ten till. I've gotta find my files. Let me know if anything changes with Cheyenne."

"Thanks Maggie." Reba replies and walks out the door.

16th PRECINCT
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK
7:55am

Elliot Stabler walks into the squad room, looks at his partner's empty desk, sighs, and turns on his computer. He looks up from his computer and sees a dirty blond woman and Captain Cragen approaching his desk so he stands up.

"Elliot, meet your new partner, Brittany Steel." the older man says.

"Hi, Detective Stabler. Nice to meet you."

"Brittany Steel, nice to meet you." the woman replies.

Fin and Munch are watching the exchange and Munch snickers, "Who's the new Olivia this time?"

"Dude. Liv's coming back as soon as her case is done. Elliot'll get rid of Blondie in no time." Fin replies.

"Whatever man. She's the best looking one Cragen's got him." Munch smiles.

"Dude. Elliot'll never permanently replace Liv, ever." the detective says, annoyed.

Elliot smiles at Brittany and looks over at Fin and Munch as the woman sits down at Olivia's desk. "Who's the new partner El?" Munch asks.

"Brittany, this is Sergeant Munch. Don't drink his coffee…" Elliot says to the woman.

John gets up to shake the woman's hand and she smiles at him, "Brittany Steel, I'm happy to finally have this job, I've been in New York for about a month and I've been looking for work after my husband got transferred here from Oklahoma."

Elliot can't stop smiling at this woman and has to keep reminding himself that Olivia will be back in a matter of a few weeks. John glances over at him and then they see the captain approaching the group. "We've got a new case, a double homicide down at the warehouse by the Hudson…."

QUEENS SVU SQUAD ROOM
QUEENS, NEW YORK
8:15am

Olivia can't stop thinking about Elliot and worrying about his new partner. Detective Bradford looks up at her and notices that she's lost in thought, "Olivia…"

She doesn't reply at first, "Detective Benson…" the man says to her.

"Huh… oh, daydreaming again, I guess." the female detective replies.

"When are we going to talk to Cheyenne?" Tanner asks.

"Nine. I just talked to Nurse Hart and she wants us to talk to her before the therapist does. So I think we should leave now to get there in time." Olivia answers.

Tanner nods in agreement, gets up, grabs his coat off the rack, and waits for Olivia to catch up.

ST. MARY'S CHILDREN'S HOSPIAL
QUEENS, NEW YORK
8:50am

Detective Bradford parks the car by the front entrance, walks around and opens the door for Olivia. She gets out, grabs her purse and starts making her way to the door. They approach Cheyenne's room and are greeted by Officer Nicholson. "You're here to see Cheyenne?"

Olivia flashes her badge, "Yes. We'd like to talk to her before she's discharged."

"Okay." the man replies and opens the door.

Olivia looks at the little girl, quietly laying in the bed with heavy eyes. She then looks at Ashley who's reading a magazine. "Good morning Mrs. Brown…"

"Detective…" the woman says, and stands up.

"We'd like to speak with Cheyenne." Olivia calmly says, smiling at the little girl.

"Where's the man that brought me here yesterday?" Ashley asks.

Olivia sighs, "He's in Manhattan, that's where our office is, but since you live here in Queens, they transferred the case to Queens and I decided to transfer as well."

Ashley smiles, "Okay. Nurse Hart said that she wanted Cheyenne to talk to a therapist after she talked to you… is that going to be too much for her to handle right now?"

"We don't know yet. I'll see how it goes and we'll decide from there." the detective calmly replies.

Ashley walks over to her sleepy daughter, "Honey, do you remember Olivia from yesterday? She wants to talk to you about what happened, do you think you could do that?"

"Does he have to be here?" Cheyenne asks, referring to Detective Bradford.

Olivia looks at her partner, "No honey, he can stay outside until we're done talking."

The man nods and says, "I need to ask you mom a few questions anyways, so we'll step outside while you talk to Detective Benson."

Olivia smiles and pulls the chair up to the side of Cheyenne's bed. "Hey, how are you?"

"I'm okay… Reba brought me Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc.!" the girl replies.

"That's awesome. What other movies did she bring you?" Olivia asks.

"Cinderella, Bugs Life, and the Little Mermaid…" the eight year old replies.

"Cinderella's my favorite…" "Now, honey, I know you probably don't want to, but we need to talk about yesterday…" the woman gently explains.

Cheyenne hangs her head and closes her eyes, "Don't…. make… me…"

"Sweetheart, I know you're scared, but no one's going to hurt you anymore. You're safe now…"

"Really?…" the little blond asks.

"Yes Cheyenne, you're safe." Olivia reassures her.

"Okay… I hope so…" "Will he find out if I tell you?"

"No. I won't tell anyone… it's a secret." Olivia lies, hoping to convince the tiny girl that nothing bad will happen to her if she explains what's been happening.

"Okay. So I came home from school on Friday, I went to Reba's house, because when mommy's not home, I can't be by myself… then I saw mommy's car pull in the driveway and I knew she had him with her…" Cheyenne begins to explain.

"You're doing great honey, what happened next?" Olivia calmly asks.

"I went and hid in Reba's guest bedroom, I didn't wanna go home, I didn't make an A on my history test, like I promised him I was going to. I was scared. When mommy came over to take me home, Reba had to look everywhere to find me. She just told mommy to go back home, and not to worry, she'd bring me over when she found me."

"Sweetheart, why were you scared when you didn't make an A?"

"When Reba found me… I couldn't stop crying. She tried really hard to get me to calm down, but I kept telling her that he was gonna hurt me because of my grade. Because the last time I didn't make an A… he… he… wouldn't stop hitting me. He hit me 87 times, because that's the grade that I got. And I got an 88 this time… so I knew that meant one more time he'd hit me…" Cheyenne explains, in tears.

Olivia stands up, sits down on the bed at Cheyenne's feet and lets Cheyenne lean into her side. "Shhh… baby girl, you're gonna be fine. We're gonna make sure he gets in trouble for what he's done. But first, you've gotta tell me the rest of what happened."

The girl doesn't respond and continues to cry. "Honey… no one's going to hurt you anymore."

Meanwhile, outside, Ashley is talking to Detective Bradford and sees her daughter crying. Reba approaches the group with Dr. Adams and looks in the window. "I don't know if now's a good time." Ashley tells them.

"Let's just see what's going on and then I'll decide if I want to talk to Cheyenne now, or wait until she calms down and is released." Dr. Adams replies.

"I'm guessing you're the therapist that Reba was telling me about yesterday?" Ashley asks.

"Yes, I'm Maggie Adams." the woman kindly replies.

"I'm Ashley Brown, nice to meet you."

"Do we want to go in the room now and see how she's doing, or wait a few more minutes?" Reba asks.

"I want to check on my baby… I wanna know what he's done to her." Ashley replies.

"She'll tell you when she's ready. The detective will probably let you know what she does now and let Cheyenne explain more later." Dr. Adams tells her.

Ashley nods in reply and gently opens the door to her daughter's room. The little girl looks up at her and buries her head back in the detective's shoulder.

"Cheyenne, baby, it's okay. It's mommy and Reba." the woman says, afraid to mention the third woman.

"I don't wanna talk about it anymore!" the girl cries.

Olivia begins to rub calming circles on Cheyenne's back and "Shhh… remember what I told you, no one's gonna hurt you anymore."

Ashley sits down on the other side of her daughter, "Honey, I want to help you get better, I know what he did was wrong and mean, and I'm really, really sorry. I won't let him near you again."

Cheyenne slowly sits up and looks at her mother, "Promise?"

"Yes baby girl. Before we go home, the police are going to make sure that he's not home so he can't do anything." the woman says, hinting to Olivia that she needs to tell her colleagues to do so.

"Okay…." the little blond replies and hugs Ashley.

"I can send another officer to the house now if she's ready to be discharged." Detective Bradford calmly says.

"Okay. I can go print the papers now and you can wait here until they clear the house." Reba offers.

"Alright. We can do that. And Dr. Adams…" Ashley replies.

"Don't worry. I'll give you my card, and you can call me and we can schedule an appointment." the therapist tells her.

A few minutes later, Reba comes back with the papers, Ashley signs them and Officer Nicholson comes in to explain the protective detail.

"We'll drive them home. And then we would like to talk to her teacher as well…" Olivia tells the officer.

"Mrs. Harrison? What could she possibly have to do with this?" Ashley asks.

"Cheyenne may have told her things that she was too scared to tell you." Olivia explains.

The woman nods in response and then looks at Detective Bradford, "How long will it be before we can get back to the house?"

"It depends on how long it takes the officers to search the place, and make sure he's not there." the man answers.

"Okay." Ashley replies.

"Can I watch Cinderella?" the little blond asks.

"Sure honey. I'll put it on while we wait for the other officers to call." Reba answers and puts the DVD in the player.

"I'm going to go back to my office, Mrs. Brown, you can call me when you get home, or wait until tomorrow." Dr. Adams says.

"Okay. Thanks." the woman replies and takes the business card from her hand.

"I'm going to go ahead and unhook everything, and bring her something warm to put on so she can be ready to leave when they call." Reba tells Ashley.

Cheyenne buries her head in Olivia's shoulder because she knows Reba has to unhook the heart monitor, and doesn't want to show anyone the bruises.

"I'll step outside for a few minutes…" Detective Bradford calmly says as he leaves the room.

Olivia smiles at the man as he leaves and gently rubs Cheyenne's back. "Honey, I'm just gonna lift up your gown for a few minutes so I can take the stickies off." Reba explains.

"Noooo…." the girl cries.

Ashley takes the girl's hand, "Baby, she's not gonna hurt you. Just take a deep breath and close your eyes."

Ashley looks at her daughter, "Honey if mommy did it, would you let me?"

The girl whimpers in response and Olivia squeezes her other hand. Ashley gently starts to lift the gown and Cheyenne starts to kick to get away.

"Honey, we're not going to hurt you. I just want to take off the monitor so you can go home. That's all." the redheaded nurse explains.

Cheyenne stops kicking and allows Reba to remove the wires from the stickers on her chest. "You're doing great sweetie. Now I'm gonna do this as gentle as I can so it doesn't hurt." Reba reassures her.

The nurse slowly peels the stickers off the girl's chest and she screams with each pull. Once Reba's done, she's still screaming and crying. She hugs Olivia, "Shhh….Shhh… Shhh… it's all over. She's done. You're okay now."

Cheyenne slowly stops crying and Olivia smiles, "Honey Cinderella's on, let's watch that until Officer Nicholson tells me we can take you home."

A/N: I'm so sorry for the long wait. I really wanna get to the action part of this story, and it's gonna come next chapter!!! I'm excited, and I hope you will be too. Please press that little green button below. Now I'm gonna do my homework that I've been putting off all day because of this chapter :D