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:
Olivia runs back out of the house, and to the ambulance with a worn purple bunny. She walks to the ambulance and climbs in, handing the child the stuffed animal. Cheyenne is still screaming as Reba lays her down on the stretcher so they can get a better look to make sure she's okay.
Reba does another quick scan of the child's body and decides that she's fine physically. "Let's get her to the hospital, checked out, and we'll figure something out from there." the EMT suggests.
"Okay, Can we go to St. Mary's?" Reba asks.
The man nods, tells the driver through the walkie talkie, and Mr. Hart comes running up to the ambulance with Reba's things right before the door closes.
The EMT takes them from the man, hands them to the redheaded nurse and closes the door. He then taps the glass window twice, telling the driver to go. The sirens wail and the ambulance speeds off towards the hospital, with Reba, the screaming eight year old, and the EMT inside.
BROWN RESIDENCE
6:15pm
QUEENS, NY
Olivia is standing next to the ME as she's examining the mother's body. "TOD approximately five after six" "Cause of death, gun shot wound to the head, he was standing a few inches away."
Detective Bradford comments, "He could have been grabbing her…" he takes Olivia and puts one arm around her neck and points his fingers at her head like a gun.
Olivia slaps his arm away and yells, "Don't you dare touch me like that again…" and walks outside. He looks down at the ME and says, "What the hell was that?"
The woman shakes her head and replies, "No idea."
Olivia storms out of the house and starts pacing on the lawn. Mr. Hart sees the detective trying to calm herself down, "You okay?"
"Yeah. Fine."
"She's dead isn't she… Mrs. Brown?" he asks.
"Unfortunately. She died ten minutes ago. Instantly. We think Cheyenne saw it." the woman replies.
ST. MARY'S CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL
6:20pm
QUEENS, NY
The ambulance pulls up under the awning and Nurse Johnson opens the doors. She sees the redheaded nurse with the screaming blond covered in blood. "Oh god, Reba, what happened?"
"She's fine. Her mother…." the woman tries to reply, but they are cut off by a loud scream from the child, "MOMMY"
The woman starts to understand what's going on, "Oh my god." she slowly says as another nurse approaches to help lift the gurney out of the ambulance, "Nurse Hart?! Are you okay?"
"Steve, I'm fine! Just get us out of this darn ambulance." the redhead barks.
"Okay, okay. Let's all calm down." Nurse Johnson says. She and Nurse Turner lift Cheyenne's gurney out of the ambulance and help Reba out.
Nurse Johnson looks down at the crying girl, "Shhh, honey. Take some deep breaths and try to relax." "You're okay, just breathe."
Cheyenne struggles to take a few deep breaths and Reba smiles at her, "I know you're really sad right now, and that's okay. We just want to check and make sure you're not hurt."
The little blond just looks at her, but can't smile, because tears start streaming down her face. Reba sighs as they enter the ER room and help Cheyenne from the gurney to the bed, for the second time in two days. "You guys keep this one on low… we don't need the entire world knowing this. If we get a doctor in here, it better be Kennedy, she was her doctor last time." the woman explains to her coworkers.
"May I ask what happened?" Nurse Johnson asks.
"Well, Laura, it was about ten after six when she came pounding on our door, and Brock answered. She was sobbing, and all she could do was scream 'mommy'. I got a few other words out of her, like 'he' and 'gun' but that's all she's really said. I made Brock call 911 and the cops came and the detectives that were here with us this morning were there and when they started investigating, they discovered her mother's dead body…" the redheaded woman slowly explains.
After the woman says this, the door bursts open and it's Dr. Kennedy, "REBA!" "Is everything okay? Steve paged me."
"Not really." the woman quietly replies.
"Cheyenne, honey, are you okay?" the doctor asks.
"My… my… mommy! She's hurt!" the girl cries.
Reba shakes her head no and mouths, "dead" to the woman.
Dr. Kennedy sighs, "does she know?"
"I don't think she understands." the redhead replies.
"Sweetie, you have blood in your hair, can I get it out for you?" the doctor asks.
"Reba." the girl cries, and reaches for the nurse.
The nurse sits down next to the little girl and hugs her. "Hey, let me wash your hair, you'll feel a lot better after I do. Then we just want to check and make sure you're still okay."
The doctor nods and says, "We've got an extended stay room open, I'll let you use it, off the record."
"I was just going to take her to the locker room, but okay." "And she's going to need something different to wear, her shirt's bloody too." Reba replies.
"I'll get Steve to bring you some sweats." Dr. Kennedy replies.
"Okay. How am I going to get her up there without everybody in the emergency department seeing me?"
"Nurse Johnson can walk her up there and you can follow a few minutes behind." the woman suggests.
"Okay." the nurse replies, and then turns her head to the crying blond, "Honey, listen, Nurse Johnson is going to walk you upstairs to a room where I'm going to get you cleaned up and Nurse Turner is gonna bring you something clean to wear, okay?"
The blond looks over at the man, "Don't hurt me…"
He furrows his brow at Reba, "Her father…" Reba hints.
Steve nods and walks away. Nurse Johnson slowly approaches Cheyenne and calmly says, "Sweetheart, if you're ready, you can come with me and I'm going to take you to a different room upstairs so Reba can wash your hair. Then we'll just let you relax."
Reba glares at the woman and Laura adds, "She needs to. There's no way she's going to talk if she's like she is now. From my understanding of what happened, she'll probably have to talk to the cops."
Cheyenne buries her head in Reba's shoulder and continues to cry. Reba starts to rub her back, "Shhh sweetheart, I know, baby. It'll be okay."
Dr. Kennedy gets a page and reads, "SVU's here. For Cheyenne."
"Great, we were just about ready to get her cleaned up." Reba hisses.
Before anyone can say anything else, the door opens and Olivia walks in. "Cheyenne, honey?"
"O…. Olivia?" the little girl cries.
"Yes sweetheart, it's me. Are you okay?" the brunette detective asks.
"I… I want my mommy…" she sobs.
Olivia slowly sits down next to the eight year old and then looks at Reba who nods, "Honey, look at me, for just a minute, please."
The little girl hesitantly picks her head up and looks at Olivia, "Sweetie, when your mommy was shot, it hurt her really bad, and she didn't make it."
The little girl doesn't say anything for a minute and then understands what Olivia just told her, "So… so he… k…. killed her?"
Olivia sighs, "Yes, baby. I'm so sorry." Cheyenne screams and squeezes Reba, "YOU SAID HE COULDN'T HURT ME IF I TOLD YOU WHAT HE DID!"
Nurse Johnson looks at Reba, and then to Olivia and says, "Cheyenne baby, no one knew what he was wanting to do… we all wish he didn't do what he's done, but it'll all be okay."
Cheyenne doesn't reply to the nurse, but Reba calmly says, "Olivia, I know you were trying to protect them as best you could, and I know it's not your fault he did this, it'll just take her some time to understand everything. We were just about to take her upstairs, and get all the blood washed out of her hair, then we can try talking."
"That sounds good. Cheyenne, sweetheart, I'm going to go back to my office now, Reba's going to call me after you've had some time to rest and get cleaned up. Then I really want to talk to you about what happened." the detective explains.
"WHATEVER." the child pouts. Olivia just sighs, "Bye Cheyenne, I'll talk to you later okay?"
Reba smiles and nods as Dr. Kennedy opens the door for the woman as she leaves. "Well that was a big help."
"Cheyenne, darling, are you ready to go upstairs and get cleaned up?" Nurse Johnson asks.
"I guess. My hair feels yucky." the little blond whimpers.
"Okay sweetie, do you want to walk with me, or do you wanna ride in a wheelchair?" Laura asks.
"It doesn't matter." the girl quietly replies.
Laura pulls a hair tie off her wrist, "Hey honey, how about I pull your hair up in a bun until we get up there so no one can really see all the blood."
"Sure." Cheyenne mumbles.
OLIVIA BENSON'S CAR
EN ROUTE TO QUEENS SVU
6:35pm
QUEENS, NY
The brunette detective is struggling to keep her focus on the road while her mind swirled with thoughts of Sealview, Elliot, Cheyenne and her mother. She punches the power button on the radio, turning it off, picks up her phone and dials Elliot's number.
"Stabler" the familiar male voice on the other end answers.
"El, I wanna come home." she whimpers.
"Liv what's wrong? Is everything okay?" he asks, concerned.
"Stupid Bradford." she tells him.
"What'd he do? Do I need to come kick some Queens PD ass?" the man asks.
"Nah. He, ah, just, forget it." She replies, wanting to tell him about how he grabbed her at the crime scene, but decides not to.
"You sure Liv? Where are you staying? I'll come check on you." Elliot tells her.
"Apartment complex couple blocks from the station. It's on 18th street, number 5C." she informs him.
"Hey, gotta go, Cragen needs us." The man says and hangs up before she can say goodbye. She whispers 'love you' into the phone and slowly hangs it up.
When she arrives back at the station, Bradford is sitting at his desk, searching for Josh. She doesn't say anything as she passes by him and sits down.
Detective Bradford notices her return, "How's Cheyenne?"
"Physically, better than she was the first time in the hospital, emotionally, she's traumatized, sad, scared, angry…" the woman answers.
"Well no leads as of where Josh could be. Do you think keeping her at the hospital or with the Hart family is a good idea?" Tanner asks.
"I know that's probably what Mrs. Hart is going to want, but with their house in such a close proximity of hers, he could come back looking for Cheyenne, and I don't want her in harms way." Olivia answers.
"WPP?" he suggests.
"Absolutely not. That would rock her world more than this. That's definitely not what she needs, but if that were the case, I'd suggest she go with the Harts and then Reba would be there to help her heal." the brunette replies.
Another detective stands up and walks towards Benson and Bradford, "Got something."
"What?" Olivia asks.
"Josh's brother lives in the neighboring subdivision. He bailed him out, so that's where Josh probably went when we kicked him out before Cheyenne and Ashley came home. He may have gone back there after the shooting." the man informs them.
"Let's go pay the brother a visit…" Tanner tells Olivia.
A/N: CLIFFHANGER! I love where I am in this story. I've never written a murder case before, and I like writing them. And there may be some E/Oness in future chapters! Please be kind and leave me a nice review, suggestions are always appreciated.