All SVU Characters belong to Dick Wolf

~Home Sweet Home~

Inside, Olivia paused in the dim, smoky living room before heading through to her bedroom.

"I'm going to a friend's tonight…" She sighed and ran a hand through her hair at the lack of response from the two nearly comatose adults on the couch. "Mom?"

"Shut-up will'yh!" was the slurred response that came from the man slouched next to Olivia's mother, staring blankly at the TV "She's a sleep'n she don't care."

Olivia nodded, regretting having to pass between him and the TV on her way.

"Hey kid, come'er!" Sid drawled as Olivia walked by, and grabbed for her butt, but missed "I need a beer."

"There's one in your hand, Sid." She didn't stop.

There was the crack and slosh of a beer bottle and it's contents landing on the carpet at his feet "Well now I need a nother'un!" He called after her.

"Fuck you." Olivia muttered to herself as she headed down the short hall to her room. She could hear Sid complaining and trying to wake her mother as she slammed the door behind her. Olivia had planed to grab a few things, change, and leave, but now that she thought of it there was absolutely nothing she wanted to take with her, so she quickly undressed and grabbed a fresh change of clothing. She needed to get the hell out before she had the chance to think about it. She had to move fast because if she stopped or slowed down she might have a moment to realize that she was just as afraid of leaving as of staying. She slipped on a pair of jeans, the only pair she had that weren't faded, and was fastening her bra, when her bedroom door flew open.

"He says your goin', Where you goin' Livia?" Her mother demanded, clutching the door frame in one hand for support and a nearly empty vodka bottle in the other.

"I thought you were passed out." Olivia kept her eyes on the floor and her tone flat, as usual, though she could suddenly feel her heart beating in her chest and her fingers fumbled with the clasp of her bra. She wasn't afraid of her mother, but she was terrified that she might find a way to stop her. And more than anything she hated the fact the woman's husky, slurred voice somehow always managed a motherly and appealing tone, even at it's worst.

"Well I'm not" Serena Benson swayed on her feet a bit, momentarily loosing her train of thought.

"You will be." Finally having done up her bra Olivia eyed her mother for a moment, expecting her to tumble over.

Instead Serena's eyes lit up anger "Answer me girl! WHERE!" Serena was a volatile drunk. She whipped the bottle in Olivia's direction but had no aim and it shattered on the floor just in front of its intended target. Olivia backed up a step avoiding the splash of alcohol, and she could feel herself tense.

"No" Her eyes were fixed on her mother. As much as she didn't want this to go down now, there was no way in hell she was going to give Alex up to the one person she wanted to escape.

Serena grew livid; she hated her daughter's insubordination almost as much as she hated Olivia's very conception. But there was nothing that could change that, Olivia was… A living breathing reminder of all that was wrong with the world, Serena thought. God she hated that girl!... But still, Olivia was her Daughter, her flesh and blood too, hers, the one and only thing that was irreversibly hers… Just then Sid called down the hall.

"Hey Rena! Thurs a big'ol limo parked there"

Olivia's eyes widened, she never would have guessed either one of her foe's would have been sober enough to notice it.

"Limo?" Serena's eyes squinted and she cocked her head as if contemplating the very word. Then the flash was back and it sparked fury in those intoxicated eyes "You think you're goin' some were Girl? Some were better'n here? Well I've got news for you 'Livia. You made this Goddamn hell hole! Yur not going anywhere."

"I didn't make anything, Serena" Olivia eyed her mother coldly, not betraying how the accusation had cut her inside. "Just try and stop me." She took her eyes off of her mother's for a moment find a shirt, but that was her first mistake.

Before Olivia could react, Serena barreled into her sending them both crashing to the floor. Thankfully the wind was knocked out of her mother momentarily, and Olivia scrambled out from under her to make an escape , but not before Serena noticed and grabbed a large shared of broken bottle that lay on the floor.

"Don't you dare!" Serena hissed, thrusting the glass dagger at her daughter.

Olivia inched back, (she knew from experience that her mother was capable of anything) her bed was behind her. Underestimating her mother's reflexes she reached back and pulled herself up. Mistake number two…

"No!" With a yell, Serena swiped the piece of glass out in front of her. This time she hit her target and the sharp sting brought Olivia back to the ground. For a moment Mother and daughter froze, both staring at the blood tipped shard gripped in Serena's hand.

"Fuck you" Olivia growled, and in an instant she deftly reached back again supporting her weight on the bed behind her as she kicked both her kegs out with full strength. She may have seemed fragile, but she was strong, and that paired with ferocity, flung her mother clean across the small room. Olivia heard a thump as her mother's head hit the corner of a dresser, but she wasn't sure whether it was the impact or the booze that caused Serena to collapse unconscious where she landed.

Olivia peered at her mother for a moment to be sure she wasn't playing possum, then, still sitting slouched against the side of her bed breathing hard, she glanced down at her own quivering body. Just bellow her right bottom rib ran a bright red horizontal gash. It was thin and long running half way across her torso at a slight angle. It burned like hell but it was not deep and to Olivia's relief she wasn't bleeding too badly.

"Shit…" Olivia breathed, felling a bit more shaken than she was willing to admit. This was only the second time her mother had come at her with the remains of a vodka bottle and had ended up in a heap across the room. This time though, Olivia wasn't afraid of her own anger, because this time would be the last… If it wasn't too late.

A new, and stronger dread came over Olivia now: It had been more than five minutes since she had left Alex. What if Alex had gone without her? Olivia blinked back sudden tears and got to her feet. She went over to where her mother lay, breathing heavily, and slipped the think terry-cloth belt out from around Serena's housecoat. She found a piece of laundry and wiped it across her gash, then tied the soft belt over it so that she wouldn't bleed though her top. The last thing Olivia wanted was for Alex to notice the injury. Then she grabbed a white T-shirt and stuffed it into her knapsack, putting the damp black tank top and grey hoodie back on.

Sid was passed out on the couch as Olivia rushed to the front door. There was no hesitation for her to master now. She slipped on the first pair of dry shoes she could find, her mother's low black leather boots, the ones she wore when she went to class. As Olivia crouched to do them up her eye caught Serena's briefcase that sat next to them by the door. She paused for a moment with a mixture of anger and pity for her mother. Serena was an English professor, smart, educated, beautiful, and a drunk. Olivia glared at her mother's case with biter distain… She would have been prettier if she didn't smoke and drink herself away… She was a shit mother… How could someone so smart be so stupid? Olivia knew why, and a searing pang of self loathing guilt squeezed her chest and brought out the sing in her hidden gash.

Olivia had meant to make her way casually to the limo (if it was still there) but as soon as she opened the door and saw that it was, she ran out of the house and didn't slow down until she reached it. Every atom of her being propelled her away from that house, away from those people. If this was family she didn't want it. if a primal love for the only mother she had ever known was what kept her captive, she didn't care. If fear of the unknown might have held her back at any other time, now hatred for all that she knew propelled her.

please review