Alex Cabot and Traumatized Kid

Trauma (Habit)

Set after Rescue

TW: Past Childhood Trauma, C-PTSD

Olivia Benson POV (Third Person Omniscient)

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Olivia had made a habit to carve time out of her busy schedule to visit Hugh and help out Alex since parenting was a new thing for her and none of them had done it before.

It was Sunday and Olivia had come to spend time with them again since it was the adults' day off from work.

"Liv is here!" Alex yelled to let Hugh know that the brunette was here so the kid wouldn't get freaked out when they saw another figure in the house without them knowing.

"Okay!" Hugh yelled back.

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"So... How's it going, Alex?" The detective asked.

"Quite busy with work and caring for a kid." The ADA flopped on the couch without care.

Grabbing a drink from the fridge, Olivia did the same. After adopting the kid, there was progressively less time and less space for alcohol. The ADA needed to stock the fridge, which she never did before from the large amount of time she's spent at the DA's office.

"Well, hope you are having a great time tho."

"Yeah, definitely." Alex smiled.

"So, what do you want for lunch?" Olivia asked, it was almost lunchtime and she was getting hungry.

Alex laughed, "All you ever do is think about food."

"No, I don't!" Liv argued.

"Fine, fine, you win. But it seems like all I ever do is think about the next meal nowadays. I never did when it was just me."

"That's because you don't take care of yourself enough before. It seems like Hugh is giving a reason for you to care for yourself, that's great!"

Alex rolled her eyes playfully, "So, what do you want to eat?"

"Hmmm, I don't know..." the brunette said, "Maybe we should ask Hugh. Yeah?" She asked to see if the blonde had any objections to the thought.

"Yeah, sure." the blonde replied. "I'll just go search up some websites to order from." then she walked over to grab her phone from the kitchen island.

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Walking up to the kid's room, the detective knocked to see if Hugh would let her in.

Without saying a single word she heard the kid reply, "Come in Liv." 

As Olivia opened the door, she saw the kid looking up at their desk with an artwork in progress in front of them.

"How'd you know it was me?" The detective asked surprised.

"Your footsteps. I heard you walking towards my room." Hugh said blankly.

"Huh, how'd you do it? I couldn't have." the brunette asked again, trying to strike up a conversation with them.

Hugh shrugged their shoulders, "I just do. I can tell the difference between your footsteps and Alex's and the distance and direction of it." 

In their old house, they always had to anticipate who was coming into their room and what mood they were in. They never knew which version of their biological parents would get. The caring one? The calm one? The angry one?

They always had to hide what they were doing and tried to look busy so that their biological parents wouldn't think they were lazy or slacking off.

(insert more trauma analysis here)

"Hmm, that's cool."

The kid nodded their head in return.

There was a moment of silence where the kid just stared at her wondering what she wanted.

"So... Alex and I were going to order lunch and we were wondering what you would want to eat."

"What does your ordering lunch have to do with me?"

Olivia almost laughed, but she didn't, "We are going to order for you too." She explained.

"Oh, ok..." Hugh thought for a while. "I don't know. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry it's fine. How about I give a few suggestions?"

Hugh nodded their head.

"We can get... Sushi? Pizza? Thai? Chinese?" She listed. "What do you think?"

"Sushi? Maybe?" Their biological parents never ever gave them a choice to choose, they contracted their food variety intake.

"Sushi, it is." Olivia smiled.

"I'm going to go order. Any questions, concern?" The detective asked as she started walking towards the door.

The kid shook their head.

As Olivia was about to close the door, Hugh asked, " Liv?"

"Yeah?" The detective stuck her head back in.

"Was it true?"

"Was what true?"

"The things you said outside. Am I a burden?"

"No! why would you think that?" Her body fully moved into view from behind the door. 

"I heard you guys say ' all Alex ever does is think about the next meal nowadays. And she never did when it was just her alone.'" The kid answered.

"No. No. I think it's a good thing that now Alex has you, she will remember about eating meals herself."

"Okay..." Hugh gave a tiny smile.

"Okay. So, I'm going to come get you when food's here okay?"

They nodded as the brunette backed out the door.

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AN: 

Just smashing all types of trauma into one story... Whoops...

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