Rebel (SVU Fanfic)

27

They made their way to the day are first. Little boys and girls needed to be helped first. Olivia was still shaken up, but they needed their kids. And their kids needed them.

Approaching the daycare center, they saw the big window shattered to millions of pieces.

Before Elliot parked the car, Olivia was out of the vehicle. She held up her badge yelling "NYPD Special Victims Unit!" and went straight inside. The EMTs had already gotten to the scene, so all injured were taken care of.

She made her way to the back, seeing all the scared faces of small children. Until she saw her daughter's. Crying in the corner, Olivia ran to her and scooped her up.

"It's okay," Olivia cooed to her, "Momma's got you. It's okay."

Tears stung Olivia's eyes, but she suppressed them.

"Where's Daddy?" Paige demanded, meaning Elliot.

Olivia was so taken back she didn't answer. Thank goodness she heard Elliot's voice calling for her.

They turned around to see Elliot. Paige reached for him. "Daddy!" she demanded again.

Elliot raised his eyebrows at Olivia. She already had her eyebrows up as well. Paige had never called Elliot that.

Elliot took the girl in his arms anyway and hugged her.

Uniform officers were helping sort the children. They were all going to different places until parents could pick them up. Elliot handed Paige over to him.

"Paige Benson," he said. "Bring her Donald Cragen at SVU."

The officer nodded and set her down.

"I wanna stay with Mommy and Daddy!" Paige yelled, rushing back over.

Olivia bent down. "Paige, this is a police officer, like me. Go with him and I'll be back as soon as I can, okay?"

"No! I wanna go with you and Daddy!"

"We'll be right back." She turned her attention to the uni. "Take her."

He nodded and grabbed the toddler.

~•~

"I want my mom!" Zach told his teacher. "She's a cop, I want her here!"

"I'm sure she's coming," the woman told him, whilst trying to calm everyone down.

And it wasn't long until they were there. Olivia did the same thing she did at the daycare: ran to the classroom she knew her son was in and went inside to locate him.

"Mom!" Zach saw her before she found him. They collided in a hug, both starting to tear up. Again.

"An officer is going to take you to my work, okay?"

"Why can't I stay with you?" Zach asked sadly, desperation clear in his voice.

"I have to go help out the other boys and girls. I'll be back as soon as I can," she assured her son.

"B-But I wanna stay with you!!"

"Baby, you can't. It's okay. I'll be right there in no time."

Olivia signaled an officer to get her son, then went off to get Lizzie, Dickie, and Nicole.

They all knew what to do, not to panic, and to sit until told otherwise. Lizzie sat in the crook of her brother's arm, trying to stay calm. Nicole looked over and wished she had an older sibling, just in that moment - yes, the Stablers were twins, but Dickie was older and it was besides the point anyways. She was never protected by a sibling like that. She was always the protector. And right now, she wanted someone to hold her.

The twins noticed Nicole viscously biting her nails, though Nicole didn't. She didn't notice because it was a bad habit she picked up after her father threw her into a wall.

When the police showed up, they stayed huddled under the lab table. It was not until all of the other students were put that the uni found the three. He gently talked them into getting up and leaded them out to the front hall.

It took another half hour for Olivia to show up, but Nicole ran straight to the car when she saw it. She knew it was her mother. She just knew.

Maybe, all she needed was her Mom as her protector.

The two women were stuck in such a tight hold. Olivia was just glad she was okay, but Nicole was terrified. She didn't know what was going on, even though her mother did. Her left ring finger throbbed, which was when she first noticed she was biting again.

Nicole pulled out of the hug and inspected the area. Both noticed it was just barely bleeding where the nail should be growing.

Olivia looked at it as well, then looked at her daughter's face. She had only ever seen such panic once before: when Nicole woke up in the hospital.

"It's okay now," Olivia told her daughter. "Let's get out of here."

Taking her daughter by the hand, she led her to the back of the police car. Lizzie and Dickie followed suit,and then Olivia checked to see if they needed any help. They didn't, so everyone went back to the one-six.

Everyone - Cragen, Amanda, Nick, Fin, John, even Huang and Melinda were there to make sure the children were safe. All assumed they were, but they wanted to see for themselves.

Zach and Paige were in the children's room, along with other boys and girls waiting to be picked up. But they came back out when they saw through the propped-open door that their mother had returned.

Running up to her, they hugged. The twins went back over to Elliot and Nicole hung back, biting yet another nail down to its blood.

Melinda noticed. "Oh, honey! Let's get you cleaned up," she said sweetly and took Nicole to bandage up her fingers.

They walked down the hall and stopped at the right room. Melinda took the girl's hand and first sprayed it with antiseptic. The poor teenager wasn't paying attention and cursed as the particles made contact.

Melinda chuckled and wrapped it up. Nicole wasn't happy about it, but glad she knew noting bad would happen to her affected fingers.

"Bad habit, baby," the doctor reminded her. "Gotta break it."

"I know," Nicole said, long having heard that before. She had stopped for a long time. But now it has seemed to her that she relapsed back into the night she swore she'd never think about again.

Oh, and did it suck.

Melinda looked at the child for a moment and thought to herself as she made sure the bandages were secure. What had happened to this child? The nails she looked at weren't just bitten to the nub, but past it. Had she not felt the nail of breaking open that skin? Was she too scared to notice? As Melinda examined - quickly - the other fingers, she could tell it wasn't the first time this occurred. What was this child so anxious about?

One look told her she didn't want to know.