Disclaimer: Dick Wolf owns Law and Order SVU and the characters. I only own the idea for the story and the new characters.

Chapter 113: Victoria

On a slow Saturday morning, Hannah was still trying to get her head around algebra. Victoria had helped her to some degree, but just as she felt she was getting it, Mr. Stevens had hit her with some formula that made zero sense to her.

Hunched over her work, she sat at Olivia desk, while her mom was finishing up some paperwork before the weekend. They'd finally caught the killer of the working girls and Munch had been right: he was indeed a doctor.

'I have to find c,' Hannah muttered to no one in particular, 'Why the fuck do I have to find c? I don't know, I don't have c, I just have a and this formula is supposed to get me b... so then, c? Fucking hell...'

'Brackets,' Fin commented from behind her, 'Watch the brackets.'

Hannah turned around to look at him, 'These? But I don't even know why they're there!'

'Because of the order of operations,' he explained, 'Here. Let me show you.' And he did the sum for her and somehow, magically, came up with c.

Hannah stared at her paper. 'Why?' she then simply asked.

'It's math: don't ask why, just do the trick again and again.'

The teenager groaned but did manage to do the rest of her homework now.

'Deep waters...' Munch muttered, referring to his partner. Fin send him a look somewhere between indignation and pride.

'I'm almost finished here, baby,' Olivia told Hannah, 'And I need my weekend...'

'Does this mean you're coming to my game this afternoon?' Hannah asked, trying not to sound too hopeful.

'I wouldn't miss it! Did you ask Elliot to come as well?'

'The game?' Elliot head appeared from behind his own desk, 'Of course I'm gonna be there! Even bought myself a cap for whatever team it is you're playing for.'

'You can't even remember the name?' Hannah questioned, but not genuinely upset.

'I remember the cap was red...'

'Ah, well, then at least you'll be cheering on the right color,' the sarcastic reply came.

'I'm all done!' Olivia called out.

But just as she was about to get up, Captain Cragen stopped her, 'No, you're not. I just had some heated father on the line here, saying his daughter's been raped. He's coming in with her and you have to take their statement.'

'Captain, what about Hannah's game?' Olivia protested.

'Can't be helped,' Cragen said apologetically, 'I was thinking of going myself but here we are.'

Hannah beamed up at him mentioning wanting to come to her game. It didn't even matter to her that he couldn't come now, just the idea that he had planned on coming meant the world to her.

'And this is the father, I guess?' Elliot motioned, as one very angry looking man came barging into the precinct.

'Who's in charge here?' he demanded.

At the sound of his voice, Hannah head shot up. It was Victoria's father. A small part of her felt guilty now for wishing he'd find out about Sunny.

'Victoria?' Olivia asked, recognizing the girl before the father, 'Are you alright?'

'Peachy,' she put on her fake smile, 'and I sure as hell wasn't raped.'

But her father fumed, 'She's fifteen. That makes it rape.'

Hannah walked over to Victoria and immediately spotted the big bruise forming on her cheek. Her friend looked annoyed more than anything, but Hannah also noticed she had a hard time pretending to be anything right now.

'You know them?' Cragen asked Olivia.

'Victoria is Hannah's friend from school.'

'THE Victoria?'

'That's the one,' Olivia followed Cragen into his office, 'Hannah mentioned something about her the other day that worried me, but I decided not to force the issue then.'

'The girl said she wasn't raped,' Cragen closed the door to his office and watched Munch bearing the brunt of the enraged parent now.

'Victoria's a fifteen-year-old girl who's been seeing an older man. My guess is the father walked in on them...'

The captain sighed, 'Well if you can get him to drop the charges, calm him down somehow, we can all go home for the weekend. If not, we're gonna have to get the boyfriend in.'

'Mom?' Hannah stuck her head around the door, 'I won't get involved, I promise, but someone's punched Victoria and I thought maybe you should ask her who.'

'Hannah, what's the boyfriend's name again?'

'Sunny something,' Hannah shrugged, 'Don't know much about him, only that he's got a temper.'

'Much like the dad,' Cragen pointed, 'Could he have done that to her face?'

'Don't think so... I mean he never has before as far as I know, Victoria never said anyways.'

'Olivia, you talk to the girl and let Elliot take the dad. Maybe they can talk to each other, one hot-headed father to the other, but make sure he doesn't go too easy on him. Hannah, you stay with me a little longer.'

Olivia left the office as Hannah entered it. She looked at Cragen through her eyelashes, but he quickly said, 'Relax, you're not in any trouble, unless you're the one that hit her?'

'No. She's my friend. I'd never touch that perfect face.'

Cragen stared at her for a moment, trying to search for something in her features. 'I just need to know a little bit more about this,' he motioned for her to sit down, 'You've known her long?'

'Yeah, a couple of years now? We're like complete opposites, people think it's weird we're even friends, but we've always been together ever since we met.'

'And what's she like?'

'She's smart and pretty and basically your average perfect high school student. But she's not what people think either; if she wants to do something, she's gonna do it and nothing or nobody can stop her.'

He waited for a few moments, 'And she wanted to do this Sunny?'

'I guess,' Hannah mumbled, 'He was all she talked about for weeks.'

Sympathetically, he asked, 'What do you make of him?'

'Never met him.'

Cragen looked up and frowned, 'Isn't that odd? You two being so close, and yet you've never met her boyfriend?'

'I guess so?' Hannah hadn't really thought of that.

At the same time, Elliot was busy trying to calm the father down, which wasn't easy. They'd been right: he had walked in on them and had exploded. A part of Elliot could understand, especially since Victoria's mother had died when she was still little, so he was the only one responsible for her. Still, he needed to figure out if the father in his rage had slapped his daughter or if that was the boyfriend's doing.

Before Olivia could even sit down with Victoria in the interview room, the girl said, 'I wasn't raped. You can't charge him if I won't tell you I was raped.'

'You weren't raped or you were, but you don't want us to charge Sunny?' Olivia asked practically.

'I wasn't raped! I just had sex with my boyfriend, you know, like normal people do?'

'You're fifteen,' Olivia said carefully, 'How old is Sunny?'

'He's 28,' Victoria sighed, rolling her eyes.

Olivia gasped, 'I thought he was in college?'

'I suppose he was at one point...'

Olivia put down her pencil and tried again, 'It's statutory rape, Victoria, because you're a minor and he's not. He took advantage of you.'

Victoria looked at Olivia intently, 'Come on. Don't you remember being fifteen? We're a lot more grown than people think and we know what love is. And he sure as hell didn't take advantage of me. I wanted it to happen, I was the one who initiated it and I was, once again, not raped. I had to grow up real fast after my mom died, just like Hannah did: I'm not a child.'

She spoke with such certainty and everything she said was completely true. Olivia could see why Hannah liked her so much. And of course, Olivia had only been fifteen herself when she'd dated one of her mother's students, so everything Victoria was saying was familiar. But on the other hand, Olivia remember she might've felt all grown up at fifteen, but looking back, she was still so naïve and young back then.

So, Olivia asked, 'What about that bruise. Is that love too?'

About an hour later, Elliot and Olivia were back in Cragen's office. Elliot had finally managed to get the dad to admit to slapping his daughter, and he absolutely hated himself for it. In the end, he'd managed to convince him not to press charges.

'Might be for the best,' Olivia said, 'Victoria told me Sunny dumped her after her dad walked in on them. She didn't even care all that much, she said she used to love him, but then he got angry all the time and just wanted her for sex.'

'Love?' Elliot scoffed, 'These teenagers fall in and out of love every few seconds, they don't know what it means.'

'I don't know, El, teenage love can be the most overwhelming thing ever.'

'Until they get pregnant,' he replied, 'And then they have to deal with the consequences of their 'forever love'.'

'Sounds like our work here is done,' Cragen wrapped up, 'And it also sounds like Victoria is much better off without Sunny.'

'Didn't you meet Kathy when she was fifteen?' Olivia asked Elliot confrontationally.

'Yeah, but I waited until she wasn't a minor!'

'Bullshit,' his partner laughed, 'We can pretend all we want, but teenagers fall in love and they're gonna have sex.'

'Mine don't,' Elliot froze almost.

'No, not yours,' Olivia confirmed with just a slight hint of sarcasm in her voice, 'Yours wait until they're married.'

'Just, wait,' he threw back, 'As soon as Hannah's got a boyfriend...'

'I don't think she's even interested in boys yet,' Olivia said, 'Guess I'm lucky. I don't have to worry about all of that yet.'

'Uhm,' Cragen cleared his throat, 'You might have to reconsider.' And he pointed at Hannah through the window.

Both Elliot and Olivia walked over and watched as Hannah and Victoria were sitting together on this bench out in the corridor. Hannah had given Victoria an ice pack for her cheek and was holding it in place. Victoria was talking, but they couldn't hear what she said. They could, however, see that Hannah was listening intently to everything she said, watching her lips as she spoke.

Then Victoria suddenly stopped, and a broad smile appeared on her face when she looked at Hannah. It was like she'd said something funny, but Hannah didn't smile back. Instead, she lowered the ice pack and looked down, while her face turned red.

Is she blushing, Olivia thought? Her girl, Hannah Benson, shy? She'd give anything to listen in on the conversation right now and next to her, she could feel Elliot edging closer as well, curiously watching.

But then Victoria said something else they couldn't hear, and she suddenly lowered Hannah's hand even further. Hannah looked up, sucked in a deep breath, leaned forwards, and softly kissed Victoria.

No idea if anyone's still reading this, but the few people that keep supporting me, it means so much to me. Thank you!