SYNTHESIS
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Chapter 16 - "Homecoming"

The front yard of 4 Courant Street was full of people.

For a moment a travel-weary Alex thought it was the entire population of Milbury, until she began to recognize faces and noticed two further bunches of red, white and blue balloons, each tied on either side of the front gate, and finally the white banner extended across the front window that said "Welcome home, Olivia!" in red and blue letters. It had evidently rained earlier as the pavement, the balloons, and their cars in the driveway were still dappled with moisture.

Elizabeth and Steve Hogan, and Jack and Patty Eames, and Phil Cochran and his fiancée Rebecca Balcer were standing to the right of the front gate, and, at a youthful shout of "They're here!"—Bobby recognized the changing voice as Rafe Sanchez—the group that filled their yard came walking, trotting, and running toward the fence: Ana, carrying her toy lamb, leaning over the top, with Carlos climbing to sit on the upper crossbar beside her, and their abuela Abril Diaz tapping at Carlos' arm, telling him to get down; Mike Logan leaning on one of the fenceposts, a big grin on his face, with his wife Carla by his side waving at them; Russ Jenkins surrounded by a few of the kids--Rafe, Buzzy, Carmelita, Jamal--from Big Brothers, Big Sisters; Shard and TJ waiting where the fence made a 90-degree corner at the driveway; Viola Perrino, Alex's former neighbor in Southbury, chatting with Bruno Volpe from next door; and Olivia Benson with her hands on the shoulders of her curly-haired son Noah, who was close to Olivia's age.

Finally the front door opened and out came Sharon Kovacs, Sam the collie bounding in front of her, and, since the late afternoon was not yet chill, with Bandit in his little clear-plastic protected carry box in her arms. In response to the sound of the crowd and the birdsong from the trees, Bandit let out one joyous chirp and then another and another.

Alex found her eyes growing damp. "This is Lizzie's doing..."

Ruth Dunbar asked, perplexed,"I don't understand. Who are all these people?"

Bobby chuckled to cover his own reaction. "This, Ms. Dunbar, is most of Olivia's new family, both family by blood and family by choice. Larry, I presume you were in on this?"

"Yup. Buzzed your sister-in-law when we crossed the Tappan Zee and then hung up."

From the back of the crowd they saw Penelope Saltonstall step forward, looking, as always, cool, calm, and collected. She gave them a small, approving thumbs up.

It was only then they noticed Olivia motionless in the front seat, clutching the stuffed fox tightly under her chin. Her eyes, immense with shock, wandered from face to face, and then fixed on the banner. "This...is all for me?"

Bobby leaned forward to place a gentle hand on her shoulder, saying soothingly, "It's okay, Olivia. Yes, it's all for you. Don't be frightened—see, there is your Aunt Lizzie and the red-headed man beside her is your Uncle Steve–"

Alex joined him, whispering, "And there's your Uncle Jack—the tall one; he's a firefighter—and your Aunt Patty—she's a nurse, and the dark-haired man is Phil, my cousin, and next to him is his fiancée Becky. They're getting married in September and you'll come to the wedding with us. I saw some very nice dresses in your closet—we can pick a special one."

Olivia nodded, gulped, her unease fading. Bobby scanned the crowd outside, made eye contact with Mike Logan, then signaled a hasty "back off" hand gesture to him. Logan's eyes darted to Olivia, nodded in understanding, then called out, "Hey! Hey, guys, I think we're overwhelming the kid. Why don't we take a coupla steps back and let her get her bearings?"

At the same time he moved away from Carla, gesturing with palms outward to get them to move back. They began to retreat, dispersing to the side, except for Ana, who still balanced, enthralled, over the top of the fence, until Mrs. Diaz said sternly, "¡Luciana, vete aquí! Pronto!"

"Is that better?" Bobby asked softly.

"Yes, Papa," Olivia responded. Color had come back to her cheeks and she looked at Alex. "They're really all here for me?"

"They're your family now," Alex said, taking her hand and squeezing it. "Some are family by blood, like my sister and brother. The rest are friends. They've come to welcome you home."

Bobby exited the town car, helping Ruth Dunbar out, then circled to the other side for Alex. McConnell exited as well, trotting around the front of the vehicle to open the door for Olivia, smiling at her. "Your turn, my lady. Thanks for keeping me company during the ride."

He extended his hand, Olivia grasped it, and he solemnly handed her out. "You're welcome," she said after a second.

Alex signaled to Olivia Benson, mouthing "Send Noah," then pointed to Carlos and Ana. Benson understood immediately, whispering to her son, "Noah? Why don't you and Carlos and Ana meet Olivia at the gate? But go easy on her, she's scared," to which Noah gave her an impatient look that barely avoided rolled-eye territory and "Sure, Mom, I get it," then he confidently wound his way through the crowd and motioned to the Serrano children. Ana reached the gate first, opened it, and they emerged almost shyly, not knowing what to say. Noah finally took the initiative and thrust out his hand. "Hi, I'm Noah Porter-Benson. That's my mom over there. Her name's Olivia, too. She's a captain at the police department in New York City."

Olivia asked shyly, "Did she used to work with Mama and Papa?"

Noah shook his head. "No, they were in Major Case. My mom's captain of SVU."

Ana's customary loquacity kicked in. "I'm Luciana Serrano. Ana. Welcome to Milbury! I've never met anyone from France. How was your flight? Did you fly over New York City? I'm glad it stopped raining so we could wait outside for you. What's your fox's name?"

Olivia considered, then answered only the last. "Captain. Like Dickon's fox in The Secret Garden."

"I haven't read that yet," Ana confessed, then held her stuffed lamb in front of her. Like Captain, it had brown button eyes and a sewn smile on its face.

"This is Trebol," Ana added. "Her name is Spanish for 'clover.'"

Olivia reached out and touched Trebol's soft floppy ear and the two girls gazed at each other solemnly.

"You could introduce me, you know, and not your stuffed animal," Carlos said, elbowing his sister.

"Oh, yeah. This is Carlos and he's my brother. He's thirteen and thinks he's big."

"And Ana's eleven and thinks she's funny," Carlos retorted, shaking hands with Olivia, and Ana grinned as a tentative smile appeared on Olivia's face. "And behind us are some of the guys from Big Brothers—Mr. G works with us on Wednesdays. I'm Carlos Serrano, and Ana and I live with our abuela." Now he motioned to the other children to come forward. They approached slowly, as if Olivia was a small bird that might be frightened, and greeted her one at a time while slowly guiding her into the yard in the process, where Sam greeted her so enthusiastically that she dropped her fox. Carlos swooped it up before it could get wet and carried it for her while she hugged Sam.

"Come and meet everyone, Ms. Dunbar. Larry, you, too," Bobby offered.

Sharon immediately came hurrying up, handing Bandit's carry box to Alex. She hugged the carry box to her, saying "Hello, little bug," to the bird, who, despite his lame foot, clambered upside down in the carry box to get closer to her. "Ah, upside-down bird today." Bandit tweedled at her happily and made kissing sounds.

Shard and TJ strode up next.

"Hey, we had to come, just to welcome Olivia," TJ said breathlessly.

"But we gotta get back to the restaurant." Shard added. "Monthly staff meeting. Ms. Dunbar, we can't stay, but I'm Richard Carver and this is Tomas Gomes; we own the Dark Crystal where Bobby and Alex run our trivia game. You need us, please call, okay?" and he produced a business card that Dunbar accepted with a nod.

TJ added, "We'll see you three tomorrow night?"

"We plan to be there," Bobby said dryly, "unless Phil's planning to usurp me."

"Hey!" Phil said from behind him.

Sharon gave Alex a hug. "See you later, Alex."

"You haven't been paid!"

Sharon laughed. "I know where you live, girl," then dashed after Shard and TJ as they jogged back up Courant Street.

Dunbar turned to look for Olivia, and found her sitting on the top step of the front stoop, in the center of a half circle, Sam resting his big head in her lap, the rest of the children talking to her and Olivia answering solemnly.

"Sam's a therapy dog," Alex told Dunbar, "plus he's met her before."

Now her family surrounded Alex, and she introduced them to the social worker, and Russ and Mike bracketed Bobby, questions flying a mile a minute; when he finally turned, Saltonstall was at his elbow and they retreated together. Eventually Ruth Dunbar had been introduced to everyone, and eventually Lizzie, after two abortive attempts to shout above the clamor, got Steve to whistle, then shout for her, "Hey, kids! Who wants cake?"

Noah, Alex noticed, had Olivia by one hand and Ana had her by the other as the kids trooped through the front door, followed by the adults. It made quite a crowd in the tiny house, but Lizzie and Patty flanked them by walking around to the back door to reach the kitchen, where they cut slices from a white-frosted chocolate sheet cake decorated with the words "Welcome, Olivia!" and handed them out on paper plates. Most of the children were shooed out to the back porch, and Alex carefully extricated Bandit from his carry box and handed him back into his cage, where he added to the tumult by singing at the top of his lungs.

It was Bobby who noticed that a photo of Olivia had been added to the collection of family pictures on the wall over the sofa, but it was Olivia herself who pushed open the door to what was now her room while Bobby explained they would go shopping for furniture the next day or so, until he stopped, abruptly, and he and Alex stood in the doorway, dumbfounded.

The utilitarian "guest room" was gone, except for the desk in front of the far window which Alex almost never used: her old single bed from her apartment had been replaced with a sturdy double bed with a bookcase headboard in a maple finish ("I thought," Lizzie told Alex later, "that she might need someone to sleep with her if she feels alone or when she's sick, like Mom used to sleep with us"), along with a matching night table, and, in place of the two bookcases that were previously on either side of the desk, a maple-finished stacked bureau and a tall, narrow IKEA wardrobe were in their places. A bedspread of spruce green, sprigged with tiny white flowers ("They looked like mignonettes," Patty confessed) and matching curtains finished the look. Hung over the bed was a piece of framed calligraphy that said "Olivia" surrounded by hand-colored flower and animal designs reminiscent of Beatrix Potter (purchased at a craft shop in Southbury by Viola Perrino).

"How–" Alex gasped, and Jack shrugged and said, "Steve and I like last-minute furniture assembly, don't we, bud?" and his brother-in-law just laughed.

First Russ and his charges left, then Mrs. Diaz and her children with Mrs. Perrino, and finally the New York contingent departed, and now it was McConnell's final assignment to drive Ruth Dunbar back to New Haven.

"Where is it you live?" Alex asked the lieutenant as they stood by the town car. "I know you work in the city."

"Greenwich," he said with a grin, then thrust out his hand. "It's been a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Goren, and Mr. Goren—and Olivia. That's a great kid you've got there."

She clasped his hand firmly. "Do you have children, Lieutenant McConnell? You were so good with her."

"My partner Caro--Caroline--and I have a two-year-old son. We talk about doing the marriage thing someday."

"Don't be such a stranger," she smiled. "Bring Caroline, come out some Tuesday or Saturday night and we'll buy you two dinner at the Dark Crystal."

I'll talk to her," he promised.

"So, how do you like Olivia's new family?" Bobby asked Dunbar as he held open the car door for her.

Ruth Dunbar grinned. "I think I like all of you just fine. I'll come by next week, when Olivia 'gets her sea legs,' to quote Mr. Volpe."

Olivia was cuddling Captain the fox as she watched the town car drive away. "I like her, too," she said finally, with a tiny grin.

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