Adopted by Olivia Benson

Presentation

*Olivia's POV*

"Blake's isn't in class. She hasn't been for 45 minutes now," Ms. Oliver said.

Oh no, not again, I thought. Blake wouldn't run away again. At least not after it happened. Blake is the type that if she bumps her head once, she's not going to go back and do it again.

"Well did she leave?" I asked.

"Not according to the surveillance," she said, looking at the monitor that recorded everything.

"I think I know where she might be," I said. "Where's the bathroom?"

"Down the hall, second door on the left,"

"Thank you," I said, turning around and leaving.

I followed the directions of the Ms. Oliver and came across a bathroom. Blake's school was a medium sized school. It wasn't huge, but it wasn't small either. It was also very neat and clean, which was a plus. But given that it was as a private school, it had to be nice, right?

Opening the door to the bathroom, I went in. I heard small faint whimpers coming from the last stall. Moving slowly, I heard mumbling and sniffling.

"Blake?"

She didn't answer me. I took a deep breath and proceeded towards the stall. "Blake, it's mommy," I whispered. Looking under the stall, I saw black Converse and I automatically knew that it was Blake. Standing in front of the stall door, I knocked on it. "You can't stay in there forever. C'mon, open up,"

I heard a shuffle and the click of Blake unlocking the door. She opened it and scurried back to her sitting position. She drew her legs up to her chest and put her arms around them. Burying her face into the gap in her knees, she started to cry again. "She has pictures," Blake said in between sobs. "I'm gonna take care of it," I said, sitting down beside her. I tried to put my arm around her but she jerked away from me. "Don't touch me," she said through gritted teeth. It caught me off guard that Blake did that.

"You keep saying that! You keep saying that you're gonna take care of it! You sent me to school with her and this is what I came back to. You keep telling me that everything is gonna be okay but everything is getting worse!"

Those words coming from Blake hurt but she was right. I shouldn't have been so caught up with work that I put everything off.

"I'm so sorry, honey. I should have come when everything first started. I didn't know that it was this serious,"

"Oh, it wasn't serious enough for you to come up here and see what was going on? It takes all of this to happen before you realize how serious it is? I friggin' slit my arms and wrist because of Brittany and you still didn't realize,"

At that point, I felt like a useless mother. Like a dead beat, good for nothing human being. How could I have been so stupid and oblivious?

"This is all my fault," I mumbled.

Out of my peripheral vision, I saw Blake wipe her face with the palm of her hand. Then she looked up at me with a confused expression. "Mom, I wasn't trying to blame you. I-"

"It is my fault. If I had paid more attention to you, I would have known. If I had handled this from the start, none of this would have ever happened," I said.

"Mama-"

"Blake, this one's on me," I  interrupted.

Without arguing, Blake took my hand in hers. She laid her head on my shoulder and we stayed like that for a few minutes. Half of me wanted to break down and cry but the other half wouldn't let me. I felt so bad because all I've ever wanted to do was protect Blake from harm, but since I hadn't done anything about Brittany, I'd only been causing harm. Breaking the silence, my phone started to ring. I reached in my pocket and answered it.