Bubba's Little Princess

Chapter 1

Monday, April 23rd, 2001

It had been a long day, and all Detective John Munch wanted to do was go home after he and Olivia Benson had gone to ask some questions to some people connected to a case that the detectives were investigating at the moment. But after leaving the apartment building, he and Olivia had been told that they were needed. There was a child abandonment case down the block from where they currently were. So this meant the case automatically fell into the lap of the Special Victims Unit. The cases that involved children were always the hardest for the unit. No one liked dealing with the cases where children were the victims of such horrific things like kidnappings, rape, or abandonment, which was Munch and Olivia had to deal with right now. Elliot was currently assisting Fin with a different aspect of the case, which was why John and Olivia were working together. But Olivia was a good detective, and because this was a case involving a child, it would be helpful as Olivia had a natural talent with kids.

The detective stepped out of the car after Olivia turned off the ignition and got out of the driver's side of the car. Outside of the apartment building, there were already some police cruisers and the scene was blocked off. But this was different for Munch. This apartment building was where his granddaughter and daughter-in-law lived. Munch had a three year old granddaughter named Katie, who was the daughter of his late son, Josh. Earlier this year in January, Josh was unexpectedly killed in a drunk driving accident, which was the worst day of Munch's life. No parent should ever have to bury their child. The accident had been three months ago, but John still felt that pain from the loss of his only son. There were days that were harder than others, but slowly the man was rebuilding his life, even though it wouldn't be the same as it once had been.

However, the one good thing left in his life was his granddaughter Katie. She was the one piece of his son that he had left now. And John did try to spend as much time as he could with his granddaughter. There were some aspects of Josh that Munch saw in Katie all of the time. While she had inherited her mother Ashley's blonde hair, her eyes had been the exact shade of brown as Josh's had been. She also smiled like her dad did and also had the same laugh as him. Katie was the one soft spot that Munch had, she was the one person who could bring that softer side out of him. Most people who saw John when he was doing his job would be surprised at the night and day difference from when he was Detective Munch to when he was Bubba. Bubba was what Katie called him instead of Grandpa. Munch was young when Josh was born, only twenty five years old and Josh had been twenty one years old when Katie was born. Becoming a grandfather at forty six years old was something John never expected to happen. So when Katie had been born, Munch was very adamant about not being called grandpa, and when Katie started talking, she had started to call him Bubba, and the name had stuck since then.

When he had a day off, it was not uncommon to find the detective taking the little girl to the park to play on the playground and ride the merry go round, bringing her to storytime at the library near where she lived, or just bringing her to his apartment. It always made John's day when he got to spend time with his only grandchild, whom he spoiled, even if the man would never admit to that fact. But in his defense, wasn't it the job of a grandparent to spoil their grandchild? When Josh was still alive, he used to always tell Munch how he spoiled Katie too much, but John had always said he was the grandparent and it was his job to spoil little Katie. Even if Josh and Ashley did not like it when Munch took her to ice cream before dinner, John enjoyed the time spent with his granddaughter and seeing her smile made it all worth it.

Munch sighed as he snapped back to reality because he had to focus on the new case he and Olivia were suddenly tasked with doing. Once reaching the responding officers Munch nodded at them slightly as Olivia asked the officer "What do we have?"