"What do you mean there isn't enough evidence?" Olivia Bensen. The detective was frustrated. She had spent her entire week trying to catch this guy. The man had raped and tortured an eight year old girl. The poor kid was almost too traumatized to speak. They finally caught the bastard, and here she was, trying to convince their ADA to press charges.
"Everything we have on the guy is circumstantial," Alex calmly explained, "Until you can get me something directly linking this guy to his crimes, I can't touch him."
Olivia was obviously disturbed by the news.
"He raped and tortured a nine year old girl, Alex," she pleaded, "You're going to let him walk?"
Alex Cabot, however, didn't flinch. She kept her pose.
"If you want me to press charges, you need her to testify, or point him out of a line-up, or something. Until then, he's a free man."
Olivia never understood how Alex could so easily keep her calm. Not once in that statement, did she raise her voice. It was inhuman.
"Alex, she's too traumatized," Olivia said, "She freaked out when Elliot tried to give her food."
"Then I'm sorry," Alex said, "There's nothing I can do for you."
"I should have known better," Olivia spat, "That's what I get for trying to reason with the Ice Queen!" and with that, she stormed off.
Alex just stood there, slightly taken back by what Olivia had called her.
"Ice Queen?" Alex asked. She wanted to run out to the detective, demanding an explanation as to what that meant. She shrugged it off.
Olivia probably just shouted it in the heat of the moment.
Alex Cabot smiled, as she looked at her lunch. A vegetarian panini, with a hot bowl of rosemary mushroom soup. A little bit of classical music was playing in the background. It would be the perfect lunch. Especially since she didn't have time to eat breakfast that morning. Lunch was sure to be delicious.
It would be a good day. After her lunch, she would go to trial to convict a serial rapist and murderer, who had no chance in hell of making a "not guilty" verdict. Lional Granger was the man's defense attorney, and had come up with some half-assed defense of…she didn't even remember. It was that bad.
As she was about to take a bite, she heard a male voice say "knock knock".
She looked up, and sighed. So much for a perfect lunch.
"Mr. Granger," she sighed, "What a...surprise. What do you want?"
"Do I really need to say it," Granger said, "I'm here to talk about a deal."
Alex resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
"Then you've come to the wrong office," Alex said, "We've got him for three murders, and at least seven rapes. I don't care how much he pays you, he's going away for a very long time."
That's what she hated about Granger. He was a cocky bastard who did everything in his power to make her job hell. Other defense attorneys she could respect, because they were in the job with the belief that everyone deserves a fair trial. Granger was in it because rich people paid lots of money to not go to prison. Granger gave her a sleazy smile, that almost made her lose her appetite. Almost.
"Come on, Alex-"
"As not likely as I am to deal right now, I am even less likely to deal when my lunch is interrupted."
Granger sighed, and turned towards the door. He could see that pushing her right now would only make it worse for his client.
"Fine. We'll talk when you're more reasonable," he said. Alex smiled contently, and dipped a piece of her sandwich in her soup soup. As she ate it, Granger came back in to ask one last thing.
"Just out of curiosity, how are you able to eat something as hot as that soup, when you're the Ice Queen?"
As Granger said "Ice Queen", she swallowed the sandwich piece prematurely, causing her to choke.
Granger's face flushed as he watched the prosecutor cough. His body tensed, wondering if he needed to give her the Heimlich-maneuver.
Alex hit her chest a few times, and saw a water bottle on the other side of the room. With her other hand, she pointed over to it. Granger instantly saw it, and rushed to get it for the choking ADA. He was a lot of things, but he wasn't one to sit back a watch a woman choke on her lunch.
He quickly handed her the beverage, and she took a swig, washing the in-lodged food down. A few more coughs, and she was fine. She took in a few deep breaths, and glared at Granger.
"Have a lovely rest of the day," Granger said, and got out of there as fast as he could. He realized any shot he had a getting a deal had gone down with the piece of food that was choking Alex. It didn't matter. He had plenty of other high paying clients. It wasn't too bad of a loss.
Alex could only glare at where the defense attorney was standing. He had called her "Ice Queen" as well. That was the second time this week she had been called that. Was it just a coincidence?
"You really stuck it to him good," Donnelly told Alex, as the two were preparing to leave for the night. Alex had gotten her verdict, guilty on all counts. The jury took ten minutes to get their verdict.
"I'm just doing my job," Alex responded, grinning. It had been a good day. Olivia had gotten her child victim comfortable enough to do a lineup, and she won her case against Granger's client. She was content.
"You pushed him into confessing his crimes on the stand," Donnelly smiled, "You didn't flinch as he tried to give you his sob story, you definetly have earned the right to your nickname."
Alex raised an eyebrow, slightly confused as to what the woman was talking about.
"My nickname?"
"The Ice Queen," Donnelly said, expecting Alex to remember and laugh. She didn't. She just looked more confused then she did before. Alarm flashed through her eyes.
"Wait! You mean people have been calling me that?" Alex asked, breaking out of her normally calm demeanor. She thought back to Olivia and Granger calling her that. How long had she been known as that?
"You didn't know?" Donnelly instantly felt guilty, "I'm sorry. I didn't-"
"How long?" Alex asked, cutting the woman off.
"A few years," Donnelly sighed, "I'm sorry Alex. I thought you knew."
Alex didn't know what to say. A few years? She had only been a prosecutor for three years. How did she go so long without knowing people had been calling her that. She took a deep breath. She couldn't let this get to her. It was only a stupid nickname.
She regained her composer, and smiled at her mentor.
"It's fine," she said, "I guess I've been called worse."
Now that Alex was aware of her nickname, she noticed when she was called by it. Interns would whisper to each other "There's the ice queen". She heard defense attorney's tell their clients that "she's the ice queen." A couple of judges had casually called her "Ice Queen" after a case. She even heard Cragen say "Go to the Ice Queen. See if you can get a warrant."
As much as it bugged her at first, the more time she heard herself called it, the more it grew on her. In fact, she was even starting to see it as a compliment. It meant that she did her job without letting her emotions get to her.
As she sat down at the interrogation table, she had a slight grin. Here their perp was with his lawyer, trying to get her to make a deal. They were using every play in the book to get her to agree, but she wouldn't.
"Come on, Alex" Langen pleaded.
"You seem to have forgotten your client brutally killed his wife," Alex said, confidently, "Man One, or no deal."
"We'll see you in court, then." Langen said. Alex smiled.
"Fine by me," she said, and left the room.
She walked into the other side of the room, and smiled at Elliot and Olivia, who had been watching. They could hear that Langen and his client had lowered their voices, planning their next move.
"Harsh," Elliot commented. Alex shrugged.
"He's lucky I even offered that," she said, "He's lucky I even offered him th-"
"That...unt!"
That's when she heard it through the other side of the glass. Trevor's client, although whispering, she was able to make out those two words. Of course, she could only hear the last few syllables of the statement. She couldn't hear the "c" sound. She didn't need to. The two detectives also appeared to have heard the perp's little outburst.
"...Did he just call me a-"
"I believe so," Olivia said, slightly smiling.
"I take it he lost all chance of a deal?" Elliot asked. Alex clenched her fists. She wanted to go in there and yell at the two idiots. Granted, Langen wasn't the one said it, but it was his client. It was his job to make sure he didn't say anything stupid. However, she remembered she was the Ice Queen. She would keep her calm.
"I can't let something stupid like that get to me," she said calmly, "It's just a word."
"Alex, I have to say, that's one of the things I admire about you. You don't let trivial things like that bother you," Elliot said. Alex smiled at the complement. However, before she could say thanks, Olivia said.
"Although, you're probably used to being called that, aren't you?"
Alex's eyes widened.
"What?"