Title: "Home"
Pairing: Alex Cabot/Olivia Benson
Rating: K
Author's Note: These characters aren't mine. If they were, things would be different, and I wouldn't have to worry about paying for college. They belong to Dick Wolf and NBC. Do I have that right? Anyways, the only things I own are almost a dozen textbooks, a box of old candy canes, and a laptop I got for my birthday.
Chapter 1: Alex Cabot
To Alex Cabot, the courtroom was home. Or it was until she met Olivia Benson. Alex didn't know how it happened, but Olivia wormed her way into Alex's life with no intention of leaving.
Until Alex left for Witness Protection and spent a year living as Emily in Wisconsin. Wisconsin felt like an entirely different universe to Alex. There were no beeping taxis at three in the morning, no sirens at all hours of the night, no random hotdog vendors on the sidewalks-all of the sights, sounds, smells that soothed Alex - that comforted her - were gone. On the nights that she felt particularly lonely, Alex would sit in her backyard, nurse one of Olivia's favorite beers, and hum the Mister Softee song. Other nights, she would lay in bed and stare up the ceiling, her cd player playing "Picture" by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow on repeat.
The day she had to testify in court may have been the happiest she was in a year. But it was over too soon and then Alex found herself living as Emily in Wisconsin again. She hadn't even had the courage to give Olivia the goodbye she deserved.
It takes Alex three years to see Olivia again - which brings her to where she is now: standing at Olivia's door with nothing but a wish in her heart.
"Cabot, are you gonna stand out there all night or are you gonna come inside? Dinner's getting cold," Olivia's voice yells through the door.
Alex smiles.
All is right.