Disclaimer: They so don't belong to me.

A/N: This is an old story I wrote years ago. I thought I should archive some of things, so I'm posting this again here. It was written as a response to a prompt on the alex_liv_lovers livejournal community. The prompt is below:

Both Alex and Olivia are shot by Liam. Both are pronounced dead to others. While they are unconscious at the hospital, Hammond set up their Witness Protection identities as a married lesbian couple in a state that allows that (I'm Canadian, so I don't know which States legally allow it...Vermont?). He assumed they were 'together' based on his interactions with them, but they weren't. Neither actually saw themselves as 'gay', let alone together. They accept the new pseudo lives so they can keep with a friend, but ... and you can develop the story as they fall in love as a 'straight' lesbian married couple in witsec.

Imitation

In the birth land of America, Leah Sandifer pulls into the driveway of her suburban home and parks the car beneath the roll away basketball hoop. The metal of the wedding ring on her left hand taps against the steering wheel as she grips it to reach over into the passenger's seat for her bags. Then with a quick run of her fingers through her brunette hair, she's out of the car and up the steps of her home. The last thing Leah Sandifer does almost every day is unlock the door, push it open, and then close it behind her. As soon as the door is closed, Leah Sandifer ceases to exist and former detective Olivia Benson leaves her hanging on the coat rack with the rest of that life.

"Honey, I'm home," she calls through the house with a grin, dropping her keys in a bowl by the door.

"You're late." She hears the familiar voice echo through the hallway and then Alexandra Cabot pokes her head out from the dining room, wiping her hands on a towel. "And I don't appreciate preparing dinner by myself."

Holding a brown paper bag, Olivia flashes her the best charming smile she can manage and then follows her into the dining room where dinner has been laid upon fresh table linen. Impressed, she hands the bag to Alex.

"Milk," she says and then steps back to survey the meal. "You didn't make this, did you?"

Alex is almost offended and walks to the kitchen with the milk. "Of course I did. The Wives decided at the last minute to have cooking meetings instead of a book club. So yours truly gets to spend Wednesday afternoons in a kitchen pretending to take notes in between wife-y gossip. Oh, our neighbor Keith has a birthmark shaped like Italy on his right buttock, by the way."

"I've only met the man a month ago and already I know what he's hiding in his briefs. Fantastic." Olivia nods, pulling two clean glasses from the cabinet. "Wasn't the book club the only reason you agreed to join this little wives' association?"

Alex shoots her a dry look and says, " Yes."

After Alex pours the milk, they make their way back to the table and take a seat, sitting on opposites of one end of the dining room table. Today's menu is a baked chicken leg served on a bed of greens, a small side salad, and store-bought rolls. Olivia guesses that they haven't covered baking yet in these cooking meetings.

"I'm not sure I should be glad that they've been so open to our illicit imitation marriage or insulted that they immediately pegged me as the wife," Alex says and the two of them forego grace and begin to slice the meat from the chicken bone.

"I don't know," Olivia says. "If it means coming home to a hand-made meal like this every day, I think it's just fine."

"Don't push your luck."

"Sorry you drew the short end of the stick for this entire experience." Olivia smiles. "But if it's any consolation, the chicken is good."

Now, Alex leans forward and finally smiles, pointing a smug finger her way. "Now that's exactly how I would expect my spouse to speak."

Olivia laughs and catches the gold of the ring on Alex's slender finger and the surreality of this entire situation comes flooding back to her. This home is decorated in a warm earthy color scheme with sofas upholstered in dark olive and mahogany tables beautifully stained chestnut brown. The plush carpeting is a muted brick red, sun-warmed and flecked with evergreen, with brown and honey tassels on either end. The walls are adorned with paintings by unknown artists and photographs of Christmas' in the Rockies, vacations to Rhode Island, and a honey moon to Niagara Falls; all of which only happened to make the lives of Leah Sandifer and Constance Holloway believable to all the people they were bound to meet.

There is only one picture that is of their true selves, taken on the steps of the courthouse by Maureen after they successfully won a case. A Marshal had handed it to them on the drive to their new home from the airport. He had waited until after a few hours of silence had passed and both women had stared out the window lifelessly as they sped away from everything they were leaving behind. The picture was framed in a cheap metal frame with open squares where dragonflies dangled loosely all around the picture, an odd choice for a Marshal.

They keep the picture beside the lamp sitting between their olive sofas, always quietly and unobtrusively in sight so, if need be, they can draw comfort from it.

Alex catches Olivia gazing toward it now and then pushes peas on her plate for a moment. "You can't be late tomorrow. The dinner invitation from the Turners still stands."

"I forgot about that." Olivia chews thoughtfully. "I guess we should iron out the creases in our cover tonight then. Weren't you coming up with a story on how we met?"

Now, Alex's eyes light up and she sits up straighter in the chair, speaking with adorable accomplishment in her voice. "I did. I thought about it for a little bit, but I think I finally came up with something worth telling."

Olivia waits for a moment and then raises an eyebrow. "And what is it?"

Alex only offers a mysterious smile.

That night when they were walking back from the bar, Olivia and Elliot offered to call Alex a cab, but she had refused, told them that she was just going to walk. Olivia had seen the hubcaps on the black SUV and had mistaken them for gaudy spinners. That was her thought when the first shot was fired and then the cop in her snapped to standing attention, pushing Alex down as Elliot ducked for cover. She was the only one looking when the wheels on the SUV took a few milliseconds to spin on the concrete, the foul smell of burnt rubber filling her nostrils. Olivia was the only one to see the face behind the barrel of the gun and by the way he eyed her for that fraction of a second before the SUV sped off with Elliot chasing after, she knew he had seen her too because she felt his last shot rip into her right shoulder and shove her down.

The best hitmen hit their mark and leave no witnesses behind and Olivia realized that she had just become a witness.

Olivia had only been home five minutes before Alex pushed her into the bathroom and told her to "Hurry up and shower" because the dinner had been pushed up by thirty minutes. Half-way through shampooing her hair, Alex announces she's coming in with some clothes she picked out and Olivia, squeezing her eyes shut to keep the shampoo out, says, amused, "Now you're entering the bathroom while I'm showering with an outfit you've picked out for me?"

"It's fine," Alex tells her. "We're married now."

Olivia only smirks and before Olivia knows what's happening, she finds herself standing at the Turner's front door wearing the blue sweater and gray slacks Alex picked out for her and holding a bottle of wine. The way Keith and Rebecca Turner open the door isn't quite as nauseatingly cheerful as the movies had preconditioned Olivia to think it'd be, but the stifling atmosphere reeks of propriety that shudders her bones. She enters the happy suburban home with caution, maintaining a professional smile and letting Alex handle the initial greetings.

"Thank you for having us, Becca, Keith," Alex says, placing a hand on Becca's shoulder momentarily. "When we moved here, we honestly worried that we'd be shunned because of our unconventional lifestyle."

Becca waves her hand in the air and says, "Oh, no, don't you worry about that one bit, honey. This is the 21st century."

"Careful there, sweetheart." Olivia chimes in with a smile. "It's dangerous calling another woman's wife 'honey'."

It takes only a second for Becca to see that Olivia is joking and when she does, her cheeks blush red and she starts laughing. Keith drapes an arm on his wife's shoulders and raises an eyebrow toward Olivia. "Wow. Should I be worried about you stealing my wife, Sandifer?"

"Wouldn't dream of it, Keith," Olivia says, looping an arm around Alex's waist and pulling her close. Her fine-tuned observational skills do not miss the faint surprise that crosses her fake wife's face. "I am a one woman kind of girl. Believe me."

Olivia smiles through the slight feeling of nausea rising in her gut and shoots Alex an 'Are they serious?' look which Alex returns with a 'Don't be an ass' look of her own. Amused at the nonverbal scolding she just received, Olivia hands the bottle of wine to Keith and then they're ushered inside the house to where the dinner table awaits.

Dinner is baked salmon and green bean casserole. Also adorning the table are plates of deviled eggs, steamed broccoli, and baby carrots. As they sit down, Keith explains that he and Becca are trying to go vegan. They've successfully trimmed out almost all animal products, but fish, honey, and eggs are the hardest so far. Becca begins dishing out portions and Keith pours each of them a glass of wine.

"So, how did you two meet?" Becca removes her napkin from the table and lays it flat on her lap, looking up at them expectedly when she's finished.

Olivia and Alex exchange glances and then Olivia offers Alex a hand, silently telling her to go ahead.

"We actually met in line for coffee at this very small place" Alex says. "I was a little short on change and here came Leah swooping in out of nowhere buying my coffee before I knew what was going on."

"Best five dollars I ever spent." Olivia sips her wine.

"You picked her up over coffee?" Keith asks Olivia, slightly surprised.

"Well, no, not exactly," Alex tells them. "She was there with someone else."

"You're joking." Becca leans forward on the table her jaw dropping slightly and she shoots Olivia a glance. "Is that true?"

Olivia is at a loss and looks at Alex who flashes her a mischievous smile. Olivia has to force a shrug and she says, "I'm sorry I had a healthy romantic life?"

"So, what happened?" Becca asks them. "How did you stay in contact?"

"She was dumped that morning," Alex says.

Olivia is just as surprised as Keith and Becca and all three look at her for a moment. She is torn between her utter amusement and her surprise that Alexandra Cabot has an imaginative side to her. She smells the personal embarrassment Alex has cooked up for her in this story and decides not to take this lying down.

"I was not dumped." Olivia lifts a finger to clarify the point and Alex raises an eyebrow at her. Olivia turns to Keith and Becca and says, "Don't believe anything she says."

"Really?" Alex asks. "You think I'm lying? Because the way I remember it, your girlfriend seemed plenty upset when you finally joined her. She stormed out of that place with her coffee in hand and yours leaking onto the floor."

"Oh, so Constance picked you up?" Keith asks.

Olivia and Alex turn to look at him and at the same time Alex answers "Yes", Olivia answers "No" and Becca lets out a fit of giggles.

"Okay." Olivia points a finger at her. "First of all, she wasn't my girlfriend. She only wanted to be."

"You seemed to be pretty into her to me."

Olivia flashes her a mischievous smile of her own and says, "Ah, that's because I wanted you to like me."

The shocked amusement on Alex's face causes Olivia's grin to widen and Keith claps his hands and gives a hearty laugh.

"I know that technique well. I tried to use it on Becca when we first met."

"And it didn't work, remember?" Becca says and Keith reaches over to rub her back with a smirk.

Olivia says, "Well, it worked for me."

"Hold on a minute, Casanova." Alex raises her eyebrows in disbelief. "I bought you the second coffee because I felt sorry for someone who did me a favor five minutes earlier."

"Oh, come on, Constance." Olivia reaches over and pats Alex's cheek. "You knew as well as I did, for us, it was a good fit from the beginning."

"I don't believe in fanciful things like that. " The familiar tone in which Alex says this makes Olivia think of late night interviews at the station house. "It's naïve to think you can just know someone is compatible upon first meeting them."

"I don't know," Keith says, giving Alex a smile that makes both she and Olivia pause for just a moment. "I think it's possible."

Becca backs him up with her ever energetic manner of speaking, "I will always believe in love at first sight."

"I'm not saying it was love at first sight. I'm just saying we both felt something," Olivia says, turning in her seat to hold Alex's gaze. She forgets that Becca and Keith are watching, that there is a plate of food sitting in front of her waiting to be consumed, and that the woman sitting next to her is supposed to be Constance Holloway and not Alex Cabot.

She laces the tips of her fingers together and says, "The great thing about being a kid and only having relationships that last three months is that you weed out the traits that don't mesh well with your own personality and then you have a fairly good idea of what kind of person you're looking for. So, one day, when a lifetime of your experiences and choices and everyone else's experiences and choices conspire together to get both of you at the same place at the exact same moment, you can recognize without wasting time that you're a match. Everything counts on that."

Alex says, "You thought we were a match from the start?"

Olivia answers, "Yeah. I really did."

With a quick glance to Becca and seeing the utterly charmed look on her face, the same look an entire audience of women would have when watching a Nicholas Sparks' movie, Keith leans forward and whispers toward Olivia, "You said I didn't have to worry about you stealing my wife, Sandifer."

Becca blush-laughs and gives his shoulder a shove, shaking her head and quickly jumping to her own defense. Olivia takes advantage of the distracted neighbors and apologizes to Alex for possibly ruining her story, but Alex shakes her head and gives an impressed smile.

"I think it's much more believable this way," she says and then casts a shadowed glance toward the couple across the table from them. "Do you think they're as happy as they appear to be?"

"This is Suburbia, America. Movies tell us that kind of happiness is impossible here."

Alex sighs. "At least in New York, the dark underbelly of society didn't hide under false pretenses."

Olivia shrugs her shoulders. "Maybe this one doesn't want a tan?"

In the well-lit but featureless hospital room, US Marshal Hammond had blinked and then widened his eyes, the lips between his wiry beard and mustache parting just enough for him to utter out a few words in the still air.

"You're not?" he had said, as if asking them both to rethink what they had told him.

Olivia and Alex lifted their eyebrows in innocence and shrugged their shoulders and Alex said, "What made you think that we were together anyway?"

"It just seemed kind of obvious to my team and I," he said, lifting his clipboard to scribble something with a blue ballpoint pen, ignoring the exasperated looks on the women's faces. "The arrangement still stands and it will take a few days of work to get something else worked out for you two."

"How were we obvious?" Alex pushed, but Olivia extended an arm toward her that made her catch the words on her tongue

"If we would rather not assume identities as a couple, would we still be placed together?" Olivia asked, scratching at a patch of dry skin beneath the sleeve of her hospital gown.

Hammond shrugged. "We can't promise that will happen. You face a better chance of disappearing completely if you disappeared separately. As such, I am technically obligated to inform my superiors of your current marital status, but if you two so choose, I am still willing to keep this under wraps. Trust me. It'll help to have a friend beside you."

Now, Oliva and Alex exchange glances as the weight of reality settles comfortably on their shoulders. Alex pinches the bridge of her nose and Olivia licks her chapped lips in thought. This was asking a lot from them. Not only were they giving up their entire lives, they were also giving up petty indulgences like openly pursuing intimate relationships. Depending on how long they have to keep up this charade, that will prove cumbersome down the line. But Olivia cleared her throat and looked at Alex.

"Alex?"

"What?"

"I don't know if I can face this new life alone," she said and turned to look at Alex sitting in the bed beside her. "So. Would you be my wife?"

Alex let out a weary half-smile and said, "Sure, Olivia. Okay."

Continued...