The Heart of John Munch
Author's Notes: This ficlet was inspired by season two's "Legacy", particularly the scene between Olivia and John on the roof when he tells her about the little girl who used to live across the street from him and his family when he was a teenager. So, I decided to make a Cabot/Munch ficlet out of that touching little scene in which we saw more emotions on that man's face than we had ever seen up to that point. Instead of Olivia going up on the roof after John, Alex goes up after him. And since we are provided with no set timeline during the seasons, I'm assuming that Alex has been with SVU for a little over a year.
Alex watched with the rest as John abruptly left interrogation and headed vanished from sight. As soon as she heard that the stationhouse had roof access, she headed straight for the staircase and made it up the stairs in record time for someone wearing high heels.
She found him standing on the rooftop, looking out over the city.
"John, you ok?" she ventured softly.
He turned and looked at her silently for a long moment. It was kind of creepy, but Alex wasn't scared. She trusted John and some part of her was beginning to become convinced that she was falling in love with him. She stared right back at him and said, "You did a good job, Munch."
"From John to Munch in the same conversation." He said, half-jokingly. "Kind of odd."
Managing to crack a half smile, she tried again. "You ok?"
"No." he said rather abruptly. "I'm not."
"Want to talk about it?" She ventured carefully. She wasn't sure of what she was dealing with.
John looked at her again, took a deep breath and told Alex all about the little girl who used to live across the street from him. Alex listened quietly, slowly edging closer to him. By the time he was finishing, telling Alex about the fate of the poor girl, she was next to him.
"I don't think that you let Emily down, John." Alex said, quietly. "If she woke up I think she'd thank you."
John sniffled. "Are you just trying to make me feel better?"
Alex put down her briefcase and rubbed John's back. "You did good, John. You saved Emily. And when she wakes up, I'll make sure that she has a better life. A happy one… a safe one. And you can come visit her."
She gave him a weak smile. "It's nice to know that underneath all that cynicism, there is a heart. A nice, big, warm heart made out of solid gold."
When he looked at her, she saw that tears were making their way out of his eyes. Gently, she reached up, took his glasses off and wiped the tears away with her fingertips. "Don't cry…. it's alright."
He gave her a soft, sad smile and then, just as a tear made its way down her cheek, he kissed her. It was soft and gentle, yet deep and passionate.
As the couple kissed, Olivia opened the roof access door and spotted them. She looked shocked for a long moment and just stared at them. Suddenly their strange behavior since Alex arrived as the SVU's ADA made sense to her. She then smiled and left the roof, making sure to close the door as quietly as she could behind her so she wouldn't bother them.
She contemplated telling Cragen, but thought better of it. If Alex and John wanted to be in a relationship then so be it. It wasn't any of her business and she didn't want to spoil it for them. She'd keep it to herself…at least until Alex was ready to talk about it.