Alex groaned as the room was suddenly filled with light, and tried to block it out by pulling the covers over her pounding head. Olivia, having experienced her share of hangovers, was not unsympathetic, but she had a no-nonsense attitude as she walked over and pulled the covers off of her wife.
"Come on, angel, time to wake up. It's almost noon."
"Don't feel good." Alex mumbled, her eyes still closed tight.
"I'm sure you don't after last night, but we have a lot to talk about today, and if you don't get up now you won't want to sleep tonight. Come on, you don't have to get dressed, but get up and meet me in the kitchen." Olivia popped Alex on the bottom three times with her strong right hand to encourage her to get moving.
"Ow!" Alex whined, but obediently crawled out of bed. Even in her hungover state, Alex recognized that Olivia's tone left no room for disobedience.
Olivia went to the kitchen and began to make Alex a cup of tea, confident that her naughty wife would join her shortly. The brunette detective had spent most of the night in the bathroom with Alex hugging the toilet. After she had finally tucked Alex into bed, she spent some time calming down and thinking about the situation. She didn't like the idea of punishing Alex when she didn't feel well, but there really was no alternative. If she waited, the punishment would lose its effectiveness. Last night's behavior was completely unacceptable and Alex needed to be taught a lesson so that this kind of thing never happened again.
As she stood in the master bathroom and prayed for her head to stop throbbing, Alex remembered everything that had happened the night before. She and Olivia had gone to SVU's annual Christmas party, and Alex's behavior was atrocious. The several glasses of punch she consumed did not help matters, either, causing Alex to be loud and obnoxious. Alex suddenly never wanted to leave that bathroom, knowing how much trouble she must be in and how disappointed Olivia must be in her. But knowing that she couldn't stay in the bathroom forever, Alex splashed water on her face, brushed her teeth, and made her way to the kitchen where she sat down on a chair at the table and put her head in her hands.
"Here, baby. I'll let you take something for your head after we talk, and maybe by that time your stomach will have settled down enough so you can have some toast, but for now here's some tea. I want you to try to drink it all." Olivia placed the cup in front of Alex.
"Yes, Ma'am." Alex mumbled, obediently sipping the tea. It took several minutes, but she managed to drain the whole cup.
"Good girl. Do you remember anything about last night?"
"Yes, Ma'am. Hold me, please?" Alex looked at Olivia pleadingly.
"Of course. I will always hold you, but we are still going to talk about last night. Come here." Olivia led Alex to the couch where she allowed Alex to curl up on her lap and cuddled her close. No matter how Alex had behaved, she would never deny her physical affection.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am. I don't know what got into me." Alex whimpered, trying in vain to use Olivia's long dark hair as a shield to block out the light.
"I do. About three or four cups of punch too many. Even though last night was meant to be an enjoyable event, it was still a formal workplace function, and when we go to those, I expect you to treat my colleagues with the same respect you show me and behave yourself. I also expect you to know your limits and stay within them without needing me to police you. When I tried to warn you last night that you might be in danger of pushing your limit, you basically told me to screw off. Quite loudly, I might add. Look at me, little one."
Alex suppressed a groan as she pulled back just enough to look Olivia in the eye, sick baby blues clashing with chocolate brown orbs.
"I think you know what is going to happen next. I don't like punishing you, and I especially don't like punishing you when you don't feel well, but you know that you deserve a very sound spanking for your behavior last night, don't you?"
"Yes, Ma'am, I know." Alex admitted reluctantly, already beginning to cry because she was hungover and it was causing her to be more emotional than usual.
"Good girl. If you cooperate with me, it won't be too bad, and then I will give you something for your head and we'll cuddle for the rest of the day until you feel better. If you fight me, I can and will make it a lot worse before we can cuddle. Stand up and bring me the wooden spoon from the kitchen, please."
Alex burst into tears, which did not help her pounding head, but she obediently stood up from Olivia's lap and went to retrieve the wooden spoon, returning quickly and handing over the implement to her disciplinarian.
"Thank you." Olivia set the spoon aside for a moment while she pulled Alex's pajama bottoms down to her knees and gently guided Alex over her lap.
With Alex properly in position, Olivia raised up her strong right hand and immediately began to pepper Alex's bare bottom with sharp spanks. Alex wanted desperately to jump up, but she forced herself to lie still and let the punishment happen. The spoon was bad enough, she didn't want it to get even worse. When Alex's bottom was a healthy shade of pink, Olivia picked up the wooden spoon and gently tapped it against Alex's bottom before resuming the punishment, a little bit harder than before.
Alex quickly began to sob hysterically. Compared to other spankings she had received over the years, this was technically a very mild punishment, but her emotions were all over the map so it seemed much worse than it actually was. Olivia was very strict, and under normal circumstances Alex's behavior would have warranted a sound caning, but the brunette detective was secretly being merciful. She couldn't bring herself to be too hard on Alex. The hangover was already plenty of punishment in itself. Even so, Olivia did not hold back and delivered a very thorough spanking with the wooden spoon, turning Alex's pink bottom a deep shade of crimson. It didn't take long before Alex gave into the punishment and went limp across Olivia's lap. Her crying was making her headache even worse.
Worried that Alex was going to make herself sick, Olivia ended the punishment and threw down the wooden spoon as if it had burned her. She carefully turned Alex face up and once again cuddled her sobbing wife close to her heart as she always did after every spanking.
"There, there. Good girl. Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. It's over. It's all over, princess. That's my good girl. It's all right. It's over." Olivia cooed tenderly to her sobbing wife.
Alex cried for what felt like hours. Her sobs finally died down to a quiet stream of steady tears. Not only was her head pounding like a jackhammer, but now Alex's bottom was killing her and the poor thing was miserable.
"I'm sorry." Alex whimpered.
"I know you are, sweetheart. Everything is forgiven. Shall I take you up to bed and I'll get you something for your head now?"
Alex nodded on Olivia's shoulder. Olivia picked Alex up in her arms and carried her down the hall and into the bedroom where she very gently deposited Alex on the bed before quickly returning to the kitchen to put the spoon away and get a few aspirin for Alex to take with a glass of water. Alex took the pills gratefully and drained the glass. With that accomplished, Olivia sat down on the bed against the headboard and allowed Alex to cuddle back into her arms. The lights were kept low and the TV turned off. Alex shed the last of her tears feeling very thoroughly chastised, but also feeling safe and very loved. There was no better place in the world to be after a sound spanking than in Olivia's arms. Nothing would take away the pain in her bottom for at least the rest of the day and probably well into the next day, but at least her head was slowly beginning to feel better and she knew that now that she was punished, she was forgiven and she was still Olivia's good girl.
Nothing would ever change that.