A/N: This is an older story that I stumbled on... it's not my favorite prose-wise, but I love the idea of it, so I decided to post it. Hope you enjoy!

The shrill sound of her cell-phone cut through layers of sleep and fog. Alex groaned softly as her hangover made itself known. Shielding her eyes against the bright morning light, she fumbled a hand over to her nightstand and grabbed the offending object.

She cracked an eye open to see who was calling. Elliot Stabler. She groaned again. If he was calling to ask her to secure a warrant, she was going to tell him to go to hell.

"Hello," she mumbled.

"Alex?"

She could hear the smile in his voice.

"What the hell do you want, Stabler?"

"I guess I woke you up. How're you feeling?" He didn't even attempt to hide his laughter. Alex furrowed her brow. Why was he asking her how she was feeling? Another thought hit her. Why was she hungover in the first place? She searched her memory, and realized that she remembered leaving the office yesterday… and nothing more. It was a blank slate. Elliot was apparently ahead of the game when it came to the knowledge of what had taken place last night.

"Alex?" Elliot's voice, breaking into Alex's reverie, reminded her that she had yet to answer his question.

"I feel hungover," she replied and then, with considerable trepidation, asked "I don't suppose you could tell me where I was last night?"

Elliot laughed again, "You don't remember?"

"Not really," Alex mumbled, feeling her face flush with shame.

"Well, Counselor, I'm not entirely surprised. You probably exhausted Marty's supply of vodka all on your own. But it's a shame, you certainly caused a… ruckus."

"Really?" Alex finally managed to sit up, feeling her head spin in protest.

"Uh-huh. We got to use our handcuffs and everything."

"Handcuffs? We?"

Elliot chuckled again and took pity on Alex's clueless state, "Yeah. You called Liv around ten, completely incoherent."

Alex dropped her head into her free hand, mentally kicking herself. She wanted Olivia to like her, not think she was a lush. Elliot continued his narrative. "We were still in the squad room, running the LUD's on Franco. Liv was kinda worried, said you didn't sound very 'with it'. We came down to Marty's to uh, collect you."

"Oh God, Elliot, I'm so sorry," Alex was beyond mortified. She had drunk dialed the woman she was secretly in love with, prompting said crush to leave work with her partner and come down to their regular hangout, their 'cop bar', to get her. She wished she could remember if she had done or said anything stupid… like 'Olivia, take your pants off,' or 'Elliot, do you think you could close your eyes while I make out with your insanely gorgeous partner, who doesn't even know I exist outside of work?'

"And then things got really fun," Elliot's voice broke back into her thoughts.

"Do I wanna know?" she whined.

"You were 'entertaining' a couple of uncouth gentlemen by the time we got there. We stepped in, they got belligerent, and the usual bar brawl ensued."

"What?" Alex gaped, "what are you talking about? What the hell did I do?"

Elliot laughed again, "Relax Alex, it wasn't your fault. Four idiots didn't realize they were in cop bar, and decided they were gonna take you home. Liv and I told them they oughta walk away while they still could. They disagreed… violently; all four of them are coolin' their heels in lockup."

"Violently?" Alex winced.

"Yeah, my wife wants to have words with you. We're supposed to have dinner with her folks tonight, and I'm sporting a beauty of a black eye."

"Uhhhhhh," Alex groaned, shaking her head.

"Yeah, that's what you sounded like last night too," Elliot laughed, cutting Alex off before she could curse at him, "but look, I only called 'cause I wanted to check on Liv. She's not answering her phone."

"She's here?" Alex's voice squeaked. She immediately began battling the sheets tangled around her feet.

"Well, she said she was gonna take you home and then stop by the ER, but I thought she might have hit up the ER first and then crashed at your place…"

"ER?" Alex couldn't keep the shriek out of her voice as she finally levered herself off of her bed, noting absently that she was dressed in yoga pants and a tank top, most definitely NOT the clothes she had been wearing when she left work the day before. She padded as quickly as her pounding head would allow towards the living room, expecting to see Olivia on her couch. She wasn't there.

"Well, yeah," Elliot had continued, "Liv took a pretty good shot to the head from one of the jackasses trying to pick you up. One of the uniforms just coming off duty offered to drive the two of you the hospital."

"Oh my God, Elliot, I- I- Elliot, I'm so sorry, I had no idea, I-"

"Alex, calm down. Like I said before, not your fault. Frankly, it's a good thing we got there when we did. They definitely weren't your type."

Although Elliot phrased it gently, Alex felt a shudder run through her body at the thought of what had obviously almost happened.

"Elliot, Olivia isn't here. I don't- I don't know where she is. I don't remember…. anything. I don't remember coming home!"

"Ok, well, maybe she just turned her cell phone off. But look, Alex, could you check on her? We're already on the road or else I'd stop by but-"

"I'll go right now, Elliot. I'll give you a call."

Alex hung up the phone, feeling her heart thumping in her throat. She grabbed a jacket from her coat closet and her purse from the small table by the door, slipping her feet into her running shoes.

Alex tapped her foot nervously, waiting for the super to unlock Olivia's apartment. Alex felt tears welling in her eyes, her cell phone hot in her hand. If Olivia wasn't in there, she was calling in the troops. She had called three separate hospitals on the way over. None of them had a record of an Olivia Benson from the night before. Olivia's super had confirmed that yes, Detective Benson had come home last night. Late last night. It had taken an additional fifteen minutes, with a liberal flashing of her ADA identification, and a call to Elliot to convince the super to unlock Olivia's door when Alex's knocks went unanswered.

As soon as the door swung open, Alex rushed in. She had never been in Olivia's apartment before, but it was small, and it only took Alex a split second to determine where Olivia's bedroom must be. She made a beeline for the Detective's prone form on the bed, pressing two fingers to Olivia's neck.

Her breath left her in a rush as she felt the strong thump of blood under the soft skin. She nodded over her shoulder at the super as she brought the cell phone back to her ear. The super left the apartment, closing the door behind him as Alex sighed into the phone, "She's fine, Elliot."

After Elliot hung up, Alex closed her eyes for a moment, allowing her heart rate to drop back down out of the stratosphere. She opened her eyes again after a moment, suddenly realizing that she was in Olivia Benson's apartment, in Olivia Benson's bedroom, sitting on Olivia Benson's bed, next to a sleeping, barely dressed Olivia Benson. Alex willed herself to get up and leave. But her willpower was overcome by her hangover, combined by the fact that Olivia Benson was lying in front of her in nothing more than a white tank top and bright red boy shorts. Alex raked her eyes shamelessly over the Detective, reasoning with herself that she was only making sure that Olivia wasn't hurt.

Olivia's tank top had ridden up considerably overnight, and Alex's breath caught in her throat again. She had barely glanced at the Detective when she ran in, more focused on whether or not said Detective was breathing. But now her eyes registered the dark purple bruise that peeked out from under the shirt. Alex reached out and gently tugged the shirt up a little more, her eyes widening as she exposed more and more of the bruise that spread over Olivia's left rib cage.

Alex bit her lip, and reached a hand up to brush away Olivia's hair, which was almost completely hiding her face. A similarly nasty bruise stretched down the left side of Olivia's face, from temple to chin. "Oh, Liv," Alex sighed, feeling tears well again. She had been stupid enough to get smashed in a bar, and Olivia had paid the price.

Olivia woke to conflicting sensations. Her face throbbed in time with her heartbeat, each pulse sending a spike of agony through her head. But a soothing cool sensation was playing over her left side, a sensation she finally identified as fingers. She jerked over onto her back, wondering who the hell had broken into her apartment.

She found herself staring up at a startled Alex Cabot, who had raised both hands in surrender and was staring at Olivia with wide eyes and a blush creeping over her face.

"Alex?" Olivia mumbled, letting her pounding head drop back down to the pillow.

Alex cleared her throat nervously and said, "Elliot called me this morning… I'm sorry, I have absolutely no recollection of… anything… last night. But Elliot told me… Oh God, Liv I'm so sorry."

Olivia smiled at the flustered attorney and dismissed her worry with a wave of her hand, "Don't worry about it, Alex. It wasn't your fault."

"That's what Elliot kept saying, but-"

"Alex," Olivia reached up and swatted at Alex's hands, which were still raised by her head in submission, "knock it off. I don't blame you for anything that happened last night. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and if we're totally honest about it all, Elliot and I could have been much more tactful about the whole situation."

Alex looked quizzically at the Detective.

"You were about to leave Marty's with four drunken belligerents, and Elliot and I could have… should have just grabbed you and left the bar. But Elliot was looking to make a point and I was… worried… about you… and so we got in their faces. And they, well…" Olivia trailed off, as it was pretty obvious how the men had responded.

Alex felt as if she couldn't breathe, "You were worried about me?"

"Yeah," Olivia said almost without thinking. She hurriedly glanced down, intending to change the subject, but found her eyes focusing in on a small tub of butter cream lotion resting on Alex's knee.

To her horror, but unable to stop herself, Alex found herself dipping two fingers into the cream and telling Olivia in a voice that was decidedly not innocent, "I was just rubbing this on your… bruises."

Olivia's eyes widened and she swallowed hard, "Yeah… it felt nice."

Alex's nerves nearly failed her, but she forced her trembling fingers back down to the bruised skin over Olivia's ribs, rubbing soft slow circles.

Olivia cleared her throat roughly, "So are you okay? I mean, not hungover or anything? You slept okay? I mean-"

Alex took mercy on the other woman's rambling, "Oh, I'm most definitely hungover, and let me tell you Detective, the perfect hangover cure is most certainly NOT flying out of your apartment and arguing with a super to let you into an apartment, convinced you're going to find the dead body of your- friend." Alex stumbled over the last word and felt herself blush again.

Olivia reached out and stopped Alex's hand, "what are you talking about?"

"You were supposed to go to the ER, according to Elliot. I couldn't remember a damn thing… neither of us knew where you were, you weren't answering your phone, no hospitals had a record of you…." Alex stopped and inhaled deeply, "I was worried about you."

Olivia grinned, "I'm sorry. I didn't really feel like spending the rest of my night in the ER, waiting for some kid nurse to tell me to take two Aspirin and go to bed. After I poured you into bed, I just wanted to crash."

Alex glanced down at her clothes and back up at Olivia, "And before you poured me into bed, you were kind enough to put me in comfortable clothes."

Olivia blushed deeply and muttered something about dry-cleaning bills. Alex reached up and gently trailed a finger down the bruise on Olivia's face.

"Does it hurt?" she whispered.

"Not anymore," Olivia replied in the same hushed timbre.

Alex cleared her throat, "you know, you probably do have a concussion."

"Nah, I have a harder head than that."

"Well, I guess I should… I'm tired, obviously still a little hungover…"

As Alex trailed off, Olivia shifted her body away from the attorney. Disappointment washed over Alex for a brief moment, before Olivia patted the mattress beside her, "Lay down. Take a nap. That's my plan for the next few hours."

Alex didn't think she had ever smiled so brightly in her life.