Author's Notes: HOLY SHIT! I'M BACK PEEPS! *blows into noise maker* Yeah I couldn't really resist. This little gem popped into my head about halfway through Decadence Masquerade. It's a continuation of it but it'll involve some different stuff. There will be some BDSM content but not as focused on that as it was before. I'll try to work some smut in here and there to keep my Alex and my reviewers happy. You know who you are. I'm still fully working this one out in my head whereas with Decadence I had everything pretty fleshed out. This one is a bit of a mystery. So it may take me a bit to continue it. I'll try to work on though. As always let me know what you think and this takes place about nine months after Decadence Masquerade so I would recommend reading that one first before this one. Now since I'm confined to my chair by my wife's cat laying on my legs, (he likes the warmth my laptop beats on his front legs and chest) I may go work on a second chapter. We'll see what I feel like. So now...ONWARD TO THE STORY!


Chapter 1

"Cabot." Alex's cool voice answered the phone in her office. It was late so her assistant was no longer in the office.

"Is this Miss Alexandra Cabot?" Papers shuffling and an older woman's soft voice answered Alex's cool greeting.

"This is she." Alex answered arching a brow. "Can I help you?"

"This is Deborah Rogers, I'm a nurse at St. Vincent's. According to our records you're listed as having power of attorney over a Miss Audra Dickerson."

"Excuse me? What is this about?" Alex asked she'd rarely heard Julia called by her first name.

"Miss Dickerson was brought in tonight with severe injuries that have left her in a coma. We need to know that we have permission to treat her."

"What happened?" Alex asked.

"Ma'am we really need your permission to treat her. If we don't she'll die."

"You have my permission. She's at St. Vincent's you said?"

"Yes ma'am. She was brought in after a neighbor called 911 after discovering her outside of her building."

"I'll be right there." Alex promised already rising to her feet. "Just do whatever you can to save her."


Alex was pacing the egg shell colored waiting room choosing instead of sitting in the hard chairs to feel as though she was doing something productive. She sighed wrapping her arms around herself before turning to look at the doors. Elliot and Olivia strode in looking as worried as she was. "Have they said anything about her?" Elliot was the first to ask. He and Julia over the months following the island had gotten very close. So close in fact, she would often go to the house to play with little Eli. She was no threat to Kathy once she'd realized Julia preferred the company of women to men and in fact became and extra pair of hands that made it easier on her and Elliot to get out. Julia adored little Eli and was ecstatic at being able to watch him whenever she was needed.

Olivia and Alex were doing very well in their respective relationship, of course that wasn't to say that the fights they'd had in the precinct that were quite legendary were few and far between rather now they had a very different ending. The sort of ending that made Munch waggle his eyebrows when he'd ask Olivia if the interview room had survived the fight she and Alex had.

Things had settled slowly back into their old routine but with a few significant changes. Recently there had been talk of Alex and Olivia moving in together. They were still working out those details. Julia had offered to help them look since she knew a very well-known realtor. When asked how she knew him she just laughed and said he was a client. Nothing more was asked since everyone knew she was still working. It just hadn't been confirmed before.

Two weeks after the annual Masquerade held by Decadence in which Alex and Olivia had attended at Julia's behest they now found themselves in this position wondering if their friend would even pull through.

"Alex, do you think someone from Decadence could've done this to her?" Olivia asked not bothering to stop Alex from pacing since she knew it would just upset the blonde attorney.

"I don't know." Alex said pausing for a moment before shaking her head.

Though things weren't smooth with the high powered club things were looking better. After Meila's arrest and sentencing Julia had decided to step back into the picture and run Decadence. It had been rough for her at first, many patrons wanting to pair themselves up with her to control but in the end she'd stood on her own and Decadence was steadily becoming what it had originally been meant to be. Alex was proud of her former mistress for her decision to take back what was rightfully hers even if she knew it made Julia nervous.

She sighed folding her arms as she watched both Detectives hunch forward in the hard chairs trying to get comfortable. When the door opened revealing a young looking Doctor Alex raced towards him.

"You would be Miss Cabot right?" He asked looking at the chart in his hands and then up at Alex.

"Yes I am. Can you tell me anything at all?"

The doctor sighed. "She's not in good shape at all. She's been beaten quite badly , her skull is fractured and so is her cheek. She has a hairline fracture of the jaw, a broken wrist, multiple broken ribs and a cracked pelvis. She doesn't appear to be bleeding internally which is quite a shock all things considered but we're going to keep an eye on her."

"Do you have any idea how this happened?" Alex asked shocking at the amount of damage that had been done.

The Doctor shook his head, "No. I'm sorry. All I can tell you is she's lucky to be alive. I've seen bad injuries in my time as a doctor but this takes the cake even for me."

"Was she..." Alex took a breath before asking. "Was she sexually assaulted?"

"No. Other than the trauma her body suffered it appears whoever did this to her wanted her dead not scared to do anything."

"So you think someone did this? She wasn't a car accident or anything like that?" But Alex already knew the answer to that.

"Ma'am your friend was beaten within an inch of her life. If she survives the next twenty four hours she may pull through but right now with the cracked skull we're worried most about her brain swelling which would kill her. The best we can do right now is make her comfortable and keep her in the coma."

"So it's a medically induced coma?"

"She was in one when she was brought in but the drugs we're using will keep her under. It's best for now if we leave her in this state to let her body heal. I'm sorry I can't tell you more."


Alex walked into the precinct the next day going straight to Captain Cragen's office.

"Captain, can I have a word?" She asked as soon as she knocked and entered.

"Is this about your friend counselor?" He asked setting the phone in its cradle.

Alex nodded, "I want your people to work this case. Julia helped you crack a murder it's the least we can do to find and prosecute the people who almost killed her."

Cragen sighed folding his arms on his desk as he sat back. "It's one hell of a conflict of interest for you to be prosecuting the case Alex."

"I'll recuse myself on prosecuting it but I want Olivia and Elliot to find out who did this to her." Alex folded her arms staring at the Captain.

The man sighed softly looking down, "If there are no signs of rape you know it's not a special victim's case counselor."

"She was nearly beaten to death outside her apartment. She helped us on a murder case three months ago and this may have gotten her in this situation. But we don't know that because she's in a coma!" Alex cried out wanting to make the man see her point.

Cragen's jaw clenched before he sighed softly. "All right Counselor. You win. It does fall in our jurisdiction so we'll look into it."

He rose to his feet opening the door and yelled into the bullpen. "Benson! Stabler! My office."

"Uh-oh. Dad's mad." Fin said shaking his head as he watched the two Detectives look at each other before going to the office and shutting the door. They both nodded to Alex and turned to their Captain.

"What's going on Captain?"

"You two are going to work Miss Dickerson's case. Go to the hospital and see if she's awake and then go to her apartment and talk to her neighbors especially the one that phoned it in." He commanded. "Don't disappoint me on this one." He added softly. Even though he'd spent the less time with Julia he had seen the affect she'd had on his detectives and how much fun they all seemed to have together. She was like an honorary member of the squad. He wouldn't like to see what happened if they didn't find her killer. "We owe her that much." He added softly.


When the Detectives and their ADA arrived at the hospital they were informed Julia was still in ICU but they were allowed to see her for a few minutes. They slowly made their way down the fluorescence lit hallway with it's white walls and green accents stopping at the door they were informed belonged to the dominatrix. Alex took a breath pushing the door open first but stopped the moment she stepped inside. Olivia and Elliot almost ran into the back of her not realizing why she'd stopped until they looked up.

Sitting beside Julia's bed was a handsome man in an Armani business suit. His watch was a Cartier which he looked at as soon as they strode inside. His hair was black and he was obvious of Asian descent. "May I help you?" He asked in accented English rising to his feet looking at them with dark slightly narrowed eyes.

"Yes. I'm Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot and this is Detective Benson and Stabler." Alex introduced finally stepping fully into the room. For the time being she avoided looking at the figure on the bed.

"I'm Yamauchi Yoshiki." He paused, "Excuse me I always forget English means I should speak my first name first. Yoshiki Yamauchi. I would say it's a pleasure to meet you but under these circumstances it's not."

"If you don't mind me asking Mr. Yamauchi, who are you?" Stabler asked looking over the man and then back at Alex and Olivia.

"Forgive me. I'm Audra's husband."


Author's Ending Notes: Heh heh! I bet no one saw that one coming. Hell for that matter I didn't see that one coming. It just sort of popped in there and wouldn't go away until I wrote it in there. Anyways let me know what you think and I will try and decide whether to continue this or just do some smutty one-shots as sequels.