Falling into you.
Chapter 2.
Alex sat in the back of the taxi taking her home and felt tiredness creeping into her limbs as well as her mind. As she thought of how she couldn't wait to be home with Olivia she felt an urgent need to hear the voice of the only person who could make her feel better with just two words. Sometimes it was "Hey baby" or "Hi sweetheart" and "Ciao gorgeous" and "Beautiful girl" were also the words that she was privileged to hear often as a greeting by Olivia over the phone.
After having been sent off to work that morning with a long embrace and a resounding kiss she had only had the chance to give Olivia a quick call before going to court and they'd agreed that Alex would call after the trial. Alex pulled her phone out of her briefcase and switched it on, she'd totally forgotten to switch it back on as soon as she trial was over. When she nervous and mad she tended to get distracted from small practical issues such as switching her phone on.
As the display lit up she saw that she had missed a number of calls but the only ones she cared about were those from Olivia and they were quite a few, six calls, all in the last hour. She cursed herself for having been too caught up in her own anger and for not having called her girlfriend. As she pressed the button for an outgoing call to Olivia her phone blinked and promptly died on her, the battery exhausted.
"Fucking shit, why does every fucking thing have to go wrong today, is there a bad moon out or what the fuck is going on" she said aloud to herself feeling her nervousness flaring up again. Looking up she caught the cab driver looking at her in the rear view mirror with a questioning look.
"Please excuse my foul language, it's just that I've had an awful day, I know it's a lousy excuse but I's just been a bad day" she said apologetically.
The cab driver nonchalantly replied: "Don't worry about it lady, try being on this job for 24 hours and you'll find that you get used to things much worse."
As the cab pulled up in front of her apartment building she paid her fare deciding to add a generous tip to compensate the driver for having to put up with her little outburst. Her impeccable upper crust upbringing always surfaced in the end even when she flew off the handle.
The rain hadn't let up and she got pelted once again running up to the building entrance. She went straight to the elevator and headed up to the tenth floor where she and Olivia had purchased a lovely spacious apartment 3 years before after Alex had decided to sell the much larger one that she had inherited and where they had lived before.
Standing outside her apartment door she kicked off her wet shoes and picked them up as she rang the doorbell shouting out at the same time: "Liv, open up, it's me."
It only took a moment before Olivia opened the door, as Alex stepped inside Olivia took in the sight before her and exclaimed with half a smile: "Look what the cat dragged in, what happened to you sweetheart, you're drenched !"
Alex threw down her shoes and shrugged off her wet coat which Olivia grabbed and draped over the back of a chair nearby.
As she turned around looking back at Alex she immediately realized that her girlfriend was in quite a state of nervousness and was feeling overly dejected. Olivia knew by experience that this was a delicate moment and Alex needed the velvet glove treatment.
She moved in close to Alex and put one arm around her shoulder stroking her neck and damp hair. With her other hand she started lightly to caress Alex's cheek: "I was worried about you, I already know what happened in court today and I know how pissed off you are, I tried calling you but your phone was off. Don't worry baby, you're home with me now, everything's okay."
She leaned in and gave Alex a soft kiss on the lips. As she did all of Alex's frustrations from her long and stressful day surfaced, she felt tears welling up in her eyes and she started quietly sobbing and threw her arms around Olivia reveling in the strong softness and warmth of her lover.
Olivia pulled her in to her arms and held her as tight as possible: "Shh sweetheart, it's okay, just let it all out, I'm here to take care of you, I promise we'll make this better. Come on, let's sit down for a moment and let me hold you and then we'll have to get you out of these damp clothes."
She walked them over to the big comfortable living room couch, she sat down and intimated for Alex to straddle her lap which she did. Once she was in position Alex buried her face in Olivia's neck and kept on sobbing, her shoulders quivering.
It always tugged at Olivia's heartstrings to see Alex like this, it didn't happen often but when it did it brought out all of her protective instincts and as irrational as it was made her hate the people that had caused Alex to suffer. She knew how much effort Alex put into her cases, how driven, loyal and dedicated she was and how it stung her when she lost an important case.
She started to gently massage Alex back with soothing circular motions trying to calm her down a bit. She put one hand beneath Alex's chin and lifted her head up: "Hey baby, look at me, look me in the eyes and listen." She went on: "Alex sweetheart, it's not the end of the world, you know that and it's not the first time and it won't be the last time you've lost a case. You know that it's bound to happen sometimes, hell, I can't count all the times that we've had a case blow up in our hands or backfire in some way at the precinct. It's just how things go, sometimes it's out of our hands."
Alex was listening to her, the tears in her beautiful eyes had made them turn an even brighter shade of blue. Her sobs had calmed and she replied, sniffling a little: "I know Liv, it's not just losing the case, it was everything that happened today, the case, being yelled at by a judge, snarky people and just everything else. I just snapped, I felt like I was surrounded by vultures picking at my bones. I'm so sorry babe that you have to put up with me dumping all my crap on you when you have an afternoon off to relax, forgive me Liv" she added as a few more tears spilled down her cheeks.
Olivia smiled , her warm brown eyes full of love and understanding gazed into Alex's blue ones: "That's always been a two-way street with us sweetheart. How many innumerable times have you taken care of me and given me comfort when I come home in the middle of the night from some horrible crime scene feeling dead tired, nervous and sick of all the evil I see. You've never let me down, you've always been there for me, taking care of me and depriving yourself of sleep even when you have to be in your office early."
She added: "And as for court you know how that goes. When there's a screw-up everybody gets in on the blame game and it becomes an all-around pissing contest. So please…please…just try to get over it baby, it's not worth it allowing ourselves to absorb all the poison that comes with our jobs."
As she stood up she lifted Alex up off her lap as well: "And that's enough of shop talk for now, it's time for me to pamper my gorgeous girlfriend starting off by getting you out of these wet clothes, having you take a warm shower, I'll wash you and then get you into something warm and then we'll have a bite to eat if you're hungry. I made good use of my afternoon at home preparing an excellent homemade vegetable soup that you'll like."
She leaned into Alex and gathered her in her arms once again: "Now let me kiss away those tears and ….I think you need to blow that lovely cute nose of yours too." She chuckled as she took Alex by the hand and led her off to the bathroom.
Alex was already smiling and the tears had ceased, she was already feeling much better. Olivia always had that effect on her, she always made her world a brighter and more beautiful place, that was the magic of Olivia Benson.
As she trotted off happily to the bathroom with Olivia's warm hand holding hers she couldn't resist reminding her of her earlier words: "You're doing all the work you know, you said that you'd wash me but you also have to undress me, dry me, redress me, feed me and take care of anything else I may need."
"Now that's more like it, that's my demanding whimsical lovely girl talking. Don't worry, you've got a deal, the pleasure's all mine…and yours too knowing you. All you have to do is be a good girl and stand in the shower looking your impossibly beautiful self and I'll take care of everything you need" Olivia replied with a wink and a smile.
Alex thought to herself: "Something tells me that my long and very awful day is about to turn into a long and very pleasant evening." She silently thanked her lucky stars that she had Olivia in her life and more importantly that she was all hers. And it felt so good to be able to feel and say that even after a number of years together she was always as totally and overwhelmingly in love with Olivia as when she had fallen head over heels in love with her beautiful detective many years ago.
And it felt even better knowing that all this love was reciprocated to the fullest and more.