A/N at the end. Chapter edited.
Chapter 1 Stephanie's introducing to the cast.
It had been three months later since Stephanie had done the reading with Mariska and today was the start of filming season 2. In the past 3 months Stephanie and Mariska had met a couple of times and had gone to get a drink and gone for dinner with each other once. Stephanie also had been on the set watching her future colleagues and Mariska, of course, to get a feel for the set and the actors that she would be working with. She stood with fans of the show when she came to watch the filming of an episode, so the rest of the cast that played the SVU squad of the 16th precinct were unaware that it was the beautiful blonde who would play the role of ADA Alex Cabot standing in the crowd along with them.
Mariska and Stephanie had found out that they literally lived around the corner from each other and it had surprised both women that they had never met before that day 3 months ago. Both women would be at the set all day and the last scene that would be filmed. The scene today was between Mariska and Stephanie, aka. Detective Olivia Benson and ADA Alex Cabot. Since the both of them would be on the set all day, and they lived so close, Stephanie had suggested to head the studio together. Mariska thought that was a good idea so that morning at 7 am they had driven to the studio with Mariska's car. Both women were curious how the rest of the cast would react to the addition of Stephanie to their ensemble.
At the studio, in the canteen.
"Listen up everyone. I'd like to introduce our newest cast member, thanks to Mariska," Gary said.
Everyone in the canteen approcahed and stood around the large table. Stephanie and Mariska stood next to Gary.
"Meet Stephanie March, she's playing the role of our new ADA Alex Cabot. Let me introduce you to the cast playing the squad...Dan Florek plays Captain Donald Cragen, Richard Belzer plays Sergeant John Munch, Ice-T plays Detective Fin Tutuola, Craig Daniels plays Detective James Murray and of course Mariska Hargitay plays Detective Olivia Benson, but the two of you have met each other already on the set for the audition. These are the people you'll be working with the most," Gary said assuredly.
Gary continued, introducing the three additional characters that were present, "Next to Craig, Tamara Tunie plays Medical Examiner Melinda Warner, Judith Light plays EADA Elizabeth 'Liz' Donnelly, Joanna Merlin plays Judge Lena Petrovsky and Bradley Wong aka B.D. Wong plays Special Agent and MD George Huang. Everyone else you'll meet as we film the episodes."
After introducing the members of the the cast, Gary pointed at the writers and his assistant.
Gary continued with the introductions, "These are the script writers and you've already met Linda, my assistant. On her right side is Britt Deveroux, on her left side are Jane Boxer, Diego Morquiz and Clinton Williams but we all call him C.W...and you're welcome to call him C.W., too."
Craig, Diego and C.W. were single, Ice-T and Richard weren't but all the men were looking at Stephanie, almost drooling over the beautiful blonde. Mariska looked at them and suddenly an almost overwhelming urge to kick their assess overcame the strong brunette, hitting her like a ton of bricks out of the blue. How could she feel so protective of the blonde next to her?
Despite her attempts she couldn't hide the anger from her eyes and before she could look away, Richard and Gary saw it. The two men raised their eyebrows but didn't say a word. First of all they didn't want to embarrass Mariska. Secondly, they didn't want her to bite their heads off. They hadn't seen this kind of anger in the brunette's eyes but something told them confronting the look on her face wasn't the best thing to do . Stephanie couldn't see it but she felt something radiating off the woman next to her.
Suddenly the blonde felt a lot safer, but for reasons she didn't fully understand. How could she feel so safe, instantly, with a woman she didn't know very well? True, they had met a couple of times and both of them had enjoyed it, but it's not like they were best friends already. But if Stephanie was honest with herself, she knew that she considered the beautiful brunette next to her a friend. Internally, the blonde shook her head, before she reacted to Gary's introduction.
"Thank you, Gary, for the introduction. I'm looking forward working together with all of you," Stephanie said.
"I can't speak for the rest of us but I certainly look forward working together with a woman as beautiful as you are," Craig answered, smiling widely at the blonde.
Stephanie was about to respond to Craig when she heard a soft grumble from Mariska. The blonde looked at Mariska for a second and then looked at Gary to see if he heard Mariska too, but the producer's face didn't show any indication that he had heard the brunette. Then the blonde turned her attention back to Craig.
"Let's keep it professional, Craig. Getting a compliment is always nice, but if I wanted to be hit on immediately, I would have gone to a bar," Stephanie answered with a light tone in her voice.
Everyone snickered at the blonde's comment. Craig got the not so subtle hint and just nodded at Stephanie. A few moments later Gary cleared his throat.
"Alright, let's go back to work, people. We have a busy schedule for today. We start with Melinda, Olivia and James at the crime scene. After that we're going to introduce Alex as the new ADA starting with the first interaction between Alex and Olivia, followed by Olivia introducing Alex to Fin who's also at the crime scene and then Olivia explaining to Alex what they have at the crime scene. I think that's gonna keep us busy the biggest part of the morning. We'll start in 30 minutes at the location," Gary explained.
Tamara, Craig and Ice-T went together with one car to their location about 10 minutes away from the studio. Gary went with Linda and Richard, and Stephanie and Mariska went together in Mariska's car. Being together alone and in the privacy of Mariska's car, Stephanie decided to bring up the situation at the canteen.
"Hey Mariska, I don't want to overstep any boundaries here, but do you want to explain to me what happened in the canteen?" Stephanie asked.
Mariska looked over at Stephanie and back at the road, trying to decide whether or not she should share it with the blonde. Obviously, Stephanie had noticed it and she had waited until they were with just the two of them. And there was something about the beautiful blonde that made her open up sooner than she normally would do. There was no doubt that there was some kind of connection between the two of them. There had been since the moment they did the reading. After thinking for a few moments Mariska decided to answer the blonde's question.
"The guys were almost drooling all over you and, for reasons I can't explain, I felt an overwhelming urge to kick their assess. Then, as you said yourself, Craig hit on you and I didn't like it," Mariska answered.
"I got it very clear that you didn't like it, at all I might add, especially when you grumbled after Craig hit on me. I felt the anger radiating off you and, to be honest, it made me feel a lot safer. I can't explain it either but you made me feel safe. Seems to me that we have something to figure out, don't you think?" Stephanie asked.
"I'm glad you felt safe. Don't ask me why but I have a feeling that I always will protect you when needed and also when it isn't needed, apparently. I think you're right, there are some things that we need to figure out. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but it calls to be figured out.
Mariska continued, "Normally, I look forward to film the scenes with Craig, but right now I'm not liking him very much. I feel like I want to kick his ass, so shooting a scene with him is something I definitely don't look forward too," Mariska answered, frowning her eyebrows.
"Well you don't have to be afraid of me getting involved with Craig, I think I made that clear, I hope I made it clear to you too," Stephanie said.
Mariska chuckled thinking about how the blonde woman next to her had turned him down.
"Yes, I would say you made that crystal clear. It was priceless actually, if you ask me," Mariska said.
"Well I'm glad it was funny to you," Stephanie smiled.
"So tell me, Counselor, does that go for everyone on our team, or is it just Craig?" Mariska joked.
"Wouldn't you like to find that out, Detective?" Stephanie countered.
Wait, is she flirting with me or am I imagining things now? Hold your horses, Hargitay. You don't even know if she's gay, or not, nor are you sure of yourself being straight or not over the past few months. Oh well, the least I can do is go along with it, Mariska thought to herself.
"Well just so you now, if you need someone to keep them of your ass, you know where to find me," Mariska answered, looking and winking at Stephanie before she turned back to focus on the road.
Wait is she flirting back at me? Maybe she isn't as straight as I thought she would be. Happy birthday to you March. Wait.. where did that come from? Oh you sure have some things to figure out, Stephanie Caroline March. Well, don't panic now, now is not the time to do that. Just go with the flow, Stephanie thought to herself.
"I'll keep that in mind. So it seems like I have my own butch Detective to protect me," Stephanie joked.
Mariska's eyes grew as large as sausages but the brunette didn't respond and kept her eyes and her attention on the road. Luckily for both women, or so it seemed at this moment, they arrived at their location. Mariska killed the engine and both women got out of the car and walked towards the set.
I swear to God if Craig makes one inappropriate comment, I'll kick his sorry ass, Mariska thought to herself.
Or so she thought she did until the moment she heard Stephanie snicker.
"Show him who's boss, gal," Stephanie laughed.
"Crap. I did say that out loud didn't I?" Mariska asked, blushing furiously.
"Yes you did. Don't worry I won't tell anyone. I would like to see you kicking hiss ass very much," Stephanie answered with a smile.
The brunette just wanted to bang her head against something, the only problem with that was there was nothing to bang her head against anywhere nearby. She let out a big sigh and shook her head before she tried to focus on the task ahead.
Once everyone was on the set they all took about 10 minutes to prepare themselves for the first scene. After that scene was shot, they had 15 minutes to prepare for the next scene and so on. Stephanie looked from the corner of her eye at Mariska a few times and saw that the brunette had problems focusing, and when Gary said they would begin, Stephanie interrupted the producer.
"I'm sorry for interrupting you Gary, I know it might not be my place and that I'm new to the cast, but I thought it would be better if we started with the scene between Mariska and myself. You know, loosen things up a bit before shooting the part with Melinda, Olivia and James," Stephanie suggested.
One quick look at Mariska and Gary thought that Stephanie might have a point. The brunette had given the producer a tiny nod showing her agreement with her blonde colleague.
"Alright, we'll turn things around. We'll start with Alex and Olivia and then introduce Alex to Fin, then we'll switch to Melinda, Olivia and James, and then switch back to the scene Olivia explaining to Alex what they have. Alright ladies you have 10 minutes to prepare, that's all I can give you or else we'll get behind our schedule too much," Gary said.
Mariska looked at Stephanie and somehow she knew what the brunette meant and nodded at her.
"We don't need 10 minutes to prepare, Gary. If it were up to us we would like to start immediately," Mariska answered.
Having the reading in the back of his mind Gary knew that it would be alright. He also knew that the others were about to be blown away by the two women since they would start without preparation. He knew that they thought the scene needed multiple shots to get it done but he had a feeling that it would be the fastest shot scene so far this morning.
"Fine, let's start then. Ladies, take your places we'll start filming in two minutes," Gary agreed.
The rest of the team looked surprised when Stephanie and Mariska walked to their places without preparing anything. They had the firm belief that this scene would be shot more than once. They thought that it would take a while. But none of them had been there with the reading of the two of them. Two minutes later, Mariska and Stephanie were completely at ease and focused on each other. It was like it was only the two of them at the location. They didn't even notice the other cast members. Gary had cleared his throat to get their attention and then they started shooting the scene. Richard stood next to Gary watching the shooting. Everyone noticed the chemistry between the two women automatically and the way they were in sync immediately. The entire crew was shocked when they only needed one take to get the scene filmed. Richard, always in for quick or major switches, had looked at the interaction between them and an idea came to his mind. The longer he watched Stephanie and Mariska, or Alex and Olivia he should say, the more convinced he was. Before the end of the scene he had turned towards Gary, to face the producer.
"You know this is the 21th century," Richard said.
"Yes I do, why do you say that, Belzer?" Gary asked.
"Well look at them. Did you ever see something like this straight from the start? If I didn't know any better I would have said that Marish and Stephanie worked together for years and there is certainly a chemistry between them, don't you agree?" Richard asked.
"I have to agree with you. It was like this at the audition too. So I think you're right. What do you suggest? Knowing you, you have already formed a plan in your head," Gary asked.
"Well, would you be against a relationship between Alex and Olivia?" Richard asked, raising his eyebrows questionably.
"Oh that's what you mean by it's the 21th century. No, I have no personal objections towards it," Gary answered.
"Well, why don't you let Britt write an episode where something happens between Alex and Olivia while the squad has a case with an perp raping lesbian women, or something like that, and Alex and Olivia are forced to look at their own feelings?" Richard questioned.
"I could do that but I have to talk about it with Mariska and Stephanie first," Gary answered.
"That is something I wouldn't do. What I would do is just write the script and let them know it the day of the shooting. Something tells me they won't object and won't be offended or against it, either," Richard said.
"I don't know about that. I don't look forward to having my ass kicked by Mariska," Gary said thoughtfully.
"Trust me, she won't. Stephanie I don't know, obviously I don't know her yet, but I have a feeling that Mariska would calm her down, should she get upset. So, just surprise them with it," Richard said reassuringly.
"Alright, but if things go downwards it's your ass on the line, not mine," Gary said.
"Deal. But it won't get that far," Richard answered.
With that, it was settled and the two men turned their attention back to Mariska and Stephanie. 20 minutes after both women had started their scene, it was finished without having a second, third, fourth, or more take. Everyone, except for Richard, Gary and Linda, looked completely shocked and majorly surprised. It was the same as it had been at the blonde's audition. People shook their heads and thought, what the hell just happened in front of them. Stephanie and Mariska were calm and completely relaxed and ready for any other scene that needed to be shot.
"Now are you ready to do that scene with Craig without wanting to kick his ass all over the place?" Stephanie asked Mariska.
"Let's say that I don't feel like wanting to kick his ass right now. Thank you Stephanie for speaking up and suggesting we should do our scene first," Mariska answered.
"Your welcome. Although I would like to see you kicking all of their assess, I don't want you to get in trouble. The least I can do back is try and prevent you're getting into trouble each time you're saving or protecting my ass," Stephanie said.
"Just for the record, know that I would save or protect your ass any time that it's needed," Mariska said softly.
"I know. I don't know why, but I know," Stephanie whispered.
A/N As some of you will know I'm not exactly a fan of Elliot Stabler, I'd probably be sooner a member of the Elliot Stabler hate club. Anyway, if a story allows it Elliot will not be in it or very soon out of it. So for this story I've chosen to replace him with a Detective created by myself.
My apologies I didn't wrote this A/N earlier. One of the reviews got my attention and made me realize I forgot to add it.