The next day at work, Olivia barely saw Alex. She brushed it off at first, assuming Alex was just busy, but by day three of having no contact with her, Olivia came to the conclusion that Alex was avoiding her. It took all of her willpower not to burst into Alex's office and plead for Alex to tell her what was wrong, but she refrained. She did not want to scare Alex and make her even more skittish than she already does. All she could do was wait, and hope that Alex would come to her when she was ready.
On day five, Alex and Olivia finally crossed paths. Olivia nearly ran into her – literally – as Alex was coming out of Captain Cragen's office. "Alex!" she said, unable to stop the words from slipping past her lips. "Alex, I –"
"Not now, Detective," Alex said, quickening her stride and keeping her eyes away from Olivia's. "I have to be in court in ten minutes."
"Alex, wait." Olivia struggled to keep pace with Alex even though the attorney was wearing high heels. "Alex, what's –"
"Detective, I said I have to go."
Olivia felt tears stinging her eyes and blinked them back. "Alex, please. Tell me what's wrong. Did I do something?"
Alex's face softened slightly. "No, Liv, you didn't do anything."
"Then what is it? What's wrong?"
"What's wrong is that you're making me late for court and Petrovsky's going to have my ass."
"Alex." Olivia hesitated. "Why were you in with Captain Cragen?"
Alex averted her gaze again. "I needed to recuse myself from the Saunders case."
"Why?"
"That's not your concern, Detective."
Olivia shivered at the chill in Alex's voice. She lightened her tone. "Alex, can we maybe go out sometime, get pizza or Chinese? Just as friends – I don't want to push you. But I do miss you."
Alex's eyelids drooped almost imperceptibly. "Me, too," she said, so softly that Olivia barely heard.
Impulsively, Olivia reached out to lay a hand on Alex's arm, but she immediately pulled it back when Alex flinched away from her touch. "Oh, Alex, I'm sorry…" She trailed off when she noticed Ale was trembling. "Alex, please talk to me. Please, tell me what's wrong. I want to help you –"
Alex's eyes were glacial, and she took a step away from Olivia. "You can't." She inhaled. "I'm late for court."
Olivia longed to follow her, to insist that she share her pain and let Olivia help, but she didn't. She knew better. She didn't want to risk doing anything that might make Alex close up again. The iciness in Alex's eyes had gone straight to her heart, and she never wanted to see that look directed at her again. She loved this woman, and she would wait.
Casey Novak was the new ADA assigned to work with them on the Saunders case. Olivia was not a fan of Casey and could not understand why Alex had had to recuse herself to begin with. There was nothing particularly egregious about the crime – it was a pretty straightforward case of a mentally ill man who had raped two girls when he was off his medication. Pretty cut and dried. And as far as she knew, Alex had no connection with either the victims or the perp, since the perp had been in the United States for less than a year.
Of course, Alex wouldn't tell her why she'd recused herself, and Olivia was so worried about Alex that she knew she had to find out.
Since Alex wouldn't talk to her, she decided that she had no choice. She would have to go to the perp himself to find out.
She spoke to Mr. Saunders at the hospital where he'd been admitted. His doctor and his lawyer were both present, just in case.
Olivia had come here for one thing only, so she got right down to business. "How do you know Alexandra Cabot?" she asked. She figured the truth couldn't be any worse than what she had been up all night imagining – that the perp had threatened Alex, or raped her, or hurt her in some way.
"Never heard of her," Mr. Saunders said, twitching.
The doctor spoke up. "Alexandra Cabot?"
"Yes. You know her?" Olivia asked, raising an eyebrow.
The doctor nodded. "She was a patient of mine many years ago. Is Mr. Saunders accused of attacking her?"
Olivia stared at him for a moment. "No. Did he?"
"If you have any more charges to add to the table, we have the right to know about them," Mr. Saunders' lawyer said.
Olivia sighed and turned her attention to the doctor. She cleared her throat. "What can you tell me about Alexandra Cabot, Mr. Evans?"
"Nothing, I'm afraid. You know that, Detective. I shouldn't have even told you she was my patient. I was just startled."
"Did someone hurt her?"
The doctor hesitated. "If I recall correctly, she hurt someone else."
First of all, I'm really sorry to everyone who's been reading this story for the lack of an update. I've been crazy busy, unfortunately, but I managed to get this done anyway. It's short, but short is better than nothing, no? Thanks to ThePartyAfterYouLeft, Cmoni, Liv-x-Lex4Ever, ladybugsmomma, , Ockham's razor, Miss Deeds, svu4u09, johannasbreasts, AIOILove, Bkwrmchar, McJoJo, AmbiiIsMyName, chawkchic, watevr i want, peterpeter, tattoo me1969, Eljh5510, and my anons. I really appreciate all of your reviews, so thanks so much for following this story, and I hope you're still enjoying it.
