Hello everyone!

Here's another chapter for you... It's not long but it's kind of intense. Hope you'll like this :)

Liv's POV

Enjoy

I stared at the reflection in the mirror, looking in the familiar eyes of someone I barely recognized.

The steam present in the bathroom continued to gather on said mirror obliging me to run my hand across it every few moments to clear the reflecting glass, meeting, on the other side, that same stranger staring back at me.

I exhaled slowly through my nose hoping to release some of the heaviness I felt when I first landed eyes on the other me on the mirror.

What I felt wasn't sadness or delusion, I've never been a vain person and this had nothing to do with it, nothing to do with my physical appearance, but to see how it had changed, how my eyes looked more tired as much as the rest of my face, noticing the barely engraved wrinkles on the corner of my eyes when I narrowed them and the slightly larger dimples formed on my cheek when I tried to smile, made everything real. I could see the face of someone that had indeed lived and witnessed so many difficult situations, had to take not always easy choices and put herself into danger so many times that my body was the living proof of that. Scars that I didn't have were now covering parts of my body, and I was pretty sure I didn't get them because I was clumsy. I certanly get them because of my job.

I ran the pad of my thumb over my left side where a small circular scar rested just an inch above my hip bone. A bullet...

I didn't know if I was wearing them with pride like if they were badges of honor, I wasn't that kind of cop, I've never been that kind of cop. I did my job, thinking that it was never enough.

And the only badges of honor that I wore, were the tired signs on my face, the ones which spoke louder than anything else, that showed infinite hours without sleep, in order to catch the latest criminal before they could have destroyed another one's life.

Of that I was proud. I just hoped I remained the same over the years.

I shifted my gaze from the healed wound at my side to look at the last memento left on my temple, the one that erased the stories behind all the other scars that adorned my exhausted body.

The bath managed to relax the unexpected tension I felt on my neck and shoulders but did nothing to keep the thoughts in my head from spinning, causing another hammering headache, accentuated by the storm I could hear outside.

I dried my hair with the towel being extra careful to not touch the small shaved patch I left unwashed, in order to not upset the already throbbing wound even if it was covered with a protective adhesive bandage, and then I exited the bathroom.

Maybe I didn't noticed it when I first went to take a bath and I crossed the bedroom without really looking around, but a gray NYPD t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants were neatly folded on top of the sheets on my bed.

A curious and unexpected small smile appeared on my lips and I raised my gaze to look around to see if my guest was still in the room, but as I expected, I was alone.

The only source of weak light was currently coming through the windows of the bedroom were I could see a real deluge going on outside. The sky was so dark that it seemed almost night even if it was barely 2 pm. I turned to look at the clock on my nightstand to confirm my intuition and I was once again surprised to see a small bottle of water and a new pack of painkillers resting on the small piece of forniture.

I couldn't understand why that simple gesture suddenly warmed my insides.

Alex...

The blonde woman wasn't such a mistery anymore. Now I was certain that we were at least very close colleagues, maybe even good friends as much as Abbie and I were but...

There was something else.

I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was yet, but I knew it was something that didn't just stopped at the appearence. Everytime I found myself thinking about her in the last two days, I always felt the same tug, the same inexplicable sensation that consumed me, slowly.

The combination of sensations always left me full, but it was only a matter of time, just a few short moments and then, as they dissolved and mixed with the fog in my mind, it suddenly left me... Empty.

Drained.

...Lonely.

I frowned at that last thought, but I couldn't help to think how the word seemed to fit so perfectly somehow about what I was feeling.

...Or maybe I hit my head more seriously than what I think, I chuckled as I tried to dismiss the matter with some humour, ignoring how my heart kept beating loudly from my previous thoughts about the blonde attorney.

. . .

After I put on the clothes left on my bed and took a couple of pills to ease my headache, I made my way towards the living room only to be greeated by another heartwarming display.

That same timid shy smile of before appeared again on my lips without me even realizing it as my eyes landed on the kitchen island where every kind of my favorite italian's food was currently steaming from differents plates and bowls. The smell was delicious and my mouth watered at the sight.

I know that for someone it was probably nothing much but, I wasn't used to find dinner ready whenever I returned at home after a long shift at work. And even if it wasn't dinner, and I wasn't returning from work, the sight certainly didn't lose the plesant, welcoming effect it had on me.

"It seems you know your way around this kitchen better than I do." I said smirking, causing the blonde woman to jump and turn around from where she was facing the sink, at the sound of my voice.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." I offered immediately when I saw how I managed to scare her without meaning to.

A slender delicate hand came up to her chest, her shoulders relaxing after a second but her eyes were still wide open. "I-it's nothing. It's just that I didn't hear you."

I smirked at that. You didn't lose your light step, Benson, I thought pleased with myself.

My eyes shifted again from her to the kitchen island where the delicious smell of tagliolini with shrimps was calling me, but another sight managed to capture my attention another time with more interest, and it was the slight blush that creep up from the neck of my guest (or was she host given the circumstances?) coloring her cheeks with a healty bright pink.

"I... I remember you said you were hungry a-and... Well, I know italian is your favorite..."

The way she stammered was really entertaining expecially because when I saw her for the first time the previous day, one of the first things I noticed was the look of authority she carried. It was evident that she was a strong and secure woman and her look just held that 'something' that made you think twice before saying anything and made a bad impression in front of her.

Not wanting to keep her squirming on my kitchen I shorten the distance placing both of my hands casually on the countertop, facing her on the other side, the amused smile on my lips quickly turning into a full grin when I registered that every plate contained each one of my favorite kind of food. My eyes widening slightly in appreciation.

"Alex... You shouldn't have- This wasn't necessary- I... I feel kind of spoiled." I looked up at her and the faint blush of before was now covering completely the fair skin of her face, and over the surprise another more deeper and not so foreing sensation presented inside of me with a small flutter.

The feeling paralized me for a few seconds giving Alex enough time to recover more quickly than me.

"I thought that since you need to eat anyway and regain your strenght, this way you couldn't have resisted... Or protested." She regained her confidence and this time she was the one that showed a perfectly white smile as I was still trying to figure out what that sensation inside of me was.

I swallowed, blinking a few times and flashing a timid smile back at the generous and thoughtful woman in front of me. "Well, I hope you are hungry as much as I am then, because I have no intention of eating alone after you've been so kind." I offered adding what I hoped was a very grateful smile.

The reluctance on the young attorney was visible as she rubbed her arm up and down in thought, and before said thought could have been expressed with a negative response, I stood taking another plate from the cabinet and pulling out one of the chair for her to take a seat.

"Please?" I asked at last, glad to see that her look of insecurity had turned into a small smile and then into a quiet chuckle.

"Usually I'm the one who makes deals, Detective." She joked and I laughed out loud at that as I decided what dish I was going to have first.

"Yeah, well, we are not in courtroom now, are we Counselor?" A full smirk on my face caused her to shake her head in amusement.

We reached for the same bowl of pasta, our fingers brushed together and we both raised our gaze to meet the one of the other.

The second of the accidental contact seemed to be stretched out into minutes as I was drown in the deepest and purest pair of blue eyes I've ever seen in my life.

I don't know if it was the touch mixed with her piercing gaze, but something stirred inside of me causing one of the sensations of deja vu I had already lived in those two days, only this time it was a thousand times stronger, so strong infact that if I was on my feet, I don't know if I could have supported my own weight on my suddenly very weak knees.

Unable to remerge from those impossible bright pools, I kept searching for as long as the sensation kept running through me, intensifying the beats of my heart beyond any reason.

I almost expected her to divert her gaze in any moment, but she remained there, open to me, searching something of her own, coaxing me to keep looking for whatever I was looking for, and even if in any other circumstance I would have felt exposed and vulnerable under that shining gaze that seemed almost pleading, I've never felt so comfortable and safe.

I swallowed hard, the only sounds in the small apartment where just our combined slow breathing and the costant drops of the rain on the living room window. Our fingers were still brushing together sending electricity up to my arm and shaking my very core for all the time, until I couldn't mantain the silence anymore, and I just needed to know, even if my question was going to sound stupid to my own ears.

I took another shallow breath, licking my suddenly dry lips before I decided to ask with a soft, barely raspy voice "Would it sounds so strange given the situation, if I say that I think that I know you?"

I knew that it probably sounded like the most stupid thing I had ever said, it had a strange effect even on me, but, it was the only thing I could think to say, hoping that she would have get the meaning behind my words.

My lungs burnt for how much time I remained without air, my heat kept raising enough to color my cheeks and making my hands sweaty.

She blinked at me once, slowly, from behind those black rimmed glasses, and when she opened her eyes again, they appeared even more vivid if it was possible.

The tentative breath I took hitched in my throat in the same instant that a sad, trembling smile appeared on her rosy lips, a few locks of golden hair moving ever so slightly as she shook her head in negative before she answered me with a deep, thick voice full of emotion.

"No,"

She paused.

The ghost of a touch on the back of my hand.

"It wouldn't."

I know... I'm a tease :P Hope you liked it!