A/N: Guit will be coming up soon, but probably not next yet. I did like the double date idea though...and yes, still taking ideas/suggestions.

BETWEEN THE SCENES: COUNTERFEIT

"You know, Liv, that's a really nice dress," Alex said with a grin.

"Thanks, Alex, but you've mentioned that already about half a dozen times tonight," Olivia smiled.

They finally got up the courage to go out on a real date. Not dinner and a movie at one of their apartments, or casually grabbing dinner after work. No, this was a date and Olivia had been looking forward to it all week. She was dressed in a short black dress that glittered when she walked. It was a stark contrast to the low-cut, long, red dress Alex was wearing.

Olivia made sure she chose a nice enough place for them to dress up, but still low-key enough that they could have discretion and privacy. Even if they were giving their relationship a go, it was still early, and they weren't ready for the world, or their bosses, to know about it.

The waiter came and brought their entrees. The salmon for Olivia. The eggplant cannelloni for Alex. They were one drink each into their bottle of wine when Olivia's phone began to ring.

"I swear to God, if that is Stabler, I'm going to kill him," Alex said. "I thought you had the weekend off."

"I do," Olivia said. "Maybe it's nothing. Benson."

"Liv, it's Fin. We got a body and Cap said to call you. Munch is out sick," Fin said through the phone. Alex could tell by the look on Olivia's face that it wasn't good news.

"I'll be right there," she said and closed her phone. "I'm so sorry. That was Fin. Munch is apparently sick."

"Remind me to kill him next week," Alex said. "We finally go out on a real date, you're wearing that dress, and you're just going to up and leave me."

"I'm sorry, sweetie," Olivia said, as she stood and leaned down to kiss Alex on the cheek. "Downfalls of dating a cop."

"Go," Alex said. "I'll have the waiter pack up our food and take a cab home. Call me later."

#

The case was a rape/homicide that didn't provide many leads until another victim who escaped her attacker, came forward claiming she was raped by a cop.

After three days, they knew who their guy was, and they knew where he was. The problem was he still had a victim.

"Captain, let's put him under surveillance," Olivia said, looking toward Cragen and Alex. "He'll lead us to the victim."

"Too risky. If you lose him, he could snatch another victim. Pick him up," Alex said.

"A guy like this isn't going to confess," Olivia said, looking toward Cragen for backup.

"We'll put someone on his apartment in case he goes there," Cragen said. "In the meantime, head to the park. If he's working, pick him up."

Sure enough, he was in the park, at work and picking up trash. Olivia and Fin sat on a park bench and watched him for a few minutes. Olivia pulled out her cell phone.

"Who you calling?" Fin asked.

"Munch. Tell Captain and Cabot he's not here," Olivia said.

"You know, if this goes south, we're back in uniforms," Fin said, surprised by Olivia's defiance of the Captain's orders.

"And if we don't try, Francesca is dead," she said.

"You don't know someone until you work with them," Fin said, giving Olivia a smirk.

They sat on the perp until he left and followed him to a cop bar, setting a trap that would force his hand to take care of his victim, leading them straight to her.

Their plan worked. They arrested the perp and rescued Francesca. All in a day's work...except for the fact that they disobeyed direct orders to do it.

When Olivia returned home that night, after getting chewed out by Cragen, Alex was waiting by her apartment building and followed her upstairs. She knew Alex wasn't happy.

"Tell Captain and Cabot he's not here," Alex said. "That's what you told Munch."

"He wasn't," Olivia lied. "We saw him after that and followed him to pick him up like you asked."

"Bullshit, Olivia," Alex said. "That story you and Fin concocted didn't work with Cragen and it sure as hell isn't going to work with me."

"Whatever, Alex," Olivia said. "A serial rapist is off the street. You're welcome, by the way."

"Don't get that attitude with me, Liv," Alex said. "You disobeyed a direct order from Cragen and me. You don't get to pretend to be the hero just because things happened to work out the way you hoped."

"And if we hadn't, Francesca would probably be dead right now...or still missing," Olivia said. "Did you forget about the victim while you were thinking about worried about your own ass?"

Alex's eyes narrowed on Olivia. Her icy stare said everything she wasn't at that moment, and Olivia realized she was on thin ice.

"Listen, Alex," she said. "Yes, we took a risk, and yes, it could have gone south, but it didn't. Fin and I are good detectives. We knew what we were doing, and our instinct said he would go check on the victim."

Alex relaxed at the change in Olivia's tone. They were finally talking. "Liv, I don't doubt your abilities to do your job. I know you're good at it. But it was a risk and had something went wrong; it wouldn't have just been you and Fin that faced the consequences."

Olivia finally sat down and sighed. "This is always going to be a problem for us, isn't it?"

"What?" Alex said.

"Work. Disagreeing over cases. Having to keep us a secret. We're never going to be able to do this like normal people, are we?" Olivia said.

"Well, we don't have normal jobs," Alex said. "So, I don't know. I mean, at some point, I guess we'll have to make decisions about our futures. But honestly, I'm not ready to do that."

"Neither am I," Olivia said. "I just don't see how this works."

"Don't do this, Olivia," Alex said. "Don't push me away just when we got this back."

"I'm not pushing you away," Olivia said. "I'm not saying I don't want to be with you. I'm just sharing with you that this is hard at times, especially when our jobs put us at odds with each other. Neither of us leaves our jobs at the office. I mean, isn't it ironic that we bring our work home with us all the time, but we can't ever bring our personal lives to work."

Alex closed her eyes and sighed, tilting her head on the back of the couch.

"Come here," Olivia said. She reached out for Alex and pulled her toward her and wrapped her arms around her. "We'll figure this out. And right now, there is no other place I would rather be."

Alex gave her a small smile and closed her eyes again, wishing they could stay like this forever - her in Olivia's arms.