Fin looked up as Olivia sauntered into the bullpen, his wolf whistle loud in the empty squad room as he took in the outfit she was wearing. He was awarded with a deep flush.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever!" Olivia poured herself a cup of coffee. "Don't forget I've seen the suit you wear to court, Pimp Daddy."

"How come you only ever dress up for Alex?" He grinned at her glare.

"I'm dressed this way for court, thank you!" She looked around. "Where is everyone?"

"Kathy called. Dickie's sick and she's stuck at work so he took off a little early. Munch is down at the mail forwarding place that Tate has listed as her address on her license. The owner didn't want to give up her address on record but he threatened to get a court order to go through every package in the place and he coughed it up pretty quick."

She looked at her watch. It was past five. She hadn't realized she had spent that much time at court. "Anything else going on?"

"Yeah." Fin handed her a folder. "Daddy dearest came by. Seems he remembered the name of that book store after all. He dropped off the info along with a statement about every negative bit of info he had on Serra Tate." Fin frowned. "Funny how he forgot to mention all that to you when you talked to him."

Olivia flipped through the folder. It was filled with candid shots of Serra in various city locales along with some very in depth information about her personal and financial history. "Some of these reports are dated months ago." She raised her eyebrows. "And they look pretty official."

"If you ask me Wainscott had a P.I. on our girl."

"My thoughts exactly." She saw him grab his jacket. "You out of here?"

"Yeah, I got a date. You should take off too. Elliot said he'd do the rounds with you on the home and work in the morning. Have a good one!"

She wandered over to her desk and sat down, going through the file more slowly. She wasn't aware of how much time had passed until Cragen's door opened some time later.

"Olivia! What are you still doing here?" The Captain looked at his watch. "It's almost seven."

"I just got caught up reading through the info Judge Wainscott dropped off." She closed the file quickly and stood, stretching to get the kinks out of her neck that her intense concentration had caused.

"Well, we have a new development." He tossed the evening edition of the Times on her desk and she groaned as she saw the headline on the front page.

Socialite Found Dead In Uptown Apartment.

"How bad is it?"

Cragen shrugged. "Not as bad as it could be. The name is still being held 'pending notification' thanks to Warner, but someone leaked the missing face. No mention of the S&M angle as of yet." He sighed heavily. "I guess we should be grateful we got two days on this without it splashed all over the city."

"Have we heard from Huang?"

"Yeah he called this afternoon. He's still at his conference in Miami but he got the pictures and Warner's summary that we fedexed him. He's going to start going through them but he won't be back until Monday."

She nodded tiredly and he seemed to take notice of her outfit for the first time. "How did it go in court?"

"Pretty well I think. No news yet though. Alex was supposed to call me…"

Cragen laughed. "Knowing her she's buried under a mountain of paperwork in her office and can't reach the phone. The two of you are like matching bookends." He pushed her gently towards the door. "Go home. Get some rest and come back to this fresh in the morning."

Nodding wordlessly she slid on her jacket and followed him out the door.

Her fourth floor apartment was dark when she entered, stuffy from being closed up all day and far too quiet for her liking. With a sigh, Olivia cracked open the window and allowed the cool early winter air to wash over her; it smelled like the city, like the rain and snow that would be coming soon. She slowly slipped off the jacket she was wearing and draped it over a chair.

Unbuttoning her shirt, she wandered into the bedroom. She undressed in the dark, pulling on a pair of boxer briefs and a t-shirt, knowing that she would be cold but looking forward to curling up under the quilt that lined the back of her couch as she went over everything that had happened that day in her mind.

It was her little ritual; a way to unwind and sift through her thoughts until she was tired enough to sleep.

As she settled herself into the corner of her sofa and pulled the blanket over her however, she found herself haunted by bright azure eyes. The way they had seemed to surround her in court, how they had held her safely as she recounted the horrors she had found in the house on Stewart Street. After a brief inner struggle she gave up trying to control her own thoughts and allowed her mind to piece together Alex's face. First it was the smooth, peach colored skin, then the high cheekbones, followed by full red lips, the bottom one swollen slightly, as though she was pouting…or had just been thoroughly kissed.

In her mind's eye, Alex's head tilted back slightly on the long, leonine neck; her eyes rolling back and then closing as the blonde licked her lips, one word dropping breathlessly from her mouth… Olivia…

The shrill ringing of the phone snapped the brunette out of her fantasy and her jaw dropped open slightly as she realized that her hand had slid under the blanket to gently cup one of her breasts. Pulling it away as though it were on fire, she shook her head violently.

"Jesus, Benson! Get a friggin' grip!" She reached out and plucked the phone from it's charger on the end table, barking into it a little more roughly than she intended to. "Yeah?"

There was silence on the other end for a moment. "Olivia?"

The detective's eyes closed and she groaned quietly as the softly spoken name did things to her that even her own hand hadn't accomplished.

"Are you ok?" Alex asked, concern threading her voice. "Are you hurt?"

"What?" Olivia reigned in her thoughts. "What? No! Why would you think I was hurt?"

"Well you kind of… groaned." The voice at the other end of the line became slightly amused. "Or am I interrupting something?"

Olivia didn't think she could be more embarrassed than she was at that moment. "No!" She stammered. "No! I'm alone!"

"Still not an answer to my question…"

She had been wrong. Her cheeks bright pink, she could only stare at the phone in her hand.

Alex's voice dropped an octave and suddenly the cool air coming from the window seemed to have no effect on the room temperature whatsoever. She tossed away the blanket. "Do you need me to let you go…"

"Alex!" She growled.

"Ok, ok!" The ADA's laughter was bright and cheerful. "I'm sorry. I couldn't resist."

"You don't sound very sorry."

"I plead the fifth."

Olivia smiled. "You're in good mood. Did the jury come back?"

"Not yet." She could hear Alex moving around in the background. "We're adjourned until tomorrow morning but I don't expect deliberations to take very long. Not after your testimony."

The detective shrugged but couldn't help the smile that graced her lips. "Any time." She heard the sound of a cork being pulled from a bottle. "Where are you?"

"I'm at home. I'm sorry I didn't call earlier but I got stuck at work. Got back to my office to find a tower of case files on my desk."

"I figured." Olivia stretched, unaware of the slight whimper that escaped her as her muscles loosened. "So what are you going to do now?"

Alex was quiet for a moment. "Well, I was going to see if a certain SVU detective wanted to meet me somewhere for drinks, but you sound pretty happy right where you are."

The brunette looked down at herself with a rueful grin. "I'd love to but I'm already in my pajamas."

She could almost hear the blonde's eyebrows arch. "You wear pajamas?"

Olivia's mouth went dry. Alex was being…playful?

"You saying you don't?" She grinned in victory at the unmistakable sound of liquid being expelled through laughter.

"Olivia!" Alex growled. "I'll have you know this is a wonderful Shiraz and you just made me waste it!"

The detective laughed. "I'd say that was a victimless crime."

"Tell that to my dry cleaner."

"Are you going to answer the question?"

"I think that would be classified as privileged information, Detective."

"I believe you opened the door to this line of questioning, counselor." She smirked. "You can't un-ring a bell."

Alex's gentle laughter made her heart ache. "I do believe you have been spending way too much time around me."

"Not possible." Olivia clamped her hand over her mouth a second too late, her eyes widening as she realized she had spoken her thoughts out loud.

There was silence from the other end of the phone for a few long seconds. When Alex finally spoke, Olivia could hear the smile in her voice. "Well, we could still have a drink together. Give me a few minutes to change and I'll meet you on my couch."

The brunette took a deep breath. "Change into…?"

"You're impossible!" The blonde laughed. "Do you have something to drink?"

"Not at the moment."

"Well go and get something. I'll be right back."

Olivia heard her set the phone down and dashed to her kitchen, returning to the couch with a bottle of Merlot and a glass. She had just pulled the cork free when she heard Alex call her name.

"I'm here." She tucked the receiver between her ear and her shoulder and poured herself a glass of wine.

"So what did you find?"

" 1997 Beringer Bancroft Ranch Merlot."

There was a soft whistle. "You opened that to talk to me on the phone? I'm flattered."

"When I bought it, the guy at the store said it was meant to be consumed slowly, so that you could truly appreciate the flavor. I guess this will have to be a long conversation counselor."

"Be careful what you wish for, detective."

Olivia smiled.