A/N: Yes I know it has been a long time since I have written anything and I am so sorry. I hit a brick wall like never before and also had to deal with a few family emergency's. I beg for your forgiveness on the long delay. It was never my intention. To everyone who has PM'd me asking me to continue or wondering what happened thank you so much. To Tummer22 who has spent tonight talking with me I owe you so much the walls finally came tumbling down. This chapter has not made it to my beta and is not as long as usual but I figure and hope you will over look my famous grammar errors in exchange for finally having an update.

"Alex, are you going to say anything?" Olivia asked as she stared at the blonde that was sitting like a statue in the driver seat. She had not said a word since Casey had left and they had entered her Lexus.

"What?" Alex asked pulled from her thoughts upon hearing Olivia's voice. She had been sitting there staring out the window wondering how much had Olivia heard. She wasn't ashamed or embarrassed by the fact that she had fallen for a hooker. Hell Alex would have gladly shouted it from the roof tops. She was terrified of her reaction and truth be told as confident as she constantly appeared she feared rejection more than anyone.

"I asked are you going to say anything." Olivia stated cocking her head to the side and studying the blonde. She could see the look of fear and worry in her eyes that she tried so desperately to hide from everyone including herself. Like so many times before she wanted to lean over and kiss every fear and doubt Alex ever had away.

"What is there to say?" Alex asked a little more harshly than she meant to, silently berating herself when she saw Olivia flinch.

"Oh I don't." Olivia snapped back not willing to back down "Why don't you tell me why you went against what I asked? Why don't you tell me why you lied to me? How about why were you willing to risk your career, freedom, and everything you have ever worked for, for me?"

"Olivia I was just trying to get him to leave you alone."

"By violating the law, you of all people would know a way to stop him without landing yourself in jail. If you paid him for my freedom you would be no better than him."

"What if there is no other way?" Alex almost snarled out frustrated fighting the urge to beat her fists on her steering wheel.

"There is another way." Olivia stated.

"Really there is?" Alex asked finally turning in her seat to face the woman, whose face haunted her dreams at night. The woman whose lips she could still feel on her own from their shared kiss. "Well Counselor Benson, please feel free to share it with me since apparently you have all the answers."

"Let me testify." Olivia answered with a look of determination on her face.

"That will be a cold day in hell." Alex said starting the car and jerking it into drive before shooting out into the street. "You will not be placed on that stand to relive everything he put you through and what you had to do for him."

"Why not?" Olivia asked "I'm the victim in this case and you have taught me to win a case you have to have the victim testify. So let me testify."

"I said no, and I mean it. You will not testify in this trial."

"Are you afraid of what your high society friends would think of you if I did?" Olivia asked grabbing the door handle bracing herself as Alex slammed on the brakes. "After all you do have a hooker living in your guest bedroom."

"You should know by now." Alex said through clenched teeth as she slammed the gearshift into park and turned to face Olivia "I don't give a damn what anyone says or thinks about me. This is my life to live not theirs. I'm the one who has to look at myself in the mirror and live with the consequences of the decisions I make, not them. So their opinions of what I do and who I do it with is no one's business but my own."

"Then let me go on record about what happened to me."

"NO."

"Why not Alex?" Olivia asked deciding to push Alex past her point for once "If you're not ashamed of me then let me testify."

"You don't need to be put through that." Alex almost whispered "Let me protect you."

"But you put other women on the stand for the same thing Alex. I'm not different from them."

"Yes you are." Alex choked out as she reached over and caressed Olivia's cheek "You are so different from them."

"Tell me how I'm different." Olivia asked reaching up and holding Alex's hand to her face not wanting to sever the physical contact between the two of them "What makes me so special?"

"Because, you're you."

"Yes, I'm me. But I'm also a woman who was taken in and forced into prostitution by her so called boyfriend like so many other young women in the world. So I ask again what makes me so special, Alex, don't give me some bullshit attorney answer either. Give me the truth."

"You want the truth" Alex whispered as she leaned forward and stopped inches from Olivia's face. She knew she could go on lying to herself or she could finally tell Olivia the truth. Praying that she wasn't misunderstanding what she was seeing in Olivia's eyes she decided to lay it all on the line "The truth is somewhere down the line I fell for you. I couldn't tell you when or where Olivia but all I know is that I love you and I want to protect you. I want to go back in time and meet you before you met Jared so I can spare you all the pain you have endured but I can't. What I can do is move heaven and earth now to protect you and make sure you never feel that type of pain again. The only way I can do that is to not let you testify."

"Alex" Olivia whispered as she placed her hands on either side of Alex's face and smiled "That has to be the sweetest and nicest thing anyone has ever said or done for me. Which, is another reason to add to a long growing list of reasons, of why I love you so much."