-49-
Hendrix Residence
Williamsburg, VA
Saturday, 4:00 p.m.
Antonio and Angie had spent the morning playing their way through her impressive collection of Wii titles, and then taken advantage of the soccer net Nathan had put together in the backyard to run some drills before tryouts officially started. Although he would not have believed it a few short weeks ago, Antonio was actually looking forward to his athletic debut. The enthusiasm his hosts felt for the game was a bit contagious.
The children followed Nathan inside to get change for the movie matinee he had promised them when the telephone rang. "Hello," Nathan answered, grabbing the receiver from the wall mount.
"Nathan, it's Sarah," came the familiar voice. "Just checking in. Is everything all right?"
"Yeah, of course," Nathan smiled. He found it endearing that Sarah was calling at least twice a day to check on Miguel. "I hope that your friend's all right."
"She's going to be." He noted relief and exhaustion in her voice. "She's actually…I'm bringing her home with me for a few weeks. She'll need someone to watch after her while she's recovering."
"She doesn't have family or anyone there?" he asked, realizing after he spoke that it had been kind of a nosy question. "I'm sorry," he excused himself. "I think it's great that she's coming to visit you."
Sarah was quiet for a moment, as though she was having a difficult time trying to decide what to say next. Finally, she thanked him again and asked to speak to Miguel.
"Hey," his voice came through the line, a bit roughly. She could tell that he was still playing at indignant.
"Still mad at me, huh?" she coaxed, to no reply. "Look, I have a feeling you're not going to be mad at me in about twenty seconds."
"Oh yeah?" he asked, interested. "Why's that?"
"I called your Aunt Carla this morning," she said, happily. "She and your Aunt Jeannie are going to come spend a week with us."
"No way," he said, unable to stop the grin from spreading across his face. Nathan and Angie turned, wondering what Sarah had just told her son to elicit such an excited response. "Seriously?"
"They're so excited to be seeing you, Honey," she continued. "But we all agreed it's better for you to finish the semester at your school. It's up to you what you tell anyone at this point, but it might be a little easier if you wait until I'm home so we can talk to the Hendrixes together. Okay?"
"Okay," he said, his spirits suddenly much higher than they had been. "When are they coming?"
"This weekend. I'm bringing Olivia with me on Monday."
"Wow. She okay?"
In New York, Alex was sitting in an armchair, watching as Olivia watched the news from the comfort of the much nicer bed. "She's a fighter," Alex said proudly. "But it's going to be a long recovery. You ready to help out with that?"
"Sure. How long are Carla and Jeannie staying?"
"Just a few days. They have work. But they'll be back a few times to start taking your things with them," Alex promised. "We have a lot of decisions to make, and I think it's better if everyone's involved, don't you?"
"Yeah," he agreed, grateful that she had always treated him with enough respect to not make major decisions without his input. That was what had bothered him so much about her unilateral choice to spend the weekend in New York without him. "Have you been at the hospital since Thursday?"
"Yep. Haven't even been outside. We're going to Liv's apartment on Monday so we can pack some of her things. She'll be with us until you finish school."
"What about your family?" he asked, making sure that Nathan and Angie were engrossed in conversation and not listening to him.
"Maybe I'll have some visitors. Maybe that will have to wait until we've come back," she mused. "Right now I need to concentrate on getting Olivia healthy."
"Is she there?"
"Yes." A thought occurred to Alex. "Would you like to say hello?"
"Sure," he said, amiably.
Antonio shifted nervously as he heard the phone being passed from Alex to someone else. He had always felt awkward whenever he felt like he was supposed to make conversation with someone who he barely knew. In this case, the virtual stranger was someone who had only met him once, during the most difficult phase of life he'd even gone through, and the same someone who, in just a few days, was going to come live with him and in all likelihood replace him as the center of Alex's world.
"Hey, Antonio," a soft voice came on the line. "This is Olivia."
-50-
Bellevue Hospital
Saturday, 4:20 p.m.
"Hi, Detective Benson," he said quietly, not afraid to use her real name. After all, Alex had told Nathan she was going to visit a police officer friend. "Are you feeling okay?"
Olivia smiled. His voice was much deeper than it had been, he was clearly growing up. "I don't know what you've been hearing, but I've never been better," she proclaimed. Antonio heard Alex groaning in the background, and Olivia laughed softly. "So, you okay with me coming to stay for a little while?" she asked.
"Yeah, I think it's great," he said, honestly."I mean, I wish I was going there instead, but…"
"The school thing," she finished for him.
"Something about that," he agreed.
"I'm gonna be stuck on the couch most of the time with nothing to do, so you know… feel free to draft me for homework help duty, okay?"
"You got it," he smiled, feeling a little better about the situation.
"It was good to say hi to you, but I've gotta hang up so they can give me a bath. Apparently I smell kind of funky."
He laughed. "I'm sure you're okay. Say bye to my mom, okay?"
Olivia was quiet a minute. In New York, her eyes went wide open as she heard him refer to Alex as his mom. She didn't know whether this was his usual term for her, or whether he was covering his tracks in front of Nathan and Angie. "I will," she promised, hanging up the phone. She turned to Alex. "Bye, Mom," she said, smirking.
Alex grinned. "He doesn't call me that all the time," she explained, seemingly reading Olivia's mind.
"But you like it," Olivia noticed
"I don't mind it," Alex admitted.
"I'm going to see a completely different side of you in Virginia, aren't I?" Olivia predicted, gazing at Alex tenderly as the other woman stretched.
"I think you just might," Alex mused. "But I hope it doesn't change anything between us."
"Why would it?" Olivia asked, propping herself on a pillow. She was not used to spending days and days in bed, and although she knew it might be another 36 hours before she could leave, she was growing very antsy.
Alex relaxed back into a standing pose and stood by a window, looking out into the city that she had called home for so many years. "In a lot of ways, I'm the same person you knew before I left," she said carefully. "But there's a lot that's changed. Things that aren't so obvious on the surface."
"I know, Sweetheart," Olivia promised. "People change over five years anyway. And you've been forced to live another person's life. I can't imagine what it's been like for you, but I want to know. I want you to tell me."
Alex was quiet for a couple of moments, and then turned her glacier-blue gaze back toward Olivia. "Well, I'm taking care of a pre-adolescent boy, for starters," she said, sitting down on the bed and resting her hand on Olivia's neck, playing with her soft, thick hair. "I'm an archivist at the Jamestown Museum."
"Jamestown? So… Indians and Settlers and stuff?" Olivia said, smiling. A mischievous twinkle appeared in her eyes.
"Exactly," Alex smiled. "It's kind of a cool place, really – a lot of artifacts. The children always enjoy touring the tepees."
"Want to take me into one of the tepees sometime?" Olivia teased.
"You never stop," Alex smiled, shaking her head.
"Sorry," Olivia said, still grinning. "Tell me. I want to hear the rest."
"I work my ass off for $40,000 a year," Alex shared. "When I lived in New York, Liv, there were three separate occasions when my dry cleaner had to call me and tell me I'd forgotten my paycheck in a pocket of one of the jackets I dropped off to be laundered." She sighed. "Trust me, those days are gone."
Olivia nodded. Like everyone, she had known Alex came from a family of means – that much had been obvious from Alex's designer clothes, refined taste, and Central Park-adjacent penthouse. She had never seen Alex's apartment, but had often imagined that it was full of expensive furniture and original art.
"It's tough living on a working-class paycheck," Olivia acknowledged.
"It was… a shock to my system, certainly," Alex admitted. "What I used to spend on dinner and a couple of glasses of wine… it'll keep the lights turned on for a month. I can buy Antonio school clothes for a semester with what I used to spend on a pair of shoes."
Olivia waited to see where Alex was going.
"It's not just the money I lost," she said, not looking directly at Olivia anymore. "I lost my name – getting beyond literally losing my identity, I lost all of the things that my name meant. The privilege and connections that I didn't even realize I took for granted until they weren't there anymore."
Olivia nodded. She had never had the money, connections or privileges to lose in the first place, but her heart went out to Alex for having had to literally start over at the beginning after having lived her entire life with an enormous head start.
"I've been living like another person for so long," Alex concluded. "It might take me a while to learn how to be me again."
"I'll help you," Olivia said, squeezing Alex's hand.
"Maybe I should take a little while before going back to work," Alex said slowly. "We… I mean…" She swallowed. She had assumed that Olivia would want to move in together, but what if she was wrong? What if Olivia wanted to take things slow, actually date for a while before jumping into that sort of commitment? "I need to find a place to live," she concluded.
"Sweetheart, stay with me," Olivia offered.
"Do you have room?" Alex asked, sure the answer was 'no.'
"I have a tiny one-bedroom in the Village," Olivia answered. "It's not exactly a penthouse on Fifth Avenue, but we'd be okay."
Alex smiled. "And suppose Antonio wants to stay with me?"
Olivia nodded, understanding. "No, it's not big enough." She suddenly felt very inadequate.
"Baby, don't…" Alex could see the look of embarrassment cross Olivia's face. "You didn't get that place thinking about one day having a wife and child there."
Wife. Olivia wondered if her face registered the delicious shock that passed through her as the word slipped so easily off Alex's tongue. Alex, who didn't seem to have noticed, was still talking about space and rooms. "…so I was thinking that maybe we could look for a bigger place. Something we could share. Something with room for Antonio if he wants to stay there, someplace we can grow into…" Alex looked back to Olivia, slightly flushed. "Anyway, I guess this is something we can talk about when we get back to Virginia."
She's talking about having a family. With me. Olivia just lay there, smiling. "Of course, Alex. I'd love to find a place together."
"Really?" Alex smiled. "Thank God. Because if you didn't want to, wow," she lay back against the pillow and laughed, kissing Olivia's forehead. "I was about to feel like a complete idiot."
"There's no need," Olivia assured her. "I can't imagine ever going to bed without you, waking up and not seeing your beautiful face. I don't want to miss anything else for the rest of my life."
Alex smiled. "It's going to be fun finding a place with you, decorating…"
"I can't afford a penthouse by the Park," Olivia cautioned. "I mean, I know we'll need something bigger than what I have, but… it's probably not going to be what you were used to."
"Olivia, it's okay. I can afford a nice place – don't worry about it. The assets are already being moved back into my name." She made an assuring face.
"Well, I'd like to at least be able to pay half of the expenses." Olivia reasoned.
"You don't have to-"
"Yes, Alex, I do."
"Why?"
"Why not?" Olivia frowned. "It's about fairness, it's about us being equal partners…"
"I'll provide the money, you provide the muscle," Alex teased, rubbing Olivia's tricep suggestively.
"What kind of place were you thinking about?"
"A place where I can make sure that we're all happy and comfortable. What were you thinking about?"
"I don't know. A cozy little two-bedroom apartment in the city, maybe a little house in Queens like Elliot's?" Olivia shrugged. It had never really mattered to her where she and Alex wound up living, as long as they were together. "It might be kinda nice to have a yard."
Alex frowned. This couldn't be further from what she'd envisioned. What was wrong with another penthouse near the Park? There would be plenty of room, they would be close to the City, and Antonio would be near the best schools in New York. "Why don't we look around Fifth or Park?" Alex said, tentatively. She knew most women would delight in the idea of someone offering to buy them an eight-figure brownstone, but Olivia Benson was not most women. "We can look in… Queens… too," she said when Olivia opened her mouth to protest. "If we make a decision as a couple that we'd be happier in the suburbs, then that's what we'll do," she put forth, knowing there was no way in hell she'd ever go for that. "But if we decide we'll be happier in a beautiful place in Manhattan… then do you promise not to hold the price tag against it?"
Olivia sighed. "Let's talk about this later, okay?" she asked, warily, afraid this wasn't going to be the last time they did not see eye-to-eye about money.
"Sure," Alex said, the same fear nagging at the back of her mind as she went to set up the wash rags and basin to give Olivia a bath.
"When's the nurse coming to take out the catheter?" Olivia asked as Alex moved the warm rags over her body.
"About an hour," Alex smiled. "Then you can actually get out of bed, try to pee."
"It'll be the first time I've gotten out of bed in three days."
"Exciting!"
"I'll take what I can get," Olivia smiled. "Today I can pee on my own, maybe in a few days I can do all sorts of things."
Alex chuckled, kissing Olivia sweetly in between bathing her left and right arms. "Don't resent me because I have money," she whispered, the words as much a request as an instruction. "Don't resist me when I want to take care of you," she added, her hot breath filling Olivia's ear.
"Give me time to get used to it, okay?" Olivia asked, her voice breaking. "I've never really had the option of living in a $12 million penthouse before. It's a little overwhelming…"
"I'll be right here waiting for you," Alex assured her, her blue eyes locked on Olivia's. "You don't need to worry about anything except getting healthy."
"I'm working on it…" Olivia promised as sleep overtook her once again.