A/N: I am so annoyed at this site as of late. With all the crashing then no email notifications, UGH

Anyway, kind of a fluffy chapter here. Forgive errors, this was done on my phone again. I unfortunately go back to school/work tomorrow :( sadness which means updating may be less frequent for a while, but here's a chapter anyway! Enjoy!

Finally feeling completely unnerved by the silence, Abbie sighs quietly as she absentmindedly taps her fingers against the table. "You know, the whole purpose of this date is for us to talk. Talking is kind of hard to do when I'm the only one making any kind of conversation." She says trying to prompt any kind of reaction from the woman across from her. She sighs more heavily this time when she receives silence as a response once again. "Serena seriously. I thought we were going to make an effort to try here. I know we agreed to take things slow here, but I didn't realize that it meant you not speaking to me."

Serena frowns as she keeps her gaze on her plate, continuing to robotically push the lettuce of her salad around with her fork. "I've spoken to you." She says defensively, though she doesn't look up to say it.

"Fragments of sentences don't exactly count as speaking. That right there is probably the most you've said to me all night." Abbie deflects before she folds her arms across her chest and leans back in her chair. "We could start this by being honest with each other. Maybe you can tell me what I've done that's gotten you so upset that way I can do anything within my power to fix it. Is this work related?"

"Sort of..."

"Tell me about it then. Surely it has nothing to do with being out with your boss seeing as we've already sort of slept together when I was in charge at homicide."

Serena frowns again before she vigorously shakes her head in response. "No, no, that has absolutely nothing to do with it. If it did, I wouldn't have agreed to go out with you." She pauses as she wets her lips before speaking again. "Abbie, I trust you. I trust you as a person, as a friend, as a boss, and as an attorney. I trust that you are capable of making the utmost responsible decisions when it comes to the bureau and I honestly couldn't think of anyone better than you that could do this job. I know every decision that you make is intended for everyone's benefit, but...about your decision a few days ago, I-I can't help but wonder if it was for business or personal reasons that you made it."

Abbie solemnly nods her head as the proverbial cat is now out of the bag. "I see," she states, letting on that she knows where this conversation is headed. "This is about my decision to fire Kim. I fired her, and she asked you to talk to me and plead her case, am I right? Well then, let's here it. Can't say I'm surprised."

Serena's mouth snaps shut for a moment and she sucks her head a little before clearing her throat to begin. "Abbie I-as I said before, I trust you and your decision making, but I just think that you were being the slightest bit irrational in firing her."

"How so?"

"How so? Abbie, it was abrupt and frankly I don't see that you have any ground basis for doing so. At least, not professional wise. God forbid, her attitude sucks pretty much all the time and I know that she most certainly isn't the easiest person to be around or get along with but that's just how she operates. That's who she is. I get all of that, but I also know that she's a good attorney. I know that and you know it too. Regardless of how you feel about her, I don't think that it was wise to let go of a good asset to the division. In turn you've practically left me by myself in the unit."

"I can always hire someone, not to mention you can split the case load with SVU until then," Abbie counters rationally before she sighs. "Look, I am in a position where I can't deal with her and I am to the point where I will not deal with her. There has never been a time where that woman has respected me and I am not going to stand for it any longer. Frankly, I didn't want to stand for it when we worked in the same unit but I was being passive and I really didn't want to take it up with Liz and Cutter about getting her removed. I wasn't in the mood for that. Now? I can't take it, I won't take it. She's disrespected me before Serena and you know damn well that she will do it again without remorse. I'm not going to allow that to be a distraction to me or to anyone else."

Serena bites down on her bottom lip as she heavily contemplates on what she wants today. "Abbie look at this from her point of view for a moment. Being an assistant district attorney and then being fired from said job does NOT look good on a transcript. It can mess up so many other opportunities. She said it her self, she doesn't know how to do anything else. Her job was basically her life, just like my job is mine, and your job is yours. It was her life and you took that away from her without any overhead warning. It's just not easy to find something to do after you've been fired from a job you love doing so much. What if it was you? If you were fired, where would you go afterwards?"

"I'm not sure."

"See? It's not just something you can brush off. 'Oh I lost my job huh better go find another one'. It cannot be that easy. As I said before, I know she's not easy to get along with, if anyone knows that it's me but for some odd reason, she is still my best friend. I just wanted to put the idea out there of maybe rethinking your decision."

Abbie is silent for a moment as she continues to let her fingers drum against the table. After a long moment of thought she clicks her tongue and shifts in her seat. "I can see where you are coming from, but maybe this here is what your little friend needs to learn her lesson in respect."

Serena sighs in defeat as she hangs her head and shake it. "I figured that it wasn't going to be an easy task in getting you to change your mind." She mutters quietly before clearing her throat. "I'm sorry, I had no intentions of spoiling our romantic evening with talk about work. If you want to leave now, I completely understand."

"Why would I want to leave? Just because we have a disagreement on something doesn't mean I'm going to give up and walk away. Casey and Alex have disagreements all the time. Casey likes Metallica and baseball while Alex likes Mozart and book reading. It's natural in a relationship for there to be disagreements. It wouldn't be a relationship if there weren't any."

"Relationship...?"

Abbie internally winces when she realizes her potential error. "Yes, relationship. Even though we are taking things slowly, I-I want a relationship with you. A real one."

A small smile tugs at Serena's lips as she ducks her head a little. "No it's not that I just," she then pauses as her smile fades a little. "I just don't understand why you would. Clearly I'm going to mess something up and make you want to leave me for someone else. I've already hurt you enough as is."

"Hey, I'm not her, okay? I would never, ever do that to you. Especially not behind your back. I hate that she's ruined you like this; it burns me up inside, but I can assure you I won't break that promise." Abbie states firmly before she shrugs and chuckles nervously. "It's okay for you to feel weary I understand. I'm practically scared out of my mind about all of this here because I've never done this. I've never actually had a real girlfriend before."

"You're kidding." Serena gasps with widened eyes. "You? You who women are practically throwing themselves at all the time? Never?"

"Never and women do not throw themselves at me."

"Abbie, I'm sure that there are even straight women who want you. But how come you've never had a relationship before?"

Abbie shrugs as a small grin forms in her face. "I guess I just hadn't found the right lady until now."

Serena feels heat rush to her face and she swears she's turning as red as her dress. "Well, thank you..." She whispers, not really sure how else to take the compliment.

"My pleasure," Abbie chuckles as their waitress returns with the check and her credit card. She thanks the waitress who promptly winks at her before she sets about retrieving her card and the receipt. Upon looking at the receipt, a small blush faintly appears at her cheeks.

It's something that doesn't go unnoticed by Serena who frowns and slightly tilts her head in curiosity. "Is something wrong?"

Abbie awkwardly runs at the back of her neck as her eyes continue to glance over the slip of paper. "No uh, it's just," she pauses turning the receipt over. "She wrote her phone number on the receipt..."

"And you said women don't throw themselves at you."

"Yeah yeah, let's get you home."


Alex's eyes continue to breeze over the wording of her favorite James Patterson novel with ease as she continues to get deep into the mindset of the story. In all honesty, these are probably one of her favorite series of books though she feels like the short lived television series didn't do the novel justice simply because they couldn't find a blonde actress to play the title roll of Lindsay Boxer. But at the same time, the actress they did find to play the lead roll was very pleasant to look at, so Alex found her self unable to complain.

As she dwells even deeper into the novel at one of it's heightening interest points, she fingers the edge of the page, preparing her self to easily flip to the next to cease the suspense. Just as she is about to turn to the next page, a loud blast from down stairs scares her half to deal, causing her to startle and drop the book over the edge of the bed.

"Jesus Christ," Alex gasps to her self as she places a hand over her rapidly beating heart. Her lips purse after a moment as she finally recognizes the sounds as extra loud guitar riffs complete with the clashing of drums and singing that can hardly be classified as music. "This woman, I swear..."

The rather frazzled blonde attorney retrieves her fallen book from the floor and marks it before she makes her way from the bedroom. She winces as she opens the door and the music floats into the room seeming to be louder than she had first anticipated.

With purpose, Alex makes her way down the hall and to the top of the stairs where she folds her arms at seeing her fiancée on the couch, head banging and 'air guitar-ing' to the chorus of whatever this is,

Alex easily glides down the stairs and places both hands on her hips as she watches the redhead get deep off into the song. "Casey," Alex says in her normal tone, frowning when she realizes she can't even hear her self speak. "Casey!" She tries once again, scowling when her shout gets lost in a series of screaming guitars and smashing drums. "CASEY!"

Okay, after the third try and no response, Alex stalks across the room and hits the stop button on the stereo, immediately engulfing the condo into a much appreciated silence. "Casey!"

"Huh?" Casey answers instinctively before she frowns realizing that it's far too quiet. "Hey! Where did my music go?"

Alex wrinkles her nose as she glides across the room and joins her lover on the couch. "I highly doubt that was classified a music. My giving birth was more melodic than what ever you were just listening to."

Casey gasps exaggeratedly as she places a hand over her heart and points a finger. "You take that back! What I was just listening to was a work of art!"

"Yeah okay. Anyway, do you have to have the music so loud?" Alex asks with a frown.

"But Allleeex," Casey begins with a whine, "The only way to listen to rock n roll and heavy metal is to have the music so loud you can't hear yourself think."

"Yeah you can't hear your self think and you're significant other nearly goes into cardiac arrest. Plus I was trying to read, Baby."

"Ooo, I like reading."

"No you don't Casey..."

"Sure I do! Tell me what you were reading."

Alex shakes her head and rolls her eyes at the amount of whining her fiancée is doing at the moment. "If you must know, I was reading The Women's Murder Club."

Casey's eyes widen in interest as her lips form into a perfect 'O' shape. "I liked that show! Wait...they wrote a book for it too!?"

"They book came first Casey. Clearly you haven't read any of them. The show didn't do it any justice."

"I thought it was pretty good!"

"Lindsay was supposed to be blonde Case," Alex responds with a chuckle as she shakes her head. "Only reason I watched it was because the lead actress was insanely hot."

"Oh," Casey says, responding to Alex's first statement before she comprehends the second and her face scrunches into a pout. "Hey! Wait! She was alright..."

Alex quirks an eyebrow in amusement at the look spreading across Casey's face. "Are you jealous, Baby?"

Casey involuntarily juts out her lower lip as she folds her arms and hunches her shoulders. "No..." She murmurs quietly.

"Aw this is so cute!" Alex squeals as she slides over into Casey's lap to where she is straddling her. "You're jealous."

"I'm not! I just don't like you thinking other women are hot...that's all."

"That's jealous, honey."

Casey pouts again before she huffs in defeat. "Okay, maybe a little bit. But can you blame me? I mean, I have an insanely hot fiancée. I'm sure there are a lot of men and women that would love to be in my shoes."

Alex grins as she leans down and connects there lips together in a brief but loving kiss. "That's right and I am marrying you. Not some actress I will never meet in my life."

"What if you do?"

"Then I will personally eat that ugly blue sweater Serena wears from time to time."

Casey chuckles at the statement and leans in to give the blonde an Eskimo kiss. "I knew there was a reason I loved you." She jokes. "Do you think Emma is having fun having a sleep over with Lucy?"

Alex thinks for a moment before she grins and nods her head. "I think she is and your sister hasn't called me about anything so I bet their having fun. But that's all Emma could talk about was spending the night with her new friend."

"Pretty soon, it'll be spending the night with her new cousin then." Casey says solemnly before her voice turns serious. "Speaking of which, that is something I want to talk with you about. Since we're getting married. I've been doing a lot of thinking and I was wondering of what you would think of the idea of me maybe...adopting Emma?"

"Casey," Alex gasps in shock, unable to say anything. "You, you really mean that?"

"Of course I so. I love that little girl like she's my own Alex and I would want nothing more than to be able to call her my daughter. That is, if that's okay with you. I know how much she means to you and the last thing I would want is for you too be uncomfortable."

"Casey, honey, I think that would be a wonderful idea. Emma loves you to death and you act like such a mother to her."

"That way we could really be a family." Casey smiles as she leans in and gives her fiancée a loving passionate kiss. "I love you, Baby. And I can't wait to share all of my life with you."

"I love you too. More than anything."

Awww, gee that made me feel sappy, lol. Anyhow, I love my Women's Murder Club reference, gosh I love those books.

This is random, but I was watching SVU and I love Casey to death, I swear I do, but I am so not feeling this light blue coat of hers...god I hate that coat.

Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter! Leave your thoughts!