Midterms just ended for me so I can breathe and enjoy some down time. Thanks once again for the reviews everyone they feed my fire and keep me writing and I hope you all enjoy this chapter.
The night of the policeman ball was absolute madness at the Benson-Cabot household. They still had hours left to get ready, but all three women were running around like they had only a matter of minutes to finish up getting dressed. After everyone had showered, the real work began; all three women fought for their turn with the hair dryer and Alex and Haddie helped each other flatiron their hair while Olivia worked at getting her's to go up into a tight bun. Alex was trying to work her way into the rather expensive dress she had bought for the occasion and when she had managed to climb into it she had yet to figure out how to zip it up herself. Thankfully, she didn't have to try for too long before she felt two very familiar hands grab the zipper and pull it all the way up towards the top of the back of the dress that hit just below Alex's shoulder blades. Alex turned around to give Olivia a kiss, but was stopped dead in her tracks and Olivia laughed at her facial expression.
"See something you like babe?"
"I forgot how sexy you look in your dress uniform."
"I'm sure the state of New York will be happy to know the dress uniform I wear is sexy to my girlfriend; that will make them feel safe." Alex walked up behind Olivia as she slipped on the navy blue jacket, "well, you make me feel safe and what can I say, women in uniform are my weakness."
"Then I better keep a close eye on you tonight." Alex swatted Olivia arm playfully as she headed toward the closet to find her shoes and purse. Olivia was digging through the garment bag searching for her gloves when she heard the front door bell ring. She looked up from the bag and hollered out the bedroom door, "Haddie, honey can you get that please?"
Haddie was in the bathroom finishing her makeup, "yeah I got it mom, it's probably Josh anyway." The teen briskly tiptoed to the door careful not to chip the fresh coat of paint on her toe nails as she moved. When she looked through the peep hole, she didn't see Joshua and she didn't recognize the woman standing there, but she figured one of her mothers' had to know the woman. She undid the lock and opened the door and standing before her was a woman who looked to be about Alex's age dressed in a business suit and a briefcase in her hands.
"Can I help you?"
"I'm looking for Alex Cabot." The woman smiled and Haddie could tell she wasn't a social worker because, well, she just knew. Even though she didn't really know if she should she called out for Alex.
"Mom, someone at the door for you." Haddie turned around to see a very shocked expression on the new woman's face. Before she could say anything Alex appeared in the bedroom doorway and was still digging in her purse making sure she had everything she needed in the bag, "Haddie, who did you say was at the door." When she looked up Alex swallowed hard and when she tried to say something no words came out.
"Mom you ok?"
Alex finally got herself together and turned toward her daughter, "yeah honey I'm fine, just a little surprised."
"Alex I'm sorry I shouldn't have shown up unannounced, but I just got into town yesterday for some business and I wanted to drop by and see you, but I can see your busy I'll just go." As the woman turned to leave Alex stopped her, "no, it's ok come in for a minute. Sorry we're all running around trying to get ready for this ball."
"I figured it must be something big because when I knew you your idea of dressing up was black jeans." Alex smiled and then she caught the look on Haddie's face. Alex pulled her over to her, "Haddie I want you to meet someone, this is my friend Amanda, Amanda this is my daughter Hadassah." Haddie stuck out her hand and shook Amanda's and then she realized who this woman was and why she looked slightly familiar.
"It really nice to meet you ma'am, my mother has told me a lot of stories of you and her when you went to law school together." Amanda's face went red, "she told you about that?"
"Some of them, the other ones she said would make her look bad and wouldn't be very good influence on me as a teenager."
"Probably a good idea."
Haddie looked at Alex, "can I go finish my makeup, Josh is going to be here soon and I still need to put on my dress on?"
"Yeah honey go ahead and can you tell your mother to come out here when she has a minute?"
"Sure, it was really nice meeting you." With that Haddie took off and headed toward Olivia's and Alex's bedroom and then into her own. When she was gone there was a weird silence in the room that Amanda finally broke, "you have a daughter."
"Yes we do, the adoption is still going through, but we are hoping it's done by Christmas." Just as Alex was about to say something else Olivia yelled from the bedroom, "Lexi have you seen the shoe polish I want to make sure these things don't show the scuff marks." Alex smiled and grabbed the polish from the kitchen, "it's in here babe, can you come out and get it we have company. A second later Olivia was walking out of the bedroom trying to fasten the last button on her uniform jacket as she walked, "Alex can you get this damn thing to fasten please?" Alex walked over and with relative ease fixed the button, "sure make it look easy." Olivia finally looked up from her jacket and saw the woman standing near the doorway.
"Sorry my manners got away from me, Detective Olivia Benson." Olivia stuck out her hand and Amanda shook it. Alex stepped in before Amanda could speak, "Liv this is Amanda, my friend from law school." Liv's eyes went wide as she looked at Alex, "oh, that Amanda."
"I so sorry to intrude on your evening I was just telling Alex that I'm in town on business I was wondering if we could catch up over lunch or dinner or something." Olivia had a clear look of concern on her face, she wasn't sure what to make of this woman who had dated Alex years ago showing up on her front step. Amanda picked up on the worried look on her face, "please relax detective, I'm not here to steal your girl or anything like that, I'm very happily married. I just haven't seen Alex in years and was hoping we could simply catch up because clearly I have missed a lot since the last time we talked."
Liv looked slightly embarrassed, "I'm sorry I reacted like that, I can get a bit jealous and you know lesbians and their exes, they never go away."
Amanda laughed, "that I understand, it took us six months before my wife's ex got the idea and left us alone." Olivia suddenly felt less threatened by this woman and Alex was stunned that she was not only married, but married to a woman. Before Alex could say something Amanda's cell phone went off and after punching a few buttons quickly Amanda threw her phone back in her bag. "sorry ladies I have to run and I don't want to keep you any longer, give me a call later in the week and we can set something up, ok, maybe we can all go get drinks or something." Olivia showed Amanda out the door and then broke the silence in the room, "you ok?"
"I'm fine it just was such a shock to see her after so many years. I'm sorry if that was weird for you."
Olivia shook her head, "it wasn't that bad, I had to meet her sometime and look on the bright side, she's married so I don't have to worry about her coming after you and trying to win you back."
"There was never a chance of her winning me back, we stayed friends after law school, but when both got jobs it became harder to keep in touch. I think it might be nice to catch up with her if you're up for that." Olivia wrapped her arms around Alex's waist and kissed the base of her neck, "I think that would be nice to get all the dirt from your college girl friend, but right now you need t finish getting ready because Joshua will be here soon and we need to leave soon after that ok." Alex untangled herself from Olivia's grasp and headed back into the bedroom to finish getting ready. As she closed the door behind her the door buzzer went off.
"Hello?"
"Evening Detective Benson, it's Josh."
"Come on up Joshua the girls are still finishing getting ready." Liv stepped away from the intercom and yelled down the hallway, "Haddie Joshua is on his way up so 20 minutes before we bounce ok, same goes for you Alex." Olivia set her gloves and hat off the dining room table and tried to straighten the awards and ribbons on her jacket and the door bell broke her concentration. She opened the door to find a very sharply dressed Joshua holding two bouquets of flowers and a small box.
"Hi detective Benson, you look very sharp in your uniform."
"Thank you Joshua, you look very handsome in your tux, what's with the flowers?"
The young man shifted the flowers in his hands and handed one of the bouquets to Olivia, "my mother told me that you always bring flowers to a girl's mother when you go their house and Haddie has two mom which mean s two bouquets of flowers and this one is for you." The young man handed Olivia a bouquet of white gladiolus. Olivia was touched and shocked. This particular type of flower was almost never put in bouquets and she wondered if Joshua knew what the flowers stood for. "I know they aren't roses, but they mean strength of character and I thought that fits, I hope you like them." Olivia smiled at the gesture, "I love them Joshua thank you. I'm going to go put them in water before we leave. Alex, Joshua is here." As Olivia walked into the kitchen to get a vase, Alex walked into the living room completely dressed and was fixing her earrings.
"Hello Joshua, you look very handsome this evening."
"Thanks you, Ms. Cabot you look beautiful, blue is definitely your color. Oh, and these are for you." Joshua handed Alex a similar bouquet of flowers, but instead of gladiolus, Alex got Larkspur a flower that denotes beautiful spirit. "Joshua, these are lovely thank you." Olivia took the flowers from Alex and arranged them in the same vase her's were in. "Are you excited for tonight Joshua, the Policeman's ball is a big deal?"
"Truthfully, I'm a little nervous Ms. Cabot, I don't want to make a fool of myself or embarrass Haddie with my inability to dance."
"You'll be fine, besides Elliot can't dance to save his life so he will make you look good by comparison. Besides Haddie can dance fairly well so I'm sure she can help you out, just relax and have fun and be thankful that you don't have to socialize with people you don't like." Joshua smiled and nervously played with the buttons on her jacket and Alex turned around to call for Haddie, "Haddie, we leave in 10 minutes are you coming with us."
"Just putting on my shoes, I'm coming." About a minute later, Haddie came walking down the hallway and as she did so Joshua turned around and froze. He knew Haddie was pretty, but the way she looked now literally made him heart skip a beat and made breathing very difficult. Her voice broke him out of his haze, "so, what do you think, I clean up pretty good?"
Joshua took a step toward her, "you look so beautiful, I mean you always look beautiful, but you, now, look wonderful." Haddie laughed at Joshua's rambling and he started to calm down. "I brought you a corsage, I wasn't sure if people did that for this, but I thought you'd like it and hopefully it matches your dress." Josh opened the plastic box he had been holding and took out a corsage of pink roses and lilac. Haddie offered her arm to him and he gently slipped the elastic band over her wrist and once it was secured he pressed a delicate kiss to her hand before letting go. Both teens were smiling and for a moment forgot that both Alex and Olivia were watching this exchange and were themselves smiling like idiots because it was very sweat and romantic. Eventually, Olive looked at the clock and realized it was time for them to meet the car downstairs, "ok ladies and gentlemen our car is ready and we will be late if we don't get going so everyone have everything." Alex checked her purse and so did Haddie, everyone had their coats and Olivia opened the door and gestured for everyone to walk out. She locked the door behind them and everyone headed down stairs to the waiting limo.
Traffic was minimal which was shocking for a Saturday night, but regardless they made it to the venue in roughly half an hour. When their limo pulled up to the front of the pack Olivia suddenly realized that it must be an election year judging by the number of press members that lined the entrance to the building. "This is the closest any of us are going to get to walking the red carpet any time soon so enjoy it and you two," gesturing to Haddie and Joshua, "don't answer any questions they ask ok, your kids and they have no right to pry. Let Alex and I field the questions ok and don't let them get a rise out of you ok." Both teenagers nodded in agreement and soon after that the limo door was opened by the driver and Olivia was the first to step out. As she did so the bulb from cameras began shuttering rapidly and reporters were shouting questions from every direction. Most of them were questions about the chief of police and politics and asking what Olivia as a police officer thought of what was going on within the department. Olivia temporarily ignored the question and offered her arm to Alex and helped her out of the limo. Alex getting out of the car caused the flashes to come faster and the questions to change topic. Now everyone wanted to know "what was it like to be back at work after WPP" or "how long had she and Olivia been dating". When Haddie and Joshua stepped out the car all hell broke loose as Olivia had foreseen, she quickly assessed that the doorway was roughly 30 ft away from them, but it was covered with reporters that were being held back by officers. Wanting to get Haddie and Joshua out of the craziness as soon as possible, Olivia was relieved to see Elliot coming toward her, "you look like you're a little lost partner."
"Do me a favor get the kids inside and Alex and I will make our way through the madness."
"You got it." Elliot wrapped his arms around Haddie and Joshua and pushed his way through the crowd and within minutes got them safely inside. Olivia wrapped her arm around Alex's waist and guided her forward, momentarily stopping for a few pictures to show some kind of cooperation and thankfully this seemed to get them through the crowd faster. When they finally made their way inside the building Elliot pointed out that all of them were at the same table as him and Kathy and they followed him over to a previously empty table where Kathy sat waiting patiently. Elliot and Olivia were quickly whisked away to take the necessary photos leaving their families at the table. Alex and Kathy made small talk about work, their families, even politics and it didn't take long before Haddie and Joshua lost interest in sitting still. Music was playing from the live band and people were dancing and soon Haddie felt Josh tap her on the shoulder and when she turned around he held out his hand, "want to dance?" Haddie quickly turned to Alex and when she saw that she wasn't paying attention she slipped out of her seat and made her way over to the dance floor with Josh. The first few songs were quick paced and the teens had fun dancing and they both had some pretty good moves, but the next song had a slower temp to it and it temporarily left both teens at a loss of what to do. Joshua held out his hand and Haddie took it, I mean it was just dancing, nothing too serious. Josh put his hands around her waist and Haddie rested her on top of his shoulders and they started to slowly dance to the steady rhythm. At that moment Elliot looked up from the conversation he was having with Olivia and Fin and saw the young couple on the dance floor. He pointed it out to Liv, "that boy has some serious dance moves and it looks like he may have stolen your girl's heart.
Olivia turned around and smiled, it was cute watching them dance and it was funny because Joshua was constantly making sure his hands were in an appropriate place. Olivia excused herself from her conversation and walked over to Alex. She leaned in close to her so her lips were close to her ear, "explain to me why our daughter is dancing with her sort of boyfriend, but I have yet to see you dance in that over priced dress."
"Simple, you haven't asked me to dance yet."
"Alexandra Cabot, would you do me the great honor of dancing with me?"
"How can I resist you when you are that charming, let's dance." As the two joined their daughter on the dance floor they didn't realize they had a few pairs of eyes on them, one of which belonged to Liz who was at the time talking to Cragen, "they make quite a pair and now they aren't just a pair, that daughter of theirs seems to fit into their life perfectly, like she was meant to be there."
"They certainly look happier than I've seen either of them in a long time, they look like they finally got everything they ever wanted and life couldn't get better."
"Must be nice. Are you going to talk to Olivia tonight?"
"No, I'll talk to her on Monday, let her enjoy her night with her family, they deserve a night without talking about work." Both of them looked back toward the dance floor where Alex had her head resting against Olivia's shoulder as they danced next to their daughter and they way they moved, how happy they looked, they looked like a family.
What does Cragen talk to Olivia about?
So again sorry for long wait, school is school and life is stressful and this keeps me sane. Review for more.