Olivia had made everyone get up early to beat the long weekend traffic out of the city, and by the time she was driving over the George Washington bridge, Sarah and Jake were asleep in the back seat, his arm around her. Olivia checked her body language, and she seemed to lean into him, but still. One of them - not her or Alex - needed to talk to her.
Alex, needing privacy, retreated to her office to finish writing in her journal, and when she emerged, she busied herself in the kitchen, mixing up eggs to make herself a veggie omelette and toast. She returned to the porch, plate and more coffee in hand, to find Rym on the swing, but Abbie, Liz, and Lena sitting around the table with coffee, crossword puzzle and Sudoku for the elder women, and Abbie reading on her phone.
Alex exchanged good mornings and ate quietly.
"Did you sleep well, Alexandra?" Lena asked, and Liz raised an eyebrow when Alex confirmed she had.
"Hey, Abbie?" Alex finally asked, putting her fork down. "Do you think you could talk to Sarah this weekend?"
"Sarah is your rape victim from Portland?" Liz asked.
Alex glanced at Rym, who looked surprised. "Yes, but I don't think everyone knows that," she admonished.
"What about?" Abbie asked.
"About this boyfriend she's with. Liv and I have both tried to talk to her but we want to make sure she's doing okay. And I think she's sick of us asking."
"What makes you think she's not okay?" Abbie asked, taking a sip of coffee.
Alex shrugged. "She's probably fine. It's just that she's been really quiet since she got this boyfriend, and I can't be her therapist. They haven't been together that long, but I'm worried she's rushing it."
Abbie nodded, understanding. "You want me to make sure she's not going to do something she'll regret?"
Alex nodded.
"I guess. I can't really give her advice, but I can check on her for you."
Once they had boarded the 9amferry and found a table, Olivia pulled out her wallet and handed money to Jake. "You can go get the coffees," she told him, smiling.
Once he had gone up to the galley, she looked at Sarah, who looked away.
"Is everything okay?" Casey asked, looking back and forth from Sarah to Olivia.
"Fine," Sarah said, leaning back and crossing her arms protectively. "Do you know too?" She asked, accusingly.
Casey raised an eyebrow. "Know what?" She asked. "Am I supposed to know something?" Casey had, of course, connected the dots and surmised that the student rape victim Alex had gone back to help 3 years earlier was the same young woman in front of her, but Sarah didn't need to know that.
Sarah shook her head. "Never mind."
Olivia reached over and touched her arm. "Sarah, I talked to Alex last night. She thought it would be a good idea to give you a room upstairs —"
"But I—" Sarah tried to cut her off, but Olivia stopped her.
"We want you to have a place to go for privacy, if you need it. Or if you do decide you want to sleep alone. You have choices, Sarah. This way there's no pressure."
"How long have you been seeing Jake?" Casey asked. "He seems nice."
"I knew him all semester because we took a class together and we studied together a few times, but we've really only been going out about 6 weeks, since finals."
Casey glanced at Olivia out of the corner of her eye, and understood. "Is it serious?"
Sarah shrugged.
"Okay. Well, I might be the only straight woman available this weekend if you need advice, so let me know if you want to talk," Casey said, winking. "Just… don't do anything because you think he wants it, okay? Only do what you want to do."
Sarah nodded, and Casey smiled over her shoulder at Jake, who was returning with the coffees.
Alex was in the kitchen when Olivia's car pulled up unexpectedly early, and she felt her heart swell when she heard the key in the door. Lena and Liz had just finished helping Lexie make pancakes for the kids, and she and Safa was sitting at the table on the porch with a plate full of rainbow sprinkle and banana chocolate chip pancakes.
Alex's eyes lit up when she saw Olivia's neutral expression widen into a grin, and she sauntered over to wrap her arms around Alex's waist, and, leaning her back against the kitchen counter, leaned in for a kiss. Alex closed her eyes as Olivia leaned in, and immediately felt more relaxed. She had missed Olivia that week, and last night's phone call and the resulting poor sleep had left her with an ache in her chest that could only be soothed by her lover's care.
Olivia kissed her gently, and when she pulled away for a breath, she met Alex's piercing blue eyes, and immediately blushed, and looked down.
Alex recognised the vulnerability and brought her hand up to brush Olivia's cheek with her thumb, then held Olivia's face, bringing her back to eye contact.
"Hey," Alex said gently. "I missed you, love."
Olivia searched Alex's eyes, swallowing her emotions.
"We'll talk about it later,' Alex murmured, and Olivia nodded, leaning in for another soft kiss.
Alex wrapped her arms around Olivia, sticking a hand in the back pocket of her jeans, and leaning her head against Olivia's shoulder.
"Oh, get a room!" Abbie called teasingly over her shoulder from the porch. "Hey, Liv!"
Alex rolled her eyes into Olivia's shoulder. "This is our house! These are all our rooms!" She called back in an equally teasing tone.
"I have to practice my wedding kiss," Olivia explained. "We've only got a couple of weeks and I'll need to practice. Wouldn't want to get it wrong for the front page of the New York Times. That would be embarrassing. What do you think? Kiss 1?" She took Alex's face gently in both hands, smiled, and placed a soft kiss on her mouth. "Kiss 2?" She wrapped her arms around Alex's waist, tilted her head to the right, and leaned into the kiss. "Or Kiss 3?" Alex giggled as Olivia spun her around and dipped her for a kiss, and Alex wrapped her arms around Olivia's neck.
When she was done, she leaned Alex back against the counter and smiled shyly at her, biting her lip.
"I think I like Kiss 2," Alex said, smiling. "But, I don't know. Kiss 3 would certainly make a good shot for the Times. Maybe we'll have to go over those again, just to be sure," she said, winking at Olivia. "Everyone settled in?" She asked, and Olivia nodded.
"I showed Sarah and Casey their rooms upstairs and the bathroom. They'll probably want to rest a bit. We left really early."
"I wasn't expecting you this early. I figured you'd be stuck in traffic most of the day."
"That's why we left at 5, to get out of the city before the traffic. If we'd left any later, it would've taken 6 or 7 hours to get to Wood's Hole instead of 4."
Alex nodded, and poured her a cup of coffee. "Are you going to go up to rest too?" She asked.
"I've got big plans for resting this weekend," she said, following Alex onto the porch to sit at the table. "I think I'm going to start with a nap upstairs. Tomorrow I'll do a nap on the beach, and maybe I'll be able to squeeze in a nap on the couch. Monday's naps are still up in the air, but probably the swing and maybe another beach nap. It'll be a tight schedule, but I like to keep busy."
Everyone chuckled as Olivia smiled.
"Tough week at the office?" Liz asked.
Olivia sighed into her coffee, and Alex reached over to put her hand on Olivia's knee. "Just another week of showing up in the middle of someone's worst nightmare."
Liz nodded solemnly.
Lexie looked up from her pancakes. "Auntie Alex had a nightmare last night. I went to snuggle with her because she was crying in her sleep. Will you make sure she doesn't have a nightmare tonight, Auntie 'Livia?"
Alex opened her mouth and shifted uncomfortably, turning pink.
"Don't worry, sweetheart. I'll take care of Auntie Alex," Olivia reassured her.
After she finished her coffee, Olivia followed Alex into her office to give her the official update on the cases from the week, including the missing child, who had been found dead on Wednesday morning, and whose case had been passed on to Homicide once they had determined that there was no element of sexual assault. By Thursday, in passing over the case file, they had determined that the father had committed the murder.
Olivia then gave her a play-by-play of Damian Harding's arrest on Friday afternoon, how they had tracked him down at his sister's apartment in Washington Heights and brought him in for parole violations and not registering with his parole officer, before the DNA that would allow him to be charged with Langan's assault the next week finished processing at around the same time.
When they had finished, Alex took her cell phone off her desk and called Trevor on speaker phone.
"Langan," he answered on the third ring.
"Cabot and Benson," Alex replied, her voice equally clipped. "How are you?" She asked in a softened tone.
"Calling to check up on me? You don't have to do that," Trevor said bitterly. "In fact, please don't."
"We're calling to give you an update," Olivia said. "We don't want to intrude on your weekend, but Elliot and I picked up Harding on parole violations yesterday. He's in lockup. We thought you should know."
"The evidence came back from the rape kit late yesterday afternoon, and I'll be indicting him on Wednesday or Thursday, depending on when I can get in front of a Grand Jury. When can you be available to testify?"
"Look, Alex, I appreciate it, but I don't know if… maybe it's better to get him on the parole violations."
"And let him slide on Rape 2, Sodomy 1, and aggravated assault? You know I can't do that, Trevor."
"I really just want to put this behind me, and I can't… Just, offer him a deal. Assault 2, 5-10."
"Trevor…" Alex said. "A slap on the wrist for assaulting an office of the court? His defence attorney? You know that even if I could do that, Trevor, I wouldn't want to."
"You make deals all the time, Alex. Don't make me... I won't testify."
"What do you mean you won't testify? Listen, you know I know as well as anyone that it's hard, and —"
"Alex, I understand why you want me to, but I don't think it's going to work for me."
Alex opened her mouth, and Olivia held up her hand to stop her.
"Trevor, have you talked to a counselor yet? Or your girlfriend?"
"I can't tell her what happened, and I can't even... I'm on the meds and I can't..."
"The HIV meds?" Olivia asked. "My partner had to take those once, for a month until he was cleared, and he was sick as a dog." She paused. "You know it's illegal for me to disclose someone's status, so I'm not going to do that. I'm merely going to suggest that you don't have to worry about the meds."
Trevor was quiet for a minute, and let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you."
"Remember, it's perfectly normal if you have... performance issues for a while," Olivia said. "Talking to a counselor, and to your girlfriend, will help."
"I don't have performance issues," Trevor snapped.
"I'm not saying that you do or that you will," Olivia said kindly. "Just that, if you were to have issues, it would be completely normal."
"Trevor, you can go to a support group outside of New York if you want," Alex said. "I went to one in Massachusetts a few times while visiting family, because I couldn't go to anything in Manhattan either. Then you're anonymous. Take a ride over to Jersey City. I can get you some recommendations from one of the DAs over there if you want."
"I don't think so, but thank you. Is there anything else? Alyssa is going to be back soon."
"Nothing else for now. I'll be in touch next week about the Grand Jury, but I strongly urge you to reconsider."
"Take care, Trevor. Let me know if you need anything," Olivia said.
Alex sighed as she ended the call, and Olivia kissed her cheek.
"You know you can't force him, love." Olivia said. "He knows as well as anyone how tough it's going to be for him if he testifies. How many victims has he cross-examined? Do you think he wants someone to put him through that, especially if he hasn't told his fiancée yet?"
"I know," Alex said. "But I know it helps, too. He's not..."
"I know he's your friend, love, but it's not your job to fix him, either. And it's not your job to extol the benefits of therapy either," Olivia reminded her.
"I know," she sighed, and took a deep breath. "Okay. Are we done with work for the weekend? Is that all of the news?"
"Well, there's one more thing," Olivia said, smiling.
"What?" Alex asked.
Olivia reached into her back pocket and pulled out a folded slip of paper, which she handed to Alex.
Alex unfolded it, and put her hand over her mouth, then jumped up and put her arms around Olivia.
"Congratulations!" She exclaimed. "You placed 3rd overall? That's fantastic. I knew you were brilliant, but... wow. I'm so proud of you!"
Olivia beamed, blushing as she took back the paper with the results of the sergeant's exam.
"When do you officially get promoted? What did Ellioy say?"
"You think I told Elliot before I told you? Cragen's the only one who knows. I figured I'd keep it a secret until I can pull rank on him. The promotion ceremony will be sometime in September after they place us. Now Cragen just has to convince the brass to keep me where I am, or they could move me out to be a desk sergeant in Staten Island."
"Wow. I'm so happy for you. And I'm glad you told me first," Alex said, winking.
"Of course," she said, kissing Alex.
"Not to steal your thunder, but I have something to tell you, too," Alex continued, explaining Murdock's offer. "I know logistics will be tricky, but I really don't want to turn this down."
"Wait, you haven't said yes yet? Alex, you have a chance to teach at Harvard. You can't say no to that. I would never forgive you if you gave up that chance. Wow. This is huge!"
Now it was Alex's turn to blush and smile. "Okay, I'll call him back right now. I just didn't want to say yes without talking to you. It wouldn't have been fair, especially with Safa..."
Olivia nodded and took her hand. "I appreciate that, but Alexandra, I never want to hold you back from something you want to do. Especially something this big. Everything is figureoutable. And especially with this promotion... I'll probably have a lot more pull to take Friday nights off. It'll be less field work, or at least, more control over what I do."
Alex wrapped her arms around Olivia. "I think things are turning around for us," she whispered, leaning her head on Olivia's shoulder.
"I think so too. We have a lot to celebrate," she said, kissing Alex and running her fingers through her hair. "And," she murmered, leaning in to whisper into Alex's ear, "I've never made love to a Harvard law professor before," she said, before pulling back and winking.
Alex made eye contact and laughed, then smacked Olivia gently on the shoulder. "Three qualifiers, Liv? Really?!"
Olivia raised her eyebrows and rolled her eyes back as though she were thinking, while smiling, then shrugged and nodded. "Well, I dated this hot-shot Harvard lawyer and she was really hot and fantastic in bed..."
Alex turned pink.
"I love you," Olivia said gently. "We have more to talk about this weekend, including this nightmare I think you weren't going to tell me about, but I'm looking forward to relaxing, and taking some naps."
"I love you too. And I'm so proud of you," Alex said.