A/N: If you are confused or don't really know what is going on this is a continuation of a Series that I'm writing. See the first Authors Note for the details. Important: I'm bringing back people from Like Father…., Bev Jones and her children Petey and Becky. And our friend Dr. Valez. And remembering events that happened in earlier stories.
And a special shout out to all those reviewers that have been reviewing since Like Father, Like Mother, Like Me through Falling Up: SVU Chicky, Pitaqueen, and Jess.
And yay for the rest of you reviewers.
Classes, Cases, and Chambers2.
Alexandra Cabot hates to be late, on time is cutting it short in her book. She breezed into Petrovsky's Chambers 3 minutes late. It may not seem like a big deal for the average person but in this profession it was not a good thing.
"Alexandra, nice of you to join us. I would hate to have to hold you in contempt of court… again."
"Sorry Your Honor."
Petrovsky nodded as Alex slid into a seat.
"Alright, let's get down to business. What seems to be the problem here."
"The Prosecution has obtained illegal evidence on my client." The young defense attorney started right off.
"I hardly would call the evidence in question illegal." Alex turned to look at the attorney.
"It was taken from the defendant's room out of his apartment."
"First off the apartment doesn't belong to him. It is under the name of his parents, who up until they were informed of this were staying upstate, in their house. We had their permission. Second of all we had a warrant for the things that we took."
"My client had no idea about these circumstances."
"You would have known had you read your file that you received all the documentation of the seizure was there, including a copy of the warrant."
Petrovsky took this moment to intervene, "Sir, I suggest that you read all material that the prosecution has given you, and that you fully talk to your client before you start making claims like this, it is a waste of everyone's time."
She looked at both of them for a minute, "You're dismissed, I'll see you both in court tomorrow afternoon."
"Yes Ma'am." The defense attorney stormed out of chambers.
"Alexandra, hold on a minute." Petrovsky called her back to face her.
"Let's not make this late thing a habit, I realize it was only a few moments. But don't make me make you choose; I hear from my colleagues at the college that you are an incredible teacher. And I know that you're one great prosecutor. It would be a shame to give up one. You could help shape the future with your teaching."
Alex was a little taken aback with the praise. "Thank you Ma'am." She decided on a smile.
Alex returned to her office to prepare for some work. She had a court date around 1:30 to go over some evidence that the defense had found, on another case. She didn't figure that it would be a long event.
The phone rang as she was packing her brief case again.
"Cabot."
"Professor Cabot, this is Neil Grange, I was wondering if you had time to meet later today about the paper that we have due for class next week?"
"Hmm, Neil, I have court at 1:30 that I'm running off to right now but it shouldn't take that long, I could probably meet you at 3:15 in my office at the college. Do you have a number that I could reach you at incase I can't make it."
"Yeah that sounds great my number is 555-4873. Thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to see me."
"No problem Neil I'll see you later this afternoon."
Alex made her way onto the elevator and off toward Judge Peterson's courtroom.
/Meanwhile with Olivia/
Olivia pulled up behind Elliot's sedan on the street were Cragen told her to meet him. Elliot got out of his car and met her between he two on the sidewalk.
"We have a situation." Elliot said rubbing the back of his head.
"What kind of situation." Olivia replied while looking up at the apartment building.
"Well she won't let us up. I talked to her, through the speaker but she won't let me in."
"Hmm, well maybe she'll let me in." Olivia walked toward the front of the building.
Elliot shrugged, maybe the woman would be more receptive to his partner. Elliot rang the buzzer for her.
"What now?" an irritated voice came over the little box.
"Ma'am this is Detective Olivia Benson…"
"Like I told the other cop I'm not interested now go away… I have things to do."
Olivia sighed and leaned her head against the bricks of the building…
All of a sudden there was a tug on her sleeve. She looked down to see where it was coming from.
"Hi Detective Olivia." A little voice called up to her.
"Hi Petey." Olivia said with a new big smile pasted on her face. "What are you doing here."
"I'm so sorry, about that Olivia." A Woman came rushing up to the young boy with a little girl in tow.
"That's alright, Bev" Olivia smiled at the young family.
"We were coming to visit Grandma and Grandpa."
"Do they live here?" Olivia asked hopefully.
"Yeah on the first floor, wheelchair access apartment, why?"
"Could we follow you into the building, we need to get in."
"Yeah, of course." Bev answered as she looked at the agitated detectives.
Bev buzzed her parents and they let all five of them in. Olivia thanked her friends. Then she and Elliot shot up to the second floor to Apartment 21.
Olivia approached the door with caution. It was partly open. She knocked on it as she let it fall completely open.
"Go away." The woman inside the apartment shouted.
"Ma'am I'm just here to help you. I'm not going to hurt you." Olivia still moving with caution, entered the living room.
"I told you I don't need any help."
Olivia looked to the corner of the living room. A young woman was sat huddled with her knees to her chest, her dark brown hair cascading in front of her.
"Honey, we can help you out if you just let us. My partner is still outside, it's just you and me."
"No, I don't want any help, no one can help me." The woman pulled away from her position. As she did this she pulled a gun out of her lap.
Olivia instinctively reached for her own gun.
"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to put that gun away."
"You can't help me…"
"Put the gun down."
"I can't do that." She pulled the gun on herself.
Olivia dropped her own weapon, everything moved in slow motion. She moved toward the woman. The woman had shot herself in the thigh. As Olivia moved closer she turned the gun on her.
"No, stay away." She let a shot off.
Elliot had entered the room after the first shot was heard. He watched as the second shot grazed Olivia's jacket at her shoulder. Olivia flattened herself on the ground and didn't move. Elliot was fumbling with the radio.
"This is Elliot Stabler with SVU we have an Officer Down and we need a bus for a victim gun shot wound…" he rattled off the address of they were located and moved to check on his partner. The woman was still brandishing her weapon, but she was getting weak.
"Liv? how bad did it get you."
"It's just a scratch, El." Olivia continued to lay on the floor.
"Liv it looks kinda bad." He noticed some blood.
"El I'm fine." Olivia started to get irritated.
Just then the Paramedics were coming into the room.
Two raced over to the woman in the corner and one attended to Olivia. Together they eased her leather jacket off. The shoulder was torn. Her blue shirt was a mess. The paramedic cut that away from her shoulder, carefully.
Elliot went to check on the other patient, to give his partner some privacy. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene, too much blood loss, she had hit a main artery in her leg, if she hadn't gotten the shot off on Olivia when she did it wouldn't have happened because she would have been too weak, then gone, there was nothing that could have been done.
They took Olivia to the hospital. They also took the woman to the morgue at the hospital to do tests on her, to see if they had a rape on their hands.
On arrival to the hospital Olivia was rushed into the back. Elliot after following the ambulance with his sedan, called Cragen and then arranged for his partners Sedan to be picked up. Elliot got permission to enter the back and found his partner. She was not a happy camper.
"Look its no big deal, just give me a band-aide and let me out of here." Olivia said to one of the nurses.
"Listen Detective, Dr. Roberson is going to need to take a look at this."
"That won't be necessary." Olivia stated with pure agitation in her voice.
"Olivia," Elliot said as he entered the room. "Just do as they say. You're worse then my kids."
"El, you know how much I hate hospitals, and I keep finding myself back at this particular one."
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Elliot went out to wait in the hall. He looked down and saw a familiar face. He walked up to the woman at the nurses' station.
"Dr. Valez?" he asked.
"Yes. How can I help you sir." She said looking up at him from her seated position.
"I'm Detective Elliot Stabler, we met back in February, I'm Olivia Benson's partner."
"Oh yes, is everything okay." Dr. Valez asked with concern.
"Well, no. Olivia was shot at a scene and she won't let the nurse or doctor… um Roberson help her out. I was wondering if maybe a familiar person may help."
"Sure, I'm almost done with this, let me just… okay let's go." She said as she tossed the chart in the finished box and followed Elliot to Olivia's bed.
When they arrived Dr. Roberson was also arriving. "Jeff, she is one of my patients, why don't you let me take her." Dr. Valez held her hand out for the chart.
The nurse looked a little scared for a minute, "Fine, at least this way I can have my lunch." The other doctor stormed off. The nurse relaxed visibly and Dr. Valez shook her head.
"He is such a pleasant person."
"I see." Elliot's gaze followed the man down the hall.
"Alright let me see here." She said as they all entered the curtain area around Olivia's bed.
"Dr. Valez?" Olivia looked surprised to see the other woman.
"Your concerned partner found me out in the hall." Dr. Valez smiled at her patient.
Olivia smiled back and visible relaxed as she watched the doctor wash her hands and pull on some gloves.
Dr. Valez pealed the bandage from the ambulance carefully away from the wound. She looked it over of a few seconds then threw the bandage away.
"Okay Olivia, you're lucky here, you just have a superficial wound. It will take a little more than a week to heal. It shouldn't really effect your work if you're worried about that. I'll give you some Tylenol for the pain and some antibiotics to hold off any infection. Right now though we are going to clean it out with some saline then get some antibiotics right on it and bandage it back up. I'll give you some extra gauze, tape and cream. Okay."
"Okay."
Olivia let herself get comfortable for the process. Dr. Valez and the nurse set to work. It seemed like not that long ago she was sitting in this same ER getting her hand fixed. So much had changed since that fateful day.
As the doctor gave Olivia the last of the medication bottles Cragen came rushing into the ER.
"Oh My God, Olivia are you okay." He said as he came to a stop just inside the bed area.
"I'm fine captain, I just want to get back to work." Olivia said putting on Elliot's Suit coat that he offered her when she looked depressingly at her leather jacket.
"I'm not sure that is such a good idea detective. You watched a woman shoot herself in the leg then shoot at you, I think you should go home." Cragen looked at her with intense worry on his face.
"Cap, I want to go back to the precinct get the spare shirt out of my locker and find out why this woman had to shoot herself. I'm not going home, I won't sleep until I have some answers."
"Liv I don't think your going to be sleeping anyway." Elliot spoke up.
"No, El I probably won't sleep anyway, but at least I can get some understanding if I know."
Olivia got up and moved toward the doors to the ER, exiting and entering the passenger seat of the sedan.
Elliot climbed into the driver's seat and Cragen, who took a cab to get there, climbed into the back for the trip back to the precinct. They rode in silence the entire way.
/A few hours later with Alex/
Alex sat in traffic on her way back to Hudson University. The cars were creeping along. It was 3, she left the court house 15 minutes ago, she should be pulling into the faculty lot right now. She hated rush hour traffic. She flipped on the radio, nothing good, she flicked it off and tapped her hands on the wheel. The sea of cars eased forward a few more feet. Well at least she could see the University now. At the first entrance to the facility she got off the main road. Traffic on the main roads of the campus went a lot smoother. She eased her car into the space near the Criminal Justice and Law building. She left her brief case in the car, locked it and headed into the building. Her heals clicked down the hall as she hastily made her way toward room number 124, her office.
"Professor Sands…. Professor Sands….Professor…. Cabot." A girl called out down the hall behind Alex.
Alex looked at her watch as she turned around, it was 3:13 she was running late for the second time that day.
"Can I help you." She said as she continued to turn around.
When she saw who it was her face lit up. "Amanda?"
"Yeah, sorry I couldn't get your attention, I forgot what your new…er old name was. The secretary of the department said your office was down this way and that I could leave a note for you. She said you were not around often after your class was done for the day."
"No it's okay Amanda, I'm sorry I wasn't paying more attention, I never did get use to being Jennifer Sands. Listen I'm meeting with a student, right now, I'm running late, so how about you come down this way and I'll talk to you when I'm done."
"Alright."
Amanda follows Alex around the corner where a young man is waiting against the wall.
"Sorry Neil traffic was horrible from the courthouse. Lets get started shall we." She spoke as she unlocked her office and the two of them entered.
Twenty minutes later they are finished with their meeting. Neil was very relieved that he was on the right track and Alex was more than happy to help. She really did love being a professor. Maybe when her prosecuting days were through she would do more teaching. She motioned for Amanda to come into her office.
"So how long have you been in town?" Alex asked sitting behind her desk looking around at the drabbness of it.
"I just got in on Sunday, I was settling in with my cousin. I start at NYU in the fall but I got an internship for a law office in Manhattan, they do mostly corporate stuff."
"That's great. I'm so glad you were able to get in." Thinking of the nervous student she had when she was in Witness Protection. Teaching was the only thing that kept her going while she was away from NYC.
"Me too. Do you have any plans tonight."
"Well I'm having dinner at my friend's place tonight."
"Ahh well maybe we could have dinner some night."
"I'm sure that can be arranged."
"Cool."
"Well I'm meeting my cousin in a bout an hour, so I should get going. Here is my cell number if you want to get a hold of me." Amanda handed Alex a piece of paper.
"Thank you, here is my card, I don't have one for the college but it would have the same contact info on it." Alex handed Amanda a card from her desk.
"Wow… Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot…SVU Manhattan. Impressive."
"Thank you, don't be afraid to use it."
"I won't thank you Professor Cabot."
"Your welcome Amanda."
Amanda made her way out of the office and back into the hectic rush of New York City.
Alex sighed and sat behind her desk for a few more minutes. She dug out her phone and dialed the familiar number.
The voice mail picked up. "You've reached Olivia Benson leave a message."
"Hey Liv, I'm cutting out a little early," She glanced at her watch, nice, "It's 4 now so I should be at your place at 5 I'm going to stop and pick up dinner, I'll see you when you get there."
She gathered herself from behind her desk and left the campus, hoping she could make decent time in this traffic.
/Meanwhile with Olivia/
"Olivia, get in here!" Cragen shouted from his office.
Elliot watched his partner stalk into their captain's office and slam the door.
"What is wrong with you Olivia?" Cragen asked as he rounded the desk and sat on the front of it.
"I was just trying to get some information out of the ME."
"Well Warner has called me to complain, she nor her technicians have to take the attitude that you're giving." Cragen frowned at the detective.
"I was not giving attitude." Olivia crossed her arms in an adolescent defiance way.
"I think telling them that you would come down there and take care of it yourself if they didn't have the information on your desk last week is a bit of an attitude. Warner didn't take kindly to you slamming the phone down in her ear well either. They are working as fast as they can."
Olivia didn't say anything.
"Olivia maybe you should go home, you've had a rough day, go straight home, have a glass of wine and take a rest."
Olivia relaxed her arms a little and fell into a chair across from Cragen's desk.
"She shot her self, Don. She didn't want us to help, she just shot herself, in the leg, she died of a self inflicted gun shot wound to the leg. I should have done something. I should have shot the gun out of her hand, something."
"Olivia there is nothing you could have done, she didn't want your help, she didn't' want anyone's help."
"Cap, I don't know how I do this job anymore."
"Don't say that Olivia, you're a fantastic Detective, your great with the victims, especially the kids. Maybe you just need some real time off, not a medical leave, some real vacation time."
"I don't know." Olivia said tears in her eyes.
The phone rang in Cragen's office.
"Cragen…. I see, yes thank you, I'll be sure to tell her, yes… yes… okay. Thank you."
"Was that Warner."
"Yes, our woman was raped, she also showed signs of past abuse, physical and possibly sexual."
"Okay… I'm going home."
Olivia got up and started to leave the building. Cragen patted her shoulder as she left the room
"If you want time off tomorrow just take it, I don't expect to see you."
Olivia nodded as she went to her desk picked up her torn jacket, things from the ER in the pockets and left the precinct and caught a cab home.
Once she got home she trudged up the stairs to her apartment. She took out her keys and opened the door. The spicy smells of Italian cooking hit her as she shut the door behind her.
Alex rounded the corner to the entryway and took one look at the detective.
"Olivia, are you okay."
Olivia just shook her head, no, a few tears spilling down her cheeks as she tossed her coat on the floor. Alex rushed forward and wrapped her in a warm hug. Olivia winced as she pressed into her hurt shoulder.
"Oh my God, what happened." Alex held Olivia by the upper arms in front of her to look her over.
A/N: I'm leaving the chapter here, cause I really want to get this up. This story will probably be 4 chapters, not my standard of 3. There is just so much that I want to cover. Thank you for reading my series, I am having a really good time writing it. Until the next chapter, leave reviews, they make my days.