Okay guys, because I love you so much, here is the next chapter.

Thanks to every single one of my reviewers. I would have everyone's name here, but that would just take forever. Maybe I'll e-mail you guys and thank you all. Who knows...it's all dependant on what I have time for.

So far, today had been a little more eventful than their first day of vacation. After spending most of the morning in the garden, it became apparent that Mackenzie had inherited her mother's green thumb. Alex never did understand why her mother felt it necessary to have a gardener on the payroll.

Olivia sauntered down the hallway as she put her last earring in. "Hey Kenzie." She waited for a response, but hearing none, she proceeded through Mackenzie's room. "Kenzie?..Come on Mackenzie, we have to leave in twenty-five minutes…Mackenzie?" Mackenzie wasn't in her bedroom or bathroom, so that only left one possible place. Olivia ran, well as close as one can get to running in strappy three-inch heeled sandals, down the stairs and through the living room. Sure enough, Mackenzie was just where she thought she would be.

"Mackenzie Paige Cabot!" Mackenzie jumped and nearly dropped Lexie.

"What is the one thing I asked you not to do?" Mackenzie stood up and Olivia saw the mess all over her new dress.

Mackenzie tried to brush the puppy's fur off her dress, but only succeeded in making a bigger mess. Olivia eased up. 'Kids will be kids.' She thought. 'At least she's not doing any of the things I did as a teen.' "Now this is why I bought two."

Mackenzie laughed. She hadn't understood earlier why Olivia had bought her two new dresses. One would have been fine, or so she thought. Now she understood why. She tried again to wipe the fur off, but it was useless. She looked up and smiled sweetly. "I love you mommy."

"Yeah," Olivia guided Mackenzie out of the room. "You'd better love me all the way up those stairs and into the other dress."

Mackenzie trudged all the way up the stairs.

"And hurry up. The reservation is for seven which means that we have to be out the door in the next twenty minutes."

"Yeah, yeah." Mackenzie yelled from the confines of her room.

Tonight was going to be a big night. Tonight was to be a celebration of life. This whole event had been planned by Mrs. Cabot before she passed away. She had designed it to be a celebration of Mackenzie's adoption. And in a way, it still was. It had just been tweaked a bit.

It was still a celebration of the adoption, but now it was so much more. Besides Mackenzie's adoption, it was also a celebration of Casey and Serena's relationship, Serena's new job, Elliot and Kathy giving their marriage another try, Maureen's graduation from college and her getting a new job and apartment, Kathleen's early acceptance to NYU, Dickie and Elizabeth turning thirteen, Fin reconnecting with his son, Munch's first and second wives remarrying and him no longer having to pay them alimony, Cragen making it alcohol free for ten years and even a celebration of Mackenzie's aunt Elizabeth and Abbie's engagements and Abbie's approaching due date. But tonight was also a celebration of those who would not be in attendance. Sophia Cabot, who was killed in an automobile accident, and Detective Lennie Briscoe, who passed away earlier this year due to cancer.

Because Mrs. Cabot had made all of the arrangements prior to her death, Olivia and Mackenzie felt that it would not do her justice to waste all of her careful planning, so they decided to go ahead with the event. And besides, everything was already paid for. No one who would be attending this dinner, save for Mrs. Cabot's eldest daughter, would ever make as much money as this whole night was going to cost and as this was pretty much a once in a lifetime opportunity, they all decided to go through with the evening.

Olivia had even bought herself a new dress. It was unlike any she had. No one knew this, but her favorite color was actually pink.

"Liv you're more than a girl than I am." Alex used to joke. She loved teasing Olivia about that fact. But nevertheless, her favorite color was pink. And she looked damn good in it too.

The dress was made out of light pink silk. It was sleeveless and ended just below her knees. To accompany it, she had gotten strappy rhinestone covered sandals with a three-inch heel and an off-white purse with designs in the same pink color as her dress.

After the gardening, Olivia and Mackenzie had gone to the salon and gotten their hair done and got manicures and pedicures. The hair had been a big deal for both. Mackenzie was a stylist's dream and had let Debbie go to town. She had gone quite a few shades lighter with her highlights and was now pretty close to being a blonde, but with her natural color she could get away with it. Contrary to the stylist's thoughts, Olivia had argued that her hair was to dark to have highlights that light, so she only went a few shades lighter. She refused to have bangs made, but she did allow the stylist to feather the ends. Mackenzie however, had been the stylist's dream. She had let Debbie go to town. Her normally straight hair that had come to the middle of her back was now permed into waviness and fell just above her shoulder blades.

Now the nails weren't such a big deal. They had both gotten French manicures and pedicures with rhinestones and designs on their ring fingers. Mackenzie had a single blue rose on both ring fingers that matches some part of both dresses with a rhinestone in the middle of them. Olivia, on the other hand, had gotten a more stylish French manicure with a single rhinestone on the corners of both ring finger nails.

Back in her room, which had previously been Alex's, Olivia was going through her jewelry box trying to figure out exactly which pieces to wear. She already had her earrings in, so that made two less pieces she had to worry about. And, of course she would wear her gold teardrop necklace that matched the identical one Alex had. That left a ring and possibly a bracelet. Nothing she had went with the ensemble she was now in.

She used to ask Alex why she did it. Why she would spend hours getting ready for a fancy dinner or party.

"I like it." Alex would reply. "I get to leave Alex the lawyer behind and become Alex the princess."

Truth be told, Olivia liked it too. It was nice to shed the grit and grime of the heinous crimes she saw on a daily basis and enjoy being a woman.

Something caught her eye hidden in the back of the box. It was Alex's sapphire tennis bracelet. Olivia had bought it for her for their one-year anniversary. She had searched for weeks, going from jeweler to jeweler, trying to find a bracelet that had sapphires the exact color of the young ADA's eyes. When she found the white gold diamond encrusted sapphire tennis bracelet, she couldn't believe its beauty…or its price tag. But in the end the price didn't matter. It wasn't everyday that you got to celebrate the one-year anniversary of your first date with the woman of your dreams. The night she gave it to her, Alex hadn't made it home, so she had put the bracelet in Olivia's jewelry box for safe keeping. Ever since then, Alex hadn't spent enough time at her own apartment to put the bracelet in her own jewelry box, so it had remained in Olivia's.

"This'll do." She took the bracelet out of its hiding place and fastened it onto her wrist. She then closed the jewelry box and picked up the gold box she had purchased earlier. "Mackenzie come here for a minute."

"Hold on I'm almost done." Mackenzie shouted from the next room. A minute or so later, she joined her mother in her room. She was now dressed in a shy blue spaghetti-strap dress that fell just above her knees. She also had on strappy sandals with a two-inch heel that matched the silver of the sparkles on her dress. Going with the blue flower theme of her nails, the flowers on her bracelet and earrings were made of diamonds, light sapphires and dark sapphires.

Olivia smiled at the sight of her daughter. "Now do I know how to pick a dress or do I know how to pick a dress?"

Mackenzie twirled around. "I'd say you know how to pick a dress."

Olivia stood up and followed in her daughter's step and spun around. "And?"

"Who knew the detective was actually a lady."

Olivia handed Mackenzie the box.

"What's this?"

"Geeze, you and your mother. If I wanted you to know right away, I wouldn't have had it put in this box. Now open it and find out."

Mackenzie slowly untied the burgundy ribbon.

Olivia checked the time. "We have seven minutes Kenzie."

"Yeah well, my make-up will only take five."

Olivia stared at her.

"Okay, okay." She quickly untied the ribbon and opened the box. Inside lay a single gold teardrop on a thin gold chain. "It's just like yours."

Olivia took the necklace. "Yep, and your mother's. I thought this way, we can make it a family thing." She clipped the necklace and Mackenzie admired it in the mirror.

"It's beautiful."

"Yes it is." They admired it for a few moments, before the chime of the clock interrupted them. "Go put on your make-up."

"But that clock's fast."

"Yes and we're late, so get moving."

-Three Hours Later-
The Champagne Garden

Laughter from one fable filled the entire restaurant. It wasn't obnoxious laughter though, it was a pleasant laughter. The sound of friends enjoying each other's company. A restaurant of this caliber wasn't used to such blatant displays of happiness, but it was a change well received.

Olivia was almost overwhelmed, and seeing her line of work, that wasn't normal. So many conversations were going on within the group that it was hard to follow any one of them.

'They had to give us a circular table.' Olivia thought. It would be so much easier to follow a conversation had they been seated at a regular table.

Cragen, Munch, Fin and fin's son Ken, were currently involved in a heated debate over who was going to win the next World Series. Munch, per Mackenzie's request, was trying his hardest not to bring his conspiracy theories into their conversation. So far, he was doing a very good job.

Kathleen, Elizabeth and Dickie were updating Maureen on different things that had happened since the last time she was home and vice versa. Every once in a while, Elliot or Kathy would join in their conversation, but for the most part, they were discussing how to save their marriage and make it work this time.

Abbie and her fiancé, Adam, had been talking to Casey and Serena about their impending arrival – who, as it turns out, was going to be a little boy. But Serena and Casey had excused themselves a while ago…a long while ago.

"Maybe they're making out in the bathroom." Mackenzie joked. During the course of the evening, Mackenzie had talked to just about everyone, but a good part of it had been spent getting to know her aunt.

ElizabethCatherine Johnson was Alex's older sister by four years. She had been a soap opera actress, but after ten successful years in front of the camera, she felt she needed a change. So for the past five years, she had spent her time writing sappy romance novels and has even had a few published. Her fiancé, David Branson, was the vice-president of Branson advertising. The company was founded by his grandfather, Anthony Tyler Sr. in the 1940s. After his retirement, her promoted his son, David's father, Anthony Tyler Jr. to president and his grandson to vice-president.

A hand on her shoulder pulled Olivia from her daze.

"That's your cell." Casey said as she and Serena rejoined the group. She was referring to the ringing coming from Olivia's purse.

As Olivia left the table, Mackenzie turned and whispered to Serena, "By the way, you still have lipstick on your neck." If possible, both Serena and Casey turned a brighter shade of red that Serena's dress.

Olivia flipped open her phone. "Benson."

"Olivia its Andrews."

Olivia sighed. She hoped that the reason she thought he was calling wasn't the real reason her was calling. Andrews was another captain at the 1-6 and was filling in for Cragen for the night.

"I'm calling to give you a heads-up."

"A heads-up on what?"

"Emily Johnson is in town."

Nope, definitely not what she was expecting. "What?..Well has she been brought in yet?"

Andrews hesitated. "No."

"And why the hell not?"

"Because she hasn't been caught yet. Listen Detective, this case has been getting a lot of press from the beginning and with the feds starting up and investigation into Mr. Johnson, her picture had to have been released at least a couple dozen times…People are spotting her and calling it in. All of the sightings have been checked out, but this is no dumb woman."

'Shit.' Olivia thought. Mackenzie was just starting to put this behind her and now it was all coming back. She sighed. "Thanks for the warning Capt."

"It's more than a warning Olivia. The feds think she's back to get Mackenzie. Don't let this girl out of your sight. Ms. Johnson was been sighted in many different disguises and your security details haven't been briefed yet. Just be careful."

"We will. Thanks Capt." She shut her phone and walked back to the table. There was more than one empty seat. "Where's Mackenzie?"

Abbie looked up. "She went to the bathroom."

Olivia turned and started running toward the bathroom.

"Liv what's up?" Her partner asked worriedly.

"Mom's back in town." Elliot immediately knew that she wasn't talking about Alex. He looked to Munch, Fin and Cragen and then four of them made it to the bathroom a second after Olivia did.