Cabot Estate – 3 Days Later

Once back in the city, it was literally a matter of mere hours before the whole of New York got word that the youngest of the prestigious Cabot daughters was 'back from the dead,' had 'returned from space', or her favorite, 'made a deal with the Angel of Death.' As the reporters had all so kindly put it. No matter which way the phrased it, they all pretty much meant the same thing, and every reporter in the city wanted to be the first to get the interview with the 'Phantom Prosecutor.'

In order to stay away from the masses of cameras and reporters, Alex and Mackenzie were currently seeking refuge within the confines of the Cabot estate. The whole place has a fence around it, so no reporter had yet attempted to climb over it. Not that they would even get anywhere if they had. This estate had almost as many police guarding it as it has reporters trying to get it.

Mackenzie let go of the curtain and sauntered back over to the couch. "Can't you just make them go away."

Alex looked up from her large pile of papers and pictures and sighed. "I wish that I could sweetie, believe me, but they've got the first amendment protecting them."

"God bless America." Sarcasm was Mackenzie's second language. "How do they live with themselves? What, do they go home after work and their husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends or whoever they live with? Are they like, 'So honey, what did you do today?' 'Well dear, today I managed to stalk this woman and her daughter to the point where they couldn't even leave their house. Yep, a good day's work.'" Mackenzie sighed. "They all blow."

"Mackenzie." Alex warned.

"What? Would you rather I say they all suck? . . Fine, they all suck."

Alex closed the file and set her glasses down on the table. "Come here Kenzie."

Mackenzie initially had no desire to move, but after a few seconds of the former prosecutor staring her down, she reluctantly gave in.

-1 Hour Later-

"What about this one?"

"Eh, it's too . . . I dunno. It's just not . . . me."

Alex nodded. "That's the whole point."

Mackenzie shrugged. "I guess so."

The two went back to silence as they continued flipping through the real estate listings. Up until a few days ago, all the aspects of their new lives and identities had been all settled. But that was all changed by the Kyleea virus, created by wither one very genderly confuses male or one equally confused female.

The Kyleea virus was the most destructive virus the FBI had seen to date. Since their last update, this virus had been the only one to penetrate the thick walls of the FBI's top secret Witness Protection Program files. The minute the virus was detected, a team of federal computer technicians worked for seventeen straight hours trying to rid the system of this parasitic virus.

As the eighteenth hour rolled around, the number of ways to eliminate the virus faded. Finally, they had no other choice. This virus was eating up all the files and transmitting them to somewhere outside the continental US. So, at 22:00 Sunday night, every single one of the WPP files were destroyed.

The only remaining connection between the WPP and their witnesses were their caseworkers, but due to the threats against the witnesses, the only traces of them the caseworkers had was a name, a phone number and a date. The name was a combination of the witness's real last name and their WPP last name. The phone number was to an untraceable pre-paid throw away cell every witness is given upon entrance into the program, and the date is the date the witness began living as his or her new identity.

That was why the two were currently looking through a bunch of real-estate listings approved by the feds. Since the house they were supposed to move into had been compromised, the feds found no harm in letting Alex and Mackenzie fins their own home. The feds had enough work to do because of the destruction this virus caused and Alex and Mackenzie weren't scheduled to move for a few days anyway.

After a long time of just staring at the floor, Mackenzie glanced at her watch and then made a b-line for the front door.

"Mackenzie what's wrong?" Alex hollered after her fleeting daughter."

"Nothing, I just need some air."

Alex sat back down. "Right . . . air."

Mackenzie ran as fast as she could. Down the front steps, across the gravel, through the freshly cut grass and cultivated flower beds and around the corner of the house she managed to escape the eager camera lenses. Once in the backyard, it was around the pool and across the impeccably manicured lawn before she finally reached the comfort created by the confines of the forest.

SVU Squadroom

"Yeah . . . yeah . . . okay sweetie, I'll be right there. . . Yes I promise. I'm leaving now . . . Yes right now . . . Okay . . . Love you too." Olivia hung up her phone with an exacerbated sigh while Elliot, the ever subtle eavesdropper handed her her jacket.

"What's up?"

Olivia shook her head. "I don't know. I guess Mac got all upset about something and ran out of the house and Alex let her go thinking she just needed to blow off some steam, she said something about being cooped up in the house all day, but that was almost five hours ago."

Elliot looked alarmed. "Want me to tell Cragen?"

"No." Olivia waved him off. "I know where she is."

Cabot Estate

One thing had to be said for being a cop. Going all lights and sirens drastically reduced the amount of time needed to navigate through mid-day city traffic and hordes or paparazzi. The papers would surely have a new and interesting theory to print tomorrow.

"Liv, I have no idea where she is. Like a typical teenager trying to get away from her mother, she's not answering her cell, she's not in the house and I had the police check the grounds." She slouched. "I lost her."

Olivia tried not to laugh as she leaned against the car next to Alex. "Sweetie, you didn't loose her. The thing with Mackenzie is . . . she's overly emotional, and when she doesn't know how to handle how she's feeling, she runs."

"Sounds like someone I know." Alex insinuated.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that . . . " She continued right along. "Mackenzie's been through something terrible, something we'll probably never even begin to fathom. Something she may never tell us the whole truth about. She's just a scared and confused kid whose mind has been on a total overload these past few months. I can't say that I wouldn't push people away if I had so much to wrap my mind around."

Alex rested her head on Olivia's shoulder. "You have."

Olivia smiled. "I'll pretend that I didn't hear that either."

Alex laughed. "You go right ahead."

Olivia looked to her right at all the flashing cameras. "You know, the paparazzi are going to have a field day with this."

A sinister smile grew on Alex's face. "Then lets give them something to really go to town with." In one swift motion, Alex turned and drew Olivia's lips to hers. The amount of flashes tripled.

-45 Minutes Later-

Mackenzie heard the footsteps long before their maker found her. Alex didn't say a word, but just sat next to her daughter and waited for her to make the first move.

Mackenzie picked up a pebble and walked the few feet to the water's edge. "How did you know where I was?"

"I used to come here when I was pregnant with you. It was my escape from all the gossip, my parents, the world . . . everything." Alex watched the pebble skip across the pond. "And Olivia told me you would probably be here."

Not another word was said for at least the next five minutes. Alex had so many questions to ask, so many things to say, so many lectures to give, but she knew that she had to earn Mackenzie's trust first.

With the last ripple gone from the pond, Mackenzie took up residence on tree stump across from the tree Alex was sitting under. "Why didn't she come to get me herself?"

Alex looked up. "Olivia? . . She thought that it would be better if came. We have some things we need to talk about . . . Like why you bolted earlier."

Another long silence followed.

"It's just . . . There's so much going on. I mean, up until a few months ago I was like every other girl at McKenna. We all had mothers who couldn't be bothered with us, so they stuck us all in boarding school. . . And I was okay with that, because I knew that most of the other girls were going through the same thing, but now . . ."

"Now . . ." Alex encouraged.

"Now I'm the only one. So much has happened and . . . changed me so much. And after it all, I finally start to trust someone, just in time for me to be taken away from her." She tried to hold back the tears. "How am I supposed to learn to trust people, if every time I do . . . either they leave or I do?"

Alex smiled. "Let me tell you a little secret about Olivia and our impending move."