Disclaimer: Dick owns 'em

Okay, so I realized I made kind of a big mistake in this chapter. In the first one I said Alex's sister had been killed in a car accident, then in this one I said she'd been murdered. I fixed it. Alex's sister was killed in a car accident. Sorry.

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When Jess finally parked and went inside, she looked up and saw that the elevator was on the eighth floor, and going up. "Why the hell does a building like this have only one elevator?" she asked as she frantically pushed the up button. She had tried to call Alex several times but hadn't gotten an answer. Initially, she had thought about calling the police, but without being able to tell them what was wrong, she doubted they would be of any help.

"Dammit, Alex," she said as the elevator finally arrived and she walked inside, pushing the button. "Why the hell do you have to live on the eleventh floor?"

She paced around in the elevator as it slowly moved up to the eleventh floor. "Come ON!" she screamed as she began pushing the eleven button again. "This building isn't that old! Move dammit!"

Finally the elevator doors opened and Jess bolted down the hallway. She was looking at all the numbers on the doors, trying to make sure she was going in the right direction. She was so fixated on the doors that as she rounded a corner, she collided with an angry-looking older woman.

"Sorry!" Jess yelled as she kept running, not even slowing down.

"Watch where you're going next time, bitch!" the woman yelled back.

Jessica finally stopped at Alex's door. She knocked softly as she opened the door. "Alex, you there?"

The television was on, but Jess wasn't paying any attention to the CSI episode. She turned it off and tried to listen. "Alex? It's Jess! I got your message and let myself in." When there was no answer, Jess began to worry. She started walking around, and then heard running water. Alex was in the shower. She made her way towards the sound until she found the bathroom. She knocked softly. No answer. She knocked again, harder this time. Still no answer. She opened the door, and screamed.

Alex was lying on the floor in only her underwear and bra, curled up into a tight ball, and shaking. Jess ran over to her and bent down. "Alex?" she said worriedly as she put her hand on the woman's shoulder. Alex didn't respond. She just continued shaking and muttering incoherently. Jess quickly turned off the shower. The water was ice cold. How long had Alex been lying here? She grabbed a towel and gently covered the woman. She wasn't prepared for Alex's reaction.

Alex started screaming and thrashing her arms and legs about violently. "NO! Stop! Please, I'll be good! I promise! Just stop! Please! Stop it!"

It was then that Jess saw the woman's stomach and upper thighs. It looked like someone had used her body as a cutting board, then burned her. Jess slowly bent down and tried to hold the frightened woman still. "Alex, you're safe," she said softly. "It's Jess. I'm right here. You're safe now, I promise." She wrapped her arms even tighter around her and tried to offer any comfort she could. "What the hell happened to you, Alex?" she wondered.

Finally, after what seemed to Jess like an eternity, Alex's breathing returned almost to normal. It was still quick and shallow, but nothing that would cause any alarm.

"Can I get you anything?" Jess asked, still not letting go of Alex.

"R-r-robe," Alex answered, trying to fight the tears.

Jess rubbed her fingers through Alex's hair. "Okay. I'll be right back."

"N-no," Alex stammered. "I-I want to change by m-myself."

Jess realized that Alex had brought her knees back up to her chest. Was it possible that she didn't even know that she had seen her scars? Jess nodded. "Okay, I'll hand it to you through the door." She stood up slowly and walked into Alex's bedroom. She searched for the robe in a panic, finally finding it buried in the closet. She grabbed it and went back to the bathroom, handing it through the door to Alex. "Can I get you anything else?"

"O-O-Ol-" she stammered. She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down enough to get it out. "O-Olivia. Her n-number's in m-my phone."

"Okay. I'll call her." She made her way down the hall and into the kitchen, where she remembered seeing Alex's purse.

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She couldn't believe this was happening. She'd just experienced the worst flashback of her entire life, and the first one in several months. What the hell had just happened? She remembered turning on the water, and then all of a sudden she was back there again. The next thing she remembered was Jess' voice telling her she was safe.

"Oh shit," she said as she pulled on the robe. "Alex, what did you just do?" She tried to will herself to go out and talk to Jessica, but she couldn't even make herself get up off the floor. "Good job, Cabot. You've really done it this time.

A slight panic ran through her when she realized that Jessica may have seen her scars. She would probably leave now. Any hope of building a relationship with this girl was gone. She cursed herself for letting this girl get away. Lying on the floor, unable to move, panic setting in, she cried.

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Jess rummaged through the purse as quickly as she could. "Okay, okay, let's just find the damn cell phone." She said shakily. "Where the hell is it?" She knew that panicking wasn't going to help, but she couldn't help it. She couldn't calm down, not after what she had just seen. Finally, she found the phone and began scrolling through the numbers. There must have been a hundred of them in there. Relief swept over her when she found Olivia's name. She quickly pressed the send button and wondered what the hell she was going to say.

"Benson," the voice on the other end answered. When there was no response, she tried again. "Alex, you there?"

"Are you Olivia?" Jess quickly replied, praying that this was the right person.

"Who's asking?" Olivia asked worriedly. "And where's Alex?"

"My name's Jessica Matthews. I, um…well, uh, I think I'm Alex's niece."

"What?" Olivia asked. She knew Alex had a sister who had been raped and later killed in a car accident, but that was it. She grew more concerned. "Where's Alex?"

"She's, well, she invited me to dinner tonight when I met her at her office. I hadn't met her before then. Then she left a voicemail on my phone saying I could come over early, so I came over right after my psych class. When I knocked on the door, nobody answered, so I let myself in. she told me I could do that. When I got in the TV was on but-"

The girl was rambling. Olivia could tell that something was very wrong. "Jess!" she said loudly. "Where's Alex?"

She took a deep breath. "She's on the floor of the bathroom. She-"

"WHAT?"

"She's okay," Jess said, trying her best to reassure the woman on the other end. "I think she had a panic attack or something. She was curled up in a ball and crying. She's asking for you."

That took Olivia by surprise. "Really?"

"Yea, she needs you."

Olivia closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. Something wasn't right. She never in a million years imagined Alex asking her for help, but that's exactly what was happening. "Tell her I'll be there in ten minutes."

"Okay," Jess said, and hung up.

Jess made her way back to the bathroom and was surprised to see Alex standing at the mirror, brushing her hair. "Olivia said she'd be here in ten minutes."

Alex stopped brushing and turned around to look at Jessica. "She agreed to come over?"

Jess smiled slightly. "Yea. She sounded really worried. I think she's really concerned about you."

Panic suddenly took over. "Jess, what did you tell her?"

"I told her that I was your niece and that I'd found you having a panic attack on the bathroom floor."

Alex narrowed her eyebrows, almost as if she didn't believe her. "That's all you told her?"

"Yea. That's all I told her."

Alex turned back to the mirror. She remembered screaming and thrashing about, and she remembered Jessica holding her and telling her everything was okay and that she was safe. Why hadn't she told her about that?

"I told her what was necessary," Jess said, answering Alex's unvoiced question. "I figured if you wanted her to know more you could tell her. It's not really my place to tell her everything."

"Thank you," Alex said as she slowly put the brush down on the sink. She turned and walked out of the bathroom and into her bedroom. She crawled into bed and pulled the covers up top her chin. "You can leave if you want," she said when she saw that Jess had followed her in. "You've seen enough to make anyone run screaming."

Before Jess could answer, there was a knock at the door. She turned to look at Alex. "I'm not going anywhere unless you want me to. This doesn't change anything, Alex. I still want to get to know you. I still want to be a part of your life."

"Promise?" Alex asked, then immediately regretted it. She hated sounding needy.

"I promise," Jess answered, then headed to the door.