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Jess woke up to the sound and smell of sizzling bacon. It took her several seconds to figure out where she was. The surface she was lying on wasn't familiar, and when she went to stretch her legs, she found she couldn't straighten them completely. Then it all came back to her. She was in Alex's house. She was sleeping on Alex's couch. She prayed Alex was okay as she opened her eyes. She saw Alex cooking in the kitchen and smiled – she looked a lot better than she had last night.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," Alex said, smiling as she flipped over several pieces of bacon.

Jess smiled as she stretched her arms and swung her legs over the side of the couch so she could stretch them as well. She closed her eyes again as she stretched even further. "Just treat her like normal," Jess thought to herself. "Don't ask her a million questions. Just treat her like you would treat anyone else." She sat up and smiled. "Good morning. How ya feeling?"

"Really good…thanks to you. I owe you big."

"No you don't," Jess said as she rubbed the sleep crust out of her eyes. "Need any help with that?"

"Nope."

"You sure? You don't have to cook me breakfast."

"Oh, I know," Alex said grinning, "But I want to. And you're not helping."

"But-"

"Jess, 'that cop' who was here last night, she's in the bathroom," Alex told her jokingly. "I swear if you move off that couch to do anything other than pee I'll have no problem sicking her on you."

Jess laughed and threw her arms up in the air. "Okay, you win! Enjoy your cooking."

"I will." Alex shook her head and smiled as she continued with the bacon. She was glad Jess hadn't bombarded her with a bunch of questions. That would have just made things even more awkward. Her mind went back to the conversation she'd had with Jess after she'd called Olivia. When she'd heard that Olivia was rushing over, she'd panicked, figuring Jess had told her everything, but she hadn't. "I figured if you wanted her to know more, you could tell her," Jess had said. Alex looked back over at Jess, who was flipping through one of the National Geographic magazines she kept on the coffee table. "Is she really going to wait for me to talk to her?" Alex asked herself.

Jess looked up and saw Alex standing in the kitchen, smiling at her. "What?" she asked self-consciously. "Did I drool all over myself or something?"

"No," Alex said, shaking her head and laughing. "I just…"

"What?" Jess asked when Alex didn't finish.

"This is going to sound so stupid."

"What is it?" Jess' voice showed a hint of concern.

Alex took a deep breath. "I just wanted to make sure you were still here." She wiped a tear and looked down at the counter, unable to believe she had just uttered those words. What was happening to her? She never admitted when something was wrong, never admitted anything that could possibly show her as being anything other than confident and happy.

Jess stood up and walked over to the counter, taking Alex's hand in hers. "That's not stupid," she told her softly. "I'm still here, and I will stay here unless you ask me to leave, and even then I'll probably stick around."

Before Alex knew what she was doing, she threw her arms around the girl. She wasn't even concentrating on being the tough, strong Alex she had always tried to be. "Thank you," she said as she cried. When she felt Jessica's arms wrap around her and heard her say, "You don't have to thank me, but you're welcome anyway," she knew she had to have Jess as a big part of her life. She wiped away her tears and forced a smile, knowing it would be a while before she told her story; but also realizing that she desperately needed this friendship.

"So," Alex said, shoving her tears aside for the time being. "What do you say the two of us have lunch and walk around town or something? What time do you have class?"

"Actually, I only have Psychology and Law on Mondays. They're both three hour lectures, which makes for some incredibly long Mondays, but-"

"You have the rest of the week off." Alex finished. "That must be nice."

Jess nodded. "What's your work schedule like?"

"Crazy. I get calls at all sorts of odd hours, asking me to get search warrants, arrest warrants, et cetera. I have to go in when they puck up suspects to question them. I have to be ready if someone wants to deal or if something happens in court."

"Damn."

"Yea, well, I like to keep busy."

Jess wasn't sure if she was reading too much into the conversation, but she figured there was a deeper meaning behind Alex's need to keep busy. She decided not to ask about it now because she didn't want to ruin the good mood. "Well if it's busy you're after, you got it."

Alex rolled her eyes. "That's the truth. But anyways, I called in sick and have off today and tomorrow. I have about a million sick days so I figured I could take off and get to know my niece a little bit…that is, if she's still interested."

"Absolutely," Jess said as she took two slices of bacon. "I've wanted to know why I was different my whole life. When I found out I was adopted, I had to know where I came from. I want to get to know you, Alex."

"You probably have a bunch of questions, don't you?"

Jess picked up on the uneasiness in Alex's voice and nodded. "I do, but if it's a touchy subject, I can wait. That's not the most important thing to me right now. Right now, all I want to do is get to know this amazingly wonderful and very attractive woman who I might just have to start calling Aunt Alex."

Alex laughed and rolled her eyes. "Now you're making me feel old." She was relieved that Jess still hadn't asked her about her mother. She wasn't sure how she was going to tell her that she was the product of a rape. She decided to wait and talk to Olivia, hoping Olivia would be able to give some advice on how to tell her. "Well," she said a few seconds later. "How about I take you out to lunch and then we can go walk around Central Park and just hang out?"

"On one condition."

"What?" Alex asked nervously, praying Jess wasn't going to ask her to reveal anything this soon.

"You let me take you out to lunch tomorrow."

Alex breathed a sigh of relief. "Deal."

Jess narrowed her eyebrows. "You okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yea. I'm fine. I just, I uh…I was just worried, I thought you were going to-"

Jess smiled comfortingly and put her hand on Alex's shoulder. "Not until you're ready. I'm not going anywhere and I'm not going to ask you a million questions. I want to get to know you, Alex. If you want to talk, I'll listen. If you're not ready, that's fine too."

Alex couldn't believe someone like this actually existed. Jess should have run screaming after what she saw in the bathroom, but she had stayed. Here she was, treating her like a normal person. Sure she was showing her concern, but she wasn't attacking her with questions or treating her as if she were so fragile she would break at any moment. Jess was treating her with an amazing amount of respect that she'd only ever seen from one other person: Olivia. "I can't lose these two," she said to herself. "I just can't." she smiled and looked gratefully at Jessica. "Well how does lunch at the Olive Garden sound?"

"Sounds great."

"Good. Do you want to shower or anything? I mean, you don't smell bad or look gross or-"

Jess laughed. "Alex, chill. You didn't just insult me, and yes, as soon as 'that cop' gets out of the bathroom, I'd love to take a shower."

"Okay. Do you need any clothes?"

Jess smiled nervously. "Actually last night, when Olivia was talking to you, I ran down to my car to grab the change of clothes I always keep in case of emergencies. I know it sounds weird but-"

"Nah," Alex interrupted. "I think it's a good idea. Besides, you needed to keep busy, and a person can only clean an apartment for so long."

Jess smiled, embarrassed. "Yeah, I uh…"

"I get it," Alex said smiling. Jess had stayed, but she had been upset and needed to do something. Cleaning the apartment had probably kept her from going crazy. "I don't think I've ever seen my apartment this clean. I appreciate it."

Just then Olivia walked into the room, fully showered and in her uniform. "Morning," she said to Jess. "I was wondering when you were going to wake up."

"Well, what can I say? I'm not a morning person." She grabbed her bag from beside the couch and headed toward the bathroom. "Oh, Alex?"

"Yeah?"

"Where are your towels? I somehow always manage to forget mine."

"There's a closet in the bathroom. Everything you need is in there."

"Thanks," she said as she made her way into the bathroom. She set her bag down, opened the closet door, and smiled. Alex had all of her towels shoved everywhere and on every shelf. There were half empty bottles of shampoo all over the place and open containers of now ruined bath salts. She quickly grabbed a towel and shut the door, praying she didn't bring everything down with it. She undressed and stepped into the shower, allowing the hot water and steam to engulf her as she tried to process everything that had just happened.