Alex suppressed the shudder until they had rounded the corner. Olivia glanced sideways at her but did not say a word. Alex hoped silently to herself that she had not noticed the whispered comment from Munch.

In the outer room of interrogation, Alex could see through the two-way mirror to where Jeffrey Nelson sat facing them. His attorney sat at the end of the table, around the corner from Jeffrey, and he was facing his client. Alex could not see his face.

"Come on," she said softly.

"Counselor?" Cragen turned to look at her.

"Nothing. Sorry." The Captain turned back to the glass, not thinking about it again; but Olivia gazed at Alex for a few seconds. Alex raised her eyebrows at the detective, who looked back toward the interrogation room, but not before letting the A.D.A. know that she was not falling for the "Nothing" comment.

Alex shifted her eyes back to the glass and gasped. Cragen and Benson looked at her simultaneously, but she did not seem to notice; hand to her mouth, she was staring intently at the attorney in the interrogation room, who had turned his face just enough to be visible through the two-way mirror.

"Alex." Olivia stepped toward her, holding a hand out. "Maybe you'd better sit down."

"No, I'm... I'm fine." Alex could not tear her eyes from the man behind the glass.

"Alex, your face just got three shades whiter in less than a second. Do you feel like you're gonna pass out?"

Alex blinked and bit her lip, then let her gaze drop to the floor before looking up at Benson. "Sorry. No, I'm okay. Let's go talk to him."

Benson nodded. "All right." She opened the door and let Alex walk through, then followed her, shutting the door behind them.

Jeffrey did not look up as they entered the room, but continued to stare sullenly at his hands resting on the table. The man in the suit, however, rose from his seat and came toward them with a smile that looked staged.

"Alex," he said, stretching a hand toward her. "It's been a long time."

Not long enough. She wanted so badly to say it out loud, but she bit it back and politely took his hand.

"I've been waiting for you.

" Not "we," not "my client," but "I." Even if no one else knew or caught the significance, Alex did. She had never met another attorney that she disliked as much as she did Nathan Tate. She had met some attorneys who were not great at their jobs or who did not even attempt to hide the fact that they were in the field only for the money, but with Nathan Tate, it was personal.

Alex sat down at the table while Olivia leaned back against the glass, crossing her legs at the ankles and her arms over her chest.

"So, what's so important that it couldn't wait until morning?"

As she stepped out of the interrogation room, Alex took a deep breath and tried to regain the composure that she had barely been holding onto for the past hour. Who did Nathan Tate think he was, expecting her to literally hand him an acquittal like that?

The problem was, Alex knew exactly why he thought he could get her to let his client walk away. And she was not planning to let him get away with it.

You've just been lucky not to have butted legal heads with him in the last five years, she told herself. Still, she had known that this day would come.

"Alex." Olivia's voice behind her startled her. She turned around as the detective approached her. "What was going on in there?" Olivia asked quietly as the neared the doorway to the office area.

"Nothing," Alex said, trying to sound innocent. "What do you mean?"

"Come on, Alex, there was definitely something going on in there. Cragen might not have seen it, but that doesn't mean nothing was going on." Olivia paused for a second. "Was he threatening you?" she finally said, so softly that she was almost whispering. Still, Alex glanced around to make sure no one could hear their conversation. That action alone gave Olivia all the confirmation she needed. "It's ten o'clock and you probably haven't eaten all day. Let's go get something to eat." She did not give Alex a chance to agree or disagree, just grabbed both of their coats from her chair, shoved a stack of papers into one of her desk drawers, and dragged Alex out the door.

Alex could feel John Munch's eyes on her as they passed him. She avoided meeting his gaze and was glad that Olivia was so intent on getting her out of the station that she was not paying any attention to the other detective.

"Okay, Alex, talk," Olivia said after they were seated in a booth in a restaurant not far from the precinct and had ordered. The waitress had barely walked away when Olivia gave the order.

"Liv, it's nothing. Really."

Olivia just looked at her for a moment. "We're friends, Alex. We're supposed to be able to trust each other."

Alex sighed. Why did it always have to boil down to a trust issue? "It has nothing to do with trusting you. It has everything to do with not trusting myself."

"Okay, I'll play. It's fairly obvious that I was right and you two already knew each other. It was also pretty obvious in that interrogation room that he was trying to force you, one way or another, to let Jeffrey Nelson off the hook."

Alex winced. Olivia noticed.

"Okay, I'm two for two. What else?" She seemed to be thinking for a moment. "Alex... did he hurt you? Or does he have something on you, I mean really have some dirt on you? Because I can't think of any other reason for him to act so cocky in there."

Alex just looked at her, and though her face was expressionless, Olivia could tell by her eyes that she was trying to decide whether or not to confide in her. Finally, she spoke.

"You have to promise me that you aren't going to say a word to anyone. I couldn't do my job if anyone knew."

"You know I won't tell anyone. I promise."