A few mornings later, Alex was looking over reports from her ADAs when her phone rang. " Alexandra Cabot," she answered it.

"Hey, Alex, it's Casey Novak."

Alex sat back in her seat, putting down her pen. She'd only seen her friends from SVU once or twice since returning to New York, so the phone call was somewhat unexpected. "Hi, Casey. How are you?"

"Pretty good. You?"

"Good."

"I've got a favor to ask."

"Name it."

"I have a case right now with a little bastard that's made a career of slipping through our fingers. I saw in his file that you were the last one to get him court, and was hoping you could share some insight."

"Yeah, sure. You want to meet for lunch?"

Casey was already at the restaurant by the time Alex arrived; she'd gotten stopped by both Finn and Potter on her way out of the office. "Sorry I'm late," she said as she slipped into her seat at their window table.

Casey shook her head. "I've only been here a minute."

They both looked through the menu and gave their waiter their order. Casey then pulled a file out of her bag and handed it to Alex. She started flipping through the pages. "Oh, God, I remember this guy. I think that was the most infuriating case I ever lost."

"Which is why I'd like nothing more than to nail his ass to the wall," Casey replied. She then noticed a glittering bit of jewelry on Alex's left hand. "Is there something you want to talk about?" she asked.

She was confused for a moment, but followed Casey's gaze and realized what she was talking about. "Oh. Um, I'm engaged."

"So I gathered. Congratulations. When, who, and how come you didn't say anything?"

"Yesterday, his name is Robert, and I…I just didn't think of it."

" Robert, huh? How long have you been going out? I haven't heard any details from Olivia and them, but I know the whole thing with you and me is kind of complicated, so – "

"It's not," Alex started to protest.

Casey shook her head. "Believe me. I spent enough months with 'Not Cabot' stamped to my forehead to know how weird things are."

"You didn't get left out of the information loop," Alex told her. "No one knows. I've only been seeing him for…God, just over two months."

Casey smiled. "Whirlwind romance?"

"More like my existence is just a whirlwind in general. Sometimes, I'm not sure what I'm doing or what's going on in my life. Or what's left of my life."

"Adjusting to coming out of witness protection hasn't been easy?"

"I don't know. Some days, everything seems fine and sometimes…I was living in a hotel when I first came back to New York, and then when I met Robert, I moved in with him. My life pretty much consists of work and him, and the word 'yes' just popped out of my mouth before I could stop myself."

"Does that mean you wish you had stopped yourself?"

Alex sighed. "I don't know."

Casey considered that. "Maybe while you're trying to get back to how things used to be, you should work on reconnecting with the things that your life was made up of before."

Alex nodded. "Maybe. It's my problem, not yours. I'm sorry I laid this all on you." She pointed to the file in front of her. "This guy is your problem. Where have you gotten so far?" They both got down to business.

Casey's words were still echoing around in Alex's head by the time they parted ways an hour or so later. It did seem rather counterproductive to try and resume her old lifestyle while ignoring the people that had been such a big part of it.

Everything about the 1-6's squad room was still familiar to her when she walked in the door a couple days later. Munch was the first one to notice her, turning away from a conversation he was having with Fin and Cragen. "Well, well, this is a surprise," he said as all three men walked over to her.

"Is something going on with a case?" Cragen asked.

"No, I just had the morning off, and wanted to come and visit."

"I met one of those kids that work for you," Munch told her. "I couldn't believe she'd graduated high school, let alone law school."

Alex smiled. "A few of them are still pretty wet behind the ears, but they're managing."

"I wish we'd have known you were coming," Fin said. "We were just on our way out the door."

"That's okay," she assured him. "We'll talk more next time. I promise I won't wait so long between visits."

"You better," he replied, giving her a quick friendly hug before he and Munch headed out the door.

"Where are Olivia and Elliot?" Alex asked Cragen.

"Olivia's not here; she's on a special assignment for a few weeks."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Are you serious? What about Elliot?"

"In the crib, at the moment. He had a long night last night." Cragen looked at his watch. "He wanted to be woken up about a half hour ago. Why don't you go check on him; he could probably use a nice surprise."

Elliot was still asleep on a bed in the back corner of the crib. Alex couldn't help but smile as she gently shook his shoulder. He almost looked like a little boy being forced to wake up for school. "I'm up, Liv," she heard him mumble.

"Old habits die hard, Detective Stabler?" Alex asked with a grin, sitting on the bed beside his. As the fog of sleep lifted, he realized who was next to him.

"Alex?"

"Morning. Expecting someone else?"

"Yeah, sort of…I guess Olivia usually is the one dragging my butt out of here."

"So, what poor soul got stuck with you as a partner while she's out on loan?"

Elliot looked up at that. "Nice." Alex grinned mischievously. "He hasn't run screaming from the building yet."

"Is there a betting pool on how long he's going to last?"

"Not sure, but if so, it's probably not as big as the one we had for you when you came onboard."

Alex's eyes widened. "You didn't."

Elliot nodded. "I lost thirty bucks to Olivia."

"How long did you think I was going to last?"

He grinned. "Two weeks." Alex grabbed a pillow and hit him. "Hey! You're assaulting a police officer!"

"You insulted an ADA. I think you're in more trouble than I am."

"Mmm, probably. What are you doing over here anyway? Don't you have a day care – I mean, an office to run, Ms. Bureau Chief?"

"Yes, I do, but it's been a while since I saw all of you guys, so I wanted to visit. I had lunch with Casey a couple days ago."

"I know. Congratulations, by the way," he tipped his head to indicate the ring on her finger. "When do I get to meet the lucky guy?"

"I don't know. Sometime soon. And you better not pull the 'big brother' crap that you do for Olivia." She noticed his smile dim a little bit.

"We'll see. A guy's got to take care of his friends."

"Thank you. I guess I probably should get going. Cragen said to wake you up; I'm not sure if that means he needs you."

Elliot looked at his watch and sighed. "I was supposed to be up earlier than this." Alex just smiled as they both got up and headed for the door. "We should do lunch or something at some point," he said, "Once things are a little less crazy for both of us."

"Definitely. Give me a call when you're free. Or I'll call you, or something."

He smiled. "Yeah, something. It was good seeing you, Alex."

She nodded. "You, too."

TBC...