AN: Don't like, don't read.
If you read already and didn't like, please comment so next time, I won't do as bad…
Just don't be mean – and that (to me) has little to do with what you say, but how you say it.
It's not so long, but it's something. Chapter 10 will be up as soon as I finish writing the 11th.

After talking to Cragen and having some lunch, Olivia and Elliot went to One Police Plaza to tell Carolyn Barek that nothing inappropriate was going on between her sister and Detective Goren, and in the end they decided to stick around.

"…the first couple of months were hard, and I mean really hard. I couldn't keep up with him and he wasn't much help… I remember I walked into Deakins' office one day and handed him my request for a new partner, and the next day Bobby had changed completely. Something had happened and I didn't know what, I couldn't explain it but he let me know that he knew I was there; he started making things slightly easier, he started explaining his comments, his findings, what he was thinking, it was like he was a different person, or as if he knew about the letter. He may have suspected, but he most certainly did not know… Just before we got off work that day I met Rachel. She walked into the precinct and into Deakins' office like she belonged there, and she did." Alex let out a small laugh. "She invited me to Bobby's apartment, said she was cooking and she wanted to 'get to know Bobby's partner.' We talked, a lot. After that I knew I had to withdraw my request. I guess you could say Rachel made me realize it was worth giving him a second chance, she had shown me a completely different side of Bobby Goren… I did, I withdrew the letter the following morning."

"She invited Elliot and I to diner last night, and judging by the look in his face, he didn't know she was going to tell us to stay… how does that work?"

"When she's in town and she decides she's cooking, she can invite whoever she wants. That's how it works… and it's usually at Goren's but it could be at my place, you never know for sure. Did you stay, last night?"

"Yeah... and it was really weird 'cos, I don't know, we were investigating a case and she was there just being really friendly with him and sometimes it really did look like they were flirting but-"

"It was only Rachel trying to show you how she is, how they are, how the nature of their relationship could have been misinterpreted or misunderstood?... I'm sorry; I interrupted you," Alex said, finishing Olivia's sentence and apologizing for it.

"Yeah… and then when we were in the living room, just chatting, she made me want to spill my guts out about everything, even about how I was feeling! That doesn't happen often."

"And you didn't?" Alex asked, amused. "She must have not pushed at all, otherwise you would've. She knows just what questions to ask when she wants you to tell her something."

"Talking from experience?"

"Yes, actually. When I mentioned we talked a lot? It was me who did most of the talking… she asked small things and let me talk. You know the people that interrupt you when you're telling a story to tell a story of their own? Rachel's nothing like that, she'll let you talk until you think you have nothing else to say, and then she'll ask something crucial that'll get you talking again," Alex explained with a laugh.

TBC…