AN: Hey! I know it's been a long time. Here's a new chapter for y'all. More to come. As always leave your reviews/comments and suggestions. I read them all and appreciate them very much. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 38: More Undercover Blues

Amanda took a trip to Costa Rica for her vacation. She needed some time away from everyone to deal with everything that'd come out over the last couple weeks and find her focus again. Even though she and Chris had worked things out before she left, they didn't talk while she was gone. She didn't talk to anyone. She cut herself off from New York and Atlanta and really used the time to work through her issues. Chris took care of Frannie while she was gone. She also had her sister to worry about. She was getting closer to her due date and her blood pressure was starting to spike again. After the third day with a high pressure and no more improvement with the medication, her doctor decided it was time for her to stay in the hospital. She was only twenty eight weeks along and they wanted her to make it to, at least, thirty two weeks before she delivered. If they didn't get her blood pressure under control, they'd have to deliver for both hers and the baby's safety. Chris went to her school, got her work and took it to her at the hospital. She'd found a tutor that'd be able to come to the hospital and help her when she needed. They were both determined for her to graduate on time.

With everything going on with her sister, Chris was still going to work every day. She'd already taken a lot of time off and didn't want to take anymore. Amanda was back from Costa Rica and the squad was complete again. It'd been a while since all five of them were at work at the same time. One of them was always off for one reason or another. They all had to admit it was nice to have the entire team. They also had to admit that it was nice to have everyone on speaking terms. Amanda and Nick had worked out whatever their issues were and Amanda and Chris were dating again. They pretty much started from the beginning, going out to lunch and dinner, walks in the park with Frannie, drinks on the weekend. Amanda was doing really well. She was going to GA meetings and cut back on her drinking which did wonders for her punctuality. They were working like a well-oiled machine, closing case after case. They had a couple on their plates that weren't turning up many leads and those would sometimes go on the back burner for the bigger cases; the ones that required the entire team. One of those bigger cases brought Declan Murphy back into their squad room. They were doing an undercover op to return a sixteen year old sex traffic victim to her mother. He was undercover as a trafficker. He seemed to be in pretty deep and didn't want any help getting out. They made his arrest look good so as to not blow his cover then botched the case on a bad search and cut him loose. They found the girl they were looking for and others and arrested a major trafficker. His arrest brought some shocking news to Benson's door and she was stressed trying to figure out what to do about it. A talk with Barba relieved her anxiety and all was well again.

The weekend rolled around and they all had days off. They were on call, of course, but they had their days to do with what they wanted. Amanda and Chris decided on a relaxing day. They stayed in to watch movies all day except for taking Frannie out a few times for a walk. Chris made breakfast, they grabbed lunch while they were out with Frannie and brought it back, and then Chris made stir fry for dinner. They watched Dirty Dancing, I Am Sam, Remember the Titans, and decided to finish the night watching both the Hunger Games movies. Amanda hadn't seen either nor had she read the books.

"Not surprising" Chris said, "You don't strike me as the type to read".

"I read" Amanda said offended.

"I'm not talking about case files" Chris joked. Amanda laughed and slapped her lightly on the thigh.

"Neither am I" she said. "It just has to be a good book. If it doesn't get my attention by the end of the first chapter, I most likely won't finish it".

"Well The Hunger Games Trilogy is pretty good. You should read it" she recommended.

"You've read them?" She nodded.

"All three". The first movie ended and she got up to put in Catching Fire. "Why don't we make this a regular thing?" she asked. "I recommend to you a good book that I've read and you recommend to me a good book that you've read. Then when we're done we can talk about them". She went back over and got on the couch. Amanda repositioned herself so they could lie down.

"Start our own book club?" Chris nodded again. "Ok". She reached for the remote and pressed play on the movie. They were both fast asleep before it was over. Amanda woke up the next morning a little after nine. She moved carefully off the couch so she didn't wake Christina and went into the bedroom to brush her teeth and wash her face. She threw on some clothes, put Frannie on her leash and headed out to get them breakfast. When she got back, Chris was in the shower. She bought coffee and donuts and set it on the living room table then went into the bathroom. She took her clothes off and joined her girlfriend in the shower. If the water weren't doing it already, they'd be steaming up the glass doors. They finally got out of the shower after an hour and fifteen minutes and drank their, now cold, coffee. They had no plans for the day, so they lounged around until late afternoon then decided to go to the dog park. Frannie got to run around with the other dogs and Amanda and Chris got to enjoy a nice day out, uninterrupted by any work emergencies. They stopped on the way home to eat dinner and turned in early for bed. They were both woken up early by a call from Sgt Benson saying they had a case. They got up, got dressed, made sure Frannie was set with food and water then headed out. Since they were dating again, Benson had to split them up on cases. She sent Amanda to the hospital to meet her and Fin and Chris to the scene with Amaro and Carisi. They all met up at the station later to discuss the case, interview witnesses and plan their next moves for the investigation. The case wasn't very strong. They had the victim's statement but not much else. There wasn't any physical evidence from the rape kit and the victim couldn't give a very detailed discription of her attacker. Then another woman, with the same story, came into another ER to report. It was unfortunate for her but fortunate for their case. She'd managed to scratch her attacker and they were able to get his DNA from under her fingernails. She was also able to give a description of a tattoo on his right forearm. They canvassed tattoo parlors with the sketches of the man and his tattoo. It took three days of canvassing but they got their guy. His DNA came back a match from the fingernail scrapings on the second victim and both women were able to pick him out of a lineup. Barba didn't have any worries about getting conviction.

It was another day at SVU, business as usual. Everyone had their individual cases to work and paperwork to get done. They had their usual banter back and forth as they tried to decide what to do for lunch. Their conversation came to a screeching halt when a face they hadn't seen in months walked through the doors with two important looking suits in tow. Carisi was confused about why everyone was staring at him but he didn't ask any questions. He just waited quietly to see how things would play out. He didn't acknowledge anyone and neither did the men he'd walked in with. He just walked over to Benson's office and knocked on the door. Once they were inside with the door shut, Carisi decided to speak up.

"Hey" he said leaning over to Chris, "Who's that?"

"Uh, he's, uh, he used to be a friend" she said hesitantly.

"He worked here or something?" he asked looking to his other teammates.

"Hell no" Fin answered quickly. Chris laughed to herself.

"No. We worked together back in California" she explained.

"Oh, I see" he said expressing his understanding. "So you got transferred here together?"

"No" Amaro said jumping in. "He followed her here like a lost puppy". The door to Olivia's office opened and she appeared in the doorway.

"Reyes" she said getting her attention before gesturing for her to come into her office. Chris sighed and got up from her desk, heading over to the Sergeant's office. Olivia stepped back in behind her and shut the door again. They all looked in the office through the open blinds, trying to get a feel for the conversation happening inside. After a few minutes, they heard raised voices and knew whatever the talk was about, it wasn't anything good. The raised voices quieted down again and ten minutes later the door to Benson's office opened and the familiar face and the two suited sidekicks left the squad room again. A couple minutes after that, Chris stormed angrily out of the Sergeant's office.

"Chris" Amanda called to her. She stood up from her desk when she just kept walking. "Christina" she called to her again. She was about to follow her but Sergeant Benson spoke up.

"Let her go" she said, "she needs a couple minutes to calm down". Amanda looked in the direction that her girlfriend had just gone, wanting to go after her. But she listened to Olivia and willed herself back to her seat.

"What's going on, Sarg?" Carisi asked interested in what was happening.

"Uh, we'll talk about it when Reyes gets back" she said. She went back into her office and shut the door.

"I don't like this" Fin said after her door was closed.

"Me either" Nick said agreeing with him. The mood was sour and there was a slight tension in the air that wouldn't go away until they knew what was going on. Five minutes later, Chris came back into the squad room and went to her desk. Amanda got up and went over to her.

"Hey" she said getting her attention, "what's going on? Why was Franco here?" Before she could answer, Benson's door opened and she called them all into her office. They filed in and Carisi, the last one into the office, shut the door behind him.

"Uh, so here's the deal" she said starting to explain their visitors, "Chris is gonna be on loan to Brooklyn narcotics for a while".

"What?" Amanda asked surprised. "What for?"

"They're working on a major bust. They already have some undercovers in and they've asked specifically for her help" she explained.

"You mean Franco asked specifically for her help" she said rolling her eyes.

"Didn't seem like they were doing much asking" Fin said chiming in. Chris just stood there quietly and let Olivia do all the talking.

"They asked but, you know, in the way that we know it wasn't really a request. This is coming down from One PP. They want her on this case".

"They don't have enough narcotics detectives over there in Brooklyn? They gotta mooch off of our team?" Carisi asked annoyed. He didn't know the situation with this Franco guy but he didn't really need to. He didn't like him walking in here with g men like he owned the place, ordering one of his teammates to go undercover with him.

"Uh, they had a female detective under….." she paused bracing herself for the reactions she was going to get. She was sure they wouldn't be much different from the one Christina had, "but they've lost contact with her. So they want…." She tried to continue quickly on but, of course, was cut off mid-sentence.

"What, she's missing?" Amaro asked. Olivia hesitated to answer.

"Yes" she finally answered. "It's been almost three months since she checked in with her handler". They all started talking at once, voicing their objections to Chris being sent undercover to replace a detective that went missing under the same people she was about to go work for. Chris just continued to stand there quietly as they all complained. "Guys!" Olivia said loudly getting them to stop talking.

"Let me guess" Fin said wanting to get one last thought out, "Franco was her handler". Olivia's silence answered his question. They all let out frustrated sighs and grumbled under their breaths.

"I know this isn't what anyone wants but it's out of my hands. Chris will be going undercover" she said firmly. "Now I got them to agree to allow us to put in with Franco as her handlers. She'll be checking in with one us every two weeks until this thing is over. And Franco will be keeping us up to date on her status on his check ins".

"Two weeks?" Nick asked, "They already have an officer missing and they're willing to risk going two weeks until a check in".

"I was lucky to get that. They wanted to do once a month" she said putting things into perspective.

"So they really think it's gonna take that long?" Carisi asked.

"Yeah, they do". They stood there quietly letting the information they'd just gotten sink in.

"So when does she leave?" Amanda asked breaking the silence.

"Tonight" Olivia said simply. They all looked at Christina and she had a blank expression on her face. As hard as they were taking it, she must've been taking it one hundred times harder.

"Hey" Nick said getting her attention, "You're gonna be alright. You know what you're doing". She just nodded her head.

"Yeah" Fin said chiming in. "Don't worry about a thing. We've got your back. You miss one check in, even one minute late, and we're gonna be on Franco's ass like white on rice". She couldn't help but to laugh. He'd successfully lightened the mood in the room but there was still a tension in Amanda that everyone noticed. She wasn't at all okay with this. Neither was Christina. But they didn't have a choice in the matter. Orders were orders and One PP was dishing them out without regard for them once again. They'd just have to make the best of it, same as always.

They left the Sergeant's office and went back to their desks. Chris started to gather her things to head over to Brooklyn narcotics. She had to be brought up to speed on everything about the case in a matter of hours before assuming her undercover identity. She put on her jacket and shouldered her bag before walking over to Amanda and sitting in the chair next to her desk. She sat silently for a minute while she watched Amanda play solitaire. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"You wanna come over for dinner tonight?" she asked.

"I thought you were leaving tonight?" she asked finally making eye contact with her.

"Yeah well, you know me" she said with a shrug. "I have to break the rules somehow". A small smile graced Amanda's lips and Chris felt herself relax just slightly. "So I'll see you at dinner?" Amanda nodded silently. Chris took her hand on top of the desk and gave it a squeeze. She sat there quietly for a minute longer before taking another deep breath. Without a word, she got up from her chair and left the precinct to delve back into the world of undercover narcotics; one she thought she'd left behind in California.