Alex winced as Olivia's strong right hand delivered a sharp warning spank to the blonde's panty-clad bottom, sending a signal to the naughty submissive that her behavior was not going to be tolerated. Overall, Olivia was pleased with the way Alex had settled back into the swing of daily life in their home, but Alex had been getting a few more warning spanks than usual. Luckily, the sharp sting of Olivia's strong right hand was enough to snap Alex out of her sour attitude and she lowered her eyes submissively with a quiet whimper. Olivia sighed as she sat down on the couch and guided Alex to cuddle on her lap. Alex tried to reach back to rub her bottom, but Olivia held Alex's hand securely in her own so that Alex had to feel the sting as she began to rock Alex slowly in her arms.

"You know how to use your words to communicate properly, little one. Using your attitude to communicate with me isn't going to get you anywhere except sitting in the bathroom on a spanked bottom with a bar of soap in your mouth, and I know that isn't what you want so early in the morning before I've even had my coffee." Olivia warned sternly but kindly.

"I don't want you to go to work." Alex's lower lip trembled.

Alex had refused to step foot outside the apartment in a week, which was giving her cabin fever, which was contributing to her naughty behavior, which is why she had been getting so many warning spanks this week. Olivia knew that she was soon going to have to address Alex's fear of leaving the apartment, even if it meant forcing Alex to go outside. But right now, Alex didn't need to be forced to do anything, she just needed to be reassured that she was safe and nobody was going to hurt her. Olivia had spent all week showering Alex with her undivided attention and affection, but now it was time for Olivia to return to work and Alex wasn't happy about it at all.

"I know you don't want me to go, and if I had a choice I would much rather stay home and cuddle with you all day, but if I don't work I can't take care of you and I know you understand that. I promise you are perfectly safe right here in your apartment, after I leave you can lock the door behind me. I will have my cell phone with me all day so you can call me if you need me or if you just need to hear my voice, and if there is some kind of emergency and you need me to come home early, you call me and I will come right away. I left you a list of tasks to complete before I get home, and when your chores are done you can choose whatever you would like to watch on TV. If I come home and find you watching TV without having completed your chores first, then your bottom will be having a meeting with my slipper at bedtime. I will call you on my lunch break to check on your progress, and I expect an honest answer." Olivia explained the rules for the day, and the promise of consequences for her actions was strangely soothing to the submissive blonde.

"Yes, Ma'am." Alex replied calmly and respectfully, receiving a kiss to her forehead.

"That's my good girl." Olivia let go of Alex's hand.

Alex stood from Olivia's lap and rubbed her bottom as she walked back to the kitchen to finish making breakfast while Olivia finished getting ready for work. Alex knelt at Olivia's feet and was fed by hand as usual. Olivia gave Alex multiple kisses before she left for work and then she left to defend the streets of New York. Alex immediately locked the door. Then she went to the bedroom to get dressed in the clothes Olivia had laid out for her and set to cleaning up the breakfast things in the kitchen, and then turned to the list Olivia had left her. She ticked off the first item, which said 'clean up after breakfast'. Some of the items on Olivia's list were Alex's regular chores, such as vacuuming and laundry. Other items on the list were extra tasks that Olivia expected to be accomplished, both to keep Alex occupied and to help ease Alex back into the habit of doing as she was told, such as 'pick an exercise from Monique's list to complete' or 'write ten positive statements about yourself'. Alex decided to put that one off for as long as humanly possible; these days, her opinion of herself was very low since she had spent six weeks being repeatedly told that she wasn't worth much of anything and the only thing she was good for was sex. Olivia hadn't even touched the subject of sex yet, instinctively knowing that Alex simply wasn't ready mentally or emotionally for anything beyond a simple hug and kiss. Even the thought of setting foot inside the BDSM club, which had previously been one of Alex's favorite places in the world, sent Alex into a panic, and the thought of letting Olivia touch her genitals made her skin crawl. Alex had worried that her reluctance to go back to the club would anger her Mistress, but Olivia lovingly assured her that everything would be okay, that they would go as slow as Alex needed to go and that they were simply starting Alex's training over from square one again, which meant that for the time being, Alex's training would take place solely at home building up her trust and obedience. Alex had to re-learn these basic skills before she would be ready for any kind of activity the club had to offer. If Alex didn't trust that her Mistress would follow through on discipline and couldn't obey simple orders the first time she was told, the club could be a dangerous place for her. Alex did eventually want to be able to return to the club, but for now she was perfectly content to stay at home and re-learn basic service submission skills such as properly serving her beloved Mistress's coffee in the morning, massaging Olivia's feet after work, or smoothing lotion on Olivia's legs after her shower, and completing basic household tasks like laundry and washing dishes. Being praised by her Mistress for a job well done and being lovingly corrected when she fell short of her Mistress's expectations was the best feeling in the world to Alex.

Later in the afternoon, while Alex was tackling the next item on Olivia's list, there was a knock on the door. Alex began to tremble, afraid to answer the door for fear of who might be waiting on the other side. There was a second knock, and Alex fearfully crept to the door and reluctantly opened it, gripping the handle so tightly her knuckles were white. The delivery boy seemed surprised to see Alex standing there looking like she was ready to burst into tears.

"Sorry if I scared you, lady. I'm just here making a delivery. Are you Alex Cabot?"

"Yes, I am." Alex nodded.

"You must have made somebody really happy. These are for you." the delivery boy handed Alex a gorgeous bouquet of fresh flowers.

Alex signed the delivery boy's clipboard and went back inside the apartment, locking the door behind her. She opened the card and beamed happily when she read it.

For my good girl, just because I love you. - Ma'am

Alex immediately put the flowers in a vase of water and set them on the coffee table where she would be able to see them throughout the day, feeling very much loved as she turned back to her list of chores.

"Excuse me, Ma'am, is this the Special Victims Unit?" a man probably in his early to mid forties wearing a collar around his neck with tears in his eyes and his ripped button-down shirt wrapped tightly around his battered body stumbled up to Olivia as she stepped off of the elevator.

"Yes, it is. My name is Captain Benson. How can I help you, little one? Do you need a hospital?" Olivia asked kindly, looking up from her phone.

"Yes, Ma'am. I need to report a rape and attempted murder."

"Okay. Are you comfortable talking to me or would you prefer to speak to a male detective?"

"I was attacked by a couple, a man and a woman, I can speak to whoever. Please don't call my Mistress, I'm going to be in so much trouble."

"What's your name, little one?"

"Cecil."

"Okay, Cecil. I'm not going to call anyone unless you say it's okay, but whatever happened to you, it wasn't your fault. Nobody has the right to attack you like this." Olivia said as she led Cecil into an interview room and closed the door behind them to give them privacy.

"My Mistress is out of town on a business trip until Wednesday and couldn't take me with her this time so she left me at home and told me to be a good boy. I wasn't even supposed to be at the dungeon on my own. I ran into this couple who said they could take me back to their place and show me things that the dungeon doesn't offer. I've been owned for less than a year, I thought it would be nice if I could show my Mistress something new I had learned when she got home from her business trip. They took me to what I guess was their house. It all seemed fine until they tied me up in this ridiculous position. It really hurt and I used my safeword to tell them, but they just laughed at me. They beat me and burned me with cigarettes and raped me over and over again. The more I screamed my safeword, the more they just laughed. And then the man took a hot iron off of an ironing board and…"

Cecil opened his shirt to reveal his chest bearing the shape of an iron that had obviously been deliberately placed on his chest to create a third degree burn.

"They tortured me for hours. Then the woman pulled out a gun. I managed to break my restraints and I ran like hell. She shot at me but she missed me. I ran all the way here, my Mistress told me this was a safe place to come if I ever needed help."

"She's right, this is a safe place for you to come and you are so brave for coming here, Cecil. I am going to take you to the hospital right now to get a rape kit done and your injuries tended to. Can you tell me the names of the people who did this to you?"

"I don't know their last names. Their first names are Adam and Krystal."

As Olivia led Cecil out of the interview room to take him to the hospital, she caught Elliot's eye and flagged him down.

"This is Cecil. I'm taking him to Mercy hospital to get a rape kit done and his injuries tended to. Put out an alert to all precincts that Adam Bentley and Krystal Dane may have finally come out of the woodwork."

"On it, Captain." Elliot picked up the phone to do as he was told.

"I can't believe this is actually happening to me. It doesn't even feel real, it feels like a dream. They have a gun, what if they come after me when they find out I reported them?" Cecil babbled.

"Don't worry, Cecil. We will protect you. I want you alive so your Mistress can spank you when she gets home." Olivia winked.

Cecil tried to smile a little, knowing that Olivia was teasing him.

When Olivia was done with Cecil at the hospital, she went to the diner near the precinct to take a late lunch break. While she was eating, she picked up her phone to call Alex. Alex picked up her phone and smiled when she saw that Olivia was calling her.

"Hi, Ma'am."

"Hi, baby girl. I'm sorry I'm calling later than I thought I would, we had a case come in so I'm taking a late lunch break. How's your list coming along?"

"I'm about… maybe sixty five percent finished? I'll be done by the time you get home, I promise."

"That's my good girl." Olivia praised.

"Thank you for my flowers." Alex smiled.

"You deserve them just for being you, little one."