Disclaimer: If you've seen them on the show, they aren't mine. They belong to Dick Wolf. I'm just borrowing them.
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Alex gets home before Michael, for once. What she really needs right now is a nice, hot shower. She walks to the bathroom and runs the water, deliberately glancing away from the mirror as she strips off her clothes.
The warm water assaults her broken body. It hurts at first, making her wince at the tenderness of her skin, but after a few moments it feels good. Alex pretends that all the misery and anguish of the day is being washed away, pretends that the invisible grime swirling down the drain is the dirtiness of her own body. She pretends the warm water is washing her from the inside out, and when she steps out, she'll be perfectly clean again, just like she was before. So long ago that she can hardly remember. Like a dream.
When she gets out of the shower, she makes sure not to even catch a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She wraps a towel around herself and goes into her bedroom to find something clean to wear.
She starts when she opens the door to find Michael sprawled out on the bed. "What are you doing here so early, baby?" he asks her.
Alex falters, trying to think of a way to explain it that won't make him angry.
He catches her hesitation. Amicable manner evaporating, he says in that soft, dangerous voice, "What happened, Lex?"
Brilliant lawyer that she is, she can't think of anything to say to that. So instead, she comes out with the truth, looking right into his eyes in an attempt to mask her nervousness. Crossing her fingers behind her back, she prays that he won't be too angry.
When she's finished, he just stares at her for a moment. She waits in silent trepidation, standing still as a statue. Trying to stop her body from trembling, she braces herself for the blow.
But it doesn't come. After a few moments, she dares to glance up, and sees a slow smile start to spread across Michael's face. "That's great, babe."
Alex just looks at him, mystified. Great? And here she'd been thinking she was going to be in for the beating of her life. "Yeah," she hedges, buying herself some time to figure out his intentions.
"So we can spend more time together. The job takes you away from me, you know. But now we can really be together."
Oh. She doesn't like this change in demeanour as much as she thought she would. But still, she manages a smile. "What do you want for dinner?"
He shrugs dismissively, not wanting to drop the original subject. "So no more calls from the office? Or from Olivia? At all?"
Alex's heart throbs at Michael's evident pleasure at this, but still, she nods.
"Great. Then why don't you give me your phone?" suggests Michael succulently, licking his lips. "Just to make sure."
Seeing no alternative, she reluctantly pulls her cell phone from her pocket and hands it over.
He smiles sweetly. "Thanks, babe."
She watches him hurl the phone across the room. Gasping in surprise, she stares at Michael, wondering what on earth he's doing. He stomps on it until it breaks and Alex winces. Why is he wrecking her phone? Has he gone completely crazy?
He looks back at her. Although the grin is still on his face, there's a hardness in his eyes that Alex recognizes all too well. It's the look she sees every time he hits her. "I'll buy you a new one in a month," he says coldly. "Now get changed for dinner. We're going out."
She shivers at the iciness in his voice and immediately obeys.
Olivia gets to work the next morning to find the squad room eerily silent. Captain Cragen's in his office and Elliot's sitting silently at his desk. The others are nowhere to be found.
She takes a seat at her own desk and turns to Elliot. "Where is everybody?"
"Munch and Fin caught a case," he explains.
"What about Alex?"
"Didn't the captain tell you?"
"Tell me what?"
"Alex is on a month long suspension for her antics in the Cavanaugh case," explains Captain Cragen, stepping out of his office. "And I don't blame Elizabeth Donnelly one bit, so don't say a word."
Olivia stares at him in horror. "A month? What are we going to do without her for a month?" Inwardly, she adds, "What is she going to do without us for a month?" But she doesn't dare speak the words aloud.
The captain shrugs. "That was a really stupid stunt she pulled, Olivia. She knew she was going to get in trouble for it and she was fine with that."
"She did it for the greater good," protests Olivia.
Captain Cragen rolls his eyes. "Save it, Olivia. You're not her defence attorney and I'm not her boss." He turns on his heel and goes back to his office, leaving Olivia staring after him.
Alex and Michael go to an upscale restaurant on the Upper East Side for dinner. They sit at a table in the back of the place, a romantic candle burning on their table. Michael lets Alex have whatever she wants tonight, not even complaining about the amount of calories in the meal. Generally Michael worries about her weight even more than she does, making sure that she stays slender and beautiful and doesn't gain wait. But there's no longer any fear of that; Alex has been so stressed lately that she's lost at least twenty pounds. Since she's met Michael, she's gotten thinner, more haggard. She's so gaunt that she can feel each individual bone in her body. She personally thinks it's ugly, but Michael likes the emaciated look.
They eat their meal in a silence so tense that you could cut it with a knife. But this is what Michael wants, so Alex sits with him and forces herself to finish her dinner, even though she's too keyed up to eat right now. All she can think about – all that she's thought about since leaving the DA's office – is Olivia. How is she going to go thirty days without seeing her friend?
All Olivia can think about – all that she's thought about since Captain Cragen told her about the ADA's suspension – is Alex. How is she going to go thirty days without seeing her friend?
Then it occurs to her that she can just call Alex if she wants to. The idea is so simple that she almost laughs at herself for not thinking of it sooner. So she takes her cell phone out of her pocket and flips it open. She dials Alex's number, but instead she gets a message that says, "Please hang up and try your call again. Please hang up and try your call again. Please hang up and try your call again."
Olivia stares at her phone in confusion, then obediently hangs up and tries her call again. But she gets the same message.
She checks the number to make sure she's dialled it right, but it's definitely Alex's number. Why isn't she answering her phone? Has something happened to it? Has something happened to her? Even though she knows Alex wouldn't like it, Olivia can't help but worry about her friend.
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