Olivia sat on a chair beside Alex's hospital bed. Bent forward, her head was resting next to Alex's hand. She had been there all day and was absolutely exhausted. They had called for a bus back at Cabot's. Olivia went with her, while Elliot stayed to wait for another bus for Richard. The doctors had patched Alex up the best they could and now Olivia was just waiting for her to wake up again. Wake up long enough so that Olivia could apologise.

"How is she?" Olivia looked up; Elliot was standing in the doorway.

"The doctor said she should be just fine. They'll have to reconstruct her collar bone, but apart from that, nothing too serious."

"Good." Elliot smiled at his partner as he stepped further into the room.

"I just feel so guilty."

"Don't Liv. It wasn't your fault."

"I was supposed to protect her."

"You did. You got Richard!"

"Got her too."

Elliot put his hand on Olivia's shoulder, "It'll be okay Liv."

Olivia half-heartedly smiled up at him, "Thanks."

"I have to get going. Look after youself and get some rest."

Benson looked back at Alex as her partner left. Her eyes were open and she was looking at Olivia.

"Alex! You're awake! How are you feeling?"

"You shot me detective. How do you think I feel?" Alex flinched with pain, but grinned a little. Olivia missed the grin though and dropped her head into her hands, crying.

"I'm so sorry! I-I-I'm sorry!"

Alex put her hand on Olivia's knee, "I was joking. I know you'd never hurt me."

Olivia ignored her and continued to apologize. Alex squeezed her knee, trying to get her attention.

"Olivia Benson, look at me!" Olivia looked up and wiped her eyes, "Bad joke. I see that now. I know you would never intentionally hurt me. You shot the bastard, that's all that matters. If you hadn't have got him, then I would have got a lot more than a busted shoulder." Alex smiled and gently squeezed the detective's knee, "And I'm glad you got him before he got you."

The two women sat in silence for a moment. Olivia put her hand on Alex's and gently squeezed it, "Thank you."

"I didn't realise I was that bad for company! Next time, just let me know, instead of shooting me." Alex winked at Olivia, and this time Olivia got that it was a joke.

"You're never going to let me forget this, are you?" She laughed.

"Talk about two birds with one stone."

Olivia rolled her eyes and laughed.

- - -

Realizing she'd probably have a large pile of paperwork to do over the incident, Olivia finally left Cabot's hospital room and headed back to the precinct. She was right about the paperwork, but she couldn't even start on that until she'd reported to Cragan, who informed her of the other million things she's have to do.

Benson sat down at her desk and started filling out a report. She didn't realize how long she'd been there until Elliot brought her back to reality with the invitation of coffee and something to eat, a few hours later. Ignoring the large pile of work she still had to do, Liv picked up her coat and followed her partner out.

- - -

Inhaling the scent of her still-very-hot coffee, Olivia smiled. It was a relaxing feeling knowing that Richard was dead. Elliot sat across from his partner and smiled.

"So how did you and Cabot go living together?" He grinned, thinking about the many heated arguments the two women had had over the years of working together.

"We got on quite well actually," she replied with a little smile.

"What do you mean by that?"

"By what?"

"That smile! What was that?"

Olivia blushed and lowered her head, pretending to be interested in her coffee cup. She could tell Elliot was looking at her, waiting for an answer. She sighed, and looked up. Her smile was replcaced by a look of confusion, "We kissed."

"Pardon?"

"Alex and I. We...kissed."

Elliot looked a little shocked. In all the years he had worked with Benson, he's never thought.."You like women now?"

"Not now. Not just now. I dated a woman back in college. I-I don't know what it was. We were drunk; me and Alex I mean"

"Maybe you should talk to her."

Olivia didn't respond, she just took a sip of her coffee. Elliot's look of confusion changed to a look of amusement. Olivia gave him a questioning look.

"What? I just think that the idea of you and Alex is...kinda hot."

- - -

The next morning Olivia decided to stop by the hospital on the way to work, to see how Alex was doing, and maybe talk to her about what happened.

The ADA was sitting up in bed reading the paper when Benson walked in the room.

"Good morning detective."

"Morning Cabot. Sleep well?"

"Not too bad, considering."

Alex bit her lip as she noticed a look of guilt in Olivia's face. Watch what you say!

Olivia sat down in the chair and looked at her injured friend. She took a deep breath, "Alex, about the other night..."

"Olivia, we were drunk, it was just a bit of fun, it didn't mean anything, so if you want to just pretend nothing happened, that's fine."

Alex had replied without even looking up from her paper. It caught Olivia a bit off guard and she didn't really know how to respond. Sure they were drunk, but did it really mean nothing? Nothing to her.

"Right, yeah, of course. Good idea."Olivia stood up again, "Well that's all really. Just wanted to make sure you were okay." With that, Olivia left the room, fighting back tears she didn't quite understand.

Alex watched her friend leave the room. She didn't quite understand her reaction. She said what she thought Olivia would want to hear. The words had hurt to come out though. It was a lie and she didn't like lying to her friend, but she was confused and it was for the best. She wiped away a tear that had escaped. It's for the best.