Thank you everyone for your kind reviews and for your encouragement. I am happy that you are interested in this story and I hope I can keep it interesting for you. Please let me know what you think, I really do appreciate the feedback, and now on to chapter 2! - Caff.

Chapter 2

Angie, the secretary for the 1-6 station house looked up from her spot at the front desk to see a young woman walked through the front doors and stop in the middle of the lobby. The woman was glancing around the house, not quite looking lost, but like she still wasn't sure why she was there.

"Can I help you?" she asked, a friendly smile gracing her lips.

The other woman bit her lower lip, letting a small sliver of the nervousness she was feeling spill through, "I am looking for Detective Benson."

Angie felt her heart sink in her chest, whenever a woman came looking for anyone in the special victims department, especially Detective Olivia Benson, it was never for a good reason. The woman in front of her didn't look like she had been attacked, but sometimes you never knew.

"Sure, Sweetie." Angie's voice took on a overly sweet tone as she responded to the woman, "I can tell you where to find her, or I can have Officer Collins here escort you. Unless, of course, you'd feel more comfortable with a female officer."

Angie's voice trailed off as she took in the puzzled expression on the woman's face.

"No. No thanks," the other woman replied slowly. "If you could just direct me, I'm sure I can manage on my own."

"Of course, Dear."

The young woman listened as the other woman directed her to the third floor and gave a small thank you as she made her way to the stairs. She could feel the secretary's sympathetic eyes following her and gave her head a small shake.

"Excuse me," she said approaching the only person she saw in the third floor squad room. "I am looking for Detective Benson. Do you know where I can find her?"

The young man looked up and the woman blanched slightly he looked barely older than her— still with baby fat in his cheeks, but his eyes were dull, like he had already been haunted by all of the horrors he had seen, but they softened significantly when he looked at her. "She actually is in an interview right now; it could be a while. Is there something I can help you with?"

The sympathetic tone and look the man gave her didn't surprise the visitor; the three people she had passed on the way up the stairs and the one woman who had pointed her towards the squad room had given her the same look. She set aside her growing confusion and gave the young detective a small smile, trying to squash the feeling of disappointment bubbling up in her chest.

"Actually, If you could direct me to her desk, I have something to drop off for her," she began turning in the direction that the man pointed her. Pausing she turned back. Time to put those litigating skills to work, "And if you could tell me why everyone keeps looking at me like I'm going to burst into hysterics at an moment when I say I am here to see Detective Benson, I would greatly appreciate it."

There was a sudden change in the man's face, but it was hard to distinguish if it was because if the faux authoritative tone her voice had taken on, or the words that came out of her mouth. The sympathetic, pitying look in his eyes had now been turned to somewhere between embarrassed and panicked.

"I'm sorry Miss, it's just that when a woman comes in here alone, especially if they are looking for Olivia, chances are that they have been, you know, attacked," he mumbled before his ears turned bright red and he started to ramble, "It's just because she's our only female detective right now, so some women just feel more comfortable with her than the rest of us. Not to say that she's not a great detective, because she is…"

The detective's voice trailed off and blush moved down his neck as she continued to stare at him, eyebrows slowly rising in silent question and she dreaded the next question that was pushing its way out of her mouth. When it came out, it was barely more than a whisper— her bravado had vanished, "What exactly do you mean by 'attacked'?"

The young man's cheeks flushed a deeper shade of red, giving an idea of just exactly how knew he was to this job.

"Um, raped, Ma'am. We work special victims— you know, sex crimes?"

"Oh," was the only reply. "Well, I'm just a friend, and I'm just going to drop this off to her now."

The young woman turned back towards Olivia's desk, but paused momentarily when she heard the detective mumble under this breath, his head already bent back over the file he was reading, " Who knew Benson actually had any friends."

It wasn't until four days later that a pale purple envelope fell out of a stack of file folders on Olivia's desk. Due to a heavier than normal case load and a backlog of paperwork the desk was a sea of paper and Olivia was exhausted— her long brown hair pulled up into a messy bun and black bags growing under her eyes. The envelope fluttered to the ground catching Olivia's attention through her haze and landed on the floor next to her left foot that had freed itself of her boots, toes happy to be wiggling free.

"Oh, yeah," Brian Cassidy said, walking by her desk as she bent down to pick up the letter. "A blonde chick came by the other day and dropped that off for you."

"A blonde chick?" Olivia ran through her mental rolodex, choosing to ignore the sexist slang, and came up empty on 'blonde chicks'— at least ones that would give her a card.

"Yeah, about 5'7", 5'8", long hair— probably to her waist, Columbia sweatshirt and jeans… oh, and black framed glasses. They were kinda sexy in a geeky sort of way," he shrugged and sat down at his desk, just as excited as Olivia to be station at midnight. "She said she was a friend."

"Oh!" Olivia felt a silly smile spread involuntarily across her face at Cassidy's description. "You mean Alex!"

Brian shrugged again, "Sure, Liv. Hey, does she have a boyfriend, because she was pretty hot."

Olivia rolled her eyes as she tore open the envelope a little too quickly. "She's out of your league Cassidy."

It was Brian's turn to roll his eyes as the card in her hands absorbed Olivia's attention. It was obviously bought in a store a swirly "Thank you" printed on the cover. Olivia ran her hand delicately over the writing causing small flakes of glitter to fall off into her lap. Flipping it open she saw a page covered in swirled handwriting that was almost as perfect as the cover.

"Dear Olivia," it read. "I'm not sure if you remember me- it has been a few weeks, but I am the one that you helped in the coffee shop. I just wanted to extend my thanks for "rescuing" me from Derek that night. It wasn't until a few days later that what you were doing finally dawned on me. So I would also like to thank you for also taking my mind off of the confrontation and the exam. Having a clear mind truly did help me. I was able to go home, get some sleep. So, thank you once again for your assistance, and I would love it if you would give me a call. I would like to properly thank you by taking you out to dinner, but I know you are busy. In any case, I hope I will see you again. Always, Alex Cabot."

The silly grin widened on Olivia's face as she reached for the phone. The phone started to ring her mind started to race. What was she doing? She had met this woman once, six weeks ago, and she had left the note four days before. Chances are the other woman had already given up on her calling back. The phone rang five times, and Olivia was about to hang up, when a sleepy voice came on the line.

"Hello?"

"Hello?" The voice said again, a little more awake and a little more irritated when Olivia didn't respond, instead choosing to sit at her desk with a dry mouth and wide eyes.

Olivia snapped out of her trance and glanced at the clock grimacing at the time, "Um, hi, Alex. I am so sorry. I didn't realize it was so late. Just, just go back to sleep and I'll call you again in the morning."

Olivia closed her eyes, and leaned back in her chair, embarrassed at her own rambling. The soft giggle on the other end of the phone caused one of her eyes to pop open.

"It's okay. Who is this?"

"Oh, shit sorry. It's Olivia. Olivia Benson," Olivia felt her cheeks burning but couldn't stop the words tumbling out of her mouth. "I just got your card. It got buried under a stack of files. I wanted to see if you would like to grab some dinner, but I didn't realize that it was so late, so I'm sorry again. Go back to sleep and we can get together some other time."

Another chuckle came across the line and Olivia set a silent thank you skyward that she had finally stopped rambling.

"It's okay. I'm awake now. If you want, we can still meet up. I know a small 24 hour diner."

Olivia's stomach let out a loud growl, she couldn't even remember the last time she had ingested something that wasn't squad room coffee.

"Sure, that sounds great," she grinned into the phone and listened while Alex gave her directions. Hanging up she glanced at the final DD5 on her desk and sighed, then shrugged. She leaned down, pulled on her boots and grabbed her coat. It could wait until morning.

Alex let out a sigh and placed the phone back on her nightstand, a soft smile playing on her lips. She had given up on Olivia actually calling her back, chalking it up to a glitch in her radar. And, to tell the truth, after the conversation with the baby faced detective she wouldn't have been surprised if she never heard from the aloof woman again. She started to roll out when a moan caused her to freeze and her eyes to pop open wide as she remembered the blonde lying in bed next to her.