Long wait by this story's standards, I know, but that's life. Enjoy the chapter!

Alex knew better than to call Olivia after a stunt like that, but it didn't stop her from lying in bed and wondering what her friend was thinking.

Olivia, of course, didn't even know what the hell she was thinking.

When she came into work the next day, Olivia made it her mission to make it seem like nothing was out of the ordinary. As long as it was just her and the boys, that would be easy enough—she spent a good deal of her life hiding the truth from other people. Such a hypocrite, she would think to herself sometimes. My job is to find out the truth, but no one ever knows the truth about me. And Alex is going to have to fall under that category. What she was going to do when—if!—Alex came around again, she had no fucking clue.

"Morning, Liv," Elliot walked by her desk, looking chipper.

"Wow, El, was Kathy 'in the mood' last night?" Olivia joked with air quotes.

"That, dear partner, is none of your business."

"Come on, if I were a guy you would totally want to brag about your sex life."

"Are you a guy?"

"Not last time I checked."

"Moot point, then, right?" Elliot grabbed a seat and leaned his head on his hands. "How's Alex?"

Olivia remained perfectly composed, neither wanting to give away Alex's secret nor hers. "She's fine. I was just overreacting—she was only having a hard time about her father."

"I knew it was nothing big," Elliot replied, leaning back now. "We got a case?"

"Do now," Fin cut in, entering from Cragen's office. "White female, mid to late thirties assaulted in the Village. Before she was knocked out she said something about death threats."

Olivia's eyes unconsciously widened. "Name?"

"Katerina Parker from her Beth Israel ID card," Fin answered. "You alright there?"

"Yeah, of course." No, obviously not!

In fact, that situation was exactly Olivia's fear of what might happen if Alex went back to the Congo. Except there would be no witness to find her. No ambulance to take her to the hospital that was twenty miles away. No SVU to prosecute her case. No one to even find her body…

"Olivia!"

"I said I'm coming!" Olivia popped out of her seat en route to the squad car.

"Yes, Dominique, three days. I promise you that it will continue to be three days every time you ask, so please save Mr. Coughlin money on this expensive international phone call and end it," Alex talked into her phone.

She sighed, clicking the end button. She would be back in three days. The flight was booked, the car to the airport was reserved. There was no reason for her to stay here.

She had no job. McCoy was probably tired of her "now you see her, now you don't" antics and surely wouldn't take her back into the DA's office. And what the hell else did she know how to do but throw criminals in jail?

She had no family. Her parents were now both dead, she had no siblings, and her extended family was just that—extended far away.

And except for Olivia (sometimes Elliot, on a good day), she had no friends.

What was left for her here?

She still swore she felt Olivia's lips on hers, but she hadn't seen hide nor hair of her since last night, and if she knew Olivia like she thought she did, she wouldn't be coming back any time soon.

But Alex wanted her to come back.

"Thanks for the warrant, Gillian." Elliot waved their ADA off, but she didn't move.

"What's up?" Olivia asked.

"Um…when this stuff starts…getting to you, what do you guys do to cope?" Hardwicke asked timidly.

"Starts?" Elliot laughed. "It's gotten to me since day one. I find the punching bag to be a good way to get it out."

"Not sure I can handle that one. What about you, Olivia?"

"I just talk to Elliot," Olivia answered. "Just find someone you can trust to confide in, keeping confidentiality in mind, and vent a little bit. That should help."

Hardwicke smiled. "That's a good tip. Thanks, guys," she said, and walked out.

"Bull to the shit, Liv. You don't talk to me about anything. Which, you can, if I haven't made myself clear about that yet," Elliot scoffed.

"You know me, I'm better at keeping things inside. But that wouldn't have helped her," Olivia replied.

It wasn't a complete lie. Olivia had always had problems talking about her feelings—therapy was just a step below water torture when she had to go through it. But her mind, which had been on Alex the whole god damned day, told her, You could tell Alex anything. You WOULD tell Alex anything.

Six in the evening and Alex had been alone in her apartment the whole day. She'd finished the Chinese leftovers and was getting desperately hungry. Giving up on anyone else appearing in her life tonight, she decided it was time to go get a bite.

She knew the diner near her was a casual place where she wouldn't see anyone she knew. So why did she wear her favorite skinny jeans and a sexy top?

She knew said diner was within walking distance. So why did she call a cab?

She knew the address of the place. So why did she ask for the 16th precinct?

Because Alex was going to have to chase Olivia for herself.

"I hope everything's alright with you ma'am. I don't get all that many people asking to go to the cops, and when they do it usually ain't good news," the cabbie told her.

"Everything's fine," Alex reassured the man, not really in the mood to start a meaningful conversation with her taxi driver. She shifted a bit in her seat and tried to figure out what to say to Olivia. Mostly, she wanted to know what Olivia's intentions had been last night when she kissed her, but Alex wasn't sure what answer she wanted from Olivia anyway. The parts of her that were screaming that she was no lesbian and she wasn't interested in her friend were desperately trying to outnumber the parts that were mocking her and reminding her that she'd enjoyed that kiss more than she wanted to admit and kind of wanted to do it again.

"That'll be eight fifty," the driver called out, looking in the rear view mirror and knocking Alex out of her reverie. Alex nodded and thanked him while handing him a ten and exiting the cab. She took a deep breath and shrugged her shoulders. It was half past six now and it was obvious without even calling her that Olivia would still be here, and even though Alex wasn't sure she was ready, it was now or never.

She walked up the steps and entered the building, walking towards the elevator without picking her head up for anyone to get a good look at her face. When the doors opened for the Special Victims Unit, she was finally a woman with a mission.

"Cabot in the house!" Munch yelled, and every other detective and uniform in the place lifted their heads. Most of them subsequently put them back down, except for Munch himself, Fin, Elliot, and Olivia.

"Hey everyone," Alex said kindly. "Would love to stay and chat but Olivia did promise me a movie tonight," she lied.

"I'm sorry, Olivia promised what?" Olivia replied, raising an eyebrow.

"You know what you promised," Alex answered with a stern, meaningful look.

Olivia sighed. She knew that there were two options: one, that she could go with Alex right now and save a whole mess of trouble with her colleagues, or two, that she could ignore Alex and wait for her to make a scene, which she would. She decided it was probably better to go with option one.

"Right," Olivia said, and got up. "I take it you all will be okay here?"

"Yeah, but you owe us," Elliot winked. "I'm kidding, just go have fun for all of our sakes." Olivia whacked him in the back of the head. "Ow!"

Olivia followed Alex in silence as far as the front door. Then Alex had to open her mouth.

"Liv, we need to talk."

"No, Alex, I don't believe we do," Olivia responded.

"You do remember what you promised, don't you?"

"And if you need to talk about what happened to you, let me know. I'm not enough of an idiot to think that you came here for that."

"Olivia, are you my friend or what?"

"Alex, you know I'm your friend…" And that is it.

"Then please," Alex pleaded, "Talk to me about this. Why did you kiss me?"

"If I have to explain myself Alex, it's really not worth it."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"God, Alex! You know why people kiss people!" Olivia turned on her heel and began walking the other way.

"No no no no, you don't get to run," Alex called after her wagging her finger and clumsily following her, her range of motion severely limited by her heels to Olivia's boots. "Okay, okay. We don't have to talk about it now, Liv, I just don't want this awkwardness between us!"

Olivia stopped and abruptly about-faced, nearly smacking into the still rambling Alex. She had this sincerely regretful look on her face that Olivia couldn't turn away, and Olivia gave in. "Alex, let's just forget it ever happened, okay? You only have three days left here and I'd like to spend time with you but I don't see that comfortably happening unless we forget about it."

Alex studied Olivia's face, and hoped she was hiding the slight disappointment she was feeling at Olivia's words. "Yeah, of course," she said softly.

Olivia smiled and nodded. "Good," she replied, and they stood there looking at each other for a few minutes before Alex piped in again.

"I'm hungry."

"Well, we should remedy that, shouldn't we?"

Alex tried to smile slightly, but she couldn't find it in her. She timidly slipped her hand into Olivia's and began, on basic autopilot, to lead her to her old favorite pizza place near the precinct. She didn't notice Olivia running her gaze over her features; she was too busy wistfully staring off into the road, knowing full well that she wouldn't be "forgetting about it" any time soon.