Now call me behind, but I've just seen the S6 episode Weak and been introduced to Dr Rebecca Hendrix. IMDB tells me she's recurring so this may end up being -non-canon but I really wanted to write something with her and since her and Olivia had obviously been close friends at one point (and I thought her final scene with Liv in the ep really indicated that - "you can't save everyone") I thought this would be as good as place as any.

Given all that, the prompt is mine, and Preston is also mine and making his second appearance in this fic following 'Rage'.

*** L&OSVU *** L&OSVU *** L&OSVU *** L&OSVU ***

Friend

The friend is the man who knows all about you, but still likes you - Elbert Hubbard

She had Preston in cuffs when the phone rang; was sat astride him in negligee, planting kisses down his chest. It was his apartment, but he made no move to answer the call, although that was hardly surprising since it would have been nigh on impossible giving the way she had his wrists chained to be bedposts.

She reached for the phone's cordless handset, already knowing deep down who the caller was, or at least what the problem would be. She gave Preston an apologetic smile and then spoke,

"Hello."

"Olivia, it's Rebecca."

Hearing her roommate's voice on the other end of the line confirmed what she'd already known, particularly taking into account how pissed off Bex sounded. She got to her feet and with a second apologetic smile at her sometimes lover she made her way into the ensuite bathroom before continuing her call.

"Is it my mom? Is she ok?"

"Yes, no, in that order." Rebecca replied shortly, "She fell onto the floor of the hallway the minute I opened the door. Can you come home?"

"Yeah." It pained her to agree to it. Quite aside from the fact that she was more in the mood for hot and heavy sex than she was mopping up her drunken mother, the thought of facing Rebecca wasn't a pleasant one. They'd been roommates for just two months, and in that time there'd been too many occasions where her mother had shown her up in one way or another, be it turning up at their building blind drunk, or calling their house phone at 3am. Her roommate was sick of it, and Olivia didn't blame her. She was pretty sick of it herself. All that said, what could she do? She had to go back and deal with it, Rebecca would only be more pissed at her if she didn't. "I'll be there soon." she said reluctantly.

"Thank you." Rebecca replied, and Olivia could hear her tone soften as she did so, for all the good it did. She appreciated being given an undeserved break but it didn't make her feel any the less ashamed and embarrassed that her mother had been inflicted on her friend yet again.

She headed back into the bedroom where Preston was still sprawled on the bed, his hands restrained. She didn't need to say a single word to him, didn't need to explain, they'd been there too many times for him not to know the score. He rolled his eyes, "You at least going to unlock me before you go?"

She moved to his side and taking the handcuff key from the beside table, unlocked both sides of the cuffs and then began to get dressed. He watched her but again said nothing. Their relationship, their fuck fest, didn't allow for deep and meaningful conversation, and that was fine by Olivia, she preferred it that way. When she was dressed she looked over at him questioningly, "Pick up where we left off tomorrow?"

He shrugged, "If you're free babe, if you're free."

His choice of words was ironic, she thought as she walked away from him, out of his apartment and into the city streets. She was starting to feel like she'd never be free. After her mother's overdose she'd made every effort to be around, cutting short nights with Preston, working days wherever she could so she could be home when her mom was, and eventually her mom had seemed to get herself on the straight and narrow once more. Deep down Olivia had always known it wouldn't last - past experience had told her that - but she'd wanted to believe so badly that it could and that was why she'd agreed to move in with Rebecca.

Big mistake.

Her mom hated the fact she was gone, and was determined to make her life hell like as a result. Things had got progressively worse from the moment she'd moved out, and hearing Rebecca's snippy tone on the phone made her realise that there was no way it was ever going to work. Her poor roommate was at the end of her tether and there was no way she was going to carry on putting up with her mother's antics.

When she reached their building she climbed the stairs, wishing she was anywhere else but and let herself into the apartment that was supposed to be her first real crack of freedom. Ha.

She found Rebecca scrubbing the carpet in the living room, her mother passed out unceremoniously on the couch. It didn't take Einstein to put the pieces together…

"She was sick on the floor."

Rebecca glared at her, "She crawled in from the hall, spewed on the carpet, and when I tried to haul her sorry ass onto the couch she accused me of being a, quote, 'dirty lesbian'. She thinks we're sleeping together."

It might have sounded outlandish to anyone else, but Olivia knew what her mother was like when she'd had a drink. Nothing she had to say under the influence surprised her anymore. She looked at Rebecca apologetically, "I'm sorry."

"Sorry isn't good enough Olivia. I can't take any more of this." Rebecca got to her feet, tossing the cloth she was using into a bucket of soapy water on the coffee table and which she then picked up and carried into the kitchen, "You're a great roomie Liv. I love hanging out with you, and talking shop but this is too much. I can't deal with your mother and her impromptu visits."

Olivia followed her, her heart in her boots as she heard what she had to say. She knew she was basically being asked to leave and it killed her. She loved living with Rebecca; they'd been friends at the academy and had such a great time living together; lots of watching action movies and eating cheese and biscuits long into the night, plus her friend was infinitely more patient about her loud sex with Preston than her mother had ever been. But more than anything, it was the thought of going home that killed her, she just couldn't face it.

"I'm sorry." she said, instantly cursing herself for how weak her apology sounded, "Bex, please, don't throw me out. I need to be here. I can't go home to her."

The other girl tipped the bucket into the sink, apparently ignoring her, but when she turned to face her she was smiling, albeit it sadly.

"Things I thought I'd never see, number 1." she moved to Olivia's side, "Olivia Benson crying."

Olivia went to dispute the fact but closed her mouth again when she realised that her eyes were blurred with tears. She brought her hands up and wiped the tears away only to be greeted by the sight of Rebecca looking at her, real concern written all over her face.

"I'm not throwing you out." she said gently, "But if I'm gonna be stuck cleaning up Mama Benson's vomit, I wanna at least know the reason why." She picked up a bottle of wine from the kitchen counter, "You, me, fire escape, now."

Olivia didn't really feel like following but neither did she feel she had a choice, which was how she found herself sat on the balcony of their fire escape, taking it in turns to swig from the bottle, as in between time Rebecca look long drags on one of the menthol cigarettes she smoked. After a lengthy silence, just as Olivia was thinking she might get away with saying nothing at all, Rebecca finally piped up with a question.

"How long has Mama Benson been drinking?"

It was funny, but it wasn't a question anyone had ever asked Olivia before, and to her surprise it was a relief to answer it.

"All my life."

"You know why?" There was a pause as Olivia tried to work out how to answer the question, but in the end she didn't have to immediately as Rebecca answered it herself, albeit just with a change of tone, "You know why." she said again, losing the question mark, "You must know why because I don't know why you'd put up with her otherwise."

It was an accurate summation, too accurate really, so accurate it hurt. Rebecca might have been a cop, but she'd have made a pretty good shrink as well Olivia figured, at least on that night's evidence. Not that it made it any easier for her to answer.

"Its complicated." she said eventually, "She's got a lot of problems."

Rebecca lit another cigarette, "No shit Sherlock. Come on, tell me. Is it to do with your father? I mean he's absent right?"

Another piece of guess work that was right on the money, although what followed was further from the mark.

"So he left her, big deal. Why should you suffer? She needs to pull herself together."

"He didn't leave her. He raped her." The words were out of Olivia's mouth before she could stop them, and to her surprise, like admitting how long her mother had been drinking, it felt good to finally say them. So good in fact that she said it again, "He raped her. And made me."

Rebecca fell uncharacteristically silent, with nothing more than a stunned, "Oh." to indicate to Olivia that she'd heard a single word she'd said, and with Olivia feeling like she had nothing left to say they were left in silent limbo, or at least they were until Rebecca regained her composure and then she reached out and put her arm around Olivia's shoulder.

"That's shit."

Olivia shrugged, "Shit happens." She took a deep breath, trying to pull herself together, a little overwhelmed at having admitted for the first time who she was and where she'd come from. She almost felt bad about it, after all, Rebecca was having a hard enough time dealing with her crazy mother without Olivia confusing things even further. She turned to her friend, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for this, and I'm sorry for my mom."

The other girl shook her head, "Don't be. Liv, if I'd known…" she sighed, "I'll mop up all the sick you need. I had no idea. Do you want to talk about it?"

She didn't. She'd lived with 'it' for years, and talking about it wouldn't change a single thing. But talking about the wider situation, that was something else entirely.

"Its just hard sometimes." she said, picking the wine bottle up and swigging from it once again, "I want to forget where I came from, but I can't because my mom's like she is. I want to be a normal twentysomething and go out and have sex and do all those nice fun things and I can't because I have my alcoholic mother following me at every turn, and I can't reject her because its my fault she's like she is, I have to take care of her."

"No." Rebecca shook her head, letting her arm drop from around Olivia, "No you don't, especially not tonight." she reached for Olivia's hand, lifted it to her lips and kissed it, "Go on, go back to O'Grady, be his little," she drew imaginary quotation marks in the air, "fuck princess."

Olivia blushed, embarrassed at Rebecca's use of Preston's term of endearment of choice for her, and shaking her head as she did so, "No. Its ok." She wasn't playing the martyr, there was just no way she'd ever consider knowingly leaving her mess of a mother for her roommate to deal with.

That said, said roommate was having none of it, "Olivia, she's sleeping. I'll look out for her tonight."

Again, Olivia shook her head, "I can't leave you with this. You already cleaned up the carpet after her."

Rebecca laughed softly, "Like you've never done that before. Liv," she said gently, "I've watched you trying to save your mom, and I didn't get it, but now I do. And now I do, there's no way I'm going to leave you doing it alone. You've had years of this, I can hold the fort for one night. Go on," she let go of Olivia's hand, "go be a normal girl."

It still felt wrong, but it was also utterly tempting, especially when she thought of Preston, his strong arms and his equally strong thighs. Olivia looked at Rebecca, a hopeful but questioning look on her face, "Are you sure?"

Rebecca smiled, "Of course I'm sure Olivia. That's what friends are for."