DISCLAIMER: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and all characters are property of NBC and Dick Wolf…with some play given to USA. All supplementary characters are completely fictitious.

WINDOW

Chapter 5: Dreams

No words. No words had been spoken in the past few minutes, only the breathing, ragged and shallow, was audible over the rustle of sheets around twisting bodies. Alex writhed under the attention of wandering hands, tracing lazy circles across her bare abdomen. She shifted and inhaled sharply as these same fingered lingered for a moment before trailing a dangerous path to her aching core. Alex breathed out heavily, her icy blue eyes finding the deep brown of those staring down, directly above her. She was losing herself in their dark depths as her hips thrust involuntarily, meeting those of her love. Those self same wandering fingers had found their mark and, parting her folds, slipped, one, two, inside her, fulfilling her greatest need and desire. She let out a short moan and groped for her partner,desperate to capturethose full lips hovering just above with her own; aching to connect before she came closer to going over the edge... fingers thrust inside her andAlex desperately grabbed the back of her lovers neck, fingers sifting through short brown hair as she drewhungry lips down to meet her own. The thrusting increased in pace... it was more than she could bear, she fell out of their kiss and, falling over the edge, could not help but call out, caught up inblinding ecstasy…

"Olivia…"

"Alex? Alex…Alexandra!"

Alex stirred slightly as she became vaguely aware of someone shaking her gently. She roused and opened her eyes to meet the soft brown of those she had left only seconds before.Theeyescurrently gazing into her own, though, were no dream. The room was dark, but light seemed to emanate from the dark haired detective who was leaning over her. Hair mussed and eyes puffy, Olivia was wrapped in a wine colored throw, her face captured with concern. Alex shifted under the intense gaze of a groggy but attentive detective. Olivia…Oh god…

"I'm sorry I…"

"You were calling my name." Olivia cuther off. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I mean yes. It was just a dream." Just a dream, she mused silently to herself. Suddenly she took in her surroundings and the fact that she had fallen asleep on the detectives couch hit her rather abruptly. She became aware of her barely skirted legs and untucked camisole and clutched at the green throw wrapped about her ankles, trying to cover her less than professional appearance. "I'm sorry," She swung her legs around and off the cushion, "I didn't mean to encroach, I just assumed I could…" Alex gestured, indicating the rumpled cushions on the couch still misshapen from her sleep. "I should go. I just…I didn't want to leave you alone." Alex choked the last few words out, hoping they sounded concerned rather than saturated in desire. She paused, waiting with baited breath for a response.

Olivia drew the shawl tighter around her square shoulders. "I'm glad you stayed. I can't say I'm not embarrassed about falling apart like that," She shuffled uncomfortably a bit in the silence and lifted her eyes to meet icy blue, "I'm glad you cared enough to help put me back together." Olivia could feel her ears burning and could almost imagine the roses blooming in her cheeks as she drew inward, embarrassed by her own admission.

Alex sat up a little straighter, "I just helped pick up the pieces is all. But I'm glad too." She reached up and caught Olivia's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. Her eyes were locked with the detectives own; Alex could sense the storm raging within, just below the surface. Her gaze lingered, perhaps a bit too long. With a start, her sense of propriety returned and, dropping Olivia's hand, she rose from the couch and smoothed out her hopelessly rumpled top.

"Well, I should get going. Elliot and I are meeting with Lucy in…"she glanced around the dim apartment for a clock, "four hours, and I look a mess!" Alex twisted and strained trying, to get a better look at herself. Noting the ADA's humorous concern, Olivia's demeanor changed and she greeted Alex with a lopsided grin. Though the blonde obviously had her "game face" back on, there was something different, something easier in her actions. She was joking, relaxed. She was comfortable. Alex chuckled at the state of herappearance and greeted Liv's grin with one of her own. Noting one another's disheveled appearance, the two women couldn't help but laugh.

"Thank y-," Olivia began, before Alex cut her off. There was so much she wanted to say, so many questions. She wanted nothing more than to sit and discuss the goings on of last night. All the emotions tied up in Liv's involvement with the Davis case...not to mention their slowly surfacing involvement with one another. But Alex didn't think she could deal with all that just now. She stepped on Liv's words, hoping to squelch the temptation to further extend the emotional torrent that was the previous evening.

"Thanks for letting me crash on your couch. I haven't done that in ages! Not since…" she trailed off for a moment, "lets just say it's been a while!" She smiled. Olivia nodded and stepped in closer to the beautiful ADA, invading her personal space. She then slowly uncurled her arms and delicately wrapped them around Alex in a gentle hug.

"Thank you, Alex…thank you." She whispered into a pale sculpted ear. "Can we talk later?"

Alex felt a shiver run down her spine as she nodded, absentmindedly. She pulled, reluctantly, from Olivia's embrace and stumbled about the apartment as she gathered her things. Her cheeks were flushed and she seemed altogether quite flustered as she headed toward the front door; the detective simply stood and observed. At the door Alex faltered. She turned back to Olivia… Olivia, who, even in pajamas and horrible bed-head, was a vision; haloed in the ambient light from the streetlamps, creeping in through shuttered windows. Alex yearned to stay with her. To lead her back to the bed, to wrap her arms about Olivia and stare into those dark eyes until all her pain was gone. She pushed the thought to the back of her mind and, turning the knob, gave a curt nod. "Detective."

"Counselor." With that she slipped through the now ajar door and was gone.

Four hours later Detective Stabler pushed a weak cup of coffee toward the less than sparkling ADA. She was sitting across from him in the desk usually occupied by his partner. Alex barely registered her hand raising the mug to her lips; just the warmth and the pleasant caffinated after-effects.

"Rough night?" Elliot cocked an eyebrow and gave that lopsided grin she had seen so many times on Olivia. Alex chuckled inwardly at the similarities between Benson and her, now curious, partner. "You drove Liv home yesterday, right?"

"Right." Alex felt as though she shouldn't divulge too many details but she resented the look on Detective Stabler's face and wanted to set the record straight. " She was a bit of a wreck and I didn't want to leave her alone, so I crashed on her couch." She paused, contemplating how to steer the conversation away from the previous evening. Though she had now worked with SVU on several cases, her standing with detective Stabler was rocky at times and she was less than enthusiastic to be having this conversation with him in the first place. Everyone on the squad was protective of Olivia, but none more than her partner. She shrugged, " I don't know how I did it back in college. Guess this means I'm officially getting old." She gave him a weak smile and went back to nursing her coffee. Elliot just pulled out the Davis file and he and Alex began to go over the information on the current case until the captain interrupted them, flanked by Lucy Maguire.

Alex rose to greet the young woman, extending a hand and introducing herself. Lucy caught Alex's hand and squeezed it, looking her square in the eye. Lucy was slight, small. She was a good head shorter than Alex, but her presence overwhelmed the older blonde woman. Her reddish hair was cropped just above her shoulders and fell in loose finger waves. Her eyes sparkled with the hint of new tears and her face, lightly dusted with freckles, was obviously stained with salt and light tracks running from her eyes where pain had cut its salty path. Her lips were drawn tightly as if to keep any words from spilling out. Alex held onto the girl's hand now limp in her own and, wrapping an arm around Lucy's shoulder, lead her into one of the interrogation rooms.

"Is this alright? We could go up to the loft outside the crib if you think it'd be more comfortable." Elliot suggested.

"No. This is fine. I just want to get this over with." Lucy said, sinking into the chair Alex had pulled out for her. Elliot sat across from Lucy with a pad of paper and pen and the blonde ADA was adjacent to the both of them, standing at the head of the table.

"Okay Lucy," Elliot practically sighed, "Whenever you're ready."

Lucy glanced back and forth from the detective and the ADA. "What am I supposed to say? What do you need to know?"

"Whatever you feel comfortable telling us." Alex spoke softly. "We would eventually like to know what happened Saturday night, or rather what you know about that night," she took a breath, "but we don't have to start there."

Lucy took a Kleenex from her purse and began wringing it in uncomfortably fidgeting fingers. "We don't have to start there…" she repeated, letting the words roll over her tongue. Lucy then took a deep breath and began to tell the detective and ADA all she could about the love she lost.

"Did you send Lucy home?" Captain Cragen poked his head into the conference room. The room had been converted into a makeshift base of operations for the Davis case. Folders and papers were strewn about the table and the telltale white board had been wheeled in and was now covered in pictures and lines, spinning the delicate web of connections Lucy had provided.

"Yup. Maltby and Shire drove her. They're making sure she's all set." Elliot rattled the answer without even looking up.

"Well?" Cragen stood expectantly. When he was met with no reply from the three detectives, Stabler, Munch, and Fin, he pressed, "Any of you mind telling me what we found out. I was kind of expecting an update."

"Sorry Cap, Lucy gave us the ball, so we just had to run with it." Fin tossed out, his nose buried in paperwork.

Munch looked up. He gave the Captain a sympathetic smirk and began, "Lucy and Tawny met in college at Hanford, and when they graduated they got a small apartment together. Nothing big. The usual couple-y stuff." John clutched at his skinny red tie loosening even more than it had been already. "Lucy said Tawny grew up in Philly, she and her mother moved here about six years ago when her mother got transferred. Mom worked for some accounting firm, which is where she met Paul Deacon, Tawny's stepfather." Munch, apparently satisfied that he had adequately contributed, took a seat and tagged Fin to keep the story going.

"Real piece of work, that one." Fin picked up where Munch left off. "He basically waits until after the wedding to kick Tawny out of the house, saying that he doesn't agree with her lifestyle, even though he knew she was gay before her married Maureen, Tawny's mom." He handed a sheet of paper to the Captain. "Tawny's shocked, and hopes to get support from Mom, but by this point Mom's been diagnosed with cancer, that's spreading all over he body."

Cragen glanced at the document in his hand. The hospital record for Maureen Deacon. "For a while Tawny lives with Mark Deacon." Elliot chimed in.

"Deacon?" Cragen asked, surprised.

"Deacon, as in son of Paul Deacon. Tawny's step brother, Mark, lives in alphabet city. He's an artist and was apparently also kicked out by Paul as a reward for coming out in his formative years." Elliot looked up, annoyed.

"Do I detect a pattern?" The captain glanced at the board with the photos and the spindles sprawling out from Tawny's picture, dead center of the web of names and evidence.

"Religious fanatic and yeah, we're checking into the father. Don't worry." Elliot answered the captain's unasked question. "So she lives with Mark until she can get housing at school. She's on scholarship already so housing's not a long shot. She meets Lucy, they hit it off and you know that part of that story. What we were curious about was this little bit of info." Elliot directed the captain's attention to the upper right hand column of the board. Next to the line connecting Tawny to her mother was a line to a question mark.

"Tawny's father?" Cragen drawled. He looked to his detectives and back at the board.

Munch rose once more. "Lucy said that in the last month Tawny had been very agitated. Said she had received a cryptic letter from her mother's attorney. Lucy didn't know what it said, but she found this on Tawny's nightstand." Munch pulled out a plastic evidence bag from the banker's box on the chair. "She said it came with the letter."

Cragen took the bag from munch and stared at it's contents. In the clear plastic bag was a delicate silver chain. And on the chain was

"A key?"