Sorry this took so long.

Alex finally had an idea. There was a door, a fire exit, to one side of the pair. Maybe she could sneak behind and do something. She wasn't trained for this though, she should point it out to Elliot. She tried to find a discreet way to him but the situation was getting pretty tense. It was no use she would have to do it.

Alex snuck round to the door she spotted. It was unlocked. When inside she calculated the distance to Olivia, about 50 feet. The floor was open plan, no where to hide. This was a stupid idea, what was she going to do when she got to them? She quickly scanned the area and something did jump out at her, she knew what to do now.

She began her approach, tiptoeing across the polished marble floor. 50 feet, 40 feet, 30 feet; then she came across the lynch pin of her plan. She silently lifted the fire extinguisher from its holster, in a few more steps Elliot would see her. This really was a stupid idea.

Now in the open she quickly glanced over towards Elliot. Alex could tell he had seen her but he was not visibly letting on. She was only a few feet away now. The perp was shouting in what sounded like Spanish. She wasn't fluent but it sounded like threats that she had no doubt he would follow through with. She paused now composing herself before she put her plan into action. Olivia was oddly limp, the blood was pooling at her feet now. It was now or never.

Alex took the final step forward, swinging her arms back and bringing the fire extinguisher down with full force into the back of the perps head.

Luckily, she had waited until the perp was not holding her gun to Olivia's temple. It was evident he was knocked out immediately, on his way to the ground the gun had gone off narrowly missing fin's head. He released Olivia and she was no longer strong enough to hold herself up. Elliot and fin were securing the perp immediately kicking the gun away and cuffing his hands. Alex tended to Olivia who was bearly conscious. They didn't say anything to each other but Alex was sure she saw a hint of a smile in Olivia's face through hooded eyes. She was brought out of her reverie by Elliot asking her questions.

"What the hell were you playing at Alex?", Elliot had every right to be mad. Her plan could quite easily have gone wrong. She didn't care what he had to say, she didn't care if she got in trouble; Olivia was safe. Alex could hear the sound of sirens in the distance, hopefully an ambulance would be arriving soon.

Three hours later Alex was alone and waiting for news of Olivia. Elliot had gone for coffee and fin was busy watching over their suspect. She was finally feeling relatively calm, enough so to start processing this whole situation. A lot of new stuff had happened in the past few days and Alex wasn't entirely sure if she was just a bit overwhelmed. The minutes ticked by and she slowly came to terms with the fact Olivia felt the same way. Not in a million years did she think that would be the case. At this thought she finally smiled to herself. Maybe she could actually have the life she had always wanted.

Her period of reflection was interrupted when Elliot entered and his expression immediately shattered her small bubble of happiness.

"What's happened? Is it Olivia?", of course she immediately expected the worst.

"No, it's the missing girl. We found her but we were too late. She died in the ER ten minutes ago", she had completely forgotten about the girl in all the commotion of the day. How was Olivia going to cope with all this?

"When will she be up for visitors? I need to tell her", Alex was relieved Elliot would break it to her but she also didn't understand why he had to tell her now.

"Can't you wait till she's better. She has already been through too much today"

"Alex, you and I both know that as soon as she wakes up she will ask about the girl and I'm not going to lie to her", Alex hated to agree with him but he was right. The sooner she found out the sooner she could start dealing with everything.

"Fine, but I'm going to be there when you tell her", Alex accepted defeat and went back to waiting silently. She was getting vaguely annoyed at Elliot's incessant pacing when the doctor finally entered and she was out of her seat before Elliot even registered his presence.

"You can see her now. Detective benson is still groggy but we have fully repaired her shoulder", the doctor offered her a smile which she could not bring herself to respond in kind too. Elliot and Alex made the short walk to Olivia's room in silence. They passed the general waiting area where they spotted some family faces and other members of the NYPD. She felt reluctant suddenly, Alex wanted to be there for Olivia but she also didn't want to see how upset she was going to be.

The door to her room loomed on them suddenly and Alex had no choice but to enter. Olivia had colour in her cheeks again, much to Alex's relief. She desperately wanted just a few minutes with Olivia before Elliot told her but he was already moving forward to speak. She stayed behind near the door and looked at the floor. She didn't want to see what was about to happen.

"How you feeling Liv?",Elliot sounded uneasy.

"I'm sorry I messed everything up. I don't even remember what happened. Did you find her?", well he was right. Olivia started asking the questions Alex dreaded his answers too.

"We found her", he chickened out at the last minute. Olivia didn't miss his pause.

"Elliot, why do I feel like you're not telling me the whole story?", Olivia sat up in bed getting impatient.

"We didn't get there in time, he beat her pretty badly. We got her to the hospital but she didn't make it", now he too was looking at the floor; the room was silent for some time.

"She's dead?", when Olivia spoke finally it almost made Alex jump. Oddly her voice sounded devoid of emotion. Alex finally forced herself to look at her. To her surprise Olivia was directing the question to her.

"Yes Olivia, I'm so sorry", Alex took a step forward to comfort Olivia but was met with a cold stare.

"I would like to be alone please", Olivia looked away from them then and out of the window. Elliot took it as a cue to leave and quickly left the room. Alex was slower to go hoping that Olivia would give her some insight into how this was making her feel. When Olivia failed to acknowledge her, Alex left. For some reason she had a heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach that signalled a growing fear. Alex hated to think selfishly but where did this leave her and Olivia? Time would give her the answer but she was growing more impatient with every second.

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