"Come on, move, damn it." Olivia muttered, sitting in a traffic jam, laying on the horn in hopes of making the cars ahead of her move, but the only thing she accomplished was making another car stuck in the same traffic jam honk back at her.
Olivia finally arrived home and hurried inside the building and rode the elevator up to her floor. When she stepped out into the hallway, she didn't hear any screaming, but as she approached her apartment, the neighbor's door opened and Olivia was greeted by the sour face of Cheryl, their neighbor that Alex had disrespected in the laundry room a while back.
"I don't know what kind of degenerate sexcape you people have going on in there, but if it happens again, I'll have the two of you thrown out of this building. An old woman deserves to enjoy a little peace and quiet without being subjected to such sinful behavior." Cheryl snapped angrily, leaning against her cane for support.
"I'm sorry you were disturbed, Cheryl. Alex has recently undergone some trauma and I'm sure she didn't mean to scare you, she was just afraid and when she's afraid she screams. If you'll excuse me, I need to go make sure she's all right."
Olivia turned and let herself into her apartment, not the least bit rattled by Cheryl's threat. This wasn't the first time the old woman had threatened to have them kicked out of the building, but she had never tried to follow through on her threats, leading Olivia to believe that she was a harmless homophobe who just wanted something to complain about. The apartment was silent and there were no signs of a struggle or any other indication of trouble. Olivia kicked her shoes off.
"Alex. It's just me, sweetheart, I'm home." Olivia called out, but Alex did not come to greet her at the door.
Olivia searched the apartment, growing increasingly concerned when there was no sign of Alex. She went into the bedroom and still, there was no sign of her. The brunette detective picked up her cell phone and was about to call her squad when she heard a frightened whimper coming from the closet and she breathed a sigh of relief, noticing that the closet door was open a few inches instead of closed like it always was.
"Alex? Are you in there, little one?" Olivia approached the closet and carefully opened the door.
From where she lay curled up fetal on the floor of the closet, Alex shrieked in fear, covering her face with her hands, and Olivia immediately squatted down so that she wasn't towering over the frightened blonde. Olivia noticed that Alex had wet herself at some point, but she wisely said nothing about it.
"Oh, my sweet baby girl, what happened?" Olivia cooed with loving concern.
Alex remained silent, she just burst into fresh tears.
"You'll start talking again when you're ready, baby, but I need to find out if you are hurt. Can I put my hands on you, please?" Olivia asked kindly.
At that, Alex looked up into Olivia's eyes, confused as to why Olivia was asking her permission to touch her instead of just taking what she wanted. With nothing but fear in her baby blue eyes, Alex nodded her permission.
"That's my good girl." Olivia praised lovingly.
Olivia very gently and carefully checked to make sure that her sweet little submissive wasn't harmed, and was relieved to find that Alex was physically fine. She began to gently stroke Alex's long blonde hair to soothe her.
"Okay, good girl. I won't make you talk until you're ready, baby, but we do need to communicate somehow. How about one blink for 'yes' and two blinks for 'no'. Can you remember that?"
Alex hesitated for a moment before she blinked once.
"Such a good girl. Did someone try to get in and hurt you?"
Alex blinked twice.
"Did you have a nightmare?"
Again, Alex blinked twice.
"Did you have a flashback?"
Alex blinked once and cried fresh tears.
"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry you had a flashback. I promise you're perfectly safe in your apartment. No one is ever going to hurt you again."
Alex pointed down to her crotch and cried more, well aware that there was a puddle of urine on the carpet beneath her.
"It was just an accident, sweetheart, I'm not angry with you about it. As soon as you're ready, I'll take you into the bathroom for a nice, warm bath and get you cleaned up."
It took a few minutes, but Olivia was finally able to coax Alex out of the closet and led her into the bathroom. The brunette detective kept up a stream of gentle chatter while she carefully stripped Alex out of her wet clothes and guided her into a warm bath. Alex remained silent and just let her beloved Mistress tend to her, relieved that Olivia didn't seem angry about the fact that she'd wet herself during her flashback and left a puddle in the closet.
"Give me your bottom, baby angel." Olivia instructed kindly, and Alex obediently got up on all fours in the tub.
Olivia decided to wash Alex's hair for her while she was in the tub so she wouldn't have to take a shower later.
"You get to choose, baby. Which shampoo do you want?" Olivia asked, holding up two options.
Alex shook her head and pointed at Olivia. She wasn't ready to make any decisions for herself, fearful of making the wrong decision and being punished for it.
"You want me to choose for you?" Olivia asked, and Alex nodded.
When Alex was clean, Olivia guided her out of the tub, dried her off, and dressed her in a clean pair of panties and matching bra. Alex clutched Justice in her arms as she sat on the bed while Olivia brushed and braided her long blonde hair. Olivia smiled when she heard Alex's belly call for attention.
"It sounds like my good girl is hungry."
Alex whimpered and crawled into Olivia's lap, wanting to be held.
"Such a good girl." Olivia praised, gently kissing the top of Alex's head as she rocked Alex in her arms.
"S–S-S-Spank?" Alex looked up at Olivia, pointing at herself.
"Of course not, lovey. You haven't done anything wrong." Olivia assured her kindly, silently concerned that Alex had regressed back to one-word sentences again.
Alex pointed toward the closet.
"It was just a little accident, baby, it can be cleaned up. You just had a memory and got scared, you aren't in trouble. Do you want to tell me what your flashback was about?"
Alex shook her head with a trembling lower lip. She didn't want to relive it.
"That's okay, sweetie, you don't have to. I'm right here, I will hold you for as long as you want. When you're ready, we'll go have something to eat and then we'll sit down and practice with your flashcards."
Alex wrinkled her nose cutely, making Olivia chuckle.
"What if I told you I have M&Ms for every card you complete?" Olivia coaxed, knowing that the promise of chocolate as a reward would make her sweet little submissive very happy.
Alex knelt at Olivia's feet and was fed by hand as usual, and continued to kneel at Olivia's feet as Olivia pulled out Alex's flashcards and a bag of M&Ms.
"J-J-Jungle." Alex read the word on the card in Olivia's hand.
"One more time." Olivia instructed.
"J-J-Jungle."
"That's my good girl." Olivia praised, placing an M&M in Alex's mouth.
"P-P-Pi-Pine-Pineapple." Alex read the word on the next card Olivia held up.
"One more time."
"P-P-Pineapple."
"That's my good girl." Alex received another piece of chocolate and Olivia held up the next card.
"N-N-No." Alex pouted, ready to be done with the flashcards.
"We'll do three more, then you can be done for today, sweetie. You've been a very good girl, I'm so proud of you for trying so hard." Olivia said. Alex sighed.
"F-F-Fireworks."
"That's my good girl. Two more." Olivia offered another piece of chocolate and held up another card.
A few days later, Olivia received a call from Barba to set up another meeting at the courthouse and Olivia informed him that Alex had regressed back to talking in one-word sentences again.
"I think making her meet with you tomorrow is a really bad idea. I'm doing everything I can to get her back to talking in full sentences before the trial. I think meeting with you will just push her over the edge." Olivia said protectively.
"I can give you another week if you want, but Buchanan and I are meeting with the judge next Thursday to set up a date for the trial, so I do need to meet with her again at some point. I can sweet talk the judge into letting her use hand signals or write her answers or beat the damn podium if I have to, but I do need to meet with her again." Barba replied.
Alex looked up from where she was kneeling at Olivia's feet massaging them, caught Olivia's eye, and tapped her lips with two fingers.
"Hold that thought, Rafael…. What's up, baby?" Olivia pulled her phone away from her ear and gave Alex her attention.
"I-I-I-I-I… c-c-c-c-can… d-d-d-do… i-i-i-i-it… M-M-M-Ma'am." Alex forced herself to push out slowly, and Olivia smiled in surprise and delight upon hearing Alex speak a full sentence for the first time in four days.
"Well, I'm very proud of you for speaking, little one. Are you sure you're up to it?"
"Y-Y-Yes, M-M-M-Ma'am." Alex stuttered, trying to pretend that she felt brave when in reality she was utterly terrified.
The next day, Olivia and Alex went back to the courthouse to meet with Barba and Alex bravely went up to sit on the witness stand without Justice with her. An hour into the session, her bravado broke and she burst into sobs as she fearfully ran down from the witness stand and straight into Olivia's waiting arms, shaking like a leaf.
"H-H-Home… p-p-p-please… h-ho-h-home." Alex pleaded. Olivia looked over Alex's shoulder at Barba and he shook his head.
"We will go home as soon as we are finished, little one, I promise, but we aren't finished yet. I am so proud of you for being so brave today. Come sit down and let's breathe together."
Olivia guided Alex into a chair and coaxed her through her breathing exercises. It took a while, but eventually Alex was no longer sobbing, although she still had a few tears slowly streaming down her face.
"K-K-Kiss… m-m-me?" Alex looked up at Olivia pleadingly.
Olivia gently kissed Alex's forehead, nose, and lips. Alex took courage in the affection and went back up to the witness stand and sat down.
"Okay, Alex, now I would like to practice some of the questions that Buchanan might ask you." Barba said.
Alex sighed miserably, but nodded in agreement. If she were still practicing law, she would do the same thing with someone she was preparing for trial.
An hour and a half later, Barba announced that they were finished and Alex once again ran down from the witness stand and straight into Olivia's arms.
"Such a good girl." Olivia lovingly kissed Alex's temple.
"You did great, Alex, I think you're ready. Like I told Olivia, Buchanan and I are meeting with the judge next Thursday to set a trial date, and I will call when I know when the trial will be, but I don't need to see you again until then."
"Th-Th-Thank… y-y-you." Alex stuttered from her place in Olivia's arms. Olivia was rubbing her back and Alex melted into the gentle touch.
Olivia and Alex left the courthouse and were walking down the courthouse steps when suddenly a man stepped in front of them with a camera and Alex shrieked in fear as the camera flashed in her eyes and she fell down on the steps, her mind trapping her in yet another flashback.
"Back off!" Barba growled, pushing the man away and knocking his camera aside as Olivia squatted down to tend to Alex.
"Are you kidding? This story is gold! 'Former attorney imprisoned for beating children'! Hey, watch it!" the reporter yelped, dodging Barba's fist.
"If any such story makes the newspaper, I will personally see to it that you never work on any kind of news platform ever again." Barba threatened.
"Alex. I'm here, sweetheart. You're just having a memory, baby girl. Try to find my voice and come back to me." Olivia coaxed lovingly, holding Alex's hand securely in her own.
Luckily, it didn't take very long for Alex to snap out of wherever she had just visited and Olivia helped her to sit up on the steps, checking carefully to ensure that Alex hadn't hit her head when she fell.
"Does that hurt, angel?" Olivia inquired, gently inspecting the back of Alex's head.
"N-N-No… M-M-Ma'am." Alex replied.
"Good girl. Come on, let's go home."