A/n: a short chapter but I'm finally in a position to start writing again. No promises on next posts but I've got Liv and Alex worked out. Where there going and how we're getting there. As always, feed the muse. Feedback is key, love it or hate it.
An hour later, Liv was sitting on her couch with a cup of coffee and her mother's file when Alex, freshly showered and dressed, came out of her bedroom. For just a few seconds, Liv's thoughts wandered around the mornings events. She'd woken up half naked and entangled with Alex Cabot. She'd shared her bed and bathroom with Alex. And Alex had come out of her bedroom with a soft smile. For only a moment, Liv tried to imagine what it would be like to wake up alongside this beautiful woman morning after morning.
Your being ridiculous, Liv. Her pragmatic mind chided. You've already seen the life she lives. What could you offer her besides a series of broken dates followed by long nights alone?
It was a fantasy and she knew it. Alexandra Cabot was a prosecutor. More than that, she was her prosecutor. It was all sorts of stupid to try to have even a few hot steamy nights of pleasure between the sheets, let alone something substantial and meaningful.
The absurdity of it all struck her in the face like the slap the attorney was sure to deliver if Liv were to kiss her right now. Sighing heavily Liv turned her attention back to her mother's final arrangements. Grief swelled in her as she picked up the death certificate.
She'd known for all of her life that alcohol would eventually take Serena's life but like so many other things, knowing her mother would pass away was nothing compared to the weight of it actually happening.
Her mother was gone. With a finality that was devastating. Never again would Liv hear her mom tell her that she was proud of the woman she'd become. Never again would she be able to hug her mother and telling her that she loves her. Her mother would never see her fall in love, get married, have children.
A thin pair of delicate hands gently gripped her shoulders from behind. Instinctively, Liv reached across her chest and took Alex's hand firmly, needing the comfort and reassurance the young woman was offering. Alex squeezed her hand in return.
"I don't want her to be buried at Potter's Field." She said.
"She won't be." Alex said.
"She didn't have a life insurance policy." Liv felt her tears well up and fall on her cheeks. "I don't know what funeral arrangements she'd want. She was only 56."
It was the not knowing that was hurting her now. She and her mother had never been close and now they never will be.
Alex's heart broke for the beautiful woman. There was so much to do and Liv had no idea how much. But what Alex knew was that Liv wouldn't go through this alone.
Moving around the couch, Alex sat right beside her and wrapped her arms around Liv. "It's alright, Olivia. We'll do this together. One step at a time."
Sucking in a breath, she nodded as Alex gently took the death certificate from her.
"We'll need is a dozen copies of this." Alex said as she sat the sheet on the file.
"Why so many?" Liv asked as she looked up at her.
Alex returned her stare, "IRS, New York State Treasury, credit card companies, landlord, medical insurance provider, all the people, companies, and agencies that will require proof of death. I would suggest you hire a lawyer but I can handle whatever you're going to need one for."
Nodding Liv sniffed as her grief gripped her. She looked down at the ME file? "What do we do first?"
Alex tightened her arms around Liv, "Unfortunately, the hardest part. We have to go to her apartment and go through her things looking for important documents, bills, and tax papers."
That was not what Liv wanted to hear. "Today?"
"The sooner the better." Alex relied. "We don't want Probate getting there first. It will make it twenty times harder to get anything out of there. If she has a will or a life insurance policy that you didn't know about, you'll end up needing me just to get to the paperwork. It's easier to do this before Probate gets involved."
"And the certificates?" She eyed the page on the file.
"I can get those for you." Alex said. "You should get dressed. It's going to be a rough day."
Apartment of Serena Benson
10:35 am
Olivia dumped the key to her mother's apartment in her purse as she and Alex walked inside.
Serena's apartment was spartan with very little in the way of furniture. There wasn't much in the way of trash and it was reasonably clean as well. The worst mess was the liquor bottle collection in the kitchen.
"Well," Liv said, "I guess the drinking wasn't just at the Velvet Room."
"Eventually we'll have to clean this up but let's look for any paperwork." Alex caught Liv's eye. "Since you are her only living relative, It's also a good idea for you to decide what you want to keep and what you want to turn over to Probate. As a lawyer I should advise you not to take anything out of her apartment but as your friend I'm advising you that you should claim anything you take out was given to you prior to her death but I'd deny ever saying that. Also don't make it obvious."
Liv nodded as she dug into her pocket for a pair of latex gloves, she handed a pair to Alex before fishing out a set for herself.
"Liv, it's not a crime scene." Alex chided.
The older woman paused midway from pulling her second glove onto her left hand. She looked over to Alex and sighed. "Sorry, force of habit."
Alex turned away with a slight grin until she looked at the dining room table and saw several different liquids. One of which looked like vomit.
Needing no further encouragement, Alex slipped her slender hands into the latex gloves.
She found the garbage can and opened the refrigerator to find only a couple of perishable items. Picking up a bottle of mustard and a tub of creme cheese, she dropped them both into the garbage followed by the bodega ham sandwich and the package of salami. She then turned on the sink and dumped the last of the half gallon of milk down the drain. She dropped the container in the garbage and closed the fridge. She then went through the cabinets one by one until all of the perishable food was in the garbage. She set the can by the door and started looking through drawers for papers.
When she finished with the kitchen she moved into the living room. Glancing through the bedroom door, she caught sight of Liv sitting on her mothers bed with a picture in her hand and tears in her eyes.
Walking into the bedroom, Alex sat down next to her and looked at the picture. It was a much younger version of Liv in a patrol uniform. She was standing in front three flags and a black background. The New York State Flag on the left. Old Glory in the center and the Flag of the NYPD on the right.
"This was my graduation portrait." Liv sniffed loudly, "I didn't even know she had it. It was face down on her night stand."
"It probably fell over at some point before she left."
Shaking her head Liv set it down on the bed. "We had a love/hate relationship. Most likely she had it there so she could see it when she loved me and set it down when she didn't."
She picked it up and set it on the night stand, picture up facing the bed. "In our old apartment, she had an old milk crate of papers in her closet."
When she made no move to get up, Alex squeezed her shoulder and went to the closet. She slid the bifold doors open and fount the old metal crate.
Flipping through the papers she found an IRS statement, an electric bill and a photocopy of Liv's birth certificate. "This will get us started."
Liv just nodded.
"Anything else?" Alex asked.
Liv shook her head as she stood up, "No. I went through her dresser drawers. There's nothing else here."
"Mailbox key?" Alex asked.
"I don't have it. It's probably with her personal effects at the ME's."
"Okay," Alex held a hand out to her friend. "Let's go back to your apartment and go through this."
Taking Alex's hand, Liv was surprised to see the woman's warm smile. It was reassuring, as was the slim hand wrapped in blue latex that held her own gloved hand.
How wonderful that would feel without gloves. Shaking her head, she let Alex pull her to her feet and gently took the crate from her.
"There's nothing you want from here?" She asked.
"Not really." Liv uttered as she walked out of the room.
Alex looked at the picture on the night stand and without thought, took the picture and put it into her purse.
She will want that later.
As they walked out of the apartment, Alex with the crate, Liv with the garbage, two patrol cops got off the elevator. The older one was a slightly pudgy asian with a thin mustache and probably around 40. He had the stripes of a sergeant and his name plate red Choi.
The other one was tall, lean and square jawed but with a youthful appearance and curly black hair. He had no rank and his name plate said Troy.
"Hold on ladies." Choi said as he held up his hand. "You just come out of 2-C?"
He glanced into the crate.
"Yes." Alex said, "We collected the garbage and the deceased documents. Everything else is still inside and locked up."
"You know, your not supposed to take anything out before Probate right?" The younger one said.
"Detective Benson's mother wasn't prepared for this so we re starting from scratch."
Choi looked at Benson, "You're a detective? What unit?"
"Special Victims." She said and set down the garbage bag to pull out her badge.
He nodded and looked at Alex. "And you are?"
"Assistant District Attorney Alex Cabot."
His eyebrows raised, "Ma'am. You know what kind of trouble your looking at right?"
"Hardly." She snorted, "There's no monetary value in the crate. Just documentation and bills. Things that Benson is going to need for her mother's final arrangements. Judge Cartwright would turn this over on the first hearing day. As far as the garbage, the building super would appreciate us taking out the perishables."
He eyed her, "Troy, look in that bag."
The younger one opened the bag and poked through it, "Yep, perishables and garbage."
Choi nodded, "Ok. You ladies have a nice day."
They moved on to the apartment door where they placed a seal on the door labeled Probate Court Seal.
Alex pushed the button for the Elevator and the doors opened, She and Liv stepped on and Liv held the door for the two patrollers.
Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx
It was raining as Liv watched the casket being lowered into the ground.
A simple no frills casket with a mahogany finish and stainless handles. It was the least expensive casket the funeral home offered as was the one foot by two foot flat headstone that set beside the burial plot. Alex had handled all of the funeral costs despite Liv's objections. But the cringe on Liv's face when the prices of caskets, plots, headstones were brought up had Alex breaking out her checkbook. Liv made the decisions on these and Alex wrote the checks. 10,286 dollars was what the bare bones funeral had cost.
Elliot and his wife stood beside Liv on her left while Alex stood on her right. Munch, Fin, and Cragen also stood in attendance. Cragen had arranged for one of the department's chaplains to preside over the small gathering.
The chaplain, standing in his nypd uniform with the black shirt and collar of a pries, crisply made the motion of the cross as he finished his sermon.
"… in your name we commit the body of Serena to your eternal and everlasting grace. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust."
They all stood silently as the casket settled into the bottom of the grave.
Closing his bible the Chaplain walked to Liv and rested a hand on her shoulder. "My sincere condolences for your loss, Olivia."
She nodded and he moved off to the side of the group but stayed near should someone need his services.
"I'm sorry, partner ."Elliot said
"If you need anything…" Kathy's voice trailed off as Liv nodded again.
She hugged Elliot then Kathy, too numb to feel anything at the moment. It was all so final. As the others hugged her and shared there condolences, Liv's mind was caught in a loop between remembering the few good memories and the most painful bad ones. But the one thought that haunted her was that she would never have the chance to make things right, never come to terms with her mother and build that Mother Daughter relationship that so many of her friends have.
Cragen said something to her but she hadn't heard him. He nodded and moved on. Liv stood staring at the casket in the ground oblivious to everything until a soft hand took hers, long slim fingers interlocking with hers. She looked to her right and saw Alex.
"C'mon Liv." She said softly, "I'll take you home."
She sat quietly in the back of the town car with Alex. She hadn't let the blonde's hand go since the attorney had slipped it into hers.
