Chapter 3

Alex sat in her office with FBI profiler Huang. He was old friend and back in town to consulting on some cases. She wasn't surprised to see him in her office. Last time anyone had dealt with him was after his fight with Barba. He sat down and gave her a smile.

"What can I do for you, George?" she asked as she leaned back in her chair.

"I heard that one of the ADAs was attacked."

Alex pulled her glasses off and held them between her fingers. She dropped the pen she was holding on her files and then her glass. She pushed back from her desk just a little bit. She eyed him. She wasn't sure where he was getting his information, but she knew that George still had contacts. She just wondered who broke their silence. They were all trying to protect Santana, so she wanted to know who slipped so they could be disciplined accordingly.

"They were."

"I want to offer my services."

"Your services?" Alex asked him.

"I want to talk to them, Alex. I want to help them through this. I know that I am no one's favorite after everything Barba, but I still think that I am a friend to this office, Alex. If I can help them, I want to. Pro bono. Just let them know. For me. Please."

"I'll ask."

"That's all I can ask of you," he said and stood up. "Here's my card. I'll make sure that it's covered. No one will know, but you, me and them."

"Okay, George."

"And, Alex," he started at the door to her office.

"Yeah?"

"Congratulations with Liv. Long time coming if you ask me, but just remember, I'm an ally, not the enemy. See ya later," he said and walked out the door.

Alex watched him go and wondered what good it would do. She doubted that Santana would go to him willingly. Especially after she broke down a week ago at her friends condo. She called out of work the next day and Alex didn't blame her. She didn't know what to do for her. She wanted to help Santana but she was so cagy, distant and bitchy, that Alex wasn't sure how to even approach the idea. Santana could be so damn prickly that Alex was the only one that really dealt with her on a regular basis. If she wasn't so damn good at her job and getting convictions, Alex was sure that Jack would have already fired her.

There was another knock at her door a few minutes later. She had just gotten back to her evidence file when she heard it. She looked up and saw Liv leaning in her doorway. One hand on her hip as she surveyed Alex and her desk, a smirk on her face, and love dancing in her eyes, Alex couldn't help but smile at her.

"What you doing here, Detective McSexy," Alex teased her.

"I got some information," Liv told her.

"On?"

"The Lopez case," Liv said as she walked in and shut the door.

Alex immediately perked up. She quickly cleared her desk as Liv sat down in front of her and produced a folder. She was proud of Liv's professionalism at the office. They were still trying to protect Santana and her reputation. Barba was even letting Alex handing the case work because she had been at the hospital. He knew that it might look weird in court, Jack assured them that it would be better for Alex to try the case if it went to trial. She didn't work SVU anymore so it would seem more partial on her part in court. It didn't matter that she was Santana's friend and Santana was her protege.

"What do you have?" Alex asked her.

"This," Liv said as she handed her the folder.

It was the results of the rape kit. It had been fast tracked and there was a DNA hit. Alex looked over the paperwork and then back up at Liv.

"Do you think she'll testify?"

"I don't know."

"She's still at Rachel's. I've been trying to give her easy cases, as is Barba. She's just..."

"Not fully ready to be doing this, yet?" Liv asked her.

"Yeah, and I hate it."

"Well, we can't expect her to come back full force, can we? She was attacked and she needs to deal with it. I know that it'll be hard, but she needs to find a way to come to terms with it. She's a survivor. She'll survive this, too," Liv told her.

"I know that."

"Is she seeing anyone?"

"I don't know," Alex told her as she dropped the folder on the desk again. "And, as her boss, I can't legally ask her that. I hope that she is, but we both know that Santana is too strong willed to admit that she needs help. You saw how she was at that hospital."

"I know."

"George came to me earlier," Alex stated as she watched Liv's face.

"What did he want?" Liv asked not even trying to hide her aggravation with the knowledge of her old friend being in to see Alex.

"Look, I know that there is still a little bit of bad blood between Huang and Barba, but he came in peace. He wasn't here to tell me that he was testifying for the defense or anything. He was actually concerned about Lopez, even though he didn't know it was her," Alex explained.

"What?"

"He came to offer his services for the ADA who was attacked."

"How did he found out about it? I thought we had it under wraps. I mean I don't even have the entire SUV team working it. We're keeping this one really close to the vest. Too many people find out and loose lips start wagging."

"Calm down, Liv. He didn't have a name. Just knowledge that something happened. He seemed genuinely concerned. And, he might be a good idea for Santana to see. I just don't know how to arrange it."

"Let me talk to her," Liv suggested.

"Do you think that it'll work?"

"I don't know, but what could it hurt? She knows we care. Did he give you a card or something?" Liv questioned.

"Yeah," Alex said as she looked around her desk until she found it.

She handed it across the desk. Liv took it and looked at it. Her eyes ran over the business card and then realized that Huang had written his personal cell number on it, too. She looked back up at Alex and met her blue eyes. She gave her a weak smile.

"I'll go talk to her. Is she still in her office?" Liv asked.

"I don't know. I can call her, ask her to come up here, if you want. Do you want to wait here?"

"Yeah, call her up. I want her to look over her own evidence. She might have something to add. I know that it isn't exactly how we should do things, but you have to admit that she makes a good witness even if she was blacked out at the time," Liv stated.

"She does, but don't tell her that. She'd get mad or think that she wasn't doing enough. We don't need to push her so much, but we need to push her at the same time. Hold on for me. I'll call her and then give you the room. Sound good?" Alex inquired.

"Yeah," Liv answered.

Alex picked up her desk phone and called down into Santana's office. She was only a floor down, but Alex was worried that she might have already gone. She knew that Santana was working odd hours lately, but she couldn't complain about her work ethic. Santana was still closing cases as fast as she had before, but there seemed to be a lack of enthusiasm as before. Alex understood it, but she was still scared for her friend. She'd seen way too much of situations like Santana's before and she didn't want San to become a statistic even more than she already was.

Santana actually answered the phone. Alex spoke to her briefly and she agreed to come up to her office after she finished the file she was working on. Alex just told her it was to review a case file, but she didn't tell her which one. Normally, she would have expected Santana to question her, but she hadn't. It was something else that caused Alex's worry to ramp up.

"She coming?"

"Yeah, as soon as she's done with the file she's been working on. She didn't ask me about the case, though. She just told me that she'd be up soon. She's checking out at work, Liv."

"I know, baby. We'll take care of her. She's one of our own. We'll make sure that she's okay. We'll get her the help she needs. Besides, I've got an in on that front," Liv told her.

"Rachel?"

"Yup."

"Good," Alex stated.

There was a knock at the door. Liv stood up and opened it. She moved to let Santana in. She could see the look in Santana's eyes when she realized that Alex wasn't alone.

"What's this, Alex?"

"San..."

"No, what's going on?"

"Lopez, take a seat," Liv said as she shut the door and then moved to Alex's couch.

Santana gave her a throw back HBIC glare, but she took a seat in front of Alex's desk anyway. She started to feel like she was back in Figgins' office. She knew that Alex wasn't her principle and this wasn't school, but ever since the attack, Santana had been back on guard. Her old HBIC persona had come back and then only one that seemed to completely get through it was Rachel. But, Rachel wasn't there. Alex and Liv were. They were friends. They cared about her. They were trying to help her and somewhere in her brain she knew that she needed to let them, but she just couldn't. Santana was good about taking care of herself. She was a master of it. She didn't need anyone else to lean on.

"Relax, San."

"Yeah, like that is going to happen. What case are you looking at? One of mine? Something wrong with it?"

"Well, it is your case."

"Which one?" Santana questioned again, letting her irratation flare a little more.

"Not a case you're working, Santana. It's your case. I wanted to let you look it over," Alex told her as she held up the folder.

Santana completely deflated. Her back hit the back of the chair hard. She closed her eyes and pulled off her glasses. Setting them on Alex's desk, she took a deep breath and tried to stop her racing heart. When she opened her eyes, Liv was sitting beside her and Alex was leaning over her desk. She shook her head and started to push back. They could see it in her eyes.

"I'm not trying to upset you, San. I promise. Liv just brought me the file. I'm going to try the case and I'm going to try to keep you out of the courtroom if I can, but you know it might be hard. We're doing everything that we can to find this bastard, but we still need to talk to you about it."

"I don't want to talk about it. There's no point. I don't remember anything. He hit me over the head or something. Big not and blood, remember?"

"I know that, San. You've kept to your story beautifully. You haven't wavered since the beginning. You've done really well with this, considering..."

"I know."

"Look, I just want you to look at a picture and tell me if you know who he is."

"Who who is?"

"We got a hit."

"A hit?"

"The DNA came through. We got a hit on a serial rapist. He isn't from New York, so it took a little longer. I just want to know if you remember seeing him."

"I can't."

"Why not?" Liv asked her.

"Because I can't identify him. If you show me the picture, then I'll pick him out. It would jeopardize the case," San argued.

"San...we've got it on record that you never saw his face during the attack. The DNA puts him there. It was on you and in you. We need to know if you had dealings with him before the attack. Just because you didn't see his face during the attack doesn't mean it wasn't him, but I need to be able to plausibly state that you had no relations with him prior to that night," Alex explained.

"I haven't had relations with a man since I was in high school," Santanta told them.

"Be that as it may, you know how the defense will try to say that it was consentual. We need every bit of information that we can to make sure that we nail him. DNA is just the beginning. If you can place him near the scene, or if you can say you saw him in the time leading up to the attack, we can get him for it. It would have been premeditative."

"I know that Alex, but I don't want to taint the case."

"How would you acknowledging if you saw him taint the case? What about that night didn't you tell us? Is there something that we should know?" Liv probed.

"Nothing like that. I went to the show with Quinn. She's my best friend from high school. She was in town for a book thing. I wasn't really paying attention to anything around me. I was just walking to the diner to get some food. I was hungry. I made sure that Quinn got in a good cab and was headed back to her hotel before I left the theatre. I don't remember getting pulled into the allyway, but I must have. I hadn't but one drink at the show during intermission. I had one glass of wine with Quinn. The next thing I remember was a patrol officer standing over me and then the ambulance. Next thing is the both of you at the ER. I was only going three blocks. It shouldn't have been so hard."

"I know, San. I know. But, can you look at the picture?"

San finally nodded. Alex pulled out the rapsheet and showed Santana the mug shot of her assailant. San grabbed her glasses and looked at the picture harder.

It was a older man. He was probably in his fourties or early fifties. Slightly graying and heavily built. San realized that she hadn't stood a chance with his musculature. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened them and look at the picture again. He had a buzz cut and a hard look in his grey-blue eyes. She couldn't place him. She hadn't seen him. She didn't think that she'd ever run across him that day.

"I didn't see him."

"Okay," Alex said taking back the picture.

"San?"

"What, Liv?" she asked as she turned to face the detective.

Mahogany eyes met almost black eyes. They softened and Liv wished that she could take San's pain. She was like that with all her victims, but she knew that she couldn't. They had to find way to go on and find their inner strength again.

"I have a friend that I want you to talk to," Liv told her.

"A friend?"

"He's a good friend."

"He?"

Liv pulled out Huang's card and handed it to her. San took it and looked it over. She was about to tear it up, when Liv stopped her with a hand on each of hers.

"Look. I know that you are some big bad ass from Lima Heights or whatever, but this isn't Ohio, San. This is New York. This city will eat you alive if you let it. George is a good guy, even if I don't always agree with him."

"Didn't he have some beef with Barba?" San asked.

"He did, but don't worry about that. He's a doctor first. He's objective and he doesn't know you. He's offered his services because it was an ADA that was attacked. He won't know it was you unless you call him. Hell, he won't know who you are if we can help it. Give him a try. He might help you. Talk to him. It isn't an order, but I would like to think that you'd call him. Just meet with him once. You don't have to make it a regular thing if you don't want and knowing Huang, he'll come to you. I know that he has a practice here in town now, but he's will to help, San...pro bono," Alex told her.

"I'll think about it."

"Thank you," Alex stated.

"Can I go?"

"Yeah, but call me later if you need to. I'll be up working on cases anyway. And, remember that we still got your back Lopez," Liv told her.

They watched her leave. Liv let out a big breath and then looked up at her lover. She gave her a weak smile.

"Do you think that she'll call?" Liv asked her.

"No...but we tried."

"Ready to go home?"

"Let me pack up and we can go."