DISCLAIMER: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and all characters are
property of NBC and Dick Wolf.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I didn't mean to write it but I did. I didn't mean to write a follow up – but I am – there will be more. I've only seen 4 episodes so bear with me if I'm vague. – "neighbour" "advice" etc – the spellings are correct – I'm English.
SERIES/SEQUEL: This is the first story of the 'Stones in the Road' series.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
A Good Friend
By Jac H
Olivia sighed as she walked into yet another bar. It was late and she was tired. She'd been working this one for three days straight with about 8 hours sleep – total; and she couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten. It was starting to feel like years rather than days since she'd begun canvassing the neighbourhood; she'd shown the photos of the victim to every bartender on every shift in every bar within a five block radius of the dumpster where the body had been found.
With six bars remaining on the list she'd finally told Elliot to head on home before his family put his picture on a milk carton. This was her third trip to this particular bar. Surely, eventually, somebody must be able to recognise the victim. She'd been raped and murdered; the body left naked; they'd been unable to find a name for her so far. But someone somewhere must have seen her.
After another round of head shaking and nope, sorry detective, never seen her, Olivia left a copy of the photograph with her card, receiving in return the usual promise of a call if some miracle of recognition occurred.
She turned away heading towards the door; mentally tossing a coin to decide whether to go home or return to her paperwork until she finally crashed; out of the corner of her eye she caught a flash of blonde and a familiar figure which made her heart race and her stomach turn cartwheels. 'Alex.' It wouldn't be of course, not here in this kind of bar at this time of night. But she walked towards the booth anyway – just in case.
It was Alex. But Alex was not herself. Alex was drunk. Alex was more than just 'drunk'; Alex was totally smashed, falling down and crawling home drunk. Olivia couldn't recall ever seeing Alex this way before. 'Even drunk she's beautiful'
"Hello counsellor. Fancy meeting you here." Olivia slid into the booth beside the blonde. She'd known losing the Senderos case would hit Alex hard – but this hard?
"Liv!"
The greeting was enthusiastic – and loud. Alex made two attempts to rest her head on her hand and her elbow on the table; the table proving an elusive target she abandoned the idea and flung her arms around Olivia's neck instead. Olivia laughed. Who knew – Alex, the happy drunk.
"Counsellor, I do believe you're trashed."
"Came f'r a drin' – los' the case – can' 'member which case now but wasn't nice. I'm not drunk. I'm..." Alex flapped her hands without bothering to remove her arms from their resting place on Olivia's shoulders "... I dunno wha' I'm."
It was shocking the amount of damage a little alcohol could do to those clipped tones and that precise grammar.
"You want my advice lady," the voice came from the girl currently occupied with collecting the vast quantity of empty glasses on their table, "take your friend home real quick. Some slimeball's been buying her drinks, she didn't want them at first but then – I guess she got too tired to care – but he's been giving her more in the drink than she asked for – if you catch my drift."
"Thanks." Olivia dug in a pocket and dropped a five on the table for the girl. "Come on Alex, time to go home." She managed to get Alex to her feet.
"Hey, where d'ya think you're going." A man's voice; he sounded a trifle unhappy.
"I'm taking my friend home, now, you got a problem with that?" Olivia fished in her pocket again and produced her shield; not something she'd usually consider doing – but this was Alex and nothing mattered more than Alex.
"Ah, no, of course not officer, you have a nice night."
He backed off so quickly the detective's instincts began screaming at her to find out just what the extras in the drink had consisted of. But Alex chose that moment to drop her hands from Olivia's neck and wrap them around the detective's waist instead.
"Home," she muttered, "love to go home with you, Liv."
Olivia had to concentrate in order to begin breathing again. 'No, she didn't mean that the way it sounded, she's drunk.'
With not too much difficulty Olivia succeeded in getting Alex outside the bar and into a taxi. Where Alex once more wrapped her arms around Olivia, rested her head on the brunette's shoulder and with a sigh of "Liv" promptly went to sleep; breathing softly on her neck; leaving the detective to spend the journey wondering whether this was heaven or hell. When they arrived at the blonde's apartment building Olivia could have stated with absolute certainty exactly how many breaths she'd drawn since the taxi had left the club; she knew because she'd counted everyone of them.
Getting the blonde into her apartment proved slightly more awkward, but she accomplished the task. Putting Alex to bed, however, caused her to wrestle with her conscience for long moments; she had words with herself, very stern words. Yes of course she had to remove the suit; she couldn't possibly not hang it up for her, now could she? And the blouse was silk, it would be criminal to let Alex sleep in it. As for the rest. Well, it probably wasn't strictly necessary for her to spend quite so long staring at Alex's almost nude body, no matter how much she told herself that she needed to make sure Alex was breathing. Especially since she herself had, once again, apparently forgotten how to perform that simple task.
Eventually she pulled the covers over the blonde and giving in to a temptation she was too tired to resist any longer she kissed Alex gently on the lips.
"Good night, Alex"
"Mmm," the blonde mumbled, "you're a good friend Liv; you're a really good friend".
Silently Olivia left the apartment. Closing the door behind her she leant against it, allowing her head to fall back, eyes closed. "Yeah, Alex, I'm a good friend. That's what I am...just a good... friend."
The End