DISCLAIMER: Not mine. I promise I'm only borrowing them and will return them to their rightful owners whenever they ask for them back. My imagination took a flight of fancy.....my bank account stayed empty. (Seriously, the cast of SVU belong to NBC and Dick Wolf and I'm only borrowing them for some free daydreaming that I wrote down).
SPOILERS: None specifically, although good knowledge of what happens in general is required. There will be the occasional reference to a case seen on the show, with any eps up to 'Loss' (early season 5) regarded as fair game. It is from this point that the AU occurs, although back story from the show (should anything post Loss strike me (but not 'Ghost') will be incorporated where relevant/appropriate. In other words, I only play with the toys I like!
SERIES/SEQUEL: This piece is a standalone piece in its own right, but there is a
companion piece of the same name in the CSI fandom. These two fics will combine to be a crossover......eventually.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Cold Feet, Cold Case, Warm Hearts
By ncruuk
Part 2
"Hello?"
"Come in John."
"Oh, you were sleeping" Munch hovered just inside the door, once more spinning his hat through his hands.
"She was, I can't" came a voice from the bed.
"Olivia?"
"Head – no sleep for me" despite that, Olivia blinked sleepily. It was nearly midnight and she'd started work at 9am.
"Ah" The silence that descended felt pregnant. Standing, Alex smoothed her hands over her skirt and leant in to press a kiss to Olivia's forehead.
"I'm going to get a coffee."
"Alex…you don't need to…" began Munch, only for Alex to cut him off kindly.
"John, she's not supposed to sleep. I can hardly ask her to watch me sleep can I? Caffeine is my friend. You want some?"
"No, thanks, but no" Munch, tall and lanky, was never the most graceful of individuals at the best of times. Now, with his shoulders hunched and full of tension, he looked even more awkward than he usually did. Uncertain as to what else she could do to help her lover, Alex smiled, before agreeing
"Ok" and, with one final look to Olivia, she left the room, only to lean on the doorframe and take a deep breath, allowing her a moment to collect her thoughts, away from the scrutinising but loving gaze of Olivia.
"You ok?"
"Dr Stephens, you're still here" Any surprise that Alex might have had was buried beneath her exhaustion.
"Detective Benson had the good fortune to arrive 40 minutes before the start of my twelve hour shift. I always arrival an hour early for my shifts"
"Ah."
"You ok?"
"I'm fine" Such a simple phrase, and one so characteristic of her upbringing. It didn't matter what your real situation was, in the Cabot household, the polite enquiry into your state of being was always to be answered in the concise affirmative. Old habits are hard to break.
"Sure?" Doctor Stephens recognised the non-answer, and so immediately re-tried the question, although she instinctively knew that she wouldn't hear anything else. The combination of social upbringing and professional expertise ensured that Alexandra Cabot, no matter how exhausted she was, wouldn't be tripped up by such attempts.
"Yes, thank you" The tone was polite, but there was the hint of steely determination nevertheless. Doctor Stephens didn't like to imagine ever having to face this woman in open court when she was fully alert.
"I know how you feel"
"Excuse me?" This time, surprise did fight its way through the exhaustion as Alex realised that the Doctor actually wanted to make conversation.
"My partner – she's an EMT. There's the same heart stopping quality when it's actually your lover that's the one down with some unknown injury."
"Ah."
"But now I'm prying, so I'm going to shut up and go and reset a kid's dislocated shoulder."
Force of habit meant that Alex didn't even think before asking the next question.
"How did he dislocate it?"
"Foster father yanked it, according to the teacher" And now the real purpose of the conversation emerges thought Alex, as their job began again. No sooner had they put one away when another one appears.
"How old is he?"
"Nine."
"The teacher still here with him?" Despite her exhaustion, Alex's brain was already processing the legal situation, working out what they could and couldn't do.
"Yes."
"You want to bring him to Detective Benson's room when you're done?" Even in her current state, Olivia was still the best at this kind of interview, being somehow in possession of limitless compassion and instantly recognisable as someone safe and comforting.
"Ummm" Doctor Stephens hesitated.
"He's talking to you about what happened?" Alex's sub conscious was doing the job for her, breaking down the situation into a persuasive argument in favour of disclosure by the victim.
"Yes."
"The teacher is an eyewitness to the dislocation?"
"Yes."
"There's more, more than a dislocated shoulder, isn't there?" she observed, astutely, as tiredness made her squint slightly through her glasses in an effort to keep her eyes open.
"Yes."
"She's good with kids" explained Alex neutrally.
"She good with this?" Doctor Stephens' body language explained what she couldn't quite bring herself to say.
"It's her job."
"Yeah, she's a cop. But he's a frightened nine year old boy."
"And she's a Detective in the Special Victims Unit." Alex, still leaning against the door, turned her head to make eye contact with the doctor, before continuing,
"THIS is her job….our job."
"Our job?"
"You're the doctor, she's the detective. I'm the prosecutor. There are victims in all walks of life. Some of them are nine year old boys who are confused and hurt. Some of them are not. All of them important. Some of them are special."
"And Detective Benson takes care of the really special ones?" asked Doctor Stephens, suddenly understanding what the ADA was telling her.
Alex paused and closed her eyes, partly out of exhaustion, partly out of memory. In a split second, her inner thoughts became a montage of images, some of them children, some of them adults, all of them victims, all of them special, and all of them cases that had given either her or Olivia nightmares at one point or another. Forcing her eyes open as the image of Sam Cavanaugh flashed in her mind's eye, she continued,
"Yes, she takes care of the really special ones."
"Can I ask, when she fell down the stairs, what was she doing?"
"Arresting a suspect" Habit meant that Alex was naturally reticent about the details of any cases.
"What did you think the suspect had done?"
"Groom seven year olds" Conscious as to where she was, in a public corridor of the ER, Alex chose her words with even more care than she normally did.
"Groom?"
"Prepare them….prepare them to do things that no one should ever have to do, never mind at seven years old." Again, her words were carefully chosen so that for the eavesdropper they were cryptic, but for Doctor Stephens, their meaning was clear.
"Oh" Doctor Stephens paled and swallowed thickly.
"Like I said, it's her job. Go do your job and fix his shoulder. Talk to the teacher, talk to him."
"You didn't say make him better" challenged the Doctor, frowning slightly at the very specific words that Alex used.
"I'm an attorney; I chose my words with care."
"How do you make these kids better?" Such a simple question, such a complex answer, and one that Alex knew she didn't really have.
"We don't. That takes time. But this is the first step."
"What's that?"
"Imprisoning every sick bastard society helps you find" Alex's words were harsh, but so too was the reality.
"Helps you find?"
"You can't test for child abusers in a blood sample Doctor; it isn't the chicken pox." If Doctor Stephens thought that Alex's tone was overly cynical or sarcastic, she didn't say anything. Smiling a polite but forced smile, Alex wearily pushed off the doorframe, saying,
"If you'll excuse me, I need a coffee" and headed down to the coffee machine, leaving Doctor Stephens to make her own decision.
The door had closed behind Alex but still the silence was heavy. Olivia could see Alex's silhouette still in the doorway, slumped with exhaustion. Dragging her focus away from her lover's shadow, Olivia tried to ignore the pounding in her head as she looked at her colleague and friend, waiting for him to say whatever he felt important.
"Elliot said you're on desk duty for a while."
"Yeah."
"Cragen's happy."
"Oh?"
"He was saying how he could finally get his Sergeant to do some of his paperwork, like she's supposed to do" Munch let the shadow of a wry smile cross his face fleetingly.
"Ah" Olivia smoothed the sheet across her lap, before refocusing her gaze on Munch.
"You ok with this?"
"With you being Sergeant? Of course I am, we all are. Cragen wants the next Squad Captain to come from the squad and you're the best call. Not to mention when Cabot is the big shot DA, your bars will look smarter than just a plain old Officer Dress Uniform" observed Munch wryly, unknowing hitting a nerve that Olivia had wished he hadn't.
"John…"
"Seriously, Olivia, if I'd wanted to be a Sergeant, I'd have done something about it in Baltimore. Same for Elliot and Fin. We've all done the last decade together, and none of us chased it. Cragen called it as he saw it best and we agreed. You're the Sergeant and Fin and I, we're busting doors and making collars for you same as we do for Cragen. All you have to do is say the word."
"And Elliot?" Olivia didn't need to question her partner for herself, but understood that Munch was working to something more, something related to the arrest.
"You don't even need to say the word. His ESP has been tuned to you for years. Blink and he's there for you." Still the hat was spinning in his hands.
"John?"
"Yes?"
"I know you've got my back."
"Nearly broken you mean" muttered John sarcastically, suddenly clenching his hat in his fists.
"No. John, it wasn't your fault."
"Wasn't it?"
The door opened again to reveal a weary Alex clutching two coffees. Neither Olivia nor Munch acknowledged her presence, but Alex knew that Olivia had noticed her arrival. Stopping just inside the doorway, Alex correctly interpreted her lover's non acknowledgement as an indication to stay.
"No John, it wasn't your fault" Olivia's voice was quiet and reassuring. Alex recognised the same warmth she heard in Olivia's voice when she was talking to scared witnesses or victims.
"It was MY arrest, I was the one on the door" Both Alex and Olivia recognised that tone of voice, it had the same colours of regret that they all spoke with when they were forced to release an abuser they knew to be guilty. It was a tone full of regret and anger, fuelled by the overwhelming feelings of ineptitude and inadequacy.
"But it wasn't your fault…." Began Olivia, only for the hat to start spinning again. Unable to cope with looking at it, the motion of the hat combining with the pounding of her head to cause the nausea that had been threatening to overwhelm her for the last couple of hours to intensify, Olivia closed her eyes, trying to will her body to stop rebelling.
"Olivia?" Munch was frozen to the spot, not understanding why Olivia had stopped. Deciding to venture where angels often feared to tread, right into the middle of the problem, Alex spoke up, praying for her gut instincts to be right. Repeating Olivia's words from earlier, she spoke quietly and clearly, her voice flat and emotionless, but loud enough for both Detectives to hear her, providing a narration to what Munch was currently seeing in his head.
"You sized up the hallway, worked out which ways were worth running. Benson, take the stairs, Fin the fire escape. The door looked solid and Stabler's solid muscle, so he was at the door with you. You knocked, called out, made it clear to Wilson who was at his door but he doesn't come. You have the warrant, you stick it to the door. You looked at Fin, looked in his eyes and saw him nod. You looked at Olivia, looked in her eyes…" here Alex paused, short enough to draw breath, long enough to let Olivia join in, which she did, her tone unchanged from before, still quiet and reassuring.
"…I nodded John. You looked to me and I nodded. I was ready. It wasn't your fault John." The hat stilled. For the first time since entering the room, the two detectives made proper eye contact, looking each other right in the eye.
"I nodded John. These things happen. You put me on the right. He went right. Sometimes suspects zig, sometimes they zag. He zigged. Tomorrow's guy? He may zig, he may zag. What's important was we got him, didn't we?"
"Re-issued warrant let us tear the place apart. We got everything. Donnelly sweated him and his lawyer out. He confessed and took a deal."
"On what?" asked Alex, speaking up from the corner where she still stood holding the coffees.
"He pleads guilty to the charges and the assault on Olivia and he gets segregation from the start. The one guy in Rikers who won't want to make his stay memorable because of the kids would want to make it memorable because of Benson's assault. He wouldn't survive five minutes in the main population."
"Maximum sentence?"
"That's for you to fix Alex. No deal on sentencing, just the guilty pleas. But I'm sure you will be your usual charming and sophisticated self in court Counsellor" offered Munch, recovering his good spirits and returning to his more usual self.
"Thank you Detective, I will remember that you think me charming and sophisticated next time you're in my witness box" countered Alex, giving him one of the cups of coffee and crossing to resume her seat by Olivia, placing her own coffee on the bedside cabinet.
"Coffee?"
"Caffeinated liquid John, I doubt it's seen a coffee bean in its lifetime" Olivia couldn't help but smile at Alex's commentary, spoken like the true coffee snob she was.
"Ah."
"No theory?" teased Olivia, hoping to encourage her old friend into better spirits.
"In deference to your condition, I will refrain" offered Munch, making to tip his hat towards Olivia.
"My condition? You make it sound like I'm pregnant!"
"Alex, I never knew you had it in you."
"If she's supposed to be the one pregnant, I'm hardly going to have it in me, am I?" counted Alex dryly, raising an eyebrow in challenge.
"Et tu, Brute, Et tu Counsellor" conceded Munch, instinctively taking a sip of his coffee, only to then wince at the taste.
"Like I said, caffeinated liquid, not coffee" commented Alex before taking a sip of her own cup, suitably prepared for the experience.
"Not that your generosity isn't appreciated, but why do I get a cup of coffee?"
"Because I think you need to stop around for a bit."
"Oh?" Olivia was curious.
"Doctor Stephens. I saw her as I went out to get the coffee. She stopped I think to check that you were ok and we started talking. She's resetting a nine year old boy's dislocated shoulder right now."
"How did he dislocate it?" asked Olivia, echoing Alex's earlier instincts as she shared a look with Munch.
"Teacher saw the foster father do it."
"It was an accident?" As Olivia began to ask Alex questions, Munch just listened, unwilling to interrupt or comment on the irony of the situation. For once, it was Olivia questioning Alex for information, and not the other way around.
"Maybe. Doctor Stephens says she's seen other potential evidence during his physical assessment."
"He talking?"
"Apparently"
"You want me to go and talk to him?" asked Munch finally, getting ready to leave to find him.
"She's going to stop by with him in a bit" explained Alex, knowing Munch would understand what she was really saying, that Doctor Stephens would be bringing the boy to see Olivia. Olivia did the kids interviews, always did the kids interviews, they responded to her.
"Is this kosher?" queried Munch, gesturing to their location and situation.
"He's a minor, entrusted into the temporary care of the school, in particular the teacher. Suspicions arose during a medical exam and concerns were raised by the doctor. It's no difference to you talking to a kid in recess at school in the counsellor's office" explained Alex, settling into the comfortable familiarity of legal rules and procedure.
"So what do we do when he comes?" asked Munch, accepting the explanation.
"Same we always do" commented Alex, reaching for Olivia's hand, grateful when her lover took it and began rubbing soothing circles with her thumb.
"Our job" agreed Olivia, smiling tenderly at the exhausted Alex as she sipped some more of the hopefully rejuvenating liquid.
"It doesn't stop, does it?" asked Alex wearily, feeling the headache building up behind her eyes.
"The day I can't find a case to follow is the day I start to worry" observed Munch fatalistically and yet truthfully as he settled down into the chair on the far side of the room, pulling from his pocket a dog eared paperback, in which he was soon seemingly absorbed.
"What time is it?" asked a sleepy Alex, the latest check on Olivia's concussion rousing her from her light doze.
"Time you should be sleeping" explained Olivia, smiling at Alex.
"No, I should stay awake, with you."
"You're in court in a few hours. You need to rest sweetie."
"I'll be fine" Alex's stubborn streak was well known, but Olivia was unfazed by it.
"Sure you will, in the witness box, coping with idiotic lawyers asking you silly questions" countered Olivia.
"Is that what you think it is?" asked Alex sharply.
"When I'm on the stand having to deal with defence attorneys, yes."
"Sweet talker."
"Sweet enough to make you go home and sleep some?" tried Olivia hopefully.
"No. You're stuck with me here."
"Ok" Olivia's easy acceptance was accompanied with a radiant smile, a smile far too bright to be appropriate for their situation.
"What are you smiling at?" asked Alex intrigued.
"You, I don't often get to watch you sleep. You're beautiful" admitted Olivia quietly.
"Oh" Alex's gaze tilted towards the floor.
"You nervous?"
"About taking the stand?"
"Yes."
"If I say yes, will you tease me again?"
"No. You don't need to be nervous. You'll be wonderful, I promise."
"I'm scared – I don't think I've ever been in a court room without being the prosecutor" admitted Alex quietly.
"And I don't think Serena has ever been in a court room as the appellant. You're both remarkable women. It will be fine, I promise."
"How can you promise it?" asked Alex, uncertain.
"Because I know you Alex, and I love you, and tomorrow afternoon you can forget all about it again and go back to being the best prosecutor in the City" stated Olivia determinedly.
"You really are a sweet talker".
"Come here?"
"Why?" asked Alex lightly, a flirtatious edge to her tone.
"Because I like to think I'm a fairly sweet kisser too" came the flirtatious reply.
"Oh" Alex stepped up to the side of Olivia's bed and leant forward, before whispering,
"You Olivia Benson, are rather more than a fairly sweet kisser" before sealing her statement with a delicate kiss.
"You going to sleep now?"
"But you can't."
"I know, it's ok. You need the rest" Olivia punctuated her statement with a squeeze to Alex's hand which had once again slipped into her own slightly larger one.
"What will you do?"
"Do what I was doing before" came the simple response.
"Which was?" questioned Alex intently.
"Sweetheart, I feel like I'm on the stand" commented Olivia lightly.
"Sorry. What were you thinking about?" Alex tried to temper her question with a warm smile.
"Oliver."
"He's staying with the teacher tonight – it seems she was a foster mother until she was widowed. Stopped taking in new children. She was still on the records though, and Oliver likes her. It seemed the most sensible thing to do, for the moment at least" explained Alex, unsurprised that Olivia was preoccupied with the case of the little boy that they'd started on earlier with Munch.
"You know this how?" asked Olivia, intrigued.
"When they were checking you earlier, I went out and called Cragen. Munch and Fin brought the father in for questioning whilst Elliot and Cragen got a warrant for the house. He's already confessed."
"That was quick" Olivia was surprised. It couldn't have been more than four hours since she'd spoken to the boy.
"He confessed to protect his wife. Fostering is her only source of income. Donnelly wrapped it up."
"Sounds like she's had a busy day."
"Yes. I think she enjoyed herself actually" contemplated Alex thoughtfully.
"You sound surprised."
"I am, and I think she was too. I think it was only today that she finally saw why I wanted to come back to SVU."
"She hadn't before?"
"She thought it had something to do with a certain Detective."
"Well, Elliot does love you like a big overprotective brother" teased Olivia.
"Olivia!"
"Donnelly enjoyed herself?"
"It appears so" confirmed Alex.
"Sounds like it was a good day to visit though."
"You mean good cases?"
"Something like that" murmured Olivia, reflecting on the day's events.
"We get our breaks in the strangest of places, at the strangest of times" agreed Alex, her words muffled by a smothered yawn.
"Sleepy?" asked Olivia smiling, running her fingers through Alex's hair.
"A little" admitted Alex shyly, leaning into the caress.
"Sleep a little then."
"You sure you don't mind?"
"Promise" Smiling, Olivia trailed her hand down her lover's face and neck in one final tender caress, before letting her hand fall back to the bed. Leaning in, Alex carefully kissed her obviously weary love before moving the chair so that she could still reach the bed. Settling into it as comfortably as it allowed, she took up Olivia's hand and clasped it in her own as she let her heavy eyelids slide shut.
And CSI Part 10