So I clearly don't own any of these characters, Dick Wolf does. This is only my second story and I had no idea as to how to start this, but I love this pairing so much and I promise it will get better I just had to get them started somewhere.

The timing is set a little while after Undercover and in this story Alex is back and it's going to stay that way. Any pointers are welcome, but go easy on me. Enjoy

It was a little after 11:00pm when she stepped onto the elevator. She rode up a couple of floors and the chime alerting her to her arrival snapped her back into reality. Alexandra Cabot hadn't been back at SVU for very long, but it felt good to be back home; she felt as if she had come home. As she rounded the corner she stopped at the double doors; she saw a fairly common sight, one lone detective sitting at her desk finishing paperwork. She quietly walked up to the desk and placed her hand on the detective's shoulder, the detective jumped and instinctively grabbed the wrist of the ADA.

"Jesus Christ Liv, it's just me." Olivia immediately loosened her grip and started to calm down. "Do you treat all your visitors to this treatment, or am I just special?"

If you only knew how special you are too me. "Sorry, just a little jumpy, too much caffeine for me I guess. What are you doing here so late?"

"Elliot called me and asked me to check on you, make sure you actually left this office and got food and sleep and all of those other things that we humans need to survive." A smile spread across the face of the ADA, finding herself to be rather funny. "So come on, I'm taking you to get food and then I'm taking you home."

"So you and Elliot have taken it upon yourselves to be my babysitters now. You know I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself."

Alex sat on the edge of Olivia's desk and leaned in, getting so close that Olivia could smell her perfume, "I know that you can take care of yourself detective, but did it ever occur to you that maybe you're not the only one stuck in this building at an ungodly hour. No reason for us to suffer alone." She tucked a stray piece of hair behind Liv's ear and got up off the desk. "Now come on, I know a place that is open all night and its close by."

"Alex, I still have so much work to do, I'll just sleep here."

"What are you so afraid of, missing a deadline on paperwork?"

What am I afraid of? I'm afraid of closing my eyes and falling asleep because every time I do I see him and I feel like I'm in that basement all over again.

"Fine, you win counselor" she grabbed her bag and threw her jacket on, "but you're buying."

"Deal."

They got to the diner about 15min later and as they looked at their menus Alex couldn't help, but take her eyes away from her menu and look across the table at her dinner companion. Even though Olivia had her eyes fixed on the menu, she had a sad expression that read across her face and in her eyes. Alex didn't know what was troubling her favorite detective, but she was hoping this dinner would help her figure it out.

The two women ordered and sat in silence for several minutes before Alex broke the silence with a rather pointed question, "So how did the undercover op. go?"

Surprised by the question and completely unwilling to answer it truthfully Olivia curtly responded, "It went well, we got everything we needed to put the guy away."

Alex could see the tears form in the corner of Olivia's eye and she decided not to pursue the matter any further, at least not in that public of a place. Searching for something to break the silence once again Alex started making small talk, "So anything interesting happening this week for you."

Olivia looked up from her plate and swallowed hard, "Actually, I'm taking a few days off to take care of some personal business." Her answer caught Alex off guard, Time off, she never takes time off, even when Captain makes her take time off she always finds a way to work.

"Why are you taking time off, you going on vacation?"

Olivia put her fork down and took a deep breath, "Ok, I'm going to tell you the truth because you're one of my closest friends and I just hate lying to you. Tomorrow is the anniversary of my mother's death and I'm going to the cemetery to visit her grave, then I figured I had about 3 years of vacation days saved up so I decided to use them. End of story." I can't tell her the whole truth; that I was seconds away from being exactly like my mother, being a victim.

The ADA winced as she had forgotten that the anniversary of her mother's death was always a hard time for Olivia. As she saw a single tear form in the corner of the detective's eye she reached out her hand and placed on top of Olivia, "Liv I'm sorry I completely forgot…anything you need from me you just let me know ok." The blond ADA's touch and kindness made Olivia smile, "Thanks and I'm fine just need to catch up on my sleep and just gather my thoughts, but thanks for the concern." And with that the detective gave the ADA's hand a light squeeze and got up from the booth.

"We should get going, you have court in the morning and I have some serious cleaning to do at my apartment." With that she grabbed her jacket and Alex through some cash on the table and they walked out of the diner and headed toward Alex's car.

The drive to Olivia's apartment was long and silent and when Alex pulled in front of her apartment both women sat in the car neither one of them willing to move. After a few minutes of silence, Olivia spoke up, "Well I should go it's getting late and I'm exhausted, thank you for dinner and I'll see you next week. Night Alex." And before Alex could respond Olivia was out of the car and the car door shut tightly behind her. And as she drove away Alex couldn't stop beating herself up for not speaking up. Way to go Alex, don't say good night or have a nice sleep or I love you. Ok so maybe I save the I love you for another day, but I do really love you. I wonder if she loves me too. What am I saying, its never gonna happen, but it nice to dream.

I know that that was a little rough around the edges, but bare with me it will get better as I go on.

Review for chapter 2.