Thanks for the reviews everyone. And to answer justicegrl's question. Liz Donnelly (played by Judith Light) is the SVU Bureau Chief..

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Chapter Three

The soft moaning, the whispered calls of her name, and light thrashing of the bed beside her, woke Alex once again. Gently rolling over Alex placed a hand on her lover's shoulder. "Liv," Alex said softly yet firmly. "Liv, sweetie, your having another nightmare, wake up." When her lover continued to call out her name from her sleep, Alex leaned down and kissed her fully on the mouth. A few moments later when she pulled away, her lover's eyes were open.

Olivia reached up and cupped Alex's face in her hands. Tears welling in her eyes.

"When are you going to tell me about those?" Alex asked as she leaned into her lover's touch.

It took a few moments for Olivia to completely shake off the sensations from the dream. When she did, she turned her head, not wanting to look into those piecing blue eyes. "I thought they'd stop once we got back here."

Alex sat up and then pulled on Olivia's shoulder to make the slightly older woman look at her. "Tell me what your dreaming about."

"You." Olivia whispered.

"I kinda got that part already, Liv. You call out my name."

Olivia looked a little surprised, and then blushed.

"Liv?"

"They're more memories then they are dreams." Olivia finally told her. "That night in front of O'Malley's. I see you getting shot, I see your blood all over my hands." Olivia held up her shaking hands and looked at them as if they'd been stained red. "I should have saved you." She whispered. "I see myself sitting in the hospital waiting room with your mother, backing away from her and the doctor as he told us you were..." There were tears in Olivia's eyes. "It all plays over and over in my head. Sometime I see you in the back of that SUV, sometimes your really.." Olivia's voice cracked.

Alex wrapped her arms around Olivia and kissed the top of her head. "You did everything you could have that night, Liv." Alex knew without Olivia having to tell her, that her lover felt guilty over not stopping those bullets. "And I'm here now, I'm alive, we're together now."

Olivia reached out and traced her finger around the scar on Alex's shoulder. "I should have stopped it. What kinda cop am I?"

"Olivia Jayne Benson!" Alex scolded lightly. "Your a damn good cop! And don't you ever doubt that, do you hear me?"

Olivia smiled. "Have I told you how much I missed you?"

Alex laughed and then kissed her lover quickly. "Not since last night."

Shifting their positions so she was hovering over Alex who was now flat on her back, Olivia smiled. "I missed you so much Alex." She leaned down and kissed her lover's neck.

Alex was more then willing to allow this to go where it was headed, but the alarm on the bedside table shrieked out it's shrill warning that if she didn't get up now she was going to be late. "Liv."

"Mmm." Came the brunette's muffed reply.

"Liv." Alex tried again. "You may have two more days on your vacation leave, but I have a breakfast meeting with Arthur this morning."

Olivia groaned in defeat. Rolling over, she laid on her side and watched as Alex got up and headed for the bathroom. "Want some company?"

"Not if I want to be on time." Alex laughed over her shoulder.

"Fine, fine, I know when I'm not wanted. I'll just get up and order room service." Olivia teased.

Alex laughed again as she closed the bathroom door. "You do that."

Heads turned when Alex walked into the DA's office an hour later. They'd all heard the news of her ordeal, but seeing her walk past them in the living breathing flesh was something else.

The young woman sitting at the desk outside Branch's office smiled as Alex approached. "He's expecting you, Ms. Cabot. Go on in."

Alex smiled. "Thanks Susan."

Alex knocked on the DA's door and waited for the man on the other side to tell her to come in. An instant grin light up Alex's face when the plump man behind the desk stood up to greet her. "It's good to see you again, Arthur."

"Welcome home, Alexandra." Arthur Branch replied as he came out from behind his desk. He gave the young woman a gentle hug before sitting beside her on his leather couch.

The old friends talked for quite sometime about their lives and their work. Arthur even smiled when Alex told him about Olivia, which made her think that Liv and Casey had been wrong when it came to why Serena had been let go. Finally, after another cup of coffee, Branch made his way to getting to the point of why he'd asked Alex to come see him.

"Have you given any thought about what you want to do now that your back, Alexandra?"

Alex nodded. "I'd thought about teaching a class, but to be honest Arthur I miss practicing law."

Branch smiled. "I'm glad to hear you say that because I have an offer to make you."

Alex perked an eye brow. "Oh?"

"It's been brought to my attention that every other department in this office has at least two ADAs working as a team, Kibre and Gaffney, McCoy and his current girl Friday. Special Victims has had only one."

"I think I can see where this is going, Arthur, and I'm flattered but I won't take Casey's job from her and I sit second chair to no one unless forced too."

Arthur smiled. "I'm not offering you Casey's job, nor am I asking you to play second chair to her. SVU brings in enough cases to keep you both busy on a full time, first chair basis."

Alex wanted to jump at the chance to take her old job back, but she couldn't. She didn't want to step on Casey's toes. The redhead had worked to hard to find her place in the unit, and Alex wasn't going to usurp that. "Arthur, Casey's worked to hard for me to use come in and.."

"Casey was the one who brought up the fact that Special Victims got shorted on the number of ADAs. She also came up with how the two of you should spilt the case load." He told her before she could finish her remark. He then handed her a black leather portfolio.

Alex looked at the man sitting next to her for a moment before opening the portfolio. "This is a level higher then what I left at."

Branch nodded.

"Can I have some time to think about this Arthur?"

The pudgy man nodded. "Of course Al..."

"Ok I'm done thinking." Alex said quickly. "When do I start?"

Branch laughed a deep belly laugh. "First thing Monday. Elisabeth will be waiting for you."

After leaving Branch's office, Alex made her way to her old one. She needed to talk to Casey. Stepping up to the frosted glass door, Alex couldn't help but smile as she knocked lightly.

"Come in." Came the female voice on the other side.

Alex walked into the office and nearly laughed at the look of surprise on Casey's face.

"Alex? Well this is a surprise. What can I do for you?" Casey asked as she waved a hand towards the chair in front of her desk.

"I came to say thank you."

Casey flinched. "He wasn't suppose to tell you it was me."

"Since when does Arthur Branch take credit for other people's ideas?" Alex said softly.

Casey laughed. "So did you take it?"

Alex nodded. "I hope your really ok with sharing."

"I'm more then ok, Alex. This was your unit, you belong here."

Alex smiled brightly. "So do you, Casey."

Casey smiled and for a moment neither woman said a word. Then Casey replied. "Just don't think I'm gonna share an office with you. I was finding Swedish fish and Dove chocolates for a month when I moved in here."

Alex laughed. "The chocolates were Liv's." There was another pause before Alex finally added, "We're going to make a hell of team, Novak."

Casey nodded. "Those five aren't gonna to know what hit 'em."