A Woman Undone: Part 75/?
Wow! Hi there! Let me begin by saying that I've missed you all. I have been gone entirely too long - unforgivably so - well, almost...I'm hoping this update here will grant me your good graces and forgiveness for the delay. We are ever closer to the end, nearing the bittersweetness of saying goodbye...but before the bitter, let us enjoy the sweet............
Part 75
The morning alarm on Olivia’s cell phone sounded far too early, or so it seemed, as the prior night’s events had only allowed for a few hours of sleep. Despite the harsh jolt to suddenly being awake, Olivia had never been happier. As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw laying next to her the woman who had stolen her heart, and though she had woken up next to her many times before, there was something different about it this morning - a sense of rightness, a sense of belonging. They fit together, and no matter what, they both knew that they would make it work. Olivia closed her eyes again and snuggled up next to the warmth lying next to her, reveling in the perfection of the moment.
Alex, for her part, had never slept so well in all her life. It was like she’d been without sleep for the last several months and had just made up for it all in one night even though she’d only slept for a few hours. Perhaps it was the arms she was cradled in throughout the night that had allowed her to sleep so well. Perhaps it was the thought that in the morning Olivia would still be there with her arms wrapped around her. Perhaps it was the idea that the constant uphill battle that she’d been fighting for the last several months had finally come to a halt. Inner peace and tranquility had finally been reached, and slumber was its celebration. Today was the first day of the rest of her life, and never had her heart, mind, and body been more ready to greet it.
Alex turned over underneath the blankets to see Olivia lying next to her, her eyes still closed. She stared at the beautiful woman, memorizing the features of her face as if she’d never seen them before and would never see them again. She wanted to paint a picture of her in her mind to forever call upon, and though she’d looked at her so many times before, this morning she saw her through new eyes, and she was that much more beautiful.
As if feeling Alex’s stare upon her, Olivia’s lips curled into a faint smile, which elicited a smile from Alex as well.
“Good morning,” Alex greeted her ever so softly.
“Hey,” Olivia whispered just as she opened her eyes to see the beauty before her. “I thought you were asleep.”
“I was, but then I remembered who I was sleeping next to, and I suddenly woke up,” Alex answered sweetly. “Have you been awake long?”
“How did you know I was awake?” Olivia asked with a teasing smile and a glimmer in her eyes.
“The little quiver in your lips when I was looking at you,” Alex said, “It gave you away.”
Olivia’s faint smile turned into an all out grin as she leaned forward and kissed Alex softly on the lips. Their hands roamed underneath the sheets until they came into contact with the warmth of each other’s bodies. Olivia’s fingertips danced along the soft skin she felt there as her lips trailed up Alex’s jaw line to her ear.
“And what other quivering things give me away?” Olivia whispered into her ear.
Alex couldn’t help but moan at the seductiveness of Olivia’s voice. It actually sent a shiver straight through her body and a jolt of excitement directly to her aching center. She’d only been awake for a few minutes, and already she was desperate for this woman. Olivia could feel Alex’s body react strongly to her tone and to her touch, and with her mouth still next to Alex’s ear she smiled proudly before slowly moving her lips down her neck. She loved the way Alex tasted. She loved the way her skin felt against her lips - the warmth, the softness, the delicateness - and when she passed her tongue over the pulse point on Alex’s neck, she loved the way she moaned with pleasure.
“Or perhaps I should ask what quivering things give you away,” Olivia said as she gently rolled Alex onto her back and hovered above her, staring into her vibrant blue eyes that were more beautiful at that moment than she’d ever seen before.
Alex curled the left side of her mouth in a flirtatious smile and raised her eyebrows slightly. “And what things do you think give me away, Miss Benson?” she asked, enjoying where this conversation was going. “You think you know me that well?”
“Oh, I know you,” Olivia said confidently as she leaned down and flicked the tip of her tongue against Alex’s bottom lip. “I know you very well. I know every part of your body - where you’re sensitive, where you’re ticklish, where you’re desperate to be touched.”
“Oh really?” Alex asked, her breathing becoming heavier.
“Oh really,” Olivia answered. “I know that when I touch you here,” she said as she traced her thumb down the middle of Alex’s chest towards her stomach, “Your muscles tighten and your breathing gets louder. And when I touch you here,” she said, wrapping her fingers around her hipbone, “Your body jerks in my hand and your hips lift off the bed. And when I touch you here,” she continued as her hand grazed the outside of Alex’s thigh, “Your breath catches in your throat and your legs start to quiver. And when I touch you here,” Olivia said, her hand making its way up the inside of Alex’s thigh, “Your eyelids get heavy and you bite your bottom lip in anticipation.”
The torture was almost too much for Alex to bear - the slow and steady torment of Olivia’s seduction. Her fingers clawed desperately at Olivia’s back, her body shook, her lips trembled. She was on the verge of coming completely undone, and she begged with pleading eyes for Olivia to give her what she needed.
“And when I touch you here…” Olivia finally whispered, pressing her palm hard against Alex’s clit and curling her fingers inside of her, but before she could finish her sentence, Alex released a scream that embodied the very essence of her body’s intense pleasure.
The feel of Olivia moving inside of her was something that even she, the commander of words, could not describe. No one had ever known her body so well, both inside and out. No one had ever been that deep inside of her before, both body and mind. To know that such a pleasure existed, to know that she had lived without it for so long - for too long - was an awakening unlike any she had ever experienced before. This was love in its physical form. Olivia was love in its human form. And the two of them together were love in its emotional form. They were three parts to a whole, a single entity unable to survive without the others, but as Alex climaxed and her orgasm slowly subsided she knew that one would never have to. The three parts to a whole would remain together. Forever.
* * *
Alex arrived at the courthouse slightly more disheveled in her appearance than normal, though with a smile on her face. Her morning had been quite pleasant to say the least, though its events had left her rather distracted even as she sat there waiting for the trial to proceed. It didn’t help matters to know that the reason for her distraction was sitting just a few feet behind her, her eyes no doubt never leaving the ADA’s back. Olivia sat alongside the other spectators, eager to watch Alex aim to kill but also to hear Elliot’s testimony today. She had allowed herself to be insulted when she found out that Richard wanted to question Elliot on the stand, as if his version of the events would be any different, or any more reliable, than hers. A part of her wanted Elliot to stick it to him by testifying that the facts of the case were no different coming from his mouth than from hers, but another part of her was afraid that Richard might actually succeed in finding discrepancies in their testimonies and their overall findings.
As Olivia watched Alex prepare her documents in front of her, Richard entered the courtroom and stood at his table where he set his briefcase down. He took no notice of Olivia when he walked past her, but his eyes were fixed on Alex. It was an awkward moment for all three of them even though Richard didn’t know that Olivia was a part of anything in the first place. She watched as Alex ignored his stare for the first few seconds, but then she finally looked up at him with an annoyed expression on her face.
“What?” she snapped at him, shaking her head as she peered at him through her glasses.
“Nothing. Just want to know if you’re ready for today,” he answered coolly.
Alex smirked and laughed at his attempt to be intimidating. She felt such a ring of strength around her, something that she had honestly never felt with him before. It was like she was immune to his quips and his threatening tactics. She was her own woman now, and he hated it, but Olivia loved it. She watched as Richard approached Alex at her table, and she did her best to listen intently without being obvious about it.
“I know this probably isn’t a good time, but…”
“Oh, Richard, it’s never a good time with you,” Alex cut in.
“Right,” he said, slightly taken aback by her sarcasm. “Well, I just thought I’d let you know that I’ll be out of our apartment by this weekend.”
“You mean my apartment, don’t you?” she asked, furrowing her brow in mock confusion. “It is my place after all, Richard.”
“Right, Alex, your apartment,” he said. “Everything’s always yours, isn’t it?”
Olivia felt like clawing his eyes out with his statement accusing Alex of being the selfish one in that relationship, but the ADA’s response more than made up for it.
“You can have the last word, Richard,” she said with a smile, “But I’ll always have the last laugh.”
Olivia couldn’t help but smile, and she almost had to restrain herself from shouting out, “That’s my girl,” or something to that effect. She knew today’s trial was going to be an interesting one even without the personal drama between the opposing sides. She was actually kind of nervous to see how things would play out - if Richard would go for the jugular or not - but luckily, there wasn’t that much time for nerves or speculation as Judge Petrovsky entered the courtroom and the trial continued.
“Mr. Lewis, since the prosecution has presented its case would you now like to give your opening statement to the court?” the judge asked, staring at him with cool eyes.
Richard nodded his head, stood up, buttoned his suit coat, and casually sauntered over to the jury. With his hands in his pockets, he started speaking.
“The prosecution has done everything they can to convince you that the facts of this case are indisputable, that there’s no way that Stewart Tennyson could be innocent. That’s their job, and as an attorney I commend them on their efforts. But as Stewart Tennyson’s attorney, I have to ask what have we really got here? What have we really seen?”
Richard took a long pause as he stood directly in front of the jury and placed both hands on the wooden rail in front of them.
“You know, when I was a kid, I loved magic shows,” he said with a grin. “I loved card tricks, illusions, disappearing acts. I loved the whole art of guided misdirection. I always thought it was so interesting how you could be focused on one part of the stage and not even realize that something else was happening on another part of the stage all because of misdirection. What we have here in this courtroom is just that - guided misdirection - and the magician is the prosecution. They’re so busy telling you and showing you exactly what they want you to look at and focus on that they’ve succeeded in completely distracting your attention away from the stuff that they really don’t want you to think about. They don’t want you to think about the fact that my client has over a half a dozen full time staff members who reside on his property and some in his house who handle his belongings on a daily basis. They don’t want you to think about the fact that my client might not have been the last person in his cars that night. And they really don’t want you to think about the fact that their lead detective has a personal vendetta against my client. Guided misdirection. It leads to guided misperception to guided misconception. Don’t let it lead to a guided mistake. Don’t let it lead to a wrong verdict.”
With one last serious glance at the jury, Richard stepped away and walked back to where Tennyson was sitting and sat down beside him with a smug look on his face. Olivia still wanted to claw his eyes out, and Alex felt ill being in even the same room with him let alone a mere few feet away. She was actually amazed at how disgusted she was by him. Even the smell of his cologne was something she could barely stomach even though in the past she was the one who had bought it for him. So much had changed since her start with the Special Victims Unit, her entire life in fact. Alex didn’t like to think that she was a different person now, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized that her very ideals had in fact changed quite a bit. She had come to the precinct with political aspirations - the most important thing to her - but now she knew her happiness was going to be found elsewhere, with the woman sitting directly behind her. With Olivia Benson.
Over the next hour or so, Richard established his own version of the timeline of events, questioning various witnesses including members of Tennyson’s staff. For the most part, there didn’t seem to be very many differences between his version and the prosecution’s, and for a while his line of questioning seemed rather pointless. But then he called Elliot to the stand, and the moment he did, Olivia’s entire body tensed up. It took everything Alex had to not turn around and give Olivia a comforting smile, but somehow she managed to stay focused as she prepared for whatever Richard might have up his sleeve.
The line of questioning was anything but repetitive when compared to what Olivia had been asked just days before. Alex knew that Richard was a good attorney. There was no denying that, and that’s what made her nervous. He was a master at procuring a certain path that he wanted the witness to follow and not allowing them to stray in any way. He knew exactly what he wanted the jury to hear and better yet, to believe, and in this case he wanted them to believe that Detective Benson was flawed in her investigation because she had certain other interests at heart, and the questions he asked Elliot and the answers he gave came close to painting that picture. But Elliot, being an upstanding detective and an even better partner, saw fit to not allow a snake like Richard to slip through the cracks and poison the minds of the jury. He did not betray Olivia or his conscience or the memories of the two victims. He did not budge in his testimony or in his conviction to see a man like Tennyson pay the ultimate price for his crimes. He was undoubtedly the toughest witness the defense had ever questioned, and had Richard been forced to be honest, he would have had to admit that he regretted calling him to the stand simply because he seemed to reinforce the prosecution’s case while weakening his own.
“Detective Stabler,” Richard said as he paced back and forth in the courtroom, a habit only Alex knew was a sign of his frustration, “Are you more of an advocate for truth or loyalty?”
“Honestly,” Elliot answered with a grin, “I try to make sure that the people I’m loyal to are people who don’t make me choose between the two. I try to make sure that truth and loyalty are one and the same.”
Richard smiled out of irritation towards Elliot’s “good citizen” behavior and response and a sense of getting absolutely nowhere with his testimony. Alex smiled because not even she could have come up with a better answer. And Olivia smiled because never before had she been more proud, not only to have him as a partner, but to have him as a friend as well.
“Well, let me lay it to you straight then,” Richard continued, “If you knew that Detective Benson was not the best person to handle a case, for whatever reason, would you notify your superior and recommend that she be reassigned?”
“Is Detective Benson the one on trial here?” Elliot asked annoyed. “Are you asking me if I think she’s the guilty one?”
“Just answer the question,” Richard said firmly.
“Olivia Benson is a great detective. I would never question her involvement in a case no matter what her personal position is. And you certainly shouldn’t.”
“Perhaps you are choosing loyalty over truth after all,” Richard said smugly.
Elliot laughed and shook his head, using everything in his power to control his anger. “Detective Benson did not plant evidence,” he said with a stern look on his face, “And that’s the truth.”
It was the biggest mistake of Richard’s career, questioning Olivia Benson’s integrity and asking Elliot Stabler to take the stand. He was left with no other choice but to smile nervously, discontinue his line of questioning, and walk back to his seat. Alex watched him with a smirk on her face, and when asked if she would like to cross-examine the witness, she happily replied that the jury had heard everything she wanted them to hear from Detective Stabler, and he was dismissed. Stewart Tennyson, for his part, was absolutely bewildered by his attorney’s performance. His face was red with anger and disbelief, and he did not take kindly to Richard’s instructions to calm down, nor did he believe that Richard had everything under control as he claimed.
“Mr. Lewis, your next witness,” Judge Petrovsky said as the noise level in the courtroom quieted.
Richard stared at the judge and then glanced over at Alex, who sat there with her hands folded neatly on the table in front of her and a confident expression on her face. With the wheels in his head spinning, he turned around in his seat and looked at the spectators behind him, as if calling one of them to the stand was the ace up his sleeve, but Alex didn’t buy it. She knew the only person he could possibly call on would be Stewart Tennyson, but even that was a risky move for him. Even though it was Tennyson’s right by the Constitution to testify on his own behalf, she knew Richard’s reluctance to practice that right with his clients.
“The Defense calls Stewart Tennyson to the stand,” Richard suddenly said as he looked at Alex with cold indifference and unyielding determination in his eyes.
Alex smiled back, welcoming his so-called challenge, and sat back in her chair waiting for her time to come.
Richard’s line of questioning towards his client wasn’t exactly enlightening or revealing of facts that did well for the defense. In fact, it seemed to Alex that all of a sudden he was ill prepared for any case, let alone this one. His questions were plain and direct, not clever and calculated like they usually were.
“Did you do it?”
“No.”
“Do you know who did?”
“No.”
“Do you have proof of your innocence? No,” Alex said silently to herself, forcing her to hide a smile and stifle a laugh.
Before long, Richard was done questioning his client, and he begrudgingly gave the floor to Alex, who was more than eager to have her chance to tear Tennyson apart. Her plan of attack: appeal to his ego. Standing up and buttoning her suit jacket, she straightened the glasses on her nose and stared down the defendant before beginning.
“Mr. Tennyson, are you a well known person in the city of New York?” she asked, easing her way into the questioning.
“Yes, I am,” he answered proudly as he glanced over at the jury.
“What about the state of New York? Is your name recognized?”
“I believe so, yes.”
“The Tri-State area?”
“Yep.”
“So in general, it’s probably safe to assume that you’ve done well for yourself, yes?” Alex asked with raised eyebrows as she awaited his response.
“Yeah,” Tennyson answered with a nod, “I’m very fortunate.”
“Of course you are,” Alex rushed on. “Now, if you were to counsel someone - if you were to give them advice about how to obtain the amount of success that you’ve acquired - what sort of qualities would you say are a necessity to have? What advice would you give?”
“Your Honor,” Richard interrupted, “What relevance does this have to anything?”
“Overruled,” Petrovsky said before turning her attention back to the witness stand “Answer the question.”
Tennyson smiled and shifted in his seat, pausing before opening his mouth to speak. “I’d have to say take risks. Don’t be so easily defeated. Don’t take no for an answer. Be the first guy everyone notices in a room and the last one that everyone wants to leave.”
“So be a relentless risk taker with a noteworthy presence, is that what you’re saying?” Alex asked for clarification.
“You have to know how to take control of certain situations around you,” Tennyson replied, “You have to be driven. You have to know what you want and have the gumption to go after it.”
“And do you have that gumption, Mr. Tennyson?”
“Yeah, I do,” he answered with a cocky grin. “I’ve always been someone who knows what they want and how to get it. I control my own fate. Nobody else does.”
Alex nodded her head and took a few steps in front of the jury before looking at the defendant again. “Mr. Tennyson, how much money do you make a year, roughly?” she asked as she stood in front of him with her hands behind her back. She could tell that Tennyson was surprised by the question, but he did well to cover it up as best he could.
“I hate to discuss this,” he answered, feigning bashfulness, “But I make a good seven figures a year, easy.”
“So then you have a lot at stake here, don’t you?”
“Well, besides my freedom, yes, I suppose I do.”
“What kind of things do you spend your money on?” Alex asked, taking a few steps towards the jury.
“Excuse me?”
“Things, what kind of things do you buy? Cars?”
“Yeah, I guess,” Tennyson responded, having difficulty trying to keep up with the ADA’s questions.
“Property and houses?”
“Yes.”
“Vacations?”
“Yes.”
“Gifts?”
“Yes.”
“Sex?”
“What?” Tennyson asked, surprised once again by Alex’s question.
“Sex. Have you ever paid for sex?”
“No,” he answered with a laugh. “I’ve never had to pay for sex, nor do I think I ever will. ”
“Of course not,” Alex said, annoyed with the man’s obvious arrogance. “So then it’s safe to say that your sex life isn’t lacking in any way.”
“Yeah, it’s safe to say that,” Tennyson confirmed.
“Have you ever coerced a woman to sleep with you? Not forced, but convinced, for lack of a
better word?”
“I know where you’re going with this, counselor,” Tennyson said with disdain in his eyes, “And let me just answer you directly. Most women think I’m a good-looking guy. I don’t need to rape a woman to have sex with her. Generally, they’re more than pleased to sleep with me.”
“Well, it’s not completely uncommon for rapists to be considered attractive by the general public. Of course that’s when the word rape isn’t tied to their name,” Alex fired back. “And it’s not only quote unquote unattractive men who are rapists, so it’s not really about the fact that they can’t get women to have sex with them. But you already know that, don’t you, Mr. Tennyson?” Alex asked as she narrowed her eyes and approached the witness stand slowly. “Your past experience has shown that you know it’s about control and dominance and releasing that inner monster, no matter what the outer shell looks like.”
“Objection,” Richard said, like a child whining to its mother.
Before the judge could even respond, Alex withdrew her last statement and continued.
“I’ll give it to you, Mr. Tennyson, you’re a good-looking guy,” she said with a tinge of insincerity in her voice as she rested her elbows on the witness stand and stared directly at him. “So what is it, hmm? Why would a good-looking guy like you, who brags about his active sex life, need to rape not one, but two, women to get them to have sex with you, and then…why would you have to kill them?”
“Objection!” Richard said, though his tone more demanding this time.
“Sustained,” Petrovsky quickly replied.
“Did they laugh at you, Mr. Tennyson?” Alex continued, completely ignoring Richard’s objection and the judge’s reprimands. “Did they laugh at you when you were trying to seduce them with your attractive features and hundred-dollar bill charm?”
“Your Honor!” Richard yelled again, throwing his hand up in the air as if waving it around would make his dissatisfaction any clearer to the court. “Objection!”
“Ms. Cabot!” the judge barked, though yielding no response from the ADA.
“Is that why you raped and murdered them?” Alex shouted aggressively, “To show them they weren’t going to get away with that? That you were the one in control? Or maybe they just flat out denied you. Is that what happened? They said no, so you raped them. And then they said who knows what else, so you killed them. You thought you were going to get your kicks that night, didn’t you, and they turned you down, so you made them pay the ultimate price just like you did with Kelly Brooks.”
“Ms. Cabot, I’m warning you,” Petrovsky snapped. “If you don’t pull it together, I’ll have no qualms about holding you in contempt.”
Alex finally took heed of the judge’s warning and stepped away from the witness stand. She turned around to see Richard’s angry face and his clenching jaw, but it was the expression on Olivia’s face that caught her attention the most. The detective had a subtle smile spread across her lips and a slight twinkle in her eye as if she knew exactly what Alex was doing and was silently commending her on her performance. Alex returned the smile, but only a small one, and focused back on the defendant.
“Well, I guess you got your kicks after all,” she said very calmly before turning and walking away with a satisfied look on her face.
She loved having gone after Tennyson like that - completely degrading him, chewing him up and spitting him out like the scum he was - and she felt a strong sense of satisfaction wash over her as she made her way back to her seat.
“You’d better be careful, Ms. Cabot, or the same fucking thing is going to happen to you,” Tennyson suddenly growled with anger in his voice.
“Excuse me?” Alex asked as she stopped and whipped around to face him.
“You think you women can just say whatever you want, do whatever you want, play the tease and the whore and get away with it? Trust me, those girls got exactly what was coming to them.”
“Your Honor, I request a recess so I can confer with my client,” Richard suddenly shouted in a panic.
The courtroom had gone from dead silent to massive confusion as people gasped and talked back and forth while Judge Petrovsky pounded on her gavel to try to bring order back to the court.
“Would you do it again, Mr. Tennyson?” Alex asked, her voice raised loud enough to be heard above the chaos in the courtroom. “You showed them you were in charge, didn’t you? You showed Dominique Masterson and Sadie Koffler that no one stands up against you and gets away with it, right?”
“Stewart, don’t answer that!” Richard yelled at his client. “Your Honor, a recess!”
“Answer the question, Mr. Tennyson,” Alex demanded. “Would you do it again? If they turned you down and stood up to you, would you rape and kill them again?”
“You fucking bitch,” Tennyson spat as he suddenly stood up from his seat. “I should do to you what I did to them.”
Before Alex had a chance to react, Tennyson suddenly leaped over the wall of the witness stand and charged towards her with an uncontrollable rage. Olivia immediately bolted from her seat and rushed to defend her, but the bailiff reached Tennyson before she could, and wrestled him to the ground. Alex stood in shock, watching the scene play out in front of her while Olivia helped the bailiff pin Tennyson to the floor and force his arms behind his back. Richard stood by his chair with his hand tugging at his hair and a distressed look on his face, as if his inner monologue was repeating the words, “Oh shit,” over and over again. Petrovsky had never seen her courtroom so out of control, and she was doing the best she could to regain some sort of order, though her efforts were completely in vain. The utter madness did not cease until Tennyson was dragged out of the courtroom screaming profanities, repeatedly threatening the life of the ADA. As the bailiff and the other court marshals took him away, Olivia walked over to Alex with a scared and concerned look on her face.
“Are you okay?” she asked the ADA who hadn’t said a word or moved a muscle since Tennyson had been thrown to the ground. “Alex,” Olivia called her name, trying to get her attention.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she finally answered, releasing the breath she’d been holding throughout the chaos of it all.
Before either of them could say anything else, Petrovsky sat back down in her seat and brought the courtroom back to order.
“Never in all my years that I have served on the bench have I ever witnessed the spectacle that took place here today,” she said sternly. “Ms. Cabot, though a conviction is quite promising for you, I am putting it on the record that I did not appreciate your tactics today. Mr. Lewis talked about magic shows in his opening statement, but you made it an absolute circus. As for you Mr. Lewis, I suggest that the next time you put your client on the stand, that he is fully prepared for a cross just like Ms. Cabot presented otherwise further humiliation for you is guaranteed in your future.”
Both counselors were not pleased with the words Petrovsky had to share with them, though Alex’s response was slightly more favorable because she knew she had won.
“In light of today’s events, I obviously have no other choice but to rule in favor of the prosecution,” the judge declared with a sense of relief in her voice. “The date of sentencing will be set at a later time. Jury members, you are dismissed with the court’s thanks for your services. Court is adjourned.”
While Petrovsky stood up and exited the courtroom, Alex let out a sigh of relief and immediately turned around to face Olivia. She was greeted with a beaming smile on her face that expressed both adoration and praise for a job well done. Alex quickly shoved her papers in her briefcase and walked back to meet her.
“Well done, counselor,” Olivia congratulated her.
“Thank you, detective,” Alex replied with a wide grin.
“Yes, well done,” Richard said snidely as he approached the two women with his briefcase in hand. “You broke all the rules, and you still won.”
Both Alex and Olivia looked at him with confused expressions on their faces, unsure of which one of them he was talking about and what exactly he was referring to, but Alex, finding her words first, had the perfect response.
“Well, Richard, you of all people should know about breaking the rules and winning.”
Richard just stared at her, dumbfounded by her comment and the fact that he didn’t immediately have a quip to come back with. Alex stood in front of him waiting for him to retaliate while Olivia stared him down with daggers in her eyes. His arrogance and cocky grin were enough to make her ill. Never before in her life had she ever despised a person as much as she despised him. The longer he stood there, the smell of his putrid cologne filling her nose, the harder it became for her to maintain her poise and dignity.
“It’s amazing, you know?” he said causally, “I’ve known you for so long and Tennyson hasn’t known you at all, and yet, he was already able to pinpoint exactly what you are.”
“And what exactly am I?” Alex asked as she folded her arms in front of her, a look of defiance set on her face.
“Would you like me to read you the transcript?” he asked her. “Or perhaps I can recite it from memory. I believe his words were ‘fucking bitch’.”
Hearing Richard use those words against Alex was enough to make Olivia snap. In one split second, she balled up her fist and socked him square across the jaw, delivering a shattering blow that even Muhammad Ali would have commended. She hit him so hard that it was a miracle his entire face didn’t shift over. This wasn’t the first time that Olivia had hit a guy before, but never before had she gotten as much satisfaction out of it as she did right then at that moment…
“You think that’s the first time I’ve been called a bitch before?” Alex asked, laughing at the absurdity of the idea. “Even Olivia here has called me that before. Right, Liv?” she asked, giving the detective a slight nudge.
Olivia suddenly snapped back to reality, leaving behind her thoughts of knocking the crap out of Richard. The image of it had placed a funny little smile on her lips, which was quickly replaced by a grimace the moment she realized that Alex was talking to her and that Richard wasn’t sprawled out face first on the floor.
“Frailty, thy name is woman,” Richard said crudely.
Alex laughed and patted him gently on the shoulder. “Ah yes, but heaven hath no rage like love to hatred turned,” she said quite gracefully as she and Olivia walked away.
As soon as the two of them exited the courtroom, they both breathed a sigh of relief - relief that the case was over with a win in their pockets and relief to be away from anything that even smelled of Richard Lewis, though the press did stop them briefly to urge Alex to answer a few questions. Keeping things short, simple, and to the point, the ADA answered their questions graciously, but when she’d had enough, she excused herself and continued with Olivia down the steps. Once they’d distanced themselves from the crowd, Olivia stopped them both and pulled Alex aside.
“You really did do a good job today,” she remarked. “I knew exactly where you were going and what you were doing, and it was brilliant.”
“Thanks, Liv,” Alex said sincerely. “I’m actually surprised that Richard let it get to that point. If I were him, there’d be no way I would have allowed things to get that far.”
“Well, luckily for me you’re not him,” Olivia answered as she batted her eyelids, subtle in her flirtation.
For a moment, Alex lost herself in the big brown eyes that were staring at her. With the intensity building between them, she grabbed the back of her own neck and laughed rather nervously as she finally tore her eyes away from her.
“What?” Olivia asked innocently.
“Nothing, just, uh,” Alex paused, feeling her cheeks grow red, “Just having some rather interesting thoughts, that’s all.”
“Oh? What kind of interesting thoughts?”
Alex took a deep breath and slowly exhaled as she shifted her stance. “The kind that unfortunately will have to wait until this evening,” she answered with much dismay. “But I promise to try to make it an early evening.”
“Good,” Olivia said before she continued walking down the steps, leaving Alex standing there to watch her go. “I’ll make it an early evening too,” she added as she looked over her shoulder and waited for Alex to catch up.
* * *
Richard stood in the middle of the courtroom feeling as if he’d been punched in the gut. Though he’d lost his fiancée, he was more upset about his loss in court just now. Sadness was not an emotion he had a heart or mind to feel at the moment, but anger - his anger seethed profusely. Gripping his briefcase firmly in his hand, Richard left the courtroom in a fury, throwing open the doors and storming out. He was not looking forward to facing the microphones and cameras outside the courthouse, so he took his time making his way down the corridor towards the elevators. As he dodged the crowds inside, his cell phone rang, and taking it out of his pocket, he answered it.
“I just heard,” came Robin’s voice on the other end.
“Wow, good news travels fast,” he replied as he took another few slow steps.
“I’m sorry, Richard. I know that’s got to be a tough loss, especially now, given…” Her voice trailed off, but Richard knew exactly what she was implying.
“Ah, so you heard about that too,” he said dryly. “A loss in my personal life and now a loss in my professional life. I’m right on track, aren’t I?”
For some reason, Robin was the one person who could handle his sarcasm and whininess without getting completely annoyed. As long as they’d known each other, she’d always been the one to try to cheer him up and pull him out of himself, and she knew that now was a crucial moment for that.
“You know, it’s not your fault,” she said with a hint of implication, but when Richard didn’t question her about it, she continued on. “Look, are you heading back to your office?”
“Yeah, I am. Why?”
“I’m on my way there right now. We should talk.”
“Now’s not a good time, Robin,” Richard said, rather distressed.
“I know it’s not a good time, but this is important.”
“Oh yeah? And why is that?” he asked with a sudden interest in hearing what she had to say.
“I think there’s something you should know.”
Part 75
The morning alarm on Olivia’s cell phone sounded far too early, or so it seemed, as the prior night’s events had only allowed for a few hours of sleep. Despite the harsh jolt to suddenly being awake, Olivia had never been happier. As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw laying next to her the woman who had stolen her heart, and though she had woken up next to her many times before, there was something different about it this morning - a sense of rightness, a sense of belonging. They fit together, and no matter what, they both knew that they would make it work. Olivia closed her eyes again and snuggled up next to the warmth lying next to her, reveling in the perfection of the moment.
Alex, for her part, had never slept so well in all her life. It was like she’d been without sleep for the last several months and had just made up for it all in one night even though she’d only slept for a few hours. Perhaps it was the arms she was cradled in throughout the night that had allowed her to sleep so well. Perhaps it was the thought that in the morning Olivia would still be there with her arms wrapped around her. Perhaps it was the idea that the constant uphill battle that she’d been fighting for the last several months had finally come to a halt. Inner peace and tranquility had finally been reached, and slumber was its celebration. Today was the first day of the rest of her life, and never had her heart, mind, and body been more ready to greet it.
Alex turned over underneath the blankets to see Olivia lying next to her, her eyes still closed. She stared at the beautiful woman, memorizing the features of her face as if she’d never seen them before and would never see them again. She wanted to paint a picture of her in her mind to forever call upon, and though she’d looked at her so many times before, this morning she saw her through new eyes, and she was that much more beautiful.
As if feeling Alex’s stare upon her, Olivia’s lips curled into a faint smile, which elicited a smile from Alex as well.
“Good morning,” Alex greeted her ever so softly.
“Hey,” Olivia whispered just as she opened her eyes to see the beauty before her. “I thought you were asleep.”
“I was, but then I remembered who I was sleeping next to, and I suddenly woke up,” Alex answered sweetly. “Have you been awake long?”
“How did you know I was awake?” Olivia asked with a teasing smile and a glimmer in her eyes.
“The little quiver in your lips when I was looking at you,” Alex said, “It gave you away.”
Olivia’s faint smile turned into an all out grin as she leaned forward and kissed Alex softly on the lips. Their hands roamed underneath the sheets until they came into contact with the warmth of each other’s bodies. Olivia’s fingertips danced along the soft skin she felt there as her lips trailed up Alex’s jaw line to her ear.
“And what other quivering things give me away?” Olivia whispered into her ear.
Alex couldn’t help but moan at the seductiveness of Olivia’s voice. It actually sent a shiver straight through her body and a jolt of excitement directly to her aching center. She’d only been awake for a few minutes, and already she was desperate for this woman. Olivia could feel Alex’s body react strongly to her tone and to her touch, and with her mouth still next to Alex’s ear she smiled proudly before slowly moving her lips down her neck. She loved the way Alex tasted. She loved the way her skin felt against her lips - the warmth, the softness, the delicateness - and when she passed her tongue over the pulse point on Alex’s neck, she loved the way she moaned with pleasure.
“Or perhaps I should ask what quivering things give you away,” Olivia said as she gently rolled Alex onto her back and hovered above her, staring into her vibrant blue eyes that were more beautiful at that moment than she’d ever seen before.
Alex curled the left side of her mouth in a flirtatious smile and raised her eyebrows slightly. “And what things do you think give me away, Miss Benson?” she asked, enjoying where this conversation was going. “You think you know me that well?”
“Oh, I know you,” Olivia said confidently as she leaned down and flicked the tip of her tongue against Alex’s bottom lip. “I know you very well. I know every part of your body - where you’re sensitive, where you’re ticklish, where you’re desperate to be touched.”
“Oh really?” Alex asked, her breathing becoming heavier.
“Oh really,” Olivia answered. “I know that when I touch you here,” she said as she traced her thumb down the middle of Alex’s chest towards her stomach, “Your muscles tighten and your breathing gets louder. And when I touch you here,” she said, wrapping her fingers around her hipbone, “Your body jerks in my hand and your hips lift off the bed. And when I touch you here,” she continued as her hand grazed the outside of Alex’s thigh, “Your breath catches in your throat and your legs start to quiver. And when I touch you here,” Olivia said, her hand making its way up the inside of Alex’s thigh, “Your eyelids get heavy and you bite your bottom lip in anticipation.”
The torture was almost too much for Alex to bear - the slow and steady torment of Olivia’s seduction. Her fingers clawed desperately at Olivia’s back, her body shook, her lips trembled. She was on the verge of coming completely undone, and she begged with pleading eyes for Olivia to give her what she needed.
“And when I touch you here…” Olivia finally whispered, pressing her palm hard against Alex’s clit and curling her fingers inside of her, but before she could finish her sentence, Alex released a scream that embodied the very essence of her body’s intense pleasure.
The feel of Olivia moving inside of her was something that even she, the commander of words, could not describe. No one had ever known her body so well, both inside and out. No one had ever been that deep inside of her before, both body and mind. To know that such a pleasure existed, to know that she had lived without it for so long - for too long - was an awakening unlike any she had ever experienced before. This was love in its physical form. Olivia was love in its human form. And the two of them together were love in its emotional form. They were three parts to a whole, a single entity unable to survive without the others, but as Alex climaxed and her orgasm slowly subsided she knew that one would never have to. The three parts to a whole would remain together. Forever.
* * *
Alex arrived at the courthouse slightly more disheveled in her appearance than normal, though with a smile on her face. Her morning had been quite pleasant to say the least, though its events had left her rather distracted even as she sat there waiting for the trial to proceed. It didn’t help matters to know that the reason for her distraction was sitting just a few feet behind her, her eyes no doubt never leaving the ADA’s back. Olivia sat alongside the other spectators, eager to watch Alex aim to kill but also to hear Elliot’s testimony today. She had allowed herself to be insulted when she found out that Richard wanted to question Elliot on the stand, as if his version of the events would be any different, or any more reliable, than hers. A part of her wanted Elliot to stick it to him by testifying that the facts of the case were no different coming from his mouth than from hers, but another part of her was afraid that Richard might actually succeed in finding discrepancies in their testimonies and their overall findings.
As Olivia watched Alex prepare her documents in front of her, Richard entered the courtroom and stood at his table where he set his briefcase down. He took no notice of Olivia when he walked past her, but his eyes were fixed on Alex. It was an awkward moment for all three of them even though Richard didn’t know that Olivia was a part of anything in the first place. She watched as Alex ignored his stare for the first few seconds, but then she finally looked up at him with an annoyed expression on her face.
“What?” she snapped at him, shaking her head as she peered at him through her glasses.
“Nothing. Just want to know if you’re ready for today,” he answered coolly.
Alex smirked and laughed at his attempt to be intimidating. She felt such a ring of strength around her, something that she had honestly never felt with him before. It was like she was immune to his quips and his threatening tactics. She was her own woman now, and he hated it, but Olivia loved it. She watched as Richard approached Alex at her table, and she did her best to listen intently without being obvious about it.
“I know this probably isn’t a good time, but…”
“Oh, Richard, it’s never a good time with you,” Alex cut in.
“Right,” he said, slightly taken aback by her sarcasm. “Well, I just thought I’d let you know that I’ll be out of our apartment by this weekend.”
“You mean my apartment, don’t you?” she asked, furrowing her brow in mock confusion. “It is my place after all, Richard.”
“Right, Alex, your apartment,” he said. “Everything’s always yours, isn’t it?”
Olivia felt like clawing his eyes out with his statement accusing Alex of being the selfish one in that relationship, but the ADA’s response more than made up for it.
“You can have the last word, Richard,” she said with a smile, “But I’ll always have the last laugh.”
Olivia couldn’t help but smile, and she almost had to restrain herself from shouting out, “That’s my girl,” or something to that effect. She knew today’s trial was going to be an interesting one even without the personal drama between the opposing sides. She was actually kind of nervous to see how things would play out - if Richard would go for the jugular or not - but luckily, there wasn’t that much time for nerves or speculation as Judge Petrovsky entered the courtroom and the trial continued.
“Mr. Lewis, since the prosecution has presented its case would you now like to give your opening statement to the court?” the judge asked, staring at him with cool eyes.
Richard nodded his head, stood up, buttoned his suit coat, and casually sauntered over to the jury. With his hands in his pockets, he started speaking.
“The prosecution has done everything they can to convince you that the facts of this case are indisputable, that there’s no way that Stewart Tennyson could be innocent. That’s their job, and as an attorney I commend them on their efforts. But as Stewart Tennyson’s attorney, I have to ask what have we really got here? What have we really seen?”
Richard took a long pause as he stood directly in front of the jury and placed both hands on the wooden rail in front of them.
“You know, when I was a kid, I loved magic shows,” he said with a grin. “I loved card tricks, illusions, disappearing acts. I loved the whole art of guided misdirection. I always thought it was so interesting how you could be focused on one part of the stage and not even realize that something else was happening on another part of the stage all because of misdirection. What we have here in this courtroom is just that - guided misdirection - and the magician is the prosecution. They’re so busy telling you and showing you exactly what they want you to look at and focus on that they’ve succeeded in completely distracting your attention away from the stuff that they really don’t want you to think about. They don’t want you to think about the fact that my client has over a half a dozen full time staff members who reside on his property and some in his house who handle his belongings on a daily basis. They don’t want you to think about the fact that my client might not have been the last person in his cars that night. And they really don’t want you to think about the fact that their lead detective has a personal vendetta against my client. Guided misdirection. It leads to guided misperception to guided misconception. Don’t let it lead to a guided mistake. Don’t let it lead to a wrong verdict.”
With one last serious glance at the jury, Richard stepped away and walked back to where Tennyson was sitting and sat down beside him with a smug look on his face. Olivia still wanted to claw his eyes out, and Alex felt ill being in even the same room with him let alone a mere few feet away. She was actually amazed at how disgusted she was by him. Even the smell of his cologne was something she could barely stomach even though in the past she was the one who had bought it for him. So much had changed since her start with the Special Victims Unit, her entire life in fact. Alex didn’t like to think that she was a different person now, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized that her very ideals had in fact changed quite a bit. She had come to the precinct with political aspirations - the most important thing to her - but now she knew her happiness was going to be found elsewhere, with the woman sitting directly behind her. With Olivia Benson.
Over the next hour or so, Richard established his own version of the timeline of events, questioning various witnesses including members of Tennyson’s staff. For the most part, there didn’t seem to be very many differences between his version and the prosecution’s, and for a while his line of questioning seemed rather pointless. But then he called Elliot to the stand, and the moment he did, Olivia’s entire body tensed up. It took everything Alex had to not turn around and give Olivia a comforting smile, but somehow she managed to stay focused as she prepared for whatever Richard might have up his sleeve.
The line of questioning was anything but repetitive when compared to what Olivia had been asked just days before. Alex knew that Richard was a good attorney. There was no denying that, and that’s what made her nervous. He was a master at procuring a certain path that he wanted the witness to follow and not allowing them to stray in any way. He knew exactly what he wanted the jury to hear and better yet, to believe, and in this case he wanted them to believe that Detective Benson was flawed in her investigation because she had certain other interests at heart, and the questions he asked Elliot and the answers he gave came close to painting that picture. But Elliot, being an upstanding detective and an even better partner, saw fit to not allow a snake like Richard to slip through the cracks and poison the minds of the jury. He did not betray Olivia or his conscience or the memories of the two victims. He did not budge in his testimony or in his conviction to see a man like Tennyson pay the ultimate price for his crimes. He was undoubtedly the toughest witness the defense had ever questioned, and had Richard been forced to be honest, he would have had to admit that he regretted calling him to the stand simply because he seemed to reinforce the prosecution’s case while weakening his own.
“Detective Stabler,” Richard said as he paced back and forth in the courtroom, a habit only Alex knew was a sign of his frustration, “Are you more of an advocate for truth or loyalty?”
“Honestly,” Elliot answered with a grin, “I try to make sure that the people I’m loyal to are people who don’t make me choose between the two. I try to make sure that truth and loyalty are one and the same.”
Richard smiled out of irritation towards Elliot’s “good citizen” behavior and response and a sense of getting absolutely nowhere with his testimony. Alex smiled because not even she could have come up with a better answer. And Olivia smiled because never before had she been more proud, not only to have him as a partner, but to have him as a friend as well.
“Well, let me lay it to you straight then,” Richard continued, “If you knew that Detective Benson was not the best person to handle a case, for whatever reason, would you notify your superior and recommend that she be reassigned?”
“Is Detective Benson the one on trial here?” Elliot asked annoyed. “Are you asking me if I think she’s the guilty one?”
“Just answer the question,” Richard said firmly.
“Olivia Benson is a great detective. I would never question her involvement in a case no matter what her personal position is. And you certainly shouldn’t.”
“Perhaps you are choosing loyalty over truth after all,” Richard said smugly.
Elliot laughed and shook his head, using everything in his power to control his anger. “Detective Benson did not plant evidence,” he said with a stern look on his face, “And that’s the truth.”
It was the biggest mistake of Richard’s career, questioning Olivia Benson’s integrity and asking Elliot Stabler to take the stand. He was left with no other choice but to smile nervously, discontinue his line of questioning, and walk back to his seat. Alex watched him with a smirk on her face, and when asked if she would like to cross-examine the witness, she happily replied that the jury had heard everything she wanted them to hear from Detective Stabler, and he was dismissed. Stewart Tennyson, for his part, was absolutely bewildered by his attorney’s performance. His face was red with anger and disbelief, and he did not take kindly to Richard’s instructions to calm down, nor did he believe that Richard had everything under control as he claimed.
“Mr. Lewis, your next witness,” Judge Petrovsky said as the noise level in the courtroom quieted.
Richard stared at the judge and then glanced over at Alex, who sat there with her hands folded neatly on the table in front of her and a confident expression on her face. With the wheels in his head spinning, he turned around in his seat and looked at the spectators behind him, as if calling one of them to the stand was the ace up his sleeve, but Alex didn’t buy it. She knew the only person he could possibly call on would be Stewart Tennyson, but even that was a risky move for him. Even though it was Tennyson’s right by the Constitution to testify on his own behalf, she knew Richard’s reluctance to practice that right with his clients.
“The Defense calls Stewart Tennyson to the stand,” Richard suddenly said as he looked at Alex with cold indifference and unyielding determination in his eyes.
Alex smiled back, welcoming his so-called challenge, and sat back in her chair waiting for her time to come.
Richard’s line of questioning towards his client wasn’t exactly enlightening or revealing of facts that did well for the defense. In fact, it seemed to Alex that all of a sudden he was ill prepared for any case, let alone this one. His questions were plain and direct, not clever and calculated like they usually were.
“Did you do it?”
“No.”
“Do you know who did?”
“No.”
“Do you have proof of your innocence? No,” Alex said silently to herself, forcing her to hide a smile and stifle a laugh.
Before long, Richard was done questioning his client, and he begrudgingly gave the floor to Alex, who was more than eager to have her chance to tear Tennyson apart. Her plan of attack: appeal to his ego. Standing up and buttoning her suit jacket, she straightened the glasses on her nose and stared down the defendant before beginning.
“Mr. Tennyson, are you a well known person in the city of New York?” she asked, easing her way into the questioning.
“Yes, I am,” he answered proudly as he glanced over at the jury.
“What about the state of New York? Is your name recognized?”
“I believe so, yes.”
“The Tri-State area?”
“Yep.”
“So in general, it’s probably safe to assume that you’ve done well for yourself, yes?” Alex asked with raised eyebrows as she awaited his response.
“Yeah,” Tennyson answered with a nod, “I’m very fortunate.”
“Of course you are,” Alex rushed on. “Now, if you were to counsel someone - if you were to give them advice about how to obtain the amount of success that you’ve acquired - what sort of qualities would you say are a necessity to have? What advice would you give?”
“Your Honor,” Richard interrupted, “What relevance does this have to anything?”
“Overruled,” Petrovsky said before turning her attention back to the witness stand “Answer the question.”
Tennyson smiled and shifted in his seat, pausing before opening his mouth to speak. “I’d have to say take risks. Don’t be so easily defeated. Don’t take no for an answer. Be the first guy everyone notices in a room and the last one that everyone wants to leave.”
“So be a relentless risk taker with a noteworthy presence, is that what you’re saying?” Alex asked for clarification.
“You have to know how to take control of certain situations around you,” Tennyson replied, “You have to be driven. You have to know what you want and have the gumption to go after it.”
“And do you have that gumption, Mr. Tennyson?”
“Yeah, I do,” he answered with a cocky grin. “I’ve always been someone who knows what they want and how to get it. I control my own fate. Nobody else does.”
Alex nodded her head and took a few steps in front of the jury before looking at the defendant again. “Mr. Tennyson, how much money do you make a year, roughly?” she asked as she stood in front of him with her hands behind her back. She could tell that Tennyson was surprised by the question, but he did well to cover it up as best he could.
“I hate to discuss this,” he answered, feigning bashfulness, “But I make a good seven figures a year, easy.”
“So then you have a lot at stake here, don’t you?”
“Well, besides my freedom, yes, I suppose I do.”
“What kind of things do you spend your money on?” Alex asked, taking a few steps towards the jury.
“Excuse me?”
“Things, what kind of things do you buy? Cars?”
“Yeah, I guess,” Tennyson responded, having difficulty trying to keep up with the ADA’s questions.
“Property and houses?”
“Yes.”
“Vacations?”
“Yes.”
“Gifts?”
“Yes.”
“Sex?”
“What?” Tennyson asked, surprised once again by Alex’s question.
“Sex. Have you ever paid for sex?”
“No,” he answered with a laugh. “I’ve never had to pay for sex, nor do I think I ever will. ”
“Of course not,” Alex said, annoyed with the man’s obvious arrogance. “So then it’s safe to say that your sex life isn’t lacking in any way.”
“Yeah, it’s safe to say that,” Tennyson confirmed.
“Have you ever coerced a woman to sleep with you? Not forced, but convinced, for lack of a
better word?”
“I know where you’re going with this, counselor,” Tennyson said with disdain in his eyes, “And let me just answer you directly. Most women think I’m a good-looking guy. I don’t need to rape a woman to have sex with her. Generally, they’re more than pleased to sleep with me.”
“Well, it’s not completely uncommon for rapists to be considered attractive by the general public. Of course that’s when the word rape isn’t tied to their name,” Alex fired back. “And it’s not only quote unquote unattractive men who are rapists, so it’s not really about the fact that they can’t get women to have sex with them. But you already know that, don’t you, Mr. Tennyson?” Alex asked as she narrowed her eyes and approached the witness stand slowly. “Your past experience has shown that you know it’s about control and dominance and releasing that inner monster, no matter what the outer shell looks like.”
“Objection,” Richard said, like a child whining to its mother.
Before the judge could even respond, Alex withdrew her last statement and continued.
“I’ll give it to you, Mr. Tennyson, you’re a good-looking guy,” she said with a tinge of insincerity in her voice as she rested her elbows on the witness stand and stared directly at him. “So what is it, hmm? Why would a good-looking guy like you, who brags about his active sex life, need to rape not one, but two, women to get them to have sex with you, and then…why would you have to kill them?”
“Objection!” Richard said, though his tone more demanding this time.
“Sustained,” Petrovsky quickly replied.
“Did they laugh at you, Mr. Tennyson?” Alex continued, completely ignoring Richard’s objection and the judge’s reprimands. “Did they laugh at you when you were trying to seduce them with your attractive features and hundred-dollar bill charm?”
“Your Honor!” Richard yelled again, throwing his hand up in the air as if waving it around would make his dissatisfaction any clearer to the court. “Objection!”
“Ms. Cabot!” the judge barked, though yielding no response from the ADA.
“Is that why you raped and murdered them?” Alex shouted aggressively, “To show them they weren’t going to get away with that? That you were the one in control? Or maybe they just flat out denied you. Is that what happened? They said no, so you raped them. And then they said who knows what else, so you killed them. You thought you were going to get your kicks that night, didn’t you, and they turned you down, so you made them pay the ultimate price just like you did with Kelly Brooks.”
“Ms. Cabot, I’m warning you,” Petrovsky snapped. “If you don’t pull it together, I’ll have no qualms about holding you in contempt.”
Alex finally took heed of the judge’s warning and stepped away from the witness stand. She turned around to see Richard’s angry face and his clenching jaw, but it was the expression on Olivia’s face that caught her attention the most. The detective had a subtle smile spread across her lips and a slight twinkle in her eye as if she knew exactly what Alex was doing and was silently commending her on her performance. Alex returned the smile, but only a small one, and focused back on the defendant.
“Well, I guess you got your kicks after all,” she said very calmly before turning and walking away with a satisfied look on her face.
She loved having gone after Tennyson like that - completely degrading him, chewing him up and spitting him out like the scum he was - and she felt a strong sense of satisfaction wash over her as she made her way back to her seat.
“You’d better be careful, Ms. Cabot, or the same fucking thing is going to happen to you,” Tennyson suddenly growled with anger in his voice.
“Excuse me?” Alex asked as she stopped and whipped around to face him.
“You think you women can just say whatever you want, do whatever you want, play the tease and the whore and get away with it? Trust me, those girls got exactly what was coming to them.”
“Your Honor, I request a recess so I can confer with my client,” Richard suddenly shouted in a panic.
The courtroom had gone from dead silent to massive confusion as people gasped and talked back and forth while Judge Petrovsky pounded on her gavel to try to bring order back to the court.
“Would you do it again, Mr. Tennyson?” Alex asked, her voice raised loud enough to be heard above the chaos in the courtroom. “You showed them you were in charge, didn’t you? You showed Dominique Masterson and Sadie Koffler that no one stands up against you and gets away with it, right?”
“Stewart, don’t answer that!” Richard yelled at his client. “Your Honor, a recess!”
“Answer the question, Mr. Tennyson,” Alex demanded. “Would you do it again? If they turned you down and stood up to you, would you rape and kill them again?”
“You fucking bitch,” Tennyson spat as he suddenly stood up from his seat. “I should do to you what I did to them.”
Before Alex had a chance to react, Tennyson suddenly leaped over the wall of the witness stand and charged towards her with an uncontrollable rage. Olivia immediately bolted from her seat and rushed to defend her, but the bailiff reached Tennyson before she could, and wrestled him to the ground. Alex stood in shock, watching the scene play out in front of her while Olivia helped the bailiff pin Tennyson to the floor and force his arms behind his back. Richard stood by his chair with his hand tugging at his hair and a distressed look on his face, as if his inner monologue was repeating the words, “Oh shit,” over and over again. Petrovsky had never seen her courtroom so out of control, and she was doing the best she could to regain some sort of order, though her efforts were completely in vain. The utter madness did not cease until Tennyson was dragged out of the courtroom screaming profanities, repeatedly threatening the life of the ADA. As the bailiff and the other court marshals took him away, Olivia walked over to Alex with a scared and concerned look on her face.
“Are you okay?” she asked the ADA who hadn’t said a word or moved a muscle since Tennyson had been thrown to the ground. “Alex,” Olivia called her name, trying to get her attention.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she finally answered, releasing the breath she’d been holding throughout the chaos of it all.
Before either of them could say anything else, Petrovsky sat back down in her seat and brought the courtroom back to order.
“Never in all my years that I have served on the bench have I ever witnessed the spectacle that took place here today,” she said sternly. “Ms. Cabot, though a conviction is quite promising for you, I am putting it on the record that I did not appreciate your tactics today. Mr. Lewis talked about magic shows in his opening statement, but you made it an absolute circus. As for you Mr. Lewis, I suggest that the next time you put your client on the stand, that he is fully prepared for a cross just like Ms. Cabot presented otherwise further humiliation for you is guaranteed in your future.”
Both counselors were not pleased with the words Petrovsky had to share with them, though Alex’s response was slightly more favorable because she knew she had won.
“In light of today’s events, I obviously have no other choice but to rule in favor of the prosecution,” the judge declared with a sense of relief in her voice. “The date of sentencing will be set at a later time. Jury members, you are dismissed with the court’s thanks for your services. Court is adjourned.”
While Petrovsky stood up and exited the courtroom, Alex let out a sigh of relief and immediately turned around to face Olivia. She was greeted with a beaming smile on her face that expressed both adoration and praise for a job well done. Alex quickly shoved her papers in her briefcase and walked back to meet her.
“Well done, counselor,” Olivia congratulated her.
“Thank you, detective,” Alex replied with a wide grin.
“Yes, well done,” Richard said snidely as he approached the two women with his briefcase in hand. “You broke all the rules, and you still won.”
Both Alex and Olivia looked at him with confused expressions on their faces, unsure of which one of them he was talking about and what exactly he was referring to, but Alex, finding her words first, had the perfect response.
“Well, Richard, you of all people should know about breaking the rules and winning.”
Richard just stared at her, dumbfounded by her comment and the fact that he didn’t immediately have a quip to come back with. Alex stood in front of him waiting for him to retaliate while Olivia stared him down with daggers in her eyes. His arrogance and cocky grin were enough to make her ill. Never before in her life had she ever despised a person as much as she despised him. The longer he stood there, the smell of his putrid cologne filling her nose, the harder it became for her to maintain her poise and dignity.
“It’s amazing, you know?” he said causally, “I’ve known you for so long and Tennyson hasn’t known you at all, and yet, he was already able to pinpoint exactly what you are.”
“And what exactly am I?” Alex asked as she folded her arms in front of her, a look of defiance set on her face.
“Would you like me to read you the transcript?” he asked her. “Or perhaps I can recite it from memory. I believe his words were ‘fucking bitch’.”
Hearing Richard use those words against Alex was enough to make Olivia snap. In one split second, she balled up her fist and socked him square across the jaw, delivering a shattering blow that even Muhammad Ali would have commended. She hit him so hard that it was a miracle his entire face didn’t shift over. This wasn’t the first time that Olivia had hit a guy before, but never before had she gotten as much satisfaction out of it as she did right then at that moment…
“You think that’s the first time I’ve been called a bitch before?” Alex asked, laughing at the absurdity of the idea. “Even Olivia here has called me that before. Right, Liv?” she asked, giving the detective a slight nudge.
Olivia suddenly snapped back to reality, leaving behind her thoughts of knocking the crap out of Richard. The image of it had placed a funny little smile on her lips, which was quickly replaced by a grimace the moment she realized that Alex was talking to her and that Richard wasn’t sprawled out face first on the floor.
“Frailty, thy name is woman,” Richard said crudely.
Alex laughed and patted him gently on the shoulder. “Ah yes, but heaven hath no rage like love to hatred turned,” she said quite gracefully as she and Olivia walked away.
As soon as the two of them exited the courtroom, they both breathed a sigh of relief - relief that the case was over with a win in their pockets and relief to be away from anything that even smelled of Richard Lewis, though the press did stop them briefly to urge Alex to answer a few questions. Keeping things short, simple, and to the point, the ADA answered their questions graciously, but when she’d had enough, she excused herself and continued with Olivia down the steps. Once they’d distanced themselves from the crowd, Olivia stopped them both and pulled Alex aside.
“You really did do a good job today,” she remarked. “I knew exactly where you were going and what you were doing, and it was brilliant.”
“Thanks, Liv,” Alex said sincerely. “I’m actually surprised that Richard let it get to that point. If I were him, there’d be no way I would have allowed things to get that far.”
“Well, luckily for me you’re not him,” Olivia answered as she batted her eyelids, subtle in her flirtation.
For a moment, Alex lost herself in the big brown eyes that were staring at her. With the intensity building between them, she grabbed the back of her own neck and laughed rather nervously as she finally tore her eyes away from her.
“What?” Olivia asked innocently.
“Nothing, just, uh,” Alex paused, feeling her cheeks grow red, “Just having some rather interesting thoughts, that’s all.”
“Oh? What kind of interesting thoughts?”
Alex took a deep breath and slowly exhaled as she shifted her stance. “The kind that unfortunately will have to wait until this evening,” she answered with much dismay. “But I promise to try to make it an early evening.”
“Good,” Olivia said before she continued walking down the steps, leaving Alex standing there to watch her go. “I’ll make it an early evening too,” she added as she looked over her shoulder and waited for Alex to catch up.
* * *
Richard stood in the middle of the courtroom feeling as if he’d been punched in the gut. Though he’d lost his fiancée, he was more upset about his loss in court just now. Sadness was not an emotion he had a heart or mind to feel at the moment, but anger - his anger seethed profusely. Gripping his briefcase firmly in his hand, Richard left the courtroom in a fury, throwing open the doors and storming out. He was not looking forward to facing the microphones and cameras outside the courthouse, so he took his time making his way down the corridor towards the elevators. As he dodged the crowds inside, his cell phone rang, and taking it out of his pocket, he answered it.
“I just heard,” came Robin’s voice on the other end.
“Wow, good news travels fast,” he replied as he took another few slow steps.
“I’m sorry, Richard. I know that’s got to be a tough loss, especially now, given…” Her voice trailed off, but Richard knew exactly what she was implying.
“Ah, so you heard about that too,” he said dryly. “A loss in my personal life and now a loss in my professional life. I’m right on track, aren’t I?”
For some reason, Robin was the one person who could handle his sarcasm and whininess without getting completely annoyed. As long as they’d known each other, she’d always been the one to try to cheer him up and pull him out of himself, and she knew that now was a crucial moment for that.
“You know, it’s not your fault,” she said with a hint of implication, but when Richard didn’t question her about it, she continued on. “Look, are you heading back to your office?”
“Yeah, I am. Why?”
“I’m on my way there right now. We should talk.”
“Now’s not a good time, Robin,” Richard said, rather distressed.
“I know it’s not a good time, but this is important.”
“Oh yeah? And why is that?” he asked with a sudden interest in hearing what she had to say.
“I think there’s something you should know.”