(no subject)
Title: Reconnecting
Fandom: SVU
Pairing: Alex/Olivia
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Don't own them.
A/N: This is a Hannah-verse fic. Alex tells Olivia stories from her childhood.
A/N 2: As always, HUGE thanks to
cherokee62 for her help with this entire series.
Alex opened the front door, smiling as Olivia followed her in, carrying a sleeping Hannah.
They made their way back to Hannah’s bedroom and Olivia laid the little girl down gently. Alex watched as the detective tenderly tucked the blankets around her, pressing a kiss to her forehead. It still amazed her how much the two of them had bonded.
She caught Olivia’s gaze as the brunette stood back up and she smiled softly, murmuring. “Guess she wore herself out.”
Olivia chuckled and followed her down the hall to the living room. “Guess so.”
They sank down on the couch and Alex breathed deeply. “It’s still hard to believe how big she’s getting. I don’t want her to grow up. I like her this age. She cried so much as a baby. I thought she was going to be a monster child. I thought I’d never be able to raise a kid. But... now she’s got so much life and so much happiness in her. She’s small and she’s cute and I’m afraid of her growing up now because I don’t want this innocence to leave. You only get it once in your life and when you look back on it, you can barely remember it. I just want her to really experience it. Sometimes, though… I look into her eyes and it’s like I can see the tiny wheels working in her mind. She’s already figuring the world out. I don’t want that. I want her to stay small.”
Olivia smiled gently. “I know, but if it helps any, she’ll grow into an amazing young woman.” She smirked slightly. “Just look at who she has for a mother.”
Alex laughed softly. “So I have to raise a daughter with my attitude? That’s really not something to look forward to.”
Olivia chuckled. “Oh, I don’t know…” She teased. “I think Hannah’s a lot nicer than you.”
Alex raised an eyebrow at her. “You’re lucky a compliment to my daughter outweighs an insult to me.”
“Didn’t I tell you? I only spend time with you to see Hannah.”
“Alright then, when her teenage years hit, you can deal with it.”
“We can play good cop, bad cop. I call good cop.”
“Of course you do.”
“What can I say? I’m good at what I do.”
Alex laughed. “Yeah yeah.”
Olivia smiled. She rested her elbow on the back of the couch and propped her head up on her hand. “So what was little Alex like anyway?”
Alex raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t get enough stories from my mother?”
Olivia smirked. “Oh I did, I just want to hear it from you.”
Alex thought for a moment. “Well you know the basics…”
“I do.” Olivia grinned.
Alex laughed softly. “Well… hmm… Oh! My favorite number is four because when I was four, I decided that it was the best age ever. I guess the number stuck.” She laughed again. “I was so depressed on my fifth birthday. I wanted to be four forever. I didn’t even have a birthday party that year. It took me a whole month to admit that I was five.” She shook her head. “Guess the anti-aging thing hit me a bit early, didn’t it?”
Olivia laughed. “I’ll say.”
Alex thought again. “Actually, when I was five, I tried to change my name to Cinderella. When anyone asked my name, I told them Cinderella. I refused to give my real name and I would get so upset when my mom told people. I thought Cinderella was ten times cooler than Alexandra.” She smirked a little. “Which is why, once I hit middle school, I shortened it to Alex.”
Olivia raised an eyebrow. “Cinderella? I never figured you for the princess type.”
Alex laughed. “Mom didn’t tell you? That was also the year I knew for a fact I would grow up to be a world famous ballerina.”
Olivia thought for a moment, a smirk on her lips. “You know, I think I saw those pictures.”
Alex chuckled. “I stuck with it until Dad bought me my first horse and then it was all horseback riding all the time. My mom was furious. Dancing was safer. It was more ladylike. But I loved my horse.” She looked at Olivia. “I’m sure you saw those pictures. There were years and years of them. Up until Gypsy died. After that, I never wanted another horse ever again.”
“I definitely saw those. Saw the blue ribbons too.”
Alex grinned. “What can I say? I make sure I’m the best at everything I do.”
“That you do.” Olivia smiled. “Tell me more. I’m enjoying this.”
Alex chuckled. “Oh God. Pressure. Hmm.” She chewed her lip. “I’m sure you saw pictures of Meatball the cat.”
Olivia smirked. “I did.”
Alex shrugged. “My mom said I was allowed to name him. I decided if I could name him anything I wanted, it’d be the most random thing I could think of. Apparently that meant meatballs.”
Olivia laughed. “Wow.”
“It’s better than Frankenstein.”
Olivia raised an eyebrow. “Frankenstein?”
“Mmhmm. The hamster I got when I was nine. It was a girl and I got mad whenever someone assumed she was a boy just because of the name.”
Olivia burst out laughing again. “You were a strange kid, Alex.”
Alex chuckled. “It was mostly before my cousin Maxine and I went to different schools. We kind of encouraged each other’s weirdness because we got bored. Like when we were seven… We decided we wanted to be the ones to teach her little brother how to talk. Poor kid.” She laughed softly. “We thought long and hard and decided his first word was going to be potato. We figured it’d come out of nowhere and the adults would assume he was some kind of baby genius. His first word was “popo” if that even counts.” She shrugged. “We called it a success anyway even though our parents had already figured out what we were doing by the time he finally said it.”
“Potato.” Olivia said.
Alex nodded. “It was a good word.”
Olivia laughed. “Right.”
Alex stuck her tongue out before thinking of something else. “When we were nine, Maxine and I decided to run away. We packed our bookbags with food and our lock boxes of money and snuck our horses out in the middle of the night. But when we tried to lie down and sleep, we got scared by every noise so we finally went home. Her parents caught her sneaking back in and she ratted me out. We were grounded for three months. We didn't even particularly hate our home lives. In fact, I adored my parents and she loved hers too. But we thought we were grown up. We wanted to be independent. I decided I didn't need school because libraries existed and she said while I was studying to be a lawyer, she'd get a job as a vet because her mom was one so she knew everything and she'd support us.”
Olivia stared at her. “You thought she could get a job at nine?”
Alex shook her head. “But we figured it was worth a shot.”
“You make absolutely no sense.”
“Boredom does strange things to people.”
“I’m really starting to fear for Hannah.”
“Oh trust me, she is not nearly as adventurous as I was. She’s safe. She’s curious, but reserved… contemplative.” Alex laughed. “I was easily bored and had a bit of an ego.”
“You? An ego? Noooo.” Olivia smirked.
Alex glared playfully. “I can stop telling stories at any time.”
“Oh don’t! I’m rather enjoying this.”
“Then hush with the snarky commentary.”
“I’m being interactive.” Olivia said, feigning seriousness.
Alex laughed. “Shut up.”
Olivia grinned and dutifully made a zipping motion over her lips.
“Wanna know why I switched schools?”
Olivia nodded.
“When I was twelve I decided to stuff my bra but I'd forgotten it was a gym day... and that a weekend probably wasn't enough time to suddenly grow breasts. So... changing time came around... I remembered at the last second. All the stalls were full. I was going to be late. And all the girls saw... I was absolutely mortified. I told my parents I wasn't getting the education I wanted and I'd never be ready for Harvard. I threw a fit until they transferred me. The next day, I was at a new school. Never saw those girls again.”
“Wow. That must have been rough.”
Alex shrugged. “I got over it eventually.” She chuckled. “The only thing I regret is not getting to go to high school with Maxine. But I can only imagine the trouble we would have gotten into. Maybe it was a good thing… We still lived only a couple streets away from each other anyway.” She laughed softly. “And I did enough stupid things on my own.”
“Like what?”
“Like camp.”
“Oh this is gonna be good.”
Alex smirked. “When I was fifteen, I went to a summer camp on a college campus so we got to stay in the dorms. We thought we were big shots. We had RAs and the girls and boys weren't supposed to be in each other's dorms after dark. I had a "boyfriend" and I snuck up to his room. We were making out but we both got embarrassed so we quit and just slept and in the morning, we told everyone we'd lost our virginities. They thought it was the coolest thing ever.”
“You told them all you’d lost your virginity?”
“I mean they all assumed it anyway. And we were the only ones to succeed at spending a night together. We couldn't stand the thought of them all realizing we were failures. We'd done the impossible! We were the camp heroes!”
Olivia laughed. “But still! All those people ‘knowing’ you had sex?”
Alex shrugged. “I was fifteen. What did I care? We were all from different states. I wasn't gonna see them again.”
Olivia chuckled softly. “You have an interesting perspective on your reputation.”
Alex grinned. “Oh! That reminds me. When I was a senior in high school, I dated this guy named Patrick Alexander. He was really great. Cute. Funny. Doting. I broke up with him after four months because it was getting too serious and I didn’t want to end up marrying him and becoming Alexandra Alexander.”
Olivia laughed. “Ok, I really don’t blame you for that one.”
Alex smirked. “Hey, I was well on my way to becoming a big time attorney. I needed a name that brought power and prestige with it.”
Olivia shook her head. “A name gains power because of the person with it. You, Alexandra Cabot, gave your name all the power it has.”
“As much as I’d like to take that compliment, I believe it was all my family’s doing. Cabot holds a lot of weight in this area. I mean come on, my very first case I was calling up Uncle Bill for a favor. That was the moment you guys started to respect me. My skills as an attorney had nothing to do with it.”
Olivia gazed at her. “I heard that secondhand from Munch and Jeffries.” She shrugged. “It didn’t mean much to me. What I cared about was how you were in the courtroom. I watched your first trial. I watched the guilty verdict come in. You looked so proud of yourself as they led the defendant away… but as soon as he was out of sight, I saw the look in your eyes. You let out a sigh, shook your head, and packed up. That was when I respected you. That was when I knew that you could be our strength in the courtroom but you could still really and truly care for the victims.” She smiled a little. “You were human and not just a justice machine.”
Alex blushed slightly. “It’s hard not to let cases like that get to you.”
“I know.” Olivia said gently. She smiled softly. “But you are amazing up there. I have always been so proud to watch you get up there and kick ass.” She reached over and gently took Alex’s hand in hers. “I really and truly am glad you’re back with us.”
Alex smiled shyly. “I’m glad to be back.”
Olivia searched her eyes for a moment. “Alex…” She shook her head a little, her gaze dropping nervously.
Alex reached over and cupped her cheek gently, her thumb brushing over soft skin. Olivia’s eyes quickly locked on hers again and Alex felt the inevitable butterflies fluttering in her stomach. She swallowed hard, feeling her body dragging her forward. She leaned in towards Olivia, searching her face. She could feel the shakiness of Olivia’s breath against her lips. Their eyes locked again.
“Alex…” Olivia breathed.
Alex felt the name enter her and sink deep into her bones. She shivered slightly and without another thought, she leaned in, capturing Olivia’s lips in a kiss that she forced herself to keep gentle despite the burning feeling in the pit of her stomach. She felt Olivia gasp against her, felt her lips responding, soft and warm and needy. In one moment everything was so familiar and yet so new. Their lips knew each other after all these years and yet timidity lingered that could only be present with a first kiss. Five years was a long time.
Alex pulled back slowly, blue eyes blinking innocently as she gazed at Olivia. They stayed in each other’s personal space, refusing to break the energy still rushing between them. Olivia buried a hand in long blonde hair as they allowed themselves a moment to breathe and think and savor.
Alex glanced down at Olivia’s slightly parted lips. She traced her fingers over them, hearing Olivia’s intake of breath. She moved her fingers and leaned in, kissing her again.
Fandom: SVU
Pairing: Alex/Olivia
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Don't own them.
A/N: This is a Hannah-verse fic. Alex tells Olivia stories from her childhood.
A/N 2: As always, HUGE thanks to
cherokee62 for her help with this entire series.
Alex opened the front door, smiling as Olivia followed her in, carrying a sleeping Hannah.
They made their way back to Hannah’s bedroom and Olivia laid the little girl down gently. Alex watched as the detective tenderly tucked the blankets around her, pressing a kiss to her forehead. It still amazed her how much the two of them had bonded.
She caught Olivia’s gaze as the brunette stood back up and she smiled softly, murmuring. “Guess she wore herself out.”
Olivia chuckled and followed her down the hall to the living room. “Guess so.”
They sank down on the couch and Alex breathed deeply. “It’s still hard to believe how big she’s getting. I don’t want her to grow up. I like her this age. She cried so much as a baby. I thought she was going to be a monster child. I thought I’d never be able to raise a kid. But... now she’s got so much life and so much happiness in her. She’s small and she’s cute and I’m afraid of her growing up now because I don’t want this innocence to leave. You only get it once in your life and when you look back on it, you can barely remember it. I just want her to really experience it. Sometimes, though… I look into her eyes and it’s like I can see the tiny wheels working in her mind. She’s already figuring the world out. I don’t want that. I want her to stay small.”
Olivia smiled gently. “I know, but if it helps any, she’ll grow into an amazing young woman.” She smirked slightly. “Just look at who she has for a mother.”
Alex laughed softly. “So I have to raise a daughter with my attitude? That’s really not something to look forward to.”
Olivia chuckled. “Oh, I don’t know…” She teased. “I think Hannah’s a lot nicer than you.”
Alex raised an eyebrow at her. “You’re lucky a compliment to my daughter outweighs an insult to me.”
“Didn’t I tell you? I only spend time with you to see Hannah.”
“Alright then, when her teenage years hit, you can deal with it.”
“We can play good cop, bad cop. I call good cop.”
“Of course you do.”
“What can I say? I’m good at what I do.”
Alex laughed. “Yeah yeah.”
Olivia smiled. She rested her elbow on the back of the couch and propped her head up on her hand. “So what was little Alex like anyway?”
Alex raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t get enough stories from my mother?”
Olivia smirked. “Oh I did, I just want to hear it from you.”
Alex thought for a moment. “Well you know the basics…”
“I do.” Olivia grinned.
Alex laughed softly. “Well… hmm… Oh! My favorite number is four because when I was four, I decided that it was the best age ever. I guess the number stuck.” She laughed again. “I was so depressed on my fifth birthday. I wanted to be four forever. I didn’t even have a birthday party that year. It took me a whole month to admit that I was five.” She shook her head. “Guess the anti-aging thing hit me a bit early, didn’t it?”
Olivia laughed. “I’ll say.”
Alex thought again. “Actually, when I was five, I tried to change my name to Cinderella. When anyone asked my name, I told them Cinderella. I refused to give my real name and I would get so upset when my mom told people. I thought Cinderella was ten times cooler than Alexandra.” She smirked a little. “Which is why, once I hit middle school, I shortened it to Alex.”
Olivia raised an eyebrow. “Cinderella? I never figured you for the princess type.”
Alex laughed. “Mom didn’t tell you? That was also the year I knew for a fact I would grow up to be a world famous ballerina.”
Olivia thought for a moment, a smirk on her lips. “You know, I think I saw those pictures.”
Alex chuckled. “I stuck with it until Dad bought me my first horse and then it was all horseback riding all the time. My mom was furious. Dancing was safer. It was more ladylike. But I loved my horse.” She looked at Olivia. “I’m sure you saw those pictures. There were years and years of them. Up until Gypsy died. After that, I never wanted another horse ever again.”
“I definitely saw those. Saw the blue ribbons too.”
Alex grinned. “What can I say? I make sure I’m the best at everything I do.”
“That you do.” Olivia smiled. “Tell me more. I’m enjoying this.”
Alex chuckled. “Oh God. Pressure. Hmm.” She chewed her lip. “I’m sure you saw pictures of Meatball the cat.”
Olivia smirked. “I did.”
Alex shrugged. “My mom said I was allowed to name him. I decided if I could name him anything I wanted, it’d be the most random thing I could think of. Apparently that meant meatballs.”
Olivia laughed. “Wow.”
“It’s better than Frankenstein.”
Olivia raised an eyebrow. “Frankenstein?”
“Mmhmm. The hamster I got when I was nine. It was a girl and I got mad whenever someone assumed she was a boy just because of the name.”
Olivia burst out laughing again. “You were a strange kid, Alex.”
Alex chuckled. “It was mostly before my cousin Maxine and I went to different schools. We kind of encouraged each other’s weirdness because we got bored. Like when we were seven… We decided we wanted to be the ones to teach her little brother how to talk. Poor kid.” She laughed softly. “We thought long and hard and decided his first word was going to be potato. We figured it’d come out of nowhere and the adults would assume he was some kind of baby genius. His first word was “popo” if that even counts.” She shrugged. “We called it a success anyway even though our parents had already figured out what we were doing by the time he finally said it.”
“Potato.” Olivia said.
Alex nodded. “It was a good word.”
Olivia laughed. “Right.”
Alex stuck her tongue out before thinking of something else. “When we were nine, Maxine and I decided to run away. We packed our bookbags with food and our lock boxes of money and snuck our horses out in the middle of the night. But when we tried to lie down and sleep, we got scared by every noise so we finally went home. Her parents caught her sneaking back in and she ratted me out. We were grounded for three months. We didn't even particularly hate our home lives. In fact, I adored my parents and she loved hers too. But we thought we were grown up. We wanted to be independent. I decided I didn't need school because libraries existed and she said while I was studying to be a lawyer, she'd get a job as a vet because her mom was one so she knew everything and she'd support us.”
Olivia stared at her. “You thought she could get a job at nine?”
Alex shook her head. “But we figured it was worth a shot.”
“You make absolutely no sense.”
“Boredom does strange things to people.”
“I’m really starting to fear for Hannah.”
“Oh trust me, she is not nearly as adventurous as I was. She’s safe. She’s curious, but reserved… contemplative.” Alex laughed. “I was easily bored and had a bit of an ego.”
“You? An ego? Noooo.” Olivia smirked.
Alex glared playfully. “I can stop telling stories at any time.”
“Oh don’t! I’m rather enjoying this.”
“Then hush with the snarky commentary.”
“I’m being interactive.” Olivia said, feigning seriousness.
Alex laughed. “Shut up.”
Olivia grinned and dutifully made a zipping motion over her lips.
“Wanna know why I switched schools?”
Olivia nodded.
“When I was twelve I decided to stuff my bra but I'd forgotten it was a gym day... and that a weekend probably wasn't enough time to suddenly grow breasts. So... changing time came around... I remembered at the last second. All the stalls were full. I was going to be late. And all the girls saw... I was absolutely mortified. I told my parents I wasn't getting the education I wanted and I'd never be ready for Harvard. I threw a fit until they transferred me. The next day, I was at a new school. Never saw those girls again.”
“Wow. That must have been rough.”
Alex shrugged. “I got over it eventually.” She chuckled. “The only thing I regret is not getting to go to high school with Maxine. But I can only imagine the trouble we would have gotten into. Maybe it was a good thing… We still lived only a couple streets away from each other anyway.” She laughed softly. “And I did enough stupid things on my own.”
“Like what?”
“Like camp.”
“Oh this is gonna be good.”
Alex smirked. “When I was fifteen, I went to a summer camp on a college campus so we got to stay in the dorms. We thought we were big shots. We had RAs and the girls and boys weren't supposed to be in each other's dorms after dark. I had a "boyfriend" and I snuck up to his room. We were making out but we both got embarrassed so we quit and just slept and in the morning, we told everyone we'd lost our virginities. They thought it was the coolest thing ever.”
“You told them all you’d lost your virginity?”
“I mean they all assumed it anyway. And we were the only ones to succeed at spending a night together. We couldn't stand the thought of them all realizing we were failures. We'd done the impossible! We were the camp heroes!”
Olivia laughed. “But still! All those people ‘knowing’ you had sex?”
Alex shrugged. “I was fifteen. What did I care? We were all from different states. I wasn't gonna see them again.”
Olivia chuckled softly. “You have an interesting perspective on your reputation.”
Alex grinned. “Oh! That reminds me. When I was a senior in high school, I dated this guy named Patrick Alexander. He was really great. Cute. Funny. Doting. I broke up with him after four months because it was getting too serious and I didn’t want to end up marrying him and becoming Alexandra Alexander.”
Olivia laughed. “Ok, I really don’t blame you for that one.”
Alex smirked. “Hey, I was well on my way to becoming a big time attorney. I needed a name that brought power and prestige with it.”
Olivia shook her head. “A name gains power because of the person with it. You, Alexandra Cabot, gave your name all the power it has.”
“As much as I’d like to take that compliment, I believe it was all my family’s doing. Cabot holds a lot of weight in this area. I mean come on, my very first case I was calling up Uncle Bill for a favor. That was the moment you guys started to respect me. My skills as an attorney had nothing to do with it.”
Olivia gazed at her. “I heard that secondhand from Munch and Jeffries.” She shrugged. “It didn’t mean much to me. What I cared about was how you were in the courtroom. I watched your first trial. I watched the guilty verdict come in. You looked so proud of yourself as they led the defendant away… but as soon as he was out of sight, I saw the look in your eyes. You let out a sigh, shook your head, and packed up. That was when I respected you. That was when I knew that you could be our strength in the courtroom but you could still really and truly care for the victims.” She smiled a little. “You were human and not just a justice machine.”
Alex blushed slightly. “It’s hard not to let cases like that get to you.”
“I know.” Olivia said gently. She smiled softly. “But you are amazing up there. I have always been so proud to watch you get up there and kick ass.” She reached over and gently took Alex’s hand in hers. “I really and truly am glad you’re back with us.”
Alex smiled shyly. “I’m glad to be back.”
Olivia searched her eyes for a moment. “Alex…” She shook her head a little, her gaze dropping nervously.
Alex reached over and cupped her cheek gently, her thumb brushing over soft skin. Olivia’s eyes quickly locked on hers again and Alex felt the inevitable butterflies fluttering in her stomach. She swallowed hard, feeling her body dragging her forward. She leaned in towards Olivia, searching her face. She could feel the shakiness of Olivia’s breath against her lips. Their eyes locked again.
“Alex…” Olivia breathed.
Alex felt the name enter her and sink deep into her bones. She shivered slightly and without another thought, she leaned in, capturing Olivia’s lips in a kiss that she forced herself to keep gentle despite the burning feeling in the pit of her stomach. She felt Olivia gasp against her, felt her lips responding, soft and warm and needy. In one moment everything was so familiar and yet so new. Their lips knew each other after all these years and yet timidity lingered that could only be present with a first kiss. Five years was a long time.
Alex pulled back slowly, blue eyes blinking innocently as she gazed at Olivia. They stayed in each other’s personal space, refusing to break the energy still rushing between them. Olivia buried a hand in long blonde hair as they allowed themselves a moment to breathe and think and savor.
Alex glanced down at Olivia’s slightly parted lips. She traced her fingers over them, hearing Olivia’s intake of breath. She moved her fingers and leaned in, kissing her again.