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Release	By : KaticaLocke Category: G through L > Law & Order Views: 3499 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Law & Order, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Alex strolled into the room, her heels clicking confidently on the cement floor, and every head in the room turned. Her eyes searched in vain for Bobby, then gravitated to the one person she didn�t know, a pale-faced woman with a thin nose and a sour expression, her golden-red hair complimenting what was otherwise an unflattering dark green suit. Walking over, she put on her most disarming smile and held out her hand.

�Hi, I�m Alex Eames.�

�Casey Novak,� the young woman replied with a firm, short handshake. �Now, what�s going on?� Alex felt her smile slip. She took a bracing breath and turned to the entire group.

�First, I want to thank you for coming at such short notice. I know this is - �

�Could you get to the point?� Logan said, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back against a desk. From the bags under his eyes, it looked like he hadn�t slept in weeks, but his hair was gelled to gleaming, immovable perfection. No wonder he was the last to arrive. Her look must have been less than friendly, because he gave her a rakish half-smile. �This is a matter of �life or death�, after all.�

�Fine,� Alex snapped, �but I don�t want to hear a word until I�m finished.� She didn�t even give herself time to wonder if she�d overreacted before launching into her hastily prepared explanation. Sweeping her gaze back and forth across the far wall, she avoided looking at any of them. Whatever they were thinking, she didn�t want to know until she was done. She finished with, �... and that�s why we called you.� The room was utterly silent for a beat, then Logan began to laugh; a loud, slow, braying laugh that echoed from the walls. Alex just let him. Carver stood up and grabbed his briefcase.

�This is why you dragged us down here in the middle of the night? Not amusing, Detective,� he said, taking a step toward the door.

�You�re not - not leaving so soon, are you, Councilor?� Bobby stood in the middle of the hallway, his hands tucked in his jeans pockets. His dark eyes swept the gathered detectives and lawyers before rising to her. �While you were out here telling jokes ... the curse came alive again.� He grimaced in pain and Alex allowed herself a small smile of satisfaction as everyone in the room tensed, the �new recruits� drawing startled breaths as first stirrings of the incubus touched them. It danced over her skin, light as a feather, gentle, seductive, playful.

"Perfect timing," she said. She glanced around, hoping no one noticed the huskiness of her voice, but they were all watching Bobby. She cleared her throat and continued, "I told them what was going on, but I think some people may need a little convincing." As one, Elliot, Olivia, Fin, Munch and Huang rose from their seats and backed away. Alex wanted to applaud them as the color drained from Bishop and Logan's faces. Novak, it seemed, was already as pale as she could get. Deakins turned to Alex.

"You're really serious about this?" he asked.

"Deadly serious, Captain," she replied, looking, not at him, but at Bobby.

"All right then," he said after a moment, "I'm in. I'll do it."

"Me, too." Alex raised her eyebrows at Bishop, who just shrugged and looked away. Now that was a surprise. She had expected Bishop to be one of the hold-outs. Alex turned to Carver.

"What will it take for you to believe us?" she asked, point blank. He opened his mouth, then closed it again.

"I don't know," he said. "You're asking me to accept something so unbelievable, I am having trouble even comprehending what you've said."

"Will you stay anyway?" Alex asked, rubbing a weary hand across her forehead. She turned pleading eyes upon Logan and Novak. "Stay, and you'll see, this is no joke."

"Why not?" Logan said with a shrug. "Nothing on TV this time of night anyway. You guys got any coffee?"

"I have court in the morning," Novak said stiffly. "Detective Goren's arraignment, I believe. Can I assume you're going for an insanity plea?"

"We're not prosecuting this," Cragen said from the doorway of his office. Novak spun around.

"The hell we're not!" she exclaimed. "He raped those women; we have the DNA to prove it."

"Katrina Anderson already admitted that, while it wasn't entirely consensual, it also wasn't rape," Olivia said. "Given the opportunity, the other two will change their stories as well." Novak rounded on Olivia.

"I can't believe you, of all people, are going along with this absurd scheme to cover up his indiscretions." Olivia stepped away from the wall. Elliot gently laid his fingertips on her shoulder, but she moved out from under his touch.

"It is absurd, isn't it?" she said, stepping closer to the ADA. "Downright ridiculous. Insane. Crazy. Unbelievable." With each word, she crowded closer, driving Novak backward. "If we were just trying to protect one of our own, don't you think we'd have come up with something a little more plausible? Something that couldn't be proven one way or the other?"

"You can't prove this," Novak said, planting her feet and taking a stand.

"Oh, yeah?" Olivia said with a crooked smile. She grabbed Novak by the front of her green suit and shoved. Caught off guard, she stumbled backward - right into Bobby's surprised arms. One hand gripped her waist, the other rested just below her shoulder as he set her back on her feet. She was breathing hard, but whether that was from the incubus or just a reaction to the attack, Alex couldn't tell. The curse was having no other effect on them, as he was only touching clothed areas of her body. It needed skin to skin contact, and she couldn't see him deliberately doing that to anyone.

"You fight dirty, Detective Benson," Bobby said. Scowling, Novak pushed his hand away from her hip. Their hands only touched for a second, but it was long enough. Novak lurched away from him, almost crashing into Olivia as she tried to escape. A rather unpretty blush was creeping up her neck, leaving scarlet blotches on her fair skin.

"Was that proof enough for you?" Olivia asked. Her eyes were like dark stones, glittering, cold, hard, as she stared down the gasping ADA.

"Leave her alone," Bobby said in that husky, rumbling voice of his. Alex watched as he reigned in the incubus, the strain evident on his face as the air temperature seemed to drop about ten degrees. Everyone relaxed as breathing became easier, everyone except him. He stepped forward, his heavy gaze fixed on Olivia. Novak backed away, putting the desks between them, but he didn't appear to notice. Appear being the key word. Alex couldn't imagine how much it was hurting him to have people, especially women, afraid of him. And yet, once again, he was willing to bear a little pain to prove his point. He leaned down into Olivia's face. "The only person allowed to use me to scare people is me, understand?" She swallowed hard, but raised her chin defiantly.

"You don't scare me, Detective," she said, her voice hardly more than a whisper. "We both know you won't do anything." Don't be so sure of that, Alex thought with a bitter smile. She'd once watched him take a knife to his own hand to unsettle a guy with a fear of blood.

"And why is that, do you think?" he asked. "Because I'm too ... noble, or because your angry partner is just dying for another piece of me?" He pulled back and cocked his head to the side. "That could be interesting. We could find out if this thing inside me likes men as much as - as women." Alex glanced at Elliot, who was suddenly looking a lot less hostile. "Something tells me he's not going to jump to your rescue quite as eagerly as you might have been counting on." He leaned toward her again, like he was going to kiss her. That was it. Alex'd had enough.

"Bobby, can I have a word with you?" she said through gritted teeth. He eyed Olivia for another moment.

"No one is going to be bullied into helping me," he said, then turned away. Alex wandered to the far corner of the room and waited for him to join her.

"You have to stop attacking these people," she said quietly. "They're just trying to help." He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand and frowned at his shoes.

"Shoving an Assistant District Attorney at me was not 'helping'."

"It started way before that. You've been on guard against them since ... since we quieted the curse - Is that what this is all about?" He stopped staring at the floor and looked over her head instead; a vast improvement. It made it very hard to read his face when she couldn't see his eyes, and he knew it.

"They look at me, Eames, like this is my fault," he said. "They wonder how I could - could do that to you ... how you could still speak to me afterward."

"No they don't. They understand that there wasn't any other way. Besides - " She looked down at the ground, not sure if her eyes would mirror her words. " - it's not like it meant anything." It hurt more to say it than she had expected. Deep down she knew she was right - it couldn't mean anything, but as a woman, as Bobby's friend, as a human being, it had to mean something.

"Well," Bobby said after a moment, "as long as everyone understands. I think I'll go back to my ... cell ... before someone gets hurt." She glanced up as he walked away, his shoulders stooped. He looked ... defeated. She started to chase after him, but Novak got to him first. He stopped just inside the hallway, his knees bent slightly as he tried not to loom over the young attorney. That was bad. She always knew something was eating at him when he became self-conscious of his height. Edging closer, she tried to catch what she was saying to him, but gave up when Logan stepped up next to her.

"Damn, sweetheart," he said with a crooked smile, "you got the man's balls in a vice and you just keep cranking on the handle." She blinked at him.

"Thank you for that colorful metaphor," she said. "Now, what are you talking about?"

"You didn't see the look on his face, did you?" He shook his head. "What you said, about it not meaning anything - That's cold. 'It didn't mean anything' is what you say to a girl after a booty call, not to your partner, not to someone like that." He jabbed his finger in Bobby's direction.

"And what would you know about it?"

"I've had a lot of partners, and believe me, you're damn lucky to find somebody you can tolerate. What you two got, the chemistry, the silent communication, most marriages never have that."

"None of mine ever did," Munch said as he walked past.

"What are you saying?" Alex asked, hesitantly letting her eyes wander back over to her partner. Novak smiled at him and nodded, then turned away. He glanced over his shoulder, his dark eyes looking right through her, then disappeared down the hall.

"What am I saying?" Logan repeated, making her jump. He smirked. "Who knows. Getting into people's heads is your specialty, remember, not mine."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that, Detective," Alex said with a wry smile. "Major Case could probably use a man like you."

"Oh, but then I wouldn't get to take the ferry to work," he said with mock disappointment. "You know how much I like boats." Their mirth vanished as Sledge came stumbling into the room, his face ashen.

"What happened?" Olivia asked, the first to reach his side. He stepped away from her, from all of them as they crowded closer, finally backing into the corner. Alex shoved her way to the front.

"Get back," she said in a tone that brooked no argument, "give him some room." They shuffled backward. Elliot shoved a chair in their direction. "Here, sit down before you fall down," she said, but he shook his head and leaned against the wall.

"It's nothing," he said, breathless, shaking, and trying to hide his face against his shoulder. "I'm okay, really. I - I'm not ... gay ... I'm not." A confused murmur ran through the others. Alex reached out and put her hand on his shoulder, a quick glance at the bulge in the front of his slacks confirming her fears.

"He touched you."
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