being the boss

Olivia was taking slowly to being the new head of svu. She was learning just what cragen had went through when her and elliot tended to go off script because she was dealing with Nick and amanda doing the same. It was also becoming harder to juggle being a boss and taking care of her daughter.

But on top of all this she was also keeping track of the infant boy they had found a few months ago. She went to every family court date, which unfortunately happened alot since he seemed to be bounced from foster home to foster home.

She was finally home after a long day and went to the nursery to check on her now 1 year old daughter Clarissa before kissing her head and stepping out. She grabbed her almost empty bottle of wine and made herself a glass as she sank on to her couch. She was stareing at the wall knowing that next week was hers and Clarissa next visit with Lewis. She was once again dreading to take her daughter to be anywhere near him. Her flashes had started returning due to all the new stress she was enduring.

She had almost finished her first glass of wine and thinking about trying to go to bed when her cell phone rang and she sighed then answered. "Benson." She heard a familiar voice on the other end, it was Maria, nicks ex wife. "Hey Maria what's up?" She asked trying not to sound frustrated or stressed "he did what?" She groaned slightly "no. No your right. Yeah...I'll ....I'll talk to him. No it's totally OK you called." She continued. "Yeah. Have a goodnight Maria." She said before hanging up. Olivia shook her head. She felt out of all her detectives nick was going to be the one to push her over the edge and this phone call just confirmed it. She glanced at a full wine bottle she kept in her coffee table and with hesitation she picked it up and opened it and drank strait from the bottle, which she hadn't done since right after Lewis kidnapped her.

***

The next morning she went in to work with a pounding headache from drinking a little too much the night before. The first person she seen was nick and she decided to get this conversation over with first so she could move on with her day. "Nick my office now." She said in a commanding tone.

Nick was confused but followed her in. "What's up Sargeant?" He asked.

"I got a very disturbing call last night from Maria. She says your acting like a stalker." Olivia started as she put her purse away and sat in the chair behind her desk.

"What? No I'm not and why would she call you?"He asked in a bit of an angered tone.

"Because she's worried about you nick and frankly I don't blame her because I am too." She admitted.

"Look it's nothing ok. I'm just trying to fix my marriage." He said defensively "and I'll talk to her and tell her not to call you again." He said and went to leave the room but olivia stood and said "no nick you won't. I don't want you contacting her unless it's to set up zaras pickups." She sighed "look I know you hate that your marriage is over but it is and Maria wants to move on and you should too."

"That's easy for you to say cause you've never been married." He glared.

Olivia was shocked by his reaction and words "maybe not but I've been doing this job for 16 years and I know that situations like yours can escalate to bad things." She defended.

"You know what liv just stay out of it!" He said in anger.

"Fine but if I get another hint of this situation going bad I will reprimand you and have you transfered. Is that understood?" She said harshly.

Nick huffed and left her office.

Olivia sank in to her chair with a heavy sigh and just stared at a picture of her and Clarissa from a couple months ago in Central park.