Fear. It's a feeling everybody gets. It's something you can't control. Everybody knows fear. It's something we cannot control and yet we try anyway. What do you fear? For Olivia Benson, the answer to that question was going to change.
Olivia strolled into the squad room with a cup of steaming coffee in her hand and a tired look on her face. It had been her ritual for the passed fourteen years and she didn't see it changing anytime soon. "Usually I'm the first one here," she said to her partner, Nick Amaro.
"Technically you are," he sighed, looking up from his computer, "I haven't left."
Olivia pulled her chair out from her desk and sat down, scooting it back up to her desk and sitting her coffee on an old piece of paper. "Y'okay?"
"Mhm," he mumbled, "Just got a lot on my mind."
"You want to talk about it?"
Nick looked up from his computer again and sighed. "When we went into that house yesterday... that little girl reminded me of Zara. Her hair and everything... I just... can't get it out of my head."
Olivia nodded, understanding the feeling. Cases with children were always hard. She couldn't imagine having one of the victims look like your own child. It made her tear up at the thought. "You should go home," she said sympathetically, "Get some rest. I'm sure Cragen won't mind."
"There's something else," Nick said looking up and meeting Olivia's eyes.
Olivia gave him a questioning look before taking another sip of her coffee. She figured she was going to need more than usual today. "What is it?"
Nick took a deep breath and then reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a manilla envelope. He stared at it for a minute and then handed it over his desk to give to Olivia. "What's this?"
"Open it."
She sat her coffee down again and messed with the metal tab to get the top of the envelope open. Then she reached her hand in and pulled out the contents; stunned at what she saw. There were pictures, taken from quite a distance, of Nick. Some where he was at a restaurant, some where he was with his daughter, and some were even of him in his home. "Where did you get this?" Olivia asked getting into cop mode.
"I stepped out of the room for a second yesterday and when I came back it was sitting on my desk," he explained, "Rollins said she didn't see anything."
Olivia was about to say something but Fin came in greeting them with a good morning. Nick and Olivia both replied and then she turned her attention back to him. "Did you tell Cragen?"
He shook his head. "I'm sure it's nothing," he said taking the envelope back from her, "can we just keep this between us for now?"
Olivia looked at him confused but then replied with a yes. If Nick wanted to wait it out then, who was she to stop him? She would just make sure she kept a closer eye on him and make sure nobody was following them around when they were on location.
"I'm gonna go get something to eat," Nick said standing up and grabbing his jacket from the back of his chair, "Anybody want anything?"
"I'm good," Olivia replied.
"Me too," Fin added, getting situated at his desk.
Nick left and Olivia went to work on cleaning out her inbox; something she hadn't done in a long while. Fin was cleaning out his inbox as well.
While walking, Nick became more wearier of the people around him. He wasn't about to let some lowlife stalker harass him or his family. Especially not Zara. He would casually turn around to see who was behind him and try to spot out anything unusual. It wasn't until he was a few yards away from the bakery that he turned around and saw a man with a camera around his neck. The man was about 5'4, pretty short and scrawny. He was wearing camouflage cargo pants and a red t-shirt with black. Nick wasn't about to take any chances so he turned around and marched right up to the guy. He yanked him by the collar of his shirt and pushed him up against a brick apartment building.
"Whoa! What the hell?!"
"Who do you think you are?" Nick spat in his face, "You think I wouldn't figure it out that you were tailing me? What the hell do you want?"
"Dude! I don't even know who you are! I swear!" The man seemed pretty shaken. He had reason to be though because Nick was twice his size.
"What's the camera for?"
"I'm a photographer," the man said, "I have a photo shoot to get to and thanks to you," he paused to look down at his watch, "I'm late." The photographer pushed free of Nick's embrace and pushed passed him, walking quickly to get to his destination. Nick was left standing there in the midst of the crowd. He couldn't believe what he had just done. He had just assaulted an innocent civilian because he was scared. He was scared for Zara. Why would anybody want to stalk him? He hadn't even worked any high profile or major cases lately that would piss anybody off. He snapped out of his thoughts when his cell phone started buzzing in his pocket.
"Amaro."
"I think you should get back here," Olivia said into the phone. "You're not the only one being stalked."
Nick turned around to see if anyone else looked suspicious to him then he started his way back toward the precinct. "You too?"
"No," she answered, "Fin."
After Nick had left for the bakery to get breakfast, Fin had opened his top desk drawer looking for paperwork he had put away the day before. Instead, he found a similar looking envelope to the one Nick had gotten. It had contained pictures of Fin from a distance. Him leaving the precinct, him walking down the sidewalk, and him in his home.
"What do we got?" Nick asked re-entering the squad room.
"A stalker," Cragen answered, stating the obvious. "Apparently somebody managed to slip into a precinct full of cops, and slip two envelopes into two detectives desks. Somebody want to tell me why I'm so angry?"
Olivia sighed, "Look, Captain, whoever is doing this is just trying to scare us. They aren't even close enough to be considered a threat."
"Are we sure Rollins hasn't gotten anything?" Cragen asked, ignoring Olivia's remark.
As if hearing what Cragen was saying, Amanda entered at perfect timing. "Somebody broke into my house," she said in a shaky tone.
Olivia's face turned to shock. So now they had a stalker and robber on their hands? What the hell was going on and why hadn't she received any threats or pictures?
"You okay?" Olivia asked, wheeling Amanda's desk chair over to her. She looked like she was about to pass out.
"Uh... yeah... no. I just got my house back together after Kim... and... I have nothing again." Tears were forming in her eyes and everyone could see she was clearly upset.
"Where were you when it happened?" Olivia asked.
"I stayed the night at my boyfriends last night," Amanda said with a hint of a chuckle, "Went home early this morning to get ready for work only to see that my house had been ransacked and that I had nothing left."
Olivia sighed and turned to Cragen. They both knew this was going to be a long hard case.
Cragen had set the board up in the squad room and tacked the pictures of Fin and Nick to it. He was stating everything he knew so far and they were starting to look for a lead on things.
"Amaro, when was the last time you were with Zara?" Cragen questioned.
"She stayed with me last weekend. We got ice-cream and went to the park."
"Did you see anybody following you are maybe someone there that didn't have a kid?"
"No," Amaro answered shaking his head, "I wasn't really looking for that."
Cragen sighed, writing the last time Zara was with Nick on one of the pictures. "Do we have any idea who could be doing this?"
Olivia shook her head, "You and I are the only ones here who haven't been messed with yet. Are there any cases the three of them worked together?"
"No," Rollins answered, "We haven't."
"Somethings not right," Olivia said more so to herself than to anyone else. She hopped of the table she was sitting on and made her way to the pin board where she examined the pictures. "Something is definitely not right."
Preview: What happens when things get worse for Olivia & Amanda? What happens when the stress becomes too much for Cragen to handle? The FEDS get involved and someone goes to jail for "unfinished business." What the hell is going on?