About 2AM
Stabler and Benson arrive at a crime scene, a diner in Hell's Kitchen.
Elliot questioned the uniformed officer on the scene, "What do you have on the victim so far?"
"Not much, she's a Caucasian female, in her forties, about 5' 3", 115 lbs, strawberry blonde hair, blue eyes. She's conscience, but not very coherent. She's the one who dialed 911. The perp must have taken her purse with her ID. We think she's probably the owner or manager of this place, and was closing up when she was attacked."
Olivia made her way toward the ambulance attendants and the victim.
"Johnny, Johnny," the battered woman murmured.
"That's about all she's said so far, just keeps calling for Johnny, once in a while says she should have listened to him," the ambulance attendant told Olivia.
"I'll ride with you, maybe she'll become a little more lucid on the way in," Olivia said hopefully.
"We can hope."
Olivia put on her best reassuring face and reached for the victim's hand.
"My name's Olivia Benson. What's your name?"
"Gwen, Gwen Munch," the battered woman answered in a small waif-like voice.
Olivia tried not to let the astonishment register in her face, but she quickly let the ambulance attendant take her place by the victim's side.
Olivia hurriedly dialed Elliot on her cell phone.
"Elliot I've got our victim's name, and well" –
"Well what?" he asked impatiently.
"I don't know what we should do next."
"Well, since you haven't told me the victim's name, neither do I! Come on 'Liv what's the problem?"
Olivia gave a big sigh. "Her name is Gwen Munch."
Nothing but silence filled the night.
"Hello, Elliot you still there?"
"Yeah, I'm just thinking."
"Elliot she's not been saying much, but the ambulance attendant said she has been calling for a Johnny."
" I suppose it could be a coincidence."
"I don't think so, Elliot. I'm pretty sure she's John's ex-wife, his first ex-wife."
"Yeah, look just stay with her, and don't push too hard just yet. I'm going to call Cragen, see if he thinks we should call Munch and let him know what's happened.
"Elliot, we've got to tell him."
"I'm not so sure about that, that's why I want to ask Cragen's opinion."
"All right, but Elliot, try to put yourself in John's place, if this happened to Kathy wouldn't you want to know?"
Again there was silence.
"Yeah, I suppose so, but I'd also hope that you and Cragen and Fin, and most of all John would keep me from doing something stupid."
At the Hospital
"Ms. Munch, we'd like to run a rape kit," the ER nurse said.
"What's that?" Gwen asked and looked at Olivia with panic.
"We need to gather evidence of the rape," Olivia said.
"And just what does that entail?" she asked.
"Each article of your clothes will be taken and placed in a separate bag for later investigation by a technician in the crime lab," Olivia began explaining in a calm voice.
"Your bruises and lacerations will be photographed; your skin will be examined under a black light for signs of semen and saliva, if we find any they will be removed with swabs," Olivia could see Gwen was becoming tense and uneasy.
"Your pubic area will be combed, in case any of his hairs may have been transferred to your body and several of your pubic hairs will be plucked for comparison. Scrapings will be taken from under your fingernails, in case you managed to scratch him, if we find blood, we'll clip your fingernails so we can get enough of it for a DNA match," Gwen was mutely shaking her head.
"Gwen, these steps are necessary so we can find this man and prosecute him," Olivia said trying to convince her.
Gwen just kept shaking her head and tears began sliding down her face.
'I didn't even get to the tough part about the vaginal exam, checking for anal penetration and asking whether she had been forced to engage in oral sex,' Olivia thought.
"Well, maybe we'll just give her something to calm her down for now, later she may feel more cooperative," the nurse suggested.
"Yeah, let's hope so," Olivia said.
Back at the crime scene
Elliot flipped open his cell phone and dialed Captain Don Cragen's home phone number. He was surprised when the captain answered immediately.
"Cragen here, what is it Elliot?" the captain asked, having checked the caller ID as he picked up the phone.
"Olivia and I caught a case in Hell's Kitchen, and well the victim's sort of special," Elliot said stalling just a bit.
"In what way?" Cragen asked impatiently, fearing they were about to be embroiled in another high profile case with some political bigwig.
"Well, her name's Gwen Munch. Olivia's pretty sure that she's"-
"John's first ex-wife," Cragen interrupted.
"Yeah, I wasn't sure whether we should let John know about her assault or not," Elliot said.
"We have to tell him, he'll find out one way or another, besides I seem to remember John saying his ex didn't have much family. He might be all she has," Cragen said.
"OK, well I guess I can call him," Elliot offered.
"No, I'll go over to his apartment. This sort of news should be delivered in person, and this way I can drive him to the hospital. I suppose they took her to St Vincent's Midtown." Cragen said with a hint of a question in his voice.
"Yeah, that's the nearest ER," Elliot replied.
"OK, well you hang on at the scene, make sure CSU does a good job. We don't want to blow this."
"Sure," Elliot replied.
"And Elliot, despite the name, Hell's Kitchen isn't usually that rough a neighborhood anymore. I think maybe we might have to consider that her being John's ex might have something to do with this," Cragen suggested.
"Yeah, unfortunately that thought had crossed my mind too."
Back at the hospital
"Gwen," the nurse said, "the doctor's going to be in, in just a minute to take a look at you, and she'll probably give you something for pain that will help you get some rest, in the meantime I think you ought to try and help the detective all you can, so they can catch this fellow and put him away, where he can't hurt anyone else."
"I'll try," Gwen said weakly.
"That's all we can ask of you. Gwen, did you see your attacker?" Olivia asked.
"Yes, and I made it a point to try to remember as much about him as I could," she answered.
"Good, tell me what you remember now, and we'll get a sketch artist in to work with you as soon as we can."
"He was white, about 5' 7" and I'd guess about 140lbs, very muscular for such a short guy and very tanned. He looked to be about 50, but a pretty healthy 50, if you know what I mean. His hair was sort of salt and pepper, cut short and balding and he had very blue eyes."
"Did he have any scars or tattoos?" Olivia prompted her.
"No scars that I noticed, but he had some tattoos on his hands, but they didn't look professionally done," Gwen answered
"Mhm," Olivia muttered as she continued jotting down the description.
"How was he dressed?" she asked.
"Very ordinary, jeans and a blue T-shirt and sneakers," she answered.
"Any jewelry?" Olivia asked.
"No wedding ring, but he was wearing this big turquoise and coral watchband, sort of an American Indian design," Gwen said, sounding a bit excited as though she'd just remembered that bit of information.
Just then the doctor came in.
"I don't want to interrupt you detective, but I really should see to Ms. Munch's injuries," the doctor said. She then turned her attention to her patient. "And even if you aren't going to have the rape kit done, which I think is foolishness, I still need to do a pelvic exam, to determine the extent of your injuries. Also I need to talk to you about testing for the possible transmission of STDs and preventing pregnancy."
"Well, don't worry about the latter," Gwen said with a hint of bitterness in her voice.
"Oh?" the doctor said to get Gwen to elaborate.
"A long time ago, I had a very difficult pregnancy, the doctors told my husband that they had to take the baby early or I'd die. He let them perform the emergency caesarean, and things went horribly wrong. As a result I can't have children, and our baby girl was just too premature to survive. She only lived a day," as Gwen recounted the story tears had filled her eyes.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to bring up an obviously painful memory," the doctor said.
"It's all right you didn't know, but you needed to," Gwen replied, regaining her composure.
Olivia's heart ached for Gwen, it sounded as though she'd had more than her fair share of tragedy. Olivia also found herself wondering if John had been the husband who had been forced by circumstance to make the ill-fated decision. She'd never heard John mention having been a father, if only for a short time, but then again, perhaps that's why he'd never said anything, and maybe that's why he seemed to care so much about the little girls who were victims.
Suddenly Gwen took a deep breath. "Doctor, you have my permission to do the rape kit," she said.
Olivia squeezed her hand and nodded. The doctor, nurse and Olivia all smiled reassuringly at her, as they got down to the difficult business of performing the rape kit.
Cragen's Car
As Don Cragen drove toward Munch's he found he was dreading this duty. It was never easy to inform a rape victim's family that their loved one had been assaulted, but this case would be more difficult than any other he'd ever been involved in. John Munch was a friend, and things were complicated by the fact that John and Gwen had been divorced a long time, and yet it seemed John had never really gotten over her. Don felt that was true because of a conversation he'd had with Lennie Briscoe. Lennie had told Don about first meeting John, it was on a case that took Lennie and his then partner Rey Curtis to Baltimore. Lennie realized that he had once dated Gwen, and when he revealed that to Munch, John had pretty much gone 'round the bend. Lennie admitted that Munch's reaction unnerved him. He'd never seen a guy who was quite that hung up on an ex-wife, leastwise not when a guy had married a couple of more times after he divorced the wife in question. Cragen wondered if all of John's subsequent marriages had never worked out simply because he was still in love with Gwen.
John Munch's Apartment
Cragen soon found himself outside John's apartment door; he knew he couldn't put off what had to be done. He wondered briefly if he should have called Fin to join him, but it was too late now. He heaved a sigh and rang the doorbell.
John awoke, a bit disoriented and annoyed at himself for having fallen asleep in front of the TV. He heard the doorbell ring again, and realized that was what had awakened him. He checked his watch and wondered who in the world would be at his door at 2:30 in the morning. The only person he could imagine might be at his door at this hour was his partner, Odafin Tutuola.
"What's a matter, wouldn't she answer your booty call?" John said with a hint of annoyance in his voice as he opened the door.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Cragen had to fight very hard not to give voice to the comeback that was on the tip of his tongue.
"Uh, Captain I wasn't expecting you. I thought at this hour it was probably Fin," John said trying to cover his embarrassment.
"No problem John, can I come in?" Cragen asked.
"Of course," John said, stepping back to allow his boss to enter his apartment. John's mind was now spinning through the cobwebs of his sleepiness, trying to figure out why Cragen was here, at his apartment, so late. None of the scenarios coming to his mind were good ones.
Cragen noticed John was still dressed, except his shoes and jacket were off, and his clothes looked a bit rumpled. The TV was on, but it was displaying a DVR menu. He guessed that John might have fallen asleep watching a prerecorded show.
"So to what do I owe the honor of your presence at this hour of the morning?" John asked.
"There's no easy way to tell you this, John. Olivia and Elliot responded to a call in Hell's Kitchen"-
"Gwen?" John interrupted Cragen, in a shaky voice.
"Yeah," Cragen confirmed, as John sank down on his sofa.
"Is she,"– John couldn't finish his question.
"They took her to St. Vincent's Midtown. She was conscious enough to give her name. Olivia said she was calling for Johnny," Cragen told him, looking to see what John's reaction would be to that.
John reached for his shoes and started putting them on, the necessary but routine action calming him somewhat. "Would you mind giving me a ride to the hospital?" he asked Cragen.
"Not at all, that's why I drove over rather than just calling you, that and this just isn't the sort of news you give somebody over the phone," Cragen answered.
John finished tying his left shoe and reached for his jacket. "Let's go. I want to be there for her as quickly as I can be," he explained.
"Sure, come on, I left my car right outside your building's front door," Cragen said, as he began ushering John out of his own apartment.
Back at the hospital
"There, we're all done. You were a real trooper," the doctor told Gwen as she helped her ease back down on the exam bed. "Nurse, let's get her transferred to a regular room, so she can get some rest," the doctor instructed the nurse.
"We'll want to put a guard outside that room," Olivia said quietly as the nurse went by her and the nurse nodded knowingly.
"Gwen one last thing, your purse wasn't found in the diner, so there's a possibility that the man who did this to you has your purse. Is it possible he could figure out where you live from what's in your purse, and possibly get in to your place?" Olivia asked.
Gwen's eyes grew large with fright. "Oh my God, yes. My driver's license and my checkbook are in my purse, both have my address on them and my keys are in there too," she answered.
"OK, give me your address and I'll take a couple of officers over there with me to check the place out. Maybe we'll even get lucky and catch him there. We'll have your locks changed to prevent him from getting in after you go back, OK?" Olivia said the last more to reassure Gwen, than to get her permission, as changing the locks on a rape victim's home was standard operating procedure. Olivia handed Gwen a pen, and her notebook opened to a blank page for her to write her address down.
"OK, uh Detective?" Gwen said a bit hesitantly, as she started to write her address.
"Yes Gwen," Olivia replied.
"As long as you're going to be at my apartment anyway, would you mind picking up a few things for me?" Gwen asked shyly.
"Let me guess, a night gown and robe, a pair of slippers, a change of clothes for when they let you out of here, a hairbrush, some makeup and maybe a pair of sunglasses to hide whatever the makeup doesn't. Am I right?" Olivia suggested.
"Exactly," Gwen said a bit surprised that Olivia had seemingly read her mind. "I'd be very grateful, that is if you wouldn't mind," she added.
"I don't mind at all. I'll get going now, so you can get some rest, and I'll be back in the morning, well later in the morning with your things and probably that sketch artist," Olivia said.
Olivia found she really had meant it, when she said she didn't mind going to Gwen's apartment to get things for her. She found Gwen Munch to be a very sweet, rather vulnerable woman. Olivia found herself wondering how different a man John Munch would be, if he'd spent the last couple of decades married to this woman. Surely he couldn't be the bitter cynic he'd become, if he'd remained married to such sweet child-like woman.
Cragen's car
"You doing OK, John?" Don asked his passenger.
John let out a shuddering breath. "I don't know, I was just thinking I've been in New York for six years, and I've never really made an effort to see Gwen. I don't know why. When I decided to leave Baltimore, I came here, because I knew Gwen was here, but then once I arrived, I just couldn't bring myself to see her and open up all the old wounds," John explained.
"What sort of old wounds?" Cragen asked.
John gazed out the window into the darkness of the city streets. "She wanted kids and I didn't, but she kept after me and – well, I never could deny her anything. So, I got her pregnant. The further along she got in the pregnancy, the more in love I fell with our unborn child, but then suddenly she got very ill. The doctor ordered her to rest, to change her diet, but nothing helped. One day I came home from work and found her unconscious on the floor. I took her to the emergency room, and the doctor said I had to let them take the baby, right then or they'd both die," John's voice cracked a bit. Cragen said nothing, letting John set his own pace in telling this story.
"Our baby girl was born so very early, she was incredibly small, with so much going against her. They had her hooked up to IVs and a respirator and monitors. They wouldn't let us hold her. Not that Gwen could anyway, the emergency c-section had gone disastrously and she nearly bled to death, by the time they got it under control, they had had to take steps that meant she'd never be able to have another child. She was barely out of recovery when Etta died," John's voice had faded to a husky whisper, and Cragen could see tears streaking down Munch's averted face in the reflection of the window.
John reached up and took off his glasses, wiping the tears from his eyes. "Gwen never forgave me for letting them take the baby early. Eventually her frigid bitterness just proved to be too much for me to take, and I divorced her, but," he trailed off.
"But?" Don asked.
"I never really stopped loving her. I think that's why none of my other marriages or relationships have ever worked. I always felt like I was being a bigamist or committing adultery," John admitted.
"Uh, we're here," Cragen said, never so glad not to have to come up with a response to something someone had said.
At the hospital
John bolted from the car as soon as Cragen brought the car to a halt, and made a beeline for the hospital's emergency room. Once inside he flashed his badge at the nurse at the receiving desk.
"Where's Gwen Munch?" he asked.
The nurse consulted the computer.
"They've just taken her off this floor and sent her to a private room for 24 hour observation, but the doctor has ordered no visitors, except immediate family until normal visiting hours. And I believe that even includes police officers," the nurse said taking in both John and Cragen.
"Doesn't include me," John said.
"Oh really and why's that?" the nurse asked.
"Because I'm her husband," John said, and as he said it, he found that the little white lie felt wonderful to say.
The nurse looked at him suspiciously, so he pulled his ID out again.
"See, John Munch," he said emphatically as he pointed at his name.
"Ah, you must be the Johnny she was calling for when she was brought in. They've taken her up to room 312," she told him.
As Cragen started to follow John to the elevator, the nurse called out, "Sir, I'm sorry. Unless your family too, you'll have to wait, down here."
"Captain, why don't you go home and get some sleep. I can get a ride from someone from the squad later," John suggested.
"You sure you're going to be all right?" Cragen asked.
"Yeah, hearing that she's well enough to be sent up to a private room has me feeling a lot better. I'll be OK. See you in the squad tomorrow; uh, I might be a little late," John replied.
"You don't need to come in," Cragen assured him.
"Yes I do, but I'm not going to argue with you, besides I want to get up to see Gwen," John said.