Author's Notes: Characters property of NBC/Dick Wolf. Written purely for fun and not for profit.
Title and no small amount of inspiration from the song "Lover's Day" by TV on the Radio.
For now this story is not specifically connected to any of my other Munch/Fin works, but who knows what the future may hold...? It is complete, I'm just uploading it here a chapter a day as I reformat it from another platform.
Additional note/warning: This story does contain canon-typical discussions of child sexual abuse and neglect; so proceed with caution if such topics bother you.
"Love is a surprise. The end of love usually isn't, but falling in love is always a surprise."
— Stanley Bolander's girlfriend Linda, speaking to John Munch. (Homicide: Life on the Street, "A Many Splendored Thing")
"We got you on video, Gannon. We know what you like to do to little boys 'cause we've seen it. So why don't you stop wasting our time, and just tell us where we can find the kids. Give up the other perverts in your operation and maybe—just maybe—the DA's office will go a little easier on you...much as it pains me to think about scum like you getting anything less the full extent of what you deserve."
John leaned against the cold wall, waiting and watching with growing apprehension. Fin kept pacing around their seated suspect, leading the interrogation, and John was beginning to think that hadn't been the best approach to take. Over three hours in and Gannon was still playing dumb while Fin was only growing increasingly agitated, skirting closer and closer to Stabler-esque levels of I'm-gonna-beat-this-guy-into-a-pulp rage. Meanwhile the suspect was supposed to be the one sweating here, not the other way around. Push too hard and the next words out of the guy's mouth would invoke the appearance of a lawyer and end this conversation before they had anything of actual use and value out of him.
"You ain't got shit, and I ain't telling you shit." Gannon shifted in the small, purposefully uncomfortable chair, crossing his arms defiantly across his broad chest. He was big in a sloppy, middle-aged way, someone who wanted to think he was a bruiser but spent more time putting away beers at the bar than pumping iron at the gym. And they'd seen more footage of his disgusting self doing things to young children than any sane person should ever have to endure.
"We ain't got nothing, huh? Then what do you call these?" Fin shoved a pile of video capture printouts across the desk toward Gannon. John tried to focus on Gannon's face and not the images; he'd seen quite enough of them already while going through the videos for anything to help identify the victims, the other adult participants, and where they might have been filmed. "You telling me that's not you in these pictures?"
Gannon shrugged and pushed the photos away after barely giving them a glance. "Technology today, who can say? You can do whatever you want with a computer. Editing software, what do they call that, 'photoshop'...you could make just about any random guy off the street look like me in a blurry photograph like that. Hell, that could even be you in that picture. Is that what's got you so worked up, Detective? Cut a little too close to the bone for you?"
John couldn't move fast enough to stop his partner from pulling Gannon out of his chair and slamming him against the wall. Hands at Gannon's throat, Fin started screaming, "What did you just say? What did you just say, you son of a bitch!"
"Fin—"
"You sick piece of shit I'll put your head through this wall—"
"Fin! Stop it! Fin—"
John tried to pull them apart but he wasn't strong enough on his own against Fin's boiling over rage. Fortunately the cavalry arrived almost immediately, Stabler and Cragen rushing in to help pull Fin and Gannon apart.
"That bastard just tried to kill me!" Gannon whined, clutching at his throat once released from Fin's death grip.
"If I tried to kill you, you'd be dead right now, mother—"
"Out, now," Cragen ordered, pushing Fin out the door with Elliot and John right behind him.
"That went well," Alex said with a sigh. The ADA been watching, waiting for anything that would give her enough to get a location and then wake a judge for a warrant. But while they had Gannon from their one young victim's i.d. and the video evidence, he wouldn't give up anything on where his perverted filth was being recorded for distribution online—and where the other children featured in the videos were being kept.
"Maybe it's time to try being nice cop now. I'll go back in with him alone," John offered.
"No you will not," Cragen said. "I'm sending Olivia and Elliot in to finish this one. That is, if Gannon doesn't immediately lawyer up on us now thanks to what just happened in there."
"But Captain..."
"It's okay, John. We've got this." Olivia put a hand on his arm, tilted her head toward Fin. Elliot had walked him down the hallway and was trying to talk him down—a bit of a role reversal from how things usually went at the 16th, but it seemed the long days on this case had pushed Fin past his limit. "You take care of your partner. Take him home, it's beyond late. I think you could both use some air right now."
"I do feel about ready to suffocate from the stench in there," John admitted.
He glanced at Cragen who nodded in agreement. "Get out of here until the morning. And don't let me see your partner until then, either, and only if he's got himself under control. We don't need all of the hard work busting this operation to go to hell at this point because one of us can't manage his temper."
"Okay." John walked over to Elliot and Fin, who still looked ready to punch someone. Hopefully not me, John thought as he gingerly put an arm on his partner's shoulders. "C'mon, let's go."
"I ain't going nowhere."
"Captain's orders you are. That is if you still want your job tomorrow."
"Fuck this shit. Fuck that piece of shit in there, just one more minute and—"
"—and you'd be up before the Rat Squad and that son of a bitch would be walking home," Elliot interrupted.
"Not if he's in a body bag." The threat of violence hadn't left Fin's voice, but the power of his anger seemed to dissipate as John held on to him, keeping him back.
"Trust me, I get it," Elliot said. "You think I don't feel the same way every time we're dealing with one of these child porn freaks? But they love to do that, get in your head, mess with you, try to project their own sickness on everyone else."
"Captain wants you and 'Liv to take over from here," John said to him. Elliot nodded and walked toward where his partner, Cragen and Alex were all waiting. John turned back to Fin. "Come on. Give me your keys."
"What?"
"Give me your keys, I'm driving you home."
Fin looked ready to protest, but John fixed his best pleading look on his partner. "Come on," he said more quietly. "This case isn't going anywhere. But you need to step back and get away from it. Just a few hours, 'til morning."
Grudgingly Fin nodded, defeat sagging his shoulders. "Keys in my locker. Let me get my things."
"Okay."