AN: I'm glad people seem to like the story! Thanks for your reviews and comments. I had Chapter 2 ready to go, just in case people like the story, so here you go.

EOEOEOEOEO

Olivia had filled Cragen in on the latest as Elliot hovered over her shoulder. She didn't like the fact that someone had been in her apartment, but so far, it had all been harmless. Elliot and Cragen were talking about past cases and possible scenarios, but Olivia stood up and interrupted them. "Listen, we have a rapist and murderer stalking women, so can we get back to our case? That's a lot more important than someone playing some harmless mind games."

"Olivia, hold on." Cragen said. "We don't know what's going on, so I don't want to dismiss this yet."

"I'm not asking you to dismiss it. I just don't want to waste any more time." She moved around the chair and headed towards the door. "El, we have work to do."

Elliot looked back at Cragen and saw the Captain shrug slightly. "I won't let her out of my sight." He said as he turned and watched Olivia's retreating figure. He let out a sigh, knowing that Olivia didn't have any compunction about risking her own personal safety when she was helping others. Olivia was already at the board, looking at the crime scene photos, when Elliot sidled up next to her.

"Don't start El." Olivia said. She knew Elliot was going to start in on her about why she shouldn't take this lightly. She heard Elliot let out a sigh beside her and she dropped her head between her shoulders. Then she straightened up and turned sideways to face him as he stared at the board. "Listen. I'm not ignoring this. It bothers me that someone was in my apartment. That they were in the shower room when I was in there…"

Elliot turned to face her. When that incident had first happened, he had written it off more as an annoyance; they were focused on the theft. But now...now that he knew someone had been in her apartment, it really hit him. "He could have assaulted you. You were up there alone..." The thought of it made him nauseous.

Olivia put a hand on his arm. "But he didn't." She reminded him. She watched Elliot's face and saw that he wanted to say something else, but was trying to censor himself. "I'm not just going to blow this off. I'll be careful. But we need to work the case. I don't want there to be any more victims because I was too worried about myself to do my job." She let her hand slide down his arm and rested it on the console next to his. She bumped her shoulder into his, trying to lighten him up. "Besides, I know I don't have to worry with you watching my back."

Olivia gave him a crooked smile and Elliot relaxed slightly. He opened the file in front of him. "OK, let's go over this again."

EOEOEOEOEO

They went over and over the details of the case, and wove in the new information Fin and Munch brought in from a morning of interviewing people related to the assault of their last victim. They had worked through lunch, ordering in Mexican food, but now that it was almost 6, Olivia found she was hungry again.

She tossed her pen down on her desk. "I don't see any connection between these women. I have pored through everything. They aren't similar in any way. They all work in different fields. They live in different areas. Two were married and two are single. They don't even look like each other except for the dark hair. But one had short hair…one had red streaks in hers." She leaned back in her chair and laced her hands behind her head. "He has to be picking his victims at random."

"I've gone through every interview…every witness statement…every video of the surrounding area. Whoever this guy is…he's good. He's like a ghost." He slapped the file on his desk closed. "Nobody saw anything. No DNA." Elliot scrubbed his hands over his face. "I don't even know where to go from here."

"We can't give up. He could be stalking his next victim right now."

"Detective Benson?"

Olivia turned and saw a uniformed officer walk in with a large manila envelope in his hand.

"Someone delivered this for you." He said, handing it to her.

"Hold on." Elliot said, pushing himself out of his chair and intercepting the envelope.

Olivia rolled her eyes as he turned to the uniform.

"Who delivered it?" he asked.

The uniform shrugged. "I don't know. Desk Sergeant just asked me to run it up."

Elliot picked up the phone as the uniform walked out of the squad room, calling downstairs. He peppered the desk sergeant with questions, but obviously didn't get the information he wanted as he slammed the phone down.

Olivia plucked the envelope from his hand. "We get stuff delivered all the time." She said. "We were waiting for results from the ME, and this could be it." She ripped the envelope open and looked inside, and then dropped the envelope on her desk.

Elliot saw her pale slightly, if that was even possible. "What is it?" he asked as he picked up the envelope. He looked inside and saw something crumpled in the bottom. He turned the envelope on its side and the item slid farther towards the opening and Elliot realized it was a pair of black panties. He looked over at Olivia. "These are yours?"

"I think so." She said and her voice cracked slightly.

Elliot looked around and saw no one was paying attention, and he dumped the contents on Olivia's desk. It was a pair of black satin and lace underwear and he knew by the look on Olivia's face that they were hers. He furrowed his brow slightly. "Why would they send you the underwear they stole?" He asked. He picked up a pen and used it to lift the panties off the desk, turning them back and forth. Typically, if they saw something like this, the underwear had been ripped up or slashed, or there was evidence that someone had used them to pleasure themselves. But this pair didn't appear to be touched.

"Those aren't the underwear they stole." She said, and now Elliot was really confused.

"What? I thought you said they were yours."

Olivia nodded, almost imperceptibly. "They are." She said, her voice almost a whisper. "Those are the underwear I took off this morning, before I took my shower."

EOEOEOEO

Olivia was sitting in Elliot's apartment, and it felt strange. Elliot's divorce from Kathy had been final for about six months, and even though his new apartment was less than a mile from hers, she had never been here. A least not inside.

The relationship between the two of them had always been complicated. A couple of years back, they had been wandering in uncharted territory…trying to maintain the bounds of professionalism. But Gitano had almost broken them, and she had left him twice. It had taken awhile to work things out when she had come back, but about the time she felt like they had finally gotten back on solid footing, he had dropped the bombshell on her. Kathy was pregnant. Watching him going back to Kathy…moving home…had been incredibly hard for her. She snapped back quickly though, cutting off all thoughts of anything changing…the what if's…

Things had stayed that way, even when he told her his divorce was final. She had made sure of that. They were partners.

She kept having to remind herself of that every once in a while. At times when things started to get too comfortable again. She had to remind herself that even when he was separated from Kathy before, he had gone back to her. Eli was proof of that.

Olivia looked up as Elliot walked into the living room, holding two beers. "I don't know if it's necessary for me to stay here." She said, for at least the fifth time since Elliot had insisted.

"We changed the locks on your apartment, and he still got into your apartment somehow." His bet was that someone had paid off the locksmith.

"How do you know that he doesn't know where you live?" Olivia asked, taking a drink of the beer Elliot had given to her.

"Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't." He said, sitting at the opposite end of the couch. "But I feel better being having you here. Why make it easy for him?"

"Easy for him to do what?" Olivia asked. "He hasn't actually threatened me."

"Not directly. But he wants you to know that he's in control. That he can get at you any time he wants." Elliot said, practically interrupting her. That's the thing that bothered him the most…the mind games were worse than an outright threat. You never knew what was coming next.

Olivia was silent as she took another drink. "I'm not going to hide." She said. "We have a job to do."

"I know. But until we figure this out, you're stuck with me. 24/7."

"Elliot, that's ridiculous." She knew that arguing with him was somewhat pointless, but sometimes she had to remind him that she could take care of herself. "I have the same training as you. I'm a better shot. I can run faster than you."

Elliot placed his hand over his heart, as if she were wounding him. "You're killing me." He said, but then he leaned forward. "I know all of that. But if anyone wants to get to you, they're going to have to get through me first."

Olivia wanted to argue with him...to tell him that she would rather die than have anything happen to him. But she knew the conversation was over for the night, and she hoped it wouldn't come to that. "Well, at least I don't have to sleep on the couch." She said, shifting slightly. "This thing isn't very comfortable."

"Well, I have news for you. Your couch wasn't very comfortable either."

"I don't think it's so bad." She said.

"Sleep on your couch much?" Elliot asked. As soon as he said it, he saw the expression on her face, and realized she did. He wondered about that. Why sleep on the couch when you had a perfectly good bed to sleep in?

Olivia shrugged and looked down at the beer that was resting on her knee. "Sometimes I can't sleep…" She lifted the bottle to her lips and took a long drink.

Elliot felt horrible after she said that. For years, he had gone home to his family, finding comfort after a long, horrible case. She went home alone. "I'm sorry."

Olivia shook her head. "It is what it is."

"I wish…" He didn't know exactly what he was going to say. There were so many things he wished were different. "I should have…" He let out a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry." He said again, feeling like he had let her down again.

"El…just…" Olivia pressed her lips together. "We aren't keeping score. We've both said things…done things…that we'd change if we could." She knew he still harbored feelings of resentment towards her for running off to Oregon. She didn't want to dredge all that up.

"Yeah." Elliot got up and went into the kitchen, plucking two more beers from the fridge.

"Are you sure the kids aren't coming over this week? I don't want to kick them out of their room." Olivia said, as he handed her the beer.

"Nah. They aren't supposed to be here until this weekend. I'll call Kathy and tell her it's not going to work." He said. It was Wednesday night…he doubted things would be resolved by Friday.

"I don't want you to…"

Elliot held up a hand. "Liv…" He saw the objection die on her lips as he slumped back down on the couch. He watched as she lay her head on the back of the couch and closed her eyes, and he watched her for a moment. "Want to go to bed?" he asked.

Olivia's eyes flew open and she turned her head to look at him. "What?" She stared at him with her eyes wide and her mouth open. "What did you say?"

"You have a dirty mind Detective." Elliot teased and he saw her face flush. He hadn't expected that reaction, and it threw him a little. Could it be that sometimes she had the same errant thoughts as he did?

"Right." She said, trying to cover her blunder. "I was just half asleep. I didn't hear what you said." She shifted on the couch. "And no, I'm not ready to go to bed."

"I thought you didn't hear what I said." Elliot saw her give him a dirty look, and he decided it was probably wise not to push her. They sat in silence for a few minutes, drinking their beers. "Do you ever wonder…"

Olivia turned her head again, never lifting it from the couch. She wondered what the hell he was going to say, and she held her breath as he fumbled with his words. She could tell he wasn't sure how to ask whatever he had on his mind. "Just say it." She said.

"You were engaged at one time, right?" he asked. That fact had slipped out during one late night stake-out, but he never really heard the whole story.

"Yeah."

"What if you would have gotten married?"

"I was 16. He was 21. It wouldn't have worked."

"He was 21? We arrest 21-year-olds for having sex with 16-year-olds." He said.

"You're assuming I had sex with him." Olivia said. She saw Elliot grimace, and she let him off the hook. "It's fine. I did." She sighed. "I think about that now…" She left that thought there. "I was just trying to get away from my mother. And no, I never think about how my life would have been different. Even if we would have gotten married, I probably would have been divorced by 17, and then I still would have gone to college and to the police academy."

"All roads lead here?" Elliot said.

"I guess." Olivia said. She leaned forward and set her empty beer bottle on the coffee table. She folded her legs beneath her and turned her body slightly, so she was facing Elliot. He was peeling the label off his beer bottle. "Do you ever wonder…"

"Just say it." Elliot said, mimicking her earlier comment.

"Do you think you would have married Kathy if she hadn't gotten pregnant?" She knew it was a horrible question to ask. Admitting it would mean he was denying his children, and he would never do that. She saw him look up at her and he seemed to consider her question.

"I don't know." He said. He could see the surprise on Olivia's face, and he had to admit, he was surprised himself. "I love my kids Liv…."

Olivia shook her head and put up a hand to stop him. "I know El. I know you do. I shouldn't have asked you."

"I think about it sometimes. But I know I still would have joined the NYPD."

"All road lead here, huh?"

Elliot nodded. "Liv…" He looked at her for a minute without saying anything. "Sometimes I wonder…"

His words were cut off by Olivia's phone. It beeped loudly, signaling an incoming text message. Elliot seemed relieved at the interruption, and if Olivia was being honest, she was too. She didn't think she wanted to hear what Elliot was going to say. She didn't know how they'd gotten to this point…they were never open and honest like this. She reached for her phone and looked at the screen.

"It's from an unknown number." She said, looking back up at him.

Elliot nodded. "Open it."

Roses are red. Violets are blue. You think ur safe. But I'm watching you.