Disclaimer; I do not own anything!

Chapter 2;

Olivia had slept through the whole night like a baby. Which was unusual. When she stayed at her apartment she was awake every few hours thinking about this case, and her other cases, but she wasn't even thinking about that staying over Perry's.

He on the other hand, was disappointed, that she had slept so well. He loved it when she called him at 3 am to talk almost incoherently and frantically about the horrors of her job. It turned him on, especially when it was his doing that caused her such distress. There were things that he genuinely liked about her too, like that she didn't have a computer or a facebook page, or anything like that. She was pretty, and he almost thought he got lucky when he sought after someone's life to make miserable for his own amusement. And had he maybe not been born a sociopath he argued to himself that he still would have liked her, because he did genuinely like to be with her, even if she wasn't talking about working. He wondered on a daily basis if they were getting close to him, and he knew he was going to have to really push to draw that information out of her. At times he wasn't sure if he would be able to. That worried him, he had crafted several detailed plans about what to do when she got close to his trail, if there was one, the only thing linking him to this case would be her. And he was going to make sure that he was the last person she expected, otherwise he'd have to find a new muse for his time.

She was sleeping still in his bed not wanting to wake up. He was awake, hiding a black ring box with a gold trim around it. Yeah, he was going to do it, he just had no idea at all if she was going to say yes. She was reserved date, but a woman at her age should consider herself lucky that someone was asking them to get married. He thought there was a large possibility that she'd think this too. Didn't most women after their twenties just settle down with whomever they could?

The sunlight was pouring into the room from the half open blinds, It was getting right on her face which was waking her. She scrounged her eyes together feeling the sunlight, meaning that it really was time for her to get out of dream land. She sighed.

"Are you awake yet?" he asked

"Ugh." was all she said, it wasn't very endearing but it made him laugh. "What time is it?" she asked she turned her head into the pillow so she wasn't getting the sunlight in her face.

"It's 7:30." he told her looking at the clock.

"in the morning right?" she half joked talking into the pillow.

"Yes, but if you want to stay in bed until 7:30 tonight I have no objections. I mean as long as I can stay." he joked back and ruffled her hair.

"I wish" she spoke again muffled from the pillow. and then stretched a little. She didn't really want to get up she was quite comfortable. And after a few minutes she turned around. He was still sitting up against the wall.

"Morning." he said softly.

"Yeah it is morning isn't it?" she asked she huffed a little. He smiled at her real innocently but she missed it, since she still had her head pressed into the pillow.

"Are you trying to suffocate yourself?" he joked Suffocation, he thought, there was also an idea. She finally turned over and looked up at him against the wall. Blinked and rubbed her eyes a few times to really finally get awake. She just shook her head no to answer his question.

"I think today is going to be a good day." He smiled at her. She smiled back a little, but was curious as to why.

"...I don't think I do." she sighed.

"Call out sick." he suggested.

"No they're already mad at me." Olivia grunted she still didn't get up really only turned to her side.

He then laid down next to her again like he had been during the night. "I have to ask you something." he said rather quietly.

"If this is the 'why don't you quit' speech-" she started he cut her off immediately

"Marry me." he said, and not asked. It took her a moment to realize that's what he said. And then she closed her eyes before answering.

"Olivia...!" he said trying to get her attention back.

"Marry me, I'm serious." he pleaded again.

"I heard you I am just trying to make sure I am not still sleeping." she semi-joked but in her head she was certain she was really dreaming.

"You aren't! I'm not kidding. I want to get married." he almost demanded and that turned her off to the idea but in her head she was thinking 'Here I am in my forties, no one is ever going to ask me this again what I am doing why aren't I excited?' but she wasn't excited in fact it made her oddly curious to the whole situation.

"Why...?" she asked she looked at him funny. She was shocked by this, they hadn't been dating long enough for this kind of commitment at all.

"If we get married you could quit your job, you wouldn't have to work another day in your life." he said with as much heartfelt effort as he could, getting her to say yes to this was harder than he thought.

"And you mean actually be able to sleep at night? That's no fun." she pointed out to him, teasing a little even thought it was quite a serious moment.

"You slept pretty good last night." he smirked, this was true, she slept better last night than ever, so maybe this was a good thing.

"I did." she added simply, and she smiled a little.

He pulled out his ring in the black box with the gold trim, and opened it up for her. At the sight of it her eyes widened wow he was really really serious about this wasn't he. This was either going to happen or it wasn't it, and there was a marvelous diamond ring staring her in the face wagering the outcome of her decision.

The ring was beautiful, and there was no doubt about it. It had three diamonds on top, the one in the middle was much larger than the two on the side, and then very tiny diamonds went around the entire band of the ring. On the back there were two birth stones very tiny, and embed in the band, neither of which were Perry's or Olivia's. And in tiny white cursive letters it said "one love" it was hard to read. But the bottom of the band wasn't something she could see. The ring itself, had belonged to another woman from a 2 years ago who was murdered, her name was Anita Perez, her wedding was only 3 days away before she was murdered. Her engagement ring was never found, because Perry had it.

As a spectator of this case that's when he first saw Olivia. At first the case looked like a rape homicide but her future husband had told the police the two of them had been intimate, and she was walking over to her sister's to check in on them, when she was beaten to death in an ally at 1 in the morning. The police had initially gone after Anita's ex-boyfriend, he had several domestic complaints against him from his past relationship with Anita, and she even reported that she thought he was stalking her. With the little evidence the police had against him, he still ended up in jail for Anita's murder.

Anita had just been a victim of opportunity for Perry. One night when he was coming home bored, he saw her by herself, and then struck. When he had come back with the other spectators to watch the crime scene investigation, it was then he struck up the idea to get up close and personal with the people who had to clean up his work. And he had to find a way to do it that would be safe for him, and still enjoyable.

At the scene of Anita's murder he heard a member of the media call out her name, Detective Benson, and then he went home and started on his research. She wasn't married, she didn't have any children, or any family. And it seemed like a perfect opportunity for him to be 'creative with his work'

He stalked her for over a year, find out what she liked, what she hated, the places she liked to hang out. Where she did her laundry and her groceries, and then had to find a really creative way for them to meet. One where it would seem absolutely accidental. Something cute that girls fell for like in romantic movies. So one day when she was getting coffee before work, he was in front of her, and 'accidentally' almost tripped and happened to spill his iced coffee mostly on her. It was planned, and it had the reaction he was hoping for. He had tried to be such a gentleman about it after, helping her clean up, paying for her coffee, offering to buy her a new shirt etc, that she was taken by how bad he felt for the situation that to her was clearly an accident, and could have happened to anyone. When he asked for her number after, so maybe they could get coffee again, she was reluctant to give it to him. That is until he promised not to spill it on her which made her laugh.

That had happened over six months ago, it had been years in the planning and Perry wasn't done yet. He wanted this to go on. But Olivia had been smarter than he expected, much less desperate than the typical single woman he expected and it was creating an issue for him. When she didn't jump at the chance to marry him right now it was shocking, absolutely shocking to him. But he had to play the good guy still.

"Liv.." he said still waiting her reply, the sight of that ring really took her by shock, her mouth was kind of stuck open looking at it.

"You must really like me to ask me to marry you before I've brushed my teeth or put any make up on." she joked, still not answering the question.

"Well you might need to brush your teeth, but you definitely don't ever need to wear make up." he played back a little, still waiting for that Yes yes yes! That romantic comedy chick flick girls give up.

When he said that about her, she smiled more than she had in weeks, it was that simple compliment that had made her so happy. He took that smile as a yes. He knew the yes was coming, and she started to speak but her phone rang from the side table next to the bed.

"Don't get it." he said "this is too important." the phone was distracting her from the matter at hand that he was trying to win over. But it rung again, however she sat up and answered it still smiling.

"Benson..." she said she was still looking at Perry.

"Uh-huh. I know..." she spoke into the phone.

"Is it Elliot?" Perry asked and Olivia shushed him, and she went back to her conversation on the phone.

"Well I will...I will be there-." she started saying into the phone when Perry started to yell into it from the side of her,

"She might be late she just got engaged!" he smirked and she looked wide eyed at him. And mouthed 'oh my god' she couldn't believe he had just done that, in her head she didn't think she had said yes yet.

"BYE" he added and took the phone from her and hung up.

"...that was the FBI." she pointed out, in fact it had been Porter who called her in the morning, to half scold her for taking off last night. But he was taken back by the shouting man in the background about her new engagement.

He took the ring out of the box, he wasn't going to ask her again, since now the news had hit her work place surely. It was like she already had said yes. He slid the ring down her finger and she just looked at it like she still didn't know what to say.

"It looks .. nice.." was all she could muster up to say.

"It looks like it belongs there." he smiled, those kinds of lines had the sell didn't they? All girls bought into that romantic stuff, or at least he assumed they did.

"I have to take a shower and go to work..." she said starting to get up.

"And don't forget to brush your teeth." he joked, that made her smile again.

On her way to work, Olivia had shoved her engagement ring in her pocket. For some reason she thought the more she hid this the better. It wasn't anyone's business that she got engaged or not. And she didn't actually want to tell them. On a scale from 1-10 on her thoughts of Porter keeping his mouth shut about it she ranked him at 2.2, everyone probably already knew. Hopefully they wouldn't have cared, but that didn't seem to be their usual sentiment about these kinds of things. And she dreaded going into the station because she didn't want to have to talk about it. She was actually embarrassed at the thought that someone her age was just getting engaged now.

She took the elevator up to her floor by herself. Made an easy entrance where she didn't look or say hello to anybody. It was Fin who first noticed her come in.

"You don't look like a girl who just got engaged." he joked to her, she only smirked a little.

"Well did he get you any bling?" Fin joked again, she smiled this time but she just ignored the question.

"Let's get back to work." she said going over to her desk Elliot was sitting at his waiting for her flash her ring or something, but he was shocked when she didn't, she didn't even say good morning.

"Uh morning..." he said waiting for her response.

"Morning." she said back. Opening a file and starting to read through it from yesterday's case.

"Should I congratulate you?" Elliot asked curiously.

"If you want." she replied still not looking up from her desk.

"Do you want me to congratulate you?" he asked again, she really didn't have the demeanor for someone who just got engaged she didn't seem happy about it at all.

"I don't care if you do, I just don't want to talk about it." she huffed.

"Did something happen?" Elliot questioned her again, missing the point of what she had just said.

"Yeah Perry asked me to marry him. That's what happened." she snapped rudely back at him apparently this was a touchy subject with her, but even she didn't really know why.

"Did you say yes?" Elliot looked at her, he didn't see a ring or anything maybe she said no, maybe that's why she was in a bad mood. Olivia just sighed and pulled the ring out of her pocket and held it up to him. She didn't say anything else but put it back in her pocket again. It didn't really answer his question but he was assuming that meant she did agree to marry him. But she for some reason didn't feel like that was a reason to be happy about.

The day had gone in and people talked to her about it all day and she pretended to smile and be happy about it. But at the end of the day she wasn't packing up to go home like everyone else. The only person she hadn't seen all day or talked to since the morning had been Porter. Maybe he was avoiding her. She didn't mind though, she liked it better when he avoided her.

"You want to get something to eat with me?" Olivia asked Elliot who was getting ready to leave, he was taken back by her invitation since they hadn't talked much all day other than that tid bit this morning.

"Sure, I'll buy you dinner." he offered to her hopefully that would make her talk about what was bothering her.

"Actually I was just going to buy you a candy bar from the vending machine so we could stay here and work a little more." she said half joking. "If you want to take these up to the loft..." she handed him a handful of files and call sheets.

"I want a snickers." he told her, taking them up there like she requested. In a few minutes she returned with his snickers and her skittles and two bottled drinks. Not a very nutritious dinner it would at least pass for a snack. While she was gone Elliot had started looking through the handful of papers she had given him, he noticed that she had dumped her phone, and also Perry's phone. This struck him has really odd. Since she didn't have a warrant to dump his phone not only could she lose her job over it what was the reason behind it?

"Olivia what is this?" he asked handing her the paper with Perry's calls.

"I couldn't figure it out all day." She said on an entirely subject.

"Figure what out?" Elliot questioned she had been acting off today.

"I mean why would he want to marry me? We haven't even been together that long, he doesn't even know me that well, and when I asked him why he even wanted to marry me, it wasn't because that he loved me or something, he pulled some kind of romance novel crap at me and it just doesn't make any sense to me at all. So I kept thinking about it, and then I realized that last night I stayed at his place, because he asked me to, and when the Craig's List Killer struck his fourth victim, he asked me to stay over that night too, and then the same with the third. So then, I went back took all the dates from each of the killing, and every time he's called me more then, than he has any other time. Why would that happen? And how come after the first time that I met him, days after the first women was murdered? How is that coincidence?" she rambled. Elliot just looked and looked at her.

"You sound crazier than Munch right now." he said after a moment of taken that all in.

"...Elliot... I was watching this show one of the nights I couldn't sleep and this woman, she worked in like a crime scene task force or something and this guy sought her out and tried to murder her just because of her job." she argued okay was she really grasping at straws here?

"But Perry hasn't tried to murder you has he?" Elliot asked her and she just stared at him for a minute maybe she was completely crazy.

"I just don't understand I mean, he could date anyone, any extra small wearing d cup long blond haired young model or something and he wants to be with me, why?" she asked him.

"Is that what's been bothering you? Maybe he doesn't want to go out with a bimbo model or something. Olivia, you need time off, I mean you're so desperate to find a lead on this case you're questioning the motives of your boyfriend, and why he would want to be with you based on a t.v show no less. Usually when a guy asks a girl to marry him she hears bells, and you apparently heard sirens. That's not normal. You should be happy. Don't you think maybe he just concerned about you with all those calls? He probably just wanted to know how you were or something. You understand that there are people in the world who actually want to be with you because they like you, and not because they have other motives right?" Elliot reasoned with her, and with what he said it really did make her feel kind of crazy.

"And hey, if you don't want to marry him, then why did you say yes?" Elliot added.

She only thought for a few minutes before answering.

"Elliot, I didn't. That's the other thing, I mean he was like so determined to get me to say that I would and I never even got a chance to say it. That's weird right?" She asked him she thought it was weird, although she did believe Elliot that she was being way too paranoid about the situation.

"Maybe he just really likes you. But listen, if you don't want to go through with it don't. You'll always have a nice committed relationship with paperwork if all else fails." he joked a little. "Either way," he started up "maybe this is a really good indication that you need a break." Elliot offered his opinion but she gave a disapproving look.

"Right now? I couldn't imagine a worse possible time for taking time off. Elliot, remember, serial killer on the lose..." she pointed out as if he had forgotten.

"And the FBI is just going to jam us up the whole time. So, why not? If I was you, I would." he nodded at her but she shook her head.

"I guess it's a good thing you're not me." she smirked. Suddenly, her phone rang, and thankfully it wasn't Perry.

"Benson..." she said. It was the lab, and they thought they got something big on the last crime scene. They were requesting Benson and Stabler's presence.

When the two arrived at the lab, Porter was already there with another FBI agent hanging around, they didn't greet each other or acknowledge much of each other they were just waiting. The tech came over.

"So, when your victim was found her eyes were shut." he started, they all just kind of waited for him to continue. "but, she would have died with her eyes open, and our guy he's really careful, always wears gloves, except, your perp, must've taken them off when he shut her eyes because finger tip oil and sweat left two very hidden finger prints on your victims eye lids." The tech said, and everyone's eyes widened by this, the fact that they had finger prints, or possibly had finger prints? That was amazing.

"Did you run them?" Porter asked.

"Yes they aren't in the system but the second you get a suspect we'll know." the tech answered, but they all looked thoroughly disappointed, Olivia a little less so. When walking back to the car, Elliot looked at her before getting in.

"So..." he started but she interrupted him.

"Perry was finger printed for the stock-exchange or whatever. He's in the system I checked that today." She told him.

"So that's good news then for you isn't it?" he asked her. She just shrugged a little.

"I guess it's sort of good news for all of us.." she put her hand in her pocket and slipped her ring back on.