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Olivia walked to the crime scene feeling tired and pissed. She had just walked out the door of the precinct to go home after nearly twenty four hours of working when Cragen informed her not only had their rapist struck again, but it was a double homicide this time.

She struggled to contain her emotions and simply fronted a mask of annoyance when in actuality a thousand different emotions ran rampant through her threatening to destroy her with every false lead, every forensic-less crime scene, every dead victim that could have been saved if they had caught the guy…

It was torturing her and tearing her apart from the inside knowing this guy was out there mocking them with every fresh victim. He was far too smart and intelligent for your average rapist. He knew the game and he played it as masterful as any champion. He was calling the shots now. Not them.

He knew their every move, every trick, every scrap of evidence they could have gotten him on… Whenever he made the tiniest mistake he would correct it the very next crime scene. It was almost like he could read the case files and see how they were gaining and he would jump two steps ahead of them every time a new victim surfaced.

Olivia surveyed the crime scene before them. She knew from the dispatchers call they had been teenagers. Far too early to go have their lives ripped so harshly away from them. She tried to imagine someone taking Jeremy away from her and she shuddered at the thought of someone hurting her son, the mere idea that Jeremy could be taken from her as easily as these two had filled her with an insufferable rage. If someone even thought about hurting him or taking him away from her like these two teens had been torn from their parents she would kill them and not think twice about it...

She let out a sigh as she made her way over to the bodies where Elliot was kneeling beside one and she swallowed hard as the look on his face flooded her mind. It was a teenage girl with, from what Olivia could see at her angle, light blonde hair. An exact replica of any of his three daughters… Elliot was PISSED.

Pushing any whim of fear she held for her partners outbursts deep inside her Olivia walked over to him.

"Two kids," Elliot muttered before she even opened his mouth. "Girl was raped, boy was sodimized and both of them were murdered using a belt."

"He's escalating." Olivia sighed as she rubbed her temple with her fingers. "Any DNA?"

"Warner found condom lubricant on the girl and I don't think he needed a condom with the boy. Way to much blood even for him. He used something else."

Olivia nodded as she walked over to the boy and uncovered him with the sheet. She put on her gloves before she kneeled down next to the body and pointed to the dark black and blue bruises on his backside. "These bruises looked like they were caused by something long and heavy."

"I was thinking a pipe." Elliot forced himself to turn away from the girl to walk over to the boy. "Then after he was done he used the pipe to rape him."

Olivia shook "No a pipe is too narrow. Plus look at the indications; heavier to narrow. Maybe a baseball bat?"

Elliot nodded in agreement before he handed Olivia a bag that contained the boy's yellow and black football jersey. "No ID or money in the wallet as usual on either of them but he was wearing his jersey and she was wearing maybe we can get an ID from the uniform."

Olivia hadn't heard a word he said. She was far too busy looking at the uniform with narrowed eyes trying to figure out where she recognized the symbol on the front of the jersey from. It looked so familiar. She knew she had seen it somewhere before…

She opened up the bag and pulled out the jersey and gasped as she looked at the name of the school on the back.

"Liv, what's wrong?" Elliot walked over to her and stared down at the jersey as well.

"This is Jeremy's school," she breathed. "Winchester High."

"Maybe he knew them," Elliot suggested with a shrug. He picked up the girls wallet and looked through it and took out a picture of the young murdered couple embracing with large beaming smiles on their faces dressed in formal wear like they had just arrived at a dance. "We can show him the picture and see if he knows who they are."

"Maybe," Olivia muttered as she struggled to keep the tears from her eyes. It was hitting far too close to home now. Whoever the murderer is was getting closer and closer to her loved ones. First he had chosen a victim a block away from Alex's apartment and now he had brutally attacked two people from Jeremy's school.

Elliot's suggestion they go talk to Jeremy now jolted her from her thoughts and she nodded absent mindedly, her focus a thousand miles away from the parking garage they were standing in right now.

Olivia wasn't sure how much more of this she could take…

They arrived at Olivia's apartment an hour later and it took nearly all of Olivia's strength not to beeline for her room and sleep for the next twenty years. The two detectives walked through the apartment and came to a stop outside Jeremy's room.

"Jeremy," Olivia called out as she knocked on the door. "Jeremy, get up, I need to talk to you."

"Call me again in ten hours," his muffled tired voice answered back.

Olivia knocked on the door again. "Come on, Jeremy, I need to talk to you."

"I just went to bed like two hours ago it can wait," he muttered.

"Well we've been up for twenty four, we win. Get up," Elliot argued as he pounded on the door.

Olivia cast him a glare before she turned back to the door. They heard unintelligible muttering before a crash that sounded like Jeremy had literally fallen out of bed before he shuffled towards the door.

He opened the door wearing nothing then a pair of boxers. "What the hell do you want at six thirty in the morning?" he grumbled as he turned towards Olivia, his eyes bloodshot and half closed from exhaustion.

"First off show a little bit of respect," Elliot snapped with a glare. "She's your mother; you don't talk to her like that."

Jeremy glared furiously at Elliot before he turned back towards Olivia who wasn't sure if she should reprimand her partner for yelling at Jeremy or her son for giving her attitude.

"Sorry," he told her and both detectives could tell from his tone he hadn't meant it. "But for real what do you want?"

Olivia pulled out the picture of the happy couple and showed it to him. "Do you know these two?"

Jeremy took the picture from her and examined it carefully, trying desperately to hide his smug grin. He looked at it for a few more moments before he nodded slowly as if a long forgotten memory was coming back to him. "Yeah. Yeah I think I do. The guy's Stephen Conrad and I think… yeah I think the chick's Kate Henson. They're very Barbie and Ken kind of conformists," he added with a snicker as he handed back the photo.

"Did you know them all that well?" Olivia asked, making sure that before she told him the news he would be okay.

"Not really," he answered with a shrug. "Conrad was in JV with me but we haven't talked in a few years and I think I talked to the chick about five times in my life," he lied expertly. "Why what's up?"

"They were murdered last night," Olivia told him gently.

Jeremy's eyes widened and he ran a hand through his hair. "Fucking Christ," he muttered, once again holding back a smirk knowing how much Elliot hated using that name in vein. Elliot shot him a fierce glare that Jeremy ignored. "Damn. I mean we weren't friends by any means but still… Fucking wow…"

"You gonna be okay?" asked Olivia softly.

Jeremy nodded as he ran his hand through his mess of dark hair again. "Yeah. Yeah it's just…. Wow." He shook his head before he looked back up at the two detectives. "Anything else I can do to help?"

"Do you know their phone numbers or addresses?" asked Elliot.

Jeremy shook his head while meanwhile both of their Drivers Licenses was locked in a small safe in the smallest corner of his closet. "Nah, man. I don't even think I know anyone who would."

"Well how about you give us your phone and we try anyway?" Elliot suggested.

Jeremy turned and glared at him. "What you think I'm lying? I don't hang around with that type of crowd, why would any of my friends?"

"We don't think you're lying," Olivia interjected. "We really don't. But you're our best hope for finding these kids parents. Can we please borrow your phone?

Jeremy rolled his eyes to the ceiling and Elliot balled his hands into fists. If he had ever treated his mother with that much disrespect his father would have made sure he ended up on the floor, eighteen years old or not…

"Come on, Jeremy," Olivia tried again as she too felt a bit of annoyance rising in her due to his disobedience. "Just let us borrow the phone. We're just gonna call the contacts and see if anyone knows them better."

Jeremy sighed heavily as he disappeared into his room and reappeared several moments later with his IPhone in his hand.

"Here," he said slapping the phone into Olivia's hand. "Do not read the texts, do not look at the pictures, do not look at my call history, do not go to ANY history. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"

"Hey!" Elliot shouted as he took a step towards him. "She is your mother! Show her some respect! Do you understand what I'M telling YOU!"

"Fuck off, Stabler," Jeremy grumbled as he turned to go back in his room. Elliot reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder and jerked him back around to face him.

"What did you say to me?" Elliot growled as he slammed Jeremy against the wall.

Olivia grabbed Elliot's hand and wrenched it away from Jeremy and stood in between the two. She turned towards Jeremy who was glaring so furiously it almost scared Olivia. "Jeremy, go back to bed," she ordered. "We'll get your phone back to you later."

Jeremy continued to hold his terrifying gaze before he turned towards Olivia. "I'm gonna go out, I'll be back later."

Without waiting for a response he turned tail and headed into this room, slamming the door behind him.

Olivia rounded on Elliot and gave him her own furious glare.

"You ever touch my son again," she hissed lowly, "we're going to have problems."

"So you're just gonna let him disrespect both of us like that?" Elliot snapped. "You're not gonna do or say anything to him?"

"He is my child; I will deal with it in private. Sorry if I think beating the shit out of him isn't gonna help anything!"

Elliot shook his head in disbelief. "No wonder he turned out to be such a little punk," he muttered as he turned away from her and began storming out of the apartment. Olivia's glare followed him and she stormed up to him and stood in front of him.

"You're right maybe I should raise him exactly like you raised your kids. That way he can commit criminal assault or drive drunk or maybe get high and break into people's houses!"

Elliot narrowed his eyes dangerously at her for a long moment but she met his eyes with no hint of fear of repercussion. He struggled to remember that taking a swing at his partner would probably be a very bad idea…

He shook his head and instead turned and stormed out of the apartment with Olivia following.

Jeremy meanwhile was pulling on his clothes and piling his usual supplies into his bag. Another belt from the vast collection he kept hidden in his closet, duct tape, spare clothes, and two garbage bags while his knife lay unclasped in his jeans pocket.

He just finished pulling on his sneakers when he walked over to his desk and scooped off a tiny piece of paper that had been written several months ago when he looked through Elliot's address book while the detective wasn't looking.

"Kathleen Stabler," it read, "building 415, room 7H, 79th Street Manhattan."

A cruel grin grew on Jeremy's lips as he looked down at the address before he stuffed it into his pocket. Today seemed like the perfect day to go visit daddy's little girl…

…

"Welcome to Topaz," the teenager behind the counter greeted Munch and Fin, his long shaggy hair dyed fifteen different shades of red with several piercings in his face wearing head to toe black. "Can I help you find your inner originality today?"

"Oh yeah real original," Munch said with an air of sarcastic dryness. "I've been to fifty of your stores in the last day and saw over five hundred people wearing the exact same thing you're wearing. How exactly is that original?"

The boy sighed as he raised his pierced brow at the detective. "Look, man, my lunch break is in five minutes if you came here to just be annoying please just go away."

"Ignore him, he's an ass," Fin argued with a sharp glare towards Munch before he turned back to the cashier. "I'm Detective Tutuola, the old guys Sergeant Munch. We're looking for a guy who comes in and buys a lot of belts of the same brand. Not like a normal amount but a huge ass abundance of them."

The man nodded. "Yeah I know that guy. Comes in like every other week and buys like an outfit or something and he'll get like five or six belts to go with it."

"Do you remember what he looks like?" Fin asked as he struggled to hide his delight.

"Sorry man, not really. He always wears a hood when he comes in."

"Card or cash?"

"Cash. Always cash."

Fin sighed as he slumped onto the counter. "Any chance you guys have working security cameras?"

"Yeah but the footage gets erased after a day if it's not needed by the cops and he came in here like five days ago."

Fin groaned as he turned towards Munch. "Well that sucked."

"You know if you want I can tell the guy next time he comes in here that we caught him stealing something and he has to wait for the cops and I can call you guys," the cashier offered with a shrug.

"No he might bolt if you tell him that," Fin mused. "Tell him he won a contest instead and has to wait for the newspaper reporters."

The boy nodded. "You got it."

For the first time since the case began there seemed to be a tiny sliver of hope on the horizon. They were gonna get their guy. They knew it…

…

Alex bit her lip nervously as she left her favorite coffee shop with a paper bag containing one warm freshly made muffin. Jeremy's words still rang cruelly in her head but she couldn't help it. They had just come out with pumpkin spice muffin and she had inhaled the heavenly scent as she ran past.

She promised herself she would run an extra twenty minutes tomorrow to work it off.

The lawyer felt a strong sense of shame crashing down on her. She shouldn't feel guilty and even scared that she was eating a muffin because her boyfriend would get mad at her. She should have told him to fuck off the moment he told her she was too fat at a healthy size four and never thought of him again.

But he had in his trapped like a helpless moth that was attracted to the deathly sight of a flickering flame. She would do anything for him. Including make herself miserable, she thought bitterly as she looked around as if she expected Jeremy to pop out at any second and scream at her for eating the fattening snack.

When she was sure he was nowhere in sight she reached in the bag and grabbed the muffin out and took a bite of it, groaning happily at the delectable taste.

A man came up from behind her and grabbed her ass making Alex jump and drop her muffin into the street.

"Yeah and you can kiss it too!" she snapped as she stormed over to the guy preparing to lay into the man on a long subject on a sexual harassment suit.

"Ah come on, I know you like it," the man told her as he stopped and turn around, a beaming grin on his handsome face and kind light green twinkling eyes with light brown hair neatly styled.

When her eyes fell on the grinning man though any thoughts of being angry disappeared in a single heartbeat and a beaming smile overtook her face.

"Jacob!" she cried happily as she raced up and threw her arms around the man she hadn't seen since they had both taken the BAR after being beast friends for six long years of college and law school.

Jacob hugged her tightly around the waist and twirled her around. "Oh god I missed you, Alex!" he said merrily as he finally set her down, not releasing the hold on her,

"It's been way to long!" she protested as her smile grew. "I thought you moved to LA?"

"I did but Dan got transferred to New York. I've been here about three months."

Alex's eyes widened. "You two finally got married?"

Jacob nodded, his grin growing tenfold just thinking about his beloved husband. "Seven of the best years of my life."

"Oh my god, congratulations!" Alex beamed as she hugged him tightly again. "I'm so happy for you!"

"Thank you thank you. I got a little girl to who just turned four too," Jacob continued as he reached in his pocket and pulled out his wallet and flipped the very first picture. A little girl with dark brown curly ringlets and dark green eyes grinning up at the camera with a watermelon rind in her hands with red juice covering her face.

"She's adorable," Alex praised with a smile. "So you became quite the family man huh?"

"Yeah yeah don't tell anyone," he chuckled as he put his wallet back in his suit pants. "So what about you? Any ring on that finger yet?"

"No but there is someone," she said with a sheepish grim. "Hopefully soon."

"Well congratulations on finding someone who's willing to put up with you," Jacob said with a smirk.

"Shut up," Alex said with a mock glare gently hitting his chest but couldn't help the smile that shone through. "So what are you doing now?"

"Go wait in my office for a client but the middle of September isn't really all that busy for a Tax attorney."

"Nope you're not gonna go wait in your office," Alex corrected with a smirk. "You're gonna go buy me a new Pumpkin Spice muffin and tell me all about your family and what the hell you have been doing since Law school."

Jacob laughed and nodded as he placed his hand on the small of her back. "Fine fine let's go buy you that muffin. You always were cheap."

As Alex allowed herself to be led into the coffee shop she missed the fact that Jeremy was standing across the street shaking so hard in fury he felt the knife in his hand crack. Kathleen would have to wait until tomorrow. He had bigger fish to fry right now…

…

One hour and one replaced Pumpkin Spiced muffin later Alex left the small coffee shop with a promise on her life that she would call Jacob later tonight so they could make plans to go out for dinner sometime so she could meet his family. Jacob had told her to bring her boyfriend who she only described as being a 'student' and 'a family member to one of her friends' and Alex had respectfully declined, not wanting her best friend to judge her too harshly for dating an eighteen year old high school student.

Alex sighed happily as she began taking off on a gentle jog back to her apartment. Twenty minutes later she arrived at the building and took a moment to catch her breath and take a long drink of water from the water bottle she had brought with her.

After she had finished she greeted the doorman with a friendly nod and made her way up to her apartment. She made it up to her door and put the key in the lock twisted it, hearing t he tumblers unlatch on the other side. Alex opened the door and stepped inside, shutting the door behind her. She had just taken a step inside her apartment when she felt someone shove her from behind and onto the floor.

The blonde quickly twisted herself around and found Jeremy glaring down at her, his knife clasped firmly in his hand.

"Christ, Jeremy, you scared me," she said with a soft laugh. Instead of looking amused the rage in his eyes intensified and Alex swallowed hard, never before seeing him that mad. "Jer… Jeremy, what's wrong?" she asked with an edge of fear in her voice.

Without warning and still remaining silent he went up and kicked her as hard as he could in between the legs. Alex screamed and clutched herself as she gasped in pain, looking up at him with wide frightened eyes.

He kicked her hard again and Alex screamed once more, arching her back in pain. Jeremy reared back to kick her again but she managed to frantically scamper back just in time, his foot meeting nothing but air. Alex went to stand up but Jeremy grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Alex cried as her hands flew to her hair trying in vain to relieve some of the pain.

"What?" Jeremy snarled as he gripped her hair tighter. "Only like to be rough with your little fuck buddy I saw you with today?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" she shouted as she tried desperately to get away from his grasp. "Get off me!"

Jeremy growled before he threw her to the floor and kicked her in the stomach. "Don't fucking lie to me!" he roared as he kicked her again, his words barely audible over her cries for help and screams of pain. "I saw you and your little fucking boyfriend outside the coffee shop!"

"No!" she cried desperately. "He's just a friend! I swear!"

"LIAR!" he yelled as he reached down and grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her up once more. He held the knife to her throat as he could without breaking skin. Tears rolled down her eyes and a sob escaped her as she tried in vain to escape his clutch.

Alex swallowed hard before she closed her eyes and did the only thing she could think of.

With as much force as she could muster she kicked him as hard as she could in between his legs.

Jeremy let go of the grip he had on her wrist and pulled the knife away from her throat as he bowled over and grabbed himself, gasping in pain. Alex sprinted towards the door and just as she was about to grasp the doorknob Jeremy grabbed her by the hair and threw her as easily as if she were a feather. She landed with a crash on the coffee table before falling to the floor.

The blonde struggled to get up again and she had just managed to make it to her hands and knees when he stormed over to her and brought his foot up before slamming it down on her back. Alex fell with a sob while Jeremy kicked her so hard in the ribs it forced her to turn on her back. He quickly began to kick her as hard as he could everywhere he could reach.

The whole beating couldn't have lasted more than five minutes but for Alex it felt like a lifetime. Every hit made her whole body explode in pain, every touch of his foot brought a scream from her lips, every moment he beat her felt like a lifetime…

Finally Jeremy took a step back and looked down at the broken, bruised, and bloody body. Alex was gasping for air while tears streamed down her face that for some reason he had left untouched, her whole body trembling. He kneeled down beside her and grabbed her hair and yanked her face towards him.

"You tell anyone," he muttered softly. "And you're fucking dead."

Jeremy threw her head back to the floor and stood up. Alex struggled to open her eyes and see through the tears that clouded her eyes. That last thing she saw before she blacked out was him leaving her apartment like he had done nothing wrong…

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