This chapter is dedicated to my new favorite band Tally Hall. If you like They Might Be Giants and Weezer you will love them. Check them out. Tally Hall in the house!!!
Ok, I'm done promoting the kickass band. I will let you know up front that this chapter is kind of long. But it's so worth it. Read my friends. Read! Also, it's the second to the last chapter of this story. Let me know what you're thinking. And to all of you who have given me your thoughts thank you. You've all been helpful.
Thanks
Scar
Greener
It had been 4 weeks since the night Elliot was shot by Joseph Sparelli. His wounds were almost completely healed and he had a large majority of his muscle back. He strode into the precinct five minutes after Olivia with a leather jacket on and a bad-ass pair of sunglasses shielding his eyes. Craig sat at Elliot's desk talking with the forensics lab about a case they were working on, Munch and Fin were pin pointing different locations on a map in the corner, and Cragen sat in his office with the door open.
Fin spotted Elliot through the corner of his eye and stood up immediately, "Hey, look who decided to get off the couch."
Elliot opened his arms in a macho Jesus Christ form, "Yeah, you're just jealous my man."
"Good to have you back, El." Cragen said from his office
"Good to be back, Cap."
"Great, you and Liv can pick up some of those cases in the pile on her desk. Craig, you take desk duty for awhile."
Craig lifted his head from his paperwork, "Captain, what about my partner? If you give Olivia to Elliot I can't investigate anything."
"Craig, you're just going to have to deal with it until I find you a spot."
Elliot walked over to his desk, where Craig now resided. He cleared his throat. Craig looked up at Elliot towering over top of him. "Elliot Stabler, what can I do for you?"
"This is my desk."
Craig looked at the desk then at Olivia who quickly turned her eyes away from his glance. He got up slowly and stood in the middle of the room with a stack of papers in his hands. Elliot sat down and dug into a case file. Olivia looked up at Craig and felt bad. "Craig, there's a table over there you can use until we get you something better."
He nodded. He walked like a dejected puppy to the table in the corner glaring at Elliot with anger and disgust on his face.
As the room grew quiet, a chipper Maureen Stabler came bouncing into the squad room. "Daddy, I need you to write me a check for tuition. They won't let me sign up for my classes."
Elliot sighed, " I thought your mother was taking care of that?"
"Nope. She said it's all you."
"Right. Did you drive down here?"
"Yes Dad, no matter how badly you want to control my car I do drive it and I did drive it down here."
"Who says I want to control your car?"
"Olivia."
Olivia peaked from behind her papers at Elliot who was giving her the evil eye. "Hey, I only call it as I see it Stabler."
Elliot finished writing the check and handed it to Maureen, "Here yeah go. Don't lose it. You want to get some dinner at Eddie's tonight?"
"Sorry Dad, I have a hot date. There's a band playing at my school and Danny asked me to go with him."
"Who's Danny?"
"A boy you don't know. I'm so excited, because the band is so good. They came last year. The one guy is so hot. And they're really funny. They do everything from rap to songs about banana's"
Craig looked over from his desk, "What's the name of the band?"
"Tally Hall. Do you know them?"
"Unfortunately I do."
"Why do you say unfortunately?"
"I went to school with them for a year. They're all right if you like bad lyrics and guys with a high opinion of themselves. You much too smart for them."
Maureen blushed.
Elliot butted into their conversation, "Ok Maur, you better get going."
Maureen kissed her dad on the head. "Bye Dad."
"Drive safe."
"I won't", she yelled from the hallway.
Craig looked over at Elliot, "Nice girl, Elliot."
"Yeah, stay away from her."
Scene
The next day, Elliot and Olivia walked to the coffee shop next to the precinct on their way to work. Craig passed them and glared.
"Man, that guy gives me the creeps." Elliot said as he walked close to Olivia.
"He's not that bad. He's gotten better at any rate. He's stopped talking 24 hours a day."
"See he's already brain washed you."
"I feel bad for him. He's an amazing detective. He just has strange habits and a lack of social skills."
"Sounds like a good reason to keep him on my creepy guy list."
Elliot's phone rang.
"Stabler."
"Elliot, it's Cragen, we had a call come in from Columbia College. Can you and Liv go check it out?"
"Yeah, that's my daughters school. What's going on?"
"We have a homicide rape. They've already identified the body. Elliot, it's not Maureen."
"Thanks Captian, we'll get right on it."
Olivia looked at him and they both turned around and headed to their car.
Scene
When they arrived in the Emerald Courtyard at Columbia College, CSU was already collecting evidence and taking photos. A large group of students congregated around the police tape watching and crying. Elliot pushed through flashing his badge. "SVU. Look out people. Coming through." Him and Olivia ducked under the tape and saw a girl lying on the ground in a puddle of blood. Her body looked clean of any bruises or cuts. In fact, she looked quite peaceful. The detectives moved closer and they could see that the blood had come from between her legs. Olivia swallowed hard. The thought of all that blood coming from there gave her a sick feeling in her stomach.
A guy collecting samples from the body stood up to speak to them, "You SVU?"
Elliot nodded, "Yeah, what do you have so far?"
"Well if there was a rape it started on the side of the building behind those bushes. But by the looks of our girl and the area it doesn't seem like there was much of a struggle."
"Why do you say that?" Elliot asked.
"Now I won't know if there are any drugs in her system until we get her back to the lab, but there are no bruises or marks of a struggle on her body. We also found fibers from her dress on the bricks. Which means she was leaning on the wall. I'm guessing the two went for a little rendezvous in the courtyard, then for whatever reason he knifed her."
A flash of blood on the end of a pipe blinked in Olivia's head. She looked down at the girl and felt sick. Her head started spinning and her palms started to sweat.
Elliot kept on investigating. "So if he sliced her there. How did she end up over in the courtyard?"
"Well, that's interesting because your killer didn't just stab her and run. The blood spatter indicates that he stabbed her multiple times and then he held her here until she bled out. You can see how much blood was left in that one spot. My guess is that she could have been forced to stand in this spot for at least 15 minutes. Then she fell over on her hands and knees. See the hand print right there? Then she crawled to the courtyard and fell over here. It looks like he got a good chunk of her thigh too, so he probably hit one of her major arteries. The loss of blood alone would have caused her to pass out, and if nobody was here to help her, then, well, you get my drift. "
Olivia backed up away from everything and turned around with her hand on her mouth. She felt the bottom of her stomach moving to the top and images of her rape flashed around inside of her mind.
Elliot concentrated on the victim, "Can you give us a time frame?"
"I'd say she's been dead for 6 or 7 hours, so 1:30 or 2 am would be my best guess."
"Thanks. Liv, can you go find out if there are any security cameras in this area?"
When she didn't reply he turned to find that she was gone. "Liv?"
"Dad."
Elliot heard a familiar voice and turned behind him to see his beautiful daughter Maureen. "Maureen you need to sleep at Mom's tonight."
"Good morning to you too."
"Sorry." Elliot walked to the tape and gave her a hug. "Do you know this girl?"
"No. I've seen her around, but I don't know her. It's terrible what happened."
"When's your last class?"
"Four."
"I want you off this campus and at your mother's house until we catch this guy. Do you hear me?"
"Yeah, Dad, I got you."
"Ok I gotta go. Be careful." He kissed her on the forehead and turned to look for Olivia.
Scene
Olivia pushed through the crowd, ran to the side of a nearby building, and vomited behind a tree. She stood bent over with her eyes closed for a moment. Her heart was racing as she gasped for air. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5," she counted to herself as she regained her senses. After a moment she stood up and brushed the hair off of her cheek. There on the tree was a flyer "Concert Wednesday Night in the Emerald Courtyard. Jam with Tally Hall. Featured songs on the OC. Starting at 10pm." Olivia grabbed the flyer and went to find Elliot.
Scene
Elliot was talking to the students that found the girl, who's name he found out was Renee Janson. Olivia walked up behind him.
"Liv, where'd you go?"
She handed him the flyer. He looked at it and then back at her pale face. "You ok?"
"Yeah. The concert was in this courtyard. We should find out who was with our victim. Let's find her friends."
Elliot followed her with concern in his eyes.
Scene
The detectives came to a hallway in the Bueller Dorm building.
"Her roommate is Shelly Alister. She's in room 197." Elliot said.
"Here." Olivia got to the door and knocked. "Shelly, are you there? It's the police we need to speak to you."
Shelly clicked the door open. She was a thin girl with dark black hair and thick black glasses on. She wore a big t-shirt and pajama pants. With a look of disgust on her face she stood in the doorway without saying a word.
"Hi, I'm detective Olivia Benson, can I ask you some questions about Renee?"
She opened the door fully and gestured them to come in.
Olivia watched Shelly as she sat on her bed and stared out the window. "Shelly, were you and Renee close?"
"I'm only her roommate because I had no choice. I've been waiting for a single room to open up, but as you can see that hasn't happened."
"Did you see Renee at all last night?"
"Yeah, she was getting all gussied up to hang out with her oh-so-obnoxious friends, Tiffany and Emma."
Elliot snooped around Renee's desk. He found the Tally Hall flyer and handed it to Olivia.
"Why didn't you two get along?" Olivia continued.
"Different topics of interest. I came here to get a degree. She came here to fuck."
"Why do you say that?"
"She had a new guy in this room every Friday and Saturday night. What can I say, I think she deserved what she got."
"Did she have a guy with her last night?"
"Not when she left, but I'm sure she did eventually."
Elliot clicked the mouse on Renee's computer and a picture popped up. "Shelly do you know who the people are in this picture?" Elliot asked.
"Yeah, that's Renee, Tiffany, Emma, and a bunch of guys in that band they went to see last night. That's all they've been talking about for weeks."
"Do you know when this was taken?"
She pointed to a sign in the background that said 'Berkeley U' on it.
Elliot grabbed the laptop, "Can we take this with us?"
"I don't give a shit. If it were up to me I'd sell all of it on ebay including the picture I took when everybody found out."
Olivia angrily threw her notebook down. "You know, Shelly this isn't a joke. There's a girl down in the courtyard that's been sliced open from the inside out. And as of this moment your attitude is not making me believe that you didn't have something to do with it. Now have some respect and help us out here or I'm gonna have no choice but to take you in as a suspect. You got it Shelly? Or are you too busy measuring all of the empty space she left you!" Olivia was starting to lose control of herself. Shelly started to back up. Her face was in shock. Elliot cut in to hold Olivia back. "Liv. Olivia?!"
She stopped herself and took a few breaths.
Elliot pulled her to the side, "Liv, why don't you go wait outside?"
She nodded and left the room.
Elliot came out five minutes later and they both walked down the hallway.
Elliot gently rubbed the middle of Olivia's shoulders, "What's going on? Do you need to step out of this one? Because it's ok if you do?"
"No, I'm fine. I just had a moment. I'll go see Huang on my break."
Elliot stopped her. "Why don't you go take your break now. I'll go find Renee's friends. Munch and Fin can go talk to this Tally Hall band."
Scene
Fin and Munch walked into the Best Western where Tally Hall was staying while they played the college circuit in NYC.
Fin held the photo in his hand, "What the hell happened to rock'n roll bands? It seems like anyone with a guitar can have a band nowadays. These guys look like they could work with Craig at Best Buy."
"It's an artistic burn on all of their rich white dad's. Little do they know that someday they'll be their Dad, no matter how rebellious they think they are. In the mean time, I hope they're living it up cause the women will eventually run away or marry them. Either way they're screwed."
Fin looked at him with a twitch in his brow. "You had a band in high school didn't you?"
"I had tight pants and a bad mustache."
Fin laughed, "I hope I never get to see those pictures."
John got to the hotel door and gave it a rap.
A voice came from inside. "Who is it?"
"NYPD. We have a few questions to ask you."
A young guy with messy hair opened the door, "Ah, Zubin, I told you not to order those movies." He laughed. "I'm just kidding, officer-"
"It's detective." Munch said in his very serious bad cop tone.
"Detective. Sorry. Ah, yeah, come in."
The five guys of Tally Hall sat up as Munch and Fin walked in.
The guy who opened the door introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Rob. This is Ross, Zubin, Andrew, and Joe. What can we do for you?"
Fin flipped the picture around for them to see, "Do you know these girls?"
Rob stepped back, "Ross, you wanna answer that?"
"Yeah, I was talking to the one girl Tiffany online and she got obsessed. They found out we were doing a college tour and they've been following us since we got in town."
Fin took the picture away, "Did you see them last night?"
"I saw them from stage and then they tried to get back stage but we told our sound guy to get rid of them."
"Who's your sound guy? We're gonna need to talk to him."
"Rick. Rick Mauthe. He's on the 3 rd floor. I'm not sure what room."
"Why do you need to know all of this?" Andrew asked.
"Cause somebody got rid of one of these girls for good after your concert last night." Fin said.
Munch wrote down some notes and asked them some more questions, "After the concert where did you guys go?"
Rob sat down with a look of concern on his face. "We went to the hotel bar. We were there until 2 am."
"And if we ask the bartender is he going to remember all of your faces?"
"Yeah, yeah. When we said to get rid of them we just meant to ask them to leave. Rick isn't the kind of guy I can imagine doing anything like that. I'm sure it's a big mistake."
Fin walked to the door. "Yeah well we'll see."
Munch threw a card at them, "Call us if you think of anything."
Scene
Olivia talked to Huang and then went back to work. She felt better, but she was upset with herself for allowing all of those thoughts to affect her work. On her way to her desk she spotted Craig going through Elliot's files.
"Hey Craig, what are doing?"
Craig jumped, "Olivia, you got back fast. Where's Elliot?"
"He's taking care of some things without me." She looked down at the case file he dropped. "What's that?"
"Oh, I'm just trying to figure out some details for the report I'm typing up."
She picked up the file and read it. "This is the James Preston case. What are you doing with this case? Why is this on Elliot's desk?"
"I… I … don't know I was just trying to-"
"You were just trying to what?"
Craig stood in silence.
"Well, Craig, for your information, it hurt."
Olivia walked away with fury in her step. She opened her locker, placed it inside, and slammed the door. Craig left the room and ran into Elliot, who was on his way in. Elliot had a box of videotapes in his arm that dropped to the ground.
"Elliot, sorry."
Elliot gave him a look and Craig went running for the elevators.
"What's his problem?"
"I don't know. Maybe you should be asking yourself that question."
"What are you talking about?"
"You left your locked cabinet open." He gave her a quizzical eye.
"Never mind. I took care of it. What do you have on our girl?"
Cragen came into the room before Elliot could give Olivia the information. "Elliot, I just got a phone call from the lab. Can I talk to you privately?"
Elliot followed Cragen into his office.
Cragen paused for a moment. "Can you vouch where you were last night between the hours of 1 and 2:30 am?"
"Yeah, why?"
Cragen starred at Elliot trying to read him, "God, I hate to even ask you these questions."
"What? Just tell me."
"I'm going to need to know where you were and I'm going to need a witness."
Elliot's face grew red. He couldn't tell him where he was last night because he would be fired, so he told him where he would have been last night if he had not been with Olivia, "I was at home. Sleeping. I don't have a witness. Why are you asking me this?"
"Elliot, the lab found your sperm on the victim."
"What? Captain, I don't know what you're talking about. There has to be a mistake."
"I know. I'm having them run the tests again. Elliot, are you sure nobody saw you go into your apartment last night."
Elliot was pacing, "No. I don't know. Probably not. Captain, somebody is framing me."
"I know, but until we figure out how, I'm gonna have to lock you up."
"I want a lawyer. Right now."
"I already called you one. She's on her way."
Cragen's heart sank. " I'm gonna have to keep you in an interrogation room until we can figure out why this has happened."
"You believe them? Why don't you just lock me in the pen too while you're at it?"
"Elliot, my ass is on the line. If anybody finds out that I gave you privileges I could be fired."
Elliot stormed out of the door. He walked to the pen. "Go ahead, Cap, lock me up."
Olivia jumped up from her desk, "What's going on?"
"The Captian here thinks that I've become the next Jack the Ripper."
"I don't think that Elliot. I have no choice unless you can give me evidence of your whereabouts last night."
Olivia's heart stopped. Elliot looked at her then rubbed his eyes. Quietly he said, "I can't do that. I told you I was alone." Defeated he walked to the interrogation room and sat down at the table.
Scene
Fin and Munch came through the squad room doors and talked to Olivia, who sat in front of a television watching the security footage with red eyes and a hint of shock on her face. "Tally Hall is cleared. Everyone's stories checked out. Let's hope the lab gives us something to work with. Did you guys find anything?"
She didn't say a word to them about Elliot. " I think I found something but I'm just getting to the end of the concert now. There's our girl with Marty."
Fin pointed to a guy in a black baseball cap. "What's this guy doing? He looks like he's following her? Munch is that the same hat Rick Mauthe had on? He just bumped into her?"
"Ow, Marty's giving him hell." Munch said.
The guy in the baseball cap backed away. Marty and Renee continued talking and then Marty left her. Renee walked the other direction and then tripped on the ground. "What is she drunk?" Munch asked.
Olivia got closer to the screen. "I only saw her drink one glass. How could she be drunk? She's stumbling all over the place."
"Baseball boy is back. He's helping her up." Fin added.
Renee and the guy in the cap stumble off screen.
Olivia stood up. "Get Marty in here maybe he can identify this guy. Fin, go grab Rick. I'm going to see if Forensics has found anything else. We need to know what she was drugged with."
Scene
Melinda stood next to Renee's body with a chart in her hand. "Your victim had a very strong muscle relaxer injected into her body. The kind you might use on a horse. He got her in the side. It wasn't a clean shot. See the bruising? The blade of the knife was pretty big. I'd say it was a good 5 inches long. He stabbed her insides over a dozen times and then made a slice here on her inner thigh. Now, I almost feel as though this slice was a trademark, because it would have been a lot faster to kill the victim in another place. That and he knew exactly where to hit the vain to make her bleed faster."
Olivia bent over the girl. Her mind flashed images of her bleeding thigh. "So our perp could be a doctor or at least have knowledge of being a doctor? "
"It's possible. They definitely have knowledge of the body and anyone that can get a hold of that kind of muscle relaxer would have to have access to it."
"Tally Hall. Four of them are Med students. Do you know where they could have gotten this relaxer?"
"Yeah, I'll make you a list."
Olivia was about to walk out of the room, but she stopped herself, "Melinda, how sure are you about the DNA on the victim?"
Melinda took a breath. "I did the tests 4 times. I still can't believe it myself."
Olivia looked at the floor and thought for a moment. "Is there anyway for someone to frame you with sperm. Like if they took it from a condom or something?"
"It's possible if somebody took the sperm from the condom before it dried up. You know I didn't check it for spermicide. Let me do that right now."
Melinda messed around with some tubes and a microscope. "It's here. I've got some spermicide here. I don't know if that's helpful."
Olivia looked at the sperm sample. She was drawn to a thought of Elliot on top of her. His kiss touching her neck. The shape of his hands.
Melinda looked at Olivia, who was spaced out. "Olivia?"
"Sorry. I was just thinking. I gotta go."
"Good luck, Liv." Melinda said as she watched Olivia exit the lab.
Scene
Fin and Munch interrogated Rick Mauthe for hours. Fin was running out of ideas. He walked out of the room to talk to Casey and Cragen. "We got nothing but the baseball cap and a lie about his where abouts. He told us yesterday he was with his girlfriend. Now he's telling us he was at the hotel alone. The girlfriend is crazier then he is."
"Fin, we can't hold him for that. There are a million guys with black baseball caps and crazy girlfriends." Casey said with her hands on her hips.
"Can't we hold him for lying to us."
"I need more evidence Fin." With that she left the room.
Scene
Olivia swung open the door to the room Elliot and his lawyer, Alex, sat in. "I need to talk to you. Alex?" Olivia's heart lifted. "How did you get back? How are you here? Oh I am so glad you're here." She ran over and hugged her.
Alex smiled, "I was persuaded to come out of hiding to help an old friend get out of jail."
"I'm glad. We need help. Elliot, Melinda found spermicide in your sample."
"So." Elliot said with bags under his eyes.
"So somebody could have framed you." She looked at Alex. "Alex, can I have a word with Elliot alone."
"Sure." Alex got up and left the room.
Olivia got close to Elliot's ear, "Elliot, last night after we- I took the garbage out while you were taking a shower. Melinda said that someone could have easily framed you if they got a hold of that condom before it dried."
"Yeah, but Oliv, how am I going to prove that somebody took my used condom if I can't tell them where I was last night?"
Just then Cragen walked in the room, "Elliot, you're cleared. Melinda did some more research and they found that you would have had to rap the girl around 11:30, which doesn't fit in our timeline."
Elliot stood up, "What?"
"They put a time line on your sample with advanced technology. It doesn't match up with our victim's rap and whereabouts. I want you and Liv to keep an eye out for anybody following you. Don't do anything stupid until we catch this guy."
"Thanks Captain." Elliot said in a disheveled tone.
"Sorry about all of this El. You know I believed you. Now go find our perp."
Elliot nodded and Cragen left the room. Olivia starred at him with red eyes. "Not now." He whispered.
Scene
The day grew longer by the moment. Elliot and Olivia interrogated the members of Tally Hall and got nothing. In fact, their story seemed even more innocent now then when they told it the first time. They were free to go. Elliot decided to call it quits. "I'm fried. You want to call it a day?"
Olivia nodded and they both grabbed their coats and headed for the door. "I'm going to sleep at my place tonight."
"Ok. Do you want company?"
"Um. Not tonight."
Elliot walked quietly beside her. "It's not because of the accusations right?"
"No, Elliot, come on I was with you."
"Yeah and you were on a lot of sleeping pills. How do you know I didn't?"
Olivia looked at him and wrinkled her nose, "Elliot Stabler, you're a lot of things, but raper and slasher are not one of them."
"It's probably best that we keep some distance for awhile, anyway."
"Yeah."
Elliot drove Olivia to her apartment and dropped her off. He parked his car outside of her building and cranked the seat back. He picked up his cell phone and dialed Kathy's number.
"Kathy, is Maureen at home? Good. Make sure she stays there until this is over. I'm doing well. How are you? Great. Goodnight Kathy."
Scene
The next morning Elliot was ripped out of his sleep by a bang on the window. Olivia stood outside with a heated look on her face. Elliot opened the car door.
"So much for keeping some distance."
"Liv, I just wanted to make sure that you were ok."
"I've told you before that I can take care of myself. When are you going to start trusting me again?"
"I trust you Liv. I just don't trust anybody else."
They walked to work and fought the entire way. Elliot looked like hell. He was wearing the same clothes he had on yesterday. The elevator door opened and Craig stood on the other side. "Elliot, Olivia, top of the morning to you." Both of them pushed past him in silence. Elliot grunted a bit.
Cragen was waiting for them, "El, Liv, our college ripper struck again last night."
Olivia's mouth dropped, "At a Tally Hall concert?"
Cragen nodded.
"Fuck." She grabbed her files and turned for the door.
Munch looked at Elliot, "Somebody missed her cup of coffee this morning."
Elliot shook is head and ran after her.
Scene
When they got to the scene of the crime the girl was laid out in the same fashion with the same cuts. The only difference was that this time she had a small slice on her cheek. Olivia took one look at the body and pulled Elliot to the side. "I know I've been on edge, but does any of this seem familiar to you?"
"Familiar to what?"
"To my. To the…", she could see he wasn't thinking what she thought. "Never mind. It's not the same."
"Tell me Olivia."
"It's just that those cuts are in the same places as mine were."
Elliot could see the hurt in her eyes. He pulled her behind the ambulance and hugged her. "Liv, it's possible, but it's probably just a coincidence."
"And what if it's not?"
"Liv, nobody knew about the details of your case."
"Craig knows."
"How does he know? "
"You left your drawer open again. I caught him looking at it."
Elliot was furious. He was about to lose is temper, "God Damnit! Liv, I'm an idiot. Why the hell was he looking my drawer anyway?"
"I don't know El. It doesn't matter. What's done is done. The point is that I have a bad feeling about this case."
"Liv, if someone were out to get us why would they do it at a college? And what does Tally Hall have to do with it? It just doesn't add up."
Olivia thought about it and closed her eyes. "I don't know. I don't know."
Elliot grabbed her hand, "Come on, let's find more evidence. We've caught perps with less before."
Scene
When they got back to the Squad room Fin and Munch were putting on t-shirts with alternative bands on them and headsets. Munch threw a pair of jeans at Olivia.
"What's going on?" Olivia asked.
Munch slapped a hoodie on and answered, "We're going to Tally Hall. If our perp likes the band so much we figured we might as well take a look for ourselves."
Cragen pinned a sketch of a guy with a baseball cap onto the bulletin board. "Everyone is to be on the lookout for a guy like this. He is prone to go after women with short brown hair. We'll have full back up ready to take charge when and if necessary. Is this all clear people?"
Elliot nodded as he wired Olivia's headset to the inside of her shirt. She seemed distanced from him. He was worried about her. He talked quietly to her, "Liv, you ok?"
She looked him in the eye, "Yeah. I'm just thinking."
He grazed her breast as he taped the wire to her body, "You're right, I do need to trust you more."
"Thank you." She smiled.
He walked around her and connected the battery to her pants. Slowly he leaned in and kissed her lightly on the neck.
Olivia pulled away from him, "Stop it Elliot."
"What?"
"You're not careful enough."
" I thought…"
Fin pushed in between them, "Alright you two break it up. Captain's gonna fire your ass. Besides it's my turn. Hook me up bro."
Scene
All four detectives got to the concert in good timing. The band was playing loudly in the background as they split up in and around the crowd. Elliot was trying to stay focused, but he was confused and worried about Olivia's mood swings. He wanted this case to be over. Olivia clicked into survival mode and sought out the perp like it was the last thing she was going to do.
"All is quite on the home front." Munch said in his microphone.
Olivia and Elliot stood on either side of the crowd. They inched their way through the noise and the dancing students. College girls screamed as the lead singer started into the next song.
"Here's that part again
Where everything's more than it should be and
Greener seems to fall beneath your feet"
"Anything on your side Liv?"
"A lot of jumping."
"Seconds tick like boulders
Whenever you don't call
Does it seem like that where you are
Wherever it is you are
Does it seem like that where you are Oh"
Olivia bumped into a guy and he smiled at her "Hey, pretty lady"
She gave him a half smile and kept moving through the crowd.
"Liv, I don't see you."
"I'm fine. Just find our perp."
"Time for time together
And depending on the weather
We'll either argue in your
House or outside"
"Hey, I'm just making sure we're not looking in the same spots."
"Keep telling yourself that Elliot."
Fin popped on the headset. "You two want to dish this out on your own time or should I get you an aspirin."
Elliot answered. "Noted."
"How different i felt
before i got this notch on my belt
'cause in my plans you were all for me
Yeah but now it seems that you'd just rather leave"
"Elliot, I see a guy in a black cap at the front of the stage."
"Got him. Meet me there?"
"Yeah…I….my..way."
"Liv, you're break'n upCheck your wire."
"Wherever you go
Is breaking me slowly
Don't leave it alone
Don't leave it alone
You sound so much further on the phone"
Olivia walked past the guy and walked towards Elliot shaking her head. "Wrong guy."
They stopped back-to-back looking around at all of the people and stage hands. They were almost touching. Elliot could feel her hair tickle his neck.
"You fit just right
Right next to me"
Munch broke in, "Olivia, you have a guy close to you on the right in a cap."
"That looks like our guy." Olivia said. "Elliot, take the left. I'll take the right."
"But there's always a reason why it can't be"
They stood close enough to watch his every move. The crowd started yelling the words to the song.
"You fit just right
Right next to me
But there's always a reason why it can't be"
Elliot had his eye on their guy when a group of drunken students pushed him over.
"Elliot, are… ok?" Olivia yelled from her headset.
Olivia's headset was cutting out. A hand reached down and pulled Elliot off the ground. "Craig? What are you doing here?" Elliot yelled.
"I figured out who your guy is." Craig screamed through the noise.
"Yeah, I know who our guy is he's right there."
"No, that's not him." Craig fell into Elliot and ripped the wiring from the back of Elliot's pants.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing?"
"I'm sorry. It was an accident. Elliot you have to trust me. You're guy is over there." Craig pointed to a patch of trees next to the stage.
Scene
"Elliot where are you? Can you hear me?" Olivia frantically called for her partner. "Fin, Elliot went down and I don't see him. I need some help up here."
"We're on it."
Fin and Munch came through the crowd. Olivia saw the guy in a baseball cap start to leave. "Munch, perp is headed towards you."
"Got it."
Scene
Craig pulled Elliot out of the crowd. "I did some research on your files and a guy popped up on my screen from Michigan. He's raped and killed 6 women at Michigan State a year ago. Nobody ever caught him and after the 6th homicide he just disappeared. I took the picture that the witnesses there took and I came here to look for him. He's there."
Elliot saw a guy in a black t-shirt and a black baseball cap, go towards the trees. He pulled the gun from its' holster and ran for the guy. He rounded the corner and there was the guy standing over a bloody girl.
"Freeze. NYPD."
The guy turned around. "Whoa, I didn't do it. I don't know what's going on?"
"Step away from-" Elliot blacked out and for a second he felt himself falling.
Scene
A shot went off behind the stage and a guy in a baseball cap came stumbling from the trees. He ran towards the crowd and fell over. Olivia ran towards the man. The crowd screamed and started to run. Tally Hall screeched to a halt and got off stage. Olivia felt for the man's pulse. He was dead. Fin and Munch ran towards the trees. Elliot was getting off the ground. His hands and arms were red with blood. He held his gun in one hand and a knife in the other.
"Elliot, what happened?" Fin said holding his gun to the ground.
"I don't know." Elliot stood disoriented.
Munch walked over to the victim and saw bloody handprints all over the girl's body. "Elliot did you touch this victim?"
"No, I didn't do this. John, Fin, I didn't touch her. She was here and then I blacked out."
"You blacked out?"
"Craig told me that the guy in the cap was our perp and I came back here and I blacked out. My head is throbbing."
Olivia pushed through. She caught the last bit of his explanation. She walked up to him and felt his head. "It's swollen. Tell back up to search the premise for Garner."
She grabbed the side of Elliot's arm and guided him to sit on a nearby bench.
Fin looked at Munch. He had a bad feeling about the whole situation. "Livia, let me ask the questions. You're gonna get yourself in trouble if you don't watch yourself."
"What are you talking about? He didn't do it. He didn't fucking do it."
Munch touched Olivia's arm, "Liv, let's go back to home base. They need a second."
She walked away with Munch and looked behind her at Elliot who sat with his head in his hands.