Serial Killer Buddies: Yates

This chapter takes place during Season 17 Episode 14.


"Okay. But Carisi, you go with," Lieutenant Benson finally gives in at the end of the briefing about Yates. Detective Lindsay's right - these girls' families need closure and she had failed to extract any useful information from him. Benson had brought in the Chicago detective to handle Yates instead of honoring his initial request to see Amanda. But it had backfired. Amanda knew it would have been best if she'd been sent in the first place and should now be muttering a victory 'yes' under her breath but she finds that she can't.

Go with Carisi? No way.

Carisi had been against this from the start. He'd been hounding her ever since Yates claimed that they had some bones in evidence that were actually Chicago vics and had asked to talk to her.

"Rollins, I know you think you're an expert on this guy -"

"I AM. And he specifically wants to talk to me."

"Doesn't matter. It's too dangerous."

"Why?"

"Because you're too close to him."

"Carisi, that's exactly WHY I'm the best person to speak to him."

Carisi can't come. They had gone round and round on this. Amanda tries to reason with her lieutenant.

"There's no point in sending him," she says a little nervously. They are in close proximity to Carisi's desk and she doesn't want him to hear. "Yates isn't even going to make eye contact with him and there are CO's everywhere."

"Rollins, we know Yates. He's probably been playing them since the moment he got there," Benson tells her.

Carisi overhears their exchange. How could he not? They're right in front of his desk. He thinks how Yates has been playing Amanda all along and frowns deeply. It's a good thing he's going with her.


As the warden walks Rollins and Carisi into Green Haven correctional facility she waxes poetic about how Yates is a model inmate. Neither of them are buying it.

"You see that? Yates charmed the warden. It's classic sociopath," Carisi says when they're out of earshot, putting his thumb and forefinger together as he reiterates. "It's classic."

"I know, Carisi. I know."

Does she? His stomach churns with worry for her. He's dealt with these kind of scum before - plenty of them - during his stint in Homicide. But Amanda? This is virgin territory for her. Yates is the only serial killer she's spent any real time with. And he finds her fascination with him to be unsettling.

When they enter Yates' cell, Amanda puts on a softer demeanor with her body language and her voice, which takes on lighter notes of the South. Yates starts in by making comments and asking questions that are way too personal.

When he says to Amanda "You are glowing. Are you breast feeding?" Carisi charges forward with a hand up. "Okay, that's enough."

"It's okay, Carisi," Amanda calls him off, the Southern belle still in her voice. Then she winks at Yates. A little flirt.

Carisi eventually stands back in a corner of the cell and just takes notes of their interactions - of every little clue this sociopath who is charming Amanda is dropping. He observes that even while Amanda thinks she's playing him with her little flirtation game, she's getting dragged in deeper and deeper herself. Yates wants to be transferred to the honor block? Of course he does. And he expects Amanda to help him, to fight for him.

Turns out they both end up fighting for him. A call in to Benson, a meeting with the warden. And then they find out about the little "Rudnick problem."

Rudnick is already on honor block and once Rollins and Carisi discuss his history with Yates the warden informs them that she suspects Yates' request for transfer to the honor block might be a ploy to get revenge on Rudnick for killing his fiancé.

Amanda tells her, "It could be, but if Yates was intent on that, it would have happened already."

"I'd like to talk to Rudnick. He's an odd one - I'm not sure how he'll react," the warden says.

"No disrespect, warden - I don't want to step on anybody's toes here - but he and I have a good rapport. Maybe I can sound him out?" Carisi offers.


As they head out of Green Haven, Amanda is on the phone with Benson. She informs her boss that she and Carisi have succeeded in getting Yates transferred to the honor block, but don't have enough time to go back and see him again that day to extract more information.

"Tomorrow morning, we can drive up here first thing -"

"No, absolutely not Rollins," Benson says. "Yates got to talk to you. From now on he has to talk to me. Am I making myself clear?"

"Copy that, Lieutenant."

"She doesn't want you coming back here up here again, right?" Carisi says and nods a bit smugly. "I don't blame her."

"Why? Why does everybody keep saying that? I mean, you saw us together. It was fine."

"Yeah, he's got your number."

Amanda scoffs. "Like Rudnick doesn't have yours?"

"Not really. I mean, I just like talking to the guy, you know. He's got his own world view."

"I rest my case."

They exchange wry smiles.


During the drive back Carisi says to her, "You know, I was hoping that motherhood would mellow you out. Make you want to take less risks, for Jesse's sake, you know."

"Less risks? What are you jabbering on about, Carisi?"

"Yates."

"I'm just doing my job, Carisi. It's fine."

"He's dangerous."

"So's Rudnick," she countered.

"Yeah, but -"

"You're in just as deep with him as I am with Yates. Let's not talk about it anymore."

She turns up the radio.

He frowns and keeps driving.


The next day Carisi can't help but notice that Amanda has been sighing and restless, trying to do paperwork while the others are up at Green Haven talking to Yates. He comes in to the breakroom and sees her kicking the vending machine, trying to get a drink out of it. "Whoa, hey. You okay?"

She leans a hand against the plastic front of the vending machine and puts the other one on her hip in resignation, not looking at him. She seems quite out of sorts, so Carisi tries to put a hand on her shoulder tentatively, briefly. But it just comes off as awkward.

"Listen, my sister took some melatonin when she got a little postpartum."

"I'm not depressed, Carisi. I'm pissed off."

"Why? Because Liv won't let you go back up to Green Haven?"

"Exactly. Because Yates is going to take one look at Benson, Dodds, and Barba up there and think that they're all ganging up on him. Or worse, that I pulled a bait and switch on him."

Unexpectedly, jealousy courses through him. Putting an arm up on the vending machine, he leans into her space. "Worse? Why? You worried about your relationship with Yates now?"

"Yeah, that's exactly what I meant," she says in a nasty tone.

Carisi looks away, suddenly hurt. Amanda kicks the bottom of the vending machine one more time, succeeds in finally getting a drink, and makes a little victory noise.

Carisi is still looking away.

"What?" she asks him.

"I'm just glad to see how motherhood's really mellowed you out," he says himself in a nasty tone, driving home the point he's been trying to make for the last few days.

She opens the can. Taps the top of it and gets a funny smile on her face.

"That's another thing. I hate being coddled." She starts to walk out then turns around. "What? I have a baby and all of a sudden I can't talk to serial killers anymore."

He shakes his head, frustrated. How did this conversation get derailed so quickly? It almost felt like a lovers' quarrel.

Is this what it would be like to be with her?


Happy Valentine's Day! Part 1 of 2. Look for Part 2 tomorrow as part of International Fanworks Day. :-)