The next time Sonny woke up, he wasn't entirely sure where he was. There was no scent of dirt or potatoes, so that was nice. He could see light through his eyelids. There was a beeping noise nearby. And he had one of those breathing things in his nose.

He lifted a hand to rub his face and felt the tug of an IV.

Okay. Hospital. No longer kidnapped. What had happened to the perp? Where was Olivia? Not Benson. Gable. His Olivia. Benson could take care of herself. Though Gable could too, just there was an insane stalker…

His mind was wandering.

His eyes popped open and he scanned the room only to zero in on a bright, coppery head resting next to his hip. She'd fallen asleep in the uncomfortable chair with her head propped on the bed. She was going to wake up with one hell of a crick in her neck.

He moved his hand toward her slowly, and when she didn't stir he let his palm rest gently on the curve of her skull. Her hair was warm and silky and familiar, and he closed his eyes against the tears that threatened.

She wiggled and made a sleepy little noise. He pulled his hand back as she sat up with a hiss.

"Oww, my back," she mumbled. She stretched her arms over her head and arched her spine. He took a moment to appreciate the view, and when he met her eyes again she was giving him a wry, knowing look. "Welcome back, sleepy head."

"Hey, beautiful." His face moved in a sweet, dopey grin. "I'm so glad to see you."

"Not as glad as I am to see you. Look at those baby blues! How're you feeling?"

He frowned as he considered it. "Sore. Head hurts. Throat is killin' me. Kinda swimmy. Hurts, don't care that much."

"That's the drugs." She rose from the chair and poured him some water from the nearby pitcher and offered it to him. He accepted with a grateful smile.

"I always loved these bendy straws when I was a kid. Only good part about bein' in the hospital."

"Mhmm." She perched on the edge of the bed and studied his face with a furrowed brow. "Your poor face," she said.

"That bad?"

Her head tilted. "You're still adorable, but there are a lot of interesting new shades of purple."

He scowled down at the cup on his hand and fiddled with the straw. He wasn't sure how much he should tell her, but ultimately he decided it would be better coming from him. "He said his sister was one of Peterson's victims. She killed herself. He—he blamed you for it."

"Me?"

A shoulder lift and fell in an annoyed shrug. "He was insane, doll. Fixated on blamin' somebody for this awful thing. I guess in his twisted mind, he thinks you—liked—what happened. I mean, that you and Peterson were havin' an affair, not that you set him up to get caught."

"Oh." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Yeah, that was a common sentiment. Got a lot of hate mail in that vein." Her eyes caught his. "You know that's not true, right? It was that one time, and the only reason I did it—"

"Hey." He lifted a hand to stop her. "You don't gotta explain. I know. And even if the perp were right about it, it still wouldn't be your fault. You were a kid; he was an adult. No such thing as an affair in a situation like that. Just a slime ball takin' advantage of a kid he's supposed to be takin' care of."

She gave a little shudder and her chin dropped to her chest. "I wish—everything were different." It was too much to put into words: she wished she'd gone to the cops as a kid, she wished her mom hadn't been the way she was, she wished someone had stopped Peterson sooner, that Sonny hadn't been kidnapped, that her stalker's sister hadn't died. All of it.

He caught her hand in his and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. "I know, sweetheart."

She flipped her hand over to twine her fingers through his. "I'm so happy to see you, Sonny. I'm so glad you're okay."

"Course I am. Couldn't leave my best girl all alone with Barba, now could I?"

She sniffled and tears dripped from her lashes even as she grinned. "Whatever gets you home to me."

His head fell back as he remembered the pictures the perp had shown him. "Shit. Oll, listen, there's somethin'—ahh fuck you aren't gonna like this."

How much worse could it get? "Okay? Lay it on me."

He gave a brief cough and sipped his water. "Okay, so, the guy. The stalker guy. I guess sometime when he broke in to your place, he planted a camera. Maybe more than one, I dunno, but at least one."

She went stiff and still. "A camera? Where?"

"Well…the one I saw was like…directly above your bed."

"What?!" she cried. She almost fell off the bed, but managed to steady herself as she paced away. "Oh my god! So he's been watching—us?! This whole time?"

"Yeah," he said on a long breath. "You and me, and you and Barba."

"Oh my God." She buried her face in her hands. "Oh my God. And he showed you?"

"Yeah. Couple shots of you and Barba, uh, the night he tied you up."

"Oh Jesus, Sonny!"

"I know! I'm sorry, babe! TARU's goin' through his computer now, but there are also pics Peterson took of his sister, so even if you weren't on there, they're gonna be discreet with it."

She crossed her arms again and glared, but not really at him. "You think a bunch of cops are gonna pass at the chance to tease an ADA about being photographed in flagrante delicto?! Or, even better, another cop? Because if he's on there, then I guarantee you are too."

"Well." He shifted in the bed. Gave a grunt at the pain. "Well, yeah, that's true, but it's not like it's just me or Barba. It's you, too. You're a victim. They aren't complete fuckin' assholes."

"Ohhh my God," she said again. She pressed her palms to her cheeks and spun in a slow circle. "Those pictures will have to be shown in court! His lawyer is going to make me look like a complete and total slut. Not to mention how you and Barba's credibility will be undermined. God this is a disaster!"

"Baby—Olivia—sweetheart, come on. C'mere." He held out a hand and after several long moments she took it and reluctantly allowed him to pull her closer. "Barba and I'll be fine, babe. I promise. O'Dwyer can probably get shots like that barred from court. They don't have any real bearing on the case. They'd just need to see pictures of your empty bedroom, or you sleepin' or somethin' to know he was watchin' you. A jury doesn't need to see the racier stuff. A judge'll recognize it's more prejudicial than probative."

She sniffled again and the corner of her mouth moved in a brief smile. "Lawyer Sonny."

"It's one-a Barba's favorite phrases," he said with a sheepish grin.

There was a light knock on the door, and Benson poked her head in. "Sorry, I don't mean to interrupt."

"No, it's okay," Olivia said. She gave Sonny's hand a squeeze before she dropped it. "I'm sure you two have a lot to talk about."

Benson stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. "Actually, Olivia, I needed to speak to you too. Did Sonny have a chance to tell you about the photographs?"

She gave a tight nod. "He said there was a camera in my bedroom."

"A couple of other places in your apartment too. I'd like to send a CSU team to collect them, if that's okay with you."

"God, please, yes." She rubbed her arms in an attempt to work the chill out of her blood. "What a goddamn creeper."

"You can say that again," Sonny said. "You got a lead on him, Loo?"

"Another reason I'm here," she said. She flipped open a file and handed Olivia a photograph. "His name is Joshua Anderson. His sister was Kaley Anderson. She died a few months ago after struggling for years with a drug and alcohol problem." She handed her another picture, this one a mugshot. "That's her not long before she died."

"Him I don't know," Olivia said. "She…looks vaguely familiar, but she's so…well. Ravaged, I guess." She rubbed her forehead. "Is this because of Peterson? Because of what he did to her?"

"It was probably a contributing factor," Benson said, gently. She passed over a third picture. "This was her during her last pageant, Little—"

"Little Miss Chesapeake. Yeah. I do remember her now. She won that pageant, but she didn't come back for the next one. That was the last time I ever saw her."

"She was fourteen. Based on the photos we found on her brother's computer, she was victimized more than once." She drew in a breath and let it out in a weary huff. "Starting at age eight."

"God. No wonder. Poor thing," Olivia said. She tapped the pictures into a stack and gave them back. "I kind of feel sorry for him. To lose his sister like that, after she'd been through so much…it's enough to make anyone snap."

"He didn't have to take it out on you," Sonny said. "You don't deserve that. None of this is your fault."

"Well. Regardless, Auggie sure as hell didn't deserve it."

"You don't either, Olivia," Benson said. "Carisi's right."

"I know he is," she said, doubtfully. "It's just hard to remember it sometimes."

"Oll, look at me."

She did, reluctantly, and he offered as much of a smile as he could manage through all the bruises and the split lip. "Go on home, okay? Get those cameras ripped out and try to get some rest."

"I don't want to leave you alone."

"I won't be alone. I gotta call my ma, and she'll bring the whole family. You probably don't wanna get in the middle of that."

"It's a lot of Carisis," Benson said.

"Okay, good point. Call me if you need anything, though. Even if it's just to hear a voice without a Staten Island accent."

He shot her a mock glare. "Real funny, Gable."

"Just tryin' to help you all I can, Detective." She turned to Benson. "Thank you for everything, Lieutenant Benson. I know you'll find him soon."

"That's the plan. Until we do, though, units will be placed outside your building. No arguing this time, either. And I'm going to have a patrol car drive you home."

"Doesn't the NYPD have better things to do with its resources than babysit me?" she said with a scowl.

"Not a damn thing." She opened the door and poked her head into the hall. "Officer Blake, are you available to drive Ms. Gable to her apartment?"

"Yes, ma'am. My replacement just got here," she said.

"Good." Benson turned to Olivia with a raised brow. "Consider it a free lift."

"Fine," she said with a rigid grin. She took a breath and tried to relax. They were just trying to keep her safe. Her apartment had been broken into. She'd been attacked. Her assistant was dead and Sonny had been kidnapped. This guy had a serious vendetta and, at this point, nothing left to lose. Benson was right, and Olivia was being an ungrateful brat.

"Thank you," she said. "Sorry for being so difficult."

Benson shrugged. "I've been doing this job a long time, Olivia. I've seen difficult. You're not quite there yet."

"That's a relief," she said with a quirk of her mouth. She offered Sonny a smile and a little wave, then left to join Officer Blake out in the hall.

He waited until the door closed behind her before fixing his eyes on Benson. "So, Loo, what didn't you tell her? I know there was somethin'."

She sighed and passed Sonny the open file. "Joshua Anderson? Is a cop."

He blinked down at the page in front of him and then up at her. "That's how he knew the details of the Herky Jerky case."

"Yep. And we won't know for sure until CSU retrieves them, but we think the cameras he planted in Olivia's apartment are NYPD issue. Some equipment was stolen from his precinct shortly after he was put on leave last month."

"Placed on administrative leave after he got rough with a suspect."

"A woman picked up on solicitation charges," Benson said. "The leave is mostly for show. His body cam was turned off, so it's he-said, she-said, and the she in this instance is a prostitute, so…" She trailed off with an annoyed shrug.

"His union rep's tearin' her apart, I'm sure."

"Probably."

"His jacket's pretty clean except for that. Kind of a surprise, with that much anger."

"Mhmm," Benson said. "I guess he just needed the right target."

"The incident with the suspect was two weeks after his sister died. That must be what set him off." He lowered the file and frowned at her. "You shoulda told Olivia he's a cop."

"I should have, but unfortunately…" Another sigh and she dropped down into the chair Olivia had abandoned earlier. "The other part I didn't tell her: IAB has taken over the case."

"Those rat-faced motherfuckers," Sonny said with a glare.

She lifted her hands in a helpless gesture. "The doer's a cop. Technically that means it's their territory."

"How? That don't even make sense! He wasn't on duty. He didn't do any of it as a cop! That just happens to be his job. It'd be like turnin' a case over to—I don't know—mall security just because a rapist worked at Sears!"

She snorted. "Not quite the same thing, Carisi. Look, I get where you're coming from, and I'm not happy about it either, but I wasn't given an option. And while it's true he's not active-duty at the moment, that's more or less a technicality. And there's still the theft and use of NYPD property to consider."

He started to rub his face, but he hit a bruise and winced. Let his hands drop back to the bed. "This is all kinds-a fucked up, Liv."

"Trust me, I know. I asked the brass for more bodies on this, and they went and handed it off to IAB. They said SVU is stretched too thin for such a massive manhunt, and with a cop as the main suspect, it makes sense for them to handle it."

"Fuckin' A," he muttered. "So what do we do now?"

"You do nothing. Your job right now is to heal up and try not to worry. I already called your mother; she's on her way and should be here any minute. Probably some sisters, too. In the meantime I've got Rollins and Fin looking into all his known associates, including CIs and contacts within the department. Hopefully they'll get further than IAB, and we'll be the ones to take him down."

Sonny's gaze had turned inward as she spoke. "It's weird, though. The way he talked to me—it was like he hated cops. He didn't trust 'em. I kept tellin' him it was my job to get scum like Peterson off the street and to protect girls like his sister, but every time I said that he just got more pissed off."

"But he also didn't kill you, and he easily could have," she said.

"Yeah, I guess. He told me he wasn't gonna kill me, but then he did this." He gestured toward his aching throat. "I guess I got under his skin."

She tried to smother a smile. "Fin would remind you that you can be annoying as shit when you want to be…but luckily I'm not Fin."

"Uh huh." He shot her a sour look. "Lucky me."

She laughed and patted him on the arm. "I'm going to see if your parents are here yet. Try to get some rest, Carisi. We're going to find him, and Olivia's going to be fine."

"Yeah, Loo," he said. "Gettin' tired anyway. I hope my ma brought cannoli."

"I hope she did too." He was already drifting off, and she hit the light switch on her way out.

Back at Olivia's apartment the CSU team was finishing up just as she dragged herself in the door. Thankfully the elevator was fixed, but she was exhausted after the stress of the last few days and just wanted to sleep. Preferably for a week, but August's funeral was tomorrow (today, in not that many hours), so she just had to make do.

"Ms. Gable, hi," one of the cops milling around her living room said. "My team has swept every inch of this apartment. We found a few cameras, and they've all been removed. There were no listening devices, and this type of camera only captures video, not sound."

"That's a bit of a relief, I guess," she said.

"Somedays it's the small things, right?" he said with a brief grin. "Anyway, I think we're done here, so we'll wrap up and get outta your hair."

"Okay, thank you."

"Oh, and your cat is with your neighbor. The one with the really big dog."

Her mouth quirked in a brief smile and she left the cops to their work. When Alan opened the door, his eyes were about to pop out of his head.

"Oh my god, Olivia, what the hell is going on now?! Come on, come in, you must be about dead on your feet!"

She sighed and slumped down onto his couch. Baloo immediately abandoned Tink's bed (much to her relief) and jumped into Olivia's lap. She petted him, and when she stopped he head butted her hand for more.

"Honestly I think I'd be less tired if I were dead," she said as she scratched under his chin.

"I guess that's not very funny, all things considered." He handed her a glass of wine and dropped down next to her. "How's Sonny?"

"He's okay. Knocked around a bit. Concussion, bruised throat, but he'll be fine once he has a chance to rest and heal up."

"That's good." He sipped from his glass and eyed her. "Where did the other one go? The sexy one with the great suits?"

"Alan!"

"What?! I've got eyes! So. Both of them, huh? At the same time?"

She pressed a hand to her face, and after a moment a tired laugh rippled out. "No, not so far."

"Hmm. Well, get on that. Some of us need our vicarious thrills."

Before she could say anything else, her phone rang. She answered, listened a moment, and gave a relieved nod. "That's great, officer, thanks. And thanks for cleaning everything up." She said goodnight and hung up, then fixed Alan with a brittle smile.

"That's the CSU team that's been combing my apartment for the last two hours. They've gotten all the cameras the sick perv left, and now they're done and I can have my place back."

He gave her knee a comforting pat. "I'm so sorry you're going through all this, sweetheart. Do they think they'll catch him soon?"

She nodded. "They have his name and picture out all over the city. Lieutenant Benson seemed confident it's only a matter of time. It's personal now, since he kidnapped and beat up a cop."

He snorted and rolled his eyes. "Because before it was just an innocent woman being stalked and terrorized, and an innocent gay kid murdered by his 'boyfriend.'"

"I know. But to be fair, I think Lieutenant Benson does actually care about me, personally, and about Auggie. And Sonny, too, even before we started…" She trailed off with a gesture.

"Banging like a pair of hard-up bunny rabbits?"

"Something like that." She finished off her wine and set the glass aside before she scooped Baloo into her arms and shoved the angry, protesting cat into his carrier. "I know, honey. Life is so hard for incredibly spoiled kitty men forced to continually ride in the evil kitty carrier. All this nonsense will be over soon, I promise."

"Are you sure you don't want to stay here?" Alan said as he followed her to the door.

"No, hon. Thanks for the offer, again, but I've got all my extra locks and there's a cop outside my door. Plus, hey, no cameras now!"

He gave a wan smile. "Okay, but you know if you need anything, Tink and I are right here. Any time."

"I know," she said. They hugged, she thanked him for everything, and she and a still-furious Baloo headed back to her apartment.

I told you it wouldn't be 3 years for the next one! I bet y'all didn't believe me.