Chapter 7

Tru instinctively reached for they keys, then stopped right before she touched them; an idea brewing in her mind. She went to the cabinet and collected the items she needed to dust for fingerprints, the black powder, a brush, and her collection tape. She also grabbed a pair of gloves and slid them on. She carefully spread out each key, trying not to smudge any fingerprints that might be on them. And then she got to work, sprinkle, dust, tape, repeat, each key, she worked quickly and thoroughly. She was to the last key now, their housekey, she handled it ever so carefully, and when she pulled the tape off, she found a perfect print.

She quickly moved over to the computer, scanning it into the system and ran it through the database. She was probably breaking about 10 or 20 HR rules. But at this point she didn't care. She was not about to let that creep have free range of her home, her life, again. She remembered the times he broke in before and it sent that chill down her spine again as she wondered if he broke in at times when she wasn't there. Did he rifle through her things? Smell her clothes? Lie down on her bed and imagine what it would be like to be with her? Of course, he did. She wasn't about to let him torment her like that again.

It wasn't long before the computer dinged, and it pulled up a match. A match to Carson. She knew it, she knew in her gut he hadn't changed. She printed out the screen, grabbed her keys, apologized to Miranda, and headed out the door just as quickly as she had come in.

Carisi sat at his desk in the squad room, looking through surveillance footage from the street cams where their dead body was found just a few short days ago. He always seemed to get stuck with the grunt work, the tedious stuff, like sitting in one spot for hours just watching the tiny squares, trying to find any clue that was useful. Or scouring someone's entire internet history. He didn't mind though. He was good at seeing things nobody else saw. Good at finding something someone else might miss.

"Here comes drama," Rollins mumbled as she passed by him, she set down a cup of coffee on his desk.

Carisi looked at her, wondering what she meant. Rollins nodded towards the door, Carisi followed her gesture and spotted Tru marching into the squad room.

"Real nice, Rollins." Carisi scoffed as he stood to his feet, meeting Tru in the middle of the room. "Hey, what are you doing here?"

"Can we talk in private?" Tru asked.

"Of course," Carisi said as he led her into the break room. He looked her over, the color was drained from her skin, she looked pale and fragile. He barely saw a hint of his beautiful, healthy, glowing girlfriend. "What's going on? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Tru pulled her keys out of her pocket and tossed them onto the table, they landed with a clank and scooted an inch or two across the wood.

"Where'd you find them?" Carisi asked.

"They were on my desk at work," Tru chewed on her bottom lip, nervously.

"Okay, great. Mystery solved then…" He looked at her, she didn't seem relieved. "What am I missing here?"

"I know I had them when I got home last night."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! I'm sure!" Tru snapped, she pulled out a folded piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to him.

"What is this?" Carisi asked as he scanned the paper. He looked up, noticing his fellow detectives were trying not to stare at them. He pulled the blinds down to the break room so they couldn't see.

"I pulled Carson's fingerprint off of our house key." Tru said, "He took them from our house and put them on my desk at work."

"You think he made a copy?" Carisi asked.

"Absolutely," Tru said without hesitation. "Can we use this to revoke his parole? It's proof he has been in our house, in my office. He's still obsessed and he's not gonna stop coming after me."

"Tru, I wish you had come to me. This is completely useless."

"What? Why?" Tru exclaimed, he saw the hurt in her eyes, and he hadn't meant to sound so harsh.

"Tru, he is already accusing us of manipulating evidence. Now you lift his print, and run it on your own? At your lab? It won't hold up, Buchanan is just gonna argue that we manipulated this too."

Tru sighed and

ran her fingers through her hair; he was right. Why hadn't she thought of that?

"He is just trying to get inside your head." Carisi said.

"Well, I guess it's working." Tru crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"We'll change the locks; we'll get security cameras if you want." Carisi offered.

"Yes, to the locks, no cameras." Tru said. "If there's a way to hack into those, he will find it."

Carisi gave her a sympathetic look, and Tru didn't like it at all.

"I'm not crazy, Sonny." Tru said, "He's not done with me."

"I didn't say you were…Tru, I'll protect you; I promise—"

"It's not about me," Tru interrupted.

Carisi's brow creased, as he looked down at her, "Then who is it about?"

Tru sighed again, "Never mind."

"Tru, since when do we keep things from each other?" Carisi asked, "I'm not trying to be the guy that gives his girlfriend the third degree, but first you wouldn't tell me what happened last night, you had a super-secret errand to run this morning, and now this. What's going on with you?"

He took her by the hand and drew her into him, locking eyes with her, "Whatever it is, you can tell me."

He saw her guards being lowered as she gazed back into his eyes. He could sense there was something she wanted to tell him. But instead, she pulled away, and grabbed her keys off the table.

"I really need to get back to work." She opened the door and with that she was gone.

"Tru," he called after her, but she didn't turn around, or even look back. He felt fury rising from within and before he knew it, he was shoving his fist into the drink machine; the sound echoed through out the room.

"Whoa, you okay?" Rollins asked, suddenly appearing in the doorway. "What's going on?"

His breath was still uneven as he tried to bury the whirlwind of emotions he was feeling; concern, anger, frustration.

"Yeah, everything's fine." He said, "Can you cover for me? I have to go."

"Of course, but where are you going?" Rollins asked as he pushed by her.

"I have an errand of my own," Carisi said. He snatched his jacket off the back of his chair as he walked by his desk.

Carisi lifted the beer bottle to his lips and let the cool liquid run into his mouth. He normally didn't drink at lunch, but he needed to relax.

"Anyway, I know we can't use it to revoke his parole but maybe we can use it in the lawsuit." Carisi continued.

"I wish she would have thought to follow a chain of custody," Isiah said.

"She's got a lot on her mind right now." Carisi said.

Isiah looked his friend over, "How's she doing with all this?"

Carisi shook his head, "She's stressed out, and I can't blame her. She's all over the place with her emotions, I can't seem to do anything right lately."

"I'm sure that's not the case," Isiah reassured his friend. "You just need to try to keep her life as normal as possible. He's already changed her life once, don't let him do it again."

Carisi thought about that for a second and took another drink of his beer. "Keep it normal? Maybe you're right."

Isiah gave Carisi a once over, "And how are you doing with all this?" Isiah asked.

"Me? I'm fine." Carisi said. Isiah cocked an eyebrow in skepticism.

"I know it's hard when Carson is going out of his way to push the boundaries of his parole, but I need you to keep your temper in check. As much as you want to, you can't go after him." Isiah said.

"I know, I know."

"You let me know right away if he breaks this protection order again, I'll file a motion to revoke his parole."

Carisi shook his head, "He's too smart for that, he's not gonna let that happen."

"He might be smart," Isiah leaned in, "But you're smarter."

"I know I shouldn't let him get away with things like this, but I'm too scared to stand up for myself." Amelia Brandon was saying. Amelia had short blond hair, and even her olive skin tone couldn't hide the black eye and the finger shaped bruises on her wrist.

Tru tried to focus on what her patient was saying, but her mind still wandered. It wandered to the untaken pregnancy test in her bag, it wandered to the man she loved who would love nothing more than to start a family with her. It wandered to the man who made her life a living hell and would stop at nothing to make sure that didn't happen.

"And it's not just me I have to worry about, I have to think about my kids. What if I try to leave and he hurts them?" Amelia ran a hand through her short blonde hair and Tru spotted more bruises on her neck. They looked similar to the ones Tru had after Carson had choked her until she passed out that first night he raped her. She tried not bring everything back around to that, but now that he was out, that's all she managed to do.

"Right," Tru mumbled, more to herself than to her patient. "It wouldn't be the first time a man came after kids to get to the mom…"

What if Carson came after their baby? Or what if he caused so much stress, she lost the baby before it was even born? She couldn't go through that again; she just didn't have it in her. Tru snapped out of her thoughts, realizing she hadn't meant to sound so blunt and unprofessional.

Amelia was staring blankly at her, eyes wide like she hadn't expected her to agree.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean that the way it sounded." Tru shook her head, "You can't think like that. What's important is that you get you and your kids out of that situation. We have resources to help you. I can put you in touch with the right people and we can help you."

Amelia looked down at her hands that were folded tightly in her lap. "I'm not ready," she whispered.

Tru took a minute to think about how to respond to that. "I understand not being ready," Tru said softly, "But life happens whether you're ready or not."

Tru's timer dinged, letting her know it was time to wrap up this session and move on to her next one. She closed the notebook on her lap and stood up, "Just promise me you'll think about it. Okay?"

"I promise," Amelia said as Tru walked her to the office door, she opened it for her and with that she Amelia was gone.

Tru leaned against the doorframe, her mind wandering again. She felt guilty for being so temperamental with Sonny, she really hadn't meant to treat him badly. She needed to just talk to him. Tell him what was going through her mind and how worried she was. She would do it tonight, she decided.

"Hey, Tru," Abby said as she came around the corner.

"Abby, hi how are you?" Tru snapped out of her thoughts and turned to look at her next patient. Abby, who was usually dressed in baggy sweats with her hair thrown up, wore a pair of form fitting skinny jeans and a long-sleeved v neck Henley shirt. Her hair was curled to frame her face and she had a pair of black high heeled booties to pull the look together. It wasn't provocative in any way, but it was a sign she was getting back to normal.

"You look nice today," Tru said as she shut the door behind Abby as she came in.

"I thought I'd clean myself up a little." She said, as she took a seat.

"That's great, so have you been feeling better?" Tru asked.

Abby nodded, a smile crossing her face in excitement, "I met somebody."

Tru's eyes widened as she looked at Abby, taken back by that. Met somebody? Was that a good idea? Abby still had a lot of healing to do, after all last week she was talking about how badly she was doing. And just as quickly she seemed to have turned over a new leaf. But who was Tru to pass that kind of judgement? After all, she met Sonny at her lowest point, and he was a huge part in her own recovery. She forced a smile, pushing her own opinions down. She took a seat and prepared to listen.

"What's he like?"

Tru exited the counseling center, the crisp fall air smacking her in the face. She looked down the street both ways, looking for a taxi, but for once there wasn't one in sight. She sighed in aggravation; she didn't want to walk today. The sun had already set, and darkness had spread across the streets, along with a chill in the air. She pulled her cell phone out of her back pocket. She needed to call Sonny and let him know she was going to walk home.

"You ever think of taking an Uber?" A voice called out from behind her. She knew that voice, it sent chills down her spine and had the impact to send her into immediate flashbacks. She slowly turned around and there he was. Carson stood before her on the shadow cast sidewalk. He was wearing a black bomber jacket with his hands shoved in his pockets. Fear washed over her.

"Carson, you can't be here." Tru said through gritted teeth. She shoved her hand into the purse hanging over her shoulder and started digging around for her pepper spray. "I have a restraining order."

"It's a public street," he said simply. "Let me give you a ride, you shouldn't be walking by yourself at night in the city, something bad could happen."

Tru glared at him, something bad like you? She thought. She found her pepper spray and pulled it out, aiming it at him. "Back up, I mean it."

Just then the glow of head lights fell across them, Tru turned towards the lights. A black SUV came to a stop right next to them. She raised her hand to block the light from her eyes, so she could see. Sonny came in to focus, she was safe. Relief flooded over her.

"Here comes prince charming now." Carson quipped.

"What the hell are you doing here Goldberg?" Carisi demanded as he stepped out of his car and onto the sidewalk. His eyes her wide, nostrils flared, hands were curled into fists at his side, he was pissed and ready to strike.

"I happened to be in the neighborhood."

"Bullshit," Carisi spat, "There was one rule, just one, all you had to do was stay the hell away from her, and you couldn't do it! Here you are, where she works, taunting her, throwing what you did to her in her face! I should end you right here, right now."

Carson scoffed, and suddenly Carisi grabbed him by his jacket and shoved him up against the car. Tru jumped back, startled. She had never seen Sonny be violent before, ever.

"Give me one reason I shouldn't?" Carisi snapped, "You're never gonna stop, this is the only way to get you to stop."

"Sonny, stop," Tru grabbed Sonny by the arm and pulled him off her stalker.

Carson bit his lip in anger, and Tru could tell that Sonny had got to him. He held his hands up, in peace, as he took a few steps away from them, it looked like he might leave.

"Are you okay?" Sonny asked, turning to Tru.

Tru nodded. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to give you a ride home," Carisi put his arm around her and began to lead her to the car.

"Oh yeah," Carson interrupted them as he turned around to face them again. "Congratulations on closing the deal, daddy."

Carisi's eyes narrowed on Carson, and his jaw clenched, he had no clue what he was talking about. Tru felt her hear plummet to her stomach as Carson pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it to Carisi. Carisi instinctively brought his hands up to catch and as he did it made a rattling sound. Tru squinted in the dark, trying to see what he had thrown to Sonny, and then it came into focus; it was a baby rattle.

Carson smirked before vanishing into the night. Tru felt her hands begin to shake, she felt the blood rush from her face, and her breath caught in her throat as she tried to speak but couldn't.

Sonny turned the rattle over in his hands, his eyes narrowed, and his brow creased in confusion. Then realization washed over him as he put the pieces together. Carisi fixed his gaze on Tru.