When Elliot got to Captain Cragen's office, the man was sitting at his desk with his head in his hands. Elliot paused, not wanting to interrupt his solitude, but he'd been given an order to report, so he honored it.

He knocked. "Captain?"

Cragen looked up, his face slightly paler than normal. "Elliot. How is she?"

"Lucky," Elliot responded smoothly, taking the seat across from his Captain. "The bullet didn't sever any muscle tissue, and she didn't lose enough blood to have to stay overnight."

Cragen took a deep breath. "Okay, I want to know exactly what happened. I'll start with how did she happen to get shot?"

A small smile, full of pride, played on Elliot's mouth. "Good thing you asked me that, Captain, because Olivia wouldn't tell it to you straight. The rapist who called her apparently was waiting on the roof of a nearby building for Olivia to show up. He fired on her as she was checking the victim. Instead of firing back, Olivia threw herself over the victim to protect her. She got a bullet to the arm—the victim wasn't harmed any further."

Cragen whistled. "Wow. You're right. Olivia would have said, 'Well, Captain, I guess I didn't move fast enough.'"

Elliot nodded, and continued his story. "I know you are going to want to talk to Olivia in person, but I'll tell you what I know so far. She gets a call on her cell phone. It's a rapist, telling her where to find the victim. He knew her by name. Olivia calls me a minute later, and says she has this gut feeling that it's not a joke. She says she's going to the scene, I say wait, she says to beat her there or call back up."

Cragen nodded. "Sounds like her. When does she get out of the hospital?"

"They're letting her go this afternoon." Despite the situation, Elliot gave a disbelieving grin. "And she says she'll be coming in to work a shift."

"Geez. Well, I'd bet there's no talking her out of it, so I'll just get her statement and a transcript of the phone call while she's here. She can talk to Huang, and see if we can get some kind of MO on this guy. How's the victim?"

"The victim is Jordan McKinley. She's a CSI for a neighboring precinct. Still unconscious. Olivia spent more time in her room than her own at the hospital, but they say the watched pot will never boil."

Cragen nodded. "Get Munch and Fin to talk to some of the cops that know her. See if anyone had it in for her."

Elliot stood, but he didn't leave. "Captain, this just smells bad. I'm willing to bet he'll call Olivia again. I'm willing to be he'll strike again. And if he hits another cop, we should put a detail on Olivia."

Cragen winced. "I hope your theory is wrong, Elliot. But if not, we're going to catch him before he can get Olivia."

Elliot nodded. "Is it okay if I head back to the hospital? I'll drive Olivia down here when they let her out."

Cragen gave him an understanding look. "Yeah. Give Munch and Fin that assignment on your way out."

"No need, sir. They've already left to do just that. This case already has the unit on edge."

"All except Olivia, I'll bet." Cragen muttered.

Olivia walked purposefully out of the hospital after checking out. Her arm was stitched, bandaged, and in a sling, but her weapon and badge were still visible, and no one dared mess with her, injured or not, because of the look of steel in her eyes.

No change in Jordan's condition. The hospital believed that the head injury was the only thing to worry about. She didn't get an STD or HIV from the rapist, and she wasn't pregnant. She'd lost a substantial amount of blood, but luckily, Olivia's jacket had managed to stop the flow in time to save her from hemorrhaging. But she was still unconscious.

It wasn't until Olivia reached the parking garage that she realized her car was still at the crime scene. She'd been taken here in the ambulance.

She groaned, frustrated, and reached for her phone, but just then a familiar car screeched to a halt in front of her. Grinning, she replaced her phone.

"Great timing, Elliot!" she enthused, as she climbed in, careful of her arm.

He stared at her. "You would have walked, wouldn't you? Gunshot wound and all."

She laughed. "If you didn't answer your phone, yes, I would have walked. Now let me go get my car!"

Elliot grinned, and drove off. "Yes, ma'am, Detective Benson."

There was a moment of silence. Olivia braced herself. She could feel the barrage of questions from her overprotective partner coming on.

"Liv, what were you thinking?"

It wasn't an accusation. It was a plea.

"He knew my name. He had my cell phone number. Those facts alone proved it couldn't be a joke. And when he said his victim was a near-death cop, I knew time was against us. The doctors told me Jordan would have died if I hadn't got there when I did to stop the blood."

Elliot shook his head in frustration. "I know that. You don't have to explain your actions to me. What I want to know is what were you thinking when a rapist called your cell?"

Olivia sighed. "First I thought it was you, playing around. Doing the stupid heavy breathing over the phone thing. You know, to lighten things up when you had to call me in."

Elliot lifted his eyebrows. "If I was calling you in the middle of the night to call you in, I'd been in too bad of a mood for that."

"So I figured after a minute. But after I realized it was for real, I was terrified. Elliot, he scared the hell out of me. His voice… it was… awful. And I'm sure I've met this person before. Somehow." Then, her eyes narrowed slightly. "You sounded pretty awake last night. It was four in the morning," she prodded gently.

Elliot turned away. "Kathy and I had a fight last night. Kind of like we've been having… every night. And she waits until the kids go to sleep to bring whatever it is up."

"Need to talk?"

Elliot laughed bitterly inside. Olivia had a psychopath on her tail, but she wanted to help him with his rapidly decaying marriage. She could never focus on herself. Ever.

"Yeah, I need to talk," Elliot mumbled, "But now's not the time."

Olivia didn't push. "You know my number," she said seriously.

"Yeah, and so does a psychotic rapist. What is this guy's deal? What is he after?"

Me! Olivia cried silently. But she didn't say that. No use getting Elliot riled up before necessary. Instead, she said, "Got me."

Elliot looked at her doubtfully before turning into the precinct. Olivia jumped out before he parked, forgetting that he had supposed to take her to get her car. She rushed in, eager to get to work on the new case that had fallen into her lap.

Elliot watched her, worrying tightening a knot in his throat. He took a deep breath, then jumped out of the car to follow her.

Olivia opened both doors to the precinct and fairly blew in. Fin and Munch were back already. John looked at her and gave a characteristically sardonic grin and Fin looked her over with cool concern.

"Nice to have you back, Olivia," Fin said, leaving his paperwork to greet her. "How's the arm?"

"Fine," she answered, grinning, "Unless I have to do paperwork. Then it's extremely painful."

Fin chuckled, and returned to his desk.

"Hey! I heard that, Benson!" Munch called. "You and Elliot better not even think of dumping all your paper on me and Fin!"

Olivia continued on her path to Cragen's office. She heard Elliot enter the building, so she called back, "Munch, I wouldn't even think of dumping my paperwork on you. That's what my partner is for!"

With this, she disappeared into Cragen's office.

Munch laughed as Elliot groaned and sank into his chair. "Too bad she got shot in the right arm, huh, Elliot?"

"Hah, hah. Hah. No, really, hah." Elliot gave a mock glare, then sobered quickly. "Too bad she got shot at all."

"Yeah," Fin agreed. "So, let's get down to business. I want a piece of this guy."

"Just leave some for me," Elliot growled. "So, what'd you guys find out?"

Olivia entered Captain Cragen's office and shut the door softly behind her. He and Huang were waiting on her. Without a word, she sat down in the chair opposite his desk.

Cragen's eyes bored into her own. "All right, Olivia. Start at the top." Then, he realized sighed. "But first, how's your arm?"

Olivia gave a tight smile. "Fine. It's practically nothing."

Huang gently returned her smile. "Putting yourself in the line of fire meant for a victim is extremely noble, Olivia. A far cry from nothing. Now. Tell us about the call you received."

Olivia nodded her gratitude for the praise, then the whole story just spilled out of her. Neither one interrupted once, even though Cragen looked perturbed when she recounted how she went in alone, and Huang looked especially troubled by the second phone call. Both men remained anxiously silent as she wrote a transcript of both calls.

Huang looked deeply troubled. "Now, I'm not so sure that bullet was meant for Jordan."

Olivia looked up sharply, jostling her arm. Pain darted across her eyes, but she made no sound. "I am. He might have said that he was after me, but I'm sure he wouldn't stop after one victim and then shoot me. I think this is the first of many, Captain."

Cragen bit back a curse. Huang's affirming look of worry and Olivia's passionate warning was more than enough to convince him. These two were hardly ever wrong. He trusted George's logic, but even more so, he trusted his detective's intuition.

"Well, I'm going to call an alert cautioning all female cops in the area. That's all we can do, besides digging around Jordan's life and trying to figure out who might have it in for you, Olivia. Perhaps there's a connection between you and Jordan. Try to figure that out."

His eyes darkened. "Until then, I advise you to go nowhere alone unless absolutely necessary. I won't call an order for protection unless a second incident occurs. We can still hope that this is a random act."

Olivia left the room, leaving the acrid taste of her determination in her wake. Huang looked at Cragen, almost beseechingly. "Don, this guy is dangerous. He's got a personal vendetta against Olivia. These other women, female cops, are just ways to heighten his own anticipation and scare Olivia more. He's the type to get a thrill off of fear. Anyone's, but especially Olivia's. He's probably angry that she wasn't frightened by those shots and acted bravely instead. He wants to see her afraid; Olivia won't give into fear. This looks bad."

Cragen looked away. "I know, Doc. But I have to let my detectives go about this like a regular case. I have to treat it like a regular case, so they can do their jobs. But Olivia gets another phone call or another cop is attacked, I'm calling a detail on her."

"That might not be necessary," Huang said slowly. He motioned out the window, and Cragen stood to look.

When Olivia came out the door, Elliot jumped to his feet, and walked towards her, following her back to her desk, talking with intensity in his eyes. Munch and Fin were back already. They both left their cluttered desks, and joined Olivia and Elliot at the white board, where Olivia was making notes, and talking animatedly. The three guys listened to her without distraction, and the way Elliot's eyes occasionally swept the room didn't go unnoticed by Huang or Cragen.

Cragen almost smiled but didn't quite make it. "You're right. Those three guys would go after any guy threatening Olivia without an order from me." He saw how Elliot's eyes glittered with pent-up anger. "Especially Elliot."

"We talked with lots of the cops who know McKinley," Fin said, leaning back in his chair. "None of them knew anyone who had a grudge against her. Not even a recent ex for us to look into. Sure, she's a smart-ass, but apparently she makes people laugh not angry. And CSI's don't have as many opportunities to make cons mad."

"Not like we do," Munch said darkly.

Elliot noticed Olivia's eyes harden with determination. "Captain thought there might be a connection between Jordan and I. I only know her through work. I don't know any of her other friends. The only connection is that she works in New York City, and that's hardly a connection."

"That's true," Elliot said, "But Huang thinks this guy will strike again. We want to be ready. Cragen's sending out a caution to all female officers in the City. And the call on your cell phone, Olivia, came from a payphone in Hell's Kitchen. Tomorrow we can survey the area around the phone."

Munch gave a sardonic laugh. "Yeah, someone in Hell's Kitchen is bound to have been awake at four in the morning."

The search turned up fruitless, and at 10:00 that night, the neighborhood was getting risky.

"Let's get out of here, Liv," Elliot said softly. "I don't want to see anything that would keep us from going home."

The two sets of partners left separately, all four detectives thoroughly frustrated by the row of dead ends.

"Wanna stop for a coffee?" Elliot ventured, surprised by his desire to keep her close.

Olivia looked up. She felt obligated to refuse; she was always keeping Elliot from his family, and she didn't want him to feel like he had to protect her. But considering he'd had a fight with Kathy, she thought perhaps he wasn't so ready to go home since his kids would already be asleep. And considering she wasn't too eager to be alone, she sighed.

"You know, tonight, I think I could use some coffee. But I want my car!"

He laughed, touching her hand. "Well, you can't have it yet. There are a few bullet holes in it, and ballistics is using them to trace the gun."

"Crap." She slouched, pouting. Then, she straightened, her eyes narrowed with playful suspicion. "Are you sure this isn't just a ploy to make me have to depend on you to pick me up and drop me off?"

Elliot lifted his hands innocently. "No, it's not a ploy! In fact, it saves me from coming up with one!"

Olivia rolled her eyes. She clapped her hands expectantly, and called, "Starbucks, James!"

"Hah. Hah hah."

That night, when Elliot dragged himself into his bedroom at 11:30, Kathy was sitting on the bed, wide-awake.

"Kathy." It was an acknowledgement, hardly a greeting.

"Elliot. What happened at the office today?"

Elliot sat, curious about and suspicious of his wife's sudden interest in his job. She was usually pretty hands-off about it. "I'm working on a dangerous case. One that may put my partner in danger."

"Olivia. Were you with her tonight?"

Elliot leaned back and crossed his arms. "Yes. I was. I took her out for a late coffee, because she has a sociopath on her tail, and her nerves are shot. Kind of like she is. She got hit in the arm by a bullet when she put her own body in the line of fire to protect a victim. What's this about, Kathy?" He crossed his arms, angry at the insinuations that seemed to be exuding from his wife's chilly presence.

"You have no idea, do you?" Kathy actually had tears in her eyes, and her tone was pitying.

"What you're talking about? No. I'm clueless."

Kathy sat down next to her husband, holding a thick file of papers. "Elliot, I'm a woman. I can see things that you can't."

She took his hands. "Elliot, you've fallen in love with Olivia, and you don't even realize it."

At her apartment, Olivia lay awake at night. The hours ticked by, and it wasn't the café mocha that was keeping her up.

Her hand was still tingling from where Elliot had touched it. That wide, boyish smile that he rarely gave to anyone but her still filled her mind's eye.

"Come on, Benson. Married. Unavailable. Your partner. Cut off the hormones!" she chided herself.

Just then, her cell phone rang.