A/N: 107 reviews! Wow! I am positively ecstatic! I had no idea you all would like this story so much! I really hope that this chapter doesn't disappoint or discourage anyone from reviewing more for this chapter! I am also really sorry for not updating, but my summer's been hectic and I just moved into my dorm. Switching from high school to college life isn't easy despite the freedom we all yearn for. Anyway, thank you again to all the wonderful peoples for reviewing! Enjoy!
Chapter 6
Cragen knelt next to Fisher, whose eyes were probing the sill of the window. He had located Ted on the first floor, helping some of the people injured in the explosion. Needless to say, Cragen had been relieved to find that Fisher had not been in his office.
Cragen's cell phone now rested between Fisher's cheek and shoulder, as his pointer finger gently traced the airspace between the window and the sill.
"No evidence of a RL line or 3X40 box," Fisher said into the phone. "No, I don't think that's possible without leaving marks in the wood because it would have to be concealed…Yeah, I think so too…Okay." Fisher took the phone out from under his cheek and handed it to Cragen. Cragen took the phone.
"What's the story?" Cragen asked since he was unable to understand Fisher's side of the conversation.
"Fisher has convinced me that Morgan has left the window alone," Sergeant Jabbers explained. "We will open the window and start getting your people out of there. After that, I'll send in some of my men and we'll see what we can do about the bombs on some of the other doors in the precinct."
"Alright, I'll put everyone on alert," Cragen said hanging up. Cragen let out a sigh. He had to do this one step at a time. Though he was making progress in ending this situation, Olivia was still in trouble. His emotions left him to pray that this would end alright.
Cragen clapped his hands together to get the attention of everyone in the room. "Alright, people. I just got off the phone with the NYC Bomb Squad. They've cleared that window," he said pointing, "for us to use as our exit. I want all those who have sustained injuries that require medical treatment to exit first.
"If you are still in an office or if you know anyone who is in an office," Cragen said, unsure how many people could hear him, "do not attempt to leave. The Bomb Squad will be in here shortly to make sure the bombs are disarmed on all doors within the precinct." As soon as everyone in the office was assured that their Captain's speech was finished, a line began to form at the window Cragen had mentioned.
A few minutes later, the window had successfully been opened with no repercussions. Cragen was relieved. He looked at his watch. He needed to check on Olivia and hope that Elliot hadn't done anything crazy to make this situation worse.
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Olivia could understand Morgan's unwillingness to allow her to help, but the situation he put the whole precinct in seemed like a bad way to go about it. Forcing detectives to stay in their office with bombs wasn't the way to get any work done on any case.
"So tell me, Greg. How do you expect anyone in the precinct to work on your case if you've bombed them all into their offices?" Olivia asked, slightly smug.
Greg's eyes narrowed. "You don't need everyone in the offices to get the job done. Besides, I'm not as stupid as you apparently think I am. I may have rigged a lot of doors, but the windows are untouched. In other words, Olivia, the majority of the department is free to do as they wish." Olivia found something unsettling in his words. Why was he volunteering this information? She believed that he actually did want to find the culprits behind his mother and sister's murders, but she couldn't believe that he had not tampered with all the major escape routes.
Greg set his elbows down on the table. "Despite what you and your boyfriend seem to think of me, Olivia, I'm really not a bad guy. All I want is justice."
"Yeah, and all I want is to see perps like you put behind bars, and for the moment, I'm keeping my patience. You don't always get what you want. Didn't your mother ever teach you that?"
At the mention of his mother, Morgan's whole face became contorted with rage. He put his face right to Olivia's. "Don't you ever mention my mother again!" Olivia blinked at the force of the air coming from his mouth. She actually wished her hands were free so that she could wipe some of the spit that came flying at her with his words. Then again, if her hands were free, her first goal would be to kick this guy's ass, but that was beside the point. His anger scared her, but she felt she still had a chance to reason with him and if not that, at least give Elliot information on how to end this thing.
"Not a bad guy?" Olivia demanded but keeping the volume of her voice under control. "You've put everyone in this precinct in danger. You've already turned many of the innocent people out there into casualties with that single explosion. You don't fight for justice with injustice."
Greg's expression changed with the uplift of an eyebrow and look of irritated innocence so common with teenagers who talk back to their parents. "You really think that you are so much better than me? That all those people out there are better than me because you all are cops? You people go out there and search for truth and justice, but really you're looking for someone to blame. It doesn't matter to you whether or not they're innocent as long as you can still get off work in time to make it home for dinner."
Olivia felt herself becoming a broken record. "I admit I never knew your father as well as you did, but it wasn't only my perspective that got your father convicted. He was heard by a jury who heard all the evidence—"
"They heard the evidence you wanted them to hear!" Morgan said pointing his finger at Olivia. "You heard his testimony, but didn't want to take it for the truth. Instead, you wanted to make up your own story so that in the end, Detective Olivia Benson would once again look like a hero."
"I gave them the facts!" Olivia shouted back, unable to stop herself.
"Shut up!" Morgan screamed. Morgan swung his arm back and gave Olivia a swift punch in the stomach. The punch was so hard that it sent Olivia and the chair flying backwards at least six inches. Olivia struggled to catch her breath as she sat hunched over her knees. Breathing heavily, it took her a few moments to raise her head, but when she looked at Morgan her gaze was murderous.
"Maybe now you understand, Olivia," Morgan said calming down. "The determination in your eyes is the same emotion I possess. I know that if I were to let you free, you would hunt me down until you were sure that I had faced all the charges for the crimes I've committed. Yes, now you understand."
Morgan fell to his knees beside her and let his hand graze the swelling purple around her eye from an earlier punch she had suffered at the fist of his rage. "Then you'll also understand that I don't care if I make it out of here alive, as long as you don't make it out either."
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"That son-of-a-bitch," Elliot mumbled to himself. He wanted to jump through the mirror and strangle Morgan.
He also looked furiously at Olivia. Why did she have to coax out his anger? Why couldn't she keep herself out of harms way? Why couldn't he protect her?
"What's this bastard done now?" Cragen asked him casually as he anxiously looked in on Olivia to make sure she remained relatively unharmed as he tried to understand the look of anger and helplessness that crossed his face.
"He's going to kill her!" Elliot raged. "He's going to make sure she doesn't make it out of there alive!"
"Slow down, Elliot, and tell me what he said," Cragen soothed. Elliot took a couple deep breaths and then explained what it was that Morgan wanted and what he had said about Olivia.
"He's not going down without taking Olivia down with him," Elliot finished. "We need to do something now!"
"Get into your head, Elliot," Cragen reprimanded. "What do you think we can do without endangering her life? I don't need obvious statements right now, I need plans."
Elliot ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "Sorry, Cap," Elliot murmured, pacing. "The window!" Elliot cried in realization. He turned to the one-way mirror and gazed into the room at the bared window on the far side of the right wall. "If he didn't rig the windows, couldn't we use that to get to him? We could pour gas into the room or something."
Cragen looked at the window thoughtfully. "It's definitely a good idea, Elliot, but we have to wait."
"Why."
"Whether or not we can get to Morgan right now is unimportant. It's the bombs we have to worry about at the moment. If we can't figure out how to deactivate them, then we don't stand a chance of getting to Olivia." Elliot slammed the palm of his hand into the mirror causing Olivia and Morgan to look up, but Elliot wasn't paying attention to them.
"Elliot!"
"He's beating her, Cap!" Elliot shouted. "When this department finally gets its priorities in order and realize that she fucking needs our help, it'll be too late!"
"Elliot, I'm going to ask you one last time to get a hold of yourself before I have you physically taken off this property," Cragen said threateningly. His threat was only to efficiently calm Elliot down, but he would go through with it if Elliot refused to cooperate. Elliot didn't reply, but he didn't yell back either. Cragen felt that he had gotten his message across and proceeded to inform Elliot of what was going on in the office room.
"How long does he estimate it'll take?" Elliot asked.
"I don't know. He's got to get a look at the bombs first." An uncomfortable silence fell between the two, suddenly broken by Munch and Fin.
"What do you got?" Cragen asked, unable to make anything out from the faces of the two Detectives.
"Only more questions," Fin responded, looking to Munch to give Cragen the details.
"I was looking back for birth records for the sister's name so I could find the case file, but there's no record of any other sibling to the Morgan family in New York or Illinois," Munch explained.
"You think it could have been an affair?" Cragen asked. "This wasn't exactly one giant happy family. The child could have taken the mother's last name to reduce questions."
"I checked into that," Fin continued, "but if that's true he was a lousy father. No regular transfers on his bank accounts to be consistent with child support."
"Unless he paid in cash," Elliot spoke up.
"Then he'd have to have an account we don't know about. There's no record of any checks or withdrawal for a large enough amount."
"That or maybe he doesn't have a sister," Munch guessed. "This is the only file I found that matches Morgan's description." Munch passed a folder he had been holding over to Cragen opened to a handwritten statement given by a woman named Stacy Morgan.
"She filed a report claiming she had been raped by a man who blindfolded her, but cried the whole time. He seemed to enjoy it about as much as she did. She did, however, manage to get a view of her attacker once." Munch stated.
"What happened in court?" Elliot asked.
"Never made it to court," Cragen said, having finished reading the file. "She got stopped by the Statue of Limitations. She never reported the rape because she said the guy threatened to kill her if she went to the cops. The calls stopped when the six month limit was up and she finally got the courage to come forward, but lack of evidence kept the case from going any further."
"So the perp knew the law," Elliot finished.
"That would be my guess," Cragen replied.
"A cop?" Munch hypothesized.
Cragen shook his head. "There's no proof of that. Fin, Munch, I want the two of you to go and interview Stacy Morgan. Find out everything she remembers and see if she has any relation to the Morgans'. Elliot, stay here. I need to talk with Sergeant Jabbers."
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"Sergeant Jabbers?" Cragen asked of the man who seemed to be in charge of the activities within the main office room. All of Cragen's staff that wasn't currently in their offices had successfully left the building. The room was quickly being refilled with Sergeant Jabbers's men filing in through the window. "Captain Don Cragen."
The two shook hands. "What's the story with the bombs?"
"Well, we've currently located five on the ground floor and three on the upper," Jabbers said. "It seems as if Morgan really did know his stuff. He's placed detonators to trigger a plastic explosive within the inner circuits of the bomb which means if we try to open the bomb up to get to the wires, the bomb will be triggered to explode."
"Is there a way to get around that?" Cragen asked.
"Sure, but it's time consuming and tedious. I'm sure that's what your guy intended."
"I need to get into one of the offices upstairs, has it been cleared yet?" Sergeant Jabbers looked down at the clipboard he was holding.
"What number?"
"204. George Huang." Jabbers's finger traveled down the list, pausing at the number 204. "Yeah, it's clear."
"Alright, I'm going up there. I want you to start releasing people whose rooms have been cleared," Cragen ordered.
"Will do," Sergeant Jabbers said nodding. Cragen left the Sergeant with another officer and proceeded upstairs to Huang's office. He stopped in front of the door briefly before entering without knocking.
Upon seeing, Cragen, Huang closed a manila folder filled with various reports and put it down on his desk.
"What's going on, Don?" As a psychiatrist and a friend, Huang often called the people in the squad by their first name, unless they preferred to be called something else. Slowly, Cragen explained everything, starting with Morgan turning himself in, to the rape of the supposed sister, Stacy Morgan.
Huang frowned as he took it all in. "Morgan likes attention and control. He walked into the station with a plan and reassurance that the plan is full proof. My guess is that he wants revenge on Olivia for taking away the control, the stability he had within his own family. I think it's very probable he raped the two women he said he did, and I think he told you so that you would take him more seriously. He could have confessed to any number of crimes that SVU has priority over, but he chose rape.
"As for the rape of Stacy Morgan, I doubt it was done for control." Huang leaned back in his chair, thoughtfully. "The man in that case sought Stacy out possibly because she reminded him of someone from her past. The blindfold is a common technique used among rapists, but combined with the crying I don't think that the man used it so as not to be identified. I think he was reliving a past memory."
"Like an abuse by mom or dad?" Cragen asked his eyebrows furrowed.
"The blindfold on his victim could represent himself; his desire to hide and repress the memory, but it also could be related to a spouse. I'm thinking maybe an abortion of a son or daughter, or perhaps a brother or sister. The rape represents not only the way a child is conceived, but a way a child is destroyed, both emotionally and physically. The rapist may for some reason believe that he caused the abortion to happen or felt he couldn't stop it. That's why I am led to believe the emotions may have been brought on by a spouse, rather than a family member, but both are possible."
"So you believe the two rapes to be unconnected?" Cragen asked.
"Comparing the actions of the two, yes, I do, but comparing the emotions, no I don't." Cragen raised an eyebrow at this.
"Don, this is not an exact science, you know that," Huang stated. "In the unstable emotional state of Morgan and the other rapist, it is very possible for one to be other, but it's also completely plausible for them to be unrelated. Many rapists develop similar patterns. It could be a coincidence or they could be the same people. I might be able to tell you more once I have Stacy's full testimony."
"Thanks, Huang. You're free to leave for awhile, but I'm going to want you back here as soon as I hear from Munch and Fin," Cragen said standing up to leave.
"No problem, Don." Cragen paused, as Huang reached over to put on his black jacket.
"George, do you think it's a good idea for me to leave Elliot down there?" Cragen asked.
Huang's eyes searched Cragen's. "It's not my job to tell you how to do your job, but I have a feeling that even if you assigned him to do something else, he'd be there anyway." Cragen nodded, feeling a little relieved by Huang's words. That would be the closest Huang would ever go to revealing the emotions inside a patient or friend and Cragen thanked him for it.