Caitlin was still in tears when she answered the door. "Thank you for coming."

Cole hugged her immediately. "Hey, you can always call me when you need something." He had already heard the whole story on the phone but let her smuggle him upstairs to tell him again. Olivia was sick, apparently sick enough that Gregory had cancelled a meeting in England and turned his plane around to come home. Caitlin's version was far more elaborate, and her continued insistance that somehow Olivia was faking the whole thing was starting to sound a little paranoid.

Fever was nearly impossible to self-induce. Vomiting, he would have understood. As he held her against his chest, he wondered just how far over the edge his prodding had taken her. How much of his dislike he had communicated to her already? It seemed it would take little, if any work at all by him to completely push her over the edge. He reminded himself to use restraint. Time was the best weapon in his arsenal, and it's gradual march would be what finally brought Gregory Richards down.

"Where's your mother's room?"

Alex crept out of the kitchen. Keeping one ear open for the teaport, as she found Gregory asleep on the couch in his study. A group of papers scattered around his hands. Confident she could examine them without waking him, she pulled them free of his grasp. It looked like a list of biographies at first. People who had at one point been involved with a case of Gregory's. Searching until she had it all, she assembled the stack. As she suspected, the first page had the explaination.

"Every person who has ever made a threat against your wife. Chronological order, and then by threat assessment. Identical papers were passed to the SBPD earlier today." The curt explaination across the top stated dryly. She started paged through the lists, taking them with her to the kitchen to wait for Olivia's tea.

The bedroom door was unlocked. That was Gregory's first mistake. He assumed Olivia was safe in her house. Shutting and locking the door behind him, Cole scanned the room quickly. The window was the most obvious escape route, he went to it and opened it enough to be able to dive out of if need be.

Olivia lay in the center of the bed, a tiny dark figure in the cream-colored sheets. She pulled away from the open window, turning her back to him. Cole prowled his way around the bed, starting his approach from the far corner and creeping up towards her. Caitlin had done Olivia's illness an injustice. Her face was flushed, the skin over her cheekbones taunt and even her lips were dry. As he took the scissors from his pocket, Cole wondered why Gregory hadn't taken her to a doctor. Maybe he took some perverse kind of pleasure in keeping his wife locked away.

Cole listened for Caitlin's voice, she had promised to distract anyone who ventured into the hallway. All was quiet so he removed the length of ribbon from his breast pocket and choose his piece of Olivia's hair. Tying his ribbon tightly around one dark curl, he reached out with the scissors. Picturing Gregory's face when he opened his latest envelope to find the curl of hair missing from Olivia's head. "You'll look at it and know how close I was to your precious wife."

"You'll know I touched her." Cole whispered to himself as he tucked the lock of hair back safe in his pocket. As he put the scissors away, he stared down at Olivia. She hadn't stirred. He had been almost hoping she'd wake up, somehow sensing the violation and letting him see the fear in her eyes.

Cole studied the pulse of blood in the thick veins of her neck. Only a thin layer of skin and muscle between life and a terrible gasping death. There would be fear in her eyes then, if he took the scissors and reminded her just how fragile her grasp on this life was. He caressed the hollow of her throat with feather-light fingers. Her pulse was quick, rushed onward by her illness. He caressed her neck, feeling the slow back and forth of her breathing. It was all so fleeting, one extended squeeze and that breath would stop.

He rested his weight back on his knees, adding a second hand to her throat. She wouldn't even get a chance to scream-

Caitlin's voice cut through his imaginings from another world. "Hey, Alex can I talk to you for a second?"

Cole didn't have long. Only a moment before he needed to be out that window. He squeezed his fingers into her neck, pressing just hard enough to make the blood work harder to make it's way up. Olivia's eyes only took part of his moment to snap open. He felt her throat gurgle beneath his touch, as soon as he released the pressure she started to scream.

Alex pressed Olivia's tea into Caitlin's hand and went immediately to the door. Shoving the knob hard, she was surprised to find it locked. She didn't even know the room had a lock. "Key? Where's the key?" She demanded from Caitlin.

The girl looked at her stupidly, holding the tea and staring at the door, as if her mother's crying had no effect on her. Alex cursed under her breath, evaluated her options for a moment and moved Caitlin out of the way. She jiggled the knob again, knowing Olivia wouldn't be any help. She bent down to peer at the lock. The mechanism was simple enough, but she didn't have any pins in her hair. Ready to run to the bathroom, Alex caught sight of the golden pins in Caitlin's thick blonde hair.

Attacking her head, Alex freed two. "Sorry honey-" She added as an afterthought as she picked the lock. Finally it clicked open and she ran in. The bed was empty. "Olivia?"

A desperate hand grabbed at her leg and Alex turned around to find her sitting on the floor next to the door. "What are you doing down here?" She asked with deep concern as she knelt down next to her.

Both of Olivia's hands were on her throat, her eyes brilliant with terror. "Someone was here." She choked out. "There was a man."

Alex looked around the room warily. "I don't see anyone."

"He was here." Olivia insisted as Alex helped her slowly to stand up. Her balance was off, her legs too exhausted to take much of her weight. Alex didn't have the strength to move her on her own.

"Caitlin?" Alex called her request into the hallway. "I need your help honey."

The younger woman entered the bedroom cautiously, setting down the tea and crossing her arms over her chest. "What?"

Taking Olivia's hands from her throat, Alex held them in her own to calm her down. "Would you go wake up your father? He's on the couch in his study." Alex stroked Olivia's forehead patiently waiting for her terror to fade. Caitlin was perfectly capable of helping move her mother back to bed. Alex knew she was, but something in her gut told her to get Gregory. There was something off in the way Caitlin looked at her mother. She couldn't put her finger on it, and she couldn't think of any reason for Caitlin to treat Olivia badly, but there was something.

Alex was still lost in thought when Olivia got her attention with her soft apology. "I'm sorry to be so much trouble."

"You had a nightmare." Alex reasoned gently as she ran her hand through Olivia's soft black hair. "That's no reason to apologize. Your darling and I will have you back in bed in no time."

Olivia leaned her back against the wall, starting to believe it had just been a dream. "Would be easier if I could stand up on my own wouldn't it?" She observed dryly, making Alex chuckle.

"Yes, that it would." Alex agreed as she retrieved the tea from the table. "Here, drink this while we wait for Gregory." Staring at it with little interest, Olivia's eyes begged to be let off the hook, but Alex shook her head firmly no. "Can't let you get dehydrated."

Olivia took a sip and sighed. "I guess you do have a vested interest. It's going to be all your fault."

Alex grinned, pleased that she had managed to keep some of her sense of humor. "How is it my fault?"

Gesturing for Alex to come closer as Gregory finally appeared in the doorway, Olivia whispered. "If I turn out to be 'knocked up' I'm going to tell my husband it was you."

Bursting into laughter, Alex set Olivia's tea aside. Gregory gave them both a bemused expression, too tired to argue. Getting Olivia to her feet and back to bed was easy with both of them.

Alex let Gregory tuck the blankets around her as she retrieved Olivia's tea. "Did you open the window?"

Gregory shook his head. "No and I strongly doubt Olivia did."

"You saw how well I get around by myself." Olivia pointed out as she finished off her tea.

Puzzled, Alex went to the window and shut it. Noticing the faint scratches in the paint. Scratches that led outwards. She peered out into the garden, from the balcony it was a reasonable drop to the patio wall. In better health, she could have done it. Chasing her concerns away with a smile, she turned back to find Gregory asleep, Olivia curled around him.

"Warm enough?" Alex teased as she perched on the bed.

Olivia nodded happily, only opening her eyes halfway. "It's not five already is it?" Her voice took on a plantive whine as she realized it was time for another round of injections. "I should have known. As soon as I start to feel better, it's time to jab me again."

Sighing as she filled the syringe, Alex indicated that she should roll over. "After these two you only have three left."

Wincing melodramatically, Olivia opened one eye all the way to see what Alex was doing. "Can't we just stop now?"

Performing the second shot quickly, Alex rested her hand on her friend's shoulder as she tossed the needle. "Probably not, but remember, tomorrow morning's the last two. If you can sleep through that, you'll be done."

Olivia rolled back over to sthingy against her husband. "Thank God."

"Hey, before you drift out on me, tell me about your dream." Alex asked as she got up to check on the windowsill again. The scratches in the paint were definitely real.

"I was sleeping." Olivia started lazily. "Then there was this man staring at me. He had these horribly cold dark eyes."

"Good, keep going, tell me what he looked like," Measuring the scratches on the vertical frame of the window against herself, she guessed he must have nearly a foot taller then she was.

Yawning as she tried to remember, Olivia paused. "Dark hair, maybe curly. Very white teeth, this sadistic smile..." She shivered and snuggled closer to Gregory's warm body. "He would have been handsome if he wasn't trying to kill me."

Alex pulled the curtains closed, stopped at the bed to squeeze Olivia's shoulder. "No more bad dreams, okay?"

Olivia bobbed her head barely. "Okay."

Alex ducked out of the room, letting them both get some sleep. She had Gregory's threat lists to go over. It was thoughtful of Stanton to include photographs, her search would have been a lot slower without them.