A/N: Apologies there's a slight change in formatting. I decided to upload this chapter with my phone as I won't be on my computer until much later and I wanted to get the chapter up! Thank you for all the reviews so far! They're very encouraging for my lil ADHD brain that likes being told I'm doing a good job.

Alone jogger out in Central Park saw something odd just under a streetlamp. Light snow dusted the ground, the air was still thick with fog. As he slowed, his breath became apparent in the cold air of the night. He frowned as he approached what looked to be a pile of shopping bags from various designer stores across Manhattan, the stores had been closed for two days since the blizzard hit New York. He crouched down and peeked into the bags, curiosity getting the better of him. He opened the bags finding various wrapped presents in many different colours. These were Christmas gifts. He stood up and looked over at the bushes where the snow had fallen, but a noticeable dent had been made. He approached the bushes, slowly, his brow furrowed and his shoulders tense, apprehensive about what may be laying there. Suddenly, his fears were realised - he jumped back and scrambled for his phone in his fanny pack.

Mother nature had long since silenced. The blizzard that had stormed New York City for two solid days had passed. Alex seized the opportunity to take a very careful drive to visit her parents, as she was meant to do over Christmas. She decided to spend a little longer with them to make up for missing the chaotic events of Christmas, she would be back by the day before New Year's Eve to wish in the new year with Olivia, Casey, and Casey's boyfriend, Nick the Firefighter. Alex had only been gone twenty-four hours, but for Olivia, those twenty-four hours were excruciating. They stayed on the phone the entire drive up to Ulster County, where Alex's parents still lived in a large manor-type home. Once she arrived, sadly, Alex needed to cut contact at least until the evening, when Olivia would hear the ADA's voice again just before bed. She had never felt a longing like this before - pinning like a lost puppy. She missed her terribly. That night was the worst, Alex practically lived with Olivia - going to bed alone was lonely. Still, thankfully - the pillow that lay next to her still had the gentle aroma of Alex's perfume. So not all was lost. Olivia could still bury her head in the pillow and whisk herself into a gentle sleep. She wondered if Alex felt the same longing, the same desperate need to be close. Was she further into this relationship than Alex was?

As the evening drew in, Olivia settled back into her sofa with her phone to her ear and a bright smile stretched across her face, the news played idly in the background and the fire flickered. Olivia raised a glass of wine to her lips and took a gentle sip as she listened to Alex talk about her day on the other end of the phone.

"I'm surprised Liz let you take off for a few days," Olivia said as she placed the wine down on the table.

"She does have a heart, apparently, though this year I wish she hadn't found it." Olivia could hear the sadness in her voice.

"Why?" Olivia frowned.

"Because I'm away from you…" Her voice was quiet and sheepish - Olivia could practically hear the blush creep over Alex's cheeks.

"O-oh" Olivia smiled and looked down. "I can't wait for you to come home. God, going to sleep last night sucked."

She had become accustomed to Alex sleeping next to her. The first few nights were a struggle, but then - Alex turned over in her sleep and rested her head on Olivia's chest. Olivia could smell the scent of elderflower and lavender, that sweet aroma of Alex's perfume and suddenly, she fell into a deep sleep. Since that night, falling asleep with Alex was extremely easy. Most nights Olivia would spoon Alex, nuzzle into the back of her neck, and would be asleep in mere minutes. She would often wake up with Alex facing her, hiding in the nook of her neck to shield her eyes from the rising sun. Olivia never complained, she enjoyed the sensation of Alex breathing against her skin.

"I know…" She heard Alex sigh on the other end of the phone. "Just a few more days."

"How are your parents?" Olivia asked changing the subject off their shared longing.

"Mom is the usual - pill-popping,wine-guzzling. My brother, Chris is still here - but my sister went back to Florida."

"I knew about the brother but not the sister." Olivia toyed with a loose thread on her shirt.

"Yeah - she's like eleven or twelve years younger than me. She lives in Florida with her husband and two kids. We're not very close."

"Why did you two have a falling out?" She chuckled at the thought.

"Yeah, actually, we did."

"Oh." God, shut up - Olivia, good job at bringing up Cabot family drama. "Sorry - I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."

"You didn't - it was very much my choice. She didn't react very well when I came out… well, none of them did but she tried to get me fired from the DA's office."

Olivia's eyes widened and she suddenly sat up. "She what?"

"Nancy called Liz and made an anonymous complaint. It forced me to come out to the entire DA's office…"

"Oh, yeah - I remember that." Olivia sighed. "I'm sorry, Alex."

"It's fine, I mean - she moved to Florida and married a guy who thinks owning a gun is a right of passage."

Olivia looked at the clock on the wall, it was late, but she didn't want to get off the phone yet. She reached for the remote and turned off the TV while Alex talked about her sister. Olivia turned off the flickering fire and made her way across the apartment.

"A right of passage? Seriously?" She said as she pushed open her bedroom door.

"You have no idea. The whole family is weird. I don't know what happened. She met him online when she was sixteen and he was like eighteen, she moved to be with him in Florida."

"Are they radical?" Olivia asked as she walked out of her bathroom and turned off the light.

"No - I don't think so, then again - I don't speak to Nancy. Chris does."

Olivia reached under her pillow, looking for her nightshirt - she's not seen it since Alex left. Olivia frowned. It wasn't like she didn't have other nightshirts she could sleep in - the grey silk one was her favoured one.

"Alex - have you seen my grey silk shirt?" She asked.

"Your what?"

"Grey silk shirt - you know, the one I sleep in?"

Silence.

"Alex?"

"Is it under your pillow?" She asked quietly.

"I already looked there… did you do laundry before you left?" Why did she ask that? Of course, Alex didn't do laundry - Alex barely did laundry at her apartment. Olivia looked around the room. "Are you sure you haven't seen it?"

Another pause.

"No."

"No, you're not sure, or no, you haven't seen it?"

"Yes-"

"Alex!" Olivia paused for a moment, a smile stretched across her lips. She ran her fingers through her long brown hair and placed her hand on her hip. "You're wearing it, aren't you?"

"No…" Her voice is very small, sheepish, and embarrassed.

Olivia chuckled.

"Don't laugh! I've had you sleeping on top of me for what… three months? I didn't know how else I was going to sleep."

"It's okay - Seriously. It's very cute. It's nice to know you depend on me as much as I do on you." Olivia sat on the end of her bed, a warm smile still painted on her lips. She looked down, her heart racing in her ears as she felt her knees become weak. She stuttered "A-Alex, I lov-" Olivia's phone started to beep, she pulled it away and saw Fin's name as it flashed. She sighed and placed the phone back to her ear. "I gotta go - sorry, Alex."

"A case?" She asked.

"Yeah, looks like it - I'll call you tomorrow."

"Night, Liv."

"Goodnight, beautiful."

Olivia lifted the crime scene tape as she passed under it to meet Fin who was standing on the other side bundled up in different layers and holding a flask of coffee. Amanda crouched by the body, looking over the woman who was found in the bushes. Olivia looked around, her breath forming a cloud just under her nose. The cold was bitter, well into the minus. The lights of Central Park flickered, this wasn't the first and it wouldn't be the last time they were called to a murder in Central Park. It was easier to get away with abduction, murder, and beating in the thick woodland and brush. Anyone could look innocent in Central Park. Olivia approached Fin, who took a sip of his coffee as he jigged from one foot to the other in an attempt to keep warm.

"Well, what we got?" Olivia asked as she looked towards the body.

"Woman in her late 40s, blonde hair, blue eyes, slender, found by a jogger." Fin pointed over to a pale-looking jogger sitting on a bench.

"What happened there?" Olivia pointed to the visible patch of fresh vomit a little further away from the bush.

"Dude lost his cookies when he saw her in the shrubs." He took a sip of his coffee.

"How long has she been dead?"

"Warner said around forty to fifty hours."

"And no one found her sooner?" Olivia looked around the park, they weren't in a hidden part of the woodland, they were on a trail that was regularly used by joggers.

"Blizzard, Liv. No one would have found her until the snow chilled the fuck out."

Olivia broke away from Fin and approached where the body was laying. It was obvious this woman had been sexually assaulted and left for dead in the snow. Her body was completely blue and positioned in a way that meant she might have been still alive when placed there. Olivia looked back at the shopping bags and then at the body. The woman was dressed in the finest designer clothes, not something you would get off the rack. Olivia crouched down to the body as Warner turned her over to find a fresh shrub under her. She sighed. Olivia looked up at her long-term friend and colleague.

"She was alive when placed here…" Olivia guessed.

"She froze to death in the blizzard." Melinda sighed.

"Sexual assault?"

"The signs are there, but I won't know exactly until I get her on a table and thaw her out. But she died from the blizzard. I'm wondering why her shopping bags were left on the path."

Olivia took another look at the shopping bags, they were placed under a bright street lamp, covered in snow, and slowly falling apart. She stood up. Olivia bit her lip as she came to realize.

"What?" Amanda questioned as she stood up.

"Her death was an accident."

"What?" Amanda frowned.

"Look at the shopping bags. She's not been mugged, her bags are placed under a street light on a popular jogging path." She looked at Amanda. "The killer wanted us to find her… but he didn't account for the blizzard."

"So he rapes her and then leaves her in the bushes for someone to find, but no one finds her."

"I don't think he had any intentions of killing her - just the assault."

Olivia started to walk away from the crime scene, she needed to know which way he came from but it was next to impossible to tell. The newly fresh snow had settled during the blizzard and took away any form of evidence that was visible. Even when the snow melts, there would be nothing worthwhile getting. No fingerprints, DNA, or fibres. Everything was contaminated from the snow unless he ejaculated on or inside of her.

"He didn't rob her either," Amanda said, pulling a wallet from the victim's handbag that was neatly placed by the shopping bag. "Credit cards, cash… even her library card."

"What's her name?" Olivia asked as she approached the small blonde.

"Gemma Hale…" Amanda continued to look for a driving licence, it wasn't before long she pulled an NYC driving licence from the fold. "Gemma Hale - forty-five, blonde hair, blue eyes…"

Olivia looked at the picture, she swallowed the lump in her throat. The woman on the driving licence looked like Alex, an uncomfortable amount - they could be siblings. Why was it always the blondes that were killed in the most brutal way possible? Olivia felt sick to her stomach, she knows Alex jogs through this park often and even took this root if she was staying with Olivia. She moved away from Amanda and reached into her pocket to pull out her phone. She searched for Alex's number before she placed it to her ear. She looked back at the body, her heart thumped in her chest. If something was to happen to Alex, it would be like Noah's kidnapping all over again.

"Hello…Liv?" A sleepy voice spoke.

"Hey…"

"Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"I just… wanted to hear your voice." Olivia sighed down the phone.

A soft yawn from Alex made Olivia smile warmly down the phone.

"Well, here it is…" Alex replied with a stretch in her voice.

"I'm sorry to wake you." Olivia looked down.

"Tough case?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to…" She took a deep breath. "I just wanted to tell you I lov-"

"Liv! They're moving the body!" Fin called over from the brush.

Olivia groaned down the phone. "I gotta go."

"I know, evil never sleeps. I'll speak to you in the morning-"

"Wait-"

"Hmm?"

"If I call you later… Will you stay with me until I fall asleep?"

"Of course, I will…" Alex's soft voice spoke.

Olivia smiled down at the phone. "I miss you." She sighed.

"Oh god, I miss you too. I'll speak to you later."

Olivia sat back in her office chair and pinched the bridge of her nose. It's been a night and a long day. She's exhausted. Thanks to the blizzard and the snow melting, there was a distinct lack of evidence. There were no witnesses, nothing. Fortunately - Dr. Warner concluded that the woman was unconscious when she died, meaning she was most likely dumped while in that state. That brought Olivia some kind of comfort. Sadly, she wasn't alone in this world. Gemma was married with two children - and wasn't even from NYC. She was merely there on a shopping trip from Middletown, Connecticut. After contacting Gemma's husband, Derek, they had to wait for him to come and ID the body. This was the worst part. The team had been working around the clock, irritability had set in and exhaustion was apparent. Olivia had to break up an argument between Fin and Velasco and sent them both to the crib for some rest. Never in her life had she ever needed to ground two fully grown adults before.

Tapping at her office door brought her from her mild relaxation through the process. She rubbed her eyes as she sat back up in her chair and adjusted the paperwork on her desk.

"Come in." She said followed by a yawn.

The door opened and Amanda crossed the threshold into Olivia's office.

"We found something."

Olivia pushed back off her desk and stood up, rather too quickly - the lack of sleep and the sudden head rush made her slightly dizzy. She took a deep breath "I need eye drops". She walked around her desk and frowned when she saw the look of worry on Amanda's face.

"What?" She asked as she followed her out of her office.

"You're not going to like this." Amanda stopped just past the door.

"What is it?" Concern washed over the lieutenant's features as they walked to the large display of screens that showed various rape reports from the last thirty to forty years.

"He's a serial." Her concern soon changed to disgust. "All dead?"

"No - this is the first murder he's ever done. But every woman reported the rape in the same way. All have blonde hair and blue eyes."

"He has a type…"

"That's not all - his first victim was a woman called Louisa Cabot who was shopping in the city with her two kids, Christopher fifteen, and…" Amanda cleared her throat. "Alexandra… eleven"

"She and her brother went to a movie and then went to meet Louisa after at Grand Central only she didn't show up. They waited an hour before calling their dad who then called the police."

Amanda nodded "Cops found her in the bushes in Central Park."

"Let's try and contact the other victims, I don't want to bring Alex into this if I don't have to."

Olivia looked back at the screen. Her mind is a conjunction of motives and who might be the killer.

Olivia shifted from one foot to the other, her hand on her hip, and worry on her brow. She remembered Alex telling her about this when discussing plans for Christmas and why Alex's mother never comes into the city. Olivia was drawn to how much Alex's mother looked exactly like her from facial features to eye colour, minus the glasses and the typical 1970s hairstyle - they could be twins. Looking at the picture on Louisa's driving licence from 1974 - she couldn't help but feel sick to her stomach. If Louisa was the first victim, was she the catalyst for the attacks?

Amanda cleared her throat. Launching Liv out of any thought process she might have.

"H-how are things going with Alex?"

"Oh, uh - great…" Olivia's face softened as her mind drifted to the beautiful ADA. "Really great."

Amanda smiled. "It's great to see you happy for once, Liv."

"Honestly, I've never been this happy. It's only been a few months but - she's at my house every night, Noah loves her, and… I've realised, since she's been visiting her parents for the last couple of days, sleeping without her…"

"Sucks." Amanda continued.

"Yeah…"

"It was the same for Carisi and me. We got together and he was there all the time. It was great and then, I couldn't sleep the nights he wasn't there. Feels weird to admit, I get it." She smiled at Olivia.

By noon Olivia was home, she passed through the front door and closed it behind her - she was exhausted and what was worse, they had nothing; only knowledge of the previous rapes. The women refused to talk to the police, most of them saying that he drugged them before raping them. The only knowledge they had of the rape happening was in the medical report afterward. The only one who would know a thing about the rape would be Louisa - but she opted not to have a rape kit done and even went as far as to ask not to be contacted. Louisa wanted to forget this even happened but this scumbag needed to be caught. He was still committing forty years later.

Olivia placed her wine glass from the night before in the empty dishwasher. How was she meant to even approach this with Alex - it's not an easy topic to bring up in conversation, but she needed Louisa to talk. She sighed walking into her bedroom. She changed into a loose fitted t-shirt and climbed into bed holding her phone. She scanned through her contacts list until she found Alex's number. She pressed call and left the phone on the pillow next to her. The loudspeaker echoed in her empty bedroom until the sweet voice of Alexandra Cabot picked up the phone.

"Did you catch the bad guy?" The voice asked.

"Not yet - we're working on it." Olivia smiled as she turned over to face the phone.

"Are you at home?" Alex asked.

"I am, I'm in bed." A gentle yawn escaped her chest.

"I wish I was there." Alex sighed.

"If you were here, you would be locked in my arms," Olivia said with a soft smile forming on her lips.

"Oh no, whatever would I do?" Alex chuckled.

"Alex…" Olivia's tone changed to more serious.

"Hmm?"

"You remember your mom's assault forty years ago?"

"It's not something one would forget."

Olivia rolled over and looked at the ceiling.

"We think the guy who killed the woman last night… was the same person who assaulted your mom that night. Same M.O. and the same location."

The silence loomed, Olivia knew Alex was processing everything she just said in her mind. She knew this wouldn't be easy to hear or deal with. Olivia glanced at her phone that rested on Alex's pillow.

"Liv…" She heard Alex sigh heavily. "Liv, she won't talk about it. I've tried to get it out of her for decades."

"Well, maybe now she knows there's a possibility he could get caught… Alex, she's my last hope, all his other victims have moved away and want nothing to do with the case."

"I'll talk to her before dinner and I'll call you before I go to sleep tonight."

Olivia smiled and sighed with relief. Thank god.

"Thank you, Alex. I know it won't be easy, but I appreciate you trying. I just need to know what happened that night and if he had any distinctive features."

"I'm just letting you know - don't bank everything on my mother. She probably won't agree to talk to you."

"Alex, I gotta try…"

"I know…"

Another moment of silence fell, and Olivia turned over and made herself comfortable. She tucked an arm under her pillow and snuggled down as she listened to Alex hum softly while sorting thought files on her computer. She wasn't sure of the song, but it was a beautiful melody and Alex's voice carried like the finest silk. Olivia felt her heavy eyes falling.

"You know what I'm looking forward to when I get back?" Alex chimed through the hum.

"Hot chocolate night."

Olivia smiled. For years, every Wednesday was hot chocolate and marshmallow night. Olivia loved preparing this kind of evening for Noah and Alex just added to it. They make the hot chocolate from scratch and it always tasted so much better than instant hot chocolate. They always topped theirs with whipped cream and a marshmallow. They would then play a board game to end the evening.

"Exactly!" Alex agreed. "They only have the instant stuff in the Cabot house." She added as she continued typing. "I also miss the smell of your cooking… I don't know why - it just reminds me of… well, home." Alex sighed down the phone. "These past few days have made me realise so much, Liv…" She chuffed down the phone. "I never knew how much a single person could mean to me - along with Noah, being away from both of you is killing me. All I want is for you to be here with me and to see your face when I wake up. What I'm trying to say - in the worst way possible… I love you, Liv" She heard nothing in reply. "Olivia?" She questioned, but soon heard the gentle snores of the lieutenant who was curled up on her girlfriend's pillow and blissfully in the land of dreams. Alex sighed "God - you would be asleep during a confession." Alex chuckled. "Sleep tight, Liv, I'll call you later."