He sat up suddenly, sweating and breathing hard. This wasn't working. He'd gotten maybe an hour of sleep all weekend. He grabbed his phone and dialed, waiting impatiently for her to answer. When she did, he quietly asked, "Are you busy?"

"No. Is something wrong?"

"Can I…I mean do you mind…" He let out his breath in a frustrated rush. "Can I come over, Eames?"

She hesitated, caught off guard, not just by his question, but by the urgency in his voice. "Of course, you can. I'll leave the door open for you."

"Thanks." He snapped the phone closed and looked at the clock. Nine twenty-two. He got dressed, grabbed his portfolio and left the apartment with the dog.

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He knocked lightly then opened the apartment door, letting the dog in first. Eames came out of the kitchen, drying her hands on a towel. She patted King on the head as he came up to her wagging his tail. "God, Bobby…what have you been doing all weekend?"

"You mean besides not sleeping?"

She looked sympathetic. "Sit down," she said, sitting lightly beside him. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"What is there to say? I keep going over the crime scene reports, wondering if there is something I've missed. And when I try to sleep, all I can see is…them…and when I think about Lydia…well, let's just say a nightmare would be a step up from where I am…" He trailed off, rubbing his face.

"Have you slept at all?"

"No, not really."

She reached toward him and gently smoothed the hair at his temple. He sighed and closed his eyes; her hand was cool and comforting. "Does it help to remember her before this?" she asked.

"No, it doesn't help, because it always goes back to seeing her there, on the floor...and remembering...what he did to her." She could feel his tension, his anger, his feelings of impotence at not being able to find her killer. He leaned his head back and took an uneven breath. "And then I see her dad's face. Barry was, er, is a great dad. She...aw, hell...what am I going to do?"

She pressed her forehead against the side of his head and spoke softly into his ear. "You're going to get this bastard so you can sleep again. Bobby, I'm so sorry about Lydia. I really let you down on that one."

He opened his eyes, looking at her with a frown. "Let me down? How?"

"I should have known better. I should never have let you process that scene. Stabler was right. You should have been the one to stay with Barry."

He ran over that in his mind, but shook his head. "No. I had no idea it would hit me this hard. We didn't do anything wrong. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Maybe someday we'll both believe that. It's hard to distance yourself when it hits so close."

"How close does it hit you?"

"They're children, and those are the hardest crimes to deal with. And I really hate seeing you like this."

He hated that he was the cause of any grief for her. "I...I should have stayed...home."

"No. I'm glad you came over. I...I want to help you." She slid into the corner of the couch. "Lay down, Bobby."

"Eames..."

"Come on. I won't bite." She reached toward him and grabbed the sleeve of his t-shirt. "Lay down."

She gently pulled his sleeve and he relented, his head coming to rest against her thigh. She smoothed his hair back off his forehead and rubbed small circles into his temples. He shifted his hips into a more comfortable position. "I...wish I could turn my mind off...sometimes."

"I know. I wish you could, too."

His frown was beginning to ease as she firmly caressed the sides of his face. "It's...hard..." he said quietly.

Her fingers pressed firm circles into his shoulders, the sides of his neck, along his collarbone. "What's hard?"

His face was more relaxed. "Just...being me...sometimes..." His eyelids lowered a little. "Logan says...it gives him a headache, just thinking about it."

She smiled. "I understand that. You give me a headache, too, sometimes."

He shifted his eyes to look up at her. "I do?"

"Just sometimes." Her fingers worked his temples again, then gently slid over his eyes, closing them. He tried to force them open, with marginal success. She added, "I need a headache sometimes. It's not a bad thing."

"And being my partner?" he mumbled.

"That's always a good thing, Bobby."

He couldn't force his eyes back open. Everything was catching up with him. For a long time, she continued to stroke his forehead and finger his hair while she watched him sleep.

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She heard the phone ring. Shit. She turned over, grabbed it and flipped it open. "Eames."

Nothing…and the phone continued to ring. What the…It was Bobby's phone. Great. She got up and hurried out into the living room, where he was still sleeping soundly on the couch. She followed the ring and…God, was this really happening? "Damn it, Bobby…"

She stuck her hand in his pocket and pulled out the phone, flipping it open. "Eames."

There was a moment of silence, then Deakins' confused voice. "Why are you answering Goren's phone?"

"Never mind that, Captain. What's going on?"

"We have another victim."

Another victim…Monday morning, just like Goren had predicted. She grabbed a pen from the counter and flipped over an envelope. "Give me the address." She wrote it down. "Is it…another cop's daughter?"

"Yes."

"Don't let CSU or anyone else in that house."

"Is Goren going to bring the dog?"

"Yes."

"Does he know what the hell he's doing, Alex?"

"Doesn't he always? Honestly, Captain, it can't hurt anything letting the dog try."

Deakins sighed. "Let me know."

She closed the phone and stepped over to her sleeping partner. "Bobby…wake up." He groaned. "Come on, Bobby. Wake up."

He opened his eyes and looked at her, confused. "Eames?"

"Come on, get up. We have another victim."

"Another…?" He sat up slowly and shook his head. "What time is it?"

"Almost four. We're losing time."

He nodded and got to his feet, stumbling slightly toward her. She grabbed his arm. "Can you do this?"

"Yeah. I'm ok." He tried to shake the sleep from his mind and ignore the dull throbbing behind his eyes. "Come on, King. We're going to play cops and robbers."

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There was little in the way of traffic on the streets at this hour, particularly in the quiet neighborhood they pulled into. In the back seat, King sat in the middle of the seat, trembling with excitement. Goren reached over and rubbed his neck. You would have thought he was a K-9 the way he was acting. He wondered if Barry still brought him in to work with him. He kind of missed those days. They'd gone undercover a couple of times with the dog. Those had been fun jobs. Of course the undercover work he did now was fun, too…just a different kind of fun.

He let the dog out of the car and headed for the house, with Eames right behind them. Half a dozen CSU techs were scattered about the front lawn, sitting on their cases. "It's about damn time, Goren. Deakins told us to wait here for you. Can we go in now?"

"Not yet. I'll just be a minute. Where are the parents?"

"Kitchen. Hurry up, man."

He went into the house, finding his way easily to the kitchen. The man and woman who were sitting at the kitchen table were staring into space, stunned, numb. He knew those looks. "Uh, I'm Detective Goren. I…I'm sorry they left you in here alone."

The father was a solid man, crew cut, cop's bearing. "Sergeant Perez," he said, holding out his hand. "You Special Vicitms'?"

"No. Major Case. SVU is on the way."

He nodded. "Come on."

He led Goren down a long hall to the other end of the house. He turned and looked up into the detective's eyes, his own filled with unfathomable grief. It was a haunting look, another image for his nightmares. "She's in there. Her name is Maria and she's four. You take good care of her, Goren, and you find the son of a bitch who did this."

Goren nodded. "I plan to."

Perez returned to his wife as Goren pulled on his gloves. "Come on, King. It's time for cops and robbers."

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Stabler and Benson hurried up the walk to where Eames was waiting with the impatient CSU techs. Stabler looked around. "Where is he?"

"Inside."

"So why are we all out here?"

"So we don't contaminate the scene with too many scents."

"The dog?"

She nodded. "It's time to play cops and robbers."

The front door opened and a very determined dog shot across the porch and down the steps, nose to the ground. Goren followed him, stopping long enough to glance at Stabler, unable to help wishing he were Logan. "Let's go."

"What?"

"Come on."

"I am not…"

"Yes, you are."

He grabbed Stabler's arm and propelled him across the lawn. The SVU cop yanked his arm from Goren's grasp and fought down the urge to lay him out right there. If he sensed that he was half a second from getting his ass kicked, Goren gave no indication. Stabler glanced back toward the house. The CSU techs were already inside, and so were their partners. Reluctantly, he followed Goren and the dog.

The dog ran full tilt across a baseball diamond in a nearby park, silent and deadly in pursuit of his prey. Behind him ran two powerful and very pissed off cops, also silent and deadly. The dog charged across a small stream, hesitated, and began running up and down the bank, looking for the scent. Winded, the two cops slid to a halt, watching him. Stabler glared at Goren, but he was paying no attention to him, concentrating on the dog. King caught the scent and was off with a bark. Goren charged across the stream after him. Annoyed, Stabler followed. Goren was going to pay for this, he thought to himself. He was going to knock him off the fucking edge.

King charged across a large empty parking lot and came to a halt at the door of an abandoned building. A sign in the window read Condemned in large letters. Goren pressed himself against the wall on one side of the door, Stabler against the other, both with guns drawn. They looked at each other. Goren called the dog away from the door and nodded at Stabler, who nodded back. He swung around, kicked the door open and they entered the condemned building.