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"Dammit!"
Olivia looked up at the sudden interruption in the squad room later that afternoon. She closed the file in front of her as she watched the scene unfold. Fin sat across from her and matched her gaze, watching as Elliot angrily kicked the trash can that sat beside his desk across the room.
"Detective!" Cragen barked, coming up behind him. "Watch it or I'm sending you to anger management."
"We all know that's not his strong suit," Munch said as he followed up behind the two of them.
Elliot rubbed his face and sighed before looking back at his captain. "We really don't have enough to hold him? This matches the Parkins and McGee cases from a few years ago perfectly."
"And just like with those cases, he was meticulous. He knows what he's doing," Cragen sighed. "I want to charge him just as much as you do but we don't have the evidence right now. I don't really want to deal with IAB breathing down our necks for unlawful holding." He turned to Fin and Olivia and nodded in their direction. "I'm pulling Fin and Benson into this one, I want all hands on deck. I want to nail this bastard."
"What's the ammo?" Fin asked as Olivia grabbed a legal pad from her desk drawer.
"Jerry Craig," Munch supplied, walking across the room to the coffee pot station in the corner. He grabbed a mug and started making his usual cup of coffee as Cragen glanced at him. "Serial rapist and murderer," he said, "we've been trying to pin him down since the early 2000's."
"Unfortunately for us," Elliot cut in, "the bastard keeps getting away with it."
"Because he's meticulous," Cragen finished.
"How are you pinning it on him?" Olivia asked, her eyes darting between the two men.
"Circumstances match the Parkins and McGee cases from a decade ago that we were never able to close. All three women held for days while he tortured them before he raped and killed them."
"How exactly are you relating it back to him? That just sounds very vague for lack of better words, for our line of work."
"He has a pattern. He becomes obsessed."
"Studies their jobs, their friends, boyfriends, spouses," Elliot cut in, "stalks them like prey, infiltrates every aspect of their lives. Then once he has them, he films them. Broadcasts it out online."
"And you've not been able to get an IP address?" Fin asked.
"Didn't have the technology for the first one," Munch said as he sat down at his desk. He swirled a spoon in his mug, the metal clanking against the ceramic as he spoke. "Second one we didn't connect it in time."
"Which brings us to our latest victim. Following his pattern, she's still alive and we have a very short clock to find her."
"He destroys the equipment, uses burner accounts, different VPNs," Cragen supplied. "Wore gloves so there were no fingerprints at the first scene, but now he burns them off. Shaves his head so there's no hair left behind. Uses a different location each time."
"The guy knows what he's doing," Olivia muttered.
"Unfortunately for us, that just makes our job harder."
Munch took a sip of his coffee before jumping back into the conversation. "With McGee and Parkins, he was connected to the boyfriends. One he worked with and one he knew from his childhood-"
"His childhood bully," Elliot finished.
"Talk about not letting go of a grudge," Fin said.
"I want to nail him just as much as you do," Cragen said as he looked at Elliot. "But we have to let him go." He turned to Fin and nodded at him. "Go with Munch to interrogation and let him go. Liv, I want you to start a deep dive into our victim's life." He tossed a file towards Olivia's desk. "Anna Smith. I want you to dig up any and everything you can on her."
She nodded as she flipped the file open as Fin got up from his desk. He and Munch took off towards the interrogation room as Elliot sat down at his desk and sighed, putting his head in his hands.
"Hey," Olivia said softly as she looked at him. "We'll get him." She got up and walked over to his desk, Perching on the side of it.
"I just hope it's not too late."
"We'll get him," she repeated as she reached for his arm. She knew better than to promise finding a victim before it was to late but nonetheless, she hoped the same.
Munch and Fin walked back into the squad room, with their suspect between them.
"You're free to go," Munch said in a monotonous tone, stopping short once he reached the threshold of the squad room.
Olivia looked up, taking in the sight of him. He was tall, towering over Munch and Fin, with a head of jet black hair and piercing green eyes.
He offered a Cheshire smile as he looked between the two men before his eyes settled on Elliot. He took a step towards hi desk, a charismatic wave swirling in the air around him.
"Until we meet again, Detective," he said as he smirked. He rubbed his wrists; red from the handcuffs. "Next time, go a little easier with the handcuffs, why don't ya?"
Elliot stood up, invading Jerry's personal space. "Next time you'll be lucky to be conscious."
"Is that a threat?" A hint of a smirk tugged at his lips.
"I don't know, should it be?"
"Elliot," Olivia said sternly, narrowing her eyes.
Jerry turned his attention to her, giving her the once-over before he looked back at Elliot and smirked. "Looks like someone is on a short leash."
He opened his mouth for a rebuttal but stopped when he heard Olivia gasp. He turned to her, watching her face scrunch up in pain.
"Liv, you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said, squeezing her eyes shut and pressing a hand to her ribcage. "She's in my ribs."
"Sit," he murmured, reaching for his desk chair.
"I would get out of here before we find a reason to take you back to interrogation," Fin said as he glanced at their suspect.
Olivia winced as she stood up before feeling Mollie shift. She let out a long breath and whispered, "She moved."
"Sit," Elliot repeated, more sternly this time.
Jerry cleared his throat, bringing their gazes back to him. "Until we meet again," he repeated before striding out of the squad room.
"Man makes me want to punch something," Fin said, watching the door he'd just walked out of.
"Let's go, people, I don't want to see him walk out of here again," Cragen ordered; the squad room flurrying to life with the flick of his wrist.
Thunder crashed and lightning flashed in the wee hours of the next morning, startling Elliot and waking him up. His eyes adjusted to the now-black shadows of their bedroom and his heartbeat slowed after his sudden awakening. He lay on his side, staring at the wall for a few moments before he reached behind him for Olivia. Not feeling her, he frowned and rolled over.
Her side of the bed was empty and he sat up in confusion. Lightning flashed again, illuminating the rom as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and got up. He padded down the hallway towards the nursery, the place she retreated to when she couldn't sleep.
She didn't notice him in the doorway as she sat in the rocking chair across the room, her lips moving a mile a minute in hushed whispers as she spoke to their daughter, her fingers tracing feather-light circles on her skin.
"Liv?" he asked after a moment, getting her attention.
Olivia looked up, startled for a moment, but her gaze softened as her eyes settled on him. She offered a weak smile.
"You okay?"
"Yeah." She sniffled and quickly grazed her face wiping a rogue tear away from her cheek.
"No, you're not." He leaned off the doorframe and walked towards her, kneeling down in front of her. "What's wrong?" He settled in the floor and reached for her foot, his fingers starting to massage the tender muscles.
"I-" she stopped short, choking up. She fanned her face to dispel the tears from her eyes, whispering, "I'm just having a moment, I…I'm…"
"Talk to me," he murmured.
"I'm just scared that I won't be a good mom and that I'll mess her up."
"Liv."
"It's stupid, I know, I just….can't stop thinking about it. I don't know what I'm doing, Elliot."
"No one does." He placed her foot on the ground and rose to his knees, bracing himself on both sides of the rocking chair. "Parenting doesn't come with a guidebook. You just….figure it out as you go along."
"I just want her to know that she's safe and so incredibly loved."
"And she will." He smiled. "Just by having you as her mom, she's already hit the jackpot."
Olivia scoffed at his words.
"I'm serious, Olivia. Watching you over the years with victims, I have no doubt that you're going to be an excellent mother. So caring and intuitive, nurturing, you fight for each and every one of them as if they're the only one."
"I don't feel so fearless right about now." Her voice was quiet, but loud enough for him to hear.
"Fearless doesn't necessarily mean the absence of fear," Elliot said soothingly.
Olivia looked at him, narrowing her eyebrows at his choice of words.
"It's recognizing the fear and doing the thing anyways. Not letting it stop you. That's what fearless is."
"El."
"I'm serious. And you, Liv….you are the embodiment of fearless and I'm so glad our daughter will have a role model like you."
Olivia studied him for a moment, cupping his face. "Thank you," she said. "for quieting my fears."
"No need to thank me, Liv." He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Now, let me take you back to bed." He held out a hand and helped her up before leading her back to their bedroom as the thunder rolled.