Notes: I'm still going with the theory Dodds, Sr. is somehow connected to the church scandal. Of course, I may have to rework this after next week. Also, forgive me if the subplot about the two missing boys is a little rudimentary…I'm a lover not a crime writer! Enjoy!

Five.

Tucker sat behind his desk sipping coffee. He had plenty of work to do, but the normally industrious IAB Captain didn't feel like working at that particular moment. It was not exactly the proper attitude for a man recently reinstated to a position he loved, but there were extenuating circumstances.

Ed was in love.

It wasn't just Olivia, either. Ed had fallen hard for the entire package—Olivia, Noah, waking up next to her, their Saturday and sometimes Sunday morning lazy breakfasts, and the perfectly uneventful mornings like the one that had just passed.

Tucker had woken early, made himself a cup of coffee, and returned to bed to scan the headlines on Olivia's iPad. He wanted to accidentally-on-purpose rouse her and possibly sneak in another round of lovemaking before work, but she was sleeping too peacefully. He didn't have the heart to disturb her.

One more of his clean suits was draped over an easy chair in the corner. Ever since the church scandal and their respective punishments, he had been spending less and less time at his apartment. They were nowhere near moving in together, but he couldn't help but think about the future possibility of a combined Benson-Tucker household. For the time being though, he would have to grab more clothes.

Olivia stirred just as Ed was thinking about waking her. She was not known to arrive at the precinct unnecessarily early, but he knew she wouldn't want to oversleep with this case looming over SVU's heads.

"Morning," She rasped, eyes still closed.

Ed put the coffee and iPad down, gripped her under the arms, and dragged her to him so her back was against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her neck, her ear, gently biting the lobe, and, finally, her cheek.

"Captain Tucker," she coyly admonished him, "I'm sorry but I don't think I have time for this right now."

"I know you don't," he agreed, albeit regretfully. "You better get ready." Contrary to his words, Ed still held her firmly.

She tried to wrestle out of his grip. "Ed, come on, let me go."

"Go ahead. I'm not stopping you," he joked.

"Ok, I really don't want our next meeting together taking place at One PP where we'll have to explain why I was late to work when there was a major break in the case."

"One look at you and the new chief would understand."

She giggled and fell limp against him, "Ok, ok, what do I have to do to get out of here?"

"Kiss me." She leaned back and kissed him hard on the lips, smashing her face into his. He laughed, her mouth still on his, "You are aggressive, Lieutenant."

"I have to be," she sassed. "Now, please, I need to shower and get Noah up and…are you working from home or something today?"

"No, no, I'll get there early enough. Get in the shower. I'll get Noah."

Olivia still hesitated to accept Ed's help with her son. Deep down she harbored the anxiety that it was burdensome for him and he was just offering to be nice and that someday he'd look around, throw his hands up, sick of it, and leave. But there was no time to talk about that now. She looked at the clock on her nightstand. Almost 7:15. Not too bad, but she had to move.

"You know you don't have to do that," she reminded him, pinching his chin gently with her thumb and index finger.

"I know, but I am doing it and I want to, so get in the shower," he commanded through clenched teeth, giving her a friendly shove.

"Ok, ok."

Ed fetched Noah, got him changed and dressed, and plopped him in the high chair. "Juice, Tuck?"

"On it, bud." Tucker placed Noah's juice cup and a handful of Cheerios on the tray. Noah happily ate his breakfast and beamed at his mother when she emerged clad in a t-shirt with a towel wrapped around her wet hair.

"Hi sweetheart," she said brightly and kissed the top of his head, "Good morning! Tuck got you all ready to go?"

Noah nodded.

"I'm done in there," she told Tucker. "Go ahead."

Ed was clean, dressed, and ready in less than thirty minutes. He walked out of the bedroom in his freshly pressed suit and shirt, tie expertly knotted, badge on his waist, and he moved with the can't-touch-this IAB swagger that was unmistakably his.

Noah pointed at him. "Tuck police!" He exclaimed. "Get bad guys!"

Apparently unconcerned with Cheerios or sticky apple juice fingers soiling his clothes, Tucker hoisted Noah out of the high chair. "That's right," he said seriously.

"Ready?" Olivia asked.

The gold edges of her badge were extra prominent against her all black attire—blouse, blazer, and pants.

"Doesn't mommy look good?" Ed asked Noah.

"Pretty," he replied.

"You two make a girl blush. Now, let's go."

She hustled Noah into his jacket and grabbed her own trench coat. The three of them hit the street walking in the same direction until Olivia had to veer off to drop Noah at day care.

"Do you want me to drive you to the precinct?" He offered.

"No, go ahead, I'll walk. See you later?"

"Yeah." She turned to walk away but Ed grabbed her by the elbow. "Bye," he said softly. Tucker gave her an innocent kiss, but he let his bottom lip linger on hers for a split second and met her eyes with his.

The whole good-bye kiss routine of his made Olivia feel like she should be in a hotel room rather than on the streets of New York. "Again, you make a girl blush," she repeated, actually blushing. "Say good bye to Tucker, Noah."

"Bye, Tuck!"

Ed watched as Olivia led her son down the street by the hand.

He took another drink of the now-lukewarm coffee, made a face, and slid it to the corner of his desk. Trying to think about something else, he picked up a stack of thick manila folders, officers' jackets, and opened the first one gingerly. Ed dealt with the worst of the worst—police officers sworn to uphold the law and protect the public who, for whatever reason, had gone astray and broken the law. The three characters whose careers were summarized on paper in front of him were definitely going down. Tucker studied their pictures—all young guys. Probably had families. They stood to lose everything, pensions, reputations, self-respect, at their hearings later on this week.

"Tucker?" Cole came in.

"Hey, Cole."

"SVU is on the phone."

Ed pressed the blinking red light on his console, picked up the phone, pressed the "speaker" button, and put the handset back down. "This is Tucker and Sergeant Draper."

"Hey," It was Olivia's voice, sounding tinny and distant. She was on speaker, too. "I think we may have something. Fin just let me hear the audio from Kelvin Phillips' interview this morning."

"Kelvin Phillips?" Tucker asked.

"Yes, he's the one boy we didn't interview because he quit the team a month ago. Fin finally caught up with him and his mother before school this morning. He says Jarvis and James were caught with marijuana right before their Pennsylvania tournament. By Cartwright."

"Pot. How much?" Draper asked.

Fin answered, "Probably not a whole lot, but Kelvin told me, after his mother left the room, that everyone knew they could get dime bags from Jarvis or James. These two weren't angels."

"Still," Tucker protested, "It's not enough for warrants. And if you press those two cops on this, they'll lawyer up."

"Lieutenant!"

Draper and Tucker looked at one another. The voice was Carisi's and the urgency was obvious. They struggled to hear the ensuing conversation among the SVU squad members, then the other line fell silent.

"Hello?" Ed said.

"Tucker, you may want to see this. Carisi has been taking a closer look at the street cams and he widened the area. We might just have what we need."

"We'll be there within the hour."

….

Carisi slid the iPad in front of Tucker and Draper. "We were looking for someone following them," he pointed out. "No dice. But hundreds of cams. So, I expanded the area, started earlier, and whaddya know? Right there," Carisi flicked the screen with his fingernail. "Dusk. Two unis heading into the park at Ninety-sixth."

"Has that been sent to TARU?" Draper asked.

"Yes, I had them rush it," Benson reported.

Carisi shook his head and pulled the officers' photographs from a folder, "But look! It's them." He was right. The high resolution video clearly had recorded Cartwright and Dunmore.

Tucker swallowed. "Get warrants for their phones and financials. I'll notify their Captain."

Olivia did not look confident. "Hold on a second, guys," Olivia interrupted, "Motive? All we have are the calls and texts, and there is nothing incriminating in the texts."

"But this video…" Carisi trailed off.

"Liv," Fin said softly, "There's something there. We need their phones. We know they called the boys. We know they got busted for pot. The two cops didn't tell us that. We need to know if they called and texted each other and if they're on the take somehow"

Olivia pressed her lips together, thinking. "We need to re-interview the lacrosse team. One more time. Maybe one of them held something back. And get the dogs to their homes and their lockers at school. We need an air tight case here, and right now we don't have it. They lawyer up, we may never get it."

Rollins chimed in, "We can go back up to the school, get Narcotics up there, too."

"Look," Tucker said firmly, "This is more than a coincidence now. We have calls from the cops to the boys? Timeline match?"

Rollins read from her notes, "Two calls from Cartwright to James and one from Dunmore to Jarvis. That was before the boys were caught on camera and after their practice ended that night. The officers would have been in the park if that's them." She bobbed her head towards the iPad.

"It's them," Carisi assured, again. He was starting to get a little annoyed.

"Lieutenant," Tucker almost used "Olivia" but he caught himself in time, "It's your call, but IAB has enough to bring them in for an interview."

Olivia looked at him hopefully, "Can IAB wait a few hours?"

Tucker and Cole nodded simultaneously.

"Fin, call Narcotics, but not Dunmore's division, and get a dog up there today. First their apartments, parents have already consented to searches, then the school. Keep it on the down low; no radio. I'll go with you. Rollins and Carisi, call the school and set up another session with the kids. Press them about the cops. And the drugs. Remember, you're their allies not the enemies. They'll talk."

The two detectives looked skeptical, but they nodded in agreement and left.

Fin was already on the phone with the K9 Team.

Olivia picked up the iPad and the folders and tried to avoid Ed's eyes because she knew he would be scowling, displeased with her hesitation.

"Keep us in the loop, Lieutenant," Draper said courteously and turned to leave.

Olivia headed towards her office and brushed past Ed, glancing at him warily.

Uh-oh. That stare. IAB Ed. Set jaw. Red cheeks. Intense.

But then his face suddenly softened. "So let us know either way, Lieutenant. We can get the warrants expedited."

She knew him too well to fool herself into thinking he wasn't disappointed with her, but he suppressed it, and she was grateful. "Will do," she said breezily.

After they left she paused for a moment behind her desk, gripped the edges, and took a deep breath.

"You rea—" Fin stopped when he saw her in apparent distress. "Liv? Are you ok?" He walked over to her, a look of deep concern on his face.

She lifted her head, let out the breath, and felt a wave of calm envelop her body. "Yes. I think…" she mused curiously, "I think I may have just had a breakthrough." Fin looked confused. She continued, "Was it ok? In there with Tucker?"

Now he understood. "I didn't even think about it," he acknowledged, somewhat astonished at his own realization that there had been no awkwardness.

Olivia smiled. "Let's go."

….

Tucker and Draper had an early lunch at a hole-in-the-wall deli on their way downtown. Perched on ancient-looking stools, they hunched over sandwiches, pastrami for Ed and chicken salad for Cole, and made small talk.

"You're checking your phone a lot," Cole commented.

Tucker had placed his phone, screen up, on the counter which was unusual. He smirked at Cole. "We need to talk to those cops," Tucker muttered, "I'm not sure the Lieutenant made the right move."

"The more juice we have the better. A few hours won't make a difference, especially if SVU doesn't talk to them. The boys' funerals were yesterday. They probably think it's over."

Ed considered the thought and furrowed his brow, "I disagree. But the boss has spoken."

Cole snickered. "The boss," he joked. "I'm glad you know what's up, Tucker. Can't argue with the boss." Cole was giggling like a teenage girl now, happy for his partner but amused that he gave in to Benson's reasoning so easily.

Tucker gave him a friendly sneer.

"She's mellowed you man," Cole slapped him on the back.

Ed shrugged. "Looks like it," he resigned himself to the good-natured ribbing. At least she was back to the old Benson, he thought. Tucker pulled out a twenty-dollar bill and laid it on the counter. "Let's just take a run up to the two-eight and sniff around a little bit," he suggested.

"That's not a good idea, Tucker. Let SVU work. If we need to sweat Cartwright and Dunmore, we will."

"Fine."

First Olivia and now Cole? Was his assessment of the situation so completely off base?

Tucker chuckled to himself. Mellowing was an understatement.

…

Carisi was very good at determining when kids were and were not ok, and Kelvin Phillips fell into the latter category. The eighth grader shifted uncomfortably in the desk while Carisi and Rollins implored the members and former members of the PEP Lacrosse team to be honest, to help bring their deceased friends' killers to justice, and to try and recall even the tiniest detail.

As it turned out, Kelvin's detail wasn't tiny, it blew the case wide open, but he didn't give it up easily.

"Man," I already told you too much already," Kelvin snarled at Carisi. Sonny, sensing the kid was hiding something hung around after the meeting and had him taken from class to a nearby office under the pretense that he was being counseled about a failing math grade.

"That's how it's gonna be?" Carisi challenged, trying to stir some guilt in the adolescent glaring at him from under a gray hoodie. "Your friends? Someone killed 'em. And I think you know something else about who did it."

Rollins interrupted, playing good cop, "You know what? Let's not talk about Jarvis and James right now. Let's talk about why you quit the team."

"Didn't like it," he muttered.

"Why not?"

"Stupid game."

"PEP coaches say you've been playing since they started the team. Why is it all of a sudden stupid?"

Kelvin indignantly clenched his jaw and folded his arms in front of him.

Carisi took another run at him. "If there's something we need to know, if you're scared, we can protect you. If someone hurt you or threatened you…we can help, we can stop them before they do this to someone else. And they can pay for what they've done to you and to Jarvis and James."

Rollins reached out and held the boy by the shoulder. "You'll feel better if you just get it out, Kelvin. Do the right thing. We won't let anything happen to you."

Both Rollins and Carisi took deep breaths and they saw the boy's face relax. He looked up at them with big, scared brown eyes. "You really can protect me and my mom and my brother?"

"Yes," Rollins assured.

…..

Around the same time Kelvin was spilling the story to Rollins and Carisi, the Narc dogs detected the presence of heroin in the bedroom of James Hayes. The actual drugs weren't there, but they had been at some point of time. The dog signaled its handler at the rear of James' bureau.

Mrs. Hayes, already traumatized and in shock, looked on as Fin moved the dresser away from the wall. The Berber carpeting had been pried loose and so had one of the subfloor boards. Olivia handed him a pair of gloves. Fin reached into the hiding spot and produced a wad of bills. He then dropped it into an evidence bag.

Olivia dialed. "Tucker," she barked into the phone, "I'm ready for the warrants now. Meet us back at the precinct and we'll fill you in."

"Barba?" Fin asked.

"He's in the loop, but he's been in court all day."

…..

For the second time that day, the squad, Tucker, and Draper convened at SVU, this time in Olivia's office. "Everything's at the lab for processing, and we have Kelvin's statement both in writing and on tape," Olivia reported, "Carisi, want to give IAB the run down?"

Sonny looked pleased at being chosen. "Kelvin told us when Jarvis and James were caught with the pot he was there and he got blamed, too. That's why he left the team. Apparently, he'd been in trouble for drugs at school before, so when Cartwright and Dunmore made the deal with James and Jarvis, he immediately took himself out of it."

"What deal?" Ed asked.

"The cops caught them with enough for a distribution charge. They knew all three of them had a juvie history, so they made a deal. Cartwright and Dunmore sent them off to tournaments with heroin, probably confiscated from dealers here. Remember, Dunmore's in Narcotics. Their contacts, mostly in Philly, were cops too, working security at the tournaments. Easy hand off. No airports or train stations."

"And the last time, the boys didn't hand it off. They sold it?" Tucker guessed.

"Right."

"And turned the tables on the cops. Told Cartwright and Dunmore they would just have to deal with it or they would turn them in."

"We're running their financials and dumping their phones," Draper informed them, "Go pick them up."

"Fin, Carisi, go. Rollins, I know I promised you tonight off. Go ahead on home," Benson told her kindly.

Rollins objected, "Lieutenant, I'm fine, I can—"

"Rollins, really, they need to be processed and they won't even be arraigned until tomorrow. There's not much more we can do tonight."

"Got it, Lieutenant."

"Captain, I'm going down to CSU and press them on the bank accounts," Draper said.
Tucker nodded. "I'm heading up to the two-eight. I'll call you and let you know if we need to go back to the house, but we're probably on hold until tomorrow morning. " Tucker replied.

Draper nodded and left.

Tucker lingered. "Well done, Lieutenant," he complimented her. "And all before five o'clock. Dinner?" Tucker took a quick peek at the squad room behind him and then rounded the perimeter of the desk toward where Olivia stood leaning against the credenza. "Where's Dodds?" He asked mischievously.

"I thought you were going to Harlem?" Olivia asked innocently, knowing exactly what Tucker was up to.

"I am. But I have another errand, well, not really an errand," He was creeping closer. "Where's Dodds?" He asked again.

"He's taking some vacation days. He has a lot going on."

Tucker was smug. "I'll bet." He was next to her now, making a show of looking her up and down.

Olivia did not budge, playing coy, "What are you doing?"

"Come here." He began kissing her neck. She still faced the empty squad room, worried about one of her detectives returning for a forgotten item.

He could have at least closed the blinds.

His lips moved from her neck to just below her ear and then the earlobe. Benson was trying to stand still, be flirtatiously uncooperative, but…"Tucker," she gasped.

"What?" He asked breezily, still working on her neck but now upgrading to longer, slightly-open-mouthed kisses. He slung one arm around her hips, and he slid his other hand under the front of her blouse, slowly running a finger just inside her waistband, causing her to quiver and clench her abdominal muscles.

"Ed, we're not alone here, there are—"

His mouth was now on the exposed skin between the edges of the V-neck collar. "There's no one here," he whispered.

"Tucker." He was driving her crazy now, cupping her buttocks with one hand and stroking her breasts with the other.

"Relax," he murmured, "I've always wanted to do this."

"Always?"

He moved to the other side of her neck. "Always since last year."

She felt him against her, hard. His neck was flushed with pleasure; seeing this, her body filled with familiar pre-coital warmth. When he pulled away for a second to gaze at her, his ruddy cheeks and longing blue eyes turned her on even more. Am I really going to do this? Sex in my office? Sex with Tucker in my office? Her world had certainly been flipped upside down in recent history.

Olivia's phone interrupted Tucker's amorous workday interlude.

"Damn," Tucker hissed.

Olivia reached over to her desk and grabbed the iPhone. Tucker's hand was still under her shirt. "They picked them up and are headed for Central Booking."

"Ok." He kept kissing her, but he knew the moment had been lost.

"So…"

"I know. I'm going." He pulled away from her, a hint of a pout on his face.

"Are you coming over tonight?"

"Do you want me to?
She raised an eyebrow, "I think we have unfinished business to take care of," she concluded with exaggerated sincerity.

He smirked at her and leaned in for another kiss. "I'll bring dinner. How long do you think you'll be?"

"Barba's on his way over. An hour? Maybe two?"

"You're going to nail down the details with him tonight?" Ed questioned, still wary of Barba.

"Probably not."

"Are you two ok?"

Olivia sighed, "No…but we're getting there. And Fin and Carisi will be here, too."

Ed genuinely wished her luck with Barba, kissed her one last time, and walked out, wondering if the novelty of kissing Olivia Benson would ever wear off.

Another chapter coming soon! #Tuckson