A/N: Again, thanks for all the many reviews, I love getting them and they make me write faster - if possible, lol.

Disclaimer: I don't own them - just playing in Dick Wolf's sandbox.

She glared at the paperwork in front of her, as if willing it to disappear on it's own, or better yet – magically spit out the answer to the riddle that had been plaguing them. Upon receiving Collier's military records – which she had to argue with Carver for a damn hour on the phone about, which resulted in her ultimately tossing the phone at Bobby's head and letting him deal with the infuriating ADA – they had set about contacting an old Army buddies. All responses were the same – they had all liked Mark , he was a great guy, but they hadn't seen him in years. And no one was discussing what types of missions he had participated in, and half of the files were blacked out. "Real helpful." she muttered to herself staring at a file page all the harder to see if somehow she could decipher an entire page of noting but I's, and's, and the's.

Sighing in disgust she pushed the paper away from her and leaned back in her chair. Dragging her hands down her face she groaned aloud in a low tone. For three days they had been running into a brick wall. Repetitively. It was depressing, but what was more depressing was that everyday she called MJ – with nothing to say. It was taking it's toll on Bobby as well – they had no leads to follow, no avenues to pursue , and it just wasn't that often that they were stumped by a case. Ever. Sitting back up straight, she ran a hand across the back of her neck, pressing into the tight muscle there before bringing it around her throat. "We need more."

Bobby didn't look up from where his head was bowed over the DoD paperwork, his chin resting on his hand and his large frame hunched over the desk. "We don't have more." His voice was half a mumble and half a distracted sound, replying for the sake of replying to let her know that he was listening. Things had been- while not tense between them, certainly not normal either. They hadn't discussed the fraternization aspect of the case again, and had moved on. He frustrated her by moving back, pulling away from her on a certain level- one that she hadn't even realized existed until he pointed it out to her by not providing it anymore. They still were able to communicate with few words, but Bobby had stopped doing certain things. Reading over her shoulder- hovering around in her personal space, as a result, she felt uncomfortable leaning on his desk and reading as he pointed out things, they were no more hands guiding her to destinations, just Goren standing a solid foot behind her.

She never realized how much she anticipated the contact until it was gone. She understood why , of course she did. She knew the way he thought – he worried that he had pushed too much the other night and over compensated for it by maintaining proper professional distance. And she went along with him, because not to would force a conversation she wasn't ready to have. So she dealt with him like a petulant three year old. Ignored what he was doing, and hoped that he would just stop trying to prove his point. Sighing, she brought her attention to the task at hand. "I know that." she muttered irritably.

"Goren! Eames! My-"

"Office, now." They mumbled together, shooting a look at one another that was slightly amused before entering their Captain's office. Ross didn't precisely help matters , he was much more hands on than Deakins had been. He wanted progress reports, he wanted theory reports , he wanted to be involved as much as possible. Deakins had worked with she and Goren long enough to know when to get involved and when to just back off and let Goren work. Sighing as she closed the door behind her, she knew it would probably take Ross more than a little while to learn, and frankly she was sick of being the buffer.

Ross sat behind his desk heavily and threw a familiar slim folder at them. She sat up , glaring at it as it lay on an awkward angle on his desk. "Sir, you're assigning us a new case? Because-"

Ross held up a tired hand. "Don't I wish Eames. No, there's been another murder. Officer Daniel Jones – he rode streets down in the 53. Found in his home, tied to his bed, shot twice and cut up. I want you two-" he stared at them with serious eyes - "to go there and please tell me that this is a different killer, and I do not have a serial cop killer out there roaming my streets. You got me?"

They nodded numbly, standing in unison and moving towards the door. Doubling back, she grabbed the file from his desk, before meeting Bobby outside and taking her coat from his waiting hands. Entering the elevator, they were silent, both praying that they didn't have a serial – praying that someone wasn't hunting the cops of New York. Shivering slightly, she tried to deflect some of her own thoughts with her usual twisted humor. "I guess I should be careful what I wish for."

As soon as they walked into the crime scene, she knew that it wasn't just another murder, but was their guy. The apartment looked clean, well as clean as a single man's apartment got anyway- there was nothing disturbed, just a half a cup of coffee on the kitchen counter. She grabbed a CSU tech and told them to bag it – and the entire coffee carafe, before turning towards the bedroom to find her partner.

Goren was once again, hunched over the body, deep in discussion with the ME. Spread out in a similar fashion, he had been shot twice and once again, the carvings were all over his torso and arms. She watched as Bobby grasped the officers forearm in his grip his gloved fingers hovering over the wounds there, measuring them against his hand span. She walked around the room, trying to get a feel for it. It was a rather spartan room, nothing but the bed and night table for furniture, no magazines, no books- except she noticed a bible laying on the nightstand next to the victim. Sighing, she stepped out of the room, giving the CSU's more room, and exited the apartment to find most of the 53rd precinct milling around the hall. A man walked up to her, his hair graying and his portly frame protesting.

"Detective? I'm Lt. Will Carnes." He shook her hand firmly and shook his head sadly as she nodded. "Anything you need from me or my guys – let me know."

"Thank you Lieutenant." She pulled her pen out of her pocket, quickly followed by her notepad. " Did you notice anything odd in Officer Jones' behavior recently?"

"No, he was pretty well liked – a bit of an ass at times, but a good cop. He's been with the 53 for seven years now. He and his partner graduated from the Academy together. They did their training, and were paired afterwards. They had a lot of good collars, hardly ever argued either." His tone was matter of fact, and she could see he was the type of higher up that didn't get deeply involved with his officers. Sighing inwardly, she nodded, and moved over to a pair of men standing not too far from the corner. They didn't see her approach, and were talking amongst themselves as she came upon them.

"-not that I'm surprised, but ya'd think Hope woulda noticed if something was going on with him. It is her job-"

"Yeah, and you damn well know she pays enough attention-" She cleared her throat and both men jumped, startled. She resisted the urge to make a jab about their instincts, and simply introduced herself with a serious face. When she asked them the same question, they glanced at one another nervously.

"Danny was a good cop m'am." The taller officer spoke roughly. She winced at the m'am but didn't take any notice of it. "Or he was a good cop – 'til Hope screwed him up-"

"Man, she's an officer too. Shut up." The younger of the two tried to quell his partner's tendency to talk, but the older man disregarded him.

"Yeah- and Danny was fine until they started fighting. All of a sudden he's losing concentration on the job- not paying attention like he should. Hell he almost got us killed the other day. And Hope? She doesn't listen. We told her- that she was screwing him up- and she laughed. Laughed about how he didn't give a shit- or somethin' like that. Screwed up man, that's what it is. Having a woman as a partner is worse than havin' a wife. If your partner's more work than your job – it's time to move on. That's what I said to Danny but he didn't listen-" At that the man shrugged as if to say 'and look at where he is now.' She bite the inside of her cheek, trying to count backwards and remember that clocking a fellow officer would not look good on her record.

"Hope cared about Danny though-" the younger man stepped in front of his partner as if sensing her hostility. "They'd been together forever- helped each other through the Academy from what I heard. He was really there for her when her husband passed away two years ago- she has two kids too. She wouldn't have done anything to hurt him, is all I'm sayin'." He finished off lamely and she nodded, asking their names before continuing on down the hall. Four interviews later, she learned a whole lot of nothing- but the fact that most of the precinct apparently thought Officer Jones and his partner were sleeping together. The only dissension among them was when the affair had started. Before or after her husband died. When she finally reached the end of the hall, and the woman slumped against the wall there, she was tired, and sure that Goren was probably pacing around inside, dying to get back to One PP and his insights about the murder.

"Officer Hope Yellis?" The woman on the floor looked up, her eyes red rimmed and her face pale. She wasn't exactly standardly pretty – her hair was medium length, and a washed out blonde. Her nose was slightly too big, but her eyes were a pretty cornflower blue, wide set and fringed with dark lashes.

"Yeah- yes, that's me. Can I help you?" Alex nodded and sank down to the floor beside the woman, not wanting to make her get up. Besides, it gave the slight illusion of privacy. None of the many men milling around even glanced in their direction. Alex glared around her, and looked at Yellis with pity – her job was not about to get easier.

"I'm Detective Eames from MCS. I wanted to ask you a few questions?" Yellis nodded tiredly, and Alex looked at her with sympathy. "Had you noticed anything unusual in the last few days? In Officer Jones' behavior or-"

"We fought." She whispered , her voice tight and low. "Shit- I was pissed at him. And it was so damn stupid."

"What did you fight about?"

"What didn't we fight about? It started – it was stupid, ya know? He was distracted on the job- and I was yelling at him, I guess. He was going out way too late the night before shifts- he'd been drinking more- he was seeing girl after girl- one night and they'd be gone-"

Alex made a note in her book, surprised at this information. Some of it must have shown on her face because Yellis sighed beside her.

"It's not true ya know- Danny and I- we were best friends. Honestly he was such a help after Bill passed-" She paused for a moment, sniffing. "He helped with the house and the kids- I have two. A girl and a boy. Molly's eleven and Joey's sixteen. Danny, he would really help with them- especially Joey. He was gettin' in trouble at school and Danny was just always there. But we weren't sleeping together, despite what they told ya." She jerked her head towards the men lining the corridor. "They just didn't get it, ya know? How Danny and I were so close, and nothing was happening. They just saw we were so close, and assumed. Hell, a few of them even reported us- but they couldn't prove anything, because it wasn't true. At least.." She trailed off uncertainly, here eyes staring down at the floor for a moment before she glanced up.

"What caused the change in his behavior then? The drinking.. the women.." Alex asked a bit tentatively, not sure what the answer would be.

"He-" Yellis' voice dropped to a whisper and Alex had to lean forward to hear her. "He told me that he was interested in me. That he loved the kids and wanted to try a relationship. And I-" she pressed a hand to her face to muffle a sob in her throat. "-I told him no. That our partnership and friendship was worth more to me than what would end up being a short lived roll in the hay. He got- so angry. He yelled for a bit and then kind of got.. defeated I guess. Said he should have expected it. And he left. After that he was just .. gone."

"Gone how?" Alex asked with a slight frown.

"Oh he was there- at work, everyday in the car. But he wasn't there if you know what I mean. He didn't talk to me about anything outside of work. He didn't touch me, didn't come near me. It was like riding with a freaking ghost." At this point she pressed her face into her hands, trying desperately to get a handle on herself. Alex glanced at her, wincing in pain. She was trying so hard to keep herself tough- she didn't want to break down in front of the asses she worked with every day. Alex took out her card, pressing it into her trembling hands.

"One more thing-" she paused glancing at the shaken woman beside her. "Was Danny religious at all?"

"No." Yellis frowned next to her. "The kids and I would drag him to midnight mass once a year – but that was it. Why?" Alex just shook her head, an idea forming in the back of her mind but refusing to fully surface.

"All right – if you think of anything else- let us know." She stood, placing a hand on the small of her back as it protested the crouching. Yellis nodded, keeping her head down so that her hair curtained her face, covering her from view. Alex sighed before walking back through the hall, resisting the urge to punch a few idiots along the way, before entering the apartment to find Goren hovering anxiously, waiting to pounce. Shrugging wordlessly, she motioned for him to follow her to the car, before sliding behind the wheel and driving them back to One PP and the various theories Bobby no doubt had racing around his head.

"ME's report was the same Eames- Rohypnol, perimortem cutting – no sign of sexual assault. This is our guy." Bobby was pacing in front of a new white board. This one covered with a profile- one that they were currently arguing over.

"I didn't say it wasn't Goren- but I think that you're approaching this wrong-"

"Both murders targeted the men- both used a drug to make them docile- why- why would a man do that?" Hie hands waved agitatedly as he paced and she almost became more still in response to his overabundance of movement.

"So men only kill women?" She arched a brow slightly, her tone dry.

"No- but I just- I think this is a woman. It would explain why she doesn't cut them while they're alive. The blood- it bothers her-"

"Hell Goren, I know twenty men easily who would pass out at the sight of blood. That's not a reason to narrow the gender down." He swung, turning towards her abruptly and leaning down, bracing his arms on the back of the chair opposite her.

"Why men then? Why male victims?"

"How the hell do I know? Maybe he has a deep seated self hatred and he expresses it by killing other men in effigy?" She paused for a moment, blinking slightly and looking up at him with a shocked expression. "Alright I am spending way too much time with you-"

"No- it's- it's a good theory. Fine. We'll leave it gender neutral and see how it pans out." He swung back to the board, scrawling more information on it. She sighed watching him, her mouth twisting in a half smile. She could fill a library with the things they never said to each other- the issues she skated around like a professional figure skater dancing across a pond with thin ice. Careful not to drown. Things like how she thought that he was really trying to sell the idea that this was a woman, because he missed it with Jo Gage. How she knew he was pulling away- but didn't talk about it, because then they'd have to discuss why. That was a conversation she would run screaming from.

"Alright-" she spoke brusquely as she shuffled the pages in front of her. "Parallels are, so far- both white males, both in the age range of 35-45, both police officers, both partnered with females. One was involved with his partner, the other was not- but wanted to be. Both drugged, both possibly knew the assailant, as there was no sign of struggle-"

"Which means that the military side was a dead end. Whoever is doing this knew them through the NYPD." Silence met his words, and she felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach.

"Which means we need to look on the inside." She stated the obvious conclusion flatly. No officer, no matter how high or low in the NYPD – no one wanted to cross that thin blue line. The one she and Bobby were about to jump on and kick at like schoolyard kids with a cockroach they'd found.

"Shit." Bobby lowered himself into the chair heavily, landing with a thud and causing a gust of wind to scatter the various notes and photos on the table between them. She began picking up the ones that fell to the floor, gathering the stack of photos and placing them in order, spread across the desk. Frowning she glanced at the photo of Jones' body.

"Hey- did they take that bible as evidence?" She flipped through the photos looking for a close up of it.

"Yeah- it had some blood evidence on it – why?" Bobby glanced over at her as she rifled through the pictures.

"I asked his partner if he was particularly religious- and she said no. I don't think it's his, I think-"

"-it was left by the killer?" He finished her thought as he pulled a close up of the book in question out of the pile with all the flourish of a magician, his nimble fingers plucking it from thin air. She rounded the table, placing a hand on the back of his chair, and leaning over his shoulder as they peered at the photo intently. "You know-" Bobby glanced back at her, angling his face towards her as she stared. "- this could be a sign. Perhaps the killer is as frustrated as we are that we didn't immediately identify the reason for these killings. She left us a clue."

"Clue or not, we need a better look at that bible." she muttered, her eyes meeting his and pausing for a moment. They seemed frozen that way for a moment- his eyes apologetic and begging forgiveness. She must have given it, because his body relaxed at the acceptance in her eyes and he stood, reaching behind her for his coat and hers.

"Time to go see CSU again." She rolled her eyes slightly, and followed him out the door. Ross saw their progress across the bullpen and came to stand in his office doorway. Goren barely glanced at him as he plowed through the detectives in his way, so she merely shrugged apologetically at the Captain, and followed in the wake of parted bodies that Bobby created.

Forty minutes later they found themselves ensconced in a small room in the CSU lab, their gloves on as Bobby broke the evidence seal on the bag containing the bible. CSU told them it had been dusted with no results, but the blood on it hadn't been tested yet, so they could only look here, in the lab.

As the worn leather book slid onto the counter, she leaned over examining it. It was a New International version of the bible- it's spine cracked and worn, giving it a well used air. She looked up at Bobby who was studying the blood pattern on it, frowning.

"It doesn't look like spatter does it?" He mumbled thoughtfully, pointing to certain spots on the cover. "It's smudged, almost more like-" Their eyes met and she spoke for him.

"Transfer." She took the edge of the cover in her hand gently and pried the bible open. The edges of the pages were bloody, with marks on the edge.

"Blood on his hands as he flipped. He was looking for a – a certain page- or a passage?" Bobby spoke quickly as his gloved hands flipped through the pages nimbly. Finally he reached a page and stopped suddenly, the amount of blood on the page clearly indicating that this was what the killer sought. "Ecclesiastes 7:26" He spoke softly, reading from the page.

"I find more bitter than death
the woman who is a snare,
whose heart is a trap
and whose hands are chains.
The man who pleases God will escape her,
but the sinner she will ensnare."

When he had finished, he glanced up at her in silence. "He blames- the men for falling prey to the women. They 'snared' the men, but if the men hadn't been susceptible to sin – they would have been spared."

"How in the hell would he know, though?" she found her voice after a moment of silence. "Mark and MJ – no one knew- and Jones and Yellis- well it was just assumed. But they were wrong."

"I don't know." Bobby spoke softly, copying the passage onto a scrap of paper from his binder. "Maybe he was watching them? Or saw them routinely?"

"Yellis said- she said that someone reported her and Jones, but IAB couldn't prove anything so it was dropped-" She frowned as she spoke, and Bobby looked up excitedly.

"Maybe- maybe someone reported Collier and Casas too? Maybe they thought they were careful but they weren't?" They straightened glancing at each other, and then down at the book between them.

"We need those IAB files." She spoke softly, the sound harsh in the silent hush of the room.

"We need to tell Ross we're looking in the department before we do that." Bobby answered her slowly, with a flat tone to his voice.

"Rock, paper, scissors?" She questioned hopefully. He looked down at her with a raised brow. "Or I could handle it." She sighed, following him out of the lab and watching as he instructed the female CSU to photograph the pages they found and send them over asap. She practically fell over herself to get it done, rushing into the room behind them with a sigh and a smile. She frowned fiercely at his back as she followed him down the hall to the SUV and a meeting she would give her eye teeth not to have to tackle. "You owe me- BIG." she muttered as she slid behind the wheel. He merely smiled over at her, holding his hands up in an 'I surrender' position and giving her the same boyish grin he had used on the CSU tech in the lab. She just glared harder before turning away and shooting out of the parking lot.