Chapter 6- Taken
Thanks to CocaCola1952, ginormoussvufan, KaydenceRei, LegaspiWeaver, ACertainJustice, soliz, Maggie Dolye, KWillows, and DrusillaBraun for their sweetness in their reviews!
Disclaimer: I could've made them if I wanted to but other people beat me to it.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Olivia arose with the dawn due to the insistent ringing of her phone.
"Benson." She said sleepily.
"Olivia morning!" Elliot greeted.
She rubbed her eyes, but her heart skipped a beat.
"Hey Elliot." She said. "What's up?"
"Cragen wants to know if you can pick Willows up. I'm getting Sidle, Stokes, and Saunders. Fin and Munch are getting Grissom and Brown." Elliot said, using all of the CSI members last names.
"Oh, I thought Willows went home with you." She said puzzled and surprised.
Elliot was shocked. "Why would she?" he asked confused.
"Just a thought." Olivia answer immediately embarrassed. "I'll get here."
"Alright. Meet you at the morgue. Warner wants to talk to us." He said, hanging up.
Olivia hung up the phone with her heart considerably lighter. Elliot was still alone and available and he wasn't in love with Catherine. She punched the air in joy, but pulled herself together to get dressed and find directions for Catherine's condo.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Lindsay would you please get dressed?" Catherine asked her daughter as she scrambled to find all the files about the case, carefully avoiding Greg on the couch and Warrick on the floor. Casey had awoke in the middle of the night and screamed loud enough to break every window in the place before Catherine calmed her down enough to explain how she got there.
"Fine Mommy, but I wanna go with you." Lindsay said pouting and whining.
"Honey I can't take you with me today." Catherine sighed exasperated.
Lindsay stomped her foot. "But you never take me to work with you anymore!" she screamed.
Catherine sat down and pulled her daughter onto her lap. "Lindsay, listen to me. This case is a very big case. The bad guy is one of the worst that I have ever seen and also, we're guests at someone else's workplace. I can't take you with me now, but I promise when we get home I'll take you and you can work a case with me."
Lindsay brightened. "YAY!" she hoorayed.
Catherine smiled and walked toward the door. Someone was ringing. It was probably her ride.
"Hey." Olivia said when Catherine opened the door.
"Hey." Catherine responded as Lindsay came to investigate who was at the door. "This is my daughter Lindsay."
Olivia smiled at the little girl who was smiling shyly up at her and hiding halfway behind her mother.
"She's adorable."
"Thanks. Come in."
Olivia slipped through the door and saw a nice condo before her. "Wow, nice place." She admired, raising her eyebrows at the sight of Warrick on the floor and Greg on the couch.
Catherine smiled. "I gotta say when Grissom forces us out of our homes and brings us to strange places, he makes up for it." She said, beckoning Lindsay down the hall to get dressed.
Olivia watched the little girl obey. "She's very sweet." She said.
"Yeah she is. Oh can we stop at Melinda's so I can drop her off?" Catherine asked, hoping Olivia wouldn't mind.
"Sure. It'll be no problem." Olivia replied. "It must be hard raising a kid and having the job that you have right now.'
Catherine shrugged. "It's hard but it's worth it. My job and my kid are the two high points of my life. Lindsay was what kept me going when my marriage turned sour." She said.
Olivia surveyed the woman before her. It was hard to imagine a marriage turning sour for someone like her. She seemed put together and not to mention pretty, so why would any man be stupid enough to mess things up. Olivia found that her jealousy the night before was uncalled for and felt a little embarrassed at her coldness toward Catherine when they first met.
"I wanna say that I'm sorry for the way I acted when we first met." Olivia said slowly.
"Hey don't worry about it." Catherine said, secretly relieved. "I understand how it must feel to have someone else thousands miles away coming onto your turf and causing an upheaval."
Catherine was so relieved. Melinda had told her the night before that Olivia was one of the best and great with children. Catherine was jealous still though. She had seen what Olivia and Grissom were doing on the roof and she wished she had been the one in his arms. She pushed aside her feelings. She needed to get along with Olivia and do her job. She drew a soft breath.
Olivia glanced up as Lindsay came clambering down the stairs in shorts and a t-shirt. Catherine smiled.
"Let's get going." She said. "We got a super high profile case to cover."
"What about them?" Olivia asked, pointing at the still sleeping Warrick and Greg.
"They'll figure out something." Catherine said with a impish smile.
Olivia agreed and headed out. Lindsay bouncing up and down behind her.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Alex woke up in someone's arms for the first time in a long time. Nick was still asleep and she stared at him. He looked so sweet asleep. She reached over and stroke his cheek, as the memories of the night before filled her mind.
Flashback
"I have a son."
"What?"
"Remember that other witness?"
"Oh yeah. What's his name?"
"Antonio."
"That's a nice name. Hi Antonio. I'm Nick."
End Flashback
Just like that Alex had been smitten. Nick had won his way into her heart and then into Antonio's. She had confessed her past to him and he hadn't run. He had stayed beside her and told her it was okay. He understood why Alex had to adopt Antonio and why she had always kept the pain of that memory a secret. He hadn't even turned away when she started to cry. He kept his arm around her and let her cry.
The moment of truth came when Antonio had run downstairs. Nick had taken the child and taught him how to play video games and together they had beaten the game. Alex had watched the exchange between the two with joy in her eyes. It seemed so right. Almost like a family when they were together.
She snuggled close to him and shut her eyes again. She knew she had to get up, but she didn't want to. Nick stirred and opened his eyes to see into Alex's blue eyes.
"Wow that's a dream come true." He said softly and a little sleepily
Alex blushed which made a smile come to Nick's face.
"Or maybe I'm still dreaming." He said, burying his face into her blonde hair.
Alex laughed then kissed him. "Now do you know that you aren't?" she asked.
Nick smiled with a twinkle of affection in his brown eyes. "I think I am only I'm awake."
At that moment a very sleepy Antonio waddled into the room. "Mama, your phone's ringing."
Alex leaped out of bed. "Thanks sweetheart." She said, grabbing the phone, cursing at herself for not charging her cell phone.
"Cabot." She said.
"Alex where the hell is Nick?" Elliot's voice rang through the phone.
"Uhhhh…" Alex said glancing at Nick and Antonio playing rock, paper, scissors, on the bed. "He's uhh here."
"WHAT?" Elliot demanded. "WHY THE HELL DID YOU TAKE SOMEONE YOU BARELY KNOW HOME?"
Alex drew a breath. "Elliot please. Chill. He's a great guy and well he and Antonio have really hit it off and I like him kay? So please, breathe and stop screaming."
Elliot did breath, but he didn't listen to the second part. "ALEX WOULD YOU PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU WERE THINKING?"
"Sure. I was thinking, maybe he's a good guy and I was right. Also I was thinking that you would be happy for me not yelling at me."
Elliot calmed down. "Fine Alex. I get that you're a big girl, but if he hurts you in any way, I'm gonna kill him.
"Fine." She retorted and flipping her cell phone shut.
"What was that all about?" Nick asked curiously.
"Nothing. Just big brother watching."
"Oh okay. Well we need to get to work. Where does Antonio go while you're on the job?"
Twenty minutes later, Alex and Nick were on their way to the morgue after they had dropped Antonio off at his daycare.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Greg awoke with a start. He rubbed his head. He vaguely remembered a redhead beside him sometime in the night. He must have been dreaming. He spotted Warrick lying on the floor. That part he remembered. He smiled and rubbed his hands gleefully together.
Warrick yelped as he felt icy coldness run down his back. He jumped up and tried to get the ice out, hopping up in down. Greg watched with hysterical laughter.
"GREG" Warrick roared diving at him.
"Oh shit." Greg said with wide eyes and then ran out as fast as he could. He bolted out the front door with Warrick hot on his heels.
"I'm sorry!" he yelled as Warrick took advantage of his former football abilities and tackled him to the ground. "HELP!" Greg screeched, wrestling with Warrick and trying not to mess up his hair at the same time.
At that moment both Elliot's car and Munch's car pulled into the driveway. The two glanced up and quickly pulled apart.
"What a great way to start the day." Munch said with an amused expression on his face. "We've got a killer on the loose and two of our own are going at each other's throats."
"Sorry." The two of htem muttered.
Elliot walked up to them. "Okay are you going to behave or are we going to have to cuff you?" he asked, only half joking.
Warrick stood up and brushed himself off. "We're good." He said.
Fin grinned. "Then you're coming with us and Spikey there can go with Elliot."
Greg looked nervously at Elliot. "Uhhh guys?" But the others were already gone.
"You're with me buddy." Elliot said amused. "You can ride in the back."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Casey was in her office, when she got Melinda's call. She was replaying the events of the night before. She knew she hadn't done anything completely stupid thanks to Catherine's explanation, but she was still embarrassed. ADAs don't get drunk and then show up at someone's doorstep. She was just glad it was Catherine's doorstep and not some random judge. She rubbed her temples. She felt the biggest hangovers of her life and she still had five cases to arraign that day. The biggie, however, was Warner's urgent message for them to be at the morgue.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Olivia and Catherine took Melinda to the morgue. They had dropped off Lindsay with Melinda's sitter and picked her up in turn. Melinda was busy describing the only piece of evidence they had.
"45 Caliber." She said simply, shaking her head as they entered the morgue.
Catherine and Olivia exchanged glances, which Catherine quickly pulled away from. She couldn't help but feel like she wasn't quite up to Olivia's league. She's so pretty. She thought. She bit her lip. Why would Grissom want her when he could have Olivia? Catherine was no longer in perfect dancer form. Olivia was a green-eyed beauty that had the golden brown hair to match, not to mention had a way with people that Catherine would never compete with. She broke away from her thoughts when the rest of the gang entered.
Within in minutes everyone had settled, Elliot and Olivia perched side by side on a nearby counter, Catherine close to Melinda with Grissom peeking over her shoulder right in front of Olivia's leg, Munch and Fin were watching from the opposite side of the room, Nick had his arm wrapped around Alex's waist much to Cragen's disapproval, Casey was right beside him, watching closely, Sara had her arms crossed and was watching Melinda with wary eyes, and Greg and Warrick were glaring at each other from across the room, their paths to each other blocked by both Catherine and Nick.
"Killer had the same MO. Body dumped in a trash bag, blue paint on the victim's hand." Melinda said softly.
"Is that all you have to tell us?" Sara asked rather haughtily, making Catherine glare at her. Sara didn't care. She wasn't on the case in Las Vegas and was rather annoyed at Catherine for not letting her in on it until Grissom was forcing them to go to New York.
Melinda sent back a glare of her own. "No, what I was going to say was that the victim had a bullet in her. A 45 caliber." She said.
Olivia sighed. "Not exactly an uncommon gun." She observed. "Not to mention millions of people own guns."
Catherine was biting her lip. "I hate how this guy changes his way of killing them every time, but leaves everything the same."
Grissom patted her on the back. He wasn't feeling much better, but it hurt him to see Catherine beat herself up over the case. He knew that she thought it was her fault. She thought she hadn't done her job right the first time and caught the copycat instead of the right guy. She had never been able to live with it.
"We'll get him." Grissom said.
Elliot jumped off the counter. "Let's go and check out the crime scene, Maybe you guys can get something off of it." He said.
The CSI agreed, and followed him out. Cragen beckoned to Olivia.
"I want you to watch their backs. This killer may want to hurt them for chasing him all around the country." He said quietly.
Olivia nodded. "Me and El got it covered." She said softly.
Munch and Fin walked up to their captain. "We're gonna look at the victim's phone records and stuff, see if find any connections to previous victims." Fin said.
Cragen nodded. "Go and call me with any results."
He turned back to Melinda. "What's the matter?" he asked quietly.
"The killer has moved on from that school in Vegas. He's in New York now. Fin needs to tell us what school she went to." Melinda said. "I'm afraid if it's a big league school that'll increase our list of suspects."
Cragen could see her concern and he was worried as well. "I'll have Fin and Munch hurry up their search." He said, flipping on his cell.
Casey and Alex glanced at both of them. Both felt a little helpless at the moment. They were lawyers, not detectives and they couldn't do anything. Suddenly Alex got an idea.
"I'm gonna get an arrest warrant for this guy." She said. "After a crime like this, no judge is gonna care that we don't have the guy yet.
Casey agreed and picked up her briefcase. "I'm going with her." she said as they both rushed out of the room. Trying desperately to do something instead of feeling helpless.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Olivia and Elliot were watching as the CSI group examined the scene. Greg was going crazy with the camera, Grissom and Catherine were bent over something at the base of a tree, Nick and Sara were completely focused on the evidence photos, and Warrick was taking a sample of DNA from the railing near the scene.
Catherine ventured farther from the tree. She spotted something sticking out of the ground. Oh no. she thought as she bent down to examine it. It looked like hair.
"Gil!" she called. "I think I got something."
Everyone hurried over. She pointed at it.
"Ew." Greg said making a face and getting elbowed by Warrick.
Elliot looked grim as he beckoned the group to move back. "I'm gonna dig it up." He said.
The group held their breath as Elliot pulled a bag out of the ground. Grissom and Catherine exchanged glances. Catherine took a deep breath and opened the bag. It was a rag doll's head with a note on the back of a drawing of a terrified woman.
I still have her
Mr.Grissom
But I want more
Love what you have
For it might be lost
Catherine felt a red hot anger surge through her. "He's taunting us." She said softly.
Grissom saw the anger in her eyes and everyone else noticed the way her hands shook from anger. "Yeah. He is." He said plainly.
Olivia placed a hand on Grissom's shoulder. "We need to talk." She said firmly as she pulled him away.
Catherine watched his retreating back with a broken look in her eyes. She had been right. The two had a thing for each other and she couldn't compare with the detective. Where Olivia was warm, Catherine was sarcastic, where Olivia was supportive, Catherine was blunt. She was nothing compared to the detective. It was time for her to move on.
"I think we need to get these back to trace." She said slowly.
Sara was studying her face. "Yeah." She said carefully. "I'll do that." She got up and grabbed the nearest car and drove off.
Elliot didn't like this at all. As glad as he was to not have found a body, he wasn't happy to find a killer toying with their minds.
"This guy's crazy." He said.
"Duh." Nick said, glancing at him.
Elliot glared at him. He didn't have a problem with the guy, but he didn't like anyone near Alex. Elliot thought of her as his little sister and nothing this guy did would make Elliot think that he was good enough for her. "Well if you're so sure of everything then maybe you would've solved the case by now."
Nick shot daggers at the ex-marine. Without a word, he stood and walked away to examine the scene for any further clues. What Elliot had said had struck him deeply. He couldn't believe after so many years the CSI team hadn't been able to track him down yet. That never happened before.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
An hour later, the entire group was within the SVU squad room.
"Who's is Gil gonna lose?" Sara asked out loud.
Everyone had their eyebrows knitted together, lost in thought. Catherine couldn't stand it any longer.
"Olivia." She blurted out.
Everyone gave her a strange look.
She flushed. "I saw you two on the roof, maybe the killer saw it too."
Olivia's eyes grew wide. "You saw that?"
"Hard not to."
Melinda became uneasy. She knew Grissom liked Catherine, but the two hadn't displayed a single sign of affection between the two of them. It was now apparent that the next potential victim was Olivia.
"Olivia you're off the case" Cragen said firmly.
"WHAT?" Olivia demanded. "You can't take me off just because Catherine thinks that I'm next!"
Cragen stared her down. "I can and I am." He said, his voice emotionless. "Elliot watch her tonight, make sure she's safe."
Elliot nodded. "Liv don't fight it. I'll keep you updated." He said, trying to comfort her.
She gave a groan and walked out, slamming the door of the crib behind her. Catherine turned back to the evidence.
Three hours later, everyone decided to call it a night. Not because they were tired, but because each had too many things on their mind.
"Cath." Grissom said as they walked out.
"Yeah?"
"About that thing with Olivia…"
"Gil I didn't mean anything by it. I just meant the killer could have taken it the wrong way. "
"Oh. Well…okay then."
"Uh huh. Night Gil."
"Night."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Elliot was hurting. To hear what Catherine said about Grissom and Olivia hurt him deeply. He felt hot tears filling his eyes, but kept them in check. They arrived at her apartment building and got out. He ws silent all the way up to her floor and even after the entered her apartment.
Finally he spoke. "So you and Grissom huh?" he choked the words almost too painful to bear.
"What are you talking about?" she asked confused.
"What Catherine said."
Olivia flushed. "Oh no. It was nothing like that. I was a little sad about something and well Grissom cheered me up."
Elliot observed her with soft eyes. "What were you sad about?" he asked softly.
"Promise not to laugh?" Olivia said nervously.
"Yeah."
"I thought you liked Catherine." She said. "I can't fight this feeling anymore. I love you Elliot Stabler, I have since the day I met you."
Elliot's heart lifted at the sound of the most beautiful words she could ever say to him. "Liv…" he said and then his mouth was over hers.
Catherine didn't go home or to pick up her daughter. She knew Lindsay would be safe with Melinda and that Melinda would understand if she went solo for a little while. She was back at the crime scene. She surveyed it. She went to the railing. It was dark but she wasn't afraid. The scene was exactly like the one in Vegas. The railing, the fountain, the thick bushes.
She walked toward the railing and put her hand on it. Blue paint covered her palm. She walked toward the fountain and observed the area from there. She heard something behind her and she whirled a second too late.
She hit the ground with a soft cry and that was all she knew before blackness claimed her.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Long long chapter. I hope you like it. Told you I would have some EO…more to come of all of them actually…more Melinda too!