disclaimer: don't own anything, except the characters I created
Cragen hoped that he had made the right decision on partnering Noah and Elliot up for the case. At least Cragen had the support of the 2-5's lieutenant and sergeant to back him up with his decision to have the two men work together.
"Cap, you sure about that?" (Elliot)
"Yeah, Elliot it's final. Noah is going to be your partner for this case" (Cragen)
"Hey; I'm cool with just doing the patrol work I'm doing as is. Really, it's no problem" (Noah)
"It is a problem, Noah. You know things that nobody else knows" (Sgt. Kendall)
"Like what?" (Cragen)
"You know medical and pattern" (Lt. Reynolds)
"Pattern, what pattern?" (Elliot)
"This has happened before, tell them" (Lt. Reynolds)
"Tell us what Reilly?" (Cragen)
"There was a case like this seven years ago, when I was first on the job" (Noah)
"I never heard about it" (Cragen)
"That's because the victims were all killed. Nobody thought to see if they were raped, there were no signs of sexual trauma at first glance. Everything was like Olivia's case is" (Noah)
"Except for the part where Olivia survives, right Noah?" (Elliot)
"Kind of, see one of them lived long enough to tell us she was raped, we ran the whole work up on her. Then a week later she died then another victim matching her injuries came in the following month then another one after that. That brought the total up to four crime scenes with four dead woman, only one ever lasted to hospital the others were dead when we arrived but the scene at the apartments were all the same" (Noah)
"And you worked the cases?" (Cragen)
"Not just worked them, the killer taunted me with his killings" (Noah)
"How so?" (Elliot)
"After the first victim he left me a message at the second killing, then at the third one telling me 'it was pointless to look for him' then at the fourth and finally one he said 'good-bye'said'I wouldn't be seeing him again for a long time'. Guess that time is now" (Noah)
"And you've lived with this for the past seven years? Without anybody else knowing about it" (Cragen)
"Not exactly only three other people every knew about the messages left for me" (Noah)
"And they were?" (Sgt. Kendall)
"They are then: First grade Detective Olivia Benson, Detective Sergeant Lawrence Reynolds and my old man Senior Detective Aaron Reilly. That's the only three whoever knew about the messages" (Noah)
"Lawrence you knew about it?" (Cragen)
"Yeah but like Olivia and Aaron we didn't think much of it, especially when no other bodies showed up after the last one" (Lt. Reynolds)
"That's why Olivia was so damn protective over the kid when he came to us. She was watching out for him, to make sure no other cases like that one popped up again" (Elliot)
"Then that shooting came up and you got your chance to take over. You figured that if Olivia looked out for him for five years it was your turn to look out for him, am I right?" (Cragen)
"You don't understand Don neither does Noah. He was eighteen this guy's letter threatened to come back and kill him. Just for being the first officer on the scene…" (Lt. Reynolds)
"I never knew about that" (Noah)
"I know. We decided it was best not to show you that part, Noah. You we rattled enough by the situation as it was at the time" (Lt. Reynolds)
"But it was my life and now the guy could be back and after everybody who was involved in the case eight years ago, just to get at me" (Noah)
"Why would he come after you now? And not eight years ago when he had the chance to" (Cragen)
"That's simple" (Sgt. Kendall)
"And why would that be?" (Elliot)
"The shooting. It placed Noah, back in the spotlight, showed the guy that Noah didn't runaway from being a cop. He stuck it out and is still taking down the bad guys" (Sgt. Kendall)
"You guys I know you all are trying to help but I have to get out of here. Because if it's true no matter what everybody involved with me during that case might have a death sentence on there heads if this is the same guy from then" (Noah). And with that Noah left the office and the station house to clear his head and process the possibility that the killer was back and seeking revenge on him for some unknown reason.
But off in the distance watching Noah from across the way was a man in a dark car, photographing his every move planning his next steps surrounding the take down of this kid who took everything unknowingly away from him eight years earlier.