"What're the chances that Toni's right about this?" Olivia asked Huang as he went over the information about the victims.

"It's definitely possible," he told them, "There still isn't much known about the minds of female rapists because most of their victims don't come forth and we can't find out who they are…but, going by what we do know, I'd say that you're looking for a woman who was traumatized when she was younger."

"Every abuser was abused but not everybody who was abused becomes an abuser," Munch said, "How long is it going to be before that record gets changed?"

"I don't buy it," Toni said, "I doubt every single man who ever raped his wife or girlfriend or some random woman in the street did it because he was abused and wants her to feel as powerless as he did…some men just love terrorizing everybody they can overpower."

"And women don't?" Elliot asked.

"We're not on as grand a scale as you are," Toni told him, "But we have our own place, and it's all off the books. Usually our methods of terrorization are non-sexual ones, we like to settle for beating the crap out of people."

"Shut up, Munch," Elliot said.

"Did I say one word?" he asked, feigning innocence.

"So some guy with red hair did something to this chick that it screwed her up so bad she's sodomizing every redhead guy she meets?" Toni asked and shook her head, "Some people seriously need a life."

"One thing I can't figure out," Olivia said, "What is she using as her weapon of choice? None of the rape kits found any fibers or splinters, so no wooden objects were used…"

"Oh, I think she does just well by herself," Toni replied as she flexed the fingers on both her hands and told Olivia, "Maybe somebody who works in a proctology field perhaps?"

"That's not funny," Elliot told her.

"It's not meant to be," Toni said, "When men can't get an erection they often settle for their fingers, equality between the sexes and all that you know. But the next question is where're you going to find this woman? What other link can there be between the men?"

"What we need to do," Elliot said, "Is go back over every woman we interviewed in connection with the victims, every woman that they knew, that knew them, maybe even every woman who lived in the same buildings they did. We have to find something."

Olivia knew that something was up when she went to the ladies room and Toni followed behind her, but she wasn't ready for the conversation they had inside.

"Is my father back from Jersey as well?" she asked.

"Not yet," Olivia said, "He thought it would be a good idea to stay on another day so nobody would get suspicious, why?"

Toni leaned in to Olivia and said confidentially, "I want to get Mike out of that hospital before he goes stir crazy, and I'd like to get him someplace kind of private, you know?"

Olivia did a double take, "You can't be serious."

"Hey, he's still a man isn't he?" she asked, "Besides, you know what they say about getting back on a horse, might as well make sure everything's still working right on him."

"Toni, he was just raped, you said yourself, by a woman," Olivia told her, "What do you think he's going to do?"

"I think he'll understand the difference," Toni said, "I don't use force, that's the problem, you know the people always let everyone walk all over them," she gave a small sad smile and explained, "That's me…I was always the submissive one, everybody else was on top…I'll grant you I don't lay there like a zombie anymore but…I'm not dominating either. And don't forget old Mikey's got about 20 years on me, the old dog may not need to learn any new tricks."

Olivia got out a strangled laugh and said, "I can't believe you."

"So they tell me…so how was Atlantic City?"

Olivia got out a huff and said, "It was great…" she looked down toward the floor as she said, "I really like your father, Toni, he's…the first relationship I've had with a man for a long time."

"Try saying that and looking me in the eyes while you do it," Toni told her, "I told you before, Olivia, I'm happy for the two of you, it's time you both found somebody, I have no delusions about you replacing my mother, it's time for my father to move on with his life and find someone else…of course if you're still not sure if this is for you, he won't hold you to being loyal to him, I'm sure you can still find a few other guys to draw a comparison, who knows? Maybe you could find a few that you could mix and match simultaneously."

Olivia threw her head back and laughed.

Toni returned to the hospital that night with a change of her father's clothes so Mike could walk out with some dignity. As he got out of his bed she noticed he still had obvious difficulty moving around and walking.

"I suppose I should call us a cab," she said, "It's going to be a while before the garage can repair my father's car."

"How far is your home from here?" Mike asked as they walked out of the hospital and out into the dark of night.

"Oh, about 12 blocks I suppose," she said.

"The exercise will do me some good," he replied.

They made idle talk as they walked through the dimly lit streets until they came to Toni's house which sat empty and dark.

"Anybody home?" Mike asked as they went up the sidewalk.

"My father's still in Atlantic City, so it'll just be the two of us," she told him.

"Cozy," he remarked.

The front door creaked open and as they stepped into the dark hallway, Toni said in a Dracula impersonation, "Velcome to my humble abode."

"Not bad," Mike commented as he strained to see his new surroundings, "Uh, where exactly am I going to be staying here tonight?"

"That would be upstairs, follow me," Toni said.

Mike climbed up the long stairwell behind her, in the dark, the only light hitting the walls and casting shadows came in through the windows from the street lamp on the corner. When they reached the top of the stairs she took him over to a room on the left; opening the door she showed him in, again the only light in the room came from the lamp outside, which still kept them very much in the dark but he was able to make out the bed, the trunk, the dresser, the bookcase, the piles of books on the floor and a few boxes.

"This is my room," she told him.

"Ah, the torture chamber, eh?" Mike laughed, "I'm sure it looks more impressive in the morning…but it looks nice like this too."

"It's home," she explained, "It's one of the first permanent homes I've had in a long time."

They stood almost pressed against one another; Mike being the taller one looked down at her and commented with a smirk, "You'll excuse me for saying it, Miss Keller, but in the dark…you look…"

"What?" she asked.

"Older," he answered, "Things are always so much different in the dark." He brought his hand up and stroked over her cheek with it as he said absentmindedly, "The darkness can take away everything, age, facts, the past, everything melts into darkness."

"And when the world is plunged into darkness," Toni responded, "That is in all actuality the most liberating time in the world because anything can go, nothing has to be seen, there can be no witnesses, it's all off the record."

Mike cupped her face in his hands and leaned down to kiss her; her arms were wrapped around his back and he soon became aware of the fact that his had returned the favor, but his hands had settled themselves lower down on her back than hers had on his. She didn't protest it, didn't try to pull away, she just looked up at him and met his gaze for a moment before she gave him a slight push and he fell back against the bed, and she quickly climbed on the bed beside him and then in one quick movement she rolled over on top of him and held him down.

Toni was awake when the sun came up the next morning; she turned over and saw Mike asleep on the other side of the bed. She kept her half of the sheet wrapped around herself as she inched up towards the head of the bed and reached over to touch him. She put her hand on his arm and he didn't respond, by all accounts he seemed to be dead to the world. If he looked young before he looked downright infantile now; all the worry lines gone from his face, his closed eyes relaxed, his mouth in a little smile.

She remembered the previous night very well; on the trunk behind the head of the bed were two glasses and a half empty bottle of bourbon. Mike had made some comment about falling off the wagon, and some mention of how it would probably make him wacky since he was on pain meds, but he still gladly drank two glasses with no coercion on her part. What happened last night hadn't been planned but she was thankful it had happened; she could feel something cross over in her and she felt like somebody had thrown the switch that restored the life into her body again.

"Mike Kellerman," she said quietly so as not to wake him, "I think I may be falling in love with you."

Mike was half singing something under his breath as he scrubbed the bar of soap over his arms as he sat in the bathtub. It was going on 7:30 and he had woken up feeling like a million bucks; his memory from last night was a bit fuzzy but he thought he remembered all the important stuff that had happened. Toni entered the bathroom carrying a laundry basket and she dug out another set of her father's clothes and told him, "These will be a little large but they should fit until you can get your own stuff back from the hospital laundry."

"Thanks," he replied.

"You know Munch is going to give your case all the attention he can, but today is his day off and he and Odafin Tutuola are going bar shopping today," Toni said as she knelt down beside the tub so she could make eye contact with him, "I'm going with them later, do you want to come?"

"Sure, why not?" he asked, "Might be fun, be interesting to see if Munch can pick a better shack than he did with the Waterfront."

"Mike," Toni said, "You know Tim Bayliss is up for parole, do you think he'll get it?"

Mike paused and looked at her and said, "I don't know…I really don't know. I think he should get it but I don't know if he will."

"If he does," she continued, "Are you going to go see him when he gets out?"

"I don't know," he said, "I honestly don't know…he and I were never that close."

"Must be close enough, you thought his release was worth coming to New York to tell John about," she reminded him, "Which reminds me, John said there was used film in your camera, don't you have a client waiting on those pictures?"

"Yeah I thought about that," he told her, "Later I'm going to call and tell them there's been a minor delay in the case. One good thing about being a private detective, I don't have a boss to answer to, so I can only get fired from clients, not from my job."

"Tell me something, Mike, do you really miss working in homicide?" Toni asked, "Dead bodies, and unsolved cases, was it really all that glamorous?"

"Well anything was better than my father's glass plant, and any kind of steady work was an improvement over my two brothers," he recalled, "The last time those guys came to Baltimore…they about got me killed, thrown in jail to say the least, try to make an arrest and those smartasses stole my badge so I couldn't identify myself as a cop."

"But you were in arson before homicide," Toni remembered, "How'd you wind up there?"

"It's all quicksand, kid," he said as he shook his head.

"Mike, how old are you?" she asked him.

"39, how old are you?" he asked.

"Old enough," she told him, and in one sudden move she lunged over, grabbed him despite his soapy exterior and kissed him. She pulled back and said, "You know something, Mike?"

"What?" he asked.

"I think I like you," she answered.

Munch came to the house later to pick up Toni and Mike to show them the bar he'd found and was trying to talk Fin into buying. They met him at the door and Munch lowered his glasses to get a better look at Mike in a set of jeans and a T-shirt that were both too big for him.

"Did you shrink in the dryer?" he asked.

"Nice to see you too, John," he replied with a small smirk, "You ready to go?"

Munch raised his arm and gestured over to his car, "Your ride awaits."

As Mike walked past them, John looked at Toni and noticed something was different about her today. He told Mike they'd be on in a minute and for him to go ahead, keeping his voice low he asked Toni, "What went on here last night?"

"What do you mean, John?" she asked.

"Something about you has changed since yesterday," Munch said, "What is it? Where's your usual early morning 'don't bug me, I'll kill you' look? You're practically…" his whole facial expression changed as it hit him, "Did you sleep with Mike?"

Toni neither confirmed nor denied, she only looked at him with a big dumb grin on her face. John looked at her and then over to Mike who was waiting in the car, and then back at Toni and said, "Oh my God, you, you and Mike?" He muttered something in Yiddish and said, "I don't believe it."

"I know," she told him, "I wasn't really planning on it either, but I brought him home and we had a few drinks, and then…"

"Don't draw me a picture," he said, "I can't believe it, Toni, he's twice your age."

"I know that, John, I can count," she replied, "You're not mad about it, are you?"

"Me?" he asked, then it hit him how he must've appeared and he told her, "I'm just surprised, I didn't see this coming."

"Neither did Mike," Toni said.

"What happened to you restraining yourself?" Munch asked.

"Even a trained dog needs to get off the chain and run loose once in a while," she said, "And Mike was perfectly willing."

"I'll bet he was," John said, "I just can't believe it…" she looked at him and he put his hands up, "I know, I know, you're 21, you can do what you want, this is just a shock to me…I guess you could do worse. I guess I should just be happy for the two of you that you found each other, and not somebody else."

Toni tore up laughing at that and he asked her, "What is it?"

"John, I lied," she said, "I didn't have sex with Mike, I did bring him home and we did have a few drinks…I had planned on landing him but…we just wound up conking out together…I just wanted to see how you would react."

Munch felt like he'd been hit with a bucket of ice water, "Well now you know!" In a calmer voice he said, "So speaking from a purely platonic nature, how was he?"

She laughed and looked down momentarily before making eye contact with him and explaining, "It was nice having somebody to wake up beside again…I haven't been with anybody in a long time, and I never wanted to be with anyone I was with before…and I didn't want to repeat those mistakes, so I just kind of steered clear of anybody I might like. But it's just…the presence, knowing he's there, you know?"

"Unfortunately I do," Munch told her, "The heart is a lonely hunter, and I have four ex-wives under my belt and since soliciting prostitutes for even non-sexual purposes is a scandal waiting to happen, I've had many nights spent in a bed only half full." He flashed a small smile at her and said, "Come on, I want you to see this place."

"This place is a dump," Fin said as he looked around the long since closed bar that was for sale.

"You're just not looking at it right," Munch said, "Picture it freshly cleaned, painted, maybe get some of the wiring reworked…"

"Right, by the time we get this place open, it's going to cost both our pensions," Fin told him.

"Oh ye of little faith," Munch responded, "You forget I've been through this wringer before, I know what to do this second go-round…" he turned to Mike and Toni and asked them, "What do you think of the place?"

"It looks alright," Mike said.

"Better than some places I've frequented," Toni added, "John, now that Olivia's back, why don't you ask her about being a partner too? If she says yes, then the expenses won't run so far for any of you."

"That's not a bad idea," John said, "I'll run it by her when I see her."

Toni went over to him and said, "John, I know you're serious about doing this and I want to show my support, so I want to give you something, here."

John felt something shoved into his hand and he looked and saw it was a small wad of $100 bills, he counted through them and told Fin, "There's a thousand dollars here." To Toni he said, "I know you don't make enough writing for that magazine to afford this, where'd you get this money from?"

"Never mind," she told him, "I can't be a partner because I would never pass the background check, and I know this isn't going to help much but it'll come in handy somewhere, it's the only way I could see to help and I wanted to because I think you need something to fall back on incase you decide to transfer out of SVU and out of the police department entirely."

John and Fin looked at each other and neither said anything; Munch looked back to Toni and said, "That's certainly some long term planning, and I really appreciate it…if you're sure."

"Take it, the money doesn't mean anything to me," she insisted, "I want to see how you could run this place."

Munch turned to Fin and said, "Well so far we seem to be doing alright, we have a location, we have the money, I have the numbers of all the electricians and plumbers we'll need to get everything up to code, I also have a better tax attorney this time than my cousin who ran us into the ground, all we have to do now is come up with a name for the place."

"If you say the Waterfront, I swear I'm going to kill you," Fin told him.

"Alright, then somebody else can go first," Munch said.

"I have an idea," Toni said, "What about Pandora's Bottle?"

They looked at her like she was crazy, and she explained, "Consider Pandora's Box, something went wrong with the translation and originally it was Pandora's jar, and a bottle is a lot closer to a jar than a box is. So on the surface it's mysterious, and the intrigue might draw the crowd in."

"I thought the contents were supposed to bring about the end of the world," Fin said.

"No, it's just all the ugliness that exists in the world and in humanity," Munch said, "An ideal description for the stuff we'll be serving in here, as well as the people we'd be serving."

Through the rest of his day off, John went over the facts he currently had on Mike's case, and from the other unsolved rapes, and the more he thought about it, the less sense it was starting to make. The next day he returned to work bright and early and was relieved to find that SVU was calling on the help of George Huang once again so he could speak to the man.

"I think we made a mistake the other day," he said, "About the attacks being linked together."

"What do you mean, John?" he asked.

"I've been going over the details over and over again," Munch said with a shake of his head, "They're similar but they don't match…let's assume that there are two different people, two different women responsible for these attacks…could they both be operating under the same MO? Or is there a chance the one who attacked Mike is a copycat just looking for attention?"

Huang's eyes narrowed and he shook his head, "I don't know what you mean, John."

"Alright, I'll try it again," he said.

But he didn't get a chance to because Elliot and Olivia came up and inquired as to the latest in Mike's case.

"There's something that's not connecting," John said, "The first two cases might be connected but they're not to Mike's…Quinn and Harmon were both assaulted and then dumped somewhere, Mike was able to get in his car and attempt driving somewhere after he was raped, Quinn and Harmon were knocked out with sleeping pills, but Mike was specifically given a date rape drug, why?"

His thoughts were interrupted when his cell phone rang and he took it to a lesser crowded area of the squad room to answer it, leaving Elliot, Olivia and Huang to discuss it amongst themselves.

"Could it be two different perps?" Olivia asked.

"It's definitely possible," Huang said, "We assumed they were all committed by one woman who is escalating but John was right, the switch from tranquilizers to HGB would make sense but not the part about letting Mike get away instead of dumping him somewhere like the others were."

"But everything else is consistent, and that's rare," Olivia said, "Usually something is discovered in a rape kit but in all three of these, there's nothing to find."

From the corner of the squad room they heard Munch let out a small string of obscenities as he put his phone away and further commented, "I need help, I'm going to kill someone and I need backup."

"What is it?" Olivia asked.

"That was Toni, a couple of uniforms picked her up in connection to the rapes, they think she attacked Mike and those other guys!"

"What?" Elliot asked.

"Why?" Olivia added as they grabbed their jackets to go with him.

"I don't know, but somebody's going to die for this," Munch said as he headed to the door, "I've said it before but this time I am going to kill somebody!"

"We're right behind you," Elliot said, "Lead the way."