A/N: So I know it has been awhile but I took some time to reflect and redirect my story. Also, college gets in the way quite a bit. Anyway, I've made some edits to earlier chapters and made this one nice and long hoping to please. If you've already read this story you don't necessarily have to go reread the chapters I fixed keep going, but it's all up to you. Hope you enjoy this!

The next morning...

It was 7am, and Chester was again sitting in a chair, watching his wife curled up on her side asleep. He was thankful for every minute she was able to rest, because the night before had been complete nightmare.

Chester had held her through two more contractions before Dr. Berggren had insisted upon a very invasive procedure designed to keep her from dilating. Casey hadn't wanted him to do it, she'd actually begged him not to, but Chester thinking only of his children had allowed it to happen. Casey had cried the whole time, and for nearly an hour afterward. She'd pushed him away again, and screamed at him not to leave her alone. He'd pulled his chair up to her bedside, apologized profusely and watched her cry herself to sleep. He was holding her hand now, so soft she wouldn't feel it. It was killing him inside that this was all he could do while she was hurting so much.

All the sudden her hand was gone; Chester looked at her face and saw that her eyes were now open. Her hands curled around the edge of her pillow and she blinked a few times but didn't look at her husband. Chester smiled at her, for the moment happy that she wasn't crying. "Hey baby, how do you feel?" he asked, softly. Casey didn't answer, she didn't move an inch it was like she didn't even hear him. Her eyes were glazed over and she seemed in another world.

"Baby?" Chester prodded. He reached out and touched her arm, trying to get her attention, and she cringed letting out a small whimper. "Please don't," she whispered, "don't touch me."

"I'm sorry sweetie, I just... I want to know if you're okay." Chester replied, crestfallen. She didn't answer, but she let go of her pillow and ran her hands over her belly. She started to turn over onto her back and Chester reached forward and helped her causing her to recoil violently as if he'd hit her.

Chester felt awful and stepped back to give her some space. "Well, you slept for almost 4 hours without having contractions," he mentioned quietly, "I'm gonna have to tell Dr. B you're awake, he's gonna want to come check on you."

Chester waited for a response but Casey didn't say word, she didn't move, she didn't even look at him. He wished he knew what was going through her head. The sadness in her eyes was chiseling at his heart. Somewhere in the silence a firm knock rang out. Casey flinched, Chester glared at the door and two seconds later Dr. Berggren walked in with a clipboard in his hands and a serious look on his face.

Meanwhile, in a nice hotel on the upper west side.

Alex is dreaming...

It was a beautiful sunny day, a slight wind was blowing and the sound of her children's laughter filled her ears. They were at the park and the twins were swinging, side by side with their father pushing them both at the same time. They were beautiful kids, one blonde, one brunette with matching ice blue eyes. They looked like mini versions of herself and her husband, Elliot. Suddenly her daughter launched herself off the swing, yelling. "Mama, catch me!" But her mama didn't catch her. A man caught her. A man with angry eyes...and a ski mask. Then the man pulled out a gun and with the little girl in his arms he put a bullet in her mother's chest. Alex was on the ground, her breathing ragged. She watched the man shoot Elliot too and then drag her children towards a big black truck. The last thing she heard was them calling for her. Mama!...mama!...mama!...

Alex's eyes shot open and she started panting, sweat dripping off her brow. She took several deep breaths to keep herself from crying and wrapped her arms around her belly, relishing the feeling of her twins still inside her. It was just a dream Alex, dreams are not reality. I'm in the reality and I'm safe. She quoted that mantra to herself over and over, something her therapist had taught her, and it calmed her down. She looked around and found herself in an unfamiliar bedroom. For a moment she had no idea where she was.

Then Alex remembered, she was in a hotel. She was in a hotel because she couldn't go to her apartment last night. She couldn't go back to her apartment last night because that horrible man had found her. The man that wanted to kill her. She suddenly wanted Elliot. Why was he not there? She felt movement from the other side of the bed and looked to see a snoring, blond-haired pile of fire truck pajamas next to her.

Alex reached over and ran a hand through his curls, feeling a surge of maternal protectiveness over a little boy who wasn't hers. Then the door to the bathroom opened and Elliot came out, fully dressed and shaved like he'd already been up for an hour. He walked over to Alex and sat on the edge of the bed next to her while she pulled herself up to a sitting position. "Did you sleep okay?" he asked, putting a hand on her knee. "Not really," she answered. Elliot leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the lips and then he whispered, "We need to talk."

Elliot held out his hand and Alex took it and let him help her up and lead her to the loveseat on the other side of the room. They sat down to together but they weren't touching. There was a tension in the air, and the both of them could feel it. Alex knew what Elliot was going to say before he even opened his mouth.

"I need you to tell me about this guy Alex."

Alex. He only ever calls me that when we're talking about work. He must be really upset. I don't blame him. Alex blinked at him but didn't say anything, not because she didn't want to but because she didn't know where to start. "What do you want to know Elliot?" she replied, putting on her businesslike voice. Two could play at that game.

"Everything," Elliot responded, "But let's begin with, when he first made contact. How did all this start?"

July 18, 2010

It was 8 o'clock at night and Alex was just getting home from work. As she walked into her empty apartment she thought about the man she loved, the man she left, the man who was married to someone else. Elliot Stabler. As she lazily trudged toward her bedroom she saw the light on her answering machine blinking. She hit the button but kept walking, not really caring what the message said. A deep gravelly voice stopped her in her tracks and sent a shiver down her spine.

"Hello Miss Cabot, so glad you're home. We have a lot of catching up to do, you and I. I know it's been a little while since you got back but I hope you had a nice trip. Africa is much hotter this time of year, but if I were you, I'd wish I'd never left."

Alex paused and looked at Elliot. "That was it?" he asked.

Alex nodded. "Yeah, that was the first message; the first time I heard his voice. I didn't recognize the number at all, it had a weird area code. I thought it was one of the skells I put away trying to scare me. After that he called me all the time, always threatening. He left me dozens of messages always from a different number so I wouldn't know when it was him. I changed the number three times, he kept finding out what it was."

"Were the messages all like that?" Elliot questioned.

Alex nodded. "Yeah, and they got worse. He started to tell me...things he wanted to do to me. Ways he wanted to kill me..."

August 25, 2010

11:23pm

Alex came in her front door laughing loudly with her friend Jenna Walsh. They were the only two women trying cases in the federal building so they became fast friends. They had been out late celebrating Alex's promotion to Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney. Jenna wandered into Alex's kitchen looking for snacks when she noticed Alex's answering machine. "Hey miss USA you gotta MESSAGE!" she called drunkenly, "I'm gonna listen to it!"

Alex, who had been in her bedroom getting out of her work clothes sudden staggered down the hallway half-dressed. "No, don't!" she called, but her friend didn't listen and pushed the button.

"Hey Alex, heard what happened today, I bet you were out celebrating all night. You might want to get up early to jog it off in the morning. Maybe I'll go with you, watch you run into Morningside Park ...and then shoot you like an animal when you stop to stretch at that tree stump by the lake. It'll be early, no one will see you. Then maybe I'll drag you back up the hill and bury you in a shallow grave by that cave. Then I'll sit back and watch the mountain lions tear you apart. It'll be fun. Nighty night."

There was a thick silence in the room. Jenna had her mouth hung open in shock. Alex was trying not to cry. She suddenly turned and ran back into her bedroom, her concerned friend followed suit, the question "What the hell was that?" echoed in the hallway.

Elliot watched his fiancée start to crumble as she recollected the bad memories. She told him about as many of the phone calls as she could remember. Each one more disconcerting than the last. This guy was a real psycho.

"Then he started to send me things."

October 15, 2010

Alex was getting ready to go to the gym when the doorbell rang. It was a nice Saturday morning and normally she would be on her way to her favorite jogging route in the park but she couldn't do that anymore, despite her best efforts not to be, she was scared. And now that she was pregnant, she wasn't just afraid for herself anymore.

When she opened her front door there was a package on her front stoop. The package was long and thin, no return address, no card, Alex gingerly picked it up and brought it inside. Her gut told her not to open it but she did anyway, inside was a dozen long stem red roses. They would have been beautiful, if they weren't all dead. She stared at them in shock, not knowing what to think, then there was a rustle of dry petals and a huge, black spider crawled out from under them. Alex's scream was instantaneous.

Alex shivered at the memory. "That was right after I found out about the twins." She rubbed her hands up and down her belly and Elliot reached out to comfort her but she pulled away. "Don't Elliot, don't touch me right now, I can't think straight when you touch me and I need to say this." She went on to describe more of the "presents".

"Did you ever go to the cops?" Elliot asked when she paused. Alex nodded solemnly. "I tried. I told them everything. But they said they couldn't do anything because there wasn't any "crime" being committed. I remember one cop calling it an… occupational hazard."

Elliot was not surprised, he knew cops like that who didn't take stalking and harassment seriously. Still the fact that they felt they had better things to do with their time than protect Alex, his Lexy, from a homicidal predator made him furious beyond words, but he didn't show it.

Alex kept talking. "Before I knew it, I was afraid of my phone, I was afraid of my doorbell, I was afraid of everything. I never even saw him but I always felt like he was watching me. I realized I had to do something, because it…wasn't all about me anymore. My friend convinced me to call you and come back here, but it didn't matter. He's never going to leave me alone." Her voice was constricted with unshed tears.

Elliot couldn't hold back anymore, he closed the distance between them on the sofa and pulled her into his arms. Alex relaxed against his chest as a few stray tears escaped. "I'm sorry Elliot," she whispered, "I'm really sorry."

"It's all right Lexy, thank you for telling me," Elliot replied, "We're going to deal with this okay, and he's not gonna touch you ever again." Alex breathed a sigh of relief, she was glad to get all of that off her chest finally, though she had a feeling Elliot's promise wouldn't be kept. It was quiet for a minute, then all the sudden they heard a whine. They both looked toward the bed to see Eli wriggling around under the covers. They decided to watch him wake up but the whine turned into an all out bawl and Elliot got up to comfort his distraught son. However when Elliot tried to pick him up, the little boy screamed and kicked at his father.

"Eli, hey bud it's okay, Daddy's here," Elliot coaxed. He tried again but to no avail. "NO, I want MAMA!" Eli wailed, his face buried in the pillows. Elliot sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed, putting a hand on the little boy's back. "Mama's not here Eli," he whispered. At this Eli's little head shot up, he had a horrified expression on his face. As soon as he saw Alex however, his face softened and he promptly threw off his covers, climbed down from the bed, walked straight to Alex and stuck his arms out. Alex gladly lifted him into her arms but was confused. Did he mean me?

Her suspicions were confirmed as Eli's little arms locked around her neck and he said, "Mama no go 'way." Alex and Elliot looked at each other in shock. The silent moment was very rudely interrupted by the chirping of Elliot's cellphone. Elliot went to the night stand and picked it up.

"Stabler…Oh…That's good…Ok, sure…Um, can you give us an hour...Great thanks." Elliot hung up and then went to sit by Alex and Eli. "So that was Cragen," Elliot began softly, "He says he has some people assigned to your case and he thinks it might help for you to talk to George, you know so he can get a profile going on this guy and we can figure out what we're dealing with."

Alex nodded in agreement and then looked down at Eli who seemed to have no intention of letting go of her anytime soon. "What about him?" she asked. "He can come with us," Elliot answered.

Back at the hospital...

Chester leaned against the outside door frame of Casey's room and took a deep breath. He had to keep himself under control, he had to hold it together, he couldn't lose it now. He decided to get a cup of coffee to steady his nerves. As he walked towards the visitor's lounge at the end of the hall he saw a familiar looking pregnant brunette sitting there by herself. He quickened his step and a glimmer of hope leaped into his heart. Olivia. She could get through to anybody, she did this for a living. Casey will talk to her.

Olivia saw him coming and got up to meet him. The anxiety she felt inside was written all over his face and she gave him a long hug she thought he could use.

"How is she?" Liv said letting him go.

"It's really early Liv, how long have you been here?" he asked, checking his watch.

"Oh, only about 20 minutes. I was worried so I got here as soon as I could. So, how is she?" Olivia pressed. She could tell Chester was stalling and it scared her.

Chester motioned for her to sit down while he collected his thoughts. "She's um...she's not good Liv," he began, "She had heavy contractions off and on the whole night. We had to do this procedure, to keep her from dilating, she hated it so much, but it was the only way. I really thought we were gonna lose them." He heard Olivia gasp but kept talking. "This morning we found out she has..." He cast his eyes to the ceiling trying to remember the words, "pregnancy...induced...hypertension and something called placenta previa. The doctor is nervous, he didn't say so but I could tell." He paused and took a deep breath; this information had been hard to hear and was even harder to say.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Olivia asked softly.

"I hope so, but Dr. B thinks it's too risky to send her home...he wants to keep her here for the rest of her pregnancy, which hopefully will be another three or four months."

Olivia nodded solemnly. "That's probably for the best," she said, "Is Casey okay with that?"

"I-I really don't know," Chester answered honestly, "She's barely said two words to me all morning, it's like she's completely shut down." He leaned his face into his hands and took another shaky deep breath in. Liv rubbed his shoulder comfortingly, not knowing what to say. Chester picked his head back up and nervously glanced toward her door. "I probably shouldn't have left her, but I just... needed some air. I'm really glad you're here Liv." She gave him a small smile. "What can I do Chester?" she asked.

"I need you to talk to her about her brother-in-law." he said, suddenly matter-of-fact.

Olivia was confused. "Her-Her brother-in-law? Why?"

Chester stared at her for a minute. He didn't know how to say this. Even thinking the words made him want to throw up. He roughly rubbed his eyes with his thumbs and blinked a few times before answering. "Because he hurt her," he answered bluntly, "she won't tell me how, but she's been anxious and upset for the past two months solid and I don't know what to do. Liv, I think…I think he assaulted her—sexually."

A/N: Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think and I promise not to wait another 5 months to update!