AN: Sorry I've been MIA the past few months. I went from unemployed to employed to soon to be unemployed again ... Well, let me get this story going again

Two weeks later

Dickie and Olivia had a Knicks game to attend.

Alex had a car pick them up, so Olivia wouldn't have to drive or worry about parking.

"Riding in style!" Dickie was excited. The car came with snacks and soda.

"How was school?"

He shrugged. "It's not as much fun without soccer, but there's still P.E." Dickie would rather run than sit all day.

"You don't like being at a desk all day."

"No!"

"Neither do I."

"When are you going to have the baby?"

"April."

"That's pretty soon."

"Yeah it is." They're going to have three kids under the age of two. What were they thinking?

They got to the stadium and there was a special entrance for those with floor seats. They got ushered to the front and Olivia was glad they were in the second row. It was less likely a player would crash into her by mistake.

Dickie took pictures with his phones. "My friends are going to be so jelly!"

"What?"

"Jealous."

"Kids and their lingo."

"You sound like Dad."

"I can't keep up."

They got their menus and Dickie wanted, "chicken fingers and fries."

That sounded good, but Olivia got the cheeseburger plate instead.

Olivia's son kept kicking. He was ready for the game too.

Alex had the game on at home. She showed the twins. "See that's Mommy on the tv."

Lorelei ran up to it. "Mommy!" She seemed to think her mother was somehow inside of the tv and wanted to get inside of it too.

Ollie pointed but didn't get up. He figured she'd come out of the tv when she was ready.

Alex wasn't much of a basketball fan, but she could always look for her wife in the crowd.

The game had just started when Alex got a phone call. "Hey Kathy, what's going on?"

"Hey, I wanted to see if you and Liv might be up for a girls' night this Friday." Kathy decided she needed some adult interaction. Elliot was always busy working, and the kids went out with their friends on the weekend, leaving her alone.

"Sure, that sounds like fun."

"I would volunteer Maureen to babysit, but she has a date … for once."

"Ouch."

"She gets asked out, but she'd rather make money than date most of the time. According to her, there's no romance without finance."

"She's right. It's been enshrined in song."

"Well in that case …"

"We shouldn't have trouble finding a sitter. The twins are pretty popular."

"I'm sure they are. They're gorgeous."

Elliot hissed when Dani scratched down his back. "My wife will see that."

"Then don't fuck her."

He rolled his eyes. "What am I supposed to do, not shower or get dressed if she's around?"

"If you want to be so thoughtful, why aren't you at home?"

Dani's husband was out of the country again. Elliot wasn't really sure that their deal was. Were they even a couple at this point?

"Shut up!" He growled as he pinned her hands over her head. "If you can't play nice, maybe I should just tie you up."

"I don't do nice."

Elliot told his wife that they had caught a new case. She never questioned his work; the details were always too gross to describe.

He sunk his teeth into Dani's neck, leaving his mark.

"Now who's not playing fair?"

"Just say it was your husband."

"Haha."

He had been like putty in Dani's hands. All she had to do was pay attention to him. His wife seemed sweet but naïve. Could she really keep up with him? Apparently not.

The kiss cam came on during the game. Most of the couples had peck after peck. One guy went for it, and the girl turned away.

"Rejected!" Dickie called out.

He and Olivia laughed.

"That's so embarrassing."

"What would you do if Alex rejected you on camera?"

"She'd be sleeping on the couch, not that she would do that."

"I might do that, just to get her to gasp in surprise and then kiss her."

Olivia raised a brow. "You better marry someone who likes practical jokes."

"That's the first requirement."

"Any girls in your sights."

"I plead the fifth."

"Ooh!"

The Knicks won the game. They were not having a good season, but a win is a win.

Dickie got a free toy as they were leaving and now it was time to go back to the house.

"Thanks for the game!"

"It was my pleasure."

He got dropped off first and then Olivia got home."

The twins were already asleep.

Olivia kissed her wife.

"How was the game Boo?"

"It was good."

"Kathy invited us for a girls night next Friday."

"Oh great. Is Casey coming?"

"I didn't ask. We can find out."

The next time Kathy and Alex spoke, she asked, "Is Casey coming?"

"She's welcome to come, but she's probably busy."

"With what?"

"The new case going on."

"What case?" Alex questioned.

"Elliot has been pulling extra hours all week looking for the serial rapist."

Alex had no idea what she was talking about. "Oh, well I'll see what Casey's up to."

It took Kathy a minute before she realized "wait. You're the Bureau Chief. How do you not know about this case?"

Alex didn't have an answer other than Elliot's probably lying. "Um …"

Elliot has been quick to take a shower when he comes home. He also hasn't tried to get any from me recently. Is Elliot having an affair? "What's going on Alex?"

"Let me call Casey and then I'll call you back."

Shit! Alex called the ADA who had just been finishing up her paperwork.

"Novak!"

"It's Cabot. Do you have a serial rapist case right now?"

"No, and you assign my cases, remember."

"I know that, but Elliot told Kathy he's been trying to catch a serial rapist all week, and I had no idea what she was talking about."

"Could he be working with another borough?"

"I guess, but that would be unusual."

"What are you thinking?"

"Why do most husbands lie to their wives and say they're at work?"

"SHIT!"

"Yeah, that."

"We don't know that it's true."

"No we don't."

Alex could only do one thing. "Anyway, I had actually wanted to invite you to Kathy's girls night out, but I don't know if we'll be having it at this point."

"Yeah, it might be a let's key Stabler's car instead, and I probably shouldn't go to that."

Alex called back Kathy. "I don't know about this case. Elliot could be working undercover or with another borough, but it's not through my office."

Kathy dropped the house phone.

"Kathy … are you alright?"

Suddenly, her world just caved in.

An hour later, Elliot called to say that work was keeping him. Kathy was too distraught to confront him. Instead, she told Kathleen to keep her eye on things and she went out to The Mockingbird, a local bar.

Four Long Island Ice Teas drinks later, the bartender cut her off and told her to call someone.

She called Alex, who had yet to tell Olivia what was going on.

"I got to go pick up a friend."

"Something wrong?"

"She drank too much. I'll fill you in when I know more." She kissed Olivia and headed out.

It took her over 30 minutes to get to Queens with the traffic. She got there to see a red eyed, weeping Kathy Stabler.

"I gave him the best years of my life and for what?"

Alex knew she hated Elliot Stabler; now it was tenfold.

"Because you have four beautiful children who will always be worth it in the end."

Alex tried to get Kathy up to get her home, but the blonde kissed her instead, taking the Bureau Chief by surprise before Alex pulled away. "Kathy, I know you're hurting, but I'm married, and I love my wife."

"Oh fuck, what did I just do?"

"It's okay, Liv will understand, but Kathy, we got to get you home."

"I can't …"

"You can't walk."

"I can walk, but what am I supposed to do?"

"You find out the truth."

"How, I couldn't even confront him on the phone. I knew he was lying but I couldn't …" Kathy started to sob.

Alex hugged her. "You hire a PI and you find out the truth. Get the evidence and then decide. You owe yourself that much."

Kathy eventually got up and Alex drove her home. Almost two hours after she left, Alex arrived at her house.

"What took you so long?" Olivia questioned.

"She was pretty distressed. Her husband is having an affair, and she just found out."

"Dear God."

"She was so drunk she kissed me."

"What?" Olivia was not happy.

"She's straight and I know she didn't mean it, but I leaned in to get her into the car and I think she got confused."

Olivia raised a brow.

"I didn't kiss her back. It's only you baby."

"If she tries it again …"

"She won't," and she didn't.

The next day, Kathy woke up with a terrible hangover. She took Advil and winced as she got through her morning and from the safety of the hospital computer, she looked up private investigators. She saw one who looked like Columbo to her and she gave him a phone call.

"Peter Marsh, Private Eye."

"Hi, Mr. Marsh. My name is Kathy Stabler. I would like to retain your services."

Yes, I need money. "Are you free to come in sometime this week?"

"How about today?"

"Even better. What time is good for you?"

"I get off work at 3:30, so I could get to you a bit after 4:00."

"I'll put you in at 4:30, and if you get here earlier, we'll start earlier."

Kathy never thought she'd do something like this. It had this cool retro feeling to it, which did not nearly make up for her rage, but hey, it was something.

Alex felt like she was sitting on a ticking time bomb. What would they do when Kathy confronted Elliot?

If they got a divorce, everyone would have to choose whose friend they were going to be.

It was obvious for Alex, but what if Olivia wanted to stay friends with Elliot? What would happen if they were still partners after Olivia came back to the squad?

Alex did not like all of these unknowns.

When Kathy got to Marsh's office, she was nervous. What if this got back to Elliot somehow? What if she ended up just looking foolish in the end?

She decided she couldn't look any more foolish than she had when she kissed Alex, so she may as well go for it.

The blonde went into the office, which was an attachment to the man's house.

"Mr. Marsh will see you now," a matronly looking woman told him.

She knocked on the door.

"It's open."

Kathy went inside. With the shutters on the windows and the old lamps, the office reminded Kathy of her father's office in her childhood home.

"Kathy, please take a seat."

She sat down on the couch.

"How about you explain what you're doing here and I'll explain what services I can provide that might help?"

"Well my husband … I think my husband is having an affair."

"Alright, why do you think this?"

"He's a detective, and he said he was looking for a serial rapist, but my friend, who works in the same division had no idea what he was talking about."

"I'm going to keep asking you questions to flesh this out. The more I know, the easier time I'll have investigating. So your husband is a detective and what does your friend do?"

"She's the Bureau Chief."

"So she's a cop too?"

"No, she's a prosecutor."

"Alright, so the prosecutor knows nothing about this alleged serial rapist. How early in the game is the prosecutor involved?"

"Right away. They get the warrants and stuff like that."

"So your friend would know if your husband had a case, even if he had no suspects yet."

"Yes."

"Alright. What time does your husband go to work?"

"He reports at 8:00AM."

"And when does he come home?"

"He used to come home around 6:30. Now he comes home closer to 9:00."

"And how long has he been coming home this late?"

"The past several days."

"Any other strange behaviors."

"He showers a lot and he hasn't tried to well … you know with me."

Tell signs.

"Do you know who his mistress might be?"

"I really have no idea."

"Does he work with any women?"

"His partner's a woman, but she's on maternity leave. His temporary partner is also a woman, Dani Beck."

"Dani Beck. Do you know where she lives?"

Kathy shook her head.

"I'll figure it out. What precinct does your husband work in?"

"The 1-6."

"Alright. Here's what I can do. It costs $75 hours as my base fee and there's an extra $25 for surveillance. I can either follow him all day and see what comes up or I could just follow him for this added time he's been taking on this alleged case. The former will cost more, but may get you results quicker."

"I would say follow him all day, but I can't afford that."

"Al right. I'll start the tail at 5:00PM tomorrow and see where he goes. I'll need a retainer of $500, cash or check. If there's any leftover money, you'll get it back. There's an additional fee if you want me to testify in any hearings or produce any documents. You get $10 photos free if I find anything."

Kathy signed the agreement and wrote the check.

"We're in business."

While Kathy was investigating her husband, Lieutenant Tucker was investigating as well.

He went through the list of people who had gone through the evidence locker from the day the DA dismissed the charges until Crane got murdered.

This was a lot of people and Tucker had to talk to each one and ask why he or she was in the locker.

They all had pretty normal reasons except for Sgt. Smith who said, "I wasn't in the evidence locker."

Tucker showed him the signature page.

"I didn't sign that."

"You need to show ID to get back there."

"I didn't go back there. Maybe some other guy said he forgot his id, and they let it slide."

Unsure of what to make of this, Tucker had Smith's signature on his employment contract compared with that of the evidence locker sign in.

The expert said, "These were not made by the same person."

"How can you tell?"

The old man looked up at Tucker. "Well to start, Smith is a righty and a lefty signed this evidence locker form." There were a variety of other flaws in the signatures as well.

Of course, the employee who had been working the sign in sheet that day didn't remember the transaction.

"I always check for ID."

"Then why do we have a fake signature here?"

He shrugged. "I don't know okay."

Tucker looked at the signatures again. An expert could tell they weren't the same but he couldn't. Perhaps the person who signed the form had known Smith."

Time so start sifting through employment histories.

Eventually, Tucker came up with a name, Chester Lake.

He used to work with Smith, interesting. Tucker got Chester's employment contract and sure enough, Chester Lake is left-handed.

Tucker returned to the 1-6 to speak with Lake only to hear, "he's not here," Fin told him.

"Where is he?"

"I don't know." He had said something about personal time.

Tucker went to see the captain. "Where's Lake?"

He shrugged. "He took personal time. He hasn't been here in a couple of days."

Lake fled the coop. I should have had everyone on the 1-6 followed.

Tucker needed to shore up his case. They'd have to get an arrest warrant out before Lake was gone for good.