I own no one but my own people

"So you're telling me she picked me up from the airport, dropped you off at your hotel, but nothing happened with the woman that sent you an expensive whiskey who, by the way, is so far the only person able to talk you into not using your methods on getting answers?" Lindsay asked with an amused tone in her slightly raspy voice.

Voight shrugged as he took a drag on his cigarette outside the 1-6 while he talked on his phone to his daughter for all intent and purposes. "I'm not saying it did, I'm not saying it didn't."

"Well what I'M saying is you taught me to be observant and what I observed is you light up around Sergeant Benson. You actually smile when you're near her."

"You observed that huh?" Another drag.

"Yup."

"Well maybe you should start being unobservant then…"

Lindsay chucked and let out a soft sigh. "I gotta go. Ruzek and Halstead have a bet on who can go the furthest sledding down the stairs on an empty pizza box. My money's on Halstead."

"Yeah?" Voight pursed his lips for a second. "Put me down for twenty on Ruzek. More weight will give him more speed, more speed equals better distance."

"I'm on it. See ya, Hank."

"Stay safe, Erin."

Voight hung up the phone, inhaled the last of the smoke his cigarette had to offer, flicked it to the ground amongst the other discarded butts and walked inside the precinct. He flashed his badge to the desk sergeant and made his way up in the elevator to SVU.

Olivia was standing there talking to Carisi with a slight frown on each of their faces. Even under the circumstances of them meeting, Voight couldn't help it. Erin was right; he had to smile when he saw her. There was just something about her that made the hardened Sergeant feel genuine happiness when he laid eyes on her, something that he hadn't felt since his wife died.

"Sergeant Benson, Detective Carisi," he greeted with a nod towards each and a slight wink at Olivia.

Carisi turned towards him and grinned politely while Olivia gave him a look that he hadn't seen since last time he had worked with her. She was mad at him. Really mad.

"How you doin' Sergeant?" Carisi asked as he stood up to shake his hand.

"Can't complain," he said while looking at his livid NY counterpart. Voight had no idea what he did to her and he was not one for guessing games… If she had a problem with whatever he had done, he'd rather her just spit it out instead of forcing him trying to drag it out of her because eventually he'd just stop dragging. "How are you, Sergeant Benson?" he asked, letting her know full and well he realized something was wrong.

She answered with a sharp glare and started towards her office. "My office," she barked at Voight, making Carisi flinch and Voight raise his brow at her. He wasn't used to someone talking to him like this much less getting away with it. "NOW."

Pursing his lips so he wouldn't say anything he'd regret in front of her rookie Voight followed her into her office where she shut the door forcefully behind them and rounded on him, a fire in her brown eyes.

"Look, Benson, whatever your issue is-"

"You should have told me," she snapped cutting him off mid sentence.

"Told you what?" he demanded, crossing his arms in front of his broad chest. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Olivia jabbed her finger at her office door. "That three of the New York victims were connected to a NYPD detective!"

"Who? The Tucker woman?"

"Her not to mention Lindsay Ellis and Angela Tucker! You should have told me or contacted me sooner, Voight! I could have helped!"

"Hang on none of those victims are linked to a cop! They were linked to an IAB agent."

Olivia glared at him for a moment. "It is the same damn thing."

"Oh no it is not!" Voight shouted. "One protects our cities; the others are just rats that couldn't cut it out on the streets! Carrie Tucker was married to the latter and the only reason Lindsay Ellis is dead is because this piss ant rookie agent couldn't wait to nail his first cop!"

Voight had a murderous look in his brown eyes, the same exact look he had the first time Olivia pulled him out of her interrogation room. He would never say it but this was his warning to her; back off or something bad would happen but Olivia had seen a lot worse from a lot more dangerous men and wasn't backing down.

The SVU Sergeant squared off with the Intelligence leader, neither one breaking eye contact.

"Lindsay Ellis is dead because a psychopath decided she would make a great victim! That agent had nothing to do with that!"

It felt odd referring to Tucker as 'agent' but she knew she could never let Voight find out about hers and Tuckers arrangement. He'd have no problem outing her to her squad. "And what, would you rather IAB just let this guy go because he said he would never do it again? Is that would you would have done?"

"I NEVER would have investigated a cop in the first damn place," Voight shot back, brown eyes staring into brown.

"Well sometimes cops need to be investigated. Like ones that rape and murder innocent women. Or ones that take bribes from criminals or ones that beat their witnesses nearly to death because they think the ends justify the means."

Voight narrowed his eyes at Olivia, pursing his lips again. "What exactly are you trying to say here? "

"I think you know exactly what I'm trying to say."

"No no no, I don't play that guessing game crap, Benson!" He stormed up to her, half expecting her to step away but surprising him when she stood her ground. "Not with my squad, not with my witnesses, and damn sure not with a cop I don't answer to."

Their bodies were so close now they were just half an inch from touching. Neither one of them turning away from the other, both hearts pounding hard the heat coming off of them easily felt from the other.

"Let's get one thing straight, Voight," Olivia hissed, taking that one step closer that left no space between them, pressing up against his rock solid chest. "When you are in MY city, you DO answer to me."

Voight let his eyes wonder over her body. "Is that a fact?" he asked, his gravelly voice lower than usual.

"It is." She leaned in her face closer, able to feel his breath on her lips. "I am in charge here," she whispered lowly. "Not you."

Voight started to lean in closer to her, their lips just grazing when there was knock on her door. Both Sergeants swallowed hard and took a step back from one another, still not breaking eye contact.

"Come in," Olivia told the person on the outside of the door, a slight shake on the edge of her voice. Voight couldn't help but smirk at her as the door opened and Carisi stepped in. "Hey, Sarge… You okay, you look a little flustered."

Olivia took a deep breath and nodded. "I'm fine, Carisi. What'd you find out?"

"Alright so I got a hold of JFK's security cameras from around the time that our suspect arrived. Williams comes out, only one small duffel bag, jeans, shirt, and a leather Bears jacket. I mean right off the bat the guys an idiot, who supports a team like the Bears they haven't been decent since the eighties?" he asked with a laugh.

Voight cleared his throat and raised his brow, making Carisi's laugh stopped cold. "Right. Sorry. I mean they were good in the playoffs and that last game against Green Bay? I mean they absolutely crushed them not to mention-."

"Where did he go after he walked out of the airport," Olivia interrupted.

"Oh right right sorry. He got in a cab."

"This is perfect," Voight said glancing at Olivia. "Track down the cab number, find out where they dropped him off. He doesn't have any friends here; he had to have gone to a hotel. We find the hotel, we arrest him, case closed by dinner."

"I already tried all that."

"And?"

"And the number it was registered too was in a serious crash four days ago and is sitting in the Yellow Cab mechanics lot."

"You're absolutely sure?" Voight all but demanded. "I mean tell me you didn't take the words of some underpaid mechanic."

Olivia looked at him for a moment but didn't say a word. Voight was right, there were thousands of cabs for this city, and it was very easy to mistake one number or letter or computer issues or paperwork issues or a million other things. They had to make sure EVERYTHING checked out, no matter how obvious.

This case was personal. Tuckers wife and child had been murdered by this psycho. Olivia had to get justice for the Internal Affairs lieutenant. There was no other option. She HAD to catch this guy for him.

"I'm positive, Sarge." Carisi got out his iPhone and handed it to Voight. "I had him go out to the lot and take a picture of it then send it to me. It's completely thrashed, there's no way someone took that out."

Voight nodded, showed the picture to Olivia so she could verify before he handed it back to Carisi. "That's really good, Carisi," Olivia told him, earning a beaming grin from the rookie. "Now; call Yellow Cab, ask for the crash records for their legitimate cab then look at police reports for crashes for that Cab number and cross reference alright? If you got something pull the report then get me the address of the cab driver. Good work."

Carisi all but jumped up, beaming at his superior. "I'm on it, Sarge, I am SO on this! White isn't on rice as much as I'm-!"

"I get it, Carisi," she told him holding up a hand to silence him.

"Right, sorry! I'm gonna go but I'm on this!" Without another word Carisi ran from her office to his desk.

"Remember having that much energy at work?" Voight asked with a bemused grin.

Olivia scoffed, giving him a playful smirk, "remember having that much energy anywhere?"

"Ooh… busting my ego here, Benson," he responded with a grin as she shut the door and leaned against it. His grin fell and he replaced it with a more serious look. "I'm sorry for not telling you about the connection earlier."

"It's fine. I'm sorry for yelling at you."

"Don't worry about it. I kind of like it when you yell and take charge," he said with a smirk. Olivia rolled her eyes but couldn't help the playful grin that rose to her lips. "It's sexy." Voight walked over to her and put his hands on either side of her, leaning in slightly. "Very sexy actually," he said with a soft growl, letting his lips trail up her neck and behind her ear.

Olivia closed her eyes, letting herself enjoy the feeling of his lips on her for a second before she forced herself to pull away. "I'm at work," she reminded him with a soft moan. "Not to mention we got a lot to do on this case."

Voight sighed but never the less nodded and moved away from her. "What's our next step?"

"You're gonna call Chicago, see if any of your guys can link any of the victims."

"We already did, there was no connections with any of them."

"We got some new information from… from the IAB agent. James Holmes; he was Williams roommate in the academy. He was the one giving the addresses to Williams. He CLAIMED he didn't know what Williams was doing, he came to IAB, told them the address of the last woman that Williams asked for but…"

"You don't believe he told the truth back then or he told out of the good of his heart."

Olivia's look said it all. "I think… that Holmes was a rookie cop, not even six months on the job, IAB comes around threatening to take his badge, he panicked, decided to save his own skin. But if he was actually in on it with Williams…"

"Then he probably hooked up with him now," Voight finished practically reading her mind. Olivia nodded and Voight gave her a curt nod. "I'll get my guys on it."

"Find out where the guy is now, you and I can go talk to him."

"Looking forward to it," he told her with his famous crooked smile before he headed out of her office…

Olivia watched him for a moment before a ring came from her pocket. She looked at her phone and saw that Tucker was calling her. She shut the door before she answered with softness in her tone. "Hey, Ed."

"Hi, Liv," Tucker greeted just as soft and quietly. "How you doing?"

"Good. We might have something on the case," she told him as she sat down at her desk. "Nothing solid yet but we have a few directions."

"Good good… Hey um, I was wondering if you maybe wanted to get a drink tonight."

Olivia sighed softly as she ran her hand through her hair. "Ed, I told you-."

"Not… not like a date, just a drink," he interrupted. Tucker sounded far more desperate then Olivia had ever heard him. So much so she actually froze when he spoke. She wasn't used to this voice coming from the hard IAB agent. "I just… I mean with Carrie and Williams and everything is all coming back… I just honestly need someone to talk to about this. Nothing sexual about it I promise just… someone to talk to."

Olivia froze for a second. Ever since that first night at the bar they've talked about things but neither one had really talked about anything serious. Tucker never talked about his wife, Olivia never talked about her parents or Lewis…

If she agreed this would be the first time ever anything serious was brought up between them.

"Never mind," Tucker told her quickly after she was silent for a moment. "It was stupid to ask you, I'm sorry."

Olivia shook her head. "No no no, you're fine Ed I'm sorry." She took a deep breath before she spoke. "When are you free tonight?"

"I get off around seven so eight at Monroes?" he asked hopefully.

"That works. I'll meet you there okay?"

"That works. I'll see you later, Liv."

"Bye."

They both hung up their phones and Olivia leaned back in her chair for a long moment before she began pulling out files and the other things she needed for the day.

When she reached back in her hand brushed against a credit card shaped card in her purse and she pulled it out, her face falling when she saw Voight's room key. She shouldn't have felt bad. She was single; there was no reason why she should feel bad that she had hooked up with Voight the day after she hooked up with Tucker. She wasn't attached to either of these men.

But if that was true why on earth did she feel so guilty?

… Angela Tucker's House…

"I can't believe we're about to talk to Tuckers mom," Nick muttered as he and Rollins walked up the drive in Queens leading up to a two story old white house. "It's like going to the bully's house for a birthday party."

"She's a victim, Nick," Rollins reminded him. "We gotta treat her as one." Nick shrugged carelessly as he knocked on the door. "Besides if Tucker found out we disrespected his mother he's knocking us both back to uniform," she muttered softly. Amaro chuckled but quickly stopped it when they heard the tumblers on the lock turn and the door opened.

Neither one had much of an idea what Tuckers mother would look like but certainly not this. She was an inch or two taller than Rollins with light grey wispy hair pulled into a low ponytail. Her face was careworn but there was a light in her dark blue eyes that showed the two Detectives that she hadn't stopped laughing or smiling in the long years she had been alive.

She looked sweet and kind and actually pleasant. Something neither of the Detectives would have associated with anyone in the IAB Agents family.

"May I help you?" Angela asked with a polite smile, her voice far softer then her sons.

Nick cleared his throat as he end Rollins got out their badges. "Mrs.… Mrs. Tucker, I'm Detective Amaro, this is my partner Detective Rollins. May we come in?"

Angela's face fell, a flash of terror in her eyes. "Is it Eddy? Is he okay?"

"No he's fine, Ma'am, I promise. I'm sorry, we're from Manhattan SVU," Rollins told her, watching the woman in front of them let out a breath of relief. "But we do have some questions. About Tommy Williams?"

A look of terror crossed over her features and her hand gripped the door frame so hard her knuckles turned white while her breathing became shallow and labored.

"Mrs. Tucker, are you alright?" asked Nick as he reached out to catch her in case she fell.

"I- I'm fine dear…" she said, her voice shaking. Tears gathered in her blue eyes that she wiped away with a trembling hand. "I just- I haven't heard that name in so long…"

Angela took a deep breath and forced a smile both detectives could see right through. "Wou- would you like to come in?"

Rollins and Nick both accepted the invitation and followed the elderly woman into her home. "I apologize for the emotions," Angela told them as she led them into her living room where there was barely any space on the walls that wasn't crowded with photos, most of them containing at least one person in a Marine uniform or police dress blues. "I just… haven't heard that name in a very long time."

Noticing Nick and Amanda look around at the various photos on her walls as she sat down in an arm chair she smiled at them, "Marine wife, mother, and daughter," she explained with a proud smile. "Father served twenty seen years, Husband served twenty three, my Eddy was in for three years. He thought he'd be a lifer like his father but…"

"Don't tell me he was a rebel," said Amaro, slightly wide eyed. Someone as strict and professional as Tucker not like the rigid military life? It made no sense.

"Oh no no no. Well… in a way he was. He loved the military life but he was military police, and he was a bit… harsher you could say about rule followings then the rest of the MPs in his unit," Angela explained. "He didn't care if you were a five star General, his best friend, or whomever; if you broke the law you were getting brought in. One day Eddy arrested his own Sergeant and… Two weeks later they put him in an administrative slot with a black eye, bruised ribs, and a broken jaw claiming that his shooting marks were too low to be out in the field even though he had always shot eagle eye. That same year Eddy got out."

Rollins and Nick looked at one another for a moment before they turned back to Angela. They had no idea Tucker had been through all that. Truth be told neither one knew anything about the lieutenant they all hated so much.

"After that he went to college, got his bachelor's in Criminal Justice and went to the academy. My Eddy was recruited for IAB while he was still in the academy ya know," Angela said with an air of pride.

"Yeah IAB does that with the people that score really high in the moral and ethics test," Amaro said with a nod, remembering when IAB came when he was in the academy. They had completely ignored Amaro and instead had tried to recruit another cadet who turned them down flat.

Angela nodded in agreement. "Eddy turned it down at the time but… in a precinct it three years of the same thing. He would arrest cops same as he would civilians, he didn't care who it was, even cops in his own precinct. One day his CO screamed at him in front of everyone for arresting the commissioner for drunk driving and how he needed to 'respect the thin blue line', Eddy finally yelled back that cops should be held to a higher standard and that he hated and didn't believe in that thin blue line much less respect it.

Eddy stormed out of the precinct, went to IAB still in his uniform, and got a job there within the hour. Years later he's their golden boy and in charge of the unit," she finished with her head held up high and an obvious pride in her voice.

Rollins gave her an uncomfortable smile. "Well your son is… very good at his job."

Angela missed the awkwardness in her tone and smiled at the blonde detective. "The best. But I'm sorry, you actually had something important to talk about and I'm here rambling on. You... you said you had some questions about Thomas Williams?"

Almost at once the atmosphere around them changed. It became heavy and neither of the detectives wanted to force this sweet old woman to go through a hell of memories. Nick took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes. We… we have to let you know, Ma'am that… that Williams is back in New York City."

Angela's face fell hard and a look of terror came over her. "No… No, he's dead. Eddy told me."

Nick and Rollins looked at one another before they turned back to Tuckers mother. "Your son told you Williams was dead?"

"Yes. October 10th, 1997. Eddy came and said that his squad cornered him, he pulled a gun, and they killed him. He said I'd never have to worry about him again. It was the only thing that let me sleep at night," she admitted wiping away a tear. "Knowing that he couldn't hurt me or my Eddy again…"

"That's the same day he went to Chicago," Rollins muttered to Nick.

Angela looked at both the detectives. "Are… are you saying that my son lied to me?"

"I'm sorry but we are, Ma'am," Rollins began sympathetically. "After the trial Williams went to Chicago, lived there for twelve years and…recently he began attacking other woman there. Last night he came back to New York. I'm so sorry."

Angela let out a humorless laugh and nodded, wiping her eye as she did so. "I… I mean it- it makes sense. I never really felt that he was REALLY gone. I pray every night for God to let me feel peace from this but He never did and now I understand why. He's still alive."

"Ma'am, I know this is hard but... has anyone threatened you in the past few days or has anyone strange been hanging around, anyone that made you feel… off?" Nick asked.

Angela shook her head. "No, nothing. I barely leave my house except for church and grocery shopping."

Rollins nodded as she jotted everything down in her notes. "And no strange letters or messages from Chicago?"

"Nothing, I swear. I- I mean if anything happens I swear to contact you about anything but nothing so far."

"That would be very helpful, Ma'am, thank you," Nick said with a smile. "Now we're going to have a patrol car out front of your home-."

"I- I don't feel comfortable with that," Angela told him.00+++

"But if Williams comes back-."

"My husband was killed by a police officer," she interrupted him, sending both Detectives into shock. "He was driving home after dropping off one of his Marines home one night from a bar. It was a drunk driver; he never saw it coming… The officers spun it so my husband, who at most drank half a glass of champagne every other year, was the one drinking and was responsible for the crash. The cop got a commendation and was promoted within the month."

Nick swallowed hard and looked at Rollins before they both turned back towards Angela who took a deep breath. "Then a cop almost killed me. Now, I know not all cop are bad people," she said holding up her hands in mock surrender. "Most are good upstanding citizens who just want to do well and protect the city but… I'd rather two people from Eddie's unit protect me."

Nick shrugged. "I-… I mean we can ask Tucker to ask his squad if anyone's up to it but-."

"I would really appreciate it. Thank you, Detectives," Angela interrupted with a smile but finality in her voice to let them know this conversation was over.

Soon after Rollins and Nick said their goodbyes, promised that they would ask Tucker about the security detail and headed back to their car.

"You calling Tucker?" Rollins asked as she started the car watching as Amaro got out his phone.

"The 32nd, they're the closest precinct," he explained.

"Nick, she said she didn't want a cop to protect her."

"She's either gonna get a cop or no protection at all. No IAB agent gives a damn about anyone but themselves, they won't protect her."

Rollins just shook her head as she drove off. "You're gonna get to explain that to Liv and Tucker…"

"Don't worry; Liv will be fine with this." He glanced over and smirked. "Besides, she hates Tucker just as much as anyone of us."

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