I own no one but my own people
"Will you turn on the Goddamn sirens?" Voight barked as the Lieutenant sped through the city streets, using his horn to get cars and people to move instead of his siren. He had been clutching his phone so hard his knuckles had turned white. Every second they weren't at her apartment was another second Thomas Williams was spending hurting her.
Voight would NOT lose her because of some smucks poor driving sills
"He hears the sirens, he kills her and heads out her fire escape," he answered, squealing his tires as he drove around the corner. "We'll get to her in time. She's gonna be fine," said Tucker, trying to convince his temporary comrade as well as himself.
The Chicago Sergeant said nothing in response, just clutched his phone harder and grabbed the dashboard like he could physically push the car faster from inside. Ever cry or desperate plea that came from the phone, every time Williams screamed at the woman he loved to do something was like a dagger to him.
At one point he heard Williams scream at Noah who had been crying to shut up and then angry footsteps both his and Tuckers heart shattered when Olivia screamed at him not to touch her son, that she would kill him if he laid a finger on Noah.
The slap that followed made both of them far angrier than they had ever been.
Voight had to save her. He hadn't felt like this for anyone since Camille, he couldn't let her be taken from him like his wife had been. It would have killed him. Olivia was a brief flicker of light in an ocean of darkness and he wasn't ready to give that up.
He hadn't always been the way he acted, using brute force to get what he wanted. Sure he had been rough and he lived for the most intense hard beats Chicago could throw at him, but he was nothing like he was nowadays. His wife kept him in check. Camille wasn't afraid to argue with him, to tell him he was wrong, to actually challenge him when Voight thought he was right but in reality, wasn't at all.
That was when he had a wife and a son to go home too, someone he could talk to about everything but also would completely understand the nights when he just needed to take a beer and hole up in his bedroom without speaking for the night.
After she was murdered, that was the breaking point. That was why he had fought so hard to keep Justin out of jail. Yes he loved Erin, but he had lost his wife, he couldn't lose his son to… That was when he didn't care anymore about anything.
Then he found Olivia. And she argued with him and didn't back down and challenged his way of thinking, and wasn't afraid to tell him to sit down and shut up. Others had tried but she was the only person who had actually succeeded.
Now he was on the verge of losing her to this madman. He'd rather die himself than have her suffer through this…
"We go in quiet," said Tucker, breaking Voight from his thoughts. "I'll go in first."
Voight cleared his throat and shook his head. "No. We go in there putting the fear of God into Williams. He's a fucking coward; he won't put up much of a fight."
"You don't know that. We go in quiet, we surprise him, and we have a chance to pull our guns on him. We go in guns blazing; he could kill her and run off."
"Then you stay down there and you guard the fire escape," Voight told him growling angrier by the second. He had done FAR more rescues and kicked in a LOT more doors then this rat ever had. He wasn't about to let him take lead in this. "Just because you wanna be the big hero-!"
"This isn't about trying to impress her, Voight!" Tucker yelled. "This is about doing what is SMART! This is about getting Olivia and her son OUT! He could care less about her, he wants to hurt you and me, the only reason he has her is to make us both suffer!"
The IAB Lieutenant waited for Voight to argue but, surprisingly, the Chicago Sergeant said nothing. Tucker took that annoyed look and silence as a 'yes, you're right'.
Tucker took a deep breath as he turned onto her street, his heart pounding with every foot he got closer to her building. "You know how to kick down doors a hundred times better than me," Tucker admitted without shame. "But I know Thomas Williams better than anyone else involved in this case and I promise you if he hears us coming, even in the split second it takes us to get to his bedroom, he WILL kill her. I'll agree he's a coward but even a coward has a breaking point. Me and you? We're it. He's either going to be taken dead or alive, but either way he's going to try to go out doing the one thing that'll destroy both of us. Kill Olivia."
Tucker pulled up silently next to her building and turned, looking Hank Voight dead in the eyes. "Can I trust you to do what I'm telling you to do?"
Voight sat for a second; letting every argument Tucker had given him through his brain before he gave a curt nod "Let's go in quiet."
Not wasting another second both Voight and Tucker got out of the car and made their way inside her building.
It was surprisingly normal. There were people milling around, talking laughing… None of them had any idea what was happening just five flights above them.
"He probably has her tied up in her bedroom," Tucker breathed. "Do you know where her room is?"
"No," Voight admitted, being sourly reminded that Tucker had been inside her bedroom several times. "We always met up in my hotel room. Last night was my first time there and all I did was go there and meet Noah."
Normally Tucker would have gloated, that he had seen the inside of Olivia's bedroom plenty of times, but it was far too serious a moment to. Maybe after. But not now.
"You walk in, you turn right, and it's the one against the back wall. Did he say anything about where Noah was?"
Voight nodded as he and Tucker climbed into the elevator. "He said in his crib but I don't know."
"Do you know where that is?"
"Yeah."
"Good. You go in and grab Noah and get out."
"What? No, I'm dealing with Olivia and Williams."
Tucker sighed and rubbed his temples with his fingers. "Voight, this isn't-."
"About who gets her, I know," the Sergeant told him. "But when was the last time you were in a standoff? When was the last time you pulled your weapon?"
Voight took Tuckers silence to mean 'you're absolutely right, I'm just a pencil pushing dick that's never had a hard beat in my life'. Or something to that effect.
"Not to mention," he continued. "Williams hates you a LOT more than he hates me. He sees you, who knows what he could do."
Tucker took a deep breath and nodded. "Fine. I'll grab Noah. You just save Olivia."
Voight nodded as the elevator doors opened up in front of them. The two men silently but swiftly made their way to Olivia's front door. Their hearts were pounding so loud they were sure that whoever was inside could hear them crashing against their ribcage.
Slowly Voight opened Olivia's front door, as soundless as he could. He walked in first, his pistol in front of him, with Tucker following close behind.
Olivia's bedroom door was shut but they could hear Williams and Olivia's muffled voice from behind it. Both Tucker and Voight quickly scanned their sectors of the living room but stopping dead when he saw what was in front of them.
Olivia had forgotten to tell them about Lucy.
Lucy turned back towards them and began crying out for help; thankfully her words were muffled by the duct tape stretched tight over her lips
Voight bit back his shock and turned to Tucker, nodding towards Noah's door was where the baby was still crying out. The Lieutenant nodded and just as silently made his way over there and opened the door to slip in.
The Chicago Sergeant hurried over to Lucy, kneeling in front of her and put a finger to her lips. She nodded to show she understood before Voight peeled the tape from her lips. Wordlessly he cut the bindings and helped her stand.
"You take the baby," Voight whispered barely loud enough to hear. "And get out. Don't call the cops, don't call her squad, don't call anyone do you understand?"
Lucy sniffed her tears away and nodded just as Tucker brought out Noah from his crib with his hand over his mouth to muffle the sound of his crying, knowing that Williams would be able to hear the baby's cries move from the nursery to the living room.
Tucker handed Noah over to Lucy who copied Tuckers movement and put his hand over his mouth. Without another word she and Noah left the apartment, Tucker not knowing the order that Voight had given her.
The two walked over to the closed bedroom door, the sounds coming from it rushing their heart into dust.
"You still haven't answered my question," Williams told Olivia with an angry growl followed by a slap and a loud cry from the SVU Sergeant. "Where did you get these scars?"
Tucker and Voight turned and met the other ones eyes, both knowing exactly what scars Williams was speaking about…
They turned back towards the door and Voight took a deep step before he backed up with the IAB Lieutenant moving out the way. With a loud almost terrifying yell, Voight kicked in the door as hard as he could making it, and part of the frame, crash against the opposite wall.
Voigt and Tucker barged in her room with their guns drawn. Williams was on top of Olivia, yanking her hair back and looking like a deer in headlights. Olivia was on the bed, cuffed to her headboard with her blouse ripped off and on the floor in a tattered shreds. Williams had shoved Olivia's uncuffed hand inside of his jeans, having a hold of her by the wrist and making her stroke him.
Olivia looked past Williams and for the briefest second there was a look of relief on her face. She would be saved….
"GET THE FUCK OFF HER NOW WILLIAMS!" Voight bellowed at the top of his voice as he lifted his gun, aimed directly at Thomas Williams face while Tucker stood beside him with his own handgun held in the same manner the academy had trained him to hold it.
Tuckers heart was slamming hard against his chest, an icy sweat broke out upon his brow. Even in photos seeing his face made the IAB Lieutenants heart fill with a dreadful fear. This man had been the one who had taken everything from him. Williams had killed his wife, his unborn child, his own mother… Now he had the woman he had grown to love at gun point, ready to do the same thing to her.
He couldn't let Thomas Williams hurt another person he loved. He would rather die before he hurt another person, the only person left, that he cared about…
Just as Tucker began to shake with fear, he closed his eyes for half a moment, remembering his creed that he had told himself the second that he joined up with IAB.
"Cops will use any disadvantage or fear you show against you. They know that you know what they're capable of, what they can get away with," his own words rang clear in his ears as if Tucker was a young Internal Affairs officer barely out of the Academy. "You have to be hard, cold, unfeeling. Show them no weakness, no fear because they WILL see it. And they WILL exploit that. It's what they've been trained to do. You have to be better than that. You have to be better than them…"
He had been right to listen to that advice then and Tucker knew it would be wise to listen to it now.
So, taking a deep breath Tucker set an icy cold steel gaze on Williams, determined not to let this mad man see him crack…
Williams let out what could only be considered a fearful cry and wrenched Olivia up by her free arm and hid behind her, is pistol pressed tight at the back of her skull.
"LET HER GO NOW!" Voight bellowed his order barely audible through the rasp that coated his voice.
"Oh and then you shoot me?!" Williams barked back.
"I'm shooting you either goddamn way," the Chicago Sergeant growled like a rabid dog. "The choice you make is how many times you get shot and where."
"Put your gun down or I kill her!" he yelled still hiding behind Olivia, looking at Voight with a crazed look in his eyes.
"Let her go and we can talk about this," said Tucker, the calm and collected to Voights wild eyed insanity. "This isn't about her, it's about you, me, and Sergeant Voight. Sergeant Benson has nothing to do with this."
Williams whipped his head towards him and narrowed his eyes at Tucker, noticing him for the first time since the two officers crashed down the door.
"You," Williams snarled, "you stupid rat son of a bitch, you don't tell me what to do!"
"Just let her go and I'll listen to whatever you want me to listen to, I'll do whatever you want," Tucker continued, trying his absolute hardest to be as calm and collected as he was. This wasn't some super villain genius; he was just another cop that had broken the law. Tucker dealt with twenty or thirty of them a day…
Now if only his brain would relay that message to his nerves…
"No you're going to listen to me right NOW!" Williams screamed at the Internal Affairs Lieutenant. Tucker swallowed hard as he nodded, putting his hands up in surrender as a sign of good faith but not letting go his weapon.
"I never wanted to kill those other women!" Williams told him. "Not once, not ever, but you made me do it! If you had just left me alone when I killed Anna, none of this would have happened! Same with you!" He added with n angry bark as he turned back to Voight. "You and your squad are responsible for these women's deaths! I told you both if you had just left me alone I wouldn't hurt anyone else! Instead you had to prove how gung-ho both of you were and went after me!"
"You're a pathetic murderer who's blaming all of his problems on other people," Voight snapped back, his weapon still in front of him. "No one made you do a Goddamn thing!"
"You stressed me out!" Williams argued, now looking back and forth between the two of them. "You both ruined my life!"
Now Tucker was mad.
He narrowed his baby blue eyes at the despicable coward in front of him, still hiding behind a woman for protection.
"I ruined you life? I ruined YOUR life? You murdered my entire family!" Tucker shouted, taking a step towards him and aiming the gun at him once more. Williams yelled at him to stay back but his plea fell on deaf ears. "My wife was pregnant when you killed her! Did you know that? She was going to have MY CHILD!"
Williams licked his lips, a smug looking satisfied grin made its home on his face. "I knew. How could I not when every single word out of her mouth was 'don't hurt my baby' 'please don't kill my baby!' 'I'll do whatever you want if you don't hurt my baby!'" he mocked in a high falsetto tone.
"Knock it off, Williams!" Voight barked, casting his eyes only for half a second at Tucker, knowing that telltale signs he was about to go off on Williams in his wild eyes, in his balled up trembling hands, in every single move that Tucker was making.
In that moment Tucker wanted to act just like Voight…
Williams ignored Voights warning as Tucker moved closer to him. "But you wanna know what else I did? The first time I stabbed your wife?" he said as a wild hissed whisper. "It was right in her little baby bump." He moved his free hand down to Olivia's stomach, already marked from the remnants from one assault, caressing her soft skin. "I've never seen so much blood or heard a woman scream so loud before."
"I'll kill you," Tucker snarled, his word shaking with emotions as he put his weapon up again, aiming his gun between the very thin space next to Olivia's head where Williams skull was exposed and beginning to storm up to the bed.
In a panic Williams smashed the weapon harder against Olivia's skull and pulling back the charger. "ONE MORE STEP AND I KILL HER!"
"LET HER THE FUCK GO!" Voight roared as Olivia's cry reached his ears.
"GET AWAY FROM HER, WILLIAMS!" yelled Tucker.
"SHUT UP! EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" the ex cop demanded. "JUST LET ME THNK!"
Williams took a deep breath and looked between Tucker and Voight for a moment, both with guns aimed at him.
He hated them. He hated them both more than anything, especially Tucker who had been responsible for everything. Williams honestly didn't mean to kill his girlfriend. It had been an accident but he knew he couldn't spend a day in jail, he was a cop, he'd never survive in there.
That's why he told them not to go after him. But Tucker AND Voight refused. And the more they came after him, the more he HAD to kill. They were all accidents. He didn't WANT to rape and kill those women but they made him, and they were pissed that their sins were finally catching up with them…
But maybe they had been taught enough. They both cared more about Olivia than any other woman alive. She could be his ticket out of here...
Williams pressed the weapon deeper into Olivia's skull, blindly reaching for the handcuff key he put on the desk and un-cuffed her, dragging her of the bed still hiding behind her.
His dark green eyes went quickly from Voight to Tucker. "You're going to let me leave with her-."
"You're out of whatever mind you have left, Williams," Voight interrupted. "You're not taking her anywhere. "
"And if you let me go without hurting me," he continued as if Voight hadn't of spoken. "I won't hurt her."
"The only option is you letting her go," Voight told him whereas Tucker said nothing.
Thomas turned towards Tucker, meeting his baby blue eyes. "You know what I can do. You know exactly the kind of danger I can inflict on people you love, Tucker. You either let me go with her and she's safe or you try to stop me, I shoot you both, escape with her, and I deliver her naked dead body to Internal Affairs front door. Your choice."
Tucker glared at Williams, hating him with every single fiber of his being... But he loved Olivia more than his hate. He couldn't let her suffer like what Carrie had…
The Internal Affairs Lieutenant holstered his gun, glaring at Williams as he did so. "Leave her here, unharmed, and you can go."
"Ed, don't!" Olivia told him, speaking for the first time since they entered the room, being silence when Williams threw his hand over her mouth.
Williams glared at Tucker, searching over his face. "You're lying."
"I'm not. I won't stop you this time, Williams; too many people have been hurt already."
Williams turned toward Voight who still had his gun trained on him. "What about you? Are you going to actually listen to me this time?"
Voight pursed his lips. Anyone in the room could tell he was just itching to shoot the man giving him the ultimatum…
"Yes…" Williams twisted Olivia's arm behind her, making her grimace in pain. Brown eyes met brown and the Chicago Sergeant saw her shake her head. She didn't want to be the reason a rapist and murderer was set free. "Or no."
Joseph Catalano had been the only criminal Hank Voight had ever let call the shots. He never let the thugs and gangsters he protected go without paying or demand anything out of him. That usually ended up with them getting smacked across the face.
His squad made deals. Not him. His only deals were 'tell me what I want or you get your ass stomped.'
But with Catalano it was different. He threatened someone he loved; he threatened to destroy one of only three people living he could say he honestly in his heart of hearts love.
Those people, who Voight would have done anything for, would have died and killed for, were Justin, Erin who he had saved more times than he could count, and then Olivia…
It was for that reason and that reason alone that Voight let out a loud growl and threw his gun to the floor, glaring at Williams as he did.
He smirked triumphantly at the two men. "There. See what happens when people just listen to me? People don't get hurt…"
"Keep your promise, Williams," Tucker said. "You gave us your word."
Williams looked at him for the longest moment, hero and villain staring each other down. A thick tension hung in the bedroom as Williams' finger twitched on the trigger of the gun still pressed against Olivia's head. You could hear all four hearts beating. No one moved, no one dared to even breathe…
Finally after several anxious seconds, Williams moved. He shoved Olivia hard towards them, both of them helping to bring her to her feet when she stumbled.
"You shouldn't have done that," she breathed as they pulled her to her feet. "He's not going to stop hurting you two."
"We'll get him," Voight growled as he threw a fierce terrifying look at Williams. "Don't worry."
Williams just glared at Voight as he walked slowly back towards her fire escape. "Yeah, Liv, don't worry. Everything's going to be fine…"
Olivia noticed before either Voight or Tucker did. What took only half a second in reality seemed to take years for her to react. Williams' hand raised one bullet in the chamber, the gun cocked and ready to fire.
"NO!" screamed Olivia before she moved.
She didn't even hesitate. Her mind screamed at her to move, her heart demanded that she protect him, to move him out of the way of the gunshot. Nothing else mattered except saving him...
It was as if her own body acted of its own accord as she pushed the man that every single part of her had chosen; had always known was the one really since the beginning, out of the way.
The SVU Sergeant screamed in pain when the bullet that Williams had fired ripped through her as she pushed Internal Affairs Lieutenant Edward Jonathon Tucker out of the way…
Voight sprinted towards Williams as he turned his gun on the Chicago Sergeant. Before Williams could fire he crashed into him and sent him flying into the ground.
"I got ya," Tucker panted as he helped Olivia sit up against the wall, putting pressure on her stomach with his hand, grimacing as the bright red blood flowed through his hands. "You're gonna be fine. You're gonna be okay."
Her hand clutched his as hard as she could as brown eyes gazed into brown. "I couldn't let him hurt you," she gasped.
"Just relax, Olivia. You-… you're gonna be okay." He took off his suit jacket and pressed it tight against the bullet wound. He bit his lip as tears filled his eyes. "I can't lose you, Liv. Please don't leave me…"
Tucker turned away from her so she wouldn't see his tears, barely able to stand her normally bright face now a ghostly pale. She swallowed hard as she reached up and turned his face back towards her.
"I love you, Ed," Olivia whispered in a pained breath, barely loud enough for him to hear her.
Tucker pushed a stray piece of hair from her face. "I love you too," he told her just as softly as she spoke.
Olivia rested her cheek against his hand as her own tears began to fall. A loud crash jerked them both out of the moment and they twisted their head to see Voight and Williams rolling on the ground together after crashing into her bed stand, each struggling for the gun, neither one willing to let the other one have it…
Tucker narrowed his eyes at the scene, his hands clenched into a tight fist as he stood up from the floor.
"Ed," Olivia pleaded softly with a grimace of pain, "don't… don't hurt him."
Tucker ignored her as he pulled his gun out of his holster.
Just when it appeared that Williams had the upper hand the familiar sound of a gun cocking drew them both out of the fight. They looked up and saw Tucker standing over them, his gun pointed at Williams, a rage in his eyes that no one had ever seen before in the IA Lieutenant.
"Let go of the gun," Tucker practically growled at Williams, "now…"
Williams gazed up at him in fear, swallowing hard as he was looking down the barrel of a gun. Voight used the momentary distraction to all but snap Williams hand back and wrench the gun from his hand, leaving the criminal absolutely helpless.
Williams laid flat on his back, his arm raised, his body trembling in fear. "Don't hurt me. Please…"
"Get Olivia out of here," Tucker told Voight who was standing beside him with his own gun pointed at Williams. "She doesn't need to see this."
"Don't!" Olivia cried out. "He's not worth it!"
Voight just looked from Tucker to Williams. Thomas Williams, who may have just killed the only woman he had ever loved. Even if she did love Tucker instead of him, no one took a bullet for someone if they weren't in love, he still felt more for her than he had ever felt before and this monster may have taken her completely after they had let him go free.
Williams had to pay…
"Do it," Voight muttered softly to Tucker. Tuckers eyes flickered over to Voight for half a second before they were back on Williams. "Pull the trigger, Tucker."
"He will go to court finally. He will pay for everything he did, but not if you kill him…" Olivia pleaded.
"He killed your wife," Voight reminded him, his brown eyes wild and crazed. Tuckers hand holding the gun began to shake. His service weapon had never weighed as much as it had right then.
"Voight stop!"
"He killed your mother, he may have killed Olivia… shoot him!" he yelled. "Do it!"
Tucker shuffled his feet; his hands were cold and clammy. His breaths were nothing more than a frantic pant.
"Please!" Williams begged, letting out a desperate sob. "Please don't kill me."
"Ed… don't do this," Olivia pleaded. "Just put the gun down!"
"Kill him! Do it, now!"
With a loud roar, Tucker pulled the trigger back hard and fast, the gun shot emptying the chamber with a thundering boom.
Olivia screamed, Voight yelled in what could only be classified as triumph, and Williams let out a frantic sob as the bullet embedded itself in the floor right beside Williams head…. Just where Tucker aimed it to go.
Williams slowly opened his eyes when he realized he wasn't dead, his eyes falling on Tucker as the IAB agent let the gun fall to the ground, the weight far too heavy for him anymore tonight.
"You ruined my life," Tucker told Williams, swallowing hard. "But I'm not like you. As much as I want to do this, as much as you deserve to die for this, I can't do it..."
Voight took a step back, his own adrenalin running through him beginning to slow. "Tucker… think about what you're doing."
"I am." He turned towards Voight, his eyes soft and begging him to understand. "I'm internal affairs. My job, my career, my entire life is based around the ideal that cops need to hold themselves to a higher standard, no matter why they want to break the rules…"
The Chicago Sergeant shook his head but didn't say anything. "Neither of our fathers or our wives ever saw justice from the people that hurt them," Tucker continued softly. "Let the one woman we love get it…"
Voight pursed his thin lips as he met Tuckers brown eyes. "You may be a rat… but you have more damn ethics than any damn cop I've ever met."
Olivia painful cry broke their moment. Tucker whipped towards Olivia and raced back over to, pressing his jacket tighter against her. "I'm right here… you're gonna be okay," he told her softly as he got out his phone and called 911.
She managed a weak smile and leaned her forehead against his. "Thank you," she whispered gently. "Thank you…"
Voight bent down to flip a crying Williams onto his stomach and cuffed his hands behind his back, making the cuffs as tight as they could go and dragged him to his feet. "Tucker might have morals," he spat in his ear just low enough for Williams to hear him. "But he isn't the one driving you to the station…"
Before Voight dragged him out of the room, he stopped and turned towards Tucker and Olivia. He watched her for a moment, saw the love in their eyes as she looked at Tucker who was relaying her address to the paramedics and, despite knowing that he had lost the love of his life, a smile grew across his hard face.
He smiled… because Tucker was looking at Olivia the same way he looked at her and she was gazing at him with the same look he had dreamed about nearly every night.
Voight knew she would be happy with him. She would be loved, she would be happy; she would be treated with the way she deserved to be treated... Even if it wasn't with him, she would have everything the Chicago Sergeant had dreamed of giving her.
And that was something that Hank Voight couldn't wish for anything more when it came to her…
Please Review. Last chapter coming soon. And for you Benoight fans I'm sorry, I love you, please don't hate me. In my newest fic 'What Could Have Been' it's strictly Benoight, no love triangle so please go check it out as a token of my esteem and affection.