The three months that passed since Rafael and Olivia's unexpected union had been relentlessly busy for them both. However, they had kept in contact over the passing months, texting and videocalling weekly, which they each looked forward to greatly – as did Noah, who excitedly set up the iPad every Friday evening before bed to speak to his Uncle Rafa. He would talk to Rafael for a while, before heading to bed, before surrendering the iPad to Liv who spent the rest of the evening with her favourite ADA. Their conversations felt easy and effortless, and they were each reminded of what it had been like before the complications of Wheatley and Stabler. Despite speaking regularly over the passing months, neither of them addressed the proverbial elephant in the room; neither were ashamed or embarrassed of sleeping with the other, and there was no regret by either party, but their relationship was so fragile that neither wished to risk damaging it further at such a critical point. Barba had suggested they meet for dinner when he returned to New York, and they both knew they would discuss the matter then. Right now, they were just enjoying not missing each other, whilst focusing on immediate and pressing matters in their respective lives.
During the months that followed their night together, Rafael was setting up the Boston office of the Innocence Project, and was assisting in the recruitment and training of staff as well as representing his clients. Weeks had turned into months and they passed quicker than he could have ever anticipated. The three month timescale turned to four, and Rafael worked tirelessly to finalise matters so he could return home to New York, and to Liv.
Liv and her squad had been equally busy in the pursuit of a serial rapist turned killer who was terrorising the upper east side. He had raped six women, assaulting them with such savagery that several had been permanently disfigured. His final victim, a young student at Hudson university and daughter of a cop from Connecticut, had been beaten so badly she had died from her injuries. The death of a victim, and the fact she was the daughter of a member of law enforcement, added even more pressure to the squad than they have already experienced from the media and members of the public. Liv was fielding calls from 1PP almost hourly, and despite her team's best efforts, they had very little to go on. The perp was an intelligent, power-assertive rapist who was incredibly forensically aware. The second victim had pulled off his ski mask and was able to provide a sketch artist with a detailed description, he looked like one of a thousand men in New York City. However, the tragic final victim had provided them with their best lead in the case so far, with the ME recovering skin from beneath her broken fingernails which they suspected belonged to her killer. There were no matches in CODIS or any other database, and Carisi was in the process of obtaining a warrant to allow them to run the DNA through an ancestry website to locate potential relatives. Liv insisted a warrant was obtained before doing so, as she did not want to risk the perp getting off on a technicality, especially when there was such little physical evidence.
It therefore came as a great relief when the warrant was issued and the DNA ran through an ancestry database. Within a couple of hours a match had been found to a woman who was the biological mother of their suspect, a well to do housewife living in Manhattan, whose husband was unaware of the baby she gave up for adoption when she was in college, and whose ignorance she wished to remain. Carisi arranged for the adoption records to be unsealed which revealed the identity of their suspect, Luca DiAngelo, a thirty-one year old veterinarian who lived in the upper east side, within ten blocks of each of the crime scenes.
Rollins obtained a copy of DiAngelo's driver's licence from the DMV, and the squad immediately recognised him from the artist's sketch. The only victim who saw his face identified him from a photo array, and Liv arranged a dawn raid of his house, to take him into custody and search his property and work premises for evidence.
It was a warm Friday morning in the middle of July, dawn had barely broke, and the team were preparing for the arrest. Due to concerns about information being leaked to the press or, possibly worse, the father of the latest victim, Liv decided that only herself, Fin, Rollins and two uniformed officers would be involved in the arrest. She was in her office having her third cup of coffee in a desperate attempt to fight her exhaustion awake when Fin entered.
"You ready, Liv?" he asked.
"Yeah" she replied, drinking the rest of her coffee and pulling on her blazer, before stepping out of her office and into the squadroom. "Let's go" she directed, as she led the small team out of the building.
Fin drove Liv and Amanda to the suspect's address, an apartment block on Lexington Avenue, with a single squad car following behind. The past few months had been relentless, and Liv was exhausted, and feeling slightly nauseous, which she put down to the early hour. She undid the window a few inches to let some fresh air into the car, and she closed her eyes as she took in a deep breath. Fin glanced towards her and watched her exhale.
"Liv, you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah" she replied immediately, opening her eyes and forcing a smile. "I always preferred midnight raids to dawn ones."
"Tell me about it" agreed Amanda with a yawn. Fin rose an eyebrow.
"You chose dawn, Captain" he reminded her. Liv rubbed her forehead and sighed.
"He hunts for his victims in nightclubs and bars, it's likely he wouldn't be home at midnight" she returned, her tone more irritated than she intended. "And if we got to his place and someone called him to tell him about it..."
"I hear you" Fin assured her, as he turned onto Lexington. Liv let out a slow breath and focused on the cool air upon her face. Her feelings of tiredness and nausea quickly turned into anticipation, and she quickly began scanning the street in front of her. There were few cars and one or two dog walkers, but otherwise the street was deserted.
At least it was, until a man dressed in black running gear descended the staircase of DiAngelo's apartment block and began to jog down the street.
"Son of a bitch" Liv breathed. "It's DiAngelo" she said breathlessly, removing her seatbelt before Fin stopped the car.
"Liv, you sure?" asked Amanda, who leaned forward from the back seat to get a closer look at the suspect, who was running down the sidewalk towards them.
"I'm sure" Liv responded, watching the jogger as he approached.
Liv was about to open the door and step out of the car when DiAngelo looked into the front of their car, and observed the patrol car behind them. She watched as realisation dawned upon his face, his eyes locked with hers, and he turned on his heel and sprinted down the sidewalk.
"Fin, go!" Liv yelled, opening the car door and running after the suspect before he could react. "Police, stop!" she yelled, as she gave chase.
Liv heard the screech of Fin's tyres and the wailing of the sirens behind her as she closed in on the suspect. She panted with exertion and closed the space between them, anticipating him ducking into an alleyway where cars could not enter, and she followed him down.
"NYPD, stop!" Liv yelled, as she followed him through a labyrinth of alleyways behind the apartment blocks, the stench of urine and dumpsters assaulting her sense. "Luca DiAngelo, stop, Police!" she yelled as she followed him down another alley, which she was relieved to find was a dead end.
As Liv closed the distance on the suspect he froze, before running towards a steel staircase which led up an apartment block. Liv grabbed him as he reached the second step and pulled him down, pushing him against the wall and securing his hands behind his back.
"Luca DiAngelo, you are under arrest for-"
Liv's words were stilled by DiAngelo, who pushed himself away from the wall and into Liv, pushing against her with all his weight so she fell to the ground. He landed heavily on top of her and quickly turned around, punching her hard in the face, before standing up. Liv felt burning pain upon her left cheek, but grabbed his right foot as he turned to flee, pulling it with all her might and causing him to lose his footing and fall to the ground. Enraged, DiAngelo turned towards her and kicked her hard in the stomach, twice, the force causing her to cry out. She grabbed his foot with her free hand and launched herself towards him, pushing him against the ground and pulling his arm up his back until he cried out in pain.
"Luca DiAngelo, you are under arrest for six counts of rape and one count of murder" she spat, ignoring her burning cheek and aching abdomen as she cuffed him. She was halfway through reading him his Miranda rights when Fin and Rollins came running down the alleyway.
Fin reached Liv a moment before Amanda, and immediately noticed the red mark upon her cheek and eye which promised to turn into a deep purple bruise. Fin hauled DiAngelo to his feet and threw him against the wall.
"Fin! Enough!" Liv yelled, as she pushed herself up off the ground with both hands. "I'm fine" she assured him breathlessly, as Amanda reached her side.
Fin responded to Liv, but she did not hear a word of what he said, as the ache in her abdomen suddenly turned into a sharp, cramping pain, prompting her to clutch her belly with her right hand.
"You okay, Liv?" Amanda asked with concern, watching as Liv's eyes narrowed and her face contorted in pain. Before Liv could respond, the sharp, cramping pain intensified tenfold, and she cried out in pain, her left hand reaching out to the wall for support as her legs gave way beneath her.
