Pretty Poison

(Chapter Twenty Five: Monster)

"I want this guy," Elliot exclaimed as he slammed a piece of paper down on the desk in front of Fin.

He watched Fin studied the picture.

"This man looks strangely familiar," Fin confessed. "But the picture is smudged on the right side."

"I drew it with eyeliner," Olivia said entering the room behind them.

"You're a sketch artist now?" Munch teased trying to lighten the mood.

"Noah dumped my purse in the car and I didn't have my phone. This was the best that I could do."

"This is the man from the hotel. He is following her," Elliot explained.

"The man from what hotel?" Munch asked moving in for a closer look.

"I was sitting in the coffee shop this morning reading the paper like I always does after I drop the baby off. Then it was like I could feel someone watching me. When I looked up he was staring at me from across the room."

"You couldn't have used a pen?" Cassidy joked taking the paper placemat from Fin's hands.

"Maybe she didn't have a pen. Maybe she was digging through her purse in a panic and grabbed the first thing she could find," Munch explained with a glare. "It is actually a very detailed sketch," he said with a nod in her direction.

"Make copies of this. I want to get it out there," Elliot said. "Right now we only have enough to bring him in for questioning, but I want him here. We bring him in here and find a way to tie him to that hotel room."

"This man is six foot, dark hair, light blue eyes about one hundred and sixty pounds." She said as Fin jotted down the details.

"I'm on it," Fin said sitting at his desk to work up some flyers.

"Wait," Cassidy objected. "This case is closed. That guy is dead."

"This is a second suspect. And he is dangerous. We need to find this man."

"Let me get this straight," he said turning to face Elliot. "We are reopening a closed case because Olivia had an Elvis sighting in a Starbucks?"

Olivia's eyes filled with tears as she turned as she backed out of the squad room.

"Don't be a dick," Munch snapped. "If she said he was in the room then he was in the room. Olivia wouldn't just make up something like that."

"Where did you come from?" Fin asked giving Cassidy the evil eye. "You don't even work in this department anymore!"

"We don't close cases until they are solved," Elliot replied biting his tongue and smoothing his hand across his face to get his temper under control before further addressing the situation. "This guy is still out there."

"How do we even know there is another guy?"

"Look," he snapped, "she has been saying for a long time that there was a second man in that room. Nobody listened. Now he is following her. This man assaulted Olivia and God knows how many other women. I think it is time we bring him to justice."

Elliot stood quiet for a moment then made his way toward the cribs to find his wife.

"Are you okay?" he asked kneeling beside the bunk where she sat crying.

"No one believes me," she whispered. "This is all some big joke."

"Hey," he said brushing back a strand of hair with his thumb to stare into her eyes. "I believe you. And the guys are helping….we are going to find this guy. Half the city will be on the lookout for this guy by morning."

He kissed her forehead as she wiped her eyes.

"I am a train wreck. I didn't used to be this emotional."

"You have every detective in this unit supporting you. We all love you and will make sure this guy pays for what he has done."

She forced a weary smile.

"Cassidy is a jerk. I have no idea what his problem is," Elliot said standing and reaching for her hand to help her up.

"I do," she said softly as he shifted his eyes to meet hers. "Brian and I were dating," she confessed. "When we went undercover, when all of this first began….we were together. We were happy."

"You never told me you guys were together again."

"It had only been a couple of weeks. But things were good. Things were different then. He loved me, Elliot."

"And you loved him?"

"I thought I did," she whispered. "Then everything happened that night and things were so screwed up….I was so screwed up. I told him I needed to put things between us on hold for a while. Then I found out I was pregnant."

"Liv," he began before she cut him off.

"No, Elliot. I love you. You are my rock, my best friend, the love of my life and the father of my child and I couldn't have made it through any of this without you," she choked out as she began to cry once more. "I married you because I was in love with you. There has never been any doubt in my mind that I made the right decision when I said my vows."

Elliot smiled and hugged her tight as she buried her face in his chest.

"You are my entire world, Olivia. I love you more than life itself. I promise you, we will catch this guy."

Elliot kissed her tenderly and she smiled. He slipped his hand around hers and lead her toward the door. They were half way back to the squad room when Brian Cassidy walked up behind them.

"Liv, I was wondering if I could talk to you for a minute."

Elliot looked studied the look on her face for a moment.

"It's okay," she whispered in assurance.

"If you need me, I'll be right over there," he said kissing her gently before proceeding to his desk across the room.

"What's on your mind, Bri?" she asked forcing a nervous smile.

"I'm sorry. I was a complete dick to you back there and I had no right to be. What this man did to you and to those other women….I just want you to know that I will do everything that I can to help put this guy in prison where he should be."

"Thanks."

He forced a nervous smile and began to back away.

"I'm sorry, too," she blurted out. "I never meant to hurt you."

He closed his eyes for a moment then walked back over to her.

"I know that. And it is really great to see you happy. And your little boy is absolutely beautiful."

"He's a handful," she said with a smile.

"I love you."

She watched as he cleared his throat and began again.

"I loved you. So I guess it is kind of hard to see you happy with someone else. But I am happy for you. And I will get over it. You. Eventually. For now I just want you to know that I am devoting my full attention to finding the bastard who hurt you. And he will be damn lucky if I don't put a bullet in his gut the minute I lay eyes on him. Send him to prison with a hole in his belly and let him rot slowly and painfully…."

"Brian," she said softly.

"Seriously, though. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for you. And between Elliot and I, they'll be lucky if there is enough of this guy left to take to prison. I keep telling myself, if I had been there….if I hadn't been off on my own undercover ordeal…."

"It wasn't your fault. Elliot was there. He was right there beside me and this still happened. We were drugged. We couldn't stop it, we couldn't stop him. I still don't completely know what all happened that night. But I do know that as horrible as things were, if I had the chance to take it all back….I wouldn't. I got pregnant with Noah that night. So no matter how bad everything else was, something really beautiful came out of all of this."

"Yea," he agreed. "I always knew you would be a great mother."

She smiled.

"Really?"

She watched as he began to nod.

"Because I was horrified when I found out I was pregnant. I didn't really think I could do it. I had never even been around a baby before Noah."

"I've seen you with him, you're a natural. And that kid adores you."

"I adore him."

"If Elliot ever forgets what a lucky man he is, just give me a call. I'd love to help you remind him."

She laughed.

"Seriously though," she said softly, "I would like it if we could still be friends."

"Of course," he agreed.

Back in the bullpen Munch and Fin discussed a plan to try and capture their mystery man. Olivia noticed they stopped talking as she and Elliot entered the room.

"What's going on guys?" Elliot asked.

"We were just talking," Fin began, "and we realized that other than the detailed description Liv has given us, we really don't know anything about this man. We don't know his name or where he lives. We have no idea where he hangs out. If we knew any of these things, we could just wait him out and to catch him."

"In fact, all that we really know about him is that he has every detail of Olivia's daily routine memorized," Munch added.

"No. Absolutely not."

John Munch stared at Elliot pretending to be confused as to what he was talking about.

"I am about to take Olivia to pick up our son and then take her home. Where she will stay until we find this freak. There is no way I am going to let you use her as bait for this psycho!"

"We would all be right there. We wouldn't let anything bad happen to her. And the minute we see this guy we grab him. He goes to prison, she gets justice and he isn't out there on the streets anymore to hurt anyone else."

"I said no, John!"

"I'll do it," Olivia said from behind him as they all turned around to look at her. "Elliot, I appreciate your concern, but it is my decision after all."

"Liv, no. It is too dangerous."

"Munch is right. He knows me. For some reason he follows me. This could be our only chance. I was careful only to make eye contact with him for a moment in the coffee shop. I don't think he even realized that I am on to him. If I break routine now, he is going to know that I know he watches me. Those flyers have not gone out yet, we could put a hold on them and give this a shot before he gets tipped off."

"Olivia, are you listening to yourself."

"I don't want to hide, Elliot. We are just starting to get our lives back together and now this monster is following me? I am sick of living like this. Always having to look over my shoulder. Always being afraid of what I know is there but can't see. I just want this to be over with."

"So do me," Elliot agreed.

"Can we at least give this a chance? Once we release those flyers it will be too late. But if he doesn't know we are looking for him….if he doesn't know I know that he is following me, it would be much easier to catch him."

"She's right, Elliot. If we spook him there is no telling what he will do. At least this way we have some idea how he functions," Fin pointed out.

Elliot stared into Olivia's eyes for a moment, then picked up the phone.

"El, what are you doing?"

"Calling Kathy. If we are going to go through with this, then Noah is going out of town for a few days with Aunt Kathy and the other kids. I want him as far away from this as possible."

"Okay," Olivia agreed.

"I know a place, an old camp area off old rout 12. I used to fish there when I was a kid. There is a resort there now, very pretty place. An old high school buddy of mine owns the place," Cassidy announced. "I could arrange for Kathy and the kids to stay there for a while. It's about an hour outside the city."

"Make it happen," Elliot said in agreement. "And I need you to stay with them."

"Stay with them? With your ex-wife and kids?"

"Brian, I don't want to send a beat cop. I need someone I can trust. This is my family."

"Yea, no problem."

"Actually, Elliot," Munch began, "this guy has seen you. He knows the two of you are married. Or thought you were from the hotel anyway."

"What is your point?" Elliot growled.

"Maybe you should go with Kathy and the kids. We can use Cassidy here with us. This guy can't tie him to Olivia so he won't think anything if he sees Brian in a coffee shop."

"He's right, El. Maybe you should stay with Noah."

"I don't like this. Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked Olivia once more.

"I'm sure. I will be fine. I will have the guys following me around everywhere I go."

"I will hang around the coffee shop and watch to see if anyone follows you in," Munch said.

"I'm good for a run. I'll stay behind you a ways so he won't realize that we know each other. I'll keep an eye on the guys keeping their eye on you."

"Thanks guys," Olivia said softly.

"Okay, that leaves me," Fin began, "tomorrow is Tuesday. What is your regular routine on Tuesdays?"

"I drop Noah off with Kathy and go for my morning run in Central Park. Yoga at the gym, then I stop off at the coffee shop for a blueberry muffin and a non-fat vanilla latte," Olivia answered.

"Yoga?" he asked wrinkling his nose at Munch. "This is going to be harder than I thought."