1-2-3 Years...
The Second Year
Chapter Three
It was just a moment that Alex had seen. In fact it wasn't even a moment. It was a fraction of a second that she had caught and that was now replaying in a loop in her head. The scene of Olivia, her lover, her every dreams and prayers come true, kissing Jena. It wasn't just a peck or an awkward position that she had misinterpreted. No, it was indeed a full lips to lips, tongue to tongue, kiss. Where Olivia's mouth was open and taking in Jena's grabbing on to her head and sucking her inside her. And Alex had stood in the doorway and watched it happen.
That was till the sharpest of the pain, even worse than getting hit by a bullet, pierced into her heart rendering her in an almost comatose condition. So much so that everything that happened afterwards, she recollected in a blur like you would remember a black and white movie you saw once upon a time ago. She remembered Abbie and Jena leaving shortly after with Eve in tow. After that she had walked out too. Somewhere in the back of her head she recalled Olivia grabbing her and trying to stop her but she couldn't correctly place it in the same stream of thoughts or if it belonged to another time in the past. That of course did not matter any more since she did walk out and just like the first time, once again ended up with Gina.
Except this time she hadn't intended to run to Gina. She had actually gone to her office to try and get her thought process in order, but when she had reached she had seen Gina's office light on. Seeing that she was already there, she went to her friend, whom she had only hours ago thrown out of her home. Regardless of her earlier rudeness though Gina welcomed her and gave her a shoulder to cry on till her tears dried and she wondered what her friend was doing in the office so late. That was when Gina told her that she was trying to compile together enough evidence for a warrant against Jena. But just as Alex had insisted over and over earlier, everything she had were all circumstantial and not enough for any judge to sign a warrant.
Alex's pain stricken heart which desperately sought an outlet found one at that instant. She immediately started to reconstruct Gina's theory that she had dismissed before. She worked till wee hours of the morning putting everything that Gina had compiled in order, but it still was not enough. There was no direct connection between Jena and any drug transaction that they could nail her for. They needed at least one physical evidence that could prove that Jena was their guy so that all the other evidences could just fall into its places. And as Gina had said before that evidence could only be Jena's DNA. DNA that Alex wasn't sure they could even get a warrant for, but then she had another way. Jena was in her home, cooking eating touching everything. Leaving her fingerprint and DNA everywhere including inside her girlfriend's mouth but that was something that Alex was not going to think about at that time. But what she was going to concentrate on was the fact that Jena had left behind evidence all over in her house and she was could get it without any warrant. Gina of course was against it, but her mind was set and there was nothing anyone could say or do to stop her. That's why she went back.
A part of her might have gone back to re hear Olivia's excuse or explanation that she had blocked out of her system but when she walked back in, that part of her was immediately crushed. Since the house was empty. Olivia was gone. Fueling her anger more as she marched from one room to another looking for anything that she could be 100% sure that only Jena used. But with the number of people who were in the house last night that was an impossibility too. Till she once again opened the door to Eve's room. Not many of her guests had gone into that room so she looked around hoping to get a positive result. And she did get it. It wasn't a DNA sample but it was just as good.
The moment the courts opened she was able to get an arrest warrant based on it on the woman who had stolen her heart's desire. And only an hour later she was standing in front of her door along with dozen or so FBI agents led by Gina who still wasn't sure if Alex coming along for the arrest was a good idea. But, with Alex's determination there was nothing she could say so she let her friend have her way as she knocked on the door.
"Ms. Rollins this is the FBI." She screamed from outside.
There was no answer. Gina screamed couple more times before she stepped back and instructed to break open the door. As soon as it was done, they marched inside with their guns drawn and everyone in alert mode. But to their surprise, there was no one there. It was empty. Gina and the rest of the agent went about making quick sweep of the apartment while Alex's eyes fell on the blinking light of the answering machine, indicating that there was an unheard message. Without even informing Gina about her find, she walked to the machine and hit the play button.
"Hey Jen...its me." Olivia's voice spoke from the machine silencing every other noise in the room. "You always said that I didn't choose you. Well this time the ball is in your court. You choose."
The bar was empty and small. All the chairs were put upside down on top of the tables. The sun was at its noon. Its rays filtered through the interiors from the two small almost to the ceiling windows, shinning light to the only patron still seated in the bar stool. The twelve year SVU veteran detective approached the lone customer and sat right next to her. He waited few seconds hoping that his presence would be acknowledged. But he wasn't noticed. So he decided to start the conversation himself.
"Wanna tell me what happened after the party was over?" He asked his brooding partner.
"Get out of here Elliot." Olivia answered without taking her gaze off of the coffee in her hand that she needed to sober up with.
"You know I would love to do that. If the SVU wasn't involved." Elliot turned watching his partner as he spoke. "But Abbie came to the station to file a report so I can't just let it be."
"She wants to file a report for what?" Olivia looked up and at her partner to make sure that she had heard him right.
"She thinks Jena and Eve were kidnapped." He answered before he realized that his partner was clueless to what he was talking about. "How long have you been here?" He asked.
"The whole night. What is happening?" Olivia didn't coffee to sober up anymore.
"Short version. Abbie stormed into the precinct this morning saying that she had a little tiff with Jena so she slept in the hotel last night. But when she returned home this morning both Jena and Eve were gone. She went about calling everyone, but no one knows where they are. And then she looked around the house to find that nothing is missing except Jena and Eve. So, she thinks that they had to have been kidnapped. She knows that we can't take in the complaint till 24 hours has passed but the Captain said he would look into it as a personal favor." Elliot paused.
"After what happened last night Jena might have just disappeared to clear her head. Abbie doesn't need to make a big deal of it. I haven�t gone home too." Olivia turned back to her coffee realizing that it was just a false alarm.
"Could have been if that was all it was." Elliot agreed and disagreed at the same time.
"You mean to say there is more."
"Alex came in the precinct too. She was looking for you thinking that you might know where Jena is."
"Alex is looking for Jena?"
"Yes. Apparently Alex managed to get a warrant on Jena in connection with the Valez massacre. Seems like the FBI barged into Jena's apartment, first thing this morning, but they were gone. So, now Alex and Gina think that you might be hiding them. While Abbie thinks that they might be kidnapped by the real Valez killer."
"What!" The amount of shock was clear in, the now again feeling drunk detective. "How on earth is Jena connected to Valez? Where is this coming from? This is all G's doing, I just know it. And because of what happened last night, Alex is actually helping G in her crusade against me. I cannot believe that Alex would fall for it twice." Olivia was screaming.
"What did happen last night?" Elliot asked a little curious.
"Nothing." Olivia got up and took out her wallet. "I need to go and see Abbie. She'll know what exactly is happening."
"Abbie? Don't you mean Alex, your girlfriend? Unless even that changed." Elliot pointed out as he watched his partner take out few bills and throw it by her coffee cup.
"Hey Joe! Thanks man." Olivia yelled to the bartender before she answered her partner's concern. "I don't think Alex would tell me anything about Jen right now. But it is not just about Jen, my daughter is missing too. I need to know what is happening." She put on her jacket and lighted a cigarette at the same time.
Elliot started to get up too but Olivia put her hand on his shoulders to stop him.
"I need to go there alone." Olivia said leaving her partner behind.
"Yeah but I need to go to work too." Elliot got up regardless. "Abbie is at the station."
Captain Donald Cragen always had great respect for the former ADA of his unit. When she was working for his unit, she was also working for homicide at the same time, yet never once did she ever neglect any of their cases. She was always available for his unit and always put her self out there to make their job a little easier. So, when she walked into his office, asking for a personal favor he didn't think twice before he called upon his best detectives to find her girlfriend and her daughter. And now, only an hour past noon, he already posted a patrol car outside Abbie and Jena's apartment, just in case they did come back. While he had John and Fin working with Abbie on her hunch that somehow the real Valez killer was responsible for the kidnapping and sent Elliot to find Olivia.
When Olivia and Elliot came back, Fin had already drawn up a list of suspects on the board and was in the process of narrowing down with the little information that Abbie had. But to Olivia who hadn't slept a wink the entire night that was the last thing on her mind as she approached her former colleague.
"What happened?" She demanded. She stood right on Abbie's face so that the prosecutor knew that she deserved an answer.
"What happened is because of the little stunt you pulled last night, your girlfriend is out to get mine. I knew Agent Ramsey was hell bent on trying to get you. What I didn�t realize was how far she was willing to take that." Abbie and Olivia had drawn up the same conclusion. "And now with Alex willing to believe everything that she says, they even managed to throw me out of the case citing conflict of interest. And get a warrant on Jen with fabricated evidences."
"Even if that is so, why are Jen and Eve missing?" Olivia asked.
"Agent Ramsey must be close. Whatever ever evidence she has, must be pointing to the real killer too. And that is why he must have kidnapped Jen so that no one suspects that it was someone else." Abbie explained.
"Simple if you disappear right when the FBI is knocking on your door with a warrant on you. You automatically graduate from suspect to guilty." Fin added.
Abbie walked away from Olivia and to the board where the clues that she knew about the killer was jotted down. "Our answer is right in these clues. Something that Gina is refusing to see and we haven't caught it yet."
"That fits Gina alright." Olivia agreed. "Whenever she focuses on one thing, she completely ignores everything else. That is exactly how she was even in academy."
"Then may be she is the killer." Detective John Munch got up and walked up to the board. He made a circle and wrote Gina's name on it. "Think about it." He said now fully armed with his theory. "Like Abbie said, she has always been out to get Olivia. What if this is not something she planned right now, or couple of months ago, but right when she met Alex." He picked up a folder from the stack of papers that Abbie was able to slip out. "When she realized who Alex was, that is when she decided to use Alex. She played this elaborate game so that she could get Alex back to her life where she was certain Olivia was waiting for her. Once Olivia and Alex got together, may be her plan was just as simple as to break them up and have her revenge. But that couldn't happen because even though she had the perfect opportunity, Alex and Olivia stayed together. That is when she knew she had to do something bigger. Something that couldn�t just be repaired with a �sorry�. And that�s she targets Jena. Jena is a perfect choice because you." He looked to Olivia and continued. "Still love her. May not be in love with her but she is someone you had a child with. Now, if Alex is part of the team that puts Jena away. Especially when you know that she is innocent. Then you and Alex would never get back together. And Gina has her sweet revenge."
"As much as I hate Agent Ramsey right now, don't you think that is a little too far fetched? I would agree on the fact that she wanted to break up Alex and Olivia, but we are talking about murder to staging an attack on her own home with Chris and Sarah." Abbie disagreed.
"She seems psychologically capable of it." Dr. Huang stepped up to put forward his conclusion. "Her mother is gay. Abbie told us that Jena believed that her hate for gay women came from the fact that she believes that her mother abandoned her, for her lover. Now, this might be true or this just might be what her father told her. Regardless it is clear that is what she believes."
Jena had told Abbie in detail all about their past, and in turn Abbie had spent the last two hours explaining to the detectives in details everything that she knew. So, it wasn't a surprise that Dr. Huang was ready with a detailed physiological analysis of Gina.
"And that is embedded in her but it doesn't sound like that is what she wants to believe. Unconsciously or consciously, she is seeking gay women to be attached to. First it was Jaq, with whom she became friends with. Then Jaq fell in love with her and she cut off the friendship. Now, you said that she did that because she believed that to Jaq love was more important that friendship and she chose it over friendship. Now, I think that is the key with her. The choice that gay women make. Over and over she seeks gay women, and hopes that they don't choose love over anything else. But every time she has been disappointed. Jaq let the friendship crush for her love. Olivia chose Jena over her own career. And then came Alex. Now, Alex was different for her. At a point when Alex could have chosen to come back to her life, and come back to Olivia. Alex chose to stay with Gina and Chris so that she could save their lives." This fact he had read from Abbie's files. "Now, this is where I differ with John. I don't think this is about Olivia. I think this is all about Alex. Gina wants to be proven wrong. She wants one gay woman to not choose love. So, that she can somehow forgive her own mother. And not hate her as she does now. So, Gina needs to make sure that Alex would not choose Olivia. Even though she already proved that before, but at that point Alex and Olivia were not together. But now they are. And now she has them exactly where Alex has to make a choice. Olivia will never believe that Jena is guilty. While Gina has Alex blinded with her own theories. Now for Alex to remain true to who she is, she has to leave Olivia. And if she does that, then Gina would get her peace. If she doesn't then she is once again back to square one."
"That's a very nice intake on Gina but none of the evidence points towards her.� Olivia got up and walked up to the board too. As much as it was easy to say that Gina conspired against her or Alex, somehow it just wasn't the right answer. "That might be the reason why Gina is fixated on proving Jen to be the killer. But that doesn't mean that Gina is the killer herself. For one she would never attack Chris or Sarah. And for another every evidence that we have says that the murderer is someone else. Someone who smokes American Spirits Lights, as they found butts of it in the room where the guy who was stalking Alex stayed."
"I smoke American Spirits. You do too." Abbie pointed out the vagueness of the first line on the board. "Forget about everyone else. In our circle alone, we have Jaq and Ray who smoke the same brand. Not just Jen."
"And Adam." Olivia made a new circle in the board and put his name on it. "Adam is Chris' brother. He has bit of anger and smokes the same brand, I remember. And Chris said that he works for the head offices of the Decon Franchise. So..." She pointed out to the second line in the board. "He has access to the entire motels under the Decon umbrella. And even he can walk in and out of those motels just like any employee could. Or you." She was talking about Abbie. "Or I." Decon Franchise was formed when Jena and Olivia was still together and Olivia was a shareholder in the franchise too. "Or Jaq or Ray or Jen could. But the reason why he struck out in my head is because of the way Gina refused to talk about Adam when Chris brought his name up during the dinner. Like she was hiding something about him. If he is the one, then may be Gina wants to save him, because of Chris. And that explains why she is going through all the trouble to set up Jena."
"Except why would he miss a point blank shot on Alex." John pointed out the third sentence on their board. "There is a reason for Gina to miss it because she needed Alex to be alive so that she could use Alex."
"Jena also needed Alex alive. She didn't want to kill someone who might be her ex's girlfriend. If you follow that stream of thought, then Jaq and Ray to Abbie and Olivia, every one of them wanted Alex alive." Cragen said getting a little frustrated with all the dead ends they were running into. "Not to mention, everyone in this unit wanting Alex alive. So, I don't think this is even a clue." He went and erased the line from the board. "Let us just assume that the shooter actually missed. He did want to kill Alex but due to some reason he missed. Then we can focus on some credible suspects, like Adam or may be." He drew out a circle and left it empty. "May be it is none of them. It might just be a complete stranger who just crossed path with Gina once in her life and recognized her. And even Gina doesn't know who it is, but she got close and misread all the evidence she has."
"I think we are missing the most important fact here." Elliot finally spoke. "We are forgetting that they have a warrant against Jena. Now, everything that we know about the case, and every evidence that is in front of us, are nothing but circumstantial. No, judge would give a warrant on these."
"Which means that they have more than what we do." Fin pointed out.
"And whatever they have must be physical evidence because otherwise, they couldn't get a warrant." Elliot stated.
"He is right Abbie. For us to prove or disprove them, we need to know what they have. Are you sure they didn't tell you exactly what was it due to which they got the warrant?" The Captain asked agreeing with his detectives.
"No, they didn't, because according to Alex, legally I am nobody to Jen." Abbie got up, a little embarrassed and angry at the same time. "They even threatened Jennings, Jen's company lawyer, from disclosing any facts about the case to me, because apparently it is an on going investigation, the details of which cannot be shared with a stranger." Abbie pointed to herself unable to still believe that Alex had called her a stranger to Jena.
"But if they have physical evidence against Jena then, everything else does fit for her to be the murderer." Elliot didn't want to be the bad guy but to him it seemed like everyone was just missing the obvious. The obvious that Jena might actually be the murderer. "I am not saying that Jena is but you have to admit that even the circumstantial evidences are more against her than anyone else." He said it as neutrally as he could.
"Jen is a lot of things. She is even stupid enough to forget about her family in a moment of weakness." Abbie was looking at Olivia when she said it. "But she is not a criminal." Abbie believed in her girlfriend even if no one else did. "I came here thinking I had friends and I could get help to find my family.� She directed it to the Captain as it was him that she had approached. "Not to have another bunch of people tell me that the woman I am in love with is cold hearted assassin responsible for numerous murders."
"Abbie it was just an opinion." The Captain started to apologize but Abbie wasn't going to hear anymore.
"No, Cragen. I don't need this. Thanks guys." She glared at everyone before she marched out.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Olivia gave a sharp slap on Elliot's shoulder's wondering what had come over her partner to incriminate Jena.
"I was just saying as I saw it." Elliot's words might have been unpopular but he still defended them.
"Jen is not a criminal." Olivia repeated Abbie's words before she walked out too.
"For all you know Olivia or Abbie might be the one who killed Valez. After all they stand to gain the maximum from Alex coming back." Fin put forward his theory just after Olivia left the squad room. "What? Don't look at me? I am just saying." He retaliated to the silent objection stares he got from everyone.
Olivia hadn't repeated Abbie's words because it was something to say in defense of her ex girlfriend. But she had said them, because just like Abbie she believed in Jena too. And if it was just Abbie who was on Jena's side then Olivia was on Abbie's side too. So, she ran down the stairs to catch her.
"Abbie wait up." She yelled once they were both out of the building and in the streets.
"What do you want Olivia? To tell me that I am being blind and not seeing the obvious." Abbie asked once the detective had caught up to her.
"No, certainly not." Olivia answered. "I don't care what Elliot thinks or they think. I know that Jena is not a criminal." She paused so that Abbie could understand that she was with Abbie not against her. "Look I want to find them too."
"Do you?" Abbie questioned staring into Olivia for confirmation.
"Yes, I definitely do." Olivia confirmed without a doubt in her mind.
"Even though Alex is the one out to get her. Do you still believe in Jen?" Abbie wasn't convinced, so she asked again rephrasing her question with more details.
"Alex is just not thinking right, right now. I am sure she is allowing Gina to fill her head and I can't say I blame her for it. But regardless, that doesn't mean that Jen should be victimized. I know Jen is not capable of anything that they are her accusing of."
"If you believe in Jen then help me fight Alex." Abbie was still staring at Olivia waiting for any sign of weakness from her.
"Fight Alex? What are you talking about?"
"Elliot is right. They must have some kind of physical evidence against her. And we can't prove them wrong, till we know exactly what it is. But Alex is not giving it to me, because according to law I am no body to Jen. But not you."
"What are you talking about?" Olivia asked still unable to understand what Abbie was getting at.
"You are her partner, at least according to the civil union that you two did in Vermont. You two never terminated it, so it still holds. You can demand that Alex release the details of the case against Jen to you because you are her spouse." Abbie put her real intension in words as she watched Olivia's face turn from determined to doubtful. "I know it is a long shot, but you still have some papers to prove your relation to her. I don't. With that I can fight to get what we need." Abbie insisted.
Olivia did not answer. She did realize that it might not have been easy for Abbie to ask her what she was asking. And if she had any other way, she was sure Abbie would have never asked her too. But Olivia wasn't sure if she could go to her girlfriend demanding her spousal right on her ex. So, she remained silent.
"Just as I had thought." Abbie looked away. "I am not going to force you Olivia. It is your choice and I know it is not fair of me to ask you of this. But as you know time is ticking even as we stand here. And God forbid, if I am right. And if some assassin did kidnap them, to hide from the suspicion, then you and I both have seen too many horrid faces of this society to not think the worst right now."
Olivia listened but she still did not have an answer.
Abbie hailed for the cab and waited till it came to a stop right in front of her. She opened the door and sat inside without another word. But when she was about close the door it was pulled open from outside.
"Let's do it." Olivia said scooting inside and sitting right next to her ex's girlfriend. "Let's go and get what they have against Jen."