Objection | SVU

Chapter 34

Barba's POV

I couldn't believe what I was hearing right now. This guy was absolutely insane and he was going after my wife. My wife. I was furious, and the whole Mobile Unit knew it, too. As soon as I heard Thompson recalling a past encounter with Jess, my eyes bulged out of my head. Jess knew a lot of people because of the fact that she was a student-athlete in undergrad, but I couldn't really see her forgetting someone. This guy either was really a creep, or something happened with him and Jess.

As the situation unfolded more, I heard Jess reply, "Thompson... How did you pass your psych eval?" I heard the good guy turned bad reply, "That's none of your concern, Jess... I'll make you a deal. I'll let everyone in this building go on one condition... You stay."

My stomach dropped and I gagged as I tried to stop myself from throwing up. Fin walked over to me and held my shoulder firmly as he suggested, or rather politely demanded, that I stop listening to the live feed. In a small burst of anger, I yelled, "No! You can come tell me to stop listening and step away when your wife is in there, facing certain death, about to be alone with a psychotic serial killer!"

Just as I said that, I heard Carisi tell Jess in a warning-filled tone, "Mitchell..." I heard Jess reply, "Take everyone and go, Carisi... Go." I heard shuffling and a few seconds later, Carisi spoke directly to us after a door closed. "I have the rest of the FBI agents clearing out of the building now, and I have Liv with me now." I broke and growled, "Why the hell would you leave her alone in there with him?!" Carisi rebuttled quickly, saying, "I'm just bringing Liv down to you guys and then I'm sneaking back up to have her back."

Jess's POV

Things started to heat up after Carisi and everyone left Thompson and I alone. Thompson immediately yelled at me, angrily exclaiming, "How could you forget me, Jessica?!" I had no idea how to react to this. He was psychotic, and I was just trying to think of a way to get myself out of here in one piece and back to Rafael. Thompson continued, "After all I did for you in college, Jessica, this is how you repay me?!" I flinched and saw him coming toward me, and it took all of my self control not to draw my gun. I could tell that he was armed, and with where his gun was, he would definitely have the quicker draw time of the two of us. I had to rationalize and empathize with this guy, no matter how insane it would be.

"I never forgot you, Don. It's just been a while. I was wondering what you've been up to... Tell me, how did you get in to the FBI?" What he said next sent chills up my spine.

"I joined the FBI after I spent five years as a police officer in Arizona. I tested in at the top of my class at Quantico and I did it all to impress you. I knew that our paths would cross again some day and I made sure that I would be ready for this moment." I sighed and braced myself for an outraged answer as I asked the next question.

"Why did you kill those people, Thompson?" He calmly replied, "Well, since you weren't getting my hints and my calls for attention before, I transferred to the New York Field Office so that I could be closer to you and hopefully we'd cross paths again..." He stopped for a moment, and his eyes met mine with a look of pure hatred as he said, "And then I heard that you were dating that DA."

I felt my breath catch in my throat as he continued, "And then I heard that the two of you were engaged, and that was after a few near-death experiences that you had out in the field... I would have been able to protect you and have been there for you to make sure that you wouldn't have gotten hurt... That puny lawyer can't protect you. I can... And then I heard that you two had gotten married, and that's when I snapped.

Of course, I had to make a plan to set this all in place so that I had the least chance of getting caught. But, I knew that you were smart and that you would eventually catch me. And here we are."

I was flabbergasted by all of this. He had snapped because of me and my love life. He was insane.

Suddenly I remembered that there were snipers posted outside, and if I could get Thompson to a spot in the room where they could shoot, it would be game over. I knew that I had to warn the team of this through a code, and I had to stay discrete. I just hoped that they would pick it up.

"Don... I didn't know any of this. If I had, things would have turned out differently." I had to be careful, because he was very knowledgeable in law enforcement and their operations and movements. I couldn't make it obvious.

And I knew that, after this stunt, I'd have a lot of talking with Rafael to do.

I calmly approached Don and said, "Remember when, at the Violet Formal, you asked me to dance?" He replied, "Yeah..." I swallowed my fear and my pride as I said, "Would you like to dance with me? I'll make it up to you now." Surprisingly, Don replied, "That's a start."

As I started to guide him and his hands touched mine, I had to fight every nuance and receptor in my body so that I wouldn't shudder. I tried to guide him calmly around the room when he said, "Nah ah ah... I don't know what kind of dancing you've done with Rafael, but the man always leads." As my feet kept moving and I remained calm on the outside, on the inside, I was terrified. There was no way I would get him close enough to the window now for the snipers to take a good shot.

After the most haunting and terrifying dance of my life, I only prayed that I could think of something else to get me out of this situation. And I could only pray that Rafael had his head screwed on straight and knew the real me.

*

What felt like days later (but realistically was a little over three or so hours of tense moments that I doubted my sanity and my lifespan), Thompson let his guard down for the smallest moment, and I whispered in the air sarcastically to nobody specifically, "Wow, it's been a long day... Looks like we need to go to sleep."

With that cue and with Thompson's back facing the outside, I heard a loud crash of a window and I ducked hard and screamed out of surprise. I heard the slug hit Thompson, and I turned around and saw him laying on the floor, with blood rushing from his head. Carisi barged in and created a physical boundary between me and Thompson, and he made sure that Thompson was subdued. "What a shot," Carisi whispered as Liv and Fin came barging in. Carisi finished his thought and announced to the room which was now filling with NYPD officers and FBI special agents, "He's dead. Straight headshot killed him on impact."

As the coroner's office and the higher-ranking NYPD and federal law enforcement agents took care of the scene, my team escorted me down to the Mobile Unit. I paused and grabbed Fin and asked him, "Is he okay?" Fin replied, "As okay as he can be... I think he'll be over the moon to see you, but I definitely think you guys should talk." I asked solemnly, "Can you give us the back room in the Unit while you guys cross all the i's and dot all the t's of the case?" Fin smiled and said, "Of course."

I opened the door of the Mobile Unit and as soon as my eyes met with Rafael's, we were both running toward each other. He enveloped me in a huge hug and wouldn't let me go as he said over and over again, "Cariño, I'm so glad you're okay... I love you, Jess..."

"I'm so sorry, Rafi. I love you too."

At this point, I was almost sobbing. I was shocked that he could understand me. He replied, "It's okay, Jessi... I know exactly what you were doing... I love you."

I clutched Rafi's shoulders as I sobbed uncontrollably, the emotions of both my past and my present overwhelmed me. 

I was thankful and grateful that he knew why I did what I did, but that didn't change the fact that I had just confronted my college stalker and he had committed terrible acts just to get my attention and win me over.

{A/N: Next chapter will be more about Rafael and Jess and will be more centered around them! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!}