⋆° დ ༄ UNTIL THERE WAS US
chapter twelve. the song of gregory william yates

After Sam had gotten rushed to the hospital, she went into surgery for her shoulder. She had to get some stitches and she has to wear a sling again but other than that she'll make a full recovery.

Sam is currently laying on her hospital bed, watching whatever crappy channel they provide when Erin walks in, phone to her ear.

"Okay, ill ask" Erin says then looks at the brunette, "It's Jay, can you please talk to him"

"I'm good"

"Samantha Grace Miller!"

Sam rolls her eyes and takes the phone from Erin and says, "yeah?"

"hey, how are you doing? I'm sorry I'm not with you right now" Jay says.

"It's fine and I'm fine"

"Okay, I'll uhm, see you when you get back. I love you so much, Sammy"

"Yeah, love you too. I gotta go, I'll see you tomorrow" Sam says, hanging up the phone and handing it back to Erin, who sighs.

"Are you two still fighting?" Erin questions, sitting on the side of the bed.

"He asked me if I killed Kallie, Erin. He's supposed to have my back, trust me. We're getting married, we have a family together and he's questioning if I took someone's life? On purpose? I would never do that, and he should know that" Sam says with tears gathering in her eyes.

"I know and I'll knock some sense into him"

"I'm just so tired Erin. Of everything"

Erin carefully pulls her best friend into a hug and says, "I know and I'm here for you. Always will be. Remember the summer before junior year started and I punched that girl in the face because she was being mean to you?"

Sam smirks, "how could I forget? That's the day I started looking up to you"

"You're my family, Sam. I'd do anything for you and we will get Yates for shooting you and killing Nadia and we will end him"

"Can you stay here with me tonight?" Sam asks.

"Of course"

🌙🌙🌙

The next day, when Erin and Sam got back to Chicago. Erin went straight to Intelligence and Sam went to her house to see both her daughters who are being babysat by Kelly at her house and surprisingly Justin too who brought their son Wyatt to meet everyone.

"Sammy, thank god you're okay" Justin says, as soon as Sam walks in and pulls her into a hug.

"Ow, still hurts"

"Sorry"

"It's okay. I'm glad your brought Wyatt over. How's he doing?" Sam asks, rolling her suitcase by the bench.

"Good I think. Still shaken up a bit about Kallie but he's adjusting well. And he caught on pretty fast that Gracie is his half sister"

"How'd he take it?"

"Pretty good. He was confused at first, but then once I explained that she has a different father he got the jist of it"

"Good. Speaking of which, where is everyone?"

"In the backyard building snowmen I think. And Gracie is upstairs sleeping"

"I'm gonna go say hi to everyone and then head back to the district. Do you mind if you and Kelly still watch them?"

"Yeah of course. Let me help with your bag" Justin offers, grabbing her suitcase and following the brunette up the stairs.

🌙🌙🌙

Everyone minus Sam who is talking with Platt are on the unit, sitting around the whiteboard, talking about Yates.

"Greg Yates escaped custody last night in upstate New York after killing two state troopers, two ConElectric workers and a camper, and shooting Sam, who will make a full recovery" Dawson annonces, standing next to the white board, as Sam walks onto the unit and everyone notices her, "speaking of.."

"How are you feeling Sam?" Hank asks, as the brunette goes to sit at her desk.

"Well, it's sure as hell gonna hurt on rainy days, but I'm fine" Sam says, as Jay smiles softly at her, but she looks away and he frowns.

"And Yates?" Adam questions.

"Pennsylvania troopers found a pick up truck abandoned on a state road, State forensics lifted Yates' prints and a motorist there ID-Ed Yates pretending to have car trouble, and knocking him out to take his car" Jay says.

"He repeated the pattern in Ohio and Indiana. The last vehicle brought him to the Illinois border" Antonio states, "crime lab confirms Yates' prints, but there's no leads after that"

"Yeah, except one" Hank says, walking over to the white board and points to the note that Yates had left, "Erin and Sam. The reason Yates is here"

"No" Sam and Erin say in unison. Erin shrugs and says, "he's just trying to get in our heads. We put out a BOLO investigative alert and Amber alerts on the vehicle. Troopers are watching every highway coming into Chicago"

"New York SVU is questioning Carl Rudnick, the guy Yates escaped with, who's back in custody." Dawson informs the group, "Lieutenant Benson will be in touch when they have anything to report"

"Well, till then I want us on every transient hotel, shelter, food bank in the city" Hank orders, "remember this guy will kill or maim to get what he wants. And flag the credit cards of the vehicle owners. See if there was a safe haven he used last time he was here. Now let's get on it"

Hank walks back into his office and Sam adjusts herself in her seat when Jay leans over his desk and says, "Sammy"

Sam sighs and says, "what?"

"How's your shoulder?"

"Its fine"

"Sam, Erin come on in here" Voight says, walking to his door, then walks back over to his desk as Sam and Erin follow, where they see Olivia Benson on the screen.

"So, Rudnick said that Yates befriended a guard who slipped him contraband phones. We found this in his cell" Olivia says, holding up an evidence bag with a cell phone in it, "with a search triangulating a Chicago neighborhood. I'm texting you a screenshot that we recovered"

"You got it?" Voight asks sam. Sam takes out her phone to see a message from Olivia and looks at the screenshot and says, "south loop. Around sixteenth and Indiana"

"That's near your apartment" Voight says to Erin. Erin sighed and said, "that doesn't mean anything"

"Erin.."

"Hank" Platt says, stopping at the door frame of voights office, "Burgess and Roman just made notification of a triple homicide all in one apartment building, a fourth women hanging on. All female. All nurses. This sounds like your guy"

"Fin and I are on the next flight out" Liv says before Hank closes his laptop.

🌙🌙🌙

"A meter reader called it in" Burgess tells Hank, Sam, Erin and Jay as she leads them to the crime scene, "he knocks, and the door pushed opened to this. Uh, best we can figure, the first victim opened the door, he pushed in and knocked her down"

"Hmm. What's this?" Voight questions, pointing to the floor where the blood is smeared and a piece of the victim's scalp.

"pieces of scalp covered with partial hair. So he must have dragged her. And there is, uh, multiple dents in the floor where he slammed her into it"

"Roommate was in the shower?" Jay asks.

"Tub. We think the first victim threw a vase to warn her friend, but too late. She must have heard her friend, got out of the tub, and locked the door" Burgess informs them. Sam takes another look at the first victim and sighs.

"Hank, you're gonna wanna see this" Al says.

Hank tells Sam and Jay to stay with the first two vics as he and Erin follow Al. Jay and Sam walked towards the bathroom where the second victim is followed by Kim.

"He broke the door down, slammed her into the wall in several places" Burgess states, "there is defensive bruising on her arms, multiple lacerations on her knuckles. She put up a good fight"

Jay feels the water and says, "it's still warm"

🌙🌙🌙

Sam and Kevin are talking with two ladies who are students of Nellie Carr, Yates' intended victim, who just went missing.

"Do you remember what he talked about?" Sam asks.

"He was showing us a photo of Professor Carr on his phone" one of the girls said, "he said she was his college girlfriend and he was in town for the week"

"She was covering a class. I told him she was on her way to the parking lot." The other girl said.

"Thank you" Sam says, as she and Kevin start to walk away, "so, he was looking for Nellie Carr this whole time. First at the apartments, then here"

"But she's 40-something with red hair. It doesn't make any sense" Kevin states.

"Well, neither does the MO from this morning, and the fact that the note he left was specifically for Erin but shot me. And Everyone who ID-ed him said he was specifically looking for Nellie"

"Hey guys" Dawson calls out to Kevin and Sam who head over to him and Jay looking through the car Yates had been using, "there's a note left in the car Yates drove here"

Sam leans forward a bit to see the note that says, "'too bad you're at the station, Erin. You're missing all the fun. P.S how's the shoulder feeling detective Miller? Lucky you moved when you did, otherwise you'd be in the morgue instead of reading this'"

"Son of a bitch" Sam says.

🌙🌙🌙

All of district 21 is outside waiting for news about the package that Yates had sent to Erin. Jay has his arm around Sam's shoulders trying to warm her up from the crisp, cold winter.

"We x rayed it. It's not a bomb. Your people are safe" a member from the bomb squad says as everyone takes a deep breath, "but you're gonna want to check this out"

The team and some uniform officers stand around the package that's sitting on the hood of a truck and Erin says, "it's addressed to me"

Erin takes her pocket knife and cuts open the package to find a hand holding a note, then she takes out the note to read it, "'why don't you answer the phone when your mother calls'"

Erin takes out her ringing phone which is a video chat from Bunny's contact.

"He knows she opened the box. He's here, watching us" commander Crowley states, "fan out! Now. Go, go, go"

"That means, this morning it wasn't Bunny who called, it was Yates" Erin states.

"Yeah, he must have spoofed you" Mouse says, "called from his phone, made it look like your moms."

"Just answer it" Voight says. Erin answers the video call and Yates face pops up who says, "detective Lindsay. First thing, can I see detective Miller?"

"No"

"Do you know Nellie Carr?" Yates questions, zooming the camera out to fit both his and Nellie's faces on it, "Nellie. Nurse Nellie. Hey, that is the wonderful detective Lindsay and to bad you won't be able to meet detective Miller, she just had a baby with her partner detective Halstead. I heard that working with your spouse causes problems, I don't know how they do it"

Jays face turns into pure anger when he hears Yates mention his family. Sam notices this and takes ahold of her fiancée's hand.

"Do you...are those dark circles under your eyes?" Yates continues on, "tsk. Couldn't sleep?"

"You've been keeping me busy. You have my attention now. What do you need?" Erin asks.

"Hmm" Yates chuckles, "gosh, what do I need?"

"Where is he?" Voight questions Mouse, who's on the phone.

"I'm on with Lindsays carrier. Real time, loss of life, exigency circumstances emergency. I need information on a call connected to one of our phones." Mouse says.

"Do you want the concern of the city? You got that. You want the whole district to sit up? Look, see" Erin says, facing the camera at the district with all the officers outside, "you did this. But you keep sending notes to me. So why don't you tell me where you are. I'll come to you"

"Oh, you know where I am"

"Why don't you pretend I'm not that clever and tell me anyway" Erin says.

"And ruin all the fun?"

"Then tell me why you killed those four nurses, when what you really wanted was Nellie?"

"You are trying to get me to confess with witnesses present. You are recording me without my permission and me without a lawyer present. Shame on you detective"

"Okay. Okay. Then why me? Why are you leaving all the notes for me?"

"Besides getting bored of detective Miller? I've been thinking a lot about Cain and Abel, you know? If they were the only descendants of Adam and Eve, and Cain killed Abel. Well you know what that means, don't you?"

"They're pinging his phone right now" mouse says.

"We're all descendants of a murderer" Yates chuckles, "I will see you soon, detective"

Yates ends the call and Mouse yells, "what? No..damn it! Powered down. They lost him"

"Mouse, how does he know where she is or what we've been doing?" Jay asks.

"I-your phone. Let me see your phone" mouse says as Erin gives it to him and he checks something out then a second later he covers the phone with his hands, "detective Lindsays phone, it's using five times the regular data. That means.."

"It's spyware" Jay says.

"Yeah. Okay, he's been listening in on conversations. He's probably been reading texts, emails, and can turn on the camera in the car, and in the bullpen"

"But how would he have access to it? When?" Jay questions.

"When we went to the jail we had to surrender our phones." Sam says.

"The corrupt guard" Erin breathes out, then takes her phone back from Mouse to replay the last part of the video then shows the group, "I know where he is. He's in my apartment. this pictures at my place"

"Let's go" Voight orders.

🌙🌙🌙

Back at the district, as Adam and Sam are talking they hear Antonio say, "well look what the cat dragged in"

"Chicago, Chicago" Fin jokes, walking up the stairs with Olivia behind him, "now why we gotta keep coming here? You can't catch these bad guys on your own?"

"We wouldn't have too if New York could keep killers in their jails" Adam teases, as the two shake hands, "wow, the loud mouth teenager. Samantha Miller"

"Odafin Tutuola" Sam smiles, as Fin gives the girl a side hug, "I actually have a video to show you"

Sam takes out her phone to show Fin a video she took of Gracie.

Video

Sam points the camera at Gracie and holds up her hand having her wave at the camera and says, "say hi uncle Fin. Hi"

Gracie smiles and blows bubbles

Video ended

"That's the cutest thing I've seen since my grandson started to walk. You gotta send me that"

"Definitely"

"Speaking of.." Adam says, "when am I gonna see her again?"

"Whenever you want. She loves her uncle Adam"

"Who doesn't"

~~~

Olivia and Erin walked out of the break room from talking with Nellie onto the bullpen where everyone is gathered at their desks and looking at the white boards when Liv says, "penelope Williams was searched on one of the phones from Yates' cell"

"Then why would he let her go?" Sam asks.

"To send a message to Erin. Yates' first note said 'I'll see you at home'. He asked Nellie about her home. He went to Erin's apartment. Her home. Where was Yates born?"

"North Carolina" Antonio says.

"Let's make sure" Hank says.

~~~

Sam is sat at her desk on her computer when Adam says, "hey boss?"

"Yeah" Voight says as he and Olivia leave his office.

"So, Nellie grew up Penelope Williams to, uh, parents Susan and Michael Williams here in Chicago. And the thing is, um, they also had a son by the name of Gregory."

"Yates is Nellie's brother" Erin says. Antonio covers the receiver of his desk phone and says, "Nellie's mother is downstairs. Susan Baldwin"

"Alright, Sam and Jay as soon as she's seen Nellie, go interview her" Hank says.

"Hank, can I interview her with someone else?" Sam asks.

"No. Run his name through DCFS. Do a national check too. Anything you can get."

~~~

"Greg was a difficult baby. He was off from the beginning." Susan Baldwin says, sitting in interrogation with Sam and Jay, "and once he got language he said terrible things. He became obsessed with fire and set one in our basement by the time he was four years old. It wasn't an accident"

Jay and Sam looked at each other as the woman continues on, "when I became pregnant with Nellie, small animals would turn up dead inside the house. We were terrified of him. Terrified for the new baby. We decided that Michael should take Greg on one of his hauls and.."

"Put him up for adoption in another state. North Carolina" Sam says.

"A pastor agreed to place him. Our marriage didn't last longer after that"

"Are you in touch with Greg's father?" Jay asks.

"No. Nellie is. Michaels on the road most weeks but...this Greg Yates that's wanted for all of these awful things..."

~~~

"So series killers often kill the same person over and over again" Lieutenant Benson states to the group in the bullpen, "Susan is a brunette. She has brown eyes. She would've been 25 when Michael took him to North Carolina"

"But he's been in Chicago before. He could have looked for her at any point" Dawson says.

"Michael and Susan Williams, they're pretty common names. But she remarried and changed her name. It might've taken him time to find that new name." fin states.

"Time he had plenty of, in jail" jay says.

"But he's had a cell phone before and it's been 40 years since they gave him up, so what.." Erin says.

"Back at the hospital, Rudnick said that Yates was obsessed with one thing, revenge" Olivia says.

"If Yates wanted revenge on anyone, it would be Rudnick. Rudnick killed yates' fiancée" Sam says.

"Yates' pregnant fiancée" Erin states, "she was pregnant when she was killed"

"Just like Yates' mother was with Nellie when they gave him away" Liv says.

"And that triggered something inside him" Fin says.

"And when he couldn't find them on his own, he went through Nellie. He's come here to finish 'em off. That's his end game" Voight adds.

"But what if it's more than that? I mean, if you look at his movements, he's frenzied" Olivia says, "I don't think that he expects to make it out of here alive"

"Neither do I" Erin states, "if the pregnancy led him back here to his mother..."

~~~

As Adam was helping Sam vest up, Jay walks over to them and says, "Adam, can you leave us alone please"

"No, Adam. Stay" Sam says.

"No, Adam go" Jay says, sternly and the bearded man walks away, "you're not going"  

"Excuse me?"

"You're not going. Voight will agree with me. You're not in the best shape" Jay says, his gaze going towards the brunettes sling. Sam keeps her gaze with her fiancées and sighed, "whatever"

~~~

After getting another video call from Yates from Nellie's mothers phone, the two detectives walk up the stairs onto the unit and as Erin walks into the break room, Sam stays with Mouse as he pings Nellies phone.

After getting the address, Sam runs to the closed door of the break room and puts the sticky note on the door to show Erin that reads '34th and Sangamon'

🌙🌙🌙

Sam and Erin speed to the address as they're on the walkie with Voight who says, "stand down. You two are not going in by yourselves, you hear me? That's an order"

"He'll kill Michael Williams if I don't show up" Erin says.

"That's what he wants you to think. What about Sam? He shot her remember?"

"I know and that's another reason why we need to go. Me and Sam are each other's back up. It's 34th and Sangamon, Hank. It's his childhood home. We're almost there"

"34th? I'm five minutes away. Erin, you two will not meet him alone, you hear me? Erin! Sam!"

"You know we can't do that." Erin says, turning the walkie off.

Once Erin stops at the house, the two detectives get out of the car, quietly closing the doors and draw their weapons and flashlights, slowly walking towards the front door of the house.

Erin looks into the small window of the door but sees nothing then she looks at Sam who nods her head and they slowly enter the abandoned house, clearing it when they hear a thud coming from the second floor.

the two detectives make their way upstairs and down the hall and end up in a room where Yates is standing behind his father who is sitting in a chair with a rope tied around his neck and hands next to a hole in the floor.

"Detective Lindsay. Good to see you again and I see you brought Detective Miller. How's the shoulder?"

"Shove it" Sam says, pointing her gun at the man.

"Ooh, why so defensive?"

"Let him go" Erin demands. Yates scoffs and says, "I could but I am the only thing holding up him"

"Let Sam call him an ambulance then it'll just be you and me. Just like you wanted" Erin says, taking her phone out to pass to her partner.

"Erin..don't" Sam whisper yells.

"No, he'll be dead. Long before they get here. Put that away" Yates says, "then you shoot me and he goes over"

Yates moves the chair closer to the hole and Michael whimpers and Erin yells, "stop. Stop."

Erin puts her gun away and yates says, "Now it's your turn Detective Miller. Leave"

"No way!"

"Leave now or he goes over!"

"Sammy, it's okay. I got this" Erin says. Sam glares at Yates then looks back at Erin and backs away slowly.

"I'll be close by" Sam says, backing out of the room.

Hank runs into the house to meet up with Sam in the hall and whispers, "where are they?"

"In the last room on the right. He told me to leave or he'd kill Michael. He wants Erin alone"

"Alright" Hank says, when they hear Erin yell no.

Sam and Hank walk down the hall then they hear a gunshot and when they enter the room they see Erin looking down the hole in the floor where Greg Yates is shot in the head and Hank slowly takes Erin's gun from her.

🌙🌙🌙

Jay walks into his daughters nursery to see Sam standing next to her crib, staring at her.

"Hey" he whispers not trying to wake his 3 month old. Sam turns around and walks past her fiancée and into their room, "Sam, talk to me now!"

"Why Jay? Are you gonna accuse me of murder again?"

"I didn't accuse you of anything!"

"You were going to ask me if I killed Kallie. I wouldn't do that. She raised my son into an amazing boy. Why would I kill her?"

"You wouldn't. I'm sorry. The way I went about it was wrong. I believe you wouldn't kill an innocent person" Jay says, walking closer to the brunette. Sam backs away and says, "do you?"

"Yes" Jay scoffs, "I'm so in love with you that I'd rather die than not believe you. Please"

Sam sighed and said, "you have so much ass kissing to do"

"Figuratively or literally"

Sam smiles and says, "both"

"Okay, forever" Jay smiles, carefully pulling his fiancée into a passionate kiss, "god, I've missed these lips. I'm sorry again, Sam. I love you so much and our family"

"I know. I love you too"

a/n:

And that's the end of Greg Yates. Finally!!!
Anyways, this was a long one to write, but I hope you enjoyed it!!