"It's Been A Long Time."

The brunette sat on his couch flipping through channels aimlessly late one night. Someone banged loudly on the door and the 22 year-old groaned, puling himself up from the black pleather couch.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." He grumbled. Who was knocking this late? It was probably almost midnight. Peering through the little peephole in the door, a smile graced his features. He unlocked the chain from the door and pulled open the apartment door. "Come in, long time no see, huh?" He smiled. The figure nodded.

"To long..." The person pulled a knife from their black jacket.

"Whoa...What the hell are yo-" He was cut off when a sharp blow with the knife plunged through his stomach. The gloved hands were careful to cover the other's mouth and keep him quiet. A quick slice to the throat was likely to do the job, but the dark haired man held on for a few minutes before drowning in his own blood. The killer stood over him, watching, waiting, until he was surely gone.

***

Detective Olivia Benson of the Special Victims Unit arrived on the scene at 10 am on a Saturday. Her partner, Elliot Stabler, showed up just a few moments later, ducking under the yellow police tape and toward Olivia.

"So what have we got, Liv?"

"Well," She sighed, staring down at the half naked brunette on the ground. "The landlord found him this morning, stabbed in the stomach then throat sliced. Victim is a 22 year-old Brendon Urie."

"Sexual assault?"

"Well, judging by the torn off clothes I'm going to say yes, but we'll let Melinda be the judge of that." Olivia said. The two detectives split up and searched through the rest of the apartment.

"Liv, we've got fluids." Elliot called from the bedroom. "Bring these to evidence." He said pulling off the sheets and placing them in a marked evidence bag.

"I'm going to guess these two aren't just friends." Olivia said picking up picture of Brendon and another boy sitting almost on top of one another; their fingers intertwined.

"Maybe the landlord knows something. I'm betting he's been here before." Elliot headed toward the hall in search of the landlord. However, before he even saw the landlord, he ran right into the boy from the picture.

"Excuse me." The boy went to walk around Stabler when he was stopped. "Hey what are you- Why are there cops here? Where's Brendon? What happened?"

"Alright, slow down we just need to come down to the station with us and give us some information on Brendon."

"Why?" He continued to rant, his voice cracking a bit. "Please just tell me where Brendon!"

"Come down to the station with us. We'll explain everything else there." Olivia said calmly trying to soothe him. He nodded nervously.

"Captain is there a open interview room?" Elliot asked the boss once they'd arrived.

" 'fraid not yet, each ones taken. I'll let you know once one becomes available." Elliot nodded and sat the boy down in a chair at his desk.

"Here stay." He commanded the younger. The boy looked bewildered, but sat anyway. Elliot kept a watch on him from just a few feet away.

Olivia on the other hand was headed down to Melinda's lab hoping that Brendon Urie was one of the first bodies examined.

"I thought I'd be seeing you soon, Liv." She didn't turn away from the body in front of her. "I'm not done yet, but so far you were right about the assault. There's some bruising and I was able to find DNA, but it's not in the system."

"Do you know a time of death?"

"About 11:30. Any suspects?"

"Yeah, we found a picture of the deceased and our first suspect. We're just waiting for an interview room to open up." Olivia informed.

Finally the captain nodded and Elliot and Olivia led the boy, they knew now as Ryan Ross, toward a room. "Ryan where were you yesterday night?"

"Home. What's this about? When can I see Brendon?" Ryan asked again.

"Listen Ryan, tell us where you were last night say around 11 pm." Olivia asked.

"With a friend at a bar I was there until about 11:30 maybe 12. I have people that can say they saw me." Ryan looked back and forth between the two detectives, confused. "Why?"

"Ryan," Olivia began. "Brendon was raped and killed last night." Horror spread through Ryan's suddenly pale face.

"What? No...no,no,no. Brendon is dead?" Ryan practically squeaked. "No," He shook his head furiously, tears beginning to fall. "God, no." Olivia and Elliot left the room and looked toward Dr. Huang, the unit's psychiatrist.

"What'd you think of him?" Elliot asked.

"Well, he could be a very good actor or he could be telling the truth, so far he seems truthful, but you better make sure that you check out this alibi just in case." Dr. Huang suggested.

"William Beckett?" Elliot called into the small corner store. A young man with semi long light brown hair looked up from the cash register.

"Y-yes?" He answered.

"Elliot Stabler, Special Victims Unit." He flashed his badge. "This is my partner Olivia Benson were going to need to ask you where you were last night."

"U-uh, I was at the bar down the street with a friend, am I in t-trouble?"

"Should you be?" Elliot questioned and William shook his head 'no.' "Well, then who was this friend you were with?"

"His name's Ryan Ross, is he in trouble?" William asked.

"What time did he leave last night?" Olivia queried.

"I called Ryan about 10:30, I was having some girlfriend issues and he said that he'd be at the bar in ten minutes. He left around 11:30, said he was going home. He text me while driving home and was complaining about traffic being heavy." William explained.

"I remember traffic was heavy last night." Olivia said thinking about her evening commute home from work. "Thank you, William."

"Hey, is Ryan ok-kay?"

"Yeah, unfortunately, Brendon was killed last night." Elliot sighed.

"Jesus, where's Ryan I need to talk to him. He's gonna fall apart."

"We'll let you talk to him soon, right now were still talking to him."

"Okay, let me know when he can talk. Man, I can't believe it, Brendon." William shook his head.

` "Well, it seems Ryan's covered for right now." Liv said as they left the store and took to the streets again.

"I don't know, I don't like the kid right now. There's something that doesn't fit with Ryan." Elliot said trusting his gut feeling. Olivia's phone rang.

"Benson-Uh huh-Thanks, Melinda. Melinda knows who the DNA we found belongs to."

"Who?"

"Ryan Ross."