Melanie Falconari walked out of Don Cragen's office with her brand new badge swinging from her neck. She had just gotten her internship from the work study program at her high school. She was fifteen almost sixteen years old. It was the middle of November and quite chilly. She took of her TJ Max style black jacket off and hung it on the back of her chair. She wore a dark purple turtle-neck shirt that slung to her body with a night sky black skirt with fake jewels on the bottom and to complete the outfit 3-inch heels the same color as her skirt. Her long storybook blonde hair was tied into a hair ponytail almost at the top of her head with two ringlets going down each side of her face. Obviously, she was trying to dress more mature that her actual age and she was succeeding. She wanted people at her work to think of her as one of the team not a kid. She walked over to the man that Cragen had identified as Elliot Stabler. She gently tapped his shoulder and waited for him to turn around. He ended his conversation and turned around.
"Hello Mr. Stabler. I'm Melanie Falconari, the new intern. Captain Cragen paired me with you and Miss Benson so I could get the feel of this job." Melanie stated holding her hand out for him to shake. Elliot took her hand and shook it.
"Nice to meet you; also just so you know, it's Elliot and Olivia." He told her. She nodded and dropped his hand. "Do you need to be shown the ropes?"
"No sir, my older brother is a detective so I'm well aware of what I'm up against. Just show me the case." Melanie said with a serious look on her face. Elliot smiled at her and handed her the file. "Series of kidnappings?" Elliot nodded. "All victims under the age of…" she looked closer at the file and got wide eyed. She looked up at Elliot. "5?" Elliot nodded sadly. Melanie huffed out a sighed and went over to her desk and started typing things into the computer. "All of them girls and there is a two day gap between each kidnapping."
"We've been looking through all files and we can't find anything on any of the victims. No fingerprints, no ransom, no nothing." Olivia stated coming into the conversation. "We need to find a way to get through this because we have 12 little girls counting on us." Melanie nodded and thought hard for a second. She typed thing into the computer and suddenly, a smile appeared on her face. "Got something?" Olivia asked with a smirk.
"OH YEAH! Try a list of suspects. I've got 6 suspects and it could be any of them. We need to go pick them up and question them." Elliot nodded and looked at Fin and Munch.
"Yo, Fin, Munch, go to this address and pick up the three guys that live there." Elliot said scribbling an address down on a piece of paper and handing it to Fin. The both of them left and Elliot scribbled down another address. "Olivia and I will go get these three. We'll be back shortly, see what else you can find Mel." Melanie nodded and started pinning things up on the board. After an hour, a man entered the station.
"I'm looking for Elliot Stabler." Dickie said not seeing anyone who knows who he is. He did however see a girl that caught his eye. She had tan skin, long storybook blonde hair that was up in a ponytail. Melanie. He looked at her and was brought back to reality by her angelic voice.
"He's not here, but he'll be back shortly." Melanie said without turning around and getting a box down off the filing cabinet. After getting it off, she dropped it and almost fell off the ladder. Dickie sprinted towards her and caught her just as she fell. "Thank you. I should know better than the climb up a ladder with heels." She said as Dickie gently set her down on her feet. "Why are you looking for Elliot?"
"He's my dad. I just need to talk to him about certain things regarding the family." Melanie nodded.
"I'm Melanie by the way. I didn't know Elliot was married." She said kneeling down to pick up the files and put them back in the box.
"I'm Dickie and he's divorced; about three years ago." Dickie said as he helped her. As they were cleaning up, Fin and Munch came in with the three men they were sent to pick up. They pulled them into an interrogation room but not before Melanie recognized one of them. She put her head down and hid behind Dickie. The man saw her and ripped away from Fin.
"YOU! You did this to me. You made sure that they found me. I told you about the kidnappings in convince. I'll never tell you about anything again. At least you didn't tell them where we keep the kids, you bitch." He shouted in her face as he was pulled away by Fin. Melanie clung to Dickie's arm as a tear ran down her face. Elliot and Olivia returned with their suspects.
"I'll be with you in a few Dickie." Elliot said pushing their guys into another interrogation room. Dickie watched his father leave and then turned to Melanie and saw her tear-stained face. He brushed away the tears that were still falling.
"Was all that about?" Dickie asked referring to the man that ripped away from Fin.
"I know him, he was my ex-boyfriend and he thought that he could tell me anything. Most of time, he tells me after killed his victims. That's why I took this internship. I've got to go get the girls." Melanie said getting up from the floor and rushing towards the door only to be stopped by Dickie.
"Let me come with you. You can them out of there a hell of a lot faster with more people." Melanie nodded. "I'll call my sisters." He pulled out his cell phone. "Hey Maureen, can you come down to the station? Well, there's case and this girl knows where all the victims are but we can them out of there a lot fast with more people. Okay, see you in a few. Call Kathleen and Lizzie." He hung up and turned to Melanie. "Their coming, Maureen is right around the corner and then we just have to wait for Kathleen and Lizzie. They're at home and it's only about five minutes from here."
"We don't have time to wait, Dickie. We have to go now." She yelled and ran out of the station and down the street. Maureen showed up and Dickie jumped in the car.
"Follow her and I'll text Kathleen the address when we get there." Maureen nodded and took off down the street.
"I told Kathleen to take mom's van." Maureen said to Dickie as they followed Melanie who was still running. Dickie nodded and looked at where Melanie was running. She slowed to a stop in front of a rundown building. Maureen stopped the car and her and Dickie got out. Melanie turned towards them and signaled them to stand against the wall on either side of the door. She pulled out the gun she stole from Olivia's desk. She held it up and kicked open the door. She held the gun pointed at the men who were shocked to see her aiming a gun at them.
"Whoa, Mel, what the hell are you doing?" Dave asked. He then noticed the badge swinging from her neck. "You betraying bitch!" He launched himself at her, but before he could get to her, Dickie attacked him and Maureen snuck in looking for the girls. Sirens could be heard coming close. "What did you call your friends as well Melanie?" Dave asked as Dickie held him pinned to the floor. The sirens stopped and then Kathleen and Lizzie came into the building.
"I used dad's police light and siren to get here faster." Kathleen explained going over to Dave. She lifted him up from the floor by his collar and held him level to her. "Where are the children?"
"You sound like the creep in 'When a stranger calls'." Was his response. Kathleen threw him to the floor and put her 4-inch heel in his groin. "Whoa, ow, stop it you bitch." That just made Kathleen press harder. "Okay, okay, I'll tell you. They're in the room first on the left." He rasped out. Melanie held the other guys in the group at gun point while the other four went to get the girls. Dave was thrown into the group and soon they heard actually sirens coming close. They stopped in front of the building. Elliot, Olivia, Fin, and Munch all ran in.
"How did you guys know?" Melanie asked never breaking her gaze on the group.
"There had to be a reason you and Dickie were gone when we were done questioning the guys." Elliot said.
"Plus my gun was missing and it's in your hand." Olivia added.
"Not to mention that your ex-boyfriend ratted you out my saying you probably went to them girls and gave us the address when we told him that he's already facing 15-20 years." Fin finished just as Kathleen, Maureen, Dickie, and Lizzie came out with all the girls. There was a total of 20. Elliot and Olivia ran over and helped them. They ranged from one year to five years. They got all the girls into an ambulance to be checked and arrested all the other men that had anything to do with the kidnappings. Cragen came over to Melanie who was sitting and talking to Dickie.
"Can I talk you Melanie?" Melanie nodded and stood up as did Dickie.
"I'll see you tomorrow Melanie." Dickie said walking away. Melanie inhaled and exhaled wrapping her arms around herself suddenly cold.
"I think I have a pretty a good idea what this is about; my part in all of this. I swear to you captain, I never touched any of those girls. I can give my statement, hell you can ever arrest me but that won't change what actually happened." Captain held his hands up in surrender.
"Whoa, I was just going to ask for your statement. You're not under arrest. I don't believe you had a strong part in this, if you did you never would have taken this internship. Just come down to the station and give one of us your statement." Melanie nodded and followed Cragen to a squad car. They rode to the station and Elliot and Olivia were waiting for her.
"Okay, I was dating Dave for about a year. He broke off the relationship when he started getting these feelings that I couldn't return…
Melanie looked down at Dave who held a two year old girl in his arms, his first victim. She couldn't stand the sight of it. Her ex-boyfriend had just kidnapped a two year old girl. She turned around and walked away. Dave watched her leave and then followed her. He put the girl down, closed and locked the door, and followed Melanie. When he reached her, he grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She turned around and stared at him.
"Come on Mel, think of how much money we could make with the ransom of this girl and the many more to come." Dave said as he slipped his arms around her waist. She pulled away and put more space between them.
"There's a reason you broke up with me. I didn't want to do this and now you're trying to pull me right back in just like last time. I'm not doing this. Goodbye."
"Was that the last time you saw him?" Olivia asked. Melanie shook her head.
"I went back a couple of months ago and they only had about five girls. I wanted so bad to just take them and return them to their homes."
"Why didn't you?" Elliot asked. Melanie breathed out heavily.
"I didn't have the chance. There were always guards around the room and outside. They looked so scared and I would calm them down.
"He's gunna hurt us isn't he Miss Melanie." Four year old, Anna asked.
"No, he won't hurt you guys as long I'm here. I promise I won't leave until he goes to sleep or leaves okay?" All seven girls nodded. "Okay, now I have to do some homework so how about I give you all paper and crayons and you girls color?" Their faces lit up and they all nodded. Melanie smiled and laid out a little section for them to color. She handed them each three pieces of paper and their own box of eight crayons. That night, she didn't leave until late. She looked around the room at the sleeping girls and whispered to them, "He won't hurt you. I promise."
"Did he ever hurt them?" Olivia asked. Melanie nodded sadly.
"I showed up one night and they all ran to me except one. Little Carolina was huddled in a corner and wouldn't talk to me. When I asked the others, they said she was punished today. I couldn't take it. I left the room and went to find Dave.
"YOU BASTARD!" She slapped him extra hard across the face that she left a print. All the other guys got up from their chairs and stood behind Dave and Melanie. "You promised me that you weren't going to touch them."
"I didn't."
"You wanna bet. I saw Carolina! She has bruises all over her body. So help me David, if you raped her…"
"I didn't. That I can swear. I'm not that sick." He smirked up at his 'boys'. They all had the same smirk on.
"If any of you raped her, I'll kill you. You better hope that you didn't." She huffed and turned around to go back onto the room. Once there she slammed the door and leaned against it breathing heavily to even her heart beat. She slowly went over to Carolina and opened her arms for the young girl. She slowly went to the only teenager she trusted and wrapped her arms around her neck. Melanie wrapped her arms tightly around the girl. She hoped this never happened again.
Melanie looked at Elliot and Olivia.
"Did you ever find anything about these girls?" Olivia asked after looking at her notepad.
"I found out that over half of them came from abusive families. In a way, Dave saved them."
"The little girl, Carolina, you'll be happy to know she wasn't raped."
"THANK GOD!" Melanie said while looking up. "I could tell she wasn't when I held her. She's one of them from an abusive family. I would tell my mother that I knew girls were in abusive families and that's when she told that she was a foster parent. I vowed to get at least Carolina in my home to help her." Elliot smiled and saw Olivia smile.
"Can you give us the names of the girls that were abused? Either prior to or during the kidnapping."
"Sure, it was Carolina, Madison, Sarah, Susie, Emily, and Bella Rose." Olivia nodded while writing the names down.
"That's all of them. Yes, I'm already taking Carolina and Bella Rose. I told my mom that a friend that works in a day care knew the girls and knew they were abused. She told me that she would see what she could do as would Steve. They called Claire Walsh and we need to do is get the parents arrested and we can adopt them." Melanie said very cheer fully. The rest of the day was spent interviewing the preps and calling the girls' parents. It was true that all the girls Melanie named were being abused. Every detective adopted a little girl. Melanie and her family adopted Carolina and Bella Rose, Olivia adopted Madison, Elliot adopted Sarah, Fin took Susie, and Melinda took Emily. Captain and Munch had too much to deal with and couldn't help the girls. Melanie was happy when she walked into on Monday and saw a closed sticker on the file on her desk. One case down only a lifetime left to go. Melanie knew this job wasn't easy, but she wouldn't have it any other way.