Before You Read: This is set during, before, and after the episode "Stalker" and centers around Melissa who the victim was posed to resemble, who sent Nick the pictures, and was his senior prom date. I have made one change to the episode. Nick says, "She lives in 'Bosnia'-Maine or somewhere, she has three kids, whats she gonna do fly in for murder?" Melissa does live in Maine, but does not have three kids. BTW if you're wondering I have posted this before, but I took it down. Now I have revamped it, and fixed a few errors. Enjoy! Don't forget to read and review!

You Mentioned Her Name

Prologue: Dead End Journey

by angellwings

Melissa sighed as she packed up boxes. She was moving out, and not just moving out; she was divorcing the jackass as well. She had been stupid enough to marry him straight out of college. She was beginning to wonder if she ever really loved him or if she was just trying to please her mother by marrying a future defense attorney . . . instead of Nick.

The two of them had grown up together. Their fathers were best friends from childhood, and now served side by side on the Texas Supreme Court. She and Nick had been friends all through high school up until Senior Prom. He'd proposed to her a couple of times while they had dated in college, and each time she'd told him that she wasn't quite ready for marriage. After all, they had only been college sophomores at the time.

Well, that's what her mother had told her.

And not long after his second proposal they'd broken up.

He'd said that they weren't moving forward, and he was afraid if they stayed together any longer that their friendship might be ruined. That was the last thing in the world either of them had wanted.

So when junior year rolled around she began dating Jeremy Lambert. He was pre-law, and had the grades and determination to get into Harvard.

"He has a bright future ahead of him.", her mother had told her the summer before senior year.

At the various neighborhood parties that lasted through out the summer her mother would brag to her country club friends about her daughter's pre-law boyfriend and what a "smart match" Melissa had made. Really, she'd used the phrase "smart match". She had been under the impression that language like that died with Jane Austen.

Senior year flew by and her and Nick miraculously managed to stay friends. Which by the way, Jeremy had seemed okay with at first. And she had been as surprised as anyone when Jeremy proposed to her at her and Nick's graduation barbecue.

But, being the idiot she was, she'd been convinced (by her mother) that Jeremy was the perfect guy for her and had said yes. Which brought her back here. To the present. It seemed as if Jeremy wanted nothing to do with her anymore. It seems that after five years of trying Melissa couldn't have children which meant no Lambert family heir for her soon to be ex-husband.

Which meant he has no use for her.

Jackass.

In what they had worked out for the settlement so far, he'd gotten the house in Maine, and she'd gotten the Vegas vacation condo. That should have tipped her off right there.

The guy wanted a vacation home in Las Vegas.

And while he was away on a case she was packing and having all of her belongings shipped to the Vegas condo. Which meant she had to clean out the attic. She sighed and reached for another box. She couldn't help but smile as she came across a sparkly, feathery, sequined pink photo album with the word "PROM" pasted across it in big, white, block letters. She anxiously flipped through it, and glanced at the pictures. She chuckled to herself and ran downstairs to her PC and scanner.

Nick had to see the photos, he would die.