A/N: These prompt things are fun! This is actually from my first list of 100 prompts that I had, but I can't remember which one it was, so, there you have it. And SVU's not mine. :runs away:


No one knows why things happen. Least of all you. People lead you in one direction, while clues lead you in another. And even though you might have theories on what the motive was, you never know exactly why. The people who committed the crime you're investigating don't even know why. They say they do, but the truth is, they're probably just as confused as you are.

You'll sit in the interrogation room for hours on end, trying to get a confession, a reason why, but one never comes. If you get a confession, you close the case. If you don't, then you go on. But you're still left wondering why it happened. Why a child is buried under six feet of dirt. Why someone else's life will never be the same because of what happened to them.

You wonder why you can still go about life as if the things you see every day are normal. And you wonder why you feel disgusted with yourself. You're not the one who committed the crime. You're not the one who killed a child or violated a woman. And yet you wonder why you feel guilty every time an acquittal comes from the jury. You think you know why, but you don't. Maybe it was reasonable doubt. Or maybe the jury just liked the guy. Maybe he was convincing enough to fool them. You watch him walk out of the courtroom and you wonder why bastards like him are allowed to live.

Sometimes you'll start to wonder why you're doing what you do. You'll start to doubt yourself. And you'll hate it, because you don't know why this lapse of faith is falling over you. But it's there, and there's nothing you can do. So you go about your job as normal, bottling all of it inside, until something pushes you over the edge. And then the next thing you know, you're wondering why you even bother getting up in the morning. Why you even bother looking at your reflection, when you know that it never changes.

When the phone rings in the squad room, you'll wonder why the criminals of the city never seem to sleep. You'll wonder why it has to be you walking the streets at some ungodly hour. People gathering on the other side of the crime scene tape will want to know why someone else was murdered, but there's nothing you can tell them. They'll want to know days later why the police are being so slow at closing the investigation. And again, there is noting you can tell them.

After all, no one knows why things happen. And if you did, you wouldn't have to lie awake, night after night, wondering why.