Little Girl Lost
Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's not mine. This story is on an AU track.
This story is rated T for mention of sexual violence and child abuse. Don't like it, don't read it.
This story is a sequel to A New Reality; I highly recommend you read that one first or this won't make much sense. A New Reality and Little Girl Lost also take place within the series beginning with Close to Home, on a roughly parallel track with Unreasonable Doubt and the beginning of Eyes Wide Open. You don't need to have read those to understand this one, but I recommend it, as I plan to merge those tracks in a future story.
Chapter 1: Alone
It was his own house, a place so familiar he could navigate it in his sleep. But right now, it was more like walking through a museum.
His eyes brushed over the dishes that had been left in the kitchen sink and on the table, over the small purple-and-white striped sweater draped over the back of one of the chairs, and over to the brightly-colored magnets on the fridge. All the little marks of how his life had changed over the past five months. All reminding him of how alone he felt.
He had lived alone in this house for decades, and he had never before given more than a passing thought to its size. He had bought it just after his engagement to Lenore Abrigaille had been broken off, unable to bear the memories of her that lingered in his apartment. The townhouse had been in foreclosure, and he'd been able to tell that the neighborhood property values were about to skyrocket. He'd only intended to stay there for a little while, maybe a year or two, long enough to fix it up and be able to sell it for a nice figure and to find a place more suited to a single man who expected to be alone for the foreseeable future, but by the time he'd finished the renovations, he'd decided he liked it enough to stay. Over the years, more than a few people had commented on the size of his home, but as was typical, he hadn't let their reactions affect his feelings on the situation. It works for me, he'd said simply every time.
Only now, for the first time, it didn't. All that space felt horribly empty, even hollow. It was too big and too quiet, and not a thing he could do would fill that emptiness.
He reached out, taking the sweater from the back of the chair and clutching it in his long fingers just as his legs finally gave out and he crumpled to the floor. He didn't even feel the impact of the unyielding ceramic tile under his knees. Nothing existed except for the all-consuming pain.
"Andrea," he whispered as hot tears streaked his face, "where are you, baby girl? Where are you?"
If you're thinking that a lot of relevant details are missing from this chapter, well, you're right. I'm using a slightly different technique on this story; namely, setting the prologue at a key moment in the story instead of the chronological beginning and then backing up the timeline in the next chapter to explain how this moment came to be. (It's entirely possible that this idea stemmed from my recent binge-watching of the show Flashpoint, which uses this technique in many of their episodes.) At this point, I don't intend to use this in all or even most of my stories in the future, but it seemed to fit especially well with this story. To be clear, everything in this story from Chapter 2 onwards will be in linear format. This will not be one of those stories that repeatedly jumps between different points in time.
Just to make sure everyone is on the same page, this is primarily a Criminal Intent story, specifically focusing on Nichols, Wheeler, Stevens, and my OC Andrea Marquez from A New Reality. The SVU squad will come into play several chapters in and they do have a key part to play in this arc, but unlike in my other crossover Eyes Wide Open, SVU will be playing only a supporting role here.
Lenore Abrigaille is a character from the CI episode Palimpsest. That episode set her up as Nichols' ex-girlfriend and first love; the mention of their broken engagement is creative license on my part.
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