Alison was stunned at how busy yet comforting the building was. Despite the hundreds of people, there was something about the building that provided comfort.
Olivia led Alison to a small room, inside if it was a small table surrounded by red wooden chairs for then to sit on. Behind the table was a wooden shelf with stuffed animals in it. Alison grabbed the lion off of the shelf a d sat down in on of the chairs. The lion was held close to her chest, the tears on her face falling onto the lion's mane.
Next to her, Olivia took a seat. "Alison, do you like to draw?"
The nod of the head signified that just maybe, Olivia would be getting some answers about what happened.
"Could you draw me a picture? Anything you'd like."
Once again, Alison nodded as she picked up one of the crayons off of the table. She started with black and began her journey of drawing out what had happened. That's what she had wanted to draw. What had happened. Soon she began to pick up the brown, then the yellow, and so on and so forth. She ended with red. Just like how the night had ended. When she had finished. she held up her drawing for Olivia to see.
There was a twinge of fear in her heart when Olivia had seen the drawing. The 5-year-old had drawn a woman lying on the floor with what appeared to be blood surrounding her. There was a man holding something in his hands standing on the other side of the page. And Alison was in the drawing too. She was on a bed crying. "Who's that on the floor? Is that your Mom?" Olivia pointed to the woman covered in blood.
Alison nodded and hugged the lion tighter.
"What's on the floor next to her?" Olivia made a motion to the red scribbled all over the floor.
Silence. Alison had tried so hard to speak, to get words to come out but nothing would sound. Instead, she grabbed the black crayon and a new sheet of paper and wrote as best she could. B-L-O-O-D
"Blood? That's blood?" Olivia's fears were confirmed. Alison's mother was most likely dead. "What happened?"
Alison put the crayon to the paper again and wrote a new word. D-E-A-D
"She's dead?... Did you watch it happen?"
A nod.
"Why don't you draw me another picture and I'll be right back, okay?"
Alison didn't respond, she just began drawing once again.
Olivia stepped out of the room to talk with her boss, Captain Donald Cragen. "Well I didn't see that coming..." Cragen looked through the glass at Alison.
"That poor girl... did we get any results on the rape kit yet?" Olivia was just wishing for some good news.
Cragen kept a sharp eye on the child. "Yeah, they faxed it over. I believe your partner has the results." There was a solemn look on his face as she walked away. The cases involving children always hit harder.
"Elliot, please tell me we have some good news." Olivia wiped her hand over her face as she walked up to her partner.
The look on Elliot's face gave off the idea that there wasn't good news. "Well... we've got some good news... and some bad news." His bright blue eyes saddened, he hated seeing his best friend so upset. "Which do you want first?"
Olivia's arms folded across her chest, her eyebrows furrowed, and a frown surfaced on her face. "Bad I guess..." As she was waiting for the bad news to be told, she bit her cheek, a nervous habit she needed to break yet.
Elliot looked up from the file and then back down to avoid seeing the pain in Olivia's eyes. "Bad news is, the perp, he was smart. Traces of spermicide were found, no fluids, no DNA, nothing to helo lead us to him. This also wasn't his first time, I asked the doctor about it, she said there were signs of long-term abuse. Good news is that she has no STDs or permanent damage. I think Cleveland mentioned calling Huang to evaluate her." He was just trying to really stretch out the positives on this one. For some reason, it hit Olivia harder than any case they'd worked together in the past year or so they'd been partnered up.
Olivia's arms went flailing as the anger inside of her surged. "This bastard! She's not only been abused but she watched her mother die in front of her!"
Elliot shook his head at hearing this, "We're going to catch this guy, Liv." Deep down, he felt a sharp pain in his heart for Olivia. He wanted so much to just pull her into his arms and embrace her. To let her know that everything was going to be okay. But that would be breaking their boundaries they had set for themselves.
Olivia walked back to Alison to find that she had drawn yet another brutal drawing. "Hey Alison, that's your mom right?" She waited for the nod. "Who's that man?" She was referencing the first drawing, the one from earlier.
This question caused Alison's breathing to speed up, she balled up and started rocking back and forth, tears streaming from her eyes.
"Benson!" Cragen called over the child having a panic attack. "Dr. Huang, I think it's best you talk with her now…"
Olivia watched as the short, Asian Dr. Huang walked into the room that held Alison. Dr. Huang was the FBI's psychiatric consultant, he was essentially on loan to them whenever they needed. He was fairly short, probably close to 5 and a half feet. His dark hair was slicked back with gel.
Alison looked at the strange man who entered the room. "Hi Alison, my name is Dr. Huang. I just want to ask a few questions, okay?"
Alison pulled herself together, and nodded her head, I just have to answer a few more questions .
"Alison, how was your childhood, was it happy? Sad? Scary?" Dr. Huang asked calmly as he sat himself down across the table from her.
Alison picked up that black crayon, and wrote S-C-A-R-Y.
"Scary…" There was a moment of silence between the two of them. "Have you gone to school?" Dr. Huang's hands were now folded in his lap.
Alison shook her head and picked up that same worn, black crayon from before. 'My daddy says that I'm ugly and that I'm an embarrassment'.
"He told you that you're too ugly?" Dr. Huang looked at the girl with pity before he continued with a nod, "I think you're beautiful, Alison." Dr. Huang got up from the seat. "I'm going to grab something, and while I'm gone, could you draw me a picture of how you feel?" With that he walked out of the children's room and turned to Captain Cragen who was standing right outside, watching. "She's got classic signs of abuse," Dr. Huang started, "She seems to loathe herself, typically meaning her father or a father figure has put her down from a young age, which fits from what she told me. She's also got PTSD, which would make sense since you told me she watched her mother's mureder. One thing I did notice, however, was that she is extremely skilled for a five year old. She was able to spell embarrassment easily, and that's a word that some adults even misspell. I'm not for certain, but I believe I have a few ideas as to what she has. As for the rape-murder, I'd say we're looking at her father, any ideas where he is?"
Cragen shook his head, "No, she came to her aunt and uncle in the middle of the night in only a nightgown. She had just returned home from their house earlier that day and they were surprised to see her. All they were able to get out of her was…" Cragen looked down at the notes taken from the Westerfields' house, "She said, and I quote, 'I-It was father… H-h-he k-k-killed…'" Cragen repeated the very words that the girl had spoken just hours before but in a monotonous tone. "and then she went mute."
Dr. Huang made mental note of this and stood there for a moment to think and tell Cragen what to do about the situation. "That's normal for young children when they see traumatic things, they are more likely to disassociate than anyone. You need to show her you care, and you can't fight in front of her. Eventually she'll come out of her shell, but one wrong move, and she may go mute for years. Quite possibly, her whole life." The two men just stood there staring for a moment before Fin came into the room.
"The aunt and uncle gave us the address of Alison's parents so Olivia and Elliot went to check it out. You know how the girl told us she saw her mother get killed, well, there are no signs of the mother or the father. They're checking the drains, vents, trash, anything that could point to them even being there recently. Olivia told me she'd call if they found anything." Fin relayed the information that Olivia had just given him over the phone just moments prior.
"Okay, I want you and Munch to go talk to anyone who might know the family. Let's hope they can give us a lead…" Cragen returned to staring at the child, a somber look on his aging face.