A fuzzy wuzzy chapter for your enjoyment. Awww.

A Silver Locket

Disclaimer: I don't own the SVU characters but I do own everyone else. Hehehehe!

(Emily's POV)

I hold the letter from Ethan in my hands feeling the bulge under the paper. What on earth could he have sent me?

"Emily dear who's your letter from?" Auntie asks me.

"A friend from home." is the only reply that I can make. I know that if Auntie thinks that there is someone special waiting for me back in Rock Springs she would tell my mother to be damned and send me directly back there on the train with Lou in tow.

I feel my friend's eyes upon me, their green depths knowing and making me nervous. I can't wait until we're back to Auntie's house so that I can go to my room and read my letter from Ethan. Alone.

When we reach the house, I jump out of Auntie's carriage as soon as it stops and run up to the house. I know that Auntie will scold me later for not waiting for Howard to come and help me down and for being unlady like but I can't help it. It is killing me not knowing what lies in that brown envelope. I need to be alone now, to read Ethan's word and cry and feel my heart shattering into a million little pieces because I can't be with him right now.

My hands shake as I remove my heavy wool winter cloak and hat. Then I sit down in the window seat so that I can look out the window at the bare trees and all the snow that reminds me so much of my Kansas home. I open the letter from the end and remove the paper first. Just one page, so like Ethan. He always did hate to write in school. I think to myself. Then I tip the envelope over and a small silver locket falls out onto my lap. I feel the tears well in my eyes. How sweet of him! I always knew that Ethan was the most impossibly sweet boy that I girl could ever know and now he has turned into an impossibly sweet young man. I go to the bureau and look at the picture that I have laying there. Even though the picture is black and white I can easily conjure up the image of his impossibly blue eyes. I quickly read the letter and again wish that I was at home, so that I could thank him.

I don't even realize that I'm crying until Lou comes busting through the door. "Emily?" she says. "Oh, Emily honey what wrong?"

"Nothing." is my reply. Then I hold up the locket for her to see. "Ethan sent this to me. He went to Dodge City and he bought this for me. He hasn't forgotten me either!"

I see tears form in Louise's eyes now too. "Oh Em. Ethan? That's your beau's name isn't it?"

"No!" I cry out. "No Lou, Ethan is not my beau, he is just my friend."

Lou sits down on the bed; the weight of her growing baby has been causing her back to hurt her terribly. "Oh Em. Don't you know that everyone says that you should marry your best friend?"

My tears have stopped now and I begin to laugh, "Silly, I can't marry my best friend, because that is you!" I sit down next to her and wrap my arms around her shoulders.

"Yes but this Ethan he has been in your heart a long time Emily Munch. Don't forget that." Louise says to me. "Oh your Aunt would like to see. She said that you should always wait for a gentleman to help you out of the carriage."

"I know." I say. I stand and unclasp the locket and then secure it around my neck. "What do you think Lou?" I ask my friend.

"It looks beautiful Em. Oh I bet Ethan would love to see it on you."

"Well he will eventually."

"Maybe you should return to Rock Springs early." Lou suggests.

"No! I can't. I don't want to disappoint my parents."

"So you'll disappoint yourself instead?" Lou asks me. "You want to know something. I wish I had married Alfred White when I had the chance. Then I would have at least been his when he died of the fever. Instead you know what I did. I kept putting him off, saying we were to young. Now I regret that choice, but at least I get to use his name."

"Oh Lou. I'm so sorry. I must remind myself that your situation is much more dire. I want you to have your baby before we return to Rock Springs. That way no one can take him or her from you. And working for Auntie will give you experience so that you can do more than wash clothes or run a boarding house." I say.

"Why are you so worried about disappointing your mother Em?" Lou asks me, changing the subject back.

"Because she wants better for me and Oliver and Alexandra. I know why she wanted me to come to Philadelphia so badly, she knew I guess for a long time that if Ethan and I stayed around each other to long we would gravitate towards the other, we always had as children. She wants me to marry a rich gentleman and have all the things that her sister Aunt Mary Anne has that she only has a little off. Papa does well as the sheriff of Rock Springs but it worries her that the next outlaw may be his end."

"Well Ethan isn't a law man is he?" Lou ask.

"No but he wants to be a rancher and Mama understands that way of life. She has seen Ethan's father Elliot struggle with the natural disasters, with losing his wife and then remarrying, with raising a child alone. She doesn't want that to happen to me or Ethan." I concede. I know my mother is just trying to do what she feels is best even if my heart doesn't agree with her.

Louise rubs her bulging stomach, she is at five months now and I think she is the most beautiful girl I have ever met. "Well lets wipe our eyes and go down and see what Miss Emma has fixed for supper for us." She said to me.

We go down the steps and into the dining room to find Auntie waiting for us. "Oh good evening girls." She says to us. "Emily are you ok dear?"

"Yes Auntie." I reply.

"That's a beautiful locket, was that in the letter that you received?"

"Yes." I respond softly.

"Who was it from?" Auntie asked.

Goodness she is being nosey tonight, I think to myself.

"Ethan!" Lou supplies.

I look in horror at my friend. No! This is not what I wanted. I did not want my aunt to find out about Ethan.

"Who's Ethan dear?"

"Ethan," I say looking directly at Lou, "Is a friend of mine from back home and he took a trip to Dodge City and was kind enough to bring this back to me."

"Oh that's nice dear." My aunt says and goes back to eating her soup. Then completely dropping the subject of Ethan she brings up something that neither of us have heard about. "Girls, have you made any plans for the Christmas holiday?"

"No." We say in unison.

"Oh. Well there are several functions going on that I thought you girls would be interested in. There is going to be a ball that I thought you girls would have fun at."

At the mention of a dance I saw Lou pale considerably. "Oh no Miss Novak. I-I can't go to any Christmas ball."

"Well why not?" Auntie ask.

"Miss Novak, I am five months pregnant. My husband only passed away a few months ago. It just wouldn't be right."

"Oh." Auntie say. "Emily, do you have any interest in meeting some of the gentile of the city?"

"I suppose so Auntie. I will go for you." I say. I don't feel much like going though.

"Wonderful! Tomorrow we will get you outfitted for the Christmas ball."