Alrighty-- this chapter is in the POV's of several people, Ethan's siblings, parents and Emily about his disapperance and the days he has been gone. We are going to assume that he has been gone about a month now, I mean he did travel horse back basically across Kansas and Oklahoma (they are about to Texas you know) so I guess enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own the SVU charachters, the others I do. Boo Hoo Hoo.

Missing

(Olivia's POV)

My son has been missing, for a month. I hate that word, missing. I mean it is getting to the point that they are thinking that maybe he is even dead. I don't know if I could bear to loose him. I know that I didn't birth him but he is as much my child as Caleb, Will or Katie. I just don't know what I would do without him. He is so good with his younger brother's and sister and such a joy to our family. I just wish they would find him and bring him home safely. I have gone up to the house he has been building, looked at the craftsmanship and care that he has been putting into it. I see so much of Elliot in him that it makes my heart hurt and sometimes my head. Our family would be so much less without him. I walk up into his room, as I find myself going there often these days. I set down on his bed and fold my hands in my lap and cry. I go over to his dresser top and look at the items he keeps there. A brush, a string tie, a picture of Emily stuck into the mirror and the watch that she sent to him for Christmas from Philadelphia. She has been out once since he went missing and we sat and cried together. She told me that Ethan seeing her with that other man was a misunderstanding on his part. That Thomas was just a friend and she hadn't even known Ethan was there. I took her to the site of where he was building his house as she wanted to go there. She cried while we were there too. I felt so bad for that girl that day. What a horrible thing we are all experiencing right now.

(Elliot's POV)

I have been searching for my oldest son for a month. A month! You would think as a former sherriff, a man used to brining in all sorts of scum of the Earth types that I would be able to find my own child. A person that I raised from boyhood to manhood. I was hoping that he and Emily would have been working out things during this month and then soon, maybe this fall, getting married, finally. I work my fields, as I can't go without feeding my family and supporting them. But still I look at the horizon everyday, searching for a blue roan horse and my boy. There are times that I just want to let go of the plow and set down in my freshly turned fields and cry, but I don't. I just keep looking and hoping and praying. The spring cattle season is about to start, how and I going to get through with out Ethan. He always was a good cowman, one of the best in our area. I know that I have Caleb and Will but I would like for them to be boys for a while. Spend their summers pulling weeds from their Ma in the garden and fishing with cane poles in the creek. I don't want them to have to take on so much responsability so soon. I just wish he would show up and soon. I'm tired of worrying, waiting and wondering.

(Will's POV)

I know I'm only a boy but I understand pretty well what's going on. I know that my brother is missing. My parents they just keep smiling and telling us that it's ok that Ethan has just went away for a while. That he needed to get away for a while after what happened with Miss Emily. We also talk to Alex, Miss Emily's sister and she said that Miss Emily don't have a fella and don't want a fella other than Ethan. I just wish he would come home. I miss him. I go to his room sometimes, lay in his bed at night so I can smell him. He's a good big brother, he was always taken me and Caleb swimmin' and fishin' and it's gettin' to be about that time of year again. I sure hope he comes home soon.

(Caleb's POV)

Ma always says that I'm the most like Ethan and I think that's probably why I miss him the most. We spent a lot of time together, time that no one else really knows about. I mean I would go over after school and help him at his place. He was teaching me a lot of things about being a carpentar, somethin' that I think I would be inclined to do rather than farm. Ethan told me his plans too. I bet no one else knows that he plans on having a whole bunch of cows, like twice as many as what Pa has, and that he isn't going to keep pigs. He says he isn't going to be a farmer, that he's going to be a cattleman. I bet no but me and him know that. We always talked a lot, and I always knew that if somethin was botherin' me I could go to him and get good help. I miss him and I wish he would come home or that Pa would find him. I swallow down the tears then, like Ethan would, or that they would send word that he was found dead somewhere, so that we would know. Life wouldn't be the same but we would know and Ethan said that knowin' was always better than wonderin'.

(Katie's POV)

I miss my Etan. I miss him pwaying his guitar for me when I go to sweep at night. I miss the weaseal song. Sometimes I would get scwared at night and Etan would sit wyth me and wrock me and twell me that it was going to be otay. I was his wittle Miss Katie. Come home Etan, I miss you. I wove you Etan.

(Emily's POV)

I've ridden out to Ethan's place today. I know where it's at now that Mrs. Stabler has taken me out her shortly after Ethan went missing. I still don't understand who or why or how it happened. I mean there are no drag marks so he wasn't taken that way. Was he taken at gunpoint? So many questions and so few answers. When I went to see Mrs. Stabler before we sat together and cried for almost an hour and I've been crying alone everynight or with Louise. Even little Jesse who doesn't know Ethan has been extra fussy. Lou says he can feel all the saddness in the house and that's why. I know that deep down Lou isn't sad or upset though. I can see it in her eyes when she looks at my brother Oliver. Yes they are both upset that Ethan is missing and with him my chance to tell him how I feel but deep down all they are feeling is their love for one another and that happiness.

I'm down off my horse now and I'm walking around. I look at the house that Ethan is building. Right now it looks like a skeleton setting on that hill overlooking the creek but I can still tell that it's going to be grand. It has several rooms and I can tell that he wants to have a big family someday with some lucky girl. I hope that lucky girl he was thinking off when he built this was me. I can only hope though. I have finally rid myself of Thomas. It seems while staying at the hotel he met a girl, a girl who works in the boarding house. I know the girl, I used to tease Ethan about her and her mad crush on him. Eliza Connelly. It seems that she and Thomas are quite a pair. Thomas is also interining with our elderly gunsmith and he has also been taking the train over to Dodge City once in a while to visit another gunsmith by the name of Newelly O'Bryan. It seems that Eliza has also been going with him on these trips. I am happy for them but that leaves me alone, without Ethan. It seemed that just when I thought I was going to solve this whole mess with Ethan that he goes and disappears himself. I set myself down on the bare floor and look out across the prairie. Then I see it, carved into the tree near the house. I can tell that it's wheathered so it has been there for a while. I go over to it and look. I almost laugh and cry at the same time when I see what it is. A crudley carved heart with initials in the middle. Could it be? Did Ethan carve this here? Inside the heart are the initials E.M. + E.S. But then my face falls, how many young lovers had traveled out by this creek before Ethan decided to build his house here? I don't allow myself to think about it, because it will only make my heart hurt worse.

I decide to go down to the Stabler house and see how everyone is doing down there. I go down and dismount my horse at the corral. I see Katie and boy's playing in the yard. "Hello all." I greet as merrily as I can muster.

"Hi Mwiss Emily." Katie greets me.

"Hello Miss Katie." I return.

"Hi Miss Emily." The boys greet in unison.

"Hello Caleb. Hello Will." I greet both of them individually, I get so tired of calling them "the boys" all the time.

I go to the house just as the door flies open and Olivia steps out. "Emily! How wonderful to see you dear. Come in, come in." (A/N: I know the real Liv would never act like this.)

"Hello Mrs. Stabler." I say. "I just had to come and check. Has anyone seen anything, or heard anything?"

Olivia looks at me sadly before she says, "No. Nothing. Elliot has sent telegrams to every sheriff in the area, in the territory and we still haven't heard a thing."

She motions for me to sit down and I take a chair and then graciously the cup of tea she offers. Finally I say it, the one thing that has been plaguing me and keeping me awake a night. "No one has sent word that they found a dead man, have they?"

Olivia looks at me with tears in her eyes that I am sure mirror my own. "No we haven't heard that either."

I break down then and I don't know if it's from relief or from the constant worrying. When I'm finished I say, "I'm sorry Mrs. Stabler."

She wraps her arms around me, "It's ok honey. I've done the same thing with Elliot quite a few times these past few days, this past month."

"I just wish we had some idea where he was at or who forced him to leave." Then the realization hit me, maybe he had left on his own. Knowing what I did now about what he saw at the train depot, had he just taken off and not let anyone know, would he. I voice that concern to Olivia.

"No dear, I know Ethan and I don't think he would have done that, no matter how upset he was. I am sure that he would have at least told someone that he was taking off for a few days. I honestly don't think that he would have been gone this long either without word to anyone."

That made me feel better. I sat at the Stabler household for quite some time, visiting with Olivia and the children.

As I rode home that evening I again rode past that tree, looked at the engraving done there. It was crude, almost like it had been done by the hand of a small boy and not that of a grown man. I smile at that thought, kiss my fingers and lay them in that place. "Come home soon Ethan." I say.

Once I get home I ride up to our barn only to catch my brother Oliver and Louise in a passionate kiss. I smile and leave them be, because I want Lou to be happy too. I don't see her the rest of the night and I smile to myself. I go to my room and my last thoughts as I go to sleep are of Ethan and where he could possibly be.

(Oliver's POV)

I know my sister didn't think that I saw her looking at me kissing Louise. I refuse to call her Lou the way my sister does. I also know that my sister thinks that all I say these days are Louise and her little boy Jesse, but that's not true. I'm truly worried about Emily as well as Ethan. As kids, Ethan and I were close friends and I also know that he and Emily were close. I just can't figure out who had taken Ethan or where he had wandered off to on his own. I know that Emily thinks that it's crazy but he could have just taken off. Since I started working at the bank I haven't been seeing as much of him as I would have liked but I understand that we're both busy as well. I look at Louise, nestled in the crook of my arm, holding Jesse. I can certinally say that I don't understand what my sister and Ethan are going through. It seemed pretty easy for Louise and I to fall in love and for me to fall in love with her boy. I guess it was easy for my sister and Ethan too, they just can't figure out how to get together. It's sad, really sad.

(Louise's POV)

I feel so bad for Emily right now. I would feel bad for Ethan as well if I had ever gotten the chance to meet him. Right now I'm flying high on the fact that Oliver told me that he loves me, wants to marry me and be a father to Jesse tonight. When I started writing to him I never expected this to happen or I should say when he started writing to me. At first I guess I was surprised to start getting letters addressed to Louise White in Philadelphia. I thought that it was a joke or Emily just trying to be nicer to me than she already had been. Then I got to know Oliver and found that it was his idea to write to me and that he didn't think ill of me being a pregnant girl on her own. Now I have Jesse and Oliver and my poor dear friend Emily has no one. Tonight I made Oliver promise me that we wouldn't say anything until this situation with Ethan and Emily was settled. I told him that I just couldn't be so happy when my friend was so sad. That was when he had kissed me, and Emily had ridden by. I know that she would be happy and start planning a wedding for us but I don't want her to do that, not when she is so sad, missing Ethan. I go to her room after I lay Jesse down for the night. Her door is shut so I knock and her "Come in." is so quiet that I almost don't hear it.

"Hi Lou." She says, from where she is laying in her bed.

"Hi." I say.

"I saw you and Oliver tonight. When's the wedding?" Emily ask me, trying to be funny and raise the spirits in the room.

"Not any time soon." I reply. I won't lie to her.

She sits up then, "Louise Augustine White, you will not put a hold on yours and Oliver's happiness because of me."

It's the most life that I've seen in my friend for a while, and she was a spunky gal when I met her. "Oh Em!" I say to her, "You know as well as I do that it will have to be a while, I mean Jesse is only a little over a month old and Oliver is still living at the hotel. I know that he won't move a wife and child into a hotel."

Emily giggles then, I think for the first time in quite a while. "I know Lou, but maybe if I had something to do with my time it wouldn't hurt so bad and I wouldn't miss him so much." She had returned to her somber state and was looking out the window now. Like looking out the window would make him come back.

God, that was a saddening chapter to write. Whew and I think, sadly that it is just going to get sadder before we're done kids. Please R&R. I need it to lift my spirts.