-CHAPTER 4-

By the time of Thanksgiving Melissa had been picked up from her devastated father, who blamed himself for everything that had happened to his daughter.

Jonathan Walker seemed to be a nice man, hard working to provide his only child a good life, especially since his wife had died, but it meant that he wasn't able to be home and spend time with Melissa very often.

Olivia had told him that she understood, but that what his daughter needed now more than all the money in the world was her dad and she was quite sure that he got that.

It also had been Jonathan Walker, who had told Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler, that he thought one of his colleagues had to be the delinquent and his suspicions had been right in the end.
DNA didn't lie although Brian Foster had denied his guilt all the way.

In the end he had confessed though, simply 'cause it was his only option left and he had explained that he had done it out of jealousy.
Out of jealousy that Jonathan Walker had been promoted again although Brian Foster thought he would have deserved it more than anybody else 'cause he had been working for the company way longer and he worked twice as hard.

And one night he had drunken way too much and he had decided to teach his "enemy" a lesson, but since Mr. Walker hadn't been home he had seen his only chance in kidnapping Melissa.
But then everything had went completely out of control. He had told the detectives that he had never planned on hurting the girl, but then he had met his ex-wife, who had told him what much of a loser he was and the he had lost it.
He had taken his whole anger out on Melissa Walker.
For days.

Olivia had felt the urge to puke during his confession and for a moment she had thought that Elliot would jump at Brian Foster and beat him senseless, but since Casey Novak had been watching them like an eagle he hadn't even raised his voice.

The new A.D.A. had been satisfied with the outcome of their work in the end, but Olivia couldn't have cared less.

She had been to the hospital to say good bye to Melissa and it was then that the teenager had told her the secret behind her tattoo.
The unicorn stood for Melissa's mother,Monica Walker, 'cause watching "The last unicorn" was one of the happiest memories the girl had about her mom and unicorns always had been their favorite animals, hers and her mother's.

Melissa had told Olivia how much she was missing her mother and that she wished that she had just left the family to live a different life, that she still would be out there somewhere at times.
That everything would be better than her mother being dead for real.

Olivia had almost started to cry at Melissa's words, had closed her eyes immediately, just to have Alex' face pop up on her mind.
She missed her so much and she didn't even know why.
-

Kathy and Elliot had invited Olivia over to celebrate Thanksgiving with them and their kids and although she had felt like hiding from the world for the next ten years she had accepted the invitation in the end.

And the evening had been great and even funny, but the subtle sadness in Olivia's eyes hadn't stayed unrecognized by Elliot Stabler and his worries for his partner and best friend grew even larger.

But when he had tried to talk to Olivia about it she had shut down immediately.
Of course.
What else had he expected?

At least his partner had agreed to watch Maureen, Kathleen, Richard and Elizabeth somewhere within the next weeks so he and his wife could do their Christmas shopping.
And Olivia surely could need some distraction as well.

'Cause although Elliot still hadn't figured out what all of this was about, he was pretty much sure that it had something to do with the death/disappearance of Alexandra Cabot.