Paring: Casey/Olivia

Spoilers: Teeny tiny amounts for Ghost
Disclaimer: Don't own….blah blah blah…
Feedback: Yes Please.

Inferior

Her whole life, Casey always felt inferior somehow. It started when she was growing up, with grades that were never quite good enough, no matter if her GPA was one of the highest. When an A was good and yet the look of disappointment in her parents' eyes just begged the question

"Why didn't you get an A?"

It continued in college, when she struggled to make friends, no matter how everything seemed to click into place for everybody else. Or at least, it certainly seemed that way to her as she watched everyone walk by in their own little groups. Still, Casey stuck it out and eventually things were, at the very least, ok.

When she finally became a lawyer, Casey thought she had finally found the one thing she was really good at. It was easy, hardly a challenge really, when there were clear signs of deceit and discrepancy and ninety nine per cent of the time the perp she prosecuted ended up behind bars.

Then, she was transferred to SVU and the cycle started all over again. When there was often no clear way to prove guilt; when the line between right and wrong blurred, convincing a jury of what she wanted them to believe was so much harder. Seventy percent of the time, she put the guilty party behind bars, where they belonged. Yet again, it begged the question

"Why wasn't that percentage higher?"

Even now, looking back, Casey cringes as she remembers the looks she received from the detectives she worked with whenever she lost a case. The looks of disappointment received from the detectives which were so familiar. Looks which asked

"Why didn't you win? She would have won."

Ah yes, her. The ADA remembers meeting her as she rode in on a proverbial golden chariot to save the day, proving her superiority over Casey all over again. Gone again just as quickly, leaving devastated detectives in her wake all over again. The look in their eyes; the look in Olivia's eyes…

Casey squeezes her eyes tightly shut to try and block the memory. She fast forwards instead through to the present. She did anything and everything she could to change their opinions of her, as an ADA and as a person. Hell, she was even fool enough to change the colour of her hair to a hideous blonde, trying to conform to being who they all felt she should be.

Yet somehow, she was still not her, never her.

Casey pauses in her ruminations for a moment as the person lying next to her turns in her sleep.

"Case..." a voice mumbles, its owner still fast asleep, as a hand reaches over to Casey's side of the bed to pull the ADA closer. Sifting through Olivia's short brown hair with her right hand, watching as it intermingles with her own newly re-reddened locks, Casey smiles.

She knows now, she never needed to be.