Titles aren't my thing. They always suck, sorry. Summaries too.

All right, so Casey has to be at SVU a little longer than she really was for the timing to work out. It's not going to make a difference, but I do know that Casey wasn't at SVU yet in the beginning.

Also, okay I'm sure most people might not really even think of this but I'm a loser: Casey's daughter most likely almost definitely wouldn't have red hair/green eyes unless her father had those traits as well since they're recessive, but we'll go with it. :)

Also yeah, Casey gets abused again, sorry about that. To be completely honest, though, and you can hate me for saying this, Olivia Benson just seems like the type of person where if she were in abusive relationship she'd just kind of be like heeellllll no and have his ass in jail. Casey not as much. Agree or agree to disagree, either works.

Disclaimer: OBVIOUSLY I don't own anything.

September 2002

As Casey watched the seconds count down on her watch she could hardly stay still. She knew she was visibly shaking from the nervousness; she could barely hold the test in her hand. She couldn't take her eyes off of it, but at the same time it was making her sick just to look at it.

When she got drunk that night at the bar she knew that she just needed a no strings attached one night stand. The last thing she was counting on was having a memoir of the rendezvous. She wasn't proud of all of her decisions, per say, but she was only in her twenties, and successful lawyer or not she had needs too. She hadn't thought about that night once since then; four days after she was supposed to have started her period, however, she was certainly reminded.

She forced herself to look away from the clock for what felt like at least two minutes, hoping that the time would pass quicker if she weren't watching it move. When she did allow herself to look back, though, she almost had to laugh at the fact that it had barely been thirty seconds. The wait was getting unbearable, and when she felt the room start spinning around her she knew she had to get out of the confined quarters of the bathroom stall where she was waiting for the test.

She threw the door open, hiding the test behind her back just in case. She didn't want to take the test at home in case somebody came to her house and saw it, since there would really be no one else whom the test could belong to considering her lack of roommate. She didn't want to do it at the DA's office either—it just felt wrong—so the bathroom at the precinct was the place where she finally got the courage to do it. Besides, everyone seemed to hate her there already, so even if the detectives found out and thought she was a whore she didn't have too much to lose. After all, they'd definitely be the least likely to miss her while she was on maternity leave.

Glancing back at the clock again once she took in the open space and seemed to calm herself down a bit she realized it had only been three minutes. Technically it may have shown the results at that time, but she wanted to wait for five minutes to be sure—the last thing she needed was to see that she was pregnant and freak out, only to have it not be true. She had been in nerve-racking situations before, of course, but nothing compared to the feeling in her stomach as she waited for that test. She couldn't even remember the name of the man that she had slept with. She'd had plenty of one night stands before that she had never thought of again, but now she could possibly be linked to this random stranger forever.

"Counselor?" a voice interrupted her thoughts, startling her so much that she not only jumped nearly a foot in the air, but she almost dropped the test as well. She spun around to face the person, and then quickly hid the test behind the back when she realized that it was Detective Benson that was standing in front of her.

"Detective…" she said slowly, hoping that Olivia hadn't seen the test in her hand. The amused smirk on the detective's face said otherwise, however, and the tone of her voice confirmed any suspicions.

"What've you got there?"

"Oh… um… what?" Casey felt herself blushing and subconsciously ducked her head in embarrassment. She was never one to be at a loss for words, but what else could she really say besides the truth when the detective had already seen it? She and Olivia hadn't had the best relationship so far, and she certainly did not want the detective to see her like this. She had already broken down in her office the first night after she barged in on their crime scene, and she didn't want Olivia to thinks she was any weaker than she already was when she already thought that Casey was incompetent.

"What does it say?" Olivia finally asked, catching Casey's attention again. Casey slowly raised her head back up to face Olivia, and then glanced at her watch again. Four minutes. She shrugged, hoping that Olivia would take the hint that not only was it not ready yet, but Casey truly did not want Olivia to be the first one she shared this information with. She waited for Olivia to walk past her and do whatever else she had planned on, but she stayed planted firmly in place.

"You late?" Olivia tried again. Casey practically had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at either the detective's inability to take a hint or her pure stubbornness to let a subject drop.

"Four days," Casey muttered. She peeked at her watch again and practically felt her heart stop at what it said—it had been five minutes. She knew her hands were shaking, but when she realized her entire fate was possibly about to change with the results of that one test she felt her whole body start to shake as well. She felt as if the whole room was spinning around her once again and she had to take a deep breath before she could even function enough to bring the test out from behind her back.

Finally realizing that Olivia had no intention of leaving before she knew the answer as well, she slowly brought the test out from behind her back. She closed her eyes and took a few more deep breaths. Finally, slowly, she blinked her eyes opened and allowed the test toshow herfuture.

December 2007

"Mommy!" Sydney yelled as soon as Casey pushed open the door to her apartment and stepped inside. Sydney wore an enormous grin as she ran forward and straight into Casey's arms. Casey wrapped her arms tightly around her daughter then lifted her up and planted a kiss on her forehead, hugging her close to herself.

"Hi, dear. Sydney took a little nap today, so I'm not sure how she'll be. She could be wide-awake for hours, or she could crash at any minute. I guess you'll find out soon enough, though." Ellen Marcus, the woman who lived in the apartment above Casey, smiled brightly as she entered the room. She was not what one would refer to as elderly quite yet, but she was not too far off from that stage; she had the grey hairs to prove it, but she wasn't so elderly that Casey felt unsafe leaving Sydney with her while she was at work.

Casey laughed and rolled her eyes at Ellen over her daughters shoulder. "Thank you so much, Ellen. I hope she was good for you?"

"Isn't she always?" Ellen smiled again and nodded as she gathered her things and then walked past them and out of the apartment, closing the door behind her.

"Did you have a good day?" Casey asked as she lowered her daughter onto the floor. She finally relieved herself of her heels and threw her briefcase and her keys on the table by the door. She felt guilty about how much time she spent at work versus with her daughter, but she was fortunate to have Ellen available to help out, and she knew she was providing well so that her daughter would always have a comfortable life.

"I did! I made you a surprise, mama," Sydney squealed. She urgently grabbed Casey's hand and pulled her toward her bedroom, a huge grin spreading across her face. When she got to her room she made Casey cover her eyes while she pulled out her surprise.

"Okay, no peeking," she demanded. "I worked really hard."

Casey knew what the surprise was before it was placed in her awaiting hands, since she received one almost every day. She loved each one as if it were the first, and she never threw one out; her office was covered in the various drawings that her daughter had made for her. The squad room and Arthur Branch's office were decorated with their own artwork by Sydney as well.

"Okay, you can look!" Sydney exclaimed as she thrust the drawing into Casey's eager hands. Casey reached over to her daughter and pulled her closer to herself, stroking her hair gently as she examined the picture. The picture was of Sydney and Casey, both with bright, fire-engine red hair, and Casey's fiancée of almost six months, Jake. She kissed her daughter on top of her head as she knelt down next to her.

"This is beautiful, baby, I love it. I'm going to hang it up in my office tomorrow," Casey told her, watching as excitement filled her daughter's huge green eyes. "You like Jake, don't you?" She let out a sigh of relief as her daughter nodded excitedly. She knew this was a good a time as ever to tell her daughter the news.

"Hey, I have an idea. How about we get you in you PJs, then I need to have a pretty big girl conversation with you, okay?"

Her daughter's eyes grew even wider as she nodded with enthusiasm and ran over to her dresser, pulling out the first pair of pajamas she found. Casey knew her daughter well enough to know that any 'big girl' things would immediately get her attention, so she was careful with the phrase and only saved it for serious things. She helped Sydney change into her pajamas, and then allowed her to climb on her back so that Casey could give her a piggyback ride into the living room and to the couch.

"Baby, remember how we talked about how Jake and I are engaged and I told you all about what that means?" Casey began once they were settled. Sydney nodded in agreement, though Casey wasn't sure her daughter of four years and three months truly understood the concept of an engagement. It was because of her daughter that Casey still wasn't living with her fiancée. Fortunately for her Jake completely understood her daughter's needs, so although he had been reluctant he had understood and agreed to wait to move in together.

"Now, you remember how we talked about how Jake would become your new daddy and you were very excited about that?" Sydney nodded again, this time with a smile on her face. "Well, usually when you have a family, the mommy, the daddy and the daughter all live together, like we talked about. Right now only you and me are living together, but the daddy is living all by himself. How would you like it if Jake moved in here with us so that he could be a real daddy and we could be a real family?"

Sydney's whole face lit up as she took in the situation. Jake had been around for quite a bit of Sydney's life sincehe and Casey hadmet whenSydney was about thirteen months old, but he and Casey had only been engaged for a little while. Jake was a professor at a local university, and he had been a witness in one of Casey's trials after he walked in on a rape in progress. Their trial prep turned into meetings for coffee, and their meetings for coffee eventually turned into dates. While he had become somewhat of a fixture in Sydney's life, Casey didn't want to make things too complicated for her daughter before she could really understand what was happening. She made it clear to him on her first date that her daughter was the most important thing in the world to her. She had clearly explained that if they were going to work out as a couple then he would have to accept Casey's daughter and everything that went along with her having one. He promised that he would, and he had been true to his word, even when he had to wait six months before moving in with his own fiancée.

"I would really really really like it! Where will he sleep? And I can call him daddy, right? When is he coming?" Sydney exclaimed as she bounced up and down on the couch. Casey laughed at the sight of her daughter; she was so relieved that her daughter not only was okay with the idea, but that she loved it. She leaned forward and gathered the bouncing redhead in her arms.

"Well, daddy will sleep in mommy's room. And if it is okay with you, he will come move into our house tomorrow." Sydney clapped her hands in excitement, then looked up at Casey with a bright smile across her face. She giggled as she leaned into her mother and burrowed her head in Casey's chest, wrapping her little arms around Casey's slender waist.

"All right, sweetie, let's get you into bed so we can read some books," Casey said softly as she lifted Sydney up and carried her back into her bedroom. Sydney climbed into bed and Casey slid in next to her, picking up a picture book from the nightstand next to it. She read two books to Sydney, as she did every night, before getting out of the bed to tuck Sydney in for the night.

"I love you, mommy," Sydney said softly as Casey leaned over to tuck her in.

"I love you too, baby." Casey pecked her daughter on the cheek before turning out the lights and leaving her daughter to sleep.

Okay, let me know. :) This one is hopefully not going to be as long as the other ones, and I'm warning you now the ending mighttttt be one of those open for interpretation ones.