All In That Suit That You Wear (I)

Casey knew that she'd hate him the second he walked in the door.

The way he held himself, it was like he had cockiness oozing out of every pour. And that God-awful crooked smile; she wanted to tear it right off his face.

How's that for a first impression?

"Casey!" Don Cragen called over to her. Her heart sank; she didn't want to meet this guy, he just gave her a funny feeling. But she put on a happy face and bravely walked over. "I don't think you've met the newest member of our team before."

"Supervisory Special Agent Silas Shag, FBI." He said, holding out his hand. He had some sort of accent, definitely southern, she just couldn't tell where he was from. "Pleased to meet you, ma'am."

"ADA Casey Novak." She said shaking it. "Nice to meet you too."

"I don't think we've ever worked together before," he said, "Last I was here was… Geeze… 2002?"

"Yes, it's been a while, Silas." Cragen smiled, putting a hand on Silas' shoulder. "We're glad you're back."

"Thank you, sir." He turned back to Casey, "I look forward to working together."

Casey fake smiled, "As am I." As soon as he saw Elliot and Olivia walk through the door, he smiled again and went to go talk to them. Casey breathed a sigh of relief and bolted for the coffee.

Munch was standing over there, sipping his own coffee. "Hello, Counselor, I'm glad to see you have met the man that is going to make all of our jobs a hell of a lot easier."

Casey looked back at the fed, disgust on her face. "Why? What's so special about him?"

Munch was taken aback by her hostility to Shag. "Because he comes to us directly from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit."

"But we already have Huang; why do we have to have this guy?"

"This guy does field work like it's his job; Huang can't. Besides its double the ammunition we have against serial offenders. "

"I just have a funny feeling about this guy."

"Hey, you were new kid on the block at one point in time. If you don't like him then at least tolerate him."

"But he's so… Cocky…"

"I'd be too; he's got more experience under his belt at working with serial killers and criminal minds then all of us in this room combined. He even learned how to read micro-expressions from the guy who discovered them!"

Casey looked him over; he didn't look like he should be as good as Munch said he was. He looked like he was in his early thirties; he was lean, built enough but not too much. He almost looked like a runner. His skin was pale, his hair black, and his eyes looked like sapphires. If she didn't already loathe him so much, she might have thought he was attractive.

"Casey," She looked over at Munch, "He really is a good guy."

"I'll work with him," Casey said, picking up her briefcase, "But I won't like it."

XXX

As the weeks dragged on into months, Casey really started to hate him. He was so cocky, but no one else seemed to even care. It was like they were oblivious. Soon the two of them started getting into fights about stupid things, like lack of evidence or the type of offender. They drove each other up the wall.

"I don't understand!" Casey vented to Huang one day. "Why do we even need another consultant? Don't you feel a bit… benched? You're second-string now!"

"Not really," he said, "Silas is renowned in the psychiatric community; I'm happy to be working with him."

"Then why is someone like him in SVU? Why isn't he out hunting serial killers instead of aggravating me?"

Huang paused. "There were some rumors going around…"

Casey perked up. "What kind?"

"His last case, he was attacked by the man he was trying to catch. No one has all the details though. This must be like a break for him though, and I can't say that I blame him… I heard he almost died."

Not the kind of rumors she wanted to hear. "It doesn't matter. He still is picking fights with me…"

"Are you sure it's not the other way around?"

Casey was seething now. "Listen," she grabbed he coat, "I'm done, since I am clearly the enemy in this situation."

"We're all on the same team, Casey."

"Yeah, sure, whatever." And without another word, she stormed out, leaving Huang smiling. Silas Shag wasn't the only one who could read people's emotions.