4

Olivia walked up to the regular SVU table at the bar after work, but Elliot held an arm out to prevent her from joining the group.

"Maybe you should go see what's wrong with Casey," he said. He nodded toward the redhead sitting by herself at the bar with her shoulders hunched.

"Yeah," Munch said, "Somebody needs to remind her we won." The verdict and sentencing today should have made her happy, or at least as relaxed as the rest of the group. "She looks like someone kicked her puppy."

"Did you guys even bother to ask her what's wrong?" Olivia said.

"We tried," Fin said, "Couldn't get a thing out of her."

Olivia doubted their efforts but headed toward the bar anyway.

"Hey, Case," she said as approached the redhead and got on the stool next to her. "What are you drinking?"

"I'm not drinking," she said, not looking up. "I'm sampling different kinds of tequila."

Olivia surveyed the line of shot glasses in front of Casey. "That's quite a bit of sampling there. What's the occasion. I know you're not still feeling bad about earlier, you were well on your way to restoring your dignity after sending flowers."

"Dignity is for those without tequila."

Olivia smiled, but continued anyway. "Is something wrong?"

She looked up at Olivia with slightly unfocused eyes. "Nothing's wrong. I just didn't know there were so many kinds. I think my favorite is the anejo, or the respado, or the coffee flavored one," she sighed. "I love coffee."

"Okay. But if nothing's wrong, then why the solitary taste test?"

Casey shrugged.

Olivia looked at her and waited.

"Nothing's wrong," she said. "In fact, I have been directed to be celebrating, so I'm celebrating."

"Oh yeah, what are we celebrating?" Olivia held up her regular drink the bartender placed down for her.

"My perfect little sister." She tapped her shot lightly against Olivia's glass.

"And why are we toasting your sister?"

"My PERFECT little sister," Casey corrected her. "As my mother just lectured me, Mrs. Perfect is making my parents extremely happy by settling down so well."

Olivia looked at her again, and waited.

"My mother called me practically during the ultrasound appointment. My little sister is pregnant with twins." She gestured emphatically with the hand not holding the shot glass. "She has a nice husband and they have a hyphenated last name and now she's got not one, but two grandchildren for my mother on the way.-

"You'd think that would be enough to make my mother happy." Casey continued and downed her shot, forgetting all about her tasting game. "But, no. She wants to know about my prospects. I just broke up with the woman I was dating, sort of, and my mother asks me if I had any new prospects before she even took a breath."

Casey shook her head in disbelief. "That's actually what she said. Prospects." She downed another shot. "Do I have any prospects," she said rolling her eyes. "All I have is a half-assed thing for a colleague who doesn't even know I'm alive."

Crap. Olivia thought. She closed her eyes and resisted banging her head against the bar as warning klaxons went off in her head. Damnit, she couldn't believe that Alex was right. She stared at her reflexion in the mirror behind the bar and saw her resignation take hold.

She didn't really want or need the confirmation at this point. Heaven's knew that Alex would somehow divine that Olivia knew, that there was a formal confession that could not be contested.

And she knew that there would be no hope of ever reeling in Alex once she heard this.

But Olivia also knew that she had to steer Casey away from parental pressures, as well as the remaining shots.

She cleared her throat and gently asked, "Who doesn't know you're alive?"

"It's nothing anyway," she said in a tone of finality with long held resignation.

"It sounds like a little more than nothing."

"It's really nothing," Casey said, and sighed again. "It's a crush. It'll pass."

"Maybe. Maybe not," Olivia said, knowing that somewhere inside, Casey needed to say it out loud. "Who's got their claws in you, my friend?"

"It's not- I just think she's- and she's all around- and there's the way she- whatever," she said finally. "No one wouldn't find her attractive."

"Come on, you've got to give me something at least, since I was a bad enough friend to miss it," Olivia smiled, and decided to try a different approach.

"Oh, wait," Casey said, voice breaking high with consternation, "I can't believe I forgot, she does know I'm alive, she just is under the impression that I'm trying to kill her." She closed her eyes tightly and took a deep breath and her voice slowing to it's normal pace.

"Oh," Olivia said, and bit her lip to prevent a grin.

"Yeah," Casey sighed.

"When did this start?"

"At one those big multi-departmental meetings not too long ago. She got McCoy in trouble because she made him laugh while the DA was talking about headlines and press conferences."

"Well," Olivia said. "He probably couldn't help it, Serena can be funny."

"Well, I didn't hear what she said… but yeah… she kind of just… I don't know… when she smiled…

"Have you heard her laugh?" Casey continued, as she ran her finger around the rim of an empty shot glass. "She's got a great laugh." It was a clear, rich, happy laugh that Casey would have given all of the tequila shots in the world to have caused.

"She does," Olivia said, indulging her.

Casey sighed and started to look around for her next shot. "And then I go and nearly knock her out." She sighed dramatically. "Now you know why I didn't want to send flowers."

"I can see that, but I think it's fine." Olivia indulged her. "But anything else should probably wait until after the tequila wears off because I think you may have sampled enough tonight."

"Maybe," Casey nodded, several times. "They are starting to taste the same."

"Want me to get you a cab?"

Casey nodded again before staring off into space.

Olivia stood up and finished the rest of her drink with a sense of impending doom.