There was a feeling in the squad room that Alex could only describe as a collective annoyance, and who could blame the detectives? She was just as done with the revolving door of a. as they were. As she approached the desks she heard Fin confessing that he was worried that anyone other then Alex herself would blow the case he and Munch had been working on. She had to keep herself from smiling. It meant a lot to her to know that they had such confidence in her, and she knew just how important that confidence was to closing and winning cases. When Munch spotted her, it caused Fin to stop his rant about the lack luster lawyers they'd been working with and look up as well.

"Please tell me you're here for this case?" Fin asked the tall blonde who was standing near Munch.

Alex shook her head. "Sorry, I can't."

Fin moaned in frustration. "Great, so who's the temporary a.d.a you're assigning to us this time?"

"I was thinking I'd give it to someone who's going to be more permanent." Alex replied with just the hit of a smirk. "McCoy let me hire a deputy bureau chief."

That got the attention of all four detectives and the Captain who'd just stepped out of his office. "Who would you trust that much?" Don asked. "Not any of the women who've been working our cases, I hope."

Alex shook her head. "There really is only one person I'd trust in this position."

"Who?" Fin asked.

"Me." Casey said from the double doors. Despite feeling oddly nervous she stood there with the biggest smile on her face. A week ago when she walked into the restaurant to have lunch with Alex and saw the blonde sitting with Jack McCoy she'd stood there feeling so conflicted. She knew there could only be one reason why Alex had set up a lunch with her and McCoy and a part of her was beyond grateful to her friend, but another part was unsure. For a moment she'd even thought about bolting before either of them could see her, but then Alex had looked up at her. Green eyes locked with blue and in that moment Alex had given Casey the confidence to walk over to the table. She'd been shocked when McCoy not only offered her the chance to take her old job back, but also offered to make her deputy bureau chief. He'd given her time to think it over and the next morning she'd called his office and accepted. She was still unsure and nervous about wither she could handle this again, if she would be able to get back to where she'd been before she'd burned out, but standing here now watching huge smiles appear on the faces of her friends and colleagues she knew she was were she belonged.

Fin jumped to his feet when he saw Casey. "You back, Sis?"

"I'm back." Casey said as she walked further into the room to join everyone.

"Thank God." Elliot said with such relief that it made everyone laugh.

"Miss me that much Stabler?" Casey teased as the man actually hugged her.

Elliot's eyes were serious as he said, "You have no idea."

The grin on Olivia's face could have lit up the whole city. "Welcome home, Casey."

First case out of the gate, of course it wouldn't be an easy one. Not only was it a young white woman accusing an older black man of rape, she was trying the case in Lena Petrovsky's court. Casey had tried her last case in Petrovsky's court, the case where she nearly made a huge mistake by asking Melinda to withhold evidence from the defense for just a little while. When that thought crossed Casey's mind, when she actually considered breaking Brady Rules, she knew it was time to stop. She knew she needed a break. She'd talked to Alex about feeling burned out, but only Liz knew about what Casey nearly did. She really wished she were trying this case before Liz. Liz could be just as hard a judge as Petrovsky, but at least she'd feel like she had someone in her corner and not at her back waiting to push her off a cliff.

When the knock on her new office door echoed in the room Casey looked up from what she was working on and called out, "Come in."

As if she'd somehow heard Casey thinking about her Liz walked in and smiled reassuringly at the younger woman. "Welcome back to the dark side, Counselor."

"Ha ha. Very funny." Casey said as she smiled back at Liz. "You know that analogy doesn't really work, right? We're the good guys fighting an uphill battle against the evil in the world. So we'd be the Jedi not the Sith."

"We're also the government and lawyers, so either side works really. " Liz said as she waved it off with a flick of her hand. "At least I made an effort after you forced me to watch all six of those movies."

Casey laughed. She could feel the tension in her body melt away just from being near Liz. Maybe it was better that she wasn't trying her first case back in front of Liz, because if Liz were her judge they couldn't interact like this.

"So how's it going?" Liz asked as she sat in the chair across from Casey's desk. "Nice office by the way."

"Perk of the new titled." Casey said with a bright smile as she sat back in her chair and relaxed. Then her smile faulted and she sighed heavily. "Part of me thought it would be easy coming back. I thought I'd just come back and pick up right where I left off."

"But it's not like that?" Liz asked.

Casey shook her head. "It's like my first day, my first case, all over again."

"If I remember correctly not only did you win that case you saved a little girl's life." Liz replied as she leaned forward a little so she could look into Casey's eyes. "You're not the same woman, the same lawyer, you were when you left, Casey. You're not picking up right where you left off. You're starting a whole new chapter and it's going to take a little time to settle into it."

Casey heaved another sigh before saying, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Liz gave the young woman her trademark smirk. "I'm Elizabeth Donnelly, of course I'm right. I'm always right." Then she turned a little more serious. "I've been there, Casey. I remember what it was like coming back to this job after leaving for the simplicity of a private firm. Did Mary Clarke agree to keep you on a case to case basis?"

"Yes. It won't be anything criminal of course, not that I ever did anything criminal anyway. I could never stomach being a defense lawyer." Casey said with a nod. "But, she agreed with you about it giving me an outlet to keep me sane."

"Good." Liz said. "So, do you have plans tonight?"

A bright smile lit Casey's face as she nodded. "I do actually. I have a date with the cutest little blonde with the biggest blue eyes." She paused to look at the clock and then added, "Who should be here any minute in fact."

"A blonde huh?" Liz teased. "Sticking to type these days?"

Casey laughed. "You could say that." Then she explained that she was babysitting Allison, Olivia and Alex's eleven-year-old daughter, for the night so Olivia and Alex could go out. She'd offered to keep their two-year-old son Oliver, but Alex had said Allie needed a brother free weekend, so it was going to be a girls' night.

As Liz was getting up to leave there was a knock on Casey's door. "Come in." Casey called out and then smiled when Allison and Olivia walked in. Allie, who was adopted by Olivia and Alex when she was eight, though she'd been with the pair since she was six; looked enough like Alex that people wondered. The girl had medium golden blonde hair that would be just a touch darker by the time she was a teenager. Her eyes had darkened over the years to a steel blue with traces of white that reminded Casey of an electrical storm. There was no doubt this kid was going to be stunning, and no doubt whatsoever that Olivia and Alex were going to have their hands full when she became a teenager, despite the fact that Allie was the sweetest, happiest, most well behaved kid Casey had ever met.

"Hi Aunt Casey!" Allie said brightly as she walked into the room. "Oh, hello Judge Donnelly."

The smile was all Alex and that made Liz smile. "Hello Allison. I'm glad I got a chance to run into you, dear. I wanted to thank you in person for the beautiful get well card you made for me." While she was recovering from being stuck in the ass with a hypodermic needle and positioned with potassium chloride, Alex and Olivia had brought her a hand drawn card from Allie. It was a perfect drawing of her brownstone done in Indian ink. Alex and Olivia had it in their heads that Allie would grow up to be a lawyer, Allie herself thought she was going to be a cop, but if you asked Liz the kid was meant to be an artist. "I particularly liked that you captured Samurai sitting in the bedroom window." Samurai was Liz's Siamese cat.

Allie beamed at the praised. "You're very welcome, Judge Donnelly. It was just lucky he was in the window when my Mom took the picture of your house for me. If I had a better one of him I could draw one of just him for you."

Liz really like Allie, everyone did, so she couldn't help but keep smiling. "I'll email you one when I get home." Then she looked between the girl and Casey. "Big plans tonight?"

Casey nodded. "Either batting cages or mini golf…"

"Mini golf." Allie cut in.

Casey laughed. "Ok then, mini golf, dinner out, and then dessert at my apartment while watching a Dr. Who and Torchwood marathon."

"Are you a sci-fi watcher too, Allison?" Liz asked the girl.

"Yes ma'am." Allie said brightly. "Dr. Who is my favorite."

"It's her Halloween costume this year." Olivia said with a laugh. "It was her Halloween costume last year."

Allie shook her head. "Not the same, Mom. Last year I was the Tenth Doctor. This year I'm going as the Eleventh, unless I decide to be River Song instead."

"If you say so." Olivia said with an amused shrugged of her shoulders.

After Liz said her goodbyes and Olivia ran through things with them, and after Casey reassured her friend that she and Allie would be fine, the redhead found herself alone with her goddaughter. "I need about twenty minutes to finish up here and then we can go, ok?"

"Sure." Allie said as she settled into a chair. "I know how to keep myself entertained."

Once Casey was finished with work she took Allie to her apartment so she could change and Allie could drop her stuff off. Once they'd both freshened up and Casey was in jeans, a t-shirt, and comfy shoes she and Allie headed over to Kraze Golf to get in a few holes on the blacklight courses.

As Casey drove to New Jersey to the complex where the mini golf was they talked about Allie playing Portal 2 with T.J Langdon, Trevor Langdon's son. They talked about the first book in the Hunger Games trilogy, which Allie had just read, and Casey had read a while ago. Then Casey asked, "How's school?"

Allie shrugged. She liked school and she did well, but she was eleven and figured there were cooler things to talk to her aunt about. "It's fine. I did an oral report on Sandra Day O'Conner and other women judges that got me picked to be part of the Woman's History assembly this year."

Casey beamed proudly at the girl. "That's great, Allie."

"Do you think Judge Donnelly will let me borrow her robes?" Allie asked. "That would be kind of cool, if I could dress the part."

"I bet she'd be thrilled if you asked her." Casey replied as they pulled into the parking lot and got out of the car. "She and I would even come to watch if we're allowed."

Allie smirked. "That would be awesome."

"What?" Casey asked when she saw Olivia's smirk on the eleven-year-old's face.

"I heard my Moms say you've been spending a lot of time with Judge Donnelly." Allie said.

Casey rolled her eyes as she took her hair out of her ponytail just to put it back up. "Elizabeth and I are friends."

"I like her." Allie said as they headed into Custom Creations, which was a huge entertainment complex.

"Me too." Casey said. "She's my friend."

Allie just gave her aunt another smirk.

After finishing all three backlight courses, Neptune's Labyrinth, Sinbad's Adventure, and Tropical Island Adventures; Casey and Allie headed back into the City. Since they were going to have a sci-fi t.v. night they decided that Mars 2112 was the perfect restaurant to have dinner. The place was a family theme restaurant with space and Mars as its theme. It wasn't a place Casey normally got to go to, which made it that much more fun.

"That's a very pretty little paw on your necklace." Casey said over dinner. Because Allie's nickname was Allie-Cat she had quite the collection of cat themed jewelry. All the adults in her life knew that at some point she'd reject the cute little trinkets but for now Allie still loved each and every piece.

"Oh." Allie said as she quickly put the little silver paw inside her shirt. "Thanks."

"Allie," Casey said, taking note of the tone of Allie's voice as well as how quickly she'd hidden the pendant. "Why'd you hide it?"

Allie ducked her head as she said. "Reenie sent it to me."

"Ahh." Casey said and then added, "Allie, look at me." She waited until the girl was looking up at her. "Sweetie, you can still be friends with Serena. She and I broke up, that doesn't mean she broke up with you too."

"I don't want to hurt your feelings." Allie admitted. Even though Casey and Serena had come into her life together, and in fact Serena had been the one to push the idea of Olivia and Alex taking Allie in, Allie had always been closest to Casey.

Casey gave the girl a reassuring smile. "Being friends with Serena isn't going to hurt my feelings, Allie. She's a wonderful person and she should be in your life. She's part of the reason you're in our lives to begin with. Ok?"

"Ok." Allie said as she returned Casey's smile.

"Good. Now take the necklace back out. It's to pretty to hide." Casey said.

After dinner and a quick stop at the market to pick up snacks and ice cream Casey took Allie back to the apartment. After Allie talked to her moms Casey had her take her shower and put her pjs on before they settled in on her bed for their Dr. Who marathon. Allie made it through five whole episodes before falling asleep half way through the sixth. Casey finished watching the episode before turning the tv off so it wouldn't wake Allie. She was checking her personal emails on her iPad when she got a text from Liz.

'How was the big date?'

Casey smiled as she sent back. 'Best date ever.'

The two texted back and forth for about twenty minutes before Casey said goodnight and settled down into bed beside Allie and fell asleep.