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Chapter 14

Casey sighed sadly, staring at her watch. She was supposed to testify soon. Linda would be in there, as would all the detectives. She had wanted to ask them not to come, but knew it would be worthless. Besides, they would want to know why she didn't want them there, and when she told them that she didn't want them to see her like that, to see her so weak, they would all say she wasn't weak, that it wasn't her fault, blah,blah,blah.

Linda had known that Shelly would be hurt more than helped by seeing the trial, so Kathy Stabler was babysitting. In the days before the trial, whenever Linda had brought Shelly over to see Casey at her apartment, either Elliot or Olivia or, occasionally, both detectives were there, watching over her. Kathy had been there too once, and Shelly was practically in love with Elliot- the bond that had been created at the warehouse seemed unbreakable. When Kathy had introduced herself as Elliot's friend, Shelly had been slightly less nervous, but by the end of the day she had liked 'Ms. Kathy' as much as Elliot.

Casey took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. This was it. This was the last thing she had to do, and her duty would be done. Finally. All the pain and the humiliation and the shame would be over with. Just like Elliot had told her- everything would be over.

The bailiff exited the courtroom and caught her gaze, waving her inside. He recognized her from the many times she had prosecuted a case in that courtroom. Casey swallowed back her nerves and got to her feet with the aid of her crutches and swung forward, keeping her gaze focused forward, not wanting to see the detectives or Linda watching her. She didn't want their sympathy, because that would make this harder.

It felt strange to be sworn in. She had watched hundreds of people being sworn in over the years, and now she was, too. Casey idly wondered if this was how Alex Cabot had felt, when she had testified against Liam Conners. She sat behind the witness stand, keeping her eyes focused on Tracey without allowing herself to look at Mark. "Ms. Novak, please explain what happened the night of August 3rd."

Right to the heart of the matter, just like she and Tracey had rehearsed. "I was home- Mark Novak's house- and was in my room. About ten pm, I heard Linda- Mark's wife- screaming from their room. As Linda and I had previously agreed, I got up and went as fast as I could. I interceded, got Mark off her, but he started beating me instead. I fought back, which made him angrier. Eventually, he got mad enough to..." Here, she swallowed, purposely leaving out graphic details- Linda was in here, she didn't need to hear that, and the detectives- god, no. The shame would kill her. "He ripped my pants off. He was strong enough to... to hold me down while he took his own pants off and then he ra..." This was it. Once she said it, it would be real, out in the open, forever on the court records for everyone to see. "He raped me. Then he continued to hit me until he finally backed up and left me alone. I didn't know so at the time, but I had a broken hip, so I couldn't walk. I... I crawled downstairs and hid in the corner. After Mark had left for work, I called Linda and had her come back, to take me to the hospital."

"So, to reiterate, your brother was beating his wife, you tried to help, and he ended up raping you."

Casey knew why Tracey had said it, but it still hurt. "Yes," she said clearly, keeping her eyes glued to a miniscule hole in her dress.

"Was this a regular occurrence?" Tracey asked her, and Casey forced herself to look up at the jury. Some were glaring at Mark, others were watching her uncertainly. Those uncertain ones could cost her the case.

"Yes," she said loudly. "Well, allow me to explain- he only raped me once, but he... he beat me almost every night- whenever he would try to hit Linda, I would try to keep her safe." She blinked back tears, struggling to keep her composure.

Tracey nodded sympathetically, though it was clear to Casey that she wasn't used to handling live victims. "Thank you. Now, can you please tell the court what happened August seventh?"

Casey knew this story would be both longer and harder to tell... but she had to. Shelly was too traumatized to tell what had happened; this was her job. She cleared her throat, then said, "I was in the hospital, because Mark had beaten me in my office. I was pressing charges against him, and Linda and Shelly- his daughter- were in the hospital visiting me and being guarded by one of the hospital's security personnel. Mark called me and told me he had Shelly and gave me the address. He said that he would kill Shelly if I didn't get there within three hours, without any police. I caught a cab- I learned later that he had knocked Linda and the security guard unconscious and had kidnapped Shelly. When the cab finally got me to the warehouse, he was outside, with a gun to Shelly's head. He shot the cab driver so he wouldn't call the police and made me come inside. I was scared for Shelly, so I goaded him, to make him attack me instead of her. I'm not sure how long he was... he was on top of me before the detectives arrived."

But Tracey wasn't used to having live victims to deal with, so she didn't know how to use their testimonies to elicit as much sympathy as possible from the jury. She simply thanked Casey and returned to her table, leaving her at the mercy of Langan- and he knew how to take victim's testimony and twist it to cause doubt and uncertainty in the jury.

"Well, what a sympathetic story, Ms. Novak." Oh,soclever,nowifIjustcallyouTrevororLangan,itwouldseemimpolite. "You move in with your brother, and then its a hop and a skip to the hospital."

"I didn't hear a question in there, Mr. Langan," Casey said softly, then noticed his position- leaning back against his table, so that, to look at him, she had to see Mark. Bastard was using intimidation techniques, what a shock.

Langan smiled slightly and said, "Oh, my mistake. I meant to say, just to recap, your brother beats you every night for no reason at all?" Unlike Tracey's similar question, Trevor's was stated skeptically, like he really didn't believe a word that came out of her mouth.

"Yes. The hospital records are all there. All you have to do is check them, there's your proof."

Shaking his head and clicking his tongue on the roof his mouth, Langan sighed and said, "Tragic, tragic. Tell me, Ms. Novak , why did you move in with your brother in the first place?"

"Objection, relevance?" Casey replied with, knowing exactly what he was trying to do before remembering her place on the witness stand and blushing slightly.

Trevor still caught the opportunity to embarrass her further and said coolly, barely holding back his smile, "You're on the witness stand, you can't object, Ms. Novak." He smiled slightly at her, then, and to anybody else in the courtroom, it would been seen as a polite grin, but to anyone who knew their history, it was obvious he was just rubbing it in.

Casey looked imploring at Tracey, but she must not have put two and two together yet. Sighing in aggravation, Casey ground out, "I went to my brother's house and saw that both Linda and Shelly had injuries. I worked with Linda until she finally trusted me enough to tell me that Mark had abused them and then I moved in with them that same night, so I could keep them safe."

"Really? You just, out of the blue, thought your non-violent brother, had become abusive?"

Casey couldn't answer that, because if she said that ever since he had nearly beat her to death as a child, had known there was a possibility of him becoming abusive to others and had taken it on as her duty to protect his victims and there was no proof of what happened, then the jury would of heard evidence that would of never been allowed into trial. It would be declared a mistrial, giving Langan more time to come up with the perfect way to discredit their case.

Tracey finally understood what he was doing and stood up quickly, asking, "Your Honor, permission to approach?"

The judge hesitated before waving Tracey forward. As close as Casey and Trevor were, they both could hear everything that was said. "Your Honor, the answer to that question would be evidence that has not yet been allowed into this trial. The evidence's nature is as such that would cause a mistrial if the jury heard it."

The judge hesitated again before waving Tracey back and announcing, "Ten minute recess. Counselors, in chambers. Now." Sighing in relief when the judge banged the gavel, Casey leaned back in the chair and rubbed her temples, shaking her head.

"Hey, there," a voice said softly, and she opened her eyes to see Elliot and Olivia standing in front of her, watching her closely. "You're good at this- kicking Langan's ass from either side of the stand."

Casey smiled at Elliot and shrugged. "Thanks. Still, I can't wait until I'm going up against him again as a lawyer."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you'll kick his ass so hard he won't know what hit him. Do you think he actually thought this strategy would work?"

She shrugged, shaking her head. "No, but he must have thought it was worth a shot... look, there's nothing that I can think of that Langan can say to change this from a sure conviction to an acquittal. I have hospital records, Linda's testimony, the rape kit with his DNA- Mark's not going to walk out of this courtroom without a police escort. And my friends on the parole board may accidentally leak to his fellow inmates that he was a child molester. They don't do well in prison."

Olivia nodded solemnly. "You're right... but... a conviction won't make this all okay, will it?"

Casey sighed and leaned forward, resting her head on her arms and shaking her head. "No. I never thought it would. But Shelly will be safe from her father and... now that it's over... I suppose I'll start over. Fresh."

"You thinking of leaving SVU still?" Elliot asked, leaning up against the witness stand and watching her uncertainly.

The ADA shrugged without lifting her head from her arms. "No, I thought about what you said. You're right. Sex crimes is... it's where I belong. But I was talking about Shelly. I... because I was so afraid of Mark, I never got to know her before this whole mess. Now that he's out of the picture, I can actually get involved in the poor kid's life. I know I sound like I'm describing the Hallmark family right now, but it's for lack of a better word. I... after he raped me, when I was fifteen, I had a pregnancy scare. Ended up being a false alarm, but I... I've wanted to be a mother, ever since then. Both to prove David wrong when he said I'd make a horrible one and because... I do want kids. Shelly seems like a nice place to start."

Elliot grimaced when he was reminded of what David had said about his only daughter. "I'm sure you'd make a great mother, Casey," he said softly. "As strange as it sounds for a father to be saying this, don't listen to your father. I've seen sociopaths with better parenting skills than him."

They all chuckled at that before looking up as the judge walked back inside and called the court room to order. Elliot and Olivia wished her luck before returning to their seats as Casey was sworn in again.

As she had predicted, Langan didn't have any other real strategy to get a conviction, and she had been through a lot worse things than his vicious questions. She managed to keep her composure as she had when she was a kid- whenever he asked a particularly painful question, one that made her want to scream at him, she scraped her teeth harshly and slowly over her tongue. It would hurt like hell later, but it kept her from lashing out and helped her answer his questions semi-calmly. The grueling testimony took almost an hour of Langan going through practically every hospital visit and beating until she had finally been allowed to step down. The judge had adjourned court for the day and Elliot and Olivia had came with her to Linda's place. Elliot took Kathy home while Olivia stayed with the Novaks and assisted in their ways to distract the young girl- Kathy had accidently turned on the news, where the Novak case had been covered for the past week. Casey watched as the Linda and Olivia chased Shelly around the house, shouting and laughing, and thought back on what she had told Elliot.

Yeah, being Shelly's aunt was a nice place to start.

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