A/N: Thanks for the reviews and such. Regarding the revenge thing, well, I guess you'll have to wait a little longer to see what happens on that front...That is all, on with the chapter.

Chapter 26: No Deals

"No," Branch said firmly before Casey had even crossed the threshold of his doorway.

"But I didn't even..." Casey began, only for Branch to interject again.

"Casey, I understand your situation, but I can't have you anywhere near this case, not prosecuting it, not sitting second chair, not inserting yourself into the investigation with the squad as you have a habit of doing..."

"I know sir," Casey said, "I just wanted to find out if there was anything I could do to help out with...

"Casey, you are on vacation as of right now, and you can help by going home and taking care of Alex."

"She's not at home," Alex said, emerging from the doorway, "hi Arthur. I know Casey can't take this case, but I wanted to know who you had in mind to..."

"I'm taking this one myself," Branch said, "and believe me, Mr James and his merry band of lunatics are going away headed for a long stretch, but I need you two to stay away from this office, hell stay away from this case until I call you up. They've hired Mary O'Leary, and if she gets a whiff of impropriety in the way we handle this, you can bet your ass she'll try to find a way to capitalise on it. A former employee of the DA's office who is engaged to a present employee? They'll be screaming bias in a heartbeat."

"So, why not ask Brooklyn to send someone over," Casey asked.

"Are you kidding me?" Branch said, "have you seen their conviction rate? Not a chance."

"So, do we know what defense they're running with?" Alex said.

"Negating," Branch sighed.

"Really?" Casey said.

"Really. The defense is going to claim the Pastor thought he was saving your soul," Branch sighed.

"So they're going with insanity," Alex said.

"Belief in the good book is not classified as insanity, deranged interpretations of it aside," Branch said, "and I for one don't think it'll work for a second, but..."

"Have you offered him a deal?" Alex asked.

"Hell no," Branch snapped, "of course I haven't, we..."

"Arthur, plead him out," Alex sighed.

Casey's brows knitted in a frown, "Alex, we can't plead him out, we have an airtight case, and..."

"And we'll be playing right into his hands, giving him a public platform to spread his vitriolic nonsense to a wider audience than he could have ever dreamed of. You know why he did this? Because I had the nerve to stand up and be proud of who I am and who I love. He wants to send a message that if you don't adhere to his beliefs, you damn well better keep it quiet. I am not willing to give him that opportunity."

Casey shook her head, "we've got him on rape one and kidnap two, so that's five to twenty five each, we can class both as a hate crime, it's his first offense so that'll only get us a minimum term of six..."

"We're out of luck," Branch said, "we got Judge Lovell, a well known opponent of the hate crime statute, and also a diehard born again."

Casey sighed, "and notoriously light on first time offenders. It wouldn't surprise me to see him give out the minimum, possibly served concurrently. If he gets lucky, he could be out on parole in two and a half."

Alex nodded, "Alright, so we agree; a trial is a waste of time."

Casey took Alex's hand, pulling her close, "no baby. What we're saying is, his lawyers aren't going to accept a deal unless it involves little to no jail time. Anything more, and he'll take his chance with the trial. Like you said, he wants his day in court. We'd need to offer him one hell of a carrot to make him bite."

"Alexandra, I know this is hard, but you know I have to take this to trial," Branch said, "I'm sorry, no deals."

"Fine," Alex snapped, "clearly what I want doesn't matter." And with that she stomped out of the office, slamming the door.

"I better go after her," Casey said.

"Good luck," Branch nodded.

I can't do this again.

I can't.

I've sat on the wrong side of the table, facing down my would be murderer, but this isn't the same.

Liam Connors tried to kill me. Tried. And failed.

Alan James raped me. He succeeded. He did something I cannot undo, he took something from me. Something I can never get back.

When I sat in the stand at the attempted murder trial, everyone thought I was brave. It was black and white.

This is different in every way. My life will be torn apart on the stand, and I'll have to recount every murky detail of what he did to me while he grins at me smugly from only feet away.

I'm pulled from my thoughts by Casey emerging from Branch's office. She takes a seat beside me, and loops an arm over my shoulders. I lean against her, taking in her warmth, and her scent, like soft citrus perfume and cotton fresh fabric softener.

"Even if we win this case, we lose," I say.

She turns to me and kisses my forehead, "I know this is hard, but we'll get through it."

"God, I never thought this would be so hard. I remember when I used to work here. I remember telling the victims they had nothing to be ashamed of. That regardless of how the trial went they'd feel better that they stood up for themselves. It just sounds so trite..." I say.

"Alex, you've got nothing to be..."

"Don't," I say, gripping her knee, "I've heard it, no, I've said it all before. It doesn't matter what I should feel, the truth is I am ashamed, and angry, and...and..." I can't talk anymore because my breath is coming thick and fast.

"Baby, none of this is fair, but all we can do is carry on, and if it matters, I'm proud of you," Casey says.

For a woman who has a habit of speaking without thinking, when it matters, Casey always says exactly the right thing.

"I love you," I say.

"I love you too. I'd also really, really love a sandwich right now," Casey says.

"Smooth change of subject puppy, are you ever not thinking about food?" I say.

"I skipped breakfast," Casey says, "and does that mean you've finally relented on the puppy issue?"

Casey has been not so subtly hinting she wants a dog for the last few months. She even demanded that I stop calling her my favourite pet name, 'puppy', unless she can have one.

I have to confess, I'm not a dog person, and Casey may whine a little, but she never insists. She likes to think she's the boss, it's adorable, but she's so under my thumb. I'll admit, I love it that no matter what, whenever she tries to put her foot down, all I have to do is moan softly in her ear, or run my tongue up the column of her neck, and she forgets all about it. She's putty in my hands.

"Not a chance," I say, "but I could go for lunch. Let's get out of here."

As Casey gets to her feet, her cellphone rings. The expression on her face when she looks at the caller ID let's me know who it is.

"I'll be right back, I'll call Liv to keep you company."

"Dad," Casey greeted as she walked into his office. She'd been summoned, and so she'd reluctantly left Alex in Olivia 's care.

"Casey, your mother called, she told me what happened," her father said, "she said I needed to go easy on you, that you were really 'broken up' about what happened."

Casey crossed her arms, his voice didn't bear an ounce of compassion, and his demeanor made her nervous, "it's been a rough couple of days."

"Soon there will be a court case, yes?" Her father said.

Casey nodded, "it's scheduled for next month, and justice will be done."

"Justice will be done, spoken like a true lawyer," her father said, rising from his chair and pacing around behind her, "you're so pathetic sometimes I cannot even believe you're my child."

Casey cleared her throat, unsure what to say, and then her eyes fell on the half empty bottle of Vodka sitting next to a moist tumbler on his desk. He'd been drinking. She felt her heart sink and her shoulders drop. Her father was always angling for a fight after a few drinks. She didn't have the energy to be his own personal punching bag today.

"Can I go?" Her father laughed, placing his hands on her shoulders, his thumbs digging into her back.

"You're asking my permission," he said, "you weak, silly little girl. When will you learn to stand up for yourself? No wonder you let someone else fuck your woman."

Casey bolted upright, turning on her father, "I did not let it happen, there was nothing I could do!"

"Of course there was nothing you could do, you're useless," her father said, "I should have left you with your whore of a mother, I'm ashamed that you bear my name. You know what? Your woman is a hot piece of ass, why don't you get on your knees and beg me not to go around to your place and screw your her. She'd probably like it too..."

Time stood still for a moment, and Casey didn't feel as though she was in control of her body. A sharp crack rang out as her fist connected with her father's jaw, rocking his head back.

And then he did something she didn't expect.

He laughed.

"I think you cracked my tooth kid," he said, "it's a shame it took you this long to grow a pair. On the upside maybe you'll put up a fight for once," he said as he grabbed Casey by her shirt, drawing a fist back.

"Jakob!" A voice interrupted.

Both turned to see Alek standing in the doorway.

Casey's father pushed her to the floor and turned on the interloper.

"What, what Alek? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"I know sir, I'm sorry, it's just Rob is downstairs, he has news about the shipment, he needs to speak to you immediately."

"Work is never done," her father growled, "take care of this and then get her out of my sight."

"Of course," Alek nodded.

With a final glare and rub of his wounded jaw, he stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind him.

Alek walked over slowly as she struggled to get to her feet, snatching a chair and raising it over his head. Casey quickly ducked raising her arms to shield herself from the impending blow.

A crash sounded, and Casey felt a hand touch her shoulder. She looked up to see Alek offering a hand. The chair sat in a few splintered pieces by the wall.

"I was listening outside the door, we better hurry out before he gets back,"

Casey took his hand, getting to her feet, "God Alek, he's going to kill you."

Alek shrugged, "he won't, Rob really is waiting on him downstairs. Come on."

Casey followed Alek out the backdoor of the warehouse, and to her car.

"Thanks Alek," Casey said.

"No problem Casey, I am sorry about what happened to your girlfriend. My wife loves those cookies she made, I promised her I'd ask you to get the recipe."

Casey smiled. Alek was unofficially Casey's bodyguard. Over her year undercover, he'd accompanied her on many ops, and in a strange way, she almost liked the guy. He'd even met Alex, her father's people had had a disagreement with one of the other gangs operating in the area, and Alek had been sent to her apartment just in case. Alex, unsure of what else to do, had made him cookies.

"You saved my ass, for cookies?" Casey said with a smile.

"My wife is pregnant again, trust me, she is far scarier than Jakob," Alek said, "I jest though. I saved your ass because I know if anyone touched my wife, I would kill them. That man deserves to die for what he did."

"I'm not about to disagree with you there Alek, but he's in police custody. I can't touch him."

Alek grinned, "leave it with me Casey."

"What are you going to do?"

"I will contact you soon, you better go before your Dad sees you. Go, go," he said, shooing her as he dashed back to the warehouse.

After arriving home to a newly fitted front door and assuring Olivia they'd be absolutely fine without her presence, Alex and Casey had flopped out on the sofa.

"Think it's time for bed," Casey said.

"I think I'm gonna stay up a little bit," Alex sighed.

"Alright, I'll go make a coffee, you want one?" Casey said, patting Alex gently on the back, signalling for her to let her up. Alex rolled off Casey's chest, remaining on her back, staring up at the ceiling.

The coffee machine gurgled to life and Casey rubbed at her eyes furiously. It had been a long day.

As the black liquid finally began to trickle into the carafe, she heard Alex's voice from the living room. Muffled by the door, Casey didn't catch it, so she popped her head around the door and said,

"Huh?"

"I said marry me," Alex said, only her eyes visible as she peeped over the back of the sofa.

Casey walked back into the living room, leaning over and taking her partners hand.

"I think we've already been over this, I proposed to you, then you proposed to me, and..."

"I mean marry me tomorrow," Alex blurted out.

"Oh," Casey said.