Disclaimer: The canon characters of Law and Order SVU are owned by Dick Wolf, NBC, Universal, and whoever else.

Dedication: I'd like to dedicate this story to Rioshara. Although we didn't get along at first, I'm glad we were able to talk. Thanks a lot for your opinions and suggestions. If anybody needs any ideas that kid is the person to talk to. Once you get to know her she's really fun to talk with and she's very mature. Thanks a lot for all your help kiddo.

A/N: This is my first attempt at a Casey fic, I decided to challenge myself. I'm not sure if this would be considered A/H or A/U. To be on the safe side I'll call it an A/H. I also would like to take time to apologize for the bad summary, I've never really been good at them. Constructive reviews are appreciated, flames are welcome, and so are great pointers and suggestions. Anyway, just read...

Let the Circle Be Unbroken

Casey trembled and bit her lower lip as she stood on the sidewalk and gazed in dread at the decrepit monstrosity, a decaying shadow of her once magnificent ancestral home. A sudden strong gust of wind blew hundreds of loose paint flakes from the walls. They fluttered through the air like feathers being plucked from an invisible chicken. Casey tiptoed cautiously across the wooden porch, as she tried to avoid falling through the rotten boards where rain had leaked through the roof for as many years as she could remember. She glanced at the front windows and grimaced as she realized the curtains were the same ratty, rotten, old rags that had hung there since her grandparent's wedding day, 60 years ago.

Casey loved that house long ago, but now she hated it. She had run away from it and the people in it when she was sixteen, vowing she would never set foot in it again, but now, fourteen years later, she was back.

She remembered all the good times when she was a child. Her mother often showed her photos of their wedding, her grandparent's wedding, and several other weddings that had taken place in that house. The house had been passed down from generation to generation of her family for more than two hundred years.

Casey enjoyed living there with her parents and grandparents. She spent hours wandering through the lush gardens, hiking through the forest at the back of the property, and swimming in the large pond at the west end of the garden. Her life was happy and carefree, until she turned twelve. That's when she started to notice subtle changes. For one thing, her grandfather started staying away longer and longer when he traveled on business. Her grandmother became religious and constantly quoted passages from the bible. The thing that bothered her most was that her parents argued almost non-stop.

She heard her parents arguing about whether they should continue to live there, or get a house of their own. Her father wanted to leave, but her mother didn't want to abandon her parents now that they were getting on in years. And so the arguing continued, until the day Casey went down to the dining room for breakfast and her grandmother informed her that her parents were gone. She said she didn't know where they had gone. She also said she didn't know when, or if, they would return. They had packed during the night and were gone before anyone else got up.

After they left, her grandfather spent more time at home, but he seemed to withdraw into himself. He spent most of his time in his study and only came out occasionally for meals. Her grandmother quoted from the bible and ranted and raved about every little thing Casey did, especially after she'd gotten pregnant. On her sixteenth birthday, Casey packed her bags and left without saying goodbye, leaving an infant for her grandparents to raise.

She hadn't contacted her grandparents in the last fourteen years and wouldn't have been here now, if she'd had any other choice. Casey had read her grandfather's obituary, her grandmother had pasted a year before that, in the newspaper three months earlier and felt bad for not attending his funeral, but she knew he would understand. She wouldn't be here now if it hadn't been for the letter from her grandfather's lawyer. He had contacted her to let her know her grandfather had died and left everything to her, including the Power of Attorney for their estate taking care of the baby she'd abandoned years ago.

I wish I had come from a large family, so I wouldn't be stuck taking care of the kid."

Casey felt guilty about the way she felt, but she couldn't help it. She did care about her child, at least the baby she remembered as a teenager, not the fiery and sarcastic teenager she'd become. Like Casey expected the girl resented her. During the days they spent getting to know each other, she shut down every attempt Casey made at small talk. Then again what did she expect, the child to run to her with open arms?

"Lillian did you remember to pack Gram's old pictures?" Casey called through the open door. Lillian had insisted on bringing some of her great-grandparent's things with her to New York, the things she didn't bring were going into storage. "I know you'd be upset if you found out you'd left them behind."

"Yeah I packed them," Lillian said, stepping up to the doorway balancing a huge decorated hat box the crevice of her arms. With her freehand she brushed a stray strand of auburn hair from her eyes before reluctantly handing the box over to her mother. "Be careful when you go down the steps, the second to last one is unstable. I wouldn't want you to trip."

"All right, thanks. Are all of your clothes packed and ready to go?"

"I already put my stuff in the car," Lillian rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You helped me put it in there, remember?"

"Look," Casey stopped herself and took a deep breath, fighting wouldn't get them anywhere. "Do you need help with anything else?"

"No, Mother, I don't."

"Is that all that's left?"

"Yes! Stop asking so many questions, you're giving me a headache!"

"Well excuse the hell out of me, next time I'll let you carry everything by yourself."

"It wouldn't be the first time you left me by myself!"

"Here you go, throwing that in my face again! I would've taken you with me if I could've, but I was sixteen years old. I couldn't raise a baby by myself, Gram and Grandpa could do a better job than me! They had money, experience, and love to give. I was just a teenager trying to find my place. I thought you were better off with them."

"Obviously your thoughts have never been rational. You get knocked up at sixteen and then you dump your little brat on your elderly grandparents who had no business raising a kid. Then you have the nerve to come back acting all high and mighty, expecting everybody to fall at your feet with glee. Did you think I was going to just expect you from jump street? I guess that's why your parents left you here; they probably got sick of your stupidity."

It took all of her self control not snatch Lillian by the neck and slap the smug smile off her face, then again hadn't she thought of her own parents that way? God knows she'd ranted and raved about her parents not loving her and not thinking of her needs. Lillian had every right to hate Casey. She'd done the same thing her parents had done to her as a child and she loathed herself for walking out on Lillian, leaving her with the very people she was dying to get away from.

"I never meant to hurt you Lilly."

"Yeah, well, you did."

"Lillian..."

"Whatever," she threw her hands up dramatically. "I'll lock up and then we can get out of here."

Casey watched her daughter emerge into the house as she closed the door to her rental car. She sighed to herself; from now on she was the mother of a teenage girl. It was now her job to attend parent teacher conferences, join the PTA, answer the normal teenage questions, comfort her when she broke up with boyfriends, listen to her secrets without wanting to scream. Casey turned her eyes and found Lillian standing in front of the passenger door glaring, so much for life being easy.

"So what are we gonna do when we get to New York..."

A/N: Don't be shy now, review, review, review!