For the first time in six days, Casey had awoken able to breathe normally. Her chest muscles only ached when she yawned or coughed, and she had stopped wheezing with every breath. Cheryl had been so impressed that she had agreed to remove the oxygen tube from her nose for a couple of hours as an experiment of sorts. If her breathing remained normal, the oxygen could stay off, but if her breathing became labored again, she had to put the tube back on. Casey had jokingly asked if the IV could come out, too. Cheryl, in return, had told her not to press her luck.

The television was on, but Casey was paying more attention to the game of solitaire she was playing with a deck of cards Munch had given her a couple days before. It was the first day since he had brought them to her that she had felt well enough to do something more than sit in bed and flip channels on the television. Instead, she was sitting up in bed with the tray table in front of her; it wasn't much more activity than she had been doing, but she felt a million times better.

With her improved health came an increased aggravation with being in the hospital. She was completely bored and wanted nothing more than to go home and lie in her own bed, wear her own pajamas, and watch her own television. At the very least, she could work on some paperwork if she was in her own space. But Cheryl told her she wasn't allowed to leave until her lung congestion cleared completely and her fever broke.

As she flipped over the last three cards in the deck, she frowned, realizing she had lost the game. Sighing, she collected the cards and shuffled them. She was about to deal another game when a knock on her door startled her. Jumping slightly, she looked towards the door and smiled when she saw Maddie standing shyly in the doorway with her hands behind her back. "Come on in, sweetie," Casey said, giving the girl a warm smile.

A smile instantly brightened the little girl's face as she rushed into the room and pulled a piece of paper from out from behind her back. "Hi, Casey! I drew you a picture."

"You did?" Casey asked. She curiously took the white paper from Maddie's hand. It was a crayon drawing of a bouquet of flowers in a vase, and Casey was truly impressed with just how good it was. Each flower had a mixture of colors and the vase was perfectly contoured and shadowed. "Maddie, this is incredible."

"You really like it?" Maddie asked, sitting down in the visitor's chair. "I hoped you would. Mrs. Miller taught me how to draw. She's my next-door neighbor and she's really cool."

"This is really amazing, sweetie," Casey confirmed. She set the picture down carefully on the tray table and pushed the whole table away from the bed so she had a little bit more room to move. "I'll have Cheryl hang it up for me next time she comes in. How've you been?"

"Okay," Maddie answered with a shrug. "How about you? Linda wouldn't let me come down and see you yesterday and I was worried."

"I'm feeling better," Casey replied. "I had a bad day yesterday and they had to give me a different medicine. I think it's working, though, better than the old medicine."

"That's great," Maddie said, smiling. Her gaze caught the teddy bear sitting next to Casey and her eyes brightened. "Where'd you get the teddy bear?"

Casey reached down and handed the bear to the little girl. "My friend Elliot gave him to me the other day."

"He's so soft! What's his name?"

"He doesn't have one yet."

Maddie turned the bear over in her hands, frowning. After another moment of inspection, she handed the bear back to Casey. "His name should be Charlie."

"Charlie?" Casey asked, chuckling. "Why Charlie?"

"Why not Charlie?" Maddie shrugged.

"Very good point. Charlie it is," Casey said. Maddie smiled, then her face fell as she sat back in the chair, nervously swinging her legs under the seat. Casey frowned in confusion at the girl's sudden change in demeanor. "Maddie, what's the matter?"

"Well …" Maddie trailed off, sighing. "I'm getting scared."

It took Casey a moment to get it, but after silently counting back days, she realized that Maddie's surgery was scheduled for the next day. "Your operation, huh?"

Maddie nodded, taking a nervous breath in and letting it out slowly. "It's silly."

"It's not silly, sweetheart. But you know, there's nothing to be afraid of. You're going to be asleep during the whole thing."

"I know. Linda told me that, too, but …" Maddie sighed again, almost as if she was ashamed of being frightened. "Sometimes I wake up, like in the middle of the night and stuff. What happens if that happens during my operation?"

Casey smiled comfortingly. "It won't, you know why?" Maddie shook her head, a perplexed expression on her face. "The doctor's going to give you a special medicine that's going to make you fall asleep. The medicine won't let you wake up until they're done fixing your heart. And then when you do wake up, it'll be all over and you'll feel a lot better."

"You promise?" she asked softly.

"I promise," Casey answered. Maddie smiled, though Casey could tell she was not fully convinced. Trying to comfort the little girl was proving to be more difficult than she had expected. "What else are you scared of, hon?"

Maddie hesitated, averting her eyes and staring down at her hands. She was obviously afraid to even voice what was on her mind, for fear of making it come true. Sighing quietly, Maddie spoke softly, almost inaudible, "What if my mom doesn't come tomorrow?"

Casey closed her eyes, completely unsure of what to say to calm the little girl. She wanted to tell Maddie that of course her mother would be there for her on the day when she needs her most, but she also didn't want to promise the little girl something she wasn't sure she could deliver. The last thing Madelyn Donovan needed was more broken promises. Damn it, how do Olivia and Elliot do this day in and day out? she wondered silently. "Honey, your mom loves you. I'm sure she'll come see you."

"I know she loves me, but sometimes I'm afraid that she likes not taking care of me so much that she won't come back for me." Maddie shook her head, blinking back tears. "I can't talk about this anymore."

Casey's heart broke at the little girl's admission. She longed to just pull Maddie into a hug and hold her and tell her everything was going to be okay. "Come here, sweetie," she said softly, patting the mattress of the hospital bed.

Initially, Maddie frowned, but after just a moment, she climbed up onto the bed and nestled next to Casey. The ADA wrapped her arm around the little girl and pulled her in closer, hoping against hope that it would comfort her even just a little. "It's going to be all right. You remember my friends that came to talk to you?" She felt Maddie nod. "Sometimes parents need help taking care of their kids, and Olivia and Elliot know people who can help your mom take care of you."

"Like Mrs. Miller?" Maddie asked.

"Sort of," Casey answered. As she was trying to think of the right way to explain children's services to Maddie, the reality of what she had started with her simple question to Olivia hit her. Her nosiness was going to tear this little girl's life apart, and regardless of whether she was better off for it in the long-term, what she was going to be put through in the short-term was going to be hell. What have I done? she thought, tears jumping into her eyes.

Maddie, curious as to why Casey had stopped talking, looked up and frowned when she saw the tears in the ADA's eyes. "Casey, what's the matter?"

"Nothing," Casey replied quickly, clearing her throat. As an apology, she hugged the little girl more tightly.

"Casey?"

"What, sweetie?"

"If my mom doesn't come tomorrow, will you be with me when I wake up?"

Casey gave Maddie a touched smile. "If they let me sit with you, of course I will."

Maddie grinned in appreciation, then turned around, resting her head against Casey's shoulder and pulling Charlie the teddy bear closer to her. Casey, in turn, snuggled closer to the little girl, giving her a small kiss on the top of her head. In that moment, Casey knew just what she had to do.

-----

"Casey, that's crazy!" Olivia exclaimed into the phone.

"Why is it crazy?" Casey argued, indignation in her voice.

Olivia sighed. She was happy that Casey was feeling better, but she had to wonder if the antibiotics were affecting the ADA's thought processes. That would be the only explanation for Casey's idea making any sense to her whatsoever. "Because, Casey, you can't just take in an eight-year-old. This isn't like finding a stray cat in an alley."

"How dare you?" Casey exclaimed. She was trying to sound angry, but Olivia could hear the hurt in her tone. Obviously, her words had stung. "I know that this is a huge decision, and I resent the implication that I'm too naïve to understand that. But it's perfect, Olivia. She needs someone and dammit, I want to help her."

"You have helped her," Olivia replied calmly. "You've brought the case to the attention of ACS. That's all you can do, Casey."

"No, what I did was set the stage to turn her life upside down. The least I can do is give her a stable home in the meantime."

The detective closed her eyes, suddenly understanding what was behind Casey's strong desire to take in Madelyn. "Case, listen to me. This is not your fault. Okay? What you did is going to help her more than you can even imagine. She's going to be placed with someone who wants her and wants to take care of her. And, most importantly, she's going to be placed with someone who loves her."

"But she loves her mother, Olivia. Her mother's never there for her, she's afraid that her mom's not going to show on the day of her surgery, and it all upsets her, but despite it all, she loves Kim Donovan. Surely you of all people can understand that."

Olivia flinched. She hadn't expected Casey to throw private conversations about her past back in her face. "Casey--"

"I'm sorry," she interrupted, cringing. "That was out of line. But the sentiment isn't. She loves her mother. How can I tell her that she's going to be taken away from Kim and I'm the one that set it in motion. I know it's for her own good and I am helping her, but the effects of that are a long way off. And in the meantime, this little girl is going to have her world turned inside out and her life shattered. 'This is going to help you' isn't going to be much comfort."

Olivia took a deep breath in as she tried to think of a way to reassure Casey that everything was going to work out for the best. "Do you really think you can soften the blow by taking her in? Do you really think you can give her a home? With your schedule, you'd be home less than Kim is--"

"But that's just it! Branch called me earlier and told me that I was to take the rest of the week off, even if I get out of here day after tomorrow--"

"They really might let you go home on Tuesday?" Olivia asked excitedly.

"Yeah. Fever's down to ninety-nine and the lung congestion's almost clear. But that's beside the point. So I'll have a full week off to sit home and do nothing. It's perfect! She's going to need someone to watch her and I'll have nothing but free time."

"Wrong. The point of Branch telling you to take the time off is so you recuperate. It's not a vacation, Casey."

"But this was nothing--"

"Casey, stop it. I don't know if you keep insisting your illness was nothing to make us not worry or if you really believe it. But let me tell you something: this was not nothing. You scared the hell out of us. So when Branch tells you to take the time off, you're going to be sitting in your apartment watching TV and taking it easy. You're not going to be running around doing errands, and you're not going to be taking care of a sick child."

There was a hesitation on the line as Casey processed the detective's words. "But I have to do something," she replied after a moment

The helplessness was obvious in her voice. Olivia instantly felt guilty; the last thing she had meant to do was upset her. "Casey, think about it this way. You're only going to have free time for a week. Do you really want to take her in for just a week and then ship her off to someone else? Do you think that's going to do less damage than taking her away from her mother and letting ACS place her? Or will that be one more adult she thought cared letting her down?"

Casey let out a soft sigh. "I don't know. All I know is Maddie's about to lose everything that ever meant anything to her and I can't help but feel like it's all my fault."

Olivia glanced around at the walls of her bedroom and sighed. It was the first time she had been home for more than a few hours in a little over a week, and she was about to volunteer to leave it. "You sound like you need a friend. Do you want me to come down there?"

"No," Casey answered, then hastily added, "I mean, not if you're busy. I just … I don't even know."

"I'll be there in a half an hour."

Olivia hung up the phone without waiting for a response. As she grabbed her jacket, she mused about what Munch and Fin would say if they knew she was going down to the hospital again. Perhaps they were right: she was whipped.

I suppose there are worse things to be, she thought, grinning as she closed the door behind herself.