Disclaimer: Dick still owns 'em.

I think I'm getting bronchitis. Damn allergies. Always seems to happen this time of year. Anyways, I'm trying to update as much as possible. I know what I want to happen in the next few chapters, but every time I try to sit down and write it out, I either have no idea what to write, or I go off on a coughing fit that sends me straight to the couch in front of the TV. Hopefully my chicken soup and Nyquil will help and I'll be able to get some chapters out quickly.

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Casey sat in her office, trying to finish her paperwork. Looking at all the crime scene photos, and reading what Cynthia Zeller had said made her want to scream. She never could understand people's motives. Sure, the woman's husband had cheated on her and infected her with both gonorrhea and syphilis, but that certainly didn't give her the right to methodically seek out other cheaters and kill them. Just as she finished the last of it and packed up her things to leave, her phone rang. She checked her watch. One thirty. Who the hell was calling at this hour? She considered ignoring it, but realized that whoever was calling at this hour really needed to reach her. She answered.

"Novak."

"Casey, it's Cragen. Look, I need a huge favor."

"No, Don, I will not have sex with you," she said, hoping to send him the message that she was not in the mood to help him with something, especially at this hour.

He sighed angrily. "Casey –"

She really didn't want to argue with him. "Don, do you realize it's almost two in the morning?"

"Yet I caught you on your office phone," he said, knowing he'd caught her.

She sighed. She'd been caught. She never should have answered that damn phone. All she wanted to do spend some time with her husband. Was that too much to ask? "What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to meet Elliot over at Mercy. A girl was brought in with some serious injuries and we just got the call that she's also been raped. She won't say who did it, but we need to find out. See if we can get enough from her to get a warrant to search her house. Maybe then we can find something"

Casey almost laughed out loud. Was he serious? "Don, you want me to get a warrant to search a rape victim's home, just because she won't say who did it to her? What do you suppose I do, go up to her and say, 'Hello. I'm really sorry you were just raped and beaten, but I was wondering if I could maybe send a few officers over to tear your house apart to try to find who did this to you?' I won't do that Don."

He sighed angrily again. She was right. He knew that. There was no way they could get a warrant for something like that…wishful thinking, though. "Case, just go to the hospital. This girl knows who hurt her. We have to find him."

She rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to sigh annoyingly into the phone and rip into him. He was just doing his job. She was the one he was supposed to call at times like this. That was part of the job. She really had no right to be angry. Still, it bugged her. Why the hell couldn't the perverts just give it a rest for one night so she could spend some time with her husband? "Fine. Tell Elliot I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Thanks, Casey."

She hung up without answering. What the hell was so goddamn important that she had to go to the hospital at two a.m.? This would be yet another night she spent away from Steve. It was a miracle that man still put up with her. She reluctantly called him, but got his voicemail. He was probably asleep by now. "Hey sweetie, it's me," she said as she climbed into her car. "Look, I'm really, really sorry but something's come up and I have to go to the hospital to talk to a rape victim. I don't think I'll make it home before you wake up. I'm so sorry. I'll make it up to you, I promise. I'm going to fix this. I love you." She hung up the phone and drove to the hospital, fighting the tears that she knew she couldn't let fall, not right now. She prayed that whatever had happened was more important than her marriage, because she was pretty sure this was going to be the end of it.

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Elliot paced nervously in the hallway, hoping Casey would arrive soon. This wasn't going to be an easy case, but he knew they would get the guy. He had been so close to getting her to tell him who hurt her, then she clammed up. He hoped that Casey would be able to get it out of her. Maybe she just needed to talk to a woman.

"Please tell me that I'm spending the night away from my husband for a good reason," Casey said as she approached Elliot. "And where's Olivia? Shouldn't she be here for this?"

Elliot looked up and saw a very angry Casey standing in front of him. "Hey," he said solemnly. "I think it's a good reason, but then again, I'm probably a little biased. A girl was brought in this morning with stab wounds. We got the call a few hours ago."

Casey shook her head in disbelief. Stab wounds? What the hell? Why was she being called to a case like this? "Why were you called so late?"

He sighed. "She was in surgery for hours. The guy stabbed her three times in the stomach. This was almost a murder, Case. It wasn't until after the surgery that they noticed the bruises. They did a rape kit but they didn't find anything, only that she'd been raped. She told me she knows who did it but she won't give me his name."

Casey sighed. Why did there have to be so much evil in the world. She nodded understandingly, realizing that this was probably more important than spending a few hours with Steve. She looked at Elliot, who seemed a little more upset than he usually was when he was given a new case. Something was up. "El," she asked worriedly. "Where's Liv? She should be here."

He took a deep breath and shook his head. "She…I called her after Don called me. Apparently Alex is having a pretty rough night and she's staying with her. She said we could call her if we really needed her, but she sounded like she wouldn't leave even if we did."

Casey closed her eyes sadly. Something was definitely going on. She knew she had to do something, but now wasn't the time. Now they had to worry about their rape victim. "Okay, well, lets get started." She followed Elliot down the hall and stopped at the door, peeking through the window. She gasped and looked over at him. "Elliot, she's –"

"Her name's Julia Winters. She's ten."

"Who's that woman in there with her? She's too old to be her mother."

"That's Beth Sheppard, her social worker. Julia's been in foster care since she was two. We're still trying to locate her foster parents, though we might have run into a bit of a problem there."

"What kind of problem?" Casey asked nervously. This girl had already been through hell. What more could happen?

"We think they may have used their last check to pay for a vacation to Hawaii. A neighbor said they hadn't seen them in three days, but Julia's been there the whole time. Social Services is trying to find a replacement home, but with what's just happened, that won't be easy. She already has attachment and trust issues. This isn't going to help things."

"Dammit," Casey said sadly. She pushed the door open and followed Elliot inside. He quickly asked Beth if she wanted to stay, but she said she had several phone calls to make and left. Casey wanted to slug the woman on her way out. She was supposed to protect this little girl. She resisted the urge and watched as Elliot sat down in the chair next to the bed and spoke gently to the little girl lying in it.

"Hi Julia. How are you feeling?"

"Okay I guess. I'm a little tired."

"Yeah, I bet. Look, I want to let you get some sleep, but first I want you to meet my friend Casey. Is that okay?"

Julia shrugged. "Okay."

"Good," he said, and motioned for Casey to come over. He smiled warmly when she took a seat on the foot of the bed. "Julia, this is Casey. She's a lawyer."

Julia extended her arm and shook Casey's hand. "I guess that means you're used to early morning wake-up calls like this."

"Excuse me?"

Julia half smiled. "It's two a.m. and you don't even look a little mad. That means you must be used to it."

Casey laughed. "Yeah, I guess I am." Her face turned more serious and she looked Julia in the eyes. She squeezed her hand. This was hard. How the hell did Olivia do this every day? She tried to smile and make Julia more comfortable. "Sweetie, I know this is really hard, but I need you to do something for me."

"You want me to tell you his name don't you?"

Casey nodded sadly. "If you tell me his name, I can make sure he goes to jail for a really long time. He won't be able to hurt you ever again."

Julia turned her head away and looked out the window. She let a few tears fall, but quickly wiped them away. Crying wasn't going to do her any good right now. She looked back at Casey. "It was Mr. Jennings. He lives three houses down from mine."

Casey closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. She smiled gratefully. "Thank you Julia. You just helped us so much." When Julia simply returned her gaze to the window, Casey frowned. "Can I get you anything? Do you want me to stay for a while?"

She shook her head, but didn't look away from the window. "No, you should go home. Beth's here. I'll be okay." When Casey didn't get up, Julia rolled her eyes. "Look, I'm not a little kid. I'm fine. Go home."

Before Casey could respond, Elliot grabbed her hand. "Come on, let's give Julia some time to sleep." He gently tugged her off the bed and led her into the hall. As soon as the door closed behind them, she crumbled to the floor in tears. Elliot sat down next to her and rubbed her back. "Case, what's wrong?"

"That girl is ten years old, Elliot!"

"I know, but you've seen girls even younger than her. Why are you so upset tonight?" He hadn't meant to make her sound like she was being unreasonable. On the contrary. He was really worried. It wasn't like her to just fall apart like this. Something was wrong.

She tried to stay calm. She knew Elliot was just concerned and trying to help. She leaned her head against his shoulder. "I was so furious that I had to come out here at two in the morning! Steve and I aren't really doing very well right now and it's completely my fault because I'm never there anymore. I just wanted to spend at least part of the night with him. I was so angry but when I saw Julia I felt bad for being angry, but at the same time I still wanted to be with Steve and –"

"Come on," Elliot interrupted gently as he slipped his arm around her and helped her up. "It's okay. Let me take you home. Talk to Steve. If he doesn't listen, I'll kick his ass."

She shook her head and smiled through her tears. "El, I drove here. I can't just leave my car."

"I took the train. You live two blocks from the station. I'll drive you and your car home, then hop on the train." He paused momentarily. "You look like hell Case and you're in no condition to drive anywhere. Let me help you."

"Fine." She pulled away from him and walked to her car. She handed him her keys and climbed into the passenger's seat. As he drove, she looked out the window, following all the passing lights with her eyes. She knew she was being horrible to Elliot, but right now she didn't care. "Thanks for the ride," she said when he parked the car and handed her the keys.

"No problem. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yep. See you later." She turned and walked up her front steps and into her house. She closed the door quietly, sank to the floor, and cried. She knew Steve was going to be angry, and he had every right to be. He always tried to be so understanding, but lately it was becoming harder and harder. She had been spending more time in the office than with him and she knew it was putting a strain on the marriage.

"Just let me get through this Julia Winters case," she begged to the silent house. "Then I'll talk to somebody about lessening my case load. I won't keep doing this to you, Steve. I promise. You don't deserve it." She wasn't sure what she was going to do, but she knew she had to do something. As much as her job meant to her, her husband meant more. Trying to take fewer cases wasn't going to look good on her record, but she just didn't care anymore. When she was first assigned to SVU, when they first expected her to fill Alexandra Cabot's shoes, she had been terrified. She had taken as many cases as she could, hoping to make it look like she was a good and dedicated lawyer. It had worked. Now, however, none of that mattered. All that mattered to her was saving her marriage. She loved Steve more than anybody else in this world, and she knew she couldn't live without him. She had to fix this. She just had to.

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Jess woke up and smiled when she realized Allen's hand was still around her. How the hell did he always manage to stay in that same position all night? "Practice," she joked silently to herself. "Maybe he's had a lot of practice." She gently pushed his arm off of her and climbed out of bed. Judging from the clear blue sky she saw outside, it was going to be a beautiful day. She smiled and walked out into the kitchen. She started pulling out everything she would need to make pancakes.

The sound of clattering pots and pans woke Allen up. He shot up out of bed in a panic, but then heard Jess cursing under her breath in the kitchen and laughed. That girl was too much. He pulled on a sweatshirt and made his way out to see what had happened.

"I just wanted to make a fucking batch of pancakes," she said as he walked into the kitchen and saw all the pots and pans on the floor. "Is that too much to ask? Of course it is. Thanks to Mister I'm – six – foot – three – of – course – we – can – put – the – pans – on – the – top – shelf,' I now have a huge mess to clean up. I blame you entirely and I'm not about to apologize for waking you up."

Allen laughed. He walked over to her and helped put everything away. "Don't blame me. Blame whoever built this place. They're the ones who decided we didn't need bottom cabinets."

"Yeah, well, I still think I should sue. I'm going to have a huge knot on my head from that damn frying pan."

"Honey," he said, kissing her forehead where she'd been hit. "You can't sue the builders because you're a klutz."

"Why not? That lady sued McDonalds because she spilled coffee in her lap. That's klutzy. I'm pretty sure we have a good case, especially if we photograph the scene."

"You mean the one that we just cleaned up?"

She looked sheepishly around at the now clean kitchen. "Yeah, well, we could just, you know…put them back on the floor, make it look like they'd just fallen out all over the place and –"

"Jess?"

"Yeah?"

"Your pancakes are on fire."

She spun around and noticed that she had somehow managed to set the pancakes that were INSIDE the pan on fire. How the hell did that happen? "Shit!" she yelled. She quickly dumped a pot of water on them and extinguished the blaze. She looked up and saw that Allen was smiling. "Oh, shut up. This never would have happened if you hadn't distracted me with that suing them talk."

"Hey, you were the one that started it."

"Yeah, but you kept me going for a while. This is your fault."

He loved it when they joked around like this. These petty, joking arguments were always fun. "Whatever," he said as he rolled his eyes and laughed. "Bagel shop down the street?"

Jess looked at her ruined pancakes and sighed. "Bagel shop down the street. Let's go."

He wrapped his arm around her waist. "Let's go now. I'm hungry. I'll help you clean up later."

She just shrugged and followed him, making a mental note to blame him if they returned to find their kitchen full of ants.

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As she crawled into bed, Steve stirred. She tried to be quiet, tried to let him sleep. It was after five, and his alarm would be going off at six. She didn't want to wake him, but the damn bed they'd bought at the garage sale proved to be as cheap as they'd expected. It squeaked and shook with every move she made, and he woke up.

"Are you just now getting home?" he asked groggily. When he saw her tear stained face, he woke up completely. "Sweetie, are you okay? What happened?"

She brought her hands to her face and wept. Her shoulders heaved with her sobs and it only got worse when she felt him wrap his arms around her. Why the hell did he have to be so good to her? "I'm so sorry, Steve. I hate this. I'm going to fix it. I promise. I'm going to fix this."

He hugged her tighter. "What? Casey, what's wrong?"

She pulled away and looked angrily at him. "THIS!" she screamed. "I keep coming home later than anybody should be allowed to come home, and you're always there sleeping alone. I hate myself for this. I want to fall asleep next to you again! It's been so long since I've been able to do that and I know you're upset about it and I know it's my fault and I'm so sorry and –"

"Hey, sweetie, breathe," he said softly. "You're right. I hate that you come home late nearly every night, and I hate having to go to bed alone, but I understand. I married you knowing what I was getting myself into. Do I wish you were home more often? Of course, but what husband doesn't want to spend more time with his beautiful wife?" He kissed her forehead and gently rubbed her back, trying to ease her pain. "Casey, I love you. What's gotten you so worked up all of a sudden? What happened tonight?"

She rolled her eyes and rubbed the tears away. "Steve, you have to be at work in two hours. You need to go back to sleep. We can talk about this when you get home tonight."

"No, we can talk about this now. I can call in sick if I have to, I don't care. Something's obviously bugging you, so spill. What happened Casey?"

She shook her head, trying to process everything. She looked at him and sighed. "Elliot and Olivia found Lorena Bobbit. Olivia and Alex got back together, though something's going on with Alex. I don't know what, but I know that it's huge…and that it's not good. I was finishing my paperwork, all ready to come home and spend a little time with you, when I got a call to meet Elliot at the hospital because there's yet another rape victim there. I go in and hear she's been stabbed three times and nearly died in surgery. I look in the room and what do I find? A ten-year-old girl. She was fucking ten! She's been in foster care since she was two and nobody can find her foster parents. Elliot thinks they used their last check for a trip to Hawaii and left her alone. God Steve, I hate this! I felt so bad for being angry about having to go see her and it just…it all got to me."

"What time do you have to be in tomorrow…or this morning…whatever?"

She looked up at him, confused. "What? Why?"

"What time?"

"I'm due in court at eleven, why?"

"Because I'm going to call out of work today. We're going to take a long bath and then we're going to spend some time together. I've missed you lately."

"Steve, you can't –"

"I'm calling out of work and that's final. Now, go get your bath salts while I start filling the tub. I know how much you love the lavender ones and I can see that you need to relax."

She raised her eyebrows suspiciously. "You're going to take a bath with me…with lavender bath salts?"

He laughed. "Yep. Besides, I kind of like them, too."

She smiled and shook her head gratefully. She could tell that he was upset that she had come home so late, but she was glad he didn't show it. Right now, she just needed to relax. He could see that. She prayed she could figure out how to fix this. Their marriage used to be so good. Now she wasn't sure if it would last. It has to last, she thought as she gathered her things and met Steve in the bathroom. It just has to.