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Author's Note: Thank you to all the loverly people who reviewed to my last chapter! Which reminds me, if you read this story, you better review or else I will hunt you down and then some…

Time and Secrets

Chapter 9: Deal and Test

By: Nimmireth

Special Victims Unit: Interrogation

Elliot slammed the piece of paper on the table in front of Alan, face up. He was completely and utterly livid; his face was almost the color of a tomato and their was a vein that was dangerously close to bursting all over the place. "You took pictures!" he nearly shouted at him. "You took pictures, you sick-ass bastard? Who the hell do you think you are?"

Alan looked at it for a second. It was a collage of all three attacks from a far away point of view. It showed many cut and pasted pictures of Amelia in the parking lot, Melissa in the dirty alleyway and, worst of all, Casey, in a forest, fighting as hard as she could. "That's not mine," he said.

"Really? It's not?" Olivia asked. "'Cause we found it under your mattress."

Alan sighed. "Ross gave it to me," he said, crossing his arms. "It was on some porn site that he found. He said I should go take a look at it."

"Did you?" Elliot asked.

"Yes," Alan replied. "And I liked it, too. There was some pretty hot stuff on it."

"Oh, you mean like a guy raping six women the exact same way that Ross raped three?" Elliot asked.

The door suddenly flew open. "Not another word, Alan," Lionel Granger said, jabbing his index finger before his client. "Detectives, would you mind giving me a moment with my client?"

Elliot took a deep breath and refused to take his eyes off of Alan. "Not at all," he said. He and his partner finally turned around and left the room.

Special Victims Unit: Observation

Cragen turned to his two detectives as they were walking out of interrogation. "I'm surprised you didn't punch him in the testicles," he said.

Elliot inhaled deeply. "Me too," he said. "I sure hope that bastard is ready to rot in hell, 'cause that's where he's going the second we're done with him."

"Amen to that," Munch said as he walked in the door with Fin. "By the way, Warner said that's she's testing the DNA right now, but she wants to see Casey."

"Sure," Elliot said. Then his eyes went into a 'V' and he looked around. "Where is she?"

"I don't know," Cragen said. "Call her; we really need to talk to her."

Chambers of Judge Fredrick Lawrence

In the midst of a very awkward silence, Casey and Michelle both heard a cell phone beginning to beep. Casey inhaled deeply. "That's mine," she said. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and looked at the caller I.D.; it was Olivia. She opened up her phone and put it up to her ear. "Olivia, what's going on?"

"Casey, where are you?" Olivia asked. "Warner wants to talk to you."

"Uh-I'm still in chambers. Why? What does Melinda want?"

"I have no idea; all Munch said was that she wanted to talk to you."

"Okay, I'll be there as soon as I can," Casey responded. She then closed her phone and put it back in her pocket. "I-I'm sorry, Michelle, I have to go," she said. She turned to leave, but then Michelle stopped her in her tracks.

"Casey," she began. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Don't, Michelle. Please don't start that with me now; I'm really not up to it, at the moment," Casey said. She put her hand on the doorknob and started to turn it.

"Casey, where are you going?"

"M.E.'s office; Doctor Warner wanted to see me."

Michelle crossed her arms over her chest. "Want me to take you there?"

Casey took a deep breath. "No, but thanks. I can take care of myself." She turned back to the door and began to open it again.

"Casey," Michelle began again.

She turned back to Michelle, a little annoyed. "Yes?"

"If you ever need anything, anyone to talk to, you know I'm here."

Casey nodded. "Thank you, Michelle, I appreciate it," she said. "Really I do. Thank you." She finally opened the door and left the judge's chambers.

As she wandered through the courthouse and the parking lot she could not stop thinking about what had happened to her. And Amelia. And Melissa. They had all been raped, by the same man, for no particular reason whatsoever. They had all been stabbed, attacked, and violated, and she could not stop the tears that began to well in her eyes again. But there was just one thing that concerned her; what did Melinda want? Why did she want to see Casey?

Without even realizing it, she had made it in front of the M.E.'s office. She had parked her car and was just sitting there, thinking. Finally, she can to her senses and got out of her car.

Office of the Medical Examiner

"Dr. Warner," Casey called as she walked through the plastic drapery. "You wanted to see me?"

Melinda turned to her. "Yes, Ms. Novak, all I wanted to do was take a simple blood test to check for STDs."

Casey raised her eyebrows. "Shouldn't I go to the hospital or something?" she wondered.

"Not today," Warner said. "We're going to do this right here, right now. Take a seat and I'll get you set up."

"All right," Casey said, rolling up her sleeve. As she sat down, she noticed Melinda getting out all the equipment necessary for a blood test. Damn, Casey thought to herself, I hate needles. Casey then started humming to the tune of "Deck the Halls" when the needle was being stuck in her arm.

Melinda looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "A little early to be singing Christmas songs, don't you think?"

Casey actually chuckled. "It's just something my mother taught us when my brothers and I were kids and we had to get shots or something like that; she told us to think about Christmas and we wouldn't even feel the pain. It worked, too, sadly."

"Well, when I was a kid," Melinda began, pulling the needle out of Casey's arm. "My parents told my siblings and I to shut up and get over it." Casey laughed. "Oh, but my parents were the coolest, you know?" She continued as she put a bandage over the needle mark and started to get the test set up. "They would take us to the movies a lot, we would go on family trips, they even took the time to do homework with us. It was nice."

She finished getting the test ready and took off her gloves. "The test will be ready in a few days; I'll give you the results ASAP."

Casey looked down at the ground. "Thanks, Melinda," she said.

"Hey," Melinda said, putting an arm on Casey's shoulder. "You're going to get through this. Mark my words, you'll be the same kick-ass attorney that you were before any of this ever happened."

Casey looked up at Melinda again. "I hope you're right," she said.

"I know I'm right," she responded. "Go. Go home and get some rest, you need it after all of this."

Special Victims Unit: Interrogation

"Okay, Detectives, my client will plead guilty to perjury, but he had no idea what Ross was doing so how could he possibly have known that he was a felon?" Granger said.

"Your client had pictures of Ross while he was attacking three different women! He knew damn well what Ross was doing!" Elliot shouted at him.

"That was the guy on the porn site, not Ross!" Alan yelled.

"Bullshit!" Olivia said. "We also found the pictures on your digital camera! Oh, AND the word document that you have on your laptop computer!"

"Face it, Alan," Elliot began. "You're screwed," he said, pushing a pad of yellow lined paper.

Alan remained silent and took a deep breath. Lionel Granger leaned over to him and whispered in his ear. The two detectives crossed their arms and looked at each other in satisfaction. Granger finally sat upright. "Get McCoy in here," he said. "Let's make a deal."

Office of the Medical Examiner (later that night)

"Hey, Melinda," said Medical Examiner, Dr. Elizabeth Rodriguez, as she entered the testing room.

"Hey, Liz," Melinda replied, as she sat at the computer. "What's going on?"

"Oh, I got stuck with the worst dead guy, ever!" she groaned, throwing a forensic kit on the table.

"Why? What's so bad about him?" Warner wondered.

"He's huge with a ton of body hair, he was stabbed over a hundred times and his genital region was completely chopped in half!" Rodriguez complained.

Melinda chuckled. "Welcome to my world," she said.

"What're you working on?"

"I'm just testing a rape victim's blood," Melinda answered.

"Weren't you helping with the case where that ADA told an open courtroom that she was raped by the guy she was prosecuting?" Elizabeth wondered.

Melinda sighed. "Yeah," she said. "It's so sad, too. Casey's a good friend of mine."

"I know, it sucks," Rodriguez moaned. "But, what can you do? Life's a bitch."

"I'll say."

Rodriguez then looked at her watch. "Crap!" she said. "Aww, man, I have to go to my kids' band concert! All right, Melinda, I better get the heck out of me or my husband will beat me for making him hear the crappy music that fifth graders make!"

Melinda giggled. "All right, I'll see you 'round, Liz."

As soon as Rodriguez left the computer beeped, informing her that the test results were done. She printed out the page and stared at it long and hard. As she got to the bottom of the page, she closed her eyes and sighed. "Oh, my god."