Olivia put her face in her hands. Her DA almost raped, one perp in a coma, another linked to prostitution, and a petulant, silent girl sitting in an interview room, who wouldn't even give her name. Munch came in, his arm around a hunched form draped in a grey, hospital-issue blanket. There was only a small band-aid over Casey's lip and she carried a dripping icepack, but somehow she gave the impression of being a casualty of war. Then Olivia realized what was making that effect. One of her heels had snapped and she was walking in uneven shoes.

"I, um, I have some extra tennis shoes in my locker. They might be big…"

Casey looked at her gratefully, and Olivia felt guilty for not talking to her that afternoon, not even trying to treat her as a person until she was nearly raped. Maybe she was just incapable of relating to people who weren't victims. She hurried out to get the shoes. She grabbed them and was about to step out of the shadowed hallway when she noticed the interview room door open. The girl peeked out. Olivia frowned. She was sure she had locked that door herself. She didn't see Olivia watching her and started off towards the stairs. Olivia followed silently. There was noise from the pen.

Munch was joking with Casey, or trying to. "Taking out a perp, you're an honorary cop. My ex-wife nearly did something like that before, only not so hard. It was lucky though, 'cause the fellow she thought was a burglar was me!"

Casey laughed weakly. "I'm going to get a soda, something with caffeine, my head-"

Casey was stepping out the door backwards. The girl realized she would be caught and started to run just as Casey missed her footing trying to turn on her heel-less shoe and toppled. Olivia saw her see the girl and reach out to her like a lifeline, and they both tumbled to the floor.

Olivia sauntered over, taking her time now that the fugitive had been apprehended.

"Taking out a perp and now arresting a fleeing witness. Munch is right, you should join the force." She stuck out her hand, pulling Casey into a sitting position and handed her the extra shoes. She was ready to grab the girl, but she wasn't trying to move, just watching Casey change her shoes with an odd expression on her face.

"You okay?" Olivia frowned at the strange girl, who glanced up with a clearly irritated look. Teenager, had to be. "Did you pick that lock? If you're not going to cooperate we'll put you in the holding cell. And you get charged as an adult."

"What!" Casey exclaimed. "She's a vic!"

Olivia frowned at her. "Not if she doesn't talk. If she doesn't give up names, she's being charged with prostitution. Spitzer's law."

The girl leaned against the wall, clearly unimpressed. "You mean you haven't gotten the others out yet? I thought you were detectives."

Those were the first words she had said. Olivia wished she wasn't cooperating so they could put her in a holding cell.

"What do you mean, the others?" asked Casey, hesitantly.

"I'm old. They're not usually interested in me."

Olivia's heart dropped. "Address. Now."

***

The tall lady detective with a bad tan was running around in a panic because the one with the jaw and the stupid haircut was telling her something she didn't like. The one with the ears and the black one were grabbing their coats, and the red-haired woman was still sitting on the floor in the hallway next to her, and was smiling oddly. Jen gave her a sideways glance and crossed her arms over her knees, not caring if her skirt fell and showed her lack of underwear.

"What's your name?"

"Jen." It was odd to talk to her. She didn't really believe that this woman existed. Someone who would charge right into the middle of a bad situation because Jen had been slapped? That was so storybook it was stupid. She had seemed like an idiot hero at first, the type that got bopped on the head and cannibalized in the first five minutes of a horror flick, and then she had bashed that guy's head in with a brick.

"I'm Casey," she smiled, and stuck out her hand. Jen took it awkwardly, but didn't shake it. She just looked at the small fingers, then turned the hand over and found the scrapes brick left in the skin.

"Casey," she repeated. She wondered how long this garbage was going to take. She hated police offices. There was some sort of macho police sensibility that meant they never had comfy chairs. "When can we get out of here? Dad fucking woke me up for this job, and they always get you up early at group homes. It sucks."

Casey smiled and laced their fingers together. Jen hadn't realized she was still holding on to her hand. "Come on, let's ask. I'm sure they'll let us bail if we whine enough."

Jen wasn't quite sure she should laugh, but she got up and let Casey pull her into the pen.

"Olivia, Jen's tired, and I am too. Can we go home? Jen can stay with me, since we're both witnesses."

Olivia gave them a weird look. "You got a name? That's more than I got in half an hour."

"I just asked."

Casey was actually pretty cute.

"So she's going to cooperate."

"She already gave you the address, didn't she?"

"You trust her enough to bring her to your house?"

Casey turned to look at Jen. She felt appraised. But it was totally wrong of Casey to be inviting her into her house. She had never heard of someone being so stupid, much less someone who lived in New York.

"She's not that big. I could take her."

This time Jen couldn't stop herself from laughing.

"And she jumped on the second guy." Casey smiled at Jen. "Do you want to stay with me? That group home thing sounded pretty bad."

"Do I get a bed?"

Casey shrugged. "You can have mine. One night on the couch won't kill me."

Olivia gave up. "Fine, it's your funeral. But you bring her back here tomorrow by nine."

"Noon."

"Ten."

"Eleven."

"Ten thirty."

"Fine. And she gets a locater bracelet in case she makes a break for it."

Casey frowned. "She's not a prisoner."

Olivia produced a document. "She is until she signs thin."

Jen plucked it from her hand and read it. It was a document of cooperation. "What does this mean I have to do? I told you where the house was."

"Will you go on the stand?"

Jen shrugged. "Sure."

"Any names?"

"I don't know many."

"You'll share?"

"I don't have a problem with that."

"Will you give us your full name?"

"Social-security number too?"

Olivia blinked. "You have a social security number?"

"I am in the system, you know."

"The system?"

"Foster care. He's my foster dad."

Olivia groaned. "Fill this out. And come back tomorrow. We have a lot to talk about."

Jen grinned. "Looking forward to it." Not.

***

Casey didn't really have a handle on this Jen girl. Luckily Elliot drove them to her place, because going on the subway with her, half-dressed in a fetish catholic schoolgirl uniform, would have been interesting to say the least. Something had struck Casey as interesting about her from the beginning, even when she had just been standing there, looking bored and vaguely watching Casey as she came up the street towards the building where the party was going to be held.

She hadn't told Olivia, but she knew the guy who had tried to rape her. She had given him a blowjob once. It had only made it easier for her to hit him hard enough to put him in a coma. She hoped he never woke up, and didn't really feel guilty about it.

Jen was looking at her funny. But that made sense; she had been holding the keys and standing in front of her door lost in thought for too long. She unlocked the door. But that was what she had noticed about Jen. She didn't talk a lot, but she looked at things very hard. It almost hurt to be under her gaze. Especially if it were the 'you are a complete idiot gaze,' which she had on now.

"The bathroom's over there." Casey pointed. "You can take a shower. Towels are in the cupboard."

Jen gave her an odd smile that was sort of thanks, and sort of 'you are such a cute idiot.' It was easy to recognize. She had gotten that one before. And then Jen started to take off her clothes. Casey's jaw dropped as she bent over to peel off her knee socks, it becoming clear that there was nothing under that skirt. She pulled the blouse over her head, taking the time to tug the pigtail holders out of her hair, letting it cascade down her bare back. Casey couldn't close her mouth or turn away. Jen unbuttoned the skirt and it fell away, leaving her entirely nude. She didn't look back at Casey as she started for the bathroom, but Casey felt like her response was being evaluated even so. She cursed her body. How could she be turned on?

It wasn't fair! But her body was still zinging with adrenaline from the fight, and she had tried enough rape cases to know that arousal did not mean you wanted it. Women's bodies were designed to react to environmental indicators of sex so that they wouldn't be damaged.

Thinking about damage made her sick. Still, she knew herself well enough that she couldn't deny that she was attracted to Jen. She had known it from the start, she admitted, and wondered exactly what she had been thinking with when she invited the sixteen-year-old girl to stay in her flat.

The doorbell rang repeatedly. She hurried over, thinking it might be Olivia needing something, and afraid it was Olivia come to arrest her for her perverted thoughts. Lusting over a teenage prostitute was bad.

But it was Lucy, in her bulky trench coat that meant she was wearing something inappropriate under it, looking furious.

"I can't believe you didn't come!"

Casey's mouth fell open.

"I had friends that were eager to meet you. Do you know how humiliated I was when you didn't come?"

"Eager to fuck me, you mean?" Casey was offended. There was something weird about the way she said humiliated. Was Jen supposed to go to that same party? "Did you have to give them their money back?"

Lucy looked horrified. "You have no respect for me, or our relationship!"

"I had to work."

"Don't give me that shit? You always have to work. But I find you here, relaxing, running a bath and you say you had to work."

Casey wasn't going to tell her the truth. She didn't trust her. She probably would get all cuddly and sensitive once she believed her, but it wouldn't last. She had been with her long enough to know that.

"Maybe I just didn't want to go to your crappy party and meet your sicko friends, Luce!"

"Oh! It finally comes out! My friends are sick. You certainly don't play the puritan card when you're begging for the whip!"

Casey felt her face heat up, half in humiliation and half in anger. She had paid for it quadruple every time Lucy had deigned to lash her, in servicing her friends and snide comments. "That's my private life. I chose to share it with someone I thought I trusted. I'm not like your friends. I don't want to put out for anyone who puts fifty bucks into the tip jar. I'm a sex crimes lawyer. Do you know what that looks like to me?"

"It's frigid bitches like you who get themselves raped."

Casey stilled, calm and cold. She was going to cut her throat. She had bashed someone's head in tonight. She could do it.

The sound of the shower cut off. Jen stepped out of the bathroom, a towel barely obscuring her torso, her hair wet and shining, and looking far sexier than any sixteen year old had a right to. Lucy's mouth hung open, half in lust and half in shock.

"I don't believe this? You're cheating on me? You? No fashion, no style, boring, workaholic lawyer is cheating on me?"

Casey just looked at Jen. "That's the bedroom. Sleep stuff is in the top drawer. Pick whatever."

Jen grinned at her and gave a suggestive flick of the eyebrows, then retreated into the bedroom.

"Fuck you, Casey. It's over!" Lucy spun and marched out the door. Casey didn't try to stop her. She would be surprised if Lucy didn't call back within the week, impressed by Casey's brazen infidelity, and want her back. She thought she might not answer that call.

Casey went into the bedroom. Jen was barely dressed in an oversize t-shirt and was engaged in drying her hair.

"I'm sorry about that," said Casey hesitantly. "Are you still okay staying here?"

Jen looked at her and arched an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't I be? I knew you were a dyke from the moment I saw you."

Casey bit her lip and thought of the impromptu peep show. Jen had used sex to get whatever she needed her whole life. She needed to be above her desires.

"I thought that was why you were there. Freaky party?"

"Yeah… Lucy likes that stuff. You too?"

"I've worked a few. It's pretty boring."

Suddenly Casey laughed. "It really is. Like working the assembly line."

"Open, screw, swallow, next." Jen grinned.

"My specialty."

"You ever really work on an assembly line?"

Casey blinked at the challenge in her tone. "Yeah. I paid my way through law school working summers in a factory."

Jen looked surprised. "Huh. I thought all you fancy lawyers were trust fund girls."

"Nope. But my predecessor was. She might be our lawyer. I don't know who it will go to since I'm out. But Alex Cabot, totally trust fund."

***

"We need to win this case, for our DA, and we all know who the DA with the best win-loss record in sex crimes was, don't we?"

Olivia felt her face drain of blood.

Branch and Cragen looked at each other and nodded. "Olivia, you call Alex," said Cragen.

On the way out of the office Olivia pleaded with Elliot. "El, I can't do this. You know why. I could just fade away, you deal with her."

Elliot just gave her his serious-cop look. "This is serious business, Olivia. You know we can't waste time on your personal issues. Alex is the best. So call her and make up. You should have done it months ago. We need a warrant, or Munch and Fin are going to walk into that house and then have to bring the kids back."

Olivia cursed and reached for her phone. She shut the door of the interview room and hit the number she had never taken off speed dial.

Ringing, a loud crash, banging, and finally the voice she was waiting for. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

Olivia checked her watch. "Four forty five?"

There was silence. "Olivia?"

"Alex."

"To what do I owe the honor of this wake-up call, Detective?"

"I need a warrant."

There was another long silence. "I thought when I transferred to the position of Bureau Chief of White Collar Crime I would no longer be tormented by calls about another rape, or prostitution ring, or murdered child at four in the morning."

"Your reprieve has ended." Olivia thought it was funny, but Alex didn't laugh.

"If you don't tell me why you're on the fucking phone, Olivia, I am going to hang up."

"Casey was nearly raped tonight."

Olivia heard a quick intake of breath and the other end of the phone fell silent.

"She saw a man pimping out an underage girl and interfered." There was a small hiss that sounded like, "idiot." Olivia couldn't disagree. It was something she would have done, but she carried a gun. "The customer was hopped up on crack. He decided he liked Casey better. He was on top of her trying to get under her skirt when she hit him in the head with a half-brick and put him in a coma. The underage girl stopped her pimp from interfering just as we arrived. She mentioned offhand that her pimp was running a brothel of underaged kids supplied by the foster care system. Munch and Fin are going to get them out."

"What a can of worms…"

"No kidding."

"Will the rapist or his family file an assault charge?"

"I hope not, but I wouldn't bet on it. The girl said she'd go on the stand. She signed to it so we won't go after her for prostitution."

"That's something at least."

"Casey took her home to sleep."

Again silence, and then an odd tone in Alex's voice, "Why would she do that?"

"I have no idea."

***