Casey looked up as Olivia entered the bedroom carrying two cups of tea and handed her one. "Thanks, babe," she murmured, taking hers and blowing on it.
"Anything for you, sweetheart," Olivia replied, reclaiming her seat next to Casey on the bed. She watched as Casey propped some pillows up against the headboard and leaned back on them. "Glad to see you still prefer being propped up to being flat on your back," she remarked, taking a rather large sip of her own tea.
Casey looked at her, eyebrows arched. "Are you aware of how that sounded?" she asked, trying to fight the smile that was tugging on the corners of her lips.
"Who says I didn't mean it that way?" Olivia responded, shooting her a playful smirk.
"Fair enough," Casey replied, settling once more against the pillows. She moved closer to Olivia and laid her head on her shoulder. Feeling the brunette breathe in deeply, she smiled. "You did it on purpose," Casey suddenly stated.
Olivia looked at her. "Did what on purpose?" she asked.
"Tonight," Casey told her. Seeing that the older woman was still intent on playing the innocence card, the attorney realized she was going to have to come out with her point. So she took a deep breath, then said "You made tonight just like our very first night together. The flowers, the positions, the steaming tea afterwards. It made it seem…" Casey trailed off, unsure what word she could add to her thought to do the night justice.
"Magical? Special? Romantic?" Olivia asked, turning her head to look at her. "I'm glad," she murmured, kissing the top of Casey's head. "Because that's what I wanted it to be."
Casey sat up for a moment to place her tea on the night stand, then snuggled close to Olivia once more. This time, she buried her head in the brunette's chest. "Incredible is another word," she mumbled.
Olivia kissed the top of her head again. "Incredible," she agreed quietly.
Casey had just drifted into a light sleep when Olivia's cell phone shattered the peace. It rang for what seemed to Casey like several minutes, until she heard Olivia answer it. "Benson." For the next few minutes, Casey listened to Olivia's end of the conversation, though she knew it was a work call simply by the way her girlfriend answered the phone. Finally, Olivia said "I'm on my way."
"Who was it, babe?" Casey asked, rubbing her eyes sleepily as she pulled herself into a sitting position.
Olivia kissed her gently on the lips. "Detective Amaro," she answered before sighing. "A woman was found outside the library with no ID, no purse, and no underwear, and Detective Rollins is busy on another case."
"What about Munch and Fin?" Casey inquired.
"Also busy," Olivia informed her. She brushed a stray red curl out of Casey's eyes and smiled softly, leaning in to kiss her again. "I'll be back later, I promise. If I'm not back by the time you have to leave for court, just go. I'll stop by the office on my lunch break." She pulled Casey in for a final kiss. "I love you, baby girl," she murmured as she pulled away.
Casey nodded. "I love you too. I'll see you during your lunch then." She returned Olivia's smile, then watched as her girlfriend gathered some clothes and went into the bathroom to change.
Less than an hour later, Olivia hurried up the steps of the library, stopping outside the entrance, where her new partner already stood, along with Melinda and a few people Olivia assumed to be witnesses. She watched as Amaro concluded an interview with a woman holding her baby in a little pink blanket. She still had not been able to make up her mind as to whether she liked him or not. He would never be Elliot, but Olivia knew that maybe what she needed was a sort of anti-Elliot to keep her fresh and able to do her job the way she always had. Detective Nick Amaro was exactly that, but the fact that he was new and still had to be shown the ropes bothered Olivia at times, more than she knew it should.
"What have we got?" she asked as Amaro walked over to her. Just like her old partner, her new partner had on a suit of the day.
"The librarian identified her as Catherine Hopkins, a student who spent the bulk of her time here," Amaro replied.
Olivia glanced over at the elderly librarian, who was speaking to Melinda, emphatically waving her hands as she spoke. "How old was the victim?" Olivia asked, turning her attention back to her partner.
"Sixteen."
Olivia sighed. It was hardly uncommon for a teenage girl to be taken advantage of, as the detective knew all too well, having worked thirteen years in sex crimes. What bothered her most about this was that she was tired of young girls doing their best to get ahead in life being taken advantage of. "Who found her?"
Amaro gestured to the still ranting librarian. "She found her when she opened the library at six this morning."
"Time of death?" Olivia inquired.
"Warner puts it at midnight at the latest."
Olivia bit her lip in frustration. "Okay. Nick, go interview anyone else you didn't speak to," she ordered. "I am going to go speak to the librarian and see what else I can find out about our victim." As Nick nodded and walked away, Olivia resisted the urge to roll her eyes. He was definitely a rookie to Sex Crimes, a fact that she found more obvious the more she observed him. "Miss Sanchez, can I speak to you for a moment?" she asked, having reached the area where Melinda and the librarian stood. As the librarian turned to acknowledge her, Olivia forced herself to smile. "Miss Sanchez, do you know where Catherine lived so I can notify her parents?" she asked.
The elderly woman looked up into Olivia's eyes. "I can do you one better. I know who killed her."