Faced with the Spectre
Fandom: Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
Category: Pre-slash
Archive: Sure, but ask first.
Feedback: Yes, thanks
Pairing: Casey/Olivia
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Season 5 "Loss" et al. If you don't know who Casey Novak is there's not much in it for you.
Disclaimers: Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and its characters belong to Dick Wolf et al. No infringement on any copyright is intended and no profit is being made.
Notes: Sequel to "Lost in the Split"
The night went, crept in with doubt as she walked. She walked so fast it made the people on the sidewalk nervous or jealous at her pace. She ignored everything, and moved automatically, edging around objects in her path, forgetting that the heels were too high for winter walking.
Every step took her farther and farther away from her work. Six strides more took her to the intersection and she crossed against the light ignoring the honk of horns and hoots of cabbies as she slid through the traffic. She pulled her collar higher around her neck and wished she had remembered to change her shoes. Almost an inch of snow had fallen during the allocution. If the way the other people on the street seemed to scurry was any indication more was sure to come and her shoes were for the courtroom not for the sidewalk.
Yet she kept moving, edging through the crowd with ease. She let her emotions propel her forward, farther and farther away from the courthouse, away from the people she worked with all the while knowing that people weren't the problem but person might be when coupled with another "p" word: privacy.
She valued it, lived by, found triumph in it when other aspects of her life were in disarray. She kept her own secrets, never feeling the compulsion of unburdening herself to others knowing that whatever is known by another can always be used as ammunition later, intentionally or not. Now she was faced with the spectre of being a squad room joke, that somehow she would become the known for something she did rather than who she was.
She still heard the words. They seemed so innocent. They were in her ears, behind her eyes, in her head, and still she kept walking, alternating feet to the rhythm of the sentence. Her feet were beginning to hurt and she knew that soon she would have to stop walking and hail a cab but she didn't want to lose momentum.
So intent she didn't notice he car pull into the bus space on the street beside her nor the driver stop suddenly and flick a sign on to the dash. She simply walked with the words the way you dance in her head until she heard a voice call her name. She turned and saw Olivia standing behind her on the street.
"Those shoes aren't made for walking in this weather. You need boots."
"I have boots."
"Okay. Look, Casey, I didn't mean anything."
"It's okay."
"I have a car. Do you want a ride?"
Next in the Series
