Thank you all so much for all the encouragement, I wasn't planning to update this soon but the idea is in my head…so enjoy.

The chime rang out and it seemed like forever before Casey heard footsteps.

"Well, well, well! If it isn't the golden child herself," someone smirked at her from behind the screen door.

"Can I come in?"

Chapter 2: The Royal We

"You not gonna make me stand out here all day are you," Casey chuckled trying to mood.

"I was considering it," they replied with a bitterness that made Casey hang her head feeling as if all the wind had been knocked out of her. "What brings you here so suddenly after twelve of no contact Cassandra?"

Cassandra, ouch! Well she probably deserved that if… had it really been twelve years? As she stood there on the front steps of the brownstone Casey was having the familiar sensation that she was looking into a mirror. Her green eyes gazed into the matching ones and she began to plead. "Please Claire. I kind of need a place to crash."

"All right." Claire stepped aside and Casey crossed the threshold dropping her bags in the foyer.

"You have no idea how much I appreciate this sis!"

Claire said nothing as she went into the kitchen to make another pot of coffee. Casey moved a stack of magazines off the small couch and sat down. She couldn't help but notice the less than warm reception she was getting and had just made a point to get to the bottom of it when Claire came back in carrying a tray with the coffee pot and two mugs.

"I'd forgotten what you took," Claire explained setting the tray down

"This is fine," Casey replied stirring in a couple of sugar packets. For minutes the clinking of silverware was the only noise in the room. When she gazed back up Casey saw that her twin was wearing a puckered expression, the very face she used to make when she was holding something back. There seemed to be a heavy, unspoken tension building between them until it almost hurt for Casey to sit one there for another second. "I knew coming here, barging in on you like this was a bad idea. I mean after all, the cohabitation thing didn't work when we were little either. Do you have a phonebook, I'll just look up the nearest hotel and…"

She was in the foyer with one with her hand in one coat sleeve when Claire caught up with her. "Case, wait! I don't know what happened but whatever it is you can stay here."

Casey froze. "And you sure about that?"

Claire hesitated. "Yeah, if you want to…I mean we aren't kids anymore, so I think we've established that cannibalism is generally frowned about by society…Mind you, I've only got the pullout couch."

"I'll sleep in a closet in that's all you have," Casey blurted enveloping the younger twin in a hug than realizing what she had said, added. "Although if I were you and I lived in a big house like this I would stop being so damn modest Claire de Lune."

"You should talk Miss ADA with her big-shot law degree. If there is any word that would describe turning the ground floor of an office building into an artist's loft that word would be modest."

"How long her you had this place anyway?" Casey asked taking her coat off and returning to the den area.

"Ever since we were nineteen and Mom and Dad turned me out for saying I wanted to quit pre-law and be an artist."

"Dad turned you out!" Casey cried. "But I thought—he told me that you had stormed out after having that huge blowout with him and Mom!"

Claire snorted as she slid out of her shoes and put her feet up. "Well he can afford to say that couldn't he? I mean he still had three good apples left, two sons in the military academy and a daughter he could mold and shape to be next in the Novak lines of lawyers, doctors blah…blah…blah…. See I even talk like an artist. I could've never made in the world of suits and sophisticates. I mean if that's where you found your niche, I'm happy for you but…"

"That's kind of why I'm here," Casey interrupted softly. "I'm not the Perfect One so much anymore. Mom and Dad are probably rolling over in their graves as we speak and if they were alive now I'm sure they would be giving me a mouthful." She smirked. "Though I think my boss did them proud."

Claire let out the breath she had been holding. "You know Case, for some reason I've been thinking a lot about you lately. Guess there really is something to that old twin telepathy theory." She eyed Casey's luggage. "I wish you would have called first so I could clear some closet space for all the shit you brought with you."

"I'm glad you saw it coming, because I sure as hell didn't. Where are you going?"

"To call in for takeout. We're hungry and this may take a while."

"Okay," Casey shrugged. They went into the kitchen where Claire busied herself getting the phonebook and various takeout menus she had collected deliberately avoiding her sister's eye. In a few minutes Casey spoke up. "Wait, what do you mean 'we're hungry'? Are you talking in Queen's English now?"

Claire blushed but quickly laughed it off. "No. I meant 'we' as in the two of us because I assume your staving after your long trip and I really don't feel like cooking."

"The fire department appreciates that I'm sure," quipped Casey dodging a flying menu which she picked up and contemplated. "Pizza!" she decided, "With sausage and peppers."

Twenty minutes later Claire put down her third slice of pizza and muted one of the sappy Lifetime movies they loved to make fun of. "Spill!" she demanded.

Casey sighed. She had hoped against hope that her entire stay would go by without having to address this issue at length but now she had to talk about it and she he hadn't even been at her sister's twenty-four hours.

"One of our detectives was working a ten year cold case dealing crooked cops who raped two illegal immigrants and murdered one of them. Chester, he uh found out that one of the accused men still has his badge.

"So you—you don't know how long you're staying?" Claire inquired trying to keep the quaver out of her voice.

Casey shrugged. "Truthfully no. Until I get something else. I promise it won't be more than a few months."