"You ready?" Alex asked kindly, bouncing Noah on her hip.
"As ready as I'm gonna be, I guess. I'll probably be back late, so don't wait up. I'll grab something to eat on my way home." Olivia kissed her wife and son goodbye.
"Bye, Noah. Be a good boy for Mama."
"Bye-bye, Mommy!" Noah waved, smiling.
When Olivia arrived at his apartment, she parked her car and let herself in with her key. He was nowhere in sight, but his car was in its usual parking spot, so she knew that he had to be somewhere within the apartment.
"Dad! I'm here!" Olivia called out, placing her keys on the kitchen counter.
"In here, sweetheart!" he called back, followed by loud banging and cursing.
Olivia's body visibly relaxed and she let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. He couldn't be too angry with her if he was calling her 'sweetheart'. She followed his voice down the hallway and found him in the bathroom, working on the plumbing under the sink. He looked up when she appeared in the doorframe and slid out from under the sink. Olivia bent down to help him to his feet.
"Thanks, hon," Don Cragen planted a kiss on Olivia's forehead, "I was just trying to get this damn sink to stop dripping."
"Hey, at least you don't have a two-year-old clogging your toilet with your wife's $200 string of pearls." Olivia joked (they could laugh about it now). Don chuckled.
"Give me a few minutes to clean up in here. Go wait for me on the bed, as usual. And have the belt ready."
Olivia nodded obediently. She went to Don's bedroom, wrinkled her nose at the small pile of laundry lying on the floor, and made her way to his closet, rummaging around until she found what she was looking for - the belt. As she took her place sitting cross-legged on the bed holding the implement, she sighed in apprehension and regret. What had she been thinking, disrespecting him in front of the entire squad like that?! Ever since adopting Noah, any case involving children always got to her a little more than before and their current case was no exception. But that was still no excuse to be so very rude. Olivia's thoughts were interrupted when Don walked in the room, freshly showered and free of grease. He sighed, wishing this weren't necessary. Olivia wasn't his best detective right now. She was his much-loved daughter in need of discipline, and as all parents know, one of the hardest things a parent has to do is discipline their child.
"You know what to do, young lady." Don stated simply, holding his hand out for the belt.
Olivia did indeed know exactly what to do, having been in this very position many times before. The only difference was that today they were not at work, so there would be no report for Olivia to sign and no official mark on her record, just on her bottom. Olivia handed over the belt and stood up, pulling her jeans and panties down to her knees before bending across the bed.
"Why are we here today, Olivia Margaret?" Don asked, tapping the belt against Olivia's bottom.
"I am here to be disciplined because I disrespected you in front of the rest of the squad, sir."
"My squad knows that I do not tolerate disrespect. I tolerate it the least when it comes from my daughter. One day, you will take my place as Captain. You are supposed to practice self control and set a good example for the others."
"Yes, sir. I will do better." Olivia promised, her voice clogged with emotion. She loved Don and hated to disappoint him. He was the closest thing to a father that she had.
"I know you will. You are getting 100 strokes with the belt. Then you may or may not go over my knee afterwards, depending on how well you take it."
Olivia gasped and tears filled her eyes, hearing his pronouncement, but she knew what would happen if she complained about it so she shut her mouth. She wondered if Alex had this many butterflies in her stomach whenever she was about to be punished. She made a mental note to absolutely smother Alex with praise in the coming days. It took guts to willingly submit to someone who was about to make your bottom feel like a bonfire inside a pressure cooker on the surface of the sun!
"ONE!" the first swat drew Olivia out of her thoughts and she gasped, but remembered to count just in the nick of time. Had she forgotten, the swat would have been repeated and an extra penalty swat added.
"TWO!" Olivia winced.
"OW! T-THREE!" Olivia's voice cracked.
During the course of her career as a detective, Olivia had gotten all sorts of scrapes and bumps; she'd been punched in the face, kicked in the ribs, pistol whipped, cut with a knife, pinned with her arm wrenched painfully behind her back, sprained her ankle, suffered a dislocated kneecap, been given a goose egg on top of her head the size of Texas, even been bitten. If you asked her how many times she'd tripped and fallen during a chase, she couldn't even tell you. After nearly twenty years on the job, a day without some sort of injury was a laughable idea. Even desk duty held the very real danger of paper cuts.
A spanking was an entirely different animal, and Olivia never seemed to get used to the pain no matter how many spankings she earned. She was admittedly not as graceful in receiving discipline as Alex usually was. As a Top, Olivia was usually on the giving end of a spanking, having taken Alex across her lap countless times during the course of their relationship for various infractions. Alex was a die-hard submissive and had no interest in switching, therefore the only person Olivia would ever dream of trusting to Top her was the man that she chose to call 'Dad', the man who was always there for her when her own father wasn't (not that she would want him to be after what he had done to her mother).
"THIRTY! Daddy, PLEASE!" Olivia wailed with tears streaming down her face. In a bout of desperation, and a severe lack of good judgment, she reached back to protect her poor bottom from the belt and kicked her feet in an attempt to alleviate some of the pain. Don calmly pried Olivia's hand from her bottom and held in firmly in the small of her back, being careful not to twist it too hard.
That he was being called 'Daddy' was a sign that the lesson was sinking in. Don had no children of his own, and Olivia was the daughter he never had ever since she first stepped foot in his squad room. She had started calling him 'Dad' soon after her mother's death. He was honored to take on such a title, but had made it quite clear that a) she would still be held to a high standard at work like any other detective (he did not forbid her from calling him 'Dad' at work, but she usually refrained from doing so anyway), and b) a father sometimes has to take on certain parental responsibilities, such as discipline, and he would not hesitate to fulfill his parental duty when necessary. Of course she was still subject to workplace discipline as well but Don usually preferred to handle her workplace infractions privately, just like today. And she knew full well that if she received discipline at work, she would be told to report to his apartment after work for another dose.
"You know better than that, Olivia Margaret. You will receive five penalty swats over my knee when we are done. Now put your hand back in front of you and I don't want to see it back here again. If you reach back or kick again, you will receive an additional five penalty swats." Don released her hand and she brought it back in front of her, clasping her hands together as if in prayer.
Olivia did not reach back again, but she kicked three more times and miscounted one of the swats before her belting was finally over, bringing her penalty swat tally to a total of twenty one swats.
Don looked at his daughter lying limply across the end of the bed sobbing like a young child and his heart went out to her but he prayed that she understood that his discipline was a sign of his love for her. She may be married with a child of her own, but he still saw that bright-eyed, smart-as-a-whip, eager-to-bust-perps girl fresh out of the Academy. Despite her past, her future held a lot of promise.
"Stand up when you want to, hon." Don rubbed Olivia's back soothingly.
It took several minutes for Olivia to feel calm enough to stand. Her state of undress was the last thing on her mind as she attempted to wipe her tears, glad that she had taken off her mascara before leaving home.
"I'm sorry, Daddy. I won't disrespect you ever again." Olivia whispered hoarsely. She didn't know if she deserved a hug yet or not, and she didn't want to ask.
"I know you won't, baby. Go to the corner and then we'll deal with your penalty swats."
Olivia started to cry again even as she obediently went to the corner and very slowly sat down, choking on a sob as her bare bottom met the hard wooden chair. She squirmed, trying to find a comfortable spot to sit on, but it was a fruitless endeavor and she finally gave up. Olivia implemented corner time at home with Alex, but she never made Alex sit in a chair in the corner because it just sucked.
"All right, Liv. Time for your penalty swats." Don called from where he was now sitting on the bed. Olivia was relieved to finally be allowed to stand up off that chair, but started to sob as she walked to Don's side, her eyes glued to the hairbrush in his hand. She hesitated for only a split second before draping herself across his lap.
"How many penalty swats do you have coming?" Don asked.
Olivia felt panic rise within her. She had been so focused on the pain, she didn't even know how many penalty swats she'd earned. She took a deep breath and took a shot in the dark.
"Ten, sir?"
"I'm afraid that was twenty one. Five for each time you reached back, plus one because you miscounted a stroke. And we'll add one more for not keeping track, so that makes a total of twenty two. You don't have to count these."
Olivia sobbed her way through her penalty swats, all of which were delivered on her tender thighs. When it was over, she was crying so hard that she was making no sound. She just lied limply across Don's lap and sobbed until she felt Don haul her upright and sit her on his lap.
"Do you understand why you were spanked, sweetheart?" Don asked when Olivia was a little calmer.
"Yes, Daddy. I'll never disrespect you again. I'm sorry." Olivia wept on his shoulder.
"I know, sweetheart. It's all over. You're a good girl and I love you. Shhhhhh." Don held and comforted her while she clung to him.
"I love you too, Daddy."