"Can we talk about this on the way out?" She said as she started to put her laptop and a few folders in her bag, grabbing her phone. He tilted his head curiously. It was 3:30 PM, he thought they still had time to go through a few things before tomorrow. "I don't have Lucy tonight, I have to pick up Noah at the swimming pool at 4."

Oh he understood now.

"Sure, we can walk and talk" she was already out of her office walking briskly towards the elevator with him quickly catching up with her. It must have been a sight, he thought, him running after her. As they got into the elevator he started to brief her on what his strategy was on the case and what he needed from her team to get him. She was unusually cooperative, saying yes basically to everything. Although he had to admit with the evidence they had, his intern could win that case, but he took it on fully. He knew why deep inside, he enjoyed working with her, and this gave him an excuse to spend time with her.

As they walked the conversation started to drift from the case to the squad, from the squad to Noah's grandmother then to Noah. They stopped in front of the swimming pool's entrance just in time to see the little boy running out towards her mother. She gave him a bear hug as he reached her.

"Hey, did you have fun?" She asked. Noah started to tell her everything like he only has a minute to tell about the whole day. "Mama, we had a treasure hunt, Clare threw things in the pool, we had to swim down to the bottom to bring them back up and I won, I got five treasures" he was telling with all the pride and enthusiasm.

"Whoa, slow down my dear!" She scolded him playfully. "Say hi to Rafael, please." She said, looking into the ADA's eyes, smiling. "Hi Rafael!" He said, still all smiles.

"Hola, amigo" Barba said, ruffling Noah's hair. As Noah was growing up, he found himself getting much more comfortable with him. All the small interactions he had with the boy now was much better as they could talk about things. The breakthrough was when he found out that Liv let him watch Star Wars, since then they always had something to talk about. He found the boy pretty amazing with his pure view on the world. Olivia was more than grateful for this. And Barba had to admit to himself that the boy turned him into something he never imagined to become. "Looks like we have a champion here! Congratulations Noah, it's amazing" he said. His dad never told him anything like this and he remembered how he was longing for some recognition. He decided he will do that to Noah. He was sure Liv did praise him all the time, but he wanted to do it, just to cancel out whatever his father did or did not do. "I think we should celebrate." He stepped to the curb and put his hand up, hailing a cab. Olivia looked confused. "Rafa, what are you doing?"

"Hailing a cab" he answered with fake annoyance which made Noah laugh. A cab stopped in front of him. He opened the door and motioned them in. "Get in" he said. She frowned, but obliged. She liked this side of this man, wanted to find out what he had in his mind. She scooted over as she got in, Noah sat in the middle. He got in too, closing the door and telling the driver the address. "74th and Amsterdam, please" Liv wasn't familiar too much with the area, raised a brow, silently asking what are they doing uptown. He understood without words, and provided the answer. "We are going to have celebratory cookies. Best cookies in town"

"Really?!" Chirped Noah, looking at her mother partly for reassurance, partly because he was so excited. His smile grew as big as Barba's smug when she kissed the boy on the top of his head and sent a beaming smile towards the man kidnapping them to go and eat cookies.

When they arrived to Levain's, as usual there was a line long enough put both Noah and Liv off a little.

"I assure you, it's worth the wait." he said, as they joined the line. It was going fast so they only have time to discuss the flavors. As he got to the counter, Liv and Noah grabbed the table at the window.

"Can I have two lattes, an orange juice, two of the chocolate chip cookies and one of the peanut butter ones, please?" He said to the guy serving them when he noticed that a whole batch was just taken out of the oven. "Could I get them from the fresh batch please, I'd love to impress those two. Can you believe they haven't been here before?" He motioned towards the Bensons and beamed at the guy then turned to Liv and Noah with a smile and dropped a $20 bill in the tip jar. Of course they got the fresh ones. He paid and took the still hot cookies to them. As Liv opened the paper bag, he sat down opposite to her, next to her son. She couldn't believe how mouthwateringly nice the fresh cookies smelled. And she couldn't believe this was actually happening, the three of them eating cookies uptown as a spur of the moment action by the man she was slowly falling in love with.

"Oh my god, have they just got them out of the oven?" It wasn't really a question. "Yup. Be careful, still hot" he said more to Noah than to Liv, with a huge grin on his face, as she gave one to her son. Rafael was looking at them in anticipation as they each broke off a piece and had the first taste of the fresh gooey cookies.

"Oh my god" Liv practically purred. "This was really worth the wait" she said mouth full. Noah giggled seeing his mom talking like that.

"I'm glad" was only Rafael's answer as he bit into his.

He took a sip of coffee when his phone buzzed. His mother's text appeared on the screen: "Hi, are you still at work?"

"Excuse me," he said "my mother"

"Oh go ahead, answer her. Say hi for us." Olivia said cheerfully, putting the straw into Noah's juice.

He quickly typed a text back: "Hi Mami, nope, eating cookies with Liv and Noah. Everything ok?"

The reply came in a second:

"Don't lie to me Rafael Barba! The school wants to do some changes to our 401k. If you finish early today, can you come over to go through it with me?"

Rafael laughed out loud. He showed the text to Liv. "My mom just called me a liar"

Liv had to laugh too, it was way too funny to see how the badass ADA can be told off by his mother in a second.

"I think she needs proof" she said, standing up, moving behind the two boys and grabbing his phone, expertly sliding it to the right to get the camera. "I hold it, you press the button" she instructed as she leaned in for a selfie. "Boys, hold up your cookies and smile! Now, counselor!"

Noah giggled as they inspected the photo and after the Bensons' approval he sent it to his mother. When he gets there tonight there will be an interrogation before they go through that 401k documentation. And he will be willingly answer the questions, telling her mother that he is indeed in love with Liv.