In this settling, Olivia and Rafael had formed a strong friendship since the beginning of their work together, despite their strong personalities. Even more after Lewis and after Brian left.

I'm going to write one-shots that may or may not include some moment of the chapters. They are going to follow a temporary line but I don't know if I'm going to make some temporary jumps.

Sorry in advance for the mistakes I know I'm going to make or if something sounds weird.

The crib.

As he opened the door of her place, Rafael could only imagine the horrible things he was about to found in there. Even after her cryptic message, to go to her place ASAP, because something really good had happened to her that afternoon, the memories of what she had gone through this last year were too fresh for him.

He knew that when you best your best friend gives you the key to her place it's to be used for an emergency. But when she didn't open the door after what he considered enough amount of time, he had started to fidget in front of the door waiting no more than a few seconds to let himself in.

Her place was messy. He already knew that she wasn't as ordered obsessed as him, but it was messier than her usual. With a big box by the door, more than a few plastic bags and a lot of wood pieces scrambled by the living room. But no Olivia in the room.

"Liv?" He called her without having an answer. "Liv?" He tried again with more force.

"Rafael?" He heard her voice coming from her bedroom. She sounded surprised. "What are you doing in here?" She asked him.

"You didn't open the door," Rafael said stating the obvious.

"And?"

"And what?" He asked. "After that message, what did you think? I almost lost my lungs coming here."

"Anyway, just give me a sec." He could be such a drama queen. She couldn't stop her smile knowing what his face was even when they were rooms apart.

"Ok," Rafael said while he started to remove the pieces from the sofa. "I know that you think that a bit of mess makes your place homely, but tonight you nailed yourself." Not even a comment like that would make her smile disappear from her face.

"Thank you for your input, Rafael." She said to him as she walked to the living room. "But I was a bit taken all afternoon to have all my place ready for you." He was too concentrated in ordering around that he didn't look at her way after a few seconds.

"Wow." She prided herself to be one of the few ones that could let him speechless. "That's a baby."

"Well, yes it is captain obvious." She said smiling like a teenager as she held Noah between her arms. "He's Noah." She started to speak again seeing that the man in front of her was like a deer caught in highlights. "And he's my baby."

He was looking at her. With her hair in a messy bun, wearing a pair of yoga pants and an NYPD hoodie. Happier that he had never seen her.

Despite their strong personalities they had fit in together pretty soon. Both in the professional part of their lives and the personal one. At first, they would use the pretense of work, as neither of them was prepared to acknowledge how easy it was to trust the other after all, that had happened in their lives. But after a few months, the work excuses weren't enough to justify all the time they spent together, even when she had a boyfriend or something like that.

Rafael would always remember the feeling when that psychopath took her away. He should have been with her at his place having dinner. But she canceled in the last moment in an attempt to save her relationship with Cassidy making him a surprise dinner at her place. He should have known that something happened when she didn't answer his messages. But he was tired and he fell asleep on the sofa watching a movie.

After he saw her at the hospital he almost drew himself in alcohol. He wanted to step in and help her as much as she would let him. But Cassidy was there. And his shame didn't let him ask. It wasn't until two weeks later after her release from the hospital, after two weeks of barely any word between them, when she called him at 2 AM. She was crying barely capable to say a word between her sobs. Making him so worried that in his run to her he forgot that he was in his jammies.

"Amazing." He couldn't say much more, being too captivated by her best friend image of pure bliss holding her baby son. But the didn't need many words between them to understand each other.

"I know." She murmured looking at the baby.

"Hello there, Noah." He said touching the baby's hand as softly as he could trying not to look as scared as he was of him.

"You can hold him if you want." She offered already moving him to put him in his arms.

"No thanks." He said taking a step behind unconsciously.

"Are you afraid of babies, Rafael?" She asked knowing already the answer.

"No." Her eyebrow went up. "It's just that he looks comfortable where he is. So why disturb him." That made her laugh.

"If you say so." She said. "So…" She started talking to the baby. "How about we tell Rafi his true mission in here?"

"Oh! Now I'm Rafi" He said with false hurt in his voice. Olivia looked at him as she kissed Noah's head.

"Rafael it's too long and too formal for him." She said looking at him with that smile. The one that always carried him problems.

"Oh God. I'm assuming that I have no say in that." He stated the obvious as he placed his hand on her back.

"Nope." They both laugh.

"Just not in the precinct or the courtroom, please." It was his only request as he kissed her on the forehead. "Well then, now the tough question. What do you want from me?"

"The Crib." She said easily. She didn't need to have any filter with him. "Or you can have the baby." She said looking at him smiling.

"I'll stay with the crib." He said going after the mess dispersed in the room. "At least you know where the instructions manual is?" He asked looking how she bitted her lip as she went to the kitchen. "Liv?"

"It should be over there." She said not paying much attention to him. "Pizza for dinner?"

"Really Liv."

"Half pepperoni half anchovy right?" He could do much more than smile at her. That woman would be the death of him someday.

Four hours later, barefoot and only wearing his jeans and his undershirt and having eaten his weight in pizza, they were sitting on the sofa. Rafael had his feet on the table, near their forgotten drinks, and Olivia resting her head on his shoulder, neither of them really looking at the movie on the tv, as Noah was sleeping soundly on her mother's front.

"I know that I'm not the manliest man but I'm pretty confident of my capacity to follow some instructions so I think that if you put him in the crib he won't fall." He said making her smile.

"I know… just for a little while more. Ok?"

"Ok." He said kissing her hair, willing to stay in there the whole night for her if she asked him.

"It's just… this feeling…" She tried to say.

"I know… I think I'm starting to understand it." He murmured.

I hope you like it. And I'm waiting for your comments.