A few weeks after they move in together, the squad has a case cross into the muddy waters of New Jersey and have to fight to keep their case from the Feds.
Olivia and Rafael were in her office awaiting a Federal prosecutor and an FBI agent to discuss jurisdiction and the eventual prosecution.
They weren't focused on the case at the moment, though. They were tuned into the live stream of Noah's daycare watching him play with his friends.
"Modern technology is amazing," Liv murmurs as she watches her son stack blocks and then kick them down, a teacher helping him and two other children remember to wait their turn to kick.
"I know," Rafael agrees. "It makes me feel more secure leaving him there that we can check the feeds at any time."
One eye still on her laptop screen, Liv absently picks up her ringing desk phone, confirms her expected visitors with the desk sergeant and hangs up quickly with a sigh. "Back to business, they're on their way up."
Rafael sighs quietly as well. "Just a few more hours, mi amor. Then we can go pick him up."
He squeezes her shoulder and moves around the desk to get his briefcase.
"Oh, shit."
"What?" Rafael follows her line of sight into the squad room and sees nothing particularly wrong with the scene: two men in suits, one carrying a briefcase and the other a badge clipped prominently to his lapel walk across the squad room.
"You've gotta be kidding me. They had no one else?" She says to herself, heading for the office door.
"Liv-" he trails off as it becomes obvious he's not going to get an answer at this point.
She gestures for him to follow her into the squad room to greet their federal counterparts.
"Agent Porter- it's been a long time," Liv greets her old colleague.
"Wow, Liv- I didn't think you'd still be here," a surprised Dean Porter replies.
Rafael shoots the FBI agent a look at the use of his girlfriend's nickname, but doesn't say anything.
"Alec Stroman- this is Detective Olivia Bens-" Porter tries to make introductions but Liv quickly corrects him.
"Actually, it's Lieutenant Olivia Benson," she interjects, holding out her hand to the federal prosecutor. "And this is ADA Rafael Barba," she says.
"My mistake. I guess more than the decor has changed around here," Porter says, then offers his hand to Barba with a smile. "Special Agent Dean Porter. Liv and I worked together a few times way back when."
Barba shakes his hand and doesn't miss the way Porter can't seem to keep his eyes off Olivia nor the familiar tone in his voice, but pushes aside the twinge in his gut.
They usually have meetings like this in the conference room, but Barba steers them back into Liv's office. His agenda becomes apparent to Olivia when a satisfied smirk appears on his face while watching Porter's face at the sight of the pictures of Noah. She mentally rolls her eyes, but is mostly amused.
Olivia takes charge of the meeting, and after twenty minutes it is decided that federal involvement will begin after arrests are made, letting SVU handle the rest of the investigation unhindered.
Wrapping things up, Barba and Stroman exchange information so they can coordinate once charges are pending.
While the lawyers are occupied, Porter points to an image of Noah and asks, "Who's the lucky guy? Stabler finally leave his wife?"
Ignoring the comment about Elliot, Olivia simply answers, "That's my son, Noah. He's two."
As usual, at the mention of her son, her eyes light up and there's a big smile on her face.
"He's beautiful- looks just like you," Porter compliments.
She simply thanks him, not bothering to mention the resemblance is a coincidence.
Out of the corner of her eye she notices the daycare feed still up on the screen of her computer, Noah and his friends now playing in the library section. A few kids are sitting and flipping pages, their books across their laps. Noah, however, is pacing around them, book in hand, and is "reading" out loud.
Olivia laughs out loud, the similarities between her son's actions and how Barba behaves during closing arguments very clear, and at Porter's curious look she turns the screen so he can see, explaining the daycare live feed.
Barba wraps up his conversation with Stroman as the other lawyer's phone rings, and makes his way behind Liv to get a view of the screen.
Upon seeing Noah, Barba laughs as well, and Liv says, "If we could hear, I bet he's speaking Spanish."
Barba smirks at her, "Probably, he has been spending a lot of nights with my mother lately."
Liv blushes slightly and quickly changes the subject by closing the lid on her laptop and thanking the visitors for their time.
Porter looks between Olivia and Barba but doesn't comment.
Olivia stands, and as she makes her way around her desk she drags her hand across Barba's lower back, a fairly innocent touch; just long enough to make a connection.
Barba nods to the two men and drops into her chair while Olivia walks them out.
"It was nice meeting you, Mr. Stroman," Olivia gives both men a polite smile that dims when Porter tells Stroman he will meet him at the elevator.
As they are standing just outside her office, Rafael can both see and hear their conversation from where he sits.
"Really, Benson, a lawyer?" His tone is light and while her boyfriend may not have noticed, she definitely didn't miss the wedding ring on the agent's left hand.
"He's a good man. I trust him," her tone is light but the underlying message is clear: I don't trust you.
While it's been over six years since she saw him last, she still remembers the betrayal she felt standing in that interrogation room.
Nevertheless she gives him a tight smile and says, "Take care, Dean."
"You too," he returns with a strained smile, and turns around and heads for the exit.
Not bothering to watch him leave, Olivia returns to her office to find her boyfriend still occupying her chair, now with a disgruntled look on his face.
"What's up?" She asks quietly, closing the door on the bustling squad room.
"So, Agent Porter seemed pretty comfortable around here," he says, clearly agitated.
"Like he said, he's worked cases with SVU before," Olivia says, not sure where this conversation is headed, but not liking his tone.
"Actually, he said he'd worked with you before, not SVU," Barba corrects.
Liv huffs out a breath. "Fine, if we're going to split hairs, we worked together when I was undercover for the Feds in Oregon. He was my handler. I've told you about that debacle before. And then we ran into him a couple times after that on SVU cases."
Barba's stormy expression does not change and he stays silent.
"Are we really doing this? It was years and years ago."
"Well I'd appreciate it if I didn't have to watch you reconnect with your exes."
Olivia rolls her eyes, determined not to give in and start a fight about Dean Porter of all people.
"He's not my ex, and you're in my chair," she states matter of factly.
Rafael stands, but doesn't drop the subject.
"The way he looked at you, calling you 'Liv', that hug- he called you beautiful," Rafael stops and takes a deep breath. "You clearly have history."
"Yeah, historically he's an idiot. Look, I don't even know why I'm going into this. It was years ago. Way before we even met. And yes, we flirted a couple of times, but finding out someone covered up two murders and then used their position to let the killer go is kind of a turn off for me." She just looks at the blank face of her boyfriend and waits.
At his lengthy silence she adds, "So you have nothing to worry about. Besides, you are a much better kisser than he is."
Without sparing him another glance, she sits down, opens her laptop and files, and gets back to work. After all, they do have to get Noah in a little while.
Barba stands there, still behind her desk, mouth agape. "You kissed him." It's a statement, not a question.
"Yes. It was not particularly pleasant. Or private- there are probably copies of the video surveillance feed around here somewhere if you wanna see." She's still mostly focused on her paperwork, but is watching him out of the corner of her eye- enjoying seeing the jealous side of her normally unflappable boyfriend peeking out.
"Why did you have to kiss him? You volunteer for that job?"
"I was the only woman on the squad for over ten years, Rafael. I didn't have a choice. It was our only option to solve the case."
She is still working through the files on her desk, seemingly unconcerned with the topic of conversation.
Rafael gestures to her continuing to work. "It's nice to see you taking my feelings seriously here," he says, sarcasm dripping off every word.
Finally she looks up at him, abandons her paperwork and spins her chair to face him.
"You're being ridiculous with this, Raf. I haven't seen him in probably five- maybe six years? I'm not harboring a crush on him, hoping a case will cause us to cross paths at some point so I can hook up with him.
So I made out with him. Big deal. It was work.
And he calls me Liv because it annoyed Elliot.
I just don't understand why you're acting like this.
I go home to you; you're the one- the only one that I've ever made the choice to live with. The reason I moved in with Brian was that I couldn't stand the thought of being alone.
The reason I moved in with you is that I couldn't stand the thought of being without you."
He doesn't say a word, simply crosses the office toward the door.
She closes her eyes and sighs in resignation that he is not going to let this go, and she's going to have to deal with him at home.
His hands on hers, pulling her to her feet, startle her. "I thought you were leaving."
"No, just didn't want an audience for this." She looks toward the squad room, realizing he has shut the blinds.
Then his hands are framing her face; eager eyes imploring her to forgive him.
"I'm sorry, mi amor. I don't know why I'm being like this, there's just something about him..." He closes his eyes briefly.
"I want you to know it's never been like this for me before either. I trust you." He leans in and gives her a quick kiss.
"I love you." Another kiss.
"You make me so happy." A longer kiss this time.
"Let's go get our boy."
She smiles at him, pulling him in by his tie for one last kiss. "I like the sound of that."
A/N:
I haven't seen any SVU from seasons 8-12, and it's been years since I saw seasons 1-7.
After this plot bunny wouldn't leave me alone, I watched Spooked in order to get a handle on Porter and his relationship with Liv- but didn't really come up with much, please feel free to let me know what you think of them.