"Another glass of wine?"

They were nearly through with their dinner when Rafael posed the question, motioning with the bottle and it's minimal remaining contents. She'd already had two.

"Ahhh….oh, why not?" She complied with a groan, pushing her glass towards him.

The tension has somewhat broken once they'd sat down to eat, though Olivia knew they could both still sense the murky feelings floating just beneath the jovial surface. They'd broached lighter topics, and she'd pulled out her phone to show him photos of Noah, of Amanda's children, of Sonny's boyfriend and their engagement, of Fin and his grandson. He'd seemed genuinely thrilled to see that his former co-workers were doing well, but at the fringes of it all, an inescapable sadness. There was no mention of his own life in Montauk, any friends, or possible lovers. The more that Olivia rambled on about SVU and her detectives the more she began to view Rafael's beautiful beach house as more of a prison of loneliness rather than a merciful, beautiful escape.

As he poured them both another glass of wine, she watched his every movement and expression with a curiosity that she could not quell. She wanted to know everything that was going through his mind, but after their emotional conversation on the couch, he seemed to have locked that part of himself back up, as though he only allowed himself an allotted amount of misery. She wanted terribly to pull his walls back down again, but she didn't know how to get back in. All she could do was helplessly play along with their dinner and drinks facade, and hope that the conversation would lead to something more.

"I've got seconds if you want." Rafael offered as he finished pouring with a graceful twist of his wrist.

"I think I'm good." Olivia replied leaning back in her chair. "You really are an excellent cook though."

He smiled softly at the compliment, and slipped down from the barstool to take their plates away.

"Shall I call you an Uber?" He asked as he scraped off the plates and began to wash them in the sink. "I imagine you'll want to get home to Noah."

Olivia froze at his comment, the words sticking in her throat. She glanced down at her watch, noting that several hours had passed since she'd arrived. It seemed like barely a few moments.

"I...uh…." She stammered, attempting to come up with a reason to stay. "I think I'll finish my wine first."

"Hence the Uber." He jabbed lightly as he finished washing the plates, and turned back towards her.

"Trying to get rid of me?" She returned with a raised brow, hoping that their teasing banter would smooth over the panic burgeoning in her throat.

She wasn't ready to leave. In fact, she felt as though they'd barely scraped the surface of the real reason behind their visit. They could cry on and on about the past, but what he had done and how the cards had fallen in the aftermath could not be changed. She understood that, perhaps more than anyone. Now, the future lay before them, and they were not so helpless to it.

"Of course not." Rafael answered her with a smile and dip of his head, before he turned and began wiping down the counter. "You're more than welcome to stay. I've still got the fire going, and I think the couch is calling my name."

"Yeah, that sounds good." Olivia murmured, watching as he focused far too intensely upon his tidying.

She sipped her wine until at last, he looped the towel through one of the drawer handles, and turned towards her.

"Join me for a nightcap?" He quipped, whisking his own glass from the counter, and offering her his hand.

She smiled, and took his fingers to steady herself as she slid down from the stool. She was grateful that he'd acquiesced, but behind his charm, she could sense that there were things that he wanted to say. She wondered how long he had wanted to say them now, how many nights he'd lain awake thinking of her, how many days it'd taken him to gather to courage to text her. How long would it take him now to truly open his heart to her?

She followed him back out into the living room, spotting the couch where they'd so recently held each other. It was already a piece of a memory that she wanted to hold onto far too tightly. If she wasn't careful it would be all she had once she left the beach house.

Rafael settled down on the couch, one leg tucked underneath, arm leisurely laid over the back. She sank down next to him, close enough to position his hand behind her, and cupped her wine glass close to her lips. In the silence, the fire crackled, and beyond the walls of the beach house, the evening waves rolled against the wintery, cold shoreline.

"So…" Olivia murmured, glancing over at him. "I've talked about myself, the squad, my kid, my friends' kids… What about you?"

Rafael hesitated with his lips poised to his glass. He took a long drink, slowly savoring the wine in his mouth before his throat bobbed with a swallow.

"Well…." He began, glancing down and smoothing his pant leg with one palm, distractedly. "Like I told you, I started working for a personal injury law firm about… two years ago."

"And before that?" She asked, softly, scrutinizing the hesitancy and the strain in his posture and voice.

"A lot of things I don't like to think about." He murmured, huskily, taking another drink of the wine.

"You can tell me. I want to know it all." Olivia whispered, shifting closer to him, and angling her body inwards.

"Why?" He asked, his brow furrowing with the first hints of pain since their shared tears.

"Because… I care about you, and I've missed you."

His jaw clenched and he turned the wine glass around on his knee, silent for several more moments.

"A lot of uncertainty." He finally answered, his voice strained against emotion. "I stayed in New York at first, but the press was horrific. I packed up in one night, and moved to California in the middle of the night… which turned out to be a mistake. There was nothing there for me."

"Wow…." Olivia murmured, taken aback by how much she actually had missed.

California? She thought, trying to imagine him there. He'd been all the way across the country, and she hadn't even known.

"I stayed for almost two years, but in the end, I decided to come back." Rafael continued. "I floated along for awhile, doing sort of a private, one man practice out of the flat I was renting. Then one day, I was running along the beach out here, and I noticed they were beginning to develop the land. I went up and bargained with all I had until they sold to me. I remember that morning when I received the deed… I stood out on the rocks where the house is now standing, and I watched the sunrise with that paper in my hand. The first thing that I truly felt was mine since…" His voice trailed off, and Olivia's chest clenched.

She reached out, and clasped his knee, stroking her thumb over the material of his jeans. She hoped that the simple gesture would convey her support and that he would continue to trust her. Though his recollections of the past five years didn't seem anything close to happy and it caused her more pain than expected, she wanted to be his confidant as she had been before. She wanted that, and so much more.

"It was the first time I'd been happy in a long time…." Rafael continued, softly, a smile finally touching his lips. " The next day I hired a personal contractor, and decided I needed a solid job here. Building a house isn't cheap."

"I don't expect so." Olivia echoed with a rough laugh.

"I couldn't exactly ask you out here when I had no job and nothing to my name." He added, casting her a facetious gaze.

Despite the tone of humor that he glazed the comment with, Olivia could still see the serious expression hiding somewhere in his eyes. Her heart tripped in her chest at the thought that she'd been on his mind before the house they now sat in even existed.

"It wouldn't have mattered." She whispered, emotion twisting her tone, as she gave his knee a squeeze. "I would've come. I would've flown to California if you had asked me."

"I would not have asked that of you, Liv." He replied, sliding his hand down to greet her with a warmth that spread to her chest. "I am entirely grateful that you even came here."

"Of course I did." Olivia whispered, passionately, leaning forward to place her glass on the coffee table.

Turning back towards him, she caught his cheek in her palm, guiding his face towards her. His lids fluttered shut, and she felt jaw ripple beneath soft flesh and prickly stubble.

"There wasn't a second or hesitation in my heart." She whispered, bending closer.

Their foreheads met in the middle, and he reached up to cradle her wrist. His thumb was soft against her pulse, but she was sure that he could feel the fluttering throb that had resided in her veins from the moment she'd received his message.

Her eyes stung as she gazed down at his mouth, and felt the emotion like an undulating undertow. Like the ocean beyond, the placid surface of their meeting held much more underfoot than could be seen from above. The waves were gentle enough, but if she let herself be pulled under she knew the passion that would wreck her. It had haunted her long enough, at night in bed, at work when all she wanted was him, in court when she'd glanced up to see someone else in his place.

She felt his fingers tense around her wrist, and he whispered her name, soft as a prayer. He ducked his head, his mouth pressing to her palm, warm and inviting. She drew a sharp breath, her nerve endings sparking, rushing down her arm, straight to the center of her body.

"Rafael…" She returned, desperate for the air to remain in her lungs, yet also in agony for him to take it away.

Her heart was pounding in her ears, and she prayed that the meaning of his soft, yet passionate display was not only of her imagination, but his as well. She was ready to open herself up to him, and after five years of contemplating the error of letting him walk out of her life, she did not think she could handle a second parting. If a kiss on the forehead or her hand was all he could give her, she knew with a certainty that it would never be enough. She had encountered Fate once on the front steps of that courthouse, and she had turned away with fear in her heart. If she turned away away now, destiny was certain to escape her forever.

"Rafael…" She repeated, bitter tears of regret in her eyes.

At her whisper, he seemed to crumple. Sinking down against her, he pressed his face to her neck, and she could feel his breath, quick and shallow, against her collar bone. She took the wine glass from his trembling hand, and sat it next to her own on the coffee table before she wrapped her arms around his shoulders tight. Her embrace could not hold him close enough. She wanted to press herself into him, and he into her until they were irrevocably intertwined. His own hands were on her body, clutching her waist, holding the small of her back. She closed her eyes, feeling each inch of flesh come alive and burn beneath his fingers.

She could feel the walls they had built crumbling into ruin in the flames that flickered between them. Five years of pretending, and five trying to forget seemed to slip away from her as she pressed her cheek to his head, and let him cling to her in all the fear, and heartache, and loneliness that she knew he'd been hiding.

"Forgive me, Liv." He whispered at last, his voice shredded with agony.

"I forgive you." She insisted, pressing her lips to his temple.

His fingers tightened around her waist, and he lifted his head from her shoulder. Their eyes met, bare inches from each other, and it was the most raw and honest she'd ever seen his expression. A shiver overtook her body as he reached up to touch her face. His fingers danced over her cheekbone and jawline, and she closed her eyes with a soft moan.

Just this, just his hand upon her cheek, was so beautiful and so complete, enough to take the strength from her body, but then his breath was upon her mouth. His fingers slipped into her hair, and she drew a halting breath as their half lidded eyes searched each other.

"Rafa…" She whispered, a tear escaping from her lid.

Then he pressed into her, closing whatever gap remained between them. His lips were crushing, like the waves that hit the shore below in an overwhelming tide. Warmth burst across her body, from her aching mouth to the core of her being, to every tingling extremity. Her fingers wrenched tight around the material of his sweater as her lower lip slipped inside the hot confines of his mouth. Her cradled the back of her head, pulling her closer as her jaw slackened to his coaxing. His tongue arched up past her teeth, and she moaned, feeling the vibration echo into his throat. Angling her mouth against his, she returned the suave gesture of his tongue, her heart racing and tripping in her chest.

She barely allowed herself to dream of such things though at times she'd found herself gasping awake, the taste of his mouth escaping away from her, the feeling of his body inside her disintegrating into a memory. This, however, was not a fantasy. This was real, and if she opened her eyes, they'd still be here on his couch, inexplicably tangled together.

Their mouths broke apart, and she could hear them both panting in the silence. His head was pressed against hers, and his hand still clutched her neck. It was all she could feel aside from her bursting blood pressure.

"Shit…" She breathed, one set of fingers trembling around his shirt while she clutched her throbbing mouth with the other.

"I've wanted to do that for a long time." Rafael whispered, reaching up to gently tuck her hair back from her cheek. "I just didn't know how to tell you… Especially after…"

She nodded slowly, her eyes closed as she tried to regain her breath.

"Are you all right, Liv?" He asked, quietly, when she didn't verbally respond.

"Yes…" She murmured, letting her hand slip from her mouth to her chest.

Beneath her palm, her heart slammed against her ribs. She felt dazed by the kiss, and the sudden completion of her desires. While she had hoped for an honest reconciliation, a part of her had held back in fear, expecting him not to be so forthright. Up until yesterday morning, she'd gone about her life with no intentions of beginning a committed relationship. She'd tried to put him from her mind, and accept that whatever they'd had was not meant to be. She'd tried so damn hard that she had almost believed it. Almost.

She opened her eyes, and glanced up at his expectant gaze.

"Are you sure?" He asked, his thumb rubbing softly against her ear and cheekbone.

"I just…" She began, her voice emitting in croak. "I wasn't expecting it."

"I'm sorry, Liv." He murmured. "I'm sorry for leaving, and I'm sorry it took so long to call."

She nodded once more, staring down at their laps where their legs were bent and tangled together. A quick burn of tears filled her eyes. She felt overwhelmed by the past and the present, by the time that stretched between the two points.

"Let's just sit here for awhile, okay?" She whispered, her voice weak and raspy.

"For however long you want." Rafael murmured, slowly kissing her forehead. "I've waited five years. A little longer won't kill me."

She smiled with tears in her eyes. This time, when he lips touched her crown, it didn't feel like the end. It felt like the beginning.