Olivia and another cop is playing dangerous territory by having a relationship that no one can know about for fear of her job. He's safe. He knows that his job is safe but when he knows the policies better than anyone but he loves her too much to let her go, how do they get around the rules with their relationship?
"This is ridiculous." Olivia said while she stood by the window of George Huang's office.
"Why do you think it's ridiculous?" Huang asked sitting in his arm chair with his notebook on his lap.
"It's ridiculous because it's a waste of my time and yours." Olivia sighed. "This is just the Chief of D's hoping to find something to bench me."
"Why do you think he wants to bench you?" George asked.
"Because Ed or one of his friends called in a favour to have me benched for my baby's safety."
"So you think it's the baby he wants safe?"
"I know it's the baby he wants safe, but the point it I can do my job, every other officer doesn't get a choice when they're pregnant, they work until six months unless the doctor orders otherwise, I shouldn't be given special treatment just because my future husband is in IAB. I don't want to be treated differently I just want to be trusted to do my job." Olivia explained leaning on the windowsill and looking out across the Manhattan sky line.
"You think it's about trust?" George continued.
"I haven't felt this distrusted since I was five." Olivia laughed.
"What happened when you were five?"
"I was in school, my Mom had bought me this plastic mickey mouse ring from one of those ninety nine cent stores and I was wearing it, one of the popular girls had lost her one the week before and she told the teacher, Miss Scott that I'd stolen it, they wouldn't believe me for ages that I hadn't stolen it, I mean come on my school shoes were falling apart so I'm not surprised but I was in the office and it took about two hours before they called my Mom and she came to the school and she was stood there telling the principal off for not believing me."
"So you felt that the school didn't believe you? Didn't trust you?" George asked surprised that Olivia was bringing something up from her childhood, it wasn't often she did that.
"Exactly actually I think I was trusted more when I was five than I am now." Olivia replied crossing her arms across her chest.
"What made you call your union?" George asked.
"Knowing I couldn't fight it alone." Olivia replied.
"Do you think maybe calling your rep was the same as the school calling your Mom when you were five?"
Olivia looked up at him and smiled.
"It was a learned behaviour." Olivia said understanding what he was saying. "Knowing that it took my Mom to fight that battle for me, a battle so unlike this one yet so similar."
Olivia went home that afternoon. She didn't bother going to work to sit behind a desk when she knew she didn't have to, she was relentless in proving a point and she wasn't going to back down. She was surprised when she walked into the apartment to find Ed sitting on the couch with a pile of papers.
"What are you doing home?" Olivia asked as she dumped her purse on the coffee table.
"I was about to ask you the same thing." He chuckled putting his legs down so that Olivia could sit beside him on the couch, she instantly cuddled up into his side, her eyes scanning the paper he was looking at.
"That's the contract my union drew up." Olivia said taking the paper from him. "What are you doing with it?"
"I've been asked to read over it and change and edit it before handing it back to our lawyers." Ed said with a sigh.
"Why you?" Olivia asked.
"Because I'm SVU's IAB and I'm the one supposed to pull you up and discuss it with you, I think it's to see if we can really keep our personal and professional lives separate." Ed replied honestly as Olivia read the edits he'd made.
"You can't do this Ed." Olivia said. "You can't decide on this contract, it's not fair, I mean if I was just any other officer it wouldn't matter but the reason we're in this situation is because I'm marrying you and carrying your child."
"I know babe." He sighed.
"I mean the whole reason we're in this mess is because one of your friends called the Chief of D's. I feel like I can't be trusted to do my job anymore." Olivia explained as she dropped the contract onto the coffee table and cuddled up more into his side.
"Let's not worry about it now Liv, I'll go over it again later and try and be reasonable for both parties, trying not to remember that you're my fiancé and that's my child when I'm editing it. I understand you just want to do your job but now everyone knows you're carrying our baby they're worrying more about you." Ed explained as he ran his hand through Olivia's hair. "Now do you want to tell me why you're not in work."
"Don't see the point, I caught up with my paperwork yesterday and I'll be damned if I do everyone else's, I'm not going in to sit behind a desk until this mess with the contract is sorted." Olivia explained slowly falling asleep, having someone play with her hair always relaxed her into a snooze.
"Did you see Huang?" Ed asked.
"Mhhm." Olivia replied. "He's an idiot."
"What makes you say that?" Ed asked with a soft chuckle.
"We just talked about what happened, he didn't even bring up my thoughts about my pregnancy and being pregnant while working, what extra precautions I'd take on the field or anything like that so I don't know if he was asking questions just to judge why I went down this route rather than sitting behind a desk or if he agrees with me that I should be allowed to work and just judge my mental state honestly… I really don't know." Olivia replied with a yawn.
"You're tired." Ed said.
"Wouldn't be if someone would let me sleep at night." Olivia chuckled.
"You can't blame me, it's your hormones that's causing us to stay up till all hours of the morning." Ed laughed. "Now close your eyes baby and have a nap, I'll wake you for lunch."