Author's note: As always, thank you for the awesome feedback, both in messages and here in the reviews. And in general support, as well. This next chapter should answer any lingering questions from the ending of the previous one. If not, or if you still have any questions, feel free to ask, and I will answer in the context of the story. Thank you for reading. I look forward to reading everyone's thoughts. Also, I apologize for the long gap between updates, but my muse has left me, it seems. This is the first day this week that I have actually felt up to writing a coherent chapter that served a purpose beyond being an update for the sake of updating. I will hopefully be back on track within the next few chapters.

Olivia spent most of the night awake. She felt horrible for lying to Casey. Granted, she was not technically lying, but a sin of omission was a lie, nevertheless. It wasn't that she didn't trust Casey. She didn't know why she couldn't bring herself to tell her. It was, after all, happy news. But that didn't change the facts.

Early in the morning, Olivia gently untangled Casey from her and pulled the covers over the sleeping redhead, knowing that Casey always got particularly cold in the early morning hours. And yet she still insisted on sleeping with the fan on, even though she would ultimately be bundled up to her neck come morning. Olivia found it both endearing and annoying.

Sneaking out of the apartment, having showered and dressed in a half hour, Olivia stopped for her usual morning coffee, then headed to work. She had just settled into her office and taken the first scalding sip of her coffee when a knock on the door startled her. Only by a stroke of luck did she manage not to spill the burning liquid on herself. "Come in," she murmured, grabbing a napkin and cleaning the cup. She looked up as Fin entered. "You're here early."

"I had a DD5 to type up," Fin answered, sitting across from her. "I could say the same for you."

"I'm the boss. I have to be here early," Olivia answered. It wasn't one hundred percent true, but it was as good of a cover story as anything. She surely wasn't going to explain why she really was here so early.

"Isn't the point of being the boss that you choose your own hours?" Fin questioned.

Olivia sighed deeply, placing her palms on her desk. "I choose to come in early and leave late. It is still choosing my own hours."

"Or you are doing it to hide from Casey."

Olivia's gaze snapped up from the desk. "Excuse me?"

Fin shrugged. "Liv, I've known you for longer than anyone else here. I know what makes you tick. I know you well enough to see how you react around her, especially lately. You two confessed your relationship to the rat squad, but you still jump out of your skin whenever she is near. Why?"

Olivia bit the inside of her lip. She wanted to be angry that he was prying, but she also couldn't deny the relief that came from having someone to talk to. Especially someone who, as Fin had pointed out, she had known for so long. "I thought discussing our relationship and coming out would protect us," she began, unsure of how best to explain what she wanted to say.

"Having the rat squad's approval would cement any relationship."

"I suppose," Olivia murmured thoughtfully, taking another sip of her coffee. "But now that we have their approval, and Cutter's, it feels as if everything is so..official. Casey and I come from wholly different places. We have entirely different ideas on life. She has always dreamed of the white wedding, the beautiful mansion. I, on the other hand, have long since resigned myself to being alone. I had reached the point in my life where, when I tried to visualize my future, I saw only myself."

Fin leaned forward thoughtfully. "So you are regretting proposing to her?"

"No, of course not!" Olivia exclaimed. She had interjected very quickly, but in her heart, she knew that she would never regret asking Casey to marry her. She loved her with everything she had. The brunette sighed. "It's not her. It's me. If she wakes up one day and realizes that I'm not what she wants, then I'll have wasted that much time of her life and ruined my relationship with the woman I love forever."

"But why would she do that?" Fin asked. "Olivia, I know you, and I also know her. You wouldn't have proposed if you weren't ready, and she would not have accepted if she wasn't. Why are you questioning yourself? What happened to the tough cop who could make any perp wither with a simple glare?"

"I don't know," Olivia admitted, realizing just how true the statement was. She had spent so much of her life compensating for her lack of love by throwing herself into her career. She had come off as a harpy to more than one person, and she had earned so many unpleasant nicknames over the years- from perps and victims alike. It was as if that entire identity had dissolved when she confessed her feelings for Casey and asked her to spend the rest of her life with her. She didn't feel like herself anymore.

"Liv?" Fin prompted.

Olivia jolted out of her thoughts. "Casey took me to meet her parents," she answered carefully.

"Aren't her parents Catholic?"

Olivia scoffed quietly. "If you want to call it that," she muttered. "Her mother approved, but her father...well, he did everything but throw a Bible at us. He called both of us a series of cruel words, then informed Casey that she was no longer welcome in his home until she returned to her true faith, as he put it."

Fin nodded. "I wish I could judge him outright for being a pompous prick, but what would that make my reflection? I didn't react any differently when I found out my son was gay."

"I remember," Olivia replied. "He didn't speak to you for awhile after that, and wanted me to be some sort of mediator."

Fin sighed. "It took a long time for me to adjust to the fact that he was...different. It wasn't until he introduced me to Alejandro, and I saw him at Alejandro's hospital bed side, that I was really able to come to terms with it. So, as much as I hate myself for saying it, I can understand where Casey's father is coming from."

"But you didn't throw religious beliefs at Ken. There is a considerable difference between not knowing what to say in a conversation with your son when he comes out, and throwing the book at your only daughter because she isn't married and pregnant with her twentieth child."

"Twentieth child?"

"Don't ask," Olivia responded. "Fin, you're not anything like Casey's father," she assured him. "It doesn't matter how long it took you to come around. It only matters that you did."

Fin smiled. "I can't say I believe you, but I appreciate the effort." As Olivia returned the smile, he sighed. "Okay. So you met the parents and only one approved. How did Casey take it?"

"She was okay," Olivia murmured. "After some time, that is. She made it clear that she was going to marry me regardless of her father's bigoted worldview." She shook her head. "And he's not the first parent to judge me. It bothers me, but I've had worse. What truly affects me is the fact that he came to my favorite cafe and interrupted my breakfast, spouting a ton of religious crap. Suffice to say, when that didn't work, he tried threatening me with some of my worst secrets...and when that failed, he tried to pay me."

"He paid you?" Fin asked, laughing before he could stop himself. Olivia shot him a glare. Fin sighed. "What is his daughter worth to him?"

"A cool million."

"Damn. Most people would have taken the money and run."

"Fin!"

"Relax, Liv, I'm only trying to help."

Olivia capped and uncapped her pen, then repeated the process until even she was bored of the sound. "I know. I'm sorry," she replied. "Can you believe his nerve? Paying me, like that would make me abandon her. I suppose he doesn't care that his daughter is pregnant, and that leaving her alone after doing everything I can to reassure her that this would never happen is a particularly cruel thing to do. Anyway, one of the things he threatened me with was my promotion."

"He threatened you with your promotion?" Fin repeated. "Clearly, he does not understand that you have already disclosed, and that your promotion has nothing to do with your relationship with Casey."

"But it does," Olivia admitted.

"What do you mean?"

Olivia took a deep breath. "I haven't told her yet. She's been so happy and outgoing, and she's already feeling insecure. I don't want her to worry. If I tell her about the promotion, she's going to feel like my job takes precedence over her and the baby, and then she's going to ask why I didn't tell her sooner."

"Liv, I understand, but you can't keep this from her," Fin answered. "She's going to find out sooner or later, and it's better it comes from you than from the nightly news."

"I know. I can't explain why I haven't told her. I can't explain anything, at this point. I feel awful for lying to her. It's not a verbal lie, but it's not the truth, either. She's completely oblivious. That makes me feel even worse. When I walk in the door and she serves me dinner, we sit there eating quietly, making the occasional small talk, and I can feel the truth bursting from me, but it never comes out."

Fin nodded. "You have to tell her," he said again. "Preferably before the new guy comes next week."

Olivia groaned. "Ugh, don't remind me. Dodds Jr. can only mean bad things for the precinct. The last thing this squad needs is a spy." She had promised herself that she would give him a chance, and she tried not to judge people before officially meeting them, but with everything else in her life right now, she regarded everything with suspicion. Even her coffee, which tasted much older than it was advertised to be.

Fin started to respond, but his phone beeped. "I have to take this," he said after reading the screen. Standing up, he smiled. "Tell her, Liv. She'll support you. You two practically radiate love. Don't let that fall apart because you're too much of a coward to tell her." He left the office, closing the door gently behind him.

Left alone, Olivia sighed. Fin had always had a way with words. He was the one person who could talk to Olivia like that without receiving a stern warning in return. And she knew he was right. As she reached for her phone to text Casey, who she knew would still be asleep, she paused, her fingers hovering over the screen. "Good morning, sweetheart. Meet me at your favorite restaurant at two. I love you." After hitting send, Olivia sighed, leaning back in her chair. Something about her conversation with Fin made her realize that it wasn't Casey's reaction she had been so afraid of. It was the weight of a thousand new responsibilities. But she could handle it. She had Casey. And that was all she needed.