Chapter 29 has been posted! Almost to 30!
So this chapter will have the beginning of the dinner party, and I was right, we won't get to the end of it, but we will in the next chapter, and then we'll start Rapist Anonymous, so SPOILER ALERT for the next chapter if you haven't seen the episode! Just a forewarning.
Enjoy!
When she pretty much had the entire condo cleaned to her standards, she took a moment to smell the yummy scents that were drifting from the kitchen where Rafael was hard at work. She wandered into the kitchen and leaned back on the counter with her elbows.
"Look at us being all domestic," she said gently, and he glanced over his shoulder at her and sent her a wink.
"I called McCoy by the way, and told him about everything that went down," he replied, and she sighed.
"And how did he take it?"
"Fine, actually, he said he'd been waiting for something like this to happen, and that he'd always had my transfer papers in the system, he'd just never pushed for them to be processed. So basically that means I can expect a lateral to a different precinct any day now."
"At least it's not back to Brooklyn," she sighed, and he turned around with a smile.
"Exactly. Don't worry, Liv, he's got my back."
"I do too," she said firmly, and he smiled as she walked over to him and kissed him. "What time did we say for them to come over?" Olivia queried quietly, and Rafael grinned.
"Not til 6,"
"And what time is it now?" Olivia whispered, kissing his neck.
"Noon."
"Perfect." Olivia breathed, and Rafael grabbed her by the waist and lifted her onto the table.
Around 5:30 was when Olivia shoved Rafael out of the kitchen to get ready as she fastened her earrings on. She made sure the food in the oven didn't burn as she set out the plates and put a finishing touch on the table as the doorbell rang.
She went to the door and called, "They're here!" to Rafael, who yelled something indistinguishable back. Olivia shrugged and opened the door, seeing Fin and Melinda standing there. "Come in," she said with a warm smile, and Melinda came in and gave Olivia a hug.
Fin wrapped his arms around Olivia and hugged her, kissing her on the cheek. "Hey Liv. Where's your boytoy at?"
"Boy toy." Olivia scoffed, but turned and pointed at the staircase where Rafael was descending, attempting to fix his tie.
"Hey there pretty boy." Fin said with a grin, strolling over to him.
"Thank you for coming, Melinda." Olivia said with a smile, gladly accepting the bottle of wine and walking towards the kitchen.
"Wouldn't miss it for the world, Liv." Melinda said with a smile, and Olivia poured the two of them a glass. Just as Olivia was about to take a sip, the doorbell rang again.
"Gotta love playing hostess." Olivia joked as she hurried to the door, and opened it to see Nick standing there. "Nick!" She welcomed him in with a smile, and he gave her a hug.
"Hey Liv, nice place," he complimented, and Olivia shrugged.
"It's Rafael's decorating skills, but thank you."
"Yeah, his or his hired decorator." Nick snorted, and Rafael strode over, calling,
"I heard that Amaro," he stuck his hand with a grin, and Nick took it, shaking his hand heartily and replying,
"You were supposed to, Barba."
Olivia sighed in relief, knowing that there was more than a little tension between the two men since the case with Alex Munoz, and she had asked Rafael to just let it go and start fresh with her partner. Clearly he'd taken her advice, and she was very thankful for that. The last thing she wanted was tension between her partners, one being her romantic partner and the other one being her work partner.
Nick went with Rafael into the kitchen to get some wine, and Olivia saw Cragen pull up in a taxi and help a mysterious woman out of the car. She walked down the stairs and over to him, and he smiled at her. "Liv," he acknowledged her, and then turned to the woman next to him. "This is Eileen. Eileen, this is my senior detective, Olivia Benson."
"Hi." Olivia said warmly, shaking the mystery woman's hand.
"Ah, so this is the famous Detective Benson, Don's told me a lot about you." Eileen said with a smile, and Olivia looked surprised. "All good things, I promise," She said with a wink, and Olivia laughed.
"Well I certainly hope so!" Olivia led them into the condo and saw Rafael pulling their dinner out of the oven. "Alright everyone, take your seats, it's time to eat!" She announced, and glanced outside, looking for Munch.
"He's always fashionably late, Liv, don't worry." Fin said to her with his hand gently squeezing her shoulder before sitting down at the table.
"Good point," she conceded, and went to help Rafael put the dishes on the table.
"I got this, Liv, go pour more wine, they'll need it with this dry goulash." Rafael said with a chuckle, and Olivia rolled her eyes as she took the bottle of wine that Melinda had brought and took it into the dining room.
Melinda and Fin were trading disgusting work stories, and Olivia hesitated. "Um guys? Maybe we don't talk shop?" She suggested, and everyone fell silent for a moment.
"Alright, here's the main dish: my mother's paella," he announced, setting it on the table with a flourish.
"Looks delicious, Rafael, I suppose you didn't let Olivia in the kitchen this afternoon?" Nick teased, and Olivia rolled her eyes as she and Rafael sat down.
"I was in there most of the afternoon, actually." Olivia retorted, and Rafael gave her a subtle wink as she blushed.
"I don't even wanna know." Fin said quickly, holding his hands up.
Just then, the doorbell rang. "And that'll be John Munch." Cragen commented, and Olivia got up to answer the door before Rafael could.
"And the life of the party has finally arrived!" Munch announced as Olivia opened the door. She laughed and hugged him, replying,
"Always one to make an entrance."
"Well of course! Don't you know me at all?" Munch replied, playing at being hurt. She laughed and led him into the dining room.
"Never fear, John Munch is here!" He called as he walked into the dining room and took a seat at the end next to Fin.
"Trust me, the only thing we were fearing was your lame entrance." Fin joked, and Munch rolled his eyes.
"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I retired," he proclaimed, and everyone rolled their eyes at that. Cragen made the introductions of Eileen to the rest of them, and then Rafael gently cleared his throat.
"We have a special announcement," he said with a half-smile at Olivia, and she smiled back. Everyone looked at them in anticipation and when it became apparent Olivia wasn't going to say anything, Rafael took her hand under the table and squeezed, saying, "As of today, Detective Benson will soon be known as Sergeant Benson; she placed number 48 on her exam."
Congratulations rang out from around the table and Cragen smiled proudly, saying, "And that's out of 8000, that's impressive. That's my girl."
Olivia beamed at him and lifted her linked hand with Rafael to the tabletop, and he smiled warmly at her. He'd nearly forgotten that they no longer had to hide.
"Let's eat," Rafael announced, and they began passing the dishes of good around. As they ate, the conversation went from when Munch was going to start his work for the DA, and then to Fin's son, and Nick's daughter, and everything in between. Of course the group quizzed Cragen on his newfound lady friend, and embarrassed him a little.
When dinner was finished, they went into the adjacent living room and sat on the couch and chairs that were in there while Olivia refilled their wine glasses and Rafael went to get dessert.
"I don't know how we missed it before, you and Barba" Nick said, shaking his head. He'd observed them throughout dinner, and there was a very loving vibe that came from them. He didn't know how he missed it before.
"We hid it very well, Nick, don't feel bad." Olivia said with a smile, leaning back in the chair. Rafael came in with the pie that Olivia had baked herself. She stood up to help him set the table in the middle up so everyone could cut their own piece of pie, and then Rafael stole the seat that Olivia had vacated.
"You snooze you lose," he teased, and she put her hands on her hips, raising one eyebrow. "You're so cute when you're fake-irritated," he snorted before suddenly reaching up, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her down onto his lap. She let out a yelp of surprise before struggling to get up. Rafael was having none of it, and locked his arms around her waist. She gave up and just leaned back against him, her head leaning on his.
Yes, Olivia did take the exam and she passed! I managed to sneak some cute Barson moments in in this chapter, and the next one will have the same. Although we will jump into Rapist Anonymous, which mainly focuses on Amanda and Olivia moments but I definitely added more Barson and kept away from direct episode chapters.
Thank you so much for sticking with this story to almost 30 chapters! I hope you're enjoying it so far, and I'll post said chapter 30 as soon as I get it written!
