Yay for chapter 36! Now we're going to see the breathtaking Barson proposal!

And for SVUTwihardNCISRizzlesLover: I'll be getting to Amaro's One-Eighty not in this chapter or the next one, but definitely the one after that. So I'd say chapter 38 is when we'll get back to the episodes.

Without further ado…

Enjoy!

"Now I have a very important question to ask: will you do me the greatest honor and choose to let me marry you?"

Rafael pulled a black box from the inside jacket of his coat and opened it, revealing a sparkling diamond. Everyone in the club was silent, and Olivia didn't even remember they were there. It was like it was only the two of them, alone in their own little world.

"Yes…" Olivia whispered, barely able to find her voice.

"Yes?" Rafael asked almost in disbelief, and Olivia smiled, pulling him to his feet and clearing her throat.

"Yes I will marry you," she said happily, and he carefully slid the ring onto her ring finger of her left hand and she framed his face with her hands as he kissed her, sealing the proposal.

Cheers and wolf-whistles erupted from the crowd, and Rafael escorted Olivia off the dance floor amidst all the congratulations. He looked over and saw the entire squad rushing over from the booth that he spotted them in earlier.

"Congratulations!" Amanda said excitedly, wrapping her arms around Olivia.

"What the…how did you guys...what?" Olivia was confused as she hugged Amanda back, and Nick explained,

"Barba called us, told us to be here."

Olivia shot him a look as Cragen was shaking his hand. She hugged everyone and then when she finally got back to Rafael's side she said to him, "That meeting with Cragen wasn't about delivering a message from the DA, was it?"

"No, it was, it was just a little bit more than that too," he said with a grin, and thought back to when he had asked Cragen for Olivia's hand in marriage. His mother had always brought him up old-fashioned, and he knew Cragen was, for all intents and purposes, Olivia's father. When he asked the love of his life to marry him, he wanted to make sure he did it right.

Rafael took a deep breath before rapping sharply on the frame of the door to Cragen's office.

"Counselor, come in." Cragen said with wave of his hand, and when Rafael stepped inside he turned and gently shut the door behind him. Instantly Cragen got a sense of how important the matter that Rafael was there to speak about, and he stood up slowly.

"Captain." Rafael began, and Cragen shook his head.

"C'mon, Barba, we're past the formalities. Take the stick outta your ass and tell me what you came here to tell me."

Rafael had to smile at that and Cragen half-smiled in return. "All right. I actually came here to ask you…for something…"

"Ask for what?" Cragen queried, narrowing his eyes at the ADA in front of him.

"I came here to ask for Olivia's hand in marriage." Rafael said in a rush before he lost his nerve. He never would've thought that a simple thing as that could make the fearless Rafael Barba lose his nerve, but then again he'd never pictured himself in love every again.

Cragen was, understandably, taken aback, and he stood there for a long moment. "You're going to ask Olivia to marry you?"

"That's the plan, but, my mom raised me a little on the old-fashioned side, and I wanted to ask for your blessing before I did." Rafael explained quietly, and Cragen was still in shock.

"Me?"

"She thinks of you as a father," Rafael said quietly, adding, "You may never hear that come from her mouth, but you can see it in her actions and her eyes."

Cragen hastily blinked back tears when he heard that, and he looked at Rafael for a long time. Rafael was starting to think that Cragen was just going to toss him out of the office or just shoot him, but then the captain broke out into a smile, coming around the desk and offering his hand to Rafael.

"I give you my blessing, Barba, it's quite clear she loves you, and I know you love her. If you didn't, well, you wouldn't be here," he said as Rafael shook his hand.

"Thank you." Rafael said quietly, almost unable to believe what he was hearing.

"You're a good man, Rafael, but I have to warn you that I will not hesitate to shoot you where the sun don't shine, so to speak." Cragen said pleasantly, although the threat was clear in his eyes.

"I understand, Captain." Rafael said sincerely, and Cragen rolled his eyes.

"Again with the stick up your ass. Call me Don."

"Alright. Don." Rafael said with a half-smile, and then Cragen shoved him gently towards the door.

"Go on, get outta here. I know Olivia's waiting for you."

Rafael walked towards the door and then turned around, asking, "Don?"

"Don't worry, I wouldn't dream of ruining your surprise." Cragen said with a grin as he sat back down at his desk.

"I wasn't worried about that," Rafael said with a shake of his head, and then added, "I was wondering if you wanted to come by for dinner with me and Olivia sometime."

"You know, I'd love that." Cragen said admittedly, and Rafael smiled.

"Good. Pick a night and let Olivia know."

"I'll do that. Good night, Rafael."

"Night Don."

The entire team sat down at the table and while Cragen kept sipping at his sparkling water, he ordered a round of shots for his team. Olivia was snuggled into Rafael's side as they all did their celebratory shots.

Christina Perri's 'A Thousand Years' started playing, and Olivia grinned as she grabbed Rafael's hand, pulling him to the dance floor. Eileen did the same to Cragen, and Melinda grinned as she dragged Fin onto the dance floor as well. Nick asked Amanda to dance and they made their way to the dance floor as well, leaving Munch sitting by himself, but he didn't mind. He watched Olivia dance with Rafael, and smiled at the fact that he was finally seeing her truly happy after all those years they worked together.

But when the next song came on, he got up and walked over to Rafael and Olivia, and tapped Rafael's shoulder. "May I cut in?" Munch queried, and Rafael smiled, relinquishing Olivia's hand and waist.

"Be my guest." Rafael offered, and Munch winked at Olivia before taking Rafael's hand and waist and spinning him around.

Olivia burst out laughing as the two men tried to figure out how to dance together, since they were both used to leading. She made her way back to the table and took a sip of her drink, chuckling as Munch gave up and just dipped Rafael, who almost fell to the ground in surprise.

"Aren't they a cute couple?" Amanda joked as she and Nick returned to the table.

"Yeah, just like us!" Fin exclaimed as he stole Amanda away for a dance.

"You guys better save some moves for the reception!" Olivia called with a grin, and looked at Nick.

"Wanna dance?" Nick offered his hand, and Olivia smiled at her partner before taking his hand and allowing him to pull her onto the dance floor.

"You don't have to worry, Nick." Olivia said gently as they swayed to the song, and Nick nodded slowly.

"I know. He makes you happy."

"He does." Olivia sighed, and Nick smiled.

"Good. Because if he ever stops making you happy, that's when I'm gonna have a problem."

"You and everyone else on the team." Olivia teased, and Nick shook his head.

"I'm serious, Liv. I've got your back, I always have, always will," he promised, and Olivia smiled gently.

"I know. Same goes for me about you. Just because I'm marrying Rafael doesn't make you any less my partner, you know that right?"

"I do, but it's nice hearing you say it." Nick admitted, and Olivia nodded understandingly. As the song ended Olivia stretched up and hugged him tightly. He hugged her back for a long moment and then they walked off the dance floor back to the table.

"You guys better dance like that at the reception!" Olivia teased, taking Rafael's hand.

"Psh we'll do better than that." Fin said with a confident nod, and Munch wiggled his eyebrows.

"Maybe you'll even see me twerk!"

"How in the hell do you know what that is?" Amanda said with a laugh, and Munch put his hands on his hips.

"Hey, I can be hip and happening too!"

"Only when I show you the Youtube videos." Olivia butted in with a grin, and Munch held a finger up.

"Who invited you into this conversation? I was winning until you butted it!"

"That's what I'm here for, John." Olivia said with a grin and Munch rolled his eyes.

"I think we're gonna call it a night." Cragen said, his arm around Eileen's waist.

"Oh come on, you've still got some party left in those old bones." Fin joked, and Cragen rolled his eyes.

"No, Don's right, I'm exhausted." Olivia said as she stifled a yawn.

"You guys are party poopers." Amanda teased, and Fin nodded, saying,

"Yeah! Lame!"

"Well you are all welcome to stay and drink, but we're going home." Rafael said, his hand on the small of Olivia's back.

"All right, lovebirds, you guys get outta here and leave the single and ready to mingle kids here." Munch said, shooing the two couples out.

"Good night guys." Olivia said with a laugh, and the others waved as Cragen, Eileen, Olivia and Rafael left.

"I'm so happy for her." Amanda sighed with a smile, and Fin nodded.

"Me too. It's been a long time since she's been that happy."

"Fin…should we…Elliot?" Melinda said hesitatingly, and Fin's nostrils flared.

"Hell no. After what he did to her? I don't think so, he doesn't deserve to know." Fin snapped, and Munch nodded firmly.

"If he wasn't man enough to come back when her life was in danger, then he doesn't deserve to know about her happiness either."

"Elliot?" Amanda questioned, and Nick sighed.

"Olivia's former partner. They were together for what, 12 years?"

"Yeah." Fin sighed, and Munch told the story of what Elliot did and why he felt he had to leave, and in turn what that did to Olivia.

"Were they…" Amanda trailed off, and Fin shook his head.

"No. We all thought they were going to, hell we took bets on when they'd either get together or sleep together, but Elliot had a wife for a while, but then he didn't, then she came back, it was a mess." Fin said with a shake of his head, and Melinda clarified about Kathy Stabler, and Elliot's kids.

"I don't think we should tell him. Granted I don't really know the situation all that well, but it sounds like it would just ruin Olivia's day, and we can't do that to her." Amanda said decidedly, and the other four there nodded.

"Let's not even mention this to her, okay?" Melinda suggested, and the others nodded again and then Amanda's favorite song came on so she dragged Fin onto the dance floor.

And we've come to the end of this chapter! The next one will have a lot of the newly-engaged adorableness and along those lines. Don't worry, I've got a big plan for bringing Elliot into this story, he won't be a super huge part but he'll come back up again later.

Thank you so much for reading and I really hope you liked this chapter as much as you liked the last one and one before that and before that etc. I'll update as soon as I can!