Chapter 36 :

New beginnings :

Nine months have passed since Olivia spent her first Christmas with Amanda's family in Atlanta. After their rather intense love making session the two women found themselves waken up at six am by the twins knocking at their door, eager to open up their presents. After spending the entire day playing with the two little monsters and enjoying the rest of the family, Olivia and Amanda flew back to New York and went back to work the very next day.

About a month later, after giving her notice to her landlord, Olivia finally moved in with Amanda in her small one bedroom appartement. At first, the prospect of not having a safe place to go to in case of a fight frightened Oliva, but as time slowly passed, the brunette came to realize that their relationship had reached such a level of happiness, communication and mutual trust, that there was no reason for them to ever feel the need to escape their love nest.

So, after a few tremulous first weeks of getting accustomed to this new living arrangement, of learning how to live together for better or worse, the two women were now living in perfect harmony. After living in a functional but impersonal appartement for over a year and a half, Amanda had finally started to enjoy going shopping with Olivia to try to accomodate it and transform it into the perfect love nest. Both women, whom had never particularly enjoyed shopping, slowly grew very found of spending hours online or in stores trying to find the perfect beddings, towels or kitchen accessories. For the first time since she had moved to New York, Amanda was actually looking forward to go home at night, draw herself a hot bath, light up some perfumed candles, and dive in with Olivia. For the first time in years, both women were finally exploring this life outside of work they had been neglecting for so many years, and they were loving every minute of it.

"Why are you already up? Do we have a case?" Amanda yawned as she took a quick look at her alarm clock. It was only seven o'clock but it seemed that Olivia was already dressed up and on her way to work.

"No, I have some errands to run. Go back to sleep and I will see you at work." Sitting on the edge of the bed, Olivia leaned over and kissed Amanda's forehead before tucking her back in.

"Nah, I'm awake now, not that wouldn't love to sleep in, God knows you completely worn me down last night." Sitting up in bed, Amanda tried to gently warm her body up by rotating her head clockwise and stretching her arms, only to feel her entire body ache after their passionate night.

"What can I say? I don't think I'll ever get tired of making love to you." Over the past nine months, Olivia and Amanda had continued developing their relationship, explore their sexuality and to take the time to listen each other's desires and deepest fantasies. At first, Olivia was more than reluctant to the idea of completely letting go and making love to Amanda in a more passionate fashion, but the more time passed, the more comfortable and the less scared she was of hurting Amanda again she became.

"Me neither, now go before I rip those clothes off your body." Truth be told, Olivia had satisfied Amanda right from the first time they made love but unfortunately the brunette was, at least at first, a little too " vanilla" for the blonde's and it had taken her months of love and patience to slowly bring the brunette to embrace their sexual relationship to its fullest. Fortunately, now that they were both on the same page, every single time they made love was more intense and satisfying than the time before and neither of them seemed to run out of new ideas to spice up their sex life.

About an hour and a half later, Amanda arrived at the station, disappointed to see that Olivia had not arrived yet.

"Morning partner, where's your better half?" Over the past year, Fin had witnessed Amanda literally coming out of her shell and not only defeating her gambling addiction but also turning into this highly confident, happy young woman and while he still had trouble understanding how Olivia and her had managed to fall in love, he was delighted that both his favorite ladies had found happiness.

"She had errands to run and left early. I thought she'd be here by now though." Pouting, Amanda took her jacket off, tossed it on the back of her chair and sat down.

"I know that face, the two of you had a fight." One of the consequences of knowing Olivia for almost 15 years and being so close to Amanda, was that Fin had become their personal confident and while he was at first slightly uncomfortable putting his nose into their personal business, he had learned to enjoy this proof of trust and was doing his very best to help them whenever they needed.

"No, we spent the week up state in a very cosy bed and breakfast and actually found two new friends in the two owners but she has been pretty distant for the past two weeks." When they moved in together, to avoid falling into a domestic and boring life, Olivia and Amanda had agreed to treat themselves with a romantic week end at least once a month and while their rather intense jobs made it hard to plan anything in advance, they had managed to get away for two entire days and enjoy a well deserve rest after a particularly exhausting case.

"Well to be fair, that last case was pretty intense for all of us but investigations involving kids are always tougher on her, you know." The truth was, Fin knew exactly why Olivia had been so distant and while he couldn't wait to see Amanda's reaction once she'd figure out why the brunette was behaving that way, seeing her scratching her head like that was too much of an entertainment for him to spill the beans, not to mention that he didn't want to lose Olivia's trust.

"I guess, I think she might be a bit nervous about our first anniversary." Over the past year, Amanda had discovered just how thoughtful and romantic her girlfriend was and how vivid her imagination was when she wanted to surprise her with a dinner or buy her a present and she couldn't only imagine just how spectacular their anniversary was gonna be.

"Well, you have to admit you are kinda high maintenance." Grinning at his partner, Fin, who knew exactly what Olivia's plans were found himself almost proud of his old partner. Over the past 15 years he had witnessed her fight her demons and struggle to find herself as a cop and a woman and he was relieved that after so many unfortunate and failed relationship, she had finally found someone willing to support her through thick and thin and was confident that her surprise would blow Amanda's mind away.

"I'm not high maintenance, it's just... I'm so used to see her surprise me in ways I never thought was possible that I might have rised my expectations along the way." While Amanda had gotten used to Olivia displays of affection, she still found herself moved to tears every single time and she knew that what ever the brunette had planned would be spectacular and could only hope the gift she had gotten her would have the same effect on Olivia.

"Women, can't live with them, can't live without them." Fin replied, shaking his head.

About thirty minutes later, Olivia finally arrived at the station.

"Hey Fin, where's Amanda?" Stepping into the precinct, Olivia was happy and relieved, every details of her big surprise had come together nicely and she couldn't wait for Amanda to see it.

"She left for court ten minutes ago. So have you arranged everything?"

"Yes, I have. She doesn't suspect anything does she?" To put this surprise together, Olivia had to disappear several times over the past few weeks and try to find a good excuse every single time.

"She knows you're planning a surprise for your anniversary but she has no idea what it is but can you please take her out for dinner or something cause she also thinks you're being distant and God I would rather slit my own wrists than listening to her rambling about it."

"Sorry Fin. I guess I have been a bit distant lately, not that I'm not 100% sure that what I'm about to do is the right choice for us, I guess I just needed to consider things carefully and take my time to plan everything. Thanks for your help, I couldn't have done it without you." Olivia had always been very self sufficient and while she had confided in Eliot or Fin in the past, she, up until dating Amanda, had never really sought any advice regarding her personal life. Things were different now, she was in a serious and committed relationship and while communication between her and Amanda was great, she couldn't afford to pretend having all the answers anymore.

"You're welcome, just name your first child after me if it's a boy and we'll be even." With a fail marriage under his belt and a still complex relationship with his son, Fin was certainly no expert but his close relationship with both women allowed him to advice them pretty accurately without ever taking a side.

"We'll see about that." For years Olivia had denied herself the slightest bit of happiness but those days were over. Thanks to Amanda, she had learned that opening up and asking for help didn't make her weak, and that her strong determination to be a better person than her parents was all that mattered, that she was destined for so much more than what her DNA had programmed her for. Now, almost a year after she started dating Amanda, there was no doubt in her mind that the choice she had made two weeks earlier was the right one and she could only hope that the blonde would share her enthusiasm.

Hi guys. This was a short transitional chapter that introduces you to the second arc of this story. As you can see, I decided to jump a few months and start this new arc a year after Olivia and Amanda started dating. I know I dragged things in the first part but now that I have a very clear idea of who those characters are and that I have found a pretty good dynamic for their relationship, I can assure you that this arc is going to be more straight forward and fast paced.

I have many plans for Liv and Amanda, some fun, some dramatic and I can not wait for you to read it!

What do you think Olivia's big surprise is?