The rest of the vacation seemed to fly by, and before they knew it, that Saturday arrived and they were cleaning the AirBNB, packing, saying goodbye to everyone, and making the trip back to New York. They flew to LaGuardia, catching a night o'clock flight out of Miami, which got them in NYC by noon, just in time for lunch.

Carisi had been kind enough to play Santa and make sure Noah's gifts from Father Christmas were under the tree for when they got home, excluding anything labeled otherwise, which Olivia and Rafael would put under the tree later.

Sunday was calmer, but was a bit of a catch up day in some regards. Still, they mostly hung around the house playing games and such. They had a few visitors in the afternoon who came for a visit and a few more gifts were exchanged, although they mostly took things easy that day, except for a brief shopping trip Rafael needed to do so that they actually had groceries; Olivia making a roast and potatoes for dinner, with some warm berry cobbler for dessert and several mugs of hot chocolate to go around.

They were chatting while eating and Noah decided to grace them with some odd jokes of his, that were weirdly amusing.

The young boy was particularly fond of one. "Why shouldn't you tell an egg a joke?"

"I don't know," Olivia said. "Why?"

"It might crack up," Noah said with a snicker, causing both adults to groan and laugh.

Rafael looked at Noah, smirking. "So, why was everyone in the kitchen upset with the sous chef?"

"He sued them?" Olivia guessed.

He shook his head, amused.

"Why were they upset?" Noah asked, grinning.

"Because he kept roasting everyone," Rafael said with a snicker.

Olivia shook her head, amused. "I don't know you two."

Noah laughed. "Oh, you love us." He turned to Rafael again. "What was the first thing Luke Skywalker said to the diners at his new restaurant?"

"What?" Rafael said indulgently, as he already knew the answer.

"May the forks be with you!"

Olivia rolled her eyes, and Rafael just chuckled before saying another joke. "What bummed out the shredder?"

"What?" Olivia drawled, much to Rafael's amusement.

He made a show of answering. "Not being grater!"

Olivia threw her face in her hands, laughing, as father and son high-fived rather enthusiastically. "I can't believe you're actually proud of that joke."

He smirked, but leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. "That's the only way it works, Cariño mío."

When Monday finally came around, Noah woke them up early, excited to get to finally open his presents. Both adults shook their heads, amused, and quickly took a shower, telling Noah to get dressed and meet them in the living room.

Rafael quickly picked out one if his plainer suits. A plain white dress shirt, black suspenders and matching jacket, and a lilac tie and matching pocket square to complete the outfit. He checked his hair again, much to Olivia's amusement, and made his way out to the living room.

Noah excitedly opened his gifts and gave them both theirs. The gifts were crafts that he'd made in art class at school for them, which was really sweet. He'd done quite a good job, and the thought was definitely appreciated.

Olivia made pancakes for breakfast while Rafael helped Noah to put away all his toys, and changed Sofia before Olivia took Noah to school and Rafael ran to his office, needing to get into work as soon as possible, knowing he'd be working late otherwise.

"Well, you've certainly got some colour again!" Carmen said. "How was vacation?"

"It was nice," he said, giving her a warm smile. "How was yours?"

"Chaotic, but nice," she said. She passed him his schedule for the day, before going over a couple of the finer points.

Rafael spent the morning in several meetings regarding various cases of his that were still open and making sure he was up to date on everything else that was and had been going on. Unfortunately, one of his cases that Novak had taken to court had been lost, but everything else was well on track to where they needed to be.

He'd managed a quick working lunch before meeting with Casey Novak - who still has to be involved as co-counsel - and Rita Calhoun over a case, as apparently one of the witnesses for a case had disclosed something to Novak that morning which definitely helped the prosecution's case in more than one, although complicated things.

Rita had immediately requested a meeting, and she had been generous enough to suggest an actually decent offer. In the end, they'd actually agreed to consider it, telling her they'd have an answer by six o'clock that evening for her regarding the aforementioned deal.

Both Novak and him were actually considering taking it, because they didn't think the victim herself would hold up on the stand, but it was a hard call, given the otherwise strong case that was being built.

With that overwith, he'd poured himself another coffee, and started hitting the books, trying to look for legal precedent that would further help the case.

Eventually, he was called down to the 1-6 as they'd caught a case.

Leon Levac, 27, was facing two counts of sexual assault and two counts of sexual interference against a 14-year-old girl if Rafael got the indictment he wanted, which was rather likely.

The teen, Ashley Sinclair, alleged that she met Levac in the weight room at the West Side YMCA in October of 2019.

Levac allegedly approached her first to ask for her number. From there, the two started texting and messaging on social media. They also met up at the gym a few more times.

The teenager said she asked Levac to train her and didn't view their relationship as much more than that.

"She thought more about him as a trainer than anything else," Olivia had continued to explain. "That same month, she went to Levac's house twice, thinking they were just going to "hang out" as friends. Now she says that not once but both times she was there he carried her into his bedroom and had sex with her."

"She was too scared to fight back or say no," Rollins explained, making a vague gesture. "She thought he was going to hurt her. But she did say, 'I wanted him off. I wanted to go. I regretted it, but I didn't say anything.'"

"And this guy has a history of violent sexual assaults," Carisi added. "In November 2017, and advisory, warning the public that he was a high-risk re-offender, was issued."

"Saying?" Rafael inquired.

"The advisory stated he had never completed programming to address his risk factors while incarcerated and did not make any progress in reducing his risk to re-offend," Officer Tamin said. "Levac was bound by a number of conditions, including a curfew."

"- having no contact, either directly or indirectly, with any of his victims," Fin added. "But I doubt a guy like that would listen."

"Those conditions were still in effect during the time of the alleged assaults," Olivia explained to Rafael, "which prompted Levac to disclose his sexual assault history with the teenager apparently."

"So he's delusional and thought they were actually in some sort of relationship?" Rafael inquired, a clear note of disbelief in his voice.

Fin gave him a rather pointed look. "Like I said..."

He shook his head. "Ok, so the victim claims Levac told her he had been charged with three previous sexual assaults and had been to jail." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "And she still let herself be alone with him?"

Tamin shrugged. "She's trusting. She thought he'd changed."

He sighed. "This'll be a slice." He looked at all the detectives. "When this goes to court, the defence'll move to have Levac's history rendered inadmissible." He shook his head. "Weight of evidence is on our side, however."

The captain looked at him, nodding. "She's credible, Counsellor. I believe her. She's naive, but not malicious."

He nodded. "Statutory rape is a given here," he said. "Especially if we can get Levac to admit to any sexual contact whatsoever. However, I'd actually prefer to pursue different charges. This wasn't statutory. It was plain rape. Period." He looked at Tamin and Rollins. "Talk to her parents. Her teachers. I want it ascertained that this isn't some teen girl acting out, which is exactly what the defence will claim." He looked at Carisi and Fin. "Do me a favour and revet this guy, detectives. And if you can find me other victims, who are willing to talk, even better."

Olivia gave a look of mixed amusement and something else he couldn't quite place. "Well, what are you waiting for?" A soft chuckle. "You heard the guy." She gave a couple other directions to the detectives before they started to leave. Once everyone was done talking, she turned to Rafael. "Counsellor, walk you out?"

He nodded, readjusting his tie and throwing his camel-covered overcoat on. "By all means." He drank the last sip of his coffee. "Happy to be back yet?"

She gave a little snort. "Ecstatic."