The next couple of weeks were hectic, between work and the kids. Sofía had a wellness checkup at the doctors, they had a home visit for her, and Noah had two birthday parties and a sleepover to go to. The birthdays were with friends from school and dance. The sleepover was with one of his friends from Los Amiguitos, the program Noah attended at the charter school.

Rafael had had trial dates for several other cases lately, spending a lot of his time in court, but waved motions on the Russo v. Ryan case, trying to get the trial to happen much sooner than later if at all possible. He'd also sat down for trial prep with Monica, hoping to help cooler heads prevail on the stand.

Needless to say, there had been more than a few late nights at work as he dealt with the never-ending stack of files that fell onto his desk.

He deliberately didn't call Monica Russo to the stand right off the bat, opting to have the cop who took her report testify to said report beforehand, something that would hopefully make her case that little bit stronger.

Officer Donahue hadn't been thrilled about the situation, but had respected the subpoena, nonetheless, and was honest and transparent about the little he knew.

"I had danced for him before," Monica explained when she finally took the stand, "and that night, I was paid to go into the champagne room, but getting raped was never part of the deal."

"If you could point out the man who raped you, once again, for the jury, please?" he said without preamble.

"Mm-hmm," she said with a slight nod before she pointed towards the defendant with her index finger. "That's him. Markeevious Ryan."

"Thank you, Ms. Russo," Rafael said before taking a seat.

Counsellor Barth made her way to where Rafael had been standing just moments before. "Just to be clear, Ms. Russo, and forgive me, I'm still getting the ins and outs of the stripper business -"

"Your honour!" Rafael objected.

"- But you were initially paid $800 that night?" the defence attorney continued, completely unperturbed.

"The club gets more than half of that," Monica explained.

Barth gave her a look that was hard to read. "But you accepted my client's $200 tip?"

"Okay," Monica said, trying to keep her voice level, "I was on autopilot."

"Just answer yes or no," Barth retorted.

"Yes," Monica said a bit icily.

"So you're saying that my client raped you," Barth said, "and then afterwards, you and the club collected $1,000."

"Objection!" Rafael scoffed. "Asked and answered."

The judge nodded. "Ms. Barth, move on."

"Happily," the woman said.

"Did you get a rape kit?" Barth inquired.

"The officer I reported it to told me there was no point," Monica retorted.

"Ah, yes, the missing police report," she said.

"Your Honour!" Rafael called out. "This has already been verified. The officer himself testified to taking her report."

"Agreed," the judge said. "Sustained."

"He also testified to the fact that he then threw that report out," Barth said, "when he decided that her complaint was unfounded."

Monica looked about to yell, so he gave her a look, telling her to be quiet and spoke up before she could proceed. "Which given the complete lack of any investigation, whatsoever, at the time, wasn't his call to make."

"Move on, Counsellor," the judge said, eyeing Barth.

The defence attorney nodded. "You consider yourself an artist, don't you, Ms. Russo?"

Monica gave a curt nod. "I am an artist."

"How many shows have you had?"

"It's really hard to get shows when you're starting out," Monica explained calmly, "especially in New York."

"So, none," Barth quipped. "And you've never sold any of your artwork, have you?"

He didn't like where this line of questioning was going at all.

"No," Monica admitted.

"In fact," Barth pointed out, "your biggest success as an artist to date has been that billboard. Isn't what you're really angry about? That you have to dance at a strip club for a living instead of working as an artist?"

"Objection!" he called out. "Badgering. Again! This is getting ridiculous, Your Honour."

Barth smirked. "Withdrawn. Nothing further."

Rafael looked up at the judge. "Redirect, Your Honour?"

Counsellor Barth had yet to put Markeevious Ryan on the docket, and he needed to force her hand and do some damage control while he was at it.

The judge nodded, and Rafael stood up walking to the center again. "Ms. Russo, does being called a liar, because you're a stripper, make you angry?"

"It makes me furious," she agreed.

"They can say whatever they want about you," he said. "Does that seem far to you when the man who raped you is just -" A vague gesture. "- sitting there, watching you be blamed."

"Objection," Barth said, her tone more frustrated.

"Withdrawn," he said. That's not why I said it. He smiled at Monica. "Ms. Russo, what do you think about the defendant? Right now." But don't overdo it. Remember everything we discussed during prep.

"I think he was a bully in the room," she said with a biting tone, "and I think he's a coward now. He doesn't have the balls to face me."

He gave her a look that said "shut the hell up now," and fought back a laugh, a self-satisfied look on his face when the defendant and defence counsel started softly bickering and a short recess was requested and granted.

He gathered up his files and met Olivia, Monica and the woman's fiancé outside.

"I know," Monica said when she saw him, not registering the look on his face, "you told me where the line was, and I crossed it. I screwed up."

"No, you didn't," he said smirking. "I led. You followed. It's often a risk, but I decided to play a round of poke the bear."

Olivia just shook her head.

"Why?" Monica inquired.

"You want him to take the stand," he said simply. "I want him to take the stand."

He didn't get to hear Monica's reply as their conversation was interrupted. "What the hell was that?" Barth sneered as she walked up to them. "Amateur hour? I would have expected better from you, Barba. You're gunning for contempt."

"Oh, go back to your rapist client," he shot back, smirk still on his face.

The sight of the woman storming off amused Rafael more than he'd like to admit.

"She's pissed," Olivia pointed out. "You got to her."

"Not me," he said. "Monica. My guess is it worked. Markeevious is pushing her to take the stand. She'll allow or risk being fired. He seems too prideful to take what happened up there laying down."

They had an hour before they were expected back in the courtroom, so went outside for a bit of fresh air, grabbing a sandwich from a nearby cart, before Olivia headed back to the precinct.

The following cross-examination couldn't have gone better.

"I didn't rape her," Markeevious said. "I just paid her for consensual sex."

"Thank you, Mr. Ryan," Barth said, taking her seat, while Rafael walked to where she'd been standing a few moments earlier.

"Now," he said rather pointedly, "it was your idea to go into the champagne room that night, was it not?"

The man nodded. "Yes. But she wanted to."

"Did she tell you that?" he inquired.

"Come on," Markeevious said as though it were obvious. "She's a stripper. I mean, I'm a celebrity. They all want a piece of me."

"I get it," Rafael said, moving onto his next question.

He hinted, none too subtly, at the other accusations the man's ex-wife had alleged and threw every punch he could think of. For a while, he didn't think his plan was actually going to work but eventually, Markeevious lost it. "Nobody says no to Markeevious!"

"And what happens if they do?" he inquired. "What if a woman has the nerve to say no to the great Markeevious Ryan?"

"It just means they want more money," the defendant said as though he was talking to a room full of bad cheese.

"Right, right," he said, "because, clearly, every woman wants a piece of you!"

"You're damn right!" the man exclaimed.

"Objection, Your Honour," Barth said, tone neutral except for the subtle hint of frustration she hadn't quite covered up.

The judge looked at Barth. "Overruled."

Rafael smirked. "No further questions for this witness."

It wasn't much longer before closing arguments and he was honestly more than a little relieved when the jury was finally dismissed for deliberations.

And he was even more relieved when three hours later the jury came back.

He readied a possible post-trial motion for the case, tried to reassure Monica, and replied to a couple of e-mails; also doing some personal texting intermittently as well while he waited for the verdict.

He had spent most of the time doing sudoku, however. A favourite go-to of his when he was forced to sit around waiting. He'd started it as a new prosecutor after his first couple of jury deliberations. He'd thrown up the first time and had done only marginally better the next few times before he found something to distract him.

Now it was more out of habit and boredom than anything.

This particular wait was definitely on the shorter end, but he was hesitantly optimistic that the jury's common sense would prevail. Markeevious had made his thoughts on Monica, and women in general, crystal clear.

"On the sole count of rape in the first degree," the judge said as the proceedings started once more, "how does the jury find?"

The spokeswoman looked straight at the judge as she spoke. "We find the defendant, Markeevious Ryan, guilty."

As they walked out of the courtroom, Monica caught is attention. She seemed slightly hesitant to speak, but that quickly faded. "Mr. Barba. Thank you."

He gave her a sideways smile. "Just doing my job."

"Were you really the one who found the billboard and reported it?" she questioned after a moment.

He nodded. "I was."

She looked at him inquisitively. "Why did you take my case when nobody else was listening to me?"

"Because rape is rape," he said simply. "Paid or not paid, that shouldn't matter."

She swallowed a lump in her throat. "Well, thanks. Again."

Olivia walked up to them, and the three of them chatted briefly before Olivia wished Monica luck, the younger woman taking her leave. "You did well back there."

He smirked. "Always that tone of surprise."

She chuckled. "Never, Love." She looked at him, smiling warmly. "Get Amanda to get a sitter and see if your mother can babysit?"

He nodded. "Squad night out?"

"It's been a while," she said with a smile.

He shook his head, chuckling. "You don't have to convince me."