The next morning was a little hectic. They'd received word that all public schools would officially be closed until at least April 20, after the upcoming spring break, with the unfortunate possibility of staying closed for significantly longer. Needless to say, most private schools were following suit.
The goal was to have distance education up and running within a week, the children getting their education online.
Discussing it, both he and Olivia decided to have Lucy come in as usual, but Rafael did decide to check in with his mother and see if she needed anything. She suggested taking the kids for the later half of the day to not only give Lucy a slight reprieve from looking after two kids but to give her something to do as well.
The new situation, for the time being, was staff members still going in and out of schools and making lesson plans for their pupils, so his mother did have some work to do, but the large majority of it would be entirely done from home.
Neither he or Olivia were surprised to find out Noah was excited about an extended vacation, regardless of the reasons why. Typical kid.
As far as work went, it'd been fine for the most part. His last motion hearing that morning could certianly have gone a bit better, but, to be fair, he'd expected the judge to rule in the defence's favour before he even walked into court. He understood, but that didn't mean he liked it. Still, he'd mostly expected the outcome, and his other two hearings had gone very much in his favour.
When Olivia knocked on his door at a quarter to twelve, he hadn't exactly known what to expect. He was pleased to learn, however, that the little undercover operation of Rollins' had gone off without a hitch, and that the sorry excuse for a man was currently being held in The Tombs, while the captain and sergeant showed him the video feed that they'd gotten.
If he had his way, and was honest with himself, the so-called doctor wouldn't be processed until the following day. The more vindictive part of Rafael wanted to let the man stew over everything for a good while.
He pushed that thought down though and focused on the video footage.
"Ah! Kim's sister," the doctor said, not long after she'd been led into the backroom, "As pretty as she is."
Rollins forced a small smile. "Thank you."
The esteemed doctor looked at the x-rays. "Hmm, ah, yes. There's a lot of bone on bone here. Arthritis." He eyed her. "I bet that smarts."
"None of the over-the-counter stuff even makes a dent," they saw and heard Rollins admit over the video feed, "but Kim said the Oxy works really well."
"All right," the man said, "and, uh, she told you how this works?"
"You mean the sex?" Rollins said rather more matter-of-factly then Rafael expected her to. "Yeah. But how many pills can I get?"
"Well, you're allowed a week's supply at a time," the doctor quickly replied, voice calmer now, "but if you have different ID, we get around that. Just take them to small pharmacies. My assistant has a list. Now, uh, just lie back on the table, pull up your skirt, and, uh, I'll be right with you."
"Excuse me!" Rollins called out a couple of moments later. The doctor seemed to be taking his sweet time, which wasn't the worst thing if they wanted back-up to be able to intervene. "Hey! So how much time do you need?"
"Soon," they heard the so-called doctor reply. "You'll be glad you waited."
He eyed Olivia. "How far did he get?"
"She's fine," Olivia assured him. Of course, he logically knew that, but he did relax some when she verbalized it. "Just watch."
Trusting her, he easily turned his attention back to the screen. Sure enough, only moments later Tamin and Fin were bursting through the door an into the room.
"Needle down," Fin called out, looking rather angry. Rafael couldn't blame the guy, honestly. "Hands up."
"I'm sorry, Dr. Capezio," the secretary exclaimed as her and the SVU detectives all burst into the room. "They're cops."
"What's this about?" the doctor said, clearly concerned.
"Like you don't know," Fin scoffed. "Zip up. You're going downtown."
Tamin grabbed the doctor. "Hands behind your back." She quickly cuffed him, guiding him out of the room. "Let's go."
Closing his laptop, he glanced at the NYPD captain, pleased with the detective's work that afternoon. "That couldn't have gone much better."
She smiled, tilting her head slightly as she did so. "Agreed. We've got him."
He tilted his head to the side slightly. "Set up a meeting, and we'll get this dealt with. Hopefully, sooner rather than later."
"Before that, however," she said, "how about some lunch?"
"Sounds good to me," he said, leaning in to give her a quick kiss.
When they separated, the couple started pulled out and rummaging around in their respective lunch boxes that they'd decided to start bringing to work with everything that was going on.
After they ate, the pair went their separate ways, Rafael throwing himself fully into the files on his desk, hoping he'd actually make it home by a reasonable hour.
He got pulled into several impromptu meetings with various ADAs and defence attorneys, but most of that happened over the phone and he'd been able to multi-task some, meaning he hadn't fallen quite so behind.
He then gave McCoy an update on the more important aspects and threw himself back into managing his files.
He'd barely realized what time it was when seven o'clock finally rolled around and Carmen, who had got pulled into a fair amount of overtime herself, popped into to say she was heading home, suggesting that, after the previous late night, he went home.
"Is that an order?" he deadpanned.
"A strongly tempered suggestion," she quipped, a small smirk on her face as she turned around to walk out the door.
He shook his head, amused. "Give me a minute and I'll walk you down. I just have to grab some things." Tonight was definitely going to be a work in the study until who-knows-when night, once the kid's were in bed, but, at least he'd been able to steal a couple of hours with his family.
He quickly scanned his desk, thankfully for the years of hands-on organizational training that he'd gotten in his time practicing law. He grabbed a small stack off to the side which was composed of files that were priority at the present time.
Throwing on his suit vest, and grabbing his set of keys out of the top drawer of his desk, he led the way out of office, bundle of manila folders firmly in hand.
Given home many people were now staying home, traffic was light and Rafael was walking through the doors of the townhouse in no time at all.
As he opened the front door, the smell of cooking immediately flooded his nostrils. It smelled like roasted potatoes and Swedish meatballs, if he had to take a guess. He started to take his shoes off when Noah threw himself at him. "Papi, you're home!"
"I am," he said, ruffling the young boy's hair, a warm smile showing on his face. "Cómo estuvo tu día, Mijo?" (How was your day, Mijo?)
"¡Muy divertido!" Noah quickly exclaimed with no shortage of enthusiasm. "Jugué muchos juegos de mesa y horneé un poco con Lucy. Abuelita y yo hicimos monstruos de cajas de pañuelos y medusa de plato de papel." (So much fun! I played lots of board games and did some baking with Lucy. Abuelita and I made tissue box monsters and paper plate jellyfish.)
"Me alegro de que te hayas divertido." (I'm glad you had fun.)
Olivia walked out of the kitchen, glancing at both of them fondly. "Dinner's ready boys. Hurry and go wash up."
"Vamos, hombrecito." With that, he grabbed Noah, gently swinging him onto his shoulders and walking towards the bathroom. (Come on, little man.)
