Friday morning, Rafael had three hearings. With that being said, he did have a fairly open schedule for the rest of the day. Thankfully, one of his ADAs who had been on leave was now cleared to return to work, which was a major weight off of his shoulders.
Rafael didn't feel particularly bad about the man returning to a stack of pending cases on his desk, and was more than a little relieved, to be honest, by how much smaller his own pile of manila folders now was.
Lucy was also feeling way better and was in the clear as well, so had returned that morning, giving his mother a bit of a much-needed break. His mother had honestly been a lifesaver in more ways than one.
Noah's reaction at seeing Lucy again had been more than a little endearing, and both he and Olivia were glad to see her too. They did care about her and had been more than a little concerned when they'd gotten the call saying she'd taken ill. Suffice to say, the fact it had been a regular flu and she fully recovered was a huge relief.
It hadn't taken Lucy any time at all to jump right back into the swing of things either.
Lucy had Sofía in her arms, Olivia currently throwing a load of laundry on before she left for work herself. "Wave bye-bye to Daddy, Missy."
He shook his head, amused. "Have a good morning you guys. Do call if you need anything, Lucy, though I should be home around lunchtime."
The District Attorney's Office was operating within the office with a skeletal crew while most of the employees worked remotely from home when not needing to make court appearances etc. Rafael and McCoy were part of the skeletal crew, but even they were starting to work from home part of the day at least once a week.
She dipped her head slightly in acknowledgement, still smiling warmly. "We'll be fine, Rafael, so don't rush on our account."
He nodded before turning to face his son. "Be good for Lucy, and make sure you get your schoolwork done, okay?"
"Pero, Papi -" Noah whined. (But, Papi-)
"No te quejes, chico," he gently chastised. He ruffled the boy's hair as he did so. He switched to English once more for Lucy's benefit. "I want at least half of it done before lunch. You'll still have a lot of time to play, I promise you that." (No whining, Kiddo.)
Noah grumbled his response. "Ok."
He gave the boy a kiss on the forehead. "Te quiero." (I love you.)
A small smile formed on Noah's lips at that comment despite the earlier grumpiness. "Yo te quiero también, Papi." (I love you too, Papi.)
With traffic being as light as it was, there was no question about him being able to find parking at the courthouse easily. It was one of the few perks of the mess the city was currently finding itself in.
Arraignment court went well, and his plea hearing for a domestic went off without a hitch. They were definitely getting more domestic abuse cases lately with the majority of New Yorkers self-isolating at home while the city was on partial lockdown.
Many domestic violence victims were not getting to go to work or school. They'd lost their safe space, resources to get help being limited by the pandemic.
Victims would ordinarily wait to be by themselves before seeking help. They'd wait for their abuser to go to work. They'd secretly reach out to friends. They'd look for openings when they didn't have child-care obligations. All those options were closing down for many of them.
Thankfully, shelters in New York City were deemed 'essential services' and were still operating. However, many domestic violence service providers stopped seeing as many clients in person because of the virus and pivoted their services to hotlines, phone consultations and virtual sessions.
Many shelters also had a change in allowed capacity and that wasn't even getting to the mess of the children themselves who were well and truly cut off from those they could go to for help.
It was no surprise that abusers would take advantage of the increased vulnerability.
He had to stop by Olivia's precinct to get some documents, but that hadn't taken long and had been more of an excuse to see his wife briefly than anything else.
Once he was in his office, he replied to some e-mails and calls and threw himself into his files, rereading both The Violence Against Women Act and The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act for the umpteenth time.
A defence attorney called, requesting a meeting the following day, so Rafael ended up sneaking out slightly later than he had intended, but he still managed to be out of his office by half-past twelve.
Walking through the doors of the brownstone, he heard what was very clearly Depeche Mode playing. His lips quirked upwards with amusement and entered the main part of the house. Hearing voices coming from outside, he headed to the backyard.
"You know," he commented, "growing up in the 80s, my favourite bands were like U2, The Cure, and Depeche Mode."
"People may tease," Lucy quipped, adjusting her grip on Sofía as she continued to feed her a bottle of formula, "but they're not a bad band. I do prefer U2, though. They have some awesome songs."
"U2 was my band," he replied fondly. "Joshua Tree came out my junior year, actually. I got that Album almost immediately after it came out." He'd been working part-time while in high school and his mother had helped him scrape together the money, knowing it was something Rafael really wanted. They hadn't often been able to afford many extras, but his mother did what she could. He turned his attention to his son, who was sitting at the patio table, eating. "How was your morning, Mijo?"
"Good," Noah said, munching on a slice of red pepper. "I got a lot of my schoolwork done, and we played wiffleball." They'd bought Noah a set a while back, wanting him to have some more outside toys.
"I also brought some things from home for a little bean bag toss," Lucy added.
"Oh yeah!" Noah said, grinning. "That was fun!"
"I'm glad you had fun," he said, walking over to Noah and stealing a potato chip. "¡Qué rico! Now, who said you could have chips?"
"¡AY!" Noah exclaimed, laughing. "You bought them."
"I did, did I?" he shot back. "Then that was a very good idea." He pretended to steal another one off Noah's plate. He'd bought a lot of groceries, so they could actually cook, but he'd also bought some Kraft Dinner, ravioli, and hotdogs so there were a couple of easy items for them to whip together.
"Get your own," Noah retorted good-naturedly. "¡Es mi lonche!" (This is my lunch!)
He chuckled, trying not to roll his eyes at the Spanglish the seven-year-old had somehow picked up. He knew full well Noah knew the real word for it. "¡Está bien! ¡Está bien! Iré a buscar mi propio almuerzo." He deliberately placed an emphasis on the actual Spanish word, wanting to reinforce it. (Alright, alright! I'll go get my own lunch.)
Noah rolled his eyes when he caught the emphasis, but didn't comment.
Lucy shook her head. "Why don't you go grab some lunch and I'll go clean Sofía up and put her down for a nap?"
He dipped his head slightly, smiling. "I'll take you up on that. Thank you for this morning, by the way."
"Of course," she replied, making her way into the house with a now rather squirmy eight-and-a-half-month-old.
"Paaaaapi."
He turned back to Noah. "¿Sí?" (Yes?)
"Un bicho me mordió." The boy showed him his arms, and sure enough, there was a little red bump on the inside of the left one. (A bug bit me.)
He looked at it a bit more closely. "Hum, parece una picadura de mosquito, pero deberías estar bien. ¿Te está molestando?" (Hmmm, it looks like a mosquito bite, but you should be fine. Is it bothering you?)
His son shook his head. "No."
"Ok," he said. "Bueno, si es así, házmelo saber. Voy a la cocina. Querías algo mientras estoy adentro?" (Okay. Well, if it does, let me know. I'm going to the kitchen. Did you want anything while I'm inside?)
Noah immediately eyed his now empty glass. "¿Puedo tomar un poco de jugo de manzana, por favor?" (Can I have some apple juice, please?)
He wasn't exactly surprised by the request, nor bothered by it. They bought real fruit juice and only ever filled it halfway, topping it up with water so it wasn't overly sweet or sugary. "¿Ya tomaste un vaso?" (Did you already have a glass of it?)
"Solo uno," the boy admitted. "¡Por favor, Papi!" (Just one. Please, Papi!)
"Está bien," he agreed easily. It was hardly a big deal. "Pero solo uno más, ¿de acuerdo?" (That's fine. But only one more, alright?)
Noah seemed satisfied with that. "De acuerdo, Papi." (Alright, Papi.)
He ruffled the boy's hair playfully. "Entonces ya vuelvo." (Then I'll be right back.)
