Olivia sat in her office early on Wednesday morning and aimlessly looked for employment on a British website. The truth was she had no idea what she was looking for and her complete lack of contacts made searching for career opportunities that weren't being advertised nearly impossible.

It was about an hour before she usually came into work, but Noah had stayed with Lucia the night before and as soon as Barba had left for the airport, at a little after 4 am, both her bed and apartment had felt empty.

On hearing a knock on her open-door Olivia looked up and smiled when she saw Fin.

"Ya in early," Fin observed as he sauntered into her office and sat opposite.

"Noah had a sleepover and I felt a little unsettled," she admitted a half-truth, "…so I thought I'd come in and get some work done."

Fin shrugged, "Okay, so we need to move hard on Reynolds today. You want to call Barba and get a warrant, or…?"

"Barba is out of the office for a few days, but I'm on it, Hudson is stepping in while he's away..." Olivia scribbled down a note to make the call and then looked up to see that Fin had his eyebrow arched.

"Barba's never out of the office without notice, least not by choice. Something up?" He asked.

Olivia looked away and considered lying, but suddenly realised that she couldn't. Not to Fin. "He's had a job offer in England, so he went over for a few days to check it out."

"The UK? He's thinking about leavin'?" Fin was obviously shocked.

"He's…considering his options. It's a teaching post at Oxford - not something you just turn down without at least looking into it," Olivia explained, but she felt awkward about edging so close to the larger truth.

Fin took her clear discomfort to mean that his friend was upset. "Just like that? I thought maybe you and him. I mean, I thought you…" He paused and then bluntly asked his friend. "He's leaving you? For a job?"

Olivia sighed, "No. He's…" She looked up at him and smiled sadly, but now Fin could discern no trace of heartbreak in her eyes.

The detective tilted his head, "Ya leaving, ain't ya?"

Olivia winced at the shock in her friend's voice and slowly shook her head. "Nothing has been decided yet, it just hasn't been ruled out…"

"When did you two…?" He asked.

"The night we went for a drink?" Fin nodded so she continued. "I changed my mind and went to meet him at his office, and…Well, you know we've been heading here for a while," Olivia confided.

"So he wants you to just up and leave everything?" Fin sounded annoyed now.

"No, Fin," Olivia insisted firmly. "Rafa was completely ready to reject the offer. He would never even consider leaving us - but I asked him to look into it. He's taking a few personal days to go over as an advance scouting party."

"You asked him to go?" Fin was genuinely surprised.

Olivia sighed, "I love him, Fin, this is the real thing, once in a lifetime...and Noah adores him, you saw them together when Dodds came in last week."

Fin smiled, when she talked about him Olivia practically glowed. "Doesn't mean you should feel pressured into this," he pointed out. "If he loves you…"

"God, he really does," she insisted. "Rafa would drop the whole idea and stay here in a second if I asked him to, but doesn't that mean that I should be open enough to it least consider doing this for him?"

"Liv…" Fin started.

"It's not just about Rafa," Olivia emphasised. "I've lived in this city my whole life. I've never really had a family of my own, except the one that I've built for myself..." she smiled at him now. "Everything that has ever felt familiar to me, like home, has been attached to New York. I've never considered leaving that. Where would I even go? But now I feel like…" She trailed off.

"What, Liv?" Fin pushed her to continue.

"Maybe now is my time to consider moving on for a while? I know that my SVU family will always be here for me, but now I would be taking my family with me as well. It almost feels like I'd be leaving home for the first time." She smirked at Fin and he chuckled. "I mean, isn't it almost parochial? Living in one place my whole life?"

Fin laughed now, "You wanna leave home and go backpackin'?"

She rolled her eyes. "Maybe just try somewhere else for a while. It's only geography, Fin."

"What about us?" Fin smirked pointedly.

"Hey, when the kids leave home they still visit," she assured. "Oxford is not far from London...and practically speaking London is not far from New York. We could visit. You could visit. We'd have weekends and holidays."

"And this place?" Fin asked.

Olivia shrugged and glanced around her office. "This place would go on without me. The unit won't fall apart, Fin. A very wise friend of ours once told me that there's more to life than SVU...so maybe it's time that I go out there and see some of that for a while?"

"Liv…" Fin started.

"I'm going to need you to put in for your lieutenant's exam, you know you're years beyond ready and if this happens I want to be able to recommend you to take over the ship," Olivia explained.

"Liv, you know I don't want to…" He began to argue.

"I wasn't sure that I was ready at first, but with hindsight, I know that I was," Olivia argued. "You and Rafa helped push me to the place that I needed to be. Now it's your turn."

Her phone vibrated.

RAFA - On the flight. Patrick just sent these x

Olivia opened some picture files and gasped.

"What?" Fin asked.

"Look at these?" Olivia said and nodded for him to come around and look at her cell.

Olivia scrolled through the pictures.

— A beautiful detached house with a grey stone frontage and a green front door.

— A big kitchen with an island and family dining table

— A living area with a huge fireplace

— A garden filled with flowers and trees - with grass for Noah to play on

— A swing hanging from an oak tree, in front of a view of the rolling countryside and…sheep!

"What is this?" Fin asked.

"Rafa's been offered a house if he takes the job. It would be free for a year and then available to buy…" Olivia explained, still scrolling through the pictures.

"This is the place?" Fin looked closer.

"It's beautiful, like a storybook…" Olivia said with a little awe in her tone. "Noah hasn't even seen sheep in real life…hell, I'm not sure that I have!"

Fin laughed, "Looks like you have some thinkin' to do."

"Rafa and I have some thinking to do," Olivia corrected, "…once we know more we'll talk about this together. No pressure on either side. Neither one of us will be happy unless we know that it's what the other really wants, so I need to find a real role for myself as well…"

"Think you're halfway there, Liv," Fin smiled at her. He was genuinely happy that his friend could be getting a chance for a new start away from everything she had been through over the last few years, yet also sad that she might be moving on, "...you obviously know that your place is with him."

"Family is always family, Fin, nothing will ever change that," Olivia assured and then glanced down at her phone again. The pictures looked like a different world.

TBC…