The next two months seemed to just fly by. Sebastián, Fin, and Rafael all having October birthdays made for a very busy month when you also considered Halloween and everything else that was going on with work and life in general. November was little calmer with Noah, Jesse, and Eddie's birthdays and Thanksgiving on top of it all. His aunt and uncle had come down from Florida for a few days as well, which had been nice, even if they didn't exactly appreciate the cooling weather.

On the fourth, Rafael spent the entire day in court, more than a little happy when he got a guilty verdict for the felony sexual assault case. It hadn't been a case that he expected to win, given the less than ideal star witness for the case. He hadn't gotten guilty on all charges, but the accused, Michael Marchand, was going to be spending some significant time behind bars regardless, and Rafael could live with that.

Marchand was, to all appearances, a repeat offender and saw nothing wrong with what he was doing. In his mind, he was just a 'nice guy' who women owed sex to after he treated them to a nice date.

It never ceased to amazed Rafael how many delusional people like Marchand were out there. The line of thinking was completely abhorrent.

Getting off work at a decent time, which was very much a rarity lately, he wasted little time in driving home and spending time with his kids.

Olivia wasn't going to be home for another couple of hours, as something had come up at work, but Rafael wasn't about to complain about some one-on-one time with Noah and Sofía. Still, he hoped that his wife wouldn't end up working too late. Thankfully, he didn't have to be outside long, because it had been a chilly day as it was. Plus, with it being dark outside already the temperature had noticeably dropped. Thank God for the invention of contact lenses, because it annoyed him to no end when his eyeglasses fogged up. "¡Coño! Está chiflando el mono." (Damn! It's really cold out.)

The eight-year-old audibly snickered at Rafael's comment. "Escuché eso, papi." (I heard that, Papi.)

He rolled his eyes at that comment but, rather unfazed, started to take off his camel overcoat to hang it up. "Of course you did," he replied, switching to English for Lucy's benefit. "So, how was everyone's day?"

"Good," Noah replied. "Did well on my division test. Only a couple of mistakes."

"The word problems get you?" he inquired.

Noah gave him a look. "They suck."

He gave a little snort. "I didn't like them much at your age either. Sometimes they really make very little sense."

"I'll second that," Lucy chimed in.

Rafael finished hanging up his overcoat and turned to face his son, a warm smile on his face. "Anyway, good job there, Noah. Keep it up." He glanced down at Sofía who was now pulling at his pant leg. She then waved up at him, smiling brightly, when she noted the fact that she had Rafael's attention. "Hi there, mi princesa."

"Up!" the little girl said, looking up at him quite pointedly.

"Do you want up?" he inquired. "¿Quieres arriba?"

Sofía nodded her head ardently. "Up."

Picking up his daughter, he turned to Lucy. "And how was your day? Little Miss here didn't give you too much trouble, I hope?" Sofía had been a bit fussy the last few days as she was not feeling particularly well, but she had seemed to be doing a lot better this morning.

"She was really good," Lucy said happily. "She's definitely over the cold, although the teething's, understandably, bothering her."

He was admittedly relieved to hear that. "That's great. Liv and I were both getting a bit worried given Noah's history with Pneumonia."

She nodded. She had been there both times that Noah was hospitalized, so knew exactly what he was getting at. Thankfully, Noah hadn't had any scares like that in a few years. "Fair enough. Today was really good. She went down for a nap with little problem and then we -"

Eventually, Lucy left to go out for dinner with her fiancé. As the front door closed behind her, he turned to Noah. "¿Tienes hambre?" (Are you hungry?)

The eight-year-old nodded. "Sí." (Yes.)

"Luego iré a preparar la cena." He then gestured towards Noah's little lego project off to the side. "Puedes mostrarme lo que estás construyendo allí después." (Then I'll go make dinner. You can show me what your building over there after.)

"Será genial cuando esté listo," the beaming boy immediately informed him. He was clearly excited about his little project. (It'll be awesome when it's done.)

With Noah running off to finish building whatever it was he was making, Rafael picked Sofía up and set her in her high chair with her Wonder Color set which had become a bit of a lifesaver as of late. She loved it and the fact that it was mess free was a rather huge bonus in Rafael's world.

While she was occupied, he started rummaging through the fridge and cupboards. He ended up settling on white rice, fried eggs, avocado, and fried sweet plantains. He figured churros and hot chocolate would be a nice little treat for afterwards.

After they ate, Noah went to have a quick shower and Rafael started playing with Sofía and her blocks. Once Noah was done, the eight-year-old joined them in the living room. He showed Rafael the marble run that he'd built and then started playing with his Gravity Maze while he chatted with Rafael. Sofía babbled happily while playing but the little girl was still too young to really contribute to the conversation.

They continued spending time together, doing what they were doing, until it was time for Rafael to put Sofía to bed. By that point, she was having an exhaustion tantrum and definitely needed the rest.

He heard the front door open while he was trying to calm Sofía down and smiled to himself when he heard Olivia's voice as mother and son started chatting about something or other.

Once he finally had Sofía calmed down, he double-checked that the baby monitor was on and made his way back downstairs.

Walking into the living room, he pulled Olivia in for a kiss. "Hello, beautiful."

"Hello to you too," she replied happily. "So I hear you've had a nice evening?"

"We have," he confirmed with a relaxed smile. "I was actually about to make us some hot chocolate if you'd like one as well." They'd ordered in at the precinct given the later shift, and she'd let him know as much, so dinner wasn't an issue.

"Can we have churros too?" Noah asked eagerly. He knew that Rafael had bought some and had been wanting them for a while.

He chuckled. "That was the plan." He turned to his wife. "Liv? You in?"

"That actually sounds lovely right about now," she replied. "Thanks, Love."

He dipped his head slightly in acknowledgment and then glanced between his wife and son, still smiling warmly at the pair. "Then three hot chocolates coming right up."

"Oh!" Noah chirped. "Can we play a game?"

"What game did you have in mind?" Rafael asked.

"Mmm... HedBanz?" Noah suggested.

"Sure," Olivia readily agreed. "That sounds fun."

"Fine by me," Rafael chimed in.

"Go grab it from the cupboard, Kiddo," Olivia said. "We can set it up while your dad is making the hot chocolate."

"Okay!" Noah exclaimed before quickly running off to grab the game.