The next day or so passed quickly. They spent Wednesday at Zoo Miami as well as at Little Havana, and Rafael's mother had offered to watch the kids for them while both he and Olivia went to see a show at the Knight Concert Hall.
Thursday, they relaxed at their rental home until they had to make their way to his Aunt's for their New Years Eve. get-together. That evening, rather predictably, ended up being just as chaotic as Nochebuena.
His lovely wife still wasn't used to the Cuban New Years traditions, even though Olivia was somewhat familiar with them by now, so her reactions were more than a little amusing. They ate twelve grapes, drank sidra, threw buckets of water out the door, and just had a great time. Rafael even had to chuckle though when he saw three of the neighbourhood kids out in the street walking with their maletas.
Friday was a much calmer day, and come Saturday evening, the family was back home in rather chilly New York City. Noah wasted little time in running to the Christmas tree and asking if they could open presents.
Sunday came and went too quickly, in Rafael's opinion, and Monday, he woke up early to Sofía, who was clearly awake, playing in her bed. He showered, got dressed, picked up his daughter, changed her, and, while Olivia was showering, started to make his way downstairs. He noted that Noah was still asleep as well, so Rafael woke the boy up before continuing down to the kitchen. He then put the little girl in her high chair and poured her a cup of milk. He then got a fresh coffee started and got to work scrambling eggs and cutting up some fruit for her.
While Sofía was eating her breakfast, Rafael poured himself a coffee and sat down at the table for a moment to just drink his coffee and wake up a bit more.
At that point, a still slightly groggy Noah walked into the room and glanced between both Rafael and Sofía. "Buenos días." (Good morning.)
"Buenos días," he said, placing his coffee down on the table. "¿Estás emocionado de ver a tus amigos hoy?" (Good morning. You excited to see your friends today?)
"Sí," his son replied, the boy starting to look a bit more awake. "Ya elegí una historia para el show-and-tell." Noah had been wanting to take one of the pictures that they'd taken in Miami to school. (Yeah. I already picked a story for show-and-tell.)
He nodded. "Chévere." Rafael then took a bowl down for Noah placing it on the counter so that the boy could have some cereal. "¿Sigues tomando una de las fotos que tu mamá imprimió para ti para mostrar y contar?" (Cool. Are you still taking one of the photos that your mom printed off for you for show-and-tell?)
"Sí," Noah confirmed, walking over to the fridge to grab the milk before taking out the box of Froot Loops from one of the lower cupboards. "Oh, ¿adivina qué?" (Yeah. Oh, guess what?)
"¿Qué?" he inquired, taking a sip of his coffee. (What?)
The pair continued to chat over breakfast for another couple of minutes before Olivia joined them, quickly eating her own breakfast so she wouldn't end up running behind. It wasn't much later when Lucy walked in.
They talked with Lucy briefly, checking in and making sure they were all on the same page, and then Rafael had to run as he had an early meeting. Olivia needed to take Noah to school. So, quickly giving his family a peck on the cheek he said goodbye and rushed to the District Attorney's Office.
The meeting with Jack McCoy wasn't a long one and was pretty mundane, all things considered. Then, after a quick chat with Carmen, Rafael met with both Novak and Hadid to get updates from them. He then grabbed a coffee and proceeded to throw himself into the small mound of reports on his desk.
Thankfully, as he had been away, most things had been dealt with and assigned to someone else. He had some work, but with any luck, he'd be home by six.
He managed to get caught up with the paperwork and got updates from a few of his District Attorneys. He then texted back and forth a bit with Olivia, who was also having a slower day apparently and headed to her office to meet her for lunch.
As he walked into the squad-room, he noticed Olivia talking rather animatedly in her office, and all the detectives seated at their desks quietly watching.
Carisi immediately greeted him. "Hey, Barba."
He dipped his head slightly, a small smile on his lips. "Carisi."
"How was your trip?" Tamin asked.
"Good," he replies earnestly. "It was good to get away from the cold."
"Well," Tamin said, "I for one am jealous."
Rafael then turned his attention to Olivia, curious as to what was going on.
"E la famiglia come sta?" a man asked.
Olivia was clearly in a good mood and her hands were moving quite a lot as she spoke. Rafael's family had definitely rubbed off on her. She likely also didn't realize that the entire SVU squad could hear the conversation. "La famiglia è perfetta. In realtà siamo appena tornati a casa dalle vacanze."
He looked at Fin who just shrugged and turned his attention to what the man was now saying. "- in perfetta forma."
"Ah," Olivia replied happily, "molte grazie."
Rafael shook his head in amusement as he watched his wife talk rather animatedly to who he assumed was an Italian police officer.
"You're translating later," Rafael deadpanned, giving Carisi a look. Although, he could understand bits and pieces, a lot of the Italian went over his head.
Carisi just rolled his eyes with fond exasperation.
Rollins shook her head. "Patience is a virtue, Barba."
Now it was Rafael's turn to roll his eyes.
"Mi dispiace Olivia ma nessuno mi ha richiamato."
"Ah, dimmi. Dimmi."
"È una ragazza di Milano che studia a New York e scomparsa da un mese," the Italian officer said by way of explanation. "Maria Ferraro."
"Ok. Ok. Ok," she said. "Questa... Questa ragazza... quanti anni ha?"
"Venti anni."
"E quanti anni..." She tossed the pen that she'd been writing with down onto the desk. Olivia was clearly feeling a bit frustrated that she couldn't find the words she wanted and switched tactics. "¿Cuánto tiempo...? Oh, mi dispiace... Quanto tempo è passato dall'ultima volta che... è stata vista?"
Rafael smirked when he heard the Spanish slip, and grinned, even more, when she looked proud she'd figured out how to ask the question.
"Un mese," the Italian officer informed Olivia. "Guarda... È un casino che -"
The pair of officers continued to video chat for another moment before they finally heard the police captain say, "Sì, sì. Ciao, ciao."
Rafael walked to the office with Fin.
"Talking to the Italian police?" the sergeant inquired, watching Olivia close her laptop and glance up at them. "What do they want?"
Olivia raised an eyebrow, clearly amused and yet rather surprised by the inquiry at the same time. "Do you have my office bugged?"
"Well, you know I can see you from my desk," Fin said, "and when you speak Italian, and Spanish too actually, you move your hands around a lot."
Rafael shot Olivia a cheeky look. "And you weren't exactly quiet."
Olivia laughed, her good mood not dampened in the slightest by the content of the conversation, and proceeded to explain to the pair of men what exactly the earlier video call had been about. "Exchange student from Milan. Uh... Maria Ferraro. Twenty. Father hasn't been able to reach her. She was last seen a month ago."
"Isn't that missing persons?" Fin pointed out. Rafael had to agree. If it was a missing person, why were they requesting SVU's help?
"Yes," Olivia said, "and they've been deployed to protests."
Rafael nodded. "Ah." That makes sense.
"Inspector Rossi," she continued to explain, finally putting a name to the voice, "he's a friend of mine, and I owe him a few favours."
"Okay," Rafael said, "so did your Italian friend give us anything we can go on?"
"He did," Olivia confirmed, looking slightly more serious now. "The father thinks that she was living with roommates near StuyTown." The captain turned more towards her sergeant as she continued to speak. "I'll text you the address."
Fin nodded and started to turn around to leave.
"Mille grazie," Olivia told Fin.
Fin shot her a look before walking out. "Ciao."
She rolled her eyes and spoke a bit louder so that the other detectives could hear what she said next. "Carisi, tutta quella pratica con te ha... dato... i suoi frutti."
Carsi chuckled. "Sono sempre felice di aiutarti."
"Apprezzato," Olivia replied without missing a beat.
As the sergeant left the room, Olivia turned to Rafael and smiled. "So, shall we go for lunch, Husband of Mine?"
He grinned right back at her. "Lead the way, M'lady."
