The new apartment had all of their furniture now.

Noah had asked Aspen to help him decide how he should put his furniture and the two of them were deliberating and talking about what Aspen would like for her room.

She also couldn't stop talking about her shopping trip with Amanda. She apparently had an amazing time.

"I can't find the good knife I like," Rafael complained as he looked through the boxes of kitchenware.

"The big one?" Liv asked as she got up from the barstool on the other side of the island.

"The one I always use to chop onions."

"At my house or yours?" She inquired as she started poking at boxes.

"Yours," he snorted, "as if I had more than one steak knife."

She looked over at him, "you're a phenomenal cook and you barely had any pots or pans or knives."

"I barely ever cooked," he replied as he pulled plates out and started putting them away, "I was barely ever home."

"What the hell did you do during COVID?" She chuckled.

"Practically lost my mind," he responded as he hanging putting pots and pans from the rack that hung over the island.

Liv looked in one box and produced the knife he'd been looking for.

"Ah, thank you," he smiled and took it from her to continue making dinner.

The new apartment wasn't quite finished, they knew there was a lot of things they would need but for now, they had all of their own things and were settled in.

"Okay," Liv sat back on her stool, "we need a dining table and chairs, bedroom furniture for Aspen and for the twins' room."

"I'd like to find a chair or two for my office, depending on the size."

"For who?" She looked up, "you're not going to be taking meetings in our bedroom."

He laughed, "for the kids. If they want to come and talk or anything like that while I've got work to do."

Her heart melted a bit, the idea of him thinking so much about wanting to spend so much time with the kids made her so happy. She looked over at him, the hoodie and sweatpants he was wearing as he cooked. How relaxed he looked, how happy he looked. It made her even more certain.

Rafa could see the way she was looking at him adoringly rather than working on her list. He didn't know what he'd done that warranted the soft look across her features but he wished he could figure it out so he could do it more. When Liv looked at him adoringly like that it made him feel so special and important and good. He didn't mention it, though, he just kept working on dinner.

"Momma! Rafa! Come look at my room!" Noah came out of his room.

Liv slid off her stool and the two of them walked over to Noah's door and peeked into the bedroom.

"This looked great, Noah," Olivia smiled.

"We'll see about getting you a few posters," Rafael noted the blank walls.

"Okay!" Noah clapped.

"I can't wait for us to get to do my room," Aspen grinned, "this was so much fun."

Rafael was happy to hear Aspen say that, he'd been worried that she would be upset that they hadn't had a chance to get her any new furniture yet.

"Do you want to look at some furniture and see what you like for your room?" Liv asked the young girl.

"Can we?"

Liv smiled, "yeah! Let's go, we can look on my iPad," and she held her hand for the little girl to take.

Aspen grabbed Olivia's hand and followed her from the room excitedly chattering about the kind of furniture she thought she would like.

Rafael turned to Noah, "want to help me with dinner?"

"I don't really know much about cooking," Noah sounded a bit nervous.

"That's okay, I'll teach you."

After a moment of considering, the boy nodded.

Rafa took the time to show Noah how to chop vegetables. Noah took to it rather quickly, but Rafa kept an eye on him as he continued working on the other parts of their dinner.

After dinner, Noah decided he didn't want Aspen spending the night in a big empty room with only the camping cot and pulled it over to his room. He was worried the room with nothing in it would be too scary.

Once they were both settled in, Rafa read them a bedtime story and then joined Liv in their new bedroom.

"Hey," she smiled as she sat her book on the bedside table and her glasses on top of the book.

"Hey," he smiled and wrinkled his nose slightly, "what're you reading?"

He leaned against the couch that had been in his old apartment and was now in their room.

"I, uh," she laughed slightly, "grabbed one of your books from the shelf in there."

"So is it a law textbook, law manual, or a garbage romance novel?"

"You read garbage romance novels?"

"What can I say? I'm a romantic," he snorted and winked at her before heading into the closet, he left the door open as he dug through the boxes of his clothes.

"It's a forensic psychology book," Liv informed him.

"Oh," he poked his head to look through the door, "which one?"

She moved her glasses and held the book up for him to see.

"That one's interesting," he responded as he disappeared again, he was gone from her vision for a moment and then came out in pajamas, "I actually refer to that one a lot."

"It looked the most worn," she smiled, "it's why I grabbed it."

"Well, I have a plethora of law books in there," he flipped the lights off and then climbed into the left side of the bed.

Liv always made sure to leave him the left side, front the moment they started sharing a bed. She knew he preferred it because as a child it was further from his bedroom door and he just never stopped and she wasn't about to force him to. She didn't mind or have a preference, she just liked sharing a bed with him.

Rafa didn't mention that she let him have the left side, he knew he'd mentioned it once a long time ago when they discussed her mother and his father and the way their childhoods had gone. He knew that she remembered that comment because she was always careful to leave him the left side. He wouldn't mention it because it was a painful memory to look back on, the reason he liked to be away from his bedroom door, but he appreciated the little gesture far more than he'd ever be able to show her.

"I'm sure I'll glance at them every now and then," she put the book back on her nightstand.

"Maybe you'll be a lawyer when you grow up," he chuckled slightly as he turned on his bedside lamp and grabbed the file he'd placed on his nightstand.

Liv liked the way the warm yellow of the lamp lit up Rafa's eyes, "Fin said he thinks I should come back to the office Wednesday, so I'll be able to be with the kids tomorrow morning while you're in court and then Aspen's furniture is being delivered in the afternoon."

"I'm glad you found some that she liked earlier," he grinned, recalling he excitement, as he flipped open the file.

"Last minute prep?" She inquired.

He nodded, "I have all of my notes ready, I believe, but I want to make sure I thought of every angle."

"I miss helping you with that."

"Really?" He looked over at her, "I thought I was a pain in the ass always going over everything over and over and over and over again."

"I never said you weren't a pain in the ass," she laughed, "I just said I miss it. Some of my favorite memories are from nights spent far too late at your office, crappy chinese, and a bottle of scotch."

He smiled, mostly to himself, "those are the nights that made me realize I was in love with you."

"It almost always ended in us being too tipsy to discuss the case and talking about life," she laughed, "how could you ever end up in love with someone who sobbed in your office on several occasions?"

"Someone who sobbed alongside me on several occasions," he corrected as his eyes skimmed over the file.

"That's fair," she laughed again.

He loved making her laugh, he loved her laugh. His eyes froze on the file, on something he hadn't noticed before. Something that wasn't in his notes.

"What?" Liv sat forward, looking at his face.

"My whole argument is fucked," he snatched the file and threw the blanket off and rushed to his little office.

"I'm not allowed to help, right?" Liv called after him.

"No, you're not," he returned with a stack of files and papers and started spreading them across the bed, "you're really, really not. But this goes to court in…"

She glanced at the clock, "ten hours."

"Shit," he scrambled back to his office, "so I really cannot tell you about this case. It's incredibly sensitive."

"Right," she said.

"But, I need your help," he came back with a yellow legal pad and several pens.

"You're a defense lawyer and I'm a cop. If I help you at all I could-"

He interrupted her, "no, no. Not forming an argument. I just need you to write things down for me. You've seen my notes, you know how I like them organized."

"You're picking jurors tomorrow morning, right?"

"Yes, so literally every question I had for voir dire is irrelevant now," he dug through the files, "I just found something that completely demolishes the prosecution's case if I do this right."

"So why not try for a deal?"

He snorted, "the ADA on the case has his head in his ass on his best days, let alone on his worst."

"Alright, well, what do you need from me?"

"I need you to take this," he handed her the legal pad and a pen, "and write down everything I say but retain none of it, alright?"

"I think I can do that," her brow furrowed, "or try anyway."

"You can't go near this case with a ten foot pole, anyway. It's a Staten Island case, but still. Don't."

She nodded and sat with the notepad on her lap and pen at the ready.

Rafael's words were fast and she had to ask him to repeat himself more than once as he paced and wrote things on color-coded index cards.

Olivia's notes were neat, though. Organized the way his always were with stars next to important things and asterisks next to important names. At one point a name appeared enough times that she asked him for a highlighter and he agreed that it should be highlighted. She did pretty good at not retaining any of it, as well, he was speaking too fast and she was too focused on writing to have any of it fully sink in other than a few repeating names that were common enough that she would likely never pick them out of a list.

Around three in the morning he finally slowed down. He flipped through his note cards and then took them to the floor at the end of the bed and began laying them out the way he would on the defense table in a few hours.

"My hand hurts," Liv complained playfully.

"Give me ten more minutes and I'll massage your hand and kiss it better," he mumbled, clearly not thinking too much as he moved the note cards around a few times.

She smiled, watching the way he was focused, that was the Rafa she fell in love with. The one who's face fell into absolute concentration, the one who heard what you said and could respond but would not have any idea what was said in five minutes when he was no longer concentrating. When he was in the zone it was fascinating to watch.

Of course, she wasn't particularly a fan of him fighting for the dark side, potentially keeping bad people out of prison. She did know that there were innocent defendants, from time to time, and she was proud of him for representing those people. It was the ones who weren't innocent that worried her.

He stood, "can I see the notes?"

She held the notepad out to him, silently.

He paced as he looked over the notes, his slippers padding against the floor rhythmically. Step, step, step, step, turn, step, step, step, step.

Liv felt herself slowly beginning to be lulled to sleep by the rhythm.

Rafael started cleaning up his notes and organizing them into his briefcase. When he finally looked back at Liv, he saw she'd dozed off with her glasses on. His face softened with adoration. Once he'd finished cleaning up and put everything in his office, he made his way to her side of the bed and carefully sat on the edge.

"Liv," he reached and very gently slid her glasses from her face and put them back on her bedside table, "Liv, my love."

She startled just a bit and then looked at him, "I'm sorry, did I mess up the notes?"

He shook his head and gave her a smile, adoration still filled his eyes, "no, darling. They're perfect, as if I did them myself. We can rest now."

She nodded sleepily, "I'm glad I did them right."

"You did wonderful. I really, really appreciate your help. I'm sorry for getting distracted our first night in this room," he said softly.

She reached and took one of his hands, "no, no. I love how passionate you are about your work. I like watching you work. It's fascinating."

"So fascinating it put you to sleep?" He chuckled as he got up and moved to his side of the bed, crawling back in.

"It's late," she countered.

"I know, my love, I know," he smiled over at her, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," she smiled in return, "sleep now?"

He nodded and leaned to turn his bedside lamp off, now.

She did the same and then curled up against him.

Rafa's alarm going off at eight in the morning made Olivia groan, and roll over.

"Turn it off," she grumbled at him.

"I'm sorry," he chuckled tiredly, turning it off.

"Rafa," she sighed, "stay in bed with me."

"I can stay for ten minutes," he smiled and pulled her against him, "but we're going to have four growing children to feed, somebody has to work."

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm not telling you to go to work," his eyes went wide.

"Mhm," she sighed, "can't believe you're trying to get rid of me, banish me to the office."

"Never," he smiled and pressed a kiss to her head.

"Remember the speech you gave outside the courthouse?" She sounded exhausted.

"When I was leaving?" He was confused as he often was when she pulled memories from thin air.

She nodded, "you kissed my head and then you just left."

"I know."

"I considered going to your apartment so many times that night to ask you to stay," she whispered.

"But you didn't."

"No."

"Why?"

"I was worried that if I asked you to stay, for me, you'd later resent me for not giving you time to find your way back on your own."

"I could never resent you, Liv."

"You don't know that."

"I do," he smiled crookedly, "I have never felt anything other than awe and adoration toward you. Maybe a slight irritation every now and then from your stubbornness, but primarily it's nothing but awe and adoration."

She shook her head and rolled her eyes at him, "you're gonna do great today."

He looked over, "trying to ignore the defense part?"

Shrugging, she sighed, "it's a job, Raf. I don't love it… but I love you."

He was quiet for a few moments, "I think if there was an opening at the DAs office, I would take it."

"Really?"

"Probably."

"It's hard, though," she whispered, "like you said… the hours were so crazy and exhaustive."

"Yeah," he sounded sad, tired.

"It's a difficult job," she reached up and brushed her fingers along his jaw, "being a lawyer is no easy task, Raf. I'm not going to be upset with you for whichever side you work for. I might disagree with some of the cases you take, but I was wrong to tell you not to take the Wheatley trial. I understand now, I wish I had then."

His eyes fell closed and he leaned into her touch on his face, a soft sigh leaving him as he relaxed, "it's okay… I made a decision and I knew it would catch me flack. I just didn't think it would go on as long as it did."

"It's better now," she breathed out.

"Much," he mumbled, tilting his head to kiss her wrist.

"Is my ten minutes up?" She searched his features, his closed eyes and the slight downturn of his lips.

"Probably," he sighed again, "I have to shower and head out."

"We'll be here when you get home," she reminded him, "no empty apartment…"

"No empty apartment," he opened his eyes and looked at her, "a family, an apartment full of children laughing… full of love."

She gave him a smile, her hand slipped through his hair and rested at the back of his head, pulling his forehead to hers gently, "I love you, Raf."

"You're worried about something."

"I'm always worried," she mumbled, her eyes fell closed.

"What about this time?"

"I worry any time anyone I love goes out into the world," she whispered, "there's such scary things that happen in the world every single day."

His heart hurt as he heard that, he often saw Liv as this strong person who didn't fear much. She ran into dangerous situations everyday and put herself in harms way for others everyday, but the moment someone she loved could face any danger it worried her.

"It worries me when you go into work," he whispered, "there were days I knew you were going into the field and you might not come back and that idea terrified me, too, Liv."

She let out a soft sigh and looked ay him, "please, please, be careful today?"

He moved to brush his nose lightly against hers, "I'll be safe. I have to go shower."

She let go of him and pressed a gentle kiss to the edge of his mouth, "I love you."

"I love you, Liv."

Olivia stood in the kitchen with a cup of coffee in one hand and a wooden spoon in the other as she watched the eggs she was making for breakfast.

Neither Aspen nor Noah had made an appearance yet this morning and she was grateful that it seemed they were sleeping in.

Distantly, she could hear the sound of Rafael singing in the shower. He'd picked some tune from Hamilton to be focused on this morning and she smiled to herself as she listened.

"Momma," Noah shuffled from his room, rubbing at his face.

"Yes, sweet boy?"

"Are you working today?" He asked as he walked over and climbed onto one of the stools at the island.

"No, honey, I'm not. I'm going back Wednesday, is that okay?"

"That sounds good," he nodded and rested his elbow on the counter and his chin on his hand, "Aspen's furniture will be here later, right?"

"Yes, I ordered some furniture for the upstairs bedroom as well."

"Two beds?"

She smiled and nodded, "they'll come and bring all the pieces and I paid a bit extra to have them assemble it all and then you guys can set it up, how's that sound?"

"Will you help us move it around today? My arms hurt from pushing and lifting and pulling," he sighed some, "I feel so sleepy still."

"You helped so much yesterday and then set up your whole room," she smiled, "it's understandable to be sore. Of course, I'll help and then once it's all set up we can rest again."

"Did you get the couches for the living room and for our little corner for video games?"

"Not yet. Rafa and I are going to pick the living room couch but I thought you, Aspen, and I could pick a couch for the game corner today?"

"That sounds good."

"We'll let Aspen sleep a bit longer and Rafa head to work and then we'll have breakfast and talk about what you guys want for that corner."

Noah nodded and yawned, "sounds good, momma."

Rafael came down the stairs about five minutes later. He had a smile and one of his nice, deep black, three piece suits on, and his briefcase in hand.

"How do I look?" He asked Noah, excitedly.

"You're too excited," Noah mumbled with another yawn.

"I'll tone it down, hang on," he took a deep breath and in a less excited tone, "how do I look?"

"Like a lawyer," Noah mumbled.

"Woah, you look fancy," Aspen said as she came sleepily out of the bedroom.

"Is that good?" Rafa turned to face her, a smile growing on his face.

"Yeah," she nodded slowly and then climbed onto the stool next to Noah's.

"Everyone is so sleepy today," he chuckled, "but I have to go, I'll be home later to help with furniture set up?"

"You get to push and pull and lift today," Noah pointed.

"Sounds good, kiddo."

"Go before you're late," Liv said, handing him a thermos of coffee.

Rafa kissed the top of Noah's head, then Aspen's, and then came around the island to kiss Liv's cheek, "wish me luck, I'll be back later," and headed toward the door.

"Good luck," Noah and Aspen mumbled in unison.

"Break a leg," Liv called.

Rafa laughed and lifted his coffee in farewell as he slipped out the door to the elevator.

"Why's he so loud and excited?" Aspen laid her forehead on the island.

"I think he's happy," Liv smiled to herself, "he used to go back to the old apartment all alone, remember? Now he gets to come home and see you guys."

"The old apartment looked like a doctors office," Aspen turned her head to inform Noah.

"I remember. Momma took me once," he laughed.

"Alright," Liv laughed, she didn't necessarily disagree but thought it was more college professor than doctor, "breakfast is ready."

She put a plate of eggs and fruit in front of each child and then moved to sit on the last bar stool with her coffee.

Slowly, the children woke up more and became more lively as they ate.

"I want one of those connected couches with the long part," Aspen gestured with a strawberry in her hands.

"But what if we got a regular couch and some bean bags?" Noah looked at her and took a bite of eggs.

"You have to flop around to get out of a bean bag," she wrinkled her nose some.

"That's true," Noah considered, "one of the couches like you said and some pillows?"

"Oh that sounds good, then if we watch a movie on that tv we can curl up with pillows."

Liv's phone rang and she answered it despite being mid-sip of coffee.

"Liv?" Fin's voice came.

"Hi, sorry," she said as she finished the sip, "I was inhaling coffee. What's up, Fin?"

Noah looked a bit nervous seeing her on the phone as he always did.

"We managed to set you and Barba a meeting with ACS tomorrow now that the DNA has come back confirming that they're yours," he explained, "this is uncharted waters for everyone so they're not sure what sorta protocol to follow but it sounds like the plan is just to chat with you both and get a feel for the living situation."

"Should we bring these two?"

"I'd say it's up to you," Fin sounded uncertain, "having them there to talk about their own experiences with you might be good? I don't know, Liv. Like I said, none of us are sure about this situation."

"Right," she nodded to herself, "alright, what time tomorrow?"

"Ten in the morning," Fin informed.

"Okay. I'll chat with Rafa."

"You heard from Stabler?"

Her heart hurt, "no. Have you?"

"Yeah."

"He okay?"

"He will be," Fin said, "you know him. He's stubborn and an ass, but he'll come around. You're friends."

She scoffed a bit, "we'll see. Alright, keep me posted about everything."

"I will," and he was gone.

Liv rubbed at her face.

"Everything okay, momma?"

"Everything is great, Noah," she smiled as she turned to him, "did you guys finish?"

Aspen nodded, "couch shopping now?"

"Put your dishes in the sink, my loves," Liv gestured and then slid off her stool and went to grab her iPad.

Author's Note;

follow my twitter for updates about the story and content related to the story!

@silverdracolich

spotify playlist link & soon i'll have pictures of how i imagine their new apartment that i created on the sims!

thanks for being here! x