A/N: Sorry this took a while, I had a hard time with the part of Brandi and Olivia's interactions. I want to say thank you to everyone readying this story, I really appreciate it so much! Also a special thanks to anyone who has reviewed but especially BJ!
That night Olivia arrived home just in time for dinner.
She walks through the door to find that Noah is sitting on the floor of the living room reading very loudly to his father. She is greeted with a hello from Noah and he quickly moves back to reading. Dropping her coat, keys, and shoes off in the entryway Liv moves to Noah and kisses his hair to greet him. She then goes to the kitchen to greet Rafael. He is finishing chopping vegetables for a salad, Liv steps up behind him to wrap her arms around his waist and rests her chin on his shoulder.
She takes his earlobe in her teeth to tug on it before she kisses just behind it. Leaving her lips where they lay she says, "hola nene que pasa?" To tease him.
His head drops to rest to her shoulder causing them to be cheek to cheek, "you can be very cruel sometimes, you know that señora?"
Rafa feels her laughter hum through his chest, pressed together as they are. Olivia twists so she can give him a soft, barely there kiss at the corner of his mouth, "not a señora yet Rafa."
"Well I do plan to put a ring on your finger tonight, doesn't that count for anything?" He stands himself back up to toss the veggies into the salad. Liv hugs his middle tighter for a moment before she steps away, but stays close enough to whisper to him, "ask me again after you fuck me and we'll see."
She's unable to move it takes Rafa such a short time to spin around and grab her to him, kissing her quite soundly. With a nibble of her bottom lip Rafael releases Olivia just as abruptly as he caught her.
"You bet your sweet ass we will." He says to Olivia, and turning to Noah he shouts, "ven mijo, comida." (Come son, food.)
They eat as a family, sharing stories from their days. Noah recounts a tale from recess in which a game of kickball had been played and he kicked so well that the ball hit next to the highest windows of the school building. Both parents are very impressed. After finishing dinner and dessert Rafael leaves Noah and Liv on the couch to watch some television to go get the ring he has been waiting to give Olivia for months now. It is an oval cut moonstone set with a small circular diamond on either side of it on a platinum band. Once the ring box is in his hand Rafael steadies himself. Though he knows exactly the outcome of what he is about to do he can't help but be nervous.
Blowing out a breath Raf squares his shoulders and returns to his family.
Rounding the couch and bowing to one knee Rafael looks at Olivia, whose attention he captured with his movements. "Noah, I have a question to give Momma, do you think I should ask her?" He uses the same phrasing his son had in the hospital room that day.
With a grin that's wide and toothy, with those that are left anyway, Noah nods eagerly. The boy sits up from his place with his head on Olivia's lap in order to train his full attention on his parents.
"Olivia Benson, will you also marry me?" Raf asks flipping open the lid of the box.
For reasons Liv will not justify with a single thought she is in tears at his question. "You really are a dork Rafa," she manages to squeak out between sniffles.
Liv decides it's okay she's crying because she takes a look at her two boys and sees tears shining there too. Once she sees Rafael hasn't moved she makes an impatient hand gesture so he will hurry up and put the ring on her damn finger.
For reasons Raf will not justify with a single thought he releases a sigh of relief.
With sure fingers Rafael lifts the ring from its velvet bedding and shows it to Olivia, "it's moonstone. Some ancient cultures believed that the stone fell out of the sky from the moon and landed on earth because of its beauty. Others thought that if a couple met on a full moon with one wearing the stone it meant their love would be true. And some believed that it could help to predict the future.
"I choose to believe all of those things Olivia, because I don't see how a beauty like yours could be created on this Earth. I've never laid eyes on anyone like you. To me, your beauty is of the heavens. And I had planned on proposing on a full moon, but I'm not sure it would have mattered, our love is the truest thing I have ever known. And if it does help to predict the future I'm really counting on it showing us nothing but happiness. With you two at my sides I know that's what I'll get."
At last Raf slides the ring past the last knuckle of Olivia's left ring finger, at which point Liv meets his eyes and proclaims, "we match!" Laughing through the tears that only became stronger with his incredible words.
Touching her left hand to his cheek Olivia says to him, "I love you so much Rafael Barba. And I hope you know that all those beautiful things you just told me, I feel them too. You are beautiful, and my true love, and my happy ending."
Finally they kiss each other. Noah cheers at their side, after they break apart he demands to see Olivia's ring.
"What do you think hijo, did I do a good job?" Rafael questions the boy as he scoops him up to take a seat underneath him.
Planting a kiss in his father's beard Noah giggles while wrinkling his nose, "yes Daddy you did a very good job."
At Noah's bedtime it has become a habit of theirs to share the high point of the day and the low point of the day, with all three family members contributing. Olivia has requested that the low always go first so the last thing spoken is a good one.
Olivia starts them off, "my low was all the paperwork I did today and the pile hasn't even gotten any smaller!" She pulls some laughter from Noah and Rafael with the amount of exasperation in her voice. With a cheesy smile stretching her lips she shares her high, "my high was saying yes to marrying daddy."
Rafael is next, "my low was getting hit in the face with a pen that Brandi threw at me."
He is interrupted with a quick, "you're really silly Daddy," from a laughing Noah.
Continuing on Rafael says, "my high was mommy saying yes to marrying me."
As is customary Noah goes last, "my low was that there was popcorn chicken for lunch today and I brought mine from home."
A loud bark of laughter falls out of Rafael as he swoops a hand to Noah's stomach to tickle him, "now who is the silly one mister?"
In a fit of giggles Noah pushes Rafael by the nose. As he is once again under control he starts back up, "my high was the park with Lucy," knowing he will get a reaction from his mom and dad.
They both narrow their eyes at him, pretending to pout.
"Just kidding! It was Momma saying yes to you Daddy. Obviously," he declares in a tone only a child can manage.
Once Noah is sleeping they put themselves to bed as well, at least in bed anyway. In the bedroom as Olivia is peeling her work clothes from her body Rafael walks up behind her. She has gotten herself down to bra and underwear when she feels the smooth skin of Rafael's hand slip over the skin of her hips. She puts her left hand over his and feels the matching jewelry they now both wear clink together.
Raf nuzzles her neck send a tingling along her spine, growing in strength as he whispers, "I love you so much."
He presses a series of burning hot open mouth kisses to her neck until he comes to the juncture of neck and shoulder where he grazes his teeth earning himself a shiver.
Turning in his arms Olivia slides her palms under Rafa's shirt and, dragging her nails as she goes, removes it, "take me to bed Raf, show me how much you love me."
Kissing her, tongue gliding against Olivia's then flicking at the roof of her mouth, "as long as you promise to do the same."
Liv takes her time ghosting her lips to the corner of his mouth, his cheek, the corner of his eye, his forehead, to his nose then repeating the process at the other side of his face. Once again she glides her lips to Raf's nose but instead bumps their noses together, enjoying the tender moments of closeness.
A breathy, "always" blows across his lips.
They walk their way to their bed and proceed to show each other just what the love they share feels like, as well as they can.
Friday mornings is the time Rafael has designated for his physical therapy appointments. This particular Friday is no different.
"Okay Mr. Barba, we're going to start off the usual way, I'll put the electrodes on your shoulder and heat wrap it. And as always just call me over if you're experiencing any discomfort." The therapist's voice is always so polite and it always irritates Rafael during this part.
As she is applies the stick on electrodes around his shoulder Rafael squints in her direction, "so what is that made you want to be a physical therapist? My money is on the low level sadism. Is that it?"
Smirking the therapist, Nora, levels her eyes to his, then looking around the room she leans into him, "don't tell anyone else or I'll up the shock intensity, but you're totally right, I like seeing people in pain." The look in her eyes belies her words.
Nodding sagely Rafael merely says, "I knew it."
A bubble of laughter floats between the pair as she finishes prepping his shoulder before leaving to exercise another client.
Minutes later Nora is back at his side, having removed the heat wrap, she now massages his shoulder to loosen the muscle there.
For the next 30 minutes she reminds him of the stretches and exercises they've been working on to build back, strengthen, and make the muscle affected by the shooting and subsequent surgery.
Nora hands him a blue resistance band, after she anchors on side tells Rafael, "okay Mr. Barba -"
He cuts her off, "Nora please it's Rafael."
With a small smile she restarts, "alright Rafael this one's super simple, pull forward and then ease the band back."
He works through the appropriate reps she gives him and one after another they go through each exercise. The last item on the agenda calls for Rafael to be laying on his back and rotating his arm in various directions. But he needs to be keeping his shoulder flat to the table he is on.
Nora assists in holding his shoulder down. "I want you try to keep it flat to the table."
Glaring at her Rafael says in a snippy tone, "I am trying to keep it flat."
"Really? I hadn't noticed." Nora chirps without flinching at his remark.
Grumbling something she can't hear Rafael does his best to do what he is told. Still his shoulder lifts from the table. Nora pushes down harder, "ow! That hurts! You really do like seeing people in pain don't you?"
"Love it." Nora keeps her focus on his shoulder though, Rafael can still see the smirk she fails to hide.
The session ends with an ice wrap and a goodbye.
After arriving at work Rafael heads to the bathroom to change to a more work appropriate outfit, even if it was casual Friday. The day goes on normally and he makes it home in good time.
Walking through the door Rafael sees Lucy and Noah putting together a puzzle. Which, from what was shown of the front of the box, would be a picture of a jungle of animals when complete.
"Hey Lucy, how's it going?" His tone is light with the thought of having a completely free weekend.
"Hi Raf, things are good, me and the little man here started working on this puzzle while we waited for you to get home." Lucy scoots her chair out from under the table to stand. She stretches her arms over her head.
After kicking off his shoes and leaving them by the door Rafael moves to the table where Noah and Lucy are, "wow, and you just started this afternoon?" He asks impressed at their progress. Once again looking to Lucy he re-engages with her, "how are you doing today?"
She smiles and nods, "good, I had a couple of classes in between shuffling children around." Lucy laughs and pushes her hair back behind her ears. Ruffling Noah's hair as he continues to work on fitting puzzle pieces together Lucy steps away to start to gather her things.
"So nice and relaxing it sounds like," Raf jokes.
Laughing through her nose Lucy pulls her jacket on, "oh yeah, life is a beach for me."
Rafael walks Lucy to the door as she fills him on what she and Noah had gotten up to since coming home from school. As the door shuts behind Lucy Rafael spins on a socked heel to walk his back to his son.
Taking the chair recently vacated by Lucy Rafael plops himself down, "hola amigo, did you have a good day today?"
"Sí Papí, Lucy y yo nos divertimos." Noah's Spanish was getting very good. (Yes Daddy, Lucy and I had fun.)
"Sólo tu y yo mañana, qué quieres hacer?" Raf sticks to Spanish to help with more practice. (It's just you and I tomorrow, what do you want to do.)
"Vamos a Governor's Island." Noah squeaks, still not looking up from his puzzle pieces, "Miguel dijo que hay - como se dice slides?" (Let's go to Governor's Island, Miguel said there are - how do you say slides)
"Toboganes." Rafael informs.
"Miguel dijo que hay toboganes!" Noah finishes off, finally peeking up at Rafael having successfully placed his puzzle piece.
"Deberíamos invitar Abuelita que venir con nosotros?" Rafael wonders if Noah can work this one out on his own, they hadn't gone through all these words yet. (Should we invite Abuelita to come with us?)
"No entiendo," Noah's brow wrinkles. (I don't understand.)
"Let's break it down okay?" With a nod from Noah Rafael goes on, "debeíramos means we should, or should we, I should is debo and you should is debería." Noah has fully turned into his father now so he can give his lesson his full attention, "What about invitar, what does that sound like?"
Pushing out his bottom lip and angling his head to think Noah takes a moment then says, "invite," rather excitedly.
"Sí, perfecto!" Rafa and Noah high-five, "que venir what do you think that means?"
"Venir, hmmm I'm not sure, but con nosotros is with us." Noah worked through what he knew already.
"Yes, very good. So what do we have so far?" Raf prods further.
Noah takes a few moments to piece what he learned together, "should we invite Abuelita with us."
"Right, so what's left? Que venir, it means to come. If we put it all together I asked you 'should we invite Abuelita with us.'"
"Ay, claro!" Noah readily agrees. (oh, of course!)
Together father and son put all puzzle pieces together while they wait for Olivia return home. Once she is home they make pizza as a family and watch a movie as they do so. After dinner they play charades before completing their night with a bedtime story for Noah and some drinks and alone time for Olivia and Rafael.
On Saturday it is time for Olivia to meet with Brandi. Liv is in the bedroom trying to decide what to wear, she wants to make a good impression with her date after all. Hearing a buzzing from the front of the apartment she knows she has to hurry up and decide. She goes with something simple in the end, blue jeans and grey t-shirt before running to buzz Brandi in.
Upon hearing the knock on the door Olivia pushes her earring into her ear and shuffles to the door to open it while putting the second earring in.
Liv opens door to find Brandi standing there with a bouquet of sunflowers. Laughing Liv steps aside to let Brandi in.
Merely shrugging Brandi says, "I thought I would keep the date gag running."
"Well they are beautiful, thank you." Olivia takes them from the woman's outstretched hand and finds them a vase.
Turning back to the younger woman Liv tells her, "I'll be honest with you, I didn't put too much thought into what we would do today, I wasn't sure what you might like, there is a nice little place down the street that serves brunch if you would be into that?" She feels oddly nervous, maybe it was because everyone kept joking about this being a date.
"Ooh I love brunch, let's do it!" Brandi jumps at the suggestion.
Olivia grabs a jacket and together she and Brandi make their way to Bubby's for brunch. After being seated the waiter takes their drink orders, a mimosa and water for each.
"So, I know you have that criminal justice degree, what made you want to study that?" Liv steers the conversation into an area she she is very interested in.
"Well my dad was a cop and I always wanted to follow in his footsteps, so I decided to go to college and learn as much as I could, I wanted to make my dad proud." She doesn't make eye contact with Liv while she explains herself.
"Why didn't you end up in law enforcement then?" Olivia asks then finishes off her mimosa, Noah isn't going to be home for a while so she feels okay getting a little buzzed off of bottomless mimosas.
It's obvious to Olivia that Brandi is getting anxious with the direction the conversation was going but decides she will let Brandi figure out how she wanted to handle things.
After knocking back the rest of her own mimosa Brandi finally looks Liv in eye as she speaks, "well in school one of my advisors suggested victim's advocacy instead. Then I started struggling a lot, I got diagnosed as bipolar and had a tough time with things. I went to a few different counselors while I was at school but I wasn't in a place to handle what they were telling me." She takes a breath and gages how Olivia is reacting to what she is saying, "sorry, I know this is a lot, I can stop."
"No please, don't. It must be a lot to hold in and I'm sure you don't get a lot of opportunity to speak about all this." Olivia is fully understanding, she does know how hard things like this can be and is sympathetic to that. She also truly wants to get to know the young woman who is helping Rafa with having a better work environment.
"Well I'll skip some of it but I ended up attempting suicide and was in a psych hospital after. Basically one of the people helping to care for me while I was there told me I wasn't going to be a good advocate because I couldn't handle it with my mental illness. It was devastating to hear, especially at such a vulnerable point in my life." Brandi is shaking some as she goes on. The waiter has refilled each woman's mimosa so she takes another large gulp of her drink.
Olivia reaches across the table and lays her hand on top of one of Brandi's, "but look at you now, Raf is in awe of you sometimes, he can't believe how much energy and motivation you seem to have in the office."
Bowing her head Brandi and lets out a mirthless sound, "I guess, I'm still scared though, still working in the background, not with the victims like I want to be."
"You'll get there, I know you will. And Raf and I will do what we can to help. We know a few people," Liv jokes, raising her eyebrows up and down a couple times.
They moved onto other, lighter topics like favorite wines, movies, tv shows finding they actually had quite a bit in common with each other.
Walking back to Olivia's apartment side by side the two women are laughing continuously.
"Worst date you've ever been on?" Olivia prompts.
Thinking for a couple moments Brandi then says, "okay well this one isn't the worst date but I have never gotten over this one guy who showed up to meet me for the first time in sweatpants. It has always really bothered me!"
Shaking her head Liv simply says, "men."
"I know right?" Brandi asks incredulously. "What's your worst date?"
"Hmmm well I did once get set up on a blind date by a friend of a friend when he thought I had been single too long. I show up to this weird bar he wanted to meet me at, which should have been my first tip off that things were not going to end well. I find him sitting in a booth and all night he went on and on about himself. He was a psychic, divorced but on good terms with his ex who was pregnant with their third child. I ended that one as quick as I could." They wander up the stairs to the apartment door.
Brandi is almost doubled over from laughing so hard, "woof, that is no good." Stumbling through the door.
Liv notices two extra pairs of shoes than when she left earlier and knows Raf and Noah must be home. Seeing Noah on the couch confirms this.
"Hello sweet boy, how was your day with Papí and Abuelita?" She asks toeing off her own shoes, moving over to allow Brandi to step through.
Looking up from his ipad Noah greets his mother, "hola Mamí," Noah's face shows that it has been painted to resemble a tiger. "We had lots of fun! We had our faces painted."
"I see that! You make a very handsome tiger. This is daddy's friend from work Brandi, can you say hello." Olivia delights in the joy on her son's face, especially as it stays in place to greet this new person.
"Hi Brandi, my name is Noah!" Exuberance just bubbles out of the boy, he waves mightily Brandi's way.
"Hi Noah it is very nice to meet you, I have seen plenty of pictures of you, and heard tons of stories." Brandi leans back a bit as she says 'tons' to emphasize her point.
Olivia calls toward the bedroom, "Rafa I'm home!"
With the shuffling of feet Rafael makes his way to the living room, "I can hear that, how was your time with Brandi."
He finally enters the room and Brandi and Olivia are meet with the glorious sight of Rafael Barba, face painted like a skeleton. Seeing Brandi in the apartment pulls Barba up short, "uhh, I didn't realize you had come up."
For her part Brandi is trying her absolute best to hold in her laughter but it peels out of her anyway.
"Oh Rafa you make a very good looking skeleton," Liv tells him through her own giggles.
Hands on his hips Rafael shoots a glare their way, "I'm happy you two find this so amusing, I happen to have had a lot of fun today and Noah and I loved getting our faces painted."
Getting herself under control Brandi looks between Liv and Raf, "well nothing is going to top this today, I should get going."
Rafael points an accusatory finger her way, "not a word of this to anyone."
Pulling her fingers across her lips she mimes zipping them shut. She then turns to Liv and gives her a quick hug, "thanks for inviting me out, I had a lot of fun."
Returning the hug Liv says, "me too, we'll do it again sometime."
"See you Monday Brandi," Raf bids her goodbye.
He turns his eyes to Olivia, and she makes her way to him, "I would give you a kiss but I don't think that I could pull off that lipstick."
Shaking his head Rafael swats Olivia's backside quickly, "you're very funny my love, I am going to take a shower. I have to get this stuff off my face, and get clean, I got very sweaty running around after the big man over there."
Noah, hearing this, pipes up, "we ran lots Momma, it was so much fun!"
Liv smiles at her two guys, "next Saturday we will have to do something altogether as a family."
Giving her a soft, sweet look Rafael nods in agreement, "yes, and you can have your face painted." He laughs his whole way to the bathroom.
A/N: Sorry if this got too heavy for your liking, what Brandi says about not becoming what she wants to be and what she goes through are things I've experienced myself. I actually had a real life mental health professional tell me not to do something I really wanted to do during the worst/hardest time of my life. I'll tell you what too, I listened to her and now I work in an office with a job I hate.
On a lighter note, someone did really show up to meet me for a first date in sweatpants and I have clearly not let it go. Also had a dude come into the store I was working in and tell me he was a psychic with kids, divorced, etc. and then proceed to ask me out. I was the only person in the store and terrified. To make things even creepier this guy came back multiple times to find me. *shivers*
Anyhow, that's enough out of me.
x