Well, we made it to SVU23 day! I'm trying to be *cautiously optimistic* about Rollisi because I've been burned by too many shows before, so for now, I'll just leave you with this.
Thanks for reading along, as always. Hopefully, this season inspires my muse, too!
"Hey, there you are!" Detective Amanda Rollins called out when she spotted their ADA pacing the hallway outside of the courtroom.
"Rollins, hey," he replied when we saw her there. "What brings you by?"
"I thought maybe you'd want some company while you waited for your verdict. I have Kat looking over cellphone records, so I was able to sneak away for a little bit."
His features softened and he smiled at her. "I appreciate that. I hate the wait. You know?"
"Yeah," she replied, it wasn't the first time they had this conversation and she knew it wouldn't be the last time either. "But it's all in the jury's hands now, Dominick."
He sighed. "It just never gets any easier."
"I'd be worried if it did." The pair walked over to the bench a few feet away and sat down. "I'm glad the case is wrapping up, though. You've been burning the midnight oil for weeks and you need a break."
He shrugged. "It's my job."
"Maybe, but you still need to take care of yourself, too." She shifted so she was sitting as close to him as she dared in a work setting. "I learned that from you, you know," she reminded him. "You need to learn to practice what you preach, Counselor."
He bounced his leg nervously up and down. "I know, Amanda. This was a big case and..."
Her eyes darted around to make sure that none of their superiors where floating around before she placed her hand on his knee to stop the movement of his leg. She was about to open her mouth to speak when he reached to pull his vibrating phone out of his pocket.
"Jury's coming back," he said with a sigh before he squeezed her hand.
"I'll meet you in there," she promised.
Amanda entered the courtroom a few minutes after Sonny did and slipped into the first empty seat she could find in the back row. While they all waited for the verdict, she carefully took time to study Carisi. She marveled at how well he grew into his role as a litigator and she was so proud of him. He looked over his shoulder and caught her eye briefly. She nodded in his direction and she could see some of the tension he was trying to hide dissipate a little bit.
A short while later, the jury declared the defendant guilty and the judge announced a sentencing date for the following week. Amanda made her way over to him as people filed out of the courtroom. "Good work, Counselor." She said professionally. "I really need to get back to the precinct, but I take it I'll see you tonight?"
"There's nowhere else I'd rather be, Detective," he replied, and it was the truth. Ever since Memorial Day weekend, he spent nearly every night at her apartment, but this was a big case, a murder trial, actually, so he spent the better part of the last week and a half at his own apartment going over trial prep in every waking moment, and it only made him realize one thing.
He hated his apartment now.
It didn't feel like home. It was cold, empty, and lonely. Home was the bright colors of the Rollins apartment with the striped blanket they curled up with while watching reality TV after the girls went to bed. It was the constant laughing and giggles that came from Jessie and Billie – even if it soon turned into a fight over who took the other's Barbie doll or who was using the crayon the other one wanted. Home was waking up to Billie poking her fingers in his face before placing sloppy kisses on his cheek, and Jessie asking for Cheerios with peaches for breakfast as she snuggled up between him and Amanda for a few extra minutes of calm before it was time to absolutely get up and start their hectic days.
It was everything he had ever dreamed of. This had truly been the best summer of his life, and as summer came to an end, and Jessie was about to go back to school, he couldn't help but to think about this summer had only been the beginning of a lifetime together for them.
"Good. I have something in mind that I think you may enjoy." She said flirtatiously, already making a mental checklist of everything she would need to do in order to prepare. "Don't be too late," she called over her shoulder as she turned on her heel to get back to her own work.
After a quick detour to his own apartment to gather a few more things, Sonny opened the door to Amanda's apartment and called out "I'm here!" He braced himself to be attacked by a whirlwind of blonde-haired toddlers barreling down the hall to give him hugs and to ask to help him make spaghetti or pizza, but it never came.
Instead, the apartment was calm and quiet – no toys and coloring books scattered across the living room and not even any cartoons playing on the television.
"Rollins?" He called out cautiously, cop mode overtaking him for a second. "Everything okay?" His eyes scanned the apartment as he carefully stepped further inside.
He only made it a few feet before he saw Amanda appear in the hallway. "Hi," she drawled. "I'm glad you're here." She closed the distance between them and ran her hand along his chest before standing on her tiptoes to kiss him.
"Where are the girls?" He asked when they parted.
"Bella's watching them. She's even keeping them overnight and said she'll drop them off in the morning when she drops takes her crew to day camp. Your sister is a saint."
"Oh?" He was torn between being grateful for some uninterrupted alone time with Amanda, which was incredibly rare, and wanting to see the girls.
"Bella said she'll Facetime when it's bedtime. I told her you'd probably want to read them a bedtime story since you already missed a few this week."
He grinned and tapped her nose with his pointer finger. "You know me well, Rollins."
"Well, we are partners. The girls were excited to have a sleepover, but they were disappointed about not seeing you again tonight. I may have promised them we'd make it up to them this weekend since neither one of us is on call. I was thinking maybe a trip to the aquarium or the zoo. I didn't think you'd have any objections."
He had the exact same look on his face as Jessie and Billie did when she made the suggestion to them. "That sounds perfect."
She smiled at him, thinking about how she could get lost in his eyes forever. No one had ever looked at her that way before – with that much love and admiration. "You know," she began, "there's something I've been thinking about..."
"Yeah? What's that?" He asked curiously, furrowing his brows slightly.
"That unless something has changed semi-recently– which I don't think it has – you've never had a massage." She crossed her arms as she studied his face.
"Uhh...no." He replied, as his brain scrambled to determine when he would have told her that.
She hummed. "Well, I was thinking we could do something about that. You had a very stressful few weeks because of this trial and it's a great stress reliever. What do you say, Counselor?"
He pretended to think about it. "I think I can be persuaded..."
"Good. Go take a shower and meet me in the bedroom." She kissed him again before she pulled away and nudged him towards the bathroom.
"Wait, a second, Manda," he called out to her, turning around as he unbuttoned his vest and then loosened his tie. He finally remembered the offhand comment her made to her about massages back when he was still a detective.
"Hmm?"
"Just exactly how long have you been thinking about me and massages?" He smirked as he worked the buttons of his dress shirt. "If memory serves me correctly, that conversation was a long time ago. You've been thinkin' about this for years?"
"Guilty as charged, Counselor," she replied honestly, never breaking eye contact.
Truthfully, it was something she thought about a lot after she and Al decided to try to make it work again. There was always something very vanilla about sex with Al, but as her pregnancy progressed, he became less and less interested in seeing that her needs were satisfied – as if the pregnancy was a turn off for him (or in hindsight he was seeing call girls again instead). So, when she was left to her own devices and having to take care of her own needs, she couldn't help it that her mind would wander to Carisi and massages after she realized he had never had one before. She imagined giving him one - her hands all over his body. It was the first time she allowed herself to truly fantasize about him that way and it held a special place in her heart.
Even now, just thing of the memory of that fantasy made her feel a certain way, but the knowledge that it was soon going to become a reality was just as exciting.
His only response to her confession was a little throaty hum of his own.
She bit her bottom lip seductively. "I don't think you'll be disappointed."
A short while later, a boxer clad Dominick Carisi returned to the bedroom. The lights were low, the essential oil diffuser was releasing scents that he couldn't quite decipher, but were relaxing nonetheless. There were nearly half a dozen candles lit that probably would have screamed fire hazard to him had he been a firefighter instead of a cop in his past, and a spa music soundtrack streaming from the speakers.
She was sitting in the middle of the bed wearing a silk kimono type robe, armed with a bottle of massage oil, and smiled at the sight of him. "I ran down to the laundry room to warm the towel up, but I don't know if it stayed warm enough..."
"I'm sure it will be fine," he assured her as he stepped over to the bed. "Besides, I have nothing to compare it to..." he teased, laughing when she playfully swatted his chest before gently pushing him down on the bed face first.
"Dominick Carisi, ADA by day, comedian by night." She quipped back as she climbed over him. She settled herself against his lower back just above his six. She leaned over, dragging the silk of her robe along his back before she reached the top of his head.
She carefully ran her fingers through his damp hair, and then brought them to either side of his face. She grazed his earlobes with her thumbs, and sucked in a breath at the memory of Henry Mesner stabbing him.
Like usual, he could sense the change in her mood without even seeing her face. "I'm okay, Amanda," he reminded her softly.
"I...I know. It's still scary to think about, though. I think it always will be." She dropped her head so she could kiss the once injured ear gently before she returned her attention back to massaging him from head to toe. Her thumbs trailed down his neck gently applying varying levels of pressure as she went. When she reached his shoulder blades, she squeezed the massage oil into her hand and warmed it between her palms before she continued.
Her hands danced along his back – carefully alternating between gliding and pressing. She worked out every knot in his back and shoulders, frowning when she realized just how many there were.
He sighed contently, not realizing how tense he had been. "That's nice, Rollins."
"Mmhm." She agreed, shifting herself even closer to him, using her body weight to help relieve the last of the tension in his lower back. "But that's just the start. We still have a ways to go, and it's about to get more X-rated." She slipped her fingers under the waistband of his boxers and continued massaging there with her palms. "You can ditch the boxers now," she whispered into his ear after a while.
"As you wish, Detective," he replied, raising his hips.
She slid them off of him, and bit her lip as she sensually massaged her way down the back of his legs to the soles of his feet. "Turn over," she demanded. He did as requested and she could feel his eyes on her, watching her every movement as she worked her way back up his body with a combination of gentle caresses and firm presses. Once she was satisfied that she massaged and kissed every muscle in his body – twice - and he was more relaxed than she'd ever seen him before, she shimmied her way up his body and hovered above him, propping herself up on her elbows.
"Hi," she said breathlessly when she finally brought her gaze to his before she brushed her fingertips over his eyebrows and buried her hands in his hair. She was no stranger to sex, but this, was by far the most intimate thing she's done in a bedroom before. There weren't even words to appropriately describes the way it made her feel. She was enjoying it just as much as he was. Everything was different with him, because he loved her. He loved her in a way that no one else had before.
"Hi," he chuckled before turning serious while cupping her face between his hands. "You're so beautiful. I'm the luckiest man alive."
She could feel his fingers inching their way under the hem of her robe and she pulled away slightly, playfully swatting his hands away in the process. "Tsk, tsk, Counselor," she clicked her tongue.
At his confused expression, she continued. "You can look but you can't touch...yet. This is all about you right now." Her hands slipped between them and she now focused her attention on the one part of his anatomy that she had strategically ignored most of the night, with the exception of a few gentle teases when she was focusing on massaging his inner thighs.
His breathing instantly became more labored. "That's not fair..." He managed to protest, leaning up slightly so his lips could claim hers. "You deserve to be taken care of, too. Always." He kissed his way from her lips to her jaw to the spot underneath her chin that he knew she loved.
"Dominick." Amanda moaned at the contact of his lips on that sweet spot by her chin. She had no idea that spot even existed until he found it the first time they made love. She couldn't even say she was surprised because he did know her better than anyone else. Somehow, when she was distracted, his hands did manage to slip between her robe and massage the delicate skin under her breasts before his thumbs brushed against her nipples.
She let out a sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a moan as a smirk appeared across her face when she said, in a low, seductive whisper, her breath tickling his skin as she spoke, "Don't make me go get my handcuffs, Counselor..."