April 30th (continued), 5:57 pm, Benson on the phone in her office
"Hey Liv. Sorry, I didn't get to talk you after you were finished with Tucker this morning."
"Its fine, you were busy. I was just uhh giving him some paperwork." she said feeling kind of guilty.
"Well I got off early and since I'm coming over tonight, I was wondering what you wanted for dinner." Bryan said as he pushed the shopping cart through the supermarket.
"I don't know...surprise me." She said in a flat tone.
"Not a good idea. Last time I did that, you yelled at me for putting fried egg in the stir fry." he laughed.
"That is because you had the whole apartment smelling like eggs...it was nauseating."
"Liv..."
"What? "She sighed.
"What's wrong? I can hear it in your voice."
"Uhh nothing's wrong, I'm just...drowning in paperwork."
"So did everything go well with telling the squad?"
"I'm actually about to tell them right now. I know I said I was going to tell them when I got in this morning but I think it was better to save it for the end of the day."
"The doctor said everything was looking good Liv."
"I know, I know, it's just ever since I collapsed that day, they have been so overprotective and on my back. I don't need them to keep treating me as if I'm incapable of taking caring of myself...and plus once I tell them I'm pregnant their overprotectiveness is probably only to get worse."
"They just care about you."
"Doesn't make any of this any easier though..."
"Positive thoughts babe."
"Ok I'll be the queen of positivity." She mockingly said. Then as she looked out into the squad room she saw Amaro pacing up and down "...but I better go before they all lose it."
"I'll leave you to it then, we'll talk more at dinner… I Love you."
"Love you too Bryan, bye."
*click*
Olivia packed away her things then finally signaled Fin, Amaro, Rollins and even Carisi and Barba to come into her office. As they all gathered around she got up from her desk closing the door behind them
"I know you are all probably wondering why I called you in here." She said turning to face them as she leaned against the door.
"Everything alright Liv?" Nick hurriedly asked
"Everything is fine Nick."
"Aww man, don't tell me we are getting a new boss in here Sarge." Carisi interrupted again
"Well not exactly..."
"What do you mean?" Nick eagerly asked again.
"Well, Bryan and I are expecting a baby. I'm…well I'm pregnant." She finally blurted out.
Awkward silence filled the room and Fin then decided to speak up, "What no dinner party this time?" Which resulted in all of them laughing.
"Congrats Liv" Fin said as he gave her a hug "I'm happy for you, I know you always wanted this."
"Congratulations." Barba said "When is the little Benson/ Cassidy due to make an appearance."
"Oh I'm not due until October, I got a long way to go." She smiled
"Congrats Sarge, I knew you looked a little different." Carisi said as he once again put his foot in his mouth.
"Watch it Carisi." She laughed "But thank you, all of you."
"Amanda, Nick, you seem awfully quiet." Barba stated
"Oh no, I already knew." Amanda said with a smile. "But congrats again Liv." then they both shared a knowing smile thanking each other for different reasons. Liv was silently thanking Amanda for sticking to her word and not telling anyone but Amanda was just happy that the cat was finally out of the bag.
"Well I guess you are better detective then the rest of us!" Amaro said shifting the mood. "You knew and didn't tell me!" he said directing his anger at Amanda
"Whoa Nick, you're way out of line! "Olivia yelled at him defending Amanda
"This is Liv's pregnancy to tell, not mine!" Amanda yelled back at him.
"Nick reel it back." Fin warns trying to deescalate the situation
"Look, Amanda accidentally found out and I asked her not to tell anyone, she doesn't owe you or anyone else an explanation!" Liv said angrily
"I was worried about you and she knew that! I was thinking of the worst possible scenarios of what could be wrong with you!"
"And I told you to relax, that she was fine and that she would tell you what was going on with her when she wanted to!"
"And you?" He said pointing at Amanda "Of course you couldn't wait to use sex to just shut me up about it, huh?"
Just as soon as the words left his mouth a fist connected to his face, causing him to stumble back a few steps.
"Amanda!" Fin said holding her back as Barba and Carisi and Liv all stood there in shock.
"And As I recall you enjoyed every minute of it! "She screamed as she stormed out of the room.
Then they all look over at Amaro who now has a split swollen up.
"Nah, no need to stare. I'm good guys, it's all good. Right Liv? At least you're finally happy that lover boy ASSidy finally knocked you up."
"Wow..." She scoffed as she picked up her things to leave. "Go to hell Nick that was low, even for you."
"Barba, Carisi, you mind if we have the room?" Fin asked
"Fine by me." Then Barba shakes his head at Amaro as he exits the room.
"Uhh umm, I'll go check on Rollins."
"Thanks Carisi." Fin said, but as soon as the door closed behind them he was ready to rip Nick a new one.
"Look man, whatever it is you got going on, stop taking it out on Liv and Rollins. Get it together, take a day off or something because after a while just saying "I'm sorry" ain't gonna cut it and as long as I'm around acting like that ain't gonna fly."
"I know, I know."
"Do you?"
"I don't know what's wrong with me, it's just Maria is threatening to take full custody of Zara and on the other hand I got Cynthia telling me she is probably moving Gil away..."
"That's rough but that is no excuse Nick. This is the happiest I have ever seen Liv, she doesn't need you getting on her about Cassidy. We get it. You don't like the guy, I wasn't too thrilled about him at first either but once you get to know him he actually is a decent guy, or else Liv wouldn't be with him."
"Ahh I guess it's just I see Liv with Noah and how happy he makes her and now she's having another baby...I miss that…that feeling. Now I feel horrible knowing that when she fainted last week, she was pregnant and probably scared half to death. All this time I've been blaming Cassidy for her acting different when all along she was probably just nervous about how much her life is going to change. And then for her to feel like she couldn't come to me about this...or open up to me."
"Nick, Liv is pretty private person so don't feel too guilty about that but how do you expect her to talk to you when go and say things like that. She doesn't need this kind of stress, especially now. And as for Rollins, I don't even want to know what you and her got going on... I don't care who started what or who made the first move or whatever but just keep it out of the office."
"I hear ya man."
"You better, cuz next time Rollins wants to knock you out, I'll be happy to let her finish the job and help her find the body."
Meanwhile
Carisi went up to the precinct roof to find Rollins smoking on a cigarette leaning over the rail.
"You know those things cause lung cancer right?" He said as he walked on over to her.
"Well a lot of things are bad for us but we choose to do it anyway." She said taking a drag. "What do you want Carisi?"
"Just checking on you...would have brought you up a cannoli but I think the Sarge ate the last one."
"Well you can go back down and tell Fin I'm fine."
"So uhh...you and Amaro huh?"
"Seriously? "She said as she rolled her eyes.
"I mean I would say I never would have guessed but you guys were pretty obvious."
"Well y'all don't have to worry about that anymore." She said taking another drag
"Well for what it's worth, I think you deserve to be treated better than that."
"I guess." She said as she put out the cigarette.
"Now you sound like one of my sisters." He said as they both laughed.
5:43pm Benson Residence
As Olivia walked through the front door she looked over to see Noah playing in his playpen and Bryan wearing an apron over in the kitchen.
As she walked on over to the playpen Noah squealed with delight. "Mama home!"
"Yes, Mama is home, "she said picking him up kissing him all over his cheeks and making him giggle with delight.
"Hey Liv, how did it go?" Bryan called out from the kitchen
"Mind if we talk about that later..."
"That bad huh?"
"I just want to enjoy my meal and my two boys. "She said putting Noah in his high chair.
"Mama play." Noah said as he held his toy car stretched out to Olivia.
"Later little bugger, now is dinner time." She said rustling his hair. "We'll play at bath time."
Bryan walked over, kissed Olivia hello, then placed Noah's bite sized garlic bread and spaghetti noodles in front of him.
"What do we say Noah?"
"Tank you, Buyin."
"Good boy, now eat up." Then Noah shoved a piece of bread in his mouth.
"Yum!" He screamed out. "Wan some? It good." Noah said holding up his fork
"No thank you, you eat up." Bryan said then Noah picked up his noodles with his fingers putting it in his mouth resulting in both Olivia and Bryan laughing.
Bryan then brought over the dinner plates and set it on the table.
As Olivia was washing her hands he popped open a bottle of sparkling grape juice and poured a glass full for the both of them, As she sat back down she had a puzzled look on her face "What's this?"
"Well since you can't have wine I opted on getting some sparkling grape juice, it supposed to be really good...well that's what the cashier at the supermarket said." He laughed
"This is amazing Cass, thank you, for all of it."
As they ate Bryan noticed the weirdness in Olivia but decided not to kill the mood and to just ask her later. He hated arguing with her in front of Noah. It was something that his parents did and he hated every minute of it so he decided to just keep the dinner conversation light.
As they finished up their food Olivia looked over at Noah who was covered in spaghetti sauce.
"Someone is all messy. You ready for your bath Noah? You can play with your rubber ducky. "She said as she picked him up out of the chair.
"Ducky!" Noah squealed with delight
"I'm gonna go give him a bath then put him down to sleep Bryan." She said with Noah rested on her hip
"Wanna Say Goodnight to Bryan, Noah?"
"Night night." Noah waved
"Goodnight Bud." Bryan said walking over kissing Noah on the head then turning his attention to Olivia " I'll wash up the dishes Liv then you can meet you in the bedroom after you put him down."
Then she walked off to the bathroom to tend to Noah.
As he was washing the dishes he couldn't stop his mind from going in circles about what could have happened to cause her to have such a significant mood change in her, but then the doorbell rang.
"Who is it?" Bryan called out.
"It's Fin."
Bryan opened the door a little confused and let Fin in.
"Hey what's up man?"
"Sorry to come unannounced I tried calling her, is Liv around?"
"Yeah, she's at the back with Noah, everything ok."
"Yea, yea. Mind if I wait around for her."
"That's fine, want something to drink?"
"Nah I'm good but I heard about the new baby, Congrats Cassidy."
"Thanks Fin." He said as they shook hands.
Just then Olivia walked back into the living room seeing Fin and Cassidy talking on the couch.
"Hey Fin, I just saw your missed call, is everything alright?"
"Yea, I just wanted to make sure you were ok Liv?" He standing up.
"Why wouldn't she be ok?" Bryan said rushing over towards her.
"I'm alright guys."
"Bull Liv, you always say that." Cassidy says getting angry. "You promised you were gonna go on desk duty."
"Can you relax for a second? I am on desk duty. Nothing crazy happened, there was just a little... misunderstanding at work."
"I don't think Fin would come all the way over here to see if you were ok because of some little misunderstanding."
"Sorry Liv...I thought you told him. I didn't mean to just... "Fin says apologetically
"Its fine Fin, I was going to tell Bryan anyways."
"Tell me what?" Bryan eagerly asked again.
"Well earlier when Liv told everyone that she was pregnant we were all pretty supportive and happy for her...well everyone except for Amaro."
"Amaro?" He angrily questioned
"Yea he said some things to Liv that I felt was crossing the line and I just wanted to make sure she was ok."
"Crossing the line? What did he say you to you Liv?" He said getting increasingly loud
"It's not important...and lower your damn voice before you wake Noah up."
Cassidy takes a conscious step back away from Liv rubbing his hand over his face,
"My bad Liv." Fin apologized as he looked over at Cassidy who was pacing up and down trying to calm himself down. "I didn't want to start a problem between you two. I just wanted to let you know face to face that I talked to him and handled it. He won't be speaking to you like that again. You probably won't see him for a while anyways. I told him to go take a week off and go to California."
"That is probably for the better. Thanks Fin."
"I got your back and if you need anything, even if it is just a babysitter or whatever. Just give me a call anytime."
"I appreciate you checking up on me" she said as they walked over to the apartment door. "But...maybe next time a text won't be so bad to leave me, I'll even settle for voicemail." She joked
"No problem" he laughed "Just make sure when I call that you actually answer."
"Fin." Cassidy called out. "I didn't mean to blow up like that but thanks for having her back man."
"I get it Cassidy. I'll see you guys later."
"Bye Fin."
After Olivia closed the front door she walked straight past Bryan and entered the bedroom. As they were both dressing into their pajamas Cassidy was getting increasingly anxious and couldn't leave their conversation unfinished.
"So you gonna tell me what Amaro said that pissed you off so badly?"
"At this point I really don't want to, you are just going to get angry." She said sitting next to him on the bed.
"I'm already angry."
"Ughh, Just promise me you won't do anything stupid."
"Fine, whatever. I promise."
"Ok, well after I told everyone about the pregnancy, Amaro said that I'm probably just finally happy that my lover boy ASSidy finally knocked me up..."
"Wow...and he calls me an asshole! Next time I see him I'm gonna-"
"Stop...You don't need to do anything... Rollins already punched him in the face..."
"I knew I liked her."
"He said something pretty messed up to her too."
"He's an ass. But you are supposed to be taking it easy Liv. You don't need this stress, the doctor was already worried about your blood pressure."
"...but you know that what he said isn't true right?" she asked ignoring his concerns.
"That what isn't true?"
"That I'm only sticking with you because I ended up pregnant."
"Liv stop... I know we aren't perfect but trust me I know that's not true." He said kissing her forehead as they sat up on the bed holding on to each other. "We may not have the best track record and even though I know you can do wayyyyy better than me, we've come a long way, don't you think?"
"We have, but don't start with that you can do better than me nonsense alright."
"Liv you got to admit that when people see you and me they wonder what the hell is she doing with him."
"Who cares what they think? Baby or no baby. I want you and only you."
"I only want you too Liv" he said running his hands through her hair.
"Good because I'm thankful that you were brave enough to ask me for another chance at this relationship."
"Yea,when we first started seeing each other I'll be honest, I had no clue where this was going but the love I have for you kind of snuck up on me and scared the shit out of me. I had it bad for you since '99." he laughed
"It scared me too," she laughed back "but I had this stupid rule for myself back then. I wanted to be seen as a serious female detective, I devoted my whole life to this job and what do I really have to show for it...I look back on the past two years of my life and see how far I've come, how far we've come." She said as their fingers interlocked.
"I know weird right, who would have thought. Benson and Cassidy in a committed relationship and having a baby. "He laughed
"Yea, who would have thought?" She says as her voice trails off and a comfortable silence fills the room.
Bryan fell asleep pretty quickly after that but Olivia's mind was working overtime.
She stared up into the ceiling and couldn't get Tucker out of her head.
Yea Nick hurt her feelings but she knew there was something going on underneath all that anger he was projecting that had nothing to do with her, she just couldn't believe he would say something like that to her and Rollins.
But the issue with Nick had to take a back burner for now. If she didn't talk to someone about all this craziness with Tucker she might just lose her cool.
She knew better than anyone that you should just focus on enjoying life and all the positive things it had to offer, so that is exactly what she was going to do, after all life is way too short for the meaninglessness drama anyways.
A/N: I wanna give a huge thank you to any faithful readers that I have who have been so patient with this story. I have great drama in the works for Benson and Cassidy. After all no one said finding happiness would be easy! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! xoxo