A/N: Hey everyone I'd just like to say sorry I haven't posted in a while, I kinda lost inspiration for this story but now it's back I hope you really like this chapter. I know I do :P This one's set a month after the last one and I think you'll enjoy the romance in this piece. Thanks for all the reviews and keep them coming Enjoy x

"IT happened. There is no avoiding it, no forgetting. No running away, or flying, or burying, or hiding."
― Laurie Halse Anderson

Chapter 9: Reality

"Morning…"

A strand of hair was moved from Amanda's naked back. A smile crept across her face as she turned over in the bed and met the wholesome eyes of Olivia Benson.

"Mornin' to you too." The blonde continued to smile as Olivia glided her finger from her cheekbone slowly down her body until her hand rested itself gently on her bare waist.

"Last night was…" Olivia looked down at the floor where clothes had been scattered in a mad rush to the bed, "…fun."

"Every night with you is fun!" Amanda giggled, reaching up and placing a small kiss on her partner's lips. Olivia bent down and reciprocated the kiss before placing her head lightly on Amanda's chest. Fifteen minutes passed before either spoke, they just lay there, peaceful and content.

"So this is it then?" Olivia's eyes glanced out the window.

"Yeah. Yeah I guess it is." The younger detective answered before getting out of bed and walking to the window where her underwear seemed to have landed. "The rest of my stuff should come with the movers at nine."

Olivia had a brief look at the alarm clock on her bedside table and then looked back to her girlfriend who was now placed seductively by the window.

"Well it's eight fifteen now. So we've still got a while till they get here or should I say a while until you have to unpack?" Benson pulled the covers away from her bare body and walked towards the door. She turned her head slowly and looked at Rollins "Care to join me?"

Amanda laughed at the question before following the other woman out of the room.

"So I was thinking if we go and get them tonight then we can avoid this whole weekend rush. What do you think?" Olivia asked, pointing at a picture in a magazine she was holding. Amanda nodded as she proceeded to tap away at the keys on her cell phone.

"What about the blue? Or maybe the red? Actually the green doesn't look too bad either." Benson pointed again at the same picture, turned the page and then persisted to convince Amanda on getting the item.

DING. The elevator door opened and before them was the ever hectic one-six precinct.

"Amanda are you listening to me?" Olivia grabbed hold of her partner's arm prior to her stepping out.

The blonde looked up from her cell phone then back at Olivia. "Yeah honey of course I am. You were talkin' about…" Rollins looked down at the magazine, "Plates. Right yeah, dinner plates."

"So which colour do you think?"

Amanda took a closer look at the picture, "Definitely not green!" She replied before stepping out and leaving Benson behind in the elevator.

"Because that so was helpful!" Liv called ahead.

Two days before, Olivia had asked Amanda to move in with her. After the events that had happened a month before with Tyrell Bryant, Olivia had had a chance to look at her relationship with the other detective. And her decision had been that she should move on, focus on what she had and not what could hurt them. She was intent on them creating a home together so she had decided that they should go shopping, not something she'd usually do but she wanted to buy the essentials they needed; wine glasses, a new bed and of course new dinner plates to name just a few! This was Benson's way of controlling things; it kept her calm, so she continued in that way.

"Ahhh Liv, I need you and Nick to go and see our informant in Riker's, Nick's already waiting in the car for you." Cragen said when she neared her desk. Olivia turned on her heel, throwing her domestic supplement onto her chair and heading back out of the room.

"Oh and Rollins, Casey wants you to go down to the DA's office. She says she's got something to show you?" The Captain called over to Amanda who had currently been sipping at a coffee Fin had just given her.

She nodded and replied "Yep Captain she just text me." The young woman got up from her seat and made her way back the way she'd come, the entrance to the elevator began to close and she sprinted and slipped through the gap between the doors. Her back now rested against the wall and she looked across at Olivia.

"Fancy seein' you here!" Amanda laughed. Olivia just rolled her eyes. "Look I know you want to do all the homely stuff Liv, like plates and curtains it's just we've got plenty of time to do that. We should focus on us." Rollins leant over and cupped Olivia's face before kissing her delicately on the lips. She lingered and heard her girlfriend's breathing become more intense. Pulling away she added, "We should think about telling people, unpacking my stuff or getting a new pet before we consider doing that other stuff."

They stepped out of the elevator and Olivia looked at Amanda. "Where are you going?"

"I've gotta see Casey about something. She keeps texting me!" Rollins held up her phone as it vibrated again then she walked through the door and down to her car.

"It's weird. I never imagined she could be so…different. But then again I guess no one's ever seen this side of her before."

"And that's it?" Casey looked up from her case file.

Amanda glanced sideways, "What do you mean is that it? I have a crisis on my hands here. My girlfriend is turning into some housewife!"

"Housewife? Yeah that's definitely going too far. If there's anything Olivia Benson is, it's one hundred percent not housewife orientated." Casey laughed, "Look you really think this is the end of the world? I've got a girl in court being charged for murder, it turns out her mother died when she was young and her father's in prison for drug smuggling. And let's just say her nice uncle Samuel wasn't so nice after all…"

"Okay, Okay you think I'm overreacting?" Rollins pulled her hands through her hair. Casey Novak was the only one she could turn to. They didn't know each other all that well but Casey had had a thing with Olivia in the past and she had figured out about Amanda seeing the older detective. She was the only one who had any experience in this department.

"You can say that again." She got up and grabbed her coat before saying, "Look Amanda, from an outsider's point of view it looks like Olivia is trying to make whatever you have together, perfect. She never did anything like that with anyone else. So just let her know that you support her. Seems to me you showed her your love card when it came to Tyrell Bryant and now she's trying to show you hers but in a different way."

Amanda looked up from her seat, "Thanks Casey."

"That's alright. I'm always here to listen, that is apart from the times I have court. And this would be one of those times." She answered gesturing to the door.

"And it turns out the guy knew it was him and had caught him on his CCTV."

"So why's he telling us this now?" Rollins replied as she jumped out of her car and headed towards the precinct.

"Well apparently he wants to get out in five years not eight. So he hid the tapes because he thought he could get a shorter sentence later on down the line." Olivia answered as she looked through the glass and into the interrogation room where a new suspect had been placed. Nick walked past her and into the room.

"Wait he's been in there for what, three years already? How does that link to our case?" Her partner said pressing the button for the elevator repeatedly.

"He's a serial rapist; he's been doing it for a long time. Anyway what did you find out?"

"I'll be up in a second, I'll tell you then."

The junior detective sank into her chair, lifted her feet up on her desk and put her hands behind her head. Fin looked over as he strolled back into the room.

"Tough day?" He asked, sitting down in his seat and grabbing at some paperwork.

"You bet!"

"What did Novak want with you anyway?" Fin questioned, but before she could answer the door to interrogation opened and out walked Amaro and Benson. Nick's tie was crooked and Olivia's shirt was creased. They had been in there for an hour now and the suspect was proving to be tough to crack.

Olivia glimpsed over at Amanda's desk. Amanda was so effortlessly beautiful or at least that's what Liv thought. Benson's face gleamed with pride as she sat on her desk and looked at her colleagues.

"Alright Rollins?" Nick nodded at the blonde as he too slouched in his chair. Amanda smiled back and Olivia looked at them all again.

"What?" Fin asked when he realised Benson's beaming smile.

"Well now we're altogether I've got some news for you all. Well Amanda and I have some news." Olivia smiled again and gestured for Amanda to come and join her over at her desk.

Amanda's eyes widened. She didn't like where this was going. Surely Liv wasn't going to tell them all now! It was too early wasn't it?

Benson continued as Cragen appeared in his doorway "We wanted to tell you that we are officially…"

She was cut off by Amanda, who stood up quickly and blurted "…officially going to win this case. When I was down at Casey's office she told me a girl had gone to her with some evidence, that evidence is from our perp and it's got his DNA on it." Olivia looked at her, she was shocked. Had Amanda really just done that?

Her partner looked over at her as she rambled on, "Yeah, me and Liv figured out it comes from the jacket he was wearing in that video." She pointed to a still from the video that they had retrieved earlier.

"Good work." Cragen added before disappearing back into his office.

Nick and Fin nodded as they realised this great connection in the case but Amanda could only see the disappointment in Olivia's eyes. Benson looked away and walked into the cribs before slamming the door behind her. Amanda followed quickly and found Olivia pacing the room.

"Liv please." Amanda begged. She knew what she'd done wrong and just hoped Olivia would forgive her.

"Please? PLEASE? Amanda you told me earlier that you wanted to tell people and when I try you cut me off!" Olivia screamed back.

"I said we should think about it! I never said to do it; I never said to tell the whole squad the same day! This is somethin' you talk to me about not somethin' you blurt out in conversation Liv!" Amanda shouted back. "I'm sorry okay! You caught me when I was least expectin' it." She walked towards the older woman and placed her forehead on Liv's.

The door to the cribs opened and Benson pushed Rollins away. Amanda looked at Olivia who just glanced elsewhere.

"Is everything alright in here?" Fin asked, peering around the door with a worried expression.

"Yeah I was just leaving." Amanda turned and walked out of the room.

"Rollins I need you and Fin to go and talk to Samantha Hooper." Rollins nodded and walked out of the station with Fin at her heals.

"I don't get it. She should have been back by now."

Cragen looked across at Fin. "Well where did she go after you saw her?"

"She said she had to go get something." Fin answered, he checked the clock and realised Amanda had now been gone an hour since he had last seen her. He noticed that Olivia seemed to be looking slightly agitated about the idea as well. He wasn't quite sure what he'd walked in on earlier in the cribs, were they arguing? He wasn't sure.

"Rollins! Where have you been?" Cragen asked forcefully as the young and beautiful detective walked into the precinct carrying a box. Amanda ignored him and the stares from everyone else and continued over to Olivia's desk. She placed the box down in front over her lover.

Olivia looked at the box and then back at Amanda. "What's this? A peace-offering?" Amanda didn't answer but instead pushed the box closer to the older woman.

Liv opened the box and removed the packaging and then her famous grin appeared on her face. It was as if the anger she had from earlier had washed away. "You got them." She finally managed to whisper, only loud enough for Rollins to hear.

Amanda bent down and whispered back "I wanna spend the rest of my life with you! Of course I got you the stupid dinner plates!" She started to giggle as Olivia intertwined her fingers with hers and looked down at the blue dishes. Olivia raised herself up and grabbed hold of Amanda's neck before pulling her into a kiss. Amanda's hands wandered through Olivia's hair and rested on her shoulders.

"Took your time didn't you?" Fin sniggered from his desk. The two lovers parted from their kiss and gazed across at the senior detective. "You two on that roof a month ago was clue enough!" Benson and Rollins looked at each other and burst into fits of laughter.

"So we're okay now then?" Amanda asked, rolling over in the bed and stroking Olivia's bare shoulder.

Liv rolled over to look at Amanda, she lost herself in the woman's blue eyes before replying, "We're more than fine, we're great. I think our clothes prove that."

Rollins looked over to the door and chuckled as she noticed Olivia's bra hanging from the door handle. "I'm not scared now. I believe in us."

"Amanda shhhhh…" Liv said putting a finger to her lover's lips in an attempt to quiet her. "That day when we were after Bryant, you didn't just save me, you saved us." Olivia kissed her blushing girlfriend as she pulled her into a loving hug.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed it! It was fun to write and if any of you feel like I haven't added something you'd like to read between these two then do let me know. And don't forget to review review review :D x