AN: I have a lot of back and forth between Rae at school/after school and Olivia at work going on. I think the transitions are pretty clear so you shouldn't have any trouble following along. Keep those comments/suggestions coming. Thanks so much for reading!

Chapter 27: All Smiles

Olivia arrived at work right on time with not a minute to spare. She strolled into the squad room and sat down at her desk to start on her huge mound of paperwork. Elliot arrived a few minutes after she did. They greeted each other and he sat down and got to work as well. He glanced up at Olivia a few times seeing the light smile she had on her face. He continued looking at her, wondering what it was that she was so happy about. After about fifteen minutes, the smile hadn't disappeared and he just had to know what had made his partner so chipper.

"Hey, what are you smiling about?" he asked looking curiously at her. Olivia looked up at the sound of his voice to see who he was talking to. Upon seeing that he was looking in her direction, she turned to see if anyone was behind her.

"You're talking to me?" she said turning back around to face him.

"Yeah I'm talking to you. You've been smiling since I walked in here." Olivia just shrugged her shoulder and tried to act like she didn't know what he was talking about. She turned her attention back to her paperwork.

Araeyah arrived at school a few minutes before the warning bell rang for second period. She rushed to her locker to get the homework she needed to finish and then hustled to study hall. She walked through the door just as the bell rang and found a seat next to Ashley in the back.

"Well hello there" Ashley said as if it'd been days since they'd seen or spoken to each other.

"Hey" Rae said back smiling. Ashley thought something was different about her friend but couldn't quite put her finger on it. "What?" Rae asked noticing the way Ashley was looking at her.

"You're glowing" Ashley said simply. "I am? Because I thought I looked really pale. It's freezing outside."

"You're definitely glowing" Ashley said pushing a cup of coffee over in front of Rae. "As promised." The teacher cleared his throat loudly, getting the girls' attention and giving them the "be quiet and do some work" look.

"I love you" Rae mouthed as she picked up her coffee to take a sip. She pulled out her homework for AP Physics and got to work. Ashley had a text book in her lap pretending to read but really she was playing a game of solitaire on her phone. The hour passed quickly and the girls left to move on to their next class.

"Alright. What is it?" Ashley said leaning against the locker next to Rae's as she swapped out her books. "What is what?" Rae asked looking confused. "What is it that has you so...happy and glowing?" Ashley said clarifying her question. "Nothing I just...I made up with my girlfriend over the weekend." Rae said a little smug. "Shut up!" Ashley yelled. Rae glared at her warning her to keep it down. "Shut up" Ashley repeated in a lower octave but without losing any enthusiasm. "So you two are back together? Like officially?" Ashley asked. She was half excited and half disappointed but she couldn't show Rae the second part. Rae nodded, not able to wipe the smile off of her face. "Awww. Well I'm happy that you're happy" Ashley said giving Rae a hug. The warning bell for third period rang. "You are telling me all about this. I want details" Ashley said walking backwards towards her next class. Rae just laughed and ran upstairs to get to her next class on time.

The SVU team were all sitting at their desks, still doing paperwork. It had been slow so far. They were all waiting for it to be time to break for lunch. Every few minutes, Olivia's phone would buzz and she'd look at it and smile.

"Alright, who is he?" Elliot asked. He figured whoever Olivia was texting had to be the one responsible for the bright mood she was in.

"Who's who?" Olivia asked genuinely confused.

"The guy you're talking to that has you smiling so much?" Olivia laughed and shook her head.

"There's no guy, El". She wasn't lying. There was definitely no guy.

"You're really not gonna tell me who he is?" Elliot asked.

"I'm serious, Elliot. There's no guy" Olivia looked him straight in the eye to show him she wasn't lying.

"Alright. Have it your way" he said deciding to let it go.

They went back to quietly working on their paperwork. Things started to pick up after lunch when the wife of an investment banker came in to file a complaint. She wanted to press charges after her husband returned home from a night of drinking and forced her to have sex with him. It wasn't the first time and she knew if she didn't get help it wouldn't be the last. She waited for her husband to go out before packing her things and leaving. Olivia escorted her to the hospital for a rape exam and then back to the precinct to take her formal statement. Elliot went to the woman's house where CSU processed the scene. Munch and Fin talked to acquaintances of both the wife and the husband. They all returned to the station around six thirty and gathered in the captain's office to go over their case with Alex.

"Alright, let's lay it out for her" Capt. Cragen said referring to ADA Cabot. "What have we got?"

Oliva stepped up to speak first. "Andrea Baker, thirty one years old claims she was raped by her husband, Lance, last night when he came home drunk and belligerent. Rape kit shows bruising on the wrists and inner thighs and vaginal trauma consistent with sexual assault. She has a black eye, busted lip, and three cracked ribs from him punching her in the stomach. X-rays also showed a number of healed fractures dating back three years. They were married four years ago; dated for two years before that."

"This is the first complaint she's made?" Alex asked chiming in. "Uh, no. She's filed charges three times before but always withdrew before it could get to trial. He'd promised to quit drinking, get counseling, do better. You know, the usual."

"What about CSU?" she asked turning her attention to Elliot.

"The house looked clean, everything in its rightful place. We did find the bloodied sheets in the hamper where the vic said they'd be and we cut a sample from the mattress for DNA. It's all been sent to the lab for processing." he said from his seated position on the table in the corner. "The rape kit was positive for semen. Andrea said he refuses to use condoms because "it's time for them to start a family"." Olivia shook her head in disgust. "Good. Then the DNA match should be easy" Cragen said from behind his desk.

"We talked to some of Baker's friends and co-workers. Pretty much the same thing all around; the guy's a real piece of work" Fin said jumping into the conversation. "Yeah, his mother didn't even have anything good to say about him" Munch interjected. "Couldn't for the life of her understand how he got such a nice girl like Andrea to marry him"

"This is classic DV Alex. He wins he over by treating her well while they're dating: nice dinners, fancy trips, expensive jewelry. Wining and dining while simultaneously isolating her from her family and friends so she had no one to depend on but him. They get married, he becomes more and more demanding and then one day he hits her. He apologizes, promises it won't happen again, buys her gifts, she forgives him and the cycle continues." Olivia was pitching to Alex to get her on board. "Ok" Alex stood from leaning against the two way mirror. "Go pick him up. I'll get the warrant." She said before walking out of Cragen's office.

"Alright, you heard her. Bring him in" Cragen said dismissing his detectives to go arrest the suspect. With the history of abuse, the wife's current injuries, and dna evidence from the rape kit, the judge didn't hesitate to sign the warrant. Elliot and Olivia arrested the husband and brought him back to the station. He refused to admit that he'd done anything wrong and immediately asked for a lawyer. They sent him to booking, typed up their fives and handed the case over to the DA's office.

Rae, Ashley and Maureen went to lunch at the pizza parlor not far from their school. Ashley was dying to ask Rae about what'd happened between her and Olivia but Maureen's presence made it impossible for her to bring it up. Maureen got up to go to the bathroom and Ashley took her chance.

"Ok, spill. How'd you two get back together? She ignored your existence for a week and what...she just called you up and said "haha, just kidding"?" Ashley asked leaning across the table talking in a hush-hush tone.

"No" Rae said laughing. "We ran into each other outside the bar on Saturday when I was waiting for my taxi. I kinda ripped her a new one for disappearing on me. I called her a coward." Ashley was practically jumping out of seat for Rae to tell the story. "Yeah, ok and what'd she say to that?"

"Calm down, I'm getting there. Anyway, I called her a coward and I tried to walk away from her but she insisted on driving me home. I knew she wouldn't take no for an answer so I caved. On the drive to my place she admitted that she got scared and tried to run away from our relationship. She apologized to me. She promised that it won't happen again and that she's really ready this time. This morning she officially said that I'm her girlfriend" Rae said with a beaming smile.

"Ok, so she just dropped you off and then called this morning to say she wants you to be her girlfriend?" Ashley asked. She was hoping for a bit more romantic. She noticed the look on Rae's face that said there was more to the story. "Or she didn't just drop you off. Wait, is this why you were ignoring all of my phone calls yesterday? Did you have sex with her?" Ashley asked leaning in further with even more enthusiasm. Ashley turned and looked behind her when she saw Rae's gaze shift. She saw Maureen coming back from the bathroom and rolled her eyes. "We're not done talking about this" she said letting Rae know she wasn't off the hook.

"Not done talking about what?" Maureen asked taking her seat at the table.

"Nothing that pertains to you" Ashley sneered angry at her for interrupting their conversation. Rae took one her fries and threw it at her. "Stop it".

The girls finished their lunch and returned to school to finish out the rest of classes. Rae and Olivia continued texting until the middle of Rae's sixth period class when her teacher threatened to take her phone if she didn't put it away. She put the phone away and decided to play it on the safe side for the rest of the day. The last thing she needed was to lose her phone or be written up for texting during class. As soon as last bell rang, she took her phone back out and started talking to Liv again. She said her goodbyes to Maureen and was walking to her car when Ashley appeared.

"Yo, I need a ride" she said opening Rae's passenger side door and getting into her car. Rae got in the driver's side.

"You really have a problem with asking for things, don't you?" Rae said starting her car and pulling out of her parking spot.

"Only with you" Rae pulled out of the school parking lot and headed towards Ashley's house.

"What's wrong with your car?" Rae asked slapping Ashley's hand away as she tried to change the radio station. "My dad's car is getting work done so he's using my car until his is ready" Ashley said. She turned in her seat to face Rae. "That's not really important. You never answered my question earlier?"

"What question?" Rae tried to play dumb but she knew exactly what Ashley was talking about.

"Oh please, like you could forget" Rae remained silent and keep her eyes focused on the road. "I wanna know Rae" Ashley said pressing her friend for answers. She clearly wasn't giving up.

"I...We just...you know we" Rae stammered unable to make a complete sentence.

"Oh my god. You did it. You totally had sex with her." Ashley said sounding a little impressed. "Was she good?"

"Ashley! I'm not talking about that" Rae shouldn't have been surprised that Ashley had asked the question. She had a way of being rather blunt about things. When she wanted to know something she wanted to know. She definitely wasn't one to mince words. "What? I wanna know. How was she?" Rae started to blush. She had never been shy when talking about sex before. Then again she'd never been talking about her own sex life either. "I told you, I'm not talking about it." Ashley couldn't believe Rae was being so private with her. "Oh come on. I've talked to you about my sex life plenty of times. I talked to you about Scott."

"Yeah but you always brought it up. I never asked you. We talked about it because you wanted to" Rae said finally looking over at Ashley. She pulled into Ashley's driveway and put the car in park.

"Oh you are so coming in. We are finishing this conversation" Rae looked at the clock on her dashboard and saw that it was almost four. Olivia wouldn't be getting off work for a few more hours and that was if they didn't get a case. Rae rolled her eyes and turned of the car before getting out following Ashley inside. They dropped their stuff by the door and went into the kitchen to grabbed some snacks. They sat down in the living room and talked about the band's upcoming show that Rae would be in. Ashley grabbed her guitar and let Rae play a little of the song she'd written and was gonna ask the guys if they could add it to the set. A couple of hours later, when her dad and brothers came home, they decided to move upstairs to Ashley's room.

"Okay. I'm listening. Back to our conversation about your first time" Ashley said as she settled down on her bed. Rae dragged the bean bag chair from the corner of Ashley's room to sit closer to where she was on the bed. She flopped down groaning in frustration at Ashley's incessant pestering. "Come on, Rae. You have to tell me." Ashley said practically begging. "Not only did you lose your virginity but you lost it with a woman twice your age. I mean she had to know what she was doing." Rae didn't say anything. "Araeyah!" Ashley yelled at her in frustration. "Ok, ok. Yes. She is...very good. She's amazing."

"And..." Ashley prompted wanting more details. "And...I don't know. What do you want me to say?" Rae said getting more and more flustered as Ashley poked her for details. "How did it happen?" Rae smiled thinking back to very early Sunday morning. "She drove me home from the bar and we talked. We decided to give us another shot. I could tell she was having a hard time not staring at me, you know, in my costume..."

"Yeah dude. You looked hot" Ashley said interrupting her friend. "Why thank you very much" Rae said kinda smug before laughing at herself. "Anyway, we were sitting in the parking lot of my building and I just kissed her...and she kissed me back and it was so...perfect. That was until she stopped me." Ashley's face fell at the turn in the story. Rae laughed before continuing. She recounted the whole story of how she got Olivia up to her apartment and into her bedroom. "And then we had sex" Ashley looked at her friend in disappointment. "Uh no. I want details missy. Like real details" Rae shook her head and sighed. "I don't know Ashley. Ugh. Ummm...She is really dominate. Not just because I'm...new to all of it but just naturally, she likes to take control" Rae paused looking at Ashley to see if she'd said enough yet. "Go on" Ashley said not yet satisfied with the amount of info she'd received. Rae blushed even harder thinking about how skilled Olivia was in the bedroom...and the shower...and on the kitchen table. "Uhhh" she said laughing bashfully, "she's a giver. She's likes knowing that she can please me. She knows just where to touch, how hard and soft, and when to slow down and when to speed up. And her tongue is...amazing" Ashley was staring at Rae as she talked about sex with Olivia. "I'm so completely jealous right now" Rae laughed and cleared her throat. She had gotten a bit worked up thinking about how Olivia could make her feel. She grabbed her water and brought it to her mouth to take a drink.

"How many times does she make you cum?" The unexpectedness of Ashley's question made Rae choke on her water. Ashley chuckled a little as she struggled through a coughing fit. "Sorry" she said still slightly laughing. "You're a bitch. And I'm not answering that" Rae got up wiping off the water she'd spilled on her shirt and walk towards the bathroom. "Aw come on" Ashley yelled after her. While Rae was in the bathroom her phone started ringing. Ashley got off the bed and grabbed her phone off the chair she'd left it in. She looked at the caller id and saw it was Olivia calling.

"Hello" Ashley answered the phone as if it were her own.

"Hey. Listen don't be mad, ok?" It was going on seven thirty and Olivia was still working. She was just about to walk out of the door when they got a call to respond to a murder scene.

"Uh, ok." Ashley was debating whether to tell Olivia she wasn't Rae. Just then Araeyah walked back in the room.

"Who are you talking to?" she said seeing Ashley was on her phone. Ashley mouthed Olivia's name. Rae stepped forward and snatched the phone from her hands. "Hey Liv" Rae said glaring at Ashley as she sat back down in the bean bag chair.

"Hey. Who was that?" Olivia asked confused. "Uh. It was just Ashley. What's up?" Rae quickly changed the subject from Ashley to whatever it was she was calling to say. "Uh, I have to cancel dinner tonight. I have to work" Olivia said trying to ignore the fact that Rae was with Ashley. "Oh but I thought you'd wrapped up that case?" Rae was disappointed. Olivia was supposed to be coming over to her apartment and she was going to cook dinner for them. "Yeah, this is a different case. I'm at the scene now. I'm really sorry."

"No, it's ok. I understand. Ummm call me ok? It doesn't matter how late. I'll answer." Olivia could hear the disappointment in Rae's voice and suddenly felt silly for being so jealous about Ashley. "She obviously wants to see you" she thought to herself. "Yeah, ok. I will. I have to go. I'll talk to you later" Rae heard the line click and hung up the phone. She looked over at Ashley with a sad face.

"Let me guess. She's ditchin' you?" Ashley asked feeling a little sorry for her friend. "She not ditching me. She just has to work. Guess I better get use to this, huh?"

"Sorry" Ashley said softly. They were both silent for a moment then Ashley spoke, "Hey why don't we order out and do our homework" Rae looked at her sideways. "Ok, you do your homework" she continued with a slight laugh, "and then we can watch movies or something" Rae shrugged and agreed figuring she had nothing better to do. Rae followed Ashley downstairs thinking, "This is must be what Mrs. Stabler feels like all the time".