* Another update, enjoy! *

"Will you see where Noah went? I need to get his jacket on before we leave." Olivia spoke to Rafael, who was in the kitchen cleaning up the aftermath of breakfast, from where she stood pacing the living room trying to calm down a fussy Raegan.

Rafael wiped his hands off on the dish rag and left the room in search of the sneaky little boy who always seemed to find a way to disappear when his mother was distracted by his little sister. The man returned a moment later with Noah in his arms, giggling about something.

"This one has discovered how to open his dresser doors, so there may or may not be quite a few pieces of clothing covering his bedroom floor." Rafael couldn't help but laugh at Noah.

Liv, however, wasn't as amused. "Ughh… Noah what are we going to do with you? I'll worry about picking it up later, we don't have time."

After another night spent together with the kids, Olivia and her beau were in a hurry after their breakfast to get out the door and on their way to work. Noah needed to be taken to daycare, which he went to three times a week, and Lucy would be showing up any moment to stay with Raegan for the day. Even though, Olivia had assumed that Rafael staying through their whole morning routine for the first time would scare him away, as it was basically organized chaos, he fit right into the chaos and Liv liked having the extra set of hands.

"I don't think the clothes will do any harm if your leave them there for the day, Liv." He looked down at his watch as he finished talking. "But you are right, we need to get going or we are going to be really late."

Great, Liv thought, as if everyone wouldn't already be questioning why Rafael and she were arriving together, now they would make it even more obvious if they were late. "You can go down to the car with Noah; I'll come down as soon as Lucy is here."

The babysitter arrived as soon as Rafael left for the car with Noah. She apologized for being a few minutes late, but Liv assured her that it was fine as she was walking out the door. She met Rafael who was in the car on the phone, with Noah in his car seat playing with a toy left in the car earlier.

When they pulled up to the daycare center, Olivia hopped out of her seat and got Noah out of his. "I'll be right back."

Rafael laughed at the mom as she hurriedly went into the building. Hard-headed, no nonsense Olivia Benson was not anywhere near the same woman he was watching run into a daycare carrying her two year old son. And as far as he was concerned, he thought he might like the mom version of Olivia better than the woman he had worked with for the last four years.

Half an hour after fighting traffic to get to Rafael's office, the pair was walking through the hallway towards his office. When they entered the room his secretary occupied, they also ran into the whole team waiting for them to arrive and as soon as they did, the looks that came from every member was exactly what both Liv and Rafael had expected. However, they just pretended to ignore the sideways glances.

"Sorry to leave you all waiting." Rafael spoke first, hoping to break the awkward silence that had followed them into his lofty office.

Fin sat down first at the table, where they typically had their attorney-officer meetings involving cases. "It's all good. We weren't waiting for that long."

"Did you guys come here together?" Nick, unlike Fin, questioned his superior and the DA. Liv however, wasn't surprised; he was always the first to notice changes in her behavior and associates.

However, knowing Nick's suspicions, didn't stop Liv from panicking over coming up with an answer for his question. "Umm… Yeah we did. I gave him a ride."

"My... Uhh… My car wouldn't start this morning, so Olivia was nice enough to give me a lift." The attorney filled in the rest of their made up story.

Nick looked between the couple, trying to figure out how credible their story was. "So your brand new Mercedes wouldn't start this morning?"

Olivia's eyes widened at Nick's comment. She hadn't even thought through what she was saying before she blurted out her fake excuse. She should had have known better with Nick, he was a detective for a reason, and very few things made it past his watchful eye, especially when it came to his former partner. Rafael had the same reaction as he realized that he had just purchased his car only a month before.

"Yeah, something about a recalled part. I don't know; I haven't had a chance to look into it yet and I hadn't had a problem until now." At least Rafael's ability to think quickly on his feet was coming in handy outside of the courtroom.

The rest of the meeting was awkward to say the least. Olivia and Rafael sat on opposite ends of the table, trying to avoid another slip up, besides what their colleagues had already noticed. It wasn't that they didn't want them to know about their relationship, but they didn't want the judgement that was going to follow from the detectives. The whole work relationship thing was known to be not the best decision one could make and neither Olivia nor Rafael wanted to endure the criticism from anyone about their choices. Although, after the meeting they had with everyone, it was becoming obvious that hiding their romantic involvement may not be so easy anymore.

When they wrapped up their meeting, Olivia quickly gathered her belongings and exited the office behind her team. She and Rafael had a standing dinner date, so she knew that she would see him later.

Amanda was walking in front of her as they returned to the hallway, when she stopped suddenly, causing Olivia to halt behind her, and the blonde turned around to address her commanding officer. "Look, I know it's none of my business and I don't want to tell you how to run your personal life, but you guys might want to do a better job of hiding whatever is going on between the two of you. The guys are starting to get suspicious."

It was that statement from Amanda that was on the sergeant's mind as she started to get things ready for dinner before her attorney boyfriend showed up for the evening. He was on his way over already and the kids were keeping Liv company. Noah, specifically, was next to his mama, standing on a chair watching her chop vegetables. He always had to be helping his mom whenever he could and Olivia certainly couldn't complain about the company from her favorite little man.

When she heard a knocking at the door, she knew that Rafael was waiting on the other side. "Come in!" She yelled from where she was standing with Noah.

"Rafi!" Noah clapped his hands together.

"Hi buddy." The man came into the kitchen and picked up the little boy off the chair, while also giving his mother a small, quick peck on the lips. "How was the rest of your day?"

"Long and pretty boring, seems like special victims is going through a dry spell, but that's probably a good thing."

Rafael chuckled at her answer. "Same here, I would rather have been here with you and the kids."

"That reminds me, I think there is something we need to discuss." Olivia told Rafael, who immediately lost his calm demeanor and tensed at those words that never meant something good.

"What is it?" Rafael set Noah down on the floor, allowing him to go play with his toys in the living room. He looked a little pale, a look of worry washing over his face.

"Oh, it's nothing bad." Liv told him. "Well I mean I hope it won't be anything bad."

"That doesn't sound anymore reassuring." The man pointed out.

"I guess not huh?" Olivia noticed how unsure she, herself, had sounded. "It's just that Amanda made a comment to me when we were leaving your office today about how we needed to do a better job of hiding whatever it was we were hiding between ourselves."

Rafael leaned against the countertop, letting out a sigh. "Has anyone else pointed it out to you?"

"No net yet, but you saw how close Nick was this morning. It's because Amanda's a woman, she reads into these kinds of things faster than the guys will."

"Yeah but if she's already noticed, than it won't be that long before the whole team knows." Rafael said.

"Exactly, which is why I want to tell them." Liv admitted to him.

Rafael nodded. "That's fine Liv. I get it; they're your team and they deserve to know."

"Those aren't the only people I think we need to tell." Olivia knew that would be a sorer subject for the district attorney.

Rafael stood back up again, realizing what his girlfriend was trying to tell him. "You mean that you think it's time we disclose our involvement, don't you?"

"Yeah, that's what I mean." Liv agreed with his assumption. "I just don't think that after I tell the team, not that I don't trust them, that it will stay a secret for very long and I think we'll be worse off if our superiors find out from people other than us."

With some thought, Rafael gave Liv another nod. "Okay, you're probably right. It would also be good to get all of this out in the open so we don't feel like we have to watch our backs every time we're out together." He understood where Olivia was coming from. She had been through a lot with her squad and herself when it came to dealing with her bosses.

"Thanks for understanding." Olivia was grateful.

"Don't thank me until after we've done it; you may not be so thankful if the reactions to us telling everyone aren't good ones."

The couple finished their evening with a nice dinner cooked by Rafael again. They sat around the table, Noah in his high chair, and Raegan asleep in Rafael's arms after being fed her meal. But even though it was another nice night, Liv couldn't help but focus on what Rafael had said. What if the reaction to their relationship wasn't what they hoped it would be, then what were they going to do?

* What's going to happen when Olivia and Rafael disclose? We'll just have to see, won't we? Meanwhile, keep all the awesome and lovely reviews coming! *