"Sergeant Benson to what do I owe this visit?" Deputy Chief William Dodds sat at his large mahogany desk in an overstuffed black leather office chair. He sat back, hands in his lap, calm as could be; meanwhile, Olivia felt like the small office was shrinking around her.

"I… I have… something I need to discuss with you." Olivia had always respected authority, but she had never been nervous around the people who had the ability to tell her what to do or punish her for her sometimes unconventional ways of handling cases.

The chief gave her a sideways glance. "Please take a seat Sergeant." He motioned with his hand in front of him.

Olivia sat down in a chair across from where Dodds sat. "Thank you for seeing me on such short notice."

"So what is this something you need to discuss?" Dodds asked. "I don't want to rush you, but I don't have a lot of time."

Liv couldn't help but worry about revealing her new relationship to the man. They hadn't always seen eye to eye and she doubted that he would understand how she could choose to start a relationship with someone she was involved with at work. But she also knew that she wanted to keep whatever it was that she and Rafael had and what they possibly could have, so she was willing to risk the wrath of Chief Dodds.

"We've decided that we need to disclose to our superiors."

"Who is we and what exactly are you disclosing Olivia?" The chief sounded suspicious.

The sergeant let out a breath that she hadn't realized she was holding. "Myself and District Attorney, Rafael Barba.

"Are you disclosing what I think you are?" Chief Dodds asked.

Olivia nodded. "I'm pretty sure we're on the same page, now. We…Umm… We started seeing each other about two months ago, but we didn't want to be too premature about disclosing. However, we think that it would be much easier to continue our relationship if we didn't have to worry about hiding anything."

"Well, I have to tell you I am little bit surprised." Dodds admitted. "I didn't think you'd ever come to me about some relationship you started with a co-worker."

"That makes two of us." When the chief put it into those kinds of terms, it made Liv think about her relationship differently. Besides whatever it was that she had with Elliot, the two seconds she had spent with David Haden, and since Brian didn't work in her unit when they dated, she never assumed that she would ever be in the position to disclose.

"However, I appreciate you telling me. Most people avoid this whole process like the plague."

Olivia looked at him for a moment waiting for him to say more, but he didn't. "So is that all that you need to know? There isn't anything else?" She was actually shocked by how nonreactive he was to her confession.

"No, nothing else." Dodds told her.

"Really?" Liv didn't want to push the issue, but she had never assumed any of the superiors were fond of relationships between colleagues.

Chief Dodds nodded. "You both are grown adults. I can't tell you that you can have a relationship. Rafael Barba also isn't technically an employee of the NYPD, so it isn't my place to stop him. All I can ask is that it stays separate from you work and it doesn't affect how you two work with each other."

The sergeant was relieved to say the least after leaving Chief Dodds office. She never expected anything to be simple, because it had never been simple, but telling her superior about her romantic relations had quite possibly been the simplest thing she had done since starting at SVU. All she could hope was that Rafael would have a somewhat easy time as well and all the worries about everyone finding out would be a little less until Liv told Tucker and the rest of the team.

"What can I do for you Rafael?" Chief District Attorney, Thomas Yates asked his best DA who sitting in front of him.

Yates had been recently appointed to the position after Jack McCoy had retired the previous year. Rafael like him and had no issues with the man since he took on his position, but he had a feeling that there wouldn't be much of a mutual understanding when it came to his relationship with one of the most well-known sergeants in NYPD.

"We just need to have a little discussion about disclosure." Rafael told him.

"Disclosure, huh?" Yates clarified. "Not quite what I had expected."

"It's not really anything I had ever expected either, sir." Rafael said. "But you need to know that Sergeant Olivia Benson and I are a little bit more than colleagues."

"Well I didn't exactly see that coming, either." Yates admitted.

Rafael chuckled slightly. "We didn't really see it coming, but we don't want to hide it from anyone."

"I appreciate the honesty, Rafael."

"Thank you, sir. I'll let you get back to work now." The man got up from the office seat he had occupied.

"Rafael, we're not done here." Yates stopped the man from leaving his plush office.

He turned back around to see a rather stern look covering Yates face. "I do appreciate that you were willing to tell me about your relationship, but there are rules about this and I don't want anything to affect your work or Sergeant Benson's for that matter. You both are very valuable to this city and I can't let something get in the way of that."

"So what exactly are you saying?" Barba questioned.

Yates sat back in his chair. "If you two want to stay together, which I'm assuming you do since you've told me about it, there are some changes that are going to have to be made."

Rafael hadn't seen that coming. He knew that co-worker romance wasn't exactly everyone's favorite thing, but he didn't know that his superior would feel the need to change everything he was so used to. But it came down to keeping his job and his relationship. He had always been alone, he had never had a steady relationship with anyone, and he wasn't willing to throw it away. So he would have to do what he had to do in order to keep both, but he certainly wasn't sure how he was supposed to tell Liv. And he couldn't think of anything else as he drove to her apartment for dinner.

But he couldn't avoid the topic and of course, Olivia had to bring it up right away.

"So Chief Dodds didn't have much to say when we spoke today." Liv told him as he made his way into the living room where Noah played with his blocks.

Rafael joined the little boy on the floor. "That's surprising. What was his reaction?" He tried to keep his tone even, not wanting to show his nerves.

Olivia walked into the living room, setting a glass of wine on the coffee table for him. "He didn't really seem to care. I mean he wanted to make sure that nothing got in the way of our work, which I assured him it wouldn't, but he was rather okay with it."

"That's good. I'm glad at least one person was fine with it." Rafael retorted.

Olivia gave him a concerned glance. "So it didn't go very well with Yates then today, did it?"

"You could say that." He told her.

Liv opened her mouth to ask what had happened, but the conversation was interrupted by a certain baby crying from her bassinet in the bedroom. Olivia left the room quickly and took Raegan from where she was lying; she returned to where Rafael was still sitting on the floor with Noah playing around him.

"I'm sorry about that; she just wants to be held." Olivia explained as she sat back down on the couch. "What were you saying about today?"

"Yates told me he was really surprised that we were together and that we had been able to hide it for even just as long as we had."

"Is that all he said?" Liv egged him on. "It doesn't sound like it went that bad."

Rafael stopped for a moment before he spoke again. He looked at what was surrounding him, a woman, who was the best sergeant and mother he had ever met, a bubbly, happy little boy, and a beautiful baby girl. He knew that his relationship with Olivia would be judged by some and that maybe it was unconventional, but it was the first time in a long time that he wasn't going home to an empty house every night. He wasn't happy with the arraignment he was going to have to agree to in order to make it work, but Liv and the kids were worth the sacrifice.

"Yates said that as far as he was concerned we had every right to be in a relationship, but that didn't mean that nothing would change." Rafael told her.

Olivia's face dropped as she heard him speak. "What change was he referring to?"

The District Attorney let out a long sigh. "He means that if we want to stay together, which we do, that we can't be working together, in the same unit or even the same precinct."

"So what exactly does that mean for you, Rafael?" Liv asked him. She was now more than concerned with what had happened that afternoon. After all, it had been her idea for them to disclose and when it went well for her with Dodds, she had assumed that they would be fine at the DA's office as well.

"It means that I can't be the district attorney for SVU anymore. So I'll have to be transferred to another unit in another precinct in Manhattan at best. At worst, I get changed to another city. It doesn't matter to Yates, so long as we are not working together." Rafael admitted.

* Tucker and the team will find out next, but for now, let me know what you think. The reviews are always appreciated! *