WELCOME HOME BARBA! And welcome back Lucia. I love you.

It had been a week. That's for sure. This awful case they caught on Monday had about sucked up all her time and energy. She had barely had time to talk to him on the phone at all. He gave her some advice and seemed more than understanding. And a little jealous. This was a case he would want to be right in the middle of. The ADA covering for him was fine, competent, but in no way Barba. Everyone in the squad had commented on it. Like she needed one more reminder of what it would be like to try to do this job without him. No thank you.

She was banging out some reports as her phone vibrated across her desk. She grabbed it and looked at it with a confused look on her face. It was a text from him and it only read "I'm sooooo sorry!" She was about to type out a reply when her phone rang.

"Hey Lucy."

She heard Noah yelling something unintelligible in the background. "Uh… Liv… sorry. I know you have a killer case right now but…"

"What is he yelling?"

"Ok. So that's the thing. There was a knock on the door and you know how it's his favorite thing to do right now? Well he got to it before me cause I was in the bathroom and he started just screaming 'see-a, see-a' and when I got out there she was giving him a huge hug and had like 10 grocery bags with her and…"

"Who?"

"Yeah. So, she introduced herself to me as Lucia Barba and said to call you and see what time you were going to be home for dinner."

His text suddenly made a ridiculous amount of sense.

"Um.. Liv… Barba… is that the ADA's…"

"Mom. Yeah. His mom."

"She's making dinner and I'm not going to lie… it smells amazing." Liv just laughed. After listening to him talk about all her questions about her and Noah this last week (and one short conversation where she answered the phone for him) she wasn't too terribly surprised. She started to grab her stuff.

"Lucy, tell her I'm on my way."

"Liv, she told me I could leave if I wanted but I won't if…"

"Thanks, Lucy. But it's fine if you want to head out early. Noah is the Barba family number one fan these days."

"Yeah, boy is he still mad at you for not bring Mr. Barba back".

"He's not the only one" she muttered under her breath as strode out of her office, hitting end on the call and bidding her staff goodnight.

She was fairly sure her apartment had never smelled like this before. Ever. Homemade food and laughter coming from the kitchen was new. Not unwelcomed, but new. She saw Noah and Lucia sitting there as Noah inhaled a huge plate of…

"Carnitas. The boy has an appetite for the Cuban food apparently." Lucia rubbed her hand in his hair as he smiled and took another bite that was too big for his mouth. Olivia put her stuff down on the couch and leaned over the small bar where he sat eating.

"Mom, See-a made dinner. Then she promise me bubble and Raf story!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"Olivia, I know I kind of barged in here but after talking to my son all week, I just… I'm sorry if I overstepped and…"

Olivia held up her hand. "Lucia, thank you. This was sweet. Completely unnecessary but sweet."

"Cooking. It's my thing. I overcompensate with food at times. You will have leftovers for days." She took Noah's empty plate and placed it in the sink. He reached out for her and she scooped him up. Just like he did in Florida. She put her hand over her heart, willing it to not beat right out of her chest.

"There is food on the stove. Please. Raf said you got a rough case. Sit. Eat. I'll give that little man a bath and I brought on of Rafi's favorite stories from when he was a kid to read to him. If that's ok." Noah leaned over and gave his mom a hug and kiss and then leaned back onto Lucia's shoulder. That was all the answer Olivia needed.

"Thank you."

She was just finishing up the last of the dishes when Lucia finally emerged from Noah's bedroom.

"He's a master procrastinor."

Olivia nodded as she pulled out the new bag of coffee. "That he is."

"Rafi was the same way" she replied, sitting on the couch. "He would do everything in his power to stay up till his eyes couldn't take it anymore. Always afraid he was going to miss something. The amount of Cubano hexes my mother put on him…" Olivia made the coffee as she heard Lucia sit on the couch behind her. She made two cups and sat on the other end of the couch. Olivia could keep up with the best of them – criminals, defense attorneys, judges… but Lucia Barba was actually making her slightly nervous.

"Like I said, Olivia, I hope I didn't step over any lines tonight. The way my son spent all week talking about you and that little boy… I knew I had to come here as I was flying back yesterday. I had to see for myself."

"And…" was all she was able to choke out.

"Olivia, that little boy is nothing short of amazing. Rafi told me a little bit about how he came to be here and it broke my heart. Shattered it. But you picked up his pieces and put him together and…"

"He saved me too."

"Rafi said the same thing." Olivia nodded, looking into her coffee cup. She had been doing well, keeping those feelings at bay this week but sitting here with his mother, her heart started to hurt because of how much she was missing him.

"He had the same look on his face this week when he thought I wasn't looking" she said, pointing at Olivia's face. "You two really are something else, that's for sure."

"Lucia, I…" but she didn't know what to say. Again. A Barba had her at a loss for words. This had to be a damn record.

"Olivia, I'm going to leave. But know this. My son has never looked at anyone the way he looks at you. Never. He has never talked about anyone the way he talks about you. And I'm not talking about last week in Florida. I'm talking about the 4 plus years before that. I thought he was crazy, transferring to Manhattan. Insane. I kept asking him why. And then he told me he was prosecuting that awful man that used to be on TV. And again, I asked him why. And slowly you were the conversation. I don't think even he realized it until a few months ago. I never said anything because you know him. You try to tell him something he can't see for himself… well, it's like talking to a wall." Olivia just laughed as a tear slid down her face. When the hell did she start crying?

"He loves you. He has for a while. But he's just now realizing it. I mean, I knew that day in the courthouse, but you two… stubborn as mules. I knew it just by looking at you. You do drive him crazy. But in a way that makes this mother's heart sing. So, this dinner was a thank you."

Olivia nodded and grabbed the woman's hand as she stretched it out to her. She had no words. Lucia squeezed her hand and got up to leave. Olivia finally was able to put one foot in front of the other as she headed toward the door. Lucia turned around as she opened it.

"Rafi was right about one thing… Noah works his way into your heart faster than anyone else. I would love to spend more time with him if you are ok with it."

"Lucia, I think that would be amazing."

"Fantastic. I'll have him fluent in Spanish in no time." And with that, Lucia gave Olivia a wave goodbye and was out the door. Olivia just stared at it for a moment, wondering how she had failed to notice that Lucia Barba had started to make them part of her family. Olivia fished her phone out of her purse and called Barba.

She was pacing. And checking her phone. And pacing. And checking her text. Then her email. For several reasons.

First was the warrant. They close one case then another drops on them. And this perp was slippery. She wanted the hard copy in hand when they went to pick him up. No mistakes. By the book.

The other was him. He was supposed to be back last night but a terrible storm got him stuck in Charlotte when his connecting flight got canceled. He was supposed to meet with the DA first thing, but the last she heard was a text from him before the sun came up saying he got the first flight out to LaGuardia. Nothing since then. She wasn't sure if he made it back in time, if he was trapped at LaGuardia, if he was packing up his office. Nothing.

She stalked into her office to check her email on her computer (cause phones have been known not to work) when…

"So, do you all want to do something with this or am I supposed to just stand here and look pretty." She flew to her door and there he stood, in his full ADA Rafael Barba way, warrant in hand, smiling at her. It was all she could do to keep herself from flying across the room and throwing her arms around his neck. She took a moment to compose herself as the rest of the squad welcomed him back. Carisi and Fin took the warrant from him and headed out to make the arrest as Rollins prepped the interrogation room.

He strolled over to her, standing a bit closer than he did the last time they were here together.

"This is going to be fun" he said, sliding his eyes over to her. She shot him a look. "The case, Lieutenant. The case. I'm going to enjoying nailing this guy's ass to the wall."

"God, I missed you" she replied, struggling to not reach out and grab his arm. He nodded and retrieved another envelope from his briefcase. "This I was told to bring directly to you."

She opened it and scanned it. "What?"

"Well, it would seem the DA took it upon himself to draft a form for us. We are in this weird spot where it's kind of a conflict and kind of not a conflict so he wanted us safe. He told me you are the one he likes."

"You told him that…"

"I didn't have to. He said he ran into you and just knew. He told me to thank you for saving my job and my social life and handed me the warrant and told me to get to work. So, I plan to thank you, but that will be much later tonight."

"It's going to be a long day" she sighed out.

"No kidding. But at least we're doing this together. Like we were meant to." She couldn't help herself. She reached over and squeezed his hand very quickly. "Let's do this" he said, winking at her.