Chapter Twenty Two – Paperwork and Planning

Olivia felt like she was completely drowning in paperwork. Considering what they had just gone through, she suspected that many of the vice detectives were feeling the same way. They had called her in two days ago to assist with a major roundup of under-aged prostitutes. The moment she'd joined the investigation she'd wanted to reach some of the kids. She knew full well that it would be a nearly impossible task, but they were still victims even if they didn't think of themselves that way. (Of course there were quite a few people on the force who didn't think that way either.) After a lot of reaching out and talking, she'd been hopeful that at least three of them might have a chance of escaping the life. Out of nearly fifteen kids it wasn't much, but Olivia would take it. In reality, that was a rather high number, but it still didn't feel like enough. At least they'd brought in the pimp in charge as a huge added bonus.

Putting so many people into the system meant a mountain of paperwork and most of it had been left on her. With the addition of getting the three kids set up with victim's services and comfortable in their new home she was rather behind on the paperwork. Even four hours of constant work on the forms alone hadn't caught her up. She sighed and stretched her arms over her head. Suvi lifted his head off the floor and looked at her with sad eyes. He was definitely feeling every minute of those four hours by now.

"I feel you, buddy." Olivia told him as she leaned down and ruffled his ears.

A break would be really nice right at the moment. Taking Suvi out to walk around a little while would be a very legitimate break. He could probably use it too. Still, these detectives didn't know her all that well, and she didn't want to give them any reason to question her abilities and her reason for being there more than having a service dog and the mere title of consultant did. She decided to take him for a mini walk instead so it wouldn't look like she was shirking her duties. They took two laps around the squad room, which Suvi did appreciate greatly, and took their places to work again. Even with everything that needed to be done, eyes had followed them, leaving Olivia glad she'd chosen the condensed version of a walk.

Olivia hadn't even gotten through a full form after sitting back down before her cell rang.

"Hey, Olivia."

Ben's voice immediately brought a smile to her face. He didn't usually call her in the middle of the day, and the phone call was a nice surprise.

"Hey. I'm at the precinct doing a consulting job so I can't talk for very long."

"Should I call back later?"

"Now's fine as long as you're quick. I can take a short break."

Of course she'd just taken one, but thankfully she'd gone for the squad room break instead of an outdoor one. It was easier to rationalize the phone call. Sure it might cause a bit of disgruntlement toward her, but at the moment she didn't care much. One phone call, especially a short one, wasn't going to hurt their opinion of her that badly. If it did, well, they'd probably already made up their minds about her, which wouldn't change no matter what she did or didn't do.

"The fourth of July. Outdoor orchestra concert. Us. Short enough?"

If she had been at home she would have laughed aloud, but she didn't want to do that with so many other detectives around. Olivia might not have been a detective anymore, but she would still display that aura. She had been known as a hardass before her injury. Now she was known for the accident. Those who knew her were going to see that she was still the same determined, no nonsense cop she had been, so instead of laughing she tried to hide some of her grin.

"I'm not sure you could have made it any shorter."

"Fourth. Music. Us," he offered. "Or, better yet, fmus?"

That time Olivia barely managed to hold back her snort of laughter. Part of it slipped past her control but thankfully went unnoticed.

"Keep that up and I might not be able to stay in the squad room."

"What's wrong with a little laughter?"

"Nothing as long as it's not here."

Ben didn't understand her reasoning, but he wasn't going to argue with her about it. He didn't know much of anything about the police culture after all.

"I'll give you more details later then. Call me when you're done and don't start coming up with a million and one reasons to say no."

"I'm not sure I could come up with that many if I tried."

"You might be surprised," he teased. "I'll talk to you later, Liv."

She would talk to him later, and the quicker she got the paperwork completed the sooner that "later" would be. Pushing Ben's offer to the back of her mind she got down to work on the forms. It took a few more hours, but she finally finished and turned everything in to the squad's captain.

Olivia gave Ben a call as she was on her way out the door. He was about ready to leave for the day too, and after he found out where she was he suggested meeting outside of his office building. It wasn't very far away, and by the time she got there he would have finished up his last bit of work and would be ready to head out. While she wasn't particularly excited about the possibility of running into any of his coworkers she still agreed. Since she was waiting on the sidewalk near the building's entrance she might not even need to worry about it. Staying outside would let her avoid dealing with questions about having Suvi in the building too. Olivia hung by the entrance to wait, petting Suvi and trying to ignore some of the looks she was receiving from people leaving the building. She couldn't help wondering if somehow they knew who she was, if Ben had mentioned something about her. Even though she tried to stamp those thoughts down as being silly and paranoid, her unease over the situation only grew. Her eyes were so glued to the ground in an attempt at avoiding and ignoring the stares that she didn't notice when Ben walked out and came to join her.

"Waiting for someone?"

Olivia jumped so violently in response that Suvi snapped to his feet on high alert and looked up at her worriedly.

"Ben! Jesus. You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Makeshift heart test. Yours seems fine by the way."

"I swear I'm going to kill you one of these days."

"You wouldn't dare."

"I wouldn't test that theory if I were you."

"Haven't I tested it a few times already? It's not like this is the first time you've threatened to kill me, and so far the worst you've done is hit me. Lightly. Kind of like a love tap."

"A love tap?" she asked incredulously. "I'll show you a love tap."

Ben saw the murderous look in her eyes and jumped away in exaggerated fear. The amused look on his face and his barely restrained laughter didn't quite fit with the rest of his performance. She lunged toward him and punched his arm. Ben laughed in response and continued his play acting by rubbing where she'd hit him.

"Hey now. You're a cop. You should know more than most people how much trouble that could get you into."

"One, I probably didn't even leave a bruise, and two, being a cop means I know how to cover my tracks. That's if it even got far enough for me to need to."

"Of course. You could probably get rid of my body and nobody would even know."

"Far better than in the Gowanus Canal too."

It was an incredibly strange conversation to be having out on the sidewalks of New York City, but whatever. People could look at them as strangely as they wanted. At least with Ben's laughter they would know it was all just a big, ridiculous joke.

Ben chuckled even more and wrapped his arm around her waist so he could guide her away. Surprisingly she didn't protest.

"Now, tell me you didn't create a list of nos for me about going to this concert."

"I didn't actually."

Ben stopped walking, causing a few fellow sidewalk travelers to growl at him in annoyance, and turned to look at her in stunned shock. Olivia rolled her eyes at him in response and kept walking, leaving him to take a few steps at a jog to catch up.

"I'm proud of you," he told her when he caught up again.

"Proud of me?"

"Yeah. Even you can't deny that you tend to refuse things and put up road blocks on me. You're really good at excuses you know."

Olivia looked down and tucked some of her hair behind her ear uneasily. He was right. She definitely couldn't deny that. After the job she'd worked for so many years and her own experience with relationships she had serious fears and reservations, and she acted on those more often than not.

"So can I tell you about this concert?" he asked after she'd fallen silent.

"Sure."

"It's an outdoor orchestra concert so we'll be sitting on the grass. I've been a few times before and it's pretty awesome. The music's great. 1812 Overture, Battle Hymn of the Republic, Armed Forces Medley. After all of the music they have fireworks, but we can leave before then so it doesn't bother Suvi."

"I'm not sure if fireworks would bother him or not. Some loud noises he can handle."

"Well, it would be up to you when you wanted to leave." He glanced at her with a triumphant grin on his face. "Sounds like you're already planning on coming."

"Yeah. I think I am."

"You're kidding. It was that easy to convince you?"

"I guess so."

Honestly Olivia was almost as surprised as he was. It wasn't like she'd thought much about his offer before accepting it. Simply jumping in like that wasn't really something she usually did, but the concert sounded fun and relaxed enough not to worry about. She didn't exactly have other plans for the fourth anyway, and there wasn't really time to make any.

"Perfect. I'll get us tickets then and pick you up tomorrow at six."

"You're sure there will still be tickets the day before the concert?"

"We'll be on the lawn so there aren't any seats to actually fill. Plus, it's outside of the city. Not quite as much demand."

Olivia nodded and slipped her hand into Ben's, squeezing gently when she did. He smiled warmly at her in return.

"Let me walk you home?" he asked.

"That would be great."

Author's Note: So it did make me laugh that yesterday, right after posting the last chapter my dog did exactly what Suvi did in the beginning of the chapter: happily dove onto my back and squeaked his slobbery toy on my cheek. Can you tell where I get many of my ideas for Suvi from? And on another note, tomorrow is the last chapter for this round. You'll get all of the fun conference stuff in the next group.