Olivia would have never guessed in her life that she would ever have to have this conversation with her friends...but here she was. And here they were. "I just got the paperwork," she rubbed her face tiredly even though it was only noon. She dropped her hand to her desk, right over the paperwork she was talking about, and waited for either Montserrat or Rafael to say something. Anything. But they didn't. "Well?"

It was just slightly irritating to see Rafael almost smiling at her like nothing was going on. "Well what?" he asked, his smile now threatening to turn into a laugh.

Montserrat, however, was dreading this entire conversation. "Please don't antagonize my boss," she practically begged him.

"I'm not doing anything," Rafael gestured to himself. He was standing right beside her and he hadn't moved an inch towards Olivia, not even to make some smartass argument that Montserrat strictly forbade him to do anyways.

Olivia shook her head at the two. "I just—I can't understand how this happened. I always have to end your arguments and now you're telling me—" she raised the paperwork in the air and flapped it at them, "—that you're in a relationship!? Willingly?"

Neither in question appreciated the last word.

"We're sorry if it took you by surprise—" Rafael started but Olivia wagged a finger at him.

"No, no, I'm not surprised. I'm stupefied. How did this happen?" Now it seemed like Olivia wanted to laugh. She didn't know what else to do, honestly.

"Would you believe us if we told you that we don't really know?" Montserrat sheepishly said. It was an odd sort of events that led to their relationship but to pinpoint exactly how it happened was impossible.

Olivia let out a big sigh. "I don't...I don't know what I'm supposed to say here."

"You're supposed to say that Montserrat won't lose her position here because of me," Rafael was quick to make that statement. Almost immediately he heard Montserrat groaning.

"And then you're supposed to say that even if you do transfer me, it wouldn't be his fault," she said. They talked about this already and she was completely fine with a transfer if it were absolutely necessary.

Olivia was witness to a pretty intense stare down between the pair. As usual, she went in to end a soon-to-be argument. "Alright, calm down, I'm not going to transfer Montserrat anywhere."

Montserrat did her best to hide her honest relief. "Really?"

Olivia nodded. "How long has this been going on?"

"About 3 months."

Once again, Olivia was dumbfounded. Her eyes flickered to Rafael who simply nodded in agreement. "Three mon…."

"If anything, it shows we've been professional enough to keep it out of the workspace," he said with a smirk.

Olivia shook her head at him. "Sure, spin it in your favor."

"It's what I do best." The fact his smirk widened did no good for Montserrat's mood. This was no time to be cocky.

"Don't be fooled, this might not last very long," she said with a straight face.

Rafael rolled his eyes at her but didn't make a witty remark. He faced Olivia, all jokes and wits set aside. "Liv, is she good?"

Olivia took note of the concern in his voice for Montserrat. He was realistic, that much she would give him. If anything, it would be much easier to transfer Montserrat to another precinct and if that were to ever happen, Rafael would never forgive himself. That's why when Olivia finally answered him with a nod, he was able to reclaim the air he'd stopped breathing in.

"This will only work if it doesn't get in the way of our cases," she said what she figured they already knew. "But, like you said…" she deadpanned Rafael, "No one ever noticed so I guess you do have that under control."

Before Rafael could say something no doubt sarcastic, Montserrat jumped in to thank Olivia. "I promise this isn't going to affect any part of our work."

"You're sure?" Olivia took her seat at her desk and raised her eyebrows at the pair. "Because I heard exactly how you were caught in the first place." Montserrat immediately blushed at the reminder. "Tell me that's not how you'll be handling it?"

"Of course not," Rafael scowled. Why the hell would he want anyone else around when he had Montserrat? "It was in the moment."

Suddenly, Olivia smirked at him. "I wasn't aware that you were capable of being 'in the moment'."

Montserrat laughed from her spot and had to hide it behind her hand. Rafael deadpanned both women but since things were going alright, he let the comment slide.

"So we're on the same page then," Olivia said a few minutes later. "Simply keep it professional."

"Thanks Liv," Rafael said then cleared his throat. "We really appreciate it."

"Yeah," Montserrat nodded.

"Well then you're...free to go," Olivia motioned to the door. "But I do forewarn you about the awaiting peanut gallery outside."

The noise that Rafael did expressed his unconcern with them. "I've handled worse."

"I swear to God…" Montserrat whispered as she turned after him. He was thriving on his behavior right now and she knew it.

"Montserrat?" Olivia called when the detective reached the door. "A word?"

"Yeah, of course," Montserrat returned but not before warning Rafael not to go overboard outside. "Something else you needed to say?" She asked Olivia once they were alone.

"One and it's something you don't have to answer if you don't want to," Olivia sat back down in her chair. "Regardless of how shocked I am about this, I'm happy that you've been able to move on from, uh, your past."

Montserrat soon understood what Olivia was trying to get at. "'Move on' isn't the phrase I would use but I've been able to gain things; things I didn't think I would ever have again."

"Good, that's good. Now, again, you don't have to answer but...have you been able to share…" Olivia couldn't bring herself to finish the question all together.

Montserrat, however, helped her. "He knows. He had an idea but I ended up telling him the story. He was so good about it, so supportive."

"That sounds like him," Olivia smiled.

"I'm lucky. We've both seen that not every partner reacts the same way."

"Oh yeah," Montserrat's eyebrows raised as she recalled the many, many cases they had with that situation. "No, I'm very lucky," she was very happy to say. A short moment later, she was able to join the others in the bullpen. Of course once she got the gist of the conversation, she wouldn't mind going back to Olivia's office.

"Montserrat, understand us here for a second," Amanda was scrunching her face as she was clearly trying to solve the equation. "You two…" Her finger drifted between Montserrat and Rafael several times. "You hate each other."

"We never said that," Montserrat frowned then glanced at Rafael. "Right?"

"Yeah," he said, acting just as offended as she was.

"But you're always...you always argue!"

"We bicker, completely different," Montserrat clarified, chuckling when Amanda made a sign she gave up and went to take her seat at her desk.

"None of you have to understand anything," Rafael said with absolute honesty, no matter if it sounded rude or not. He curled an arm around Montserrat's waist. "Except that it happened and that's that." Beside him, Montserrat almost lost the battle against a laugh. The other's reactions to his words were priceless.

"Uh, breaking news at Orion Bay," Sonny came into the bullpen, having known that conversation would be happening. He had his time before to taunt them about it. "Are you guys still going on about this?"

"Just trying to figure out how that happened," Nick said, gesturing towards the pair. He leaned against the corner of his desk and flashed a smirk their way. "Because to me it makes zero sense."

Montserrat could feel Rafael's grip around her tighten. Nick always had an easier time getting a reaction from him.

"Good luck. Kara and I have been on that for months and we've got zilch. But set it aside for later," Sonny headed for Olivia's desk. "We might have a case."

That set the gears in motion. The others dispersed to their desks, leaving Montserrat to walk with Rafael towards the elevator for a goodbye.

"So, are we good?" Rafael asked her once they waited for the elevator to come back. He was checking Montserrat's every detail on her face, searching for any trace of a doubt of what they'd done.

Her half shrug wasn't very alleviating but thankfully she learned to know him better and therefore verbally reassure him. "Yes, of course. It's just weird, you know? Everyone knows now…"

"Is...that's what we wanted...yes?"

She nodded. "Yeah but…" She was struggling to find the right words to explain herself and she knew she had to find them quickly before Rafael made his own conclusions. "We spent months in secret. It's just a little weird now that it's-we're-out in the open. But it's good, I promise." There was the smile she was hoping for. He understood her now. "Everyone knows…"

"Yeah," he nodded. "This is better."

"Is it?" she teased. "Because, as you saw back there," she motioned back to the bullpen, "Nick has got a lot of ammunition against you. I'm talking full teasing and whatnot."

"I suspected as much, but I don't care." He reached to tuck a strand of her curls behind her ear. "Because it's you we're talking about. You're with me and not with anyone else."

Montserrat's smile was wide and perhaps a tad proud. "So...I'm special?"

Rafael rolled his eyes at her. "Yes," he answered with a sigh. If she wanted to hear it out loud, with all its sounds, he might as well do it. "You are. Of course you are."

She couldn't look more elated. "Sometimes your mouth doesn't say everything wrong." She laughed with his reaction. "Kidding, I'm kidding!" She leaned on him with a soft smile. "You know it means a lot to me that you came with me to talk to Liv. I didn't come with you…"

"I didn't need them scrutinizing you. Besides, Liv is a friend to both of us. We did things exactly how it should've been." He collected her hands from his shoulders and held them in his.

"So, you know what happens next right?"

"What?" He did not like the way her face was lighting up in a teasing manner, the same way things started whenever she was about to do something that would strike a special nerve.

"You have to meet my family."

There it was.

"What!? Why do I have to go first!?" He was quick to say, only because it was the first thing that popped into his head. How she managed to leave him speechless was still beyond him.

Montserrat smirked. "Because I already met your grandmother."

"That was her, not me!"

"That's your argument?"

Rafael's face fell flat. He supposed that was his argument for the time being.

"Just think about it," Montserrat said, patting his shoulders. "I'll have to eventually meet your mother and according to your grandmother, she's your counterpart so really, who's going to suffer here the most?"

"I don't know. They might not want me around you…"

"Aww, I forgot they were the ones who decided who got to be around me and who can't be…"

"Montserrat, you know that's not what I meant."

Montserrat laughed. "I know. Just a reminder. But in all honesty, they would love you. My brother already knows that you're the one who gave 5 grand to help get him out of jail on bail. Trust me, he likes you."

While that did alleviate some of his nerves, it was impossible for Rafael to be completely alright. "Montserrat…"

"Please," she said, biting on her lower lip. "Just think about it. Because like it or not, word is going to spread and Gael already knows I'm dating someone. I'm frankly surprised it hasn't gotten to my Dad already. I asked him not to say anything but doing the opposite of what I ask is pretty much a big brother's role."

"You really want to do this?"

"I mean, we've already done it here...why not go all the way?"

Rafael stared at her for a good minute, partially to see if she would crack under his look and simply because he wanted to see if she was really sure about this. "You'd have to return the favor and meet my mother…" He warned her.

"I know. I'm hoping your grandmother will cushion that meeting…" Montserrat's wide-eyed face was enough to make him laugh.

"She is not that bad…"

"Well, the same can be said for my father!"

"It's not the same!"

"Why not?"

"Because everyone always knows that a father protects his daughter the most! You're his only daughter and the youngest. So congratulations, you've screwed me from every angle."

Montserrat rolled her eyes. There was the argument she supposed she should've expected from him. "Raf, c'mon…"

"I will think about it." Rafael thanked the heavens that the elevator finally came up. He never stepped inside so quickly. He turned to face Montserrat with a clean smile on his face. "I'll talk to you later?"

Montserrat was less than amused with him. "You've faced down the worst of criminals, you cannot say my family is worse than that."

"I would never be that stupid." His smile turned into a smirk as the doors slid shut.

Montserrat was left to strangle the spot where he'd been. "Infuriating," she grumbled.

~0~

After bringing in the woman who made the claim against Shakir, the case was closer to being officially opened. Olivia instructed each of her detectives to start delving into the man's life while also sending Montserrat and Sonny to meet with the head of Shakir's sponsor.

"Orion Bay," Montserrat gazed up at the fancy building as soon as she'd stepped out of their car. "You know, I've never once been to any of their stores?"

Sonny closed the car door on his side and threw her a look. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Oh shut up," she rolled her eyes. "I'm just not much of a sports girl. Ballet was my thing."

"Course it was," Sonny came around the car to come stand beside her.

"You're dangerously close to sounding like Rafael and that is something you don't want to do," Montserrat wagged a finger at him then started for the building. "Just ask him how it goes for him when he starts being a smartass."

Sonny followed behind her with a genuine confusion written on his face. "Isn't that him for like 95% of his day?"

"Ooh, you want to tell him that?" Montserrat laughed and grabbed the door for them. She laughed even more with the face Sonny made afterwards. "Cos you know I can talk to him a lot easier now…"

"I know," Sonny assured her. "Believe me, nobody is going to forget. How did it even go with Liv? Actually having to talk to her must have been…"

"Scary as hell? You bet." Montserrat sent him a smile. They flashed their badges at the security and were let right in.

Sonny reached the elevator first and pressed the button to get them open. "Liv can't be that bad. I would've just imagined it was awkward."

"No, that was something too," Montserrat nodded. They stepped inside the elevator and pressed for the highest floor level. "But at least it's in the open now. Everyone knows, well...almost." She hesitated saying more but in the end, if she was being honest, she could only get a fair answer from Sonny and not the others. He'd gone through it recently, after all. "How did Kara convince you to meet her family?"

"What?" Sonny was left blinking for a few seconds.

Montserrat groaned and turned to face him. "I was talking to Rafael about this and I said we might as well get that out of the way and just, you know, meet each other's families already. He didn't exactly say 'no'—"

"He would've been the first man to say 'yes'," Sonny cut her off, ignoring her sharpened gaze. "What? That's the truth." The elevator opened for them and since Montserrat was stuck in her spot glaring at him, Sonny stepped out first.

"Are all men inherently weak, then?" She would eventually follow him out.

"Montserrat, you don't know what it's like being on our side, alright?"

"Explain it to me, then, because clearly I'm missing something!"

Sonny stopped with a sigh, glancing at the end of the hallway where they were no doubt being waited on. Still, he would rather go in without an angry partner. "I'm not saying it's right but parents are always more protective of their daughters than they are with their sons. I have three sisters—" he said quickly when Montserrat opened her mouth to retort, "—and I saw my parents go ballistic when they brought boyfriends home. It's rightful to be nervous."

"But you did it which means you wanted to in the end," Montserrat said, folding her arms over her chest.

"Yeah, after you went in and yelled at me too, remember that?"

Montserrat innocently looked away. "I do not recall…"

Sonny playfully rolled his eyes. "Of course you don't. Look, don't take it so personally. Give Rafael a few days and I'm sure you'll find a way to convince him."

"You think? Because he seemed very far from being convinced."

"Initial reaction, can't blame him for that."

Montserrat shrugged her shoulders. She supposed she couldn't. She met Sonny's gaze that held a smirk. She groaned. "Oh shut up!" She walked right past him, ignoring the way his smirk widened.

When they were allowed into the office, they found that the head of Orion Bay was indeed waiting for them. A pretty young blonde woman was standing right beside him.

"Girls throw themselves at Shakir all the time. Why would he need to rape somebody?" the old gentlemen had said after reviewing the charges Shakir might be facing.

Montserrat raised an eyebrow at the man. Maybe she was on a short fuse today already.

"I know what you mean, but isn't it possible you were also trying to protect your company's image?" Sonny decided to respond before his partner snapped.

The woman beside the man took over the conversation for a moment. "My father volunteered to speak with you."

"We actually prefer to speak to witnesses without family members present," Montserrat said with a tight-lipped smile. She wanted the woman to know that this was definitely being taken seriously.

"Cordelia is not just my VP, she's also my lawyer, so she stays," the man revealed to them.

"Fine, you want to tell us about the bonus you gave Carla?" Montserrat put her hands together in front of her, her smile spreading when she saw the clear surprise in Cordelia's eyes.

"There were no payments of any kind," the man said.

"And what about the extra $5,000 last week? Was that a performance incentive?"

"Orion Bay is a family. We take care of each other. When she came to me, she said that she did not remember all the details. But she's a good kid. Maybe she got a little drunk. I didn't want any hard feelings."

Sonny exchanged a glance with Montserrat. Sometimes the weak explanations were really something. He then shifted his gaze to the man who possibly considered he might get away with things. "The problem is, it looks like you're covering up a rape."

Coredlia stepped in again. "My father is blameless here. An unstable employee made unsupported allegations. If she thought she was raped, why didn't she report that to the police?"

"She has now," Montserrat promised her.

"Shakir is like a son to me," Bauer said, as if that would mean something. "He would not do something like this. Let me talk to the boy, I'll see what he has to say."

"Don't do that. It's an official police investigation, so any conversation you have with Shakir, either of you, could be misconstrued as conspiracy," Sonny warned them. The last thing they needed was more entanglements in an already shaky case.

They took what they had with them back to the precinct to discuss with the others. Naturally, Olivia didn't like what she heard.

"Look, something set Carla off," she said to make it clear to everyone else. That was something they couldn't deny to her.

"It happened three months ago. But she waits until all the hotel video's been erased and she's got a lobby full of press? Putting on a show for the security cameras." Fin had to say and apparently he wasn't the only one who had thought of it.

From his desk, Nick nodded. "Shakir thinks it's a shakedown," he said. "He's going through a divorce."

"Come on, guys, I don't want to hear that women lie, and that Shakir is a hero and he never could have done such a thing," Olivia stood off from the desk. "This is SVU, and we take disclosures seriously."

"Copy that, sergeant, but... For what it's worth?" Sonny flashed a small smile in the face of Olivia's disapproval. "Shakir's been a public figure for what, 20 years? There's never been a whisper about anything like this, this is just like coming out of nowhere."

"And this girl can't remember any details," Fin threw out, getting Sonny and Nick to once again agree.

Olivia waved them off and glanced at Montserrat for some kind of help there. The ginger was at a loss because both sides sounded very reasonable right now. Olivia would then look for Amanda's help only to find the blonde engrossed in her phone.

"Rollins, are you with us?"

The call of her name pulled Amanda from whatever was on her screen. "Uh... yeah... it's...my old captain in Atlanta. A girl down there claims that Shakir did the same thing to her after seeing him on the news."

"Ah. They're piling on now, huh?" Fin remarked.

"Well now let's see," Montserrat finally cut in, "More cases means more clear truths. It could put at ease our disagreements and make us focus on the victims." Olivia agreed and soon ordered Ananda to make the trip.

"Will do. Maybe I'll check in on my mom while I'm there," Amanda remarked, though the tone of her voice didn't exactly imply she was happy making the trip.

A/N:

The secret's finally out lmao. Too funny to write honestly because the reactions everyone would naturally have xD.

P.S As always, I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "saiilorstars"