It was evening, and Liv had put Noah to bed about half an hour ago. The two women had been sat quietly on the sofa, there was some cheesy rom-com playing on the TV, but neither of them was paying much attention. Amanda was reading a news article on her cell phone, and Olivia, although she was looking at the TV, had no idea what was going on in the film. She was deep in thought, and kept casting sidelong glances at the blonde sat beside her. "Manda, can I ask you something?" The lieutenant asked hesitantly.
Amanda, who had sensed the brunette's gaze on her several times throughout the night, smiled to herself. She looked up from her phone, meeting Olivia's gaze. "Sure Liv, what's up?"
"You don't have to answer if you don't want. I was just wondering…" Liv gestured towards the blonde's midsection, "how did this happen?"
"Really Liv?" The blonde smirked, "you're the commanding officer of a sex crimes unit, and you need me to explain the birds and the bees to ya?"
Olivia shoved her playfully, a mock pout on her lips, doing her best to keep from laughing, "you know what I mean!" She huffed, "I just wanted to make sure… I mean… it was consensual, right?" She finished in a concerned tone.
Amanda had been wondering when her lieutenant was going to ask her about the paternity of the baby. She knew that the brunette's natural curiosity, a trait that contributed greatly to her tenacity as a law enforcement officer, had been warring with her desire to afford her some privacy. Not wanting her boss to be worried about her she quickly responded, "sure Liv, it was consensual. It may not have been the smartest thing I ever did," she added ruefully, "but I did do it willingly."
Liv eyed her a few seconds longer before giving a brief nod, seemingly satisfied with her friend's answer. "But you're not going to tell me who the father is, are you?" There was no heat in the question, she knew the blonde liked to keep her private life private, and she respected that. She just couldn't help but wonder.
"Well it's not Nick's," Amanda said quickly. "That was over months before this happened, and lord knows that boy does not need any more baby mamas wandering around." She grinned referring to the two children Nick Amaro already had by two different women. She dropped her hand to her belly, which, although it still looked flat, Amanda had noticed was just beginning to soften slightly, and stroked lightly with her thumb. "If you don't mind Liv, I'd rather not say whose it is right now. I haven't even told him yet, and it seems unfair to tell others before him that he's the daddy."
"That's fair enough, Manda." Liv replied, "If it were me, I'd probably do the same thing. Are you gonna tell him?"
"I think I should," the blonde frowned slightly. "The problem is that I haven't seen him since this," she gestured to her belly, "happened. I don't even know where he is right now, and I don't know how to get in touch with him."
"How do you think he will react when he finds out?" Liv asked, curious about who this mystery man could be.
"I'm not sure." Amanda replied honestly. "He doesn't seem like the 'settle down with a family' kinda guy," she admitted. "Not that I'd want that with him anyway. I mean he's a nice guy an'all, but I'm not in love with him or anything."
Olivia felt a strange sense of relief when the younger woman said this, but she pushed it aside, trying not to read too much into it. It's not like that means she is interested in me, does it? She admonished herself.
"Honestly, I can't see him wanting a big part in either mine or the baby's lives." Amanda said, then added hollowly, "guess I'm doing this on my own."
"Amanda," the brunette reached out and grasped the hand that the blonde still had rested on her abdomen. "The baby's father may not be in the picture, but that doesn't mean that you are alone." She squeezed the hand lightly in her own, "You have me, you have all of us, you know SVU is like a family and there's no way we are gonna let you down. We love you."
The blonde smiled and put her other hand over the top of her lieutenant's. "Thanks, Liv," she said, "that means a lot."
They sat there in comfortable silence for a few minutes, each lost in their own thoughts, when Amanda suddenly spoke, startling Olivia slightly, "Liv?" the blonde sounded tentative.
"Hmmm?" Liv looked at the younger woman expectantly.
"I, uh, I called my OB-GYN earlier today. They told me to schedule a proper ultrasound, so, I'm booked in for an appointment in a couple of weeks." She looked down, fiddling with a loose thread at the hem of her shirt. "I wondered if… Would it be possible… would you…" she struggled for a moment, unable to voice her request.
Liv smiled warmly at her, "Manda, would you like me to go with you to the doctor?" She asked gently.
"Would you mind?" Amanda asked, anxiously. "I-I know you're busy…"
The brunette cut her off, "I'm not too busy to support you, Amanda. I promised I'd be there every step of the way, and I meant it." Again she squeezed the small, pale hand she still held. "What kind of friend would I be if I let you go through this alone?"
-x-
The following day blew the Stevens case wide open. Liv had been to visit Jason Handley, accompanied by Carisi, and she got a very bad feeling about him. She had noticed some grazing and bruising around the smarmy young man's knuckles, a few days old. When she enquired about how it had happened, he answered smoothly, and a little too quickly, that he had been working out at the boxing gym. The seasoned lieutenant didn't believe him for a second.
She called Barba asking him to get a warrant for Handley's DNA, but the Cuban ADA wouldn't play ball. Liv didn't blame him really, all they had to go on was that his cell phone wasn't where he said he was at the time of the rape, and his busted knuckles. Circumstantial at best. But it frustrated Liv nonetheless.
By the time she and Carisi returned to the precinct, both Rollins and Fin had made some progress. Amanda had spoken to Sean Perry once more and he had given her the details of his comic book seller that never showed. She had tracked his username down and traced the IP address back to a communal computer terminal at Richmond & Handley Advertising, although they couldn't prove it was Handley, they had at least narrowed it down to a member of staff at the company.
Fin, meanwhile had been checking surveillance footage from the area around the club and had struck gold. An ATM camera on east 13th street had picked up a car, the same make, model and colour as Jason Handley's pulled up near the entrance to the alley behind Bar 13, just after 11pm. From the angle of the camera, it was impossible to see the license plate number.
They watched a little longer and saw a man, the right build and hair colour to be Handley, get out of the driver's side and walk into the alley. Unfortunately they didn't see his face. Leaving the video playing, Liv began to summarise.
"So," she held up her fingers and began ticking off facts. "We have Jason's phone not where he said he was, a car like his with a driver that could be him near the scene, someone made sure Sean was there, Amber made sure that Jamie was there and Amber made sure Sean interacted with Jamie. Am I missing anything?"
"There's Jason's injuries," Carisi muttered distractedly as he focused on something on his laptop screen. "Hey, come look at this."
The other three moved to stand behind him just as a courier from the CSU lab entered the squad room and handed Liv a package. "Thanks. Ah, the lab reports are back," she said to nobody in particular as she removed the papers from the thick envelope. Her attention was drawn back to the computer screen by the Italian detective.
"The girls are just coming back to the bar after they went dancing. Look at Amber when they take their seats at the bar." Carisi pointed unnecessarily at the screen as he slowed the playback to half speed, and they all watched as Amber guided Jamie into a seat then looked purposefully at the camera that they were watching from. "Is it just me or is she making sure that Jamie is definitely in the shot?"
"She set Jamie up," Rollins said in a low voice. "Amber and Jason worked together to assault Jamie. Like Liv said, she made sure Jamie was there that night and she told Sean to go talk to her. They were tryin' to frame Sean for it."
"But, why?" Carisi asked, a puzzled expression on his face.
"Don't ask, man," Fin advised the younger detective, "you'll drive yourself crazy tryin'a figure it out."
Olivia, who had briefly checked out of the conversation while she read the lab report, spoke up now. "The reason the lab report took so long is that the semen found on the victim contained no sperm, they did however manage to get a DNA profile from the sample."
"So our guy was shootin' blanks?" Fin asked.
Liv nodded, "either he's sterile or he's had a vasectomy." She turned and walked towards the pinboard, where they had written all the pertinent information over the last few days. Staring at the photo of Jason Handley she considered the possibilities. She was more inclined towards the theory that he was sterile, given his superiority complex. He knew about it, and thought that he wouldn't leave DNA if there was no sperm in the semen.
"Liv…" Amanda called, her eyes having drifted back to the ATM footage, "look at this." Both women watched as the driver of the car returned from the alley, only this time he wasn't alone. Recognising the dress the woman in the video was wearing, Amanda said, "that's Amber."
"Stop it," Liv commanded, "go back five seconds." As Amanda did as she was told, the lieutenant squinted at the small screen. "There, stop. Can you enhance that?" She pointed to the blurry image, which now showed the driver's face.
With a few choice key strokes, Amanda zoomed in, lightened the image and cleared up the resolution, revealing a clear picture of their main suspect, Jason Handley, wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and looking around warily.
Olivia's jaw set, a righteous anger surging through her body. "Go. Pick them up. I want both of them in here for a hard interview, now. Rollins and I will go for Amber. Fin, Carisi, pick up Handley."