blues and greens (barson)

xxvii.

Olivia walked into the squad room an hour later than she'd intended. Rafael's half hour had led to forty-five minutes and she'd been rushing to get here within an hour of when she said she would be.
"You're in late," Velasco commented.
"First day of school," Liv replied.
Fin made a noise.
She gave him a look and went into her office to put her things down.
"Liv," Amanda's voice appeared behind her.
"Yeah?" She turned to look at the blonde.
"Cardigan is inside out," Amanda gestured and then walked back out of her office.
Liv could feel the heat on her cheeks as she fixed her cardigan, she texted Rafael.

Liv to Rafa;
You did that on purpose.

Rafa to Liv;
Did what?

Liv;
Let me leave with my cardigan inside out.

Rafa;
I did not, but that's kinda funny. Who pointed it out? Fin?

Liv;
Rollins.

Rafa;
Amazing. No, I wouldn't do that. I love you!

She rolled her eyes as she walked out of her office with her phone in hand, glasses on, "alright, give me an update."
"Carisi is supposed to be in after a meeting with the eighth floor to discuss the Maegan Leland case. They've been giving us resistance for almost a month since there's no outcry witness."
Liv had only been partially brought up to speed on this case as she'd been closing up one during the interim of waiting to hear what the DAs office wanted them to do.
"Here, everyone come into my office," she gestured.
They all followed. Amanda and Fin sat in the chairs across her desk while Velasco stood near the now closed door.
"No one ever brought me entirely up to speed on this case since the Lila Owens case popped and I was working that one."
"I've been on point since you were out," Fin nodded, "and now it's Carisi's case if he can get it pushed through. He'll probably need more witnesses and things."
"Can someone bring me up to speed all the way?" Liv sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Maegan Leland was the girl on the roof," Fin immediately jumped into the story, "I had to fight to get her case since you were out and with the way things developed, they wanted another unit to do the investigation but I informed them that she did report an assault and that we wanted the case."
The captain nodded.
"After like two weeks of fighting for it, they gave it to us and we were finally able to start digging," Amanda continued, "the autopsy was done by that time and it turned out she was three months pregnant and from what the ME could tell she hadn't gotten any medical attention and wasn't taking any prenatal vitamins or anything like that."
"We don't think she knew," Velasco tossed in.
"Right," Fin nodded, rubbing at his neck, "but the morgue was still calling her Maegan Doe because no missing person had come in and they hadn't been able to ID her through really anything. She didn't have a government job so no prints, no family in CODIS or anything like that. So once it was our case, we had to first figure out who she was and then because she'd told the unis before we got there that she'd said it was her boss that had assaulted her, we had to find out her workplace. Which we did."
"How old was she?"
"Barely 18," Amanda supplied, "like she turned eighteen in early May and started working as a receptionist in this dentist's office in mid-May. She worked mostly evenings and weekends to help her mom make ends meet until she graduated in June. Her coworkers said she was super bright her first week and then every week after they could see her cracking more. Her principal said he thought she was just working too hard."
"Evening and weekend dentist?" Liv inquired.
"Yeah, he's one of the dentists in the office that is open better hours for the working folks who can't take time off," Velasco informed.
"Okay, go on."
"So Maegan's friends at school said they barely saw her the last few weeks of school. She was drinking vodka from a water bottle when she was there, they said they barely recognized her. She was supposed to attend NYU in the fall for writing," Amanda continued, "she didn't show up the week before or to graduation and her phone hadn't been on in weeks. She stopped showing up to that job in early July and you know what happened in mid-July."
"We didn't find anything to solidify the case against the dentist? A diary hidden in her school locker or under a mattress? Was the fetal DNA tested?"
Fin pursed his lips and looked at Amanda.
"Fuck," Velasco said, "that was on me. I was calling the M.E. to see if they could when Lila Owens came in and I was the only one in office and-"
"It's okay," Liv held up a hand to stop him, "mistakes get made and if this was a living victim, I would be much more upset but right now we're trying to get justice for her post-mortem so we'll make sure we don't slip up like that again because if we can run that... and maybe find a diary or anything with his DNA on it in her room to help Carisi."
Her office door flew open, the aforementioned ADA came stalking in.
"We already have the DNA?" Liv wanted to finish this before seeing what had Carisi so heated.
All three nodded.
"Okay, Velasco, go make that call and then go with Fin."
"You got it, Cap. Sorry again."
"It's alright, just do better next time."
He nodded and followed Fin out of the office.
"What's got you blowing steam out your ears?" Amanda looked at her partner.
"Those," he gestured, "eighth floor people. They say this case isn't on the priority list right now since the victim is dead. It's like I speak and Ms Maxwell is the only one who hears me. Everyone else it's like in one ear and out the other."
Amanda looked at her cell phone in her hand, "the M.E. did run the DNA. They just never called us."
"What?" Carisi said.
"Okay, so what happened, Liv asked?"
"Velasco never made the call because like he said, the other case popped up and he was the one who took her statement. But, the M.E. ran it without us asking and has had the answer just waiting for one of us to realize we never called ever since. They could've just called us?" Amanda explained.
Liv was starting to feel like she had a migraine as she rubbed at her head just above her left brow, "well, did they tell him the results?"
Amanda nodded, "it was his."
Olivia's stomach sank and she nodded, taking a deep breath, "Carisi, can you work with that?"
"Yeah, there's a case there now..."
"Alright. Fin and Velasco are on their way to see if they can find any more evidence... whether she wrote in a diary or journal or anything of the sort."
Amanda stood, recognizing that this meeting was coming to a close. She waited for Carisi.
He waved her on, "I'll catch up, I gotta talk to your captain."
She nodded and headed out of the room, closing the door behind her.
"What's up?" Liv asked as she turned her chair to look at where he'd moved to sit.
Carisi sat forward, on the front of the chair and looked at Olivia, "I wanted you to be the first one I spoke to about this."
There was a nervousness rising, this felt so similar to the departure of her last two ADAs except it wasn't in front of the courthouse.
His blue eyes searched her features, recognizing the worry, "I'm not going anywhere, Captain."
She looked down at her desk and nodded, taking a deep breath, "maybe you should lead with that next time, Carisi?"
He gave her an apologetic smile, "I'll remember that."
"So, what is it then?"
He glanced toward the window into the squad room and then back to her before reaching in his inner jacket pocket and producing a small box.
Liv tried to keep her face neutral just in case Amanda looked into the room, but failed as a small smile broke across her feature. She leaned forward and held a hand out, asking if she could look.
Pressing the box into her hand, he smiled at her, "I've been wanting to ask for a while, I've had the ring for God knows how long, but there hasn't been a time that feels right. I keep hoping there'll be a moment where I'll just know."
Olivia considered, thinking of how Rafael had made moments as small as standing in the kitchen seem so sweet and wonderful. His tendency to ask her to dance at random times or the times when he just softly sings to her. The way  everyday seems so special with him. She opened the little velvet box, taking in the simple and elegant ring. It was gold and had a nice sized, cushion cut diamond as the primary stone. There were two smaller stones on each side of the diamond. The stone on the left was a deep red and shiny, a bit translucent. The stone on the right was more of a yellow orange and almost opaque in most spots.
"They're Jesse and Billie's birthstones," he gestured, "November and January."
Olivia realized just how sentimental Carisi was with this.
"Custom made," he admitted, "I wanted it to mean something since I love the girls as my own."
She felt her heart swell, "Carisi, you don't have to wait for the right moment. You can make any moment the right moment."
"Barba softening you up?"
She smiled a little, "any moment can be special and right if you want it to be, is all I'm saying. You could ask her in the middle of a busy sidewalk and I'm certain you could still make that special. You just gotta decide."
He seemed to let her words sink in.
She gently closed the box and slipped it back to him.
"When I do manage to do it," he started as he tucked it away.
"We will celebrate with you, of course."
"You think Rafael would consider being best man?" He looked like it might be a joke.
Without any hint of teasing in her tone, "I think he would do more than consider."
Carisi seemed to want to say more, but decided against it. He gave her a small, appreciative smile and stood."
"Getting back to work?"
There was a knock at the door, Amanda peeked in, "Captain, there's a delivery for you."
Liv looked confused and stood, following the ADA as he left her office. Making her way to the desk, she found a bouquet of flowers in a glass vase had been delivered.
"Little moments?" Carisi said as he was headed toward the door after saying goodbye to Amanda.
Olivia turned, "you can make any moment you want special," she smiled as she pulled the little card from the bouquet.