Take Two and Something More
So this chapter flowed really nicely and I rather like it so I hope you guys do as well. I am working on chapter four but it probably won’t be as quick to be uploaded as I will be back at work this week.
Also again, any mistakes are my own.
Also also, please check out my prompt list and feel free to request something! I really enjoyed writing my requests last time!
Side note, this GIF really shows how nice his hands are....or is that just me?
Warnings: I don’t believe there are any but please let me know if there is something here that needs to be tagged as a warning.
Tag List: @profoundtyrantharmony @wanniiieeee
The case against Paul O’Neil had resulted in him being found guilty of multiple counts of rape, harassment and stalking . Once the newspapers had written about his arrest after Finn, Viper and Nick had searched his apartment and found a number of videos of his attacks, a number of other women came forward with their accounts. It had been a tough case, Paul’s defence team claiming that the women agreed to be videoed and that everything was consensual but thankfully the jury was able to see through his charm. During the trial you had sat in the court room to support the women and though you would deny it with all your being you were impressed with Rafael Barba and his ability to trap the suspect or one of the witnesses for defence in their lie and force them to backpedal.
“I guess you were telling the truth,” you muttered to Olivia while the two of you were waiting for your drinks at the bar. Olivia glanced at you, a smirk on her face.
“Telling the truth about what?” she asked, smirk turning into a grin when you shot her a pointed look.
“About that ADA,” you said, voice tinged with annoyance. “He is a good lawyer.”
“Wow, that sounded incredibly painful for you to admit,” Olivia laughed picking up her wine.
You thanked the bartender after he placed your whiskey in-front of you. The two of you walked to meet the rest of the team at your booth. You stopped short when you realised there was an extra person sitting at the booth. Olivia looked at you, nudging you carefully in the arm forcing you to look at her.
“Play nice,” she whispered forcing you to keep walking.
Thankfully she took the sit beside him but that meant you had to sit across from him. The table grew quiet before forced conversations were picked up again but you could tell that the team was watching you out of the corner of their eyes and paying more attention to what was going to happen. You took a big sip of your whiskey before looking up at Rafael who was already staring at you. You felt an uptake in the speed of your heart beats and a rush of warmth growing up your neck the longer you stared at his face, his green eyes just staring you down. The light from the bar hitting his face at all the right angles and brought your eyes to the strong features of his jawline and his nose. You blinked a few times and took another sip from your drink and looked away for a moment before looking back. He was still staring at you, though you thought you had noticed a slight red tinge to his cheeks but you weren’t sure if it was from the lights or reflecting off of Olivia’s red shirt.
The tension was thick between the two of you, you could almost feel it suffocating the air. You waited to see if he was going to say anything but he just stared at you sipping from his own drink. You noticed Oliva nudging him in the arm and giving him a sharp look. You felt something tap your leg and glanced at Nick who was also giving you a sharp look.
‘Go on’. Nick mouth at you, his glass hiding his mouth from the other side of the table. You sighed, glaring at him before turning back to Rafael.
“Hi,” you said, grimacing at the awkwardness. “Good job in court.”
Rafael nodded but didn’t respond. You blinked sitting up straighter and looking towards Olivia. You glared at her before completely ignoring the man across from you and turning to engage Nick in his conversation with Finn and Amanda.
“Rafael, play nice,” Olivia said when Rafael turned to her. “Viper is trying and so can you. You said you would be civil.”
“They haven’t apologised,” Rafael said, his tone haughty and completely different to what Olivia was use to. She groaned rubbing her forehead.
“You two are like children,” she muttered. “Viper is not going to apologise in-front of all of us but they will. They promised. Besides, you also admitted to me that their profile was accurate and helped get the warrant.”
“That has nothing to do with this,” Rafael groused. He swallowed the rest of his drink and motioned for Olivia to move.
“Going already counsellor?” Amanda asked bringing everyone’s attention to him. You looked away from Nick and saw that Rafael looked a little like a deer in headlights at all the attention before he masked it.
“Yes, I have another case to start preparing for in the morning,” he said nodding at all them. You watched him go before feeling four sets of eyes on you. You slowly turned around and saw that they had all switched their attention to you.
“Go on!” Nick half shouted shoving you towards the end of booth.
“You did tell me you would apologise,” Olivia said taping your foot with hers. You looked at Finn and Amanda who both made shooing motions with their hands.
“I can not take any more tension and awkwardness,” Amanda whined. “Do something about it, be a grown up and apologise.”
You grumbled as you got up and followed the ADA out of the bar but not before downing the rest of your whiskey. Thankfully Rafael hadn’t gotten very far from the entrance of the bar. You jogged to catch up.
“Counsellor!” you called out. He stopped and turned around looking a little surprised that you had followed him.
“Can I help you detective or are you here to demand something else from me?” Rafael knew he was being petty but he couldn’t help it. You reared back a little at that, surprised but also knowing that you kinda deserved it.
“No actually,” you tried to keep your tone civil but knew that your tone was edged in anger. You took a deep breath and pushed your anger down. “I’m here to apologise. Whether I meant to or not I attempted to intimidate you that day in your office and it was inappropriate. I am sorry for doing that.” Your tone thankfully was sincere as you were sorry for having done that. It was something you hated doing during your time undercover but it was necessary for your role, for you to have done it without thinking to someone on your side made your stomach drop and feel sick.
“Whether you meant to or not?” Rafael asked. “I didn’t realise intimidation was an instinct.”
“Seriously? I am here apologising and you’re acting like an arse,” you seethed. “And yes whether I meant to or not. That action was something I had to do over the last year when I did a joand it is not something easy to come back from.”
“I’m being an arse?” Rafael scoffed. “That’s rich.” He crossed his arms, staring you down. You shook your head not able to believe how he was acting. You thought you had acted like a child in your first meeting with him and now in your second actual conversation he is acting like a child.
“Yes!” You shouted pressing your palms into your eyes and groaning. “My god. I don’t know why I even bothered.” You turned around just wanting to leave the situation.
Rafael stood there for a moment, staring at you as you entered back into the bar. He scoffed again before turning around, he paused briefly and knew that Olivia would give him a headache if you mentioned how that entire conversation went. He sighed, knowing that this time he was in the wrong, you had sounded very sincere with your apology and even provided an explanation that didn’t sound like an excuse but just you trying to explain it. He rubbed the back of his neck and pulled out his phone to order an uber. He didn’t quite understand why he couldn’t just accept your apology and move on, this could affect the whole squad and that wasn’t something he wanted to do. He would be loathed to admit it but Manhattan SVU had gotten under his skin and he rather enjoyed working with them.
He sighed rubbing at his temples as his uber pulled up and he got in. He rested his chin on his hand and stared out the window. Still trying to work out what exactly went wrong. Your eyes had seemed to burn with fire when he first responded to you before you seemed to calm down and the fire in your eyes simmered down, he noticed whenever he looked at you that the embers of a fire seemed to be constantly in your eyes. Though he found them to most appealing when you were angry. He blinked and shook his head looking up and huffing in disbelief, he did not find you appealing in the least and he definitely didn’t act the way he did just to see how your eyes looked. Nope. That is not something an ADA of his calibre did. His phone beeped, forcing him to look down and get out of his head.
“Shit,” Rafael sighed noticing that it was a message from Olivia. He thought about leaving it unread but he knew that would cause a bigger headache the next time he saw the detective. He thumbed open the message.
Message from Olivia: Seriously?! What is wrong with you Rafi? They apologised and you acted like a compete jerk.
Message to Olivia (draft): I didn’t find it sincere enough
‘I can’t send that,’ he thought. ‘Viper seems the type of person who wouldn’t apologise unless they meant it.’
Message to Olivia: Truthfully, I don’t know.
Message from Olivia: Well, you better figure it out and fix it! Viper will be interacting with you a lot, and this team cannot have any tension.
Message to Olivia: I will.
Rafael sighed putting his phone away, he really didn’t have any idea how to fix this as he truly didn’t understand how and why he acted the way did.
“I cannot believe that arrogant, egotistical, jerk!” you growled slamming back another shot of vodka. It probably wasn’t the best idea but honestly you didn’t care. You had apologised and even tried to explain why you did it, and you didn’t even like mentioning that you had done undercover work but you felt he was owed something.
“I know, I know,” Amanda patted you on the back and went to the bar for another round.
Olivia was sitting across from you and patted your hand, Nick sat on your right with his arm around your shoulders letting you lean into him. Finn had left already but not before telling you not to mind Rafael, you did the right thing. He also paid for two rounds of vodka shots. You had had about four shots of vodka, having one of Olivia’s and one of Nicks. Nick had pushed his in-front of you, telling you that he’ll drive you home so you can go nuts. Amanda had taken Nick’s other shot.
“I mean I apologised!” you groaned. “And he just…just urgh!”
Amanda giggled softly as she sat back down across from you beside Olivia putting two more shots in-front of you and one in-front of herself and a glass of water in-front of Olivia and Nick. You reached for the shots and downed them in quick succession. Nick laughed and nudged his water before you, urging you to at least have a sip.
“Come on, just a mouthful otherwise you are going to feel like hell tomorrow,” Nick whispered his fingers running through your hair. You pouted and reached for the water taking a few sips.
Amanda and Olivia shared a look at the way Nick was treating you, it was something new since you had gotten back though you didn’t seem to mind too much. And it also seemed to get through to you in your tipsy stupor. You smiled at him and patted his cheek when he took back his water and sipped from it.
“I’ll have a talk with him and we can try and sort it out,” Olivia promised getting your focus on her. “And please believe me when I tell you that he isn’t normally like that. And Viper please promise me if he comes to you and apologises that you won’t do what he did.” You sat up from your slump against Nicks side and vigorously shook your head.
“Of course I wouldn’t!” You promised. “If he is sincere with his apology like I was of course I would accept it. It can take cocky dickheads like that a lot of balls to say sorry. I should know, I can be like that as well.” The three of them laughed at your admission and decided that should probably be it for the night. You all did have work in the morning,
“Come on up you get, time to take you home,” Nick said and this time he was gentler when he moved you out of the booth. His hands on your waist. The four of you made your way outside, Olivia and Amanda ordering their Ubers. You weren’t overly drunk but the quick shots of vodka were definitely going to your head and making you dizzy. Nick had wrapped his arm around your waist to help stabilise you, and you had placed your arms around his neck, bringing you close to his face. You leant your head in the crook of his neck.
“Are you right with them?” Olivia asked. “I don’t mind sharing an uber with Viper.”
“No it’s fine, they live on the way to mine,” Nick shook his head, looking down at you with an extremely soft look on his face, one that Olivia saw when he looked or talked about Zara.
“Right well, see you all in the morning!” Amanda waved as her uber pulled up getting side and gesturing to her phone at Olivia.
“Not very subtle,” Nick whispered to Olivia who just shook her head.
“Who knows what is going through her head, especially after a couple of vodka shots,” Olivia said. “Ah, my Uber is here. See you both in the morning, make sure they drink plenty of water.”
“I will, safe trip back Liv,” Nick waved.
“Bye bye Liv!” you waved at her. Olivia smiled indulgently at you before getting in her Uber. “Nick?”
“Yes?” Nick looked back down at you as he started to direct you to his car. He hadn’t parked far from the bar which he was grateful for, you weren’t heavy but you definitely weren’t light. Especially with how much of your weight you were putting on him.
“I’m tired,” you pouted. “And…and I still feel really bad about what I did.”
“Hey, you apologised,” Nick said squeezing your waist. “Don’t feel too bad about it, Rafael can get very frustrating.”
“Yeah but I hate doing that, when I had to do it from them it made me feel sick,” you whined. “Those people where innocent and they didn’t deserve for me to frighten and intimidate them.”
Nick tried to get a look at your face but you had buried it in his neck but he knew you were crying, he could feel the tears hitting the skin on his neck. He quietly seethed, angry beyond belief at Rafael for causing you to be like this. Yes, in the beginning you had been in the wrong but you had tried to make it right but Rafael for some insane reason decided to be a dick and not graciously accept it. Nick unlocked his car and opened the door, gently placing you in the seat before kneeling in-front of the door and reaching up to wipe away the tears.
“Viper, look at me,” Nick’s voice was incredibly soft and gentle, his eyes swam with concern when you finally raised your eyes and looked at him. “Whatever you did when you were under cover you did to protect those women and to protect other women. If you hadn’t agreed to help who knows how many other women would have been harmed.”
You nodded and rubbed at your eyes trying to stop the tears but they just kept on coming, a small sob escaped from your throat no matter how hard you tried to stop it. Nick reached up and wrapped his arms around you drawing you into his chest allowing you to get out whatever you needed. You clutched his shirt in your hands, so hard that your knuckles turned white. He rubbed his hand up and down your back, not saying anything but making soothing noises in the back of his throat. His other hand had wrapped round the base of your neck and gently stroked the skin there.
“I’m so sorry,” you muttered as you leaned back noticing how much snot was now on his shirt.
“That’s alright,” Nick smiled tapping you on the nose. “I have a feeling that was something you needed to get out of your system. Now, let me get you home so you can have some water and get some sleep.”
“Thanks Nick,” you smiled up at him, your eyes red rimmed and drowsy not just from the alcohol now but also from the tears. “Everything you have done for me since I got back, I really appreciate it.”
Nick nodded and moved around the drivers side of the car, once he had sat down he reached out one last time to gently brush his fingers against your cheek.
“You never have to thank me for that,” Nick smiled.
He looked back to the front of the car and focused on getting you home safe. He missed the red that dusted your cheeks that wasn’t there before, something you were grateful for. You weren’t entirely sure what was happening with Nick but he had been acting different since you had gotten back and the squad had seen how different you were. How broken your time under cover had made you. You glanced at Nick and watched the street lights play over his face before looking away not wanting to get caught staring. You leaned your head against the window and went back over your conversation with Rafael to try and see where you had gone wrong. Maybe you didn’t sound as sincere as you had thought. You tried to remember the facial expressions of the ADA to see if maybe there was a clue there. Your face suddenly felt very warm when you remembered how he looked when he turned around after you had called out for him. His face had those strong angles, his chin had a little five o’clock shadow growing on it, and his eyes, his eyes were so expressive and the green in them was everchanging. You shook you head, not wanting to further entertain those thoughts or even want to start working out where they came from. Especially after that moment in the bar and not until you worked out what was going on with Nick.
You rested your head against the back of the seat and closed your eyes. In the morning everything would be better. You just knew it.
