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English
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Published:
2017-11-18
Completed:
2017-12-29
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19,105
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10/10
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594
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to get back home

Summary:

Rafael acquires a baby. Thank god for Carisi.

Notes:

Hey! This is loosely based on obscure(ish) 2007 Canadian movie Breakfast with Scot, so the reasons for the accidental baby acquisition are basically the same, as is a couple of lines of dialogue into whats and whys. Other than that, that's it.

Anyway, I don't have a beta reader so please let me know if there are any spelling/grammar issues.

UPDATE 2022: ok i’m going to peace out on this i think and orphan it. so long <3 the risotto recipe from later is in the comments btw

Chapter Text

Rafael is late for lunch. The phone call comes just after he leaves court that day, mid-afternoon. It isn’t a number he recognises, and for a few fleeting moments – as he often does – he considers letting it go to voicemail. Of course, he doesn’t.

“Hi, is this Rafael Barba?” a serious-sounding woman says before he even has a chance to say anything.

“Yes,” he answers.

“This is Helena Hopkins, child protective services,” she says. “Are you free to come in this afternoon?”

He stops walking down the courthouse steps. “Why? Is it about a case?”

“No,” Hopkins replies shortly. “I’m ringing to inform you of the death of Lara Farron.” Rafael’s silence as he racks his brain for who exactly that is leads her to elaborate, “The fiancée of your cousin, Lucas Garcia.”

Rafael frowns. He hasn’t seen his cousin properly in nearly 20 years, only in passing at his aunt’s funeral 8 years ago. “Okay, consider me informed. Why are you calling?”

She sighs over the phone. “Do you know where he is?”

“Last I heard he was in Argentina. I don’t know.”

She pauses, Rafael assumes to write it down, and offers a long-suffering sigh. “Can you get to us today so we can talk to you?”

Rafael is the first – and usually not the last – to admit that he is an asshole, but he firmly believes that when it comes down to it, his heart is in the right place. It’s why he had gone into law in the first place, and it’s why he takes the harder cases other ADAs view as unwinnable.

It is also why that afternoon he ends up with a lunch consisting of a paper cup of coffee, rather than the Thai he’d originally planned at the start of the day, and why he ends up in Hopkins’ office at child services.

Helena Hopkins is a short woman, dark hair pulled back into a high ponytail, with horn-rimmed glasses that she pushes up her nose every time she looks back up from reading. As Rafael sits down on the opposite side of the desk to her, he is surprised to find his chair a couple of inches lower than hers, reminding him of the times he had been called into the principal’s office at school.

“Are you sure you don’t know where Lucas is?” she leads.

He nods. “I haven’t seen him in a long time. I didn’t even know he was getting married.”

Hopkins leans back in her chair. “He wasn’t. Not at Farron’s time of death, anyway. He and Farron were engaged for five years and he has been absent for the last four.”

“Why do you need to find him, then?”

“Farron has a sixth-month old daughter. Lucas is the legal guardian,” she replies. “It’s not his daughter, but according to her will, he is the one supposed to take her if anything happened.” His face must betray his confusion, and she adds, “Don’t ask me as to why. She died of a drug overdose, I doubt she was thinking rationally.”

The comment grates him the wrong way, and he pinches his brow. “Look,” he says, “even if you do find him, Lucas was never the family type. I sincerely doubt he’ll take her unless there’s money involved.” Hopkins’ silence tells him everything he needs to know. “There’s money involved.”

She offers a nod. “I have the paperwork if you’d like to go through it. What we really need is to find a way to contact Lucas.”

“I’ve already told you I don’t know where he is,” he replies. “Where’s the baby now?”

“Child services, Manhattan,” she replies.

“And she’s okay there?”

“You’re the only family member Lucas has apart from your mother, and she hung up on us when I mentioned his name, and hasn’t responded since,” she says, and Rafael could almost see where the conversation was going.

Hopkins huffs. “We feel – we being child services – that as Rose, the daughter, is approaching an age where she is forming her primary attachments, it would be best for her to settle in with a more-permanent guardian, someone who can be there when she goes to Lucas,” she says. “Or, in other words, you.”

It’s to his credit he doesn’t laugh. “What?”

“Congratulations Counselor. You’re a father.”

*

Rafael somehow gets to his apartment early evening without panicking, but it doesn’t last particularly long once he’s in the door. He soon finds himself pouring a glass of bourbon. He drinks it quickly and pours another.

He mulls the drink over. It’s fine - he won’t have to look after the baby for long anyway, they would find Lucas. Lucas had never been very good at avoiding attention. The kid would be out of his hands as soon as she entered them. It’s temporary, Rafael thinks. And then she can settle into a permanent home, unless, of course, they don’t find Lucas or Lucas realises he can’t look after a baby or doesn’t need the money or–

Oh god, how the hell can he look after a child? He’s the epitome of a workaholic, and a borderline alcoholic to boot. His own father was hardly a suitable role-model. Does he even know any fathers? Rafael suddenly forgets everyone he knows.

He considers – very briefly – calling his mother.

He drains his glass and calls Liv instead.

She answers after one ring. “Rafael? Is everything okay?”  She sounds worried.

“How do you baby-proof an apartment?”

“Rafael, what’s going on?” Liv's voice slips more into confusion than worry. “Is there something you haven’t told me?”

“What?” he asks, before realising what she means, “Oh, god no. I just- can you help me out?”

“I’d love to, but I’m busy,” she replies. “Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“Do you know anyone else I could ask?” He ignores her question.

She sighs. “I’d suggest Amanda, but she’s out tonight. I doubt it’s Fin’s thing, either,” she responds. “Have you asked Carisi?”

“Carisi?”

“He loves all that baby stuff, I’m sure he’ll know what to do as good as I do,” she reasons, “Bella’s got a kid now, and he’s great with Jesse. And I’m sure he’d welcome a chance to help.”

Rafael runs a hand over his face. He agrees – Carisi is an over-eager puppy, and some kind of peculiar uncle to both Noah and Jesse. Somewhere along the line he’d forgotten to find his enthusiasm annoying, and Rafael being who he is, has been avoiding exploring just why that could be and giving Carisi any other opportunity to endear himself to him.

Until now apparently, he thinks as he reluctantly says goodbye to Liv and hangs up, offering an agreement to let her know what was going on before scrolling through his contacts to Carisi’s name.

Carisi answers after several rings, so many that Rafael is expecting it to go to voicemail. “Counselor?” he answers, sounding rushed, and Rafael can hear the babble of conversation in the background. Carisi was out too then, busy.

“Detective,” he greets, feeling uncharacteristically lost for words as he hears Carisi hushing the people he’s with. “Do you know anything about baby-proofing apartments?”

“Some. I helped Bella and Tommy out with theirs and that worked out pretty well,” Carisi replies, sounding on the verge of getting carried away with himself. “Wait, why?”

He pauses. “Do you think you could help me out?”

“With baby-proofing an apartment?” he sounds dubious.

“Yes,” Rafael answers shortly.

“Whose apartment?”

“Mine.”

“Whose baby?”

He rolls his eyes.

“Yours?”

He almost laughs at the scandal in Carisi’s voice. “No.”

The background noise dies down like Carisi has moved somewhere quieter. “Whose? A girlfriend’s?”

“Cousin’s,” he clarifies, before frowning. “Sort of.”

“Why is it at your apartment?”

He paces a little. “Said cousin is not around. Child protective services contacted me earlier today,” Rafael replies. “It’s temporary. Until they can find him.”

“What?” Carisi echoes Rafael’s original sentiment. “Never mind. Yeah, sure. I can help out.”

Rafael feels his heart leap and he scowls at himself.

“When are you getting the baby?”

“Tomorrow evening,” he replies.

“Oh, that’s soon,” Carisi comments. “I’ll be over in an hour.”

He’s surprised. “Carisi, you don’t have to come over now-”

“When else am I going to do it? You’re in court tomorrow morning.” Rafael finds himself curious as to why exactly Carisi knows that, seeing as it isn’t an SVU case, but doesn’t ask. “Am I right, Counselor?” Rafael can hear the smirk in his voice.

“Like a stopped clock,” he says. “See you shortly,” he adds and hangs up, running his hand through his hair.

*

Carisi shows up about an hour later, raincoat slightly damp and hair disheveled, but eyes bright as ever, with a plastic bag in hand. As Rafael lets him in, he is offered a warm smile, and Carisi places the bag on the table.

He starts unloading it, naming everything as he takes them out. “Cupboard and draw locks, finger-safe, socket covers, corner cushions, closestool locks, latches,” Carisi looks up, meeting Rafael’s eyes and Rafael is careful to quickly wipe the look of awe off his face, and Carisi grins like he knows a secret. “It’s what I used for Bella. I didn’t think it’d be much different here.”

Rafael lets Carisi just get on with it, following him around his apartment, feeling a little useless.

“What’s the baby’s name?” Carisi asks as he affixes bumpers onto the corners of Rafael’s coffee table.

“Rose,” he replies.

“Nice name,” he says, before looking up at Rafael again. “Why is this happening, again?”

“My cousin’s girlfriend died, she left him the child, he’s missing in South America or something, and child services want the kid to settle in somewhere,” he abridges.

Carisi gives him a look. “Do you know how long you’ll have her?”

He shakes his head. “Not a clue.”

Rafael feels like a loose-end, walking a step behind Carisi around his own apartment as he effectively does the whole job on his own, Rafael only there to occasionally hold things and stand by haplessly.

“You got things set up for her yet?”

“No,” he answers. “They’re bringing her things tomorrow, too.”

He isn’t usually useless, and he generally doesn’t appreciate being considered so, but given the context, Carisi’s clear assessment of his hopelessness is both accurate and a relief.

“You sure?”

He pauses, which betrays the answer.

“Look, if you like, I can come round tomorrow. Help out, get anything you’re short on.”

Rafael crosses his arms and huffs. “Carisi, you really don’t-”

“I want to help, Barba,” Carisi replies truthfully. “And I don’t want to be arrested for reckless endangerment by leaving you to fend for yourself.”

He does laugh at that, and Carisi brightens.

It’s nice, really. They talk a little, easy conversation Rafael can’t remember having with Carisi in a long time. Carisi talks about his family, especially about Bella and his niece, and Rafael wipes the earnest smile off his face as soon as he notices it. He doesn’t pry, which Rafael appreciates, any questions he isn’t immediately willing to answer brushed off as quickly as they are asked.

“Do you have anyone who could help you out?” he asks eventually, standing up from fixing the final corner cushion to the coffee table, Rafael perched on the arm of his couch.

He shrugs. “I could call my mother. Reluctantly.” Carisi chuckles, saying nothing in response, like he expects Rafael to elaborate. “She hasn’t brought up grandchildren in a while, suppose she’ll give that another shot.”

“Do you want kids?” Carisi asks casually, the back-tracks, as though he believes he’s overstepped. “Sorry, uh, I-”

As much as Rafael likes to watch Carisi stumble over himself, he quickly puts him out of his misery, holding up a hand. “It’s fine, Carisi,” he says. “I’ve always been rather neutral on the subject.”

Rafael doesn’t need to ask about Carisi. Carisi is staggeringly good with children, too caring for his own good, and broody. It’s too obvious an answer to warrant a question. He’s probably already named them.

“Hey, I get you,” Carisi says, “My mom’s been bothering me since I turned 30 to get my act together and settle down.”

Carisi’s sat on the coffee table now, and Rafael is more agitated by the fact he’s not annoyed at it than Carisi actually doing it.

“Why haven’t you?”

“What, settle down?” he asks, and Rafael nods. “No time. Haven’t found the right person. All that crap.”

Person, not girl, Rafael’s mind supplies uselessly.

Carisi checks his watch and stands, and Rafael does the same.

“Drink?” Rafael blurts out.

“What?”

He curses himself. “As a thank you. For not being completely without use. Stay for a bit.”

Carisi offers a half-smile before regret briefly flashes across his face. “I’d like to. But I’ve already had a couple, and it’s getting late. I need to be at work early tomorrow.”

Rafael feels an unfamiliar warmth inside him at the idea Carisi abandoned an evening out to help him out. They head to the door, and Carisi slips his coat on. “How much do I owe you?”

“For what?” he frowns.

“The baby stuff,” he says, gesturing vaguely.

Carisi waves a hand dismissively. “It’s no problem.”

“Carisi, I’m not-”

“Counselor,” he interrupts. “It’s fine. I’m glad you asked me.”

The look between them lingers a little too long, and Rafael’s reminded of the time Carisi thanked him after the bar exam, but he quickly buries any feelings he was having with the rest of his emotions.

Carisi opens the door and offers a smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” He shuts the door behind him.

“Yeah,” Rafael replies to his empty apartment.