Barson Oneshots

S19 E9 Gone Baby Gone

The unused Barson potential here...

Could be mistakes. I've been wrestling with this one for months. Shocking, given it's so short.

Anyway, on with the story.

...

"Liv," Rafael said simply, voice full of worry.

"Please don't tell me that it's going to be okay," she snapped back, flying past him to walk into her office.

"Could this have anything to do with the job?" he asked Rollins.

The blonde sighed. "The question's not if there are threats. It's which ones to take seriously, and with her time on this job, it's a lot of grudges."

"Jesus," he muttered before following Olivia into her office.

"Do you know how many times I've told parents to stay calm? You don't know how ridiculous that is until it happens to you."

"I don't know what to do. Umm...Do you want some coffee? Do you-"

"I just want my son," she wailed, and he hurries forward to wrap her in his arms.

"Okay - hey, hey, hey."

"All I can think of is tonight is spaghetti night. Noah loved spaghetti night," she whispered against his shoulder.

"He's gonna be okay, Liv."

"But they tossed his jacket, and they put a different sweatshirt on him, one that fit. They planned this, Rafa. It wasn't some random freak. Someone specifically targeted my son."

"We got something, Liv," Fin said as he entered the office, and to his credit, did not react at the sight of her wrapped up in the ADA's arms.

...

"I screwed up, Rafael," Olivia said, beginning to pace the floor behind the chair he'd taken.

He turned around to watch her. "No. This was coordinated, planned, well-executed. Look, there's no way you could have seen this coming, Liv."

"You know what the problem is with this job? What good do we really do? I mean, we come in after the fact with a broom and a mop and we clean up the mess. What would really matter, or would really be special is if, just one time, we could prevent it from hitting the floor."

"We prevent the next mess," he assured her.

She stopped pacing, dropping onto the couch behind her and burying her face in her hands.

"I should have seen this coming. As a cop, as a mother, should have seen this coming."

"Well, you..." He can't make the words leave his mouth, already regretting starting the sentence.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"You can't punch me harder than I've already punched myself, believe me."

"Maybe you wanted this Sheila thing to work out too much. Look, maybe all you wanted was a family."

"Yeah. What was I thinking?"

"That's why I shouldn't have said anything."

"No, you're right. What the hell was I thinking? I mean, I actually thought, no really, I thought that I could have a son, a family. I thought that for once, the universe wouldn't feel the need to remind me that I'm some rapist bastard's child. What was I doing, pulling the sweetest little boy on earth into the absolute shit show that is my life? What's wrong with me? I knew I didn't deserve it, that it wasn't right. What was I thinking? Why did I think I deserved anything?"