Work Text:
Things had gone about as well as they usually did for the SVU team, or at least that’s how it looked to the ADA tasked with persecuting the team's cases. Rafael Barba had complete faith in Olivia Benson’s team and the ability to do their jobs while only slightly making his job more difficult, his own soulmate usually being the one to make it more difficult. He loved Sonny Carisi, but he just couldn’t always handle the younger detective, even as an overly optimistic soulmate at times. The team had gotten this case with the usual annoyingly early phone call, one that had Carisi apologizing and laughing when Barba was back to sleep without even responding. The team had followed the leads and cuffed the bad guy.
Unfortunately, it was one of those cases that tended to be easy to catch but not so easy to argue in court. An overzealous individual with a horrifically vague soulmark that tried to force a connection with someone who just happened to utter a simple phrase, usually something as simple as, I don’t think we’ve met, or How can I help you?
Soulmark cases were not always as easy as some think they should be. His own soulmate trying to help with case law didn’t help nearly as much either. Sometimes soulmate cases were simple; one person insists they met their soulmate and took advantage of the other. If the other person’s soulmark didn’t match then the case is usually quick. It usually entails the defendant detailing the encounter, the victim presenting evidence of a soulmark that doesn’t match, the jury is usually quick to side with the victim and find the defendant guilty. A rare and slightly more complicated case usually exists of a defendant insisting they felt a match but the victim lack of a soulmark complicates matters or vice versa. Jury’s don’t often know how to feel about the rare cases of individuals that lack marks. Those with marks sometimes look at those without them as unnatural. A belief that tends to makes Barba’s eyes roll so hard Liv tells him someday they might not roll back. Those cases he tended to argue that not having a soulmark doesn’t mean anything. That maybe, just maybe, the fates know that it isn’t necessary for these people to meet their mate, maybe it was nature’s way of accounting for all the flaws in the soulmate system. Soulmarks didn’t always guarantee successful matches. Some start off well but turn sour, something Barba had seen firsthand growing up. He would try to sway the jury to look past their personal feelings and put themselves in the victim’s shoes. It wasn’t always easy. Some cases were like the one he had now, where the victim’s mark happened to be something or someplace obvious.
This case was a case of complicated soulmarks. The defendant had a somewhat vague soulmark, Hello sir, how can I help you? was scrawled in neat script along with his bicep. The victim’s soulmark, Haven’t I seen you here before? ran down her forearm and onto her palm. She was one of the unlucky few that wasn’t always able to cover her mark, especially on a hot day in Manhattan. She so much as took off her jacket or rolled up her sleeves, and anyone could see it. She held onto the hope that the lazy script would help her narrow it down, but it made days like this complicated. Liv had told him how cases like these were terrible, something he knew but always allowed his good friend to vent. She hated the idea that a poor victim would have to put up with people purposefully using her mark’s words to get a reaction from her. It was almost cruel of the fates to make a mark that obvious. Barba had spent the last few days working to put together a strong case of how the defendant had seen the victim’s mark, one way or another when he went for an interview at the victim’s workplace. His soulmark just happened to be a phrase that as the firm’s secretary had to say numerous times a day as she answered phones and greeted clients. It was standard procedure for most places. Even in the Manhattan DA’s office did visitors get greeted similarly, even Carmen had said it a time or two. Barba knew the defense would argue that the defendant truly believed he had met his soulmate. Barba would have to argue that a forced connection went against nature. That his victim didn’t feel any connection and that a manipulated soulmark wasn’t bond, it wasn’t even consent.
With his prepared case, Barba made his way out of the office to spend some time with his soulmate and a few short hours of sleep before having to present it in the morning. He was about to wave for a cab when he heard his name. He wasn’t really surprised when he heard his name being called, what surprised him was who was the one calling him. He turned to see the victim from the case, a girl named Maggie Gatling, running up to him. He tried not to be too annoyed with the interruption to his routine, but he couldn’t ignore the sense of dread that grew at the sight. Late night visits from victims were unusual and often didn’t bode well for his case.
“Wait, Mr. Barba!” She called a second time.
“Ms. Gatling, what are you doing here?” Barba tried not to let his frustration show; she was the victim after all. He looked around, surprised she wasn’t accompanied by a uniformed officer or a member of Liv’s team. The defendant had made bail easily, a fact that annoyed Barba to no end. The jury would not be pleased to find out that the victim was just running around Manhattan after dark. A reckless victim usually didn’t help in cases of questionable consent.
“Mr. Barba,” Maggie repeated as she tried to catch her breath, her hands braced on her knees.
“Deep breaths, Ms. Gatling,” Barba looked at her.
“You’ll never believe it!” Maggie smiled.
“Believe what, Ms. Gatling?” He asked, his annoyance starting to show as he pulled at his tie. The sun may have set, but somehow the heat that had gripped the city was unrelenting.
“I met him!” She beamed at him.
“Met who?” He asked, an eyebrow raised.
“Him!” She gestured to her wrist, her breathing still not letting full coherent sentences form.
“I don’t -” He started to say he wasn’t following her train of thought when the gesture finally clicked. “Oh.” He looked at her as she continued to smile. “Your soulmate?”
“Yes!” She nodded vigorously.
He couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped him. Well, that was not what he had been expecting. If it was true, then this was a major break in his case. Proof that either the defendant was lying about the connection he felt or that fate had gotten confused on this one. Either way, it proved that the defendant clearly wasn’t Anna Gatling’s soulmate. This was good. As he laughed a couple across the street stopped gave him a strange look. To which he cleared his throat and turned back to Anna.
“Why don’t we talk inside?” He gestured back into his office building.
The next morning Barba had presented his opening argument. He was more than happy to drop the bombshell on the defense that the victim indeed have a soulmate and he would happily add him to the witness list if the court would allow it. The next few days of testimony and argument were a bit easier than Barba had expected. The soulmate was clearly happy to help the case.
It was after one of those days that Barba found himself on the busy steps of courthouse with Liv and Carisi, helping Anna and her soulmate dodge reporters as they left. Cases about soulmates always made big news. It was an annoyance they were used to dealing with. It wasn’t until the shots rang out that things got bad. On instinct, Liv moved to protect the witness as Carisi, who had been the one leading the small party pulled his gun and moved towards the shots. Barba, went to help guard his victim’s newfound soulmate as they both ended up splayed out on the steps. Barba shook himself as he rose to his feet with a groan and rubbed the back of his head where it had connected with the steps. He looked around to find Carisi, he wasn’t shocked to find his soulmate and a courthouse guard struggling with the shooter. Thankfully the gun seemed to be far out of the man’s reach. He hated that Carisi was usually the one charging head first into the gunfire, but it was just how his soulmate was.
“Barba!”
The counselor turned, a little too fast for his aching head to see Liv looking at him.
“You okay?” Liv asked, her hand still on Anna Gatling’s arm as the poor woman clung to her rattled soulmate. Barba nodded slightly before Liv’s free hand gestues to Barba’s shoulder, “Your suit has seen better days.”
“Damn,” Barba groaned as he looked down at his arm and shoulder. “I really liked this one too. “ He pressed his hand against the tear and winced at the sting.
“And here I thought we were supposed to be the heroes.” Carisi was saying as Barba looked up to see how his soulmate had faired. Barba cringed as the detective wiped away blood from his lip with the arm of his coat. The shooter had clearly put up a fight.
“Well someone had to be.” Barba shrugged, a move he instantly regretted.
“That hero rush of adrenaline wearing off?” Carisi asked as he moved over to Barba and started pulling at his suit coat.
“Carisi, that’s not- would you just-“ Barba tried to argue with his soulmate, but it was clearly a losing battle. “Fine.” He rolled his eyes and let the younger male help him take off the coat.
“Thank you,” Carisi, mumbled as he tossed the garment to the side.
“Hey that’s-“ Barba glared but he was cut off.
“It’s got a hole in the shoulder.” It was Carisi’s turn to roll his eye.
“Fine but it still wasn’t cheap.” Barba frowned.
Carisi ignored his soulmate’s pout as he looked at his blood-stained shirt. “Jesus, Raf.” He pulled at the shirt to get a better look, ignoring the tearing of the fabric as he did.
“Hey, come on. That’s-“ Carisi stopped whatever argument Barba was making with a glare as he pulled a handkerchief out of his own jacket and pressed it to the bloody spot on Barba’s arm. They both winced as he did. “This is why we can’t have nice things,” Barba grumbled.
Carisi couldn’t help but laugh. Barba had nearly taken a bullet, and he was more upset at losing his suit than he was about the blood being soaked up by the handkerchief.
“Your mother’s not going to be happy about that.” Barba gestured to the handkerchief.
“I’m sure she’ll replace it.” Carisi shook his head. “I’m more worried about your mother.”
“You and me both.” Barba nodded. They both looked up as they heard sirens approaching. “That is not a call I want to make.
“Better you than me.” Carisi laughed as he ran his hand through the older man’s hair, frowning at the wince that formed on the other’s face as he did. “You hit your head?”
“It’s just a bump,” Barba stated, pushing Carisi’s hand away. “You’re one to talk. You should see that pretty face of yours.” He reached up and ran his thumb along the detective’s split lip and the bruises forming on his cheek and jaw.
“That’s just a regular day at the office,” Carisi laughs.
“Oh, I’m all too aware of that.” Barba sighed.
“Yeah, well,” Carisi started to say but was interrupted by someone clearing their throat. They both looked up to see a paramedic looking at the two of them.
“Sorry to interrupt but the lieutenant told me you two might need help.” The paramedic stated as she set her medical kit down on the step and opened it up.
The two men just gaped at her after she spoke. Barba would blame his lack of speech on having hit his head. Carisi just nodded and took a step to the side. She gave them a funny look she quickly masked as she checked her gloves and moved to take over holding the handkerchief to shorter man’s shoulder.
“Would you mind taking a seat for me?” She asked, smiling at them when they both took a seat on the steps. Once they were safely seated she peeled the handkerchief away to get a good look at the injury. “Sorry,” she mumbled as Barba winced.
“Well Counselor,” She smiled at him. “I have good news and bad news; good news is it looks like the bullet just grazed you. Bad news, your obscenely expensive shirt is a goner.” She startled slightly at the unbridled laugh the came from the man beside them. They both turned to look at Carisi.
“I told him it was,” Carisi shook his head and smiled. “He worried more about his suit than his arm.”
The paramedic’s eyes widened for a brief second before she schooled her features.
“You might as well just cut it off.” Carisi grinned.
“Honestly, I’m not sure if he means the shirt or the arm.” Barba glared, causing Carisi to laugh even harder if possible.
“I um…” the paramedic shook herself. “I should probably…”
Barba rolled his eyes. “Just cut it.”
She reached for her scissors and tried to steady her now shaking hands.
“Here, let me.” Carisi took the scissors from her hands and cut the arm of Barba’s shirt off.
“Why do I get the feeling you enjoyed that?” Barba shook his head, he had a feeling he was missing something, but the pain in the back of his skull was more than distracting.
“You said to cut it.” Carisi shrugged before looking back at the paramedic. “It’s okay, Doll.” He smiled. “You got this.” Barba raised his eyebrow as he looked at his soulmate. Carisi was usually kind to people, especially women, probably because of his sisters, but this was different.
What she had said and how Carisi was acting seemed to click as he watched the woman take a deep breath before starting to clean and bandage his arm.
“What’s your name?” She nearly dropped the gauze when the ADA spoke.
She kept her eyes glued to what she was doing and cleared her throat. “Lila.”
“Lovely name, for a lovely woman.” Barba grinned.
Lila’s hands stilled momentarily as she secured the bandage. It was a moment before she finally replied with a simple, “Thank you.” She looked up at green eyes when his hand moved to cover hers. They sat like that for what seemed like ages until a hand clapped her on the back, causing her to jump and her hand to pull away. She looked up to see her partner.
“Need a hand? Everyone else seems to be alright, and the lieutenant said he hit his head.” The male paramedic asked eyebrow raised.
She blushed slightly at being caught practically holding hands with her patient, before nodding as she pulled away, allowing the man to assess her work before peppering Barba with questions. Barba stared at her a moment longer before answering the other paramedic’s questions.
“Hey,” Carisi’s voice pulled her back to what she should be doing and quickly peeled off her gloves and looked up at him. He was standing and holding a hand out to her. She grabbed her medical kit, took his hand and the two of them moved a little further away to give her partner room to work. “I guess it’s my turn.” He smiled at her.
“Yeah,” she nodded as she set her kit down again. She put on new gloves and after a deep breath started to examine Carisi’s bruised face and split lip. “Does…does anything else hurt? They said there was a struggle.”
“Nah, tried to get me in the ribs but didn’t really land. Back up got there before he could do much else.” Carisi shrugged.
“I guess it could have been a lot worse.” Lila smiled.
“You aren’t wrong.” Carisi nodded.
“You’re both pretty lucky then, detective.”
“Sonny.”
“What?” Her hand stilled where she was clean his split lip, and she looked up at him.
“You can call me Sonny, and that’s Rafael.” Sonny gestures to where the other man sits with the paramedic.
“Sonny,” she repeated his name and winced as he smiled. “Doesn’t that hurt?”
“What?” He looked at her a little confused.
“Your lip. You keep smiling, that cannot feel good.” She pointed to the cut.
“Can’t help it.” He grinned. “Not every day you meet your soulmate.”
Her eyes went wide at someone finally saying what they all knew. “I would hope not. Two is already more than I think I can handle. Everyone already thinks it unusual.”
“Trust me, Doll.” Sonny took her hand in his. “It’ll be fine. We’ve been looking for you for a while.” He gave her gloved hand a quick kiss, causing her cheeks to turn bright red. Sonny’s eyes lit up as he smiled at her, even her ears were turning red at this point.
Lila slid her hand out of his and set to straightening her medical kit. She cleared her throat slightly and glanced up at him. “So, uh…how long?”
“How long have we looked for you? Long enough to understand why fate decided we needed a third.” Sonny sighed. He figured honesty was always the best policy, why not just put all the cards on the table. Even if Barba would not be pleased being left out of an important conversation.
“How so?” She frowned, she’d heard horror stories of soulmates that didn’t get along, but they clearly cared deeply for each other. They hadn’t even noticed her until she spoke up. They couldn’t be the kind of couples she gets calls to help the police with.
“Hey,” Sonny put his hand on her cheek and ran his thumb along her cheekbone. “Nothing bad enough to earn a frown.” He smiled softly. “We don’t need a referee, just someone to make sure we don’t bring the job home.”
She nodded. She’d seen that. She knew several firefighters and paramedics that didn’t always do a great job drawing the line between work and home.
A angry male voice snaps them both out of their little world. “Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Lila was pulled away from Sonny roughly as her partner steps between them. She’d have missed the edge of the step if Barba hadn’t been on the man’s heels. His good arm staying at the small of her back once she was steady.
“Hey!” Sonny protested as she was pulled away. “You can’t just-“ He sentence failing as he was shoved back onto steps.
“Jack!” Lila shouted at her partner, trying to stop him but Barba put his hand on her arm. Her eyes snapping to Barba’s as he shook his head, nodding towards Sonny’s teammates rushing over to help.
“You don’t get to touch her, “ Jack practically growled as Liv and Fin restrained the angry paramedic.
Rollins came over to lead Barba and Lila away to give Liv and Fin room to handle the man. “You okay?” Rollins asked Lila. Lila nodded as she rubbed at the spot where her angry partner had gripped her. Barba rubbed her back to try and settle her.
“Yeah, Jack’s just…he’s…protective.” Lila forced a smile.
“Looks more possessive than protective,” Rollins spoke as she looked back at the now handcuffed paramedic that was clearly seething with anger.
The three of their heads snapped up when they heard the angry man start yelling again and lunged at Sonny despite being in cuffs. Lila had enough of it.
“Stop it! Jack, stop it!” Lila rushed over and would have shoved him if Sonny hadn’t stopped her. “You don’t get to touch him!” She gestured at Sonny. “Or me!” Sonny pulled her to him. “You don’t! They’re my soulmates.”
Jack glared at Sonny. “They?”
“You heard me,” she forced out.
“You can’t be-“ the furious man replied.
“She is,” Sonny glared back at him.
Liv steps in, and Jack gets dragged away.
Lila groans and takes a seat on the steps. “What the hell am I going to tell our boss?”
“The truth?” Sonny offered as he sat down beside her. He wrapped his arm around her as she leaned into him.
“Our chief and captain will love that. ‘Hey boss, Jack lost his damn mind again, and shoved a cop because he doesn’t have a soulmark or half a brain and gets angry when-“
“Again?” Sonny asked, tightening his grip on her shoulders.
“He doesn’t have a soulmark?” Rafael asks, causing her to look up at him.
“Nope, not a mark, probably a good thing. And yes, again, he’s only on the rig because he got in trouble at his old house. Didn’t like working with soulmates.” She sighed and put her head in her hands.
“Hold on, are you telling me that he hates soulmates?” Rafael asked.
“I don’t know, I guess-“ Her answer is cut of as the a truck pulls up to the curb and her battalion chief hops out and slams the door. “Times up.”
“What the hell is going on here?” The man is already shouting as he walks towards Lila. “Why am I getting calls that my paramedic is under arrest?”
“Chief, let me explain.” Lila started.
“No, let me,” Liv steps up. “I’m Lieutenant Olivia Benson, and your paramedic decided to attack one of my detectives.” They could hear her say as she led the chief over towards the car where said paramedic was detained.
“Well, that’s one way of handling it.” Rafael moved to stand in front of his soulmates.
It was already dark by the time Lila walked out of the firehouse. It had taken hours to deal with the aftermath of the incident Jack had caused. More paperwork than she had done since she became a paramedic and explaining to multiple people, multiple times what had happened. Everyone wanted to know. She just wanted to go home when she stopped in her tracks.
“What are you guys doing here?” She looked at her soulmates and smiled. They had both clearly changed out of their torn and dirty suits and cleaned up since she’d left them at the courthouse.
“In all the chaos we didn’t exactly get a chance to ask you out,” Rafael stated as if it was the most obvious reason possible.
“Or eat.” Sonny grumbled, causing Rafael’s eyes to roll.
“Me either, to both obviously.” She laughed. She was starting to get an idea of how these two worked, but only just. “So, dinner?”
“Works for us.” Sonny smiled. “Right, Raf?”
“As long as someone with actual taste gets to pick,” Rafael stated.
“I live like a block down the street, can we argue it there?” Lila points down the street.
“No objection here,” Rafael nodded.
“Lead the way,” Sonny practically beams.
Lila unlocked the door and pushed it open. She was momentarily thankful that she’d actually cleaned the place the weekend before on a restless day off from work. “It’s not much, but you know.” She smiled. “It’s home.” She ditched her bag in her living room before moving to the kitchen. “Hey wait, I forgot to ask earlier,” she asked as she made her way to the cabinet lined wall. “Who tried to shoot you guys or can I not know that?”
Sonny looked at Rafael and nudged him. He didn’t see the problem with telling her. She was their soulmate after all. Rafael shook his head but when he looked over at her he couldn’t say no. With a sigh he loosened his tie and spoke, “Defendant was not happy with how the trial was going.” Rafael half shrugged, mindful of his sore arm. “Must have had someone bring the gun to him, no way he could have gotten it past security.”
“He was mad his victim had found her soulmate because of the trial,” Sonny corrected.
“Huh.” A smile pulled at the corners of her mouth. “She wasn’t the only one.”
“I guess so.” Sonny grinned.
Satisfied with the answer Lila turned and grabbed a stack of menus from a drawer. “Not sure about you guys, but in all honesty, this was sort of my plan, so unless anyone else has an idea this is my vote; been too long a day to actually think.”
“We could just stay here if that’s what you want.” Sonny leaned against the counter as he looked through the menus. “You aren’t wrong; it has been a long day.”
“You sure?” Lila asked looking between the two.
“Fine by me,” Rafael said. “You pick.”
“How hard did you hit your head earlier?” Sonny smirked.
“Not hard enough to let you pick.” Rafael replied.
Lila laughed at the two of them as she looked through the menus and wondered what the rest of their lives would be like. They all had chaotic jobs, some more risky than others, but she was sure Sonny was right. They all needed someone to make sure they didn’t bring the job home. All three would suffer losses on occasion. They all knew they couldn’t save everyone. Not all cases were won, and not all patients would make it. Sonny would hug her tight and let her cry when no matter how hard she tried or how hard she hoped her job failed to save a fragile life. Lila would drag Rafael away from his desk when he was clearly overworked and refused to leave his case at the office. She’d drop by the precinct to make sure Sonny, and his co-workers, ate more than just junk. She’d force them both to sleep when cases just refused to break, and court seemed to never end. Three-way soulbonds were not overly common, but who were they to argue with fate? That was just the way they worked.