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a-spectacle-in-the-morning · 4 years

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“Woeful Wins and Whiskey” -- Rafael Barba

Notes: I’m trying to write Rafael stuff now and I am VERY nervous about it. *retreats to writing Sonny immediately*

There’s some mentions of sexual violence in this one folks. Just the kind of stuff that’s par for the course with SVU. And drinking. You have been forewarned.

If anyone ever needed to be reaffirmed in their belief that love at first sight didn’t exist, all they had to do was ask you about the day you met Rafael. Not that you immediately hated him or anything, you just sure as hell didn’t like him.

When you first transferred to the SVU you were surprised by how welcoming the staff was. To clarify they were welcoming, but not in any way exceedingly joyous to have you there.

Fin had offered you a curt nod as you sat at your desk before turning back to his desktop screen. Amanda gifted you a slight smile. Liv shook your hand as she nearly jogged past you to get to her office. Sonny had gotten up and helped you unpack your little box of knick-knacks. He even started an idle conversation with you while you finished up, which ended with him promising to bring you a plate full of his Ma’s zeppole by the end of the week. Then Liv re-emerged from her office, cell phone still in hand, to let everyone know that there was a new case.

“Hope you’re ready new kid,” Fin teased.

Just like that you were off. No rookie desk duty; straight out to the world of sex crimes. And very quickly you weren’t so sure you truly were ready.

Your first case was a (impossibly, in your opinion) young girl claiming to have been molested by a teacher. She wouldn’t expose the man, but the physical evidence was enough to land her in the hospital. It was violent. You were used to violence, but nothing that made you as sick as listening to that girl recount what happened to her.

There were a horrifying number of suspects and without the girl’s testimony you were left digging through whatever evidence there was. After an ungodly number of hours you felt like you had connected some dots and your gut was telling you the perp was her biology teacher. You asked Sonny what you could possibly do next with mostly just a gut feeling and he told you to ask the ADA if what you had was enough.

“It’s not,” Barba huffed, looking at you over the file you’d brought him.

“I know you need more to prosecute, but I also know this guy is guilty. The kid’s not gonna testify against him. What more can I get you?” you asked, genuinely curious.

“Some actual evidence?” he had chided, raising an eyebrow at you.

You let a puff of laughter escape. The balls on this guy, you thought. Then you looked up and saw the framed degree from Harvard. You squinted back at his three piece suit and you knew he was going to be a pain in the ass. Better to placate this kind of douche than to worsen his mood.

“Fair enough,” you shrugged. “Can I please at least get a warrant to search his office?”

He let the folder flop down on his desk. “Do you have a reason for me to give you one?”

Oh my God.

Then he added, “That isn’t your fresh out of the academy, twenty-something year old instinct.”

I’m going to kill this guy.

But you just swallowed your pride, set your shoulders, and said, “I’ll get you one.” And before he could get in one last quip you were out of his well decorated office.

You did get him one. By the next afternoon, in fact. As the youngest member of the team Liv had allowed you, hesitantly, to talk to the victim alone. She thought it might help her open up if she was around someone even remotely closer to her own age. And it had. She let slip during the interview that the man who attacked her was tall, angry, and (very helpfully) a science teacher. The way you walked back into Barba’s office… You looked like you could’ve just beaten him in some long running bet by the smugness emanating off of you. But the little feud had only started yesterday. The two of you were just incredibly spite filled human beings.

Barba begrudgingly, though of course very and truly gladly, gave you the warrant you had asked for. You and Amanda had ransacked the suspect’s office and found all the physical evidence Barba could ever desire. Unfortunately, that evidence was a mountain of trophies taken from young girls over many years. The prosecution involved exposing a lot of trauma. It was an easy win, but a painful and exhausting one as well.

Welcome to the team.

You celebrated by going out for a somber drink at Forlini’s. It was a busy Saturday. When you finally got the bartender’s attention you ordered two fingers of 12 year old Macallan because you were feeling down, but not drain-your-bank-account down. Neat, of course.

Then you heard someone to your left say, “Make that two of those.”

You turned to face Barba, and despite his similarly worn look, you said, “I can’t tonight.” And then, very boldly, “I’m too exhausted to keep up with your pretension.”

He laughed (a bit bitterly) and responded, “No need. I’m all out.”

Then your drinks arrived. You both grabbed a glass and clinked them in commiseration before taking a sip. You could feel him watching how you swallowed. Every man you had ever drank whiskey in front of had done that. They want to see if you choke.

You didn’t. It was a damn smooth drink despite the warm, burning sensation it left in your throat.

“Where’d you get your taste for whiskey?” Barba questioned, unable to hide that he was a little impressed.

“Not from my father, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“I wasn’t.”

You stopped mid sip, then smiled as you finished your drink. “At this point I’m kind of numb to the taste of strong alcohol. I just like the way whiskey feels when it settles.” You laid a hand over your stomach and looked back at Rafael to gauge his reaction. He had the faintest of grins on his lips and instead of a direct response he finished his drink as well. Then he ordered two more.

“I’ve been told I come off as a complete asshole most of the time,” he said as you waited for the next round. “I’m sorry if that was your first impression of me.”

You shrugged in a ‘that’s alright’ kind of a gesture. “I get the feeling that people come to you asking you to perform miracles pretty often,” you offered.

He let out that bitter laugh again and with a sigh said, “Yes they do. Every day.”

You picked up your refilled glass and took another sip. “So I guess I didn’t make a great first impression either: barging in and asking for a prosecution with no evidence.”

“At least you asked me what else you could do to help. And you said please.”

Okay so you weren’t feeling bad for him, per say, but you were starting to see why he was wound so tight all the time.

You raised your glass next to his and said, “Here’s to more evidence in the future. Preferably with fewer strings attached.”

“Salud.”

After one more round and some casual conversation your exhaustion caught up to you and you picked up the bill, much to Barba’s irritation. When he continued to berate you for paying on the way to the street you turned to him and said, “Seriously, Barba, don’t worry about it.” A cab pulled up and you were half way in the backseat when you added, “You’ll get the next one.”

The thought of another night out with you had him beaming the whole way home.

Insert that “I’ve connected the two dots, you didn’t connect shit, I’ve connected them” meme. That’s what I imagine any given day is like being the ADA for those fool detectives in SVU. Sorry for making you one of them.

This is my first time writing Rafael. I love him to bits, but he’s hard to capture. At least for me he is. Hopefully I did alright!

#rafael barba x reader #rafael barba x you #rafael barba imagine #rafael barba fanfiction #rafael barba fanfic #law and order: special victims unit #law and order: svu #law and order: svu imagine #law and order: special victims unit imagine #fanfiction #fanfic #rafael barba

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alexisluthor · 4 years

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Deep Dive of Prodigal Son Episode, “Death’s Door”

*Spoilers Ahead*

*Spoilers Ahead*

In the prior episode, Martin talked about how he sometimes "improvised." We see him actually doing it in his flashback. He took the runner because it was an easy opportunity. There's a real Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde thing going on with the doc. In one instance, he's the concerned doctor, the surgeon who saves lives. On the other, he's a manipulative psychopath. What really screwed him over with this 'kill,' was his desire to be all powerful. He likes playing God, stretching time, which tracks with his career as a surgeon. He gives life and takes it away, it's the ultimate narcissistic profession for him. He can teeter on the edge of life and death and come out the hero. In the ep., we know that 'flashback' was all how it had truly happened, up until the moment when he opens the box and its empty. (Just before that, as he's speaking to his victim, you can hear her inside breathing and moving)

He even manages to maintain control of his hallucination when he realizes that it is *his* nightmare, and therefore, can manipulate it. He takes control of his torment in a way that Malcolm has never been able to.

It's interesting that even as she stabbed him, and he lay dying on the floor, that he's psychoanalyzing himself... i.e. you're the embodiment of all my victims. In that case, I can't help but wonder if the number of times she stabbed him has any relevance. It must, right? Is that how many victims we/the police have yet to know about?

Another valuable tidbit in Martin's nightmare is when he admits to why he does what he does. He speaks of his mother very vaguely - "maybe she didn't love me enough. Or maybe she loved me too much." But when he talks about his father...and how he, "did bad things" to him...it leaves little doubt in my mind that he was abused as a child - physically, maybe sexually. Perhaps it is for this reason that he asserts his dominance over his victims by making them helpless and then killing them.

Also, something that's fascinating is Martin's idgaf attitude. He encourages her to finish him. However, the second she mentions Malcolm - he suddenly very much cares. Perhaps his inability to protect himself as a boy, or protect his family from an abusive father figure has bled over into his desperate desire to protect his own family. He admits that monsters are real - and if he's the biggest monster of them all, then he can protect those he loves. Right? That, and I believe that Malcolm is Martin's greatest achievement. He sees Malcolm as an extension of himself, as his legacy. It's fascinating that Martin says the same two words to Malcolm before and after the incident..."My boy." A claiming of that ownership. And as Martin awakes from his coma, you can see the relief evident on Malcolm's face.

In the ep, Jessica also tells her new attorney that Malcolm...saw his father "do things." Which raises the question, what did he see? She didn't say, "he saw bad things" i.e. the girl in the box. No, she uses a verb, which denotes that Malcolm has personally witnessed some atrocity. I personally find it very concerning that Jessica, at some point, knew that Martin was a killer and yet, it was Malcolm who turned him in - not her. Also, she was the one paying the attorney for Martin's trial, wasn't she? So if she didn't like the direction he was going in, she could have stopped it - right? Pulled the funds, forced him to get a subpar defense attorney. But instead, she makes it sound like a surprise! Trials are quite slow...there would be no surprise. He couldn't have plead out, or there would have been no trial. And how much of that trial did Malcolm see or testify on?

So what now? Martin essentially blackmails his family with his 'secret' knowledge but why? What could he possibly want? A little more freedom? More time with the fam? A transfer?

As a viewer, you know that the truth about WHO stabbed Martin will surface eventually - and when it does - it's going to be ugly. Malcolm is essentially living a lie by omission. He tells Dani that he's going to do better AS he's essentially lying to her face. It's also shocking that he's handling stabbing his father so well. His psyche is more fragile than an expired egg and yet...no nightmare scene? No hallucinations of his father's corpse following him around? Sure, he had a moment of pause at the convention, but he's handling the whole thing well. Too well. Plus, he ignores updates about his father when his mother's entire future is on the line? Maybe he enjoyed stabbing Martin a little too much...just as he enjoyed cutting off that dude's hand. Maybe he's more like his father than he'd care to admit, too scared to go and visit because he might feel something other than hatred. He basically 'dealt' by 'not dealing' in this episode. Yet, he seems more stable than ever. But you KNOW that he DOES care about what happens because when Ainsley texted him, he did rush to the hospital. Anyway...

Just like the perp in this ep, part of Malcolm wants to hang onto the past...to the good times when Dad was just Dad, a good father. Life was simple, memories were sweet. But even when you're freely remembering the old times, you remain trapped and unable to move forward. In the end, Martin valued waking up more than the thrill of another kill - something he hasn't 'tasted' in 20 years - because he would rather have a ruined reality as a prisoner than remain trapped in a fantasy in which he's free.

#prodigal son #prodigal son theories #ps #tom payne #michael sheen #Martin Whitley #malcolm bright #malcolm whitley #ainsley whitly #jessica whitley #FOX #prodigal son spoilers #spoilers #fanart #my art #prodigal son fanart

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