#oc: Emilia Hartley

[saiilorstars]

The A-Team

Fandom: SVU; Sonny Carisi x OFC

Emilia’s Masterlist

Summary: Sonny is nervous about his first solo trial and so his girlfriend tries her best to help him out.

taglist: @ocappreciationtag​ @arrthurpendragon​​​​​​ @anotherunreadblog​​​​​​ @maaaaarveeeeel​​​​​ ​​ @stareyedplanet​​​​​​ ​​​​​@averyhotchner​​ ​​​​ @foxesandmagic @kmc1989 @caplanbuckybarnes​​​​​​​

Warnings: Due to the nature of the series’ plots, I do have to rate this as ‘mature’ for constant mentions of rape

Emilia was nose deep in her laptop when Sonny walked in through the door. Her eyes flickered up from the screen and watched him drop his things on the couch. He didn't need to say a word — Emilia could tell whatever work he had going on had been terrible.

"Should I get that wine bottle now?" She asked him. "Or we could go the other route and relax?"

Sonny gave her half of a smile but shook his head. He wanted to calm down before he ended taking out his stress on her. Emilia didn't deserve any of the crap he dealt with at work.

Emilia was intuitive, however, and so she continued the conversation. "It's bad, isn't it? What's the case?"

"I don't" — Sonny shook his head —"want to ruin our good streak."

Emilia snorted and chuckled. "Good streak?"

"You know — we had a good Christmas and New Years. We had good holidays…"

"And now we're both back at work," Emilia said slowly, giving him a rather 'duh!' kind of look. "That's why it's a vacation. It's like an escape from reality and unfortunately we are all done with that, so…" She closed her laptop and motioned him to take a seat with her at the table, "Why don't you tell me what the case is?"

Sonny still hesitated. With a sigh, Emilia rose from her seat and walked over to him. She was gentle when she helped him out of his jacket.

"What are you working on?" Sonny asked her instead. He gave her a soft 'thanks' as she folded his jacket and left it on the couch for him.

"Me?" Emilia mused. "Oh, you know, vacation's done and so online school started again. I'm just finishing up my first lecture of the semester. But c'mon, don't change the subject." She took his hand and walked him to the table to sit down. "What's the case?" She left him to go to the fridge.

"It's this woman — she left a big billboard message on the streets for everyone to see." Sonny eyed the books left on the table and felt even worse knowing he was interrupting Emilia's studies.

"Billboard?" Emilia closed the fridge door with a leftover bowl in her hands. They had made pesto pasta yesterday. "Ooooh, I saw that! We all did! Alice showed it to me at work a few days ago. You're taking up the case?"

"I guess I am," Sonny said, sounding like he was only just realizing the implications. Luckily, Emilia was quick to understand too.

"That'll make it your first case in the courtroom — on your own…" She popped the leftover inside the microwave and turned to look at Sonny. "That's the nerves, isn't it?"

Sonny nodded at her. "Monica — the girl behind the billboard — she's not making the case easy at all."

"Monica Russo? Yeah, we saw the whole thing online as well," Emilia crossed her arms. It had been a whirlwind of a mess concerning the girl making public accusations about a celebrity and then getting arrested herself. "God, Sonny, why didn't you tell me that was your case? It's been days since all that stuff came out!"

The microwave beeped three times before turning off.

"I didn't want to burden you, alright?" Sonny leaned back in his chair, taking the moment to actually start de-stressing from the day. "The things I see…"

"That's the thing, Sonny, you see them…" Emilia walked over to the table and set the pasta in front of him, "I just hear about them from you. It's very different. Sorry about the leftovers tonight…I was a bit stressed myself."

"You're heaven sent," Sonny assured her, reaching for one of her hands. He laced his fingers with hers and kissed the back of her hand. "Never forget that." Emilia smiled at him and handed him a fork. "What were you stressed about?"

"Ah, no, you don't get to change the subject on me," Emilia chuckled and returned to her seat. She opened her laptop and picked up her pen on the side. "I'm listening. Keep going."

"It's the usual stuff, Em. You hit the mark earlier — it'll be my first case in trial on my own. I guess it's just getting to me a bit more than I expected."

"Well, that's natural," Emilia said, taking down some notes in her notebook. "It's like my first day of teaching. Well" — she scrunched her nose — "except for the fact that I was nervous about handling 25 five year olds on my own and you're talking about rapists so…I guess it's not the same at all."

Sonny smiled at her despite her futile comparison. "I bet you were still very nervous."

Emilia hummed. "That I was. You'll be fine, Sonny. Eat, unwind, and then we'll go to sleep."

The only reason Sonny didn't protest was because of hunger. The pasta smelled delicious and he was truly eager to just forget it all until it was absolutely necessary to start thinking about it again.

~0~

Emilia knew something was wrong when she didn't hear from Sonny at all. The morning of his first trial, she had sent a few texts wishing him good luck — even a voicemail where she wished him all the luck in the world and reassured him that he would be fine — but he never responded. He was gone before her that day and she was back before him. With a quick call to Olivia Benson, she learned what happened. Emilia drove down to the D.A.'s office to find her boyfriend cooped up in his office. The door wasn't properly closed so she gave a light tap with her fingers and stepped inside.

"Hey there," she approached him with slow steps. The room was barely lit — it was a wonder how Sonny was managing to write on his notepad. "I was waiting for you to come home tonight…"

"Sorry, I was a bit busy…" Sonny mumbled, his pen working furiously on the notepad. Emilia eyed two crumpled balls of paper on the desk and wondered what he was working so hard on.

"I spoke to Olivia — she said the trial didn't go so well…"

"More like I got slaughtered out there," Sonny spat. He stopped writing and finally looked up at Emilia. "I'm writing my resignation letter."

Emilia's first reaction was to laugh. "You are not…!" The way Sonny was looking at her, though, made her stop altogether. "Stop — Dominick Carisi, you are not writing your resignation letter."

"Em, I'm gonna lose this case. Ms. Hadid already knows! She has her spies in the courtroom! I'm done!"

"No you are not," Emilia plopped down in an empty chair and leaned her arms on his desk. "You had a bad first day. It happens!"

"Yeah, but…Em, what if I'm not cut out for this?" The devastation in Sonny's eyes just imagining that he made the wrong career choice was heartbreaking. Up until now, he had always been so animated about his new job. It was what he wanted to do from day 1.

"Okay, Dominick, listen to me," Emilia reached for his hands and gripped them tight in hers. "Remember my silly little comparison before about my first day at my job? Well, I'm gonna use it again but just bear with me. There's a point." She scooted closer to the desk. "My first day on the job, I had 25 kindergarteners in my care. I was responsible for them — I had to make sure that they survived the day!"

"And you did it beautifully," Sonny said, prompting Emilia to snort.

"I wish! My circle time was a disaster! I had four of them draw on the tables while I was doing an art lesson! I miscalculated how much time they would actually pay attention and so they got bored and started drawing on the tables, others started painting on themselves because that's another thing — I didn't plan on how to give them the supplies. And then that same first day, one of my kids had an accident on the playground. It was horrible. I had to call the parents and…agh, it was just awful. A really awful first day."

Emilia let go of one of Sonny's hands to then take his other hand in both of hers, urging him to listen to her words.

"But do you know what I did? I went home and I came back the next day with a new lesson plan. I came up with a new art project, a better system to watch the kids outside — I learned and I kept going. And now here I am, trying to go for a new credential."

"And I am very proud of you for doing that," Sonny said, smiling fondly at her. She adored her students every day, even when some of those days weren't all that great.

"The point is you can't quit. If you did, you'd end up regretting it," Emilia said sternly, yet softly.

"It's hard knowing that I failed, Emilia…"

"I know it is, baby, but you can't stop now. You can still get up and try again. Do it better."

Sonny squeezed her hand, loving her more in that moment. "What would I do without you?"

"You'll never have to find out. So then, what time is court tomorrow?" Emilia let go of his hands and leaned back in her chair. "No school tomorrow."

"You do not have to come," Sonny said. As much as Emilia loved her job, she also loved sleeping in. She took advantage of her days off to the fullest and that meant getting up past noon.

"I want to see the bitch lawyer who's making your life miserable and, I don't know, trip her or something."

"Emilia—"

"On accident of course."

Sonny playfully rolled his eyes at her. He still laughed, though, which just gave Emilia more fuel to keep her story going.

Emilia soon rose from her chair and moved around the desk until she was standing behind Sonny's chair. She planted her hands on his shoulders and gave him a light massage. "I'm taking that resignation letter, by the way."

Sonny chuckled. "Sure. You can take it and go home to rest. I'll probably be in here all night."

Emilia shook her head. "I'll stay here, give you all of my support."

Sonny closed his eyes as she pressed a kiss on his temple. "I'd like nothing more than that but I know you're as tired as I am. Besides…" He opened his eyes and reached back for Emilia, tugging her around his seat while he scooted his chair back at the same time. He brought her down on his lap and pushed some of her long hair behind her shoulder. "I know you'll be there tomorrow and that means the world to me. And on your day off…"

"On my day off," Emilia agreed, "So are you sure I can't trip the bitch or something?"

Sonny rolled his eyes at her. "No, you can't."

"Damn. Fine, I'll settle for seeing you kick hers and her rapist client's ass."

"That I can try to do."

Emilia gazed at him fondly. "You'll be great tomorrow, I know it." Her confidence was unwavering and Sonny took it to heart.

He leaned forward and kissed her. However bad his day had been, one kiss from hers was enough to change it around.

~ 0 ~

Like promised, Emilia had been there for the next trial. She sat in the rows and watched Sonny handle the victim and the rapist in one go. She had never really been in a courtroom and truthfully she did not like the tension in the room. She couldn't imagine doing this 24/7. Sonny was right to only ever tell her bits and pieces about his cases, even as a detective it had always been somewhat of an unspoken rule.

But today Emilia was amazed by her boyfriend. He who was absolutely distraught with how the previous day had gone was now a very different, more confident, man throwing questions at the culprit. She was proud.

After the jury was sent out, Emilia stepped out of the courthouse to make a few calls and to give Sonny whatever time he needed with his colleagues. When she returned, she was a little lost. The courtroom was empty of course save for a few lingering reporters. She ventured the hallway until she came across the squad.

"At the risk of looking like a bigger idiot for just wandering around, could somebody please tell me where I might find my boyfriend?" she chuckled nervously.

"Might want to try the restroom," Fin said, "Or wait outside…"

Emilia raised an eyebrow at him, the idea donning on her in a few seconds. "Oh, that man and his weak stomach…"

The others chuckled.

"Where's the men's restroom?" she ultimately asked.

They were kind enough to show her the way. She got lucky as Sonny was just coming out of the restroom when she arrived.

"Hey," she hurried to meet him, "There you are! Are you okay?"

"Not really, no…" Sonny didn't hesitate to say, "Jury's been out for days."

Emilia smiled sympathetically. "Babe, it's only been 3 hours…give or take." Sonny actually stopped and checked the time on his watch. Emilia felt even worse for him. "Were you throwing up in there?"

"No…yeah…" Sonny sighed, "Waiting for the verdict, it's-it's different when it's your case."

Emilia laughed softly and offered him some gum. Sonny couldn't take it any quicker

"Oh, hun…" She stepped closer to him and touched his face. "If it's consolation, I think you did great back there. You definitely got that guy to show his real self."

"Thanks for being here," Sonny said, lowering his forehead against hers. Her mere presence had been enough to boost his confidence.

"Anytime," Emilia said, kissing his cheeks. "You want to take a walk or something?" But not a moment later, Sonny got the news that the jury had finally come back.

Their walk led them back to the courtroom. Once gathered together, they learned that the jury had found the defendant guilty. Relief washed over the right side of the courtroom as the defendant was taken into custody. Sonny looked back at the squad and more precisely his beautiful grinning girlfriend.

~ 0 ~

Later in the evening, Emilia walked out of the bathroom after a much needed shower and immediately smelled the delicious scent of her boyfriend's cooking. She practically floated to the kitchen.

"Okay, I thought we agreed on some take-out?" She laughed seeing Sonny busy in the kitchen. "My shower wasn't that long, was it?"

Sonny shook his head at her and lowered the flame of the stove. "I wanted to treat you right tonight."

"Me?" Emilia's eyebrows raised together, another laugh slipping through her lips. "You're the one who did amazing today. The take-out was my treat."

"I wasn't all that great with my moods," Sonny said, leaving the stove for a moment and walking up to her. He could smell her freshly wet hair's lavender scent. "And I just want to say thanks for sticking it out with me."

"You say it like I wasn't supposed to," Emilia said, taking his hands in hers. "Like I was supposed to let you wallow on your own. Never gonna happen."

"Oh, I know," Sonny said with a long sigh. He wrapped his arms around her and brought her body flush against his.

"We're like a team...except that I don't know the first thing about lawyering and I'm sure you'd lose your head trying to entertain 25 five year-olds." Sonny looked down at her then, making her laugh. "Yeah, who am I kidding? You're great with kids. You could probably do my job with your eyes closed. Not that you should because that would make you a horrible teacher."

Sonny couldn't help his chuckle. He was the lawyer but Emilia always seemed to know exactly what to say to make things alright. "Dinner?" He pecked her lips.

"Yes, please!" Emilia made to go around him but he caught her head and turned her back for another kiss, this one longer.

When they broke apart, Sonny mumbled a soft 'thank you' and tugged a pleasantly dazed Emilia into the kitchen with him.

[madebyleftovermuses]

Emilia when Hartley attacks Rathaway Industries

Emilia was still in a coma fighting for consciousness with the vampiric Emilia.

send me 🔈+ an oc name and a scene from their fandom, and I’ll tell you what song would play if they were in a movie

[a-shakespearean-in-paris]

Going Virtual Wedding Dress Shopping for some of my OCs

I got nothing to say other than I’m bored and looking at wedding dresses is my favorite hobby.

Lydia (Trevelyan) Rutherford  (Canonverse):

yes, Lydia has a different dress depending on which version of her. She also has different hair--in canon it’s longer while modern has her more medium length. When I first stumbled on this dress it screamed LYDIA. The hair is also similar to how she would wear it. No veil, only flowers in her hair :)

Lydia (Trevelyan) Rutherford, Modern AU

My girl in modern AU would want something simple, elegant, and timeless. So a satin gown in trumpet style to show off her curves, a mesh of all the above. Unlike canon, she would wear a veil in modern AU, akin to something like this that drapes over her hair: 

Sophie (Hartley) Anderson:

What makes this dress everything is how it looks like moonlight when the fabric moves, so when Sophie is dancing with Connor she looks like a fairy princess...just what she would always want. In addition, no veil for her, but wears pearls in her hair like so:

Emilia “Emma” de Sardet 

She may elope with Kurt in my headcanon, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t look fabulous in this ensemble: 

Lady Morange helped her pick it out 

Charlotte Balfour

Ok, not my OC. But my girl deserves something pretty: 

She lives in the frontier, she doesn’t have many dresses. However, she brought out her best dress to marry Arthur and have his pioneer babies. Also...bonnet is goals?!?!?

[colesmurf22]

(OC) Harry The Toad

Bio: Harry Toad Name: Harry Gender: Male Sexuality: Straight Birthday: August 24th Species: Toad Hybrid Relationship/Girlfriend: None Family Members: Kadence (Mother) Henriette (Mother) Kadynce (Sister) Kathy (Sister) Henley (Brother) Hendrix (Brother) Kadyn (Brother) Evie (Brother) Lilly (Sister) Henria (Sister) Kayla (Sister) Kiana (Sister) Ava (Sister) Isla (Siter) Kadesha (Youngest Sister) Henson (Youngest Brother) Kanadee (Youngest Sister) Rosie (Cousin) Hailey (Cousin) Rosan (Cousin) Roselyn (Cousin) Rosella (Cousin) Henri (Cousin) Adrianna (Cousin) Hensley (Cousin) Hanny (Cousin) Chaya (Cousin) Chana (Cousin) Ridley (Cousin) Ronaldo (Cousin) Hartley (Cousin) Henderson (Youngest Cousin) Rosalee (Youngest Cousin) Kenzie (Aunt) Rosanna (Aunt) Emilia (Aunt) Maybelle (Aunt) Ivyann (Aunt) Henrienna (Aunt) Emilio (Uncle) Emila (Aunt) Norris (Uncle) Luther (Uncle) Trey (Uncle) Emiliano (Uncle) Hattie (Grandma) Harvey (Grandpa) Personality: Adventures, Nice, Kind, Sporty, Friendly, And Energetic Friends: Lucian Theodore Quirin (Best Friend) Emerson Kelvon Ryder (My bestie's oc) Aero (My bestie's oc) Tristan (My bestie's oc) Isabella (My bestie's oc) Evelyn (My bestie's oc and 2 best friend) Cyler (Our oc) Takao (Our oc and 3rd best friend) Jaylon (Our oc and 4th best friend) Mathias (Our oc and 5th best friend) Auden (Our oc and 6th best friend) Finn (7th best friend) Naylor Braxton (My bestie's oc and 8th best friend) Kirbi (My bestie's oc) Wave (My bestie's oc) Favorite Color: Yellow Favorite Season: Summer Favorite Holiday: 4th of July Fun Fact: Harry is an adventure toad, he doesn't like to be in the house. He likes to go on adventures. And with his first pokemon friend. He is very nice, when he is on an adventure. He love making friends on the way. He likes to play sports. When he isn't on an adventure, he goes to the gym and play sports. He like to play dodgeball. He is very friendly, when he is either playing sports or an adventure. He likes to share he things with a friend. He is more of am outdoors toad hybrid. And He is very energetic, when it comes to sports or adventures. He is always up for it. Harry belong to me and my number one bestie yoshilover1000 on FA Toad And Koopa species: Nintendo

[saiilorstars]

No Time

Fandom: SVU; Sonny Carisi x OFC

Emilia’s Masterlist

summary: **One Shot**. Sonny continuously makes plans with his best friend only to either miss or cancel them altogether. Emilia tries her hardest not to get upset as much as she does but when it keeps happening over and over, it's hard to keep her front.

taglist: @ocappreciationtag​ @arrthurpendragon​​​​​​ @anotherunreadblog​​​​​​ @maaaaarveeeeel​​​​​ ​​ @stareyedplanet​​​​​​ ​​​​​ @averyhotchner​​ ​​​​ @foxesandmagic​​​​​​​

Warnings: Due to the nature of the series’ plots, I do have to rate this as ‘mature’ for constant mentions of rape

Emilia rested comfortably in her chair, one leg crossed over the other, and her arms on the armrests. One of her boots did a little sway while she waited. She sighed to herself as she watched the clock pass another minute, and then another. If he didn't come in soon, she would have to get up and leave already…

Ten minutes later, she heard the office door open.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm late." Sonny made a beeline to his desk and let all of his things fall unceremoniously. "There was a-a phone call and then another and then Olivia and—"

"You're turning purple," Emilia cut in to remark, her eyes squinting as she watched the tinges of purple on Sonny's cheeks grow stronger.

Sonny deadpanned her for a moment. "Good morning."

Emilia half smiled at him. "Morning. Nice of you to show up…in your own office."

"I know," Sonny sighed, "I'm sorry. Things got away from me and before I knew it, I was—"

"Late," Emilia finished for him, watching him wince at her tone.

Sonny lowered his head. "I'm really sorry, Em. Definitely not winning best friend of the year." Ever since he'd taken on the role of ADA, he found he had less to no time for anything but work. Each time he planned on something with Emilia, he was either late or missed it altogether. She was patient with him but everyone had their limits and Sonny suspected that Emilia was reaching hers. She looked irritated at the moment.

"I have to go to work now," Emilia declared, gesturing to the clock behind Sonny.

He looked back at the time and felt another sigh. Their breakfast plans had gone to hell.

"Any chance you'd be up to grab dinner?" He asked.

"I don't know, any chance you'll make it this time?" Emilia countered. She was careful not to sound as upset as she actually was, but she was sure that Sonny knew the gist.

"I will try my best, I swear," he told her. "What time are you off today?"

"I'm leaving at 4," Emilia replied, "Gonna do some lesson planning then I'm good."

"Four…" Sonny nodded, making a mental note to move some things around so he could leave the office at least a half hour before that, "Got it, okay."

Emilia rolled her eyes. "Sonny, don't stress yourself. I get it," she raised her hands in front of her, "You're a big shot now. Your schedule is packed. No time for the little people anymore." Her little smile did nothing for Sonny's guilt and even then he knew she was trying to be funny.

"That's not true you little liar," he came around the desk and leaned back on it, "I've just had some trouble…with my time management."

Emilia scoffed then laughed. "Nice word choice there."

Sonny managed to smile more genuinely now that Emilia had graced him with a laugh. "It is my job."

"A job that is killing your social life," Emilia reminded him as if actually needed to be reminded. "I tell you, Sonny. If you don't watch out, you're going to end up alone. And I say that with as much care as your best friend can."

"And yet you don't sound very kind," Sonny remarked, prompting a wide grin from Emilia.

"What can I say? I am hungry," she tilted her head at him, "Missed breakfast and all."

Sonny could only apologize with another smile. "Can I interest you in a snack machine down the hall?"

Emilia chuckled and pushed herself up from her chair. "Hard pass. I think I'll get some coffee from the teacher lounge — Mondays is when we get our supply delivery. It'll be fresh."

"I will be there tonight," Sonny told her earnestly, "I'll pick you up, okay?"

"Okay," Emilia agreed, wholeheartedly wishing their plans would work out this time. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go teach a set of twenty-five 5 year olds that 'c' and 'k' are in fact not the same sounds." Sonny chuckled with her. "Honestly, I think I'd have an easier time teaching them Portuguese. É ridículo mas o que posso fazer?"

Sonny smiled fondly at Emilia. He absolutely loved when she spoke Portuguese. It just came so smoothly from her lips — he adored it. He adored h—

Emilia grabbed her purse off the floor and slipped it around her shoulder. "Well then, have fun…prosecuting…or however that works. And please make it for dinner. You're making me starve."

"I will make it," Sonny reiterated, "What are you in the mood for?"

"I picked breakfast so it's your turn," Emilia said.

"Yeah, but we didn't actually go so it's still technically your turn to pick a place."

"Huh, you're absolutely right," Emilia grinned, "It's totally still my turn."

Sonny rolled his eyes at her, pretending not to like her entire demeanor right now. He felt awful for missing their breakfast but he would've felt ten times worse if Emilia had stayed mad at him. She was his best friend, the only person he had outside of SVU and had stuck with him throughout his life.

"In one of those, I might just make you cook for me instead," Emilia smirked at her 'punishment'. Truth was that Sonny was an excellent cook and looked absolutely fantastic doing it too. Emilia wasn't against the idea at all now that she thought more about it. She was an utter idiot for doing that to herself. It was beyond cliche to have a secret little crush on someone who was supposed to be your best friend, and yet here she was…

"Come up with a menu, why don't you?" Sonny would completely expect Emilia to do it. Her form of payback, or so she thought. He actually liked cooking for her, whether it was his place or hers, but the idea of being in each other's home for the night, eating homemade dinner and doing mundane things like watching t.v. was the perfect evening for him.

"I just might," Emilia warmed him, her grin widening even more so. "I'll see you later, okay?"

Sonny nodded at her. "Yeah. And don't forget that 'b' and 'd' are also different."

Emilia stopped by the doorway, none amused with his joke. "And do you know the meaning of this one?" She then gracefully showed her middle finger to him.

"That's not a sound," Sonny remarked with a playful smile on his face.

"But it's made up of sounds," Emilia flashed a smirk at him then left.

Sonny laughed to himself for a few minutes after Emilia left. He really couldn't get enough of her sometimes.

~0~

By the end of the day, Emilia was more than ready to leave work. She was exhausted from work and could only look forward to her dinner plans with Sonny. She could only hope that he took her seriously when she coined the idea of a homemade dinner instead because she could not fathom going to a restaurant and not being able to prop her feet up on something.

Her best friend Alice, and co-worker, was kind enough to let Emilia leave before her — it was 3:45. Fifteen minutes was fifteen minutes and Emilia had already texted Sonny letting him know she could leave earlier. Ten minutes passed by and he didn't respond.

"Don't do this to me, Sonny," Emilia mumbled to herself as she stared at her phone.

By 4:30, Alice's shift was over and seeing Emilia was still here, she presumed what was happening. "Late again?"

"Don't," Emilia warned her. "He told me he was coming."

"He also said that dozens of times before," Alice remarked, "What's different this time?"

Emilia had no response to that. She looked at her phone again. "Alice…could you take me home today?"

Alice nodded. "Of course. C'mon."

Emilia grabbed her things and followed Alice out of the classroom. Alice drove her home without making a single remark unprompted. Emilia looked terrible to handle anything else.

Emilia thanked Alice quietly for the drive and went up to her apartment. She checked her phone again once she was inside and saw there were still no texts from Sonny. He was probably still on the job or something…as usual.

By 6:00 pm, Emilia had completely lost faith in their dinner plans. Sonny was not coming tonight. She would be lucky if she received some stupid 'I'm sorry' text or voicemail.

At 8:00 pm, Emilia resigned herself to some lazy dinner — a boring ole cereal — and then a shower. She needed that shower more than ever to relax and…try not to be as upset as she was.

~0~

By 10 pm, Emilia was on the couch eating from an ice cream box she found in the back of her freezer. It was butter pecan, not quite her favorite, but it was the box that Sonny had bought a while back and left in her place. She always argued that cookies n' cream was better but who was she to argue with an A.D.A.? It was a lost battle from the start.

She had just turned the television on when someone knocked on the door.

She put her ice cream on the coffee table, sticking her spoon into it, then got up to answer the door. "Well, look what the cat dragged in," she greeted Sonny flatly. "You're only 6 hours late."

Sonny let out a long, tired sigh. "Em, I am so sorry. Work — it ran —"

"Save it," Emilia rolled her eyes and turned away from her friend, walking a few steps from him. "It's always the same with you."

Sonny stepped inside the apartment and closed the door. "I came as soon as they let me go."

Emilia could tell that was true because he was still carrying his briefcase. Plus, he looked like he'll. "I'm going to ask that you stop making plans with me," she requested softly. "You don't keep them."

It was a fair request to make considering his history and yet the idea of not making any plans with Emilia hurt Sonny like hell. "Emilia, I was going to come but then the squad came and—" Emilia looked at him with all the disinterest in the world. "You don't care."

"When you've been stood up countless times, you sort of stop caring," Emilia remarked. "I sound like a bitch but—"

"No, you're—"

"—I'm just so tired of being stood up. At least this time it was at home so I didn't have to do any of the fake smiles at the waiters who stopped by my table asking if I'm still waiting for someone." Emilia returned to the couch and plopped down. She grabbed the ice cream box on the table and glumly started eating again.

Sonny moved around the table to take a seat next to Emilia on the couch, leaving his briefcase on the side. "You are completely right, Em. I keep disappointing you."

Emilia hated that even though she did make a point, it didn't feel good to hear Sonny talk like that. "Why didn't you send me a message at least?" She asked quietly, refusing to look at him lest she wanted to give into his sad eyes.

"Court," Sonny answered with a sigh, "Liv wanted a phone opened, the company didn't, so I had to go in front of a judge and-and…it took way longer, I'm sorry." He brought a hand over his forehead, closing his eyes for just a moment. "I wasn't supposed to be there so late but it dragged on and…it really dragged on…"

Emilia hummed quietly. "Should've told the company and judge to suck it. You had plans." She heard the little chuckle beside her and smiled to herself.

"'Suck it'," Sonny repeated, smiling amusingly, "Yeah, should've tried that…" He leaned his head back against the couch, keeping his hand over his forehead, "My day was a lot longer than I planned."

"I'll say. You didn't call yesterday either," Emilia remarked sadly, "Half of the night you spent at the office too."

"Mhm…"

"Jesus, don't you people get a break?"

"Sometimes…"

Emilia stuck a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. The brain freeze didn't affect her at all. She was disappointed, yes, but at the same time she knew it wasn't fair to be angry at Sonny. Clearly, he was trying his best and he was—

Emilia stopped altogether at the sound of a light snore beside her. She glanced at Sonny and though his hand was still over his forehead and partially over his eyes, she knew that he had fallen asleep.

"Of course." A little smile wormed its way across Emilia's lips. She reached forwards and put her ice cream box back on the table. She shifted on the couch to face Sonny. She gently took his hand off his forehead and lowered it to his lap, though she kept her own hand with his. A sigh slipped from her lips when she rested her head against his shoulder. "So much for dinner," she said, lamentable. She was sure that with the day Sonny had, he had not eaten anything.

He was so exhausted that it won out his hunger. Poor Sonny.

Emilia shifted her head to look up at him. He was really fast asleep and in the most uncomfortable place too. "I'm not mad at you," she whispered to him, sighing again, "I'm just…afraid." Her confession came with ease knowing there was no way that Sonny would hear her right now. "I'm afraid that you won't have any more time for me, even less than the time you have now. I'm your best friend but it hurts way more than it should when you cancel our plans. That's not really your fault, it's mine for doing the stupid thing of falling in love with you. Go figure." She curled her arm around Sonny's and snuggled up to him. "I just don't want you to forget about me..."

[saiilorstars]

OC Valentines Challenge

‘Every good couple starts with a solid foundation than adds building blocks to make a strong home out of each other. In OC ships, you could even say these building blocks are ship tropes. Tell everyone what tropes you think your ship is made of!’

1. Aitana Serrano x Spencer Reid - Friends to lovers - Two characters go from a platonic relationship to a romantic one. 2. Emilia Hartley x Sonny Carisi - Fake relationship - Two characters start out faking a relationship for one reason or another and along the way, they fall in love for real. 3. Minerva Souza x 10th Doctor - Star-crossed Lovers - Two lovers doomed to be kept apart no matter how hard they struggle to be together. 4. Renata Cartwright x 11th Doctor - Forbidden Love - Two characters in a romantic relationship that is highly discouraged or strongly opposed by a third party, such as the public; either due to cultural, societal, political, or religious reasons. 5. Citlalli del Rio x T’Challa - Lovers in Denial - Two characters are just perfect for each other, but neither realizes it (or only one realizes it). However, everyone around them — such as their friends, family, and enemies — can see their obvious feelings for each other.  6. Maleny Rowan x Klaus Mikaelson - Eternal Love - Two characters maintain a romantic relationship over the course of eternity. 7. Belén Palayta x Barry Allen - Partners in Fighting Crime -  Two characters who are each other's companions in whatever they seek to do, whether good or bad.  8. Montserrat Novak x Rafael Barba - Sunny and grumpy - Two people with opposite personalities meet, one a positive and upbeat person and the other a grumpy and pessimistic person, and learn to love each other 9. Seren Soul x Steve Rogers - Destined to be Together - Two characters who despite their individual (sometimes mutual) struggles always find themselves gravitating towards each other in the end. 10. Chloe Winters x Bucky Barnes - Impossible Love -  Two characters who love each other romantically, but they cannot be together because of their external circumstances.

taglist: @ocappreciationtag​  @arrthurpendragon​ @anotherunreadblog​ @maaaaarveeeeel​ @stareyedplanet​ @averyhotchner​ @abzidabzy​ @foxesandmagic​ @xovalliegirlxo​ @gloryekaterina​​ @lenonizi​​ @ochub​​

[saiilorstars]

Hearts’ Limits

Ch.9: The Perfect Couple?

Fandom: SVU; Sonny Carisi x OFC

Current Masterlist // Emilia’s Masterlist

taglist: @ocappreciationtag​​ @arrthurpendragon​ @anotherunreadblog​ @maaaaarveeeeel​ @stareyedplanet​ @averyhotchner​ @foxesandmagic​

Warnings: Due to the nature of the series’ plots, I do have to rate this as ‘mature’ for constant mentions of rape.

Saturday morning, Emilia woke up dreading her entire existence. She didn't sleep that well given what was supposed to be happening today. Despite coming up with what she believed was an airtight excuse for Sonny's absence, it was still nerve-wrecking having to go through with it. A whole lunch hour dedicated to lying through her teeth about a boyfriend she didn't have.

She even had to look the part.

She did her makeup, straightened her hair, and put on a simple nice white dress. She felt so ridiculous. This was a glorified dress up game.

Be there in fifteen.

Raelyn.

Emilia checked the time again after rereading the text. Raelyn texted her about ten minutes ago so she had to be close enough by now. Emilia grabbed her purse from her bed and walked out the room. Just as she came into the living room, there was a knock on the door.

Must have zoomed down the streets just for this thing. Emilia could picture her older sister driving at light speed just to get to her earlier and prod her with more stupid questions.

"I'm coming Raelyn!" Emilia groaned before opening the door. To her outstanding shock, Raelyn wasn't on the other side.

God keeps punishing me. It was the only plausible reason why Sonny would be standing in front of her right now.

"Hey," he greeted her with that charming smile Emilia tried her darn best not to feel gushy about.

"H-hi," she managed to spit out a moment later. "Um, you're...you're off duty today…"

"I am," Sonny agreed, "But I told Rollins she could take off today. She has a little girl, you know. Thought they would enjoy some quality time together instead."

"So you're...you are...going to...you're following me today?" Emilia felt like the air was leaving her lungs much too quickly. Things were already tricky enough when she thought she would have Detective Rollins tailing her today but at the very least Emilia knew Amanda wouldn't make anything out of a family lunch. It was a whole other story knowing Sonny would be the one tailing her instead.

"Following, keeping an eye on you, taking you to your parents lunch, all the same isn't it?" Sonny smiled much too widely and mischievously for Emilia to ignore the sense of dread washing over her.

He knows.

"I am so sorry," the words tumbled out of her mouth. It was the first thing she could think of and the only things she knew she could say while she sorted out her embarrassment. "I swear I thought that Raelyn would keep her mouth shut."

Sonny at least chuckled in a good natured manner. "I'm honestly not surprised. My sisters have big mouths too." He counted a point for himself when Emilia smiled at his comment.

"I don't think they'd like to know you're saying that about them…"

"Probably," agreed Sonny. He took in a breath and gestured he was ready. "What do you need me to do?"

Emilia blinked with terribly wide eyes. "What?"

"I want to make this as easy as possible for you," Sonny said, "So what do you need me to do?"

"Huh?" Emilia shook her head. "No! Hold on! You're not — you don't have to do anything for me! In fact, how did you even find out!?"

There, Sonny seemed more reluctant to talk about. "Um...Alice...sort of told me…"

In her own spectacular way, Alice had told him about Emilia's situation and how stressed it had Emilia. Sonny didn't need anything else to know how true that was. Emilia had finally snapped under all the pressure of her case and Raelyn's inability to keep quiet. It was no wonder Emilia yelled at all of them yesterday. Sonny couldn't let it continue if he had the power to help. According to Alice, he did have a way to help.

'Pretend to be her boyfriend or whatever she needs.'

Alice offered good advice albeit in a series of invasive questions Sonny preferred not to think about too much at the moment. His face was prone to be easily red if he flushed and if he thought about whether or not he wanted to take Emilia on a date, he would be sure to flush.

"Okay, so I'll be adding Alice to my hitlist, right after Raelyn," Emilia said with what she knew was the most awkward smile she had ever produced. She turned away from the door and walked a few steps away.

This cannot not be happening. Emilia's eyes shut tight as she worked to control the angry tears in her eyes. Her hands balled into fists that she brought over her head.

"Emilia," Sonny stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He could tell Emilia was reaching her point again.

"I'm sorry!" She insisted.

"Hey, it's not a big deal—"

"Yes it is!" Emilia spun around. "Everything about this is a big deal! It's horrible! And I'm really sorry I sucked you into it!"

"You didn't," Sonny tried to say but Emilia scoffed. "You didn't. Did you call me over?"

"No, but Alice told you everything."

"She didn't force me. Rollins was supposed to be here but I called her and switched days with her. Nobody forced me to do anything. I'm here for whatever you need." Sonny gestured to himself as persuasive as possible.

Emilia almost laughed. He looked kind of goofy. "No you're not…" She said softly, "You don't have to."

"What do you need, Em? Just tell me," Sonny insisted. "I can drop you off and you can tell them I got a case I needed to go to. That way they'll at least see my face and you're off the hook."

"You'd do that?" Emilia asked, her nose scrunching. That sounded so inconvenient for him.

"Yeah," nodded Sonny, "And then I'll just stay far behind to keep an eye on you."

Emilia let out a heavy sigh. "I mean...I guess that would work. That's what I was planning on anyway."

"Really? I thought you would've said we broke up or something…"

"That was the original plan but then I realized my parents would ask me a ton of questions and I don't want to do that."

"Alright, so let's do it my way then. Quick drop off."

Emilia nodded. "That would be great. Thank you so much."

Sonny smiled down at her. "Of course. Now please just breathe. You look fantastic, by the way."

Emilia blushed on the spot. Her hands instinctively went to pat her dress down. "Thanks…" She took a peek at Sonny too and decided that he too looked good today.

He looks good everyday. Emilia blushed harder. A plain white button-down shirt and black pants should not have this effect on her. It really shouldn't. And yet here she was.

"You ready to go?" Sonny asked, deciding that even though he could truly stare at Emilia for hours, (and he technically did for his job), her parents were probably waiting for her.

"Y-yeah," Emilia nodded. "Let me just get my purse…" She looked around for her purse until she realized it was still hanging from her wrist. "Oh! Um…" She truly wished the ground would swallow her right now.

Sonny saw nothing embarrassing, however. He merely chuckled and told her she could make a fantastic detective. That earned him a good laugh. He really loved hearing that. It was a startling realization but one he could easily forget about when Emilia produced the very thing he loved to hear.

The two headed back for the door only to bump into Raelyn herself on the other side.

Oh c'mon! Emilia was ready to burst into tears with this horrible luck she seemed plagued with.

Raelyn was incredibly ecstatic with her luck. "Hey!" She greeted them with a wide grin. "Don't tell me Emilia forgot I was picking her up?"

Fortunately, Sonny was quick on his feet and played it off with a simple answer. "I wanted to surprise her."

"Oh, did you just get out of work?" Raelyn made the wrong presumption and thus ruined the little plan Emilia and Sonny had worked on minutes before. "That's great! What luck, huh?" Raelyn's eyes fell over her sister and noted Emilia's clear disappointment. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing," Emilia managed to answer without completely exhibiting her shaking voice. "Just...surprised." Badly surprised.

"Well then I guess we should all go," Raelyn said, "Obviously I will go on my own. Next time give me a heads up!" She joked with Sonny, the latter only able to smile for the moment. "See you in a couple minutes."

While Emilia didn't outright say anything, Sonny felt her hand squeezing his arm unbearably tight. Somehow she made it until Raelyn was safely away in the elevator.

"We're screwed!" She cried.

"Emilia—"

Emilia's hands flew to her head. "This is getting worse! And I haven't even seen my parents yet!"

"Okay, okay, okay! Let's try and calm down!" Sonny reached for Emilia's hands.

"How!?" Emilia exclaimed. "It just keeps getting worse!"

"Okay, but it's nothing we can't solve!"

"How are you so optimistic right now!? I'm dragging you through the mud!"

"No you're not!" Sonny said, finally able to take Emilia's hands. "But you really need to calm down. It's nothing we can't handle!"

"How?" Emilia insisted. "How are you so calm — I'm literally making things worse!"

"You're not!" Sonny assured her. He squeezed Emilia's hands to keep her still. "Things are bad but, like I keep saying, it's nothing we can't solve. Not the end of the world if we have to...pretend for a bit."

Emilia blinked slowly. She was trying to calm down, she really was. She couldn't go see her parents the way she was right now. She had to think clearly and as such, she had to listen to Sonny's words. "You...you're willing to pretend?"

"It's not the most convenient thing but it'll be okay." Sonny had no idea how he was going to pretend but if it meant helping Emilia out then he would figure a way to do it.

"But won't you get in trouble?"

Sonny preferred not to think about what Olivia would say if she found out he went on a pretend lunch date with Emilia. It would be bad...to say the least. But looking at Emilia made all that worry and dread vanish. It didn't matter. She needed him — his help. She needed his help.

"We'll just keep it to ourselves," he said, "Nobody's going to know. I'm supposed to be watching you anyways. It'll be okay, trust me."

Emilia let out a breath. "If you say so. But I'm warning you that my family can be…" She didn't even have the words to describe how her family could be.

Luckily, Sonny still understood. He raised three fingers in the air. "Three sisters, Em. Believe me, I've seen it all."

Emilia managed to smile. On another day, she might start asking more questions about those sisters of his. You're assuming Sonny will want to see you after this dreadful lunch. She winced at herself. Yeah, that was a bad assumption. She might not know everything about being a detective but she was sure that Sonny could get into serious trouble doing this.

"Ready?" Sonny gestured towards the elevator.

"No, but I'll follow you anyways," Emilia admitted.

"It'll be okay, you'll see." Sonny would insist with his assurances all the way down to the car.

He was pretty good at that, Emilia would admit to herself. There was something about him that just radiated comfort. She could retreat in that and hopefully get by with it at lunch.

"We'll have to agree on some things before we get there," Emilia said halfway on the ride to the restaurant. It was already embarrassing enough, might as well get it all out there.

"Right," nodded Sonny, "What do you have in mind?"

"Well, knowing my parents, my mother in particular, she's going to want to know how we, um, happened…" Emilia could already see her mother getting animated with each of her questions. She didn't want them to be blindsided.

"Okay, well, we told your sister we met at your job so we'll stick with that," Sonny said.

"Yeah, yeah, you're right," Emilia nodded quickly. She'd forgotten that bit already. "Um, well my sister knows you're a detective so we'll say you were there for a case and leave out the fact it was my case…"

Sonny agreed. He drove silently for a few seconds before speaking again. "You still don't want to tell them about the case, then?"

"No," Emilia said immediately. It was about the only thing she was sure of. "They don't need to worry about that. Besides, it's not like the case is going anywhere."

Although Sonny knew she hadn't meant to insult, it was hard not to feel responsible. The case was getting progressively cold. Soon, they would have to stop tailing Emilia altogether and put her case to the side while new active cases came up.

Emilia glanced at the silent driver beside her. It may have taken her a while to figure out the weight of her words but she figured it out. "I'm sorry. I didn't think — I didn't mean to say—"

"Don't worry about it," Sonny told her, "You're right. The case is, well, not going the way we hoped but it doesn't mean that we'll stop searching. I won't stop." The case would sit on his desk until it was solved.

Emilia smiled at him. She wondered how the hell she got so lucky to meet him. For a split second, she allowed herself to lament the fact they would never amount to anything together. As soon as the second passed, she looked away.

Sensing that she was getting sucked back into the darkness, Sonny purposely asked more questions regarding their supposed background.

"We should probably give each other the rundown of our background before we go in. That way they'll think we actually know each other."

Emilia let out a small, sarcastic laugh. "Didn't you guys already comb through my life from the start?"

This time Sonny knew it was a well hearted joke so he allowed himself to chuckle. "Okay, but humor me."

Emilia shook her head with a big smile on her face. "I don't know what you want me to tell you that's new."

"Your favorite food, for starters?"

"Umm, Chinese?"

"Don't say it in a question! What's your favorite food?"

"Honestly?"

"Yes!"

"It's soup, alright? I really love chicken noodle soup." Emilia felt like a child admitting to it. She even crossed her arms like one.

"Seriously?" Sonny did her the favor of not laughing but it was clear on his face that he really wanted to. "Why?"

"Because I used to get sick a lot as a kid and my mom made the best soup to make me feel better. It's actually a family recipe. I still don't know it though."

"That's sweet," said Sonny, "So you got sick a lot?"

Emilia nodded. "I have a low immunity system. I'm always taking vitamins for reinforcements."

"Ah, see? There's something I didn't know about you!"

"Well yeah, it's not glamorous or anything."

"But it's about you and I want to know it."

Emilia hated that she couldn't control her body. So what if Sonny had said 'wanted' instead of 'needed'. It didn't mean a thing. He needed to know stupid details like this to fool her parents.

"What else is there?" asked Sonny. "Anything, Em. Seriously."

Emilia sighed, raising her head up. "I don't know. My favorite color is turquoise because my favorite animal is a Peacock."

"That's definitely unusual," Sonny commented, "Everyone always says a dog or a cat."

"I'm allergic to dogs," Emilia said quickly. "That's probably something you'll need to know."

"Got it. No imaginary dogs in this scenario," Sonny nodded. Emilia playfully rolled her eyes at him.

"I hate mushrooms, especially on pizza."

"What? What do you mean!?" Sonny shot Emilia an indignant glance. "They're good!"

Emilia laughed. "No! They look disgusting!"

"Haven't you ever heard not to judge a book by its cover?"

"Yeah, but these aren't books. I hate them!"

"That's terrible. That can be a source of disagreement, you know. We need that too."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, otherwise it's not believable."

"I thought perfect couples didn't fight?"

"Oh, so you want us to be the perfect couple?" Sonny gave Emilia a certain teasing look that brought on an embarrassed flush on her face. Sonny found it incredibly adorable and even more so due to the subject.

Emilia looked at the passenger's window whilst trying to come up with a decent response that wouldn't put her deeper in the hole she created. "I mean…isn't that the whole point of anybody pretending to go out? Be as convincing as possible…"

"Yeah," nodded Sonny, "But even perfect couples argue once in a while. It's impossible not to."

"You sound like you say that from experience." Emilia found courage to look at Sonny again, but the source of it made her feel a little funny. "I'm sorry, I never asked, are you currently seeing someone? I wouldn't want you to get into trouble—"

"Don't worry about it," Sonny assured her, "I told you I was single when Raelyn saw us together, remember?"

"Oh, yeah…" Emilia scratched the side of her head, "You're so right but…that doesn't mean you're not casually seeing somebody or even possibly trying to go after someone and I would never want to cause problems for you." She was saying too much and she needed to shut up before the images of what she said started popping in her head. They wouldn't be nice things to see nor think about.

It also didn't help that Sonny had fallen strangely silent.

Emilia's heart started hammering. She didn't know what was worse: having gone too far with what she said or being right about what she said. Neither choice made her feel good. You have got to get a hold of yourself, she berated herself.

While she fell deeper into the abyss of her thoughts, she missed the glances Sonny stole of her. She missed the way his lips curved into a small, sad, smile and she missed the way he forced himself to stare directly ahead and pretend like all he did was drive.

"We're good," he spoke a few minutes later, albeit quietly. He may have stopped pretending that he didn't like Emilia but there was nothing he could do from there. It was out of his reach — she was out of his reach and that was that. As terrible as it was.

Emilia finally looked at him again. She startled him when her hand touched his arm. He gave her a brief glance before the streetlight flashed green.

"Thank you for doing this," Emilia said, finding it easier if he kept driving and looking ahead rather than looking at her. His eyes could be charming and yet dangerously captivating too. "I promise it'll be the first and last time you have to do this."

"It's no problem, Em," Sonny insisted. "We'll put on the best show we can." Like Emilia, he drew strength in the fact he could not look at her. It was easier for one of his hands to gently pat one of hers for a moment.

~ 0 ~

Emilia was eternally grateful that Raelyn had not caught up with them outside the restaurant. It gave her a few more minutes to go over things with Sonny.

"My parents can be very overwhelming. If you feel like it's too much at any point, give me a sign or something. A-a safe word!"

Sonny had to stop Emilia before she tripped on a crack on the ground. She smiled out of embarrassment but insisted he come up with a word to use in case he wanted out. In the end, Sonny went with "Alice" since she was the reason he found out about this lunch in the first place.

"But I'm not leaving until it's over," he warned her on their way in the restaurant. "Making a promise and I keep them."

"Still," Emilia insisted. "I see them." Her parents were having drinks with Raelyn.

"Oh, hey," Sonny stopped them suddenly. Before Emilia could ask him if he already regretted this, Sonny asked her something else. "What are their names?"

"What?" She blinked.

"Your parents! What are their names!?" It was only now that Sonny realized Emilia never mentioned her parents' names. That was something he would obviously have learned almost immediately after knowing her.

"Oh my God!" Emilia exclaimed. "I'm so sorry. I must have...I'm so sorry!"

"It's alright, happy we caught it before…"

"Still, I'm so sorry. It's Eliza and Dario Hartley. Seriously, I'm so sorry—"

"It's fine, Emilia," Sonny flashed Emilia a smile, much too warm for Emilia not to feel the butterflies in her stomach. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah," she nodded despite feeling the exact opposite. She actually felt like throwing up.

Still, she turned with him and walked towards the table.

"Well it's about time!" Raelyn called as soon as she saw them. She raised her cocktail in the air. "I thought maybe you guys got lost or something making lovey-dovey eyes!"

There went the first shot.

Emilia smiled tightly. "Traffic is hell, Raelyn."

"We know that, sweetheart," their mother said sweetly. "Raelyn just loves making fun of you even though it's childish."

Raelyn smirked at her mother. "It's fun."

"Settle down girls," their father demanded, shooting Sonny an apologetic glance as he rose from his chair. "I promise you that our daughters are well behaved. Dario Hartley."

Sonny shook his hand, keenly aware how intently Emilia was watching them. He was sure she was beyond nervous than him, and with good reason. "Dominick Carisi. But everyone usually calls me Sonny."

"Alright," Dario said, then gestured to his wife, "This is my wife, Eliza."

Eliza stood up to shake hands next and smiled ever so sweetly. Sonny discovered this was where Emilia's smile came from. Eliza was a petite woman, giving the obvious image that her daughters had gotten their tallness from their father instead. However, Eliza had similar brunette hair like her daughters and the same brown eyes.

Dario, in turn, was a taller man with green eyes. He was thinning in the hair department but he still seemed sharper than ever. Even as they sat down with casualties, Sonny could feel the older man watching and studying his every move.

"Do you guys want to order already?" Eliza asked almost immediately after. "We got here a little too early and went for cocktails."

"That's fine," Emilia said too quietly.

"Are you alright, dear?" Eliza eyed her worriedly. "You seem a little pale."

"I've been, uh, fighting a cold." Emilia actually gave herself a point for coming up with that lie so easily and on demand.

"Are you sure it's not that job again?" Raelyn's inquiry had both their parents turning heads and questioning immediately.

"What happened at your job?"

"It was those parents again, huh?"

"Nothing is wrong," Emilia tried to say but her parents were going off on tangents already.

"I told you that you should've stayed at the other school," Dario was saying, "It paid less but at least you didn't have to deal with these parents so much."

"That's what happens when you try to be too greedy," Eliza remarked with a shake of her head.

"I was not!" Emilia exclaimed, flustered at the insinuation.

"You had a different job?" Sonny cut in if only to give Emilia a moment to breathe and perhaps to get the full story.

"Yes, before I switched to the one I'm at now," Emilia sighed. "I loved the kids but I didn't feel like I was being paid enough and then I found this job and I thought it was better. I didn't switch for greediness, I swear. I just—"

Sonny's hand found hers on the table, an act that he didn't think about. He just went for it out of instinct. "I get it. You're an amazing teacher and you deserve to be paid what you are owed."

Emilia smiled widely at him. All the nerves she felt had vanished in an instant.

"I think he's right," Raelyn said abruptly, "Emilia works her ass off for those kids. The least they can do is pay her well."

"Well of course we mean that," Eliza said, "We would never want Emilia to stay somewhere that doesn't appreciate her but it seems like this new job is causing her a lot of stress."

"Well then it's a good thing she's not alone anymore," Raelyn said before anyone else could.

Emilia sincerely wished her sister would stop talking.

"It is," Dario agreed, "Your mother, here, could sense there was something off. She tried calling you so many times but you never answered."

Sonny felt the moment Emilia stiffened. Their hands had yet to come apart.

"I just...had things to do…" Emilia said slowly. It wasn't a lie. She was doing things she never thought she would have to. Interrogations, memory exercises to identify my stalker…

"I know how glamorous having a new boyfriend can be but it wouldn't kill you to pick up the phone once in a while," Eliza said with a sarcastic huff.

"I'm sorry, Mom," Emilia said quietly. "I promise I'll pick up next time."

Seemingly satisfied, Eliza's eyes flickered between the alleged couple. "So how exactly did you two meet?"

"Work," Emilia and Sonny said simultaneously that they even surprised themselves with their synchronization.

"Do you both work in education?" asked Eliza curiously and before either could explain, Dario cut in.

"No, no, sweetie, he—" He pointed at Sonny, "—works in that Unit I told you about, remember?"

Once more, Emilia and Sonny were in perfect sync with their tilted heads.

"You know about the Special Victims Unit?" Sonny was the one to ask.

"I don't, but your group solved a case for one of my friends a few years back," said Dario.

"Dad, you never told me that," Emilia said quietly, now wondering which of his friends had been a victim.

"Well it's not something you go talking about, sweetie," Dario said before smiling at Sonny. "Well done, by the way."

Sonny could only half smile in return. "Ah, thank you but I don't think I could have helped. I only started working with SVU two years ago. I was with Homicides in Staten Island before that."

"Oh, that's a big change," Eliza said, "Do you like it better here then?"

Sonny nodded. "Oh yeah. I feel like I'm doing a lot more over here."

"Yeah, even scored yourself a girlfriend, huh?" Raelyn's smirk was wide as could be.

"I really hate you!" Emilia exclaimed exasperated, pulling her hand out from under Sonny's to threaten her sister with.

"It was a comment," Raelyn said with a roll of her eyes, "My little sister has a very poor sense of humor, as you can see. I hope you can look past that."

Sonny chuckled. This sort of thing reminded him of his sisters down to the T. "I think Emilia is funny when she wants to be. Her sense of humor is shaped by kindergarteners."

Emilia's head whipped in his direction, eyes narrowing suspiciously. "Is that good or bad?"

"I think...it's nice," Sonny said, barely holding onto his next laugh. "Not everyone can handle what children have to say and I think you do a great job at it."

The suspicions were wiped clean by the butterflies in her stomach. Emilia found herself flushing without permission. "Thanks," she said a lot quieter than she planned on.

With those crazy feelings, it was a lot easier to focus on ordering rather than facing the culprit.

"You'll love the pasta here, Sonny," Raelyn said after giving up her menu to the employee. "I mean, it's probably not authentic but it's still pretty good."

"Emilia did mention that before coming," Sonny said, sparing a glance at Emilia. In the midst of information priming, Emilia had talked about the restaurant her parents chose. It was the restaurant they went to each Sunday as a family. "I know it's a special place for you guys so I'm really excited to try it."

"We're glad to hear it," Eliza smiled kindly.

"Sonny actually knows of a good restaurant with pasta," Emilia remarked, thinking back to the first restaurant Sonny took her to. "But he also claims to cook the best pasta too."

Sonny's eyebrows raised. She remembered that? It was an off-handed comment on the drive here. When Emilia glanced at him, he had the sudden urge to make the damn dish on the spot just to show her that he wasn't lying.

"Well that's not fair, innit?" Raelyn pretended to huff. "He's Italian. It's like us when we cook Feijoada."

"Fei— what?" Sonny asked, utterly lost.

"Feijoada," Raelyn said with a laugh. "We're Brazilian!"

"You're Brazilian?" The question left Sonny's mouth before he even thought of it.

Before Emilia answered, Raelyn cut in. "You didn't know that!? Emilia!?"

Sonny knew his mistake there on. He shouldn't have acted so surprised, much less ask like he hadn't known.

"We just started dating, Rae," Emilia said, doing her best not to get so shifty under the strange looks from her family. Of course that was something her boyfriend would know straight away. "It's going slowly, alright?"

"Sheesh, that slow?" Raelyn raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure that's a good thing!"

"We're good!" snapped Emilia. "God! Why are you in my business, Raelyn!?"

"Girls," Dario's sharp call silenced both of his daughters.

"Honestly, you two are acting like children!" Eliza shook her head.

"Raelyn needs to stop sticking her nose in my business — things are going slow and I like it like that," Emilia scowled. She only simmered when she felt Sonny's hand on her arm.

"It's alright, Em. I'm sorry—"

As soon as Emilia heard him start apologizing, she cut in. "No, no, it's not your fault. You know that none of this is your fault." She looked at Sonny with a kind smile, her hand coming over his on her arm. It's my fault.

Sonny could read the words in Emilia's eyes. Nothing was her fault. They were in on this together and by choice. Neither of them had to be there.

From there on out, Emilia worked twice as hard to keep herself and the fake relationship in check. She couldn't let her sister get to her, especially when Raelyn didn't even know she was doing it. Plus, she couldn't make things harder for Sonny. He was trying his best to work with her and her entire family.

He seemed to be doing a good job at it, though.

Emilia was in awe at how extra charming Sonny could be. She almost thought her parents liked him more than her. He was just so good at talking…

Among other things. Emilia felt butterflies in her stomach. She found herself staring at him more than often, just taking him in. On a couple of occasions, Raelyn nudged her knee under the table. Emilia was a bright red mess afterwards.

She couldn't see the end of the lunch date.

"Let me just use the restroom and we can go," Emilia said quietly to Sonny when they started getting up from the table. "I'll be fast, I promise."

Sonny chuckled as she hurried off.

"She has a bladder the size of a pea," Raelyn snorted.

"Raelyn," Eliza scolded her daughter. "My goodness, no wonder Emilia gets so agitated with you."

"Well thank you for coming to meet us," Dario said to Sonny, making it clear he was ignoring the argument on the side. "I know it's nerve wrecking but we really do appreciate it."

"Of course," Sonny nodded. There wasn't much he could say to that. He felt almost bad for lying to these people. They really did seem like honest loving parents.

"And we can just tell that Emilia really likes you."

"Oh yes," Eliza left whatever she was telling Raelyn to agree with her husband.

At that, Sonny had trouble staying at bay with. He smiled with what he knew had to be an awkward smile.

"Look," Dario started in a slightly quieter voice, "The last time Emilia dated someone, we thought it was going to be it, you know. It was serious — they were going for four years. We were all surprised when Emilia told us she ended the relationship. Badly, too."

"Really?" Not knowing about this alleged serious relationship put Sonny on edge and not for the detective side of him. No, he was pretty sure this was for him.

"Oh yeah," Raelyn nodded, "I thought Aaron was great but Emilia said otherwise."

"Aaron?" If Sonny remembered correctly, 'Aaron' wasn't the boyfriend Emilia told SVU about. In fact, he was pretty sure Amanda said the guy's name had been Jack instead.

"He used to work for this insurance company," Raelyn said, "Triple A?" Sonny nodded. "Something happened — Emilia never told us — but they ended it."

"And, uh, when did that happen?" Sonny asked.

"Last year."

"Oh…" Sonny hadn't known what to say to that but it so happened that Emilia returned.

"Okay, well, we have to go," she declared. On her way back to them,, she'd been thinking how best to say it without sounding forceful. Luckily, nobody protested.

"We'll see you around, sweetheart," Eliza hugged Emilia, "Take care of yourself, alright? Don't get so stressed over work." She looked over at Sonny afterwards, concerned. "She gets so stressed so easily. Please keep an eye on her."

"Of course," Sonny nodded. It wasn't a technical lie that he wouldn't be keeping a close eye on Emilia, just not for the reason Eliza thought.

Emilia had to rush them away once her father started proposing the idea of another get together. No way!

"Thank you so much," she told Sonny on the way back. It was the third time that she said it wouldn't be the last.

"Yeah, no problem," Sonny said rather quietly.

Emilia noticed his strange behavior almost immediately. She wondered if her family had been too much for him — it wouldn't be surprising. I pushed him too far.

Suddenly, the drive back seemed like the longest road trip Emilia had ever taken. No longer was it filled with conversations and soft laughs like the times before. Something changed and Emilia wished she knew what it was. She was too much of a coward to ask.

When they arrived back at the apartment, Sonny was still quiet. He helped Emilia out of the car but that was about as much as he made contact with her.

"The officers will be here tomorrow," he told her on their way into the building, "And then Amaro's on duty on Monday."

"Yeah, I pretty much figured out the schedule," Emilia said, trying to smile to see if Sonny would return one. He didn't. In fact, he led the way to the elevator instead.

In no time they were making their way down the hall to Emilia's door. Having no way to ask Sonny what was wrong, Emilia took her keys out to go inside and possibly throw herself on her bed for the rest of the day.

"Emilia?" Sonny said suddenly.

Emilia's head snapped in his direction, too fast. Her neck hurt but at that moment, she wouldn't dare spend a minute to think about it. "Yeah?"

"Um…" Sonny had tried his best all the drive back to come up with a way to directly ask Emilia about this 'Aaron'. He didn't want to sound like an intruding friend — he was a detective and that was the only thing he should be.

"Sonny?" Emilia's soft voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

If Sonny had paid more attention, he would've noticed how anxious Emilia looked. But, he was spiraling on his end. He gave a shake of his head, prompting disappointment to mark Emilia's face.

"Have a good rest of your day. Take it easy, okay?"

Emilia had no other choice but to nod. That was a polite way of ending whatever the hell this lunch had been. She supposed she couldn't be that selfish. Sonny had gone above and beyond to help her out. He didn't have to do any of the stuff he did today. He deserved a good break from her. And maybe that's what it was — a break. The thought genuinely hurt her stomach.

She really hoped that she hadn't messed up whatever kind of friendship this was between them.

[saiilorstars]

saiilorstars’ 2022 hispanic heritage month ocs

𑁍 Shining a spot on our month by sharing a few of my Hispanic OCs 𑁍

Aitana Serrano 🇲🇽 🇺🇸 - Criminal Minds OC

Emilia Hartley 🇧🇷 🇺🇸 - SVU OC

𑁍 See post 1 𑁍

Taglist: @ocappreciationtag​​ @arrthurpendragon​​ @anotherunreadblog​​ @maaaaarveeeeel​​ @stareyedplanet​​ @foxesandmagic​​ @averyhotchner​

[saiilorstars]

Hi! Please consider this a 'free space' version of an ask to talk as much or as little you'd like about any oc of yours. Is there a question you always wish someone would ask? Answer it now!

This is such a sweet thing to do, thank you so much! I don't think I have a certain question in mind so I'll talk about my current muses instead.

I'm currently trying to figure out where I'm going to stick in two of Montserrat's most important arcs in her fic. I've written like a future chapter because there's supposed to be a time jump in between its first part and the second part but I'm struggling to fit in the rest of the plots because I don't want it to be one thing after the other but at the same time, I don't want there to be too much of a gap???? I don't know if that makes sense but I'm always accepting some advice xD.

My other recent muse is Emilia Hartley, Montse's counterpart in the SVU world xD. I think it's with all the recent Rollisi content and the fact they're about to be separated that it's stirring up my old drafts for Emilia's story. I always thought I would just make her fic like a mini-series but now I kind of want to expand it but I want to put in like a time jump? I always envision Emilia's story to take place somewhere in season 15 so I'm dabbling with the idea of time jumping and making Emilia "come back" around season 18/19? Like, Sonny's basically recently taken up his position with the D.A and Emilia's gone back to school herself so they're both in different places than where they first started. Ideas, ideas,,,

My last muse is Natalie Eveleigh, my new Flash OC. I'm super excited to wrap up her first story so that I can finally publish it. I really like her because unlike my first Flash OC, Natalie is nothing like Belén. It's season 4 of the Flash and the Thinker is screwing with both Barry and Natalie, having specific plans for them each. Natalie is defiant - has been all her life - and so she constantly clashes with Barry who tries to do no harm. It's to the point where it's almost like a frenemy relationship they have. Barry almost hates her in the beginning and sometimes, Natalie hates him. At the same time, Natalie is very uneasy about being a metahuman. She has no interest and faith in her powers, which the Thinker absolutely loves. I'm also still in the process of coming up with her metahuman name

This was so much fun! Thanks for letting me ramble on about these ladies!! :)

[saiilorstars]

Hearts’ Limits

Ch. 6: A Sister’s Secret

Story Masterlist 

Fandom: SVU // Pairing: Sonny Carisi x OFC

Summary: Sonny meets Emilia's sister and suddenly, the pair is forced into a lie for Emilia's sake!

Taglist: @ocfairygodmother​​ @anotherunreadblog​​ ​ @maaaaarveeeeel​​ ​ @stareyedplanet​​ @perfectlystiles​​ ​ @averyhotchner​​​ [If you’d like to be a part of this OC’s edits/works, let me know!]

Warnings: Due to the nature of the series’ plots, I do have to rate this as ‘mature’ for constant mentions of rape.

Emilia's face was stained with tears. Another of her student's mothers had been reported dead, murdered, and she had no doubt that it was all her fault.

"I argued with her yesterday!" she exclaimed. Olivia and Amanda sat across from her in the interrogation room. Olivia did recall Nick mentioning the unfortunate meeting at the end of his shift at the school. "I didn't think...I would've never done anything if I knew that this would happen!"

"Emilia, this is not your fault," Amanda tried to say and got a cold snap in return.

"Then who's fault is it!? Because I'm the one this guy wants! Everything I do is under a microscope with him! It is my fault!"

Amanda's eyebrows raised together. Emilia was far too frantic to get anything out of her...but it was their job to still try.

"Emilia," Olivia tried in a softer tone, "Let's go back to that day. Maybe you saw something that didn't look important then but could be now. Anything suspicious."

Emilia shook her head on the spot. She didn't even think about it. They were better off asking Nick again. "No, no, everything was normal. Gosh, she wasn't a bad mother. She was just concerned and she was right." Emilia sniffed and rubbed her face clear of tears. "I got her killed."

"It wasn't your fault," Olivia told her.

"Then who's fault is it!?"

Olivia raised an eyebrow at her. "Uh, the man who's killing." At least her answer had Emilia pausing for a second. "He and only he is at fault here. Women are not responsible for the choices that a man makes."

Emilia swallowed hard. She tried straightening herself up in her chair. Another sniff. "I didn't see anything. I'm working. Isn't that what your detectives were for? They were supposed to see things that I wouldn't."

"Yes, but it doesn't always work."

"So then another woman's dead and we're not any closer to finding out who did it. Great," Emilia nodded to herself. "I'm not going back to work. I want to go home."

Olivia nodded. "Of course, yeah."

Emilia pushed herself up from her seat. "Can I go home now, please?"

"Sure," Amanda glanced at Olivia. They didn't expect to get much out of Emilia right now anyways. Olivia thought as much.

Emilia thanked them. "If I remember anything, I'll tell you. I promise."

"Thank you," Olivia said to her. It would be a process, just like always.

Emilia grabbed her purse off the table then headed for the door. As soon as she was out, she came across Sonny.

"Hey," he smiled kindly at her without expecting one back from her. She was too upset for anything like that.

"Can we go home, please?" She asked him, her gaze falling short. She didn't want to face anyone right now. "I mean, can you? You've been with me all day so I get if you want a break or something."

Sonny cocked his head at her. "Emilia, seriously. Despite the situation, I like being around you." He was wrong. She would smile at him. It was a small one but one he would take nonetheless.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"C'mon," he moved an arm around her, resting his hand on the small of her back. "Do you want to stop by for some food?" He would ask on the way down to the street.

Emilia shook her head. "I really don't feel like eating anything right now. Maybe for the next decade."

Sonny hated the way she sounded right now, so desolate and lost. He had to help catch the guy already. In the meantime, he helped Emilia into the car and drove her home, unfortunately without much of a conversation. All this time, as bad as things were, he'd been able to get a simple conversation at least. This time, Emilia gave nothing. Her eyes were distant and very much shiny with tears. It was a wonder she hadn't burst into sobs already and Sonny suspected that it had to do a lot with the fact she was with him. Alone would be another story for sure.

When Sonny parked outside her apartment building, he expected Emilia to start unbuckling her seat belt to rush away, but even that wasn't happening. He was sure that she hadn't even noticed the car was off. With a sigh, he got out of the car and moved around to open the door for her. Only then did she come back to life and realize where they were.

She took Sonny's hand without much awareness and stepped onto the sidewalk. "Thanks," she mumbled and started walking with him (very much like a robot).

She came back to life (again) when she heard someone call her name. Her eyes widened with horror, leaving Sonny to presume this was unwanted attention. He looked around in search of the voice but as threatening as he wanted to be, the cheery brunette coming their way didn't exactly seem like a threat to anyone...especially when she waved.

"That's my sister," Emilia grabbed a fistful of Sonny's sleeve. "Oh God, that's my—"

"Hey there stranger! Where the hell have you been?" The brunette said as she neared them, her eyes inevitably flickering to Sonny standing very closely to Emilia. "And who's…?"

"Raelyn," Emilia swallowed hard, trying to muster all the life she could find at the moment, "What-what are you doing here?"

"You haven't answered my calls," Raelyn gestured to the bag around Emilia's shoulder. "But I guess you've been busy?" Her eyes once again went to Sonny, now expecting a full answer from either or both of them.

There was no way in hell that Raelyn Hartley knew anything about her sister's case. Sonny wondered if it would make a difference for Emilia given the situation's dark turn.

"This, um, this is…" Emilia had little energy to even talk and it showed.

Raelyn's head turned slightly at her sister's behavior. "Have you been crying?"

Emilia had never felt so inadequate and much less for a simple conversation. As much as she tried to answer, though with what she wasn't sure, there was a ball forming in her throat preventing her from speaking.

"Oh my God, what's wrong?" Raelyn exclaimed, hands reaching out to her sister. She now desperately looked to Sonny for some answers. "What's happened?"

The weight shouldn't have fallen on him, he knew it and Emilia knew it, but he wasn't going to throw her into a situation she clearly wasn't ready. "She...had a tough day at work," he said, which technically wasn't a lie.

"That bad?" Raelyn searched Emilia's face to a clue of what possible could've made her put her into that state.

Emilia nodded her head. "I'm...there was a parent…" she whispered. "She, um, she went off…" Tears stung her eyes when she thought about that parent, that mother, who was now dead.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry Emilia," Raelyn pulled her sister into a tight hug.

Emilia soon wrapped her arms around Raelyn. She'd chosen to keep her family out of this case and she would continue doing it until it was no longer an option.

"That's the thing about these private schools, some parents think they're entitled to being even ruder," Raelyn said with a huff. She pulled away from Emilia, wearing a big smile on her face. "But let's turn this day around. I've got the day off so how about we have a sister-sister day?"

Emilia shrugged. It sounded better than just crying to herself. She just hoped that she had the ability not to sob so much over what was supposed to be one rude parent.

Raelyn beamed. Her eyes flickered to Sonny again. "I'm sorry, I never got your name?" Emilia soon remembered that he was right there. She turned around, face full of guilt and apologies.

Sonny flashed her a smile, assuring her that everything was fine. As for Raelyn, he extended his hand to her. "Dominick Carisi," he introduced himself, "People usually call me Sonny, though."

"Raelyn Hartley," the brunette smiled, glancing back at Emilia for a second, "I didn't know you were dating again."

Emilia's eyes widened with newfound horror, her cheeks bright and red. "Oh, we're not—"

Raelyn, being the older sister that she was, promptly ignored Emilia in favor of scrutinizing the new possible brother-in-law in front her. "Seriously, it's been a while so whatever you're doing, keep it up."

Sonny was flustered with the assumption, more so when Raelyn went on and on about the dates that she'd apparently helped set up for Emilia. It left him wondering if she was responsible for that awful blind date Emilia had been on not too long ago.

"But I can tell that you're obviously different. Picking her up from work after a hard day?" Raelyn placed a hand over her heart. "Bless your soul, you're such a sweetheart."

"Raelyn, do me a favor and shut up," Emilia commanded with gritted teeth.

Raelyn's eyebrows raised. "Yikes," she chuckled.

All Sonny could do was smile at the pair of sisters. Raelyn definitely had an effect because Emilia no longer looked distant. She was back with full force, almost like when they first met.

"Here," Raelyn turned to Emilia and dug her hand through her bag. "I'll go upstairs and leave you two to say goodbyes and whatnot."

"Raelyn, seriously—" Emilia was cut off with a wave of Raelyn's hand.

"Don't worry, I know, 'shut up'," Raelyn rolled her eyes. She threw a smile at Sonny. "Isn't she just a peach?"

"Uh, something like that," Sonny said, offering an apologetic smile at Emilia afterwards. It seemed to soften her mortified look.

"See you around, Sonny," Raelyn gave him a cheery wave and headed into the apartment building.

"I'm so sorry," Emilia said as soon as they were alone. "Raelyn's a little too much sometimes."

"Emilia, I have three sisters," Sonny reminded her. He knew exactly what she was talking about. "You think I haven't had my fair moments of sisters ruining my life?" Emilia genuinely laughed and it was like a sweet melody to his ears. He actually felt the skip of his heart. "I'm just glad to be on the other end this time," he added.

Emilia sobered from her laugh slowly, her cheeks still slightly red from the moment and the overall situation. "Don't worry, I'll set things straight with her."

"Are you going to tell her that I'm a detective who is supposed to be watching you?"

Emilia looked up at the building. That would surely lead to a lot of questions.

"Or how about the patrol car parked down the block?"

Emilia sighed. "I really don't want to. I don't need her worrying over me and then having my parents find out." Her gaze soon found him. "Would you...would you mind if I maybe not told her that? Just...kind of let her believe what she believes?"

"You mean...letting her think that we're…" Sonny trailed off. A new surge of heart filled his face. Emilia hesitantly nodded, clearly waiting to see his reaction. "I mean...I don't mind…" Sonny said slowly, "I'm not...I'm single, it...it wouldn't complicate anything…" He might just not mention that to anybody else, though, especially one Amanda Rollins who would have a field day with it.

Emilia swallowed the knot in her throat. "You're really okay with it? Because I get it's a lot to ask for…"

"Emilia, it's...it's okay," Sonny decided. Letting someone think that he was dating Emilia? That didn't exactly make him frown.

Emilia looked at him, giving him a few more seconds to go back on his decision. When he didn't, she dove towards him for a hug. She was aware that it was the second time she did this but there was a little part of her that felt special when he accepted both hugs.

"I don't know if you do this with everybody you meet but you're heaven sent to me," she said and pulled away, wearing one honest smile on her face.

Another skip of his heart he felt. Sonny let her go, though it was done rather reluctantly he noted. "Don't mention it."

Emilia stepped back from him. "I will, every time that I get to, I will. Thank you." Sonny nodded at her and watched her head into the building. Emilia didn't dare look back because she could feel his gaze on her.

Raelyn was promptly waiting inside the apartment when Emilia finally came in. She already had a wine bottle that Emilia kept hidden in the kitchen and was bringing over two glasses when she saw Emilia. "Hey there," she smirked. "How was the goodbye?" Emilia rolled her eyes, though Raelyn saw the fluster she desperately tried to be casual about. "Oh c'mon, that man is gorgeous! Why have you been hiding him?"

"I have not been hiding anybody," Emilia walked for the couch, wanting nothing more than to grab a cushion and bury her face into it. "Can we drop it now, please?"

"You'll have to eventually tell me about him," Raelyn warned as she took a seat beside Emilia. She placed one glass down to grab the wine bottle instead, having already opened it. "If it counts for anything, he seems sweet."

"He is," Emilia found herself agreeing very quickly, almost automatically.

Raelyn noticed it too judging by the smirk on her face. She said nothing about it, however, and instead handed Emilia a glass of wine. "Looks like you need it."

Emilia couldn't agree more. She took a very long drink as soon as the glass was in her hand. "Don't mention anything to Mom and Dad, please," she said afterwards. "I don't...I don't want to deal with them yet." Also not technically a lie.

Raelyn would of course take it in another way and laughed about it. "Our little secret, sure. It's brand new, isn't it?" Emilia could only nod silently. "Well, like I said, he seems sweet and I will get to know more about him," she warned. "I just need to know one thing…" Emilia groaned. She should've known this would be hard for Raelyn to let go. "Just one thing!" promised Raelyn. "That little accent...that's a turn on, isn't it?"

Emilia nearly choked on her wine. "Wh-what?! Raelyn!" Raelyn burst into laughter. Even though Emilia wanted to be angry (and possibly yell 'absolutely not!') her lips twitched into the makings of a smile. It is goddamn attracting, she admitted to herself.

"I got you, I got you," Raelyn assured her as she sobered from her laugh. "Mom and Dad won't hear a peep from me...but you'll hear tons from me!"

Emilia playfully rolled her eyes at her sister. A part of her—a tiny, itty-bitty piece of her—may have been just a little bit content with letting somebody think she was actually dating Sonny. The itty-bitty part of her made her face warm up like the sun.

[saiilorstars]

SVU OC: Emilia Hartley

Pairing: Sonny Carisi x OFC

1. Hearts’ Limit

Story summary: Everyone has their limits. When she's placed at the center of a case, Emilia feels like she might just spiral. Sonny Carisi sees this & knows it, which is why he puts his best efforts to help ease her nerves during the case...but that's the only reason why. He knows his job as a detective but he also knows that Emilia explicitly trusting him shouldn't make him feel anything special. There have to be limits, boundaries, between them. Emilia has to constantly remind herself that as well because for some reason, it keeps slipping her mind whenever they’re together.

One Shots:

For Being You

No Time

The A-Team

Edits:

Hispanic Heritage Month 2022

Masterlist of other OCs

taglist: @ocappreciationtag​ @arrthurpendragon​​​​​​​​​​ @maaaaarveeeeel​​​​ ​​ @stareyedplanet​​​​​ ​​​​​ @averyhotchner​ ​​​​ @foxesandmagic​​​​​​ @kmc1989 @caplanbuckybarnes​ @geeksareunique​

[saiilorstars]

Hearts’ Limit Masterlist

Fandom: Law & Order SVU

Pairings: Sonny Carisi x OFC

Story Summary: Detective Montserrat Novak originally planned to transfer to SVU but mysteriously withdrew her papers. Nine months later, Olivia pulls her profile when Montserrat becomes a material witness to a case. From there, Montserrat can’t really get away from SVU. Now she finds herself dealing with a Detectives & an ADA whom she seems to have a talent at pulling all his right strings.

Warnings: Due to the nature of the series’ plots, I do have to rate this as ‘mature’ for constant mentions of rape. This post will be updated as the story progresses!

Emilia Hartley’s face claim: Nathalia Dill

Chapters:

Ch.1: First Stop

Ch.2: Real Intentions

Ch.3: For the Drive

Ch.4: I Trust

Ch.5: A Sweet Stop

Ch.6: A Sister’s Secret

Ch.7: The Cards

Ch.8: Big Little Lie

Ch.9: The Perfect Couple?

Emilia’s Masterlist

taglist: @ocappreciationtag @arrthurpendragon @anotherunreadblog @maaaaarveeeeel @stareyedplanet @averyhotchner @foxesandmagic @caplanbuckybarnes @geeksareunique​

If you’d like to be a part of this OC’s edits/works, let me know!

[saiilorstars]

Hearts’ Limit

Current Masterlist // Masterlist of all OCs

Fandom: SVU

Pairing: Sonny Carisi x OFC

Story summary: Everyone has their limits. When she's placed at the center of a case, Emilia feels like she might just spiral. Sonny Carisi sees this & knows it, which is why he puts his best efforts to help ease her nerves during the case...but that's the only reason why. He knows his job as a detective but he also knows that Emilia explicitly trusting him shouldn't make him feel anything special. There have to be limits, boundaries, between them. Emilia has to constantly remind herself that as well because for some reason, it keeps slipping her mind whenever they’re together.

Taglist: @ocfairygodmother @anotherunreadblog ​ @maaaaarveeeeel ​ @stareyedplanet @perfectlystiles​ @averyhotchner​

Warnings: Due to the nature of the series’ plots, I do have to rate this as ‘mature’ for constant mentions of rape.

Emilia Hartley.

That was the name that came up as a prime suspect in SVU's latest rape-turned-murder case. As Amanda Rollins laid out the backstory of their victim - Evelyn Korami - across a pinboard, it was easy to see who could have helped aid in the atrocious crime.

"The M.E found a strand of hair from a second female at the crime scene," the blonde detective relayed what Melinda Warner had told her and her partner, Fin. "There was no DNA match in the system and it's definitely not the victim's."

"And where exactly does this woman fit in the scenario?" Olivia Benson inquired from her team. She put on her black-rimmed glasses and studied the DMV picture they had of one of their suspects.

"Emilia Hartley was Evelyn's daughter's kindergarten teacher," Nick Amaro replied since he was one of the two who came up with the possible suspect.

"Miss Hartley and Evelyn Korami had an argument at the school two days before Evelyn's body was found," Dominick Carisi - or Sonny, as he liked to be called - explained. "Witnesses report that Evelyn had to be escorted out of the school grounds and was subsequently banned from the school after that."

"The husband had to drop off and pick up their daughter from then on," Nick said.

"Him or the nanny," Fin added since they were talking about high class families.

"Is there anything that puts Hartley at the crime scene?" Olivia asked.

"That we know of, no," Amanda answered. "But maybe if we were to talk to her we might get some clues."

Olivia pulled her glasses off and looked over to Nick and Sonny. "You two are the ones who have a hunch, go follow it."

~ 0 ~

As Nick and Sonny walked through the hallways of the elementary school where their suspect worked. They could easily tell the place was built and ran by high class people. There were colorful boards on either side of them full of different activities offered to the students, as well as reminders for any parents interested in being involved with the school. There were other decorations that were student made, presumably by the older ones. They eventually came downstairs, to room four where their suspect was meant to be.

With the door opened, they saw a petite ginger woman shuffling some kids - who couldn't be more than five years old - into a line while a tall brunette woman was directing a couple other students away from the sink.

"You've all washed your hands now get in line." She seemed a bit frustrated but neither detective could confirm via her face. She was probably trained never to show that.

"Emilia Hartley?" Nick's voice drew the attention of the entire classroom.

The brunette woman looked up from the sink and saw the two detectives through the mirror. Her thin eyebrows raised in confusion before turning to look at them. "Yes, that's me. Are you parents? I don't think we have any meetings scheduled today." But then she thought of something and quickly looked at the ginger woman. "Do we, Alice?"

"No," Alice shook her head.

"This is about Evelyn Korami," Sonny said and it was all he needed to get Emilia's understanding.

"Give me one second," she walked the last students to the end of the line. "Miss Alice will be taking you to the playground. Follow the line, please," she addressed the students and gave the nod to Alice that they could get going.

The detectives stepped to the side to allow the secondary teacher to lead the students out the door. Emilia ushered the lingering students behind then promptly closed the door after they were gone. "What can I help you with?"

"Well, you could start by telling us where you were two days ago," Nick went right to it and got quite the reaction.

Emilia's mouth fell open in utter shock. "Excuse me? This is why you're here? To tell me I'm a suspect in the murder of my student's mother? You do realize I'm a kindergarten teacher, right?"

"Last time I heard, that didn't mean anything," Nick said, making Emilia's mouth fall further in a frown. "And we found a strand of female hair at the scene as well. We're thinking it could be yours."

Emilia folded her arms over her chest. "Should I have a lawyer present, then?"

"Look," started Sonny, "We know you had an argument with Evelyn two days before she was raped and murdered…"

"And that automatically means I murdered her?"

"That's not what I was saying—"

Emilia made a gesture for him to stop talking. "You should know that Miss Korami had arguments with the school every week. Just last week she argued with another of my student's parents in the office. With me—" Emilia crossed her arms. "—she argued because she wanted her daughter Marjorie to have a spotlight birthday this Friday."

"And what was the problem with that?" asked Nick, rather curious.

"We don't do anything for birthdays here," Emilia dropped her arms to her sides. "It's our way of respecting children who come from families that don't celebrate birthdays."

"But Evelyn didn't agree?"

"She shouted at me that I was an idiot right in front of my students and other parents. I was just following the rules the school instituted. If it was up to me, any child who wanted to have a spotlight birthday would get one."

"So the fact that Evelyn did all that in front of an audience didn't bother you at all?" Sonny asked. "You didn't feel like...you had to get some revenge?"

Emilia laughed. "No, because I'm a grown woman. Evelyn Korami was a difficult woman but I like my job, and I like my life, and Evelyn was not NOT worth it. If it WAS was my hair then it's probably from when she argued with me. Are we done?"

Nick exchanged a look with Sonny, both nodding in agreement of what their next move was.

"We're going to need your whereabouts 2 nights ago," Nick said. Emilia's face instantly dropped. That action alone was suspicious.

"Problem?" asked Sonny, finding it hard not to smirk. If she was hiding something, they would have her now.

"No," Emilia answered through gritted teeth. "But I'm sure you'll have a good laugh when you see the security feed."

"Excuse me?" Nick raised an eyebrow at her. He was in the belief she was being rude to them and that was the last thing they needed when they were just doing their job.

Emilia still didn't falter even when she realized how her words came across. She wasn't in the mood to remember two nights ago and she definitely wasn't in the mood to be a suspect in a murder either. "La Bernardin," she said, her teeth still close enough to grit. "Seven to eight. And then from there, Forlini's. All the way till they closed." She pushed past them out of the classroom afterwards without a care of being arrested for her behavior.

~0~

Later that afternoon, Olivia checked in on the progress of their case only to find their one lead gone.

"Emilia Hartley's alibi checks out," Nick said, sounding a bit disappointed the rude woman wasn't guilty at all. He leaned back in his desk chair and pointed at his laptop. "She was at Le Bernardin for an hour and then Forlini's until closing."

"An hour at Least Bernardin?" Amanda raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "That's a pretty fancy restaurant. Why would she only be there for an hour?"

"She wasn't," Sonny said. "She was in there for 47 minutes." He'd finished reviewing the security feed himself and closed his laptop with quite a face. "That was a...pretty terrible date."

"If it was only 47 minutes, it had to be," Fin seemed close to laughing.

Sonny didn't see the need to laugh at such a terrible time. Now he understood what Emilia meant by her last words. If he was being honest, he felt a bit sorry for her.

The guy had been a terrible date. Who flirts with the waitress in front of their date? That was a low move. But of course the guy hadn't stopped there. It looked like he'd ordered for himself and Emilia, judging by the fact he forced Emilia's menu down and she looked beyond pissed at him for it. Being ordered - force fed - a salad while the guy gorged out on a heavy dinner was yet another low blow, not to mention plain rude.

"So she's out," Olivia started counting off her fingers. "We've got no other suspects, no other leads…until we can get a DNA on the hair."

"Maybe we could go back to the places Evelyn visited the day she died," Amanda offered.

Olivia agreed. "Do that and also go back to the school, interview anyone who knew Evelyn, anyone who had a problem with her. Someone has to know something."

The squad collectively nodded and set out to do their tasks.

~0~

By the end of the school day, Emilia was more than tired. She and Alice were doing the last cleaning for the classroom before going home.

"Alice, you can go home," Emilia told her after noticing it was almost 4 o'clock. "You have plans."

"I know, but my boyfriend doesn't get out of work until 4 anyways," she shrugged.

"Yeah but it'll take you a good fifteen minutes to get there anyways," Emilia reminded. She walked up to where Alice was working and took the Lysol bottle from her. "I got it, promise."

Alice deliberated another minute before she agreed. She headed for her cubby to get her things. Just as Emilia was setting back to work, they both heard a light knock on the door.

"Oh God," Emilia muttered and started lysoling the shelves like she wasn't being visited by two detectives. "What can I do for you now, detectives?"

"Were you leaving?" Nick noticed Alice setting her purse over her shoulder. She nodded slowly, her hand stopping over her strap. "Don't. We're going to have to talk to both of you."

"Seriously?"

"Just precautionary," said Sonny.

Emilia didn't stop cleaning. She only called out to the pair instead. "Did you see my video?"

Sonny exchanged a look with Nick, both understanding the sour tinge in her tone. "Uh, yeah," Sonny answered eventually.

"Then you both know I didn't do anything," Emilia turned her back to them as she moved onto another shelf. "That strand of hair can't be mine. My co-worker has plans, detectives, why are you making her waste her time?"

"Hey," snapped Nick, "We're trying to figure out who murdered a woman. I would think you would want that woman—especially being the mother of one of your students—to get justice."

Emilia stopped working for a second to meet Nick's gaze. "Of course I do, but neither of us—" she pointed to Alice then herself, "—know anything."

"You don't know that," Nick countered. "Let us talk to you. The quicker we do, the quicker you can each go on your way."

"I mean...if it's to find whoever did this…" Alice glanced at Emilia with a shrug of her shoulders.

With a heavy sigh, Emilia put her things down and turned around again. "Fine. What do you need to know, detectives?"

"You mentioned that Evelyn had disagreements often with the school, right?" Sonny started before Emilia changed her mind.

"Yeah, she was a...very difficult person," Emilia said quietly, her expression indicated many challenges had been thrown her way by Evelyn. "She had petty arguments with everyone. I've lost count how many times she argued with me."

"And me," Alice frowned. "Over the smallest of things too. She got upset two weeks ago because her daughter, Marjorie, fell down."

"Well, that's natural," Nick shrugged. "I have a daughter too. If she were to fall, I'd be a little upset too."

"I get it," Alice raised her hands. "It's not uncommon but Marjorie tripped over her own feet. There was only a scrape and I had the yell of a lifetime. Would you do that to your daughter's teacher?"

Nick lowered his head. Probably not. Kids were clumsy and they fell all the time.

"We don't mean to speak ill of the dead, but Evelyn makes it very hard not to," Emilia grabbed the Lysol bottle again. Alice hummed in agreement and started getting her coat from her cubby.

"Alright, stop," Sonny told them both. He sensed they were feeding off of each other's hatred for Evelyn and it wouldn't give them anything for the case. "How about we talk separately?"

Nick agreed. If they kept the two women together, all they would get were more stories of Evelyn's unkindness. He waited for Alice to gather her things then followed her out to have a conversation outside.

Emilia watched Alice disappear out the door. "She didn't do anything, you know? You need to leave us alone."

"We will when we have everything we need," promised Sonny. "But you should really just answer our questions."

"The last time I answered the question, it was an embarrassing one for me." She referenced her terrible date that, by now, she was sure the entire NYPD had a good laugh at.

"It shouldn't be because it wasn't your fault," Sonny said. "He should be embarrassed."

"Hm, please tell me you wouldn't do that to your partner."

"If I had one, I wouldn't," he promptly promised.

Emilia side-glanced him and, for the first time, smiled. It was a small one but a smile nonetheless. It was the opening Sonny needed.

"Can I ask you questions now?"

Emilia shrugged. "I suppose...but I do have to clean."

"Sounds fair," Sonny motioned her to keep cleaning. "You've made it pretty clear that Evelyn had many arguments—"

"Countless," Emilia corrected. She lysoled the next shelf and bent down to make sure she got the bottom as well.

"Is there anyone that stood out?"

"What do you mean?"

"Anyone who may have taken it personally. A known grudge."

"The parents? I'm not sure," Emilia straightened on her feet. She set the Lysol bottle on top of the shelf. "I've been witness to some of them but...I know these parents. I've been working here for almost two years and...I don't see any parent capable of murdering anyone."

"You usually don't see them so clearly," Sonny said. "But is there anyone that stood out lately? Parent or staff?"

Emilia thought for a moment. "Not...really, no. Well…" She shook her head. "Forget about it."

"No, no, you thought of something," Sonny pointed at her. "What is it?"

"I don't know if it's relevant."

"Let us decide that, please."

Emilia sighed and nodded. "Okay. I started working here two years ago and the reason I was hired is because the teacher before me had a physical fight with Evelyn. Now, I don't know if she's capable of doing anything homicidal but...I heard it was bad."

"Do you know the teacher's name?"

"Umm, Rachel...Rachel Quinn I believe. I don't know what led to the fight, though."

"This is really good, trust me. Is there anyone else you can think of?"

"Like I said, Evelyn had arguments with everyone," Emilia shook her head. "It's funny how different her daughter is. Marjorie? She's a total sweetheart."

"Children aren't their parents—they're their own person."

Emilia shrugged. "Yeah…" She seemed to deliberate whether or not to say something else.

Presuming it was something else about the case, Sonny prompted her to speak up. "Anything helps," he reminded her.

"It's not really...I was just...do you think it was someone from the school?" Emilia turned to face the classroom. "I have five year olds here. I can't imagine working with someone who willingly hurt one of the parents. I don't even want to consider them being around me and my students."

Sonny could feel her growing fear of the idea. He didn't want to make it worse by telling her it could be true. Because it was. They had no idea if they were looking for a staff member or a parent. "Simply be cautious."

"Easy for you to say," Emilia grabbed the Lysol bottle and headed for the cabinets over the sink. "You carry a gun. That's not to say that I would ever want to have one but...it does guarantee some type of safety, right?"

"That's not always true, you know," Sonny went after her. "But listen, I know the school's already taking precaution. You should be safe."

"Promise?" Emilia said on her way to her cubby, having no actual intention of making him promise something like that.

"Promise," Sonny had blurted before he could think about it. Once the word left his mouth, his eyes widened. Where the hell did that come from? Emilia took it, however, with a bemused smile. It helped calm his nerves.

"You usually go around making those promises? I thought that was a big no-no for detectives," she grabbed her purse from her cubby. "I have a cousin in the NYPD."

"Uuh, I don't...I didn't mean to." Sonny was being very honest. "Not that I wouldn't try to keep that promise but I-I don't...I can't control what...you know…?" Where the hell was his vocabulary going all of a sudden?

Emilia chuckled as she closed her cubby. "I don't think I got your name…"

Sonny was less inclined to give his name up after that moment. For a moment, he considered giving Nick's name instead but then the idea of having Emilia think Nick was him didn't settle with him either. He'd like for her to know him instead.

"Carisi," he finally said, only then realizing he'd stayed quiet for too long.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Emilia but I'm pretty sure you already knew that." Emilia motioned him to walk with her. "I just hope you realize now that I'm not involved with this at all."

"Yeah, got that," he followed her into the hallway. Nick and Alice were finishing up their talk.

"Please catch whoever did this, and fast if possible," Emilia turned to face him. "I really don't like the idea of coming to work where there's a possible murder/rapist."

"We'll do our best," Sonny said. He reached inside his coat and pulled out a white card for her. Emilia looked at the card, bewildered for a second until Sonny explained. "It has my number to reach me in case you remember something else or...if you get into trouble."

Emilia's eyebrows raised together. "Oh, um...thanks." She reached for the card and took it, not paying attention to the way her fingers lightly brushed with his.

"Emilia?" they heard Alice call and for some reason, it jolted both of them.

"Gotta go," Emilia said with an awkward smile. Fortunately, Sonny had the same one. Emilia moved around him to meet Alice.

"We're good, right?" Alice asked Nick before they could leave.

"Yes," he nodded and walked for Sonny.

"What's that?" Alice noted the white slip in Emilia's hand.

"Nothing, just a way to reach one of the detectives," shrugged Emilia. "Something normal."

"Mhm, so how come you're blushing?"

"Am not, it's normal."

"Right, and he's also looking at you."

"What!?" Emilia glanced over her shoulder and did indeed catch Sonny staring after her, though he quickly looked away once he realized he was caught. Emilia smiled to herself until Alice smirked. "It's nothing!"

"Then why are you smiling again?"

"I am not!"

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

A/N: I'll be honest I have no idea how this story is going to end. I foresee it as a short story (unlike my Barba x OC fic) but who knows? I just wanted some sweet (possibly angsty) Carisi moments too :))

[saiilorstars]

Hearts’ Limit

Ch. 2: Real Intentions

Current Masterlist // Masterlist of all OCs

Fandom: SVU // Pairing: Sonny Carisi x OFC

Summary: As the case keeps unfolding, the squad realizes the actual target after Emilia makes a hesitant call to Sonny.

Taglist: @ocfairygodmother @anotherunreadblog ​ @maaaaarveeeeel ​ @stareyedplanet @perfectlystiles ​ @averyhotchner​ [If you’d like to be a part of this OC’s edits/works, let me know!]

Warnings: Due to the nature of the series’ plots, I do have to rate this as ‘mature’ for constant mentions of rape.

Rachel Quinn turned out to be yet another person who had nothing good to say about the victim, Evelyn.

"According to Rachel," Amanda Rollins cleared her throat to better address the rest of the team, "Evelyn made an enemy out of everyone in the school. She doesn't think a parent did this."

"Maybe we should stop thinking about this as a two-person job," Fin said. "We thought that the accomplice lured Evelyn—it's why we assumed it was a woman in the first place."

Olivia nodded. "So far, all the female suspects were cleared."

"Exactly, so maybe this was always a one-man job."

"Should we go back and look at the male employees in the school?" asked Nick.

"Even if we did, it's not likely that their backgrounds are going to be flagged," Sonny said. "It's a school. Everyone gets background checks."

"Either way, it would be a good idea to start again," Olivia decided. "If we're going to look at this as a one-man job, we need to go back to the very beginning."

~ 0 ~

Emilia searched through her classroom cubby over and over until Alice came by. "What are you looking for?" she asked with bemusement.

Emilia wasn't so happy. She was puzzled. "I can't find my scrunchie."

Alice snorted. "Seriously?"

Emilia turned around to the woman, her lips curving into a frown. "We're doing art today and I really don't feel like getting red highlights too."

Alice laughed and headed for the tables. "Serves you right for not getting a haircut."

Emilia patted her long curls. "I like my hair." She groaned. The children would be arriving soon and they needed to be ready. "Whatever, I'm going to use a rubber band, I guess." She reached inside the cubby for her bag.

"You carry rubber-bands in your bag?" Alice snorted again after catching Emilia digging through her bag.

"You never know when you'll need one." Emilia's hands slipped and dropped the bag, letting out a few things in the process. "Dammit!"

"Don't let the kids hear that," Alice returned to help pick up what was on the ground.

"Ha, ha, so funny," Emilia playfully rolled her eyes.

"Oh, what's this?" Alice picked up her wallet that had fallen too. A white slip of paper was sticking out from one of the outside pockets.

"Give me that!" Emilia tried snatching it from her but Alice stuck her hand in the air.

"Isn't this the card that detective gave you?" Alice's eyes twinkled with mischief. "The cute one with the accent?"

Emilia shook her head. She focused on putting her stuff back into her purse so she could then battle for the wallet if necessary.

"Have you called him?" Alice asked, bringing a corner of the card to her chin.

"Of course not," Emilia stood back up. "He gave that to me in case of an emergency. Thankfully, I haven't had a need for it." Everything had been relatively calm in these few days and she wanted to keep it that way. She already had plenty of parents pestering her with questions about Evelyn's case anyways.

"Well, I think you should call," Alice handed the wallet back to Emilia. "Even if it's just to say 'hello'."

"Yeah, I'll think about it," Emilia said before throwing her wallet into her cubby.

"Something tells me you're not going to think about it," Alice watched Emilia shut the cubby.

"Noo, what would give you that impression?" Emilia smiled on her way past Alice. She stretched the rubber-band then picked up her hair into a high ponytail.

~ 0 ~

By the end of the school day, both teachers were ready to go home. They gathered their belongings and headed for the parking lot.

"I'm telling you, I'm going to need a double espresso shot tomorrow," Alice was joking on their way for the cars. "These kids are extra energetic lately."

Emilia agreed with a laugh. "Yeah, I know. Did you see the mess that Adrien made? I shouldn't even be surprised. He's all in for arts."

Alice nodded. "Oh yeah."

Their shared laugh was cut short when Emilia stopped in front of her car. She blinked several times before coming to the conclusion that she was seeing right.

"Is that…?" Alice started asking when Emilia headed for the car. "Emilia, wait!" The brunette stopped abruptly and glanced back at Alice. "I think...I think maybe you should make that call now."

Emilia was reluctant even when the sign was right in front of her. "I don't…"

"Emilia," Alice said again, her tone harder than before, "Make the call."

Emilia bit her lip and took another look at her windshield.

~ 0 ~

"There's only ten male workers in the school," Nick said as he placed the last potential suspect's picture on the evidence board. "You have the principal, four teachers, two playground supervisors, one maintenance and two janitors."

"Anyone standing out so far?" Olivia asked.

Amanda bobbed her head. "Nothing in the initial search."

"Let's make that search go deeper, then. Let's start with the men who had any disagreement with Evelyn."

"I bet we can start with the principal then," Fin smiled. "If he was the head then he definitely had incidents with Evelyn."

"Countless," Sonny added, earning an agreeing point from Fin. "I bet the supervisors had to have something too. If the daughter fell a couple times, Evelyn might have had a word with them."

"Get that going," Olivia gestured.

The timing was perfect because on his way to his desk, his phone started ringing. "Detective Carisi?"

"Detective, it's Emilia?"

Sonny stiffened before he even knew it. "Emilia, hi. Are you—"

"I don't know if it's important—"

"It's important!" Sonny was sure that the second voice in the background belonged to Alice.

"Emilia, are you in trouble?" He asked quickly.

"I-I don't...I'm not sure?" Emilia sounded nervous which only made Sonny feel the same way. "There's um...there's something on my car."

"Wh-what? What's...what's on your car? Emilia?"

"It might be nothing but, um...I think maybe you should come?"

"Where are you?" Sonny practically demanded from her; he would apologize later for his tone but right now he just needed to get to her and make sure she was okay.

"At the school in the parking lot. Alice is here with me."

"Okay, listen carefully, who's in the school right now?"

"I don't know. Lots of us?"

"Go back to the school and find a female employee—any female employee, alright? If possible a teacher so you can stay in that classroom."

"O-okay, I'll...I'll do that. Could you hurry? I'm, um, I don't really know what to do," Emilia swallowed hard. It was stupid and childish yet considering she was a grown adult who took care of children. She should know what to do!

"Of course, just do what I told you, okay? Do it!" Sonny ended the call quickly and turned to the others. They'd already gotten the just something was going on. "We have to go back to the school—Emilia might be in trouble." For some reason, it struck him more than it should've.

~ 0 ~

'You'll be safe now' was proudly written in a cardboard piece that now laid on the windshield of Emilia's car.

"Can we have the cameras from the lot?" Olivia was asking the principal of the school, ironically.

"They're not working right now," the principal, Jones, shook his head. "After the incident with Evelyn Korami, we decided to upgrade our security."

"Ah," Olivia pursed her lips. That clearly had not worked out so well.

"Hey," Amanda came by, "No one saw anything, as usual. The cardboard and the markers are all from the school. Anybody could've taken them."

"Are you sure this is even linked?" Jones asked. "It could be some prank."

"For now, we're going to treat it like it is," Olivia nodded. "And so I need to ask where were you in the last hour?"

"What?" Jones blinked. "Are you serious?"

"Very," Olivia put her hands together in front of her, making a show that was indeed waiting for his response.

Jones mumbled something under his breath but eventually answered. "I was on a phone conference. Feel free to verify that with the district."

"We will be," Olivia promised him then walked off with Amanda.

~ 0 ~

Emilia hadn't left the classroom she and Alice took refuge in after talking to Sonny. Now that a whole hour had passed by, it was starting to get a little harder to remain calm.

"I feel like I just made a big thing out of nothing," she told Sonny. "I have Alice locked inside this classroom when she had plans."

"I'm fine with it," Alice called from her spot. She was watching the cops from the window. Emilia rolled her eyes. "And stop rolling your eyes, Emilia." Alice glanced over to Sonny. "She didn't want to call you. She did the right thing, right?"

"Alice—" Emilia was about to scold when Sonny cut her off.

"Yes, she did," he met her gaze when her head flipped in his direction. "You did."

Emilia still wasn't quite convinced. "It's a trick or something. C'mon, this is a school, you can't possibly think somebody here did it and much more killed Evelyn too." Sonny didn't say anything but the face he made told her it was quite possible. "Oh no," she decided, "No, no, no! You're mad!" She turned on her heels and headed for her bag she left on one of the tables. "I thought maybe—just maybe—you might actually have a real lead but to say that someone here did it?"

"Emilia, you need to calm down," Sonny warned her, but he suspected it would do no good. She was too anxious and very much in denial. It all stemmed from the fear she had to have been feeling when she called him. "We need to talk—"

"No!" she said decidedly. "Because if we do, then you're going to start asking me who I think could've done it! Well, I'm not going to do it!"

"Emilia, maybe you should listen to him," Alice started but, like Sonny, Emilia shut her down.

"No! I shouldn't have called anyone! I should've just thrown that cardboard away and gone home!" Emilia walked, almost sprinted, towards the doors when Sonny caught her by the arm.

"Then you might not be here anymore!" he snapped. "I doubt that's what you want, right?"

Emilia faced him with a frown, though it resembled more of a child's expression when they were evidently wrong but didn't want to admit it. It was another reminder for Sonny that she was afraid. Everybody had different ways of showing they were afraid. Emilia's happened to be outbursts.

She tugged on her arm, prompting him to let go. "Of course not," she muttered. "But I just don't see anybody harming me, alright?"

"We don't know exactly what this guy wants…"

"But you do have an idea," Emilia said, eyes searching his. "I can tell from your face."

Suddenly, Sonny wished someone else had come talk to her because he was having a harder time with this case for some reason. He looked away from Emilia, hoping that a few seconds would be enough to reset his expressions.

"What do you think he wants from me?" Emilia asked in a much more calm way. She may be in a first graders' classroom but it didn't mean she had to be one. "Detective, you're telling me that it's possible someone in the school is responsible for all this stuff...so tell me why."

"It's...it's very preliminary," Sonny said, and that was probably already too much. He needed to wait for Olivia to confer on their next steps. He caught sight of Emilia's eyes—a warm green shade—intently looking at him. They urged him to tell the truth, even if it was bad or wrong, but the power to tell him was there.

"That's not enough, detective," Emilia spat and moved for the doors again.

"Emilia!" Sonny called for her.

Thankfully, she didn't make it out since Olivia came in. "Miss Hartley," she said, blinking a bit quickly from almost crashing into Emilia. "I'm Sergeant Benson, we need to have a word."

Emilia pursed her lips together. "I just told your detective I was on my way home."

Olivia briefly crossed gazes with Sonny. He shook his head at her, indicating Emilia wasn't willing to cooperate again. "I understand you're feeling a little confused right now, scared, but it's very important that we speak."

"Emilia," called Alice again, "Please listen to them. They're here to help you. Quit acting like a child."

Emilia looked over her shoulder. "I'm not," she mumbled.

"Then show it."

"We can take you to the precinct if you'd be more comfortable there," Olivia offered.

Emilia barely had a clue of what she wanted but the one thing that she was sure about is that she did not want to see a precinct. "No, I'd rather stay here."

Olivia nodded. "Alright, you and Miss…?" She waited for Alice to fill in the blank.

"O'Shire," she eventually said. "But please, just Alice."

"Okay, so you and Alice were in the classroom doing what?"

"Cleaning," Emilia said, gesturing to the chairs sitting on top of the tables. "We like to do a quick disinfect before the janitors come in."

"Did anyone come in today? Maybe to ask when you were leaving?"

"No," Emilia shook her head with a sigh. "Alice and I did our routine just like any other day."

"Wait, so that means you leave at the same time every day, then...right?" Sonny's question made Emilia turn back.

"I...I guess…" she said quietly, realizing what he was trying to say.

"If they know your routine, then it means they knew exactly when to leave that message on your windshield."

Emilia brought a hand to her forehead. "Oh my God, this has never happened to me. I'm...I'm so confused. What did I do?"

"Nothing," Olivia said sternly. "None of this is your fault."

"But…" Emilia dropped her hand to her side, "That message...what does that message mean?" She looked between Olivia and Sonny for an answer. "Because it means something, right? I'm just not seeing it."

"Let's...I'd much rather know about your day," Olivia said, "Like if there were any male co-workers that may have come up to you today?"

"They're my co-workers, of course they would."

"Any strange interaction?"

"No…"

"How about anything strange that happened today? Anything."

"No and no, nothing happened," Emilia sighed.

"Em, what about the scrunchie?" Alice suddenly asked.

Emilia turned to her friend in annoyance. "Alice, seriously?"

"They said anything and you never lose your stuff!"

"What happened?" Sonny looked between the two women. "Did something go missing today?"

Emilia rolled her eyes at Alice. "It's stupid, I...I lost my scrunchie. My hair tie?" she pointed to the rubberband currently holding her hair in its ponytail. "I thought I left it in my cubby but it's not there. But I'm pretty sure it's at home or something."

"Now hold on," Olivia motioned her not to jump to conclusions, "Your friend says you don't lose stuff very often."

"She doesn't," Alice confirmed. "She's a neat freak. And a good organizer."

"Alice," Emilia scolded wearily. "No one steals hair ties, not even a murderer and rapist."

Olivia pursed her lips. She didn't want to outright say what she was thinking and burst Emilia's bubble of denial. It was what was keeping her together for the moment. "Carisi?" she made a motion for him to follow her to the door. Emilia then scurried to Alice's side.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Sonny quietly spoke.

Olivia nodded. "It's a possibility. Evelyn Korami had an argument with Emilia last week. It may not have been so random as we thought. This guy's real target could be Emilia."

And here was Emilia who didn't believe a thing.

"How do you want to do this, Sarge?" Sonny felt like whatever plan Olivia came up with, it would be met with hostility from Emilia. "She doesn't want to answer questions anymore."

"The more we push, the less cooperative she'll be," Olivia agreed. She took in a breath and called for Emilia and Alice. "Miss Hartley, we're going to place you under protective custody."

Emilia stared at the pair with wide, incredulous eyes—the initial reaction they both expected—until she laughed. "Right…" Alice wasn't laughing. Olivia and Sonny were both staring at her until it donned on her. "Oh! Oh no!" She shook her head. "No way!"

"I know it's hard to believe—"

"No!" Emilia waved Olivia off. "I'm not—this has gone long enough! I'm not doing this! Nope!"

"It's for your own safety," Sonny tried to say but Emilia aggressively pointed at him to be quiet.

"I don't want to hear anything from you! I should've never called you!" That being said, she then directed her finger to Alice. "And I should've never listened to you!" She stormed out of the classroom without hearing anyone anymore.

"I swear she's a lot better than this," Alice said afterwards. "I think she's just pretty freaked out."

"We get it, trust us," Olivia assured her. She and Sonny went after Emilia.

Emilia was fast on her feet and was out of the school in mere seconds. "You need to leave me alone!" she told the pair.

"Emilia, you need to stop and you know it," Sonny barely got to say before she spun around to show her glare.

"I am not responsible for Evelyn's death—"

"No one is saying that—"

"But that's what they're going to think!" Emilia stomped her foot when the frustration managed to seep through her features. "If this is real, if it's actually real then everyone is going to blame me because this guy wants me!"

"But it's not the truth," Olivia gently said. "You are not responsible for the actions of others."

Emilia shook her head. "No," she wagged her finger then headed for her car again. "It's not real."

"Just because you say it, doesn't make true," Sonny said.

"No!" she snapped. "Now I know why you're single—you keep disagreeing with women!"

Sonny's eyebrows raised together. "Uh, okay…"

Emilia hurried for her car. The scene was clear but the cardboard was still on her windshield. She reached for it and chucked it to the side. She was about to move for the driver's side when she caught sight of something purple behind it.

Her scrunchie. Her flower-patterned, purple scrunchie was neatly tucked on the windshield.

The air left Emilia's lungs for a moment when she realized what must have happened. She swallowed hard. Olivia and Sonny came up behind her and saw what she was staring at.

"Emilia," Olivia started, "Let us help you."

"That was...that was in my cubby," Emilia gulped. "It was in the back, behind my bag. I don't lose my things and I certainly don't put them on my windshield." She brought her hand to her bag's strap and gripped it for dear life. "This is real, isn't it?"

"Unfortunately, yes, but it doesn't have to end badly," Olivia said. "We can help you. Why don't you come back with us to the precinct? We can set everything up over there."

Emilia said nothing for a minute, making the others worry she still wasn't going to let them help her. "Can...can the detective bring me there?" she asked very quietly, so quietly that it was almost inaudible.

"Uh…" Olivia glanced at Sonny who was just as surprised as she was. Emilia had been yelling at him a minute ago. "Sure, yeah...Carisi?"

"Of course," he stepped up beside Emilia who had yet to move since she found the scrunchie. "Emilia?"

The brunette slowly turned to him. "Yeah, I'm listening now. Promise."

"That's good, really. You're making a good choice." He really didn't like the expression on her face right now. "Are you ready?"

"Aha," she nodded. He motioned the way and without protesting, she walked with him.

[saiilorstars]

Saiilor Stars’ OCs in Hogwarts House Pt.2

(See Pt. 1!)

-- Masterlist to all OCs

-- Special shoutouts to...

 Fantastic Beasts OC Abigail Kowalski

 and

Harry Potter OC Romina Oswell

Taglist: @ocfairygodmother @anotherunreadblog​ @maaaaarveeeeel​ @stareyedplanet @perfectlystiles @averyhotchner​ 

[saiilorstars]

Saiilorstars’ SVU OCs

1. Montserrat Novak (Barba x Detective!OFC)

2. Emilia Hartley (Carisi x Teacher!OFC)

Taglist: @ocappreciationtag​​ @arrthurpendragon​​ @maaaaarveeeeel​ @stareyedplanet​​ @averyhotchner @foxesandmagic​​