Smart Mouth

What would I do without your smart mouth?

Drawing me in, and you kicking me out

You've got my head spinning, no kidding, I can't pin you down

What's going on in that beautiful mind

I'm on your magical mystery ride

And I'm so dizzy, don't know what hit me, but I'll be alright

John Legend

"That smart mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble one day." His mother had told him often, and she was right. It got him in trouble with teachers who didn't appreciate the fact that he knew more than they did. It got him in trouble with the Neanderthal like boys on his street in the Bronx. It had probably cost him a girl or two before he learned how to use it to get women. Despite the trouble it got him in he always found it to be an asset and never understood why it bothered people. Unless you were unintelligent why would you be bothered by someone else's wit (as he preferred to think of it)? Then he met her and suddenly he understood.

Oliva Benson had a smart mouth unlike anyone he had ever met. The first time he heard it his head spun around, "Did she really just say that?" She was talking to that ass from IAB and managed to level him in one comment. He looked forward to hearing her interrogate suspects or take on people in her own department because he had to admit her smart mouth was really sexy.

Then one day it turned on him. He should have seen it coming they had gotten past the formality of their working relationship and she had learned his buttons and wasn't afraid to push them. "Come on Barba you can be very convincing when you want to be." Or "Oh are you afraid of taking on the Mayor." Or the countless number of time she threw his own words back at him.

Of course he never felt the need to hold back either. He would make sure she got it as good as she gave. The other members of her team often watched them like people would watch a prize fight waiting to see who would get in the final blow. He had no illusion they were ever rooting for him but occasionally he did get in the final blow and he had to admit he loved that stunned look on her face when she couldn't think of anything else to say.

Neither of them never gave in easily and he would be lying if he said they never crossed the line in their jabs at each other. It was the downside of two strong personalities working so closely together. They knew each other's weak spot and at times went for them to get what they wanted. The flash of pain in the other's eyes would instantly silence whoever had crossed the line. "I'm sorry." Were words that were said often by them both.

It was one of those fights that had him sitting on her front steps in the rain on a Friday evening. A few days earlier they had gone fifteen round in his office. He was losing the case he was trying. He was about to offer the suspect what they both knew to be a lousy deal.

"That's a bullshit deal and you know it Barba." She all but yelled at him.

'Well if your lab hadn't mangled the evidence so badly I wouldn't be trying to make a case out of nothing." He yelled back.

"I've seen you do more with less." She snapped.

"Yes and I've seen you actually run a department that could bring me cases I could win, why don't you try doing that again?" He said immediately regretting it when he saw the mix of hurt and anger cross her face.

"Fine, Barba I will go run my department and stop trying to help save your ass." She said grabbing her coat and leaving his office.

"Liv, wait." He said but his words were met with the slamming of his office door.

Three days went by and they didn't speak, she didn't return his text and sent Finn over with the new evidence that made for a much better deal. He didn't know how she had managed to get it but he owed her a thank you and an apology.

That's how he found himself sitting on her front steps in the rain on a Friday evening. It wasn't raining when he left the office and he forgot his umbrella so by the time she go there he was soaking wet.

"Barba, what are you doing sitting on my steps in the pouring rain?" She asked him.

"Getting wet" He said having grown a little cranky waiting in the rain for her.

"Well then you've succeeded." She said and continued to walk past him to the door of her building.

"Liv, please wait." He said softly taking her empty hand as she walked by him.

Despite the cold rain she felt a rush of warmth through her body when he took her hand. She couldn't help but turn back to him ready to hear him out.

"I came to tell you thank you for saving my ass again and to tell you I am sorry for being as ass again." He said still holding her hand.

"What you said really hurt. It matters to me what you think of the job I do." She said quietly.

Barba didn't know if he had ever felt worse, "Liv, you are one of the best cops I have ever met, I don't know how you run your department as well as you do. I knew I was letting you down and I made it worse by saying something that I didn't mean."

Olivia sighed and Barba felt her rub her thumb over his hand, "I wasn't exactly being easy on you."

Barba smiled at her, "You never are and I like it that way, it's part of who we are, sometimes we just need to know better where the line is."

Olivia looked down at their now intertwined fingers and back up at his face, "Maybe we need to figure out a little better who we are too."

Barba pulled her a little closer and smiled at her, "If you invite me in out of the rain I can order us some Chinese food and we can work on that."

Oliva smiled at him, "Who says you get to pick what we eat?"

He answered by placing his lips over hers and kissing her just long enough to produced that stunned expression on her face that he loved so much.

"Olivia Benson has anyone ever told you that smart mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble one day." He whispered as he wrapped his arm around her.

She leaned into him as they walked up the remainder of her steps and said, "I'm pretty sure it already has."

The End