A/N: This is a one-shot. Setting in current time. Not attached to any other of my story universes. Standalone. Noah is same age as on show, everything else is same, except Olivia and Alex are married. Dated back in day, Alex left, as she did, etc... and at some point, they got back together and got married. (ok, maybe some day I'll expand this universe, but maybe not).

Thanks for the idea...

TRUST

"You what?!"

Olivia was angry – no, livid. She couldn't believe what Barba was telling her. She paced around Barba's office, running her hands through her hair.

"Liv, listen to me," Barba said. "There's no excuse. I made a rookie mistake not disclosing that information, I don't know what I was thinking. But, you still have a strong case. I'll just have to recuse myself and someone else from the DA's office can handle it."

"We don't need someone else," Olivia said, continuing her pacing around Barba's office. "Barba, we've been working on this case for months. You know the ins and outs of this case. You really think someone else can come in and handle it? I mean, who are they going to send? Some kid who just passed the bar?"

"To handle special victims? Of course not," Barba said.

He knew Olivia was overreacting to some degree, but he understood why she was upset. He was upset with himself and he had made a stupid mistake.

"You should have trusted me," Olivia said. "You should have told me."

"I should have, but I didn't," Barba said. "Come on, Liv, haven't you ever made a mistake?"

Olivia clenched her teeth and shook her head, looking down and away from Barba. Of course, she'd made her share of mistakes, she just expected more from Barba at this point in their careers and relationship.

"Of course," Olivia said. "But no one ever had pictures of me naked in bed with a witness."

With that Olivia shook her head again and left Barba's office. She needed to leave before she crossed a line and said something that would be hard for either of them to forget.

#

Alex was already home when Olivia arrived. Noah was with Amanda and Jessie. She had offered to take Noah for part of the evening so Olivia and Alex could go out and have dinner. It had been a while since they'd had a night out alone.

Of course, that was before all hell broke loose at SVU.

Amanda knew by Olivia's mood she probably wasn't in the mood to go out, but she picked up Noah from Alex anyway, figuring they could use the alone time anyway. She warned Sonny not to say anything to Alex about what had happened earlier with Barba. He'd volunteered to cook dinner for them all.

"Why not? She's gonna find out anyway. You know the DA office leaks like a faucet," Carisi said.

"Just trust me," Amanda said. "Liv would probably rather tell her herself."

"Okay, but I don't see why it matters," he said, but agreed.

Olivia sat her keys and badge down, then locked her gun in the drawer next to the door. She was about to pull her shoes off when Alex came out of the bedroom.

"Oh, you're home finally," Alex said. "Are you ready to go?"

Olivia was still a bit in an angry daze. She gave Alex a confused look.

"Babe, don't tell me you forgot," Alex said. "I've had these reservations for a week."

"Dinner." It slowly came back to Olivia was day it was. "Alex, it's really not been the best day for me."

"Then that's exactly why we need a night out," Alex said. "You can tell me about it."

"Alex…"

"Olivia, Noah is with Rollins. We haven't had a night to ourselves in … well, I don't even know how long it's been," Alex said. "We're going."

"Fine," Olivia said.

#

They made their way to the restaurant. It was new and fancy and exactly the kind of place someone who aspired to be District Attorney would want to be seen. Of course, it was exactly the kind of place an SVU Lieutenant wanted to avoid.

Alex order and appetizer after Olivia gave her a shrug as to what she wanted. They ordered wine and when the appetizer came – bacon wrapped asparagus – Alex raved about how good they were and how they use bacon a little more at home in some of their recipes. Olivia just nibbled at it quietly while drinking her wine.

"Are you going to at least pretend like you're enjoying our night out?" Alex said.

Olivia looked up at her.

"Liv, if you were going to be like this, you should have stayed home," Alex said.

"You didn't tell me that was an option," Olivia said, rolling her eyes.

Alex took a breath then a drink of wine to calm her rising blood pressure.

"Liv, will you at least tell me what is wrong?" Alex said. "When I asked you on the way over you said nothing, which I know isn't true."

Olivia was momentarily saved by their dinner plates arriving and the server offering more wine.

"Yes, please," Olivia said, finishing off her glass.

"I'm fine for now," Alex said, noting she was only half way done with hers.

They cut into their dinner and tasted it while the server retrieved another glass of wine for Olivia. When he was gone, Alex asked again.

"So, what happened today that has you like this? Rollins and Carisi didn't mention anything when she picked up Noah," Alex said.

"Good, Carisi is learning," Olivia said. Alex just stared at her, waiting on her to answer the original question. "The Martin case we've been working for a few months potentially just tanked today."

"What? Why?" Alex said. She had listen to Olivia obsess over this case for months. They'd finally got more than enough evidence to put the guy away for a long time. Alex couldn't imagine what could tank the case.

"Barba."

"Barba?" Alex said. Olivia didn't say anything, just picked at her food. "I'm going to need more than that, Liv. What did he do?"

"He apparently had a relationship with a potential witness," Olivia said. "A long ago relationship."

"Why didn't he disclose? Who was the witness?"

"An officer at the 2-7," Olivia said. "He's a few years younger than Barba and I guess when Barba was a young brand new attorney, this guy was in academy. They dated for a short time."

"Okay?"

"So, this guy, Lackey, was one of the first on the scene. He's a detective in vice now, but he was still a uni when this started," Olivia explained. "Anyway, he's married and hadn't exactly been forthcoming with his wife or his colleagues about his experimenting when he was younger."

"Oh…" Alex said.

"But, that's not SVU's problem," Olivia said, starting to get worked up again. "I mean, I understand him needing privacy, but it doesn't change that Barba should have told someone."

"Told someone or told you?" Alex asked.

"Does it matter? He didn't tell anyone – that's the point," Olivia said.

"Okay, so someone else will take the case over," Alex said.

"Alex, why are you taking his side?"

"I'm not, Liv, I'm just trying to be encouraging," Alex said. "Anyway, how did this come about?"

"Apparently, Lackey's wife saw the two of them talking about the case outside his apartment, and recognized Barba," Olivia said. Alex waited for more explanation. "I guess Lackey hadn't been as careful as he thought. At some point, the woman had seen pics of Barba, um, half naked in bed. Lackey kept them buried in his closet or something. She never said anything, ignored it –"

"Until she saw them together," Alex finished, finally understanding what had happened.

Olivia took a drink of wine and nodded. "Then she made a visit to Barba's office."

"Wow," Alex said, sipping her wine.

"Yeah, and he should have said something," Olivia said.

"Well, I mean…yes, he should have, but I can understand. It was a long time ago," Alex said.

"You can understand?" Olivia said. "If it had been one of my detectives, IAB would be all over them. I mean, we can forget to dot an "I" on a form and it'll get evidence thrown out in court and fucking ADAs all over our case. Telling us how we screwed up 'their' case. As if there would even be a case without us."

"Okay, Liv, you realize your wife is one of those 'fucking ADAs,'" Alex said, eyeing her wife over her glasses.

"Yeah, and you'd be having a fit, too," Olivia said.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, come on, how many times did you jump all over mine and Elliot's case?" Olivia said. "Seriously, you all sit up there in your offices, let us do all the work, take the credit for the win, but then blame us when you can't sell it in court."

"I think you need to reconsider the words you're saying to me," Alex said. "I have never treated you like that. We all make mistakes, babe. You've made mistakes. I've made mistakes. Barba is allowed a mistake. He's a good attorney."

"Yeah, he is, which is why he should have known better," Olivia said, calming down a little realizing she was being attacking toward Alex and not meaning to be.

"Okay, yes, he should have," Alex said. "But even when we know better, it doesn't mean we don't let other things get the best of us sometimes. His intentions were good. This guy is only a potential witness. I can see him delaying giving that info up until he knew for sure the guy would testify."

"He should have trusted me," Olivia said.

A smile grew on Alex's face.

"What?" Olivia asked.

"Liv, we kept a pretty big secret for a while," Alex said, taking a bit of food, and knowing she had backed Olivia into a corner.

"That was different," Olivia whispered.

"How?" Alex said. "No wait, you're right, it was different. It was worse."

"That's nice," Olivia said sarcastically. "Glad to know how bad we were."

"You know what I mean," Alex said. "I don't mean us. Obviously, it worked out to be the best thing that's ever happened to me."

Finally, Olivia cracked a smile.

"All I'm saying is that had some of those defense attorneys known back then that we were, um, whatever we were doing back then…"

"Sleeping together?"

"Yeah, that," Alex said. "If anyone had known, do you have any idea how many cases we could have had thrown out? Every case you testified in for me could have been question."

"We were a lot younger," Olivia said.

"Yeah, but we still knew better," Alex said. "I mean, it's why we broke up or stopped sleeping together, or whatever."

"Yeah, but…"

"No, Liv," Alex said. "You sounded just like Stabler just then when you said, 'he should have trusted me.' Do you remember when he found out?"

Olivia chuckled. Oh, she remembered.

"Look, sweetheart, I know you're disappointed. I know you want Barba in that courtroom with you because he's good at what he does," Alex said. "But you have a strong case, and you know Barba isn't going to let the DA assign just anyone to handle this."

Olivia sighed. She knew Alex was right.

"You wanted Barba to trust you, and he should have," Alex said. "But now, you have to trust him."

"Fine, you're right," Olivia said.

"I know I am," Alex said, smirking. "Do you at least feel better?"

"I do," Olivia said. "Thank you. Even for dragging me out to this fancy restaurant."

"Oh, you like it now?"

"I don't hate it," Olivia said, grinning.

"You've had a lot of wine," Alex said.

"Just two glasses," Olivia said.

"Three, but who's counting," Alex said.

"Oh, well, I wasn't trying to –"

"Stop right there, Liv," Alex said. "I know. I wasn't complaining. In fact, I was kind of hoping between a nice night out and some wine, you'd be nice and relaxed for some kid-free time tonight at home. That's why I didn't say anything earlier."

"Oh," Olivia said, eyebrows raised.

"Yep," Alex said. "I mean, we'll have at least a couple hours after we get home before Noah comes home. And you know Noah is always zonked out when he hangs out with Sonny."

"Thank you," Olivia said, after a few seconds of silence between them.

"For wanting to spend an evening with my wife?"

"No, for always grounding me and being my sounding board," Olivia said. "But also, for challenging me."

"Liv, you inspire me every day," Alex said. "To do what you've done, as long as you've done it, and to be as passionate about it and compassionate with every victim that walks through the door – you deserve that in your life, too. You can't always take care of everyone else. You should have someone take care of you, too."

"You do, Alex," Olivia said. "You always have."

Alex put some money in the check holder and got up. She leaned down and whispered in Olivia's ear before Olivia got up.

"Good, because I'm also going to take very good care of you tonight," Alex said.

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