Hi, so here is another story my first for SVU despite having watched it since Season 15. This came about from too many late nights binge watching all the episodes that Barba was in. This story came about from that.

This story is not episode central, some episodes will be mentioned and have chapters based around them some wont. I plan to cover Season 15 to Season 17 some Season 18 depending on how It pans out and perhaps even Season 19 but i'm honestly not sure.

There is no plans to add romance to this story but if you guys like it and you have a pairing then I don't mind adding one.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just Avri.

Please Read and Review.

Prosecutor's Daughter

In which Barba has a teenager daughter that comes to stay bringing with her stress, sarcasm and teenage antics three things the prosecutor hates. How does this change the dynamics within the Special Victims Unit? AU Season 15-17, Some Season 18. Non-episode specific, loose timeline.

Chapter 1-A Brave New World.

It was a busy day.

That was what needed to be said because otherwise Captain Donald Cragen was going to lock himself in his office and despair at his detectives. All of them. Because here at SVU they took walk-ins seriously and a teenager walking in suitcase and iced latte in hand and sitting down at the table without anyone noticing her did not speak well to the security of his unit.

But it had been a very busy day.

Most of the detectives were cleaning up the mess that came when they were dealing with the now concluded rape case that involved the rich sleaze-bag Cameron Tyler, the trial was now getting ahead, there was a trial to prepare for and with the team still tightly strung after the whole William Lewis debacle tensions were still running high. Amaro, Fin and Rollins were pouring over the paperwork that needed to be finished and this time it had to be on time and Benson and Barba were locked in a heated discussion in his office about whether or not the victim that they had made into a victim needed to be dragged in front of the grand jury.

So all in all he could confidently-or at least not lose sleep over the fact-that they were busy. So the girl sneaking in, taking a seat at the table where their screens were kept and sipping an iced coffee while reading her text messages without anyone seeing her but him was not too big an oversight.

Or at least that was going to be the official story.

Don caught a glimpse of her as he was walking back to his office after going to get this third cup of shitty coffee this morning in order to help him referee the battle of wills going on in his office. He apricated why Benson was in both Sarah and her friend Nicole's corner and his heart did genuinely go out to the latter but Benson was still struggling with her ordeal and he knew that in making this girl a victim in order to put a vicious predator behind bars he might have triggered a setback.

God he missed John some days. Since his retirement the week previous Don had to admit that he had been struggling somewhat. Munch had been closer to his age in the unit and he could still remember the days when Olivia and Elliot were young and throwing themselves into the job. He and Munch had laughed about it over coffee on stakeouts, what it would take for the two of them to stop caring in their own way about each and every victim with no distinction.

Now Munch was gone into the bliss of retirement and Elliot had put in his papers too tired to carry on and God knows Olivia was never going to be the same no matter how hard she tried.

He was really looking for any excuse when he saw the girl and for a second he looked around you know, just to make sure he was seeing it.

She didn't look like a victim. He supposed that was wrong of him to judge but he had seen many victims both as a homicide captain and an SUV captain and she didn't look like one. She had long brown hair that was curling slightly and her face from what he could see was the colour of coffee after you just poured half a milk carton in, she had dark brown eyes slanted cheekbones and her lips were painted red. Don had been out of the dating game for a while but he could tell that this girl could walk into a bar in this city and at any age not pay for drinks. She was on her phone with a board expression though her mouth was twisted slightly as if the lack of response she was getting didn't surprise her. She was in jeans and high heeled black boots and a red jumper that matched both her lipstick and her nails.

She didn't look nervous or frightened in fact she looked board. Don couldn't remember the last time he'd seen someone walk into SVU with a board expression. Or with a suitcase come to think of it.

Liv's voice rose from his office and Don decided it was best to kill some time by asking this girl if she was ok.

He moved over to the table.

"Hello there" he said in what he hoped was a voice that didn't betray his confusion.

She looked at him then her eyes quick and apprising in that way teenagers had. She couldn't have been older than sixteen.

"Hi" she said sliding her phone into her bag that was resting on the suitcase.

"Can I help you with something?"

"I'm looking for my Dad, his office said he would be at SVU and the cops said this was the place"

"Well this is SVU yeah, but I don't think any off my officers have a kid your age. I've been Captain here for the last fifteen years, I think I've seen every photo off every kid that has a parent in my squad and I don't think I remember you"

"You wouldn't" the girl said casually taking a sip from her latte, and how women or girls did that without smearing their lipstick Don would never know. "My Dad's not a cop"

She stared at him with that twist of a smile and Don thought for a second. The only other people other than cops that entered this place were ADAs and they only had one of those assigned now…

Wait…did she mean…Barba?

"Barba?" he asked and she nodded looking relieved.

"Yeah" she said without really that Don's head was now spinning with this brand new information.

"I went to the office at the DA's and after all that fuss he wasn't there and then the secretary said he was probably here so I took a cab though I'm pretty sure he tried to cheat me. Anyhow I kinda didn't want to have this conversation with him over the phone. So…" she trailed off.

"Are you living with him now?" he asked eyeing the suitcase.

At once the smile dropped off her face and the little twist at the mouth was back. She shrugged once and Don took that as an excuse to go and get Barba and tell him that his teenage daughter was here and apparently staying judging by the suitcase.

"Stay here" he said resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he took a gulp of coffee and not for the first time counted down how long he had to mandatory retirement.

He opened the door to his office and saw much to his relief that Barba and Liv had stopped shouting and were now glaring at each other. Oh wonderful.

"Counsellor" he said trying not to take too great a pleasure in the news that he was about to bring.

"There is a girl outside, she has a suitcase and she says she's your daughter"

There was a pause as Liv gaped at him and Barba stared at him for a second, a long second before his eyes turned to the window. He was out of Don's office so fast that the Captain was almost impressed. He followed the prosecutor out of the doorway just in time to see Barba shout, "Avri"

The girl…no…Avri looked up and winced because Barba did not look too pleased.

"Hey Dad" she said standing up. They were nearly the same height and now they were facing each other he could see the resemblance. Avri wrapped her arms around her waist.

"When the hell…how the hell…why are you here?" Barba said pulling her to one side.

"Mom didn't call you…oh wait…never mind…I kinda need to stay with you for now" she said finally.

Barba gazed at her for a second in what looked like shock and Don realised that if he didn't do something soon this scenario would be around the entire NYPD by lunch. Nobody gossiped better than cops when they set their mind to it.

"How about we take this into my office and you two can…sort this out" he said and then he opened the door for them which was really an invitation in itself. If he got to sit down before lunchtime behind his own desk it would be nothing sort of a miracle.

Avri smiled at him the kind of smile that probably had two rookies stop what they were doing to smile back. She had dimples when she smiled as well he noted. Barba kinda jerked his head at him and then followed his daughter through to his office so that they could hash out whatever it was that was going on between them and fast.

"Wow" Liv said finally. "Barba has a teenager, I really did not see that coming"

It took great difficulty for Donald Cragen to contain his snort.

The second the door had shut Avri turned to face her father. She had known that simply strolling into the prescient was not perhaps the best idea but what choice did she have? That bloody secretary had refused her entry to her own father's office declaring that if her boss had a daughter she would know about it which said all that needed to be said in that department.

She was tired, she was more than a little hurt and she was in need of a shower, a change of clothes and a drink and not necessarily in that order.

Her Dad did not look pleased to see her. Oh his hug had been warm enough but she supposed turning up on his doorstep in front of his new work colleagues wasn't the best impression she could have made. But she was honestly too tired to care right now.

"Before you start believe me I didn't want to drop in on you like that" she said shaking her head. "But I didn't have a choice. Mom's in London with boyfriend number five and she made it very clear that she didn't want me with her."

"What do you mean she made it clear? She did or he did?"

Her father's voice had that undercurrent of steal that meant he was annoyed but not at her. Avri knew she had won him over when she had mentioned her Mom and she smiled though both of them knew it was a weak one.

"She did relax but she made it clear I had a weak to pack and get out of the apartment. So I came here, Uncle Alex got me a flight from Chicago to here last night, she'll be in London right now I reckon not that's she's gonna text me"

She tried to hide the hurt but she knew that she failed miserably. With her mother you would have thought Avri would have learnt a long time ago that disappointment was her bedfellow but each time it stung a little bit more than the time before.

"Oh cariño" he said finally and Avri took that to mean that he was annoyed but not at her. Avri tried to pretend that she wasn't annoyed by this whole thing but she couldn't help it. Her parents had not had the longest or happiest marriage and half of the reason they had gone to the courthouse was because her Mom had been pregnant or so her mother had said, it had been messy and never ending and she her Dad had pretty much given up on custody when she turned five on the condition that she live in the states and she came for Christmas though she had not done so this year.

"Look" she said running a hand through her hair. "I get it but…believe me If I had another place to go I would. I didn't exactly wanna show up here but…" she shrugged

If her father was hurt by her honesty he didn't show it.

"Here" he said handing her the keys and then scrawling down an address. "I have a hearing this afternoon but as soon as I can I'll get home and we can sort this out"

Avri didn't think there was much to sort out but she was tired and in dire need of a shower and a drink so she nodded took the keys and left.

Her Dad's apartment was much the same as it was the last time she had seen it, fortunately he had a bottle of wine under the counter and she uncorked it as she took it to the shower.

Hard to believe it but she still disappointed.

Liv had waited outside the courtroom once the judge had ruled that Nicole's testimony counted and she hadn't been lead to the conclusion that she had been raped by her and Rollins, and she fell into step as soon as Barba came out.

"So that was interesting" she said casually.

"Not really" Barba said not looking up. "Judge was never gonna throw that out, Nicole's got no prior records for lying and was clearly too intoxicated to realise what had happened"

"No not that…" she said shooting him a look.

"I mean your daughter turning up in the squad room"

Barba looked at her then. "Oh that"

Liv resisted the urge to roll her eyes with great difficulty.

"Yes that, you never said you had a daughter"

"It never came up…look it's complicated"

Liv gathered that.

"Avri, she's…she's been living with her mother and now her mother's gone off to London and left her with me, with no warning or heads up to either one of us which I wish I could say wasn't typical of my ex but it really is"

Liv nodded noticing a meltdown was on the way.

"You were married?"

"Loosely, look her family were big on marriage when a girl got pregnant and I was young and barely out of law school. Avri was…well not planned and both of us knew it, besides we divorced like three years after the fact and she's been with her Mom ever since"

"So that's it?"

"What…no Liv give me a break I don't know what to do, she's sixteen I haven't seen her in two years, if she's come to me it's because she doesn't have a choice which is hardly what a father likes to hear."

Liv would grant him that.

"Still you can't just throw her out"

Now it was Barba's turn to throw her a nasty look

"I know that. I don't intend to, what I intend to do is find my ex and yell at her for a year and then go home and try and figure out how this is gonna work"

Liv sighed again wishing she didn't feel a migraine coming on.

"If it makes you feel any better, I think your kid is just as confused as you are about this"

Barba snorted.

Well there was really nothing to do about it.

After a three-minute conversation with his delightful ex-wife Rafael had come home in need of a drink. Perhaps a bottle.

It was clear Avri was staying. And he wasn't against the idea not by a longshot, hell he was glad that his daughter was staying, really pleased but he would have to take the fifth on how nervous he was at the thought.

He and Avri had never really got on.

He had thrown himself into his work landing promotion after promotion and Avri had gone to live with her mother in Chicago and they had never really had time together. He had gone up to see her at Christmas but over the summer his new promotion to SVU, the fact that William Lewis was still awaiting trial and the many other demands of the Manhattan DA had taken up much of his free time.

He had wished he got unlimited access to his daughter and it seemed fate always did have a funny way of kicking him up the arse and now there was this…Avri his complete responsibly.

On the plus side that meant his mother was finally off his back about seeing her only grandchild now.

Avri had only been in his apartment a couple of hours and already it seemed she had moved in because he nearly broke a leg tripping over one of those boots. She had kept her suitcase in the corner but she had changed and was sat at the table flipping through her phone with a mug of something in front of her and half a bottle of red wine on the table.

Wait…

Half?

"Have you been drinking?" he asked trying to keep his temper down.

"Yeah" Avri said not looking up.

"Hang on, you've been drinking my wine, my sixty-dollar wine…in a mug?" he all but shouted.

Avri looked up then, "You pay sixty bucks for wine?"

Rafael ignored her.

"You get that your sixteen, right?"

"Mom doesn't mind when I do it"

"Oh, I bet she doesn't" he muttered feeling even more irritated if that was possible

"Yeah well rule change no doing it here, and defiantly no drinking in mugs."

"I didn't want you to see" Avri said her tone bland.

"Yeah cause half a bottle of missing wine isn't at all obvious"

She had the grace to hide her smile.

"Look I can get the first flight out of here if you want" she said finally.

"I don't"

Now she looked surprised. "You don't?"

"No" he said sitting down so he was facing her. She was in leggings and an old Harvard jumper the one he had sent her as a gag gift for her last birthday. It looked both well-worn and well washed.

"You can stay here"

Avri raised an eyebrow "I can?"

"Yeah, you know you're always welcome to"

"I thought you were mad at me?"

"For the wine yes, for this situation no"

"Oh"

"But Av, if you're staying here we need to have some ground rules. For example, no drinking, ever."

She rolled her eyes but he noted that she didn't argue.

"And a curfew"

Now she did look put out.

"Ten on school nights"

"You're kidding" she said looking extremely unimpressed.

"No, and eleven on weekends"

"Half eleven and I don't call you out on tracking my iPhone"

Rafael was about to point out that he wasn't going to do that and then caught her expression and consented.

"Fine"

She smiled then that genuine smile that she hid beneath all her sarcasm.

"Ok" she said grinning. "Can I go unpack?"

He nodded.

"Oh by the way" she said turning around her dark hair flying in a way that he knew models strove to achieve.

"Were gonna need a bigger bed for your spare room"

"Not tonight"

"Soon" she said turning around.

"And Dad" she said still smiling.

"Thanks"

"Yeah, yeah I'm wonderful I know" he said taking the compliment.

Avri smiled again disappearing down the hallway.

Rafael tried to hide his groan and then realised that he still had to call him mother and let her know that she now had access to her only grandchild and then really groaned.

A brave new world they were heading for indeed.

If it didn't implode on him that is.

And let me know what you think and if this is an idea worth continuing.