He swirled his drink around, just staring at it. He had been on this stool for a couple of hours. He had closed the case. Taken his victory lap. But the whole thing had felt off. The whole week he had felt a step behind. Almost sidelined.

"How did you find me?"

"I'm a trained detective. Plus, I could smell the scotch."

"Barba" he heard as someone took up the seat next to him. He turned and sighed. "I should have left 20 minutes ago" he whispered.

"Oh, you're not going to let me get out of here." He shook his head. He was hoping getting back to work would make this flood of memories stop, but no such luck.

"Penny for your thoughts, counselor?" Rita smiled at him as she sipped her wine. "I would have thought after taking down Coyle you would have been strutting around Manhattan like you had just conquered it."

"Yeah, well…"

She gave him a look. "Rafael Barba, at a loss for words? Someone get me a pen. I need to write this down." He just shook his head and turned back to his drink. "It just all felt off" he said quietly. If she hadn't been paying attention, she would have missed it.

"Ok, Raf. Now I've moved into concern for you. Which is a weird feeling. So, knock it off and tell me what's going on."

"Nothing."

"We've known each other a long time. Don't try your bullshit on me."

"Rita, please. Drop it."

"Drop what? I don't even know…" but she stopped and leaned back. Really looking at her old friend. "I don't know this look on you. What is this?" she asked, waving her hand at him. He shook his head.

"Something is in your head. Or… well, shut the front door. Could it be a someone? Someone is in your head?" He rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, trying to ignore her. That's how she knew she was on the right track. "Could it be that the bad ass Rafael Barba is finally going to admit that…" He glared at her.

"Admit what?"

"Raf."

"Rita."

"Gonna make me say it. Fine then. Olivia Benson." He shook his head and looked back to his drink, wishing he could drown himself in it right now.

"Look Barba. I will deny all of this tomorrow but you had a good day and you deserve some enjoyment from that and I just had a nice drink with a handsome man who is waiting for me at the door and I'm in a good mood. But from where I sit, watching you and her work together over the last 5 years, you two have something. Something undeniable. Something you don't see every day. You two… are infuriating, to be honest. I mean, I hate you two in court, but in life… it is a waste to see you two just slide by day after day and ignore, ignore, ignore. Maybe you should think about stopping that." And with that, she patted him on the shoulder and was gone.

He was tired. Even after two weeks off, he was tired. He downed the rest of his drink and dropped some cash on the bar, paying his bill and heading out into the night.