A random little bit of 'something' that I wrote after Barba and Olivia's video chat and have only just had the chance to edit. I'm not sure where it is going yet - and I doubt it will even get a follow up for a couple of weeks - but it was just knocking around so I thought I would share it! The rating is quite low at the moment but I have a feeling it might raise significantly for future chapter/chapters.

Rafael Barba walked through to his makeshift office and groaned at the sight of the papers piled on his desk. Had they grown overnight or had a decent nights sleep merely lessened his workload in his mind?

"Dystopian nightmare…" He grumbled to himself with a wry smile and then walked over to pick up a few pages of what he felt sure must contain fresh horrors. He put his coffee down on the desk and then dropped down into his chair.

He actually enjoyed his job, he reminded himself with a slow intake of breath. Being part of the push back against this insanity gave him an authentic sense of purpose. As he picked up his coffee and took a sip he thought back to his video call with Olivia for what must have been the 100th time in three days.

He smiled.

"Found something?" Lizzie asked as she walked through into his office.

"No, just thinking…" He said distractedly and then seemed to snap himself out of it and focus back on the task at hand.

"You seem to be doing that a lot over the last couple of days. Smiling randomly at nothing and...thinking..." She smirked and sat down on a chair opposite his desk.

He looked up at her over the paper he was now attempting to read and raised an eyebrow, "If you're looking for gossip you've come to the wrong place…I have nothing."

Lizzie smiled and ran her tongue over the inside of her cheek, "Now, you see if anyone had asked me about you a few days ago I would have said the same thing…but there's something going on with you."

Barba glanced at her flatly, raised an eyebrow and then looked back at his work without a word.

"Come on, who's the lucky woman? Lucky man? You've got to give me something! I know you were talking to someone on a video call the other day…this wistful longing seems to have…"

"Please! I do not do wistful longing!" Barba cut in with exasperation.

Lizzie laughed, "No, you didn't do wistful longing, you were the last person on earth I would have ever associated with wistful longing...but over the last few days…" She smiled at him teasingly.

"I was talking to a friend in New York, okay? It really was nothing," he brushed it off and hoped that Lizzie would too.

Lizzie rolled her eyes, "I've dated more than my fair share of 'nothing' over the years, boss, and whatever that was was not nothing."

Barba shook his head with irritation, "You're in communications, Lizzie, that was barely a sentence. Are you sure you're working for the right side?"

Lizzie smirked, she was not about to fall for her bosses attempts at distraction.

He sighed, "She's not just some woman, Lizzie. I was talking to Olivia, she's one of…well, actually she is my closest friend…but she's been having a tough time lately and I was concerned. I just wanted to check-in."

"The Olivia?" Lizzie asked with fascination and leaned forward to prop her elbow on his desk and her chin on her palm in exaggerated interest.

"There is only one Olivia," Barba tried to brush her off again, "…so I guess that would make her the Olivia, yes. Now are we going to actually get some work done today, or have you become completely preoccupied with my private life?"

"I've become 'preoccupied' with the fact that you appear to have a private life," Lizzie said with a soft but teasing laugh, "…you could have fooled me."

"Lizzie…" Barba growled softly.

"Rafael, you can't just…" Lizzie started to ask but then was cut off by Marcus arriving abruptly in the office.

"Boss?" He asked distractedly, a breakfast sandwich in one hand and his open laptop hanging from the other.

"What is this? Central Station?" Barba asked and nodded at the piles of work on his desk. "I do have work to do. You know I'm starting to think back warmly to an era when people wouldn't dare just randomly walk into my office like they owned the place." His mind automatically drifted back to a certain lieutenant doing just that.

"There! You did it again!" Lizzie laughed and then turned to look at Marcus. "Tell me you saw that?"

Marcus looked nonplus, "He…smiled?"

"He smiled wistfully," Lizzie corrected with a grin, "…that was a wistful smile!"

Barba rolled his eyes, "I'm surrounded by idiots."

Marcus took a bite of his sandwich and almost dropped his laptop, a move that would have made Barba wince just a few weeks before but he had quickly learned was standard.

"Did you want something, Marcus? Or did you just come in here to trail your breakfast detritus all over my floor?" Barba asked his new friend pointedly and then nodded down at some sandwich filling near his feet.

"I wanted…" Marcus shuffled his laptop and sandwich into one arm and then pointed over his shoulder at the hall behind him, "…I wanted to know what you wanted me to do with your meeting?"

"Do with my meeting?" Barba said picking up his phone and scrolling through. "Do I have a meeting?"

Marcus bit into his sandwich and shrugged, "You have…a visitor? So I guess…"

"You guess?" Barba asked with his eyebrows raised.

"Someone to see you…" Marcus tried to clarify, "…she asked to speak to you." He paused and then added, "Actually, she can't be in the diary because she said something about how if this wasn't a good time she could come back later…or…"

"Marcus, did you at least get a name? Is it someone from the GOP? Because I haven't got the time or inclination to…" Barba looked back down at his work.

"Benson? Sounds like she's from New York, so I guess she could be GOP…"

Barba's mouth dropped open so comically that even Marcus seemed to notice something was up.

"Benson? You mean on the phone?" He clarified as he stood up behind the desk.

"No…out there..." Marcus nodded in the direction of the front of the building. "You want me to put her off for a few hours while you get this lot sorted?" He nodded at Barba's desk and then leapt out of the way as his boss rushed passed him.

"You can't be serious?" Barba called back towards them as he vanished down the hall.

Marcus looked at Lizzie with a puzzled expression, "When am I not?"

Lizzie ignored Marcus and sprang up to follow Barba.

Suddenly finding himself alone in Barba's office Marcus looked around, shrugged and then turned to trail after them.

Barba raced around the corner and then drew to a sudden stop when he arrived in the hallway/front-office and found Olivia Benson leaning on the door frame of the building entrance, she was looking out of the front windows onto the parking lot.

"Jesus Christ, Liv?!" Barba asked with a tone somewhere between shock, confusion and joy. He didn't give her time to speak, as she turned toward him with a smile he simply wrapped his arms around her in a warm embrace.

"Hi…" she replied as her arms wrapped around him, "…is this a bad time?"

He pulled back and tilted his head to look into her eyes, "A bad time? What on earth are you talking about? How are you even here? In Iowa!"

"I don't know…" Olivia laughed and looked completely bewildered. "Things have been a little difficult lately, everything sort of piling up…and we just had a case that…" She sighed and then continued, "That video chat we had? It was the first time I've felt…I don't know, felt like myself for the longest time...when I'm not with Noah, of course. I realised that I needed to take a break and when I spoke to you the other day…" she paused and then finished, "…it's a long time until the primary and I guess that I needed to see my friend."

Barba smiled, he looked shocked but genuinely thrilled. "You're really here to see me?"

Olivia laughed, "I'm in Iowa, Rafael. Why else would I be here?"

He turned and looked back at Lizzie and Marcus. Lizzie had a huge grin on her face and Marcus just looked…perplexed.

"I can't believe you're really here!" Barba said looking back at Olivia and suddenly realising that he still had his hands on her hips. He really needed to step back. "I mean, how long are you here? Where's Noah?"

"He's staying with Carisi for a few days…" Olivia said with a smirk.

Barba raised an eyebrow, "Carisi, really?"

"Well, they've always been close, and he offered and…well…he's a big impressive ADA now, so he has to grow up at some point right?" She grinned. "Or at least we have to start treating him like a grown-up."

Barba laughed and shook his head, "So, how long are you here?"

"A few days? I didn't really make any plans. I just asked for some personal time, then Carisi offered to take Noah for a few days and suddenly I was booking my flight. I was on the plane before I even started to wonder if this is a strange thing to do. This is weird, right? Just turning up like this…"

Barba just smiled at her and shook his head slowly, "I don't even know how to process the fact that you're actually here!"

"I'm sure this is a bad time, I just got off the flight and came straight here. I can go find a room somewhere, maybe we could meet for a drink later?" She paused and then added, "I mean unless you already have plans?"

"I'd cancel them," he replied quickly, "…not that I have any to cancel."

"Smooth…" Lizzie smirked with amusement behind them.

Barba turned to find her leaning on the wall with her arms crossed, grinned still fixed in place. He looked down and saw a medium-sized bag near Olivia's feet, then looked back at Lizzie. "I'm taking the day, can you manage?"

"You don't have to…" Olivia started, but Barba was already picking up her bag, "…and I can carry that."

He pulled it away from her reaching hand and his eyes sparkled as he met her steady gaze, "My mother brought up a gentleman."

"Your mother brought up a pain in the ass," Olivia retorted with a smile, "…you're not my valet."

Barba looked back at Lizzie, whose grinned seemed to have spread from ear to ear. She waved them both away with a flick of her wrist, "Like you'd be any use to us now, go play with your friend."

He rolled his eyes, then turned to look at Olivia and nodded toward the exit.

"You're sure?" Olivia asked Lizzie.

Lizzie laughed and shook her head, "We're more than capable of sailing this ship for the day, to be honest, he often just weighs us down…"

Barba glared at her and she laughed, "Go, boss!"

As Barba and Olivia turned to walk out of the door Marcus looked at Lizzie and shrugged, "What was all that about?"

Lizzie chuckled and waggled her eyebrows, "Oh, I'd say…nothing."

TBC...