A/N: I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter, I'd love to hear what you think!

Carisi was sitting at his desk poring over case files. DNA had connected the rape they were investigating to two others that had occurred over the past three months, but no one had been charged in either of the cases. There had been the same problem as this one, the victim hadn't been able to identify the perp. Rollins and Fin were out talking to people, trying to find someone who had seen something, and Carisi was stuck going over old case files.

He was reading the hospital reports, injuries consistent with rape in all three cases, when Olivia walked out of her office toward him.

"Fin and Rollins found a witness who says they can positively ID the rapist from the first attack. They're bringing her in for a lineup, but I want a warrant for this guy's DNA now," Olivia said.

"Got it, Cap. I'll call Barba." Carisi picked up his phone and punched in Barba's number. It rang seven times before going to voicemail. He hung up and looked at Benson, "he's not answering, I can go stop by his office, he might be in court."

"No," Benson waved her hand dismissively, "I'll go. I missed a call from him last night, I can see what he needed."

"Oh, yeah, sure," Carisi said in a bad attempt to hide his disappointment. But if Benson saw it, she didn't say anything.

Olivia took the walk to the courthouse to go over the details of the case in her head. By the time she arrived at Barba's office she knew what she was going to say if he tried to argue they still didn't have enough for a warrant. The witness may be from a different case, but the DNA tied it to their case. She knew this guy was good for all three rapes, but they needed the warrant to prove it.

"Is he in?" Olivia asked Carmen, who was seated at her desk outside Barba's closed office door.

"Yes," she said, "but he's not taking visitors–" she tried to stop Olivia who had already opened the door.

Barba was looking down at a file on his desk.

"I thought I said no visitors," his voice raised just enough for Carmen to hear him. But he sighed and looked up, "I assume you're here about the warrant your detective was harassing me for last night?"

"Jesus, Barba," Olivia said, scanning his face. Seeing the bruise under his left eye and his split lip. She looked down and saw fresh blood on his collar from a cut on his neck.

"I can't get you the warrant until you bring me more evidence," Barba continued.

"Rafael," Olivia said, "we're not talking about the case anymore. What happened?"

Barba sighed, "close the door, will you?"

Benson closed the office door and then returned to the desk, taking a seat. "What's going on?"

Barba stood and walked past his desk and to the small table against the wall, "coffee?" He poured himself a large cup when Benson declined and returned to his seat.

"When's the last time you slept, Barba?"

"It's been awhile," he admitted.

"Rafael, talk to me, what's going on?"

"I have been receiving letters recently. Threats, really. At first they were left on Carmen's desk, but yesterday it was sitting on my desk when I got back from court. I keep my office door locked, Liv."

"And what happened last night?" Olivia leaned forward in her seat, eyes locked on Barba.

He took a gulp of coffee and swallowed before answering, "I was leaving the office, it was probably around 10:20, it was dark out. I was waiting for my ride when a man came up behind me."

"Then what happened?" Olivia pressed gently.

"He covered my mouth with one hand and put a knife against my neck with the other. He pulled me over to the side of the courthouse. He punched me in the face a few times and then brought the knife up to my neck and told me to expect more visits." He brought his hand up to the cut on his neck.

"Did he ask for anything? A case he wanted dropped?"

Barba shook his head, "I wish he had, it would've made it that much easier to nail the son of a bitch."

"Did you tell anyone what happened?" Benson asked.

Barba looked away, "I called you."

Olivia thought of the missed call on her phone right now, remembering how she had decided last night that whatever it was could wait until morning because she was busy trying to get Noah to sleep, "I'm sorry, Raf."

"Don't be," he shrugged off the apology. "The guy made it very clear that the NYPD would not be sympathetic to my situation."

"Do you think there are cops involved in the threats against you?"

"I honestly don't know. I've put away a lot of bad people, and some of them have been law enforcement."

"I want a protection detail on you until we catch this guy," Benson said.

"No offense, Liv, but I'd rather be on my own than with an officer I don't know."

"I'll figure something out. In the meantime, can I have all of the threats you've received?"

"In the past few months or all of them? If it's the latter, I might have to send Carmen into the archives with a forklift."

Olivia shook her head, "get me all of them, my team can sort it out."

"You don't have time for this," Rafael stated, "I know your caseload."

"Don't worry about that, Barba. Anyway, we need you around to prosecute our cases," Olivia gave him a half smile.

"Speaking of," Barba said, "did you have any new evidence for me?"

Olivia remembered the reason she had come here in the first place and began to explain, "we've got an eyewitness who can ID the assailant."

"Carisi told me you didn't have any witnesses." Barba raised a brow.

"It's from an unsolved case in September, but we have it tied to the our case through DNA."

"So if you can identify the man who committed the rape in September, you can identify the man who committed this rape?"

"Yes," Olivia nodded.

"Get a positive ID and that's good enough for me."

"Thanks, Barba. By the way, how were closing arguments this morning? Sorry I couldn't make it."

Barba grimaced, "it's a good thing I had a solid case going in, my appearance wasn't the most reassuring."

"That guy's guilty, there's no doubt about that."

"Let's hope the jury sees it that way."

XXX

Carisi was sitting at his desk when Olivia walked back into the bullpen.

"Carisi, my office, please."

He got up and followed her into her office where she shut the door.

"Everything okay, Cap?"

"Have a seat." Olivia walked around to the other side of her desk and sat.

"Yeah, okay," Carisi said hesitantly, unsure of why he was there. When he was sitting he saw that Benson was looking at him carefully.

"You're aware that Barba has been receiving death threats?" Benson asked.

"Yeah," Carisi nodded.

"Well, things have escalated," Olivia said, "he was assaulted last night."

"What?" Sonny's eyes widened, "is he okay?"

"A few cuts and bruises, but he'll be okay. Barba needs protection detail, but we have reason to believe that there may be law enforcement officers involved in these threats. I'm going to request something of you Carisi, and I want you to know that you are more than able to say no, okay?"

"Yeah, sure."

"I need someone I trust to be keeping an eye out for him. I know this is a lot to ask, but would you be willing to do that? It would mean going with him to and from work and any other time he goes out and spending nights at his apartment. This would obviously be considered work and your hours with SVU would be adjusted accordingly."

"Of course, Cap," Carisi said, "I'll do that, no problem."

"Are you sure, Carisi?" She looked at him carefully.

"Positive."

And as much as Carisi hated that Barba was getting threats, as much as he hated the person or people threatening him, the idea of getting to spend more time with the counsellor made his heart race. And he knew that he was the obvious choice, Rollins had her daughter and Fin had more years on SVU than him, but Sonny couldn't help but be pleased that Benson had picked him, that she trusted him to do this.

Carisi knew that Barba would take this new security detail begrudgingly, but Carisi also knew that his persistence tended to pay off in the end. And now he wouldn't have to make anymore excuses to see him.