As they reached the finish line of a rather stressful and exhausting week, those in the sixteenth precinct were taking advantage of the peacefully quiet Friday morning.

Liv hadn't come in yet. Rollins had taken the entire day off. Meanwhile, Melanie, Fin and Carisi were all using their free time to finally catch up on their backlog of paperwork from the busy month behind them. Well, Carisi was supposed to be catching up on his but instead he was just leaning back in his chair like he owned the place, staring blankly at the wall in the distance and clicking his pen an irritably record breaking number of times.

It was driving Melanie crazy, the sound. She'd already asked him to stop once and in his defense he did... for about thirty seconds before he sighed from boredom and started right back up again. Normally, it wouldn't have bothered her. She was as bad as he was when it came to making annoying noises to fill the eerie silence, but right now all she wanted was some quiet. She was almost finished with her first load of case files which would have really put a dent into the backlog of unfinished reports that were piled high on her desk, but it was getting rather hard to focus on her words with the constant click, click, click of Carisi's pen.

Every single one of them made her eye twitch something terribly and eventually, after the five hundredth or so click, she finally snapped, "Sonny, I swear to God if you click that pen one more time I'm going to light you on fire."

With widened eyes Carisi held up both his hands in surrender and let go of the pen, allowing it to clatter against his desk in the most dramatic way possible. He kept them in the air until Melanie nodded in satisfaction and allowed her eyes to fall to her laptop screen as she began typing away again, unbothered by the rather heinous threat of arson and murder she had just fired in her partner's direction.

As Carisi allowed his arms to fall, Liv came strolling into the bullpen with a large coffee in one hand and her purse in the other, the soft clacks of her shoes against the floor gaining the attention of a few fellow officers that were scattered around the place. Carisi was one of them. And so, done with his paperwork for the time being and looking to annoy Melanie more, he swivelled in his chair to face her.

"Hey Sarge, Mel is threatening me again. Is it alright with you if I throw her into the cage for an hour?" He asked seriously, hearing the sudden stop of Melanie's fingertips against her keyboard as she no doubt went back to glaring a hole into his head.

Coming to a stop Liv sighed, peering over her glasses towards them and no one missed the clear humour in her tone as she asked, "Melanie, did you threaten Carisi?"

"I would never," Melanie said, in clear and mocking offence as she placed her hand on her heart.

Rolling a smile, Liv then turned to Fin, "Fin?"

"I ain't hear nothin'," Fin replied plainly, making Melanie fight against a smug smile as a frown pulled on the entirety of Carisi's face.

"Two for two, Carisi," Liv shrugged, before carrying on towards her office.

"Yeah, only because Rollins isn't here," Carisi muttered, spinning back around in his chair and picking up his pen, which he clicked a handful of times just to aggravate Melanie even more. She glared at him again, her jaw tensing as she slowly started to wrap her slender fingers around her sharkmouth-shaped stress ball.

"Oh, Fin," Liv popped her head around her office door just before Melanie could throw the aforementioned ball at Carisi's face, catching the final bounce of it on her desk as she dropped it immediately. "I'm expecting Barba, when he shows up will you ask him to hang around? I have to make a quick phone call first."

Fin nodded, "Yeah, I'll tell him."

"Thanks," Liv smiled, and then she was gone.

Ignoring the intense flutter that seemed to build in her stomach over the memory of last night, Melanie forgot all about Carisi and his pen. Instead, she wheeled herself back in her chair and stood up, stretching out her back and letting out a quiet groan at the stiffness. She said nothing as she stalked away, her long locks swaying against her back as she headed for the break room — just as the one person she'd been dying to see all morning finally came strutting into the precinct.

The second Barba passed through the doors his eyes darted right towards Melanie's desk, disappointment building in his chest when he saw that her chair was empty. Nevertheless, he carried on towards it when Fin told him Liv would be a minute, which he was partially glad to hear as it meant he'd not only see Melanie after they were done, but before as well — which Lord knows he'd need with the amount of paperwork he and Liv had to get through.

"Melanie here?" Barba asked, running one finger along the edge of Melanie's desk as he glanced around the place, trying his best to seem casual and not at all like he was dying to see her.

Carisi nodded, "Just follow the sound."

Barba's brow dipped, "The sound?"

And as if on cue, the faint banging of hollow plastic began to drift across the bullpen towards them, drawing Barba's glance away from Carisi and towards the rest of the room's occupants. Not a single one of them seemed outwardly phased by the apparent sound of clear cut vandalism. There were a few who rolled their eyes, before reaching into their pocket and reluctantly passing a couple dollar bills to their partners sitting facing them, which only seemed to add to his fast growing confusion.

Narrowing his eyes further Barba turned back towards Carisi, who offered him nothing more than a tilt of his head and a partial raise of his eyebrows. But Barba knew what it meant. He knew what the detective was so clearly implying and so he spun on his heels and headed in the direction of the noise, which appeared to be coming directly from inside the break room. He slipped through the already open door and looked immediately to his left, just in time to see Melanie give the precinct printer one final kick with the side of her boot before it finally started spitting out paper.

"Destruction of private property?" Barba questioned humorously, his heartbeat increasing in his chest as Melanie glanced over her shoulder with a smile that had grown at the mere sound of his voice. "I could have you tried for that."

"Please," Melanie scoffed, "Anyone who's ever had to deal with a printer would find me not guilty in a heartbeat."

"Fair argument... Would you consider a plea?"

"I'll take my chances with the jury, counsellor," Melanie chuckled, picking up her papers and giving them a light tap against the printer to neaten them. She then crossed the short distance between them and pat Barba gently on the shoulder, her glistening eyes meeting his as she whispered, "You know they love me."

And they're not the only ones — is what Barba truly wanted to say. The words were so close to the edge of his tongue that he had to swallow thickly in order to get them back down before they escaped into the air and made things awkward. Regardless of the way she sometimes flirted, or the current way in which her eyes bore right into his soul and made him feel three feet tall, Barba still couldn't figure out the extent of her feelings towards him and if he wanted to keep the close-knit relationship they had now, he had to do his best not to outwardly showcase his.

"Only because you don't present yourself as a typical cop on the stand," Barba said instead, making Melanie laugh softly which did not at all help to settle his somersaulting stomach.

"I take that as a compliment," Melanie replied, dropping her hand — thankfully — from Barba's shoulder and allowing him the ability to breathe again. She cocked her head to the side and beckoned for him to follow her, "I gotta finish up these case files, why don't you sit with me?"

Nodding his head, Barba fell in line beside her as they headed back to her desk, "Do you always type out your case files?"

"Unfortunately," Melanie sighed, "I would prefer to handwrite them but Liv won't let me."

"Well, your handwriting is abysmal, so there's no surprise there," Barba muttered, dodging the elbow Melanie had aimed his way before she fell swiftly into her seat with a playful frown. He unbuttoned his blazer and took the one next to her desk, setting his briefcase on the floor and leaning it up against the metal side by his leg.

At that moment, Carisi stood up and slipped his arms into his own blazer, "I'm gonna hit the deli, you want anything?" 

"It's only noon?" Melanie said questionably, glancing towards the clock on her laptop just in case more time had passed than she originally thought. But it hadn't. It was indeed only noon, and Carisi didn't usually hit the deli until at least 2pm.

"Yeah, I know," Carisi shrugged, fixing his collar down properly, "But clearly you skipped breakfast this morning considering you've alreadythreatened to set me on fire today."  

Barba's eyes widened as he stammered, "I'm sorry, she what?"

"Shush," Melanie silenced him, throwing up her index finger without even looking in Barba's direction as he briefly babbled in protest. She fixed her eyes back on Carisi, who looked far too pleased with himself. He'd done that on purpose, and lord knows he'd pay for it. "I did not skip breakfast, thank you very much, I had a donut."

"A donut, wow," Carisi let out a low whistle, "The pinnacle of a healthy breakfast."

Melanie let out a gentle scoff, "Oh please, you had a single cannoli for your lunch the other day, okay, you can't talk."

"Whatever," Carisi brushed off, "You want your usual?"

"With extra cheese... and don't forget to ask them to..."

"Smoosh it down real flat," Carisi finished for her, unaware that he was causing the most intense jealousy to bubble beneath Barba's skin. "Yeah, yeah. I know the drill."

"Thank you, Sonny," Melanie called playfully after him, to which Carisi responded with absolutely nothing as he left the room. She chuckled quietly and dropped her eyes back down to her files, signing her signature on the last one she'd get done before lunch.

Clearing his throat, Barba set his arm atop her desk and leaned closer to her, "Did you really threaten to set him on fire?"

Glancing up at him, Melanie chewed on her lip and drew out, "No..."

Barba raised his eyebrows, unconvinced.

"Maybe."

Barba's face never changed.

"Okay, yes," Melanie finally admitted, making Barba chuckle to himself as he returned to his original stance and lowered his brow. " But in my defense... he kept clicking his pen even though I asked him to stop."

"So you're saying it was justified?" He questioned humorously.

"I'm glad you agree."

"I didn't, but I'm just gonna breeze right past it," Barba said, hearing Melanie's mumbled — satisfied — thank you in return and feeling as his jealousy slowly began to fade now that Carisi was no longer right there next to them.

It's not that he didn't like the young, enthusiastic detective, as he did. Truthfully, he did. It was more so that he deeply envied what Carisi had with Melanie. And sure, he and Melanie had a close relationship of their own, but it was nothing compared to what she and Carisi had with each other. He didn't know her usual lunch order, or that she liked it smooshed down for some apparent reason. He didn't know her quirks or habits. He didn't know how she liked her coffee, or what snacks she liked — aside from the jar of M&M's that was always present on her desk.

Hell, he didn't even have the pleasure of hearing Melanie call him by his first name, and honestly, that part annoyed him most.

As far as he was aware, Melanie was the only one who ever called Carisi, Sonny. And whilst that may not have any significance other than it being what Melanie liked to call him, Barba couldn't help but think that there may be some other, more heartbreaking-for-him, reason as to why the two of them appeared closer than any other set of partners in the precinct.

"You call Carisi, Sonny," Barba began, his lips having moved without his brain's explicit permission. "Why?"

"Uh," Melanie drew out, her brow furrowing, "Because it's his name?"

"I know that," Barba defended, wishing he'd bitten his tongue harder as he was now in a place he didn't want to be in, "I just mean... Everyone else calls him Carisi, except you. Is there a specific reason for that or...?"

"Oh," Melanie's face relaxed once again, and she shrugged, "Not really. Sonny is just quicker to say than Carisi, I guess."

And just like that, Barba felt like a complete and utter idiot.

Luckily though, he didn't have to stew in the embarrassment of asking that stupid question for very long before Liv called out that she was ready for him. He pressed his lips together tightly and stood up, avoiding any and all eye contact with Melanie as he picked up his briefcase as he didn't particularly want to see the look in her eye should she come to realise why he'd asked her that. Instead, he went straight to making his way to Liv's office, only for Melanie to call after him barely taken three steps away from her.

"I'll see you when you're done... Rafael."

The use of his own first name caused Barba's heart to skip a beat as his entire body visibly loosened up as he carried on walking. He blatantly ignored Fin's partial smirk as he glanced briefly over his shoulder, catching the remnants of Melanie's warm smile before she ducked her head and hid behind her hair as she carried on with putting her case files away. His own lips twitched eagerly on his face but he resisted against them, instead allowing himself a brief moment to compose himself before disappearing into Liv's office.

By the time Barba and Liv were done with going over their cases, Carisi was back at his desk with his blazer off and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. From the looks of the scrunched up pieces of foil sitting in balls in front of them, both he and Melanie had finished their early lunch and the latter was already moving onto her dessert — which was nothing more than a handful of M&M's from the jar she kept on her desk. She popped them into her mouth one by one as she typed away on her laptop once more, her eyes continually flicking up at the sound of Barba's footsteps heading her way.

"Melanie," Liv called towards her, drawing Melanie's eyes permanently up to the open space surrounding her. "Can I see you in my office, please?"

"Uh-oh, what did you do this time?" Carisi asked, but all Melanie did in response was throw her ball of foil at his chest and make him fumble to catch it before it sprayed crumbs all over him.

Standing up, Melanie wiped her hands on her jeans before stepping out from behind her desk, firing Barba an apologetic glance as it seemed as though they wouldn't be getting more than five minutes just to sit with each other. He mouthed I'll wait for you, to which Melanie's lips quirked upwards and she nodded, giving his arm a gentle and subtle pat as she passed him on her way to Liv.

"Oh," Melanie stopped suddenly and turned around, walking slowly backwards as she carried on, "Don't touch my M&M's."

"I won't," Barba replied, watching as Melanie's eyes narrowed into slits and she eyed him carefully, before finally allowing herself to pass through Liv's door. Once it shut behind her, Barba lifted the glass lid and took a handful of M&M's out of the jar, popping a few into his mouth and finding himself surprised to feel that they were crispy. He always figured she'd be a chocolate kind of girl.

"If she catches you doing that she will break your fingers," Carisi warned him.

"I think I can handle her," Barba replied, and all Carisi did in response was scoff doubtfully before going back to his business.

Barba used this short span of time to take a better look at the clutter than riddled Melanie's desk. He'd never really noticed her trinkets and whatnot before as he was more focused on what sat behind it, but as he looked now he easily picked up on a few little things that made him smile.

For starters, her pen pot wasn't the boring, usual pot that most people would use. Instead, Melanie's was themed in that it was shaped like the signature yellow barrels from her favourite movie, Jaws. There was even a pen sitting inside with a shark topper on it, making him wonder how he'd never once picked up on the clear love she had for marine life in the whole time he'd known her.

Sitting next to the pot was a bobble-head of Chief Brody, also from Jaws, that Barba only knew because of the nameplate on the base and the small shark that lay by the figure's feet. He could almost picture Melanie now, tapping her pen against the head every so often just to see it jiggle back and forth, and he made a mental note to check online to see if there were any other characters available.

To tell the truth, it warmed his heart to see that she had such a passion for displaying the things she loved the most. However, now that he was looking, he couldn't help but notice a strange lack of framed photos sitting amongst her weird and wacky stuff. In fact, there wasn't just a lack of them... There were none whatsoever. Not a single picture sat atop her desk and he grew curious as to why. He knew she wasn't on the best of terms with her brother, and she didn't strike him as the type to have a picture of her father either, but surely she had to have someone in her life worthy of a place on her desk.

Nevertheless, he shrugged it off. Melanie probably had a valid reason as to why she chose not to have any pictures up at work, and it wasn't like it was his business anyway.

Therefore, he carried on with surveying her desk. In a small, palm sized vase sitting next to her barrel pen pot, there was a handmade, red paper rose, making Barba wonder who exactly had gone out of their way to make her it. Beside it was a plastic shark, with wide eyes and goofy looking teeth that made him smile as he popped another M&M into his mouth.

That was about all of Melanie's personality that she displayed outwardly as the rest of what covered her desk was basic and generic. For example, there was a half empty can of Monster sitting on a pile of files. There were pens with chewed caps lying next to her pen pot rather than in it, post-it notes with her scrawly handwriting scribbled unintelligibly in black ink scattered about the place, and there was even a stapler with someone else's name stuck obviously on top of it sitting off to the side.

The thought of some other cop frantically looking around for that stapler made Barba want to chuckle but before he could, the muffled sound of Melanie's voice came seeping through the walls of Liv's office and by the sounds of it, she was pissed. 

Immediately Barba, and everyone else in the room, turned their attention towards Liv's office as the door was pulled open so hard it banged against the wall and echoed throughout the entire precinct floor. Melanie came storming out no more than a second later, her face tight and her nostrils flaring as she made her way back to her desk, causing Barba to close his hand around his stolen M&M's and back up a few steps in order to get out of her way entirely.

"What's going on?" Fin asked, but his question went unanswered.

"Mel?" Carisi said carefully, his brow furrowing as he slowly stood up from his desk and glanced around, catching Liv's regretful face as she appeared in the doorway of her office. "You okay?"

Melanie didn't answer. All she did was grab her jacket by the collar and pull it roughly from the back of her chair, filling the silence with its soft creak as it started to slowly spin in place. She didn't even bother freeing her hair from beneath it as she threw it on her body then turned on her heels, making fast headway for the exit before anyone could ask her anymore questions she didn't want to answer.

"Melanie," Liv stepped forward as Melanie reached the doorway to the elevator, watching as she spun forcefully on her heels with the rage of perp flowing through her veins.

"Don't," Melanie gritted, shaking her head and raising one finger to stop Liv from saying anything else that would unintentionally piss her off. With her chest heaving and her eyes darting around the room to see the puzzled faces of her co-workers, she slowly clenched her fist tight and lowered it, adding quietly, "Just... don't, okay... I'll deal with him myself."

And with that, she was gone.

"Liv, what's going on?" Barba asked worriedly, stepping forward and dropping his handful of M&M's into Melanie's bin as he did, wondering if he would stay and wait for an answer or if he should run out after her.

"I just informed Melanie about our new Sergeant," Liv replied, moving out into the bullpen as the brows of those around her furrowed. She sighed, running her hand over her chin as she elaborated. "It's Mike Dodds... Her twin brother."

"Her brother?" Carisi repeated, "That can't be good."

"She's gonna rip daddy Dodds's head off with her bare hands," Fin added, amused. And had Barba not been so worried about Melanie, he'd have questioned the phrase daddy Dodds.

Instead, he asked, "Should we do something?"

"No," Carisi said immediately, shaking his head for good measure. "No... You don't wanna get in between Mel and her father. Trust me on that."

"Carisi's right," Liv said, having thought she was doing Melanie a favour by telling her in advance. "This is a family issue, so let's just stay out of it."

As his eyes grew distant, Barba nodded. He did trust that Carisi was right but at the same time, he didn't think he could bring himself to stay put when he knew what was about to unfold in Deputy Chief Dodds's office when Melanie arrived in it. It would be World War Three by the sounds of it, and he wouldn't put it past Melanie to blow up at her father.

Barba knew she had a temper. When her dad became Chief of SVU, Melanie had showcased that wrath and hate for weeks, but now? Having both her dad and her brother in charge or her? That can't have been an easy thing for her to hear and so Barba excused himself to the others by lying about being needed in court. He then headed for the stairs rather than the elevator, hoping to catch Melanie before she left the vicinity and caused a lockdown in the 1PP office building.

Upon reaching the parking lot, Barba felt his luck wear thin at the lack of Melanie anywhere in the stairwell. He knew she'd taken them, and she must have jumped them entirely to have gotten so far so quickly. He barreled through the door and into the cold cement lot, scanning the area for any signs of Melanie. He was about to give up. To perhaps call ahead and warn Chief Dodds as to what was coming his way before he spotted her, standing at her car with her hands pressed against the rim of the roof as she stared at her reflection in the window.

Guess she didn't have it in her to go yell at her father today.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Barba adjusted his grip on his briefcase and headed towards her, hoping she'd see him in the window before he got too close and spooked her as he could really do without being shot today.

"Melanie, are you okay?"

"He just can't leave me be, can he?"

The way her voice shook and cracked as she spoke made Barba drop his briefcase and approach her, until there was nothing more than half an arms length between them. He then reached out, using two fingers to brush a single curl back from over Melanie's shoulder to join the rest of them that she had finally untucked from beneath her jacket. He never made any contact with her skin, but his presence alone was enough to cause a small shudder to ripple down Melanie's body and so she turned around, throwing her arms around him and burying her face in the crook of his neck.

It took him by surprise to have her hug him, yet almost immediately Barba's own arms wrapped around her small frame, holding her tightly against his chest as he heard her sniffle quietly against his collar. He moved one hand to the back of her head, stroking her hair soothingly as his other remained splayed out across her back. 

"Don't let him get to you," Barba said softly, continuing to run his hand down the length of her soft hair and he could have sworn, he felt Melanie nestle the side of her face against his neck.

"That's easy for you to say," Melanie replied, her voice muffled against him. She then pulled back, lifting one hand to wipe at her eyes before he could see her, as she no doubt looked like she'd just smoked the fattest joint possible. "You don't have to deal with them."

Barba didn't miss the use of her plural pronoun as he drew back one hand, bravely reaching out his thumb to wipe at a single tear that had yet to roll down Melanie's cheek and feeling it lift just a little as he did.

"What happened?" He asked softly, yet to remove his hand from aside her face. "Between you and Mike?"

Melanie began to shake her head, loosening Barba's hold on her and causing it to fall to her shoulder, "Not now... Just... Please."

"Okay," Barba whispered, lifting his hand again and ghosting his thumb down Melanie's chin. "But like I said last night... I'm here if you need me."

"I know," Melanie said, her mouth curving upwards into a small, thankful smile. Her eyes then flicked down to his lips and in that moment, she desperately wanted to kiss them. To finally feel them against her own as she'd thought about way too many times for her own good.

But she knew she couldn't. They worked together. It would go against everything she believed in when it came to interdepartmental relationships, not to mention it would open up a whole can of worms should any defense lawyer think they'd been together during cases and accuse them of conspiring to frame their client. No, it was better off that Melanie keep her feelings to herself, and so, just like last night, she used every ounce of strength she had to direct her lips to his cheek instead, allowing them to linger there for much longer than last time.

"We seemed to be making a habit of doing this," Melanie chuckled, finally drawing back just enough to look him in the eye.

Good God, he was handsome.

"I'm not complaining," Barba breathed out against his better judgement, his words making Melanie's stomach flip as she stepped away from him, feeling his other arm finally drop from around her back as it pressed up against her car door.

"I should..." Melanie stammered, closing her eyes briefly as she shook her head in order to regain her sense of clarity. "I should go back upstairs... You know, before Liv fires me..."

Barba chuckled, "Well, if she does, I'll help you sue for wrongful termination." 

At that, all Melanie offered him was a soft smile before she pushed herself off her car door, her hands safely behind her back where they longed to reach out, grab him by the lapels of his blazer and kiss him like he'd never been kissed before. But luckily, she didn't do that. Instead, all she did was swallow back the words she really wanted him to hear and force out the handful of ones that deeply pained her to actually have to say.

"I'll guess I'll see you on Monday."

"I guess so," Barba replied, his voice dripping with obvious disappointment that he had to go two whole days without seeing her.

"Although, if you were to call me... I wouldn't be opposed to meeting you for a drink before then," Melanie suggested, ignoring the fact that her brain was yelling at her that that would only end badly. Then, sarcastically, and slightly flirtatiously, she added, "If you can manage it, that is."

"I think I can," Barba chuckled, feeling his heart flip when Melanie drew her eyes slowly down the length of his body and back up.

"We'll see," She muttered playfully, before turning so quickly on her heels that her hair swept entirely to one side. She then made her move back towards the stairwell, once again, leaving Barba to watch her go with his mouth as dry as the desert and his heart racing in his chest.

Without thinking he dropped his eyes and tilted his head, drawing his tongue slowly over his bottom lip as Melanie got farther and farther away from him. He may have hated to have to see her go, but by God... was he starting to love watching her walk away.