Arachnophobia

To my readers. This is a one shot fic that popped into my head about two weeks ago. Haven't had that much time to write lately but it's finally finished. It's about Amanda's fear of spider. Also, I probably wont have time to do any writing the coming two weeks as I am going to New York on vacation. Hopefully I'll get inspired by the place and have loads of fics to write when I get back. Enjoy!

It was a gloomy and quiet day at the 16th precinct. The bullpen seemed dead, only a couple of officers hanging around, a cleaner emptying the trash cans, cleaning the glass on the vending machine and mopping certain areas of the linoleum floor. Fin, Carisi and Amanda were all caught up in their respective paperwork, only the frequent noise of the computer keyboards could be heard clicking through the almost completely empty room. Fin even struggled to stay awake as Amanda caught him nodding off a couple of times only to snap his head back up, wide awake, looking around to see if anyone had noticed.

The blonde quietly snickered from where she was seated by her desk, wanting to take a sneaky picture of the half asleep sergeant and send it to their Lieutenant, Olivia, just to show her how productive some of her staff members really were. She quickly changed her mind, however, since she would surely get into trouble herself for taking the picture when she was suppose to be working. Instead, she decided on a different approach, scrunched up a piece of paper into a ball, aimed and threw it at him, pleased with herself when it landed on the intended spot, hitting him right in the forehead.

"Score!" she triumphed, raising her arms up in the air, proud of her victory. "You finished with all your paperwork, Finney?" she snickered, glad to see that even Carisi had broken into a smile.

"Don't be such a child, Rollins. I was just resting my eyes." he grumbled, picked up the paper ball, that had landed on his desk, aimed and threw it into a trashcan just as the cleaner picked it up. "See that, kids? Bullseye, and with a moving target." he beamed, clearly amazed with himself. The cleaner smirked, shook her head and resumed to her waiting tasks.

"Who's the child now?" the blonde queried, grinning from ear to ear.

"Yeah, Finney! Who's the child now?" Carisi added, crossing his arms over his chest and smirked, happy with the temporary change in the atmosphere in the room.

Before the senior detective had a chance to attempt a smart reply, Amanda's phone rang and everyone groaned, thinking it was a new case. However, she was surprised to see Olivia's name on her screen. She knew their boss was off duty today so she couldn't help but to frown at why the brunette was ringing her. "Lieutenant, how are you? I thought you were off today. Do we have a case?" she asked, holding her breath while waiting for an answer, hoping the reply would be a verbal negative.

"Rollins, hi! No new case so you can breath again." she gently chuckled as she had heard Amanda exhale with relief. "I need you to do me a favour?"

"Sure."

"I'm doing some paperwork from home and I realized that I forgot a file that's in the top drawer of my desk. I just need a phone number, would you mind going into my office and text it to me, please?"

Amanda had alrleady left her own desk and headed for the Lieutenant's private office, glad to be useful during the quiet and slow morning. "Sure, but I thought you were suppose to relax for the day, that's why it's called a day 'off' you know."

Liv snorted. "I quickly realized that after I became Lieutenant there's no such thing as a day off."

Entering the room, Amanda turned the lights on and headed straight for the large hardwood desk that was neatly tidied and cleaned, everything in it's perfect place. She walked around, sat down on the comfortable leather seat and pulled the top drawer out fully, spotting the file straight away. "I see it." she confirmed. "I'll text you the..." before Amanda could finish her sentense a loud shriek almost burst Olivia's eardrum. "AHHHH!" then the line went dead.

"Amanda?" Nothing. "Amanda?" still nothing.

Fin and Carisi were quickly on their feet, running towards their boss' office to see what all the commotion was about and why Amanda had screamed at the top of her lungs, like a child who dropped it's lollipop on the ground. When the duo entered the office, they were startled to see their female colleague standing on top of their Lieutenant's desk, the leather chair had fallen onto it's side from the hasty and almost violent movement as Amanda had shot up from the seat. The file had fallen onto the floor, papers scattered everywhere and her phone had accidentally slipped from her hand and was lying amongst the widely spread documents.

"What the hell happened?" Fin questioned, looking the small room, as if he was looking for a perp or some kind of physical threat that had gotten his partner so scared and jumpy. Carisi was standing behind him, eyes wide with shock and wonder as to why the blonde had reacted the way she did.

Breathing heavily, Amanda's chest heaved as she pointed, with a trembling finger, at something on the floor, her face full of fear and horror as she tried to speak. "A spi... spi... spider!" she croaked, almost impossible to say the word out loud.

The two male detectives followed the direction of her finger but frowned as they couldn't see anything. "Where?" Fin questioned as he walked further into the room, quickly scanning every visible area of the floor but still came up empty. "I don't see any spiders."

"Look again, more thoroughly!" she shrieked, horrified and panicking that she had now no idea where the eight legged creature was and that it could literally be anywhere.

"It's just a little spider, Amanda." Carisi rolled his eyes and joined Fin in his search for the missing insect, shaking his head in amusement as he hunkered down slightly to see better underneath the furniture.

"A little? A little spider? You didn't see it, it's humongous!" she argued, her chest heaving from the sudden jump she had to make to save her life from the creepy crawlie.

Carisi smirked towards his coworker, bent down to look underneath the desk then back up to Amanda where she had taken refuge. "It's more scared of you than... Holy mother of God!" he yelled, as something on fhe floor caught his eye and quickly joined his coworker on the desk, holding onto the blonde as if his life depended on it. "It's the size of my hand. How the hell did that thing get in here? It's so big it must've used the front door. How come no one saw it when it crawled in?"

"I told you." Amanda yelled, her blue wide eyes darting around the floor, trying to locate the monstrosity.

"Guys, come on, it's only a spider." Fin stated, doing his best to maintain a calm and rational tone of voice as he continued his search. "Where is it? I can't see it."

"How can you miss that thing? It's the biggest spider I've ever seen." Carisi stated, clearly upset by the size and how quick the spider had moved, which means that it could literally be anywhere at this stage. "It's like the grandmother of all spiders. I'm not getting down until you've found it and I know that it is gone, Fin."

Amanda was struggling to keep her balance as the youngest detective kept a firm hold of her upper arm for support, making it difficult to stay upright and in one spot. "Carisi, stop moving around so much or I'll push you off. I was here first."

"Sorry." he pleaded, casting worried glances around the room, trying to locate the creature. "I hate spiders."

"No shit!" Fin muttered as he searched underneath the desk, the small coffee table and the couch without any luck. "Guys, I can't see it. It's probably long gone by now. Come on, get down from there, I don't think Liv would appreciate you stomping on her fancy mahogany desk."

"Appreciate!?" Amanda shrieked. "Appreciate? I don't appreciate knowing that there's a massive killer spider on the loose, crawling around like he owns the place. You have to find it, Fin."

Groaning in defeat, Fin resumed his search for the missing spider by kneeling down, crawling on all fours around the room, fully aware of how ridiculous the whole scene must look and that they should be doing other, more important, things like catching up on paperwork and filing cases than playing hide and seek with a spider that doesn't seem to be anywhere in sight.

For almost twenty minutes, Fin combed the office, inch by inch without any luck of finding it. The two detectives standing on the desk were growing restless and anxious, not ready, or wanting, to get back onto the ground without knowing that the creepy crawler had been captured and disposed of. Amanda was, and always had been, an animal lover, but spiders, she could do without, especially the really big ones, like the one that was currently freely roaming the precinct.

"For a detective you're quite useless locating the biggest spider in history of all spiders." Carisi stated anxiously, sweat had began to bloom on his forehead as he continued to cling to Amanda, like his life depended on it, for support and balance. "I'm afraid of heights and need to get back down on solid ground asap." he whined pitifully, trying not to think about the fact that he was indeed, about three feet off the ground.

Amanda rolled her eyes, feeling her own body temperature rise from the stress of the situation and that Fin would unlikely be able to find it anytime soon, or ever. Trying to stabilize herself better, she moved her feet further a part from each other, bracing herself, but it was hard when the space was limited and, making it even worse, by having someone grabbing at her arms and shoulders in desperation. "No one is forcing you to stay up here, Carisi. By the way, we're like two and a half foot above ground and you're having altitude problems? No wonder your apartment is on ground level."

"It's on ground level because there's a better chance of survival during a fire. I'm just being proactive and practical about it, nothing wrong with that, Rollins." he argued matter of factly, just before he suddenly slipped on a piece of paper laying loose on the polished wooden surface, causing the young male detective to swing his arms wildly around himself, trying desperately to regain his balance to avoid falling onto the spider infested floor.

Amanda saw him struggling, his arms flailing all over the place as she went into instant cop mode, reaching out to try and save her friend and colleague from getting hurt by landing backwards onto the floor. Her plan, however, backfired as Carisi accidentally punched her in the shoulder, with his uncoordinated limbs, and she could immediately feel herself falling.

Olivia had rushed all the way to the precinct, from the comfort of her own warm and cozy apartment, as soon as the phone call with Amanda had ended so abruptly, worried and anxious as to what had happened to cause the blonde to scream like she did. All different kinds of awful scenarios had played out in her mind on the way over to her office and she had tried to call both Fin and Carisi, numerous times, to get some information as to what was going on but neither of them answered their phones.

As soon as she walked into the bullpen she could hear the commotion coming from her office and, as she got closer, she could clearly make out Amanda and Carisi, standing on her desk, fighting for room and grabbing at each other left and right, doing their best to stay balanced in an upright position. Her detective's would, from time to time, mess around with each other, telling funny jokes or pulling a prank on the other, which she didn't mind, but this was taking it too far. She couldn't believe what she was seeing! Two of her squad members were literally stomping around on her desk with little to no consideration for the personal items, that had been thoughtfully placed on the wooden surface by herself when she first was promoted, and her senior detective and sergeant was crawling on all fours, obviously searching for something but what? Olivia didn't know.

The anger and annoyance that she currently felt towards her subordinates were slowly creeping up and she made her way through the empty bullpen towards her office with firm and long strides, as if she was on a mission. Just as she was about to open her mouth to shout out what the hell was going on, she could see her youngest detective falling.

It was as if it all happened in slow motion as Amanda fell and no matter how fast Olivia could run, there was no way she would get to the quickly descending blonde in time to catch her or even cushion her fall and she looked on, horrified, as Amanda landed on the floor with a loud thud, hitting her head in the process.

"Amanda!" Liv shouted and was by her side in a second, kneeling down next to her, trying to assess the damage. "Rollins?" Amanda's eyes were closed tightly, her face scrunched up in pain and a low moan slipped out between clenched teeth. "What the hell were you all doing?" she snapped and looked at both Fin and Carisi who had now joined her by their fallen comrade, worried for her physical health, spider all forgotten about.

"There was a spider and... and she screamed and then... it was big... like huge, biggest ever spider and... and we came in and... and she was on the desk and then... then I was on the desk and Fin was..."

The senior detective slapped Carisi on his arm to shut him up, sick of listening to his stuttering and incoherent explanation. "Amanda and Carisi were too afraid of the spider to get off the desk and I was trying to find it to put a stop to their childish behaviour. It was an accident, Lieutenant."

Groaning, Amanda moved around a little while trying to open her eyes but closed them quickly as the whole room was spinning and the light suddenly too bright. "Not... childish. Really big." she mumbled.

"It was huge, Lieutenant, like really really big." Carisi explained to his boss, hoping that by highlighting the fact that it was huge and fast, maybe Olivia, somehow, would understand and see the whole situation in another light.

"I don't care of it's the size of Texas! Look what happened!" she held her hands out towards the moaning blonde, as proof of what could and did actually happen. "You're all like a bunch of kids in a creche."

"We're sorry, Lieu." the two male detectives said in unison, hanging their heads slightly in shame. "Should we call a bus?" Fin asked, his eyes darting from Olivia to Amanda and back again, not sure about the seriousness of Amanda's injuries.

"Yes, call a bus, just in case." Liv confirmed and gently placed a cool palm on Amanda's forehead, brushing blonde bangs away from her, now, fluttering eyes.

"N... No bus. I'm fine." she mumbled and began to, clumsily, sit up. As soon as her head lifted the floor the room started to spin and a wave of nausea washed over her lile a tidal wave and she began to perspirate, her breathing heavy and laboured. "Mmm... feel sick." she mumbled again and fell back onto the hard cold floor.

"Okay, honey. Fin, call a bus, possible concussion." she instructed, her police mode kicking in full force as she watched Amanda clench her eyes tightly together, moaning in pain. "Shhh, lay still, Amanda, help is on the way."

"Spider... where?" she tried to look around the floor where she was lying, wanting to know where the spider was in case it came back to attack her when she was at her most vulnerable state.

"Don't worry about any spiders, honey. I'm sure it's long gone by now." Liv soothed, rolling her eyes slightly as she realized how ridiculous this whole situation really was.

"Yeah," Fin added. "With that loud thud you probably caused the whole spider population to take off, running for cover." he smirked.

"Okay, enough with the jokes, guys. This shouldn't have happened but it did so let's just deal with it in a mature and adult way, please. "Get my trashcan in case she gets sick."

"I don't... get sick." Amanda looked at her boss, hovering above her, with eyes half closed, still seeing stars and different shades of colour flying across her field of vision.

Carisi had quickly reached for the trashcan and placed it just next to Amanda's head, smiling down at his colleague and good friend. "Yeah, the Amanda Rollins I know doesn't get sick."

Just as Carisi finished his sentence, Amanda turned to her side, propped herself up on one elbow, to the best of her abilities, and puked her guts out into the metal container, moaning as the pain in her head intensified with each convulsion. "Oh, man! What did you have on your bagel this morning?" Fin queried, wrinkling his nose at the unpleasant sight and smell.

"Fin! Not the time." Liv scolded as she did her best to support the heaving blonde by holding her head up and braced her from behind so she could lean back and relax when she was finished throwing up the contents of her stomach. "Easy, Amanda! Just lean back against me. The ambulance should be here any minute now. Fin and Carisi are going to stay here to clean up this mess and I'll be going with you to the hospital." she shot her two male detectives a stern look, silently telling them that she was dead serious in the matter.

At the hospital, Amanda had a thorough checkup and, just as Olivia suspected, she did have a concussion and would have to stay overnight for observation. She was groggy and still slightly nauseated as she laid between the crispy white sheets of the hospital bed, covered with two thick blankets to keep her warm. Olivia was seated on a hard plastic chair a few feet away from the bed, keeping an eye out for her youngest squad member, watching as her eyes fluttered open and close in a repetitive pattern, feeling sorry for her friend that things had ended so badly just because of a stupid spider.

"You don't have to stay, you know. I'll fall asleep soon anyway and you'll be bored." the blonde muttered, turning her head slightly to look at her boss. "Not that I don't appreciate you being here but you won't be comfortable in that chair for very long and I..."

"Amanda, I'm staying." Olivia interrupted, her tone firm but soft. She scooted closer to the bed and laid a hand on top of a smaller one, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "How are you feeling? Do you still feel sick?"

Shifting uncomfortably underneath the covers, she opened her eyes fully, turned her attention towards her boss and found herself looking into Olivia's dark brown eyes full of concern and care. "You're beautiful, Liv. Really really beautiful. Has anyone ever told you that?"

"Oh boy!" the brunette mumbled but couldn't help a faint smile from forming on her lips. "You really hit your head hard, didn't you?" Amanda didn't answer but mumbled something under her breath that Olivia couldn't make out. "So, Arachnophobia, hu?"

"What?" the blonde's face resembled a question mark, not having a clue what her boss was talking about.

"Fear of spiders." Liv informed her, tilting her head to the side and looked at Amanda with her gentle brown eyes.

The blonde rolled her eyes but winched as the pain in her head intensified by the movement. "Oh, well, if that's what it's called then, yes, that's what I have. Thank you doctor, Benson for my diagnosis. God, I can't believe what just happened, I must be the biggest idiot alive."

Chuckling, Olivia tried to reassure her by saying that it could've happened to anyone but Amanda wasn't so sure. The ache in her head was slowly fading and just as she was about to slip into a peaceful needed slumber, she could hear the rowdy duo of her male colleagues approaching her room.

"She's gonna be delighted to see this." Fin stated proudly and popped his head through the doorway a second later. "How's my girl?" he grinned as he entered the room, his hands behind his back and Carisi a few feet behind, still looking slightly pasty from the whole incident that only happened a couple of hours ago.

"Well, I was just on the brink of falling asleep when I heard you two coming a mile off. What's behind your back? Did you bring me a get well gift?"

"Sort of." Carisi mumbled and walked around the senior detective, leaving a substantial gap between them.

They both looked awfully suspicious and Amanda wondered what they had up their sleeves this time. "What's going on? Spill it!" she demanded.

Fin suddenly pulled his hands out from behind his back snd revealed a clear plastic contained with a lid on it. "I caught the bastard." he said proudly and literally shoved the tub into her face so she could see it clearly.

There was no time to stop Fin's movement and, within less than a second, she had the huge hairy spider looking at her through the plastic, it's eyes looking straight into hers as if it was getting ready to attack. She screamed at the top of her lungs and scurried towards Liv, ready to get off the bed and run for cover if needed be. The piercing scream startled Fin, causing him to drop the container onto the floor and lid, of course, popped open, leaving the spider a clear escape route.

Just as quick as Carisi had jumped up on the desk earlier, he was now in the same bed as Amanda, also screaming loudly as be watched the spider crawl around the room.

Olivia sighed in defeat and gave Fin a death glare. "Not again."

The End