This idea hit me a long time ago, but I decided to rewrite it while I was recovering from my own accident. Hopefully, it works.
"Sit down," Captain Cragen said the words but he knew, as he always did, she would ignore him. Especially now.
Kathy Stabler sat beside him, eyeing the other woman as she still paced back and forth. "You really should sit down, Olivia. You've been on your feet for hours, and this could take..."
"Will you all please just leave me the hell alone?" It came out as a shout, and she immediately regretted it. She sighed and sped off toward the triage counter, asking, for the tenth time, if there were any updates on her partner's condition.
Kathy turned to Cragen, then, and shook her head. "I don't know why she...she's more worked up than I am, and it's my husband in that emergency room. What does that mean?"
Cragen scoffed, knowing full well that Kathy knew the source of Olivia's panic. "Tell me again," he began, "How did this happen?"
Kathy took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she folded her hands. She squinted as she tried to remember the details, but they were foggy and fading. "He was heading out, after she called him. Some...blind asshole...came careening around the corner and the car hopped the curb...and he..." She paused, her shaking voice cracking. "I heard the crash, I ran outside and...he was at least six feet from the mailbox, which is...I guess...where he'd been standing when the car hit him. His head was...there was so much blood, I just..." and her words trailed off as she shook her head.
Fin Tutuola walked over and plopped into the empty seat beside Kathy. Her husband was his friend and colleague, but he realized in the moment that he knew next to nothing about her. "He doesn't talk about you much." It seemed an insensitive thing to say, but it was true. "He won't shut up about your kids, but he's never really talked about you."
"Excuse me?" Kathy spat, narrowing her eyes.
"I just..was trying to make conversation," Fin offered, only after seeing the scolding look his captain was giving him. He turned his head and watched for a moment as Olivia nearly brought a nurse to tears, trying like hell to find out anything she could about Elliot Stabler's condition.
Fin coughed and ran his tongue over his teeth before saying, "She feels guilty, ya know?"
"Who?" Kathy asked, but then followed his gaze and made an irritated but somber face at the pale and frazzled-looking woman. "Why?"
"If she hadn't called him..." He shrugged, allowing Kathy to fill in her own blanks.
Kathy folded her arms and sat back in her seat. "She's his partner. She had to call him, and it was his job to go. She has nothing to..." Her words froze and caught in her throat. She wondered, often, if they were more than merely partners and if there was, in fact, some reason Olivia did need to feel guilty.
Olivia, visibly shaking, walked over to the sitting group and pressed her lips together. "They won't fucking tell me anything."
"Well, no, you're not family," Kathy said, and as soon as the words flew out she realized how cruel they sounded. "I mean...not blood...you're not his..."
"I get it," Olivia nearly hissed, with narrow eyes, as she crossed her arms and turned her head toward the swinging doors, hoping Elliot's doctor would come out soon.
They felt like an eternity, the next ten minutes, but when a grey-haired man in blue scrubs finally walked toward her, Olivia stiffened. "Detective Benson," the doctor said, snapping off his rubber gloves, "He's awake and he's asking for you. You can follow me."
The color began to step back into her cheeks, but she wasn't breathing any easier. She nodded and barely noticed Kathy rising from her seat and staying in step with her as she followed the doctor toward Elliot's curtained off bed.
As soon as the striped fabric was pulled back, her knees wobbled and she nearly collapsed. "El," she breathed, relieved to see his eyes open. Her breath hitched again, though, when she saw the bandages around his head, the electrodes stuck to his chest, and it all brought back so many painful memories of moments she'd almost lost him. She tried to smile at him. "How are you feel..."
"Liv, God, would you please tell them I'm fine?" Elliot said, sitting up sharply and cutting her off. "I already nailed that fucking eye-chart thing, I can walk, I don't know why they won't just let me go home."
The doctor laughed and said, "You have one helluva nasty head wound, Detective Stabler. I'm keeping you here for observation, but I'm sure your wife will stay right by your side."
"Yeah, she'd better," Elliot said, turning his head back toward Olivia. He held out his hand to her.
She tilted her head and squinted a bit. "What?"
"Come here," Elliot laughed, curling his fingers in a beckoning gesture. "I'm fine, you're not going to hurt me or anything."
Olivia looked at Kathy, then, and saw the ire in her eyes. "Kathy, I swear on my life, we aren't...I mean, I have never...we have never..."
"Who are you?" Elliot's voice broke into Olivia's again. He was eyeing Kathy with no hint of recognition or emotion on his face. "Do I know you? Have we met?"
"Very funny, Elliot," Kathy said, rolling her eyes. "Cut the act. Olivia has to go back to work, I'm gonna call my sister to keep the kids, and we..."
"I'm sorry," Elliot interrupted for a third time, "But Liv isn't leaving, not till they tell me I can go with her, and I don't even know you; there's no way in hell in leaving my kids with your sister."
Kathy's face fell. "This isn't happening."
Olivia lost the color she'd just reclaimed. "Oh, my God," she whispered, closing her eyes.
The doctor looked on, deeply concerned, and stepped forward. "Detective Stabler," he began, "Would you, please, point to Detective Benson?"
"Seriously?" Elliot moaned, rolling his eyes. "This is ridiculous! I'm fine!" He very firmly and intently pointed in Olivia's direction. "This is so fucking stupid. I've already told them what day it is, what year it is, I named all of the kids and told them my birthday, even my mother's name and address! This is pointless! I am fucking fine!"
The doctor took another step toward Elliot and grabbed the long paper being printed from the monitors he was hooked up to. "Okay, then, point to your wife."
Elliot stared unamusedly at the doctor. "Yeah, okay, I'm not exactly sure I'm the one that needs the evaluation."
"El, please," Olivia whispered to him. "Just...do it," she said softly with a slight nod.
Rolling his eyes, Elliot jabbed his fingers, several times, at Olivia. "There, ya happy now? Do you want our badge numbers and social security numbers, too?"
Olivia looked at Kathy, who was staring blankly at Elliot. "Kathy, I...this isn't..."
"I know, Olivia," Kathy said, attempting to smile. She sniffled once and nodded. "Deep down, I always knew how he felt about you, but this is...this is a pretty shitty way to find out."
Olivia walked over to the doctor, pulling him and Kathy to the other side of the room, so Elliot couldn't hear him. "He thinks I am his wife! That's not...that's not okay!"
"It's probably only temporary," the doctor said, trying to reassure both women that life would be back to normal quickly. "He's suffered a pretty severe shock, and the brain..."
"I'm familiar," Kathy broke in, "...with amnesia. My question is...why does he remember everything...everything except me?" She gave Olivia a glance. "I don't need to ask why it's her that took my place in his memory, but...why is this happening?"
"The brain is a very fragile organ," the doctor told her. "This appears to be a pretty severe case of retrograde lacunar amnesia, where the patient loses all memory linked one specific person or event. In his case, unfortunately, that person is you. We can't explain why, or how these things happen, only that, more often than not this is a temporary situation, and the best thing you can do for him is ...don't fight him on it, don't argue...until he snaps out of it."
"What?" Kathy and Olivia said together, both wide eyed.
The doctor had braced himself for their reactions, but he still jumped and cringed as he said, "Typically, this sort of memory loss lasts...no more than a week. He can't take the shock of being told he's lost the memory of which one of you is his wife, not now, it may send him into a state of panic which can result in a number of different episodes, including a heart attack."
Kathy sighed. "I was prepared for this, but I thought it'd be more of a fight," she said with a sad laugh. "I just...I can't believe he doesn't remember me. He knows his children but he thinks...that you're their mother, that...that hurts." She wiped a tear with her knuckle.
"Professional advice," the doctor said, "Let him believe what he believes, for now. You can't tell him he's wrong about it, don't stun him, it may upset him and his already injured brain could send itself into worse conditions." He sighed and looked at Olivia, then at Kathy. "This should be over soon and you can all laugh about it."
Kathy sniffled, trying not to cry. "Has he told you, yet?" she posed to Olivia. The cluelessness she saw returned to her was her answer. "Maybe that's what this is, then. his way of telling you...that our marriage is...over."
Olivia shook her head. "No, Kathy, you heard the doctor this is only tempor..."
"I'm serious," Kathy told her, cutting her off sharply. "We were holding on...we didn't even know why anymore. We agreed...we had papers drawn up, a long time ago, and we both signed them. This morning, he told me he filed them, he took them to the courthouse the day before, and it's...it's what we were fighting about when he left the house. Why he sounded so irritated when you called."
Olivia couldn't breathe. She just nodded numbly and swallowed hard, unsure of what she was feeling. "I'm sorry, Kathy, if I'd have known before he..."
"He didn't want you to talk us out of it this time," Kathy interrupted. "I guess...now we know why." She looked at the doctor. "You said...a week?"
"More or less," the doctor said.
Kathy cleared her throat and said, "So for a week, I just...pretend I don't even know him? I let him live with...her...and my kids? I mean, one of us was leaving, anyway, but this...this is how it has to happen?"
The doctor nodded. "It's the only thing that is going to do any good right now. We can't risk upsetting or confusing him. If we do, we could lose him."
"So I guess...I'm the one that will be staying with my sister," she mused, while wiping her eyes. "I'll call the kids and tell them to...prepare themselves for this." She looked at Olivia and said, "Whatever he says to you...or does...I don't...I don't want to know about it."
Olivia scoffed. "Kathy, I'm not going to let him cheat on..."
"We're getting divorced," she shrugged. "He wouldn't be. Not really." She cleared her throat again. "Keep him safe, like you always do." She nodded and gave one last heartbroken look toward Elliot. "He always told me you kept him safe, that I had nothing to worry about when he was with you." She felt tears falling and quickly swiped at them. "This proves it, I guess. He means it, Olivia. He feels safe with you, so that's where his mind went. Whatever happens with you, he..." she paused and looked at Olivia again. "He means it. Trust that. I lost him to you a long time ago. But this...this fucking sucks." She turned on her heels and headed out, knowing there was no reason for her to stay.
Confused, Olivia looked back at the doctor. "So, uh, I guess...I'm...wow." She exhaled sharply, keeping her composure, and she asked, "What are we really dealing with? How bad is this?"
"There's no internal bleeding," the doctor told her. "There's very little swelling, which is reducing quickly, and every other vital sign is pretty normal. This is the only hiccup we have, so I see no reason to keep him beyond tonight. But he wants to go home with his wife, in the morning. He...he believes that's you, Detective Benson."
"Liv?" Elliot's voice called. It sounded weaker, but hopeful, as he held out his hand to her again. "What's going on over there?"
This time, she sighed as she walked toward his bed. She sat in a chair beside him and let her hand drop into his, a melting pot of emotions swimming through her own head as she wondered what was swirling in his. When she felt him squeeze her hand, she looked at him, and to her surprise, he was looking at her the way he always did, only more certainly. Could he have honestly fallen in love with her two years ago, the way she had with him? Were they both hiding and fighting a little too long, and fate had finally intervened?
No, she concluded, it was the accident. He had amnesia. And soon, she'd be back to being nothing more than his partner
"Can we go home now?" He asked her, bringing her hand to his lips and kissing her knuckles.
Her heart stopped and tears built behind her eyes. For a moment, she was almost thankful to whomever had hit him, but she pushed that selfish thought away and said, "Doctor Willings wants to keep you overnight. A few...a few more hours. He says we can go home in the morning."
He linked his fingers with hers and grinned. "You always said I was hard-headed. Came in handy tonight, huh?" He laughed softly, trying to lighten the mood.
She laughed, but then wondered what she'd do if his head wasn't so hard. Her eyes widened a bit and her heart dropped into her stomach, and she was for a moment grateful that she would be able to act on impulse, feel the things she could no longer keep bottled up, not in this moment. "Thank God for that," she whispered, more tears springing to her eyes.
He gasped and pulled on her hand, asking her to move closer to him. When she did, he wrapped his arms around her and dragged her down to his level. "I'm okay, baby," he said kissing her cheeks.
She nodded. "I was...fuck, I was so fucking scared." She wiped her eyes, knowing she shouldn't do anything to upset him. "No one would tell me anything, because I'm not..." she stopped, because as far as he knew, she was and he needed to believe that. "They didn't know what to say, until you woke up, and they..."
"Breathe, baby, please," he said, his heart breaking as he watched her cry. He'd felt the same fear whenever the roles were reversed. "I told you," he took a deep breath. "I'm fine."
She nodded and smiled at him, and she knew it was happening, did nothing to stop it, and moaned softly when his lips hit hers. Every wall she'd kept up between them for the sake of his soul and his family had crumbled at once, her right hand wound around the back of his neck, she felt, for the first time in her life, whole.
He pulled away from her, his eyes clear and focused. He watched her smile wider at him, and his heart gave a strong thud. His look darkened, a smirk spread across his face. "Baby, I'm fine," he said as he licked his lips, and he hoped the meaning behind the words wasn't completely lost on her, and he moved again, kissing her slowly, catching her tears on his fingertips as a few of his own fell.
The doctor ran over, clearing his throat. "Excuse me, uh, you really shouldn't do that in here! If you get too worked up, they'll bring a crash cart in here, you know. You don't want to see how pissed off those nurses would be if they burst through here and found you two...just...fine." He jostled the heart monitor, and told Elliot he needed to calm down, trying to silence the loud, fast beeping. "You are aware that…"
"Sorry," Elliot chuckled as he cut in, moving his hands from Olivia's face, down her neck, her shoulders, her arms, wrapping them around her wrists as he pulled her hands away from him and laced his fingers with hers. "You may want to just unplug that machine, Doc. I'm obviously fucking fine, for the millionth time, and besides..." He looked up into her eyes as he spoke and the machine started beeping faster again. "When I'm with my wife, my heart rate is usually...never really normal." He pulled her closer and rubbed his nose against hers. "It's one of the reasons I married her."
Olivia tried to smile at him, but her own heart was beating erratically, too. He had just called her his wife, again, had just kissed her so deeply and soundly and there was no way anything about it was fake or pretentious, and what really made her chest ache...was that she couldn't keep herself from being absolutely happy about it.
Oh, my! This will be updated soon, if it gets positive response.