Long Road to Recovery

Third story featuring Amy Novak.

Chapter 1

Doors slamming and two sets of footsteps marching in opposite directions alerted the team to the fact that there had been yet another argument between Casey and Olivia. The two women had been battling with one another for the last month, ever since Casey had started seeing a guy that Olivia had said she 'sort of' liked. The rest of the squad were fed up with the pair of them and poor Amy was stuck bang smack in the middle of one of her best friends and her favourite sister. Elliot gave Amy an apologetic look as Olivia stormed in, and then grabbed her by the arm before directing her to the ladies bathroom.

"She is insane! She says we don't have enough evidence!" Olivia ranted to her friend who was now sat on a toilet seat because she knew it'd take a while for Olivia to vent her anger. "I mean we have more than enough evidence, if she could be bothered to stay home one night and work instead of going out with lover boy all the time." She started to pace and continued to rant for the next ten minutes whilst Amy sat and remained silent. "Well?" Olivia asked finally coming to a stop.

"I've told you before and I'll tell you again. You can rant and shout but don't expect me to comment." Amy replied for the tenth time in a week slowly standing up, she felt a little dizzy and held onto the side of the cubicle for support. Olivia noticed and worried about the younger woman's health, asking she was alright she didn't believe the 'tired' excuse she was given.

"I don't believe you." Olivia said placing a hand on her shoulder; Amy was tired and fed up of the arguing so her mouth moved before her brain.

"Trust me I'm tired, and fed up of you and my older sister acting like kids. I've too much on my plate at the moment to play referee for the pair of you. And now I'm going to get my phone and listen to Casey demanding me to ring her so she can rant to me all about you. And you know what I don't want to hear it. Any of it!" Amy shouted pushing past Olivia and into the bull pen, she then got her phone and left.

Twenty minutes later Amy returned to her desk looking pale and exhausted after listening to Casey, Elliot was the first to notice her appearance and went to check that she was ok. He knew she'd been getting the brunt of the arguments going off, he'd been lucky enough that Olivia had chosen to talk to Amy instead of him but he'd still had his ear chewed off repeatedly by the detective.

"Go home." Elliot told Amy and she rested her head in her hands.

"I've a report to finish. I'm fine, just sick of the two children I have to deal with on a daily basis." She sighed squeezing the bridge of her nose.

"You can finish it at home, or better still do it tomorrow. Go home, get some rest and spend the evening relaxing with your husband." Elliot said handing her her car keys.

"Ok, Jack should be home soon anyway." She sighed standing up and picking her coat up. "I'll see you tomorrow." He nodded and told her to relax and forget about Olivia and Casey for the evening, although he doubted she'd complete the evening without them calling her to complain about one another.

Olivia slammed down her phone and then went to complain to Amy but realised that she wasn't sat at her desk, in fact Olivia hadn't seen the brunette for a couple of hours and nobody had commented on her disappearance. She looked up at Elliot who was on the phone and mouthed to where was Amy he mouthed the word 'home' back so Olivia picked her phone back up and dialled the McAllister's home number.

"Yello." Jack answered quietly.

"Hey Jack, how's Amy?" Olivia asked recalling how the woman had looked earlier.

"In bed, she'd wiped. Look I'm just about to run to the store; do you want me to give her a message?" Jack asked well aware that Olivia had probably called to rant about something, and there was no way that he'd disturb his sleeping wife.

"Just calling to see how she is. Tell her I called." Olivia replied before hanging up and gaining Elliot's attention to tell him what she was intending to tell Amy, the detective momentarily regretted sending Amy home as Olivia made her way over to his desk.

Amy sighed as the phone rang and she picked it up expecting it to be Casey or Olivia as Jack had told her that they'd both rung whilst she'd been asleep.

"Hey kiddo how's life?" her brother Cody smiled down the line. She let out a sigh of relief upon hearing his voice and fell into easy conversation with him, eventually though the subject of his twin sister came up. "Ok we had dinner the other evening and all she did was rant about Olivia, seriously things need to get sorted she's doing my head in. So what are you going to do?" He asked.

"You have it hard? Cody if I wasn't feeling sick I'd come to your place and hit you! You had one dinner with Casey; I have every day with the pair of them! I get both sides all the time and I can't cope." Amy half shouted at her brother so he quickly apologised, she was tired and feeling sick and felt bad for taking it out on her brother.

"Ok, so by the sounds of it I think Olivia needs a boyfriend then she'll be happy and be happy for Casey so they'll both stop arguing and be happy and leave you alone so you'll be happy and you won't snap at me so I'll be happy." Cody reasoned pleased with his plan.

"So you're ok to get Olivia a boyfriend?" Amy asked and straight away Cody gave the job to her since he was a guy and it would be weird and he didn't really know Olivia that well, she sighed and told him she'd call him the next day before hanging up grabbing a cushion and screaming into it.

The next morning Amy was on her way into the squad room when Casey caught up to her and asked to speak to her.

"No no no no no no no no no leave me alone!" Amy shouted running into the bathroom. She still wasn't feeling very well and did not want to deal with her sister, who had decided to follow her into the bathroom.

"We broke up last night." Casey said coming to a stop outside Amy's cubicle, Amy couldn't help but smile since she figured that it would calm things down between the ADA and Olivia. "He said we weren't working, you know I thought we'd last a little longer." Amy rolled her eyes before opening the door and talking to her sister telling her that it had only been weeks. Casey wasn't impressed and told her sister so.

"No Casey I'm not impressed, all day every day for the last few weeks I've had you and Olivia at one another, and then moaning to me about one another and it's driven me up the wall." Casey went to protest but Amy stopped her. "No don't now it's my turn to have a say." She left the bathroom and went to find Olivia before returning with her moments later. Olivia and Casey looked at one another with distain but Amy chose to ignore it. "You two are meant to be adults, you work together, you're meant to be friends. Hell you're both my best friends and I can't stand seeing you like this, it's horrible and driving me up the wall. Ok Liv you liked the guy but didn't make a move – your loss. Casey, yeah he asked you out but you knew Liv liked him. But thing is now neither of you have him. Olivia he didn't ask you out, Casey he dumped you. Get over it and grow up!" Amy ordered to their astonishment.

"What gives you the right to tell us to grow up!" Casey snapped at Amy who promptly started to cry before leaving the bathroom in a hurry. Olivia gave Casey a look reprimanding Casey for what she'd said and followed Amy out of the bathroom.

Olivia had expected Amy to be in the squad room but she wasn't there, Elliot and the guys hadn't seen her either. Casey looked on the roof and Olivia went round the building, neither of them found her and she didn't respond to either of their calls. Eventually Casey went back to her office and Olivia set down to work at her desk, both women concerned as to where Amy was.

Two hours later she still hadn't returned and Olivia was really worried, she called Jack's office but he hadn't seen or heard from his wife but promised to call her the moment he did. Two hours after that Cragen emerged from his office looking very sullen.

"There's been an accident." He said looking at his team with sad eyes; Olivia covered her mouth in shock.