Disclaimer: I don't own Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, or any of its characters. They all belong to Dick Wolf and NBC.
Olivia's POV
I woke up and began to cough. After I had finished the fit, I sniffled.
I felt horrible.
I felt worse than yesterday. Not only was I sore everywhere, but now my head was throbbing, my throat was sore from the coughing, and I felt so cold. I glanced at the clock and it was past eleven the next day. I sighed. I felt like I hadn't slept in days, but yet I had slept for more than 12 hours.
I slowly sat up and got out of bed. I stood there, putting my hand against the wall to hold myself up until I knew I would be able to walk. I went over to the chair in the corner of bedroom to grab the throw blanket that was on it. I wrapped it around me and slowly made my way into the kitchen.
I glance up and then stare at the brown paper bags that were sitting on my counter. I knew that I hadn't gone shopping. I walked over to the counter and was about to look in the bags when I heard a noise. I grabbed my gun off the counter and then pointed in the direction of the next room as a man came out.
Elliott?
"I see you woke up." Elliott says putting his hands up. I put the gun down and wrap the blanket tightly around me.
"Sorry, I thought—"
"That someone had broke in? And first they bought you groceries?" Elliott questions and I glared at him.
"Shut up, I feel terrible." I say, not being able to think of anything else to say.
"Yes, I know that, which is why I did the shopping for you." Elliott replies as I go through the bags, but stopped as I began to cough.
"You didn't have to." I say after clearing my throat.
"Actually I did. The only thing you had in here was salt, ketchup, and a pickle." Elliott says. I guess I did have to go shopping and at the moment, the thought of going anywhere—well that just was something I did not want to do right now.
I sat down on the couch as I began to cough.
"I'll make you some tea." Elliott says.
"You don't have to." I told him. I knew this was around the time Elliott and I would usually grab some lunch, but I didn't want him to waste his lunch hour here. I could take care of myself. I would be fine; I always am. "You don't have to stay. I'll be fine, El."
"You're not fine, Liv. You're sick."
But that didn't mean I needed someone to take care of me. I didn't need it when I was a little kid, so I wouldn't need it now. I could take care of myself. All I needed was to take an advil and sleep.
"Don't you have to get back to work?" I ask.
"I asked Cragen for a few days. I wanted to make sure you're okay."
"I'm not a child. I can take care of myself."
"Well I'm not going anywhere, so you better get used to me being here." Elliott tells me. I sighed but I didn't argue. I had another short coughing fit before looking back up at Elliott.
"I'll take that tea now." I say with my voice cracking.
"Oh now you want it?"
"You offered." I pointed out and then he went back to making the cup. I laid down on the couch while every five minutes or so I'd go into a coughing fit. Elliott sits down next to me about ten minutes later and hands me the cup of hot tea. I sit up and take it from him and slowly drink it. After I finished it, I put it down on the coffee table.
"Thanks El." I say as start to shiver a bit.
"You cold?" He asks and I nodded.
"There's more blankets in the closet." I say as I attempt to sit up to go get it, but I feel Elliott put his hand on my shoulder, gently pushing me to lay back.
"I'll get it." Elliott says and gets up before I could protest. I huffed. Why was he treated me I was helpless and weak? I was capable of taking care of myself. It's just a cold.
"I can do things for myself, El." I say.
"The only thing you should have to do is rest." He replies after wrapping the blanket around me. He then hands me a pill which I took with the remainder of my tea.
I turned on the TV for a little bit, hoping to distract myself until the medicine started to work; I felt so sore. Then about half through a Friends episode, my head started throbbing. I put two fingers against my temple and let out a groan.
"Liv?"
"I'm fine." I told Elliott.
"Does your head hurt?"
I nodded, which only made it pound more.
"Yeah." I said.
"Come here. Let me rub your head." Elliott says, while motioning for me to come over. I almost laughed. Instead, I just shot him a strange look. Why did he want to do that? And why would that help? I seriously doubt that him doing that would stop my headache.
"No."
"Why not?" Elliott asks.
"I don't think it will help."
"Humor me." Elliott says and I sigh. Well, how could I say 'no' to that? I guess it couldn't hurt to just humor him. I'd let him do it for a minute and then I could go get an ice pack to help relieve the pain until the medicine starts to work.
"Fine. Just for a minute."
"Come here and lay down." Elliott tells me and move over closer to him. I lay my head on his lap and pull the blankets up closer so I'm still covered. I felt Elliott start off by rubbing my head in a massaging manner; he ran his fingers up my forehead. I had to admit, it did feel nice. Then eventually, while doing that with one hand, he started to use the other to stroke my hair, by running his fingers through it; that felt really nice. I shut my eyes for a moment and grinned, feeling relaxed; I wasn't even thinking about the pain I had been in.
"Want me to stop?" Elliott asks after a minute had passed.
"No." I said. I didn't want it to stop.
"I knew you'd like this." Elliott chuckles.
"Uh huh." I said. This felt really good. I guess I'm glad Elliott made me humor him.
"This brings back memories." I hear him say.
"What?" I ask.
"I remember when I was sick my mom used to do this." Elliott explains. "I'm sure your mom did something like that, right?"
"No." I said.
"C'mon, Liv. I'm sure, at least once, she probably did something along those lines when you were sick as a kid. Could have been something like rubbing. your back or something." Elliott says, pushing to hear something about my mother comforting me while I was sick as a kid; but that would be some story. It wouldn't be true.
"No. The only thing she'd do is let me stay home from school. Then she'd lock me in my room while she went out to a bar." I said, though, at the time, I was too relaxed and exhausted to even realize what I had admitted to Elliott. But it was the truth.
My mom was never the comforting type. I always took care of myself when I was sick.
But I will admit, maybe letting someone else take care of me isn't bad at all.
A/N: The idea with Elliott rubbing Olivia's head popped into my head and I had to write it in as it was too adorable not to. I think I might keep this story going for a little while. Also, Kathy and Elliott are divorced in this story, in case you were wondering ;) Let me know if there is anything you want to see or if you have any ideas for this. I might just use them. Please don't forget to review.
