A/N: Thanks for reading! This is my first attempt at a fanfiction, so hopefully it's not too bad!
"I'm back, El! Are you hungry?" Olivia called as she entered the room, a plastic bag of take-out food on one arm, Elliot's bag on her other. "And you left this in the lobby; you're lucky no one stole it." Huh, I wonder where he is. I told him I was just going out to get us lunch. Wait- is that him in that chair? Is he sleeping? Typical, El. Well, better wake him up, whether he likes it or not.
The bag of food fell from her arm and hit the floor messily, Elliot's bag following soon after, when Olivia caught sight of her partner. It was obvious that he was not merely sleeping.
Great Ormond Street Hospital, later
She waited on a chair just outside the hospital room, anxiously wringing her hands and watching doctors and nurses pass. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of this, she stood and stopped one of the doctors, a middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair.
"Please, is he okay?" Olivia asked, the worry lacing her voice with a querulous tone.
"He's stable, but we have no idea how he was injured. Some kind of intense pressure, but I can't imagine what could have done that. Are you sure you saw nothing unusual?"
She shook her head, suddenly unable to speak.
"You can go in if you like," the doctor offered. "He's not awake yet, but if you'd like to see him..."
Olivia nodded and pushed past, into the sterile looking room. In the middle, on a bed with light blue sheets, lay Elliot's unconscious body. Looking down at his face, Olivia couldn't help but think that it was the most relaxed she had seen him recently. Laying a hand on his cheek, she promised him that she would find whoever had done this and bring them to justice.
Later that evening, Olivia fought down a shudder of revulsion as she reentered the hotel room they had planned to share. Much as she had hoped to stay with Elliot all night, the doctors had told her that he probably wouldn't wake for a few days at least, and there was no point staying overnight. Only when they promised to call her if he stirred did she agree to leave.
She hated the thought of staying in the room where he had been injured, especially if she was alone, but it had been too late to arrange other accommodations, and anyway, this gave her a chance to search the scene for any clues.
It had been a long day, and her body cried out for a hot shower and a long sleep, but her mind wouldn't let her rest, not when she knew her partner of thirteen years had been grievously injured. Instead, she settled for a quick shower to ease the weariness of the long journey before she began to scour the area for any signs of an attack. Checking the window, she could see that the lock hadn't been forced, and she'd hardly expected an attack from that direction when they were on the fifth floor above a busy street. The front door proved to be no more enlightening, with the exception of a few small scratches around the knob, but there were a myriad of more mundane explanations for those.
Olivia knelt down and began to search the floor for any traces the mystery attackers had left behind. Elliot's satchel was still slumped on the floor where she had left it. She hadn't gone far into the room when she spotted a small clump of long black fur. She could have sworn that wasn't there when they checked into the room several hours earlier, but whether it had been there when she found her partner, she couldn't be sure. Before she had chance to ponder her discovery, she was distracted by a strange glowing coming from the bag. Pocketing the hairs, she approached it cautiously: even though it belonged to her partner, years of police experience had taught to be wary of anything suspicious.
She poked at the bag with her foot and knocked it over, spilling its contents across the dingy hotel carpet. A thick, red book tumbled out, hitting the floor with a thump. The mysterious light was coming from the book, illuminating the bizarre pattern on its cover. Intrigued, Olivia bent and picked it up, noting the smoothness of its leathery cover, and the feeling of warmth it gave off, almost as though it were living. That's a funny looking book, she thought, turning it over in her hands before opening it. Inside, every page was filled with symbols of some unknown language, completely illegible. Except for one. Even though it still appeared to be in the symbol-language, Olivia somehow knew what it meant.
"Borugu," she murmured softly.
A tense silence filled the vehicle as they struggled through the heavy urban traffic. Sherry glanced at the angry mamodo beside her. Brago had been glaring silently out the window for the entire ride. She knew he was angry that they hadn't been able to find the other mamodo's book, but it wasn't to be helped. Still, she did wish he wouldn't take his frustration out on everyone else for the rest of the day.
The call came early the following morning. Olivia had fallen into a fitful sleep just after midnight, when her utter exhaustion had finally overcome her mind. Reaching over, she sleepily answered the phone.
"Hello?" She yawned.
"Hello. Is this Ms. Benson?"
"Mmhm." She mumbled.
"This is the hospital. Mr. Stabler has regained consciousness."
She was instantly awake. "I'll be right there. Thank you."
Olivia hung up and swung out of bed. Within fifteen minutes, she was on the street, flagging a taxi. When she got to the hospital, Elliot was sitting up in bed, a heart rate monitor beside him beeping quietly to itself.
"El, I'm so glad you're ok!"
He grinned, then grimaced as a fresh wave of pain washed over him.
"I've been better," he joked. "I'm really sorry, Liv. This is really going to mess up our vacation."
"It's ok, El, as long as you're here." The two gazed at each other with genuine emotion. Inside Olivia's shoulder bag, the red book began to glow with a fierce light.
"Huh? El, do you know what this is?" She asked, sliding the book out of the bag. "I found it in your satchel; it was glowing then, too."
Elliot's face took on a pained and guilty expression.
"I'm sorry, Liv, I should have told you, but I didn't want you getting hurt. You have to believe me, I was only trying to protect you!"
"Protect me from what, Elliot?" She asked sharply. "We're partners. We've known each other for fifteen years. If there's something important that you're not telling me that could nail this son of a bitch, I need to know. What is there that you can't tell me?"
"Please don't ask me, Liv -," Elliot began.
"Don't call me that. That name is reserved for my partner and good friend Elliot, who tells me everything." She cut him off.
Elliot took a long breath, about to protest, and then sighed.
"Fine, ok, I'll tell you. But please forgive me for anything that happens, because I will never be able to forgive myself.
I'm not human, Liv. No, let me finish. I come from another world, the mamodo world. Every thousand years, one hundred mamodo children are sent to this world to battle for the role of king. That book," he added, nodding towards it, "is my spell book. Every mamodo has one. It lets us use our powers, and it serves as our link to the human world."
"El, that's not funny."
"Liv, I'm telling the truth!"
"I thought we promised to tell each other everything."
"We did and I am. I know it's hard to believe, I understand that, but it's the truth, I promise you."
"El, you've had a traumatic experience. You were in a coma. It's ok to be confused, but there's no such thing as magic, and other worlds, and... And 'mamodo'!"
"I didn't want to do this, but it's the only way to convince you. Look in the book. You should be able to read some of it." He saw the skeptical look on her face. "Please, Liv, I can't get better knowing I've hurt you."
She sighed, but opened the book and flipped through the pages of meaninglessness symbols. Just as she was about to shake her head and tell Elliot that she couldn't read any of it, Olivia remembered the part she had seen in the hotel room, the part she could mysteriously understand. The section of text glowed red like the book's cover, brighter than the dull blue of the other text.
"You can read it, can't you? I know you can, because you are my partner." The desperation in his eyes penetrated her reluctance, and she could only nod. The first spell: borugu.