Here's chapter two! And I already have chapter three in the works!

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Brian, still in the wheelchair, was pushed to Olivia's direct bedside as soon as she was allowed visitors. She was still unconscious four hours later; her skin looked washed out, and the steady rhythm of the heart monitor was the only way for Brian to be certain that she was still alive. The doctors said that she wasn't completely out of the woods but that they were optimistic about her recovery. Harris had been first to leave the hospital, then, an hour later, both Munch and Fin who had ridden in the same squad car. Each made sure that they would be kept in the loop about Olivia's condition and Fin had called Cragen to let him know what was going on.

Brian observed her thinking that she appeared very peaceful; just as she had the other night when Olivia had fallen asleep before him giving him the opportunity to admire how she looked when she could simply relax outside of the constant darkness that SVU brought to her. A faint smile had played on her perfectly shaped lips and her cheeks had still carried a bit of rosiness from their recent love-making. It was in that moment that he realized he would ever be able to willingly give her up again.

"C'mon, Liv, you've got to wake up," Brian pleaded with Olivia's unconscious form and carefully moved to take her limp hand into his own. He received no response as her eyes remained firmly closed. "You're not pretending to be Sleeping Beauty are you?" he asked jokingly despite knowing that he couldn't hear him. "You really are beautiful, Liv," he told her, smiling. "Well, here goes." Brian stood up as best he could before leaning over Olivia and slowly pressing his lips to hers. When he pulled away he looked down at her expectantly. "C'mon... Do something... Squeeze my hand... Anything!"

Then he heard a sound that was so soft that at first it was not entirely discernible. His ears perked up as he waited to see if the noise would repeat itself. No more than a minute later he heard it again and quickly realized that Olivia had elicited a soft, almost inaudible moan. However, this time, the noise was followed by the delicate movement of her fingers against Brian's own.

"That's it. You can do it, baby. Open your eyes for me," he urged her. Brian detected a slight flutter that was noticeable only in her long, dark eyelashes.

"Brian?" she asked weakly, her eyes merely cracked open.

He smiled widely as relief swept over him and gripped onto Olivia's hand tighter, "Yeah, Liv, it's me. How're you feeling?"

"About as good as person can feel after being shot."

"You took three bullets; I was worried sick."

"You're doctors let you out of your room this soon?" she asked quizzically.

"I might've ripped out my IV and got out of bed myself," he grinned sheepishly.

"Brian, that's dangerous. You were shot twice just a few days ago," she said incredulously. She was so weak that her voice lacked any threat.

"I had to, Liv! I saw the news report about you getting shot. I had to know how you were and I needed to be able to see you as soon as I could," he said with emotion running prominently throughout his voice, and by the time he was done speaking his face was red and he was nearly out of breath once again.

Olivia was touched by Brian's genuine concern that he had for her. She could tell that he had changed a lot over thirteen years and he was no longer the same person who felt he needed to look words up in the dictionary in order to impress her. His maturity levels had increased by a hundredfold. She was amending her prior belief that Brian was not good dating material; she wouldn't have slept with him the other night if she still thought so.

"Easy there. Calm down. I'm right here and I'm alive," Olivia said. "I understand what you were feeling. When you were shot, it was horrible and I watched you flat-line in the ambulance and there was nothing I could do."

"I felt so helpless, Olivia. You were shot and I wasn't there. I couldn't protect you. I knew how dangerous it would be for you after all those busts went down."

"Brian, it's not your job to protect me. I'm not a civilian. I've had all the same training as you."

"But I want to protect you. I want to be that guy who makes you feel safe no matter what and that you trust entirely."

A moment of tense silence passed over the hospital room. Olivia had no idea how to respond to such strong words that had never come out of a man in direction to her ever before. She knew that Brian was a good guy and that he had a good heart. Even thirteen years ago, when she had rejected his pursuance of her, Olivia could tell that he was a good person.

"Do you regret the other night?" Brian suddenly asked breaking the quiet. Flashes of their intimate moment ran vividly through his mind, and, for a moment, he swore he could feel their skin touching so closely once again. She had felt perfect with him and it would be a memory he would hang tightly onto whether or not Olivia wanted any more to do with him. He was terrified to hear her answer fearing it would be similar to the response he'd received after their one-night rendezvous thirteen years prior.

"No, I don't. I wouldn't do that to you. I wouldn't to that after what happened before. I told you, I'm not who I used to be," she replied looking Brian dead in the eye as she finished speaking.

"Alright," he said feeling an enormous weight off his shoulders. "I need you to get better for me."

"Why don't you work on getting yourself healed first, Detective Cassidy," Olivia said flirtatiously, "then we'll work on me."

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I would really love some feedback from you guys. I'm still theorizing some major plot points and where I want this story to go. I hope the writing is enjoyable enough as it's so difficult to gauge one's own words.

~Liv

p.s. As a funny story, one of my friends tried to set me up with a guy named Cassidy. We could've been Olivia and Cassidy. I think I would've given the poor guy a heart attack out of excitement just from his name.