AN- Well, all I can say right now is that I suck and I'm sorry for taking so long. I know that if I was the reader I would hate the author is they consistently took this long to update, but the reason this one took so long is that I broke my finger. So I couldn't type. But now that I'm out of the freaking cast, I'm FINALLY typing this up. So PLEASE don't hate me!
By the time they finally made it to the crib, Elliot and Olivia were basically zombies, longing for sleep. Elliot was a little more alert, so he actually noticed Cragen sitting in his office, searching through case files. Elliot told Olivia to go ahead and go up to the crib while he talked to the captain.
When Olivia left, Elliot made his was to Cragen's office and knocked on the door, letting himself in. "Hey, Cap."
"Elliot, what the hell are you doing here? It's 3 AM."
"I could ask you the same thing." Cragen looked up at him with a hint of annoyance.
"Well, are you gonna tell me why you're here or not?"
"Yeah, Cap," Elliot's voice turned serious, "The man who's been killing all those people broke into Olivia's apartment. We've been up all night while CSU searched the place."
"God, is she okay? Did he hurt her?"
"No, he left her a note basically saying that he's coming for her. She thinks it's the man who raped her mother."
"Did CSU find anything?"
Elliot smiled, "There was a drip of blood on the corner of her coffee table. We think it's his. The ME is running it now."
"Good. Is Liv up in the crib?"
"Yeah, we're gonna stay here tonight. She doesn't want to stay home."
"Understandable. Tell her to take a couple of days if she wants them."
"You know she's not going to rest until she catches this guy."
Cragen chuckled, "Yeah, but I figured I'd offer."
When Elliot finished talking to Craged, he headed up to the crib only to find that Olivia was already sleeping. She had obviously been extremely tired because she still had her shoes on. Elliot smiled at her sleeping form as he shed his socks and shoes and climbed into the crib next to Olivia's.
Elliot replayed the day's events in his head as he lay in bed. He thought about Anna Henchley and how glad he was that she had lived through her attack. He thought about how Olivia had called him in her time of need. And most of all, he thought about the fact that Olivia told him that she loved him. Soon, he fell asleep dreaming of nothing and everything, not that he would remember anything in the morning. But at about 7 AM, he was awoken by Olivia's screams.
He shot out of bed and hurried over to the cot next to his. He thought Olivia's shoulder, "Liv? Liv! Wake up!"
She opened her tear-filled eyes and searched around the room, trying to figure out where she was. She looked up at Elliot, wiped her tears, and covered her face with her hands. "I'm sorry, El."
"For what?" He was trying to keep his voice steady and calm, but truthfully, his heart was tearing at its seams.
"I… I'm sorry that you had to see me like this. I'm sorry that you always have to save me. I'm sorry I'm such a burden." She let out a small sob, and he pulled her head to his chest.
"Liv, you are not my burden. I like saving you. And if you talk to me about whatever happened, I wouldn't have to see you like this."
"I don't want to talk about it. It's embarrassing and I'm…ashamed of it."
"You're going to have to talk to someone about it. Why not talk to someone who you know won't judge you." He could tell Olivia was having a battle inside her head on if she should talk to him by the expression on her face.
After about five minutes of silence, Olivia looked up at Elliot, "…Okay…"
"What?"
"Okay… I… I'll talk to you. But you have to promise that you're not going to get angry. You promise?" He nodded.
"Alright. Well, you already know about how Lowell Harris assaulted me at Sealview," she paused and waited for his nod. "Well, he uh… he did a little more than I told you." Olivia watched as Elliot's expression changed from curiosity to pain.
"Liv, what did he do to you? Tell me everything."
"Well… he took me away in his cuffs after all the inmates demanded to know what was going on with the quarantine. And he… uh… took me down to the basement. I started asking questions and apologizing to try to get him not to do anything. But then I saw this bed," a tear slid down her cheek as her voice faltered, "He threw me down on the bed and tried to climb on top of my but I just kept kicking and yelling. So he grabbed me and threw me against the wall. He had me pinned there and could feel him on my back. He undid the cuffs and I elbowed him. I… I ran away and hid, but he found me and hit me with his baton. Then he…then he cuffed me to the jail bars and started unzipping his pants," by now, Olivia's tears were like a free-flowing waterfall, and she could barely even form the words she was trying to. "I just kept my mouth closed and turned my head so he wouldn't… But it didn't work. He told me that if I bit him he would kill me, so I was completely helpless. But… Fin came in and grabbed him off me."
They sat in silence for about ten minutes while Elliot just held Olivia as she cried. But he broke the silence, "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I… I was scared that you would think I was just another helpless woman who couldn't save herself."
"Liv, I could never think that about you. I care about you. I wish you wouldn't have kept it from me. I could've helped." As Elliot thought about everything Olivia had just told him, his face started to turn red and he clenched his jaw.
"Now I just need to go find him and kill him."
"No, Elliot! You promised you wouldn't get mad."
"You want that scumbag to live after everything he did to you?"
"El, I don't give a damn about him anymore. What he did, yeah, I'll always remember it and hate him for it, but I can't change any of it. And right now he's in jail. Plus, I would die if you were sent to prison for murdering him."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
