Nick woke up the next morning to the sound his door opening. He felt the rumble of thunder in the floor as rain pounded on the window. The moment he tried to sit up and see who it was that entered his room, the pain from the night before returned with a vengeance. He was so sore he grimaced as he sat.

"Dad?"

Gil was entering his room with a concerned look on his young face. Nick couldn't keep a smile from him.

"Yeah, buddy." He answered.

Gil approached the bed slowly, cautiously. His mom had told him not to disturb his father because he was hurt, but Gil was so scared for his dad that he disobeyed her order. Gil didn't reply. He just got onto the bed with him, and wrapped his arms around his father. Nick, surprised by the contact, hesitated, but hugged back.

"Mom said you were hurt." He said, still in his arms.

"I'm going to be fine. Don't worry." He pulled the boy away and sat him on his knees.

"Here. Look."

Nick pointed at his cut on his arm and the bruise on his eye. Gil put his fingers gingerly over the wounds.

"You should see the other guy." He smiled at his son, who smiled back.

"What's for breakfast?" Nick put his feet on the ground and helped Gil off.

"Cereal." Gil laughed.

"Oh. Gourmet breakfast. I like it."

The boy held his father's hand as he led his dad down to the kitchen. Cynthia had the cereal boxes, bowls, and milk carton already on the counter as the two made their way into the room. She gave Nick a soft smile.

"Thought you'd want to eat something before you go." She said quietly.

Gil sat down, already halfway to a breakfast of delight.

"Go where?" He asked.

Her smile fell.

"The hospital. Doctor called this morning while you were still sleeping." Cynthia replied.

Nick's heart stopped. Olivia.

"No." He whispered.

Gil looked up at him with concern in his face. Nick couldn't even see him. Cynthia interrupted his thoughts as quickly as she could.

"She's awake. Doc says she'll make it." She was pleased to relieve him.

He sighed in relief and leaned heavily against the counter. She was going to be ok.


Elliot was out of his hotel room at 8:00 the next morning, driving into the misty morning littered with thick traffic. He didn't care if it cost him everything he had left. He was going to try to save her - and their friendship. What would a friendship be if one of the two was gone?

He still felt as if he was floating between real life and fantasy. Olivia couldn't have been shot. She had avoided biting a bullet for 12 years, all the time that he was by her side. And then she did the second year he had without her, and this one had nearly taken her life - might still. He had a long morning in front of him. He inched slowly through the rush-hour traffic, hoping to make it to the hospital before 9:00.


Olivia's eyes opened at 8:12 that morning, the pain gone, the lines of life strangely blurred together. She felt absolutely wonderful, no pain whatsoever. Her head didn't hurt, her body didn't ache. She let herself relax against the soft pillows. Her body. She was still alive.

It had gripped her tightly that the moments she spent in her partner's arms as she bled on the floor were her last, but she'd made it. Her mind wandered to the unending questions that replaced Death's with their own grip.

Where was Lewis? Had she gotten enough proof to finally convict him? Would the trial start again, or would he plead out? What would his lawyer ask her if they went to trial? How would he look at her in that courtroom when she was inevitably called to testify? The questions overflowed as she sat awake and thought.

The nurse brought in her breakfast and helped her sit up to eat. She checked her vitals and IV's before leaving Olivia with her thoughts again. She ate only a few bites of her cold cereal, a bite of an apple, and a sip of her water, unsure she could keep anymore down. She already couldn't wait to go home. Her eyes were grabbed by the shape that appeared in her doorway.

"Hey, Liv." Brian's smile comforted Olivia as she sat up in the bed.

She felt herself smile weakly back. She didn't expect him to show up. She hadn't even thought about it until the moment she'd seen him. He approached her bedside, a single daisy stemming from the decorative vase in his hands. She smiled at him, sighing in relief. He sat down and put his hand on her arm.

"How you feeling?" His concern was touching.

Olivia closed her eyes, swallowing.

"Like I got shot." Her reply was hardly a whisper.

Cassidy found a smile on his face as she gave him a small one. He knew how weak she was. He looked down at her hand, wanting to hold it like he had before, but wary of the pain it would cause her now that she was awake. She moved her own hand, squinting her eyes at the small pain it caused her. She touched his hand comfortingly, not sure she had the energy to talk anymore. Brian cradled the hand lovingly.

"If it counts, you're still beautiful." He said, leaning over to give her forehead a kiss.

Her eyes closed as she breathed contentedly.

"Doesn't hurt." Her whisper was even softer than the last.

It was all she could manage, and she knew he would understand that.

"I know." Brian smiled again.

"I've been there." He assured her.

Her eyes closed again, this time not to reopen. She breathed peacefully in her sleep, which Brian was thankful for.

Cragen appeared in the doorway of the room, entering cautiously and quietly when he saw Cassidy holding Liv's hand as she slept.

"Doc said-" he was beginning to question when Brian nodded.

"She was. She's sleeping."

Cragen placed his flower bouquet on the same table where Brian had put his.

"Is she in pain?" It was the last thing he wanted to know, but yet he had to.

He didn't want her suffering any more than she already had. Brian glanced back at Olivia.

"No. They upped her dose of painkillers. But she's pretty weak." He commented.

The captain took a seat in another chair in the room.

"Where is he?" Brian asked seriously.

He felt like letting the bastard who had done this know what he thought of him.

Cragen sighed, "Bellevue, handcuffed to his bed. Nick did quite a number on him. So did Olivia." He replied.

Cassidy gently let her hand slip out of his as he turned toward the captain.

"And Nick?"

The two had not been on good terms, especially after Nick had found out Cassidy had been seeing Olivia. But it felt different now. They'd helped each other, and now Nick had saved her life. Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all.

"He's fine, recuperating at home. I would expect him to be here soon." Cragen took a deep breath.

"Hey." A voice just above a whisper came from the door.

Cragen turned around as Cassidy looked up. Amanda stood in the doorway, a flower vase with a balloon hovering above it in her hand.

"Hey Amanda." The captain stood up as his detective entered.

"She conked out a couple minutes ago." Brian said quietly.

Amanda set her flowers on the table with the others before standing and just looking down at Olivia. She knew the doctors had said she'd be fine, but Amanda couldn't believe that until she saw those eyes open.

"I just came by to check and see for myself." She said softly, as if she was speaking to only herself.

"I'm fine." The words met her ears at a level almost too low to be heard.

Olivia's eyes hadn't opened, but Amanda knew that voice. A smile came over Amanda's lips as she knelt down by the bed. She touched her leader's arm gingerly.

"Aren't you always?" She was so happy she felt she could cry.

"Thank god you're ok."

Olivia opened her eyes for the young woman to see for herself that she was, in fact, ok.

"I still don't have enough blood to fill up my face." Her sigh came. "But I feel great."

Her sarcasm brought a smile to Amanda's and the other two men's faces. Olivia was still in there. Her eyes closed again. She hated being so helpless, so weak. But she had no choice.

"I'll stop by tonight. Glad you're ok, Liv." Amanda stood up and nodded at Cassidy and her captain.

"Thanks Amanda." Cragen said quietly as she left the room.

"I better go myself. You hang in there, Liv." Cragen said, knowing she could hear him.

She smiled a little as her eyes blinked groggily.

"I will." Her eyes closed as he left.

Cassidy sat in silence, the only sounds in the room with him materializing as beeps and whirs of machines.


Nick opened his car door and stepped out onto the pavement of the parking lot. He reached her hospital room to find she was not alone. Cassidy sat with his hands now in his lap, leaning back in his chair thoughtfully near her bedside. Her eyes were still closed, her bruise on her face and eye now showing black and blue. He entered.

"Hey." He said quietly.

Cassidy looked up, "Hey." He sat up.

"Doctor called, said she was awake." Nick commented at a level just above a whisper.

Brian nodded, glancing back at her.

"She was. I think she is. She just doesn't have energy to talk yet."

Nick took a seat on the other side of the bed.

"She's going to pull through." Nick said with a reassuring sigh to himself.

Cassidy nodded again. "Yeah. Thanks to you."

Nick looked up with surprise.

"Look, Amaro. We got off to a bad start. But this is a woman we both care about. How 'bout we try to hash it out later? Maybe when she isn't lying in a hospital bed?"

Brian gave Nick a sideways glance. Nick smiled a little.

"Alright. I've got a couple days to recuperate, then."

Brian smiled back and they then sat in comfortable silence. The doctor and a couple of nurses entered the room.

"We're going to redress her bandages. Can you guys step out for a minute?" One of the women asked.

They stood.

"Yeah."

The lobby was nearly empty as they stood with nothing to talk about.

"So is it going to be you or me that goes into Bellevue to kill Lewis?" Cassidy questioned.

Nick found himself smiling again. Maybe this guy was not as bad as he had seemed before.

"Two is better than one. What do you say we go in together?" Brain smiled.

"Deal."


Elliot entered the hospital again at 8:38, walking through the lobby area. He immediately caught the eye of a familiar face. Brian Cassidy stood in the lobby alongside some other, younger detective.

"Elliot Stabler." His tone was dry, unsurprised, unforgiving.

Elliot took a breath and took a couple more steps toward them.

"Been a long time, Cassidy." Elliot took and shook Brian's hand firmly before turning to the other man.

"Nick amaro. Benson's partner." Brain said as the two shared another hand shake.

"So this is what it takes for you to show up here again, huh?" Amaro challenged him.

He knew how close a bond he had shared with Olivia, and how suddenly he'd shattered that bond, breaking her heart into a million pieces as he did.

Elliot's anger flared. That temper had never left him.

"You have no right to judge me. It's not your job to understand what happened." He kept his voice down, but his brow showed his frustration.

Nick nodded angrily. The stress was about to explode out of him.

"Actually, it is my job now. I'm the one that replaced you. So what did you come back to hear?" His tone was building, and Cassidy felt his own anger go up a notch as well.

Elliot raised his voice. "I came back -"

"Too late." Cassidy finished.

Elliot was silenced.

"You came to hear how she couldn't focus for months after you left? How she didn't sleep; how she didn't eat for days - weeks." Nick butted back into the argument.

Olivia had been so hurt after he had left, and Nick wanted to make sure Elliot knew that. Nick and been the one to see her suffer, and now he planned to protect her, stand up for her - like partners do.