The next thing he knew, he woke to an earth-shattering scream.

Elliot jumped off the couch, barely staying on his feet as his legs got tangled in the blanket. "Liv?" He called out, hoping to get a response and to let her know he was on his way. It took mere seconds to make it to the short hallway. He glanced in the bedroom, registering it was empty, before reaching the bathroom door. He pushed the door open without a thought and saw Olivia standing on the edge of the bathtub. She had one hand pressed against the wall to balance herself, and he realized she was standing there half undressed. The hem of her t-shirt barely covered the tops of her thighs. When he looked down, he saw her pants and socks pooled on the floor, and then he realized the water was running into the bathtub. "What?" He asked, looking back to the floor and then around the room for any evidence of what had caused such a blood-curdling scream from his partner. "What happened?" His eyes landed back on her, and he looked her up and down. "Are you hurt?" He couldn't see any sign of injury, but the distress on her face told him that her heart was probably racing just as quickly as his.

"No." Olivia said quickly, feeling like an idiot when she saw the concern on Elliot's face. "I'm fine." She said again and she saw him relax slightly. He dropped his arms from the doorframe where he had been bracing himself and took a step into the room, looking around again.

"What was that scream for?"

Olivia tugged her bottom lip between her teeth and bit down slightly, suddenly not wanting to admit to Elliot what had sent her heart into overdrive. But there was no getting out of it now. "I was sitting here…I was going to take a bath…" Olivia motioned towards the water in the tub, half full by this time.

"And?" Elliot prompted, as he realized Olivia didn't want to tell him. "Did you see someone outside the window?" Their landlord had said they keep to themselves, but he'd already been here twice in two days. "Was he outside the window?" Elliot glanced around her to get a look out the window, but the wooden shutters were closed.

"No." Olivia said, furrowing here brows.

Elliot glanced back up at Olivia and held out his hand. "Come down from there." He realized then that his hypothesis made no sense, because Olivia wouldn't be standing on the edge of the tub, and she wouldn't be hesitating now. It had to be something far less serious. "Was it a spider?" He couldn't even begin to count how many spiders he'd killed for Kathy and his oldest daughter.

Olivia shook her head, still perched on the edge of the tub. "I'm not afraid of a spider." She said with disdain in her voice.

Elliot dropped his hand. "Well then what? A snake?" He couldn't imagine what could scare Olivia.

"It was a mouse…" She shuddered.

Elliot laughed out loud. "A mouse?"

Olivia didn't appreciate his laugh. "It ran right across my bare feet!" She said indignantly.

Elliot couldn't stop laughing. "Yeah, but Liv, mice are like…tiny. You can take on men twice your size, but you're scared of a teeny, tiny mouse?"

"Fears don't have to be rational Elliot." Olivia was annoyed. "And I didn't ask you to come running in here to save me." She said angrily. She shifted her attention from Elliot, looking around on the floor to make sure the mouse was gone. She couldn't imagine where it had disappeared to, or how many more were lurking in the walls.

"You scream like that and you don't think I'm going to come running?" Elliot asked, staring up at her.

"I just reacted." Olivia explained. "I didn't really stop to think if I should scream or not. Or how it would impact you." She said sharply. She really wanted to climb down from the tub and escape Elliot's teasing, but she couldn't make herself. Her rational mind knew that the mouse was long gone, but there was a small part of her that still thought it may be waiting for the opportune moment to dart out from behind the tub.

"I didn't say you couldn't react. I'm just saying that maybe you could save the particular kind of scream for axe-murderers or other situations where your life is actually in danger." He laughed again, and his eyes followed Olivia's as she scanned the room. "He's long gone Liv."

"I know that."

"Do you want me to carry you out of the room?"

Even though Olivia would never dream about letting Elliot carry her out, she must have hesitated a moment too long because the next thing she knew, he was reaching for her. She shifted backwards slightly, but she could feel herself tottering on the edge of the tub and she let out a small cry of surprise as she felt herself falling backwards towards the water. Elliot lunged towards her, wrapping both arms around her in almost a bear hug before she could fall backwards. Due to the difference in height, his face was buried in her breasts and his left arm was wrapped around the top of her thighs as he took a few steps back. She had thrown her arms around his neck automatically, but she could feel his warm breath against the thin material of her t-shirt and his hand on her outer thigh. The mouse was forgotten. "Let me down." She said with a rush of breath. She loosened her arms and pushed against his shoulders, but her toes were already touching the floor as he lowered her to the floor. When her eyes met his, she saw humor there, and a smile followed quickly.

"Not afraid of the mouse anymore?" He teased before she could say anything else. He could see the flush in her cheeks, and he wasn't sure if she were embarrassed or if the color in her cheeks was caused by something else, but he had enjoyed saving her from the fall. "You're welcome."

"If you wouldn't have lunged at me, I would have almost fallen."

"That was hardly a lunge." Elliot said. "I was helping you down."

"I didn't need your help."

"It kind of seemed like you did. The big bad mouse was just waiting…"

Olivia swatted at him. "You don't have any irrational fears?"

"I kind of have a thing about Jell-O." Elliot joked as he caught himself. "But other than that, I assure you, all of my fears are completely rational."

Olivia let out a sound of frustration and stormed out of the bathroom. Elliot watched her go, trying not to look at how her white, satin panties clung to the curve of her ass or her long, bare legs. When she had disappeared into the bedroom, he plucked her leggings and socks off the floor and followed her. He hung by the doorway as he saw her dig in her bag. "Do you want these back?"

Olivia gave him a sharp look and he knew she was angry. She stalked over to where he was standing and snatched them from his hands.

"What I want is for you to give me some privacy."

She couldn't shake the feeling of Elliot's face buried against her chest or his bare hand against her skin and she didn't trust herself not to grab on to him and pull him further into the bedroom. She didn't know what had caused this sudden desire to throw caution to the wind, but she needed some space.

Masking her desire with anger seemed like the way to go.

"Are you sure that's what you want?" Elliot asked, and for a moment, Olivia wondered if he could read her thoughts.

"You might want me to stay close, to protect you against the horde of mice."

Olivia heard the slight innuendo in his comment, but Elliot chuckled, obviously feeling he was being really clever and funny. Olivia strode over to the door and grabbed the edge of it, and Elliot took a step backwards just as it slammed in his face.

EOEOEOEO

Elliot had read another three chapters, had made himself a snack, perused the board games stacked on the shelves and spent a fair amount of time staring out at the rain, and still, Olivia hadn't emerged from the bedroom. He wasn't sure if she was punishing him by locking herself away, or if she had simply crawled into bed and taken a nap on this rainy day, but he was bored and lonely, and he wanted her to come out. He wandered down the hallway, but there was no light coming from beneath the door. Of course, even though the day was cloudy and dreary, it wasn't dark enough to necessarily need a light, so that didn't mean anything. He listened for any sounds, but he couldn't hear a thing. He considered knocking, but then thought better of it. He walked the few steps to the bathroom and saw the full tub of water. He reached into the cold water and opened the drain, watching for a few moments as the water started to recede. He remembered the mouse, and now, he felt kind of bad about giving Olivia a hard time about it. It was hard to remember sometimes that his tough-as-nails partner had another side to her, and he shouldn't have been so hard on her.

He knew it wasn't uncommon to have mice in houses in the woods, but he didn't want her to worry needlessly about it. If Joe was any kind of landlord or woodsman, he had to have some traps around. He walked quietly back to the kitchen and looked under the sink and in a utility closet, looking for mousetraps. He didn't have to look long, as Joe had piled some on the top shelf in one of the cupboards.

Elliot opened the packages and placed a total of six traps strategically around the cottage. When he was done, he walked back to the bedroom door and knocked lightly. "Liv?" He was met with silence, so he wasn't sure if that meant she was still angry, or if she was asleep. He took a chance and opened the door just enough to be able to poke his head inside. He braced himself for anything that might come flying through the air in his direction, but his concern was unfounded. Olivia was wrapped up in a heavy quilt, sound asleep on top of the bed. He wondered how long she'd been sleeping, and if he should wake her up. He walked as quietly as he could towards her, but a squeaky floorboard gave him away, and he froze as her eyes flew open.

"It's me." Elliot said, feeling stupid the minute he said it. Who else would it be?

Olivia ran her hand across her eyes. "Did you come back to mock me some more?" She really wasn't angry anymore. She just needed to regain her tough façade.

"I came to tell you that I'm sorry." Elliot said, sitting down on the side of the bed, uninvited. He could see the look of surprise on her face, but he did feel like he owed her an explanation. "I shouldn't have given you a hard time about the mouse." He said. "But I always think of you as fearless." He said. "You run into dangerous situations, you tackle perps without a second thought…you run down the dark alley and into the abandoned warehouses even while I'm screaming at you not to. It's one of the things I love about you and one of the things I absolutely hate about you." He shrugged. "I guess I never spend much time thinking about the things you fear…your vulnerabilities. I know everyone has them." He hesitated before he voiced his next thoughts, but he forged ahead. "Maybe because you hide them away…I don't even let myself wonder about them. Or if I do wonder, I'm afraid to even bring them up, because you'd kick my ass."

He reached out and brushed her hair back from her face. "But I do want to know the whole you. I want to ask. I want to know what scares you and what you hope for…wish for. I want to know the things that haunt you and the things you cherish. I already feel like I'm seeing a whole other side of you on this trip and I am so thankful for it."

Olivia was a little shocked at this outpouring of emotion from Elliot. He'd obviously spent some time thinking about it, and she was a little speechless in this moment. "I don't know what to say to all that." Olivia said honestly.

"Just tell me you're not still angry."

"I wasn't really all that angry to begin with." Olivia said, starting to sit up.

"You could have fooled me." Elliot said, shifting backwards to give her room.

Olivia pressed her lips together and looked down. "I think…" She looked back up at Elliot. "Everything you said was true. I am tough." Olivia admitted. "And there are a lot of reasons for that. Some of them you know and some of them you don't. But I'm always really cautious about letting people see the other side of me. I don't want anyone to even think of me as being weak or incapable of doing my job."

"No one would think that." Elliot said.

"It's not the same for a woman El." Olivia said with a small shrug. "It's sad but true." She reached out and placed a hand on his arm. "It's not like I've purposefully kept things from you." She said. "Things like a fear of mice just don't come up in normal conversation. But I'm sorry if you feel like you can't ask me about things. I'm closer to you than anyone in my life, and I'll try harder not to shut you down."

Elliot nodded. "OK." He braced his hands against his thighs. He felt at is the conversation had played itself out. A heavy conversation over a small thing, but it felt like an important change in their relationship with each other. "OK, that seems like enough serious discussion for today." He smiled, running his hands down his thighs. "Let me show you what I did while you were sleeping."

Olivia climbed off the bed, keeping the quilt wrapped around her body, and followed him into the bathroom. She stood in the doorway while he ventured into the small room.

Elliot turned with a triumphant smile on his face and pointed at something behind the toilet. He saw the question on Olivia's face, and he realized she couldn't see what he was pointing at. "It's a mouse trap." He said. "I've placed six traps around this cottage." He chuckled. "You can breathe easier now. There is no way that sucker is escaping with his life."

"My hero."

Elliot could hear the sarcasm in her voice, but the way she cast her eyes down and the hint of shyness in her smile told him that in that moment, maybe he was.