Influenza

Chapter Three

Disclaimer: Chapter One says it all. Just look there.

A/N: Thanks for all of the reviews, you guys are awesome!

XXXX

Setting his musings on his life aside for the time being he made his way back to the couch-bed and the newly awaken Olivia. She looked at him through barely open eyes and coughed painfully. Hiding a grimace he reached out and laid his hand on her forehead, it was still warm but not as much so as it had been earlier. He was figuring it was around 100, maybe a little higher. "Hey," he greeted softly, "how are you feeling- the truth this time."

"Not so good," she croaked, shifting in the bed. "My throat... dry."

He nodded, understanding. "I'll go get you some water and Tylenol. You've still got a bit of a fever."

"'K," she said weakly, her eyes fluttering closed for a moment.

"Don't fall asleep, Liv." he told her. "Wait for about five minutes... can you do that?"

She nodded, but her eyes remained closed. Elliot figured that if he didn't move fast by the time he returned she would have fallen asleep so he got the water and medicine as quickly as he could and went back into the livingroom. Sure enough, when he made his way back to where she was lying on the bed she was sleeping, although he doubted it was soundly.

After setting down the water and Tylenol he set down on the edge of the couch bed an ran a hand through her hair, "Olivia... wake up."

She groaned and tried to turn away from him.

"Come on, Liv... you need to break this fever."

"Later," she mumbled, hiding her face under the covers. "Too tired."

He gently took hold of her shoulders and turned her back over to him, "You're acting like Dickey," he said with a grin. "Take this medicine and you can go back to sleep, alright?"

Her eyes opened partially, "Fine."

"Good," he reached out for the water and pills and then handed them to her. She took them grudgingly, swallowed them quickly and took a large gulp of water to wash them down.

"Now can I sleep?" she asked him tiredly.

He smiled, "Go ahead."

Pulling the covers tighter around her body she turned in the bed and quickly fell into a dreamless slumber.

XXXX

When she woke again he was nowhere in sight. Pushing herself up with what little strength she had she glanced around the room, he was nowhere to be seen but the keys on top of the TV told her he was still there. She didn't call out to him though, doing so would make her appear dependent on him for everything, and she could get up on her own accord, she didn't need him to help her.

Snorting at her own stubbornness she threw the covers off of her and slowly slid out of bed, her feet coming in contact with the cold, hardwood floor. Then, as steadily as she could she made her way across the living room and towards the bathroom, leaning heavily against the walls of the hallway connecting the two rooms. God, who knew the flu could be so bad? She most certainly hadn't, otherwise she would have been first in line for that damn shot.

Upon returning to the living room she found that he still was missing. Wondering to herself where he could have gone she decided to seek him out, there was really only two other rooms in her apartment; the bedroom and the kitchen. Since it was closest she checked the kitchen first, figuring he could easily be making himself, and maybe her, dinner. If it was even late enough for that.

Her suspicions had been right, well, partly so. He was sitting at her kitchen table, reading the paper, a half-eaten sandwich in front of him that was probably long since forgotten about. Smiling weakly she advanced further into the room, making her presence known. Sighing he sat the paper down on the table, "You should be in bed."

She shrugged, "Being up for five minutes won't kill me."

A frown passed over his face- maybe not, but if she wanted to get better quickly then she had better get plenty of rest. He knew from experience, of course, with four children he had learned that early on. "Olivia..." he said in a warning tone. "The more strain you put on yourself the harder your body has to work to make you well."

Another shrug, "I'm strong, El. I'll be fine."

Giving her an incredulous look he scowled. There wasn't much he could stay to that statement, she was strong, and from what he could tell she was doing much better than she had been three hours prior. Not that that meant she was completely out of the woods, far from it. The flu was unpredictable, he wasn't going to take any chances. "Even so," he told her sternly, "you need to stay in bed."

It was her turn to scowl, she knew he wasn't going to let this one go, he was a father for Pete's sake, it was his job to keep pressing the issue of rest while sick. But she wasn't his child, she was his partner- what gave him the authority to tell her what to do?

Oh yeah, her boss.

She must have scowled again because he smiled at her, such an infectious smile that she couldn't help but return it. Damn him, how did he have a way of always making her feel better?

"Fine," she frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'll get back into bed... but you have to make me dinner."

He shrugged, he had already planned on doing so when she woke up. "You don't have anymore noodles... or soup."

Yeah, didn't she know it. "Crackers, then?"

He grinned, "I'll find something... go lay down."

"Yeah, yeah," she grumbled. Before she left the kitchen she grabbed a water bottle from the fridge to take with her, then made her way back to the living room, and her make-shift bed.

XXXX

He hadn't found anything in her cabinets, let alone her fridge, that would be edible for her, so he had to go to the corner store and buy her some Chicken Noodle soup, enough for the next three days, in fact. Olivia didn't like the fact that he was getting prepared for that much time, but he had assured her it was only precautionary. A few minutes later she was eating a light dinner of soup and crackers, with ginger ale to wash it down. Her appetite wasn't much, however, and she ended up only taking a few bites from the soup, and eating three crackers. He didn't mind, he knew how unappealing food was while sick, and was just glad that she could eat even a little bit of something.

"So?" she asked, sitting back in the bed, "What now?"

"TV?" he suggested, sitting down next to her and grabbing the remote. "I hear there's a Clint Eastwood movie on."

She made a face, "Not exactly something I want to see, at the moment... Isn't JAG or some other drama show on?"

He shrugged, "Must be something like that on, there's over a hundred channels to choose from."

"Turn it to TV guide, then."

He did as he was told and they watched as the various choices scrolled over the TV screen. Turned out Olivia had been right, JAG was on, Elliot flipped the station to USA and they watched th e show in a comfortable silence. That was, of course, until his cell rang. With a sigh he got up and fished through his jacket to find it, taking it out on it's third ring and answering, "Stabler?"

Must not have been somebody he wanted to talk to, Olivia concluded when his face dropped significantly. "Kath..."

Oh, there was a shocker. No wonder he was making such a face.

"I can't just... She's sick, Kathy, I can't leave... Well, who else is going to?... Busy... Paranoid... Listen, Kathy, I'm sorry if I screwed with whatever you had planned, but-... If you would let me finish what I was going to say then-... Why do I even bother?... I've already explained it to her, she understands, so will the twins... Well, I don't really care if you don't understand Kathy, they're what matter here... That's unfair and you know it."

Olivia bit back the lump rising in her throat. What was going on, why was Kathy so mad at Elliot? From what she could hear of the conversation it must have had something to do with her...

"...Don't try to blame this on me, Kathy, if you would let me see them more than every other weekend we wouldn't be having this conversation... No, I'm not saying that it's all your fault, just partially... What is that supposed to mean?... She can't control whether she's sick or not, you above all people should know that... What?... Now you just sound crazy... I don't know why you're getting so upset Kathy, you're the one who left." His voice was hushed now, but she had excellent hearing and even a little bit of whispering wasn't going to stop her from hearing his side of the conversation, if only she could hear Kathy's.

"I really don't have the time for this," he sighed into the phone. "No Kathy... I have to go now, we can tal-... Goodbye, Kathy." And with that he hung up the phone, sighing heavily.

"Elliot?" she called out, surprised by the weakness of her own voice. He turned around to look at her and forced a smile.

"Don't worry about it, Olivia." he assured her, "It's nothing."

"Sure sounded like something," she mused, motioning for him to come sit down again. "Do you not want to talk about it?"

A smile, weak, not forced, appeared on his face. "It was my weekend for the kids," he explained.

"Oh," she stated simply. "Listen... Elliot, you don't have to take care of me, yo–"

"Yes," he said, cutting her off. "I do. That's what friends are for, anyway. Now... don't worry about me, they'll come over next weekend. It will all be fine."

"Are you sure?" she asked, a bit upset by the fact that her faulty immune system had ruined his weekend. "I don't want to be a bur–"

He cut her off again, giving her an assuring smile. "You could never be a burden, Liv. You're my friend, I'd do anything for you." The smile turned into a grin, "Well... not everything. I draw the line at shopping."

She chuckled despite herself, "Then who would carry my purse?"

"Ouch," he exclaimed with a look of mock-hurt. "That was cold, Liv."

The mention of cold made her realize that she was freezing, and quite frankly still a bit tired. Pulling her blanket around her tightly she laid down on the couch-bed and allowed herself to slowly drift back to sleep.

XXXX

He had to admit he was a bit worried by how quickly she had gone from fully awake to dead asleep, but it was just a side affect of the illness so he pushed his worry aside and reached for the channel changer once more. If she was sleeping then there was no reason he couldn't watch the second half of that Clint Eastwood movie.

Changing the station to 5 he settled into the couch bed, sitting with his back up against a pile of pillows. Olivia was to his right, seemingly dead to the world. Placing his hand on her forehead he frowned, her fever had gone back up and she was beginning to perspire- as far as he knew she hadn't done so before. Could she be getting worse instead of better? He had been so sure that she was starting to get well, maybe it was a vain hope. He knew how the flu virus could be, he shouldn't have gotten ahead of himself.

After making a quick call to Cragen to inform him of her situation he ventured back into the bathroom to get her some more medicine. He went back to the living room and sat on the edge of the couch bed, next to her. "Liv," he called, placing the back of his palm on her cheek to get a approximate temperature. It was a bit high still, but not as high as it had been earlier that morning, thank God for that. "Wake up for a minute, Liv..."

As she had done earlier her eyes lazily fluttered open and she smiled tiredly, "Why?"

"Take some more medicine, you're fever's gone up again."

She groaned but didn't protest, it would just have been a waste of her time- which was better used sleeping. Taking the pills from his hand she swallowed them and then laid back down, pushing the covers off of herself.

"That it?" she mumbled, hiding her face in her pillow.

He nodded, though she wouldn't seem him do so, and ran his hand through her hair to lull her back to sleep. "Yeah... get some more rest, now."

"Sounds good," she said weakly, the medicine and feel of his hand in her hair furthering her into yet another dreamless slumber.

XXXX

A/N: Well, most of you have said to make it EO and a few have said keep them friends- and I'm not making any promises just yet. It will be whatever it turns out to be, I guess. Can't say much more than that, since there's nothing else written! Anyway, thanks for all the reviews, I'm glad you like it. Please continue to review, let me know what you think about it and any suggestions you have.