Close Calls

Summary: See ch1

Disclaimer: Not mine

A/N: Keep reviewing!

Vulnerable

"Liv, what the hell is this?" He asked, standing in her living room.

"I, uh, its, its nothing." She stammered, not sure how she was going to explain to her boyfriend why there was a bloody knife under her bathroom sink.

"Really. Because it sure as hell looks like nothing." Elliot said, growing angry at the fact that she was trying to talk circles around him, instead of just telling him the truth.

"What do you want me to say Elliot?" Olivia asked, matching his tone and volume. "What do you think it is? It's a bloody knife. I stabbed some people to death on the way home from work the other day, and had no where else to stash the murder weapon." She mocked coolly as she walked past him, grabbing the bag from him and basically threw it back under the bathroom sink.

Of course she knew that Elliot didn't think she had used the knife, but she had no other way to defend herself right now.

Elliot followed her, and stood in the door way. "You know I don't think that you did anything with it." He called her. "If you had you would have wiped it clean, bleached it, and thrown it into the East Rive." He attempted a joke to calm their flaring tempers.

"Look, El, can we just eat and forget about it please?" She asked, now sounding defeated rather than enraged.

"Olivia, do you really expect me to be able to 'just forget about' the fact that there is a bloody knife under my girlfriend's bathroom sink?" He asked. "Especially considering that it looks like you have a bandage on your neck." He said slowly as he noticed it for the first time.

The concern from earlier that morning flooded back, and he rushed over to assess her neck.

Olivia simply pulled away. "It's nothing Elliot." She demanded.

"Nothing? Really? Because it looks to me like someone sliced you. Now come on, what the hell is going on? Did someone do this to you?" He asked growing enraged at the thought of anyone touching her that way.

"I'm fine." She said under her breath.

"That's not what I asked you." Elliot fought. This wasn't a fight he was going to lose.

"Can we please just drop this and eat?" She begged.

"How can I drop this Olivia? It looks like someone attacked you!" He almost yelled.

"Well trust me Elliot; you should see the other guy!" Olivia yelled back, pushing past him once again.

Her emotions were all over the place. As his girlfriend, she desperately wanted to tell him what happened. Reveal to him how scared she had been, and let him hold her tightly, and make her pain, and fear all go away. She wanted him to be strong for her, and let herself break a little. But as his partner, she couldn't do that. She had to be strong for herself, let him know that she could be. She couldn't let him know that she had been that unaware of what was going on that someone had been able to overtake her. She didn't want him to have to take care of her.

Elliot simply stayed stubborn, and followed her out into the kitchen where she sat down at the table, and began eating her pizza.

"Olivia, why won't you just tell me what happened?" He begged, kneeling in front of her chair.

"Because I'm fine. I can handle it. I can take care of this myself." She said, trying to reassure herself more than Elliot.

"If someone did this to you, you shouldn't have to handle it yourself." He told her, taking her hands, and forcing her to let go of her pizza. "What happened?"

Olivia was as obstinate as ever. Unfortunately for Elliot, that was just one of the things he loved so much about her.

"Okay, will you at least tell me whose blood is on that knife?" He asked. "Is it yours?"

Olivia could feel herself starting to break. Now she understood why perps confessed after being tortured like this in the interrogation room. She took a deep breath, before nodding her head 'yes'.

"From your neck?" He asked.

Olivia again nodded 'yes'.

"There's a lot of blood on that knife, did you get stabbed anywhere else?" He asked gently.

"No." Olivia said sternly. She didn't want to be treated like a victim, and Elliot was talking to her with the same tone he took with the victims. She once again pushed him away.

"Will you stop pushing me away Olivia!" He begged.

"Will you stop treating me like I'm some sort of helpless victim!" He demanded right back. "I thought this was supposed to be a date!"

"Why won't you just tell me what happened?" He asked, now he being the one to match his voice to hers. Neither were used to backing down to the other.

"Because I'm not a victim Elliot! I don't want to be treated like one! I'm a cop. I can take care of myself." She said, her voice coming down from a yell to sob as she explained herself to him.

As she began to let herself break, Elliot wrapped his arms around her. He let her collapse into him, and brought her over to the couch. As soon as she controlled herself, the shame of letting her partner see her like this once again set in. It was so hard to be both girlfriend and partner at the same time.

"You don't have to be so strong all the time you know?" He asked, wiping her tears with his thumb.

"Yes I do." Olivia answered. "Fin would never break down like this in front of Munch."

"Fin isn't sleeping with Munch. Fin doesn't love Munch." Elliot said with a smile. "At least I hope he's not."

Olivia finally laughed a little.

"Liv, I love you. We're partners at work, but here, we're not. You can tell me anything Liv. You can break down if you want. I'm not going to think anything less of you. I know just as well as you do, that at work we have to put on a hard face, and act like nothing phases us. When we get home, the last thing we want to do is have to keep up that facade." He said gently. "That was the best part of having Kathy. I could come home, and be vulnerable. I want you to be able to do that with me Olivia." He finished.

Olivia rested her head on his chest, and let him rub her back soothingly.

"The rest of the blood on that knife is Richard's." She said almost inaudibly.

"What?" Elliot asked, not knowing what else to say. He had never expected her to say that.

"Last night, when I was coming home, he jumped me at the stoop. He held it to my neck, and told me that he would kill me if I tried to get away." She began, slowly. Her walls were coming down, but it didn't make this any easier.

"Did he…" Elliot began.

"No." Olivia answered, understanding what he was trying to ask her. "No, he didn't rape me. But he wanted to." She added.

"He tried pulling me into the alley. I tripped him, that's when I got cut. I grabbed the knife, and got up to run, but he pulled me back down." She confessed and paused for a moment to compose herself.

"He climbed on top of me, and punched me in the face. That's how I got the split lip and bruises. I wasn't about to just let him rape me, so I stabbed him in the thigh. I pushed him off of me, pulled the knife out, and ran for my apartment." She explained. "I should have arrested him, but I couldn't face the squad." She admitted.

"I was so afraid Elliot." She admitted. It as the first time she had ever told anyone that she was afraid of anything. She always worked so hard to seem fearless.

After her confession she broke into sobs, a sight that Elliot had never seen before. He held her as she cried into his chest. He stroked her back, and told her that everything would be okay. He didn't know what else to do.

What he did know, was that they had to report this. If attacking a cop didn't get the Marshalls to give up their star witness, he didn't know what would.

"We have to tell Cragen." He whispered when Olivia had calmed.

"I know." She answered weakly, now both physically and emotionally drained.

"Tomorrow." He simply said.

"Tomorrow." Olivia agreed.

Both had lost their appetites, and just wanted to sleep. Elliot helped Olivia into her room. She didn't even bother to change out of her cloths. Instead she just climbed underneath her covers fully clothed.

When Elliot went to leave her, Olivia protested. "Just lay with me El." She begged.

Elliot kicked off his shoes, and held her as she finally drifted off to sleep in the safety of his arms.

TBC... so, tell me what u think, and keep on reading!

This sotory isn't over yet, but I'm already thinking of writing a sequal, only problem is, I don't know if I'll have the time. So when this is over, just be patient, and I will try to get a sequal up as soon as i can!