Hit and Don't Run

~oOo~

"Stop." Olivia raced down the street to catch up to the perp. She'd left her new partner to deal with the other suspect. Her new partner. It had been almost a year, and she still struggled to think of Nick as her partner. "Fuck. Stop. Police."

The car came out of nowhere. One second, Olivia was running after him, and the next, she was on the ground in agony. Her vision narrowed before she lost her battle to stay conscious.

Everything hurt.

Olivia came to with a gasp. Her eyes shot open to find herself in the back of an ambulance. "Fuck."

"Ma'am? My name's…"

"Dickie." Olivia wondered briefly how hard she'd struck her head. "Am I hallucinating?"

"Detective. Olivia." Richard seemed equally surprised to see her. "Take it easy. We're getting you to the hospital. Do you remember what day it is?"

"I remember I haven't seen any of you in a fucking year." Olivia tamped down on her temper. Her head hurt. It was making everything worse. She closed her eyes and took a few breaths, trying to ease some of the pain. "Sorry."

"No, no, I am. We all are." Richard shook his head. He tapped her arm to get her to open her eyes, then led her through a series of questions. "I've been working part-time while I'm in college. We've…all wanted to reach out but didn't know if we'd be rubbing salt in the wound."

"It's okay."

"It isn't." He had her sit up a little on the gurney, pausing when the ambulance went over a bump. "No one hurts you like family."

"How…how is he?" Olivia couldn't help asking the question. As angry and hurt as she was, she still missed her partner. "Is he okay?"

"Okay? No. Mom left him. He was struggling for a while with shooting that girl. Then mom left for Florida with Eli. We thought he might…he's better." Richard patted her hand gently. "You have a concussion. And you're going to have a hell of a bruise, but I don't think you've broken anything else. They're going to want to do a scan to make sure there's no serious head injury."

"He's really okay?"

"He is." Richard grasped her hand when she reached out to him. "He'd…he's talked about wanting to reach out to you."

Olivia glanced up to find him peering hopefully down at her. "I wouldn't hang up on him."

"Good. Good. I uhm…we don't want to be strangers. We've all missed you." He smiled at her—more of the boyish grin that made Olivia nostalgic for the early years at the 1-6. "I'll tell him to reach out. He'll be able to tell you more about what happened to him."

It sounded ominous. Concerning. Olivia regretted not continuing to try to reach out to him. But, then again, communication was a two-way street.

He'd left her first.

But it was Elliot. Her partner. Her best friend. She'd forgive a lot to have him back in her life.

To have his family.

Her family.

To have them all back in her life.

Richard had promised to reach out to her when he left her at the hospital in the capable hands of the doctors. They'd done a few scans. Olivia was now resting on a bed in a private room, waiting for the results.

Nick had called. He had both of the suspects in custody. He promised to check in on her later.

Olivia hated being in the hospital. It was lonely with no family to pop in on her. Everyone around her had someone in their life. Her someone had left her. This shouldn't be so hard after a year.

Seeing Richard had brought all of the pain of abandonment back to her. She tried to tamp down the hope wanting to build up in her. It wasn't helpful.

"Olivia? Can we come in?" Kathleen stepped into the room with Lizzie behind her. "Dickie said he'd seen you. We brought flowers and muffins."

"He doesn't want to be called 'Dickie.'" Lizzie snickered behind her.

They both came closer to the bed. Olivia couldn't help smiling at both of them. Little girls all grown up.

"We've missed you." Kathleen set the flowers down. She looked nervous. They both did. "And we're sorry. All of us. Maybe not Mom."

"Katie."

"What? Am I wrong?" Kathleen shrugged. "We're sorry that we didn't reach out sooner. But here we are. Welcome back to the Stabler family chaos. You might regret having us back in your life."

Olivia couldn't help chuckling when the two sisters argued briefly. "I'm just glad to see you both."

"Of course you are." Kathleen placed the box muffins next to the flowers. "So we have a surprise."

"Bring him in." Olivia knew exactly where this was going. She had no doubts that the second Richard had left the hospital, he'd called his dad. "He's probably scaring the nurses with his pacing and brooding."

"You sure?" Lizzie grabbed Kathleen before she could bolt from the room. "He can wait."

"Maybe, but I can't." Olivia was grateful that they asked. She tried not to fidget nervously while they left. Elliot rushed into the room a second later. He froze halfway toward the bed. "El."

He seemed to be struggling within himself before he finally crossed the room and reached for her hand. "Liv? You okay?"

"My head's too hard to be seriously injured." Olivia tried to smile. He didn't respond in kind. He tentatively ran a finger along the bruise on the side of her face. "Where the fuck have you been, partner?"

"Hell. Purgatory. Somewhere in between." Elliot did smile when she clasped his hand in hers. "I'm sorry, Liv. I didn't want to fuck both of our lives up. I was doing a damn fine job of screwing my own up."

"Classic rookie mistake." Olivia ran her fingers along his knuckles, tracing the scars on them. "You forget we've always done better together than apart."

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah, I forgive you." Olivia brought his hand up to kiss his knuckles. Each one. She swallowed past the sudden rush of tears. "I fucking missed you."

"I'm sorry."

"Just don't fucking leave again."

Elliot eased himself onto the bed so he could take her into his arms. "Never again. I promise."