Olivia's hopes of sneaking into work and temporarily hiding the cast and crutches were dashed when she hobbled awkwardly through the door to find her whole team talking animatedly about the case. Until they heard her limping in and stopped talking to stare incredulously at her. The silence magnified the sounds of the crutches, and her desk felt like it was a hundred miles away. She willed herself to go faster than her current speed of crawling. Elliot jumped up to pull her chair out for her, and she glared at him until she tried to hold the crutches and sit down at the same time, lost her balance and he grabbed her to keep her from falling.
"What are you doing here?" Fin asked skeptically.
"Working," she responded, trying to keep the embarrassment out of her voice. She could tell she was starting to blush and wished desperately that she wasn't. She was embarrassed by the attention, by her injury, by having nearly fallen. She was the newest member of the team and was still desperate to prove herself. Showing up with a broken leg, one from a stupid mishap, nonetheless, was not part of her plan. Cragen raised his eyebrows at her.
"When you told me you were going to be late this morning because of an appointment, you left out some of the details," he remarked dryly.
"I'm fine!" she exclaimed. "Really. I tripped running and fractured my tibia. I can do desk duty."
Elliot narrowed his eyes at her after Cragen's comment. "Olivia, when exactly did you get hurt?" Shit. She had been hoping to avoid answering that and make it seem like she'd been injured over the weekend.
"This morning," she admitted sheepishly. Elliot stood up, picked up her bag and held her crutches out. She sat mutinously until Cragen sternly told her, "Olivia, you broke your leg a few hours ago. You are going home. And staying there for at least the rest of the week." Now that she was sitting down, the pain was increasing exponentially and she wasn't confident she could handle the trek back outside again. She gritted her teeth rather than admitting that and focused on breathing. She hadn't realized she had closed her eyes until she felt Elliot's hand squeezing her shoulder and heard him saying her name. She opened her eyes to find him crouched over her, his blue eyes gazing at her in concern. Everyone else was thankfully gone. How long had she been sitting there with her eyes closed? Damn it.
"I'm filling your prescription and getting you food to take your pills with before I take you home," he told her. "Cragan's in a meeting. You're going to rest on the couch in his office until then." She opened her mouth to argue, to insist that she was fine, but the words didn't make it past the pain and her increasing fear that she was either going to faint or throw up in the middle of the squad room. Elliot wordlessly helped her up and made sure she was steady before handing over the crutches. He stayed behind her the whole way, close enough that she knew he would catch her if she stumbled. She limped to the couch and sat down in utter relief, despite the pain, which was now agonizing. When he grabbed pillows for her to elevate her leg on, she pivoted, then clenched her jaw as she lifted her leg. But she couldn't completely hold back the cry of pain as fire coursed through her leg. She couldn't hear anything beyond a rushing noise in her ears for several seconds, until she heard Elliot calling her name. He was crouched in front of her, again, holding out 2 extra strength Tylenol and a bottle of water. She swallowed the pills without comment and took deep breaths. "Nobody thinks you're weak, Liv," he commented. She blinked, not having voiced that out loud. "You broke your leg a few hours ago. Nobody thinks any less of you. They think you're bad-ass for showing up anyway." "Bad-ass and stubborn as hell," he added wryly. She shrugged in resignation. He grabbed the prescription from her purse and told her he would be back once he'd filled it and gotten breakfast. Once the door closed, Olivia blinked back tears she didn't know she had been holding in. She hadn't ever known how it felt to let someone take care of her.
