Took a while to post, but there was a LITTLE bit left unsaid
Olivia took out her journal and began writing while she listened to Ethan and Elliot rough-house in the next room.
Its been 7 years since the fall, and I find that I still have memories coming back. Little things from that 8-month haze that I lived through surface slowly every once in a while. Well, I wouldn't put it so drastically. Saying i lived through it makes it sound like a terrible ordeal. I guess it started out that way, but I would be where I am without it. I wouldn't be living with a great guy that I adore, Ethan wouldn't be here, and I wouldn't be the person I am today.
Who knows where I'd be.
Today I remembered strawberry ice cream, and how it tasted so good one time. I'd avoided it for as long as I can remember because of my mother. When things were good, life was normal. When she was drunk, all that we'd have to eat was strawberry ice cream. Weeks at a time, that's the only thing I had to eat. It never tasted good to me after that. But in the hospital, that first tase, it was new to me again. It was delicious and sweet. Not bitter like I remember.
Another thing I got back this week was a little flash of memory of Elliot holding my hand when I first woke up. I looked into his eyes and I knew I was safe. That's all I knew, but I knew it rock solid at the time. He was there for me in so many ways just by holding my hand when I woke up.
"Mommy!" Ethan yelled, running into the bedroom and bouncing onto his mother's bed. "Don't let him tickle me!" Olivia finished the last line of her journal entry and put the pen and notebook away.
"Hiding behind Mommy? Ethan Benson Stabler," Elliot laughed.
"How 'bout we tickle Mommy?"
"Don't you da-" Elliot didn't allow her to finishe the sentence. "Stop it!" she cried laughing. Another shriek of laughter, and he let up. "Dinner ready?"
"Why, yes, Miz Benson," he said in a horrible fake Southern accent. One look from his girl friend and he went New York again. "I just came to tell ya, babe."
"Wonderful."
"Moma?"
"How come you and daddy have different last names?"
"We're not married, Squirt," Elliot said, pushing the baseball hat onto his son's head.
"How come you're not married?"
"Because things are working great just how they are, my little man." Olivia stretched. "Dinner's ready."
"I get to say grace!" Ethen yelled running from the room.
"Wasn't so hard," Elliot said, letting out the breath he'd been holding for 6 years awaiting that question.
"Yeah, uh huh. So, you're beet red because it was easy."
"Shuddup." Elliot lifted her into his arms and carried her out of the room, leaving the open journal on the night stand.
Elliot helped me to remember me. But he did more; he gave me a new life to put with my old. As I said, I didn't so much survive those 8 months. I was reborn from them. Olivia Benson, May 17, 2014
Hope you Ejnoyed 'Remember Me.' And yes, I'm working on more. Tentatively entitled 'Forget me Not.'