A/N: Probably just one more, but I've said that before…Or maybe this is it….

"It has nothing to do with getting a new partner, Elliot. Maybe it's not that I don't need you, as much as I've realized I CAN'T need you as much as I have. For my sake."

"For YOU, For YOUR sake, for what YOU need! This friendship, this whatever the hell partnership we had, it was a two way street, Olivia. It wasn't all about you, you know. Did you ever stop to think that maybe I needed you as much as you needed me?"

She stood slowly as his words hit her. "No, Elliot," she said slowly. "Let's be honest here, we both know you never needed me like I needed you." She turned without a goodbye and walked slowly back to her room.

Chapter 16

he walked slowly down the hall, not looking back. Elliot got up and watched her go, seeing her slumped shoulders and her slow, cautious gait. She walked as if she was afraid the world was going to crash down upon her. He stood in the hallway, unmoving, getting funny looks from the nursing staff that was bustling around the area.

He was sorting out all of the thoughts in his head and formatting how he was going to approach his former partner. He waited until he was fairly certain she was in the room and sitting down; he didn't want her trying to escape on him.

The more he thought about the words she had practically thrown at him, the angrier he got. He strode down the hallway, following her path and took a deep breath when he got to her door. Knocking, but not waiting for a response, he opened the door and entered her room. She was sitting on the bed, legs crossed, not unlike the position in which Olvetti had found her that morning.

She looked up when he entered and sighed "Elliot..." she said in a warning tone.

"No," he interupted her. "You need to listen to me for a minute."

Her head shot up and she stared at him. His voice was firm, but not harsh, and not angry. He was trying very very hard to not sound angry, that would be starting things off on the wrong foot.

"This is complicated." He didn't really know where to begin, but he had to say his piece.

She opened her mouth to say something and he cut her off again. "No, look, just let me say this." He paused again and walked and stood at the foot of the bed, directly ahead of her, leaning against the wall.

"I don't know where you got the idea that the problem here is that you needed me too much. I know I said some horrible things, and did some horrible things. These are things I can never take back, but I have apologized. I could apologize a million times and it wouldn't fix this, would it? And don't tell me that this can't be fixed. We were together for 10 years, Liv. TEN years. At some point in, I would say, the first few months you went from being this green rookie who busted my balls whenever possible, to being my friend who busted my balls whenever she thought I needed it. You're right; things got too complicated. You're right that we were probably closer than we should have been, more dependent that we should have been, but that went both ways. You think because I have a family that I cared about you less? You think that that made things easier for me? Olivia, YOU made things easier for me." He finally took a breath.

"I remember when I was a kid I used to fight with my brother. Like really fight. We would wrestle and throw punches and say the worst things we could think of, trying to draw blood. And we did all that because we knew at the end of the day, we were still brothers. We would still eat at the same table, sleep under the same roof. We could fight and do and say horrible things that we couldn't do or say to anyone else because we knew that we would still never be able to escape each other. Did you ever have that? Ever fight with your mother and know that no matter what you said to her, she'd still be there the next day? I'm not saying it excuses what I did, because it doesn't, nothing does. But..it's when people are that important, you can't just leave."

Olivia didn't answer him, she just stared at him with a jut to her jaw promising him a fight.

"See, Olivia, blood is blood. You can't escape it, even if you want to. And here's the thing, after ten years Olivia…after ten years you are my blood. This is not a relationship that you can just push away, just turn off because things got tough. You can try, but at the end of the day, we will still be eating at the same table and sleeping under the same roof. You don't get to just walk away, because you can't just walk away from your family; they follow you your whole life. And I swear to you I will follow you to the ends of the earth."

He took another breath. He looked at her now, really seeing her for the first time since he started his little tirade. She hadn't moved a muscle, except for her jaw, which he could see was tense and the muscles worked tirelessly clenching and unclenching.

"I am not here, Liv, because I feel responsible for you, because I feel like I am still your partner. Hell, Olvetti can take over all that. I'm here because I am your friend. And I know I screwed up, but I am asking you to forgive me, because I'm not just going to walk out the door and leave. You can't ask me to do that. Not after 10 years. You can't tell me that those years meant nothing to you; I know that's not true. So you might not want me as a partner, but please, be my friend. I've lost my partner; I can't lose my friend too. "

Olivia was looking at him with a wide-eyed look, with her jaw still clamped shut, as if if she relaxed those muscles she would fall apart. She still hadn't even attempted to say anything. He had opened is heart, set free his voice, taken a chance and if she shot him down now he thought he would never recover. He looked down at his feet, trying to gird himself for the worst thing she could say. When she still hadn't said anything after 30 seconds he looked back up at her. She was still sitting in the same position, but now her head was down, she was staring at her hands. When he looked at her, she almost looked small. His focus continued to be drawn to the giant bump on her forehead.

He stared at her, she wasn't moving. She was looking down so he couldn't see her face. She still hadn't moved a muscle. Suddenly she picked up her hands and swiped them at her face repeatedly. He almost thought it was like a pathological twitch until he realized what she was doing: she was wiping away her tears.

She sighed a big sigh, a sigh that covered years. She looked at him, met his eyes with her own, with her jaw still set and said "Okay."

He jerked his head up. "What does that mean?" he asked, slightly panicked.

"Okay, just...Okay," she said. "I mean, I don't know how to do this. I can't say things are going to be fine. I'm no good at relationships, I'm a total workaholic, I run when things get complicated. I don't know HOW to be your friend, Elliot, but…okay."

He nodded. "So, we'll figure it out. Remember, blood is blood, you can't hide from that. Plus, this is me we're talking about, me and you. We already know all of the worst things about one another, so what is there left to run from?"

She opened her mouth to respond, but then closed it again, realizing she didn't have a good response.

"Okay," she said simply. And for the first time in a long time, it was. It wasn't good, it wasn't fine, but maybe, just maybe, it was okay.