Thank you guys so much for 100 followers! Absolutely nuts, I love you all. I don't have a huge chapter for you today, but I wanted to give you something, so here it is. Thanks for reading!
Elliot watched as Olivia tried to talk the lab tech into getting them the results on Mario Gonzales' email faster than was humanly possible. What she was doing probably bordered on harassment, and he knew there was nothing the poor guy could do, but he couldn't help the faint smile that came over his face as he watched her. It was as though she thought she could force the computer to work faster through the sheer force of her will. Eventually, he pushed to his feet and set a hand on her shoulder.
"Liv," he said softly. "Come on, he'll get it done faster if we give him the chance."
She looked at him, frustrated. "But–"
"Come on," he muttered to her. The lab tech nodded a relieved thank you at him as he led Olivia away, still muttering angrily. They walked a ways through the building before she turned around to face him, eyes wild with anger.
"How can we just do nothing? How can we allow the person who attacked you another single moment of freedom?"
He returned her gaze steadily. "By knowing that he'll never see the light of day again after this. We're in the home stretch, Liv. Now's not the time to get careless. By this time time tomorrow, we'll know everything, and he'll be locked away. We'll never have to worry about him again."
She blinked a little, and her mouth twisted into a painful sort of smile. "Prison can't hold everyone, El." It was barely a whisper, but it hit him like a truck. He put his hands on her shoulders and forced her to meet his eyes.
"It will," he promised. "You hear me, Liv? He's never getting out. I'll make sure of it."
"You can't promise–" She protested.
"I can," he insisted. "And I will. You just have to trust me, Liv. I'm not going to let anyone hurt you ever again."
She blinked at him, and let out a shaky breath before smiling a bit. "I'm more worried about them hurting you." He started to protest, but she looked up at him with warmth in her eyes. "I know, El. I get it. We can wait." She said it like she was trying to convince herself.
He smiled at her. "It's the middle of the night. Do you wanna go home, try to get some sleep?"
She blew out a breath as they started walking together, and shook her head. "No, I'm too wired."
He smirked a little. "Donuts?" She looked at him incredulously, but he pulled her along with a smile, lacing his fingers through hers. "Come on, Liv. It'll be fun."
She looked at him like seriously? Yes, he had horrible timing. But, he was absolutely starving, and Noah's enthusiasm for the sugary treats had truly affected him. Thirty minutes later, they found themselves outside of a neon-lit place downtown that happened to be the only donut shop open at 3 A.M. His eyes widened slightly as they walked inside, but he decided to hope that the food was better than the place's cleanliness. Olivia, miraculously, was still holding his hand. Somehow, neither of them had wanted to let go on the whole way over. It seemed to have fallen into the category of one of the things they just decided not to talk about.
"Welcome to Damned Donuts," the clerk at the counter said with a wide, gold-toothed grin. He sensed Olivia holding back a smile, and he resisted the urge to look over at her.
"Uh, one with sprinkles, please," he placed his order.
"Two chocolate." Yep, he could even hear the smile in her voice, though her face was perfectly stoic. They paid and were handed their order, eventually having to let go of each other as they slid into a booth, facing each other. He took a bite, and paused, his brows knitting. He looked up at his partner, who was mirroring his expression of confusion. The donut was almost...That wasn't right. And that definitely wasn't a sprinkle. Olivia's eyes widened, and he watched her carefully push the food-poisoned donuts as far away as possible. He coughed a little, and followed her lead, trying to rid himself of the disgusting flavor.
"God," she coughed, chugging water. "Nope, definitely not giving that to Noah."
A ridiculous grin split across his face, and he just stared at her with laughing eyes. "Damned Donuts," he cursed.
For a moment they just stared at each other, and suddenly they were laughing. Real, heart-aching laughter that warmed him from the inside out. When they had finished, they sat looking at each other, drinking in each other's company.
"So," she sighed at last, eyes strangely content as they rested on him. "This is pretty ridiculous, huh?"
"What part?" He quickly asked, grinning. "The part where we're waiting on records from the dumbest hitman of all time, or the part where we're sitting in a rat-infested donut shop at 3 A.M.?" He gestured to the squeaking creature across the room, and her eyes widened slightly.
"Um," she said, regaining her composure. "I was thinking more about the fact that it's only been four days since you came back, and here we are. In a rat-infested donut shop at 3 A.M."
He blinked. "It's only been four days?" She nodded. "That's crazy…" She looked at him, and he felt his next words being drawn out of him as if by a spell. "It's just...I spend four years in a coma and I come out of it feeling like no time has passed. I don't have enough memories from that time to account for a single day in the real world, so these four days...they're worth more than all that time put together." He sighed, resting his head in his hands, feeling a deep sense of frustration with time and the way it played with him. "Sorry."
She didn't bother responding to his misplaced apology. "What do you remember?"
His eyes turned up to hers, and then down again. "I have three memories, really. And they're not even real memories, Liv. Like something out of a bad dream. I hardly know what to do with them."
Olivia waited for him to elaborate, so he sighed and tried to put the strangeness of his experience into words.
"The color green," he said, feeling ridiculous. "I don't know why. I just saw green a lot, and by a lot I mean a handful of times."
"Alright," she said after a pause. "What else?"
The next two memories weren't so harmless, but he chose the easier one first. "I just remember feeling really...Like something horrible was happening, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was. I couldn't hold onto it, the feeling I mean, long enough to give it any real thought. But it was like my heart was being torn in half."
"For a while I thought I was in Heaven," he found himself saying. "All I could feel was peace. It was so quiet. Not quiet like you get in the city, just this–" He let out a sigh, not having the words to describe the resounding silence that had filled him so completely for those few brief moments. "Like nothing else existed, just peace. It was all I could feel."
She blinked at him a little, almost afraid to breathe. "That sounds nice."
He shrugged a little. "It disappeared once I realized something was missing. The whole time, it was just...It was like I was missing something. Like I'd forgotten something...crucial." He sighed at that last word, and smiled a little. "Obviously, I had," he said jokingly.
She smiled sadly at him, and took his hands from across the table, meeting his eyes warmly. "We're gonna be okay, El."
He blinked at her, and smiled back gently. "Yeah. I know."
This chapter serves as a bit of pause...Just take a breath, hug your partner, because shit is about to go down.