2

"Rollins?!... Rollins!" Barba yelled as he made his way up to the stand to see if Amanda was okay.

The lawyer who had been perilously scrutinising her had simply taken a step back. Whether it was because he felt it wasn't his place or because he simply didn't care, Barba could not be certain. However, Rafael continued on his journey over, and looked to the court security guard who was standing over her, then at the judge, before looking at the jury. All had mixed emotions on their faces and it made all the much more sense when he saw the blood that was gushing from her head.

"Call an ambulance!" He yelled as he ushered over Olivia.

It was quite clear that Rollins was going to kick herself when she woke up. But that really didn't matter right now. What mattered was making sure that she didn't have a more serious head injury.

Amaro and Finn went outside to meet the paramedics and guide them in when they arrived at the court building. Benson could see the worry on both Nick and Fin's faces as they left the courtroom.

They didn't want to move her too much in case she had any other injuries that couldn't be seen. Instead they checked on and monitored her breathing until the glorious pitter patter of feet from the paramedics made their way into the courtroom and Rollins' friends were shoved aside, with the medics taking over.

They carefully rolled her over so that she was on her back as well as immediately placing a collar around her neck to stabilise her.

One medic took gauze from her bag and applied it to the bleeding head wound, taping it down to secure it in place before the duo tilted her sideways so that a back board could be slipped underneath her body.

Within a matter of minutes they had her on a bed and were wheeling her out of the courtroom. Olivia was tagging along behind them making it abundantly clear that she would be riding along with them in the ambulance.

The judge was bewildered and declared that they would be reconvening as soon as was possible.

Barba, Fin and Amaro then told Olivia that they would meet them at the hospital.

As he was passing Barba took a look at Deputy Chief Patton and saw the smug grin on his face. Barba's anger began to rise to the surface, yet he continued in his easy fashion, gathering his things and walking out the door.

O/o

In the ambulance, Olivia sat down on the bench next to the paramedic and the stretcher that was holding Amanda. As the doors closed the medic was putting an IV line into Amanda's hand that was closest to her and started to give her fluids.

If Olivia was being honest with herself she was starting to become worried. Amanda and her had not always seen eye to eye. And in the past, Amanda made decisions that ultimately ended up in Olivia losing her faith in her, causing the detective to have to earn back Olivia's trust.

But recently, the blonde had more than proved herself to be an integral part of Benson's team, and she would most certainly not want to be without her for any extended period of time.

As soon as the debacle started involving Patton and his new blonde protégé, Olivia had to admit, she did see some changes in the woman, but thought nothing of it. It was only as of late, after Amanda had admitted to Barba and then to everyone else, that she had assaulted her that she thought back to the very first few cases that she worked with the blonde.

She thought back to the words that she had uttered… not worth pursuing.

Now she wished that she had tried to pursue it. Even though it would have been a challenge. Maybe if she had tried to be friendlier, more accommodating, and even more open to the idea of a new team member after Stabler had left, then she might have been able to stop this.

As the ambulance was on its way to the hospital, Olivia was watching everything that was happening very closely. She had to admit that she was worried that Rollins was yet to wake up. Just how hard had the knock to her head been?

…

When they arrived at the hospital Olivia was escorted to the waiting room and Amanda was taken back into one of the rooms to be treated.

It wasn't that much later that that Nick and Fin arrived with Barba in tow.

"Is she okay? What's the news?" Nick asked Olivia immediately.

Olivia just shook her head and lifted her shoulders and continued to pace. The four of them waited in the waiting room until the doctor came out to greet them.

"Family of… Amanda Rollins?"

Fin leapt to his feet. "That's us."

The man smiled at them all before continuing.

"When Ms. Ro-"

"Detective." Nick corrected.

"My apologies. When Detective Rollins entered the Emergency Room she was unconscious and I'm sorry to say that she is still in that state. Her head wound, which I have been informed was due to losing consciousness was severe and required multi-layered sutures to close. Due to this and her continued lack of consciousness we decided that we would order an MRI scan of her brain to check for any signs of bleeding. Thankfully that came back clear and I believe that the only result of this unfortunate incident may be a small scar and a concussion."

Nick looked at the others with concern written across his face before turning back to the doctor. "Why hasn't she regained consciousness?"

"We have her receiving fluids at the moment. I believe that she was dehydrated and likely suffering from exhaustion. I'll be keeping her in overnight, as with a concussion it is important to continually wake her throughout the night, also I want to keep her on the fluids and get her to eat something before I am happy to discharge her."

The four of them nodded in agreement. None thought for a second that this would fare well with Amanda. But it was a given that they all agreed that she would not be signing out AMA and she would most certainly be staying in the hospital for as long as was deemed necessary, even if they had to handcuff her to the hospital bed.

"Can we go in and see her?"

"Of course. Follow me and I'll take you to her. I can't tell you how long she will be asleep for though I'm sorry."

After the doctor dropped them off at her room, all four took a deep breath before entering the room.

Moving closer they surrounded the bed and looked down at their friend.

Fin was the first to speak up. "Man, she is not going to like this."

"Yeah, she is the embodiment that is disdain for hospitals. She's going to try to leave. We all know that."

"You're right Nick. But the fact of the matter is that she is staying even if I have to pull out the Sargent Benson card."

The four of them had a quick light-hearted laugh before becoming serious again.

"In all honesty, has anyone really been checking in on Amanda this last week? Especially the last few days?" Barba asked.

They all thought hard about what he had asked.

"I mean… I tried to. I'm sure that we all tried to. But Amanda is so independent. She thinks that she can take care of everything by herself. She thinks that she needs to take care of everything by herself. But the fact of the matter is that she doesn't. She still hasn't been able to transition from being a detective in Atlanta, where she could only depend on herself, to being a detective in New York with the SVU, with us; with people that she can trust and rely on to have her back."

Olivia nodded at Nick. "I agree. And I never quite understood it. I thought when Amanda arrived that we would become allies more so than we have because women on the police force occurs in much smaller numbers, yet it never really did happen. And I mean, I know that I didn't help it, with Elliot having just left. I was still sad ad angry. Yet now I can see why she was, and still seems to be having a hard time trusting us completely. But with this case going on, the fact that she testified, her more than likely wanting to go back to the court and watch the rest of the trial, and perhaps have to finish her time on the stand, there is no doubt in my mind that if we don't step in – whether she likes it or not – something like this, or worse, will happen again."

The group sat down and waited deciding to wait for Rollins to wake up.

…

Her head was killing her. Her body felt like dead weight, and she was struggling to open her eyes. Breathing in deeply she furrowed her eyebrows and felt a sharp stinging sensation coming from her forehead. Jees, what had happened? Where was she?

Lifting her hand up to her forehead she felt the edges of gauze that had been taped down. She began to groan as the earlier events came back to her.

"Well hello sleepyhead. It's nice of you to finally grace us with your presence." Fin teased trying to pull some sort of reply from his partner.

Amanda groaned again. How did she always manage to embarrass herself?

"Ugh. It's bright. And what the hell happened?" Amanda queried with a hint of sullenness in her voice.

Nick was the first one to jump in this time. "Well you were on the stand and zoned out. Then all of a sudden you were out for the count. You wacked your head pretty damn hard on the way down too. Multiple layer closure the doctors told us, and you've been out for ages. You have a concussion, probably a bad headache as well."

"Hmm. You can say that again. So when can I leave?"

Amanda's team looked at each other and then back at her.

"You have a concussion and are on fluids because you were dehydrated. The doctor wants to monitor you overnight."

"Seriously? That's ridiculous. Give me some meds for my head and send me on my way. Can you get the doc? I wanna talk to him, set it straight about me leavin'. I'll sign whatever he needs me to."

As she started to push herself forwards she was met with Nick placing his hands on her shoulders pushing and holding her back down.

"Amaro, what are you doing?"

"I'm pushing you back down so that you can relax instead of getting all worked up. Did you not hear what we said? You are dehydrated, took a nasty whack to the head and have a concussion. The doctors are keeping you in overnight and they will re-evaluate tomorrow. There is no way that you are signing out AMA or leaving. Because believe me I will handcuff you to the bed if I have to. You aren't leaving. One of us are gonna stay with you at all times as well."

"That's really not necessary. None of it is."

"I beg to differ. I saw Sam as we were leaving with you and I don't want any meddling or any trouble. Someone will stay with you until this entire court case is over."

"Sarge…"

"No buts about it Rollins."

"Fine. Fine. Where is Barba? I need to apologise to him for flaking in court."

"You don't need to apologise, but Barba headed back to his office and to see where we are going to be going from here. But I am going to be heading back to the precinct with Nick now and Fin is going to do the first shift."

Amanda looked highly unimpressed but knew better than to question the final decision by her Sargent. Not only that, she really couldn't be bothered dealing with Sam or any of the guys from Atlanta should they decide to show up and cause her trouble.

"Okay. But to be clear, I don't need a babysitter."

"Duly noted, but that doesn't change my mind."

Fin took a seat next to Amanda after the other two had left.

"How're you doing?"

"You mean apart from humiliating myself in the middle of court in front of everyone? Yeah. You know, other than that, I'm just peachy."

"Manda… it doesn't matter. You weren't feeling the best. Things happen. Everyone will move past it and it'll be old news. It really doesn't matter. But what does matter is that I am starving. What about you? You need to eat as well. I am thinking a couple of sandwiches from the deli across the street."

"I'm not really that hu-"

"Sounds great. I'll just run across now. Be back in a few."

Amanda rolled her eyes as he headed for the door but yelled after him "Hey, get me a drink while you're at it?"

He smiled and nodded before his departure.

Amanda took the time to look herself over, she didn't seem like she needed to stay in the hospital. But she knew that it was a battle that she had well lost. Looking up at the ceiling, she began to count each of the dots in the ceiling tiles. At least when she had been shot there were given good meds to make the time stuck there more bearable.

A rustling noise in the doorway drew her attention and she saw a couple of guys enter and shut the door.

Well crap. Benson was right. It looked like Sam did want to stir up the pot and cause trouble.

"Hey Manda, how ya doin'?" Sam asked as he and another man from the APD pulled the curtain as they moved toward her bed.

Heyyy! Sooooo… I will be making this longer than a two shot as has been asked. There will definitely be Sam featured in this story. Possibly quite a bit in the future as well as some more Patton. And they won't be too happy with Amanda either. I want to explore an alternate storyline where there is more happening for Amanda after the trial with regards to Sam and Patton, rather than going on a retreat to heal. But there will be healing at the end too!

Anywho, please let me know what you think. I'll update ASAP but not sure when as I've just had my appendix removed. Thanks!