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Olivia groaned. "Just spit it out already, would you?"
"Why didn't you tell me how long this creep has been calling you?! Over a month, Olivia! And you didn't do a damn thing about it!" Elliot accidentally snapped at her.
Tears began to well up in her eyes as she painfully got up off the bed. She had to get away from him. She didn't need a lecture from him right now.
Elliot sighed. "Liv, I'm sorry, honey, so sorry," he apologized straight away.
Shaking her head, Olivia grabbed the IV pole and started to talk toward the bathroom. "Leave me alone," she whispered through a sniffle.
"Liv..." Elliot tried again and got up, only to be answered by the slamming of the door and the click of the lock. "Liv, baby, let me in please. I'm so so sorry."
"Just leave me the hell alone," Olivia called back.
Elliot sighed and decided to give her some time to herself, to calm down, so he sat down on the bed and waited until she was ready.
When she hadn't returned in fifteen minutes and wasn't replying to his calls, Elliot looked around the room. He found a stack of papers with a paperclip sitting on a table. He pulled it off the papers and used it to pick the lock.
Picking the lock wasn't helping, so he used his shoulder to open it and knocked once more before it opened it all the way. He gasped in shock when he found Olivia laying on the floor unconscious. "Oh shit, Liv!" he cried.
He ran over to the bed, pressed the call button and ran back to Olivia before he sat down on the tiled floor and very gently laid her head on his lap. "Liv, Liv, wake up, baby. Please," he pleaded with her, caressing her cheek.
"Hello?" a doctor asked, appearing in the bathroom doorway before catching sight of Olivia on the floor. "I'm Dr. Hopkins. Olivia Benson?" she asked as she squatted down beside Olivia and checked her pulse as she still lay unconscious.
Elliot nodded. "I don't know what happened. I came in and found her like this... Liv, sweetie, please wake up."
"Her pulse is a little high but that could be just from the fall," the doctor explained as she disconnected the IV, "I'm going to get a back board and some collegues to help us get her back on to the bed so I can examine her properly."
Elliot nodded again but refused to look anywhere beside Olivia's face as he continued to caress her cheek. "Please wake up, Olivia, please," he murmured over and over until the doctor returned with some collegues and a backboard.
"Sir, you need to make room," the doctor said as she placed the backboard on the floor beside Olivia.
They quickly moved Olivia over on to the board before lifting her up and carrying her to the bed.
"Sir, you have to leave now," Dr. Hopkins said as she and a nurse started checking Olivia over.
"No, I can't. I promised her that I wouldn't leave. I promised."
Doctor Hopkins sighed and nodded. "Okay, just stay out of the way."
"Thank you," Elliot said and leaned against the wall, watching them work on the woman he loved, trying to find out what was wrong with her.
Olivia was starting to look kind of pale. Her breathing shallow.
"Put the oxygen on her," the doctor ordered the nurse.
An older nurse with grey hair immediately sprung in to action and put the mask over Olivia's nose and mouth.
"I think she had another anxiety attack," Dr. Hopkins said suddenly.
Elliot's head shot up. Had he caused this one? "Why?" he asked.
"Could be the same reason as last time. You'll have to ask her what she was thinking about when she regains consciousness."
Elliot nodded and reclaimed his seat by the bed once the nurses left. "How long will she be out?" he asked, taking one of her hands in his and rubbed the back of it.
"I'm not sure. Shouldn't be long though. I'll be back in about fifteen minutes to check on her. If she wakes before then press the call button."
"Thank you," Elliot whispered.
Dr Hopkins nodded and left quietly.
"Liv, please wake up for me, angel," he murmured in her ear after about five minutes of sitting in silence just watching her.
Suddenly, Elliot felt Olivia lightly squeeze his hand. "That's it, baby. Wake up."
Olivia moaned and her eyes slowly fluttered open. "El?" Her voice muffled by the mask.
"Yeah, Liv, it's me. I'm still here. I'm so sorry I snapped at you earlier," he apologized, caressing the back of her hand with his thumb.
Olivia lifted up the mask and said, "It's okay, El. I know you're just looking out for me like usual. I'm sorry I didn't tell you as soon as it started."
Elliot nodded and kissed her hand as he put the mask back on her face. "You and your damn pride," he said and laughed a little, trying to lighten up the mood.
"What happened anyway? My head is pounding," she moaned. Rubbing her temple with her free hand. Her voice muffled by the mask again but Elliot understood what she said.
"Doc thinks you have another anxiety attack. You must've hit your head," he informed her and pressed the call button. "What were you thinking about before it?"
"Nothing," Olivia replied, shaking her head. She didn't want to confess what she'd been thinking about as she stood crying in the bathroom.
The door opened and the doctor entered. "Good to see you awake, Olivia. How are you feeling?" she asked and lifted up the mask so Olivia could speak properly.
"My head is pounding but other then that I'm fine," she confessed, surprising Elliot. She never usually gave up that easily and he didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing.
The doctor nodded and wrote something down on the chart. "Okay, you could have a concussion so I'd like to do an x-ray to check."
"Okay," Olivia sighed. "I guess this means that my stay will be longer."
"It very well could but Dr. Fisher and I will talk about it in the morning," Dr. Hopkins informed her. "I'll go see if we can get in to x-ray now," she finished and left.
Elliot could see the hurt etched in Olivia's face. "It'll be okay, Liv."
"This was not how I was planning on spending my night though," she whispered.
Elliot kissed the back of her hand again and stroked back her hair. "I know, babe, but it'll be okay," he said just as the doctor returned.
"Okay, time to go, Olivia. Elliot, you can wait in here or you can go and get something from the cafeteria while you wait.
Nodding, Elliot got up and leaned over. "I'll see you soon, Liv, okay?" he promised and planted a kiss on her forehead.
"Yeah," she whispered, "You will be here when I get back, won't you?"
"Yes, of course, I will," he replied and gave her another kiss as a couple of orderlies came.
Elliot watched them wheel Olivia out and sighed. His stomach grumbled and he decided to head down to the cafeteria.
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Sitting in the cafeteria with a cup of hot coffee and a blueberry muffin, Elliot could feel eyes on him. Someone was watching him.
He looked up to see a man sitting at the next table, pretending to read the day's newspaper.
This man was giving him the creeps. Was he the man who had been tormenting Olivia? The man that Simon was trying to protect her from but wouldn't give up his name?
Trying to ignore the man, Elliot took a sip of his coffee and took a quick glance at his watch. Olivia wouldn't be back from the x-ray yet, it hadn't been long enough.
Elliot looked at the man and took in his features, so that he could recognize him later on if he needed to. One very recognizable feature on him was the tattoo on the right side of his neck.
He took another sip of his coffee and decided that he would make a quick trip to the bathroom before heading back to Olivia's hospital room, hopefully at least a couple minutes before they brought her back.
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Being wheeled back in to the room, Olivia anxiously looked around for Elliot but she couldn't see him anywhere in the room.
Where was he? He promised that he would be in here waiting for her. Maybe he was still in the cafeteria having a cup of coffee and something to eat. She knew that he was hungry because she had heard his stomach grumble a couple times before she went for the x-ray.
As she waited for Elliot to return, her eyes drifted close and sleep took over fairly quickly. The morphine was still having a groggy effect on her and this was most probably the most sleep that she'd had in a week or so but she was only sleeping a few hours at a time.
Opening her eyes the next morning, Olivia looked around the room. Still no Elliot, she was still alone. Where the hell was he? He promised her that he would be there when she came back. He lied.
"Knock, knock," a familiar, feminine voice said as a few taps reverberated off the open wooden door.
Olivia looked up to see Casey in her work clothes and briefcase in hand, standing in the doorway. "Hi," she whispered, still half asleep.
Casey took a seat in the chair beside the bed and looked around confused.
Somebody was missing, that should be there. "Where's Elliot?" she asked, furrowing her brows.
Sighing, Olivia shrugged her shoulders. "Your guess is as good as mine," she replied, trying to act casual, despite the hurt she felt.
"Hasn't he been here?"
"Yeah, he went down to the cafeteria when I had an x-ray late last night. Haven't seen him since despite the fact he promised that he'd be here when I came back but he wasn't here," she explained.
"He'll be here, honey. He loves you,"" Casey tried to assure her. It didn't work.
"Then why isn't he here?!" Olivia snapped.
"Whatever he's doing, I bet it's for you and he'll be back soon."