Consult

"Why isn't he here?" Olivia asked.

"I don't know sweetie, I'm sure he's on his way." Alex said, with more patience in her voice than she felt. Today was the day they would get the results from the very quick neurology workup they had given Olivia after she had reported her headaches. Alex hadn't liked the looks on the faces of the medical staff as Olivia described the shooting pain behind her eyes—the way it started with a flash of light and a wave of dizziness. They had given her the workup, rechecked her original CT's, and with a lot of consultation had told both of them they would talk together about what they had found.

The fact that they had found anything made Alex nervous. Olivia was already having a hard time dealing with the injuries they had already diagnosed. The fact that she wasn't out of bed and 100% her own self three days after the accident was driving Olivia crazy and having any kind of setback was definitely not in her plan. They had been able to give her painkillers that had numbed her pain the night before, and Olivia had drifted into a silly sleep.

Alex smiled in spite of herself, she couldn't really help it. Olivia was cute high. Not that she would admit that to anyone, ever. Olivia giggled and laughed, her smiles were refreshing and had even made Alex feel more relax.

Alex still felt betrayed that Olivia hadn't told her about her new symptoms. She wondered what else Olivia was keeping from her. How many times had this already happened? What other symptoms was she hiding? How could Alex ever trust she was really okay? It set off in Alex every over protective mother instinct she had, and when that happened, every self preservation instinct in Olivia clicked on. The two were very messy bedfellows.

Alex could hear Olivia's deep breath as the doctor stalked into the door, chart in hand, reading it as though he had not done the tests himself.

He shook her hand and smiled at Olivia.

"I'm not going to lie to you," The doctor said, standing at the end of the bed. Alex and Olivia looked at him, and Alex wondered if Olivia felt as small as she did. Not for the first time since this whole experience had started, she had felt entirely incapable of being able to help. "These new symptoms are not a good sign."

Alex could feel Olivia's hand tighten in hers. "What does it mean?" She asked quietly.

"Look, when someone comes in with an injury as severe as Detective Benson's," he said.

"You can call me Olivia," she said, interrupting him.

"Olivia's," he said, nodding at her. "One does expect there to be some kind of injury to the brain. Your first scans at that time did not show a major brain hemorrhage. Basically, considering what you went through, your brain came out in pretty good shape. The problem is the brain is a very sensitive organ. Just because there wasn't an injury on the CT scan doesn't mean that there wasn't one there. Any type of trauma to the brain can result in injury. It appears that you have suffered a very common consequence that comes from traumatic brain injury, which is unfortunately headaches."

"So what can you do to cure them?" Alex asked

"There is no cure, per se." The doctor said.

"I can't…" Olivia started to say.

"There are things you can do to prevent them. And the good news is that they're likely to go away. If you still have them in two weeks, we'll have to talk. Until then, we should be able to control them here. We'll have to watch you though, with this kind of symptom, other things could develop."

Olivia tuned out at go away, but Alex Cabot heard every word.

To Be Continued…