Sorry for the wait, I kept trying to write a Casey/Olivia/Eli scene. However, it always ended up terrible, so I left it out. Final chapter- and yes, there is a part three in the works. On an unrelated note, happy birthday to me!
Chapter 7
Casey started awake, breathing hard, trying to force the horrid images out of her mind. But, as twisted nightmares always did, they remained steadfast and strong in her mind, refusing to waver.
Olivia. That was what she remembered. Her nightmare had been about Olivia… Olivia getting hurt.
She shuddered, pushing herself into a sitting position and leaning back against the couch. Ever since her assault two months ago, she'd been almost constantly plagued by one of two nightmares- the most common, of her being trapped back in her office, being beaten to death…
And the less common, starring Olivia in the exact same situation- except Casey hadn't returned in time to save her.
Her rattled nerves got even worse when someone knocked on the door, and she nearly jumped a mile.
Shaking her head and brushing her sweat-dampened hair out of her face, pulling it into a ponytail when it refused to stay put, Casey grabbed her crutches and limped towards the door. "I'm coming!" she called, reaching for the door and yanking it open. "Sorry, I was asleep- what the… Alex?"
The young woman nodded, adjusted the baby in her arms and nodding. "I was wondering if I could talk to you."
Casey's cold gaze narrowed in a glare and she opened her mouth to refuse, then hesitated. It was true, she hadn't talked to Alex since that night in the hospital, almost two months ago. Regardless of the fact that she had Alex to thank for getting her and Olivia back together, but she also blamed her for sleeping with Olivia. Yes, there had been two people involved in that act, and she knew it wasn't entirely Alex's fault… but she had forgiven Olivia.
She hadn't forgiven Alex.
"What do you want?"
Even Alex, the coldest woman Casey had ever met, shivered at her frigid reply and hugged Eli closer to herself. "I wanted to talk to you about Olivia."
Casey groaned, lowering her head and closing her eyes. "Look, Alex, if you're here to ask me to give you and Olivia a shot, then-"
"No! Casey, I'm not…" The blonde sighed, leaning against the doorframe. "I'm not here to talk about Olivia and I. I just… look, can I come inside?"
She hesitated, looking Alex up and down for a second before giving up. She could hear Alex out, and if Alex was really here to try and convince her to break up with Olivia, she could throw her out. "Fine. Come on in."
Casey led Alex over to the couch, dropping her crutches and propping her right leg up on a chair. "What do you want?"
Brushing the dust off her skirt, Alex sat down across from Casey and rested the heavy baby on her lap. "I know you're going to be medical leave for a couple weeks, Casey, and with Olivia taking time off as well, SVU is short-staffed. The squad recently caught a rather politically sensitive case, and the DA wasn't comfortable letting your temp handle this one. I don't know if you knew, but I'm next in line for Bureau Chief of White Collar, and between you and me, the current one is on his way out. Point is, I'm an employee at the DA's office, and Arthur assigned me the case."
When it was clear Alex had finished talking, Casey leaned back and began twist her ponytail around her finger. "What's your point, Alex? I'm not going to throw a temper tantrum just because Arthur gives one of the squad's cases to an experienced ADA. The victims are far more important than my own feelings about you, I know that. If that's what you're here to tell me, then-"
"No, that's only half of it, although I'm glad that you're okay with me working on SVU cases- because I might be working on them for a lot longer."
"Alex, I'm not in the mood for word play. Just tell me what you came here to tell me."
Adjusting her grip on Eli, Alex smiled at her and shook her head vigorously, blowing her hair out of her eyes. "I'm here because, until the position for Bureau of White Collar opens up, the DA offered to give me a change from shuffling papers around- prosecuting SVU cases. With you, of course- he's not firing you. I told him that I'd have to ask you about it."
Casey's stiff form shivered with repressed anger as her cold hands clenched into fists. "Work with me?" she growled. "No! I may tolerate you, Alex, and that's because I know you're Olivia's friend and you make her happy. I'm not going to be the jealous, bitchy girlfriend who won't allow her girlfriend to see her friends. But I don't want to work with you. You slept with Olivia and you knew she and I were involved. That was low, Alex. I don't care that you had feelings for her. You didn't have to act on them- it's called self-control."
Alex sighed heavily and crossed her legs, avoiding Casey's gaze by looking down at the baby. "I know- and I'm sorry. But, you know, you never let me explain why I did it. And it wasn't just because I had feelings for Olivia. I'm not saying there's any excuses for my actions, but I didn't just sleep with her and ignore you completely."
"On the contrary, Alex, that's exactly what you did."
She grimaced and lowered her head. "I'm sorry. Just hear me out, okay?" Alex hesitated, and when Casey didn't interrupt, Alex took this as her invitation to continue. "Casey, when I called Olivia over to my hotel room, I honestly had no intentions of sleeping with her. I just wanted some comfort because I… I was worried I wasn't going to be able to come home. Things escalated, and suddenly, I thought that if Olivia and I slept together, I would feel better about having to leave. And, to her credit, Casey, Olivia wasn't happy about it. She took some convincing, and she made it clear that it wasn't because she loved me."
"That's not all, Alex." Casey's glare deepened, and she crossed her arms tighter and frowned. "If you had no intentions of breaking me and Olivia up, why did you send me a video of what happened? Why did you even record it in the first place?"
"I'm sorry, Casey!" she exclaimed, closing her eyes in shame. "My webcam was on when Olivia came over. It was recording- I didn't even know that it was. And when I woke up the next morning and Olivia was gone, I… I was desperate, Casey. I shouldn't of, but I tried to get revenge. And, Casey, I know it's a little late- but Olivia did say she didn't want to keep secrets from you. I think if I hadn't told you, she would have."
Casey didn't say anything in reply, not for a whole minute. She didn't want to admit how much Alex and Olivia's affair had hurt her, but they were past that. They had just said, 'I love you,' for god's sakes. And if she and Olivia were going to get much farther in their relationship, she would have to start liking Olivia's friends more- and that included Alex.
"Okay. I can work with you- just promise it's not going to be for too long. A couple months, sure, but…"
"That's as long as it'll take," Alex assured her. "According to the DA, my new job will open up in a few months. Three at the most."
Casey held out her hand for Alex to shake. "Well, then I'll suppose I'll be working with you soon."
"I suppose you're right." Alex shook her hand, then Casey pushed herself upright and led her to the door.
Kathy walked into the hospital room, slowly unbuttoning her coat with shaking hands, then started in surprise. Olivia was sitting next to Elliot, holding his hand, her eyes half-closed, her head resting on her chest. "Olivia?" she asked softly, her voice hoarse. She pushed her limp hair out of her face and forced a smile. "What are you doing here?"
The detective jumped, blinking her eyes open and sitting upright. "Kathy! Oh, I'm sorry." She checked her watch and got quickly to her feet. "Sorry. Today's my day off and I thought I'd surprise Casey at the hospital for her physical therapy… I came a little early to visit Elliot."
Kathy took Olivia's seat and slid her hand underneath her husband's. "Oh," she mumbled without looking away from him. Her steely gaze softened as she focused on the slow rise and fall of Elliot's chest, comforting herself in the knowledge that at least he was alive. Maybe not awake, but alive. "How's Casey?"
"Doing better," she answered with a shrug. "Taking it one day at a time. How about the kids? I'm sure they're used to their father being in danger, but… never quite like this-"
"You don't get used to it," Kathy interrupted sharply, turning her back to Olivia. "You never get used to it. My husband's always out in the field. He always in danger, and every day I come into work I'm worried that one of my patients will be him. I wish I could tell him to quit, or at least transfer to a safer unit- but he loves his job too much. Maybe even more than he loves me; I don't know."
Her voice cracked, and she fell silent for a moment, leaning forward and resting her head on her hand before continuing. "But this? This car accident wasn't even related to work, and yet… it's still the worst he's ever been injured."
"One… two… three…" Casey counted out her steps, slowly breathing harder, beginning to sweat as she turned around and started to walk forward again. "One… two… three… f- four…"
Olivia wasn't here, like she usually was, and while she missed her, Casey was somewhat glad. It was slow, painful work, and while she appreciated Olivia's support, she didn't crave her girlfriend there to try and help her re-learn something as simple as walking.
She finally collapsed into a chair, panting for breath, her chest heaving. "Oh my god…" she gasped, collapsing into herself. Her legs were aching, her whole body was trembling, and suddenly, she wanted nothing more than to find Olivia and have her promise that everything was going to be okay. That she would be able to walk again and it wouldn't hurt and it would be easy.
But, she would rather live through this short pain until Olivia helped her. It would be simply embarrassing for Olivia to see her like she was now.
"Come on, Casey," she muttered under her breath. If she was going to be working with Alex soon, she had to get stronger. She still couldn't be around the woman Olivia had cheated with her on for more than a few minutes without snapping, and now that her leg was sore and she could hardly walk, her temper was even worse. The sooner she could walk, the sooner she could go back to work and actually function around Alex.
But despite Casey's urge to get up and start trying to walk again, she knew it was a bad idea. Her doctor had given her a strict limit on how much physical therapy she could do every day- and the last time she had pushed herself past the limit, her leg had hurt so much she could hardly stand the next day. Sighing in distaste, Casey grabbed her crutches and limped towards the door. Now that she was here, she could go visit Elliot.
She limped down the hall, headed towards his hospital room. She shivered slightly, pulling up the zipper on her jacket and rushing the sweat from her recent physical exertion off her forehead before letting out a jaw-cracking yawn. Maybe she should go home, and visit Elliot when she wasn't so tired.
Sighing, Casey was about to turn around and just head back to her apartment when several nurses brushed past her, clearly in a hurry- and headed straight for Elliot's room.
Without a second's thought, Casey was on her way to the room as fast as possible. In an instant, all the most terrifying scenarios possible were flashing through her mind- respiratory arrest, heart attack, seizure… oh, god.
Casey burst into the room, a dark fear caught in her heart, to see the doctors gathered around Elliot, with Olivia and Kathy pushed off to the side. "What's going on?" she asked quietly, an low, urgent tone quickly surfacing in her voice. "Is he okay?"
Olivia glanced at her, Kathy still focused solely on Elliot, and murmured, "You'll see in a second."
One of the nurses backed away from Elliot's bed and nodded encouragingly at the three women. Kathy stepped forward first, then gasped in amazement and exclaimed, "Elliot!"
Olivia and Casey moved forward as well, eager and frantic. Casey looked over the formerly comatose detective… who was now awake.