2 WEEKS LATER

Olivia sat in the bar, not entirely sure why she had taken her cell phone out with her - having barely looked at it since switching it off six weeks previously. Today though, she had put in her pocket and brought it with her, having noticed the same phone charger in the office and plugged it in. She hadn't switched it on - but she could see the orange light through the open office door behind the bar indicating that the battery was charging. She dreaded the thought of switching it on - of how many messages she would have - of hearing how angry or how worried her friends were.

She stared hard at the blinking orange light on her cell phone as it charged, wondering why she had felt so compelled to charge it. Concentrating on the pulsing glow of the light, she didn't even notice the barman approach.

His voice startled her momentarily, "You OK?"

"Um...yes, sorry Sam, I was miles away. Look thanks for charging my phone...and for the work," Olivia said.

"No problem, it's hard to find reliable people out here, it's a quiet route, but there's just that bit too much work on the weekends. You sure you don't want to stick around for longer? I know the pay's not great, and the room is pretty basic...actually that doesn't sound appealing at all…" he said with a laugh.

Olivia gave a small smile, "I'm heading off tomorrow, sorry - as tempting as that offer sounds."

Passing her a beer, he turned and went back into his office. Olivia sat at the bar as she sipped her beer slowly. She gradually picked at the label from her bottle, letting the pieces fall in a small pile in front of her. Glancing outside she soon noticed that the light was beginning to fade - and turning back to her bottle, she realised that she had been sitting there for quite some time, and barely touched her drink as usual.

"Here you go, it's charged...wow...you have a lot of text messages…." came the voice in front of her.

Olivia looked up sharply at his words, taking her phone into her hands as he passed it to her.

"When did you switch it on?" Olivia asked, a slight panic rising into her voice.

"I'm sorry...I just wanted to check if it was charged so I could plug mine in…"

"No, it's OK..it's just…" she paused, "don't worry about it."

Olivia quickly stood up and walked outside - the fading daylight was rapidly being replaced by the dimmer lighting of the bar but the brightness from her phone's display seemed almost blinding. She looked at the display on her phone and felt anxiety bubbling up inside her as she took in the information. Her finger hovered at the power button, but she felt frozen as she looked at the display.

-32 text messages.

The voicemail icon was also showing, and she was glad that she couldn't tell how many voicemails she had...or who they were from without unlocking her screen. She closed her eyes and blinked away fresh tears as she put the phone in her pocket, leaving it turned on this time.

Elliot was headed north when he got the phone call from Fin - he didn't know if he was going in the right direction, but he had to go somewhere - he intended to forget subtlety, because he wasn't going to tread lightly anymore - he had called too many hospitals, and ran her DNA too many times to consider approaching this tentatively anymore. If she was here he was going to find her, even if he had to show her photo to every person in the state.

Fin had told him that they had a signal from her phone and it so happened that Elliot was heading in the right direction - although he had quite some distance to cover yet. Fin had tried calling but she was not picking up. Elliot made a decision to keep heading in the direction of the signal, knowing that Fin would keep trying.

His heart leapt with hope at thought that he might be getting closer to her, it was a straight drive to the area that her phone had broadcast a signal from and he knew that he had a good chance of making it in the next two hours. He put the coordinates in the hire car's navigation system and followed the route, not feeling at all tired despite the rapidly darkening sky. Having spent two weeks on the road, he was getting used to long drives at that point.

Olivia walked until she felt relatively composed once more before going back to her car and sitting inside. She sat on the back seat, feeling a chill in the air as she stared out of the window. It was dark now and her phone had been switched on for over thirty minutes. She pulled it out of her pocket and placed it on the seat next to her, bringing her legs up under her and resting back against the car door as she stared at it.

The phone buzzed again as the display lit up. She glanced, noticing the call was from Fin - for the third time in the thirty minutes that her phone had been on.

This time when the buzzing stopped and the call diverted to voicemail she picked up the phone, took a deep breath - and made a call to Elliot.

The phone felt hot in her hand as she held it against her ear, with each ring punctuating the silence in her car. Her heart raced as she listened to the ringing sound, not knowing what kind of reaction to expect from him.

Elliot pulled over to the side of the road as soon as he heard his phone ringing but it wasn't until he switched off the engine and he looked at the display, that he realised who was calling him. He picked it up, a mixture of anxiety and hope suddenly coursing through him.

"Olivia?" he said, his voice thick with emotion.

"Elliot," she simply replied shakily.

"Are you OK?" when met with silence he did his best to stay composed, "Liv, talk to me..."

"I'm OK..." she replied the tears she thought she had under control springing up suddenly. "Its good to hear your voice.."

"You don't know how happy I am to hear from you…..I want you to tell me where you are Liv," he said, testing the waters.

"Thats not important, but I'm fine."

Elliot sighed in annoyance, he was not going to let her be so dismissive.

"Really Liv? Because taking off right after a hostage is killed right in front of you and cutting off communication for six damn weeks doesn't sound like fine to me."

Olivia blinked back her tears, anxiety rising fast as she instantly regretted making the call. She had no plan as to what she was going to say - she just had to hear his voice…

"El, I'm sorry...look...I can't do this…. I'm gonna go.."

"No, Olivia - don't you dare hang up on me," he began angrily, but then he took a deep breath and lowered his voice, keeping his emotions in check, "just stay on the line Liv, OK?"

Olivia ended the call and threw her phone to the floor of the car.

"Damn it Olivia!" he said, as he re-dialled her number.

He waited impatiently as it rang, but it soon went to voicemail, Elliot ended the call - if she hadn't returned his calls for the last six weeks, he wasn't going to waste time leaving another message. He slammed his phone on to the dashboard in frustration, then cursed as he noticed a small crack on the screen. He checked that the phone was working before leaving it on the dashboard, where could reach it easily if she called back. He wanted to give her a chance to tell him where she was - it would be much better for both of them than just turning up having tracked her signal. If she wouldn't talk to him though, he felt he was left with no choice.

The road was quiet when almost two hours later, he reached the coordinates in good time. Given that the only buildings that Elliot could see were the gas station and bar, he felt hopeful, and in only minutes the gas station attendant had told him that Olivia worked at the bar across the road. Elliot felt that it was almost too easy, but after six weeks of going through the hell of not knowing where she was, maybe it was the break that he deserved.

He parked the car on the forecourt to the side of the bar and switched off the engine as he remained motionless. He wanted to get straight out of the car and go in, but he felt a gnawing sense of anxiety at the fact that he might see her as soon he walked in. He didn't know quite how he would react, or how he she would either. All he knew was that he was not going back without talking to her...without telling her how much he was hurting without her.

Moments later his heart thudded hard and fast in his chest as the door opened and Olivia came outside. She was walking in the direction of the only other car in the parking area when she looked up, noticing his car - and she froze.

Under the orange glow of the street lamp their eyes locked, and Elliot took a deep breath and got out of his car. He stood at the open door as he stared at her - she looked thinner, and her hair was longer. She hugged her arms about her at the sound of his car door slamming closed, and then he walked toward her.

Olivia wanted to look away - she didn't want to meet his eyes, but his gaze was almost hypnotic - she couldn't move, and she couldn't bring herself to look away.

As he moved closer, her breath quickened until he stopped directly in front of her. Her eyes filled with tears that she fought hard to contain, but her breathing grew quickly hitched and rapid and she knew that she was fast losing the battle.

"Olivia," he said, his voice low and gravelly as he stood directly in front of her.

She tried to speak, but words were lost to her. She wanted to throw her arms around him and pull him close to her, to tell him she never ever wanted to let him go, but any attempt to speak just failed her.

"Olivia….are you gonna say anything?" he said.

"I don't know what to say," she replied quietly as she looked away, her eyes falling to the ground as her tears took over and her body began to shake as she sobbed.

Elliot felt angry - confused, hurt and a whole host of other emotions, but as soon as he heard her sobbing, any anger he felt dissipated rapidly. He placed his hands on her shoulders and pulled her into his arms. Holding her tightly he closed his eyes and held her as she broke, letting him hold her tighter once her physical strength ebbed as fast her emotions.

"Liv..." he said as he placed a kiss on her head, "you've scared the hell out of me."

"I'm...sorry," she told him as she fought to calm herself, "I didn't want...I didn't want to do that...I..should...I should have…" she blinked a fresh flow of tears away as Elliot gently placed a hand on her head, stroking her hair as he waited for her to gain control of her emotions again.

"Let's go somewhere and talk Liv, we can't stay in a car park and have this conversation."

"OK...I'm staying here," she said, gesturing to the bar, "let's go back to my room…" she continued quietly, fleetingly making eye contact as she stepped out of his arms.

They walked the short distance to the bar side by side. Both battled with an urge to reach out to the other, yet they remained close but not quite close enough to touch. Olivia's heart raced and her mind whirled with all the possibilities on how this conversation was going to go. Had she known Elliot was going to turn up she could have prepared herself, but this way, she was woefully unprepared.

Heading through the bar she nodded to the bar tender, "this is my friend Elliot - he um...came to see me," she said her voice shaking.

"Everything OK, Olivia?" asked Sam, watching them both warily.

"Yeah, we just need to talk," she said quietly.

"OK, well if you want a beer, you know where to go," he said as he began unpacking a crate of beers.

They exchanged no words as they walked to Olivia's room, and once inside she closed the door and sat down on her bed. Elliot glanced around, unsure of what to do given that the room was quite small and had no chairs. Deciding not to dwell on something so minor he took a seat on her bed, giving her a little room but sitting as close to her as he felt he should without invading her space too much.

Olivia looked up, meeting his eyes as she felt the bed shift under his weight as he joined her.

"El, what are you doing here?"

"I spent a week searching for you when you left, but I got nowhere. I couldn't take it any more - not knowing if you were OK. So I left and I made a decision - I wasn't gonna give up till I found you this time."

"How did you find me?"

"Look Liv, we can talk about that later, it's not important. What's important is if you're OK...I couldn't rest until I found you...until I could speak to you again...see you again."

"I'm sorry. I just...I had to leave...I didn't know how to keep going any more," she took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as she successfully won the battle against her tears this time.

"I still see her now - the moment of her death - the moment her life stopped. I should have done more El...I just can't do it anymore. I honestly don't know what I have left," she paused, "because my job...it's...it was...my life." she whispered.

"Liv...do you know why this is worse than anything else we've been through?"

"Why?"

"Its worse Liv," he said as he turned, moving closer to her, "because you closed yourself off and you're going through it alone."

His hand moved up to her face and he hesitated fleetingly before placing a hand on her cheek, his thumb stroking her skin lightly.

Olivia felt a shiver go through her at his touch. The feel of his hand, warm against her cheek, filled her with warmth that she hadn't felt in weeks. She turned to face him fully, moving her hand and sliding it over his. They looked into each others eyes but their words remained unspoken.

Then she closed her eyes, leaning her face into his touch as her hand gently squeezed his. "I missed you Elliot," she whispered.

Elliot leaned forward, moving his other hand to her shoulder and resting it lightly there. Olivia raised her hand and wiped away a stray tear which was betraying her hard fought battle and falling easily.

"Have you been...OK? You've lost weight…are you eating?" he said, treading more carefully with the conversation now that he could see how much pain she was in.

"El," she began, with a slight smile, "I think if I hadn't eaten anything I would be in the hospital by now.."

Elliot relaxed slightly, sitting back a little as his hand left her shoulder - the fact that she was able to relax even just a little bit, and certainly enough to make a joke, made him feel considerably relieved.

"Is this where you've been staying? ….Why didn't you call me?" he said quietly.

"I haven't been here long, I was leaving tomorrow..." she began.

Elliot dropped his hand from her cheek and ran it lightly up and down her upper arm. She felt a rush of emotion at his touch, but fought the urge to just move back into his arms.

They both remained silent, their hearts still racing, as Elliot's hand lightly caressed her arm. He felt that he just needed physical contact with her - he just needed to reassure himself that she was actually there, sitting right next to him. Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly before his words pierced the silence.

"Come home with me Olivia."

Olivia looked away at his words.

"Im not coming back Elliot," she said with resolution, "I'm done."

Elliot sighed, frustrated, as he dropped his hand away from her and stood. He moved to stand in front of the window, staring outside, his hands on his hips as he tried to work out what to do.

Turning, he ran one hand across the back of his neck as he looked at her.

"Olivia. I have spent six weeks..of hell. Not knowing if you were dead or alive - all you had to do was call! You needed me - I know you hate that you need anyone, but you do - and what the hell is wrong with that? We need each other and cutting yourself off is only hurting us both."

"El...I don't know how to deal with this - I just need to...keep going until I figure out where I can fit...where I can belong - because I don't know any more. I'm struggling to hold myself together here. I'm sorry - I can't do what you came here for - I can't come back."

Elliot paused, watching her, "OK then, don't come back, but I'm not going back without you. You leave here tomorrow - then I'm going with you," Elliot said determinedly.

"Come with me? Elliot I'm too lost and...just too messed up. You don't wanna go anywhere with me. What about your kids?"

"Kathy understands, she knows I wont be around right now.."

"Elliot...you have a job, a life - a family..."

"So do you! Olivia...if you're not coming home, then wherever it is you feel you need to go, I'm going with you."

Olivia sighed and turned her gaze to the floor, not wanting to meet his eyes.

"Why?" she whispered.

"Why?" Elliot replied, feeling confused. "Olivia…you have to ask?"

He watched her as she remained silent, waiting for him to continue. Realising that she was leaving the direction of this conversation entirely up to him he decided to take a risk.

"If you're in pain right now Liv, then I am not leaving your side…" he paused, ensuring that he had her full attention, and that she was taking in his words.

"I love you Liv, and it's been absolute hell not knowing if you were OK...do you understand why I am not gonna just walk away from you after spending weeks doing nothing but searching for you?"

"El…" she began, but found herself lost for words.

"I know you Liv...so well. I know you in ways nobody else does, and I hope nobody else ever will... I love you for the amazing woman that you are...and I know..." he paused, taking a deep breath before continuing, "I know that you love me too.."

"You do, huh?" Olivia said, her voice breaking as her eyes filled with tears, despite the slight smile she couldn't stop from forming, "that's pretty presumptuous of you El."

Elliot sat back down on the bed next to her, feeling a huge relief at her reaction.

"So….yeah Liv, i'm not letting you walk away from everything and everyone...from us, and deal with this pain alone, because you don't have to," he said with sincerity.

"El...you're really going to just come with me - when I don't even have a plan?" she asked incredulously.

"That's the plan," he smiled.

"OK…" she said taking a breath, as she stood, spinning around to face him as her heart thudded fast and hard in her chest, "you're right, you know?"

"About what Liv?" he asked.

Olivia had never felt more nervous than she did at that moment - until she met his eyes. It was so clear to see that he loved her - and her anxiety melted quickly away as she found herself able to speak the words that he desperately needed to hear:

"You do know me better than anyone else," she smiled and took a shaky breath as she noticed his eyes soften under her gaze, "I love you too."

Is she gonna let him go with her? Will she let him help her?