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Too Close

Chapter Fourteen

Part 1.

"C'mon c'mon c'mon," Olivia chanted as she waited for the ancient elevator to make it to the first floor. Then came the satisfying ding, and the doors opened, leaving Olivia with a clear path out to the hallway. She rolled her wheelchair about halfway out before Dr. Romanov leapt in front of her from the side, out of breath from sprinting up the stairs.

He leaned down and blocked her, pushing her chair backwards. "Nooo," she yelled, dragging her one good foot on the floor to halt her progress back into the elevator. She fumbled for the Taser, which clattered to the floor.

"Come on now, squirrel," he said, putting his hand on her neck and pushing backward with pressure on her throat. "You don't want to do this. It will only make things worse for you."

She tried to bring a knee up to his groin, but she moved so slow with the damned cast that he caught her leg with his hand, pulling upward and knocking her and her wheelchair off-balance. The room upended, and she helplessly lost all control of her orientation, her chair tipping over and spilling her onto the floor with a thump. He looked down at her and said, "Now maybe we can get back to business, squirrel."

Olivia panted and closed her eyes, knowing she had been defeated. "What did you just call her?" said Elliot's voice, and she opened her eyes again to see two pairs of feet in front of her.

"Excuse me, but you need to leave, Sir," said the doctor.

"You okay, Liv?" Elliot said, and she nodded. Turning his attention back to the doctor he said, "Are you Dr. Romanov?"

"Yes, I am," said the doctor, wearing his most indignant expression.

"Then you're under arrest, for interfering with an investigation," said Elliot, pulling the stunned doctor's hands behind his back and slamming him into the wall to cuff him. Then Elliot slammed the man against the wall again and said, "I think you owe Detective Benson an apology for being disrespectful."

"I don't know what you're talking about," said the doctor through clenched teeth.

Elliot spun the guy around, wrapping his fist in the doctor's shirt and shoving him hard against the wall so that his head bounced off it this time. Then he said, "You just called her a squirrel. I think you need to apologize, and address her by her proper name."

The doctor glanced down at her and said, "I'm sorry Ms. Benson."

"Detective Benson," said Elliot through gritted teeth, tightening his grip on the man's shirt, causing him to choke.

"Detective Benson," gagged Dr. Romanov, and Elliot loosened his grip.

Now Elliot turned his attention to Olivia, who had tears of relief running uncontrollably down her face. He righted her chair and bent over to pick her entirely up off the floor, honeymoon style, and then planted her gently into the chair. Still leaning over her, he caressed her cheek with his hand, brushing away a handful of tears. "Sure you're okay?" he said.

"Yeah," she whispered.

"You remember the rape now?" he said.

She nodded, choked up on tears. "Okay, then," he said, leaning down to kiss her on the side of the head. "You're a material witness now. Let's get you out of here."

Part 2.

Elliot looked over at Olivia sleeping on the passenger side of the car. She had told him that with her noisy roommate, the night she spent in the basement, and the memories flooding back, she hadn't gotten much sleep during her stay at the hellish psych ward. He let her rest during the entire ride back to Manhattan, looking over every few minutes to get a glimpse of her now-peaceful face.

And then he realized—she had lost some of her memories. He wondered whether she had lost the ones most devastating to their relationship—those intense moments when he had confronted her in a drunken rage and laid his hands on her, causing her to spiral into a hopeless depression.

When they got back to the station, he touched her shoulder to wake her, and she startled. "Oh, Jesus, El," she mumbled. "Don't scare me like that."

He had obtained some crutches for her at the hospital, and she used them like a pro already. When the elevator door opened onto their floor, she hesitated though, and he held the door open, saying, "What's wrong, Liv?"

"I can't go out there," she said. "I can't face everyone after I . . ."

"It's okay, Liv," he said, "They don't care that you were committed. They're all just worried about you. Besides, we have to do this—you have to get Huang to sign off on your release papers before we can go anywhere else, and you need to complete a witness statement so we can arrest Moses."

As she stepped off onto the floor, she said, "I probably look like crap."

"You look fine," he said.

She limped her way in, and a brief silence fell over the room as all the detectives turned their eyes toward her. Then she was greeted with smiles and warm greetings of, "Hey, Olivia," from several people. Amanda and Nick both approached her to welcome her, but Fin and Munch held back, and she knew they were just trying not to crowd her. Amanda gave her a warm hug, and she smiled, realizing that this was her family, and they weren't going to shun her as "the crazy one."

Munch approached her now, and she expected a smart-ass comment, but instead he smiled and said, "It's really good to see you, Liv. Glad you made it out of that rathole." Then he added, "You know, that's the new way they use to suppress opposition—it's easy to have people committed when they speak out against the authorities."

Fin elbowed Munch and gave her a hug as well, saying, "I'm so glad you're okay."

She sniffed a tear away and continued on to her desk. Cragan came out with a warm smile and said, "Liv, so glad you made it. Come talk to me when you get a chance."

She nodded and turned toward her desk, resting her crutches against it so she could get something out of it. One of the crutches fell over and clattered to the ground, and Nick bent down and said, "Here, I'll get it."

In that moment, Olivia had an episode of déjà vu, and memories popped into her head of Nick helping her pick up some papers she had dropped on the floor. She froze, spellbound, as she remembered Elliot standing too close, accusing Nick of flirting with her, and then her memories fast-forwarded to that evening and the fist fight that followed, ending with Elliot's hand around her throat after he slammed her against the wall.

Nick stood and, noticing her trance-like stare, said, "Everything okay, Liv?"

"I—I think I need to sit down," she said.

Elliot rushed in to help her to her seat, but she pulled her arm away from him and glared at him, saying, "I can do it myself."

Their eyes met, and she could tell in that moment that he understood what had just happened—that she remembered his drunken assault. As he stood there, staring at her like a dog begging, she turned her head away from him and buried herself in her computer monitor, ignoring his silent pleas.