"It entitles you to whatever you want" Alex sobbed out as she looked at the woman who almost gave her life twice for her before turning to Elliot "Go get the nurse and have Dr. Mathews in here immediately.'
Elliot simply nodded as he quickly left to get the needed medical staff and give them a few minutes alone.
"How do you feel?"
"Like I've been hit by a Mack truck." Olivia groaned
"You hit your head during the fight and Dr. Mathews is afraid that you may have aggravated your previous injury. He has you scheduled for tests in the morning." Alex whispered as she swiped a stray hair away from Olivia's forehead "Now that you're awake that takes part of the fear away."
"Hey I hear someone is awake." Stephanie said with Dr. Mathews on her heels "That is good."
"I know" Alex said reluctantly stepping aside so Dr. Mathews could check Olivia over.
"She pulled through the first time she'll do it a second time" Stephanie whispered when she saw the worried look on Alex's face.
"I know" Alex answered turning to face Stephanie "I'm just worried with what Dr. Mathews told me earlier."
'I'll make sure she has the best just like before" Stephanie told her pulling her into a hug.
"Get your hands off her." Olivia growled when she looked over Dr. Mathews shoulder and saw Stephanie with her hands around Alex's shoulder.
"And that's the Olivia we have all grown to know and somehow love." Stephanie said laughing as she quickly stepped away from Alex "I'm Stephanie and I work here. Do you remember me from last time?"
"Yeah but I want your hands off her now."
"Is she normally a jealous woman?" Stephanie asked looking at Alex
Alex shook her head no.
"I see what new issue we have to work with."
"Yeah me too." Alex said sighing. She already had to deal with one jealous woman she wasn't too sure about having to deal with a second one. "Liv please relax. Stephanie is just a friend I promise you."
"I don't care" Olivia said closing her eyes and cussing the pain that shot through her.
"Let Dr. Mathews look at you and we will talk about it after he leaves ok."
Olivia went to nod her head in agreement but groaned as pain shot through her making her literally see stars.
"Tell me how you are feeling?" Dr. Mathews asked Olivia as he donned a pair of latex gloves.
'My head feels like it has about twenty jack hammers going off in it."
"That is to be expected and don't be surprised if you maintain a headache for the next few days to possibly a few weeks. As time goes on though it should decrease, but if at any time it gets worse or you start to have vision problems I need to know immediately. We could be looking at a much bigger problem."
"Like?" Olivia asked forcing one eye open to look at him.
"Like I told Alex earlier when I talked with her a person with multiple brain injuries, especially as close together as these are, are likely to die. With each injury it makes it harder to reduce the swelling. I'm not going to lie to you Olivia repeat injuries make it hard for the patient to return to the person they use to be. We could be looking at a long uphill battle even worse than the first time around. The one thing that will help us in determining this factor is do you remember how many times you hit your head?"
"Just once in the bedroom." Olivia answered "I was able to twist the perp around and use her as my cushion when we fell. She took the blunt of the fall."
"That is the best news there is." Dr. Mathews said with a smile glancing at Alex and then back at Olivia "I won't be able to confirm anything till the tests tomorrow but what we are looking at is that you have reinjured your previous injury."
"What does that mean for me?"
"That means you should make a full recover but I can't tell you how long that will take. If what I suspect is true you will have scar tissue growing over scar tissue. This will cause some interference with your brain signals and how you process things. In a nut shell we will need to retrain your brain."
"How?" Olivia asked wondering how much more could one possibly retrain their brain as she had already.
"We will start back on the hyperbaric oxygen treatment as soon as the surgeon will release you for that. I'm hoping no more than about two weeks max. The HBOT treatments will also help you wound to heal more quickly as well. So basically we will be killing two birds with one stone. You will need to increase your weekly sessions with your behavioral therapist and possibly a physical therapist. Again all this hedges on the results from the test tomorrow."
Olivia groaned in response.
"Now let's let you get some sleep." Dr. Mathews said turning to Alex and Stephanie "It's great that she has woken up on her own and so quickly. The thing is we need to wake her at least every two hours. The second she doesn't wake up we enter territory we don't want to enter. That is about all I can tell you until I perform the tests in the morning. If anything changes, I mean anything, I need to be notified immediately."
"Not a problem" Stephanie said as she followed Dr. Mathews out turning to face Alex "If you need anything let me know. The bedding is being sent down for you and the detective."
"Thanks" Alex said waiting till she heard the door shut behind them before walking over to Olivia's bedside "What was that with Stephanie?"
"I don't know really." Olivia whispered "It pissed me off seeing her arms around you. Not anger like before just pissed me off. I'm sorry but with everything that's happened I don't want anyone around you"
"I've known Stephanie for a long time and if it wasn't for her you wouldn't have some of the best doctors and therapist in the country working with you. I need you to work through whatever it is you're feeling like before."
"That's fine but they need to learn to keep their hands to themselves." Olivia growled as she reached for Alex needing to feel her and know that this wasn't a dream.
"Olivia look at me please." Alex whispered taking her hand and waited until she was looking at her before continuing "I cannot deal with another jealous woman. I can deal with the anger. I know what to expect and how to handle that with you. Not the jealously ok?"
"Where's Jess?" Olivia asked as if she didn't hear a word Alex had said
"At Bellevue in surgery at the moment" Elliot answered as he stepped forward letting his presence be known "You got her good partner. She has a gunshot wound to the chest and one to the abdomen like you. There are other injuries, but Huang hasn't briefed us on those yet. They're not too sure she's going to make it out of surgery."
"Save us a trial." Olivia groaned trying to keep her eyes open.
"Lay back and relax and just try to sleep" Alex said as she leaned down and laid a gentle kiss on Olivia's lips "We will be right here when you wake up."
Olivia mumbled something that was incoherent before allowing herself to succumb to the exhaustion that was overpowering her.
A/N: I have said it before but I will say it again. You guys really know how to boost my ego with all the reviews. LOL, Seriously though thank you so much. I am so thankful that you have enjoyed the story up to this point and hope you will continue to enjoy it with the chapters to come.