Hi again! Not sure how long I can keep up the daily updates, but for now, here's number 11!

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11. Relief

Olivia froze, still staring into Elliot's eyes. His panic was slowly subsiding but she was still shocked. What had he dreamed about exactly? She needed to know if another memory had resurfaced, so she should let him tell her the details and not ask him any leading questions.

"Olivia," he said again, grabbing her wrist.

"I'm here," she choked out. "It was a dream."

"It was so real."

"You want to tell me about it? Do you remember where you were?"

"No."

He'd whispered, and Olivia moved her hand from his forehead to his right cheek slowly. He closed his eyes and leaned into her touch, releasing his grip on her wrist but not letting go completely. Olivia swallowed hard. She knew Elliot was upset but it was still a very intimate moment. So different from what they used to be. But in a way, it was such a natural continuance of what they used to be towards what they were becoming. Whatever that was.

"Can you describe what you saw?"

Elliot opened his eyes and put his right hand over her left hand on his cheek.

"It started just like it usually does. There were lots of people and I was running. I dream that a lot, you know," he added sadly. He took a deep breath and continued. " I was yelling at them to get out of the way. I was chasing someone. I knew it was dangerous. It was important, like I was on a mission. I ran down some stairs, pushing people aside."

Elliot stopped talking, slightly out of breath, and reached up to her face with his right hand. Olivia willed herself not to move away, and dropped her hand from his cheek to his shoulder. She knew what he was looking for and she closed her eyes briefly when he moved her hair aside to look at her neck. His eyes flicked back to hers and his voice trembled when he continued,

"A girl screamed and I saw a man with a knife ... he swung at you ... at you," he repeated, as if he was only just realizing that it had really been her. "And you went down."

He moved his hand to her neck and touched her skin gingerly. Olivia was still staying still consciously and held her breath while he traced the thin, faint white line that still adorned her neck from where Gitano had cut her all those years ago.

"I panicked. I ran over to you, calling your name and then I woke up and you were here."

Elliot let out a shaky breath.

"I've never dreamed that last part before and I ... I'm not sure if I really want to know that actually happened."

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, Olivia told herself. It hadn't exactly been their finest hour but he needed to know it wasn't just a dream. It was an actual memory.

"It did."

Elliot closed his eyes and moved his right hand over her hand again, pulling it up to his face. He kissed the inside of her hand.

"Thank God you survived," he said softly, his voice thick with emotion. "I ... all I could think in that moment was, that I couldn't lose you."

Olivia felt like she was going to explode. She was breathing faster than she should. A real memory had come back to him, and one of their most shocking moments at that. They had both chosen each other over the job during that case. It had changed them forever. And he had just kissed her hand. And she didn't ever want him to let go of it. It was as if Elliot sensed what she was thinking.

"Liv," he said, his voice raspy. "Can I call you Liv?"

She wanted to cry and whispered,

"Please."

"That feeling I had in my dream ... that really happened, too. I just know it. I couldn't lose you. I can't lose you. I do believe you're the one I've been looking for all this time."

Olivia bit her lip and tried to suppress a sob. She managed only partially, and pulled her hand away abruptly, standing up straight and covering her face with her hands. She had to keep breathing but it was just too much.

"Hey," Elliot said softly.

His voice wasn't so shaky anymore. She peeked through her fingers and saw his bright blue eyes looking at her. There was a tenderness in them that she'd seen before, but usually when he'd been talking to children.

"It wasn't a very nice memory to begin with, but I feel so relieved. I can finally stop running."

She moved her hands away from her face and took him in while trying to control her breathing. He did look relieved. His eyes weren't empty anymore. She didn't dare acknowledge what she was seeing in them now. Not yet. It was too much too fast.

"I don't know what to say," she managed to mumble.

Elliot reached for her hand and she let hers slip into his at once.

"Tell me you'll be here. That I won't lose you again."

She'd tried so hard to be able to go on without him. She'd tried to build a life for herself and had tried to accept that Elliot just didn't want her in his life anymore. And here he was, with just one partial memory of their bumpy past, asking her to stay with him. Telling her he needed her to be a part of his life. Telling her she was the one he'd been looking for all this time.

Olivia felt faint and if Elliot hadn't tugged at her hand, making her lean against the bed, she might have lost her balance.

"Please sit. I can't catch you yet."

The simplest words made her heart leap and her gut twist. I can't catch you yet. Meaning, I will want to catch you when I'm able.

"El," she sighed while sitting on the edge of the bed and turning her upper body to face him.

"I like that you call me that," he told her, his smile melting her heart.

She smiled and rubbed his hand, that was next to her on the mattress. She had missed him so and it felt new but right to be able to touch him now, without feeling like she was overstepping some invisible boundary. She was at a loss for words, but the silence between them wasn't uncomfortable. They both needed some time to digest what had just happened. Elliot was a long way away from remembering his life, but realizing that he had found the person he'd been looking for all those years, had created a huge shift between them. She felt connected to him again and she wanted to cry from relief.

It was Elliot who broke the quiet silence between them after a while.

"Please tell me more about our life together."

Olivia looked up at him and gave him a half smile.

"You make it sound like we were a couple."

He never broke eye contact when he answered,

"I think we were, in a way."

Olivia nodded. She knew he was right. They'd been a couple in their own way. They just hadn't ever called it that or addressed it.

"Is that dream still all you remember?"

She had hoped there would be more by now, but Elliot nodded.

"Yeah. That and what I can sense between us. I knew I knew you. The dream just confirms it, big time."

"Do you want me to tell you more about the case we were working when I got this scar?" Olivia asked, indicating the scar on her neck. Perhaps building on the memory he had already regained might trigger more, she reasoned.

"Yes, please. Tell me all you remember."

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A/N Hmm. Are you sure you want him to remember this case, Olivia? Faithful readers, please let me know if this still works. Whether reviews are showing or not, I love getting them!