For those of you who are wondering how quickly Elliot is recovering from his injuries, a few facts that I checked beforehand:
- a hip that has been repaired with pins: patient can get up the same day and start exercising, will need 2 crutches for two weeks, after that 1 crutch will suffice, sex is allowed after 6 weeks (not sure if our lovely couple can wait that long though). Patient has to do muscle exercises himself, movement is important, but the hip will be painful for quite a while.
- broken leg (conservative fracture): takes 4 to 6 weeks to heal completely.
- cracked ribs: no real treatment, just pain medication. Normal breathing is important but painful. Laughing, couching and sneezing hurts. Ribs heal in about 6 weeks but they can remain painful for up to 12 weeks.

Well, enough with the anatomy lesson and on to the next chapter! Some more reflection and we're gettin ready for some answers from Dr. Hendrix.

...

64. Rebecca

Elliot had already fallen asleep but Olivia was still wide awake. She way lying on her stomach, her face turned to the right so she could look at the man next to her in bed. The way he affected her made her breath hitch from time to time. Longing for him from a distance was something completely different than touching him and being touched by him. And tasting him. She swallowed and moved her arm until she could rest her hand on his shoulder. His bare shoulder. He was only wearing a tank top and shorts in bed. Wide shorts that he could easily slip over his cast and yet they didn't leave much to the imagination.

Olivia had quite a lively imagination. She'd admired Elliot's body from afar for years and she had never forgotten his smell. Even when he'd been working out and was all sweaty, his smell would still be all Elliot to her. More often than not they had needed to change quickly before heading out to an emergency again and there hadn't really been time to check him out. But she'd always been aware of him, of how his body moved and his muscles rippled underneath his clothes. He could be dressed up in a tuxedo and she'd still be aware of the planes of his chest, the broadness of his shoulders, his big hands and his firm round ass ...

She sighed and closed her eyes, pulling her hand away from his shoulder. She shouldn't be thinking like this. Elliot was in no condition to be jumped and she wondered if she hadn't gone to far already, climbing into his lap like she had earlier. She could hardly remember a time that she'd felt this way, so hungry for another person. She'd had very satisfying encounters with men over the years and several of them had definitely caught her attention for longer than just a few days or weeks. But this was Elliot. The man that had invaded her dreams and that she'd fantasized about, never expecting her fantasies to ever become a reality. She hadn't just wanted him though. She'd loved him. She didn't know exactly when she had admitted it to herself but somewhere during their long partnership, he'd become more to her than her partner or even her best friend.

Missing him had cut her so deeply, that she'd tried to numb herself for a while, focusing on her job and sinking her teeth in difficult cases. Getting justice for the victims, helping them win their battles so she wouldn't have to think about herself. That had been her strategy before she'd met Elliot, and it should have worked after he left. But it had only worked partially and when she was confronted with the very real possibility of her own death at the hands of William Lewis, she had felt that pain all over again. The pain of not being allowed to love him. Knowing she would never be allowed to love him and that he would never know how much she had loved him anyway.

And now here he was. In her home, in her bed. She'd tasted him, inhaled him as she'd peppered his neck with kisses, clinging to him while refusing to do anything that might hurt him. Olivia was almost desperate for more of him and the only thing greater than that despair was her love for him. She couldn't cause him any more pain. When Noah was given to her, she hadn't known she was capable of loving another human being so deeply and profoundly, like nothing and no one else in the world mattered. And now, her capacity to love like that had doubled, making her blood flow more easily through her veins and making her feel alive in a way she could only remember feeling once before in her life. She remembered one time when she was about four or five years old when Serena had taken her to a playground on a warm, sunny afternoon. She'd felt happy and alive then and her mother had been happy too. She'd laughed and had encouraged her to play with the other children and to climb up the slide by herself. They had been a normal mother and daughter for a little while. Just a few hours. She was 46 now and for the first time since that day in the playground, she felt truly alive again.

Olivia reached up to touch his face, and caressed the stubble on his cheek with the back of her fingers. Elliot stirred and then turned his head, opening his eyes. When he saw her looking at him, he smiled.

"Hey, you okay?" he whispered.

Olivia continued caressing his cheek and answered him,

"Yeah. Just checking that you're actually here."

Elliot smiled again and his eyes closed again. Olivia finally closed her eyes as well and moved her face close to Elliot's shoulder so she could smell him. He was actually here.

...

The rest of the week went by quickly. Elliot still needed to rest a lot and Olivia made sure that they all had everything they needed. She'd put up a small Christmas tree and had finally taken Noah window shopping after Elliot had urged her to just go before it would be too late. He would be fine on his own for a while. He had called Rebecca Hendrix' practice and had explained to her assistant why he wanted to speak with the psychiatrist. She called him back a while later, letting him know that Rebecca was willing to make a house call to talk to him, because that would be much easier for him given his condition.

Elliot was actually a little nervous about what he would learn from the psychiatrist. Olivia wanted to be present when Rebecca came over and had promised him she'd be on her best behavior. Elliot had gotten dressed and Olivia made sure he was sitting comfortably on the couch, his cast resting on a small stool with a pillow on it. She was busy making coffee when the buzzer rang, indicating that Rebecca had arrived. Olivia buzzed her up and then waited for her at the door.

Surprise was written all over Rebecca's face when she saw Olivia.

"Hello Rebecca," Olivia said neutrally, and Rebecca recovered from her surprise quickly.

"Olivia, it's so good to see you again."

They gave each other a polite hug and Olivia opened the door further to let Rebecca in.

"I didn't know you would be here," Rebecca admitted as she passed Olivia and entered the apartment.

"This is my home," Olivia replied, and Rebecca stopped to look at her.

"Elliot is staying with me while he recovers from the car accident he was in," Olivia explained.

"Ah. So you kept in touch after his retirement."

"Uhm, not exactly."

Rebecca raised an eyebrow and Olivia tried not to get annoyed right away. It was only natural that the woman would be curious under the circumstances.

"Let me take your coat and have a seat, and Elliot will explain everything to you," Olivia said.

Rebecca let her take her coat and walked further into the apartment.

"Forgive me if I don't get up," Elliot said with a smirk, gesturing at his cast.

"Oh of course. It's good to see you again too, Elliot," Rebecca said, approaching the couch but clearly looking around for another place to sit.

Olivia had moved the coffee table away from the couch so Elliot had more room to get to the couch on his crutches, and the only single chair she had, had been moved away as well.

"I wish I could say the same doctor, but I've had amnesia for the past four years, and not everything has come back to me yet."

Rebecca looked at him more attentively, still standing.

"You mean you don't remember me?"

"'Fraid not. Sorry."

Olivia had to suppress a smile and busied herself putting their coffee on a tray.

"Please Rebecca, have a seat," she said, still wondering whether Rebecca would choose the couch or the chair.

She liked how ill at ease the psychiatrist seemed to be. Just like with Kathy, it made her feel all the more confident. Whatever Rebecca and Elliot had shared in the past, it was clearly not important enough for him to remember her. She couldn't deny that she was curious to know if they had ever hooked up, but part of her didn't want to think about Elliot with anyone other than herself or his former wife. She managed to keep a straight face when Rebecca opted for the chair, pulling it a little closer to the couch but keeping a respectable distance between herself and Elliot. Olivia put the tray on the coffee table and plopped down on the couch next to Elliot. This was her home after all. Her couch. And her Elliot. She sat close to him, tilting her upper body towards him, resting one elbow on the backrest of the couch. Elliot's response was minute but she saw it anyway. Her unmistakable body language amused him. It screamed "mine" for anyone who was tuned in enough to notice. And Rebecca noticed. Hah.

After the usual pleasantries had been exchanged about Olivia's lovely apartment, what a shock the accident must have been and how nice it truly was to see them both again, Rebecca finally asked why Elliot had asked to speak with her. Her assistant had told her something about him having amnesia and looking for answers, and about his accident of course, but that was basically it.

Olivia listened while Elliot explained the entire situation to Rebecca in a few minutes, and she admired him for his ability to summarize things so well. She saw Rebecca glance at her from time to time, and remembered how they'd gotten into several arguments over a case back in 2004. And then Elliot of all people had asked Rebecca to help them with that case, because one of their rape victims was a schizophrenic. She'd seen the looks on their faces when he asked her to tag along and it had irked her. Elliot had looked at Rebecca just like he usually looked at her when they had this mutual agreement about something. In the end they had all contributed to solving the case and Olivia had hoped that would be the end of Rebecca's tour around the unit. Or rather, around Elliot.

But then Rebecca called them in on another case when she encountered a girl who'd been in a car accident, and suspected that she was a victim of sexual abuse. She was right, of course, but Olivia still hadn't felt comfortable with Rebecca hanging around. She'd actually been relieved when Elliot broke down during the case because of his dying marriage. If he was still this upset about his breakup with Kathy, she knew any woman would just be a rebound for him. Any woman including herself. And so she backed away, gave him more room and accepted her place as his partner once again. Strangely enough, she'd felt closer to him again after that, even when Rebecca showed up once again in a very weird case with twins that turned out to be more identical than anyone had expected.

And now they were here and Elliot explained to Rebecca how she had been the one to trigger his memory, and that his love for her had never been wiped out completely all those years. Olivia felt proud to hear him talk about her like that, so freely, without any embarrassment or hesitation. Rebecca noticed too how relaxed Elliot was.

"Can I just say that I'm very happy to hear you talk like this, Elliot," the psychiatrist said. "Because it was such a struggle for you to find an emotional balance when you came to me for advice."

"Well, that is what I wanted to talk to you about," Elliot said. "I need to know what I discussed with you that lead to my decision to retire."

"Oh, you mean the second time you came to me," Rebecca said, making both Olivia and Elliot frown.

"What do you mean?" Olivia asked.

"Well, in 2005, Elliot also came to me for help. He showed up on my doorstep one day."

What?!

...

Isn't jealous Olivia adorable?