A/N: Before anyone gets too excited or too concerned, this is NOT going to be another story of Olivia taking on a second submissive; I've already been there, done that in my other story. Throughout this story Grace will remain Olivia's one and only submissive, I am simply creating a friend for Grace.
"Such a good girl." Olivia praised, pulling Grace's IV pole alongside them as Grace walked slowly and carefully down the hallway using the walker for support. She had been practicing standing up, and today she had taken her first tentative steps since her surgery, "How are you feeling, my baby?"
"It feels good to be walking again." Grace replied, "It's not pulling on my stitches at all."
"Good. Let's walk down to the other end of the hall, then we'll go back to your room before they bring you lunch." Olivia decided.
"Yes, Ma'am." Grace agreed, slowly turning herself around to walk in the opposite direction.
With Grace back in her room, she complained that she was feeling sweaty, so Olivia took several wet wipes made for sensitive skin and gently wiped down Grace's body so that she wouldn't feel quite so grimy.
"How about I wash your hair for you in the sink?" Olivia offered. A proper shower would have to wait until Grace got home, as per Dr. Warner's orders. Grace's stitches would dissolve on their own, but for right now they couldn't get wet.
"Yes, Ma'am, that would be nice." Grace nodded.
Grace carefully bent over the counter, being mindful of her stitches, and relaxed as Olivia lovingly washed her hair, tenderly massaging her scalp and showering her with praise throughout the process. Olivia was careful to rinse away every trace of shampoo, and then she turned the faucet off and picked up a towel to wrap around Grace's hair.
"All right, my baby, back into bed with you now."
Olivia carefully guided Grace back into her bed and carefully dried Grace's hair and brushed through it. At that moment, lunch arrived.
"Thank you." Grace thanked the orderly politely, earning a kiss to the top of her head from Olivia.
Olivia fed Grace by hand the way she always did. After lunch, Grace was disappointed when Olivia denied her request to continue practicing her walking.
"I want you to rest in bed for the rest of today; you can continue practicing tomorrow." Olivia told her, "If you want to go down to the activity room later this evening before bedtime, I'll take you in the wheelchair." Despite the fact that she was in the hospital, Olivia had still been enforcing Grace's bedtime.
"But I'm bored with resting in bed." Grace frowned, trying not to whine.
"I know you are, honey," Olivia sympathized, "but it's important not to push yourself too hard too fast after surgery, your body needs time to heal." Olivia didn't bother mentioning that Grace still had five days worth of resting to do at home when she was released from the hospital. Grace already knew that, she just didn't like it.
"Yes, Ma'am." Grace sighed. She still remembered her time-out from a few days ago, and she didn't want another one, or some other consequence, so she remained calm.
"That's my good girl." Olivia praised.
A few hours later, Grace was dozing in bed and Olivia was sitting in a chair working on her phone when suddenly a blood-curdling scream rang out from down the hall. Both women were startled and Grace's head snapped up as several nurses and doctors raced past her door to tend to the patient down the hall who was obviously in distress. Amidst the chaos in the hallway, Olivia heard someone say 'Special Victims Unit', so she decided it would be best to make her presence known.
"Stay here, little one." Olivia ordered as she got up and walked out of the room. She caught a nurse's eye and flashed her badge, "I'm Captain Benson, I'm the Captain of the Special Victims Unit."
"You got here fast." the nurse gave Olivia an odd look, and Olivia motioned toward Grace's room.
"My girl is here recovering from surgery, I overheard someone mention the Special Victims Unit. Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Damn it! She bit me!" another nurse came walking out of one of the rooms, "I think we need to call down to the Psych guys. She ripped out her IV and tried to break open her window."
The first nurse turned back to Olivia.
"We don't know her name. She was brought in early this morning raped and beaten, and needed to have surgery. She hasn't spoken a word since she's been here. And now she's freaking out."
"Wait a minute. She's been here since this morning and you're just now getting around to thinking about calling Special Victims? You probably washed away all the evidence prepping her for surgery." Olivia glared, "Before anyone calls the Psych guys, let me talk to her since I'm already here."
Olivia walked into the hospital room where more chaos was taking place; a woman in a hospital gown was curled up in a corner of the room on the floor still screaming fearfully. Her arm was bleeding where she had ripped out her IV. A small crowd of frantic nurses were trying and failing to calm her down.
"Hey, back off now." Olivia ordered, gaining the attention of all the nurses in the room as they all fell silent.
Olivia carefully squatted down a respectful distance away from the woman on the floor. She noticed the collar around the woman's neck and wondered where her Dominant partner was.
"Hey, honey. My name is Olivia, what's your name?" Olivia spoke kindly, and received no response.
"Sweetheart," Olivia tried again, "I know you're scared, and you have every right to be. I'm a police officer, can you tell me your name so I can help you?"
Still Olivia received no response. She crept a little bit closer to the woman and reached out to very gently stroke her face the way that she often did with Grace. Grace recognized the affection and accepted it as comfort, but Olivia wasn't sure how this woman was going to react, so she moved slowly and carefully. The woman startled back for a moment, but then Olivia's touch seemed to register in her mind and she gradually stopped screaming, looking up at Olivia with wide, terrified, tear-filled eyes.
"That's a good girl. There's no need to scream. My name is Olivia. What's your name?" Olivia asked again.
Still the woman remained silent, looking at Olivia with distrust.
"Is your name Emily?" Olivia asked, carefully touching the nametag on the collar around the woman's neck.
The woman suddenly began to move her hands around, and it took a moment or two for Olivia to finally understand what was happening, and why this woman was so afraid, and she was fairly certain that every last one of the doctors and nurses standing around needed to be sent back to medical school. Olivia turned to one of the nurses.
"You can kindly tell the rest of your buddies that there's no need to call the Psych guys. Your patient doesn't need the Psych guys, she needs an interpreter. She's deaf." Olivia said.
"Oh." the small crowd of young doctors and nurses all looked embarrassed.
Half an hour later, the woman had been set up with an interpreter and it had been established that her name was indeed Emily. She refused to tell anyone her last name or who her Dominant partner was, but one of Olivia's detectives was on their way to the hospital to start the process of tracking down her rapist and Olivia hoped that in time Emily would open up about her situation. Satisfied that the young submissive was now in competent hands, Olivia went back to Grace's room, realizing that she had been gone for quite some time.
"I'm sorry that took so long, sweetheart," Olivia walked back into Grace's room where Grace was sitting in bed flipping through the TV channels, "It's a sad day when an SVU detective makes a better doctor than the actual doctors."
"Is everything okay?" Grace asked with concern.
"Everything is going to be fine. There's a submissive down the hall around your age who came in early this morning raped and beaten. She's deaf and was having trouble communicating, that's why there was so much chaos out there." Olivia explained.
"Can I go down and meet her?" Grace asked hopefully. She was going crazy, and maybe having a friend while she was stuck in the hospital would help make sure that she didn't go completely insane before she was allowed to go home.
"Yes, but not right now. Tomorrow we will go down and introduce ourselves properly. She's been through a lot and right now she needs to rest. And you, my baby girl, are still recovering from surgery and you also need to rest." Olivia replied.
The next afternoon, Olivia guided Grace up out of her bed and into the walker and the two of them walked down the hall to Emily's room and knocked on the door.
"Come in." a voice called out after a moment.
They walked into the room and found Emily in her bed with her interpreter sitting next to her, and the TV on with the Closed Captions turned on.
"'I remember you; you helped me yesterday'." the interpreter spoke as Emily used her hands to sign, looking at Olivia. Olivia smiled at her.
"That's right. My name is Olivia, and this is Grace." Olivia spoke as the interpreter signed what she was saying, "We just wanted to come say hello and introduce ourselves properly."
"'You have a collar like me.'" the interpreter said while Emily signed, now looking at Grace.
"Yes, I do. She is my Mistress." Grace said, nodding toward Olivia.
Grace and Emily were soon engaged in easy conversation as if they had been friends their whole lives, and Emily started trying to teach Grace sign language. She wouldn't tell them her last name or who her Dominant partner was, and they didn't pry for information. Likewise, Grace didn't go into detail about her past before she found her way into Olivia's care. After about an hour, Olivia noticed that Grace seemed to be getting tired and kindly ended the interaction.
"I'm going to be in the hospital for a few more days before I get to go home, so I'll be able to see you again. Maybe we can have lunch together tomorrow." Grace suggested, and Emily nodded with a smile.
Before they left, Emily gave Grace the name of a website that she could use to practice sign language, and Grace promised that she would start practicing. When they got back to Grace's room, Olivia helped her back into bed and bent down to lovingly stroke Grace's face.
"I am so proud of you for being so kind to her, sweetheart. That was very good."
Olivia and Grace both looked up when there was a tap on the open door and they were greeted by the smiling faces of Don and Eileen who had come for a visit.
"Good afternoon, ladies. We come bearing gifts." Don announced, holding a 'Get Well Soon' balloon and a small bouquet of flowers in a vase.
"Hello, dear. How are you feeling?" Eileen bent down to kiss Grace's cheek.
"I'm fine. I'm not confined to my bed anymore, so that helps. I can't wait to go home, though." Grace admitted.
"Well, in the meantime, I hope these brighten up the room a little bit for you." Eileen took the flowers from Don and placed them by the window.
"Those are beautiful, thank you." Grace smiled.
"And this is also for you." Don handed Grace a small package.
"Thank you so much." Grace said upon opening the small package to reveal the complete DVD set of 'Criminal Minds'.