Hi there! The weather is terrible and I am bored. I didn't feel like catching up on hypnosis yet, so I just went for this short story. Hope you enjoy it! I'll post second part as soon as possible. Let me know how you'd like this one to go. Should Liv take Amanda to the hospital or personally take care of her?

Bless you.

The world was spinning so madly, that Amanda was navigating through her apartment clinging to the walls. Waves of heat coursed through her body, even though it was covered in cold sweat. Just a while ago, when she was lying down, the mission didn't seem so terrible: locating her phone. That was before she tried to stand. It turned out all her eyes could spot, were an infinity of white spots dancing around, torturing her stability for no reason whatsoever. Keeping her eyes opened became the new objective. The epic journey from her bedroom to the living room took a while, but she had won the battle. "There," she finally mumbled when her quest was completed. Unfortunately, she had no strength left to return to her bed. At the moment, the unnecessary steps she'd have to travel in order to reach the sofa weren't worth the effort. She let herself sink against the piece of furniture where her phone had been found.

Amanda allowed herself to close her eyes for a few minutes. The cold floor provided so much comfort to her bare legs, that she considered the idea of rubbing her whole body against it. The blue short and white tank top she was wearing didn't cover much of her body, but the sticky sensation of wet clothes made her terribly uncomfortable. When she felt confident enough, she finally called in sick.

On her office, Olivia frowned. In 8 years, it had never happened. Under no circumstances her stubborn detective had willingly missed work. She'd came in with the flu, with migraines, indigestion but never had she admitted to feel unwell. It created a doubt. Was this another step forward Amanda was making? Being able to take care of herself and recognising when she was in no condition to do her job? Or was there something more? With Amanda, even the most unlikely scenario deserved consideration. "Rollins, are you sure you don't need to see a doctor?" she asked with deepest worry.

"I'll be fine, I just need to sleep it off," Amanda answered with a steady voice. Being on the phone with her boss somehow kept her alert.

"Have you taken some medicine?" Obviously, it was not an appropriate question to ask to an adult woman. But it was Amanda they were talking about. Hopefully, if she felt bad enough to call in sick, she would be reasonable enough to take care of herself.

"Hmm, yes I have."

Olivia shook her head in disbelief. Amanda's tone of voice, a little too high-pitched, betrayed her. "Rollins!" Olivia reprimanded, even though she was just guessing.

Her pounding head felt the aggression of Olivia's loud tone and she had to move the phone away from her ear for a second. "No, not yet but I'm going to," the woman quickly capitulated. It was time to abbreviate the conversation, because her whole system needed a break from talking.

"Do that right now, and check in with me when you wake up?"

"What for?" The room began to rock back and forth like a boat crossing a storm, and Amanda finally let her whole body lay flat on the floor.

"To tell me how you're doing, silly. I'm worried about you."

" Will do."

"Let us know if you need anything! Take care of yourself."

Amanda hung up the phone and rolled on her side. Maybe it was an illusion created by the exhaustion, but she felt quite comfortable. As she wondered why it had never occurred to her to just nap on the pavement, the extreme fatigue won the war.

"Amanda called in sick," Olivia announced and Fin's glare widened. "Kat I need you to take over her open case."

Kat initially nodded, but noticing how the captain and Fin kept staring at each other she had to ask if Rollins was fine.

"Amanda would never do that," Fin eventually alleged.

"What, be sick?" Kat asked with perplexity.

"Admit that she is. Last time you sent her home her temperature was over 102, and she still managed to catch a guy on the run, swearing she was feeling great. So she's either dying or she's lying," he affirmed, his eyes begging Olivia to agree.

"Well, maybe, she's just evolving," the captain suggested even if in the back of her head, she couldn't agree more with Fin's reasoning. If she stuck to the facts though, there was no reason to cry wolves. Amanda sounded coherent, and she would have certainly found a way to let her know if she was in imminent danger. They were all trained detectives, and using stratagem to speak in codes was no secret to them. Unless this was Amanda's plan to let them know she needed help? Olivia's mind couldn't stop imagining the worse and she shook her head at how irrational she was being. "She's supposed to call me back in a little while. Maybe we give her the benefit of the doubt?"

"Yeah, we do that," Fin mumbled. "If she doesn't call back in the next hour, I'll go check on her."

Everybody was trying to get some work done but it turned out that the captain couldn't manage to focus. Fin and Kat had been called out on a crime scene and they'd probably not be back in the next couple of hours. It was almost noon when the brunette checked her phone once again. No missed calls. For the tenth time of the day, she had to repress herself from waking up the sick detective with a loud shrill. The brunette couldn't decide if her worry came from an intuition that something was wrong or from the fear of it. Taking notice of her pounding heart, she eventually decided to take action, otherwise she would be the one getting unwell with nothing but concern.

Amanda did not pick up.

Olivia's heart accelerated even more, and this time, she stood up with the intent of driving there and personally make sure that her friend was safe and sound. She'd even stop by to get some soup for her friend. If Amanda didn't cook on her healthy days, she could only imagine how easily she would let herself starve.

"Amanda?" Olivia shouted from behind the door, the brunette tried to listen if she could detect any sound that would give her some clue, but the apartment seemed awfully quiet. She'd rang the bell a few times to no use. Her shaky hands refused to collaborate and she almost threw the content of her bag on the floor, as she could not find what she was looking for. "I'm gonna use my spare key ok?" The brunette explained, her voice indicating how alarmed she was. "Oh my god!" Olivia placed her two hands over her mouth in disbelief, when she took sight of the detective thrown on the floor, her phone resting a few inches away. Immense guilt stabbed her in the chest. She should have known better. Once the shock reaction had passed, her instincts kicked in and she kneeled down to her friend's side. "Amanda, can you hear me?" Olivia placed one hand on the clammy forehead and with her free one, she checked for a pulse. The heat emanating from the woman made Olivia clench her teeth. "Honey, are you with me?" This time, confused blue eyes half-opened.

"Liv?" Amanda guessed, not sure if she was hallucinating. She was desperately trying to find out where she was and where the voice came from but the blurry vision didn't help her task.

"Yes honey, I'm right here." Olivia delicately brushed away a few locks of wet golden hair from Amanda's face. "You're burning up 'Manda," she stated seriously.

"I'm ok," the blonde detective mumbled letting her eyelids drop once again.

Olivia tensed up with annoyance. If Amanda had been able to defend herself, she'd most likely reprimand her detective for being so obstinate. "You can't sleep on the floor sweetheart. Do you think you can get up if I help you?" Olivia gently touched Amanda's thigh, the boiling skin flinched at the touch and Amanda felt more coherent now. She opened her eyes and blinked a few times. Now, she remembered: the quest to reach the phone and then, the defeat. "Have you been lying here all morning?" Olivia asked, blaming herself for not coming sooner. She'd not been brave enough to call in sick, she was just unable to move. Fin was right.

"Livia, just let me sleep."