Olivia got up from where she'd been kneeling in front of the toilet and wiped her mouth with the tissue she had bunched up in her hand. She walked out to the sinks, splashed some cold water on her face, and brushed her hair back from her face.

She pressed her hands against her abdomen, and then slid them around to her back. She'd been fighting a damned kidney infection for two weeks now, and the combination of cramping and medication had wreaked havoc on her stomach. She couldn't keep anything down and she felt like absolute shit.

She'd seen the look of concern on Elliot's face the past few days, when her efforts to keep him from noticing had failed. She had tried to keep her distress from him because she didn't want him to think she couldn't keep up…couldn't do her job. Even though he would never say that to her, never think that of her, and most probably would tell her that she was being ridiculous, the competitive streak in her still made her feel like she had something to prove. Even after all these years.

Olivia rinsed out her mouth again, spitting into the sink. She stood again, grimacing as another wave of pain gripped her. She grabbed the edge of the sink, waiting for it to recede, or at least settle into the level of misery she had learned to live with, but it didn't seem like that was in the cards. She held her right side with one hand, muttering curses under her breath, when she heard a knock on the bathroom door. She looked up as the door opened a crack.

"Liv?"

Olivia recognized Elliot's voice before he poked his head between the door and the frame.

"You in here?"

Olivia straightened up and dropped her hand, trying to paste on a poker face. "This is the ladies' room." She said without amusement, knowing full well that he knew that. "You can't come in here."

"We've got a call." Elliot said, completely ignoring her comment and opening the door more fully. He looked around the room. The scent of vomit clung in the air, despite the fan in the room. His eyes landed on her face and he saw the paleness in her cheeks and the bags beneath her eyes. He stepped in the room completely and let the door close behind him. "I'm gonna take Fin." He said. "You should go lay down in the cribs and when I get back, I'll take you home."

"I'll be ready in a minute." Olivia said vehemently, refusing to even acknowledge his comment as she scrubbed her hands over her cheeks.

"Liv." Elliot said, exasperation in his voice.

"I'm fine." Olivia interrupted before he could say anything else. "Just give me a minute..." She repeated. "And we'll go." She turned back towards the mirror, hoping he would listen to her and leave.

Elliot stood rooted in place, debating his next move. If he pushed her, they would end up arguing, and he didn't want to stress her anymore when she clearly wasn't feeling well. Before he could say anything, she shot him a dirty look.

"I'll be out in a minute." She said, clearly ending the conversation.

Elliot let out a sigh and let himself out of the bathroom to wait for her.

EOEOEOEO

Two more days had passed, and Elliot couldn't keep quiet any longer. Olivia looked like awful, and she'd been away from her desk more often than not. Thankfully it had been a slow day, and they hadn't been called out to any crime scenes, because he wouldn't have let her go. And then there would have been a battle.

Elliot pushed himself away from his desk, stood up and headed to the women's bathroom. He leaned against the wall directly across from the door, so he could intercept her the moment she came out. He only had to wait a few minutes before Olivia emerged, and she stopped short when she saw him standing there.

"Did we catch a case?" She asked, wiping at her chin self-consciously, even though she knew she had washed her face.

Elliot shook his head. "I need to talk to you." He nodded his head in the direction of the locker room, and then walked towards her.

"I need to get back…" Olivia said, trying to hold her ground. But Elliot only stepped closer, crowding her until she had no option but to head to the locker room.

"Humor me."

Elliot closed the door behind them, and he saw Olivia put some distance between them before she turned to face him.

"What is it?" she asked, pretending like she couldn't possibly imagine what he wanted to talk about. She hoped her attitude would scare him into rethinking this conversation, but the look in his eyes let her know that he was intent on pursuing his line of questioning.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

Olivia shrugged slightly. "I don't know what you mean." She said, cutting her eyes away and continuing the pretense, just in case he caved.

"Cut the bullshit." Elliot said. "You haven't been feeling well for the past three weeks."

"It hasn't been three weeks." Olivia said, realizing her blunder the moment the words were out of her mouth. She clearly wasn't on top of her game.

"So, you admit it." Elliot said.

"Admit what?" Olivia asked, changing tactics. Maybe he'd get so annoyed with her that he'd storm out.

"That you're not feeling well."

"I didn't say that."

"Liv." Elliot said, trying to rein in his frustration. "Just tell me what's wrong."

Olivia let out an exasperated sigh. "This is ridiculous." She said, looking back up at him. "It's nothing. I'm taking care of it."

"Taking care of it?" Elliot asked. "What does that mean?"

"Elliot." Olivia said, trying to keep calm. "I'm fine. I can handle this on my own." She said. "Can I get back to work now?" She started to move towards the door, but Elliot stepped in front of it, effectively blocking her.

"Are you pregnant?" Elliot blurted out.

Olivia stopped in her tracks. "What?

"Are you pregnant?" He repeated. The thought had been plaguing him for the past two weeks, when the "flu" she claimed to be fighting showed no sign of abating.

"No!" Olivia said indignantly. She shook her head, genuinely surprised by the question. "No…I'm not pregnant. Why…" She started but cut herself off. "Not that it's any of your business."

"It is my business." Elliot said, unsure as to whether or not he believed her. "You're my partner, and you're obviously not feeling well. You've been throwing up for weeks and I'm concerned about you."

Olivia pressed her lips together. "I appreciate your concern…" She started. "But I'm taking care of it."

"So you've said." Elliot furrowed his brow, hating the sound of that. Now he was back to thinking she was pregnant. "But what does that mean?"

"For God's sake Elliot." She said. "I'm not pregnant. I just have an infection I'm fighting. I'm on a strong dose of antibiotics and they just don't sit well in my stomach. That's it." She took another step in his direction but stopped again when he didn't move.

"Three weeks is a long time to be on antibiotics." Elliot said. "So, I would have to say they're not working."

"I'm a big girl Elliot." Olivia didn't want to get into the numerous follow-up visits and the changes in antibiotics and the frustration on her part. She put her hands on her hips, challenging him. "Are we done here?"

Elliot wanted to tell her no…they weren't done. He wanted to tell her that he'd never seen her look quite so pale, and that if pressed, he'd had to guess that she'd lost at least 10 pounds. He wanted to tell her that he hasn't seen a smile on her face or heard her laugh at one of John's stupid jokes in weeks. He wanted to tell her that he'd never stop worrying about her.

But the look on her face told him the conversation was over, and he held his tongue. She seemed to sense his acquiescence, and she moved around him and out of the locker room.

EOEOEOEO

Elliot hadn't heard from Olivia all weekend, but that wasn't highly unusual. He hoped that when she showed up today, the color had returned to her face and she would be able to keep down the muffin he'd left on her desk. After their discussion the Wednesday before, she had offered up that she was going to see a different doctor, and he'd silently accepted the information. He had wanted to ask more questions, but didn't, knowing that her telling him as much as she had was more than he should expect.

When an hour had gone by, and Olivia hadn't shown up, he started to worry. When an hour and a half had passed, he felt a thread of panic in the pit of his stomach.

Why in the hell hadn't he checked in on her this weekend?

He picked up his phone and dialed her cell number, but it rang three times and went to voicemail. "Liv, give me a call." He said, hanging up after he'd left his message.

Cragen come out of his office. "Elliot."

He turned to face the Captain and saw a slip of paper in his hand. "Yeah Cap'n."

"Got a call from that woman you interviewed last week. Amy Clark. She thinks she remembers some more details and wants to talk to you."

Elliot motioned towards Olivia's desk. "OK. I'll go when Liv comes in."

"Take Fin. Liv's out for a few days." Cragen said.

"What d'ya mean she's out for a few days?" Elliot asked.

"Don't know how to say it any other way." Cragen said. "She took a few days off."

"Can Fin and Munch take it?" Elliot asked. He wanted to connect with Olivia and make sure she was okay.

"It's your case." Cragen said. "I need you to go."

Elliot bit back a comment and took the slip from Cragen's hand. He turned to Fin. "You're driving."

EOEOEOEO

Elliot and Fin were done interviewing Amy Clark, and Elliot checked his messages when they exited the apartment. He was disappointed to see that none of them were from Olivia, despite the text and voicemails he'd left for her, but he did have one from Halloran. He listened to it as Fin pulled away from the curb.

"Son of a bitch." He said angrily. "Pull over." He barked at Fin.

"What the hell?" Fin asked, shooting him a dirty look.

"I said pull over!"

Fin muttered a few swear words, but ultimately did as Elliot directed. "Tell Cragen I need a few hours." He told Fin as he slammed the door, not waiting for an answer.

The moment Fin pulled away from the curb, Elliot hailed a cab. He slid in the back seat and slammed the door. "Mount Sinai Hospital." He said. "Step on it."

The ride still took almost an hour and he was practically jumping out of his skin by the time they pulled up in front of the hospital. He threw some money at the driver and rushed out of the cab, practically pushing people out of the way as he went to the information desk. There were a few people ahead of him, and he shifted impatiently as he waited.

Finally, it was his turn.

"Yes." He said, when it was finally his turn. "I'm trying to find a patient here. Or I think she's a patient. Or…"

"Name?" The receptionist asked in a monotone voice, not interested in his conjecture.

"Olivia Benson."

The woman's nails clattered on the keyboard as she typed, and it seemed to him that she typed a lot more characters than Olivia's name required.

"And your relationship to her?" The woman asked without even looking at him.

Elliot hesitated for a few moments before answering. "I'm her husband."

The woman's eyes flicked up to his. There was a challenge there, and he knew she was trying to decide if she should believe him or not. He pulled out his badge. "Listen…I was on case." He started. "I was supposed to be here earlier but…" He shrugged, as if he would love to tell her more but couldn't.

"She's in post-op. Bay 4. On the second floor." She said, giving him a small smile as she gave him the information.

Post-op.

Elliot thanked her, barely hearing her response, and sprinted towards the elevators, punching the number 2 as soon as he was inside. When he emerged on the second floor, it took him a moment to figure out where he was going. But as soon as he walked into the area, he saw there was another nurse's station he was going to have to contend with. Fortunately for him, a nurse was taking another person back into the area, and he walked casually behind them, as if he'd just stepped out for a moment.

He walked down the hallway of curtained bays, amazed at the amount of activity going on everywhere. He found Bay 4, and then hesitated a moment, wondering what on Earth he was going to say when he barged into the room. He hadn't really thought it through. This was complete invasion of her privacy…having Halloran track her phone and lying to get her information at the front desk.

"Can I help you sir?"

He jumped when he heard the voice to his left. He saw a nurse with her hand on the curtain, as if she was ready to go into Olivia's bay and he went with the lie. "I'm here for Olivia." She gave him a quizzical look, but must have figured that he was on the up and up if he'd made it that far, and he opened the curtain to let him in.

He wasn't prepared for the sight in front of him. Olivia was laying in a hospital bed, dressed in a blue gown with several blankets piled on top of her. Her eyes were closed, and she had an IV snaking out of her arm. There was another monitor hooked up, emitting a series of sounds that he didn't know how to interpret.

"Is she…" Elliot whispered. "Is she going to be okay?"

"She's doing fine." The nurse said. "She should be waking up soon. And then the doctor will be up to see her before we discharge her."

"Discharge her?"

"Yes." She said, furrowing her brow. "It's just outpatient surgery. She didn't tell you that?"

"Um. Yeah. I guess she did. I just…"

"Who are you?" The nurse asked, looking at skeptically and then back down at her chart.

"I'm a friend." He said. "Her partner."

The nurse seemed to accept his answer, and she pointed to a chair on the other side of the bed. "You can sit there with her. She'll be coming out from under the anesthesia, so she'll be in and out." She headed towards the hallway. "I'll be back shortly."

Elliot watched her go, and then rounded the bed, taking the seat the nurse had indicated. He watched the monitor measure her heartbeat, and he found he wanted to reach out and touch her, just to make some kind of connection. He hoped she wasn't too angry to see him there when she woke up; maybe the drugs she was on would temper her reaction.

He waited for about twenty minutes and he saw her start to stir. Her eyes were still closed but he could tell she was coming out of it, and he reached out and touched her hand lightly. "Liv." He whispered.

She only gave a low moan in return, and he wasn't sure if that was some kind of response, or just a random sound. She still seemed pretty far out of it, so he settled back in his chair to wait.

The nurse came in when another ten minutes had passed. "Olivia." She said loudly. "Olivia, can you hear me?" She reached out and placed a hand on Olivia's arm. "You need to take some deep breathes. Your oxygen levels are low."

To his surprise, Olivia responded with a few deep breathes, and her eyelids fluttered.

"Olivia. Can you hear me?" The nurse asked.

Olivia mumbled something unintelligible, and then she opened her eyes. They closed almost right away, and it wasn't until the third time she opened them that she looked around the room and spotted Elliot sitting by her bedside.

"Elliot?" Her voice was thick, and the nurse held a glass of water with a small straw. Once Olivia had taken a drink, she repeated his name. "What…"

Her question was interrupted by the arrival of the doctor. She came in with a big smile, and Elliot learned that they had gone in and retrieved a large kidney stone that had been causing all the pain, and the infection in her system. The doctor noted the surgery went as planned, that she had prescribed another week of antibiotics and a week's worth of painkillers. Her eyes flicked to Elliot. "I see you have someone that will be taking you home." She turned her attention to him. "She can't be left alone for at least 8 hours post-surgery. Is that a problem?"

Elliot shook his head.

"OK. Good. It can take about 24 hours for the effects of anesthesia to wear off, so she may need help for a little longer, but I imagine she's mostly going to sleep." She turned to the nurse. "Rose here will provide post-op instructions." She turned to Olivia. "And I'll see you back in my office in a week. Any questions?"

Olivia mumbled a no, but Elliot could tell she was still out of it. The doctor accepted her answer though and handed some paperwork to the nurse and left.

"I'll be back shortly to see if Olivia is awake enough to get dressed and then we'll get her discharged."

Elliot watched her disappear again, and he turned his attention back to Olivia. She had her eyes closed, and she looked small and pale laying in the hospital bed.

"What are you doing here?" She rasped out.

Elliot couldn't hear any emotion in her voice, so he wasn't sure if she was angry or not. "I could ask you the same thing." He said. He watched as she fought to open her eyes. "I can't believe you had surgery and didn't tell me."

"It's nothing." Her voice was still barely more than a whisper and her eyes were still closed.

"It wasn't nothing. You were anesthetized for God's sake." Elliot said. "And just how were you planning on getting home? And who was going to stay with you?" He panicked for a second, wondering if there was someone here to do just that…someone he didn't know about. She didn't open her eyes…didn't offer any more excuses or rationale, so he assumed she didn't have an answer for him. She was so goddamned stubborn…never wanting to ask for help or appear weak…but this was ridiculous. He tried to push his frustration with her away; it wouldn't do any good now. But he was definitely going to talk to her later, when the drugs had worn off.

The room was quiet for a few minutes more, and then the nurse came back in. She roused Olivia again and encouraged her to drink some water. She was chatting with Olivia as she moved around the room, talking about someone celebrating a birthday on the staff and other such useless information. Elliot saw her ploy was to just try to keep Olivia focused as she removed her IV and the other monitoring equipment. The next thing he knew, she had dropped a bag with Olivia's clothes on the end of the bed and told Olivia that she'd give her some privacy as she got dressed.

Elliot watched her go, and looked back at Olivia, wondering how in the hell she was supposed to get dressed herself. She had just had surgery for Chrissakes. He looked at Olivia. "Do you want…I mean…do you think you can…" He reached for the bag of clothes and pulled them out, setting her running shoes on the floor. "Do you need help?" He turned his attention back to the small pile of clothes, thankful to see she had some loose sweats and a t-shirt and a hoodie. He tried to ignore the navy-blue bra and underwear piled neatly on top.

Olivia felt like she could sleep for days, and the thought of getting dressed, making her way outside and all the way home seemed monumental. In that moment, she was glad that Elliot was there. "I'm not sure." She pushed herself into more of a sitting position, prepared for a twinge of pain but feeling nothing. She probably had painkillers to thank for that. She reached for the pile of clothing and dragged it across the bed towards her, feeling like it took monumental effort.

Elliot saw her pluck the bra from the pile, and then look up at him.

"Will you just turn around?" She asked. Elliot nodded and did as she asked. Once he had his back to her, she swung her legs off the bed gingerly, and started tugging at the gown, pooling it at her waist. Her moves were slow…weighted…and getting dressed seemed like a monumental effort. She decided to skip the bra and pulled the t-shirt over her head. She managed to get her arms into the sleeves of her sweatshirt and got that zipped up to cover her breasts.

"Everything going okay?" Elliot asked. He heard the zipper, but things seemed to be moving slowly. "Do you want some help?" He was surprised when she said yes, and he turned to see her with her underwear in her hand.

"I just can't reach down to…" She felt so ridiculous asking for help, but there was nothing she could do. She was surprised the nurse would just leave her on her own to deal with this, but she supposed the woman assumed that was why Elliot was there. She didn't know the nature of their relationship. "I just need help getting started."

Elliot took the offered underwear from her hand, avoiding eye contact as he crouched down in front of her. He slipped them over her feet and ankles, trying not to think about the number of times he had imagined a scenario like this…sans hospital and surgery. Except in those dreams, he was taking them off.

He was going to hell…thinking about that at a time like this.

He snatched Olivia's sweatpants off the bed, and got them over her ankles as well, so that everything was bunched there. He tugged her underwear and sweats up to her knees and looked up at him, and he could see that she was embarrassed about needing his help, especially with something as basic as getting dressed.

"S'okay Liv." Elliot said, trying to put her at ease. "You just had surgery." His hands lingered on the material, as if asking if she needed him to continue.

"I can take it from here." Olivia said.

Elliot nodded and stood up. He turned his back and took a few steps forward, wanting to be ready in case she faltered. He could hear her slide off the bed, emitting a grunt as she did so, and then a minute later, she told him that he could turn around. He noticed she looked a little unsteady on her feet, and he reached out and wrapped his hand around her bicep. "OK?"

Olivia nodded in appreciation. The nurse showed up in that moment and forced her into a wheelchair. Olivia didn't put up much of a fight. She felt so weak and despite wanting to take care of herself, she was glad that Elliot was there. She reached up and slipped her hand into his. "Thank you." She whispered, squeezing it slightly before letting go.

They were quiet on the way down to the main doors, and Elliot helped her gently into the taxi, feeling crappy that he didn't have another way to get her home. He slid in next to her, giving the driver specific instructions to drive slowly and carefully. He settled back in the seat and wrapped his arm around Olivia, pulling her against him. He was glad that she didn't fight him, laying her head against his shoulder. He leaned over and whispered into her hair. "Rest. I've got you."