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🌹
Olivia suspected that something was very wrong when Elliot didn’t respond to any of her phone calls or messages.
She understood that the Jenna situation had been particularly difficult for him, but she didn’t expect that her partner of nearly thirteen years would suddenly ghost her.
When Cragen called her into his office, she suspected that something might be going on.
What Olivia didn’t expect was for the Captain to tell her that Elliot had put his papers in.
It tugged at her heart that he didn’t even bother to tell her himself that he was leaving.
“There was nothing I could do,” Cragen said. “I did mention that he could stay if he wanted, but he said his decision was final.”
“He’s earned it,” Olivia replied, though she had tears forming, and she was doing her best to keep them back.
“Olivia, I’m sorry…”
She paused for a moment. “I know.” She then turned around and left his office.
When the call came in for the team to go to a scene, Fin volunteered to take Rollins with him.
“No, I’ll go,” Olivia said to her friend. “Just give me five minutes, and then we’ll head out.”
Fin nodded his head in understanding, and then Olivia made her way down to where the interrogation rooms were, finding an empty one and opening the door.
She stepped inside and closed the door behind her, leaning against it for a moment before placing her hands on the table and letting out her tears.
Why did you leave me?
Us?
After all our years together, and not even so much as a goodbye…
As she continued to cry, she suddenly felt the urge to cough, and when she did, she looked down into her hands and saw that there was a single red rose petal.
🌹🥀
Olivia couldn’t stop looking at the petal.
This had to be fake.
People didn’t just cough up flower petals.
But she started coughing again, and another petal came up.
What the fuck?
Olivia had no idea what to think.
It wasn’t as if she could tell anyone what had just happened, because they would say she was crazy and making the whole thing up.
She pocketed the petals and made her way back out to the squad room, drying her tears along the way.
“Are you alright?” Fin asked, noticing that her face looked a bit red, as if she had been crying.
She sniffled, blowing her nose into a tissue and then throwing it away. “Yeah, sorry…allergies are just acting up.”
The seasons had just shifted from summer to fall, so hay fever was still quite prevalent.
Fin didn’t ask any further questions, even though he could tell that something was bothering her.
🌹
🥀Haden🥀
It had now been about four months since Olivia had first started coughing up rose petals.
She still hadn’t told anyone about her mysterious condition, even though she’d come close to being found out a couple of times.
She’d start to cough hard, and she would have to put a hand over her mouth in order to hide the petals that would come up.
She would then hurry off to the bathroom and pretend that she was nauseous, and that seemed to put people’s minds at ease.
Olivia had recently started seeing David Haden a few weeks ago, and so far, their relationship was being kept under wraps, since they weren’t ready to go public yet.
But people did begin to take notice of her improved mood, which made them suspect that she was most likely dating someone.
During her lunch break that day, David came by her office and brought her Chinese food from Wo Hop, which she was grateful for.
Olivia tried to be happy with David, she really did.
He was a nice guy, and he treated her well.
She felt herself beginning to fall for him, and it seemed that he was falling for her too, even though they hadn’t been seeing each other that long.
Before he left her office, he brought her in for a soft kiss and confessed his feelings.
“I love you,” he said, definitely surprising her.
She told him that she loved him too, and then he kissed her once more before leaving, and Olivia started to feel as if she was going to violently cough again.
She immediately ran to the bathroom and locked herself in a stall, before kneeling in front of the door and coughing loudly, her chest beginning to hurt.
As Olivia continued to cough, she looked down into the toilet bowl and saw that there were half a dozen rose petals.
She then clenched her hands into fists and started crying, hating that she was still stuck with whatever this condition was.
Olivia decided that she was going to do some research when she got home that night, and see if there were any results that could provide some answers to the questions she had.
🌹🥀
Seated at her desk with a glass of wine next to her, Olivia opened her laptop and typed ‘coughing up flower petals’ into the search engine.
There weren’t many results that came up, but as she started reading, she saw that the petals were a sign of being cursed by a fatal disease called Hanahaki.
Fatal disease? she asked herself, feeling very much on edge. I’m going to die? No, that can’t be right. I still have so much more to do…this can’t be it!
She continued reading about this mysterious, basically unknown disease, writing down some notes on a piece of paper.
- Victims are cursed by unrequited love. The other person is usually unaware of the other’s love for them
- The disease will continue to progress over a period of months to years. If it is not treated, it is inevitably fatal
- The disease typically appears in stages. The first stage involves coughing or vomiting up flower petals. The second stage is coughing up flower buds, or sometimes even full flowers. The third and final stage, to which the curse can no longer be broken, involves the floral roots cutting off the victim’s oxygen supply, leading to suffocation
Olivia felt herself starting to cry as she continued reading and writing down notes.
She didn’t want to die.
- There is a surgical option to remove the flowers. However, if a person wishes to go through with it, they will no longer have feelings for the person they love, and they may or not remember that they used to love
Olivia felt a lump begin to form in her throat as she read about the surgical option.
No longer being able to have feelings for her partner, the man she’d spent the better part of a decade being in love with, felt worse than what she was dealing with.
She wondered if there was a non-surgical option for this condition, because the thought of never being able to love Elliot again was something that she couldn’t consider.
Please…please let there be an option, she thought.
- The only other option is for the person of their affections to admit their love for the other person. Friendship is not strong enough to break the curse; it must be romantic love. If the person does this, then the person affected by Hanahaki will be instantly cured, if it takes place before the third stage
She had to stop reading because she started sobbing hard, and she couldn’t stop the tears from falling.
She’d been left with a curse that was going to eventually kill her.
“I might love him, but he will never love me,” Olivia said aloud, knowing that it was just her in the apartment. “He just left without a word…he and his family are gone. It’s not as if he’s going to reach out to me…it was made clear that he no longer wants to talk to me, or have any kind of communication.”
She closed her computer and made her way to the bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror and seeing that she was starting to get a bit pale.
Why did I have to fall in love with you, El?
🌹
🥀Cassidy🥀
Her rekindled romance with Cassidy was something that she hadn’t been expecting.
But after they met again, after not having seen each other for thirteen years, they decided to give their relationship another chance.
And Olivia tried to be happy with him.
She really did.
But how could she tell him that she was slowly dying of a disease that essentially had no cure?
She didn’t want people giving her sympathy.
She had long accepted the fact that Elliot wasn’t going to come back and had resigned herself to dying because the man she loved had cut himself from her life without a word.
It was a month into their rekindled romance that Cassidy admitted his love for her.
She wanted the flower petals gone, badly.
So she told Brian that she loved him too.
Olivia was still feeling terrible a few minutes later, which told her that she was still being affected by this silent, deadly curse.
When Brian headed out that evening to work the night shift - he had been temporarily switching his hours - Olivia found herself huddled over the toilet bowl, coughing and vomiting up more petals.
But this time, some of the petals had small streaks of blood on them.
🌹🥀
Several months later, she found herself sitting in a courtroom across from her worst nightmare, making her relive the hell that she’d gone through for four days.
She wished Elliot had been there to beat the ever living shit out of Lewis.
She wished he’d been there when she’d finally gotten free.
Coming out of the beach house and seeing that he wasn’t there had been difficult for her.
As Lewis taunted her in front of everyone about her ‘romantic fantasies involving her ex-partner’, she started coughing again, feeling a few petals wanting to come up. She put a hand over her mouth to try and stop them from leaving her body, but unfortunately, it did not work.
It soon turned into a massive coughing fit, and an entire rose came up, shocking everyone in the courtroom.
No one could believe that it was real.
To them, it seemed like something straight out of a movie.
Lewis, on the other hand, sadistically grinned at Olivia’s pain, then smirked when he saw the rose in her hand.
“You’ve been cursed with the love disease,” Lewis said. “Most people have not heard of it, but I have. When you were in the bathroom, that first time in the beach house, I saw you cough up several rose petals.” He then took the rose from her hand and showed it off to the jury. “This woman is literally lovesick for a man that she can’t have. And she’s dying because he has not yet reciprocated his love for her. Maybe he will, maybe he won’t. Who knows…”
Olivia felt completely humiliated. She’d been doing her best to keep her tears at bay, but she could no longer hold back and let them fall.
The judge told Lewis to stop talking, ordering an immediate recess.
Olivia felt her cheeks get hot as she ran out of the courtroom, going into the bathroom so that she wouldn’t have to face any of her team yet.
She looked at herself in the mirror, her cheeks red from how much she’d been crying.
Olivia then put her head in her hands and sobbed even harder.
“I’m dying,” she said aloud. “And it’s your fault, Elliot.”
🌹
🥀Tucker🥀
Dating Ed Tucker was definitely something she hadn’t expected she would ever do, considering their tumultuous past, especially when he interrogated her for a murder that she had been set up to take the downfall for.
But behind closed doors, Tucker turned out to be a regular guy who had genuinely cared about her.
Olivia had begun to fall for him, the first time she’d really felt something for a man since Elliot had left.
When she admitted to Tucker that she loved him, he said it back, and for a moment, Olivia hoped that this would be the relationship that would finally rid her of this terrible curse.
If the person reciprocates the other’s love, then the person will be instantly cured of the disease, she remembered reading.
Tucker had reciprocated her ‘I love you’.
But she soon found herself starting to cough violently, leading her to run to the bathroom and vomit up three roses, one after another.
Her hands clenched into fists as she sobbed, knowing that it had been close to five years since she’d started coughing up rose petals.
It was starting to get a bit more difficult to go out into the field due to the coughing fits, and the fact that when she would have these episodes, it was mostly fully-blossomed flowers that came up, instead of just petals.
There were times where she found herself calling Elliot’s number, but the voicemail wouldn’t even pick up.
Her chest started to hurt as she suffered through another coughing fit, throwing up four fully-bloomed red roses, the petals streaked with blood.
She looked at herself in the mirror, seeing just how bloodshot her eyes were, as well how pale she looked.
She didn’t even look like the same person she was before.
🌹🥀
Olivia had found herself spending more time behind her desk instead of going out into the field, because she was starting to get more easily fatigued.
Some days, she would get winded just getting up from her chair.
Chief Dodds was considering putting her on mandatory retirement, due to the health issues she was facing, and having Fin take over as Captain.
“Please, don’t take this from me,” Olivia had begged Dodds, when he mentioned giving her position to Fin, who was first in line to take over the unit after her. “I have worked damn hard to get to this position. If it’s taken away, then I’ll feel as though my years in this precinct have been for nothing.”
“Captain Benson, with all due respect…” Dodds said. “I care about your health and well-being, and it’s clear that whatever issues you’re going through are starting to affect your job performance. I don’t want to have to give your position away to someone else, but in order for you to lead this unit, I will need to see a report from your physician, stating that it is okay for you to work out in the field. I am truly sorry, Olivia.”
She begged Dodds to change his mind, but he said his decision was final.
When he left the office, Olivia sat down behind her desk chair and started sobbing.
“Fuck you, Elliot, for making me love you,” she groaned as she slammed her fists against her desk.
She started coughing violently - her most serious episode yet - and she ended up vomiting blood before passing out on the floor.
🌹🥀
Olivia woke up in the hospital, an oxygen mask over her face.
Fin was sitting in the chair beside her bed, smiling when he saw her turn her head to face him.
“Hey,” he said. “You gave us quite a scare back there, Liv. Rollins found you unconscious in your office. And the blood…god, there was so much.”
The doctor in charge of her case knocked on the door and stepped inside with a chart in his hands.
“Ms. Benson,” the doctor said. “Great to see you awake. I wanted to talk to you about your MRI results. We were concerned that you might have a blood clot in the lung, or a tumor, so we tested your D-Dimer levels, as well as sent you for an MRI. We saw something that none of us had ever seen. Your lungs are filled with what appears to be rose buds. They are slowly taking over your lungs and will eventually cut off your oxygen supply if not treated. We are scheduling you for an emergency surgery, because if we don’t remove the flowers, you will die.”
Olivia shook her head no.
“I don’t want any surgery,” she said, pulling off the oxygen mask, and knowing what would happen if the flowers were removed. “Please…”
“Ms. Benson-”
“No!” Olivia said, adamant. “I already know the prognosis. I am leaving here, with no surgery being done. I am going home to die in peace. I’m not spending my final days in a hospital bed. Doctor, how long would you say I have before I die?”
“Since we’ve never seen a case like this, I’d have to say no more than a few weeks. Ms. Benson, I would truly advise you to stay and have the surgery.”
Olivia once again said that she would not be staying and demanded to have the paperwork, so that she could sign herself out against medical advice.
Fin had no idea that his friend was this ill, and he wanted to know why she never told him that she was dying.
“What the hell, Liv?” Fin demanded once the doctor had left. “You’re dying?! You didn’t think to tell me that?”
She looked quite sad. “Because no one would believe me if I said it.”
“You still didn’t think to tell me that you are DYING?!” Fin almost wanted to scream. “Goddamnit, Olivia, you’re like my sister! I care for you, and so does everyone else in the force. You can’t just leave us…”
She swallowed nervously, soon having a coughing fit, which made her vomit up several fully-bloomed roses, and Fin stared at her in disbelief.
“What the fuck?” he asked. “Did you just cough up a fucking rose ?”
“I did,” she replied. “Ever since the day Elliot left the force, I started coughing up rose petals. It’s been getting worse lately, and pretty much whenever I cough, out comes at least one rose.”
Fin didn’t understand how this could possibly happen, and he expressed his confusion.
“It’s a disease called Hanahaki - say that five times fast,” Olivia continued. “Basically, I’ve been cursed because of unrequited love. This disease is slowly killing me - the roots of the roses will completely fill my lungs and suffocate me from the inside.”
Fin stared at her as if she were speaking gibberish.
He couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that someone was coughing up rose petals - and even full-on roses - because they were dealing with someone who hadn’t said, “I love you”.
“I don’t want the surgery - even though it will cure me of the disease - because if the flowers are removed, then I will never be able to love Elliot romantically ever again,” she said. “There is a pretty good choice that I will not even remember ever loving him. And the thought of that hurts me.”
Fin listened intently as his friend spoke about the essentially unknown disease that was killing her.
“Please tell me that there is a non-surgical option that will cure you,” Fin said. “There has to be something…”
Olivia swallowed nervously again. “There is one other option.” She paused before continuing. “If Elliot is in love with me, and he reciprocates my feelings, then I will be instantly cured. But he would need to do it soon, because once the roots have taken over, then there is no chance of saving me. But I hardly think he would, because he hasn’t reached out or seen me in ten years.”
“Liv,” Fin replied, taking her hand and squeezing it reassuringly. “That man has been in love with you for most of your partnership. He just didn’t say anything because he was married, and he was trying to be a good husband and father.”
She felt some tears begin to form in her eyes.
“He…he loves me?” she asked.
She had hoped it was true.
But she had been telling herself that it wasn’t, trying to put her feelings for him in the back of her mind so that she could move on with her life.
“Look, I don’t condone him leaving for ten years and not saying a word to you about it. But the man loves you. He told me so before he left.”
Olivia was shocked.
“He told you that he loves me?”
“He asked me not to say anything,” Fin continued. “Stabler loves you, and it’s part of the reason he left. But I don’t think he truly wanted to leave here. He has a new phone number, and he and I have been talking for a couple of weeks.”
She was upset that Elliot had only been in contact with Fin, and yet still not bothering to reach out to her.
But she knew that she didn’t have much time left, and she needed to see Elliot once more.
“Call him,” she said before coughing up four roses in a row and spitting them out into the bucket on her nightstand.
🌹🥀
“Stabler.”
Elliot heard Fin’s voice on the other end of the line as soon as he answered the phone, and he sounded concerned.
“Tutuola?” he asked. “What’s going on?”
“You need to get over here as soon as possible. Olivia is dying of what I can only describe as some sort of magical curse, and you are the only one who can stop it from killing her. She only has a few weeks left.”
A lump soon formed in his throat as the gravity of what Fin was telling him began to settle in.
Olivia.
Dying.
Magical curse? What?
“Wha…what do you mean, curse?” he asked. He was at his computer, looking at what the next available flight to New York was.
“She’s been coughing up flower petals since the day you put in your papers,” Fin said. “Over time, it progressed to her coughing up fully bloomed roses. From what she said, a person gets this curse when they are dealing with unrequited love.”
Elliot felt his breath hitch in his throat.
Olivia loved him.
“God…” he said. “I love her. More than anything. But she might not forgive me for what I did.”
“You leaving without even giving Olivia so much as a goodbye was an absolutely fucking stupid thing to do. But right now, you need to rid her of this curse.”
He knew that Olivia would chew him out and be furious at him for what he did.
And he deserved it all.
He hoped that she would be able to forgive him someday.
🌹🌸Elliot🌸🌹
The flight to New York felt as if it just kept dragging on, and Elliot wanted nothing more than to get off the plane and see the woman he loved.
It had been eight years since he’d last stepped foot on U.S. soil.
When the plane finally landed at JFK, Fin was waiting for him outside, in the ‘international arrivals’ pickup area.
“How is she?” Elliot asked, concerned about Olivia’s well-being.
“Well, considering that she’s coughing up about five flowers every few hours, I would say that she’s not doing great,” Fin said. “Her body is really struggling, and I’m really worried about her.”
“So am I…”
The thought of Olivia passing away from this seemingly unknown curse scared him.
He could never walk away from her again.
The drive from the airport to Mercy hospital was agonizing, with Elliot feeling incredibly nervous about what would happen once he saw Olivia.
His chest felt heavy as he made his way into the hospital and down to his former partner’s room.
When he entered, he felt his heart drop to the floor at the sight of her hooked up to various machines, IV lines in her arms, and an oxygen mask over her face.
“Liv…” he uttered quietly, feeling tears begin to form. They soon fell down his cheeks. “You have every right to be angry with me and everything else under the sun. It was my fault that I walked away from our partnership, and I have regretted that decision ever since it happened.”
She was so angry with him, but at the same time, her heart felt broken at the sight of him.
She started coughing once more, two red roses coming out at once, and Elliot was able to see first hand what exactly this ‘curse’ was.
“If you decide to not forgive me, I’ll understand that too,” he said. “But hearing what happened to you, I needed to see you. I don’t want you to die, Liv…you are too important to me.”
She glared at him and started to let out her years of pent-up anger. “You left me for ten fucking years, you bastard! Without even so much as a goodbye! I had to find out from Cragen that you put your papers in! You never responded to any of my calls either!”
Hearing the pain and anger in her tone, he knew that he deserved every word that she said to him.
He could hear Fin’s voice in the back of his mind, reminding him that he was the only person who could break the curse.
“Olivia,” Elliot said. “I love you more than anything. And if you’ll let me, I’ll spend the rest of my life making up for the mistakes I’ve made.”
She stared at him, and it was as if someone had flipped a switch, because immediately after Elliot confessed his love for her, she no longer felt as if she were getting close to death’s door.
She was finally feeling more like herself again.
🌹🌸
Olivia could hardly believe what she was hearing.
It was a moment she had been waiting for years while literally dying inside.
Her heart raced as she listened to Elliot's words.
She had longed to hear them for so long, and now they were finally being spoken.
She wanted to embrace him, to melt into his arms and whisper, 'I love you.'
But she couldn't.
She couldn’t allow herself to give in.
Not yet.
"What about Kathy?" her voice trembled as she asked the question.
"We divorced a few months ago. After Eli turned 18," Elliot explained, his expression remorseful. He didn’t want to talk about Kathy but knew Olivia needed answers. "When everything happened with Jenna, she threatened to take Eli. She forced me to choose between you and my son, Liv. I had to cut off contact with the entire squad."
She took a deep breath, her mind racing as she processed the information. Elliot's admission that Kathy had forced him to choose between his family and her hurt more than she expected.
Olivia felt a pang of guilt, knowing the pain he must have endured.
"You chose right...your kids come first," she said, her voice heavy with emotion. "Elliot, I...I don't know what else to say."
He watched her hesitate as he took a step closer.
He wanted to reach out and take her hand, but he held back.
"Liv, please...you don't have to forgive me right now," he pleaded, his eyes searching her face for any sign of what she was feeling.
There was a moment of suspense between them.
The tension in the air was thick, almost electric.
And then, Elliot spoke again, his voice softer.
"But I need you to know that every single day, I thought about you. I thought about how I left without saying goodbye. Without telling you how I felt. Worrying about your safety."
Olivia's voice cracked as she spoke, her emotions running high.
"You left me without a single word for more than ten years. I had no idea what happened to you. You just disappeared from my life, Elliot."
Elliot sighed deeply as he ran a hand through what was left of his hair.
"I know...I know I messed up, Liv. I made a huge mistake, the biggest mistake of my life," he admitted, his voice filled with remorse. "But I'm here now and want to make things right. I want to earn back your trust and earn your forgiveness."
He stepped closer to her and reached for her hand, wanting to feel her touch. "I never stopped loving you."
Olivia's breath hitched as she felt his touch, their hands interlocking together for the first time in years. The spark that had always been there between them was still present, and the physical connection made her heart flutter.
She closed her eyes momentarily, taking a moment to steady her emotions. "Elliot...you can't just waltz back into my life like everything's fine," she said, her voice wavering. "Things happened while you were gone."
"What...what kind of things...?" Elliot asked, a hint of caution in his voice.
He didn’t want to hear what she had to say next, but he knew that he needed to listen - to hear her side of the story.
"William Lewis," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. It was a name that sent chills down her spine and brought back a flood of traumatic memories. "When you left, no one had my back like you did. I…Lewis kidnapped me."
His face turned ashen as he absorbed her words.
"He kidnapped you...?"
Elliot could hardly believe the words coming out of her mouth.
The thought of Olivia being kidnapped and hurt left him feeling sick in the pit of his stomach.
Olivia nodded, a pained expression on her face as she recounted the traumatic experience.
"Yes," she said, her voice hollow. "Lewis had me for four days. He tortured me, both mentally and physically. And he sexually assaulted me. Elliot, I have scars."
Elliot could barely speak, his heart feeling like it had been shattered into a million pieces.
He felt a mix of anger, guilt, and overwhelming sadness.
"Liv, I...I had no idea," he managed to say, his voice filled with regret.
He wanted to hold her, comfort her, and take away her pain.
But he knew that his touch might not be welcome yet.
He clenched his fists as he listened to her story.
The room fell silent as Olivia struggled to continue her story.
She took a deep breath before continuing, her voice shaking slightly.
"My partner after you, Nick Amaro, and Fin found me in an abandoned beach house in Jersey...I beat him with a metal bar, then lied under oath about it. Elliot, It's been almost six years, and I still have nightmares. I have PTSD, and I can't sleep without a light on at night," she said, her voice hoarse. "I'm not the same person you left." She paused, her breathing ragged.
As her words sank in, Elliot felt a wave of guilt and sorrow crashing over him. He couldn’t believe the pain and suffering Olivia had been through in the past seven years. He wished he had been there for her, to protect her and support her.
"Liv, I'm so sorry," Elliot whispered, his voice cracking with emotion. "I should have been there for you, especially after Lewis."
Olivia sighed deeply.
She looked weary, both physically and emotionally.
Her eyes were red, and she took a moment to collect herself before speaking again.
"It's not your fault," she said, shaking her head. "It's nobody's fault but Lewis’s. I just...I need you to know what has happened to me while you were gone. Plus…my scars. "
"Show me," he said firmly, his voice steady.
He needed to see the scars, to see the physical proof of the pain she has endured.
Olivia hesitated for a moment but ultimately decided to show him.
She slowly leaned forward in bed to untie her hospital gown.
She pulled the top of the gown down to right above her nipples, revealing the scars Lewis left on the top of her breasts. To her, they were a stark and ugly reminder of her past trauma.
"Cigarettes," she said, her voice low and detached.
Elliot swallowed hard, his eyes never leaving the scars on her chest.
He couldn’t believe the pain she must have endured, both physically and mentally.
"Can I...can I touch you?" he asked hesitantly.
She nodded, her gaze softened.
"Yeah," she said in a quiet voice.
Elliot reached out with trembling hands, gently touching the scars on her chest. His fingers traced the raised skin.
As Elliot touched her scars, he could feel her body tense underneath him. He knew she was reliving the trauma of what happened to her.
"Liv," he whispered, his voice choked with emotion. "I wish I could take away your pain. I wish I could have protected you from all of this."
She let out a shaky breath, her body finally relaxing under his touch.
"I wish you could have, too," she replied, her voice soft. "But you weren't there, Elliot. You abandoned me and left me to deal with all of this by myself."
Elliot flinched at her words.
He knew she was right - he did abandon her, and he was absent from her life when she needed him the most.
"I know," he whispered, his expression pained. "I failed you more than once."
Olivia looked at him, her eyes meeting his.
She was hurt, and the pain of his absence was evident on her face.
"How do I know you won't leave me again?" she asked, her voice shaky. "How do I know you won't disappear on me like you did before?"
Elliot's heart clenched as he saw the vulnerability in her eyes.
He wanted to reassure her, to make her believe he wouldn’t leave her again.
"I won't," he said, his voice firm. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise. I'll stay by your side, no matter what."
Olivia hesitated for a moment, her eyes searching his face.
She wanted to believe him, but the fear of being abandoned again was intense.
"You say that now," she said, her voice trembling. "But you've broken your promises before."
Elliot could hear the skepticism in her voice, and he knew he needed to earn her trust again.
He took her hand in his.
"I know I've broken my promises," he said, his tone earnest. "But I'm begging you to give me a second chance. Let me prove to you that I won't leave you again."
Olivia looked at him, her heart torn between trusting him again and protecting herself from further hurt.
"It's not going to be easy. You know that, right?" she said, her voice softer now. "It's going to take time for me to trust you again, Elliot."
Elliot nodded, understanding the challenge ahead of him.
"I know," he replied. "I'll wait forever if I have to, Liv."
Olivia let out a sigh, her guard slowly lowering.
She was exhausted, both physically and emotionally.
"I'm tired, Elliot," she whispered. "Can you just...hold me?"
Elliot nodded and slid into bed beside her without another word.
He pulled her close to him, wrapping his arms around her.
He gently pressed a kiss to the top of her head, holding her tight against his chest.
Olivia snuggled into his embrace, feeling safe and loved. She took a deep breath, inhaling his familiar scent, and let out a sigh of contentment.
"I love you, Elliot," she whispered against his chest.
Elliot's heart skipped a beat as he heard her words.
It was the first time she’d said those words to him, and it felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
"I love you too, Liv," he replied, his voice filled with emotion. "More than anything."
🌹🌸
Epilogue - 18 Months Later
After months of healing and rebuilding their relationship, Olivia and Elliot found themselves in a place they never thought they'd be.
Life wasn’t perfect for Olivia, but she was happy.
She continued in her role as captain, facing every challenge head-on.
Noah grew as he turned into a curious and energetic eight-year-old who seemed to bring more light to her life each day.
Elliot was now working with the Organized Crime Control Bureau.
He recently decided to step back from undercover operations that pull him away from his family, including Olivia and Noah.
Olivia and Elliot continued to navigate the complexities of their relationship.
There were moments of joy, light, disagreement, and tension.
Olivia sometimes struggled with trust issues, and her PTSD flare-ups were something she can never entirely escape.
Elliot, on the other hand, was patient and understanding, constantly reassuring her of his unwavering love and commitment.
One day, as they sat in the living room, Elliot pulled a small box from his pocket and handed it to Olivia.
"I have something for you," he said, a soft smile on his face.
Olivia took the box, slightly puzzled.
As she opened it, her eyes widened at the sight of the gold compass necklace resting delicately on the velvet lining.
Olivia's breath caught in her throat as she held the compass necklace in her hands. It was a simple, yet beautiful design glistening in the soft glow of the room's light.
"Elliot...it's beautiful..." she whispered, her eyes filling with tears. "But why a compass...?"
Elliot took her hand in his, his thumb gently rubbing the back of her knuckles.
"I chose this because when life gets messy and unpredictable," he began, his voice soft but steady. "I want you to remember that I'm your North Star. No matter where life takes us or what challenges we face, I'll always be a constant in your life. A light to guide you home, a source of comfort and stability amid the chaos."
Olivia's heart swelled with emotions as she listened to Elliot's words. The thought of having him as her constant, her North Star, was both reassuring and overwhelming.
"Elliot," she whispered, her voice choked with emotion. "This...it means more to me than you could ever know."
Olivia, touched by Elliot's gesture, slowly put on the necklace. The compass hung delicately on her chest, right above her heart.
Its weight reminded her of the love and commitment they shared.
Elliot reached out, gently tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
"It looks beautiful on you," he murmured, his eyes filled with love.
Olivia looked down at the necklace, watching the glint of the gold in the soft light. She looked back up at Elliot, her eyes meeting his.
"I love it," she whispered, her voice filled with gratitude. "And...I love you."
A slow smile spread across Elliot's face.
Hearing Olivia say those words would always fill him with indescribable happiness.
"And I love you more," he replied, his tone laced with affection.
He pulled her closer, enveloping her in his arms in a tight embrace.
Their love story wasn’t perfect, but they both knew it was worth fighting for, despite their differences and past traumas.
They would continue to learn, grow, and support each other through the peaks and valleys life threw their way.
🌹