THE RETURN

Chapter 6

On Sunday night, Elliot woke to the ringing of his cell phone. Years of working as a detective and an undercover agent had made him grow accustomed to late night calls. He grabbed the phone quickly when he saw Olivia's name on the screen. "Liv?"

"Elliot?" He heard Noah say.

He rubbed his eyes before glancing at the clock, it read 2:30am, "Noah, buddy what are you doing up?"

"Mom woke me up with her throwing up."

Elliot sat upright in his bed, setting his feet on the ground, "Your mom is sick?"

"Yeah, she's in the bathroom puking her guts out. She won't let me in."

"Okay Noah, give me your address so I can go help mom." He scribbled it down on a piece of paper before getting up to quickly get ready. When he arrived at the unfamiliar apartment building, he was relieved that someone was walking out as he was walking in. It took away the awkwardness of having to ring buzzer at this time of night. As he rode in the elevator, he felt a little off for just showing up at her apartment without really asking her if it was okay. He had asked her son for the address not her. He could only hope that Noah mentioned something to his mother about him coming over. He knocked on the door lightly. Inside he heard a the slight scraping of a chair. Of course Olivia would teach her son to check the peephole before opening the door.

Noah opened the door in Jurassic Park pajamas, "Hi."

"Hey buddy." Elliot said as he entered the door. He closed it quickly and relocked it. The apartment before him was one that was much homier then the apartment Olivia had been living in when he left. The walls were painted a dark brown and on them hung pictures of the mother and son in various different settings and poses. "Where's your mom?"

Noah pointed to a door that had a soft glow underneath, "That one."

"Did you tell her that you called me?"

Noah nodded, "She didn't say anything, she just groaned."

Elliot took Noah's hand, "Thank you for calling me. I'm going to help mom and you're going to lay back down, okay?"

"Okay. Will you tuck me in?"

Elliot smiled, "Of course I will."

Noah's room was decorated like his pajamas. His bed set and rug on his floor was Jurassic Park themed. "I like dinosaurs."

Elliot chuckled, "I see that. I like them too." When Noah crawled into bed, Elliot sat down on the edge. "Would you like a story?" He watched as Noah nodded his head. "There once lived a beautiful woman who fought her way through life. She never had anyone to treat her the way she deserved to be treated. She was talked down upon and left alone to take care of herself. However, she never let her loneliness stop her. She grew up to be the most enchanting woman. With a head of steel and a heart of gold. She captivated all those around her with her passion to do good in this world. But she longed to not feel lonely anymore. One day, she discovered that she had been blessed with the most precious gift of all, a baby to call her own. This baby saved her. He made her even better than she already was." As he told the story, he watched as Noah's eyes slowly slipped close. It had seemed that secretly telling the boy a story about his own mother, was the best story he could tell him. He smiled at Noah. The boy looked so much like Olivia, that it made him wonder even more who his father was. Since he was letting her pull the ropes, he hadn't even had the chance to ask her what man was stupid enough to leave her and a child behind. He closed Noah's door behind him and walked to knock lightly on the door that had the soft glow. "Olivia?"

She was sitting on the bathroom floor, leaning against the bathtub with her knees pulled up to her chest when she heard him finally knock. Thanks to her son, Elliot probably thought she was in there huddling over a toilet due to food poisoning. However, her tear streaked face, shaking body and lack of normal breathing begged to differ. She didn't know when exactly the panic attack began but she did know she was having one, a big one. She thought that maybe it had started that morning, when she awoke to a small nightmare of Elliot disappearing from her life again. When she had sat with a three year girl, who had been severely beaten, through a rape kit, her already nervous state had heightened drastically. And when they had quickly realized it was the little girl's father, who seemed to somehow look very similar to William Lewis, her breathing had began to become shallow. Fin had noticed right away and tried to sit her down to help. Instead, she told him she was leaving. She managed to keep herself put together until she laid down in her empty bed. Once the first tear fell, the rest came pouring out. Her breathing had hitched instantly and she couldn't get a deep breath in her lungs. The lack of oxygen had went straight to her brain and had caused her to end at at the toilet to vomit. Thankfully, the vomiting had stopped but she still couldn't get the tears to rest or her breathing to catch.