Alaskan Nights (A Law and Order: SVU fanfic)

Ch.15

"What happened." Rebecca boomed far louder than the slam of the front door. Olivia spun around, her sleeping son still in her arms.
"One. You know the rules... No arguments around him," she whispered blankly with her voice laced with sheer fatigue. She disappeared into the darkness of the hallway then up the stairs.

After ten minutes or so she reappeared to find Rebecca in the same position she had left her. Winter gear intact and every hair still in place. She eased off her jacket at the base of the stairs and rubbed her aching shoulder. Rebecca's gaze never left her as she made her way slowly into the kitchen.

"And two," Olivia wheezed opening the fridge door. "It's not of your business."

"None of my-- you did not just say that," Rebecca spoke, still planted in her original position, with her arms now crossed.
"I've spent the better half of almost 2 years caring for you, driving you EVERYWHERE... Taking Quinn where he needs to go when you can barely move, picking you off of the floor when you fall and are too weak to get up!" Rebecca felt her body shaking but she couldn't stop.

"I've watched your heart stop more times than I care to even remember, Olivia! I had to comfort your son by lying and telling him his mother was fine when you were really unresponsive in your hospital bed. So please, don't tell me it's none of my business." Rebecca spat as she shed her coat and flung it over the back of the sofa. She rounded the battered piece of furniture and plopped onto it her self, an instant poof of dust filled the air around her. Almost instantly Olivia began coughing.

"I'm the one who got assaulted by a wave of potentially deadly airborne viruses. Why the hell are you coughing."

It was silent for a while before Olivia spoke. She tried steadying her voice to respond, not wanting to worry Rebecca with the quiver which came with the shortness of breath.

"So I take it you're not leaving?" Olivia asked.
"Nope," Rebecca responded, popping the P. "And I'm not deaf, Olivia. You can barely breathe...go lie down and I'll wake you when he gets up."

"No, I wanna--I wanna be--," she steadied herself against the counter, ducking her head onto her hands and silently praying for the constriction she felt in her chest to go away on its own. She couldn't go back to the hospital--she wouldn't.

The room was noticeably cooler as she raised her head from its prior position. Her eyes fluttered open to meet a stoned faced Rebecca, arms crossed and inhaler in hand. Her curls were pulled into a lopsided half-in-half-out bun with soft, but haphazard pieces sticking out. The cool fading light of the five o'clock sun illuminated her already ghostly pale skin giving her an angelic aura. She looked quite the contrast to her personality, Olivia thought. She refocused on her hand which was now stretched out, with the inhaler now uncapped. "Inhale." She sighed, placing two fingers on the dispenser.

"I don't need--"
"Liv. Not today. Please. Just not today." She whispered giving the inhaler a shake.

Olivia snatched it out of her hands. Giving it a shake herself. Her eyebrows knotted together as she took a drag from it, sending her into an instant coughing fit. She dropped the device and tried steading herself once more. Her coughing continued causing Rebecca to round the counter to comfort her.

Her coughs were deep and painful; almost like that of the ferry horns which work her up daily.

"I hate this," she managed before dropping from the counter onto her knees. With her head in her hands, she still couldn't stop the coughing.
She felt her friend's arms hook under hers willing her to stand but she couldn't. She couldn't stop coughing, she couldn't fix her heart, she couldn't fix her lungs and she couldn't bring her baby back. She felt worthless and tired. And for a split second she just wanted it to be over-- the pain and the constant medication, the inability to do anything for her son without the constant fatigue, the anxiety, the depression, the fear of imminent death.

"I hate it too." Rebecca whispered as she caressed her newly damp hear, "Just cry it out, nothing wrong with crying."

So Olivia is sick... But with what?