Nightmare Interrupted

Chapter Two

 "Liv," Melinda said with a shaky voice, not the calm and confident one she was used to hearing, her face was pale and sweaty, her eyes sunken in. Olivia could tell the medical examiner was barley holding herself together. "Can I come in?"

Olivia slightly nodded her head and moved out of the way for Melinda to come inside. The woman fidgeted with her coat and her hair, she paced slightly in Olivia's living room.

"Melinda, whats the matter?" Olivia asked, her voice hardly above a whisper, concerned for her friend. Melinda placed a hand on her shoulder and Melinda turned her head to look into Olivia's eyes.

"Liv, sit down, please," Melinda muttered and licked her lips, she was trying to prepare herself to say the words she desperately didn't want to, but needed to. Olivia needed to know.

Olivia looked at her, looked at the way her eyes looked broken, looked lifeless, looked at how she had no color in her face, looked at the tears welling up in her eyes. She nodded slightly and took a seat in the chair behind her.

"Liv," Melinda began, looking from her eyes down to her shoes, not knowing what to say, how to begin, not knowing how to rip this woman heart from her chest without causing too much damage.

"Spit it out, Mel, you're scaring me," Olivia whispered, taking the woman's hands in hers and giving them a small squeeze of encouragement. Melinda let out a sad, deep sigh and Olivia knew this was the point of no return. Whatever news Melinda had come to deliver, was about to change her life.

"Okay, a body came into the morgue today, a murder, and I," Melinda began and Olivia had already checked out, she dropped Melinda's hands and felt the air force its self out of her lungs, they felt like they were on fire. She felt her finger tips, her palms, her arms, her legs, her whole body going numb slowly at first then fast. Her ears were ringing, a terribly loud siren like wale. Her mouth was more dry than the time she smoked a joint in high school after the homecoming dance. Her heart was beating so fast she was afraid it might burst out of her chest, and she hadny taken a breath yet but all of this were thoughts in the back of her head. Thoughts that she could care less about, the only thing that was running through her mind was his name.

Olivia didn't register Melinda kneeling in front of her, her hands on both of Olivia's shoulders. Olivia couldn't focus, her vision was blurry, her hands were shaking. All she could hear was his name in her head.

"Liv, Liv," she faintly heard being called to her from a distance, she tried to turn her head towards the sound, tried to bring herself back to reality but she knew that would make this all too real. She just wanted to stay here for a few seconds longer, where her mind replayed the last time they woke up together and made breakfast, or the last drunken night they had, or the last kiss he gave her.

Wake up, Olivia, her brain was screaming to her, as much as she loved her memories of him, they were hurting her more. This nightmare was hurting her. She needed to wake up. She closed her eyes and snapped them open. Melinda was still there, tears running down her cheeks, Olivia's hands were still shaking but this time she could focus on the woman before her. She quickly stood up and began looking for her coat.

"Take me to him, I need you to take me to him, please. I need to see him, I need to be with him, I need to get him to wake up and I need to wake up and we will be out of this nightmare. Take me to him, Melinda, take me to him," Olivia's shoulders were shaking with sobs as she pleaded with Melinda to take her to see the man lying on the concrete slab in the morgue.

"We can't leave Noah," Melinda reasoned with her.

"I'll call Lucy, she just left before you got here. I need to see him."

Lucy arrived back to the apartment in record time, quietly running through the door, not sure what exactly was going on. All she knew was from her very brief conversation on the phone with ME Warner, asking her to please come back because her and Olivia had a emergency that they needed to deal with and Lucy without question said she would be back in ten minutes.

"Is everything okay?" Lucy asked when she got one look at Olivia, sitting on the couch, already dressed to go outside, her head in her hands and her shoulders shaking with silent sobs.

"No, and I'm not sure it will be," Melinda muttered, more to herself than to Lucy but the girl heard her and her heart was breaking for the woman on the couch.

Lucy had known Olivia for a few years now and the woman hadn't had it easy. After everything that has happened to her, Lucy was surprised she still had that light in her eyes. She smiled slightly, knowing the reason Olivia was going to be okay was because of Noah. He would get her through this, whatever this was. He was her light.

Melinda closed the door of the apartment behind her and she helped Olivia walk down the hallway, to the elevator, and out of her building. She buckled Olivia into the front seat of her car and climbed into the driver seat. She started the ignition and backed out of her parking spot. She caught a glimpse of the woman in her passenger seat and felt her heart break more than it already was. Melinda saw it everyday in victims families faces, hope. Olivia had hope that the person in the morgue was someone else, some terrible mistake. She was holding onto that, and Melinda felt like she was going to throw up. She sucked in a deep breath and continued driving.

Olivia got out of the car and practically sprinted to the doors, she ripped them open and continued running until she reached the door marked Morgue. She flung that door open, leaving Melinda in the dust and she began to search for him.

Melinda heard Olivia before she saw her, heard her screams and pleas, heard her emptying her stomach, heard her dry heaving. Melinda rounded the corner and the sight before her was one she was sure would haunt her until the day she died.

Olivia Benson, on her knees, her vomit to her right, mascara running down her face, her shirt wet with tears, her hands on his face, her pleading with God to bring back the only man she ever had loved.