So first SVU story, its kind of random. I just watched the episode Choreographed and had a random brain wave. So tried it, and it is interesting. Reviews are loved, let me know how you like it, its just going to be a short one I think .
Disclaimer: Owned by Dick Wolf, I own nothing
She watched Elliot, it was easy to see the stress that was building and did not know the cause of it. He refused to talk about it and slipped away as soon as shift was over, and had been for the past two weeks. Olivia knew that she wasn't the only one to notice, they all had.
Now as he drove she could see the stress lines in his forehead, it looked like days had passed since he had slept. In the few minute she had been watching him he had checked his cell four times; another change.
"Elliot, what is worrying you so much?" The cases have been fairly tame this week, not like some of the ones they got; it couldn't be work.
"Just family stuff, the usual." He tossed her what he probably though t to be a reassuring smile; it just pushed her to dig deeper.
"Don't lie to me, you suck at it. Its not the usual stuff because you tell me about that. The usual stuff doesn't stress you out that much and it doesn't make you run out after shift either." His face visibly fell and she knew he was caving.
Shifting the car into park he stared at the dash, he knew Olivia wanted to know and would want t help. But she would be able to do less then him, no body had the right blood, well he had but this stupid problem came from him. He knew that she probably wouldn't leave him alone but he wanted to try; talking was far to overrated when your kids were at deaths door.
"Liv, drop it, its my business and my problem, not yours."
The edge to his voice tipped her off, this pain went deep. "No,its eating at you and even if I cant do anything I can listen so that you aren't going at it alone."
He was quiet for a long time, she could hear the self loathing in his voice when he finally spoke. "There is nothing you can do there's nothing I can do. I have to watch my girls fade because of organ failure; and I could help them I have the right blood type but it comes from my side of the family so they wont let do it. Nobody else has the same blood type as Maureen and Kathleen, but me and I cant help them."
He sat quietly holding the key in the ignition,she watched knowing he was trying not to cry in front of her.
"Shifts almost over, if you go to the hospital tonight I'll come, you need somebody Elliot."
He nodded and they headed into the precinct to finish paperwork, while Olivia weighed the pros and cons of a tough decision she only had a little bit of time to make.
She knew that Elliot was forgetting that they were the same blood type; meaning she was a potential match for the girls. If he couldn't help them maybe she could. Filing her report she headed for Craegen's office, she only had a few minutes until Elliot would want to leave.
When she shut the door the Captain looked up and she cut to the chase. "How much notice do you need to be put on medical leave?"
"I guess that depends on the situation, whats this about?" He blinked
" I would rather not get into detail, I don't have a date or anything confirmed I am just concerned that I will get very little notice and be able to give you even less."
He nodded obviously trying to find an appropriate answer; with out blurting out his questions. " Well arrangement would be made if needed, Live tell me whats going on though; I want to know and they guys will too we care Olivia."
"I know but just let me figure it all out myself first." She was touched by his concern.
When shift was over Elliot immediately hightailed it for his car, if she hadn't been ready he probably would have forgot her. At the hospital she learned that Kathleen and Maureen had rooms across from each other.
There was a nurse in with Kathleen so Elliot went to talk to Maureen, completely forgetting Olivia; which worked just fine. She watched Elliot and his daughter for a moment. The girl had lost so much weight and looked frail, sad and vulnerable in that bed and it pulled on her heart. She almost missed the nurse leaving and had to jog to catch up with the woman in blue scrubs.
"Hi I'm Olivia Benson, I would with Elliot Stabler. Could I be tested against the girls to see if I match? I know its a long shot but I have the same blood type as Elliot, A positive and I just thought there might be a chance."
The nurse nodded. "At this point we'll test anybody, they don't have much time left it hit hard and fast; there is a history of vital organ failure in women in their fathers family. We were told that they had been put on the waiting list, and that is sad because people are on it for years and they have so little time, we didn't think there was anyone else to be tested. I'll take blood and put a rush on it, because of the circumstances we should know in about a half hour."
She was lead to an exam room, the nurse left and then returned with an assortment of things. " I pulled your medical history, I hope that's okay, you don't have personal doctor so the file is kept at the hospital. Your blood type does make it look promising. I will draw blood for the test then do a full physical so that if you do match the doctor can prepare immediately. Do you know which girl you were considering for, I know it would be a hard choice and well I spoke to the doctor briefly and she thinks if you are healthy and willing we could retrieve for both, but that would lay you up for a long time; but it is cleared."
" Both , they are both to young to die." She was relieved that they wouldn't make her chose which stabler to help if it came down to it.
The nurse chatted as she prepped the a needle. The only useful thing that she learned was that both girls had taken a bad turn very suddenly. They hadn't known about Maureen's kidney failure but Kathleen had always had problems with her liver, she had nose dived first and they assumed the stress set Maureen off. They had deteriorated fast, and suddenly, and that organ failure was common for women in Elliot's family, but the genetic disorder was treatable as long as new tissue and blood transplant was available; hence after the donation they would be fine as long as their body's accepted the organs.
The nurse drew three vials of blood, handed her a container for urine sample and left, presumably to take the the blood for testing. When the nurse returned Olivia tolerated being poked and prodded everywhere. The woman checked her chest, joints, basically everything. Buy the time she was done Olivia wanted to deck her, the woman had been thorough, more than necessary but hopefully it was all she needed. It had all taken forty five minutes before the woman had proclaimed her in excellent health and scurried off for results.
Olivia used this as a chance to sneak a look at her file. She knew there would be nothing about her father, seeing as no one knew who he was but she was curious if the nurse would have noted her mother's alcoholism. She had, it was right there alongside her height weight and vitals. The door creaked as though someone was going to open it so she sat back down. The door opened and a different person paused in the door way, finishing a conversation over her shoulder.
"Olivia, I am Dr. Evens we have your results back, because of our time frame we want to operate as soon as possible, and I am glad to say you are a match. Your tox screen was clean and your physical is great so so I am hoping you want to go through with this."
She modded, watching the woman read her file; she didn't like sharing personal information or being in the room as they read it.
" Alright if you want to change into a gown or just push your shirt up I'd like to do an ultra sound and some poking around. I know the nurse already did a bit of it but things go better if I'm not cutting blind." She gestured that Olivia should mover to the exam table.
Laying back on the table she untucked her blouse and pushed it up. The doctor pushed it up a bit more, then opened her pants.
"Okay, this will be cold."
When the gel touched her stomach she flinched; cold was the right word. The doctor trailed the probe over her stomach and sides, adding gel and freezing images; it was actually clear. Usually people had to go twelve hours without food, Olivia had unconsciously done that with the exception of coffee which didn't seem to be effecting it.
She set the machine aside. "So this is likely where I'll cut it will be a fairly long incision, I'm going to take this lobe of you liver." She pushed on the skin of her stomach, and pointed to the screen, showing how the three lobes and then switched to a other picture showing more to the left.
"Its been proved to regenerate the fastest. Then I am afraid I will make another incision, we are going to take the kidney on your dominant side. Both of your kidneys look good but the left one has thicker connective tissue from the looks of it. We want to try and take some of that tissue if all goes well we should be able to do it from the incision already on that side if not, I will have to make a third incision."
The doctor switched to another image and pulled a second one up on the screen so she could see. Then poked, pushing hard into each of her sides. "You have a lot of deep muscle tissue in your abdomen, that is good for us but harder on you. Muscle will heal faster than fat, but the girls have lost so much weight that I was hoping to impose on you. Generally it is easier to operate through muscle, but recovery will be more uncomfortable, shorter but unpleasant."
Olivia nodded, this was sinking in, she would be laid up for a while, and they were going to cut into her; and she had to go through with it. The doctors words puzzled her for a minute. "I'm sorry but what were you hoping to impose?"
"Fat, they have lost so much weight, normally it isn't a problem. People generally have extra fat in their abdomens and if the recipient is extremely under weight we take some from the doer just to give the recipient a push in the right direction, you mostly have muscle,it would be done through the same incision, but I don't feel comfortable doing that in your situation."
"How will that change things for the girls?" Maybe finding one reason as to why she should skip her workout regimen every now and again.
" It will make their recovery longer, gaining weight would help them, give their bodies new stores to work from so that they could recover at their own speed when it came to liquid or solid food and movement, in the best case scenario a person undergoing this surgery would have enough body fat to deal with this and we might take a little extra. In their case they have already used their bodies fat recesses and will look to a new source, most likely muscle tissue."
" So that will just mess them up longer, why cant you? Look they've been dealing with it longer, and their family has already been torn up enough, they need some peace. Can you take the fat from somewhere else, I don't care where."
The doctor let out a low whistle and gestured for her to lay back down. " I can, you know these guys pretty well, most people would have said one girl or the other, you say both , and an extra incision. Give me a minute."
Olivia lay out and the doctor pressed her sides and worked down over her hips to her knee. Then bent her knee up and worked down the back of her thigh. " Okay so I can, it would be two incisions, and I would prefer to do it before the main one. Lets work it this way, you are sure on being a doner so I am going to go and talk to the Stabler's, get the consent form and let you think. I'll leave you the paperwork for the procedure and when I come back we can go ahead with it if you're sure if not I will draw blood and get you a room."
"When you tell them could you neglect my name,I'll tell them but I would rather wait."
The doctor nodded and turned for the door, then paused and turned back. " Olivia I know this probably isn't what you need to hear and I am not really the person you need to hear it from but its people like you who change lives. You are going to change and save these girls lives, and save me from having to give them bad news. Thank you for that."
She glanced down at the papers in front of her, not being able to form words to give an answer. Finishing the paper work she took her cell and texted Elliot.' hey sorry I left, I just thought you needed some time with your girls, I headed home. Hope you have an okay night. See ya round, I have to take some time off I will be back in a few weeks. Don t worry . I hope the girls will be alright.'
Then dialed the Captain's number, now she literally would have to eat a bullet. "Hey Captain its Olivia, I need to be on that leave as of now. If its not possible pull my vacation days."
" Can you give me a reason to put on the line?" Cragen sounded surprised.
"Surgery"
"What kind of surgery Olivia? That what they will want to know when its processed."
"Its invasive"
"Fine Liv, I'll put that on the form but now I'm asking as a friend, whats wrong?"
She could hear the hurt in his voice."Sorry but I'm not talking about it, I don't feel like feeding the rumor mill."
"Look if you tell me you can count on it staying with me, I'm asking because you are my friend and my detective. I want to know whats going on. I want to help you and I know the guys will to."
"Sorry, I just don't want to discuss it. And leave the guys out of it."
"You think Elliot will take that well? He's your partner and you aren't going to tell him anything?'
"No." He was the last person she planned to explain this too, he would find out she knew that, but she wanted time first. He needed time with his family, not to be thinking about her. If all went well he wouldn't know about the real reason for her leave until he had some family time, and was back at work with Munch down his neck; and then she would get heck from all the guys.
"Will there be anybody waiting for you to come out or get updates?"
"No"
"Have you told anyone anything?"
"Next to my surgeon you know the most." This was hard, she did not like keeping secrets from her unit.
"You wont tell me where you are so I can come and be there for you, or send Munch or some body so you will have company?"
"Again no. I will be fine, give me three weeks then I will be back on desk duty and ready for the field in four."
He sounded hurt and she felt guilty. "Fine Elliot is on the other line, I wont say anything to him but he will start to sniff around as soon as he realizes you wont talk to anyone."
He would and she didn't know how he would react when he found the truth.
She closed her cell as the door opened.