To Olivia, With Love
This is not the way either of them would have planned this, Elliot thought as he stared out into the blizzard. If he had thought in a million years that they would have been stuck here in this situation, he never would have chosen a restaurant a little closer to a hospital.
Olivia whimpered and groaned behind him and Elliot turned to check on her.
"Fin went to get help," he said taking her hand in his.
"It isn't time," she said softly through tears. "It is too soon."
"Olivia, look at me. Everything is going to be okay," he promised wiping away a tear from her cheek. "Just try to relax."
Fin stepped back into the hotel room and looked at Elliot.
Elliot brushed his fingertips against the side of her face and gently kissed her forehead. "Try to rest, I'm gonna be right over here."
Olivia gasped and nodded her head. She was in labor nearly a month early and her contractions were right on top of each other, right now rest sounded like an amazing idea.
Elliot walked to Fin's side.
"What is going on?" Elliot asked. "Where is the bus?"
"They can't get one here because of the storm. Roads are too bad."
"Damn it!" Elliot said resisting the urge to punch the wall in fear it would only scare Olivia more.
"Now what? Are the contractions slowing?"
"No, they are getting closer together."
Fin stared at Elliot and could see the fear in his eyes.
"Warner," Elliot said.
"Elliot, the city is on lockdown. Cabs are not running, the Ambulance cannot even get out in this. I doubt Warner can make it."
"No, but maybe she can tell me what to do. If we don't figure something out fast we're gonna loose Liv and the baby."
"That is not an option," Fin said. "You call Warner, I'm gonna go check on Liv."
Elliot pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed the number as Fin took Olivia some water and sat on the edge of the bed to comfort her.
"Melinda, it's Elliot. I need your help. I took Olivia out for dinner for Valentine's Day and she has gone into labor. We called an ambulance, but they can't get here because of the snow storm. I need to know how to stop the baby from coming."
Melinda laughed a little.
"It isn't funny," Elliot snapped in panic.
"I didn't mean to laugh, it's just that if this baby is coming right now and you don't have access to the proper drugs, there is no way to stop it."
"What do I do? She is in pain and the baby is not supposed to be here yet."
"How early is the baby?"
"About a month."
"That isn't good. I will do everything I can to help you over the phone, Elliot. But even after a safe delivery with an infant this premature if you do not get it to a hospital and fast…."
"I know," he said softly.
Melinda cleared her throat. "Okay, Elliot I need you to check her and see if she has dilated. To do this…."
"I know how to do this. I had a hand in delivering four of my five kids, it has just been a while."
"Elliot, keep talking to her. You have a better chance of a safer delivery for mom and baby if you can keep her calm. She gets more oxygen, there for the baby will get more oxygen and when she panics it raises her heart rate and raises her chances of bleeding out. As well as other complications."
"Delivery?"
"If she has dilated you are probably going to have to deliver this baby. Make sure you have something to tie off and cut the cord and warm towels or blankets to wrap the baby in to keep it warm until you can get it to a hospital. Keep Olivia warm and try to keep her talking to you. She is going to be weak and feel tired, you need to keep her awake until you can get help."
"Alright." Elliot walked to the edge of the bed and looked at Olivia. "Liv, I need to check and see if you are dilating."
She closed her eyes and moaned through another contraction. Elliot moved to the end of the bed and raised the blanket back over her knees to examine her.
He closed his eyes for a moment and prayed as he noticed the blood that covered the fitted sheet on the bed. He wiped his hands free of blood so he wouldn't scare Olivia and stood up.
"Fin, talk to her while I step in here and talk to Warner."
"I will."
Elliot moved into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. "She is dilated and there is blood everywhere," he said in a worried voice.
"You need to get this baby out of her and soon."
"So I need her to push?"
"Yes. Make sure you have everything ready first. Then start her pushing. Try to stay on the phone and I will walk you through it."
Elliot reached into his jacket pocket and slipped on a Bluetooth earpiece so that he had his hands free to assist Olivia with her delivery. He unbuttoned the sleeves of his shirt and rolled them up out of his way. He scrubbed up his hands and knelt at the foot of the bed as Olivia's contractions grew harder and stronger.
"Liv, I need you to start pushing now."
"I thought Warner was going to tell you how to stop my labor?"
"We can't stop it Liv. The baby is coming now. But she is on the phone and she is going to walk me through this step by step. I have done this before."
"I'm counting on that. Because I have no idea what I am doing."
"Just relax and breathe. On the count of three I need you to push."
"Okay," she said with tears in her eyes.
Elliot reached for her hand and stared into her eyes. And remembered a time several months ago. Olivia had just gone through a rough break up. A guy she had been dating for a few months and the relationship had really seemed to be going well.
Or so Elliot thought. Until one morning out of the blue she came in to work and he could tell something was bothering her.
"What's up, Liv?" He asked sitting a cup of coffee down in front of her.
"Nothing," she said picking up a file and refusing to look him in the eye.
"Olivia Benson, I have known you for almost eleven years. I know you well enough to tell when something is wrong. Talk to me."
"Derek and I broke up last night. But I am fine and it is no big deal."
"No big deal? You have been dating him for two months. This is the first guy in years to make it past the third date. He must have meant something to you." He watched Olivia as she tried not to cry.
"I don't want to talk about it here," she said shaking her head.
"Alright," Elliot replied.
That evening after work he talked her into meeting him in a bar down the street from her apartment for a few drinks to unwind. They sat and talked about work and everything but the problem at hand.
Olivia looked down at her watch. "I'm gonna head home. It is almost eight o'clock. I'm gonna take a hot bath and try and get some sleep before work tomorrow."
"I thought we were going to talk about this, Derek thing?"
"Elliot, I am fine. I just need to move on."
"I think you need to talk about it. Why don't I walk you home and order a pizza? Then we can talk and I know you actually ate something."
"You are not going to let this go until I agree, are you?"
"Probably not."
Olivia smiled, "let's go."
They sat on her sofa drinking red wine and eating her favorite pepperoni and double cheese pizza as they discussed the details of her break up with Derek. It wasn't so much that Elliot wanted to know any of the details, but he know this was what it was going to take to make her feel better. After about an hour she began to cry and they ran out of wine. Elliot moved to the refrigerator bring out the beer. They drank and talked for several more hours.
The next morning Elliot woke up in her bed with Olivia wrapped up tight in his arms. The pile of clothing in the floor across the room made it obvious the events that had taken place that night. Several days later Derek and Olivia worked things out and were back together again, for about six weeks. Their second break up was the final break up and nothing was ever really said about the night Elliot and Olivia spent together.
A few days Elliot sat with her in her apartment as she awaited the results of a little plastic stick. They sat together in the bathroom floor and stared down at the little blue plus sign as Olivia realized just how much her life was about to change.
And although Derek was no longer going to be a part of her life, Olivia decided to keep the baby. Elliot had been helping her set up a nursery and prepare for the baby's arrival in mid March.
As February fourteenth approached and her belly grew, Olivia began to feel a little depressed about being eight months pregnant and alone on Valentine's Day. Elliot had arranged a double date dinner for them with Fin and his new girlfriend.
It all sounded so perfect. He had made the reservation for the nicest restaurant he could think of, also one of Olivia's favorites. He picked her up in the SUV with snow chains on the tires because he wasn't going to let anything ruin this night for her, not even a little snow.
But now, that little bit of snow was well over two feet and still falling. They had arrived and met Fin and his girlfriend Sasha for dinner. After and amazing dinner and giving her the largest bouquet of roses Olivia had ever seen with a tag that read To Olivia, With Love. The two couples had decided to enjoy a little dancing in the hotel ball room.
Olivia had been feeling a little strange since dinner, but chalked it up to indigestion and a few hard kicks from the baby. She wasn't feeling well and began to have a little cramping, but the baby wasn't due for a while still and she was having a really good time.
Everything was going well until Elliot pulled her close and gazed into her eyes. That was the moment when Olivia felt a hard contraction and a gush of hot fluid. The hotel manager must have panicked even more than they did, because when Elliot picked her up carrying her off the ballroom dance floor and asked for a place to lay her down he promptly opened a room on the first floor. Little did he know this would be the place where she would deliver her child.
Olivia groaned loudly as Fin offered her his hand to squeeze through the contraction.
"You are doing great Liv," Fin said.
"Olivia on three, I need you to push. One, two, three, push!"
Olivia moaned and groaned and cried as she pushed as hard as she could.
"Melinda she has been pushing for twenty minutes," Elliot said in a worried tone.
"Can you see head?"
"Oh no," Elliot said.
"What?"
"The baby is backwards."
"But you can see it?"
"Yes."
"You need to get that baby out now. Have her push. But make sure the baby's airway is cleared immediately."
"Elliot," Fin interrupted. "I just talked to Cragen. They have an Air Vac team on their way with a chopper. They can air lift Olivia to a hospital. But they are about ten minutes out."
"Fin, we don't have ten minutes. Warner says we have to get the baby out now. Olivia, honey, come on. Big push."
"I can't," she whimpered out of breath.
"Yes, you can. Come on baby. One, two, three, push!"
Olivia screamed and began bear down as she pushed again. A couple of more hard pushes and Olivia's baby was born. Elliot tied off the umbilical cord with dental floss then cut it. He rushed the baby to the bathroom and wiped it's little face off with a warm wet wash cloth.
Olivia cried as she herd the infant's first screams. Elliot wrapped the baby in a bath towel Sasha had pulled from the maids cart in the hallway and walked over to Olivia. She looked so pale and weak as she raised up to look at the newborn.
"Olivia, here is your…." Elliot stopped for a moment when he realized that in all of the commotion he hadn't even noticed the sex of the baby.
"What is it, El?" She whispered.
Elliot moved the towel back a bit as the baby stirred and whimpered. He tucked the towel back into place and smiled as he placed the little baby in her arms.
"I would like you to meet your son," he said with tears in his eyes.
Olivia laughed and kissed the top of the baby's head.
"It's a boy," she whispered. "The doctor never could tell in the sonograms. He wouldn't show us."
"Elliot," Fin said nodding at the pile of bloody sheets on the bottom half of the bed. If that helicopter didn't get here soon, Olivia was liable to bleed to death.
Elliot wrapped Olivia's arms tight around the baby and kissed her forehead. "We need to get to the elevator and try to get up to the roof," he said looking down into her eyes."
"What?"
"Cragen has help on the way. They are going to air lift you and the baby to a hospital, but we need to get up to the roof."
Elliot grabbed a fluffy hotel bathrobe from the bathroom counter and slipped it around her over the black dress she had been wearing tying it to help keep her warm. He wrapped a blanket from the other bed around her made sure the baby was wrapped up tight.
"I'm gonna carry you. You keep an eye on him, alright. Make sure he is covered up good," Elliot said with a smile, "it's pretty cold out there. We're gonna get you both to a hospital, sweet heart." Elliot kissed her gently as he picked her up and moved toward the door.
Sasha ran out into the hall and pushed the button for the elevator, holding the doors until Elliot was safely inside with Olivia and her son. On the top floor of the hotel the emergency crew entered the building and strapped her to a gurney and loaded her into the helicopter.
"We only have room for one more person," the paramedic said looking at Elliot. Elliot tossed his SUV keys to Fin and climbed inside.
Cragen was already at the hospital when they arrived. They brought Olivia inside and one team of doctors and nurses took the baby as another began to wheel Olivia off in the other direction. Elliot followed beside them as they moved her back.
"Elliot stay with him," she breathed pointing toward the baby as her hand slipped from his."
Elliot followed the team with the baby down the hall and watched from outside the room as they examined the little guy and got him cleaned up. They weighed him and listened to his heart beat and his breathing. A few minutes later a nurse wrapped the baby in a blanket and brought Elliot in to see him.
"Is he going to be alright?" Elliot asked.
"I think he will be just fine. Everything appears to be fine. He weighs five pounds, two ounces and is about eighteen inches long. Heart and lungs sound fine," she said handing the little boy to Elliot to hold.
"Hey there handsome," Elliot said staring down at the baby as he whined and grunted and opened his eyes to stare at Elliot. Elliot kissed the baby's forehead and walked around the room with him.
"Sir, you can see her now," another nurse said taking the baby from his arms. "I'm gonna go ahead and give him a bottle. She is exhausted and needs some rest. I will bring him in after I feed him."
Elliot moved down the hall to the room where Olivia laid staring out the window into the snowstorm.
"Hey you," he said as she looked up at him and smiled.
"How is he?"
"He is beautiful. He is perfect."
"He is okay?"
"The nurse said everything checked out just fine. Five pounds two ounces."
Olivia smiled. "I have a son."
"You have a son."
A few minutes later the woman carried the baby in and handed him to his mother. He stirred and looked up at her with his tired little eyes.
"Elliot…" she said softly.
"Yeah?"
"Thank you. For everything. You saved us, both of us. If you hadn't been there….if you hadn't talked me into going to dinner tonight….If I had been alone in my apartment and this had happened, I would have lost him for sure."
"But he's here and you're here and everyone is healthy and safe. Let's not think about it anymore," Elliot said tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
She raised the baby boy up and kissed him gently.
"Olivia?"
"Yes?"
"There is something I need to know."
She looked up from the baby and smiled at him. "What is that?"
"He is mine?"
Elliot watched as her jaw dropped a little. She looked back down as her son opened his little blue eyes and stared up at her.
"Yes, he is. I just assumed you knew. That was why I called you to be there when I took the test."
"I guess I assumed he was Derek's. You guys were together for a couple of months."
"Elliot, I never slept with Derek. There were a few nights he was supposed to stay over and something always came up. So when that pregnancy test came out positive, I knew the baby was yours. This pregnancy was the reason I broke it off with him the second time."
"It is?"
"Yeah," she smiled. "I just didn't think it was right to date him and be pregnant with you baby. So I just told him things weren't working out. I was pretty sure, then a few days later the home test confirmed that I was pregnant."
"The nurse brought him to me to hold, while you were with the doctors. He opened his little eyes and looked up at me, my eyes. That was when I knew he was my son. I just needed to hear it from you."
The next afternoon Olivia and the baby were released from the hospital and Elliot drove them slowly back across town to her apartment in the SUV. The snow had finally slowed and the streets were being cleared.
Elliot opened the apartment door and helped her inside as she cradled their son in her arms.
"Everything alright?" Elliot asked with a smile.
"We're good. I think he's just tired. I should nurse him."
"You sit here," he said helping her to the sofa. "I go in the nursery and get the bassinette. Then after you feed him you can lay him down in here with us."
Olivia smiled. And looked down at their son. "He still needs a name," she said softly.
"We'll think of something," Elliot said kissing her softly. He pulled the bassinette into the living room and laid a couple of soft baby blankets inside and the tiny pacifier the hospital sent home with the baby. "There we go buddy. Daddy got it all ready for you," Elliot said smoothing his fingertips across the baby's forehead as he nursed.
"He really is perfect, isn't he?" Olivia asked.
"Yes, he is. Any ideas what you would like for dinner, mommy?"
Olivia smiled. "All of this is nice of you, Elliot. But you don't have to wait on me hand and foot."
"You heard that doctor, you are supposed to take it easy for the next few days. There was some damage during the delivery."
"And I am fine. You worry too much."
"I'm a new father. And you dear are the mother of my son and my best friend, gives me the right to worry about you. I was thinking maybe stuffed bell peppers?"
Olivia laughed as she wrapped the baby back in his blanket and burped him. "Stuffed peppers sounds good. But you should really try to relax, a little. I will be fine. And he is fine. He is perfect daddy," she said handing Elliot his son.
Elliot kissed the baby boy and tucked him into the bassinette. Olivia stared down at their little angel. He looked so much like his daddy. Dark hair and his daddy's bright blue eyes.
"What about Carson?"
"Carson, like Johnny Carson?"
Olivia laughed. "I just like the name. Carson Matthew."
"Carson Matthew," Elliot repeated looking down at the blue eyed baby boy in the bassinette. "Carson Matthew Stabler. It's perfect."