A/N: I've had writer's block for months and I finally got this little idea written out. Hope you like it!
Don't Take the Girl
"Elliot come on, let's go!" Called Joseph Stabler as he makes his way toward the back gate of the beach house. "The fish aren't gonna wait on us!"
Little Elliot Stabler comes bounding down the back steps, almost tripping over his big clumpy rain boots, pole in hand and a huge grin on his face. "Comin' Dad!"
Joseph chuckles quietly to himself and waits patiently for his youngest son to catch up. His attention is diverted however when he hears a creaking behind him and turns to see a little girl coming through the gate, fishing pole in hand.
"Well hello there." He greets, crouching down so he is at her level. "My name's Joe, what's yours?"
" 'Livia." She answers quietly.
"Are you going fishing, Olivia?" He asks, wondering what a little girl who is probably only a little younger than his son is doing out on the beach by herself.
"I dunno how to, but my mama wanted to be by herself so she told me to go find somethin' ta do." She explains, her big brown eyes flicking between him and the ground.
Joe hears some shuffling and turns to see Elliot approaching, he still looks excited, but the grin on his face grows a little dimmer as he comes to a stop in front of them.
"I found us a fishing buddy, El." Joe said, gesturing to Olivia. "This is Olivia. Olivia this is Elliot."
"Hi." She greets.
Elliot ignores her and turns to Joe. "Daddy, this was s'posed to be our day. You always spend time with Jake and Matthew, you said that today it was just gonna be you and me."
"I know, son. But Olivia doesn't know how to fish and who better to teach her than you and me?" Joe asks.
"But she's a girl, Dad." Elliot huffs. "If we have to take someone why can't we take Bo or Tommy?"
"Why does it matter if she's a girl?" Joe asked quietly.
"Cause girls are gross." He answers, screwing up his face in a disgusted manner.
Joe just laughs and stands up, shaking his head. "Alright, that's enough Elliot. She's coming with us no matter what you think about girls."
"Fine." Elliot sighs pushing past his dad and walking up to Olivia. "I'll teach you how to fish, but only cause my Dad wants me too."
"You be nice Elliot, she might end up catching more fish than you do." Joe warns following the two as they walk out the gate and down to the beach.
"Nuh-uh." Elliot protests.
Olivia grins and pokes him with her fishing pole. "Yes-huh."
"We should probably go in soon, El." Olivia murmurs between kisses. "They'll run out of tickets."
Elliot rests his hands on either side of her head against the wall behind her. "Maybe we should just skip the movie. I heard it wasn't that good anyway."
Olivia laughs and pushes him away as he leans in for another kiss. "This is what happens every time you take me out on a date. I want to do what we actually planned on doing and all you wanna do is make out in your car or against a building, like we're doing right now."
"You're just too beautiful to resist." He tries to kiss her again, but this time she ducks under his arms and moves away from the wall.
"Uh-uh, Stabler. Not happening." She winks at him and he sighs dejectedly.
Elliot pushes off from the wall and is about to pull her back to him, when out of nowhere a man jumps out from the parking lot behind her and grabs her forcefully, causing her to shriek. Elliot sees a flash of metal and freezes as the stranger puts a gun to her head.
"Both of you, stay quiet and listen to what I say and no one will get hurt, okay?" He whispers, holding Olivia tightly against his body, his arm wrapped possessively around her waist.
"Yeah, we'll do whatever you want." Elliot answers, swallowing thickly. "Just do what he says, Olivia."
He can tell she is holding back tears and she takes in a shuddering breath and gives him a small nod.
"I want your money. All of it." He orders. "And anything valuable on you."
"Okay." Elliot tries to stop his hands from shaking as he pulls out his wallet and keys and throws them on the ground. He looks over himself and tried to find anything else that would be worth taking. His eyes land on his watch that had been passed down from his grandfather, to his father, to him and he takes it off as well.
"That's everything, I promise." Elliot says, laying the watch on the ground with his keys and wallet.
"Don't move." The man says, keeping his gun trained on Olivia as he lets her go to pick up Elliot's belongings. "Where's the car?"
"I parked in row F, it's a red Ford pickup." He answers.
Without another word the stranger stuffs the hand gun into his waistband and takes off, disappearing into the dark parking lot.
Elliot rushes over to Olivia and she instantly collapses into his embrace. She sobs into his t-shirt, overwhelmed from the life-threatening ordeal. He rubs her back soothingly, "Shhh, it's okay. We're okay, everything's fine."
She sniffs a little in response and rests her cheek against his shoulder. "I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to tell you."
"Tell me what?" he asks confused.
Olivia pulls back, wiping the tears from her eyes. "How much I love you."
Neither of them has said it yet. In the past ten years they'd gone from friends, to best friends, to finally something more, but they still hadn't admitted the love that had been there for so long.
Elliot pulls her back against his chest and kisses the top of her head. "I was afraid too. Cause I love you so god damn much Olivia Benson."
"Hey, Elliot?" His wife's voice drifts from upstairs to the living room where he is sitting watching a baseball game.
He mutes the game and calls back, "What is it?"
"Um, could you just come up?" She asks, and noting the worried tone in her voice he takes the stairs two at a time.
He walks into their bedroom and when he doesn't find her there he continues into the adjoining bathroom. She's bent at the waist, one hand gripping the sink, one hand wrapped around her belly that carries their unborn child. Elliot knows as soon as he sees the puddle of liquid she's standing in that this is it.
"I think...it's time…" she mutters between short breaths.
He steps inside, carefully avoiding the water on the floor and begins to rub her back slowly with one hand, covering the hand she has wrapped around her stomach with his other one. "How long you been hiding this from me?"
"Few hours…" She breathes out, clutching his hand tightly when he laces his fingers with hers. "Wasn't sure it was...the real thing…"
"You sure now?" He asks with a small grin.
She lets out one last long breath as the contraction ends, then fixes him with a hard stare. "Don't be a smartass Stabler. I'll probably be wishing you were dead by the time this is all over."
"Let's hope not."
"…7, 8, 9, 10. Good Olivia, good job just a few more pushes and then you'll be done." Their doctor assures.
Olivia turns her head toward him, tears springing up in her eyes. "I can't do this anymore, El. I can't. I just can't."
Elliot shakes his head and pushes back her brown wavy hair, damp with sweat. "Yes you can, Liv. I know you can."
"But what happens if I'm not good at this? What if I'm not a good mom?" She asks, her chocolate eyes filled with terror.
He exchanges a look with the doctor who has obviously heard all of this before and he gives Elliot a nod, silently telling him he needs to hurry it up.
"Olivia, you are going to be a great mom, I promise." He kisses her forehead and gives her hand a reassuring squeeze. "But we won't get to find out just how great unless you keep pushing so we can meet our son."
"Or daughter." She corrects.
"Or daughter." He repeats.
"You promise?" Olivia asks, still unsure.
"I promise." He answers, and watches as she turns away and closes her eyes in pain as another contraction begins.
"Push." Their doctor orders.
Olivia bears down and Elliot and the doctor count to ten again. This happens three more times, Elliot assuring her all the while of how much he loves her and how great she'll be, until finally infant cries erupt in the room and their child is placed on her stomach.
Nurses help her rub the fluid from his face and body, and Elliot kisses her temple as his eyes begin to fill with tears at the sight of their baby. "You did so great, Olivia."
"You were right, it's a boy." She laughs, tears streaming down her face as she glances back at their son.
"You wanna cut the cord, Dad?" Their doctor asks, holding up the scissors.
He nods, wiping the tears from his eyes before taking the scissors and cutting the umbilical cord where the doctor points to. One of the nurses tells them they need to clean up their son and take his measurements so Olivia sends Elliot over, not wanting their new born to be out of both of their sights.
Elliot is so completely entranced by their son that he doesn't realize something is wrong until one of the nurses approaches him and says, "Sir, we're going to have to ask you to leave."
He looks up at her alarmed and confused, "What? What are you talking about?"
"I need an OR prepped and ready now. She's losing too much blood, I can't do anything in here."
Elliot's head snaps over to where he'd left his wife only moments ago. Her eyes are closed and her skin is as pale as a sheet. A nurse is putting something into her IV while another one snaps up the rails on the side of the bed.
"Sir, please. You need to leave." Elliot shakes his head, but he's in such a daze that he lets the nurse lead him out of the room anyways.
"Where are they taking her?" He asks as he watches them roll her out of the room in a flurry of activity, disappearing behind a set of double doors down the hall. "What about my son? Is he okay?"
"He's fine. Perfectly healthy, a nurse will be taking him to the nursery shortly." She leads him over to a chair against the wall and he sits down heavily. "But your wife was losing a lot of blood. They are taking her to surgery to find and stop the bleeding."
"Surgery? Is she going to be okay?" He asks, eyes wide with fear.
"I'm sure she'll be just fine." She answers, not sounding wholly convinced herself. "We'll update you on her status as soon as possible."
The nurse walks away and he's left with only his thoughts. He rests his elbows on his knees and folds his hands together. He leans his chin against them and prays to the only person he knows can help.
"Don't you dare take her away from me." He whispers. "I'll do anything. Just don't take her."
He sits like this for a while before they eventually bring out his son in a clear bassinet. He stands up and gives the nurse a pleading look. "Please, can I just keep him here with me?"
She studies him for a moment before giving into his request. She shows him how to properly hold his son and how to support his head and then she transfers him to his arms and leaves them alone.
Elliot rocks the sleeping infant back in forth in his arms as he paces the hall a few times. He feels a little better now that he's holding their son. He's a piece of her and he somehow reasons that as long as he's okay, she will be too.
A few hours pass and his worry has increased ten-fold. He'd stopped his pacing after the first half hour and now he is sitting in the chair against the wall, staring into the eyes of his infant who had awoken only moments ago.
"Hi, buddy." He whispers as two big brown eyes blink up at him. "Hi, I'm your Daddy."
He stares into his son's face, picking out her features here and there and tears well up in his eyes. "Mommy's not here right now. They're fixing her cause she was bleeding a lot. But they told me she would be fine…She better be fine…"
"Mr. Stabler?" Elliot turns to the voice and finds their doctor standing at the end of the hall just in front of the double doors his wife had left through hours ago.
Elliot stands, careful not to jostle their son, and walks over to their doctor. He fears the worse as he sees the blood covering the front of the older man's surgical gown, and tries to swallow past the lump in his throat. "Is she...?"
"She's fine." He smiles and holds open a door gesturing for Elliot to follow.
Elliot lets out a sigh of relief and follows the doctor down the hall to the first door on the left, which the doctor holds open for him as well. Olivia is asleep on the bed against the far wall and Elliot is extremely relieved to see that her skin is no longer pale and damp.
"This happens, blood loss that is, occasionally during births." The doctor explains. "Thankfully in Olivia's case we were able to stop the bleeding without any complications. She'll be just fine."
"Thanks, doc." Elliot says gratefully.
He nods and leaves, telling him someone will be in after a while to check on her.
Elliot takes a seat in the chair beside her bed, and scoots it up close so he can keep their son cradled safely in his arm and use the other one to grab her hand.
"See, I told you she'd be fine." He whispers to the infant, and tries to hold in a sob as a few tears escape his eyes.
"Mmm, you shouldn't let him start thinking you're right about everything." Olivia whispers, her voice raspy and tired.
"Hey, I'm sorry, did I wake you?" He asks quietly, removing his hand from hers so he can wipe the moisture from his eyes.
"Yeah, but it's okay." She smiles, reaching out to stop his hand and wiping the tears away herself. "I'm okay."
"I know, I know." He whispers, laying his hand over hers. "You wanna hold him?"
She nods, and scoots over a little on the bed. "Yeah, but only if you're up here with us."
Elliot smiles and nods, handing her their son first and then carefully joining her on the bed. He rests his arm across her shoulders and pulls her back against his chest. She traces a finger over the baby's nose and cheeks, "He's got your eyes."
"Yeah, he does, but they could change." She offers, though they both remember reading in the baby books that babies born with eyes that are a color other than blue will usually keep that color as they grow.
"I'm so glad you're okay." He whispers into her hair, kissing her head softly. "I love you so much."
She turns her head and kisses him softly, "I love you too, El."