Author's note: Alright guys, here's the next chapter. I've narrowed down the list of possible pairings. These are my favorites so far: Casey/Munch, Casey/Elliot, and Casey/Alex or possibly Casey/new character (someone she meets in the hospital. Tell me your favorite and your least favorite pairings and I'll try to accommodate to your needs.  Anyways I hope you enjoy this next installment of Wondering Why.

Special thanks to all the people who reviewed! Warm fuzzies go out to all of you! Hopefully I can manage to keep the number of reviews going strong (but I'll need your help for that, lol.)

Disclaimer: I'm offering Dickie a trade, my music video, for Law and Order SVU. So far he hasn't returned my calls, so unfortunately the show still belongs to him. Bastard.

"How is she?" Don asks.

Olivia's eyes fall to the ground. "She went into a coma sometime last night. The doctors think she'll get out of it but that when that happens her body might go into shock. They're doing everything they can to avoid that, for now, anyways. I don't know…I try not to ask why anymore," she mutters. "They had to pump her stomach and everything….God; they said there had to be hundreds of pills in there. How…"

He sighs and sits down beside Casey's bed. The hospital chairs are awkward and uncomfortable, and no matter how hard he tries, he can't seem to stop fidgeting. "I don't know what were gonna do now, Liv. I need a favor from you though; I need you to call up Alex. We need someone to replace Casey for the moment, and I don't want some rookie lawyer doing the job."

"But Captain, Alex would have to quit her current job!"

"I know I'm being selfish, but I can't allow this unit to be destroyed by this. Besides, Casey might be able to get back soon. Alex can just take a leave of absence from her current job, right?" he asks. He's not being himself, for he's not the type of person to ask such a huge favor.

"I'll tell her we need her, but I'm not pressuring her into anything."

"Okay, that's fine."

"Do the others know yet? Munch, Elliot, Fin, and Chester?"

"Yes, I had to tell them, Olivia, I couldn't keep this from them."

She nods. "That's fine. I'm sure Casey would want them to know anyways."

"Well, I have to go. Keep an eye on her."

"I will."

And then he leaves. She exhales slowly, wondering whether or not she's even going to talk to Alex. Her eyes fall onto Casey's face. There is a tube going into one of Casey's nostrils and an IV stuck inside her left hand. She wants to reach out and pull them away; she doesn't want Casey to be some patient. And she wonders, she wonders and wonders, what went wrong.

XXXXXXXXXX

It's Munch's turn to watch over Casey, not officially of course, but he knows it's due time for Olivia to be relieved of her duties. He enters Casey's room and sees Olivia asleep. He smiles for a moment, before he sees Casey and remembers why he's there. He shakes Olivia awake, careful to be gentle.

"John?"

"I've come to replace you," he states.

"Casey's out of her coma, I was going to call you guys but…"

"You fell asleep instead."

"Yeah." She runs a hand through her hair and smiles sadly. "She's still unconscious though, but the doctors are hopeful."

"Are you hopeful?"

"I don't know I don't know anything anymore. Even if she survives this, what's to say she won't do it again?"

"We'll get her help, Liv. Cragen arranged with the hospital to get a psychiatrist to evaluate her. If the psychiatrist thinks it's necessary then she'll have to stay in the pysch ward for a while."

"Do you think that a psychiatric ward is the place for her, John?"

"No, but I don't think work is either. She needs help, Liv…I don't want to lose her, and I think…maybe she does need to get help."

Olivia sighs, nodding. She grabs her jacket and slides her arms through the sleeves. "Yeah. Well, I'm going to go home and rest for a while. Will I see you at work tomorrow?"

"Yeah, probably. I think someone else will be watching over Casey tomorrow anyways."

"Okay. Well, bye."

"Bye, Liv." Olivia exits the room, leaving Munch alone with Casey. He stares at her sleeping form, urged to shake her awake. He wants her to marvelously awaken and tell him it was all some terrible mistake, that's she's fine. But he's no idiot, he knows that wont happen and so all he can do is watch.

He feels obliged to say something, to do anything, to make this all better. The team can't go through loosing another ADA, another friend, and neither can he. The room he is in, is quite plain. The walls are all white and the sheets are, too. There's only one window, which looks out into the parking lot a few stories below. There's also a television, so he turns it on and flicks through the channels.

Once every hour a nurse comes in and checks on Casey. At noon her blood is taken, to see how polluted it is. It's been two days since Casey did it. Two days since she hasn't woken up. He wonders idly where she really is now. Is she dreaming? Or is she far away, in another world?

A male nurse named James approaches Munch. "Are you a member of Casey's family?" he asks.

"Yes," Munch responds. And it's true; too, Casey really is family to him.

"Well, things seem to be looking up. The last blood test showed that her toxin levels have gone down a bit. However her liver has sustained pretty serious damage, if the toxin level in her blood isn't acceptable by tomorrow we're going to have to have a liver transplant."

"Oh, God," he mutters hoping it wont turn out that serious. "How likely do you think the possibility of her not needing a transplant is?"

"It's hard to say at the moment," says James. "But as I said, it's looking up," then adds in a more serious tone. "It's a miracle she's alive though."

Munch sighs; he knows that the nurse is right. It's a miracle Casey is alive. Perhaps somewhere out there, someone knew it wasn't her time to go. Now all he can do is hope, hope that things will turn out fine. "Thanks."

"No problem," James replies, he checks the IV machine to make sure it's still working properly and then leaves.

Munch takes Casey's hand, the one with the IV stuck in it. He squeezes it slightly, but not too hard. She's so delicate right now, so young, so, so, young. How could this happen. Perhaps his touch awakened her, he's not sure, but suddenly she's steering. Her eyes flutter open. He wonders what she's thinking as she realizes she's alive.

She's just confused though. She doesn't know how she got there, and assumes she must have been attacked. For a while, she doesn't say anything, and then it suddenly comes flooding back. The pills, oh God, the pills.

"John…" she begins, but finds herself too weak to say anything else. Tears fall down her cheeks, and she can't wipe them away. She doesn't know where to begin, and even if she did, she doesn't know whether or not she'd have the physical and emotional strength to say it.

He pats her face dry with a sheet. "It's okay," he says, but her ears are buzzing and she can't hear him. Why can't she hear him, why? She wants to tell him something has gone wrong, that her hearing might be ruined, but finds she's too weak. He seems to understand though.

He presses the red button to alert the nurse. James comes quickly. "Ah, I see she's woken up."

"Yeah. Something's wrong though. She's not responding to anything I say, I…"

"That's just the affect of all those pills combined, aspirin in particular does that too you. Her hearing should be back soon enough though."

"Oh," he replies feeling silly for getting so worried. James leaves to attend to another patient. John exhales and turns to Casey, who's looking at him, begging for his pity, for him to understand. She was drunk, that was all, and depressed…and….

"I'm sorry," she says in a weak raspy voice.

He looks at her sadly, murmuring that everything will be okay, even though he knows she can't hear him. He wants her to know he's there for her, that everyone's there for her. He bends down to kiss her on the forehead, and somehow, somehow this makes her feel just a little bit better. Perhaps, when she's feeling better he'll explain to her how big of a help Olivia was. And perhaps, the thought of her best friend saving her life, will make Casey feel better.

He'll spend the night, just as Olivia did, and tomorrow, Elliot will come in to replace him. And soon the whole squad will make their rounds. Maybe it will help for Casey to see how much everyone cares about her. But Munch doesn't know for sure. When he's father killed himself, it was all over, his father had succeeded and there was no way of making things better. But now, in a somewhat similar situation Casey had lived, and it's completely new territory for Munch. So he just holds her hand, trying to tell her that somehow, someway, everything will be okay.

Everything will be okay. Everything will be okay. Everything will be okay. What if it's not okay?

Author's note: Well, you sexy beasts, tell me what you thought! Don't forget to tell me which pairings you'd hate to see and which ones you'd love to see, too. I'll try to pick the best pairing possible, but I warn you, no threats. If you say you won't read unless I do or don't do a specific pairing then I'll probably just ignore you. LOL. I'm a bitch, what can I say? I love all my readers though, don't forget that! 