A/N: I forgot to add a disclaimer at the start of chapter one. SVU and its characters belong to Dick Wolf and NBC. I make no profit from this story.
Elliot stopped briefly at the nurses station at the ER to check for any word on Olivia, the nurse was only able to tell him that she was still in radiology waiting on an MRI, and that no, she wasn't awake yet. They promised to the doctor in charge of her care come out and speak with him as soon as they got the test results back. Knowing he couldn't just sit and wait, he stepped outside for a moment to use his phone. First, he called Maureen, asking her to round up her brothers and sisters, to let them know that their mother and new baby brother were feeling up to visitors. The next call he made was to the station. He paced in front of the hospital while he waited for an answer.
"Captain Cragen speaking." he heard as the voice of his superior officer, and a man he called friend answered the phone. "Cap?" Elliot felt his voice cracking.. "I'm at the hospital." "Yes, Elliot, how are Kathy and the baby doing? I saw Liv at the accident scene, told her that you were en route, and that you would meet them there. "Kathy and the baby are fine, he's perfect". The proud father in him couldn't help but say, "but its Liv I called about... She's in the ER cap. She passed out shortly after I came out of Kathy's room. If I hadn't been there to catch her, she would have hit her head on the floor." Elliot took a deep breath before continuing. "They are running tests on her now, but it will be awhile before I know anything. Its possible she could have sustained injuries in the accident we didn't know about." Cragen listened to his detective relay the message, hearing the emotion in his voice. He hoped that her injuries weren't too serious. "Elliot, just wait there. We'll come down and wait with you. I do know that she refused treatment on scene, even though the medics wanted to check her out. Kathy was pinned in the car, there was no way to get to her, so Olivia crawled back in through the broken window on her side to stabilize her. But you need to stay calm, you have a wife and new baby that need you, and Liv needs you. We'll be there as soon as we can, if you hear anything before we get there, call."
Elliot walked back into the waiting room of the emergency room and sat down. Guilt kept eating away at him. First, for the fact that it should have been him, not Olivia who was driving Kathy to her appointment. Second, he couldn't forget that the current case had him having a disagreement with Olivia and doubting Kathy given their separation last year. The thoughts kept coming, one after another. He vaguely became aware of the other squad members joining him in the waiting room. In his hands was an empty coffee cup that he neither remembered getting nor drinking. It had to have been hours since he got here, but looking at his watch, he noticed that only ninety minutes had passed since he had left Kathy and his son. Ninety minutes since Olivia had collapsed in his arms. His newborn son was perfect, and Kathy was going to be fine, despite giving Olivia and the medics a scare in the ambulance when her blood pressure dropped after giving birth. The trauma from the accident, followed by shock, pain, and premature labor had been too much for her system to handle all at once.
Now it was Olivia who was in some sort of limbo. Olivia, his partner, his best friend. The incredibly strong and brave woman who had his back every single day in and out of the field. The same woman who was there cradling him in her arms not that long ago when Saul Picard sent his head crashing through a window. He knew without a doubt that she would take a bullet for him without even thinking about it, just as he would do the same for her. "I'm you're partner, for better or for worse". He smiled to himself, thinking of something he had told her the first year of their partnership. In the early years, Kathy had often been jealous. In some ways, it did seem like he was married to two women. He loved Kathy with all of his heart...she was his wife, his high school sweetheart, and the mother of his children. Yet he had a relationship with Olivia that Kathy could never understand. Unable to deal with the emotions any longer, he stood up and went to the nurses station. There, he learned that Kathy and the baby were going to be transferred upstairs to a private room soon. Olivia was still in radiology, having already had a abdominal CT and several X-rays, they were now doing an MRI to rule out any possibility of a head injury. The nurse promised to come and give Elliot news as soon as information was available. Elliot was grateful that he was still listed as not only her emergency contact, but 'next of kin' on her medical records.
Meanwhile, Olivia Benson was going crazy. Having woken up in the ER on a gurney while an incompetent lab tech was trying to find a vein to take blood for tests, she was momentarily disoriented. Now she was simply pissed off. She hated hospitals with a passion, and had seen more than her fair share of them from the patients view lately. First in Oregon because that idiot officer who clubbed her on the head, then from that apartment building with those noxious fumes. Now they tell her she was in a car accident, that she was driving while another vehicle blew through a red light at an intersection, and T-boned the passenger side of her vehicle. Why was I driving, Elliot always drove... it was something they always argued about. Elliot! Was he hurt? No, wait... Elliot was on the phone, she'd had it on speaker...he'd said "I love you". Not to her, to Kathy. Kathy...the doctors appointment...car accident...Oh my god, the baby! The baby! Have to get back to the car and get to Kathy and the baby..No, Elliot was here.. the baby is 'great'.. HE is great.. its a boy. Kathy had a boy, I remember now. But why I am I here?
"Detective Benson? Can you hear me? You need to calm down. You're in the ER here at the hospital, you passed out while you were here visiting another patient after your accident earlier today." Olivia looked to her side, and saw a nurse standing there.
"We've taken a few x-rays, nothing is broken, but your left wrist is severely sprained, most likely from being jarred by impact and your grip on the steering wheel. We will be putting a splint on that shortly, you'll need to wear that for about 2 weeks. The CT scan didn't show any signs of internal bleeding, so that is good news. We're taking you up to MRI now to check and make sure you didn't sustain a head injury." Olivia tried to tell them that she didn't need any of that, she was fine... but couldn't seem to form the words, it was almost as though her mouth was full of cotton, and she just wanted to sleep. The sounds continued to echo around her, until she could hear nothing at all.
Back in the sitting room, the squad of the 1-6 was anxiously awaiting any news Olivia's condition. Captain Cragen went in to check on Kathy, and she tearfully recounted to the man just what she remembered Olivia doing for her. Staying by her side, soothing her fears, helping her through delivery. They were interrupted only when the nurse brought in the baby so that his mother could feed him. For now, he was on formula, as they didn't want any of the medications she had been given after the accident to be passed to the infant through breast milk.
For Olivia, the radiology department remained a beehive of activity. Additional x-rays concluded that the ribs on her left side were merely bruised, not broken. Her injured wrist had been immobilized in a splint, the tiny laceration above her brow had been cleaned, and now sealed with a pair butterfly strips. They were just waiting on MRI results, and other assessments to rule out concussion. Olivia slept on throughout the chaos, oblivious to her surroundings. "Excuse me, Doctor?" a nurse spoke up, breaking into the silence, "Detective Benson's films are ready." She handed him the MRI scan.
"Thank you nurse" He accepted the films from her, and retreated into his office to view them. Looking at the films closely, he saw they confirmed what he had already suspected. Gathering her file, he made his way to the waiting room to address her fellow officers, her family.
