Sorry guys, but this chapter is going to be pretty fluffy. I promise, the action is coming soon. And I'm sorry this is so late, but I haven't had an Internet connection in days. I went camping, then I went to band camp for a week, and I had no way of posting. Please don't kill me. :)
I own nothing.
Captain Cragen slowly got out from under his desk, his ears still ringing from the explosion. Once he got over the shock of what had just happened, he quickly left his office to see the damage that had been done. He was rooted to the spot by the image that greeted him.
Almost everyone was lying on the ground, though, luckily, not many of them seemed to be injured. Everything within a few feet of Olivia's desk had been blown away. Wait, Olivia's desk? A rush of panic swept through the Captain.
"Olivia!" he called, searching frantically for the detective.
"Over here, Captain."
Cragen turned immediately toward the voice, and he felt relief coursing through his veins. He saw Elliot crouched next to the splintered remains of a few desks, and felt like an idiot. Of course she was with Stabler. If you want to find one, you just have to find the other!
"Liv, are you hurt?" he asked, approaching the demolished desks. He saw Olivia's hand clutching Stabler's and realized she was in fact trapped beneath the desks.
"No, I'm okay," her voice replied. "I just can't get out yet. If Elliot tries to lift the desks, they could collapse."
"Where's Dominic?" he asked, concerned for the safety of the boy who had captured his detective's heart.
"I'm here," a tiny voice called. "'Livia protected me."
"Captain, could you tell me how everyone else is?" Olivia asked. "I know Munch is okay, but he's the only one El talked to."
"I'll tell you as soon as I find out myself," Cragen promised. With that, he walked away to check on the rest of his detectives.
"'Livia?" Dominic said meekly. "I'm scared."
"It's okay, Sweetie. We'll get out of here soon," she replied. She did her best to hug the boy in the limited space they had. He sniffed and cuddled into her as she stroked his brown curls reassuringly.
"I have mostly good news," Cragen announced, heading back to his two detectives. "Nobody was killed. In fact, the bomb must not have been very powerful at all. It caused little damage, and any fires it may have started have been put out already. Most of the officers were able to get out of the room in time, and those that didn't were far enough away that they received only bumps and bruises. Unfortunately, Fin landed heavily on his arm. Melinda says it's broken."
"My arm is fine!" Fin exclaimed, quickly approaching them. "You okay, Liv?"
"Yes, I'm fine. YOU, on the other hand, need to go get your arm fixed right now."
"Come on, Liv!" he whined.
"Go, or I swear that as soon as I get out of here, I'll break your other arm as well," she commanded. Only Olivia Benson could sound threatening when beneath a pile of desks. "You know the more you move it, the longer it will take to get better."
"Yes, Mother."
"And tell Munch that we need him. And maybe someone else, while you're over there," Cragen added. Fin agreed and moments later, Munch and Huang arrived. Elliot reluctantly let go of Olivia's hand, giving it one last squeeze as he stood to help the others.
"Okay, everyone needs to take a side and carefully lift the desks off of Benson," Cragen instructed. "Liv, if one of the pieces seems like it's going to fall on you, tell us and we'll stop."
The four men slowly lifted the splintered desks, and Olivia scrambled from beneath them, pulling Dominic along with her. They dropped the desks, and the other three left while Elliot hurried to his partner's side.
"Liv," he breathed, gently brushing her hair out of her face. His hand lingered for a moment on her cheek. She stared back at him with wide eyes, a slight blush creeping up her cheeks. In that moment, Elliot wanted nothing more than to kiss Olivia Benson.
"'Livia? Can we go home?" Dominic asked quietly. Elliot mentally slapped himself. He couldn't kiss her in front of all these people! Besides, she was his partner. She didn't love him. Did she?
"Sure, Dominic. We can go home."
"Not until you're cleared by the medics!" Cragen called from the other side of the room. Olivia groaned, but did as he asked. The medics checked her head, which was hit with a piece of wood in the explosion, decided she did not have a concussion, and let her go.
"Liv, you're limping," Elliot whispered. She quickly corrected her gait.
"Nice try, Liv," Melinda called. "But I already noticed. Get over here."
"Come on, Mel!" she protested. "I'm fine. I just need to go home."
It turned out Olivia's injured leg didn't need stitches, so Melinda let her go, warning her not to return to work until the following day.
"I'm not saying this as your doctor, I'm saying this as your friend," she said. "Go home, and be careful. We both saw what was written on that body."
Elliot drove Olivia to his apartment, and she carried the sleeping Dominic into Eli's room. It was only six o'clock, so they decided to watch TV for awhile. The explosion at the precinct, while small in size, had already made the news. The reporters were making it sound much worse than it actually was. In fact, Olivia doubted that anyone was meant to be killed in the bombing. It was just to get their attention, and possibly injure Olivia.
"They really don't want us investigating this, do they?" Elliot commented. "First the car, then the bomb... Yet, neither of us have been injured."
"Let's hope it stays that way," she replied, still watching the news report. She jumped slightly when Elliot placed his hand on her shoulder. When she turned to face him, she was surprised at the concern in his expression.
"I'm worried about you," he said softly. "Perps have called you out before, but this is different. He could hurt you, maybe even kill you. What if... I can't protect you? You've already been through so much in the past few days."
"El, I'll be fine. We're close to catching Preston— I can feel it. And as for what I've been through..." she paused. "Well, let's just say I'm kind of used to it."
"Why?" Elliot asked. "Why are you used to it? You know, I've known you for over a decade, and I know almost nothing about your past." Olivia was silent. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked. You don't have to tell me anything—"
"She loved me," Olivia said, interrupting him. "At least, I think she did. When she was sober, she said she loved me. But that wasn't too often. And when she was really drunk...she hated me. She'd tell me about how I ruined her life, how she had plans, how she could have gone places if it weren't for my father and me. And then sometimes she would...hit me. It wasn't too bad, but it was bad enough that I wanted out of that house. So when one of my mom's students told me he loved me and asked me to marry him, I believed him." She smiled sadly. "His name was Sam Clarke. He was twenty one, I was sixteen. He told me he would save me from my mother. He said he loved me. Nobody had ever said that to me before, and really meant it. So, naturally, I was head-over-heels. But I had to tell my mother." Her expression darkened. "She was drunk. When I told her about Sam, she lost it. She broke a bottle and came at me with it. So I...I kicked her..." She trailed off. "I could have killed her..."
"It wasn't your fault," Elliot whispered, rubbing her shoulder. Olivia was determined to finish the story.
"She ended up in the hospital, and I ended up in court. That, along with my mother threatening to kick him out of college, was all it took to drive Sam away."
Elliot was speechless and, for a moment, Olivia wondered if she was going to drive him away, too. But then he came out of his trance and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him.
"I'm so sorry, Olivia," he whispered. "Why didn't you ever tell anyone?"
"Because this is a man's job," she replied. "I need to be strong. To never show weakness. I need the people I work with to know that I have their backs. If I had told someone, they would have looked at me differently. They would treat me like I'm fragile...broken..."
"No, Olivia. We would look at you differently, yes. But if anything, we would see you as even stronger because of what you've overcome." He released her from his embrace and looked into her eyes.
"Telling someone that you're hurting isn't showing weakness, Liv."
Silence once again blanketed the room, but it wasn't uncomfortable. It was a thoughtful silence as both of them digested what the other had said. Olivia had never opened up to anyone like that, and it felt surprisingly good. Elliot could tell there were more horrors in his partner's past, that he had barely scraped the surface, but he was happy that he had made some progress in getting her to open up. The two sat on the couch, not really paying attention to the TV, until they both fell asleep.
"No. Don't."
Elliot's eyes opened at the sound of Olivia's voice. He turned to face her, only to find her asleep with her head on his shoulder. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and there was a crease between her eyebrows that she always wore when she was upset.
"Please. Leave them alone. Take...take me," she mumbled.
"Liv?"
"No! Don't hurt him!"
"Olivia."
"Elliot...help me..." There was a desperation in her voice that shook him to the core.
"Olivia!"
Her eyes snapped open, and they were wide with fear as she gasped for air, unaware of her surroundings. Elliot placed a hand on her shoulder, and she flinched.
"It's okay, Liv. It's just me."
"El?" she whispered, looking at him like she hadn't seen him in years. Her jaw trembled slightly as she tried to control her emotions. "I...you...we were with Preston a-and he was hurting them, and he...he shot us..."
Elliot pulled her into him and held her to his chest as regained her composure.
"Shh. It was just a dream. I'm here, we're both okay. He can't hurt you anymore."
They sat in that position for what felt like hours, until a scream from within the house sent Olivia running to Dominic's room. She found the boy twisted in his bed sheets, tossing and turning with tears running down his face. Without a second thought, Olivia sat down on his bed and lifted him onto her lap, rubbing his back softly. Dominic's big, blue eyes opened and stared at her for a second from behind glistening tears, then threw his little arms around her neck.
"Please don't let the bad man hurt me, 'Livia," he sobbed.
"It's okay, Dominic. It wasn't real. The bad man will never hurt you again. I promise."
Dominic looked up at her again, still clinging to her neck.
"You'll protect me, like you did before?" he asked.
"Yes. I'll protect you."
"I love you, 'Livia."
Dominic buried his curls in Olivia's shirt, and she rocked him back and forth, humming softly until he fell asleep. Elliot watched the scene from the doorway, amazed at how quickly the little boy had captured his partner's heart. There was no doubt in his mind that she should adopt him, and after the events of the day, he knew Olivia was probably thinking the same thing. He watched her place a kiss on Dominic's forehead and lay him back down, then he led her back to the couch.
"Sorry I, uh, fell asleep on you earlier," she said anxiously. Elliot simply slid his hand behind her shoulders.
"Don't worry about it." He smiled at her. "You know, you're really great for Dominic. Seeing you with him, it's just so natural."
"Well I made my decision," she replied, smiling back. "I actually talked to someone with child services about adopting him. I'm planning on making it official once all this is over, if they let me take him."
"That's great!" Elliot exclaimed. "I'm sure they'll let you take him; he already loves you."
"I hope so. Because I don't want them to take Dominic like they took Calvin." She was drifting to sleep as she spoke.
"I hope so too, Olivia. You deserve to have a family."
I'm sorry it's so cheesy and non-action-y, but I promise the action is coming VERY soon. I just didn't want to end with a cliffhanger, because that would be mean. Please review; it helps me a lot. I write faster when you awesome readers write those reviews. :)