"Don't worry Frannie. I'm sure your moms will be okay." He whispered with a forced smile. He just prayed he was right.
Three hours had passed since Cragen had been back at the office. There was no word on how close they were to Lewis, even with calls to pharmacies and hospitals for treatment for dog bites. The phone finally rang, hoping for good news he quickly answered. A small smile crept across his face at the news he got from the nurse. Calling Fin, he relayed the message to him about Olivia's surgery. Fin explained how they'd hit another dead end, but promised they would catch him one way or another.
"Liv's gonna be fine." Fin says glancing at Nick. "They just had to remove some fluid around her lung where that rib almost pierced it. She's still got a ways to go but should recover."
"That's good." Nick agreed. "Now let's catch this guy before anything else happens."
Waking up Olivia glances around the room. Taking in the white walls and the extremely clean smelling area she realizes it wasn't just a bad dream. Still a little dazed from the anesthetic she tries to focus on what had happened to her. Olivia's mind quickly wanders to Amanda though. Not knowing how the blonde was doing or if she was even alive terrified her. Finding the call button for the nurse she repeatedly pushed it until one came running in. Practically growling at the cheerful tone in the woman's voice she finally spoke.
"Is there any news on Amanda Rollins? She was brought in with me. No one has said anything."
"I'll check for you. Try and stay calm. Getting worked up will do you no good causing you to stay longer." The nurse answered walking out.
"I should knock that cheerful look right off your face." Olivia mumbled once the nurse was out of hearing range. Every minute that went by irritated her even more. If it wasn't for the dull pain throughout her body, she'd hunt down Amanda herself. As she was about to push the call button once more to find out what was taking so long, the nurse walked back in.
"I can't give you much but she is in ICU right now. She lost a lot of blood and right now she's still unconscious. They're hopeful she'll wake up tomorrow sometime. Of course her vitals are extremely low still which is slowing down the process of her waking up." The nurse explained to her.
"And if she doesn't wake up tomorrow?" Olivia questioned.
"Then her chances of surviving are very low. Right now it seems she has no fight left in her."
"Can she at least hear what's going on around her?" The nurse nodded at the question then Olivia continued. "Frannie…. Let her see her dog, even if it's just for ten minutes. I know it will help her." She pleaded with the nurse knowing she was unable to go herself.
"I'll see what I can do. You get some rest yourself detective." The nurse reminded her.
Lying in the dim lit room Olivia turned her thoughts back to Amanda. Knowing growing up had been really rough on her from what she'd voluntarily told her. All Amanda really had in terms of family was her, the dog and the team. Olivia wondered if Amanda wasn't fighting because she didn't think there was anything worth coming back too. Reaching over to the table by her bed she grabbed her phone. She sent a quick text to Fin asking him to come by as soon as he could. She let out a small groan as the movement caused some pain. She only hoped her plan would make Amanda fight harder to come back to them.
Getting the call from the nurse, Cragen quickly got Frannie from the cribs to head to the hospital. Maybe something familiar in Amanda's room would help with getting her to wake up. Also, while he was there he looked forward to checking in on his other detective. Thinking only good things he put the car in drive pulling out of the parking garage.
Fin was starting to get a sore neck from shaking his head so much at Olivia's idea. There was no way the nurses would allow it let alone the doctor. Of course when he saw that stubborn look cross her face he bowed his head in defeat silently cursing himself for having no backbone when it came to her or Amanda for that matter. Being as careful as he could, he helped Olivia sit up on the edge of the bed. Walking across the room to retrieve the wheel chair he came back to help her get settled.
"You ready?" He questioned hesitantly thinking he was going to get kicked out for this.
She nodded before telling him which way to go. It took a little maneuvering to avoid the nurses responsible for her at that time. He figured it would be easier to fend them off after getting to the blonde's room instead of the hallways. 'I'm gonna be in so much trouble for this' Fin thought as he stopped in front of Amanda's room. Carefully opening the door they both gasped as they looked at Amanda's lifeless, pale body. After wheeling Olivia over to her, he took a couple steps back giving her a couple more minutes before he asked questions. Grasping Amanda's hand she gave it a quick squeeze while whispering in her ear that she needed to get better, too many people cared about her for her to just give up.
"Fin, can you come here for a minute?" Olivia barely spoke above a whisper.
"What's up?"
"I know I shouldn't do this and I'll probably be in a lot of pain later, but I need you to help me. I want to lay beside her." Olivia answered looking up into concerned brown eyes.
"Are you sure that's a good idea Liv?" The worry in Fin's voice let her know he wasn't sure.
"I need to do this." She whispered pleading with her eyes.
Letting out a loud sigh he decided to help her with her mission. There was no way she would back down anyway. Olivia and Amanda were both so stubborn they almost always got their way regardless of the situation. 'Man, I hate being whipped by the only two females in our squad' he silently said to himself before lifting Olivia up to help her get situated in Amanda's bed. Squeezing her arm seeing the silent thank you in her eyes he turned on his heel heading out the door. Not sure of what to do now, he went looking for coffee running right into his Captain. The look of panic on Fin's face didn't go unnoticed by Cragen who questioned him on what he was doing and why he looked like a deer in the headlights. Quickly explaining how Olivia talked him into breaking her out to see Amanda he waited for the ass chewing he was going to get for doing so. To his surprise, there was no lecture just a nod as they both looked into the room seeing Olivia doing the best she could to curl against her girlfriend. Frannie's tail started wagging slowly as she watched her owner sleep through the glass.
Finally getting herself comfortable with the pain being tolerable she started to relax against Amanda. Pressing a small kiss to her cheek, she sent up a silent prayer for things to turn out okay. She never even noticed she had three sets of eyes on her.
"Manda, I know you can hear me. Please wake up. I need you to fight rather it's for me or your baby. You know as well as I do Frannie won't last long without you. You aren't alone anymore. I'm here, and I'll always be here for you. Even the Captain, Fin and Nick see you as family and want you back. If you want complete honesty, I don't even know if I could handle it if you were gone. I love you with all my heart. I'm not ready to lose you. I want forever with you. Everything we've talked about we'll have if you'll just come back to me. You're not alone anymore baby." Olivia tried hard not to cry as she finished her one sided talk with the love of her life. "Please, wake up." Was her last request before she finally let the tears fall.
Seeing Olivia's shaking shoulders but not able to hear what was said, the two men outside feared the worst. Had Amanda been taken from them? Fin chose to go find some coffee and contact Nick while Cragen took Frannie in to see her 'mama.' Slightly startled by the noise Olivia's attention quickly went to the door smiling softly as she seen the dog with her Captain.
"Don't talk. You need to rest in order to get better. I'm not going to lecture you, but this probably wasn't a great move on your end Liv." Cragen spoke softly releasing the leash in his hands.
She nodded in agreement to his words. They both watched as the dog carefully made her way onto the foot of the bed giving Amanda a kiss on her hand before stretching across both of their legs. Before falling asleep a small smile crossed Olivia's lips as her new family was all in one spot even if it was just for a little while. Cragen snuck out of the room leaving the three sleeping peacefully hoping to find Fin with possible information on Lewis. In his mind he could care less if they killed him, but knowing IAB's grudge against SVU it would end badly for his team which was already two detectives short at the moment.
He didn't have to go far since the other two were coming down the hallway, the looks on their faces telling the story of not finding Lewis. Nick told the Captain everything he knew on the situation from not finding him to the fact he'd left the city or was extremely well hidden. The neighboring cities were contacted as well to keep eyes out for Lewis. Nick had to do a double take when he glanced into Amanda's room.
"Am I missing something here?" He asked looking from Cragen to Fin.
"Apparently you are the last to know those two are dating." Fin answered him with a chuckle. "It's almost been a year."
At that comment the Captain himself became confused, he'd only learned about it a couple weeks ago. He had thought it was something that recently started. Seeing the look on both of their faces Fin continued to explain.
"Before the whole initial Lewis thing started they were seeing each other. Why do you think Amanda got so worked up from not finding her right away? I mean we were all upset but she took it the hardest. Two days after her rescue, Liv moved in with Amanda."
"I thought it was because she blamed herself for arresting him, that is was her fault that caused it to happen." Nick spoke out.
"It's part of it." Fin then went on telling how the only reason he knew all that was because he pretty much stalked Olivia shortly after the ordeal. One night he drove by seeing Amanda loading up a few boxes into her truck from the apartment. Following back to hers he saw that they were moving things into the blonde's apartment. Until one night he just up and questioned them, both denying anything going on, but their eyes betrayed their answers. Fin apologized for not saying anything he just didn't feel it was his place. After the initial shock wore off from this new information, they all agreed for food in the cafeteria.
Walking into Amanda's room, the nurse was kind of shocked with what she'd seen. Their missing patient was sleeping in the bed with another. She knew the dog would be there. They had all thought she just snuck out with the other detective without checking out. Not wanting to disturb the sleeping bodies, she quickly checked the vital signs before heading back out with a smile of her own on her face. Amanda's vital signs had improved a little bit in the last two hours. Obviously having the dog and the brunette there was helping her. She wasn't sure exactly what was happening, but she wasn't going to complain either.
Olivia was startled awake from a nightmare. One she thought was long gone, but recent events caused them to return. At first she had no idea where she was until she looked over seeing her beautiful blonde. Reaching for her hand, Olivia noticed her temperature had risen a bit. Amanda wasn't as cold as she'd been earlier when she first crawled into the bed. Thinking about it she came to the conclusion Amanda had heard every word she had spoken earlier.
"Remember when you asked me a week ago what I wanted for our one year and I told you I didn't know? Well, I finally have an answer for you. It will be one year tomorrow. What I want is for you to wake up so we can spend the rest of our lives together. That's all I want more than anything. I love you Amanda." Olivia whispered hoping it would help even more.
Not even two minutes after speaking those words, she swore Amanda made an attempt to squeeze her hand. 'Could it be the pain meds and my exhaustion? Or did she really just try and grasp my hand?' Olivia thought still watching their joined hands. Her weak body was definitely toying with her mental state but there was no doubt in her mind that she had got through to Amanda.
"Manda, we still have a lot to do. We're going to have that house and family we've talked about. Your blood family may have abandoned you, but your family here in New York wants you to fight to get better. I love you so much."
With those last words, she let the tiredness take over falling into a deep sleep with new hope Amanda would recover.
Working their way back to ICU the three men were stopped at the doors. The nurse telling them they could visit tomorrow. Starting to ask about Frannie, Cragen was cut off saying the dog could stay. She then went over the latest report with them and how Amanda's vitals were improving since the other two were in the room with her. Accepting the nurse's request they left hoping tomorrow Amanda would be awake and ready for visitors.