"How long have you been sleeping with Cassidy?" Elliot asked her out of the blue. She had just finished telling Brian Cassidy that she wasn't interested in a relationship with him, and now Elliot is questioning her about him.
"Uh.. I'm not," Olivia lied to her partner. It wasn't any of his business who she slept with.
"Your stomach just dropped two floors, Olivia. The subconscious doesn't lie," Elliot quickly said back. Why wouldn't he just drop it?
"I'm not lying.." she started as she fumbled with a folder from her locker. "Not much," she finally confessed knowing Elliot wouldn't let this go.
"Mmhmm.." Elliot mumbled.
"Is it that obvious?" Olivia asked concerned that the entire precinct had caught wim of her one night stand.
"I'm your partner. For better or worse. Look, everybody knows too much about everybody else in this office," Elliot admitted trying to ease her worry.
"I broke a rule, Elliot. A personal one and now he wants to see me again."
"Can you blame him?" Elliot always knew what to say to tug at her heart strings. She knew she was secretly attracted to him already, but would never admit that to him, let alone herself.
"I just.. I can't right now. I didn't mean to. Well, I guess ya never do but I..." Olivia rambled until Elliot broke in.
"Sometimes ya do," he added before he proceeded to tell her how to politely drop Cassidy and ease the tension in the squadroom.
************EO*********************EO************* ******
Three months had passed since Olivia and Eli's accident. Eli was finishing his last week of physical therapy and was doing better than ever. Olivia was still in a coma but Zoe had continued growing and thriving despite all the odds stacked against her. Olivia was 30 weeks pregnant and well into her third trimester. Dr. Taytem had told Elliot that if she made it to 36 weeks of pregnancy, she would perform the C-section then.
"Dad!" Eli yelled from the bath tub. "My fingers are all wrinkley! I'm ready to get out!"
"Coming, buddy," Elliot said as he walked into the bathroom where his son was finishing his bath. He had grown to appreciate his son more than ever over the last few months. Depression was on the verge of overtaking his life until he realized he had to stay strong for Eli. He was battling with emotions when he realized Olivia was missing out on so many vital steps in her pregnancy. She hadn't been able to acknowledge Zoe's kicks yet, her hiccups or her elbow prodding out of her stomach when she searched for more room. He worried she would miss her birth as well. What if she missed everything...
"Dad!" Eli shouted breaking Elliot's thought.
"Sorry, bud," he said as he wrapped his son in a towel and lifted him out of the tub. "What movie are we watching tonight?"
"How about Ninja Turtles?" Eli said enthusiastically.
"Ninja Turtles? We haven't watched that one in a long time," Elliot said as he dried the boy off before handing him his pajamas.
"It's Livia's favorite," Eli said as he pulled his pajama shirt over his head.
Elliot let out a small chuckle as he remembered how Olivia secretly despised that movie after Eli had made them watch it week after week. "Yes, it is."
"Do you think baby Zoe will like it too?" he asked.
"I'm sure she will," Elliot said with a hint of sadness in his voice. "I'm sure she will," he repeated quieter this time.
After they finished watching Ninja Turtles, Elliot and Eli made their way into Elliot and Olivia's bedroom. Since Olivia had been in the hospital, Elliot had allowed Eli to sleep with him. He seemed to sleep better with his son resting on Olivia's side.
Just as Elliot began to drift into sleep, his phone alerted him of an incoming call from Kathleen, who was staying with Olivia at the hospital for him so he could spend the night with Eli.
"Hello," Elliot said quickly as he answered his phone.
"Dad, she's bleeding," Kathleen said frantically on the other end of the line.
"What? What's wrong?" he asked as she began to slip the jeans on that he had just taken off.
"The doctor thinks it's from the baby's placenta. There's a lot of blood, Dad," Kathleen said as she looked at Olivia still lying there helplessly. "I already called Lizzie. She's on her way to your house to stay with Eli."
"I'll be there as soon as I can, sweetie," he said before hanging up. He felt tremendous guilt flood his body as he realized how scared his daughter was. Why was he allowing his children to be subjected to all of this? He was just trying to do what was right for Eli, but somehow, he ended up putting his older children in a position that they never should have been put in. What if Olivia didn't wake up? He would be in charge of another child. Alone. What if he screwed her up, too.
Before his thoughts could go any further, he heard Lizzie entering the apartment as she let herself in with her key.
"Dad," Lizzie said quietly as she walked into his bedroom. Eli was still sound asleep and Elliot was putting a hooded sweatshirt on as she walked through his doorway.
"Lizzie," he said as he walked over and hugged her. "Thank you so much," he said as he squeezed her tighter.
"Hurry up, Dad. Liv needs you," Lizzie said in a very mature voice.
"I love you, Elizabeth," he said as he kissed her forehead before walking out of his bedroom.
************EO*********************EO************* ******
Olivia was waiting for Elliot for over an hour at his house in Queens. No one was home so she made herself comfortable on his stoop. She had nowhere to be and knew that just talking to her partner would ease her mind.
As Elliot pulled up in his car, Olivia noticed the grocery bags in his front seat and gave him grief over using his one night off to do domestic chores. He could tell the Gardner rape cases were weighing pretty heavy on his partner as he walked up to her. Because of their case and Olivia's persistence, a rape victim waived her privacy rights and allowed her therapist, Bethany Taylor, to testify about their sessions. Bethany had since received another subpoena to testify about another rape case and many of her patients had stopped coming to their sessions.
"Liv, you gotta let it go. You put a rapist on trial. You did your job," Elliot said trying to relieve some of her frustrations.
"I think I made it worse," Olivia confessed.
"You know that's not true," he said as he sat the bags of groceries down and took a seat next to her on the step.
"I made Carrie relive the worst thing that's ever happened to her. I screwed any number of victims who may have sought counseling from Bethany Taylor. And a few less rapes may be reported because of it," Olivia said as she felt tears begin to sting her eyes.
"If Michael Gardner is convicted, he'll never rape another woman," Elliot said staring into his partners eyes. He could feel her pain and needed to find a way to ease it for her.
"It's not worth it," she said quietly. "It's not worth the cost."
"To you or them?" Elliot questioned her.
"I'm not talking about me," Olivia answered as the tears continued to form and her vision became slightly blurred by the liquid.
"Yeah, you are. For as long as I have known you, you've always identified with the victims. Maybe it's because of your old woman. I don't know. I do know it's one of the things that makes you a great cop," he said staring deep into her eyes - almost as if he was looking into her soul. "It's also one of the things that makes this job torture sometimes. You can never go back and change things that have already happened. Olivia, ya can't."
"You kill yourself to make something happen, or you do nothing. Doesn't matter. There's always another child molester. There's always another rapist. And it's like you have to sell a little piece of yourself to get the job done. So what the hell's the point?" she asked Elliot, hoping he would say something that would give her some form of hope.
"I don't know. Maybe there isn't a point. Maybe the cost is too high. Olivia, no one is making you do this. The difference between you and all the victims is you can walk away," Elliot responded.
"No. I can't," she whispered to him as a tear finally fell from her eye. She realized the conversation with Elliot wasn't helping her the way she had hoped and knew there was nothing left she wanted to say. She stood from her seat on the step and walked towards her car before driving back to Manhattan.
************EO*********************EO************* ******
"Is she okay? How's the baby?" Elliot asked promptly as he ran through Olivia's hospital room door and to her bedside.
"Olivia is doing okay, Mr. Stabler," the doctor on call that night, Dr. Matthews, said to Elliot.
"And the baby?" Elliot repeated.
"Her heartbeat is very strong. She's a soldier," Dr. Matthews said as he handed Elliot new sonogram images. "We performed a sonogram. The placenta is still attached to the uterine wall and your daughter is still very active."
"Then why is my wife bleeding?" Elliot questioned clearly not satisfied with the doctors explanation.
"Bleeding is a common complication when women have placenta previa. Her bleeding has slowed significantly," Dr. Matthews said to Elliot. "She's going to be fine," he concluded, trying to comfort Elliot before he exited.
Elliot stood at Olivia's bedside staring down at his wife. He wanted so badly for her to wake up. Three months was too long. He hadn't heard her say "I love you" in three months. She hadn't hugged him in three months. She hadn't kissed him three months. He felt his strength slipping away and he fell to his knees at her bedside.
"Lord, please. Please," he pleaded with God. "I'll do anything for her to get better," he said as tears overflowed his eyes. Kathleen quickly knelt beside her father and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"She's strong, Daddy," Kathleen said trying to comfort her father.
"I know, I know she's strong," he said exasperated. "Everyone knows she's strong. She's the strongest woman I know."
"Daddy..." Kathleen said trying to calm her father who wasn't making any effort to control his emotions at this point.
"She's tough. She has more determination than anyone I've ever met. She's strong-willed. Kathleen, she..." Elliot's voice quieted as he no longer could hold back the urge to weep. His hands were grasping Olivia's right hand as he continued kneeling beside her bed. His head was now resting on the metal rail that ran alongside her resting body. "She's my whole world. She always has been."
"I know. I've known longer than you have, I think," Kathleen said hugging her distraught father. She couldn't remember a time when she didn't know that Olivia was the glue that held her father together. She knew he loved her mother, but their love wasn't comparable to his love with Olivia. Olivia brought out the best of her dad, and she loved her for that. "You know we love her too, Dad."
"Thank you," Elliot said as he returned his daughter's hug. "She loves you guys more than you know."
"We're going to get her through this, Dad. All of us. And Zoe," Kathleen said smiling at her father. Her father immediately returned her smile before turning to kiss his wife's hand.
************EO*********************EO************* ******
"Stay in here. Stay in the car," Olivia said to the girl that had just escaped from Ray Schenkel. The girl had told Olivia that an undercover cop, which she knew was Elliot, had helped her escape. Ray had abducted her and held her in the back of a van while waiting for Elliot to finish with counseling.
Elliot had been undercover as a sexual predator, Mack, after Ray Schenkel was paroled after 21 years behind bars. Detective Dorsey had gone to Elliot with his concern of Schenkel's probability of offending again once released. Elliot had managed to win over Ray's trust and friendship. When Elliot had finished with his counseling session, Ray was waiting for him outside in their van. Once Elliot wwas in the van with Ray, Ray showed him a girl duct taped in the back of the van and began driving.
When Fin tracked the van's movements, he realized Elliot wasn't returning to the safehouse. After he voiced his concerns to Cragen, the captain instructs Fin and Olivia to track Elliot down. Once the duo arrived at the empty warehouse, the signal was lossed. Olivia's concern for the well-being for her partner was kicked into overdrive. She knows Ray is a dangerous man and was capable of harming, or even killing, her partner.
Her feelings quickly took over her mind. "What if Ray kills him? What if he hurts him? I have to find Elliot. He needs me." These thoughts were interrupted by the girl that was running towards her and Fin.
"Where are they?" Olivia asked the girl desperately.
"I.. I don't know," she cries out.
Olivia was terrified. "He knows. He knows El is a cop," she thought to herself.
Shots interrupted the silence and Olivia instructed the girl to stay in the car as she followed Fin as they ran towards the warehouse. They searched for a way in, but found nothing.
NYPD backup arrived and began to take their places as the garage door rose.
"Elliot!" Olivia shouted.
"Coming out," she heard Elliot scream and a sense of relief instantly flooded her body. He was okay. Her partner was okay. He walked towards her and she withstood the strong urge to wrap her arms around him and hold him close. "I'm okay," he said walking passed her. "He needs a doctor though."
************EO*********************EO************* ******
"Mr. Stabler," Elliot heard as he woke. "Mr. Stabler," he heard again. He slowly opened his eyes, allowing them to adjust to the light streaming through the long but narrow hospital window. He saw Dr. Taytem standing beside him.
"Good morning, doc," he said with a raspy voice as his body hadn't completely ridded itself from the effects of sleep yet.
"Good morning, Mr. Stabler," Dr. Taytem said. "I was called in this morning due to concern for Olivia's blood pressure."
"It's been a little on the high side lately, but Dr. Clark said there was no cause for concern," Elliot said as Dr. Taytem's words jolted him wide awake.
"It has been slightly high for Olivia the entire pregnancy, as you remember. But for the past few days, it's gradually gotten higher and higher. I'm going to start her on a medication to keep it lowered. It's nothing to be alarmed with right now as long as she responds to the medicine," Dr. Taytem told Elliot.
"And, what if she doesn't respond?" Elliot asked haphazardly.
"Well, if worst comes to worst," the doctor started before shortly pausing. "We would have to deliver the baby."
"It.. it's to early," Elliot said as if questioning the doctor's statement.
"It is, Mr. Stabler. And that is the very last resort," she said as a nurse came in to administer the new blood pressure medication through Olivia's IV. "I will be back in this evening to check on her."
"Doc," Elliot said quietly just before the doctor had reached the doorway.
"Yes, Mr. Stabler," the doctor said sensing Elliot's sincerity and worry in his one worded statement.
"Do you think she'll ever wake up?" Elliot barely choked out.
"Professionally, I am incapable of predicting the outcome of a coma patient," she started. "But personally, knowing Olivia the little bit that I know her, I think she just needs the rest. I believe she will wake up. She's wanted this baby longer than you know, Elliot. She wouldn't give up on this dream that easy," Dr. Taytem said before slipping through the doorway and into the hallway.