A/N: I hope you all are enjoying this. After this chapter, I intend to take a time jump and I will explain how things go as we go along but right now it seems slow. Anyway, hope you like this and I'll see you next week! ;)

Chapter 11

Nurse Shelby walked into Olivia's room to check on her and found Elliot asleep in the chair. Charlotte was sleeping in her carrier and Calvin was passed out in the second chair, his hand loosely sitting on top of the carrier's handle. She smiled slightly and tiptoed her way to Elliot and gently woke him up.

"What's going on?" He said groggily realizing that sleeping in the chair was doing nothing for his back or his neck.

"I think its time to get the kids to bed. Doctor Cappacino will see you and Olivia tomorrow morning," she smiled.

"I can't leave Olivia," Elliot said.

"I think what you all need is sleep in a real bed. Besides visiting hours are over and I have to make sure that Olivia gets her rest too. I put a call in to the Captain. He's sending someone down to give you a ride. They should be here any minute," Shelby explained.

"El…?" Olivia had awoken slightly, despite the massive sedative the nurse had given her, not long ago, and her tone was panicked. He'd never heard her so worried and he immediately turned to her.

"I'm here," he smiled and grabbed her hand. She immediately relaxed. The nurse noted what had transpired and knew she needed to make a call to the doctor. Elliot would need to stay with her but the kids needed to go home.

"El… I…" the sedative was still working its magic and she slipped right back into sleep. Shelby's pager went off and she quickly left the room. Elliot rubbed his eyes with his free hand and looked at his kids. Calvin was exhausted. Between everything that had happened as much as he'd tried to fight it, he could not stay awake. Part of that was because Maureen had the idea to get a pizza and give Elliot and Olivia some space to themselves. Calvin had needed some serious pushing to go as he did not want to leave his mother but after Olivia said it was all right, he went with the older kids and made sure that Charlotte was looked after. According to Maureen, Calvin downed half a large pizza and almost two full liters of pop. When she asked him why he was so hungry he explained that he hadn't really had anything since lunch at school the previous day. Fin had tossed him a large chocolate chip cookie from the Park Rangers and the hospital had given him some Gatorade. They had also made Calvin promise to check in with the doctors at the hospital when he got there. Fin had made sure he did before he took him to his mother and the nurses had been giving him electrolytic drinks all day along with snacks.

The full stomach and exhaustion had finally gotten the better of him. Now he was out completely cold. Elliot gave a slight smile before the door opened again and there was Nurse Shelby with Fin and Rollins.

"You got this Stabler?" Fin asked, in a low tone.

"I'm going to stay with Liv. Can you guys give Calvin and Charlotte a place to sleep?" Elliot wondered, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Of course," Rollins didn't hesitate. She was more than happy to watch the kids and quite a few times she and Calvin would be up at all hours playing video games with Fin at the latter detective's place.

"I really appreciate it. Liv…" Elliot trailed off. While the kids were out getting pizza, she had told him in bits and pieces what had happened before he had gotten to the apartment. He knew that she wasn't telling him everything but they had run out of time and he hoped that when she woke up, she'd want to talk more. It wasn't going to be easy and he wished that he could have taken the beating for her but Doctor Cappacino promised that the therapist would help.

Elliot worried that Liv wouldn't want to ask for help. She was always headstrong in that department, mostly because she'd spent most of her life doing everything for herself. At first, she'd even refused the sedative but after the nurse explained that the doctors didn't want her injuring her ribs anymore while she slept, she consented. Although, Elliot imagined the sedative was more to keep the nightmares away. She'd been fitful in her short naps while waiting for the doctors and the night was a long time to have to go being restless.

"We get it," Rollins said quietly, figuring that his incomplete sentence and far off look were due to what he was thinking about.

"Thanks," Elliot seemed relieved that they didn't push and quickly the two detectives scooped up the kids and headed out.

"I'll get you a better chair," Shelby smiled before leaving as well. He nodded in thanks and tried to settle back down.

Hours later the silence in the hospital room was broken when Elliot heard Olivia speaking in her sleep,

"Stop… please… stop… no… no…." he cringed. The bastard had really done something to his strong willed wife and he slowly reached out and took her hand. Suddenly she started trying to thrash around and Elliot pressed the call button and tried to soothe her.

"Liv, it's me. I'm here. No one is going to hurt you. I'm here. Please don't fight me," he said as he let go of her hand, hoping what he figured as the trigger would stop her from thrashing. It didn't.

"What happened?" Shelby asked as she rushed over to Olivia's machines and looked at the numbers. There were no outward signs of physical stress so she gave the detective another sedative. Olivia slowly calmed down and fell back into some sort of sleep.

"She was talking in her sleep so I tried to comfort her and she just lost it," Elliot said.

"I'm going to get the doctor. We have to make sure she didn't injure herself more. In the morning I'm going to have the therapist stop by. I would hate to have to keep her sedated the entire time she's healing," Shelby told him before quickly leaving the room. Elliot collapsed back into the chair and heaved a loud sigh. The sigh slowly turned into tears. How were they going to survive this?

To Be Continued…