A/N: Before reading this chapter, you should know that the events described here take place from the same point I started Chapter 10. I mean, it's the same day, from Elliot's POV.
DISCLAIMER: Law and Order SVU and its characters belong to Dick Wolf. This story is solely for entertainment and practice.
Chapter 11 – Bad Feeling
It was five minutes left to seven o'clock in the morning when Elliot entered the One Police Plaza building with coffee in hand. He had a very important meeting today with NYPD's highest authorities, along with the rest of Queens' units, and he had to be as awake as possible. Donahue had told him that it was going to be boring but, as Captain, he would have to get used to this 'torture' because it was scheduled, at least, four times a year.
"Hey, Cap!" he said as he met his Captain just outside the conference room.
"Hey, Stabler. Glad you could make it on time, the Chiefs here are very observant of those kinds of things, coupled with presentation… which leads me to ask: what happened to you? You look like you haven't slept a bit, and if I remember correctly, I specially pulled you from your turn to be on call last night so you could get the necessary rest for today…" he wasn't the captain for nothing, the man paid amazing attention to detail.
Elliot briefly considered lying, but he reflected that in a short time, he had built a great relationship with this man, almost like the one he had with Cragen, and didn't want to betray his trust. So he settled for telling half of what really happened.
"I had a complicated night, Sir. Things aren't going so well with my wife, they hadn't been for a while… Yesterday, we had the biggest argument ever and I finally reached a decision, some things are unsalvageable …"
"Oh, I'm so sorry, son. I know how complicated it is to keep a marriage with the job we have. It happened to me while I was a detective, but when I made it to Captain I stopped going on calls, which gave me more time to spend with my family, so Beth finally calmed down and my marriage survived. We've been married for over thirty years."
"Me too, Sir. It's been that long for me, too. But the last thirteen years had been a mess, I don't think there was a time when we got along, despite that we tried to stick together anyway for the kids. Now, all of them, except for the youngest, have grown up and I think they would understand. As for Eli, I think it would be less painful for him if we get divorced now that he's four, than waiting a few years until he's eight or nine, the scar would be deeper on him that way…"
"I take it you got married young?"
"Yes, I did. Kathy got pregnant with Maureen when we were eighteen… it was the right thing to do, and I loved her. But during the last twelve or thirteen years, whenever I was home, it was one argument after another, and that isn't good for the kids either. Our love for each other jaded increasingly until now, there isn't anything left"
"Well, as I said, I'm sorry. If you need some time off after this meeting, take it but let me know first".
"Actually, I was going to ask you for the rest of the day, I've got to see my lawyer and pack my things" Elliot answered, and nothing else was said about the matter.
A few minutes later, they entered the auditory and quickly took their seats, organized by unit. As the Chief of Detectives started briefing Computer Crimes, his mind wandered to the events that took place the night before.
After having closed a very difficult case and a phone call to Olivia that lasted about an hour, Elliot opened the door to his house with a sigh. It was raining, a lot, to the point where it became impossible to see ahead of the car you had before yours. He massaged the back of his neck for a moment, trying to get rid of some of the tension. Elizabeth had a sleepover at her friend Abby's house and Richard was at one of his friends' birthday party. That meant he had the house alone with his wife. The only fact that brightened his awful reality right now was the opportunity to put Eli to bed. He didn't get to do that often. He smiled briefly, and proceeded to leave his keys on the kitchen counter and his coat on the couch, a little surprised about the stillness of the house.
At this time, his little boy would normally be watching cartoons in the living room, but everything was dark except for the light that came from the kitchen, so he headed upstairs to check if his son was in his bedroom. Only to find it dark, too.
He shifted his eyes for a moment to look at the end of the hallway, and every door was closed, but he could hear his wife talking to someone in the background, so he knew she, at least, was at home. He switched the light on in Eli's room, only to find it empty, too.
"What's going on?" he whispered to himself out loud and frowned, as he started toward his bedroom. That's when he heard it, a moan, coming from his wife. He stilled his movements, and tried to listen carefully.
"Yes, Jonas, yes…"
Oh my God! He thought… he didn't need to hear anymore, he couldn't believe she had the nerve to do it in their bed, in his house… his blood boiled, not because he loved her, actually he didn't anymore, but because in spite of her more than obvious behavior and all his suspicions, deep down he'd wished they didn't turn out to be true, he had been in denial and his ego took a major blow as a result. It didn't help either, when he realized, at that moment, that all the effort he had put to keep himself from cheating on her with Olivia, had been useless. In two strides, he opened the door to the bedroom, slamming it against the other wall and found his wife naked, on top of the new doctor she worked with, so focused on each other that they didn't even stopped or caught sight of Elliot standing at the doorway.
"Kathy!" he shouted, the vein in his neck about to explode.
"Oh my God, Elliot! Didn't you tell me you were working late tonight?" only then, she stilled her movements.
"So you turned this house into a motel?" he said sarcastically. He swallowed hard, grabbed her clothes from the floor and threw them at her. Kathy, terribly embarrassed, got off of Kosakov and started getting dressed.
Elliot pulled the guy along with the sheet and his clothes, and dragged him downstairs to show him the exit. "Get out! Now!"
"Slow down, dude, you won't even let me get dressed?" said the doctor.
"DUDE, you're lucky I'm not beating the shit out of you right now! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" He opened the door, shoved him out and slammed the door shut without a second glance.
When he turned around, he found himself face to face with Kathy. He lowered his gaze immediately; he couldn't stand to look at her right now. "Where's Eli?" he asked, stiffly
"He's at my sister's"
He took a deep breath to calm himself down and tried to raise his eyes to hers, but found out he couldn't. She started "Elliot, listen to me…" her voice almost pleading.
And that's what it took for him to finally explode, in the only way Elliot Stabler could. "NOOOO! YOU LISTEN TO ME! AFTER ALL THIS YEARS I'VE LISTENED ENOUGH, I'VE PUT UP WITH ENOUGH OF YOUR SHIT! All those unfounded accusations, all of your groundless jealousy fits, all the effort I put to make this work, to make this marriage work… and you went and threw it all away for some cheap sex? What are you, Kathy? What have you become after all these years?"
At this point, Kathy got angry, too. It was so obvious that he didn't love her anymore, she didn't understand why he was making such a scene "Oh! Spare me the self righteous sermon, Elliot! I'm actually doing both of us a favor! Come on!" she took the few steps between them, putting themselves face to face. "Look me in the eyes and swear to me, on your father's grave, that you've never wanted to cheat on me with that SLUT you had for a partner! Come on, do it!" she yelled.
"YES, I WANTED TO! God knows I did, God knows I do! But I never did it, because you were my wife and I respected you. I'm a faithful man, Kathy, and I wasted YEARS on you!" he took a deep breath, and let it out quickly. He continued calmer "I'm out of here"
"What? What are you talking about?" Kathy stared dumbfound as he grabbed his coat and car keys.
"I'm talking about this house, I'm talking about this marriage… it's over!" he went for the door.
"But, Elliot, what about the kids?" she followed him and stood beside him, as he gripped the door handle
"Oh, please Kathy! The last time Maureen was here, she was begging me to finally make the decision and get divorced from her own mother, because we were embarrassing her and her boyfriend with our incessant arguing! It's over! Tomorrow, after work, I'll stop by so we can both sit and break the news to our children. I'm arranging a meeting with my lawyer, too, I want to get this over with as fast as possible. And I want joint custody. Good bye, Kathy"
Without waiting for her retort he turned on his heel and left, slamming the door shut. He drove for an hour arriving to Manhattan by three in the morning, and opened the door from the apartment he kept from the first time he had been separated from his wife. Tonight he needed to get some rest; he had a busy day tomorrow. But the day after that, he'd have to go shopping, to make this place his new home.
Elliot was startled from his thoughts by Chief Muldrew's voice "OK, Homicide. Let's see…" the Chief said as he read some of his notes "Well, the statistics look good, especially in the last month, what happened, Captain Donahue? I'm surprised"
"We have a new detective onboard our unit, Elliot Stabler from Manhattan SVU"
"Oh, yes! Detective Stabler and his former partner Benson have the highest rate of solved cases in the city of New York, it's good to know that that efficiency hasn't changed. Oh!" he exclaimed surprised when saw Elliot "He's here. What is he doing here, Donahue? I thought this meeting was for high ranked officers only"
"Actually, he's about to be one, Sir. He's going to be my replacement by the end of the month, when I retire" the captain said proudly.
"Oh! Congratulations, son, as I told Benson a few weeks ago, you deserve it!"
Elliot smiled as he remembered the day Olivia called and broke the news about her promotion. She had taken his car to get to Manhattan in time and she couldn't even wait to give it back to him to break him the news. He'd never been happier for her, she really deserved it. If anyone knew how hard she had worked for it during these years, it was him.
An hour went by, and Elliot found himself doing an inhuman effort to stay awake, to keep from nodding off. He was startled suddenly by his phone vibrating, and he found out he had an incoming message from Olivia. She was informing him about the new lead she had discovered from the Vincent case, she was about to check it out with McAllister.
Mmmm… I don't like this… he didn't know why, but he had a bad feeling about this. It's probably nothing, he told himself, and asked her to be careful, as he always did now that he wasn't there to watch her back anymore.
When he got her answer, Donahue elbowed him gently and whispered to him "Turn that phone off, Stabler, the vibrating noise can still be heard in the silence and we don't want the Chiefs to start disliking you, do we?"
"OK" Elliot said, and put it in silent mode.
Three hours later, at noon, he finally left 1PP's building, eager to call Olivia and find out about the developments of the case, but when he pulled the phone from his pocket, he was surprised to find he had fifteen missed calls from Captain Cragen. He had been calling for an hour but, of course, Elliot never noticed it. The last incoming call had been ten minutes ago.
He felt himself filling with dread… he didn't want to jump to conclusions but there could only be one reason for his former captain's incessant calling. Coupled with that lead that Liv had to check out… Oh, God, please no! he prayed as he tried reach Cragen on the phone, it went straight to voicemail. Damn it! He tried again, again and again, and the same happened.
He run to his car, he was going to the address Olivia had sent him. Just as he was about to start the vehicle, his cell phone rang.
"Stabler!" he panted. His heart was pounding so hard he almost couldn't hear the voice on the other side of the line. He took a deep breath attempting to calm himself down.
"Elliot, it's Fin. Where are you, man? We've been tryin' to reach you for an hour!"
"I was in a meeting, Fin, at 1PP, couldn't answer the phone. What happened, man? I had fifteen missed calls from Cragen, is everything OK?" Please, tell me I'm overreacting, tell me nothing happened…
"No, Elliot. I wish I didn't have to tell you this… Olivia's been shot. You need to come to Mercy General, now! You're her medical proxy, they need you to sign a consent form so they can proceed with surgery…"
"Oh my God! No!" a sob escaped before he could try to control it, his eyes were filling with tears.
"Gotta go, El. They don't allow cell phones in here…"
"Wait! Tell me, how bad is it?" Elliot turned on the blinking light and siren, and sped toward the hospital.
"I'm sorry, man, the doctor was trying to stabilize her when Cragen talked to me, but I'll be honest… judging by the blood at the crime scene, it's bad, really bad… I gotta go, El, see you in a little while"
Elliot blinked his tears and forced himself to focus on traffic; he wouldn't be any good if he wrecked the car. But he couldn't force his mind to quit torturing him, he kept asking himself what would he do if he was forced to live without her… he couldn't even see a glimpse of that reality in his mind without breaking down… but it was a real possibility now.
A/N: Coming up next: Double chapter full of Elliot's emotional cocktail! He has a few words with McAllister, among other things... and he has a few words with someone else, too. ;) Please, review!