Welcome to Chapter 21! This will start off with the birth of Olivia and Elliot's child, but danger abounds for both mother and child. Will Elliot lose both of them? You'll find out!

Enjoy!

LeAnn immediately moved to her friend's side, gripping her left hand and saying, "I'm here, Olivia, you can squeeze my hand 'til it breaks, I don't care,"

Olivia let out a scream as another contraction left her limp. Elliot took a deep breath and then stepped on the other side of Olivia, reaching out with a slightly shaking hand and touching her face. Her eyes snapped open and locked on Elliot's eyes.

"El…" She breathed, and then swallowed hard. "I'm so…"

"Shh," He said, shaking his head as he took a hold of her right hand and brushed the sweat-soaked hair out of her face. "I'm here now. That's all that matters," Elliot whispered, and Olivia barely had time to smile at him before another contraction hit.

"I can't…I can't…" Olivia gasped, dropping her head back and squeezing her eyes shut and screaming at the pain.

Elliot squeezed her hand and said quietly, "Look at me, Livvy, sweetheart look at me," She did, raising her head slightly until her brown eyes met his.

"I can't…"

"Yes you can," He said firmly, stroking her head. "Think of everything you've gone through in the past year. I can't think of a stronger person than you, Liv. You're a survivor, and you can damn well do this," Elliot said, leaning forward and pressing his forehead against her temple.

"Oh God…okay…I can do this…" Olivia breathed out and rode through the next contraction with both LeAnn and Elliot coaching her.

"All right, Olivia, you need to push!" The doctor cried out, and Olivia squeezed Elliot's and LeAnn's hands as hard as she could and screamed bloody murder.

She flopped back against the bed with a huge sigh, whispering to Elliot, "How…how did Kathy do this…five times?"

"Technically it was four, Lizzie and Dickie are twins," He said, stroking her hair over and over.

"No, it was five," Olivia ground out as the doctor said,

"One more push, Olivia, come on,"

"Seriously!" Olivia hollered as she pushed one final time, and this time her screams were mixed with the high-pitched cry of a newborn baby.

"You did it, baby, you did it," Elliot breathed, resting his head against hers. She closed her eyes and smiled, letting go of LeAnn's hand and reaching over to gently touch Elliot's cheek.

"I love you, El," She whispered, and as he drew back to look at her, her breath caught in her throat.

"Liv?" He asked in alarm, seeing her choking. "She can't breathe!" Elliot bellowed, and was immediately shoved aside for nurses and doctors to surround her. He put his hands on top of his head and looked completely helpless.

"Elliot, come on," LeAnn implored, all but dragging him out of the room.

"Where's…where's our baby?" Elliot said, looking around for the doctor.

"They…they had to take her to emergency surgery, she couldn't breathe when she was born," LeAnn said shakily, and Elliot looked at her with utter agony in his eyes.

"Sh…she?" Elliot stuttered, and LeAnn smiled.

"Yeah, you guys have a beautiful baby girl,"

She led him into the waiting room and looked at him sadly as he collapsed in one of the chairs, putting his head in his hands. She went over to the rest of the guys and wrapped her arms around Caleb. "After Olivia gave birth, she just stopped breathing, I heard one of them say something about her lungs collapsing. And the baby couldn't breathe when she was born, I think because she was premature," She explained, and Caleb gently rubbed her back.

"Oh my God," Cragen muttered while Fin muttered a string of curses and went over to the waiting room wall, punching it not as hard as Elliot would have, but hard enough to give him some distraction for his worry over one of his best friends.

Munch went over and sat next to Elliot, just placing his hand on his shoulder. "She'll be okay, El," Munch said quietly.

"Yeah. She's a survivor," Elliot said hollowly, quoting what he had told Olivia earlier.

"And I'll bet your daughter inherited that from her mother. She's a survivor too, Elliot," Munch comforted his friend, and Elliot nodded his head.

"I hope you're right, John,"

It seemed to take forever, but in reality it was only a few hours when a nurse came into the waiting room. Elliot literally leapt to his feet and flew over to her, the question already written all over his face. "Your daughter is sleeping peacefully, Detective," She told him with a smile, and Elliot's shoulders sagged in relief.

"Can…can I?"

"Of course, follow me," She said, leading him back to the windowed room that housed all the sleeping infants. The nurse pointed out his daughter to him, right in the front. Then she went inside and carefully picked the sleeping girl up and brought her out to her father. "Here she is," The nurse said happily, handing the girl to Elliot. "Have you two thought about a name yet?"

"We…we haven't had the chance to discuss it," Elliot said quietly, and the nurse nodded with a sympathetic smile. She gently laid her hand on his arm for a moment and then disappeared down the hallway. Elliot slowly made his way back to the waiting room, nearly walking into a wall twice because he couldn't take his eyes away from his beautiful daughter.

When he reached the door, his little girl fidgeted in his arms and slowly opened her eyes. She stared at him and he was struck by the fact that she had Olivia's exact eyes, same color, same shape, same everything.

Elliot stepped into the waiting room and everyone instantly saw the look of pure adoration and love on his face, and they all smiled. He glanced at them and LeAnn rushed over, cooing over how cute she was. Cragen walked over and asked Elliot, "Can I hold her?"

"Of course," Elliot said, carefully handing his baby girl to Cragen, and there she fell asleep. Everyone crowded and admired the sleeping baby girl, and Elliot slumped back in the same chair.

"You okay?" Fin asked, coming to sit next to him.

"I'll be better when I find out how Olivia is," Elliot sighed, rubbing his temples.

"Yeah, I'll bet. Look, I don't want to come off like I'm prying or anything…"

"You won't. Just spit it out, Fin," Elliot said with a small smile, and Fin chuckled.

"Alright, well, we were talking, and if Olivia wants to come back to New York City, she's still got a spot in our precinct. Cragen called the Chief and everything, and it's all set,"

"Are you serious?" Elliot asked, suddenly sit straight.

"Absolutely. I'm not saying you need to start making plans to have her move back…"

"Why not?"

Fin looked at him for a long moment. "Have you ever thought of the fact that maybe she doesn't want to come back to NYC?"

Elliot hadn't. "I assumed…"

"Funny thing about that. When you assume, you make an ass outta you and me, just keep that in mind," Fin told him, and Elliot thought about that.

"I guess…I'm gonna have to talk to Olivia, a long talk,"

"No kidding. Don't worry, Cragen'll keep the baby for you while you do," Fin said, nodding over to their Captain, who hadn't let the little girl go since Elliot had handed her to him.

"I do think the first thing me and Liv need to talk about is a name for our little one,"

"That would probably be a good idea. This'll be a good story to tell her when she gets older,"

"What?"

"That she went quite a few hours without a name when she was born," Fin chuckled, and Elliot nodded with a smile.

"At least she's alive. That is something I'm grateful for,"

"Yeah, something we're all grateful for," Fin said, and then the two men fell silent.

"Fin…?" Elliot said, and Fin replied,

"Yeah?"

"If Olivia doesn't want to move back to NYC, I think I might move here."

Fin was silent for a long moment again. "You're really gone over the moon for her, aren't you?"

"I…I love her, I've loved her for a long time, but I was stupid and prideful and…"

"And an ass?" Fin suggested, and Elliot nodded.

"Yeah, that too. I'll have to make her see that none of this is her fault. It's my fault, it's all my fault,"

"Good luck with that. She's the same way as you in that department, you both blame yourselves for everything, when most of the time blame is the least important aspect of the matter,"

Elliot looked at him. "Since when did you become so insightful and therapist-like?"

Fin shrugged. "I've been spending a lot of time with Ken, I guess you could say he brings out the best in me,"

Elliot barely heard what he said, since the doctor stepped into the room and glanced at them all. "Anyone here for Olivia Marsden?"

"Yes, how is she? Is she gonna be okay?" Elliot demanded, lurching to his feet, and the doctor looked at him for a long moment.

Aren't I evil to cut it off right there? Of course I am, but I'll update as quick as I can (which definitely means within the next week) and you'll discover whether Olivia is still alive or not. Thank you all so much for reading, and I hope you like this story so far!