Immediate Danger

(Chapter Twenty Eight: A New Beginning)

A few hours later Olivia fluttered her eyes open and looked around the room. Her entire body was achy and her head was killing her. She took a deep breath and turned her head.

"Hey," Elliot said reaching to hold her hand.

"Hey," she said softly and smiled at him.

Elliot leaned in to kiss her. "How do you feel?"

She moaned a little, "Like I just gave birth."

"You are so amazing," he said gazing lovingly into her tired eyes.

"So are you." She raised her hand and placed it in his. He held hers tight. "Have you seen him?" She asked.

"Not yet. The doctor hasn't said much, they are still checking him out. They were probably waiting for you to wake up to give me any news."

Olivia reached over and hit the call button for the nurse. She looked at Elliot and reached her fingers out to touch a small bandage on the bend of his right arm. She looked up at him confused.

"You needed blood, we are the same blood type." He said.

"You saved my life again, Detective Stabler." She replied with an exhausted smile. "I am so scared, Elliot."

Elliot moved in and kissed her cheek. "Munch and Fin are trying to find him," he said. "Liv, tell me what happened."

She placed her hand against her pounding head. It seemed like days ago that all of this had happened. Her mind was foggy and she was trying hard to concentrate to put the events into place. "I was getting on the elevator. He must have followed me. He stepped in and the doors closed, I was trapped." She took another deep breath and fought back tears as she started to speak again. "I told him the baby wasn't his, but that only seemed to make things worse. He kissed me, I slapped him. Then he grabbed me by the hair and slammed me into the wall of the elevator. When he did I felt the pain in my stomach." She looked up at Elliot who seemed to be following her every word.

"How did you get away?" He asked.

"I told him I was in labor and needed to go to the hospital because it was too early. He stepped out to go get the car and I hit the button to move to the next floor. I tried to run, but the contractions kept getting closer and harder. I hid between an SUV and the wall. I just tried to focus on staying quiet so he wouldn't hear me, but the contractions kept coming harder. And there was so much blood." She paused for a second and just stared off thinking back to that moment. "I felt like I was going to pass out, everything around me went dark. I looked up, but all I could see was the shape of him standing over me. Another hard contraction came and I screamed through it. When I did, I put my foot against the tire of the SUV for leverage to try to fight it." She looked up and him with a smile of disbelief and shook her head. "The car alarm went off and he ran. I passed out. The security guard must have called the ambulance."

"Liv, I'm sorry. I knew it was taking you a while, I was sitting at the desk doing paperwork and you were there and needed me. I should have gotten up and went to check on you."

"Elliot there are five levels in that parking garage, you wouldn't have been able to find me. It all happened quickly or it seemed. In about ten minutes. Nick only knew where I was because he must have followed me in."

"We pulled the tapes from the security cameras. He got out of the garage. We got uniforms on his car and Munch and Fin are tracking him down. He didn't go home or to the hospital. And we are watching your apartment. We are going to find this guy."

She took a deep breath and sighed. "I just want to see my baby," she said softly.

Elliot kissed her forehead. Then stepped backward out of the room and called for a nurse. Before long a young dark haired woman was standing next to Olivia's hospital bed checking all of the tubes that were still taped to her arms.

"When can I see my baby?" Olivia asked the nurse.

"Well," the woman said. "I will have to ask your doctor." Then she was gone again.

"She was absolutely no help at all," Elliot said getting impatient. He knew all of the fears and terrible things that were flooding Olivia's mind and the only way to ease them was to let her see her son.

Ten minutes later her doctor entered the room.

"How are we feeling?" He asked her.

"A little sore, but I'm fine. I want to see my baby," Olivia said. It had now almost four hours since she had given birth and the child was rushed from the room.

"We'll get to that," the doctor replied sitting on the edge of her bed and shining a light into her eyes. "He is down the hall in the NICU right now and we are keeping him warm and trying to get some fluids into him."

"Is he okay?" She asked as the doctor listened to her heart beat. Elliot could feel his heart skip a beat. God please don't let this be bad news.

"He is doing well. But it will be a while before he is completely out of the woods. Premature babies have a rough time their first few weeks of life. He is tiny. But so far he is breathing on his own and his heart rate is good. We are having trouble keeping his body temperature up, so for now he is in an incubator. Olivia, what went on before you came here?" The doctor asked.

Olivia repeated the elevator story to the doctor.

"Well, you went into labor, because your placenta ruptured. If you hadn't gotten in here when you did you and this baby would have died."

"It must have happened when he pushed me into the elevator wall," she said as a tear rolled off her cheek.

The doctor squeezed her hand. "He is in good hands now. I need to examine you again, but I can hold off a little while for that. I'll get a wheel chair and take the two of you up to meet your son. Then I want to give you something to help you sleep, you need sleep right now. Your body is exhausted from delivery and losing all of that blood. You need to rest." Olivia nodded in agreement, what ever it took to see her baby.

Before long the doctor was pushing her wheel chair and leading them into the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where her baby was being held for the time being. The doctor introduced them to the doctor and nurses working the floor and left them with a nurse to show them to the baby.

She lead them to a quiet room full of incubators and tiny beds. "They ask that you not look at the other babies." She said to Olivia, who was looking around trying to figure out which one of these was her son.

In the corner of the room sat a rocking chair, similar to the one at home in her nursery. Beside the rocking chair laid a tiny baby in an incubator. Olivia's eyes filled with tears. There were tubes and machines connected all over him. She turned and buried her face into Elliot's shirt in disbelief. She gasped shallow breaths trying to regain control of herself. This baby needed her now more than ever. She felt Elliot's arms enclose around her, holding her tight. She was so glad he was the one here with her. She looked into his eyes as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Are you okay?" He whispered. "We can wait. Do this a little later after you have had more time to rest."

Olivia took a deep breath. "I'll be okay," she replied letting go of Elliot and turning once more to look down at the baby. She had never seen a baby so small. He would have almost fit into the palm of her hand. She reached her fingers out and placed them on top of the incubator then leaned in to peer down at him. She felt Elliot's hand squeeze hers as she took a deep breath. "What is all of this?" She asked.

"Mostly just monitors. We have had a staff sitting one on one with him for the last few hours, just in case. The wire on his foot is a thermometer, it is hooked to this monitor so we don't have to disrupt him to check his body temperature. One of these into his leg is fluids and one is just in place so that if we need to give him injections we don't have to stick him again. He is breathing on his own, but this tube is pumping warmed oxygen into the incubator. It is easier for newborns to breathe warm air. And this sticky one on his chest, is the heart monitor. We're watching his rhythms just to be sure everything is okay. It is a little shocking to see for the first time. But I assure you he is resting comfortably. For right now that is the best thing he can do."

"Why are there bandages taped over his eyes?" Olivia asked.

The nurse smiled a warm smile. "When babies born this early, their eyelids are too thin to protect their little eyes from the light. We cover them, it also helps him to sleep more because it stays dark and warm inside the incubator like it is inside the mother's womb."

"He's so tiny," Olivia whispered as Elliot stood behind her with his arms around her looking down on the baby.

"Two pounds, eleven ounces. And he is fifteen and a half inches long," the nurse replied.

"He is beautiful," Elliot said looking down at him.

Olivia looked at Elliot and smiled.

"He's perfect, Liv." He said pressing his lips to hers.

"Would you guys like to touch him?" The nurse asked. "It is too soon for me to take him out and let you hold him, but I can let you touch him."

Olivia smiled and they both nodded through tears. It had been a while, Elliot thought since he had seen her cry happy tears. They had to scrub up with special soap and then rub their hands with alcohol gel. The nurse unlocked a small sliding door over an opening in the side of the incubator. The space was just large enough to fit your hands through. Olivia reached in slowly and touched the baby's skin with her fingertip. She moved her hand up to his little head and brushed back a small lock of dark hair and circled her fingertips through it. She ran her index finger down the bridge of his nose and touched his little chin. The baby stirred around a bit with her touch, but didn't cry. She placed her finger inside his tiny hand and he closed his hand around it. She never wanted him to let go. She smiled and looked back at Elliot.

"He is so soft," she said softly. She took Elliot by the hand and placed his fingertip on the baby's chest where they could his heart beating wildly. Elliot looked down at him in amazement. This baby made all of his look they were huge. Olivia ran her fingertip across his toes counting them in the back of her mind, ten. She stretched open his little fingers, they were long and slender like hers. Ten of those as well. Elliot looked her in the eyes and smiled, he knew what she was doing. He had seen Kathy perform this same instinctive motherly check on all of their newborns.

"Have you thought of a name yet?" The nurse asked pointing to the "It's a boy" tag taped to the outside of his incubator with the words "Baby Boy Benson" printed neatly on the name line. Olivia shook her head and her eyes dropped back down to the baby. The nurse came around and closed the little door locking it again and Elliot and Olivia stood there looking down over him as she turned to walk away.

Elliot placed a hand in the small of Olivia's back as he turned to look at the nurse.

"His name is Stabler," Elliot called to the nurse.

She walked behind the desk and returned with a new name tag and a pen.

"Are you sure?" She asked looking up at Olivia.

Liv turned to look at Elliot staring at the baby with love in his eyes. He couldn't have possibly have loved this child any less than she did.

"Yes," she said looking back at the nurse.

The nurse soon replaced the card with the new one. This time on the name line it read "Baby Boy Stabler."

Elliot ran his fingers over the words as he repeated them in his head. He stood behind Olivia and wrapped his arms tight around her kissing the side of her neck in adoration. "Thank you," he whispered softly in her ear.

She turned her big brown eyes to gaze into his. "For what?" she asked not sure what he was talking about.

"For sharing this with me," he replied. "There is no where else in the world I would rather be than right here with you and him.

Olivia laced her fingers in his and brought his fist to meet her lips. "Thank you," she said softly.

Elliot looked into her eyes and ran his thumb down the side of her tear stained cheek.

"For giving my son a father," She said as she took a staggered breath trying not to cry again.

"I want to give him everything," Elliot said. "I want to give you everything."

Olivia turned into him wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him. She placed her hands on his cheeks bringing his forehead to rest against hers and stared deep into his eyes. "You already have," she whispered softly as she kissed his lips.