Automatic Disclaimer: I sadly do not own Law & Order: SVU or Law & Order: OC (but they surely own me!) I don't make any kind of compensation from this work of fiction. Also a big thanks again (& always) to AlexisDawn for being my lovely BETA (& someone I can bounce ideas off of, even if they usually end up being the same thing!)

A little more than an hour later found Olivia back upstairs in Elliot's room watching him watch the ceiling. Dr. Williams and Dr. Powell had both popped in a few minutes after Elliot got back from his CT scan explaining that until they knew whether he had any brain damage, they didn't want him to sleep. Also that someone would be by shortly to take him to X-ray to finally get his arm checked.

They'd given him some high dosage Tylenol to help the pain he was feeling. Elliot didn't tell them that it wasn't all physical pain that he was feeling. He definitely didn't divulge to them it was more about the woman in his room than it was because of his ex-wife being gone.

"Olivia, go home. There's honestly nothing for you to do here." Elliot spoke to the room.

"When do you plan to tell your kids El?" She questioned, "They should hear from you before they hear about the bombing on the morning news and go into full-blown panic."

"Fucking hell. I don't even know what to tell them, much less how." He groaned, "And can they even be here at this time of night?" he added as an afterthought.

Olivia stood up and went to sit on the edge of his bed, "They'll make an exception." she assured him, then, "Elliot, I'm no professional here, so feel free to tell me to shut up, but I think you start with the truth. Tell them that you're going to be there for them. No matter what. Hell, I'll go pick them up if you want. Or I can call Fin. You and the kids know him, you know he can be trusted. I'll be right here or outside the door if it helps. As for how?" She stopped to think about how to word what she wanted to say, "Straightforward and to the point. At least for the older kids. For Eli, maybe not quite as direct, but he's fourteen, you don't have to baby him. He'll understand more than you think I'm willing to bet. My heart breaks for all of you, El. Please just let me know what I can do to help."

She wasn't sure if what she said got through to him since he hadn't replied in nearly five minutes. Finally,

"I don't deserve any of your kindness Olivia, I truly don't, but god am I forever thankful for it. Call Fin if you don't think he'll be pissed about being woken so early. I trust whoever you and he trust to bring in my kids, whether it's you, him, or someone you designate." Elliot quietly relented.

She smiled sadly at him, "I'm just going to go out into the hall there okay? But first I should probably get their addresses and numbers so I can call them to give them a heads up that Fin will be by to pick them up."

"I- I will call them, but I will write their addresses down for you to give to Fin. Just need some paper and a pen first."

Ever the detective, Olivia went over to her coat and pulled her small notepad and one of the pens out of the inner pocket. She smirked at Elliot when he looked mildly surprised. "Just because I'm captain doesn't mean that I know when I'm going to come across someone. Rather be prepared than not, think that is something I can thank you for right?"

"Right," He smiled, "I'll write them down for you, it will only take a minute."

She nodded, "Okay."

As she was waiting, she shot Fin a text, "Need you to pick up Stabler kids ASAP, will have addresses shortly." Surprisingly she received an answer within a few minutes from him. "Ok. Was wondering when I'd get the text. Lol"

"Do you know where my phone is?" Elliot interrupted.

Olivia looked up to him to find him staring intently at the notepad she had given him. It looked like he had written each kid's name, but nothing else. "Umm, I think so, hold on a sec," she replied while setting her own phone down to go check his coat pockets. Sure enough, the first one she checked had his phone. She smiled to herself, he was still the predictable one. Olivia decided to try to open it for him, and typed in her badge number for the hell of it. When it unlocked, she stopped moving.

"Liv? Everything okay?" Elliot rolled his head over to see what was taking her so long. He looked her in the eyes, saw the surprise there, "You unlocked my phone didn't you?" he chuckled. He decided that he wasn't even going to try to explain unless she straight up asked him.

"Umm, yeah. Everything is fine. Here- here's your phone." she held out her hand and he took the phone, but kept his eyes on her, almost daring her to make a comment on it. She kept her eyes on him too, though she refused to take the bite. It wasn't the place nor the time to be discussing what could be a long, potentially difficult, conversation. She also wasn't sure if she was ready for that conversation herself.

"Mr. Stabler?" Hannah was back.

They both nearly jumped out of their skin, and Olivia watched on as the scene played out worried for Elliot.

"Yeah. I mean, yes?" He rolled back over to the door quickly, nearly crushing his already crushed arm even more. "Son of a bitch!" He seethed.

"Oh god, are you alright Mr. Stabler!?" Hannah rushed over to him but backed away when he held up his good hand.

"Please. For the love of God, call me Elliot. And I'm fine, I swear, you just scared me -us, and I turned over too quickly which caused me to roll on my arm not thinking about it." He grumbled.

"I'm sorry. I should have knocked first. I must be making a great impression on you both today, huh? Came in and interrupted whatever Dr. Powell was saying, forgot your hospital gown, made you ride in a wheelchair, now scaring y'all…" she trailed off when she saw him smirking at her.

"You're fine. I was just telling Olivia earlier," he held a hand out to the other woman in the room, "that you reminded me of my ex-wife when she first became a nurse." He smiled sadly.

"So I'm not making a fool of myself?" She asked hopefully. Olivia couldn't help but feel at least a little surprised at how green this nurse was, how eager she was to please.

Elliot shook his head, "Absolutely not. Just as I always told her: take a breath, you went through all the schooling to learn what you need to, you passed the state and national tests, you're here for a reason. Take advantage of it. Live it. Love it."

"Thank you! I really appreciate that Mr. Stab- Elliot. Now, how about you jump into this wheelchair again so I can take you to X-ray to get that arm checked out?" She smiled.

"Do I really have to ride in that thing again?" Elliot protested.

"I'm afraid so. Hopefully, you'll get your results back sooner than later so you won't have to ride in it again after this time." Hannah apologized.

"Before you take him, I need him to write down his kid's addresses for me." Olivia jumped into the conversation.

"Okay, sure. I can stand outside if you'd like." the nurse offered.

"No, no, you're alright hun. It'll only take a minute or two for him to write them down." Liv assured her.

"You did just unlock my phone for me, Liv. You can find them in my contacts." Elliot spoke up.

Olivia chuckled, "That is true. Then I'll let you be on your way, you definitely need to get that arm checked."

After Hannah took Elliot down the corridor to x-ray, Olivia sat down on his bed and once again unlocked his phone. It still shocked the hell out of her that his four-number lock code was her badge number. Not his old badge number, not any of his children's birthdays, not his own birthday, not his anniversary, her badge number. When did that happen? Has it been that as long as he's been away or at some point in the last few years?

She shook her head, if she could focus, she might be able to get the kids there shortly after he got back from getting his x-rays. It didn't take long to find each of the kids, though the actual conversations were much harder. She didn't want to give too much away but needed to stress that them coming up at a quarter to two in the morning was most definitely warranted.

Thankfully they all seemed okay with it, Eli had been staying with Maureen for the night so that would make things easier for Fin when he went to pick them up. The older four all questioned why they couldn't just drive themselves in and Olivia told them she'd explain further when they arrived and after they talked to their father. She also assured them that while yes, Elliot was injured, he was up and talking. Oddly enough, none of them asked about their mother.

She wrote all their addresses down in the same notepad she had given Elliot earlier, took a picture of it, and sent it to Fin, along with a request for him to call her if he needed any sort of back up, and also when they arrived so she could let the people downstairs know where to send them up to. She received a thumbs up from him, and while she had her phone in her hand, she shot Lucy a message stating that she likely wouldn't be home until sometime later that morning, potentially not even until that afternoon. She'd update her when she could. Noah would be disappointed that they wouldn't likely get to go sledding until the weekend, but it was already Friday technically. Just one more day wouldn't hurt him.

It was the second time already that night that she was left to her own mind and musings. It was times like this that she despised the most, the times to herself that she had nothing else to do besides think. She had to laugh at herself though, there were enough times where all she wanted was to be alone. Just not in the hospital with her former partner. In the same hospital that his ex-wife had passed away in hours earlier. In the hospital, between the two of them, will have to break to his children they are now motherless.

Should she really even be here in the room when Elliot breaks the news to them? She hasn't seen any of them in ten years. Eli likely won't even remember her. But what about the others? Will Maureen or Kathleen look at her like she doesn't belong in an obvious heartbreaking and private conversation? Will Lizzy or Dickie look to her for answers she doesn't even know herself yet? God, what had she gotten herself into?!

They're all likely to have questions that even Elliot won't know she told herself. She took a deep breath, then proceeded to see if she could find either Dr. Williams or Dr. Powell to ask if they could be in the room or right outside in case the children had medical questions. She was assured one of them would check in as soon as either could, which worked out since Elliot wasn't back from x-rays yet and she just text Fin fifteen minutes ago, he wouldn't arrive for another half hour at the earliest.

Now she was back in Elliot's room by herself. Again. The urge to go through his phone was nagging at her with each passing minute she sat there by herself. She thought to herself that it wouldn't really be snooping, she knew his lock code after all. "Fuck it" she mumbled to herself, stood up, and grabbed his phone from the small table she had set it on twenty minutes earlier after writing the kids' names down.

"4-0-1-5" she spoke as she put it in. She hadn't paid much attention to anything other than wanting to get to his contacts when she unlocked it earlier, but now her heart melted at his background. His kids and him, all smiles. It had to have been fairly recent, the one she assumed to be Eli was in front of everyone sitting crisscrossed Lizzie and Dickie behind him on their knees, and then Maureen, Elliot, and Kathleen behind the twins standing upright. Her breath caught when she really started to look at each Stabler child. Maureen, Kathleen, and Lizzie had grown into beautiful young women, Dickie looked like a spitting image of his father. Eli looked more like his mother, but she could see bits of Elliot in him. The dark brown hair, the beginning of a strong jaw.

"I can't do this," she murmured and put his phone back where she had picked it up. Then a few minutes later, "Yes I can." she picked it back up and re-typed in her badge number.

"Where to look first…" Liv wondered aloud to herself, "Let's go with messages.."

She opened his 'messages' app. The first message that popped up was a group chat with what looked like all of his children. The last message was from earlier in the day from Maureen, replying that it was okay with her and "D.J." that Eli stayed with them. She saw the obvious "send to myself to not forget" messages. She saw a few names she didn't recognize, Fin, each kid separately, wait...Fin? She opened that message exchange faster than she cared to admit. The last message from Fin was from three weeks ago, "Call her man" and Elliot's reply, "Going to the event, will talk in person...if she lets me. It's what she deserves."

Olivia stopped breathing for what felt like longer than what would have been considered safe. It was obvious enough that the she, they were speaking of was her. How long had they been talking? She reopened the messages to look. The first message from Fin was 9/26/2011: "Just checkin in man, you ok?" Five days after she was told that Elliot had "Put his papers in." There was no reply to that one. Well, at least she wasn't the lone one he was ignoring at that time. From the looks of things, it was mostly one-sided. Well, it looks like it was up until a year ago. Then the messages were a bit more frequent, with Elliot actually replying. Okay, enough of that, she didn't think it was smart to read everything they discussed, it was possible that it'd upset her anyway. That was the last thing she needed, today had already been a roller coaster, no use making it worse.

"Moving along, moving along, Pictures… Well someone is more tech-savvy now." she laughed seeing that he had everything in its own file folder. But looking at the names on each of the file folders through her for a loop. She didn't even know where to begin with them: shay' 'akthar, al'atfal, alshagh. She clicked on the one that was added to most recently and found countless photos of his kids. Some serious, some funny, some obviously taken when the kids weren't paying attention. Olivia truly laughed out loud at some of them, while others made her tear up a little. The pictures melted her more than his background. She couldn't believe it'd been ten whole years since she'd seen any of his kids, or him for that matter.

She clicked on the one next to the first…

"Oh. My. God. Elliot." she breathed out.

"Yes Olivia?" he answered, looking at her from his wheelchair that Hannah had been wheeling him around in, smirking.

Her head shot up and she froze. "I… I umm, you're phone flashed, I was just checking to see who it was for you, in case it was something or someone important." she knew he didn't believe her the moment the words were out of her mouth.

"That's funny, my phone has never flashed before, I didn't even know it could." he raised an eyebrow at her, still smirking. "You sure you weren't just snooping?"

Olivia rolled her eyes, "You know the answer to that already, don't make me say it." she groaned.

"I do. But because I'm a gentleman, I won't make you say it out loud." he was chuckling now, clearly, the Tylenol they gave him nearly an hour ago had started to kick in. "Olivia?" he sobered quickly and looked at her.

"Elliot?" she looked over to him from her vantage point of his bed.

"I don't care if you were snooping. I don't care if you saw everything on that damn phone. I know we have a lot to talk about, but as I said earlier, I'm unbelievably thankful you are here with me. I don't think I could trust anyone but you." he spoke softly enough for her to hear him, but not so loud anyone else could listen in.

"We really do have a lot to talk about Elliot, but I… I'm just happy you're here right now." she stopped to take a breath, but before she could say anything more, she could feel her phone start vibrating in her back pocket. She knew who it was and what it meant even before answering it. She smiled sadly at Elliot, then pulled out her phone,

"Hi, Fin." Liv answered, "Yeah, second floor, room 273." she rattled off, "He just got back actually." she looked over to Elliot, "As ready as we'll ever be." she blushed slightly as she looked away, "Yes, I said we."

Elliot watched on as she finished up her call with Fin, then looked back up to him, "Fin and your kids will be up in a matter of minutes. Do you need any help getting back in the bed before they do?"

Elliot swallowed thickly, "No. Ugh, no. I should be able to do it on my own. Thanks though." he carefully stood up and shuffled over to the bed, then carefully maneuvered himself to where he was most comfortable.

Olivia could tell that he was nervous and she wished there was something more she could do to help him relax.

As if reading her mind, Elliot spoke up quietly, "Could you just bring your chair a little closer and put it on my right side so if I need to, I can grab your hand?"

"Absolutely." she didn't even have to think twice before answering, grabbed the chair that had been on Elliot's left, and moved it to his right. She was getting nervous herself but tried like hell to not let it show. She ran her hand through her hair. Jesus, this was torture! This had to be the longest five minutes of her life. Olivia closed her eyes to take a deep breath and smiled slightly when she felt Elliot grab her hand and squeeze it once. Even after ten years, he could still read her.

"We will get through this… Well, with your help, I will get through this." he stopped and smiled at her, "It'll be alright. One step at a time, okay?"

"Shouldn't I be the one offering quiet affirmations to you? You're the one that's sitting in the hospital bed and that your ex-" she was cut off by the door opening, then,

"DAD!" all five Stabler children ran in at the same time. They all crowded around him, leaving Olivia to be the one watching on. She couldn't believe her eyes, even seeing the picture on his phone couldn't prepare her for seeing these five young adults that she'd known for such a vast majority of their lives, of her life. Eli, even at fourteen, looked like he could pass as older. Like he could pass as a triplet to Dickie and Lizzy.

Speaking of Lizzy, she was the first to notice that her father wasn't alone in the room,

"Olivia?!"

-End chapter 3-

A/N: Hi! Obviously a little late getting this out, so my apologies. Thank you, as always, to my Fab Five! Love you guys! Learned I was in direct contact with someone who tested positive for COVID Monday, so I had to get tested yesterday. Hopefully, I will find out today (4-14) vs tomorrow (4-15) whether I have it or not. Anywho… I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I went back and forth with it more times than I'm willing to admit. Also! The file folder names? Are actual words, but in Arabic! Hoping to have the next chapter out within the next week or so, but there's external forces at work here whether I do or not. Please always remember that you are loved, you are important, and you are always believed.