Disclaimer: SVU—not mine; Non-canon characters and plot—mine. Savvy?
A/N: I need to take a moment to thank everybody who has reviewed so far. I freely admit to being a review junkie and it gives me quite a thrill when I get an email notification of another review. Y'all are the best. Thanks: Heart Story, justanotherbookworm78, onecrackerjack, athenakitty, spacekitten2700, M.S., ncisandsvuaddict, Labordoodlelove, TheodoraAltman, Suansil4. Your words mean everything to me.
SVU—SVU—SVU—SVU—SVU—SVU—SVU
Chapter 6: Just Breathe
Hudson University, Lecture A
Fin answered him, somewhat gently, mindful of Elliot's obvious distress over his children, but also with a hint of anger at the man who has just left without a word. The man who had abandoned his partner of twelve years. Olivia had always held a special place in Fin's heart and her wounded spirit had hurt him, too.
"It's not the kids, or Kathy. It's Olivia."
Elliot's first reaction was that of overwhelming relief that his children were okay, but then his mind caught up with the second part of Fin's statement. Olivia. Something had happened to Olivia. His mind almost couldn't process it, like he was suddenly on an abandoned road shrouded in a deep fog.
He shook his head to try and clear the fog, struggling to get the words out to ask the questions he needed answered.
"Wha...How...I...Whe...," Elliot stumbled over the words, unable to utter a coherent thought. Thankfully, the two men in front of him knew him well and were able to anticipate his questions.
"The Captain got a phone call this morning from a trauma nurse at Mercy General. The caller advised that they had a Jane Doe patient come in from an accident, in critical condition," John said.
Fin picked up the story, "The woman didn't have any identification on her, but somebody in the ER thinks they recognized her. A tentative identification was made pending formal identification.
"Elliot, they are pretty sure that it's Olivia."
Elliot's mind raced. Like Captain Cragen before him, he immediately deduced that the need for formal identification meant that Olivia hadn't been conscious from the time EMS arrived on the scene. That if she was still unconscious, it was serious. Of course, the very fact that his former colleagues had sought him out to inform him was majorly indicative of the utter seriousness of the situation. His mind started filling with fog again, the roaring in his ears overpowering all other sound.
Munch could read every thought of Elliot's as he absorbed the information. His close observation of Elliot allowed him to be forewarned that the other man was overwhelmed and about to be overcome. He saw his eyes go glassy, his face a ghastly shade of white, his breaths were short, rapid pants, and he had started to sway.
"Fin. He's about to topple over. Catch him."
Fin put his arms out just in time to catch Elliot. He lowered him to the floor while Munch rooted around in Elliot's bag.
"What are you doin', man? What are you looking for?" he asked as he slid his arms out from underneath Elliot, whose eyes were open but not seeing anything as he continued panting.
"He's hyperventilating. I'm looking for something for him to breathe into to get some carbon dioxide back in him. Aha!" Munch exclaimed as he pulled out a crumpled paper bag, probably stuffed in there in the absence of a trash receptacle.
He brought the bag to Elliot's face with one hand, making sure to cover his mouth and nose. With the other hand, he guided Elliot's hands up to grasp the bag to hold it in place.
"Breathe, Elliot. Just breathe. Slow, deep breaths. In...and out...and in...and out."
Fin and Munch observed as Elliot's respiratory rate slowed down, his face gained some more color, and his eyes lost that glassy, unseeing appearance.
"You back with us?" Fin asked in a neutral tone. He could tell Elliot was genuinely upset, that he cared about Olivia still, but Fin still couldn't let go of some of that animosity he had built up toward the former detective.
"Yeah," Elliot said quietly. "Yeah, I'm...it was just a shock, you know?"
"How is she? Do you know?"
"We've told you all that we know about her. We've been ordered by Captain Cragen to bring you to the hospital, even if we have to cuff you and drag you," Fin said, almost hoping that the cuffs would be necessary.
"Of course, I want to go to the hospital! I...I have to be there. It's Liv! How could you think that I wouldn't be there for her?!" Elliot glared at Fin for daring to suggest that he'd have to be dragged to go see Liv in the hospital.
"Oh, man, I don't know. How about the fact that you just vanished from our lives, from her life? How about that it's been 18 months since any of us spoke with you? How about Liv breaking down and crying in the interrogation room when she found out you turned in your papers without talking to her? She cried harder and longer than she did when her mother died. You did that to her.
"So, excuse me for thinkin' that you might not want to drop everything to go to the hospital." Fin glared right back at Elliot, his fists clenched at his sides. The tension in the air between the two was thick. So naturally, Munch had to cut through it with one of his usual sardonic remarks.
"Well, don't hold back, Fin. Tell us how you really feel."
It worked. Both Elliot and Fin took a breath, relaxed, and catching each other's eyes, quirked their mouths into a half-smile, and nodded to each other. Believing the situation required an explanation, but also believing that this wasn't the appropriate time for that conversation, Elliot settled for a simple apology and a promise to a thorough explanation later.
"I'm truly sorry. I absolutely deserve your contempt. I can only tell you that there is a long story involved, and when I tell you, you may feel that I handled everything poorly, but just know this now—I never, not once, wanted to hurt Olivia in any way.
"I promise that I will explain everything as soon as we have enough time and an appropriate place, neither of which is here or now."
"Okay. Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get to the hospital!," John said. He then whispered an aside to Elliot, "The Captain gave us permission for lights and sirens. You ready to feel like a cop again?"
Despite the gravity of the current situation, Elliot managed to let out a small chuckle at Munch's words. The man had quite the gift for bringing a bit of levity to difficult situations.
The three men exited the building, where Munch and Fin were pleasantly surprised to find the Campus Rover and a member of the campus police waiting for them.
"President Williams said you would need to get back across campus in a hurry. He had a meeting to attend, so he sent me back with the Rover to get you to your car as quickly as possible," the officer said.
"Please tell him that we appreciate it, very much," Munch said gratefully.
They all climbed into the Rover and were at the parking lot outside the Administration building in just a few minutes. Elliot quickly spotted the good ol' squad car, noting that while many things have changed, some remain just the same.
Soon enough, the three were racing down the streets of New York City, lights flashing and siren wailing to get to the hospital where it was possible that their dear friend and colleague was dying. Each man hoping that there had been a mistake and that it wasn't Olivia, and each man dreading what would be waiting for them when they arrived at the hospital.
Mercy General Hospital
The car screamed to a halt outside the main entrance to the hospital. The detectives didn't even give a thought to leaving the vehicle in the fire lane. Even if they had considered it, they would've claimed police privilege with exigent circumstances.
Elliot was the first out of the car, running into the hospital, desperate to find out where Olivia was, and how she was doing, still praying with every fiber in his being that it wasn't her. He reached the information desk and barked out, "I'm here for Olivia Benson. What room is she in? What's her condition?," the questions shooting out rapid-fire.
"Sir, please, take a breath and calm down. We will give you all the information we are permitted. Now you said the patient's name was Benton?," the woman behind the desk asked.
"No, Benson. B-E-N-S-O-N. Olivia Benson." By this point, Munch and Fin had caught up with Elliot, both pretty impressed with his speed and agility after a year and a half away from the force.
"No, I'm sorry sir. We don't have an Olivia Benson listed as a patient."
Before Elliot could bite the head off of the poor woman just trying to do her job, John interjected.
"NYPD," he flashed his badge, "Are you sure? Our captain received a phone call from a nurse in your ER advising us that she had been brought here after an accident."
"I'm sorry, but we have no record of an Olivia Benson having been admitted or treated in the ER today. Perhaps your captain told you the wrong hospital?"
Fin got his phone out of his pocket, intending to call Captain Cragen to verify which hospital he had said he was going to so he could make the ID. His head snapped up, and he felt hope blossoming for the first time this morning.
"Guys. Maybe it wasn't Liv. Maybe Cap'n came down here and found out it wasn't her. Then they wouldn't have any record of Olivia as a patient."
The other two men each sucked in a breath as they considered Fin's thoughts. Could it be? Could Olivia really be alright and just have been running late to work this morning?
"Oh," the woman at the information desk said, bringing the three men's attention to return to her. "You're here about Jane Doe. We haven't received a formal identification on her yet, so she's entered in our system as Jane Doe. She's in OR 1, right now. If you go up to the second floor, you'll find the surgical waiting area. Somebody will be out when they can to speak with you and verify identity."
Elliot and the two detectives turned to leave, heading for the bank of elevators across the lobby. Mercifully, the elevator was already on their floor, so they didn't have to wait when they pushed the up button. Once inside the elevator, Elliot mashed the number 2 and the men waited as the elevator took them up, bringing them closer and closer to finding out what happened to Olivia.
Once they arrived on the second floor, they followed the signs through the byzantine labyrinth of corridors to get to the surgical waiting area. As they rounded the last corner, they saw Captain Cragen standing completely still, his arms hanging loosely at his sides. Who knew how long he had been standing there?
Elliot noticed something on the floor, next to the captain's foot. From a distance it looked like a crumpled piece of paper, but as he got closer, he could see that it was actually a photo. It was slightly crumpled, like someone had been clutching it tightly before releasing it. Judging by its positioning, Elliot hazarded that it was Captain Cragen who had dropped it.
While Fin and Munch tried to get Captain Cragen's attention, Elliot scooped up the photo and smoothed it out. It was a Polaroid picture, so it was still creased but even with the crease there was no mistaking the woman in the picture. He had worked alongside that woman for over a decade, spending more time with her than he had his wife. He knew and loved every feature of her beautiful face. Even in the photo with her face bruised, swollen, scratched, tubes and wires all over the place, she still took his breath away. But those tubes, wires, and bruises cut through him and tore away at his heart. Distantly, he heard an agonized keening, but it wasn't until he felt a hand on his shoulder that he realized the sound had come from him.
He looked up at his former Captain, eyes brimming with tears and questions not yet asked.
"How is she?," he croaked.
Captain Cragen looked down at him, his own eyes teary, and said, "I don't know. They haven't come and told me anything.
"I only know that she's still in surgery. I gather that her injuries are very extensive. I was told during the initial call that it was critical to notify her next of kin, and/or her designated emergency contact. Olivia never updated her NOK paperwork once she found Simon. Her emergency contact and medical power of attorney is you."
Elliot nodded, he had known for several years that Olivia had designated him because she had discussed it with him before she updated her paperwork. She had actually asked his permission to do so, in a shy manner so different from her usual confident persona. He had sensed that she was embarrassed to have to ask him, that she had no one else she could trust. He had just assumed that she would have changed it after he disappeared from her life. That she hadn't affected him on two levels: his heart was warmed that she still entrusted this most precious responsibility to him, and he was saddened that she hadn't had anyone else she felt like she could trust to make decisions for her when she couldn't.
The four men waiting for word about their dear friend and colleague sat clustered together in a corner so they didn't intrude on any other patients' families, though at the moment they were the only ones there. The only sounds you could hear were their breaths, including the occasional hitched breathing from Elliot when silent sobs escaped from him, and the tick, tick, ticking of the clock on the wall.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Suddenly, the sound of a phone ringing cut through the silence, startling all four men who had been staring silently at the door to the restricted OR area.
"Captain Cragen," said the man whose phone had shattered the silence.
"Amaro, yes, I apologize for not checking in earlier. It's been...well...well, it's been a stressful morning."
"No, I haven't had a chance to see the news today. I've been a bit tied up with other matters."
"Yes, it's about Detective Benson. I don't really have all the details and—," he cut off as he listened to whatever Nick was saying on the other line.
"On TV? Alright. Thank you, Amaro. You and Rollins have everything still under control?
"Okay, that's good. Once we know more, I'll call. If, god forbid, the news is bad, I'll arrange for one of the other boroughs' SVUs to take over for us temporarily, so you can join us here.
"From your lips to God's ears, Nick. She needs all the prayers she can get."
With that the Captain disconnected the call and turned to the other men who had all been unabashedly eavesdropping on his side of the conversation.
"Amaro says we need to see the news. Apparently, a tourist captured video of the accident and the immediate aftermath. The news station also obtained CCTV video and spliced it together with the tourist's video, providing a 360 degree view of what happened.
"Nick said it's pretty horrific. He said some of the images had to be pixelated to mute the most graphic parts, but that it was still awful.
"He and Detective Rollins had some suspicions that it involved Liv due to our actions this morning and an overheard conversation between a couple unies. They naturally tied it all together. So, when they saw the video, he said...he said it was like a punch to the gut watching what Olivia went through. Detective Rollins was physically ill.
"So, now you have to decide for yourselves if you want to watch this. Will it help you or Olivia to have seen it? Do you want those images in your minds if, heaven forbid, those are the last images you have of her? I'm going to leave it up to the three of you to decide for yourselves. As her commanding officer, I need to watch in case it comes up in any investigation."
"Captain," Elliot said in a shaky voice, "I ha-have to watch. I owe it to her as her designated emergency contact and power of attorney. I need to see what exactly happened so I can comprehend her injuries and how they occurred. I can't exactly articulate why this is important to me, but it just is.
"I'm also sure that leaving what happened to the imagination will be just as bad, if not worse, than seeing it. I mean we all know that it wasn't a simple fender bender, so our imagination could run rampant, running through all the worst case scenarios."
Fin and Munch looked at each other as silent communication, the kind that long-term partners in sync with each other do, passed between them.
"I'm pretty sure I speak for both of us," John said as he indicated himself and Fin, "when I say that we agree with Elliot. It'll be important for us to understand exactly what happened so we can assist Olivia better with her recovery. It won't just be a physical recovery; she'll also be dealing with the emotional ramifications, and if we know how things unfolded we can help her with that part of her recovery."
"Okay," Captain Cragen nodded, "let's turn on the TV and see if we can catch the news. It's about one o'clock now, so I think there will be a mid-day news report."
He crossed the room to go turn on the television. Thankfully, it was already tuned in to the station he wanted, otherwise he would've had to go searching for a remote control to change the channel.
The voice of the afternoon news anchor broke through the air as he interacted with the weatherman.
"Thank you, Jeff. We will all look forward to the nicer weather, I'm sure," he said as he turned back to his desk, facing the camera dead on.
"Now we turn again to the story we've been following since early this morning. Traffic in the Upper West Side is still snarled as NYPD and FDNY continue to work the scene of this morning's fatal car crash. The intersection at Broadway and W 71st St continues to be closed. Authorities have said it will remain close for an undetermined time. Find an alternate route if you're in the area.
"We have footage of that accident, captured by a tourist and various CCTV cameras in the area. I must caution you that the video we are about to show is graphic in nature and may be disturbing to some viewers."
The four men staring intently at the TV internally braced themselves for what they were about to see. But no amount of bracing could or would prepare them for what they saw.
The video started innocuously enough, a split screen approach with video clearly from the tourist on the left, and CCTV taken from the opposite direction to the tourist, giving the viewer a multi-side view of what was happening.
You could see traffic just starting to move after the signal turned green for traffic heading south on Broadway. It was a tricky area with Broadway, Amsterdam Ave, and W 71st criss-crossing at multiple points, including the major intersection between Broadway and Amsterdam. Traffic could bottleneck there but this morning it seemed to have a pretty good flow. One of NYC's signature yellow taxis was the second car in its lane and as the car in front proceeded through the intersection, the taxi driver let off the brake and followed it into the box. Suddenly, almost as out of nowhere, a car headed north on Amsterdam barreled towards the intersection, showing no signs of slowing down as it approached the traffic signal displaying the red light that means stop.
Just as the yellow taxi was into the middle of the intersection, the other car slammed into it broadside on the passenger side. The impact was so hard that the taxi spun around 90 degrees, presenting the driver's side to the southbound traffic on Broadway. Unfortunately, events had unfolded so quickly that another car traveling south was unable to stop or swerve to avoid the taxi, and it slammed into the driver's side. The force of the impacts combined with the taxi's transformation from a regular rectangular car into one very much resembling an hourglass served to throw the taxi into the air and it came down with a jarring crunch on its roof.
The tourist's video became erratic as he fumbled to switch between his camera app and his phone app. His hands were shaking causing the video to jump around and his fingers fumbled. Off to the side, you could see another witness on the phone, presumably calling 911, at which point the tourist stopped trying to call and started running over to the scene, so that the video bounced around as he ignored his videography to try and help the victims. By the images captured by the CCTV cameras, he probably didn't even realize the camera was still recording.
As various bystanders poured out of stores, restaurants, and banks, little groups formed around each of the three cars as people started to give aid in any way they could until emergency services arrived.
The tourist reached the taxi in a matter of seconds, his breaths the loudest sound amongst the cacophony surrounding the intersection.
As he got his first up-close look of the vehicle, he had to turn his torso to the side as he apparently fought nausea. As he turned his camera angle changed, bringing the vehicle into a very up-close picture.
The four men watching on TV in the waiting room of Mercy General Hospital felt themselves becoming nauseated. These men who had stood over some of the most horrific crime scenes were still overwhelmed by the carnage they saw. Even with the station's attempt at pixelating out the most graphic parts, there was enough that was not pixelated to imagine what was obscured.
The passenger side of the car had been crunched in the area of both doors, all the way into the center console. Barring the other impact and the flip, the car would've been shaped almost like a loose 'c'. But the other impact on the opposite side in almost the exact same location had happened, resulting in that hourglass shape.
As the car was on its roof, the tourist got down on his hands and knees, still holding his phone in his hand, which was still capturing images at an angle and extremely close. He bent his head to try and peer into the hole where one of the windows used to be. He, and therefore his camera, were able to see two occupants, both of whom seemed to have been tossed around.
A low moan was picked up by the camera's microphone, again overpowering the other sounds simply due to vicinity. The tourist focused on the person who moaned. The camera flashed over to a woman in laying in a crumpled heap on the ceiling of the car. There were pixels obscuring various parts of the woman, as well as the 'floor' she was on. There were pixels over her abdomen, a leg, the top of her head, and the blurs on the floor were likely to be blood - her blood, Elliot thought as he watched or worse, bits of flesh.
The seats inside the car had all detached from their mountings and were just as crumpled as almost everything else that could be seen. Perversely enough, the meter kept running, practically the only thing in the car not demolished.
"Ma'am, can you hear me? We are getting you help. It will be here real soon."
Another moan was heard and then a wet, coughing sound, almost like a gurgle. The camera was on its side facing away from the woman as its owner assisted the critically injured woman.
The experienced officers, watching the video while the woman on screen was fighting for her life in the OR, flinched as they recognized that sound. It was the sound of someone coughing up blood and not being able to completely expel it, choking on it.
After that gurgle, no more sound came forth from the woman. The tourist was heard trying to get her attention and he realized she must have fallen unconscious. He spoke, whether to himself, or someone else out of view.
"I can feel a pulse. It's weak, though. Very weak."
It then became clear that he was talking to another Good Samaritan, as he asked, "What about the driver? How's he?"
The other person's voice was muffled, slightly panicked, and female. "I think he's dead. I'm pretty sure. I don't think anyone could survive this."
The tourist grabbed his phone, stuck it in his shirt pocket, stood up and crossed around to the driver's side and again got down on his hands and knees to peer inside. The camera captured its clearest images to that point as the angle the lens was in captured everything.
Because the camera caught so much, the pixelation was heavily placed all over. What could be seen was the steering wheel impaled against a man's torso as he was on his side on the ceiling. The area where his head was laying was completely obscured, implying horrific head injuries.
The video spun around as the tourist quickly stood up, turned to the side and vomited, unable to suppress the nausea any longer.
"Yeah, he's gone."
The female voice off camera could be heard asking, "What about the other person? You said you felt a pulse? After seeing this guy, I can't imagine anyone else surviving in here."
"She's alive, but honestly, I'm not feeling that optimistic about her. I'm not even sure she'll make it until the ambulance gets here, much less actually getting to the hospital. It's going to take quite a bit of work to be able to get her out.
"She's pinned by part of a seat and some part of the partition. Not to mention the window access is all of 6 inches and the car is on its roof."
Back in the waiting room, watching the hours old video in horror, the four guys that held Olivia in their hearts in one way or another, struggled to breathe.
Ever the steady one, Munch said, "Okay, let's take a breath. We know they got her out, and we know that she made it here alive, and we know that the doctors are working to keep her that way."
The others nodded, thankful that one of them was capable of some rational thought after watching that.
Their attention again turned to the video, on which sirens could be heard louder and louder as the response vehicles came closer to the scene. They saw an ambulance come to a halt near the heap that was the taxi. It was clearly the worst off of all three vehicles. FDNY paramedics and the police approached the car where the tourist stood waiting to give his report.
With adrenaline still surging through his body, and his mind still trying to come to terms with everything he had seen, he started talking his words tumbling over each other. He described what he had seen when the accident occurred, though he misremembered the order of impacts, telling them the driver's side had been impacted first, when the video showed it was actually the passenger's side. But the video wouldn't be examined until after all the victims had been tended to, so the error went into the paramedic's report and subsequent briefing to the trauma team.
Elliot and the others watched as a fire truck came on the scene, and then another, and they listened as the firemen discussed the best way to extricate Liv from the car. They couldn't assess the full nature of her injuries as things stood presently, so they had to be very careful to get her out without exacerbating her injuries or causing new ones.
They watched, along with the tourist and his ever present and forgotten phone, as the firemen positioned air bags underneath the accessible parts of the car near the windshield area and the trunk, and watched as they slowly inflated those bags to start lifting the car off the ground, which would allow easier access to Liv. They saw harnesses being hooked on to the car and then to a crane which would help keep the car steady as they worked underneath to get at Olivia.
They saw the metal being twisted, heard the grinding and squealing sounds as the Jaws of Life worked to peel back the tin can that entrapped Olivia. As soon as a large enough hole had been created, the paramedics stepped in to get her on a backboard and secure her spine before anymore potential damage could be done during the extrication, which probably wouldn't be very smooth. They weren't able to get her entirely on the backboard using the access hole they had been granted. They could only get her top half on the board, which was going to have to be good enough for now.
They saw one of the paramedics wrinkle his nose. "Hey Antonio, do you smell that?"
"Oh yeah, man that's gasoline. Damn, the fuel tank has been ruptured. Okay, we can't take anymore time. We have to yank her out."
He shouted over the din to the firefighters that they needed to stop cutting the car in case it sparked.
The men who knew Olivia better than anyone else in the world watched as the paramedics worked together to drag Liv out of the car, and they saw what nobody on the scene had noticed yet. As the firefighters had worked to cut away the car, a spark had fallen on a puddle. A puddle that was not blood. They saw it ignite and the flame growing as it greedily sucked up its own life source.
The flames grew exponentially, a fact that the paramedics and the firemen were now aware of. They scrambled to pull Liv's backboard out of the car, but with her legs off the side of the board and unsecured, it was not going as quickly as anybody would've liked. The firefighters had stopped cutting away at the car when apprised of the fuel leak, and had raced to hook up their hose to a nearby fire hydrant. They radioed in for a truck equipped with fire suppression foam, because water might not be enough to put out a fire fueled by gasoline.
Then, as if everything was in slow motion, they watched as the flames licked at Olivia's legs as they pulled her out with all the strength they had. Once she was out, they picked up the backboard and rushed away to where the ambulance and other personnel had moved on account of the fire. They worked steadily and got her IV connected, intubated her, and secured the rest of her body to the board, and got started wrapping open wounds with gauze.
Suddenly, there was a boom which rocked everybody back. The tourist could be heard to say, "whoa that's hot!". The plumes of smoke that had drifted lazily in the air before the explosion were now spewing forth like a Plinian eruption, which quickly turned the air opaque, making it difficult for the cameras of both the tourist and the CCTV to clearly capture the scene.
The firefighters quickly extinguished the fire and were examining what was left. They were hoping to find some sort of identification for the passenger. The driver was identifiable through his medallion, but when the clothes had been cut off the woman, no ID had been found. Considering the position they found her and the car in, it wasn't a big surprise that she had been ripped away from any of her personal effects.
They gathered in a bag some pieces of paper, some sort of belt and plastic, something metallic, and then there was a hurried discussion about another item found.
The NYPD officers working the accident were waved over to the car and shown something. The tourist and his camera were too far away in the wake of the fire to capture what was said.
The police seemed to ask the firefighters something, and the firefighters in turn carefully and gently pulled something from the car. A member of the Hazardous Response Team came forward with some sort of reinforced box in which the item was carefully placed. The box was then secured further inside of another container and then handed over to the policemen.
While all of this had likely confused the onlookers who had witnessed this, the men watching from the hospital recognized what had gone down. They had found Olivia's weapon. Given that it had been involved in a fire, they had to be careful with handling it in case it discharged, which explained the reinforced containers. They knew NYPD had taken custody of the weapon until they knew exactly what the provenance was. There was suspicion amongst the police, firefighters, and paramedics that the woman was an NYPD officer based on what artifacts had been recovered combined with the gun.
The camera's view switched back over to the ambulance just in time to see the paramedics loading Liv into the bus and slamming the doors. The video ended with the sound of sirens screaming and lights flashing.
The news anchor returned to the screen. "As we learned in the video, the driver whose identity is being withheld pending notification of the next of kin, passed away at the scene. We were informed by authorities on the scene that it was possible the passenger of the taxi was a member of the NYPD. We have been unable to confirm that report, and as yet it is our understanding that she remains unidentified in critical condition at Mercy General Hospital. I'm sure all of our prayers and well-wishes go to her and her loved ones at this time.
"Coming up after the break, how about those Yankees...?"
The sound cut off and picture faded away as Captain Cragen switched off the TV that had given fuel to future nightmares.
Just as he was about to say something, anything that might tear their minds away from what they had seen, the doors leading to the OR corridor opened. A weary looking man in scrubs and a fresh surgical gown approached.
"Are any of you here regarding Olivia Benson?"
Elliot leapt to his feet, approaching the man before any of the other three even had a chance to process what the man had asked.
"Yes! My name is Elliot Stabler, and I have medical power of attorney for her."
"Mr. Stabler," the man stuck out his hand to shake, which Elliot quickly reciprocated, "my name is Dr. Lewis Jones and I was the lead surgeon working on Ms. Benson, along with several other surgeons.
"I'm not sure how much you know about how her injuries were sustained, but I can tell you they are extensive. Before I go over any of that though, I want you to know she's currently stable, in critical condition in the ICU. I like to lead with that because people don't really listen or pay attention to anything else until they know that.
"Ms. Benson presented to us with a Grade 3 subdural hematoma, which is essential bleeding in her brain. Our chief neurosurgeon addressed that as best as could be done. He managed to stop the bleed, however there was substantial brain swelling, which is not totally out of the norm for this type of injury. In order to give the brain room to swell without causing damage, he had to remove one of the top sections of her skull. He placed a catheter that will allow us to continually monitor the intracranial pressure. If the pressure rises, he may want to go back in and remove the other half of the top of her skull. He's optimistic though that won't be necessary.
"Moving down from the brain, she has a fractured jaw. We will be wiring it in place in the coming days, but right now we are securing it in place with bandages. Because of the jaw, it was decided to switch from oral intubation to a tracheotomy to maintain her airway.
"Regarding the respiratory system, she had a collapsed lung that we reinflated by placing a tube to drain off the fluid that was compressing the lung. She also had a torn diaphragm that I was able to repair. We have her on a ventilator to give her system a chance to rest and heal.
"On our pre-op scans, we saw several serious internal injuries in her abdomen. The most urgent of those being an abdominal aortic aneurysm that was dangerously swollen, and in fact ruptured on the table, and her spleen was mangled beyond repair.
"The spleen has a high blood flow to it, and with it being torn in two, she lost a lot of blood into her belly. We were able to remove the spleen and tie off the vessels that had supplied it.
"The abdominal aortic aneurysm ended up being the most serious thing we dealt with today. You may or may not know, but the aorta is the largest artery in the body, and is responsible for distributing oxygenated blood throughout the body. If there is any sort of injury to the aorta it can result in the patient bleeding out in a matter of minutes. Due to the force of the trauma Ms. Benson experienced, her aorta was severely compromised and began to swell and bulge at this newly weakened section of the vessel. When we opened her up, the vessel started dissecting right before our eyes. We were prepared for such an eventuality based on our pre-op scans and our chief cardiologist initiated a graft repair. While she had the artery clamped off at both ends and sewed in the graft, Ms. Benson's heart rhythm became irregular, resulting in ventricle fibrillation. Basically the ventricle was quivering instead of pumping blood. To restore rhythm to her heart, we had to use an internal defibrillator to get it beating properly again. It took us two attempts to restore rhythm.
"At that point, Dr. Stevens continued with the repair, and she sewed in a new graft, as well as grafts reinforcing areas above and below the ruptured section." Doctor Jones thought that at this point that it would not be prudent to discuss the failure of the graft that had almost caused her to bleed out.
"It was shortly thereafter that Ms. Benson's temperature began to drop into a hypothermic state. This is often the first stage of a process called the Triad of Death."
Elliot and the others looked at the doctor with wide, horrified eyes, and Elliot choked out a sob.
"It sounds scary, and it is, but we went into the operating room prepared for that situation and with a plan on how to handle it if it ended up happening.
"We started pushing warm fluids and placing warming blankets around accessible areas to try and arrest the hypothermia before it led into the second stage, which is a failure of the body's coagulation system, resulting in uncontrolled bleeding. It was at this point that our general surgeon was removing the spleen and we were alerted that she had blood coming from her nose and IV site.
"This meant she was in the second stage. Our plan going in was that if she reached the second stage of the triad, we would implement damage control protocol. Basically that means fixing only the most urgent issues, and leaving that which can be addressed later alone.
"We did implement damage control at that point. Thankfully, we were able to address the most serious issues before her body started failing. But she still has numerous internal injuries that will need to be addressed, so we have left her open. Her torso is wrapped in a tight pressure bandage, which combined with the absorbent sponges we packed her with, should see her through the next couple days until we can go in again. We prefer to give patients 48 hours 'rest' after damage control before we resume operating. It gives them a better chance of not flirting with the triad again.
"That essentially sums up what we were able to do for her today. As for the next several days, we will look to addressing her multiple fractures and lacerations, her other abdominal injuries, and getting that jaw wired. She's going to have a long, difficult road, but as of right now, we are cautiously optimistic that she will pull through."
Elliot let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding; Captain Cragen seemed to sag into himself in relief; Fin grinned and gripped Munch's shoulder; and Munch had his smile turn into a grimace as Fin gripped his shoulder harder.
"Can we...can we see her?," Elliot asked in a quiet, almost timid manner, so unlike his usual self.
"Yes, but only one at a time, and only for 10 minutes each. Remember, what you are going to see will be difficult to process. You will see the ventilator, the central line we placed, the numerous monitors and pumps keeping track of her vitals and administering fluids and medication. You will see her head bandaged thickly at the top of her head to protect her brain since it is exposed until the swelling subsides and we can replace that section of her skull. You'll see bandages on both sides of her face and supporting her chin to stabilize her jaw. You will see bruises, cuts, and swelling. Her face is much more swollen than it was when the nurse took that picture of her. You may not be able to recognize her. And you will see that pressure bandage that protects her open chest and abdomen.
"You will see all these things and you will probably be horrified, but don't hold on to, or focus on those things. Focus on the fact that she's still alive. She's fighting. She hasn't given up. She is still breathing. Focus on that."
A/N 2: Whew! Sorry I took longer than I liked to update. I actually had the first third of this chapter written and then my health derailed me a bit. But hopefully, this makes up for the delay! Probably the longest chapter I've ever written. It just flowed out. Next chapter we will pay some visits to poor Olivia.
