Chapter 6 Lucky Man
The first thing that he was aware of was blinding bright light. It seemed to pierce his eyelids and he just wanted it to go away. Gradually he began to hear all the noise around him and he slowly opened his eyes. He looked up into a face that he didn't recognize.
"Ah, Mr. Stabler!" The petite blonde exclaimed. "You have had us a little worried. Its nice to see you are awake." She pressed the call button on the side of the hospital bed and started checking all the readouts on the machines surrounding it. "The doctor will be in to check you out in just a minute."
Elliot tried to ask her why he was here and what was going on but when he tried all that came out was a dry raspy groan. She immediately looked up, "Would you like something to drink?" At his slow nod she held up a glass with a straw to his lips. "Now just take a little sip, we don't want you to get sick." While he tried to get rid of the dryness in his throat she kept chattering away. Elliot listened enough to know her name was Jane and she was an ER nurse but other than that he let his mind wander.
Suddenly he was broken out of his reveries by a loud booming voice that made him wince painfully. "Why hello there, Elliot! I'm Dr. Webber." The doctor read quickly over his chart. "I bet you have a whopper of a headache right now. Jane will give you something to help take the edge off of the pain." Before Elliot could ask him any questions, Dr. Webber continued, "You sir, are a very lucky man. You were involved in a car accident. Do you remember that?" At Elliot's nod, the doctor continued checking his vitals. "You were unconscious for a while but it appears that you have just sustained a concussion and you will be sore for a few days." He made some notes in the charts while he gave Elliot a moment to absorb all that he had been told.
"How..." Elliot's voice cracked and he started over. "How long was I out?"
"Lets see here. You were brought in at 11:14am and it is now about 5:42pm," he checked his watch, "so it's been about 6 and a half hours."
Elliot couldn't believe that he had been out for that long and not have any other problems. "Are you sure that a concussion is the only problem that I have?"
Dr. Webber looked up at the concerned voice of his patient and smiled. "You are extremely lucky to have only sustained that. You have a few cuts and bruises but no stitches were needed. No broken bones and all the x-rays and scans show that everything else is the way it's supposed to be." At Elliot's relieved sigh the doctor continued, "Now I have quite a few people out in the waiting room that are waiting to see you. Are you ready for some company?"
"Sure, I guess." Dr. Webber turned to leave but was stopped by Elliot's next question. "Doc, will I have to be in here for much longer? When can I go home?" As he asked this question the thought ran through his head, 'Do I even have a home anymore?' The picture of Kathy with Doug flashed through his mind and he shut his eyes hoping it would go away. The doctor saw the flinch and thought that the pain medication wasn't working and made a quick note on his chart to up the dosage.
"We need to keep you here for just a few more hours for observation and then you will be free to go home. Will that work for you?" Elliot nodded but then requested that the doctor not tell his family that. Dr. Webber gave him a quizzical look and agreed not to. Elliot tried to cover by saying that he wanted to break the good news to them himself. That made sense to the doctor and he was smiling again when he left the room.
Elliot expected to see Kathy first, since she was technically still his wife and immediate family. He was really dreading having to face her so he was pleasantly surprised to see Olivia, and Capt. Cragen walk through the door. Olivia walked over to him and leaned over to give him a quick hug.
"Damn you Elliot! Don't you ever pull anything like that on me again!" Olivia admonished him, all the while looking in his eyes to make sure that he really was okay and then hugged him again. "You scared the shit out of me!"
"I didn't do it on purpose, Olivia!" At her murderous expression, Elliot looked over her shoulder at his boss. "Help me out here Cap!" He pleaded.
Cragen came up behind her and laid a hand on her shoulder to pull her back, "Come on, Olivia. He is okay so you can beat him up later after he's healed." At that remark, she relaxed and let out a short laugh.
"Then I will be able to see the marks that I leave on him and know that they are from me and not the accident," she agreed.
"Gee, thanks, guys." Elliot's mood was lifting being teased by them. "I can so feel the love. All that is missing is having Munch and Finn here getting in on the action."
"Actually, if you had woken up about an hour ago they would have been here but a case came up and they had to bolt," Cragen explained. "They promised that they would check in with you later. You really did give us a scare there, Elliot." After a few more pleasantries the captain made his excuses and headed out. Once she was sure he was out of earshot Olivia started in on him.
"What in the hell happened out there, Elliot? You called me all upset and then while I am talking to you I could hear the accident!" She sat down and pulled the chair near the bed. "Talk to me."
He brought his hand up and started massaging the bridge of his nose. "Before I go into all of that, I have to ask, where is my wife?" The tone that he used when he said 'wife' brought her head up sharply.
"She went home to check on the kids and make them dinner and then she was going to return." Olivia leveled her eyes with his and he saw her going into 'detective mode'. "You mentioned Kathy's name to me during the call. What happened, Elliot? Did you guys get into a fight?" Her eyes got big, "Did she kick you out?!"
He didn't know where to begin so he just started with how she was acting when he got home this morning and didn't stop until he got to the part where he called her. "Oh my God, El! I would never have imagined that Kathy would, well you know."
"I feel so stupid, Liv. All the signs were there but I guess I just chose not to see them." His anger started to build replacing the sadness he had been experiencing during the telling of his day. "You would think that I would have seen it right away! I work in the sex crimes unit! You would think that I would have noticed that my wife was out having sex with someone else!"
"Elliot! Stop that right now! You can't blame yourself for not seeing it!" She was getting angry herself and stood up and started pacing. "You didn't want to see it and you never, shit, I never thought that Kathy would cheat on you."
"I don't know what to do, Olivia. I just don't know what to do." At that moment Jane came back in to check his IVs.
"How is my favorite patient doing?" Elliot realized that her perkiness was going to drive him crazy. "Looks like these can go. I'll be back in a minute to take these out and we can start getting your papers together for release."
"I thought the doctor wanted me to stay in for a couple of hours." He knew that he hadn't been talking to Olivia for that long.
"Well, you are doing really good and the doctor stated we could get started in releasing you. It will still take a little while though," her laugh bubbled thru the room, "They take forever around here getting paperwork done." She headed out of the room.
"I would have to kill her if she were my nurse," Olivia remarked as the room fell quiet again. "She is way too perky."
Elliot agreed but decided to tease her a bit. "Aw, come on, admit it."
"Admit what?"
"You're just jealous." He was proud of himself; he actually got the words out with a straight face.
"Jealous of her?!?" She turned to him, "I think you hit your head a little too hard, Stabler.
"Not of her, you're jealous of me." He was fighting to keep back the laughter. "You just can't stand that for once, I am the one getting all the attention." Elliot shook his head and almost pulled it off except that he happened to look at her stunned expression and that's when he lost it. God, it hurt to laugh but the look on her face was priceless.
"You will pay for that one, Elliot. Just you wait." She threatened as Jane bounced back into the room.
"Let's get those IVs off of you." Elliot winced as she pulled out the IVs. "Now, did you want Sponge Bob Squarepants or Scooby Doo band aids?"
Olivia answered for him, "He just loves Sponge Bob, give him that one." Elliot threw her a dirty look as Sponge Bob appeared on his hand.
"I just love him, too! He is such a cutie, isn't he?" Jane bounced back out not waiting for the answer.
Olivia walked back over to him and looked down at the horrendous band-aid. "Well, I feel better now. How about you El?" She was trying to keep his mind off of their earlier conversation and he knew it, but he just couldn't play along anymore.
"Not good, Liv. Not good at all." He settled back down on the bed and stared at the phone. "I guess I should call her." There was no question as to whom he was talking about. "I just don't know what to say to her or how to react."
"Well, she is probably just as nervous as you are about it. She was nearly climbing the walls earlier in the waiting room." Olivia went on; unaware that Kathy didn't know that he knew. "Now it makes sense that she left, she was too afraid to face you knowing that this accident was primarily her fault. If you hadn't been upset, then you may have seen the guy that ran the red light and would have been able to avoid the accident." She was going to continue but Elliot interrupted.
"She doesn't know that I saw them," as he tried to formulate his thoughts. "I had just pulled into the parking lot and they were so busy fighting that they didn't see me. Before I knew it, they had jumped into the truck and were gone. I didn't even try to follow them. I just sat there," his words getting lost as tears filled his voice again. He raised a hand to wipe his eyes.
"Oh, El." She walked over and took his hand and settled on the side of the bed. "It didn't even occur to me that she didn't know." Olivia still couldn't believe that Kathy could have been running around, she just didn't seem the type.
He started to second-guess what happened, "What if it was one of those heat of the moment things? What if there really isn't anything going on?" He wanted to believe this; he didn't want to think that his wife had slept with someone else. "Do you think I could have been wrong about what I saw?" He looked hopefully up at Olivia.
She really doubted that it was innocent but didn't know how to tell Elliot what she really thought. "I wish I knew Elliot. I really do! Maybe you need to just talk to Kathy. She is the only one who can clear this up." He looked over at the phone, knowing that she was speaking the truth. He should call and try to give her the benefit of the doubt, especially since he had shared a kiss last night with Olivia and stayed at her apartment, but that seemed completely different from the groping he saw in the parking lot. He looked over at Olivia and almost told her about the kiss last night, just so she might be able to understand all that he was going through right now, but decided this was not the time. Then again, maybe there never would be a right time.
He reached for the phone and dialed his home. Olivia saw him tense up as the phone was ringing, but saw him visibly relax as a voice came over the line. She assumed that it had to be one of the kids and it was verified when he said Maureen's name.
Olivia let her thoughts wander while Elliot completed his phone call. She wished that this wasn't happening to Elliot. He was such a good man and loving father and she just couldn't see how Kathy could want to be with anyone else. It just didn't make sense to her that she could be that stupid. She got up and walked around the room trying not to eavesdrop on his call when she realized that Elliot was off the phone.
"Well, that wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I didn't have to talk to Kathy, and I told them that you could give me a ride home. That is okay isn't it?" He slowly sat up and started to look for his stuff.
"Sure can," she replied without hesitation and then added, "Are you sure that you want to go home?"
"Yeah, I have to see her face-to-face and we need to figure out what exactly is going on. Plus, the kids are really worried and if I didn't come home it would look like we are lying to them and I am hurt worse than I am." Olivia couldn't find fault with his reasoning. She helped him get his stuff together and sign all the papers and before they knew it they were on the way to his house.
As they pulled into the driveway, Olivia broke through his thoughts, "If you need someone to talk to or need anything at all, don't hesitate to call me. Okay, partner?"
"Of course, Olivia. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." He reached over and brushed the back of his hand down her cheek. "Thanks, Liv," he said and turned to climb out of the car slowly. Elliot stood by the car for a moment and then straightened up, threw back his shoulders and headed into the house.
Olivia watched as he walked into the house before she pulled out of the driveway and headed back to her apartment. To think, last night she was out with Andy and getting drunk and this wonderful man came and took care of her. Now she just wanted to be able to be able to return the favor and take care of him. She wanted to take him in her arms like she had last night, and …Oh my God. She didn't. Oh, no…she did. She'd KISSED Elliot last night! She was dumbfounded as to how she could ever forget such an event. But…wait a minute. Why didn't he tell her? She'd asked him if she'd done anything stupid and he'd denied that she had. At that moment, Elliot was very lucky that he wasn't still in the car because she was pretty sure that she would have hit him. 'Oh God…did I forget anything else?' She wracked her brain and eventually determined that sine they both woke up on her couch fully dressed, there didn't appear to be much to worry about. On the other hand, Elliot would have told her if more happened…wouldn't he?
What a horrible day this turned out to be…