A/N: Omg, so I was bored and was looking through SVU pics on NBC's website, and they had added some new ones from upcoming episodes… and they had one of Alex!! Anyways, I found this really exciting so I thought I would share! I don't know if she's coming back or whatever, but we'll see! Here's the link… &Order:SpecialVictimsUnit/photo/2.html
I hope you all enjoy this chapter… though I myself I am definitely more of a fan of next chapter! This one is sort of your basic linking piece. And I have had the most atrocious case of writer's block it isn't even funny! But now I think I am over it, so that's good...
Keep on reading and reviewing- the speed at which I write is directly proportional to how many reviews I receive!
Disclaimer: Not mine, not mine, not mine. It's almost sinking in, but not quite.
Elliot stood, holding his trembling daughter in his arms. Rufus lowered his gun, clicking it back into its holster. He shook his head and an apparent calm came over his face. "Your life was a lot more important than any information." Rufus stated simply.
"This is not your fault. Everything happened the way it had too. Nothing you could have done would have changed it. So don't go quitting, alright?" Elliot said, smiling slightly at the surprise on Rufus' face. After a second Rufus shook his head, and though he didn't smile, his eyes lit up a bit.
Outside Elliot and Riley were greeted by a large group of press, all climbing over each other trying to get pictures and scream out questions. The police were doing a fair job chasing them back, allowing Elliot to make his way over to an ambulance. Riley was more concerned for his injury than he was, watching intently as the paramedics performed first aid to the wound in his shoulder. Elliot was starting to feel a little light headed from blood loss, but smiled at his daughter despite it. "My daughter needs to go to the hospital as well, to get checked out." Elliot said to one of the paramedics, who nodded in response. He scooped Riley up in his arms, pulling her away from her father. Elliot sighed and leaned back onto the stretcher, hearing the ambulance doors slam and the sirens go on.
A few hours later Elliot was wide awake and anxious to leave the hospital. His surgery had been brief and the wound wasn't horrible. In fact, his bruised ribs from the bullet that was stopped by the vest hurt almost as much as the stitches in his shoulder. However, the doctors were adamant he stay overnight. He was delighted when Riley came trotting over to him, with her pediatrician and Casey's boyfriend, William, following close behind. "Daddy! You are okay!"
"Of course I am okay honey." Elliot answered with a smirk, picking her up and setting her in his lap. He looked up at her pediatrician and questioned, "How was she?"
"Fine, she said they were actually very nice to her, and there is no evidence of abuse or anything else." William said, knowing exactly what Elliot was thinking.
"Thank God. How's Casey doing?" Elliot questioned. Casey was still in the hospital after being shot.
"Much better! She is going to be released in a couple days." he answered, looking quite relieved.
Riley gave Elliot's gown a tug and giggled, "You look cute in a dress."
Elliot ruffled her hair and said, "Of course I do. I can make anything look good." Riley raised her eyebrows, looking skeptical. Elliot laughed and decided he wasn't going to wait for her to invalidate his statement and asked, "Why do you think you mother married me?"
At this Riley's eyes widened and she exclaimed, "Mom! She called you!"
Elliot stared and then reached over and grabbed his cell phone from the counter. The last number was one he didn't recognize, but it had a Colorado area code. He hit redial and hoped that he would catch her before she did anything to stupid.
Devon had had quite the challenge of calming down Olivia enough to get a coherent sentence out of her. The shots had been so loud that he had heard them, but like Olivia, he had no idea what was going on. He finally convinced her that they had to remain calm until they got more information. Thankfully she had relaxed enough to sleep her way through the final few hours of her IV, however restlessly. But the second Devon's phone rang she jumped awake, practically twitching with anticipation. "Hello?" Devon said, and after a second a smile came to his face. "Yes, she's doing fine. I will let you talk to her, so hold on just one second." He held the phone out to Olivia, who snatched it up and said hello.
"El!" Olivia shrieked after a second, "You're okay! How about Riley?"
Devon watched as Olivia questioned her husband incessantly for forty five minutes, a smile playing across his lips. He had gathered up from the conversation that Riley had been found and was perfectly fine, their friend Casey was getting better, and that Elliot was going to be fine, the bullet had done no severe damage. Finally she had to get off the phone because Elliot was getting screamed at by the nurses to get some rest- and to not use cell phones in the hospital. "I love you, Elliot." She said, and Devon assumed Elliot answered similarly, as she smiled broadly.
Devon looked at the clock on his phone once she had handed it back. "Well, I will go check with Ryder, see if we can get you out of here. And while I am gone, I expect you to eat something, alright?"
By the time he came back with Doctor Ryder, Olivia had eaten every bite of the food he had gotten for her. Ryder checked her out and then gave the okay. And so they headed deeper into the mountains. Around midnight Devon backed his truck into a sheltered alcove of pine trees and gently woke her up. "Olivia, put on your jacket, we have to use a different mode of transportation to get back to my house."
Olivia looked at him curiously, but slipped into the thick down jacket and ski pants he had given her. Devon tossed her a pair of gloves and then climbed out of the truck. They walked over to a little three sided shed, and Devon pulled the covers off of two machines. Olivia watched curiously and then heard a loud revving as the engines of one caught, bathing her in light. She looked down at the navy blue snowmobile that was shuddering to life. Devon pulled the yoke on the other one several times, and the engine finally caught, roaring loudly to life. He walked over to her and threw her a helmet. "Okay, just follow me. Snowmobiles are the only way to get back to my place in the deep winter. Lever on the left is the brake, right is the gas."
Olivia's eyes widened and she gulped. "Devon… I don't really think I can do this."
"Sure you can. It's a piece of cake. And the powder is too deep for us to be on one together, otherwise I would let you just be a passenger." He said, and then slipped the helmet over his head, jumping onto the seat of the snowmobile.
Olivia hesitantly walked over to hers and sat down. Devon gave her a thumbs up and then his machine took off, spraying snow up behind it. She squeezed the gas lightly, but didn't go anywhere. Squeezing it harder the snowmobile lunged forward so quickly Olivia found herself nearly going over the handlebars. She took a few deep breaths and tried again, slightly gentler this time. To her relief it sprang away and they followed the taillight of Devon's.
After about five minutes Olivia became very relaxed and was actually enjoying the experience. Up ahead she could see several lights glowing on both a house and a horse barn. Devon sped up slightly to climb an upcoming hill and Olivia happily followed suit. Then she noticed he sort of vanished after reaching the top. She sped up, confused by his disappearance. Olivia found out why he had disappeared way to late. The hill abruptly dropped off and her snowmobile eagerly jetted over the edge. After a few seconds of air time they hit the road again with a heavy jolt that sent Olivia flying sideways. She inhaled sharply, thinking that there was no way in hell that she was going to fall off a snowmobile. Gripping the handlebars tightly she scrambled back center and was breathing heavily when she finally stabilized.
They rode right up underneath the overhang of the garage and killed the engines. Devon clapped. "Way to go! You got more air than I did!"
Olivia was still recovering from the incident and snapped, "Oh, that's just wonderful." But a smile crept across her face anyway.
She looked up as the front door to the house swung open and a young woman with thick black hair came sprinting out. "Devon!" she exclaimed, jumping up into his arms. Devon swung her around once, and then set her down after kissing her briefly.
He put his arm around her shoulders and then said, "Olivia, this is my wife Reagan. Reagan, this is Olivia."
Reagan stepped forward, greeting Olivia with a pleasant smile. She shook her hand and then ushered them both inside. The rush of warm air felt wonderful and Olivia slowly slipped off her snow gear. Reagan silently appraised her outfit and then said, "Come on. You and I are about the same size. You can wear some of my clothes."
Olivia fell asleep around one that morning and didn't wake up until eleven. When she awoke she blinked sleepily, gazing around at the room. She was snuggled deep under a down comforter and flannel sheets, and was reluctant to leave the warm bed. Pictures hung on the walls of horses jumping things or running along the backdrop of gorgeous mountains. Slowly Olivia eased herself out of bed, listening to the noises coming from the kitchen. Devon was arguing with his wife over the correct way to make pancakes. Olivia smiled slightly and walked out, poking her head around the corner and looking into the kitchen. Devon smiled and waved. Reagan turned and grinned at her, saying, "Devon has insisted upon making pancakes. Unfortunately, he doesn't know how."
Devon glared at her scathingly as he flipped three over at a time. He then glanced down at them, finding them to be burnt black on the outside but still doughy on the inside. Reagan rolled her eyes and said, "Why don't you try again? This time use the ready made batter."
Olivia had to laugh and Devon glared at her too, though he too was having trouble keeping a straight face. As Olivia glanced around, she decided that whether or not the pancakes turned out they definitely wouldn't starve. There were already plates of waffles, hash browns, eggs, sausages, bacon, French toast, bread, kettles of steaming hot tea and coffee, and a large pitcher of orange juice. Devon seemed to catch her gaze and said, "This is a typical mountain breakfast. It's the most important meal of the day, with the exception of lunch and dinner." Olivia laughed and shook her head. Devon then looked over at his wife and told her, "Our friend here tipped the scales at the doctors at one hundred pounds."
Reagan turned to stare at Olivia. "Poor thing! He really did starve you, didn't he?"
Olivia flushed and said, "Well, he actually was giving me a sedative that made me lose my appetite and lose weight. I suppose he offered me food every once in a while."
Reagan was about the say something when a squawk from behind the couch made her turn around. "Maria! Jonathan!" she exclaimed, hurrying over. Olivia followed after, watching as Reagan peeled a little boy's hand from his sisters hair. Devon raised his eyebrows at his children and smiled. Reagan scooped up the girl who was crying and rubbing her hair. "It's alright honey!" The little boy was sitting looking smug, and then when his mother ignored him he started wailing.
"Here, I can help." Olivia said, kneeling down and picking up the boy. He immediately stopped crying and watched Olivia with interest.
"That's Jonathan. This is Maria." Reagan told her with a smile.
Olivia sat down on the soft couch, holding Jonathan very gently in her arms. He blinked up at her with bright blue eyes, smiling broadly as he stretched his hands toward her face, inadvertently wiping a tear from her cheek.
After Elliot hung up the phone he felt a great deal of relief. Olivia was alright, for the time being. He was just about to be forced back into bed when Cragen and Doctor Swanson came marching in. "Elliot, we need to talk to you about something." Cragen said, and the nurse looked very huffy as she stomped out.
"What's up, Captain?" Elliot questioned, and Riley turned to look at him from her place on William's lap.
"Well the Denver Police Department is livid about what happened with Hunt, and are desperate to redeem themselves. So they have bought you a round trip ticket to Colorado. Apparently Mother Nature is about to bestow quite the snowstorm there, so time is of the essence." Cragen said, "The DPD thought you would like to see Olivia."
Elliot looked at him suspiciously, "Okay… there's something else behind this, what is it?"
Cragen sighed and nodded.
Elliot was falling asleep as he handed the flight attendant his ticket the next morning. The flight attendant gave him a smile, and then did a double take as she looked at his face. "Oh my God! You're Elliot Stabler! I saw you on the news." she exclaimed so loudly that nearly everyone in a ten yard radius turned to look.
"Yes, that's me." Elliot muttered, flushing slightly.
"You were amazing, saving all those hostages…" she said, trailing off as she grinned at him.
"Thanks." Elliot said flatly, and with that he hurried forward.
Elliot slept nearly the whole flight to Denver, which he considered a gift because the whole plane wanted to talk to him and he just wasn't up to recounting the events of the day before. This was going to be an easy enough assignment. All he had to do was get to Olivia and in doing so he would draw out whatever crazy man had his sights on her. Piece of cake.
If only it would be that easy.
After eating so much breakfast she thought she would explode, Olivia leaned back in chair and shut her eyes. Devon snickered and asked, "Are you sure you don't want another waffle?"
"Oh God… don't even bring up the topic of food…" moaned Olivia, rubbing her stomach gingerly.
"Well I will be back in a couple hours. I have to go muck the horse's stalls." Reagan said, getting up from the table.
Devon frowned and asked, "I thought that's what you were paying Alfonso or Alec or whatever the hell his name was to do?"
Reagan sighed. "Yes, but truthfully, he kind of scared me. I don't know why. And so yesterday I come in from working Renegade, and I caught him hitting Royale. I told him he was fired and that I was going to run a background check. He totally freaked on me and split right then and there."
"Well, that's just wonderful. He could have killed you!" Devon exclaimed, becoming instantly protective of his wife.
"Not likely. I know where you stash all your guns throughout the barn. One was just within reach actually." Reagan said with a grin.
Devon looked quite ready to give her a lecture when his phone rang. He picked it up, listening silently for a while.
Olivia turned and asked Reagan quietly, "How long ago did you hire this guy?"
"Like less then a week ago." Reagan answered with a sigh. Olivia got a preoccupied look on her face and Reagan walked outside.
She trudged through the deep snow up to the barn, pondering weird old Alfonso. Just as she was about to go to work she realized she hadn't checked out the apartment over top of the stable where he had been living. She quickly hurried over to the door she had padlocked and undid it. It opened to a staircase. She raced up the stairs and glanced around the apartment. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but she was going to make sure.
As Reagan ambled slowly through it she could feel a rising sense of unease. She sat down at the desk, sifting through all the papers. Nothing much there either. Though she didn't know what she wanted to find, Reagan hissed in frustration, tossing all the papers to the floor. Standing up she knocked some books out of the way on the shelf. Still nothing. Reagan ran her hand through her hair and then turned. Immediately a paper on the floor caught her attention. It was buried amongst feed bills, farrier bills, and horse sales transactions. She dropped to her knees, yanking it out. Scanning it over her eyes widened and she inhaled sharply. Suddenly she heard someone coming up the steps. The door swung open.