2.
Dr. Valez, drew the curtain open and stepped into the area. Olivia was standing by Maureen's head and Alex was sitting in a chair on the back wall, just behind Olivia.
"Okay, Maureen, we got your labs back. Someone did drug your drink last night. The good news is there is no sign of rape or assault."
Maureen let out a breath that she didn't realize that she had been holding.
Olivia gave her shoulder a light squeeze, giving Maureen some reassurance.
"Alright, I'd like to keep Maureen for a few hours. We want to make sure that the drugs didn't do any damage, and we will want to get her fluid levels back to normal."
Maureen nodded.
"I'll be back in a little while to check to see how you are doing."
With that Dr. Valez left the area, enclosing the three women in privacy.
"Maureen, do you want me to call your Dad?"
Tears were spilling out over onto her cheeks. She looked up at Olivia and nodded, afraid that her voice would give out if she tried to talk.
"Alright, I'm going to go outside and use my phone," She looked over at Alex, "Alex will stay with you okay." Alex nodded silently.
Maureen put her hand on her forehead and shut her eyes. She wasn't sure how much longer she could hang on strong. Now that she knew a little more about what happened, she wanted her Dad to hold her like he did when she was little.
Olivia slipped out of the ER and unclipped her phone to call her partner… this was going to be a hard phone call.
She took a deep breath as the call registered and started to ring.
"Stabler!" Elliot answered the phone out of breath.
"Hey El." Olivia tried to keep her voice from giving anything away.
"Olivia? What's wrong, we got a call?" Elliot's demeanor switched immediately to concern.
"No, not exactly."
"Well what's up, Kathleen and I are out playing soccer with the twins." Elliot expressed his eagerness to rejoin his children.
"Is Kathy there with you guys?"
"Um yeah, I'm at home, Olivia what's going on?" Elliot returned to his concerned voice.
"Maureen came to see me really early this morning, like 6 am"
"Is everything okay." Alarm bells started going off in his head.
"El, you and Kathy got to come to the hospital, everything is going to be fine…"
Elliot didn't hear the last bit of that, hospital and the reference to his eldest daughter shut his brain down, he cut her off. "What happened I'll be right there, what hospital."
"St. Margaret's, by my place."
"Already on my way." Elliot slammed his phone shut and ran to get Kathy and rush from Queens to St. Margaret's Hospital.
Olivia shut her phone and sat down in the Ambulance bay for a few minutes, it was going to be hard to explain this to her partner. He was going to want to know why she didn't call him as soon as she knew something was wrong with Maureen. She also knew that Maureen had come to her on confidence, as a friend, as a cop, as a woman who she trusted who was not her mother. That last one is going to hurt Kathy, Olivia knew, but she knew that Maureen would talk to her mother when she was ready.
Olivia rubbed her face with her hands a few times, preparing herself for the rest of the day and headed back to Maureen's bedside.
When she returned Alex had pulled the chair up to the bedside and was talking about Hudson with Maureen. They stopped talking when Olivia entered.
"You don't have to stop the gossip on my account." Olivia pasted a grin on her face.
"Is Elliot coming?" Alex looked up at Olivia from her seated position.
"Yeah, he probably will be here soon."
"Is he mad?" Maureen asked quietly.
Olivia moved to sit on the edge of her bed and looked her in the eyes, they were scared, sad, confused. Olivia remembered that not long ago, those were what her eyes read like.
"No, Honey, he is worried, scared. He wouldn't listen over the phone, but we can tell him when he gets here okay."
"Okay." Maureen sighed, still not sure.
"We should make a decision before he gets here though." Olivia took a serious tone.
"What's that?" Maureen questioned wearily.
"Do we want to find out how this happened?"
"I… I don't know… can anything come out of it if we do happen to find who did it to me and Mic."
"Well we will need Mic to come forward too. Do you think he will."
"I might be able to talk him into it if something will happen, he was not happy this morning. Should he be here too, making sure that everything is okay with him?" Maureen asked suddenly very worried for her friend.
"Um, well, it might be a good idea if we want to catch who did this." Alex spoke up. "If we find who did it they can get some sort of punishment, it is illegal to drug someone without their knowledge."
"Okay," Maureen stated as firmly as she could, "Can we call Mic?"
"Do you know the number?"
"Of course." Olivia handed Maureen a pad and pen and had her write the number down. She went to the main desk and asked to use the phone and had Dr. Valez also talk to the young man. After a few moments of explanation they got the boy to come down to the hospital.
No sooner had Olivia walked back into the room, did Elliot come running through the curtain area, Kathy hot on his heels. He took in the site of his daughter laying there in the hospital bed. Alex got up from her seat and went to stand by Olivia. Elliot wrapped his daughter up in huge hug. As soon as her father had her gathered in his arms, the floodgates broke loose. Kathy had rushed to the opposite side of the bed and was rubbing her daughter's back.
Olivia and Alex slipped out of the space to give the family a few minutes alone. They took a seat out on the bench in the hallway. Olivia knew Elliot would be out eventually and would want to talk. Olivia excused her self after fiddling with her hands for a few minutes. She exited the hospital again pulling out her phone. She dialed Cragen and filled him in on the situation. He said that he would start the paperwork so she could stay at the hospital and he would be down in about an hour or so.
On her way back into the hospital a young man wearing a Hudson University sweatshirt pulled closely around him, walked into the ER.
"Mic?" Olivia questioned.
"Yes?" The young man replied.
"I'm Detective Benson, I'm the one that called you."
"Oh, okay." The boy was very unsettled.
"Come on let's get you checked out okay."
"I hate hospitals, there is too much waiting."
"Don't worry I got you covered." Olivia lifted the badge away from were it was still hanging around her neck.
Mic nodded and walked into the hospital with Olivia. They were buzzed back through and found Dr. Valez. She took Mic back and got him set up for the run of tests and whatnot. Olivia returned to her seat next to Alex. Alex took her hand and weaved their fingers together. Olivia looked down at their hands and then up into Alex eyes.
"Thanks for hanging around, even though it's not the best way to spend a Saturday."
"Hey it will all be okay, we can figure this all out, and Maureen will pull through this okay, it could have been much, much worse." Alex gave their hands a squeeze.
"Please don't remind me." Olivia said as she looked back toward where the Stablers were.
Alex and Olivia sat there for a few more minutes each in their own thoughts.
Elliot came away from were Maureen was, he had his hand rubbing slowly over his mouth and chin. He approached the women on the bench. He grabbed a fold out chair and sat across from them.
"Why didn't you call me sooner, Liv?" Elliot asked tears in his eyes.
"I couldn't El, She came to me in confidence, she was scared, she wasn't sure what to do. I couldn't break that trust, not as a cop, as a friend. She's over 18 now, I have no legal obligation to call you." Olivia explained calmly.
"What about our trust Olivia, we're partners, she is my daughter." Elliot asked, the hurt painfully evident in his voice as he got even more frustrated.
"Elliot, we both told her, all of us, Kathy too, that if she needed something, anything, no matter what while she was in college and closer to where I live, that she could come and find me." Olivia shot back, trying not to let his attitude get to her.
"This is different, she was hurt." Elliot yelled. A few people around them looked in their direction.
"El, she was scared that she might have been raped, she couldn't remember what had happened." Olivia raised her voice slightly.
Kathy came out to the group then and sat on Elliot's lap, she turned toward Olivia.
"What happened? Why did it take you so long to call." Kathy's eyes blazed with a mother's wrath.
"Kathy, I called as soon as Maureen would let me." Olivia calmed her voice down, hoping that she could transfer some of the calmness to the parents in front of her.
"That's no excuse, she is my child." Kathy's voice dripped with anger. "We trusted you with our children, then something is hurting one of them and you don't tell us right away."
"El, Kathy, I'm sorry, I made a promise and I don't back down from those promises."
"What if she was raped Olivia then what." Elliot looked his partner in her eyes.
"I would still do what Maureen wanted, she is an adult."
"I…" Elliot was with out words, Kathy continued for him. "That's not right."
"That's all I can say about it, she wasn't raped and I did call as soon as she said it was okay."
"We are going to find the bastard that put Maureen through this."
Don walked in then, with a folder in hand, "We as in Olivia and me, you are going to stay with your family."
"Cap, I can handle it."
"No, you are off call for the rest of the weekend."
"But…"
"Elliot" Cragen said harshly.
Dr. Valez came over to the group just then.
"Detective Benson can I see you please?"
"Yes sure." She let go of Alex's hand as she got up, she had forgotten that their hands were still intertwined. Elliot noticed the action, but cast it aside for now, he was too upset to question it. She followed Dr. Valez a distance away, she motioned for Captain Cragen to follow.
"Detective Benson, Captain Cragen nice to meet you again, Mic Reese had the same drug test results as Ms. Stabler. His physical exam brought about a different finding. He has some small cuts on his chest and abdomen. He couldn't remember when or how he had gotten them. He said he had actually been here earlier Friday morning for a physical to play soccer, practice starts soon and the tests that he needed couldn't be done at the student health center. I took the liberty of pulling his chart from the visit. There was no account of the cuts in the chart, and it is enough that it would be mentioned if they were present."
"That's lucky, without that information this case would be cold, when can we talk to Mr. Reese." The Captain breathed a sigh of relief, they had at least something to work with, it was a long shot but something anyway.
"He is just in there he can talk at anytime." Olivia and Cragen walked up to the young man laying in the bed.
"Hi Mic," Olivia began. "Can we talk to you for a few minutes."
"I didn't do anything wrong Detective." Mic began immediately.
"I know, I believe someone did something wrong to you and Maureen. We want to find out who." Olivia reassured him.
"What happened last night Son? Just take us through what happened, we need a statement." Don spoke up stepping further into the room, and posed himself ready to take the statement from the scared young man.
"Well we were having a party and the house me and a couple of friends live at. We were celebrating Maureen's and another friend of ours Jason's 21st birthdays. They were the last to turn so we decided to have a big party. Well word got out and some creeps came to the party. We are a pretty quiet bunch of people most of the time, but since we were having a party they thought they could get in on some of the action. They came in and started ripping on Maureen and me because we weren't dating anyone or each other, they were being real asswipes about everything, drinking a good portion of the beer we all chipped in to buy. When they got sick of ragging on us, they moved on to another group of our friends, we just tried to avoid them all night, they wouldn't leave any of us alone. Finally I was done working the bar, we had the beer out in coolers otherwise I wouldn't have served them myself. Any way I had my buddy make us some drinks while I get a clean shirt, I had spilled various things on it over the night. I got back and was waiting for them the guys came back up to me. They started ragging on me again, telling me I wasn't a man I was very upset, I told them to get out or I was calling the police. They left, mumbling something about police and no fun. I turned back to the bar and the drinks were on the counter. My buddy had just put them down and was working on a new order. I took the drinks over to Maureen and we sat talking and drinking then the next thing we knew it was 4 am and we couldn't remember anything."
Mic looked down at his hands and thought for a moment.
"Oh no, I don't know how long the drinks were there before I picked them up. I shouldn't have taken them."
"Mic, its okay, you didn't do anything to the drinks. It will be okay. We are going to find out who did this." Olivia said calmly, almost too calmly.
"Son, do you remember about what time you consumed the drinks?" Cragen asked continuing the information search.
"Well I was done at the bar about 11 when Jared took over. So about 11:30 when I got back to my seat." Mic answered after thinking about it for a few minutes.
"Do we have a last name for Jared?" Olivia fished.
"Yeah, Jared Hancock, he is one of the guys I share the house with."
"Can we have an address of the house?" Cragen handed the boy a piece of paper.
"Sure," Mic wrote down the address of his house.
"Do you know the identity of the guys that were bugging you and Maureen last night?" Olivia asked, she wanted to nail these guys to a wall.
"Well I don't know much about them except there first names are Bart and Denise. They might be brothers, I don't know, they act like they have known each other for a long time." Mic closed his eyes as if trying to see the people he was trying to explain.
"Thank you Mic, here is my card and Detective Benson's card if you need either of us."
"Thank you… um is Maureen okay?" Mic asked quietly.
"She is going to be okay, she's just scared." Olivia replied soothingly.
"Tell her I'm really sorry." Mic asked as a few tears started falling.
Olivia nodded, with a slight smile and followed Cragen back out to the rest of the people. When they returned, Alex was still sitting on the bench, but Elliot and Kathy had returned to Maureen's bedside. She had cried herself to sleep before Kathy had come out, and had woken up with a nightmare a few minutes ago.
Olivia sat down hard on the bench. She rubbed the bridge of her nose with the thumb and forefinger. She sighed inwardly. This was going to be a tough case, easy as far as no sexual assault, but hard because it was Elliot's daughter, his eldest, and he was not really pleased with Olivia, neither was Kathy. She was glad that Maureen turned to her, and she would never break her trust, but her relationship with Elliot was going to go through a rough spot.
Cragen took the seat that Elliot had vacated. He looked at the two women in front of him.
He handed Alex the statement they just took and she read it over. They still needed to get Maureen's official statement, but they could work with this for now.
"So what do we have to do know ladies."
"Well," Alex spoke up, "We need to find the boys that were causing the trouble and the other bartender and question them."
Olivia nodded, "We should probably get started now."
"I'll head down to the house with Munch, he is taking Elliot's call this weekend, and see what I can get out of the other bartender, and see if we can get a decent ID for the trouble makers. Why don't you stay here for a little while and see if Maureen can give us a statement, officially."
"Okay captain."
Cragen walked out to catch a cab back to the house and have John Munch meet him there.
Olivia and Alex continued their silent vigil on the bench. Olivia took Alex's hand and brushed her thumb across her knuckles, she let the motion of her thumb relax and focus her. Alex placed her arm around the detective's shoulders in a sideways hug. Olivia rested her action and placed her head on Alex's shoulder.
Elliot stalked out of the room; Kathy was a few seconds behind him.
Olivia looked up, to meet her partner's eyes, if looks could kill.
"She wants to talk to you alone." Elliot sat heavily in the fold out chair, Kathy taking up another chair.
"Okay, I'll be back in a few minutes." Olivia took the file from Alex and went into Maureen's room.
She pasted a professional yet compassionate look onto her face before fully entering the room.
"Hey Maureen, you wanted to talk to me?" Olivia sat on the edge of her bed.
"Yeah, I know you wanted to take my statement and I want to get it over with."
"Okay." Olivia took out her pad and pen and listened as Maureen told her account of the story, it matched Mic's telling of the incident.
/Meanwhile out in the hall/
Elliot, Kathy, and Alex all sat in the hall in an extremely uncomfortable silence. They were each lost in their own thoughts. Each waiting for Olivia to return. Each with their own idea of what was going to happen when she exited Maureen's room. Elliot wanted to question his partner about every detail and get to the bottom of all this shit. Kathy wanted to slap her, she felt so betrayed that her daughter would turn to Olivia at a time of crisis and hurt and not her own mother. Alex wanted to find out how her statement might help their case. She was also worried how all the tension in this case was going to effect Olivia. She was just thankful that Maureen was not raped, that might have caused a bigger issue in the relationships of all the people sitting in this hospital.
/Back in Maureen's room/
"Thank you Maureen, between your statement and Mic's, you guys have been really helpful."
"Your welcome Olivia." Maureen replied hesitantly.
"Is there anything else you wanted to talk about." Olivia switched back to a concerned friend.
"Um… I don't know." Maureen looked down at her hands.
"Okay Honey, just remember no matter what happens during this case, I'm still here for you." Olivia patted Maureen's knee.
She looked up at the detective with a bit of worry in her eyes.
"Everything will be okay. You sure you don't want to talk anymore right now."
"I'm sure. Thanks Olivia."
"Your welcome Sweetie." Olivia exited the room and returned to were everyone was waiting.
As she approached three sets of eyes looked up to meet her. Kathy with out missing a beat, walked right up to Olivia and slapped her tears in her eyes "What makes you so special."
Alex was too stunned to move. A security guard came up to the trio.
"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah it's fine." Olivia answered for the group, placing a hand to her cheek. "You have some power there Kath. I probably deserve that." Olivia stood still however, not taking action, not saying anything else.
Elliot grabbed her shoulder and led her out of the hospital. Olivia handed off the folder to Alex as Kathy reentered Maureen's room to sit with her.
Once outside Elliot laid into Olivia.
"WHY? I just don't get it. What is going on here."
"Elliot, I really think that you need to just take a step back for a minute."
"Don't treat me like a god damn parent of a victim Olivia, I'm YOUR PARTNER."
"Not right now El. Right now you are exactly that, a parent of a victim. Whether or not you want to believe it, that's what you are."
"Yeah well, why didn't you call me as soon as you knew, you knew." Elliot shouted, throwing his hands up.
"Maureen's an adult she asked for you when she was ready, Elliot we have bashed this around already, lets not do it again."
Elliot stepped in as if to say something then backed off storming back into the hospital. Olivia leaned against the building to catch her breath. She was loosing her cool, but she had to stay collected as best as she could. She didn't want to make things worse with El and Kathy then they already were. They were like family to her.
Alex watched as Elliot stormed past her. She waited a few minutes, when Olivia didn't return she gathered their things and went in the direction they had gone earlier. She found Olivia still leaning against the building. As she stopped in front of her they locked eyes. Olivia's phone went off.
"Benson" Olivia answered tensely. "Yeah cap I'll be right down."
Olivia shut her phone and returned her attention to Alex.
"Captain wants me down at the station, we actually have a lead already. They have found evidence in the garbage… unmarked syringe containers. CSU found some fingerprints on them, they are testing them for residue."
"Sounds promising."
"Yeah, well it looks like the nice relaxing weekends of past have come to an end."
"We knew this would happen, your on call."
"Yeah I know. Do you want to drop me off at the station then head home."
"No."
"No?" Olivia asked confused, what the hell did she think?
"I want to go with you to the station, I'm just as much in this investigation now as you are."
"Alright. Lets go, with all luck maybe we can end this nightmare by Monday."
Alex sighed as she started the car and they headed toward the 16 precinct.
A/N: I'm not too sure about this fic… I'll continue it, but I don't know; does it fit with the series? Maybe the next chapter I can tie it all together, with a nice little bow. lol guess we will have to wait and see.
