Title: 800 Miles

Chapter Title: Stuck

Disclaimer: I don't own ER, SVU, and the J.R.R. Tolkien quote isn't mine, either!

a/n: Thanks for the reviews! There's a little E/O moment in here, so I hope you don't mind!


"Ricin!" Dr. Romano repeated.

"Yeah, the health department's on the way," Jing-Mei told him, "There is a vaccination for it, but we are waiting to get it from Houston."

"Okay, lock it down, but make sure I get the hell out of here first," Robert said.

"Oh, no Robert, you're not going anywhere!" Weaver said, walking up to him. She had just found out what happened and thought that keeping Romano in the ER would be a perfect way to torture him.

"Hey! I'm the Chief of Staff here!" Romano said, infuriated, "I make the decisions, and I decide that I get to leave!"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you're above the health department, and they say that everyone that is in here now, stays here!" Weaver said.

"Sorry to interrupt this lovefest, but we really need to question our victim," Elliot said, butting in to the conversation.

"Romano! I thought you said that you were going to help the detectives!" Weaver yelled.

"I am! I was just getting around to it!" Rocket yelled back. Turning to the detectives, he said, "I'm pretty sure Elizabeth is out of surgery by now. I'll go check for you." He strolled over to Trauma 2 to look for Elizabeth, leaving the detectives at the circulation desk with the rest of the doctors.

"So, you guys are from New York?" Carter asked them, trying to make small talk to lighten themood.

"Yeah, we're here chasing a suspect," Olivia told him, "I"m Olivia Benson, and this is Elliot Stabler. We're both detectives in the Special Victims Unit."

"Oh, I'm Dr. John Carter, but you can just call me Carter," he said, "Have you met the other doctors?"

"Yeah, so how long do you think we'll be stuck here?" Olivia asked him. She knew that there was no time to waste; the killer was still out there.

"Last time, the ER was locked down for about 9 hours, but some of us were quarantined here for two weeks," he said. Seeing the worried looks on the detectives faces, he said, "Don't worry, the ricin was found in a sealed container, in an isolated area. You should only be here for about 5 hours. We just have to wait for confirmation that it is, in fact, ricin, and then we can start administering the vaccine."

"Detective Stabler!" Romano yelled, returning from Trauma 2, with Dr. Corday in tow, "This is Dr. Elizabeth Corday."

"Hi, nice to meet you," Elizabeth said to the detectives, "I heard that you're looking for Gabriella Feltre."

"Yes, when can we talk to her?" Elliot asked.

"Well, she is still sedated, but I will let you know when she is ready to talk," Corday told them, "We found evidence of rape and I took a rape kit already."

"Okay, thanks," Elliot said.

"Seeing as we're all stuck here, I guess you can just hang out in the waiting area," she said.

"Hey, Elizabeth!" Weaver said, "We just got confirmation that it was ricin. Now all we have to do is wait for the vaccine; it's being flown in from Houston."

Turning to the detectives, she said, "You guys can go hang out in the lounge and have some coffee or something. I'm really sorry you had to come here today."

"Yeah, well I'm really sorry anybody has to come here at all," Romano said, still mad about being told that he had to stay in the ER.

"It's okay, we understand that things like this happen," Olivia said, ignoring Robert's comment, "We'll just be over by Ilona and Malia. Let us know when Gabriella wakes up."

Heading over to Ilona and Malia, Elliot said, "Did you hear? They have to lock down the ER; ricin was found in a container and they have to wait for the vaccine to get here, but we should still be able to interview the victim. Dr. Corday said that she would let us know when she was awake."

"Do you think that this ricin could have anything to do with the murderer?" Ilona asked as the idea occurred in her mind.

"No, the health department said that the ricin had probably been there for about five hours, which is just about the time that Gabriella Feltre was attacked," Olivia said, "So, what do we do now? Carter said that we probably have about five hours here."

"Well, I have some cards, we could play poker," Malia suggested.

"Sure, why not?" replied Elliot.

The four detectives played poker for the next three hours. They didn't play for money, but for potato chips, which they all thought was hilarious. While they were playing, Mr. Fell came up to them and stole half of their chips (he said that they aggravated him), but Abby soon came to get him and she returned the chips. They chatted on about recent events and the dumbest criminals they ever saw for most of the time they were playing cards.

Right after they finished playing their twentieth game, Dr. Corday, just as she had promised, came over and informed them that Gabriella Feltre was awake.

"She is a little groggy still, but alert enough to be questioned," she told them.

"Okay, thanks," Elliot said, walking in to Gabriella's room.

"Hi, Gabriella, I'm Detective Benson, and this is Detective Stabler. We're from Special Victims Unit. We heard that you were attacked. Could you tell us anything about the man who did this to you?" Olivia asked soothingly.

"There was a woman with him," she mumbled.

"There was a woman?" Elliot repeated, "Had you ever seen either of them before?"

"The woman worked at Rumboni's Coffee. I hadn't seen her there for about six months, but I still remember her," Gabriella told them, "That's all I remember about what they looked like."

"What happened? Did they say anything?" Olivia asked. Gabriella had provided them with some good information.

"I only remember that they picked up a water bottle and raped me with it after they grabbe me and dragged meto an alley. Then, they tried to shove a plastic bag over my head. I tried to stop them, but I couldn't. I guess I ripped a hole in the bag or something, because I didn't die. They just left me there after they tried to kill me," she told Olivia, bursting into tears as she did.

"It's okay, Gabriella, you've been a big help. Thank you," Olivia said, trying to calm her down.

"Now we have to check and see who the woman was," Elliot said to Olivia, walking out of the room, "Her not being there for six months gives her plenty of time to have gone to New York and back."

"We'll call Cragen and Chibarro and see if they can track down the woman. Once we have her in custody, maybe she'll give up her accomplice," Olivia said hopefully.

"She better give him up!" Elliot said.

They walked back out into the waiting area and headed over to Ilona and Malia.

"Gabriella told us that there was a woman there and that she recognized her from Rumboni's Coffee, but that she hadn't been there for six months," Elliot told the two Chicago detectives.

"Wow, that's great," Ilona said, "We'll call Kevin and see if he can find out who the girl is, but first, we have to be vaccinated; the shots just arrived from Houston."

"Okay," Olivia said, "How about Malia and I go call Kevin and Don, while you two go get vaccinated. We'll get in line after we call; we can't waste any time." With that, Olivia and Malia walked towards a quiet corner of the ER to call their respective captains.

Ilona looked over at Elliot and saw that he was staring at Olivia as she walked off to call Cragen.

"You love her, don't you?" Ilona asked.

"I'm married," Elliot replied, almost automatically.

"Yes, but sometimes the people we marry aren't always The One, you know?" Ilona said, "J.R.R. Tolkien once said, 'Nearly all marriages are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly both partners might be found more suitable mates. But the real soul mate is the one you are actually married to.' I believe that there is one true love in you life. For you, it's Olivia."

Realizing that she was right, Elliot did not reply, and Ilona did not try to make him.

"Next!" Abby said to Elliot, freeing him from the conversation.

After both of them had gotten the shot, they went back to where Olivia and Malia were.

"Hey, guys," Ilona said, "What did they say?"

"Kevin said that he was going to check into the woman from Rumboni's, but to just hang tight. Cragen just said that he hoped we caught the guys soon," Malia informed them, "We're going to go get our vaccination; the sooner everyone gets it, the sooner we can all leave."

"Okay, we'll go get our stuff together, so that when they let us go, we can leave right away."

Malia and Olivia returned ten minutes later from getting the shot. The lines had been shorter when they went and there were only a few people after them.

"Excuse me," Kerry's voice crackled over the loudspeaker, "You can all go home in a few minutes. We thank you all for your cooperation. Please do not tackle one another as you exit, I'm sure you have spent all he time you wanted here already. Thank you."

Minutes later, the doors were opened and everyone that had been stuck in the ER were released. The detectives were the last to leave.

"Let's go catch us a serial killer!" Malia said enthusiastically as they got into their car and drove back to the station.