Chapter 17 - Tutuola

Lyrics by SheDaisy - Don't Worry 'Bout A Thing & Martina McBride - Love's The Only House

Life is funny
Life's a mess
Sometimes a curse
Sometimes a blessing
Don't worry 'bout a thing
Don't worry 'bout it
Life is sticky
Life can bruise
Sometimes you win
Sometimes you're losing
No matter what it brings
Don't worry 'bout a thing
And all I can say is love's the only house big enough for all the pain in the world
Love's the only house big enough for all the pain
And I can't explain it
And I can't understand
The pain's gotta go someplace, so come on down to my house
Don't you know that love's the only house big enough for all the pain in the world?
Love's the only house big enough for all the pain…

Tutuola

"Sir? What happened?" As I hustled after the stretcher, one of the paramedics called after me.

"He was tackled from behind. His face hit the floor." They folded the gurney's wheels and put him into the back of the bus. I jumped in after them.

"But that doesn't account for all this bruising and his shattered nose." One of the female paramedics looked up from Elliot to me.

"A few days ago he got into a fight," I stretched, "I think his nose was broken."

"And he didn't go to the hospital?"

I shrugged, feeling guilty under her stare. "No."

She started calling out medical things to the other people around her that I couldn't have for the life of me understood. Someone accidentally shoved me, catching me off guard. I quickly shuffled over to the corner of the bus, trying to get out of their way.

Just looking at Elliot make my stomach churn. His face was barely recognizable anymore. This whole situation was just so unfair and wrong in so many ways. This was ripping SVU apart at the seams. Elliot had done nothing, absolutely nothing, and yet here he was being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.

I didn't blame Olivia though. She'd been through so much… Whether I was right or wrong in my thinking, I didn't know, but I wasn't going to dwell on it.

About five or ten minutes later, we finally pulled into the emergency room drop off. As soon as the doors were opened, I hopped out, my legs almost giving way beneath me.

Once I was steady, I glanced up just in time to see them rushing Elliot away. I knew enough to know that all I could do was sit in the waiting room. At first I went to sit down, but I quickly changed my mind once I caught sight of the stains on my clothes. Everything I was wearing was covered in Elliot's blood. Slightly nauseous, I just restlessly paced back and forth.

--XXX---

"Detective Tutuola?" A nurse walked into the waiting room as her eyes scanned everyone.

"Is Elliot okay?" I rushed up towards her.

"Yes, hon," she gave me a reassuring smile and put her well-manicured hand on my arm. "Mr. Stabler's doing fine. He's in the ICU recovering. He's awake if you'd like to talk to him." I nodded and she led me down to his room.

"Mr. Stabler?" She knocked on the open door to get Elliot's attention before going into the room. "You have a guest." She turned around, and giving me one last smile, hurried off.

"Hey Fin." Elliot's quiet and pained voice pulled me over to the side of the bed.

"Hey El." I had to resist the impulse to flinch as I looked Elliot over. His previous bruises that had been caused by John had begun to fade, but now they were just as obvious as before, maybe more so, and a bandage covered his nose. He was wearing a hospital gown and a thin blue hospital blanket covered his waist down.

"That bad huh?" He uncomfortably shifted his weight around as he spoke.

"That's gotta hurt," I lamely pointed out.

"You know," he gave as much of a shrug as his position would allow, "only when I breathe." As if making his point, he took a deep breath, the constriction obvious.

"Do you remember what happened?"

"Um," he shut his eyes as he began thought. "The last thing I remember is Cragen leading me out of the questioning room. What happened?"

"Olivia was there. She saw you and flipped. She tackled you from behind."

"Oh my God," his eyes widened and he made a slight attempt at sitting up. "Is she okay?"

I raised my eyebrow at him in confusion. "I guess so," I shrugged.

"What's wrong?" Elliot read my face like a book.

"I'm not hearing the anger I was expecting."

"Anger?" This time, he seemed puzzled. "Angry about what?"

"The fact that Olivia could have killed you." As I listened to myself, I realized that seeing Elliot's condition had made my opinion about blaming Olivia had changed. John had told her that it wasn't Elliot, and she still jumped him. It didn't make sense. Then again, nothing in my line of work ever does.

"She's just upset. She wasn't thinking clearly." I opened my mouth to argue, but Elliot's stare quickly shut me up. It was obvious that I'd never change his opinion, and I didn't want to stress him out trying.

The noise of a door creaking open caught my attention and I turn my neck so that I was looking over my shoulder towards the door. The man walking in seemed to be in his forties. He was wearing a white lab coat over his suit, signaling that he was the doctor.

"Can I help you?" He gave me a genuine smile as he held a clipboard in his hands.

"I'm just seeing how Elliot's doing." I nodded towards the bed.

"Well," he thumbed through the numerous papers on his clipboard until he found what he was looking for. "Everything looks pretty good considering." He went over to the equipment that Elliot was hooked up to. I recognized some of them as a heart rate machine, IV drip, and a blood pressure machine.

"So is he going to be okay?"

"I'm fine," Elliot interrupted, annoyed that we were talking as if he wasn't there.

"How's his condition?"

"He's stable, all his vitals look good," he pressed a few buttons on a machine. "He just has a shattered nose, slightly obstructed airway, all things that should be fine in a few days."

"So we can he go?"

"Although he's okay right now, I'm still worried that he might have a skull fracture. So I want to keep him a few days, just until the swelling goes down enough that we can get a clear x-ray."

"Skull fracture?" I didn't like the sound of that.

"Oh, don't worry," he noticed the concern in my question and reassured me. "There's only a small chance that there's one, and even if there is, it shouldn't be more than hairline."

"Oh." I nodded, pretending if I knew what he was talking about. Noticing that Elliot was unusually quiet, I glanced back over to the hospital bed. Elliot was sound asleep, snoring noisily. "Is he okay?" I pointed to the unmoving figure and raised an eyebrow. He had fallen asleep pretty suddenly and really quietly.

The doctor gave a slight frown and pulled a read-out from one of the machines. As he glanced over the strip of paper, his face cleared. "He's fine. It's just the meds we've given him." I felt the doctor's eyes land on me, watching me looking at Elliot. "He's probably going to be drifting in and out of sleep for the rest of the day. You don't have to stay. We'll have round the clock nurses on him."

"I think I'll just stay until he wakes up again, if that's okay."

"Of course, Detective." The doctor smiled again and slid the clipboard under his arm. "Stay as long as you wish." Nodding his head politely, he left the room.

Giving Elliot one last glance, just to see if his condition had changed in those five seconds, I pulled my phone out and hit the speed dial.

After four rings, the other end finally picked up. "Cragen?"

"It's me," I said, knowing he'd recognize my voice.

"How's Elliot?" If I wasn't mistaken, I could have sworn he was panting into the phone, like he was out of breath.

"He's in the ICU recovering. The doc said he's got a 'shattered nose and slightly obstructed airway.' " I could hear the confusion in my voice and decided to elaborate in my own words. "He's busted up pretty bad, all black and blue. And he's wheezing. They said that he's okay, but they're going to keep in the hospital a couple days until the swelling goes down so that they can make sure he doesn't have a skull fracture."

I heard Cragen curse under his breath once I said skull fracture. "Where are you now?"

"I'm in the room with him." A loud snoring noise came from Elliot as he tossed in the bed, still asleep. I slightly lowered my voice. "I talked to him, but he's asleep now. Doc said he's going to be in and out of it all day."

"What did Elliot say?"

I pondered over where to start before answering him. "The last thing he remembered was you taking him out of the interrogation room. I filled the rest in for him and the first thing he asked was if Olivia was okay."

In the silence that followed, I could sense that we were both only now realizing the type of person Elliot was, completely selfless and caring. Olivia had accused him of raping her and landed him in the hospital with a possible skull fracture, and all he cared about was if she was okay. I knew he was a good person, but those feelings were incredible to me.

I coughed into the phone, clearing my throat. "So, how is she?"

"Hysterical with guilt. John and I are still trying to coax her out of the corner of the room."