A/N: Hey everyone! I'm soooo sorry it took me such a long time to update. I'm thinking that there's probably only going to be one, maybe two chapters left. So I really appreciate everyone who has reviewed and kept with this story in spite of the long breaks between chapters. You all are awesome!
Chapter 8
"What does this asshole think he's doing anyway?" Fin yelled as the Toyota in front of him did a u-turn on a one-way street. Munch and Fin were on their way back to the precinct and traffic had barely moved. If Fin wasn't so intent on getting back to the precinct, he wouldn't have had a second thought about pulling the guy over.
"Rush hour traffic is a tricky thing," Munch explained. Fin rolled his eyes, recognizing the tone in Munch's voice to be the beginning of one of his long government conspiracies. "The federal government did it so all the Senators and prominent government officials could leave work before the designated time for all middle-class workers to be congesting the highways."
"Yeah, and what about after?" Fin asked, but without really caring about the answer.
"If they leave after rush hour it's because they got to work after morning rush hour. It's a cycle so that they always avoid traffic."
Fin shook his head in disbelief. "Finally!" he said, pounding his fist on the steering wheel as traffic moved forward.
"Hey, what's going on here?" Munch asked as he saw two more cars heading in the opposite direction.
"I dunno, but I got a bad feeling," Fin muttered. "Give Cap a call." As Munch dialed Fin was finally able to move forward, but was forced to come to stop in front of police barriers about three blocks from the precinct.
"There's no answer," Munch said with a note of worry in his voice. Both of them looked up as a police officer walked over to the driver side window.
"I'm sorry, Sir, but the road is closed, you'll have to turn around." Fin reached for his badge and held it up to the man. From the way the officer glanced over Fin's shoulder, he guessed Munch had pulled his out too.
"Detective Odafin Tutuola, Special Victims Unit. What's going on?"
"You're SVU?" Fin felt something shift in his stomach at the way the man asked the question.
"That's what I said," Fin said, trying to sound more relaxed than he felt.
"We just got a report of multiple explosions—Hey, wait!" But it was too late, that was all either of them needed to hear. Both Munch and Fin quickly got out of their car and jumped the barrier, jogging the remaining blocks to the precinct in silence.
As they got closer, they could see the flashing lights of several ambulances. The only words Fin could think of to describe the scene were uttered in disbelief and fear.
"Holy, shit."
8888
Elliot knew he should have dropped to the ground, put his hands over his head, run as far away from the door as possible, but his anxiety for Olivia kept him from doing any of those things. The next thing he knew, he was back against the wall. Splinters of wood punctured his skin, soon followed by the glass from the interrogation window. Thin lines of blood began to drip down the sides of his face. It took a minute for Elliot to even register that the explosion had stopped.
"Elliot, can you hear me?" Cragen's face appeared before his own, but it took a moment for Elliot to register who it was. Cragen had a thin cut above his eyebrow and other minor scrapes. He seemed to have faired a little better than Elliot.
"Yeah," Elliot responded drowsily.
Cragen looked concerned, but the need to find out the extent of what happened was imperative. "Elliot stay here. Don't move!" Elliot watched dreamily as Cragen made his way to the hole where the door used to be. The white door jam was charcoal black and the door had been completely thrown off its hinges, burned extensively where the bomb had been. Something seemed to click within Elliot's head and he his heart rate quickened. Olivia. He struggled to his feet, glancing through the broken glass window, where he could clearly see Cragen making his way towards the far wall.
He was unsteady on his feet, but he needed to see if she was alright, he was going to see. He walked into the room and instantly saw Morgan's form crumpled against the back wall. From what Elliot could see, he seemed relatively unharmed, which made Elliot's anger rise, but then he turned to where Cragen was now kneeling on the floor. The sight made Elliot choke.
Olivia lay on the ground, still in the chair, but resting on its left side. Thick streams of blood came from a wound from an unseen wound in the back of her head, almost looking like tangled strands of red hair. Her wrists were cut up badly from the strain the handcuffs had put on her skin. Her left eye was swollen shut, a nice purple bruise was forming on her jaw line, and her neck was bruised in the distinctive pattern of the chain between the handcuffs. The worst part, to Elliot at the moment, was that from where he stood, he couldn't tell if she was breathing.
"Elliot!" Elliot turned sharply to look at Cragen, whose anxious expression seemed to reveal that he had tried more than once to get Elliot's attention. "Call for a bus!" Elliot nodded, barely registering what he said. He knew that he needed to move, do what Cragen asked him to do, but he couldn't. What if he left and she died? He wouldn't be able to take that.
"Elliot! Go!" Elliot nodded, reality bringing him to his senses. He forced his eyes away from Olivia's body and backed away towards the door. Just as he entered the hallway, he caught sight of a paramedic with a stretcher entering the room.
"Over here!" Elliot called, catching the man's eyes. The man was about to come forward when Sergeant Jabbers came running down the stairs, his face black with soot.
"I need a medic!" the paramedic looked at the two of them. Then turned to Sergeant Jabbers and said, "Another one will be here in a minute." The medic continued in the direction towards Elliot.
"He's not breathing!" The paramedic looked at Elliot, who really had to fight his desire to force this man to see Olivia, but Olivia could wait for the next paramedic, at least he hoped she could.
The paramedic gave Elliot a sympathetic look before following Sergeant Jabbers upstairs. Thankfully, the wait was not long, just as the paramedic had promised. He followed Elliot down the hall. At first he made a motion to go towards Morgan, but Elliot made sure to direct him to Olivia first. The man knelt down beside Olivia, checking her pulse and looking her over.
"Do you have keys to these cuffs?' He asked. Cragen nodded, pulling out the set that was common to all the cuffs used for the SVU and handing them to the paramedic. He gently took the cuffs off, and quickly cleaned the wounds before wrapping them hastily, but expertly, in gauze.
"How is she?" Elliot couldn't help but ask. The avoidance of any such answers was driving him crazy.
"It's too hard to tell. Her injuries will be investigated and monitored further when we get to the hospital." When the preliminary care was done, the paramedic lowered the stretcher so that it was at ground level. "I need one of you to support her feet." Elliot made a move to help, but Cragen was closer. Together, the paramedic and Cragen lifted Olivia's body and put her gently on the stretcher. After she was comfortably on, the paramedic raised the stretcher to its normal height and placed an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth. Elliot couldn't help but notice how frail she looked. How vulnerable she had been over the last few hours.
"I'll send another paramedic in to look him over," the paramedic said, gesturing to Morgan's form.
Elliot wished he could tell the man not to worry about it, but he knew they were just doing their job. They couldn't choose who to save or who to let die. Every person was a patient, despite what they might have done.
"I'm sending Detective Elliot Stabler with her. He can answer any questions about her history," Cragen explained to Elliot's surprise. A look of understanding passed between the two for a moment, before Elliot followed the paramedic out of the room.
As they walked, Elliot felt like he was in some sort of a dream. The precinct was a mess. Nothing was in its right place, debris was everywhere, and there wasn't a single person sitting at one of the desks. It gave the impression almost of a freshly deserted ghost town.
The three of them headed out the front door and were almost down the front steps of the precinct before Munch and Fin caught sight of them.
"Elliot!" Elliot turned around to face them as Munch and Fin caught up with him. The paramedic meanwhile, took the opportunity to load Olivia up into the ambulance.
"Olivia?" Fin demanded as he watched the paramedic.
"I dunno," Elliot answered sorrowfully, wishing he could say something more optimistic.
"Are you riding?" The paramedic asked Elliot as he stepped out of the back. Elliot nodded before turning back to Munch and Fin.
"Go, we'll see if Cap needs our help and then be there as soon as we can," Fin explained.
"I'll call you if there's any change," Elliot called just before the doors slammed shut. As soon as they did, Elliot's attention turned to Olivia.
The bruises on her face really stood out in contrast to her white complexion and it scared him. He'd seen a number of victims, countless murders, rapes, and other acts of violence, but none of those cases seemed as horrible, or even relatable to how he felt looking down at Olivia's fragile form at this moment. He wanted to reach out and take her hand, but the condition of her wrists scared him. He was worried that he would somehow injure her more if he were to reach out and touch her.
The paramedic who had been working on her and analyzing Olivia's stats finally came to a stop to stare at him. The look in Elliot's eyes being too sentimental for a simple partner relationship became the basis to his question.
"Is she your wife?"
Elliot looked up at the paramedic, slightly surprised, but he didn't answer. Instead he changed the subject. "How is she?"
"Stable for right now. The concern right now is for the possibility for concussion. Can you tell me about any of these other injuries?" Elliot looked sadly down at where her shirt had slightly revealed a small section of her bruised stomach. He painfully gave a brief summary of the events that had transpired within the last few hours.
The paramedic nodded matter-of-factly, as if to agree that the story was consistent with her wounds. "Then we maybe looking at some broken ribs." Silence fell between the two men and Elliot kept his eyes focused on Olivia, relieved to just be near her and knowing that he could now protect her when he couldn't before. Elliot made a solemn problem with himself that Olivia would never be in a situation like that ever again. He was going to make his duty to protect her.
"How do you do it?" The paramedic's question caught Elliot by surprise and he shifted his gaze momentarily to the paramedic.
"Do what?" Elliot asked.
"You're SVU, right?" Elliot nodded. "You see beaten women and broken kids everyday. How do you do it?"
"I could ask you the same thing," Elliot said with a shrug turning his focus to Olivia.
"But only for a moment. I see them, but I don't get to know them. I don't always have time to listen to all their stories, nor do I have to deal with the people who put them in my care, at least most of the time."
Elliot looked over at Olivia. He really didn't know how he did it. It was hard. He knew he always told Olivia not to make it personal, but he knew that she couldn't help it. Every case was personal. Learning about the victims, or having to deal with some perves who deserved the death sentence get off free, few methods really remained for them to detach themselves from their victims.
"At the end of every day, you don't always catch the bad guy, but those times when you know you saved a child from abuse, or manage to put a rapist behind bars really makes up for all the down times." Elliot let the last of his words taper off to a whisper as he reached a hand to Olivia's forehead and gently pushed back her hair.
The paramedic watched Elliot as the ambulance began to slow. "Just remember, you can only do so much." The ambulance came to a stop and almost immediately the doors were thrown open. Elliot jumped out as the paramedic got behind the stretcher as he helped lower it towards the awaiting doctors waiting on the ground. As soon as the stretcher landed, the doctors began pushing the stretcher into the Emergency Room. Elliot tried to follow, but one of the doctors who noticed him pulled him aside.
"Let's get you cleaned up, detective."
"I'm fine," Elliot said, shrugging off the doctor and walking into the ER.
"Is she you're partner?"
"Yes."
"Well, I can assure you that she's in great care, but you won't be allowed in there while they check her out, so I suggest you use some of your waiting time to get cleaned up, okay?"
Elliot finally consented and followed the doctor towards the reception desk. "Mary, you got a examining room open?" The doctor asked one of the nurses at the desk.
"Sure do. Room six." The doctor nodded her thanks and was about to lead Elliot towards room six when the doors opened again wheeling another stretcher. Elliot recognized the man instantly. It was Morgan. Infuriated at the idea that these people were going to try and resuscitate such an evil man, Elliot jumped in front of the stretcher.
"Where are you taking him? This man does not deserve to be saved!" The doctors and nurses pushing the stretcher looked surprised.
"Sir, you need to get out of the way."
"This man is a criminal, not a patient."
"Sir, right now he's in our custody, not police custody. You need to move out of the way."
"Come along, Detective." Elliot allowed himself to be lead away from Morgan, but he watched him being led away with angry eyes. "Have a seat." Elliot blindly sat himself on one of the beds as the doctor investigated his injures.
"I take it that that was the man who injured your partner?" Elliot didn't say anything. "I know you probably think it's horrible that we have to treat everyone. Give everyone a chance to survive even if they don't deserve it, but everyone needs to have a chance to live. Some people actually learn their lesson from it." She reached for the rubbing alcohol and some gauze and cleaned the minor scrapes that covered his face.
"A few days ago we had a DUI in here. The guy was so wasted he crossed the median and hit a woman who was driving in the opposite direction. We did our best to save the women but she died an hour after she arrived here. The man survived with a minor concussion. He was in and out of consciousness the whole time though. Kept saying 'I'm sorry' over and over again. All the apologies in the world aren't going to bring the woman her life back, but it's fair to say that I think that man learned his lesson. Granted, he learned it the hard way and at the risk to someone else, but we can only hope that that'll mean he'll help teach someone else the easy way." She grabbed a Band-Aid and placed it over one of his deeper cuts. "All done."
"You're pretty optimistic for a doctor, who sees many people dying everyday," Elliot pointed out.
"You've got to be sometimes. If you let all the negative stuff overwhelm you, there won't be anyway to last a day in this job, but I'm sure I don't have to tell you that. I hope you're partner's okay. Have a good night, Detective." Elliot nodded and placed his head in his hands. No, she didn't have to tell him that, but it was getting harder and harder for Elliot to believe that at the moment.
Elliot was suddenly caught of guard by the vibrating of his phone. He reached into his pants pocket and pulled it out, figuring it was probably Cragen wanting an update. "Stabler."
"Daddy! Oh, thank God! I saw it on the news—Where are you? Are you okay?" Elliot instantly recognized the voice of his eldest daughter.
"Whoa, it's okay, Maureen. I'm at the hospital but I'm alright."
"What happened?" Elliot looked up and his eyes meet those of Captain Cragen, who had just entered the hospital.
"I don't have time to explain right now, honey, but I'll call you back later."
"Okay, Daddy. Bye."
"Bye, sweetie." Elliot slammed the lid to his flip phone and then walked over to Cragen.
"How you doing, El?" Cragen asked as soon as he walked over.
"I'm fine, but I haven't heard anything about Olivia." Cragen nodded distantly. Elliot could tell that he was worried.
"What happens now?" Elliot asked, anxious to do anything.
"We wait."