"Liv, you need to stay with me, the bus will be here any minute." Elliot held one of Olivia's hands in his. "Stay awake."
"Yeah, stay awake, Livvy." Megan repeated in a small voice. He could see small rounded tears, in her pajama top, with blood staining the edges of the holes.
Elliot got his first good look at the little girl. She had a round face and her eyes were small and closely set and light brown hair. Even though she looked nothing like the image that he had of Olivia when she was a child, Megan held the same haunted look in her eyes that his partner had in hers.
Was this child's life a deeper look into Olivia's childhood? He wondered, not for the first time this morning, how much he really knew about her past. He knew that her mother was often verbally abusive and neglectful, leaving Olivia alone for long periods of time, but he never suspected physical abuse.
"So tired, El." Olivia's voice was barely above a whisper.
"I know you're tired Liv, but you need to stay awake for m…us." He offered Megan a smile. He was rewarded in turn with a smile from her.
"So…tired…" Olivia's eyes rolled back in her head as her eyes closed. Elliot and Megan felt her hand go slack in theirs.
"Liv! Olivia wake up honey, you need to wake up." Elliot fought down his rising panic.
"I've got the paramedics. How's she doing?" Officer Mathews bounded down the stairs with two paramedics and a stretcher right behind him.
Before Elliot could respond one of the paramedics nudged him aside and began to take Olivia's vitals. The second paramedic placed himself between Megan and Olivia.
This caused Megan to start panicking. "No, no Livvy! My Livvy," she wailed, pushing the paramedic away.
Elliot decided he had to act quickly. "Hey, hey it's okay. These people are here to help Olivia."
"No I'm scared, I want to stay with her!"
"Megan, do you have a best friend?"
"Yes, my Braveheart Lion."
"You wouldn't want anything to happen to him, would you?"
"No," she sniffled.
"Well Olivia is my best friend and I don't want anything to happen to her, can you understand that?"
"She's your best friend? Does that mean that you're here for me too?"
"Yeah and I will do anything in my power to make sure no one hurts you like this again."
" Promise? I'll tell Livvy if you don't!"
"I promise and maybe these guys can help us out a bit." Elliot looked at the paramedics. "Megan needs to have her cuts looked at by a doctor. If she sits in my lap and doesn't interfere can we ride in the ambulance with Detective Benson?" Both men agreed as long as they stayed out of the way.
"Megan, where's you lion?" Elliot asked. He didn't want to leave Liv, but he thought the girl might need a little distraction.
"He's in my room."
"Why don't we go get him while they get Olivia ready?"
Megan looked up at Elliot for a few moments until she tentatively slid her hand into his and headed for the stairs.
"Keep an eye on Detective Benson," Elliot told Officer Mathews.
"Yes Sir!" he replied.
Elliot called Cragen and gave him a condensed version of what happened. He and Megan arrived back downstairs as they were taking Olivia out the front door with Mathews closely following.
"Thank you Officer Mathews, you've been a great help today, I'll be sure and let the right people now, and I know Detective Benson appreciates your help too." Elliot shook his hand then went into the ambulance with Megan.
Once the ambulance arrived at the hospital and Olivia was rushed away, Elliot was faced with a new problem; Megan was loudly protesting being seen by the doctor.
"No I won't let him look at me. I'm fine."
"Megan he needs to look at your cuts and make sure that your okay."
"No, mommy will be really mad if I show anyone else."
"Show someone else what honey?"
"Nothing. I want to see my mommy, she needs my help!"
"Megan, your mommy is being looked after by other doctors. You need to let this doctor help you."
"I'm fine, everything's fine. Please don't make me show you. She'll be so mad."
"Your mommy did these things to you, didn't she?"
"No, my mommy doesn't hurt me."
Elliot was becoming frustrated. Suddenly he had an idea. "Megan, remember when you said you'd tell Olivia if I didn't take care of you? Well she will be really mad at me if I don't make sure that you are okay." He could see the fear in her eyes. "I'll explain everything to your mommy and make sure she know it was my idea, okay?
Finally, Megan relented. Elliot felt his fury grow as the doctor uncovered bruises and marks on the girl's body in various stages of healing. He desperately wanted to find this woman and add a few marks to her. He began making a mental note of charges against her mother when his mind wandered back to Olivia as a child. Did she spend her time hiding bruises from other people around her? He shook that thought away; it was too hard to think of while she was hurt and unconscious.
The doctor motioned Elliot aside. "Detective Stabler, Megan shows signs of long-term abuse. Some of the bruising I found could have been three weeks old. I need to notify Children's Services, is there anyone who can take the child or do I need to tell them to find suitable foster care?"
Elliot hadn't thought about that until now. He really didn't want to have to send Megan to foster care. Both he and Liv promised not to let anything bad happen to her. From the way Megan was protecting her mother, he figured being separated from her and put into foster care would be bad. "Doc, can you give me a little while to do some research?"
"I think that would be okay."
"Oh and just a couple more things, my partner was also brought in, can you find out where she is, and can Megan come with me while I check on her?"
"Yes she can go with you." The doctor smiled while he motioned for a short, older nurse with gray hair. "Detective Stabler's partner was brought in also, would you please locate her?"
"Certainly, what is your partner's name detective?" The woman walked toward a computer.
"Benson. Olivia Benson."
"Oh yes, I think I helped check her in. Pretty young brunette with head trauma."
"Yes, that sounds like her."
"Such a pretty girl," the nurse smiled brightly, "She reminds me of my youngest. Are you Elliot Stabler?"
"Yes, I am, why do you ask?" He wished she would hurry up.
"You're down as her emergency contact and next of kin, could I get you to give me a little more information about her medical history and answer a few questions?"
"Uh, yeah, sure. Megan, why don't sit down right there for a minute?" He desperately wanted to get back and see Liv, but he knew these questions were necessary.
He let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding when the nurse was done and told him where to find his partner. When they arrived at her door there were two doctors whispering to each other outside of Olivia's room. One of the doctors stepped forward. "I'm Doctor Andrews, can I help you?"
"Yes, I'm Detective Elliot Stabler, I'm here to see Detective Olivia Benson."
"Let me fill you in a little before you go in. Detective Benson has a significant concussion. She is still unconscious. We also had to put five stitches in the back of her head but there was no fracture."
Elliot laughed to himself. He always said Liv was hard headed.
"We are a little concerned about some swelling in the brain so we are going to be watching her very closely for a while. Now the fall didn't break any bones but her back is pretty bruised up. She's going to be sore for a few days but we can give her something for the pain." Dr. Andrews flipped through her chart. "We've run some standard tests and gotten a few results back, she's showing a low iron count, her blood sugars are noticeably low, and her electrolytes are off, she's also dehydrated. This coupled with a few more test results lead me to conclude that she hasn't been eating or sleeping properly."
Elliot gave the doctor a quick description of a day in the life of an SVU detective and a rundown of what Olivia's last week had been like.
"You really need to take care of yourselves better out there, and your partner really needs to improve or she could find herself right back in here." Andrews scolded.
Elliot nodded and promised they would all try harder, especially Olivia. "Can I see her now?"
The doctors stepped aside to let Elliot and Megan through. Elliot's breath caught when he saw her lying on the hospital bed. She was even paler than she was earlier. She looked… "Looked what?" he asked himself. "Frail." That was the word he was looking for. A word he never thought he would associate with his partner, vulnerable at times, maybe, but frail, never.
"Is she going to be okay?" Megan asked, pulling a chair up to Olivia's bedside.
"Yeah she's going to be okay. Can you watch her while I make a couple of calls?"
"Okay." She carefully picked up Olivia's hand and held it to her.
Elliot went back out into the hall and dialed his cell phone.
"SVU, Detective Munch speaking."
"Munch, it's Elliot."
"Hey Stabler, how's Benson?" Munch put his phone on speaker.
"She's still out. Doc says they're going to be watching her closely until she wakes up."
"When she does tell her I said to get her little ass back here and finish her own damn paperwork." Fin joked.
"I'll be sure to tell her that and make sure she knows who said it," Elliot chuckled. "Hey Munch, I need you look up something for me. I need to know if there is any family listed for a Rena Gilbert."
"Sure, what's up?"
"Rena is the mother of the abused little girl we got the call on this morning. Liv and I promised to look after her and I'd really hate to see her go to a foster home."
"I'm on it."
"Better send me to the Captain. I better update him on Liv."
"No need," Fin assures, "Dad's already on his way to see his baby girl." They all knew that Cragen felt like they were all his children, but he was especially attached to Olivia.
"Okay, I'll keep you guys posted." Elliot returned to the room. Megan had fallen asleep in her chair but she still had a hold of Olivia's hand. He laid his jacket overtop the girl, then got his own chair and set it on the other side of the bed.
He watched as a steady steam of medical staff droned by the open door and soon he felt his eyes start to close.
"Elliot." His eyes snapped open and scanned the room. "Hey Don, sorry about that."
The Captain waved it off. "It's almost 10 am, you've already been up for 9 hours and I know you didn't get much sleep the night before either." Cragen looked over at Olivia's unconscious form on the bed. Her skin nearly blended in with the white of the sheets. "She looks…"
Elliot couldn't hear the end of the sentence. "Yeah, I know."
"Has there been any change?" Cragen kept staring at the bed.
"Nothing so far." Elliot moved his chair back to its original spot; the Captain sat down next to him.
"Tell me everything that happened. I especially want to know about the McCabe guy."
Elliot went through the entire morning up to what the doctor had told him, including the lack of proper rest and nutrition. Neither of them knew what to say next so they just sat in silence and waited.
Olivia could hear voices, but could not tell whom they belonged to or what they were saying. Her eyes wouldn't open and her head and back hurt like hell. She wondered where she was and what happened. As she lay there trying to will her eyes to open she began to be able to start to recognize some of the words and sounds.
A young man in scrubs nodded to Cragen and Stabler as he walked in to check on Olivia. He took her vitals then proceeded to write down the information on her chart.
"Well hello Ms. Benson nice to finally see you."
Elliot and Don stood up so quickly that they almost knocked their chairs over.
"Lights, lights," was Olivia's only answer. The nurse turned down the lights for her.
She slowly opened her eyes and tried to focus on her surroundings.
"How are you feeling?" the man in scrubs leaned closer to her.
When she finally realized she was in a hospital, she panicked. "Oh my god I can't be here." She yanked out her IV line and tried to scramble out of bed.
"Ms. Benson you're okay, just please calm down." The nursed grabbed her before she got out of the bed. Cragen and Elliot rushed over to help.
"No let me go, I can't stay here."
"Olivia, please calm down," Cragen pleaded.
"You don't understand, she'll kill me if she finds out that I'm here."
Elliot felt a sick sense of déjà vu wash over him. Olivia sounded like Megan did just a short time ago.
"Livvy don't be upset, please." Megan cried as the three men continued to wrestle the frightened woman.
Elliot knew that Olivia thought she was still living with her mother. He had to bring her back to the present. "Captain order her into your office."
"What? Have you lost your mind?"
"Trust me on this one Cap, just do it like you're angry."
"Detective Benson, I need to see you in my office, now!"
Olivia's dark eyes met Cragen's light ones. Slowly the struggling ceased. "Captain? Elliot?"
"Livvy!" Megan squealed then threw herself into Olivia's arms.
"Megan," she groaned when her body protested the action.
"We have to let this man put Olivia's IV back in and take a look at her." Elliot lifted the little girl up off the bed.
Olivia looked down at her bleeding arm and the spots of blood on her and the three men around her. "Did I do that?"
"You sure did." The nurse laughed as he got a gauze pad and applied pressure to the spot. "Just let me get the bleeding stopped then I'll get someone to restart the IV and get the doctor."
Olivia nodded, but immediately regretted it. "Oh that was so stupid." She lay back down on the bed.
The nurse got the bleeding stopped and cleaned up her arm before leaving. A woman from the lab came in and restarted the IV while Doctor Andrews checked Olivia out.
Cragen, Stabler, and Megan stepped out into the hall to give her a little privacy.
"What the hell was all that about in there?" asked Cragen.
"Hey Megan, are you hungry?"
"Yes," she said shyly.
"Let's go see what's in the machines." Cragen waited as Elliot got a soda and some chips for Megan. "I have to talk to my boss for a minute, you sit here and eat, I'll be just down there."
Once they were out of earshot, Elliot told Cragen about Olivia's explanation of the toothpick on the door, the similar haunted looks in their eyes, and Megan's reaction to being examined.
He didn't express his suspicion about Liv being physically abused but he could see the thought in Cragen's sad eyes.
"When can I go home?" Olivia asked when the doctor finished.
"Barring any unseen complications you can go home tomorrow but I'd like you to stay off work for a few days."
"Tomorrow? Why not today?" she complained.
"You have a concussion to start with. Second your body is very weak and run down. I need to make sure that your blood work is okay before I let you go."
She started to sit up and continued her protest when her head and back screamed in pain.
"Oh and you're going to be sore." Andrews quiped.
As if on cue, the male nurse returned to the room with pain medication and injected it into her IV. "This will make you sleepy."
Olivia could already feel the effects of the medication when Don, Elliot, and Megan returned. The last thing she remembered was the doctor telling them the same thing he just told her.