Hi Followers. I started this story ahhh….like 10 years ago LOL, and I'm revisiting it, and hopefully can give it a proper ending. I did make some edits to the story as a whole, because some of those chapters were a dang mess. Sorry y'all. LOL. But tried to keep it as close to my original idea as possible. That being said, I'm going in a new direction with it, since so many things are different on the show now. Bear with me.

Also, FYI sidenote: I started writing this chapter in google docx. Had no idea it was the 15th chapter. Named the chapter over there, etc. I went to publish this in fanfic and realized that it was the 15th chapter, and I named and based this chapter off of the fact percentages that I found when I was researching cancer and comas. 15%. Um...it's a weird freaky coincidence IMHO. If you play the lottery and you're reading this, you may want to play the number 15. LOL. Secondly, I am referencing a few older episodes. "Smoked", which is my least favorite episode due to it being the end of Elliot Stable. And Episode "Zebras". And if you haven't watched Zebras a while, you should. It's a great season finale. Anyway, the long awaited 15th Chapter. Enjoy.

15%

Time had passed since the migraine ER visit. Elliot foggily walked through a daily grind of juggling work, family, and caring for Olivia. It was one of his first days back to the Precinct in months and the day was easy for the most part. The team welcomed him back with smiles, but they could tell he was living in a hell. He looked like he hadn't slept in over a year. The circles under his eyes were black.

He finished up his final bit of paperwork for the day and headed out of the precinct. The elevator was ready before he even reached the button, and in a fog turned the corner and pounded the dirty New York sidewalk as he quickly texted. "On my way home. See you in 15."

A familiar homeless lady appeared before him as he pressed send. He now knew that her name was Carol.

"Hi Carol, how are you?"

"He's killed my baby. He's taken her. She's gone. Gone. Gone."

He brushed her to the side, as this was her typical story everytime she went too long without meds or food.

This time however, she reached for her filthy jacket pocket and pulled out a handgun. Elliot froze, but she gave no rhyme or reason, she just fired the gun at his chest. In slow motion he fell to the ground, ears ringing. His soul lifted up past his body and watched as a swarm of people came racing from the building to assist him.

SCENE

Elliot blinked his eyes opened. The light was bright. He didn't know where he was, and he couldn't move. But he could hear.

"Elliot? Elliot, can you hear me? He's coming out of the coma. Elliot."

His eyes looked at the people in the room, but his brain couldn't process what he was seeing, and they closed again. Before falling back into a coma he could vaguely hear voices in the room.

"Stand back Mrs. Stabler. Let me check his vitals. Elliot, can you open your eyes again?"

"Daddy, I love you."

"I love you, Elliot."

He could feel people touching his hands and then he fell back into darkness.

FLASHBACK

Elliot and Oliva sat in a cancer specialists office. The doctor sat across a big desk from them, explaining the options.

"Olivia has what we call stage 1 Anaplastic astrocytoma. It is an aggressive cancer and we do need to remove it as soon as possible. There is a 15% chance of a 5 year mortality rate if it comes back. And 58% chance of us removing it and it never growing back."

Elliot grabbed Olivia's hand and gently rubbed the tips of her fingers with his thumb. They sat in silence nodding.

SCENE

Hospital room. Elliot lays on the bed.

"Mrs. Stabler, we are going on week 3. He does have brain activity and can probably hear you. But once we get past the week 2 mark the percentages of him coming out of this gets lower and lower. There is a 15% chance of him coming out of this with normal brain activity."

Someone was sobbing in the chair next to him.

Another voice could be heard next to her. "Is there anything we could be doing to help him come out of the coma?"

"Unfortunately, no. Just continue to talk to him."

"It's okay. It's okay, Elliot is a fighter, Kathy. He's a fighter."

It was her voice.

He wanted to talk or move, but he couldn't. He couldn't speak her name. He couldn't touch her hand.

"LIV!," he screamed in his mind.

FLASHBACK

"She's a fighter. She's going to kick the shit out of this cancer," Fin said as he padded Elliot on the back in the hospital room.

The whole squad was sitting in the waiting room for the results of Olivia's surgery. Lake had a giant cat balloon that said "hang in there" on it. Cragen slammed his second donut. Casey was on the phone in the corner doing business as usual, but from the hospital. Munch read the paper. Olivia's brother was even there. He held a bouquet of flowers and watched television in silence. Elliot paced.

He looked at the makeshift family and felt blessed to have them all there. Olivia was taking this news of cancer and surgery far better than he thought she would after their meltdown in the ER last week, and he kept on a good game face for her, but he was a mess inside. His mind was riddled with anxiety.

Finally the doors opened and the doctor came out.

"She's awake. Her vitals are perfect. The surgery was a success. I'll have Mr. Benson go in first, but if she's up for visitors, you can all go in," he smiled.

The whole room breathed in deep and held back the urge to point out the doctor's name mistake.

"See that, Mr Benson," Finn mocked. "She's a fighter."

Elliot shook his head in relief. He wished he had an ounce of humor in his body to laugh at that name slip, but he let it slide and went back to Olivia's room.

"I'll text you when she's ready."

Elliot rounded the corner of the hospital room to see Olivia laying still on the bed.

"You awake?"

SCENE

Hospital. Elliot's room

"Kathy, are you awake?"

"Huh?," Kathy shot up as Olivia startled her from an uncomfortable nap.

"Why don't you go home for a bit. Take a shower, be with the kids, get some sleep in a real bed. I can sit here. I'll keep you updated," Olivia said as she sat down next to Elliot on the other side of the bed and took her coat off.

"You're right," Kathy yawned. She gathered her things and headed for the door. "Call me if anything changes."

Liv stood up and held Elliot's hand. The room was quiet except for the breathing machine.

"Just me and you now, El," she softly spoke and watched his face as the machine moved his lungs up and down.

"I miss you so much, but you just take your time." She held back tears. It was the first time she'd gotten the room to herself with him and the moment hit her in the gut. A tear rolled down her face. "eh…god..El, I'm so sorry I couldn't keep that bullet from hitting your chest. If you can hear me, I want you to know that you are the single most important person in my life, and I don't know what I would do without you," She sobbed. Words were stuck in her throat for a moment. "It's selfish, I know, but I need you to wake up."

Elliot could hear her but could not react. He tried to blink his eyes open.

"El? Are you awake?

FLASHBACK

Elliot sat next to a hospital bed in the middle of Olivia's Apartment. He fed her ice chips. Her body was thin, frail, her hair was gone. He placed a wrap on her head to keep it warm and tried to give her some make up every morning, to make her feel normal, but she was a shell.

Casey was on the other side of her bed. She was staring out the window trying to come up with small talk to keep the two of them from thinking about the inevitable.

"Lake and I finally moved in together."

"That's great," Elliot smiled wearily.

"Yeah, I made him move to my place. More closet space. Did you ever get the maid to organize Liv's closet?"

Elliot was in a haze. He watched Liv breathing and blinking. She had stopped talking a few days ago, which was not a good sign. She might as well already be gone, and he knew it. The cancer had grown too quickly. He wasn't ready to give her up, but this was not his Olivia.

"El?," Casey broke him of his thoughts.

"Ah..yeah, I haven't done anything about her things. Eh…this is so hard, Casey. We're just waiting for her organs to fail, and it's just …I just.. I can't-" He started sobbing and Casey ran to his side and held him like a baby.

"I know, I know," she cried too. "It's okay. It's okay."

SCENE

Elliot's Hospital Room.

Liv took the bottle of moisturizer from his side table and started to put some around the dry areas of his face and hands.

"Okay, Okay, let's see, what kind of mundane thing can I tell you about today. Fin is dating a woman. Phoebe something. I met her briefly the other day. Apparently they were old partners. He's really happy. Cragen might be retiring soon. Not sure what I'll do without Cragen. But I get it. He's tired. He's thinking of moving to Florida. Why do people do that? I don't think I could ever move to Florida. I would miss Broadway musicals and fall leaves way too much."

Elliot blinked a little, and focused and stopped his eyes on her face.

"El?" She whipped the moisturizer on her pants in shock. Her fingers feeling his hairline and his warm features. "Elliot, all you have to do is open your eyes."

His eyes opened and he looked at her. She jumped inside a little. "Huh! Can you see me?"

He blinked. She squeezed his hand and he squeezed it back. Tears rolled down Olivia's face.

"Oh my god. Hi. Do you know where you are? Don't try to talk. Just squeeze my hand if you know who I am."

She could see he was coming to and fully confused, he squeezed her hand..

"You're in the hospital. Elliot, you were shot by Dale Stucky. You've been in a coma for 3 weeks. Kathy! Hang on, I have to text Kathy."

She reached for her phone to text, and Elliot was now moving parts of his whole body in confusion. He wanted the breathing tube out of his mouth, but he couldn't take it out. He grabbed Olivia's arm and squeezed it and pointed to the notepad on the side table.

"What? You want to talk. Okay! Okay here," she handed him the pad and he scribbled.

Dale Stucky? Shot by Carol the homeless lady.

Olivia held his hand tightly. "Homeless lady?"

He wrote again.

Cancer. Is the Cancer gone?

Olivia looked at him confused. "No. El, you don't have cancer. You were shot. It nicked a piece of your heart. You were put into a coma and you've been under for 3 weeks.. Dale Stuckey was the new CSU tech. He killed Ryan in Forensics, and had you taped to a chair. I tried so hard to stop him, but the gun went off and…"

All of the sudden Elliot's mind was clear. It all came back to him like a shot to the chest…again. The central park case. The image of Olivia kissing Dale. Kathy was still his wife. Olivia was alive. He didn't live with Olivia. They hadn't made love or shared their deepest thoughts. There was no Cancer. And everything he had thought about his new life with Olivia was all a dream.

He quickly scribbled again before reality could fully take over.

I love you.

Olivia was silent. She whispered back "Okay…me…me too. To you."

He wanted to scream. He wanted to die. His stress levels started to go up and his heart monitor beeped.

Kathy rounded the corner with a nurse and before he could say or do anything Olivia was being told to leave the room as Kathy kissed him on the cheeks and medical professionals messed with his machines.

His soul wanted to fall into a deep dark hole again as Olivia walked away from them out of the room.

SCENE

A month later Elliot was back on the job, his health was in perfect condition, but his soul was never the same again. He would still find himself wanting to reach out and touch the small of Olivia's back, or kiss her on the cheek. The coma dreams were so vivid that they seemed real to him, and he couldn't get over it. The tension and denial made him grow dark. Ate at him from the inside out.

He longed to break free of everything and snuggle up with her in her tiny apartment on that big fluffy white couch talking about everything but diapers and house chores, making intense soul binding love, and watching old reruns of "Mash" and "Moon Lighting". He'd try to feel the same for Kathy at night, but the conversation was so hard to remain engaged in. She hated Mash and Bruce Willis. She didn't want to hear about his day. The sex was one note. The date nights…predictable. The constant fighting and bickering. The kids…always there, always loud, always interrupting his thoughts.

The days grew long.

He thought going to work would make the day better, and it did for a while. He and Liv could always find ways to brush up against each other, hold each other's gaze, have lunch dates, coffee dates, and sometimes late night Chinese at the precinct, the conversation was easy, and those moments were enough to bring him some hope, but at the end of the day, he was walking through the motions and giving everyone around him 15%, and for that, he hated himself.

Then one day he was cutting his grass and he got a phone call.

"Elliot," Kathy yelled from the porch. "Phone."

He whipped the sweat from his brow and grabbed the old wireless phone that used to be white, but was now a hue of dusty yellow. "This is Elliot."

A woman was on the other line. "Hi, It's Jasmin Jacobs. We met at the task force convention last month."

"Ahh…OH! Yes. Private security Jasmin."

"Yes. I'm going to be in town this week. Wondered if we could meet up for coffee."

"Why? You got a job for me?"

"Ah…well, yes I do."

"Not interested."

"Wait, Elliot! Don't hang up."

"Listen, you're sweet, but I like my job and I'm married, so no need for coffee.."

Jasmin laughed. "Yes, I am also married. Look, I'm desperate to fill this position and you would be the perfect candidate. Just come and hear me out."

"Ah…I don't know."

"The pay is four times what you're making now, and no IAB down your back every time your gun is fired."

He paused.

"...Sounds too good to be true."

"Listen, just think about a meet up. I'll text you next week."

"Okay…"

"Until then."

"Have a good one."

Elliot looked down at his old phone and his ratty tennis shoes and indulged in thoughts about how nice it would be to have more money. How great it would be to hire someone else to cut the grass. Maybe buy a boat and take his mom and the kids out on the ocean. He might even enjoy a new job.

And then Olivia texted him. "I'm on my way in. Fin got a lead on Jenna's case. Can you meet us?"

SCENE

Cragen brought Elliot and Olivia into his office while forensics and the morgue cleaned up the precinct. A young girl named Jenna had just brought a gun into the precinct and shot at the perps in the cage. Bullets everywhere. Innocent people. Elliot fired his glock to stop the girl from shooting at Olivia. The three of them sat in silence for a second, blood on their clothes.

"Let's go over the facts again," Cragen muttered.

"Cap, it was a clean shot," Liv sighed. "He had no other choice. I should have never showed her the men in the cage. It was my fault. This would have never happened."

"Don't blame yourself, Liv," Elliot whispered and he looked at his wrist watch. "Ah…I need to get out of here. I can't go over the details again. I'm gonna clean up and head out. I'll talk to IAB when I'm ready to come back."

He placed his gun and shield on Cragen's desk and turned to leave.

Olivia grabbed his hand. "Call me later if you need to talk."

He nodded and took one final look into her brown eyes before turning his back and leaving the precinct. He sat in his car alone for a long time in silence before picking up his phone and texting Jasmine Jones.

"Let me know when we can get coffee."