AN: Thanks for the reviews. About the format of the first part, all I can say is sorry, but it was either put it up as it was or throw the whole computer and story out the nearest window. The story resisted being put up for others to read. Anyway thanks for the reviews and I hope that this is as good as the first part. As you can see this story has a long way to go.
His wife was dead.
His children had lost their mother.
His partner was fighting for her life.
The doctors were trying to prepare them for the worst.
But he was hoping for a miracle.
Those that knew them were all worried about what would happen next.
The signs had been there, but nobody had seen them for what they really were at the time. Passing something off as just a bad day or mood. But hind sight was a wonderful tool that could twist and sometimes break a soul. It had a tendency to haunt a person throughout the rest of their lives.
Then after it was all done and nothing could be changed there was always one more question to ask that often had no answer.
The worst question that could be asked.
Why?
God, he wished that things had not come to this. Yes it was true that he and Kathy were divorced. The final decree had been signed, sealed and delivered not two days before his world crashed and burned and his time in hell began.
He chuckled at that, then looked around the room to make sure that he hadn't woken anyone. But Maureen was still sleeping on the couch in the room, and the only other person there was in a coma.
Hell.
Yep.
He'd grown up a good catholic boy, had gone to church every Sunday when he could, and had the good old christen values drummed into him. One of the biggies, divorce was a sin. And boy how he'd blown that one to hell and back. But it hadn't been him who had demanded the divorce, hell he'd tried to fix his marriage, but some things just can't be fixed.
Olivia had been there for him through it all, as a friend, a sounding board, to help clean up his messes, and to help him heal. She was a wonderful person, who deserved all the good that the world had to offer. But it always seemed to miss her, and the crap always seemed to find her instead.
An now this.
He stood and stretched, hearing his back cracking back into place, then walked over to his daughter. He crouched down to pick up the blanket she had kicked off, and smoothed some hair off of her face. She was his princess, and god how he loved her. Just one smile for her or any of his kids could make the worst days better. He gently tucked the blanket around her and placed a tender kiss on her forehead. This was the longest that she had slept in over a week without waking up screaming, and for that he was glad.
He paced around the room to relieve his muscles, but nothing could stop his mind from running.
All they could do now was wait.
And the waiting was killing them all slowly.
They had waited to hear what had happened as they sped back from their retreat.
They had waited to hear any news about what had happened when they found out that Kathy had gone after Olivia.
They had waited to hear what had happened in the apartment.
Then the waiting had really begun. They waited at the hospital to identify Kathy's body, to hear if the shoot had been cleared, if Olivia would make it to the hospital in time, and then while she had been treated in the ER. Then it had been upstairs to wait in the surgical ward while the doctors frantically tried to save her life. The wait to hear if she made it through the surgery, and then the wait to see if she would wake up from the anaesthetic. Then the news that she was in a coma, and still may not make it had nearly broken them all.
They had all been there, Cragen, Munch and Fin had stood together, close to where he had stood, surrounded by his kids. His parents and the rest of his family had arrived soon after they had taken Olivia up to theatre, and soon after that Kathy's parents and her brothers family had also arrived. They had made an unusual group, others had drifted through to try and find out the latest, but any who weren't there for Olivia soon left them alone and went to another room to wait for news on their loved ones.
It had been almost surreal to him. They were all in various states of shock, trying to make sense of what had happened but there was no sense to be made. He wasn't sure how Kathy's parents would react to him now that their daughter was dead, he'd been surprised at how they had stood by him when Kathy had demanded the divorce, and how both sides of the family had banded together to help them all. It had been a hard time, but they had made it a little easier by making sure that he knew that they still loved him, even if Kathy didn't. He was still their second son and nothing would change that. But Kathy had still been alive then. It wasn't until the funeral that he realised how lucky he and his children really were. Both his parents and Kathy's had banded together to help him and the kids adjust, making sure that they all had what they needed, that they ate properly, and not just them but also Cragen, Munch and Fin, his extended family.
A small smile passed across his face as he remembered it. That this tragedy, no matter how heart breaking it was, had made a stronger family out of them, and his extended family. They had all taken it in turns in keeping a vigil over Olivia as she fought. Keeping fresh food coming in regularly, offering rides for those who needed to go home and sleep, and always having at least one person at home to keep the place going for the rest of them.
But this nightmare would continue until they knew what the fates had in stall for Olivia.
Would they finally have something to hold onto, to help them heal some of the hurt they were all feeling, or would they have to struggle through yet another funeral for someone that they all loved.
Only two people knew exactly what had happened in Olivia's apartment. One would never speak again, and the other couldn't tell them either. They had spent hours sitting in the hospital room, or waiting rooms trying to piece together what had happened. Looking back it had taken months to build to this point, going back to when Kathy and he were having problems. When he had moved out of the house things had gotten worse, but Kathy had been able to fool most people into believing that everything was fine. But little things would send her into a rage, and then it progressed into her not believing other people, and almost interrogating the kids about where they were and what they were doing. She'd even gone so far as to follow them to try and catch them out.
This had gone on for months before they had come to him asking if they could live with him instead of their mother. He had tried to find out why they all wanted to live with him, but they hadn't wanted to tell him. He'd decided to take them away for a couple of weeks and talk to them, find out what the problem had been and if there was anything he could do. It wasn't that he didn't want them to live with him, far from it, but his work hours were long and often irregular, whereas Kathy could be there for them more, or so he had thought.
They had set off the morning before the shooting, and if things had of gone to plan then they would only have gotten back to the city yesterday.
How plans can change.