Slap: Chapter 11

She still had her head down, fingers on her temples when Olvetti heard a commotion down the street, he looked up just in time to see a car careening out of control, heading towards them. He heard the whining screech of metal as the car sideswiped another car and then watched in horror as it barreled right for them. Jumping and hurling himself to the side, he grabbed Olivia's arm and flung her ahead of him, out of the path of the car. He felt his arm sting as the passenger side mirror hit him. He watched in horror, things moving too fast to react, as the bumper of the car clipped Olivia's side, spinning her around and increasing her momentum, sending her headfirst into the brick building behind them. The old, blue sedan came to a crunching halt bent around a lightpole 10 feet away. Olvetti picked himself up off the ground, swearing at his arm, bleeding briskly from a cut along the bicep.

In the chaos and screams, he looked around, desperately searching for his partner. He saw her crumpled into a pile against the building, unconscious and bleeding from her temple, head slumped at a funny angle against her shoulder.

Suddenly Olvetti was joining the people yelling, himself screaming into his radio "Officer down! Ped vs Auto. Officer down, corner of 9th and 31st." His breath hitched as he scrambled towards Olivia, who still lay unmoving. "Oh, god! Olivia!" he yelled. The scene buzzed around him, he didn't hear anything else going on around him as he reached her side. Not wanting to move her too much, he looked her up and down. Her head was bleeding, but he didn't see any other injuries on her. He shook her lightly, calling her name. He was pushing on her neck, trying to find a pulse when he felt her stir. He stopped and called her name again. "Olivia! Open your eyes!" he demanded, willing her to wake up.

She stirred again and lifted her head, her eyes fluttering open and then closing tight, forehead creased with pain. She moaned slightly as she shifted position slightly.

"Come on, girl, open your eyes for me," he urged again. He rested her head back against the brick wall and she opened her eyes slowly. She squinted and he saw her forehead crease with pain again as she looked at him. She blinked a few times as if clearing the cobwebs from her eyes.

"There you go," Olvetti said as she focused on him. "Good girl."

"What happened?" she murmured, her words slightly muffled.

"There was a car, it jumped the sidewalk. Do you remember?" he asked her. "Don't try to move yet," he told her, as she started to shift again.

"Yeah, I think so..." she spoke slowly, as if her tongue wouldn't cooperate inside her mouth. "It was a Lincoln. Blue."

He felt a wave of relief wash over him. "That's my girl...almost gets run over but still has time to notice the car was a crummy American model..."

She moved again and winced as her head throbbed. "Shit, Gary..."

"It's okay. Hold on. Does it hurt anywhere else? Your neck, back?" She felt his hands running over her neck, back, legs.

"Stop feeling me up, Olvetti. I think I'm okay. You're bleeding," she said, noticing his bloody sleeve. Her speech was slow, but a little clearer. She moved slightly and he moved to help her up when he heard her groan and her breath hitch. All of a sudden she was bent over on her side, vomiting onto the ground. He let go of her arm and held her shoulders.

When she stopped retching he eased her back against the wall again. "Okay, hold on, we'll just wait for the bus." She looked a little pale, lying with her head tilted back. She vomited once more while they were waiting for the ambulance, groaning as the pain coursed from her head through the rest of her body when her abdomen clenched reflexively.

She laid back and closed her eyes again, the darkness helping her pain.

"Benson, come on, stay with me!" she heard Olvetti calling her. He sounded far away. She struggled to open her eyes again and struggled to speak.

"I didn't want to, Gary," she said, in a foggy-voice. "I really didn't want to. She was so drunk. I couldn't help it." Olvetti patted her awkwardly on the shoulder, looking up the street for the ambulance. Olivia went on, she was starting to slur her words again. "She was going to cut me, I had to. I didn't want to hurt her." That made Olvetti look back at the woman lying on the ground, she was awake, but her eyes looked unfocused. "She had a broken bottle, she was going to cut me. I had to, but I didn't want to. She said no one else could have..." she stopped talking for a minute as she dry-heaved again and groaned. "She didn't mean it." Tears leaked out of the corner of her eyes, either from the retching or the scene inside. Olvetti couldn't tell which.

"She had a gun. She fired. You didn't have a choice. Hey, hey, look at me!" He was trying to get her to focus on him, but she kept closing her eyes.

"She didn't have a gun, she never touched a gun in her life, didn't like it that I did. It was the broken bottle, she came at me, was going to cut me. I swear."

Olvetti breathed a sigh of relief as the EMTs and his Captain showed up simultaneously. She was getting more and more confused, mumbling about a broken bottle and retching every few minutes. His heart was in his throat watching her being loaded onto a stretcher. He distractedly rubbed his hands over his hair. Not even two months and he let's his partner get run over. His captain, Captain Wells, a tall slender black man, stood next to him as he told the medics what he knew. They dove out of the way of the car, it had clipped both of them, he'd been knocked down and then he saw her next to the wall unconscious. She'd woken up after less than 2 minutes he figured, had thrown up multiple times and had been oriented to what had happened but then had gotten progressively more confused. They'd given him a bandage for his arm and told him to go get it check out; he'd probably earned a few stitches.

Wells took him aside and asked him briefly what had happened inside and he'd given a brief version about Olivia's sharp shot. Wells told him Angela Lassley was already at the hospital, didn't even have any deep tissue damage. It was about as clean of a shot as you could get. Olvetti nodded, he'd known it.

Captain Wells asked him "How'd she handle it? The shooting."

Olvetti shrugged. "Fine, I guess. She was allright, kinda subdued, but about what you'd expect. Started to fall apart a little bit at the end. I think this case hit harder than most for some reason. But then the car...Who was the driver?" Wells nodded at him, then gestured towards the ambulance about to take off. "Some drunk a-hole, lost control with the lane closures and hit the gas instead of the break. You go ride along," he gestured towards the ambulance, "I'll meet you there."

Wells watched him climb in and the medics shut the door. He'd been watching his new detective closely to see how she handled this case. He hadn't told anyone, but he'd been the Captain who'd been supervising the officers who had found her mother at the bottom of the subway stairs. The young officer had come to him after finding out the woman's daughter was a detective. He'd found out some of the details and then directed the officer to the 1-6 to inform her captain. He'd never mentioned it to her, figured she didn't need to know, but he'd filed that information away. He figured this case would be tough on her, and he'd been right. He'd also been extraordinarily proud of how she'd handled it. He nodded to himself as the ambulance drove away and turned to the scene to sort out the mess.

In the back of the ambulance, Olivia was becoming more and more restless. She kept pulling off the oxygen mask, pulling at the IVs the medics were putting in. She would respond to her name but was having some trouble answering questions promptly. Even the most basic questions required a lot of thought. She'd retched a couple more times as they'd moved her, but thankfully they'd given her some sort of medication that had helped. The medics had directed him to keep her distracted, keep her interested and awake. They'd asked she had any family and he'd told them he didn't know.

He swore inwardly at himself, how could he not know something so important. He tried to remember if she'd ever mentioned any family and was drawing a blank.

"Hey, Olivia. Olivia look at me." She struggled to open her eyes and focus, face wracked with pain, she tried to sit up again, pulling at her lines and retched convulsively, her stomach now empty. He saw tears leaking out of her eyes again. "I didn't mean to. She wouldn't stop, she was yelling at me...the whiskey...and the broken glass... I hope she's okay," He tried to reassure her, get her mind off of whatever was confusing her. He was pretty sure she wasn't talking about Angela Lassley, it'd been vodka, and there was certainly no threat of being cut by a bottle.

"Hey, now, Olivia...Is there anyone you want me to call?"

She stopped for a second and he started to get nervous that she was losing consciousness again when suddenly she said, "Call Elliot. Please, call him."

"Elliot Stabler? Yeah, okay, we'll find him." Interesting choice, he thought to himself. He knew there was something else going on there.

"No, call Cragen. Cragen will tell him. Call him instead."

"Okay, Benson, you got it, as soon as we get there. You just hang on." Olivia groaned as the ambulance hit a serious of potholes and it jiggled them all around.

The medic turned to Olivia and asked "Hey there, Ms Benson! Look at me."

She turned her head and tried to focus on the chubby Latino medic. "Good! Good. Now, what's your name?" She closed her eyes. 'Why wouldn't they leave her alone? Olvetti could tell them her name.' She felt the medic shake her lightly, "Come on, answer! What's your name?"

"Olivia Benson Number Four Oh One Five" she replied groggily.

"Good, okay," the medic replied. "Now, what city are we in?"

Olivia closed her eyes and groaned again, inwardly she was getting irritated with Olvetti. He was there, she thought, why didn't he answer their stupid questions and why the hell didn't these medics know what city they were in.

"Come on, Liv, just answer them" she heard Olvetti plead.

"New York."

"Okay, good. Now what month is it?"

"Olvetti," she said questioningly, "You tell them. Why don't they know? What's wrong with them? God! It hurts! Tell them to drive slower."

The older detective swallowed a chuckle, he looked at the medic who replied "Well, we'll just say she's oriented."

They pulled into the back of the Emergency Room at Mercy Hospital and Olvetti tried to stay out of the way as the doctors swarmed the gurney as they rolled her inside. A young Latina doctor with black glasses came out and asked him a few questions and he swore inwardly again about how little he'd found out about his new partner. She had explained they were sending her for a Cat Scan to look at her brain, but that she was okay right now. He thanked her and pulled out his cell phone and called his precinct, trying to find someone who could get him the number of a Captain Cragen at the 1-6.

At the 1-6, Elliot was sitting at his desk checking his messages and was about to get up and join Fin in one of the interrogation rooms. As he started walking away, Cragen opened his office, ear stuck to the phone and pointed at him, waving him inside his office. He had a very worried look on his face. Elliot's heart was pounding, his stomach sinking into the floor as he made his way across the room. He hadn't truly thought that Olivia would call Cragen after their fight today. He was full of regret and self-hatred.

Cragen held the door open for him and gestured for him to sit. He was finishing up his conversation. He had a formal tone to his voice. Maybe it wasn't Olivia after all.

"Allright, I understand. I'll let him know. Thank you for calling."

He snapped closed his phone and stood in front of Elliot, leaning his backside against the desk.

"That was a Detective named Gary Olvetti." Elliot's head snapped up.

"Benson's partner? Why is he calling?" Elliot questioned.

Cragen cut him off "You've met him?"

"Just briefly, ran into him and Liv a week or so ago. Why's he calling here?"

"Elliot, there was some kind of incident. An arrest gone bad, shot's were fired."

Elliot swore he felt the blood rush out of his head. His heart was pounding into his throat. 'oh no oh no oh no' The thoughts were rushing into his head. 'Something horrible has happened and I wasn't there, I wasn't there because I am a jerk, an unstable person and the last words I said to her were angry.' He didn't say anything, but must have had a look on his face.

"Elliot!" Cragen called, he snapped back to attention.

"Was she hit?" he managed to croak.

"No, you weren't listening. No one was hurt badly, but a car went out of control and ran down the officers standing on the sidewalk. He says she's okay right now, but she was asking for you." He gave the detective a pointed look.

Elliot was already on his feet. "Where is she?" he asked, already halfway out the door.

"Mercy. Call me and let me know, Elliot!" Cragen called after him as Elliot ran.