icedogfan - Thanks a bunch. Here's the next chapter, for ya.
Riplee - Poor Olivia. She would realize something so important, so very late. Thanks.
When the paramedics had finally arrived, Elliot had nearly lost it. Despite the situation, he fought down the urge to cry and curse, like some child. He had to stay calm, focused, alert. Rogers was still out there. He could show up at any moment to finish them off, though he knew that wouldn't happen. But the cop in him, forced him to be ever weary. Rogers was long gone by now. He knew that. He had shot Olivia to help further the distance.
Rogers had shot her.
There was so much blood. Such deep, dark red against such light, gray concrete. It was so contradicting ; so ugly. Elliot could hardly stand it. He had flown to her out of instinct, holding pressure to the wound, out of training. Help stop the bleeding. Call for help. Keep her alert. He had done all that. Up to the very end, until she finally blacked out. Her pulse was so faint, he almost wondered if he had imagined it. No, it was there. It had to be there.
The paramedics had ushered him to the side, away from Olivia. Yelling commands to one another, checking various things as they loaded her onto the board, wheeling her away. She had flat-lined once, just inches away from being loaded into the back of the ambulence. Elliot faintly noted that it had a bumper sticker that read "Save a life : Give blood". Olivia's blood was all over that sidewalk. Who was that helping?
"Clear."
Her body jerked so forcefully from that jolt, he swore he could almost feel it. They had put the padles away. That meant she was back again. Dear god, hurry up and get her to a hospital. Without thought he rushed to them, jumping into the back along with her. "I'm riding." Nobody questioned him. As the doors shut behind him, and the paramedic went about surveying her, he pulled out his cellphone. Everything he did was on auto-pilot mode.
"Cragen." Came the gruff voice of their commander. The brass had been riding him lately, so he had been in a foul mood this past week. The Rogers case didn't help any.
"Captain, Olivia's been shot." Elliot heard his voice crack at that statement. He never wanted to utter those words. Ever. "We're on our way to the hospital now." His hands were shaking so badly, he could hardly hold the cellphone to his ear.
There was a long pause on the other end, before Cragen spoke again. "I'll be there in ten." The click told him that the Captain had hung up, so Elliot did the same. His eyes had never left Olivia's face. She looked so tired. She looked so broken. Her skin was pale. Like a corpse. No. He wouldn't think that way. Jesus Olivia, you better pull through.
You and the job. That's all I have left.
- - - - / XXX \\ - - - -
"Where is she?" Cragen had left the 1-6 in a flash, doing well over sixty the entire way to the hospital. This was suppose to be a simple check of a well-known hangout spot of Rogers. What the hell had gone wrong? Roger's wasn't suppose to be armed. Hell, the chances of him being there were one-to-ten, at best. What the hell had happened? This week just wasn't a good week.
The woman at the front desk looked up at him with a very bored expression. Chances were that she dealt with overly-stressed, aggrivated people on a daily basis. However, it also seemed like she wasn't the most people-friendly person, either. "Sir, calm down." Her voice was just as dull as her expression. "Who is it that you're looking for?"
Before Cragen could rip into her, he heard an all-too-familiar voice calling out to him.
"Captain!"
Cragen turned to see Elliot waving him down, and without a second thought for the receptionist, he was already next to Elliot, heavily breathing as he kept pace. "Where the hell is she?" His voice was scratchy. He had obviously done some serious yelling before leaving to the hospital. Probably at Fin and Munch.
"Surgery. We got here about five minutes ago. Went straight into surgery." Elliot didn't miss a beat as they made it to the waiting area, which was currently empty. "Rogers had something on him. I never noticed. Olivia was so far ahead of me, and when we got into the alleyways, we got split up. Shot her in the stomach. Close range, from the looks of it." He leaned against the wall. "She already flat-lined once." The last sentence was a mere whisper. As if saying it quieter, would make it less true. If only that worked.
Cragen rested his hand on Elliot's shoulder. "You did all that you could. We didn't know Rogers was armed. It was suppose to be a simple sweep." He reassured the obviously distraught man. Elliot was more then a detective to Cragen, he was like a younger brother. Olivia? A daughter.
"I should have been there, captain."
- - - - / XXX \\ - - - -
"Olivia Benson's Party?" Called out a female voice. It was the doctor.
They had been waiting for well over five hours. Fin and Munch had headed over as soon as they were done with what business they had, plus what Cragen had asked them to help with while he was gone. Five long hours. It felt like days. Elliot had simply leaned against the wall, defeated in every sense of the word. Cragen sat in one of the numerous chairs, chin resting on his hands as he bored holes through the tiled floor, with his eyes. Munch had paced back and forth, fidgiting with the candybar he had boughten from the vending machine, but never opening it. Fin flipped through the magazines, not paying attention to any of them.
At the sound of the doctor's voice they all were at attention, Elliot immediately on his feet, in front of her. "How is she?" Came his hurried response, eyes searching her. Everyone else remained quiet, awaiting the response. He briefly caught the name tag : Devante Marsden. What kind of name was that?
The doctor cleared her voice, looking over the chart she was carrying. "Detective Benson is in critical condition." She started, stating the obvious. "We managed to remove the bullet from her stomach. Luckily it passed through only muscle, and avoided hitting any vital organs. However, it reached dangerously close to her spine. We were able to stop the bleeding but she lost quite a lot of blood, and transfusions were done." She flipped a few pages over, scanning with her finger. "The fact that she was dehydrated and under-nourished, didn't help anything. However, she made it through surgery and is currently recovering. I figure it will be a two week stay here, along with IV-drips for vitamins and nutrition." She finished, finally.
Everyone remained silent, soaking in the news. Olivia had come too close. They all realized that. Fin sat back down again, running a hand over his face as he let out a long sigh. Jesus.
Cragen spoke up. "The bullet being so close to her spine, will it have any effects?" It worried him. Deeply. The spine was such an important thing, and it was so easily injured. Especially in cases like these. He had been in the force long enough, to know that.
The doctor seemed to think a moment, before shaking her head. "No, we don't believe so. It was far enough away and seems it won't cause any prolonged or permenet damage."
It was Cragens turn to sit down, though he did so more out of relief and exhaustion. She would be fine.
Elliot still looked a bit out of it, as he reeled everything over in his mind. "Is she awake? Can I see her?" He just needed to see her. To make sure she was okay. To make sure this was real and they weren't playing some kind of sick prank on him.
Another shake of the head. "I'm sorry, at this point in time, she can't have visitors. However, first thing tomorrow morning, we'll allow them one at a time. Her body's under a lot of stress."
He nodded slowly, watching the doctor take her leave. Undoing the buttons of his sleeves out of habit, he rolled them up. It was baking inside the small waiting room. But he wouldn't leave. He wouldn't leave until he saw Olivia. He needed to see her.
"Dehydrated?" They all almost didn't catch it at first, it had been spoken so softly. "Under-nourished?" Munch was still standing, staring at the floor, the wheels in his mind spinning much too quickly for his liking. "She had been looking paler lately, but I chalked it up to stress from the Roger's Case."
It finally hit Elliot, that the doctor had mentioned that. When was the last time he had actually seen Olivia eat something? It had to be, what? Monday? It hadn't even been that much. Just a simple granola bar. Olivia hated granola bars. Monday? Jesus, it was already Saturday. He couldn't even remember the last time he had seen her drink something. Just what else had he missed?
"Olivia..." It was an unheard whisper.
- - - - / XXX \\ - - - -
She couldn't open her eyes.
It just took too much energy. Energy that she didn't have right now. She couldn't feel anything. She couldn't even feel herself breathing. Was she breathing? Because if this is what Heaven felt like, then she was already fed up with it. Everything felt so surreal. She couldn't think straight. Elliot South Avenue. Why was that so important? Why did it keep appearing in her thoughts. Elliot? No, his arm was broken. Wait, that wasn't right. He was going the wrong way anyways, it didn't matter.
She wanted to open her eyes.
So much work to do. There was something important she had to do. Someone she needed to see? Someone she needed to talk to? No, somebody she needed to catch? She didn't know anymore. All she knew, was that she couldn't open her eyes. She couldn't move. She couldn't even talk. She felt so useless. Where was she?
She couldn't open her eyes.