Chapter 14

"Detective Stabler?" asked a voice from up above (no, it's not God.) The voice had caused Elliot and Chris to jump, making Elliot smack his head on the bottom of the payphone station. Instead of the old gray-haired doctor that had taken her into surgery, it was a young man, around his age.

"Yes?" asked Elliot, his voice shaking a bit.

"I was told to give you an update on Ms. Benson."

Elliot's face was emotionless, but then again, so was the doctor s, so it was very hard to figure out what was going on.

"She's out of surgery and she's finally stabilized , but we've moved her to ICU. Her fever rose dangerously during surgery, and the infection has spread even more. We're going to keep 24 hour watch on her."

"What do you mean finally stabilized? Did something go wrong in the OR?" asked Elliot, his eyes full of worry.

"Like I said before, her fever rose dangerously high, her blood pressure fell dangerously low, and her heart stopped a couple times. We have her stable for now, but every passing minute is critical," said the doctor, his hands deep in his pockets.

"When can I see her?" he asked.

"They should be taking her to the ICU and minute now. After they get her settled, I'm sure you can go in to see her. But until then, I'm afraid you'll have to wait in the hall. Floor 11 is where she'll be. Are there any other questions I can answer?" asked the doctor.

"No, thank you very much," said Elliot with a very small smile. He sank into a chair when the doctor turned the corner, worry and relief flooding his body. It was nice to hear she made it, but there was still the risk of each passing minute something could happen.

"You ok, man?" asked Chris, sitting down in the vacant chair next to Elliot, looking at him a bit worried.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. It's just been a long couple weeks," he said before standing up again.

"You want to grab something to eat?" asked Chris.

"I will in a minute, I have to make a quick call first," said Elliot, turning to deposit some change into the payphone. He hesitated at first, because if he didn't so it now, he'd forget, and the rest of his unit would yell at him for not giving them an update.

Ring...Ring...Ring...Ring...Ring...

"Who the fucking hell is it?" asked the annoyed voice of John Munch, along with a couple loud yawns. He could tell it wasn't a good time to wake up Munch, he wasn't a morning person.

"Munch, it's Elliot," he said cautiously, not knowing what Munch's reaction would be.

"Elliot, do you know what time it is? It's 2:30 in the fucking morning. I know I'm not late for work, because Cragen would have busted down my door by now," he said, fighting the urge to throw the phone against the wall.

"That's not why I'm calling," he said with a chuckle.

"What's wrong?" he asked, sitting up in bed. If he wasn't calling about being late for work (again) something was very wrong. With his luck, it was probably something he did (like letting the coffee pot spill over and flood the staff lounge.)

"They took Liv into surgery about three hours ago," he told Munch, his voice shaking a bit to tell Munch he was dead serious.

"She was fine yesterday. She was talking to us and was looking better, what the fuck happened?" asked Munch.

"It was her infection. It's spread all over, and the medical staff can't seem to get it under control. They have her in ICU under 24 hour watch in case something happens. The infection's killing her, Munch. I'm in shock just like you are. I knew she was sick, but I had no idea it was this bad."

Elliot heard the distant click of the ancient coffee pot on the other end, before Munch spoke again. "Holy hell. Why didn't the doctors say anything to us while we were there?"

"Because they wanted to keep all of us calm. They want us to believe she's going to make it. And besides, if anything was bothering her, she wouldn't tell any of us anyway."

"True. Have you told everyone else? Does Cragen know?"

"No, I haven't called anyone else. You're the first to know."

"Is there anything I can do? Do you want us to come up there?" he asked.

"There is something you can do. Let everyone know what's going on, but tell them they done need to come up. Tell them to stay home," said Elliot.

"I can do that."

"She'll be fine, don't worry," said Munch before hanging up.

When he turned around, he saw Cragen and the entire SVU unit (minus Munch who was still in bed.)

"Where's Munch?" asked Cragen as the rest of the squad took seats in the waiting room.

"He's probably on his way here, I told him not to come though," said Elliot, taking a vacant seat next to Fin.

"Well, now what do we do? We can't go see her," said Detective Green, his arms folded across his chest.

"There's only one thing we can do," said Cragen. "We wait..."