Disclaimer: I still do not own them, nothing's changed.
A\N- Thank you guys so much for enjoying and reviewing my first story, I could not have asked for a better response. All of you guys made my day. I hope you enjoy this next chapter!
Chaos and confusion. Those two words described everything once they had arrive at the hospital. The entire ride to the hospital Olivia kept Elliot's hand in her own so when the ambulance reached the hospital, Olivia tried to keep that connection just as she had in the ambulance when Elliot slipped into unconsciousness. Olivia was able to make that happen as the paramedics unloaded the stretcher onto the sidewalk of the hospital. She had managed to keep their hands interlocked until the moment he was taken away from her thankfully still protective gaze and rolled into surgery.
Olivia's mind raced and varied in thoughts as she slid herself down the hallway wall. She found herself all alone with only her thoughts to listen to. Tears of confusion and overwhelming emotions were released down her cheeks. Olivia wanted to completely despise Elliot from the anger that had collected after he left her without a word. She had fought for him and he just gave up on her. He had so easily given up on their partnership of so long. Elliot had so deeply disappointed her and even managed to break her heart. After a couple of weeks she had eventually accepted he was not coming back to the unit for the sake of her job, but she had never fully accepted how he left their partnership… their friendship in shambles.
Restless nights for the first few months she had spent sobbing at night, her heart drenching at the fact that she might never even see him again. At least when he had worked with her she knew she had someone to talk to about a case even though she rarely did, but now she had completely no one. Her life had felt solely empty without his presence. He had helped her feel like someone actually cared about her… loved her even, but when he left her she was sure she had imagined all those times when she thought he cared about her.
She went from seeing Elliot every day of the week, almost every hour of the day, to not seeing him at all for three whole years. In order to keep her composure Olivia had always tried not to mention her former partner to her new co-workers even though for the most part of her day he was all she could think of. Then the whole William Lewis ordeal happened. Now deep in thought, Olivia had stopped crying and nearly laughed sadly when she thought about how William Lewis had guessed correctly. She was thinking about her former partner every second she spent with William Lewis. From wondering if she would live to ever see his beautiful icy eyes again silently hoping he would rescue her from the criminal scarring her physically and emotionally.
She hadn't allowed Lewis to talk about Elliot in the slightest because she could never stand anyone ever talking disrespectfully of him even if Elliot had hurt her. When she had been rescued all she wanted was to be with him, to see if it really truly had ended. Olivia had wanted to feel safe with his arms around her assuring her that it would be okay. But he didn't come at all not even to see her at the hospital. And now here she was acting like nothing ever happened, like he didn't leave her, like he didn't abandon her when she needed him the most, and like her heart wasn't still trying to piece itself together from his last attack on her soul.
But she knew she needed to be here for Elliot whether or not he was the cause of her still lingering sense of devastation. Olivia wasn't sure she could handle a conversation yet about this with Elliot, but eventually it would come. She wasn't sure about a lot of things. Olivia wasn't sure if she was happy to see Elliot again, especially under the circumstances, she wasn't sure what to say to him, she wasn't sure what had happened to Elliot, and she definitely wasn't sure what was to be expected of their friendship. All she was certain of was that she would try her best to rekindle her relationship to Elliot given his effort.
As hard as Olivia thought about who and why anyone would do this, she couldn't think of anyone in particular. I mean sure they had angered many people in their days as partners, but most of them were serving life sentences either in Attica or in hell like Gitano.
For the time being she just hoped to God Elliot would be okay. She looked to the clock. It read 4:56am. On the ride in the ambulance to the hospital Eliot had begun to worry Olivia when he appeared to be having a little trouble breathing and began to cough. Out of worry Olivia just grabbed his hand tighter and massaged her free hand on his forehead. Olivia was graciously interrupted from her thoughts as she saw Fin approach her. As soon as he spotted her sitting against the wall he ran to her and Olivia stood up.
"You sure you're okay, Liv?" Fin asked seeing that she appeared to be a little off.
"Honestly Fin, I don't even know the answer to that question myself right now," Olivia stated still confused.
"So fill me in, what the hell happened and how did Elliot end up battered on your block after…?" Fin stopped and looked to the floor not wanting to touch the subject on Stabler's departure further.
"I am as confused as you are right now. All I know is that I ... who stayed with Noah?" Olivia asked, her motherly half taking over.
"Nick stayed with him, said he'll come as soon as Lucy gets to your place." Fin replied, assuring Olivia and earning a nod in return.
"So like I was saying I heard a gunshot, and reached for my gun and I heard another gunshot, so I made sure Noah was okay and I ran as quick as I could to the street. Then I saw that it was him and I called for a bus and you and now I don't even know what's happening in there- , "Olivia said stopping as she began to shake and cry hysterically.
"Liv it's okay, he'll be okay," Fin said as he pulled Olivia into his arms. He knew how much she still cared for Elliot.
"There was just so much blood and and then hhe started to have trouble breathing," Olivia said with her voice wavering. Somehow she had managed to keep herself together while in the ambulance but she found that she still deeply cared for him and it scared her how scared she was for him.
Suddenly, Olivia pulled out of Fin's embrace. "Someone should probably call Kathy and the kids," Olivia said. She dialed the number that she hadn't called in years and hit "call". Within a matter of seconds the operating system came up on her phone and announced that number was disconnected. 'What the hell,' she thought to herself, 'Why would Elliot's home phone be disconnected.
"What happened?" asked Fin.
"Elliot's home phone is disconnected," Olivia stated, looking through her phone. She was sure she had it. Scrolling down he contacts Olivia found Kathleen's phone number and clicked on it, hoping to have some luck locating the Stablers.
"Hello," a female voice said sleepily from the other line.
"Kathleen," Olivia sighed of relief.
"Liv? What happened-," Kathleen began, but Olivia interrupted her.
"I tried your home number, but it was disconnected, and I was calling to tell you guys that your father's been in an accident, and he's at Mercy Hospital."
"My dad's in the hospital, what happened?" Kathleen asked sincerely worried.
"Well, we don't know how but you father ended up shot twice," Olivia answered, not wanting to bring up that he had been found outside her apartment. "I think he'd really like to see you guys when he wakes up."
"Oh, you don't know," Kathleen began.
"I don't know what?" Olivia inquired.
"My parents split up for good three years ago, and my mom took us to live in Florida. Maureen and I moved out as soon as we could because we were tired of hearing Kathy talk on and on about how terrible my father is. Now Lizzie, Richard, and Ellie all live with Kathy and her new husband Andrew."
"Wait, so you're in Florida now?" Olivia asked, enormously confused.
"Yea, but I'm gonna fly over there with Maureen as soon as we can fly out." Kathleen said. "I gotta go call Maureen. I'll see you in a couple of hours, bye Liv." Kathleen said and hung up leaving Liv with many, many unanswered questions.
"What is Kathleen doing in Florida?" asked Fin puzzled.
"Apparently Elliot's divorced, Kathy moved the kids to Florida, and recently re-married," Olivia clarified to both Fin and herself.
"Stabler's got a lot of questions to answer," Fin said "Just promise me, Liv, that you won't let him hurt you like he did before."
Before anyone could say anything else, a doctor emerged from the emergency surgery room and Olivia realized she was still about five feet away from the door. The doctor approached Olivia and held a form and a pen in his hand.
"Are both of you here for Mr. Stabler?" The doctor asked and both Olivia and Fin nodded. "Well first off my name is Doctor Charles McSpringer. One of you should fill these form out for Mr. Stabler as we may need to further medicate him." He turned to look at Olivia. "Would you happen to be Ms. Benson?"
"Actually yes, how did you know that?" Olivia asked, a little freaked out.
"Oh, you're listed as Mr. Stabler's Next of Kin and emergency contact," the doctor said, confused as to why she seemed as if she didn't know. Olivia was utterly shocked. She looked over at Fin incredulously and saw him as awed as she was. 'Why would I still be his emergency contact.'
"So how is he? Is he out of surgery yet?" Olivia asked, ignoring the doctor's previous statement for the time being.
"Not yet the doctors remaining are just finishing up, it should be about twenty more minutes. Mr. Stabler has pneumothorax from the gunshot to his upper left chest cavity. Pneumothorax is a condition in a lung collapses which leads to essential air escaping into the chest wall. When this happens air builds up and does not allow the lung to fully expand leading to trouble breathing. We seem to have stabilized this part of his condition by inserting a chest drain and a ventilator. As for the wound to the stomach, there was small perforation to the bowl which the doctors are just finishing administrating broad-spectrum antibiotics," the doctor concluded.
"So he'll be alright," Olivia asked just to be sure.
"Yes, after a couple of days staying overnight for further observation he should recover quickly," the doctor assured.
"Okay, thank you doctor," Olivia said as he began to walk toward the front desk. She began to fill out Elliot's medical form while Fin went outside to call Nick to check on Noah and call Amanda. Olivia filled the entire form out with ease and when she came to his blood type question, she smiled in remembering the conversation eight years ago.
Elliot and Olivia had walked into the elevator in sync despite it being their first case together in several weeks.
"Love's a bitch," Olivia said after the exhausting case.
"Tell me about it," Elliot said in agreement.
"You know we've been partners all these years and I don't even know your blood type."
"A-positive," Elliot had replied.
"How about that? Me, too."
"I'd give you my kidney." Elliot stated firmly.
"Not if I gave you mine first." Olivia had answered back just as firmly.
'Yeah, we'll be okay,' she thought to herself as she wrote down the response, 'We'll find a way just like we always have.'
A\N- Thank you for reading and please let me know if you have any ideas you would like to see happen in later chapters. I hope you enjoyed it and please review, so I know if you hate it (hopefully not), like it, or love it (hopefully).