Disclaimer: Although it is my life-long, I do not own them.
A\N- Hello all, I am so very pleased that you all are enjoying to read my first story and reviewing. I had to give you one last chapter before vacation ends, since tomorrow I will probably only be studying :( for upcoming tests.
It had been only an hour since both Elliot and Olivia had fallen asleep. Neither one of them had moved in the slightest, completely comfortable with their positions next to each other, making direct contact. It had been only an hour yet it was the most the pair had slept in quite a while and definitely the most peaceful sleep they had slept in a while. Elliot, and Olivia's connected fingers remained on his waist, still entirely looped together, untouched. Every detail in their unified hands, same, without any variation whatsoever, except its strength, for as they slept side by side, once in a while, they would squeeze the other's hand in order to be assured of their presence beside each other.
Another minute passed, and Olivia opened her eyes. She quietly detangled her fingers from Elliot's grasp and sat up stretching, thankful for the hour of sleep added to her day. She checked her watch and finding that it was a quarter to eight in the morning. She knew that Fin would be bringing Nick and Amanda up to see her, so Olivia got up from her spot on Elliot's bed and sat back down on the chair beside the bed. As soon as she sat back down, she once again slipped her hand into his and gently squeezed. What had so greatly terrified him she still had no clue, but she was determined to find out as soon as Elliot was released from the hospital.
Interrupting Olivia from her thoughts, Nick, entered the room followed by Amanda and Fin. Standing up and letting go of Elliot's hand, she stood up and Amanda handed her the coffee that she had bought for her. "So this is that old partner of yours that you always used to talk about," Amanda asked quietly, remembering all the times she had brought up the 'old partner' term.
"Yea, so as Fin probably explained I heard shots fired and found, my old partner, Elliot Stabler, bleeding out on the curb," Olivia said just loud enough to be heard by them.
"So this is the precinct famous Elliot Stabler who was your partner for twelve years before he left you without even saying a word," Nick stated almost in almost a rancorous tone of voice. He had heard how hard Olivia took his sudden departure. He couldn't understand how someone could do that to someone so close. Nick's statement left them in silence as everyone just looked at him. Fin decided to break the uneasy silence.
"So how is he?" Fin asked wanting to change the subject. Seeing that Elliot had moved slightly from even the quiet conversation and understanding that Elliot needed to rest, Olivia motioned for them to follow her out in the hallway.
"Not good, he woke up still shaken up which is why I asked Lucy to stay with Noah another night. I know that I.A.B. is going to want to know why there was a shooting involving a former detective, so if Sergeant Tucker calls I want you to fight for the case. Argue that he was part of our unit or that he might have a vendetta against the remaining Special Victim Unit detectives which we have reason to believe is true since the shooting occurred in front of my apartment," Olivia said.
"Got it, Serge," Amanda replied, still a little confused, but complying the order that she knew probably wasn't up for debate. She had heard back in Atlanta when she had studied their nearly country famous closed cases that the reason they had been so successful was because they had off the chart chemistry that not even experts in psychology. Nick's phone rang and interrupted everyone from their contemplations.
Answering the phone, Nick excused himself. "So where do you want us to start?" asked Fin, wanting to help in any way he could. Remembering how close Elliot and Olivia had been and also accepting that no matter how bad he had hurt her, Olivia wouldn't abandon him because unlike his thoughts on Elliot, he knew Olivia was a good person.
"Get any video footage you can get, and start with that. Find any clues that link back to one of our old cases," Olivia said.
"We have a rape victim in the emergency room, who was found bleeding out from stab wounds all over her entire body. The perp also tried to permanently disfigure by burning her face with boiling water," Nick said after hanging up.
They all looked around at each other, thinking about what they should do. "Okay, then, Amanda go with Nick and wait at the emergency room and Fin call Carisi in and wait for Tucker's call to begin the investigation for who shot Elliot," Olivia spoke up. They all nodded and just as they were about to leave Olivia heard it. A faint whimper coming from the room. Olivia, leaving her friends sprinted into Elliot's room, thinking that maybe someone had somehow managed to have gotten in.
Seeing that Elliot was the only room's occupant she was both relieved and worried, realizing that the quiet sob had from him, although he was still asleep. She turned around to find that they were all just as relieved to find it wasn't an intruder.
"Okay so Nick and I are gonna go, we don't want to miss the victim," Amanda said, turning to leave with Nick following her.
"I should probably get going too Liv. Something tells me that Tucker's gonna call as soon as he hears about this mess. I'll come by after he calls to let you know how it went and bring you some food, caus knowing you, you won't leave at all," Fin said.
"Okay, but be careful Fin we don't know who this guy's after yet and we don't even know what in hell he did to traumatize Elliot like this," she said, gesturing to Elliot turning, obviously in torture even in his sleep.
"I could tell you the same thing," he said already exiting the room, referring to both the criminal's revenge and Elliot's habit of shutting people out
As soon as he left Olivia took her seat at the chair beside his bed, once again reuniting their hands. As another cry escaped his lips she sighed. What had her former partner been through to get him like this. She moved to sit on a small portion of his hospital bed. She didn't even know how long he had been in the hands of the person responsible. She laid back down next to him, thinking that maybe they would both be able to get some more sleep this way.
They both let a long- awaited sleep overcome them. When Elliot woke up and found Olivia right next to him still asleep, he snuggled closer to her, knowing that she would protect him, and went right back to sleep. His final thought before dosing of was in prayer form, as he thanked God for Olivia and thanked Olivia for staying with him.
They stayed asleep longer this time and instead of sleeping only one hour they slept for three. During the third hour Olivia was again awaken by Elliot's cries. "Elliot, wake up it's just a dream," she whispered to him. Suddenly, Elliot's entire body shook, and Olivia got worried, thinking that maybe something was really wrong with him. "El, are you okay? El?" Olivia asked him, starting to panic. Turning him around carefully, Olivia found that he was now awake and silent tears streamed down his face as if he was to ashamed to cry in front of her.
"Elliot, look at me," she stated firmly. His blue eyes continued to look elsewhere as tear slid down his cheeks until she brought her fingers up to his cheek and turned him completely, making his whole body turn toward her," Elliot, it's me, Liv, don't shut me out like you did after Jenna's shooting, I couldn't lose you again," Olivia pleaded with him as her own brown eyes filled with tears and that was it. Neither of them could ever lose each other again. Elliot wrapped his arms around her and she wrapped her arms around him, each not wanting to let go again. "I missed you so much, El, I really did," Olivia whispered her voice, shaking with every word, as tears spilled down both of their faces, as they remembered missing the other so deeply. He held her tighter with every word she said and with every memory of the past flooding back to him all at once.
"Liv," he managed to somehow hoarsely whisper, barely audible, but Olivia heard it. She released him just enough to look into his eyes. At this point both of their faces were covered in tears. She was so cheerful to hear him speak, she had missed his voice so much over these past years. For the next five minutes, they just laid down, holding each other, both too scared to let go, fearful that the other would disappear. The tears had stopped entirely by now and so after placing Elliot back down comfortably, Olivia stood up. Before leaving his room, she saw the alarm in his eyes and knew that he thought she would be leaving him.
"I'm only going to get the doctor, then I'll be right back," she guaranteed him. She then left the room and only two minutes later she returned, followed by a doctor.
"Well it does appear that he is breathing on his own now and his condition seems to have dramatically improved so I think it is safe to take him off the ventilator," the doctor proposed. This news delighted the two remaining occupants in the room. The doctor then easily removed the tube. "A nurse will be coming in about another hour to give him another round of his medication, but if he starts to have trouble breathing again, you should alert me immediately. He should be fine, however, so just make sure he drinks some water to keep hydrated," the doctor said and when both nodded, he left the room.
Before sitting back down again, Olivia grabbed a plastic cup, filled it with water from the sink, and gave it to Elliot. Taking two sips of the water, Elliot put the cup down while Olivia sat at her chair beside his bed, slightly turning to face him. "Hi," he said, testing his voice.
Olivia smiled brightly, finding him amusing, "Morning, Sunshine," Olivia joked, earning in return a smile from Elliot. She really missed seeing him smile like that. "You know, if you don't want to, you don't have to talk about what happened yet, considering your daughters will be here soon and knowing you, you probably don't want to do that in front of them. So let's start at the beginning," Olivia said. She looked to the hospital clock in the room. Almost twelve hours had passed since she had found him. A day ago she didn't even know whether he was even alive and now she was sitting less than two feet away from him.
Before Elliot said anything, they heard someone running down the hallway. Olivia stood up and prepared herself for whoever it was. Then, standing in the doorway was a blond hair and blue-eyed female about Olivia's height. She had tear stained cheeks and her blond hair ran down to her elbows.
"Kathleen," Elliot greeted his daughter that he hadn't seen in in almost as much time as he had Olivia.
AN- Well, I hope you guys liked this chapter because the next possible time I will be able to update is Friday . Yeah, sadly, but anyways, please leave a review to let me know what you think and to help a twelve year old girl survive a week of exams. And to everyone else who has to go back to school on Monday, I wish you good luck (: