Chapter Eighty Three – What to do with a Depressed Doggy

A nurse floated in and out to check on Olivia every now and again, but otherwise Olivia's room was silent and still. When her cell phone rang, shattering the silence, it startled everyone but the person the phone belonged to. Ben picked it up and answered it without even bothering to look at who was calling. He could have simply hit ignore, but he'd reacted without thinking. Now he was going to have to figure out how to respond to the call and whoever needed Olivia.

On the other end of the line Nick was thrown for a bit of a loop. Hearing a man's voice answer Olivia's phone shattered his train of thought, leaving a long moment of dead silence.

"Ah. Sorry. I must have gotten the wrong number."

"Who is this?"

"Detective Amaro. I'm calling for Olivia Benson."

Ben's face crumpled, and he rubbed at his forehead.

"You have the right number, Nick. This is Ben," he said weakly.

"Ben?"

If Ben was answering Olivia's phone something had to be preventing her from doing it herself. It was possible she just wasn't around at the moment, but Nick had a bad feeling about the whole thing. Ben didn't sound right.

"Is Olivia okay?" he asked nervously, though somehow he managed to keep signs of that out of his voice.

Ben sighed heavily and tried not to sound like his whole world was falling apart. He was distinctly less successful than Nick had been.

"No. She's lying unconscious in a hospital bed."

"Shit. Shit. Which hospital?"

"Mount Sinai."

"Okay. You okay? You need anything?"

"I just need her to wake up, Nick."

"I know. She will. Just hang in there."

O . o . O . o . O

Nick had passed news of Olivia's hospitalization on to the rest of the squad. When Cragen's shift was over he headed straight to the hospital. Fin and Amanda had stopped by earlier in the day on their way back to the squad room. They hadn't had much to share besides the fact that Olivia was still unconscious. That was what Cragen found when he knocked softly on her open door. Ben looked up slowly, pale and tired. Suvi was the room's stone sentinel, completely unmoving in response to Cragen's arrival and entirely focused on Olivia.

"How is she?" Cragen asked softly.

"The same. Hasn't shown any sign of waking up."

Cragen nodded sadly and came over to join Ben at her bedside. Once he saw Olivia up close he understood why Ben looked the way he did. Olivia was covered in cuts and bruises, with a particularly nasty one covering the entire left side of her forehead, and the only movement he saw was the slow rise and fall of her chest. He didn't know for sure what had happened but he suspected it had something to do with her seizures.

Ben was already back to staring at Olivia and lost to the world when Cragen sat down next to him.

"How are you doing, son?"

"Probably about as good as I look."

"She'll be alright. She's made it through worse."

"Yeah. Maybe."

Ben seemed to droop a little bit. He was so tired, and every hour of no change added more weight to his shoulders. It was getting increasingly more difficult to keep his spirits up.

"You should give her more credit," Cragen said.

Ben's head lifted and he met Cragen's eyes firmly.

"I give her a lot of credit, but no matter how strong she is she's still human."

Cragen nodded and added on to Ben's statement.

"And she'll need someone to look after her once she wakes up."

"She'll have someone," Ben assured. "Two someones actually. Suvi's still looking after her now. He won't stop once she wakes up. In fact, he'll probably be even more all over her."

A faint, strained smile flashed across Ben's face.

"And I'll probably be so over-protective it'll annoy the heck out of her," he added.

Cragen chuckled and couldn't help remembering all of the times he and the rest of the squad had tried to protect Olivia over the years. It had never gone over well.

"It's not going to take very much for that to happen."

Ben's smile grew and this time was touched with real amusement.

"I guess you've had experience with that."

"Quite a bit," Cragen confirmed.

"Yeah. Figures."

Ben grabbed Olivia's hand and squeezed it lightly. He hadn't managed to go very long without holding her hand or brushing back her hair. As long as he was touching her it felt like he was doing something to help her and he felt closer to her somehow. That was kind of ridiculous considering he was sitting right next to her even when he wasn't physically touching her, but it was true none-the-less. Touching her was concrete proof that she was right there even though it felt like she was a million miles away. There was also the chance that his touch would reach her somehow. So far he hadn't had any luck though. She was still completely unresponsive. Ben's good humor faded and he fell into a silent stupor again.

Cragen noticed and quietly watched Ben. He looked exactly like he had when Cragen had first walked in. Considering how little Cragen knew Ben, he'd questioned how much Ben cared about Olivia. From what he'd heard their relationship was getting serious. Olivia had been through enough, and he only wanted the best for her. With what he had seen in the last few minutes that was exactly what she was getting. Ben was obviously devastated by Olivia's injuries and he didn't look like he would be going anywhere anytime soon.

"I'm sorry, guys, visiting hours are over," a nurse told them from the door.

Or maybe he would be.

"But…" Ben began.

"I'm sorry. You can't stay."

Ben's eyes flickered nervously from the nurse to Olivia. He couldn't leave her. There was no way.

"You'll have to come back tomorrow," the nurse added when Ben made no move to get up.

"Come on, Ben," Cragen encouraged as he stood up. "You need some rest, and if something changes overnight they'll call you."

"But she…"

Ben didn't get the chance to finish before Cragen rested a hand lightly on his shoulder.

"She's being well taken care of. She'll be fine with just the doctors for a few hours. Besides, Suvi is going to need to be taken care of too."

Knowing that Cragen was right at that Olivia wouldn't want her dog neglected while she was down for the count Ben sighed and gave in.

Ben stood wearily and leaned over to kiss Olivia on the forehead. He pulled her blanket up a little higher and smoothed it down against her.

"I'll be back," he promised softly and turned to Suvi.

Suvi was even less willing to leave than Ben. He strained against the leash and would have managed to pull the leash right out of Ben's hand if he could have gotten traction on the floor. Instead his claws kept skittering out. He whined frantically, and Ben had to kneel down and wrap his arms around Suvi to try and calm the distraught dog.

"It's okay, buddy. We'll be back. I promise."

When Ben stood back up and headed out Suvi followed him. He plodded along beside Ben, head down and tail drooping. It was a perfect picture of dejection. Ben wanted to comfort him, but he didn't know how. He was feeling the exact same way as Suvi.

O . o . O . o . O

"Come on, Suvi. Please?" Ben pleaded.

Ever since they'd gotten to Olivia's apartment Suvi had retreated into Olivia's closet and curled up under her hanging clothes. He'd refused to come out ever since. Ben had tried everything he could think of, even rattling Suvi's full food bowl. Nothing had worked, so Ben had given in and left Suvi's dinner in the closet. Suvi just turned his head away and tucked himself into a ball. Ben sighed. He couldn't blame Suvi for not wanting to eat since he wasn't remotely hungry either.

An hour later Ben found the bowl still untouched and Suvi curled on top of Olivia's dirty laundry. He'd apparently pulled over her hamper and dragged everything out so he could pile the clothes up and rest on them.

"Oh, Suvi…"

Ben pet his head but got as much response from Suvi as he had from Olivia at the hospital. Not sure what to do Ben grabbed a treat to try and tempt Suvi out. Suvi turned his head away. When Ben tried again, a little more firmly this time, Suvi got up, turned his back on Ben, and lay back down. Ben sighed and rubbed at his face. Hopefully giving Suvi some time would solve the problem.

Only it didn't. By the next morning Suvi still hadn't eaten anything and he'd only felt the closet when Ben had taken him out. Once the leash had been unclipped Suvi had returned to the closet and his former position. Ben was at a complete loss. Desperate for help, he called Cole. He had more experience with dogs than Ben did.

"Cole, I need your help."

"What's going on?"

"It's Suvi. He's refusing to eat and won't leave Olivia's closet."

"He misses her."

"We both are. That doesn't mean he can't eat."

If Olivia woke up and Suvi wasn't doing well it wouldn't be good. Not only would she be stressed out during a time she shouldn't be, she would probably push herself too hard trying to help him.

"Have you tried treats?"

"Yeah. He doesn't want anything to do with them."

"Could try some human food he likes. I've used hamburger to tempt Jerry before," he offered. "No promises it'll work though."

Ben rubbed at his head again, feeling his headache growing. He was worried enough about Olivia and now he had to add Suvi to the mix.

"Alright. Thanks."

"Sure. How's Olivia doing? Any change?"

Cole and the rest of the family had gotten an update about Olivia from Clarissa once she'd gotten back, but it hadn't been very detailed or reassuring.

"No," he answered wearily.

"She'll be okay, Ben."

"Yeah. Thanks, Cole."

He hung up and started digging through Olivia's kitchen cabinets for something Suvi might like. They'd been out of cheeseballs for a while now, but Ben managed to find a bag of Cheetos buried in the back. Chances were they were incredibly old though they could still tempt Suvi. Or at least Ben hoped they would. If even cheeseballs did nothing then he would really be at a loss. He opened the bag as he wandered back into Olivia's closet.

"Suvi, look what I have. Cheeseballs."

Normally that word would have gotten Suvi to his feet in half a second flat. This time he didn't even twitch an ear. His sad eyes watched Ben blandly.

"Yummy, yummy," Ben tempted as he rolled a piece over to Suvi, likely staining Olivia's carpet orange in the process.

Suvi ignored it. Ben tried a few more times. One piece even hit Suvi's nose, but he still didn't have any interest. Eventually Ben just gave up trying to get him to eat.

"How about we go see Olivia?"

Based on Suvi's reaction, Olivia's name had taken the place of the word "cheeseball."