Everything moved in slow motion. She always thought that was some kind of weird cliche, but it turned out to be true. She watched Elliot's body hit the dirt, and time stopped. She heard her heart pounding in her ears. This didn't feel real. It couldn't be real.
Her brain couldn't process what was happening, and she felt frozen. She heard Amelia whimper, but the sound felt far away, echoing from a different dimension in time and space.
Elliot's coughing and gasping brought her back to this harsh reality. "Hang on, El." Her heart beat faster as she yanked against her restraints. But the attempt was futile. there was no way she could escape their grip.
She suddenly remembered about Lewis. She craned her neck, but she couldn't see his body based on her positioning at the end of the table. She stood still and listened for any movement. She heard none.
Amelia whimpered again, and this time Olivia's head flipped around to assess the girl. She still hung by her wrists, and tears streamed down her face. Olivia followed her line of sight, and realized the child had a perfect view of Elliot's bleeding chest wound. "Close your eyes." She soothed. Her voice shook, making her words not at all comforting. "Help will be here soon." She hoped .
Once Amelia settled she brought her attention back to Elliot, blood began to pool around him. "Damn it," she cried. She pulled her restraints until the cuffs dug into her skin. She cried in frustration. This was the worst thing Lewis ever did to her. This was torture. Making her watch her partner bleed out on the floor while she was helplessly restrained was the worst form of torture.
She felt helpless. Completely helpless. She laid her head against the cool metal table. She could talk to him. It might not help anything, but it felt like something.
"El," she soothed. He only moaned in return. "Hey! Hang in there. The rest of my team is coming for us. They will be here soon, I know it." They had to be close. They had to be..
All she heard was his labored breathing. She wanted to keep him conscious, even if unconsciousness was more humane at this point. "Um," she needed to find something to talk about. "Remember that time we stole all of the pens out of the office coffee cups? No one suspected us! I thought it would be obvious, but I swear that to this day Fin still thinks it was Munch." It was a stupid story, but it was the first story that came to mind.
His labored breathing continued, and she couldn't decide if his cessation of groaning was a good or a bad thing. She yanked on her restraints again, and a glint of hope surfaced when a small gap appeared on her roped wrist. She wiggled and pulled, and after what felt like an eternity she got one hand free. That's all she needed. One hand. She could get the duct tape off. Her shoulder felt like it was dislocating as she reached for her ankles, trying to find the end of the tape. The tape had adhered tightly, but she scraped her nail at the end and it started to lift. "Hang on El. Please don't die on me," she felt herself wimper out her request.
She yanked and yanked at the tape, but progress was slow. She listened for the sound of Elliot's breathing while she continued to peel the tape. Her apprehension grew when his breath sounds began to sound more shallow. "Damn it Elliot. I swear I'll never forgive you if you die on me!"
Then there was a noise. A beautiful noise. The sound of tires rushing on a dirt road. Finally . She couldn't stop the tears. They found her . "Hey El! El" she began to panic when she could barely hear him breathing. "Elliot, please. Just keep breathing ! Please!" She begged.
She heard boots thundering up the stairs, scraping against the dirt and rocks. "Hey, I love you. I want to spend a whole life with you, but I can't do that if you're dead. You hear me! Help is coming. Just hang in there another minute."
Just then a swarm of activity spilled out of the staircase. Voice bounced off every surface of the room. Bodies blocked her view of Elliot and she wanted to scream for them to get out of the way. She felt hands on her, and she whipped her head around to find an unfamiliar face working on the duct tape of her legs. She knew they were helping, but being touched like this triggered a fear response and she started to hyperventilate. "Get the hell outta here," a familiar voice yelled. Fin shoved the other officer out of the way before working on the tape himself. "I got you Liv. It's me. Fin." She realized her eyes probably blanked out. "You're okay. You're fine. Let's get you outta here." He cut the tape, and began working on the cuffs.
She used her newly found freedom to push herself closer to the swarm of people surrounding Elliot. "Woah Liv. Stop for a sec. You're gonna dislocate your shoulder." Fin continued to work on the cuffs, and she realized her wrists was dripping with blood. She had to stop struggling. Fin could free her faster if she stayed still.
When the cuffs finally dropped, her body fell to the floor in the direction where Elliot layed. "Hey, I know you wanna see him, but they are working on him now." Fin lifted her from the floor, and supported most of her weight as she stood. She tried to see over the group of medics, but Fin held her back. "No Liv. You don't want that image in your head forever." She knew what he meant. If he died, this would be the last memory she had."
She didn't want to be coddled, "No Fin," she yanked her arm away and stumbled towards Elliot's body on the floor. Running in pure adrenaline, she pushed bodies out of the way until she sat near his head.
The medics had run a saline IV, and to her surprise his eyes opened. "Hey El," she sobbed. She watched his finger twitch and she knew he wanted to reach for her. "No, no" she soothed, "stay still okay." He didn't move but his eyes told her he understood. She dropped her forehead to his. "I love you," she whispered, and when she pulled back she saw tears running down his cheek.
"We need to move him," a gruff voice commanded, but Olivia couldn't move. The paramedics worked around her until Fin pushed his way in and lifted her up.
"Let's go baby girl. The sooner we let them go the sooner he can get to the hospital." He held her up again as they stumbled towards the stairs.
They made it out of the granary slowly. Fin had to help her with every step. Just as they stepped outside she watched the life flight helicopter take off.
She wasn't prepared for the sudden onslaught of nausea and she unexpectedly doubled over and vomited on the ground. Fin kept her from collapsing, but she was still vomiting when the paramedics made it to her.
She felt herself dissociating as strangers hands poked and prodded at her body. She heard Fin barking at them to slow down. He could see her obvious PTSD response, and knew the well intentioned medics were making it worse.
While she continued to puke her guts out, Amanda jogged up. "Lewis is dead." She wasn't sure why, but she started bawling. The group had finally dragged her to the ambulance and onto a board, and luckily Amanda noticed what they were doing and told them they would not, under any circumstances, restrain her. They looked confused, but complied. Both Fin and Amanda wanted to ride along and she wished they both could come, but after a heated debate, Fin emerged as the victor.
The doors slammed shut and she tried to breathe through the claustrophobia of being stuffed into a tight space. She vomited again, but it had begun to slow. They ran an IV and she began to receive fluids, curbing the nausea.
Fin kept his hand in hers, and he was talking, but honestly, her brain continued to play Elliot being shot on loop, and she couldn't hear or understand a damn thing he said.
The paramedics did their usual poking and prodding, and she was hooked up to some basic monitors. Her vision began to blur. She felt a crash coming on a couple of minutes before arriving at the hospital. The adrenaline combined with her heightened PTSD state tanked and she crashed hard.
This one was rough to write! Im sorry if its rough to read!
