Elliot Stabler is nothing if not persistent. This is exactly what Amanda wanted….what she needed. Someone to light the whole God damn world on fire until he got what he wanted.
Less than twelve hours after he broke free from his undercover assignment, Stabler called in every marker owed him from his military days and had the best engineers the USMC had to offer on site. They were using aerial flir technology, state of the art robotics and huge military industrial sized earth movers that were able to pull giant pieces of the building out. Like a giant Jenga, the engineers worked to make sure pieces they pulled didn't collapse the whole thing.
Once they got moving, they'd done more in one hour than the NYFD had been able to do in three days.
Amanda stands outside the barricade, the same place she was when Elliot first got there. It's night, but the industrial strength spotlights all over made it seem nearly as bright as day. Elliot walks up beside her, holding a cup of coffee in one hand, some hot chocolate in the other.
"Here….you need to drink something". He tells her, pushing the hot chocolate into her hands. He glances over at her before looking back at the incredible rescue effort happening in front of them.
"You need to rest too"...he waits, but she doesn't respond. She just takes one sip of the hot beverage. Her eyes close on a very long blink and she feels weary down to her bones, but she can't stop…can't rest now.
"Amanda". Elliot touches her shoulder, and her eyelids flutter. She turns to look at Stabler.
"I'm not going home, Elliot. Don't try to…..I'm just not…..We're gonna get them out….and…and…I'm gonna be here when we do". She's dangerously close to crying again.
"Oh, I know we are. I know exactly where they are, and even Major Boyd agrees, if there was a place in that building where someone might survive…..it's down in the sub basement where they were. It's away from where the main part of the building came down and if anyone has the tenacity to make it through this, it's definitely Olivia Benson. From what I know of him….I think your husband kinda takes after her quite a bit too"...
Amanda give him a weak smile. Carisi does take after Liv. He learned so much from her at SVU. Thinks so highly of her…at least…..at least they have each other down there.
He takes a sip of his coffee and motions for her to take another drink.
"I just think…..look, you don't hafta go home….there's a bunk in the back of that ESU van…..please. You're exhausted. When's the last time you got some sleep"?
"I won't be able to sleep….not until he's right there beside me". Amanda's eyes fill with tears.
"Amanda…..you've gotta think about that baby…He or she needs you to"-
"He". Tears again fall down her cheeks. "We're having a boy". Her hand caressed her belly. Little Dominick the third has been very restless ever since all this started. At 35 weeks she's getting near the end of the pregnancy and she knows she should rest….knows Elliot is right. But she doesn't know how….
"Listen. Why don't you let me worry about Carisi for a few hours. I promise I'll stay right here. If anything at all happens, anything…. I'll come get you…..just go lie down for a couple hours".
Amanda gives him a shocked look, there's no way she's gonna lie down for hours.
"Okay one hour. Lie down for one hour. Please. For Carisi". That gets her attention.
"When they pull Liv and Sonny outta there, he's gonna need you. You don't wanna be dead on your feet when that happens, right"? Before she even agrees, he's got his arm around her shoulders, leading her back to the smaller of two ESU vehicles. He climbs aboard, helping her up too. It's empty. Most of the guys are down following the directions of the Marine Corp officers, or they've gone home. Just like Stabler said, there were bunks in the back of this van. Four of them. Really just sleeping compartments like you'd see in an RV. Each one had a light, and a charging dock.
"I don't have a charger for my phone". Amanda pulls the phone out of her pocket. Barely 10% power left.
"It's your lucky day". Stabler walks back up to the front of the van and pulls a cord out of his own bag. She's taking her jacket off when he rejoins her.
"Lie down, charge your phone, even if you can't sleep…just rest. Close your eyes and rest…..okay"? He's about to turn away when Amanda pulls him back and wraps her arms around his waist.
"Thank you"...he hears the emotion in her words.
He hugs her back.
"We're not losing 'em Amanda…we're just not". He rests his cheek on top of her head, and whispers those words to her. She nods in response, sniffling.
"And you'll come and get me…..the second….if"...
"I promise, Rollins, the second I hear anything, even if you're in a deep sleep. I'll drag you out".
She laughs and nods her head. He leaves her to settle herself into the lowest bunk, which is the perfect height so she can easily slide in. Well, as easily as an 8 months pregnant woman can slide. Amanda gets as comfortable as she can, and pulls the fleece blanket over her. With her phone plugged in, she pulls up the camera app and goes directly to her videos. Setting the phone at an angle, she hits play on one of her favorites and tries to stretch out her tight neck muscles and relax a little. Dom the third is moving around like crazy. She rubs her belly and talks to him, telling him to listen for his daddy's voice and turns the volume up.
It was a Sunday morning just after they'd moved into the new house. The house she and Sonny bought together. Both their names were on the deed and the mortgage…..this was something she never saw happening for her. But like something out of a damn Hallmark movie, here they were.
Amanda couldn't help but giggle when her husband came into view. Amanda was recording all the boxes in the office downstairs, and she turned towards the kitchen. Sonny's hair…..before he tamed it down with gel, she swore it added three inches to his height. It was sticking up all over, and still somehow managed to flop down and cover half his forehead. But it wasn't his hair that made her love this video so much, even if the sunlight streaming in seemed to put a spotlight right over that mop on his head. He was still in pajamas. Well, the lounge pants and Ramones t-shirt he wore to bed all the time.
The camera panned over into the kitchen table where he sat. Sonny was taking a little break from all the unpacking. He sat at their breakfast table…..this house was so big they had a breakfast nook and a dining room. It still seemed like a dream sometimes.
He had the paper in front of him. An actual newspaper. The way Sonny liked putting pen to paper when he wrote up notes, he also liked reading a real newspaper. Amanda zoomed in on the table. Next to him, Jesse was learning the fine art of capturing images from the paper with Silly Putty. Sonny was so excited when they found that at the bodega and he insisted they buy it to try out on the Sunday funnies.
Billie had been up way too late the night before, and gotten up way too early that morning. She was cranky as hell and needed a nap but she'd refused and run off when Amanda tried to put her down for one. So this was where she'd run off to. She had crawled into Sonnys lap, and fallen asleep on his shoulder. Sonny held her with one arm, her limp body relaxed in sleep in the safest happiest place she could find. Her daddy's arms.
This video…..her girls and their daddy….with the sunlight behind them, steam coming up from his coffee cup. It was perfection. Everything she never knew she wanted.
Eventually he felt her eyes on him, and looked up.
"Rollins, what're you doin". He smirked up at her and nodded towards the phone. He set the paper down so he could take a sip from his coffee without disturbing Billie's sleep.
Amanda sniffled as she watched the video and baby Dominick, who'd been tap dancing on her bladder for hours, calmed almost immediately at the sound of Sonny's voice.
Amanda closed her eyes and listened to the conversation between the two of them she'd replayed countless times. It was just a normal, nothing special, Sunday morning. But to Amanda Rollins, it was everything. Sonny talking about his plans for the day. How he was gonna finish putting the kitchen together first so he could make pizza that night, the girls were gonna go with him to the hardware store and pick colors for their bedrooms .
Before she knew it, both Amanda and baby Dominick had fallen asleep, lulled by the sound of Sonny's voice, and a silent prayer that this wouldn't be the only way she'd hear it again.
"Amanda".
Stabler looks back at the door to the van, where Fin was standing.
"Amanda…..something's happening".
She sucked in a breath, her eyes squinting in the sunlight.
"What's…..what time is it"? She asks, rubbing her eyelid with her hand, still groggy and not quite hearing what he said.
"It's about 630. You slept for about five hours…..Amanda….listen…..they heard tapping".
Amanda throws her legs over the side of bed, totally forgetting how pregnant she is and Stabler has to take a step back.
"WHAT"?!
"Yea. They heard a tapping sound, they haven't heard any voices yet but….they're….I think they're getting close"…..
"We gotta go! We gotta get down there"! Amanda slips her shoes on and tries to get past Elliot.
"Whoa whoa, we still can't actually get down there, it's way too dangerous. Not to mention we could interfere with the rescue op". He puts a hand on her shoulder.
"It's them. I've got a feeling". Elliot nods his agreement.
For the first time, Amanda can see he's been almost as worried as she has, and he looks just as relieved as she feels.
"Come on, I'll give you a ride to the other side where they're working…it's as close as you can get". Fin calls to them, then disappears down the stairs.
"Give me….gimme five minutes". Amanda pulls her hair up into a ponytail and walks towards the bathroom.
"Is there….anyone you want me to call"? Elliot asks her. "Someone to be with you"?
Amanda stops for a second, Sonny's mom should know what's going on…..but she remembers the anguished look on Serafina's face. She can't put her through that again. No, she's not calling anyone until she has Sonny safely back in her arms.
"No, I just need to use the"...she motions to the tiny bathroom, "Just give me five minutes…..no two….I'll be right out".
Amanda tries to clean herself up as best she can, and then she feels it…..that twinge of a cramp. Oh no way. She is not going into labor now. She watches herself in the mirror, takes several deep breaths, and it goes away…..
"It's just stress". She tells herself, in the mirror. "That's all it is. Stress". The beginning of a smile curls her lip upwards. She just knows she's going to see him soon.