Protégé
A/N: Congratulate yourself if you're reading this because you've made it to Chapter 40! You have successfully read the most f***ed up thing I've ever written. Sorry for the cliffhanger. If you're reading this the week of December 5th 2022, then I pray for you, and hope this week's episode is everything you hoped for, and you're reading this story, because you just can't get enough EO goodness. If you hated the episode, then I hope this Chapter provides you with the solace, and the distraction you need. (I have just watched the episode, had to save all my data to stream it on my phone because the ancient TV and shitty wifi hasn't been working properly this week in the hospital). And NO spoilers but I don't even know what to think, I also missed 20 minutes right in the middle because my nurse had to do my evening vitals/meds).
A/N 2: Any and all medical facts I double checked with doctors and nurses, however things may be done differently in your province, or country.
A/N 3: I actually managed to keep a chapter short, not beta'd so all mistakes are my own, obviously!
Disclaimer: Me or Dick, who's story do you prefer? Dick's. I get it, that's why he owns them.
Chapter 40
Mercy Hospital, Wednesday Morning, Summer 2013
"Out of the way," a nurse pushed Nick aside as they wheeled his partner into the hospital from the ambulance bay. They got stuck behind a vehicular accident, involving a cement truck, who's contents had flooded the area. Nick began to rub his face, before realizing his hands were soaked in his partner's blood.
He turned to enter the hospital, dodging another incoming ambulance. Their doors banged open behind him, as he moved to get out of their way.
"Nick!"
He looked around hearing his name, only to find Fin, hopping out of the other ambulance.
"Fin what the hell? You hitch a ride here in an ambulance? Where's Liv?" Nick took a moment to look around.
Fin grabbed him by his arm, not stopping he dragged him into the hospital.
"Fin man, seriously where's Liv she needs to be here?" Nick looked around before whispering, "Fin she would want to be here for this, trust me."
Fin followed the chaos, listening he located both their colleagues, in adjacent areas, a swarm of doctors and nurses surrounding them. Elliot was in trauma bay one, not knowing his girlfriend, and boss, was located right next to him in trauma bay two.
"Officer in his twenties, took two shots, and let's flip him on my count, one two three, two exit wounds, both bullets through and through," Fin heard from one of the trauma bays.
"Fin Fin, is Liv on her way or what? Where is she man?"
Fin grabbed Nick by his shoulders, and turned his body, "See for yourself."
"We got a woman in her mid-"
"That's Captain Olivia Benson," Fin stepped towards the other trauma bay, knowing the doctors would have questions.
"Right, what happened?" an older female doctor asked him.
"She received some disturbing news, next thing I know her eyes were rolling back in her head, and she was passing out, caught her before she hit the floor, and called 911. Her pulse was rapid before she fainted-"
"Let's get her hooked up to the monitors, what were her stats in the field?" the aged doctor addressed the young paramedics, who were still present.
"BP was 82/54, heart rate 143, normal ocular response to stimuli-"
The doctor running the trauma interrupted the male paramedic, "Thank you James, we've got it from here."
"I want a full cbc work up in my hands stat, and somebody get a line in her!" the doctor called as she left the trauma bay to tend to another incoming patient.
Nick, and Fin stood at the foot of the gurney, watching with rapt attention as a nurse placed heart monitors on their Captain's chest, as a second nurse wrapped a blood pressure cuff over her upper arm, and another tied a tourniquet around her bicep, inserting a needle into her elbow. Someone had removed her blouse, leaving her in a white tank, that normally would make her tanned skin stand out, but at the moment drew attention to her ghostly pallor.
"Wh-I don't understand, what happened?" Nick stuttered, his brain not believing what he was seeing.
"Think you should answer that first, what the hell happened?" Fin, whipped open the curtain blocking Olivia's trauma bay from view of the regular ER rooms, and opened the one next door to reveal their other colleague.
Fin had expected Stabler's room to be chaotic, but instead found nothing but a bloody, empty stretcher.
"How long were we in there?" Fin huffed, confused as to where they had taken Elliot. He turned around heading back into the emergency department.
The emergency room was organized chaos, but he managed to grab the attention of a passing male nurse. "Hey man, can you tell me where they've taken Detective Elliot Stabler? Came in with two gun shots?"
Fin watched the frown appear on the nurse's face.
"Um, I can check the system, but multiple GSW's… they're always dicey," the nurse informed him.
"We were right next door, we were only gone for a few minutes!" Fin couldn't help raising his voice. If the knowledge of Elliot getting shot, had his Captain fainting in his arms, then he shuddered to think how she would react to his possible death.
"Look, minutes to you, are hours to us, a lot can happen in the span of a few minutes. I'm sorry, he's not in the system yet, are you family?"
Fin shook his head, as Nick finally spoke up, "I'm his partner, came in with him."
"Hmmm, we'll need his emergency contacts, they'll need to be notified-"
"Notified?!" Fin questioned in anger. "You don't even know where he is, let alone what you're notifying them of!"
"Alright Fin, come on let's go look for him," Nick pushed gently at his shoulder.
"Where, where Amaro? Cause according to this clown we should be heading down to the morgue!" Fin couldn't help losing his cool.
"Sorry," the nurse began to apologize, as Fin walked away.
"Piece of advice," Nick started, "Don't hand out information unless you're 100% sure of what you're saying."
Nick jogged to catch up to Fin who was peaking into the windows, and curtains of the other rooms around them.
"Fin, they aren't going to move a gunshot victim from a trauma bay, into a regular room down here. Fin just stop for a minute!" Nick grasped his bicep.
"Would you cut that out, you keep getting blood all over me!" Fin slapped Nick's hand away.
"What are we gonna do?" Fin asked him quietly. "How-if if he didn't make it, how are we gonna tell her?"
"It's my fault, we were just shooting the shit, knocked on the door, fucking asshole shot at us through the door! Stabler dropped before I knew what had happened. He grabbed at his chest, his hands were covered in blood, saw his eyes roll back. I dragged him down the porch steps, and applied pressure as I waited for backup, and the ambulance, that's when I called Liv, but I dunno… I couldn't hear her I-"
"I was in her office when we got the call, she went as white as a ghost, dropped her phone, I put it on speaker, we heard you say Stabler took two bullets, that's when she passed out," Fin explained his side of the situation. "Just lucky I was in her office when she went down."
The two seasoned Detectives made their way back to their Captain's room, and stood against one of the walls, out of the way. They watched as nurses bustled around making sure her IV was running, and the steady beep of her heart monitor filled the silence.
"What are we gonna tell her?" Fin repeated his earlier question.
Nick shrugged, "That I fucked up."
"This ain't on you man, besides she won't care about your role in this-"
"I keep thinking what if-" Nick interrupted Fin's comforting words.
"If Benson were awake right night she'd tell you-" Fin was interrupted again, but Nick's mouth never moved.
"Fin?"
Nick, and Fin poked their heads out from behind the curtain.
"Fin?" Looking at each other, they followed the voice to a door with no window. The door was already cracked open, as Fin pushed it open even further.
The two Detectives sighed audibly, Nick bent over, and rested his hands on his knees.
Fin slapped him on the back, before turning his attention back to the man on the gurney.
"What the fuck Stabler we thought you were dead?!"
Elliot held up his good hand, "What the hell happened?" he asked.
"You don't know?" Fin raised an eyebrow, wondering what of the morning festivities he could recall.
Elliot shook his head, "I remember getting shot, and I remember seeing blood on my hand, and I remember feeling light headed suddenly. Next thing I remember is waking up with a bunch of doctors, and nurses around me. They said both bullets were through and through, waiting on a CT, but they appeared to have missed all my vital organs, and blood vessels. My stats are normal, but they are transfusing me because of the blood I lost. Aside from that, they said my stats are good, other than some probable muscular damage, they think I'll be okay."
"Wait, so you're fine?" Nick inquired.
"Hold up, why'd you faint?" Fin took a step towards his bed.
"Uhhh, turns out the sight of my own blood, makes me a little woozy…" Elliot looked towards one of the beige walls, unable to meet the eyes of his concerned colleagues.
"So let me get this straight, you got shot, twice, and it wasn't the pain from getting shot, or even the amount of blood you loss, you passed out cause you don't like the sight of blood?!" Fin asked incredulously.
"Other people's blood is fine, I guess I just have a problem if I realize it's mine…" Elliot mumbled, picking at a loose thread on his hospital blanket.
"Anyways, where's Liv? I mean Captain Benson, thought she'd be here for sure. One of her employees gets shot you think that'd warrant a visit at the very least," Elliot tried to joke.
Fin, and Nick opened their mouths to respond, but both were overshadowed by the loud hospital speaker, "Code blue, trauma bay 2, emergency department, I repeat code blue, trauma bay 2, emergency department."
This time it was Elliot witnessing the blood drain from his colleague's faces.
A/N: Welcome to the angst party.
A/N 2: Jennmc_ on AO3, your review is the reason I'm updating this tonight. It was the exact pick me up I needed this week, thank you. This story has just a few more comments, than I've spent consecutively days in the hospital this year. Sucks knowing I won't be home fore Christmas, yet another year, but being able to go back and read a comment/review for every day I've been in here is so greatly appreciated, I (ironically as a writer) don't have words.
