Protégé

A/N: Picks up where we left off. Not so short this time. Good luck to everyone going through finals right now. Hopefully you can read this on your study break, and it's the break your brain needs from physics, or finance, or golf course management, whatever floats your boat.

Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing these characters for a hot minute.

Chapter 41

Mercy Hospital, Wednesday Afternoon, Summer 2013, Continued

Elliot watched as his two colleagues turned their heads towards one another before banging open his door, and rushing from his room.

"Uhhh guys?" Elliot called to the backs of the other Detectives.

Nick, and Fin paused outside of their Captain's room. The curtain was pushed open as medical professionals entered, and exited her room, sometimes carrying medical supplies, and equipment.

"Her BP dropped, no don't shock her!" the same older doctor called out, as another doctor had been prepping a pair of paddles.

"Start another line, I want it wide open, she needs a bolus stat, she's dehydrated, and her sugars are low, let's start her on a glucose drip too," the doctor twisted around, "You!"

She shouted, as her narrowed gaze found Fin. "You brought her in?"

"Ummm, yeah, she's my boss, we work together-"

"You were with her when she fainted?" the grey haired woman crossed her arms over her scrubs.

"Uh ye-yes ma'am I was present-"

The woman waved her hand, "And she didn't bang her head? You're sure?"

Fin didn't know why he felt intimidated by the older five foot woman, but he was, "No, I mean, um yes I am positive she did not bang her head."

"How well do you know your boss?" the doctor inquired.

"Pretty damn well, we're also neighbours, but she's like a sister to me," Fin wasn't sure where the doctor was going with her line of questioning.

"I see, does she have any health problems, or diseases you're aware of?"

"Benson? Naw she's as healthy as a horse," Fin replied.

"Benson? Liv? As in Olivia Benson?" Nick, Fin, and the doctor turned behind them to find Elliot, clad in a hospital gown, and clutching an IV pole.

"Sir should you be out of bed?" the doctor inquired as Elliot made his way towards them.

"Liv's here?" Elliot questioned. Before they could respond Elliot peered through the gap between them, to see his Captain, and girlfriend, unconscious on the hospital stretcher.

"Whhhha-I uhhhh, Liv?" Elliot felt his legs give out as he tried to walk towards her, stumbling into the arms of his partner.

Fin rushed forward as the doctor ran to grab a wheelchair, "Jesus Christ would you two stop fainting at the thought of each other!"

"Sit down," the doctor ordered, returning swiftly with a wheelchair.

She knelt down beside him, "You know this woman?"

"Ye-yeah, she's my um girlfriend," he whispered, despite Nick, and Fin knowing some truths about his relationship with their boss, he still didn't feel right shouting it from the rooftops, especially when she was unconscious.

"And are you aware of any medical problems she may have? Is she hypoglycaemic? Does she have low bloo-"

Elliot snapped his head up, a look of horror crossed his face. He shifted his blue glossy eyes from the friendly doctor to his girlfriend, "Pregnant."

Fin and Nick looked at one another in confusion.

"She's pre-the baby, how's the baby?" Elliot gasped, trying to stand from the wheelchair.

"Woahhhh cowboy!" the doctor pressed her hand down on his shoulder.

Elliot closed his eyes, the last time a woman had said those words to him, flashed in his mind. The night they were undercover at the strip club. Elliot gave Olivia a lap dance, and more.

"Please I need to see her," Elliot pleaded, opening his eyes to see the look of concern on the faces of the three people standing between him, and Olivia.

"And you will but I need more information. How far along is she?"

"We dunno, she just found out last night," Elliot informed her. "I'd guess a few months though."

"I'm gonna grab an ultrasound machine, if you stay in this chair, you can go in to see her, until I can track down that machine, deal?"

The three men nodded, and after watching the doctor leave, Nick rolled Elliot to her bedside.

They stood hovering over her, in an awkward silence, as Elliot grasped her free hand in his, he was eye level with her bed, thanks to his wheelchair.

"Sooo," Nick started, "Guess that one night stand resulted in a lot more?"

"What do you mean?" Elliot responded, but couldn't tear his eyes away from his girlfriend's pale face.

"You said she was pregnant…?" Nick supplied his reasoning for his last statement.

"Oh, yeah, no no, I don't think she got pregnant that night," Elliot mumbled, trying to focus on the conversation.

"When then? Or is it someone else's? Tucker's?" Nick fired off question after question.

Fin saw Elliot squeeze his eyes shut, the hand clutching the arm of his wheelchair was shaking.

"Hey Nick man, 'nough questions," Fin recognized Elliot needed a break. Poor guy had been shot twice, and informed accidentally that his pregnant girlfriend was in the hospital, and it was barely noon.

Elliot stroked her hand, "What happened?"

Fin shrugged, "I went into her office to talk to her about a case when Nick called, all we heard was commotion, and Nick telling us you caught two bullets, and there was a lot of blood. She went down after hearing that."

"I thought she was pregnant on the weekend, but then she thought… well it doesn't matter, she took a pregnancy test last night, and it was positive," Elliot informed them.

"Did you freak out?" Fin asked quietly.

"No, I was… I'd never felt happiness like that, just the thought of building a future together. A child, that's a mixture of her and I, although truth be told I hope it would take after her in the looks department-"

"I think you'll find most people would agree with you on that," Fin snickered.

"I pictured us getting a place together, maybe an apartment with a park nearby, or a small house with a backyard, in one of the borrows. Liv could commute to SVU, I was gonna apply to a couple other units in the building-"

"Wait you're gonna leave SVU?" Nick hadn't wanted a new partner, but the Stabler kid had grown on him, like the younger brother he always wanted.

Elliot nodded, he couldn't hold back the tears that were burning behind his eyes. "Now it's all gone."

"Hey! Don't say that, we don't know anything yet," Fin tried to comfort him.

Elliot raised his head, "We know that Olivia is unconscious. We know that her stats are in the toilet. We know that she fainted because of me, you don't understand, I can't lose her!" he snapped.

Fin held up his hands in a placating gesture, "We've known Benson for a long time, and if Liv was awake right now she'd be telling you to stop with the negative thoughts, that this wasn't your fault. That girl is like my sister, Cragen is like a father to her, Munch an uncle, Amanda is like the little sister she always wanted and-"

"And what the hell am I? Huh? What are you saying, that just cause you've known her longer you all somehow care about her more than I do?" Elliot squinted at the pair of Detectives.

"Let me guess, you're like her husband?" he spat, unable to hold his feelings inside any longer.

Nick nodded, and tilted his head examining his partner, "Oh my God, you're in love with her!"

Elliot chuckled darkly, "Yeah you may be her work husband, but I want to be her real husband."

Nick, and Fin looked at one another, neither had a response to Elliot's declaration.

Nick watched as Elliot stroked the soft skin of her hand. The way he ran his fingers along her hand, he immediately recognized the familiarity in which he touched her. He had literally once walked in on them half naked, yet standing in a busy emergency department, his clothes stained with blood, and with the scent of antiseptic in the air, he felt like he was intruding on something private, something intimate.

Nick gulped, ever since he found out the two of them had fallen into bed with one another, he wasn't sure how good of an idea it was. For either of them. Putting his own feelings aside, he didn't think they matched at all, and that they were both just using one another. Being able to bed a young, hot, twenty something, must've made Liv feel pretty good about herself, and banging a Captain would have been excellent street cred for Elliot, he had assumed. Not to mention the perks of supplying your boss with an orgasm, he suspected the vacation days, and free weekends would be worth it too.

Now, witnessing his partner's anguish, and his Captain's reaction, when both feared the worst for the other, he couldn't deny what was right in front of him.

As much as he tried to turn a blind eye to the situation, he had to admit, she had been so much happier lately, despite the never ending flu he had given her. Nick chuckled, realizing in hindsight that it was probably a mixture of influenza, and her pregnancy.

Nick was brought out of his thoughts by the elder doctor returning.

"Alright I'm going to have to ask you guys to step out," she instructed as a nurse joined her.

Fin and Nick began to leave, "No please don't… I can't, I don't want to leave her alone," Elliot practically whined.

"Sir your boss will be fine," the nurse stated, brought up to speed about the relation between the cases.

The older woman quickly assessed the tear tracks on Elliot's cheeks, and remembering what he whispered to her earlier she pulled rank.

"He can stay," she declared as she set up the ultrasound.

The nurse looked taken aback, but closed the curtain to give them more privacy.

"Now let's see what's going on with Baby…Stabler was your last name?" the doctor inquired.

Elliot let out an exhale, "Yeah, yeah, but uh I think Baby Benson sounds better, plus I have a feeling she'd fight me on that name anyways."

Together the doctor, and nurse lifted Olivia's gown, revealing her firm stomach, the skin across it was stretched thin. Elliot thought if they had really examined her body, they would've noticed the slight bulge earlier. In fact he had. But he never would have mentioned a potential weight gain. He didn't care anyways assuming it was weight, he loved every inch of her.

He watched as they squirted jelly on her lower abdomen, and moved the probe around.

"Alright Detective Stabler, if you look here-"

Elliot shook his head, no. "I don't want to see, I don't think it's fair. The first time I see my child, our child, I want us to see them together, not while one of us is unconscious. I want to share that moment with her, something we can remember, and cherish for the rest of our lives. I can wait. Just, please for the love of God doc, tell me if they're okay?"

The doctor paused, at first glance this guy looked like any other young twenty something that she treated in her ER. But he was different. She couldn't remember the number of men whose coattails she had seen flapping in the wind as they practically sprinted out of the hospital after finding out they had knocked up their significant other.

This boy, no- this man was not only taking responsibility, but was admitting this woman, this scenario was something he wanted, something to be cherished.

The doctor bit her bottom lip, and called out stats, and measurements to the nurse in the room.

"Alright, Baby Benson, is doing well. Looks to be perfectly on track for a pregnancy in its- wait do you want to know how far along she is?"

"Ummm, yeah I guess that'd be alright," Elliot sighed, his eyes glued to Olivia's hand that he was clutching.

"My guess would be she's in her fourth, or fifth month, and I'll go ahead and assume you don't even want me looking for the gender?"

"That'd be correct," Elliot agreed.

"Your baby is okay Detective, and-"

"Olivia, how's Olivia?" he questioned, "Why isn't she awake?"

The doctor made sure the monitor was off before she wiped the gel off of Olivia's abdomen.

"We're just getting some fluids into her now. As far as I can tell she was dehydrated, and had low blood sugar."

Just remembering their weekend together, and the rollercoaster of emotions they went through, Elliot spoke up, "She had some bleeding on Sunday, she assumed it was her period."

"Not to get too personal, but had you two had sex recently?" the older woman's face never differed, despite the intimacy of the question.

"Uhhh, the um night, and day before. A few times actually…" Elliot trailed off in embarrassment.

"I see, and were you two rough would you say?"

"What-no, well uhhh, I guess a couple times maybe?" Elliot ran his good hand down his face.

"How many times did you have sex in the 24 hours before her bleeding?" the doctor felt slightly bad for the young man occupying the wheelchair by her patient's bed.

"Ummm, I'd say she had at least 5 or more orgasms," Elliot rubbed the back of his neck, he never thought when he woke up that morning, that he'd be explaining his love life in detail, to a complete stranger.

"We're you going for some kinda record?" the nurse, who Elliot forgot was in the room, asked incredulously.

The doctor gave the nurse a stern look, before turning her attention back to Elliot, "Please understand that having sex while pregnant is normally safe, and encouraged. But in the future maybe not quite so many times in a short time span, and definitely not rough, or hard. I don't care if Captain Benson begs you to go deeper, as deep as you can, hold off."

Elliot knew his ears were beet red, "As long as she wakes up, I don't care if I'm not allowed to even touch her for the next 4 to 5 months. I'll do anything to make sure she, and Baby Benson are healthy. So this was my fault?"

"Of course not, the bleeding was probably caused by the sex, but I can tell from her bloodwork it wasn't a lot, she's not anemic. Did you two have sex last night as well?" the doctor patted Elliot's good shoulder, in comfort.

"Ye-yeah, last night after we found out, she had a couple orgasms then too," Elliot lowered his head, and kissed Olivia's hand, the one he was holding.

"Mmmm, I thought so. I suspect from the rigorous sex, and sweat, she became dehydrated, and her sugar dropped. Pregnant women can be affected from the slightest changes. Then when her body needed the glucose in her bloodstream, after hearing you'd been shot, it was unavailable, and her blood pressure plummeted, her heart rate rose, all the things her adrenal glands would naturally make happen, from a stressful stimuli, couldn't happen. Heck even in her unconscious state, she may have heard your colleagues accidental assumption that you were dead, resulting in the code blue. The good news is she's stable now, her stats are coming back up, and I believe she'll wake up sometime soon," she tried to explain.

"And your child is okay, even if Mom wakes up soon, I'd still like to keep her overnight, just for observation," she continued.

The nurse placed some sensors on Olivia's belly, and Elliot raised an eyebrow.

"Monitor Baby Benson's heart rate too," she patiently informed him.

"We are going to step out, push this button if you need anything, or she wakes up, sound alright to you?"

Elliot nodded, "Th-thank you doc."

The doctor smiled, and left the room with the nurse, pushing the ultrasound machine.

Elliot leaned over, resting his head beside their clasped hands.

"Please wake up, please," he begged as he closed his eyes, sleep and exhaustion quickly pulled him under.

"Get him away from her," Elliot awoke suddenly to somebody yelling. Next thing he knew, his wheelchair was being pushed against the wall.

"Paddles ready?" somebody else asked.

"Charge to-" another doctor began to inform them.

"No stop!" Elliot shouted over the chaos. "You can't shock her, she's pregnant!"

Some of the nurses, and doctors in the room stilled.

"You gotta choose then," a man in navy blue scrubs spoke up.

"I'm sorry what?" Elliot squinted wearily at him, still fighting the fog of sleep.

"Your kid, or your wife, who's it gonna be?" the doctor asked him.

Elliot's jaw dropped, "You can't be serious?"

"We don't have time for this, so I'll ask again. Baby, or your wife?" Elliot could barely hear him over all the alarms going off in the room.

Elliot was so shocked, it didn't even occur to him to correct the man, to tell him Olivia wasn't his wife. Elliot looked around for the familiar older nurse who had been treating his pregnant girlfriend earlier.

"You can't-I mean, I can't-we never, you can't ask me to choose!" Elliot stuttered.

Another woman in scrubs spoke up, "Now or never, we're losing her!"

"Olivia!" Elliot shouted. "Olivia, Liv, Livvvvvv!" he cried as the man in the dark scrubs moved to shock her.

"Oh-Liv-Ee-Ahhhhhhhhh!" Elliot cried jerking upright in his wheelchair.

He was panting heavily, and he could feel sweat dripping down his back. The perspiration that had built up on his skin, was causing the sutured flesh over his bullet wounds to sting. He didn't care about anything else though, when he woke up and his shiny blue eyes connected with a slightly hooded pair of brown orbs.

He'd recognize those doe eyes anywhere.

"Liv?" Elliot whispered

Olivia nodded her head, and gave him a small closed lip smile.

"I-you're-I mean, uhhh, awake?" Elliot stuttered, his voice hoarse from sleep.

He must have fallen asleep in the wheelchair by her stretcher. He woke up suddenly from his bad dream, correction- his nightmare.

"You're alive," Olivia whispered, her voice was gravelly from her unconscious state, and her eyes were watery.

Upon closer examination of her face Elliot could tell that she had been crying.

"I'm fine, I think they're only keeping both of us overnight for observation," Elliot explained to her.

"When I heard you'd been shot… twice, I didn't know-I felt like I couldn't breathe," Olivia squeezed the hand he had resting on her bed. "And we had just found out I was pregnant, you were so excited, then to get shot the very next day, it felt like every other good thing that has happened in my life, I was happy for a minute, so of course the universe would conspire to take you away."

"I'm fine, I promise," he repeated. "It'd take a lot more than a gunshot to take me away from you… two."

Olivia gasped, "The baby! Is everything okay?!"

Elliot smiled, and nodded, "They did an ultrasound, everything looks good. Doctor guessed you were four to five months along."

"You saw our baby?" Olivia couldn't hold her tears at bay any longer.

Elliot grinned, "No, I actually wanted to wait until you were conscious, I dunno-" thinking back on his reasoning he wondered if he had been acting stupid, and she'd find it cheesy, that he had wanted her to see them at the same time. "I just wanted us to experience that moment together," he mumbled quietly.

Olivia smiled through her tears, and kissed the hand she was grasping in both of hers, "So four to five months? That would mean-"

"You got pregnant one of our first times together," Elliot finished her statement for her.

"Wow," Olivia was stunned by everything that had occurred in the past twenty four hours.

"And doctors orders, you have to eat, and drink more often, and no more hard, or rough sex until after Baby Benson arrives. And maybe not so many times in one night, the doctor said that's probably why you had some bleeding Sunday morning," Elliot brought her up to speed on her health.

"Y-you talked to a doctor about our sex life?" Elliot could barely talk to her about their sex life at times, let alone a complete stranger.

Olivia's lips curled into a smile, "And Baby Benson?"

Elliot shrugged, "Sounded better than Baby Stabler."

Lifting his good arm he brushed her hair behind her ear, and bent over until he could lean his forehead against hers. "I prayed all day for you to wake up, and when I passed out on your stretcher I had the worst nightmare."

Olivia watched as tears formed in the baby blue eyes that she loved so much.

"I'm fine too," she whispered into the inches separating their lips.

"I thought I was gonna lose both of you…" Elliot trailed off, the knot in his throat was causing him to have trouble speaking.

Olivia had been running her fingers through his messy brown hair when he suddenly woke up, minutes earlier, and she repeated the process again.

Feeling an overwhelming amount of emotions Elliot broke down, the tears falling from his eyes, thick and fast.

"Ellll," Olivia moaned, keeping one hand in his hair, the other she used to grip his cheek, wiping his tears as they fell.

Elliot pressed forward, eliminating the small space between them, he covered her mouth with his, sucking her bottom lip, he could feel his tears coating both their faces.

Elliot suddenly pulled back, looking around the room, "Was suppose to buzz when you woke up," he explained as he found her call bell.

Olivia nodded, "Mmhm, in a minute," she pulled him back towards her, resuming their kiss. Olivia licked his bottom lip, causing him to groan. She used the opportunity to slip her tongue smoothly into his open mouth.

Elliot angled his head to deepen their kiss, only stopping when another alarm sounded from one of the machines that was monitoring her.

Elliot looked around in confusion as her curtain was whipped open, and a few nurses appeared as well as the older doctor.

"What's going on?" Elliot asked.

"Hmmm," the doctor replied casting a glance at a particular machine. "Her heart rate suddenly spiked again. And I thought you were going to buzz me when she woke up?"

The doctor glared at Elliot accusingly, "Why do I have the feeling you're the reason her heart rate just rose too?"

Elliot ducked his head, "I did try but she distracted me," he muttered in embarrassment.

The doctor watched as Olivia's heart rate returned to normal.

"Good, good, well welcome back Miss Benson," the older woman greeted her.

"It's Captain Benson, and thank you. I'm sorry but you are…" Olivia inquired, figuring she was her doctor.

"My apologies, Doctor Warner, it's a pleasure to meet you while you're conscious," the doctor introduced herself.

"Can I trust Elliot here brought you up to speed?

Olivia nodded.

"Good, I've been talking to Elliot's doctor, as well as the bed desk, and patient relations, we want to keep you both overnight, I'm working on getting you a room upstairs that you can share. I think I rightfully assumed if I didn't, that one, or both of you would try to find the other?" Doctor Warner gave them a knowing smile, at the guilty looks on both their faces.

"Right, so hang tight while I try to make some arrangements. If you both feel fine tomorrow then I'd like to do one more ultrasound on you Olivia before you go home, that sound okay to you guys?"

They both nodded emphatically

"Any more questions?" Doctor Warner asked watching them both shake their heads, no.

"I'm serious, you both need to rest tonight, and we'll go over everything tomorrow before you're discharged. You both have had stressful days, your bodies need to recover, I know a lot of information has been thrown at you in a short period of time. If you think of anymore questions, you can ask me tomorrow," Doctor Warner gave them both a warm smile.

"Knock knock," "Can we come in?" they heard Fin, and Nick's voice from the other side of the curtain.

"That's my cue," Doctor Warner turned, and swung the curtain open, "I'm heading off to make some arrangements for your colleagues, you two can stay for a few minutes, but then I'm going to insist that they rest."

"Welcome back Liv," Fin rocked back and forth on his feet, his hands behind his back.

"Ya good to see you conscious again," Nick grinned widely.

"Thanks guys, but what happened with work?" Olivia inquired.

"Think Rollins was the unlucky person to have to inform Dodds. He put Munch in charge for now, until you're back," Fin filled her in.

"Fin, thank you, I don't remember much but I do recall you being there when we got the call from Nick," Olivia was genuinely thankful that it was Fin who was with her when she fainted.

Fin, never one for displays of emotion just nodded, "Don't mention it, and congrats on Baby B."

Olivia quirked an eyebrow, "Don't mention it." She winked at her Detectives.

"What are you guys gonna do?" Nick asked curiously, he couldn't tell at the moment, but he had no doubt his Captain would be showing soon.

Both Olivia, and Elliot let out simultaneous sighs. They all chuckled lightly, "We'll worry about that tomorrow," Olivia answered as Elliot kissed her hand.

After promising to take it easy, and not give the doctors any more problems, Nick and Fin departed. The latter agreeing to update Dodds on everything minus the baby. Nick would have to go to 1PP the following day, to discuss the shooting, but said he'd try to give Elliot as much time as possible, before the department got his side of the story too.

"And then there was two," Olivia cupped his cheek in her hand, feeling the beginning scruff of his five o'clock shadow.

Elliot shook his head, and leaned into her soft palm, "Then there were three," he said as he placed his large hand over her stomach.

Tears welled in both their eyes as they stared at one another.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again," Olivia whispered with a choked voice.

"I won't if you won't," Elliot leaned in to seal his promise with a kiss.

As much as he tried to keep it light, he couldn't help smiling into their kiss as he heard the familiar sound of her heart rate alarm going off.

Elliot pulled back, afraid they'd kick him out if he constantly caused her heart rate to spike. He couldn't keep the cocky grin off his face.

Olivia rolled her eyes, "Just wait, I'll hook you up to this thing one day, and we'll see how you react."

Elliot pecked her kiss swollen lips, "If it," he paused to kiss her again, "Involves kissing you," another chaste kiss, "Then I will happily oblige."

"I love you," Olivia wiped at the tears on his cheeks.

"I love you too," Elliot swiped along her long wet lashes, and wiggled his fingers on the hand resting on her stomach, "And you Baby B!"

A/N: Beta'd but all mistakes my own. Thanks for all your nice comments, and reviews.