"Where's Noah right now?" Elliot groaned as he pushed himself into a more upright position.
She bit her lip, and frantically ran through her child's schedule. "Dance, Amanda's picking him up soon."
"Is there somewhere you can send him?" He sounded rattled. Elliot never sounded rattled.
Her heart pounded . How was it possible that she didn't know anyone outside of the city? "No. I mean the McCanns, but…"
Elliot pinched the bridge of his nose. "But I mentioned Woodstock when I threatened him."
"You couldn't have known El," she said kindly.
"It was stupid," he all but groaned.
"Well yeah, but we can't change it. We just need to get everyone somewhere safe until we get this mess under control." She pulled her phone off the nearby side table. "I'm calling Amanda and the McCann's. It might be a good time for them to take a vacation."
"Okay. I probably need to give the kids the information. I'm not sure they will want to drop everything though…" he pulled out his phone and began scrolling through the contacts.
Olivia shot Elliot a look of disbelief. "He's dangerous El. He has no problem murdering innocent people. Make them get out of the city," she said firmly. For her this was nonnegotiable. She couldn't lose any of her people or his.
"Yeah yeah. Of course." She could feel the tension radiating off of him. "My brain can't keep up with this I guess." He needed to find a way to catch up because they needed to move quickly.
-000-
He felt like he was suffocating. He kept moving, and shifting his weight which only jostled his already painful gunshot wounds. He couldn't just sit here, but quite literally didn't have a choice.
"You're going to rip your stitches," Olivia spoke without opening her eyes.
"How the hell are you so calm?" She sat there with her eyes closed, reclined in her hospital bed.
"Oh, I'm not." He finally noticed the tears leaking from her still closed eyes. "Im just trying…I can't lose it right now." She tried to explain, but her voice remained thick with emotion.
The previous hour flew by in a devastating whirlwind. All three bodies in the room spoke on the phone at the same time. Jet touched base with their respective teams while Liv and Elliot called their families.
It took a lot of coordinating, but Noah was safely tucked away with Amanda's family in a family friend's cabin upstate. Elliot's kids were still scrambling, but it sounded like they all would find a safe place to crash for a bit.
Elliot watched her until he couldn't stand it anymore. "Scoot over," he finally said.
Her eyes popped open and she watched him in disbelief, "why?"
"I'm coming over." He winced as he pushed himself up into a sitting position.
"No. El! You're going to hurt yourself."
"Don't care." He gritted his teeth as he slid himself to the edge of the bed. "It's been way to long since I touched you last."
"I swear to God El, if you start bleeding everywhere."
He rolled his eyes. "I'll be fine."
Olivia bit her lip and her eyes flicked to the door. "At least wait for Jet to get off the phone." She had stepped into the hallway to take her call.
"She's like half my size- she's not going to help at all." He steadied himself on his feet before shuffling to her bedside and catching himself on the railing. He couldn't suppress his groan.
"You're such a damn idiot." She pulled on his arm, and he swore he saw a smile teasing at the corner of her mouth.
He settled against her, and leaned in and pressed a kiss to her temple. "That's better," he breathed.
"Mmmhmm," she agreed and laid her head against his forehead. "You realize the nurses are going to move you back as soon as they come to check our vitals."
He nuzzled his face closer and kissed her cheek. "Worth it."
-000-
Fin sent Velasco to the hospital to relieve Jet and allow her to come to the precinct and work some magic on their shitty video footage.
Churlish sat next to her sort of friend and watched as her fingers flew against the keyboard, and her finger clicked at the mouse furiously.
"I think I got something on Stabler's footage," Jet said as she leaned closer to the screen. She paused the video and zoomed closer to a dark colored hoodie.
Behind them Fin snorted. "Another kid in a damn hoodie…" he grumbled.
Churlish held back a laugh as Jet rolled her eyes. "You're worse than the old man…" she said without apology.
"Look Sloot," Fin griped. "No one is worse than your old man."
"It's probably a close second though," Churlish teased.
"Did you find something," Fin asked, his voice oozed with irritation.
Jet enhanced the still shot paused in the screen. Churlish glanced over her shoulder at her sargeant who stood over them with his arms folded against his chest. He wasn't normally this…surly with the staff, but he had lost any sense of patience when his two closest friends were admitted to the hospital almost back to back…and only weeks after someone had tried to kill them both in a diner. The Sergeant's humor had long left the building.
Churlish leaned in, finally seeing what Jet obviously saw. She pointed to the reflection in the deli glass. It was subtle, almost invisible to the untrained eye, but their perp's hoodie had a logo of some sort on the front. It was small, and not very clear.
"Give me a sec," Jet said as she trained her focus on the very pixelated image. She cropped the section and allowed her software to do its work.
"It looks like a," Churlish began.
"School logo," Jet finished.
"That's a private school," Fin noted and both women glanced back. "What? We've intervieeed kids outta there before. Upscale stuff though. Not sure any gang bangers come out of that neighborhood."
"Well, guess we are going to find out because that kid is our perp and he's sporting a pretty fancy hoodie with thet school's logo." Churlish pushed her chair back. "What's the play Sarge?"
"I'll touch base with Bell. See if we can borrow Slootmakers here so we can leave Velasco where he is." He pulled his phone from his pocket. "Go ahead and head over there. We can't waste time. I'll call Bell and we'll figure out our next steps."
"Copy that," Chirlish said. She tilted her head to wards the exit. "Ready to interview some private school kids."
"It's my lucky day," Jet replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I'd rather interview a mob boss than deal with elitist teenagers…"
"Well, we don't get many mob bosses passing through here, but we get more than our fair share of entitled teens." Churlish answered with a grimace.
"Great."
-000-
Olivia felt safer, more grounded, whenever Elliot was by her side. The feminist in her wanted to buck against the feeling of needing a man, but she didn't need Elliot because he was a man. She needed him because he was hee best friend, and the world felt right when he walked in step next to her.
"You know they're going to start throwing around the "R" word after this," Elliot said without opening his eyes.
His large palm rested low on her belly. She covered his hand with hers. "I know," she admitted. "After getting shot twice in one year…I don't know…I don't think I'm ready yet, but I wonder what it would be like without a constant target on my back." She chuckled ruefully, "I'm getting too old to be greenlit."
She felt a little nervous when Elliot didn't immediately respond, but it became clear he was about to admit something he wouldn't admit to anyone else. "I've thought about it a lot lately, and this?" He sighed, "I'm not sure I'm going to make it out in the field again."
Part of her wanted to encourage him. He was strong and the doctors said he would get range of motion back with physical therapy. He could return to the field, but to what end. Mandatory retirement was creeping up on him, and as a detective his job was more dangerous. She wanted him to be safe. Still, this job was as much a part of him as it was her and she would never sway his decision one way or another. It had to be up to him.
"Whatever you choose, I just want you to be safe El." She lifted a hand to his face, "I just got you back…I can't lose you," she swallowed deeply, and she blinked back the tears pressing at the corners of her eyes.
He leaned his forehead against her temple and the warm of his breath sent shivers down her spine. "I'm never leaving you again Liv. Even if it means I have to be done with job. I'm staying," he promised.
Her tears began to freely flow. She knew what a sacrifice that would be for him, but he would do it for her. They may never get back the time they lost, but she wouldn't waste another minute away from him. "God, I love you," her voice remained low and thick with emotion.
"I love you too, Liv. It's always gonna be you and me." He laid his head on her shoulder and she rested her head on his. Despite the danger and uncertainty surrounding them, she felt safe.
-000-
"It's really sweet, really."
Velasco's brown furrowed in the direction of the nurse. She had approached the door and peaked through the small window at the corner of the door. Maybe it was cute for outsiders, but for him it was just…weird. "Yeah," Velasco responded, not wanting the nurse feel uncomfortable.
Velasco still wasn't entirely certain how Stabler got himself over there. It was impressive really. Velasco caught a glimpse of the man scans, and anyone else would be laying in bed flying high on pain killers. But this guy was pushing 60 at least, and got himself into the next hospital bed over…by himself.
Velasco was happy for the Cap. She deserved someone in her life. It was just such a strange thing to witness. He was fairly sure he hadn't seen her rely or lean on anyone. She was this authoritative presence, and while he knew the captain to be soft and empathetic when necessary, she always seemed somewhat untouchable. It was almost unsettling seeing her human side.
"I hate to wake them, but I need vitals." She sighed as if she were some sort of hopeless romantic. "And I should probably make him get back into his own bed."
Good luck with that. Velasco planned on camping out in front of the door in the hallway. He figured it would save him from having or overhearing potentially uncomfortable conversations. He leaned back in the chair, fully planning on staying outside while the nurse did her thing, but when she pressed down the door handle she looked over to him again, "Your comin right?"
For what?
"I'm not moving that guy by myself."
There had to be some big male nurse around here somewhere, but Velasco sighed and pushed himself up from the chair. He wasn't looking forward to waking up his boss, and her…boyfriend…who were sleeping in the same bed…he felt weird… this had to be outside of his job description.
