Elliot and Olivia entered the cafeteria together. Noah sat at the table sucking down his second fountain drink when he finally looked up and noticed her approaching.
"Mom!" He slid his soda away from him, and Eli skillfully caught it before it slid off the table and onto the floor.
Noah practically crashed into Olivia, who eagerly wrapped him in a hug. She dropped a kiss on his head. "Hey baby."
He peeled himself away and began telling her something about the campout, but Elliot's phone began to ping, so he turned away from the group and focused his attention on his device.
Dickie.
D: Doc's here. Says the girl's awake. Wants to talk to you first.
Elliot turned back around and glanced up from his phone. Noah and Eli were showing Olivia a few pictures from the lake, and she was responding with the appropriate oos and ahs. She must have felt his eyes in her because her eyes flicked away from the phone and in his direction. Without speaking, she nodded, as if she knew exactly what the message said.
She took a step back and patted Noah's back. "I'll be right back." Her eyes flit back in Elliot's direction. "The doctor wants to check in with us."
Noah pushed his chair back as if he planned on tagging along. Elliot made eye contact with Olivia, hoping she had a good excuse to keep him here, at least for a while.
Luckily, Eli came to their rescue. He must have noticed the mildly alarmed looks being passed between the adults in the room before he offered, "Noah, remember that game I was telling you about at camp? That app? I want you to try it. I think you'll think it's cool."
"I…I want…" Noah began to protest.
Elliot gently cut in. "I need you to stay with Eli for a few minutes." Noah opened his mouth to argue, but Elliot talked over him. "The hospital has privacy policies. The doctor can't tell everyone all of her medical stuff. The doctor is going to give your mom and me the update, and then we'll call Eli when you can come down there."
Noah folded his arms across his chest, and Elliot half expected the kid to call bullshit on the excuse—even if it was true.
"Why can't we just go sit with Dickie now? We're done eating anyway." The request would have normally sounded benign, but the harsh edge to Noah's voice made the request sound more like a demand.
Noah had been insistent on remaining as close to this girl as possible, so his request didn't exactly surprise Elliot, but his tone definitely caught Olivia off guard.
While she generally subscribed to a more gentle parenting model, she had a low tolerance for insubordinate disrespect from her son. 95% of the time Elliot felt the same way, but he was more than a little aware of the abnormal amount of stress Noah had been under throughout the day, and he had planned on letting the demanding request slide. Olivia, on the other hand, visibly winced at her son's blatant disrespect for Elliot's request.
"Noah," she scolded. Elliot raised his palm to call her off, but she brushed him off. "I get that you have had a hell of a morning, but so has Elliot. If he says you need to stay here. Then you will be staying here. Got it?"
"But mom!" He tried to argue, but Olivia didn't budge.
"Stay here with Eli. Once we figure out some things, we will call you guys, and you can get an update."
Elliot wasn't sure why she was pushing this issue so much at the moment, but she had her reasons, and he learned a long time ago to back her play.
"Just give us a few minutes, buddy. The doctor said she might be waking up soon, but we have to make sure everything is alright with her before letting you go in."
Noah's eyes darted between the two parental figures in his life. Elliot thought Noah might make one final push, but instead he sat himself next to Eli with a huff. "Fine," he said through gritted teeth.
"This won't take long," Olivia's voice softened some once Noah appeared to comply.
He still appeared offended but acknowledged his mother's words with a non-committal sounding, "Yeah, okay."
Once he was settled, Elliot led Olivia out of the cafeteria and in the direction of the ER. They had walked out of earshot when Elliot said, "He probably could have come to the ER at least."
"Maybe," she agreed, "but you are the other significant adult in his life." She sighed, "I'm his mother, but..." She changed directions a little. "He's yours too. Even if it's not official."
He didn't want her to feel pressured into this conversation, and he definitely didn't want her to feel like he was vying for some sort of ownership of her only child. "Liv, we don't have to talk about this right now. I know that you didn't mean anything by what you said."
She stopped walking and turned in his direction. He stopped as well when she lifted a gentle hand to his chest. "You're right, we can talk about it more later, but I need you to know how important you are to me," she swallowed deeply, "and to him."
He covered her hand with his and lifted her knuckles to his lips. "I know." When it came down to it, he did know. Despite his insecurities, he knew deep down they were in this together. For better or worse.
He kept her hand in his as they passed through the double doors into the now bustling ER. Elliot glanced to the corner where their group had previously camped out, but the space was now crowded with what looked like a bachelor party gone wrong. The man of honor sported a huge gash on his head, and his buddies appeared to be out of their minds wasted. Their boisterous laughter began to catch the attention of some nurses, who looked less than amused by the whole scene.
"Dad!" Dickies voice carried over the drunken laughter, and Elliot spotted him in the opposite corner, near a hallway of small exam rooms. Dr Adams stood on the other side of a counter, scrolling through charts on his iPad.
Elliot tugged on Olivia's hand and led her to where the doctor and Dickie stood. The doctor's eyes lifted when Elliot finally made it through the crowded room. He let go of Olivia's hand, readying them both for a more professional interaction.
"Detective," Dr. Adams greeted. His eyes drifted to Olivia, "and you are?"
"Olivia Benson, I'm captain of Manhattan's special victims unit." She tilted her head towards Elliot. "Detective Stabler said he came across a case that I might be able to help with."
It took a moment for the doctor to regain his train of thought. Elliot figured either her rank or overall beauty—probably both—intimidated the poor guy. The interaction left Elliot feeling a little nostalgic. After all, it wasn't the first time Olivia Benson had reduced a self-assured, highly respected man into a stammering puddle of nerves.
"Yeah, um, I'm glad you're here. More eyes on this case couldn't hurt."
Once he peeled his eyes from Olivia's face, he motioned for them to follow him. Before they passed through a set of doors, Dickie stopped and poked his thumb over his shoulder. "I'm going to keep track of the boys. Call me when you have something?"
"Of course," Olivia said with a grateful smile. She reached out and squeezed his arm affectionately before letting him go. "Thanks."
"I got you, Liv." He winked before backing away. "I'll keep Noah busy."
Without another word, Dickie dipped back into the busy ER. They returned to the task of following Dr. Adams to where the exam rooms gave way to another set of double doors. When they stepped through the doors, there was a waiting room with a smaller reception desk manned by a single nurse. On the other end of the room sat another set of doors with a plaque with the words Intensive Care printed on the surface. The waiting room was empty, and the silence felt strange after the unrestrained buzzing noise of the emergency room.
Dr. Adams motioned for them to sit on a small sofa as he sat on the coffee table across from them. He pushed his glasses back up his nose before diving in. "I'm not sure how much background Detective Stabler was able to relay, but I'm certain we are looking at a severe case of child abuse."
Olivia nodded. Without bringing up Elliot's off-protocol photos of the child's medical file, she answered, "He filled me in on the basics."
"Good, good. We lifted sedation about thirty minutes ago. She was pretty combative coming out of it, but that's not abnormal in a case like this."
"Her fight or flight reflex was probably still triggered," Elliot said mostly to himself.
"Exactly," the doctor confirmed. "We've got her calm, but at this point she's bordering on catatonic. She vauguly acknowledges the presence of another person, but she's mostly silently staring into the corner of the room." He continued, "I had a couple of our best pediatric nurses come in, but they weren't successful in even getting her name. She probably needs a psych consult of some sort, but we don't have anyone qualified on staff here, and she's not ready to be transferred to any other facility."
Elliot wished the hospital had at least a psych nurse on staff, but the limitations of a rural hospital were completely understandable.
"I know you have indisputable evidence of physical abuse, but were you able to find any signs of sexual assault?"
The doctor shook his head. "No obvious outward sexual trauma, but due to consent laws, I wasn't able to do anything more than a cursory visual assessment."
Elliot figured as much, but he felt at least some relief in the absence of obvious sexual trauma.
"I believe she's old enough to consent to a rape kit without parental permission, but in her current state, I doubt she will agree to anything as invasive as a full kit."
"Maybe not, but there are a few uninvasive things we can do to preserve even a minimal amount of evidence. I'll provide your staff with a list of things they need to bag or hold on to for us."
The doctor nodded. "That would be helpful, thank you." He glanced over his shoulder at the ICU doors. "I'm not sure how receptive she will be to more questioning adults, but I can let you try. At this point her name would be amazing and probably helpful for all of us, but I wouldn't get your hopes up."
The funny thing was, if he was here with anyone else, he wouldn't bother the girl this soon. But he wasn't alone, and Olivia had an amazing track record with getting silent young women to speak to her.
"Let's give it a shot." He turned his head towards Liv, making sure she was good to go in.
She agreed. "We won't push her too hard. If she's not responsive, we can let her rest and try again tomorrow. She's been through a lot, and we don't want to make this situation scarier for her than it has to be."
"Good." Dr. Adams pushed himself up from the coffee table. "I'll show you back. I have a couple other cases I need to check in on, but she has a nurse assigned to her that should be able to help you with any basic questions."
"Thank you," Elliot said sincerely as he reached for Olivia's hand to help her up from the couch.
"No, thank you guys for helping out with this." They approached the double doors, and he added, "I'd hate for this to get swept under the rug. This kid deserves better."
"They all do," Liv murmured in response.
Dr. Adams led them silently down the quiet hallway. The only sounds were those of the different monitors in the rooms tracking each patient's vitals. The doctor slowed as they approached the correct room. "Room 172. Her nurse's name is Heidi. She's not in there right now, but she should be at the nurses station further down this hall." He stepped out of the way, granting them access to the door. "Good luck."