Chapter 2

39 weeks of pregnancy

August

2001

16th Precinct

Olivia looked up from her desk to see a tall thin beautiful blonde woman with a messy ponytail, standing in the precinct looking around. By the looks of her faded sweatshirt, jeans, and dirty sneakers, she mistook the woman for a civilian.

"Hello, can I help you?"

"Hi, I'm Dani Beck. I'm looking for Captain Cragen."

Olivia stood up from her desk and Dani's face reacted to the large bump under her light blue maternity top.

"Oh wow, you're very pregnant."

"Am I," she responded matter of factly. She was so tired of people saying that.

"Twins," Dani asked.

She hated that reaction even more.

"Nope," is all she said as she walked past Dani and opened Cragen's door. "The Captain just stepped out. I'm assuming you're the new detective."

"I am. You must be the detective I'm replacing. Bensler?"

Munch looked up from his desk and cleared his throat. "Her name is Detective Benson, dear, and nobody will be replacing her. I suggest you wait for the Captain in his office, and if you want to make it to your second day, you should probably do laundry and wear something more… work-appropriate."

She looked at her sweatshirt and shrugged. "What? I can run in this outfit. How many perps do you catch with those church shoes and tie on?"

Olivia made an upturned face at Munch, and waved her towards the office. "You can wait in there."

She then closed the door.

Elliot came out of the kitchen with a coffee. "Who's that?"

"Apparently, you're new partner," Olivia said with full judgment.

"Oh," Elliot tried to grab a peak at her through the window. "Is that a sweatshirt? Cool."

"It's going to be a long 12 weeks," Munch shook his head.

"You're telling me," Olivia lifted a brow at Munch.

The phone rang and Olivia picked it up. "SVU. This is Detective Benson. Ah….okay…Alright…where are you located….okay, my partner and I will be in."

She hung up the phone and waved for Munch. "We got a domestic situation at the Planned Parenthood."

"I have court in 15 minutes," Munch shrugged. "Looks like you get Elliot. I know you're sick of him," he winked at Olivia in jest.

"What do we got," Elliot gulped his coffee down and grabbed some keys.

"Not sure. Father of the baby and his mother are trying to prevent abortion. The nurse sounded like she was in the middle of a bar fight."

"You sure this is the case you want to take today," Elliot cut in.

"You're the Catholic. Sure, you can handle it," she pushed back.

"Hey, just giving you the out, is all."

"Everyone is out on call. Who you gonna take? Dani dirty shoes," she jabbed.

"You are one tough broad, Benson," Munch smiled in amusement. "Elliot, you should know by now Olivia can handle just about anything."

"Thanks for the support, Munch," she smiled.

Planned Parenthood.

When they got to the office, a man in his late 20's was sitting next to the clinic's security guard in the lobby.

"God! Thank god! Are you the cops?," a middle aged woman next to the man rushed over to them.

Elliot flipped his badge. "That would be us. What's going on? Did you make the call?"

"No, the clinic did, but they locked us out of the room!"

The woman was hysterical, and her son followed suit.

"I can't have them abort my baby. It's murder, and they were going to kill my kid without even asking me. These people disgust me! You're all going to hell," he yelled through the glass at the women in the waiting room, most of whom were pregnant.

"Sir," Olivia butted in. "Calm down. We're going to talk to your wife-"

"She ain't my wife. She's a idiot cu-"

"Whoa" Elliot pushed him a bit. "I'm starting to think the reason you're baby mama doesn't want to have your kid is that attitude of yours. Now shut your yap or I'm gonna have to put you in cuffs."

The Planned Parenthood security guard stepped in and pointed to the chair in the corner. "Sir, you need to sit in the chair I appointed to you or you will be taken out of the clinic."

"Let's go talk to her. See what's going on," Olivia nodded to Elliot who was still eyeballing the man.

"Good, maybe you can talk some sense into her. One pregnant bitch to another."

"Hey," Elliot snapped. "Take him outside," he ordered the security guard.

"I'll come with," said the mother.

Olivia walked through the waiting area, where 10 women and a few children quietly waited their turn. A nurse unlocked the door for the detectives to enter.

"How far along are you," the mother of the man asked Olivia.

"Any day now," she kept it short.

"I'm Bobby's mom. Sheryl Ann. He means well. He's only looking out for his son. If I could talk to Amy, maybe I can get her to see things-"

Olivia held her ground. "Sorry Sheryl Ann, you have to wait here."

"Just promise me, you won't let her kill my grandbaby will you," she teared up.

"I can't promise anything," she tried to push her away.

The woman desperately grabbed her arm. "You're a mother. Don't let them do this. I beg of you," she sobbed.

Olivia pulled her arm away from the woman, and Elliot almost laid his hands on her, but Olivia had it. She calmly looked into the woman's eyes. "Please don't touch me again, Ma'am. Go in the other room and wait. I will do everything I can to understand the situation and do what's right for mother and baby. Okay?"

The woman nodded and backed up.

The nurse let Olivia and Elliot in and quickly locked the security door behind her.

Olivia let out a heavy breath of air, and Elliot rubbed her shoulder.

A Doctor was waiting for her at the end of the hall.

"Thanks for coming in. I'm Dr. Loveit," the female doctor introduced herself.

"Detective Benson, and this is Detective Stabler."

"How far along," Dr Loveit smiled.

"Ah…39 weeks."

"So close. Enjoy the quiet while you can."

"So what is happening back here," Olivia asked, trying to shake the bad energy off of her mind.

"Patient is 32 weeks pregnant. Baby has some malformalities. The brain is not fully developing. Ears, lungs, and spine are not developing properly. He will be born deaf, and most likely blind, wheelchair bound for life, possibly on a respirator if the lungs do not catch up. We won't know the extent of brain function, but it will most likely be limited. The chances of a baby with these conditions making it past a few weeks after birth are low, and even then, he could be a vegetable. It will be a very hard life for mother and child. Mother is single and currently does not have a job. And…well the father of the baby and her have had…an unhealthy relationship. She has told me of mental and physical abuse on several occasions."

Elliot listened, but couldn't help wondering what the right answer to this was. "Does the father of the baby know all of this?"

"Yes, Sir, he does. He and his mother are wanting to continue the pregnancy regardless of health risks. However, the mother of the baby is not in the best of health herself. She has suffered from bulimia her whole life….which is probably why the baby is suffering. Her placenta is also torn, and she has been in a lot of pain. She came in today because she was bleeding. This is the third time she's come in for bleeding in the last two weeks. My fear is that we will lose both of them, if we don't make a decision today."

"Okay," Olivia nodded. "So your educated recommendation is…termination of pregnancy?"

"If we don't end the pregnancy, both mother and baby will die."

Elliot nervously shifted his weight. He grew anxious about never seeing Eli take a breath of air or being able to look into his eyes before he passed. And he was beyond anxious about Olivia and their child. "But the baby is…still alive so can't he be incubated. If the father wants to continue…things…I don't understand…"

"If I thought mother could withstand a C-Section or induction, we would recommend it. But out safest recommendation for the mother's health is abortion."

"And she's agreed to it," Elliot asked.

Olivia could sense him getting panicky.

"This was scheduled as an abortion a day ago. We gave her 24 hours to think on it. When she woke up bleeding again, she came in with a confident answer...that is until Bobby showed up screaming about murder."

"El, it's not up to us or him. Law states it is the mother who gets to make the decision. Dr Loveit can we talk to the mother?"

"Sure."

Olivia could see him getting upset.

"Maybe you should wait out here."

He nodded. "Yeah."

Olivia followed her into the patient room. Amy lay in a medical bed. She was a thin woman with a tiny bump. Olivia had to hold back her reaction to the state of the woman's gaunt face in front of her. She was a shell of a human. It was clear she could barely take care of herself.

"Hello Amy, I'm Olivia. I'm here to check in on you."

Amy had been in tears for some time. Olivia handed her a kleenex and sat on the edge of her bed.

"I don't know what else to do. I don't want to die."

She touched Amy's hand. "You're here now. You're okay.."

"Are you going to stop me? I just don't want to die."

"Hey," she rubbed Amy's hand. "We're not going to let you die. Dr Loveit, is here for you. I'm here to protect you and support you…in any way that I can."

"What about Bobby?"

Olivia pulled a piece of hair from her wet cheeks and whispered. "You don't need Bobby's permission to do this. It's your body. It's legally your choice."

She sobbed into Olivia's arms. "Ehhh, I can't," she choked. "I can't make the choice. You have to do it for me."

"Amy, I can't do that. But you can. You know what to do, that's why you came here."

"I can't," she whimpered and then looked down at Olivia's belly. "What would you do?"

Elliot stood outside of the door and listened. He wasn't happy about the father not getting a say, but he wouldn't have known what to do if he were that young woman in her position either. The three women talked and cried for what seemed like an hour, and then a nurse came in to assist the Dr, and the door closed, and everything got quiet.

He slapped the cement wall, contemplating if he should go out into the hallway and grab the father so that he could hold his baby for the first and last time, but realized this situation wasn't his own memory. That man wasn't fit to be in the same room with the mother, and there for wasn't fit to be a father.

Before he could change his mind, Olivia came out of the room a mess.

She immediately pulled Elliot's arms around her.

He held her tight in silence and then a barely inaudible sound fell out of his mouth ", It's okay. It's okay."

After some time passed, Elliot left her to help Amy, and he told the grandmother and the father, which ended as expected, with Bobby being written a restraining order and escorted off the premises.

They then drove Amy home and Olivia made her tea and gave her the phone number to a psychiatrist.

The silence between them thick, but neither of them could bear to talk or speak their own thoughts.

Back at the station Cragen was being handed a lawsuit filed against "Detective Olivia Benson, for conspiring in the homicide of Bobby Matton and Amy Harrington's baby."

"What?!," Elliot punched his desk. "How is that possible, we just left Amy's apartment, how is her name on the lawsuit?!"

"Rafael Barba. New up and coming lawyer. He's hungry for a New York Times headline, and pinning the NYPD for talking a vulnerable woman into having an unnecessary 3rd trimester abortion, is just the bait he needed," Cragen tossed the paperwork at Elliot. "Bobby's mother had been talking to him all day, and the second you left Amy's apartment, Barba was all over her like a vulture."

Olivia was quiet. She stood listening with half her back to the men. A contraction rolled over her belly. It was different from the Braxton Hicks. Stronger.

"Liv, what did you say to this Amy, before she aborted her baby," Cragen snapped.

She shook her head and turned. Her face was sad and half present. "I didn't tell her anything. I told her it was her choice to make. It was legally her choice to make….which is it!"

"That's not entirely accurate, Liv," Elliot chimed in.

"It is absolutely accurate, Elliot," she snapped at him.

"You said, 'you know what to do. That's why you came here. You can do it, Amy. It's okay'"

"I," Olivia huffed as another contraction rolled over her belly and sharp pain hit her insides. "Ahhh I did not say that! Like that!"

"Liv, yes you did!"

"You weren't even in the room, Elliot!," she shouted, and stabbing pain hit her again.

"I could hear you!," he grew red in the face.

"Okay, let's all calm down you two," Cragen could see Olivia flinch and grab her stomach.

But she was too fired up. "Elliot, you weren't there looking at that skeleton of woman. She was 32 weeks pregnant and barely weighed 100 pounds! She was white from loss of blood. That baby wasn't going to live."

"We don't know that, because you killed it!"

Another contraction hit her, but she held her ground. "Mmmm….that wasn't my choic."

"If you were going to talk her into anything it should have been for that baby to come out alive!"

Everyone was looking at them. The whole office including the shared office next to them stopped.

"I just think it's shitty that the father never got to say a proper goodbye. You women do whatever you want. Some men actually care," Elliot held his anger in but glared at her from across the room.

She looked up at him with an equal amount of rage, and shot an indignant remark back at him. "This wasn't Eli, Elliot. And Bobby Matton is an abusive boyfriend who didn't deserve to make that decision for anyone. If he'd really cared about his baby, he would have taken care of it's mother first. AND-Not everyone gets to see their first baby come into this world perfect and breathing. You're not the only one in the room to know what that's like to lose a baby. Let. It. Go! Ehhmmmm," she doubled over and held onto the desk.

The splash of her water breaking onto the precinct floor was the white flag to end their great war, and a quick panic from every man in the building swept over Olivia, as they all helped her get to the nearest hospital.

AN: Okay I want baby names and gender guesses? What are they having? drop it in the reviews.