Chapter Text
Olivia is sitting in her office when she gets the call.
Her phone rings and she looks down.
Mercy hospital
“Benson.” She answers, concentrating on the task in front of her.
“Hello, is this Captain Olivia Benson?” An unfamiliar woman asks, calm but a twinge of something there
“Yeah this is she. What can I do for you?” Olivia asks, getting up ready to head to the hospital for whatever this victim is in for.
That was when her world turns upside down.
“I’m really sorry to bother you at work, but your husband's mother told me to call you immediately. My name is Elizabeth Daniels. I’m a nurse at Mercy. There’s been an accident.”
Husband's mother? What hus-
Oh. Fuck.
“Mr. Stabler’s in surgery, he was T-boned while he was at work.” The woman says calmly but urgently.
Olivia feels her throat tighten, she gets up from her seat and starts packing her bag. Of course Bernie would be the one to tell them she’s his wife and to call her.
“From what I know there might be internal bleeding, broken ribs, maybe a bit of swelling on the brain. He should be out of surgery soon, can you come?”
“Give me 15, thank you Elizabeth.” Olivia manages as she hangs up.
When she leaves her office, she looks for Fin immediately.
“Fin, I have to go. Hold down the fort.” She says as soon as she sees him in the break room. “We got something, Cap?” Curry asks, curiously and Olivia just shakes her head. “No, it’s Elliot.” Is all she responds with before leaving.
When she’s finally out of earshot, Curry looks over at Fin, “The same Elliot as…”
“Yeah. Her old partner.” He confirms before walking away, not wanting to hear any other questions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She gets in the car and the drive is a blur of lights and rush, her head spinning with thoughts of what ifs, what was, what she could be losing as she drove.
Olivia arrives at the hospital in 13 minutes flat. The emergency is chaotic but the nurse — Elizabeth, she figured — walks swiftly toward her.
“You must be Elliots wife. He just came out of surgery and his mom and brother are in with him right now.” The nurse explains
“How is he?” Olivia asks, barely grasping the details the nurse just told her.
The woman gives her a sad look, and Olivia’s heart sinks.
“He’s still unconscious, but they didn’t have to intubate him. We don’t know when he’ll wake up. We’re monitoring some internal bleeding that may happen. He had a ruptured spleen, broken ribs, he bruised his skull but luckily didn’t break it. He had a bit of swelling on the brain, but the doctor thinks that’ll go down relatively quick. He’s a tough man, I have no doubts he’ll wake up soon.” The nurse gently explained, she then points to room 240 “He’s in that room when you’re ready.”
Olivia looks to her right, and sure enough she sees the fragile, small woman in the chair next to what Olivia assumes is Elliot’s bed – she can’t take notice of the bed or figure as the doors partly closed – with a larger man standing next to her, both heads down. She nods and slowly walks toward the room.
“Do not make me bury you.” She hears Bernie say and she feels the tears falling again. The man next to her rubs her shoulder comfortingly. “Ma, you know Elliot. He’s a stubborn one, he’ll be fine.”
Olivia swallows thickly as she gets to the door, then tries her voice. “Your son is right, Bernie. Elliot’s a strong, stubborn man.” She responds, causing both people to startle and look toward the door. Bernie gets up as quickly as she can and rushes to Olivia, pulling her into a hug and sobbing into her chest. The woman's heart breaks even more for the older woman in her arms and sobs harder, murmuring that he’ll be ok, reassuring her the best she can.
“Thank you for coming. You must be Captain Benson,” Randall says as he walks toward them, extending a hand for Olivia to shake. Olivia pulls away from Bernie and shakes her head while shaking his hand “No need for formalities. My name’s Olivia. I’m your brothers-” “Elliot, your wife is here. Olivia came as quick as she could to see you.” They hear Bernie explain to Elliot as she soothes her hand over Elliot’s head, kissing his forehead repeatedly.
“Randall. I… didn’t have the heart to correct ma. So you are the famous Olivia that scared the pants off Kathy when she was alive. Well, I guess moms not technically wrong. You were his work wife.” Randall acknowledged, giving Olivia a once over. She smiles politely and nods “Yeah, I’m his partner.”
That’s when Randalls eyes light up with something Olivia couldn’t place. Was that…hope? Olivia shakes her head, dismissing the look and steps towards Elliot’s bed and next to Bernie.
The man laying in the bed was surely Elliot, but this version — God, this version — Olivia’s never seen the man look so small, so battered and pale. She chokes on a cry, slowly reaching for his hand.
“Ma, I know you don’t want to, but we should really give Olivia and Elliot some privacy.” Randall says cautiously, knowing his mother would probably protest. She looks up at him with pleading eyes and Olivia nudges a little more. “If it helps, Randall can give me his number. I can call the very second something happens, even if it’s at 3AM.” She suggests and Randall fumbles through his pockets for a paper and pen, writing his number down and giving it to Olivia.
Bernie still looks at him with her pleading eyes but surrenders, “Promise me, Olivia. Promise me you’ll pull him out of it. He’ll come back to us. Come back to you, right?” She asks through tears and Olivia can only manage a nod in response.
“Bernie I’m going to do my absolute best to get him to wake up. I promise.” She chokes out. Bernie nods and walks toward Randall and he leads her away from the room.
When they’re alone, Olivia sits in the chair next to Elliot’s bed and lets the tears flow more violently.
“Elliot, you have to do what your mother says. Do not make us bury you. I lived in a world without you for 10 years and I don’t know how I managed, but I did. Then you came back.” She starts, taking in a shaky breath and squeezing his hand a little tighter. She then brings his fingers to her lips and kisses them.
“You were the hardest breakup I ever went through, Elliot. You were the hardest and you were never officially mine to lose. I lost my partner, my best friend….The love of my life, when I lost you after Jenna. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t stop crying for a whole year because I thought you had died.” She gets up from where she’s sitting and gently sits on his bed, her hand cupping his face as the tears continued to flow.
“Elliot, you came back. You came back and it was hard to forgive you, hard to trust you like I had. But I forgive you. I forgive you for leaving and fucking god dammit if I lost my only chance to kiss you two years ago in my kitchen because I was too afraid things wouldn’t work out, I will carry that regret for the rest of my life. I love you, Elliot Stabler. Please don’t make me lose you again. Don’t make me lose you forever” She finishes, laying down on his free side and crying into his chest.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She’s not sure how it happened, but she wakes up what feels like minutes later and looks up at Elliot to see him still unconscious. She gets up and goes towards the table where she had deposited her bag, rummaging through it for her phone.
When she looks at the time, she realizes it’s just past 2AM.
Well shit.
She’s then startled by hearing someone entering the room.
Elizabeth.
Olivia looks at her like she had been caught. “I’m so sorry, I know it’s past visiting hours, I should probably-“ “No, Captain Benson it’s fine. I just wanted to come in and check his vitals. I was in a couple hours ago and saw you snuggled up to your husband. It’s quite alright if you’d like to sleep here. Would you like me to get a pull out chair for you? Or you can get comfortable again with him.” The woman says with a small smile.
Olivia breathes and looks at her guiltily.
“Actually, umm…You see, the thing is, Mrs. Stabler has a bit of dementia. I’m not really Elliots wife.” She finally confesses, feeling now like she might be kicked out any moment for not being immediate family.
“Should…be.” They hear a weak, raspy voice respond and both of their heads snap towards Elliot.
“El?” Olivia asks, noticing his eyes fluttering open slightly.
“Should… be… my wife.” He says weakly as his head gently turns towards Olivia. Olivia’s eyes well and spill over with tears as she rushes back over to his side, making sure to not interrupt the nurse.
“Mr.Stabler, do you know where you are?” The nurse asks and Elliot blinks. “Mercy?” He asks and the doctor nods happily.
Olivia then remembers the promise she made and begins to leave, but Elliot grabs her hand gently, “Stay.” He requests gently. Olivia looks at him and can only nod, her voice betraying her as she just sobs.
A few minutes later, they’re alone again and she sees Elliot trying to not nod off again.
“Elliot, you should get some sleep…Just promise you’ll come back to me.” She suggests gently, soothing his forehead as she lays next to him.
He turns his head to connect his forehead to hers and smiles weakly. “Heard you while I was out. I love you too, Liv.” He comments and Olivia looks at him surprised. Fuck, he heard all that?
“I…I didn’t want to say it like that. I mean, I did but…” she cuts off her sentence when she sees Elliot closing the distance between them. Slowly, gently closing the distance between their lips and kissing her gently.
Olivia feels her eyes burning with tears as she kisses the man back. God, she loved him. Never wanted to let him go.
They break after a few seconds and just stare at each other.
“Gonna marry you when I get out of here. Gonna show you how much I love you every god damn day from here on out.” He declares half jokingly, mostly seriously. Olivia can’t help the smile that plasters her face. She’s never felt this content, this happy, this complete in her life.
“I’ll hold you to that. Let’s call your family and tell them the good news — that you’re awake, I mean. We can spring the engagement on them after we buy a ring.”
Elliot only smiles and nods.