Title: Love Poem
Fandom: Law & Order: SVU
Pairing: Olivia Benson/Elliot Stabler
Rating: G
Length: 930 words
Disclaimer: I am not Dick Wolf.
Summary: Elliot goes undercover in the episode "Russian Love Poem".
AN: Written for the SVU AU game.
Love Poem
by
***
Olivia isn't in favor of sending Elliot in undercover - the Russian mob is dangerous, and she doesn't trust Irina - but ultimately she doesn't have a say. She frowns and fingers the holster of her gun as she watches the tech guy wire Elliot with a mic.
Elliot looks up and catches her eye, twitches his mouth in a way that says, Cheer up, it'll be okay.
Right.
"Be careful," she says, and he grins at her.
"Of course."
"I'm serious, Elliot. Don't get in over your head."
He sobers up and nods. "Yeah." The tech guy's finished with him, and as Elliot gets up, he touches her arm. Brief, reassuring, partner-like.
She and Fin are in a car across the street from the bar, earpieces in. They watch Irina and Elliot go through the door, holding hands. She shifts in her seat. Irina is bad news.
Over the earpieces, they can hear a little bit of the conversation, faint voices in the background and Elliot more loudly. Olivia catches herself straining to hear Irina, who is speaking in Russian - she assumes Munch is somewhere translating. Then Irina says Elliot's name, and Olivia hears the distinct sounds of kissing, close to the mic.
Fin glances at her and she rolls her eyes. "Hope he's not having too good a time," Fin says dryly.
"How could he be?" Olivia says, not meaning to, and Fin laughs. She tries not to think about Elliot staring Irina down in the interrogation room, and gets irritable in the attempt. Focusing on the Russian isn't enough to distract her.
"What's taking so long?" she mutters, after 20 minutes have gone by. Fin shrugs. They can't make out enough of the conversation for it to be interesting, and Munch's occasional translation doesn't seem to be getting them anywhere productive.
Then there's a shot from inside. Olivia's out of the car and across the street before she has time to think about it, Fin right behind her. Elliot isn't saying anything on the mic, and she can't breathe.
When Fin kicks in the door, she's the first one through. Elliot's slumped against a wall, and Irina's still pointing a gun at him. Olivia fires without a second thought, shoots to kill.
The others are right behind her, securing the area, but she's beside Elliot immediately, kneeling beside where he's slid to the floor. He's grimacing and swearing under his breath, and she breathes for the first time. The wound is in his shoulder, and she puts pressure on it, feels his blood coming out under her fingers.
She's putting out a panicked stream of words, "It's gonna be okay, you're okay," and "Hold on, Elliot, talk to me," and later on when she remembers she thinks she might've called him, "Sweetheart," which makes her wince. But she's too focused on how hot his blood is and whether the bullet hit anything important and why the goddamn bus isn't there yet to be careful about what she says.
She holds his hand in the ambulance, and he's squeezing it so tightly she thinks she'll have bruises later. "Fuck," he mutters, and he's gone white with pain, and the paramedics aren't telling her anything worth telling. "Liv," he says through gritted teeth, and she leans in.
"Yeah, Elliot, I'm right here."
"Liv," he says again, and then passes out.
They take him in to surgery, and don't let her past a certain point, still won't tell her anything about whether he's going to be okay. She pauses outside the double doors, alone and at a loss. Finally she sits heavily in a chair in the waiting area and tries to catch her breath. Her head is in her hands when Cragen comes in and finds her.
He puts his hand on her shoulder and she looks up. "They won't tell me anything," she says, and hears how her voice is shaking.
"Okay," he says, somehow reassuring without saying anything reassuring. "Okay. Are you all right?"
She shrugs. She's started shaking all over, and suddenly remembers. "Is Irina dead?" she asks.
Cragen nods. "You didn't have a choice."
She doesn't say anything. Elliot's blood is all over her hands, she notices.
"You want to go home and change?" Cragen asks her.
"No," she says.
They wait.
***
He comes through surgery okay, thank God, thank God. Kathy and the kids go in to see him first, all groggy from the anesthetic, and Olivia waits outside.
She almost goes home, once she knows he's okay, once he's with his family. But then Kathy has to take the twins home and put them to bed, and Kathleen and Maureen go too because it's a school night, and the waiting room is empty again, just like that.
When she goes in he's got tubes in his arm and a bandage on his shoulder and an oxygen tube across his nose, and it makes her stop in the doorway, unsettled. But then he looks at her and smiles.
"Told you it'd be okay," he says, his voice hoarse.
She snorts. "Told you to be careful," she says, and walks over to the bed. He smiles again.
"How're you feeling?" she asks, and she can feel herself grinning, like she can't stop, her face hurting from smiling so wide. He's okay, he's okay, he's okay.
"Like hell," he says.
"I bet. You want me to ask the nurse for some more painkillers?"
"Nah," he says, and blinks a few times, sleepily.
"You should get some rest," Olivia says, and he looks at her, pale. The hospital room seems empty and dark, and she touches his hand. "You want me to stay with you?"
After a second he nods, and she settles down in the chair next to his bed.
He sleeps. She doesn't.
***
END