Love & Order (A Law & Order:SVU fanfic)

Chapter 5: More than One Life in Danger

He walked out of the interrogation room leaving Olivia standing there alone. And God she felt so alone in that moment. She let her head fall back against the cool clammy cement wall to try and get a grip on her whirling emotions. She looked down at her stomach, wanting so much for her baby to move again – but she felt nothing but a ball of nerves and guilt sitting heavily in her belly and again, her thoughts fell to alone, how isolated she’d made herself.

She didn’t have long to dwell on that thought, John pushed open the door and tossed her coat to her “incident at the 2-7. Commissioner wants all of SVU down there – the four kids from the Wilson-Underwood case are being held hostage by a man. Shots fired but we don’t have any more information”.

Olivia grabbed her bullet proof vest from her locker and slung it over her shoulders as she ran out of the building. She almost ran to her and Elliot’s old squad car before she remembered she was now with Finn, who had already started the engine.

But before she could cover up her mistake, Elliot caught her eye – and despite his anger with her she could read the pain in them that was begging her not to put herself in this kind of dangerous situation.

She paused only a moment before shaking her head in a silent ‘no’ and joining Finn who sped off towards the scene, sirens blaring. It was a good thing Fin was focused on driving, because Olivia had to remove her bulkier sweater in order to be able to fit into the small vest. Which before now had always fit like a glove, but now the buckles and Velcro strained across her newly swollen stomach.

They reached a dreary looking cement and brownstone building across from a park, looking completely un-noteworthy but for the incoming swarm of cop cars and ambulances that were descending on it.

“Where’s the hostage negotiator?” Olivia yelled hoarsely over the roar of the gathering crowd. “We sent him in 20 minutes ago – we’re just preparing to go in. We haven’t heard anything from him, we don’t know if it’s the equipment or if something’s happened to him”.

 “Just tell them to get the kids out of there”. “Look, detective we’re trying but this guy doesn’t want money or anything else. We don’t have anything else to bargain with”.

By this time Olivia had already started towards the front steps, where officers had just knocked down the door and the members of the SVU squad took their positions. Edging carefully into the house, the door closed behind them. With the thick wood muffling the outside chaos the group could now hear distant soft sobbing above them. In the excitement the perp hadn’t seemed to notice the house had been breached, and he had no clue as to what was coming up behind him.

 Elliot shifted slightly so that he was blocking Olivia- yes it was against formation but he didn’t really give a damn. She shouldn’t be here anyway.  It was only the urgency and speed of the takedown that had kept Cragen from forbidding her from going into action.

 John had gone around to the back of the house with Cragen, where another group of armed officers stood should the perp decide to try and make a back exit. So it was just Olivia, Fin and Elliot who edged towards the attacker. They could see the shadow of the person stretching gruesomely from the doorway, could hear his rough voice as he barked to the children to keep quiet and waved his gun menacingly.

They had managed to slip across the landing without his notice, and were only steps away from being able to grab the man and his gun when Olivia froze.

Olivia’s breath hitched suddenly as she remained bent and hunched over, to avoid throwing her shadow with the light in the hallway. A ripping wave of pain tore through her lower belly, cleaving it into what felt like shreds. A gurgle escaped her lips and her whole body clenched against the pain. ‘It wasn’t going away, oh God the pain wasn’t going away’ she thought desperately as she stood crookedly, taking one hand off of her gun to hold to her stomach.

The next cramping movement had her doubled over and she cried out involuntarily with the force of the spasm. Elliot heard a kind of strangled noise and distracted from the task looked behind him. What he saw frightened him more thoroughly than the man with the gun ever could.

 Olivia’s chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath, but all that came out was a gasping moan as she fell against the wall heavily clutching her stomach, her gun still in one hand.

 This commotion the perp heard and he came to the doorway to investigate. Shots fired off the walls, sending sawdust and fragments of wallpaper splintering down onto them, shattering the lamps and picture frames that hung there.

Everything happened so quickly that Elliot was still facing Olivia when the first shot rang out, which hit him squarely in the back. The Kevlar vest protected him from any fatal wounds but the bullet had grazed his arm before making contact with the side of his vest where his ribs were.

Elliot turned on his heel and all 3 men closest to the doorway took aim and shot, Elliot, Fin and one of the armed policemen in the foremost flank. The man fell, and the quickly seeping crimson through the floors spelt out his fate.

Her stomach cramped again and this time with it Olivia felt a warm wetness seep from her through to her pants; “Oowwww”. “No, no,no no, no, no – Elliot. I’m losing it, I’m losing the baby”. 

His eyes searched her  face, hoping for some sign that what she was saying wasn’t true. “I’m bleeding” she whispered hoarsely, terrified at what was happening in her belly that very second.