Her Greatest Salvation -Olivia Benson

Protector

The quietness of the hospital room felt amazing to Olivia. For the first time since she had met Mackayla, they were finally alone. Elliot had gone home to shower and take care of the other kids for a while and Olivia sat in the hospital bed watching her sweet girl nurse. They both stared at each other as Olivia gently stroked Mackayla's hand that was resting on her breast.

"Good morning angel" she cooed. "It's nice being alone with momma isn’t it honey"  She gently whispered.

Finishing up with her feed. Olivia gently placed her over the burp cloth on her shoulder, patting her back as she spoke quietly to the little girl. It was only almost 7:30 in the morning and Olivia was exhausted after yesterdays events. After one last snuggle, she got Mackayla settled in the crib before heading back to bed, willing herself to get a little more sleep.

The sound of voices brought her into a twilight state. She could make out that is was more than one person and the sound of a baby fussing. Slowly she opened her eyes, taking in the small hospital room that was packed.

"Hey honey," Elliot said as he kissed her forehead. "How are you feeling?"

She yawned before answering. "I'm ok. How are all you?"

"Were good, loving on princess here."

"Where is she?"

"Kathleen has her babe." Elliot replied

Her eyes flickered over to Kathleen who had Mackayla snuggled against her chest. All the Stabler children were here, well almost all of them.

"Aren’t we missing two?" She asked. Elliot chuckled

"Emma and Jasper are going to come up later when it can just be us."

She was about to respond when Mackayla let them all know she would like to be fed once again. Olivia chuckled and held her arms out as Kathleen passed the baby to her.

"Oh calm down peanut, mommas gonna feed you, sweetie."

"Do you want us to step out mom?" Maureen asked.

"No, you guys are fine. I'm sure you will be seeing my breasts a lot" she laughed.

The time that the children were here was filled with laughter and love. Everyone wanted a turn with the newest member of the stabler clan. Olivia felt truly complete. The afternoon brought Cragen and the rest of the squad who brought flowers, balloons and gift baskets and told her how happy they were that she had pulled through. She had not really given it much thought as to how much she had scared everyone, her mind and focus was solely on Mackayla and if she was ok.

As the evening rolled around, Elliot was going to get Jasper and Emma and Olivia found herself staring at the baby as she slept, curled up in her arms.

"Hey, are you nursing?" Elliot asked as he poked his head in the door a little while later.

"No, she's asleep. Come on in."

Elliot opened the door all the way, revealing a very excited Jasper and Emma.

"Momma!!!!" Emma yelled.

"Hey baby girl, you gotta be a little quieter alright? your sisters asleep." She said having felt Mackayla shift in her arms at the loud noise. Elliot helped the two kids onto the bed to sit next to Olivia. Emma immediately saw the baby, towering over her, inspecting.

"Sissy!" She squealed.

Olivia giggled. "Yes, this is your sister. Can you say Mackayla"

"Meekeela?"

"Close enough. Jasper what do you think buddy?." Jasper who had been quiet up until this point tried to climb into her lap to bury himself against her.

"Oh, hang on buddy, let me move Mackayla quick." She shifted the baby to upright against her chest before wrapping her other arm around Jasper.

"Shes pretty momma" Emma said.

"Yeah, she's very pretty, isn’t she?" Emma reached out and poked Mackayla's nose, making the baby scrunch her face and whimper.

"I sowwy"

"Its ok Emma, she just didn’t like that." Olivia giggled. "Here," she took Emma's hand, showing her how to gently stroke Mackayla's cheek. "See she likes that."

She noticed that Jasper was trying to stay as far away as he could from the baby. She knew this would be weird to him and she hoped there wouldn’t be too much jealousy

"Jasper baby, its ok. Come to say hi"

Slowly he leaned over but when Mackayla sneezed, he flinched back.

"Its ok buddy" Elliot said.

"Daddy, baby?" Jasper said.

"Yeah, here babe why don’t you hand me Mackayla and see if we can get more comfortable on the couch and you and Emma can snuggle."

"Yeah good plan," carefully she handed Makayla over watching as Elliot called Jasper over to the couch before turning back to Emma.

"Hey girl, I missed you."

"I missed you momma!!! When are you coming home?"

"Soon, honey, I promise and then are you going to help mommy and daddy with Mackayla?"

Emmas' eyes lit up. She loved that thought. "Yeah!"

"Come here baby, you have to be very gentle with momma but we can still snuggle." Gently she pulled Emma into her side, her head resting on her chest. Making sure she wasn’t near her incision. They both watched as Jasper cautiously inspected Mackayla, still not sure what to think of her.

Elliot passed Mackayla back to Olivia when the baby started crying, watching as Olivia rested her on her chest quietly whispering in her ear, reassuring her momma was still there. She shifted so Mackayla was still on her chest but also snuggling into Emma. She watched as Emma wrapped her arm around her sister and snuggled closer, keeping an arm around her as she slowly drifted off to sleep. Elliot pulled his phone out capturing the cuteness as tears streamed down Olivia's cheeks. An already protective sister on her hands and she knew that her girls would be best friends for life.