Operation Heart

A Secret Girlfriend

Fin was sitting in a recliner in his apartment, nursing a beer, and watching a basketball game, though he wasn't really paying attention to it. His mind was too muddled by everything else going on. His life had been turned on its head so many times in the past months, even before Stabler had come back from the dead, to everyone's surprise. The woman he loved wasn't talking to him, and hadn't in well over two months. He didn't know what had happened there. Liv was pissed at him for not calling her sooner about Noah being kidnapped. Amanda was pissed that he had lied about calling Liv when Noah was kidnapped. And he was slightly pissed that Liv had stopped Munch from beating the shit out of Stabler in the hospital, though he knew she agreed that he deserved it, though she was too polite to make her feelings known to anyone who couldn't read her like a book.

Damn, it had been ten years since the son of a bitch had bit the dust, and he hadn't even been dead at all. If he had been, maybe things wouldn't have gone to shit with his friendships with Liv and Rollins. His relationship had gone to shit, at least somewhat, before it came out that Stabler was alive. Now Fin only saw his girlfriend, if he could even still call her that, when he had to for a case. He wasn't even sure she knew that Stabler was alive yet.

2011

The news that Elliot was gone rocked everyone to their core, but Liv especially. She claimed that she was fine, but the tears in her eyes as she had said that, and the way she had slightly stuttered on the word fine made it clear that she was not. When she left the room to compose herself in privacy, he had started to follow her, not wanting her to be alone, but Cragen had beaten him to it. Munch was sitting with Kathy and the kids, comforting the six of them, and Fin felt useless. He stepped into the hallway dialing the number of his friend, who he knew would want to hear the news from a friend, not the newspaper. The phone rang four times and he was getting ready to hang up, not wanting to say this over voicemail, when she answered, her voice still full of sleep. "Warner?"

"Melinda, it's Fin, it's about Stabler." He heard a creaking sound, and then shuffling, she was out of bed.

"Is he out of surgery?" Her voice was at a soft volume, still not used to living alone, not needing to be extra quiet late at night since her divorce. But though it was soft, he could hear the concern in her voice. Concern for Elliot, and the rest of the unit. The team was a close-knit family, with the past and current ADA's, Warner, and Huang all being extensions of that family.

Fin sighed as he stepped into the hallway, out of earshot of the kids. He pinched the bridge of his nose, he didn't want to cry for his dead friend, but he knew he was going to. "He didn't make it off the table."

Her response was swift and decisive. "I'll be there in twenty." And then the call was disconnected. She didn't even give him time to ask how she had found out about Stabler, or knew which hospital they were at.

When she arrived at the hospital exactly twenty minutes later Fin was the first and only one that she saw. She moved toward him quickly, his arms reaching out to brace her before she collided with his chest in her rush to check on the people she cared about. "How are Kathy, the kids, Liv, everyone?" She asked, her voice slightly breathless from practically running from the elevator to him.

"About as well as can be expected. Liv hasn't come out of the bathroom since before I called you, Cragen is with her. Munch is with Kathy and the kids, and I knew you'd probably want to know. So, how did you find out where we were?" He crossed his arms and raised his eyebrow slightly, leaning against the wall, trying to tamp down the wave of grief that washed over him.

"Munch called me right after the shooting, but I didn't want the waiting room to be completely packed because I knew you three wouldn't be able to drag Liv out, even if your lives depended on it. And thank you for calling me to let me know he's gone. I'm here, if you need to talk, Fin. You weren't as close to him as Cragen or Liv were, but he was still your friend," she said and squeezed his arm in an innocent but friendly gesture, right before Cragen and Liv returned. Her eyes were red-rimmed and puffy. Her nose was also red, most likely from wiping it. Melinda hugged her friend immediately, almost making Liv start to cry again as she melted into Melinda's warm embrace.

After a little while everyone had cleared out of the waiting room, since there was nothing else they could do at the hospital. Melinda was sitting on the hood of her car, waiting for Fin. "I can give you a ride, if you want. Your apartment is on my way back to mine," she pointed out, and he nodded as he got into the passenger seat of her car. It was on the way to her old house, not her apartment, but she wasn't going to tell him that. The man could barely function, there was no way he could direct a taxi, or drive, at that moment.

Once he was alone in his apartment, Fin finally let the range of emotions he felt hit him. He was mad as hell that Elliot had died. Guilty that he hadn't protected Liv from the guilt he knew she had to have been feeling at that moment. Sad that he had lost a coworker, a friend, a family member of sorts. When he went to bed that night/morning, he vowed to himself and the spirit of Elliot Stabler that he would always do his best to protect Olivia from danger for as long as he lived. He just didn't realize how tall of an order that would eventually be to fill.

Present Day

As the basketball game came to an end Fin reached for his phone, not even bothering to check who won the game. He opened his photo app, and clicked on the first image that appeared, a picture of her. He had an entire album in his phone filled with photos of her. It took every ounce of willpower in him to not call her, especially so late at night. He knew he'd just get her voicemail, and hearing her voice when she wasn't actually talking to him hurt. He knew he needed to call Melinda, and find out what he had done wrong, but not tonight. Not when he was intoxicated. Instead he sent a text to someone completely different.

Fin: "How is little man doing?"

He fully expected to be left on read. So her almost immediate response was surprising.

Olivia: "He's sleeping, but I don't want to leave him, at all, even if it's just so that I can get a little bit of sleep. I suspect my dad's gonna drag me out of Noah's room any minute now. :-/"

He chuckled, picturing that exact expression on his friends face.

Fin: "Get some sleep, Liv, or I'll come up there and drag you out of Noah's room myself."

There were no responses after that, and Fin was sure that was Cragen's doing, and he was grateful for it. Someone needed to shake some sense into her that nothing that had gone wrong in the past decade was her fault, and he felt that Cragen was the best person for the job since he was her dad.