Chapter Text
~ + ~
1978
It was supposed to be a simple trip from Queens to Syracuse, to drop Randall off for his first day at university.
The entire Stabler family was in their station wagon, enjoying the sight of the remote wilderness on the drive over. There were hardly any clouds in the sky, the wind was calm, and the sun shone brightly.
The weather seemed perfect, until about two hours into their trip, when Bernadette noticed that some dark clouds had begun to form, and she wondered if they were going to have some rain along the way.
The youngest Stabler child, Sharon, was six.
She was scared of a lot of things and tended to panic easily. When she saw her mother looking at the clouds up ahead, she became concerned.
“Mommy, what’s going on?” Sharon asked.
Bernadette turned her head to look at her younger daughter and did her best to reassure her. “There’s just a few rain clouds up ahead, that’s all. We might get a bit of rain on the way, but we’ll be alright. Okay, sweetie? There’s nothing to be worried about.”
“Okay, mommy,” the little girl replied, then turning her attention to look out the window again.
Joe didn’t seem too worried about the weather and continued driving, hoping to get to the city by noon. He wanted to get there early enough to help Randall get as much of his things moved into his dorm.
When they were about an hour from the city, they stopped for gas and got a snack from the convenience store. The sky had darkened considerably, and Bernadette saw that there was a slight greenish tinge to the clouds.
She knew that she needed to get her family to a safer place.
Joe headed inside and paid for the gas, while the kids all got back in the car.
“We need to go someplace safe, honey,” Bernadette told her husband. “It’s going to storm really badly soon. I wouldn’t be worried if it was just going to rain, but that greenish tinge is concerning me.”
Joe looked over at the clouds, seeing what his wife was talking about. He started to get a bad feeling.
If they could just make it to the city, then things should be okay.
They continued to drive towards Syracuse, beginning to be hit by rain, which soon turned heavy. Joe did his best to drive through the rain, but the visibility soon became zero. The sky had turned black, still containing its greenish tinge.
“What do we do now, Dad?” Randall asked.
“Pray that I don’t get into an accident,” was his response, slowing down his speed to hopefully not drive off the road.
Elliot turned to look out the window on his side of the car, noticing that the rain had lightened up a bit. His eyes suddenly widened when he saw a brightly colored flash.
At first, it was blue, and then another flash was seen, this time being red.
“Mom, Dad…what are those things?” Elliot questioned.
“What things, honey?” Bernadette replied, unsure of what her son was saying.
“Those things off in the distance, making those different colors.”
She turned her head and saw what Elliot had seen.
Her face soon became pale, and her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the EAS alarm over their AM radio.
An automated voice soon spoke.
“The National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for the following counties: Tioga, Broome, Cortland. This is a life-threatening situation. Take shelter below ground now! If you do not have a shelter, go to the lowest floor of your home and get as far away from windows as you can. If you are out on the road, get out of your vehicle.”
While Joe was not someone who panicked easily, this was one of those moments where he did. He had to find someplace for his family to take shelter.
Staying in the car and trying to outrun said tornado would be a death sentence.
Joe pulled the vehicle over to the side of the road, knowing that they had a limited amount of time to get to safety.
“Get out of the car and run as fast as you can towards the overpass,” Joe told his family, pointing to said overpass. There was a section underneath, where they could be safe.
It was definitely risky, but Joe thought it would be better if his family had some type of protection.
It was better than nothing, for sure.
Bernadette slung her purse over her shoulder and opened the passenger’s side door, immediately being hit by the rain.
After getting out of the car, she opened the back door and told her children to follow her.
Elliot was the first to get out, and when he turned to look behind him, that was when he saw it.
The tornado was on the ground, a massive, wide funnel.
And the sounds he heard…
He would never be able to forget it.
Elliot just couldn’t help but stare at the tornado, mesmerized by the sight of it. He watched as it hit a building in the distance and took the roof off, tearing it to pieces.
He could still hear his parents yelling at them, with his mother telling him to run.
~ + ~
Elliot forced himself to look away and began to run as fast as he could towards the overpass. He placed his arm over his eyes to try and shield some of the rain, but it didn’t do much.
As he got close to the makeshift shelter, he saw a car suddenly drive into the median, crushing the front part of the vehicle.
Smoke began to bellow out from the hood, and Elliot knew that there was someone trapped inside.
Elliot had to raise his voice since the tornado was getting louder.
“Dad, we have to help them!” he yelled. “That car is going to catch fire soon.”
Joe looked over his shoulder, seeing that the tornado was still keeping its distance for now. He figured that there should be enough time to get whoever was inside the car out.
Elliot’s younger brother, Joe Jr., stayed with Sharon and their other two siblings, Dee and Michael. The siblings huddled under the overpass while Joe, Bernadette, Elliot, and Randall headed down to the car, seeing that there was a woman and her daughter inside.
Elliot opened the back door and helped the young girl out.
“My mom’s not feeling good,” she said. “She just passed out when she was driving.”
“Okay,” he replied. “We’re going to get your mom out, and then we’ll go somewhere safe. We don’t have much time.”
The roar of the tornado started getting louder.
Time was running out.
Joe yanked open the driver’s side door and pulled the woman out, confirming that she was unconscious.
Randall helped his father get the woman out, and once she was, everyone began running towards the overpass.
They were now unable to hear each other because the roar was so loud.
Elliot swore that he was seeing his life flash before his eyes, staring at the swirling black mass, sucking up dust and dirt and sending debris into the air.
Was this the end of the world? he thought as he positioned himself under the overpass, gripping one of the strong metal support beams.
The young girl was terrified, and Elliot could see her crying.
Even though she wouldn’t be able to hear him, he told her, “It’s going to be okay.”
She was in front of him, her chocolate brown eyes staring into his piercing blue ones. She was on her knees, gripping the beam tightly. Elliot could see the fear in them, and he wished that he could do something to reassure her.
The tornado approached the overpass and everyone could feel the raw power of its wind. It sounded like a freight train was approaching.
As Elliot held on for dear life, he saw that the girl was starting to lose her grasp, as the group was being pelted with dirt and dust that the tornado was picking up.
Elliot grabbed onto one of the girl’s wrists, and he felt his father’s arm wrap around him in a secure embrace.
It felt as though time had stopped, because all he could hear was the roar and the rush of wind as he was hit with dust, but after only a few minutes, everything went quiet.
The wind was calm, and it was as if nothing had happened.
Joe had the family’s portable weather radio with him, and he listened to the Weather Service make an announcement.
“The storm has weakened to conditions that are no longer favorable for tornadoes to continue forming. It is now safe to come out of your shelters,” the voice said.
Joe turned off the radio and then slowly crawled out from under the overpass.
~ + ~
What he saw was complete and utter devastation.
The small town that they were going to drive through to get to Syracuse had been completely flattened.
There were pieces of debris scattered in the grass nearby.
He turned around to see all of his children there, hugging each of them tightly, relieved that they had made it through safely. While they all had mud and dirt on them, they were all alive.
But who he didn’t see was Bernadette.
“Bernie!” Joe called out.
He didn’t get a response from her, and it worried him.
“Please, my mom needs a hospital!” the girl said, noticing that her mother had yet to regain consciousness.
“Shut up, kid, I have to find my wife,” Joe responded, with absolutely no emotion to his voice.
Randall was surprised to find that their car was still intact and had suffered little damage to it. He asked his father for the keys and volunteered to drive the woman and her daughter to the hospital. Joe was more concerned about finding Bernadette than he was over the unnamed woman, so he rolled his eyes before giving the keys to his oldest.
Randall, Elliot, and Joe Jr. all carried the woman to the backseat of the minivan before the youngest Stabler brother headed back over to his family.
The girl stayed close to Elliot, hugging him tightly.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
She looked up at him, tears forming in her eyes.
“Olivia,” she answered.
He had a few tears of his own. “I’m Elliot.”
He and Olivia climbed into the car while Randall got into the driver’s seat and consulted his map book, looking for the closest hospital.
He just hoped that the tornado hadn’t obliterated it.
Randall handed the map book to Elliot and told him to guide him to the hospital. Elliot was able to give clear directions, and Randall breathed a sigh of relief when he arrived at the hospital twenty minutes later and found that the tornado had missed it completely.
The two brothers carried the unconscious woman into the ER and said that they had no idea what happened to her, but that they had pulled her from her vehicle.
“She heard about the tornado,” Olivia told the doctor who was taking over her mother’s case. “We were trying to find a safe place to take shelter, and she suddenly just passed out. I tried to steer the car, but I couldn’t turn hard enough and we hit the median.”
“How long has she been unconscious for?” the doctor asked.
“I…I don’t know…we spent most of the time trying to stay alive during the tornado,” Olivia continued.
“What’s your mom’s name?”
“Serena. Serena Benson. We have health insurance, I think…but our car’s gone.”
She was sure of it.
If the vehicle hadn’t caught fire from having run into the median, then the tornado had most likely destroyed it.
“Come on, Elliot, we have to go,” Randall told his brother. “Dad will want us to come back. We have no idea where Mom is. We need to go and help find her.”
Elliot didn’t want to leave Olivia by herself.
Her mother still remained unconscious, and she didn’t look great.
But unfortunately, being twelve years old, he couldn’t exactly tell his brother no.
He felt bad for Olivia.
She turned to look at him and asked him to stay, even grabbing his hand, but he couldn’t stay here.
“I’m sorry,” he said, turning around and walking away, doing his best to fight back the tears forming as he heard Olivia beg for him to stay.
He was never going to see this girl or her mother again.
Elliot followed Randall out of the hospital and over to the minivan, where they headed back to the very same overpass they had sheltered underneath.
~ + ~
Present Day
2008
The memory of that fateful day, 30 years ago, was something that Elliot would never be able to forget. While he didn’t think about it too much these days, it was still on the back of his mind.
He was married to his college sweetheart, Kathy, and together, they had four children.
They were living in a five bedroom, three bathroom house in Oklahoma City.
Elliot and Kathy were both getting to work their dream jobs, their kids went to good schools, and they had a good social circle.
Kathy worked as a teacher in the nearby city of Moore, while Elliot worked for the local news station - KOCO Channel 5 - as the main meteorologist.
Living in Oklahoma City meant that during the spring and summer, they were no stranger to tornadoes.
When the season for severe weather would come, Elliot would often go out and storm chase, and he would report back to the news station, telling his colleagues if warnings would need to be issued.
He found it to be a hobby that he enjoyed doing, and he was helping to save lives at the same time. In the beginning, he had considered joining the police force, but his real passion was studying weather.
Elliot stood in front of the green screen, the teleprompter ready to list the forecast for the day.
He smiled at the camera and then spoke.
“Good morning, Oklahoma City, and today, we’re looking at a sunny day with a few clouds, a 15 percent chance of precipitation…”