AN: At least it wasn't two months this time? Sorry. Also, sorry for the shortness, too. The next chapter will be twice as long. Lot of things are occuring.

Myshka is little mouse in Russian.

In the words of Rufus Scrimgeour "These are dark times, there is no denying"

Chapter 21: The Beginning of the End

Streaks of orangish-red light bleed through the blinds, basking the living room in a warm glow and signaling dusk. In the far distance, the sounds of waves beating back the shore sound. The air is still around the small beach cottage, and inside the house the air is warm; close to stifling with no sea breeze to shake the humidity.

That doesn't stop Olivia, though, because she stays locked in Elliot's embrace, landlocked by his large body and the back of the couch. They haven't moved, save for a trip to the bathroom every now and then, in hours. Nor have the exchanged many words. Olivia's head is tucked underneath Elliot's chin, one of her thighs sandwiched between his legs, and her arms wrapped around his middle. Their proximity - or rather lack of - possess the possibility to give them both heat stroke, but it doesn't. Instead Olivia finds comfort in his frame, intermittently crying into the thin material of his tank top as he rubs small circles along her back. Neither of them dare break the silence, the comfort of the bubble that's engulfed them ever since Monique walked out the front door and Olivia had promptly fallen to pieces once more.

For the thousandth time that day, Elliot's lips press against Olivia's temple. Unlike the time's before, Olivia looks up. Her dark eyes are clouded with tears and she sucks in a break. She knows what she wants to ask, knows what she needs to ask, but a part of her is scared shitless. So many things are swirling around inside her head. There's the rumor running through the grapevine that Elliot had kidnapped her, apparently, there's the harsh sting of Elliot's earlier comments, and then there's the news that her mother's alive. She didn't kill her.

"Is something wrong?" Elliot asks as he takes notice of Olivia staring at him. He looks uncomfortable, sweat beads building along his brow. Olivia's eyes drop down to his chest and she notices that he's just about drenched in sweat everywhere. She knew she'd been suffocating him, but hadn't quite realized the severity.

"Oh my god, El, lemme go. You're hot...I'm...let me go." She tells him, attempting to wiggle from his embrace. She lets go of his shirt and tries to pull out of his embrace, but he won't let her go.

"Hey, it's fine. I'm fine, just relax…"

"You're gonna die of heat stroke jackass, let me get up!" She fixes him with her most threatening glare- a warning to let her go - her arms serving as a boundary between them. They stare at each for a few moments, Olivia's eyes narrowing in challenge when Elliot's mouth curls into a smile. His arms go slack around her and he starts laughing. Her lips tremble, the laughter builds in the pit of her stomach.

"El-liot...damn it…" she wriggles once more when it hits. The laughter comes in waves. Her shoulders shake and her head droops down to rest against his chest.

She doesn't know why she's laughing; there isn't anything to laugh about, but the humor he finds in whatever just happened is contagious. He doesn't laugh often, which Olivia thinks is shameful because the sound is music to her ears.

It takes them a few minutes to finally settle down, her shoulders still shaking from the sound and his body still vibrating with a few leftover chuckles, before they both go silent. Elliot sinks against the back of the couch and Olivia sits up; her back to him.

"Hey," he whispers, his hand on her lower back, his fingers trailing through the ends of her hair. "I was comfortable…"

Of course he'd say something like that to make her feel better, she thinks. He was one degree away from passing out, but to him it didn't matter, what'd mattered to him was the comfort she'd found in their embrace. God he was too much for her; too caring, too kind, too selfless. He'd uprooted his life the day prior to drag her off to whatever semblance of safety this was when he had other priorities.

"You were 900 degrees…"

He shrugs nonchalantly, his fingers trailing up her clothed spine before ghosting down her elbow and pulling her towards him. "No, I was comfortable."

She rolls her eyes, shrugging out his grip and standing up. "I'll go make you a glass of ice water or something, okay?"

"Liv, what's wrong?"

The look on her face must say everything and nothing at all because he gets to his feet. "Besides the obvious, baby, what's the matter?"

"Everything is. I really hurt my mom and I don't even know what's going on with her right now because i'm a coward. I'm hiding here with you instead of owning up to what I did. She's probably scared and worried about me…"

Elliot chortles, his hand working along his jaw and he pulls at the sweat drenched tank top. He's doesn't believe her, Olivia can tell by the look of incredulity that covers his face when she looks up at him through her lashes.

"She is! She does, she cares about Elliot, she does and I don't even know where she's at…"

"She's probably at the medical center up near Surf City, I called an ambulance yesterday, that's the nearest ER to us…"

Olivia's brows knot together, eyes narrowing before she turns on him, shoving at his chest. His steps falter, but he catches his balance before running into anything or hitting the floor.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She yells, a pique of irrational anger building in her gut.

He'd called an ambulance; he's cleaning up my mess. This isn't fair to him. He shouldn't care this much about me. You're a making his life harder than it has to be.

"When was I supposed to, Liv?" He asks, no anger or hurt in his voice even though she'd just shoved and yelled at him. "You spent all day yesterday in bed, crying. And all day today on the couch sleeping n' crying….I can't stand your mother, but I know what...you love her. Why, I don't know, but you do and i'm not gonna let her die."

"Then take me to her, please. I just, I need to see she's okay on my own and then after that, I - I don't know what I'm going to do, but I just need to know she's okay."

"You can't call?" Elliot questions softly, one of his oversized hands reach for her wrist, pulling her towards him. "I just, you - she beat the shit out of you, Olivia. She needs to be in jail."

"It wasn't her fault…" She whispers, eyes falling to the wood floors; she traces the water warp marks with her bare toes. "It was mine. I - I provoked her and I shouldn't have. She doesn't hit me all the time; she's got a problem, and I just make it worse…" I always make it worse.

His next movements scare her. He drops her wrist and grabs her face between her hands, cradling her chin between his palms. "Look at me, look...people who love you - they don't hit you. They don't. I don't care what's wrong with them. They don't smash holes in walls or use your face for a punching bag, okay? So i'll take you to see her, but after that, we're going to figure out ... We're gonna get you away from her. I've got a friend in law school, she can figure out what we can do. "

"I can't leave her. She needs me..."

"Look, Liv. I've got you, okay. You can leave her before she hurts you. " He tells her, his gaze piercing, intense as he waits for her acknowledgement. "I'm not gonna let anything happen to you, you just gotta let me take care of you..."

She can feel the tears forming behind her eyes, the sob rises from her gut, and her bottom lip tremble. But she forces it down, away. She doesn't want to cry any more.

Two lone tears slip from her eyes, roll down her cheeks and she swallows, nodding. "Okay, okay..."

/

The entire car ride to the hospital is like the rollercoaster ride from hell. She feels sick and her stomach does somersaults. Between her ears her head pounds, the pain radiates from right above her eyes down to the back of her neck. She's too hot and too cold all at once even though it's an uncharacteristically cool early August day. Dark clouds hang low in the sky, heavy with the promise of rain.

It's been almost a month since she'd packed up her things and loaded them into the back of her mother's car, preparing herself for a boring, dull, and lonely vacation away from Manhattan. But what she'd been gifted had been so much more.

She'd fallen head over heels in love. The boy in the seat next to her with his close cropped dark hair and electric blue eyes stole her heart.

They pull into the hospital parking lot and a guard ushers them toward a parking spot. Elliot pulls in with ease, and cuts the engine.

Olivia's eyes stay glued to stone wall in front of her, her mind swirling with what if's. A foreboding feeling twists her gut. She doesn't know what to expect; what she should expect. Last time she'd seen her mother, Serena had been in a crumpled bloody ball on the floor of a beach house they were set to vacate in two days. A shiver dances up her spine and she has to fight now to pull her knees to her chest and sink into the car's seat.

"You don't have to do this, Liv." Elliot's voice sounds and she breaks eye contact with the wall, turning towards him. "We can go back and you can just call. We still have a lot of stuff we need to figure out."

They did. The prior night, after Elliot's promise to take care of her, they'd been interrupted by a dinner wielding Monique. Not only did she bring dinner, as promised, but made certain to stay long enough to ensure that - in her words - Olivia's virtue remained intact. Sex had been the farthest thing from Olivia's mind, though she'd been more than grateful for Monique's presence. The focus on her sex life hadn't been appreciated, but the makeup bag and normalcy of proverbial girl talk had.

"I do," Olivia tells him; her tone one of resignation. She pulls down the passenger side visor and stares into the mirror. The swelling's gone down for the most part, and though it's kinda off shade, the concealer had done wonder for her bruises. Gently she probes her cheek, wincing slightly.

"I still say you should've walked in their with the bruises, get her fucking arrested," Elliot mumbles.

Olivia shoots him a look of pleading. "El, please…"

He looks ahead, eyes on the wall as he works a hand along his jaw. The stubble on his chin is thickening. "You want me to come in with you or wait here?"

She leans over, brushing her lips along the right corner of his mouth. "Can you wait in the waiting area for me?"

"Yeah, I can do that."

/

Sea foam green walls greet the pair as they walk towards the nurse's desk. Olivia shuffles along, fingers locked in Elliot's. She wants to shrink away, retreat into the walls because she feels as if all eyes are on her. As if her crimes against her mother are written across her skin; as if the blood is still caked underneath her fingernails.

They reach the station and are greeted by an older woman, probably mid fifties, dressed in a purple dress uniform. She smiles as the pair walks up, her brush back tendrils of her long brown locks. Her name tag reads 'Cindy'.

"How can I help you two, today?"

Olivia bites at her bottom lip, willing away the stutter she knows her words will come out in if she doesn't think them through at least twice. "Uhm, I - my mother. I was told by the help desk that my mother was on this floor. Her name's Serena Benson…."

Cindy's eyes widen, her mouth dropping open just a bit as she shoots a curious glance between the two teens in front of her. "You're...you're…" she stutters before shaking her head. "I mean, uhm, your mom is in room 203, she's with your grandmother." Cindy points towards the hall to the left of the direction they'd come from.

"My grandmother's here?" Olivia asks, worry immediately colouring her features. She lets go of Elliot's hand and takes off. If her grandmother had driven the four hours down from Albany, Serena was dire shape.

She doesn't stop running until she gets to the hospital room, unaware of the sounds of Elliot's footsteps following behind. Her Keds slip along the linoleum and she comes to a halt screeching halt, mind spinning with worst case scenarios, and she enters the hospital room.

Almost instantaneously, a pair of arms wrap around Olivia, hugging her tightly.

"Myshka, myshka!" The voice belongs to Galina, Olivia's grandmother. "You're safe! Oh I thought I'd never see you again. Are you hurt? Did he hurt you? Did he..did he…"

It takes everything in Olivia to push her grandmother away, to hold her at arm's length so that she can figure out what's going. "What are you doing here? Why - what do you mean did he hurt me? What's going on; is mom okay?" Her words jumble together, laced in confusion as they fall out her mouth.

"Olivia, myshka, it's okay you can tell me -"

Whatever Galina's getting ready to say is cut short by the sound of a struggle coming from behind them. Olivia drops her hands from her grandmother's shoulders and whips around to find two uniformed officers struggling with Elliot. One of the officers, a more portly fellow, has Elliot's right wrist in hand and is using it as leverage to bend Elliot's arms behind his back. The other officer is handing the portly cop a pair of handcuffs.

"What are you doing? Stop! Leave him alone. Stop!" Olivia implores and she rushes towards the scene, but is stopped by her grandmother. Galina wraps a hand around Olivia's wrist, trying to pull her away from the doorway, away from the scuffle. But Olivia isn't going quietly. She yanks out of her grandmother's hold and rushes back towards Elliot, who's been forced down onto his stomach and there's a knee in his back.

"Get off of him! Let him go, let him go!" Once again she demands, and once again Galina grabs her by the wrist, yanking her with much more force than previous.

"Olivia Jayne," she hisses, "let the police do their job. He hurt you and he hurt your mother. He's getting what he deserves."

The two cops hoist Elliot to his feet, and Olivia can see his lips bleeding.

"He didn't, he didn't hurt me. He didn't hurt my mother - I did. Just please stop. Please!"

But Olivia's pleas fall on deaf ears. The last she sees of Elliot before he's hauled away, back down the hall by the portly cop and his partner, is him mouthing 'I love you.'