I'm not sure if anyone will still be interested in reading this, but I've been meaning to come back to my SVU stories for a while, and then I dreamt about this chapter last night and I had to write it out. This takes place two months after the last chapter, and was kind of an attempt to ease back into writing this story, so it may be a bit rusty- I haven't tried to write EO properly for a while! But hopefully it isn't too awful, and if anyone is still reading and wants me to continue with this, do let me know.
-IseultLaBelle x
Chapter 17
June, 2030
"Your mom's going to be here any minute," Elliot informs her as he re-enters the living room.
He doesn't know how to do this.
In all her sixteen years, he's never had to do this with her, and now he's having to, he just doesn't know how to handle it.
She's pretty good, really.
Normally, at least.
If anything, she's been a little too perfectly behaved over the years, whenever she's been with him and Kathy.
Every now and then, he's wished she'd let her guard down a little and rebel, because he knows that she's always on her best behaviour at his house is down to Olivia's own insecurities, to her drilling into her daughter constantly that she's not a part of his family, that if she makes a nuisance of herself, she'll be out.
But the end result is, he doesn't know how to discipline her.
He's never had to discipline her before, and he knows exactly what he'd do were she his daughter, knows it because he has been here with his own daughters, but it's different now.
It's different because she's not his.
It's such a minefield.
She sits on his and Kathy's living room sofa with her knees pulled up to her chest, Kathy at the other end, meets his eyes with an expression just as utterly lost as Elliot feels.
They don't know how to handle this.
"Lollie?" Elliot asks firmly. "Lollie, are you listening? Your mom's going to be here any minute, she told me she's just turned onto…"
"Is she allowed?" Lollie asks.
Elliot can't tell if she's talking back to him or not.
"Is your mom allowed to come here?"
"While I'm here, yeah." Lollie shrugs. "I thought that was kind of the whole point."
"Not officially, no. She's coming as a cop, not your mother… don't roll your eyes at me."
"I'm not."
"You are. You're on your own," Elliot tells her. "Alright? When your mom gets here, you're on your own. I'm not getting involved…"
"We are involved, Elliot," Kathy points out, exasperated. "We are involved, Liv shouldn't even be…"
"What was I supposed to do?" he argues. "I had to tell her! If she wants to come over and handle it herself, I can't exactly…"
"You can, Elliot. You can because the court order says we have to…"
The doorbell rings, and Lollie visibly winces.
"I'll go get it," Kathy announces, hand lingers on Elliot's back just a little possessively as she brushes past him into the hallway. "I'll go get it, you stay with her."
Lollie bites her lip.
She knows she's for it, Elliot realises.
Maybe that's why she did it.
God, this is all such a mess.
"Where is she?"
Olivia's voice seems to travel down the hallway in her fury the moment Kathy opens the door.
"She's in the living room with Elliot," Kathy offers. "She's… Olivia…"
She's through the living room door in a matter of seconds.
She storms into his living room in full-blown interrogation mode, face like thunder, maternal instincts apparently buried deep beneath cop mode, and Lollie visibly recoils from her, eyes suddenly firmly fixed on the carpet.
It's the first time she's shown remorse all day.
"Look at me," Olivia commands furiously. "Penelope. Penelope, look at me."
She stares her daughter down with utter rage, doesn't even acknowledge Elliot standing across the room from her, looking on.
Playing good cop to her bad cop doesn't seem like such a good idea in this situation.
But he's never seen them like this.
He's seen his partner go all super-strict disciplinarian on her daughter before, but absolutely nothing like this.
And she's only just getting started.
Slowly, apprehensively, Lollie meets her mother's eyes.
"Are you high?" Olivia demands. "Are you still high?"
"No…"
"Don't you dare lie to me," Olivia hisses. "I'm angry enough already. If you lie to me, I swear to god…"
"She's not high, Liv," Elliot intercepts cautiously. "I promise. She's not high. She was pretty much sober, by the time I…"
"Was that all of it?"
"Was what…"
"Don't play innocent with me," Olivia shakes her head, laughs the way she would at a perp. "You know what I'm talking about. Is what Elliot found on you all of it…"
"Yes."
"Is it?"
"Yes…"
"If I find out you're lying…"
"I'm not…"
"We've searched her room," Kathy tries to pacify her. "Nothing. We've got no reason to think she's not telling the truth- she's been pretty honest, actually…"
"She's not been honest," Olivia snaps. "She's not been honest at all. She wouldn't have done it in the first place, if she'd been honest…"
"I did tell them I wasn't coming straight home from…"
"Shut up. I don't want to hear it!" Olivia shouts. "I don't want to hear one more word out of you, do you understand? I don't…"
"We haven't spoken for six weeks," Lollie whispers. "And you go straight in with…"
"Because I'm not supposed to be here, Penelope!" Olivia shouts, head in her hands. "Do you have any idea how much shit I'll be in if NYPD finds out I've been here?"
"Why did you come, then…"
"Because I'm completely disgusted with you! And I'm so goddamned embarrassed! You'd have been put in care, if Elliot and Kathy hadn't agreed to have you! Do you understand what that means…"
"I'm not stupid…"
"If you take that tone with me one more time, Penelope, I swear to god…"
"Alright…"
"No, it's not alright! Do you understand what being taken into care involves?" Olivia demands. "Do you? They'd put you into a group home, you realise that? There's a major shortage of foster carers in New York. They'd dump you in a group home, you'll be lucky if it's this side of Manhattan. They'd dump you in a home with twenty delinquent teenagers, you'd be sharing a room with two, maybe three. And that's if you're lucky. They'd pull you out of school, reregister you wherever they move you. They'd take you away from everything you know- do you realise the strings I had to pull to get NYPD agree to place you with Elliot and Kathy? How many hoops they had to jump through to prove they're not influencing you before the trial? If they hadn't agreed to take you in…"
"We didn't take her in, Liv," Elliot interrupts, can't help himself, even as Kathy's eyes warn him to stay well out of it. "Not like that. She's always welcome here, you know that…"
"Don't tell me you're going to want her sticking around here if she keeps this up…"
"It's once, Liv," he tells her calmly. "She's run off to get high once…"
"And she knows full well that's one time too many! You don't treat Elliot and Kathy like this!" Olivia snarls. "They owe you nothing. Is that clear? You owe them. One wrong move, and you're straight into foster care until this is over- I've got no one else I can bribe to take you in. No one who's not still on the force, anyway, and you know that's not an option. So you'd be straight into foster care. And you'd be eaten alive. You realise that? The other kids would eat you alive, if it's anything like it was when I was in…"
She stops in her tracks, hand over her mouth, eyes wide, glances between Elliot and Kathy and back again.
She didn't mean to blurt that part out in front of him, Elliot realises now.
He feels sick.
Did Lollie know?
Because he didn't.
But did Lollie know, did Olivia tell her when…
"No quiero que pases por eso," Olivia switches, cutting Elliot and Kathy clean out of the conversation. "Pensé que te habías dado cuenta de eso! No quiero que pases por lo que yo hice, he hecho todo lo posible para asegurarme de que no lo hagas, pero no puedo evitar que arruines las cosas por ti mismo hasta que tengas que ... "
"Это не моя вина, что твоя мама была ..."
"No juegues ese juego conmigo…"
"Я тебя не понимаю ..."
"You understood me perfectly, or you wouldn't have made it about…"
"Но это о твоей маме, не так…"
"A mi mamá le importaba un carajo!" Olivia shouts, voice trembling. "Mi madre dejó que me pasara a mí mientras desperdiciaba el tiempo de todos en rehabilitación porque le importaba un carajo lo que me pasara en el hogar de acogida. Estoy tratando de asegurarme de que eso no te suceda, y me lo arrojas a la cara así ... "
"Мне жаль..."
"Не извиняйтесь передо мной, пока не извинитесь перед Эллиотом и Кэти!" Olivia gives in. "Они причина того, что ты не ..."
"I know…"
"Act like it, then! And we haven't even gotten started on the drugs! You know how dangerous LSD is!" Olivia despairs. "You could have died! Taking it once is enough to do yourself permanent damage, do you realise that? It makes you…" she shudders. "It makes you… see stuff…"
"Well, yeah, I kind of know that…"
"Leave it, Lollie," Elliot warns.
Olivia's shaking.
Out of nowhere, she's pale, shaking, reaches to grab onto the sideboard for support.
Lollie's face is a picture of pure horror as it finally clicks.
"You never, ever take that stuff again," Olivia threatens lowly, voice trembling. "Is that clear, Penelope?"
"I'm sorry…"
"Some… some people don't have a choice," Olivia forces out. "Some people have it forced down their throats by… by…, they don't have a choice. But you did. You did, and to choose to take that stuff is such a fucking insult to…"
"I didn't know…"
"No, you didn't! Because. I wanted to protect you from that! All I've ever wanted to do is protect you from all that, and you just…" Olivia shakes her head. "Get out of my sight."
"Mom…" Lollie pleads.
"Get out of my sight right now!" Olivia shouts. "Before I say something I regret. And you're grounded. You aren't leaving this house unless it's for school for…"
"You can't ground me if I don't live with you!" Lollie fights back. "You can't…"
"Elliot's not going to argue with me," Olivia challenges. "Go. I don't even want to look at you right now. Go…"
Lollie jumps up off the sofa as though she's been scalded, bolts to the door.
"You didn't ask why I did it," she says quietly, hovers in the doorway.
"Do I look like I care…"
"I'll tell you why I did it!" Lollie protests, wipes at her eyes furiously as she bursts into tears. "I did it because I wanted to see you!"
She's stormed up the stairs before Olivia can call her back.