29. The Past
Olivia made her way outside of the main school building, escorting her class to the pickup point where parents were already waiting. For once, she didn't really want to see Elliot, she didn't want to have to talk with him. He'd texted her earlier today saying they needed to talk and Olivia didn't want to right now. She'd not responded to his message, like she usually would but his message has been on her mind since she read it. Of course, Olivia had texted Alex about it and Alex had told her that talking didn't necessarily mean a particular conversation was bad. Olivia couldn't help but worry though as she'd been told 'we need to talk' before by Brian and that had never ended well. Elliot isn't Brian Olivia had to keep reminding herself and she just tried to focus on the job at hand. She had to make sure that the children were going to be safe and could get home safely. She could avoid Elliot if she wanted to hard enough, she knew she shouldn't though. Thankfully another parent came up to speak with Olivia when Elizabeth spotted her father. Olivia could deal with that situation another day.
After all the children had all been collected by their parents, Olivia had made her way back into the building with Clara, to work on a few things and catch up on things that she had missed with her time off recently. Clara had been very effective in catching Olivia up on everything she had missed the past couple of days. This was especially helpful where some of the more vulnerable children in class hadn't been coping with her absence very well. Clara was fitting into the classroom absolutely perfectly and Olivia was so grateful for her, especially right now.
"Mr Stabler asked after you when you were talking to Daniel's mother" Clara remarked as they started to clear the classroom for the day.
"Oh really? What's up? Did he say?" Olivia asked, she didn't know why Elliot was going to Clara to ask to speak with her. But then again, she had bene the one to ignore his text messages all day.
"He just wanted to know how today had been and if you were free for a meeting. I explained to him that he'd have to check at a later stage for a meeting with you, as I wasn't sure what your schedule was like" Clara continued to explain as she placed the chairs up on the desks. The classroom was due to be vacuumed before school tomorrow morning and having the chairs on the desk made that job easier for the cleaners.
"Well, I have a number of different meetings over the next couple of days with parents wanting to meet with me. There are even a number of emails that I've not even got back to yet" Olivia explained, thinking about that long list of unanswered or even read emails she had in her inbox at the moment.
"You'd think people would understand that it's your first day back and to give you some space"
"Well this is an elite private school, they all simply want the best for the children" Olivia remarked, she understood the majority of the people's desires to speak with her like this. But sometimes she had to admit the constant requirement to speak with her, did make the rest of her life a little more difficult. She loved teaching children and making a difference, but she hated the politics that came with it.
Elliot had to speak with Olivia, he just had to get to the bottom of what was going on now and why he was getting mail with images of her and threats. He had texted her earlier and expected that she would text him back when she got the chance, but she hadn't done so yet. He hadn't had a chance to talk to her in the playground and see if they could arrange a time to meet up. So he figured, what better what to talk than to give her a ride home from work. He knew she would like that, and the twins were perfectly fine at home with Bertie. There had been 2 more envelopes delivered to him today, they had once again been couriered and once again there had been messages and photos. One had what looked like photos of baby Chloe, with the message 'you think you know her story, but I know you don't' and then there was one with photos of Olivia and Chloe, with the caption 'wonder what her life would be like if everything was taken'. Elliot had concerns over Olivia's safety right now and he wondered if someone was seriously out to get Olivia but going through him. He just had to get to the bottom of everything sooner rather than later. He didn't know whether she had finished for the day and left already or whether he would catch her now. But since Olivia wasn't responding to his messages, Elliot just had to wait.
"Mr Stabler?" Olivia stated, clearly shocked to see him waiting there for her as she walked outside the school with Clara. Elliot stood up from the car and waited as Olivia bid farewell to Clara for the day.
"Wh-What are you doing here?" Olivia asked, when Clara was out of earshot.
"We need to talk" Elliot simply replied.
"I don't have ti-"
"Let me drive you home then, you didn't respond to my message and I didn't get to speak with you before…Please, it's important" Elliot interrupted Olivia's decline, hoping now she would actually accept his suggestion for once. Olivia hesitated briefly and appeared to be considering her options.
"Alright…But, I think we need to go somewhere other than home right now, you are right in that we need to talk" Olivia agreed as she got into the back of the car, now Elliot was nervous.
The car pulled up at a park, where he had been directed to go by Olivia. She had thought it was the perfect place, not far from her apartment, where they could talk and Elliot had agreed. The pair had barely spoken on the drive here though and when they got to the park, Elliot had helped Olivia out. He knew he had things to talk with her about but if she wanted to talk as well, this couldn't be good. Elliot made sure to grab the big yellow envelopes he'd received today, to show Olivia what had been going on. Neither of the pair were really sure how to start the conversation, but Elliot was sure he had to be a gentleman and let Olivia go first.
"How about you go first" Elliot stated, as the pair sat on a bench towards the back of the park.
"Alright, well…I guess I just want to start by thanking you for coming with me yesterday, to the prison. I also want to apologise as I was rather quiet but…there were a couple of things that happened that I simply didn't know how to tell you about" Olivia started to explain.
"You don-"
"Please, just let me finish or I won't get this out and I want to tell you" Olivia requested, to which Elliot just nodded and stay silent. He could tell that whatever Olivia wanted to tell him was important.
"Things between us have been going really well, I know it's only been a couple of days and we've been rather busy with the children and everything. But I feel that what we have started here, feels really special. It feels better than anything I've ever had before. But it's this reason but I need to tell you something, and I have a feeling that what I need to tell you, may ruin what we have" Olivia said, looking down at her hands, showing she was uncomfortable.
"Hey, hey, hey. You don't have to do this" Elliot placed his hands over Olivia's in her lap, he didn't want her to put herself through serious turmoil like this.
"I do…I can't just keep this in any longer, especially after yesterday" Olivia explained and Elliot couldn't help but grow concerned with what Olivia was going to tell him, and what had happened yesterday.
"There is a lot about me which you don't know…Especially about my past and it's something that I hadn't been planning to tell you about just yet…But now, I don't have a choice. There are things which happened, that I'm pretty sure will ruin what we have. But that's a chance I'm going to take now or it's only going to get worse" Olivia remarked, knowing that she had the motivation to tell Elliot now and if she didn't, she didn't know when she'd get it again.
"The reason that I'm fighting so hard to keep us out of court, is because I've been there before, I've been to a trial and it's not an easy process. It's a process that I would do anything to keep your two beautiful children away from" Olivia explained and Elliot clicked about the photos he'd seen earlier. Was that from when she'd been on trial? What had been on trial for? This still didn't explain why Olivia had been smiling though, as surely a trial was not a positive experience.
"I wasn't the one that was on trial though, my ex-fiance was. He was on trial for domestic abuse and I was there to testify. In fact, that same man is Chloe's biological father but until now…he had no idea that she even existed. The domestic abuse was again me and after his trial, I fled from him to my father's place and had Chloe. Then when Chloe was 6 months old, we moved here to New York. Look, I know what your thinking, and I know it must make me..not as pure or special as you may have previously thought and I understand if this is the end of us. But I just couldn't hold this in anymore to have you find out this elsewhere" Olivia said as she looked away from Elliot, trying to hold back the tears which had formed over their relationship likely ending.
Elliot couldn't believe what he was hearing, Olivia was a victim to domestic abuse and that same man was Chloe's father. However Elliot had to admit he was more shocked at the fact Olivia thought this would end them. He hated how she thought this made her 'damaged goods' and that he would never want to be with her again now, but she couldn't be more wrong. This news only made him want to prove to her what true love should be like. He wanted to change all her thoughts about men, show her how happy they could be and protect her from everything else. The news that Olivia had shared with him now, helped him to understand the photos he'd seen but still now where they'd come from.
"Everyone has a history, no-one's history is perfect and if you think any of this is going to make me walk away from you, from us, then you couldn't be more wrong. Olivia, you have been hurt but you have survived and made it out of a really difficult situation. I'm sorry that you ever felt like you couldn't share this with me till now, and that you were feeling like this confession would break what we have. But I promise you, it's not going to. Actually, this sounds exactly like what I've been wanting to talk to you about though, as I've received a few envelopes today with pictures of you in and messages" Elliot explained as he handed Olivia the envelope addressed to him.
Olivia could feel her stomach churning, as she suspected that she knew where this envelope had come from. Olivia inspected it closely and the contents inside. There were photos of her from the day she testified against Brian, photos of Chloe as a newborn in hospital and even a newspaper article about the case with Brian, which Olivia had no idea existed. Olivia knew exactly who these had come from though and she knew exactly what was going on.
"These are from Dani" Olivia stated.
"What? How do you know that? There's no mailing address" Elliot asked, confused over how Olivia had so easily known exactly where these had come from and the story about them.
"She told me, when I saw her at the prison. If I didn't completely agree to her terms, then she had information that could ruin me and she would expose it to the world and everyone I hold close" Olivia explained
"B-How did she know about us?"
"I don't think she does, at least not the us that we are now. She knew something was between us though from early on and I think part of her was jealous over that. To be honest, I don't know but if you've got these, I hate to think what else she's already done" Olivia ran a hand through her hair at the thought of what else Dani had done.
"Whatever it is, we'll fight it together. Olivia, you mean the absolute world to me and I hate to think about all you've been through. No man should ever lay a hand on a woman like that. But I promise you, as long as you let me, I'm not going to let anyone hurt you like that ever again" Elliot stated as Olivia just sealed her lips in his, she couldn't help but feel immense love for this man right now.
"Thank you for telling me about your past, but I promise you it doesn't change the way I feel about you, it never will and we are going to fight whatever Dani throws at us together" Elliot said once they broke apart before pulling Olivia into his arms and she snuggled against his chest. This wasn't the way she had been convinced the conversation was going to go but she was glad that Elliot hadn't been scared off by her past.
Elliot lay awake, staring at the ceiling and processing the thoughts on everything from today. He had to admit he was shocked by how intense Olivia's past had been and felt sorry that she had been through so much like that. She had been with an abusive man and Elliot couldn't help to cringe at the thought that man did to Olivia. Elliot made a vow at the time Olivia was telling him about this, that he would do everything in his power to protect her and he would never, ever lay a hand on her in that way. He was grateful though, in a way, that Olivia had been able to get herself out of that situation, put the wicked man behind bars for what he did and get her daughter away from it all. Elliot didn't know what the exact story with Chloe and her father was, but he would protect that little girl just as much too. He felt a special connection with Chloe already, just in the short time he'd known her, and Elliot wanted to grow that connection. No one is ever going to hurt either of you whilst I'm around – I won't let them Elliot vowed right before drifting off to sleep.
A/N: Well we all knew that Elliot was never going to walk away from Olivia over her past, but she's finally told him now and I wonder what will happen next with these photos? Up next; Our favourite duo take the next step in their relationship – a first date.
Let me know what you thought of this chapter by leaving a review and hopefully, I'll have another chapter up for you all soon. Updates are a little slow at the moment as real life is so busy but I am trying to be motivated enough to write, edit and update. Thank you for reading though, it means a lot.
Until Next Time ;)
