A/N: So, the idea of a sequel was a success then and I definitely have an idea of what I would want that sequel to explore but we won't be going there just yet. There are still a few loose ends to tie up with this story first. Enjoy!
34. Lawyers
Once school had finished for the day, Olivia made a quick exit as she had to get to an important meeting with her lawyer this afternoon. Lewis, was her lawyer for this custody case with Chloe and he had called her during her lunch break. The call was a complete surprise for Olivia but Lewis was requesting to meet with Olivia as soon as possible, which Olivia was suspecting to be about bad news. Olivia was early, so she took a seat in the reception area outside of the office and let her mind wander on all the events of today. She thought about Elliot and how excited Elizabeth was today to see her father there to pick her up from school. But even from across the playground, Olivia could see that Elliot looked tired. It was clear to her that the past few weeks had taken a toll on him, he must have been working hard when he was away. She felt compelled to walk over and welcome him back but she also knew better than to do that. So, she was in a way very grateful when another parent came over to talk to her about their child. She had noticed Elliot look back and smile at her as they were leaving though, which she just had to return.
She'd hoped that when she checked her phone on the way to this meeting, she'd seen a message from him or something but she didn't. Olivia knew it was because he was busy with his family, after only recently returning from a trip, part of her had still hoped though. Olivia had wanted to send a message but didn't want to interrupt that family time or take his attention away from the kids, so she didn't. They would talk when the timing was right.
"Olivia?" Lewis called as he appeared in the doorway to his office, across from where Olivia was sitting.
"Now, I want to thank you for coming in so promptly. I wanted to meet with you as unfortunately there have been a few developments in your custody case" Lewis explained once they were inside his office and Olivia had taken a seat across from him at his desk. Olivia knew this wasn't going to end well but she still hoped for the best.
"Brian is asking to see Chloe. Infact he's demanding that he get time with his daughter before the court case and the court is inclined to provide him some permission to do so. Especially as this will give specific evidence towards the type of father Brian would be with Chloe" Lewis continued to explain, Olivia felt like she wanted to be sick. This was her work nightmare actually coming true, she never wanted her daughter to go with such a monster. He can never be near her Olivia thought, remembering the vow she had made on the day that Chloe was born and she held her daughter for the first time.
"No, please don't let this happen" Olivia remarked.
"Well, there may be a few complications to his request, which may allow it to be stopped. The first obviously being the fact that Chloe is so little and can't go unsupervised, not that the court would allow her to, even if she was older, due to the fact that Brian's in prison. The second complication is obviously that you have an order of protection against Brian, meaning you can't be the one to take her. Now This order wouldn't affect you two being in the court room together, as long as you feel comfortable in doing so and he stays to his side of the room but it does affect the wish to see Chloe and who can take her" Lewis explained to which Olivia nodded, in times like this Olivia was glad her order of protection still stood.
"I...I don't have any family here" Olivia stated.
"Is there anyone outside of the family who is close enough to Chloe that she would feel comfortable going with? Lewis asked and Olivia didn't think she could send Chloe with her nanny and there was no way she would send Elliot. Olivia trusted Elliot with Chloe and knew he'd look after the little girl like she was his own. But she didn't trust Elliot to be in the same place as Brian, not with him knowing exactly what Brian did to her and all the hurt he caused her. If she put Brian and Elliot in the same closed space together, alone – someone would end up hurt if not worse.
"No, I could possibly get family here if necessary but I would need time, as they live out of state" Olivia suggested, knowing her father would fly in if she asked him to for this. She knew her father would do absolutely anything to help where he could.
"Leave it with me..." Lewis commented as he wrote something down on a notepad and then turned conversation to other upcoming legal matters.
5 missed calls – Elliot 3 Olivia read the notification when she left Lewis's office. Clearly her hopes of Elliot getting in touch soon had come true but sadly she'd not been able to take any of these calls as she'd been with her lawyer.
Elliot: Call me when you get a chance? Please? Olivia read the message, clearly Elliot had messaged her when she hadn't picked up the calls. She didn't bother responding to the message, instead she picked up her phone and called him. But when she did, she got sent straight to his message bank. So much for calling when I had the chance Olivia thought to herself before leaving a message for Elliot to call her when he got the chance. Looks like they were going to be playing this game of phone tag for a little bit longer.
The meeting with Lewis today had brought up a lot of stuff for Olivia to think about. Especially as it looked like she would have to go to court twice now, once with Dani and once with Brian. She didn't' want Brian anywhere near her daughter, especially when he'd been the reason that almost was no Chloe in the first place. Brian had violently attacked her one night, after coming home drunk, right around the time that Olivia was in early stages of her pregnancy with Chloe. It had been shortly after Brian had basically raped her, a few weeks before hand.
Now that same man had found out about his child and wanted to be her father. Olivia just couldn't trust that Chloe would be safe with him. Not to mention that there was no way that she would even think about sending her daughter to prison to visit with him. Olivia knew every little girl needed and deserved a father, she knew from just how much her own father meant to her. But she did not want Chloe knowing exactly who her biological father was, if she could help it. Olivia knew that she would have to work this out on her own.
FLASHBACK
"Do you want children?" Olivia asked, as she and Brian walked down the mainstreet of the town they were currently living in. They'd been out for brunch and had passed a park with children on their return. This park had caught Olivia's eye and started a thought process.
"Now?" Brian asked, a clear look of confusion in his eyes.
"Not now, one day. Do you want to have children one day?" Olivia tried to rephrase.
"Uhhh, I've never really thought of myself being a father type of guy" Brian declined.
"That could change..." Olivia replied, trying to work out whether this man whom she had known for the longest time and loved, would be the man she could truly settle down with someday. She wanted children, she had always wanted children, she had always wanted to be a mother.
"I don't think it will...Children are such a commitment and I've never fancied being a parent. I don't know how you even want to teach them all day like you do" Brian remarked as he placed a soft kiss on the side of her head. Olivia knew now not to push it any further. She knew that if she continued to push this topic then things could get ugly and she wanted to avoid that at all costs. She just couldn't shake this feeling of wanting to be a mother more than anything else in the world.
END FLASHBACK
Olivia lay staring up at the ceiling, reliving past conversations with Brian in regards to the children after today's discussion with Lewis. Brian had told her that he never wanted to be a father, and yet he was going to fight her for access and custody of Chloe? The same daughter that he'd unknowingly almost killed and told her that he never wanted to have. Olivia didn't understand this at all and hoped that Lewis managed to find a way to stop him. Olivia couldn't help but wish she had Elliot's advice on all of this right now. But she knew if she called him, then she'd wake him and that wasn't exactly a good idea. But part of her just really wanted to talk to him, he could make it all make sense, surely. Olivia picked up her phone from her bedside table and decided a text message would be a better starting point than a call. If Elliot was asleep, it may not wake him up, where as a call would.
Olivia: Hey, are you awake? Olivia quickly typed and waited to see if she got a response. A few short minutes later, she felt her phone vibrating on the bed next to her – it wasn't a text though, Elliot was calling.
"Hello?" Olivia greeted. The minute she picked up the phone, Elliot could tell something was wrong by the way her voice sounded.
"Hey, I though calling would be easier than texting back. Are you ok?" Elliot asked.
"I didn't wake you, did I?" Olivia replied, more concerned that she'd woken him than telling him about what was bothering her.
"No, though even if you did, I wouldn't mind. What's going on with you though? I thought you would be well asleep by now?" Elliot asked.
"I wish...But after today, I don't think my brian is going to shut off...Brian, my ex, is fighting me for custody of Chloe" Olivia explained and Elliot couldn't believe it. They had been dealt another blow in all of this mess.
"What?"
"Brian wants to see Chloe, he wants to be involved in her life now he knows she exists"
"Like hell that's going to happen" Elliot remarked.
"Well sadly, the law may allow it. He is allowed visitation with Chloe before the court date or at least, he'd trying to make it happen" Olivia explained and Elliot could hear how uncomfortable Olivia was right now with all of this.
"We can stop this, we're not going to let him anywhere near her" Elliot tried to comfort Olivia over the phone, emphasising the 'we' so she knew that he was going to help her through this.
"My lawyer says that there are a few complications to his request, which may be used to stop him from seeing Chloe before court. But he's looking into it...Brian never wanted children, I don't know why he's suddenly changed his mind in terms of Chloe now. He's not the kind of man I would ever let near Chloe...I can't stop now, I can't lose her" Olivia started rambling.
"You won't...Chloe isn't going anywhere but with you and I'm going to help you make sure things stay that way. Tomorrow, I'll have my legal team look into this and see if Brian really has a claim to her. Liv...Olivia, don't worry we're going to get through this, just like we're going to get through everything, together" Elliot comforted, he instantly regretted the slip of his tongue in calling her Liv, he just thought it was nice nickname for her.
"You called me Liv?" Olivia replied, clearly she'd not listened to the rest of the message, if that was what she picked up on.
"Yes sorry, slip of tongue...won't happen again" Elliot started to back pedal.
"You can call me Liv if you want to. But thank you El, for looking into this" Olivia replied.
"Anything for you, you know that" Elliot said, she'd now called him 'El' but he wasn't going to bring it up, he liked the sound of it when she called him El, he could get used to that.
"Alright, lets change topic for a moment. Are you busy Friday night? Can I take you to dinner?" Elliot asked after a few minutes
"No, I mean, I'm free and dinner sounds good" Olivia replied which made Elliot smile.
"Great! I'll pick you up. I think you and I are overdue for a bit of time together"
"Sounds good! I'm looking forward to it already"
"Me too, now I think it's time we both got some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow beautiful" Elliot remarked as he tried to stifle a yawn.
"Goodnight El" Olivia said.
"I just have to say, I like the way you call me that. Goodnight Liv, sleep well" Elliot farewelled once more before the pair ended the call and settled down for the night.
A/N: Now we never thought Brian was just going to go quietly did we? However, he never wanted to be a father so I wonder what has changed and will he actually get to see Chloe? Surely not? Right? Guess you'll just have to keep reading.
Next Chapter: Elliot meets with Detective Amaro (I wonder why?) and we have some alone time between Elliot and Olivia (Date night no 2?).
Let me know what you thought of this chapter by leaving a review, thank you for all the reviews last chapter and welcome to my new readers who have been joining the story recently. I'm glad you want to read my work! I'm trying to get into a routine of giving you a new chapter every week in these uncertain times. But as always, wherever you are I hope that you are staying safe and healthy! The world may look a little bleak at the moment but I know that together, we're going to get through it all.
Until next time ;D
