Fall to Pieces:

Chapter Two

Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, I know...they're not mine.

Summary:

My characters: Yeah...I have original characters (they're mine disclaimer people, stay away!) Here they are:

Chris: Olivia's husband, a well-known doctor. Married to her for 8 years.

Cassandra: Olivia's first born, 7 years of age.

Rebecca: Olivia's second daughter, 3 years of age.

Mary: Olivia's mother-in-law, doesn't like Olivia's job or her partner. Chris is her only son. She's divorced.

That's it guys, but, they're mine! Yea!

It was nearing seven when Olivia's car pulled into the driveway. Her husband's black SUV was missing, however, and her mother-in-laws Malibu took its place. Olivia briefly considered pulling out of the driveway and speeding off in the other direction, but, she rarely got home at such an early hour and wanted to spend the rest of the beautiful day with her daughters, playing in the small inflatable pool in their backyard.

Becca came running towards her as soon as she walked into the door, and Olivia scooped her youngest baby into her arms, giving her a big kiss. "Hey, honey. You wanna go swimming?"

The young girl nodded furiously, "I can swim!"

"Yes, I know. You showed me the other week, remember?"

She nodded her head again, "let's go!" She wriggled her way out of her mothers arms and onto the hardwood floor and ran towards the back door.

"Wait a second, missy. You've gotta get your bathing suit on first. And where's your sister?"

"With Gamma."

"Where?"

"Her woom."

"It's room, Becca."

"Right, woom."

Olivia just smiled, "well, don't you think we should see if she wants to swim?"

She frowned, but nodded her head anyway. The two took off down the hallway to Cassandra's room, the door was opened slightly and Mary's voice could be clearly heard as she scolded her granddaughter.

"No, no, no. 7 3 is not 73, Cassandra. If I have 7 pieces of candy and you give me 3 pieces of candy, how many pieces of candy do I have?"

"I wouldn't give you my candy though, grandma."

Olivia held back a snicker and pushed the door open the rest of the way, Cassie's eyes lit up when she saw her mother and she ran into her arms as well, squeezing her mother's hips tightly. "Momma! When did you get home?"

"Not long ago, Cassie. Becca and I wanted to know if you wanted to go swimming."

"She can't," Mary said as a matter-of-factly, "she's not done with her lessons."

"I'm sorry Mary, since when are you her mother?" She smirked at the look Mary gave her, "Cassie can finish her homework later, right now we are going to take full advantage of this beautiful cloudless day and go swimming in the back yard. You can go home now."

"My son will be hearing of this."

"Your son cannot tell me how to raise my own children, Mary, and neither can you. Now, if Chris has a problem with Cassie doing her homework later on in the evening then he and I will have a discussion on that. Other than that I see no problem with her doing it later as long as it gets done. You can leave no, Mary."

Mary grumbled something and went out the room and into the living room. A few seconds later the door opened and then shut and a car started.

Thank God she's gone, Olivia thought. She smiled down at her first born, "get your suit on, I'll help Bec with hers and then get mine on. Wait for me to go outside with me, ok?"

"Ok, momma."

After getting their bathing suits on they went into the backyard and Olivia took the cover off of the small pool, the water wasn't too cold, but it wasn't warm either. They splashed in it for awhile until the sun began to go down and the sky started turning orange. The ventured back into the house and Cassie took a shower in the bathroom her and her sister shared while Becca and her mother showered together. When they were all clean it was almost 8 o'clock. Olivia put Becca to bed and helped Cassie with her math homework.

"Grandma's mean."

She was tempted to reply with an "I know" but she decided against it, "she just wants you to understand, honey. Math is very important, and you'll be learning about it for years to come. She just wants to help."

"Will you help?"

"Of course."

"Ok...what's 7 3?"

Olivia smiled at her daughters tactics, "uh-uh, you've gotta do it on your own. I'm only here to help a little. Here how about this," she looked around the room and her eyes settled on a bag of skittles. She grabbed them and dumped some of them into her hand. "Ok, here we are," she picked out 7 skittles of various colors, "ok, I have 7 skittles. But, then I get 3 more," she picked out three more skittles, "now how many do I have?"

Cassie thought it over for a second and then grabbed the skittles out of her mothers hand and began to count them. "10!" She cried when she'd finished the task.

"Good job." Cassie beamed at the compliment. "Ok, Cass. Next problem is...10-4." She demonstrated with the skittles once again and Cassie once again counted how many she had left in her hand.

"6!"

20 minutes after 8 Cassie's homework was finished and Olivia tucked her into bed. "Mommy," she said, her brown eyes shinning, "will you be home tomorrow night too?"

Olivia was taken aback, she should have but she hadn't expected that question. "Oh...I don't know, honey. Maybe...maybe not. It all depends on my work."

She frowned, "will daddy be home?"

"I really don't know...where is your father anyway?"

"Working."

"Oh."

"Why do you and daddy work so much?"

"Because, honey, that's the way things are. I can't change work and neither can your father. It's just a part of being a grown up. You'll understand when you're my age and have a little girl of your own."

She smiled and hugged her mother, "goodnight, momma."

"Goodnight, sweetheart. Sweet dreams."

Olivia had fallen asleep on the couch somewhere after the beginning of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Connan O'Brian, because when she woke up the quirky red-head was chatting with some famous actress with big boobs, names escaped her. At first she wondered why she had woken, but when the door opened and Chris stepped inside she realized the headlights from his SUV had roused her. She ran a hand through her unruly hair, "how was work?"

"Huh? Oh...fine." She noticed a slight slur in his voice and her suspicion grew when he bumped into the coffee table and nearly toppled over. He started humming the tune to a song that either she couldn't place or didn't, never heard, or didn't exist.

"Chris!" She barked.

He turned around, his eyes searching for her. "What?"

"You're drunk."

"No! I'm jussss tired s'all. Been workin' alll day. Summin you..." he pointed his finger at her and then looked at it like he'd never seen one before. He cocked his head to the side and studied the strange limb.

"Something what, Chris???"

He jerked back into reality, "huh?"

"Chris...where have you been?"

"The hospa....hospi...hospo...work."

"Where have you been Chris? And tell me the truth, 'cos I know you've not been working."

He looked down at his feet, "O'Mallys."

"How many?"

"Wha??"

"How many drinks?"

"8 or 9...maybe 10. Yeah...10."

"Damn it, Chris. You're sleeping on the couch again."

"NO!" He shouted.

"Shut-up or you'll wake the girls!" She scolded. "This is the what...third time you've come home drunk? What happened?"

"Jim and I...had fun."

She got up off the couch and started to walk back to her room.

"Hey, come back here woman!"

She quickly walked up to him, "I told you never to call me that, Chris. You very well may be stupid, but you're not dumb. My mother did not name me woman, she named me Olivia."

"You're mother..." he paused as if thinking things over, "was a...drunken whore."

She didn't realize she had hit him until she felt her palm stinging. "Well, you're not that much different, now are you?" She hissed, "coming home at 2 in the morning drunk and yelling with your two daughters sleeping down the hall."

His hand immediately went to the spot where she had hit him, and his eyes flashed and Olivia recognized the look. She didn't have time to react as his fist collided with her face. The second time he moved to strike her she was ready and grabbed his hand, twisting it in a painful matter. He cried out.

"Bitch," he yelled at her.

"I may be a bitch, but I'm one bitch that you will never lay a hand on again." She let go of his arm and he fell backwards onto his ass. She snorted at him as he tried (and failed) to get up. Nursing her sore jaw she ran towards the girls rooms and quickly got each of them up. After grabbing a few things for them to wear, and Cassie's book bag she left through the garage. Chris stumbled out of the house as she pulled out of the driveway and began to yell choice words as her as she drove off. Becca had already fallen back asleep, but Cassie sat in the backseat quietly crying. At the first gas station she came to she pulled over and pulled Cassie into the front seat and her arms.

"It's ok, Cassie. Don't cry." She whispered into her daughter hair as she held her close, "I promise, everything's going to be ok."

It wasn't long until Cassie had cried herself to sleep and Olivia put her into the backseat. Not knowing were else she could go she drove to the one place she knew would always be open to her, her partners apartment.

a/n: anyway, I was kinda tired of the "cheating" spouses. So, I just made a jackass one. I didn't intend on Olivia and Chris lasting long anyway. Let me know what you think.