11:15PM (First Person POV):

This is a nightmare I didn't think would happen to me.

Daddy and Liv dealt with this stuff all the time, but it was always someone else and I never comprehended that this could happen to me.

It's cliche, I know.

The worst part is that I can't wake up from it, Daddy is stuck in this Hell with me and Mom refuses to pass over and help him.

Just the look on her face when she showed up was enough to make me want to run and hide. Now she's angry with both me and him because ... well because of everything.

I didn't tell Mom about what happened to me.

Liv is the only one who knows and for as long as I can it's gonna stay that way.

I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow and I can't foresee what's gonna transpire over the next few days or weeks.

That's really scary.

Daddy and I always had a bond, something stronger than father-daughter, he was my rock when I needed someone and the person to scream in my ear if I wasn't using my head the way I knew I should be... It's all changed and I can't change it back.

I feel so incredibly small and alone right now in this strange, dark bedroom.

Liv insisted I take her bed again and I accepted, too tired to argue.

She's laying out on the couch listening to the soft crooning of Norah Jones and probably nursing a cup of coffee because she can't sleep.

I think Liv thinks that I don't know she's been lying awake at night trying to sort through all of this mess. Women, no matter how close, always know these things. It's a gift of sorts.

She told me if I needed anything that I was to simply call her name and she'd come.

Right now I wish I could get my voice to work except I keep recalling the events of earlier and I revisit those hours...

6 hours earlier (Third person POV):

"Now we figure out what the next step should be."

Liv and Cragen had been through this before, they knew what this monster could do to a person and to everyone else around them.

They still had no concrete answers.

Cragen answered himself, "The next step should be to talk to Doctor Huang, he'll probably recommend therapy and Elliot will probably resist, but we've gotta be firm. No one else needs to know about this, simply that he's gone on leave for a little while. I will tell Munch and Fin, but that's it. Deal?"

He looked at the two women who knew Elliot better than anyone.

"Deal."

"Deal."

Maureen stood from her Dad's favorite armchair and walked back outside.

She needed some air.

Liv followed her out, both at Cragen's nod and on her own recognicense.

"Maureen, how ya doin' sweetie?"

She shrugged and squinted in to the sunlight, "I don't know... I'm sort of numb, I guess. I don't know what I'm gonna do about me or how to handle it. I guess I sort of feel alone and tired. Daddy was always the one I went to when I needed anyone or anything. Now he's sick and the one who needs me."

Her voice was thick with emotion, her appearance haggard and drawn. That small child in the young woman glared through the veneer and that child was like many Liv had to care for.

It broke her heart in to even smaller shards.

"Sweetheart, please know that I'm gonna help you ... if you want my help, our help, then we're here for you. I know what this is like, to watch your life fall apart before your eyes and have no one there to guide you. I..."

Liv's voice trailed off, for a car familiar to them was pulling up.

Two heads in back and two up front.

Kathy.

Kathleen.

Dickie and Lizzie.

"Oh no," Liv whispered.

"Hi Maureen... Hello Olivia."

Kathy's tone was warm with her daughter but grew cooler with her husband's partner, the woman who had driven a wedge between them.

The kids clambered from the car.

Kathleen looked happy to see her big sister and the twins bombarded her with hugs before moving on to Liv.

"Maur, what's wrong?" Kathleen inquired at the look on her sister's face.

Maureen shook her head, "Nothing' Kat."

Everyone moved to go in to the house and there was no stopping them.

"Captain Cragen... what are you doing here? Where's Elliot?" Liv heard Kathy question her boss and she also heard the silence when the woman finished her questions.

His sigh told Kathy that something was wrong, "Maybe the kids should go outside."

"No, that's OK they can stay. Where's Elliot?" Kathy's voice rose noticeably.

Somehow, through the years Kathy could sense her family; she didn't wait for an answer but instead went upstairs to their room.

Everyone winced when they heard her voice.

She pounded back down, "Come on, get back in the car kids... Maureen you too."

Maureen didn't move, "No."

An expression of utter shock and anger spread out like at book on her mother's face. "Get in the car."

"No"

Liv watched at Kathy's face turned separate shades of red before she stormed to the car and got in. With Kathleen, Dickie, and Lizzie's sad face's watching out the window Kathy sped off.

11:45PM (First Person POV):

All that Maureen saw when she blinked in the jet black darkness was her mother's face.

So many images were now burned in to Maureen's memory and she didn't know how to erase them.

Without any warning a sob escaped from her throat and a fresh torrent of anger and hurt, fear and confusion, and uncertainty rained down.

For a second Maureen was alone with her pain, but the next second Liv was by her side, holding and mothering her.

Sorry it's taken so long but school has been crazy-busy because it's my senior year and I have a ton of college stuff to do ... gotta keep my GPA up too. Anyway hope ya enjoyed this and I'll update when I can and when writer's block isn't such a pain in the A... Later Dayz