Title: The Model

Artist: Henri Matisse

Date: 1900

Medium: Oil/Canvas

It was just over a month after Elizabeth had returned to Downton, on an otherwise quiet afternoon, that the identity of her attacker came to light.

That morning Phyllis had retrieved the post and left a letter for Elizabeth from her college on her bedside table. Hours later she was surprised to see her daughter cautiously lurking in the kitchen entry with the now worn envelope grasped between her hands.

"You coming in?" Phyllis called over her shoulder as she split her focus between the pan in front of her and her daughter who moved into the room only to stand a few feet away from her as she shuffled between her feet causing Phyllis to prompt her further, "Darling, I'm not a mindreader."

Elizabeth's quiet reply of, "Can I talk to you?" was shakier than she'd expected and Phyllis quickly pulled the frying pan off the stove and turned off the burner before turning to her daughter who had been uncharacteristically quiet for the last several days to offering her a warm smile. "Of course, my love."

Elizabeth stood in the middle of the kitchen for several minutes before she spoke, lifting the envelope up to the tabletop but keeping it tightly clenched in her hand as she finally spoke. "I got a letter from the school and I'm scared to open it."

"Okay." Phyllis nodded in understanding, giving her daughter a chance to elaborate before adding her own expectations about the letter. "I suspect it has to do with your now extended absence. Have you contacted them about taking a leave of absence?"

Elizabeth ducked her head in embarrassment before shaking it slightly.

"Is there a reason why?" Phyllis probed gently as she led her over to sit at the kitchen table before sitting across from her.

Elizabeth nodded slowly, her lips trembling as she seemed to focus all of her efforts on not looking up from the floor.

Phyllis sighed as she watched her daughter struggle through something that was obviously bothering her. "Darling, I want to help you, and I promise I won't judge you, but I'm going to need a little more participation on your part if you'd like to talk to me about whatever it is that's bothering you."

Elizabeth continued staring at the floor but she surprised both of them when after a lengthy silence she suddenly blurted, "The man who raped me was my professor."

Phyllis's eyes slammed shut as she reached out for the kitchen table in front of her for support, the world seeming to spin around her as she took in the sudden identification of her daughter's abuser. She stood still for several moments before practically breathing, " What ?"

"He hired me as a still life model for his introductory figure drawing course." Elizabeth began to explain hurriedly, desperate to get the whole story out now that she'd broken the seal. "It paid well enough and had better hours than my secretary position did, so I took it."

"Lizzie–" Phyllis tried to stop her daughter to give her a chance to breathe before she continued, but it was of no use as Elizabeth clumsily pushed forward through her tears.

"Sometimes he would reposition me during the classes - I think that was normal - but the movements started getting more intimate." Elizabeth gasped anxiously. "He would brush his hands across personal parts of me as he did it. I assumed it had been an accident at first, but… God, how stupid was I?"

Phyllis shook her head in immediate disagreement, finally certain of what she wanted to say. "You're not stupid."

"He started asking me to stay after his class." Elizabeth continued angrily. "He told me he needed a model for a project he was working on and that he would pay me for the extra sessions. And for the first few times that's what happened…"

"Until he used that privacy to take advantage of you." Phyllis finished for her daughter after she'd finally trailed off into a stunned silence.

Elizabeth ducked her head again in embarrassment as she nodded. "He told me if I told anyone my degree was gone. I didn't know what to do. I was so close to being done and I couldn't let all that work disappear. So I just… let him do it."

"When did all of this start?" Phyllis asked urgently, suddenly needing to know just how long she'd been unaware of her daughter's pain.

"He hired me in September and the first time he… um… did more than just move or draw me was in early November." Elizabeth replied as she continued to stare at the floor.

Phyllis's jaw clenched firmly at the realization that her daughter had been enduring her teacher's abuse for over five months, far longer than her seemingly endless time with Peter Coyle decades before. Her jaw remained firmly closed as she anxiously questioned further, "Did he ever stop?"

"When he realized I was pregnant he stopped… um… putting it inside me?" The red in Elizabeth's cheeks managed to deepen even further as she stumbled through her elaboration. "But he wanted me to learn my lesson and show him how sorry I was, so he made me do other things for him."

The room fell into a long silence after that.

It wasn't until Elizabeth caught sight of her mother's eyes filled with rage when she looked up to see why she hadn't responded pushed her to hurry through a further explanation. "It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that things got violent. I think he realized I was farther along than he'd thought and he wasn't happy I hadn't gotten rid of it yet so he started trying to end it for me."

"My love, everything that man did to you was violent." Phyllis stopped her softly. "I understand what you meant, but it's important to me that you know that all of it was violent."

"I guess so, and it did hurt before then, but he wasn't… I don't think he was trying to hurt me." Elizabeth explained quietly. "It wasn't until then, when he used the palette knife, that I realized he wanted to hurt me. I could see it in his eyes."

Phyllis waited to see if she would continue on her own before gently asking, "Do you want to tell me what happened after that?"

"I bled. Badly." Elizabeth shrugged as she tried not to remember the details about the attack. "He was sure he'd done it, and truthfully so was I. I spent a few days at home in bed trying to recover until Mrs. Mullins kicked me out. The next day I went back to class - it's not like I had anywhere else to go - and it was there that I felt it move for the first time. I didn't know what to do other than try to hide it but it was only a week or so later that he realized there was still a baby. He pulled me aside before his class started and told me to leave and take care of things or that he'd take care of them himself."

Phyllis did her best to ignore her own increasing need to break down at her daughter's revelations as she tried to formulate a timeline of these final events. "Was this the day I got to London?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "It was the day before. When I told him I couldn't do what he wanted, he fired me." She laughed miserably before continuing "Not that it mattered really. He'd stopped paying me in November because he was taking care of me instead. That's why Mrs. Mullins was so angry with me. I hadn't paid her in months and figuring out I was unmarried and pregnant was the final straw."

I begged him not to fire me." Elizabeth added after a long silence. "How stupid is that? He let me go and I begged him not to."

"You're not stupid." Phyllis replied instantly. "You'd already lost so much."

Elizabeth laughed miserably at that. "I was so desperate I think that I started screaming at him over it. One of the administrative secretaries overheard me crying in his office and came to check on me." She paused for a moment before looking up to watch her mother's reaction at what had happened next. "He denied knowing me at all. Can you even believe that?"

"She knew that wasn't true. You'd been working for him for months. She had to have known that." Phyllis argued back passionately before suddenly asking, "Did she just leave you there with him?"

"No. She took me out into her office and let me cry there." Elizabeth shrugged off the concern. "She was nice enough, really. She let me stay in the studio overnight when I told her I didn't have anywhere else to go."

Phyllis scoffed in disbelief. "But she didn't try to help you."

"Or she didn't want to risk her own job." Elizabeth replied grimly. "Fighting against Dr. Fox is more or less a known career death sentence."

Phyllis bit her lip to stop herself from voicing the thought that that should mean the woman was even more willing to protect a young girl working under him who was obviously in distress. Despite the truth in that thought, it wouldn't help anything at this point.

Elizabeth watched as her mother's expression darkened before she quietly asked, "Are you angry with me?"

"No." Phyllis quickly reached across the table to brush the back of her hand against her cheek. "I could never be angry with you for any of what's happened."

Elizabeth nodded briefly before pushing the envelope she'd brought with her out in front of her once again. "Can I give this to you?"

"I'll handle the school." Phyllis nodded as she took the envelope from her daughter's outstretched hands before standing to press a kiss to her forehead. "You just try to get some rest today, darling. I'll take care of all of this."

Joseph noticed the moment he got home that the atmosphere in his home was much more tense than it had usually been since Elizabeth's return. He'd initially thought to bring it up at supper, but his daughter's unwillingness to meet her mother's eyes, and Phyllis's obviously angered movements as she moved around their small kitchen, suggested that his curiosity was better left for a time when he had privacy with his wife.

That time came when Phyllis finally stomped up the stairs with a basket of laundry in tow at nearly midnight to find her husband still awake in their bed with a book open in front of him.

Phyllis sighed as she closed the door behind her before turning and dropping the basket at the end of their bed. "I thought you'd be asleep."

"Something's on your mind." Joseph observed pointedly.

"Lizzie got a letter from the college today." Phyllis replied tersely as she began folding the towels at the top of the basket. "They've terminated her degree progression due to her extended absences."

Joseph shook his head in frustration, reaching up to remove his reading glasses from the end of his nose. "Surely her advisor would make allowances if he knew–"

"It was him." Phyllis heard the words falling from her lips before she could process the implications of revealing her daughter's secret.

Joseph's brow furrowed in confusion. "I'm sorry? Who was whom?"

"Her advisor… the man who did this… it's…" Phyllis floundered helplessly beneath the tears that were now streaming down her cheeks.

Thankfully her husband's years of experience with his wife's own traumas meant that she didn't have to spell it out for him any further. "Oh my God."

"He hired her to model for his still life class and began touching her there." Phyllis continued quietly as she stood at the end of their bed. "Things progressed and he got her in private and…" She trailed off as she watched her husband's fists clench around their duvet until his knuckles had turned white. "Joseph, say something."

"I'm going to kill him." Joseph replied simply.

"Jose–" Phyllis shook her head in frustration only to be immediately cut off.

"No. You cannot ask me not to do something about this." He argued back as he rose from their bed. "We met her advisor when she started there three years ago. He's at least my age, if not a bit older. He's a fucking monster."

"He is." Phyllis agreed easily. "But you going to prison isn't going to help anything. Lizzie's already going through hell, you can't make her do it without you."

Joseph took a deep breath as he looked down to the floor, willing his tears to stay put as he harshly asked, "Why didn't she tell us?"

"I don't think she knew what to do." Phyllis explained tiredly. "He threatened to withhold her degree if she told anyone about any of it, and that was long before there was a baby to speak of."

"It was all in his classroom wasn't it?" Joseph looked up suddenly in realization. "That's why he used the palette knife. It's the sharpest tool they've got in there."

Phyllis nodded miserably. "I can't believe she stayed as long as she did. She must have been so frightened."

"She's brave like her mother." Joseph whispered as he reached out to take his wife's hands.

"She never should have had to be." Phyllis argued back fiercely, trying not to wince as her husband's hands immediately tightened around her own.

"You're right." Joseph shuddered slightly before breaking down into heaving sobs. "Oh my God."

Phyllis immediately wrapped her arms around her husband and began stroking his neck in an attempt to calm him down. "We've done what we can. I wish it could have been more but it is what it is."

Joseph immediately pulled away, his head shaking as he tried to speak through his tears. "You don't have to–"

"Let me be here for you." Phyllis stopped him softly. "Please just… let me do this for you."

Joseph nodded against her shoulder. "You just tell me if it's too much. You never have to do anything if it's too much."

Phyllis nodded back, pressing her lips against his forehead as she thanked him, and whatever powers had brought him to her, for the man she'd been lucky enough to marry.

To Elizabeth's great displeasure the first unexpected visitor to the Molesley cottage since her return to Downton occurred on a Saturday that her parents had gone out to York. She'd debated ignoring the knocks entirely, but instead cracked the front door open slightly to find Johnny Bates standing awkwardly in front of her.

"I'm sorry to intrude like this. I just heard you were back and I wanted to make sure you're doing alright." Johnny explained awkwardly when Elizabeth stared at him in surprise. "Though I suppose you must be, given that you're with your parents and all. They'd be support–" His eyes widened in sudden embarrassment at the direction his rambling had taken.

"It's not like you don't already know." Elizabeth shrugged as she pulled the door open wide enough for him to come inside. "There's not really any reason to hide from you."

"So you are hiding?" Johnny commented before his cheeks turned even redder than they'd been before. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't've–"

"I mean isn't that what girls who get themselves in trouble do?" Elizabeth stopped him with a slight smirk. "Hide away and pretend like nothing's happened?"

Johnny stared shamefully at the ground beneath him for several moments before Lizzie poked his shoulder and asked, "Did you want to visit, or are you heading out?"

"Visit." Johnny replied immediately. "If that's alright?"

"'Course it is. You're basically family." Elizabeth smiled softly. "Just take your shoes off. Mum would kill me if you tracked all that mud into the sitting room."

He did as instructed before following Elizabeth into the adjacent sitting room where the pair of them sat on opposite sides of the settee, Elizabeth immediately moving to place a pillow on the tea table in front of her that she rested her feet on before she sheepishly asked, "So how is everybody?"

Johnny smiled as he launched into an explanation of what their mutual friends had been up to in the months since he'd last seen her. It was while he was telling Elizabeth about Nancy Parkington's new suitor that he suddenly blurted out, "It's funny, you know, I didn't know you were seeing someone. I don't think anyone knew any of it truthfully."

Elizabeth shivered slightly but hid it well under a shift of her weight as she muttered, "Certainly they all would know about the baby now given that you do."

"No, no!" Johnny waved hands wildly in protest. "I haven't said anything to anyone. I wouldn't do that to you. Francine did ask everyone a few weeks ago if you'd left us for some boy and no one seemed to know anything… I'm sorry I probably shouldn't have said anything."

"No it's alright.. I—" Elizabeth paused for a long time before quietly admitting, "There isn't anyone. I wasn't… I didn't…"

"You don't need to tell me anything you don't want to." Johnny assured her gently. "I don't need to know–"

"I was raped." Elizabeth stopped him in a harsh whisper before burying her face in her hands to hide herself from any reaction she wasn't ready for.

Thankfully, she didn't need to worry as Johnny hadn't forgotten his mother's questioning many weeks prior. "God, Lizzie." Johnny whispered back. "I'm so fucking sorry."

"Yeah." Elizabeth laughed tiredly as she pulled her hands away. "Me too."

"Did you know him?" Johnny asked suddenly. "The guy who did this. Do I know him?"

Elizabeth paled immediately at his questions and it took her a few minutes to find her voice to ask, "Can we not talk about this?"

"Of course!" Johnny agreed easily. "What would you normally do this afternoon?"

"I usually just put the telly on and try to pretend like nothing's happened." Elizabeth shrugged as she gestured towards the small television set in the corner of the room.

Johnny smiled at that. "We don't have a telly at the boarding house so I'm beyond behind on everything, but if you don't mind could I stay and watch a programme with you?"

"Actually, would you be up for a game of Scrabble?" Elizabeth suggested suddenly as she pointed to a small cupboard at beneath the television that held their games. "I'd love to have something else to distract myself."

"Yeah I'd actually love that." Johnny agreed easily, moving across the room to investigate. He found scrabble easily but he couldn't stop himself from picking up a worn deck of cards from the shelf beneath it with a grin. "Are you sure you don't want to whoop my ass at Happy Families again instead?

"I think we've grown a bit past Happy Families." Elizabeth laughed back. "But if you manage to beat me at Scrabble, I'll consider indulging your childish nostalgia."

When Phyllis and Joseph arrived home several hours later the pair were still in the sitting room, now playing their third game of scrabble.

"Johnny Bates!" Joseph exclaimed happily at the sight of the man who had been one of his students for many years. "What a lovely surprise."

Phyllis nodded in agreement, offering him a smile of her own as she questioned, "Will you be joining us for tea?"

"I should be getting back home actually." Johnny shook his head with a slight frown. "It's Annabeth's daughter Holly's second birthday and I'm in Downton for the festivities tonight."

"Wish Annabeth and Charles our best for little Holly." Phyllis replied before crossing the room and pulling a small box out from the top of one of the bookshelves. "Is there any chance Holly would like this doll? Eleanor insists that she's 'too scary' and we haven't the faintest idea why."

"Honestly, I'm not sure." Johnny admitted with a small laugh. "But that girl goes through dolls constantly so even if she's not thrilled about it I'm sure Annabeth would appreciate it."

"Then take it with you and give it to your niece tonight." Phyllis replied as she handed him the box.

"Oh, I couldn't–" Johnny tried to protest only to be immediately cut off.

"You can." Phyllis insisted with a warm smile. "I'll walk you out."

As soon as Johnny was on his way, Phyllis and Joseph got to work in preparing something simple for that evening's tea.

"John and Anna certainly have a growing brood on their hands." Phyllis remarked as she joined her husband by the stove. "I've heard Annabeth's expecting again."

"My goodness." Joseph shook his head in disbelief. "That'll be two under two, won't it? Quite the handful."

"Is that what you want?" Elizabeth asked suddenly, causing both of her parents to turn around to face her.

Phyllis spoke first, wiping her hands on her apron as she approached her daughter slowly. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Do you want me to be having a baby?" Elizabeth clarified. "Do you want me to make you grandparents?"

"I'm not sure how to answer that, love." Joseph replied carefully, moving to his wife's side in front of their daughter. "We don't want you to have been hurt the way you have been, but we would never turn you or your child away."

Elizabeth sighed in frustration, burying her face in her hands as she admitted, "I want to know if you would be upset with me if I gave up the baby after it's born."

"No, my love." Joseph replied instantly, quickly moving to his daughter's side to give her a gentle hug. "I could never be upset with you for that."

Elizabeth nodded against her father's shoulder before pulling away and looking to her mother. "Mummy?"

"My darling girl, I just want you to be alright." Phyllis assured her as she moved to her daughter's other side. "You don't owe us grandchildren. You don't owe us anything."

"I thought that you might want me to do what you did." Elizabeth explained nervously. "I wasn't sure you'd let me."

"No." Phyllis shook her head firmly. "You have to make the choice that's right for you and I don't want you to make that choice based on what I have done. You understand me?"

Midnight once again found Phyllis and Joseph awake in their bedroom in the middle of a hushed conversation about how they were meant to support and manage their youngest daughter's situation.

"I don't want to press her in any way, but I'd like to make some inquiries about adoption procedures." Phyllis explained tiredly. "I want her child to go somewhere safe where they'll be loved without being neglected for years in an orphanage or home first."

"Of course you do." Joseph assured her. "I'm sure Elizabeth will want that as well."

Phyllis nodded against his chest before proposing a possible avenue to explore. "I think it would be good to reach out to Beatrice. She's not local so whatever options she has shouldn't be too close to home and I'm sure she'd be able to tell me what options may be available."

"I think that's very sensible." Joseph agreed quietly before once again turning the conversation to the topic he couldn't push from the front of his mind. "What are we going to do about Professor Fox?"

"Joseph you know as well as I do that pushing this to trial will only mean public ridicule for Elizabeth." Phyllis repeated impatiently. "It will be her word against his and without any evidence–"

"We have evidence." Joseph argued passionately. "Doctor Garreth can testify to Elizabeth's injuries and in a few months we'll have his child."

Phyllis shook her head in frustration. "But how are we meant to prove that?"

"With the progression of blood typing it's only a matter of time before we can identify genetic–" Joseph immediately began to elaborate.

"Joseph!" Phyllis snapped angrily. "We are not pushing our daughter to make her intimate trauma public gossip!"

"It's not a matter of gossip, it's a matter of justice!" He argued back.

"You know it doesn't work like that!" Phyllis was yelling at this point, and Joseph returned her volume in kind as he countered, "He put a knife inside her!"

"I know!" Phyllis shouted back angrily as she shook her head in disbelief. "God, do you really think I could have forgotten? You can't possibly even begin to understand the physical and emotional pain our daughter has been in. I'm begging you not to add to that."

"That bastard needs to be punished!" Joseph disagreed once more. "We can't just let him get away with this!"

"Do you not remember the trial?" Phyllis was nearly begging as she searched for his eyes. "Do you not remember almost losing Emma to Coyle? Do you not remember what it did to me?"

"We can protect her from all of that." Joseph argued back. "This is different."

Phyllis's eyes slammed shut as shook her head again. "It's really not. I'm begging you, Joseph. For her sake, please let this go."

"You can't ask that of me!" Joseph began to shout again, his patience wearing just as thin as his wife's. "Phyllis, he put a knife inside of our daughter !"

He'd expected a delay in his wife's reply, but he hadn't expected the all too familiar terror that had rapidly taken over his wife.

"Hey, alright." Joseph panicked as he rapidly sat up next to her, gently placing his hands on her shoulders to help move her upright. "I'm holding your arms so I can help you sit up. It's just me, Joseph. You're fine. You're not in danger."

Phyllis was gasping anxiously for several moments before she managed to hoarsely request, "Hold me. Please."

Joseph immediately panicked at the sudden change in his wife's comfort with him holding her. "Phyllis are you sure–"

"For the love of God Joseph, please ." She practically threw herself against him as tears flowed down her cheeks.

"Okay." Joseph agreed warily, the regret from how far he'd pushed his wife consuming him as he felt her shaking in his arms.

"Tighter." Phyllis requested once more as she tried to take deep breaths between her sobs.

"Are you sure?" Joseph asked once again, his concern obvious in his voice and expression.

"Yes." Phyllis insisted. "You have to hold me tighter. I need to know I'm really here."

"You're here." Joseph assured her softly as he tightened his hold around his wife. "You're here. Elizabeth's here. Emma's will at home with Sybbie and the twins by now. Everyone is safe and we're going to figure out how to keep them all that way, alright? Everyone is going to be fine."

While he was thankful that his assurances were doing their job as Phyllis began to relax against his chest, he couldn't ignore the twinge deep in his stomach that insisted on how impossible his promises would be to keep.

NOTES:

Content Warnings:
Descriptions of Abuse & Rape/Non-Con; Pregnancy; Medical Trauma; Abuse of Power; PTSD/Panic Attacks

Chapter Recap (Contains Spoilers):
Elizabeth discloses the identity of her attacker to her mother who does her best to comfort her. Phyllis tells Joseph what she's learned and he wants to plan for justice - the opposite of Phyllis's preference. Johnny Bates visits Elizabeth for an afternoon. Phyllis disassociates during a later conversation with her husband about her daughter's attacker that reminds her of her own past.