Expectations

Olivia wasn't the least big surprised when the call came in, she figured it would when Elliot and Ella had left this morning. The minute the call from him came, she'd rushed outside and hailed a cab. She got the address from Elliot and once she was on her way, she managed to speak with Ella. It was in the short discussion with Ella and by asking the right questions, Olivia found out exactly what had happened and numerous things about how Ella was feeling right now. Olivia had found out, Elliot and Ella hadn't stopped all day, Ella didn't get her nap today and Elliot had taken her to dinner with a group of people whom she didn't know. Ella didn't really take groups of people whom she didn't know well when she was perfectly rested, she was worse when she hadn't slept all day. Olivia knew that Elliot only wanted the best for Ella but he clearly couldn't see things from a 3 year old's perspective. It had been a while since Elliot had a kid quite so young, so he had forgotten what young children need and that he can't take a 3 year old out all day without time for a nap.

As the cab pulled up to the kerb, Olivia asked the cab driver to wait and scanned the sidewalk. She spotted Elliot standing to the side, holding Ella. Olivia could tell from reading their body language, Ella was unmfortable but Elliot was trying to calm her. He clearly knew that he'd made a mistake tonight, Olivia just hoped that he didn't take her behaviour personally. Ella wasn't upset with Elliot, she was just over tired. Olivia walked over to the pair and smiled sympathetically at Elliot.
"Momma" Ella called as she spotted her mother standing in front of them.
"Hey little bug, you ready to go home?" Olivia aske das Elliot transferred Ella to Olivia's arms.
"Say bye to daddy" Olivia said but Ella just hid her face in Olivia's shoulder as the pair made the way back to the taxi, leaving Elliot to deal with the others inside the diner.

Maureen had already ordered dinner for Eli and chips for them to share, by the time Elliot joined them. It was a school night and they couldn't be out too late. She could read the embarrassment on her fathers face and felt sorry for him but was confused at the same time. He'd turned up with a young child whom none of them knew or recognised. Kathleen nudged her to say something but Maureen was trying to pick her moment and held back. She'd heard him tell the little girl that she, Kathleen and Eli were her sibling, which meant the little girl was Elliot's daughter. But then who's daughter did that make her?

"Where did Ella go?" Eli asked as Eli took a sip from his water, breaking the silence which had fallen over all of them.
"She had to go home with her mommy, she was very tired and not ready for dinner" Elliot tried to explain.
"Will we see her again?" Eli continued to ask, clearly very interested in the little girl that had been with his father.
"Hopefully….she is your sister"
"Who with?" Kathleen asked, cutting straight to the point. Kathleen wasn't interested in all this small talk, Elliot had some explaining to do. Elliot took a deep breath, trying to work out the best way forward at the moment.
"Olivia" Elliot replied to which Maureen almost choked on her drink.
"I'm sorry, what?" Maureen coughed.
"Olivia died daddy, you can't have Ella and Olivia" Eli remarked, confused with what was being discussed right now. Elliot had taken him to visit Olivia's grave numerous times since she died.
"I thought that too buddy, but she didn't" Elliot said, focusing his attention on Eli right now rather than his older girls and how they were reacting to this.
"You knocked up Olivia? Mom is gonna have a field day on this!" Kathleen replied.
"That's enough! I won't have you talking so poorly about Olivia…I will tell your mother about this when I'm ready…as well as your brother and sister, so you can't say anything"
"So…Richard was right all along – you cheated on Mom with Olivia, just like we all always thought you would but didn't want to believe" Maureen stated, struggling to comprehend everything at the moment.
"I would nev-"
"Dad, Olivia had your kid – you had to play a role?" Kathleen interrupted, very familiar with how babies were made.
"But I didn't have an affair with Olivia! What we ha-had was fater your mother and I were divorced" Elliot tried to explain.
"Yet we all thought she was dead…What's going on here dad?" Maureen asked.
"I don't know…Just like all of you, I don't know what the story is here" Elliot replied as they went about ordering food for the rest of the group and changing topic for discussion.

Olivia sat on the couch in the living room of her apartment, she had Ella's baby book and a box of letters that she'd written, sitting next to her. The letters were the same ones that Olivia had written at almost every stage of Ella's life up to this point, including when Olivia was pregnant with her. Olivia had written them as if she could send them all to Elliot every so often, like she could tell him everything about the pregnancy, openly. But obviously, she never had actually sent them and it was unlikely at the time that she would ever have been able to – until now. Olivia wanted Elliot to have them now though, he served to have them and see that he was never intentionally going ot be kept from knowing his daughter. But she wasn't sure the best way to give them to him considering Olivia knew that Elliot could not stand her at the moment. Then again, after his actions today, Olivia was rather upset with him too – just in a different way.

Funnily enough, just as Olivia had been lost in her thoughts about Elliot and the letters, his name flashed up on her phone – he was calling her.
"Hello?" Olivia greeted, it was rather late and Ella was already fast asleep, so Olivia hoped that he wasn't calling now to speak to her.
"Hi Olivia, it's Elliot" Elliot greeted, the greeting sounded weird but neither was sure how to go about this at the moment.
"So it is…" Olivia replied, not helping progress the conversation and unsure where Elliot was trying to go in this call.
"How's Ella? Did you two get home ok?" Elliot asked, Olivia could tell he was trying to make conversation but she wasn't having it. Particularly with the way that he had been treating her these past couple of days.
"She fell asleep in the tax and went straight to bed when we got back, she is completely exhausted" Olivia explained.
"I really stuffed up…She was so scared tonight and I didn't do anything, I didn't know what to do" Elliot tried to explained, Olivia could hear the regret in his voice.
"She's 3 and a half, you took her out all day with no nap and then to a place with lots of people she doesn't know. Of course she got scared"
"I just wanted to have my kids together…make up for the lost time"
"Not all at once you shouldn't have…Ella is still getting know you and you decide introducing her to all these new people is a good idea? What did you really think was going to happen?"
"and who's fault is that? Who is to blame for the fact that my daughter doesn't know me?" Elliot complained, Olivia wasn't going to get into that with him tonight though, she was simply too tired.

"I'm not going into that now…It's late. Ella and I are going to have a couple of lazy days and catch up with ourselves…you can see her later" Olivia replied, she wasn't going to fight.
"You can't stop me from seeing my daughter" Elliot responded and Olivia could hear the anger in his voice.
"I never would but we've all had a big few days…Go back to work, we will do our own thing for a couple of days and we'll try again at the weekend" Olivia tried to explain. She wasn't telling him that he couldn't see Ella at all but at least for a couple of days apart might do everyone some good. Particularly Ella, as there had been so much going on in the past few days for such a little person.
"I'll fight you for custody! You can't dictate when I can and when I can't see my daughter when I didn't even know till now, that she was alive – You kept that from me with wherever the hell you've been" Elliot almost shouted over the phone. This was getting personal, Olivia wasn't sure how much more of this she could take tonight.
"You can try if you really want but I'm not sure how it will go against someone who carried her alone for 9 months, laboured through childbirth for 16 hours to bring her into this work with numerous complications and then raised her every day of her life. All of this whilst being in witness protection as something wanted to kill her! I'm not trying to stop you as you're the best father any little girl could wish for BUT ONE DAY APART AT LEAST TO LET HER REST, ISN'T GOING TO KILL YOU" Olivia yelled through the phone before hanging up the call.

That really wasn't the way that Olivia wanted him to find out about everything, in fact she hadn't wanted to yell at him at all. But Elliot was throwing punches and threatening for custody so she had no choice. She threw her phone at on the coffee table and looked down at her box of letters. The Olivia who wrote them had pined and prayed Elliot would be with her and help her raise Elliot, that Olivia wanted Elliot to know every stage of his child's life. But right at that moment, Olivia couldn't care less about him. Elliot was playing the victim right now with no regard or care for her or what even happened. Olivia knew this part of coming back and would be hard, but she never thought that it would be quite this hard. She grabbed the box and headed to her bedroom, all she wanted to do was curl up and cry for what could have been and what is now.

A/N: Sorry for the long delay between chapters, life got a little crazy and I haven't had much time to write lately. However I'm going to be on holiday in a couple of weeks, so hopefully that will give me more time to write. I do plan on having at least 1 more chapter up for you during the next week though. Let me know what you thought about this chapter? Is Elliot being too harsh or is Olivia being fair to have a couple of days apart from Elliot, for her and Ella?
Until next time ;)