THE RETURN

Chapter 19

Elliot was watching Noah and Eli play cards as he dialed the number to his ex wife. The first thing Eli had asked him that morning when he woke up was when he was going to talk to his mother about changing the custody agreements. Elliot had ensured him that he would make the call sometime that day.

"Hey Elliot."

"Hey Kathy. How's your day going?"

"I have today off, so it's good. Just hanging out. How's Eli?"

"He's good. Behaving himself well."

"I'm glad. He's been testy over here lately."

"So I've heard..."

"Has he talked to you about it?"

"A little bit." Elliot took a deep breath.

Kathy sighed on the other end, "What Elliot?"

"He wants to come stay with me Kath." When she didn't reply, he continued, "Permanently and he wants me to talk to you about it."

"He said permanently?"

"He says he'd like to see you on holidays."

"Holidays? Are you kidding me? Put him on the phone."

"Shouldn't you and I discuss it before you decide to go off on him?"

Kathy huffed loudly, "Go off on him? What the hell Elliot? I raised our four oldest by myself as you..."

"As I what Kathy?" He tried to control the level of his voice and the noise of the chair as he stood and made his way to Olivia's room. "As I what? As I worked my ass off to make sure there was food on the table and a roof over all your heads?"

"That line would work if that was the only thing you were doing Elliot."

To keep himself from pacing back and forth, pacing always made him more angry, he sat on the edge of the bed he had grown a little too accustomed to sharing with Olivia, "What the hell else do you think I was doing?"

"Besides falling in love with your partner?" Kathy's voice had elevated to a point of almost yelling now.

Elliot compelled himself to take a deep breath, "I don't know what you expect me to keep saying to that. Yes, I fell in love with Olivia." It was a month after he had put in his papers that he had finally admitted to Kathy that he had, in fact, fallen in love with his partner of 12 years. He had come home from the bar one day, drunk as a skunk, and had blurted it out. The next morning he had apologized to her but had told her that he did want a divorce. "I've already admitted to that and I've already apologized more than enough times. But I never flawed from my responsibilities Kath and you know that. I, we, Olivia and I never acted on our feelings for each other."

She scoffed, "Like that makes a difference. Just because it wasn't physical doesn't mean it wasn't wrong."

"I'm not saying it wasn't wrong. I can't control what my heart wanted."

"And you finally have her right? All of her? Just the way you always wanted?"

The tone in her voice was making Elliot more on edge every time her heard. "I didn't call you to discuss my relationship with Olivia. I called you to let you know that our son would like our custody agreement changed and I don't see why there should be any problem with it. He's old enough to make his own decisions and like you said, you raised our last four. Let me raise this one."

"You think it's that simple for me to just give our son to you?"

"You wouldn't be giving him to me, he still wants to see you on the holidays. This is better for him anyways, he can stay at one school without having to switch every year."