Bruised, Battered, and In Tears [ A Benson Fan Fic]

Twenty-Six

When Maureen dropped Julia and Michaela back at the house after their weekend, they had to find out the hard way that Elliot was no longer staying at the house. That he and their mother had broken up.

"Where's Daddy?" Julia whispered as she sat her bag on the bench next to the front door.

"I don't know... maybe Mama is letting him help." Michaela sighed. She shut the front door before waiting to hear if their father would come to greet them. But instead, no one came downstairs. They eventually went upstairs to search for their father, but instead, they only found their mother.

"Girls?" Olivia whispered when her bedroom door was opened and she saw her little ones standing there.

"We are looking for Daddy-"

"Elliot is not your father." Olivia snapped. The girls jumped, and the door was closed quickly and loudly.

"Did he leave us?" Julia whimpered, and Michaela swallowed hard before shrugging.

"He would never leave us like our other Daddy... Mama probably pushed him away... please don't cry, Jules." Michaela breathed. She stepped closer to her baby sister and hugged her tightly as she cried.

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Not even ten minutes after Maureen had left, she drove back to the house after getting a call from Michaela and Julia. She could hear Julia crying in the background as Michaela tried to tell Maureen what had happened.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Maureen asked as she opened the front door to her father and Olivia's house.

"Daddy left!" Michaela cried, as she quickly stepped towards the older girl and hugged her tightly.

"What? Dad didn't tell us anything about that." Maureen frowned, as she smoothed Michaela's brown curls.

"Mama said he isn't our Daddy!" Michaela cried. Maureen sighed softly as she looked over at the couch and saw Julia sitting there motionless.

"Do you want me to go talk to her? Or call Dad?" Maureen asked, unsure of what to do.

"What if we never get adopted?" Julia asked weakly from where she was sitting.

"What?" Maureen asked. Even if Julia had seemed to have fun while sleeping over, she barely talked.

"Mama will never love us as much as Cleo if we never get adopted. She probably doesn't love us at all anymore." Julia whispered, before standing and leaving the living room.

"Michaela, stay with Julia. I'll go see if I can talk to your mother about this... if not I guess I'll call your grandma? Or maybe Dad..."

"Please don't call Grandma! She's mean!" Michaela cried.

"Okay, I won't. Just go find Julia."

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Maureen didn't even bother to knock on Olivia's bedroom door. She opened it and found her father's ex sitting on the bed with Cleo resting in her arms. 

"I think we need to talk, Olivia." Maureen huffed.

"What are you doing here?! Can't everyone just leave Cleo and me alone?!" Olivia cried.

"Because if we leave you alone, then who will take care of the girls?! Liv, you and Dad broke up and he never told us! So why did you two break up? Because you weren't even acting like you were his girlfriend?!" Maureen huffed.

"That is none of your business, Maureen Stabler! Now get the hell out of my house!" Olivia yelled, as she stood and put Cleo in her bassinet.

"This is my business because we were supposed to be a family! Dad was supposed to adopt your three girls and marry you! We were happy and so excited to have three more sisters, but then you turned into a freak! I know that you were hurt, but my father would never hurt you or those girls. He loves you four too much to do that." Maureen yelled.

"We will never be a family, Maureen! Now get out!" Olivia screamed. Maureen stepped forward and slapped Olivia.

She never thought in her life that she would slap Olivia. That she'd have to reason too. But she was acting like a crazy woman, and there was nothing else she could do. She couldn't reason at all.

"Julia is downstairs with Michaela. They are both crying, and Julia asked if they would ever get adopted. They think that you don't love them as much as Cleo because she was adopted by my father but they weren't. And after everything we have gone through lately, I feel like you love no one but yourself and Cleo." Maureen growled.

"You don't know what I've been through, Maureen. You'll never know." Olivia whispered. Maureen frowned before moving to her father's bedside table and opening the drawer. Just as she had suspected, the ring her father had bought Olivia before Cleo was born was still there.

She grabbed it and walked back around to Olivia.

"He was planning on proposing, Olivia. And you just fucked up not only your life but also the lives of your daughters. I don't even know if you are fit enough to raise these girls anymore." 

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Maureen called the sitter and asked her to come over and help with the girls. She told her that Olivia wasn't going to do anything for Michaela and Julia and that she would have stayed if Olivia hadn't told her to get out multiple times.

Once Maureen was out of the house, she called her father and just waited and waited for him to pick up.

"Maureen, I'm trying to sleep. What's wrong?" Elliot sighed.

"I dropped the girls off at the house and found out that you and Olivia were no longer together... Julia and Michaela are heartbroken. Julia said that Olivia won't love her or Michaela because she wasn't adopted... I grabbed the ring you bought her because she doesn't deserve it." Maureen whimpered into the phone.

"Maureen, go home. I'll come out tomorrow and we can talk." Elliot breathed.

"Where are you, Dad?" Maureen sniffled.

"I'm at work. I'll be okay and everyone will be okay." Elliot spoke before hanging up. He rolled over on his bunk in the cribs before swallowing hard. He ended up slowly climbing out of bed, before moving from the dark room. He stretched but then stopped when he saw Olivia standing next to his desk with Cleo in her arms.

"Where are the kids?" Elliot asked nervously.

"Lucy is with them... Maureen slapped me tonight and then showed me the ring you were planning on giving me..." Olivia breathed.

"Honestly, I think you deserved it," Elliot spoke.

"El, can we please talk? I think everything ended in a way it shouldn't have..." Olivia breathed.

"You think it ended badly? That's an understatement."