It's been awhile...

Let me go

"Please, stop crying baby." Lindsey asked for the nth time, holding Stevie close. 

"I can't, the tears just won't stop." She reached for another tissue, dabbing with it under her eyes. 

When she regained her consciousness, she only managed to tell Lindsey it was Ryan at the door, that he just winked and smiled at her before walking away. After that she clung to Lindsey and didn't move. He pressed kisses to her hair, her face, her hands from time to time, talking to her, saying that they'll figure it out, that they'll deal with it, but she hardly listened. 

"I'm sorry, Mom." Maria then spoke up, who was in the room as well. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have talked to him, I shouldn't have told him I was going home."

"No, sweetheart, don't say that." Stevie said, shaking her head slightly. "I'm not blaming you, baby."

"He had to have followed after me. I led him to us." 

Finally, freeing herself from Lindsey's arms, Stevie walked over to her daughter, pulling her into a hug. "What else were you supposed to do? You were going home. You didn't know he was going to follow you."

"You haven't stopped crying, Mom. It's not good for the baby, when you're worried all the time. This didn't need to add to the stress."

"Well, something tells me he would have found a way how to get to me either way, honey. He's just... I'm sorry to say that, but he's sick." Now turning to Lindsey, Stevie continued. "And I think we should go to the police."

"We don't have any real evidence of anything, Steph." Lindsey said. "What are we going to say when we get there?"

"I..." She trailed off, glancing at Maria, before saying. "I do have documented proof of nearly every time he abused me physically. We could start with that. I've never used it against him, but maybe it's time I do." She took a moment before adding. "There are marks still on my body from the most recent fight we had. You can see some cuts and bruises, that are going away, but they're not quite gone yet." Maria burst into tears, listening to Stevie speak, but before she could do anything, the girl jumped to her feet and ran to her room. Stevie sighed, looking up at Lindsey. "I knew I shouldn't have said it with her here."

"Well, baby, she's not a little girl anymore, she needs to know what kind of person her father truly is."

"I promised, I wasn't going to interfere with their relationship."

"Steph, he didn't call you a bad name - he hit you, repeatedly." Even if it was cruel, Lindsey needed to get his point across. Seeing her eyes brim with tears, he came to her side, enveloping her in his arms once again...

~

They did as Stevie suggested. She gave a statement, emphasizing that she'd been harmed while pregnant and then they left after being told that this was going to be looked into. That didn't satisfy Lindsey at all, because he heard the exact same thing, when he had called the police, when he found his restaurant the way it was and he hadn't heard from them anything since. 

To say that Stevie was on edge was an understatement. She barely slept or ate and she knew she was supposed to be taking care of herself instead. She was supposed to be caring for the baby they were expecting. 

Nothing happened in the past couple of days, which was considerably a good thing. But Stevie couldn't relax even if a little bit, because Liam got sick and she spent every waking minute by the boys side. She couldn't stand seeing him so weak, drenched in sweat as he lay in his bed. Today was particularly bad, Liam's fever got even higher, to the point where Stevie was extremely worried. Without knowing this was going to happen, she sent Lindsey to work, to keep an eye on the reconstruction of the restaurant, because he was a nervous wreck as well. Both of them together was a recipe for disaster at the moment. 

Stevie didn't have much choice left, she thought, as she changed clothes and got Liam dressed as well, strapping the boy in the backseat of her car as she got in the front to go to the ER. Sadly, what she didn't know was that she had another car following after her, which she failed to notice, being parked outside the condo for days. 

Once Stevie got to the hospital, she lifted Liam out of his car seat and carried him inside, because he couldn't walk himself, he was so weak. Going straight to the front desk, she explained what was wrong, at the same time wiping tears away, that wouldn't stop rolling down her cheeks; she was worried and she was completely exhausted. It was a horrible combination. 

Thankfully, a doctor attended to Liam shortly and once he checked the boy over, he did his best to calm Stevie down, saying that the stronger antibiotics that were prescribed should help.

"But you should go see your pediatrician tomorrow, just to make sure your boy isn't getting worse."

"We'll do that." Stevie nodded, turning to leave. "Thank you so much, I'm not exactly myself these last few days, I probably didn't really need to come here."

"Don't say that. It's good you came, even if it was nothing overly serious. Because you never know."

Smiling a little, Stevie thanked again and with Liam in her arms, she left, walking back to her car to go home. Then suddenly, out of nowhere Ryan was right there in front of her. 

"Hello, Stephanie. It's been a while, huh?"

There were people around, she didn't want to yell and attract attention, but she doubted she could deal with him calmly either. "What do you want?" 

"Oh, baby, you know what I want. It's enough now. Come on, let's go home. I forgive you."

"You forgive me?" She asked in disbelief. "And I'm not going to go with you, Ryan. Please... Liam is sick, let us go."

"What makes you think I care about him?" Getting closer, Ryan closed his fingers around her upper arm, causing her to wince. "Get in the car." Stevie shook her head. "Get. In. The. Car."

"Don't do this..." She cried. "Let me go, please. I don't want to be with you."

"It's a shame you don't have a choice, isn't it?"

"I could scream." She said as a matter of fact, neither of them believing she would do that. Besides, to others it couldn't have seemed as if they were having an argument, instead, they looked like simply having a conversation. Who would want to get involved anyway? Nobody was going to help her. 

"How many more times do I have to tell you?" Ryan was obviously getting irritated. 

Tears freely flowed down her face, as Stevie tried once again to no avail. "Please..."