It wasn't usual for them to be together with Eric. They'd always have their meetings separated. That day, Eric asked for both. Chris had left the studio certain that he was going to talk about Heaven and what Millie told them when she visited them a few days before. Ever since then, they have been trying to avoid having the custody of their child taken away from them. Susan had a friend who as a lawyer and sent them to him. The conversation had been brief with him telling them that their case was complicated, but that they should meet with more time and more details to discuss the delicate matter. He gave them his contact in case an emergency would happen though. Ellie had been extremely nervous since Millie's visit and Chris feared she'd take comfort in Prozac; thus, he was like a hawk observing her, but he wasn't home the entire time and that was preoccupying him. They haven't heard from Millie since then. It's not that she hasn't tried to reach for them, it's that they both refused to talk to her ever since.
They were sitting in front of the therapist holding hands under the table. Eric looked at them playing with a pen around his fingers. A little confusion lingering in the air as they were quite sure he was waiting for them to speak, but they thought he was the one having something to tell them, so they just stared back at him with their hands squeezing one another and two extremely racing hearts. Brooke was looking after Heaven since they knew the conversation could take long and Eddie was there too, not only keeping his fiancée some company but also supporting his best friend and family to be.
"My daughter will need to eat..." Ellie decided to say as if trying to rush him. Eric swallowed dry.
"Your sister is here to assist you." He responded calmly though he knew it was some sort of provocation from her.
"My sister is here to look after my daughter while I am here in this meeting and only that. Are we taking that long? Why did you want to meet with both of us? Are you taking her away from us? Is that it? Or is it the fact that I asked for another therapist? What is it Eric? My urine tests show no abnormalities..." Ellie started babbling showing all her rage in her voice, but Chris stopped her.
"Ellie..." He said, squeezing her hand under the table and she looked at him.
"I know what he is going to tell us." She affirmed and Chris nodded and then looked at Eric.
"Is she right?" Chris asked sounding calm, but he was dying inside.
"None of you have been cooperating." Eric pointed with his pen at them one at a time.
"Not cooperating?" Chris frowned. "Define cooperating." He then asked. "Because in my definition of cooperating, we have been doing it. We have been to all meetings. We make every fucking toxicology test you order. Do you order that many to your other patients?" It was his turn to rebel.
"I am trying to help." Eric rested both arms on the table and looked in their eyes, going back and forth from one to another. "It's not easy for me to do this."
"So..." Ellie's voice shook. "...you're going to do it..." Her voice basically disappeared in the end and she let her eyes fall on the table.
"I have to." Eric said. Chris let go of Ellie's hand and got up in a rampant, pointing a finger at him.
"Fuck you!" He told him. "You come here to tell us you have to take our baby girl away from us? Do you think that's normal?" His tears started running down his face without him even noticing it. "Why are you doing this? I trusted you! I have been doing everything as you say!"
"I have to." Eric tried to explain. "I can't just turn a blind eye to this. I can lose my license."
"We are clean!" Ellie spoke. She was crying too. "This is inhuman... our baby is three months old. We are going to lose a lot of her growth. It's easy for you to say. You must have done this a thousand times. We are her parents though. You have no idea what we have been through so we could have her. You know nothing." She shook her head.
"I know what you tell me." He spoke to both of them as Chris sat on his chair again. "I know you have been through a lot, but I also know what the reality is. I have to obey the protocol."
"It's not fair." Chris punched his own desk and looked in Eric's eyes. "My tests and Ellie's come clean all the time."
"Chris, you have a suicide attempt in your file and Ellie drug abuse." He was blunt.
"Because you wrote it that way!" Ellie raised her tone. "Drug abuse?" She questioned him with shaking voice and cleaning her face to dry it. "Really?"
"What is then?" Eric confronted her. "What is it that you had been doing until three weeks ago?"
"Trying to cope with my feelings!" She yelled and gasped for air at the same time. "Do you think it's easy to go through what I have been through?"
"It's still drug abuse, Ellie." Eric reinforced not showing any signs of being intimidated by her sudden rage. He was used to see it in patients.
"Babe, sit." Chris grabbed her wrist and pulled her down. Ellie looked at him with her eyes filled with tears.
"He's taking our baby girl away!" She cried as if asking him for help.
"Calm down, baby." He held her face between his hands and looked deeply in her eyes, though he was falling to pieces himself.
"Heaven is going to stay with your mother. You can see her any time you want." Eric started to fill them with the details. The worst was yet to come though. Chris and Ellie looked at him at the same time.
"It's not the same thing!" Chris responded. "It's not even that. She belongs with us. We are her parents. She is our daughter. Ours and no one else. We love her and she is well taken care of."
"You have until midnight today to deliver Heaven." He said, knowing it was best to tell the worst part at once.
Chris and Ellie stared at him without making a sound, but the painful look in their eyes was so intense that he couldn't stare back at them and he looked away. The place fell silent. Only their heavy breathing was heard. Their hands glued and fingers intertwined. As they heard Heaven's cry in the living room, their lips trembled. They were in shock.
"Please..." Ellie decided to beg with a barely audible voice.
"It's a court decision..." He grabbed a letter from inside his bag and put it on the desk. None of them grabbed it though. "Heaven is staying with your mother until I liberate you."
"No." Ellie affirmed and got up. "No." She shook her head and Chris got up to. "No one is taking my baby away from my house... no one... GET OUT!" She yelled at the top of her lungs and Chris pulled her to him.
"GET OUT!" She yelled crying, holding onto Chris. "GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE!"
"Sush..." He whispered caressing her hair and kissing her temple, but he was crying too. "Calm down, babe."
"Chris..." She whimpered.
Eric got up, grabbed his bag, and walked to the door. He looked back and he was going to speak again, but they were destroyed. He knew it and he decided not to say anything but to fulfil Ellie's request. He left. As they cried holding onto one another, Chris had his eyes settled on the letter Eric left on the desk. Ellie, sensing he was doing so, pulled away and they looked in each other's eyes.
"We should read it." Ellie stuttered as hiccups from the crying started to attack her.
"Yes." He nodded. "I was thinking the same."
Chris let go of her and reached for the paper. His hands were shaking so much that the paper trembling in his hands could be heard. He tried to read it but his eyes were too blurred from the tears, so he took a hand to his eyes and cleaned them and then looked back at the paper. He read it silence first, with Ellie biting her nails in front of him. Then, she moved to his side so she could read it too. The court order was clear. It was written that they should deliver the custody of Heaven Cornell to Emilia Wood immediately.
"There must be something we can do." Ellie looked up at him as he let the letter drop from his hands.
Chris span around holding his head with both his hands wrapped around it. He felt so dizzy that moment and most of all robbed. Deprived of his biggest love unfairly. They were good parents. They took good care of her. They gave her love. Heaven had everything. His head was about to explode. He felt such instant need to smash things around him. He wanted to yell so much at Millie that moment. His chest started coming up and down franticly and his breathing was audible. He was going into a spiral; she knew it and she ran to him.
"Chris..." Ellie grabbed his arm and made him stop. He looked startled at her. "We have to do something. He nodded, as if coming back to reality.
"Let's call the lawyer." He said remembering the attorney had told them to contact him if anything happened.
"Ok..." Ellie nodded. "We should." It was their last hope.
Chris reached for the phone that was on the desk and grabbed the card from his wallet. He dialed the number with Ellie placing herself by his side with her ear leaning against his ear so she could hear the conversation too. The phone rang about five times which was leaving them hopeless, but eventually a man picked up the phone.
"Lancaster speaking." The lawyer said and Chris got surprised he was the one piking the call and not a secretary, but that was not even the point.
"Mr. Lancaster, this is Christopher Cornell." He started to say with shaky voice even if he didn't want to.
"Mr. Cornell, how are you since this morning?" He asked, sitting in front of his desk, and leaning his feet on it. "Any news?"
"The therapist gave us a letter saying we have to deliver our daughter to my mother-in-law today." He went straight to the point. "What can we do?"
"Is it a court order?" Lancaster asked.
"It is." Chris heard a heavy gasp on the other side and so did Ellie. They looked at one another knowing that wasn't good news at all.
"If it is a court order, you have to comply with it Mr. Cornell. I am so sorry..." He said.
"But?" Chris stuttered feeling his eyes welling in tears one more time. "Is that it? I mean... we have been doing everything according to medical orders. We are tested and our tests come all negative for substances abuse. That must mean something."
"At this point I am so sorry to say that there is nothing we can do." Lancaster tried to explain though he knew it was so hard for parents to understand. "I told you this was a delicate subject. I told you and your wife this morning that it was a case hard to fight."
"We are her parents!" Chris argued.
"For now, you have to comply with the court orders or you can risk jail." He explained. "Tomorrow, we meet and we see how we can start reverting this decision." The lawyer made a pause. "I won't lie to you Mr. Cornell... it might take some time. It's not simple."
"Jesus..." Ellie gasped feeling her heart beating so fast.
"We'll do anything." Chris affirmed. "Please, you need to help us. Please..." Chris begged and Ellie kissed his temple though she was as broken as he was.
"I know." Lancaster breathed faintly. "Obey the orders for now and see you tomorrow."
Chris hung up the phone without saying anything else. Next, his eyes and Ellie's encountered and they embraced tightly. They cried again.
"We have to let her go..." Ellie whimpered. "Why are they doing this? We don't deserve this, Chris."
"Look..." Chris pulled away and looked in her watery eyes. "I know it's not the same thing and nothing can be compared to have her here with us, but at least she's at your mom's and I don't think she won't let us visit." Ellie clenched her jaw and narrowed her eyes.
"Heaven belongs with us." She said clenching her fists too. "We will miss many things until she's back. Things we shouldn't miss. I will never forgive my mother for this. Never..."
"Don't say that." Chris told her, though he was hating Millie secretly.
Ellie was so close to her though that he didn't want her to feel about the way he felt about his own mother for years in a row. He didn't wish that on her.
"When we get out daughter back, I want to leave Seattle for good." Ellie told him cold turkey.
"Ellie..." Chris curled an eyebrow.
"I won't stay here." She insisted and he decided not to inflame things even more. They were hurting so much all incoherent things would be said.
"We need to pack her things." He felt his throat dry.
"Chris..." Ellie grabbed handfuls of his sweater and shook him, crying. "I can't do this... I just can't give my baby away... I can't..."
"Do you think I can?" He cried too. "I can't, babe. We just can't make things worse for us." Ellie nodded. "We better go..." Chris whispered.
"Ellie..." A knock on the door ended their conversation.
"Come in, Brooke." Ellie said while they cleaned their faces, but the moment she entered the office, she knew they had received the worst of news.
"Oh no..." Brooke shook her head with tears prompting in her eyes too. "Is this why mom called saying she would come by around nine?"
"Nine?" Ellie looked at the clock. It was almost seven. They only had two hours with their baby.
"This is a fucking nightmare." Chris sat down.
"I can't believe mom is doing this!" Brooke raised her tone. "I can't! This is outrageous!"
"Is Heaven sleeping?" Ellie asked and Brooke shook her head.
"Eddie is with her. He's making faces at her." Ellie smiled hearing her sister.
"He's gonna be a good dad." Ellie told her, rubbing her sister's arm. "You made a good choice." "Chris... we need to pack Heaven's things." She told him and they stared at one another in silence.
"Hey..." Brooke whispered. "We do that. Stay with your baby girl..."
"I'd be so grateful, sis." Ellie held her tight. "Because I can't do it... I can't pack her things..." Ellie cried again and Brooke patted her back.
"It's not going to be for long." Brooke said.
"We don't know that..." Chris said, cleaning his eyes once more. "I can't believe this is happening."
"Let's go..." Brooke pulled away and grabbed Ellie hands and motioned her head at Chris. "You go spend time with your princess."
Ellie followed her sister robotically and Chris got up and followed them too. They went to the living room where they found Eddie sat on the couch with Heaven in his hands. She was smiling her little shy smiles as he baby talked and made her little sounds as she was starting to babble. Hearing her brought even more sadness and despair to their hearts as in a few hours their house would be empty. When Chris sat by Eddie's side and she turned her little head, he didn't have to do anything, she immediately shot him a huge smile with her huge blue eyes wide opened. She was so little but she recognized Ellie and Chris so well by then.
"Hey, my princess..." Chris whispered with shaking voice and Eddie put her on his lap.
As he held her, he brought her face near his lips and he kissed her forehead and Heaven made a face for he must have tickled her with his beard. Ellie giggled with tears running down her face as she sat by his side. Eddie and Brooke left silently, leaving them to spend time with their baby and say goodbye properly. They stayed alone.
"She recognizes us... and she won't see us tomorrow morning when she wakes up or if she cries at night..." Ellie cleaned her eyes. Chris bent over her and kissed her cheek.
"We need to be strong to have her back fast enough." He whispered.
"I don't know if I can do this Chris." Ellie pulled away to look in his eyes and he just shook his head in silence.
"Ellie, you have to remember her... She's your strength." He said. "We are doing this for her and then we leave if you want. We leave this motherfucking town and it will be just us."
"I don't want to continue therapy with Eric." Ellie told him. "I don't..."
"We have to listen to what the lawyer is going to tell us, babe. Maybe it's not a good idea to change now. It might delay the entire process. I don't know... just my idea..." Then, he looked down at his baby girl and she was sleeping on his legs. "She fell asleep."
"Because she is so used to us." Ellie looked in his eyes. "It's going to rough on her too. She has her habits with us. I am glad that she's this little so she won't remember a thing but yanking a child from her parents is a traumatic event for them too."
"I am going to visit her every day. Your mother better not dare not to let me in" Chris said.
"I am going too. I am not working..." Ellie shrugged. "I am going there as soon as I get up. I am going to be present nevertheless. She won't erase me from her life."
"Don't forget you have to be home for the sessions." Chris reminded her. "We can't do anything wrong, Ellie."
For the next two hours they stayed on the couch with their baby sleeping. There were moments of absolute silence where they would just gaze at Heaven and cry. Though they were trying to stay strong, it was impossible. When Eddie and Brooke brought all the bags downstairs, their world fell apart. They cried so much holding onto one another, that Brooke had to take Heaven away from their lap. When the clock hit nine their hearts stopped beating. They started walking around in circles in the living room like wild animals in a cage trying to find a way out.
"I can't be here, Brooke." Eddie broke the intense silence in the room. "I can't be here..." Eddie walked away abruptly and Brooke ran after him.
"Hey!" She held his hand already outside.
"What your mother is doing is inhuman, Brooke." He told her with tears in his eyes. "I can't stay here watching this, I imagine them. I love you and I love Chris and Ellie. Your mother is way out of line here."
"I know..." Brooke nodded. "I agree."
"So, you understand that I can't watch this." Brooke nodded. "I come back in an hour or so to pick you up."
"Ok." Brooke kissed his lips.
She stayed outside watching him go, but after two steps, he looked at her and then came back. He pointed a finger at her. It was dark, but she could see that he was crying and at the same time there was so much rage mirrored in his glare.
"I don't want your mother in our wedding." He said and that made her shake.
"Eddie..." She whispered taken aback with his statement.
"This is my condition." He said and then walked away.
Brooke decided not to say anything for things were out of control for all of them. Even she was hating her mother for a moment. Something she never felt before. Suddenly, she saw the lights of a car approaching and she shuddered. She knew it was her mother coming to take Heaven away.
"Tell her to go away!" Ellie appeared suddenly outside bare foot and face bathed in tears. "GO AWAY!" She yelled running to the gate, clutching her hands around the bars.
"Fuck.. Ellie..." Chris ran too.eaven
"I HATE YOU!" She yelled at the top of her lungs as Millie got out of the car.
"Ellie, let's talk." Millie spoke quietly, trying to calm things down. "I am not your enemy."
"That's funny!" It was Chris's time to speak. "Right now, you are in fact our worst enemy."
"Chris..." Ellie turned around and clutched her body against his. She was shaking so much. "Chris... don't let her take our baby. You can't let her take our baby..." Her lips trembled. Her whole body trembled.
"Babe..." He cupped her face between his hands trying to steady her.
"Tell her to go." Ellie continued. Chris raised his eyes from Ellie and looked outside.
"Are you happy to see her like this?" Chris shot shooting bullets from his eyes and anger from all his pores. "Are you happy to see her like this? Is this how you want to see your daughter?"
"I won't give you Heaven." Ellie turned to her, crying. "She's my daughter! She MINE!"
"Let me talk to both of you." Millie approached the gate.
"You are not entering our property." Chris responded. "You chose this. You're going to deal with the consequences."
"Who's that?" Ellie asked seeing a man approaching too, and Millie looked back and then bowed her head as if she was ashamed. "A policeman..." Ellie whispered as the vision got clearer. "You brought the police with you?"
"Give me Heaven." Millie said, knowing nothing she would say would be effective.
"NO!" Ellie yelled at the top of her lungs. "NO... Chris..." She turned to him and held him close again. "They are not taking her away, right?"
"Ellie..." He motioned a hand at Brooke who understood what that meant. "Baby... there's nothing we can do now." Ellie looked at Brooke walking towards the gate and let go of Chris.
"Give me my girl." She said trying to grab Heaven, but Chris held her from behind. Though he was crying so much, one of the two had to remain sane and he knew it had to be him." Chris..." Ellie cried loud falling on her knees when she saw Brooke putting Heaven on Millie's arms. "HEAVEN!" She yelled. Chris crouched and held her by her shoulders, trying to pull her up.
"We will get her back." He whispered at her. Ellie got free of his arms and ran to the gate but he was fast enough to hold her tight against his body, preventing her from approaching Millie.
"I HATE YOU!" She yelled at her mother. "I HATE YOU! She's my daughter! How can you do this?"
"You can visit her." Millie took the chance to say.
"You profit of the time you are spending with her, Millie because you will never set your eyes on her ever again." Chris told her. "I will never forgive you for this."
"I didn't want this." Millie told them.
"We're clean. Our toxicology report shows that." He continued, holding Ellie still who was struggling to set free.
"I will never speak to you again." Ellie gasped so tired at that moment, seeing Brooke delivering her the last bag. "Forget that I exist, forget that Chris exist..."
"Ellie..." Millie cried, though she understood their distress.
"I never expected this from you, mom." Brooke told her, throwing the bag at her feet.
"You too?" Millie looked at her eldest.
"This is inhuman." Brooke argued. "They are good parents and you know this."
"Heaven..." Ellie cried.
Then, knowing there was nothing she could do or say to make them understand, she turned around to leave, deadly wounded by her daughters' words and even Chris's.
"NO!" Ellie yelled that moment. "GIVE ME MY BABY! SHE'S MY BABY!"
When Millie got in the car, Chris lost strength and Ellie got free. Bare foot, she started running after the car which only gained more and more distance, but she kept running.
"Heaven!" She called, chasing the car that could barely be seen at that point.
"Ellie!" Chris caught her arm to make her stop and they looked at one another for a few seconds and then held tight.
"They took her..." She sobbed. "They took our baby girl..."
"We'll get her back." He patted her hair. "I promise you." Ellie pulled away.
"And then we go away?" She asked.
"We go away." Chris affirmed.