"Everything's gonna be okay." Her voice was soft, gentle and empty as she brushed away the blood soaked hair in her child's eyes.

Oliver, though, was only focused on the searing pain that racked his head and made him far more tired than he wanted to be. It hurt, everything hurt, actually. Even his insides felt like they would tumble out of him if he moved too quickly, or at all for that matter.

"It hurts." he murmured, trying incredibly hard to keep his head up. They were somewhere, a little cabin in the middle of nowhere, down some creepy back road, but the man who lived here was someone his mother worked with.

"Shhh...I know, sweetie, I know," Marie wrapped her arms around him and gently rocked, pressing her child's dazed head into her shoulder as they waited for an ambulance to arrive.

"Momma...I'm sorry," Oliver added, far more quietly. He attempted to lift his hand from the massive stain of blood on his dress. The skin felt like jelly, hot and wet. It hurt far less than the hole Matthew had made inside him. "He wouldn't stop, I said I was sorry and he wouldn't—"

"Shh...Olivia," Marie's head dipped, and he felt her lips press into the back of his skull. She whispered softly in his ear.

***

Time essentially stood still in this nightmare office. It was bland and boring with pastel lavender walls and dim yellow lights, and a toy area in the corner, as if it would do any help to anyone. 

Oliver stared at the clock, then the walls, and eventually the floor until he practically memorized the pattern on the carpet. 

"I'm so sorry about what happened to you," the woman said softly, pulling his attention back toward her. She was tall and slender and had dark olive skin and pretty green eyes. Her name was Debra.

"Right now, you're in a safe place and after everything that's happened, adjusting has to be tough." She continued through his silence, "are you worried about your father coming back?" 

He didn't answer. 

They had been at this for almost a year now. Jon thought it was a good idea to make him go, since he hadn't talked at all from the moment he and his mother moved in with him. 

The therapist nodded and folded herself criss-cross in her recliner. 

"I would hate to see you in the system," she said. 

They both knew this wasn't going to go anywhere. He had seen her before, all throughout the divorce process after everything...happened. 

Oliver lolled his head, letting out a small sigh as he brought his knees up to his chest. 

"It's not fair...what he did to you," she affirmed to herself, forcing the conversation to continue, despite Oliver's deliberate obstructions. "It's not fair at all and you definitely deserve better. You've been through so much and none of it was ever fair." 

***