Done

Done
By Misha

Disclaimer- Not mine. I’m just borrowing them for a little while and will return them when I am finished.

Author’s Notes- I promised that if Rules of Engagement didn’t let us break up the Big Brother and Elena, I would write a break-up fic so here it is. This is set several months after the end of Book 4. If you like the pair, don’t read. If you think they are awful and ill-suited, than this is the fic for you.

Pairing- angsty Brother/Elena (break-up fic)

Rating- PG

Summary- Matthew reflects on the end of his relationship with Elena.

Words- 1005

“I don’t need your money.” Elena practically spits the words at him. “You don’t have to buy me off.”

Matthew sighs. “Elena… That’s not. I’m only trying to  be fair.” Also to do his best to clean up the mess he created and make sure his company didn’t go down with his relationship.

“I guess it is only fair since you used me to get the money,” Elena says bitterly.

Matthew bites back the comment about how she went along with it or the fact that it’s been two years since then. Just because it didn’t work, didn’t mean it wasn’t real at one point.

“Elena…” He says instead because he knows that’s not what this is about. He knows she’s hurt and that she’s angry and that he let her down, again. But he also knows that this is for the best.

They’ve spent two years trying to make it work, but the reality is that it doesn’t work between them, maybe it never had. She wants things he can’t give her and they have vastly different relationship styles. He doesn’t know how to open up, and instead of talking about things, he would clam up and she would sulk and it just became a vicious cycle until finally, they couldn’t take it anymore.

Matthew knows that a large amount of the blame rests with him. He should have told her about the second task before Mikayla made a joke about how “at least Nana didn’t care if Lissa and I got married” leading to yet another fight about him keeping things from her. Just like he should have told her about his ex-wife. He knows the secrets are all on him.

But at the same time, it wasn’t all his fault. It wasn’t his fault that they couldn’t agree on things like what kind of house to buy, what kind of wedding to have, and how many children they wanted. That they found themselves disagreeing over choice concerning their future together. They couldn’t even decide where to hold the wedding, let alone set a date.

Finally, enough was enough and he’d had to admit that it wasn’t working. Except it isn’t that easy because she works with him and has for the last several years and her contributions to the firm have been invaluable. Yes, it was his money that had helped the expand the firm, but she put in the time and energy and he wants to recognize that. He also wants to prevent a messy legal situation/

Matthew would have actually have liked to find a way for them to keep working together because professionally they’ve always been a good team, but it had been very obvious, very quickly that that isn’t going to be possible.

In fact, he’s pretty sure that Elena never wants to see his face again after this and he doesn’t blame her. He knows he hurt her. He hurt her when he dragged her into this mess two years ago. Whatever mistakes they made along the way, the initial mess began with him. Which is why he wants to be as fair as possible now.

“Please take the money,” Matthew pleads, “I owe you that much.”

Elena looks like she wants to stay something nasty, probably about what she thinks he owes her, but she merely sighs. “Fine.” She takes the papers from him, “we’re done after this, right? I never have to see your face again?”

“You never have to see my face again,” Matthew assures her, wondering how they had gotten to this point. He hates asking her to sign the paperwork, but he’s a lawyer and he knows he has to protect the firm. In fact, he was foolish not to have done so from the beginning.

When things had started to go south, he’d asked Melissa what safeguards she had in place if things went badly between her and Audrey and she’d primly told him that they had an ironclad contract with all kinds of clauses protecting them both and the business in case their personal relationship were to sour and he was once again forced to admit his younger sister might be smarter than he was.

“Is everything alright?” Melissa had inquired and he’d admitted that, no, they weren’t. They were really bad actually. That was the first time he’d told someone else about the problems he and Elena were having, because opening up really didn’t come easily to him, and Melissa had been the one to tell him to consult a lawyer to make sure the professional side of their break-up was handled appropriately and then wished him luck with the personal aspect.

That had been a month ago and this was the end result: Elena glaring at him as she signed papers stating that she had been fairly compensated for the work she had done with his firm and that she would not try to sue him at a later date.

“Is this really what you think of me?” She asks icily, “do you think I would go after you for money?”

Matthew sighs, “no, but I have to be smart. I have to protect the firm.”

“Of course, the firm,” she spits, “your first love.”Then, it’s her turn to sigh, her anger suddenly fading away. “You do good work, Matthew, but you let it consume you. It makes it hard to get to know you and hard to care about you.”

“I’m sorry,” he says, not sure what else to say.

“So am I,” she tells him, picking up her purse. They stand there in the silence for a moment, neither of them knowing what to say. Finally, Elena speaks. “Goodbye Matthew.”

With that, she turns and walks through the door and just like that it’s over. She’s gone.

Matthew watches her go, trying to figure out what he feels. There is sadness, but there is also relief that it’s finally done, that there will be no more arguing, no more tears, no more agonizing.

It’s just done.

• End