A very lucky girl…, M/L,CC,AU,Mature/Adult, 08.26 [COMPLETE]

[uw51]

A very lucky girl…

By: Chula
Couples/Category: M/L but for a while mostly Liz, CC
Rating: Mature /Adult
Summary: After a traumatic experience 15 year old Liz is abandoned by her rich parents. She finds friends and a new family who help her build a new life. The story is Liz centred; Max comes in later.
Disclaimer: The characters of "Roswell" belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended.

Author’s Note: this story will mainly be about family, friendships and support in very difficult times; how all kinds of people can come together and make a difference; it’s about healing and rebuilding one’s life. I’m trying to show that no matter what happens in life, with the help of family and friends you can overcome a lot. It may be difficult, and there may be setbacks, but if you persevere you can come out of it victoriously.

There will be talk about rape but mostly about the aftermath. I don’t think that I will write of any sexual situations, but maybe I’ll have to if the story demands it, that’s why I think this fic is Mature / Adult. Now, that’s enough preaching, I hope I can show you all different kinds of situations, sad and happy ones.

Anyway, I think you might need hankies within your reach, because it’s possible that you might shed a tear or two! By the way, the POV’s are written in italic!

Hello everybody
You will soon see that this story is structured like a talk show or a big Gala-show. It means that somebody arranged a big TV show to honor a good friend, (just read and you’ll know very soon who this honored guest is, LOL!)

Anyway, the story line is that every guest has an intermezzo and a POV. Most of the time that will make one update/post. But sometimes the POV can be much longer, like two or three updates.

I’m not sure if this makes any sense to you, but if you will give it chance I’m sure you will understand it.

Now, enough of my palaver, without further ado, here is my new story. I hope I will make you cry and laugh and that you will, most of all, just enjoy it!

Have fun

Chula

[uw51]

AN: I have been so preoccupied with posting my new fic that I completely forgot to thank Emma <> Erina <> Lissalou for their help and encouragement. So, thank you very much, you ladies really rock!


00, Greetings and Introductions, June 15, 2005, Talk show on TV
All the seats in the ‘Roswell Community Little Theatre’ were taken. The audience waited impatiently for the show to begin. The people in the crowd were locals dressed in their finest Sunday clothes, but if you took a closer look you could find a few people from Albuquerque and Hollywood amongst them.

Every last person sitting in this hall on this special night had come here to honour and support a very dear friend of theirs. Right now they were clustered in smaller and larger groups talking animatedly about the coming events. After all, it wasn’t every day that big Hollywood actors hosted shows in Roswell, shows that were aired on National TV.

The funny thing was that even though some of the people here had at one time or another met and even worked with the Hollywood Stars Nathan Brooks and Sarah Summers and some other celebrities, they still felt awed by their VIP status. They became tongue-tied or began to stutter around such famous people and often developed a clumsiness that was positively embarrassing.

Some others had taken to these VIP’s in stride and treated them just like they treated everybody else. They knew that deep down everybody was the same, and that also applied to the Brooks’ and Summers’ of this world. It would be a cold day in hell before they would break out the fanfares and go ‘loco’ about somebody, just because they were famous. No sir, they got treated just like everybody else and if the VIP’s didn’t like it, tough luck for them.

What had surprised these people the most was that the ‘Brooks and Summers of this world’ seemed to enjoy this very much, at least they kept coming back into town and even bought property here in and around Roswell.

As they were approaching 7.30 pm, the time the show was supposed to start, the crowd became fidgety and the voices grew louder. People were coughing, blowing their noses one last time before the show, calling out to friends, when suddenly the lights dimmed and everybody stilled in whatever they were doing. Turning to the front, they waited in hushed silence for the things to come.

Suddenly a light swerved towards the entrance on the right side of the stage and the host Nathan Brooks led his co-hostess Sarah Summers into the spotlight. Just their appearance provoked a resounding round of applause, whistles and calls of greetings from a public gone wild.

Sarah and Nathan crossed the stage and approached the front, shaking hands with the people in the front rows, all the while waving to the people in the back. After a few minutes the two returned to the centre of the stage and Nathan yelled “Hello Roswell, are you ready for the show to start?” After hearing the hollering and catcalls from the audience Sarah laughed and stated “Well Nathan, I think they’re as ready as they can be, so why don’t we start?”

”Good idea” he replied and smiled seriously at the people. “As you all know, we are here tonight to honour an outstanding young lady. I don’t think that many people impressed me as much as she did. Her influence has changed my life considerably and,” taking Sarah’s left hand in his right he completed his sentence “she brought Sarah and I closer.” With a grand gesture Nathan lifted her hand and pressed a kiss on it. The public just loved it and hollered again.

Laughingly Nathan Brooks said “As you all know, Sarah and I got married a while back, right here in Roswell!” Jokingly Sarah slapped her husband on his arm and he cowed, “alright, alright, let me do some counting!” Nathan cried and with a wink he added “now you saw first hand how I have to suffff hmmmpf…” Sarah’s hand covering his mouth stopped that sentence abruptly.

Giving her husband a meaningful look Sarah informed him “that, my dear, is how rumours start!” and after she playfully pulled his ear she added “even though everybody knows how good I am to you!” The public loved their banter and laughed. Before anything else was said, Nathan grabbed his lovely wife, bent her over backward and laid on her lips a big loud smooch, and the laughter grew to roaring heights!

The audience needed some time to calm down and then, smirking at his sweetheart, Nathan continued “23 days ago some of you were at my wedding,” pointing towards the public he yelled “Right, Sam?” “Damn right I was there!” came a yell from the middle of the audience and everybody started to laugh again.

After the noise died down Sarah continued on a more serious note “As you all know we have a big program tonight and many friends are joining us here. Some of the things we will talk about will be very hard and painful to take in, but our friend insisted that tonight we shouldn’t dwell on the tragedy, but celebrate life. It’s very important to her to show how life can be good again, even after the worst heartbreak and disaster hit you. She is convinced that looking back on everything that occurred in her life, all the tragedy and drama, she can honestly say that she is ‘a very lucky girl’. And now she has made it her cause to help others in need of help.”

Nathan added “yeah, and the most amazing thing is her zest for life and her ability to inspire everybody she touches to jump on her bandwagon and help in any way they can. She also thinks that you should be able to use your God-given talents when you help and do what you do best, whatever that might be. So, let me tell you, tonight you’ll hear many different ways that people can help, sometimes all you need is some inspiration and initiative...”

Nathan laughingly interrupted his speech and said “Sorry, as you just heard I tend to get carried away, once I start on this subject!” Smiling Sarah added “we’ve known our friend for 1 ½ years now and we admire her. Actually we’ve been hounding her to go public with her story, to bring hope and inspiration to people who have lost theirs. She flatly refused, saying that this wasn’t about her. Finally a few month ago she got real desperate and only to stop our hounding she agreed. She agreed under certain stipulations; she wants everybody who helped her and who is involved in her project to be a part of tonight too, because she said without them she would’ve been lost. Needless to say, we agreed real fast and now here we are!”

”Yes, now we are here to honour our friend, to let her know just how much we admire and love her. To tell her how she has inspired not just my wife and I, but many others as well. We also want to honour the people who took our friend into their home and their hearts, loved her and supported her, gave her courage to live through great pain and come out the winner!” Nathan was really in his element and spoke very passionately and then Sarah picked up and finished “We are here to honour Liz Parker, her family Nancy, Jeff and Sean Parker and the many friends we were lucky enough to meet!” Before Sarah could continue the audience erupted in wild applause and cheering.

After pausing, to give the crowd time to calm down, Nathan continued “we were trying to find a way to introduce our friend and let me assure you, it wasn’t an easy choice, because there are many moments that we could’ve picked. We asked ourselves, were do we start? At her birth? With her childhood? With the worst moment in her life? Or her new beginning?”

Taking over Sarah smiled and said “as you all can see, this was a very difficult decision.” Then she looked to her co-host and said “we decided to begin this show with the moment we met Mama Dee. I’m sure you all know Mama Dee, right?” cheers and catcalls were heard again, then Sarah continued “Mama Dee is the one who sent us to this neighbourhood diner were we met our friend!”

”Yep, Mama Dee,” Nathan concurred and added “as you all know Sarah and I were filming here in Roswell, you know about the alleged crash and all that. Anyway, one day, at the beginning of our stay in this town, we had a day off and decided to go explore Roswell together.”

Scratching his right ear while looking at Sarah he continued smilingly “So, here we were, in Roswell, and we didn’t really know where to go. We decided to ask the first person that came our way and that was Mama Dee.”

With a big grin on his face Nathan went on “We approached her and asked ‘Good morning Ma’am! We’re just visiting here, and we were wondering what is a real must to see and then we’d also like to know a good place where we could have lunch?’”

Suddenly a new voice could be heard and coming out of the shadows was an older lady and she said “Are you some of them movie folks?” and after both Sarah and Nathan nodded as an answer, the lady eyed them up and down and continued “weeell, there are all kind of folks on gods good earth now, aren’t there?” This elicited great laughter from the audience. That truly was Mama Dee, there was no doubt about it!

”And this, ladies and gentlemen, was the beginning of another beautiful friendship!” after saying this Nathan turned to Mama Dee and grabbed her into a bear hug.

[uw51]

...and here is the intermezzo with its POV


01, Intermezzo - Mama Dee
After this exalted greeting Nathan and Sarah led Mama Dee to the comfortable seating unit and offered her a seat. After she was settled and offered a glass of sparkling water, Sarah began with the interview.

With a calming smile Sarah asked their guest ”Mama Dee, how do you like sitting up here in front of this audience? Is it as nerve-wracking as you thought it would be?”

After seriously considering this question, Mama Dee coughed lightly and informed her hosts “Well, it’s not as bad as I thought it would be, but it’s awfully hot up here!” After her comment she picked up her glass and drank a long deep sip of the sparkly water. Refreshed and gaining courage she added, “hmmm, this is very good, if you ever need an idea for a gift for me…” leaving the sentence unfinished Mama just held up her almost empty glass and laughed.

Becoming serious Mama D acknowledged “Since I know you didn’t invite me to discuss this water, as delicious as it is, I suggest I start telling you about my first experience with our friend, Liz Parker!” When Nathan leaned towards Mama D and wanted to ask her the opening question she nervously added “I can, can’t I Nathan?” and under her breath but still audible to the public due to the microphone pinned to her blouse collar she whispered “I’m awfully nervous up here! This is different than when it was just make believe!”

At Nathan’s nod Mama Dee began her recounting of meeting Liz Parker. “Well, as everybody here knows, I’ve always lived in the same neighborhood, even grew up here, in the same house I still live in now. Of course a lot has changed, Neighbors have come and gone, but usually people stick around for a long time and that’s just how I like it. Nothing ever happens, everything is quiet. Right across the street from my house is the local diner called the ‘CrashDown’ and my good friends Nancy and Jeff Parker own it. It’s a nice little place, where all kinds of people meet. You find old folks like me, high school kids, housewifes, but not the desperate ones…” a shout of laughter interrupted Mama Dee and she had to wait a moment before she was able to continue “even rockers with their bikes can be found there. Young and old and everything in between meets there. Oh, eh, while I’m at it, the food there is excellent, the service even better and the prices are very affordable. So, people just remember, if you don’t know where you want to go, just try out a new place, go to the CrashDown…” She looked at Nathan and saw him shake his head at her, frowning unhappily.

Before Nathan could remind Mama Dee not to use this show to promote the diner, (he’d told her that a hundred times already in rehearsals!) Mama sighed deeply and then laughingly said “Nathan, you didn’t seriously expect me to let such a perfectly good opportunity go to waste and not praise the diner, now, did you?”

Chuckling, the host replied “I guess not, but Mama Dee, we talked about it, and as it is, the CrashDown is getting a lot of publicity already, so, no more sneak advertisements, ok?”

Chastised Mama replied “I know you’re right, I do, but I just couldn’t resist!” Sarah was able to keep a straight face as she addressed their first guest, “Mama D, you were one of the first people here who met Liz Parker, can you tell us how it was?”

Old Mama Dee replied feistily “Of course I can, that’s why I’m here, ain’t it?” Suddenly remembering something, Mama asked the hosts “has anybody ever told you two that I was the one to call the police that night?” seeing Nathan and Sarah shake their heads, Mama continued “I told the deputy that somebody was being murdered!” defensively she added “well, it sure sounded like it!” and after a moment’s thought she went on “not that I ever heard such a thing as anybody being murdered, you know, but it just sounded like it, all this bloodcurdling screaming and all!”



01a, Mama Dee, POV, February 15. 1999
Most of my 65 years I lived on this street, and by now I almost consider it MY street. I know everybody living here and nothing escapes my notice. I’m still living in the house that I grew up in and after getting married my husband and I started our little family there too. This means that from everybody living in this street, I’ve been here the longest. I’ve seen a few people come and go, but most of us have been here for a long time, and with some exceptions, we’ve become family.

I live right across the street from this small diner, called CrashDown. Whenever I feel like having some company, I just go there, and I can be certain that at least one of my neighbors is there. Also Jeff Parker, the owner, is a very nice young man, and doesn’t mind to chat with old ladies like myself.

Jeff inherited the diner from his good for nothing grand father; actually it was an old saloon and Jeffrey Parker the First managed to almost lose it. Between chasing after any skirt in town or being his own best customer the place turned into one of these rundown Old Wild West Saloons, where you expected to find spittoons, light-skirts, mangy old cowboys and the occasional gunslinger hiding from the law.

Luckily the old geezer died when he did and the business wasn’t completely ruined. Jeff’s father, Jeffrey the Second, on the other hand was a very successful lawyer and left his son a tidy sum upon his death. Jeffrey the Third had inherited his father’s shrewdness and business sense. At the ripe age of thirty-five he retired, it was that or lose his family. Because he had been too busy to spend any time with his family, Nancy had given him an ultimatum, quit his job or else. That was when he remembered the old bar, well, more like a whole in the wall, and together, Nancy and he decided to try something new. To their surprise they loved it and the CrashDown soon became quite a success.

The diner was alien-themed and it became a place where the neighborhood would meet or teenagers after school; and since Bones moved into the house next to the diner you could even meet scruff looking, leather clad, tattooed bikers there. But because Jeff junior was the kind of person that he was, everybody was getting along just fine. In fact, I’ve had some very interesting talks with some of them biker boys myself!
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
The neighborhood had been a quiet one, and if we hadn’t had the CrashDown, it would’ve been as quiet as a graveyard.

Our quarter wasn’t too big, in fact it consisted of a few houses on both sides of the street and the end of our street was exactly that, the end. Afterwards there was just a small dirt road leading out into the desert. The mouth of our street was busy, due to the fact, that it was on a relatively hectic crossing, where one road led to the nearby high school, one into downtown Roswell and one led to the highway. Right at that crossing was the CrashDown and my house was straight across from the diner.

Since both of these houses were at the beginning of the quarter, nothing much happened in our neighborhood that the Parker’s and I didn’t know about. The Parkers knew everything because they heard it in their diner, whereas I knew it all because I made it my business, because I’m a genuine chatterbox, and quite proud of it too.

In the night of February 15, 1999 I had received the shock of my life, when in the middle of the night, I was torn out of my deep sleep by a god-awful noise. As soon as I was awake enough I listened intently, wanting to find out what had woken me so abruptly. It sounded like somebody was being murdered, and the sounds came from the Parkers’ house.

Being the good neighbor that I was, I swiftly dialed 911 and reported a murder above the CrashDown. After my short to the point conversation with the nice deputy from the police station, I went into my grandson’s room (he stayed there during his vacations) and picked up his baseball bat. On my way out the door I also grabbed my flashlight from the hallway closet. Feeling relatively safely armed, I stealthily crossed the street and, because I had been so intent on the scene of a potential crime, I walked right smack into a tall, dark figure and, screaming at the top of my lungs, dropped my weapons.

A big strong hand pressed on my mouth and a vaguely familiar voice hissed, “be still woman, it’s me, Bones!” We were both trying to catch our breaths, panting heavily, when I finally tried to get his attention, by biting him in his hand. “Ouch, what the hell did you do that for?” Bones scolded.

Getting back my meddle I informed my young neighbor “well, young man, if you had stopped cutting off my breath, I could a told you to please (sounding very sarcastically) remove your hand! But you didn’t and so I couldn’t. Right?”

Bones knew when he was bested and decided to change the topic “Mama Dee, what are you doin’ out here at this time of night? You ought to in bed, not lurking in the dark! I almost didn’t see you!” he ended quite outraged. I could literally hear him thinking ‘the old biddy doesn’t know that she should be in bed by now.’

While we tried to figure out what to do next, we could hear some more screaming and yelling from the Parkers apartment and also the howling sirens from the police cars could be heard in the distance. I had to admit, that I was very glad to hear their fast approach.

Before I could comment on the coming of the police, Bones informed me “Listen, Mama Dee, I will go in and find out what’s going on, you stay out here, and if I yell, you go for help, understood?”

Nodding vigorously I whispered “the police is already coming, can’t you hear them?” but before I finished my sentence Bones had left, disappeared up the fire escape at the back of the house.
*~~*~~*~~*
It wasn’t funny, waiting in the dark, waiting for what could be happening next; could Bones possibly be the next victim? Or would the police be on time and prevent the worst? Were the Parkers still alive? All of them or just some? The wait for the cops seemed endless, the seconds turned into hours and when they finally did turn into my street, I was just about ready to go in myself and arrest the culprit single-handedly. In moments like these a lively imagination can be a curse, most definitely not a blessing!

Suddenly everywhere I looked were police cars with their flashing blue lights and sirens sounding eerily in the quiet neighbourhood, and all I wanted to do was faint with relief. But I had no such luck. One of the officers approached me and asked if I was the lady who reported a murder. While all the other cops took up their positions and waited for their next order.

By now I could see all of the neighbours were in front of their homes, wearing their nightwear, wondering what the heck was going on. They were all god-fearing people and needed their sleep. Some of them wondered why I, the oldest person in this quarter, was standing with the cops, but then again, maybe this wasn’t so surprising, after all, everybody knew that I was an old busybody who knew everything and everybody.

All of a sudden, the screaming in the Parkers apartment started again, and the chief of this operation charged into the building, his men following hot on his heels.
*~~*~~*~~*
Moments later the police came back out, worried but calm. Somebody opened up the CrashDown and the cops and me and all of my neighbours crowded in, taking a seat on the barstools, the chairs or in the booths. Bones was busying himself by bringing out some water, while advising everybody to calm down, and wait for Jeff, who would be down in a minute, to explain things. And to everybody’s and especially my relief he added, “there has been no murder in this house. Everybody is as good as can be expected under these circumstances.” The people from the quarter were shocked speechless, Bones, who usually very much kept to himself, and never talked unless he absolutely had to, was mingling amongst them, he even said several sentences without being asked anything.


But we didn’t have much time to dwell on Bones’ strange behaviour, because just then Jeff Parker walked in through the back door, closely followed by his son Sean. Both of them looked weary and upset.

As we calmed down Jeff sat on a barstool and addressed everybody, “Officers, friends and neighbours, I’m sorry for the disturbance tonight. Actually, we had planned to come and talk to you all in the next few days. We have a new family member who’s living with us now and we’d intended to inform you all. But, I’m sorry to say that things turned out differently.”

Jeff looked at Sean and asked “Son, are you sure you’re ok? Otherwise I can handle this by myself, you know?” Sean was still very upset and pale, but I could see, he was determined to be a man, and help his dad in this crisis. “No dad, I’m fine!” was his short answer.

This exchange intensified all our curiosity, something was going on, and since nobody was in imminent danger, we wanted the details, and we wanted them now.

Jeff coughed to get our attention and soberly informed us, “I assume that most of you know Jim Valenti, who was on our police force for quite a long time, before he decided to move to Albuquerque?” Seeing us nod in agreement he continued “Yeah, I thought so! Anyway, late last night he called us and let us know that my niece was in very bad trouble and that her parents, those idiots, refuse to help her. In fact, they kicked her out, after the girl had been brutalised by a group of young men. My niece was at the hospital for a while and the parents didn’t visit her or even call. When she was allowed to leave the hospital, some friends took her in. I’m very sorry to say that the situation grew intolerable for everybody, meaning for my niece and her friends who offered her shelter.”

Pausing to regain his composure, Jeff looked around and saw shock and compassion on all of our faces. Swallowing hard he continued, not noticing the tears running down his cheeks “My niece, Liz Parker, has just turned fifteen a few weeks ago. Right now I won’t go into any details of her situation, except to say that she was set up, by a girlfriend whom Liz trusted!”

A visibly shaken Sean put his arm around his dad and tried to give him some strength, because there was still more to tell. Not much more, but the worst. Jeff wiped his eyes and inhaling deeply said “this girl drugged Liz and set her up to be raped by her brother and four of his friends.”

When Jeff was too overcome and had to stop, Sean snivelled a few times and continued in his stead, saying “She almost died in the ER because the drugs they gave her were much too strong for her and her heart couldn’t take it. Anyway, Liz didn’t have anywhere else to go, so we went to pick her up today and now she’s staying with us. And em… well, we didn’t really expect this trouble tonight. She was having a terrible nightmare, that’s why she was screaming. Mom is with my cousin right now, trying to get her to sleep.” Not used to speaking in front of so many people Sean stopped and looked at his feet, hoping for somebody else to take over.

Watching his son give this speech made Jeff realise just how strongly Liz’s tragedy affected Sean. It was strange, because even though they were closely related, Jeff and his family had never met Liz, because her parents had cut off all contact. As it was, they all had to get to know each other.
*~~*~~*~~*
Next morning…
After hearing about what happened to Liz Parker, I couldn’t find much sleep. I spent half the night trying to figure out ways to help the poor girl. I was well aware that I had to be careful, after all, I wanted to help the poor girl, not scare her to death.

After thinking of what I had to offer this poor girl and the nice Parker family, I decided it was best to do what I knew I was good at; to take care of people and what was even more important, I was very good at caring for people. A little TLC (Tender Loving Care) could go long way in helping people recover. After I had felled that decision I was able to finally find some sleep.

Early next morning, (after debating with myself if I should have breakfast at home or at the diner) right after eating some toast and drinking some coffee, I went to the CrashDown and approached Jeff.

”Hi there, Jeff, did things calm down for you last night? I’m sorry that I called the cops, but it sounded awful and I was worried about you and your family.” I explained.

Chuckling tiredly Jeff answered me “ahh, I should’ve known it was you!” and to let me know he didn’t mean to offend me, he added kindly “It’s good to know that we have somebody in the neighbourhood who cares enough to call for help. Anyway, you didn’t know, and these days everything is possible, isn’t it?”

After that we exchanged some platitudes before I decided we’ d wasted enough time on chitchat and came straight out with my intensions. “Listen, Jeff, I thought about what you and your family are doing for your niece and I have an offer for you.” When I saw that I had his undivided attention, I explained “taking in Liz is an absolutely beautiful and selfless thing to do, but you will need all the help you can get.”

I paused for a moment to rethink my offer, because I wanted to be absolutely sure I was able to stick by it. When I was sure I continued “Ok, Jeff, here is my offer. You know I have a lot of time on my hands, so anytime you need me to, I can come and sit with Liz. If she needs a change of scenery, she can come to my house. If you need a break, and I’m sure you will need them more often than not, you just give me a call and I’ll be here. I can come day time or night, just let me know.” I sincerely looked Jeff in the eye and added “we both know that I’m an old busybody and that I like nothing better than a good gossip, but I hope you also know, that I can keep confidences and that I don’t pass on things that I see or hear that are private.” And forcefully I assured him “I can keep secrets better than a lot of people, so you would never have to worry on that score, ok?” Sometimes, when something is really important to me, I can get very worked up about it, and right now was one of those times.

Jeffrey, sweet boy that he is, tried to appease me and said “Mama Dee I know, after all, you know a lot about me and never told anybody about it. So, don’t worry, I know we can trust you.” Then he smiled sadly and added “It’s something else that’s bothering me. Actually it’s my half-brother, Liz’s father. I always thought that he loved his daughter and did everything for her…”

Smiling deprecatingly at his gullibility Jeff went on “turns out, he and his wife kept her almost like a prisoner. Liz wasn’t allowed contact with any other kids, or to go to any kind of school. They kept her at home, hired nannies and tutors for her. She had classes from the moment they realised that she was smart, at the age of two. She was never allowed to do any of the things that normal kids do. They watched every step she took and made sure, that Lizzy became very smart, but otherwise stayed naïve and dependent.”

I just couldn’t stop myself any longer and interrupted him “awww, the poor baby, please let me help you take care of her? I won’t do anything to hurt or upset her, but I know, I can help you all, please?” And that’s when Jeff agreed and brought me upstairs to meet Liz Parker.
*~~*~~*~~*
In the office turned bedroom…
Before we entered the room Liz was in, Jeff stopped for a moment to school his features and regain his composure. He was desperately trying to appear ‘normal’ but even I could see that he failed miserably. With an artificial cheerfulness he opened the door and led me in. That was the moment I saw her for the very first time, and let me assure you, I’ll never forget that impression, not ever!

She cowered on the bed, with the covers pulled tightly around her. All you could really see were her big, beautiful eyes, and they looked scared, empty and lost. My heart melted on the spot and I just knew I had made the right decision in coming here. It would take a long time and more patience, but I was convinced I could help her heal.
*~~*~~*~~*
Carefully Jeff approached Liz, making sure to walk slowly and quietly, as not to frighten her. A few steps away from the young girl he stopped and inquired gently “Liz?” All she did was just look at her uncle with those big, expressive eyes of hers. Those eyes tell their own story. Anyway, Jeff tried again “Lizzy? Sweetheart? Look, I brought you a visitor.” Then he grabbed my hand and pulled me closer and introduced me properly “Liz, this is our dear neighbour Mama Dee! She came to say hello to you, is that ok?”

Liz looked at me very seriously, trying to see if I was trustworthy, I guessed. And after a while she nodded almost imperceptibly. I exhaled a breath that I hadn’t noticed I was holding, and suddenly I felt very relieved.

As calmly as possible I walked towards Liz and, like Jeff, I stopped a few feet in front of her. My heart was pounding in my chest, I knew this was the moment where Liz would decide if she’d give me a chance or not. And for a second I wondered why I was suddenly so worried if a person would accept me or not, because in my whole life, I had never contemplated what anybody else thought of me. Either they liked me or not, it was that simple. But here, with Liz, it seemed like one of the most important decisions was about to be felled. But now I’m getting ahead of the story. We better backtrack and start at the beginning…

TBC

Thank you very much for reading my fic.

Take care

Chula

[uw51]

Hello Feedbackers and Lurkers

Here I am again, bearing gifts, better known as part 2 of my fic. I hope I didn’t confuse you all too much with my lengthy explanations about the stile of my posting, lol! I think that after this update you will understand how it works.

emz80m <> pandas2001 thank you very much for taking the time to leave me your thoughts, it’s greatly appreciated.

As always, many thanks to my lovely beta for doing such a fabulous job!

Ok, and here is Part 2, enjoy…


02, Intermezzo - Hilda and Martha
Sarah and Mama Dee were sitting comfortably on the seating units and quietly chatted with one another, while Nathan had left them to welcome the next guests.

On his way over to the stage entrance he gave a running commentary about who was next on the show. “Ladies and gentlemen, my next guests knew Liz when she was growing up. Martha O’Leary was her last tutor. She was with Liz from the twelve until she went to college at age fourteen and a half. She can tell just what a little genius our Lizzy was. And then we have Hildegard Koch, who had been with the Parkers, that is the Albuquerque Parkers and not to confuse with our dear friends the Roswell Parkers, for almost twenty years. In fact she started to work as a housekeeper/cook shortly before Liz was born. Anyway, I think you’d rather hear all this from these two ladies, so let’s welcome them with a big applause, and here they are, Martha O’Leary and Hildegard Koch!”

By the time Nathan had announced these two ladies, they had joined him on stage. With great flourish he bowed and then greeted them warmly, hugging each in turn.

As Nathan was guiding his guests toward the seating arrangement, Hildegard smiled and said “Nathan, thank you very much for inviting me to this very special event. My little Lizzy deserves all the recognition she can get, and I’m proud to be a part of it.” ”Oh, yes, I too would like to thank you for inviting me. I’m very proud of my Liz. She is such a marvelous young lady.” Martha added to her friend’s thanks.

By now the threesome had reached Sarah and Mama Dee and for the show they greeted each other and exchanged niceties.

Martha and Hildegard joined Mama on the couch and Nathan sat down in his former seat. The newcomers and Mama received their glasses of water and then Nathan started the interview. “Tell me, ladies, how was it at Parkers mansion when Liz was growing up?”

”Well, I guess I should start with that one, since I was there since the summer of 84.” Hilda Koch began to tell her story; she was frowning to show her displeasure at her ex bosses. “Mrs. Parker was already pregnant and having a hard time of it. Also, both Mr. and Mrs. Parker never really wanted to have children. Liz was just an accident, you know?” Nathan interrupted “what do you mean, when you say that ‘Liz was just an accident’? Is that the conclusion you came to?”

Shocked Hilda exclaimed “oh no, I heard them say that often enough. They even would say that to Liz, when they wanted her to do something she didn’t feel comfortable with! I heard them do that myself and more than just a few times too!”

“That’s right, I heard them say that to Liz myself also, actually on several occasions. It usually happened when Liz didn’t want to entertain her parent guests in the middle of the night.” Martha agreed with Hilda and added, “You know, when the Parkers would have their business dinner parties, everybody would show up. But let me assure you, they didn’t come out of friendship, they came because he was a unscrupulous businessman and either they were afraid of what he might do, or they wanted to do business with him, but nobody really liked those two.”

After pausing in her monologue to take some much-needed air, Martha continued, “anyway, apparently the Parkers discovered very early on that the guests just loved Liz. After that, they would arrange for Lizzy to entertain their guests with singing, dancing, reciting poems or playing the piano. Even though Liz was very good at all those things, she dreaded to stand in front of people.” “Yes, she was such a shy little sweetheart!” Hilda threw in.

Martha stopped for a moment, searching for the right words to explain the situation and then went on “you have to understand that since Liz wasn’t allowed to be off the grounds and was home schooled, she had no friends to learn how to interact with. In fact, besides Cookie and Sparky, I mean of course Hilda and Tony, she had no one…”

Hilda interrupted “now you understand why she had no idea how to interact with people. And then when she had to perform for the guests, she had to stay afterwards and speak with them. She really, really hated that, it made her very uncomfortable and insecure.” “Exactly!” Martha agreed and remembered that they had gotten off track, when Nathan interrupted Hilda. To correct that oversight she inserted “Hilda, what did you want to tell us, before Nathan interrupted you?”

For a moment Hilda hesitated, trying to remember “oh, yes, I remember now!” smiling at her friend she picked up her tale “anyway, on December 18th Liz was born prematurely and at first the doctors weren’t sure if the baby would make it. But make it she did,” and with a proud smile she added, “my little one is one tough cookie, and that’s the truth!”

By that time Hilda was smiling broadly “you should’ve seen her. She was the smallest baby I had ever seen, but she already had the most beautiful hair you could imagine, a head full of dark curls. And then her eyes they were big and dark, and they watched everything going on around her. Already before Liz could talk she was curious and wanted to know everything that was going on around her.”

”Well our friend sure sounds like she was a real cutie, doesn’t she?” Sarah inquired and then added “did she get into much trouble when she was little? I just mean because she was so curious?”

”Actually, it was really sad to observe them…” Hilda started to answer but Nathan interrupted, “who are you talking about when you say ‘them’?” surprised Hilda replied heatedly, “you know who I’m talking about, I already told you!”

Appeasing her host stated, “yes, you told me, but our audience doesn’t know yet, alright?” Blushing to the roots of her hair, Hilda laughed about her blunder and said, “sorry, I forgot!” and after calming down enough she picked up her tale again, “of course I mean Cindy and Chuck Parker-Brown, it was sad to watch them with their own daughter.”

Remembering those far away times she sniffled and continued, “can you imagine to ignore your child all the time, except when you want something from her?”

Seeing Sarah and Nathan shake their heads in unison she explained, “well, neither can I, but I have seen THEM do exactly that. They wouldn’t see her for weeks, sometimes months, even when they were at home. But then they’d throw one of their parties and Cindy and Chuck would remember they had a daughter. At first they would only pick her for the party because everybody knows that babies are well liked by all. Once they discovered how smart my little one was, they drilled her for those events.” By now Hilda was really upset and fiercely added, “you can believe me when I say I only stayed with those people for the little one. She literally had no one else but Sparky -our gardener/chauffeur- and me.”

”I thought you said she had tutors, or did I misunderstand that?” Sarah wanted to know. “No, you’re right, she did indeed have teachers, but they always stayed for just one year because the parents were afraid that Liz might get attached to them. Can you believe that? They didn’t really want her, but they also didn’t want Liz to have anybody else, I mean that’s just sick, isn’t it?”

Nathan turned to Martha and asked, “I thought you were there for two years, weren’t you?” “I was, but I was the exception. They wanted Liz to be accepted at the college, that’s why they didn’t want to upset her, they were afraid that she might fail, so I got to stay longer than the others”

”Are you saying that Liz was 14 years old when she went to college?” “Oh, Nathan, of course that’s what Martha is saying!” This little outburst from Mama Dee was accompanied by a slap on his arm.

“Mama, I have to ask these questions, ok?” Nathan explained patiently, “after all, I’m the host, I have to guide our conversations, I have to keep us on track! Alright Mama?” With a short nod and a toothy grin Mama Dee replied, “sorry, I just get sooo carried away, I plain forgot!” Turning to Martha, she encouraged, “go on, answer Nathan’s question!”

”Right, I had to leave Liz, after her first week at college!” Martha remembered sadly. “I can still see her, how scared she was but at the same time she was also very excited. Finally she was to meet other people; finally she was allowed to go to school. Lizzy was so excited that she never even realized that she would be the big exception that she’d be years younger than the other students, especially since she started college as a sophomore. I mean, most of the others were at least five years her senior!”


”Wow, that must’ve been a strange experience for Liz” Sarah exclaimed. “It sure was,” Hilda picked up the telling, “some of the students were really very nice and watched out for her, but some were very jealous because suddenly somebody else was in the limelight.”

”Can you explain that remark, Hilda?” Sarah inquired. “Of course, Sarah. There was this very beautiful young lady from a very prominent family in town, who had everybody eating out her hands, so to speak. Her peers treated her almost like royalty. In her circles she was the one who felled all the decisions, what or who was acceptable or not. So, when our Lizzy showed up at college, nobody was interested in her any longer. Even the press showed up for Liz and ignored Isabelle. Let me tell you, she didn’t like that, not one bit!” Hilda stopped her monolog and pressed her lips together tightly, it looked like she had a hard time keeping her opinion to herself.

”I know you’ll have Isabelle tell you all about her involvement, so I won’t say any more.” Straightening up on her seat she burst out, “well, I won’t say anything else than this was the moment when Liz met Isabelle’s siblings. One was her biggest crush, the other one her biggest tormentor, Izzy can tell you everything else!” after ending her statement so abruptly, Hilda picked up her water glass and drank deeply, trying to regain her control. Because every time she remembered what Isabelle had done to her poor baby, she would work herself into a rage, and now most definitely wasn’t the moment for throwing temper tantrums!

As the good host that Sarah was she tried to calm down her friend and quietly said, “thank you Hilda, for coming here tonight. I know Liz was very happy when she heard about it!” Nathan turned to Martha and added his thank you’s to the ones of his wife.

POV's in next post...

[uw51]

here is the rest, enjoy...


02a, Hilda...
It’s amazing how Liz’s past still has this power to upset me even now. I mean, her parents, well they really don’t deserve that title since they never appreciated their daughter at all. Really, when I think about it, I have to say that it’s a real miracle that Liz turned out this well, but let me tell you, it’s not thanks to them!
*~~*~~*
I remember the first time I came to the States, boy, was that a culture shock for me! I came from a peaceful little town in the Swiss mountains where everything was small and we would walk everywhere. I’d walk to the store; actually I have to say stores, because in the early eighties we didn’t have many malls in my country. So, if I’d go grocery shopping, I’d buy the milk products at the dairy, the bread from the bakery, the meat from the butcher, etc, etc. Of course I didn’t have a car, I’d walk from store to store and carry my shopping.

In our town we didn’t have a theatre or a cinema. On Sundays, everything but a few restaurants and the churches was closed. And the TV programs we had, well they weren’t worth talking about, boring, boring, boring.

And then, one day in the winter of 84 I met this young man from America and fell in love with him. We had a real whirlwind romance and I followed him to the States. Well, as I said, culture shock pure! I didn’t know if I was coming or going. Everything was big, big streets, big cars, big shops, even the houses were big. To go grocery shopping I suddenly needed a car, to visit a friend I needed a car. One of my first things I did here was to learn how to drive a car.

Actually I surprised myself at how easily I adapted to the American way of life, I took to it like a duck to the water. Needless to say, my romance didn’t work out and we split after a few months. As I was trying to figure out what to do with myself, one of my new friends approached me and told me about a friend of some friend who was looking for a housekeeper/cook and that was how I ended up with the Parkers in Albuquerque.
*~~*~~*
I have to say that as far as my work went at the Parkers mansion, I quite liked it, because after they got to know me, they knew that I was a damn fine housekeeper/cook. Well, it’s the truth, there’s no point in being falsely modest, now, is there? I mean, really, I had just turned twenty-two, I had a great job with a good pay and my mistress expected a baby, what else could I possibly want?

Well, actually my bosses were strange people, and when I think about the start into life Mr. Parker had, I have to say he’s a real ungrateful lout!

Mr. Parker’s real father, whose name was Chuck Miller, was a bit of a looser. After his wife died in childbed, he managed to attract a young woman who married him and adopted his little son. When little Chucky was about 5 years old his father died and three years later his mom married a well-known lawyer, Jeffrey Parker the second, who in turn adopted the little one.

Mr. Parker loved his young wife very much and helped her realize her dreams of becoming an archeologist. In fact, she made quite a name for herself in later years and she also wrote many books about the Native Americans, which were a huge success.

Anyway, when Chucky was about ten the family grew and Jeffrey Parker the third was born. The older sibling didn’t really appreciate that very much, but the two boys got along well enough, mostly because of the age difference and because little Jeff had such a sunny disposition. This changed when the boys reached adulthood.

Papa Parker died when Chuck was in his late twenties. After that, he took his inheritance and left the family and never contacted them again.
*~~*~~*
A few years later, Chuck met and then married Cindy Brown. You know, it was really strange to watch those two. They didn’t seem very happy together, but then again, they couldn’t be without each other. I guess they realized that they’d never find another partner that had the same ambitions and was prepared to go for it, as they did. In that respect they were very well matched.

When Cindy became pregnant it wasn’t planned, but they were hoping for a boy. A boy to give their empire to; a boy to carry on the proud family name –Chucky tended to forget his own lackluster roots in favor of the more glamorous adopted ones; a boy that could become strong and powerful; a boy to be proud of. But it wasn’t to be; Cindy delivered a little girl on December 18, 1984, almost two month early. I wasn’t very surprised when Cindy didn’t show much interest in her daughter, in fact, as soon as she was able to leave the hospital, my boss went home. The doctors had told them that it was very important for the baby to have her parents with her as much as possible. So, every two or three days the Parkers would visit their little girl, and on the other days I was sent to spend some time with Elisabeth.

You can imagine what that did to me. I always loved children, babies in particular, and here was this little tike that her parents didn’t appreciate, well, all I have to say to that, I was hooked from the first moment I laid my eyes on her.
*~~*~~*
I could never understand the Parkers, but Elisabeth and I had become quite close. Later I realized that the Parkers didn’t feel threatened by my strong bond with their daughter, because I was ‘just’ the housekeeper, not really important enough for anything else than to keep their house in order, make sure all their guest were well cared for, and if I had spare time then I could take care of the kid! Nice, real nice, isn’t it?

This almost idyllic life changed drastically when the wife of a very important business partner happened to see Elisabeth in the garden. She came over and was really taken with the little toddler. Later when she met up with Cindy and Chuck, she couldn’t stop talking about the sweet little girl she had seen in the garden, and the little one was so smart, so nice, so pretty, and on and on and on she went.

As soon as it was possible Cindy came in search of her daughter, ordered me to dress her in her Sunday’s best and bring her to meet the guests. Needless to say that Elisabeth was a big success. Yeah, that’s exactly how the two C’s got their idea to use Elisabeth for their own interest. From that day on, they hired private teachers and instructors and poor Lizzy was put on a very tight schedule. No more games for the sake of playing and having fun, no, only to learn and learn and learn some more.

The teachers were an altogether different matter. Some were real ass kissers, some just didn’t care enough, but the last one, Martha, well she really is a real sweetheart; a doll, I tell you. Soon after she began her work here at the mansion, she befriended us, meaning Sparky, our chauffeur/Gardner and myself. The three of us had a wonderful time with Elisabeth.

Martha would go to the Parkers and tell them just how important it was to Elisabeth’s intellectual growth to go on nature trails since they were specifically created for teaching purposes. She did that with the zoo and of course with some museums. The thing was, we couldn’t just go places with the little one, because if the two C’s would hear about it afterward, well, it wouldn’t have been pretty…, hmm, I guess we would’ve been fired on the spot! So, we did everything to avoid that, which of course didn’t leave us with many options, but we managed!
*~~*~~*
Everything stayed this way until Elisabeth went to college when she was a little over 14 ½ years old. To make sure that their daughter didn’t have too much contact with the other students, Sparky had to bring her to school and pick her up right after classes. She wasn’t allowed any contact with her classmates outside of class.

That changed when one of our professors, Giulia Grossi, asked Alex Whitman, who shared most of the classes with Elisabeth, to help the young girl find her way around campus. Alex’s easy way and crazy humor won Liz over in no time at all and she would always look forward to seeing him again.

After about one month Mrs. Grossi asked the Parkers if their daughter could give private lessons to Isabelle Evans. It seemed that Isabelle was on brink of failing college and needed all the help she could possibly get in most of her chosen subjects. Of course once the parents learned that Isabelle was the daughter of Philip Evans, attorney at law, with one of the most influential firms in New Mexico, they agreed gleefully. After all, it wasn’t everyday that such a stroke of luck was handed out.

After visiting the Parker mansion and meeting the parents, Isabelle noticed right away their craving for acceptance by the VIP’s of the city. She also realized that they would allow Elisabeth almost everything as long as she, Isabelle Evans, was part of it. Happily she exploited this knowledge, especially as she began to really like her young friend. In Elisabeth, Isabelle had found a friend that didn’t judge her or expect anything from her, no, the little one was a complete greenhorn, and everything was new to her.

Anyway, those were the happy times for my Lizzy. And when Isabelle invited her to visit the Evans’ home and have a sleep over, she was in heaven. I remember when Elisabeth came home the following day she had brightly shining eyes as she talked of her first crush. Turned out that the youngest Evans sibling was at home too and he and my little one got along just famously. Max, was his name and he was just two years her senior. Oh, you should’ve seen my little one as she talked about her adventure. It seems that Max was a really sweet boy too.

Mrs. Diane Evans too impressed Elisabeth very much; she was very warm and welcoming towards my young charge and accepted her right away into their circle of friends. Apparently Diane asked her if she could call her Liz, because in her youth, Diane had had a friend named Elisabeth, but everybody had called Liz or Lizzy. From that moment on, my Elisabeth asked Martha, Sparky and myself to call her that too. Because this nickname came from Diane Evans, the Parkers allowed us to use it also, but the two of them insisted on calling her Elisabeth.

A few weeks later my Lizzy came home, bursting with happiness. Apparently her crush Max reciprocated those feelings with a huge crush of his own. Ahhh, those were really sweet and happy times…
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Things began to change when Zan Evans returned from his trip abroad. Zan is Isabelle’s twin, older by a few minutes. He looked just like his younger brother Max except for the eyes; his were a cold steely blue whereas Max’s were a soft golden brown. For some reason my Lizzy was afraid of him, she tried to avoid him whenever possible. Once she even told me that Zan treated Max really badly, he harassed him but only when the parents weren’t around. Apparently his done some pretty nasty things and for some reason Isabelle started to cover for her twin.

At this point, Liz tried to distance herself from Isabelle a bit, at least when Zan was around. Isabelle would mostly ignore Zan and his cronies’ bad behavior, play it down as big boys pranks, but Liz was afraid. Turns out she was right to be afraid. Of course her parents weren’t listening to their daughter’s worries. They pushed Liz into Zan’s way as often as possible; after all, he was the oldest son of a prominent attorney. If they could hook up Liz and Zan, they had it made and that would be their ticket into the city’s high society.

Anyway, on December 18th, Liz had a small birthday party at our house to celebrate her 15th birthday. She invited some of her classmates, Isabelle and Max. Her parents insisted that she’d invite Zan too and very reluctantly Liz did. From what Liz told me later, I know that Zan was on his best behavior, but, like Liz, I didn’t like him. There was just something cagey about him. On the other hand, Chuck was very impressed by Zan; I guess its case of one crook recognizing another one!

Max was a little gentleman; he stuck to Liz like glue and made sure his brother didn’t come too close. This of course didn’t earn him any cookie points with the Parkers.

At this party, Isabelle and Zan, who had brought Kevin Smitts, also a son of another VIP family, asked Chuck if they could invite Liz to the New Year’s Eve party at the Smitts’ home. Isabelle even assured him that she would take really good care or her young friend; after all, this would be Liz’s very first party. Of course, Chuck and Cindy accepted on Liz’s behalf, congratulating themselves on their good fortune. They could see the interest 20-year-old Zan had in their daughter; he couldn’t let her out of his sight. That surely boded well for their dreams, ahhh, yes, they were sure that in the not too distant future they would be members of the much coveted VIP-Club of Albuquerque and possibly the whole of New Mexico!
*~~*~~*
Liz wasn’t happy at all, no she tried everything she could think of to get out of the Smitts’ Party. She reasoned with her parents, saying it wasn’t fun for her to party with people who were at least five years her senior, she would be sooo out of place there, and there probably would be alcohol there too. But her parents would have none of it. After all, hadn’t Isabelle and yes, even that nice young brother Zan of hers, offered to watch out for Elisabeth?

Cindy called her an ungrateful chit and reminded her of the hard time Elisabeth had given her during the pregnancy and Chuck added that it was the least Liz could do, befriend such important people, if not for her sake then for her parents who had done everything in their power to help her survive as a new born baby. When Liz still didn’t see reason, the parents scolded her and stated, “you’re going, that’s it!”
*~~*~~*
The last time I saw Liz happy and carefree for a long time was in the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, before she left to join Isabelle at the Evans house to prepare for the party. The next time I saw her, my baby was in the hospital, fighting for her life…


02b, …and Martha
When I saw Liz for the very first time I could see that she was very smart, very curious and also very shy. She was all eyes, you know, that’s what you’d notice first, then you see her beauty.

Anyway, I remember when I started to work for the Parkers, well, they were very strange people and if it hadn’t been for Liz I would’ve left right away. As it was, I soon was very good friends with Hilda and Sparky and Liz became very special to me. Cooky and Sparky would tell me stories about my predecessors, so I knew I had to proceed very carefully with the Parkers. In their presence I treated Liz like a teacher treats a student, but when the parents were out of the house, we all made up a happy little family. We had some very good times together and we were always very glad to see the C’s go.
*~~*~~*
Those were good times, but everything changed the day Liz went to college for the first time. She opened up a lot and even though she was still shy, she slowly blossomed into a beautiful teenager.

I remember the first time I met Isabelle Evans I thought ‘what a very nice young lady’; well, I couldn’t have been more wrong about that one. Really, that just shows that you can only see the outside of the people, not how they are on the inside, you know, where it counts!

To this day, I’m still shocked when I think about what that trollop did to our little one. I mean, really, what possessed her to do such a thing to a little, innocent girl. Well, by now we all know, of course we do, but that still doesn’t make things right, oh no, not by a long shot!
*~~*~~*
After Liz had started college I had to find myself a new position. With a very heavy heart I left the Parker household, because Hilda, Sparky and Lizzy had become very dear to me.

The last time I saw Lizzy was right before she went to the Evans to get ready for THAT party. Hilda and Sparky had invited me to spend New Year’s Eve with them and I had gladly accepted. I remember we were all in Liz’s room, teasing the little one mercilessly because even though she dreaded the party, she was looking forward to going to the Evans’ house. Isabelle had promised to help her prepare for that event. She also knew that she would meet her first crush and was all excited about it.

That was the last time I saw Liz before THAT happened, when I was with Hilda and Sparky and we were teasing her.


TBC

Thank you very much for reading my fic, please let me know what you think of it!

I'll post again in two weeks, till then take care

Chula

[uw51]

Hello Feedbackers and Lurkers

I have a feeling that either this story is a bit difficult to follow or it’s not liked very much.

Well, I can help with the first, but not with the second, lol. Here is part 3 and I hope it will clear some of the questions that you might have.

pandas2001 <> thank you for leaving your thoughts. I appreciate that very much.

I know that I’ve had troubles posting this fic, but I guess the parts were too big. The thing with the extra posting of the Intermezzi doesn’t work here. I would need much more space than I originally thought. And since I tried to post them differently I got myself into deeper trouble. Now I have fixed everything and my story should be ok. I decided to post it the regular way, no more collecting the Intermezzi in the first posts, I think they take too much place, and for sure too much time to post, lol!

As always many thanks to my beta, who does such a terrific job!


Here you go, Part 3, enjoy…


03, Intermezzo – Isabelle Evans
Nervously, Nathan stood up and walked toward the front of the stage. He was well aware of the fact that the next guest was the most difficult one to introduce. He knew he had to go about it honestly and diplomatically or else it could ruin the whole evening.

Looking serious, he began his next monologue, “ladies and gentlemen, I wasn’t too sure about my next guest. To be honest I was dead set against her appearance. She caused a lot of hurt to our friend even though she could’ve prevented it.” The first boo call came from the crowd because they had correctly guessed the lady in question’s identity.

Staring in the direction of the caller, Nathan scolded, “that’s all the booing I’m willing to tolerate, after all I felt pretty much the same way too. But my wife Susan and Liz, yes you heard correctly, I’m talking about Liz Parker; anyway, both of them convinced me that it was necessary to have Isabelle Evans here tonight.”

Susan joined Nathan and added, “the reason Liz and I felt so strongly about Isabelle’s presence was to show you all the different angles to the story. We feel it’s very important for you to see how quickly somebody can slide into a bad situation and stay there for misguided reasons.” After taking a deep breath Susan continued, “Liz wanted me to tell you that she hopes you can be fair enough and give Isabelle your undivided attention and let her have her say.” Smiling sincerely first at the audience and then into the cameras she added, “Liz said that she wants you all to know that she really appreciates your fairness and she says thank you!”

”Thank you sweetheart, I knew you were much better at explaining this than I!” Nathan complemented his wife and then he became the host again and continued with his explanation, “as I was saying, I was very much against Miss Evans participation tonight, but after my first meeting with her, I had to admit that my ladies were right. Our reason for this night was to show you an incredible young woman who managed to come through some very bad situations, and she came out on top of it. She is very active, has a beautiful family and so many friends; you’d be surprised by it. But if we only show you the parts of her healing and regaining her will to live, to succeed, the people who don’t know her might just think that ‘because Liz comes from a wealthy family she had it a lot easier to find help, and they might think we exaggerate to make it sound worse than it was!”

”Anyway, I think I’m talking way too much, so I better introduce you all to my next guest, Isabelle Evans!” After his announcement Nathan walked towards the side entrance of the stage and extended his hands in greeting.

A tall, blonde woman in her mid twenties walked out of the shadows and approached her host. Surprisingly Nathan’s greeting was warm and welcoming, and the woman responded carefully, waiting to see the reactions she might get.
*~~*~~*
After the new guest had joined the others on the couches, Nathan began with the carefully prepared questions, “Isabelle can you tell us about the first time you met Liz Parker?” “Yes I can, but may I first say a few thank you’s? I’m pretty nervous right now and I’m afraid if I don’t do that now I might forget it?” After her host’s nod Isabelle continued, “As you know I’m in an Albuquerque prison and of course usually we don’t go to talk shows that’s why I want to say a very big thank you to our director for allowing me to be here tonight. And while I’m at it, I want to thank everybody in and outside of the prison who has helped me stay strong and on the right track. I think that’s it.”

While Isabelle tried to remember what had been said before her little speech, Mama Dee jumped in and pointed out, “he wanted to know how you met Liz, sweetie!” “Oh, right! Yes, of course I can tell you about our first meeting. I remember it very well, you know. Liz Parker was completely the opposite of what I expected. Really, looking back I think I assumed she’d be this stuck up spoiled bitch, like I was. Of course then I would’ve denied any such allegations! After all, I thought I was perfect!”

Giving herself up to her memories, Isabelle began to tell her story, “I can see Liz’s arrival in class like it was yesterday. It was in September 1998 and we were about to start our sophomore year. After a sharp knock on the door it opened and our principal walked in. Right after him Cindy and Chuck Parker strutted into the room like they owned it. Liz followed quietly all the while staring at the floor. And then came the press, I think there were about four or five reporters with their cameras rolling.”

“You know, I had already decided that I wasn’t going to like her, that she was a spoiled brat, so I didn’t take the time to really look at her. If I had, I would’ve seen what everybody else saw; a young girl way out of her league. She was mortified by her parents’ behaviour, really, she was.”

“Anyway, professor Grossi soon put an end to the circus and the Parkers left very unhappily. I have to say that the professor picked the best guy possible to show Liz around. You know, Alex, that is Alex Whitman, was really great with her. Liz soon lost her shyness around him and became her curious self again.”

Feeling thoroughly ashamed and showing it, Isabelle continued, “You wouldn’t believe just how jealous I was. Suddenly somebody else was in the spotlight; everybody wanted to meet her! And I was last year’s news! I can tell you, I didn’t appreciate that one bit, hmm, not one bit!” After her sarcastic comments Isabelle continued more quietly, “to top it all off, I was really neglecting my studies and was failing in most of my classes. Giulia Grossi informed me that if I didn’t start to work hard I would be kicked out of the university. She said she had an alternative for me; that Liz Parker had agreed to tutor me in the subjects I needed help with. Let me tell you, I was insulted, but after some thought I accepted Liz’s offer. I figured that little Miss Genius could do the work for me. Well, it didn’t work out like that. With her curiosity, Liz had a way to make the studies fun. I soon wanted to learn for myself, it’s hard to believe, but it’s the truth! At the same time I got to know the girl and I realised that she was a very genuine person. You got what you saw, which was a beautiful, likable and very innocent and extremely smart girl.”

After listening to her young guest’s ramifications, Sarah inquired, “Isabelle, what I don’t understand is the fact that you seemed to like Liz, actually it sounds like you were even friends, so, I ask myself, how could you hurt your friend so badly? It just doesn’t make any sense?”

“Well, you see, my brother, well my twin brother Zan, started to experiment with drugs and alcohol when we were about fifteen. At some point he asked me if I wanted to try it too and I did. Well in no time at all I was hooked. We were both pretty good at covering it up, that’s why our parents and even the teachers never suspected anything amiss. As it was, I never really had to pay for the drugs but in time Zan would ask for favours as payment.”

Nathan interrupted Isabelle’s monologue and asked, “did I understand you correctly? You’re telling me that it was your twin’s fault that you became an addict?” “No, it wasn’t his fault that I became an addict, but it was his fault to bring the drugs into my life. I mean he didn’t force me to take them; that was my decision and a stupid one to boot. I mean, you really have to be all kinds of stupid to start using drugs, especially since we were all very well informed in school and I knew what I was getting into.” Isabelle answered honestly.

Quietly Sarah posed the next the question, “Isabelle, you mentioned favours your twin asked in exchange for the drugs, what kind of favours are you talking about?” Isabelle had known that these questions were coming and she had agreed to it, but now she realised that it was much more difficult to answer them than she had thought. With great care and concentration she folded her hand in her lap, her gaze straight ahead, she couldn’t look at anybody, she absolutely couldn’t. After swallowing a few times she found her voice and calmly stated, “when I look back I can’t believe that I did those things, that I did them for drugs…”

After lowering her eyes to her nervously moving hands, she picked up her story again, “for as long as I remember, my twin Zan was very jealous of Max, our younger brother. Actually when we were growing up, Max and I were much closer than Zan and I. Anyway, in his jealous fits my twin would do some really bad things to Max, and then he’d go and tell our parents that Max had done it in a fit of jealousy. Of course Max denied it and since he knew that I knew the truth he told our parents that they should ask me, I would tell them what had really happened.”

Isabelle breathed deeply before she continued, staring straight into the camera she confessed, “of course I lied and supported Zan. All the while I was lying I knew that I was loosing the closeness Max and I shared because I was hurting him, betraying him. And yes, it’s true, I did because I wanted those drugs, but I wasn’t that far gone that I absolutely needed them, no, that came later.”

”Anyway, this happened two more times, by the third time Max didn’t defend himself any longer, he just stood there and took the punishment. After that he spent as little time at home as possible, he’d be with his friends or with our grandparents and only came home to sleep.”

”As my addiction grew, the demands my twin made became bigger too. He, mmm…, he, he convinced me to have em, to have sex with some of his friends, for instance. Much later I learned that he had demanded payment for it, but at the time I didn’t know it.”

”Was that the time when Zan met Liz?” Nathan asked gently, he started to feel really badly for Isabelle and at the same time he began to respect her, because he could see how difficult this talk was for her.

Mama Dee stood up from her place and moved over to Isabelle sat down beside her and grabbed her hand. Quietly she whispered to the younger woman, “take a deep breath, that’s it! You know, you’re doing really well, just keep going on and tell the truth.” After watching Isabelle for a moment longer Mama asked, “do you want me to stay with you?” “Would you?” Isabelle asked and after seeing Mama’s nod, she added, “thanks Mama Dee.”

Decisively the older woman asked the younger one, “Isabelle, do you remember Nathan’s question? You can answer it now!” “Right, right, I will.” Turning to Nathan Isabelle explained, “yeah, it was around that time. He had been abroad for a while. That was the reason why he started classes a moth later than the rest of us. By that time Liz and I had become quite good friends. I really liked her and I did everything I could to get her away from her awful parents. She would tutor me at my home. That’s when she met Max and you could see how they both fell for the other.” Smiling she added, “they were so cute. You know, they were both quite shy and didn’t really know what to do. Since they both are so smart and even interested in similar subjects, they actually had a lot in common.”

Loosing her smile Isabelle continued sadly, “and then Zan came back and couldn’t stand seeing the closeness between those two. The first time he saw Max’s interest in Liz, Zan decided that he was going to have her first and afterwards when he was done, Max wouldn’t want her anymore. With his friends he planned and plotted and because my stash of drugs was getting low, he knew he could convince me to help them; and I did!”


03a, POV Next post...

[uw51]

03a, Isabelle Evans, POV
I still have nightmares about my darkest deeds, really, I do. My shrink says that I have to learn to accept that I was capable of doing something so terrible. That I have to learn to forgive myself for it and learn from it, atone for it, make sure that I won’t fall into the old patterns ever again. Of course he didn’t say it necessarily in that order and he said a lot more. You know, when he said all that it sounded so easy and wonderful, but it’s anything but easy, in fact it’s damn difficult.

Oh, something else he said was that I have to be brutally honest with myself, no more hiding behind half-truths, of whitewashing my memories to make them more bearable. You know, I still remember everything as if it were yesterday, as if I had been sober at that time, when in truth I was drunk and about as high as anybody could be, but I do remember it.
*~~*~~*
Liz and I had become friends fast and I did my best to ignore her obnoxious parents. We had discovered the way to get Liz a little more freedom, time to spend with her new friends. All we had to do was have me ask her parents if Liz could do this or that and we got their ok. You know, Chuck and Cindy were real ass-kissers, eeewww, gross!

Since Liz loved to come to our house that was where we were hanging out the most. We’d bring some of our new friends from college along too. My mom, who was often around, loved that. She simply adored Liz, well the adoring part was actually mutual.

And then, after my little brother Max saw Liz for the first time he was sweet on her too. By the looks of it, Liz reciprocated his feelings. Awww, they were so cute, sweet enough to rot my teeth! Not true, but I would tease them with it and they both would blush furiously.
*~~*~~*
And then Zan, my twin, returned from overseas. He was one jealous bastard, always had been. Anyway, he saw Liz, saw Max’s interest, and decided he was going to have her, just like that. Zan was bad news, really bad news, there’s no other way to describe him. I’m also really sorry to say that I wasn’t any better, in fact I was just as bad because I was Liz’s friend and when she needed my help and protection, I sold her out to the enemy, my twin Zan and his friends.

What I haven’t told you yet is that in those days I was taking a lot of drugs and drinking quite heavily, in fact I became addicted to them. As it was, last year when I was arrested I was still heavily into them. One of my first actions in prison was, to stop using drugs; I went cold turkey. That was tough, really, really tough, let me tell you, but I made it. Now I have every intention to stay clean and so far I have succeeded, but sometimes, sometimes when everything becomes almost too much to bear I’m very tempted. Luckily I have found help and when I’m afraid of failing, all I have to do is call and they come.
*~~*~~*
But I digress, Zan and his friends had decided to teach Liz a lesson and they wanted to do that on New Year’s Eve. As always I went to the Parkers and extended Hank Miller Junior’s invitation to Liz. Since I had already talked with her about it I knew that Liz didn’t feel like going, she thought she was too young and of course she was. Since Zan and his friends counted on me to bring her, I had to go the two C’s and bingo, Liz was going, whether she wanted to or not!

I went dress shopping with her, the boys wanted her dressed in, get that, ‘virginal white’. I mean white isn’t really a winter color, so it was quite difficult to find the perfect dress, but we found one. On the day of the party, Liz came to our house in the afternoon; after all we wanted to look as good as possible, didn’t we? Zan had decided to stay away and so we were having a lot of fun. My mom was just over the moon; she liked nothing better than to help us primp.

In the spare time we had Max joined us and when he saw how pretty Liz was he called her ‘Lizzybelle’; isn’t that cute? They spent a lot of time just secretly glancing at one another.

Since I knew what the boys expect of me - and I knew I couldn’t get out of it, otherwise I would’ve been in trouble too – I started to drink some vodka, not much, just enough to dull my conscience.
*~~*~~*
All the way to the party I cursed Liz for trusting me so completely because I knew what was to come and I also knew that Liz would do anything I asked her to, because of said trust. Damn her, why couldn’t she insist that she’d not drink the punch or the cookies I gave her? I mean, really, she didn’t like it, I could see she had a hard time trying not to gag, but when I told her if she refused the offered refreshments she’d insult not just the host but me also, she accepted them and just gobbled them down as fast as she could.

I could watch how she was loosing it; she started to sway and to babble. It was just bad luck that Alex and Kyle came over to have a talk with Liz, they wanted to see if she was all right. When they saw just how plastered she was, they became quite outraged, told me I was responsible for this – which I was, but they didn’t know. Of course I denied it, I said that Liz had suddenly started to say that she was fed up with her parents dictates, that now she wanted to party and be young!

The boys didn’t really buy that but just then Liz started to go on about sex, drugs and rock n’ roll and I could see that they were convinced that it wasn’t my fault. Kyle, who had a car, offered to take her home, but I declined, told them that if she came home this drunk her parents were going to freak out. I told them that I would take her upstairs, into one of the girls’ room and let her sleep for a bit. Alex looked at me for a moment, then he asked, “if you’re sure?” and after my nod they left us.

Well, I did bring Liz upstairs, but not to one of the girls rooms, no, I brought her to the so called ‘boys’ playroom’. It was actually Hank Miller Senior’s room, where he had all his porno stuff and where he’d bring his female ‘guests’ when his wife wasn’t at home. Since Junior had turned 16 he and his friends were allowed to use it too. By the way, this was the only room that the Miller men cleaned themselves. It was locked at all times, even when somebody was using it. That way, nobody could just walk in unauthorized.

After I almost carried Liz upstairs and I delivered her to the boys’ room I had to prepare her for her ‘big night’. The boys had promised that they would make sure that Liz had fun and that she would enjoy it too. Well it didn’t really turn out that way. After Liz passed out on the bed that was set up in the middle of the room, the boys and I did some drinking and popped some pills. I can tell you, I was pretty far gone by now and thus I was able to do what they asked me to do; I filmed the whole thing!
*~~*~~*
As he had promised on several earlier occasions, Zan was the one to ‘pop Liz’s cherry’ and she most definitely wasn’t happy about that, in fact she screamed and cried the whole time, begged me to help her, but I couldn’t. I remember I told her to just stop fighting, that way the boys would be done sooner and she could go home. I was so out of it that I just thought, ‘stupid chit doesn’t listen and just keeps fighting’.

When Jimmy Blue realized what was going on he tried to leave, but the others wouldn’t let him go. They said that he had been a part of this venture from the beginning, that he had taken the drugs, even the Viagra Hank Senior had given them. Zan also said that since Jimmy was new in their group they didn’t really know if they could trust him, so he had to stay and be a part of it.
*~~*~~*
I remember that hours later I brought Liz home. In the car she passed out and I had to slap her to wake her up when we reached her home. I rang the bell and the Parkers opened the door. When Liz stumbled out of the car and staggered towards her parents I ran passed her and started to cry to the C’s, “she didn’t listen to me, I told her not drink…”’ and all that shit. When I saw just how badly Liz looked I added, “you know how boys are, at first she was having fun, but then things got out of hand, you know how it is when you’re young!”

The parents took one look at Liz and saw that she was completely out of it, her dress was badly rumpled and bloody, her face was swollen from all the crying, she had almost no voice left and she reeked of alcohol and sex. Liz defended herself as well as she was able to and hoarsely cried, “mom, dad, there were boys there, they hurt me, they did things to me! Mom, I only drank what Isabelle gave me, just like you said!” but they didn’t believe her.

I was actually shocked when the Parkers kicked out their own daughter. They told her she had brought shame to the family name, that no one of importance would marry her now, that now she could go back to her admirers and have them take care of her. After that they went inside and closed the door.

When Liz turned to me for help, I walked away and left her. That was the last time I saw her. The next morning I, like everybody else in town, heard the rumors of how Liz had fallen from grace and had been kicked out by her parents. It was said that they found her passed out on a sidewalk, completely drunk and high on drugs.
*~~*~~*
Max was heartbroken, he didn’t believe the rumors we had spread. He even asked me point blank what we had done to Liz. He tried to visit her, went to her parents’ house, but they told him that now she was in a boarding school for girls only. That Liz had behaved badly and wasn’t allowed any contact to any boys, and that was that.

Of course Max and everybody else in town didn’t know what the boys and I knew, that Hank Senior had bribed his two new good friends, the assistant medical director from the hospital, Anthony Carpenter and the chief of police John Walters, to keep quiet about this story, after all, the girl went willingly and things just went out of hand a bit. Gladly those two upright citizens of Albuquerque let certain incriminating evidences disappear for the sake of their new and fruitful friendship. Sheriff Valenti and the staff members from the ER only needed a little convincing to see things the ‘right way’.

Of course no one realized the connection between Tony’s brand-new red sports car, John’s new Range Rover and their new friendship with Hank Miller Senior.
*~~*~~*
It was almost one year later before I heard from Liz again; she needed my help. Of course I refused, I mean I couldn’t betray my twin, don’t you agree? But she insisted, she said that she remembered a family trait, that Max and Zan and our father had the same blood type, B-, and that her little son needed a transfusion real badly.

Let me tell you I was in shock. I mean, I had done my best to forget that unpleasant episode and then, bam, she calls and tells me she had a baby! I mean, how crazy is that, couldn’t she just have had an abortion?

Anyway, I did my duty and I called Zan, informing him of Liz’s request and he really, really lost it. He yelled at me, told me that that most definitely was a trick to make him feel guilty. He flat out refused any kind of help whatsoever. He said it wasn’t his fault if the chit didn’t prevent and got pregnant.

I felt badly about that, really I did. I mean, what if what she said was the truth? After thinking about it for a few days I approached my younger brother and informed him, “Max, you know what I heard? I heard that in Roswell they need you type of blood, ummm, B-, I mean that is your blood group, isn’t it?” After seeing his nod I continued, “I heard that a little kid needs it pretty badly. Maybe you could go one of the hospitals here in Albuquerque and donate some? You know you probably can just tell them that it’s for the kid in Roswell, I’m sure they’d transport it there for you.” As an afterthought I added, “you could even do it anonymously, I’m sure!”

Max looked at me real strange, I guess he isn’t used anymore to seeing me do good deeds. Well, it turns out that Max really went to the hospital and donated some of his blood and he even did it anonymously. Years later, I found out that from that moment on he went to donate blood for this little boy on a regular basis and if they had enough for the kid, they were allowed to use it as needed. Isn’t it amazing, I mean really just think about it, here is Max donating blood and he doesn’t even know it’s for his own nephew…


TBC

Thank you very much for reading my fic, please let me know what you think of it!

I'll post again in two weeks, till then take care

Chula

[uw51]

Hello Lurkers

Since there haven’t been many feedbacks yet, I really don’t know what you think of my fic. That’s why I have some questions for all of you and I hope that answers will be plentiful, lol!

Here it goes:
What do I do with this fic?
1. Is this story line too difficult to follow with the talk-show intermezzi and the POV’s?
2. Should I start this story from scratch as a more conventional fic, no intermezzi or POV’s, just a regular story?

If I go with this story line I would like to know:
Can I alternate the posting between Intermezzo and POV? If that’s OK I could soon begin to post on a weekly basis. (I discovered that I have a hard time writing short Intermezzi. Once I start writing it just keeps coming. Otherwise I have to stay with the two week posting cycle.

So, please, let me know what you think

As always, many thanks to my saving grace my beta, who's English is so much better than mine

So, here we go again, enjoy…



04, Intermezzo - Alex and Kyle
After hearing Isabelle’s recounting of her side of the events leading to that disastrous night, Nathan looked at his guest, really looked at her and he was surprised. Honestly he told her, “Isabelle, as you already know, I’ve had very mixed feelings about your participation here.”

After Isabelle confirmed with a quiet “I know,” Nathan looked her straight in the eyes and smiling slightly said, “since I’ve been so honest and outspoken about my misgivings before tonight, I think it’s only fair to tell you that now I’m very glad I listened to the ladies and invited you. Tonight you have impressed me very much. I can only imagine how difficult this must’ve been for you. I want you to know that you have gained my respect for your courage and your honesty. I’m very glad that you came, thank you Isabelle.”

After delivering his thank you’s Nathan turned away, leaving a speechless Isabelle. As he walked toward the front of the stage, he addressed the crowd, “ladies and gentlemen, that was Isabelle Evans! I think she has finally found her way and very courageously follows it. She has truly gained my respect and my best wishes for her future.” For a moment the audience stayed quiet, but suddenly a woman’s voice could be heard, yelling, “Isabelle, god bless you. May he be with you at all times and give you strength and courage to keep on you new path!” After that the whole crowd joined in a very supportive applause.

Hearing Isabelle’s applause had Nathan change his direction and he returned towards the tall blonde. He held out his hand towards her and after she grabbed it, he pulled her up and then to the front of the stage. Proudly grinning he instructed her, “Isabelle, this is your applause, say thank you!”
*~~*~~*
After Isabelle was back on the couch, Nathan went about to introduce his next guests, ”alright ladies and gentlemen, I think its time that I get myself some male reinforcement, don’t you agree?” Nathan asked the crowd.

“Oh, right, we have to move to the backseats now, don’t we?” Mama Dee inserted. “Not quite yet, Mama” Sarah smiled, “right now you only have to slide to the side, you know, make room for new visitors!” “Good, I’m glad I can stay, because I really like those two boys.” Turning to Hilda and Martha, Mama wanted to know, “don’t you two agree, those two boys are just so…” “What have we been telling you Mama, about calling us ‘sweet boys’?” a male voice interrupted Mama’s ramblings from the side of the stage. Laughingly a second male voice inserted, “it won’t do, you know Mama, people might get the wrong impression of us!”

By now two young men in their mid twenties had crossed the stage to join the others. Nathan and Sarah stood up to greet the newcomers. After all the handshaking and backslapping was done, Nathan introduced the latest additions to the guest couch, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m proud to introduce to you our friends Kyle Valenti and Alex Whitman.” The audience applauded them enthusiastically.

”Alright then,” Sarah began the interview, “Alex, I believe you were the first one to meet Liz, I think she shared a few of your advanced classes, didn’t she?” A short nervous “yep,” was all the answer she received. Smilingly she prodded, “alright, Alex, can you tell us of your first meeting?” Nodding vigorously Alex answered with a very decisive “sure!”

The audience was getting to him, Alex was convinced he could hear them breathe down his neck! How the heck was he supposed to speak with all these eyes trained on him? The cameras distracted him too and the worst were the spotlights, they were so bright, did they have to be so glaringly bright? And then the heat they exuded, he was breaking out in sweat because of those damn spotlights! And why was Kyle punching him in the side? He threw killing glares at Valenti, but the only reaction he got was inquiringly raised eyebrows. Oh, Kyle apparently tried to tell him something, now he was directing his look to the side, why would he do that? Alex followed his friends’ glance and noticed Sarah and Nathan staring expectantly at him. After some serious replaying of the last moments he understood, damn, “oh, uhmm, sorry, I eh, I hmm I was distracted.”

Alex straightened on the couch, clapped his hands decidedly and mumbled, “ok, lets grab the bull by his horn!” before he could continue a laughing Nathan inquired, “what did you just say? I mean that bit about a bull and his horn?” “Oh, did I say that out loud?” Alex’s embarrassment was very obvious by his blushing face. By now Kyle was cracking up with laughter, he had a hard time staying on the couch. Alex’s threatened “you think that’s funny, he? Just wait, I’ll laugh when it’s your turn to speak, you’ll see!”

Still laughing, Kyle tried to apologize ”sorry Alex, I can’t seem to stop!” Nathan, used to Alex and Kyle’s quirks, realized that he had to bring Alex back into the conversation, otherwise those two could go on for hours, trading insults and other niceties. Of course the crowd loved it, many of them knew his young guests very well, since they too had moved to Roswell. More forcefully he addressed the taller one, “Alex, what was your first impression of Liz?”

”My first impression of her?” he repeated, desperately trying to calm down, “well, actually it was Giulia, you know, professor Giulia Grossi who first told me about Liz. On the very first day of our sophomore year just before the class began, she pulled me to the side and informed me that we were expecting a new student, a very young girl who was a real genius. She told me that the girl wasn’t yet fifteen years old and had been raised in a very sheltered environment.” Trying to remember exactly how he had responded, he went on, “well, I said, great, but what has that to do with me?” Raising his voice to imitate his former professor’s, he squeaked “you’re the lucky one I chose to show her the ropes, you know, escort her from class to class, she is in most of yours anyway!”

”Well, let me tell you Nathan, I was shocked! Can you imagine what that does to a young and insecure man?” Alex asked his host in honest outrage. By now he had completely forgotten the crowd, the cameras, the damned spotlights His comical talent came through in full force, “of course I was offended! I wanted to know what I had done to be punished? I mean, really, we hadn’t even started our first class of this semester, and here she was, singling me out for babysitting duties!”

By now Kyle was cracking up again, not because of Alex’s blunderings any longer, but because he too remembered that moment! His friend had been so outraged that he had unwittingly raised his voice to the professor. Of course the student body had stayed quiet, intent on catching Alex Whitman’s, geek extraordinaire, embarrassment. As it was, everybody envied him his stellar grades; everything seemed to come to Whitman so easily. The class felt that there was some justice after all.

Alex didn’t care, he was on a roll, a long time ago he had come to the realization that not only was he destined to be a computer crack, no he was also destined to entertain the masses, and now he had the most excellent chance to do just that. “Anyway, Giulia and I hashed this out, but no matter what kind of objections I had, she stayed strong. Of course, today I’m very honored that she chose me because that decision brought me many very good new friends!”

Sarah laughingly insisted, “I wish I could’ve seen that one, really I do, but you still haven’t told us about your first meeting. Can you tell us about that, please?”

Easily Alex complied ”yeah, Liz’s arrival in class was a real circus! After we heard the knock the principle entered, followed by the Parkers and behind them came Liz and some reporters brought up the end.” “The press was there?” Nathan inquired incredulously? “Of course, do you think that the Parkers would let such an opportunity go by un-witnessed? Forget that, I mean what’s the use if you have a child prodigy and no one knows about it? Poor Liz, she was so embarrassed, right Kyle?”

“Absolutely, she couldn’t look at anybody, she kept staring the floor! Her parents made this big show, they hugged her, and told everybody just how proud they were of their smart daughter, who managed to go to college at such a young age all by herself, blablabla etc.etc.etc. I mean, really, they were awful.” Nodding at Alex, Kyle let him finish his explanations.

”It’s really true, I mean, you have no idea just how embarrassing they were. In the end professor Grossi kicked them all out, saying, ‘this is a classroom, my students are here to learn, so everybody who isn’t a student please leave!’” grinning broadly Alex continued, “then Giulia introduced me to Liz, told her I would help her until she knew the ropes and told us to go and sit in the front row!” Grumbling Alex informed them, “I felt like a first grader and reluctantly did as we were told. Of course I could see several of my classmates snicker and grin their heads off!” He turned to Kyle and accused him, “you were one of them too!” This earned him a cocky “I know, I know!” from his friend.

”Anyway, where was I? Oh, em I soon found out that Liz was a very sweet and extremely smart kid. Also, everybody was attracted to her, just because of the way she was. You know, very lovely, innocent, curious, treated everybody with the same openness and kindness. We also soon noticed that she had no idea of life, I mean, besides her studies she knew next to nothing. I mean she’d never even ridden in a bus or a train or any other kind of public transportation. She’d never been out with other kids, or to the movies, you know, normal things like that.” Even today, after all the years Alex had known Liz, he’d become really heated when thinking about her parents.

”You know, the first few weeks their chauffeur brought her to school and picked her up right after. She never had a chance to talk with us. This only changed after Liz was asked to help a fellow student. Her parents were still very strict, but as long as Isabelle did the asking they allowed Liz more freedom.” Looking towards Kyle, Alex asked, “I think that’s pretty much it, or did I forget anything?” “Nope, that’s how it was in the beginning!” Valenti confirmed.

”All right, why don’t we move on with this story, to the night of the party? As I understand it you two were there too?” Sarah asked anxiously. “Kyle, why don’t tell us about that?”

”Ok, umm, yeah,” after all the stammering, Kyle inhaled deeply and began, “Well, at the party, we saw Liz with Isabelle. At one point Izzy was behaving really strangely and we walked over and asked if everything was ok. By that time Liz was already completely drunk, I mean she was swaying on her feet and she was babbling incoherently. Izzy started to cry, saying that Liz had suddenly turned into a party animal, you know, saying things like she wanted to live, she wanted to experience a ‘real party’, you know with alcohol, drugs and sex. And on cue, Liz mumbled something about rock n’ roll. Izzy cried, ‘you see, the moment we came in here she disappeared and this is how I found her. How ever am I going to bring her back to her parents?’”

”Of course we offered we’d take her home, since we were just about ready to leave the party. But Isabelle refused, said, no, she’s bringing Liz upstairs and put her in one of the guestrooms, where she could sleep off her hangover. She’d bring her home later, after Liz was better. We asked her if she was sure and she answered, oh, absolutely! That was when we left because we both had to get up early in the morning, me for work, Alex for a family thing!”

”Kyle, can you tell us what happened afterwards? I mean when you saw her next?” Nathan wanted to know. “Sure, I can, but it’s still very difficult to talk about it, so just let me muddle through it, ok?” Kyle begged his host. “Go ahead,” the actor said. By now the audience was deadly quiet and waited for the next revelations to come.

”You have to know that before this happened Alex and I weren’t really friends, we just shared a small house, you know, housemates? Anyway, as I said before, we both had to get up very early and drove through the outskirts of the city. On a lonely stretch we saw something lying on the sidewalk and Alex realized two things, one it was a person, and two, the wet and dirty dress look very much like the one Liz had worn to the party the night before.” Kyle faced his friend and both remembered that fateful morning…


04a, Alex and Kyle, POV’s , next Post...

[uw51]

04a, Alex and Kyle, POV’s
I really don’t like to think of the time when Alex and I found Liz, really, it’s just so fucking unbelievable. I guess now you wonder why I would think of it then. Well, just a few days ago I had to deal with child abuse and one of my pupils was the victim.

You see, I‘m a PE teacher at West Roswell High and I really like my kids. Well of course they’re not ‘my’ kids but that’s what I call my students. So, after I found out about my student Megan I reported everything to the authorities, as is the law. After that I made sure this girl was in a safe place and well taken care of. In these situations we’re really lucky that we have been able to build up a good and trusting working relationship with the authorities here in Roswell. That way I can be there for Megan whenever she needs me, but it’s still tough to handle all the pain these kids are put through. I’m just thankful that for Meg it hasn’t been as traumatic as it had been for our friend Liz.

Anyway, let me just tell you how we usually deal with the situation, when one of us gets hit with the ‘Lizzy-Blues’ or are faced with a Megan situation.
*~~*~~*
After I had taken care of my student I went to Alex’s house, I really needed his brand of help. It wasn’t that nobody else could help, no, but you see the thing is, Alex and I were together when we found Liz. That of course is a big plus when one of us is in dire need to come out of an oncoming depression.

You know, a long time ago we found out that if we don’t deal with the ‘Lizzy-Blues’ it just grows and takes on immense proportions. After we realized that, we started to deal with it as soon as possible, which means we sit down, rehash everything and drink an orange soda on the rocks. That’s Alex’s remedy for difficult talks and funky moods. Oh, and by the way, since we found Liz that morning, both of us never touched alcohol ever again, not even a beer. It’s actually quite strange, we never even talked about it, and we just did it.

You know, speaking of Liz, she was not just badly hurt by those bastards - five of them-, no she was also betrayed by people she trusted, her parents. Really they did their best to destroy her. I’m just very thankful that our girl is stronger than anybody ever thought possible and after all the shit they put her through she came out victoriously.

So, after we just sat for a bit and nursed our Orange Sodas on the rock, I addressed my friend and asked him, “isn’t it just absolutely amazing how Liz came through it all, Alex?”

Alex just nodded his consent. He was used to these melancholic ramblings I went through. Every once in a while both of us tended to remember and even though we went through those times less often than before, it still hurt and outraged us like on the first day. “Yeah, Kyle you’re right, but with the right help and friends she pulled through, isn’t that so?” Alex smiled consolingly, letting me know that he knew what I was going through.

”Alex, do you remember how I had to get you out of bed that day? I mean really, you’re not a morning person, not at all!” I remarked. “I know, but because I made us late we took that short cut, and because we took that shortcut we found Lizzy in time. I mean I still get nightmares picturing what could’ve happened to her if we hadn’t found her. I’m sure you remember what the doctor in the ER said, if she had been found a bit later, she wouldn’t have made it.”

I nodded and rambled on ”I remember that I was speeding, not much, but when your father is a cop, you better not get caught. At least that’s how it was with my dad. Anyway, as we drove through the deserted streets we suddenly saw something and you yelled at me to stop, pronto, and then you ordered me to backup and before the car had stopped you jumped out of it and ran to the bundle on the sidewalk.”

”I can still see how you panicked for a moment, but then suddenly you realized just how serious the situation was and you yelled at me to call the cops. Next you took of your coat and spread it over Liz. Boy was she a mess, she was hurt very badly. Luckily my dad was on duty and he was the one to take my call. He told me to stay put and not to disturb anything.”

Alex picked up, “that’s true, and after I covered her with my coat I decided to call her parents, I mean they had to know what had happened.” By now my friend was shaking his head as he continued, “anyway, it was her father who answered my call. I told him who I was and that we had found Liz, laying unconsciously on the sidewalk and that she seemed to be in a very bad state.”

Becoming really angry Alex needed to breathe deeply to calm down. When he felt better he continued, outraged he hissed, “you know what that bastard did? He calmly said, well she dishonored the family, now she can fend for herself. I repeated, truly, I repeated to him that Liz was in no way able to do anything that she was hurt very badly and he just hung up the phone! Can you imagine that? I mean, can you?”

When I saw that my friend had a hard time to calm down I picked up the thread, “remember, how the time seemed to crawl? Boy was I glad to hear the sirens that announced my dad’s arrival. I mean, I was just about ready to freak out big time, really, I was this close to loosing it!” I waved my hand in front of Alex’s face with my thumb and index finger almost touching, showing just how close I had been to loosing it.

”Yeah, well, I was even closer than that and fucking Chucky Parker didn’t help either!” It amazed me every time, how well mannered and easygoing Alex, who never used any swearwords, developed the most interesting vocabulary when talking about THEM.

I knew exactly what was coming next, it’s like a ritual, every time we start down this road, we can’t just stop at any given point, no, we have to go the whole, fucking painful way. The only thing that changed was who said what. And this time I picked up the telling, “you know, we were really lucky that my dad was the first one with us, because he is really quite good at all that first aid stuff and Liz really needed it, didn’t she?”

”Yeah, with all those idiotic drunks on the road, you know the ones I’m talking about, don’t you? The ones that think they can’t go to party and stay sober, but on the other hand they think they’re sober enough to drive a car. Idiots, the lot of them. Well it being New Year’s Eve and all that partying going on, all the ambulances were out and we needed one for Lizzy...” Alex’s rumbling petered out quietly.

”Well, as it was Dad helped us bring Liz to the ER and him being a sheriff and all really helped to get help fast, didn’t it? We were also really lucky that the first person we ran into was Maria. I can still see her, being new in the ER she felt a bit superfluous and she really jumped at the occasion to help us.”

”Maria DeLuca, now there’s a crazy chick, but I love her, she’s priceless! I remember when she rolled Liz away on that gurney I felt so angry, she looked so small laying there and she was so pale, I was convinced we were going to lose her. You know, I still get nightmares about that!” After shaking off these bad memories Alex poured us another Orange Soda on the rocks. We sat there for a moment, lost in our thoughts, sipping our drinks.
*~~*~~*
”I can never forget just how shocked we were that night, when first dad and later Maria showed up on our doorstep, telling us the most outrageous stories. Imagine, Carpenter, head of the ER, and Walters, dad’s boss and chief of police department of Albuquerque, both bribing them. I really had a hard time to believe that, but they sure as hell did.” I grouched while Alex was nodding in agreement. Again we shared a quiet moment, letting the past roll by.

On a perkier note my friend continued, “boy Maria sure is a quick thinker, just think if Carpenter had asked somebody else for help, we might’ve never heard about it. Yeah, and not just that, even though she was a newcomer there, Maria had realized that many of the other nurses had big crushes on him.” Now he started to chuckle, “I’ll be forever sorry that I didn’t get to see her acting skills. I mean that’s Maria we’re talking about!”

”I know,” I agreed and couldn’t stop myself from laughing, “when she realized what that ass was up to she decided to kiss it and play a dumb and admire the idiot! And you know what’s best of it? He bought it, Carpenter was conceited enough to believe her. And he did till the bitter end. Always asking Maria for favors, to do his dirty work, never guessing that she was on to him and his nasty tricks! And thanks to Maria we were able to nail him!”

By now Alex laughed outright, “Maria truly deserves an Oscar for her performance for all these years.” “Absolutely,” I agreed.
*~~*~~*
But that wasn’t all, not by a long shot! While we found out just what was going on with Carpenter and Walters, we had to figure out how to proceed. We couldn’t just go the police, after all Walters was the big boss from the Albuquerque police department. My dad then decided to go to his old boss in Roswell. Jose Ramirez, Chief of the police department of Roswell, wasn’t just my dad's ex boss, no he was also a very good friend, and in fact they went to school together.

In any case, my dad secretly visited Jose and asked his advice. They decided to get the opinion of another friend of theirs, Frank McCoy. Frank wasn’t just their friend, no he was also a very respected attorney and also son of the one and only Patrick McCoy attorney of state of New Mexico, stepbrother and good friend to the President of the USA. I mean, really who better to have on your side than that clan, I ask you?

Anyway, they decided to wait and see and collect, meaning, since Liz was too sick to give any testimony and Maria was watching over her, my dad, Jose and Frank figured it would be a good thing to observe Carpenter and Walter. See what would happen; see who was behind the change in their attitude. Plainly, they had been bribed, now we had to find out who’d done it!

Also, we had to try to convince the two C’s to do their duty by their daughter. My dad went by, talked with them, explained that Liz had been innocent, that she had been brutally raped, that she was the victim. He also told them that we had some suspects but we needed to do some more investigating. But most of all, Liz needed her parents. She was after all only 15 years old, still a minor. But nothing my dad told them changed their minds. After all they had it on good authority that Liz had brought this onto herself. So, no, they didn’t have a daughter any longer. ‘Bastards, both of them! They too had it coming!’

The Parkers never visited their daughter in the hospital they didn’t even call. In fact, they went to the bank and cancelled Liz’s accounts, accounts that her grandma Claudia had opened for Liz. Later we found out that there had been a lot of money in them, but Liz never knew. They even cancelled Liz’s health insurance can you believe that one?

Well, in the end it turned out to be much better this way for Liz, she got away from those terrible people and found herself a new family and many friends. But, let me assure you, at the time it was very hard for her. Well, not at first of course because she was in a really bad shape, those bastards overdosed the drugs for Liz and she almost died because of it. As it was, she had serious heart troubles for a long time. Besides that she was in deep shock, was seriously hurt everywhere you get hurt when you’re brutally raped and then some. I mean, really, there wasn’t an opening on Liz that hadn’t been violated. Her whole body was bruised and battered; it was hard to see her like that.

What was even worse to see was when she started to realize what was going on around her. I think that nobody was really able to get through to her, but Maria and her mom were able to make a dent, so to speak. Yeah, that’s true, Maria’s mom Amy DeLuca got involved too. Especially since Maria couldn’t be too open about her involvement, you know, because of Carpenter. After all, she was playing his faithful admirer. Those two women decided that it was ok for Amy to visit Liz, as long as Maria was complaining loudly about it, and complain she did and everybody in her vicinity got to hear it.

The only other visitor besides Amy was Hilda Koch, the housekeeper. But she was only allowed to come once, and since at that point we were all still hoping that Liz could return to her home, she followed that order. Oh, and of course Alex and I spent as much time with Lizzy as possible. She was usually very quiet, because talking hurt her throat. That was why Alex and I would bring our homework to her room, sometimes, if she was feeling well enough, she would help us, but mostly she just slept.
*~~*~~*
Since we knew with absolute certainty that Carpenter and Walters had been bribed, we decided to call our favorite professor Giulia Grossi, after all she had been the one to ask Alex to help Liz. Anyway, we knew we had to this secretly and I’m very glad to say that she reacted immediately. She came to our house, where my dad, Maria, Amy DeLuca and of course Alex and I were waiting for her. We showed her the proof we already had, the documents that Maria was asked to let disappear - and she did let them disappear, just not how Carpenter expected her to.

By now, dad was also able to tell her about chief Walters' involvement in all of this. Of course my dad also informed her how he had contacted his friends Jose and Frank and of our plans about catching those two cheaters ‘in flagranti’! After Giulia had recovered from the first shock she immediately wanted to know what she could do to help, aside from keeping an eye on Zan and Isabelle Evans and their friends. From that moment on Giulia was one of us too; she’s quite a gal, that one!

Professor Grossi insisted to become our very own sleuth at the university. She brought some additional help in the form of Peter Donovan our English Professor. Together they kept a close eye on Zan and co. observed their activities on campus. When Isabelle suddenly started to hang out with another young girl - this one was seventeen - and then brought her to hang out with Zan and the gang, Giulia informed us and we were able to help the girl before anything happened.

Well, when we heard about that one, my dad and Giulia visited the Jacksons, telling them all about Liz’s story. The parents, it seemed had already thought it strange for a student who was four years older than their LaVerne, to be so interested in their daughter. LaVerne had doubts; she couldn’t believe that someone as beautiful as Isabelle could be so rotten.

Anyway, since the teen had met Liz, seen her with her big baby bump, she decided to be more watchful and see what was really going on. She realised that Zan behaved strangely, made absurd comments about cherries and popping them. Not just that, he and his friend - only four of his five friends were still here, one had moved away - would stare at her, make her feel very uncomfortable. But the deciding factor to believe Isabelle’s duplicity was when she started to talk about sexual encounters, asking LaVerne if she’d had any. Of course she didn’t come right out with those questions, no, Isabelle made those comments sound so very harmless, if LaVerne hadn’t already been suspicious of the older girl, she wouldn’t have noticed it at all. As it was, our friend went to her parents and together they decided to get LaVerne out of harm’s way. She moved to live with one of her uncles.

Later they tried it one more time and let me tell you, they messed with the wrong girl. But I’m sure you’ll here all about Tess Harding and her stepbrother Jesse Ramirez a bit later!
*~~*~~*
I really got off track, didn’t I? I wanted to talk about Liz and how things progressed. Our little one stayed at the hospital for almost three weeks. Her parents never showed up and Hilda and Sparky only came once to bring a few of Liz’s belongings. Dad went by the Parkers, begged to reconsider, but to no avail.

When the time came for Liz to leave the hospital, Alex and I decided to take her in until we could come up with a better solution. Amy or Maria was always with her. But those bastards must’ve had us watched, because on Liz’s second day with us they started to harass us. Once they put a letter into our mailbox, addressed for Liz. We decided to open it, and boy were we glad we did, I’m sure if Liz had seen the contents of the envelope, she would’ve lost it completely. Apparently they had Liz’s whole nightmare on film and now they send her some very revealing pictures. Of course we gave those to dad, who passed them to his friend, Jose, Chief of the Roswell police department.

After that they would drive by our house, honking and yelling obscenities. On the third day they threw a rock though our living room window with a very threatening note tied around it. Thankfully my dad was with Jose and they suddenly realized that Chuck Parker and their friend Jeffrey Parker must’ve been somehow related. When I called dad about the ‘rock through the window’ incident, the two friends rushed over to Jeff’s and asked him if he was indeed related to Chuck.

We found out that, yes they were related, not by blood but by adoption. Jeff, to his great surprise heard for the first time that he had a nice and when my dad told him what had happened to Liz, Jeff rounded up his wife Nancy and his teenage son Sean and the three of them came to pick up our friend…

TBC

Thank you very much for reading my fic, please let me know what you think of it!

I'll post again in two weeks, till then take care

Chula

[uw51]

05, Intermezzo – Maria DeLuca and Amy and Jim Valenti
Being the good friend and host that Nathan was, he realised that Alex and Kyle were lost in their memories and now he had to change that, otherwise the mood of his guests would turn glum. Decidedly he clapped his hands and stood up. Addressing all of his company, Nathan said, “my friends, the time has come to make some room on our couches…”

True to form Mama Dee spoke up, “aahh, now we can go and sit in the back, don’t we sweetie?” “Right you are” Sarah agreed and smiled at her friend. Mama Dee, Hilda and Martha stood up and picked up their water glasses. “Just leave everything here, we’ll take care of it, Mama Dee,” Sarah stopped the older woman from cleaning up the tables. Not sure if she should believe that, Mama Dee looked at her hostess and seeing her smile reassuringly, Mama decided to accept her word.

Straightening up Mama Dee turned to her two friends who had to move to the back with her. Excitedly she informed them, “Hilda, Martha, just follow me, I was here earlier and I picked out the best table for us. You know, one where we can see and hear everything that’s going on!”

Laughing at their friends’ enthusiasm Martha and Hilda followed Mama Dee behind the seating arrangement. A spotlight was shining their way towards the back and they could see the seats in the back were arranged like a Bistro. There were a variety of small tables with two to four chairs around them. After the three ladies sat around the table of Mama Dee’s choice, a waitress in a CrashDown uniform brought them their drinks. The crowd went wild; seeing the familiar turquoise coloured uniform with the silvery alien-head-shaped apron and the antennas bobbing on the girl’s head had them all clapping and whistling boisterously.

On the couches Isabelle, Kyle and Alex too moved closer together, making room for the next guests.
*~~*~~*
This time Sarah joined her husband and together they crossed the stage to greet the new arrivals. Jim Valenti strode on stage, wearing his well-worn cowboy boots and his much loved Stetson. With him entered Amy his wife of two years and Maria DeLuca, his stepdaughter; both of them were flamboyantly dressed. A very enthusiastic crowd greeted them.

After the entire greeting, kissing and backslapping was done, they all moved over to the seating arrangement. Here Isabelle, Kyle and Alex greeted the three newcomers. After everybody was served their drinks and was comfortable, Nathan proudly yelled to the crowd, “has anybody here seen my last movie? You know ‘Danger Zone’? Where I played a cop?” hearing the noisy reply from the crowd he pointed towards Jim Valenti, and continued, “guess what? He showed me the ropes on being a good cop. I was his apprentice, so to speak!” Turning to Jim, Nathan asked, “now tell me honestly Jim, did I make a good cop?”

”Well, do you want the truth or should I be kind?” Jim joked. “I wasn’t that bad!” Nathan exclaimed offended. “No, surprisingly enough you were very convincing.” Valenti allowed and added, “in fact, I think you’d make a damn good cop! You ever want to join the force let me know, I’ll see what I can do!”

A lady from the audience yelled, “you’re a real hottie in uniform Nathan, you can be my cop anytime you want!” “Thank you Jody,” Nathan yelled back, “but I like my job too much, so don’t hold your breath waiting for me!” Jody acknowledged his joke with a wave of her hand and a big smile! Sarah too spoke up, “emm, Jody, you might want to clear that one with me first!”
*~~*~~*
”Alright, enough joking, we’re here for a reason, aren’t we?” Nathan stated and then he asked Jim, “as I remember you were the next one on the scene and to get involved in Liz’s life, isn’t that correct, Jim?”

”Yeah, that’s quite correct Nathan,” Jim responded. Nervously he lifted his Stetson from his head and turned it around and around in his hands. After scratching his eyebrow he picked up his explanation and said, “you know, when I received Kyle’s call I knew right away that whatever had happened had to be pretty bad, because he sounded really shaken up. So, I yelled for my partner, deputy Hanson and we ran for my cruiser, then I started the siren and raced to meet them.”

”You know, when Hanson called for an ambulance, we were informed that at the moment they were all out, you know, with it being New Years Eve and all, they had many accidents and one big crash on the interstate. So I relied on my first aid knowledge and checked out Liz’s injuries. I was very glad to see that she had no life threatening injuries but was suffering from hypothermia. She must’ve been laying on that cold wet sidewalk for some time. So Hanson and I secured the scene, took the necessary pictures and all that. After we carefully packed her in our cruiser and raced her to the ER.” “Once there, we saw all the commotion going on there, it was a crazy house, but all in all we were lucky enough to arrive just before the injured people from the big crash on the interstate were brought in.”

Sarah intercepted, “I remember, you have told us about that. You know, I still marvel about how everything seemed to come together,” here she stopped, not quite knowing how to proceed; after all, Sarah didn’t want to give the wrong impression of taking things lightly. Once she had mulled over her statement the hostess rephrased her report, “well, what I actually wanted to say is, as badly as Liz was hurt and betrayed before you guys got involved, now the right people came together to help her. I don’t know if this really makes any sense to you, but if you think about it I’m sure you’ll see it too.”

Nathan jumped into the discussion and supported his wife, “I understand what you’re saying Sarah. It’s like now Liz was in no position to look out for herself and had no one to rely on, you people took good care of her and made sure that she was well taken care of. Not just physically, no, when you realised what was going on you got active and made sure that in the end Liz would be protected and justice would be done!” “Exactly,” Sarah beamed at her husband and vigorously nodded her approval.

”I guess you both are right with your assessment of the situation. It was darnedest thing, the moment we raced into the parking loft of the ER there were Maria and this young doctor running out to meet us. Oh, by the way, the young doctor isn’t here, he doesn’t feel comfortable being in the spotlight but he knows just how highly we appreciate him.” Jim explained. “Well, anyway, a few more people were involved in taking care of Liz of course, at least until the injured people from the big crash were brought in.”

”I remember Alex, Kyle and I gave our statement to Maria and she noted everything very carefully. While they were taking care of Liz, the boys and I waited in the waiting room. Hanson had returned to station, after all, somebody had to hold down the fort, right? I called her parents, informed them of what had happened, but it didn’t make any difference. All they said was that they had it on very good authority that Liz brought this onto herself, that they didn’t have a daughter any longer. She had shamed the family and now she had to bear the consequences, then her father hung up on me.” Valenti was shaking his head, even now, after all this time he couldn’t understand their reaction.

Nathan turned and addressed Maria, “you were next one to see Liz, weren’t you?” after seeing her nod, he continued, “as I understand something happened that day and you contacted Alex and Kyle, isn’t that so, Maria?”

”You’re right Nathan. Actually it was my very first day in the ER, well, I had just moved from Roswell to Albuquerque and I didn’t know anybody, not really.” Laughingly Maria continued, “even though it was my first day, I had already noticed how all the nurses adored the big boss, you know, doctor Tony Carpenter. They’d blush and fawn over him, it was quite sickening, but what was even worse was the fact that Carpenter just lapped it all up as his due.” The young woman shook herself disgustedly and scorned, “eeeww, gross!” That exclamation got her a few good laughs from a very approving crowd.

”What happened next?” Sarah inquired. “Well, let me think… Oh, yeah, I had been instructed to assist the young doctor Jim just mentioned and so the two of us were waiting by the entrance, when suddenly the sheriff’s cruiser came screeching around the corner with his blue lights flashing and the sirens blaring. It was closely followed Kyle’s red Mustang. Then I saw them running towards the ER entrance, yelling for help and a gurney. By the way, that was how I met Alex and Kyle, well Jim and Liz too I guess, but she was totally out of it!”

”The doc and I immediately went into action and called a few others who were still waiting for the crash victims and together we took care of little Lizzy. We were doing everything correctly, the rape kid, the pictures, fixing her up. Oh, you should’ve seen her; her poor heart almost couldn’t take it. Imagine those cowardly bastards overdosed her, too much alcohol and too many drugs. We almost lost her twice that night.”

”While we were busily taking care of Liz, Carpenter showed up. After watching us for a few minutes he sent the doc and the others out and asked me to stay. While I continued to take care of her, he informed me that Liz hadn’t been raped, no, she had been a willing participant in the little orgy and then it had just gotten out of hand a bit. Of course I told him that I found this hard to believe. He insisted, saying he had it from a very trustworthy person. Then he grabbed Liz’s chart, looked through it and started to grumble about how badly the doc had filled it out, and anyway, there was no need for the rape kit, since all that proved was that there had been sexual intercourse and nobody denied that fact.”

Maria paused for a moment, hard pressed to keep her calm, after some deep breathing she continued, “you know, Carpenter started to alter the notes doc had put down. After a few minutes he suddenly stopped and said he’d like my help, because he could see that I was a trustworthy young lady and not given to spreading rumours.”

Chuckling evilly Maria added, “of course that statement sent off the alarm-bells in my head. Thinking fast I decided to play along and see what he wanted of me. I mean, really, if he wasn’t leading me on, I don’t know what he did. ‘Of course I’ll help you sir!’ I gushed and looked very admiringly at him. He looked at me and nodded, then he asked me if I could, you know…” Here Maria stopped, well aware of the fact that the crowd hated the suspense she put them though. When she thought enough time had passed she ended her sentence, “if I could get rid of the first chart - written by our young nameless doctor -, because it most definitely wouldn’t do if they got mixed up with the new, correct one. I asked him what he wanted me to do with it and he said ‘get rid of it’.”

”She sure did get rid of them, didn’t you Maria?” Amy threw in proudly. Still grinning Maria nodded her head and mumbled, “sure did!” Jim laughed out loud, “just not the way he expected!” Beaming at her daughter Amy Valenti informed them, “my Maria is a very smart girl, really, very smart, a quick thinker too. You want to know what she did with those charts? She let them disappear into her locker and that night she brought them to Alex and Kyle’s house, where she met up with the sheriff and handed him the documents over,” with a wink Amy added, “you know, for safe keeping.”

”Yeah, that evening, when I went to my son’s house, I really got a big surprise when Maria showed up too. She added her experiences to mine, as she told us her story of how Carpenter coaxed her into ‘helping’ him. That was the moment when I realised that this was bigger than just a corrupt chief of police. So we sat together and plotted our next steps. I called my friend Jose Ramirez, who is Chief of police in Roswell, explained our situation and from that moment on he was involved too. Actually, the next morning he came to visit us in Albuquerque and he brought our friend Frank McCoy…”

Loud whistles and catcalls interrupted the sheriff’s monologue. Grinning he turned towards the crowd and nodding explained, “yep, that’s right, our very own Frank McCoy, school friend to Jose and me, successful Attorney at Law, and nephew of the President of the USA”

Still grinning Jim continued, “let me tell you, it was like in the old times, the three of us together, except this time we weren’t the ones getting into any trouble! Oh no, we decided to make sure those bastards would get into trouble big time, they would pay, it might take some time, but they would get what they deserved!”

Jim was enjoying himself immensely. With sparkling eyes he declared, “you know, our little conspiracy started the moment Maria and I realised what Carpenter and Walters were doing. Before that, all we wanted was justice for Liz, you know, straightforward accusations and punishments for the six men who raped her and of course for Isabelle who was an accomplice. But as soon as we realised that there was a lot more going on than we thought, we decided to bring them all down and until I met up again with my friends Jose and Frankie we weren’t quite sure how we would accomplish that.”

After looking around the group assembled on the seating arrangement Valenti continued, “it was really strange, I mean the three of us have seen many injustices, crimes and whatnots, we weren’t hardened by it, but we knew how to deal with it. But the blatant disregard those men from ‘good’ family showed by brutalising Liz was just too much to accept. Even worse was that some fathers got involved too, bribed Carpenter and Walters, thus supporting their kids’ crimes. And then, let’s not forget Liz’s parents, well, I know you’ve already heard about them, so I won’t go into that again, except to say that Hilda decided to stay with them until we were able to bust them all.” At this point Jim looked at Hilda who was sitting in the ‘bistro’ and waved to her.

Sarah steered the talk in another direction by asking, “wasn’t that when you got involved too, Amy?” “Well, actually, Maria was so angry and upset that she called me the first night, right after she’d had her talk with Jim, Kyle and Alex. It was around one in the morning and she got me out of bed. The moment I heard her voice I knew something was wrong. You know, mothers can tell such things, right?” Smiling at her daughter Amy continued, “anyway, I could tell, she sounded on the verge of a major freak out. I just let her talk and as she rumbled along I found out that she wasn’t hurt, just upset. Let me tell you, I thanked all the lucky stars that she was alright!”

Maria started to laugh and injected, “yeah, mom’s first question was, ‘Maria, are you pregnant?’ and as soon as I assured her that that wasn’t the case, she was able to listen!” Amy felt the need to defend herself and said, “well, Maria, as you very well know I can talk from my own experience…” “Mom, stop! You don’t have to tell everybody your life’s story, after all, we are on national TV!” a red-faced Maria rudely interrupted her mom. Under her breath Maria grumbled, “five minutes, it only took mom five minutes before she managed to embarrass me! I just knew she’d do it. Once in a while it would be really nice to have a regular, run of the mill mom!” she was too embarrassed.

Her daughter’s interruption brought Amy back to the talk show and a little self-consciously she continued, “you’re right, we don’t need that, do we?” but then her mettle returned full force and decidedly Amy finished her tale, “of course, next day I drove to Albuquerque, talked with Maria, Jim and the boys and told them that I was going to be a part of it too. We decided that I could be the one to befriend Liz, since my Maria couldn’t, you know, her playing up to Carpenter and all that. And that’s exactly how I got involved in this story too!” proudly Amy ended her telling

”Yeah,” Jim summed up the events of that fateful time, “I remember that afternoon when Amy showed up. Maria had called her, told her of Liz’s situation and Amy went into the ‘Amy, fighter for the underdog’ mode, jumped into her old red Jetta and came barrelling all the way from Roswell to talk and reassure Liz, because as she put it, since Maria was - finger quotes - ‘working with Carpenter’ she couldn’t be too friendly with the girl. But it was very important that Liz knew that she wasn’t alone. Actually, for the same reason as Maria, I couldn’t visit Liz either unless it was official, appearance and all that! But the boys spent every free moment with her; they practically camped in her room, even did their homework there.”

continued next post...