Always Tomorrow (CC, Mature) - A Reunion's Endgame - Chapter 45 - Completed - 09/30/2020

[Parker1947]

“How,” Jake croaked as Camryn could see the color drain from her ex’s face and knew it was not going to be an easy discussion since she opened a package as she was packing up her office in Paris. It had been handed to her despite it being her last day, and she was physically packing up her office and finished with working stories as she planned take the summer to finish planning her wedding, and interview for the CNN job which wouldn’t start until the fall if she got it.

Then she got handed the package from the delivery person in their office. “It’s my last day Bobby, I don’t need anything…”

“Everyone else is busy, so they told me to hand this off to you and you can pass it off if it needs anything further,” Bobby said as he handed the package to Camryn, and she took it and sighed as she sat down at her desk and opened it and poured out the contents and found a UPS drive and a bunch of documents.

“What is this?” she murmured to herself and she went pale when she read the note.

“She stole your boyfriend, didn’t she?

You want payback, and to know just what she could offer Jake Guerin that you could not, take this and run with it.”

“Bobby” she called out to the passing delivery person. “Who said to give this to me?”

“I don’t know,” said Bobby as he left the office as Camryn sat down and inserted the drive, and up popped video files as she murmured to herself, “If this is about those pictures back in high school, I am not interested” she told herself but she saw something very different come on her screen, some old taped footage, and she squinted and then she saw Grace, “God”

And then another footage that looked like surveillance camera quality of fireworks, or it looked like it the day Elizabeth was located.

Then taped footage of the night that Grace got stabbed…

But the overall emphasis of the material was that Grace was not average, and Elizabeth was similar and there were two other younger teenagers in the park material that she gathered were Grace’s newfound sisters.

There was a note…

IF you want to expose her for the fraud she is, and how her family is not normal and should be exposed. Go ahead, and here is evidence the whole clan has run roughshod over the legal system and keeping their crimes away from justice. All because they have a connection in Jim Valenti.

Tell the world

*

“If I wasn’t on my last day and seriously pissed off someone thought they could use me against your family, we might be looking at something different but because I know you Jake, and I know your family. I wanted to warn you” Camryn murmured as she faced her ex and knew her friend didn’t deserve this.

Nicholas! Jake muttered to himself. This has all the earmarks. Just like he blackmailed my sister into being his slave in so many ways, “If he wasn’t already dead, then I would kill him, and you could report it.”

“Who?” Camryn murmured.

“The man who spearheaded the abuse my sister” Jake said. “He had something on her and used her and forced him to give him what he wanted. And this is example of it, and he was going at you to get at me and Grace.”

Camryn nodded.

“Look Camryn, about what you think you saw?” Jake asked.

“Here it is,” Camryn murmured as she handled her ex the flash drive. “I admit that it is hard to give up on a story, but I have long known your family was strange,” she laughed and Jake could only to a certain point as he waited for the other shoe to drop. “While you never were, but I saw the signs there, and then of course, I knew you were adopted.”

“Yeah,” Jake nodded.

“There were rumors around school for years about Grace. She always blended in, but there were moments when we were all younger,” Camryn asked because even though they had waited and dated in high school for those two years, she had gone back to elementary with Jake and had long known the Guerin family although she of course got close to them during the time she and Jake dated.

“Right,” Jake nodded.

“And your sister wasn’t always that subtle” Camryn admitted. “Especially when she was around your family home, away from the prying eyes and because I was dating you, well, I saw more than I probably should have at the time.”

“You never said anything,” Jake asked as sudden memories came to him of being around the family home, and how the younger generation were not as careful when they were behind closed doors. Behind closed doors, yeah my siblings didn’t know the art of being subtle He never had imagined that Camryn suspected, but now he wondered what he had opened their family to by allowing her to be in the house, and so open in their relationship.

Camryn could see Jake was tense and his mind was full of worry and she wanted to reassure him “Hey, I cared for you, and I knew your family was special. They were good to me, and so why would I rock the boat for you guys,” Camryn admitted as she he long knew the Guerin family, and it’s offshoots with Grace were something unique to their world, and yet it never really bothered her, and it made her protective for her former boyfriend and didn’t bother that Jake went on to be with Grace when she knew he had been harboring secret feelings from before their break up. It is not like I was thinking of Jake as the real thing Camryn mused. Robert was more the real thing, and that also did not work out. Now she knew what true love was with his fiance. “But Jake, if this gets out?”

“I know,” Jake murmured as he took the UPS drive from Camryn and stuck it in his computer and played it “Damn it,” he asked and then he wanted to faint when he saw the final video, of Elizabeth killing one of her captors with her green energy.

“Jake” Camryn murmured.

“I am okay,” Jake said as he wanted to throw up, as he still had nightmares about that day when they found Elizabeth and the horrors inflicted on her, and now to see that she was trying to fight back, and to see her being choked and treated like a rag doll, and taken away to even more horrors, and probably even worse than what she had already suffered to that point.

Just as the phone rang, and he chose to pick it up to try to get reprieve from the pain he had seen on his sister’s face.

*

Just what we need Max was thinking as he was meeting with Jake and Camryn who came over to show him what Camryn had revealed. “Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse” he murmured out loud as he got a look at the files as he was reminded of those flashes his sister and he had managed to achieve all that time ago, but to know it was being filmed. “Did that bastard have a camera on all the time?”

“In this day and age. You don’t even need a camera,” Camryn admitted as she had seen too much footage picked up by a simple phone.

“Unfortunately!”

“No kidding,” Max muttered as he was already confronted by the notion of today’s technology and what they could record as the door opened and in walked his daughter Grace and Sue who looked surprised to see Camryn.

“Grace,” Camryn murmured as she acknowledged the women.

“Camryn… You are a surprise, what are you doing here?” Grace asked as she looked at her husband who smiled as Grace looked over and saw Eva in the corner playing with some toys. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

“Neither was your husband,” Camryn laughed. “But I had something to share with him and it couldn’t wait?”

“Oh, what?” Grace asked.

“Nicholas dirty work…” Jake muttered as he could tell how his wife had been surprised to see Camryn and yet he did not know how they had come to be in her father’s office. “Wait, what are you doing here?”

“Sue got some intel on the computer. She’s still working on it, but we wanted to share some of what she was able to get off the laptop.” Grace murmured. “We called Maria and Michael and they should be here anytime. What is it Camryn?”

“Evidence of the family secret?” Jake murmured to the surprise of both Grace and Sue. “Camryn received a package at her job.”

“Old job?” Sue asked.

“I am unemployed, which helps us because if I had gotten the material while I was still being paid. I would have a more moral quandary in this, but I was never going to use what is on the tape. Your family means too much to me, and Jake does too so I was never going to use it to hurt you.”

“We appreciate it,” Max muttered not too many others would be as sensitive to their secret and would have blown the lid because of what it would have meant to explode their worlds as he closed the file on his computer as Camryn got up and let Sue sit down.

“I don’t get it,” Grace mumbled “How is there any footage of the you know secret?”

“Elizabeth indicated Nicholas had a lot of spies everywhere and camera’s or other methods to capture incriminating footage,” Max murmured as he ticked another reason why they might be better off revealing all to the public at large than trying to keep it a secret. “There is very little that can stay a secret these days” he muttered to himself as again he was weighing the reality of what his epiphany This what happens when your secret is not in your control, and thanked god that Camryn had come to them, and it still remained in their hands, and he knew they had gotten way too lucky.

Confronted on that front Grace went pale and knew how lucky they had been to have someone on their side. She knew she did not always trust Camryn and now she knew she had been wrong to be distrustful in those moments. “I guess it’s a giant thank you, Camryn” Grace murmured as it started to sink in. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that we exist in an age where anything can be picked up. Which is why we should be grateful at what was not caught on tape?” she muttered as she took her husband’s hand as they both gave each other support that they both needed.

“You are welcome….” Camryn sighed as she could tell how happy Jake and Grace were, and that made her happy as well. Something good has got to happen to this family “I hope you two can come to my wedding?”

“We will definitely try,” Grace murmured with a genuine smile. “More than try…”

“Obviously, it was Nicholas’s last attempt at revenge before everything went down with Elizabeth. He was hoping that Camryn would want to help his quest to bring us down” Jake murmured. “If any of the footage went public. The simplest ramification would be that they would look at us differently and that had to be his goal.”

“What’s on the laptop?” Max asked Sue.

“You have to see for yourself,” Sue murmured as she opened it up as Camryn said her good-byes and left the office.

“We got very lucky with her,” Jake murmured as he took his wife’s hand. “She knew our secrets all this time, and never told the world. She saw more than we thought she did at the time. So, yeah, we should definitely go to her wedding?”

“Yeah we should,” Grace nodded as curses were reigning down on the office as they got a close look into some of the files, and none of them liked what they saw as Max reached for his phone and texted off some notes to relevant parties, and made an additional call.

*

What’s on it?” Maria demanded as she and Michael walked into Max’s office not long after Max had sent his SOS as they were surprised to see Grace and Sue in the room as Sue was sitting at Max’s desk and looking at the laptop. They had talked a bit on the phone on the way over, so they were at least knowledgeable “What can you see?” she said as she nodded at Sue who stayed silent because she now knew that Colin had laid the news on his parents, and she was nervous to see them.

“Lots of files and many video files” Sue said softly. “Most of it is still encrypted and I have only managed to make it through a small portion so far…”

“What does that mean?” Michael asked as he pulled out another chair for his wife, who sat down while he paced.

“Let’s wait for Finn to get here,” Max sighed as his friends looked shocked.

“Why Finn, where is Isabel?” Maria muttered as she surveyed the room and saw her eldest son, his wife, and Sue.

“Business for the store,” Max said. “She’s away for the day” he sighed. “I’ll fill her in when she gets home tonight. “Unfortunately for us, and for him. Finn is in this this whether you like it or not,” he sighed again and knew he would have to drop some unpleasant information on his friends.

“Why would Finn matter to Nicholas’s schemes?” Maria asked looking up at her friend.

“It’s clear Nicholas was stock piling information on Finn, following him and conducting surveillance over the last few years.” Max revealed to the silent shock of the room.

“Why?” Michael asked as he stopped pacing and looked around the room and knowing faces and knew he was missing something important “Finn was only a small part of Elizabeth’s life that ended because of the kidnapping…”

“Nicholas like any villain would want any information they can gather. But in this case. It was the simple case that it appears Finn had meant a lot more to Elizabeth than anyone even knew,” Max sighed as he knew he was going to be revealing quite the bombshell. “Apparently, they still saw each other on occasion after the kidnapping, and once Elizabeth was home and recovering, and Nicholas had to have known and it made him nervous and therefore he was making Finn one of the targets”

“I don’t get it, why?” Maria said shocked that her daughter and Finn might still be seeing each other despite the breakup. I should not be surprised because sometimes a boy can get under your skin. Michael did mine despite our numerous breakups.

Grace nodded as she turned her father with a knowing face. “You might as well tell them…”

“Tell us what?” Michael asked.

“It turns out Finn is Emily and Drew’s biological father,” Max admitted to the shock of the room. “And before you ask, Elizabeth lied to Finn about Emily back in those days, and she disappeared before the pregnancy with Drew would have become known even to herself” he said softly as his friends looked at their friend with foreign expressions like they were completely shocked, and it hadn’t even crossed their minds.

“Elizabeth hasn’t explained her thinking to me, but I put two and two together yesterday when I saw Elizabeth and Finn have a moment and then when I saw the kids, I guessed it. It’s more prevalent in Drew these days…” Grace murmured.

“Mom and Dad, the name Andrew is also Finn’s father’s” Jake murmured to the office, and Maria felt like fainting if she was not already sitting down. “So, the thinking is that Elizabeth had a rather good feeling that with Drew that it was Finn, and really given the timing. He would likely be the only candidate.”

“Guys, I know how this must rock you, and to just blurt it out like this, I am sorry.” Max mumbled because this was one more disabling moment in a whole trilogy of them…

“Finn…” Maria asked.

“Yes,” Max nodded. “Apparently, they would hook up and they couldn’t totally quit each other from spending time together, but he apparently broke it off for a final time right before she disappeared at 18 because of her drug use.”

“Jeez, I guess that is the best alternative,” Maria allowed as she was forced to reckoned with the past while Michael remained silent. “Whose is Mick’s?”

“Elizabeth told me it’s some bodyguard of Nicholas,” Max sighed as she revealed and kept some of the facts to himself because knew his friends would want to know it “He’s dead…”

“Oh god,” Maria whispered.

“She claims it was a car accident,” Max nodded. “Innocent of any Nicholas involvement or so she believes. Anyways part of what Sue has been able to unencrypt so far involves Finn…”

“What about me?” Finn asked as he walked into the office as he had heard his name in the air and looked around the office. He had gone home after visiting Jake’s place, and had just about to head to library to focus on studying when he received the call from Max to come to his office. He immediately worried it was about Elizabeth, and now to come in and see the crowd, he had to wonder what it was all about…

“Finn,” Michael sighed. “It has been a long time…”

“Yeah,” Finn nodded. “If this is about Elizabeth and me,” he asked as he caught the stare from both of his ex’s parents. “All I wanted to do was help your daughter, and that goes for now, because I cared a lot for your daughter, and she has always been a part of my heart.”

“Really?” Michael asked.

“Max?” Jake asked as he tried to get his parents off the spell of interrogating the guy over his involvement with his sister as he knew he had done enough of that although he didn’t fault for wanting answers when they had been in the dark about just how involved Finn was with their daughter.
“We have been able to gain access to some of the files, and while there are hundreds. It is apparent from the intel we’re able to gather so far that you Finn are in numerous files as well as video files, and I thought you should be apprise of what is going on, so that you could be better prepared” Max muttered as Finn looked up and Michael focused on something other than wanting answers from his eldest daughter’s ex-boyfriend.

“Me?” Finn asked. “Isn’t the laptop that bastards. Why would he have anything about me?”

“There are some video files,” Max allowed as Maria winced at images coming to her mind as she tried to drive them out of her head. “They are of private nature, and I won’t show them to the whole office but as Elizabeth’s attorney, I needed to view them, but I figured you should know…”

“What to do you mean video…” Finn asked.

“Of an intimate nature,” Max allowed, and Finn’s face went red with outrage. “You can view them later if you want but it seems like Nicholas was conducting on surveillance on you, and filming a lot of it…”

“You mean, he filmed us, you know” asked an embarrassed Finn who then put down his head as Michael and Maria looked away as it became clear…

“Yes,” Max nodded. “It’s become clear to us that Nicholas had spies everywhere and he was collecting data with the intention of using it if the need ever came around and it is very apparent that even when Elizabeth was free of his influence, she was always under surveillance.” she sighed. “And that meant whoever she was with, was a target and that means you Finn, and I wanted you to know because we don’t know how many landmines that there are ready to explode at a moment’s notice and the fact Nicholas is dead now doesn’t change that…”

“Oh god,” Maria whispered.

“It might have been just to gain intelligence for blackmail purposes at a later date, but it could many other things like what happened with Jake in Boston…”

“Right?” Jake muttered.

“What happened to Jake in Boston?” Finn asked.

“Old lies came back to haunt and it affected my ability to get a job there, so eventually we came back…”

“Oh,” Finn sighed as he remembered the rumors that existed in the olden days.

“Now that Nicholas is dead, the bombs might not be triggered but we need to be aware which is what tripped us up in the past. We got blindsided once and we don’t want that to happen again, and because we were unprepared Elizabeth was hurt by that, and the other kids as well” Max sighed as he looked at his daughter who nodded.

“Why, I don’t get why would he want to film something like that…” Finn asked.

“To use as more blackmail if Elizabeth ever got out line,” Jake muttered. “As her husband he had power over her but still he would want as much as he could to make sure she stayed with him, because if she didn’t and tried to run then he had the ability to destroy people’s lives and would use it….”

“What are you talking about?” Finn asked, “They were married?”

“Haven’t you been following the media. It got revealed in court the other day?” Grace muttered as they all see the anger and the pain on both Michael and Maria’s face, as well as the angst on Jake.

“I have been sort of tuning it out because I have had a lot on my mind,” Finn sighed as Elizabeth would not leave his mind, and he had not really been focused on the newspapers or other media. “They were married?” he asked hurt.

“Yes,” Max admitted. “I am trying to dredge up information but apparently they were, and I already have filed annulment papers to try to get it off the public records, but to the authorities they were…”

“So…” Finn sighed as it was starting to grasp it.

“Elizabeth was blackmailed into it, using threats and drugs to make her marry him. It happened when she was still sixteen” Max sighed.

“But…but… that’s a crime?” Finn asked shocked. “Consent in this state is 17, and he’s so much…”

“Older, yeah” Max nodded as they were all are despite his baby face exterior, he was just as old as they were, which made it more revolting to everyone. “He used the blackmail material he had on family, and friends to make her agree to it so we’ll have to fight whether she was in the right mind to consent, if we’re forced to?”

“So if it leaks to the public anything about you Finn, then it might look like you and Elizabeth were cheating, and she was unfaithful and it will damage your reputation if we can’t prove that he’s a slime ball” Grace admitted as they all could guess that was Nicholas’ intention was to make Finn look bad, and Elizabeth an unfaithful slut who slept around on her husband, and who kept getting pregnant and either kept them, and therefore forced her husband to raise the bastards or aborted them.

“Sh!t” Sue cursed as she unlocked another file, and brought up the file.

“What?” Max asked.

“He knew she kept having abortions,” Sue revealed.

“So, what, it’s legal…” Max murmured.

“Another thing to make her look bad in public,” Grace thought. “She’ll look like she was being selective about which babies she was having. She didn’t mind having Finn’s,” she sighed as Finn eyes went wide, “but anyone else’s, she picked and chose” she sighed. “It will make her look like a slut, who slept around and wasn’t practicing safe sex, and was being careless and running a lot of risks.”

“He was drugging her…” Max sighed. “For god’s sake. Nicholas wanted her to get pregnant, but with his kid, and so he would never have used birth control and the drugs would have rendered it’s use ineffective”

“I’ll kill him” Michael vowed as Finn got an eyeful of just what kind of trouble his ex-had been forced to endure over the last five to seven years.

“He’s already dead” Max sighed.

“Then Elizabeth is not going down for bringing justice to this town…” Jake muttered as he tensed over how his sister had been used and abused as Sue unlocked another video file, and even she wanted to throw up…

“I am going to be sick,” she said as she got up and ran from the office. Grace ran after her.

“The baby?” Maria asked.

“Nope,” Max wanted to faint as he saw what was on the clip. “Much worse.”

[RoswellFan68]

Nicholas keeping haunting them from the grave.

[keepsmiling7]

Can't wait to find out what Max saw....

[Parker1947]

“You couldn’t have consented” Max was gently telling Elizabeth the next morning as they met in her room, as once everything broke off at his office the previous day Max was full of other cases for the rest of the day and wasn’t able to make it back to the hospital until this day, and he hadn’t relished having to reveal their findings to his client. Elizabeth had gone pale at the memories of those times, and how it had been captured. She was getting sick to her stomach at the knowledge of what had been on the computer. Given she knew Nicholas had been sadistic, she had known that there were likely tapes, but to know Nicholas was trailing her and had set up cameras to catch her with others, and especially Finn, it made her sick, and to know Finn was a target because of her also made her queasy and horrified. This was the last thing she wanted, and she tried to say she consented with whatever she signed, but Max was quick to say she couldn’t have with all the videos, as they were proof that she hadn’t been conscious enough to consent in many of them. What was done to her had been monstrous.

“If it was not all a crime anyways, some of them are clearly crimes Elizabeth,” Max sighed as he thought of the videos currently unlocked. Grace had raced after Sue and found out what her friend saw, and it made her want to throw up without even seeing them. “You were unconscious, drugged, and he was clearly being intimate with you…”

Which was what Elizabeth feared.

“And there were others who was using you while you were clearly in no condition to consent,” Max very gently told his client and she went pale. “It was a crime what was done to you…”

“Did Mom and Dad see them, or Jake?” Elizabeth feared

“No,” Max shook his head. “I made sure of that,” he sighed as he knew instantly that Michael and Maria could not handle seeing the images. “He was taping everything?”

“Oh god,” Elizabeth murmured. “I would have no escape, even if I had died, he could unleash everything…”

“Unfortunately,” Max nodded. “To give your parents even more misery than they would have been experiencing, and to taint your memory in the court of public of opinion. And to after Finn if that had been his intention,” he sighed as Elizabeth felt faint and the knowledge that Finn’s future had been at risk if any of those files had become public knowledge. “Sue’s working on more of the files…”

“It’s no use, it’s not going to help me” Elizabeth murmured as she felt sickened, and defeated, as if there was no hope at all… Nicholas is once again winning.

“It will, sure, maybe not all of it” Max sighed. “But the ones of the clear crimes that he was doing to you, and to others, like stalking Finn, and the fact he was taping it all and you didn’t consent to or know…”

“He was already stalking Belle?” Elizabeth murmured with a deep sigh only to be interrupted by a high pitch squeal at the door and they both whipped around and saw Maria and Belle at the door, with Emily looking at Max and Elizabeth…

“Mom, Belle…” Elizabeth sighed at the sight of her family, and the concern and fear on their faces, and then she paused when she saw Emily and she immediately saw Finn in her eyes, and a lot of Jake. “Emily…”

Emily nodded as she looked at Elizabeth, so different from the last time she seen her when she was passed out the year before in a hospital bed, and almost like the girl in the pictures she would look at in the family albums and wonder about because she hadn’t known the Elizabeth everyone remembered as she was too young when her biological mother went away “I wanted to see you. Mom agreed to bring me…”

Elizabeth as she looked at Maria who nodded and then glanced down at her youngest daughter and then at her old friend. “Max, can you keep an eye on Emily for a minute because obviously, I need to ask my daughter something?”

Max knowing what Maria wanted to discuss, nodded and checked the time and his phone “Actually, I need to check my messages anyways so, come on Emily, you can visit with your sister in a few minutes” as he took the hand of Emily and walked into the hallway of the hospital. Once the door was closed, Maria looked at Belle who furiously shook her head.

“Given that my name was mentioned; I am not leaving, and don’t I have a right to be here?” Belle demanded. “I am almost thirteen…”

“Unfortunately,” Maria sighed because it was one more reminder that her daughter was growing up, but yet she knew Belle had a right to know if only to show once more that her daughter needed to be careful with how far she push her need for independence This family has too many enemies to keep Belle totally in the dark Maria mused to herself because it was a recipe for disaster to keep her out of the room. “Fine. You are right that you probably should be listening to this”

“Look Mom,” Elizabeth sighed as her mother and sister fully came into the room, and the door closed to give them more privacy. “I am sorry you had to hear that way, or hear me say it at all” she murmured as she could see the concern on her mother and sister’s faces and knew this would give them even more to worry about despite Nicholas being dead. “There should have a better way to hear it and at the end of the day I really don’t know what Nicholas was planning because I only saw pictures of Belle. Which he could have had for any number of reasons, and I hate to think of them and I could only thinking the worst case scenario because with time and distance obviously I wouldn’t have been able to pick Belle out of lineup but for some reason when I saw the pictures, she seemed familiar to me and Nicholas happened to walk in on me looking at the pictures, and that escalated our final fight, which ended with him being dead. Good riddance…

“You were fighting about me?” Belle eyes went wide, as Maria became silent.

“I saw a collection of pictures. Of several girls, and one of them seemed familiar and now I know it was you Belle. When you came to see me in jail, I intuitively knew and back to that night. Once I saw the pictures, I jumped to conclusions and I confronted Nicholas on his plans, and he refused to acknowledge anything, and one thing led to another and blurted out that there was no baby, and that I had gotten rid of the baby that was, and once he knew I was telling the truth, well, he went for my throat, and I only had a moment to act, and I acted and he was dead by the end of it and the police were not that far off…”

“You killed him because of me?” Belle asked as her eyes went wild.

“Not just you. But I was not going to let him go after anyone and do to them what he had done to me, and so I snapped and that was before I found out about his complex surveillance tracking that he was doing on everyone The bastard. So, while I don’t know his intentions, I do know that the chances are he was going to act on whatever his endgame was if there had been a baby, and I knew I couldn’t let him do it as he had already taken too much from me, and from our family.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Maria as her mind swirled with activity as she was at a loss for words because to know how her daughter had prevented a great tragedy. Maria doubted Nicholas would have come after Emily, but she knew only how Belle on the other hand would have been an inviting target because she was Michael youngest and Michael’s blood, and that ran deep in Nicholas’ core to cause them pain.

“I have said it numerous times that I only was trying to save everyone from Nicholas even as I was sinking, and in the depths of the hold of the drugs, but I also fear that I ended up making it far worse” Elizabeth muttered.

“You saved lives,” Maria sighed as she could only think about what Max, Sue and Finn had seen on those video’s and the mere thought of them made her sick. “You sacrificed yourself for our family?”

“He also had a picture of what I now see is Emily” Elizabeth admitted as Maria’s eyes went out to the hallway which held the girl as she had somehow suspected if Nicholas was keeping surveillance of their family, that Emily had to be on his list. “I thought allowing her to be free from me, and from Nicholas when I gave her to you and Dad and now I know, he was everywhere and there was no where I could have gone, that he wouldn’t have seen…”

“I am sorry you have had to go through all this…” Maria murmured. “Alone, and without our support…”

Elizabeth nodded as she acknowledged the impact of it and looked down at her younger sister. “So, Belle trust me when I tell you that you need to be careful with where you go, and who you trust okay. Obviously, we can do a lot with our gifts, but there is a limit to where our talents or powers take us, and they do not always prevent the worst from happening. Nicholas was one of us. So, going against him made the torment only worse because he did have more power than I could ever have, and it is hard to fight against that.… Believe me, I want you to enjoy your life and be independent and take your abilities as far as they can take you, but you need to be careful. I was once you. I believed I was unsinkable. I learned that was not true. There are people out there who want to hurt us, and they might get to us if we’re not careful…” Elizabeth murmured as Belle nodded as she was beginning to see the depth of all that she missed out on because she was so young when her older sister was going through all this turmoil. “Nicholas is dead sure, but who’s to say there are not more like him,” she sighed as she glanced over at her mother. “I know Dad blames himself, but he shouldn’t. It is not his fault. He couldn’t have prevented what happened” she muttered. “No one could have prevented it.”

“Nicholas was in our grasp, and we let him go” Maria murmured as she knew that ate at Michael and Isabel because of their talk that night with Nicholas and allowing him to get away destroyed their family. “We should have arranged to pick you and Finn up. I was out that night, but I was home in time. Even if your father could not do it, I should have been able to pick you up…” she murmured. “You weren’t your brother. You were younger, and we knew the family was under attack if only by knowing what they did to Max and Liz, and then Grace. We should have protected you better…”

“I don’t blame you Mom,” Elizabeth murmured. “If you had tried to reign me in, I would have rebelled. You know me back then, and there was no way I would have thought I was in danger, or that Nicholas could come after me like that. I would have seen it as you did not want me dating Finn, not that you were trying to protect me. I know he wanted Grace, and if I could protect her, and protect you and Dad, and our whole clan. So be it.”

“That sacrifice cost you…” Maria cursed. “You paid with your life for seven years…”

“Nicholas is the only one to blame. None of you are. You would have protected us if you knew, and you did not”

“We should have seen it” Maria swore. “We’re your parents. We should have been there…”

“Hindsight is always the most glaring in the long-run. At the end of the day, I need to make peace with what did happen, and I can’t think about what could have been because that doesn’t help anyone.”

Maria nodded.

“I am ready to take my punishment Mom. Nicholas is dead, and I did it.”

“You’re not going to jail,” Maria murmured as she still prayed her words would be true. “Max is doing everything he can prevent it.”

Elizabeth wasn’t sure if Max could prevent it in the end but she was ready to face whatever was going to happen, and try to make something of her life given she did have a chance to make something of it as moments Emily walked into the room and she felt like she was staring a blast of the past when she looked at her as it was clear she resembled herself when she was young, and Finn in her eyes and her hair. It crystalized to her that for the sake of the children, she needed to make this chance work. She could not wallow in the past. She needed to figure out how to craft something that would matter. She was not going to quit on her family anymore…

“So, Emily” Elizabeth said softly. “You must have a lot of questions…” she murmured of the little girl who took Maria’s hand and grasped it. “I wish I could have been part of your life or known you these last years. But I am glad to finally get a chance to know you.”

“All I have to say,” the six-year-old said softly with an aura of determination that made Elizabeth smile and proud at the same time. “Thank you for giving me a chance with Mom and Dad” Emily murmured as she was aware of the circumstances of her birth and how her parents were biologically her grandparents. But they were Mom and Dad to her, and she loved them as such. “They are the best parents.”

“Yeah they are the best parents aren’t they” Elizabeth murmured as she glanced at her mother who smiled with tears in her eyes. “I will forever be grateful for what they did to me, and how they tried to help me. I just wish I could have been a better daughter to them, and that is why I knew because I could not give you the life you deserved. I knew Mom and Dad could give you that life, and I am just glad they took a chance on both of us…” Elizabeth sighed as she glanced at her mother, and Maria continued to have tears coming down her face because finally she felt like she was getting her daughter back. The darkness was lifting, and the clouds were not as suffocating. “Are you looking forward to the summer?” Elizabeth asked Emily as she ended endless seconds of speechlessness as they both felt awkward, and she was not sure how to express it with the girl.

Emily nodded as she looked around and saw evidence of them being in a hospital room. “So, can I ask. Are you okay?” she wondered as she knew of the stories on-line and knew the rumors at school because she had felt everyone looking at her because they knew that Elizabeth was her sister. Only her true friends knew the circumstances of her birth, so everyone else were just thinking Elizabeth as her sister who was accused of killing someone.

“I wasn’t but I am getting there” Elizabeth insisted as Maria started to really get a sense that her eldest daughter was maybe turning a corner and she prayed they would continue to have this chance to reconnect. “I know it’s going to be a process, and no matter what happens in the future. I know I am lucky to be here, and I am not going to take anything for granted anymore” she murmured as she looked at Belle who had been watching and like her mother, she was starting to wonder if she would get her sister back. She missed the Elizabeth she knew so many years ago. And maybe their family had a chance.

“You do look different than the last time I saw you…” Emily said quietly.

“When was that, because I only have memories of you when you were a tiny baby” Elizabeth asked as the last time she remembered Emily was as a baby before she left town and she couldn’t stop thinking of the baby girl who had twisted her finger around her own fingers and why she had stayed away from the house in the wake of the little girl’s birth because she didn’t like what she was feeling when she touched Emily or saw her eyes, and saw Finn.

“Last year when you were the hospital,” Emily said softly. “You looked out of it…”

“I was,” Elizabeth admitted as she looked at her mother as both remembered that scary time. “I know I put you and Dad through a lot and was a pain in the ass to the whole family so I will always be grateful that you took the boys in, and that you are looking out for them now, today. I could not provide for them. I needed to get them out of that apartment. I couldn’t handle knowing what I was doing to them, and I know how much I hurt you guys, so for you to take them in, thank you…”

“We’re all glad you’re doing better,” Maria nodded. “As you said, the past is the past. We have a chance to create something new, and we should be taking that chance and not thinking about those roads we didn’t take…” she murmured. “You are back where you belong.”

“I am finally seeing that yeah I am, aren’t I?” Elizabeth asked. “I am beginning to see so much differently…”

“We all do that” Maria smiled. “But you do have a chance now to do something with you chance…”

“I hope I will,” Elizabeth sighed as she wondered whether she now had a chance as Max watched them from the outside as he could see that hope was starting to creep back into his friend and he himself could see Maria was getting her miracle.

Max knew that Elizabeth still had a tough road before they could call this over, yet the road was clearing and the rocks were being removed as a text came in and he saw that it was from his wife, asking for him to come home and knowing this was his sign to leave…

So, he went home to his wife and his own miracle.

*

“Am I crazy to want this?” Beth was asking across town as she waited her husband to join her at home. Craziness, this is absolutely bonkers she mused to herself as she looked into the mirror up in the bedroom after she made the request for Max to come home. She knew Max had too much on his belt in his mission to save Elizabeth from prison. She knew to put this latest development on his shoulders was just asking for trouble and yet she wanted this badly… She needed this to work out. "Please, this is something that proves that god is our side, right?” she murmured as downstairs Max walked into the house as he pondered what would make Beth request that he come home because she had a busy office to manage and he needed to get over the prosecutor’s office to entice a deal out of them so that Elizabeth had a chance to get better and not be punished for a death that had done the world a favor. His gut told him that Lisa would eventually see the light that the victim in this case was not the dead one and in fact he had been the monster in their midst. So, he had an inner dialogue about what arguments he could use to get her to agree when he walked in the house

“Beth,” he called out into the house as he wondered why she was at home and not at the office.

“Max, up here” Beth called from upstairs as she was starting to feel confident as she heard the footsteps coming up the stairs as he could the commotion up the stairs. “I hope I didn’t take you from anything?” she murmured from the bathroom as she heard him entered their master bedroom from the scent he gave out that made her aware of him, and when he was in the vicinity, and he looked around and didn’t see any legitimate reason to be called home. Not that he did not want to see his wife, as he always craved seeing her, and spending time with her as these seven years have been the best of his life. “Is it the kids?”

“Oh, no, sorry if I made you worry. They are safe. Carrie and Naomi are still in Chicago and are planning on heading towards New York tomorrow and of course Alexandra is loving life in Washington.”

“A politician in the making,” Max laughed as much as he sometimes wished that Alexandra would come back to Roswell and one day take over the office from him one day or now that it was only him, for her to join his practice when she graduated as Phillip had had retired fully a few years before after spending a few extra years on the job. Stepping into retirement had been the right choice he would often tell his son. Instead of rushing into it, it had allowed him to spend time out of the house and given the developments in their world, the pressure was taken off Max until finally that day came. For the longest time, Max was fine with it, but these days made it apparent how busy his practice was. So, he still would like the opportunity to one day turn it over to Alexandra, but he knew his daughter was eying the legal side of legal side of politics these days and maybe actually politics one day. Although it did give a chuckle to think someone with their blood might one day serving in high office. So of course, he knew that opening their world to did have its risks, and Max would never do it if it ended up hurting his daughter’s chance at a future. Any of them for that matter, or his son.

“Where is Christopher?” Max asked.

“Birthday party and sleepover at Todd’s place” Beth called. “He won’t be home until tomorrow…”

“So,” Max asked confused as she stayed in the bathroom while he was in their bedroom. “Is something the matter, are you feeling sick?” he asked worried for his wife as he had just gotten her back and did not want to lose her.

“In a way,” Beth murmured as she laughed as the bizarreness of her situation came over her as she heard the concern in her husband’s eyes and voice. “You might want to look on the bed…”

Max turned and stopped short and with a sudden loss of breath as he picked up the item on the bed and looked at it, it read positive. Shocked speechless as the door opened and Beth walked out in one of his white shirts and looked breathtaking beautiful as she held her own, a second opinion.

“You… you are pregnant?” Max asked shocked

“Yes, we’re pregnant” Beth said with an easy laugh that immediately ease the tension in his belly as they both glanced at each other. “I know Max that it’s a surprise because we did say we were finished after Christopher?”

“Yes, we did,” Max smiled as the news cut through all the pain and heartache of recent days and was ray of sunlight in a dismal week. “And we are much older than we were?”

“And we already have a grandchild?” Beth admitted. “And maybe more eventually…”

“We do,” Max admitted as he knew his daughter would not be stopping at just Eva… and they had two other children who could be settling down any time now, even if Carrie insisted, she was happily single. “Plus, one who is finishing up Kindergarten and who is up to his own kind of mischief each day?”

“It makes no sense to want to do it all again,” Beth murmured.

“Yet,” Max murmured as he took his wife’s hands and glanced into his wife’s eyes and saw the girl he saw in third grade in the cupcake dress, and who he shouldn’t even be having a chance of this miracle with because of numerous life and death circumstances that should have left him dead, and then her, being lost to him for nearly fourteen years before getting her back seven years before…

“Well we did miss out on thirteen years of trying…” Beth said softly as she could almost read his mind and understand what he must be thinking as they both smiled as Max’s eyes went wide with a smile. “So, we were bound to have a surprise sprung on us” she murmured because their passion for each other held no bounds and it constantly surprised her to know much they craved each other, no matter how the years change as she started to unbutton his shirt and stood there in their bedroom gloriously naked as he approached. “I know we should be worried because of what is out there untapped or think this is the wrong time, but I am happy about this Max. In the sea of ugliness we have created something beautiful and precious” she said softy as they lean in for a kiss, and she moved her hands around her head as he picked her up and carried her to the bed, and laid her softly on the bed.

Carried away, ripping off his shirt and his pants followed, they were deeply immersed in each other as she softly kissed her stomach, and felt it and connected with their unborn and knew there was nothing they couldn’t accomplish together, “I love you Beth. I am not worried or regretful about this because this is a creation we made together, and I am happy about this” Max said as immediately they flashed to moments years before, as they both gasped at the meaning… as they saw the moment Liz had told Max that she was pregnant with the baby that would become Grace. “Max, I am pregnant” they heard in the fear and wonderment as Max immediately took her into his arms,” as current day Beth and Max looked at each other in amazement as they were served by the dual flash together as they were both rocked by it, as they kissed. Only to for more flashes to begin as they remembered back… “Gracie will have a big sister” came wonderment a year later as they looked at each other with utter joy only to be hampered by disappointment and tears with the loss of the pregnancy… and then they were rocked by more flashes of this time, Beth in the hospital bed, “Welcome back… To us you are a Jane Doe. We do not know who you are unfortunately but in the coming days, if you do not remember, you can always pick your own name one of these days. You are lucky to make it to this point because you have been in a two month coma Jane and you should know you’re pregnant with twins…Don’t fret because they are actually developing normally which is simply amazing and while you might deliver earlier than most due to complications from your accident. The babies are doing as well as can be expected” came the news to a shocked bandaged woman in a hospital bed, all alone... “Max” came her first words…

“Who is Max?”

“I don’t know” the Jane Doe in the hospital bed mumbled as a vision of Max slipped from her memory. “I don’t remember anything… Who am I?”

Current Day Max stared at Beth in amazement. He did not know what to say. Beth did not know either. “What was that…” he whispered.

“I don’t remember much of those early days,” Beth said honestly. “I don’t remember saying your name…”

“Those days were a haze,” Max recalled. “I barely could get of bed. In fact, both Jeff and Nancy as well as my parents took in Grace for the first few weeks because I could not get out of bed. All I remember is seeing you everywhere I looked, and I could hear you call out to me, and I thought I was going crazy. While Grace eventually came home, still I was living a ghost existence, and I felt myself going other places when I slept and the dreams, I had of you were vivid, and they seemed real. Finally, I felt like you were telling me to go on, to live for Grace and to wake up and be there for her…”

“Max,” Beth murmured as they kissed, as they embraced. “Maybe we were always with each other, telling the other one to live.”

“You were always my miracle…” as they found love in each other’s arms, “And we have another little miracle on the way,” as they celebrated their good fortune in bed for the rest of the day as they felt in another world and a cocoon of their own making.

[keepsmiling7]

I'm so glad Nicholas is dead, but hate what Elizabeth is going through right now.

[Parker1947]

After twenty-four hours of celebration, a relaxed and a remarkable happy Max was in the prosecutor’s office working on a deal or persuading her to give his client a chance at a new life. “I can’t tell you who it is,” he admitted of his source for the computer flash drive that contained most of the preliminary data that they hadn’t swiped off the laptop to save their group secrets. “I have more, but I am trying to verify it,” he lied because he knew Sue was still working on the remaining files.

“How do I trust this?” Lisa asked as she looked at the computer screen that Max stuck the drive into. “You have two people in Ms. Guerin’s immediate family within the Sheriff’s department. How do I know they didn’t compromise the data to make it look good on your client’s behalf?”

“You know as well as anyone that Jake Guerin has been off the case since his sister was arrested, and the Sheriff wants the case closed as much as anyone other than his granddaughter’s family. At the end of the day, you will have to trust us, but I can tell you that it came from a separate non- family source,” Max once again lied although Sue was not formally part of their large extended family as of yet. “But it’s legitimate, and while I know I can’t use it in court… which is why I came to you, you can definitely use it to see whether my client deserves to go to prison?”

“How do I know you haven’t wiped off data that could help my case?” Lisa asked once again.

“I guess you don’t, so on this one, you will have to trust me. It is proof that Ms. Guerin has gotten a raw deal, and at the end of the day the truth needs to be out. We’re not asking for her to escape any punishment, but we want what is fair… Look at the information and run it through your sources which is all we’re asking for and see if that if it’s legit than maybe we can work on a deal that gives us both what we want from this case” Max asked as he pulled up the videos and started to play.

And soon the stench of the unfathomable filled the office as it became clear to Max at least Elizabeth was a victim, plain and simple. “Verify this if you want, but we don’t think a trial is what is called for in this matter. Ms. Guerin obviously has issues, and she is trying to come out the other side and we would like for her to get the help she obviously needs. It is obvious the deceased assaulted her without her consent, and even with it, she was in such a position… and therefore she could not possibly have wanted what happened to her… You can see she is struggling, and she unconscious at times. That is the deceased in the videos, doing that to her…” he murmured as they could both see the deceased clearly on the screen. You could not see it and not see that it was indeed Nicholas.

“I’ll verify it and get back to you. If you have more, bring it to me” was all Lisa said as Max nodded and her stomach turned at the evidence she had just seen as she looked at Max who didn’t look like he was relishing this victory over her when all she was left was a developing splitting migraine and Max could only nod and left the office because he knew how this would complicate her case. And it was true, he didn’t relish this because it was messy, and he hated how messy it was, but he knew Elizabeth would be served by hospital care rather than spending her formative years in prison for a death that should have been committed by any number of other people, and not left to a traumatized victim of heinous abuse to commit.

“Daisy come in here please” Lisa said of her assistant once Max left her office. “Get me Heidi on the phone, down in the lab right away”

“Yes Ms. Redstone,” Daisy Foster said as she rushed out and connected her to the lab. “Heidi, I need you to check some files out for me pronto because I need to know if they have been tampered with,” she sighed. “Yes, I’ll send Daisy down with the evidence. You are not to let it out of your sight, and make sure there is no leaks whatsoever to the media, do you have me” she sighed as she again looked at the still on her screen.

“Shit” Lisa murmured as she assessed the collapsing of her case, and as she sent Daisy off with the evidence and was wanting to close up her office, and head home and just relax as her brain was trying to assure her that this could end up in a good way when she heard the door open. “I told you, I don’t want any visitors” she muttered when she looked up and saw her guest. “Who are you?”

“We have to talk about Elizabeth Guerin…” came the voice in the room.

“Now, what?” Lisa asked as she cursed hearing the name.

“You need to take her lawyer’s offer of a deal, and I just have the way you will do this?” said the woman who came into the office and stood before the prosecutor’s desk.

What is this hell? “Who are you?” Lisa asked. “How do you know there is even something on the table?”

“Agent Ava Stevens, FBI” Agent Stevens murmured as she handed her card the prosecutor. “We would love if you would prosecute Ms. Guerin to the ends of the laws if that was warranted but in this case, we both know that if the media got wind of half of what is known they would be presenting this in a different light. You know what I know and what Mr. Evans now knows. Ms. Guerin while she committed a horrible crime. She was a victim in this. You can say that we have been watching Elizabeth for some time and we need you to make a deal that allows us both to get what we want from the bastard’s death.”

“How do you know the victim?” Lisa asked.

“He’s not a victim. Guerin is. That material is proof enough. And yet we know you will need to see that she has some sort of punishment for her crime. So, how about we talk…” Agent Stevens murmured as she knew that it was her fault that this was going on as long as it had. It should have ended years ago, but it did not and now she had a chance to end it. “And see if we can strike some kind of deal that you can form with her lawyer to make sure you at least get out of this in one piece.”

“Tell me more, and then I’ll decide” Lisa murmured. “I am not ready to commit to anything until you tell me what is going on?”

“We need to talk about Los Angeles,” Agent Stevens started…

*

“Do you think she’ll bite?” Michael asked as he met with Max and Isabel for lunch at the Crashdown as he wanted to visit his daughter after lunch and he needed to get out of the house as he didn’t have his business anymore as it crashed and burned due to his bitterness over what happened to his daughter, and his will for work vanished and so he picked up odd jobs here and there to keep the bills paid but most of all they lived off Maria’s royalties from her books.

“She didn’t look happy and was pretty disgusted by the time we got to the end of the clips,” Max admitted. “So, she’s likely going to check it out and probably at the end of the day come up with something favorable to our side because even though we can’t use the computer if it does go to court, we can dig up other evidence that will support that Nicholas was a pretty bad guy, and not the saint of a victim she would want to take to a jury.”

“We can play it in the media if it’s not allowed in the court,” Isabel asked. “She will know the town will side with Elizabeth… and so if she wants to prevent that and keep some dignity when we can show clear cause to show that your daughter is clearly a victim and is only asking for help getting her life back in order”
Max nodded.

“I hope so,” Michael sighed. “We have a chance to get her back, and I don’t want to lose her again”

“You won’t, because something tells me Elizabeth is fighting all she can to rejoin the world again and to come back into our lives…” Max murmured as she felt the tides turning and a chance for the families to get back some of what they had lost on all fronts. “It will just be a matter of how she will be able to do that?”

“So, what has gotten you happy?” Isabel asked as she saw the joy sprouting from her brother, and knew it was not about the possibility of a decent deal for Elizabeth. “While I want to believe that it is the turn of Elizabeth’s case to something that might be positive for her, and for us yet I sense it’s something more. So, what’s up?”

“Beth is pregnant,” Max burst out to a shocked Isabel and Michael as she felt almost giddy at the news. “She told me yesterday,” he smiled at the celebration he and his wife had all the previous day as he knew he should be hesitant at the latest twist to his and Beth’s life, and yet he took this as a sign that they were closer to getting something out of this cruel world.

“Whoa,” Isabel murmured at the thought of her brother becoming a father once more. “You two?”

“We know Isabel,” Max laughed. “We know we are over 40 with a five-year-old and a grandchild…” Max batted back at the thought of the twists to his life. “Guys, I just know that this is meant to be, and in the middle of all this turmoil, it tells me everything is looking up. Nicholas tried to take us down, and he could not do it. I have Liz back. You Michael along with Maria have Elizabeth back in your life. Grace is happy with Jake and their little girl. Alexandra and Carrie are striving for their dreams. So, we have a chance to get back what we lost, and while we know it’s not perfect, still it’s better than what we have had for the last seven years therefore I am taking the opportunity to embrace what we have.”

“It does feel like the winds are dying down,” Michael allowed as he still was wary that things would work out given they had suffered seven years of unhappiness but knew Beth’s news was something positive, and knew for Max and Beth that this was legitimately something to celebrate given what they had lost once upon a time. “I am truly happy for you and Beth” Michael murmured as he prayed that Elizabeth could have a chance to establish her own dreams. “Colin and Sue’s wedding has been set for August 15th,” he sighed. “The week after Belle’s thirteenth birthday party.”

“Wow,” Isabel murmured. “So, life is really speeding ahead…”

Michael nodded and Max could sense the hesitation in his friend and knew it was because of the unknown. “You will get your daughter back on track, I promise” Max promised and knew he would do anything to fulfill it.

“I hope so,” Michael asked.

*

“A new baby?” Maria asked with surprise as she met Beth at the spa for a leisurely day of spa treatments with Beth and Serena, who was in town for the weekend. Beth and Serena’s friendship remained constant even after Beth moved fully back to New Mexico, and Serena and her family ultimately moved to Phoenix after Keith got a job offer from a firm there, and Serena switched over her practice, and was always spending the weekend in Roswell as the boys were getting older and did their own thing, when they were home from college themselves, and now with Beth’s recent news, Serena zipped over to Roswell for the weekend of friendship, as she and Maria had also become close friends due to their shared love for Beth despite Beth never fully returning to her life as Liz.

“it’s a shock,” Beth admitted. “But it seems right, and it will be nice for Christopher to have someone in the house closer to his age since now his older sisters are completely gone…”

“Does he know?” Serena asked.

“We told him this morning and he’s thrilled,” Beth smiled. “You should have seen his face. We’re waiting to tell the girls until Carrie’s officially in New York.”

“Well I can confirm that it’s definitely a different type of life,” Maria cracked. “Given I am speaking as someone with three under the age of 6 within my house.”

“I can’t wait, and it’s a new little person” Beth sighed. “I do know it’s weird given the baby will be younger than Eva, but it feels right…” she murmured as she had the same feeling that Max was getting over the news. “It is like the world is finally turning our way”

“I hope so,” Maria murmured.

“Max will make a deal,” Beth assured her friend. “You won’t have to worry because Elizabeth will get the help she needs, and she’ll get a chance to have a life again…”

“I do have hope,” Maria nodded. “I didn’t see them of course but those videos, the mere concept of them. To know my daughter had to go through all that… I thought when it happened with my son and Grace that it was bad, but this is just another level of horror, and to know she had to live through it.”

“She did survive it. At the end of the day, she is a Deluca and Guerin. She is strong. She might not see it, but she’s wouldn’t have made it if she hadn’t been your daughter, and Michael’s…”

“I know,” Maria sighed. “She has a strength to her, and I just pray she can see it…”

“How did Emily’s visit with her go?” Beth asked.

“Awkward but it was friendly,” Maria sighed. “She was a baby when Elizabeth disappeared, and Emily has been raised without her being a part of her life even though she knows the truth… but there is warmth there…”

“I am glad,” Serena smiled. “You guys got a rough deal. I never knew an enemy to want to take so much pleasure in inflicting pain. Starting with Beth’s accident and then to do what he did with Elizabeth?”

“We should have seen it coming,” Maria sighed. “But we missed the signs and therefore we just have to try to move and make a life with what we have, and unlike many in the world, well, we have a lot and we shouldn’t complain when we have a chance to move on.”

“It’s a time for the new, not the old,” Beth said. “There is another grandchild on the way for you and Michael, and Elizabeth is back in your life.”

“Don’t remind me,” Maria laughed. “I just hope Belle is drama free…”

“Knowing that girl, somehow I doubt it” Beth laughed as Maria groaned and started to laugh which lightened up the glow because they all knew Belle was going to be a challenge. “But I’ll pray on that one for you…”

*

Finn sat in the car and watched as Emily and Drew were playing outside of the Guerin home with a friend of Emily’s, and it was clear that the two were thick of thieves and having fun and he could tell that they were doing alright, and they both did seem to be happy in their surroundings as his thoughts turned back to their mother. Turning on his engine, he drove off and over to the hospital, arriving at Elizabeth’s hospital room as she was finishing lunch.

“Hey,” he smiled as he entered the room.

“Don’t you have school or work?” Elizabeth asked as she was surprised to see Finn staring at her as she paced the room, wondering if she would get a chance at a life outside these hospital walls.

“It’s the weekend,” Finn sighed. “How are you doing?”

“Better,” Elizabeth admitted as she could already tell that she was feeling freer and less stressed and she felt like she had a chance, no matter what ended up being her fate with the court. She had a chance to take her back and make it something to be proud of and she wanted to have that chance. “Max is meeting with the prosecutor today to see if there is a deal to be had by showing some of the evidence that they had found” she murmured as her mind full of fear of what had been one of the tapes “Finn, about what they found on that laptop?”

“I don’t blame you Elizabeth,” Finn murmured as he thought of the revolting stuff he had to witness being done to Elizabeth, and by using him to try to bring hurt to her family. “You had no idea what he was doing…”

“I knew he was a monster and I still allowed him into my life, and as result I wrecked your life…” Elizabeth asked as she sat down on the bed as she stared at Finn as memories washed over of a better time when so much was brighter, and she had great plans for herself.

“Elizabeth, my life is not wrecked. I have a great job, and I am planning on a great future and nothing I have learned in the last twenty-four or so hours has changed that from being true. The bastard is now dead, so what can he do to me, now?”

“You don’t know how vindictive he is Finn, and we don’t know what he has set to start before his death,” Elizabeth allowed as she had heard of what Camryn had been sent and knew that had been a landmine Nicholas had intended to go off and yet he hadn’t counted on Camryn’s affection for Jake and Grace. “I wish I never met him, and I definitely wish I hadn’t allowed myself to be blackmailed into being his wife. I would have a life now, but…”

“You have your chance now?” Finn asked. “You are not going to fail.”

“It might be out of your hands,” Elizabeth worried. “If only I had told you the truth, or come back…”

“You made the right decision about Emily. Neither of us were prepared back then, and even if you were in the right frame of mind, we both know the timing was not right to be able to raise her and therefore she is better off with your parents. She now has two parents who love her, and a whole extended family who gives her plenty of love and about Drew, I wish a lot of things but you have a chance to correct the past with your sons, and you will get that chance…”

“I almost didn’t. I almost died. I slit my wrists and I could be dead now…”

“But you are alive, and you have a chance. The devil is dead, and he cannot hurt you anymore. You have a right to what you deserve, and you shouldn’t lose out on that…”

Elizabeth murmured, “Finn you shouldn’t,” as he walked closer to her as she knew this was the last thing she should want when so much was up the air. “There is so much that is uncertain in my life. And even if it were not. My life has been suspended these last seven years, and still I might be going to prison. I could be spending significant years behind cement walls. Why would you want that in your life?” she asked. “Wanting anything with me is only asking more pain.”

“I am not leaving you,” Finn murmured. “I know what your future could be and yet I am not giving up on you, and I know your parents won’t either and about us. I am not pushing you. I am here for you. I can be a friend if that is all you want, and if you do not want to try at the end of the day. Still. I will still support you and you will not be losing me as a part of your life. I will be here for you. I am pretty confident that you will get a chance to see Drew and Mick grow up, okay?”

Elizabeth nodded as she prayed that his optimism had a chance of occurring as they leaned and kissed.

“Nicholas is gone” Finn murmured as he stepped back. “You won.”

Elizabeth wasn’t sure if she had won, but she knew she did have a chance to make sure Nicholas didn’t continue to define her, and that she had a chance to the person she knew she could be as they lean in for another kiss

Without realizing that her father had been witnessing it as he stopped in but turned around when he had seen his daughter and Finn today, and walked away feeling content that there might be a chance for his daughter after all.

*

Two months later

“It’s my understanding a deal has been reached between the defense and the prosecutor into the matter of Ms. Guerin,” the judge asked as the court was full as it was expected today’s hearing would be setting a court date, after a one month delay to make sure they came to the right agreement, and the court was busy, so this was the earliest they could arrange to meet in court. Word came that a deal had been struck and now they were waiting to hear it.

“Yes, your honor,” Max confirmed as Elizabeth sat by his side. As the whole extended family that now included Finn sat behind them, minus the smallest of the children.

“Ms. Redstone?” the judge asked.

“Yes, your honor” Lisa nodded as she got up and confirmed and handed the paperwork to the judge who looked it over and nodded.

“It’s been agreed to that Ms. Guerin will plead guilty in the death of the deceased, Nicholas Smith, and she will serve 18 months at the psych ward at New Mexico State Hospital where she will go under extensive in-patient treatment. At the conclusion of the treatment, if it’s decided that she is of sound mind and is able to take control of her affairs, she will then be allowed to be released and she will serve five years’ probation, and be barred from leaving the state for another five years. At the end of the in-patient treatment she will be allowed supervised visitation with her two minor children, Drew Jacob, and Michael James Guerin for additional year after her release before any discussion is allowed of any custody modification. That supervision will be conducted by the children’s grandparents Michael and Maria Guerin or their uncle Jacob Guerin. Ms. Guerin will live with her parents at the end of her treatment while she adjusts and because she will be allowed to live in the same residence of the minor children, she won’t be allowed to be alone with them during the period dictated by the agreement. Any changes in address will be immediately turned over to her probation officer. Do you agree to this deal?”

“Yes, your honor” Elizabeth nodded as she stood and faced the judge.

“We understand the prosecutor has evidence of severe harm done to you by the decease, and I am sorry about that, but we have a dead body and therefore I have to give you some punishment. Do you understand?”

“Yes, your honor” Elizabeth nodded. “I accept any additional penalties you decide to give to me. While I am not sorry for the fact the man who abused me is dead, I am sorry for the pain and torment my actions have given to the town and to my family. I admit to bad choices, and actions I regret to this day but I do want to get better to be able to a responsible parent to my sons, and so they know they can count on me…”

“Very well. Plea accepted, and the terms are as described. “But a warning Ms. Guerin, if you run into any more trouble… within the time period outlined in the deal that your lawyer has arranged with the prosecutor then you will be going to jail, do you understand?”

“Yes, your honor. I want my life back,” Elizabeth said defiantly. “I won’t be causing any more trouble.”

“Very well. As I understand it, your family has several special occasions upcoming that you want to attend, and the prosecutor has agreed the delay in the beginning of your sentence. As part of the agreement that you have struck with the other side allows you a two-week release, but no longer, as you will report to the state facility by midnight on the 16th of August, where the term of the deal will officially begin. You understand this?”

“Yes, your honor” Elizabeth nodded.

“As with any release into society. You will be wearing the ankle monitor, and you will not be allowed to go anywhere other than home and to the events in question. Any changes will have to be approved; do you understand?”

“Yes, your honor. Thank you very much” Elizabeth said with great pleasure as instead of being forced to go with the guards, she was then allowed to turn around and hug her parents and smile at Finn who smiled back. She turned back and was taken to holding while the paperwork was completed and a few hours later, she officially was in Max’s car driving home.

“Are you sure you are ready?” Max asked as he turned his face to face his client who faced a uncertain life from today on.

“Yes,” Elizabeth nodded as the last month had done wonders for her overall condition, and she was thrilled to be headed home, even if it was only for two weeks as she looked out at the open roads and felt the air of freedom for the first time seven years. “Thank you for helping me” she said softly. “You did not have to you know. I did not hurt my parents or my family. I hurt Grace with my actions?”

“Elizabeth, we all make mistakes and we learn from them. This is your chance. So, you are welcome,” Max said. “You have a shot not many get, so give it you’re all, okay?”

“I promise,” Elizabeth nodded as the car came to a stop, and she sat in the car outside her childhood home, and knew she was a very different person than the girl who stormed out in a huff five years ago, and got into the car and headed off with Nicholas. “If you want to talk to me about helping you with some of the scars or trying to get rid of the tattoos. Let me know” he murmured.

“I need to think about it,” Elizabeth murmured as she thought of the scars and the tattoo’s but that was for tomorrow. Today was about getting something back. Something that meant something much more. Max could see it.

“So that you know, the annulment was granted and is official,” Max revealed to the relief of his client. “So, you’re not legally tied to Nicholas anymore,” Max smiled, and she smiled back. “As I have said, you now have a chance, Elizabeth, so don’t blow it.”

“I won’t” Elizabeth swore as the door opened and both her parents walked out and there were tears in Maria’s eyes as she opened the door and walked down the pathway that led to her family, and she hugged both of her parents.

Maria mouthed, “Thank you” to Max who nodded and drove off and drove home to his own family.

*

AUTHOR's NOTE - To be continued....with more intrigue coming up. But I wanted to say THANK YOU to all those who are still with the story, or finding it for the first time. Commenting or lurking. I appreciate it.

I know it was dark. All I can say is I wrote this first half a year ago, when the angst and twisted world that I was writing was high, and I was feeling for a high level of angst for the fallout to Elizabeth's kidnapping. Time lessened it, and I thought I was finished, and this was the end, with a epilogue to say how things turned out. But I was wrong. What else is new with this trilogy. As time went on, the darkness and weight of these chapters told me it wasn't over. And I found myself elaborating on the future I planned, and I found the story wasn't over... And I brought the story of what Ava was is up to, and other good times... So, now we're getting in the fallout of everything. Elizabeth begins to start over. But there is more to known of her last months with Nicholas. And some complications within the story.... Can she be allowed to start over? And other developments: Some as simple of finding love or just dealing with the fallout of seven years of torment on the families, and what it meant to the families, and those so young at the time. So I wanted to say thank you... and hope you continue to enjoy this world...

[Parker1947]

“Mommy” came the words of a four-year-old as Drew who had been playing cards with both of his uncles, Liam and Colin as they were teaching the kid to play poker, albeit with mini marshmallows as the prize of the pot. Drew was learning the game quickly. Jake and Grace were watching with amusement as Liam claimed it would help his nephew with his education as he was due to be starting Kindergarten next month “Good job Drew,” Liam was saying “You never know when you will need these skills,” he laughed as the door opened.

Because they had all watched as Michael and Maria had left the house a few minutes ago and they knew what it meant. The clock on the wall told it more than anything because they knew that the time was coming. While the tiniest members of the family. The same couldn’t be said about the older of the multi generations of the family as they did know and moments later the front door open once again as the attention of the room shifted towards the door, as they all watched as Elizabeth walk into their home.

As Drew attention vanished from the game he was playing with his uncles when he saw the first glimpse of his mother. “Mommy,” he immediately whispered as he almost couldn’t believe it since it had been over a year since he last had seen his mother and yet she had been in his dreams, he wished for this day.

“Drew, my goodness” Elizabeth murmured as her little boy came running as she knelt and immediately picked him up and held him in her arms and felt the power of the embrace. “You have grown so much…” as she looked around and saw her brothers and Grace smiling as they witnessed the reunion.

“Welcome Home Elizabeth” said the banner that hung in the living room as she glanced at her family.

As they saw the banner, Elizabeth couldn’t help but look around the house and see the home that was a home to her for so long and had been held at a distance over the last five years and the two years before that as she battled her demons as she relished holding her little boy in her arms who was relishing the hug as she put him down, and yet he stood close to her as if not wanting to leave her side. Anyone could tell they had a good relationship despite the circumstances, and he loved his mom, and she loved him.

Just then the door opened from the kitchen and Isabel walked out with Mick in her arms and Elizabeth eyes were drawn to the little boy who was only a year a half now…

“He’s so big,” Elizabeth murmured as she could not believe that this was her chance after so much lost time. She had wished for this moment during those bad months where she was stuck with Nicholas and she had surrendered custody of the boys, and then in the hospital these past few months. She had even begun to dream that these past years where she was a mother, despite her circumstances was all a dream cooked up because of all the drugs and the mind control. But this was all a sign that no, this was all real, and that her sons were happy and healthy, and that her wishes for them at least had come to some reality. She could only pray she would have a future with them.

“They are both doing well,” Maria murmured as Isabel came over and smiled at her girl who was a niece to her and handed her Mick who looked up at his mother and smiled. “Drew starts school next month.”

Time flies she murmured as for Elizabeth; the months vanished. All the hurt and pain ceased to exist for the day, while still recognizing the time she had missed out on as she took Mick into her arms. She would never take this for granted, she swore. She would make them proud.

And for Michael and Maria as they watched the reunion. Michael took his wife in his arms as they both knew they had a chance at a miracle. Too much had been taken them and for once, the world was being righting themselves as they could sense things were different for the family, and for their daughter. They didn’t have to be on tender hooks waiting for the table to be taken out from under them as they witnessed as their eldest daughter was finally home as Elizabeth looked around at the home that she lost so many years before. She murmured to herself and then out loud. “It’s good to be home.”

“Mommy are you home now?” Drew asked as he looked up at his mother who looked around and saw a quite different home than she left so many years before and she did not know if she deserved so much happiness. She did not want to disappoint her son or cause him to have expectation that she would fail to meet. She had memories of too many times in the past that she had failed her sons.

“For now,” Elizabeth murmured to her eldest son as she smiled but assured her son. “I can’t promise tomorrow, but I can be with you for right now…”

“I just want you here with me,” Drew asked of his mother as Elizabeth as she looked at her parents and Jake and Grace. Michael and Maria sighed as they knew it was going to be hard for both Elizabeth and Drew to be together, and then for Elizabeth to leave again when her leave comes up, and she needed to report to the hospital, and the separation would even be harder now that they had a chance to see each other, and experience life together again.

“Drew, I want you to know that you and your brother are my only priority. I need to get better to be with you and Mick, okay” Elizabeth murmured as she hugged her son. “While I take that time to get healthier, and stronger so that I come home to you and your brother. I know that you and your brother will be well taken care of by your grandparents, and they will love you and make sure that you are safe” she murmured. “I know I can trust them.”

Tears could not help but come to Maria’s eyes as she took Michael’s hand, as they took the opportunity to revel in their chance for a miracle and a chance for their family to finally see some peace. “Why don’t you show me your toys or your room, okay?”

“Okay Mommy,” Drew murmured as the glow of seeing his mother had not worn off yet, as Drew pulled Elizabeth towards the stairs. Hell, with the judge’s directions on custody. Elizabeth muttered. I am not going anywhere. I need this. I need to know that my son is happy. Once they were gone, it was a chance for the unease in the room to lessen as hope was finally able to be released and to be wished for.

“I can’t believe she’s home,” Maria murmured out loud. “It still feels like a dream, as it’s been so long.”

“Well, it’s not a dream anymore. Because this is just the start,” Jake murmured as he thought of the challenges ahead, but knew he was taking what they had now as a win. A long overdue win. One seven years in the making. “We have to make her feel welcome.”

*

Upstairs, Elizabeth laughed as she saw Drew’s room which once was Jake’s old room which he had forfeited when he moved in with Grace over Max’s garage. Emily had shared Belle’s bedroom until Colin went off to university, and then Maria painted the room so that Emily could have her own room once Michael had renovated the basement into a larger suite that Liam and Colin would share when they would come home from university. With Drew having Jake’s old room and Mick being given Liam’s old room. “Look at all these toys. People must love you” she murmured to her son.

“Grandpa and Grandma are the best…” Drew sighed.

“They, aren’t they?” Elizabeth murmured as she took her son into her arms and picked him up. “I am sorry I have missed so much of your life,” she thought of the boy who was so close to turning five and she knew she had been given a gift in not only her sons, but in the knowledge that her parents had shown their love for her and accepted her sons, regardless of the time or how they came to be. For so much of her time in isolation she was certain they would not because she had hurt them so much, but they had made her start to believe once again.

“You are here now,” Drew said as he felt instantly peace in his mother’s arms as he looked up at his mother and voiced his fears. “That bad man has gone away, right?”

“Long gone,” Elizabeth assured Drew as she celebrated the departure of the devil and she didn’t care if she had to live with the fallout of her actions for the rest of her life as long as Nicholas was dead and she didn’t have to see him, or her children wouldn’t have to fear that man ever again. “I promise that man can never hurt you or Mick again, and you will never have to see him ever again.”

“Good,” Drew murmured. “He made me sad.”

“I know he did, and I am sorry about that” Elizabeth sighed because of the memories that reminded her of the apartment. “Which is why I knew that you would be safer with your grandparents. You and Mick need to be here, and Mommy needed to be where she was…”

“That man hurt you,” Drew asked fearfully.

“Yes, he did. At one time, but it is over, and you do not have think about that ever again, okay?” Elizabeth asked of her son. “All you need to know is I am getting better, and stronger for you and your brother okay?”

“Okay,” Drew smiled.

“When I go away, just know I am getting the help I need, okay?” Elizabeth murmured to her son as they looked out the window and she frowned when she saw a black car across the street, as it was obviously watching the house. She knew it had to be trouble, but she did not want anything to interrupt this reunion and she quickly tried to vanish that from her thoughts as she focused back on her son. “Let’s go back downstairs, okay?” she asked as they walked back downstairs. “What were you doing before I arrived?”

“Uncle Colin and Liam were showing me how to play poker,” Drew said proudly. “I was getting good. They tell me I am a real good bluffer”

“Of course, you are. You are after all a Guerin,” she cracked as she laughed at the thought of her young son being exposed to such a game by her brothers. “Knowing how to run a con, runs in the family…”

*

At Cow Patties, Max was waiting for his wife to meet him because despite not drinking. They wanted to be somewhere fun after some hard months. Carrie was newly back from New York after having a fun time in the big city and amid all the partying she was doing while Naomi was striking it big in New York. She had also made some great connections, and networking for when she graduated the following spring from Duke and yet she was back to working at the Crashdown and Cow Patties until she had to return to school in a few weeks’ time.

Alexandra was due back from Washington at the end of the week. Max was starting to feel settled, as if he finally had solid ground under his feet. So, while he waited for Beth to join him, he was treating the prosecutor to drinks after they made a promise to meet when the case concluded.

“I appreciate how accommodating you were,” Max murmured as they talked work. “I know it couldn’t have been easy to take the heat in the media,” he muttered as the news that Elizabeth was gaining a very generous deal had met with criticism in the press, but then the media didn’t know half the stuff they did know of the case. One day it would be revealed that Nicholas was the devil, but none they had to take the pounding in the press, and he knew they were fortunate for the deal they were able to strike.

“I do see Max that Ms. Guerin did get a raw deal as there was clear cut evidence of abuse. Still, I do not think she had to have gone to the lengths she did…10 shots Max… The scene was very bloody. She could have left…”

“Could she have?” Max asked. “You saw the same evidence I did, and there was no way she was going to get away. Lisa, given the abuse she suffered at his hands. 10 shots were too good for the bastard,” he said lethally as he knew if he had gotten a hand on Nicholas that he wouldn’t have been as merciful on the bastard. “After all he took from her, she snapped.”

“I think you don’t know your client as well you think you do Max,” Lisa murmured as she glanced at Max with a shake of her head, and she felt compelled to add “I think she portrays herself as weak, as someone who was pushed around by our victim, but I think she was stronger than she gives the impression of…”

“Bullshit,” Max murmured. “She’s a shell of the person she was as a teenager, before all this started. I knew her at fifteen and the girl we see today is nowhere close to that person. It is obvious he reduced her to be a shadow of her former self. Lisa, she has experienced hell, and she came through the fires.”

“Your client gave an award-winning performance I give you that and the evidence against the victim was vomit inducing so she did suffer, tremendously I am sure, but there is only a part of the story” Lisa murmured. “And it’s evident that you don’t know the rest of it”

“What do you know?” Max asked.

“Ask your client,” Lisa said. “At the end of the day she’s been sentenced and unless she steps out of the line, then I don’t have to deal with her but know that I didn’t go along with the sentence freely, but I had my hands tied.”

“Lisa, there is obviously something you want to tell me” Max asked as it was clear that the prosecutor knew more than she was telling and he had to wonder just what happened to bring the lawyer to the conclusion given anyone could see that Elizabeth had suffered at the hands of Nicholas. “You might as well tell me. If it involves my client, then shouldn’t I know?”

“Yes, you should, but it’s not my place to tell you. Talk to your client because I have said too much,” Lisa murmured. “I have to get home, thanks for the drinks” she said as she got up and left Max stewing about what she had said, which was her intention as Beth walked in at the same time, and smiled when she saw her husband, and approached but instantly could see he was troubled about something.

“I thought we were celebrating?” Beth murmured as she went in for a kiss, which she got, but she could see that his brain was working overtime for some reason. “Are you okay?”

“Sure,” Max said seemingly far away from his wife as Carrie who was on shift noticed the arrival of her mother and came with another drink for her father and a regular iced tea for her mother. As she was handing the drinks over to her parents. She could not help but see her father’s faraway look and knew trouble was in the offering “So, what’s up?” she asked of her parents as they both assessed Max. She and her sisters Alexandra and Grace thought it was hilarious that their parents were having another kid at their age. But Carrie supposed they did lose out on a lot of time together when she was younger, so it was only proper for them to have a delayed entrance in to being empty nesters. “Dad, what’s up?” she wondered, and she got her special powers tingling feeling like something was happening. Beth had largely left the powers to the younger generations, and to her husband and they did not know if Christopher was special. But he was coming to the age where they might because it had showed up in Belle when she was only six years old.

“Nothing that I want to think about today,” Max muttered as she came back to reality and smiled at his wife and daughter with more enthusiasm. “You’re right,” Max smiled as he successfully shook off the doom that had settled over his mood. “We’re celebrating on multiple fronts. Carrie’s back. Most of all the case is over. Alex will be back in a few days. Grace is working hard at becoming a doctor, and is happy with her personal life and finally and most important, the baby… So, everything else can wait for tomorrow because I have plans for tonight.”

“If you’re sure,” Beth murmured as she took the drink from her daughter as Carrie nodded and knew to leave it for her parents to deal with, as she watched her parents interact and she had always been able to see two people totally in sync with each other, and how coming together again after so many years apart was like connecting two pieces of a locket that was missing half of itself. Max and Beth had unfortunately seen that life could be cruel, and yet they knew they wouldn’t be able to be at peace with their life without the other, and together they made it evident to their children that everything would work out as long as they stuck together.

Which was the family’s motto. Stay together.

Carrie sometimes wished she could be like her sisters who had found the perfect ones on the first try. Like her parents. Grace and Jake had seen the cruelty of life and yet they made it through together and battled the forces together. Alexandra and Graham were nauseating in their perfectness together. She knew for a fact that Graham had a surprise coming for her sister one of these days. Because he had come to her seeking her advice, and she had given it, freely knowing that Graham was the right one for her twin sister. Although at the same time it did crystalized just how static she was in the romance department. She had embraced her single life in New York and most days she wanted to give up men, and just be single and alive. Because she knew not everyone could be as lucky as she was. So, she would party when she was not working or studying. But then the other side of herself yearned to happy, like her parents who were truly soulmates and Grace and Alex who had found the right ones for them. It seemed so far away for Carrie, and she did not know why she was so different from her parents or her siblings. But knew she was still young, and one of these days, she would find the right recipe for a happy life.

But that could wait for another day, so she decided to leave that rumination for another day as she went back to work, but because her brain was still preoccupied, she did not watch where she was walking. When she came back to reality, she called, “Watch it,” as she righted herself from making a fool of herself as she knocked into one of the patrons who was trying to walk past her. “Hey, shouldn’t you be looking where you’re going?” Carrie gritted.

“Shouldn’t you?” came a voice as Carrie looked up, stunned to see who it was because it rang so familiar and behold her shock when she saw someone she hadn’t seen in years, and yet he was instantly recognizable but it also clear that he didn’t recognize her… “Matthew?” she asked softly.

“Do I know you?” asked the man pulled his distracted eyes from another to the one who had been calling his name and found a pretty waitress, and yet she wasn’t someone who came to his head. Despite how hot she was looking. He knew he would remember this pretty of a woman if they had met. “I don’t think…” but he stopped.

“It’s me, Caroline Evans, you know Carrie from when I lived in Madison” she murmured as she saw a blast from her past. “Wow, Matthew Rogers. You are Serena’s son. Of all places, what are you doing here?”

“Carrie,” Matthew Rodgers asked astonished as he glanced at the brunette knockout in her short skirt as he lost interest in his drink. “Wait, you work here?” as he looked around Cow Patties as saw the bustling country establishment as it finally registered that he knew Carrie.

“Tonight at least,” Carrie laughed. “One of my side jobs to pay for school. I heard you were going to school out west?” she wondered as she remembered what she had heard of Serena’s son. While they had seen each other since Serena and Keith relocated to Phoenix. Still, it was not as often as they did when they all lived in Madison. “What are you doing in Roswell?”

“It is one of my buddy’s bachelor weekend. He liked the idea of coming to see where they say the aliens come from,” Matthew laughed. “Of course, they don’t how real they are,” he muttered as she laughed because of the infamous secret that the Rogers family were let in years before, and it was a joke among them over time. “Despite how real they are, I couldn’t help but tag along because I know how fun it to around here and I am also in the area because of Mom and Dad’s anniversary party next weekend. So, I am headed their way when this wraps up. For some reason, I didn’t connect that you would be back here because I thought you were at school?”

“I was. I then spent part of the summer in New York on an internship, but I always tend to find myself back here at my home base so that I can make some money before I head back to school” Carrie snarked. “Mom and Dad are quite happy to have me visit…”

“If you’re going to school, where do you go to these days?” Matthew asked as he felt himself drawn to his old friend from his childhood. They had not seen each other in years, and yet instantly he felt compelled by Carrie. She was a knockout now, and he couldn’t believe his luck in running into her when he thought he was only coming to this town because his buddy wanted a laugh for his bachelor weekend despite Matthew knowing aliens were indeed real. He and his brother always took at what Carrie and Alexandra could do or what they were as a lark, as it did not seem truly real to them. Just a crazy label their friends called themselves. But Serena took it a lot more seriously than her sons did though, and was always worried about her friend but could see that her best friend had found her soulmate in Max, and knew Max would die before he allowed anyone to hurt her friend, or their children.

“Duke University. Majoring in writing, publishing, and all that… yeah, wow, right, I remember your parents party is next week. I was planning on going. Alex is coming back in time, and then she and our parents will drive there together” Carrie laughed. “So, you’re attending UCLA, right?”

“Right,” Matthew nodded as was taken by the blast from the past. “If you’re at Duke. Where is Alex?”

“Washington for the summer” Carrie sighed. “We are pretty separate these days. She goes to Harvard.”

“Wow, you guys were pretty inseparable when you were young” Matthew laughed at the memories of the twins and their penchant for getting into mischief and little did they know that their quest for adventure would find them their father and unknown older sister. It was an unbelievable twist of fate as far as Matthew was concerned.

“What can I say, we grow up” Carrie laughed as she looked over at her parents who were in each other’s arms, dancing and totally in each other’s worlds as if no one else existed but them. “I do have to say that we did get lucky with our life.”

“You got your parents together, right?” Matthew asked. “So, how is it?”

“Yeah we sure did,” Carrie smiled. “It’s a different life than we had in Madison, but we wouldn’t trade it for anything. We now have a giant family in so many ways. So, I would not give it up. So, how is everything with you?”

“All is well. Been at school. Planning on studying medicine,” Matthew smiled.

“So, you want to follow your mother?” Carrie asked.

“In some ways, but I want to focus on sports medicine,” Matthew sighed as he heard his name being called and knew he had to get back to his friends. “I guess I have got to go. It was nice seeing you Carrie. If you are at the party next weekend, then I guess we will be seeing each other?

“Yeah, we might…” Carrie murmured as watched Matthew walk away as she muttered something to herself as a fellow waitress and friend, Yvette paused as she was walking by and seen Carrie’s interaction. “So, who was that. Carrie, he’s hot?”

“An old friend,” Carrie muttered as she had to admit herself that Matthew had indeed grown up to be incredibly attractive. When back in Madison, or even since that time when they had seen each other, he never came off like that to her. But, now, Wow she mused. “I haven’t seen him in a long time. My mother goes way back with his mother.”

“Well, sounds like you might like what you saw” Yvette asked.

“It’s nothing,” Carrie murmured as she tried to ignore the implications of seeing Matthew again. “He’s a family friend. I find that love is overrated. So, I am not looking for it. My sisters might be in love, but I’ll personally leave it,” she cracked. “Gotta get back to work, as it beckons.”

“So, you say,” Yvette laughed as she saw Carrie get back into the crowd and work the patrons as she soon was able to forget about her memorable encounter as she basked in the attention of the single guys.

She was single after all.

*

While across the room Max and Beth were having a memorable night of their own. A night to call their own. Christopher was at his parents for a sleepover. And for once Max was not working and they finally had to have a chance at a kid free night. They both did not know how they could get so lucky to be able to spend their life together. The fact they got a second chance was a miracle, and the fact they were successful in creating something together, even more so when they knew how not everyone had that same luck or opportunity so, they weren’t about to take it for granted. “You were always my miracle” Max mused as they danced.

“I don’t know how we make sense,” Beth murmured as they kissed. “I know I can’t see my life with you and the kids in it. I really do not know how I got through all those years without you in it. Our new little one only reinforces how lucky we are…”

“Grace and I were ghosts without you and the girls in our life. We existed. We managed but life did not have the same meaning without you in it. I will always be grateful to be given a chance at loving you again. And I will never forget what it was like not to have you, and I don’t plan on repeating that until we die together…” Max murmured as they kissed.

“I want everyone to feel what I feel for you,” Beth murmured.

“Maybe they will one day if they don’t have it now,” Max murmured as they looked over at Carrie playing the field as she worked, flirting with the guys, getting vocal if someone tried something she didn’t want. “She’s burnt, isn’t she?”

“Yeah,” Beth admitted. “I truthfully didn’t think Justin meant that much to her. I guess I was wrong…”

“One of these days” Max murmured. “One of these days she’ll be able to find someone who makes her as happy as you make me”

Signing, Beth could only hope that their daughter would find the happiness she deserves in whatever avenue she was lucky to find as she and Max walked over to the table, and sat down and watch the crowds, and the music play. Seeing her husband finally at ease, she could not help but wonder. “Max, can I ask, what got you so distracted when I was arriving?”

“Oh, it’s nothing…” Max murmured as he did not want to think about it. “Just nonsense and nothing we should be concerned with tonight.”

“It’s something, I feel it, so what was it?” Beth asked.

“I had drinks with Lisa, you know the prosecutor on Elizabeth’s case, and she let it slip that while she believes there was abuse. After all, given all the evidence, how could she deny it? Yet, still she thinks Elizabeth was putting on an act for us and that she was not as weak as she was portraying herself to me, and that she was a lot more of a willing actress in all this…”

“That’s ludicrous,” Beth spat. “Anyone looking at Elizabeth can tell she is a ghost of her former self. The idea she could be willing player in Nichola’s twisted version of “race warfare” as he was trying to breed a stronger little pawn to be given to Khivar,” she sighed at the idea of what Nicholas had done to their group over the years. “Max, he would have used our daughter if fate hadn’t stepped in his way.”

“Yeah,” Max still shuttered at the idea of Nicholas initially wanting Grace, and only took Elizabeth as a backup. But if their daughter had not been with Jake that night than both might have been taken, and who knows what would have happened then. But she was not, and Nicholas had used other methods in making sure Grace’s life was forever changed and unknown to them, he then continued to use Elizabeth when they thought she was free of it. And safe and at home. Only to find out he had blackmailed Elizabeth… “It was revenge against us and especially Michael.” Max murmured. “Going back to high school.”

“How could she think that way?” Beth asked.

“She doesn’t know what we know,” Max muttered as their secret society, and the burden at times at knowing things the general public simply didn’t know and in a lot of cases if they would know, then they would be looking at their whole clan differently. Did Max want this? “She also admitted that her hands were tied in accepting the deal and it’s terms regarding Elizabeth,” he murmured. “I have idea what that could mean.”

“Does she think Elizabeth knows more than she’s saying?” Beth asked.

“I have to say that she did know how to play a part back in the day. Which is why we did not see how badly she was getting until the end, and then she disappeared into Nicholas’ web. She made it seem that she was simply rebelling because of her parent’s separation as she recovered from Nicholas’s abuse. We did not know how bad the drugs were until Michael and Maria tried to get her help, and then she slipped away. So, she did know play a part so we would believe what she wanted us to believe…”

“But Max to think she was playing everyone?” Beth gasped. “I can’t believe she would have gone that far. Yes, she was giving the performance of life in convincing us that she was simply recovering, when it was spiraling deeper and harder to places, we could not even fathom. But, to think might have been a willing player in Nicholas’ scheme. I simply cannot believe that…”

“Well, she was looking at the rest of her life in jail. Or a good sizable of her future on the charges they had her on with the possibility they were going be upgraded. So, anyone would try to snow the authorities to try to get out of that if given the chance… When we were younger, we were downright fortunate with the fact they did not look at us and Michael, Isabel and me for some of the stuff we did” Max shuttered at the memories of all three of them being responsible for deaths. They all had blood on their hands. “And even when they did look at us. We figured out how to turn their heads away from our direction.”

“It’s still pretty hard to believe…” Beth sighed.

“I am not going to think about it. Tomorrow I will but tonight is our chance to spend together and I am not giving that up given we didn’t always have this chance.”

*

Beth smiled as they kissed again and went back out onto the dance floor and spent time together before finding them back at the house. “Max, oh my god, you didn’t?” she murmured as they walked into the bedroom and she saw the rose pedals on the bed, and on the bedside table. “They are simply gorgeous.”

“Well to me Beth. You are my perfect beauty” Max murmured as she took her in his arms. “You have given me so much…”

“I am not perfect Max,” Beth sighed as they kissed as she saw the chocolates on the bed. “It’s not our anniversary. So, what’s going on?”

“I have been busy these last weeks and I haven’t been able to spend as much time here at home with you and Christopher. And I figured I needed to show how much I love you and love our family and I know you have a craving for chocolate these days.”

“Yes, I am, especially tabasco flavored” Beth laughed as she saw they were exactly the kind that Max had gifted her. “But you don’t have to do this Max, because I know how much you love me and plus, I can see it every night we’re together” Beth said smiling as she enticed Max closer as they kissed. “You were busy because it was important, and it wasn’t without reason.”

“Still, I want you to always know you were my miracle and I am not taking them for granted,” Max murmured.

“Carrie, where is she going to be tonight?”

“She has the good grace,” Max laughed “To stay gone. After her shift, she is spending the night at Kylie and Michelle’s apartment. Referring to his nieces. Isabel’s daughters who were living on their own. Kylie was working model who got her first contract at sixteen and moved out on her own, and Michelle graduated early and was going to university at Las Cruces. They were living together, sharing an apartment and Alexandra and Carrie were known to stay there on occasion. “She knew how much I wanted tonight to be special.”

“Every night is special if it’s with you Max,” Beth said as she pushed Max onto the bed as she tore at his shirt and at the same time as she slipped out of her dress. “But it’s good she’s not going to be home because it’s going to get loud” she murmured as they relished the ability to be in each other’s arms as they both reveled in the passion they could only feel for the other.

And it did. The night was very loud and extremely passionate.

[keepsmiling7]

Great reunion for Elizabeth and her kids........for now.

[Parker1947]

The next morning dawned, and it was a new day over at the Guerin house. Elizabeth still felt defined by her past as her eyes opened and looked around her childhood bedroom as she saw everything in a suspended reality. Much like myself, she reflected. She knew no one had been allowed into her room while she was gone. The fact it had a lock on it also reflected that. It was like that it was the one room in the house that no one was able to open the door to. She saw they had not changed anything. The posters still said something about the girl she once was. While she had painted the bedroom black during her stoned period before she fled home. Still the posters from before her disappearance remained. She never wanted to get rid of them. Almost like she wanted to be the girl she was at fifteen despite being changed. So, she glanced around and saw a contrast of different eras. Smooth Elizabeth smooth. What were you thinking? she asked. I guess I was not thinking. she mused. I must have been stoned too much of the time, she asked herself.

She checked her phone and frowned at the text. She did not want to deal with what it read. So, she got up, and walked around the room and check the drawers and saw the clothes from when she was eighteen. Instead of the black she favored back then, goth and grunge. I really went dark she mused but instead of any of those clothes, she grabbed a truly old sweatshirt and pulled it on as her name “Elizabeth” she heard, and she knew it was her mother. She knew her mother would be worried.

“Yes, I am up” she replied as she opened the door and found her mother. “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” Maria smiled with a wide smile knowing that this was a dream come true for her to her little girl back in her home and yet she knew it would only be for a short time, but she was willing to take anything because she knew one day, Elizabeth would be back, for real. “I heard footsteps?”

“I was just looking around since it was so dark last night when I came into the room” Elizabeth murmured.

“Sorry about that because your father was meaning to look at the light. You can see that we hadn’t wanted to come in here since you know…” Maria murmured as she reflected at the fact, she and Michael had kept this room off limits to the family, and to themselves over these years. “We knew it had burnt out, and we should have fixed it when we knew you would be coming home.”

“It’s not like you knew until you knew, and it’s not like I am here long” Elizabeth murmured

“But you’re here now,” Maria murmured as she glanced at how grown her daughter was looking and knowing she was no longer the eighteen year old she had battled over the two years after her daughter was tortured in such an oppressive attack that had changed them and taken everything from their family. Elizabeth had not been the same. None of them had been the same.

But she was home now. She would take that as a first step to righting a terrible wrong as Maria glanced at her daughter as Elizabeth could feel the glaze on her and knew her mother had a right to wonder about her, today when she hadn’t been willing to change all those years before. She was now someone different than she was even at eighteen.

She knew that they all were different.

“You have two weeks here at home before…” Maria murmured unable to say it.

“Before I have to report to the warden” Elizabeth murmured. “It’s okay Mom, I need to get better. I need to prove to you guys that I am no longer the person I was five years ago. I need to prove to my sons that they can trust that I will be there to protect them, and I can only do that if I get better.”

“You don’t have to worry about proving anything to us” Maria murmured. “We know you aren’t who you were… None of us are…”

“You’re being too kind,” Elizabeth murmured as she could remember Belle’s rant and knew the many headaches that she had given her parents, and her family. “Are the kids up?”

“They are up,” Maria confirmed. “Jake and Grace came by and picked up Emily and Drew and took them to the Crashdown for breakfast with Eva. Belle is keeping an eye on Mick downstairs.”

Elizabeth nodded.

“Honey, you are home” Maria smiled as she saw it as a blessing. “Whatever happens, happens and it will always work out, okay?” as she turned around and walked out of the bedroom and it left Elizabeth to wonder just how her life would be now that she was back in her old world after so many lost years.

*

Downstairs Maria was feeling more confident in the light of day as Michael came in the backdoor from the backyard and garage. “She’s up” she murmured as she felt happy, and truly at peace for the first time in seven years. “You’re going to have to fix her light switch?”

“I know,” Michael could not help but nod as he stopped and assessed his wife and could tell she was different. The doom and gloom seemed to have been lifted from her shoulders, and she seemed to be lighter. “How is she?”

“Different,” Maria acknowledged. “She’s obviously older, but still she looks like the girl we knew at fifteen Michael. She wants a chance, and I hope she’s given that chance.”

Michael nodded.

“Michael, I am grateful that Max was able to the judge to allow her to come home until after the wedding,” Maria murmured. “She needs us, and she needs to see we’re here for her...”

“She needs to able to get used to having family around her again. She’s been away for too long,” Michael sighed as he was still getting used to the fact their daughter was home again and it was a reality that totally different than the life they had been forced to get used. “The kids will need to get used to having her in their lives again.”

“For Mick it will be the easiest because he’s so young. He doesn’t remember her,” Maria said sadly. “Drew remembers too much and yet he only wants to know his mother is okay, and she’ll be there for him.”

“And yet Drew doesn’t seem to hold it against him,” Michael murmured as they remembered how happy the boy was to see his mother, and how happy Elizabeth was to see her sons as it showed how much she loved them, and how much they loved their mother. “But she is going to have to leave again. Drew will have to deal with that, once again, after having to already learn to deal without her in his life. But to know that she is back, and then for her to leave again, it’s going to be hard for him.”

“But it won’t be permanently,” Maria muttered as she could only pray that her daughter would come back to them “She will be back, stronger than ever”

“Let’s hope” Michael also prayed because he knew they were in unchartered territory for both of them and he still had trouble believing they had this chance to start over as Belle came into the kitchen holding Mick’s hand and they knew Elizabeth’s return was going to have some real consequences for more than just herself and they had to make sure it worked out, not only for their daughter but for their grandchildren. “Breakfast?” he asked.

“Yes,” Belle nodded as moments later Elizabeth came downstairs wearing an old sweatshirt of hers that she had found in a drawer and they all were reminded that they existed in a different reality today than they were in yesterday.

“Good morning Dad,” Elizabeth smiled and in that instance Michael started to take on Maria’s aura of confidence because looking at her daughter this morning, it was almost like the girl they knew at fifteen was standing in the kitchen and yet Belle couldn’t help but stare at her mother and father and her older sister with a sense of wariness as if they were too easily allowing it to make sense when it still didn’t. She did not believe in Elizabeth’s return yet.

“Good morning” Michael murmured.

“How are the party plans?” Elizabeth asked her sister because she could tell that Belle still was reluctant to fully welcome her home.

“Coming along. Aunt Isabel has been a big help,” Belle said softly.

“I can’t wait to attend,” Elizabeth smiled and knew why her sister was still hesitant to believe she as back, and she just prayed that she had the chance to make it up to everyone, and to make them believe in her again.

Belle simply nodded.

*

Jake and Grace were having breakfast at the Crashdown with their daughter along with Emily and Drew as they wanted to lessen the anxiety of the first morning for his parents and Elizabeth and now, they were spending time in Grace’s grandparent’s establishment. Of course, little Eva was the star attraction as she was adored by her great grandparents, Jeff and Nancy and she was spending time in the back room with them for a visit while Jake and Grace had their breakfast with the other kids.

“Why Aunt Grace do you like tabasco sauce on your eggs and pancakes?” Drew asked as it still marveled him to see the custom at his grandparent’s home and now to see it action at the Crashdown. He also could not help but notice that Jake did not do it yet on occasion would put ketchup on his hash browns.

“It brings flavor” Grace laughed as she knew Drew was too young to know the meaning behind the custom and they didn’t know if he or his brother would prove to have any of the gifts their mother did. Eva might like her food spicy and sweet, but she had not gotten to the point of wanting to be a part of the tabasco sauce custom yet.

“Why do Grandpa and everyone else but you and Grandma do the same thing?” Drew asked of his uncle.

Because we are normal Jake cracked only to himself because he didn’t want to say something like that to a four-year-old because it would bring only more questions than they were prepared to answer in such an environment that they were in at the Crashdown. So, he went with “Everyone had their own tastes. You will learn for yourself as you grow up some of the quirks that we have as a family, and whether you will want to add yourself to any of them.”

“I guess,” Drew nodded as the door opened to the Crashdown and in walked Finn and Grace burst out laughing at the sight.

“What?” Jake and Drew asked of Grace.

“What are the odds?” Grace murmured as Finn was going for a table booth when he noticed Jake and Grace along with the kids and he stopped.

Finally, Jake realized Finn was in the restaurant and could not help but smile at the coincidence. “Yeah, what are the odds?” he remarked at the thought of Finn being in the same place as his two children.

Emily and Drew were oblivious to it but the adults in the room knew the circumstances. So, Grace acted. “I am going to see Grandma and Grandpa and to see how Eva is doing. You deal with this…” she smirked.

“Chicken” Jake called after his wife walked off in search of their daughter.

“Don’t you know it” Grace called back as she walked away, and Jake could only shake his head as his baby sister and nephew only looked at Jake strangely Adults are too weird, they thought together. “it’s alright,” Jake said as he tried to get the youngsters back into the swing of the meal as Finn did not know whether to approach.

Yet after an endless debate with himself, he did as Jake knew it had to be terrifying for Finn to want to come over and yet to know they did not know how it would go. Both knew Elizabeth would likely want this, and Finn did deserve to know at least Drew, Even, though to Jake, well, it was odd.

Too much of this was odd he muttered to himself.

“Finn,” Jake allowed to the twenty something who came over the table. “Morning.”

“Morning,” Finn said hesitantly. “Did I see Grace?”

“Yes,” Jake nodded honestly. “She is spending time in the back with our daughter and her grandparents” he murmured as Drew was now coloring in his book. Emily couldn’t help but watch his uncle and Finn talk with an increasing degree of interest, because Jake already knew that Emily had the capacity to catch onto things that they didn’t think the kid would be able to comprehend at her age. Elizabeth and Belle were like that Jake knew, just as he knew that this was an odd situation to be in.

Knowing he had to make some introductions. Sighing he turned to the kids. Drew was now looking up at the intrusion of someone else at the table. “Drew, this is a friend of you mothers. We all went to school together…” Jake murmured and at the talk of school and her older sister, the sister she didn’t know. Emily’s eyes immediately flocked to Finn, who felt the increased scrutiny as the girl assessed him with a look that unnerved him and made Jake chuckle. “His name is Finn Young.”

“Hello Emily, Drew” Finn murmured. “It’s nice to be introduced to you?”

“Yeah, hi, I guess” Emily murmured as she looked at her eldest brother who nodded, but neither said anything as she gave the newcomer to the table another withering assessing glance and Finn could see Elizabeth in Emily. “So, what, you knew my sister when she was in school?”

“Yes,” Finn said hesitantly as Jake nodded.

“I wish I had the chance to know her…” Emily murmured.

“You have a chance now,” Finn murmured. “I hear that she’s back?”

“Yeah…” Emily muttered.

“But she has to go away again,” Drew asked softly.

“Because your mother wants to be in your life. Yours and Mick’s. So, she needs to go somewhere where they can help her get a place where she can be in your lives, and she can be your mother again,” Jake murmured. “Right Finn?”

“Right,” Finn nodded as he could sense the awkwardness that reigned over the table and knew he needed to get away from it. “Well, I need to get going, so I’ll go place my order. I am sure that we’ll see each other some other time.”

“Oh, I am sure of it,” Jake nodded as he could see that it was all too much for the man, and he felt for the guy as Finn walked away. It was all so sudden and terrifying for all involved. “What is it?” he asked of his baby sister.

“So, what, he and Elizabeth were close in school, right?” Six-year-old Emily Guerin asked.

“Why do you ask,” Jake asked suspiciously of the child.

“It is just a sense I get,” Emily muttered.

“What kind of sense?” Jake asked of his sister as he did not relish wondering just how much his sister knew of this complexity.

“I could sense that he cares about Elizabeth a lot,” Emily muttered as she saw Finn looking at her as he waited at the counter for his order. “That is all that it is…” she murmured but she knew that it was not everything…

I hope that is all you see Jake muttered because the last thing they needed was Emily to exhibit any gifts at her age. They had already enough of it when Belle was younger and glowing up with too much regularity and showing her anger as her world slowly got dismantled.

At the counter Finn could not help but look back at Jake and the kids. So unreal he thought. That girl is so much like Elizabeth that it is crazy. The hair might be different. But she was Elizabeth to a tee, at a much earlier age.

“Finn,” came a familiar voice as he saw Grace Evans Guerin and her daughter come out of the back room, through the swinging doors as Grace had stopped at the sight of Finn at the counter and decided that she needed to say something, so she approached before returning to her family.

“It’s been a while Grace. Wow, Eva is growing so much these days,” Finn remarked on the small little girl in her mother’s arms, so much the combination of both of her parents but a lot of Jake these days. “How is school going?”

“I am still on hiatus but working at the hospital. It is very grueling, but I have the day off.”

“I am glad,” Finn said as he looked at the table again and Grace saw it.

“I know Finn that it has to be awkward for you. You are coming into this as a newcomer to all this, after so many years.” Grace murmured as she didn’t envy how difficult it must be for Finn to know what he knew, but not to be able to do say or do anything about it, and to not even know what to do because she could see that her was still in turmoil about it all. “One day it will be easier.”

“She’s so much like Elizabeth…” Finn commented as again he glanced at Emily who was now eating more of her eggs and hash browns.

“She’s growing more so” Grace remarked of her niece who could see the eyes on her and was now watching them with curiosity that unnerved them both because she knew Emily was too smart not to know something was up. “You don’t have to worry Finn. I know it is a strange situation but all you need to know is that she is happy. She’s pretty well adjusted for this bizarre life we’re all in…”

“I am glad,” Finn remarked as his order was finally ready, and placed in front of him. “Can you tell Elizabeth hello if you see her, okay. Tell her that I will try to see her sometime soon. Now that she is home, I know it’s going to be harder…”

“I am sure she would love for you to visit. She could use all the friends she can get, and it would be a break from all the family she’s going to be dealing and really Finn, I don’t think Michael and Maria would mind at all if you do stop by…”

“I guess I’ll think about it then,” Finn murmured.

“Do that” Grace said as she watched Finn walk out of the Crashdown. “Well Eva, be glad you have boring me and your Daddy for your parents because too many others don’t have the same fortune” she smirked as she took her daughter to join Jake and the kids as the finished their breakfasts.

*

Elizabeth was spending the morning touring her childhood house and seeing all the changes to it that had sprung up over the years. It was so different, and yet it was the same to her as she walked downstairs and saw it was renovated. “Wow,” she murmured as she saw the changes. “This would have been a blast to live in?”

“Who knows, it might be yours in the future,” Maria smiled as she came down and saw that Elizabeth was touring the house. “Sorry, I came down to say that your father has to go out, as it is something work related and I am headed to pick up Emily from the Crashdown because she has swim practice.”

“Go ahead,” Elizabeth murmured as it still unnerved her to be back in her childhood home after so much time in jail or a hospital room. Being home was a different life, and one she had not quite gotten a hold you. And yet knowing her situation, she was not going to take it for granted because it could be gone in a split second. “I am not going anywhere,” she muttered as she thought of the sentence that hung over her. “I couldn’t even if I wanted to” she snarked as she glanced down at her ankle monitor. “So, Mom, go. I’ll be fine.”

“If you’re sure…” Maria asked as she did not relish leaving her daughter on her first official day at home. “I could get your brother to take her?”

“I have to get used to being around here anyways” Elizabeth admitted as she glanced around the room and then back at her mother. “You don’t have to worry Mom; it will be fine.”

“Then I’ll be back later…” Maria murmured as they both looked around the basement and knew of all the changes that come over the house over the years, and how much Elizabeth had missed of it, and now it was like walking into a stranger’s home and yet it didn’t at the same time.

“Mom, why did you stop writing?” Elizabeth as she saw the different awards that her mother had won over the years for her writing hanging on the walls or in the glass case. “I couldn’t help notice in all that press about me, that you haven’t written anything in years?”

“All I can say is that I lost my motivation,” Maria murmured as she thought of how happy she had been to be in that world once upon a time, and when her daughter got taken. That world stopped being joyous and became too much “The world was simply too scary to write about, and I needed time away from it. So, I just stopped” she sighed as she thought of how happy she had been to write and because she wrote what she knew, it all got mixed up once the nightmares started and they nightmares never did stop. “My life became something else. I was too busy to write. It was good for a time.”

“I am sorry if I took that from you?” Elizabeth murmured.

Maria stopped from turning around to leave and glanced at her daughter. “Elizabeth, it was never you nor was even your father and the life you didn’t ask to be born into” she murmured as she thought one more time that all she took on when she met Max and Michael along with Isabel once Max saved Liz’s life in that shooting, and that came out of the pandora box that was open on that day in the Crashdown. The kids did not ask for any of it. They were born into it. They could not escape it, even if they had tried. “It was a life that became too much of a symbol of what I cost you.”

“Mom, I never hated being who I am” Elizabeth murmured. “I loved it. Jake was the normal one. But I never wanted to be him. I wanted to be me. I loved having the abilities I had. I just wished I hadn’t been stupid enough to fall into Nicholas’s web or speak up when I could have…” Elizabeth asked. “Or that I was smarter when I tried to run that day. If I had been more careful, I might have been able get free and instead Nicholas only upped the torture…”

Maria winced at the memories that came from what knew of Elizabeth’s captivity. “I was too brash. I should have been more cautious. I am sure if it had been Grace, she would have thought before she ran. I didn’t, and it cost me.”

“You tried to get free” Maria murmured. “You shouldn’t blame yourself.”

“I do,” Elizabeth murmured. “If only…” she asked before she stopped. “You were an amazing writer, and I hate that you had to give that up… because of me?”

“It wasn’t you,” Maria murmured. “It’s just I have different priorities now…”

“Maybe one day you will have the opportunity…” Elizabeth asked as she looked at her mother’s awards. “You would just be coming at it from a different perspective now, I guess…”

“I would,” Maria murmured as she did not think she could ever return to writing, especially since so much of her career was based on writing the life they knew. And the life they knew was just too dangerous, and she had conflicting feelings in relation to this life, as much as she loved her husband and her kids. It was not as carefree as it was when she was younger, and they did not know what they now knew “So, I’ll be back…”

Elizabeth nodded as she watched her mother walk away as she continued to look around and saw the last of the books that her mother wrote in the bookcase. She realized she did not remember it because it had been released during her dark period, and she had not paid enough attention to her mother’s writing. So, she opened it and saw the dedication. “To all my children… Jake, Elizabeth, Colin, Liam, Belle and Emily… You inspire me every day. To my husband Michael who brought me along on an adventure of a lifetime, full of ups and downs… I love you all!

And most of all to my eldest daughter Elizabeth. You have been forced to endure way too much in your short life. You are stronger than you know. One day you will see that.

Shaking her head at the memories of that time and all the grief she gave her parents in the wake of Nicholas’s attack. Putting back the book, she instead picked up the first book in her mother’s series, “Destiny”, and she found herself reading it and getting into the story more than when she was a kid and the books were created when there was a knock on the door, and a ring of the doorbell. Annoyed, she went upstairs, and went to the door. Everyone was out. Colin and Sue were together, planning for their wedding and baby. Liam was out with his new girlfriend, Stella. Belle was at a friend’s place. So, it was only her at home.

“Who is it?” Elizabeth muttered “If you are looking for my parents or my siblings, than you’re rudely going to be sorry because it’s the prodigal daughter who has returned” she sighed but she knew instantly the guest wasn’t for any of her family members but for her, and she willed the person to go away as she opened the door was startled into reality. “Oh, god, you.”

“Hello Elizabeth” came the voice. “Yes, it’s me. I figured it was time we had a little talk?”

“What are you doing here?” Elizabeth asked as she did not want this visit to take place but knew in the end that she would be powerless to prevent it. “Couldn’t this of waited?”

“We need to talk…” came the voice as she walked into the house and looked around and figured out that they were alone but needed assurances. “Are we alone?”

[Parker1947]

“I think you planned this Agent,” Elizabeth muttered moments later as she was forced to recalibrate her reaction to this intrusion. “You do know that you were not very subtle because I have seen your car out front or if it was not you, then it was one of your henchmen keeping wait and likely telling you when the coast is clear. So of course, yeah, I am alone,” she confirmed with a sigh of derision at the agent. “I know I don’t have any choice whether to let you into my home so, can you make this quick because who knows if it’s for long? Obviously, I have a large family who seems to call this place home… and any of them could be home at any time” Elizabeth asked. “Even better, can you come back, in say ten years?”

“No, because the matter we have to discuss can’t wait” said the woman further pushing into the house while walking past a very irritated Elizabeth. “And now is likely going to be as best of a chance as we will get” she muttered as she knew from their surveillance of the property, and knew this was risky, but it was also the only shot they would have to make inroads with their asset.

“Why are you here?” asked Elizabeth as she closed the door and prayed this would be quick but then she knew she had a few things to say to the woman herself, but it was worth a try. “This is my first day home. Could you do this some other time? You did not try to pay me a visit at the hospital, when you had the optimum opportunity for a lot of privacy. So, why is it so damn important to do it today when anyone can come home and interrupt?”

“I couldn’t visit you there without raising some flags,” said her visitor. “Because, do you know how hard it to get into that kind of facility, without questions being asked, so unfortunately we had to wait until you were between facilities,” muttered the visitor as she wished this wasn’t the place for this talk but it was the only chance she had before time got away from her. “Which by the way, was us. We were instrumental in allowing you time on the outside before you report to the hospital. Which is a gift to you.”

‘Some gift…” Elizabeth muttered as her annoyance at having her perfect return to her family home ruined became apparent.

“You better appreciate it because it will be over before you know it,” the visitor muttered at the lack of appreciation in Elizabeth. “But we knew it would have been worse once you were transferred to that State facility for your treatment.”

“Which sucks for you,” Elizabeth muttered as she folded her arms and looked at her visitor with massive amount of irritation. “I don’t see how this would matter to me. Am I supposed to say thank you for allowing me to come home? Because you can save the pleas for gratitude because I do not care if you were instrumental in me having time here at home because if it were not for your actions. I might have had a better time of it. I went to jail, and almost went to prison because of you, and even if I am lucky at the deal that was struck. Still, I am looking at the next couple of years of my life being separated from my family, and especially my kids and it’s all because you and the mess you created when you forced me to stay…”

The agent looking at Elizabeth and knew the girl was a lot stronger than she was eight months ago when all this started, and she was coming again into her own and the agent knew that it would be a challenge to deal with Guerin because of it. It had been better when she was weak and stoned most of the time. Getting her clean may have saved her life and was better for her in the long run but it made things more challenging for the agent because if you have someone who can fight back, well, it is always more difficult to persuade them to do things your way. “You are the one who shot him Elizabeth. We did not ask you to kill Nicholas. In fact, we would have rather he had stayed alive…”

“Right, so he could continue to torture me. And then ultimately kill me? Well, it was you who told me to stay, and to lie to him about the baby. You knew the chances of my living past my time bomb that was my lie would mean he would have killed me?”

“We would have gotten you out before that would have happened. We told you that we were almost there. That we needed a little more time. But you took it into your hands.”

“Yeah I did. I had to save my own life,” Elizabeth muttered as the time in the hospital had given her time to think, and being around her family for the last two months had allowed her a lot of insight and she had known she had made a lot of choices that had only hurt herself more, and didn’t solve anything. “I was lying to him Agent. He was going to kill me when he found out, and I was right, wasn’t I? If I had not done what I did, then I would be dead today and Nicholas would be out in the world gloating and all the work you claim you did would have been for naught. So, yeah, I saved my own damn life, no thanks to you… “she muttered. “I made sure I lived, and I made it possible that my family, and my kids would be safe” she groaned. “It wasn’t you. It was me…”

“That is stretching it Elizabeth because you knew that your kids were safe,” muttered the agent as she looked around the house. “They were having a rather good life here. Which is something we made sure of”

“I made sure of it, Agent. I called the tip to get the boys removed from my custody. Do you know how that broke my heart? Yet you knew where I was, and that I had kids in danger, and you didn’t lift a finger until it served your interests” Elizabeth muttered “And yet you also knew just as I did that if I was dead at Nicholas’ hands than my kids would have been his next target or even worse, my sister. Who I did not know was the target because how was I supposed to know what she looked like today, but something tells me that you knew? You knew he was tracking my sister. And even Emily? And you still forced me to stay with Nicholas when I could have been free?”

“Which is why you are lucky you are not in prison, right now. You got a rather good deal Elizabeth at the end of the day and I know that you know it. If it was not for me, then you would be in prison and not seeing your kids until they were teenagers, or even longer.”

“Which would still be a better life than sentencing my family to the knowledge that Nicholas was on the loose if I was dead,” Elizabeth muttered. “You know full well he wouldn’t have left them alone, especially if he had new targets in my younger sister or my first born”

“We would have saved you before that would have happened” the agent muttered. “We were almost there, and almost at the place in our investigation that we could have pulled you out.”

“How am I supposed to believe that when you didn’t do shit to get me out of Nicholas apartment of horrors until I took it into my own hands to get myself free. You kept me there because you said it would get you the long game. But I stayed, and you did not do anything to end it. In fact, something tells me it wasn’t going to be over until I was dead.”

“We were close to nailing him”

“You told me that eight months ago,” Elizabeth said with hatred. “How do you think it would have ended once he found out I was lying about the baby? You wanted him to kill me, didn’t you? So, your bosses would not know you could have caught him years ago. But you did not, and instead you kept me there, when you knew where I was. You did not tell my parents you knew where I was. That I was alive. You kept them thinking I was dead. Even thought if I were dead, he would have come after Belle…”

“We would have prevented that…”

“You didn’t prevent him from taking me, did you” Elizabeth asked. “You knew Grace was a target. You knew he took me. You knew he had me back under his web, tempting me with drugs, but you did shit. You didn’t tell anyone because you thought it would help your case if I turned up dead…” as years old resentment poured out of her mouth as she voiced long held suspicions that she had harbored since this whole thing started so many months prior.

“You knew if you stayed with Nicholas then that would have led us to his boss…”

“You kept telling me that but that was all a lie because you knew he was keeping me in that apartment, and not letting me out. How was I supposed to lead you to his boss? I think you were fine letting me be collateral damage because you did not want your bosses to truly know who you were… Or who the target was…”

“That is just downright silly.”

“Does your bosses know who you truly are…” Elizabeth asked.

“That is enough Elizabeth,” The agent muttered.

“That it’s not some drug supplier who I was supposed to lead you to. But an alien. Someone who is very much like you and me. Who comes from another world? They think you are on some federal drug trafficking case. But it’s really a cover for you take out a rogue alien.”

“Elizabeth”

“Better yet, I think you were teaming up with Nicholas?” Elizabeth spat as she knew she was just spitting out theories and praying one stuck as her visitor knew this was spiraling out of control because while Elizabeth was citing a lot of theories that were clearly half-baked, and yet some did hit the head of the truth, and it annoyed her but she didn’t realize she was going to have to explain herself, sooner than she would have liked when there was a loud bang behind them, and then loud voices.

“What is the hell going on here,” came a voice from behind them, which cause both Elizabeth and her visitor to spin behind them to find that they were not alone in this house anymore because they had company. Company that was her brother, Jake, and not only him because he was not alone but beside him was her Uncle Max, and her lawyer. Elizabeth was immediate comforted and yet her visitor was annoyed and that made Elizabeth happy to see. “Jake, is right,” came a startled Max when he was starting to see what they had walked into “What did we interrupt?”

“Jake. Max” Elizabeth murmured as her mouth almost twitched with delight to her guest’s frustration as the was truly getting out of control, as she tried to figure out how to spin it back towards her.

“Who is your guest Elizabeth…” Max asked as he glanced between Elizabeth and then the blonde who looked too familiar and too much like a barely scarred over scab in his soul.

“Hello Max…” said blonde in the room.

“Oh my god” Max gasped as horror came to his face as Jake and Elizabeth looked surprised to see that Max knew this person, and that the blonde knew Max. “It can’t be,” he asked as their uncle’s reaction started to clue in Jake as he did remember the old pictures of their parent’s high school days and did vaguely remember a blond among the midst of her parent’s environment.

“Tess…” Jake asked as he started to clue in.

“Tess is dead” Max and the blonde said in unison with same degree of tone and conviction.

“Then who are you?” Jake asked memories of the pictures he had seen of his parent’s time in high school and because of that, he remembered what Tess looked like, and therefore the agent’s resemblance to the terror in his wife’s parents early romance. “And why are you battling my sister?”

“Ava…” Max said softly as his brain worked to connect the truth and confirm his theory because he knew she couldn’t be Tess because there would be no way that Tess would be here today, alive, or wearing a federal badge, and gun in her holster for that matter. And yet pieces were starting to come together all at once in Max’s brain, and he did not like what he was starting to piece together.

“Yes, it’s Ava Stevens. I am not who you think of me as”

“Wait this is Tess’s dupe?” as sudden recognition came to Jake and Elizabeth as Jake swore, and Elizabeth went pale as she remembered the tales of how there was another group of duplicates of their father, Max and Isabel and even Tess. Two sets were sent to Earth when they were banished from their home planet Antar. One set landed in Roswell. Another set landed in New York and took a very New York tone to their looks, and they had a vastly different moral code than those who ended up bringing them to life. Anyways, New York set come to Roswell for a brief time to try get Max to go to New York for a planned Summit of the Alien Planets. Max’s duplicate, Zan had died at the hands of Michael and Isabel’s duplicates, Rath and Lonnie so that they could persuade Max to go to New York and take a deal that would allow everyone to go back to their home planet. But it did not end well. Max did not take the deal, which enraged Nicholas and sent him on his mission to bring pain to the Guerin and Evan households and he had created massive mayhem that led to Elizabeth’s torture and drug addiction. Bringing a lot of pain to the families. Anyways, Ava had not gone to New York and instead stayed in Roswell for a few days before striking a friendship with Liz before leaving town. She had disappeared and no one had seen or talked her for more than two decades until this blast from the past visit, and it was leaving Max shaken at the remembrance.

“Yeah. It is me Max, Ava. My married name is Stevens.”

“Wait, you are a federal agent… You of all people work for the FBI?” Max asked as he was stunned to think that someone like them could work for the federal government. And not any branch of the government but the branch of the authorities who had most wanted them dead, or at least incarcerated so they could perform inhuman testing.

“How did you know?” Ava cursed.

“I couldn’t help but raid your car” Max swore. “You weren’t careful. It was easy to discover who you were. So, what the hell are you doing here Ava and better yet, what do you want from Elizabeth, who is by the way my client and shouldn’t be getting pressured by federal agents without her lawyer in the room.”

“She was supposed to get me Nicholas…” Ava muttered. “But she killed him before we could arrest him…” she uttered to the shock of the room and Jake and Max. As the blame was being passed onto her, Elizabeth couldn’t help but be infuriated and even more pissed off at Ava, but she knew it would better to hold it in reserve for the time being as she let Ava continue to talk… “This isn’t how it was supposed to be…”

“How was it supposed to be?” Max asked.