Don't Give Up Forever (AU M/L TEEN) Ch. 21 07/19/05 [WIP]

[mattie788]

I am now a high school graduate, thank you for reading this after the long wait. I love the feedback, and we're getting cose to the end.



Chapter 21

Once again, Liz found herself at the train station. The June weather was already heating up and she knew it’d be another hot summer. Although the weather usually went from hot to warm.

They were waiting for Nancy and Jim Valenti. The Brightons were to be arriving the following week. Originally they had been planning on traveling together, but Liz had wanted time without her mother before she had a whole houseful of guests descended on her.

It was the first time she was out of the house since she had the twins and she already missed her children.

“Do you think the babies are ok?” Liz asked again.

“They’re fine.” Max reassured his young wife. “Plus, I think it’s good that we meet your mother here, show her that we’re ready to make amends.”

“Yes.” Liz still had no idea how she felt about her mother coming here again but she really had very little choice.

“Elizabeth.” Nancy saw her daughter standing next to her husband who was standing so protectively near her.

”Mama.” Liz greeted. “I hope the trip went well.”

Nancy looked like she was about to say something but then changed her mind. “Yes, it went well.” She improvised.

“I’m glad to hear that.” Liz answered. “Well, shall we get going, I’ve got two babies at home waiting to meet their grandmother and grandfather.”

“Yes.” Max led them outside.

”An automobile?” Nancy asked. “Surely you don’t mean for me to…” She broke off when she saw the pained expression on her daughter’s face. She had made a promise to herself to make amends with her one and only daughter. Her relationship was so strained and she wanted to change that.

“This should be interesting, I’ve never had the chance to ride in one, Max you drive it yourself?” She said instead.

Max and Jim both gave her an approving nod. Liz stepped up into the car with a confused expression on her face.

****

Liz rocked little Helena in her arms as she sat in the nursery. Her mother had opted for a lie down before doing anything else. Liz didn’t mind because she’d rather spend all her time with the twins anyway. Cassidy, Logan, and the Malloy children were also in the nursery.

“Look, Aunt Liz, Mary Sarah is taking steps.” Cassidy said excitedly.

The little girl was well on her way to walking. “Keep working with her, she’s doing well.” Liz said. She stood and retrieved Jacob from his crib when she heard him starting to fuss. “Hey, little one, Mama’s here.” Liz lifted the small boy. His hair was nothing more than a few thin wasps where his sister’s was full and curly.

Struggling to keep a tight grip on both babies she returned to the rocking chair and had just sat down when Nancy Parker entered.

”Hello, Mama.” Liz looked up at her mother. She had been really worried about how her mother would react to the full nursery and most importantly to the Malloy girls.

“Quite a full nursery you have here.”

“Yes.” Liz stated looking around. “These two are mine. Cassidy is with neighbor children who like to hang around here.”

“So these are my newest grandchildren?” She walked over to the trio.

“Yes.” Liz couldn’t help but beam her pride at the two month old babies on her lap. “Jacob and Helena, meet your grandmamma.”

“Elizabeth, they’re darling.” She said and stepped towards them. “May I hold one?”

“Yes, of course.” Liz said. “Take Helena, she just ate and should be happy for a little while longer.”

“I love what you’ve done with the nursery.” She sat in the other rocker. “Most women have centuries behind them of nursery work but you started from scratch.”

“The cradle Jacob sleeps in was Max’s.” Liz said as she watched her little boy. He smiled up at her, his grin as fatal as his father’s and he was barely two months. “Everything else we had to order new.”

“Hello, grandmamma.” Cassidy stood next to the chair.

“Cassidy.” She said, looking up at her granddaughter. “You’ve grown quite a bit, haven’t you?”

“Yes. Helena likes it when you do this.” Cassidy stroked her index finger under the little girl’s chin and she let out a huge grin.

“Who are these other children, Liz?” Nancy asked obviously trying to make conversation.

“They’re Mr. Malloy’s little girls.” Cassidy answered.

“Malloy?” Nancy asked.

“Sean, Mama.” Liz explained. “He moved out here a few months ago and has made it quite well on his own. His daughters had an…incident with their nanny and so they stay with us sometimes.”

“Sean Malloy.” Nancy said with wonder.

“Yes.” Liz stood when Jacob began to fuss and began pacing the floor. “He’s been getting along quite well here, you heard about his wife?”

“Yes. Is he looking for another wife?”

”He’s thinking on it, for those two.” She nodded at the girls. “I think he’s already found one nice lady.”

“I’m sure there’s plenty of women that would.”

“Yes, but this one’s special.” Liz said as she laid Jacob down.

“Who?” Nancy asked curious.

“Nellie Brighton.” Liz smiled and turned. “Now I’ve got to go down to the clinic. You’re welcome to stay here or do whatever.”

“I’ll be fine, I have plenty of grandchildren around.

“Ok.” Liz smiled and left the room.

****

“Oh, Miss Brighton.” Sean said startled. He had gone up to the nursery to check on the children. He had hired a new nurse, even though the children spent most of their day at the Evans. “I wasn’t expecting you here, in my daughter’s nursery.”

She had been around in the past month and a half. More than he ever thought to see her. It was so natural to see her here, in his nursery, holding his daughters, that when he had first walked in he hadn’t noticed anything out of place. At first it had annoyed him, then she became so regular he began to expect it, then want it.

Then he needed it.

“I brought them home this evening and Mary Sarah was a little fussy so I stayed with her. Katie is in the other room.”

“Yes.” Sean nodded. He took a step towards Nellie and stopped when he saw the look of total adoration on his daughter’s face. Nellie looked down again and brought the baby closer to her. The baby snuggled in tight as if she wanted to stay there forever. “She likes you.”

“I love her.” Nellie said before she could catch herself. She stopped rocking and went to hand the baby to Sean muttering apologies. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come here, I’m overstepping bounds and doing things that…”

“Miss Brighton.” Sean tried to interrupt He saw her face, saw the look she had given his daughter, saw the look returned in his daughter’s eyes.

“I’ll leave, I won’t see the children…”

“Cornelia.” He tried again. Desperate to get her attention, to let her know he was willing to share them.

“Nellie.” He said on a whisper.

She looked up at him then. She looked into his eyes and saw the burning intensity the desire. He saw hers and saw love.

“Nellie, it’s alright.” He handed his daughter back to her, into her arms, where Mary Sarah looked and felt natural.

“I should not come here anymore.”

“But I want you here.” Sean said with finality. “I’ve wanted you here for a long time.”

“Well, Mr. Malloy, I’m a nurse, not a nanny. I can’t spend all my time with your children.” Frustrated that he obviously didn’t share her feelings. “I’ve got to get back.”

“No, Nellie.” He used her given name. “I meant here, with me.”

“What?” Her heart fluttered.

“I know I haven’t had time to court you or give you pretty things, I’ve been busy.” He explained. “I’ll try not to be as busy once we’re married, but I suspect that since we both have demanding jobs, we’ll get along alright, we’ll understand.”

“Marry?” Nellie said, panicking but at the same time her heart was jumping for joy. “You’ve never even met my family.”

“I know. We could take a trip back to New York first.”

“They’re coming here.” Nellie said, pulling the child closer to her, causing Mary Sarah to wake. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

Mary Sarah giggled.

“She doesn’t seem upset.” Sean said with a smile. “She adores you.”

“Yes, the feeling is mutual.” She bounced her a bit. “My family is staying at Max and Liz’s house.”

“Are they?”

“Yes.” Nellie said. “Would you care to meet them?”

”Are they like you?”

“Unfortunately.” She said looking at the carpet.

“Nellie.” He stepped towards her and lifted her chin so she was looking at him. “Then I’ll love them.”

****

Liz was abuzz with excitement for both her friends. All that remained was the dinner with her parents, which she was the hostess of.

She didn’t know if she would be able to handle it. Her heart beating fast and swallowing a tremendous amount of pride she knocked on her mother’s door.

“Come in.”

Her mother was in the rocking chair in the corner looking out the window.

“Oh, Elizabeth, I’ve been meaning to speak with you.”

“Oh?”

”Come in, come in child.” Nancy Parker beckoned.

Out of habit Liz took the seat on the ottoman at her mother’s feet and rested her head on her lap.

After stroking her daughter’s hair for a moment, Nancy removed her hand, “Elizabeth, as much as I hate to admit it, you are mistress of this house and you cannot sit at my feet.”

“Mama.” Liz looked up at her.

”No, Elizabeth, we will speak as equals. As mothers.” She smiled. “It’s hard to think my baby girl a mother. To twins no less.”

“I find it hard to believe myself, Mama.” Liz said honestly. “Sometimes…sometimes the love for them, it just swamps me. I love Max, so very much, but what I feel for my babies is…” She paused and searched for the right word.

“Intense?” Nancy supplied.

“Yes.” Liz paused waited a second and picked at her skirt. “Mama, about what you said the last time you were here about me being…difficult to love, was it true?” Her eyes furrowed she couldn’t think of anything her children could that would make it difficult to love them.

“No.” Nancy reached out across her to the window seat where Liz had perched. “No, love. I’ve had a lot to sort through since your husband sent me home after Christmas.”

“Max…”

“No, he did the right thing, protecting his wife and unborn babies.” Nancy said. “I sat and sat and wondered what was making me so angry.”

“You had plenty to be angry for.”

“No, I didn’t and for that I have to apologize.” Nancy said softly. “I think I was jealous of you, Elizabeth. I was jealous of my own daughter. You had been given everything I ever wanted.”

“After I turned sixteen.” Liz put in. “I was just as poor as you the first sixteen years of my life. I lived in the same neighborhoods, worked in the same factories, that you did, mama. You only moved us up after the only man I had ever known as my father died.”

“Jim is—“

“Jim took me in at the last moment. Jeff Parker may not have been the nicest man or the most sober, but have you ever thought about what it must have been like for him? To have to deal with seeing, of putting up with, of supporting two children not your own. A symbol of you wife’s infidelity?”

“I’ve never looked at it that way.”

“I hadn’t imagined you did.” Liz said.

“Where did you get so smart?”

Liz looked out the window to try to hide her embarrassment.

“Elizabeth.” Her mother said.

Liz looked at the serious tone in her voice.

“I didn’t want to see my own mistakes. I could have left Papa before the wedding, I met Jim before the wedding. I could have done a hundred things differently, but I didn’t, and I took them out on my children, my grandchildren. I push you so; I push Cassidy so, because I don’t want you to make the same mistakes.”

“Mama, we have to make our own mistakes, and with what we have we can’t fall very far anymore.”

“I know.” Nancy said. “I’m going to try to make this better. Our relationship better. I’m going to let you learn on your own.”

“You promise?” Liz asked looking at her mother speculatively.

“I promise.”

Liz waited a moment, studying her face before nodding. She got up from the window, went to the ottoman and sat, rested her head on her mother’s lap.

“Liz…”

“Mama, I need your help.”

“With what?”

“Nellie and Sean want to be married. I need to introduce them to the Brightons when they come next week. I need to help convince them that he’s an acceptable match.”

”Is he?” Nancy asked.

“yes.” She smiled.

Nancy looked into her daughter’s eyes before replying.

“Alright, I trust you. If they arrive next week, we don’t have time to arrange this.”

“Yes. Thank you.”