Blood Will Tell –Ch.8
~~~
‘And I…I walk the line’ – Johnny Cash
“Jeff, what did you do?”
“Why do you think I did anything?”
“Don’t give me innocent eyes, Jeffrey Adam, they won’t work!” Nancy hissed in a whisper that caused any innocence to flee Jeff’s face and to regard his irritated wife warily.
The two were in their living room of their apartment over the Crashdown where they knew they wouldn’t be overheard or interrupted.
“Nancy,” he warned, eyes flicking around and hand unconsciously gripping the protection pendant under his shirt.
“I know, I know, but you weren’t answering my questions, you kept deflecting them. No more, Jeffrey, tell me.”
The last was a plea and her begging baby blues made him feel as if he’d just kicked Thumper and Flower into the nearest badger hole.
Sighing, Jeff ran a hand through his graying hair, resting it on the back of his head and looked down at his wife. It was there in his face and Nancy groaned, slapping a hand to her forehead and rubbing her temple with the other as she closed her eyes.
“You lost your temper with her, didn’t you?” she guessed, one eye opening to glare questionably at him.
Sure, she knew Jeff had a temper, she’d been on the receiving and the spectator part of it a few times but rarely had that temper been directed toward their daughter. She could count on one hand and have fingers to spare all the times he’d done so.
Jeff’s sheepish and incredibly guilty look only confirmed it.
“Oh, Jeffrey,” it was Nancy’s turn to sigh and Jeff raised an eyebrow. What was with all the Jeffrey’s today?
“I know.”
Nancy finally took pity on her husband; he sounded so miserable and he even looked it.
“I was just so worried and then when I saw her safe and sound…” he trailed off in his explanation, a helpless shrug conveying when words failed.
“You pulled a true Winchester and overreacted by yelling at and making your child feel worthless and wanting to hide,” Nancy finished, nodding as if this made perfect sense.
Jeff grunted in reply before what Nancy said registered in his mind.
“What do you mean, ‘pulled a true Winchester’ woman?” he demanded, much to Nancy’s delight. She was on her way down the stairs and merely mimicked his arched brow from earlier.
“If I really have to explain it, then you’re not the man I thought you were, dear,” she grinned and squealed when Jeff Parker gave chase.
“Come back here woman!” he shouted over Nancy’s peals of laughter as she took off.
“Oh, I’m so scared!” she sang back and they erupted into the employee lounge amidst much mirth when Jeff finally caught his wife and tossed her over his shoulder.
“You long-haired Neanderthal put me down!” Nancy’s giggles ruined her demand and her diaphragm ached from her stomach pressing down on Jeff’s bony shoulders.
“Me no put Pretty Pretty down,” Jeff affected the stupid caveman speak, his wife unable to contain her giggles.
“Pretty Pretty and the long-haired Neanderthal are causing a distraction for customers wanting to eat,” Liz warned, resting her hip against the opened double doors leading to the diner, grinning at her parents with affection.
It was hard not to grin at her father when she had her mother’s rear pointed at her and Jeff Parker’s satisfied smirk as he held his ‘pretty pretty’ and absently stroked her thigh, much to Nancy’s annoyance as her leg twitched to get him to stop.
“Stop it Jeffrey Adam or I swear…” Nancy hummed, threateningly.
“Parkers no first long-haired Neanderthal and Pretty Pretty to entertain food guzzlers,” Jeff continued, casting an amused look over to a wide eyed watching Maria and a Michael who was trying to keep his face expressionless, but his mouth betrayed a slight smirk and interest.
Liz snorted and raised a hand to her mouth, her eyes tracking to the Crashdown’s usual bickering couple, and choked trying not to laugh or snort again.
“Sure you are. You and ‘Pretty Pretty’ there are the original entertainment,” she grinned over her mother’s protest.
Father and daughter held each other’s eyes and a silent communication seemed to take place. Both were satisfied with what they saw and some tension Jeff had been ignoring sloughed away.
“Parker, order’s up!” Michael bellowed to get them all back on track and Liz jumped, gave the long haired alien an amused glare, and exited the lounge doors back into the diner to retrieve her order.
But not before she gave one last glance at her mom and dad and grinned again.
“Let me get off, now!” Nancy groaned, trying to twist around.
“Man can help woman ‘get off’,” Jeff grinned and Nancy groaned as she realized what her husband said. He really was a caveman at times.
With a sudden whoop and her screech, Jeff turned around and ran up the stairs still carrying his wife. Maria’s mouth was open and she finally met Michael’s gaze.
“Don’t even think about it, Spaceboy,” she glared and grabbed the plate of food before he could say anything.
“Too late, Pretty Pretty,” Michael grunted under his breath, eyes tracking his blond lover as she swished off.
He sighed.
Graduation couldn’t get here fast enough.
~~~
“I hate these things.”
“Oh, shut up, you big baby,” Sam rolled his eyes as they eased their way through the crowd and into the school auditorium. It hadn’t taken much detective work to understand there was a graduation going on tonight and that their girl was going to be one of them.
He knew that Dean hated social events like this, and even John was looking a bit anxious, like a wolf in a cage at a zoo, but it wasn’t like he could say, shut up and enjoy watching your little sister/ long lost daughter graduate, now could he?
He had to admit, that a small part of him was envious of his little sister. He could see her family and friends were already gathered here and fully supporting her decision to an education and enjoying a normal rite of passage: high school graduation. His own graduation had been just him struggling his senior year at a school while Dean and Dad had been hunting a particular nasty. At least Dean had stayed around long enough to see him toss his cap in the air before taking off. He wasn’t even sure Dad had seen him get his diploma much less care that his youngest boy was now officially away from the system.
“I think I’m allergic to places like these,” Dean muttered on a sneeze as they blended in with the rest of the out of town relatives and made it look like they belonged here instead of just pretending.
“I think the feeling’s mutual,” Sam snorted. Wouldn’t his brother and father be shocked to know that, hey, they should have belonged here anyway?
“Quiet boys,” John commanded and both fell silent for the moment.
Ever since John had caught sight of his baby brother, he’d been extra quiet and extra alert, as much keeping an eye out for his brother and sister in law as for any danger that might fall upon this girl they were to guard?
Dean didn’t press his father because he knew he wouldn’t get answers until John Winchester was good and ready. Sam didn’t because he already knew the answers and he still wasn’t happy with what he’d got.
They had just found a spot to settle down in where they could watch everything and mostly everybody when it was time.
~~~
“It’s here, it’s here, it’s here it’s here, it’s here!” Maria shrieked, and Liz rolled her eyes affectionately.
“It’s okay, chica, stay calm,” she smiled and hugged Maria. “I’ll meet you later.”
“Later, babe,” Sean reached over and snatched Liz into a hug as well before she could take her place further down the line because of her name.
“See ya soon,” she smiled into his bright baby blues and left the circle of his arms and straight into Max’s.
The two former boyfriend and girlfriend stared at each other for a long moment, then Liz started to smile softly and then they were just grinning at one another.
“See ya at the homestretch,” he murmured in her ear and she hugged him back just as tightly. They weren’t ‘like that’ anymore but he was still her friend, and he was still one of the few people who made her feel loved and safe.
“You too,” she kissed him on the cheek and then left.
“Parker.”
“Guerin.”
The two acknowledged each other with nods of respect but then Liz broke it and couldn’t help but hug the scruffy alien. She was so proud of him, of him and Sean both. After the crazy events of the past few years, she’d been bound and determined that Michael Guerin would be graduating with the rest of his friends and family.
Between her and Isabel, and Michael’s own stubbornness, Michael had pulled both his grades and attendance up enough that just met the requirements to earn his diploma and the honor of walking the line. A lot of that had to do with the not-so-friendly-at-times rivalry between him and Sean DeLuca, who had decided to kick it in the ass and finally graduate like he should have three years prior.
So Roswell’s two bad boys were walking the line.
“Go on, get going,” Michael shrugged her off, but she could see the former Antarian general was pleased.
“Yeah, yeah, get going so I have the absolute joy of standing next to Pam Troy and Kyle,” Liz gave a long suffering sigh to which Michael only laughed.
“Oh, you poor baby. Just think…it’s only an hour or two,” he wiggled his eyebrows playfully and Liz smacked him.
“Buddha, give me strength,” she quipped but she was grinning as she made her way down. She stopped to chat and greet others in her class, some she knew fairly well, and others only casually.
A hug and uplifting Buddha quote from Kyle later and she was in line, waiting as a tense thread of expectation and excitement soared through all the graduating seniors and they stood on alert. Some of the boys gave a cheer when one of the teachers finally gave the signal they’d all been hoping for.
It was time to graduate.
Liz couldn’t wait.
~~~
“Oh, look there’s Maria!” Nancy squealed in excitement, clutching Jeff’s arm, and fairly jumping up and down.
“THAT’S MY BABY GIRL, WHOOO!!” Amy DeLuca stood up and shouted loud and proud, her colorful attire and powerful voice lending easy aid to where she was sitting at next to her boyfriend, the newly reinstated Sheriff Jim Valenti.
“AND THAT’S MY NEPHEW, YAY!”
Maria looked startled but pleased whereas Sean looked like he wanted to sink into an instant hole right then and there. In true Amy DeLuca style, she seemed to have started something because the other parents started cheering on their kids and even other kids as well so every graduating senior had their name cheered on by the crowd.
No one was left out.
“Max….Michael!” Diane and Isabel cheered while Phillip looked on proudly and Jesse smiled at his ‘brothers’ in law indulgently.
“Maria, Sean, Michael, Max!” Nancy cheered. The embarrassed but pleased teens tried to hide their faces as they took their spots.
“ELIZABETH!” Jeffrey stood up and shouted to the rooftops his pride as his baby girl walked in.
“Liz!” Nancy waved, smiling at her daughter.
“Whooo, Lizzie!” Amy screamed and jumped up and down as much as when Maria or Sean had come by.
“All right Liz! Way to go Kyle!” Isabel hadn’t sat down since her friends and brothers came in, and now she cheered for her other friends.
“WE LOVE YOU VALENTI!” A small group of junior varsity cheerleaders squealed and laughed, and the whole auditorium erupted into cheers for their favorite athlete. He had been their star football, baseball, and basketball player practically since his freshman year, holding down the title of team captain for both basket- and football. Long live James Kyle Valenti the Third in West Roswell Comets history.
All the graduates to be went to their seats, but there was a noticeable empty spot where the ‘W’s were. The West Roswell Class of 2001 had unanimously elected to save a seat for Alex Whitman, where he would have sat was a small memorial with candles, picture collages, and guitar strings over his cap and gown. When they were on their way to be seated after receiving their diplomas and roses, they would set their roses on the chair to honor their absent friend.
The lights dimmed except for the stage and everyone quieted as the ceremony begun.
~~~
“Maria Alexandria DeLuca!”
“All right, ‘Ria!” Liz screamed as the first of her friends went about to receive their diploma.
The entire class of graduating seniors had been whooping and cheering for their own as each one went to shake the principal’s hand and get that diploma and rose. But no cheered as loud or as proud as Liz when Maria blushed and accepted her rose and diploma with all the grace and dignity that the usual drama queen occasionally exhibited.
“Sean Alejandro DeLuca.”
“Yay, Sean!”
Liz felt as if her heart would burst in pride as the former juvenile delinquent shook hands and got a ‘manly’ hug from the principal while he accepted his diploma.
“All right!” Sean lifted his diploma in victory and flipped off the jeering and cheering class, laughing and grinning all the way down the stairs after his cousin.
“Max Phillip Evans.”
“Max way to go!” “All right girlfriend!” “Maxwell!” “Evans, el Presidente!” “Go little brother!” “That’s my son!”
Max’s ears were fiery red by the time he shook hands and took his rose and diploma. He caught Liz’s eye and almost tripped when the person behind him lost their footing and toppled into him. Gasps and finally peals of laughter rang out through the crowd, and the embarrassed girl retrieved the high heel that caused the mess from a laughing staff member.
“Score for Evans!” Michael and Kyle jeered at the same time, to Max’s dismay, as he was very gracious to help escort the girl to Alex’s seat first so they could drop their roses off, and then back to their seats.
Maria was red faced with trying to hold in her amusement and Sean was holding his sides with the strength of his laughter.
Liz’s eyes teared for each of her friends, and for every rose that was placed upon where Alex should have been. He would have enjoyed this immensely. Heck, he probably would have been joining Kyle and Michael in their heckling of their self and destined appointed leader.
“Michael Guerin.”
Liz beamed and cheered and laughed and cried so hard, she was so proud of Michael. Despite all the obstacles of two jobs, dating Maria, being the second to a former alien king and pseudo brother to the planning Nazi, and wanting to give up, Michael had stuck with it, and now today he walked with pride as he did something he never thought he’d do: he graduated with his brother.
“Way to go Michael!”
She could hear her dad even from down here and her mother’s shouts of agreement. She was actually quite surprised that she could over the sound of Isabel, Max, Diane, and Maria.
And the class of 2001 was graced with a rare genuine smirk from Michael Guerin as he sauntered down the walkway and very solemnly and respectfully laid both his rose and his diploma on Alex’s memorial.
~~~
“Elizabeth Claudia Parker.”
“That’s my girl!” Jeff couldn’t help but shout, to the amusement of the attending spectators and Liz’s pleased embarrassment. She should have known after how they made fools of themselves over her friends.
Not that she had been making a fool of herself either, but that wasn’t the point.
“Take pictures, take ‘em,” Jeff urged his wife, who was already fast on her fifth disposable camera, having not wanted to take the money to buy one of those new fangled digital ones when Liz was not going to be there to explain it to her.
Even as his daughter turned and smiled at them as she made her trek to Alex’s memorial, Jeff was paying attention elsewhere. That annoying nagging feeling from earlier had come back in full force since just before the ceremony.
He’d made a call to the local Hunter who had assured him he would be on watch for anything out of the norm and Jeff had to trust his oldest friend to do his job. So he sat back and watched the closing speeches, held his wife as she cried when Maria sang a song dedicated to Alex when the principal gave Mr. and Mrs. Whitman the diploma their son had earned enough credits for, and cheered with everyone else when it finally ended.
“C’mon, sweetie, let’s go find Liz.”
He took Nancy by the arm and escorted to the aisle to wait for the opportune moment to meet up with his daughter.
~~~
“Well, that was interesting,” John commented, eyes never leaving the little brunette who had brought them here. Something about her was so familiar, and he watched as she and her group of friends gathered around the memorial for that kid, Whitman, and laughed and cried in obvious remembrance.
His brother’s daughter seemed to have been close with the boy who had died earlier that previous school year and for some reason he was gripped in his seat watching her. An unfamiliar feeling of wanting to comfort her welled within and he blinked harshly to dispel, were those tears? Couldn’t be, had to be dust. Schools were his allergy he was sure. All those chalk and pencil shavings and dirty student bodies lingering in the air was all.
“Let’s wait a bit and then leave. It’s too crowded and I don’t want to be seen just yet.”
“Sure, Dad,” Dean sighed, and slouched back in his chair, fighting a scowl. Sam merely raised an inquiring eyebrow but stayed silent for once.
John’s suspicions were raised once more, but then he saw another familiar face, and he cursed.
“Time to go now.”
“What?” both his boys chorused, but John was already moving, and instinctively they followed.
~~~
Tense, the air was filled with tension to such a degree that Liz was surprised anyone could breathe. She and her Dad had made up before the actual graduating ceremony, but things were still a bit awkward, especially since her father seemed so distracted when he and her mom met up with her afterward.
Distracted may not have been the best word choice since Jeff was anything but. On the contrary, he was very focused and on the alert. Thing was, Liz was sure it just wasn’t on her or graduation.
After the obligatory pictures, speeches, last hugs, and fond farewells, Liz had excused herself to help pack up Alex’s memorial and take the box of memorabilia to the Whitman’s car. Despite the nostalgia, it wasn’t near as bad as the day she had helped to clean out Alex’s locker, that had been the day that she had nearly broke, and it had been all she could do not to go running and screaming down the hall and out the school doors.
She and the other six were to meet up at Michael’s house for a graduation party Isabel had put together and so she gave her parents one last hug and then joined Maria and Michael in the Jetta and took off. It made her a little sad that Sean had declined coming over; he had wanted to get a little more ‘hard’ partying in and had taken off with some of his other friends with a kiss on her cheek and a whispered ‘have fun.’
So it was with some feeling of dread that without her Sean-shaped buffer and Kyle insisting on bugging Michael while Jesse helped Isabel, that Liz found herself recruited to help Max bring some more supplies in. She knew that that kiss and hug before the ceremony was going to bite her in the ass. That bite came in the form of one Max Evans, as he tried one last plea to give him, them, another chance.
“Max, I told you all this before, I’m not going to do this whole “us” thing any longer. I haven’t for a long time now, and I’m happy.”
“But Liz, I love you, I always have,” Max protested, grabbing and holding her by the shoulders so she would look at him. “Since the third grade. We’re…”
“Don’t say it, Max! Don’t say ‘soul-mates’,” she cut him off, glaring at the man child who once held her heart. “Because if you ask me, soul-mates get the raw edge of the deal and I don’t want to go through with that anymore.”
“Liz,” Max growled, frustrated, and running his hands through his hair.
Liz was saved from whatever cruel fate by the ringing of her telephone. Talk about being saved by the bell.
“Hello? Mom…wait, calm down….What do you mean he’s in jail?”
Max stopped his inner rant and came to attention at the unexpected words coming out of Liz Parker’s mouth.
“Who’s in jail?” Michael asked, butting in, as he and the others came to see what was taking the two so long. Max shrugged and all eyes were turned to Liz, who wide eyed and rooted in place, shrieked into the phone.
“I’m on my way,” she told her mom even as she hung up and sprang into action.
“Michael, can you give me a ride to the police station on your bike? I nee to get there fast.”
“Sure Liz, but mind telling me what for?” Michael reached into his pockets to pull out his keys and Liz followed him down to where his motorcycle waited.
“Daddy’s been arrested!”
“What?”
“Please, Michael, hurry.”
~~~
TBC........
Sorry it's taken so long, but a few issues both in real life and in trying to re-examine where the story is going, etc. has proven to keep me from writing this. 
Family drama and creative indifference aside, I hope you enjoy this chapter. And for all you Sam and Dean lovers, this chapter has lots of Winchester brother goodness! 