Title: Dirty Little Secret
Author: Reamhar
Genre: AU No Aliens
Pairings: M/L & CC in general, but there will be some UC to begin with
Rating: Mature
Disclaimer:
I’ve read the instructions and checked the labels, they’re definitely not mine!
Roswell and its characters belong to Metz, Katims and the relevant TV companies. Any songs or lyrics used belong to their writers. No infringement is intended. The title is taken from the Sarah McLachlan song of the same name.
Note(s)
To try to make things a bit clearer I’m going to put past memories, or narrative that is from the past in italic to differentiate it because this story is likely to jump backwards and forwards in time as it develops.
I should also confess that I'm from the UK and went to Uni in the UK, my knowledge of college life in the US is limited, so if I've used the wrong terminology anywhere, please let me know and I'll correct it.
Summary
Graduating from college is supposed to be about new beginnings and new opportunities. For Liz Parker it’s about coming home. Since her mother’s marriage to Jeff Parker the relationship between Liz and her step sister Tess has been hostile, at best. Now Liz has returned home to start and new job in the family law firm, but just how happy a beginning is this going to be for Liz who is a beloved daughter and step daughter, but a despised sister?
If I had the chance, love
I would not hesitate
To tell you all the things I never said before
Don't tell me it's too late
Cause I've relied on my illusions
To keep me warm at night
But I denied in my capacity to love
I am willing, to give up this fight
I've been up all night drinking
To drown my sorrow down
Nothing seems to help me since you went away
I'm so tired of this town
Where every tongue is wagging
When every back is turned
Their telling secrets that should never be revealed
There's nothing to be gained from this
But disaster……….
(Dirty Little Secret - Sarah McLachlan)
Past
Awe and a tiny amount of apprehension were the first emotions that Liz felt as she crossed the threshold of her new stepfather’s house in Boston. Just turned 16 years old and born and brought up in a small desert town in New Mexico, she was finding the lush Massachusetts countryside and the hustle and bustle of Boston a culture shock. Moving from a modest house in Roswell to Jeff Parker’s palatial house in an expensive suburb of the city was a literal step into a different world.
Liz let her thoughts wander as she followed her mother who was listening to her new husband as he showed them around his cavernously large home. She was trying hard not to be intimidated by the opulence of it all. The only other similar properties that she had ever seen inside had been on ‘Life Styles of the Rich and Famous’. Maria was going to flip when she found out. As it was, Maria had been on cloud nine when Jeff had confessed to being the owner of his own swimming pool. How she was going to react when she found out that he in fact owned two pools, one indoor and one outdoor, was quite another matter.
Thinking of Maria reminded Liz painfully of the distance that now stood between her best friend and cousin. She felt a pang of loneliness and allowed herself to mourn the loss of the quiet normality of her previous home.
Jeff had promised his new daughter that she had a phone of her own in her bedroom, and that they would have opportunities to visit each other frequently, but it wasn’t a real alternative for having Maria living just down the street. It wasn’t going to be the same as being able to see Maria every day in school, but Liz was determined to try to make the best of the situation.
Her mother was happy with her new husband, and Liz was already fond of her new stepfather. Since Liz’s own father had walked away from them and disappeared out of their lives, her mother, Nancy, had had to work two jobs to just to keep a modest roof over their heads. Liz appreciated the sacrifices that her mother had made to look after them both, and did not begrudge her the happiness that she had found with Jeff Parker, even if it meant that her own life had to be up rooted and moved to the other side of the country.
Most of all Liz was looking forward to meeting her new step-sister, Tess. As an only child and being so far away from Maria, who was like a sister to her, she was eager to get to know Tess and hoped that they might become close.
Carefully wrapped and held in Liz’s hand was a friendship bracelet that she had lovingly plaited herself. She wore an identical one tied around her own wrist and Maria, so far away in New Mexico, owned the third. They had been made during a tearful afternoon with Maria when they had been lamenting their fast approaching separation with Ben and Jerry’s and trashy movies. Maria had come up with the idea of the bracelets to show that they would be friends forever. Her begrudgingly given agreement to the creation of a third bracelet for Liz’s new sister had been gain once Liz had promised that she would always love Maria the best, no matter how wonderful her new sister might turn out to be.
Jeff had worked hard to get to know Liz before his marriage to her mother, and they had shared many conversations about the important people in both their lives. From this and the gift of a picture, Liz had created a favourable image of her new sister. She was a delicate doll like beauty with curly blond hair and blue, blue eyes who enjoyed ballet, and who was the apple of her father’s eye. Jeff had promised that Tess was looking forward to meeting her new family with anticipation. They were all to be a new family now, and Liz desperately wanted this to work for the sake of her mother and to help fill the spaces in her heart which had been empty since the desertion of her father.
Jeff continued to eagerly explain the use and history of yet another in a long serious of rooms that they had been shown and Liz did her best to listen politely and pay attention, but she was getting nervous, because the tour of the house was to end with her first meeting with Tess. Liz fiddled nervously with the skirt of her dress wondering for the hundredth time if she had picked the right outfit for this important day.
Nancy saw her daughter’s nervous gesture, and caught her hand stilling the movement. She squeezed gently, and smiled reassuringly.
“You look beautiful, honey.” Liz smiled for her mother’s benefit, but couldn’t quite hide the apprehension in her eyes.
“And how do I look?” Her mother asked, trying to distract the worried expression from her solemn face.
“Lovely.”
“Thank you, honey.” Her mother squeezed her hand again. “We’re going to be okay, you know? We’re both going to be happy here.”
Jeff watched the exchange between mother and daughter and smiled before saying teasingly, “So, can I join in?” He gathered them together in a brief bear hug.
“I think you both look lovely too. Tess should be back from school now. Why don’t we go and meet her downstairs?” Jeff held out one hand to his new wife and one to his new daughter and led them down the stairs and towards a meeting which would be a defining moment in all of their futures.
Present day.
Cell phone in hand, Liz paused in the process of loading bags containing food bought for the dinner she was planning to cook tonight into her small car.
“Hello?”
“Hi.”
“Oh. Hi Maria.”
“So how’s the bunny boiler?”
“Maria, don’t keep calling her that. We haven’t crossed paths yet. It’ll be later on tonight if all goes to schedule.”
“Listen hun, I’ve heard the stories, I’ve met the beast. She’s a bunny boiler. Can any one who gets packed off to boarding school for trying to poison her sister’s pony be called anything else?”
Liz had had this conversation with Maria in various forms over the years, but she still took the time to try to defend her step sister to the best of her ability.
“Look, she was sent to Winnaman Academy for more reasons than allegedly causing my pony to get colic. She said at the time that she forgot to soak the sugar beat before using it. People make mistakes.”
“Phffft, and the bunny jumped into Glenn Close’s cooking pot to enjoy a relaxing Jacuzzi.
You say to-may-toh and I say to-maa-toh.” Maria sing-songed in response.
A change of topic appeared to be sensible, so Liz tried to divert Maria. “How’s the house move going? Has Alex’s stuff arrived yet?”
“If you mean are Alex’s multiple pieces of computer equipment cluttering the living room and the hall because his rooms already full, you’d be correct. If you mean has his other stuff arrived, like clothes and so on? No. We’ve still to find room for that, never mind the rest of it. The man himself isn’t arriving until next weekend.”
“I warned you that it wouldn’t work when you conned him into having the smallest bedroom.”
“I didn’t con him. I just pursued him that it would be the chivalrous thing to do, and he couldn’t say no.
Anyway, I think I’ve got a solution. Why not let him use the dining room for his computer equipment. If we’re going to entertain we can always help pack it away. We’ll probably eat more on the couch or in the kitchen anyway.”
“If you think Alex will go for it, I don’t have a problem.”
“Of course he’ll go for it. We need the bigger bedrooms, Alex is a boy. I mean, how many pairs of shoes does he own? 4? Why would he need all that extra closet space?”
Liz was rolling her eyes at her friend’s logic, but she could see the sense of her planning regarding the dining room. “Sounds like a plan. It might be useful to have somewhere to use as office space anyway.”
“So are you coming home to finish unpacking tonight?”
“No, I’m going to stay the night here.”
“So you’re having a reunion with the step-monster, and staying under the same roof. Don’t you think that you’re maybe about to live the opening lines of a horror film?”
“Maria!”
“I’m kidding.”
“The scary thing is that I know that you’re not.”
Maria began to make maniacal laughing noises down the phone, and Liz started laughing despite herself.
“I know that we’ve never crossed paths in years since I moved away to college. You know my reasons for that; I was trying to give her some space to build bridges. So, yes, tonight is going to be a little strange. But we’re both adults now.”
“Your heart’s in the right place babe, I just don’t know if you’re being realistic. You conceded that house to her when you left. You’re going to be on her turf tonight without a home advantage.”
“I’m not trying to beat her at baseball Maria, I’m trying to have a dinner with my family to let them know I’ve come back to Boston to live and work.”
“Should be simple in theory, but you too have a bad history to get around.”
“I know.”
“Look, I’d better not keep you. I’ve almost finished unpacking my stuff. If I get time tonight, I’ll start on your boxes. We’ve been roomies for years, I should be able to put stuff where you’d pretty much want it.
I bought some paint today. Maybe I would I should paint you’re room first, you know, before everything’s unpacked.”
“Maria? You wouldn’t.”
“Oh I would. Such a lovely shade…...”
“Maria…!
“….of Barbie pink. Just like when we were kids. Matching bedrooms. What do you think?”
“You know exactly what I think. Can you imagine meeting someone and taking them home to a Barbie’s Bedroom. Hardly romantic.”
“I don’t know, some men might like it.”
“Now you’re creeping me out on a whole new level.”
“Whatever. Good luck tonight. I hope it works out better than we’re both expecting. Bye.”
“Bye, and Maria no pink paint. Please, I’m begging you.” The call was terminated by with Maria’s giggling evilly down the phone.
Liz click off her phone and slammed the trunk of her car closed trying not to let worries about Tess’s potential hostility put a dark cloud in her otherwise blue sky.
She had a lot to look forward to tonight. She had arranged this dinner to break the news to her parents that she was returning home to Boston now that she had graduated from college in New Mexico with Maria. As far as they knew she was only home for a short visit whilst applying for jobs. She had successfully hidden the fact that she had relocated half way across the country with her two best friends, Alex and Maria, for company, and tonight was the night for letting the cat out of the bag.
Family was important to Liz, and she wanted them to be proud of her accomplishments. She had worked hard to gain her law degree which she had chosen, in part, to please Jeff even though her original ambition had been more towards a science degree. He’d been so thrilled to stand at her graduate ceremony and pose proudly for photographs with her dressed in her gown and carrying her diploma.
Despite her earlier reticence to the suggestion, Liz had decided to begin her legal career by joining him in the city law firm where he was a senior partner. He had given her so much and it had seemed like such a small compromise to make to grant him one of his dearest wishes. However, Liz had been determined to get a job on her own merits, not because she was Jeff Parker’s daughter. Consequently she had applied using her former surname and successfully come through the rigors of the recruitment system that all graduates had to follow before being offered a role with the prestigious firm. Liz had needed that piece of mind for herself, if nothing else.
Her new job had also been kept a secret, until tonight.
The dinner would also be the first time in years that she had met with Tess face to face since she had left for college. Though both girls had spent holidays and weekends at home with their parents, neither had been present in the house at the same time for a very long time. Seeing Tess tonight was going to be awkward. As Maria had so simply put it, they had a ‘bad history’.
Liz climbed into her car and started the engine with that thought paramount in her mind. She backed her car out of the parking space rather more quickly than she might normally, sending the small vehicle shooting backwards out of the space without properly looking over her shoulder.
More often than not, she would have got away with such a blunder, but the tinkle of breaking glass accompanied by a jolt that jerked Liz bruisingly against her seat belt made it clear that serendipity had not been smiling on her that afternoon. The back of her small Honda had smashed into the gleaming gun metal grey bonnet of a very expensive looking BMW.
Shaken and bruised, she looked in her mirror and smothered a groan as she watched a dark haired man unfold himself from the injured BMW and walk toward her own car.
‘Of all the cars you had to back into, you had to pick a BMW.’ She struggled out of her seat belt, ready to face the music as the stranger came up to the driver’s door.
Unfortunately and much to her mortification, Liz did not anticipate that her legs would suddenly develop the consistency of jelly and she wobbled precariously as she came up right too quickly for her still shocked body.
Much to Liz’s further embarrassment the BMW driver’s reflexes were not as adversely affected, and her slide to the ground was stopped as she was skillfully caught and held. Warm hands held her steady by her uppers arms as she brought her own hands up to steady herself against his chest.
Slight in statutory at a touch over 5 feet, Liz had to look sum considerable way up to meet the concerned expression on the stranger's handsome face. Amber eyes met startled brown, and she froze.
Collapsing onto the nearest handsome man was not a regular occurrence in Liz’s usually orderly life, so she could be forgiven for the stunned silence which followed as she stared up into his face.
When he finally spoke the only part of her brain which still seemed to be functioning registered that his rich voice was almost as attractive as his face. Almost... but what could be more beautiful than those eyes....
‘Are you alright?’ he repeated, obviously concerned by her silence and frankly blank expression.
‘Ehh, yes. I’m fine. I think….’ Liz replied, making a hurried attempt to step away from his embrace. He released her at once.
As he moved back from her and she was given a better view of her saviour who was the owner of the well muscled chest that she had been resting on several seconds ago. He was dressed casually in black jeans and dark blue T-shirt and he filled out his clothes very nicely indeed. Unfortunately the battered front of the BMW rather spoilt the view.
‘OH! Your car!’
‘Yes, “Oh my car”.’ The stranger replied rather dryly.
Hot colour rushed into Liz’s face and neck and she hurriedly launched into an embarrassed apology.
‘It was entirely my fault. I was distracted as I was pulling out and should have looked before I moved the car. I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry? Of course my insurance will pay for everything...’ Liz tried to produce a cajoling smile, but it appeared more as a sheepish grimace, and the stranger’s rock hard countenance did not soften to her womanly wiles one iota.
‘I think perhaps your car came off a little worse than my own.’
Liz turned sharply to her own car and smothered another groan as she surveyed the crumpled mess where her rear light cluster had once been. ‘Oh no, what's Dad going to say?’
Turning back to the stranger she watched amusement reflected briefly in his eyes at her muttered remark His eyes travelling from her sneaker dressed feet up her cropped jogging pants and sweat shirt, up to her dark hair pulled back into an untidy pony tail and then back to her face, still red, bare of any make-up.
Because she was so small and not wearing makeup, Liz realised that this glorious specimen probably thought she was a lot younger than her actual age. She opened her mouth to explain that she was not an inexperience teenager out driving her parent’s car, but then shut it again. Around this man she made as much sense as a mad woman. Launching into another embarrassed monologue was not going to improve matters.
Instead she said a more typical Liz remark and replied evenly, ‘Yes, well, when I do something I rarely do it by halves.’
‘Apparently,’ Liz was relieved to hear amusement in his voice and she smiled in response.
‘Look, I really am sorry. I have honestly never done anything like this before so I don’t know the etiquette, or whatever for it, I, eehh....Liz Parker.’ She introduced herself for want of something more suitable to say and she held her hand out to be shaken.
Max’s lips quirked at such social niceties given the situation. Most people might have been worried about averting being verbally attacked at the very least, not about appearing rude. But then Liz Parker? This couldn’t be Tess’s stepsister? The embarrassed girl in front of him didn’t look any older than seventeen? Unless she was a relative?
He took the proffered hand and engulfed her small fingers in his own. The brief contact of skin caused a rush of warmth to flash across Liz’s face again and she had to stop herself from snatching her hand away. Really, today was just proving to be too weird....
Max was not oblivious to the rush of heat which had passed between them, and he watched the blush rise into Liz’s pale face and the surprise reflect in her eyes. It was at that point that he noticed how unusual her eyes were. The were the perfect shade of chocolate brown with long dark lashes, framed within flawless skin, dark shiny brown hair and a neat, but attractively rounded figure. Even without makeup she was stunning.
Eyes darkening with appreciation of a very beautiful female, Max caught himself thinking that he must be getting old to be lusting after teenagers.
Liz, happier now that she felt more in control of the situation said with a businesslike tone. ‘Of course you will need my insurance details and....’
‘I don’t think that will be necessary. Knowing Jeff, I Think the lecture that you will receive when he sees the car will be more than enough punishment. Your car doesn’t look too badly damaged, certainly it is drivable; just try not to drive into any other unsuspecting drivers on your way home.’ Max was rueful, almost indulgently amusement as he turned and walked back towards his car.
He still thinks I’m some sort of naughty school child thought Liz with annoyance. ‘Look, I don't know who you think I am, or how you know my....’ Her final words were cut of by Max returning to his car and starting the engine, and with a wave of his hand he drove away leaving Liz standing beside her wounded car simmering with illogical annoyance at being so summarily dismissed.
She turned and stomped back to her car muttering with annoyance under her breath, ‘Arrogant beast. He probably thinks I’m am an air headed female.’
She backed the car gingerly out of the space and headed for her father's house. She could see how ridiculous she was being almost immediately. After all, she had smashed into his car, and she was annoyed with him? What difference did it make anyway? They were unlikely to meet again.
‘...knowing Jeff...’ his words came back to her in a rush and she sighed noisily, just how embarrassing would it be if he really did know her father well. There was a good chance that they would meet again if he was a neighbour or business acquaintance of her father. Liz’s parents often held parties at their house, and even in the cast of thousands that tended to be invited to these events, she was likely to notice her knight in shining armour even in a throng. He was stunning. She would have to check with Maria, but was wounding someone’s car a deal breaker in terms of successful future flirting?
Liz, grudgingly mindful of the stranger’s sardonic warning about other drivers drove the short distance from the shops to her home at a steady speed giving her full attention to the road rather the many hundreds of ways that this reunion with Tess could backfire, or in contemplation of Mr Tall-dark-and-handsome, and second meetings.
BTW - what were you quoting, I can only see a blank box. *Ducks* as the rotten tomato flies my way. LOL. 