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

This is the place to post all your General Roswell fanfiction. Any Canon fics, which pick up directly from any episode of the show and that focus on Max/Liz, Michael/Maria, Isabel/Alex or Isabel/Jesse, Kyle/Tess, or all the couples together! Rule of Thumb: If Max healed Liz in the Crashdown in September 1999, then your fic belongs here. If it picks up from the show in any way, it belongs here.

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Parker1947
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Always Tomorrow (CC, Mature) - A Reunion's Endgame - Chapter 45 - Completed - 09/30/2020

Post by Parker1947 »

Title: Always Tomorrow
Author: Parker1947
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. They were created once upon a time by Jason Katims and those associated with the writing staff on the television series, Roswell and before that by the esteem creator of the Roswell High series Melinda Metz. A series that has captured all our attentions for more than 20 years… These series of stories are based on the television show that started in 1999 and ended in 2002. I am just borrowing them for my own fun and imagination, and I added new characters as needed…
Rating: Mature - Adult themes, sensitive topics are discussed in this story
Category: CC
Characters: ALL
Couples: Max/Liz (Beth) Michael and Maria, Isabel, and Kyle and more…
Synopsis: An unexpected trilogy: Following in the wake of “Reunion “ http://roswellfanatics.net/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=156493 and the destruction in “On the Razor’s Edge” http://roswellfanatics.net/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=157825 Everything exploded, and the carnage is widespread and immense with very few sunny spots although there were a few. Time has gone on, and people were able to rebuild their lives, and create happy beginnings and endings for themselves, but there is one gaping hole that remains, with someone who was lost to them because of the destruction Nicholas once brought them. Can she come back, and reclaim her life? And to do that, what lengths will she be forced to undertake?
Where we left the story at: In the very beginning 2022 it is discovered Liz who was believed to have died in a car accident had not died but instead suffered amnesia and gave birth two girls. Max and their daughter Grace moved on, and then when Grace is sixteen. They discover the stunning truth as they are forced to come to terms with a new reality at the same time an old threat comes back the haunt the gang and they believed it was only as simple as Liz coming back to them but then - In “On the Razor’s Edge” Max and Beth who is Liz’s new name start to come to together but as still separated by her memory loss and the lost years while the old threat starts to infest the rest of the group, most of Michael and Maria’s daughter Elizabeth who suffers an horrific attack and is changed forever. While at the same time Grace and Michael and Maria’s son Jake are falling in love and a simple act of being in love soon threatens their reputations and their futures. Maria and Michael were split apart because of a madman’s act against their family, and their eldest daughter all because it was revenge on Michael and the other aliens. Maria did not bargain for this as the group is at a loss as to how to win the greatest war of their lives when each battle is war and it holds great carnage. Can they possibly make up for lost time?
Author’s Note: This story is another “Reunion” of sorts. A family is reunited. Of course this story is also dark, angsty and real violence is experienced or referenced but I am trying to keep it to a minimum in comparison to that previous story once we get past the first chapters as it’s more of a story about picking up the pieces and trying to move on, to their ultimate endgame if that is indeed possible… There is still an enemy waiting in the wings; one is taken out early, but another is there to battle, and liable to cause pain and suffering… And in the end, who will eliminate the ultimate threat? And to end that threat, what will be expected in defeating that individual so that they can be allowed an ending once and for all?

Truthfully, this story has gone strange places and this one has been the trickiest as the darkness did battle with hope, as I tried to find the balance between them, so while you might doubt me in the beginning as it’s begins in especially dark terms, but hope is not lost…and therefore I hope you will be along for the ride in this story as I unveil the journey that begins with Elizabeth’s story but in the end everyone joins in…

As they say, there is “Always Tomorrow” but for some, it is a battle to get to that tomorrow.


Enjoy

******


Six years later
June 2028

The doors opened and a man and two children walked through them. The man in his 40’s was looking like he had seen too much and experienced too much and it had worn him down and beside him was a relative tall nearly twelve year old girl with blonde hair in a pony tail as she was on the edge of being a teenager but on this days she was wearing an expression of irritation and beside her holding her hand tightly was a five year little girl with dark hair who didn’t know what to expect when they were called to this building.

The man stopped at a door and told the nearly twelve-year-old to stay with her sister and sit and wait for him. “Belle stay with Emily please” the man asked.

Belle nodded and watched as her father walked through the doors and knew that this visit was a long time coming and she knew it was going to lead to disappointment, just like everything else about this situation. She had overheard her father talking on the phone. He wanted to wait until her mother returned from the girl’s spa trip she had taken for the weekend, but he was told to come immediately and so he had been forced to bring them along, and Belle knew this was a trip that her father didn’t want to undertake.

The little girl was oblivious about it all and held a kid’s wonder about life. Belle had seen too much over the last six years to still share that kind of wonder, but she wanted the little girl to hold onto it because Life sucks when you get older. So, yeah, she was getting jaded as she turned twelve years old.

Inside the room, the man sat on the chair in front of the desk that gave the doctor’s name, ‘Dr. Eileen Reynolds’ and waited for the doctor to get off the phone, which she did.

“So, what has she done this time?” the man asked in a sharp tone. “Another overdose?” as this was not the first time, he or his wife had been called to one of these buildings, but it was the first time in four years, and he had begun to have hope she might have gotten herself straightened out. But now he assumed wrong… Why sweet drop, why? But he knew why. If I could find him, Nicholas would be dead

“Mr. Guerin, I am sorry to have to call you here, but your daughter was admitted on a 72-hour psych hold” the doctor said the collapse of the man’s face. “She tried to kill herself?”

“Oh god,” the man asked as he whispered… “How?” he asked as this was not what he expected to hear when he was called to this place.

“I am told your daughter is 22 years old?” the doctor asked as she looked down at the chart. “Her name is Elizabeth?”

“Yes,” Michael said as weariness but also tears begun in his eyes. “She just had her birthday” he murmured. Although he had not been able to celebrate with her nor had she come to anyone in the family to celebrate the occasion with her… “How did it happen?”

“She was in a jail cell,” the doctor explained and from the look on the father’s face, it was not a shock or an outrage. “That doesn’t seem to surprise you?”

“No,” Michael said wearily as he looked down at the floor as he got up out of his chair and paced the room and looked straight at the doctor. “I am well aware my daughter has issues doctor, but she didn’t try to call her mother or me to bail her out…”

“If she had, would you have…?” the doctor asked as she tried to assess Michael and found him to be a very tough person to figure out. On one hand he was very emotional at the fact his daughter almost died but then on the other hand he had a tough shell around him and it’s not like she hadn’t dealt with her share of strong individuals but Michael carried a different essence to him, and he could see the worn down expression on his face as if this was the last thing he needed to be dealing with, now of all times.

“If she had wanted us to,” Michael said matter of flatly as it was the truth. “Doctor, you should know that my wife nor I have seen our daughter in four years since shortly after her 18th birthday,” he admitted like it was wound that would never close up in his heart, which it was, and he only could pray she would find some peace. “At this point, she is very much a stranger to her mother and I…”

“Why is that?” Dr. Reynolds asked as took assessment of the situation.

“We had her in a rehab center for six months prior to her birthday because we knew we lost say when she turned of age to make her own decisions about her medical care. She didn’t want to be there, but because we had the say… she stayed, and she did seem like she cleaned up her life and seemed to be turning the corner than she turned eighteen.”

“And they let her out?” Dr. Reynolds asked knowing the rules for a patient when they turned eighteen and did not want to be there anymore and therefore parents lost control of any say as she had often seen it happen.

“Yes,” Michael allowed. “She seemed okay, but then she promptly had her first overdose and was hospitalized and when she walked out of the hospital, she disappeared from our lives. She didn’t come home again.”

“What was her drug of choice?” Dr. Reynolds asked.

“You name it she tried it,” Michael sighed. “At the time we also had her three younger siblings at home who were very impressionable and a baby to think about. We didn’t go after her and figured she would come home on her own because that had been her ammo in past when we were confronted with her knack for disappearing.”

“She never did?” Dr. Reynolds asked.

“No, not this last time” Michael confirmed. “She stayed gone until your call telling me that she has resurfaced. So, you have not said, how did she do it? Was it drugs she sneaked in herself or by the officers?”

“She was on drugs yes, but no, she slit her wrists” Dr. Reynolds sighed as she saw Michael expression change to one of frantic worry as he paused. “I am deeply sorry. She almost didn’t make it, but she pulled through and now is in one her wings on a hold as assessment is made whether she needs further treatment.”

“How in the hell did she do that?” Michael asked with a sharp glare. “I am well aware you’re not allowed sharp instruments in a prison cell” he muttered. “Didn’t anyone pat her down, or least do a search before they left her alone?”

“She apparently was able to wedge of a metal piece off the bed in the cell” Dr. Reynolds sighed. “They don’t know how she did it. As she was pretty high and didn’t exhibit that kind of strength when our officers took her into custody.”

“Well I do,” Michael murmured as she knew her daughter’s significant gifts could accomplish a lot to the detriment of her own recovery although she hadn’t been to use them much since her descent had started because she had become too unreliable and a loose cannon. Max was able to help with the physical scars, but he could not touch the mental ones.

“Mr. Guerin, this wasn’t the first time she slit her wrists. There is evidence she’s tried it before… as her arms still show those scars along with others…” Dr. Reynolds murmured. “You don’t seem surprised by my saying that?”

Michael nodded an affirmative because although he had not seen the evidence in the past, it did not shock him to know she had used and abused herself in many forms. “Can I see my daughter?” he asked simply as the need to see his daughter had increased as he sat and listened to how close he had come to losing her, without even knowing she was nearby.

“Yes in a few moments,” Dr. Reynolds confirmed as she sensed that her patient’s father was a man who had lost a lot in these past years. “Can I ask because it will help our staff. Do you know the source of your daughter’s troubles? Why she went down the route she did?”

“Yes,” Michael nodded. “She was well adjusted and extremely bright and happy until she was fifteen.”

“What happened when she was fifteen?” Dr. Reynolds asked.

“She was abducted,” Michael spat. “At the end of her high school prom and for the next two weeks we went through a very hellish time, but she went through a torturous experience that you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. She went through things that no one would want to experience, and she never truly came back from it. She tried in the beginning, but it became too much for her…”

“Oh my god. Are you telling me she is that girl? I remember hearing a case of a teenage girl who went missing for a few weeks. The media I remember only covered her rescue but never really talked about her condition or the aftermath, but they never caught who did it, right?” Dr. Reynolds asked of the case she remembered hearing in the news so many years before and how she had felt heartbroken by the violence committed towards the young girl, and to know she had that young woman as a patient broke her heart even more.

“We wanted it left out of the media,” Michael remembered because of their national profile and because of what Maria had done in the past with her career, and they had just wanted to be left alone. “We felt our daughter would recover better if she did not have camera’s her face. Unfortunately for my daughter, no, she wasn’t able to get justice and the experience and the memories were always too much for her to come back from and therefore she was never the same, and we eventually lost her from our lives…”

Sighing Dr. Reynolds made some notations in her chart and looked back at Michael. “Mr. Guerin, I am truly sorry for the fact your family had to go through that kind of experience, and that Elizabeth had to endure what she did” Dr. Reynolds murmured as she knew it was not a time to keep him from his daughter much longer. “No person should experience that level of pain…”

“No, they shouldn’t,” Michael agreed.

“So, you did mention that you want to see her?” Dr. Reynolds asked as she stood up from her desk and asked of her visitor.

“Yes, I need to see my daughter” Michael asked as they got up from the desk and walked to the door and opened it up and left the room.


*


“Belle heard the door open and she got up expecting to be able to be told they could go home now, but he appeared with a woman in a white coat. She knew it was trouble, and she knew it involved her eldest sister who she had not seen in over four years. Michael came out and nodded at his daughter. “Belle, can you stay here a little longer?”

“You’re seeing her, aren’t you?” Belle accused of her father as he looked not like the strong man he did when he arrived, but someone burdened by years of worry and hardship and yet she wasn’t ready to forgive for the hell her sister had put their parents through over the years. “Why can’t we go home? She obviously doesn’t want to see us, or she would have called us, herself.” The budding twelve-year-old muttered to her father.

“She needs us,” Michael said softly. “She’s not in any condition to have called us”

“I don’t care,” Belle said with that classic Guerin stubborn pose. Elizabeth used to have that Michael reflected, as he missed it so much in his eldest daughter. “She doesn’t want us here…”

“I have to see her regardless, so can you stay here with Emily?” he asked nodding the youngest in their family. The five-year-old looked up at the woman in the white coat and frowned. The doctor saw her patient in the little girl’s eyes and face, as Belle reluctantly agreed with her father and she and Emily sat back down. “Just don’t make it long” she chided her father. “This is a waste of time.”

Michael was quiet as they walked. “Is she you know?” Dr. Reynolds asked.

All Michael said was a simple Yes as they walked and arrived at the assigned room. Looking through the window Michael saw a figure on the bed, passed out. Dr. Reynolds opened the door and in they walked he was captivated by the figure on the bed, strapped down and heavily bandaged around her wrists.

“Are those necessary doctor as she looks drugged” Michael asked in despair at the state of his eldest daughter.

“She threatened harm when she was brought in here Mr. Guerin, and that of my orderlies. We had to do this otherwise she would have created more harm than good for both herself and this institution,” Dr. Reynolds muttered. “For someone in her condition, she was pretty strong”

“You have no idea what my daughter is capable of doctor,” Michael sighed as he looked down at his daughter as he glanced at her for the first time in four years. She might be now 22 years old but to Michael she looked so young, and flashes played in his brain of that day when his daughter was fifteen played on a loop. “It’s just that she was heavily drugged during her ordeal six years ago, and that is what got her dependent on drugs in the first place” Michael murmured. “No matter how we helped her, and we did, she always slipped back because she always saw it as easing the pain and numbing her from the memories that kept eating at her...”

Not ready to commit to reducing or eliminating the drugs, she tried to wake up her patient “Elizabeth, your father is here to see you” Dr. Reynolds of the patients who was lying as if she was sleeping with her eyes closed and knew no father wanted to see their daughter in this kind of state. “We’ll try to wean her off the drugs as she recovers, and as she sees that we’re trying to help her and not hurt her…”

“Good luck with that,” Michael advised as Dr. Reynolds tried again as she tried to shake the patient awake. “Elizabeth, your father is here to see you?”

The shake caused eyes to pop open as a terrified Elizabeth shrieked liked she had been attacked, and her eyes went wild and then went dead as they looked through her father, as if he wasn’t there and like she was zoned out and, in a trance and like she had met evil. He had not seen that kind of expression in his daughter in six years and knew she was living her nightmare again. “Dr. Reynolds, you have to stop the drugs. I am telling you, the worst thing right now for her recovery is for her to be drugged. Keep her tied down if need be, but you have to stop the drugs.”

“Mr. Guerin,” Dr. Reynolds. “I really think…” she started to say and then they heard a small voice. “That is my Mommy!” as they whipped around as they saw twelve-year-old Belle looking stunned at her older sister who didn’t look like she had any part of the sister she remembered and loved in her, as it was like she was staring a shell of her sister as Elizabeth was staring into space while Emily who stood beside her voicing her memory.

“Belle, why did you have to bring her here?” Michael asked as reality intruded into the room as Belle and Emily stood as strung out Elizabeth fell back against her pillow, her arms still tied down and her eyes closed as Michael looked back at his daughter.

“I had to see her for myself,” Belle struggled with seeing her sister so completely out of it. She had never been exposed to how bad it was years before, and now she saw it for herself. “Dad, what’s wrong with Elizabeth?” Belle asked as this was the first time, she had seen her sister in four years since she was nearly eight years old, and she had never seen her sister this bad, but it was obvious her father had…

“Everything,” Michael murmured as he walked and hugged his daughter. “We will help her…” he insisted.

“Does she want help?” Belle asked as Dr. Reynolds remarked on the family dynamics within the family as they walked out of the room, and they closed the door and Dr. Reynolds locked it after insisting that it was for the best interest of the patient.

“I hope so,” Michael asked as they walked back to the office, and now with both children in the room Michael sat down. “Are there some papers I have to sign or something for her treatment?”

“Not necessarily because as it stands now, it’s court ordered,” Dr. Reynolds replied. “She doesn’t have any choice unless the assessment comes back that she’s not a danger to herself and is able to be released and if that day does come, then it’s likely back to jail for arraignment.”

“Right, what were the charges,” Michael asked as he was reminded that there was a reason, she had been in jail in the first place.

“Drugs, Prostitution” Dr. Reynolds said to Belle’s gasp as Michael held her hand. He wished he had not brought in the kids, but Emily would not understand what was going on, but he knew Belle was too jaded into the ways of the world not to know. “Apparently it’s not the first time for that charge…”

“God,” Michael asked as he shouldn’t be surprised, he told himself given how she was going through guys like the she did drugs before she disappeared, and it made Michael almost yearn for days when he was frightened of her dating Finn. Finn would have been a comfort after seeing the despair on his daughter’s face in the wake of Nicholas.

“And there is a charge of child endangerment” Dr. Reynolds said softly to the gasp of Michael and Belle. Emily was sitting next to Belle reading a book, oblivious to the tension.

“What are you talking about?” Michael asked as he felt shaken at the newfound revelation.

“Obviously, you did not know, but your daughter did have two little boys living with her at the time of her arrest. A three in a half year old and a six-month-old who were taken away shortly before she was taken into custody.” Dr. Reynolds as the migraine in Michael’s head increased as Belle gasped at the revelation of two new members to their clan.

“Jesus,” Michael said out loud which Emily looked up, inquisitive about her father curses although she shouldn’t have been since they were constant around the house since Emily came to an age of understanding, and Belle didn’t bat an eye but on this day, she told her younger sibling to go back to the reading and so the child did as Belle turned her hardened expression back to the doctor..

Dr. Reynolds could sense that Belle had too much burden placed on her shoulder for a young girl who was so close to being a teenager to have to bear, as she focused back on what she knew of the patient in her charge. Sighing, she read her notes “She’s being accused of neglect, and not providing the necessities of life for the children in her custody” Dr. Reynolds confirmed, and Michael was about to burst.

“Where are they now?” Michael asked as he overlooked the charges because they felt like nonsense to him because he knew his daughter and while she was always troubled, she would never be neglectful. But Michael you do not know your daughter today his inner self told himself. Still he could not believe it would be true. “The children, where are they?”

“Foster care,” Dr. Reynolds replied. “They are getting ready to place the children if another suitable placement with someone who is related them doesn’t become available,” the doctor murmured as Michael instantly became aware of altering of the dynamics around them. “You get what I am saying, don’t you?”

Michael knew but he needed the confirmation and to hear it from someone other than his own brain. “What do you mean?” Michael asked but knew what she was getting at.

“Mr. Guerin, I promise that kind of charge your daughter is facing is not going to be looking good on any application to get her children back if that is what she wants to do if she manages to get better. There was suspicion before about the older boy, and now with the addition of a baby. They aren’t going to allow it slide and give her the chance to do it again unless she proves she can turn her life around… and even then, it’s going to be hard to get them if they go into foster care.

“I know,” Michael murmured as a former victim of the system. He got out but not before a lot of pain and angst, where was the system when Hank was beating the shit out of me before I could fight back…

“So, what do you want to do?” Dr. Reynolds asked.

The room was silence for an endless moment but Belle knew what her father was going to say, and she knew her mother was going to have a fit about it because she had long given up on her eldest daughter or tried the hardest to give up on her, because of too many chances and too much disappointment.

“We’ll take them,” Michael said instantly.
Last edited by Parker1947 on Wed Sep 30, 2020 9:50 am, edited 45 times in total.
RoswellFan68
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Re: Always Tomorrow (CC, Mature) - A Reunion's Endgame - Chapter 1 - 05/18/2020

Post by RoswellFan68 »

Poor Elizabeth. She was destroyed by Nicholas. Where Michael and Maria able to rebuilt their relationship? There is a new child in Emily. I'm glad Michael wants to take in his grandchildren.
keepsmiling7
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Re: Always Tomorrow (CC, Mature) - A Reunion's Endgame - Chapter 1 - 05/18/2020

Post by keepsmiling7 »

Well, the angst starts off with a bang.
Two little boys......that's a shock.
Michael stepped up though.
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Parker1947
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Always Tomorrow - Chapter 2 - 05/20/2020

Post by Parker1947 »

No,” Maria Deluca Guerin said as she faced off with her husband later that night after getting home from a girl’s retreat at the spa. She wished she were still there, but she was not but back in the hard-cold reality of their life. As she picked up a beer and slugged it down “We did this before Michael, I am not doing it again. I don’t care what it means for the children?”

“Foster care honey?” Michael asked as his face faltered as he stared at his wife as he knew Maria was dying just as much as he and she was not heartless, as they both had spent years missing their daughter. “You know how hard it will be for them to get them out of the system once they are in there. What if she turns her life around?” Michael asked and Maria glared at her husband as if to say, she is not getting better “I understand what it means, and what is being asked for us to take this on, but I can’t look into that face and not do this Maria. I can’t not do this for her…”

“She didn’t call us,” Maria accused as she glanced at her husband. “She knows where we are, and she knew you would cave and help her, but she didn’t call” she asked of the man she had been married to for 24 years.

Twenty-four years of so much happiness, so much love and so much sorrow six years ago when their lives were destroyed by an act of a mad man, and it forever changed them and how they approached life. As a result, they were never the same despite their ability to pick up their marriage and piece it back together, but the carefree life they had been sharing together with their children had been shattered and they were never able to get back what they lost, in so many ways.

“I did this to her Maria,” Michael crumbled. “I did this by being who I am and the fact I didn’t protect her like I should have. I failed our daughter and I can’t let her down again when I can help her because It shouldn’t have been our daughter, but it was, and I will never forgive myself for allowing her into that situation and not being able to save her until it was too late. We lost her that day, and she was never able to come back to us and I can’t not help her now when there is a chance, to give her some peace.”

Maria stood trying to be an emotional stone. She had thought she had dealt with this as she believed she had put their troubled eldest daughter behind her, as she tried telling herself that if Elizabeth didn’t want help why should I help her she asked herself but then they had stepped in once before and helped her through a tough time only for Elizabeth to throw that back in their face and disappear. Now she could see that Michael was opening himself for more hurt, and more disappointment. She also knew she could not do it, not again. Not after she lost her daughter once. She could not live through it again.

“I can’t Michael. We lost too much last time, and I cannot do it again. She doesn’t want our help otherwise she would have come to us…”

“Maybe she doesn’t think we wanted to help,” Michael asked. “The longer you stay away, the longer you believe that you don’t have the option of going home?”

“We did this last time,” Maria reminded her husband. “We can’t keep doing this,” she said as there was a ring of the doorbell and Michael only nodded and walked to the door and opened the door and found a woman. “Yes?”

“Mr. Guerin, my name is Mary Paulson and I am with Social Services and Child Welfare, and I am here about your petition to be the caregivers for your grandsons, whose mother is Elizabeth Guerin originally of Roswell, New Mexico”

“Yes, come in” Michael said to the glare of his wife who stepped aside and welcome in the women. Behind Ms. Paulson was another woman holding the hand of young boy about three years old and carrying a baby. “Come in,” he said again.

“I am told you didn’t know your daughter had children?” Ms. Paulson asked as the two women and the children walked in and observed the conditions of the home as she saw the tension on both adults. “And you want take custody of the children, when you didn’t know the existence of their births?” she could not help but ask because she could feel the tension in the house and between the applicants. “Do I have that correct?”

“She stopped talking to us four years ago Ms. Paulson,” Maria said with an edgy tone as she tried not to slip and crumble at the sight of the boys who looked so much like Michael, and Elizabeth that it made her want to cry. “There is no way we would have known if she wasn’t willing to talk to us…”

“Why is that?” Ms. Paulson asked.

“We wanted to help her, but obviously she didn’t want that help” Michael said softly as he looked at the three-year-old who was so calm and wary of the two adults who were now in his life, as he looked up at them. “We would have been there if she had come to us…” he murmured as he glanced at the baby and felt tug at his heart.

“Their names?” came a voice, as Jake walked forward as he had walked into the house and looked at both his parents who looked surprised to see their eldest child come through the backway into the living room where they all stood, “Mom, Dad…”

“And you are?” Ms. Paulson asked.

“Jake Guerin,” Jake muttered as he looked at the two young boys and at his parents and knew there was tension in the air and knew from Belle’s panic phone call that things were had exploded once again, and that Elizabeth had resurfaced with two kids. At her sister’s revelation Jake immediately got in the car and drove over to see what was going on at his parent’s home.

“Our eldest child,” Maria murmured.

“Do you live here?” Ms. Paulson asked.

“No, my wife and I live in Boston. We are visiting for a few days to attend my wife’s parents’ anniversary party. We have been staying above her parent’s place, and my younger sister Belle called to say something about our sister Elizabeth showing up?”

“Yes,” Ms. Paulson nodded. “Your sister is in the care of the New Mexico State Hospital…”

“That is crazy,” Jake muttered but knew it wasn’t that crazy, because his sister had been going down that road for way too long, If only we had found her earlier he muttered as he would never forgive him for putting his sister in the position to be taken in the first place despite the happiness he had found with his wife.

“It’s either there or prison…” Ms. Paulson stated, and Jake shook his head at his disappointment in the situation. “She’s under assessment.”

Jake nodded “As long as she gets the help she needs, then I guess we’ll have to live with it” he muttered as he saw the expressions on his parents faces and knew this was not what they needed but knew his father wouldn’t be able to stay away if helping his sister was even a possibility.

“What do you do Jake?” Ms. Paulson asked.

“My wife is a medical student at Harvard, and I am former Sheriff deputy here in Roswell where I spent nearly five years with the department, and I am currently a house husband waiting for the imminent birth of our first child and trying to write a book while my wife studies to be a doctor,” Jake muttered to the cringing of his parents who knew that Nicholas had won a round in relation to their son and no one had been left unscathed and yet their son had managed to find a career, which was now on hiatus due to the circumstance.

“Congratulations,” Ms. Paulson nodded.

“Thank you,” Jake nodded. “So, you never told me their names?” he asked of the two little boys. One now standing wearily looking at the adults, and the baby still snuggled in the arms of the second social worker.

“This is, Drew Jacob” Ms. Paulson said of the name for the older boy as the name hit everyone in the stomach, and this is Michael James, but he goes by “Mick” and Jake knew from that moment those boys wouldn’t be turned away.

As he saw his mother slowly walked to the other social worker and take little Mick in her arms and cry because the baby looked so much like his sister when she was a child that it made him even want to get emotional when he thought he was cried out years before when this all started when he couldn’t be with is little sister at the conclusion of her high school prom and prevent her from being kidnapped and tortured.

Moments later Emily’s tiny feet came down the stairs and was startled to see another child there, and a baby in her mother’s arms. She approached Drew who wearily watched the girl as she had come into the room as they assessed each other as they almost knew right then that they were family, and even closer than people knew… “Who are they?” the five-year-old spoke up in a soft tone.

Cringing, Michael didn’t want to have to explain to a five year old the circumstances of what was going on when Belle should have been keeping track of the child upstairs since she knew of the importance of them being selected as foster parents for their grandchildren. “Emily…” Maria smiled as Jake could see the wariness of the women with the children and authority to rubber stamp his parent’s application.

As Emily and Drew were staring at each other as if in a contest to decide who was going to speak up, Jake stepped in. “Emily, sweetie, can you go up and find Belle?”

“Sure,” the young girl nodded as she left the room, which left the adults in the room along with the children.

“You have quite the age difference among your children?” Mary Paulson observed as Maria nodded as Michael stepped in.

“You obviously are aware of the situation with our youngest if you have the records, and as a result, the records of my daughter?” Michael murmured. “So, you have to know?”

“Yes, we’re aware” Mary muttered. “Emily is your daughter by adoption because biologically she is your granddaughter. She was born to your eldest daughter Elizabeth when she was seventeen years old?” the social worker asked. “Biological father is unknown, but the court severed the rights, and gave the baby to you…”

“Yes,” Maria muttered as it reminded her that the three kids were siblings, closer by blood than average families even if they did not know who the father was, nor did their daughter know. Whether Elizabeth truly knew was a mystery and something she never discussed but given the way their daughter was acting, they believed their daughter when she said she did not know. “We adopted Emily at birth…” she thought of the little girl they had brought home from the hospital. “She’s officially our daughter...”

“And you want to do it again?” Mary asked.

“We are not looking at this as anything more than taking in our grandsons Ms. Paulson” Michael sighed as he looked at his wife and eldest son.
“Today, they need a home. Tomorrow is another story. We both hope one day soon our daughter will be well enough to be able to take back custody because we cannot judge her circumstances of today, because we do not know her today other than she needs to come home. But until that day does come where she can be a mother to her kids then we want to be the ones to be able to take care of her sons… As you can see, we can give them a roof over their heads, and a lot of family to give them the love and the support that they obviously need…”

“We hope that you don’t pin your hopes on that happening Mr. Guerin,” Ms. Paulson murmured. “We took your grandsons away from your daughter because of neglect and because their needs weren’t being looked after, and your daughter will have to do a lot of work to prove she could ever take care of them in the future…”

“I am sure she will be proving that to you” Michael promised.

“As you have said, you don’t know your daughter today so you can’t make that promise” Ms. Paulson murmured as she was trying to make an assessment “Therefore, are you prepared that this placement might end up being a long-term assignment?” she asked and Michael nodded as he turned to face his wife, and it was up to Maria now to what she was going to prepare to deal with in the days and months to come. She nodded, as Ms. Paulson nodded as she elected to okay the application for temporary custody of the boys to be given to Michael and Maria.

*

She counted the clock and she knew she had been here 48 hours and had only 24 hours before they released her because she was too lucid for them to think she was a danger to herself and even if that meant back to the jail cell, it was worth than the alternative but 24 hours also allowed for anything to happen as it so often had happened before despite sometime her best efforts.

She had come back to reality when the doctor told her that her parents had agreed to take the boys, and she knew she had to admit they had surprised her by doing it. Especially since they had done it before. She knew she was out of chances with her parents. Or at least her mother. She knew her father still felt guilty. It was not his fault, it was all her fault for getting so broken down, and for letting Nicholas win.

Her actions had driven everyone away. Which is why she began orchestrating a way to get her babies away from her, and away from Nicholas before the worst happened. She knew her parents would take them in, or she had hoped, and they had. She only hoped Jake was around to help but he did not know because he had not seen her brother in four years nor her best friend Grace.

She needed to give herself more time in this place, so Nicholas did not find her. If she were in jail, he would find her as he always had a way in the past, to get her back into his clutches.

She had wished so much had been different. As she knew her family did not know that there was not a time after her kidnapping that Nicholas did not have some level of control over her or a way for his clutches to be around her, and under his spell. She had allowed it to happen. She had allowed him to win, and to throw her in the faces of her family. She had allowed him to destroy her life and to changes destinies.

Yet on this day, and knowing the forces she was battling, she knew she was willing to give it all up if it meant her family was safe even if it gave Nicholas the ability to claim his greatest win.

Therefore, she scribbled down a note, and left it on the bed, preparing to strip the bed she had slept on and tied it into a noose and went for an out…

It was too bad Nicholas caught onto her first as the shadows started to talk…

“Now baby, why would you go and do this to yourself when you know you’re mine and will never stop being mine. You can get rid of those brats all you want because they are useless to me. After all you treated yourself like a low class whore to end up with them in the first place,” spoke the shadows as she could feel the power of the darken shadows on her as flashes of her precious boys came to her as she tried to use their faces to concentrate to keep from falling to this man, At least my sons will be safe as she felt comforted in the knowledge that they were safe from this monster. You are just pissed I was not your whore, so that you could call them your own. No, someone else is their father. Someone who is ten times the man you are. Or least I can say that about Drew’s father. Mick’s father is someone who was good but had a lousy boss and got stuck in a bad break “You will always be mine. If you think I’ll allow you your freedom then you are sadly mistaken because you know you will never be able to get away from me,” a menacing voice from the shadows and she shivered. “You thought you got away, didn’t you? Finding a way to slit those wrists to get sent you here…” the voice said as he moved out of the shadow, closer to his victim. “Come with me, let’s go home and I’ll take very good care with you” he murmured as he pushed a syringe of a drug into her arm and she collapsed into his arms as he patted her hair and kissed her. “I always take good care of you, and give you all the drugs you want so why leave me?”

And he then made her disappear…. in such a way that left her family to find the note and think she had broken out to kill herself. To them, she disappeared as suddenly as she reappeared in their lives, and woke up old wounds… and made them worry…

Ultimately a body was discovered, but it was not until a year later. And it was not the one they expected to find.

Instead it was one who would change everything, for everyone…
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Re: Always Tomorrow (CC, Mature) - A Reunion's Endgame - Chapter 2 - 05/20/2020

Post by saori_1902 »

Love this!!
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Always Tomorrow - Chapter 3 - 05/22/2020

Post by Parker1947 »

One year later,

Children played in the living room. The party was to celebrate the first birthday of the group’s mutual grandchild in Jake and Grace’s firstborn child; a daughter Eva Elizabeth Guerin. She was now living in Roswell after her parents had moved from Boston after she was born when Grace was poached by the Las Cruces medical school to finish her studies in New Mexico. After the drama with the sudden disappearance again of Elizabeth and the likelihood that she was lost to them, Jake and Grace moved back. She loved Harvard but she loved her family more…

Alexandra and Carrie were in town for a trip home during summer break from university. Alexandra was leaving Monday for Washington for an internship. Carrie was working in New York for the summer before Alexandra went back to Harvard and Carrie went back to Duke University.

Belle was planning her thirteenth birthday party with her aunt. Isabel was planning on making it an event. She knew how much Belle’s life had been impacted by the chaos in the clan over the last seven years. Belle’s older brothers Colin and Liam were working and could not make it today’s party. They were attending university in Las Cruces, and taking classes during the summer session.

Max and Beth’s five-year-old son Christopher was playing hide and seek with Emily and Drew. The three were already three musketeers, and in-separable. Eva was crawling and starting to walk and, and little Mick was already cruising the room and Michael was trying to keep up. Maria and Beth were laughing. Grace was taking pictures as Jake walked into the house after getting off work. He was back working at the Sheriff’s department and smiled when Eva saw her Daddy as she tried to come running but fell, and everyone laughed and yet instead of crying, she started smiling.

“Where is your father?” Jake asked his wife as Grace came up to her husband with a kiss. “I didn’t see the car, and it doesn’t seem he’s around here?”

“He got a call from your grandfather to meet him at the station. He says he won’t be long, so I am surprised he didn’t see you on your way out…” Grace asked of her husband. They had been married for little more than two years now and had been thrilled by the birth of their first child as it had brought a lot of happiness and peace to a still fractured family. They had gotten engaged when she turned 18, on her 18th birthday in fact but they waited to marry which pleased their parents who thought they were too young despite how fast their relationship progressed over several traumatic events within the clan. She had done her undergraduate degree before the move to Boston at Las Cruces which is why they knew they had a in when they tried to give her the moon to switch back to her original university to finish medical school.

“I clocked out when I was in the field,” Jake smiled as they kissed. “So, I didn’t see him” as Maria brought Eva to him and he picked his little girl up and gave her a giant kiss as the little girl who looked so much like her father giggled up a storm.

The gang had tried to gain a large measure of peace over the last year as they tried come to terms with the past and knew it was better to be together than apart. Emily ended up winning the race, and Drew whined that it was no fair because Emily was older. But he ended up in a smile and Maria could see her daughter in his smile. Little Mick looked the most like Elizabeth but there were moments when Drew Jacob had that essence of her daughter, and it almost brought tears to her eyes.

“It’s okay Mom, let me take Eva and you go in for a drink” Jake said as he knew how much his mother and father were still struggling with the gaping hole in the families. They had never been able to find Elizabeth or her body if she had really disappeared and succeeded in killing herself after so many tries over the years.

Maria walked to the bar and got a drink. Beth noticing how emotional Maria was getting joined her, and while Isabel concluded her discussion with Belle and joined them… as Belle went off to phone a friend as she was getting bored with the party, as no one was her age and she didn’t hear the murmurs of her long-lost sister name infest the room.

Jake could only shake his head as he paused when he thought of his younger sister, and how much he missed her as he tried to get back into party mood as Grace grabbed his hand as they walked to get some food for Jake and soon they managed the find the happiness in their daughter’s big day.

But then there was a knock on the door, and Michael being the closest decided to go for the door and when he did and saw Max, then he knew.
From the look on Max’s face, he knew as he looked around and suddenly the crowd quieted as they saw the deadly serious look on his face, and they all knew it about the subject they all feared Elizabeth.

“She’s dead, isn’t she Max” Michael whispered as he looked back at Maria whose face crumbled but stayed firm as she walked towards her husband. Jake immediately approached his parents. “Max, what is it?”

“They found her Michael…” Max said softly as he braced for the impact as Maria’s face fell as he was quick to assure his family. “Guys, she’s not dead. She is very much alive. Your little girl, Elizabeth is alive…”

And there were audible gasps in the room.


*


The police van arrived shortly after the crowd made it to the police station. Only Michael and Maria, Jake and Grace, Max and Beth went. Isabel and Kyle stayed to babysit the collection of small children with Belle’s assistance as Alexandra was supposed to be meeting her boyfriend for a previously made engagement together and Carrie had to head to work as there was no one could take her shift on such last minute notice, and she needed the money. So, none of them knew what to expect, as only Max knew partially and even, he was in the dark about the extent of it.

The body was unloaded first and Maria gasped at the body bag with fear that Max got it wrong and it was really her baby in the bag, but Max knew it as he gotten assurance from Jim who had stayed at the station to prepare for arrival while Max did the grim notification as he confirmed that their daughter, who so longed to have back in their lives was actually alive. “Is there another police van?” Max asked.

“No, this is the one” said the driver. “And you are?”

“The lawyer,” was all Max said and the others did not know why Max was taking a professional position because he had not had the heart to tell them back at the house. They had been so relieved to know she was alive. For so long everyone assumed she was dead. The suicide letter was left back in her room, and then she disappeared. Walking out on serious criminal charges, and they had seen the attempted noose in the room.

“Right,” the driver nodded. “You won’t have to wait long…”

Michael and Maria barely made it through the discovery back a year ago. So much pain and loss were on their faces, and the last year had barely made a dent in it despite the arrival of their newest grandchildren and something so joyous as little Eva’s birth. Now the band-aid was being ripped off, and for everyone, the wound was newly exposed.

“What’s going on Dad?” Grace Evans Guerin asked as she took the hand of her husband. “Why are we here? If she is alive, and not the body they were transporting then where is Elizabeth?” she asked of her childhood best friend and now sister-in-law…

Max did not have to say anything because once the body was removed from the van, moments later a woman with long blonde hair was moved to the front of the van while in chains and looking heavily pregnant. Forced down the steps, there was gasps when they realized who the blonde was.

“Elizabeth,” whispered Michael and Maria in unison at the shocking reveal of their daughter. Jake and Grace looked in shock as his sister was in chains, and orange prison uniform. “You…”

“Surprise, I am alive” Elizabeth said as her composure was completely different from the girl her father had witnessed a year before, although arms still appeared to have visible scars, but she didn’t look stoned, or drugged out. She almost looked human, and the girl she once was before it all went sideways. “You thought I was dead, right?”

“We figured the chances were high,” Michael asked as he turned to his best friend “What’s going on Max?”

“Dad, Jake, I finally did it. The devil is gone, and I killed him” Elizabeth revealed as she flashed back to the apartment as she stood with a warm gun in her hand, as she stood and watch as the blood spilled out of the madman who had taken the girl she was once, and changed her into someone she didn’t recognize and who was forever different as a

A body laid on the floor with many shots in him, as she had not stopped at just one. She had kept firing until there were no more bullets…

As the door burst open and cops broke open the door, and they came bursting on the scene as she was thrown against the bed, and place in cuffs, and they didn’t care about the baby, or that she had visible scars on her throat as they manhandled her into the van that waited as she was taken nearby police station, and put in a prison uniform and placed in chains, and forced to return to Roswell as she came back to reality as was forced forward in the chains as the guards forced her through the doors of the Sheriff’s department as the gang looked like nothing made sense as Jake grabbed Grace’s hand and squeezed tightly.
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Re: Always Tomorrow (CC, Mature) - A Reunion's Endgame - Chapter 3 - 05/22/2020

Post by RoswellFan68 »

Wow. I didn't realize that Michael and Maria were raising their granddaughter as their own child. I feel like we have missed a great deal of Max and Liz's (Beth's) life. How much of her memories did Beth recover? Did they make the choice to have another child or was it an accident.

Did Elizabeth kill Nicholas final? Was Nicholas really a skin since a body was found?
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Always Tomorrow - Chapter 4 - 05/25/2020

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Once Elizabeth was gone through the doors, the rest of her family were left to wonder what they had just witnessed and to try to make some sense of it, as they all leaned on Max to make it make sense. “What’s going on Max…” Michael asked as he was forced to confront the idea of his daughter being back when he was an almost accepting that she was gone, and he hadn’t been able to help or protect her. “Who does she think she killed?”

“Nicholas…” Max said simply sighed and announced to a shocked gathering outside the Sheriff’s department. “She was seen standing above his body with the gun in her apartment. She’s telling everyone in sight that she did it”

“Nicholas is dead?” Michael asked he felt Maria grabbing his hand as squeezed hard at it as they tried to give each other support they desperately needed.

“Yes,” Max nodded as he thought of the initial reporting that Jim had told him when he was called to the station. “It’s been confirmed by the coroner, and I am told it was pretty bloody. She didn’t show him any mercy if it was actually Elizabeth who did it?”

“He didn’t deserve mercy,” Maria said with rage in her blood. “Given what he did to my little girl, he only deserves to die as bloody as possible.”

“Elizabeth is in a lot of trouble” Max announced as they walked into the Sheriff’s department and saw Elizabeth being led to fingerprinting and then processing and led into interrogation. Jim came out a few minutes later. “She’s needs you Max?”

Max nodded and walked back into interrogation.

“How bad is it?” Michael asked his father-in-law.

“It’s going to be complicated” said Jim briefly as they walked towards his desk. Maria and Grace stayed behind to watch the interrogation room while Jake went inside his grandfather’s office with his father.

“How so…” Jake asked as his wrists were clinched. “He is responsible for her kidnapping and brutalizing my sister. How can they think it’s not self-defense and protecting herself?” he wondered.

“You don’t want to know,” Jim said softly as he knew stuff about the case that he wished he did not know.

*

Beth walked up to her daughter and Maria who was willing good information to come out of the interrogation room. “It’s going to be alright,” she assured the two. “Max will help her out,” she confirmed. “I called the house and the kids are sleeping. I’ll be heading over there shortly.”
“Thank you,” Grace said as she thought of her friend. She missed how close they were at one time, but once the kidnapping happened… things started to fall apart, and they were never the same. She and Jake solidified their relationship, and she moved to Las Cruces for a year because of unfolded rumors and because her father wanted to try again with her mother. It gave them all a chance at a fresh start, but Grace missed her friends and her home so for senior year after Beth accepted another year on her term at the hospital, they decided to relocate back to Roswell where the twins started their sophomore year at West Roswell, and Grace finished off her senior year. Beth did the commute before she retired from hospital life and opened a practice in Roswell. Elizabeth had been lost to them by then as she didn’t graduate because her parents had her for half a year in a rehab facility to clean up only for her to disappear soon after her 18th birthday, which had broken all their hearts.

So, she flashed back six years ago when it was clear that she was not getting her friend back,

June 2023

The car stopped and teenage girl who just finished her junior year of high school away from her hometown got out of her car when she noticed an old friend on a corner, sitting on a bench by the bus stop, so she parked and got out of the car and approached the girl who she wouldn’t have recognized except for the fact they knew each other so well, and too well, in some cases.

“Elizabeth?” Grace asked as she saw with shock her friend now with black spiking hair with pink tips as she almost did not recognize the girl because she was not the girl, she had last seen months before…

“Look who they dragged back to this godforsaken town?” Elizabeth asked as she puffed away on a cigarette. She wore a black leather jacket, and all black. It was a change from the girl she knew a year before, and Grace cried inside at how her friend had changed and cursed the villain who had taken the girl her friend once was…

“You didn’t come to my parents’ wedding?” Grace asked as she thought back to the special day when her parents got married, and how it had been a joyous day with blissfully happy newlyweds as they had decided to get married again to put an end to the difficulty of Beth being two different people. Liz was long dead, but Beth wasn’t, and for Roswell… it posed a difficult duality and finally her father popped the question and Beth said yes, and so they got married in a beautiful wedding that merged her two lives. “Your whole family was there, but you weren’t…”

“Wow, I missed a wedding, that is really the end of the world” Elizabeth sneered as she took a pill bottle out of her purse and popped a pill.
Shaking her head. “I thought you stopped?” Grace asked as it hurt to see how her friend had fallen.

“Nope, back at it” Elizabeth asked as she lit another cigarette and not caring that she was risking an overdose by mixing different drugs. “Are you going to tell your boyfriend?”

“No,” Grace asked as she shook her head.

“Wow, Ms. 4.0 GPA isn’t going to tell her cop boyfriend that she seen drugs” Elizabeth muttered as she stood up. “Stop trying to be nice… it’s annoying” she puffed away as she tried to keep her friend at arm’s length.

“I thought because of the baby, you stopped?” Grace asked as she tried to make sense of the difference in her friend. “Jake told me you were clean?” she asked.

“Well Jake doesn’t know everything, and I don’t have a baby. She’s my parent’s kid, not mine” Grace murmured. “They wanted it and I didn’t so that is fine that is on them. I am out and back to my own life.”

“No, you’re not” Grace sighed as she thought of little Emily back at the Guerin house. It was true that Maria and Michael reconciled because of their daughter’s pregnancy and were making another go of it, but she had thought Elizabeth loved her baby. Jake had given her the impression she did.

“Grace, they adopted her… so that’s their problem, not mine and which means she no longer mine”

Grace could only watch as Elizabeth stumbled a bit and then a car drove up to them and stopped by the side of the bus stop. “Go home Grace. Go back to your perfect life and let me live the life that was destined for me” she said as she got in the car that waited with dark tinted windows. “About time, let’s get out of here?”

The car drove off and Grace wondered where her friend disappeared off to.

And it only got worse from there as Elizabeth did not show up at home for a week or so, which sent her parents into a tizzy and it got progressively worse until her parents sent her off to a rehab facility.

Then she completely disappeared.


*

Elizabeth was sitting in the interrogation room after having some words with her grandfather as she had pleaded with him not to tell her parents all that he knew of the case, and her relationship with Nicholas. Now she was sitting alone in the room and wondering if this was better than she was over a year before as she thought back and had found herself remembering the same incident as Grace when Max walked into the room. She remembered how Nicholas kept her under his spell for a week that time, and it was really the first time she saw his anger. He had not been happy about her pregnancy especially given he was not the father, and so he had kept away and that had been one of the happiest times of her life since Nicholas came into the picture until the last six months. Emily deserves Mom and Dad as her parents, she did not deserve me as her mother.

“Earth to Elizabeth,” Max asked as he sat down at the desk and looked across the table at his goddaughter and knew he once imagined her here for killing Tommy Ellis but that was a fear than any thought of a reality that might play out one day. To know she killed Nicholas was bizarre and even trying to reconcile that was its own form of bizarre. She saw him looking at her as he broached the question that needed to be asked “Do you want me as your lawyer?”

“You’re the only one I know,” Elizabeth muttered. “And plus, anyone else would cost a fortune which I don’t have, and you do know my secrets, or most of them”

Max nodded as she stared down at her scarred arms and she noticed, and she laughed. “I don’t have your special abilities, and it’s not like I have been able to use any of my abilities in recent years.”

“Yeah,” Max asked.

“Yeah,” Elizabeth admitted. “One of the reasons they were drugging me to begin with was my abilities and the fact I tried to escape and killed that man” she sighed as she dreaded the memories that came with her captivity. If only I wasn’t so foolish to try to escape like I did, when I should have been more careful and planned it… as she knew the brutality came as a result of the fact she tried to escape she mused to herself, I was stupid Sometimes the nightmares come back and usually the drugs helped keep them away and yet she didn’t have that excuse these last six months or so…

“Are you okay, do you need me to get a doctor to check you out?” Max asked. “I mean the baby?”

“The baby is fine,” Elizabeth said dispassionately.

“Are you sure. You have had a rough night,” Max asked. “Maybe it be good to check you over?”

“When I say the baby is fine, the baby is fine” Elizabeth said wincing at the memory of Nicholas’s nickname for her. She was perfectly fine, and she did not like knowing how she fell under his spell.

Max nodded.

“I haven’t had a drink or a drug in over six months” Elizabeth revealed.

“The baby?” Max nodded.

“I had to convince Nicholas of a lot of things, and so he didn’t drug me, and I didn’t take any drugs, and he stopped drugging me against my will” she revealed as she saw the concern on Max’s face, and she figured she needed to be honest with her lawyer. It’s just I am not really pregnant,” Elizabeth revealed to the shock of Max whose jaw dropped. “There is no baby.”

“You know you look very pregnant,” Max asked if needed a doctor to check to whether Elizabeth suffered a break with reality.

“I am faking,” Elizabeth revealed. “I was pregnant, but I got rid of it and I lied to Nicholas about it and so I am not truly having a baby,” she sighed as Max looked at her stunned silence as she laughed. “I know the feeling. He found out tonight and let us say it came to a violent ending. Seven years in the making.”

As she heard her ears ringing You bitch. We had a deal. You whore yourself around, but you were to give me a baby, and you could not do it, could you. You will lie down for anyone who will give you sex, but you refuse me the one thing that will give you your freedom.

Freedom, she laughed to herself. He was never going to give me freedom from him. He would have killed her after baby was born if there had been a baby. She knew it, he knew it. But there was no way she was going to bring his baby into the world. She wasn’t that stupid, but she lived because he needed a baby to be born but she always succeeded at getting pregnant when she was truly pregnant by others, never Nicholas and she knew with this pregnancy, when he found out the truth, she was going to be dead. She had wanted out, and almost got her out, but he had stopped her… as she felt his hands on her throat as he almost succeeded as strangling the life out of her, before she snapped and started shooting…

“There was no baby. I was never going to give him that win. He took everything else from me, but I was never going to allow him that…”
Last edited by Parker1947 on Mon May 25, 2020 7:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Always Tomorrow (CC, Mature) - A Reunion's Endgame - Chapter 4 - 05/25/2020

Post by RoswellFan68 »

I'm glad Max and Beth decided to remarry. So, has Elizabeth been sleeping with Nicholas because he wants an heir? Was Elizabeth sleeping around just to fool Nicholas? Is Max's and Beth's son in danger since Max finally had a male heir?
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Always Tomorrow - Chapter 5 - 05/28/2020

Post by Parker1947 »

Six months earlier,

Eyes open and she looked up at his arms in the handcuffs as she laid in bed naked. She was thankfully alone. Using some of the strength she longed held in reserve and never used, she broke free of the cuffs, and picked up the cuffs and threw them in the trash where a collection of them laid. A victim of a long night of drugged sex, which unfortunately for her was long, painful and kinkier than she liked but Nicholas insisted on it and she couldn’t say no, because that been their agreement as she walked naked into the bathroom. She saw the scratches on her shoulders and back, as she looked at her back and saw her own brand that she had during a Nicholas free time in her life. A “Phoenix rising from the ashes” and she hoped it would be the start but then Nicholas came back, and she was forced to deal with him and put up with his kinky side.

She then she saw the other tattoo that Nicholas forced on her of two rings, with a chain linked between them and steel ball at the chain, signifying that she was his and she wasn’t going anywhere as no man was going to want her with the significant branding from another man, including his name, and other sick branding, and she mostly had given up even trying to leave. She had tried when she slit her wrists, but he found her and forced her to go with him, and now she was locked back in her prison with nowhere to go.

She knew what her family probably thought that she was dead. She looked down at her scarred wrists and the needle marks from the relentless drugs pushed into her system, some by others and by herself.

She thought of her sons, and wondered if they were okay? For a moment she thought of Emily but knew she was not hers, and it was better this way. Emily had a better chance being raised by her parents than she did being involved in her life, and knew she was too fill of scars in more ways than just her arms to be a factor in any of her children’s lives.

It was better she was here because it kept Nicholas away from her family. That had been the agreement she had made, that he stayed away if she became his. Now she had to live with that decision, until she could find a way to rectify it.

Then she felt something, a sensation she had felt three times already if she did not count the abortions, she had taken herself through. Nicholas had not been shy about trying to get her pregnant, and mostly she had been able to find a way to make sure she did not have his baby. Either by being with someone else when he was gone, or by having those abortions. The fact she stayed alive despite her repeated attempts to circumvent Nicholas revenge against her father, and she knew it and she was protecting her family by keeping Nicholas away from them, and away from her children.

Now she felt a familiar sensation and she frowned as she felt her flat stomach. “Shit!” she told herself because if she was pregnant than Nicholas was the father. Because this had been the longest stretch, she had endured with him, and he had been relentless with her since he forced her out of the hospital and there had been no ability to be with anyone else.

She knew she couldn’t allow him this baby, and to win because then he wouldn’t have any reason to keep her alive, his quest for revenge or not because if he had the baby than he could do whatever the grand plan had been from the beginning, she couldn’t have that as she walked to the door and found it locked, and knew she was locked in.


Fuck! I need to find a way out of this room to be able to make sure I am not pregnant… she whispered to herself

It was two weeks later; she knew she was… and now she had to figure out how to get an abortion without Nicholas knowing as she looked down at the papers and the threats that Nicholas kept over her head.


Which she did after telling Nicholas she was pregnant which loosened the restrictions and kept him off her, and the drugs stopped. It allowed her to get clean and she planned to stay clean as she came back to reality and noticed Max staring at her, “You think I am crazy?”

“It’s a thought. You’ve gone through a hard time,” Max asked he didn’t know what to think of the girl who sat before him because to him, she was not the Elizabeth he had known so many years before, and yet her eyes still showed a terror and a haunted quality to them which obviously hadn’t gone away despite her normal appearance, “I can’t imagine what your life has been like?”

“No, you can’t” Elizabeth admitted. “I am not crazy” she sighed. “Nicholas wanted me to be crazy or be driven mad, but then he also had too much fun playing with me and using me, so he wore me down. I tried to get out, but he always found me, and it leads to today.”

“You never tried to reach out, and try to reach us?” Max asked as he could see the pain on her face when he mentioned. “To Isabel?” he asked. “She would have tried everything to help, and we would have done the same Elizabeth. If you have been with him all this time, why stay with him and not leave?”

“Because he blackmailed me,” Elizabeth revealed to a shocked Max as tears came to her face. “He forced me by taking seriously degrading pictures of me when I was drugged, and then he threatened those who I loved to make me stay otherwise he would tell the world what I did with him…”

“You were a victim,” Max said sickened at the thought of what Nicholas would have made Elizabeth do. “It’s not your fault. None of us would have looked at you any differently….” Max asked as he felt pain knowing that Elizabeth was the same age of his own daughter and to know how she was used to cause pain.

“Dad does. He looked at me differently when I came home and because of that, he moved out. If he saw those pictures, he wouldn’t love me anymore…” Elizabeth muttered in a very teenage-ish type of way and it hit Max hard because he knew how much Michael had been transformed by what happened to his eldest daughter. Michael and Elizabeth were mirror images in so many ways. Michael was treated horribly by Hank early in life but found love, and then Elizabeth had loving family but then was treated so brutally, and it changed her future and he could only pray that she had a chance to make something of her life and it wouldn’t own her.

“Elizabeth, you have to know that is not true because your father loves you completely and he was in tremendous pain to have lost you, and to know you were in so much pain because of who we are. To have you gone, well, he and your mother were desperate in their search and their wishing you would come home to them.”

Elizabeth did not want to believe that because she did not. Too much had gone down to think she was loved, and they would love her anyway possible, if they were in her life. Sighing, she thought of her father and then a frown came over as she thought of what her parents would find out “You can’t tell him Uncle Max; you can’t tell my parents what Nicholas did to me or made me do” Elizabeth pleaded with hint of desperation at the thought that her parents would know what had happened to her, and the depth of how it all went “It will kill him, kill them and they have already done too much for me… more than I could have asked and I can’t hurt them like that…”

“They are your parents Elizabeth. We step up the plate when the chips are down when of our kids are hurt or need our help. They want to be there for you, and your kids” Max said softly as tears came down her face as she flashed to their faces, full of so much hope and pain when they had seen her come out of the truck.

“How are they, the boys?” Elizabeth asked as memories of the little boys she had given birth to flashed in her mind. She hadn’t known at the time who the father was of Drew, but Nicholas was a possibility but not as great as this latest pregnancy would have been so Nicholas allowed her to proceed with the pregnancy, and as she felt him grow inside her, she fell in love. Then he was born and looked so much like her brother and her father, that it tore at her to see them in his eyes. She knew instantly Nicholas was not father, and Nicholas knew it too and was extremely angry. Drew Jacob kept her fighting despite Nicholas’s attempts to drive her down. She had a miscarriage a year later and then an abortion, and then she found herself pregnant again. She was getting beaten down by how she was being treated and what was expected of her, and then the baby was born, and it crystalized just how much jeopardy she was putting them in. And she knew she had to do something, and she did, and it got the boys away from her…

“Growing by leaps and bounds,” Max smiled of the two young boys who resided with Michael and Maria. “They are truly strong, just like their mother is” he murmured at Elizabeth. “Drew asks about you…”

“What does he say?” Elizabeth wondered as her heart broke for her eldest son.

“If you’re safe,” Max said simply.

“Which is why I had to get him out there. I couldn’t let him grow up under Nicholas’s control because he was getting older and he was seeing too much,” Elizabeth cried at the thought of how much three-year-old Drew had seen before she lost him from her life. “I didn’t want the babies to experience that hell anymore…”

Max nodded.

“I do love them you know. Everything I did was for them, for Emily. For my parents, Grace and Jake” Elizabeth asked as she flashed back over the torment over the years. “Everybody. If you were all safe, and free from Nicholas then I did my job.”

“What are you talking about?” Max asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” Elizabeth said as she thought of the deal she made with the devil. “He’s dead and gone and the past is the past.”

Max glanced into Elizabeth’s eyes and knew there was sincere pain in there, and it came to him “Wait, you said blackmail, and that he used us. What did he use Elizabeth? What did he have on us?” Max asked as horror struck him. “What did he use to keep you with him?”

“He said I didn’t know the family history as well I thought I did. That there were secrets everyone or nearly everyone had, and he was prepared to spill to the authorities, and I knew he was telling the truth. I could not let him do that so I signed on the dotted line and he promised that he would stay away from all of you. As long as I stayed…”

“Oh hell” Max said as it slowly struck him as the horror stayed with him. “What did you sign?”

“I don’t know, as I was still drugged but I knew he was serious” Elizabeth sighed as Max felt dumbstruck with the sudden realization that not only were the newest generation being made to pay for the sins of their parents but also how secret everything was only put more pressure on the kids of today to keep secrets, and to protect the family. Knowing the burden, it placed on Elizabeth did not make it easy to live with. “Uncle Max, I am really in trouble… aren’t I?”

“Yes, you are,” Max was forced to admit.

*

Jake was watching the room with interest. He was off duty but he had to stick by as his parents also kept an eagle eye on the room, as he touched his sister’s file, as she was trying to force to read it as Grace noticed her husband watching the room with interest as she got off her cellphone and approached Jake. “Eva is asleep at Mom and Dad’s” Grace assured her husband who nodded as his wife joined him. “It must be going well, right?” she asked of the room as her father had not come out, which meant Elizabeth had to want help, right?

“Hopefully,” Jake said as he took his wife in his arms. Years of trying to bury worry for his sister now suddenly had resurfaced. “She almost looked like she used to, didn’t she?” he asked of his wife had he tried to believe finally they were getting his sister back in their lives as it still rang too unbelievable.

“Yeah,” Grace nodded of the long blonde hair, and not the pink or spike mohawks she tended to favor before she disappeared as the door opened and Max walked out and everyone jumped but Max only turned and went towards the Sheriff’s office, and open and shut the door when he entered.

“What do you think that is about?”

“Who knows,” Jake asked as his father approached. “I still don’t know anything…” he assured his father.

“Is that the case report?” he asked of the file that his had been holding for the last few minutes. “Anything?”

“I haven’t read it yet,” Jake sighed as he thought of what the file held as he couldn’t help but open the door to the interrogation room where his sister resided, and she saw him, both couldn’t help but stare at each other for the first time in so many years.

“Elizabeth?” Jake asked softly.

“Jake,” Elizabeth asked but both did not speak another word and stared at each other, and wished they knew what to say to each other.


*

Inside Jim’s office. Max was asking the Sheriff a favor and Jim was granting it. “He’s off the case anyways because of how close he is to the suspect” Jim was saying. “Conflict of interest you know…”

“And you don’t have any as her grandfather?” Max asked looking at Jim who looked much older than he had earlier in the day. Knowing the weight this case held was causing everyone heartburn.

“I admit I am skating the line” Jim admitted. “Which is why professionally I have to make sure this all looks above board?”

“I know,” Max nodded as he knew that Jim barely came out of the skirmish over Jake’s accusation years ago unscathed. The media ran with the rumors and despite the department reporting official statements that there was nothing to warrant an investigation. Jim was forced to bring in an outside party to investigate, and Jake was cleared although they admitted it was a grey area given Jake and Grace’s ages, but the family closeness and the fact Max didn’t have an issue with the pairing calmed the waters. It also helped that Max and Grace relocated for the year, so it died down and Jim was able to save his job and Jake was able to get a job with the department but the accusation did stick to him when he tried to get a job in Boston, which is why he was unemployed and a house husband when everyone went down the year before.

“Nicholas really used her, didn’t he?” Jim asked as of his granddaughter.

“I am afraid so, which is why I need Jake’s assistance because this could get more complicated…”

“Go ahead,” Jim nodded. “I am just warning you that despite it being a weekend, the bail hearing is tomorrow afternoon and she’s being held until then.”

“They aren’t going to give bail, right?” Max wondered.

“Nope, with her tendency to disappear they are going to be afraid she will run” Jim sighed as he thought of his granddaughter’s future. “Although the baby could be counted as a factor…”

“About that, you should know, she’s not pregnant. She says she faked it and it is part of the circumstances of how it all went south tonight with Nicholas.” Max revealed to the genuine shock of Jim. “I know, and as a result I am likely going to ask for a psych evaluation given all the abuse she’s suffered.”

“Jesus,” Jim sighed.

“Insanity defense?” Jim asked.

“Still too early,” Max conceded as he walked to the door as he knew he was walking the fine line or blurring it. “Jim, I do appreciate the help?”

“You need to help her, please Max…” was all Jim said as Max nodded as he left the office as was fully intending to do everything possible to make sure Elizabeth was able to come out of this with a future to reestablish.

*

“Dad,” Grace asked as she came running towards him as he knew he should be appreciative of the fact he got extremely lucky. Seeing how his daughter face lit up with hope but also worry for her friend made him know how things could have been so different for him as he took his daughter in for a hug. “Where is your mother?”

“I asked her to go and take Eva back to your place since I didn’t know how much longer we would be here” Grace sighed. “How is it Dad, really?”

“It won’t be easy,” Max confirmed as his son-in-law approached as he could see he was coming from seeing Elizabeth, “Anything?” he asked. “Speaking of you, we need to talk?”

“Max, how is my sister?” Jake asked worried. “I just went in, but we didn’t talk, and we could only stare at each other.”

“I need your help,” Max said as he felt for his son-in-law in that he knew both Jake and his daughter had taken Elizabeth’s disappearance from their lives with a lot of pain and angst despite being able to make their relationship work, and knew it was even worse for his friends in Michael and Maria.

“How?” Jake asked.

“I would rather you would meet me at the house, and I’ll fill you in, because with the media all the place, we should be careful with what we say?”

Jake nodded as he glanced towards the interrogation room that held his little sister. “How is Elizabeth?”

“Sober,” Max confirmed. “Six months or so, and she seems determined to have it stick” he murmured to the faces of hope in his daughter and her husband. “She’s pretty remarkable, I will say that…”

Jake nodded as they saw Max walk back into interrogation. “Jake, we need to talk…” Jim asked of his grandson who sighed and walked towards the office.

*

“I know I am a screw up Uncle Max,” Elizabeth sighed as she thought of everything she withstood and she hated the fact that this might be what took her down for finally escaping Nicholas, and for an end to his reign of terror.

“We’ll help you, I promise” Max nodded as a guard came into interrogation and forced Elizabeth to get up to escort her to jail. “Stay strong. The hearing is tomorrow, and I’ll meet with you before”

“I do appreciate this,” Elizabeth said as she was guided out of the room and saw her brother, and Grace and then her parents who still was having trouble believing she was back before them and she wasn’t a figment of their imagination. “I am sorry for hurting you all” was all she said as she was guided towards the cells and the brutal reminder of the past that was now the present came into focus for them all.

Once her daughter faded from view, Maria burst down crying in both relief but also pain to know her little girl was going to be in a jail cell. “You have to help her Max,” she pleaded as Michael who was not waiting for permission followed his little girl and the guard to make sure he knew where Elizabeth was going to be taken.

“I am doing my best” Max nodded as behind the closed doors Elizabeth was guided to the jail cell and had the door open and she walked in, and it closed and locked behind her and she was left alone in the cell block staring at the walls that she felt confident would be her home for the foreseeable future.

As she looked around at her new home. “At least he’s dead,” she said softly to herself as she reminder that justice was done even if she would have to live with the punishment and that she wouldn’t have the life she dreamt of as a girl. But then she mused to her, Nicholas long took that life away from me, so why should not I expect this. At least he is dead and gone from this world, a body of rotten flesh.

“Sweet drop” came a voice she had not heard in four years because she had been so unconscious and dead to the world a year before when he had attempted to help her. She whipped around and was forced out of her mind, as she was stunned to see her father.

“Daddy?” Elizabeth said as tears came down her face as she was forced to reunite with her father through steel bars and seven years of trauma came out in a flooding out of her as she felt the weight of years of loss hit her. “I am so sorry; this is all my fault.”

“That bastard….” Michael murmured.

“Is dead… I killed him,” Elizabeth said quietly but defiantly because she will never regret killing the man who took so much from her and changed her life in ways that was a nightmare for anyone else, and yet she had lived it. “I am sorry,” Elizabeth murmured.

“Don’t say that because you have nothing to be sorry about,” Michael sighed as he glanced into the face and the haunted eyes of his eldest daughter and reminder of himself as a teenager and yet she had been forced to endure even more than he had during that time, and he would always hate himself for allowing it to happen.

“It’s all because of me?” Elizabeth murmured. “I am why this family is so screwed up?”

No honey, I am the reason this family is the way it is Michael murmured. If only Maria had not come back to me, and taken Jake somewhere else, anywhere else than back into my life than this hell would not be the life I inflicted on our kids, but he didn’t want to say it. “Nicholas is to blame, so don’t blame yourself one more second” as Max watched from by the doorway, and sighed because the guilt of who they were was eating at both of them as he turned and left the station, with the promise that Jake and Grace would follow.
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