A very lucky girl…, M/L,CC,AU,Mature/Adult, 08.26 [COMPLETE]

[uw51]

05a, Jim Valenti, POV
Until the big crash on the interstate we had a relatively quiet night, at least quiet for a New Year’s Eve in a city like Albuquerque. By the time my son’s call for help came through, most of my crew was on the interstate crash sight, and from what we had heard so far it was quite a mess. Anyway, after I answered Kyle’s call and heard his voice, I knew right away that something was really wrong. So I just grabbed my Stetson, yelled for my partner Hanson and ran outside to my cruiser.

On the way to Kyle, Hanson called for an ambulance, but it seemed they were all out on the interstate crash. They told him we’d have to wait for some time. Well, I decided to wait and see, after all, I was quite good at first aid and also in judging injuries. Depending on what we found, we could take the victim to the ER ourselves.

Anyway, the moment I turned into the quiet street I could see Kyle and as we drove closer we could see that Alex was there too, and both of them were fussing over someone lying on the wet sidewalk. I could really see how relieved those two boys were by our arrival. I jumped out of the cruiser and ran toward them, while Hanson grabbed the first aid kit and followed right behind me. Seeing the wet bundle lying there stopped me in mid stride. Obviously the victim was an unconscious young female and from the clothes she wore I could tell she was from a privileged background.

Carefully Hanson and I checked her for injuries and then we did the necessary securing of the possible crime scene. Since we couldn’t detect any life threatening injuries, we carefully packed the girl, Kyle said her name was Liz Parker, into our backseat and raced her to the nearest hospital.

Hanson called ahead and thus only a doctor and nurse met us by the entrance, since most of the staff were preparing for the big rush that was expected as soon as they brought in the victims from the big crash on the interstate.

We passed on our findings on the girls’ condition and Kyle and Alex gave everything they knew about her personal data. Then they wheeled Liz away on one of those gurney things. She was a real pitiful sight, poor girl. Hanson and I had to go back to the station, but Kyle and Alex decided to stay and wait in the waiting room, because, as Alex put it, nobody should be in a hospital alone, and even if they couldn’t be with her, those two were willing to wait. I mean, what is this world coming to if parents don’t care enough for their kids, that they just drop them in such a terrible crisis, I ask you?

As it was, my partner and I returned to the station that was almost deserted, still because of that crash, but somebody had to hold up the fort, don’t you think so? Well, we got a few calls with some minor disturbances, nothing serious; thank the lord for small mercies.

Just before we were supposed to go off our shift, Walters, our boss stormed in, demanding my presence. While Hanson got ready to leave, I went to join Walters in his office. I was quite curious to hear what bug had crawled up his ass to have him in such a foul temper. Turns out, I didn’t have to wait for long. The moment I walked into his office he ordered, “shut the door and sit!” After I had complied, I looked expectantly at him; this was getting stranger by the moment. I mean, really, usually he’s quite the laid back kind of boss, you know, leaves us a lot of freedom, of course only as long as we do a good job.

Up until that moment I would’ve said that John Walters, Chief of police of the Albuquerque Police Department was an honest god-fearing man, you know, straight as an arrow, you get what you see and all that! Boy, did I get a wake up call!

Abruptly he asked me, “Jim, tell me about that girl, you know, the one you brought to the ER?” Hmm, that was already strange, usually he doesn’t get involved into our daily business, at least not like that. He’ll get the reports. Well, in a few short words I explained what Hanson and I had seen and done on that call. That in our opinion that girl had been gang raped and drugged and then abandoned by her parents. I told him that we brought her to the ER and gave our statement to the attending doctor, that everything had been done correctly according the usual procedures.

Walters just sat there, listening to my recounting of the events and then he just stared at me. I mean that guy was literally creeping me out. True, I didn’t know him as well as the others on account that I hadn’t been with his department all that long, but still, from what I could tell he behaved very oddly indeed.

Suddenly he nodded, obviously he had come to some conclusion and he reached into the big bottom drawer of his desk and got out a bottle of the finest malt Whisky ever. He grabbed two glasses and after filling them he handed me one, said “cheers” and gulped it down in one go! Well, let me tell you, as fast as I could I mimicked his action, cheering and gulping and all and down it went. That done, he refilled our glasses again, quite generously I might add, but this time he spoke before drinking.

”Well, Jim, you are one of my best men here in this department, don’t think I’m not aware of that. I always respect your work and your work morals. But I have just heard from a very reliable source that this girl has most definitely not been raped, in fact, she was a very willing participant in an orgy.” Let me tell you, to hear Walters spout such garbage had me shocked speechless. After I recovered my senses and opened my mouth to speak he stopped me by raising his hand and said, “I know the chit has been hurt, nobody denies that, but she was willing, they have witness for that. The whole thing just got out of hand a bit, that’s all!”

Respectfully I cleared my throat and started to defend the poor girl, “Sir, with all due respect, but I saw the girl, in fact Hanson saw her too, and she’s in very bad shape, very bad shape indeed!" I seriously stated. Well, with that statement I had his attention, really I did, so I continued, and „just from all that we witnessed we could tell that the girl must’ve been a virgin, a very young and small built virgin I don’t think she was involved willingly, because the bruises on her wrists and ankles showed that she had been tied up. The amount of drugs she had in her almost killed her…” Just as I was getting really into it, you know, getting really mad just by remembering what we had seen, Walters interrupted me.

”I know all that, but I talked to Carpenter, you know, the chief at the hospital? Well, he informed me of what had really happened. It seems that yes, the chit is quite young, but her parents, upstarts both of them, want to be better than they really are, have been unsuccessfully trying to be accepted into the local high society. Well, now the kid just followed her parents’ steps. She probably thought she could convince one of the boys to marry her.” He looked at me, daring me to contradict him. I decided to wait and see where he wanted to go with all this crap and held my trap.

”Heck, Jim, you’re not that old, I’m sure you remember how it was when you were younger? I mean, when a chick offered, who’d say no? Those were just some young hot-blooded boys, who accepted what was freely given! I spoke with them personally, and let me tell you, they all are sorry that it got out of hand, but that was all that happened. A girl confirmed everything. She said she was the girl’s friend and that she even tried to stop her, but was unable to do so!” He must’ve noticed my unbelieving look, because now he insisted, “those are all kids from our best families in town, they don’t need to rape any girl. But the parents offered to pay for the girl’s treatment. I’d say that’s really more than fair, don’t you agree, Jim?”

Carefully choosing my words I replied, “John, I really don’t know what to think. I have a very hard time believing what you’re telling me. I mean, my son and his friend who found her both said that she is a very shy girl, she grew up very sheltered, so I can’t imagine that she’s ever even heard of sex, or orgies or anything the like. On top of that she was in very bad shape, very, very bad shape indeed” I could practically see how Walters was loosing his patience with me, apparently I wasn’t as easy to convince as he thought! Also, this was the moment when I knew for certain that something was up and I had to be careful. I decided to keep quiet and let him do all the talking.

And talk he did, “Listen, Jim, there’s no way you can prove anything, anything at all. They have witnesses; even the girl’s best friend supports them. So, why don’t you do what you have to do and help me get this all sorted out as fast as possible. There’s no need to ruin the lives of those fine young men for a girl like that. Really, who knows, maybe she learned her lesson and will think twice before she goes about seducing nice young men again. I mean, can you imagine, they found out afterwards that the chick wasn’t even sixteen? Where will that end, I ask you, when girls that young play these kind of tricks on young men form such upstanding families!”

I had to bite my cheek to keep quiet. For some reason I knew that there was more coming and I’m really sorry to say so, but I was right. With his next breath the bastard bribed me, oh, not in the ‘right out’ kind of way, no, he went about it carefully, judging the impression his words left me with. So I did what I thought I had to do, kept my temper at bay and listened to him spouting all that nonsense.

Walters asked me, “Jim, I’ve been thinking, it’s been a while since you had your last vacation, hasn’t it?” I nodded my agreement. “Hmmm, why don’t you take a week or two off? You know, spend some quality time with your kid? I have access to a great little cabin in Aspen, huh, what do you say? I heard there are some great ski slopes up there? I’m sure your son, oh, I forgot his name?” “Kyle” “Right, Kyle, I’m sure Kyle would love it up there too. You know, ski bunnies and ‘Après Ski’ and all that?” As an afterthought my boss added, “oh, isn’t he the one who found the girl? That must’ve been quite a shock? It probably would be good for him to get away for a bit, what do you say?”

I felt like saying a lot, but gave his offer some ‘real serious’ thought before replying, “Thanks for the offer, John, but college just started after the Christmas break and my boy takes his studies very seriously. I don’t think I could pry him away, not even for a day!” I was hoping real hard that I didn’t have to give in to the laughter that suddenly attacked me, Kyle taking his studies seriously? Right, and my name was James Bond! Well, all the hoping didn’t do any good, I still had a bad fit of laughter but I was able to cover it up with a bout of coughing. I think I was just so damn nervous that I had a hard time to stay focused. Anyway, my coughing got me another shot of that Whisky, but after that I was able to pull myself together and seriously add to earlier statement, “well, you know, this morning Kyle wasn’t alone, his housemate was with him. Together they found the girl.”

”Oh, I see,” John nodded very understandingly and then he continued, “I’m quite sure you will be able to steer those two boys the right way and tell them the truth of this sad little encounter the girl had. I mean, just think about it, nothing really happened, I mean, the girl was asking for it, even her parents distanced themselves from her.” Looking surer of himself now he continued, “really, Jim, why drag this out and ruin those boys’ promising futures. Especially since they're covering all the hospital expenses. One of the fathers feels that that’s only the right thing to do, maybe next time those young men will think before they accept such a tempting offer!”

Here he stopped for a moment, presumably to let me feel the importance of his next statement. “You won’t regret it, Jim, really, not at all. Just let me handle everything on this end here and tell your boys to leave it alone, and will brush through it in no time at all. Otherwise it will be in all the papers and then what is that girl going to do? Her reputation will be gone just as are her parents. She’ll see reason, I’m sure I can convince her of it.”

I was starting to feel disgusted and wanted some straight answers; that was why I asked him point blank, “what do mean when you say I won’t be sorry? Can you spell out that one for me?” After looking at me steadily for a moment, Walters clarified things for me by saying, “well, I need somebody I can trust, somebody who will support me, keep my back free. Short, I need a ‘second in command’ so to speak. Of course this added responsibility comes with a hefty raise and other privileges too.” Here Walters paused for a moment to lend importance to his next request, “I just ask you to keep quiet about this conversation. This is just between you and me. How about I give you till tomorrow to think about it?” he asked, raising his eyebrows inquiringly at me.

I was shocked, I just sat there, dumbstruck speechless. Then I realised that he was still waiting for his answer, so I just nodded, stood up and explained, “you’ll get my answer tomorrow, now I’m off, after all, I have important things to think about, don’t I?” I could see that he was convinced he had won me over, I could see it in his smile. Really, he was showing too many teeth, I was in dire need of some shades to protect my eyes. I just remember the last thought I had as I looked back at Walter before I closed the door, ‘he looks like a grinning shark! Jimmy boy, watch out or you’re going to be his next meal!’

Let me tell you, I high tailed it out of the station so fast, if you had watched me, you might’ve gotten whip lashed! Anyway, I drove over to my son’s house and when I arrived I saw that nurse from the ER walk up towards the same destination as I. We met at Kyle’s door and after a short greeting and secretively looking around for any possible spies, we knocked and I opened the door and we entered. I announced us by hollering, “Kyle, your old man’s here!” after hearing his answering yell, I informed him, “and I brought a guest, a pretty one too!” That last bit had both boys run out of their rooms to meet us.

After the entire greeting and reintroducing were done, we adjourned to the kitchen and sat around their rickety old kitchen table. Alex looked at us, saw our serious miens and immediately offered us all a round of ‘Orange Soda on the rocks’ his remedy for difficult and emotional talks. After that I motioned to Maria - that was her name - and encouraged her to have her say. She was still too nervous and sniffing on some little bottle. After seeing my badge she assured it was just some sort of oil to calm her nerves. Anyway, she wanted to wait and let me do my talking first.

”Well,” I said, leaning back into to the chair, “you won’t believe what happened today, you know, after I returned to the station.” After looking at my three companions I just let the whole ugly business spill forth, “Walters came to me and…”


Maria and Amy’s POV’s will be posted next time in two weeks…


TBC

Thank you very much for reading my fic, please let me know what you think of it!

I'll post again in two weeks, till then take care

Chula

[uw51]

Maria and Amy’s POV’s go with: 05, Intermezzo - Maria DeLuca and Amy and Jim Valenti on Page one


05b, Maria DeLuca, POV
Well, let me tell you, sitting there and listening to the sheriff talk about what had happened to him, I just couldn’t help myself, I started to hyperventilate, big time! While I was rummaging through my purse - vintage, from my moms’ hippy days - for my cure-all cedar oil, all I could think was that that was exactly what had happened to me! Really, exactly, well a bit different of course him being sheriff and all, but everything else was exactly the same!

Ha, you can’t imagine how glad I was when I finally found my little vial, oh my lifesaver! After I frantically inhaled and I had sufficiently calmed down, I looked at the three men sitting with me around that ugly table. You know, it was an incredibly, incredibly ugly table, like totally kaput. I guess it was also vintage, at least I think you could call it that, well maybe not; I think I’ll better stick with kaput!

Oh, just in case you haven’t noticed yet, I have a tendency to ramble a tad bit, at least when I’m stressed, you know just like now. I just wanted you to know, in case you didn’t… know that is.

Anyway after I chanced to look up from that incredibly ugly table at my companions the next question just sort of sprung at me, ‘oh, why are they staring at me like that?’ Really, because they were staring at me and that was just so totally rude! I guessed they weren’t used to girls like me, you know, the sensitive kind?

Then I realised that they were waiting for me to begin with my story, duh, couldn’t they just say so? No, they had to stare and stare and, well you get the picture, don’t you? Well, my Lizzy stares at things like that under the microscope and it’s not a good feeling, hmm, not at all!

Well, I guess I better start to focus on our talk at hand, as Lizzy would say, otherwise nothing will get done. You know, when you’re a nurse in the ER you get to see a lot and after while you learn to deal with it. It was the same for me. At first it was awful, just totally awful and I did my fair share of puking, really I did and there is no nicer word to describe what I did.

But once I realised that by doing my job as good as I possibly could I was helping people in need, that helped and after that I was fine. I was able to handle the worst situations. I’m not saying that it was easy, because it wasn’t, and I’m not saying that I never had to puke again, because I still had to from time to time, but I didn’t need to sniff on my cedar oil to calm myself every five minutes any longer. In fact, my old boss, well, the one I had on my last job, nurse Mirabelle was her name, well, she was totally strict, but totally fair, anyway, she said I was a very good nurse, because I never got ‘used’ to the pain of our patients. She said it was very important for a nurse to always care, and she could see that I was just that kind of nurse, the caring kind, you know. Well, let me tell you that went down like honey!

Anyway, where was I? Oh, right we were sitting around that totally ugly and kaput kitchen table. Well, let me tell you, after I had told them the whole horrible story about how Carpenter bribed me, we just sat there for a moment, rendered speechless. I was really glad for Alex’s ‘Orange Soda on the rocks’ because for some reason it really did the trick. Actually I could see that the three men too were nursing their sodas, looking totally serious, mulling over all the bribery talk we’d just had. It seemed that unwittingly we stumbled right smack into the middle of a big crime, were even made accomplices.

I could just see my mom’s reaction to that one. I knew that the next time I saw her she’d just know that I was in trouble. Her first question would be, ‘are you pregnant?’ after my denying any pregnancy or even any possibility thereof, she’d badger me until I’d tell her the whole ugly story. Everything else she could take in stride, just as long as I wasn’t pregnant. Anyway, I’m rambling again, I don’t know if you noticed, but I am.

As I said, the four of us had been sitting there for a while, quietly nursing our drinks, the sheriff suddenly grabbed his cell and dialled a number. Kyle tried to ask him something, but Valenti shushed him. Apparently somebody answered because we could hear our end of the conversation and it was quite confusing. He said, ”hello Officer, my name is Jim Valenti and I… yes, that Jim Valenti …still talking about me? Really? … I hope only good… Yeah, right! Listen, officer, Bob? Oh, OK, listen Bob, I have an emergency here and I need to talk to your boss, Jose Ramirez, is he by any chance in? He is! That’ll be right helpful, thank you Bob!” Here he just stopped talking and grinned like a kid. We of course just sat there staring at him and waiting.

Suddenly Valenti straightened up and talked all business-like, “Jose? It's Jim, this is important… yeah, right, hi Jose, fine, fine, look something went down here, yeah, Kyle? He’s fine too… look, I need you to call me on a secure line? Of course I’ll explain everything… you have my number!” Kyle by now realised what his dad was up to and asked, “Jose Ramirez? Why don’t you just broadcast it? He can’t sit on any secret, dad! He just blabs out everything going through his mind. Everybody knows that!”

After hearing this Jim cracked up laughing and when he was finally able to say anything he enlightened us, “that just shows how good he is, really. He’s absolutely the best to have on your side if you’re in trouble. I swear!” Alex and I looked at each other and wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. I mean, we really sooo don’t need a blabbing sheriff on our side!

Apparently our feelings were very obvious and the sheriff complied, “I’m serious kids; I promise you that he is more than what he presents to the public.” Here he stopped and we could see that he was figuring out just how much he could tell us. But before he could do so, Jose called back and Jim explained our situation here. At the beginning their talk was short and no unnecessary words were exchanged. At one point Jim asked Jose if he could tell us what the ‘blabbermouth act’ was all about. After that they traded a few well-meant insults and then ended the call.

”Alright, Jose gave me his OK to let you in on his secret, but before I get into it I’d like another one of your fabulous ‘Orange Sodas on the rocks’, how about it, Alex?” After we were served another round of sodas Jim began his explanations. “Since only Kyle knows about Jose I think I will just give you the barest facts for now, everything else we can talk about some other time, OK?” Following our nods of agreement Jim began his tale of childhood friendship that had lasted through all the ups and downs and still was going strong.

It seemed that Jose and Jim were the same age and grew up in the same street in Roswell. They first met when they were still in diapers. In kindergarten they met Frankie McCoy and soon the three of them were known as ‘the three musketeers’ or ‘the terrible three’, depending on what kind of trouble they had managed to get themselves into. They did everything together; they even shared the same choice of profession. Well, not exactly the same but close enough. The three of them wanted to serve the people and all turned to the law as their choice. Jim and Jose became cops; Jose now was the Chief of police in Roswell, while Frankie became a lawyer.

So far it all sounded nice, but nothing was convincing enough to explain why we should trust a ‘blabbermouth’ with our secret here. All I could see was that Jim really enjoyed keeping us on our toes and he waited until he couldn’t wait any longer before he revealed the big secret. And what a secret that was! Kyle at first refused to believe it, in fact he laughed so hard he fell off his chair. But the sheriff insisted, even said we could ask Jose all about it on the morrow, when he would join us right here in the boys’ home. Valenti actually gave us the very good advice to really listen when Jose was blabbing away. He said that his friend had the knack to talk endlessly and actually say nothing. With his temperamental ceaseless blabbing Jose could distract people, show a harmless front that was often underestimated and on many occasions he passed along secretly coded news and orders and nobody but the ones in the know understood.

Now I guess you too want to know what the big secret is, don’t you? It seemed that Jose Ramirez, Chief of Police in Roswell, had been one of those much-feared Texas Rangers, and he had been a very successful one too. He only retired there because he met and fell in love with Sofia, a lovely lady from Mexico. She refused to marry him until he quit the Texas Rangers. Her reason for that being, she wanted to raise a family and everybody knew just how dangerous it was to be a Texas Ranger.

Apparently, it was a truly remarkable battle of wills for a while, but Sofia persevered and when the position of chief of police opened up in Roswell, Jose thought that the time had come to change a few things in his life and left the Rangers and he never regretted it either.
*~~*~~*
After we had sufficiently calmed down we decided to call it a day and we split up. I went straight home. I can tell you I was still very upset, it just started to sink in that I just might be in big trouble, even bigger than we had originally anticipated. So I did what I always do when I’m upset or in trouble, I called my mom, completely forgetting that it was quite a bit after midnight. She was really groggy and totally pissed as she answered my call in her usual charming fashion, “Maria, this better be good. It’s after midnight and I was sleeping!”

At hearing my mom’s voice I couldn’t help myself any longer, I just wailed, “mooom…” and I broke down crying. This really got her attention and after I had negated her obligatory question of, “Maria, are you pregnant?” she became very supportive and let me babble through my misery. For some reason this always helped and after a while I would usually calm down and be more rational. Well after I had reached my more rational stage my mom started to work her way through my confused ramblings and wanted to know, “Maria, what happened?” “Mom!” “ Did someone rape you?” “No! Not me!” “Did someone abandon you?” No! Not me!” “Did you bribe somebody?” No, the other way around!” “Why were you with the sheriff?” “He is too!” “He is too what?” “Mom, didn’t you listen to anything I said?” here I started to loose my patience with her.

It seemed that it worked the other way around too, because she shot back quite impatiently, “I listened, but all I understood were some words, words like rape, sheriff, bribery and somebody being abandoned! So, all I’m trying to do here is bring some sense into your ramblings!” Here she stopped for a moment and then she quietly ordered me “Maria, sniff some cedar-oil! Then you can start with the whole story from the beginning!”

Well, that was exactly what I did and after I had been halfway through my story my mom interrupted me and said, “Maria, why don’t you drink some Verbena tea, take a nice relaxing bath and then go to sleep. I will do the same and tomorrow, I will come to you and we’ll talk about everything. By the way, I want to be in the meeting with the sheriff too. I’m sure that together we will find a good way out of this and find a way to help your new little friend too, you know, the one that got hurt, alright?” Since my mom didn’t hear my nod she pressed on, “Maria, is everything alright?” And now you see just how easily my mom got involved too!
*~~*~~*
Hmmm, I just remembered something. You know sometimes I watch Jay Leno’s Late Night Show and he has these different parts, you know, first he does some stand-up comedy, then he shows different kinds of things, like newspaper clippings. I totally love those! Anyway, he always really, really cracks up when he has a clip on a stupid criminal. I guess now you wonder what Jay and his clips have to do with what’s been going on here, don’t you?

Well, here it goes, just take Carpenter and Walters, both completely ignored rule number one if you want to be a successful criminal. Really, they did and that was why they got caught. What! You don’t know rule number one? Well, I can tell you didn’t attend Jim Valenti’s classes on how to catch them, did you? Because rule number one on how to be a successful criminal is: do your own dirty work!

And they not only ignored rule number one, no, they didn’t pay much attention to rule number two either. This one is: if you ignore rule number one and decide to use a sidekick, then be sure to know that person and if possible find some dirt on them. Why, you ask? Just in case you need to ‘convince’ them, of course. Ahh, now you understand, why I was thinking of Jay’s newspaper clippings, don’t you?

Amy's POV in next post...

[uw51]

05c, Amy DeLuca-Valenti, POV
Well there went my sleep, but I have to say that I’m very glad my daughter trusted me enough to come to me with her problems. I mean, I know of other families, even some of the ‘intact’ ones where that doesn’t happen. Their kids go everywhere else for answers but to their parents. So I think that I must’ve done something right in raising her.

Anyway, after being awakened so abruptly I had a very hard time to fall back asleep. I decided to follow my advice to my daughter, drink some verbena tea, then have a relaxing bath and then go back to bed. It sure did the trick and I was able to sleep quite well afterwards, considering.

As promised I drove to Albuquerque next morning and met my daughter for lunch. That gave Maria some time to pass on all I needed to know and then we went to meet those boys and the sheriff. I was ready to battle my way into this endeavour, after all my daughter’s reputation and wellbeing was on the line.

Well, I guess when you hear me talk like that you might get the impression that I’m pushy, but I’m not, not really. I just like to speak my mind and sometimes people don’t agree with me. Also, I had to learn early on that if I wanted to change things, I had to change them myself.

You know, the truth is that I was raised to ‘know a woman’s place’. My parents were very old-fashioned and strongly believed that the men of the family knew best. Women, like children, were only supposed to be seen but never heard. I tell you, you just had to look at our very own family to know just how well that worked!

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’m one of those young moms, you know, that were barely old enough to take care of themselves when they started their own families. As it was I fell for that good for nothing jerk when I was barely eighteen years old. He was the handsome, dangerous and totally selfish kind of guy and I was very impressed by his debonair ways. He was in his mid twenties and knew enough about girls to have them fall all over themselves to please him. Of course I was no better. He even managed to impress my family; they bought all his lies just like I did.

By the time I was eighteen and a half years old I was pregnant and married to George DeLuca. He married me very reluctantly, saying that I was ruining his life, and a few months after our baby girl was born he left to never return. It was clear to my family that I must’ve done something to drive him away and they refused to help me.

So, here I was, one step away from moving to the trailer park, when my neighbour, a grouchy old lady without any family, took a bad fall and I happened to find her. I refused to let her scare me with her bad tempered and commandeering ways. I packed her into my old car, picked up my daughter and drove to the ER. There they patched her up – her thighbone was badly fractured – and they kept her for a few days. Now Trudy – that was my neighbour's name – suddenly needed my help and she started to open up. Actually we became fast friends soon after that.

Well, Trudy had this little alien themed shop, to be honest it was a real tourist trap, but anyway, she asked me if I would take care of it until she could do it herself again. Of course I did, especially since at the time I was living of welfare and that didn’t sit well with me. Amazingly enough it was a very busy little shop, you didn’t get rich from it, but it fed us well enough. Since Trudy still needed help once she was released from the hospital I decided to take care of her until she was back on her own feed again.

Let me tell you, once Trudy lost her bad tempered ways she became the sweetest little old lady. She actually insisted that Maria and I move into her house. She said it was much too big for an old lady anyway, all those wasted rooms. The three of us became a very tight-knit little family. She supported me in any way possible, encouraged to spread my wings. Needless to say that my family did not approve of Trudy. They said she was a very bad influence, teaching me to be rebellious and to speak my mind. They made me decide between them and Trudy. Trudy won, hands down.

I just remembered a very funny episode that shows you just how truly remarkable that little old lady was. Maria was about three years old at the time. I left her with Trudy while I went to a demonstration. The town wanted to tear down an old historical building and we tried to stop it. Anyway, I got arrested, this young sheriff dragged me away, kicking and screaming. The police called Trudy to come and pick me up. She did come and she did pick me up, but not before she had given them a piece of her mind about arresting young moms and all that. I can tell you; everybody at the station did everything possible to get rid of us as fast as possible. On our way home I tried to explain the situation, but Trudy just laughed and said that she hadn’t had so much fun in a very long time. Well, that was Trudy for you.

Sadly we lost Trudy about six years ago to a very severe pneumonia. Maria and I both still miss her very much. She left us her house and her little shop and made sure that we were well taken care of. Anyway, now you can see where I learned to speak my mind and to stand up for my beliefs. For as long as I shall live, I will always be very grateful to Trudy, she really did make a difference in our lives.
*~~*~~*
It seemed that we were here, wherever here was. I was too busy remembering that I didn’t pay any attention to where we were going and Maria had to bring me back to the here and now by shaking me vigorously. Together we walked up the small yard in front of this old, neglected little house. It sure could’ve used a coat or two of new paint. Maria just knocked on the door and then we waited for somebody to answer. A lanky young man showed up and invited us in.

Upon entering we were met by two more men, another young one and an older one. As I looked at the older man I suddenly recognised him. ‘Holy baloney’, was that Valenti; the cop who had arrested me all those years back? I took a closer look and sure enough, it was he, and he was looking hot! I was curious to see if he remembered me and asked flirtatiously, “well, well, well, arrested anyone lately, Sheriff?” The moment I said that, I realised two things at once. First, Maria went into shock, goggled me open-mouthed, and secondly, Valenti seemed to enjoy it, in fact his whole face lighted up like a one hundred watt light bulb! He flirted right back and drawled, “Amy DeLuca, gotten arrested lately?” I cooed, “oh, sheriff, you still remember my name!” and Maria grumbled, “I’m going to be sick!” and the sheriff complimented me, “still as hot as ever!” and Kyle asked, “dad, what the hell is going on here?” and Alex offered, “anyone? An ‘Orange Soda on the rocks’?”
*~~*~~*
Well, let me tell you, after that little coquette interlude I felt great, I was ready to take on everything and everybody! I felt invincible, after all, the sheriff had just eyed me up and down, actually he still was, and I felt as alive as I hadn’t in a very, very long time. Alex guided us to the living room and Maria pulled me over to a couch with two seats. Aha, that was a sure sign that she was staking out her claim, stating ‘hand’s off, that’s my mom!’

Before we had any chance to start up with small talk, a decisive knock on the door could be heard. Kyle went to answer it and soon after he walked in accompanied by two men. I knew them both, not very well, but I knew who they were. Both were very important men and I started to really wonder just what kind of trouble my daughter had gotten herself into, for none other than Jose Ramirez, Chief of the police department Roswell and Frank McCoy, very successful Attorney at Law, and nephew of President of the USA, had joined us.

Jim jumped up from his seat and ran towards the two newcomers. They went a few rounds of backslapping and secret handshakes and made all those manly noises men make when greeting friends. I mean, really, who in their right mind understands all that posing and childish behaviour. Obviously they do, but they’re the only ones for sure. It was a while before they all calmed down and seated themselves. Alex was right there, offering his ‘Orange Soda on the rocks’ and finally we were able to get down to business.

Like the rational grownup that I am I decided to wait and see. I needed to know as much as possible before I got involved in any kind of discussion.

Resolutely, Alex started the round of questions and answers by stammering, “excuse me? I have a question? I don’t mean to be disrespecting or anything, but I’d really like to know which one of you is the ‘blabbermouth’?” Proudly Jose Ramirez stood up, bowed before Alex and with the biggest grin declared, “that’d be me, young Alex!”

After that Jim made the necessary introduction all-around. When he introduced me to the two newcomers, Jose interrupted him, “you’re from Roswell, aren’t you? You own that little shop, the one with all that alien stuff?” I was surprised that he knew me; I mean we didn’t move in the same circles and even though Roswell isn’t all that big, it’s not very small either. I dutifully nodded my agreement and he continued, “my wife always brings our guests to your shop. She really loves it, also all that health stuff you sell, you know all these scents and drops and things, oh and she’s crazy for your candles, especially the scented ones!” he added very enthusiastically. I just thought ‘wow, that man really knows his town!’ I was shocked and by the looks of it so was Maria.

With all the pleasantries out of the way we got down to the nitty-gritty stuff. First Jim told us his story, then Maria added hers. Alex and Kyle put in their observations about Liz’s condition and the way Carpenter treated her. Apparently he had visited her that morning while both of the boys had been there. Carpenter asked them to leave for a moment, but then he forgot to close the door behind them. That was how the young men were able to eavesdrop and they heard how the good doctor lectured the poor girl on her bad and provocative behaviour. I was just glad to hear that Liz was still much too groggy to really understand what that idiot was getting at. Right in that moment I knew that I had to go to the hospital as fast as possible and help the girl.

As it was, we talked for quite some time, brainstorming up solutions on how to proceed, what we needed to cover, what we could do and still stay legal, because we didn’t want those bastards to get of scot-free because of something we might’ve missed. Of course the most important part in all of this was, how could we keep little Lizzy safe, because from what Kyle and Alex said, she really had no idea about the most simple things in life and thus was in no position to fend for herself.

It was decided that Jose and Frank would stay in the background, pull all the right strings, advise us on how to proceed to get information and stay on the right side of the law. Also, everything we found out we would report to them right away. Maria and Jim would go back to work as usual and ask for a private talk with their respective bosses. They would both accept the bribe and pass it directly to Jose for safekeeping. Kyle, Alex and I would stay with Liz as much as possible, take care of her, and make sure she understood Maria and Jim’s involvement.

Since nobody in Albuquerque knew me, I was to contact Hilda Koch and ask her if she wanted to be a part of our newly created ‘Snoopers and Spies’ gang. From the little Alex had been able to tell me about Hilda, I was quite sure that she would jump on the chance given and become as involved as possible too. I’m glad to report that I judged her correctly and she had been a tremendous help ever since. She even brought us the security tape from the Parker Mansion. On it we could see and hear very clearly what had really happened that fateful New Years’ Eve, when the Parkers abandoned their girl.

Of course, Hilda being Hilda shrink-wrapped the tape, to make sure nothing could happen to it before it was handed over to Jose. Also, from the moment Cookie became one of us, she observed the two C’s with eagle eyes. Nothing went unnoticed; everything was recorded in her special journal. Oh, I almost forgot, Hilda brought two more people into our clique, Anthony Sparks, also called Sparky and of course Martha O’Leary. You know, just looking at those three friends you’d never know what hidden talents they had. They became the perfect detectives and thrived on it too.

Anyway, I just swerved off the topic for a minute here. Hmm, come to think of it, I have a feeling that Maria might’ve inherited this trait from me, because some times she really does spaces off too.
*~~*~~*
After we had everything sorted out, decided on who did what and when and so on, I decided that no time was better than the present and went to visit Liz. Actually, Alex went to visit her and he brought me along as a friend. At that point nobody knew that I was Maria’s mom, and we wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.

When I think back to my first meeting with Liz I can’t really tell you what I expected. I mean I had heard all these different stories and knew that she had been hurt very badly, but still to see her was something else again.

I followed Alex into the room and saw a small person lying on the bed. She seemed to be sleeping because there was no sign of acknowledgment or movement upon our entering. When we got closer we could see that she had her eyes open but was staring into nothing. She looked so miserable and lost, I felt like crying and by the looks of it Alex felt the same way. After we watched her for a moment Alex approached her and very gently spoke to her. That was the first time she showed any kind of recognition. I have to say that I was really surprised by Alex, the way he treated Liz, with such care and patience, I was really impressed and touched.

”Hi, little one, how are you holding up?” he wanted to know. When Liz didn’t answer he just kept on talking, “I guess you’ve had better days, haven’t you? Look, I brought you a visitor. She is a very special lady and I know you’re going to love her.” Here he held out his hand and pulled me closer to stand beside him. “See? This is Amy and you know what? She is nurse Maria’s mom. Amy has heard what happened and now wants to help you too.”

With baited breath we waited for any kind of reaction, and when it finally came it was very groggily and slurred, “Maria?” “Yeah, exactly, this is Maria’s mom.” Alex carefully swiped her hair from her forehead and stroked her cheeks very gently. Suddenly Liz grabbed on to his wrists and asked, “have my parents come by yet?” and before Alex could reply she added, “no, of course not, why would they?” and she sounded very forlorn.

I figured the time had come for me to say something and after pulling the only chair in the room to the bedside and sitting down in it I quietly started to speak, “hi Liz, I know you don’t know me, but I’m here to help you.” Upon hearing my voice the girl turned her eyes from Alex to me and I could see such abject misery in her eyes, that all I wanted to do was to cry. “Like Alex told you, I’m Maria’s mom and we have a lot to tell you. You know, yesterday Maria and the sheriff both found out some very strange things and right now isn’t the time to get into all of it, but it’s very important for you know a few things. What do you say, are you well enough to listen?”

After seeing her nod I carefully picked up her hand and began to tell her the gist of everything that had been going on, “yesterday Maria and the sheriff both found out that the people who hurt you are lying about it and telling lies about that evening. That was why they went to Alex and Kyle’s house, they wanted to figure out ways to help you. Afterwards Maria called me and I decided to come and support them too. Anyway, the people who hurt you know very well that they are guilty and when they are charged with it they will all go to prison. Now that’s why some of the fathers bribed some important people to cover the truth about your injuries and about that night’s event. In turn they asked Maria and Jim Valenti to help them with their lies.”

I could see just how shocked and betrayed Liz was at my news and I quickly added, “Maria and Jim are both on your side, sweetie, really. But we have all talked about it for hours and hours and we have come up with a plan to make sure you are well taken care of and protected. At the same time we want to catch those bastards, all of them. That’s why Maria can only visit you at the moment when she has to take care of you, you know as your nurse. But she ordered me to make sure that you understand that she is your friend and as soon as you’re out of here, she will visit you all the time.”

Seeing her confusion was very hard and almost made me bawl. Alex was sniffling too and with tears in his eyes he continued our story, “Lizzy, little one, we found out that Carpenter has been bribed and as a result has forged your charts here. Also the chief of the police department is involved too. They all work together. Now, I want you to know that whatever those two bastards tell you, don’t believe them, not one word of it! They’re going to say things like it was your own fault, that you wanted all this to happened, that you took drugs and alcohol...”

By now Liz was in tears and Alex soothed her, “Liz, baby, shh, we know its not true, that’s why we're doing everything we can to help you. That’s also the reason why Maria and Jim won’t be able to visit you. It’s important that Carpenter and Walters think they're helping them with the cover up. But that’s also why Amy is here, why Kyle and I will come by every moment we can. I will have a talk with professor Grossi and I’m sure she’ll want to help you too. Oh, oh, we completely forgot to tell you that we have two more important people involved. Frank McCoy and Jose Ramirez, both are from Roswell, one is a great lawyer, actually one of the best, the other one is the chief of police there. You will meet them once you’re out of here, until then they tell us what we can and what we can’t do, because we don’t want to make any mistakes now, do we?”

We could see just how overwhelmed poor Liz was. I mean, really, if it hadn’t been important for her to know all this we would’ve waited with telling her. But she needed the information; she needed to understand why Maria and Jim couldn’t come by to visit her. Also she needed to know that what ever garbage Carpenter was spouting, she was not to believe it.

I decided to pass on the painful news of her parents and then to tell her about Hilda too. I informed her, “Liz, sweetie, I’m sorry to say this, but your parents still refuse to see you. Alex, Valenti and even Maria, they all talked to them, but to no avail and I honestly don’t know if they will change their minds. But earlier, on our way to visit you I called your friend Hilda.” This got me an immediate reaction, Liz looked so hopeful that I was glad that my news were good news, and I continued, “she said to tell you that she loves you very much and that she will come over as soon as possible. She wasn’t quite sure if she could make it today, but she’ll be here at the latest tomorrow. Also, she has agreed to do everything she can to help our little group of conspirators, and she said she was asking somebody called Sparky to help too.”

Alex and I talked some more, but after a while we could see that Liz was exhausted. Alex went out to the hall and brought in a second chair and then we both sat down, he to study and I to tinker on one of my alien key rings for my store while Liz silently drifted off to a fitful sleep...


TBC

Thank you very much for reading my fic, please let me know what you think of it!

I'll post again in two weeks, till then take care

Chula

[uw51]

Hello my dear readers, I’m back with the next installment. This time you will learn more about what happened to Liz on that fateful night!

pandas2001 <> thank you very much for your feedback, I'm glad you like my fic. If you are like me and can turn into a water-fountain when things get emotional or tough, than make sure you have enough hankies with you before starting to read todays post!!!

As always many thanks to my beta for all her help, danke viil mol Moira!

And here are the new parts, as always I hope you enjoy yourself…


Warning: the next parts are most definitely rated ADULD / MATURE; they’re not very graphic but they do discuss the rape.

The long anticipated moment is finally here and Liz brings some light into this story. Make sure you have enough hankies ready!


06, Intermezzo – Jeff, Nancy, Liz and Max...
Sarah had been listening intently to the conversation and now she let her gaze glide over Isabelle, Alex, Kyle, Maria, Amy and Jim, and she couldn’t help but state, “when I look at all of you I see the beginning of this phenomenon, called ‘let’s help Liz’” Facing Isabelle, the hostess clarified her comment, “Isabelle, you know I’m not being mean when I say that you started this chain reaction by befriending Liz and then betraying her.”

The tall blonde nodded her understanding and said, “Sarah, don’t worry about it, we talked it all through and I do understand that you have to broach the truth, otherwise this show wouldn’t make any sense. After all, we’re here to honor all the people who decided to make a difference, to stand up and help somebody in need, which is more than I did. But you’re right, with my bad deed I set this absolutely amazing chain reaction into motion.” Smiling sadly at Sarah, Isabelle asked, “that is what you wanted to say, isn’t it?”

”Yes, it is, but I feel compelled to add, that you have managed to break away from your past and then you made a complete turnabout. Now you’re helping other inmates who need support and help. That fact actually played a very big part in our decision to have you here this evening. You know, to show that it’s never too late to change your ways, never.” Sarah emphasised seriously.

After her dialog with Isabelle, Sarah and her husband stood up and walked towards the front of the stage. Casually Nathan commented, “I bet you’re all expecting Jose Ramirez and Frank McCoy as our next guests aren’t you?” Grinning broadly he explained his assumption, “I mean, those two are the next people in the story, aren’t they?” Sarah cut in, “well, if that’s whom you’ve been expecting I have to tell you that you’re wrong. Ohh, don’t worry, they will come, just a bit later.” “Well, Sarah, why don’t you tell us who you’re expecting?” “Well, husband mine, you really want to know?” “Of course I do!” Nathan exclaimed. Smiling serenely at their audience Sarah finally grandly announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m very honored to introduce our next guests, the Roswell Parkers!”

While the crowd exploded into a spontaneous round of deafening applause, Sarah and Nathan turned towards the side entrance and called out the names of the people stepping onto the stage, “let’s give a very big welcome to Jeff Parker, his wife Nancy, to Max Evans and to our guest of honor Liz Parker!”

When the bright spotlight and the deafening applause hit the newcomers, they stopped in their tracks, disoriented for a moment by the racket and the brightness of the light. As they looked over the theatre all they saw was a sea of faces, and many of them were familiar. As Nathan and Sarah reached their guests, they talked quietly, waiting for the sound to die down.
*~~*~~*
Sarah turned to Liz and said, “this is your welcome, sweetheart!” Flabbergasted Liz greeted the crowd, ”wow! Roswellians, thank you all for your very enthusiastic welcome!” Liz smiled like a pro and continued, “this is very overwhelming, thank you!” With a wave she turned back to her family and her hosts and together they crossed the stage towards the seating arrangements. After greeting the previous guests, Isabelle, Kyle and Alex walked to the bistro in the back, while Maria, Amy and Jim moved to the smaller couch.

When everybody was settled Nathan looked at Liz who was sitting between Max and Nancy and he began his questioning, “Liz, how do you feel? Is it still as daunting to sit up here as you thought?” “Oh, Nathan, how kind of you to remind me of my stage fright!” she answered nervously and added, “I think as long as I don’t think too much about it I should be ok, and anyway, I’m not alone up here. With my family and my friends I can weather any storm!” Nancy hugged her closely and Jeff confirmed, “you bet, we Roswellians are a tough team, we stick together!”

”That’s good to know, Jeff,” Sarah interjected and then she returned to her guest of honor and asked, “Lizzy, can you tell us in a few words what it was like to grow up as Chuck and Cindy’s daughter?”

”Of course I can, Sarah. I was raised in their mansion just outside of Albuquerque. Most of the time they weren’t there, and when they were I still didn’t see them. I only saw them when they had guests or when they were controlling my progress.”

“Progress?” Nathan asked? “Yes, progress, as in how well I was riding, singing, dancing, playing the piano, the list is endless. You know, Hilda told me that they found out that I was pretty smart when I was about two years old and around that time they also realised that their guests liked me a lot. I don’t remember any of it, for me it was always like that. I had all these teachers and they would all come to the mansion. The only teachers that didn’t come to us were the tutors because they lived at the house, in fact their rooms were right next to mine.”

”Did you have any friends, Liz?” Sarah wanted to know. “Cookie, I mean Hilda Koch, and Sparky our chauffeur were my family and my friends. Later of course Martha joined our little group.” “I meant friends your age, Liz?” Sarah clarified her former question. “No, no friends my age. I remember a few times their guests would bring their children along and I got to play with them, but otherwise no friends. I was much too busy studying to make them proud. That was also how I was able to go to college at age fourteen, because all I did was study.”

”Wasn’t that difficult for you, I mean to always study and not have any friends?” asked Nathan. After mulling over this question for a moment Liz replied, “not really…” “Well, I find that hard to believe, I mean every child has friends and now you say it wasn’t difficult not to have any?” Nathan insisted. Liz smiled and explained, “it’s the truth, and how could I miss something I never had? I didn’t know any different! And to be perfectly honest I have to add that I do love to learn and to study…” here she stopped herself for a moment, only to add, “of course now that I know how it is to have friends, I couldn’t be without them. Also, with my children I really make sure that they have time for their friends and to play. Sometimes that’s quite difficult, because they both love to learn and are very curious indeed!” she ended proudly.

Sarah became very serious and calmly asked, ”Liz, now I have to ask you about college life and about Isabelle. Can you tell us about it?”

Liz had known that this would be asked; after all, this friendship is what led up to that fateful evening. After swallowing down her nervousness she looked towards the back at Isabelle, her erstwhile friend, and began to tell her story, “you know, when I knew I was going to college I was very exited. To finally meet other people was just something so out of this world; you can’t imagine just how curious I was. Ohh, I had no illusions about my parents permitting me any kind of closer contact, but while I was there I would be with other students and that seemed very thrilling to me. In fact I was so excited that I never realised that they were all years older than me.”

Laughingly Liz said, “I know you’ve been told about our ridiculous entrance, I was just sooo embarrassed, I couldn’t even look at anybody. But then Giulia Grossi introduced me to Alex and he was the sweetest guy ever.” Out of the corner of her eyes Liz saw Alex grimace about her ‘sweet guy’ comment and she insisted, “Alex, it’s true, you made all my fears go away with your humour and goofing around. I felt comfortable with you right away!”

After turning back to face her hosts, Liz’s smile faltered and very seriously she added, “you know, when I met Isabelle for the first time I was just blown away by her beauty. I had heard all the comments about her being the ice queen on campus and so when I was asked to tutor her, I felt quite apprehensive.”

Thinking back to those early days in college had Liz drifting off for a moment, but then she remembered where she was and she continued, “on our first meeting she tried to intimidate me into doing her homework but I would have none of it. I offered her a deal, you know, if she gave me a fair chance at tutoring her for two weeks and she understood the things I taught her, we would continue, if she didn’t understand anything we would stop and she was free to find someone to do the work for her. Well, it’s needless to say that Isabelle discovered that she liked to learn and in the process we even became friends.”

”That’s also when you met Max, isn’t it?” Nathan inserted the question quietly while glancing at Max. Beaming Liz nodded and looking at her boyfriend grabbed his hand and explained, “yeah, my parents were impressed that I was asked to tutor Isabelle Evans, and even more so, when they learned that I was invited to their home. Of course they let me go as often as Isabelle asked me and on my very first visit I met her younger brother Max. He was really very nice and just as shy as I was. Also we soon discovered that we both liked school, especially science was our favourite subject. So that was what we’d talk about. We were too shy to talk about anything else, but soon we started to reveal our innermost thoughts and discovered that we really liked each other.”

By the end of her statement Liz drifted off into ‘Max-Land’ and dreamily added, “yeah, we really did like each other…” The camera caught her dreamy look and splayed it across the big screens on both sides of the stage and on all the TV’s tuned into this show throughout the States.
*~~*~~*
Everybody who knew Liz was used to seeing her going off like that. Sometimes it would only be for a short moment, sometimes for longer ones. As long as she looked so dreamy nobody minded, but as soon as it became obvious that her thoughts turned to darker memories, her friends made it their business to bring her back to the present.

Max remembered laughingly, “yeah, we were really painfully shy, both of us. Till I met Liz I had been more interested in school, especially science, than in girls. I mean, you know how it was in school, the boys stick together and so do the girls. And since I was not just a very shy boy but also a science geek, the only people I stuck around were other science geeks. You know, we all thought science was much more interesting than the opposite sex!” This statement brought on laughter and cat calls from the crowd.

Mocking about his younger self's attitude Max continued, “well, that’s how it was, but let me tell you, once I met Liz, I started to seriously rethink my priorities and Liz won over science.” After nudging Liz back into the present, Max teased her, “aren’t you glad that you won over science?” “What?” disoriented Liz tried to remember what had been said last and once she understood Max’s comment she grinned, “absolutely, Max, absolutely!”

”And then Zan came back, didn’t he?” calmly Nathan changed the topic from light banter to a more serious topic, one that brought heartache and pain. Liz’s eyes lost their sparkle and turned sad, “yeah, and then came Zan!” Inhaling deeply she tried to stay calm and focused. It infuriated her, that even now, after more than five years; IT still had the power to upset her so much.

Nancy took hold of Liz’s left hand, supporting her as well as possible. With her other hand Liz clutched onto Max, her knuckles white form the strength of her grip. “Something about him scared me right from the first time I met him. I couldn’t understand it because Isabelle, Max and Mr. and Mrs. Evans were such nice people, I absolutely adored them. But he would look at me like I was his next meal and he’d say things that didn’t make any sense to me, but I knew it wasn’t anything good.”

By now Liz was firmly entrenched in her painful past and she recounted her story in a monotonous voice. “Then he’d bring his five friends along and they too terrified me, well, all except Billy Blue, he was sort of shy too. I never really understood why he was with this group. Anyway, I tried to tell Isabelle that Zan scared me, but she said to just ignore them, they were just stupid boys being obnoxious and idiotic. She said that I shouldn’t take them seriously. Then Isabelle started to change too, I couldn’t really tell how, just that she was different when they were around.”

Liz stopped her narration for a moment to calm down, then she picked up her tale and said, “I know that Mrs. Evans noticed Zan’s behaviour and told him off, warned him to leave me alone and after that they were careful to stay away form me at the Evans’ house. After that they changed their tactics, they would show up at lunch, you know, when we were sitting around ‘our’ table outside the cafeteria. They would stare at me; even the others in our group noticed and told them to stop. Anyway, after that Zan would corner me every chance he got and say things like, ‘I’m going to be the one to pop your cherry!’ Of course I had no idea what he was talking about, but I was scared.”

”I told Isabelle, but all she said I was that I was exaggerating things; they were just being stupid boys. I went home and I told Cookie and Sparky. They thought it was important enough to tell my parents. When we told them, they thought it was a good sign, it showed that Zan was interested in me. They even added that I should stop being so difficult and start to encourage him. After all, he was from a very important family and knew how to behave. They told me they were sure Zan was just teasing me. When the invitation to that party came I refused to go, but my parents ignored me. They were convinced that this would be a big chance for our family and told me not to spoil it for them.”

The most dreaded moment was finally here and Liz was hard pressed to keep calm enough to speak of the worst experience of her life. Looking straight ahead at nothing in particular, she closed herself off completely and began to tell of her odyssey, “I felt so uncomfortable in that ridiculously childish white dress; I didn’t like it, but Isabelle insisted, said it was perfect for that evening. Anyway, when Isabelle and I arrived at the party it was already going strong. She steered me to the side, avoiding our friends from college. Next she went to get something to drink and brought back this awful tasting brew that was burning down my throat and gave me a bad coughing fit. I didn’t want to finish this drink, but she said I would insult the hosts if I didn’t. Then she gave me one of my favourite cookies and said ‘just gulp down that drink and then eat this cookie and you’ll be fine!’ Since I trusted her I did just that.

”Right away I started to feel very strange and I vaguely remember Alex and Kyle coming over to ask me if I was ok, but somehow I couldn’t really answer them. After that Isabelle brought me upstairs, saying I needed to sober up and brought me into this dark room that only had a little light on. She helped me into bed; you know, made sure I was comfortable. The next thing I know is that some very bright lights were turned on and these boys were standing around the bed which was in the middle of the room. Isabelle said something like, ‘well I did my part, I’ll be back in a while!’ and then Zan came and said, ‘see, just like I promised, I’m here and I’ll be the one to pop your cherry!’ I can tell you I was petrified. I called for help and was slapped for it. Then they started to tear my dress and… hurt me. I cried and I told them to stop, that I wanted to go home, to please stop hurting me. But Zan just laughed and said that it was common knowledge that when a girl said no she really meant yes. I told them that I wasn’t like that, that I always meant what I said, but they didn’t listen. All six of them kept hurting me for hours.”

Liz stopped her monologue; she needed to regain her composure. The camera swerved from a crying Liz to a stoic Max, to stony-faced Jeff and Nancy, to the teary-eyed hosts and then to Isabelle who was openly crying. From Isabelle the camera moved to the faces of the other guests and then showed the shocked faces of the people in the crowd. After sniffing on their little flasks of cedar oil, Maria and Amy were busily passing them around, trying to calm everyone’s overactive emotions.

Liz desperately tried to get control over her feelings and blew her nose quite noisily, then she grabbed her water glass and gulped down half of its contents in one big swig, almost choking in the process. After her coughing waned she felt ready to continue her story. Looking at Max for support she continued, “emm, anyway, it was around two in the morning when Isabelle brought me home. I was a mess, my dress was torn and bloody and I was bruised from head to toe. From all the crying and the choking I had almost completely lost my voice and I was hurting everywhere.”

”Isabelle rang the doorbell to wake my parents and when they opened the door they took one look at me and asked Isabelle what had happened. She told them that I had gotten out of control, that as soon as we had entered the party I had started to drink and try out drugs and after that I had started to seduce several boys. Isabelle said she was very sorry to say this, but she had lost me right after we arrived and when she found me again I was the centre of an orgy. After that they just looked at me like I was dirt and said that I wasn’t their daughter any longer. I tried to tell them that that wasn’t true, that the boys had done some terrible things to me, but they chose to believe Isabelle. I wasn’t even allowed into the house to put on some clean clothes. They said that I had shamed the good family name! I vaguely remember stumbling into town. The next thing that I know is I woke up in a hospital bed hurting everywhere, while Kyle and Alex were sitting beside me, doing their homework.” After taking a deep shuddering breath Liz added, “That’s all I can say right now, I’m sorry, I can’t talk about it anymore!”

Max hugged Liz close and consoled her, “no, Liz, you have nothing to be sorry about, you did amazingly well, really!” He scowled at their hosts to prompt them to add their support, and they did, “Liz, you really did well, in fact better than during rehearsals, isn’t that so Sarah?” Nathan asked his wife. “Max and Nathan are right, Liz, you did real well, in fact a lot better than I ever expected, and that’s the truth, Liz!” Sarah assured her.

Still stunned, a few people in the audience were slowly coming out of their shocked stupor and started to clap hesitantly, not really knowing what to do in such a profound moment, was clapping even appropriate? “Well done Lizzy!” someone in the crowd yelled and thus initiated a frenzied round of applause from all around.

”See?” Max insisted, “everybody here agrees with us, you did very well indeed!” and to drive his point home he gave her searing kiss!

Jeff looked at the lost young couple who was kissing so passionately and dead panned, “see what we have to put up with?” Nancy slapped her husband on his arm and stated dryly, “and you just love it, don’t you?”

When Max released Liz, she was rosy cheeked and starry eyed again. He looked at her and whispered, “mission accomplished!” and smiled happily.

To get Max and Liz’s attention back, Nathan coughed discreetly and then waited for them to notice him. Max turned towards his host determined to change the topic. In his opinion, Liz had said all she was going to say concerning her night of terror. Uncompromisingly Max stated, “now I guess it’s my turn, isn’t it?” After receiving the expected nod of approval from Nathan, Max began his short tale, “at this point I don’t have much to say because Liz already mentioned everything concerning me. I mean, from the moment I saw Liz I was captivated. She was just so beautiful, inside and out and I fell for her at first sight.”

”What I have to add though is, that at the day of the party I talked with my mom. I needed her help because I wanted to ask Liz out on a date and I didn’t really know how to go about it. I wanted to ask Liz on our very next meeting. But there never was a next meeting. Suddenly all these ugly rumours were going around, saying how Liz had seduced unsuspecting boys, how she had taken drugs and, you know, stuff like that. I never believed a word of it. In fact I went to her house because I wanted to tell her that. Her parents were there and said that Liz had misbehaved and now was in an all girl’s college and of course she wasn’t allowed any contact to any boys. I tried a few more times to contact her, but to no avail. The next time I saw Liz was six month ago in Jeff’s diner.”

”Did I just hear my name? I guess it’s my turn now, isn’t it?” Jeff spoke up, glad that the waiting was finally over. It was unnerving him, sitting on this couch, waiting for his turn and most of all, knowing that Liz had to listen to everything that was said. He reached across Nancy to squeeze Liz’s hand reassuringly and then he started to tell his part of this story, “well, I can tell you that I was very surprised when Jim Valenti contacted me asking for a meeting as soon as possible. When Jim came and brought Jose and Frank along, I was seriously shocked. I mean, even though I’m two years younger than the three of them, I’ve always known them, after all we went to the same school.”

Trying to be as precise as possible, Jeff reflected on how to explain their situation before he continued, “we never really had much contact amongst us, you know, we were hanging out in different circles and all that. So, when they suddenly stood in my diner, looking very grim I knew something was very wrong.” Suddenly Jeff had a lump in his throat and he had to swallow several times before he was able to pick up his tale.

“Hmm, where was I?” he could feel all the old anger rising again and he wanted to yell at the injustice of everything. Decisively he continued, “after Jim and his friends informed me about Chuck and Cindy having a daughter that was just one year younger than my Sean and how they isolated her almost completely from the world, I knew that they must’ve had some grand scheme to their own advantage. But let me tell you, not in my wildest dreams would I have thought them capable of kicking their own flesh and blood out of their lives when she really needed them the most.”

Nancy picked up the telling, “I remember that afternoon clearly. I was folding our clothes while Sean was doing some homework when suddenly Jeff stormed into our apartment above the diner. He looked like he had been put through the wringer, dishevelled and very agitated. All he said was, ‘this is a family emergency, drop everything and come to my office!’ and that was exactly what we did. Once in Jeff’s office we met Jim, Jose and Frank and then we heard all about Liz’s plight. After that we had a very short family counsel where we decided unanimously to go get Liz and bring her into our family. Jeff called Agnes - his trusted staff member - asked her to take over the running of the diner since we had to leave because of an emergency. He also asked her to check out our guest room, to bring some flowers and just make it a bit more welcoming.”

Jeff added, “yeah, after that we just jumped into our SUV and drove to Albuquerque…” Nancy stopped him and corrected, “not right away, Jeff. First we went upstairs to pick up a few things for Liz, things like blankets and pillows to make the car ride as comfortable as possible. We also picked up some of my clothes, you know, comfy clothes like my sweat suit and some socks and stuff like that. After all, Jim had told us that Liz had nothing left. After all that we sped to Albuquerque and amazingly enough we weren’t stopped for speeding.” “Yeah, that’s true; I really broke all the speed limits along the way!” Jeff agreed.

Even though Sarah had heard the whole story a few times already, she still had been so caught up in it that she needed a moment before she realised that she was supposed to ask the next question. Well aware of the fact that the next enquiry would bring back painful moments for all of them she quietly asked, “what were your impressions upon seeing Liz for the very first time?”

After sniffling into her hankie Nancy answered, “ohh, you should’ve seen her, she was still covered with bruises and you could see the marks on her wrists, you know from where they tied her up. I mean, Liz was so pale that all those marks and bruises just stood out drastically. But the worst thing to see were her eyes, they looked just scared, lost and confused.”

Liz clarified Nancy’s statement, “well, I didn’t just look like that, I was scared, lost and confused and I was hurting from head to toe. Also, I didn’t know who you guys were. You know, Amy and Jim thought that it was better not get my hopes up.” Seeing her hosts raised eyebrows Liz explained, “oh, they were sure that Jeff and Nancy would help, but then you never know, and seeing my parents’ reactions…” at this point she broke her report, she was sure that nothing had to be added to that…

Continued next post...

[uw51]

06a, Liz’s POV
You know, the moment Jeff, Nancy and Sean walked into Alex and Kyle’s living room, hell-bent on bringing me ‘home’, that was the moment my life began. Really, I’m not exaggerating, not at all! I mean I was laying on the boys rickety old couch and had my eyes closed. I guess I was hoping that all these people would stay away if they thought I was sleeping. It was really very difficult to have everybody tiptoeing around me, helping me, doing their best to make me feel wanted. But they couldn’t convince me of that, not any longer. Once it had really sunk in that even my own parents didn’t want me anymore, I was certain that I must’ve done something bad, I mean really, really bad. I even managed to convince myself that I was a terrible person.

I had always been well aware of the fact that my parents didn’t love me, that they considered me a nuisance, but I was also convinced that they would pretend for appearances’ sake. I guess I was wrong, wasn’t I?

You can’t imagine just how scared I was, scared that all these nice people who helped me, would come to the same conclusion and leave me all alone. By that time I really couldn’t understand why all of them, you know, Maria, Alex, Kyle, Amy and the sheriff and his two friends were so nice to me. Even Professor Grossi sent me a message through Alex, telling me that she was going to help me anyway she could and as soon as I was out of the hospital she would come for a visit. It seemed that she had managed to rope Professor Donovan into helping me too, they were watching Zan and his friends and that was why they couldn’t be seen with me.

I was completely overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do or think or feel. Well, actually about the feeling bit, I soon realised that it was most bearable if I just didn’t feel anything at all, if I just sort of tuned out. I also found out the hard way that getting very emotional was bad for my health because my heart started to act up like crazy and that petrified me even more.

Of course, Crawford said that that were the direct consequences of my bad behaviour and he hoped that I had learned my lesson. I asked him what he was talking about, what I had done wrong but all he said was that my innocent act didn’t cut with him.

Let me tell you that really confused me because I couldn’t fathom what he was referring to. That was when I decided to ask Mrs. DeLuca, I mean Amy, I kept forgetting that I was supposed to call her Amy. Well, anyway, she seemed like a nice lady and at that moment she was the only woman that I could talk to. I started to have a really hard time talking to men, of course with the exception of Kyle, Alex and the sheriff. I didn’t trust the nurses too much either, except Maria, but she was sort of crazy in her own way. In fact, after Isabelle’s betrayal I was hard pressed to trust anybody ever again, with the exception the people I just mentioned.

So, the next time Amy showed up and I felt strong enough to talk, I asked her in my whispery voice - my throat was hurting badly, because it was still bruised and swollen since one of the things those guys did was they rammed their ‘thing’ in my mouth and pushed it as far down as they could until I had to gag - anyway, I asked her, “Amy, why did those boys hurt me? What did I do wrong?” and then I started to panic and I cried, “I have to know what I did wrong because I don’t want them to that to me again!”

”You didn’t do anything wrong, sweetheart,” she consoled me as she carefully put her arms around me. “Really you didn’t do anything wrong. Those bastards knew well enough that they had no right to hurt you like that, absolutely no right and we’re going to make sure they feel the consequences of their actions.” Vehemently she added, “don’t worry sweetheart, we’re going to nail their balls to the wall.” I guess at this point I have to tell you that half the time I didn’t understand what Amy was talking about - in this she was a lot like her daughter Maria -, but it still felt good to listen to her.

The other thing I found out was that I have this deep-seated need to know and understand things, apparently even when I’m under medication and confused. That was why I asked her the next question, “what balls are you talking about, Amy?” This simple - and in my mind justified - question got me the strangest reaction from her. She was shocked, and I mean speechlessly shocked. Luckily the speechless part didn’t last too long but she kept staring at me like I was from another planet or something. Finally she asked me, “Liz, sweetheart, how much have you been told about the birds and bees?”

I remember I thought ‘what a strange question’ I mean, here she was telling me about nailing balls on a wall and now she asked me about birds and bees. Not really sure what to make of this I decided to humour her and croaked, “well, birds have feathers and fly, they lay their eggs in nests that most of the time are in some trees. The bees, now they are different, they have this beehive and collect pollen from flowers and trees to feed their queen and their babies in the hives and they make honey with it too, of course it’s not this simple Amy, but…!” Here I happened to look at her and I stopped in mid-sentence.

You should’ve seen her face it was priceless! I started to think either she was crazy or I! Anyway, back to the story, I think this was the moment when Amy realised that I was as naïve as a newborn babe. Carefully she articulated, “I wasn’t really talking about birds and bees, sweetheart, that was just a ‘euphemism’ you know. What I actually wanted to know was; what have you been told about the differences between men and women, about sex and about procreation?” “Huh?”

I realised that I had never been told anything about it. I remember asking questions when I was younger, but I never received any answers. In the meantime I learned from Cookie that she spoke to my parents about it, you know about telling me the facts of life, but they emphatically forbade her to do that. Apparently they were worried that knowing the facts of life would put unhealthy ideas into my head and that I’d want to learn more about it. As it was, Amy was honored with the task of informing me of the facts of life and I’m glad to say that she did a real good job of it too.

It didn’t make the pain go away or hurt less, but now I knew the right name for what had been done to me. I had been raped, to be correct, I had been gang-raped which meant, I hadn’t done anything to let those boys believe I wanted their attention. Oh, Amy also told me to stop calling them boys, they were men since they were all at least twenty years old and if we talk about them as boys it made their ‘crime’ - Amy’s and Jim’s description of what they did to me - seem less than what it truly was.
*~~*~~*
A week after being admitted into the ER, Carpenter deemed me healed enough to leave the hospital. I didn’t know where to go, but Alex, Kyle, Maria and even her mom came through for me. Can you imagine, they took me into their home, well Alex and Kyle did. Maria had a room somewhere else but moved into the boys’ house too, to help take care of me. You have to know that physically I was still in a pretty bad shape, and my emotional state was just totally screwed. As it was I always needed someone around because I would freak out about anything and everything.

By that time I was able to move around by myself, not much but enough to go take showers when I felt dirty, and I felt dirty very often. I would take these scalding hot showers, hoping to get rid of their touch. Actually on my first day in their little house I took one of those showers and since I had locked the door, they couldn’t reach me. By the time they had broken down the door my skin was already bright red and started to blister, luckily not much but it was still quite painful. After that they hid the key to bathroom to make it impossible for me to repeat that performance.
*~~*~~*
It didn’t take those bastards – I started to use Amy’s name for them – long to find out where I was and soon you could see and hear them drive up and down our street. They’d honk and yell obscenities in front of our house. The first time they drove by they caught me in the garden. Kyle had helped me get as comfortable as possible in the back yard and I was almost dozing off when they drove around the corner and saw me there. Amy arrived just in time to chase them off. She called the cops and after that Jim would drive by several times a day.

After that it was quiet for two days. I guess they needed some time to figure out something new to bother us with. Luckily we were all in the kitchen when we heard a loud noise from the living room. Well, Amy stayed with me in the kitchen while Alex and Kyle ran to the other room to see what had happened. They found a rock that had been thrown through the window with a message attached to it, telling us to go check the mailbox.

My friends found the tape left by Zan and his buddies. We found out that they had filmed how they… well how they had raped me. Oh, they didn’t give us the whole film; no they just cut a short tape of how I begged them to ‘please be rough with me, because I liked it that way’! You know, I said those things because Zan had said that girls meant yes when they said no and vice versa. I remember that at some point somebody said, ‘stupid chick, just beg for it, then we’ll leave you alone’. One of the men told me what to say and hoping that it would work I repeated everything. Kyle and Alex listened to the tape and afterwards told me what it was about. They also said that they could hear in my voice that I was scared and hurting.

Next time we saw Jose we gave him that tape for safekeeping. This incident convinced us all that I wasn’t safe in their little house. That was when Jim, Jose and Frank contacted Jeff Parker, my uncle that I had never even heard of.
*~~*~~*
Anyway, I wanted to tell you all about how Jeff, Nancy and Sean changed my life, didn’t I? I remember when Nancy walked in and saw me she burst into tears immediately, Jeff did too and Sean, Sean tried to be manly and not succumb to tears, but he too failed. A very overwhelmed Nancy walked straight up to me, carefully put her arms around me and sniffed, “ohh, Lizzy, you’re not alone anymore. We’re here to take you home with us!”

Let me tell you, that statement really worried me. I mean I didn’t know who these people were, really I didn’t. I was getting apprehensive; just think about it, will you? What would you do in my place? After all they were complete strangers. How was I supposed to know that I wasn’t getting into a bigger disaster than I already was? I mean, I knew first hand what could happened if you trusted the wrong people, didn’t I?

I looked to Alex - he was the person I knew the best - I needed some trustworthy advice, and these new people were just overwhelming me. Alex was standing in the sidelines, curiously observing the scene in front of him unfold, when he saw my inquiring look, he smiled reassuringly and gave me the thumbs up sign. I have to admit that that did reassure me a bit, but it was still very strange being hugged by an unfamiliar person. Especially since till now Cookie, Sparky and Martha were the only ones who had hugged me, my parents would only do so if they had an important audience.

Well, to be honest, something else made this hugging business difficult to bear too. I imagine you can guess what that reason was. I had a very difficult time letting people touch me since I had been hurt… I know I know Amy is right, I should call it by the proper name, it’s just so damn difficult. OK, since I was raped it was very difficult for me to let people touch me, especially men, there I said it!

Anyway, I got off the point, after Nancy released me, a teary eyed Jeff bent down, gave me a peck on my cheek and informed me that he was my uncle Jeff and that he, his wife Nancy and their son Sean were going to take me to their home in Roswell. That from now on they were my family and like any real family they would stick with me through all the ups and downs. Here Sean added somewhat dryly “yeah, you’re stuck with us now!” Unsure of how to proceed he waited for a moment before he uttered, “I have just decided that from now on you’re my sister and I’m going to make sure nobody else ever hurts you again!” by the end of his statement he had turned beet red and he looked challengingly at everybody in the room.

Needless to say that nobody challenged him and to this day he has kept his promise. From that moment on I have been his sister and everybody in town knows, woe betide anybody who dares to upset me, because they will have Sean and Jeff and all my friends breathing down their neck!

Since I didn’t have much to pack we were able to leave for Roswell within 45 minutes. Everybody came to say their farewells and they all promised to keep in touch. And amazingly enough, they all did. Maria, Jim, Alex and Kyle who lived in Albuquerque called me at least once a week. Amy either called or dropped by almost every day. Jose and Frank became close friends too along with their wives. From then on Cookie and Sparky spent their holydays in Roswell, as did Martha who by then was a private tutor to four children somewhere in New Jersey.
*~~*~~*
I have to say that I don’t remember too much about the drive to Roswell. Nancy’s comfy clothes and the pillows and blankets did the trick and I slept most of the way. I woke up when Jeff pulled into the parking space besides their diner. Sean picked up my few belongings and Jeff picked me up, doing his best ignoring my stiff posture, and carefully carried me into the house and upstairs to their apartment. I remember how he apologised profusely for not having a real bedroom ready for me, but he promised to remedy that as soon as I was well enough to help chose and pick out everything I wanted.

I have to say that even though I had other things on my mind than furnishing bedrooms at that moment, I noticed that somebody had put a beautiful big bouquet of red and yellow flowers on the dresser and on the night table was a dish with sweet treats and an assortment of magazines, some of them were yellow press with all the important and of course completely true facts about the rich and famous. But to be honest, all I wanted to do right then and there was sleep. I mean, even after I had slept through the whole trip I was still very tired. Nancy and Jeff insisted that I ate something small and brought me some very tasty soup with toast. When I was done, Sean brought me a pie that he called a ‘men in black’ pie, saying that it was very good and I just had to eat it before going to bed. He was right; it was the best pie ever.

Before going to bed I went to the bathroom to have a shower and I noticed immediately that the key was missing. ‘Aha,’ I thought to myself, ‘news travel fast!’

Anyway, soon I was in bed and I dropped off to sleep almost immediately. That night I had my worst nightmare ever. I mean, since all this had happened I’ve had tons of nightmares, but none like that one. Apparently I screamed so loud I woke up everybody. All three of them stood in my room, trying to calm me down. I think I needed quite a long time to come out of my horror images and screaming fit, because at some point a strange man stood in my room asking, “Jeff, what the hell is going on?” But before Jeff could answer we heard sirens stop outside of the house and through the windows we could see red and blue lights flashing. People were yelling outside too.

When that man realised that nobody was being slaughtered he calmed down considerably and managed to inform us that, ‘Mama Dee, that old busybody called the cops because she was convinced that somebody was being killed in here!’

By now I had stopped screaming but I was still very shaken up and my heart was beating wildly. Since the situation was under control, Jeff pulled Sean with him and followed the stranger into the hall. But before he left my uncle turned and assured us, “everything is OK, I’m just going downstairs to sort things out.” Then he looked steadily at his wife and asked, “ Nancy, why don’t you stay with Liz for the rest of the night?” After Nancy nodded the men left and the room became quiet again, safe for my sniffling and hiccupping.

The very next day Mama Dee came by to offer us her help and to assure me that I was a very welcome addition in the neighbourhood. At the time I didn’t know it, but that was the beginning of my new life. Jeff, Nancy and Sean became my new family and the whole neighbourhood pitched in to help us deal with my ordeal. On my third day in Roswell I started special counselling for rape victims. At the beginning my therapist, Serena Walker, came to our home. Once I was better health-wise, I had to go to her practice twice a week, once to a group meeting and once to a one on one session with my counsellor.

Oh, in case you’re curious about what I said, you know about ‘the whole neighbourhood pitched in to help us’? It’s true, first it was Mama Dee, and then the other neighbours came by and after introducing themselves offered to stay with me to give Jeff and Nancy a break. They would also accompany me to the park or shopping or other places, saying that I had to get out and about. They were all very lovely and very patient with me and our cantankerous neighbour Bones became a very dear and trusted friend of mine, but only after I was able to trust him.
*~~*~~*
I guess I should also mention that after I had been with my new family for about two months we found out that I was pregnant, yes pregnant. That was a very big shock as you ca imagine. After Dr. Gabriella Bryce - a very good family friend – had told me all the options I had, I needed to do some very serious soul-searching. Of course having an abortion would have been the easiest for me, because I wouldn’t have to go through with my pregnancy and what came after. Also, at that time I still had heart troubles as soon as I was upset. The next option was adoption, which too sounded very tempting. And then of course my last option was to keep the baby.

Uncle Jeff, aunt Nancy and yes even Sean assured me that they would accept my decision and support me in anyway I needed. But it was still a very difficult and emotionally draining time. My very first thought had been to have an abortion and be done with it because I was convinced that I couldn’t deal with the constant reminder of what had been done to me. But luckily I changed my mind very fast.

Next I had to decide between adoption and keeping the baby. That was a very difficult decision and in the end it was a very unlikely person who helped me make my choice. It was Bones, yes you heard right, our cantankerous neighbour Bones! I remember I was sitting in our backyard, going through my two options, pros and cons, and I just couldn’t make up my mind. I never realised that I had started to cry when suddenly Bones - whose garden adjoined ours - sat down next to me.

He just sat there, not saying anything, letting me cry until I had no tears left. Then he said that if I wanted to talk he’d listen and of course he would keep everything I entrusted him with a secret. When I didn’t respond to that he added that he was a very good listener. That was the moment I really looked at him for the very first time. I mean I had seen him before, but I never really, really looked at him, if you know what I mean, and you know what I found? The saddest eyes I had ever seen, well except mine when I looked at myself in the mirror. Under his entire rocker image, you know, wild beard, long hair with bandana, tattoos and clad in leather from head to toe, he had the saddest and kindest eyes.

Don’t ask me where my next action came from because I really don’t know, but before even thinking about it I made my suggestion, “how about I tell you my trouble and you tell me yours?” At first he was shocked, but I think he realised that we were kindred spirits; we both had been hurt very badly. After looking at me very intently he slowly nodded his head in agreement…

TBC

Thank you very much for reading my fic, please let me know what you think of it!

I'll post again in two weeks, till then take care

Chula

[uw51]

Hello everybody, I’m back with the next installment!

But first I have to thank my Feedbackers:
pandas2001 <> Natalie36 and LegalAlien, thank you all very much for leaving your thoughts. I’m very glad you like my fic. I know it’s different from others, but hey, what’s great about normal? (quoting my favorite alien, lol!)

Also, many thanks to Moira, who has a lot going on in her life and still finds the time to be my beta!

And now, without further ado, Parts 6b, c and d, enjoy…


06b, Jeff’s POV
Just that afternoon I heard for the first time of a niece! I had a hard time accepting that, oh not having a niece, no that thought actually thrilled me since I always wanted a big family, but it wasn’t to be. What I had a hard time accepting was Chuck’s behaviour because no matter what we still were family. I just couldn’t believe he never informed us about it their daughter. I mean it wasn’t like we had a huge family where one more member or one less didn’t make a big difference. No, it was just the two of us, plus Nancy and Sean on my side and Cindy and now their daughter on his.

The other thing that really threw me for a loop was hearing that they kicked out their teenaged child when she was hurting and needed her family the most. In my book that was unforgivable. You know, I had always known that Chuck was capable of many unsavoury things just as I had always known that Cindy was a cold-hearted and unfeeling bitch, but abandoning their own daughter like that, well, I never thought they’d sink that low, no never.

The moment we decided to go to Albuquerque to pick up Liz I was out the door heading for our SUV, but thankfully Nancy stayed levelheaded enough and called me back. We had a few things to prepare and organise. After my wife was assured that everything was as well as it could be under the circumstances we piled into our car and were off.

I was so worried about Liz that I broke all the speed limits. Finally Nancy put her foot down and yelled - yes she had to yell, because I just ignored all her reasoning before –“if you don’t stop speeding right now, I’ll drive!” I gave her a nasty look, letting her know that I wasn’t pleased with her ‘unreasonable’ behavior and started to explain, “Nancy, Liz, my niece is hurt and needs our help today, not tomorrow or the day after! I’m sure you can understand that I have to hurry up to be with her, don’t you?” “Sure I understand,” she answered and continued in the voice moms use with their wayward children, “but you won’t be much of a help if we land in a ditch or the cops stop us!” I hated when she was reasonable and on top of it right too! Needless to say after that I drove more responsibly and we made it to Albuquerque in one piece.
*~~*~~*
Alex Whitman opened the door to their humble home and led us into their small living room. The moment we entered we saw her lying on the couch. I heard Nancy cry out something like, “oh you poor, poor baby!” and I could completely understand her reaction. I felt like crying myself, actually I’m not quite sure but I may have shed some tears too. Anyway, there lay my niece looking fragile and broken. You should’ve seen her, I mean she was so pale it made the bruises standout; she looked like a small panda bear. The worst though were her eyes, all you had to see to know in how bad a shape my niece was were her eyes, they were just so sad, so hurt and lost and confused, I really can’t describe their expression.

I also remember how my son stood beside us trying very hard to stay in control, but just like Nancy and I, Sean had never seen anybody as hurt as Liz was, and soon he too had tears running down his cheeks.

Anyway enough of that, after the introductions had been made and the situation calmed down, more people started to show up. Apparently the word had spread that we came to pick up Liz and that was why Maria and Jim dropped by to say their goodbyes too. We carefully packed my niece in the back of our SUV, well cushioned by pillows and blankets, and then we returned home to Roswell.
*~~*~~*
The drive home was uneventful, Liz slept for most of the trip. Sean, Nancy and I were very subdued, trying to come to terms with what our new family member had been through. We had just jumped into this rescue mission so fast that we never really had time to think of what to do once Liz was with us. But no matter what the future would bring, right in that moment we all knew that we had done the right thing.

Upon arriving home I carried Liz up to our apartment. I could feel how scared she was by being this close to me, an unknown man, but there was no other way to bring her upstairs. After that we briefly showed her where the kitchen and the bathroom were and then we brought her to her room. I remember that I was very glad to see that Agnes had managed to bring some flowers and stuff to make the room that otherwise was used as office/guestroom/storageroom more welcoming.

We could see how tired Liz was and so we just offered her some soup and Sean insisted she try some ‘men in blackberry pie’. After that Nancy helped her to prepare for bed. That night none of us were really hungry so we just rummaged through our cupboards and tried to find something appealing to eat. We sat there very downcast, not really able to put into words what we were feeling. Unanimously we decided to postpone any discussion to the next day and went to our rooms.
*~~*~~*
Amazingly enough I fell asleep quite quickly, I guess I was more exhausted than I thought, but it didn’t last long. Sometime during the night, I was startled into wakefulness and at first I wasn’t sure what had happened. Then I realised that Nancy too seemed to have woken up and we were both wondering what was going on. Let me tell you, we didn’t have to wait for long to get our answer. We heard this bloodcurdling scream and at first we weren’t sure what could make such an awful sound. But then we remembered Liz and within seconds we were running to her room. On the way we met a very dishevelled and worried Sean and together we entered her room.

Liz must’ve been caught in some terrible nightmare because she didn’t notice us at all. She just sat in her bed screaming down the neighbourhood. It was awful, just plain awful to see our Lizzy in such agony. It took a moment to bring her out of her nightmare and we could see that she was beginning to hyperventilate. Her face was turning blue and she almost passed out. Luckily Alex and Kyle had given us very detailed instructions on how to react in such a moment and we were able to prevent anything worse.
*~~*~~*
We had been so intent on helping Liz that none of us heard Bones walk into our home until he was in the doorway asking, “what the hell is going on?” Next to me I heard Sean mumble, “shit, just what we need, nosy neighbours!” Even though I had to agree with my son I managed to silence him with a serious look and then I turned to Bones, realising that we had a lot of explaining to do. But before anything got better all hell broke loose. Sirens and flashing blue lights announced the arrival of Roswell’s very own cops.

Sean and I left with Bones; we had to go downstairs to talk to the cops. Once we reached the cops we also noticed that the whole neighbourhood was in front of our diner. For a moment I was quite perplexed because on top of everything else that had happened that day I wasn’t prepared to deal with cops and well-meaning neighbours. Suddenly Sean turned towards me and murmured, “dad, we wanted to talk to them anyway, we might as well get it done now, don’t you think?” After thinking about it for a moment I nodded my agreement, then I asked Bones to invite everybody into the diner because I needed a moment to collect my thoughts and figure out just what the heck I was going to tell them.

Sean stayed with me; together we sat on the bottom steps of the stairwell leading to our home. After sitting there for a few minutes we stood up and marched into the diner where Bones and some women distributed snacks and soft drinks to the waiting masses. With purpose I strode into the middle of the Crashdown and addressed cops and neighbours alike with an unprepared speech, “Officers, friends and neighbours, I’m sorry for the disturbance tonight but…”

I can’t really remember everything I said but at one point I broke down and couldn’t talk anymore. You know, I think that was the moment when the extent of the responsibility of having Liz staying with us hit me. I started to worry if I was strong enough to help my niece or if I would make things worse for her.

That night showed me something else too, it showed me a new side to my son, a caring, strong and mature side. Oh, don’t get me wrong, he had always been a good kid; just a normal teenager who started to spread his wings and liked to annoy his parents. But when I broke down he jumped in, took over the explanations and answering any questions. That brought me to my senses like nothing else could’ve done and together we were able to assure everybody that for the moment everything was under control.

You know, Sean wasn’t the only surprise that night, no; our whole neighbourhood came to life, everybody offering his or her help in anyway needed. And you know what, they really came through for us and especially for Liz and let me tell you that in the beginning it was really very hard to be with Liz, it was just very painful to watch her struggle to get a grip on her life again.
*~~*~~*
The very first person to make good on her offer of help was Mama Dee. She showed up the next day and after meeting Liz she came by on a daily basis and spent a lot of time with her. Mama Dee just sat there with my niece, telling her all kinds of stories of my misspent youth, of the hoax I played on the unsuspecting neighbours and worse. Another time when I peaked into Liz’s room she talked about how to remodel the bedroom to make it cosier, and another time she was talking about Nancy or Sean or about nothing at all. After a while Liz seemed to wait for Mama Dee to show up, she didn’t really say it, but she’d become antsy, always looking at the door, waiting.

As it was, Liz was quiet most of time, only spoke when somebody asked her a question, and then she’d only say what was needed to be said. Usually she stayed in her room and only ventured out to eat or if we asked her to. I think her little room became her sanctuary where she felt safe. Nancy, Sean and I made a habit of staying with Liz, sometimes all three together, sometimes just one of us. I think it was really hard for my niece to be in a room with Sean and I and no female companion. When we touched her, when we helped her or hugged her, she’d stiffen up and try to move out of our reach. That was why we always touched her for a short moment, but we wanted her to know that men could touch her without hurting her. Well, we didn’t just decide that on our own, we asked her therapist about it.

Oh, I forgot, we found a therapist, a woman, who was very good and specialised in cases like Liz’s. The first two weeks, until Liz’s health was a bit more stable, she came to our home, afterward we brought Liz to her office. We were really lucky to have this therapist; she was quite unconventional but very effective. Our good friend Dr. Gabriella Bryce recommended Serena Walker, granddaughter of the well-respected shaman Riverdog the reservation near Roswell.
*~~*~~*
And then, after about two months we found out that Liz was pregnant. Apparently the ‘day after pill’ didn’t work for her. I felt so angry and helpless and I quarrelled with god and anybody else that would listen. Hadn’t Liz suffered enough, was it really necessary to put her through that? Nancy and I and even Sean assured Liz of our support, but I have to say quite honestly I hoped for an abortion. I mean, she was barely fifteen, had been raped and was still recovering from that, and then let’s not forget her health problems. Her heart is still acting up; sometimes all it needs is a nightmare for that to happen. And on top of all that, she is just a little slip of a girl, barely over 5”1’. How can she deal with a pregnancy, I ask you?

We had long talks, but I have to say that almost as soon as she looked at having an abortion she gave up on that idea. She just said it didn’t feel right. And then, can you imagine, of all the people she knew it was Bones that helped her come to a decision.

If you want to know Nancy's POV read next post...

[uw51]

06c, Nancy’s POV
I don’t know when the last time was that I had seen Jeff so completely beside himself as he was that afternoon after hearing about Liz. After we had decided to bring her home to stay with us, he just stormed out of the office and towards the backdoor, all set to go right then and there. Once I realised what my dear husband was up to I called him back and told him that we needed to prepare a few things before we could even think of bringing Liz into our home. Reluctantly Jeff came back in and asked Agnes to prepare our little office/guestroom/storeroom for his niece. He actually told her, “buy some flowers and things like that, you know, things that young girls like!” He also had to organise somebody to close up the diner that evening, since we weren’t sure when we’d be back.

In the meantime I grabbed some of my comfy clothes and some blankets and pillows and even a light snack, just something we could eat in the car. After that we were all set and left. Jeff was driving as usual, except this time he drove like a maniac. It was quite a piece of work to get him to slow down.

I remember when I first saw Liz I just started to cry. She was just a perfect picture of misery. After all the introduction were over, those nice boys, Alex and Kyle, showed us all the medication that Liz still needed and explained everything about her heart troubles, you know, what to do if the heart started to act up. Apparently the reason for that was an overdose of drugs they had given her. Her heart just couldn’t take that on top of everything else.

Anyway, as soon as possible but without rushing Liz too much, we were on our way back to Roswell. Almost immediately Liz fell asleep while Jeff, Sean and I began to worry, you know, if we were doing the right thing. I mean, none of us had any medical or psychological training and so far we all had been very healthy, nothing more serious than an occasional light cold. We worried because we wanted to help Liz get better not worse. But it did feel right. Luckily, I suddenly remembered our good friend Gaby who just happens to be a very good doctor.

Glad to be able to do something productive I called Gaby. I explained our situation and asked for her help. She offered to come by the next morning to check out our niece and then she could pass on any advice to help us. I can tell you that I was never as glad to have such a good friend as in that moment. Gaby reinforced our decision to have Liz stay with us and offered her help anytime - day or night - whenever it was needed.

By the time we arrived back home it was already very late, close to 11 pm. We were all quite exhausted and that was why we just showed Liz what she needed to know for the moment, you know where the bathroom and the kitchen are and also our rooms. After a light meal Liz was so worn out that I just helped her get ready for bed. The moment her head hit the pillow she was out like a light! Jeff, Sean and I followed Liz’s example and were in bed soon after. I have to say I couldn’t sleep for a while because I was worried, thinking of ways to help Liz until I realised that the best thing for me to do right at that moment was to sleep and then in the morning I could discuss everything else with Gaby. After all she was a doctor and could give us some pointers.

Sometime after midnight we were all jolted out of sleep by these awful screams. I was a bit disoriented, you know, coming out of deep sleep and I needed a moment to realise that it was Liz screaming down the neighbourhood. That night we got our first one on one lesson of ‘how to help Liz come out of her nightmares’. It took us a while, but we managed to calm her down in time, before her heart started to act up too badly.

You know, from the moment we heard of Liz and her sad lot, it seemed that we were hit with one commotion after another. After Liz finally settled down some, Bones - our rocker neighbour – stood in the doorframe and wanted to know what was going on. Right after we saw him, we heard the sirens heralding our cops and from all the raised voices outside we could deduct that the whole neighbourhood was assembled in front or our house. Jeff, Sean and Bones went downstairs to take care of everything while I stayed with Liz.

This nightmare had really shaken her up very badly and she was mumbling and crying. She kept repeating, “I’m not one of those girls, I always mean what I say! Really I do!” Suddenly she took off her nightgown and ran for the bathroom and after turning on the hot water in the shower she jumped in. Boy was she fast, I just sat there like an idiot before I galvanised into action and ran after her. I was able to turn the water temperature down to healthy warmth and then I helped her wash and afterwards I rubbed her dry with a big fluffy towel. Needless to say after all that I just snuck into bed with her and while I was still holding her we both fell asleep.
*~~*~~*
True to her word, the next morning Gaby knocked on our door. I can’t tell you just how relieved we all were. She gave Liz a thorough check-up and had a good and long talk with her in the privacy of her room. Afterwards both of them joined us in the living room and Gaby gave us all the information we needed. Apparently she already had a preliminary talk with the therapist Serena Walker and fixed a date where she would come by our home to meet with Liz. This was the beginning of a very difficult but - after a while – also very beautiful time for our little family.

Later that day Mama Dee dropped by to visit Liz and after that she came on a daily basis. You know, it was just the most amazing thing to observe how our whole neighbourhood pitched in and supported us - and most especially Liz - in different ways. Since in the beginning we couldn’t leave our niece alone – just think of the scalding hot showers – some would come and stay with Liz to give us some time to recuperate, some would come later, like a night watch, because the nightmares would keep us up most of the nights. They insisted we’d swap guestrooms once a week, saying that at least once a week a body needed a good nights rest. To be honest I don’t know how we would’ve handled the situation without all their help.

Pretty soon we also discovered that in her nightmares Liz would remember who had been party to the attack on her. Serena said that we should try to get her to talk about her dreams, that it was important for Liz’s recovery to voice her fears out loud and face them, otherwise they would start to fester and slow her healing process. Serena Walker was a godsend. She really knew how to deal with Liz, no pussyfooting around for her, no Ma’am.

Let me assure you, listening to Liz recount her nightmares was the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life, well, not just I, the others too cried many tears with our favourite girl, but it was well worth the effort. When I look at the young woman she has become, I have to say that now she is a strong person, and woe betide the one who tries to hurt her or anybody else in her presence.
*~~*~~*
And then - about two month after she came to stay with us – Liz got sick with a bad case of stomach flu. It turned out that it wasn’t the flu but Liz was pregnant. Apparently, the pill for afterwards doesn’t always work; most of the time, but not always. The poor girl, had to do a lot of soul-searching and decide on what to do. One day she found the most unlikely ally to help her through her trials.

Bones, our neighbour, the biker, big burly man, long shaggy hair and beard, with his arms and back covered in tattoos. He was always clad in some well-worn leather garb and he loved nothing better than to ride his motorcycle. Yes, exactly, that Bones. I asked him once how he got such a strange name, and he answered quite simple, as a teen he grew so fast that he was mostly just skin and bones and then his friends started to call him Bones and it stuck.
*~~*~~*
Anyway, Liz decided to keep the baby with the option if - after it was born – she found out that she couldn’t handle to have the little one herself she would give it up for adoption. After that she felt more at ease since she could postpone that decision. She had a very difficult pregnancy, especially in view of the discovery that she expected twins. Just imagine our Lizzy, small built teenager, expecting twins? I don’t think I need to elaborate on that any longer, do I?
*~~*~~*
Who almost surprised us as much as Bones was our son Sean, he took to Liz like a duck to water. In no time at all she became his honorary sister. Since he knew how much she loved to learn he started to ask her for help with the subjects that he had difficulties with. His teachers were amazed at his fast progress, couldn’t believe that he turned into a model high school student. Once Sean realised how great his progress really was he had a talk with his favourite teacher and the next day Joseph Seligman, high school teacher in West Roswell, paid us a visit. He wanted to know if Liz would be interested in tutoring some of his students. At first Liz was reluctant because she was very uncomfortable around strangers, but we promised her that one of us would always be nearby until she felt secure enough.

I have to say that Sean’s idea wrought miracles with Liz; she started to open up more and more. After a while she even came downstairs into our diner. So far she had stayed away because of all the strangers coming and going, but with the kid she tutored she was able to sit in one of the back booth and work with them. It also helped her a lot to find out that some of our neighbours were there most of the time too.

The last few weeks of her pregnancy, Liz had a very hard time moving around. The babies were just too heavy and she was too big. So, when the babies came one month early it was quite a relief for her. Liz had needed a caesarean because she was too small to give birth naturally. You know, the first time she had felt the babies movement she had been almost convinced that she wanted to keep them, but once she saw them she was absolutely certain.

Maxine and Alexander Parker – called Maxie and Sascha – were the cutest babies ever and an instant hit in our neighbourhood. We never had trouble at finding a babysitter, quite the contrary, we had to be very diplomatic and make sure that everybody could sit with the little ones an equal amount of time, sometimes they were like jealous kids! Just imagine, now those two sweethearts are already four and half years old and just as curious and vivacious as their mother…

Max' POV is in the next post...

[uw51]

06d, Max Evans’ POV
I’m guessing you’re wondering why I’m already here with the Parkers, after all the guests are supposed to show up in order of their appearance in Liz’ life. That would mean I should’ve come with Isabelle when I met Liz first or else much later when I found her again. Well, as you know there are always exceptions to rules and this is one of them. Liz asked me to come with her and now you might want to know why she’d do something like that, don’t you? Well I’m the lucky guy who is engaged to her, that’s why!
*~~*~~*
As it is, I’ve been thinking about what to tell you and I decided to start with our childhood, this might help you understand a few things later on. As you know Isabelle and Zan are twins and two years older than me. For as long as I remember Zan was jealous of me, don’t ask me why because that’s something I could never figure out. He showed his dislike by playing mean pranks on me, nothing very serious but always very upsetting to me. In those days Isabelle was closer to me than to her twin, mostly because he didn’t treat her much better than me.

Anyway, since I was curious by nature and I just loved to learn it was only natural for me to become a geek par excellence. You might not believe it, but in those days Isabelle had strong geeky tendencies too. The two of us would pick up all kinds of projects, mostly science, and we had a great time working on it together. Zan didn’t appreciate that very much. Often, when he thought he could get away with it, he would ruin our work. If he got caught he’d play it down as an accident or he had no idea whatsoever as to what had happened.

Things changed drastically when the two of them started high school. Somehow Zan was able to pull Isabelle over to ‘his side’. Isabelle changing sides got Zan off my back, at least for a while. Soon it wasn’t enough for him and he started his little games all over again, only this time his pranks grew in meanness and the damage was much bigger too. Like the time he purposely ruined a very difficult and important project that I had finished for my science class. I was very happy with it because I knew I had done a great job. The day before I had to bring it to class I came home from school and when I walked into my room I could see that it was ruined and Zan stood beside it, smirking proudly. He made some remarks that he had decided to help me and make it better, but then ooops, it just fell apart. How was he to know that I had done such a lousy job?

Of course I yelled for our parents and when they showed up I told them everything. They turned to Zan asked him if that was true. Zan looked suitably shocked and said he had no idea what I was talking about, he had been with Isabelle and had only just then come to my room to investigate what all the yelling was about.

Since my parents were used to Zan badgering me, they didn’t believe him right away. Zan then added ‘ask Isabelle’ which they did and my sister confirmed Zan’s story. Now I was the bad guy for spreading lies about my poor brother. Of course I got punished, no pocket money for a month and I was only allowed to go to school, otherwise I was to stay at home for two weeks. They wanted to nib my wayward behavior before it became a bad habit.

This was only the beginning. Zan would find out something that was important to me and ruin it and always Isabelle would back up his lies. After the second time it happened I stopped defending myself and made sure that all important things, even schoolwork, stayed at my grandparents house. Luckily they lived on the same street, just a few houses down the road. Actually, I spent a lot of my time there, at least when my parents weren’t home. I just kept my distance to Isabelle and Zan, stayed out of their way, that was how it all started.

The only time things were better between Isabelle and myself was when Zan was away. You know, when Izzy brought Liz to our home. Isabelle was almost like in the old times and meeting Liz was just, wow. Well, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how it was to meet your first love, I’m sure you remember how that was! But then, after a few weeks Zan came back and the rest is history…
*~~*~~*
Of course now you’re asking yourself how Isabelle came to be with me and my friends, you know, that day at the CrashDown. Well it was like that; my parents and I were back to a great understanding. While I lived in my own flat I worked in father’s law firm and was doing real well. The only times I would meet my siblings was at family functions that couldn’t be avoided or when they showed up at the firm, to ask our father for money for this or that venture. I stayed out of it; I had no desire to know what that was all about. After all I was going my way quite successfully.

About one year ago my parents called me, asking me if I was willing to help Isabelle, nothing too drastic, just include her a bit in my social life, you know, outings I had with my friends, do ‘normal’ things. I wanted to know why and my father said that Isabelle had started to copy Paris Hilton’s lifestyle and my parents finally had enough. He said that they cut down Isabelle’s allowance to a minimum – what a joke that was, she still received more than many people have to feed their families – and that she was starting to work at the firm too. Isabelle and work? Hmm, I didn’t feel like bursting my dad’s bubble and stayed quiet.

Anyway, after discussing the ‘Isabelle Situation’ with my friends they agreed to let my sister into our group, after all, didn’t everybody deserve a second chance? After letting my dad know of our decision he called Isabelle to his office and calmly informed her of the changes he expected her to make in her life. She was told that she had to start working for her living, to stop with her never-ending parties and changing boyfriends. Her shopping sprees had to stop pronto and she was expected to move out of her parents’ home and start to look after herself. Of course, we all would help her find her way at the beginning, but after that she was on her own. Needless to say Izzi wasn’t thrilled, not at all, but when she realised that this time dad was serious she reluctantly agreed.

The next day Isabelle showed up at my place – I didn’t know she even knew where I lived - and thanked me profusely for giving her this chance and the first time she met my friends she thanked them too. For a while everything was fine, my sister seemed to have adapted to her new circumstances rather well and she fit into our group quite nicely. From time to time the ‘old Isabelle’ would rear her ugly head, but afterwards she was always very upset and apologised.

You know, we had this thing going, where every month one member of our group would plan and organise something special. One time we went to see the Gila Cliff Dwellings and another time Carlsbad Caverns, or the White Sands, Alamogordo.

And then it was Isabelle’s turn to plan an outing. She took us to Roswell. First we explored the UFO-Museum and had a great time. Then she invited us for lunch at this quaint little diner, the CrashDown, that she had heard about.

Turns out that my sister had accidentally stumbled over Liz’s whereabouts and now she figured it wouldn’t hurt her situation to let Liz know to stay quiet or else... What better way to tell Liz to stay out of her way than to show up with her younger brother who also happened to be the younger girl’s big crush? Well, little did Isabelle know how things would turn out…

I guess now you want to know when all this went down? Well my dad talked to Isabelle about six month ago at the beginning of this year. It was sometime last fall – I think it was in October 2004 - when she found out of Liz’s whereabouts.
*~~*~~*
And now - half year after the truth was revealed for the first time - we’re here, on this stage in front of all these people. It’s just the strangest situation, you know, sitting here listening to all our friends talk about how they happened to meet Liz. So far they all met under very painful circumstances, painful for Liz, that is.

My dilemma now - here on stage - is that I really don’t know what to do about Isabelle. I mean, sometimes I can face her - every few weeks I visit her in prison - and talk with her quite normally. Even though Izzi and I are starting over, so to speak, and we are working really hard on building a new relationship, I have to admit that it’s very difficult to trust her. Especially right now when I can feel Liz’s nervousness and fears. She’s clutching my hand so hard that I’ve almost lost all feelings in it. That’s why, right now I’m afraid to even acknowledge Isabelle, because in moments like this, I’m scared to loose all control and just tear her apart. I could really just forget that I’m against any kind of violence and that men don’t hurt women and all that and attack her. Let me tell you that I can’t begin to fathom what I’d do with Zan if he were here.

I mean I realise that it’s been a few months since the whole truth came to light, or as Bones likes to call it - ‘the shit hit the fan’. That was the moment when I saw Liz again, when I found out what had happened to her – the rape, the babies, the conspiracy and all that – when I learned of my siblings’ part in it, when Liz made her citizen’s arrest and had Izzi booked, you know, that moment! Since then I have heard just about everything that happened to Liz before, during and after her ordeal and also about my sister’s involvement but I still don’t know how I react to every new telling of it. All I know is that it really upsets me to hear it all over again. I ask you, wouldn’t you be upset too if you knew out that your two older siblings had committed such atrocious crimes as Zan and Isabelle had?

I know, I know, you can’t put Isabelle and Zan into the same pot, he is just purely evil, while at the beginning at least she didn’t really know what she had been dragged into. Also she became a drug addict and he was her supplier. So, you see I do understand the differences, but I still have a very hard time talking about it.

As it is I have visited my sister in prison – five times so far – after all, that was what I promised her after she decided to come clean. She confessed, accepted full responsibility for her actions and did her best to support Liz’s lawyers to finally bring down her tormentors.

Oh, you don’t know what I promised her, do you? Well, let’s see, my first reaction after ever thing was revealed was to cut Isabelle off, to distance myself from her completely. I was so sickened by her actions; I couldn’t even look at her. I remember that, when everything went down, we were at the CrashDown and suddenly Liz appeared and wanted to serve us. Isabelle was a prime bitch, you’ll hear all about that later on, but for now that’s all you need to know.

Anyway, one thing led to another and suddenly Liz made a citizen arrest and actually arrested my sister. Isabelle of course didn’t take that laying down and made a big scene. To her surprise she found out that Liz wasn’t the shy quiet little girl any longer but had become one tough lady and you better didn’t mess with her.

After arresting Isabelle, Liz asked Bones to make sure she didn’t move, then Liz calmly grabbed her cell, punched a speed button on it and calmly asked the person who answered ‘can you drop everything and come to the Crash?’ and then she added ‘I just arrested Isabelle Evans’. Apparently that was all the information the person needed because Liz calmly put her cell back into her apron pocket.

Things slowly started to sink into my numb brain. I didn’t know all the details, but from what I could gather the situation was bad and I mean disastrously bad.

I was still sitting in that booth when I suddenly remembered the photo Liz handed me just minutes ago. All I could do was stare at it and the longer I stared at it the more surreal it became. It was like looking at a picture of me when I was four. The only difference was that he was missing the little mole I have on my upper lip. Slowly but surely I put two and two together and to my surprise I came up with four. This was the little boy I had been giving my blood for, the little boy that Isabelle had told me about. I had to get out of that booth; I was ready to strangle my own sister. As I got up, she grabbed my hand and implored me to stay with her. Needless to say I couldn’t. I didn’t leave; I just sat down on one of the barstools and kept staring at the photograph.

Sometime before the police came to pick up my sister, Liz joined me at the bar and pointing to the picture asked me if I wanted to meet my nephew. Of course I wanted to, then she informed me that if I wanted to be a part of his life I had to accept his twin sister too, even though she wasn’t a blood relation to me. I agreed immediately, I mean how could I say no, it wasn’t the kids fault they had different fathers. Talking to Liz helped me calm down quite a bit and when I was able to think more clearly again I apologised profusely for all the pain my siblings had caused her. She didn’t want to hear my apology, saying it wasn’t my fault. I promised her then and there to do my best to help her and her little ones in anyway I could.

I had been so absorbed by my talk with Liz and keeping my thoughts off of Isabelle and doing my darndest not to break down and cry like a girl, that I was really surprised when Jeff approached Liz, holding on to two little kids. Seeing my niece and nephew for the first time was just, wow, words failed me! The two kids managed to pull free of their grandpa’s grip and ran through the diner to greet Bones – he seemed to be a great favourite of theirs - who was standing guard over Isabelle.

Liz and I saw how my sister paled, she looked like she was ready to pass out any moment. Suddenly she looked at Liz and told her that she would do everything in her power to make things right again and started by informing us that Liz had been telling the truth all along. Rick interrupted her, saying that she should wait for her attorney, before saying anything else.

I just remembered I forgot to mention that our friends Rick and Anna Douglas were with us that day. Rick isn’t just a friend of mine; no he too works in my father’s law firm as an attorney. Anyway, Isabelle answered that she knew her rights, but if she waited she might loose her courage and keep on lying for herself and Zan.

As I listened to her confession I had to stop looking at her and I literally turned my back on Isabelle. The more I heard the sicker I felt and I just wanted to shut her out of my life. Liz wouldn’t let me, she said that it looked like Isabelle was finally breaking loose from Zan’s hold over her and I shouldn’t make any rash decisions like cutting off all strings to my sister, that I should wait and see how sincere she was about coming clean. Liz insisted that Isabelle would need all the help to start anew.

Later on Isabelle confessed to me that seeing the twins really made her realise just how badly she had messed up her life and what a horrible person she had become. She said that that was the moment she decided to change things and try to do right by Liz and the children. She knew that she couldn’t change the past, but she could make damn sure things couldn’t be repeated.

To all our surprise – well not all, just the four of us - we found out that in that neighbourhood news travelled really fast because within minutes the diner was filled to bursting with people and everybody stared at Isabelle in an unmistakably hostile manner. It was clear, they all knew!
*~~*~~*
Maybe now you understand why I didn’t acknowledge Isabelle a few minutes ago when we first joined the seating arrangement, especially in light of the fact that we are starting some sort of relationship again. Of course we’re starting on a whole new footing, we can’t build on our past.

So, why did I just ignore her? Simple, every time I hear about what had happened to Liz, I get so upset that I either lash out at Isabelle or I want to cry. Now you might say that as an paralegal I have heard things that were at least as bad as this and then I can’t just break down like that. Of course you’re right, but there’s a huge difference, my clients are my clients and not my sweetheart, that’s the big difference!


TBC

Thank you very much for reading my fic, please let me know what you think of it!

I'll post again in two weeks, till then take care

Chula

[uw51]

here we go...


07, Intermezzo – Sean, Corry and Duncan
After Liz’s last statement everybody was feeling very emotional, and not just on stage, no, sniffs could be heard from the spectators too. After thanking his guests for being so open und willing to talk about their difficult past so freely, Nathan stood up and walked over to greet his next visitors.

Sean Parker and his friends Corry Appleby and Duncan Behr had just stepped on stage. Together they walked over to Nathan and after greeting each other in a manly backslapping manner they walked over to the couches to meet the guest already present. The guests sitting in the seating arrangement all stood up to welcome the newcomers.

As the three young men reached the group Corry suddenly grabbed a very surprised Liz and crushed her in a bear hug. Astonished Liz shrieked but then she started to pound Corry’s back because she was barely able to breathe. The young man was not to be deterred and held on to his price until she pulled his ear and laughingly yelled, “Idiot, let me go or I have to hurt you seriously!” He let her go immediately and holding his hands out harmlessly conceded “ok, ok, no need to get violent!”

After giving Liz a big loud smooch on her cheeks, Corry turned to a shocked Nathan and beaming proudly informed him, “you know, two years ago we could barely touch Liz without risking panic attacks on her part, and now, did you see how she just laughed it off and got rid of me, huh, did you?”

Shaking his head Nathan wondered aloud, “that’s what your display was all about? To prove a point?” Suddenly very serious Corry looked directly into the camera wit a ‘don’t mess with me look’ and stated, “that was to show those bastards that Liz Parker has found a new family and is doing great! She has found her place in life and is happy!”

”Ookayyy,” Sarah spoke up, intent on stopping any other statements Corry might spew out since he seemed to be on a roll. Turning to a shocked and open-mouthed Sean, she asked, “Sean Parker, by the look on your face I gather you didn’t expect this either?” “Oh, eh, you’re right Sarah, I really didn’t expect this, but then again, you never know with Corry!”

This comment intrigued Nathan and he wanted to know, “what’s that supposed to mean?” Nonchalantly Sean replied, “nothing really,” and seeing his host’s raised eyebrows he added, “well you know that in every group there is a crazy guy, well now you know who that is in our trio!” “I resent that!” Corry interrupted, while Duncan agreed, “Sean’s right, Corry is one crazy dude!” “Hey! I’m right here!” Corry yelled offended and Liz interjected, “we know, but we all love you anyway, crazy and all!” Max told Liz, “don’t give him any ideas, I wouldn’t appreciate that one bit!” “Oh, but Liz is right!” Nancy supported her ‘daughter’, while Maria pinched his cheeks and cooed, “of course she’s right!”

After one last good pinch she let go of the maltreated cheek and turned to Amy and Jim and announced, “I guess the time had come for us to join the others in the bistro!” The three were accompanied by Nathan and while they walked towards the back, the spot light followed them. Once they reached their destination the light in the bistro corner turned brighter and suddenly there were more people there than had been on the show so far.

Mama Dee, Hilda and Martha, Isabelle, Kyle and Alex had been joined by deputy Hanson, professors Giulia Grossi and Peter Donovan, Dr. Gabriella Bryce, Serena Walker and Max’s friends Rick and Anna Douglas.

While Maria, Amy and Jim took their seats on one of the tables, Nathan explained, “my friends, I’m sure you all are curious as to who all these newcomers are? They haven't been on the couch yet, have they?” “Well, the thing is, these are all Liz’s friends and they are here to show her their support but they don’t feel like talking in the spotlight. Also, I have to add that we can’t interview everybody involved or we would still be here tomorrow.”

As Nathan walked from one new guest to the next he introduced them and in the end he asked the crowd, “let’s give them all a big welcome!” After the applause had calmed down, the lights in the bistro area died down to half-light.
*~~*~~*
In the front, Sarah started to interview Sean, asking, “when you met Liz for the first time you were just sixteen years old. How were you able to deal with such a difficult situation?”

After swallowing a few times Sean answered nervously, “I remember the first time I saw her was in her friends’ little house. She was laying on the couch and she looked just awful and all I could think was, ‘I’m not going to cry, I’m not going to cry!’. Of course I lost that battle big time. Once I was able to think straight I decided to adopt her as my sister on the spot and to make sure that nothing would ever hurt her again.”

He needed a moment to collect his thoughts and then he continued, “I never knew that I could feel so protective towards anybody, least of all towards a virtual stranger. But there you have it, from that moment on she was my sister. I remember in the beginning I had to be very careful around Liz, she had a hard time trusting anybody new, especially males.” Smiling to himself he added, “I’m glad to say that by now we can bicker and fight like any other siblings!”

As Nathan joined Sarah and their guests he chuckled, “as a matter of fact I can attest to that one, I’ve heard you two bicker like pros!” Duncan felt that he had been quiet long enough and interrupted, “as Liz is Sean’s sister by choice she is Corry’s and my honorary sister and we just love to annoy her. On the other hand we are very protective of her, so just as an info, anybody who upsets her upsets us, there’s no way around that!”

Smilingly he added, “at the beginning it was very difficult for the three of us. You know, we were normal, boisterous teenage boys, we didn’t walk - we ran, we didn’t talk - we yelled, we didn’t close a door - we slammed it, I’m sure you all remember how it was when you were teens.” More seriously he continued, “we learned really fast to become more moderate because Liz was petrified of us, I mean shaking and all petrified of us, she’d leave any room we walked into.”

”Yeah,” Corry agreed and added, “we didn’t really understand her, I mean we weren’t trying to hurt or scare her, we just behaved as usual. Finally we talked with Jeff and Nancy and they explained to us everything. You know, that Liz was practically scared of her own shadow. They gave us a list of do’s and don’ts and we did our best to change our ways in the Parker home.”

Suddenly, Nathan remembered, “you know, by the time we met Liz you couldn’t tell that she’d had such a traumatic experience. She was working in the diner and seemed completely at ease with all the people coming and going.”

Pensively Sarah said, “that’s true, I remember Liz seemed completely carefree, smiling and joking with everybody in the diner. In fact, I was wondering why Mama Dee thought it necessary to remind us to behave well with Liz. Everything seemed so normal, at least until two little kids came in running, calling their mom and telling her that grandma needed her.” “You know, it was a very unreal moment. Here were these two little kids calling a young girl mom and confusing their message and suddenly everybody in the diner stopped what ever they were doing and told Liz ‘go, we watch the little ones and take care of things here!’”

“Yeah, Liz just apologised and left us. Of course this peeked our curiosity and we decided to follow her, didn’t we, sweetheart?” “Hmmhmm,” Sarah agreed and decisively added, “but this is something we will talk about later in the show!” Smiling at the three young men in front of her she addressed them all, “now we should talk about your early experiences with Liz. Tell me, how did Liz’s presence affect your lives? Sean, do you want to answer that?”

“Sure, Sarah,” Sean complied calmer than before. After exchanging meaningful looks with his two best friends he began to tell of their first experiences with Liz, “you know at the time we were sixteen and we were big fans of Hip-hop, Gangsta-Rap and things like that…” Red-faced, Corry interrupted him with an embarrassed, “hey, man, is that necessary? I mean, really, it’s just too embarrassing to even think about!” Duncan agreed and winked, “yo, man, dude’s right!” and with a grin spreading over his face he allowed, “but I guess you’ll have to tell it all otherwise it don’t make no sense, dude.”

Sean just laughed off these comments and went on with his story, “then of course we were convinced we were the real thing, you know, dangerous, intimidating and that crap. We never realised that we were poor copies of our heroes EMINEM, 50 Cents, Snoop and others.” Nathan laughed, “you wanted to be gangsta’s?” “Oh, boy did we ever!” Duncan exclaimed and Corry added, “we were convinced if we copied their mannerism and their clothes, we would automatically become like them.”

Sean continued, “the thing was our neighbours refused to be scared of us, really. Mama Dee for instance always gave us these big grins and Bones would just raise his eyebrows…” “Can you really blame them?” Nancy threw in and grinning from ear to ear as she turned to Nathan and Sarah and explained, “just pictures this, Roswell in the summer, the temperature rises until it can’t get any hotter and,” nodding in the young men’s direction she continued, “and those three gangsta’s walked around in their hoodies with the hoods up!”

“I remember you sure had us scared, whhooohoo!” a male voice yelled from the audience and quite a few people started to laugh. “Yo, man, rub it in, why don’t ye?” Corry yelled right back and after squinting into the dark hall below he chuckled evilly and hollered “Joe Langdon, if I remember correctly there was a time when you tried to be Marilyn Manson! I’m sure that was much better, wasn’t it?” The whole room exploded with howling laughter.

Nathan too needed a moment to recover before he voiced the next question, “what has your gangsta image to do with your experience with Liz?” Feeling silly and embarrassed Sean clarified the situation, “actually, just before Liz moved in with us, we walked around everywhere with the hoods up, in fact, my mom was so irritated by this that she forbade us to wear them up at home. Usually we adhered to her wishes…” and seeing Nancy’s pointed stare he corrected himself, “at least when she was around! But one day, after Liz had been with us for a while and she knew us pretty well, we burst into our apartment and forgot to take those damn hoods down.”

“By then we knew of her pregnancy, she was about three month along. Anyway, Liz was sitting on the couch in the living room, studying for her home schooling. When she saw us burst into the room with our hoods up, she just lost it completely and ran screaming down the hall. Once we came out of our own shock we followed, not having a clue as to why she freaked out like that. We found her in her room, hiding in her closet. Anyway, it’s needless to tell you that we had a hard time to calm her down. At one point one of us realised that Liz was staring at the hoods and we were desperate enough to try anything and took off our hoodies. This seemed to calm her down and she became approachable again.”

“I think that moment I aged at least 10 years, it was a very difficult moment. I wasn’t ready for that kind of reaction.” Duncan threw in. Corry added, “yeah, me too!” and after a short hesitation continued, “that was the moment I realised that I wasn’t cut out to be a gangsta and I didn’t want to scare anybody any longer.” Sean picked up the story, “we didn’t know what to do, Liz was in that damned closet and by looks of it she was going to stay there too. Luckily Corry here had the saving idea to cut off all our hoods and that was just what we did. That seemed to help Liz and she very carefully crawled out.”

Suddenly Nancy explained, “the reason Liz reacted so drastically was, some of her attackers used to dress in hoodies like that. So, the moment she saw our three fellows here she couldn’t differentiate between her attackers and her family and she ran for cover.”

“You know that experience got us thinking, I mean really thinking. We discussed Liz’s situation to great length, googled as much information as possible on rape victims and on how to help them. Then we decided that Liz needed to learn some form of self-defence but we didn’t really know what kind would be best. Also our financial resources were rather slim.” Sean explained the actions he and his two friends had taken after that fateful experience.

“Yeah,” Duncan cut in, “we went to several Martial-Arts Studios because we thought they would be able to help us, you know, trying to find the right kind of training for Liz, but no such luck. They weren’t interested, all they said was, ‘once you have the money and you know what you want you can come back and we’ll talk!’”

“We were getting quite desperate, they all treated us like stupid kids, they weren’t taking us seriously, even after we explained Liz’ situation. Nothing we said changed their minds, absolutely nothing.” Corry was in his element, with big gestures he relished to tell this particular part of the story, “we were even desperate enough to ask Bones for advice weren’t we, guys?” “Sure enough,” Sean agreed.

Animatedly Corry continued, “Bones was a surprise. The moment we explained him our situation he asked some of his friends and they gave him the name of one Michael Guerin. It seemed that this guy was a bit unconventional but one of the best. So, the next day the three of us went to Michael’s studio, not really sure what to expect. He turned out to be the best ever. Not only did he listen to us, no he came with us to meet Liz and then he came up with a fabulous plan to teach her self-defence.”

Quietly Sean cut in, “because she was pregnant and her health wasn’t all that good at the time, he came up with some simple but very effective tricks. Anyway, he can tell you all about that, but what really impressed us was that he let us pay with labour. You know, we offered to clean his studio and to stand in as the bad guys in his classes, you know, the proverbial punching bag!” Duncan summed up the beginnings of their working relationship.

Jeff decided to speak up, “at first, Liz was very hesitant about learning self-defence, because that meant she had to trust and touch other people. In the beginning we would always make sure that Nancy, Amy or Maria could stand in as her partner. One time even Mama Dee jumped in because nobody else was available. After a while we brought in male partners and after the first hesitant try outs Liz became more confident and from then on she started to feel secure enough to venture father away from home. After a while she went by herself, first up and down the street and then farther and farther away. Slowly but surely she started to live again!”

Liz added, “I don’t know if you can understand that, but for me it was even more difficult to go out alone, because while growing up I had never been alone outside our mansion, and even there I always had Cookie or Sparky around. Actually, the only time I had ever been alone on the streets was the night when my parents kicked me out and to be honest I don’t remember much of that walk.”

Sarah looked quite shocked and inquired, “really? You never went alone into town, you know, shopping things like that? I mean, I never quite realised that. So, in fact it was a double success for you, once you started to venture into town, wasn’t it?”

next post: 07a, Sean’s POV...

[uw51]

Everything is fixed now...

07a, Sean’s POV
Can you imagine that I had this uncle that we never heard from, and when we finally do its something like this? What an ass, really, who needs uncles like that, not me! Don’t get me wrong; I always knew of him, he just never responded to my dad’s overtures. Anyway, at some point Chucky got involved in some unsavoury business deals and that was it for my parents. They stopped contacting him, but in all that time before that Chuck never let on that he had a daughter, incredible isn’t?

Anyway, you’ve already heard a lot of how Liz came to stay with us, haven’t you? Well, at the beginning it was a very difficult situation for all of us, for Liz because of what she had been through and on top of that she didn’t know us, for my parents because they never had to deal with these kinds of problems and they were afraid of making things worse for Liz and of course for me and my friends.

You wonder why I include my friends? Well, they practically lived at my home; they were here almost as much as I was. Anyway, for us the situation with Liz was difficult for several reasons. One, she was a girl and we were just starting to get interested in the opposite sex, we did mostly look and wonder about – well you know what immature boys wonder about – and of course we’d discuss them – big tits versus small tits, big asses versus small ones, long hair versus, well I’m sure you’re getting it!

And then suddenly, wham, in the middle of our maturing process Liz, a real living and breathing girl, moved into my home and became a permanent fixture. The trouble with that was, one, Liz wasn’t just any kind of girl, no she was a very troubled one because she had been badly hurt and two, since we had decided that she would be our honorary sister we thought weren’t we supposed to notice her, well, hmmm, you know, emm lets call it, womanly charms.

I remember that at one point we were very confused about all this and we were in my room discussing our problems. We hadn’t noticed that the door was slightly ajar, but suddenly my dad walked in, telling us that he wasn’t eavesdropping but accidentally overheard our talk, yeah, right! He said that as long as men had eyes to see with we’d notice things like that and it was OK to do it as long as we would just notice and not act on it. “ACT on it! DAAAD, that’s just GROSS!” I yelled and Corry and Duncan supported me, “Eeewww, Mr. P, she’s practically our SISTER, don’t say things like THAT!”

Dad just laughed, “I see, we have nothing to worry about. Just know it’s OK to notice because that’s part of growing up and it’s a part of life too.” After that he left us. Of course we couldn’t just stop talking about it, but we were very relieved that we were OK. The strange thing was, once my dad had told us that it was OK to notice, it sort of just became ‘normal’. We actually stopped wondering and noticing, well, of course that only applied to Liz, otherwise we were still very interested, really very very interested. Corry the idiot is wiggling his eyebrows at that!

And then we found out that Liz was pregnant. That brought lot of new and different changes and our curiosity was peaked again. I mean it’s not like we had never seen a pregnant woman, no, just never up close, at least not this close. And now were in the front row so to speak. Once the babies started to move Liz would even let us touch her tummy, but before that happened was the incident with our hoodies, of course.

Since you’ve already heard us talk about that I’ll just jump ahead to our meeting with Michael Guerin. I’m sure that’s OK with you. After Duncan, Corry and I had approached just about every Martial arts studio in Roswell and the surrounding towns without any success to show, we were very pessimistic about ever finding somebody who would take us seriously. You know, if you think about it, here we were three teens, trying to help somebody in need of help, and what happened, nobody took us seriously, I mean that really sucked!

It was just like Corry said, we were desperate enough to ask Bones’ opinion and to our surprise he was able to give us a name after he had made a few inquiries: Michael Guerin. Of course like everybody else around we too had heard about him, that he was the best, that he was quite moody, difficult to please and that it was almost impossible to get into one of his classes. He was an enigma. And here was Bones telling us ‘go to Guerin’. Well, since we’d already been through all other options that was exactly what we did, we went to talk to Guerin.
*~~*~~*
Well, let me tell you, Michael’s studio was nothing like we had expected. It was across town in an old factory building. Actually, Michael’s mentor - Kazuki Ito - had bought and renovated that building a long time ago. On the outside it was just an old but very well kept brick building that was surrounded by the most beautiful garden, well, lots of that Japanese rock-garden, you know, that stuff that needs to be raked all the time. And then, behind the building there is this area where they can train their martial art under some big shade spending trees. And then there is Michael’s personal corner, that’s where he meditates every day.

Well, anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. Michael can tell you all about that, it’s his after all. I only wanted to tell you about our first meeting. We walked into his studio and asked for Michael. We were told he was behind the house and we should go and wait there. We were also told to please be quite since he was meditating and he hated nothing more then to be disturbed. So, that was what we did, we went around the house and into the garden. We found a table with some chairs and since we didn’t see anybody we decided to sit there and wait.

Since we had been asked to be quiet we walked quietly and we only whispered. We were as quiet as mice, I swear, but Michael insists that we trampled like a herd of Elephants and talked as loud as a jungle full of Ara Parrots. After we’d been waiting for about 10 Minutes he snuck up on us and had us jumping out of our seats as he suddenly materialised besides us, asking politely, “what can I do for you?”

Let me tell you, Michael is one attention-commandeering dude, really. It’s not just his size - he is huge – no, it’s his whole demeanour. I guess it has a lot to do with this martial arts stuff he’s doing. You know, he’s not just doing it to stay fit or so, no it’s his way of life, just how he learned it from this mentor guy he has. I can say quite honestly that I needed a while to get used to all of that and to feel comfortable with it, but now I’m cool, really.

Anyway, Corry, Duncan and I stammered and stumbled through our explanation and expected fully to be told to forget it. I mean even a blind person could’ve seen that this was a very special studio, not just your normal run of the mill place. As it was, Michael let us tell him our story and he really listened to all our babbling. Once we were done he stayed quiet for a moment then he calmly said, “ok, why don’t I show you this place and then you can take me to meet your sister and then we take it from there?”

Since we were deeply shocked by his response we were only able to sit there like a bunch of idiots and nod. The next thing he said was what really convinced me that this dude knew what he was doing, he said, “Sean, why don’t you call your mom and tell her that we’ll be there in one hour and make sure that she will be there too. I have a feeling Liz would feel better if she had her there for support!”

Again all we could do was nod, but suddenly we realised that we were on the right track and me and my friends jumped up and started to holler and shout, feeling like we had finally accomplished something. Michael just stood there and grinned.

Almost on the dot one hour later, the four of us arrived at the CrashDown. I’m glad to report that Michael was very impressed with our diner. He said that it showed that the owners had lots of humour. Also, he was very amazed at the variety of costumers we had. Bones was there with two of his biker friends, Mama Dee was talking with my dad and then there were some high school kids there too, having a great time. He nodded approvingly and I felt like we had passed some test.

We led him to meet my dad and of course Mama Dee, there was no way around her, no way at all! Dad was his usual easy going self but Mama Dee eyed him up and down, and then voiced her opinion, “hmm, you seem ok, young man, really you do!” then she nodded and with her next breath she threatened him, “but if you’re hurting that little lady upstairs, you are going to wish for a quick death!“

Corry tried to deflect her wrath and interrupted, “Mama Dee, he’s ok, we checked him out. Besides he’s got black belts in all kinds of martial arts…” Corry let his sentence peter out because he couldn’t remember all the different black belts and titles Michael had.

As usual Mama Dee wasn’t impressed, not at all. After looking at Michael once more thoroughly, she calmly stated, “am I supposed to be impressed by that? Just know there are many ways to hurt you, many ways indeed!”

For a moment Michael stared at Mama Dee blankly before replying respectfully, “ma’am…” “Don’t call me ma’am, I’m not that old yet!” she interrupted him vehemently. “Right, Mama Dee?” Michael queried and after receiving her nod of approval he continued, “Mama Dee, it’s not my intention to hurt anybody and most certainly not a young girl who has been hurt.” Gesturing towards me and my friends, Michael went on, “these three young men have asked for my help and that’s what I’m here for. But right now we will just talk and see how Liz will respond to their idea and to myself.” Smirking at Mama Dee he asked, “is that alright with you, Mama Dee?”

You could see that by now Mama Dee felt as thought our idea was a good one and by the way she eyed Michael it was clear that he had made a good impression on her. Her short manner belied Mama Dee’s twinkling eyes as she prompted Michael, “well then, go on, what are you waiting for?” Michael acknowledged her need to have the last word in this dispute and laughingly gave her a wave before he followed us through the backdoor of the diner.

I can tell you that the closer we came to my home the more nervous I became. I was starting to worry about what we were going to confront Liz with and I was wondering if maybe I should’ve prepared her beforehand. Apparently Michael wasn’t only a crack at Martial arts, no he must’ve been clairvoyant too, because he stopped me before I entered my home and said, “you did right, this way we can just explain everything as it is and I’m here to give her any details she might want to know. Also, this doesn’t give her much time to worry about things!” After nodding my understanding I opened the door and yelled, “mom, we’re here!”
TBC

Thank you very much for reading my fic, please let me know what you think of it!

I'll post again in two weeks, till then take care

Chula