There were a number of good lawyers in Chaves county and generally speaking you got what you paid for. If you truly didn't have the money you could go to the Chaves County Legal Aid society where pro bono attorneys would help you with your problems...if they were legitimate. But if you wanted a true shyster lawyer...someone to just cause problems to someone you didn't like..or try to get money for you for some complaint you had, real or imagined, you could always go to Lou Grogan.
Lou Grogan had actually passed the bar at sometime in the distant past, although he must have done real well on the parts of it that did NOT involve professional ethics, because he certainly didn't seem aware of them. Personal injury lawyers are sometimes called 'ambulance chasers,' but for most it really was just a term of derision. But Lou had, in fact, been cited on several occasions for following too close behind an emergency vehicle and on one day on an icy road had actually rear-ended and ambulance that had stopped at the scene of a traffic accident. Lou never got paid by a client...he worked on a contingency fee, getting 50% of any awards for damages his clients received from the court. Since his overhead included payments to a small number of physicians, chiropractors, psychologists, and other allied medical personnel who were almost as crooked as he was, he managed to make a tidy but not excessive living from his trade. Normally, he didn't do criminal cases, but there were exceptions to every rule, and since if his clients were convicted of crimes it became difficult to win in civil court he would sometimes have to dabble in criminal cases. He approached such cases with the same lack of ethics he used on his bogus whiplash and 'mental distress' cases.
William Robert Brigham was, like his son, a big guy. Billy-Bob had also been a West Roswell High football star, and until he blew out his right knee his sophomore year at Oklahoma, had thought that he too, like Bubba, had been headed for a big money NFL career. Because of that stupid waitress, Bubba and his daddy's payoff was now more problematic than it had once been. But his son's 'unprovoked assault,' offered him the opportunity to get a little money now...from the rich lawyer parents of the kid who beat up poor little Bubba.
Now Lou Grogan didn't have an ethical bone in his body, but he hated working for 50% of chicken-feed or ...worse yet...token amounts. This was New Mexico, not Vermont. If Billy-Bob's little boy Bubba was actually convicted of....well...what Lou was pretty damn sure he had in fact done, a jury of New Mexican residents was as likely to laugh at him for getting beat up by someone so much smaller than him as it was to give him a big cash award.
"Billy-bob, Let me make this plain...," said Lou, '... we can probably talk that breaking and entering on the water department property down to just a graffiti charge if we get the right judge, but I'm telling you...if Bubba gets convicted on that charge of conspiracy to reveal medical records, any chance of getting money from the Evanses just plain goes out the window. Now I've already spoken to Bubba's girlfriend...what she is going to do is say that the Parker girl TOLD her that information, and Bubba's got to say that he was there when that happened. That gets Miss Troy off from the theft of medical information charge which moots...that is to say...makes the conspiracy charge against your son disappear."
"But won't the Parker girl just deny that?"
Lou Grogan's mouth took on an evil grin. "Hey, the whole reason she hadn't told anyone was because of the embarrassment. I'll get her on the stand...make her explain how and where the whole thing happened...how many times she did this...with how many guys...how many abortions she's had already....I'll embarrass that little girl until she refuses to say another word. Once she does that, she impeaches her own credibility. The case falls apart against your son and his girlfriend...they walk, and then we can go after big money from the parents of the boy. Trust me, it'll work."
Billy-Bob nodded his head. "OK....anything else I need to tell my son?"
"Nope. I've made appointments for him with this doctor, this chiropractor, this psychologist...oh, and we need to get him going to physical therapy twice a week...here's his appointment slips."
"So how much you think I can get?"
"Hell, who knows. With the right jury...fifty or a hundred thousand...of course, I get half you understand?"
'Yeah,' thought Billy-Bob Brigham, '..that's worth doing.'
He shook Lou's hand, nodded his head and picked up the appointment slips. Ten seconds later he was out the door.
Decisions AUwA (Mature) 12/28/10 [WIP]
Moderators: Anniepoo98, ISLANDGIRL5, truelovepooh, Forum Moderators
Re: Decisions AUwA (Mature) 4/24/2008
Last edited by greywolf on Mon May 05, 2008 2:30 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Re: Decisions AUwA (Mature) 4/29/2008
Maria went back into the old bunkhouse, still somewhat pissed at Michael for his implied criticism of Liz's actions. OK, so maybe getting it on with Max when he'd been almost unconscious WASN'T the smartest move, but if Max hadn't been such a cold-hearted ASS when Liz had asked for just a little bit more of a relationship, Liz wouldn't have had a long lonely depressing summer...wouldn't have gone to that stupid party...wouldn't have gotten drunk...and what happened never would have happened. And she damn sure wouldn't be here now,...pregnant...unhappy....with the whole town talking about her. '..but yet...he has to care,' thought Maria as she looked up at Liz. 'I mean....he apparently beat the crap out of Bubba Brigham for hurting Liz. If he really didn't care, wouldn't he have just walked away?' She had to get these two talking...and the sooner the better.
"What did Michael want?"
"Oh, just trying to pick a fight with me I think. He did give me some interesting news, though. It was Pam Troy that spilled the beans, and it was Brigham, Rodehammer, and Macgreuder that did the water tank."
"Figures...."
"Liz....we've been friends for a long time. I think you are making a mistake by not talking to Max about this."
"We've had this discussion, Maria. This is MY problem...not his. I made the mistake...he was just an innocent bystander..."
"Well, THAT creates an interesting word-picture. Are you trying to tell me he was standing?"
"You KNOW what I mean, Maria. He wasn't responsible for what happened, it was MY mistake...and I don't want him to do his usual...try to take responsibility for whatever happens...even when it's not his fault. I don't want Max screwing up his life over this, and that's what I'm afraid he will do if he gets involved in this."
"Well, you are a little late for that, Liz.....at least according to Michael."
"What do you mean?"
"Max is in jail....Kyle too. Apparently Max beat the shi...the snot out of Bubba. Kyle whipped up on Rodehammer, and as for Macgreuder....you know, I have seriously misjudged Isabel Evans all these years...first this morning with the jeep...then afterwards with MacGreuder and Pam Troy...."
But Liz's attention had stopped as soon as she'd heard that Max was in jail. The tears started to fall almost at once. "That's JUST what I didn't want to happen...," said Liz, starting to sob. "This wasn't his fault...he shouldn't have to pay for my mistake..."
Maria shook her head, her own tears starting to come down. But she knew she couldn't leave it like this. Somehow she needed to convince Liz, and it wouldn't be easy. But that's what best friends were for....
"Look, Liz....it's not like you can keep him from knowing now anyway. I really think you ought to talk to him...I mean, it's going to be his kid too..."
"No, Ria....I'm not going to do that to him....I'm not...."
Maria pulled her friend to her and held her as she sobbed, the tears wetting her own right shoulder. She really didn't trust Max to do the right thing...but it probably couldn't get any worse for Liz. When she quieted down, she'd bring the topic up again. Perhaps Liz was her academic superior, but no one could out-stubborn Maria DeLuca....
'I knew this was a crap detail,' thought Detective Alfredo Guerro when he opened the previous year's high school yearbook and found the picture of Elizabeth Parker, '...but until this second I had no idea just HOW MUCH of a crap detail it was.'
New Mexico State Police Officer Guerro didn't really blame Sheriff Valenti for this mess getting dumped in his lap...he understood the politics of the situation. Too much of a conflict of interest situation investigating allegations of assault against your own son. But understanding the necessity of him being involved still didn't mean he had to like it.
He winced as he looked at the pretty young lady with the brown eyes looking up at him from the yearbook He'd seen her before. Although this wasn't his regular district, he hit Roswell fairly frequently. At 40,000 souls it may have been considered a tiny town in many states, but in sparsely settled New Mexico, it was the fourth largest. The downtown convention center hosted a lot more than the annual roundup of flying saucer nuts and conspiracy theorists. There were at least four meetings a year that involved forensics and new police tactics hosted at the convention center, and the New Mexico Military Institute across town hosted both the police olympics and the annual police versus firefighter charity football game.
At least four times in the past year that young girl had served him breakfast at the Crashdown Cafe, each time with a cheerful smile. She seemed nice and...even if she had made a mistake six weeks ago with the DUI...and apparently another one the same night... she certainly didn't deserve to have her name and condition plastered over something that could be read by half the town.
But it was even more than that which was pissing off Detective Guerro. It was the whole damn thing. First of all, the high school administration and their unwillingness to even make an attempt to determine who was right and who was wrong.....no, worse than that, an unwillingness to even ADMIT that there was a right or a wrong. Eight kids had been suspended and at least one of them had done nothing but defend a girl who was being attacked...although from what the surgeon said, the attractive young lady had certainly been able to handle the would-be attacker once her would-be rescuer himself had come under attack. Not only was the kid having to be medicated for the damage to his nether regions, but he had eight deep scratches most of the length of his back that made it almost impossible for him to lay comfortably...even on moderate dosages of narcotics.
The school had put up video cameras in every room except the restrooms and the locker rooms, and the tapes made an exact assessment of just what had happened pretty easy. But there was, as any police officer knew, a big difference between 'the law' and justice. If Alfredo had ruled the world, he'd have charged the Valenti kid and the two Evans kids with nothing, and given the Whitman kid a well done...probably the Evans girl as well. The three big ex-footballers had been caught red handed....literally...with residue from the morning paint job and the actual can of paint and some brushes had also been found, as well as the bolt cutters they'd used on the padlock to the gate in the trunk of Bubba Brigham's car. The testimony from those in the commons made it likely that the Troy girl and the other three were going to face a conspiracy charge over the medical information that they had illegally made public at a minimum. The Troy girl and the Macgreuder kid...who'd actually assaulted the Evans girl, would be answering for that as well. The Troy girl herself...the one who illegally procured the information, would likely face an additional charge.
In a 'just' world, the last four would have faced their charges, he'd have told the three guys...who were at least 60 pounds heavier than the guys they'd fought that they had it coming for being such total and absolute pricks, and everyone else would have gone back to school. With the districts 'no tolerance to violence' policy, nobody would be going back to school for another three days...guilty or innocent. The Vice-Principal had explained it to Alfredo that this was the high school equivalent of a 'timeout' for the 'crime' of resorting to violence. detective Guerro was a former Marine, a cop who'd worn a gun to enforce the law for 12 years, and the father of two little girls of his own, and he wondered just what kind of message this 'value-free non-violence policy' as the vice-principal had described it, sent to the students of West Roswell High. In the REAL world, he doubted seriously if the culpable people were going to get any more punishment than the non-culpable. Well, the detective decided, he couldn't do anything about West Roswell High admin policy or the Chaves county board of education....he remembered the Mark Twain quote wryly, 'First God made idiots...that was for practice...then he made school boards..,'
As he looked down at the young lady's face smiling up at him, Arturo Guerro winced, knowing what some shyster lawyer hired by the four guilty parties would likely try to do. Perhaps he could at least stop that. He took out his cellphone and dialed the local Assistant State DA. The Chaves county DA wasn't going to be handling the case because of possible perception of conflict of interest.
The phone was answered on the second ring.
"State Attorney's Office, Benjamin Littlebear speaking...."
"Bennie....you old goat-roper...how you doing?"
"Al...is that you? How are you doing. Haven't heard from you in four months. How're Angela and the girls....?"
"Just fine, Ben. Uh, I understand you are doing the prosecuting on this case with the Sheriff's kid I'm investigating....Got a minute?"
"Sure...what can you tell me about it."
"You want it in legal talk, the alleged this and the alleged that, or just he way two junior rodeo guys would have discussed it over the campfire at the Lubbock Stampede?"
"Just give it to me straight...I'll read over your report when you get it finished, but at least we can start a little planning."
"Well, some junior grade bitch peeked at someone else's medical records...found out she was pregnant. Three assholes who had a grudge against her for getting them kicked off the football team broke in to a municipal water tank area, painted that the girl was pregnant in big red letters for half the town to see, then two of them were laughing about it in the presence of the sheriff's son and...well, I guess you could say another male friend of the young lady. The male friend took on two of the guys....either one of them outweighing him by 50 pounds or so, but he clearly threw the first punch. He kept punching too, was beating the hell out of this big kid...an all-state on defense footballer last year, and the Valenti kid took on the second guy when he tried to double up against the first kid. No doubt the two friends of the girl through the first punches, no doubt they were provoked by what the guys did to the girl...who left the high school in tears when she saw the water tank."
"How badly were the guys hurt?"
"Oh, those two guys? Nothing that won't heal. A few cracked ribs and some bruising maybe. The Valenti kid and another passing footballer pulled the Evans kid off Brigham before he did too much damage. Good thing, too. These Evans kids don't look like fighters, but they sure are. The boy was pounding the biggest guy but that's nothing compared to what his sister did to the other guy...he'll be in the hospital a couple of days."
"What happened there?"
"Well, the little bitch that spilled the story about the girl being pregnant was bragging about it in the commons area and the Evans girl took exception to what she said. The girl was a little smarter than her brother...provoked the other girl into making the assault, then was tearing her a new one when the third guy...another ex-football player and sign painter...came and pulled her off...copping a feel in the process. Another kid...kinda lanky guy that I think the big guy could have busted like a dry popsicle stick took exception to that...the big guy was starting to pulverize him when the girl lays into his back with her fingernails...probably took off a half-pound of skin, and kicks him in the balls when he turns around. He's in surgery now, but they don't think he's going to lose anything....kid'll likely be a soprano for a month or two though.
You know, Bennie...when you and I were kids...hell, the only ones that would have caught hell would have been the painters and their skanky girlfriend. These Evans kids have never been in any sort of trouble...the Valenti kid has one minor in possession charge on his rap sheet...went through alky awareness training for that...the boy who was trying to help the Evans girl is a musician and computer geek...never been in a fight in his life....."
"Yeah, Al...I see where you are going. Hell, back on the reservation, the painters and the girl who gave them the medical info would have been shunned...probably forever...and the others would have had a lot of help driving the real perps out of the community, but today...well, you and I are sworn to uphold the laws of the State of New Mexico..."
"I'm not saying we shouldn't, but the Valenti, Evans kids, and the Whitman kid are all sixteen...if we could keep their stuff in the juvenile system....?"
Officer Guerro could hear his old friend chuckle. "Maybe I can do one better than that, Al. We're kind of overworked at the state court level and there's a backlog, but we are under some political pressure to get this one case tied up quick. We have one old retired judge that we can activate for special cases like this....ever hear of Judge Roberts?"
"Only vaguely. He must have been before my time."
"Well, mine too, but I've seen him work a case or two...kind of put me to mind of Paul Newman playing Judge Roy Bean. Let me kick it up to the AG and see if we can't get him on the case. I think it might work out real well..."
"What did Michael want?"
"Oh, just trying to pick a fight with me I think. He did give me some interesting news, though. It was Pam Troy that spilled the beans, and it was Brigham, Rodehammer, and Macgreuder that did the water tank."
"Figures...."
"Liz....we've been friends for a long time. I think you are making a mistake by not talking to Max about this."
"We've had this discussion, Maria. This is MY problem...not his. I made the mistake...he was just an innocent bystander..."
"Well, THAT creates an interesting word-picture. Are you trying to tell me he was standing?"
"You KNOW what I mean, Maria. He wasn't responsible for what happened, it was MY mistake...and I don't want him to do his usual...try to take responsibility for whatever happens...even when it's not his fault. I don't want Max screwing up his life over this, and that's what I'm afraid he will do if he gets involved in this."
"Well, you are a little late for that, Liz.....at least according to Michael."
"What do you mean?"
"Max is in jail....Kyle too. Apparently Max beat the shi...the snot out of Bubba. Kyle whipped up on Rodehammer, and as for Macgreuder....you know, I have seriously misjudged Isabel Evans all these years...first this morning with the jeep...then afterwards with MacGreuder and Pam Troy...."
But Liz's attention had stopped as soon as she'd heard that Max was in jail. The tears started to fall almost at once. "That's JUST what I didn't want to happen...," said Liz, starting to sob. "This wasn't his fault...he shouldn't have to pay for my mistake..."
Maria shook her head, her own tears starting to come down. But she knew she couldn't leave it like this. Somehow she needed to convince Liz, and it wouldn't be easy. But that's what best friends were for....
"Look, Liz....it's not like you can keep him from knowing now anyway. I really think you ought to talk to him...I mean, it's going to be his kid too..."
"No, Ria....I'm not going to do that to him....I'm not...."
Maria pulled her friend to her and held her as she sobbed, the tears wetting her own right shoulder. She really didn't trust Max to do the right thing...but it probably couldn't get any worse for Liz. When she quieted down, she'd bring the topic up again. Perhaps Liz was her academic superior, but no one could out-stubborn Maria DeLuca....
'I knew this was a crap detail,' thought Detective Alfredo Guerro when he opened the previous year's high school yearbook and found the picture of Elizabeth Parker, '...but until this second I had no idea just HOW MUCH of a crap detail it was.'
New Mexico State Police Officer Guerro didn't really blame Sheriff Valenti for this mess getting dumped in his lap...he understood the politics of the situation. Too much of a conflict of interest situation investigating allegations of assault against your own son. But understanding the necessity of him being involved still didn't mean he had to like it.
He winced as he looked at the pretty young lady with the brown eyes looking up at him from the yearbook He'd seen her before. Although this wasn't his regular district, he hit Roswell fairly frequently. At 40,000 souls it may have been considered a tiny town in many states, but in sparsely settled New Mexico, it was the fourth largest. The downtown convention center hosted a lot more than the annual roundup of flying saucer nuts and conspiracy theorists. There were at least four meetings a year that involved forensics and new police tactics hosted at the convention center, and the New Mexico Military Institute across town hosted both the police olympics and the annual police versus firefighter charity football game.
At least four times in the past year that young girl had served him breakfast at the Crashdown Cafe, each time with a cheerful smile. She seemed nice and...even if she had made a mistake six weeks ago with the DUI...and apparently another one the same night... she certainly didn't deserve to have her name and condition plastered over something that could be read by half the town.
But it was even more than that which was pissing off Detective Guerro. It was the whole damn thing. First of all, the high school administration and their unwillingness to even make an attempt to determine who was right and who was wrong.....no, worse than that, an unwillingness to even ADMIT that there was a right or a wrong. Eight kids had been suspended and at least one of them had done nothing but defend a girl who was being attacked...although from what the surgeon said, the attractive young lady had certainly been able to handle the would-be attacker once her would-be rescuer himself had come under attack. Not only was the kid having to be medicated for the damage to his nether regions, but he had eight deep scratches most of the length of his back that made it almost impossible for him to lay comfortably...even on moderate dosages of narcotics.
The school had put up video cameras in every room except the restrooms and the locker rooms, and the tapes made an exact assessment of just what had happened pretty easy. But there was, as any police officer knew, a big difference between 'the law' and justice. If Alfredo had ruled the world, he'd have charged the Valenti kid and the two Evans kids with nothing, and given the Whitman kid a well done...probably the Evans girl as well. The three big ex-footballers had been caught red handed....literally...with residue from the morning paint job and the actual can of paint and some brushes had also been found, as well as the bolt cutters they'd used on the padlock to the gate in the trunk of Bubba Brigham's car. The testimony from those in the commons made it likely that the Troy girl and the other three were going to face a conspiracy charge over the medical information that they had illegally made public at a minimum. The Troy girl and the Macgreuder kid...who'd actually assaulted the Evans girl, would be answering for that as well. The Troy girl herself...the one who illegally procured the information, would likely face an additional charge.
In a 'just' world, the last four would have faced their charges, he'd have told the three guys...who were at least 60 pounds heavier than the guys they'd fought that they had it coming for being such total and absolute pricks, and everyone else would have gone back to school. With the districts 'no tolerance to violence' policy, nobody would be going back to school for another three days...guilty or innocent. The Vice-Principal had explained it to Alfredo that this was the high school equivalent of a 'timeout' for the 'crime' of resorting to violence. detective Guerro was a former Marine, a cop who'd worn a gun to enforce the law for 12 years, and the father of two little girls of his own, and he wondered just what kind of message this 'value-free non-violence policy' as the vice-principal had described it, sent to the students of West Roswell High. In the REAL world, he doubted seriously if the culpable people were going to get any more punishment than the non-culpable. Well, the detective decided, he couldn't do anything about West Roswell High admin policy or the Chaves county board of education....he remembered the Mark Twain quote wryly, 'First God made idiots...that was for practice...then he made school boards..,'
As he looked down at the young lady's face smiling up at him, Arturo Guerro winced, knowing what some shyster lawyer hired by the four guilty parties would likely try to do. Perhaps he could at least stop that. He took out his cellphone and dialed the local Assistant State DA. The Chaves county DA wasn't going to be handling the case because of possible perception of conflict of interest.
The phone was answered on the second ring.
"State Attorney's Office, Benjamin Littlebear speaking...."
"Bennie....you old goat-roper...how you doing?"
"Al...is that you? How are you doing. Haven't heard from you in four months. How're Angela and the girls....?"
"Just fine, Ben. Uh, I understand you are doing the prosecuting on this case with the Sheriff's kid I'm investigating....Got a minute?"
"Sure...what can you tell me about it."
"You want it in legal talk, the alleged this and the alleged that, or just he way two junior rodeo guys would have discussed it over the campfire at the Lubbock Stampede?"
"Just give it to me straight...I'll read over your report when you get it finished, but at least we can start a little planning."
"Well, some junior grade bitch peeked at someone else's medical records...found out she was pregnant. Three assholes who had a grudge against her for getting them kicked off the football team broke in to a municipal water tank area, painted that the girl was pregnant in big red letters for half the town to see, then two of them were laughing about it in the presence of the sheriff's son and...well, I guess you could say another male friend of the young lady. The male friend took on two of the guys....either one of them outweighing him by 50 pounds or so, but he clearly threw the first punch. He kept punching too, was beating the hell out of this big kid...an all-state on defense footballer last year, and the Valenti kid took on the second guy when he tried to double up against the first kid. No doubt the two friends of the girl through the first punches, no doubt they were provoked by what the guys did to the girl...who left the high school in tears when she saw the water tank."
"How badly were the guys hurt?"
"Oh, those two guys? Nothing that won't heal. A few cracked ribs and some bruising maybe. The Valenti kid and another passing footballer pulled the Evans kid off Brigham before he did too much damage. Good thing, too. These Evans kids don't look like fighters, but they sure are. The boy was pounding the biggest guy but that's nothing compared to what his sister did to the other guy...he'll be in the hospital a couple of days."
"What happened there?"
"Well, the little bitch that spilled the story about the girl being pregnant was bragging about it in the commons area and the Evans girl took exception to what she said. The girl was a little smarter than her brother...provoked the other girl into making the assault, then was tearing her a new one when the third guy...another ex-football player and sign painter...came and pulled her off...copping a feel in the process. Another kid...kinda lanky guy that I think the big guy could have busted like a dry popsicle stick took exception to that...the big guy was starting to pulverize him when the girl lays into his back with her fingernails...probably took off a half-pound of skin, and kicks him in the balls when he turns around. He's in surgery now, but they don't think he's going to lose anything....kid'll likely be a soprano for a month or two though.
You know, Bennie...when you and I were kids...hell, the only ones that would have caught hell would have been the painters and their skanky girlfriend. These Evans kids have never been in any sort of trouble...the Valenti kid has one minor in possession charge on his rap sheet...went through alky awareness training for that...the boy who was trying to help the Evans girl is a musician and computer geek...never been in a fight in his life....."
"Yeah, Al...I see where you are going. Hell, back on the reservation, the painters and the girl who gave them the medical info would have been shunned...probably forever...and the others would have had a lot of help driving the real perps out of the community, but today...well, you and I are sworn to uphold the laws of the State of New Mexico..."
"I'm not saying we shouldn't, but the Valenti, Evans kids, and the Whitman kid are all sixteen...if we could keep their stuff in the juvenile system....?"
Officer Guerro could hear his old friend chuckle. "Maybe I can do one better than that, Al. We're kind of overworked at the state court level and there's a backlog, but we are under some political pressure to get this one case tied up quick. We have one old retired judge that we can activate for special cases like this....ever hear of Judge Roberts?"
"Only vaguely. He must have been before my time."
"Well, mine too, but I've seen him work a case or two...kind of put me to mind of Paul Newman playing Judge Roy Bean. Let me kick it up to the AG and see if we can't get him on the case. I think it might work out real well..."
Last edited by greywolf on Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:41 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Re: Decisions AUwA (Mature) 5/1/2008
It was 8:30 PM by the time that Philip Evans got back to his home from the trial in Las Cruces and he’d had time to become a little philosophical as he’d driven through the desert for all those miles. The social workers and state psychologists had told them both the two kids would be nothing but trouble…in part, no doubt, to deter Diane whose history of depression and attempted suicide had concerned them from continuing in her efforts to foster them and adopt them, but there was really more to it than that…they had truly believed that whatever neglect the children had suffered…whatever trauma had erased their memories of any life they’d lived prior to walking along that road in the darkness, it certainly would have warped them somehow. You didn’t, they’d explained laboriously, get such total cases of repressed memories, from a normal upbringing. So he and Diane had accepted the fact that the kids would be a lot of trouble before they’d even entered in to this. And they’d been wrong. Both children had blended in to the background, Isabel quickly finding a niche in their family..Max remaining more distant…not even really smiling until the afternoon he came home from third grade.
Both children were more distant with people…even their own parents, than he and Diane would have preferred..but neither had given them trouble of any kind. They seemed to almost be making a constant effort to blend in to the background of small town life…until this morning.
As a lawyer, Phil tended to think of things in legal terms, but as a father things were a little different. He was actually sort of proud of Isabel. Oh, she should have known better than to loan the jeep to a sixteen year old girl who wasn’t covered on their auto insurance…the potential liability exposure was tremendous…but even so. He’d worried as much as Diane about Isabel’s coldness…heard other kids describe her as an Ice Princess. What Isabel had done was a very human thing and it warmed his heart to think of her doing that…not hesitating even briefly…but just doing it becomes sometimes Isabel could be cold and calculating…barely human at all…but not today, certainly.
It was pretty clear from Diane’s description of the events that Isabel could have just walked away from the girl…that she’d stood there and exchanged unpleasantries until the girl had been provoked to start the violence. That too was most un-Isabel. Apparently there was at least some degree of fire long hidden under that ice. Philips face burned as he thought of his baby being attacked by the ex-footballer and he was grateful the young man had intervened on Isabel’s behalf…and amazed at what his daughter had done when her rescuer himself had been attacked. And it wasn’t that Philip was displeased that Isabel had showed affection for the boy involved…even if she had hospitalized the other one. It was just that…well, this was a lot to take in in one day.
Max’s actions were more of a concern. Philip and Diane had been agonizing over what to do for Max since he’d gone into a funk at the end of ninth grade, but they hadn’t even understood why he had become so depressed. Isabel’s confession to Diane that Max had long had feelings for the girl did a lot to explain that, and once Philip had found out that this was THE girl involved in that football initiation party…well, that certainly helped explain the deepening of Max’s depression since that time…even before he’d realized that the young lady he had apparently been dreaming about for years had done more than get herself drunk at that party. What the three seniors had done, painting that information on the water tank, was morally inexcusable and Philip had to grudgingly respect Max’s actions in confronting them…even as he realized the problems they would cause legally. What Philip really didn’t understand was how Max had survived that confrontation. In a small southwestern town like Roswell high school football is something that everyone lives for and talks about. His barber had a calendar with a picture of the Roswell team, and he’d seen Bubba Brigham. Exactly how his son who…to the best of his knowledge had never been in a fight in his life…had picked a fight with the huge kid and actually survived, let alone win it, Philip absolutely didn’t understand. But however it had happened, Max had been arrewsted and would likely be charged with assault.
But even so, Philip had become surprisingly philosophical on the lng drive back to Roswell. He and Diane knew other couples…good parents who tried hard, whose kids had given them no end of grief with drugs…truancy…vandalism. Over the last ten years Diane and he had experienced zero real problems with Max and Isabel, almost as if the two had done everything in their power to not draw attention to themselves. Considering it from THAT perspective, they were still pretty great kids. ’Of course,’ Philip thought, ‘…that won’t necessarily mean there won’t be hell to pay for TODAY’S activities…at least those of Max…’ Both kids with three day suspensions, Max with an arrest and facing assault charges….not to mention the potential civil actions against them.
The four of them were sitting in the living room neither Philip nor Diane knowing exactly how to start this off…this was sort of uncharted territory for them. Finally Philip took the lead, looking at Max.
“Son…I can understand how you might have felt about what those …beasts…did to that girl, but you can’t just go assaulting people.”
In fact, he still couldn’t quite believe his shy son had actually STARTED a fight…until he saw the look in Max’s eyes when he responded. His eyes were not the eyes of Diane and Philip Evans’ shy son. The eyes were full of pain…and hatred.
“They just wanted to hurt her, Dad….and she’d already been hurt enough. I’m not sorry about what I did. If they ever hurt her again…I’ll kill them. I swear that I will.”
“Max,” said Diane, “…I understand that you have feelings for the girl, but you can’t say things like that. If you were to say something like that in court…I don’t know what they’d do with you…lock you up…take you away from us..”
Max looked at his parents and …it wasn’t that he didn’t love them…but there was no way he could make them understand. Even if they had known what he and Isabel truly were…how could he have conveyed to them what Liz meant to him…or the horror he’d inflicted on her?
“I don’t care…I swear, if they hurt her they’ll pay for it.”
Isabel watched her brother and her heart was breaking. This was all her fault, and she knew it. If she hadn’t pushed him so hard to keep away from Liz…..but she’d been so scared of the hold the young brown-eyed beauty had over her brother…she’d known that sooner or later Max would have told… Would that have really been so bad? she asked herself. Once she would have thought so, without any doubt. But would that risk have been as bad as seeing Max go through what he was going through now?
“Max, Mom and Dad are right. You can’t do stuff that will get you put in jail.”
“Son, I’m sorry that this has hurt you so much,” said Philip. “I’m sorry that this young lady apparently made the decisions she has that have gotten her in this situation, but…”
Whatever words Philip Evans had been about to say died in his mouth as his son looked at him with eyes full of pain..and even hatred.
“She didn’t make decisions that got her in this situation, Dad…she tried to help a friend…and she did help him…she saved Kyle’s life by being there for him. Yeah, maybe she shouldn’t have been drinking, but that’s not what got her in this situation. She was trying to help a friend and she trusted someone who she thought was a human being….and he turned out to be a monster. Don’t you DARE blams Liz for what happened to her…”
Max looked at his father and shuddered….as if he really didn’t trust himself to have his anger under control. Then he turned and walked to his room, ignoring the pleas of his parents to come back and discuss this further. Within moments, Counting Crows was blaring from the hall leading to Max’s room.
She brings her friends so we wont have to be alone
Fear I might lose my composure without warning
I am a child of fire I am a lion I have desires
And I was born inside the sun this morning
This dizzy life of mine keeps hanging me up all the time
This dizzy life is just a hanging tree
This dizzy life of mine keeps hanging me up all the time
This dizzy life is just a hanging tree
They say good evening when they dont know what to say
They say good morning when they wish you would go home
You open windows and you wait for someone warm to come inside and then freeze to death alone
This dizzy life of mine keeps hanging me up all the time
This dizzy life is just a hanging tree
This dizzy life of mine keeps hanging me up all the time
This dizzy life is just a hanging tree
“Well,” said Diane, “…THAT did not go particularly well.”
“Isabel,” said Philip, “..talk to us about your brother…your brother and this girl. What is going on?”
“What do you want to hear? It’s my fault…all of it. She wanted them to be a couple…he wanted it too…I convinced him that it couldn’t be. ,” Isabel said, the Ice Princess melting completely into soft sobs. “I broke them up…”
“You talked Max into not dating her last Spring?” asked Diane.
The tears started falling even faster as Isabel tried to respond.”
“Last Spring…and for a long time before that…. I didn’t want to believe…didn’t want to admit to myself…just how much he needed her.”
“Isabel, you and Max are only sophomores….you are entitled to have a puppy-love or two…it doesn’t mean it’s serious.”
Isabel looked up at her mother and maybe even yesterday she would have believed it…but not today…not when she’d spent thirty minutes on a bench cuddled up to Alex….not when she’d seen what devastation Liz’s pain had done to Max. Maybe her mother was right when it came to humans, but that wasn’t the way it was with…whatever she and Max and Michael were. Somehow Max had bonded with Liz way back in third grade…just as she had now bonded with Alex. But what had happened to Liz at that party was now tearing Max apart.
“You don’t understand, Mom,” she said…wishing she’d told them the truth years ago…knowing now was definitely NOT the time to add THAT secret to their problems. “It was harder for Max…living here in Roswell. It wasn’t…home…for him…and I had almost come to believe that it never would be. Then third grade and he met Liz…and suddenly Roswell was OK. I worried about it even then…how much she meant to him. When they became lab partners in junior high…God, I should have let it happen. Should have trusted her.”
“But honey, you couldn’t have known this might happen…” said her father, and Isabel nodded sadly. Because she knew now. She’d felt the fear…the anger…the possessiveness, that had gone through her own body when Alex had been attacked defending her. The kick that fractured the testicle had been the Ice Princess…doing everything she could to rein in her emotion…and if he’d gotten back up and threatened Alex again….’Would I really have powerblasted him right there in the commons…? The horrifying truth was that she didn’t actually know.
“It doesn’t matter what I did or didn’t know then,” said Isabel. “Where Liz Parker wanted to be the night of that party was helping Max with his public service project. I made that impossible. So she wound up at a football initiation party…getting drunk…and getting raped.”
“Raped? Do you know that for a fact?” asked Philip Evans.
“Liz didn’t care for anyone at that party…Oh, Kyle’s a friend…and she probably saved his life by being there…but I’ve never seen her look twice at anyone…anyone but Max. If she is pregnant…and I could tell from the look on her face…she knows she is…she sure wouldn’t have done it voluntarily with any of those guys. Maybe it was violent…maybe she was too drunk to resist…but it was rape. Nice going, Izzy…break them up…ruin your brother’s life…ruin Liz’s life…Good going, Ice Princess…”
The family meeting didn’t progress as either the mother or the father would have anticipated. Within 20 minutes of the start, Max was barricaded in his room drowning his sorrows in Counting Crows music while they were both trying their best to support a daughter they had once believed to be an Ice Princess but who suddenly was melting in to tears before their very eyes. Of course, they weren’t the only family having troubles tonight….
Both children were more distant with people…even their own parents, than he and Diane would have preferred..but neither had given them trouble of any kind. They seemed to almost be making a constant effort to blend in to the background of small town life…until this morning.
As a lawyer, Phil tended to think of things in legal terms, but as a father things were a little different. He was actually sort of proud of Isabel. Oh, she should have known better than to loan the jeep to a sixteen year old girl who wasn’t covered on their auto insurance…the potential liability exposure was tremendous…but even so. He’d worried as much as Diane about Isabel’s coldness…heard other kids describe her as an Ice Princess. What Isabel had done was a very human thing and it warmed his heart to think of her doing that…not hesitating even briefly…but just doing it becomes sometimes Isabel could be cold and calculating…barely human at all…but not today, certainly.
It was pretty clear from Diane’s description of the events that Isabel could have just walked away from the girl…that she’d stood there and exchanged unpleasantries until the girl had been provoked to start the violence. That too was most un-Isabel. Apparently there was at least some degree of fire long hidden under that ice. Philips face burned as he thought of his baby being attacked by the ex-footballer and he was grateful the young man had intervened on Isabel’s behalf…and amazed at what his daughter had done when her rescuer himself had been attacked. And it wasn’t that Philip was displeased that Isabel had showed affection for the boy involved…even if she had hospitalized the other one. It was just that…well, this was a lot to take in in one day.
Max’s actions were more of a concern. Philip and Diane had been agonizing over what to do for Max since he’d gone into a funk at the end of ninth grade, but they hadn’t even understood why he had become so depressed. Isabel’s confession to Diane that Max had long had feelings for the girl did a lot to explain that, and once Philip had found out that this was THE girl involved in that football initiation party…well, that certainly helped explain the deepening of Max’s depression since that time…even before he’d realized that the young lady he had apparently been dreaming about for years had done more than get herself drunk at that party. What the three seniors had done, painting that information on the water tank, was morally inexcusable and Philip had to grudgingly respect Max’s actions in confronting them…even as he realized the problems they would cause legally. What Philip really didn’t understand was how Max had survived that confrontation. In a small southwestern town like Roswell high school football is something that everyone lives for and talks about. His barber had a calendar with a picture of the Roswell team, and he’d seen Bubba Brigham. Exactly how his son who…to the best of his knowledge had never been in a fight in his life…had picked a fight with the huge kid and actually survived, let alone win it, Philip absolutely didn’t understand. But however it had happened, Max had been arrewsted and would likely be charged with assault.
But even so, Philip had become surprisingly philosophical on the lng drive back to Roswell. He and Diane knew other couples…good parents who tried hard, whose kids had given them no end of grief with drugs…truancy…vandalism. Over the last ten years Diane and he had experienced zero real problems with Max and Isabel, almost as if the two had done everything in their power to not draw attention to themselves. Considering it from THAT perspective, they were still pretty great kids. ’Of course,’ Philip thought, ‘…that won’t necessarily mean there won’t be hell to pay for TODAY’S activities…at least those of Max…’ Both kids with three day suspensions, Max with an arrest and facing assault charges….not to mention the potential civil actions against them.
The four of them were sitting in the living room neither Philip nor Diane knowing exactly how to start this off…this was sort of uncharted territory for them. Finally Philip took the lead, looking at Max.
“Son…I can understand how you might have felt about what those …beasts…did to that girl, but you can’t just go assaulting people.”
In fact, he still couldn’t quite believe his shy son had actually STARTED a fight…until he saw the look in Max’s eyes when he responded. His eyes were not the eyes of Diane and Philip Evans’ shy son. The eyes were full of pain…and hatred.
“They just wanted to hurt her, Dad….and she’d already been hurt enough. I’m not sorry about what I did. If they ever hurt her again…I’ll kill them. I swear that I will.”
“Max,” said Diane, “…I understand that you have feelings for the girl, but you can’t say things like that. If you were to say something like that in court…I don’t know what they’d do with you…lock you up…take you away from us..”
Max looked at his parents and …it wasn’t that he didn’t love them…but there was no way he could make them understand. Even if they had known what he and Isabel truly were…how could he have conveyed to them what Liz meant to him…or the horror he’d inflicted on her?
“I don’t care…I swear, if they hurt her they’ll pay for it.”
Isabel watched her brother and her heart was breaking. This was all her fault, and she knew it. If she hadn’t pushed him so hard to keep away from Liz…..but she’d been so scared of the hold the young brown-eyed beauty had over her brother…she’d known that sooner or later Max would have told… Would that have really been so bad? she asked herself. Once she would have thought so, without any doubt. But would that risk have been as bad as seeing Max go through what he was going through now?
“Max, Mom and Dad are right. You can’t do stuff that will get you put in jail.”
“Son, I’m sorry that this has hurt you so much,” said Philip. “I’m sorry that this young lady apparently made the decisions she has that have gotten her in this situation, but…”
Whatever words Philip Evans had been about to say died in his mouth as his son looked at him with eyes full of pain..and even hatred.
“She didn’t make decisions that got her in this situation, Dad…she tried to help a friend…and she did help him…she saved Kyle’s life by being there for him. Yeah, maybe she shouldn’t have been drinking, but that’s not what got her in this situation. She was trying to help a friend and she trusted someone who she thought was a human being….and he turned out to be a monster. Don’t you DARE blams Liz for what happened to her…”
Max looked at his father and shuddered….as if he really didn’t trust himself to have his anger under control. Then he turned and walked to his room, ignoring the pleas of his parents to come back and discuss this further. Within moments, Counting Crows was blaring from the hall leading to Max’s room.
She brings her friends so we wont have to be alone
Fear I might lose my composure without warning
I am a child of fire I am a lion I have desires
And I was born inside the sun this morning
This dizzy life of mine keeps hanging me up all the time
This dizzy life is just a hanging tree
This dizzy life of mine keeps hanging me up all the time
This dizzy life is just a hanging tree
They say good evening when they dont know what to say
They say good morning when they wish you would go home
You open windows and you wait for someone warm to come inside and then freeze to death alone
This dizzy life of mine keeps hanging me up all the time
This dizzy life is just a hanging tree
This dizzy life of mine keeps hanging me up all the time
This dizzy life is just a hanging tree
“Well,” said Diane, “…THAT did not go particularly well.”
“Isabel,” said Philip, “..talk to us about your brother…your brother and this girl. What is going on?”
“What do you want to hear? It’s my fault…all of it. She wanted them to be a couple…he wanted it too…I convinced him that it couldn’t be. ,” Isabel said, the Ice Princess melting completely into soft sobs. “I broke them up…”
“You talked Max into not dating her last Spring?” asked Diane.
The tears started falling even faster as Isabel tried to respond.”
“Last Spring…and for a long time before that…. I didn’t want to believe…didn’t want to admit to myself…just how much he needed her.”
“Isabel, you and Max are only sophomores….you are entitled to have a puppy-love or two…it doesn’t mean it’s serious.”
Isabel looked up at her mother and maybe even yesterday she would have believed it…but not today…not when she’d spent thirty minutes on a bench cuddled up to Alex….not when she’d seen what devastation Liz’s pain had done to Max. Maybe her mother was right when it came to humans, but that wasn’t the way it was with…whatever she and Max and Michael were. Somehow Max had bonded with Liz way back in third grade…just as she had now bonded with Alex. But what had happened to Liz at that party was now tearing Max apart.
“You don’t understand, Mom,” she said…wishing she’d told them the truth years ago…knowing now was definitely NOT the time to add THAT secret to their problems. “It was harder for Max…living here in Roswell. It wasn’t…home…for him…and I had almost come to believe that it never would be. Then third grade and he met Liz…and suddenly Roswell was OK. I worried about it even then…how much she meant to him. When they became lab partners in junior high…God, I should have let it happen. Should have trusted her.”
“But honey, you couldn’t have known this might happen…” said her father, and Isabel nodded sadly. Because she knew now. She’d felt the fear…the anger…the possessiveness, that had gone through her own body when Alex had been attacked defending her. The kick that fractured the testicle had been the Ice Princess…doing everything she could to rein in her emotion…and if he’d gotten back up and threatened Alex again….’Would I really have powerblasted him right there in the commons…? The horrifying truth was that she didn’t actually know.
“It doesn’t matter what I did or didn’t know then,” said Isabel. “Where Liz Parker wanted to be the night of that party was helping Max with his public service project. I made that impossible. So she wound up at a football initiation party…getting drunk…and getting raped.”
“Raped? Do you know that for a fact?” asked Philip Evans.
“Liz didn’t care for anyone at that party…Oh, Kyle’s a friend…and she probably saved his life by being there…but I’ve never seen her look twice at anyone…anyone but Max. If she is pregnant…and I could tell from the look on her face…she knows she is…she sure wouldn’t have done it voluntarily with any of those guys. Maybe it was violent…maybe she was too drunk to resist…but it was rape. Nice going, Izzy…break them up…ruin your brother’s life…ruin Liz’s life…Good going, Ice Princess…”
The family meeting didn’t progress as either the mother or the father would have anticipated. Within 20 minutes of the start, Max was barricaded in his room drowning his sorrows in Counting Crows music while they were both trying their best to support a daughter they had once believed to be an Ice Princess but who suddenly was melting in to tears before their very eyes. Of course, they weren’t the only family having troubles tonight….
Re: Decisions AUwA (Mature) 5/5/2008
It was almost 11PM by the time Jeff and Nancy Parker had closed down the Crashdown, assembled the things Maria and Liz had asked that they bring, and gotten out to the turnoff to the old homestead. Their thoughts were entirely on their beloved daughter..and what the future would hold for her. Perhaps they didn’t even see the pickup truck with the rack on the back and the long extension ladder on top of that rack . But even if they had, it’s unlikely they would have noticed the two men in the darkened cab…. As the Parker's turned off to go down the long driveway to the homestead the driver of the pickup reached for the key and started the engine. Within minutes, the truck was on its way back the way the Parker’s car had come….toward Roswell NM…and the now deserted building that had once been called the Baxter building but was now just called the Crashdown.
Jeff looked at the face of his wife as they approached the old bunkhouse. Nancy obviously felt just as badly as he did. This wasn’t the situation that either one of them would have wished on their daughter. They’d talked over the situation about the offer from the clinic. It was perhaps easier if they could think about it as a fetus…rather than a grandchild…a part of their daughter that would also be a part of them. Jeff didn’t know what decision he wanted his daughter to make, he decided somewhat guiltily. It pained him to realize how very glad he was that Lizzy was making that decision…and not her father. Whatever it was, he was going to support her though. But either option, he realized, carried the potential for an awful lot of pain for their daughter...and for the whole family.
The girls were at the door by the time the car was parked and Jeff walked the few steps to his daughter...holding her tightly. It was a father's job to shield his children from adversity, and his failure to do that hurt deeply.
The old homestead was on land above Roswell and despite its relatively flat terrain, it was almost 4000 feet above sea level and the clear night air cooled quickly. Liz and Maria had a small fire going in the bunkhouse, and all four quickly retreated to the relative comfort and warmth of the area by the fire.
“I talked to Ms. Huntington,” said Jeff. “She denied that whoever did the sign could have possibly gotten the knowledge of your pregnancy from the clinic, but she seemed kind of guilty about the whole thing too. My guess is that they think someone actually did find out from them…they either aren’t sure, or just don’t want to admit it.”
“Pamela Troy,” said Maria. “Michael Guerin was by….he said that it was Pam that told the three guys that actually painted the sign. They were all ex-footballers…apparently pissed at Liz because they got kicked off the team.”
“I wish that I had ten minutes with each of them,” said Jeff. “I don’t care how big they are or why they did it. Someone ought to teach them some manners…”
“Uh…that may have already been taken care of,” said Maria. “Max Evans and Kyle Valenti sort of pounded two of them. Isabel Evans had it out with Pam Troy and the other guy….”
“One of the guys actually attacked a girl?” asked Nancy Parker in disbelief.
“Well, Isabel apparently had a little help from Alex Whitman too, said Maria, “…not that I’m sure she needed it. I have seriously underestimated that girl…”
“Well, the problem is that nothing can undo what those guys did…," said Jeff Parker, "but let me tell you about what the people at the clinic are offering."
And at that level, Liz knew when she thought of the new life within her, she wasn't thinking about a fetus...she was thinking about a much younger version of that scared looking boy that had gotten off the bus with his sister in third grade....or perhaps a scared looking version of the boys sister. This wasn't some frog that she could pith, dissect, and discard. This was part of her...and of him...and however she had come to carry it within her, it was innocent of the mistakes and transgressions she had made that had led her to this point.
"Dad....I know you mean well...but I can't have an abortion. That's just not an option for me...not at all."
"Liz, ....I wasn't trying to push you into any course of action," said Jeff Parker, Nancy nodding her head sympathetically beside him. "We'll support your decision whatever it is. We just wanted you to know about the clinics offer."
"Thank you Daddy...Mom. I know I've made some big mistakes...that I've made the road a lot harder for the kind of life I wanted to build for myself....that I WILL build for myself," she said, her right hand going instinctively toward her abdomen, "..and my child...but I'll pay for the mistakes I've made, and get through it somehow..."
Maria smiled she saw Liz's parents crowd close and hug her...
"Of course you will, dear," said Nancy Parker, "...we'll get through it as a family, and help you anyway we can."
The pickup truck stopped at a public telephone booth a block and a half from the Crashdown. The number was unlisted...but anyone who was ever in county government had access to it, so their boss had little difficulty getting it for them. The driver...a man who in the darkness somewhat resembled a muscular Beavis...allowed the phone to ring five times and finally the answering machine took the call, the voice of Jeff Parker saying, "You have reached the Parker residence. There is no one available to take your call. Please leave a message and we'll get back to you promptly." He smiled and got back in the truck. Moments later it was in the alley behind the Crashdown.
The ladder reached easily to the fire escape platform, and it was only seconds before the beefy Butthead-appearing man was on the flat roof that a teenage girl had made into her personal deck. The window was closed...but not locked...and he was soon inside the room. There were the remains of six pipes for gas in the bedroom, behind simple covers on the brick walls that resembled the old sconces. The other two were in what was now a bathroom...one apparently behind a mirror attached to the wall, the other actually covered by the tile around the shower. While those two were unreachable, he quickly was able to remove the plugs that sealed the six in the ones behind the sconce covers on the bedroom walls. As he finished he looked at the two sandalwood aromatherapy candles that Maria had given Liz...explaining to her that sandalwood oil was good for stress.
'This is going to be even easier than I thought...
Downstairs the other man wwas already busy. He'd located the right pipe...dripped penetrating oil into the long-corroded valve. In the next day that would work deep into the valve and then he could come back...cut through the padlock and throw the valve...that too would be easy.
Within a few minutes, both men were back in the truck, the ladder back on top, and they were on their way out of town. Six miles out they passed a car in the darkness...Jeff and Nancy Parker returning home. None of the occupants in either vehicle even noticed the other...they were just another anonymous vehicle on the road.
Jeff looked at the face of his wife as they approached the old bunkhouse. Nancy obviously felt just as badly as he did. This wasn’t the situation that either one of them would have wished on their daughter. They’d talked over the situation about the offer from the clinic. It was perhaps easier if they could think about it as a fetus…rather than a grandchild…a part of their daughter that would also be a part of them. Jeff didn’t know what decision he wanted his daughter to make, he decided somewhat guiltily. It pained him to realize how very glad he was that Lizzy was making that decision…and not her father. Whatever it was, he was going to support her though. But either option, he realized, carried the potential for an awful lot of pain for their daughter...and for the whole family.
The girls were at the door by the time the car was parked and Jeff walked the few steps to his daughter...holding her tightly. It was a father's job to shield his children from adversity, and his failure to do that hurt deeply.
The old homestead was on land above Roswell and despite its relatively flat terrain, it was almost 4000 feet above sea level and the clear night air cooled quickly. Liz and Maria had a small fire going in the bunkhouse, and all four quickly retreated to the relative comfort and warmth of the area by the fire.
“I talked to Ms. Huntington,” said Jeff. “She denied that whoever did the sign could have possibly gotten the knowledge of your pregnancy from the clinic, but she seemed kind of guilty about the whole thing too. My guess is that they think someone actually did find out from them…they either aren’t sure, or just don’t want to admit it.”
“Pamela Troy,” said Maria. “Michael Guerin was by….he said that it was Pam that told the three guys that actually painted the sign. They were all ex-footballers…apparently pissed at Liz because they got kicked off the team.”
“I wish that I had ten minutes with each of them,” said Jeff. “I don’t care how big they are or why they did it. Someone ought to teach them some manners…”
“Uh…that may have already been taken care of,” said Maria. “Max Evans and Kyle Valenti sort of pounded two of them. Isabel Evans had it out with Pam Troy and the other guy….”
“One of the guys actually attacked a girl?” asked Nancy Parker in disbelief.
“Well, Isabel apparently had a little help from Alex Whitman too, said Maria, “…not that I’m sure she needed it. I have seriously underestimated that girl…”
“Well, the problem is that nothing can undo what those guys did…," said Jeff Parker, "but let me tell you about what the people at the clinic are offering."
- Maria listened in silence as Jeff Parker told Liz about going to the clinic….about the clinic’s offer to ‘make this all go away,’ and have an unpregnant Liz Parker back in school before the end of the week, capable of denying that anything ever happened. Liz’s dad wasn’t urging her to take that course…just letting her know that she had that option..and that her parents would support her regardless. But Maria could have told him to just save his breath.
It wasn’t that ‘Mr. and Mrs P’ didn’t love and understand Liz…they certainly did. It was just that there were some parts of a girl’s life that she would share with a best friend that she definitely would NOT share with her parents, however much she loved them…and when it came to her feelings about Max Evans…well, that was one such part.
What Liz had done while she was drunk had caused a real mess because she had been too incapacitated to take proper precautions…but it wasn’t necessarily something she wouldn’t have done stone cold sober…albeit with protection.
Liz had loved Max Evans since….well, Maria wasn’t too sure how long that went back…a long time anyway, but since the two of them had hit puberty it was obvious that her shy erstwhile lab partner had been the guy that caused Liz’s heart to flutter. In fact, if he hadn’t been so impossibly shy, their relationship might have been cemented last year. In Maria’s opinion, all it would have taken was a few dates…any indication at all that Max was interested in taking it to the next level….OK, well, several levels up from being lab partners, obviously, but even still….
Maria didn’t know what it was about Max. He was so bright…but so damn emotionally immature in so many ways..’Not altogether unlike Michael, come to think of it…,’ but for all Liz talked about going off to Harvard and being a molecular biologist, Maria knew she’d have given it up in a minute to settle down with Max…if he would have just given a relationship with her half a chance. Liz had agonized with Maria over trying to push him into dating her….and Maria had argued that she should…and now felt more than a little guilty about how lousy THAT had turned out. But as she watched Liz with her parents….Maria realized there was no way…..no way in hell…that they were going to get Liz to give up that small part of Max that she now did have. Mr. P. might just as well save his breath. Besides...if Ice Maiden Isabel was actually starting to show signs of becoming a human being, maybe Max would too....if she could just get the two of them to talk....
And at that level, Liz knew when she thought of the new life within her, she wasn't thinking about a fetus...she was thinking about a much younger version of that scared looking boy that had gotten off the bus with his sister in third grade....or perhaps a scared looking version of the boys sister. This wasn't some frog that she could pith, dissect, and discard. This was part of her...and of him...and however she had come to carry it within her, it was innocent of the mistakes and transgressions she had made that had led her to this point.
"Dad....I know you mean well...but I can't have an abortion. That's just not an option for me...not at all."
"Liz, ....I wasn't trying to push you into any course of action," said Jeff Parker, Nancy nodding her head sympathetically beside him. "We'll support your decision whatever it is. We just wanted you to know about the clinics offer."
"Thank you Daddy...Mom. I know I've made some big mistakes...that I've made the road a lot harder for the kind of life I wanted to build for myself....that I WILL build for myself," she said, her right hand going instinctively toward her abdomen, "..and my child...but I'll pay for the mistakes I've made, and get through it somehow..."
Maria smiled she saw Liz's parents crowd close and hug her...
"Of course you will, dear," said Nancy Parker, "...we'll get through it as a family, and help you anyway we can."
The pickup truck stopped at a public telephone booth a block and a half from the Crashdown. The number was unlisted...but anyone who was ever in county government had access to it, so their boss had little difficulty getting it for them. The driver...a man who in the darkness somewhat resembled a muscular Beavis...allowed the phone to ring five times and finally the answering machine took the call, the voice of Jeff Parker saying, "You have reached the Parker residence. There is no one available to take your call. Please leave a message and we'll get back to you promptly." He smiled and got back in the truck. Moments later it was in the alley behind the Crashdown.
The ladder reached easily to the fire escape platform, and it was only seconds before the beefy Butthead-appearing man was on the flat roof that a teenage girl had made into her personal deck. The window was closed...but not locked...and he was soon inside the room. There were the remains of six pipes for gas in the bedroom, behind simple covers on the brick walls that resembled the old sconces. The other two were in what was now a bathroom...one apparently behind a mirror attached to the wall, the other actually covered by the tile around the shower. While those two were unreachable, he quickly was able to remove the plugs that sealed the six in the ones behind the sconce covers on the bedroom walls. As he finished he looked at the two sandalwood aromatherapy candles that Maria had given Liz...explaining to her that sandalwood oil was good for stress.
'This is going to be even easier than I thought...
Downstairs the other man wwas already busy. He'd located the right pipe...dripped penetrating oil into the long-corroded valve. In the next day that would work deep into the valve and then he could come back...cut through the padlock and throw the valve...that too would be easy.
Within a few minutes, both men were back in the truck, the ladder back on top, and they were on their way out of town. Six miles out they passed a car in the darkness...Jeff and Nancy Parker returning home. None of the occupants in either vehicle even noticed the other...they were just another anonymous vehicle on the road.
Re: Decisions AUwA (Mature) 5/8/2008
It would be a night of dreams...dreams....longing...and nightmare.
It was not surprising that Liz Parker was the first to fall asleep...the emotional wrenching and strain if the day, coupled with the metabolic demands of the pregnancy sent her into her dream orb before midnight.
It was back to the night of her arrest...except this time her parents had bailed her out. There had been a family talk...for over an hour about what she had done...and what might have happened at the party. She had been unable to tell them what had actually happened...what she had done with....no...what she had done to Max.
But finally she'd been alone in her room..the sandalwood candles burning, but not providing any stress relief she could detect...alone in her bed with her regrets and her guilt...and there'd come a tap on her window.
She looked out and saw him...unsure what she could say to explain how she'd taken advantage of him. Her hands worked clumsily to open the window and she stepped out on to the roof....her heart breaking.
"I'm sorry Max. I had no right...I mean you'd made your position clear that you didn't want that kind of a relationship...just a friendship...and I should have been willing to honor youwish. I know I was drunk, but that was no excuse..."
His hand came to her lips..stilling her guilt driven speech...and he shook his head slowly...tears in his eyes and a smile on his face...
"Do you think you wanted that any more than I did Liz? I'm shy....I don't trust people. Of all people...I should have trusted you. I shouldn't have needed you to do that to make me realize just how much I did trust you."
"OH Max..." she said, pulling him close to her...only to see him back slowly toward the fire escape..smiling ...
"Oh no, you don't. I obviously can't control myself all that well around you. I think I need to be a little bit better prepared before I go cuddling up to you when you're only wearing a nightgown."
"I obviously didn't do that well either....Omigawd, Max...I'm right in the middle of my fertile period. If I got pregnant..."
He looked up at her with loving eyes. "If WE got pregnant, Liz....it'll all work out. As long as we have each other...I always wanted you to have my child...not THIS quickly perhaps...but if it's happened we'll deal with it...together."
She looked at him with loving eyes and felt his tender embrace.
In the Evans home it was three AM.
In Max's room, he was plugged in to his earbuds...the music of Counting Crows projected in against his eardrums...lashing them savagely to keep sleep away and the nightmares it would give him. For the interim, it was working.
She'd tried four times already to dreamwalk Max. 'He can't be sleeping at all any more,' she thought glumly. It had been bad enough when they'd just been apart. Since the party six weeks ago, Isabel had scarcely twice been able to get through to him and even when he slept, he seemed too exhausted to dream at all. That worried her. She'd read up about dreams...people needed them...they became psychotic if they were denied the ability to dream. She'd been worrying about her brother for months. But she wasn't going to get through to him...at least not right now. She set the alarm clock for an hour later, and picked up the junior high school yearbook. It opened almost automatically to the picture of Alex Whitman...she'd certainly used it enough. But tonight..tonight would turn out to be different.
As she entered his dream orb she saw that they were on a tropical beach...dancing in a cabana under the moonlight...just the two of them... Alex loved to dance...and they'd shared hundreds of dances in his dream orb. She allowed her mind to merge into his thoughts of her...and quickly she was again in his arms.
It was a slow dance...and she found herself pressing tightly against him. Tonight was different, she realized...different than ever before. For touching him had been her fantasy...and she his...but today they had touched...and somehow that had changed everything. His eyes looked into hers more deeply...the fantasy seeming somehow more lifelike than ever before. When the music finished she took his hand and led him out into the darkness...walking along the beach in the moonlight...looking out on moonlight reflecting off the waves.
"Let's go for a swim...." she said, kicking off her shoes. He watched her as the dress fell away...Isabel running in to the warm ocean in her bra and panties....then quickly stripped to his boxers and followed her. It was fifteen minutes before they were back at the beach fire...her underwear almost opaque, even in the moonlight. She shivered as the trade winds picked up and she faced the fire...Alex behind her, and felt the warmth of his chest against her back...the softness of his hands as they encircled her waist.
Isabel pressed back against him.... bringing her hands to where his were...against her waist. She intertwined her fingers and felt the warmth of his hands as she held them against her skin.
Alex found his hands sliding...propelled by hers...the left going to the water-soaked bra...cupping her left breast gently...the right descending to the front of her panties...her fingers working under them as she slid his hand lower...touching the top of her pubic hair....
Isabel gulped softly as she brought his hand to her breast...and a low moan formed in her abdomen as she felt his other hand reach the top of her pubic mound....but as the hand stopped...so did the moan.
"Isabel..I'm sorry," he said as he pulled his hands away from her.
"It's only a dream, Alex..." she said. Her voice was husky in her own ears.
"I know, Izzy, and before today...before I really touched you...maybe it would have been different. But...I think you do care for me Izzy...really care...and I care enough to wait..to let that realy grow...and if I really care, I have to care how I treat you in a dream too...even if I know you're not really here. Besides....we aren't ready. I couldn't put you through...well...what Liz is going through, Izzy."
Her smile hid any disappointment. He too was worth waiting for. Today was the first day they'd ever even touched....her fault, she knew. But maybe it didn't have to be that way.
"OK, Alex...on one condition. When you wake up...you give me a call. I think it's time we had our first date...just for lunch, and it sounds like neither of us will be going to school for awhile...we might as well make use of the time."
"A deal..." he said. "Now if you weren't so wet...we could still dance."
"Your wish is my command, My Lord." she said with a curtsey, and suddenly she was back in dry clothes.
"How'd you do that?" he asked.
"In a dream, you can do anything," she said. 'I wonder though, if I can really make my dreams come true?'
Twenty-five feet down the hall, even highly amplified Counting Crows could not forestall sleep indefinitely. He was averaging less than two hours sleep a night...not nearly enough for reasonable mental health. But worse even then that, he was getting very little REM sleep...the dream-sleep that lets us process our emotions....the sleep most required for mental health. And what little REM sleep he WAS getting....well, it wasn't very restful.
Liz was beautiful as she lay back against the bedspread, her gravid abdomen peeking out from below the baby-doll pajama top. She was asleep...resting. It was tiring when someone was sharing your food...drawing from your body to fulfill its own needs for development....when you were transporting it...bearing its weight. Finally asleep on the bed, she looked like an angel in repose.
But then her eyes jerked open and she cried out in pain...screaming in hooror as her abdomen stretched as what was inside her scratched and clawed its way to the outside in a nightmare of blood. She fell back on the bed in shock as the creature burst from her abdomen her eyes open with pain...the shock too great to even move. As the creature left, her eyes remained open...as if looking at the ceiling...but Liz wasn't seeing anything...and never would again.
Max leaped from the bed....his face a mask of horror...his hands shaking....struggling to get his hyperventilation under control. It was only a dream....again...at least so far.
'You have to do something, Max....talk to her. Get her to get rid of it, or if she won't...' He watched his hand glow. If he had to he could send the power into her abdomen...find it and kill it.....manipulate its molecules into something that was no longer alive. She'd know if he did it, of course...know what he was. Perhaps he could just convince her to have an abortion...before it got big enough that anyone could tell. But he had to do something...before it was big enough to hurt her. He couldn't let it kill Liz.....he'd hurt her enough already.
It was not surprising that Liz Parker was the first to fall asleep...the emotional wrenching and strain if the day, coupled with the metabolic demands of the pregnancy sent her into her dream orb before midnight.
It was back to the night of her arrest...except this time her parents had bailed her out. There had been a family talk...for over an hour about what she had done...and what might have happened at the party. She had been unable to tell them what had actually happened...what she had done with....no...what she had done to Max.
But finally she'd been alone in her room..the sandalwood candles burning, but not providing any stress relief she could detect...alone in her bed with her regrets and her guilt...and there'd come a tap on her window.
She looked out and saw him...unsure what she could say to explain how she'd taken advantage of him. Her hands worked clumsily to open the window and she stepped out on to the roof....her heart breaking.
"I'm sorry Max. I had no right...I mean you'd made your position clear that you didn't want that kind of a relationship...just a friendship...and I should have been willing to honor youwish. I know I was drunk, but that was no excuse..."
His hand came to her lips..stilling her guilt driven speech...and he shook his head slowly...tears in his eyes and a smile on his face...
"Do you think you wanted that any more than I did Liz? I'm shy....I don't trust people. Of all people...I should have trusted you. I shouldn't have needed you to do that to make me realize just how much I did trust you."
"OH Max..." she said, pulling him close to her...only to see him back slowly toward the fire escape..smiling ...
"Oh no, you don't. I obviously can't control myself all that well around you. I think I need to be a little bit better prepared before I go cuddling up to you when you're only wearing a nightgown."
"I obviously didn't do that well either....Omigawd, Max...I'm right in the middle of my fertile period. If I got pregnant..."
He looked up at her with loving eyes. "If WE got pregnant, Liz....it'll all work out. As long as we have each other...I always wanted you to have my child...not THIS quickly perhaps...but if it's happened we'll deal with it...together."
She looked at him with loving eyes and felt his tender embrace.
In the Evans home it was three AM.
In Max's room, he was plugged in to his earbuds...the music of Counting Crows projected in against his eardrums...lashing them savagely to keep sleep away and the nightmares it would give him. For the interim, it was working.
She'd tried four times already to dreamwalk Max. 'He can't be sleeping at all any more,' she thought glumly. It had been bad enough when they'd just been apart. Since the party six weeks ago, Isabel had scarcely twice been able to get through to him and even when he slept, he seemed too exhausted to dream at all. That worried her. She'd read up about dreams...people needed them...they became psychotic if they were denied the ability to dream. She'd been worrying about her brother for months. But she wasn't going to get through to him...at least not right now. She set the alarm clock for an hour later, and picked up the junior high school yearbook. It opened almost automatically to the picture of Alex Whitman...she'd certainly used it enough. But tonight..tonight would turn out to be different.
As she entered his dream orb she saw that they were on a tropical beach...dancing in a cabana under the moonlight...just the two of them... Alex loved to dance...and they'd shared hundreds of dances in his dream orb. She allowed her mind to merge into his thoughts of her...and quickly she was again in his arms.
It was a slow dance...and she found herself pressing tightly against him. Tonight was different, she realized...different than ever before. For touching him had been her fantasy...and she his...but today they had touched...and somehow that had changed everything. His eyes looked into hers more deeply...the fantasy seeming somehow more lifelike than ever before. When the music finished she took his hand and led him out into the darkness...walking along the beach in the moonlight...looking out on moonlight reflecting off the waves.
"Let's go for a swim...." she said, kicking off her shoes. He watched her as the dress fell away...Isabel running in to the warm ocean in her bra and panties....then quickly stripped to his boxers and followed her. It was fifteen minutes before they were back at the beach fire...her underwear almost opaque, even in the moonlight. She shivered as the trade winds picked up and she faced the fire...Alex behind her, and felt the warmth of his chest against her back...the softness of his hands as they encircled her waist.
Isabel pressed back against him.... bringing her hands to where his were...against her waist. She intertwined her fingers and felt the warmth of his hands as she held them against her skin.
Alex found his hands sliding...propelled by hers...the left going to the water-soaked bra...cupping her left breast gently...the right descending to the front of her panties...her fingers working under them as she slid his hand lower...touching the top of her pubic hair....
Isabel gulped softly as she brought his hand to her breast...and a low moan formed in her abdomen as she felt his other hand reach the top of her pubic mound....but as the hand stopped...so did the moan.
"Isabel..I'm sorry," he said as he pulled his hands away from her.
"It's only a dream, Alex..." she said. Her voice was husky in her own ears.
"I know, Izzy, and before today...before I really touched you...maybe it would have been different. But...I think you do care for me Izzy...really care...and I care enough to wait..to let that realy grow...and if I really care, I have to care how I treat you in a dream too...even if I know you're not really here. Besides....we aren't ready. I couldn't put you through...well...what Liz is going through, Izzy."
Her smile hid any disappointment. He too was worth waiting for. Today was the first day they'd ever even touched....her fault, she knew. But maybe it didn't have to be that way.
"OK, Alex...on one condition. When you wake up...you give me a call. I think it's time we had our first date...just for lunch, and it sounds like neither of us will be going to school for awhile...we might as well make use of the time."
"A deal..." he said. "Now if you weren't so wet...we could still dance."
"Your wish is my command, My Lord." she said with a curtsey, and suddenly she was back in dry clothes.
"How'd you do that?" he asked.
"In a dream, you can do anything," she said. 'I wonder though, if I can really make my dreams come true?'
Twenty-five feet down the hall, even highly amplified Counting Crows could not forestall sleep indefinitely. He was averaging less than two hours sleep a night...not nearly enough for reasonable mental health. But worse even then that, he was getting very little REM sleep...the dream-sleep that lets us process our emotions....the sleep most required for mental health. And what little REM sleep he WAS getting....well, it wasn't very restful.
Liz was beautiful as she lay back against the bedspread, her gravid abdomen peeking out from below the baby-doll pajama top. She was asleep...resting. It was tiring when someone was sharing your food...drawing from your body to fulfill its own needs for development....when you were transporting it...bearing its weight. Finally asleep on the bed, she looked like an angel in repose.
But then her eyes jerked open and she cried out in pain...screaming in hooror as her abdomen stretched as what was inside her scratched and clawed its way to the outside in a nightmare of blood. She fell back on the bed in shock as the creature burst from her abdomen her eyes open with pain...the shock too great to even move. As the creature left, her eyes remained open...as if looking at the ceiling...but Liz wasn't seeing anything...and never would again.
Max leaped from the bed....his face a mask of horror...his hands shaking....struggling to get his hyperventilation under control. It was only a dream....again...at least so far.
'You have to do something, Max....talk to her. Get her to get rid of it, or if she won't...' He watched his hand glow. If he had to he could send the power into her abdomen...find it and kill it.....manipulate its molecules into something that was no longer alive. She'd know if he did it, of course...know what he was. Perhaps he could just convince her to have an abortion...before it got big enough that anyone could tell. But he had to do something...before it was big enough to hurt her. He couldn't let it kill Liz.....he'd hurt her enough already.
Last edited by greywolf on Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:39 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Re: Decisions AUwA (Mature) 5/11/2008
It was 7:50 AM as Max crawled back through his window. He had left the bedroom over three hours ago...tortured by dreams that would give him no rest, to explain to Liz how vital it was that she have an abortion...not permit the monster inside her to grow any larger. But he'd failed...failed and worse.
She hadn't been there when he'd gone up the fire escape to l\enter through the window into her upstairs room...the room had been completely dark. He'd entered...hoping that she'd be there...that he could talk to her...but it hadn't happened. Worse yet he'd very nearly been caught ...the patrol car turning in to the alley just as the final ladder on the firescape slid to the ground. He'd taken off running and managed to lose the sheriff's deputy in the alleys and dumpsters of the darkened central business area.
Max had had less than twenty minutes sleep tonight, that disturbed by horrifying scenes of Liz's brutal death, but he'd had little more sleep than that on any night of the last six weeks....since the night he'd attacked her. The memory of that night was like acid on his soul, haunting him. Right now he probably couldn't have slept if he'd wanted too either, but he didn't want to sleep....sleep and risk the terrible nightmares. He plugged himself back into the ear buds and turned up his CD player and Counting Crows resumed their assault on his brain.
It was 8:10 and Deputy Sheriff Mirandez had finished his report. He wasn't actually sure if the figure he'd seen on the fire escape had been up on the floor above or not. After he'd lost the suspect, he'd circled back and the owner of the Crashdown had let him look around...it hadn't appeared that anything had been bothered. But he'd file the report...perhaps something would come up later and they could relate it to this prowling. The suspect had looked to be a white male, Mid to late teens, with dark hair. Not much to go on...probably a third of the kids at West Roswell fit that profile.
She hadn't been there when he'd gone up the fire escape to l\enter through the window into her upstairs room...the room had been completely dark. He'd entered...hoping that she'd be there...that he could talk to her...but it hadn't happened. Worse yet he'd very nearly been caught ...the patrol car turning in to the alley just as the final ladder on the firescape slid to the ground. He'd taken off running and managed to lose the sheriff's deputy in the alleys and dumpsters of the darkened central business area.
Max had had less than twenty minutes sleep tonight, that disturbed by horrifying scenes of Liz's brutal death, but he'd had little more sleep than that on any night of the last six weeks....since the night he'd attacked her. The memory of that night was like acid on his soul, haunting him. Right now he probably couldn't have slept if he'd wanted too either, but he didn't want to sleep....sleep and risk the terrible nightmares. He plugged himself back into the ear buds and turned up his CD player and Counting Crows resumed their assault on his brain.
It was 8:10 and Deputy Sheriff Mirandez had finished his report. He wasn't actually sure if the figure he'd seen on the fire escape had been up on the floor above or not. After he'd lost the suspect, he'd circled back and the owner of the Crashdown had let him look around...it hadn't appeared that anything had been bothered. But he'd file the report...perhaps something would come up later and they could relate it to this prowling. The suspect had looked to be a white male, Mid to late teens, with dark hair. Not much to go on...probably a third of the kids at West Roswell fit that profile.
Last edited by greywolf on Fri Jun 06, 2008 10:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Decisions AUwA (Mature) 6/4/2008
Anything's hard to change
But hey I got you down on your knees again
You watch the sky
It's a pale parade of passing clouds
That cover the bed upon which we laid in the dark
And the memories that I made of a laughing girl
But you're just my toy and I can't stop playing with you baby
If you think you need to go
If you wanted to be free
There's just one thing you need to know
And that's that you can't count on me
It was nearing noon on Tuesday when Isabel heard the sound of the Jeep turning in to their driveway. Max was still in his room...not even showered yet, and the blaring of Counting Crows music had been going on for hours. Isabel chose to ignore it...and went out to the driveway.
Maria had dropped Liz off at home, and was now bringing the Jeep back to the Evanses. She looked up guiltily as Isabel came out the back door....surprised at how much she'd misjudged the girl. Of everyone at the school parking lot yesterday, Isabel had been the only one to actually do something helpful when Liz had freaked out after seeing the water tank, not to mention taking on Pamela Troy and Macgreuder. Maria knew she owed Isabel...big time. But more than that, Isabel was an avenue that would let her get to Max. Whatever Liz believed, Maria couldn't bring herself to believe that getting her best friend and Max to talking wouldn't somehow make it better.
"I don't think I did the clutch any irreparable harm," said Maria, holding out the keys to Isabel.
"It doesn't matter...it can always be fixed. How's Liz?"
"Kind of torn up. You know, she really never planned on letting Max know about the pregnancy. I think she feared him knowing more than everyone else. She was planning on moving to Florida...staying with her aunt. I'm not sure what she's going to do now."
The words tore at Isabel's heart. She had fouled this up so badly...with the best of intentions. The hold Liz had over Max had scared her...even back in the fourth grade...and she'd been so sure when she pushed Max to break up with her...well, not even that really, they'd never been a couple...but to put distance between the two of them. She'd been so happy when Max had announced that he had decided it could never work...that he'd have to let her go. Of course the reason for that, she thought guiltily, was because she'd worked on him tirelessly....you have to give her up, she'd told him, if you ever want her to have a normal life. But Isabel had watched her brother gradually come apart over the summer, and she was only now starting to realize that Max had needed Liz. Liz had been the only thing really that had made Earth home to Max, and without her he just started to wither away. And after Kyle took her to the party, it had gotten worse....much worse.
"I wish there was something I could do," said Isabel...knowing the words were trite and inadequate. What she really meant was that she wished she hadn't done anything...hadn't put in motion the sequence of events that had brought all of them to this place.
"Isabel...I think if Liz could talk to Max...explain to him about that night..."
"I...I'm not sure that would be a good idea, Maria," said Isabel. She worried about her brother...all summer long he'd gradually appeared to be coming apart, and after he'd heard about the party...and Liz's DUI, things had gotten immeasurably worse. Max was just barely holding it together before yesterday...yesterday when he'd found out that Liz had gotten pregnant...yesterday when Max had assaulted Brigham...yesterday when his world seemed to have come completely apart. Could Max stand hearing what had happened, Isabel wondered? She doubted that Liz had decided willingly to have sex with Kyle on their first date and she'd heard the rumors of what other girls...totally drunk on that punch...had been in the process of having happen to them when the police raided the party. Could Max stand knowing that someone had taken advantage of an intoxicated Liz who had been unable to resist...or who had just plain raped her? It seemed like his control was hanging by a thread at best....could he take anymore?
Maria looked at Isabel, not really knowing what to do. Liz had been devastated by this....the only thing that she thought would let the girl start to get her life back together is if she could be convinced that Max didn't hate her for what she'd done. On the other hand, she wasn't exactly sure what Max had told Isabel. "Look Isabel...., I understand that Max is upset about what Liz did the night of the party...this certainly isn't a situation she wished to be in either....but somehow...Isabel, Liz needs Max to not hate her...I don't think she can survive if she doesn't know that."
"Max doesn't hate Liz, Maria...I'm not sure that would even be possible. But I'm not sure that he can handle talking to her right now. Look..give me some time to think it over...talk to him...I'll see what I can do, OK?"
"OK...and, thanks Isabel," said Maria, as she got out of the Jeep and started to walk off.
"Where are you going?"
"Back home.."
"Get back in the Jeep...the least I can do is give you a ride there...not make you walk."
"Thank you."
Neither said much on the short ride to Maria's, but as Maria got out she told Isabel goodbye, and as she watched the Jeep drive away she marveled about how badly she'd misjudged the girl for all these years. There was another level to Isabel...beneath the Ice Princess persona, that she suddenly realized was the REAL Isabel Evans. She wondered what made Isabel bury it so deeply..why she went to such lengths to hide who she really was from the world.
But hey I got you down on your knees again
You watch the sky
It's a pale parade of passing clouds
That cover the bed upon which we laid in the dark
And the memories that I made of a laughing girl
But you're just my toy and I can't stop playing with you baby
If you think you need to go
If you wanted to be free
There's just one thing you need to know
And that's that you can't count on me
It was nearing noon on Tuesday when Isabel heard the sound of the Jeep turning in to their driveway. Max was still in his room...not even showered yet, and the blaring of Counting Crows music had been going on for hours. Isabel chose to ignore it...and went out to the driveway.
Maria had dropped Liz off at home, and was now bringing the Jeep back to the Evanses. She looked up guiltily as Isabel came out the back door....surprised at how much she'd misjudged the girl. Of everyone at the school parking lot yesterday, Isabel had been the only one to actually do something helpful when Liz had freaked out after seeing the water tank, not to mention taking on Pamela Troy and Macgreuder. Maria knew she owed Isabel...big time. But more than that, Isabel was an avenue that would let her get to Max. Whatever Liz believed, Maria couldn't bring herself to believe that getting her best friend and Max to talking wouldn't somehow make it better.
"I don't think I did the clutch any irreparable harm," said Maria, holding out the keys to Isabel.
"It doesn't matter...it can always be fixed. How's Liz?"
"Kind of torn up. You know, she really never planned on letting Max know about the pregnancy. I think she feared him knowing more than everyone else. She was planning on moving to Florida...staying with her aunt. I'm not sure what she's going to do now."
The words tore at Isabel's heart. She had fouled this up so badly...with the best of intentions. The hold Liz had over Max had scared her...even back in the fourth grade...and she'd been so sure when she pushed Max to break up with her...well, not even that really, they'd never been a couple...but to put distance between the two of them. She'd been so happy when Max had announced that he had decided it could never work...that he'd have to let her go. Of course the reason for that, she thought guiltily, was because she'd worked on him tirelessly....you have to give her up, she'd told him, if you ever want her to have a normal life. But Isabel had watched her brother gradually come apart over the summer, and she was only now starting to realize that Max had needed Liz. Liz had been the only thing really that had made Earth home to Max, and without her he just started to wither away. And after Kyle took her to the party, it had gotten worse....much worse.
"I wish there was something I could do," said Isabel...knowing the words were trite and inadequate. What she really meant was that she wished she hadn't done anything...hadn't put in motion the sequence of events that had brought all of them to this place.
"Isabel...I think if Liz could talk to Max...explain to him about that night..."
"I...I'm not sure that would be a good idea, Maria," said Isabel. She worried about her brother...all summer long he'd gradually appeared to be coming apart, and after he'd heard about the party...and Liz's DUI, things had gotten immeasurably worse. Max was just barely holding it together before yesterday...yesterday when he'd found out that Liz had gotten pregnant...yesterday when Max had assaulted Brigham...yesterday when his world seemed to have come completely apart. Could Max stand hearing what had happened, Isabel wondered? She doubted that Liz had decided willingly to have sex with Kyle on their first date and she'd heard the rumors of what other girls...totally drunk on that punch...had been in the process of having happen to them when the police raided the party. Could Max stand knowing that someone had taken advantage of an intoxicated Liz who had been unable to resist...or who had just plain raped her? It seemed like his control was hanging by a thread at best....could he take anymore?
Maria looked at Isabel, not really knowing what to do. Liz had been devastated by this....the only thing that she thought would let the girl start to get her life back together is if she could be convinced that Max didn't hate her for what she'd done. On the other hand, she wasn't exactly sure what Max had told Isabel. "Look Isabel...., I understand that Max is upset about what Liz did the night of the party...this certainly isn't a situation she wished to be in either....but somehow...Isabel, Liz needs Max to not hate her...I don't think she can survive if she doesn't know that."
"Max doesn't hate Liz, Maria...I'm not sure that would even be possible. But I'm not sure that he can handle talking to her right now. Look..give me some time to think it over...talk to him...I'll see what I can do, OK?"
"OK...and, thanks Isabel," said Maria, as she got out of the Jeep and started to walk off.
"Where are you going?"
"Back home.."
"Get back in the Jeep...the least I can do is give you a ride there...not make you walk."
"Thank you."
Neither said much on the short ride to Maria's, but as Maria got out she told Isabel goodbye, and as she watched the Jeep drive away she marveled about how badly she'd misjudged the girl for all these years. There was another level to Isabel...beneath the Ice Princess persona, that she suddenly realized was the REAL Isabel Evans. She wondered what made Isabel bury it so deeply..why she went to such lengths to hide who she really was from the world.
Re: Decisions AUwA (Mature) 6/7/2008
It was 3PM and she was about to see Liz Parker and her parents and it was NOT a good day for Nurse Practitioner Linda Huntington.
Pretty much the whole town had heard about the water tank painting incident and it had sent the clinic risk manager, Mr. Edwards, into a flurry of investigative activity and he had NOT liked what he found. An impromptu meeting had been held between the clinic administrator, the risk manager, the clinic senior legal counsel, and a surprised Linda Huntington two hours earlier. The decisions that were made in that meeting still upset Linda.
Given the involvement of Pamela Troy and the fact that both her and Liz Parker had been at the clinic the same day, Mr. Edwards had interviewed the lab tech on duty that day. What was more, he'd reviewed the security camera in the lobby that faced in the direction of the lab.
The security cameras were put in as a precaution. It was clear to say that the subject of abortion was not one upon which unanimity of thought existed in the US population and incidents of violence occured on both sides of the issue. For that reason, everything that occurred in the building outside of the exam rooms was constantly videotaped. Knowing the one day that Liz Parker had been to the clinic, it had proven fairly easy to pull the video from the lab and find the moment of technician's carelessness that had allowed Pam to find out the secret.
As she sat there at her desk, Linda remembered the conversation:
Pretty much the whole town had heard about the water tank painting incident and it had sent the clinic risk manager, Mr. Edwards, into a flurry of investigative activity and he had NOT liked what he found. An impromptu meeting had been held between the clinic administrator, the risk manager, the clinic senior legal counsel, and a surprised Linda Huntington two hours earlier. The decisions that were made in that meeting still upset Linda.
Given the involvement of Pamela Troy and the fact that both her and Liz Parker had been at the clinic the same day, Mr. Edwards had interviewed the lab tech on duty that day. What was more, he'd reviewed the security camera in the lobby that faced in the direction of the lab.
The security cameras were put in as a precaution. It was clear to say that the subject of abortion was not one upon which unanimity of thought existed in the US population and incidents of violence occured on both sides of the issue. For that reason, everything that occurred in the building outside of the exam rooms was constantly videotaped. Knowing the one day that Liz Parker had been to the clinic, it had proven fairly easy to pull the video from the lab and find the moment of technician's carelessness that had allowed Pam to find out the secret.
As she sat there at her desk, Linda remembered the conversation:
- "We are so screwed,....unless we somehow cover this up." said the administrator, the risk manager nodding in agreement.
"I guess I don't understand," said Linda. "The technician shouldn't have allowed that to happen but they did. They need to be counselled...disciplined if necessary, and we tell Ms. Parker and her parents we are sorry."
"No, said the lawyer....you DON'T understand. First...this was a violation of both the federal and state health care confidentiality act. As conservators of the records, we have broken the law by disclosing...or negligently permitting to be exposed...an individual healthcare record. But that's the least of our problems, that would only get us ...get Ms. Dubuque, the administrator her as records custodian, a potential fine as great as $25,000 and potential one year in jail. I'm sure if it were a first offense, it wouldn't be anything like that, and even with that incident last year, it would probably only be a few thousand dollars and some public service, but that's the smallest part of the problem. The larger problem is the civil liability. This is an attractive and popular young girl....she has been publicly humiliated by having her condition painted on a water tank visible to half the town. There have already been fistfights at the local high school...one boy hospitalized requiring surgery. If this case gets in front of a jury, the girl's lawyer can pretty much name her own damage award."
"Well...what's this got to do with me?" asked Linda. "It's not like I can do anything about this after the fact. If the lab tech screwed up, they screwed up..."
"But there is something you can do," said the administrator. "The jury pays off based upon the damages to the girl...her emotional stress. Surely you must realize there will be less stress for the girl if she aborts the fetus...then denies that she was ever pregnant. And if she does that...well, it's hardly like she will then take us to court to claim damages, will she? And if no one ever knows, that helps our other patient, Ms. Troy, who will also be both criminally liable and liable for a lawsuit of her own from the Parker's if this comes out. Surely you don't want two of your patients to have to go through this...when it can all be avoided so easily."
"But...Ms. Parker didn't seem to think she wanted to abort the baby...at least that's how it seemed on our first visit."
"But surely you see how much has changed since then," said the risk manager.
"And how bad it would be for the girl to go through such a nasty court case..." said the lawyer.
"Not to mention the cost to the clinic...." said the administrator. "We have limited resources...money that is spent defending legal actions...or paying off awards, that money won't be available to take care of patients. I can't believe, Linda, that you want some girl dying trying to abort herself with a coathanger because we don't have the funds to give her proper treatment....?"
"Well, no, but....."
"Come on Linda...do the right thing for both your patients...and for all the patients in the clinic....even for that fetus. A girl who'd get herself drunk and get pregnant is not responsible enough to have a child," said the administrator. "convince her to have the fetus aborted, then we can make all this go away. It's the right thing to do Linda, and you know it."
Re: Decisions AUwA (Mature) 6/13/2008
The office said Benjamin Littlebear, Assistant District Attorney State of New Mexico. Alfredo Guerro had just seated himself at the large table next to the desk, and was starting to put out depositions and pictures taken from the video cameras, as well as pictures taken of the hands of the three ex-football players, and the contents from the trunk of Bubba Brigham's car.
"Well, I got Thai food take-out...," said Ben. "We can make it a working lunch."
"Great...I'm Mexican...you're Native American...and we are sitting in the American Southwest having Asian food for lunch. Whatever happend to tradition."
"I got us each a cold longneck to wash it down with," said the Assistant DA, taking the top off two beers and handing one to Alfredo. Alfredo took it by the neck and clinked the bottom of the bottle against the bottom of the beer held by the DA.
"Now, you're talking....not that it's going to make me feel any better about this crap case."
"Before we go through all the details, can you just give me the punch line?" asked the DA, ladling out Pad Thai into a couple of bowls and handing one to his longtime friend.
"Yeah, first the good news. The three assholes that started this....we have them literally red handed. The idiots actually had paint on their hands...red paint...that forensics says is identical to the paint used on the water tank. Better yet, the car tracks match...and Mr. Brigham here actually still had the paint...the brushes...and the bolt cutters they used to cut the lock on the gate to gain access to the water tank in the trunk of his car. As far as breaking and entering...vandalism...we have them dead to rights. They clearly posted medical information on the tank, and unless they can establish that the girl told them ahead of time, the testimony of this Troy girl that she gave them the info implicates both them and the girl in illegal release of medical information. Of course, I need to interview the Parker girl to establish if she told anyone about this who might have told them...but it doesn't appear she did. The whole purpose of the water tank thing was to embarrass and humiliate the girl.
The other not-bad news is that the Evans girl appears to have her parents smarts when it comes to the letter of the law. It's pretty obvious she provoked this Troy floozie into making the first physical contact, so she's going to skate on the assault charge."
"How about the boy who she kicked?"
"Hey, he not only assaulted Miss Evans, but was in the process of assaulting this Alex Whitman kid when the young lady went after him.....and did she ever go after him. If that little lady decides she wants to go into law enforcement she can be my partner any day. Take a look at these pictures of his back...they damn near had to suture those scratch marks, and the less said about what she did to his cojones the better...," said Officer Guerro, wincing as he looked over the operative report from the urologist.
"But the part that really bites, Benny, is the Sheriff's kid and the Evans boy. If they had only done what the Evans girl did...taunted those idiots and gotten them to make the first contact, all this would have been so much easier. I mean, there was provocation....hell, I wanted to beat the shit out of those guys when I heard what they did to that little waitress myself, but it's assault plain and simple. The Evans kid has a clean record and the Valenti kid only had that one minor in possession seven weeks ago, but there really isn't much of any way to finesse it."
"Want to bet?" asked Benjamin Littlebear? "Since this is a high profile case...all the current judges work with both the Sheriff and Phil Evans, the State AG got permission to recall retired Judge Albert Roberts back to the bench...just for this case."
"I don't think I know him.. What's he like?"
"What's he like?....well, he isn't like anything that's been seen in a court for the last 20 years or so, but believe me, Al, ...he's perfect for this case..."
"Well, I got Thai food take-out...," said Ben. "We can make it a working lunch."
"Great...I'm Mexican...you're Native American...and we are sitting in the American Southwest having Asian food for lunch. Whatever happend to tradition."
"I got us each a cold longneck to wash it down with," said the Assistant DA, taking the top off two beers and handing one to Alfredo. Alfredo took it by the neck and clinked the bottom of the bottle against the bottom of the beer held by the DA.
"Now, you're talking....not that it's going to make me feel any better about this crap case."
"Before we go through all the details, can you just give me the punch line?" asked the DA, ladling out Pad Thai into a couple of bowls and handing one to his longtime friend.
"Yeah, first the good news. The three assholes that started this....we have them literally red handed. The idiots actually had paint on their hands...red paint...that forensics says is identical to the paint used on the water tank. Better yet, the car tracks match...and Mr. Brigham here actually still had the paint...the brushes...and the bolt cutters they used to cut the lock on the gate to gain access to the water tank in the trunk of his car. As far as breaking and entering...vandalism...we have them dead to rights. They clearly posted medical information on the tank, and unless they can establish that the girl told them ahead of time, the testimony of this Troy girl that she gave them the info implicates both them and the girl in illegal release of medical information. Of course, I need to interview the Parker girl to establish if she told anyone about this who might have told them...but it doesn't appear she did. The whole purpose of the water tank thing was to embarrass and humiliate the girl.
The other not-bad news is that the Evans girl appears to have her parents smarts when it comes to the letter of the law. It's pretty obvious she provoked this Troy floozie into making the first physical contact, so she's going to skate on the assault charge."
"How about the boy who she kicked?"
"Hey, he not only assaulted Miss Evans, but was in the process of assaulting this Alex Whitman kid when the young lady went after him.....and did she ever go after him. If that little lady decides she wants to go into law enforcement she can be my partner any day. Take a look at these pictures of his back...they damn near had to suture those scratch marks, and the less said about what she did to his cojones the better...," said Officer Guerro, wincing as he looked over the operative report from the urologist.
"But the part that really bites, Benny, is the Sheriff's kid and the Evans boy. If they had only done what the Evans girl did...taunted those idiots and gotten them to make the first contact, all this would have been so much easier. I mean, there was provocation....hell, I wanted to beat the shit out of those guys when I heard what they did to that little waitress myself, but it's assault plain and simple. The Evans kid has a clean record and the Valenti kid only had that one minor in possession seven weeks ago, but there really isn't much of any way to finesse it."
"Want to bet?" asked Benjamin Littlebear? "Since this is a high profile case...all the current judges work with both the Sheriff and Phil Evans, the State AG got permission to recall retired Judge Albert Roberts back to the bench...just for this case."
"I don't think I know him.. What's he like?"
"What's he like?....well, he isn't like anything that's been seen in a court for the last 20 years or so, but believe me, Al, ...he's perfect for this case..."
Last edited by greywolf on Tue Nov 09, 2010 12:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Decisions AUwA (Mature) 6/18/2008
"Mr. and Mrs. Parker...Liz....please be seated," said Linda Huntington, looking at the obviously nervous young lady. "I know they brought you here, Liz, but I'm still required to ask if you mind your parents being part of this discussion because of laws regarding patient privacy."
"A little late for that, don't you think?" asked Nancy somewhat caustically, evoking a wince from Linda.
'No,' thought the nurse-practitioner, '..this isn't going to be easy at all.'
"Mom...let's not talk about that right now, OK?" asked Liz. Her mother nodded but kept silent. "It's alright if they hear everything," said Liz, knowing it was too late to keep the one she really wanted not to know about this in the dark. He'd already learned about it by reading it in two-foot high red letters painted on a water tank.
Linda was in fact somewhat uncomfortable with the Parkers being present. It wasn't that she ever really would browbeat any of the young girls who came to the clinic, however most of the people in the clinic did share, to a greater or lesser extent, the administrator's opinion....if these young ladies were really responsible enough to handle adult decisionmaking, few of them would have found themselves in the clinic to begin with. Still, the rather unusual presence of not only one, but both parents, made it a little harder.
"As I told you before, Liz, we have a window of opportunity to deal with this in a fairly straightforward and easy way. After twelve weeks gestation it becomes riskier to terminate the pregnancy, and after twenty weeks, we can't do it at all in New Mexico...we'd have to ship you out of the state. Actually, if we are going to terminate this pregnancy, the sooner the better. In fact, we could do it tomorrow morning if you wanted. You could be back to school on Monday...denying that anything ever happened."
Liz considered it only briefly. What difference would it make? He'd know...he already knew. Sometimes it seemed like Max's eyes could just see into her soul. What she'd done to him was bad enough. She wasn't going to reject ...destroy ...kill ...the only part of him she'd ever have now.
"I really don't think I could kill my baby. I don't think I could live with that," Liz said, shaking her head slowly.
The words came easily to Linda Huntington. She'd used them frequently enough. She'd never really believed them, but they served their purpose. Abortion was never pretty, but it was, for some girls, the least bad option. Even so, looking at Liz being supported by the presence of her parents. It was hardly like one of her more typical patients...like the Troy girl, who would likely have no idea of the paternity of their pregnancy...at least not without DNA testing half the football team.
"It's not really a baby, Liz..It's a fetus. "
"But it's still alive," said Liz.
"It's alive Liz, but it's not really human...," said Linda Huntington, in this case perhaps more accurately than she knew. "At this stage, it's like a parasite growing in you, totally dependent on you," said Linda, suddenly uneasily aware that was no more true of Liz's pregnancy than that which had given life to any of the 6 billion people alive today.
"Even so..." started Liz.
"This is really the only option that would let things go back to normal, Liz, that would let you get your life back in order...be able to go back to just being a teenager...plan for college...your future."
Liz looked at the nurse practitioner and shook her head. She knew the woman meant well, but she didn't understand. Liz believed that she'd had something with Max Evans...something precious, and somehow she'd lost that. She'd betrayed him six weeks ago, and lost for all time whatever chance she might have had of getting that 'something' back. This was all she had left...just this part of him, and she couldn't give it up.
"That's really not an option, Ms. Huntington," said Liz. Then she turned to her mother and father, "...and running off to Florida to have it isn't a good option either. I want to stay here, where my friends and family are, if you are still willing to help me."
"Of course we will, darling," said her father.
"Absolutely," said Nancy.
"This was my mistake, Ms. Huntington," said Liz. "But I intend to see it through....to make the best life for myself and my baby that I can."
Linda Huntington looked at the young girl and couldn't help but smile, realizing she was glad that her arm twisting hadn't worked. It would have been the right thing, perhaps, for someone like Pamela Troy, but Liz Parker was made of sterner stuff, far more mature than your average high school sophomore, more mature in fact than most adult women who came to the clinic. The administrator and the clinic lawyer were just going to have to suck it up ...to do whatever was necessary to make the invasion of privacy right. She wouldn't compound it by pushing Liz into a decision she didn't want to make.
"Well Liz, all I can say is that I hope it works out, and that I'll help you any way I can," said the nurse practitioner. "For now that would seem to be a prescription for prenatal vitamins and folic acid, and a pamphlet of 'Do's and Dont's' for the expectant mother."
"A little late for that, don't you think?" asked Nancy somewhat caustically, evoking a wince from Linda.
'No,' thought the nurse-practitioner, '..this isn't going to be easy at all.'
"Mom...let's not talk about that right now, OK?" asked Liz. Her mother nodded but kept silent. "It's alright if they hear everything," said Liz, knowing it was too late to keep the one she really wanted not to know about this in the dark. He'd already learned about it by reading it in two-foot high red letters painted on a water tank.
Linda was in fact somewhat uncomfortable with the Parkers being present. It wasn't that she ever really would browbeat any of the young girls who came to the clinic, however most of the people in the clinic did share, to a greater or lesser extent, the administrator's opinion....if these young ladies were really responsible enough to handle adult decisionmaking, few of them would have found themselves in the clinic to begin with. Still, the rather unusual presence of not only one, but both parents, made it a little harder.
"As I told you before, Liz, we have a window of opportunity to deal with this in a fairly straightforward and easy way. After twelve weeks gestation it becomes riskier to terminate the pregnancy, and after twenty weeks, we can't do it at all in New Mexico...we'd have to ship you out of the state. Actually, if we are going to terminate this pregnancy, the sooner the better. In fact, we could do it tomorrow morning if you wanted. You could be back to school on Monday...denying that anything ever happened."
Liz considered it only briefly. What difference would it make? He'd know...he already knew. Sometimes it seemed like Max's eyes could just see into her soul. What she'd done to him was bad enough. She wasn't going to reject ...destroy ...kill ...the only part of him she'd ever have now.
"I really don't think I could kill my baby. I don't think I could live with that," Liz said, shaking her head slowly.
The words came easily to Linda Huntington. She'd used them frequently enough. She'd never really believed them, but they served their purpose. Abortion was never pretty, but it was, for some girls, the least bad option. Even so, looking at Liz being supported by the presence of her parents. It was hardly like one of her more typical patients...like the Troy girl, who would likely have no idea of the paternity of their pregnancy...at least not without DNA testing half the football team.
"It's not really a baby, Liz..It's a fetus. "
"But it's still alive," said Liz.
"It's alive Liz, but it's not really human...," said Linda Huntington, in this case perhaps more accurately than she knew. "At this stage, it's like a parasite growing in you, totally dependent on you," said Linda, suddenly uneasily aware that was no more true of Liz's pregnancy than that which had given life to any of the 6 billion people alive today.
"Even so..." started Liz.
"This is really the only option that would let things go back to normal, Liz, that would let you get your life back in order...be able to go back to just being a teenager...plan for college...your future."
Liz looked at the nurse practitioner and shook her head. She knew the woman meant well, but she didn't understand. Liz believed that she'd had something with Max Evans...something precious, and somehow she'd lost that. She'd betrayed him six weeks ago, and lost for all time whatever chance she might have had of getting that 'something' back. This was all she had left...just this part of him, and she couldn't give it up.
"That's really not an option, Ms. Huntington," said Liz. Then she turned to her mother and father, "...and running off to Florida to have it isn't a good option either. I want to stay here, where my friends and family are, if you are still willing to help me."
"Of course we will, darling," said her father.
"Absolutely," said Nancy.
"This was my mistake, Ms. Huntington," said Liz. "But I intend to see it through....to make the best life for myself and my baby that I can."
Linda Huntington looked at the young girl and couldn't help but smile, realizing she was glad that her arm twisting hadn't worked. It would have been the right thing, perhaps, for someone like Pamela Troy, but Liz Parker was made of sterner stuff, far more mature than your average high school sophomore, more mature in fact than most adult women who came to the clinic. The administrator and the clinic lawyer were just going to have to suck it up ...to do whatever was necessary to make the invasion of privacy right. She wouldn't compound it by pushing Liz into a decision she didn't want to make.
"Well Liz, all I can say is that I hope it works out, and that I'll help you any way I can," said the nurse practitioner. "For now that would seem to be a prescription for prenatal vitamins and folic acid, and a pamphlet of 'Do's and Dont's' for the expectant mother."