I don't own Lizzie McGuire, or any of it's characters, and am making no profit from this story monetarily or otherwise. Yada, yada, yada.

A/N: If you haven't already read it, this story will make sense if you first read "Finally Home." This story is a continuation of that one. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed ~ you are very kind. I'm glad to be able to entertain you. After all, without praise, authors would never bother to show our work to anyone!



1 Part II

The Day After Happily Ever After



The next morning, Lizzie was seated on the bus staring out the window but not really seeing anything. She had been looking forward to this trip for a long time, but now that she had just started a new relationship with Gordo, she was reluctant to leave. Miranda still hadn't shown up, and Lizzie began to wonder if she had really gone home right away last night. As for herself and Gordo, they had gone straight home. Why not, after all, as Gordo was to stay the night at the McGuire's house anyway? They could go home and be together, so why go anywhere else?

But, as it turned out, Gordo was exhausted after the full day he had had, and much as he would have liked to stay up to talk (and kiss) with Lizzie, he could barely keep his eyes open. They made hot chocolate and sat on the couch, wrapped in each other's arms, feeling the warmth and felicity of just being together. Finally, Gordo started to say something, and then just trailed off midsentence. Lizzie looked at his sleeping face, and wondered what had taken her so long to come to her senses. He looked so.adorable, so peaceful; almost childlike with his thick dark curtain of lashes falling across his cheek. She fingered his raven curls, and kissed his forehead. He woke with a start, "Oh, oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to fall asleep."

"It's ok, Gordo. You've had a really long day."

He smiled sleepily and said, "But it's been the best day of my life." Unintentionally, he opened his mouth in a huge yawn, then said, "Sorry, Beautiful. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."

She kissed him and said, "Let's get you to bed."

She did just that. By that time, Jo had washed Matt's clothes, and had washed Gordo's along with them. He put on clean boxers and a t-shirt, and brushed his teeth while Lizzie turned down his bed and fluffed his pillows. When he came out, she tucked him in and kissed him good night. She would have loved to climb in and fall asleep in his arms, but decided that it would not put her mother in favor of the relationship when she found them in the morning. By the time she turned for one last look at him before closing the door, he was long gone in dreamland. Little did she know of the dreams he was having, a continuation of the ones he had had earlier; dreams of himself and Lizzie, a home of their own, their future happiness together assured.

We can all dream.

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Lizzie was startled out of her reverie by the sound of Miranda boarding the bus. She plopped down in the seat next to Lizzie, a smile on her face but sleep still in her eyes. Her hair was pulled back into a rather boring ponytail, compared to Miranda's usual whimsical style. She had obviously not spent much time getting ready. Lizzie grinned at her friend, "Morning, Sleepyhead! You went back to sleep after I called you, didn't you?"

Miranda smiled sheepishly, "Yeah, I stayed up kinda late last night."

Lizzie raised her brows, "Last night, or this morning?"

"Well, we did end up going to the Bean last night for a drink and a few dances. We didn't want Ethan to have to go all by himself, or to go home." Miranda said. Then, not wanting to make Lizzie feel guilty, she added, "But you know, he's ok. He had a great time dancing, and by midnight it was all over the place that he was a free agent again. So he had his usual harem back."

"Minus us."

"Minus us. What a difference a year makes, huh?"

Claire, Kate, and the rest of the cheerleaders got noisily onto the bus, acting as usual like they owned the place. Except that Lizzie noticed that Kate was oddly silent. On their way to the back , Claire stopped and smirked at Lizzie, "Guess Ethan finally came to his senses and dumped you, huh?"

Miranda sprung out of her seat, black eyes snapping, and challenged her eye- to-eye, "You know that's not what happened, and so does everyone else! Lizzie dumped." Lizzie pulled her down to the seat and shook her head at her friend.

"Thanks, but I won't do that to him. I don't care what Claire thinks, anyway." Besides, that whole group had been there when Gordo brought Lizzie to the bus stop this morning, and couldn't have missed the goodbye kiss he gave her. That left little doubt as to what had really happened.

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He made sure he was up early enough to be the one to see her off. Lizzie told him he should sleep in, and that he and Matt could pick her car up at the bus stop later, but he wouldn't hear of it. He carried her gear out to her car (his truck still smelled pretty bad, despite his having left the windows open all night) while she dressed and ate breakfast. When they reached the parking lot, he helped her carry her stuff to the bus. The "Bimbo Squad" as Gordo called them, was standing around talking ("Like, Oh My God, I can't believe that I have to go a whole week without blow dryer!"),waiting till the last minute to get on the bus and knowing that no one would dare to take their sacred seats in the back.

Gordo looked longingly at Lizzie and said, " I can't believe I just got you and already have to let you go."

"I know, but it's only for a week. We have the rest of our lives to be together."

He eyed the cheerleaders warily and asked her, "Can I kiss you goodbye?"

"You'd better! Anyway, I'm sure news about last night was all over town by midnight."

So Gordo kissed her. Deep and soft and slow, so that she felt her whole body tingle. He wanted to get a week's worth of kisses into that one short moment, so that she wouldn't forget about him while she was gone. Like that would happen.

Finally, they reluctantly separated. "Bye, Lizzie. I'll be waiting for you on Sunday."

"Bye, Gordo."

"Hey, Lizzie!"

She turned back to face him.

"I love you."

" I love you, too, Gordo."

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Claire continued to make her way to the back, but wasn't done with her snotty remarks, "Well, I see you hooked up with the Loser, just like you should have a long time ago."

Miranda was seething, but Lizzie just let it go. "Are you going to just let her be like.like. like.that to you???"

"Oh, Miranda, who cares? Claire is only important in her own mind, and with her little "posse." I have what I want to make me happy, and so do you. So, who cares what they think?"

That really was the truth. Lines of popularity changed quite a bit since jr. high. There was always the "In Crowd" which consisted of athletes and cheerleaders, but most people had found their own niche and didn't care so much about being a part of it. Lizzie had, in fact made the cheerleading squad one year. She found that she was pretty good at it, having been good at rythmic gymnastics, and that it was fun. But she didn't like the company she had to keep for it, so she quit after a year.

Since then, she found that she was good at graphic art, painting, and foreign languages. She also decided to try rythmic gymnastics again, and decided that she did like it after all. She had won several medals now, which gave her some celebrity at school. And of course, Miranda had her singing. Since the band was making a name for themselves, she even had a little fan club, and people at school were starting to copy the way she dressed. And then there was Gordo, who was student director and head cameraman for the morning news at school. So, they had all found their own thing, and didn't care what Claire's crowd thought of them. Not that Gordo ever did.

She wrinkled her nose and then put on a smug smile, "Besides, that "Loser" has enough embarrassing footage of her on tape to make her life miserable."

The bus finally pulled out of the parking lot, and Miranda started telling her about the events of the previous night, but was yawning frequently, so the telling was slow. Not Miranda's usual million-miles-a-minute- conversation. Finally, she gave up and went to sleep, first on Lizzie's shoulder, then lying across her lap. Ordinarily, Lizzie would have been disappointed, but right now she wanted to think about her new relationship, so she was kind of relieved. She didn't notice how quiet Kate had been among her giggling, gossiping group, or that she had been staring at the back of Lizzie's head. Lizzie was just watching the scenery go by, lost in her thoughts, and getting pretty drowsy herself.

Suddenly, Kate was in the seat in front of her, asking if they could talk. Lizzie blinked at her for a minute, confused. While Kate had dropped the outright animosity toward her several years back (maybe when Lizzie joined the cheerleading squad, but she couldn't remember), they had never been the kind of acquaintances to chat with each other, especially within Claire's viewing. "Sure, Kate. What do you want?"

Kate didn't say anything for a minute. Lizzie expected the old, "Look, this doesn't mean we're going to be friends" speech, but she didn't get it. Instead, Kate finally looked at her and asked, "Is it true about you and Ethan? I mean, that you broke up with him?"

Lizzie eyed her suspiciously, wondering what little game that group was going to play, but answered, "Yes."

Again, Kate was silent. She knew what she wanted. She just didn't know how to put it into words. She tried, "Do you think he would take me back now?" Oops, that came out wrong. "I mean, if you didn't mind. You don't seem to upset about it, and you have Gordo now."

"Uh, yeah. It's ok. We were never really in love. We just liked spending time together." She was still confused. "Kate, why do you want to know? I thought you were done with high school boys. I thought you just wanted to date college guys now."

Kate glanced nervously at the back of the bus. "I do. I mean." she buried her face in her hands, and her voice shook badly. "Oh, god, I hate my life."

Lizzie just stared at Kate, and realized she was crying. She couldn't help but feel sorry for her, as she watched the sobs wrack her body, and spidery mascara lines start to run down her face. And in typical Lizzie fashion, she wanted to do something to help. She got her bag, took out a wet wipe and a couple of sodas she had stowed for the trip. She got up and gently laid Miranda's head on her bag, then took the drinks and moved up into the seat next to Kate.

Handing Kate one of the cans, she said, "Ok, go ahead and spill. I won't tell anyone."

Kate accepted the can and took a few sips of the cold fizzy liquid. When she finally spoke, she had her voice under control again.