This takes place right after Lizzie evicted the Coopers from their rooms at Elizabeth and Company. Coop and Lizzie are not on good terms.

In The Light Of The Night

Chapter 1

Lizzie was sitting down at one of the vacant tables at her restaurant, Elizabeth and Company, still wiping the tears from her eyes. She hadn't meant to let her Aunt Alexandra see her this upset over Coop. She didn't want anyone to see her this upset at all, especially about Coop. She didn't mean for things to turn out this way. She didn't mean to make Coop that angry. There were a lot of things she didn't mean to do, yet, she always managed to do it. On the positive side of the evening, she had finally been honest with Coop. She had told him why she did what she did. The whole scene and conversation that occurred that night flashed back before her:

(Flash)

Coop was pounding down the stairs with his duffel bag and everything he owned. He threw everything on the floor and started packing in the middle of the restaurant. Lizzie was furious. She stormed over there and demanded he take his stuff back upstairs.

"I want you take all your crap and put it back up stairs", she had screamed.

"Does that mean you are gonna let us stay here, than?" Coop had responded.

"NO! Not on your life," was what she has said.

"THAN LET ME PACK!" Coop had screamed back. He was furious.

At that moment she realized that evicting the Coopers from the only home they had ever known was the wrong thing to do. But she had gone to far this time. So she tried to smooth things over and explain her real reason for evicting them.

"Coop, I didn't want it to be like this", she said, watching him continue to throw his belongings in his duffel bag. "I'm not doing this because you ditched me".

Coop abruptly stopped packing and turned to her and snapped, " Than why are you doing this, Lizzie?"

Then came the honest part of the conversation. She hadn't been this honest about her feelings with anyone in a really long time. And she didn't mean to let it happen. It kind of just slipped out.

" Because you hurt me, okay. I can't have you living here and working here, because it hurts too much. There! Are you happy?" Lizzie has told him. Then she had just walked away.

Coop finished packing and left Company without another look her direction.

(End of flash)

Lizzie was so caught up in the daydream, she didn't notice that her Aunt Alex had brought her a cup of coffee and was pulling up a chair at her table. Alex sat down and handed her a kleenex.

"You going to need a thousand of these, if you don't stop the water works." Alex said, trying to cheer her niece up. She had remembered what young love was like, although it was a long time ago.

" I don't know what you're talking about, Aunt Alex." Lizzie said, taking a sip of her coffee.

" Darling, why will you not admit and recognize that you like Coop?" Alex questioned.

" Are you afraid to fall in love?" Alex asked, pumping her niece for information.

"Aunt Alex, I told you I didn't like Henry, it was just an act. I was playing him, and he was playing me. Now it is over. There is nothing left between us." Lizzie said, unsure of her own answer.

Alex sipped her coffee and stared her niece up and down. Apparently, Lizzie had noticed what she was doing because she started to get fidgety.

Lizzie knew her aunt was not buying her story. She didn't even buy her own story. She knew she liked Coop as a friend. Okay. Maybe more than a friend. But it was definitely not love. She knew that for sure. No one could ever love her for all her mistakes, flaws, and wrong doings. There was only one person who could. And he was dead.

" What are you staring at me like that?" Lizzie asked her aunt, who couldn't seem to take her eyes off of her.

" I want you to be as honest with me as you were with Coop," Alex stated. " Why are you so afraid to take a chance and fall in love?"

" Aunt Alex, first of all, I would never fall in love with Henry Cooper Bradshaw. Not after everything he did to me. Are you forgetting that he broke into my room and stole that piece of glass with Carl's blood on it? Not only that," Lizzie continued, "he then proceeded to take it to the courtroom and try and get me convicted of killing my own father?" Lizzie finished. " How can you expect me to forgive him for that?"

"Oh Lizzie," Alex said with a sigh, " You are making up excuses, darling. You forgave him for that weeks ago," Alex reminded the young woman. " You were quite smitten by him a few days ago, and now you are telling me you feel nothing for him?" Alex concluded.

" Fine, you want the truth, I will give you the truth. Yes, I feel something for him, but those feelings are not real. They can't be." Lizzie said, picking up her coffee cup.

" And why not?" Alex questioned.

" Because I am a Spaulding and he is a Cooper. Spauldings and Coopers never mix." Lizzie said, but not very convincingly.

Alex suddenly looked very concerned. " Do not let your grandfather tell you who you can be with and who you love. That is up to you. Not him." Alex said in a meaningful tone. " You know what I think, Lizzie" Alex said, " I think you pushed Coop away so you could hurt him before he could hurt you." But you know what the worst part about doing that is," Alex said, " you are going to be the one who ends up being the lonely one."

Alex picked up her cup and moved her chair back to the original table it came from.

" One last word of advice, Lizzie. I would think long and hard before you do something this severe again. It can hurt a lot of people, and as far as you and Coop are concerned, I would be finding a way to make it up to him." Alex said. " If you wanted to hurt him, I think you did a pretty good job." Alex concluded.

Lizzie watched as her aunt walked away from the table and went outside to make the walk home. She let everything her aunt said sink in. She knew in the back of her mind, Alex was right. She should never have done this. She had to undo all the damage that she had caused, and for the first time, make Coop forgive her.

Spoilers for Chapter Two:

Coop and Buzz have a heart to heart about Lizzie

Lizzie works to undo the damage she caused

Coop and Lizzie are on the road to reconciliation

What did you think?

Whitney