Guardian of the Trailer Trash Angel.

Rating: PG (Suggestions of abuse.)

Summery: A small look at a different reality. UC. Dupes.

Disclaimer: You think I own them? (Hysterical laughter.) You could put everything that I own in a shoebox. I don't own them, but their owners don't seem to want to play with them any more so I just borrowed them for a bit. I promise to put them back.

Mail: rose_tat@hotmail.com

Katana.:p

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He'd been eleven when it happened. Or, at least, that was how old social services had decided he was. She was nine. But she really was nine. She was human. Normal. Beautiful. She didn't belong in a trailer park. He didn't belong in a trailer park either, but that was beside the point. She was the one and only person that he had ever told the truth to.

Not that he'd ever tell Rath or Ava that. Rath would just give him that sad pitying smile. The one that said "You shouldn't have run, Zan, you should have stayed with us." Ava would sigh and remind him that they had to be careful. They thought that they got it. That they understood. They were different, like him, and they thought that was enough. They were so wrong. They had no idea how lucky they were. After all, they'd been adopted by Philip and Diane Evans. They had the nice house, the rich parents, the expensive clothes… everything. The perfect little family.

And what did he have? A grimy trailer to sleep in and an alcoholic foster father whom only kept him around for the monthly check. Oh yeah, and to kick or punch occasionally. He'd thought that he had it bad until he'd met her. He was eleven, she was nine. He found her curled up asleep behind one of the trailers in the middle of winter. Her feet were bare. She wore only thin cotton shorts and a ripped cotton tee shirt. Her badly cut dark brown hair was dirty. So was her face. The dirt made the tear tracks on her face so much more visible. She was covered in bruises, cuts and burns. At first glance he'd thought that she was dead. She wasn't, at least not quiet yet.

He reached out to touch her, trying to rouse her. His mind was instantly assaulted with images of abuse. It wasn't even intentional, he never meant to do it, it was just something that happened. As naturally as breathing. One moment he was nudging her to see if she was alive, the next a part of his mind that he had never known existed was exposed to him. A door was opened. He never planned to heal her. And he never regretted it. It just happened.

That was how Zan Guerin became little Lizzie Parker's protector and quasi big brother. Even though he never acted to get himself out of his bad situation he did something about hers. He got her out, got the Evans's to find her a good family. Sadly that family frowned upon her friendship with him, especially once they started getting older. Mr. Whitman just couldn't quite believe that their relationship was a purely platonic love. Admittedly over time that came to be true for Zan. But he was acutely aware that Liz would never see him as anything other than a brother. And after all, she deserved a nice normal human boyfriend. Somebody that wouldn't put her in danger simply because of what he was. Or at least that was what Zan told himself.

Maybe that was why it hurt so much?

She'd never been close to Rath or Ava, had no reason to be. Lonnie saw her as Zan's pet. Mind you, raised by Nesado, Lonnie had many weird concepts of what she perceived to be reality. If she thought that he'd ever shack of with Ava then she had another thing coming. And Rath had taken great pleasure in giving her, and therefore Nesado's plan, the short sharp shaft.

Nobody but Zan knew that Liz knew the truth. There was no need for them to. That was, until the other four showed up. They hadn't all come together. Max and Tess had come first, wanting the granolith. They thought that they had killed Michael and Isabel. They thought wrong. Michael and Isabel had shown up not much later. Not knowing where to start they had gone into DeLuca café. Their plan was to hopefully get mistaken for their dupes and thus find out the information to protect them. Luck was far more with them than they knew. Maria DeLuca had a hot date and had called Liz in to work her shift at the last minute, practically begged her to. It was closing time when they walked in. Zan had already told Liz about Max and Tess. She knew that it wasn't the Evans twins she was looking at when they walked in. She didn't waste time getting to the point.

Michael, Isabel and Liz got to the granolith just in time to save Zan, Rath, Ava and Lonnie's lives. Liz was reluctant to tell them where it was but Michael connected with her and showed her that he was genuine. He showed her far more than he intended to, he opened his soul up to her. Once all the cards were on the table it was simply a natural progression to Liz being included in the group. Zan didn't have much of a problem with that. His only problem was the role that she took. Not his baby sis. Not his girlfriend. But Michael's girlfriend. It wasn't fair. Rath always got the better deal. And apparently so did his dupe.