"Shining Armor"

This is a set of fifteen shorts, all set in the same au- one in which Lizzie hadn't been basically abandoned after Sarah's death. In the long run it's Coop/Lizzie, but characters such as Reva, Alan, Ashlee, Buzz, Ava, Daisy and Billy all appear in several as well. I got the idea for all fifteen based on a Live Journal prompt community called 15 Hugs, even though the comm is actually for anime fanfiction. A list of the prompts, in the order that I used them, will be posted on the author page.

Canon?: Pretty much up through Jonathan's supposed death it's canon, and then everything after that veers from the timeline. I may get some details wrong, since I didn't watch the last month or two of the baby storyline (the destruction of all the characters involved, particularly Lizzie, made me too angry to) so I may get some details wrong. For instance I'm not sure where Lizzie lived after Jonathan divorced her, but I'm pretending Reva let her stay there after he died

Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to Guiding Light, as much as I would love to officially write for the show. This is purely a work of fiction, written for fun rather than profit.


When Coop hears what has happened to Jonathan and Sarah, he's stunned. He knows all too well what it's like to deal with Alan, and he knows how dangerous it can get, but even after Tammy's death he still hadn't expected Jonathan to end up as collateral damage.

The next thing he knows, he's in his car, only able to think about getting to Lizzie. He's barely spoken to her since their breakup, first too angry and then too caught up in his relationship with Ava, but Ava's gone now and Lizzie needs him. Maybe not him specifically, but he knows that she needs someone, and he still can't think of anyone he can count on to come through for her. Certainly not her family.

He knows that she and Jonathan were living with Reva- at least until Jonathan had divorced Lizzie and married Tammy- so he heads for Cross Creek. Even if Lizzie has moved out, gone back to the Spaulding mansion or to the Beacon with the rest of Springfield, Reva can still tell him where to find her.

But when he gets there Lizzie's car is in the driveway, and Reva's is as well. He knocks on the door, suddenly nervous but unable to turn back. It's that knight in shining armor thing again- he's always been a sucker for a damsel in distress. His romantic relationships especially have a habit of starting out that way. Not that he plans it that way; it just has a habit of happening.

Reva answers the door. Her eyes are red-rimmed but overall she seems more stable than Coop had thought she would. Considering that this is Reva Shayne, he briefly wonders about that but dismisses the thought in favor of more urgent concerns. "Is Lizzie here?" he asks, shuffling from one foot to the other. "I… I know that I haven't been around much- at all, actually- but I couldn't just stay away. I mean, not after…"

Reva nods, studying him. "Thanks for coming, Coop. She's in her room." She points him in the right direction and he sets off, momentarily wishing he'd brought something with him. He knows that his father will probably drop off some food later, but that doesn't count. He's stuck walking into this situation empty-handed.

When Coop gets to Lizzie's room he sees that the door is slightly ajar, so instead of knocking he lightly pushes it open. He finds the small young woman curled up on the bed, facing away from the door. He can see her shoulders shaking.

Suddenly he's not doing so well himself. It hadn't quite clicked into his head yet, how awful Jonathan and Sarah's deaths must have been. The car wreck, the fire… At least it had been over in an instant, but that was such small comfort, even for someone like him who hadn't been especially close to either of them.

But he could have been. He'd spent weeks thinking that Sarah was his daughter. Maybe that was why he'd distanced himself from Lizzie even after he'd gotten over how she'd lied to him- he'd still been hurt by it. He'd still felt like he'd lost something incredibly precious, even if it had left him free to be with Ava.

Now that little girl he'd once thought of as his is dead, her father along with her. And Lizzie is alone.

"Lizzie," he manages to say, his voice a bit choked up now.

She gasps, jerks to look back at him. There are tears rolling down her cheeks, and she raises a hand to wipe them away. He sees that she's clutching a teddy bear in her arms. "Coop?" she asks, obviously shocked. Her eyes hold the emptiness, the broken sorrow that he'd been expecting to find in Reva's. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard about what happened." He feels awkward now. What is he doing here? If she's with Reva, then at least she still has someone. She doesn't need to have an ex-boyfriend hanging around. "I wanted to see how you were doing."

Lizzie shakes her head slightly, her grip on the stuffed animal tightening. "How do you think I'm doing?" she asks, laughing bitterly. "I thought I could have a family. Even after Jonathan left me, I thought…" She shakes her head again. "But not now. Now I have nothing."

"That's not true, Lizzie," he says urgently. He sits on the bed next to her, his awkwardness vanishing now that he has something to say. She looks away from him but he touches her shoulder, trying to keep her attention. "You have your family, and your friends-"

"My family? Daddy's gone, Granddad's the one…" She choked up, then went on. "Mom's the one that took Sarah from me. Reva's only letting me stay here because I have nowhere else to go. Sarah was the only real family I had left, and she's… she's…" She dissolved into sobs, crying too hard to speak.

Utterly defenseless in the face of such agony, he follows his instincts and pulls her into his arms. Lizzie clutches at him, knuckles white, her tears scalding his shirt. The teddy bear she was holding is lying on the bed next to them where she dropped it, its glassy eyes staring sightlessly up at the ceiling. Coop shudders a bit and looks away, concentrates on rubbing Lizzie's back soothingly. No matter what happened between them in the past, he's here for her now and knows he can't leave her again. She lied to him, betrayed him and broke his heart, but she's still his first love and she needs him more than anyone ever has.

And he could never turn his back on a woman in need.