A/N: Hey, this is Cogsie, and I'm back with another chapter! Thank you to the first, and so far only, person who reviewed. I really appreciate it because I wasn't sure if I should continue with the story. But as long as there is at least one person reading, I'll definitely keep going. Thanks a bundle!

Disclaimer: If you think I own this, then you're crazy! Haha, no this all belongs to someone who is not me…hehehe

Chapter 2-Meeting the Matriarch

The entire Jackson household had been in an uproar ever since the previous day when Charlotte Johanssen had come back from the woods without Elizabeth. Charlotte had gotten a large telling off from both Victoria Jackson and her mother. They were angry that Charlotte hadn't thought to wait for Elizabeth when she had decided to head back to the house. Victoria had every single police officer in Tree Gap all throughout the woods, searching for her lost daughter. Charlotte, in turn, was grounded and had been confined to the Johanssen mansion until Elizabeth was found. Charlotte couldn't find it in herself to be worried about her best friend; it was because of her that Jesse Tuck had decided to leave, because she had started humming that creepy melody.

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Elizabeth had fallen asleep under the tree that held the forbidden spring, still listening to the haunting tune playing in her head. She awoke from a weird dream about her grandmother. She had touched her grandmother's hand, and Winifred had turned into Jesse, reaching for her; she saw other faces in her mind's eye, but she could not bring herself to feel fear until she had fully opened her eyes and saw that she was not in her room. She was still in the forest and someone was standing over her curiously. She screamed loudly and jumped, startling both herself and the boy. She rubbed her eyes, making sure this was not part of the dream. "Oh. Jesse Tuck, I presume?" she asked formally although she recognized the boy's profile from the day before.

Jesse nodded. "I heard you hadn't gone home yesterday and that you were lost in the woods. I figured you were still here."

Elizabeth shrugged and stumbled to her feet, brushing dirt from her once white dress, now stained with green, a result of the fallen leaves from the tree. "I'm not lost. I know my way back, thank you very much."

Jesse put his hands up as if in surrender. "Hey, I was just checking. Sorry about bailing yesterday, by the way."

"Doesn't matter. Charlotte was angry though," Elizabeth told him, stretching and yawning widely.

"With me?"

"Nope. With me. Don't care though. But she was upset because I 'chased you away.' Apparently I do that with a lot of guys," Elizabeth said, a slight smile curving her lips. Jesse reached out and touched them gently with his fingertips and Elizabeth jerked her head away in embarrassment.

"You look just like Winnie, you know, Elizabeth Jackson."

At Jesse's words, Elizabeth blushed and started walking away with her head down. She knew her grandmother's first love was wrong; she looked nothing like the late Winnie Foster. If she did, she would have boys hanging all over her, but she didn't. And she knew if she looked like Winnie at her age, she would be beautiful because the portraits she had been shown of Winnie were stunning and there was no way she could be a replica of that beauty.

"Please, Elizabeth…" Jesse began and he grabbed her hand without thinking. She paused and stared down at their interlaced fingers; he did the same and finally released her hand. She tried hard to hide her disappointment even though it was clearly evident in her body language. "I knew Winnie. She was the first one I ever fell in love with. If I say you look like her, it is because it is true." Somehow Jesse Tuck had guessed that was what was bothering her most, but she continued on her way away from him.

"Jesse Tuck," Elizabeth said, still walking in the opposite direction. "You belong in the past. My grandmother's past. So why are you here? You already know she's dead." At Elizabeth's cold words, Jesse suddenly felt short of breath and he blinked back the tears he had not shed over the pain of finding Winifred Foster Jackson's grave. Elizabeth didn't let him know how much her own words affected her as well; she still was not over her grandmother's death, even after a year.

"Elizabeth, you're my last tie to Winnie."

She whirled around in her tracks to face him, her hazel eyes, mirror images of the young Winnie's, blazing. "Oh, so that's all I am? And what is Charlotte to you, hmm?"

Jesse seemed stunned by Elizabeth's sudden ferociousness. He didn't know how to respond other than, "On the last night I saw her, I told Winnie Foster that I would love her till the day I die, which is basically forever. I never broke that promise."

"Then how come you didn't back sooner?" Elizabeth was quickly growing agitated for her grandmother's sake, asking the questions Winifred had voiced in the stories she had told about the Tucks. In a way she felt like she really was the young Winnie, as if she had her grandmother's younger spirit inhabiting her body.

Jesse stared into her eyes, mesmerized. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at him, wondering if he was all right mentally. Jesse seemed to snap out of his trance-like state and he shook his hand like a dog out of water. Elizabeth was tempted to smile at his action, but stubbornly kept the scowl on her face. "I'm sorry…it's just…I saw her looking at me through your eyes."

Elizabeth's skin crawled at this and she gulped nervously. "My eyes aren't the same as hers."

"That may be, Miss Elizabeth Jackson, but I saw her life in you."

Before Elizabeth could say anything, she was swept into the strong arms of a stranger who ignored her kicking and screaming. Jesse yelled for the person to stop it, to let her go, but the man (Elizabeth figured it was a man, at least) didn't listen. He threw her over something solid and climbed on behind her. When the object began galloping, Elizabeth automatically knew she had been swung onto a horse's back with her captor sitting in the back of her. Now she was too terrified to even scream, or pay attention to Jesse's shouts of rage. He was following them, on foot though, which explained him disappearing from her limited sight.

Finally the man brought his horse to a halt, jumped down, and grabbed her off the horse roughly. Elizabeth tried to struggle, but the man was too strong. Her brown hair quickly became messy in the fight and it fell out of the long braid it had been in down her back. "Stay still!" the man grunted and Elizabeth obeyed, scared of what he might do if she didn't. She stared into his eyes, and he stared back into hers, wearing the same expression Jesse had just a few minutes before, though this time, smiling was the furthest thing from her mind.

"Who are you?" Elizabeth meant to sound fearless, but against her will, a tremor of fear crept into her voice. The man grinned and she realized that he was quite handsome other than the fact that he had kidnapped her.

"Miles!" Jesse Tuck panted as he finally reached them. Elizabeth gaped at the man, realizing who this was.

"You're Miles Tuck, aren't you?" The man didn't answer. "Of course you are. Grandmother told me all about you."

"She knows?" Furious, Miles turned to Jesse. Jesse held his hands up in mock surrender though his eyes remained hard and angry. Elizabeth backed away from Miles, toward Jesse. For now, the youngest Tuck was her source of comfort, especially since he was the Jesse Tuck she had heard about all throughout her childhood. Of course, she had heard about Miles as well, but she had never expected to stumble across him and be kidnapped exactly as Winnie had so many years ago.

"Yes, I do know," Elizabeth replied brazenly. She didn't appreciate Miles talking about her as if she were not standing right in front of him. "Winnie told me about you, Miles Tuck. I know about the spring, and everything. I know you've walked this earth far longer than any normal human can."

Miles seemed to be calmed by her words. There was no hint of malice or anger in them and she did not seem afraid as Winnie had been when he had kidnapped her. She was not making the outrageous demands that he had better let her go otherwise her father would have something to say about it, and this thought made him smile for once in a long while.

"So, you know about us, huh." It wasn't a question, and Elizabeth didn't answer. "Who else?"

"My mother and all my siblings…and my…" She hesitated. At this moment, she was unsure as to whether call Charlotte a friend or not. Her features darkened into a scowl, remembering the hurtful words Charlotte had shouted at her before running off after Jesse. "…and Charlotte," she finished.

Miles looked at Jesse in confusion. "Who's Charlotte?" he mouthed.

"Her friend," Jesse mouthed back, just in case Elizabeth decided to contradict him. She didn't seem to notice the silent exchange of words between the two brothers; she only sighed, dejected, and plopped onto the hard dirty forest floor.

Miles made a move to stop her, but thought better of it. Although he didn't want her dress to get dirtier than it already was, if she had a temper anywhere close to Winnie's, it would be better if he kept his mouth shut.

"So, what are you going to do with me?" Elizabeth asked, not really caring. As long as she didn't have to go back to a life of trying to please her mother and be proper, even though it was the twenty-first century. She drew her knees up under the volumes of her dress and hugged them while gazing up imploringly at both Miles and Jesse. When they didn't answer, she picked herself up from the floor and started away, but she didn't get very far. Miles reached out and snatched her wrist, not letting her get any further. Elizabeth didn't protest.

"You're not going anywhere," Miles stated with a low growl in his throat. Elizabeth didn't roll her eyes like a child as she wanted and instead stopped in her tracks, glaring back at Jesse's older brother.

"Miles, maybe we should take her to Mae and Tuck. They'll know what to do," Jesse suggested, watching with satisfaction the way Elizabeth's eyes lit up with his words. No doubt those stories Winnie had told her had included the Tucks' head of house and matriarch.

Elizabeth didn't struggle as Miles slowly nodded and began dragging her to his horse that he had kidnapped her on. He flung her into the saddle sideways and mounted behind her. Holding her waist tightly with one arm and the reigns in his free hand, Miles kicked his horse into a fast canter and Elizabeth yelped. This was no time to remember that she was afraid of horses and in an effort to forget that, she squeezed her eyes shut and waited until the ride was over.

Miles lifted her down in front of an old rundown hut with cobwebs hanging all over the frame. She looked around for Jesse, but didn't see him. She frowned, puzzling over this, but then her expression cleared in understanding. There had only been one horse, which Miles had taken, and Jesse probably had to run after them on foot. Again.

"Ma!" Miles called, and a European-looking woman came out of the hut, drying her hands on a dishrag, probably finishing up the dishes. She smiled when she saw Elizabeth, but then as she got nearer, her face fell. Elizabeth bit her lip, wondering why.

"Who is this young lady, Miles?" the woman asked. She had a trace of an Irish accent in her voice, and Elizabeth felt sure that this was Mae Tuck. Elizabeth came forward without waiting for Miles' response, smiled, and stuck out her hand.

"My name is Elizabeth, Mrs. Tuck," Elizabeth introduced herself confidently. "Elizabeth Jackson."

"Oh," Mae responded, "I see." She looked Elizabeth up and down with a slight smile on her face, appraising the younger girl. "You look so much like a friend I once knew."

Elizabeth blushed, and turned around as she heard a breathless shout behind her, "She looks like Winnie, Ma!" It was Jesse, running up to the three.

"O' course she does, dear," Mae said, smiling widely. "Are you of any relation to Winnie Foster?"

"Yes," Elizabeth replied breathlessly, stunned that everyone kept thinking she was Winnie in her prime years. "She was my grandmother." She hung her head and a sad sigh escaped her. "She's been dead for a year now."

"Oh, my…" Mae trailed off, glancing at her younger son, knowing how painful it must be to hear those words. They had just moved back to the woods a day or so before, and Jesse had claimed he was going to ride his motorcycle to Winnie's house. When he hadn't come back for quite some time, the rest of the family had assumed that he had finally found his love and that she had decided to spend eternity in his arms.

Jesse was looking down at his feet, but slowly his gaze traveled upwards and his eyes met his mother's. He nodded miserably and Mae put a hand to her mouth, crushing the urge to run over and comfort her son as best she could. Glancing at Elizabeth, it was obvious that she was feeling the same loss over the death of Winifred, but in a different sense. Mae bit her lip, unsure of what to do now.

"I'm so very, very sorry, my dear," the Irish woman said sympathetically, her eyes softening as they rested on Elizabeth, who shrugged.

"It's in the past now," she said as if she didn't really care, but the truth was, she was so used to hiding her emotions about her grandmother's death that it practically came naturally to her now. Only Jesse seemed to be able to tell, for he was trying to compose his own emotions as well.

"Well," Mae said suddenly, clasping her hands together and faking a bright cheery voice in order to break the tense silence. "Let's wash up for breakfast…Elizabeth, would you care to join us?"

"That would be nice, thank you, Mrs. Tuck," Elizabeth replied sincerely, returning Mae's kind smile.

"Just call me Mae, dear. Jesse, Miles, go wash up in the lake. Elizabeth, come with me."

"Okay…Mae…" Elizabeth grinned, but then she looked on curiously as the boys went down to the lake. Mae cleared her throat meaningfully, and Elizabeth followed her into the little makeshift hut.

"You know about us, correct, Miss Jackson? Winnie must have told you."

"Oh, yes. My favorite bedtime stories were of the Tucks. I never thought I'd meet you, though."

"So you believed in Winnie's tales, which most would call make-believe?" Mae questioned, now incredibly curious about this girl who was the granddaughter of the late Winnie Foster.

"Yes. My mother didn't, though. Neither did my siblings."

"Well, that is interesting," Mae mused to herself as she led the way to the kitchen. She pointed to the sink, where she directed Elizabeth to wash up, and began bustling around, pulling out pots and pans, putting things into them, and placing them on the stove. Soon, an irresistible aroma filled the small room, and Elizabeth felt her mouth watering. She hadn't realized she was hungry, but now she was suddenly starving.

Laughter came from the very front of the hut, and the boys stumbled into the kitchen. Miles had his lips in a tight straight line and his cheeks were tinged pink underneath his beard; it was Jesse who seemed about ready to collapse on the floor for laughing so hard.

"I'm not going to even ask," Mae said, throwing up her hands. She directed Elizabeth to setting the table for four, and Elizabeth paused, confused. Where was Tuck? Surely he was going to eat with the others, was he not?

"Um…Mae?"

"Yes, Miss Jackson?"

"Elizabeth, if you don't mind, ma'am. But where is…Mr. Tuck?"

Silence greeted Elizabeth's question. Three pairs of eyes flickered to stare directly at her and she gulped nervously. "Angus has decided to seek his fortune elsewhere," Mae replied to Elizabeth's question calmly. "He should return within a few days. I last talked to him on a payphone a couple of days ago, telling him we were coming back to Tree Gap, and he said he was in Scotland."

That was all Mae would tell Elizabeth and she decided not to push the subject. The boys sat down, and Jesse pulled out a chair beside him, motioning for Elizabeth to sit there. Mae took Tuck's place at the head of the table. They all held hands and closed their eyes while Mae said grace, and finally, they were allowed to dig in.

The food consisted of bacon, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, pancakes, waffles, and piles of toast and butter. Elizabeth grinned. She hadn't eaten since the day before, and everything looked so delicious. She ate her fill and afterwards, allowed Jesse to drag her outside in order to question her about how Winifred had turned out as an adult. Miles stayed inside to help Mae with the dishes.

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Charlotte stormed around her room, knocking everything she could out of place and onto the floor. She was consumed by a rage that didn't make any sense; why was she so pissed off at her supposed best friend over a guy? Maybe she was jealous…but no, that couldn't be. She always got the guy, unlike Elizabeth, who never did. Boys seemed to prefer her golden blonde locks over Elizabeth's long dark natural curls. But perhaps it was because Jesse had recognized the brunette as her dead grandmother and that Charlotte had never wanted a guy so badly in her life.

Charlotte sank onto her bed in desperation, burying her face in her palms. She was being completely irrational, and she knew it. There was no reason why she should feel this way, she thought, not now that she was away from Jesse and Elizabeth. And away from that haunting tune Elizabeth had hummed. She wondered where her friend was now.

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Jesse and Elizabeth spent the entire day out of doors until dusk. She had never been outside so much in her entire life, and it felt wonderful. She loved the feeling of the slight breeze blowing through the trees, weaving its way through her long hair. At one point, Jesse touched her curls and said, "You have beautiful hair." Elizabeth hadn't replied to that, but she had blushed, embarrassed, but in a good way. She had never been told she had beautiful anything.

When darkness began to wind through the woods, Jesse led Elizabeth back to the hut, handing her over to Mae, who fussed over the state of her clothes. Elizabeth had decided that she would like to stay with the Tucks if she wasn't imposing, and of course Mae was delighted. It brought back old memories of when Winnie had been kidnapped and lived with them for a time, forcibly at first, but then of her own free will.

"Here," Mae said, offering Elizabeth a long white nightdress. "It was your grandmother's when she lived with us. I thought you might like to wear for bed. It's simple, but-"

Elizabeth's eyes were brimming with tears, and she smiled gratefully. "No, no, Mae, thank you very much. That means a lot to me. It is definitely not simple."

Mae smiled then and left Elizabeth alone to get changed. Luckily, though she was forced into old-fashioned outfits, Victoria had never required her daughter to wear a corset underneath her dresses. It wasn't surprising. Elizabeth barely had a whole lot to show off by wearing a corset, even at her maturing age, and Victoria hadn't bothered to get Elizabeth to enhance what she'd been given. Elizabeth was grateful for this, because she had tried on one of Charlotte's once, and had discovered how difficult it was to get it on and off by herself.

When Elizabeth was finished changing, Mae reentered the room she had given their guest and explained to her where everyone was sleeping. She assured her that Miles and Jesse had their own room quite far from this makeshift one and Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief. With that, she crawled onto the thin mattress that had been set up, under the ratty blankets and closed her eyes. Mae turned off the light before she left again, this time for her own bed. And for once in her life, Elizabeth fell asleep with a smile playing softly on her delicate lips.