Mitch Lillebridge loved New York City.

His mother had always talked wistfully about her former home. For all its inconveniences, its energy inspired her. Many of the best years of her life were spent there. Vancouver was one of the world's greatest cities to live in, but she often said she missed the hustle and the sense of opportunity that permeated every street corner in Manhattan.

There were also people she left behind, though she didn't talk about them much. Mitch knew that she had worked with the old movie star Tracy Jordan, although they weren't good friends. He'd been inspired to download a few of his old movies, and they were quality fare, at least for a teenage boy. Then there were other names like "Jenna," "Pete," and "Jack" that bounced around Mitch's head, but he wasn't really sure about the relationships between them all and who did what. He did know that Jenna was an actress, from the TGS videos his mom had, and because she was in one of his mom's movies. Mitch had attended Jenna's funeral as a toddler, but of course he didn't recall it.

Moving to Manhattan wasn't the only way he was emulating his mother. As a freshman in the NYU class of 2034, Mitch was going to study film, to become a filmmaker like his mom. His dad had exposed him to the business world; it was OK, but simply didn't match the excitement of the entertainment world. One nice thing about having wealthy parents was that you could afford to do something you loved, instead of whatever would put food on the table.

-X-X-X-

He'd only been in the city a few months when he saw her. He'd been at a club listening to a hot new band when he spotted her across a room. She was beautiful: a little preppy for this kind of venue, maybe, but there were... compensating attributes. Mitch had inherited his father's confidence and good looks (although he was wrong about whose confidence and looks they were), and didn't hesitate to approach her.

She was a junior at Columbia, and a very interesting girl. Some guys might have found her a bit bitchy, frankly, but Mitch was good with girls and could handle a little bit of attitude. Honestly, he found girls without a little sass kind of boring. Her parents lived in the city, her mother a famous news anchor.

He was quite taken with this girl, this Liddy Donaghy. There seemed to be some sort of connection between them, and they left the club to take a walk. The evening ended with a kiss; he was tempted to go for more, but this girl was special and he wanted to take it slow.

-X-X-X-

"So how are you settling in to New York, honey?"

"I'm pretty much set, mom. I'm moved in, and met some cool guys to hang out with."

"Good!"

"A lot of people told me there'd be a lot of neat girls in New York, too, and they were right." His mom was kind of prudish, as a mom should be; he liked to make her uncomfortable by talking about girls. His mischievious grin was met with a frown on the other end of the videophone.

"Are you already seeing someone?," Liz offered tentatively.

"No, but there's this one girl that I'm in to."

"I see. What's her name?" Mitch's mom seemed to more comfortable as the subtext veered from sex to dating.

"Liddy."

Liz's face dropped, her eyes widening. She gulped hard. Mitch wondered if some sort of glitch in the phone had made the name sound like a bad word.

"Liddy what?"

Mitch shrugged. "Uh... I'm not sure how you pronounce it, Dona-hee?" In 2030, people usually learned last names through mobile subdermal YouFace tags, which means they read them rather than heard them.

Liz closed her eyes for a long moment, tilted her head down, and stroked her forehead in contemplation. She then glanced from side to side, as if to see if dad was around.

She looked at him over the rim of her glasses. "Mitch. I need you to tell me something. What have you done with this girl?"

It was a completely unprecedented question from his mother. It was also kind of revolting. "Mom..."

"Mitch, honey, answer me. It's important."

"We just kissed, but what difference does it make?"

His mother was visibly relieved, putting her face in her hands in a release of tension.

"Listen to me very carefully. You CANNOT date her."

"What am I, twelve? Are you forbidding me to go out with her?"

"You have to trust me."

"I'm a grown man, mom. I don't know what you know about her, but no matter how bad she is, let me find that out for myself."

Liz wore a defeated expression. "OK." She looked around the condo again. "This isn't a good conversation to have over the phone, but we may have a 'Luke and Leia' situation here."

Mitch was well versed enough in Star Wars to immediately get the reference, but it would take another moment before its full implications sank in.

-X-X-X-

He'd made a good enough impression that it wasn't hard to get a lunch date with Liddy. He wouldn't pursue a relationship, of course, but he had to use this connection to his biological father. He'd always thought his father was Brent Lillebridge, and for all practical purposes, he still was. But his parents had lied to him about that; they'd met after he was conceived. And not even his father - adopted father - knew who his biological dad was.

He was almost completely truthful with Liddy. That he thought they might be related on the Donaghy side of the family, and that he'd like to meet her father. Obviously, there could be no further dating. She was a little skeptical this was some kind of scam, but when he dropped the name "Liz Lemon", she recognized it instantly.

"Are you sure we're related? Because I remember my Dad mentioning her as a friend and mentee, but not as a cousin or anything."

Mitch was heeding his mother's insistence that he not spill the beans. In fact, she'd told him not to do anything at all. Not even Jack knew, she said, and contacting him could wreck Liddy's family. He'd decided to ignore that instruction, but wasn't going to create any more collateral damage than necessary.

"I don't know. It's what my mom said. Can you take me over there to meet him sometime soon?"

Liddy's fingers absentmindedlly played with her long, blonde locks. "This really isn't how I was expecting tonight to go, but... I think my dad's flying out for something tomorrow. He should be home tonight... but my mom is probably going to be at the studio till pretty late."

Mitch smiled. That would be perfect. "Tonight would be great."

"Yeah, but I have this thing tonight. I can take you over there at least, and find out if we're related. This is kind of a weird situation." In truth, Liddy was reluctant to just send over a virtual stranger to her elderly, wealthy dad's house.

-X-X-X-

"Liddy, this is a pleasant surprise!"

"Daddy!" Liddy embraced and kissed her father.

"Who's your friend?"

"Mitch Lillebridge, sir." He offered his hand.

Jack paused for a moment as the name clicked. A moment of doubt crossed Mitch's face as Jack just stood there, till the older man took his hand. The boy had solid handshakefulness. Good.

"Dad, Mitch says that we might be related. Is that true?"

Jack recalled the moment two decades ago. Lemon telling him it wasn't his, his sense that it wasn't the truth. It all perhaps being confirmed now, after all this time.

He tried to calculate the angles. Jack certainly couldn't just claim paternity right now. He wasn't sure what Mitch knew, and he certainly wasn't prepared to explode Liddy's world quite yet. On the other hand, it didn't take a genius to figure out how Mitch and Liddy might have met each other. Best to stamp that out.

"Yes. Related. Distantly."

Jack thought he detected a puzzled look on Mitch's brow. It was almost - dare he say it - a badger face.

"Anyway, Dad, I have a thing to go to tonight. Is it alright if I leave you two here?"

"Going so soon?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to introduce you two." She planted a kiss on his cheek. Jack's eyes followed the light of his life as she left the house.

-X-X-X-

"Can I offer you something to drink?"

"What are you having?"

"Scotch."

Mitch looked sort of uncertain.

"If you want one too, it's alright."

"Oh. Alright then, scotch."

He quietly poured the drinks, and handed one to Mitch. He eyed it and took a sip. He wasn't really prepared for the taste and let out a small cough. Jack permitted himself a smile.

"What brings you to New York, Mitch?"

"I'm starting at NYU this fall."

"Do you know what you're going to study there?"

"Film."

Jack gave a knowing nod.

Mitch opened. "So how distantly related are we?"

Well played, Lillebridge, thought Jack. Force me to lay my cards on the table right away.

"What did your mother tell you?"

"That you were very close."

"Yes. Very close. For five or six years, my dearest friend in the world."

"What happened?"

"She moved to Vancouver. And we... drifted apart."

"Forgive me, sir..."

"Please. Jack."

"...Jack. But 'dearest friend' doesn't make us related."

Jack looked into his glass. "For a short while, we were more than that."

Jack glanced back up at Mitch. There was pain and longing and regret in the older man's eyes, as he regarded what he was now doubly sure was his own echo. Mitch couldn't have known the truth, how Jack thought about Lemon and Mitch every day. Wondered what his life could have been like if he'd seized the chance in all the years he'd had.

The charade was over.

"Dad?" Mitch was tearing up a bit.

"Son."

They embraced, and the emotions flowed freely.

-X-X-X-

Liz hated flying commercial. In the first few years of her marriage, she'd gotten used to private jets. But then carbon taxes escalated their price, until private aviation was priced out of range for the merely super-wealthy and reserved for plutocrats only.

But once upon a time, she was happy riding even the lowly intercity bus on trips. And for a trip this urgent, First Class would have to do.

Mother's intuition told her Mitch wouldn't listen to her warnings. It was somewhat ridiculous to cross the continent like this - it wasn't as if she could physically prevent him from finding Jack for the rest of his life - but maybe a surprise, in-person visit could talk some sense into the boy.

Before she left, she'd confessed her secret to Brent. He'd been remarkably understanding about what was, after all, a minor breach of trust. She'd initally claimed Mitch was the result of artifiical insemination because she wasn't sure that Jack would be out of her life forever, and didn't want to complicate that relationship any further. In the event, Jack's attendance at the wedding was more closure than new opening, and they went back to living their separate lives. They'd never had to make an effort to see each other when they worked together, and now they found they didn't know how to maintain whatever they had had over long distance. But thankfully, the exact paternity of a child conceived before Liz and Brent met wasn't of great importance to him.

Taking the cab from Newark, Liz tried to locate Mitch. He wasn't answering his phone implant. But luckily, these new devices allowed parents to track their children. Mitch hadn't bothered to turn that feature off when he turned 18, and she could now see that he was on the Upper East Side.

Blerg.

-X-X-X-

Liz didn't have much trouble finding Jack's place. Incredibly, it was still the same doorman from all those years ago, who let her in on sight.

She had no idea what she was going to say, as she stormed in to find her son and Jack sitting opposite each other in leather seats, each nursing a glass of scotch and in the midst of laughing heartedly about something.

Jack was facing the doorway, and upon hearing the footsteps he looked up, and his face froze. Time had faded her mental image of Jack, but now she saw the unmistakeable resemblance to her son's features. He looked good for 72, although Jack seemed to be observing the (for Liz) unfathomable new fashion for elderly men to grow their hair long.

The stare stopped her in her tracks. She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. Jack stood up, took a few steps toward her, and also froze. For what seemed like an hour, they took each other in in silence, Jack's lips gradually forming a smile, his eyes moistening. Liz's thin lips tightened, as if she were resisting the urge to cry.

"Mom! What are you doing here?" Mitch got up to say hello.

"Hi, Mitch." Liz didn't take her eyes off Jack.

"If you came here to stop me, you're too late."

"I know."

Liz looked beautiful for 60. Unlike Avery, she wasn't professionally obligated to keep herself in any kind of shape, but whatever it was in her metabolism that had kept her thin while consuming meatball subs daily (with little or no exercise) was still working. A lifetime spent inside hunched over scripts had kept her out of the sun and her skin youthful. God help her, she was still a solid 8. Or at least she was to Jack's eyes. He sensed the feelings come back, as if they'd parted a week ago. Lord knows, he'd probably thought about her every day since then. Not seven, but seven thousand days.

"Lemon." Someone had to say something.

They closed the distance and embraced, each closing their eyes tightly as they contemplated the lost time, the lives spent apart.

-X-X-X-

Sitting down, the threesome shared an awkward silence. No one knew what to say in the enormity of the moment. Then, there were superficial questions about Avery and Brent, which didn't break the tension at all.

Mitch finally started by asking questions about them. Without getting too graphic, Jack and Liz shared their story. It was mainly a story of mentorship and inbred Austrian princes and emergency contacts and Mexican cheese curls and a real-life Mamma Mia and aborted talk shows and accidental marriage. As the story went on, Mitch could see his parents - his biological parents, that is - slip into a rapport. He began to understand this couple, he thought, and started to wonder what his life would have been like under different circumstances.

After a lull in the conversation, Liz felt compelled to add something. "Mitch, know that I love your father, and I don't regret marrying him." It was true; as she saw it, Jack was her Buzz Aldrin, the true love that never would have worked out in the end.

Mitch nodded, and noted an odd expression flash on Jack's face. He excused himself to go to the bathroom and get another drink.

"Sorry I never told you."

"I knew. You're not such a good liar, Lemon."

Liz had, over the years, convinced herself that her deception had worked. She was a bit surprised now. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I understood why you didn't want me to know."

Liz nodded in comprehension, and looked down.

"You did a good job with him, Liz." He nudged his head in the direction of the kitchen.

"Thanks. He's a good kid. He has all your best qualities."

"And my faults?"

"Brent and I have beaten those out of him." She smiled.

Mitch came back in, without a drink. "You know, I have an 8:00 class tomorrow, so I should head back downtown." He stepped over and gave Jack a hug. "I'll be seeing you around, Dad."

"Bye, mom."

"I'll call you tomorrow morning, sweetie."

-X-X-X-

As the door shut, they uncomfortably stared into their drinks for a long minute.

"Do you ever wonder, Lemon?"

"Wonder?"

"About what it would have been like?"

"Let's not talk about this." She suddenly seemed very uncomfortable.

"Why not?"

"Because we made our decisions. They worked out in the end. Brent's been a wonderful husband and I'm sure you and Avery and Liddy are happy."

"You never gave me the chance to make a decision."

"Yes I did."

"When?"

"Every day for six years."

"Yes, but when you were with child, that would've changed the calculation..."

Old resentments bubbled up. "Please, Jack. This is me. I've seen you try to make that kind of decision, pick between two things when you can't have both, and it isn't pretty."

Jack was silent for a moment. He probably deserved that, he conceded to himself.

"But with Brent? Was there ever the passion? The passion of…"

Her tone was abrupt. "Jack. Enough." She closed her eyes for a moment. "I don't regret my decision."

From there, the conversation shifted. They'd both followed each other surreptitiously in the press. He'd made a point of watching her films; she's tuned in to a number of the reality shows he'd developed over the years. They'd both pictured each other crafting their work, and it was interesting to compare the inside stories to their imaginations.

"By the way, Lemon, Mitch is going to have to cool it around Avery."

"I know. I've told him once, and I'll tell him again tomorrow."

"Want something to eat?" Jack got up to get some things from the kitchen.

"Of course."

-X-X-X-

When Jack came back into the living room, he found Liz peacefully asleep on the couch. She had the advantage of the time difference, but she was probably exhausted from the flight, and in any case she was still Liz Lemon.

Jack smiled to himself, threw a blanket over her, and turned out the light. He still remembered the last time she'd fallen asleep there, when he'd felt the tension with her building and a new opportunity appearing. And the last time she'd stayed over at all, the night before he flew to China to rescue Avery.

He planted a soft kiss on her forehead, and went to bed.

-X-X-X-

Avery usually didn't work quite this late, but they were planning a big special report tomorrow evening, and there were a lot of problems with it. Avery and her producer had spent several hours going over its problems with the correspondent, who would have to fix them in the morning.

She figured Jack was already asleep, so she eased quietly into their home. In the corner of her eye, she was aware of a mass on the couch. She tiptoed over to regard the cuteness of her husband passed out waiting for her, and had to stifle a yelp of surprise when it turned out not to be him at all, but a woman, a woman she hadn't seen, or really thought about, for years.

Perplexed, she retired for the night.

-X-X-X-

When Jack and Avery woke up in the morning, Liz was gone.

Avery kept waiting for Jack to bring up the previous night's encounter, but he never did. There had always been something oddly deceptive about these two: long ago, they'd told her it was a simple relationship of mentor to mentee, but even with Jack's "immersive" technique it seemed deeper than that. She was a dear friend to him, at least; why had they not simply said so? Avery wasn't the kind to be insecure and jealous, especially of someone like Liz, so she didn't understand what connected these two and why they'd sanitized it to protect it from her.

And things had changed when Avery got back from North Korea. She'd always chalked it up to her own trauma, and the way it changes someone. Jack was warm enough when they reunited, but also more guarded; she thought it was an unfair, but instinctive and understandable reaction to her "cheating" via forced marriage. But come to think of it, Liz had acted very strangely, too; she'd become almost a part of Jack's household when Avery was gone, and...

Oh.

Jack said they'd had a falling out, but he'd never explained what it was about. The two had never been able to stay separate for long, and before she put the thought away, Avery had difficulty imagining what magnitude of fight could create such a gulf. Maybe it wasn't a fight at all. Maybe her self-confidence had caused her to miss something, something that many others had assumed all along.

And it all, finally, fell into place for Avery. Some part of her thought it would be appropriate to be mad, but she really wasn't; it was all a long time ago, and she'd known what she was getting into with Jack back when they were dating. And she'd won in the end.

But she'd have to watch a bit Jack a bit more carefully, now that Liz was apparently, in some sense, back in the picture.

-X-X-X-

Liz and Jack got together for lunch one last time, at a random coffee place, before she left for the airport.

"Do your son's... our son's arrangements meet with your approval?"

"Yeah, he's not living like a pig, so that's something."

"If you thought his place was too messy, that would be saying something."

"You've never seen what my place looks like with a maid. My standards have improved."

"Fair enough."

There was an uncomfortable pause.

"How you are adjusting to having a son?"

"I'd always thought he might be mine, but now that it's almost out in the open I feel... happy."

Liz offers a subtle, gentle smile. "Is it going to be hard to sneak around to see him?"

"I don't think so. Avery works long hours, so I'm used to running around on my own."

Liz nodded. They looked at each other for another beat, and both started talking at the same time.

"Me first," Jack ordered.

"Do you remember what I said to you that last night in New York, just before you got in the cab?"

"I believe you propositioned me again."

"No, the other thing."

Liz nodded. "Yeah."

"I meant it. I still do."

"Me, too."

They both looked down for a moment.

"Well, Jack, it's about time I caught a cab, or I'll be stuck here another night." She stood to gather her luggage.

"It's not going to be another twenty years, is it Lemon?"

"No. I don't want to do that anymore."

"Good."

"I'll give you a call when I get home. Talk to you later."

She did give him a call. It became a habit.

END.