Chapter Seven: Time Heals
August 10th, 1997
"Why did you bring him?" Tess asked Alex quizzically, staring at their third and completely unexpected guest for the week as Liz and Maria hugged ecstatically.
"His dad's been dating Maria's mom and they wanted some alone time. It was this or football camp, and apparently, he decided that there was a better chance of girls here."
Tess frowned at that, but did not make another comment, instead turning to hug Maria as Liz tackled Alex.
Later, once all the bags were loaded in the car, and they were headed back towards their Aunt's beach house, Liz leaned over and whispered in Alex's ear. "I suggest you claim the couch as soon as we get there, that way Kyle's stuck in Nick's room, not you."
"You always got my back Lizzy."
"Of course!" she replied with a grin, giving him a one-armed hug as the car pulled into the driveway.
Per her advice, the moment they were inside, Alex tossed his bag on the couch and stretched himself out over it, taking full advantage of his lanky frame. "I call the couch."
Kyle looked unimpressed until the girls' aunt directed him down the hall to put his stuff in Nick's room, and then he did his best version of a man pout, causing all four of the other teens to crack up.
When he returned, he dropped into a recliner and groaned, "Damn you and your scheming ways Whitman." Alex just grinned and the other boy rolled his eyes, then tilted his head so he was looking at Liz and asked, "So Pa…Liz, when are we hitting the beach?" with his best charming smile.
She raised an eyebrow and smiled back at him, batting her eyelashes with false flirtatiousness. "Why whenever you want Va…Kyle. It's right out the backdoor and two hundred yards that-a-way."
The other three snickered and Kyle sunk a little deeper into the chair. "I am just not feeling the love in this room."
Maria rolled her eyes, "I wonder why that is my non-brother, could it be that you invited yourself on our vacation without so much as a please?"
In response he fell to his knees in front of the chair and held his arms out wide. "I humbly beg forgiveness my not yet-sister and her friends, please forgive this poor jock for not wanting to spend three weeks surrounded by spitting, sweating, grunting, men, instead of beautiful girls in bikinis."
Maria did not seem impressed, but Liz and Tess both giggled, and Liz waved her hand at him magnanimously, "We forgive you Kyle, get up, you can come to the beach with us later."
"Yes!" he said with a fist pump as he climbed back into the recliner and the other four exchanged glances that were half-exasperation and half-grudging amusement. What really mattered was that they were together, and no unexpected guest or unwelcome family members were going to ruin their vacation.
For the reunited best friends all they really needed was the time spent together.
January 30th, 1998
"I have a surprise for you," Aunt Rachel said as she appeared in their bedroom doorway. Something in her voice clued the girls in that it was not necessarily a happy surprise and they stood reluctantly after exchanging worried glances.
They followed her to the living room, Tess right behind Liz, until her sister stopped dead at the end of the hallway, Tess almost colliding with her suddenly stiff back.
"Daddy?"
Jeff was sitting on the couch, eyes dark with unnamed emotion, and neither girl knew how to react.
They had seen their father only three times since their mother died, with a handful of phone calls thrown in for good measure, so seeing him there definitely qualified as a surprise, and both girls felt their hearts sink into their stomachs as they prepared themselves for bad news.
Instead of speaking though, their father stood and pulled them both into his arms. They were a little resistant at first, but five years of sporadic contact with the only parent they had left soon had them melting into him as all three dissolved into tears and hugged each other fiercely.
It was everything they had been missing and slowly the dread began to fade.
"After you're done with school this year, would you like to come home?" he asked them once he could speak again, by then sitting on the floor with both girls leaning against him, Aunt Rachel having long since disappeared to give them some privacy.
"A...Are you sure?" Liz asked, voice still watery as she grasped her sister's hand with desperate need.
"I'm very sure and I am so sorry that it took me this long to ask. I love you both so much and I can't wait to see you every day. I know it won't make up for lost time but,"
Before he could finish his self-recriminatory statement, the two of them wrapped their arms around him and squeezed tightly, "It's okay, dad, we understand, we love you too and we want to come home," Tess said with a warm smile, tilting her chin up to look at him as Liz nodded her agreement, happy tears glistening in her eyes.
They were going to be a family again.
May 14th, 1998
Liz sighed and stretched, then stood and abandoned Tess and their history homework to go in search of a snack. She stopped at the edge of kitchen in surprise when she saw Nick sitting the counter, head buried in his arms and shoulders stiff with tension. Anger and sadness were coming off him waves she did not even need her extra senses to detect.
For a moment she hesitated, but in the end the fact that he was family won out over lingering resentment. Scuffing her heels as she approached so that he wouldn'tt be surprised, she entered the kitchen and leant on the counter across from him.
"You okay, Nick?"
He did not react at first, but when she stayed there and did not move away, he raised his head, revealing red eyes and a pinched expression. "What do you care Lizzy? I'm the evil cousin remember?"
Liz did not back down, instead meeting his gaze fearlessly and quirking an eyebrow. "You haven't made an effort to be anything else Nick, and we do care."
He studied her silently for a moment, and then sighed and rubbed his forehead in an attempt to compose himself. "My dad is going to be back in the states next year, but he's made it clear that I'm not welcome at his house and if I show up he's shipping me back to military school."
"I'm sorry," she said softly, wishing she could make some sort of empathizing comment, but knowing it would not be received as she intended since her own father was welcoming her and her sister home again in just a couple months.
"With you guys going back home, Mom wanted to go on a dig this year…" he trailed off and she could tell that he did not want to ask his mom to stay, just for him, but also could not stomach the thought of going back to military school.
Staying quiet she reached out for her sister, 'Tess? I need to show you something.'
Tess watched the replay of their conversation and then sighed, 'You're going to invite him to Roswell aren't you, Miss Bleeding Heart?' Liz was conspicuously silent and she sighed again. 'Okay, go ahead, let's bring Nicky to the alien capital and see how he fares.' She snickered, 'We'll have dad make him a cook.'
Liz chuckled at the thought too, albeit silently, then reached out and lightly touched her cousins arm. "Why don't you come to Roswell with us? You can enroll there, and at the end of the year either stay, or come back here once your mom is back from her dig."
He stared at her in shock, disbelief evident in every line of his body. "Are you serious?"
She shrugged and repressed a full-blown grin. "I'm serious, it's not exactly the big city you're used to, but it's got to better than military school."
"You got that right," he muttered with a snort, running his hands through his sandy blond hair and then dropping them on the counter with a sigh. "Okay, let's do it, Roswell here we come."
