AN: Hello, me again. I know it's been FOREVER. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your patience and continued encouragement on this story. It means the world to me and pushes me to keep on keepin on with this story. My life has been crazy this year and even though I tried to write numeroust times, it just never came out of my fingers onto the keyboard. Since this chapter is about Thanksgiving my goal was to have it ready for Thanksgiving, so I made it during Thanksgiving this weekend! Hope it was worth the wait and that that the next chapter will come your way sooner as I've already started it and given you a preview at the end. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Happy M Sec Sunday!

"So Ali, give us the scoop. Tell us what your Aunts and Uncles are like. You said there was 3 right?" Stevie asked one night while the two girls were relaxing on the couch while Jason played video games in front of them.

"Um, they are okay I guess. Uncle Shane and Aunt Erin are cool. They get along well with Dad. Aunt Erin is a high school English teacher. She isn't married and doesn't have any kids. Uncle Shawn is divorced, and has one daughter Sarah. She's about your age, Stevie. Last I heard she was joining the military to become a nurse."

"That's cool." Stevie agreed, thinking it might be nice to have a cousin her own age since Annie was very young.

"Then there's Aunt Maureen. She and Dad don't get along. They are always fighting. She is married and has two girls a bit younger than me. To be honest, growing up I didn't see them that often since they lived in Pittsburg. Since, Dad doesn't get along very well with Aunt Maureen, or my Grandpa he pretty much avoids them. They must have had some kind of falling out a long time ago. Plus he's even angrier now with him hiding your mom's letters."

"Yea, that's too bad. But it will be nice to meet them and have more family members. On our side, we only have our Uncle Will & his girlfriend Sophie and their daughter Annie. Annie is 5. They are all really great, but they've lived in London most of my life so we don't see them much. And my dad was an only child, so after our grandparents died – we really only had Mom." Stevie explained.

"I'm sorry you didn't have a big family either." Ali said

"But we all have each other now right?" Stevie said and the girls hugged.

"Should be an interesting dinner then tomorrow…."

"Definitely. Let's try and be extra nice to everyone and make them feel welcome. Maybe it will help mend things over." Stevie suggested.

"Couldn't hurt."

"Ready for this?" Henry asked Elizabeth as he checked on the turkey in the oven. He'd already prepared some of the side dishes and had them keeping warm in the second oven; it definitely smelled like Thanksgiving.

"Definitely." Elizabeth answered. "Just remember, family is family Henry. We at least have to try. Your Dad agreed to come without any argument, so I'd take that as a good sign."

"And that's what scares me." Henry replied and Elizabeth eyed him as he edited his response. "I know you are right." Henry then smiled and pulled her to him. "I am so thankful to have you back Elizabeth. You have no idea."

"Oh I do…because I feel the same way." She smiled, pushing up to her tiptoes to kiss him. "It's going to be fine."

Their kiss was soon interrupted by the doorbell and they reluctantly broke apart. "Here goes nothing." Henry said, and pulled her hand leading her to the door.

As they reached the door, Elizabeth quickly turned her engagement ring backwards on her hand as Henry pulled the handle – revealing Will, Sophie & Annie. Henry for one was glad Will arrived first, so he could put off the first meeting between he and his father since he retrieved the letters. He wondered if Shane even told him that he'd kept them.

Smiles, hugs, greetings were exchanged between them and Elizabeth before she turned to Henry. "Will, you remember Henry McCord don't you?"

"Henry. Good to see you." Will smiled, offering his hand.

"Same to you Will." Henry smiled, firmly shaking his hand. "Lizzie told me you two had re-connected, that's great."

"It's been wonderful." Henry said.

"Clearly things are going well if you invited us for a family Thanksgiving." Will teased. "This is Sophie and my daughter Annie."

Each of them hugged Henry and exchanged pleasantries while Elizabeth called for the children.

Stevie and Jason were fast down the staircase, excited to see their Uncle Will. Alison was following behind patiently, waiting to be introduced.

"Guys, this is Henry's daughter, Alison." Elizabeth introduced, wrapping her arm around Alison's shoulder.

She gave Will and Sophie a hug and insisted they call her Ali.

"And you must be Annie." Ali said, bending to greet the young girl.

Annie shyly nodded her head.

"That's a great dress you have. I recently sketched a couple dresses. Do you want to see?" Ali tried.

"Sure."

As the girls went upstairs, Elizabeth led the way to the kitchen with the promise of cocktails. "Everything smells great." Will said.

"Henry made it all." Elizabeth said, beginning to pour her brother a scotch.

"Thank god!" Will joked, talking a sip of his drink.

The adults chatted amicably until the doorbell rang again. Henry took a large swig of his drink and held his hand to Elizabeth. "Shall we?"

She nodded, excusing herself from Will and Sophie.

Henry opened the door to reveal his family. The pair smiled at the door as they exchanged hellos, welcomes and tense hugs from the McCord clan. They'd all somehow arrived together, Erin, Shane, Sarah, Maureen, Shawn and their girls Amanda and Megan. After all the siblings entered, Patrick McCord stood at the door.

"Henry." He said, eying his son.

"Dad. Come in." Henry said as politely as he could. "You remember Elizabeth right?"

He nodded slightly as he entered and Elizabeth emerged from hugging Erin and Shane, and said. "Patrick. Good to see you."

Patrick nodded and Elizabeth took it well, not sure what she was expecting from the man who hid their letters. He offered a polite, "Thank you for having us."

"Of course." Elizabeth said before gesturing them all to the kitchen whilst Henry yelled downstairs for the kids to come down and say hello. "My brother and his family are already here."

"Nice place." Maureen said with a slight attitude as she followed the group in the kitchen. "But I wouldn't expect anything less for a queen."

Henry and Elizabeth rolled their eyes at one another and bit their tongues, instead saying. "We like it."

"We huh?" Maureen chided and Henry immediately shot Elizabeth a look which she shut down with a glare of her own.

Elizabeth had never been more grateful to her brother for helping her break the ice and make small talk in the kitchen while they waited for the alcohol to kick in. Even Stevie had been great at asking her new soon to be aunts and uncles questions and everyone had been polite except Maureen, who offered a smart remark whenever she could while Patrick remained uncharacteristically silent.

When the oven timer rung, Henry proudly pulled the large turkey from the oven and finally there was something they could all agree on – the food smelled amazing and they were all starving.

As everyone sat down to dinner, Henry and Elizabeth at the heads of the table, rose their glasses. Elizabeth began speaking. "I just want to say, thank you all for coming. It's an honor to have both our families together this Thanksgiving, for after all – family is what's most important. So Happy Thanksgiving."

"Happy Thanksgiving." Everyone repeated politely and took a sip of their wine.

"Shall we all go around and say what we're thankful for?" Elizabeth asked as she set down her glass, glancing at Henry.

"Absolutely. I'll start." Henry rose from his seat and looked around the room. He felt the best way to get the elephant out of the room was to just come out with it and be honest. "This year I have many blessings to be thankful for, and most of them have everything to do with the incredible woman at the other end of the table." He began. "I'm beyond grateful for my job, which lead me to bump into Elizabeth gain after so many years apart. Reconnecting with her this year has been the best thing that could ever happen to me. And I want to thank her, for forgiving me for the past, and forgiving a few select people in this room for hiding our letters and keeping us apart, even if I wasn't so forgiving. I'm also especially thankful to Shane and Erin for keeping our letters and which helped me prove to this incredible woman how much I love her."

When Henry revealed Shane & Erin's actions, Maureen dropped her jaw and Patrick was quick to motion for her to cut it out, which seemed to make her even more angry.

Henry paused and looked around the table before he continued. "And despite what happened, it was her idea to have this Thanksgiving dinner so both our families could get to know one another, because like it or not we will all soon be family, because Elizabeth and I are engaged."

When Henry finished his speech, he sat down and waited for a reply. Maureen sat in stunned silence. Shane and Erin looked at each other, hiding their happiness as they looked to their father, not wanting to cause a scene with a joyful response. It seemed everyone was awaiting Patricks' reaction before responding. But Patrick said nothing, looking almost sad in a way. Elizabeth, the kids and Will and Sophie had offered Henry sympathetic smiles at Henry as the silence ensued – not daring to be the ones to speak first.

Henry had had enough of the silence and was just about to stand up with a few comments he'd been holding back for some time but it was Will that spoke first. "Well, that's fantastic news Henry. I always knew you were the right one for my sister. It will be something we can all look forward to next year. Is there a date yet?"

"Thank you, Will." Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief. "We are very happy. But no date yet. We wanted to ensure our families and friends knew before we started planning or making any public announcement."

"A public announcement…does that mean we are going to start getting ambushed by reporters?" Maureen immediately spoke up. "I know that Elizabeth is in the public eye, but now we have to be dragged into it too? That's not our choice and we shouldn't have – "

"Maureen. Cut it out." Patrick finally said and the room went back to silence for a moment.

"Maureen, we know it's not fair that sometimes the press brings my family into things. But my team works very hard to ensure that there is minimal inconveniences, and why we want to give everyone a heads up so we can all be prepared in the event someone gets asked about something." Elizabeth said very diplomatically.

It was then Alison who decided to chime in, which shocked Henry as she was typically very shy. "Aunt Maureen, there have already been a few articles since Dad has been dating Elizabeth. It's totally unfair to all of us, and it sucks that they spy on then and take pictures on their dates when it's supposed to be private. But they have been really great about prepping us and we've all learned to ignore it because we know what's real. And I don't care if they write about the wedding because it's a happy occasion. I've never seen my dad so happy and I for one am super excited for Elizabeth to be able to be my mom."

Alison's comments brought tears to Elizabeth's eyes. They hadn't talked about much about Alison calling her anything but Elizabeth, or her children calling Henry dad. She was thrilled about having Alison in the family and now even more thrilled that Alison considered her to be a mother.

"Ali…." Elizabeth looked to her and clutched her hand, luckily sitting next to her at the table. Ali squeezed her hand back and smiled.

Just then Patrick cleared his throat and stood to raise a glass. "Well, it seems there are mixed feelings about this announcement. But I for one would just like to offer my congratulations and to thank you both for having us all together for the holiday."

Patrick's simple, yet kind words shocked them all and they all simply raised their glass for a cheers. As Patrick returned to his seat he said. "Let's eat already!", which elicited laughs from all and they quickly began to pass food around the table.

Later that evening; Henry stood in the kitchen with a smile as he sliced the pumpkin pies for dessert in awe. If you would have told him that Thanksgiving with his family at Elizabeth's was going to end in joyful laughter he would have told you that you were crazy. But that's exactly what was happening in the next room as the families played a rousing game of catch phrase. Henry couldn't help but step back as he finished the pie to quietly observe a while longer and be grateful for all the joys Elizabeth had brought to his life and now to those of his family. He wondered what on earth he'd done to deserve her.

After pie was eaten, Elizabeth had been the one to collect plates to return to the kitchen while the family set up Yachtzee to play next and took a moment to refresh drinks and use the restroom.

Elizabeth turned from the counter to find Patrick McCord standing nearby, handing her a few more plates. "Oh thanks for bringing these in." she said

"Sure. Do you need help with anything?" he offered.

"No, I think we're all set, we can leave all the dishes until later." She said and gestured for him to follow her back into the living room.

But Patrick didn't move, instead gesturing her back toward the island. "Is something wrong?" she asked

"No. I just….I wanted to get a moment alone with you to thank you for having us, Elizabeth."

"It was my pleasure." She said nonchalantly. "Let's go play the game."

"No really, Elizabeth." Pat pressed on, "It really means a lot to me. After what I did to you and Henry all those years ago, I just am so grateful that you can find it in your heart to forgive us. Henry told me this was your idea when he called to invite us over, and I know he wasn't keen on it. I know I was a pain in the ass back then, and probably still am. Maureen too." Elizabeth laughed slightly then, but didn't speak as Patrick continued. "It's been hard sine Jane died, on all of us, especially Henry. He'd never admit it though. To be honest – this is the first time everyone has been together on Thanksgiving since passed. She was the glue to our family. She kept everyone in line, including Maureen and myself. Ever since that day Henry showed up demanding the letters I've tried to remember the real reason I kept them from you both. It was so long ago and there is no valid excuse - but deep down I think I knew then how much Henry loved you and I didn't like that you were going to be the one to take him away from us, away from Pittsburg. But now I realize you weren't the reason he would leave. He was going to go his own way anyway. He always had high ambitions and dreamed of bigger things than we had to offer. Jane always said not to worry that you and Henry would come to visit and I guess I never believed it. Jane loved you so much, and I'm sorry it's taken me 20 plus years to see what Henry and Jane see in you. I think you will be the glue that holds us together from now on."

Elizabeth stood in awe. She was speechless for a moment. "I'm sorry about Jane. I know how hard it is to lose a spouse - and a parent for that matter. When my parents died our family fractured a bit as well, but in time we all get through it. I learned to lean on others, like Henry, and even though you guys were a pain in the ass," Elizabeth winked and Patrick laughed this time. "Back then I was so grateful to have a family again and that was all that mattered. While I do agree it was wrong of you to hide the letters, all that matters now, much like back then, is that Henry and I are together. And because we together, like it or not, that also includes all you stubborn McCords."

Patrick didn't have many words, and simply nodded and smiled.

With that Elizabeth placed her hand on his shoulder and guided him back to the living room. "Come on Pat, watch me kick everyone's ass at Yachtzee."

Later that evening when everyone had gone, with promises to return in the morning for a big breakfast and black Friday shopping, Elizabeth and Henry found themselves alone with the dishes.

They quickly fell into a rhythm, she washed and he dried, sharing occasional touches and hip bumps along the way.

"Everything went to well today. So much better than I thought." Henry mused.

"It was a wonderful day."

"I think that has everything to do you with you." Henry said, bumping her hip.

"Not entirely. I think it really meant a lot to your dad." Elizabeth said softly as she dunked a wine glass in the water to rinse it.

"His toast surprised me."

"Me too. But he had a chat with me after dessert and it makes more sense to me now."

"Oh yeah?"

"He misses your mom. All of them do. He told me that this is the first holiday they've spent all together since she died. And that was 5 years ago right?"

"Wow. I didn't know that. I mean I haven't been home much since she died, but I didn't know the rest of them weren't getting together."

"He also said that he's sorry about the letters the gist of it was that he thinks deep down he kept them not necessarily because he didn't like me, but that he was afraid you would leave Pittsburgh and not come back, and I was just the catalyst to get you out. But he realizes now you would have left whether I was there or not."

Henry didn't say anything, but paused and leaned against the counter as he put a newly dried plate away in the cupboard.

"I had told him that while I am upset about the letters, that what matters now is that you and I are back together, which also includes our families and he agreed. I think his toast was genuine and that you should talk to him. It would mean a lot to him."

Henry pulled her into his arms and nodded. "I'll talk to him tomorrow. I still need time to forgive him, but now that I understand where he's coming is helpful. Thank you for being so wonderful to my family, even though they are such pains in the ass." He added playfully.

"What can I say, I'm a professional peacemaker." She teased back.

"God I love you." He whispered, pulling her hips to his.

"I love you too." She whispered back, meeting his lips for a kiss

TBC

Preview (later that evening in the bedroom):

Henry brushed a stray hair from her face as he waited for her to vocalize her idea. "Since both our families are in town, and they are all genuinely happy for us, what do you say we get married on Saturday so they can be there."

"You want to get married on Saturday? As in like just over 24 hours from now?!"