~Disclaimer: I own none of them, I'm just playing with them, and I'll be returning them when I get through. I also stake no claim to any episodes that I use for the Flashbacks. They belong to the writers and FFC. I do however own Alex Wallace.~
*From now on, I'm going to put (~) around dreams.
~If you haven't found anything worth dying for, then you have never truly lived.~ Unknown
"What is that supposed to mean?" Auggie stopped and glared at Scott. The two had ignored each other when at all humanly possible. Both of them were blaming the other for something that neither was to be blamed for. At lunch they worked togeather without speaking. On the trails it was a little easier the just simply walked with two different people, but now that they both had seen Shelby cry. I was as natural to them as breathing to put their guard up.
Scott didn't want to get into it with Auggie where Peter could get them for fighting. "Nothing, Aug, just that she prefers you and Daisy to me." He was telling the truth, but the point he'd forgotten was that he had never really tried to talk to Shelby. "Just let it go man. It's not important." Scott sped up to catch David and Jess.
"Meat's walking on my last nerve." Auggie warned Ezra and Juliet, as he turned to make sure Dasiy was still with Shelby. He knew that Scott was worried about her. He was too. He just didn't see the need to turn his back on her just because she didn't want to talk to him at that moment. Shelby would have more than enough time to talk to everyone when they got up to the cabin.
"He's just scared." Juliet tried to smooth things out between Auggie and Scott as best she could. It didn't seem to matter that Auggie had been paying more attention to Shelby in the past few days, or that Scott had barely said five words to Shelby since he got back.
Ezra had enough sense to stay out of it. He knew that the more you let Auggie talk, the more angry Auggie got. Helping Auggie beat Scott up sounded like a good idea to him, though. He was the source of Shleby's pain. Not all of it, but at least some.
Alex wandered into the hotel lounge. He had about half an hour to kill before he had to head back up to the suite to see his father to head to the meeting. As he walked into the finely decoreated room and headed up to the bar to order himself a beer, he spotted Martin Barringer. He had only met the man once before, and he thought it would be a great idea to meet him again to get his views on the new policy's that his father was wanting to administer in the business. Grabbing his beer off of the counter and charging it to his room, he walked over to the table where Martin sat amoung the papers.
Martin scribbed something down on his legal pad and waved for Alex to join him. "All I ask is that Peter call me when he gets back with the kids." There was silance. "Thank you. I'll have my cell phone turned on, he can call me day or night." Silance again, and Martin pushed to stop button on his cell phone. "Damn it!" He took a quick sip of his martini and shoved the phone into his brief case.
Alex didn't know what to say. "Another meeting?"
"Nothing like that at all." Martin began to clean up his papers and putting them into folders. "The principal at Scott's school sent them on a five day feild trip, and I won't be able to go up and visit them until at least Saturday." Once the area was clean, he drained his glass and signaled for another. "I kinda wanted to visit him again, and meet all his friends." He waited a beat. "Your father finally let you loose?"
Alex didn't reall feel like answering any of Martin's questions, so he decided to change the subject. "What's your son like?" He took a few swigs of his beer and leaned his elbow on the table. "From what Dad tells me, he's like this big football hero. Is that the kind of school you sent him to?" He looked up at Martin, trying to keep his face innocent.
Martin shifted uncomfertably after Alex got through with his questions. "Your father raised you to be just like him didn't he?" He asked chuckling. He reached into his wallet for the folded picture of Scott and his friends that he had managed to sneak out of Scott's bags. With his son returning to Horizon, he wanted to remeber Scott like he had seen him with his friends. Happy. He wondered for a second why Scott ever wanted to leave Horizon. "Mount Horizon is a school to help troubled teens. Scott....had some problems with drugs in the past, and my ex-wife, Elaine, and I thought that Horizon was the best place for him to be. He's been doing better since he got there." The picture slid across to Alex's side of the table. "He's even got himself a great girl now. She's really helped him deal with this stuff. That's her to the right of him in the middle."
Alex's eyes grazed over the picture. He saw the tall blonde boy and presumed that that was Scott. He looked like he belonged on the cover of some magizine. He surely didn't look troubled. He was standing next to a girl that looked vaguely fimilar. Then he did a double take. That girl was....."Shelby?" He almost dropped his beer. The girl standing to the right of Scott was unmistakeably Shelby. Her blonde hair was a little shorter now, cut right below her shoulders, and her clothes were nothing like the style he'd seen her wear on the streets. She looked so real, so happy to be in the picture....So different then she had when he'd last seen her. He knew right there that he had found his soulmate, and he would stop at nothing until he had her again. "Who..." He had to let the picture drop to her the table before he tried to speak again. Once Alex regained his composure, he looked back up at Martin. "What's her name?"
Martin looked at the back of the picture. "Shelby Merrick." He read machincally. "She's not exactly my first choice for my son, but she helpd him see that what happened to him wasn't his fault, so I guess she couldn't be that bad." Martin looked at the watch that he had bought to replace the one that Elaine had given him. "It's almost time for the meeting." He observed Alex's reaction.
"You go ahead." Alex stood and took his bottle over to the bar to think. "I'll be ther a little late." Once he was sure that Martin was gone, he pulled out his cell phone and a pen. Dailing up his offices number, he quietly waited until Connie answered. "Conns can you find me the number to a school called Mount Horizon High? It's a little place up in Washington."He waited as Connie typed.
"Sure thing boss." Connie typed a few more keys and a number came up. "You can reach Peter Scarburrow at six one six." She waited until he stopped writing. "Five five five, six nine eight nine." She typed in a few keys and waited. "Can I ask you why you wanted to know?"
"Depends." He tucked the piece of paper into his pocket. "How good are you diplomacy skills?" He needed someone that could find out all they could on why Shelby was there. He thought for a second. "I need you to go through police reports and what not to find everything you can on a girlnamed Shelby Merrick." He waited until she was typing again. Then something came to him. "You can also try Slate Harding. Or any combination of the two." The keys never stopped tapping.
Connie pulled up a picture of Shelby. "It says here that she was found on the streets a few weeks after her sixteenth birthday. She plead to her father to help her, but when he couldn't, she negotiated her way into a school called Horizon. Her mother drove her up three weeks after her arrest." Something inside of her brain clicked, and she searched further into the database. "She was arrested three times prior under the name Slate Harding, along side of Patricia Marks for prostituiton. All three times she was bailed out by....."
He knew what she had just seen. Now there was no way he could hide this from her. "By me, Conn. She was bailed out by me."
*From now on, I'm going to put (~) around dreams.
~If you haven't found anything worth dying for, then you have never truly lived.~ Unknown
"What is that supposed to mean?" Auggie stopped and glared at Scott. The two had ignored each other when at all humanly possible. Both of them were blaming the other for something that neither was to be blamed for. At lunch they worked togeather without speaking. On the trails it was a little easier the just simply walked with two different people, but now that they both had seen Shelby cry. I was as natural to them as breathing to put their guard up.
Scott didn't want to get into it with Auggie where Peter could get them for fighting. "Nothing, Aug, just that she prefers you and Daisy to me." He was telling the truth, but the point he'd forgotten was that he had never really tried to talk to Shelby. "Just let it go man. It's not important." Scott sped up to catch David and Jess.
"Meat's walking on my last nerve." Auggie warned Ezra and Juliet, as he turned to make sure Dasiy was still with Shelby. He knew that Scott was worried about her. He was too. He just didn't see the need to turn his back on her just because she didn't want to talk to him at that moment. Shelby would have more than enough time to talk to everyone when they got up to the cabin.
"He's just scared." Juliet tried to smooth things out between Auggie and Scott as best she could. It didn't seem to matter that Auggie had been paying more attention to Shelby in the past few days, or that Scott had barely said five words to Shelby since he got back.
Ezra had enough sense to stay out of it. He knew that the more you let Auggie talk, the more angry Auggie got. Helping Auggie beat Scott up sounded like a good idea to him, though. He was the source of Shleby's pain. Not all of it, but at least some.
Alex wandered into the hotel lounge. He had about half an hour to kill before he had to head back up to the suite to see his father to head to the meeting. As he walked into the finely decoreated room and headed up to the bar to order himself a beer, he spotted Martin Barringer. He had only met the man once before, and he thought it would be a great idea to meet him again to get his views on the new policy's that his father was wanting to administer in the business. Grabbing his beer off of the counter and charging it to his room, he walked over to the table where Martin sat amoung the papers.
Martin scribbed something down on his legal pad and waved for Alex to join him. "All I ask is that Peter call me when he gets back with the kids." There was silance. "Thank you. I'll have my cell phone turned on, he can call me day or night." Silance again, and Martin pushed to stop button on his cell phone. "Damn it!" He took a quick sip of his martini and shoved the phone into his brief case.
Alex didn't know what to say. "Another meeting?"
"Nothing like that at all." Martin began to clean up his papers and putting them into folders. "The principal at Scott's school sent them on a five day feild trip, and I won't be able to go up and visit them until at least Saturday." Once the area was clean, he drained his glass and signaled for another. "I kinda wanted to visit him again, and meet all his friends." He waited a beat. "Your father finally let you loose?"
Alex didn't reall feel like answering any of Martin's questions, so he decided to change the subject. "What's your son like?" He took a few swigs of his beer and leaned his elbow on the table. "From what Dad tells me, he's like this big football hero. Is that the kind of school you sent him to?" He looked up at Martin, trying to keep his face innocent.
Martin shifted uncomfertably after Alex got through with his questions. "Your father raised you to be just like him didn't he?" He asked chuckling. He reached into his wallet for the folded picture of Scott and his friends that he had managed to sneak out of Scott's bags. With his son returning to Horizon, he wanted to remeber Scott like he had seen him with his friends. Happy. He wondered for a second why Scott ever wanted to leave Horizon. "Mount Horizon is a school to help troubled teens. Scott....had some problems with drugs in the past, and my ex-wife, Elaine, and I thought that Horizon was the best place for him to be. He's been doing better since he got there." The picture slid across to Alex's side of the table. "He's even got himself a great girl now. She's really helped him deal with this stuff. That's her to the right of him in the middle."
Alex's eyes grazed over the picture. He saw the tall blonde boy and presumed that that was Scott. He looked like he belonged on the cover of some magizine. He surely didn't look troubled. He was standing next to a girl that looked vaguely fimilar. Then he did a double take. That girl was....."Shelby?" He almost dropped his beer. The girl standing to the right of Scott was unmistakeably Shelby. Her blonde hair was a little shorter now, cut right below her shoulders, and her clothes were nothing like the style he'd seen her wear on the streets. She looked so real, so happy to be in the picture....So different then she had when he'd last seen her. He knew right there that he had found his soulmate, and he would stop at nothing until he had her again. "Who..." He had to let the picture drop to her the table before he tried to speak again. Once Alex regained his composure, he looked back up at Martin. "What's her name?"
Martin looked at the back of the picture. "Shelby Merrick." He read machincally. "She's not exactly my first choice for my son, but she helpd him see that what happened to him wasn't his fault, so I guess she couldn't be that bad." Martin looked at the watch that he had bought to replace the one that Elaine had given him. "It's almost time for the meeting." He observed Alex's reaction.
"You go ahead." Alex stood and took his bottle over to the bar to think. "I'll be ther a little late." Once he was sure that Martin was gone, he pulled out his cell phone and a pen. Dailing up his offices number, he quietly waited until Connie answered. "Conns can you find me the number to a school called Mount Horizon High? It's a little place up in Washington."He waited as Connie typed.
"Sure thing boss." Connie typed a few more keys and a number came up. "You can reach Peter Scarburrow at six one six." She waited until he stopped writing. "Five five five, six nine eight nine." She typed in a few keys and waited. "Can I ask you why you wanted to know?"
"Depends." He tucked the piece of paper into his pocket. "How good are you diplomacy skills?" He needed someone that could find out all they could on why Shelby was there. He thought for a second. "I need you to go through police reports and what not to find everything you can on a girlnamed Shelby Merrick." He waited until she was typing again. Then something came to him. "You can also try Slate Harding. Or any combination of the two." The keys never stopped tapping.
Connie pulled up a picture of Shelby. "It says here that she was found on the streets a few weeks after her sixteenth birthday. She plead to her father to help her, but when he couldn't, she negotiated her way into a school called Horizon. Her mother drove her up three weeks after her arrest." Something inside of her brain clicked, and she searched further into the database. "She was arrested three times prior under the name Slate Harding, along side of Patricia Marks for prostituiton. All three times she was bailed out by....."
He knew what she had just seen. Now there was no way he could hide this from her. "By me, Conn. She was bailed out by me."