Chapter 11

I'll Always Love You

Elizabeth brushed out her damp blonde hair after she got out of the

shower on Christmas Eve. It was almost ten, and she was about ready to go

to bed. Tomorrow she was going with Conner's family to have dinner at

his grandma's house.

"Hey Liz, can I come in?" She heard Conner call from the other side of

the bathroom door.

"Sure!" She called back, walking towards her bed to turn it down.

Conner walked in and over to her. He wrapped his arms around her from

behind, and kissed her on the cheek.

"Ready to meet my family tomorrow?" Conner asked her.

Elizabeth turned around to face him. "Yeah." Then she bit her lip. "Do

they know about…" she trailed off.

"Most of them." Conner sighed, and sat down on her bed, and pulled her

onto his lap. "I don't think that they'll have a problem with it,

considering my sixteen year old cousin Nicole has a two year old daughter."

A look of surprise crossed Elizabeth's face. "Oh, well, you never told me."

"Yeah." Conner said, "She's a good kid, but ended up sleeping with her

boyfriend when she was thirteen. Nikki just turned sixteen a few days ago."

"Oh, well, I never knew."

"Yeah, it's not a big deal. We all excepted it." Conner stated simply.

"Anyway, we'll be leaving by eight, so I'm going to hit the sack."

Conner gave her a gentle kiss, and then pulled back. "I love you. Sleep

well." He kissed her again, and got up and left.

Elizabeth smiled slightly. At least she knew no matter how bad things

got; she'd always have Conner.

***********************************************************

The next afternoon around three, Conner, Megan, Elizabeth and Mrs.

Sandborn walked back through the front door. They'd been at Mrs. Sandborn's

mother's house since nine thirty, and had left about one thirty.

"So, Elizabeth, what do you think about my crazy family?" Mrs. Sandborn

asked as she sat down hard on the couch.

"Oh, they weren't crazy." She said, smiling. "I thought that they were

very nice people."

Conner sat down on the other couch and pulled his girlfriend down next

to him. "You really didn't think they were weird?" he smirked.

"They weren't weird." Elizabeth insisted.

"Not even when Uncle Roy and Granny got into a turkey eating contest?"

Megan piped in.

Elizabeth couldn't help laughing. "Okay, maybe a little." Then she

laughed again. "But then again, the Wakefield's have some weird traditions."

"Like they can compare to our totally whacked family." Conner laughed.

"Anyway, what time was your sister coming over?"

"Around six." Jessica, Elizabeth's brother, Steven, and his girlfriend,

Billie, were going to come by that evening.

*************************************************************

By the time Jessica, Steven, and Billie had left, it was almost nine,

and Elizabeth was exhausted. She'd started feeling sick a short time

after they'd arrived, but hadn't said anything. Elizabeth hadn't wanted

Steven to pull some concerned, older brother act, so she'd kept quiet.

She knew that her brother was pretty shocked about the whole situation.

He'd always thought of Elizabeth as the mature, responsible twin, and

hadn't expected something like this to happen. And she knew that he

disapproved of what was happening.

Elizabeth walked up to her room, at the quickest past she could muster.

She was so tired that she wasn't in the mood to talk. As soon as she

was in her room, she Elizabeth changed into her baby doll nightie, and

went to turn down her bed.

A few minutes later, she heard a knock at the door. Instinctively, she

knew that it was Conner. "Come on in." She called, sliding into her bed.

"Hey baby." He greeted her, sitting down next to her. "Are you feeling sick?"

"How did you know?"

Conner shrugged. "You were starting to look more then a little tired."

"Oh. Am I that readable?"

"No," he leaned in and kissed her forehead. "I just know you really

well." he smiled. "Your brother and Billie are really nice."

"Yeah," Elizabeth started. "But I know that Steven really just wanted

to come over and, well, see if you were good enough for me."

Conner rolled his eyes. "Oh, so now I'm being rated."

Elizabeth smiled as he lay down next to her. "I think that he liked

you, which is a good thing." She rolled over so she could face him.

"So," he asked, "Did you have a good Christmas?"

Elizabeth nodded. "Your family is really nice."

"I'm glad that you think so." Conner said, toying with a few strands of

her blond hair. "So is yours, other then your dad, who I'm sure thinks

I'm some sort of delinquent."

"Oh, he doesn't," Elizabeth said, even though she knew her dad and

Conner weren't on the best terms. "Even if he did, he doesn't have the

right to tell me who I should date. What matters to me is that I love you."

She lay her head down against his chest.

"And I love you." Conner shifted over, and sat up. "Excuse me for a

moment, okay?" He waited for Elizabeth to nod, then stood up, and crossed

into his room. When he reappeared a few minutes later, he was holding a

small, gift-wrapped box.

"For you." He said, sitting back down on the edge of her bed, and

handed her the package.

Curiously eyeing the box, Elizabeth sat up, and looked at it for a

moment. It struck her as odd that he'd gotten her something, because they'd

agreed to not get each other presents.

"Okay, Liz, stop staring and open it." He said, prompting her.

She nodded, and then unwrapped it to reveal a ring box. Catching

Conner's eye, she opened it to see simple, yet stunning ring. It had a simple

gold band, with a small diamond in it. Then she saw that it was

engraved with the initials E.W. and C.M.

Elizabeth looked up at Conner, speechless.

"It's a promise ring." He explained, looking deeply into her eyes. "My

promise to you that I'll always love you, and I'll always be there for

you," he pulled her closer and gently placed a hand on her stomach.

"And I'll always be there for our child."

"It's beautiful." She slid the ring onto her finger. "But Conner, how

did you afford it?"

Conner smiled. "It's been in our family for over eighty years- five

generations. My mom thought that it would be appropriate for you to have

it. It was my idea to get the engraving. That was the purpose of going

to the mall last Sunday. So I could drop the ring off to get it done."

"Conner," Elizabeth said quietly. "You don't know how much this means

to me- both the ring and your promise. It means a lot to me."

Conner pulled her closer to him. "I'm glad it does, because you mean a

lot to me."

*************************************************************

Elizabeth woke up around nine on Sunday morning, which was relatively

late for her. She rolled over in her bed, seeing that Conner had already

gotten up. They'd talked for hours about the future, and what would

happen, and he'd fallen asleep in her bed.

Thankful that she wasn't feeling sick, Elizabeth quickly got out of

bed, and then remembered the Conner had had a job interview at eight forty five.

One of the things was that Conner had brought up was that he needed to

get a job. Elizabeth's parents had made it clear that they weren't

going to support the baby, so it was logical that they both would have to work.

After quickly changing, she made her bed and walked down to the

kitchen, thinking of her conversation with Conner the night before.

They'd talked about a lot of important things the night before, one of

the most important being college. Both Elizabeth and Conner were still

planning to go, and both were considering SVU. It was close to home,

and was also the school that Jessica was applying too. Already, Jessica

had said that she'd be glad to baby sit after the baby was born.

Billie had said the same thing when she and Elizabeth had talked the

night before. They'd had a moment alone when Jessica had been talking to

Mrs. Sandborn, and Conner and Steven were talking. She'd said that

she'd love to baby sit, and had also volunteered Steven for the job, too.

Elizabeth smiled to herself as she took out a box of Frosted Flakes

from the cabinet. Billie was such a sweet girl, and was almost like

another sister to Elizabeth. They were good friends, considering that there

only relation was through Steven.

After a quick breakfast, Elizabeth walked upstairs. Before the break,

her creative writing teacher, Mr. Quigley, had assigned a four page

assignment that Elizabeth hadn't even given a second thought. She figured

that she might as well work on it while she had some free time and

wasn't fighting off morning sickness.

She'd taken her books out of her backpack and arranged them on her desk

when she'd gotten another idea. Elizabeth reached over to the phone and

quickly dialed her home phone number. She was determined to talk to her

dad and try to set things right.

Elizabeth heard someone pick up halfway through the third ring. "Hello.

Wakefield residence. This is Ned."

She took a deep breath, then exhaled. "Dad?" she heard a pause. "It's Elizabeth."

Another long pause followed. "What do you want?" His voice was gruff and cold.

"I wanted to talk to you." There was another uncomfortable moment of

silence, and she could hear breathing on the other end.

"About what?" he said finally, his tone unwavering.

Elizabeth bit her lip nervously. "About everything that's happened."

She heard a slight sigh on the other end. "Dad, please. I really need to talk to you."

"Okay." She heard his voice soften ever so slightly.

"I'm really sorry about everything that's happened. I didn't mean for things to turn out like this."

"I know. Your mother is on your side."

"I know that I made a bad decision, but I'm paying for it now. I know

you wanted me to wait until I was older before I had sex, and I wish

that I would have." Elizabeth said, hoping that he'd even acknowledge the

fact that she wished that this hadn't have happened.

"Liz, I know that." His tone softened even more. "And I respect that

you made that decision, but I don't feel sorry for you."

"Dad, I don't want you to feel sorry for me." Elizabeth twisted a

strand of her hair around her finger in nervousness. "What I want is for you

to understand what I'm going through."

Another sigh, and Elizabeth could hear something shifting around in the

background. "I'm sorry that you have to go through this, sweetie. I

wish that you didn't, but that doesn't change the fact that I think that

you did something wrong."

Elizabeth nodded, forgetting she was on the phone. She was about to

speak, but her dad continued on. "Liz, I forgive you for what happened,

but I don't approve of it either. So I do forgive you, but I won't condone what you've done."

Elizabeth bit her lip, and the finished it for him. She knew what he

was going to say. "So you forgive me, but I'm going to continue to stay with the Conner's family?"

"Yes, unless if there is a problem, in which will make other

arrangements." Her dad answered, "But on other subjects, how are you doing?"

"I've been sick a lot. Conner's been really great about it. He's been

there whenever I needed him." Elizabeth added in, hoping that she could

convince her dad that Conner was really a great guy.

"That's too bad." He paused. "Maybe I was wrong to judge your boyfriend

so quickly."

They talked for a few more minutes before they said good-bye. As soon

as she hung up the phone, she heard the front door swing open and

someone move noisily across the foyer. Elizabeth walked down into the

kitchen. Conner was in there, and had dropped his keys on the counter, then

turned to face her, a happy smile on his face.

"I got the job!" he said, smiling, pulling her in for a kiss.

"That's great sweetie!" Elizabeth said enthusiastically, planting a

kiss on his cheek. "So, tell me about your new job." She sat down on a

table chair and Conner sat down beside her.

"Okay, it's for that new record store that is opening next week, the

one that's next door to Sedona." He smiled. "They were looking for

employees that knew a lot about music, and they asked a lot of questions, and

I must've done good, because they offered me the job immediately!"

"That's great!" Elizabeth moved from her chair and relocated on his

lap. "Tell me more."

"Well, It's really good pay, but I'm going to be working almost

everyday after school, and most of the day on Saturday. I start on Wednesday

to help with stocking." He kissed her gently. "I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all. I appreciate what you're doing." She smiled. "I was able

to talk to my dad. He's not mad at me anymore, but he still won't let me

go home. Elizabeth smiled. "But I don't mind staying here."

Elizabeth Wakefield:

The last few days have been really good. I'm so glad that dad forgave

me, even if I'm not living at home. It's nice living here because it

gives Conner and I a chance to talk more often, and of course see each

other. But also Conner's promise made me feel more secure about this. I

know it's a risk to keep the baby. I don't want to admit it, but at first

I was really worried that Conner was going to take off and leave me.

But I know that he won't know, and they helps more then almost anything.