Always Alison

Disclaimer: Don't own them, don't claim to.

Rating: Somewhere between PG13 and R -- perhaps some language, adult content, adult situations

Chapter Four

"Strange meeting you here, Livvie."

The sound of the unexpected voice had her jumping and dropping her keys down upon the pavement at her feet. Her eyelids lowered into a scowl as she gazed over her shoulder. "Stalking me now, Jack?"

His shoulders lifted into a careless shrug and then bent down to retrieve her keys. "Why not? You have your -husband- believing I attacked you. Why shouldn't I follow you around where ever you go? I'm obsessed with you, don't you know?"

"I wouldn't doubt it," she breathed out as she snatched her keys from Jack's hand once he stood upright again.

"You're welcome."

"Whatever," Livvie breathed out and then began to flip through the ring to find her car key. "Do you need something, Jack, or are you just going to stand here breathing down my neck."

He stepped a little closer as he murmured, "At one time you couldn't get enough of me doing that."

Livvie's eyelids slid closed as she shimmied away from Jack. "Well, that was then. The only man I want near me is my husband."

A chuckle rumbled up his chest as Jack moved to lean against Livvie's car. "Oh, you mean Rafe?"

"What other husband do I have?" She snapped angrily, annoyed that Jack wouldn't leave her alone so she could slip off to her appointment.

"Well, there was Caleb," Jack listed off as he held up one finger. He tipped his head to the side as he made a face. "And he was pretty bad. At least I can say your taste in men has gotten better, unfortunately I wish could say the same about your demeanor."

Livvie stormed around her car so she stood at the driver's side door. "You're right, my taste in men has improved. I left you for Rafe didn't I?"

Jack laughed then and them smiled in disbelief. "You're actually beginning to believe your own web of lies aren't you?" When he saw her look away from him and her face turn into a blank mask, his laughter grew. "You are! Oh man Livvie that's pretty pathetic. You know as well as I do that when Rafe was here before he and Alison were deeply committed to each other, just as we were."

She shrugged her shoulders, desperately forcing herself to ignore every word Jack was saying. "It doesn't matter now, does it? Rafe is with me now and poor needy Alison has nothing. I won, Jack."

"Wow," he breathed out as he shook his head. "When did you become as psychotic as your mother?" He noticed the slight twitching of the corner of her mouth and knew he had struck a nerve. "First you frame Alison for Kevin's murder-"

"I did not!" She shouted.

"And your dad wasn't even dead. Bet you don't even feel the least bit sorry. You ran around for weeks telling everyone who would listen that Alison had gone crazy. That she was dealing with witchcraft and black magic. But no one else saw it, did they? The only thing anyone saw was how off the deep end you were going." Jack wiggled his hands in the air and muttered, "Crazy Livvie was on another rampage and that really ticked you off so you had to plant 'evidence' to make Alison look like the bad guy. You may have pulled the wool over your dad's eyes and a man who has amnesia, but don't think everyone else is fooled."

Livvie held her head a little bit higher as she responded with, "I don't know what you're talking about Jack."

"Of course you wouldn't, because if you did that would mean you had a conscience. And that's something I think you lost long ago when Caleb came to town."

She glared at the man whom she had once centered her life around. At one time Jack was everything she had wanted in a man, but now she knew better. She knew what she was missing when Rafe came into her life. Now she knew what she really wanted and she wasn't about to give that up.

"You know what's sad, Livvie?" Jack asked into the silence.

"You following me around harassing me?" Livvie offered with an angry smirk upon her lips.

He shook his head, completely amused by her unease with him around her. "The fact that before the whole candle situation, Alison was your best friend. You two were absolutely close, inseparable even. Of course you were giving her grief about Rafe and how he'd break her heart." His brow furrowed then as looked Livvie in the eyes. "What about that? If you were having such a secretive grand love affair with Rafe why is it you wanted him away from Alison because you feared her getting hurt?"

"Isn't it obvious? I knew he would leave her for me and I didn't want her hurt."

"Right. So then if you didn't want her hurt, why were you going around with Rafe behind her back?" Before Livvie could give her answer, Jack intercepted her with, "You know what, it doesn't matter. My point of all this, Livvie, is that you and Alison were best friends once, until you got it into your head she killed your dad. And guess what -- he's not even dead. Instead of feeling ashamed and asking for her forgiveness for planting all that evidence against her -- like Kevin's bloody shirt and dumping Ryan's ashes on Barrington property -- you're holding fast to the fact that you're still the victim. The only one who is eating that up is your husband and you know, I'm not sure he's going to buy that for long."

Livvie continued to glare at Jack as he continued with his diatribe.

"And one of these days, Livvie, Rafe is going to get his memory back. He's going to get it back and he's going to know what the truth is. Then he will tell everyone what a liar you are and everyone will believe him because of this web you've spun. You're going to get caught Livvie," Jack announced in an elated tone. "You're going to get caught and Alison -will- get Rafe back, that is if she can forgive him. And I bet you anything she can because she doesn't blame him for anything that's happened. She blames you. Then you'll get yours Livvie."

Her shoulders straightened as her body went rigid. "Is that a threat Jack?"

"No," he assured as he smiled. "It's just a promise. You may be able to hold Rafe down with your lies, but once he gets his memory back …well, you're head is going to be on the chopping block. And I for one can't wait to see that happen. Have a nice day, Livvie," Jack ended and then began to walk away.

Quickly Livvie got into her car and sighed loudly once she was seated. Damn Jack. What did he know? Her eyes flew to the rearview mirror and watched him walk down the street. But he had a point. Once Rafe's memory returned she was in deep, deep trouble. Not only did she lie to everyone, but she also lied to her father to get him on her side. Livvie lifted her hands to the steering wheel and nervously began to drum them against it. What was she going to do? She was doing everything possible to keep Rafe from remembering, but his memories would return.

A smile then curled the corners of her lips as she nearly laughed. It wouldn't matter if his memories returned or not. She would be pregnant with his child, more or less, and he would stick with her out of obligation. So even if Rafe got his memory back, Alison would never get her angel back. He would Livvie's for the next eighteen years or until the Big Man upstairs took him back. This was so perfect!

Down the street…

Jack pulled out his cell phone and quickly punched in a number. When the person on the other side picked up he grumbled, "Livvie is up to something."

"What do you think it is?"

"My guess, is she's looking for a way to get herself pregnant. With Rafe distracted by Alison, I'm sure Livvie is finding it hard to get pregnant."

"So you don't think she really is?"

Jack glanced back towards where Livvie still sat in her car. "Honestly, I'm not sure. But my gut is telling me this is just another one of her lies. So she's either on the hunt for a man to knock her up-"

"Or she's going directly to the source, completely bypassing the man."

He hadn't thought about that. "Now how do we track her down? She obviously wouldn't use her real name."

"I've already taken care of that Jack," Lucy assured him in a quiet voice, like someone else was in the room with her. "I know we all secretly teamed up to get Alison and Rafe back together, but I needed proof for Doc. I mean this is his daughter and he trusts her. I know he's going to get hurt in all this and I just don't want to make anymore accusations with nothing to back them up with."

Jack's brow drew together as he listened to Lucy talk. "What did you do?"

"I hired a private investigator."

That evening…

Rafe paced back and forth upon the little area that was settled between the hotel room door and the bed. It had been hours since he had left Livvie to take solace in the church. And he knew she would be angry that he had been gone so long, but what he hadn't expected was that she'd be gone when he returned.

Where could she have gone?

He briefly wondered if Livvie imagined he was with Alison and went in search of him. Well, technically he had been with Alison, but it wasn't as though he had went out and actively sought her out. She had come to the church where he had been.

That had his brow pulling together. How had she known where to find him? Had she known when he felt confused or lost he always went into a church? Had he done that before? It felt right being in a church, it was like coming home. There was something calming about being inside of a building designated as a house of God. Not that he couldn't talk to God anywhere, because he could. There was just something about a church.

Much like Alison.

His feet came to a halt as his eyelids rolled closed. There his mind went again -- back to Alison. "Why is this happening?" Rafe whispered out as he flopped down upon the bed and dropped his head into his hands. Could he not go two minutes without thinking of the blonde who had haunted his mind since Livvie suggested that he marry her?

His blue eyes dropped down the gold band upon his ring finger while sighing heavily. Rafe still remembered that day in the hospital when Alison told him that they had gotten married. It was more of a spiritual thing apparently, because he wasn't legally married to Alison. But if what she said was true … wasn't he breaking his vows to her?

Rafe sighed again as he tried to search his mind for memories -- memories of his life with Alison -- but instead he came across a different scene. He was getting married, but it was to Livvie. It was as he was saying his vows to his future wife that he was recalled words from the past. As though he had spoken these particular vows before.

"People spend forever searching and looking on a journey to nowhere. And you know what? I guess that could have been me, except I found you. Now I know that my journey began and it's gonna end with you. … I promise that I will carry our love with me forever- that we will be joined together as one for now and into eternity."

That had Rafe shooting off the bed. He had stopped his wedding to Livvie because he thought he was already married. She had told him that he technically was because the two of them had done it once before, but it hadn't been legal.

Had he been some type of player amongst Livvie and Alison or had he only been through a ceremony once before with Alison? No, that didn't seem right. He couldn't have played around with pretend marriages if the real thing was so important to him. So, one of the two was lying. If it was Alison, then Livvie was right and Alison couldn't get over the fact he left her for Livvie. But if it were Livvie -- then maybe, quite possibly, everything she had ever told him was a complete lie.

But who was doing the lying? Everyone kept insisting that it was Livvie. But even if she had lied to him and their relationship was a sham, it didn't matter. It couldn't matter because now there was a baby involved in the equation. He was obligated to stay with Livvie because of that baby. There would be no way he could walk away from his own flesh and blood.

So, if that were the case why couldn't he just let this -thing- with Alison go? He couldn't be with her, no matter how much he longed to be. Could he? The only way he could be is if there was no baby. And Livvie wouldn't lie about a child, would she?

The door to the hotel room opened suddenly, bringing Rafe from his thoughts and his eyes zeroing in upon it. Within it's entrance stood Livvie, her face a bit pale and a shaky smile upon her lips. "Livvie," he called out. "Where have you been?"

Livvie swallowed and rubbed one of her hands up and down her arm. She needed a shower, desperately. She felt absolutely dirty and wanted to be rid of the feeling. "Out," she whispered as she came fully into the room and shut the door behind her.

~*~