Title: For All Eternity

Chapter 7: Memories and Now

Author: Julia Laure

Reviews: carebear_tia@yahoo.com or the nifty little review thingy at the bottom.begging, please.

"Will you at least walk me up?" Elizabeth asked Laurent.

"Of course I will," he answered and then took her small hand into his. They rode the elevator up in silence.

Liz kept sneaking small looks at her prince. This was all to good to be true in her opinion. She had wanted him to come up tonight, she couldn't explain why. She had asked out of courtesy before, and he had always said not tonight. She had never pushed either; tonight she had in a way.

They arrived at her apartment door and they both paused. Here would be the good night kiss. It was always sweet. Laurent leaned in to kiss her and she stepped into it. Somehow it was different from the other ones. This one was much less innocent. He was drugging her mind again with his mouth, but she wasn't one to complain. Why should she if she wanted it so desperately?

He broke away from her with a gasp. "Ah, Liz, no more. I can't take much more."

"Why not?" She asked. Immediately images flew into her mind. Him telling her that this was not the way it was supposed to be and leaving, him saying he was leaving and she would never see him again.

"Because if I do not stop now, I won't be able to," he whispered and pulled her back into his arms.

She turned, unlocked the door, and pushed it open. "Then don't."

"Mon Dieu, Liz, are you sure? I want you to be absolutely sure, without a doubt in your mind. No regrets, none whatsoever," He breathed.

"I've never been so sure in my whole life. I want this more than anything."

With that said Laurent picked up Liz and carried her into her room.

Much later, Laurent held Liz in his arms. "Je t'aime, ma petite ami. Je n'ai jamais parlè pour un femme."

"I love you too, Lauri," Liz replied. "I want you to know." The ringing of the phone cut her off. Who could be calling this late at night she wondered. She sighed and rolled over to pick it up off the base.

"Allo?"

"Lizzy, is that you?"

"Jess, do you have any concept of time? It's gotta be at least 2 a.m.!"

"Nope, sorry, you got all that bad fortune of the internal clock," Jess chimed cheerily into her ear, "Besides if my information is correct, which it very well should be since I love to network, you were out and about tonight. I tried only about a thousand times this week, not only at the apartment, but also at the office. Imagine my surprise when you had left at five o'clock most days for the last two weeks! So, since the lovely prince has taken my sister out and away from me, I decided to call when you would be home."

"Well, I'm home, but.. wait up, how the hell did you know who I've been seeing?"

"Little boys have big mouths, and will is no exception," Jess laughed.

"That little snitch! Well, I'm fine, but this is not a good time, could I call you tomorrow, Jess?"

"Nope, I wanted to tell you I'm going home this weekend and wondered if you wanted to join me?"

"I might, but I'll drive separately if I do. Okay?" Liz asked.

"Have you told him yet?" Jess asked quietly.

"No, I haven't said anything to him."

"You'll have to tell him sometime. You know that, Liz."

"I will, today, I promise," Liz said.

"Good, you'll feel better and it needs to be said. I love you, sis. Good luck, I'll let you go now."

"Thanks, Jess, I love you too. I'll call you anyway tomorrow, at the house." She replaced the receiver on the base and turned back into Laurent.

"Jessica, right?" Laurent asked.

"Yeah, it was. She has a way with timing you know," Liz smiled.

"What haven't you said anything to me about?" He asked.

"Alright, here it goes. You were going to have to know sometime, it better now than later," Liz sighed and took a deep breath. "First, would you like to come home with me this weekend?"

"Oui, I would. I think the others will be fine for a few days, unless they can come along?"

"No problem, I figured they would. We could stay in the guesthouse; mom and dad built one after the earthquake. It was just easier with all of us grown up and with families. Then you really do need to know tonight," Liz said.

"You can tell me anything, you know that, Liz."

"Yeah, well here it goes. Okay about seven years ago when I was 21, I was engaged to a guy named Rob. He was a great guy and I loved him. Well, we were living together and about three months after I moved in he started to get pretty possessive. Nothing too bad, just a little edgy.

"Jess and Nick had just gotten back together. They had dated in college, but Nick being a police officer had gotten into some trouble and had to go into the witness protection program. Amazingly everything was taken care of and they contacted Nick to tell him that it was over. There was a choice given to him about whether to stay in his new life or come back to his old one. He chose the latter because he still loved Jess. It was a total shock and on his first appearance to Jess I was there. Things happened and it ended up with him bringing me back to my apartment

"On the sidewalk he gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek and left me off. I went up to the apartment and," Liz's voice broke and a tear rolled down her cheek. Laurent held her tighter and brushed her tears away. "And Rob was waiting there. He said some nasty things and told me he'd seen my new boyfriend and me. He said he wouldn't take that. I tried to explain but he wouldn't let me. He wouldn't let me, I really did try. He beat me, pretty bad, and left town. Jess tried to call later that night because I told her I was going to be home. I didn't pick up and she had things she had wanted to talk over with me. She came over, and she had a key. She found me unconscious and called 911. I recovered, but I haven't been the same. That's why I became a lawyer. To be able to help stop this kind of thing."

Author's Note: Sorry it took so very long. I just got the writing bug and when it bit I wrote. Sorry about typos or anything else I'm just trying to get it up quick. Tell me what you thing everyone!