A/N: Sorry this is taking so long to post, I've been busy. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, they totally make my day! This is kind of a filler chapter but I promise I know where I'm going with this! Thanks for sticking with it!
Chapter 7- Going home (and facing the music) Part-2
"Sweetie, Miranda is staying with us"
"But you said she needs a hotel room!"
"I didn't mean that, I… I was making a grown-up joke"
Emily thought about this for a moment. "Mommy, I don't think you told it right," she paused and then got a big smile on her face, "I have a joke!" She took a deep breath and began, "The king of Norway…"
Lizzie wasn't really paying that much attention. The ticket-agent had called them up and Lizzie was trying to sort through what was being checked and what was carry on. Larry was right, they HAD packed a lot. She had just been handed the two boarding passes when she happened to tune back in for the punch line to Emily's joke.
"…I thought he said he was a moose!" With that the little girl broke out into hysterical giggles. Lizzie stopped for a moment: hadn't she heard that somewhere before?
"Em, where'd you hear that?"
"Hey, am I interrupting anything?" Miranda asked walking up to them; a huge grin on her face. She noticed the odd expression on Lizzie's face, but Lizzie just shook her head.
"No, we just got our boarding passes, and...now we're just waiting for you." Lizzie gave a half-hearted attempt at getting the last few words out.
"Last night is still bothering you, isn't it?" Miranda asked quietly.
Lizzie motioned toward Emily. "Later, okay? I don't want to talk about it in front of you-know-who." Miranda nodded and went to check in.
--
Fifteen minutes later the trio had made it through security, and had an hour until they could begin pre-boarding. Waiting was not Emily's strong points and she began to fidget and whine.
"Mommy, I'm B-O-O-R-D...BORED!" Emily was getting better at spelling..
"I'm sorry sweetie, how about if I let you play your Disney game on my laptop as soon as I check my email."
"Okay," Emily agreed, "but hurry!"
Lizzie quickly signed into her email, making sure to ignore all the work related messages; 33 and counting. Among the mess, there was one from Matt. MDogg@FBI.gov.us. Lizzie still could not believe that her younger brother was an FBI agent, or that his best friend, Lanny, and girlfriend, Melina, were FBI agents as well. She had always figured that Matt and the FBI would cross paths one day, but more in the form of him being most wanted or something like that. Anyways, it seemed like a natural progression after his senior year in high school. Lizzie had never gotten all the details, however, she knew that it involved Matt, Melina and Lanny hacking into the school computer system.
"Hey look, here's one from Uncle Matt." Lizzie read on, "he and Melina are going to meet us at the airport."
"Are they 'on-again'" Emily asked curiously. Lizzie eyeballed the little girl for a minute. Emily really did pick up on a lot of 'adultisms' and it made Lizzie wonder what else she had picked up on.
"Looks that way." Lizzie replied, looking back at the message.
Matt and Melina were the quintessential on-again/off-again couple. They would be madly in love until one argument and then they were broken up. A break up could last anywhere from 15 minutes to six months, but in the end they always ended up together; at least until the next break-up. The funny part was how they used their FBI connections to spy on each other during break ups, trying to see if either one had been replaced. Lanny, who had taps on both of their phones, would often email Lizzie with the latest gossip.
"Anyways, they'll meet us at baggage claim." Lizzie closed out her email, but noticed as she logged off that she now had 35 work related emails. She sighed internally as she popped in a Disney spelling game.
"Okay Em, here you go."
Lizzie got Emily settled in her seat with the laptop and then turned to Miranda who had just returned from the bathroom. "So Matt and Melina are going to meet us at the airport."
"Melina?" Miranda repeated looking a tiny bit uncomfortable.
Lizzie burst out laughing. "Oh that's right 'rebound girl,' you tried to steal her man! You better watch it, she's FBI now and she could have you barred from the country."
"Rebound girl?!" How do you know about that? I swore Gordo to secrecy!"
Lizzie shrugged, "I dunno, it just came out once, I think we were in high school. Anyways, I'm not joking about Melina, she's kind of territorial."
Miranda shook her head, disregarding Lizzie's last comment. "Speaking of Gordo… what was up with that dream last night?"
Lizzie shook her head. "I don't know, but it really made me think. I lied Miranda, I've lied for the past six years. He's going to hate me."
Miranda smiled sympathetically. "Don't think that way Lizzie, he'll be angry for a while, but hopefully he'll see past all that and see… his daughter. How could he not love her? I mean she has Larry wrapped around her little finger just imagine what she could do to Gor...."
Both women snuck a quick peek two chairs over to where Emily was. She was highly engrossed in her Disney computer game, and had the tip of her tongue peeking out the corner of her mouth.
"I hope so, but he's going to be so angry... at me." Lizzie looked back at Emily for a second before continuing, "I don't blame him. I thought that I could handle him being mad at me, but as my dream so clearly demonstrated, I've not gotten over him as well as I thought I had. I knew that sooner or later we'd have to meet, and I figured that when that day came I'd have a better understanding of how I felt about him. Now there has been a new element introduced," tears began to fill Lizzie's eyes, "and I don't know if my feelings for him will affect my judgment when I confront him. I just don't want to add more fuel to this...It's not fair to Gordo, it's not fair to Emily...It's not fair to ME...why did he have to leave in the first place..?"
Lizzie stopped, she knew that if she kept on, she might not be able to stop. Letting these feelings out in the airport and in front of Emily, might not be a wise choice. There were a long few minutes of silence. The noises of the airport droned on around them, but neither really heard them; they were too lost in their own thoughts.
"Do you know when you're going to tell him?" Miranda finally asked
Lizzie shook her head slowly "No. I want to do it as soon as I can though, get it over with; MAYBE, if it goes well, he can have some alone time with Emily."
Miranda nodded and glanced down at her watch, still another half hour before they boarded. She looked around and started to feel antsy, she had her own plans to get started on, but she needed to wait until they got to Hillridge. She was just about to get up and call Larry, he'd be at work by now, just to say hi when Lizzie spoke again.
"Hey, Miranda, is there something going on I should know about?"
Miranda looked at her strangely, "No, why?"
Lizzie shrugged, "I don't know, but you and Larry were both acting weird today. Kind of like when you first started going out, all googly-eyed."
Miranda looked down, her cheeks getting faintly pink. "I don't know… its been really good lately." Lizzie smiled at her friend, at least someone's love life was going well.
"I didn't hear you two go to bed until pretty late, what were you guys doing... Wait! Do I want to know?'
Miranda gave her a look before answering. "We were just talking."
"About…?" Lizzie prompted; she could tell that Miranda was becoming uncomfortable.
"About...Well it was a J-K conversation."
"J-K conversation?"
"Yeah, you can get the 'L' out of our business."
Miranda laughed as Lizzie's face grew a scrunched 'are you 12-years-old' look. Lizzie opened her mouth to protest when a voice from above stopped her. "Attention passengers, Delta, flight 1276 for Denver will now begin pre boarding. Anyone needing assistance or anyone traveling with small children may begin boarding at this time."
"C'mon Em, that's us" Lizzie announced standing up, "lets put the computer up for a while."
"I thought we were going to California, not that other place." Emily looked around confused.
"We're flying to Denver and getting on another plane that will take us to LA." Lizzie explained as she did a quick bag count to make sure they had everything.
"Oh. Can I sit next to Aunt Randa?"
"You better sit next me!" Miranda said coming over to take her hand. "I might get lonely!"
"People, can we please move this traveling circus on to the plane!" Lizzie was on about three hours of sleep and one step closer to having to face literally her worst nightmare. Seating arrangements were not on the top of her worry list.
"My someone's crabby today," Miranda commented; this caused Emily to break into the giggles. Had it not been for the three airline personnel and two police officers Lizzie probably would have given Miranda several pieces of her mind, but instead she handed hers and Emily's boarding passes to the flight attendant and stepped on the plane.
--
Lizzie had never been one to sleep on planes, it just wasn't very comfortable and she figured why pay 600 dollars to take a nap? However, due to her current emotional state, she had no trouble passing out as soon as the plane took off and letting Miranda entertain Emily for a while!
---
Emily spent the first few minutes getting settled into her seat, she sat Ben up next to her and looked through her new coloring book, deciding which picture to work on first. Aunt Randa had pulled out a thick book and was flipping through it, and Emily looked over at her mother to ask if she could get her book from Lizzie's bag when she noticed that her mom had fallen asleep. Emily considered waking her for a minute, she really wanted to look at her book, but decided it wasn't a good idea, mommy had looked so tired the last couple days, and she had woken Emily up several times the night before tossing in bed. It made Emily a little scared, but soon they would be with Grandma and Grandpa in California, so everything would be okay. Grandma would take care of them, she always did. She came to Austin to see them a lot, and Emily loved her visits. She never had to go to daycare and Grandma would make them yummy food; mommy would always seem a little happier, not so worried. Just thinking about it made Emily feel better, Grandma would make everything okay.
Emily looked up again at Aunt Randa, she was so pretty, and so funny she could always make mommy laugh, so could Uncle Tudge, and Emily wished he had come with them on the plane. Last time they had all flown together Uncle Tudge had pretended to be Captain Kirk from Star Trek and had said they were attacking the Klingons. Emily didn't know what any of that was but Uncle Tudge had been so funny! Emily loved Uncle Tudge so much, whenever they went to Houston to visit, Uncle Tudge would take her someplace neat; to NASA, where he worked, or a cool museum where you could play, or a fun park. Emily hoped he was coming to California soon.
"Hey Aunt Randa?"
"Yeah Em." Miranda glanced up out of her book.
"When is Uncle Tudge coming to California?"
"He's coming Sunday afternoon, that's in three days"
Emily nodded and Miranda went back to her book. Emily started to feel bored, she looked around for the stewardess, usually they brought them drinks and mommy usually let her get a coke when they were on the plane. The stewardess was still at the back of the plane though, so it would be awhile. Emily snuck a peek over at her mom, to make sure she was really asleep; there was something she wanted to ask Aunt Randa, but she didn't want her mom to hear her. Yup, she was asleep, drooling a little bit too, ewww!!
"Aunt Randa, can I ask you a question, its very important"
This got Miranda's attention and she put her book down to look at Emily.
"Of course you can, what's up?"
Emily struggled for a moment trying to decide if she should ask.
"Do you know who Gordo is?"
Miranda stared at the little girl, completely shocked. She tried to think of an answer, but stumbled over the words.
"That…That's a silly name, where did you hear that?"
Emily shrugged and looked uncomfortable. "Mommy kept saying that name last night, she's said it before in her sleep, but I never asked."
"You should probably ask your mom that question, she should be the one to answer it."
"Oh." Emily nodded her head "Okay, I just thought you might know"
"Sorry sweetie." Miranda smiled at her, but an uncomfortable silence set in. Luckily the flight attendant came by with the drinks and that gave them something to focus on.
An hour later Lizzie awoke with a start, she wasn't really sure what had awakened her; probably that stupid, creaky, beverage cart. She shifted up a bit, trying to un-kink herself, sleeping sitting up, was far from comfortable. She noticed, embarrassedly, that there was a nice puddle of drool on her cheek.
For a brief moment she remembered all the times she had flown with Gordo, he had always been the perfect pillow. Now, Lizzie realized as she looked down at the curly blonde head snuggled into her side, she was the perfect pillow. Lizzie glanced over at Miranda who was flipping aimlessly through a magazine looking a bit worried,
"Miranda." Lizzie whispered not wanting to wake Emily.
Miranda jumped and gave a bewildered look around. "Lizzie, you startled me!"
"Sorry, how long has she been out?"
"Only about fifteen minutes, she had a juice box and some cookies, and the next thing I knew, she was asleep. I guess the stewardess must have put something in the juice..."
Lizzie nodded and was about to ask Miranda if she knew when they would be landing in Denver, when Miranda told Lizzie something that made her go cold.
"Emily asked me who Gordo was."
Lizzie froze in place. She must have heard that wrong, Emily really had asked who Zorro was, she'd probably seen a commercial or something, that was a feasible explanation…
"Lizzie!" Miranda repeated again sharply, "Did you hear me? Emily asked who GORDO was."
Why did Miranda keep saying Gordo, she needed to keep her voice down. "What are you talking about?" Lizzie finally sputtered
Miranda sighed and rolled her eyes. "For the last time: Emily, YOUR DAUGHTER, asked me, Miranda, YOUR FRIEND, if I knew who Gordo, HER FATHER, that she doesn't know about, is."
Lizzie still looked completely dumbfounded. "Well, why? Did she say why, or where or who…" Lizzie was beginning to border on hysterics and Emily stirred gently in her sleep reminding Lizzie to keep it down.
"She heard you call his name out in your sleep last night. She said she's heard you say it before, in your sleep,"
Lizzie couldn't believe what she was hearing, what else had she said? "What did you tell her?" Lizzie demanded, silently praying that Miranda had covered for her.
"I told her that she should ask you."
Lizzie leaned back in her seat and covered her eyes. What had she done? What was she going to do? How would-
"Ladies and gentlemen we are beginning our descent into Denver at this time so the fasten seat belt sign has been turned back on and we ask that everyone please return to your seats and put them in their upright and locked positions Thank you!"
Lizzie took a moment from her pity party to briefly wonder why the seats had to be upright for landing. If the plane burst into flames and fell from the sky, would her seat being 'upright' really save her? This question had plagued her for years and she never could form a reasonable answer. Maybe she should ask Larry sometime, he knew lots of bizarre useless bits of knowledge, he should know this due to his degree in aerospace engineering. Gordo knew weird bits of trivia as well…wait Gordo…Emily… oh right, hysterical pity party.
How would she explain all this to Emily? Good grief, with all this she might as well just sign the poor kid up for lifetime therapy, she was probably going to need it by the time they left in a couple weeks. Lizzie hadn't even considered all that yet, how would Emily feel when, and if, she met her father after all this time, and then suddenly they're back in Austin without him. Lizzie was gearing up for an internal world war when Emily rubbed her eyes and sat up abruptly.
"Are we there yet" she asked sleepily gazing around her at all the people in their safe 'upright positions'.
"Almost sweetie." Lizzie brushed a few stray curls from Emily's face and kissed her forehead. "I love you Em, don't forget that." Emily smiled up at Lizzie and snuggled against her, Lizzie felt a little better already. Miranda was looking at her a bit strangely but didn't say anything and a couple minutes later they landed in Denver.
--
Luckily it was a short lay over in Denver and the flight from Denver to LA went fairly quickly. Lizzie kept Emily busy coloring and reading books, hoping to keep her from bringing up who Gordo was. It worked and before long they were stepping off the plane at LAX and heading towards baggage claim keeping their eyes peeled for Matt and Melina. It took forever to get all of their bags accounted and for and by the time they had there was still no sign of Matt; Lizzie let out an exasperated sigh.
"Where is he? You'd think he'd have gained a little responsibility by now!"
Just then a hand grabbed her arm. "Excuse me ma'am, but I believe you're wanted in three states for various crimes against siblings. You'll need to come with me."
"Matt!" Lizzie exclaimed turning around to face her little brother, who was now a good ten inches taller than her.
"Hey sis, miss me?"
"Please, me, miss a spiky haired weasel like you?… Yeah, maybe a little bit!"
They both laughed as Lizzie pulled him for a hug. "What took you so long?"
"We would have been here sooner, but SOMEONE had to stop and torment the airport security guards."
"I did not!" A tall blonde was walking toward them, a small smirk playing on her face. "I was just having some fun with those rent-a-cops!"
"You made one of them cry!" Matt accused. Melina rolled her eyes in disgust.
"He was a pu...wuss. He got all defensive, trying to threaten me with a full body cavity search. When I flashed my badge in his face I could swear he wet his pants!"
"Hey, watch it!" Lizzie motioned towards Emily who had been carefully observing the conversation.
"Hey Emily!" Matt knelt down to give his only niece a hug, and Emily returned it somewhat shyly. Emily was never quite sure what to think of Uncle Matt, he was pretty funny and he showed her all kinds of cool things, but when she did them she usually got in trouble. She wasn't too sure of Melina either, Melina was always nice to her but she and Uncle Matt made fun of each other a lot; it was kind of weird. Emily retreated back to Miranda who was watching the whole scene with an amused smile on her face.
"Hey Matt, Melina," Miranda spoke up, "its good to see you again."
"Miranda!" Matts face lit up as he went to give her a big hug. "How are you? finally dump that NASA nerd?!!"
"Yes," Melina continued walking over them gazing at Miranda frostily. "Where is your boyfriend, I mean fiancée? Aren't you guys technically married, I mean doesn't Texas have something called common law?"
"He's working, but he'll be here on Sunday" Miranda returned the cold gaze and added a little smile making sure to briefly wave the respectably sized diamond perched on her left hand around for all to see.
"WOW!" Matt exclaimed leaning over for a better look at the rock "Not bad Tudgeman!" Melina yanked on his arm.
"C'mon Matt let's go get the luggage in the car."
Lizzie caught Miranda's eye, as they picked up their bags to follow Matt and Melina. Lizzie looked as though she were going to reassure Miranda as she opened her mouth.
"Rebound girl."
Chapter 7- Going home (and facing the music) Part-2
"Sweetie, Miranda is staying with us"
"But you said she needs a hotel room!"
"I didn't mean that, I… I was making a grown-up joke"
Emily thought about this for a moment. "Mommy, I don't think you told it right," she paused and then got a big smile on her face, "I have a joke!" She took a deep breath and began, "The king of Norway…"
Lizzie wasn't really paying that much attention. The ticket-agent had called them up and Lizzie was trying to sort through what was being checked and what was carry on. Larry was right, they HAD packed a lot. She had just been handed the two boarding passes when she happened to tune back in for the punch line to Emily's joke.
"…I thought he said he was a moose!" With that the little girl broke out into hysterical giggles. Lizzie stopped for a moment: hadn't she heard that somewhere before?
"Em, where'd you hear that?"
"Hey, am I interrupting anything?" Miranda asked walking up to them; a huge grin on her face. She noticed the odd expression on Lizzie's face, but Lizzie just shook her head.
"No, we just got our boarding passes, and...now we're just waiting for you." Lizzie gave a half-hearted attempt at getting the last few words out.
"Last night is still bothering you, isn't it?" Miranda asked quietly.
Lizzie motioned toward Emily. "Later, okay? I don't want to talk about it in front of you-know-who." Miranda nodded and went to check in.
--
Fifteen minutes later the trio had made it through security, and had an hour until they could begin pre-boarding. Waiting was not Emily's strong points and she began to fidget and whine.
"Mommy, I'm B-O-O-R-D...BORED!" Emily was getting better at spelling..
"I'm sorry sweetie, how about if I let you play your Disney game on my laptop as soon as I check my email."
"Okay," Emily agreed, "but hurry!"
Lizzie quickly signed into her email, making sure to ignore all the work related messages; 33 and counting. Among the mess, there was one from Matt. MDogg@FBI.gov.us. Lizzie still could not believe that her younger brother was an FBI agent, or that his best friend, Lanny, and girlfriend, Melina, were FBI agents as well. She had always figured that Matt and the FBI would cross paths one day, but more in the form of him being most wanted or something like that. Anyways, it seemed like a natural progression after his senior year in high school. Lizzie had never gotten all the details, however, she knew that it involved Matt, Melina and Lanny hacking into the school computer system.
"Hey look, here's one from Uncle Matt." Lizzie read on, "he and Melina are going to meet us at the airport."
"Are they 'on-again'" Emily asked curiously. Lizzie eyeballed the little girl for a minute. Emily really did pick up on a lot of 'adultisms' and it made Lizzie wonder what else she had picked up on.
"Looks that way." Lizzie replied, looking back at the message.
Matt and Melina were the quintessential on-again/off-again couple. They would be madly in love until one argument and then they were broken up. A break up could last anywhere from 15 minutes to six months, but in the end they always ended up together; at least until the next break-up. The funny part was how they used their FBI connections to spy on each other during break ups, trying to see if either one had been replaced. Lanny, who had taps on both of their phones, would often email Lizzie with the latest gossip.
"Anyways, they'll meet us at baggage claim." Lizzie closed out her email, but noticed as she logged off that she now had 35 work related emails. She sighed internally as she popped in a Disney spelling game.
"Okay Em, here you go."
Lizzie got Emily settled in her seat with the laptop and then turned to Miranda who had just returned from the bathroom. "So Matt and Melina are going to meet us at the airport."
"Melina?" Miranda repeated looking a tiny bit uncomfortable.
Lizzie burst out laughing. "Oh that's right 'rebound girl,' you tried to steal her man! You better watch it, she's FBI now and she could have you barred from the country."
"Rebound girl?!" How do you know about that? I swore Gordo to secrecy!"
Lizzie shrugged, "I dunno, it just came out once, I think we were in high school. Anyways, I'm not joking about Melina, she's kind of territorial."
Miranda shook her head, disregarding Lizzie's last comment. "Speaking of Gordo… what was up with that dream last night?"
Lizzie shook her head. "I don't know, but it really made me think. I lied Miranda, I've lied for the past six years. He's going to hate me."
Miranda smiled sympathetically. "Don't think that way Lizzie, he'll be angry for a while, but hopefully he'll see past all that and see… his daughter. How could he not love her? I mean she has Larry wrapped around her little finger just imagine what she could do to Gor...."
Both women snuck a quick peek two chairs over to where Emily was. She was highly engrossed in her Disney computer game, and had the tip of her tongue peeking out the corner of her mouth.
"I hope so, but he's going to be so angry... at me." Lizzie looked back at Emily for a second before continuing, "I don't blame him. I thought that I could handle him being mad at me, but as my dream so clearly demonstrated, I've not gotten over him as well as I thought I had. I knew that sooner or later we'd have to meet, and I figured that when that day came I'd have a better understanding of how I felt about him. Now there has been a new element introduced," tears began to fill Lizzie's eyes, "and I don't know if my feelings for him will affect my judgment when I confront him. I just don't want to add more fuel to this...It's not fair to Gordo, it's not fair to Emily...It's not fair to ME...why did he have to leave in the first place..?"
Lizzie stopped, she knew that if she kept on, she might not be able to stop. Letting these feelings out in the airport and in front of Emily, might not be a wise choice. There were a long few minutes of silence. The noises of the airport droned on around them, but neither really heard them; they were too lost in their own thoughts.
"Do you know when you're going to tell him?" Miranda finally asked
Lizzie shook her head slowly "No. I want to do it as soon as I can though, get it over with; MAYBE, if it goes well, he can have some alone time with Emily."
Miranda nodded and glanced down at her watch, still another half hour before they boarded. She looked around and started to feel antsy, she had her own plans to get started on, but she needed to wait until they got to Hillridge. She was just about to get up and call Larry, he'd be at work by now, just to say hi when Lizzie spoke again.
"Hey, Miranda, is there something going on I should know about?"
Miranda looked at her strangely, "No, why?"
Lizzie shrugged, "I don't know, but you and Larry were both acting weird today. Kind of like when you first started going out, all googly-eyed."
Miranda looked down, her cheeks getting faintly pink. "I don't know… its been really good lately." Lizzie smiled at her friend, at least someone's love life was going well.
"I didn't hear you two go to bed until pretty late, what were you guys doing... Wait! Do I want to know?'
Miranda gave her a look before answering. "We were just talking."
"About…?" Lizzie prompted; she could tell that Miranda was becoming uncomfortable.
"About...Well it was a J-K conversation."
"J-K conversation?"
"Yeah, you can get the 'L' out of our business."
Miranda laughed as Lizzie's face grew a scrunched 'are you 12-years-old' look. Lizzie opened her mouth to protest when a voice from above stopped her. "Attention passengers, Delta, flight 1276 for Denver will now begin pre boarding. Anyone needing assistance or anyone traveling with small children may begin boarding at this time."
"C'mon Em, that's us" Lizzie announced standing up, "lets put the computer up for a while."
"I thought we were going to California, not that other place." Emily looked around confused.
"We're flying to Denver and getting on another plane that will take us to LA." Lizzie explained as she did a quick bag count to make sure they had everything.
"Oh. Can I sit next to Aunt Randa?"
"You better sit next me!" Miranda said coming over to take her hand. "I might get lonely!"
"People, can we please move this traveling circus on to the plane!" Lizzie was on about three hours of sleep and one step closer to having to face literally her worst nightmare. Seating arrangements were not on the top of her worry list.
"My someone's crabby today," Miranda commented; this caused Emily to break into the giggles. Had it not been for the three airline personnel and two police officers Lizzie probably would have given Miranda several pieces of her mind, but instead she handed hers and Emily's boarding passes to the flight attendant and stepped on the plane.
--
Lizzie had never been one to sleep on planes, it just wasn't very comfortable and she figured why pay 600 dollars to take a nap? However, due to her current emotional state, she had no trouble passing out as soon as the plane took off and letting Miranda entertain Emily for a while!
---
Emily spent the first few minutes getting settled into her seat, she sat Ben up next to her and looked through her new coloring book, deciding which picture to work on first. Aunt Randa had pulled out a thick book and was flipping through it, and Emily looked over at her mother to ask if she could get her book from Lizzie's bag when she noticed that her mom had fallen asleep. Emily considered waking her for a minute, she really wanted to look at her book, but decided it wasn't a good idea, mommy had looked so tired the last couple days, and she had woken Emily up several times the night before tossing in bed. It made Emily a little scared, but soon they would be with Grandma and Grandpa in California, so everything would be okay. Grandma would take care of them, she always did. She came to Austin to see them a lot, and Emily loved her visits. She never had to go to daycare and Grandma would make them yummy food; mommy would always seem a little happier, not so worried. Just thinking about it made Emily feel better, Grandma would make everything okay.
Emily looked up again at Aunt Randa, she was so pretty, and so funny she could always make mommy laugh, so could Uncle Tudge, and Emily wished he had come with them on the plane. Last time they had all flown together Uncle Tudge had pretended to be Captain Kirk from Star Trek and had said they were attacking the Klingons. Emily didn't know what any of that was but Uncle Tudge had been so funny! Emily loved Uncle Tudge so much, whenever they went to Houston to visit, Uncle Tudge would take her someplace neat; to NASA, where he worked, or a cool museum where you could play, or a fun park. Emily hoped he was coming to California soon.
"Hey Aunt Randa?"
"Yeah Em." Miranda glanced up out of her book.
"When is Uncle Tudge coming to California?"
"He's coming Sunday afternoon, that's in three days"
Emily nodded and Miranda went back to her book. Emily started to feel bored, she looked around for the stewardess, usually they brought them drinks and mommy usually let her get a coke when they were on the plane. The stewardess was still at the back of the plane though, so it would be awhile. Emily snuck a peek over at her mom, to make sure she was really asleep; there was something she wanted to ask Aunt Randa, but she didn't want her mom to hear her. Yup, she was asleep, drooling a little bit too, ewww!!
"Aunt Randa, can I ask you a question, its very important"
This got Miranda's attention and she put her book down to look at Emily.
"Of course you can, what's up?"
Emily struggled for a moment trying to decide if she should ask.
"Do you know who Gordo is?"
Miranda stared at the little girl, completely shocked. She tried to think of an answer, but stumbled over the words.
"That…That's a silly name, where did you hear that?"
Emily shrugged and looked uncomfortable. "Mommy kept saying that name last night, she's said it before in her sleep, but I never asked."
"You should probably ask your mom that question, she should be the one to answer it."
"Oh." Emily nodded her head "Okay, I just thought you might know"
"Sorry sweetie." Miranda smiled at her, but an uncomfortable silence set in. Luckily the flight attendant came by with the drinks and that gave them something to focus on.
An hour later Lizzie awoke with a start, she wasn't really sure what had awakened her; probably that stupid, creaky, beverage cart. She shifted up a bit, trying to un-kink herself, sleeping sitting up, was far from comfortable. She noticed, embarrassedly, that there was a nice puddle of drool on her cheek.
For a brief moment she remembered all the times she had flown with Gordo, he had always been the perfect pillow. Now, Lizzie realized as she looked down at the curly blonde head snuggled into her side, she was the perfect pillow. Lizzie glanced over at Miranda who was flipping aimlessly through a magazine looking a bit worried,
"Miranda." Lizzie whispered not wanting to wake Emily.
Miranda jumped and gave a bewildered look around. "Lizzie, you startled me!"
"Sorry, how long has she been out?"
"Only about fifteen minutes, she had a juice box and some cookies, and the next thing I knew, she was asleep. I guess the stewardess must have put something in the juice..."
Lizzie nodded and was about to ask Miranda if she knew when they would be landing in Denver, when Miranda told Lizzie something that made her go cold.
"Emily asked me who Gordo was."
Lizzie froze in place. She must have heard that wrong, Emily really had asked who Zorro was, she'd probably seen a commercial or something, that was a feasible explanation…
"Lizzie!" Miranda repeated again sharply, "Did you hear me? Emily asked who GORDO was."
Why did Miranda keep saying Gordo, she needed to keep her voice down. "What are you talking about?" Lizzie finally sputtered
Miranda sighed and rolled her eyes. "For the last time: Emily, YOUR DAUGHTER, asked me, Miranda, YOUR FRIEND, if I knew who Gordo, HER FATHER, that she doesn't know about, is."
Lizzie still looked completely dumbfounded. "Well, why? Did she say why, or where or who…" Lizzie was beginning to border on hysterics and Emily stirred gently in her sleep reminding Lizzie to keep it down.
"She heard you call his name out in your sleep last night. She said she's heard you say it before, in your sleep,"
Lizzie couldn't believe what she was hearing, what else had she said? "What did you tell her?" Lizzie demanded, silently praying that Miranda had covered for her.
"I told her that she should ask you."
Lizzie leaned back in her seat and covered her eyes. What had she done? What was she going to do? How would-
"Ladies and gentlemen we are beginning our descent into Denver at this time so the fasten seat belt sign has been turned back on and we ask that everyone please return to your seats and put them in their upright and locked positions Thank you!"
Lizzie took a moment from her pity party to briefly wonder why the seats had to be upright for landing. If the plane burst into flames and fell from the sky, would her seat being 'upright' really save her? This question had plagued her for years and she never could form a reasonable answer. Maybe she should ask Larry sometime, he knew lots of bizarre useless bits of knowledge, he should know this due to his degree in aerospace engineering. Gordo knew weird bits of trivia as well…wait Gordo…Emily… oh right, hysterical pity party.
How would she explain all this to Emily? Good grief, with all this she might as well just sign the poor kid up for lifetime therapy, she was probably going to need it by the time they left in a couple weeks. Lizzie hadn't even considered all that yet, how would Emily feel when, and if, she met her father after all this time, and then suddenly they're back in Austin without him. Lizzie was gearing up for an internal world war when Emily rubbed her eyes and sat up abruptly.
"Are we there yet" she asked sleepily gazing around her at all the people in their safe 'upright positions'.
"Almost sweetie." Lizzie brushed a few stray curls from Emily's face and kissed her forehead. "I love you Em, don't forget that." Emily smiled up at Lizzie and snuggled against her, Lizzie felt a little better already. Miranda was looking at her a bit strangely but didn't say anything and a couple minutes later they landed in Denver.
--
Luckily it was a short lay over in Denver and the flight from Denver to LA went fairly quickly. Lizzie kept Emily busy coloring and reading books, hoping to keep her from bringing up who Gordo was. It worked and before long they were stepping off the plane at LAX and heading towards baggage claim keeping their eyes peeled for Matt and Melina. It took forever to get all of their bags accounted and for and by the time they had there was still no sign of Matt; Lizzie let out an exasperated sigh.
"Where is he? You'd think he'd have gained a little responsibility by now!"
Just then a hand grabbed her arm. "Excuse me ma'am, but I believe you're wanted in three states for various crimes against siblings. You'll need to come with me."
"Matt!" Lizzie exclaimed turning around to face her little brother, who was now a good ten inches taller than her.
"Hey sis, miss me?"
"Please, me, miss a spiky haired weasel like you?… Yeah, maybe a little bit!"
They both laughed as Lizzie pulled him for a hug. "What took you so long?"
"We would have been here sooner, but SOMEONE had to stop and torment the airport security guards."
"I did not!" A tall blonde was walking toward them, a small smirk playing on her face. "I was just having some fun with those rent-a-cops!"
"You made one of them cry!" Matt accused. Melina rolled her eyes in disgust.
"He was a pu...wuss. He got all defensive, trying to threaten me with a full body cavity search. When I flashed my badge in his face I could swear he wet his pants!"
"Hey, watch it!" Lizzie motioned towards Emily who had been carefully observing the conversation.
"Hey Emily!" Matt knelt down to give his only niece a hug, and Emily returned it somewhat shyly. Emily was never quite sure what to think of Uncle Matt, he was pretty funny and he showed her all kinds of cool things, but when she did them she usually got in trouble. She wasn't too sure of Melina either, Melina was always nice to her but she and Uncle Matt made fun of each other a lot; it was kind of weird. Emily retreated back to Miranda who was watching the whole scene with an amused smile on her face.
"Hey Matt, Melina," Miranda spoke up, "its good to see you again."
"Miranda!" Matts face lit up as he went to give her a big hug. "How are you? finally dump that NASA nerd?!!"
"Yes," Melina continued walking over them gazing at Miranda frostily. "Where is your boyfriend, I mean fiancée? Aren't you guys technically married, I mean doesn't Texas have something called common law?"
"He's working, but he'll be here on Sunday" Miranda returned the cold gaze and added a little smile making sure to briefly wave the respectably sized diamond perched on her left hand around for all to see.
"WOW!" Matt exclaimed leaning over for a better look at the rock "Not bad Tudgeman!" Melina yanked on his arm.
"C'mon Matt let's go get the luggage in the car."
Lizzie caught Miranda's eye, as they picked up their bags to follow Matt and Melina. Lizzie looked as though she were going to reassure Miranda as she opened her mouth.
"Rebound girl."