Conner pounded his steering wheel in frustration. He had no idea
that L.A. had so many hotels. It was only ten in the morning and he
felt like he had been to every one of them. He had been checking
hotels all up the coast to Los Angeles with no luck. The first couple
of places he had out right asked if Elizabeth was there. Many of them
had told him that it was against policy to give out a customer's info.
One guy had even threatened to call the police. Conner had quickly
discovered a way to get people to tell him what he wanted. Sure, it
made him look like a fool, but he needed to find Liz. He drove to the
next hotel on the page he had torn from the city directory. The Sun
Coast Inn. Conner scowled at the lame name. They were fifteen
minutes from the beach and surrounded by gray cement buildings.
He walked into the lobby and went to the front desk. Show time.
Conner cleared this throat. A bored young woman, wearing a loose
fitting lavender sweater looked up. "Can I help you?" Conner hated
lavender. It was so…cloying.
"Yeah," he said looking down, putting a hint of morose into his voice.
"My wife and I had an argument last night and…and I said some things
I shouldn't have and she left. Sometimes when she gets angry she
comes here. I'm really sorry, and I couldn't go to work without making
sure she's okay, and that she's not mad anymore."
The woman's gaze had softened, and she tucked a loose strand of
brown hair behind her ear. "That's so sweet. I have no idea if she's
here or not. I didn't come on duty until this morning."
"Here's her picture," Conner said, handing the picture Elizabeth had given
him. It was her junior year picture.
The woman glanced at it. She blushed, slowly looked at Conner. "Listen,
you seem like a really nice guy. I saw her this morning; she checked
out….she was with a guy. I'm sorry."
Conner's blood ran cold. Elizabeth was seeing someone else? Conner
jammed his fists into his pockets. "Did they say anything?" he said gruffly.
"About where they were going?"
The woman shook her head. "Listen, I'm sorry."
"Yeah, whatever," Conner said than stormed out of the stifling building
and its fake palm trees, and the nosy clerk and her puppy dog gaze.
"Wait!" a voice called out.
Conner turned around and saw the clerk running towards him. She ran a
hand through her hair.
"What?" he said confused.
"I think I might be able to help," she said hesitantly. "I think you're crazy,
though. If you're wife is messing around with other guys behind your
back…"
"Just…just tell me what you know," Conner said, beginning to lose
patience.
"The guy she was with, really cute, mentioned that they were going to
San Jose . They left about an hour ago."
"Thanks," Conner said quickly. "How do you get there?"
"Get on the freeway down the street, it takes you directly there," she
explained.
"Listen, I got to go. Thanks," he said giving her a tight smile.
Conner turned and dashed to his car. He had no time to waste. Every
second took him farther away from Liz.

"Just let me drop my bags off," Gabe said. "I'll be ten minutes, tops."
"It's okay," Elizabeth said smiling. "It's a nice day out, I don't mind
hanging outside."
"Are you feeling any better?" he said looking at her. "You didn't touch a
thing at breakfast."
"I wasn't hungry. I don't feel great. I guess it's just morning sickness. I
do have kind of a weird feeling in my stomach. Like a dull ache." She
shrugged. "I'm fine."
Gabe nodded and walked into the hotel.
Elizabeth sat on the wooden bench in front of the hotel. Gabe was
dropping his bags off and then they would go to the bus station. Elizabeth
wrapped her arms around herself. She would be lying to herself if she
didn't admit that she was a little scared about going home. She was going
have to face everyone at school. She was going to have to tell Conner
about the baby. She doubted that would go very well. He would either catch
the next flight to Hong Kong or claimed he had never met her before. Then
she would have to tell her parents. She should probably need a police escort
for that one. Then she would have to deal with Jessica. Elizabeth hesitated.
She knew if she asked Gabe, he would let her go with him on his trip. If
things had been different she probably would have agreed. But running
away wasn't going to solve anything. And the last thing Gabe needed was
a pregnant girl ruining his year of discovery.
She started to shiver, which was weird because even though it was October,
it was seventy-five degrees out. She closed her eyes. She opened
them and everything seemed blurry. She tried to stand up, but everything
was spinning. She grabbed the rail of the bench, and tried to find her balance.
The pain in her stomach was almost unbearable. She let out a gargled moan.
She saw Gabe, but he was all fuzzy and blurry. Gabe was moving his mouth,
but she couldn't hear what he was saying. She tried to walk towards him,
but she lost her balance and fell. Then everything went blank.

Conner cursed under his breath. San Jose was a mess of streets, and he
had already been turned around about five times. There were fewer
hotels, which was good. He turned left, but he didn't recognize the street.
The guy at the gas station had said there were a couple of cheap hotels past
the post office, but Conner didn't see the post office, unless the post
office masqueraded as Benny's Chili House. Conner pushed on the
gas pedal, but stopped when he saw flashing lights. Great, an accident was
the last thing he needed. This whole trip had been doomed from the start.
Conner drove slowly past an ambulance. They were hoisting a girl onto a
stretcher. Conner squinted to get a closer look. He slammed on the breaks.
He half hazerdly maneuvered his car to the side of the road, and climbed
out. He ran towards the crowd of people. He pushed past several nosy
onlookers. He reached the ambulance attendant. " Elizabeth ," he choked
out.
"Stand back," the attendant ordered him. "We need room."
"But she's my girlfriend, is she okay?" Conner said getting angry.
There was a guy standing near by, preparing to climb in the ambulance.
He gave Conner an odd look. Conner realized that this must be the guy
Elizabeth had been with. "You," he said. "You stay away from my girlfriend."
"Cool it," the attendant ordered, hoisting Elizabeth up into the ambulance. He
climbed in and closed the door.
"Damn," Conner shouted. He raced to his car, and sped off after the
ambulance. He had finally found Elizabeth and he wasn't going to lose her now.

Gabe paced the deserted waiting room. He had only left Elizabeth for a
minute. He knew that it wasn't his fault, but he couldn't help but blame
himself anyway. Somehow, in less than a week, she had become
important to him. She was the first person he had cared about since
his mother had died. Yet Elizabeth was the one person he could never
have. She was carrying another man's child. A man who had broken her
heart, and yet he was still all she saw. The elevator dinged and Gabe
glanced over. A guy emerged. He was about his age, and looked liked
he hadn't had any sleep for the past month. He looked devastated, and
slightly psycho. It was the guy from outside the hotel.
The guy glanced over at him, and his eyes darkened. He stalked over to
him, and glared straight into Gabe's face.
"How is she? What the hell is going on?"
"She's fine," Gabe said, knowing who he was talking about. The guy
calmed down slightly, and he looked more pained more than angry. Gabe
knew from the guy's expression who he was. This was Elizabeth 's
mystery man, the elusive Conner. He wasn't quite what Gabe had
expected. He had pictured Elizabeth with Mr. Big Man on Campus, the
kind of guy who wore a letter jacket even when it was eighty degrees
outside. The guy who played at least three varsity sports, but managed
to find the time to be student council president, and romance the class
blond. Gabe had known the type. Brent Traylor had been the type, his
girlfriend Krissy Madison, captain of the cheerleaders, valedictorian,
wonder bra enhanced, all American girl. Gabe had been the slightly
mysterious, loner who had stolen her from the golden boy. The guy
she found okay to fool around with behind the bleachers, but not good
enough to take home to meet her parents or to tell her friends that she
was seeing. Conner could have been a dead ringer for himself. Except
that Gabe had never cared about Krissy, he only had been interested
in one upping jock boy.
"What's wrong with her?" Conner demanded. "I have to see her.
Now."
"They didn't tell me anything," Gabe said, getting annoyed. What was
this guy's problem?
Conner sighed, obviously frustrated. At that moment a doctor walked out.
"Are you guys here for Elizabeth Wakefield?"
"Yes," they both said at the times, rushing over towards the doctor.
" Elizabeth is going to be fine,"
Gabe sighed with relief.
"What was wrong with her?" Conner asked.
The doctor shook his head. "The patient asked me not to discuss it with
you; she'd rather tell you herself."
"So can I see her?" Conner asked impatiently.
"Are you Gabe Stewart?"
"I am," Gabe said, cutting in.
The doctor nodded. "She asked to see you."
Conner opened his mouth to protest, but Gabe and the doctor were already
walking away.
Gabe walked into Elizabeth 's room, and was surprised to find her standing
up. He had expected her to be in the bed. He smiled and hugged her.
"How are you doing?" he asked.
"I'm fine," she said shakily. "Thanks for grabbing my bag," she said
gesturing to her outfit.
"So what was wrong? Or was it just some normal pregnancy thing?"
Elizabeth looked down at the ground. After a moment of silence she looked
back up and Gabe could see tears in her eyes. "I lost the baby," she said
softly. "I had a miscarriage. It wasn't my fault; it was just one of those
things. The doctor said it isn't uncommon in the first month of pregnancy."
Elizabeth burst into tears. Gabe wrapped his arms around her. "I'm so sorry."
Elizabeth sniffled and wiped her eyes. "I know I wouldn't have been able
to take care of it, but it was my child. I guess a part of me wanted it."
"So, are you going to be okay?"
"Yeah," Elizabeth said pulling away from him and wrapping her arms around
herself protectively. "I get to go home now. They don't like to keep
people here."
"I'm going to drive you," Gabe said firmly. Elizabeth didn't argue. He
grabbed her bag, and they walked towards the elevator.
When they neared the lobby Elizabeth suddenly stopped and her whole
body went rigid. Gabe, in all the shock had forgotten that Conner was here.
Elizabeth appeared to be in shock. Conner hurried towards her and she
took a step back. Conner hesitated as Elizabeth tightened her sweater
around her body, like she was hiding her body from Conner. Except that
she was fully clothed, and Gabe knew that Conner had seen Elizabeth
before. Or maybe that was why she did it.
"Liz?" Conner said carefully.
"How…how did you find me?" Elizabeth finally said. "Why did you find me?"
Conner shrugged. "You scared me…everyone, by running off like that. I
needed to make sure that you were okay, and to tell you that I missed you,
and that I want you to come back."
Elizabeth was silent. Gabe could have sworn he saw a small smile play on
her lips. But in a second, it was gone. "You jerk," she said, tears falling
down her cheeks. "How could you? How could you love me, and then not
feel anything?" she sobbed. She stumbled forwards and fell into his arms,
sobbing. Conner wrapped his arms around her and held her.
"I'm so sorry," Conner said softly. "I know about the baby."
Elizabeth stared up at him in horror. Then she started crying again. This
time with hard gasping sounds, as if she couldn't find her breath. As if
she was crying from the gut.
"I'm going to take you home," Conner said firmly. Elizabeth nodded into
his chest. They broke apart, and Elizabeth walked over to Gabe.
"I have to go," she said between tears. He nodded. Elizabeth gave him
a weak smile. "Thank you," she said hugging him. "For everything." She
squeezed his hand. Then she turned and went back over to Conner.
He wrapped an arm around her, and they slowly walked toward the elevator.
They got on and the door closed, leaving Gabe by himself. He closed his
eyes. Elizabeth was gone. He knew she would leave. She had never
been his. He needed to go back to his life. But what kind of life did he
have? Roaming across the country like a bum? He said he needed to
see the country, experience life. But he didn't need to travel across the
country to do that. He opened up his clenched hand. In it was Elizabeth 's
gold ' Elizabeth ' necklace. The one he had touched when they first met.
He clenched his fist up again, and with his other hand, pulled out his cell
phone. He then dialed the number that he knew by heart. "Hello? Dad,
it's me, Gabe. I'm coming home."

Sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out! The chapter was all about
Liz, so to be fair the next chapter will be all about Jessica. Please feel free
to review!