Caleb placed Tara on the bed and sighed at seeing how small she looked compared to the large bed. She had only woken up once and he was able to get her to drink some water before she fell back asleep on the way here. He knew she was tired and regretted everything that led up to this moment. There was nobody he could blame though but himself.
The door opened and he turned to see Delia standing in the doorway, "She looks so small."
"She'll be fine, don't worry Caleb," she said softly as she came next to him. "What is it you need me to do?"
"When she wakes up make sure she drinks some more of this—it'll help keep her cravings down. Make sure she's comfortable also—I'm going to go wait for Olivia to get here."
"Of course," she said as she watched him leave the room and then pulled a chair over to the bed. She took Tara's hand and sighed at feeling how cold it was before she closed her eyes and bowed her head and began praying.
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Alison ran to the door at hearing the taxi pull into the driveway—Rafe had called and said they were at the airport, but said they'd take a taxi instead of her coming. She'd been reading herself to comfort Kate, but when she opened the door to see who was there she froze, "Lizzie? What are you doing here?" she asked as she looked at Rafe who looked like Mount St. Helens about to erupt.
"I--," spoke Lizzie before she was cut off.
"Elizabeth," warned Rafe.
"Let me say something," she pleaded with him.
"Your actions of the past twenty four hours have said enough," he said, unable to look at her. "Just go to your room—we'll talk later."
"Dad—Mom--," she said as she began to sob.
"ELIZABETH! NOW!" he yelled, finally looking at her so fiercely she jumped and ran up the steps—her bedroom door slamming a few moments later.
"What the hell was that about? Did you go to Jack's and drag her out of there for protection? You said her actions—what actions is that? Rafe—say something—you're scaring me—you were supposed to go get Tara out of that monster's mansion."
Rafe sat down on the couch trying to control his emotions and looked at Alison, love and fear, and tears filling his eyes, "I could have lost them both today, Angel. There's only one other time I've been that scared and fearless—that was when Joshua had you. I would have done anything to save you—I practically did to get you out of there."
"Ok, calm down—hey, look at me. Our daughter's are fine—Eddie called me and told me he's got Kate over at the gym, she's resting and he's keeping a close eye on her. Now tell me about Lizzie, please," she said as tears filled her eyes.
He got up and began pacing as he talked, "Leslie and Lizzie wanted to help Jasmine. She had an episode and they wanted to help her—so they thought to check on the girls, make sure they were ok. Leslie had a vision and saw they were separated. So they snuck out of Jack and Jasmine's house in the middle of the night and went to the train station."
"They did what!" soared Alison's voice so she knew her daughter heard her upstairs.
"Jack was on their trail, knew where they were going—or had an idea."
"How did you find them?"
"This is what makes me so mad—we almost missed them, Alison. A few more minutes and I would have been driving off and just leaving my daughter there for Marcus' clutches. I was so focused on getting Kate and Tara out of harm's way that I didn't even feel another slayer's presence."
"So where is Leslie?"
"We waited for Jack to make it to the train station and he took her home. I—I just feel so inadequate. I wanted Kate to have this great senior trip—and I don't blame Jack in the least for what Leslie and Lizzie did—I mean look at who her namesake is," he said, finally breaking a smile that caused Alison to grin also.
Alison walked over behind him and put her arms around his waist, "You aren't inadequate, Rafe. You are a slayer and you were focusing on what you thought was the only problem—there was no warning signs or bells on any of this. But it's ok—our children are all home in Port Charles safely. And Tara—she's going to get through this, just gain her strength and go to the springs. Now how long until we let Lizzie leave her room?"
"How does 10-12 years sound?" laughed Rafe as he turned and gave her a kiss, trying to keep what was becoming more and more obvious of another possible problem off his mind for a few minutes.
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Eddie finished writing the sign for the front door and opened it to see one of their regular guys standing there, "Hey—Ben—isn't it? Sorry, but we're going to have to stay closed another day."
"Really? I was looking forward to lifting some weights though."
"I'm sorry—we've just had a family crisis the past few days. It should be cleared up tomorrow though," he said as he put the sign on the door and waited for the guy to leave before closing and locking up. He looked at the juice bar and went around grabbing a couple bottles of juice and water to take up to the room.
"Mom, just called again," smiled Kate as she stretched out on the couch in the apartment as Eddie walked in.
"Checking up again?"
"Yeah," she said with a shrug. "I can always go back to Mom and Dad's—you can open up the gym, I'm sure there are people wanting to come in now."
"Do you really want to be there in the middle of a Lizzie-Rafe square-off?" he laughed and smiled when she smiled at him.
"It'd be better than constantly thinking of the fact that Tara is now a vampire and it's my fault."
"Hey—stop doing that—I insist," he said as he sat down on her feet making her move her legs around. "You are not to blame, Katrina—this was unseen circumstance by some lunatic vampire that has it out for Dad and Caleb."
"Not if you ask Andrew," she said under her breath.
"What?"
"Nothing. I think I'm going to take a nap," she said as grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch and curled up in it.
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Livvie had never walked into Morley Manor and felt so small in the huge house. She could feel the eeriness in it and wondered what the original Olivia felt when she walked in here—if she ever had. Better yet, what had Elena and Tara felt walking into this place that became a battleground for everything yet to come. Uneasiness—uncertainty of the future—wanting to return to what they knew—and all of that, in a way, was what she was feeling in that exact moment.
She placed her suitcase down and heard a noise coming from the library. "Caleb?"
Caleb looked up as the door opened and wanted to frown at seeing the look on his wife's face, "You made it."
"Of course. Where is she?"
"She's upstairs—asleep. Delia is sitting at her bedside while I looked something up," he said as she slipped the book back onto a shelf, higher than it had been originally.
"Well, can we see her?"
"Of course, my love," he said giving her a kiss and putting his arm around her waist before leading her out of the library to see their daughter.
