A/N: Well, obviously, I meant to get this chapter out sooner than now, but I guess I should have known that I couldn't be trusted with the time frames that I give. Forgive me. Thank you for all the reviews.

Chapter Eight

Lizzie cleared her throat, trying to focus on the problem at hand, "I didn't know you were Hailey's uncle."

"Well, I am," he said, and she noticed that he didn't seem all that happy to see her.

"Actually, Gordo, I didn't even realize you still lived here."

Gordo looked surprised. He was the one who never moved. He didn't really feel like getting into it right now, though. He had other things to do. "Well, I do."

"Well," Lizzie said, opening the door to let him in, "come on in. There has to be some explanation as to where our children are."

Before he walked in, he studied Lizzie. In almost twenty years, she looked almost the same. She looked a little more filled out and looked more mature, but other than that, he could pick her out from anywhere. He stepped in and noted that she seemed uncomfortable at his staring. Lizzie led him to the living room and she offered for him to take a seat. Andrew was sitting at the desk and playing on the computer, "Andrew," she said, "Andrew, this is my… friend, David Gordon. Gordo, this is my other son, Andrew."

Andrew smiled and went back to the computer. "Can I get you anything to drink?" Lizzie offered. She hated uncomfortable silence.

"No, thanks."

Lizzie sat across from him, visibly uncomfortable. What do you say to someone you haven't seen in almost two decades and when you saw him last, you didn't end on good terms? "Well," she said, "I tried Jake on his cell phone and it doesn't appear to be on. I take it you tried Hailey on her cell phone?"

"Of course," he said, again sort of rudely.

"Well, there has to be some sort of logical explanation for all of this. I know Jake is a good kid and it isn't like him to not call before he does something, so there has to be…some explanation." Okay, she didn't know what to say. It was hard to concentrate on the matter at hand when Gordo's dark eyes glared back at her as if he was still upset with her.

"Well, Hailey is supposed to call me if she isn't going to be home by four, and its after five now."

"Maybe they forgot to turn their cell phones off after school," Lizzie suggested.

Gordo shrugged, "That's a possibility. In fact, I hope that that's the case, but I'm still worried. I don't know where they could be. They could be in a dark alley for all I know."

Lizzie felt insulted. Was Gordo implying that her son was some sort of …rapist or something? "No, there has to be some sort of easier explanation. Maybe we should check the school or the Digital Bean or something."

Gordo got up, glad that he had an excuse not to sit around and "chat." "Fine. You stay here and call me if they show up."

"No!" Lizzie said, "I'm going with you!" she sighed, "That way, if we find them together, we'll both know exactly what is going on." Truthfully, Lizzie was a little worried if Gordo found them, he would be tempted to hurt Jake or blame Jake, and he didn't think that was fair to Jake.

Gordo mentally rolled his eyes, wishing all of this just didn't happen. "Fine."

Lizzie turned to Andrew, "Andrew, call me on my cell phone if one of them shows up."

"Okay," he said, not looking up from the computer.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay here and make sure they don't come back?" Gordo asked, hoping she would change her mind. He didn't want to be rude, but he also didn't want to deal with any added stress.

"No, I need to go," Lizzie said, although she didn't particularly want to go, "Andrew will call me if Jake comes home."

Lizzie followed Gordo to his car and got in to the passenger side, "You don't have to go, you know," he reminded, giving one last hope of her backing out.

"Yes, I do. I'm just as worried as you are about Jake and Hailey."

Gordo rolled his eyes, however, this time, it wasn't mentally, "Fine, let's go to the Digital Bean first."

"Okay," Lizzie said, "and then maybe we should check the school."

Gordo mumbled something as he started the car, but Lizzie didn't hear what he said. He backed out of the driveway and headed for the Digital Bean.

Silence lingered in the air for the two ex best friends. The most Lizzie thought about it, the more she wanted to ask him. Lizzie was always social and very curious about other people's lives. She hadn't really thought about Gordo lately. She assumed, since she knew he was a director, that he lived in either New York or LA. Certainly not Hill Ridge. She was surprised her mom hadn't said anything about him. Certainly Jo McGuire knew that Gordo was still in town. She glanced over at the older version of the Gordo she used to be in love with. Age seemed to do him well. He still had curly, dark hair, and there was still that boyish charm he exuded when they were younger. He was wearing some worn jeans and a t-shirt, and there was something about his face that told Lizzie that he'd had a long day. She assumed he had many long days, as he obviously worked hard with his career and had to take care of at least one person.

When Lizzie met Hailey the day before, Hailey had mentioned something about being an only child. She wondered if Gordo had any children of his own. She knew he wasn't married, but she could almost see him as the type of guy who had a girlfriend who was at least ten years younger than him and he could have children with her.

So she let her mind wander a little. Nothing was wrong with being curious. She was a little embarrassed to admit that she was even thinking about the way Gordo looked, but it almost served as a distraction. It made her forget that they left on excruciatingly brutal terms. It made her forget how much she was supposed to hate the man sitting next to her. It almost made her forget that her main concern was supposed to be their children right now.

After what seemed like hours of silence in the car, they finally arrived at the Digital Bean and Lizzie started to get out of the car, "You stay here," Gordo grumbled, undoing his own seatbelt, "Come get me if one of them calls."

Lizzie looked around the parking lot for Jake's Jeep. Lizzie was sure Gordo only wanted her to stay in the car because it meant that they wouldn't have to be together. As immature as it sounded, she could hardly blame him. It wasn't like she wanted the extra tension. She thought about bringing up the fact that the Jeep wasn't there, but then thought better of it, because that didn't necessarily mean anything. To tell the truth, Lizzie wasn't too worried about Jake. Sure, she'd talk to him when he got home about it, but Jake was an all-around responsible teenager who was probably handing somewhere and lost track of the time. She didn't want to play the "Jake is an angel" card to Gordo if she would have to stick her foot into her mouth later.

A few minutes later, though, as Lizzie suspected, Gordo returned empty-handed. When he got back into the car, he said, "I asked some of the kids in there, but none of them seemed to know anything," he hit the steering wheel with his hand, "Dammit! I've never felt this…frustrated. Where the hell could they be?" he glanced over at her, "and how the hell can you stay so calm about this? If anything has happened to Hailey, you'll be hearing from my lawyer." Gordo leaned his head on his hands at the steering wheel and looked down.

"Gordo…"

"It's David," he mumbled.

Caught a little off guard, Lizzie blinked, "Excuse me?"

"I don't go by 'Gordo' anymore. My name is David."

"Oh," Lizzie said, "Well, then…David, I understand why you are angry, but before we go on with this search, answer this for me: are you really this upset about Hailey and Jake? Or is it because of me?"

Gordo looked at Lizzie and chuckled, although it was apparent that he didn't find this amusing, "Don't flatter yourself, Mrs. West; Hailey means the world to me and if something actually did happen to her…I don't even want to think about it," Gordo paused for a minute, sinking in what he just said. Lizzie was right about his overreaction. He sighed, "However, I have a strong feeling that this was some miscommunication and that both of them are fine. I like Jake and I trust him with Hailey. I'll just feel a lot better when I find her."

Lizzie mentally praised herself for at least being able to do something right about raising Jake and Andrew. "I'll feel a lot better, too," Lizzie said, "Jake is my son. That being said, I just want to make sure you aren't angry because Jake is my son because frankly, I was caught a little off guard when I learned that Hailey is your…well, you are Hailey's guardian."

Gordo shook his head in disbelief, "Yeah, well, I didn't expect to see you, either."

"Well..." Lizzie bit her bottom lip, "maybe we can catch up and deal with the shock later, but now we should head on over to the school."

Gordo rolled his eyes and started the car…

…Ten minutes later, after Lizzie saw Jake's car, Lizzie and Gordo walked into the main offices of the school, "Excuse me," Lizzie said, when she saw a woman working at a desk, "do you know if there are any students still here?"

"There might be some in the library, but that's going to close at six. Is there something I can help you with?" the woman answered.

"I'm looking for my son and he's looking for his niece," Lizzie explained calmly.

"Oh, well, I think the recycling club went on a field trip today and they'll be home later. Could they be there?"

"They could be," Lizzie said, "I mean, that would make sense. Is there a list or something?"

"No, but they were instructed to leave their stuff in the science room. Would you like to check and see if you see their stuff?"

"Where is the room?" Gordo asked, as he walked away from the reception desk.

"It's the second door around the corner to the left."

"Okay, thanks," Lizzie said and they headed for that direction.

Sure enough, Jake's and Hailey's stuff was in that room along with a lot of other people's stuff. "I am going to strangle that girl when I get home," Gordo mumbled.

888

By eight o'clock that night everyone was home. Gordo had prepared to give Hailey a lecture, but right as he was about to exchange words, his parents walked in and one of them asked, "Oh, Hailey, how was the recycling thing?"

Oops.

When Jake got home, he explained that he sent her a text message on her cell phone. Lizzie checked, and sure enough, the text message was right there.

Hmm…

So, the moral of that day was that teenagers aren't always the ones that make mistakes.

888

Now that Gordo knew about Lizzie, he didn't know what to do about it. He couldn't stop thinking about her for the next few days. Everything happened so long ago and here they were not speaking to each other. All this did was remind Gordo of how stupid he was all those years ago with what he said.

And now that Lizzie knew that Gordo was still in town, it made her all the more nervous. Her divorce proved that he was right about her ex-husband and she was ashamed to even face Gordo again.

888

What would happen next? When would the two ex-friends see each other again and what would happen when they did? All of that would only be determined when they saw each other at the McGuire anniversary party.