Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted in a while, but my muse seems to think that she has the summer off. But I have a bunch of great ideas and I'm thinking of bringing Alex back even sooner than originally planned. But who knows, it all depends on the reviews.

Cabot Beach House - York Beach, Maine

Olivia had decided to take Mackenzie up to the Cabot's most northern beach house, the same house where she and Alex had spent their one-year anniversary. With the help of the FBI, Olivia was able to hire a driver and rent a trailer to drive her, Mackenzie and Mackenzie and Alex's horses all the way up to Maine. Because the house was up the street from a stable that boarded horses for beach rides, Olivia found no harm in bringing them up for Mackenzie to ride before the FBI took them away. She had even called her 'favorite' agent and change the date and place of the horses' pick-up to give Mackenzie a while longer to keep her muscles toned.

"Liv, are we going to be there anytime soon? I have a feeling Lexie is going to be ready to eat soon."

Olivia looked over at the sleeping puppy. "Is that your subtle way of asking if we're there yet?..Look out the window."

The car stopped in front of a beautiful slate grey two-story house with a beach in the backyard. It was a shame that the Cabot's didn't use the home more often, although it was almost never empty, at least during every season but winter. It was rented to family and friends throughout the year, as was the Cabot's house at Seabrook Beach in New Hampshire. The house in the Hamptons was the only one the Cabot's kept all to themselves.

The smell of the ocean hit them as soon as they exited the car. All the way up the brick walkway, that was all Mackenzie could focus on. "You know, I've never been to the ocean before, or a real beach for that matter."

Olivia inserted the key and pushed the door open. "Never?"

Mackenzie took Olivia's bags and put them with hers at the base of the stairs. "Nope. I lived at school and they had a lake and a small beach, but nothing like this. I've never even set foot in the ocean." She bound up the stairs. "This is gonna be so much fun."

As soon as they found their rooms and unpacked, Olivia led Mackenzie on an exploration of the house. The basement wasn't all too interesting. It had a laundry room and looked to be used mostly for storage. Olivia explained that the rest of the floor was a wine cellar and that was why it appeared to be so small. The wine cellar had a separate entrance all it's own. The attic wasn't that much better. It was also mostly storage. Mackenzie decided that she would go through the stuff later.

The second floor had two master bedrooms, each with their own lounge and bathroom and four other bedrooms sharing two bathrooms. Separating the two master bedrooms was a giant den or recreation room. A large plasma screen television was the focal point of the room, surrounded by a black leather couch, two matching loveseats and two matching recliners. Four shelves next to the TV contained hundreds of CDs, movies and DVDs. A stereo was placed in one of the back corners and in the other was a computer. Shelves built into the wall lined the back wall, filled with books, games, pictures and other knick-knacks. Under the windows were toy boxes filled with different toys for children of all ages. Through the door and onto the porch, one had a perfect view of the ocean. A table and chairs sat in the middle with lounge chairs and plants on wither side.

Down the arched staircase to the first floor, there were two directions that could be taken. Right lead you into the living room and left lead to the dinning room. The living room looked like a picture taken straight out of a country living magazine. The couch and two accompanying loveseats were made out of pale yellow fabric sparsely covered with multi-colored flowers. Other chairs with matching prints were clustered around a white bookcase that matched the coffee table and end tables. The whole room was pulled together by an elegant stone fireplace.

The dinning room was just as country. In the back was a white china cabinet and a matching buffet. The table top was made of white oak, as was the seats of the chairs around the table. The legs and backs of the chairs and the table legs were the same white as the furniture in the living room.

Off of the dinning and living rooms that connected the two, was the kitchen. A five-star kitchen by any definition, with all appliances of jet black, cabinets and counters of white oak and countertops of sapphire blue marble. Off of the kitchen was another bathroom and a large porch.

"Want to go down to the beach?" Olivia asked, Mackenzie nodded. "Then go get changed and meet me on the back porch in ten minutes."

-15 Minutes Later-

Out of her short sleeve 'Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy' shirt, low-rise jeans and sneakers and into a blue halter-top bikini with lavender flowers, a pair of hipster denim shorts and flip-flops, Mackenzie hurried outside.

"Didn't I say ten minutes?" Olivia asked. "It didn't take me that long to change and get everything ready." In place of her 'New York' T-shirt, hip-hugger jeans, leather jacket and matching boots, she now had on a pair of khaki shorts and a red tank-top. She had decided to forgo footwear entirely.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry, but I couldn't find my camera." She slung her bag over her shoulder and picked up the cooler next to Olivia. "So, where are we going?"

Olivia pointed straight ahead at the big beach umbrella under which lay two towels and a beach chair.

"Aren't you not supposed to be moving stuff?" Mackenzie questioned.

"I didn't. This stuff was already here."

"I'm sure it was." Mackenzie set the cooler down in between the two towels and sat down on the one covered with dolphins, opting to let Olivia have the beach chair since she wasn't planning on sitting much and since Olivia was injured. As soon as Olivia sat down, she handed Mackenzie a bottle of sun block."

"If you're anything like your mother, you're going to burn pretty quickly. The best way to kill a week at the beach is with a bad sunburn. Not to mention you'll regret it when you're older."

Mackenzie noted Olivia's quite darker complexion and figured that she was speaking from personal experience. Sun block applied, with Olivia's help with her back, she grabbed her camera out of her bag and reached for Olivia's hand.

"What?"

"Picture time." With a timer on the camera, they were able to take pictures of them together. They started off with a few taken under the umbrella. Just them doing random things, smiling to the camera, sticking their tongues out and other random stuff. Then they moved into the sun. They took pictures building sand castles and a really funny one of Mackenzie buried up to her neck in the sand. Mackenzie also somehow managed to pull Olivia over to the rocks where they took some more pictures. They also found some really cool looking shells to take back and a few snails and starfish, which they put back after they were done looking at them.

Once they, or Mackenzie rather, was done taking pictures, she took off her shorts and dove into the ocean to escape the near one hundred degree heat and Olivia returned to the coolness provided under the umbrella. With the camera now in her control, Olivia was able to take a few candids of her daughter's first time in the ocean.

-4 Hours Later-

As the day wound down, so did the activity on the beach. Mothers and fathers took their little ones in for the night, a few elderly couples left to go play bingo at the nearby casino and most of the other people had either grown tired of the cooler air the late afternoon brought, eighty degree weather can be hard to handle, or left to go the highly-advertised carnival downtown, which was only charging half price for tickets tonight.

Olivia and Mackenzie were two of only about twenty people still remaining on this section of the beach. They had had a typical day at the beach; swimming, tanning, building sandcastles, dinging seashells and even catching snails, crabs and starfish. They had only left the beach for about fifteen minutes when they went to get ice cream at the stand down the street.

Click.

"Mackenzie, was the point of that?"

"There wasn't one."

Click.

"Isn't the whole point of taking pictures to have the person in the picture looking at the camera?"

Mackenzie turned the camera off. "oh, this coming from the one who has been taking candids of me all day."

Olivia laughed. "You noticed that?" Mackenzie nodded. "Oh well, you'll live."

Now it was Mackenzie's turn to laugh. "Isn't that nice."

"You think this camera can hold another picture?"

Mackenzie nodded. Yeah, it's digital and the memory card is brand new. I have another card back at the house too. So as long as you didn't take a hundred of me while I wasn't looking, we should be all set."

-2 Days Later Day-

"Come on mom. I know you only have one arm, but that horse could go fine for someone who had no arms. Get her moving." Mackenzie yelled as she and her feisty mount cantered past Olivia and her slow moving mare.

'Mom?' Sometime two nights ago, after they had left the beach, Mackenzie had called Olivia 'mom' for the first time. Since then, she had been switching between calling her 'mom ' and 'Olivia.' Olivia wondered if it was being done subconsciously or purposely. But she felt that since Mackenzie had started calling her mom, they have become closer, so she dared not say anything.

By the time Olivia was pulled from her thoughts, Mackenzie was no longer within her sight. But before she even had a chance to worry, a gush of wind and a splash of icy salt water came from the corner of her left eye…followed by the pounding of hooves, not coming from her own horse.

"Hey, if that water gets in my shoulder, you are going to be in so much trouble."

Mackenzie slowed her horse and steered her back around toward Olivia. "Oh relax, its wrapped and you're wearing a leather jacket-which I don't even know how you can wear in this weather." It was above ninety degrees and Olivia was in jeans and leather jacket, although she did have a bathing suit on underneath, but that was besides the point. Since she wasn't as confident on a horse, she had decided to go with the saddle and so she needed pants, Mackenzie went bareback, so she was fine in her shorts. She shook her head. "But still, if you want to go running through the surf, that's fine, but do it away from me."

Mackenzie stuck her tongue out and ran right into the water, purposefully soaking Olivia.

-Next Day-

"Come on Lexie, come on girl." After closing the door after the dog, Mackenzie skipped over to the couch where Olivia was reading. "Mom?"

"Yeah?" Olivia responded, without looking up from her book.

"D…Do…Do you…" She sighed.

Olivia closed her book and sat up. "What's up honey?"

Mackenzie sighed again and sat down. "Do you have any pictures of mom?"

Olivia looked puzzled. "Of course I do. Why?"

"Well, because I've never seen a picture of her."

"Never?"

Mackenzie shook her head.

"Your grandmother never showed you a picture of her?"

Mackenzie once again shook her head.

Olivia found it hard to believe that Sophia Cabot had not shown her granddaughter a picture of her mother. But she found it even harder to believe that Mackenzie had never come across a picture as when Alex was 'alive,' Mrs. Cabot's house was covered with pictures of her daughters, proudly displayed like treasured Olympic golds.

"What happened to all the pictures your grandmother had. I wasn't really looking at the walls the last few times I was there, but the last time I remember seeing them was after Alex's funeral."

"I don't know, I never saw them. I haven't seen any pictures at the house. I mean, there are pictures, just not of actual people. They're more for decoration."

"Hmmm…Lets see what we can find up in the attic."

Boxes upon boxes upon boxes of photographs is what they found in the attic. It looked as if they were going to have a full day's work ahead of them sorting through all the albums and stray pictures.

As Mackenzie went downstairs to let the dog in and make some lemonade to ease the heat of the stuffy attic, Olivia began clearing space on the couch, coffee table and the space surrounding them.

There were eighteen boxes total. Three of Mr. and Mrs. Cabot from childhood up until they started photographing their own children's' childhoods, five of Cate, five of Alex and four of the whole family. Among all the boxes full of pictures, Olivia had even found one brimming over with home videos.

Upon moving an old trunk, Olivia came across another box. "Great."

"What's great?" Mackenzie asked as she walked in carrying a tray that held a pitcher of pink lemonade and two tall glasses. "Damn, where did all these boxes come from?" She set the tray down on the center of the coffee table.

"Well, lets see," Olivia set a large box down on the couch. "some are from under things, some were piled on the window seat, a few were hidden in trunks and the rest were just…lying around."

"Well, that uh…that sounds like loads of fun."

Olivia opened the first box. "Yeah." She replied distractedly.

"Um, I was just kidding. Note the sarcasm."

Olivia did not respond.

"What's the mater?" Mackenzie asked concerned.

"No…nothing." Olivia shook herself out of her fog. "It's just…these are the pictures that were hanging on the walls at Sophia-well, your house."

Mackenzie shrugged. "Grandma must have taken them down and stored them here."

Olivia sighed. "She must have." That was what it looked like, and without Mrs. Cabot around to explain, that theory would have to do.

-5 Hours Later-

Five hours, ninety-seven photo albums and four videos later, Mackenzie was sitting curled up on the couch with a mug that read ' Assistant District Attorney of Coffee Central. Because not all lawyers prefer Scotch,' full of hot chocolate watching the video of her first birthday.

Young Mackenzie, a bright and alert twelve-month old, was sitting atop a young pure white horse that had been given to her as a birthday gift from her grandparents. Mackenzie could only guess that it was her grandfather whom was struggling to lead the stubborn yearling around, sending the curly-haired toddler into fits of hysterics. Sitting behind Mackenzie on the horse was sixteen-year old Alexandra Cabot, laughing at the sounds coming from her small daughter.

A few more minutes into the tape, Mackenzie and Alex were both changed into matching lavender mother-daughter dresses. Alex's was a spaghetti-strap dress shaped with smooth princess seams and Mackenzie's was sleeveless with a twirly circle skirt and lettuce-edge ruffle hem. Everyone at the party, nearly all three hundred people, were surrounding them at a birthday cake fit for a princess, that in fact, followed the baby princess theme of the party with its castle, unicorns and little princess statues surrounded by white frosting and decorated with red and pink flowers.

Unnoticed by Mackenzie, Olivia had re-entered and stood undetected at the doorway. She stood there for a minute, mesmerized by how much of a difference only fifteen years could make. She tore her eyes away from the TV screen only when she heard Mackenzie start to cry. It was then that she moved over to the couch and sat down next to Mackenzie.

"She really loved me." Mackenzie cried. "She really loved me."

Olivia gathered her daughter in her arms. "Of course she did sweetie, of course she did."

Mackenzie cried. "But all the stuff…E…Emily…t…told me while we were in the…b…bathroom. She said-"

Olivia cut her off and turned so that she was facing Mackenzie. "Now listen to me. Nothing Emily Johnson told you about your mother is anywhere near factual. I don't know what she said and I don't care, nothing she could have told you about Alexandra Cabot could ever be true. Nothing. Its all lies…Do you understand me?"

Mackenzie continued to cry as she nodded and was once again gathered in her mother's strong, comforting arms. It only took a few minutes until she cried herself to sleep. Olivia took one last look at the television. "Yep, she really loved you...she still does. And that's no lie."