I'm Sorry For What I Said While We Were Trying to Park the Camper

Part 4

Author's Note: I know it's been forever—I really like this story, I just forgot about it. Here's the latest chapter. Let me know what you think. For those following along this story comes after Perp-Loving Cop-Hater.

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"It's gone," Liz said as she stood looking at the house where she grew up.

"What's gone?" Ressler asked as he stood next to her looking at the house. They could hear Agnes getting out of the RV behind them with his parents.

"The tire swing, the fort..." Liz said, her voice choking slightly.

Ressler looked at her strangely. Did she really think all these years later all of the things from her childhood would still be there?

"Liz, your aunt rented it out," Ressler said. "Things were bound to change."

Liz nodded and wiped at a stray tear.

He wrapped an arm around her comfortingly. "You okay?"

She nodded and sniffled. "I guess, I didn't expect...I'm not sure what I expected."

"Mom?" Agnes said as she looked up at her mom trying not to cry.

"Hi honey," Liz smiled down at her with a watery grin and wiped quickly at her eyes. "This is where I grew up."

"Why are you...?" Agnes left the sentence hanging, not sure why her mother dragged them all out here and seems sad they did now.

"Probably all those hormones bouncing around in you," Lisa Ressler said encouragingly. "I was a bawling mess the last few months of each pregnancy."

Liz chuckled and looked back at the house.

"It's the house, but it looks...not like I left it after Sam died and I guess...I guess I was expecting it more frozen in time," Liz said softly. "Stupid but..."

"Not stupid," Ressler said pulling her against him slightly. "Nostalgic."

Liz chuckled. "Even the siding isn't...it used to be blue, like sky blue and the porch used to be cement and not wood like it is now..."

"Probably built the wood porch over the cement one," Maurice said stepping toward the house slightly. "And the siding is still old, just painted. It's all there still Liz..."

Liz smiled at everyone's effort to cheer her up.

"I'm being silly, I know," Liz said taking a deep breath. "Aunt June said the keys are in the pot at the side door. She left them there yesterday."

Ressler took her hand and walked toward the side with everyone else following.

"You okay, really?" He whispered as they walked.

Liz nodded, she wasn't sure she was, but she hoped she would be.

He fetched the keys from the pot and swung open the fairly new screen door and started to unlock the door behind it.

"The old one was silver and creaked," Liz chuckled as she held the new screen door. "It announced whenever you left the house or came in. There was no sneaking out this door on Sam."

"Why aren't we going in the front door?" Agnes asked.

"In the country you don't usually go through people's front door, you enter through the side or back or garage if they have one," Liz said. "It's just the way it is."

Maurice chuckled.

"In the small town where I'm from in Quebec you don't ever lock your doors, even when you go away on vacation, just in case the neighbors need to borrow anything," he smiled.

"You're joking, right?" Agnes asked.

"Of course, papa is..." Ressler started then stopped when he saw Maurice shaking his head.

"Are you kidding me?" Ressler asked, disbelieving as they made their way into the house.

"No, his sisters will confirm it," Lisa chuckled. "I didn't believe it either."

"You Detroit city folk don't get us country people sometimes, right Liz?" Maurice asked as they watched her walk around the kitchen smiling.

"Yeah, I'm not sure I ever had a key growing up and I don't think Sam ever used the one he had," Liz chuckled.

"Weird," Agnes said as she shared a look with her dad. He nodded in agreement.

"Well?" Ressler asked his wife as he watched her smiling and walking around.

"Just like I remember it," Liz turned and smiled toward him.

"These counters are from the 1960's," Maurice said. "And in great shape."

"They're blue," Agnes said, surprised. To her, counters were more plain. These ones looked like they had sparkles in them and all kinds of coloured flecks.

"The old fridge Sam replaced when I was a kid was blue too," Liz smiled at her daughter as she walked into another room.

The old carpet was gone, replaced with a fake wood floating floor but the windows looked the same.

"Didn't replace the windows," Ressler said as he looked at the old silver-metal framed windows.

"I used to sit here for hours, on this olive green couch we had, looking outside watching the snow fall in winter, it was the perfect view," Liz said wistfully.

Agnes followed her mother's gaze. It was the front lawn, the driveway, the road, and then nothing but fields. How was this the perfect view? She didn't get her mom sometimes.

"We had the TV here," Liz said walking around the room. "Sam's big chair here, the couch here, and a bookshelf over here."

Everyone followed her with their eyes as she excitedly pointed out things.

"I love these old bungalows," Lisa said as she looked around at the room. "It was all the room you needed. Now people have these enormous houses they don't need and don't see each other in. Here you were always together."

Liz smiled at her and walked into the small hallway and then the washroom.

"Washroom was re-done," Liz said. "But that was just after Sam died, Aunt June called me to ask to use some of the money to fix it. It used to be mint green tiles and a huge tub..."

She looked around and then walked into another room.

"Sam's room," Liz said softly as she walked into the empty space. "He just had a bed and dresser. Later, he had a TV in here, but not much else except his piles of car magazines."

"He liked cars?" Agnes asked.

"He liked fixing cars and taking cars apart and there were car parts usually on the kitchen table and living room coffee table that he tinkered with as he watched TV, oh yeah, we had a TV in the kitchen too. A little 13 inch one," Liz said, remembering more.

"We used to have one of those for Donnie and Robbie," Lisa smiled.

"My computer screen is 13 inches," Agnes said, thinking she had never seen a TV that small before.

"It fit on the kitchen counter better and didn't take up too much space," Ressler explained.

"Why didn't you just mount it on the wall like the one we have in the basement?" Agnes asked.

Everyone laughed and Liz wrapped her arm around Agnes.

"When we start driving again, get Nana and Papa to tell you what TV's used to be like and google some pictures of them," Liz smiled. "They looked a lot different years ago then they do now."

Agnes looked at her mom perplexed and nodded.

They followed Liz out the room and into the next one. Her old room. There were built-in white shelves along one wall with a desk and the rest of the room was empty except for a window looking out onto the backyard and a small closet.

"In the summer my bed was under the window so I got the breeze and in the winter Sam moved it to this wall," Liz gestured. "So I didn't freeze."

Everyone chuckled.

"My four sister's shared one room and they were grateful for the body heat in winter, but in summer half of them slept in the covered porch to get cool air," Maurice chuckled.

"Four people in one room?" Agnes asked, surprised.

"I shared with my three brothers too," Maurice said. "Mama and Papa had their own room as did grandmere and grandpere...we actually had a larger house compared to many farm kids."

"And it got cold under these think windows in winter," Ressler tapped on the pane.

Agnes looked around at her parents and grandparents. They all seemed to share things, despite their age difference, that she didn't. Like not having internet and not having Netflix or social media...

"I had mint green walls and huge posters of bands when I was a teenager," Liz said. "My cat..."

"You had a cat?" Agnes asked excitedly. Her parents had refused her many pleas to have a cat.

Liz shared a quick look with Ressler that was not lost on Agnes.

"Yeah, I did," Liz said, realizing her daughter would not be pleased by her cat-less existence when her mom had one. "His name was Zack."

"Zack?" Lisa asked.

Liz cleared her throat. "I was a big fan of Saved By The Bell..."

Ressler chuckled, Zack was the blonde heartthrob from that show.

"I got my cat in the last season so I felt the need for a tribute," Liz defended herself as she watched her chuckling husband. "I was young..."

"Whatever you say," he snickered.

"Why can't I have a cat if you...?" Agnes asked.

"Sweetie, cats can be weird with babies," Liz said. "Daddy and I didn't want to get you one until the baby was a toddler..."

"Weird how?" Agnes asked.

"Just getting into cribs and laying on them..."

Agnes looked at her surprised.

"We know people who have cats who are great, but a new cat and a new baby may not be a good combination, okay?" Liz asked.

Agnes nodded, thinking there was something else she probably needed to google.

"But maybe we can talk other pets," Ressler conceded.

"Like?" Agnes asked excitedly as she turned to face her father.

"We'll talk," Ressler said with a smile.

Agnes smiled and Liz shook her head. He was a sucker for Agnes and always caved before she did on anything.

"Well, that's kind of it, except for a creepy cellar and the yard..." Liz said.

"Want to go look around at the garage and yard?" Maurice asked Agnes.

She nodded and he, Lisa and Agnes left the room and headed outside.

"I shouldn't have talked about the cat," Liz chastised herself when they left.

"A hamster will only live a couple of years and hold her off on the cat until..."

"They smell," Liz quirked her nose.

"We'll figure something out," Ressler said as he wrapped his arms around her. "Was visiting here what you needed and wanted it to be?"

"Yes and no," Liz said as she snuggled into his frame. "I was a lot more emotional than I expected and it was nice to look around but..."

"But?" Ressler asked.

"Good memories come with bad too," Liz sighed.

He nodded and rubbed her back and waited for her to continue.

"I remember crying here a lot," Liz said. "I felt...I loved Sam, but no mom was hard as a teen."

Ressler nodded.

"It's...it's good to be back though," Liz said with a smile. "I'm glad we came."

He pulled back and kissed her softly on the lips. "I am too."

She kissed him back and smiled.

"So, what did little Lizzie Scott dream about here?" Ressler asked with a smile.

Her face softened and her smile grew.

"What?" He asked, half chuckling. "Zack?"

"No," she swallowed hard and felt a few tears building in her eyes. "This. I dreamed about this."

He looked at her strangely.

"A wonderful man I loved, who loved me. Children..." she said as she touched her stomach.

He smiled back.

"Family," Liz said as she looked out the window at Maurice and Lisa walking around with Agnes.

He nodded.

"I got it," Liz said as she felt a tear fall. "I got it in spades. And a career..."

He leaned down and wiped at her tear,

"And we got you," he said softly. "How lucky are all of us?"

She smiled and he hugged her close.

To be continued... please leave a review.