Half of a Musical Interlude
"Where did you find her?" Jane asked Lizzy again, glancing in the rearview mirror to Lydia sleeping in the backseat.
"Train station," Lizzy replied quietly, turning around in her seat to brush her cousin's unwashed hair from her face.
Jane bit her lip as they passed a white and black sign—NOW LEAVING BOSTON CITY LIMITS. "I thought I looked there."
Lizzy sat back down and adjusted her seatbelt. She wasn't going to tell Jane that when she found Lydia, their cousin was one of four people lying on the benches outside the station, sleeping or at least, pretending to. Lizzy'd noticed a slight figure with a familiar blonde ponytail. She couldn't see the face that belonged to that ponytail—the newspaper that the figure used as a blanket hid it, but Lizzy called, "Lydia," and a hand with chipped, pink nail polish pushed the newspaper away. Lydia was crying. Lizzy hugged her silently, kissing the top of her head before leading her away.
To Jane, all Lizzy said was "She was trying to find someone to pay her way home, but no one believed that she was actually pregnant."
"No sign of…" Jane started, looking sidelong at Lizzy.
"Wickham," Lizzy said and snorted. "No. If he was there, I wouldn't be here. I'd be at the police station."
"I don't think we have the right to press charges for statutory," Jane said. "It's got to be either Lydia or her mom."
"Doesn't matter," Lizzy said. "I'd be the one under arrest. For disturbing the peace. His."
Jane smiled just enough to acknowledge the joke and glanced at their cousin again in the rearview mirror. "She doesn't show."
"No, not yet," Lizzy said. "How far along is she?"
"I don't know." Jane sighed. "I don't think she knows."
"We'll have to take her to a clinic when we get back to Vickroot," Lizzy mused quietly. "I'm hungry. Do you have anything?"
Jane shook her head, so Lizzy grabbed her purse and searched around in the bottom of her bag for some gum. "Bingo!" Lizzy cried, brandishing a pack of Orbitz. "You want some?"
"What are we going to do, Lizzy?" Jane asked.
Lizzy pretended it didn't scare her that her twin sounded so helpless. "Well, first I think we should get in the lane for I-90. Otherwise, we'll never get home," Lizzy said, unwrapping her gum and stuffing it into her mouth. "You sure you don't want any?" she asked again, holding the gum out towards Jane.
"You know what I mean, Lizzy," Jane said. "What are we going to do with Lydia?"
"First, we're going to get here home," Lizzy announced. "Next, we're going to convince her to take a shower, because I've smelled her hair and it's overdue for some shampoo. Third, we'll put her in some PJ's and let her sleep for a while. I imagine she hasn't had a good rest in a few days—"
"What are we going to tell people?" Jane interrupted.
Lizzy was silent for a moment, knocking her knuckles against the window in time to the 'Death Cab for Cutie' playing on the radio. "Nothing," Lizzy decided finally.
Jane threw her twin a reproachful glance. "How can we not tell them?"
"We don't call."
"Lizzy, you have to be serious," Jane said. "This is really a huge problem."
"I know that, Jane," Lizzy soothed, "but this is Lydia's baby, not ours."
"She's just seventeen," Jane reminded her.
"I know," Lizzy replied, "but it still has to be her decision."
Jane's chin was still quivering, so Lizzy reached across and held her sister's hand. "It'll be all right," Lizzy promised.
"I really don't see how it's just going to be all right," Jane said, and her voice shook almost as much as it had the day Charlie's moving van showed up. "She's just ruined her life."
"Don't say that," Lizzy said sharply, "and don't ever let her hear it."
Jane was quiet.
"I wonder what their baby will look like," Lizzy said, watching her sister slyly.
"Lizzy!" Jane hissed.
"I know you're wondering it, too," Lizzy pointed out with an unsteady grin. "Isn't there that website that'll merge the parents' pictures for you?"
"That's completely inappropriate," Jane told her sister, but she was smiling again and that was really all Lizzy wanted.
"I need to tell you something," Jane said quickly.
Lizzy lifted her eyebrows. "Uh-oh. Should I brace myself?"
"I told someone already," Jane confessed.
Lizzy took a mental inventory of possible damage control techniques. "Who?"
"Dad," Jane explained.
"Oh," said Lizzy, dismissing the mental inventory. She already knew how her dad handled pregnant young women. Of course, her mother probably wasn't the best example.
"I needed a car," Jane said, "and yours wasn't up for a road trip."
"But this isn't Dad's car," Lizzy said, looking around.
"No, it's his girlfriend's," Jane replied.
"Dad has a girlfriend!" Lizzy said and laughed.
"Shh!" hushed jane, with a worried glance in the backseat. "You'll wake her up."
Lizzy quieted, still grinning. "Who's Dad dating?"
"Professor Molly Brettman."
Lizzy gasped. "Charlotte's thesis advisor?"
"Oh, she was Charlotte's advisor?" Jane said. "I couldn't figure out why she was at the wedding."
"That's where they met?"
"Lizzy, we saw him drive her home," Jane reminded her.
"Huh," said Lizzy, smiling and trying to remember if her father had mentioned a steady girlfriend.
"How'd the Gardiners take it?" Jane asked.
"I don't know," Lizzy said slowly, turning to Jane guiltily. "I wasn't there when they found out."
"You weren't?" Jane said, mouth gaping and red brows furrowed. "This isn't the kind of thing you leave in a note."
"I had a bus to catch for London," Lizzy explained, shrugging. "Besides, I didn't leave a note. I had a messenger."
"Who?" Jane asked, but Lizzy was looking out the window, listening to Alanis Morrisette singing about gratitude on the radio. Her mind was back in England. She remembered standing on the bus steps and realizing with a curse that she'd forgotten about Sam and Diana.
"I'll handle it, Lizzy," Will had told her, handing up her suitcase with a grave smile.
Lizzy couldn't remember if she'd thanked him. She was pretty sure she'd hugged him goodbye.
"Lizzy, who?" Jane repeated.
"A friend," Lizzy said in her quietest voice, watching Jane to gauge her reaction.
"You have friends in England?" Jane asked suspiciously, looking hard at Lizzy.
"Eyes on the road, Jane," Lizzy reminded her.
"Lizzy," Jane hissed.
"It's a really long story," Lizzy explained.
On the radio, the song changed in a slightly hesitant acoustic strumming.
"How long can it be? You were only in England for a week," Jane pointed out.
"Well, it kind of started at Rosings," Lizzy said slowly.
Over the speakers, a familiar voice started humming to himself.
"Rosings? That was months ago."
"Or maybe before that," Lizzy admitted.
Jane glanced at Lizzy, mouth in a tight, shrewd line. "I know. It's Will Darcy."
"How'd you know?" Lizzy cried, mouth open.
"I'm your sister," Jane said sagely. "I know a whole lot more than you tell—"
Jane stopped abruptly, staring at the radio with the sharpest scowl Lizzy had seen on her face since they were teenagers.
"I hope you don't mind," sang the voice on the radio.
"It shouldn't be a problem.
We've both been through worse.
It'll be fine if you just hear me out—"
Jane punched the power button so hard that the car swerved into the next lane.
Lizzy reached over and grabbed the steering wheel to hold it steady. "Whoa! Jane, seriously, eyes on the road!"
"I can't fucking believe it," Jane growled through her teeth.
"Okay," said Lizzy, glancing in the rearview mirror and not believing that Lydia slept through that.
"I just—Ugh!" Jane growled.
"Jane, we want to be on this side of the dotted white line, okay?" Lizzy said.
"I hate him," Jane said.
"All right, but do you need to pull over and let me drive?" Lizzy asked.
Jane took a deep, shaky breath and then another one. "Yeah, actually," she said, glancing behind her quickly before changing lanes. "I think that'd be a good idea."
When they were safely parked on the shoulder and Jane was walking around the car to the passenger side, Lizzy scooted over to the driver's seat and turned the radio back on.
The song on the radio was in the middle of its chorus chords.
"It was an accident.
Don't get mad.
Don't get scared."
Jane climbed back into the car, and Lizzy said incredulously, "It's Charlie."
"I didn't mean to feel this way
About you—"
Jane snapped the radio off with another fierce jab. "I don't want to hear it, Lizzy."
"But—" Lizzy said and stopped, trying to count how many days Jane had spent just listening B.F.D. albums on the loop. "Is that the song he sang to you at Nether—"
"You know, Lizzy, I don't want to talk about it either," Jane snapped, buckling her seatbelt.
"But Jane—" Lizzy started cautiously.
Jane snorted. "This just proves that he didn't love me, he never loved me, and—"
"No, Jane—he definitely loves you," Lizzy interrupted sharply. "Listen, I saw him—"
"I don't think I can listen to this right now," Jane said, looking straight forward at the dark road and scowling.
"This is really important," Lizzy told her.
"I can only handle one thing at a time," Jane replied, crossing her arms.
"Really, really important," Lizzy emphasized.
"Then, tell me later when things have calmed down," Jane suggested, sighing and slumping in the seat, her red hair sprayed out on the leather headrest. "It'll keep."
"Okay," Lizzy said, shifting the car out of park and into drive. "Just let me know."
Jane rubbed her nose with two fingers, as Lizzy pressed the gas and quickly moved the car back onto the highway, following a white suburban with a bumper sticker that weirdly read, "SUV: Socially Unacceptable Vehicle". After hearing Jane sniff twice, Lizzy asked, "You okay, Janey?"
"Yeah," Jane said, wiping her eyes with long-fingered hands. "I'm just not—"
Lizzy reached over, eyes on the road, and stroked Jane's hair.
"I'm just not good," Jane said.
"Yet," Lizzy added, giving her sister's arm a squeeze. "Shit--why didn't I give you a hug when the car was stopped?"
Jane sniffed and shook her head, smiling and watching headlights zoom by.