AN: I'm so excited that so many readers are still hanging in on this journey with me. I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

Chapter 6

Elizabeth sat at the dining room table pouring over the classifieds. She had been at the McCord house for five days and still had no job. To say the least, she was frustrated. She'd offered to pay rent and told Patrick what she'd paid last summer in Virginia and he told her not to worry about it, to save the money for more important things.

"Whatcha doin'?" thirteen year old Erin asked, bounding down the stairs.

"Job hunting. I've looked into every waitressing, retail, and grocery clerk job I can find. I even applied at a florist, an ice cream shop and at the theater. Nothing so far."

"Something will turn up." Erin studied the paper over her shoulder. "What about this one?" she asked.

Elizabeth peered at the ad under the topic "child care." "These are all jobs at daycare centers. I don't know the first thing about taking care of children."

Erin grinned, "It might not be a bad idea to learn. Think of those kids as your guinea pigs. I don't want you to screw up my niece or nephew." She playfully pushed Elizabeth in the shoulder. Elizabeth smiled back, but there was just another layer of doubt that blanketed her, threatening to smother her at any time.

As uncomfortable as the thought was, Elizabeth dropped Henry off at work bright and early Monday morning. Armed with a cup of coffee, which Evelyn said she should cut back on, a street map of the city and the page of classifieds, Elizabeth started off on her quest.

Elizabeth was waiting in the passenger seat at 5 o'clock when Henry got out work at the construction site that was serving as his summer job. He came walking off the job site, his lunch box in one hand, his thermos of water in the other. Sometime during the day, Henry had taken his shirt off and his cut off khakis hung low on his hips. He was sweaty and hot, in more ways than one. Elizabeth stared into her lap, not wanting Henry to see how flushed her cheeks were. That was what had got them in the mess they now found themselves in. And she had no idea what she and Henry were even supposed to be.

"How was today?" he asked as he got behind the wheel.

"Pretty productive. You look like you worked hard," she diverted.

"We did. It looks like we'll finish this job mid summer and the foreman already has two more jobs lined up. I'll have work right up until we leave for school."

"I found a job. I start tomorrow," Elizabeth said quietly.

"You don't seem very excited. Is it the checker job at the grocery store you interviewed for?"

"No. I'm the new aide in the infant and toddler room at Learning Connections Child Development Center," Elizabeth said. "The pay isn't all that great, but they feed me lunch and it's seven hours a day which means that I can drop you off, go to work and be back in time to pick you up." She thought about that for a moment. "As long as your other job sites aren't too far out of the way."

"That sounds good. What made you apply there? You didn't really have daycare places on your original list." Henry asked.

Elizabeth smirked at Henry. "Erin suggested it. She said I needed practice so I didn't screw up our baby." Henry looked offended, but Elizabeth brushed it off. "She's not wrong. I know nothing about children. I've just never been around them." Elizabeth shifted her gaze out the window. "But what if I find out that I'm not good with kids. What if?"

"Hey, please don't do that. You'll be fine. I promise. And things that we don't know, we'll figure it out together. We're partners. I've got your back. Do you understand that? You aren't doing this alone." She gave Henry a small smile, but he could see that she didn't believe him.

"We need to sit down and make a plan for how we're going to do this," Henry said as they pulled up in front of the house. "I know I need to apply to UVA. I already called and they are sending me the paperwork. That shouldn't be a big deal though because my grades and test scores are high enough." Henry piled out of the car and pulled his things from the back seat, but Elizabeth hadn't moved at all.

He opened her door. "What's wrong?"

Elizabeth climbed out of the car and brushed past Henry into the house and straight up the stairs to her room. Evelyn gave Henry a look when he came in, and he shrugged. "I'm not sure. I'm going to shower first, give her a bit of time, and then try to talk to her."

Evelyn nodded. "Dinner's in half an hour."

Ten minutes later, Henry stood in front of Elizabeth's room and knocked on the door. "I'm not feeling well," he heard from beyond the closed door.

"Elizabeth, let me in. I want to talk."

"At me or to me?" she spat.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked. The door whipped open and she stood in front of him, her eyes puffy and cheeks tear streaked from crying.

"I am just a pawn. Everyone moves me around and tells me what to do and I hate it. I have no control over anything."

Henry tried to placate her. "Okay. why don't you come down and eat and then we can discuss it and try to figure out what would work better?"

"Arrrrgh! See? Right there. How about you don't tell me what to do? I don't want to eat. I don't want to discuss it and things aren't going to work better when you're bossing me around." She slammed the door shut.

Henry wandered down to the table alone and Evelyn looked at him. "Evidently I boss her around." He sighed, "and she's tired of it." Henry took some food and even though he'd been ravenous on the drive home, now he didn't know if he could take more than one bite. "I don't know what I did."

Evelyn thought about it for a while. The family prattled on about their day and Evelyn just listened. When the younger kids finished, Patrick excused them, but Evelyn asked Henry to stay. "How long have Elizabeth's parents been dead?" she asked. Henry told her a little over three years. Evelyn nodded her head thoughtfully. "In that time, who has she had to answer to besides perhaps her teachers or the principal, although I would guess that was just for school stuff?"

"Not much of anyone I guess. I mean she was at the top of her class, so her teachers probably didn't offer much direction. Elizabeth is a self starter. She probably didn't need it." Henry thought about that.

"I think that what we view as suggestions or ideas, Elizabeth reads as directions or commands," Evelyn said. "Because she isn't used to talking things out with anyone else. She thinks about it and she decides. If she wants to do something, she does it and if she doesn't, she doesn't. She feels obligated to follow through on what we say because she's living here." Henry nodded, thinking he had a rudimentary understanding of the situation.

"I'll go talk to her."

"After you and Maureen finish the dishes. And make sure you make her a plate and stick it in the fridge in case she gets hungry later." Henry nodded. He and Maureen made quick work of the dishes and he found himself standing once again in front of Elizabeth's door.

He knocked softly. "Elizabeth, can I talk to you?" A few seconds later the door opened and she waved him in. "I wanted to apologize. I think I was assuming that your lack of pushback on some of the things I was saying meant that you were on board. That's not the case, is it?"

Elizabeth flopped down on the bed. "I don't even know. Sometimes yes and sometimes no. I just feel so out of control. You know. I don't even know what we are. What are we?" Henry gave her a blank stare. "Are we friends? Or boyfriend/girlfriend? Partners? Acquaintances? I'm living in your house, with your family and I'm a stranger. I know they mean well, but I'm just jumping through hoops here. Everything, everyone says feels like something I have to obey. And I like your family. I do, but they are smothering me. You are smothering me."

"I'm sorry. That's not my intention." He sat down next to her. "What can I do to make it better?"

"That's the thing. I really don't know. I just feel like I don't belong and I am trying to do what everyone tells me so I fit in, but I still don't and I'm frustrated. And you. I have some seriously strong reactions to you sometimes, but we barely know each other."

"Seriously strong reactions, huh?" Henry grinned.

"Don't make fun, Henry. I'm being honest here."

"I cover up my feelings by brushing them off and trying to be funny about it, but it's much more about my fear of getting shot down." Elizabeth looked up at him and their eyes met. "Like right now, I want to kiss you, but I know we shouldn't. There's so much about each other that we don't know. What's your favorite color, have you had broken bones, did you ever have a dog growing up? I don't want to complicate things more than they already are."

"Blue, my left wrist when I was in third grade, and my mom was allergic to dogs, but we had a cat named Izzy and I had a hamster named Fred. What about you?"

"Green, no broken bones but stitches in my foot when I stepped on a piece of metal running barefoot and also here, along my hairline when I ran into a the side mirror on a truck while playing hide and seek, a dog named Sparky that died when I was 12. Now what?" Henry asked.

"Now you kiss me." Elizabeth scooted to close the gap between them. She tilted her head back just in time for his lips to brush against hers. He pulled her bottom lip into his mouth and sucked it gently before dragging his tongue across it. She opened her mouth and he pulled away. Elizabeth's face was flush and her lips were full. God, she was beautiful.

"Your turn. Three things you want to know about me." Henry said, looking at her intently. "That is if you want to continue to play this 'get to know you game.'"

She giggled. "I'm hungry. But I'll ask questions while we eat and collect my prize later." She hopped up off the bed and tugged him along after her.

Over the next few weeks, Elizabeth grew comfortable in the McCord house. She and Maureen hung out and listened to music, she watched TV with Erin and went running every evening with Shane. That worried Henry to no end, but Evelyn assured him that it was fine as long as Elizabeth felt fine. It was awkward around Patrick. He just didn't talk much to her and was still very angry with Henry. Henry tried to explain that it really didn't have anything to do with her personally. He and his dad never really got along and this was just his latest disappointment in a long string of them, as far as Patrick was concerned.

Elizabeth liked her job most of the time. It was kind of chaotic. She was in a room with 8 one and two year olds. They spent a lot of their time singing and dancing and making block towers to knock down. Elizabeth also got very good at changing diapers. When her kids all took a

nap in the afternoon, she sat in the doorway and helped rock the infants to sleep from the next room. She definitely felt more confident and was thankful to Erin for the suggestion.

Elizabeth and Henry grew very close. They spent several nights a week talking into the wee hours of the next morning, and finally worked out a plan that was agreeable to both of them. Elizabeth would request family housing and Henry would live in the freshman dorms. They registered for classes and choose classes with opposite schedules so one of them was always available. It seemed like things were going to be doable, but then Evelyn walked in the living room a few weeks later to find Elizabeth curled into a ball, sobbing on the couch. The telephone receiver dangling on the floor beeping incessantly.

Evelyn sat on the floor next to the couch and stroked Elizabeth's hair. "What's going on?" Not even an hour before they returned from Elizabeth's five month appointment and everything checked out. The doctor encouraged her to eat healthy foods because he thought she was measuring on the small side, but given that she had been under such stress, he thought she'd catch up over the next couple months. Evelyn had hinted at letting Henry come to her appointments, but was met with avoidance. Otherwise, Evelyn thought she'd been happy, and figured it had to do with the phone still curled against her.

"I-I-I'm s-s-sorry," she sputtered, still heaving in shuddering breaths. "I-I-I thought it would o-k-k-kay, but it's not." Evelyn shifted to the couch and gathered the sobbing girl into her arms, rubbing her back and humming softly. When Elizabeth had calmed down to the point that she could speak, she whispered, "My aunt cut off my allowance because I'm pregnant, so I can't pay for the doctor. My paycheck isn't enough." Evelyn started to tell her that they would work it out, but Elizabeth continued, "And then I called UVA to sign up for family housing and they don't allow single mothers in. It's for married couples only." She looked up at Evelyn with a sadness in her eyes that broke the older woman's heart. "I'm not going to get to go to UVA. Things have gone so wrong and I this was the one thing I thought I could still give my parents. I still had this one chance to make them proud, and now-" Elizabeth dissolved into tears again.

Evelyn waited until Elizabeth quieted before she spoke. "I didn't know your parents, but I do know you. You, Elizabeth, are the bravest, most resourceful, intelligent woman I've ever met. If your parents were alive, they may not agree with all of the choices you've made, but I guarantee they would be proud of how you've conducted yourself. This is an unexpected bump in the road, but we'll work together to figure it out. If there is any possible way to get you to UVA and keep you there, we will find it and make it happen. I promise."

"I want to believe that. I really do." Elizabeth huddled against Evelyn and tried to believe that her dreams could somehow still come true.