Lizzie had refused to leave her room for two days. Finally, in an effort to get some food into her, Sam forced Red to leave. She left her room two hours after he was gone and picked at the dinner that Sam sat in front of her. He tried to get her to talk, but she just sat there, staring at her peas as if they had personally done her wrong.
It'd been three days. Red called twice a day – in the morning and in the evening – to see if Lizzie would answer the phone. She always refused it when Sam tried to hand it over.
Lizzie sat on the old tire swing in the front yard, swaying back and forth in disinterest when she heard the distant rumble of a car coming up the road. Squinting, Lizzie stared until the car became distinct enough to recognize Dembe's beat up burgundy Oldsmobile. Tumbling out of the tire swing as the car pulled up, Lizzie smiled, bouncing on her feet as he climbed out.
"Dembe!" She pounced on him, embracing him around the neck and forcing him to wrap his arms around her back to hold her as her feet no longer touched the ground.
"I thought you weren't coming home for break for another week!" She asked, loosening her old and sliding back to the ground so that he could get his bags out of the car.
"Yes. But I knew you were having a hard time. I told my professors I had a family emergency and got permission to write my final papers from home."
Lizzie blushed, kicking the tire as she stared at the ground. "Thank you. You didn't have to do that, but thank you."
/\/\/\/\/\
"What's going on in that head of yours, Elizabeth?"
They sat on the porch steps as dusk fell. The crickets were beginning to chirp and made Lizzie look forward to when the lightning bugs would come out. Should happen any day now.
"Nothing." She mumbled, looking at her feet as she ran a thumb over her scar.
"What was that, Pinocchio?"
Lizzie couldn't prevent the small smirk and bumped her shoulder against his. His jokes were so lame sometimes. They sat in silence for awhile. Dembe knew all he had to do was wait her out. He was a patient man. And he enjoyed the quiet.
"I just… I don't know him anymore, Dembe. I thought I knew who my dad was and now… he's a monster." Lizzie sniffled, trying to hold in the tears. It felt like she'd done nothing but cry lately.
"No Elizabeth. You know that's not true." He whispered fervently, wrapping his arm around her shoulder in comfort.
"How? I have no idea what he does when he's not in this house with us!" Despite the frustration present in her voice, Lizzie cuddled into her brother's side and rested her head against his shoulder. "Honestly, I don't want to know."
"But when he's here, he is your father! When he leaves, he becomes someone different. You have to separate the two. The father and the criminal."
"How the hell do I do that, Dembe? How do I forget what he is?"
"Because he does. Because he has to. I know he told you why he does what he does, why he became what he had to. It's to keep you safe. He knew that they would never stop hunting him, never stop hunting you. The only way to make them stop is to level the balance of power, to destroy them."
Lizzie stayed silent, unsure that there was anything else to say.
"He became a criminal because he loves you."
/\/\/\/\/\
That evening, when Red called, she took the phone from Sam.
"Lizzie? Sweetheart, are you there?"
Silence.
"Lizzie, please."
Silence.
"I'm so sorry, Sweetheart. I wish things were different, that I was different – that I didn't have to become this…I'm sorry, Elizabeth."
Silence.
"Will you ever forgive me?"
Silence.
"Okay. Well, I'll call again tomorrow morning. Even if you don't talk, that's alright. I just want to know you're on the other line, that you're okay. We both know I can talk enough for both of us." His joke fell flat in the silence.
"Alright, Sweetheart. I love you. Until next time."
Just as he was about to hang up, he heard it though it was the faintest whisper.
"Until next time, Dad."
/\/\/\/\/\/\
14 years old
Sam slammed through the front door, leaving a forlorn Lizzie to follow in his wake. She could hear as he threw the car keys into the dish that sat atop the cabinet in the hallway. Pausing for a moment, deliberating on whether she should go up to her room or follow after him, she heard his voice from the living room.
"Oh good, you're here. You can talk to her. I'm…I'm just done."
Wincing, Lizzie's stomach knotted as she heard Sam move into the kitchen. She was beginning to fear that this was the last straw – that Sam had given up on her. She slowly walked into the living room to see who else was there. It was Red. Of course it was.
"Elizabeth." He'd never looked at her with that stern face before. His lips were pursed, eyes grim and his brow was cruelly wrinkled.
"When'd you get here?" Lizzie said the first thing that popped into her head. She hadn't even noticed his car in the drive.
"I don't think that matters right now, Lizzie." Red stood from the couch and began to pace in front of the mantel.
"The third time, Lizzie. This is the third time in the last six months the police have been called on you. If you're not stealing from stores, you're pick pocketing in Wal-mart – what the hell do the people of Wal-mart have worth stealing?!" His voice raised even as he got side-tracked. "That's not the point." He mumbled to himself.
Looking back at Lizzie, Red sighed and shook his head.
"What's going on Lizzie? This isn't you. Tell me what's going on because you're very lucky that you apparently remind the Sheriff of his own daughter or you would be in a heap of trouble with the law right now. So tell me, Lizzie. And I will not accept the silent treatment from you. Not this time."
Silence.
"Lizzie—"
"What right do you have? Where the hell do you get off, yelling at me about my run-ins with the law? YOU? Are you kidding me? This is what you've groomed me for, isn't it Dad?" She spat his name like a curse. "I learned to pick-pocket from you, remember?" Lizzie watched in morbid fascination as his face became ashen and his mouth hung open like he'd been struck.
"Lizzie! No, never Sweetheart. This is what I've tried to protect you from, Damn it!"
"I thought you were protecting me from the super secret shady people who were out to get me. No? There's more that goes bump in the night? Tell me, Dad. What else am I supposed to be afraid of?"
"ME!"
She blinked at the grotesque caricature his face had become, spit flying from his lips as he shouted.
"…I'm trying to protect you from what I became. I don't… you can't go down this path, Lizzie. I won't let you. You need to run. Run in the completely opposite direction from where you're headed now."
"Dad—"
"No Lizzie. You promise me. This stops now." Her dad looked so desperate, with his eyes wide and his mouth slack-jawed, there was really only one response she could give.
"Ok. I promise."
Try not to get too spoiled with how quickly I'm cranking out these chapters, guys. I've got a feeling that once I start going through where the show takes off, I'll be slowing down for some research. And by "research," I mean watching the episodes I'm including in the story. Again.
Obviously, with the alternate history, there will be a spin, but I'm trying to adhere to the same basic timeline as much as possible.
