Chapter 14

Liz's friends have left the Crashdown and Jeff is left by himself, alone with his thoughts. What Maria said earlier made sense—now that he's has a chance to think about it. If he does continue bad mouthing Cole and their child he could lose Lizzie forever. Jeff peeks at his watch; Nancy should be coming home in about thirty minutes, which would be plenty of time to complete his plans.

With a gust of wind he disappears from the restaurant and transports himself to one of the many underground caves in Roswell. Jagged rocks, cobwebs, and dirt floor are what surround him, the demons he needs to speak with won't be happy but this has to be done.

"Peikasha, what brings you here? Is Lakarisha ready to meet her betrothed?" Simon, short for A'Kresha'Sim'on, comes up behind him. Jeff laughs and embraces his friend from the Eygon Circle.

"No, not quite. However I must speak with you my friend, privately." There's no chance in Hell he'll have this conversation in front of a hundred heavily armed guards ready and willing to kill at their King's command.

Simon nods and he leads Jeff to his private office chambers. It's amazing what can be done to an area underground. Many of his people preferred to stay below ground, being around a lot of humans gave them a pounding headache to their kind. Once the door is closed Simon questions Jeff's reason for visiting this close to wedding ceremony, which had been decided to transpire a month after Lakarisha's birthday.

"Simon you and I have been friends since we went to the Academy," the Academy is for royalty only in the demon societies. It is where the heir's to the thrones learnt everything they need to know about being a King or Queen. Most went when they were in the twenties very rarely did anyone under 16 years or over 35 years attend the Academy.

"Of course," Simon motions him to take a seat. Jeff sits down and makes sure his emotions are firmly in check. Showing any kind of weakness now is not an option, sympathy for Simon would qualify as weakness.

Licking his lips he continues. "Good, and you know I'd do anything to make sure my little girl is happy."

Narrowing his eyes Simon leans forward his arms tense across his desk. "What are you getting at Jeff? Are you saying Lakarisha won't be happy with my son? Won't be happy to be apart of my family?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying. She's met someone, and there is no question she loves him. I am not going to subject my daughter to a lifetime of heartache." He tells his friend, his refusal to allow Liz to marry Simon's son can very well lead to a war among the two factions.

"Heartache? My son would treat your daughter like a goddamn Queen every second of her life with him." He snarls.

"And Belthazor will treat her like an equal, like a normal half-witch, half-demon. The last thing she'd want is to be treated like a Queen every second. When she takes over my place on the throne she will have thousands of subjects treating her like a Queen, the last thing she'd want is for her husband to treat her the same way."

Jeff stands up and stares down at Simon. "If your son fell in love with someone would you want to keep them apart?" Granted his initial reactions to Belthazor weren't very welcoming, he knows with every fiber of his being that Liz is happy with him.

Simon leans back in his chair. "No I wouldn't." He'd do everything in his power to make sure his son got whom he wanted. If he's being honest with himself his son didn't want to be with Jeff's daughter. Something about not being able to tolerate a half-breed especially when the other half is witch—or third witch, which ever it is his son didn't want it. "Fine, the wedding is off. I'll go tell him."

With a nod and another gust of wind Jeff leaves his friends private office. Now it's off to see Lizzie. His instincts tell him she and Cole are at Cole's penthouse in San Francisco. When he finds them he's going to have to bite his tongue and grin and bare his baby girl marrying a demon whose head he'd love to see on the end of stick.

Liz paces furiously through Cole's penthouse apartment, "Who the Hell does he think he is?" She growls to no one in particular just fuming in general. "Saying my son isn't good enough to sit on the throne. Fine, who needs his damn throne anyway."

"Baby, calm down," Cole stands up from his spot on the couch, he's been watching her pace for ten minutes. Liz hasn't been able to stop yelling about her father, since they flamed in from Roswell. "Sweetie your father is just trying to protect you." He can't believe he's actually defending Jeff Parker.

"And you, what were you thinking telling Daddy about me being pregnant? I wanted to wait till I figured out how to tell him without him exploding like he did. It's not like we wouldn't have the time, this child isn't coming into this world until another eight months…"

"Not exactly. Demon pregnancies are different then humans, instead of the standard nine months it's only five months. For the first three months your stomach will be fairly flat and then the last month the baby grows like a weed." Cole tells her.

Liz's eyes widen, "I'm sorry did you just say that this baby, our baby boy is going to making his debut in four months?" Her breathing picks up, how come she couldn't more warning; there are so many things to do. How could they do everything that needed to be completed before the baby comes?

Cole grasps her forearms; "Baby I swear to you I will do everything in my power to make sure nothing goes wrong."

"That's sweet Cole but you can't promise that. As much as I'd like to believe that all would go fine it's unrealistic. What you can promise me though is that you'll be here for me. With Daddy being so stubborn right now—" She shakes her head and lowers her eyes ashamed of her father's actions. He promised he'd try and he couldn't even last five minutes.

"Done." He brings her close wrapping her in a hug, her arms delve under his jacket and her head rests against his chest. "After we deal with your father you deserve another vacation." He rumbles above her, the vibrations from his chest comfort her.

"Definitely." She chuckles burrowing deeper into him. It's scary how much she needs him but oddly comforting at the same time. "I love you ya know." A part of her is worried he won't say it back but she quickly banished that thought. Of course he loves her; he won't be doing all that he's doing if he didn't.

"I love you too. More than I thought I could love anyone." They stand in silence after their omission of love; the 'ding' of the elevator is the only thing that breaks their serenity.

"Who…" Liz stops her sentence as the elevator doors open and the woman she met in that very elevator a month ago, Phoebe she thinks her name is, along with two other women and a man storm in. Confused Liz switches her gaze from the charging group, not worried that they can hurt them, up to Cole. Whoa, he's not happy.

"Trick or treat Cole. So this the new girlfriend? Kind of young for you isn't she?" Phoebe spits out clearly not recognizing Liz from that day Cole broke up with her. She's going to make Cole sorry for every tear he made her cry.

TBC