Author's Note: This chapter is mostly for narrative information, so it shouldn't be too sad (for once). Thanks to all my kind reviewers. I should respond better, I know, but I'm very pressed for time right now and I sorta figure that you'd all rather have another chapter, instead of personal responses to reviews (which I'd love to do as well, I swear, but RL sucketh). Hope all y'all enjoy!

Growing Up Chase

By Rebel Yell

Part Nineteen (Age 20)

Anne Hughes had noticed the young man the minute he turned up the short walk towards their front door. There wasn't as much traffic up that walk now, as there had been when the girls were all living here. Even Lizzie lived most the year at university, and the house seemed empty. She stepped away from the hedge she was pruning, and smiled at the visitor.

"Can I help you, young man?"
" Hi, Mrs. Hughes." A familiar half-smile appeared on a strangely unfamiliar face. It took a moment for her to fully realize that she truly did know this young man.

" Good Lord, Robert Chase - you've grown at least four inches! Your hair is so short. And you're so tan. You're shaving!" Annie gasped, as she stepped closer. She could clearly see little Robbie in her mind's eye, the boy who'd been about constantly from the age of 4, and couldn't quite reconcile that image with the admittedly very handsome young man before her.

" I'm twenty now, Mrs. Hughes. I think it's fairly standard."
" I haven't seen you since your mother's funeral. Oh, dear, I think you've changed even more than my Lizzie has, these four years."

" Is Liz 'round? She told me she'd come home for the holidays. I hope you don't mind that I've dropped by. It hasn't been forever, yet."
" Robbie, I'm sorry. I didn't really mean that I never wanted to see you again."
" You meant it then." Robbie shrugged - and he probably didn't go by Robbie anymore, but she'd always call him Robbie.

" I was angry then. I shouldn't - we shouldn't have reacted that way."
" I understand why you did. I understood then. I didn't like it, certainly, but I understood. I shouldn't have put Liz in that situation, at all. I'm sorry."
" How in Heaven did your parents ever turn out someone like you?"
" Pardon?"
" Robert, let's be honest, your parents were two of the most selfish, self-involved and narcissistic people I've ever met who had the misfortune of trying to raise a child."
" They were just busy. And then Mum got sick."
" We've always known, of course, that you two kept in touch with each other. Don't think we've been fooled about all those trips she takes with Danny." To be honest, they'd gotten far less concerned about Robert Chase's influence in their daughter's life about the time she started seriously dating other boys. Lizzie had been saying for years that Robbie was more like her brother than a boyfriend, and her parents had started to believe her again.
" I'm sorry."
" Don't be, Robbie. We shouldn't have acted as we did, either."
" No one's called me Robbie, except your daughter, in more than four years." He laughed lightly, and Annie smiled to see him happy for the first time she could remember since his mother's "illness" had deepened when he was fourteen.

" Oh, of course, Lizzie is upstairs. Just a moment, I'm sure she'll be so happy to see you." Annie turned and went inside, calling up the stairs for her daughter. Liz appeared at the top of the stairs, book in hand.

"What do you need, mum?"
" You've got a caller."
" Really? But…Danny's not due home 'til just before the holiday. I haven't even told anyone else I was home from university." She came down the stairs though, setting her book on the table in the hall. Annie followed her out the front door, wanting to see Lizzie's face.

"ROBBIE! I thought you couldn't get away? Oh, it's wonderful to see you!" Lizzie was laughing and talking at the same time, hugging him tightly as he lifted her from the ground.

" I finished my exams early. I thought I'd surprise you. And I hadn't seen the neighborhood for years."
" I can't believe you're already nearly finished and ready for medical school! Is there some sort of prize for making it out of university with a degree in medicine in the fastest time?"

" Not at all. It's just…easier to stay at university and take summer courses. I'm not 'nearly finished' either. Colin says 'hi' by the way."
" Oh, when did you see Cols? How is he?"
" He's nearly reading for his first degree in theology. Once he's completed that, and about half his graduate coursework, he'll be ordained a deacon. I stopped off to see the Fitzpatricks on my way north, since Colin was at home for the holidays as well."

"How's the Irish brood?"
" Stevie got married couple years ago, you remember -- he's got a little girl about four months old. Joe got married last year, his wife's expecting their first, which was a bit of a shock as they had said they were gonna wait a bit. Dave is engaged to his girlfriend now. Colin's expecting Sarah to get engaged to her lad any day now as well. Chris will be going to university next September, he's right excited about it. Emma is turning out to be gorgeous -- luckily she's got six brothers. She's nearly sixteen now. And little Matt isn't so little, he's thirteen but he's getting quite tall already. Colin was happily stuffing himself with his mum's cooking when I left and complaining about the cook in Newman Hall."
" You know, I still can't see you in a seminary, Robbie, being best friends and roommates with a future priest."
" Seminary?" Annie had to ask - completely unable to imagine Robbie Chase anywhere near a seminary. He was religious, certainly, always had been, but chastity, poverty, obedience, they weren't virtues he was particularly known for possessing.

" I was enrolled in a seminary school before university, Mrs. Hughes. It was pretty clear that I wasn't meant for Holy Orders, though. My calling was to a more secular career, in medicine."
" You're going to be a doctor, like your father, then?"
" I'm going to be a doctor, yes."

" Your father must be proud."
" You would think." Robbie shrugged, and it was clear that his father wasn't proud, or at least hadn't told his son as much, "I haven't spoken to him in awhile, I'm not sure he knows what I'm doing at university, actually."

"He isn't paying your fees?" Annie asked, surprised. It would be ridiculous for Robbie to be going in to debt for university, with that big house on the beach sitting empty. Why Dr. Chase had never sold it, no one quite understood.

" He signs the check, but technically it's my money. Interest from my trust fund -- Mum left everything to me but Dad's trustee. Until I turn thirty-five, apparently. I send him the bill, it gets paid, but since he's never asked…I'm not sure he knows what I read in."
" Your dad's an ass." Lizzie announced firmly. Annie sent her a sharp look for being disrespectful, but couldn't help but silently agree with that assessment. "By not spoken to in awhile, I assume you mean since last year."
" I haven't called him either."
" Only because his new wife keeps ringing off the moment she recognizes your voice."
" I had heard your father got remarried, years ago now."
" About six months after Mum's funeral." Robbie confirmed, ducking his head to stare at his feet. "I…was in seminary school at the time."
" If your dad is an ass, your stepmum is a real class-one bitch."
" ELIZABETH! Don't judge someone you've not met." Annie reminded her daughter automatically.
" She called Robbie…things I shan't repeat. And she hits him!"

" Liz. Please."
" If you don't want me to know, don't tell me in the future."
" I didn't tell you. I told Dan. And it wasn't like it hurt all that much -- she slaps like a girl."
" Well, you ought to know by now that Danny is horrible at keeping things from me. She hit you, Robbie. It's not something joke about."
" My stepmother and I don't get along. She's a bit uncomfortable with…how things happened with my mum, I think." Robbie turned, addressing Annie again, as if she was going to ignore the conversation between him and Lizzie.
" Is this why you don't go home over the holidays?"
" What home?" Annie didn't feel any better at his scoffed reply. "You needn't worry, Mrs. Hughes, really. I'm young and unattached, I live my life just for me. No worrying about anyone else. It's pretty nice, able to go about as I please."
" Well, you can just count on being here for Christmas dinner, Robert Chase."
" Thank you, Mrs. Hughes, but the Kellehers are expecting me. Dan wants me round to help him terrify Mel's new boyfriend." Any response Annie was going to make was cut off by the phone ringing inside.
" I'd better get that. Robbie, it was wonderful to see you again."
" You as well."

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Liz waited a moment until she was sure her mom was well inside, before rounding on her best friend.

" You never go round the Kellehers until after dinner."
" She only invited me because she feels sorry for poor ickle Robbie. I don't go where I'm not really wanted. I don't need anyone's pity."
" She was being nice!"
" She feels sorry for me. I can tell. People always get that same look when they find out about my life. I'm sick of it. Your parents don't like me, and that's fine. They needn't pretend otherwise just because my parents don't like me either."

"You go 'round Kellehers."
" Mrs. Kelleher likes me, and so do the girls. Dr. Kelleher too, I think. It's different."
" What about the Fitzpatricks, then? Colin's mum practically adopted you -- but only once she found out your mum had passed."
" Actually, it took until I announced officially that I wasn't going to be a priest. She was terrified of me being in the priesthood, of course it hardly helped that Colin still tells his mum absolutely everything. I think she knows a lot more about my sex life than I'm really comfortable with. Now, by the way, she's gone and told their whole neighborhood I'm to be a doctor, I must've been congratulated by ten people in the day I was there."
" See? She brags about you, you've been adopted."
" She likes me. Your parents don't. Your mum wouldn't have invited me if you hadn't started talking about my personal issues in front of her. It's none of her business, and frankly not-"
" If you dare say it's not my business, I will slap you Robert Chase!"
" I wouldn't ever say that." His face softened, and he brushed a stray hair behind her ear fondly. "You've more than earned a right to voice an opinion about my life. You listen to me whinge about it enough."
" That I do. And by the way my most recent opinion, Robbie, is that you are coming up the last weekend in February to see me."
" What if I have a date?"
" Is there a girl in your life more important than me?"
" Never. More Shakespeare?"
" I'm in a Shakespeare troupe, Robbie." Liz giggled, slapping his arm fondly. "Of course it's Shakespeare. We're doing The Tempest this term."

" I'm sure you'll be the most striking Miranda the university stage has ever seen."
" How do you know I'm playing Miranda?"
" Because my girl is always the lead actress. Besides, not a lot of female parts in that one." Rob teased lightly, "Can you be in a proper comedy next term? It's been ages since that troupe of yours has done a comedy -- Tempest doesn't count, everyone gets too deep with it. You did Othello last term, and Henry V the one before that, and King Lear before that and…wasn't it the Scottish play before that?"
" Yes, it was. I'll pass your request on to the others in the troupe. How does Much Ado About Nothing suit you? I've always wanted to play Beatrice."
" I prefer Midsummer's, but as long as it's not another tragedy or history, it's fine. You know, I hated Shakespeare in school. I've learned more from you than I ever did from a literature course."
" See? Who said actresses can't do good things for humanity?"
" Uhm…no one?"
" Shut up, Robbie."

"With an attitude like that, you won't be getting your usual post-production present."

" Oh, but you always get me the best things!"

"Then be nice." Rob teased, smiling widely. "You have time to head for the beach for a bit? Take a walk down memory lane and laugh at the people learning to surf?"