Thanks to all six of you who read the last chapter and to MsRose91 who added this to their favorite and alert lists. I hope you enjoy this one. Dedicated to Averman who wears the number four jersey, unfortunately he's not in this chapter.

Chapter 4: Brat?

Like she predicted, Lizzy wasn't alone in her room for long. However she got the person wrong. Nat wasn't the one who came up to check on her, instead it was her older brother. He stepped inside and sat down next to her on the bed. She stared across the room to where her TV normally sat as she held her pillow to her chest. "Crying doesn't suit ya, ya know?" Lizzy looked away from the blank wall at her older brother. "I don't think you're spoiled." Lizzy stared at him in disbelief. "Okay, not as spoiled as she claims you are, but Grandma had a point, you are her only granddaughter. As well as Aunt Casey's only niece and Dad's only daughter. On top of that you're the baby of the family. Shouldn't we at least spoil you—"

"Benji, I told you to leave it alone. Let her calm down and we'll talk to her later," their dad called up the steps.

"First, you could have said baby of the family and only girl and cut out a lot of words," Lizzy said softly as she looked at Ben. "Second, is that what you really think of me? And C or third or lastly, when did you get here? I thought you had a game today."

"First, I know, second, what do you mean "what we think of you?" and third, about five minutes ago. We won the game and flew here." Then he turned towards the door, "Okay Dad!" he called back. He looked back at his sister the three year difference really showing as she held her knees to her chest and he ran a hand through his blond hair. He couldn't really tell what was going on behind those blue eyes but he knew she wasn't angry. At least if she was, it wasn't really focused at him. Not yet anyway.

"That I have a temper so great, you have to let me "calm down" before coming to talk to me?" Lizzy asked using air quotes.

"We've all seen you get mad, and that doesn't usually end well, for anyone."

"I'm sorry." Lizzy shrugged and Ben was glad she didn't look angry. She just looked resigned.

"Don't apologize, it's a sign of weakness." Lizzy rolled her eyes at the John Wayne movie reference. "Look, Lizzy, Aunt Casey doesn't want you to become that stereotypical rich girl. Having money does get you things, but growing up without it makes you appreciate it more. That and there are more important things in life than money and what it can get you."

"You agree with her, that I'm spoiled."

"I don't. Not to the extent that she thinks you are. I know how much you care about others like your team and Dean and Fult."

"Lizzy?" Fulton asked from outside the door.

"It's open," Lizzy said.

The door opened and Fulton and Charlie entered the room. "You know, I expected more artwork. This room is pretty bare," Fulton said as he looked around the room. The walls were a plain, boring tan that they had been when they had moved in. There were no posters or any artwork. Lizzy's room in Minnesota had been covered with hand-drawn and painted artwork. She had been drawing on her walls since she had been big enough to stand on her own. When they had moved to Texas her dad had forbidden her from doing the same. However when they had moved to Ohio, he told her to make herself at home. She just hadn't felt like it. She told Fulton all this. "You know your aunt didn't really mean it," Fulton said gently.

"Yeah, she did," Lizzy answered.

"But it doesn't change how much she loves you," Charlie defended his mom.

"Yeah, I guess. Can you guys just give me a few minutes?" Fulton and Charlie nodded and went back downstairs. "Are Chris, Danni, and Val here?" Lizzy asked, looking a Ben. Chris was their older brother, older than Ben by four years, Lizzy by seven years. Danni was Chris's girlfriend, Val, Ben's.

"Downstairs," Ben answered.

"Uh, can you—"

"I'll be downstairs if you need something." Ben too left the room. Lizzy sat there for a few minutes more then got up and went across the hall to the loft and slipped out the window. She crossed the top of the garage then climbed down the trellis to the ground. She walked on her own until she came across her favorite park. Since it was Saturday afternoon there were a lot of kids playing so she sat on the swings just swinging back and forth for a while. Finally a little girl with bright blonde pigtails and big green eyes sat down on the swing next to her.

"Hi, I'm Becca," the little girl said. She couldn't have been more than five or six.

"Lizzy."

"I know I shouldn't talk to strangers, but you looked so lonely."

"My aunt just called me a spoiled brat and I didn't want to be around her."

"Oh. Sometimes when people seem the hardest to love that's when they need it the most. And that when kids get spoiled, it's either because their parents are trying to make up for something, don't know any other way to be there for their child, or can't be there for them."

"I never thought of that."

"Spoiling typically isn't about the child."

"How'd you get to be so smart?" Lizzy asked.

"I'm a manifestation of your imagination. What you think your mother would say if she were here."

Lizzy's eyes widened and her train of thought stopped fully as she registered the little girl's words. "What?" Lizzy asked, turning to look at the little girl fully.

"I'm kidding, I just like to read," Becca grinned, "but seriously in our most heated moments we often say things we don't truly ever mean. Your aunt loves you but she's scared and angry. Bet you didn't know this, but from time to time, even adults break and get scared. Being an adult and being a kid are equally as scary. I have to go. It's getting dark and there's my brother. Bye, Lizzy." The girl ran off and Lizzy watched her meet up with a dirty blond haired boy with a bat and glove slung over his shoulder. The boy took the girl's hand and Lizzy watched until they disappeared into the sunset.

"Your dad is looking for you," a voice said. Lizzy stood and turned to see Natasha standing a few feet from her. Natasha was Seth's girlfriend. Every time Lizzy had met her over the last year or so, Natasha had come off as the prissy cheerleader type–uptight, full of herself, snobby, and a true girly girl. Lizzy always thought she'd make the perfect trophy wife.

"Oh, okay." Lizzy stared down at her feet as they headed back to the house.

"What were you doing before I said something?"

"I was talking to a little girl. Then she had to go."

"I was standing there for more than five minutes, there was no one there."

"Just before you said that my dad was looking for me, she walked away with her brother. Little blonde girl, about six years old, big green eyes, and a forest green sweater."

"Sorry, Lizzy, there wasn't anyone there. What did she tell you?"

"That Aunt Casey was scared and that maybe me being spoiled is more about my dad or grandma than it is about me."

"You know, adults make mistakes too. Most kids think adults have it all figured out and that they know everything but they stumble as much as we do."

"I guess you're right."

"How much has Seth told you about my past?"

"Nothing. Seth and I don't talk about much."

"He didn't tell you about my father?" Lizzy shook her head as she glanced at Natasha. The blonde stuffed her hands deep in her ski jacket pockets. "Our childhoods were somewhat similar. Mom and Dad worked a lot but instead of ignoring me, my dad got heavy handed. Whatever he was frustrated about, he took out on me. My mom was the CFO of a major company down in Dayton and Dad's a professor at our school."

"Was?"

"She died my senior year. Dad got worse. I wanted to go to Ohio State but Dad said no. Since he works at the University of Ohio, I was going there, no argument. I started the school year with bruised abs and a dislocated shoulder. Well, previously dislocated shoulder."

Lizzy instantly felt guilty for all her previous preppy cheerleader thoughts. "Natasha, I—"

"Everyone gets angry and everyone has a limit. My dad always made it up to me by letting me buy whatever I wanted. I don't live with my dad anymore. Seth pays for my small apartment near campus. I have never personally seen a family that loves the way yours does. That's not a bad thing. Not only do you have four big brothers who would do anything for you, but your dad did all of this to make you feel better."

"What do you mean?"

"When was the last time you saw your grandmother?"

"It's been a while."

"And your aunt."

"Last week, I think. I guess I understand." If her dad was trying to smooth things over between her and Seth and make up the doubts he had put in her head during his divorce from her step-mother, getting the family together could help, especially with Fulton there. She just wished Matt was there too. They reached the house and Lizzy looked up at Natasha. "Maybe I am being a little hard on my aunt."

"But you don't think you were wrong."

Lizzy opened her mouth to agree but the door opened. Natasha and Lizzy looked and saw Chris standing there. "Give us a minute?" Chris asked. Natasha nodded and went inside. "I'm not going to sugarcoat this, I do think you blew this out of proportion. She said you were spoiled not that you were a brat."

Lizzy stared up at her big brother in disbelief. He was tied with Matt as the tallest of Lizzy's brothers and he pitched baseball for the University of Tennessee. Unlike Matt, he didn't believe in sugarcoating anything and could say things rougher than he meant to. He also had a hard time dealing with the more emotional side of his kid sister so he tried to toughen her up. "She tell you that?" Lizzy asked.

"Dad did."

"Yeah, well, he was wrong. Aunt Casey said, and I quote, "A granddaughter you've turned into a spoiled brat." Don't know how Dad missed that but it's what she said."

Chris crossed his arms over his Volunteers' hoodie. He stared at her for a moment. "Lizzy, normally you're not a brat but right now I think—"

"Lizzy, sweetheart, come here," Nat, Fulton's mom, said stepping out the door.

"Nat, no offense but—" Chris started.

Nat held up a finger, cutting him off. "Chris, sweetie, I know you're trying to be diplomatic, but sometimes, brothers just don't get it."

"What don't I get?" Chris asked. Subtly was not his specialty.

"Being called a spoiled brat doesn't bother you, does it?" Lizzy only looked at her godmother. "It's this on top of everything else. First the divorce, then the custody battle, the damage to your car, baseball season starting, the breakup, and now this. You finally broke." Lizzy's lip trembled and tears poured down her face.

"What did you do? You broke my sister." Chris panicked. It had been a long time since he had seen his sister suddenly burst into tears. He could handle his girlfriend crying and knew how to fix it, but his sister was a completely different story. He hated not knowing what to do.

"I did not break your sister. I just pushed her to do what she needed to do," Nat said as she wrapped Lizzy in a hug.

"How could he do that to me?" Lizzy sobbed.

"I don't know, sweetheart," Nat answered softly. As she continued to rub Lizzy's back to calm her down, Chris slipped inside. He needed advice and wasn't going to get it from the two ladies.

Lizzy on the other hand only needed comfort. Comfort her godmother was more than willing and capable of providing. "Nat, what did I do wrong?"

"I'm sure it was nothing, sweetheart. Fulton said it wasn't your fault."

"Should I have given him a chance?"

"For what?"

"To explain why he did what he did."

"I don't know. What did he do?" Nat asked curiously. Fulton had sorta explained it to his parents but he really hadn't gone into much detail. Lizzy pulled back and looked up at her godmother.

"I don't want to talk about it." It appeared Lizzy wasn't ready to either. Lizzy wiped her tears away and rubbed her nose.

"Ready to go back inside?" Lizzy nodded and they went inside. Lizzy's dad instantly stood from his easy chair in the living room. "Rob, don't," Nat said, cutting him off.

"Don't what?" Rob asked. All he wanted to know was where she had been.

"Lizzy, I'm sorry. That argument was not about you," Casey said.

"I know that. It was just that on top of everything else lately," Lizzy answered.

"Do you want to tell us what happened?" Jim asked. Lizzy looked from her aunt to Fulton's dad.

She contemplated for a moment if she wanted to tell him. As far back as she could remember he had always been a better father than her own. Sure, her dad was great, not abusive or anything like that but he was rarely ever home and no matter how often Jim had to work or where he had to work, he was almost always at Fulton's football games and Lizzy's hockey games. This though was too personal and she didn't want to talk about it. At least not yet. "No," Lizzy said.

"Well then, dinner's ready," Nonna Jacobs said.

As most of the adults made for the formal dining room and the ten person table in there, Lizzy, Charlie, Fulton, Chris and Chris's girlfriend Danni filled their plates and sat down at the small table in the kitchen. "You know, I'm surprised at you, Lizzy," Chris said.

"Because I won't talk about it, even to Uncle Jim?" Lizzy asked.

"No, that you haven't said a word about Bombay being here," Chris said. Both Charlie and Fulton looked at her waiting for her answer.

"I figure it's got something to do with Aunt Casey. Maybe he needed a place to go and she offered. Dad rarely tells his baby sister no," Lizzy said. She shrugged and stared back down at her plate as Chris exchanged looks with Charlie. Out of the corner of her eye, Lizzy saw Charlie shake his head.

"Chris," Danni said gently as she touched his arm. Chris sighed but didn't say another word about Bombay.

"No one should be alone on Easter," Charlie said.

"Easter is next Sunday, jerk, but nice try," Lizzy said. "Chris, when are you leaving?" Lizzy asked, turning her attention to her brother.

"Tomorrow night. Our spring break isn't until next week. Sorry I can't help you with your pitching or hitting this week."

"Me too. At least we have tomorrow."

"Yeah, you know maybe if you ask Seth, he can take you skating this week and you can work on your scoring."

"Yeah," she drew out the word sadly. "My coach says not to focus on that as it'll screw up my hitting and pitching. Different motion means different muscle memory, different muscle memory means less precision and retraining before we go back to games. Coach doesn't want that. I mean, he doesn't care because our team is supposedly horrible, he's not predicting us even making it to a winning season, but he doesn't want anything screwing with the so-called streak I'm on."

"Just remember what I taught you, Liz, and you should be fine."

"Concentrate on the glove, not on the batter." Lizzy did her best to keep from rolling her eyes. She wasn't sure how much she believed him but since scouts had been looking at him since middle school there had to be some validity in his words.

"So, Fult, have you completely given up on football?" Chris asked.

"Considering Eden Hall doesn't have a football team, yeah," Fulton answered.

"Wait, what?" Chris asked.

"Eden Hall is a hockey school," Charlie said, "they don't have a football team."

"Oh, I didn't know that."

"It's okay. I'm really good at hockey now anyway." Fulton shrugged. Chris looked away feeling bad. Sure, technically Fulton wasn't his brother but the boy spent so much time at their house when he was younger that the four Jacobs brothers consider him their honorary younger brother. Now though it was like Chris knew nothing about the tough enforcer. "Hey, don't sweat it you've got three other brothers to think about and know everything about."

"Doesn't mean that I'm allowed to forget about you."

"You won't, we're just not close and it's fine." Chris nodded though he wasn't sure how much he believed the enforcer. "Really it's okay," Fulton said. Chris nodded.

"So, you're graduating this year," Charlie said. Chris looked at Fulton for a minute or two but then looked over at Charlie and followed the change of subject. Eventually everyone went to bed and Lizzy shared her room with Fulton and Charlie that night.