chapter six      The card Ellie had given to Harry said to meet her back in the dining room the following day at noon, sharp. Ellie was now, standing in the dining room, staring at her watch, which read 12:15. She sighed, hating the feeling she felt. The feeling that said that Harry probably wasn't going to show and that she was going to walk out of this family's life just as quickly as she had walked into it. She couldn't let that happen. She dreaded leaving…in fact she was dreading leaving one person…      "All right, I'm here. Now what?" Harry said from the door, interrupting her thoughts. She sat up quickly and shook her head.      "Well, it's good to see you, I was beginning to worry."      "Well, I'm here."      "Yes you are." There was an awkward moment of silence before Ellie spoke up again. "Hey Harry, I hear your father has some lovely gardens on the property. Could you take me on a tour?" He looked at her funny.      "Whadda you wanna see them for?" Ellie was beginning to get annoyed. She pushed herself away from the table and waked over to him.      "I'd like to see the flowers. Please," she said, her voice firm.      "All right fine," Harry heaved sarcastically. They walked out of the dining room in silence. "I thought you'd want to pick my brain, not see flowers," Harry said as he held the back door open.      "We can get to that in a minute." They walked a little ways, quietly, Harry pointing out various patches of perennials or ferns, herb gardens or vegetables. "Want to play a game?" Ellie asked, a few minutes into their walk.      "Not particularly," Harry muttered, harshly, as he padded on a few steps ahead of where she had stopped.      "You know this would go a lot faster if you'd drop the attitude and cooperate!" Ellie said, her anger finally taking over. "I didn't fly halfway around the world to put up with your attitude! You're father came to me, deeply concerned about his son! So I came to help! And all I'm getting is a lot of sass and sarcasm!" Harry turned around and faced her.      "No! That's not why you came here! You came here to judge me! To tell me that I screwed up royally and that it's my fault! My father asked you to come because he's too chicken to tell me himself!"      "Hardly! I'm not here to tell you screwed up! You just told yourself that! My job is to find out why you did it, prevent you from doing it again, and to fucking fix your family! That's all! So quit bitching and play my game!" He stood there, taken aback. For the first time in his life someone had bitched him out, and not been polite about it. She had just told him the God honest truth and wasn't afraid of how he'd react. He had finally met someone who treated him like a human being, and not a holier-than-thou prince.      "All right, I'll play your game," he said, his voice soft, mellow, normal.      "Really?" she asked, her voice returning to normal.      "Yeah."      "All right." They started to walk towards the rose garden and Ellie explained the rules. "I'm going to say a word, or a phrase and you say the first thing, the absolute first thing that comes to mind, okay?"      "Okay."      "Will." He chuckled.      "Protective."      "Dad."      "Caring."      "Friends."      "Support."      "School."      "Work."      "Classes."      "Boring."      "Polo."      "Invigorating."      "Invigorating, 'aye?" she said, elbowing him slightly. "Fancy word." He smiled a broad smile.      "I try, I try," he said sarcastically. She laughed.      "Okay, parties."      "Drugs."      "Drugs."      "Mistake."      "Alcohol?"      "Everywhere."      "Grandmother."      "Expectations."      "Grandfather."      "Discipline."      "Uncles."      "Scandal."      "Marriage."      "Failure."      "Zara." He laughed at this one.      "Hmm…crazy."      "Peter." He paused for a moment.      "Serious."      "Beatrice and Eugene."      "Adorable."      "All right, let's see, what about…England?"      "Duty." Ellie stopped and let Harry walk a few paces ahead of her. He turned around. "What's the last one?"      "Mom." His face went pale, and his shoulders slumped.      "Emptiness." She nodded her head and let a moment or two pass.      "I think that's enough for today. You did good Harry, I'm proud of you! You answered some tough questions and you did so very honestly."      "Thanks, I think…"      "We're making tremendous progress."      "We are? All we did was play a game."      "Yes, but that game told me the parameters of your moral conscience. It told me your reaction emotion to various people, places, and things."      "All right, well, then same time tomorrow?"      "Yeah, meet me in the dining room again, okay?"      "Yeah, sure." He began to walk back towards the house.      "Oh Harry!"      "Yeah," he said, turning back around.      "I want you to think about something for your next session."      "What's that?"      "What do you want in life? When all is said and done, what do you want to have accomplished, who do you want to become, what do you want to do?"      "That's it?"      "Yeah, have an answer to those question for tomorrow."      "All right. See ya."      "Bye." Ellie turned around quickly to head in the other direction, and slammed head on into a warm body. She looked up and gasped. Staring back at her were a pair of transfixing blue eyes. .:. back