Summary ~ When a fatal accident occurs, many lives are forever shifted. Elizabeth must take on the challenge of a new role, and Tess must learn how to adapt to her new life.
Genre ~ Mark/Elizabeth/Tess/Kate
Disclaimer ~ Every person you have heard of before are not of my creation. The characters you have not heard of before are mine, although I borrowed their names from Centreville High School.
Need to Know ~ This story takes place in 2015. The last episode that applies to this story is April Showers.
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Tess slammed her door and locked it. She threw the pile of magazines on her bed onto the floor and threw herself onto the sheets and cried. She cried out of anger, she cried out of hatred, she cried out of sadness. She seemed to hate everyone and everything at that moment. Including Kate, who she had never held a grudge against in her life. But at that moment Tess hated Kate. She didn’t want to look at her. She saw Kate as some sort of a traitor. In Tess’ eyes, Kate had stabbed her in the back.
Kate had spent hours walking around County. She talked to so many people; her eyes sparkled with excitement. She ate lunch with Dr. Carter and heard stories about her mom from Abby. Tess had spent most of the time in the rather chilly doctor’s lounge, complaining to herself about her horrible life. When Kate finally managed to find the time to acknowledge Tess’ existence, all she said was, "Hey, why don’t you come see this really weird old lady with her body covered in tattoos!" Tess, of course, did not follow.
And now she sat alone in a horribly decorated room, waiting. She didn’t know exactly what she was waiting for. Waiting to go home? No, according to everyone, she was home now. Waiting to die? No, she didn’t want to die. She sighed as she flipped on the radio and began to ponder what exactly she was waiting for.
Kate sat in the dinning room with Julia and Michael. They had been playing cards for about an hour. And Kate hadn’t won once. "Ugh, I am horrible at cards!" she laughed as she placed her cards in a pile.
"We can tell!" Julia joked.
"I don’t think I have ever really won a game of cards in my life! Except for when I played my dad, but he always lost on purpose to make me feel better." Kate smiled.
"Not my parents. They stopped loosing on purpose when they realized we could beat them!" Julia laughed, stuffing a hand full of pretzels in her mouth. "Okay, ready?" she asked. Kate and Michael nodded a yes. "GO!"
Kate tried to quickly place the cards down as fast as she could. But her hands weren’t moving as fast as her brain and she couldn’t get more then a dozen cards down. "SPIT!" Michael yelled, jumping out of his seat.
"Ugh, you little turd!" Julia yelled, almost knocking her glass over. "You ruined it! I was undefeated!"
"Hey, hey calm down guys. It’s just a game." Elizabeth said, breaking up the developing fight between her kids.
"Yeah, a game I taught you. So really it’s my game!" Michael said gloating.
"It's not your game! Did you make it up!?" Julia yelled.
"Maybe." Michael grinned devilishly.
"Oh, you little…" Julia glared at her brother.
"Hey Julia, don’t even go there." Elizabeth scolded. "If you keep up this arguing then I won’t let you play anymore, at all!" Julia sighed and Michael nodded his head. "Okay, now off to bed."
"But Mom!" Julia whined.
"But nothing, to bed!" Elizabeth said pointing towards the stairs. Julia and Michael cleaned up their mess and headed up the stairs. "I told Mark it was a bad idea to have more than one kid." Elizabeth said quietly to herself. Kate chuckled at the comment.
"My parents never really had the sibling rivalry problem. Tess and I were best friends as kids." Kate said while cleaning up her mess.
"Yeah, your parents always told us how wonderfully you got along." Elizabeth smiled, remembering her conversations with Carol.
"Yeah, we went together like peanut butter and jelly!" she laughed.
Elizabeth got a curious look on her face as she asked, "But not anymore?"
Kate stopped what she was doing and sighed. "Well, Tess and I are very different now. Something happened to her after mom and dad died. I mean, I changed too. There is a part of me that will never be the same. But Tess, Tess seems to have changed drastically. She hasn’t really been talking to me at all since the accident. Something died in her during that crash. I don’t think she will ever be the same again."
"Oh God, I was so afraid of that. I knew that this was going to be a challenge, but when I saw how good you were doing I thought maybe it wouldn’t be so hard. But Tess, I’m just not sure about Tess." Elizabeth said, plopping down on the sofa.
"It’s a combination of things, I think. I don’t think that loosing mom and dad is the only factor. I doubt that she would be so distant if we were in Seattle." Elizabeth sighed and looked at Kate. Kate continued. "I think that she is just trying to make things more miserable. She’s holding a grudge against this entire city because she couldn’t stay with Caitlin."
"Caitlin?" Elizabeth questioned.
"Yeah, Caitlin Flynn. She lived in the house next to us. She and Tess have been best friends since preschool." Elizabeth nodded, understanding what Kate was getting at. "When mom and dad died, Tess assumed she would be staying with Caitlin, since she was sure that mom and dad didn’t know anyone better than they knew the Flynns. But when she found out we would be coming to Chicago, she lost it. She thinks that her life is over." Kate said, looking down at the ground solemnly.
"I don’t know how to help her except by leaving her alone." Elizabeth stated.
"Oh no, don’t leave her alone." Kate told Elizabeth. "The last thing you want to do is leave her alone."
"Why?" Elizabeth asked curiously.
"If you leave her alone she is just going to get worse." Kate stated. She then continued, "When we were kids and we would get mad or something would make us sad, my parents would never leave us alone. I remember that Tess use to yell at my dad to leave her alone, but he would never go away. He would just wait until she finally broke down, like she eventually would. It’s kinda the same thing here."
"Yeah, except the problem is bigger, the stakes are higher, and I’m not your dad." Elizabeth replied.
"All that means is that it will just take longer. Trust me, if you just let her sit up in her room all day she will never get better. It didn’t work in the past, and it isn't going to work now." Kate said, trying to reassure Elizabeth that this was the right course of action.
Elizabeth was quiet for a moment before finally saying, "I will talk to her tomorrow. Although I doubt it will do any good."
"I don’t think it will do any good either!" Kate said. Elizabeth looked at Kate with a mix of shock and curiosity. "What I mean is, talking to her once isn't going to do it. You have to keep talking to her for a long period of time. Whether that long period of time is a week or three months, I have no idea." Kate said, sounding more and more like a psychiatrist with each word she said.
"Thank God you aren’t acting like Tess! I don’t know what I would do then!" Elizabeth laughed.
Kate smiled and chuckled a bit. Then they were both quiet. Kate broke the silence by saying, "Okay, I’m going to bed." She began walking towards the stairs.
"Okay, goodnight Kate." Elizabeth smiled.
"Goodnight Elizabeth."
"Hello, I’d like to make a collect call to Seattle please." Tess said, fiddling with her necklace. "Robert and Christina Flynn…Tess Ross…thank you." Tess waited patiently for Caitlin to pick up the phone. Finally, Tess heard her voice.
"Hello" a voice said.
"Caitlin! Oh God, I thought I never would be able to get a chance to call you!" Tess said in excitement.
"Tess! Oh man, it feels like forever since I heard your voice!" Caitlin squealed.
"God Caitlin, I wish I was there so bad!"
"It’s so weird here without you. It’s so odd to look at your house and know some stupid stranger lives in it."
"I know, I miss it so much." Tess sighed.
"How’s life in the windy city?" Caitlin asked.
"Sucky! I hate it here so much! I just look at this house I am in and I want to run away."
"Oh, it cant be that bad." Caitlin said, not really believing that her best friend could be having that much of a bad time.
"You have no idea." Tess paused, after a few seconds she continued. "Everything is so different here. Even Kate is different. I never thought I would ever dislike being around Kate, especially at a time like this. But I just look at her and I can’t believe she is my sister. She is like a totally different person."
"Wow, remind me never to go to Chicago!" Caitlin laughed. "How are the people you are living with?"
"Oh God, don’t go there."
"Really?"
"Yes really! I swear I am so screwed! The lady is British, and I never thought anyone could sound as annoying as she does."
"She’s British? I didn’t know that. Is her husband British?" Caitlin asked.
"No, he’s American. He isn't that bad, he’s almost exactly like my dad described him."
"Wait, I thought you had met these people before?" Caitlin said confused.
"Well, I had. I think I have seen them maybe, eight times in my whole life. And when I did, it was only for a few hours. Living with someone gives you a whole different perspective on them." Tess complained.
"Yeah, that’s true." Caitlin agreed.
"Elizabeth is always bugging me. She makes me get up early in the morning and she never leaves me alone! I swear, I want to just slap her sometimes!" Tess said annoyed. "She’s always like, ‘Oh Tess, we have to all go to the hospital together and talk to people you haven’t seen since you were five!’" Tess said, mocking Elizabeth.
"Oh man, she sounds like a character!" Caitlin laughed. Suddenly there was a knock on Tess’ door. Tess took the phone from her ear and covered it with her hand. Elizabeth poked her head into the room. Tess glared at her. "Hey, who are you talking too?" Elizabeth asked politely.
"A friend." Tess replied.
"Oh, uh, when you are done I would like to talk to you."
"Yeah, sure, whatever." Tess answered in an annoyed tone. Elizabeth nodded her head and shut the door. Tess groaned and began to talk to Caitlin again. The girls talked for another half an hour before Caitlin had to go. They said their good-byes and Tess hung up the phone. She turned around to face Kate’s bed. She was surprised to see that Kate was sitting there. "Oh God, Kate. I didn’t even hear you come in."
"Well, you are known for not noticing people." Kate said in an annoyed manner.
"What the hell is that suppose to mean?" Tess asked.
"You know very well what that is suppose to mean! When did you call Caitlin?"
"About an hour ago, why the heck should you care?" Tess retorted.
"What is it with you, Tess?"
"What?" Tess asked, annoyed.
"Don’t play dumb with me! You have been all pissy ever since we stepped off that plane two days ago!" Kate practically yelled.
"Well I think I have a good reason!" Tess snapped back.
"No, you have the stupidest excuse in the world, Tess! You are shutting everyone out, including me! You aren’t mad about mom and dad dying! You’re mad because you think that everyone and everything is out to get you!"
"Oh come on, don’t start with this, Kate. I don’t need to hear this from you."
"Yes, you do! You don’t listen to anyone! All you do is sit around complaining! All day today you were mad at people who have nothing to do with your unhappiness! You treated Dr. Weaver like she was the person who rammed their car into ours! And you treat Elizabeth ten times worse than that! You haven’t said but two words to her the whole time we have been here! Open your eyes, Tess!"
"To what? There is nothing here worth seeing!" Tess yelled.
"Yes, there is! Damn it, if you would just come out of your room and face the world maybe you wouldn’t be so miserable! No one is to blame for your unhappiness but you!"
Tess didn’t say anything after that. She shook her head in disgust at what her sister was saying. After about a minute Tess stood up and walked towards the door. She turned to face Kate and sneered, "I hate you Kate Ross. I never thought I would, but I do. I hate you." Tess then walked out of the room, leaving Kate stunned.
Tess pounded down the stairs, mumbling to herself the whole time. She walked into the living room where Mark and Elizabeth were sitting watching some old movie. They both turned to face her when she entered the room. Tess snapped, "I just want you to know that I hate it here and I hate you both. And that I wish I could be anywhere else but here."
"Tess…" Elizabeth started to say.
"You wanna talk Elizabeth? Lets talk!" Mark and Elizabeth didn’t say anything, knowing perfectly well that whatever they said wouldn’t help the situation. "There is nothing that you can say or do to get me to like this city or make me hate you any less. So you might as well cut the crap and just leave me alone. I don’t want to talk to you, and I don’t want to try and work things out, and I certainly don’t want to pretend like I am having a good time. So maybe if you just let me be and I let you be things would work out easier for all of us!"
"Tess, I think you are being very unreasonable." Mark began to say.
"No, I think I am being perfectly reasonable. Us pretending we get along or you guys trying to ‘make me see the light’ is only going to make this situation worse!" Tess yelled. "So why don’t you just leave me alone."
"No, no, I am most certainly not going to leave you alone!" Elizabeth said, her voice rising. She stood up so she could be eye level with Tess. "Your parents wanted us to make sure you were alright and that you were going to be looked after. And us leaving you alone certainly isn’t going to help that!"
"Yeah, well they shouldn’t have done that. That was a huge mistake." Tess sneered.
"Now you listen right now young lady…" Mark began to say.
"Don’t say that to me! You aren’t my father! You barely even know me! I don’t have to listen to you!" Tess retorted in anger.
"Oh yes you do have to listen to us. For the next four years you are our responsibility." Elizabeth stated.
"Yeah, you can tell me what to do, but that doesn’t mean I have to listen!" Tess snapped. She then stopped off into the basement where she planned to spend the rest of her time in that house.
When she slammed the basement door Elizabeth turned to look at Mark, her face full of shock. "Oh dear God." She sighed. "What are we going to do!" she asked pleading.
"I have no idea." Mark said.
"Oh God, we are failing, Mark." Elizabeth said helplessly.
"What?" Mark asked, sitting next to her.
"Doug and Carol thought we would be the best people to look after their girls and it’s only the third day and we are failing miserably."
"No, I’m sure she won’t be like this forever. She just needs some time." Mark tried to reassure her.
"No, I don’t think she is just going to snap out of this, like it’s some sort of faze. What if she is like this forever?"
"She won’t be. She just needs her space." Elizabeth looked at Mark. He seemed so calm about this whole situation. Elizabeth had no idea how he did it. Tess was flirting with disaster, and Elizabeth knew it. She didn’t even know where or how to start helping Tess. She didn’t even know if she could help her. Elizabeth had a feeling that Tess’ problem was going to last a long time.