Count On Me

Part Two

A/N I hoped you'd all love it, inspired to write more now. Just hope I do the anticipation of this all justice, xx

Chapter Two

Lizzie turned off the engine and sat in the car, her face partially illuminated by the light shining in from the parted curtains of the house she was outside. Nathan was sleeping back at her home, her friend and neighbour Marcus had come down from the apartment above hers to watch him whilst she made this journey fifty miles south to her parents.

Even if she wasn't about to break their hearts and tell them that Janis had died, then she'd dread being there. Janis was the apple of their eye, despite the fact that she'd led a rather wild life. She'd left home at sixteen and spent the time 'travelling', whatever that entailed. It meant to the family an occasional postcard, with little information, and it meant that all the family expectations weighed down on the second child...her.

Not that Lizzie hated her life, she just wasn't sure that every decision she'd made was her own choice. She was a lawyer. A profession that had taken a LOT of work, a LOT of sacrifice, and had almost made her father smile. But nothing had surpassed Janis coming home two years earlier after almost twelve years away, with a gorgeous toddler in her arms. Her parents had once again become the people she remembered from the years before Janis ducked out. And she hated that it hurt so much that she wasn't enough.

And now...she had to tell them that she'd gone again...this time for good.

Tears once again streamed down her face and she needed a long moment to compose herself. How the hell was she going to utter those words to her mother and father? How could she cope with their grief...and their disappointment? It would be her fault for living in Manchester, for encouraging her sister to live with her.

Taking a deep breath she got out of the car.

Freya's knuckles were white as she gripped the steering wheel. Oscar wanted to laugh at the fact that his little sister was driving...another unbelievable feat for the timid bookworm she'd once been. Now she was coiled with anger and he dreaded her opening her mouth. But she was driving him to the airport, so he couldn't complain.

"I want to punch you so much."

He felt like crap, maybe a punch would feel like a suitable punishment, so he offered, "feel like punching myself."

"All this time!" She pulled up at a red light and turned to him, and whilst her voice was venomous, there was sadness in her eyes. "You should have told me...I have a nephew...Elena and Riley have a cousin...it's not just about YOU!"

He sighed, "I know that Frey. It wasn't malicious...I met him three times, we weren't on best terms me and you, so I wanted to sort things out. I honestly thought that I'd see him again, bring him to meet you...but she disappeared."

She turned back to the wall, "and Mitchell Cooper...lying to me all these years. The bastard."

He mock gasped at her curse, "Freya Cooper..."

Turning for a second she rolled her eyes then carried on the drive, "I've never seen a picture of him, never talked to you about it...nothing."

"I told you, it wasn't like that. And I swore Coop to secrecy. It's my fault." When she snarled he laughed, "you didn't have to hit him!"

"He's lucky I didn't castrate him."

Oscar grimaced, but she had been genuinely upset when he'd blurted out at the dinner table that he had a son. Then when he'd mentioned her husband as having some sort of complicity to the whole thing she'd marched up to him.