Chapter 24

Elizabeth was sitting alone in the bar when she got her first customer since her bar had been shot up so savagely.

"But will he buy a drink" Elizabeth couldn't help, but feel solemn as she watched the man sit down her heart nearly skipping when he ordered a drink and again as she poured it watching the man as he sat there rough around the edges. He was an older man. A silver fox sipping bourbon in silence and as she did, Elizabeth wasn't quite sure what to do. The man had sat right across from where she was sitting, Elizabeth didn't know where to go. Once she would have just returned to her seat, but now, she wasn't so sure. It wasn't until that little voice inside her told her to just sit down that she did staring down at her nails as the man continued to sip his drink. All this time she had been sitting alone somewhere between pouring herself one drink after another until she was drunk and working quietly on a crossword puzzle, she would never finish.

"He's staring" Elizabeth had the thought before she fully realized the truth behind the thought and it was true, when she looked up the man was staring at her over his drink, and her crossword with a strange look on his face.

"This place looks nice. You can hardly see the blood" he said it so low that shook her as she met his eyes the words coming out of nowhere, and Elizabeth wasn't quite sure if she was supposed to answer or not. The man didn't say anything else for a long time. Elizabeth kept her eyes trained on her crossword until the urge was unbreakable. She raised her eyes and looked at him, seeing a concern that she didn't understand, and yet she couldn't help being grateful for it. No one had held that concern for her in a long time. At least, no one since Heather, and at the very thought of her, Elizabeth couldn't help the throb of pain she felt in her bones.

"Yeah, well…that was the hardest part. The blood didn't want to come out" Elizabeth didn't know why she told him that, but she did. Her eyes met his then and when he smiled in response, she felt something inside her lesson. She felt herself becoming at ease with this man, this stranger, and it felt strange. Especially since she hadn't dare let another stranger get close since Teddy. This man though didn't seem like Teddy, not in the least, but instead he reminded her of what she had envisioned her father might be like when she was a girl. Maybe that's why she smiled back at him.

"You didn't get all of it out, but it's okay. It gives the place character" there was humor in his voice. Elizabeth didn't know when she came to sit closer to him, but as she poured him another drink on the house, she felt a kinship with this man that she didn't much understand as she did it.

On some strange instinct her hand reached for his. She caught herself just in time then and turning it, she acted as if she meant to shake his hand. Her eyes stayed with his as she did it and he didn't even blink as he watched her hand float somewhere in between them.

"I'm Elizabeth…Elizabeth Addams Parker" her name had never sounded so formal coming from her lips before and yet, as it did, for the first time she actually sounded like herself, and that more then anything made her heart feel light.

"Maybe your getting to be comfortable in your own skin again" the thought brought her some peace of mind as she waited for his reaction.

"My friends call me Mac" he didn't shake her hand, only looked at it a moment before letting it fall away. Silence fell then and as it did, Elizabeth found herself waiting for it to break, but as it went on, she became aware that he wasn't going to be the one to break it. That responsibility would be left solely up to her. The problem was she didn't know how to as she waited, unsure of what subject to breach, but then as his presence there lingered that became the subject, she found herself most eager to know. Why was he there? As she looked at him preparing to ask, she found that once again he was looking right at her.

"So, did you see one of my flyers or just hear about the shooting on the news "Elizabeth didn't know any other way to say it. There was another lingering silence and when he looked at her longer and longer, she was beginning to think that maybe he wasn't going to answer. When he smiled at her again that thought fell, and Elizabeth found herself smiling back though the action itself seemed to be almost mechanical in that moment. Like the question itself, it had just slipped out, and she found herself unsure if she really wanted the answer. Maybe because she wanted to know what her bar was becoming. She didn't want it to become a freak show for strange people to flock to. For people to come looking for traces of the death. For people to question her about what had happened and about the people who had died there. She didn't want the memory of that day to last, but she just wanted to forget about it. Most of all though she was afraid it would become one of those strange places that became stale with age that people only whispered about. A place that people eyed, always knowing of what happened, but never daring mention the actual thing. She wanted the bar she had built back, but the longer she sat there alone the more disillusioned she'd become. Until now, when this man had appeared giving her a ray of hope, and now she found herself only afraid that it was not meant to last. It bothered her as she looked him in the eye waiting for an answer.

"Because I was here, honey, I saw them carry out the body bags. I even saw them carry you out knocked out and bleeding" he said it with laughter in his voice at first, but as he finished there was a hush in his tone.

She couldn't help the alarm she felt. Her first instinct was to tell him to leave, to demand it, but as she moved to spring to her feet, he stopped her. His hand covered her, and he was looking at her now with his eyes completely sincere. Elizabeth found she needed it as she settled back down into her seat.

"Honey…I've been a cop for damn near twenty-five years, and it's okay if you're still a bit shell shocked. Anyone would be…I didn't come to upset you…or to tell you that it could have been worse. I couldn't get the image of you being carried away…and I thought I'd check to see how you were doing. Especially when I saw that you were open for business again" when he had started, she didn't think she could feel any better, but as he finished, she found she did. That she felt safer than she had since those men blew it all away. As his hand left hers, his eyes didn't, and Elizabeth breathed a deep sigh as something inside her let go of whatever tightly wound festering pain still lingered inside. For the first time, she felt a type of release, and she found she could breathe. When he downed the last of his drink, he looked at her then at the bar around them, and then as he looked at her again, she saw something in them.

"So, are you just going to let this place rot away while you wait for customers or do you have a plan?" the question caught Elizabeth off guard. She found she couldn't look at him anymore and looking away she focused on her hands. Wringing them together, she tried to find an answer, but the one she had didn't seem good enough.

"I'm just trying to put everything back together again" she couldn't keep the emotion out of her voice when she said it. She heard the crack in her voice when she said it. She could feel the tears before they came and as her hands shook, she tried to tell herself that it would be okay, but even now as he sat across from her, she felt that it was a useless endeavor.

Mac looked at her and as she stared at her hands in this silence, he found he wanted to help her. Maybe it was because she reminded him of the daughter he had lost because of his own stupid choices or maybe it was because he remembered her. The way she had looked as they were wheeling her passed him.

"If I don't help her, she's not going to survive this, and end up putting a bullet through her brain" the thought came out of nowhere as he remembered the fragile girl they'd put in that ambulance all alone and Mac found he was truly shaken by the thought. All the same he wanted to help her, so tapping his glass against the bar, he signaled for a refill.

Elizabeth refilled his glass immediately and as she was, she could see as he kept looking at her. His eyes watching her, appraising her, and when she sat down again, she wondered if he could see it. The depression. The stress that she had carried around with her all this time. And he could. Mac saw the slump of her shoulders and the way her face seemed to wrinkle. He knew those wrinkles, he had some of his own, and he knew they were not from old age. They were the wrinkles of debilitating stress. The type of stress that could very easily kill and as he looked at her, he didn't want to see her go that way.

"You should make this place a cop bar. You'd definitely get some customers and believe me, cops couldn't be put off by a few traces of blood in the floorboards" Elizabeth wasn't expecting that idea, she had never even considered it as she looked at him, and she couldn't deny she was open to the suggestion now.

"How so?" she was looking around her now trying to see the vision that might be forming.

"It's spacious…it could fit a crowd. It has a history and cops like that. Most of all though, it's out of the way, and I think I know some guys who'd like it. I'll bring some buddies by…you could have yourself a fanbase" she was watching him closely now and he could almost sense what she was thinking. He must want something. Why would he do this for nothing? He didn't want anything though, he truly didn't. He just wanted to help her even if he wasn't entirely sure why. He proved that when he pushed his drink away without a refill.

Mac didn't say anything as he rose to leave. He only gave her a final glance before turning his back on her to leave. She had some decisions to make and he would leave her to make them.

"I'll drop by again…maybe even bring a few pals" he kept his back to her as he said it walking out the door promptly after. As his words floated there in the air, Elizabeth could only stare after him, and feel that weight she'd known lift even more. It was like something was beginning. Something new that was meant to bring her back to the place she had once been. She wanted that so much as she watched him leave. Afterward, she didn't know what to do. If she should go back to sitting there waiting for other customers or close as these decisions seemed too urgent to not stop everything to consider them. She didn't know what this was, but this man who'd suddenly walked into her life seemed to be bringing that hope she had wanted so badly. As he left, Elizabeth thought it would go with him, but this time it remained. She was grateful for that as the door closed behind him. She smiled after a moment and that turned into a laugh. After the flyers didn't seem to work, she had worried it was over, but maybe the bar wasn't meant to pick up where it left off.

"Maybe we're both meant to have a whole new beginning" the words came in a whisper as her laughter faded away and Elizabeth found herself closing her eyes in relief. She never would have thought of making it a cop bar, especially considering her ex-husband was a criminal, but she sensed this was it. Mac was true to his word. The next day he returned with two other friends. He didn't stop there though because he night he came back. Each time bringing with him more friends who began to come by themselves until she found she had customers again. When Elizabeth started to turn a prophet again as more people came that's when the stress of one half of her life faded helping the other half do the same. That was when her new beginning truly began. No one ever asked about what had happened there.

No one ever asked about the man that used to be her husband, though she couldn't be sure if anyone even knew about that, but she didn't much care. Elizabeth was really starting to feel alive again. It felt like her bar was back. It felt like everything might be okay again and she wasn't worried about what was going to happen today or tomorrow. The best part of it all though was that she had a new best friend in Mac. He helped her find her footing again and Elizabeth thought it might be okay. That's if something didn't come along to tear it all down again.