The Expansion of the Universe

Fifty | "Go for it."

In the midst of Liza's many successes and Elijah's accident, Liza hadn't thought much of Mitchell's father, Carson, the man who had shown up at her condo months previous and tried to harm her.

She had never gotten an anti-harassment order, simply because he had never shown his face since that single incident, where Elijah had scared him off. The police and her lawyer had informed her (through Whitney) that, since the man had only caused a single incident, the action didn't technically qualify as "harassment."

She had nearly forgotten about the whole incident, what with the many other things going on in her life, but when she heard a loud vehicle pull up into her driveway, followed by the sound of a door slamming harshly, a stone of dread fell into her gut.

Somehow, she knew exactly who was outside her condo, even before she heard the bellow of, "Let's talk, Elizabeth!"

Carson Pierce had made his furious, raging return.

This time, however, Liza was not scared. She was not interested in hiding within the closet, or even climbing up a goddamn tree. She did not reach for her phone to call Austin. Instead, she grabbed the baseball bat she'd pulled out of one of her many moving boxes after Carson's first visit. She'd gotten the bat back in college, when she'd been on a softball team as a normal functioning human. Now, it would serve as a form of protection.

Her fingers were tight around the bat, but not out of fear, for once.

Liza Garner was not scared. She was pissed.

She was not about to let Carson Pierce show up like the asshole he was and replicate his son's actions by ruining the progress she had made. She was not about to let this man show up and cause her to regress.

She was able to make phone calls now. She could go to the hospital, outside her condo, to see Elijah. Sure, she'd had to collect herself after the adrenaline had worn off, but she'd still done it. She was getting better, damn it, and Mitchell's jackass of a father wasn't about to take that from her.

What had Elijah written?

You're a warrior.

Yes, she was, and she would show Carson Pierce exactly that.

Before she could think rationally about the decision, she stormed toward the front door. She flung the door open so violently that she won the pleasure of watching Carson Pierce startle at her sudden appearance.

"Okay, dickwad," she spat, absolutely enraged, Milo's fur against her thigh and the baseball bat clutched in her right hand, "let's talk."

The man recovered well from his shock, his expression becoming fierce once more as he glowered up at her from the base of her front porch steps. "You killed my son!"

She laughed hollowly. "No, idiot, your son killed himself, along with a plane full of innocent people."

"You ruined his reputation!" he sneered, taking a step forward.

Liza refused to cower. Her chin jutted out, her fingers tightened against her bat, and she prepared herself for a physical confrontation. "Actually, I was too busy recovering in a hospital, followed by a psych ward, to do much. A professional team of aviation experts were the ones to reveal your son's inability to pilot." The most she'd done was act as a witness, where she'd had multiple breakdowns both on and off the stand.

She did not yell the words, but she might as well have, if the furious spark in Carson's eyes was any indication of his response.

"I'll kill you," he promised.