That Blue Gibson

CH 56

"There's a place in Portland that will take him tonight, but it has to be voluntary," Travis said quietly as he walked with Liz to her truck. Jack ran ahead of them, excited for the surprise visit to his grandparent's and Owen snuggled sleepily into Liz's neck.

"Will he go?" Liz stopped at the front of the truck while Jack buckled himself into his car seat.

"He says he will, but that might change once we get to intake."

"Yeah..." Liz looked up at her little farmhouse and spied Kyle in her bedroom window watching them. "Here," she handed Owen to Travis, "Get them situated and I'll try to talk to him."

Travis looked unsure, but he took Owen and Liz jogged back to the house.

"Kyle," she said quietly when she saw him sitting on the edge of her bed. "You know this needs to happen."

He nodded slowly, but didn't turn to face her.

"The boys need you, they need their daddy."

"I'm sure your boyfriend will make a great daddy. Or is that what you call him?" Kyle said bitterly.

Liz hesitated a moment, stunned by his words, "He'll never be their dad, Kyle. You know that," she ignored his sexual connotation and hoped he wouldn't return to it.

"They're better off without me."

Liz rolled her eyes, they had been through this 'poor Kyle' routine a million times before, but she dutifully played along and walked around the bed. "You know damn well that isn't true."

He looked up at her with a sad grin, "You told me you'd never love anyone else. Do you remember that?"

She remembered panicking the night she went into labor with Jack and begging him not to leave her. "I remember," she whispered.

"You said I was the only man you could ever be with. That I had saved you," he stood slowly and limped towards her.

"The man I loved isn't here anymore," she backed up until she felt her lace curtains against her arm and the increasing sense of flight over fight. "He's been replaced with a fucking junkie."

Kyle's hand snapped forward towards Liz's neck, but she was already across the room and halfway out the door. "Fix your shit, Kyle!" she yelled over her shoulder, "Your kids need you!" She fled her own home, jumping over the garden beds and into the gravel driveway where Travis grabbed her shoulders to stop her.

"He's not going voluntarily, is he?" he asked, recognizing Liz's scared face.

"Nope and I'm not coming back here until he's in a lockdown," she pulled out of his hold and headed for the truck, "I'll be at my parents."

Travis's face transformed from worried to angry when realized what she was trying to tell him. "I'm going to break his other fucking leg," he growled.

"Travis!" Liz called as she reached the driver's side, "Just get him help, okay?"

He reluctantly nodded and headed back for the house while Liz hopped into the driver's seat of her truck and looked in the rearview at Jack, who was busy playing a game on a tablet.

"Are we all buckled?" she asked, plastering on a cheerful facade.

"Yes, Mommy!" Owen called from his seat and clapped his chubby hands.

She threw the truck into reverse and backed onto the dirt road just as Kyle and Travis came out of the house.

"Hey, Mommy?" Jack asked, finally looking up from the tablet in his lap, "Is Daddy sick? He looks like he's sick."