Author: Danilise
Email: [email protected]
Disclaimer: Roswell, the characters, and the situations are
owned by the WB. No infringement is intended.
Author's Note: This story is part of an evolving storyline that
currently includes (in order): "Decisions,"
"Looking In," "Christmas Envy," "From
Another Place," "Husbands and Fathers,"
"Claudia and Nicole," and "Stars." More
stories may be forthcoming.
Claudia and Nicole
Shaking his head, Jeff Parker watched the two hellions run
through the Crashdown Café, playing a game of tag that clearly
involved knocking over chairs and scaring customers. Whenever his
granddaughter, Claudia Evans, got together with her best friend
in the whole world, Nicole Guerin, the whole world knew it. Or at
least all of Roswell, New Mexico, knew it.
The two little girls made quite a pair. Claudia was beautiful.
And it wasn’t just because he was her grandfather that he
thought that. She had her father’s dark, long-lashed eyes
and her mother’s straight dark hair streaming down around
her shoulders. When she wasn’t with Nicole, Claudia was calm
and sweet and gentle, luminous with a kind of wisdom you didn’t
expect to see in a child. When she was with Nicole, it was a
whole different ballgame. Hellion became the operative
description for both girls.
Jeff smiled at the thought of Nicole Guerin. Nicole had been
blessed with her mother’s bouncy blonde curls and her father’s
mischievous brown eyes. She also had her father’s fierce
integrity, plus more than a little bit of his attitude. If he had
to choose one word to describe Nicole Guerin, sassy would
definitely be it.
He watched Claudia and Nicole weave between tables and duck
through the "employees only" door at the back of the
restaurant. As usual, Claudia led the way because she was three
years older. But that wasn’t the only reason. She was equal
parts her father’s calm leadership and her mother’s
practical rationality. He smiled at himself. Only a grandfather
would come up with such fanciful stuff.
Jeff could hear the girls’ wild giggles as they pounded up
the steps to the family apartment above the Crashdown on their
way to find Claudia’s grandmother. Hopefully, Nancy would be
able to get them to sit still for a couple of minutes in
succession. Customers were beginning to wonder what was going on.
Reminding himself that he should be thinking of his customers, he
turned to offer more coffee to the sheriff who was sitting at the
counter. "Sorry about that, Kyle. The girls are excited
about seeing each other. They don’t that often. More
coffee?"
Kyle Valenti nodded, holding out his cup. His jaw tightened
almost imperceptibly. "So, Liz and Max still live back
east?"
"Yeah. Liz is teaching at a women’s college just
outside Boston, and Max is at Children’s Hospital. They like
the school options for Claudia in the Boston area." Seeing
Kyle’s clenched jaw, Jeff tried to hide a sympathetic smile.
In some ways, he knew, Kyle had never gotten over Liz. But Liz
had never had eyes for anyone but Max Evans. Once she’d
opened her eyes, that is, and had seen the way Max had looked at
her all his life, as if the sun rose and set in her. Jeff had to
admit that he was happy his little girl was so happy. He liked
and admired his son-in-law. He adored his granddaughter. He was
happy that they were happy. And that was more than a lot of folks
could say.
Jeff sighed as he heard the thump, thump, thump of the girls
coming back downstairs. He exchanged a wry look with Kyle just
before Claudia and Nicole burst back into the restaurant. Nicole
kept running when Claudia skidded to a stop in front of the
counter.
"Gotta go, Claudi, Mr. Parker," Nicole sang as she wove
between tables for the umpteenth time that afternoon. "Mom
and Dad are prob’ly waiting for me!" The door jangled
in protest as the small blonde dynamo shoved it open and raced
off towards home.
After the dust had settled, Claudia jumped up to sit on one of
the stools not far from Kyle. She looked at her grandfather, her
big eyes serious. "Grandpa. Nicole had an idea, but I didn’t
think that Mom and Dad would’ve liked it, so we didn’t
do it. But I felt bad because it might’ve been a good idea,
and we didn’t do it ‘cause I said. Was I wrong?"
Jeff put both his hands down on the counter, leaning over to
return Claudia’s serious look. "Honey, I don’t
think I understand what you just said. What idea did Nicole
have?"
Claudia seemed to realize suddenly that Kyle was listening to
their conversation. She glanced at him shyly, looking for all the
world like a tiny female version of her father. "I’m
sorry," she said politely in a low voice, "I shouldn’t’ve
interrupted." She started to slide off the stool.
Kyle smiled at her, looking almost as if he didn’t want to.
"No, I shouldn’t have been listening in." He put a
couple of dollars on the counter and got up. "I’ll just
be heading out, Jeff. Thanks for the coffee."
Claudia reached out and placed a small hand on Kyle’s arm,
stopping him from leaving. Jeff nearly choked in surprise.
Claudia was usually never this forward with strangers. She slid
the rest of the way off the stool and looked up at Kyle intently.
"You’re a nice man," she said decisively.
"Not like my dad is. But still nice. My dad is the nicest
man in the whole world." She gave Jeff one of her slow,
sweet smiles, the smile she had unmistakably inherited from her
father. "My granddad is nice too."
Kyle shook his head, unable to conceal the hint of pain in his
eyes. "Like mother, like daughter, I guess," he
murmured. Jeff felt bad for him. In another world, maybe, Kyle
would have had a chance with Liz.
Claudia nodded, pleased with her conclusion, and swung back to
Jeff. "Grandpa, I’m going to see Grandma again. I don’t
think that that idea thing was that important after all. If I
need to, I can talk to Dad about it."
Jeff watched his granddaughter scoot out of the restaurant again,
her dark hair flying behind her like a flag. He turned back to
Kyle, who stood frozen in the act of putting on his hat.
"Did you need change?" Jeff asked.
Kyle blinked and shook his head. "She’s a lot like
them, isn’t she?" he said quietly. "Both of them.
She couldn’t be anyone else’s child." He shook his
head again as if to clear it, then pushed away from the counter.
"I need to be heading back to the office. The paperwork in
this job is killing me." He turned to leave the Crashdown
then stopped. Without looking back, he said, "Hey, Jeff.
When you see them, say hi for me." And then he did leave,
his head down, not looking back once.
The End