All Truths Come Out. Eventually.

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"Peak, can you come in here for a moment?" Elizabeth called from the long room at the side of the house. The dark angel was in there alone getting changed into her new clothes while McNeill and Peak finished their coffees. The Warden had already changed into a pair of dark pants and a red button up shirt.

"Got a runner in your stockings darling?" Closing the door behind her Peak walked over to the table where Elizabeth was attempting to get dressed. Walking over to the dark angel who was standing beside the suitcase wearing a skirt and a black brassier, Peak noticed the thick white gauze that was covering a rather large patch of her skinny stomach

"Well not that I know of yet exactly." Looking into the suitcase for something more suitable Elizabeth rummaged through the clothes. "But tell me something, how are you supposed to wear this?"

Peak giggled quietly to herself as Elizabeth held up a small bright blue vinyl top with more straps on it than islands in the entire world.

"Can you give me a hand?" An expression of deep curiosity mixed with an even deeper confusion crossed Elizabeth's pretty face as she eyed the bright blue shirt over.

"Sure thing," Peak walked over to Elizabeth and took the shirt from her hands, explaining where her arms were to go then in one quick and swift movement Peak zipped the skintight shirt up at the back.

Elizabeth swayed violently on the spot as all the air in her lungs was expelled instantly from the tightness, leaving her dizzy and breathless.

"Are you okay?" With a smile Peak placed her hand on Elizabeth's back to help stabilize her balance.

Elizabeth nodded her head quickly as the stitched wound on her stomach suddenly stabbed with a severe pain from the restriction. She grabbed a quick hold of the tabletop, trying to control the pain and get her breathing back to normal again.

"Short deep breaths Liza, you'll be able to breathe normally again within a minute or two if you've never had one of these on before, it takes a bit of getting used to but they're coming right back into fashion from the renaissance period."

"No, you have to take it off, it's pinching at the wound on my stomach," Elizabeth managed to gasp between breaths and painful stabs.

Instantly unzipping the corset-like top, Peak reached into the suitcase and pulled out a fitted black shirt and a lacy camisole that wouldn't pinch on anything. "Put this one on instead, it's very comfortable."

Taking a few deep breaths of relief as the pain eased from her stomach, Elizabeth pulled on the lacy undergarment then the black shirt, adjusting it here and there so it didn't accentuate her protruding bones.

Peak walked up to Elizabeth as she turned around and took a hold of both her arms, in a friendly gesture more than a menacing one. "Take care of him Liz now won't you. He means a lot to me."

Seeing a look of tenderness and worry in Peak, Elizabeth knew that whatever it was that she had with McNeill, it was much deeper than just friendship, and she doubted that there were many other people in the world that had seen that look on Peak's face too.

"Peak, what exactly is the relationship between you two?" Elizabeth asked in a serious tone of voice, not wanting to receive some cryptic answer and only wanting to know the truth.

For a moment Peak hesitated and looked away from the gaze of Elizabeth's bright green eyes. "He saved me. And he was the first man I ever loved." The whisper that escaped the lips of the blushing woman were deep and heartfelt, of the deepest honesty that there could ever be. "And you should know just as well as I do Liz, you never forget your first love."

Elizabeth nodded her head as Peak looked back up at her with her pleading eyes, only wanting for the man she once loved so much to be happy and safe. Feeling a bright red blush creep up her cheeks the dark angel's gaze suddenly fell to the floor between them as she smiled.

"What?" the tone of Peak's voice had suddenly turned accusatory. Her wall of protection was back up with ten thousand volts of brain frying electricity pumping through it.

"Nothing," Elizabeth looked back up at Peak with a warm smile, the warm love that she felt for the Warden pouring forth from every pore in her body. "I'll take care of him. I promise."

Peak returned the kindly smile with one last friendly squeeze of Elizabeth's arms and walked out of the room, heading back through into the kitchen to finish off the coffee she had left with McNeill.

"She get lost in there?" the Warden asked as Peak slowly walked back into the kitchen, an almost somber look upon her face.

"In a way." Sitting down next to her long lost love Peak reached out and took McNeill's hand in her own, squeezing it gently. "She really is a great girl Nicholas, just do one thing for me, as a payback for the car if you will. Keep her in your arms and don't ever let her go."

Not making eye contact with Peak, McNeill nodded his head quietly as he continued gazing intently at his coffee cup, knowing the games that Peak often liked to play with men he was determined not to let her come between himself and Elizabeth. "There won't be a day in the rest of my years where Elizabeth isn't the most important thing in my life." Flicking his blue-gray eyes up to meet Peak's for just a moment the Warden continued, "and the name's Sam, if you don't mind."

With a weak smile and a look of broken mortality that Peak was failing to hide, her grip loosened on the Warden's hand as she stood and walked to the bench to pour herself another cup of coffee.

For a few more moments that seemed to stretch on forever and then possibly just a few hours more, McNeill sat at the table in silence as he slowly drank down the last of his strong coffee. The only noise in the house coming from Peak walking up and down the length of the bench looking for one thing and another in the drawers and cupboards.

McNeill briefly opened his mouth to ask a meaningless question of Peak to kill the silence lingering like a thick mist between them when the door to the side room closed with an accidental slam.

Elizabeth cringed at the loud noise. "Well, how do I look?" Walking into the kitchen with cautious optimism, Elizabeth toted a black knee length slightly flared skirt, dark and thick leather straps around both her wrists to hide the branding tattoos, a thin silky red scarf was tied around her neck and draped over the back of her shoulders to hide the other Alcatraz branding mark, earrings dangled from her small ears, and a slight smearing of dark make up and foundation to hide some of the bruises around her eyes and cheeks added to the outfit with the fitted black shirt and camisole that Peak had pulled out for her to wear.

Completely unable to find any words that could fit the description of Elizabeth, McNeill sat in his chair completely dumbfounded by the beauty of his girlfriend. He had always seen a wonderful element of beauty in the dark angel, but now this was astonishing. No Alcatraz clothing. The makeup hiding most of the facial trauma she had sustained earlier. Nothing but pure beauty.

Peak stood in the far corner of the kitchen almost hiding in the corner of the bench with the coffee cup in her hand. "You look like a new person, Liza," she managed to whisper with a smile, the fact that the one man she has ever truly loved was running away with a convicted murderer was cutting her to pieces on the inside. She wasn't sure she entirely believed in the angel. But McNeill was happy. And Peak kept assuring herself that his happiness was all that mattered to her.

Elizabeth smiled and sat down next to the Warden. "Well that's a plus on our side. It's a lot more comfortable than the prison clothing I've been wearing for the last year if nothing else."

Quietly sharing a brief but loving kiss, the Warden and Elizabeth almost forgot that they weren't alone in the room.

Elizabeth looked over to where Peak was still quietly standing in the corner. Noticing that the woman was still limply holding the hot coffee cup in her hand and staring blankly into the lounge room the dark angel quietly asked, "You still with us Peak?"

Snapping back to reality after a moment of indulgent weakness and fantasy of what could have been, Peak looked up at the clock on the wall. "I'm here, but you shouldn't be. The two of you had better get out of the city now, before it's too late and the troopers are after you."

Simultaneously standing to their feet, Elizabeth pulled on the black full-length coat she had slung over her arm and McNeill walked through to the side room to retrieve their suitcase.

"Thanks so much Peak," Elizabeth said, walking over to the woman still standing in the corner of the bench and gave her a friendly hug.

"All in a day's work." With a non-committal shrug Peak dropped her mug in the sink and followed Elizabeth to the front door.

Carrying the suitcase in one hand, the Warden picked up the car keys from the kitchen table with the other as he followed the two red-haired women through to the entryway, checking his hair quickly in the hallway mirror on the way.

"The car's right out the front of my house," Peak explained as she slid the bolt across on the door, unlatched the chair lock and unlocked the main lock. "It's the black one. There's a few small blankets on the back seat if you get cold, some pillows too."

With his free arm the Warden lightly hugged his old friend and with his angel Elizabeth by his side they walked out onto the concrete landing, checking that there was still no one standing in the darkness.

Following them onto the landing and down the decrepit concrete stairs, Peak walked McNeill and Elizabeth to their new car to make sure they got the right one.

"Go on and get inside Peak, you'll catch your death out here in your pajamas." Dropping the suitcase down into the boot of the car McNeill watched intently as Elizabeth gently climbed into the passenger seat and patiently waited for him to join her.

Peak looked up at the man she would always be cursed to love. Tears filled her bright eyes as he closed the boot, finally sealing his fate to run away to a distant town with Elizabeth.

Walking over to Peak as she stood by the driver's side of the car the Warden reached up a hand and touched it to her cheek, wanting nothing more than to comfort his old friend. "What is it Peak?" he asked gently.

Holding back the tears with a smile Peak's broken voice managed to form words. "From the first moment that I met you in Germany all those years ago I always thought you'd be one of the ones to run away someday. Not that it's a bad thing of course. But I always thought you'd be doing it with me by your side. Even when you were married to Dawn and I saw the smile on your face as she walked down the aisle in her beautiful white dress towards you, I still thought that there was a chance that you and I would get back together and run away to some place where we would never be bothered. But tonight, when you and I were sitting at the table and I looked into your eyes, everything that was once there for me was gone and there's something new in them instead. And it's her, there's nothing else but her."

McNeill wrapped his arms around Peak as she sobbed lightly into his shoulder. "I'll always love you Peak, just not the way I once did. We both know that a relationship between us just doesn't work. Lord knows how many times we've tried it, even fifteen years ago, even after the war, things got in the way and we just ended up arguing. You will always be in my heart Peak. Blood brothers forever remember?"

Wiping her eyes with her fingers Peak stepped back from the warm embrace of the Warden that she knew she would do best to forget and smiled at the quip they used to use in their platoon. Holding out the back of her hand a spark lit up in Peak's eyes as she remembered how many people McNeill had helped her save back then.

McNeill gently slapped it with the back of his hand in the same way they used to do it so many years ago. "Goodbye Peak."

"It's 'see you later,'" Peak insisted with a playful smile and a gentle slap upon his chest. "Get it right, Sam."

McNeill opened the driver's side door and slipped down into the seat as Peak slowly walked back to the stairs up to her apartment. Waving a somber goodbye to her old lover and his new lover, Peak forced a smile as the car engine turned over and hummed out of the quiet car park.

* * * * *


'Sam' and 'Liza' traveled through the beautiful starry-lit night to the outskirts of San Francisco and on through the outlying towns before they reached the main highway with the north, south or inland intersection. McNeill pulled the car up to a stop at the crossroads.

"So where do we want to go?" the Warden asked Elizabeth as he looked all three ways, trying to decide which road will take them further away from the danger that would no doubt be following them soon enough.

Elizabeth reached behind into the backseat and pulled a blanket and a pillow back with her. "Let's go inland, people tend to think that escapees will go north or south, I think it will be safer if we travel inland first to get further away from San Francisco, then decide where to go."

With a cocked eyebrow the Warden turned to look at Elizabeth as she checked her face in the mirror on the passenger side visor, making sure that her bruises and cuts weren't too evident under the layer of concealing makeup. "Where did you learn that?"

For a brief moment Elizabeth hesitated, thinking about where she actually did hear that information. "I thought it was just obvious."

McNeill nodded his head with a shrug of his shoulders and they traveled inland, the sedan happily humming along the black tarmac in the cool early morning air.

Stopping at a petrol station along the highway McNeill noted that it would be at least another hour or two before the very first beams of gray sunlight would start to slip up over the distant horizon, nonetheless he decided to slip on the black sunglasses that had been stashed safely in his pocket and slicked his hair back with a palm full of spit before climbing out of the car.

Seeing that the Warden had used his glasses, Elizabeth pulled on her own pair of sunglasses that she had safely stashed away in her coat pocket before she too climbed out of the car and went inside to use the rest room. As she walked into the service station the man behind the counter looked at the dark angel from the corner of his eyes.

With a brief smile to the man sitting behind the desk with his dark hazel eyes watching the dark angel closely and thinning gray hair falling somewhat messily over his ears that were listening intently to the radio, Elizabeth gave a brief nod of her head to the man and continued walking straight on to the ladies room.

Tapping the fuel nozzle twice on the tank to knock off any last drips the Warden placed the nozzle back in its holder and closed up the fuel tank. Hearing his stomach growl loudly, McNeill decided it was most definitely time for some food and headed inside to pay for the petrol.

"Traveling at this time of the night sir," the man behind the counter warned as he turned towards the Warden, his dark hazel eyes burning a great big flaming hole straight through McNeill's chest. "Not such a good idea if you ask me."

"Oh really?" McNeill replied in a lazy voice, not really caring for a conversation to erupt between him and the strange man sitting behind the counter. "And why would that be exactly?"

"Dangerous things happen at night, not safe on the roads, especially with a pretty little woman in the car." The man nodded his head in the direction Elizabeth had gone with a grin of deep malevolence, a grin the Warden would have once held when thinking about Elizabeth and the pain he could inflict upon her with nothing more than a nod to the guards.

"Nonsense." Picking up a small bag of boiled sweets and two salad sandwiches to eat on the way to whatever their final destination may be, McNeill took them up to the counter to pay. "This is the best time to travel."

Running her fingers through her new hair to make sure it was falling the way she wanted it to, Elizabeth walked out of the ladies room and over to the Warden as he stood at the counter with the strange old man.

"The man here was just saying it's not safe to drive at night." Wrapping his arm around Elizabeth's shoulders, McNeill held his girlfriend close to him, not liking the way the strange old man was looking at the dark angel with his penetrating dark hazel eyes.

Thinking it would be the appropriate thing that someone with her newly found personality would do, Elizabeth in turn wrapped her own arm around the Warden's waist and flashed her teeth in a pearly grin that would make any sleazy car salesman envious. "What are you talking about? It's the only time to drive." With a slight southern accent flicking off the tips of her words Elizabeth's voice was chirpier than the Warden had ever heard it. So far they both thought that their new character changes were successful.

Nodding his head and with one last roam of his piercing eyes over Elizabeth's body the strange old man smirked as several nasty and ill-conceived thoughts filled his mind. He turned away from the beautiful woman standing before him and rung up the total on the cash register.

Paying for the chosen foods and fuel, McNeill didn't wait for the man to hand back change and pulled Elizabeth out of there as quickly as he could, not wanting those eyes to roll over his angels body once more. Sitting in the car quietly they both ate their much-needed food.

"Why Liza?" McNeill finally asked breaking the silence lying between them when he had finished his sandwich and was opening the bag of sweets that his mother used to buy when he was a child.

"Excuse me?" Elizabeth accidentally asked through a mouthful of food, not understanding the question and instantaneously slapping her hand up to her mouth to catch any food that might have wanted to fall out.

Opening the plastic wrapper of a sweet McNeill explained, "Liza, why did you choose the name Liza?"

With a shy smile as she thought about her explanation and the first time that McNeill had ever called her by her first name. Elizabeth finished chewing the food in her mouth before replying. "I've never liked anyone calling me Liz, even when I was a kid, I always told them it was Elizabeth or nothing. Until I heard the name Liz come out of your mouth that is and I knew that there would never be another name that you could call me, so this way you can still call me Liz and no one will be any the wiser."

Now sharing the reminiscent smile that Elizabeth had so contentedly plastered to her face, the Warden started the engine of the black car.

"So why did you choose Sam?" Elizabeth asked in reply to McNeill's silence before taking another small bite of her sandwich.

McNeill backed the car out of the parking lot and pulled back onto the main road before even thinking about the answer he was going to give. "I've always liked the name Samuel. Dawn named both of our boys when they were born mainly because I wasn't there until after the birth, but if I had of been given the chance that's what it would have been. I never really liked the name Nicholas but was cursed to live with it all the same."

Nodding her head at the story that seemed to somehow make so much sense for absolutely no reason, Elizabeth finished the sandwich in her

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