Disclaimer: Coronation Street, obviously does not belong to me – I am just here to have a little fun and to give my own interpretation on how one of my favourite families got to the street!

I am really excited to be publishing this fic at last – it's one I have wanted to write for years, and Nanowrimo 2018 finally saw it get underway – I wanted to keep the momentum, so here it is! This fic is going to trace Liz and Jim's journey from meeting, to parenthood and to the Street!

Before The Street

Chapter 1

The young red head seemed too bound over to her friend when she saw her that day.

"Do you love me very much and want to help an old friend out enormously?"

The truth was Lizzie Greenwood was not sure she liked the idea of that. Not when it came out of Patsy Holden's mouth.

Patsy had been her friend for as long as she could remember and that meant for as long as she could remember, the two of them had been getting in trouble, very successfully.

"Patsy, I am not going to lie about you being at my house this Saturday," again said Liz. That was for sure - for one thing she was hoping to be going out herself.

And though she loved Patsy dearly, lying to their parent's about where they were on a Saturday evening was beginning to be a bit young for them even though they were yet sixteen.

Besides she had good reason to try and behave as if she was a bit older now.

Flynn Rogers was a friend of the family who she had been waiting to notice her forever - and now he had. He was older than the two girls and because he was older, being eighteen to her sixteen, Lizzie passionately wished she was as well. And until she was she was sure she was going to behave as if she was older than she was. That was her compromise.

"No, I do not want you to tell anyone your anywhere on Saturday - but I do want you to come out with me."

"I can't."

"Lizzie! You can - or at least you could if you wanted too."

It was five o'clock on Wednesday evening and the two of them were on shift at The Greasy Spoon, the cafe which was patronised most in their little town for the very fact it lived up to its name.

There were no pretensions and no standing on ceremony at the Greasy Spoon. It was all about a strong cup of tea and a good cooked breakfast and the company of friends. And some music as well. The owner of the cafe where they worked wanted to draw in the younger crowd, rather than get rid of them as so many seemed to.

It was a safe space.

But then American Marty had lived a military life like so many from there neck of the woods and he had an idea of just how important it was for young folks who felt as if they had nowhere else to go, to find that yes there was a place for them. And that was the Greasy Spoon.

"I can't – you know I am meeting up with Flynn." Lizzie insisted, and Patsy could not help but roll her eyes. If the truth was she could not understand her friend's fascination with him. As soon as the date had been set up, Liz had rung her as if it was the best news she had ever had to give any one, but Patsy did not see it as such. But she knew she had to be a friend. "So where is it you and this beau of yours are going to be going?"

"The officers mess at the barracks."

Lizzie could not help but roll her eyes. They had grown up by an army barracks and they had heard the stories of what went on there…

But even thought there was a history of the military in her own family, and in Patsy's as well, Lizzie knew this was going to bring nothing but trouble for her friends' family. While she had a feeling if they were asked, then her own mother and father would accept her going out with a fella of the military persuasion, she did not think could be the same said of Patsy's.

They were not going to be cool with that. There was just no way.

Patsy had lost a cousin when the two of them were young to war - Liz honestly did not remember the lad very well but she did know when he had come home the whole village had lined the streets for him and he had been given a hero's home coming. It had all been very sad.

And it had had an effect on Patsy parents for life. They did not want their daughter going through what her aunt had been through – that was the last thing she wanted for her as well, but she knew every story ended differently.

"Now you know if the two of us go there then it is not going to end well," said Liz knowingly. She loved her friend every much, but she did not think this was the best idea she had ever had.

"But Daniel is simply to die for and you can't let me let him down." she said to her friend with logic that young Miss Greenwood had to say she found questionable at best. But that was often the case with their Patsy. "And it is not as if we will leave you dateless for the evening – I am sure we can set you up with someone better than Flynn," she said as she slipped.

It was not as if Liz could call her friend boy mad when she was not sure if she was so much better herself but the one thing that was for sure was she was not going to let own date for the sake of Patsy's.

"I do not want a date who is better than Flynn, thank you very much. If anything changes then I will go with you – if I have to -!" but she didn't want it too and doubted it would.

"Which you do."

Liz looked at her doubtfully.

"But as far as I am concerned I am going nowhere near the barracks on Saturday," and that was how she wished it to stay.

"Now that sounds like a challenge to me," beamed Patsy.

And if there was one thing which her friend liked it was a challenge.

There was suddenly a cough behind them.

"Are you girls planning on doing any work today or are you going to leave it all to me?" Marty asked with a smile.

Marty, their boss was – as Patsy's brother so politely phrased it – built like a brick shit house.

When Lizzie had been a young girl she had truly believe he was tall as he was wide and the stubble which adorned his cheeks never took long to turn in to a full-on beard and if someone could find an inch of his arm which was not tattoos… well, then she was sure she would be happy to give that person her last pound.

It almost made her sad when people came in to the café and she could see that they were judging him – making his mind up that he was a thug or something before they had so much as got to know him.

But appearances were so deceptive at times for Liz truly thought he was one of the most gentle men she had ever had the honour to meet. Though Patsy had been lucky enough to grow up in a family where she had lots of brothers and sisters, Liz had not. But that was role which Marty was fulfilling for her now.

"We'll leave it all too you?" Liz asked with a cocked eye brow.

"Just for that comment, you're drying Greenwood. Come do dished with me."

X x x

"Evening love! How was your shift?" asked Carol Greenwood as she saw her daughter came through the door, with a smile on her face.

The truth was Carol was the heart of their little family thought Elizabeth and she was always going to be. Her mother was a mix of courage and steel which lived hoped she was going to be able to copy when the time came for motherhood.

Elizabeth loved her mother and therefore at times she looked for herself in her. She did not think they were very similar though as much as it saddened her. Whereas her mother was somewhat of an introvert Elizabeth loved to go out, where as her bookish mother liked to stay in. And whereas she had grown to near her father's heights, she had over taken her mother in her early teens.

"It was much the same as normal." She meant nothing against it. She liked working there but there had been no trouble, so it was much as an any other night.

She took off her coat with a smile. Liz wasn't sure she was going to be needing her coat for too much longer. Summer would soon be on the way. And she was looking forward to it. The elder she got, the more she disliked the cold of the winter months.

"Patsy was there, she was trying to get me to go out with her on Saturday night to the barracks."

Despite the fact their mothers were friends Lizzie knew she was able to discuss what was going on in confidence with her mother.

Carol would not give Patsy away.

"Oh, I do not think her folks are going to thank her for going there."

"Well, nor do I really," said Liz with a shrug. "But you try telling her that. I think I would have a lot more luck trying to get through to a brick wall." It was not as if she had not tried to get through to her.

Carol smiled with a little chuckle. It was a little knowingly, for she had known Patsy since she was a little girl in a party dress and she had always been the type to do what she wanted.

As had her own Elizabeth, not that she would accept that judgement easily.

"So, what did you say to her?"

"I said I couldn't as I am going out with Flynn this weekend."

Her mother's forehead knitted together. Oh… she could not say she liked that.

"But I saw his mother today and she said they were heading to the coast for a family weekend."

Liz felt something in her heart drop. She wanted to deny what her mother was saying more than anything.

"Well maybe he is not going with them; - he definitely said he was going to meet up with me this weekend."

Carol wished there was something which she was able to do for her daughter in that moment for it was no lie to say her heart ached for her.

She knew how long she had liked Flynn and though if she was honest she thought and, in all honesty, hoped it was nothing more than a crush, she knew it did not feel as such right then. "I think I am going to go and give him a call is that ok mum!"

If there was one thing which she knew for a fact it was she had to get to the bottom of this one way or another.

Carol wished there was a way to say no.

But she knew she had to learn from her own mistakes and so while Elizabeth made the phone call which her mother knew was not going to end very well, Carol put the kettle on. Sometimes at times such as these it was all you could do.

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