Gazer gets the Girl -Mature- Epilog 22 Oct. 2009

[Angelzbabe]

Love the update. Can't wait to see what the problem is, and loving the whole thing with school.

[Stargazer md]

Gazer Gets the Girl
Chapter 17 - 9/11
by Stargazer_md

Disclaimer: The characters don’t belong to me. If they did, the show would still be on.
Some text is borrowed from the show, I didn’t treat it any worse than the original
writers.
Summary: A&I fun mostly.
Setting: Summer after S-2, leading into an entirely new S-3
Category: Alex/Isabel with CC
Rating: Mature


**********
Authors note: The following story is something that I have been thinking about for more than a year, longer than I have been writing Roswell. While I have been impatiently waiting for my story to progress to the point where I could include chapter about 9/11, I have been wondering about just how to present the story. Like always, I would not have been able to write this without a lot of information from the Internet, but this story is also full of personal information and personal experiences from that day.

Special credit must go to the CNN website, who’s timeline is used throughout the chapter.

Rather than try to differentiate between researched facts, personal experience, and outright fiction, lets just agree right from the start that this is a work of fiction. Also, please refer to another note at the end of the chapter.

Thank you,
Starry

Tuesday, September 11, 2001

New York City
8:45 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
An aircraft, later identified as American Airlines flight 11 from Boston, slams into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. It carves a gaping hole in the side of the building and sets it afire.


Whitman Residence
Roswell, New Mexico
8:50 AM EDT, 6:50 AM Mountain Daylight Time (MDT, Roswell time)
Charles sat at the kitchen counter and opened the paper, careful not to disturb his bagel or coffee. He looked up as Alex entered the room.

“Any winners?” Alex asked, noticing that his father had his Roadrunner Cash (lottery) tickets in his hand.

“Yea,” Charles replied in disgust as he threw his tickets into the trash. “New Mexico higher education.”

“What’s the heat index going to be?” Alex continued grabbing a carton of milk in one hand and orange juice in the other.

“You know the weather forecast is always wrong in the paper,” Charles replied. “Turn on channel Four.”

Alex reached for the boxes of Cocoa Pebbles and Cap’n Crunch. On his way to the counter he turned on the TV.

“Just milk, right?” Charles asked hesitatingly.

“Yea, Pops, why?” Alex replied, confused.

“It took me a while to get used to Isabel mixing her cereals,” Charles related, shuddering at the memory, “But I don’t think I’m ever going to recover from catching her eating it dripping with cranberry juice instead of milk and topped with sesame oil.”


Evans Residence
Roswell, New Mexico
8:55 AM EDT, 6:55 AM MDT
Isabel skidded to a stop when she saw her father sitting at the table. “Daddy?” she exclaimed in surprise. “What are you doing up so early?”

“I have to settle a probate case at the Eddy County courthouse down in Carlsbad,” he answered. I figured I’d get an early start. What’s the matter? Did I catch you sneaking in?” he teased.

“Please, sneak?” Isabel said with disdain.

“I know,” he sighed. “If you wanted to stay out, you would. Buy why so early? I didn’t think you had any classes until tonight.”

“Alex and I are taking advantage of our light schedule today to meet with Miss Rikesdale in guidance,” she advised as she pulled a bowl of fruit from the fridge. “We’re want to get a jump on next semester’s schedule.”

“Izzy!” Alex shouted. “Are you up?”

“If I wasn’t I am now,,,” she replied.

“Never mind that,” he exclaimed, something’s going on. Turn on channel Four!”


New York City
9:03 AM EDT
An aircraft, later identified as United Airlines flight 175 from Boston, slams into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Both buildings are now burning.


Evans Residence
Roswell, New Mexico
9:05 AM EDT, 7:05 AM MDT
Isabel burst into Max’s room.

“Don’t you knock anymore?” Max asked with irritation. “What?” he asked, seeing the look on her face.

“Downstairs! Now!” she commanded.


Whitman Residence
Roswell, New Mexico
9:10 AM EDT, 7:10 AM MDT
“No,” Charles declared, “That wasn’t a private plane, that was a jetliner.”

”God help those poor people,” Gloria lamented. “How could that happen?”

“It’s not an accident,” Charles countered. The chances of one plane hitting a building during daylight with clear weather is astronomical. Two planes in less than twenty minutes? Impossible! Someone drove those jets into those buildings.”

“What’s that mean?” Gloria asked with concern.

“We’re at war,” Alex answered.

“I don’t know who or why,” Charles agreed, “But someone just attacked us. He turned to his family. “I got to get to work, and I don’t think I’ll be home for a while. Where are you going to be?”

“I’m going to work,” Gloria decided.

“Alex,” Isabel cut in. “Max wants everyone out at the pod chamber. He thinks that’s the safest place to be until we figure out what’s happening.”

“If everything’s okay here,” Alex advised, “My place is with Isabel. I’ll keep in touch with Mom,” he promised.

Receiving a nod from his parents, he answered Isabel, “That works for me, do you need me to pick anyone up?”

“I don’t think so,” she replied, “But we’re going to need information.”

“I’ll take care of that,” Alex promised. “My laptop has a cellular modem and our new PDA has a Bluetooth module, so we can access the Internet with both.”

“Okay Sweetie, be careful,” Isabel pleaded.

“You too Izzy,” Alex agreed. “I’ll be there as soon as I make sure my Mom’s safe at work. I love you.”


West Roswell High School, Parking lot
Roswell, New Mexico
9:20 AM EDT, 7:20 AM MDT
Michael looked around the school grounds as he drove Maria’s Jetta into the parking lot. “I don’t like this,” he grunted.

“Why is everyone standing around their cars?” Maria asked. She reached to change the stereo from cassette to the radio when Liz’s cell started to chirp.

“Yea Max,” Liz snapped. “Uh huh, they’re with me.”

“What?” Michael asked.

“Pod chamber,” Liz commanded. “Something’s happening in New York and Max wants us under cover until we figure out what’s going on.”

“What happened?” Michael demanded as he slammed the car into reverse.

“Somebody’s crashing planes and blowing up buildings,” Liz said, shaking her head.

“Son of a bitch,” Michael complained. “These stupid humans can kill each other by the hundreds and get away with it. Max heals Liz and we get hunted like dogs.”

“Don’t tell me you’re taking this personally,” Maria snapped.

“I’m just trying to figure out how I’m going to get blamed for this,” he muttered morosely.


Sarasota, Florida
9:30 AM EDT
President Bush announces that the nation has suffered an “apparent terrorist attack” .


Washington, DC
9:43 AM EDT
An aircraft, later identified as American Airlines flight 77 from Dulles, (Washington, DC) slams into the Pentagon, setting it afire.


The Pod Chamber
Roswell, New Mexico
10:00 AM EDT, 8:00 AM MDT
Max and Isabel arrived outside of the pod chamber first, quickly followed by Michael, Maria and Liz. As they were unloading the jeep, which contained several bags of supplies that Isabel had hastily grabbed from their house. Alex arrived, and the group started to climb the trail to the pod chamber opening.


New York City
10:05 AM EDT
The South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses.


Somerset, Pennsylvania
10:10 AM EDT
An aircraft, later identified as United flight 93 from Newark, NJ, (just outside of New York City) crashes into a field outside of Pittsburgh Pa.


The Pod Chamber
Roswell, New Mexico
10:15 AM EDT, 8:15 AM MDT
Kyle and Ava were the last to arrive.

“What did you hear on the way over?” Max asked anxiously.

“I don’t know if you can count on this,” Kyle said cautiously. “Everything sounds so confused, but they announced that the government closed the airways. Every plane has been ordered to land. They also evacuated the White House.”

“Oh my God,” Alex shouted while watching his laptop. “One of the buildings just collapsed.”

“One of the World Trade towers?” Max asked unbelievingly. “I saw them while I was in New York. You can’t believe how big they are.”

“Believe it,” he advised stepping away so that the others could watch the video on his laptop.

“A section of the Pentagon just collapsed,” Alex informed them, looking at his PDA.


Washington DC
10:24 AM EDT
The FAA announces that all transatlantic flights headed for the US have been diverted to Canada.


New York City
10:28 AM EDT
The North Tower of the World Trade Center collapses.


The Pod Chamber
Roswell, New Mexico
10:30 AM EDT, 08:30 AM MDT
Max turned back to Alex, who was trying to make sense of the information overload, while maintaining physical contact with Isabel, who was greatly in need of comfort. “Anything new?”

“The Internet’s swamped with information, and the government seems to be slow to react,” Alex recited without looking up. “There are reports of plane crashes everywhere. The White House, the Washington Monument, Camp David, but none of it confirmed.”

“Great,” Max mumbled.

“Here’s what I can tell you for sure,” Alex said with confidence. “This is what I have seen video of. Both towers of the World Trade Center were hit by jet airliners, both buildings have collapsed. They are saying that thousands of people were still in them when they came down.”

Maria sobbed at this news and buried her face into Michael’s shoulder.

“A third jet crashed into the Pentagon,” Alex continued with a catch in his voice, “And part of that building has collapsed as well. Police have confirmed a fourth crash somewhere in Pennsylvania. I haven’t seen any video of any other crash. As far as New York and Washington is concerned, the subway systems are shut down and people are walking out of the cities.”

“But everything is on the East Coast, right?” Max asked. “Nothing around us?”

“Yea,” Alex replied. “Nothing out here.”

“Pack up,” Max commanded. “Let’s get out of here.”


New York City
11:02 AM EDT
Mayor Giuliani urges New Yorkers to stay home and orders the evacuation of lower Manhattan.


United Airlines Headquarters
Chicago, Illinois
11:59 PM EDT, 10:59 AM Central Daylight Time (CDT)
United Airlines confirms that their flight 175, a Boeing 757 from Boston, has crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. There were 56 passengers and nine crewmembers on board.


Crashdown Cafe
Roswell, New Mexico
12:00 PM EDT, 10:00 AM MDT
Alex immediately grasped the significance of the news report, and pulled Isabel’s head into his shoulder, leading her away from the television.

“United out of Boston,” she said softly. “It could have been us.”

“Shhhh,” Alex whispered into her hair, while kissing her. “It wasn’t. I would never let anything like that happen to you,” he added, while sending love and comfort through their connection.


New York City
2:49 PM EDT
When asked about the number of deaths, Mayor Giuliani replies, “—More than any of us can bear.”


Crashdown Cafe
Roswell, New Mexico
3:12 PM EDT, 1:12 PM MDT
“Alex?” Max asked. “What’s new?”

“It seems the attacks are over,” Alex replied softly. “All the planes are on the ground, there have been no other crashes. The rumors of crashes into Camp David, the White House, onto the National Mall, have turned out to be just that, rumors.”

“How many?” Michael asked softly.

“I’ve heard as many as ten thousand in New York, possibly a thousand of them police and fire fighters. There’s a lot less information coming out of DC, but the news media is estimating a thousand there as well.”

Alex turned towards Isabel. “Our classes tonight have been cancelled. No word yet about tomorrow.”


New York City
3:55 PM EDT
Mayor Giuliani states that the number of critically injured in the city is up to 200, with 2,100 total injuries reported. Meanwhile, a White House spokesman discloses that the President is safe, at an undisclosed location.


CNN Headquarters
Atlanta, Georgia
4:00 PM EDT
CNN reports that US officials say that there are indications that Osama bin Ladin, a Saudi militant, is involved in the attacks.


Crashdown Cafe
Roswell, New Mexico
4:01 PM EDT, 2:01 PM MDT
Michael wanted to kick something. “Man, this is bull shine. We aught to just nuke the place until there’s nothing left but a sheet of glass.”

“Kill them all and let God sort ‘em out,” Kyle agreed.

“We have this great military,” Michael bellowed, getting more torqued up. “Instead of having them chase a bunch of high school kids, lets send them over there and let them earn their pay.”

Alex leapt off his stool and got right into Michael’s personal space. “It’s easy for you to talk about the military as if it’s some kind of machine. From a distance it is a machine, a big green killing machine. To many people in this world that’s all they are ever going to see of the U.S, our military in action. And to people who don’t know better, it’s easy to say ‘Send in the Army.’ But I know better. That machine is made up of fathers and brothers, sisters and mothers. It’s made up of full and part timers, some of which are teachers, firefighters, and people who join the National Guard because they need the extra money to provide for their families.

“You don’t know what it’s like for your father to be gone two years at a time. You don’t know what it’s like to have to mail a Christmas present by October so it will get to him in time. You have no idea what it’s like to come home from school, turn on the TV, and see a scud missile slam into a barracks in Dhahran when you know that’s your father is living in a barracks in Dhahran. You don’t know what it’s like to be afraid of your doorbell, to be afraid to answer the phone.

He drew a breath and continued in a more subdued voice, which did nothing to detract from the intensity of his words.

“Do you know what it means to see a blue Air Force car in the base housing area? Do you know what it causes you to wish for? You pray that it’s going to stop in front of someone else’s house. You want them to go to the Baker’s house, or the Sharloo’s house, because you’re scared shitless that the car is going to stop in front of your house. Your blood runs cold at the thought that an officer and a chaplain are going to get out and tell you that your father isn’t coming home.”

By now Alex’s tears were flowing freely. Isabel wrapped her arm around him, and gently guided him to their booth. Once he had sat down, she pulled him back into her arms, and lowered her own wet face to his shoulder. She had their connection wide open. With the new intensity of their connection, she was seeing all of his memories, while she was able to send as much love and comfort as she could muster.

“I was in the second grade at Homestead Air Force Base School Number Three,” Alex continued, his voice subdued, “When they came and got the kid who was sitting next to me. His father was a F-16 driver and he got shot down over Bosnia. The Air Force had his family packed up and moved home before the funeral. I never saw him again, I never got a chance to say good-bye.

Alex looked at Michael. “Wars are fought by real people, Michael. If we need to go to war they’ll win it for us, but for the sake of my family, a war has to be the last resort.”


Sacramento, California
4:06 PM EDT
Governor Grey Davis of California dispatches urban search and rescue teams to New York.


Crashdown Cafe
Roswell, New Mexico
5:05 PM EDT, 3:05 PM MDT
Everyone looked up as Sheriff Valenti walked into the Café. He stopped at the teens table. “Everyone’s family’s are okay,” he started, “But I need to talk to Alex.”

“Sweetie?” Isabel asked with concern.

“I’ll be right back,” he said tenderly, patting her hand.

Alex followed Jim to the corner of the café, where they sat at a vacant table. “My brothers?” Alex asked with concern.

“I haven’t heard any bad news about your families,” he said quickly, but then he ran his hand through his hair.

Alex waited patiently for the older man to continue.

“I’m sure you can imagine that the personnel in the fire department are going crazy,,,” Jim started softly.

“Taylor?” Alex barked, instantly worried.

Jim nodded. “Her father is confirmed as missing.”

“Oh my God,” Alex exclaimed.

“Here’s the problem,” Jim explained, his voice strengthening. “New York lost a lot of fire fighters and equipment this morning, to the point that they are going to need help. The Roswell Fire Department is sending an engine and twelve fire fighters to New York, mutual aid.”

“Twelve people?” Alex questioned. “Can Roswell spare them?”

“It’s going to be hard,” Jim sighed. “We are going to need a lot of help, which is why I’m talking to you.”

“Me?” Alex asked in surprise. “What can I do?”

“You could get your ambulance license and join our volunteer call company,” the public servant explained. “That would allow you to run on the rescue, freeing up a fire fighter for the engine and truck companies.”

“Oh wow,” Alex said, overwhelmed. “I’m going to have to think about this.”

“You’re going to have to talk to your family too,” Jim added, as he led Alex back to the others, while looking at Isabel.

“Alex?” Isabel asked cautiously as he sat back down next to her.

“Some of you know Fire Fighter Alex Taylor,” Jim explained to the group, which was joined by Jeff and Nancy. “What some of you may not know is that she came here from New York, where her father is a battalion chief with the Fire Department of New York.”

“God help those poor people,” Nancy prayed while crossing herself, a sentiment that was joined by many of the others.

“Taylor’s father is among the missing,” Jim said softly, “And they are in trouble. New York doesn’t have enough men and equipment left to protect their city, let alone conduct proper rescue efforts. So the Roswell Fire Department is sending personnel and equipment to New York.”

“Roswell’s helping out?” Max said, impressed. “What are they sending? A couple of fire fighters and some hose and stuff?”

Roswell is sending a fire engine, completely equipped and enough personnel to cover it for alternating twelve hour shifts,” Jim answered proudly. “And it’s not just the fire department, Alex’s father is out at the airport right now working with the GSA (General Services Administration, who Charles works for) and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) to collect resources and move them to New York and Washington.”

“What can we do to help?” Jeff asked.

Jim shook his head, “I don’t know if I should ask.”

“Name it,” Jeff replied instantly. “After what happened this morning, it doesn’t matter,” Jeff promised, reaching for Liz who had joined them. “Anything I can do Jim, all you have to do is ask.”

“There’s a lot of volunteers out at the airport, along with a bunch of Air Force and Reservist,,,” Jim explained.

“And you need to feed them?” Jeff said expectantly.

“Jeff,” Jim said cautiously. “Things are spiraling out of control right now. No one ever dreamed anything like this could happen, so there are no plans on how to react. People are looking for things that need to be done and just stepping up to the plate and doing them. The thing is, I’m acting without authority here, I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to get you paid.”

“Then I’ll solve that issue right now,” Jeff declared. “You’ll never see a bill.”

“Thanks Jeff,” Jim said with a catch in his voice. “I really appreciate it.”

“Sheriff?” Michael asked. “Why are they gathering this stuff here?”

“The Air Force is sending a C-5B Galaxy transport from Kelly Air Force Base in Texas. It will be here tomorrow to airlift everything into New York and Washington,” Jim answered.

“They have a plane that can carry a fire truck?” Maria said with disbelief.

“Actually it’s taking two fire engines, the other being from Albuquerque, and that’s only half of it’s cargo,” Jim said proudly. “Charles is planning on also loading several FEMA SUV’s, decontamination units, telephone equipment and anything else that they need that he can beg, borrow, or steal.”

“Roswell has a small airport,” Isabel stated. “They can bring in a plane that big?”

“Oh Roswell Municipal may have a small terminal, but the runway can handle anything that flies,” Jim answered, looking at her with a smile. “You’re not old enough to remember that the airport was built by the Air Force during the cold war. It was designed for bombers, which were big, heavy, and needed a lot of runway to get into the air. Our main runway is more than two and a half miles long. (4 km) They will have plenty of room,” he advised.

“Folks,” Jeff interrupted, “I’m sure the Sheriff has things to do, and I need to call in some employees,,,”

“Dad,” Liz interrupted, “You have everyone right here you’re going to need.” She looked around and received nods from everyone. “Why don’t you call your suppliers while we start on the rest.”

Maria looked at Liz, “Thank God the three of us aren’t scheduled to work today or tomorrow.”

“Yea,” Liz agreed, turning towards Isabel. “You’ve already started a list, haven’t you?”

Isabel never looked up. “The first things that come to mind are two gas grills, a portable griddle, chaffing dishes, tables and chairs, coolers, but I don’t know for sure what we’re going to need until we know where we’re going to set up, how many we need to feed, and what we’re going to feed them.”

“That’s a good idea,” Liz stated, rubbing her hands together. “Michael, why don’t you go out to the airport. Take Alex with you. The two of you can talk to his dad and figure out where we are going to be and what we need, you know, if we need a generator, if we need tents, you know, things like that.”

“Kyle,” Liz continued. “Can you get a truck or two, maybe a couple of guys,,,”

“Kyle!” Alex said from the door. “If you get a truck grab the gas grill at my house.”

“Okay, with my Dad’s that means we have the two gas grills that Isabel wants, and the propane griddle from out back.” Kyle reported, first item completed.

“I’m calling the community center to get tables and chairs,” Isabel interrupted.

“That’s good,” Liz agreed. We’re going to need them wherever we set up. Can you pick them up?”

I’m on it,” Kyle agreed, taking Tess’ hand. “We’ll call Vicky and Steve and see if we can get the Lydick Lightning.”

The teens scattered as they set about their task.


New York City
5:20 PM EDT
Building Seven of the World Trade Center collapses. Other buildings in the area remain on fire.


Roswell Municipal Airport, formerly Walker Air Force Base
Roswell, New Mexico
7:15 PM EDT, 5:15 PM MDT
Michael looked around his make shift kitchen, as the Sheriff’s Explorer pulled up, followed by a red mini-van. Jim stepped out of his SUV, and waited for the driver of the other car.

“Liz, Michael, this is Bobby Cotton. He owns the Country Club at Summer Haven Park.”

“I got a call from Jeff, who wanted to see if I’d be interested in helping,” Bobby explained,. He looked around the kitchen area. “It looks like you have everything under control, but I’m wondering if you could use another couple of large coolers and another propane griddle?”

“Man! That would help a lot,” Michael exclaimed. “Coolers would mean that we could stage more food here and not have to shuttle food over from the café. Plus I’m going to need another griddle for cooking veggies and eggs.”

“Okay,” Bobby said, “Let me make a call.”

Several minutes later, Bobby was concluding his call. “You’ll need as many of the crew as you can get your hands on to help set-up. Tell them why we are doing this. I’m willing to bet you won’t have any trouble getting enough help.”


Roswell Municipal Airport
Roswell, New Mexico
9:15 PM EDT, 7:15 PM MDT
Liz, Maria, and Isabel were serving food as fast as the guys could cook it. “What kind of soda do you want?” Isabel asked of one fire fighters who had his hands full of food.

“Cherry Coke if you have it,” he replied gratefully. “Can I get an extra for later?”

“Here’s a cold one,” Isabel replied, placing the can inside the man’s elbow. “We’re going to be here as long as you guys are. Why don’t you grab another one before you go back? That way it will still be cold.”


A senior airman thanked the crew for her meal of lasagna, garlic bread, and salad. “This is great,” she gushed. “Usually we get stuck with nothing but cheese burgers. It’s nice to have something normal for a change.”

“Hey Wilcox,” a staff sergeant taunted while shoving a cheese burger into his mouth. “You don’t know what you’re missing. Beef from a cow, real cheese, sliced tomato and grilled onions. This is nothing like the sliders the garrison cooks serve.”

“What’s a slider?” Michael asked with interest, while rolling sausages and grilling peppers with onions.

“What is a slider?” the sergeant waxed philosophical. “That’s a question we would all like to know.” He looked at Michael. “It’s a mystery meat patty cooked to a neutral shade of gray, covered with a slice of fall out shelter cheese that defies the laws of physics by being unmeltable and sliced so thin you can read a news paper through it. This gastronomical delight is served all greasy and lukewarm on a cold roll that is so stale a soup kitchen would throw it out, but in the middle of the night, when you’re cold, hungry, and there isn’t anything else, they slide down so easy. If you hit the mess hall away from normal meal times, you’ll get sliders.”

“Well if you like my cheese burger,” Michael said with a smile. “You’ve got to try my sausage and pepper sub the next time you’re hungry.”

“Next time?” the veteran asked. “What’s wrong with right now?”

“Swenson, you’re a pig,” Wilcox taunted.

“Hey, salad eater, I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you have,” he replied. “The last time I got deployed I didn’t get a decent meal for days. You have to got to learn three things. Eat whenever there’s food in front of you. Sleep every time you get five minutes of peace and quiet, and don’t hustle too hard because you’re only going to end up waiting.”

Jeff entered the kitchen as the two airmen went to find a place to sit, Swenson with a sausage and pepper sub in one hand, and a slider in the other. Jeff looked around as Liz and Michael filled him in on their progress.


“Man these tents are awesome,” Michael commented. “This is perfect. The front half is open for cooking and serving, while the back half has walls for a storage area and break room. Then they set up a second tent without walls for a seating area.”

“Yea, I knew Bobby would take care of you,” Jeff commented as he turned to his daughter. “You have the bread delivery?” he asked.

“Yea, enough to get through breakfast,” Liz answered efficiently. “They promised to come back tomorrow morning to see what we’ll need after that.”

“Chavez Restaurant Supply dropped off everything we could ask for,” Michael filled in, “And they also promised to be back tomorrow.”

“Have you got enough refrigeration?” Jeff asked with concern.

“Yea,” Liz responded. “Between the coolers from the country club and the ice that the Coke bottling plant dropped off, we’re all set.”

“Drinks?” Jeff concluded.

“Coke’s been great,” Michael explained. “They dropped off six of those big can looking coolers, and fifty cases of soda, water, and juice.”

“Propane?” Jeff challenged.

“The co-op called,” Michael answered. “Kyle went over and picked up six spare bottles of propane.”

“I’ve never seen so much ice,” Liz agreed. “Enough to keep all of the food cold, and to cool down the drinks.”

“If it gets any hotter tomorrow, you’ll need all of that and more,” Jeff mused, scratching his chin. “I’ll call them and have them come back before lunch time tomorrow.”

“Dad, we’re all set,” Liz implored. “We’re staying open all night, and we’ve already got breakfast planned out.”

“How about your personal needs,” he asked. “I don’t want to go home and sleep in a comfortable bed and then find out you were cold all night.”

“Dad,” Liz moaned. “Unless you haven’t noticed, over the past year we’ve become very good at camping and taking care of ourselves. We’ve all brought spare clothing and sleeping bags. We’ll be fine.”

Jeff walked towards his car, accompanied by his daughter. “Dad?” Liz asked softly. “Can we afford all of this?”

“Don’t worry about that Pumpkin,” he said with a smile. “Everything’s been donated. As soon as people found out that we were working to help New York and Washington they offered everything we needed.”


Roswell Municipal Airport
Roswell, New Mexico
10:40 PM EDT, 8:40 PM MDT
Isabel noticed Charles waiting in line and she went out to get him. “Come on Pops,” she teased. “Friends of the cooks get to come into the kitchen.”

He looked around the cooking and serving area. “Wow!” he exclaimed. “We should hire you guys full time. This is one class act.”

“We still have a bit of Lasagna left,” Maria offered.

“That will be great,” Charles replied. “I’m getting too old for cheese burgers.”

Alex cleared a spot for him to sit while Maria cut him a portion of Lasagna. Isabel made him a second plate with salad and garlic bread.

“How did you manage this?” he asked.

“Mr. Parker runs the chaffing dishes over from the Crashdown,” Liz explained, “The rest Michael and crew cook here.”

Charles turned towards his ‘children.’ “Did you check on your mother?”

“Yea Pops,” Alex replied. “We called her before she left work.”

“Mom insisted that she come over to our house for dinner since she was going to be alone,” Isabel continued, “Then they decided she would spend the night.”

“Oh, Thank-you,” Charles exclaimed, as Michael handed him a steaming cup of coffee. He turned to Alex, “They’re keeping Taylor down at the Central Station,” he said softly. “There’s more to do there,,, to keep her busy. They have better communications there also.”

“Have they heard anything about her father?” Alex asked hesitantly.

“It doesn’t look good,” Charles answered quietly. “They believe he was in the South Tower when it came down.”

Maria and Liz served several airmen while the rest sat quietly as Charles finished his meal. Finished, he turned to his young teens. “So tell me, how are you two doing on your Albuquerque arrangements?”

“We met with Miss Rikesdale last week,” Alex explained. “I can’t begin to tell you how much better it is dealing with our own state university rather than a big school back east. Ask Izzy about her chemistry class.”

Charles looked at Isabel and raised his eyebrows.

“I’m taking an AP (Advanced Placement) organic chemistry lab,” she muttered. “It’s nothing,”

“Nothing?” Alex gasped. He reached and put his hand on her thigh proudly, “UNM (University of New Mexico) is giving my girlfriend college credit for her AP Chem. class. When she aces it,,,”

“If I ace it,” Isabel interrupted.

Alex turned to her confidently, “When you ace it.” He smiled at her and then turned back towards his father. “It’s like this Pops. The program requires that she gets a minimum of a B,” he explained as he patted her thigh again. “But we all know that she’s going to get at least an A, at which point she keeps that grade and gets college credit for Chem. 132L. (Lab) Having a grade for Chem.132L, she is allowed to test out of Bio. 110 and Chem. 111.

“She’s taking AP Spanish II in high school, which will give her college credit for Spanish 103,” Alex continued, much to his mate’s embarrassment. “Then she can test out of Spanish 101 and 102.

“With her completely testing out of her computer sciences requirements,,,”

“With a lot of help,” Isabel gave credit where due.

“And with her taking Principals of Management 202 at night this semester and her wiping out all of her English requirements next semester,” Alex continued unthawed, “She’s going to start college in the middle of her second year.”

“Stop that,” Isabel said shyly as she slapped Alex gently. “But I have to say that Alex is doing the same thing. He’s knocking prerequisites out left and right.”

“Well I have to get back to work,” Charles sighed, “But I can not tell you both how proud we all are of you.”


Wednesday, September 12, 2001

Roswell Municipal Airport, formerly Walker Air Force Base
Roswell, New Mexico
2:20 AM EDT, 12:20 AM MDT
Isabel scooted over on the cooler to make room for Michael to sit next to her.

“Listen,” Michael started. “Max and I will be able to keep up with things for the next couple of hours, why don’t you two try to get some sleep?”

“Why me?” Isabel responded with irritation. “I can go without sleep just as long as you can. As long as they’re working,,,” she said, pointing to the frantic activity on the hangers apron, “I’ll make sure they have something hot to eat and a fresh cup of coffee.”

“I know you’ll keep up with us, but I also know that he won’t rest until you do,” Michael replied softly as he nodded towards Alex.

“Yea,” she replied, slapping the top of his thigh in thanks. She stood and approached her mate slowly.

Michael watched as she walked away. “Like shooting fish in a barrel,” he said to himself softly.

Alex was at the edge of the area that had been roped off for the canteen. Unaware of the cool night air, he was standing with his hands in the back pockets of his baggies, watching a team of airmen and fire fighters unload hoses, nozzles, and hydrant fittings from a utility truck. A master sergeant was then supervising the loading of this equipment onto type 463-L metal pallets.

A second team, supervised by a senior master sergeant, was crawling over Roswell’s engine, and several of the FEMA SUV’s. He shouted out the maximum dimensions, and the vehicle weight at each wheel to a tech sergeant, who was entering all of this information into a militarized laptop computer.

Isabel stepped up behind him, and draped her arm around his shoulder. “Alex,” she said softly, “Why don’t we try to get some sleep?”

“I’m okay,” he replied. “I want to stay up,,,” Alex shrugged his shoulders helplessly, “In case someone needs me.”

Isabel walked around so she was in front of him, reaching inside of his shirt to rest her hand over his heart. She bent her head down, resting her forehead on his shoulder. “I hate to be a pain in the ass and go all girlie on you,” she said, ashamed. “But I won’t be able to get my beauty sleep unless you’re holding me. Michael will wake you if he needs you,” she added softly.

“Come on them,” Alex decided immediately. “Let me make up a bed for you.” He opened the trunk of the Volvo, and pulled out their sleeping bags and air mattresses. Isabel grabbed their pillows, and followed him to the walled canopy, that had been set up as the break and storage area. Alex unrolled the two air mattresses and pointed at them. “Do you mind? The last time I blew up one of them I got light headed and threw up.”

Isabel laughed as she waved her hand over the mattresses, inflating them and converting them into a single wider one. “Sweetie? Can I give you a word of advice?”

“Sure,” he replied as he unrolled their matching bags and zipped them together.

“The next time you’re getting ready to take a woman to bed,” she teased, raising an eyebrow. “Don’t bring up the fact that you’re afraid you’re going to hurl.”

Alex laughed, “Okay, if you say so,” as he watched her run her hands down her body, giving herself an instant shower and changing her clothing for bed. He was disappointed to see that she had selected a comfortable combination of a sweatshirt and pants. “I guess that considering the surroundings, we have to be modest,” he lamented.

“Modest, yes,” Isabel agreed, but that didn’t stop her from refreshing the strawberry scent in her hair, and adding a little Lady Grace perfume behind her ears. “Hold still a moment,” she commanded as she groomed him and changed his clothing into a soft tee shirt and sleep pants.

As they settled into their sleeping bags, Alex rolled back as Isabel spooned tightly against him. He reached down with his hand and tucked it under her.

“Alex,” she said warningly.

Alex immediately slid his hand higher, so that as she rolled forward his arm crushed her against his chest, while his hand cupped her breast.

“Why do you always insist that I hold you so tightly?” he whispered into her ear. “I would think it’s uncomfortable.”

“Two reasons,” she replied contentedly. “First is because when you hold me tightly I know you will never let me go,,,”

“Never,” he whispered directly into her ear.

“And secondly, because it makes me think of when you will make love to me for the first time, when you will be on top of me, when I will feel your weight as you take me and make me your woman forever.”

“You already are,” he replied, adding a gentle kiss to her neck, just below her ear. “No words and no acts can change that. You’re the only one I ever want, the only one there will ever be for me.”

“Don’t start something you’re not willing to finish,” she said breathlessly. “Go to sleep,” she commanded, adding a burst of power through their connection that put him out like a light.

Isabel was frantically running around the mansion, trying to get everything just right before she entered her mate’s dream, when the doorbell rang. “Oh God, he’s here already,” she gasped. “He’s getting to the point that I don’t even need to invite him into our dreams anymore,” she added as she ran to the door and opened it. “Bon-jour Monsieur,” she said flirtingly.

Alex looked down at his denim cut-off shorts and his tight white wife-beater shirt as the door opened. He held up the plunger that he found in his hand. “I’m a plumber?” he asked with surprise.

“Oui Monsieur,” Isabel replied with a smile, opening the door wide and leading him into the mansion.

Alex almost choked as he got a good look at the french maid’s costume that she was wearing which covered, well, nothing.

Isabel led him to a lush couch, and sat next to him. “Madame is in town today, so I will show you where to lay your pipe, yes?” she said breathlessly. Her teasing turned to concern, as she noticed that he wasn’t reacting to her blatant come-on, in fact he wasn’t reacting to anything at all. “Sweetie?” she asked, her voice laced with love.

“I am so scared,” he replied, his eyes brimming with tears.

“Close your eyes a moment,” she said tenderly. When he reopened his eyes they were back in their comfortable clothing, back in their sleeping bag. But instead of being under a canopy at the noisy airport, they were at Stargazing Rock in Frazer Woods. “Talk to me,” she pleaded softly.

“We’ve been attacked, and as soon as we figure out who did it, they’re going to pay,” he explained as he wiped his eyes. “But I’m afraid this is going to spiral out of control, and my brothers are going to be the ones paying the bill. Jesse’s on the way home from Kosovo, Harry’s already stationed at Aviano Air Force Base in Italy, and Rob’s due for an overseas assignment. The whole Middle East is nothing but a tinderbox waiting for a spark, and I’m afraid this is it.”

“What about your brothers?” Isabel asked softly. “What are they thinking about all this?”

“I imagine they’re tearing their hair out, wanting to get over there and kill somebody, whoever did this to us.”

“But?”

“They’ll do what they’re ordered to do, or die trying,,,” Alex answered with a tremor in his voice. “But it’s our job, the rest of us to make sure their sacrifice is worth it,” he concluded, near breaking down.

Isabel ignored the noise and smells of the flight line, while she rolled over to face him. She pulled him tight against her breast, holding him as his tears seeped through her sweatshirt. She leaned down and kissed the top of his head, wishing that she could tell him that everything would be alright. But this time, such an assurance was not within her ability to give.


Roswell Municipal Airport
Roswell, New Mexico
6:20 AM EDT, 4:20 AM MDT
Max and Michael watched as a dark blue Air Force bus pulled onto then flight line, and a number of airmen and NCOs (non-commissioned officers, sergeants) filed off. While the airmen broke up into groups, one approached the canteen.

“Who’s in charge here?” Chief Senior Master Sergeant Suzette Goings asked.

Max pointed to Michael, “He is.”

“Me?” Michael stammered in amazement.

“You’re the cook,” Max responded, “Unless you want me to go wake Liz?”

Michael took a step forward and held out his hand. “I’m sorry we don’t seem too organized. This was all thrown together pretty quickly.”

“Don’t worry about that,” the woman replied. “There’s a lot of that going on today.” She took off her hat, revealing short raven hair. “How does this work?” she asked, waving her hand at the serving area. “I don’t have any vouchers or travel orders.”

“You don’t need any,” Michael replied. “We’ll feed anyone who is here to help out.”

“No charge? I left my American Express card at home,” she added skeptically.

“No charge,” Michael confirmed. “The food, supplies, and labor have all been donated.”

“Thank-you,” she said with a smile. “Sometimes when we get a rush mission like this the little things like food and porta-johns fall by the wayside.”

“Can you give us some idea of what’s happening,,,” Max interrupted.

Seeing the sergeant’s face cloud over, Michael cut in, “So we can order food and stuff.”

“I guess that’s reasonable,” she answered. “I’m the load master for the aircraft that will be picking up this property.” She pointed towards the aircrew that had just exited the bus. “We just spent ten hours on the bus, and now we’re going to prepare the cargo. There’s forty of us, we’re expecting thirty five passengers, plus whatever personnel you already have on hand.”

“Okay, we’ll,” Michael calculated quickly. “We’ll kick things into full gear, and get you folks some breakfast.”

“When will you be ready for us?” the sergeant asked.

“We’ve been serving a steady stream all night,” He replied, as he lit the rest of the equipment, “But we’ll be ready to give everyone a sit down breakfast in about an hour.”

“Great,” she replied with a smile. “Oh-Five Thirty. That’s pretty nominal for us.”

“Alex, Liz,” Michael called into the back of the tent. “Time to get up. We have a lot of hungry people out here.”

“We’re up,” Alex replied for the group.

“What time is it?” Maria moaned.

“Oh-Dark Thirty,” Alex teased, while looking at his watch.

“What does that mean in real people speak?” Maria asked, while throwing a shoe at him.

“Four Thirty,” he replied while rolling his and Isabel’s sleeping bags.

“This is way too early,” Maria mumbled, sticking her head outside. “It’s still the middle of the freaking night for Christ sakes.”

“You only say that because you don’t have to get up to light the griddles,” Liz teased, throwing a pillow at her friend.

“Give me your tee shirt,” Isabel asked of Alex.

“My tee, why?” Alex replied.

“Because you’ve been wearing it, it’s still warm, and it smells like you,” she explained with a smile. “I want to wear it.”

Alex handed her the tee but watched as she rummaged through her bag. “Now what are you looking for?” he asked.

Isabel laid a clean bra on the top of her pile of stuff. I want a minimizer,” she replied as she waved her hand, changing the garment.

“What’s a minimizer?” Alex asked innocently.

Isabel stood, and turning towards her mate asked, “Are you trying to tease me in front of our friends?”

“No,,,” Alex said, with confusion, looking for help. “I really don’t know.”

“Don’t ask us,” Liz laughed as stuffed her sleeping bag into it’s compression sack. “We certainly don’t need one.”

“Yea,” Maria agreed while letting the air out of her mattress. “Mother nature already minimized us.”

Alex looked at his mate and raised his eyebrows in question.

“A minimizer flattens my chest. It makes me look like a small B, instead of a C.” Isabel explained, but noticing his look of confusion she continued, “I want to downplay things today.”

Alex picked up their stuff and headed for the door opening while still teasing his mate, “Minimizer bras, push-up bras, plunge bras, as much as you move them around it’s amazing they can still look so good.”

“Yea Whitman,” Isabel teased back. “Fondling, nibbling, sucking, it’s amazing you haven’t worn them out yet.”

Liz and Maria both started hooting while Alex turned red and ducked outside.

Isabel started to change but stopped when she noticed that both her friends were looking at her. “Don’t look at me like that!” she demanded. “He started it,,,”


Roswell Municipal Airport
Roswell, New Mexico
8:30 AM EDT, 6:30 AM MDT
Alex’s eyebrows shot up as he noticed two heavily armed men approach the serving area. On top of their ‘chocolate chip’ BDU’s, (desert camouflaged Battle Dress Uniforms) they were wearing LBE’s (Load Bearing Equipment vest) with attached canteens, radio’s, night vision devices, and extra ammunition. The airmen were armed with holstered M9 service pistols, and they were carrying M-4 carbines (a shorter and lighter derivative of the M-16 with a collapsing stock) on three-point slings across their chest.

“I’m going to go rearrange the sodas,” Isabel declared, as she burrowed back into the tent.

Alex looked over to Liz and Maria and nodded his head towards the tent, and was grateful when he saw them go in to take care of his girlfriend. He then turned towards Michael, who was hard at work on the grill. “What are the sky cops doing here?” he asked under his breath.

“Something flew in during the middle of the night,” Michael answered with a tremor in his voice. “I think it was two small planes. Whatever they were is parked on the other side of that hanger. These guys must be over there guarding the planes, because that’s where they came from.”

“Nervous?” Alex asked cautiously.

“No, not really,” Michael asked sarcastically. “I love standing here watching the manifestation of every nightmare I’ve ever had walking over here.”

The sky cops stopped in front of the serving area. Before Alex could react, Michael stepped forward.

“Gentlemen,” Michael asked solicitously. “May I offer you some breakfast?”

“Do you have any coffee?” one of the men asked. “I’m freezing.”

Max poured him a fresh cup then asked, “Half & half? Sugar?”

“Awww man, you’re a lifesaver,” the man answered. “Black, and as hot as you can make it.”

“Campbell here didn’t believe me when I told him it gets cold in the desert at night,” the other guard deadpanned.

By the time the second sky cop had his coffee, Michael had a bacon and cheddar omelet ready for the first man, who started shoveling it into his mouth.

“Come on Glendening,” the first guard called out. “There’s six more who want to get something to eat.”

Before either Max or Michael could say a word, the two men were on the way back to their post with handfuls of water bottles and sliders.


Roswell Municipal Airport
Roswell, New Mexico
9:10 AM EDT, 7:10 AM MDT
Tech Sergeant Evelyn Jones was spooning eggs onto her plate while carrying on a conversation with several airmen. “I’m just telling you, when we get back to Kelly, get your affairs in order.”

“Why’s that,” a younger airman asked.

“Because this is your generation’s Pearl Harbor,” she explained. “I don’t know how or where yet, but I bet my next stripe that Uncle Sam is going to reach out and whack someone, and our FRED’s are going to be right in the middle of it.” (The C5 program was credited during the 60’s with coining the term ‘cost overrun’ resulting in the affectionate nickname FRED: Fantastic Ridiculous Economic Disaster.)

“No way Sarge,” the younger airman implored. “We’re the Air Force. We don’t fight here, we go over to their country and drop a whole shit load of hurt on them.”

“Man I don’t need this right now,” the older of the two airmen complained. “I joined the reserves to put my kids through college, not to go to war.”

“Your son graduated last summer, right?” the sergeant asked.

“Yea,” the airman replied.

“Well you got paid, now it’s time to earn it,” she replied dryly.


Roswell Municipal Airport
Roswell, New Mexico
9:34 AM EDT, 7:34 AM MDT
Maria looked up at the airman who had stopped at the end of the table. “Can I help you?” she asked.

“Can you tell me where I can find a phone?” the young woman asked.

“Ahhmm,” Maria muttered as she looked around.

“Sergeant?” Alex asked.

“I’m looking for a phone,” the nervous woman repeated. “We can’t leave the flight line,,,”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Alex pulled his cell from his belt and handed it to her.

“Sir,” she said hesitantly. “I need to call New Hampshire. It’s a long distance call.”

“That’s okay,” Alex replied. “I have one brother in Aviano (Air Force Base, Italy) and another on the way home from Kosovo. I would like to think someone would lend them a phone if they needed one.”

“Thank you,” she replied as she stepped around the corner of the tent and dialed.

“Hi Mommy,” Staff Sergeant Daigle said tenderly into the phone.

“Karen,” her mother replied. “Where are you? We tried to call you back and they told us that you had been mobilized.”

“We’re in New Mexico Mom,” she said softly. “We’re going to be sending some help to New York and Washington. Is Mary alright,” she asked, on the verge of tears.

“We still haven’t heard from her,” the mother replied, her tears now freely flowing.

“Have you heard anything from United?” she asked carefully.

“No! Nothing,” her mother replied, her tears flowing freely now. “Not from Mary, not from the airline, not from the airport.”

The sergeant took a deep breath. “I’m sure she’s fine Mom, this is a case where no news is good news.”

“Daigle!”

The sergeant, upon hearing her name concluded the call, “Mom, I have to get back to work, I’ll call you as soon as I can. I love you. Bye.”

“Sergeant!” Alex said to the woman as she gave his phone back. “If anyone needs to call their family, you send them over to me, okay?”

“To any one of us,” Isabel agreed, wrapping her arm around his shoulder.

“I’ll tell them,” the sergeant said with appreciation. “Thank you” she said before grabbing a cup of coffee and running back to work.


Roswell Municipal Airport
Roswell, New Mexico
9:50 AM EDT, 7:50 AM MDT
Alex carried a fresh chaffing dish of sausage, ham and bacon over to the serving line. Isabel saw him coming and removed the almost empty dish from the chaffing frame, making room for him.

“Thanks beautiful,” Alex quipped as he put the dish in place.

“Alex, look at me,” she said with exasperation as she served several fire fighters. “I’m standing here, no make-up, my hair in a bandana, and I’m wearing your day old MIT tee shirt.”

Alex stopped and looked right at her. “Right the first time, beautiful.”

Maria watched this exchange with a smile on her face, but she was thunderstruck when she felt Michael quickly hug her shoulders from behind and kissed her neck. “She ain’t the only one,” he added passionately.


Roswell Municipal Airport
Roswell, New Mexico
10:00 AM EDT, 8:00 AM MDT
Isabel looked over and saw another pair of armed Air Force personnel sitting in the eating area, their carbines close by on the table next to them. She noticed to her surprise that one of the guards was a woman. Isabel filled a carafe with coffee, took a deep breath, and then approached the pair.

“Can I offer you a refill?” Isabel asked tentatively.

Like the well-trained personnel they were their first concern was to the security of their weapons, but then they gratefully accepted her offer.

Isabel refilled their cups, and then stood there uncomfortably.

The Staff Sergeant Barbara Lemlin met her eyes. “Is there anything else?”

“Yea,” she said hesitantly. “I mean, who are you guys?” she asked, looking at their weapons. “I’m so sorry,” Isabel gasped. “That was so incredibly rude of me.” She turned to walk away.

“No, no, that’s okay,” Sergeant Lemlin called out. She pulled out the chair next to her and motioned for Isabel to join them. “I guess it’s quite a shock to see us here.”

“One of many,” Isabel replied truthfully.

“We’re with the Forty Ninth Security Forces Squadron from Holloman Air Force Base,” (about 125 miles, or 200 Km south-west of Roswell) the young woman advised. “We’re here to provide force security for the air operations.”

“Is this what you do every day?” Isabel asked, her curiosity piqued.

“No, rarely anything this exciting,” the second airman explained. “We’re responsible for protecting the squadrons aircraft, which are F-117 Stealth Fighters, as well as other assets at the base.”

“During a normal day we provide police protection to the base and security forces for the equipment,” Sergeant Lemlin continued. “We go to the schools and provide DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) training to our children, as well as any side assignments that we may be tasked with,,,”

“Such as what we’re doing here,” the second airman continued.

“How did you end up in the Air Force?” Isabel asked.

“I come from Berlin, a small town in the mountains of New Hampshire,” the sergeant explained. “They closed the paper mills a couple of years ago, and along with those factory jobs, we lost most of the jobs working in the woods. As all those workers had no money to spend, many of the rest of the small businesses started to fail. By the time I graduated high school there was nothing left for me. After a year of looking for work I joined the service.”

“Izzy?” she heard.

“I’m alright Sweetie,” she answered. “I’m just facing my fears.”

“So how did you end up as a sky cop?” Isabel continued.

Sergeant Lemlin laughed softly. “Not many people call us that to our face,” she explained. “We prefer Security Police.”

“I seem to keep putting my foot in my mouth,” Isabel said, embarrassed.

“Is this the first time you’ve talked to anyone from the military?” Sergeant Lemlin asked.

“Yea,” Isabel admitted. “I’m sorry, guns scare me. It took me a year to get comfortable talking to the Sheriff, and I’ve known him most of my life.”

“Well you don’t have anything to worry about,” Sergeant Lemlin explained. “We’re here to protect you.”


Roswell Municipal Airport
Roswell, New Mexico
10:10 AM EDT, 8:10 AM MDT
Bob Sanders turned to talk to his companion. “I just got off the phone with Belvoir. (Ft. Belvoir Virginia, right outside of Washington DC, headquarters of the Defense Logistics Agency) They need one of us back there ASAP. Get your stuff together and head out on the plane this afternoon. DLA’s transmitting travel orders directly to the plane. When you get to New York, stay with the plane, take a train to Washington or rent a car, whatever’s faster.”

“Why the hurry?” Rich Perkins asked. “I thought you said everyone was okay?”

“That’s what they told me yesterday,” Bob said with a sigh. “They said everyone in the office was accounted for, but it turns out that Blackway’s wife is missing. She was at Navy Procurement in the Pentagon when it was hit. Carol’s husband was on flight 77.”

“You’re going to have to find someone local and get that inventory finished,” Rich said morosely.

“Where have you been the past two days,” Bob chided. “No one cares about that inventory. We’ve got us a shooting war.”

“Bob,” Rich exclaimed. “You’re not in the Army anymore, you’re in the Civil Service. You can’t just say that a bunch of property is missing because it got ‘blowed up, Sir,’ like you did in ‘Nam. The wheels of government may grind slowly, but they do grind thoroughly. Four years from now some clerk somewhere is going to notice a missing signature on the DTID’s (Disposal Turn In Document) and we’re going to have to come out here and do it all over again.”

“I don’t care,” Bob said with a grin. “There’s too much property, too much of the property is scrap, too many people know it’s scrap but won’t make a decision about what to do with it, and finally, in four years I’m going to be retired.”

“Well,” Rich said, taking his leave. “I’m going to go to the hotel and get my stuff.


Roswell Municipal Airport
Roswell, New Mexico
10:25 AM EDT, 8:25 AM MDT
Firefighter Chris Ambrose stopped by the food tent, catching Isabel’s attention. “I heard that I might be able to make a phone call?”

Isabel looked at her phone, and noticing that her battery was almost dead, she called over to Alex. “What shape is your cell in?”

Alex walked over while pulling his cell. ‘I’ve got juice,” he responded, handing the phone to the fire fighter.

Ambrose looked at Alex and thanked him.

He quickly dialed. “Aunt Hillary? It’s Chris. What happened to Uncle Joe?”

“He’s right here,” the young man’s relative replied. “Do you want to talk to him?”

“Sure.” After a pause he continued, “Uncle Joe! How’s dey hanging?”

“Hey, we’ve been trying to call you for two days,” Joe answered.

“What happened to you yesterday?” Chris asked.

“I got stuck in traffic. I was two blocks away when the plane went into the South Tower, then I spent the rest of the day trying to get home.”

“Uncle Joe,” Chris responded with relief. “Mom always said that you were a day late and a dollar short for everything you’ve ever done, but I never thought that was a good thing.”

“So where are you?” the older man asked again.

“I’m at the airport out here,” the fire fighter replied. “We’re packing our engine onto a plane and coming to the city to help out.”

“Must be a christer of a plane,” the uncle replied.

“So they say, well I’ve got to go,” Chris wrapped it up. “I’ll call you when I get in. I’m sure we’ll have time to get together while I’m out there.”


Roswell Municipal Airport
Roswell, New Mexico
11:45 AM EDT, 9:45 AM MDT
Sheriff Valenti parked his Explorer next to the side of the cook tent.

Alex saw the sheriff and started to call out to Isabel, but he stopped when Jim waved him off.

Isabel noticed him as he walked into the cook area. “Sheriff,” she asked, stepping away from the serving line. Are you going to take me to the community center? I don’t want to be late for the blood drive.”

Jim gently wrapped his arm around her shoulder and led her away from the waiting servicemen. “There isn’t going to be a blood drive,” he said softly.

“But Jim,” she pleaded. “You heard the news. There are thousands of causalities. They need blood.”

“Isabel,” the group’s surrogate father explained softly. “The hospitals are empty. They’ve only found a handful of victims alive. It looks like anyone who didn’t get out before the buildings collapsed,,,”

“Isabel’s face fell as she realized exactly what he was saying.

Jim wrapped her into a warm embrace, and then handed her off to Alex, who led her into the break tent.

One of the fire fighters who had watched this exchange while waiting to be served returned his plate to the pile. “Come on guys,” he said to the others in line. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not hungry anymore.”

“Yea,” an airman agreed, “And we still have a lot of work to do.”


Roswell Municipal Airport
Roswell, New Mexico
12:20 PM EDT, 10:20 AM MDT
Alex took advantage of a pause in the line to go into the stores tent and check on his mate. Despite the fact that they had maintained an open connection, he still wanted to see for himself that she was feeling better.

As Alex entered the back of the tent, Isabel looked up at him, holding up a finger, silencing him. “I’ll be there as soon as I can get a ride,” she said into her recently czechoslovakianly charged cell.

He was pleased to see her acting more like normal.

Isabel ended her call and stepped into Alex’s arms. “I’m still going to the community center, if they don’t need blood, they are going to need money. We’re going to set up a fund raising campaign.” She slid her hand up his chest. “Can I use your car?”

“Sure,” Alex said automatically. “Do you want me to come with you?”

“No,” she said softly. “You still have stuff to do here, but you could do something for me,” she asked, looking at the floor.

“Anything,” he said immediately.

“I want to stay at your house tonight instead of mine,” she asked softly, while rubbing her hand over his heart. “We can change into our jammies and fall asleep on the couch,,,”

Alex could hear her need to do something constructive in her voice, while at the same time her could feel her need to be comforted through their connection.

“I’m sure Gloria would throw a blanket over us and let me rest in your arms,” she explained. “I’m not so sure what my parents would do.”

“Anything else?” Alex questioned.

“Do you think you could keep our connection open?” she whispered.

“As long as you need it,” he promised.


Roswell Municipal Airport
Roswell, New Mexico
12:55 PM EDT, 10:55 AM MDT
Chief Senior Master Sergeant Goings bellowed in a voice that demanded attention. “Listen up everyone. My ride’s going to be here in twenty minutes. Once the ramps are down you have ninety minutes to load, and then we depart at twelve forty-five. That means twelve forty-five. It does not mean twelve forty-six, and if we’re still here at twelve forty-seven, someone’s going to be on sick call getting my foot pulled out of their ass.”

This comment caused a ripple of laughter through the listeners.

”Seriously folks,” she continued, “We’re wheels up in less than two hours. In addition to the jobs you need to do to get us in the air, anyone who is flying with us today should make sure their have their personal effects at hand. For your own comfort, make sure you hit the head, and grab something to eat before you leave. We’re not Southwest, and there will be no peanuts on this flight.”

Continued Next

[KarenEvans]

Really liked this chapter Paul.

You've captured Alex's emotions and feras so well.
I can relate since my brother is an army officer.

The comment on the bras was hilarious :

[Stargazer md]

Roswell Municipal Airport
Roswell, New Mexico
01:10 PM EDT, 11:10 AM MDT
“Look at the size of that thing!” Max exclaimed, as he looked past the end of the runway.

“It’s just hanging there,” Maria agreed, joining the group.

“You can’t even hear it,” Isabel said with wonder.

“It’s still about six miles out,” Alex answered with a laugh in his voice. “When it gets closer it’s going to sound like the biggest vacuum cleaner you’ve ever heard.”

“Vacuum?” Max queried.

“Yea,” Alex answered. “Something about the way they assemble the compressor blades in the engines.”

As the big jet continued down it’s glide slope, seemingly right at them, it looked almost motionless in the sky, while continuing to get bigger. The pod squad, with their enhanced senses were the first to hear the distinctive whine of the four gigantic General Electric engines.

“They call them Hoovers,” Alex added. “Hey,” he asked cheerfully. “Do you want to climb up to the control tower and look up at it’s tail?”

“I don’t think that after what happened yesterday this would be a good time to break into a control tower,” Liz deadpanned.

The pilot lined up on runway two-one, and flared as he crossed the runway’s overrun. He settled the massive craft onto the concrete near the beginning of the runway, which had been specially reinforced to accept the weight of such a large aircraft. The aircraft quickly slowed to taxi speed, enabling it to turn onto the mid-runway ramp, and before anyone could comprehend it, they were staring up at the cockpit.

“It’s as big as a train,” Isabel gasped.

“Are you kidding?” an airman teased. “It takes two railroad tank cars just to hold the fuel it can carry. That’s almost ten truckloads of gas,” he added, shoving a slider into his mouth before hustling back to work.

As soon as the aircraft stopped moving a HMMWV (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, commonly called a HUMVEE) pulled up in front of the aircraft. Four sky cops leapt out of the vehicle and quickly established a security perimeter around the aircraft.

“Our friends are back,” Michael muttered.

The air crew started the auxiliary power units, which were built into the aircraft, located near the main landing gear. As soon as these units were on line, providing air conditioning along with electrical, pneumatic, and hydraulic power to the aircraft, the engines were shut down.

As the teens watched a hatch opened in the side of the jet, and a ladder lowered to the ground. As several airmen scampered up the ladder a set of clamshell doors started to open at the rear of the aircraft. It looked as if the entire underside of the aircraft aft of the landing gear was splitting open, and as the doors opened fully a ramp extended out to the ground. The moment the rear loading ramp stopped moving a crack appeared in the fuselage of the aircraft, starting directly in front of the forward landing gear. The opening widened until it had spread to a point just below the cockpit window, at which point the entire nose of the aircraft pivoted up into the air. A second loading ramp extended from the front of the cargo hold.

“Holy shit,” Michael exclaimed. “You could drive a Mack truck through there.”

“Two, if your careful,” Alex corrected. “During the First Gulf War Pops was at Riyadh when they were unloading several C-5’s. He told me that one had carried two M1-A2 Abrams main battle tanks, while the other was stuffed full with a dozen helicopters. That’s why Pops asked for one when he had to find a way to get all this stuff to New York and Washington.”

“You’re dad ordered this plane?” Maria asked in shock.

Alex leaned over and drew her into a sideways hug. “You’ve known all about the Whitman charm, now you’ve seen the Whitman pull.”

“Po-leeze,” Isabel moaned. “Don’t encourage him.”


Roswell Municipal Airport
Roswell, New Mexico
01:15 PM EDT, 11:15 AM MDT
Chief Master Sergeant Goings handed printed sheets to the other loadmasters and several of the other sergeants. “For those of you who may not do this every day, I downloaded all of the weights and measurements that you have taken for the last two days into the onboard computer. The computer then generated the loading chart which you now have in your hands. Here’s what we’re going to do,” she advised. “I want the Roswell engine loaded first. Who signed off that it’s dry?” she asked, looking at the gathered personnel.

“I did,” a staff sergeant replied. “We dumped all of the water out of the engines booster tank, and we siphoned the diesel tank until it was below a quarter full.”

“The rest of the vehicles?” Goings queried.

“All set Chief,” the same sergeant affirmed.

“Good,” Goings remarked, crossing out an entry on her checklist. “I want the engine centered with it’s front bumper lined up at CB (center of balance) station nine-two-six. That’s the tie down point for pallet position eleven and twelve. Get it chained down. I want the Albuquerque engine four feet behind it, with it’s front bumper at CB station one-two-eight-six, which is pallet position nineteen and twenty. SUV’s three and four go in two wide at CB station one-six-four-six, pallet position twenty-seven and eight. SUV’s five and six go in at CB station one-eight-two-six, pallet station thirty-one and two. Behind the vehicles the pallets of loose equipment will go into pallet position thirty-five and six.

“SUV’s one and two go in front of the Roswell engine,” Goings continued, “Their front bumpers at CB station seven-four-six, pallet position seven and eight, and finally the telecom trailers are to be placed in pallet positions three through six. Pallet positions one and two are empty. I want every piece of equipment secured so well that if the pilot decides to roll the aircraft the dirt on the tires will stay in place.

“Any questions,” Goings challenged. “Good, lets get loaded, grab something to eat, and get in the air.”


Roswell Municipal Airport
Roswell, New Mexico
02:05 PM EDT, 12:05 AM MDT
The teens were passing out food as fast as they could prepare it. The first group to hit the serving live was the firefighters who were getting ready to board the aircraft. Alex had his back to the serving line when he heard his name.

“Taylor,,,” he stammered, not knowing what to say.

“I hear you’re going to ride with the rescue after I’m gone,” she said with a smile, despite the tired look on her face.

“Yea,,,” he started to say. “After you’re gone? You’re not coming back?” he asked, confused.

“No,” Taylor answered, her confidence growing. “I’ve already talked to the local. I’m going back to the five-five. That’s where my family is. I need to be there.” Alex Taylor looked at Isabel, who had come over in response to the feeling of trepidation that she felt through their connection. “Have we met?” Taylor asked.

“I don’t believe so,” Isabel replied, extending her hand. “I’m Isabel Evans.”

“My girlfriend,” Alex added.

Taylor watched the looks that the young couple shared. “Girlfriend, that’s all?” she teased.

“For now,” Alex replied confidently.

Taylor looked at Isabel again. “I’m sure we’ve met before.” She racked her brain as Isabel looked at her with concern. “Naw,” Taylor concluded as a memory popped into her mind of a driving through Roswell in an old fire engine with Alex, his girlfriend, and another brunette teenager on the tailboard. “At least I hope not.”

“I’m sure I would remember any day that I met you,” Isabel said carefully.

“I have something for you Alex,” Taylor said softly. “It’s a name badge, the emblem is Saint Florien, the patron saint of Fire Fighters. This is the same name badge that my father pinned on me the day I graduated the academy.” She turned towards Isabel. “I won’t be here when he is sworn in. Would you pin this on him for me?”

Isabel took a good look at the name badge. It was engraved ‘Alex Whitman, EMT-A’ in bold black letters on a bright gold base. To the left of his name was a pewter fire fighters Florien cross. The cross had an ‘F’ and ‘D’ engraved on the left and right arm of the cross, with the image of Saint Florien in the center. “It’s beautiful,” Isabel commented, raising her eyes to Taylor’s. “I would be honored to pin this on him,” she promised.

Alex turned serious as he looked at his rescuer. “Thank you,” he said with wonder in his voice.

“Don’t mention it,” Taylor replied.

Alex looked at Taylor, “Alex,,,” he began.

Taylor quickly put a finger over his lips, silencing him. “Don’t say it,” she pleaded. Taking a step back, she looked at the group, “I’ve got to get going. I’ve got to go take care of my family.”

“You’re all in our prayers,” Isabel said softly, her eyes moist.

Taylor started back towards the aircraft, but she turned and walked backwards. “Whitman! Don’t be a hero and do something stupid. Make sure you get to go home at the end of your shift.”

“I’ll make sure of that,” Isabel replied, her eyes boring into her mate’s.


Roswell Municipal Airport
Roswell, New Mexico
02:20 PM EDT, 12:20 AM MDT
“Anyone who’s flying out,” Chief Goings shouted, “Grab your food and report to the rear of the plane. NOW!”

There was a brief lull in the serving line as the airmen and fire fighters who were to be passengers on the plane filtered over to the line at the back of the aircraft, but they were quickly replaced by the other personnel who had been loading the aircraft.

“How much longer are you going to be serving?” a staff sergeant asked. “The security police aren’t going to be allowed to leave their post until the planes are wheels up.”

“Well, we’re going to start breaking down as soon as the rush is over,” Liz answered, “But how about we keep the grill open for at least an hour after they’re gone? Will that be long enough?”

“That should be great,” the sergeant replied. “It will also mean that the crew from Kelley will be able to get something to eat before they take their bus back.”


Roswell Municipal Airport
Roswell, New Mexico
02:45 PM EDT, 12:45 AM MDT
The C-5’s engines were screaming as it taxied towards the end of runway three (the departure end of runway two-one), so it was understandable that no one heard the pair of F-16 fighters until they taxied into sight.

“Holy shit!” Max exclaimed. “Are they carrying missiles and bombs?”

“Now we know why the armed guards were here this morning,” Michael joined in.

“No, those are external fuel tanks. They need them to make New York without refueling,” Alex shouted. “But as far as the missiles, there’s something hinky about the wings on the F-16. Normally they fly with a dummy missile on the wingtips to reduce wing flutter.” They all got a better look at the aircraft after they passed by.

“So those are duds?” Michael asked.

“I don’t think so.” Alex turned to the group and pointed to the fighter. “Judging by the color of missiles, they look like war shots.”

“War shots?” Michael continued as the fighters turned onto the runway and rocketed into the sky.

“They are the real deal. The missiles on the wingtips were AIM-9 Sidewinders,” Alex explained. “Heat seekers. When fired they home in on the engine exhaust. Next to them under the wings were a pair of AIM-120 AMRAAM radar guided missiles. Piss those pilots off and they could ruin your whole day.”

“Are you telling me that a little missile like that could blow up something as big as that plane?” Maria asked incredulously, pointing towards the C-5, now at the end of the taxiway.

“No, it’s not like in the movies, where the plane blows up in one big fireball,” Alex replied. “Do you remember when you kicked Malamoot in the knee and he fell, hit his head, and knocked himself out?”

“Yea,” Maria laughed. “Mom taught me that. If you can’t knee them in the balls, kick them in the knee. The knee’s vulnerable, and the bigger the guy the harder they fall.”

“Well it’s the same way with airplanes,” Alex stated, “Although almost everything on a plane is vulnerable. The way it really happens is that the missile flies into or at least close to an engine. When the warhead blows it destroys the engine. When the engine shreds, it rips up the fuel and hydraulic lines, and damages the wing. Maybe it will start a fire, sometimes the main spar is damaged and the wing will fall off. Sometimes the damaged plane can make it back to base, but usually the pilots loose control of the aircraft and it crashes.”

“So the big jets are helpless?” Liz asked.

“Well military transports can pop flares to try to distract a heat seeker,” Alex answered, “Or they can pop chaff to decoy a radar guided missile, but the best defense is to have these guys,” he said, pointed towards the fighters, “Make sure no one ever takes a shot at them.”

“What about passenger jets?” Liz asked.

“Civilian jetliners are defenseless,” Alex sighed. “The only way to protect them is prevention. Keep weapons away from them.”

“And as we learned yesterday,” Max concluded, “You need to keep the bad guys off the planes.”

All conversation came to a stop as the giant transport rumbled past, screaming into the sky. The young couples held hands and comforted each other as they watched the huge jet lift into the empty sky and fly off towards a world that had been changed forever.

TBC


Authors note:
As I promised, much of this story is drawn from true experiences:

While I was in the second grade at Maguire Air Force Base (Southern New Jersey) School No 3, a Chaplain came for the kid at the desk next to me. I think we called him Skippy. I never found out what happened to his father, nor did I get a chance to say good bye to him.

I may have been too young to know what was happening on the news while my father was in Viet Nam, but I remember my mother watching TV and crying.

On Sept 11th I was working for a defense contractor outside of Washington. We learned about the attacks when I looked out the window of my office and found that all work in the plant had come to a stop as employees gathered around radios. Rumors were rampant, as neither the government nor the news media really knew what was going on for quite some time. We gave our employees the option of going home, as there was great confusion about which schools were staying open and which were closing. Throughout the area, parents were stranded in Washington when the Metro system was shut down, and many school children came home to empty houses. It was a long time before things returned to normal in the Washington area, and things never returned to normal at our plant.

My cousin who worked for United Airlines at Boston’s Logan Airport contacted me on Sept. 14th, after three agonizing days of wondering what happened to her. She had been on duty continuously since the crashes, having been pressed into duty assisting the families of the victims, along with the needs of the thousands of stranded passengers.

My co-workers brother-in-law had a morning appointment at the Port Authority offices in the World Trade Center. When the first plane struck he was stuck in traffic in the Lincoln tunnel, and after a harrowing day of closed tunnels and bridges, he was able to make it home to New Jersey safely.

The DoD service which provided two COTR’s (contracting officer’s technical representatives) to my plant did not suffer any direct loss’s on Sept 11th. I did hear however, that two of the services employee’s lost a family member during the attacks.

“Bob’s” words proved prophetic. Due to ‘changing priorities’ the DoD defunded the environmental projects that my company were performing. Just over a year later our company was bankrupt, myself and two hundred employees were out of work.

Thank you
Paul

TBC

[Rim]

more soon please i need another a/i fix.

[KarenEvans]

Update please...where are you Paul?

Miss reading this story.

[Stargazer md]

Gazer Gets the Girl
Part 18 – Hard to Keep a Good Secret Down

Disclaimer: The characters don’t belong to me. If they did, the show would still be on.
Some text is borrowed from the show, I didn’t treat it any worse than the original
writers.
Summary: A&I fun mostly.
Setting: An entirely new S-3
Category: Alex/Isabel with CC
Rating: R


Where were we? Our teens pulled together in the face of a national tragedy, but now they are back to working on their own projects and secrets.

**********
Authors note: This is a work of FICTION! Although current events and public figures may be included in the story for realism, their roles have been FICTIONALIZED. The overall premise of Roswell does not belong to me, and all credit for the story that so many of us have lovingly borrowed does not belong to me, but to the original writers and creators, especially their vision that the government is populated by bad guys.

Please keep this in mind.

Thank you,
Starry
**********

The young couple stood in front of Judge Lewis’ desk. Isabel reached for Alex’s hand, sensing his nervousness.

The Judge rummaged through his desk, momentarily forgetting what he was looking for. To mask his confusion, he stopped and looked at the couple in front of him. “This is rather spur of the moment, don’t you think? Have you talked it over?”

“Yes we have,” Alex declared, holding Isabel’s hand tightly as she looked up at him.

“And your parents?” the Judge continued, “You’ve discussed this with them? You are quite young.”

“As my father says,” Alex explained, “It’s not so much your age, as that the time is right. With everything that has happened the past several days, I,,,” he looked at his mate, “We, feel that I need to do this.”

“And your parents are?” the Judge asked, looking around.

“Not here. Like you said,” Isabel replied quietly. “It’s kind of short notice. Work, you know,,,”

“Well, any witnesses?” Judge Lewis continued as he pulled a book from his drawer and tossed it on top of his desk. Isabel saw that it was a Gideon’s bible from the local Best Western hotel.

“No, just the two of us,” Isabel responded dryly. “Is that going to be a problem?”

Judge Lewis heard the note of irritation in Isabel’s voice, and remembering that she was still holding a multi-million dollar lawsuit over his head from that whole foolish Hanson thing, he decided to get on with things. “Well young man,” the Judge gushed in his most accommodating voice, “Like everything else in life, the paperwork has to be done. If you’ll just sign here, and Miss Isabel, if you’ll sign just below him.” The judge then took the document, added his own signature with a flourish, and then embossed it with the Official Seal of the City of Roswell. “Now there’s nothing left but to make this official.”

Isabel let out a loud sigh, but her spirits noticeably brightened as she turned to her mate and saw the huge smile on his face.

“I hope you don’t mind if we keep this casual, I can’t seem to find the text for the ceremony,” Judge Lewis mumbled. He continued in a much more conspirational tone, “Not many people choose to do this at City Hall, you understand.”

“Anything,” Alex answered cheerfully. “So long as it’s official.”

“Then if you’ll raise your right hand,” the Judge commanded, as he himself rose to his majestic height of five foot four, “Do you promise and affirm to support and obey the policies and procedures of the City of Roswell Fire Department?”

“I do,” Alex boomed out.

“Congratulations,” the Judge bellowed, as he sank into his chair winded after completing such a strenuous activity. He reached up, offering his hand. “Please allow me to be the first to shake the hand of Roswell’s newest fire fighter.”

“No way!” Isabel demanded. “That honor is something I’ll keep to myself,” she added as she pulled her mate to face her, took his face in her hands and planted a kiss on his astonished mouth that left him breathless. Before the Judge could react, Isabel took him by the hand and dragged him from the room.

**********
The previous evening, Gloria had caught Isabel coming out of Alex’s room,,,

“Oh no!” one of the few people Isabel fears declares. “You are not going down stairs wearing that.”

Isabel gave her a pleading look, to no avail.

“I know that you’ve spent the last two days at the airport, and I understand that you’re still upset about everything that has happened this week, that’s why I’m going to allow your little plan of yours to fall asleep on the couch together.” Gloria could not help but smile at the look of shock on her charges face as her scheme had been found out. “But his tank top has way too much arm hole, and not enough front coverage,” Gloria explained. “I’ll give you a choice. Either put something on under that, or change into something else of his.”

Isabel quickly ran into his room and moments later came back out wearing one of his short sleeve button down shirts. She stopped for inspection.

“That’s much better,” Gloria stated. “Five buttons buttoned,” she commanded

“Two,” Isabel countered, ready for long term negotiations.

Alex’s mom cast an appraising look at the fit of the shirt. “Three,” but when she saw Isabel’s face light up, she added, “And the collar buttons don’t count.”

Isabel’s face fell. “Am I that bad?” she asked softly.

“Oh no,” Gloria replied instantly. “I’ve never thought of you as bad. Dangerous maybe,” the experienced parent added with a smile. “Every woman wants to be thought of as dangerous at least some of the time,” she teased the younger woman.

“I’ve never felt this way about anybody except Alex,” Isabel whispered passionately.

“Just what every mother wants to hear,” Gloria sighed, as she struggled to refrain from rolling her eyes. “Well I know that the two of you must be exhausted, so go downstairs now and make sure you mute the TV. You don’t want to wake Charles. I’ll be down in an hour or so with a blanket after you both have had a chance to fall asleep.”

“Thanks Gloria,” Isabel said cheerfully, kissing the older woman on the cheek before bounding down the stairs.

Gloria added one parting comment, “And Isabel, the button on the pocket doesn’t count either.”

“Damn, how does she do that?” Isabel mumbled as she passed out of earshot.

Gloria just chuckled to herself as she went into her own room.

**********
“Wake up Sweetie,” Isabel teased as she tickled him awake.

“Huh?” Alex mumbled.

“Come on, get dressed,” Isabel commanded. We have a lot of things to do today and we both have classes tonight. It’s time to get started.”

Alex stood up, scratched himself, and then looked out the living room window. “It’s still freaking dark out!”

“Yea. And your point is?” Isabel questioned, as she headed towards the stairs.

“My point is,” Alex sighed, “Why aren’t we on the couch all cuddled up?”

“Because you’re taking me to Albuquerque shopping,” Isabel responded with a flirty smile. “Now get upstairs and take a shower, just be quiet about it, I don’t want to wake your parents.”

“I must be in love with a space alien,” Alex sighed. “Shopping in the middle of the night.”

“Nope,” Isabel teased. “Just a normal girl who knows that you have to get there early for the best selections. Now get moving unless you need me to wash your tushie.”

“I don’t think so,” Alex answered reasonably. “If we shower together we won’t get anything done.”

**********
Several hours later, Isabel looked at the salesman and poured on the intimidation. “I want him to have the best protection that is available. The Second Chance web site listed you as a dealer, that’s why we’re here.”

“I understand your concern,” the salesman replied. “But normally EMT’s (Emergency Medical Technicians) don’t need the level of protection you’re asking for.”

Isabel reached into her bag and pulled out the front ballistic panel from the vest Alex was wearing the night he was shot and threw it down on the counter. “If he wasn’t wearing this the last time he was out on an emergency call he wouldn’t be here today.”

The salesman picked up the panel and examined it carefully. “This is a Zylon panel. I’m surprised he was wearing this at all,” the salesman replied. “These panels have been recalled due to the fact that they are no longer effective.”

“What!” Isabel demanded.

“This panel is made by one of our competitors,” the salesman explained carefully. The Zylon fibers used in the ballistic panels have experienced serious degradation long before the garments reach the end of their service life. To be blunt,” the salesman continued, “As they age they loose their ability to stop a bullet.”

“Well how in hell am I supposed to know that!?” Isabel exclaimed, barely able to contain her temper. “He’s not going out there unless he has the best protection that money can buy.”

The salesman snuck a quick look at Alex while absorbing Isabel’s rant. He was hard put to not smile when he saw Alex shrug and hold his hands up helplessly.

“Ma’am,” the salesman continued. “It’s plain to see that you went onto the Internet and researched the issue. That’s more than most officers do. I assume you have already decided on the Monarch?”

“Yes,” Isabel replied. “Threat level III-A, with extended coverage.”

“Okay Alex,” the salesman replied. “Let me get a Cool-Max carrier, we’ll check the fit, and once we know what size carrier you need I’ll install the correct ballistic panels.”

(Authors note: Modern bullet resistant vests are more a system than a garment. They start with a carrier, or vest-like garment that has several pockets into which the actual bullet resistant panels are inserted. The panels are rated for different threat indexes, meaning the size and speed of the bullet they are designed to stop. This modular construction allows the carrier to be laundered without exposing the panels to water and detergents, thereby extending the life of the system.)

Isabel studied the salesman as he assembled the vest, and then watched with amusement as Alex performed a series of bending and stretching exercises. “Why are you making him do all that?” she asked with a grin on her face.

“For the same reason you came here instead of ordering a system from the web site,” the salesman explained. “If it doesn’t fit right or if he doesn’t wear it because it is uncomfortable, it won’t protect him.”

Alex finished his fitting and as the salesman packaged the vest he cautioned, “Now make sure you are wearing this when you are fitted for your uniforms. Our Roswell branch store will be able to provide you with everything else that you’re going to need.”

Alex finished putting his shirt back on, and then turned to Isabel, who quickly stepped in to adjust his collar. “I don’t know about you,” she muttered. “When will you ever learn to dress yourself.”

“Never,” he whispered softly.

**********
On the drive back to Roswell Isabel noticed Alex scratching his chest again. She reached out and slapped his hand away. “How many times do I have to tell you to stop scratching yourself?”

“You know something?” Alex teased. “You’re right. There’s something much better to scratch,” he added as he settled his hand on her knee.

“Al-ex!” she yelled, grabbing his hand, and stopping him from reaching up her skirt. “It’s the middle of the day! We’re on the middle of the highway! Someone will see!” she whined.

“Izzy, we’re in the middle of the desert, and there isn’t another car in sight,” he confidently countered.

Isabel held his hand to prevent any further progress while he started to caress the soft skin that he could reach. “Sweet-ie,” she moaned.

“Are you saying no to me?” he challenged. “My mate, the take me anytime, anywhere, I’ll never say no to me, Alien Princess is saying no?.”

“Aaaggghhh,” Isabel moaned in frustration.

**********
Meanwhile, at the Tidal Basin overview at the Jefferson Memorial, Washington DC.
Robert Mueller (Director of the FBI) nodded to his bodyguard and then stomped over to a park bench on the river. He sat heavily next to the man who was already there. “I don’t appreciate being summoned like some errand boy. I have a lot going on right now, and I don’t have time for this shit.”

Michael Hayden (Lt. General, US Air Force, Director of the NSA) shrugged, visibly uncomfortable in civilian attire. “I don’t care what you appreciate. Needless to say this meeting never took place.”

“Haven’t you learned your lesson yet?” Mueller taunted. “The days of inter agency secrets are over.”

“I’m glad you feel that way,” Hayden replied. “Because you’re running an operation out west that I want terminated now.”

“And what’s that?” Mueller responded with disdain.

“Your special unit, the alien hunters,” Hayden replied, staring the other man down.

“What special unit,” Mueller bluffed. “They were disbanded after the Whitaker hearings.”

“Fine,” Hayden stated coldly. “Then you won’t object when I have their bodies delivered to your office,” he said flatly as he stood to leave.

“Wait!” Mueller protested.

Hayden sat back down.

“Why do you care what four rouge agents are doing in New Mexico?” Mueller muttered. “I took this post less than two weeks ago, and I have so many things going on right now that some of the little things need to be allowed to fall through the cracks.”

“Don’t tell me that,” Hayden challenged, “You’re no virgin. You came out of operations, and you know a lot more than you’re letting on.”

“Listen,” Mueller said reassuringly, “Over the past forty years these aliens, or whatever they are, have been connected with seven deaths,,,”

“Seven deaths over forty years? Are you guys all brain damaged? Are you smoking all the crack you’re confiscating?” Hayden asked incredulously, “During the last forty days we’ve had eight murders just in Lafayette Park! (Across the street from the White House in Washington DC.) I don’t see any extraordinary concern about that, and need I remind you that murder is not a federal crime? Leave it to the local authorities.”

“None of that means we should ignore the fact that something is going on out there,” Mueller rebutted, his temper rising.

“No!” Hayden snapped. “I’m going to tell you what you can’t ignore. We recorded a cell phone call last Sunday that didn’t get processed until Tuesday morning, just after the Pentagon was hit. Knowledge that could have warned us about the attacks if we had the information just one day sooner. Why didn’t we get it in time? Because while we may have the best super computers in the world, our analyst have ten year old PC’s on their desks and an E-Mail system that won’t let them talk to each other efficiently.”

Hayden stood up and began to pace in front of his fellow conspirator. “I have a two billion dollar (1.6 billion euro) appropriation for new computing equipment, and I’m not going to put one penny of that money at risk because your guys step on their dicks and embarrass the entire intelligence community.”

“What do you want me to do?” Mueller asked subdued.

“End it. Now!” Hayden commanded. “I want to see those agents reassigned tomorrow.”

“The head of that unit is a real hard case,” Mueller complained. “I don’t know if I can reign him in that fast.”

“Do you want me to take care of him for you?” Hayden asked coldly.

“Maybe you better,” Muller stated, sealing the man’s fate. “But tell me,” Mueller commented, warming to the subject. “How did you get that much money.”

“We’ve been working on this project for three years,” Hayden replied honestly. “And after Tuesday, Congress is going to have their backs against the wall trying to placate the public with projects, some real and some imagined, to make them feel protected. You should put your hand out while they are willing to spend,” he advised as he got up, waved to his men, and started back towards his limo.

“You know,” Mueller couldn’t resist a parting shot. “The Air Force doesn’t have clean hands.”

“What’s the matter?” Hayden taunted. “You don’t think I have the balls to clean my own house? Eagle Rock is BRAC’ed (Base Realignment and Closure) as of this morning. There will be nothing left to that base by Christmas. The government is out of the alien hunting business once and for all.”

**********
Alex smirked as he crossed the Chaves County line, indicating that he was about fifteen minutes from home. ‘Thank God,’ he thought. He had spent the last several hours playing thigh guitar and his hand was getting tired and cramped. Isabel, on the other hand, had spent the past hour berating his technique along with many loud and innovative insults against Alex, his parents, all of his predecessors in general, his ancestors by blood in particular, with the entire human race thrown in for good measure, along with repeated pleadings that he go “Just a little higher and to the right."

“You know Isabel, Sweetheart, love of my life, owner of the only naughty places I am ever going to have any fun with,” Alex teased. “I would love to go higher and to the right, but your panties are in the way.”

“Is that all?” Isabel wailed as she reached down and tore the overheated and sodden garment from her body. She lowered the window and threw it out into the desert. “Why didn’t you say that two hours agooooo,” she moaned as her mate went back to work.

Alex, on the other hand, had his smirk back.

**********
Several hours later, as Isabel dragged Roswell’s newest firefighter from the Judges office, she could barely contain herself. “I need you right now,” she panted almost chewing a hole in the side of his neck. “You don’t know how much those two little words turned me on.”

“What two words,” Alex gasped out, desperately struggling to maintain a modicum of control. “Fire department?”

“I do!” Isabel said breathlessly. The moment I heard you say those words, all I could think of was the day you will make me your wife.” Isabel explained breathlessly. “Take me, mak./e me yours forever!”

“Not in here, you’re not!” Deputy Blackwood exclaimed.

Alex had the good graces to blush while Isabel simply took him by the hand and dragged him out to their car. She practically threw her mate into the passenger seat, and then ran to the other side. Isabel jumped into the drivers seat, gunned the engine, and then slammed the car into gear. “We can’t go to either of out houses,” Isabel reasoned, “And the pod camber is too far. That leaves the quarry.”

“Izzy,” Alex asked cautiously as he snugged his seat belt and grabbed the hand hold, hanging on for deal life as her overwhelming need for him manifested itself in her driving, “What are we doing?”

“I’m taking my mate out to the quarry for a much needed make out session,” Isabel explained. “Any questions?” she added in a tone of voice that did not brook discussion.

“Ahhmm” Alex started carefully. “You do realize that today is Thursday, and that we have classes tonight, in addition to the fact that we need to make up the work we missed while we were at the airport yesterday?”

“If we skip dinner and I use my powers to clean us up before we go out to the college, we’ll have enough time,” Isabel reasoned. “I need some personal time with you.”

“Didn’t we have personal time this morning?” Alex teased. “I mean you were sitting right here when I am right now, at least four times,,,”

“Four times?” Isabel gasped, fanning herself with her hand. “Sweetie,” Isabel said breathlessly in her best Scarlet O’Hara voice, “I was there, and I am sure I would remember four. And besides none of that did anything for you. I promised you while we were in the hot tub in Texas. Whatever you do for me, I’m going to do for you.”

“It’s not about me,” Alex rebutted confidently, “Besides, I know what I heard. “I gave my girlfriend two at the beginning, and two at the end. In fact I was hoping you would hurry up the closer we got to town.”

“On no Sweetie,” Isabel said breathlessly. “That wasn’t two at the end, it was one big one. You know how you like to take me to the edge and keep me there a while? Well this time you took me over the edge and kept me there for half of Chaves County.”

Alex knew better than to say anything. He just sat there with a proud grin on his face.

**********
Maria breezed into the Crashdown and waltzed into the back. “Hey Spaceboy,” she let loose in her own larger than life way, “Command performance.”

“What,” Michael asked, sweeping her into an embrace.

“Dinner with Mom, Saturday night,” Maria explained, milking the brief contact for all it was worth.

“Awww, do we have to?” Michael moaned. “You know how I get when I’m around ‘rents.”

“She’s not one of the parents, she’s my Mom,” Maria countered reasonably. “Are you going to tell her that you’re not coming? I’m not,” Maria quipped as she flounced to the stairs, headed up towards Liz’s room.

“I’ll be there,” Michael groaned out.

**********
After they finished their evening class, Isabel took one look at her tired mate and took charge. She stopped at the Taco Shack on the way out of town, and picked up a half-dozen crunches with chicken, along with nachos and several orange sodas and Cherry Cokes.

When they arrived at Frazier Woods, she instructed Alex to grab the blanket, and then headed to Stargazer Rock. After devouring their food, she settled back against the still warm granite, while she had Alex lie with his head on her thigh. They took simple comfort just from being together.

“Aries will be rising as soon as it’s dark enough,” Alex mentioned.

“I enjoyed the night sky so much more before I learned so much about myself,” Isabel muttered.

“You shouldn’t let the fact that you have been fed a bunch of crap stop you from enjoying anything,” Alex replied offhandedly.

“Me? Crap? What are you talking about?” Isabel snapped.

Alex instantly opened their connection and signaled his love for her, despite his harsh words. But he still felt confident enough to stay in his comfortable position on her leg. “I don’t want to be mean Izzy, but I do need to know why you seem to place so much stock in everything that you have been told by the very people who are trying to kill you.”

Isabel, also confident in their feelings for each other, softened her voice and asked him to continue.

“Well, where do I start,” he pondered. “Lets talk about your home planet. Everything you know about it came from Tess, or a Tess assisted memory. Now I’ve never been to another planet, but I have done a lot of thinking about some of the ‘truth’s’ you have been led to believe, and I seriously think you have been fed a line of crap.”

Isabel didn’t say anything for a moment while she digested his statement. ‘Should I believe what I’ve been told?’ she thought. ‘Look at the problems Tess caused in our relationships. If it wasn’t for Alex and Ava breaking the many mind warps, we never would have learned the truth about Alex and Max.’ “Sweetie,” she asked softly. “Tell me what you’ve been thinking.”

“Here’s the way I figure it,” Alex started. “God wrote the Laws of Nature that allow everything to exist. On Earth, Antar, and throughout the universe. The laws of nature are the same everywhere. Agreed?”

“Un-huh,” Isabel agreed softly. “That sounds right.”

“Good,” Alex said, settling his head back comfortably on Isabel’s luscious thigh. “Lets start with water. Liquid water is the most fundamental compound in the universe. Water is the basis of life, yet in cosmic terms it is so very fragile. It exist in such a narrow temperature range that it is by it’s very nature, rare. Too cold, and it turns to a solid. Too warm and it boils off into space.” Alex looked up towards his mate’s face. “Tess told Max that your water is heavier and thicker than here on Earth.”

“Yea,” Isabel agreed. “He remembered that it was like swimming through Jell-O.”

“Okay, I’m not going to ask where your brother got the Jell-O experience to use for comparison,” Alex said slowly, “But I don’t believe it. Everything alive is made of water. You, me, the grass we’re lying on. Millions of years ago, lightning struck water, and the first amino acids were formed, the first tread of life. That never would have happened if the water wasn’t liquid.

“Then Tess talked about binary suns. Well we know for a fact that they exist, but I doubt that they exist in a solar system with a planetary system,” he continued. “I just don’t believe her.”

“Why?” Isabel asked softly..

Alex turned to look at her in the rapidly fading light, and sent a extra special burst of love through their connection to reassure her that his attack on what she knew about her home planet was not personal. “Izzy,” he said earnestly. I don’t want to take away what little you have about your home world,,,”

“Sweetie,” she replied, “I value your opinions. You are the one person I know I can trust without reservation. If I’ve been told something that isn’t true, I need you to tell me, to set me straight.”

“Well you have to understand that this is just my own opinion,” he said cautiously.

“I hold your opinions in higher regard than most peoples’ facts,” she rebutted proudly. “Please continue,” she added, running her hand through his hair.

“Well, here’s the way I feel about it,” he continued. “Binary stars are two stars that revolve around each other and remain that way because they are trapped in each other’s gravity wells. I have to believe that the region in space around a binary star is wracked by gravity storms that would preclude any planetary system, let alone one that could support life.”

“What’s a gravity storm?” Isabel asked curiously.

“Think about it this way,” Alex continued. “When one of the suns is closest to a planet, the sun’s gravity would be at it’s strongest. As the sun moves away, it’s gravity would get weaker. Then when the suns are equi-distant from a planet, the gravity from the individual suns would be at their weakest, but the planet would be under the influence of both sun’s gravity from two different directions.

“So I don’t think that the changes in gravity would allow a planetary system to develop, let alone to continue to exist. On top of the gravity situation you would also need water. Liquid water is essential for life, but even if it were possible for a planetary system to form around a binary sun, which I don’t think is possible, the surface temperature on the planets would fluctuate too much to allow liquid water to exist

“Okay,” Isabel agreed. “That sounds reasonable. But what about the multiple moons that Max may have seen?”

“Well first, there is the Tess factor,” Alex said with a sigh. “For some strange reason I don’t trust anything she said. But I also don’t think life could exist on a planet with multiple moons, for the same reason. The effects of lunar gravity on liquid water. As the moons revolve at different speeds, the tides would go crazy. You would have tides of differing heights as the moons changed position in relation to each other, and you would have devastating costal flooding when the moons align.

“So, none of what I was told is true,” Isabel sighed.

“I don’t think so,” Alex said cautiously. “But you do have Aries.”

“Aries Technologies, your company?” she teased.

“Aries Technologies, OUR company,” he emphasized. I would never have tried this without your support. There are thousands of people who can write code, but not many of them can successfully make money at it.”

Isabel stroked his hair again.

“I mean Aries, the constellation, from the map on the cave wall, although I believe Venus has nothing to do with it,” Alex continued, settling back onto her soft thigh. “Whoever told you that you had crossed seven galaxies to get here was pulling your leg.”

“But the “V” constellation? it’s real?” Isabel asked hopefully.

“Show me Cygnus,” he commanded of the moonless inky sky.

“Help me here,” Isabel pleaded.

He pointed almost straight up. “You can’t find it? Do I need to get you glasses?” he teased.

“No, I can’t find it, not without a bit of help,” she answered. “My alien night vision is so superior to your primitive human vision that I have trouble picking the constellations out of the sky. There are just too many other stars,” she concluded, unable to keep the laughter from her voice.

Alex found this admission interesting. “How many stars do you see?” he asked curiously.

“I don’t know, millions,” she said offhandedly. “Look at the big dipper,” she asked. “How many stars do you see inside of the bowl of the dipper itself?”

“None,” Alex answered flatly, as he looked over to see her staring at that part of the sky intently.

“I can see,,, twenty-seven,” she said offhandedly. “I wish you could see the sky through my eyes,” she added wistfully. “It’s so beautiful.”

Alex tightened his arm around her, as he went back to the original subject. “You’re the one who told me that one of the stars I was looking at was actually the Andromeda Galaxy, remember? It’s a galaxy that’s comprised of billions of stars, yet it appears to us as a single star. You said it was the farthest we could see, although I think you were speaking about people in general more than about yourself.”

“Of course I remember,” she said tenderly. “I look back on that night as one of the best nights of my life,” she added as she lifted his hand to her mouth and gently kissed him in silent apology for the way the evening had ended.

“And if we discount everything you have been told about your home world,” he continued logically, “We still have the star map from the cave.”

“Sweetie, I trust Aries,” she replied, looking towards the east. “Every time I look at it I feel drawn there. That’s where home is,” she declared.

“I don’t doubt that,” Alex agreed, but I guarantee you one thing. The stars that comprise Aries are local. We never would be able to see them as individual stars if they were in another part of our own Milky Way, let alone another galaxy.”

“I never thought of that,” his mate said softly. “So what can I depend on?” she asked softly. “Everything I’ve been given to believe in turns out to be false.”

“The fact that I love you with my entire being,” Alex whispered.

Isabel didn’t move a muscle, but she strained to open their connection wider than she had ever allowed before. She hit her mate with a flood of love that took his breath away. Alex lie under their starry sky, languishing in a sense of belonging that felt so right, so wonderful, that he was unable to speak, let alone move.

“Wow,” he gasped. “That’s you, right?”

“That’s me,” she teased.

“This is fantastic,” he exclaimed. “It seems like I can feel all of you.” He concentrated a moment. “I can feel where my head is resting on your thigh. Do you always feel like that when I touch you?” he asked in wonder.

“I feel that way whenever you’re near me,” she replied tenderly. Our powers,” she continued, they just keeps getting stronger the more we work with them,” Isabel agreed. “What do you think is going to happen when we really work at this and get closer.”

“About that,” Alex said hesitantly. “We’ve never really talked seriously about it, but I am going to marry you.”

Isabel was stunned as another wave of emotion washed over her. “I just assumed,,,”

“And we never talked about kids,” he continued. “Not right off,” he cautioned. “Maybe not even for another ten years. After all we still have to go to college, and then I want to spend some time as a couple before we become part of a family.” He looked up towards her face in the cold starlight. “I don’t know how you felt about being a twin with Max. It seems like he runs roughshod over you at times. And I don’t want to have all boys, getting picked on by my brothers all the time sucked.”

Before Isabel could think a moment and react he continued. “I’ve been thinking. The best family I’ve been a part of is with my girlfriends. I think we need to have two girls, just like Liz and Maria, and then have a younger boy for them to civilize. What do you think?”

Receiving no response he sat up and looked more closely at her beautiful face. “Izzy?” he asked tentatively.

Unable to respond in words, Isabel pulled him into an embrace that melted his soul. She poured every ounce of her growing love for him into her kiss, but remembering the reason that she brought him here, away from their schoolwork and especially his computer, she ended their kiss and guided his head back to her lap.

Alex closed his eyes and wiggled around until he was comfortable. “You know Izzy, you keep thinking that what we have is good,” he sighed. “You have to remember that it was just a couple of months ago we decided to start on this journey together. Despite the bumps we’ve already had, and the ones we haven’t run into yet, I have to believe that things are going to get even better for us,” Alex concluded with a huge yawn.

Isabel smiled in agreement. ‘Sweet dreams,’ she thought as she lovingly caressed his forehead and put him to sleep.

Isabel then carefully reached for her cell and hit the speed dial. “Mom, I’m out stargazing with Alex, and he fell asleep. He’s had a hard week, and I don’t want to wake him, but I didn’t want you to worry.” Isabel listened to her mother a moment, then laughingly replied, “You know I won’t be good, but he will. I’ll take care of him, and we’ll see you in the morning. We love you Mom, Bye.”

Isabel put her cell away and then took a moment to prepare themselves for the night. Although she had put her mate into a deep dreamless and restful sleep that would last until morning, she still wanted him to be comfortable. She waved her hand over their blanket, transforming it into a thick comforter that would insulate him from the cold hard ground. She then used her other hand to rake up a small pile of leaves and pine needles that she quickly transformed into a warm blanket that she used to cover him, while allowing nothing to come between him and her leg. Finally she raked up another pile and made a pillow and coverlet for herself. While she wasn’t yet tired, she needed to make herself comfortable, so she wouldn’t fidget and wake Alex.

With her preparations complete, Isabel, our beloved Alien Princess, rested her head back and took in the vastness of the iridescent night sky. ‘Could what Alex said be true? Is there still even more for us in the future?’ she pondered. She was already happier than she thought possible, but as she contemplated her future as Alex’s wife and the mother of his children, a wave of ‘rightness’ swept through her. And as she gently ran her fingers through her mate’s hair, she realized that she had finally become comfortable with having found her place in the universe.

**********
“Just sign here Miss Harding,” Philip instructed. “This is the mini-storage bin agreement for the things that you want to keep from your house.”

“That’s not too bad,” Ava quipped as she slid the completed document back.

“Oh don’t think that,” Isabel teased. “I have a whole folder full of paperwork for you to sign.” ‘Just like we practiced,’ she added silently.

“I’m really sorry I wasn’t able to find out anything about your father,” the lawyer in Philip added. “But it’s no small consolation that he left everything in order for you. I guess that goes with the type of job he had working for the Army.”

“No matter how well you plan for something though,” Ava said sadly, “You are never prepared for it when it does happens.”

Philip didn’t reply to that, instead he continued to place forms in front of her. “Well the fact that you are eighteen makes things a lot easier.” He put another thick bundle of documents in front of her. “This is for the sale of your house, I need you to initial here, here, and sign the back page, and then Isabel will notarize it for you. This is to pay off and close the loan on your car. This is to transfer the car registration into your name. This is to transfer the auto insurance into your name.”

“This is all so new to me,” Ava said excitedly, the double meaning not lost on Isabel.

“Well,” Philip related happily, “Now the fun part, providing for your future.” He put another pile of forms in front of her. “This is for your 529 College Savings plan, a rather sizable deposit into a mutual fund, a rainy day emergency savings account, and a little mad money for your checking account.”

Isabel watched with delight as Ava signed all of the legal documents that allowed her to take a bold step into a new and much more secure future.

**********
Friday afternoon, Maria stopped in the kitchen of the Crashdown, before continuing into the break room to change into her uniform.

Michael deftly flipped a row of burgers before quickly looking up at her, watching her tie her apron. He grunted and nodded in her general direction, before spreading melted shortening on the grill to make Alex’s grilled onions.

“Grunt?” Maria snapped with her hands on her hips. “All I rate a grunt?”

“You know what’s behind that grunt,” Michael barked back.

“Aaaggghhh why can’t you be more like Max?” Maria sighed, tossing her hands into the air.

“Because Max couldn’t handle you,” he replied, slamming the edge of his spatula through the vegetables in frustration and sending little bits of flaming onions flying through the air. He put his hands on his hips and turned to face off against her. “If I locked you and Max in the break room he wouldn’t last ten minutes. I’d open the door and he’d cowering in the corner while you’d be ready for a real man.”

“Ha,” Maria barked in triumph. “And I suppose you’re that man?” she continued dismissively. “I’ve seen your best, and I’ve been disappointed every time.”

“Not true,” Michael countered arrogantly. “You’re not ready for my best,” he teased. “When I’m with you I have to turn the power up slowly, or you’d explode.”

Maria thought back on the previous evening. Maybe he had a point there. Michael had arrived just as Jim and Amy were leaving for their date, and despite the fact that Michael complained that her hair was getting too long and he only attacked the lower half of her neck, she had overheated before the older couple had left the driveway.

Michael continued, “If I locked us in the break room for ten minutes I’d be smoking a cigarette while you’d be passed out on the break room table. There would be nothing left to you but a puddle of goo.”

“Aaaggghhh,” Maria exclaimed as she gave up and headed for her locker.

“Good grunt,” he teased at her retreating form.

Moments later Maria slammed Alex’s custom Will Smith burger down in front of him.

“Another fight with Michael?” Liz asked.

“I honestly don’t know,” the blonde pixie answered.

Liz slid glasses of soda in front of her friends while continuing to watch her co-worker with amusement.

“What?” Maria barks challengingly.

“Well for one thing,” Alex replies hesitantly. “Izzy’s stir fry?”

“Oh,” Maria says, throwing a glance towards the kitchen that would have turned Michael to stone if he had been in the window. “Puddle of goo my ass. When I get done with him he’s going to be curled into a ball sucking his thumb and whining for his mommy.”

Liz picked her tip up from an empty table, and then paused by Isabel’s and Alex’s booth as Maria slammed her way into the kitchen.

“Spaceboy, you worthless screw up,” they heard through the kitchen door. “You forgot Isabel’s paint thinner special. I’d expect you to let your girlfriend starve, but this is your sister we’re talking about.”

“I think they’re having a fight,” Liz said with a grin on her face.

“I don’t know,“ Isabel replied with a laugh. “I think it’s some kind of Czechoslovakian thing, because I’ve had some experience with goo, and it usually doesn’t involve fighting.”

**********
Gloria woke in the middle of the night, and as was her habit, she headed for the kitchen and her midnight mug of tea. As she passed the teens rooms, she glanced in, checking on her son and surrogate daughter. In the dim glow from the nightlight, she could see Isabel curled into a tight ball, while in the opposite room, Alex was on his side, clutching a pillow tightly to his chest.

Minutes later, on her return trip, the alpha female found that Alex was now flat on his back, while Isabel had kicked off her covers. The teen had rolled onto her stomach with her left leg and arm cocked out to the side. Gloria crept into the room and gently pulled the sheet and light summer blanket up over her charge, bending to placing a soft kiss on the teen when she finished.

Gloria returned to the doorway, where she could see both teens, and paused to compare their positions. ‘It’s almost as if they were sleeping together,’ she thought. Moments later she shook her head and walked back to her own bed. ‘That’s ridiculous,’ she said in answer to her previous thought. ‘You’ve been watching too many movies.’

Meanwhile in another realm, Isabel had pinned Alex to his bed like a bug to a rug, while she wantonly climbed atop him. “You may have the will power of a saint in real life,” she gasped, “But I rule the dream realm, and here I get what I want.” There were five hours left until morning, and if she was lucky, she could use that time to take the sharp edge off the itch she had for her mate.

**********
Saturday afternoon, Liz was working on her chemistry homework at the back of the nearly empty cafe, while Isabel and Alex were in the back talking to Michael about a new item for the unpublished side of their menu. Suddenly she heard a crash, and she ran through the door to the back. She found herself, standing with her back to the break room door along with Maria and Michael, watching Isabel and Alex rolling around on the floor of the break room. She couldn’t imagine anyone having the nerve to take on Isabel, but here was Alex, and amazingly enough, he was holding his own. In fact Alex almost had her, she was flat on her back, when Isabel took advantage of her long legs by bringing them up behind Alex and trapping him in a killer scissor lock. What had started out as, well Liz didn’t know how it started, but it was now a full blown tickle fight. Isabel was laughing so hard she could barely speak, and she was enjoying herself immensely, Isabel’s shirt, most buttons loosened, had already been pulled out of her jeans, and the top of Alex’s pants were also undone as they fought to get their nimble fingers on each others vulnerable sides. Alex’s momentary look of triumph was wiped away as Isabel used her legs to flip him on his back.

“See that,” Isabel taunted. “You may be bigger, but I can take you anytime I want.”

“Promises, promises,” Alex teasingly replied

“What’s that?” Isabel said breathlessly. “You wouldn’t dare to say that if I had you alone,” she added as she moved to straddle his midsection and reached to tickle his ribs. “If I had you alone you would be screaming for mercy right now.”

“The only reason you were able pin me is that you have more off limits parts than I do,” Alex boasted defensively.

“Nothing’s off limits Alex,” Isabel said softly as she leaned forward, her breath caressing his face.

Liz broke out laughing at this blatant come on, but she quickly covered her mouth when she was the recipient of Isabel’s ice stare.

Sensing her distraction, Alex reached towards his mate, but she caught both of his hands in hers. Isabel leaned down pinning his hands to the floor above his head. “What are you going to do now?” she taunted.

For the first time in his life Alex did not look Isabel in the eyes as he responded, “I’m not going to do a thing except lay here and look down your shirt.”

“Hey, Hey, time out” Liz interrupted them. “This is a family restaurant,” she said, reaching for Isabel’s hand to help her up.

Alex and Isabel stood, but despite the fact that both of their faces were turning beet red, they managed to hold onto each other’s hand.

“You two look like you won’t let the other out of your sight,” Liz commented, happy to see her friends finally making a go of it as a couple.

“Can you blame us after everything that’s been going on?” Isabel lamented.

“No I can’t, and besides you look so good together. You are so natural, like,,,” Liz struggled for an expression, her mind still on her school work, “hydrogen.”

“Hydrogen?” Isabel asked curiously.

“Yea,” Liz answered, warming up to the thought. “You know one electron orbits one proton. Inseparable.”

“The most basic and most common element in the universe,” Alex continued.

“What stars are made of,” Liz continued philosophically.

“Hydrogen would be the same everywhere,” Alex muttered softly to himself. ‘On Earth and Antar,’ he added silently.

“What are you talking about now?” Isabel said, a little irritated to find his mind elsewhere.

“How many elements are there?” Alex suddenly asked.

“What?” Isabel questioned this sudden turn of events.

“One hundred eleven,” Maria answered, as she walked into the back. “Why?” Without bothering to take a breath, she turned towards Michael. “Aren’t you ready yet Spaceboy? You know how my mom gets when we’re late.”

Alex hid his disappointment. He had been hoping for one hundred twenty one elements, the same as the number of icons in the alien character set. But his disappointment was short lived.

“No,” Liz countered. “That’s so outdated. The current table is at one hundred eighteen.”

“Alex,” Isabel asked. “Why do you want to know?”

“One hundred and seventeen,” Michael corrected. The Russians withdrew element one-one-four because no one has been able to replicate it since they initial claimed to have discovered it.”

“Wait a minute,” Alex demanded, holding his hands up. “You mean the number of elements isn’t fixed?”

“No,” Liz explained. “With the advances in quantum and particle physics there are still elements waiting to be discovered.”

“Just wait until we get the super-collider built,” Michael threw in for good measure. “Once that’s on line they will be finding new elements for as long as the government is willing to pay for the research.”

“So there could be one hundred twenty one elements?” Alex asked with growing excitement.

“Alex,” Isabel demanded. “What is this all about.”

“At some point in time there will be one hundred twenty one known elements,” Liz assured him.

“One hundred twenty one! That’s the key!” Alex exclaimed, doing a little happy dance.

“Alex!” Isabel barked.

“Huh?” he said surprised, acknowledging her for the first time in several minutes. “Sorry Izzy,” he added holding his hand up to his ear. “What’s that Mom? I know I promised to clean the basement. I’ll be right home!” he replied.

Isabel started to ask what the hell he was talking about when Alex grabbed Liz and gave her a hug that lifted her off her feet. “You’re a genius,” he added before kissing her on the cheek.

Isabel, now totally befuddled, watched in amazement as Alex ran past her to the door.

The moment Alex touched the door, he realized the enormity of his mistake. He turned back and took his mate in his arms. Pinned her against the wall, he gave her a kiss that made the temperature of the room rise. But then, just as Isabel lifted one of her long legs to wrap around him, he stepped back, leaving Isabel grasping the wall for support. “We’ll finish this later.” Moments later he was gone.

“Water,” Isabel gasped, holding her hand out blindly towards her friends.

Liz handed the tall girl a glass of water, and then watched in amusement as Isabel pulled her top out and then splashed the contents of the glass down the front of her shirt.

“I’ve never seen anyone in such a hurry to clean his basement,” Michael muttered from the break room as he threw his bandana into his locker, done for the day.

“That’s the funny part,” Liz laughingly shouted over her shoulder at the harried cook, while watching the expression on her friends face as the cold water brought her back to Earth. “Alex doesn’t have a basement.”

**********
Alex sped home, his mind racing with possibilities. “One circles one, just like the icon he named Earth in the alien character set. Could it be that easy?” he asked himself out loud. “After all elements would be the same throughout the universe, wouldn’t they?” This was the one time in his life that he wished he had not spent every science class he had ever taken in the computer lab.

Alex bolted through the door almost running his mother over in the process. “Hi Mom,” he panted, grabbing her to prevent her from falling, and as he spun around her, he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Got to go, got work to do,” he added as he released her.

Gloria struggled to maintain her balance, and found herself leaning against the refrigerator. “Don’t worry, it’s just me this time,” she said to the sturdy appliance, remembering all the times it had been slammed into by the teens.


Alex sat in front of his monitor, beating on the KVM (Keyboard-Video-Mouse) selector to alternate between his Lin-Tel (Intel based server running Linux as the operating system) server and his Blade (Sun Microsystems running Solaris as the operating system) workstation. He gave the Blade a command to load the encryption program with the ‘appendix’ from the rear of the destiny book, while he used the server to gather information from the Internet about the Periodic Table of Elements.

Alex quickly scanned the top web hits, discarding most as nothing more than advertisements for books, charts, and software, but he was able to find several sites that provided useful information. “Yes!” he shouted, throwing his hands up into the air and spinning in his chair.

“What’s all the yelling about?” his mom asked, sticking her head into his room.

“Nothing Mom,” he answered quickly. “I’m just getting some last minute things together for our meeting with Leprino Foods (the Cheese Factory) next Thursday.”

“I thought Isabel said you were ready?” Gloria queried.

“Mom,” Alex said proudly. “Isabel was born ready. She could walk into that meeting with no preparation at all and still impress them. I have to work my tail off just to keep up with her.”

Gloria didn’t quite agree with her youngest sons assessment of himself. In her opinion both teens were constantly striving to excel at whatever they did. “Well in that case, get back to work,” she commanded, with a grin to take the sting out of her words. “I have a feeling you are going to have your work cut out for yourself keeping up with your girlfriend.”

Alex turned back to his monitor, and continued reading. Despite the total lack of information regarding the comparison of elements on distant planets, he had found what he needed. Every element had an atomic weight, a recipe for it’s composition. If her could find a commonality in the atomic weights of the Periodic Table that he had just downloaded, and the data contained in the section of the destiny book that contained the one hundred and twenty-one special characters, maybe,,,

Alex finished typing the commands and sat back to watch the Blade go to work.

**********
Meanwhile, on the roof of the Crashdown, Liz and Isabel had settled down with drinks and rested in the chase lounges for a frank discussion.

“So,” Isabel began. “What did you find out about Alex?”

“I checked Alex’s blood,” Liz started in on her explanation. “His blood is human, type AB negative,,,”

“No!” Isabel interrupted. “I’ve seen his drivers license. He’s type O positive.”

“Well then he’s changed,” Liz declared. “And that makes me feel better about some of the other things that I found.”

“What else did you find?” Isabel’s voice cracked, her voice taking on a nervous quality that Liz had not heard in almost a year.

“”He’s fantastically healthy,” Liz responded. “His red cell and hemoglobin count are off the scale,” Liz explained, her voice trailing off.

“But?” Isabel demanded hesitantly.

“But,” Liz continued, “His white cell count is also off the scale, and his blood is full of anti-bodies.”

“That’s good,” Isabel asked. “Isn’t it?”

“It is good for him,” Liz agreed, “As long as we keep him away from doctors.”

“Why’s that?” Isabel demanded, her voice rising. “I thought you just said that he was healthy.”

Liz patted her friend’s hand to calm her. “Lets talk about his anti-bodies and HIV,” she continued calmly. “When a person is exposed to the Human Immunology Virus, (the precursor to AIDS) the person’s body creates anti-bodies to fight the disease. Sometimes the person can win the battle, but without treatment, HIV usually converts to full blown AIDS, and the person dies.”

“Why are we talking about AIDS,” Isabel asked cautiously. “Alex doesn’t,,,” she continued, her voice trailing off.

“No! No,” Liz quickly reassured her friend. “Alex has never had a transfusion, he’s never taken drugs, and he’s never had sex,” Liz rattled off, with a raised eyebrow at the last comment. Receiving no indication to the contrary from her best friend’s girlfriend, she explained, “But we have all heard the AIDS lectures, so I figured this would be an example you could understand.”

Both women took a moment to compose themselves before Liz continued. “When someone takes an AIDS test, the test doesn’t look for the virus itself, but instead it looks for the anti-bodies that the body creates to fight the disease,,,”

“And Alex has the AIDS anti-body,,,” Isabel finished Liz’s explanation for her. “So if he took an AIDS test, it would come back as positive,” Isabel concluded with a tremor in her voice.

“Alex has tested positive for a lot of things,” Liz said sadly. “AIDS, Measles, Hepatitis C, and Syphilis are the test that I was able to get my hands on. He tested positive for all of them.”

Isabel sat back in her chair to absorb everything that she had just been told.

“So,” Liz exclaimed, leaning forward and slapping her knees. “How about you?”

“Who cares about me?” Isabel demanded, her voice frosty.

“I do,” Liz answered softly. “Maria, your brothers, Kyle and Ava, and a certain friend of mine who gauges his whole life by your level of happiness.”

“But how can you feel that way about me,” Isabel pleaded, almost in tears. “I’ve changed him.”

Liz reached out and took the taller teen’s face in her hands, looking her directly in the eyes. “Yes you have changed Alex. I have never seen him so happy, so alive, so outgoing, and so optimistic about his future. You’ve changed as well, and I have never been so happy for the two of you.”

Isabel broke into a beautiful smile, letting a single tear of happiness slip down her cheek. Liz released her hold on her friend and asked again, “How about you?”

Isabel turned shy, now that the spotlight was turned solidly on her. “The same as always. Unbelievably happy with Alex.” She looked down at her feet. “Horny,” she continued, her face turning red. “Frustrated,” she groaned out. “Why did you two have to teach him to be such a gentleman. You could have left him just a little bit of a bad boy streak, couldn’t you?” she teased.

“I’m sure Alex still has a couple of moves left up his sleeve,” Liz added with a laugh.

“And I’m a little scared,” Isabel continued in a flat voice, “I’m two weeks late.” Hearing Liz’s sudden intake of breath she exclaimed, “No, I am not going through this again. I can’t be pregnant, can I?”

“Well,” Liz hesitated.

“Listen,” Isabel snapped. “If I’m pregnant you had better put a candle in the window, because the last time this happened three wise men came in from the east.”

“Ahhmm,” Liz mumbled as she looked for a place to hide.

“I mean we ruled out this happening from a dream, and we haven’t, you know,” Isabel stammered. “Unless you count the hot tub incident while we were in Texas,” Isabel continued as she calmed back down.

“Hot tub incident?” Liz asked warily.

“Well it wasn’t really an incident,” Isabel replied, her face taking on a dreamy look as she thought back on that magical night. “It was more like a life altering experience.”

“Ewww,” Liz moaned. “That’s way too much information!”

“Oh No!” Isabel barked. “I just told you that we haven’t,,, I mean I was in the hot tub, and Alex,,, Well I helped him,,,” Isabel’s voice trailed off, her face turned bright red as she bit her bottom lip nervously. “How far can those little guys swim, anyways?” she concluded abashed.

Liz thought a moment before exclaiming, “You mean you were sitting together in a hot tub?”

“Yea,” Isabel snapped. “Haven’t you been listening?”

“No!” Liz barked, surprising herself with her volume. She looked around self-consciously and then continued at a more rational volume. “Chlorinated hot water? No way. Those little future wreckers wouldn’t have been able to survive the heat or chlorination, let alone both. That’s not what happened.”

“Then what?” Isabel moaned.

“Well the first thing we need to do is look at the results of your readings,” Liz said, slipping into her scientist mode. “Do you have your numbers with you?”

Isabel dug into her purse and fished out a card covered with dates and figures. “Thank God this is over. Do you know how humiliating and uncomfortable it was for me to have to swab myself every day?”

“Humiliating? Discomfort?” Liz replied with a laugh. “I’ll take you to my gynecologist’s appointment next month. Since you’re only half human he’ll only shove one of your knees up by your ear, and he’ll only put one blade of the speculum into the freezer.”

Isabel thought for a moment about the advantages of not having to go to a doctor, when she noticed the look of dismay on Liz’s face. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Liz replied with a tremor in her voice.

“Liz,” she repeated, her voice dripping with ice.

“I mean this might not signify anything,” Liz stammered, groping for safe ground.

“Liz, you had me do this for a reason,” Isabel pleaded. “I need to know.”

“While I was researching the whole birth control issue, I came across information on a condition called a hostile womb,” Liz related softly, looking her friend in the eyes with care and concern. “It’s when the Ph value in a woman’s reproductive tract is outside the range that her partner’s sperm can survive.” Liz held up the card that Isabel had given her. “I don’t think you’re pregnant. In fact, I don’t think you and Alex are going to be able to have children.”

TBC

[Rim]

yes a new update. love this chapeter alex is going to decode the book i know he is. more soon i hope

[KarenEvans]

: Loved the part where Michael was teasing Maria.

A/I not going to be able to have children...please say that there is a way around that.

[Rim]

please give us another update soon. i need another chapter. thanks

[Stargazer md]

Sorry, the display blew on my laptop and i totally lost two weeks waiting for a part they (bonehead) shipped UPS ground from California.

'Nother day or two and i should be back on schedule.

P

[Stargazer md]

That Same Good Secret Can Bite You In The Ass
by Stargazer_md

Disclaimer: The characters don’t belong to me. If they did, the show would still be on.
Some text is borrowed from the show, I didn’t treat it any worse than the original
writers.
Summary: A&I fun mostly.
Setting: An entirely new S-3
Category: Alex/Isabel with CC
Rating: Mature

Where were we? Our teens secrets are beginning coming to surface. Can this be a good thing?

**********
Sunday evening found the elder Whitman’s visiting with the Evans’, cards in hand. Philip looked across the table at his partner for this rubber (round of the game), meeting Gloria smirk. After an especially trying weekend where his daughter did everything in her power to drive him and his wife crazy, they had been delighted to find out that the Whitman’s were bid whist players. (A card game like Rummy.)

“And just where do you think you’re going, young lady?” Gloria barked as Isabel ran through the Evan’s kitchen.

Isabel skidded to a stop, her pony tail flying over her shoulder. “Huh?” she asked in astonishment.

“What are your plans?” Gloria repeated.

“We’re going to our,,, your house?” Isabel choked out at this unexpected interrogation.

“Why?” Gloria asked innocently, throwing down a trump and sweeping the trick into her team’s win pile. “Your homework is caught up, your ready for your Tuesday meeting, and there’s nothing there that you can’t do here, so what’s your hurry?”

Isabel gasped like a fish out of water, so flabbergasted that anyone would challenge her, that she failed to notice the fact that her parents were struggling to keep a straight face.

“I,,, I,,,” Isabel stammered, groping for a reason to get her boyfriend into a parent free environment. “I want us to go over our presentation again.”

“Nope,” Gloria decided.

“No?” Isabel repeated, as if it was a word that was not in her vocabulary.

“You two have been working hard enough or running around all the time, and with Alex just coming off a twelve hour shift on the rescue, I think you need to take the evening off,” Gloria said offhandedly while leading off with the three of clubs. She smiled with delight as Philip threw down the king, taking the trick. As she swept another winning hand into her pile she raised her eyes to her quasi-daughter, “You have everything you need right here to spend a quiet evening at home.” She then turned back to her game dismissively.

Isabel stood there, half in the hallway, half in the kitchen, and looked at each of the adults in turn, who responded by not acknowledging her existence. “The whole world is against me. I’m going to die a virgin,” the tall teen mumbled as the women smirked and the men thought that was a wonderful Idea. “Whitman!” she bellowed up the stairs, summoning the one person in the house that was still under her influence. “Get your ass down here right now!” she demanded, her voice reflecting the fact that she was on the edge of losing control.

“Language dear,” Diane intoned as she started to play several of her trump cards, taking the initiative of the game away from her guest.

Alex trotted down the stairs, his hair still wet from his post work shower, barely able to keep a straight face. Not only had he picked up on his mate’s astonishment that anyone would dare question, let alone override her plans, he had also listened in on the last comment her mom had made. “Yea Izzy?” he asked innocently.

“Change of plans,” she declared. “We’re staying in.”

“Whatever you want,” Alex replied, a smirk sneaking through. Noticing that Isabel was about ready to go postal, he stepped in. “Okay,” he started condescendingly, “Why don’t you go upstairs, take your shower, and put your PJ’s on. I’ll order a pizza, and then we can curl up on the couch and watch a couple of episodes of Jeopardy that I taped on nights that we were out.”

Isabel’s face lit up at the aspect of cuddling on the couch with her boyfriend. She turned and ran up the stairs.

“Izzy,” Alex shouted up the stairs after her. “Bring down your hair brush.” He then picked up the phone and dialed the Flying Pepperoni while leaning back against the counter.

“Hello. Is Sal there?” Alex asked.

“Sal’s busy,” the clerk answered. What can I get you?”

Alex knew this was going to be a problem, but he went ahead anyways. “I need a small Alex and a small Isabel,” he asked hopefully.

“Doesn’t mean a thing to me,” the clerk replied blandly.

“Okay, Alex sighed, slipping into the next room where his strange request would not be overheard. “On my pizza I want hamburger and mushrooms.”

“And on the other one?” the clerk asked, already bored.

Alex grimaced, already expecting a negative reaction. “On Isabel’s pizza I want three alarm chilly instead of pizza sauce, with jalapeno cheese, anchovies, peppers, onions, and red hot flakes.”

“No way!” the clerk explained, “That’s not a real pizza!”

“Wait a minute,” Alex pleaded. “You said Sal was there? Ask him, he makes us pizza’s all the time.”

“Hey Sal!” Alex heard the clerk shout while holding his hand over the receiver. “There’s a guy calling in a phony order for some girl named Isabel,,,” Moments later the clerk answered Alex with wonder in his voice. “Sal just shuddered and shook his head, but he said to go ahead and take your order. You know,,,” the clerk continued. “It would be cheaper for you to get a half-and-half large instead of two smalls.”

“Great, make it a half-and-half,” Alex replied and gave the clerk the delivery information.

“What’s taking you so long?” Isabel implored as she bounded into the kitchen just in time to see him hang up the phone.

“Patience my dear,” Alex replied elegantly. “Perfection takes time.”

“Patience my ass,” she taunted, as she approached him. Much to her dismay, she noticed that Alex was wearing a Roswell Fire Department tee shirt. Irritated at being denied her unbuttoning ritual, she began to chase him around the kitchen slapping his ass with her hairbrush. Finally collapsing in laughter against the dishwasher, she gasped, “Go upstairs and change. I want my snuggle time.”


Several minutes later the young teens were engaged in a rousing Jeopardy contest. Despite the fact that Isabel had spotted Alex ten thousand dollars, by the time the pizza was delivered, Alex didn’t even question the fact that he was paying for the pie. As he put the steaming box on the coffee table it caught his mate’s attention.

“You didn’t order separate pizza’s?” she exclaimed with alarm. “Sweetie, there’s no way my stuff isn’t going to contaminate your side,” she continued with concern.

“Don’t worry about it,” he replied as he picked up a big slice of pie that had a fair amount of Isabel’s toppings overlapping his own. “Your taste in food isn’t as bad as you make it out to be,” he said with a grin as he chomped a little fishie in half.

Isabel grimaced as she watched him dig into their pizza, further proof that she was indeed changing him.


As soon as Final Jeopardy had completed, Isabel carried the pizza box into the kitchen. She took out her mothers good scissors, and cut the box into eight neat equal sized pieces before tossing the oily cardboard into the recycling bin. She then grabbed an orange soda for Alex and a clandestine glass of cherry coke with pickle juice for herself. Returning to the family room, she popped a DVD into the player. She settled on the hassock between her boyfriend’s legs while the opening credits for ‘The Truth About Cats and Dogs’ flashed on the TV. She asked if he minded her choice of movies, but Alex, who had grown up watching movies with the twins, didn’t mind her choice at all. He pushed her upright, and started to separate her hair with his hands.

Both teens lost track of their surroundings as he began to stroke her hair with her favorite brush. The burnishing effect of the natural hog bristles caused her hair to shine, and as much as Isabel enjoyed the luxury of letting go for a moment and allowing her mate to groom her, Alex took just as much enjoyment from the fact that she allowed him such intimate contact and took pleasure from his touch.

Isabel was the first to reach out through their connection, “Can I try something?” she asked tentatively, and was delighted when she was invited in. The momentarily sated young woman reached down and pulled her mate’s thighs against her, and then allowed her consciousness to flow through that contact. Moments later her ‘sense of self’ had doubled in size. She could feel Alex’s calm and contentment wash over her as she expanded into his space, especially his awe of her. She could not understand how he still looked at her in amazement until she realized that with things going so well for the past several months, she had forgotten that while she had always known that he would be there for her, Alex had been forced to take her rejections at face value, and hope for another chance in the future.

Isabel reached back and took the brush from his hand, and then settled back against his strong chest. His hands reached around her, taking her hands in his and pulling her close. Isabel shuddered with pleasure as she felt his breath against her neck. As she closed her eyes, she swept through his consciousness, caressing him and infusing her love for him at every opportunity. She was going to do whatever she could to make sure that he understood once and for all that she was his forever.

“Sweetie? What’s this over here?” Isabel asked, having found several shadowed areas in his mind.

“Izzy, A guy has to have some secrets,” Alex replied offhandedly. “You have a birthday coming up, maybe there’s a special gift, maybe there’s a fantasy or two that I’m not ready to share with you yet, ‘or maybe a special project I’m working on,’ he added silently.

“I’m sorry Sweetie,” Isabel whispered, a little abashed. “I know we talked about our needs for privacy when we first started connecting,,,”

“Should I bring up your elephant sitting in the middle of the room?” Alex teased, referring the large closed off space in the middle of her mind.

“I’m trying to work something out,” Isabel confessed, pulling back a little. “I’ll talk to you about it in a bit.”

“Hey Sweetheart,” Alex replied softly. “I didn’t mean anything by that!” he implored. “Please don’t pull back. I know there are some things you’re going to have to keep to yourself.”

Isabel leaned back and rubbed her cheek against his. “I know Sweetie. I’m sorry, It’s a lot to take in.”

Alex turned and placed a soft kiss on her cheek, “No! no, It’s wonderful. But I wouldn’t want to go through it with anyone but you.”


Alex strode confidently through Isabel’s mind, stopping in front of Trude.

“Guten Tag,” she greeted him with a big smile on her face.

“Fancy meeting you here,” he replied while shaking his head.

“This is where the action is,” she quipped, patting Isabel’s ‘nerve bundle’ that she was sitting on.

“You got that right,” Alex teased. “You may want to get out of the way, he added as he started to build a charge in his hand.

“You’re not,,,” Trude gasped. “She,,, Your parents,,, Her parents,,, Right in the next room,” she gasped.

“Then you had better tell her to be quiet,” he instructed. “So,,,” he waved his hand to the side.

Trude simply reached down and held on tighter. “ I’ll stay right here. The last time was the ride of a lifetime.”

Isabel gave no outward sign of the gift her mate had just given her. She did not move, she did not make a sound. She continued to breathe normally, and her eyes stay glued to the movie playing on the television. But in her mind Alex’s actions had transported her to deep space, where she was watching the beauty of stars being born and dying. Meteors and comets blazed past her, while stars went super nova and exploded in bursts of colors unimaginable to the human mind. But the magnificence of the cosmic light show was nothing compared to how she felt. She was warm and safe in Alex’s arms, and nothing else mattered. Nothing even came close.

“Feeling better?” Alex eventually asked.

Isabel stretched like a cat, all the while staying in his strong embrace. “Ummm,” she moaned. “How do you always know what I need?” she asked in a voice that flowed through his mind like warm liquid.

“I’ve always known what you need,” he said softly.

They fell into a comfortable silence, basking in their closeness.


“Izzy?” Alex asked tentatively. “You’re going to stay like this, right?”

“In your arms?” she sighed as she snuggled deeper into his chest. “Forever.”

After a moment’s hesitation he continued, “No, I mean, you know,,,” He lowered his voice even more, “Horny?”

Isabel secretly smirked at his discomfort, and decided to let him sweat a moment.

“I mean,,, I would hate to think I waited until the time was right,,,” he stammered, “And you didn’t want to,,, you know,,, anymore,,,”

“Sweetie? Didn’t you get the memo?” she teased.

“Memo?” he asked, totally bewildered.

“Yea, the memo about alien girls in human bodies?” she asked, turning on his lap to watch his reaction.

“No,” he answered disbelievingly.

“Well you see,” she said flirtingly, “We only get horny twenty-five times. And since you’ve turned me down the last two dozen times that I tried to seduce you, the next time you had better take me or lose me forever.”

“You want me? You want some of this?” Alex teased. “You think you’re ready to wreck a bed with ‘I the stud’? Huh?”

“Wreck a bed?” Isabel laughed. “I’ll make you a promise, Stud. The day you think we’re ready, you tell me. I’m going to leave a small town in ashes, to say nothing for the bed, if I wait that long. When I get done, you’ll be wondering what hit you,” she replied confidently.

**********
Later Isabel lie in bed, her mind racing. She had never lied to Alex before tonight. Throughout the years she had never been able to hide the fact that she cared for him, while at the same time she had never hid the fact that she was dating others. In fact her biggest secret, the one that she had kept from him for years, was just that, a secret. She had never, not once, lied to him about who she was or what she had done, until tonight. She had looked him in the eyes and told him that she would make all of his dreams come true, yet how could she do that if she could not give him a family.

Dark evil thoughts swirled through her mind, of another family on another planet, and all of her insecurities came rushing back in full force. She was nothing but a damaged copy of a flawed woman who had betrayed everyone she loved and caused their deaths. She saw the pattern repeat itself here with Alex, who she had almost lost at the hands of Tess, who Isabel had invited into the group.

‘No,’ she decided. She was not going down that self destructive path again. Her one true love did not believe her capable of betrayal, she must trust his judgment, not her enemies who had worked so hard to shatter her confidence. She was a princess, born of royal blood, and the carrier of the Royal Seal of Antar. She had survived two lifetimes, a journey through the stars, a spaceship crash, and lived inside of a chrysalis for almost half a century, all to find her mate. She was an alien hybrid, had advanced skills and abilities, had an allay in Liz who was an advanced human with formidable skills in the hard sciences, and finally she had access to the granolith, if only she could figure out how to use it.

As she drifted off to a troubled sleep, she consoled herself with the fact that she had not lied to Alex after all. She would move heaven and earth to give him the family he so richly deserved. All she needed was will power, and maybe a list of some kind.


Isabel sat under the starlight sky, her back against the solid granite. She pulled the lapels of her jacket tighter against the cold night’s wind and continued.

“I can see them already Sweetie,” Isabel reflected, looking into the future that she desired so fervently that she could taste it, “Three perfect children. Two girls, and a little brother for the girls to take care of. They are playing with their friends in our back yard, while you’re grilling hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner. I’m coming out of the house with an armful of paper plates and utensils, and I am still amazed that after all these years your eyes still light up every time you see me. I scold the children, they are running too close to my flower beds, and smile indulgently as they run off giggling, not intimidated by my best ‘Ice Princess’ voice.”

Isabel stood and looked directly at the constellation Aries as she kissed her fingertips. “I’ll be back to talk to you tomorrow, Sweetie. Tess may have stolen my future,,,” she concluded as she brushed her moist fingertips against the Whitman headstone, “But she will never be able to touch my dreams.”

Isabel felt her blood run cold as she realized the significance of the name engraved on the cold granite stone, but before she could gather a breath for her first scream, she felt Alex’s love wash over her. She turned away from the frozen marker, and felt herself swept into his strong arms.

“It’s Okay, Sweetheart,” Alex said earnestly as he pulled her face into the crook of his neck. “I’ve got you now, and I’m never going to let you go.”

Isabel allowed his warm love for her stem her rising panic, but as she forced herself out of his embrace so that she could step back and look at the engraving on the gray granite, she could feel bile rising at the back of her throat. “April Twenty-Ninth, Two-Thousand and One,” she gasped. “The day Tess attacked you.”

“A day that has already gone by,” Alex explained confidently. “And we’re both still here. She couldn’t hurt us as long as we’re together, and I won’t ever let anything hurt you,” he added as he kissed her forehead gently. Alex took a step back. “I want you to stay right here,” Alex said softly, “While I count to ten. Then I want you to wake. One,,, Two,,,”

Isabel awoke as Alex chanted ten, and found herself in her bed, with Alex sitting next to her. As she sprang up into his arms, in the real realm this time, she could not keep the look of wonder off her face. “Sweetie, How did you do,,,”

“Enter your dreams?” Seeing her nod in confusion he continued, “I could feel your sense of alarm. You needed me, I came.” Alex let a huge smile flow over his face. “I have this great girlfriend who’s teaching me how to do all this neat stuff,” he concluded, his face turned serious again as he gently asked, “Are you alright?”

“I think so,” Isabel answered, “Although my screams would have awoken the entire neighborhood if you didn’t come and rescue me.”

Alex pulled her face back to his shoulder, where it belonged, “Everything’s okay now,” he said softly. “I’ve got you.”

“No, you don’t understand. Everything’s not going to be okay,” she pleaded. “This is my world. I rule the dream realm. I don’t understand why this keeps happening.”

“Well,” Alex started hesitantly. “You had to go into several of us and undo Tess’ programming,” Alex reasoned. “Maybe she got to you also.”

“No!” Isabel insisted. “I knew when she was trying to enter my mind.”

Alex looked at her patiently, knowing that she needed a moment to come to grips with the idea that she too had been a victim of Tess’ mind games.

“You’re going to have to do this,” Isabel demanded as she settled down in her bed. “I can’t dreamwalk myself.”

“Me?” Alex replied incredulously. “You’re the one with super powers.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, especially after what you just did for me,” Isabel said with a smile, but her voice gained an edge of steel as she added, “Now take off your top and get into bed with me.”

”Take off my top?” Alex asked incredulously. “What’s my shirt have to do with anything?”

“Simple,” Isabel replied as if explaining her most basic desire in the world. “I want to go to sleep with my face on your chest so that I can listen to your heartbeat.” Isabel bit her lower lip and looked down, continuing in barely a whisper, “I’ll never have a bad dream if I can hear you.”

Alex, who could deny her nothing, found himself pulling his tank top over his head. “I don’t believe I’m doing this with your father right down the hall,” he mumbled.

Isabel closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment. “There, I’ve visited everyone, and no one’s going to wake up until morning. Now get in here and show me some tenderness before I come out there and kick your ass.”

Alex carefully slid into the bed behind her. As soon as he had settled, Isabel rolled back, tucked his hand under her breast, and then settled into his tight grip.

“Sweetie?” she started to ask.

“Go to sleep,” he gently commanded. “I’ve got you now, and I’m never going to let you go,” he added soothingly.

Moments later they were standing next to each other at the rave in the old soap factory. Alex looked down at his skimpy black mesh ball sack, while noticing that his mate was wearing a luscious pair of red silk pajamas.

“Hey, ahhmm, can you help me out here?” he asked, pointing to his attire.

“No,” Isabel declared. “I like you like this,” she added, grabbing a handful of his ass.

“Really,” he replied flirtingly. He waved his hand in front of her.

Isabel felt a sudden chill and squealed as she looked down to find herself wearing the sheer pale blue panty and bra set that he liked so much. “What are you, crazy?” she demanded. “We’re at a rave!”

“Izzy,” he teased. “We’re in your mind. No one will see us.”

Isabel’s panic faded as she realized that she wasn’t practically naked in public. “Well, in that case, what do you think?” With a wave of her hand she replaced her undies with a luxurious red silk robe. An incredibly short, ‘lot of leg’ robe, the bodice of which gapped open all the way to the loosely tied waist.

“I,,, ahhmm,,, you look fantastic,” he said with a catch in his voice.

Isabel looked at her mate who was now wearing a matching royal blue robe. “Come on, lets get this over with so we can get back to my bed,” she said breathlessly, her eyes bright with mischief. As they turned and walked into the action, she reached down and cupped his ass again. “You’re getting good,” she sighed, leaning into him. “You didn’t even flinch this time.”

Alex listened to the music for a moment. ‘Too much treble,’ he thought to himself as he led her over to the utility room, the scene of calamity the last time they were here. After a quick use of power, he was looking at a brand new electrical panel. “There,” he said with satisfaction. “No fire tonight. Now we don’t have to worry about being interrupted.”

Meanwhile Isabel had her own memories to contend with. “I want to make sure I don’t make the same mistake I did last time,” she sighed, looking around and finding her dream self dancing with dream Alex. “She looked over at sleeping Alex, who was just emerging from the utility room, and gave him a wink. Then she approached the dancing couple, stepping into her alter ego’s personal space unnoticed. ‘He’s still in shock that you invited him,’ she whispered. ‘You’re the one who will have to kiss him first.’ Sleeping Isabel then watched with delight as she watched the younger couple share an all new first kiss.

Alex slid up behind his mate, slipping his hands around her waist from behind. “Okay, what’s next?” he asked, shaking his head at the music. ‘Octavio must be having an off night tonight.’

“Lets find Max and Liz and keep them out of trouble,” Isabel commanded. “You take that side, and I’ll meet you by the door.”

Alex wandered through the gyrating couples, but did not see any of their friends. Tis-ti-tis, ti-ti-ti-ts, tis-tis-ti-ti-ti-tis. “Aw man, I hate cymbals. How does he expect to keep this crowd moving if he doesn’t give them a beat to dance to,” he moaned making his way over to the stereo.

Isabel finished her swing through the former factory, finding Liz and Max in a corner. They never noticed her, well they were doing pretty well on their own and weren’t in much of a position to notice anything. Knowing that everyone was now safe, Isabel continued on, looking for her mate.

“Octavio,” Alex shouted.

“Dude,” the teen replied through reddened eyes.

“Hey,” Alex said with a leer. “Pam Troy is giving body shots to all comers out back.”

“Excellent,” Octavio shouted, giving Alex a high five while leaving in search of action.

Alex looked at the mix board. “Who the hell did this,” he exclaimed, as he quickly started making adjustments, the music already starting to sound better. Once finished, he looked up at the auxiliary panel on top of the equalizer. Not quite able to read the labels, he reached for a work lamp and illuminated the sliders. Barely able to contain his excitement, he called out for Isabel.

“What?” she asked, appearing at his side.

“Look,” he replied pointing at the panel with was labeled with her name written on a piece of tape.

“What the hell is this?” she demanded.

Alex examined the labels on the sliders. “I think we found the problem,” he said excitedly. “Here, look. These sliders are adjustments, from plus ten, to normal to minus ten. Now look at the label on the first slider. Paranoia. It’s set to plus ten. Self doubt, plus ten. Dream intensity, plus ten. Dreams bad vs. good, plus ten. Wake screaming, plus ten,,,”

“Are you telling me Tess is controlling me from the grave?” she demanded with disgust.

“It sure looks that way,” he answered softly. “I think she programmed you to have nightmares.”

“We’ll, we can’t have that,” Isabel said moving the sliders back to normal. “On second thought,” she reached and moved the good vs. bad slider to plus ten on the good side.

“Come on Sweetie,” Isabel implored, holding out her hand. “Our work here is done. Lets go, I’ve got better ideas about how to spend our time.”

Alex took one last look at the panel, and noted that one of the pieces of tape had curled, he unrolled the label to read it. ‘Sex drive, normal. Normal,’ he thought in disbelief. But like any teen-aged male he wanted more. He slid her sex drive settings up to plus ten.

“Sweetie,” Isabel said flirtingly, while reaching over his shoulder and returning the slider to normal. “You can’t handle me on normal.” She turned and kissed his cheek to take the sting out of her words. “You wouldn’t live until morning if you leave that on plus ten.” She waved her hand over the panel, locking the settings in place. “There,” she said with determination. “That should end the nightmares.”

Alex keyed track eleven as he backed away from the DJ’s console and held his hand out towards his mate. “Would you like to dance?”

Isabel stepped inside of his arm as ‘Let Me In’ started, and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Dance? Just this one song,” she asked breathlessly. “I can dance with you anytime. In the other realm you are lying behind me with a hand full of boob, my naughty place is ready to boil over, and my parents are going to remain asleep for hours.”

“Izzy,” Alex panted. “The rules!”

“Sweetie,” Isabel breathed, kissing and nibbling her way down his neck, “We’re a couple of horny teenagers. We’re expected to break those rules, at least some of the time.” She took his hand in hers and raised it to her breast. “Now the moment you tweak my nipple, you’re going to wake up, and give me a playing with that will last me for a week.”

“Hold on, I’m behind you in your bed,” he panted as he spun her in his arms so they were in the same positions in both realms. “Okay.”

Isabel felt him nibble on her ear as his fingertips gently squeezed,,,

**********
Max pulled into the school parking lot and went around to the passenger’s side of the Chevelle to open Liz’s door. As the young couple walked towards the building, Alex’s car pulled in besides them. Max watched as Alex climbed out of the passenger side of his own car, it was clear to all present that he had gone through a short night.

“Hey girlfriend,” Liz teased. “Get any sleep last night?”

Isabel looked confidently at Liz, while Alex had the good graces to blush, but any further banter was cut short as Max took Liz’s hand and pulled her back into the stream of students.

“I don’t want to know,” Max grumbled to the accompaniment of Liz’s gentle laughter.

**********
“Hummm,” Charles mumbled as he read the morning paper over breakfast.

“What’s that?” Gloria asked.

“It says here that a Postal Inspector was found dead, shot execution style,” Charles read. “He was the head of a special unit within the Postal Inspection Service targeting undocumented aliens. Apparently he was killed on his last day of work.”

“Oh that poor man,” Gloria said as she crossed herself. “Where did this happen??

“That’s the funny part,” Charles related with a note of confusion in his voice. “The article says that he decided to retire instead of accepting a transfer when it was announced that the Postal Inspector’s office in Clovis is closing.” He turned the paper to the jump section. “There is no Postal Inspector’s office in Clovis.”

“Maybe you don’t know there’s one there?” Gloria queried.

“Not unless they are working out of their briefcases!,” Charles exclaimed. “If they have an office, a telephone, or a car, it would have gone through my office.” Charles then shook his head in disgust. “Listen to this. FBI Director Mueller says this is another example of terrorist activities, and he has called for emergency funding to upgrade computer technology in every FBI office. Now why is the FBI getting involved with the death of a Postal Inspector, and why does the postal service care about aliens?”

“Isn’t it just like a Washington bureaucrat to try to make money off someone else’s misfortune,” Gloria concluded.

“I have a feeling this is another instance where we’ll never learn the entire story,” Charles surmised, his words containing more truth than he would ever know.

**********
Michael charged into the Quad, approaching the table where Liz and Isabel had settled upon while waiting for the others. “I need a woman’s point of view,” he exclaimed. “Where’s Alex?” he asked as he looked around. Spotting his friend coming out of the building, he headed towards him, cutting him off before the young teen could make it to his friends.

“Dude,” Michael exclaimed, grabbing Alex by the upper arm and dragging him out of the main stream of traffic. “You got to help me.”

Alex looked around nervously. “What’s going on,,, Is Isabel safe?” he demanded.

“No! She’s fine,” Michael said reassuringly. “It’s nothing like that,” he explained. “I have girl trouble.”

“Just tell Maria that she is right and you are wrong,” Alex instructed confidently, “And then wait for her to change the topic of conversation at least three times before starting another argument with her.”

I have to agree with her about three things?” Michael asked skeptically.

“Yea,” Alex replied with amusement. “I know it’s hard for you, but this is Maria we’re talking about. Don’t worry, it shouldn’t take her more than five minutes.”

**********
“It can’t be that easy,” Michael muttered. “Listen I really don’t want to blow this,” he continued, deep in thought. “I understand that Maria has abandonment issues,” he continued, gathering steam. “I know that every man who has ever been in her life has walked out on her,,,”

“Now wait a minute,” Alex commanded, holding up his hands. “You have got to stop over-thinking everything to do with Maria and start listening to your heart.” Alex tapped his warrior friend lightly on the chest. “I know you don’t want us to believe that you have one, but it’s in there somewhere, even if it does pump green blood.” Alex gave his friend a big grin to make sure Michael didn’t take his words seriously, then continued in a much more conciliatory voice. “Maria is way past abandonment issues where you are concerned. We,,, she accepts you, and has made peace with the fact that in order to love you she has to accept the risk that she may lose you someday.”

“Then what’s her problem?” Michael asked, exasperated to the point that he missed Alex’s telling slip of the tongue.

Alex had no problem staring the alien enforcer down.

“Okay,” Michael relented, “Our problem.”

“You are both a product of your upbringing,” Alex explained,,,

“Maria was raised by her mom after her father walked out. In fact Maria doesn’t even remember him. Just take one look at Amy,,,”

“Amy?” Michael asked incredulously. “You call Mrs. DeLuca Amy?”

“Remember, I grew up at her house,” Alex explained. “When we were little the only thing she hated more than Liz and I calling her Mrs. Deluca all the time was when we called her mom. It made her feel old. But in public, especially at the Crashdown, we call her Mrs. DeLuca, because Liz’s mom doesn’t want us being disrespectful to the customers. I recommend you do the same.”

“I know, the rolled up newspaper thing,” Michael agreed. “So she was young?”

“She had to be young when she had Maria, and she raised this beautiful woman all by herself. Amy has total confidence in herself, and rarely accepts help from anyone. I remember once when Maria decided that she needed to paint her room because she wasn’t a little girl anymore. Liz and I offered to come over and help, but Amy refused. She said that if the two of them couldn’t manage on their own, it didn’t need to be done. Did you know that Amy bought a book about electrical wiring so she could install the track lighting and lights in the display cabinets at her shop? Same thing. She had to do it herself.

“Amy has a need to not accept help from anyone, because she can not take a chance that the offer will fall through and Maria will be hurt or disappointed. Maria grew up in that environment, with a strong willed and capable mom who could provide for them both. It’s only natural that Maria has inherited the same fiercely independent streak. I’ve got to believe that as much as she needs you, she also struggles to be not needy, if you know what I mean,” Alex concluded, shaking his head. “That didn’t come out right. Let me try again,,,”

“No, I get that,” Michael declared, his own thoughts drifting off and expanding on the insight his friend had provided.

“It’s a lot like the way you are a product of the environment you were raised in,,,” Alex’s voice died out as he noticed the expression on the alien warrior’s face.

“You don’t really want to go there,” Michael advised.

“Good advice,” Alex said slowly, watching Michaels face and following his lead.

“You’re good,” Michael said deliberately.

“I grew up with girls,” Alex explained. “Liz, Maria and I spent all of our time together while my dad was off with the Air Force saving the world from itself and my brothers used me as a punching bag. I didn’t have any real guy friends until you and Max.” Alex’s eyebrows shot up as he realized a similarity between the two of them, “You know, considering your upbringing and the way my brothers treated me,,,”

Michael’s expression indicated another closed topic.

“Oh, right,” Alex mumbled.

“Do you use this stuff on my sister?” Michael challenged.

“Use is a rather strong word when it comes to Isabel,” Alex explained. “You know better than that. She wouldn’t put up with anybody playing her, even me. But yea, what I’ve learned from Liz and Maria has helped me during our ‘just friends’ periods.”

The bell sounded, signaling the end of lunch. “I don’t want you using this psycho-babble on Isabel, you understand?” Michael instructed in a voice that left no room for discussion.

“Chill Mikie,” Alex said, deciding that he had gone too far when he saw the tray in his friends hand shatter. “Sorry. Listen. I can’t pull a scam on Isabel, we’re joined. It may be hard to understand, but we share our minds with each other. We have respect for each other’s privacy, but I don’t think I could hide something like that from her.”

The two stopped in the hall, each needing to go in a different direction. “You know something,” Michael said in wonder. “I’m not going to threaten you about Isabel.”

“No? Why?” Alex asked relieved.

“Because I’m beginning to understand how you feel about me when I’m with Maria,” Michael said with a smile as he headed down the hallway.

**********
Alex had learned another new move during one of Jim’s classes, so he immediately brought Isabel out back to teach it to her, but he won their little match easily, in fact a little too easily. He had her pinned against the side of the garage with his body, while holding both of her wrists at head height. He watched as her passion soared in her eyes and spoke first, “Don’t say it.”

“Why?” she responded breathlessly, despair in her voice.

“Because I would not be able to say no to you,” he replied honestly.

“Is that so bad?” she gasped, her need for him making her ache. “Feel me,” she pleaded. “Feel my need for you,” she sighed as she blasted their connection wide open, and her consciousness flooded through his mind. “I never wanted any of those boys that I dated, Michael’s and my betrothal was arranged for political reasons. I died an unloved virgin in my first life, and I am still a virgin now.” She continued plaintively, “What’s wrong with me? I’ve been waiting two lifetimes for this moment.”

Alex ground his need for her into her abdomen, reassuring her that his physical needs were just as strong as hers before replying in a voice that belied his efforts to maintain control. “Nothing’s wrong with you,” he replied earnestly. “Nothing’s wrong with me,” he continued, bucking his hips into her to emphasize the point. “I have never so much as looked at another girl, knowing we would be together forever the moment I first saw you. But I know instinctively that while we’re both ready, it’s not right, not yet. Something’s missing. We’re so close, but until everything’s perfect,,,” Alex let the thought die on his lips, unable to say no to her.

“I’m so close,,,” she sighed. “Crush me. I need to feel your weight.”

Alex sensed that she needed her hands free, and as soon as he let her go, she tore open the collar of his shirt, and then wrapped one arm tightly around his back while she pulled his ass against her with the other.

Alex felt her passion peak through their connection as a blinding wave of her love and emotions washed through his body. His sense of her was so overwhelming that he didn’t feel her bite deeply into his neck, low on the shoulder, again marking him as her mate.

Alex felt her release him as she submissively raised her arms back against the wall. As he took them he heard her whisper, “More, I’m still right there.” This time, when he felt her explode, she made sure that she took him with her, fulfilling a promise made in a steamy shower stall in Texas a lifetime ago.

Later Alex gently kissed the top of his mate’s sleepy head. “We need to go to bed. We have a full day tomorrow,” he moaned.

“I want to shower together and spend the night in your arms,” she sighed.

“Soon,” he promised.

Isabel looked at him excitedly. “I could visit Max and my parent’s dreams. Make sure they sleep through ‘till morning,” she said with a gleam in her eyes. “I’m getting real good at that.”

“Didn’t you just,,,” Alex’s voice trailed off in amazement.

“I could go for more,” Isabel replied flirtingly. “I’ll be horny for you again by the morning. I’ll be tearing my skin off by tomorrow night,” she added.

“You slut,” he teased. “I don’t believe this. Me, Alex Charles Whitman, I The Stud, has awoken the slut in Isabel Evans, the Elle McPherson of West Roswell High,” he boasted proudly.

Isabel put both of her arms over his shoulders, and her eyes bored into his. Alex feared that he had gone too far, and would be the only human to see first hand what a nuclear meltdown looked like, albeit briefly. Instead, he heard words that he would remember for the rest of his life.

“Your slut,” she vowed. “Only for you. Whatever, Whenever, Wherever, Forever.”

Alex looked like he had been hit by a train.

“What’s the matter Stud,” Isabel taunted gently. “Feeling overwhelmed, out of control, swept along for the ride?”

Alex could only make a squeaking noise, and nod in agreement.

“Good,” Isabel said emphatically. “Get used to it.” She stood, and then amused by his catatonic state, took his hands and pulled him forward. After noticing their disheveled condition, she waved her hand between them, refreshing their bodies, and removing any evidence of their serendipitous activities from their clothing.

“Come on He Man,” Isabel said softly taking him by the hand. “As a mere human you may not be ready for an alien princess, so in the meantime I’ll get you upstairs, tuck you in, and give you a kiss on your forehead. At least I’ll be able to dream of sleeping in your arms.”

**********
Wednesday afternoon found Alex at his workstation. The encryption program was running longer and longer at each iteration, attempting to break the code of the book, which was good news, before crashing, which was bad news. Shaking his head in frustration, Alex stopped the process and examined the code of the program itself, looking for answers. After a moment’s pause, he made several changes to the encryption algorithm, which would hopefully increase it’s efficiency, and then rebooted. Time for an orange soda.

Gloria stopped her son as soon as he walked into the kitchen. “What’s gotten into your Isabel?” she demanded.

“My Isabel?” Alex laughingly asked.

“Your Isabel,” Gloria reiterated. “She’s driving me crazy.”

“She gets like that every so often,” Alex reassured her. “It’s perfectly normal for her, especially around Christmas.”

“Christmas?” Gloria gasped. “Heaven help us if she’ll be like this until Christmas.”

“Mom,” Alex teased, deciding to defend his mate’s honor. “What happened to your having raised four boys and one teenaged daughter is no problem?”

“Don’t you smart mouth me,” Gloria threatened before smiling at her words coming back to bite her in the butt. “I bet Diane would laugh her ass off if she could see me now. This can’t be PMS, could it? Does she get like this every month? How in the name of God could anyone put up with her when she’s like this?”

“Well when she’s on the warpath Max usually hides, her father gives her his credit card to shop and then spends a lot of time at work, and I think her mom hits the cooking wine a little heavier than usual. Seriously Mom,” Alex responded dismissively. “Isabel has something on her mind that’s distracting her, but you have to believe me. She’s scared of you. She wouldn’t do anything to upset you.”

“Really?” Gloria replied unbelievingly. She held up her hand and started counting off the items. “In the past three days she has defrosted my frostless freezer, scoured my self-cleaning oven, re-arranged my spice rack first alphabetically and then by their use-by dates, and just now she threw me out of my own utility room.”

“Mom,” Alex replied softly. “I trust her. I have to trust her. When she’s ready to talk she will.”

“Well I think it’s time the two of you spend a couple of days over at her house,” Gloria stated diplomatically. “Maybe she needs to spend some mom time.”

“Whitman” they heard in a chilling voice that hadn’t been used since the end of last year. “Where’s your dirty laundry?” Isabel demanded as she stomped into the kitchen.

“I did it yesterday,,,” Alex squeaked out.

“You did it?” Isabel gasped, throwing the basket on the floor and jamming her fist into her hips. “What’s the matter? You don’t think I can do a good enough job? You don’t think I’m capable of doing my share of the work in this relationship?”

“No,” Alex said, his voice trembling. “I just had a couple of minutes,,,”

“So you did your wash but not mine?” she interrupted with dismay.

“Ahhmm,” Alex hesitated as his face started to turn red. “The first thing I took out of your hamper was this strappy lacy thing that I could see right through.”

Alex knew he was in the ultimate no win situation as his girlfriend began to berate him for being afraid of a harmless pair of panties while at the same time his mother scolded him for pawing through their house guest’s unmentionables.

“I,,, I,,, I,,,” Alex mumbled, seeing no way out of this mess.

Isabel cut off further discussion and turned to her hostess. “I don’t have time for this,” she explained haughtily. “The spices are now arranged by intensity of use, with the most popular ones closest to the stove. And in the laundry room I took the liberty of purchasing dedicated measuring cups for the various cleaning products. White is for bleach, red for detergent, blue is for non-chlorinated bleach, and green is for fabric softener. I printed out a chart, laminated it, and posted it over the washer.”

“I don’t use non-chlorine bleach,” Gloria muttered under her breath.

“You do now,” Isabel answered confidently. “All you need do is separate the dirty laundry according to the published specifications, weigh the individual loads, and pour the correct amount of each product using the graduations I engraved on each measuring cup. You can also tell Charles that he will need to use a towel on his car seats tomorrow as I’m going to steam clean the carpeting and upholstery in his car as soon as I finish the laundry, and the seats may still be moist in the morning.”

Alex noticed that his girlfriend was oblivious to the fact that his mother was about ready to blow, and decided that the only way for him to live through the next five minutes was to get them apart. He picked up the laundry basket, only to have it snatched out of his hands.

“Sweetie,” Isabel commanded in a voice that brooked no argument. “Get a number two Phillips screwdriver and a flashlight, then come to the utility room. I need you to adjust the hot water heater. The hot water temperature is five degrees too low for maximum cleaning efficiency.”

Gloria watched her temporarily deranged but still loved houseguest turn and leave the room before sailing into her son. “Find out what she needs and give it to her,” she demanded. “In the mean time I’m going to take a long bath while we still have some hot water left,” she complained as she stomped up the stairs.

“Just give her what she wants,” Alex mimicked as he got a screw driver out of the recently cleaned and organized catch-all drawer. “That’s easy for you to say, you don’t have to figure out what she,,,” Alex froze in place as he found himself in another impossible situation between his mom and his girlfriend as he realized exactly what Isabel had been wanting for the past several months.

“Alex,” he heard, breaking his train of thought. “If I don’t see your cute little butt bent over in front of this water heater in the next ten seconds you are going to rue the day you were hatched!”

**********
Thursday afternoon was the perfect October day, bright, not a cloud in the sky, but still cool enough to allow the young couple to spend time outside. This fact was lost on Alex, who was sitting engrossed in their long awaited meeting at Leprino Foods. After a moment’s hesitation as Mike Stamford of Leprino’s Roswell purchasing department introduced two visitors from corporate, they delved right into the meeting. Alex was listened intently, attempting to understand all of the information that Leprino’s senior accountant was providing. It didn’t hurt that she was tall like Isabel, lean like Liz, and had short blond hair and green eyes like Maria.

“Alex,” Isabel snapped. “Pay attention to me, not her. I don’t want you listening to anyone that doesn’t have brown eyes.”

Alex tried to stay disinterested, but everything that Patty discussed was so engrossing, he soon got into trouble again. “Patty, can you explain how you process a credit card payment for an item that is on backorder?”

Patty looked lost for a moment, trying to recall a level of detail that she was no longer used on a daily level. Fortunately, she was rescued by Isabel.

“Alex!” Isabel interrupted. “There are no special billing procedures for delayed shipments. Credit card transactions must be held in abeyance and not executed until the time of actual shipment in compliance with federal trade laws.”

“Oh,” Alex said abashed. “I didn’t know that.”

Isabel noticed the shocked expression on Patty’s face and decided that the company hot shot didn’t know about that little fine waiting to happen either. She looked at the others sitting around the table. “You know, we’re all dedicated to bringing your factory outlet store into the same network that we have installed in your production facility, but it’s very inefficient for us to have everyone here for this discussion. I propose that Patty and I stay here to discuss the accounting processes and procedures, while Mike takes John and Alex out to the storefront so they can discuss the hardware requirements.”

After the men had left the room Patty turned to Isabel. “I’m sorry,” she said looking the tall consultant in the eyes. “I didn’t realize that the two of you are,,,” she added, letting her voice trail off.

“Oh! No,” Isabel replied, her eyes wide. “It’s got nothing to do with that,” she smiled. ‘I wonder if Alex also missed the fact that she was flirting with him.’ “The problem I have is that Alex sees you as this vast storehouse of new information, and I don’t have time to unprogram any conclusions that he may derive from the group discussion. I’ll tell him what he needs to know about your operations. If he wants to learn more he can make arrangements to meet with you after he finishes teaching his class tonight.”

“Hummm, maybe over drinks sometime,” Patty speculated softly.

Isabel found her comment humorous since he would not be old enough to meet her in a bar for three years, but her imagination had been piqued. She figured the only thing more humorous than Patty finding out how young Alex was would be the expression on her mate’s face when he realized that the figures that Patty wanted to show him had nothing to do with accounting. She would love to be there when that happened, even if that meant that she would have to scratch this woman’s eyes out. But indulging her little fantasy would include revealing just how young they were, a secret Mike Stanford had agreed to keep as long as practical. So having indulged her imagination, she decided to get the meeting back on track. “Okay, I want you to walk me through the entire operation of your retail storefront, from start to finish.”


Alex managed to keep a straight face while they looked at the computer equipment in the retail shop.

“I know it’s old,” the company representative with more than a little embarrassment, “But the equipment became available when we upgraded the factory network.” He held his hands out at his sides, palms forward, “You know how it goes.”

“Yea, I know how it goes,” Alex said with amusement. “We’ll take care of it for you.”


Everyone returned to the conference room after a light lunch in the company cafeteria. Mike opened the discussion. “Isabel, do you have any questions?”

“No, or at least not right now,” she answered confidently. “I’m sure I will when Alex and I start going over things.”

Mike turned to Alex, “Ready to go?”

“Always,” he replied with a smile.

“Okay then,” Mike said with a smile on his face. “I’m going to sit down and let the fun begin.” The purchasing agent sat next to his own people and leaned back in his chair.

Patty leaned over and whispered just loud enough for Mike and John to hear, “What now, they get back to us in a couple of weeks?”

Mike smiled sphinx like. “Just sit back and watch. I think you’re going to enjoy this, and if you’re not careful you might learn something.”

Isabel walked up to an easel with a new pad of paper already in place. She looked at Alex. “Hardware?”

Alex: “Existing, one point of sale terminal and one PC in the managers office,,,”

Isabel: “I’m proposing four, two point of sale terminals,,,”

Alex: “,,,PC based, with accessory cash drawers and bar code scanners,,,”

Isabel: “,,,Utilizing the same core hardware as the workstations already under lease, the need for two being,,,”

Alex: “,,,For flexibility and redundancy. Then the two additional workstations,,,”

Isabel: “,,,One in the managers office and the other in the stock room.”

Alex: “Network connectivity via an eight station switch,,,”

Isabel: “,,,Eight being for future expansion capacity. Network?”

Alex: “Tied into the existing network with a fiber link, again for capacity. Software?”

Isabel: “,,,Every terminal or workstation will have the same basic software loading,,,”

Alex: “,,,Additional software only where necessary.”

Isabel turned towards Mike. “People soft?” she queried, her eyebrows arched.

“No,” Mike replied with a smile. “While the registers will need to have Kronos time clock software loaded, the retail managers have not been entrusted with any human resource duties. The H.R. department in the local plant provides those services.”

With a nod of understanding, Isabel quickly finished the sketch of the hardware requirements, while Alex added some additional details.

John leaned over to Mike. “Are they always this way?”

Mike smiled in reply. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

Isabel flipped the sheet over revealing a fresh page. “Okay, so much for nuts and bolts, now for the software you will need to create.”

Alex just smiled, raised his hands, and made a ‘come here’ motion with his fingers. “Bring it on,” he added.

Isabel smiled back, clearly up to the challenge. “Currently the storefront is set up as if it were a totally separate entity from the production facility. There is no standardization between the two facilities hardware or software. The retail accounting software is not integrated with the corporate accounting system requiring the generation of manually produced reports which then have to be hand carried to the production facilities accounting office and then reentered by hand.”

“,,,Cost center?” Alex questioned.

“Exactly,” Isabel stated, expecting no less from her business partner and mate. “We will use the existing Aries software and set up the retail operation as a separate cost center within the company.” She carefully tore the sheet from the top of the pad, folded it in half, and brought it back to the table with her.

Meanwhile Alex had taken her place at the easel. “Datasets?” he asked as he started sketching a directory tree on the blank. Isabel leaned back against the table, staying close to Alex and the easel. Without referring to any notes she started calling out information as fast as he could write. “Many of the existing datasets, including the chart of accounts, global item number, physical inventory by cost center, employee database,,,”

“What did you drag me all the way down here for?” John, the Leprino I.T. (information technologies) hotshot, leaned over and whispered not too softly. “This schmuck is still using flow charts. Everyone else uses compilers.”

Mike considered letting John dangle for a bit, but instead spoke up in defense of his vendor. “Alex doesn’t need a compiler. He does it in his head.”

“That’s impossible,” John replied sitting back in his chair with a smug grin on his face.

Alex filled in the blocks on the flow “Agreed,” Alex interrupted. “We’re going to use everything that already exists. The question is, what are we going to need in addition to what we already have?”

“Retail customer database, catalog mailing list, Customer e-mail list,,,” Isabel started.

Alex went back to the blocks that he had labeled, and added the hexi-decimal labels for the memory locations that each database resided within his program, and then looked at Isabel for more.

“Leprino retails their own products in their factory outlets,” Isabel explained, “But they also purchase a number of items for resale also, for example gourmet crackers to go along with their cheeses.”

Alex thought for a moment and then looked at his partner. “In that case we won’t be able to use the same on hand database as we used for the production facility,,,”

Isabel cut in, “Do you remember when we wrote the initial package and I told you to set up a global part number database separate from the on hand database? Every product in any Leprino facility gets a global part number, but the on hand database at each facility only needs to import the data for the products that they handle.”

Alex’s hands were flying over the paper as he created the structure of the new software in front of the Leprino official’s eyes. While Patty looked suitably impressed, John was in shock as he watched Alex design their new software on the spot.


Two hours later they left the plant with a signed purchase order in hand. “What do you say? Senior Chow’s for a celebratory dinner,” Isabel asked. “I could go for some sesame chicken enchiladas, and you could get the lo mien you like so much. I’m sure Juanita will have it made with the chow fun noodles you really like.”

“Sounds good to me,” Alex replied cheerfully. “I’m buying.”

“Buying?” Isabel questioned. “We’re on company business. I’m expensing this and putting it on the company American Express card.”

“Company credit card?” Alex asked in wonder. “I don’t have a company credit card.”

“I know,” Isabel said with a smile.

<continued next>

[Stargazer md]

Friday morning found Alex sitting on a high stool in one of the music booths, strumming on his bass, whiling away one of the few free periods that he had to spend at school. His voice broke into a big grin as he sensed that he was not alone. “Isabel!” he exclaimed happily, rising to meet her. “I thought you had a class.”

“I need you now,” she said molding herself against him. “So I made a deal. I get a free period now and I’ll turn in a paper later.”

Alex answered Isabel’s need with a kiss, pulling her to him, and wrapping his arms around her.

Isabel pressed a small warm moist garment into his hand. “I don’t need them, I need you more and more every day,” she panted as she hitched up her skirt and tried to rub herself against his leg. “All I can manage to do is think about you.”

Alex spun her so that her back was against the wall and then leaned into her. “You want some of this? You want some of me?” he teased. He pushed his thigh between her legs, allowing her to grind against him. He opened his connection and reached for her, but was surprised to find his efforts rebuffed.

“No, not like that,” she said breathlessly. “Just physical. I need to feel you, hear you, smell you,” she gasped as her need came closer and closer to being fulfilled.

“Really,” Alex rebutted in a gruff voice, pushing himself harder against her.

Isabel could feel his need for her against her hip, which only served to inflame her passions more, resulting in her beginning to make the little sounds that drove him crazy.

Alex felt the heat radiating into his leg as she ground her center against the rough denim of his jeans, and then as he heard her making the little gasping sounds that signaled her approaching peak, he gave her what she needed. “I am the only one you are ever going to need,” he promised. “You are the only one there is ever going to be for me. I am going to take you and make you mine. I’m going to make you my woman, my wife. I am going to use you for my every need.”

Alex reached down and grabbed her ass in his hands, lifting her feet off the floor and leaned into her tighter, grinding her against his leg. Isabel in turn became totally immersed in him. She tore open the collar of his shirt and bit down onto his neck.

“I am going to do anything I want to you,” Alex told her in a determined level voice that bored into her soul as her peak started. “I am going to do anything I want to do to you, anywhere I want to.” Alex felt her clamp her legs on his, as spasms coursed through her body. I am going to be waiting for you when you get home from work, I’m going to rip your clothes off as soon as you walk through the door, and I’m going to pin you against the wall and take you right there on the hallway.” “I love you more than life itself, and I will give you everything that you need or want,” he promised as he felt her calm in his arms. Alex began to release his grip on her, but stopped when he heard her whine in protest. Instead he swept her into his strong arms as he scooted over to sit on the small stage. He stroked her golden hair and gently kissed her neck as her stunning body quivered in her own unique afterglow. “Back in the land of the living?” he teased.

“You should try it sometimes,” she replied, her voice still tinged with passion. “In fact,,,” she started to move off his still unmet need before he tightened his grip, holding her in place. She raised her eyebrows in question.

“Izzy,” Alex implored as the girl of his dreams squirmed in his lap. “Not here, not now. There’s the pants, the mess. Someone might walk in,,,”

There’s only three people who could open that door,” Isabel promised. “And they all know better than to incur my wrath.”

“Really, Fred will go back to sleep in a minute,” he said softly. “I’m okay for now,”

“Sweetie,” she said placing her hand over his heart. “I don’t you to be okay. I don’t ever want you to think you have to settle for just being okay.” She flirtingly lowered her head while maintaining eye contact and biting her lower lip, a little display of hers that she knew drove him crazy. “I want you to feel as wonderful as you make me feel.”

“I do,” he assured her. “You have no idea how great it makes me feel to know that I can give you such pleasure,,,”

“Yet you continue to deny me the chance to do the same for you,” she said without malice.

“Soon,” Alex promised.

“It had better be soon,” Isabel teased. “You promised me that I would lose my virginity before my birthday.” She tapped her wrist, pointing towards an imaginary watch. “Clock’s ticking, Whitman,” Isabel demanded with a seemingly playful demeanor that sent a chill up Alex’s spine.

The teens sat in silence, basking in the afterglow of their love for each other, when Isabel turned serious. “You realize, those things you said,” she said hesitatingly, “They’re a sign of love, not weakness. If anyone else would try anything like that with me, I’d kill them, as I would you if you ever treated me like that without love in your heart.”

“That could never happen,” Alex assured her, answering her serious tone with his trademark humor. “I would never pick on a girl who could go all space ninja on me. Besides I love you too much to ever hurt you,” he added, his voice softening as he lightly kissed her. “Izzy, I would kill or die for you.”

Isabel chortled at the irony of his admission. “You have killed and died for me Whitman, you’re going to have to do better than that this time.”

“Well if life and death’s not enough for you I’ll just have to take you to the park and push you on the swing and make your hair fly,” he said tenderly, “Just like when we were kids and you were feeling lost and all alone.”

“I’m not a little kid anymore,” Isabel whispered.

“It doesn’t matter, adults still have times when we feel lost and alone. I will always find you,” he promised. “You’ll never be alone.”

“But I’m going to hurt you,” she whispered.

“I know,” Alex said tenderly. “We’re going to spend our lives together. There are going to be easy times, and there are going to be times where we have to work at it. I promise you, I’ll still love you no matter what.”

Isabel reached a decision. “Be gentle,” she pleaded, looking into her mate’s eyes as she opened a small part of her mind to him. Moments later she felt Alex probe her soothingly, touching her mind, almost as if he was using a finger to test the water. She closed her eyes and rested her cheek on his shoulder as she felt his love for her blossom in her mind, releasing sunlight and warmth wherever she allowed him to go. Isabel’s sense of wonder in him overflowed, exhibiting itself as warm tears.

Alex felt her soak through the shoulder of his shirt, penetrating like an electric current to his heart. He pulled her tight, kissing the top of her head. “Shhhh,” he said tenderly. “Everything’s going to be alright,” he promised.

“How can you always make me feel better?” Isabel asked.

“Because I love you,” Alex responded confidently.

“But I need so much,” Isabel whispered timidly. “I’m afraid that you’re going to run out.”

“No! Never!” Alex stated dramatically, while turning up the temperature through their connection. “I may run out of patience or confidence. I may run out of courage. I may feel hurt or neglected, but I will never run out of love for you.” Alex took a breath. “Even during the times when you pushed me away, when I didn’t like you very much, I still loved you, because you crossed space and time to find me.”

Isabel bored deeper into his warm embrace and released the flood gates holding back her emotions as she mourned the gift she would never be able to give him.

**********
The gang was sitting in the quad, making their Friday night plans when Liz plopped down between Maria and Max. “Okay, listen up,” she said in as forceful a voice as she could muster. “I’ve tried to think of who I should talk to first, but I decided that I’m only wanted to have to say this once.” She took a deep breath then delved in. “I got a letter from Harvard. They dropped me from their early admissions program, so I’m going to be going to school here in New Mexico.”

Liz’s bombshell was met with a moment of stunned silence followed by a clamorous babble from her friends. Liz scanned the faces surrounding her, finding sympatric looks of concern and shock, until she got to the end. Without warning she reached out and smacked the side of Max’s brooding head.

“Good one Liz,” Maria gushed in approval.

“Yea, she caught that little corner of bone right behind the ear,” Michael groaned in sympathy.

“What the hell was that for?” Max demanded.

“For thinking that you had something to do with this,” Liz explained angrily. “I knew you would blame yourself. I had hoped you were learning Max. You aren’t responsible for everything that goes wrong.”

“Liz, that is your dream, to go to Harvard,” Max rebutted. “Before you met me and all my Czechoslovakian baggage.”

“That was the dream that I had before you healed me, and I became alive,” Liz said tenderly, taking his hand in hers and tracing it with her fingertip. “I made that choice a long time ago, but now there are more important things in my life than class standings and extra credit homework. It’s a decision that I made. Don’t disrespect me by thinking that I haven’t made the choice on my own.”

Max started to rebut as the rest of the group, having finished eating their lunches, started to drift apart to give the couple some privacy. Liz took Max by the hand and led him out onto the lawn, sat with her back against a tree, and had Max lie down with his head on her lap. “If I asked you about what your plans for the future were the day before you healed me, would you answer truthfully?” she asked softly as she traced the contours of his face with her fingertips.

Max thought for a moment before answering. “It wasn’t so much that we had made plans, we were doing what we thought we had to do to stay alive.”

“So you had no plans for college,” Liz probed. “No plans for what you were going to do after you finished high school?”

“Our reality was that we were simply living from day to day,” Max answered. “Aside from hoping against hope that this cute little brown haired girl would go out with me, we had no dreams.”

“And when you found out that the cute little brown haired girl liked you back?” Liz teased.

“Everything changed,” Max answered.

“Same for me,” Liz explained with a smile on her face. “It was my dream to go to Harvard ever since my dad bought an encyclopedia set the year I started third grade. There were three parts to the set. The book of knowledge was the main encyclopedia. It’s fourteen volumes that I gradually began to use for school work until the internet surpassed it. The second part was the book of medicine, four volumes that are hopefully obsolete now, but I must have read them all from cover to cover at one time or another. The last set was the book of science, twelve volumes. I used to take one of those books and get lost in it for hours. It’s how I learned to read, laying on the living room floor or curled up on the break room couch.

“In the early years I dreamed of growing up and becoming a scientist,” Liz waxed, “And then that dream evolved into becoming the head of molecular biology at Harvard, and finding the cure for cancer. That dream lasted through junior high school. But dreams change Max,” she continued, reaching the point of her story. “I now know that I want more from life than to work sixteen hours a day and share an apartment with Maria and Alex.”

“What do you want now?” Max asked optimistically.

“More,” she said reflectively. “I want to live, and love, have a great job, and the perfect family.”

Max tensed at hearing just how much she wanted out of life, and wondered how much of what she wanted he would be able to give her.

Max’s sense of apprehension was not lost on Liz. “You see? There you go again. I can feel your worry, ‘How am I going to give her all that.’ Simple. I’m not going to get it all.”

Hearing the determination in her voice, Max sat up and spun around to look at her.

“That’s what has changed in me Max,” she explained softly. “I understand that one can’t have it all, at least not all at the same time.” She reached out and cupped his cheek with her rose soft hand, causing him to tip his head, trapping her hand against his shoulder, holding her there. “We’re going to be together, but that’s going to take a lot of hard work on both of our parts. We’re going to have a family together, but that means that I won’t be able to exercise the single mindedness drive that would allow me to claim a spot at the top of my field. I understand that I may be part of the team that cures cancer, but I know that I won’t be leading it, and I’m happy with that,” she concluded as she leaned in and gave him a gentle kiss to seal the point.

“Maybe you can be a scientist working for Isabel and Alex,” Max teased.

“New Mexico does have a good reputation in the hard sciences,” she pondered out loud. “And Meta-Chem is right outside of the city,” she added.

“Naw, you need to go work for Isabel and Alex,” Max teased. “He was saying the other day that he was going to need a day care at their company because neither he nor Isabel want to spend time away from their children.”

Liz froze a moment hearing Isabel’s name along with Alex’s mention of a family. She closed her eyes and said a silent prayer that things would work out for her friends.

Max noticed her turn towards the serious. “Everything okay?” he asked.

Liz changed the subject instead. “So what about you?” she probed. “What are your plans for college?”

“Well I’m not going to medical school, that’s for sure,” Max stated emphatically, laying waste to the speculation of many who knew of his powers, and moreover his desire to heal. “I wouldn’t make it through the first class. ‘Now class,’” Max intoned in a whiny voice, “Today we’re going to practice blood typing. Turn to you partner and draw 50cc’s of blood,,,”

“Yea, I guess medical school would be a little high profile for you,” Liz agreed. “So what are you thinking? Anything yet?”

“I’ve been thinking of going to law school,” Max replied cautiously.

“That’s great,” Liz gushed with enthusiasm.

“I mean my dad has a burgeoning practice,” Max continued hesitantly. “With enough contacts to help me get established,,, wherever,,,”

“Max, we have a lot of time and work to do before we have to even think about where were going to end up settling down,,,” Liz said as her voice faded and she closed the distance between them for a kiss, “Together,,,”

**********
Michael was taking a fresh basket of Saturn Rings out of the Fry-O-Lator, while seriously thinking of climbing into it himself.

“Look at him,” Maria quipped to Liz as they picked up their orders at the window, earning a sneer from the irritated alien.

“Ria, what are you doing to that poor guy? He looks miserable.” Liz asked in amazement as they delivered food to the starving masses.

“Nothing less than he deserves,” the young pixie rebutted. She dragged Liz out of Michael’s sight and continued with a conspiratorial grin. “It’s kind of nice,” she gushed. “Or at least it would be if he just admitted it.”

“Admitted what?” Liz laughed, knowing that Maria would eventually spill.

“Oh, they’re playing it again,” Maria gushed. “Listen.”

(On the radio)
~~DJ~~ “A now we’re going to replay a call that we received on the KROZ listener line this morning, one of the strangest dedications we’ve heard in a long time. Have a listen and tell us what you think.”

~~Voice~~ “Ahhmm, you do dedications, right?”

~~DJ~~ “Yea,” the DJ droned. “That’s why we call it the dedication line.”

~~Voice~~ “We had our first date two years ago tonight, although it wasn’t really a date, but I can still make a dedication, right? I mean we’ve known each other since grade school. She bumped into me and dropped her books.”

~~DJ~~ “Love at first sight.”

~~Voice~~ “Not really. She started screaming at me so I called her a cheese-head.”

~~DJ~~ “Sounds like you have a way with the ladies.”

~~Voice~~ “Aww yes, I’m a real people person,” the caller sarcastically replied. “She called me a dork-butt and kicked me in the shin.”

~~DJ~~ “Ouch! So what’s this girl’s name?”

~~Voice~~ “Ahhmm, you don’t really need to know that, do you?”

~~DJ~~ “Is she listening?”

~~Voice~~ “Hell no, I called now because she’s in class.”

~~DJ~~ “So let me get this straight. This is the anniversary of something that really didn’t happen, with someone who calls you names and beats you up?

~~Voice~~ ”Yea, that sounds about right, although she doesn’t beat me nearly as bad as her mother does. That woman is why I’m afraid of newspapers.”

~~DJ~~ “I don’t even want to go there. This girl’s not going to know you dedicated a song to her, is she?”

~~Voice~~ ”No, isn’t it enough that I remembered?”

~~DJ~~ “Not at my house. Not only do I need to remember, but I have to remember with flowers and a gift. Well Dork-butt, we’ll send this out to your special Cheese-head.”

~~Radio~~ The sounds of Nazareth’s “Love Hurts”,,,

Maria disappeared into the kitchen, and as the door swung shut everyone heard a deep voice bellow, “Somebody just shoot me!”

Liz was shaking her head as she stopped at Isabel’s and Max’s booth. “Have you been following this?” she asked, pointing vaguely towards a speaker.

“Yea,” Max answered. “They have been playing Michael’s dedication all day. First they played the original “Love Hurts” by Rod Stewart, then they played another “Love Hurts” by Boy George,,,”

“Oh I bet Michael loved that one,” Isabel teased, as she watched Maria blow by with a big grin and a tray full of food.

“Then they played a third “Love Hurts” by Babyface,,,” Max concluded with a smile.

Just then Alex walked in the front door and approached the communal booth, but before he could even give Isabel a kiss, he was intercepted by a whirlwind that flew out of the kitchen door. “I’ll be back,,, I think,” Alex said in parting as Michael grabbed him by the upper arm and towed him towards the exit.

“Come on, stop dragging your feet,” Michael exclaimed in exasperation. “I need to get out of here almost as badly as I want to get this over with.”

“And just where in hell do you think you’re going?” Maria demanded as she blocked his path, hands on hips.

“I’m on break,” Michael barked. “And I have an errand to run. Someplace where they don’t have stupid radios.”

“You promised Mom we’d be there at six,” Maria gasped in disappointment.

“I’ll be there,” his voice instantly softening in reaction to her becoming upset. “Have I ever let you down?”

“Lots of times, but never when it counts,” Maria said tenderly stepping in and kissing his cheek. “Thank you for remembering,” she whispered. “I’ll make it up to you later,” she added in a voice that made his blood boil.

The sudden change in Maria’s demeanor overloaded Michael’s system, and he just stood there, blocking the doorway, until Alex led him outside. “What just happened?” he managed to ask.

“That’s Maria,” Alex explained simply. “She’s the only one I know who can give a person mental whiplash.

**********
“Oh no, I’m not going over there,” Michael declared.

“I don’t believe you,” Alex taunted. “You were the general of an entire planet, and you’re afraid of a little brass and glass?”

Michael thought for a moment. “Yea.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ten. “Why don’t you pick something out for me.”

“Sorry Michael, Maria’s my friend,” he replied, putting his arm around Michael’s shoulder and leading him forward. “She’s expecting a gift from you, not me.”

Michael walked up to the perfume counter, glanced down, and found exactly what he needed “Tommy Hilfiger,” he said excitedly. “Like the tee shirts!”

The clerk asked, “Perfume or toilet water?”

Michael instantly replied, “Toilet water, you get three times as much stuff for the same amount of money.”

“Michael, Michael,” Alex sighed, shaking his head and holding his hand up to the clerk. “You get more because the water part makes it cheap.”

“Then lets get her something that smells like roses,” Michael barked, quickly losing patience with the exercise.

Alex perused the counter. “Maria is too young for Ombre by Brosseau, or Gio by Armani. That’s what you would buy your grandmother.”

“Dude, Michael teased. “You’ve been spending way too much time with my sister.” He thought a moment. “That’s it. Let’s get Maria what you get Isabel,” Michael explained proudly.

“Oh no,” Alex said holding his hands up defensively. “I’m not taking anyone wearing “Amazing Grace” anywhere near Isabel. I know of many less painful ways to die. Besides, I doubt that Penney’s even carries Isabel’s scent. We’re here because we don’t have time to go to Macy’s in Albuquerque. Our options are limited.”

Alex studied the counter again. “Let’s try “Oscar” by de la Renta.”

“Very good Sir,” the clerk gushed.

“Look how small that bottle is,” Michael wailed.

“Your friend has excellent taste,” the clerk replied, misting her wrist and holding it up for Michael’s assessment. “Good things come in small packages.”

Alex took off before Michael learned just how expensive good things in small packages could be.

“Would it smell the same on someone who is younger?” Michael asked innocently.

“That will be Forty Six-Fifty,” the clerk responded coldly.

“Forty Six-Fifty?” Michael parroted in amazement.

“Plus tax,” the clerk threw in for good measure.

Michael caught up with Alex, who was standing in a daze looking at his cell phone. It displayed a simple text message, sent to him by their Blade server, ‘job complete.’

“Lets get out of here,” Michael muttered angrily. “I think that clerk hates me.”

Alex snapped back to the present. “Hates you?” he asked in amazement. “How could she hate you, we had her eating out of the palm of your hand.”

“I think I told her she was old,” Michael sighed.

Alex laughed as he fell in step besides his clueless friend. “Someday you’re going to have to explain to me how you can always snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.”

**********
Dinner at Amy’s had gone well. Amy had been both surprised and pleased with Michaels gift of flowers for the house, while Maria had been ecstatic with the perfume that he had given her.

“I don’t care if you had Alex help you pick it out,” Maria gushed. “You still had to be willing to do it in the first place.”

Michael displayed the wisdom of Solomon and held his tongue while Maria described the radio dedication to her mom. He realized that he had scored a hat trick (scoring three goals in Michael’s favorite game of hockey, the equivalent of hitting a grand slam in baseball.) with his girlfriend. First the dedication on the radio, second the flowers at the door, and finally with Maria’s perfume. He was hot, nothing could go wrong tonight.

During dinner Amy anxiously brought up the reason for the gathering. She was leaving in the morning for Albuquerque to attend the wedding of a friend, and she wanted the young couple to watch her shop for the weekend. She had already talked to Jeff, and their schedule was clear at the café, but she had been apprehensive about talking to them.

“No problem Mom,” Maria promised, thinking of carefree days in the shop and a parent free Saturday night with her boyfriend.

After dinner the women and their guest moved into the living room, where a lively discussion between the two teens broke out, while Amy looked on. This was a rare opportunity for her to watch the dynamic between her daughter and a boy who she had come to like and trust, and she wasn’t going to miss a moment of it.

“Come on,” Michael implored. “I know that you watch Max and Liz or Alex and Isabel and want that, but tell me the truth. Would you be happy if we were like Isabel and Alex?” Michael demanded.

“Have you seen what they have?” Maria demanded. “They have something most of us can only dream about.”

“Dream? Maybe?” Michael rebutted, not giving an inch. “I love my sister, and I want nothing but the best for her. I have nothing but respect for Alex, and the way he treats her.” Michael looked down. “There are times where I think Alex brings out the best in all of us. His outlook on life is so simple. Take care of Isabel, take care of you and Liz, take care of the rest of us.”

“And that’s wrong?” Maria asked in exasperation

“No, it’s not wrong, in fact it’s wonderful,” Michael protested. “For them,,,” he emphasized. “But they’re not themselves anymore.”

“No they aren’t,” Maria agreed. “Alex has blossomed from a timid boy who walked around waiting for something to happen into this man who stands tall and walks with confidence. But that’s nothing compared to the changes that have overcome Isabel. She has finally allowed her inner beauty to shine. She lights up every room that she walks into,” she paused to take a breath. “They are so good for each other,,, together.”

“It’s not that they are together,” Michael rebutted, his frustration rising. “It’s not about Isabel or Alex, it’s, it’s,,, Alabel,” he blurted out.

“What?” Maria declared. “You’ve lost it Spaceboy.”

Amy was biting her tongue, a rare thing for her, as she watched the exchange between the young couple. She had not been afforded such access to the group dynamic since the three Musketeers became the gang of eight, and she wasn’t going to say or do anything that would cause Maria, or more importantly Michael, to close up.

Michael, realizing that his people skills were degrading as fast as his frustration level was rising, took a moment to take a breath and gather his thoughts. Moments later, and much calmer, he continued. “It’s as if they aren’t two people anymore. They’ve gone way past what the rest of us can do. Think back to how freaked out you were when Max and Liz started to share flashes. At first you were hurt that I didn’t give them to you, but then when I did you were freaked out and craved normalcy. Think about how intense our flashes are. They are rare, intense, require physical contact, and they show us a glimpse of the other person’s memories. Not a very effective communications tool.”

Maria had never seen Michael talk so long and so emotionally about anything before, so she bit her tongue and remained silent, afraid that anything she would say would scare him back into his shell.

“Now compare a flash to Isabel’s ability to dream walk,” Michael continued. “She can come into your dreams and see your soul. We can’t control our dreams, but she can, we’re totally defenseless against that. But as if dream walking isn’t enough, she and Alex can connect anytime, anywhere. And from what she’s telling me, they are both getting stronger. Do you want that? Can you even imagine the privacy issues they are going through?”

“Alex was telling me that he is already making plans for her birthday and a couple of other things,” Maria agreed in a soft voice. “He’s having trouble keeping them a secret. They are struggling with the privacy issues, especially after she popped in while he was scrubbing himself in the shower the other,,,” Maria froze when she saw a cloud cross over her boyfriend’s face.

“Please, I have to watch them enough,” Michael mumbled. “Don’t put any ideas into my mind.”

“What I’m saying is you’re right,” Maria countered. “I never thought of it that way, but you’re right. I need my independence. I need alone time and girl time as much as I need my Michael time.”

Michael scooted to the edge of the couch and took Maria’s hand. “I need you to be a part of my life,” he said earnestly as Maria’s spirits soared. “I’m still coming to grips with that, and I’m still trying to figure out just how I need you to fit in,” Michael’s voice faltered. “But I can never give you what Isabel and Alex have.”

Maria placed a finger under his chin and gently lifted his face. “That’s okay, I’m not Isabel, and you’re not Alex. Don’t worry, we’ll find our own way.”


At the end of the evening Amy watched as Maria walked Michael to the doorway. “So you’re alright with this?” she asked nervously.

“Sure Mrs. D.” Michael replied confidently. “No problem. What can go wrong in two days? We’ll just sit behind the counter, and rake in the cash.”

“You do that,” Amy agreed with a gleam in her eye.

**********
Isabel found Alex’s car near Stargazing Rock and parked Max’s Chevelle behind it. Moments later she found her mate sitting with his back to the cold granite, looking up into the night sky. “I came as soon as you called, although Max is going to be upset when he finds his car gone. How did you beat me here?”

“I’ve been here a couple of hours,,,”

Isabel noticed that Alex was visibly upset. She could feel fear radiating from him in waves.

“It took me a while to work up the nerve to call you,” he said to no one in particular.

She now had him in her arms. She pulled his head to her shoulder and stroked it, calming him. “What’s wrong?” she asked gently.

“Nothing’s wrong. As a matter of fact, Liz was right,” he replied, cryptically.

“Alex,” she pulled back enough so she could see his eyes, “You’re not making any sense. Just talk to me.”

Alex reached behind him and picked up a binder. “It’s all here, hard copy, and I burned it onto a CD.”

“Alex, honey, what is this,” she asked, her voice starting to show some worry at his demeanor.

“It’s the Antar book, I was finally able to translate it for you,” he answered, looking her in the eyes for the first time.

“What? How?” she gasped in amazement.

“Liz was right that day in the Crashdown,” he explained. “The key is in the atomic table of elements. An appendix in the back of the book contains the Antarian version of it, and I downloaded an English version of it from the internet. Elements are the same throughout the universe, their atomic structure being the same on both your planet and mine. Hydrogen for example, always contains one electron circling one proton. That’s the key to translation. Everything’s in the translation,” he promised, watching for her reaction,,, hoping. “Who you are, where you came from, how the granolith works,,,”

“Isabel held the material in her hands, stunned. “Alex, do you know what this means?”

“Yes, I’m telling you how to leave me,” he whispered.

“The granolith?” Isabel asked in amazement. Hope for her future blossomed in her mind.

“Yea,” Alex answered forlornly.

The answers to so many mysteries burned in Isabel’s hand. Here was the reason Tess was willing to kill Alex, maybe even the reason an entire star system had descended into a bloody civil war that has lasted for the past half century. “I’ve got to read this, I’ve got to tell the others.” She turned and walked towards the cars.

Alex watched as she left, and watched the rest of his life leave with her.

TBC

[KaraGail]

Issabel is so excited to finally understand her past that she doesn't see that she is hurting Alex

I loved this part and all I can keep telling myself as I read that you are getting closer and closer to where you left off before the ezboard crash. : I just can't wait to see what you have in store for our favorite couple :

Kara

[KarenEvans]

Gripping!

That is the only word I can use to decribe this part Paul.

How can Isabel just walk away like that :?:
Alittle disappointed in her but I guess you have lots more up your sleeve.

Waiting for more :D

Merry Christmas!
Karen.

[Rim]

omg she walked away. poor alex he thinks she leaving him. please post soon

[Stargazer md]

Stargazer Gets the Girl
Chapter 20 - Secret? What Secret? I don’t see any Secret!
by Stargazer_md

Disclaimer: The characters don’t belong to me. If they did, the show would still be on.
Some text is borrowed from the show, I didn’t treat it any worse than the original
writers.
Summary: A&I fun mostly.
Setting: An entirely new S-3
Category: Alex/Isabel with CC
Rating: Mature

Where were we? Alex completed the translation of the destiny book and gave it to Isabel. Her reaction didn’t go that well.


**********
“I thought you guys were opening Amy’s shop this morning,” Liz asked her counter customers as she made a fresh pot of decaf.

“We don’t open until nine,” Maria explained. “That gives us time for a leisurely ‘Saturday Morning at the Crashdown’ breakfast.”

“Really? I’ve seen at least three bus loads of tourist already,” Liz advised. “Just look around.”

“It’s okay,” Michael quipped. “You’ve got three girls working the front with you, and two cooks in the kitchen. There have been many times when just the three of us have taken on a roomful like this.”

Maria meanwhile was wiping her mouth as she slid off the stool. “Come on Spaceboy, we got to get the shop open.”

“We still have an hour,” Michael complained.

“Nope!” Maria commanded. “Three busses. That’s more customers than we will get the rest of the day. Got to make money while there are people willing to spend it.”


Moments later at Amy’s shop.
“Do you have any more of these?” the customer asked, holding up a container of alien cocktail stirrers .

“There’s a whole shelf full of them,” Michael replied patiently.

“No,” the customer complained. “These are a translucent green while the rest are an opaque green. I want more of the translucent.”

“Lady,” Michael said, his patience slipping. “What you see is all we have.”

“Well can you special order more of these for me?” the lady persisted.

‘Special order,’ Michael thought with disgust. ‘They’re glorified coffee stirrers for God’s sake.’ He then picked up the package and looked at the label. “You would have to order one hundred twenty-eight packages from the factory in China.”

“China,” the woman moaned as her mind imagined the shipping cost. “I’ll just make due with what you have here.”

“Good choice,” Michael stated condescendingly, while he heard a dog barking. “Excuse me.”

Michael turned and faced down an elderly woman who was holding a leash connecting her to a small self propelled floor mop. “You can’t bring a dog in here!”

“I bring Sampson everywhere,” Madam Blue Hair intoned. “What do you expect me to do, leave him in the car? That’s against the law.”

“Ma’am, we can’t have dogs in here. We can loose our business license,” Michael explained patiently.

Meanwhile Maria was at the counter. “Mrs. Albright, what brings you out on a Saturday morning?”

“I’m looking for Amy,” she replied. “She’s supposed to take me to the pharmacy to get my pills.”

“Mrs. Albright, my mom’s in Albuquerque. She won’t be back until tomorrow night,” Maria explained. “There’s a pharmacy right across the street,” she added helpfully.

“Oh, I can never do business at the chains,” Mrs. Albright said conspiratorially. “They water down their drugs with that red-neck race-car headache powder. So I always buy my pills at Spaced Out Drugs. All my prescriptions are on file there. I don’t know what I‘ll do waiting until Monday, I’m afraid I’ll have a spell.”

“Just hang on a minute,” Maria said with a sigh. “I’ll talk to Michael, and then I’ll drive you over there.”

Moments later she heard a crash, and she saw several small children running from the back of the shop. “Michael?” she cried.

“I got it,” she heard in reply.

**********
Sunday morning Michael was sitting on the edge of the bed pulling on his shoes when Maria woke up.

“What are you doing?” Maria asked, with concern in her voice.

“I don’t have any fresh bread,” he answered impatiently. “I’m going to run out and get some.”

“You’re getting dressed and going out?” Maria demanded, her voice rising.

“I have to,” he replied, his voice rising to match hers. “They don’t deliver.”

“So I’m going to be here in your bed naked,” Maria shouted as she knelt on the mattress facing him, the covers falling down to her knees, “And you’re not even going to be here in the apartment?”

“Damn it,” Michael shouted. “I knew this was going to happen. Yesterday was nothing but one disaster after another, so I thought you deserved breakfast in bed and you find a way to turn it into an argument. I should of asked Alex about what to do in the morning.”

“You talked to Alex about our love life?” Maria demanded, emphasizing each word by poking him in the chest, which caused her pert breasts to bounce in a most delightful way.

“No,” he wailed in disgust. “Not about this, about what to do Friday night,,, out there,” he added, pointing out to the living room. “I didn’t want to blow things in front of your mother.” He continued in a softer voice, “I wanted to show you how much I love you, but every time I try something we end up fighting. I need his help just trying to figure you out.”

“He would have told you to ask me what I wanted,” she said softly.

“What?” he responded, the confusion visible on his face.

“Alex would tell you that you can’t make the perfect breakfast if you didn’t know what I wanted,” she continued.

“What do you want for breakfast,” he asked with trepidation.

“Nothing,” she replied, scooting across the bed and sitting next to him. “Or maybe something simple, a glass of juice, a piece of fruit, a bowl of cereal. Nothing that would make you get dressed or spend an hour in the kitchen. Certainly nothing that would make you leave me here alone.”

“I just wanted to make you something that you would enjoy,” he explained patiently.

“Spaceboy,” she sighed. “I work in a restaurant. I have an in with the cooks, you know? I can get any meal I want, any time I want it. What would make this morning perfect would be if you stayed in bed with me. If you didn’t get dressed, if you didn’t spend time in the kitchen. All I want is what I can’t get every day. To wake up in your arms, and to lie here with you so long that it’s sinful.”

Michael looked around the room. “I can offer you a quarter bottle of warm water and a stick of Juicy Fruit,” he quipped while kicking off his shoes.

“Perfect,” Maria replied.

Before Michael could react the phone rang. “Don’t answer it!” he commanded.

“I have to answer it, we’re running a business,” Maria said dejectedly as she reached for the instrument. Moments later she slammed the handset down, muttering curses that won’t be repeated here.

“Don’t tell me,,,” Michael said with disgust.

“That was Jennifer,” Maria snapped as she pulled her jeans on. “Mom’s part timer. She quit. Seems she woke up this morning at her boyfriends house and doesn’t want to get out of bed.”

“I know the sentiment,” Michael moaned.

**********
Monday afternoon, Isabel walked into the Crashdown, where one of her friends was waiting for her.

“Where’s Alex?” Maria challenged, sliding into Isabel’s booth. “He’s been in a rotten mood all weekend and I’m worried about him.”

Isabel paused for a moment. “He’s home in his room working on his computer,” she answered with a hesitant smile on her face.

“Why is he there instead of here with his girlfriend,” Maria demanded. Noticing a customer waving to get her attention she snapped, “Do I look like I’m working?”

“Maria, what’s got into you?” Isabel asked nervously. “Alex has been closed off the past several days while he’s been working a couple of shifts with the fire department, and I’m spending some letting Max grovel and beg my forgiveness for the way he treated me last summer. What’s different now from any other time you see us apart?”

“Why is this time any different?” Maria mockingly repeated. “I’ll tell you why. Because I’m sick and tired of you treating my best friend the way you do. Every time he tries to get close to you he gets hurt, but he keeps coming back. Why does he do that? Because you need him, and he can’t possibly refuse you. You invited him to the rave, and then you asked him about the sheriff. You wanted to go to a movie with him, and then blew him off to go traipsing in the woods. At least he got five minutes of your precious time before you told him it wasn’t a date and then walked off. The next day you accepted his book about astronomy and with your next breath you broke his heart again by accusing him of stalking you. For God’s sake Isabel, you made a date with Grant while he was sitting right next to you. It took both Liz and Michael to keep me from climbing all over you when you did that, and I don’t even want to talk about how you treated him in Vegas.”

Isabel sat stunned, reeling from the unexpected attack. From the moment she walked through the door Maria was acting as if there was a war going on. How did she even find out about what was going on between her and Alex, and why did she keep bring up this ancient history. She sat stunned a moment, but decided to set Hurricane DeLuca straight.

Maria took a deep breath, and continued before Isabel could respond. “This time,,,” the fact that she was no longer shouting only gave more impact to the words. “This time, you went too far. Making plans together, next year, college, talking about how your children would turn out. This time you didn’t take hope from him, you didn’t just crush his dreams. You took more, more than he has to give. He translated your book. He had to do that for you. He almost died for you, but that book is part of your life, and he had to give that back to you. Tess almost killed him, but that would have been kind compared to what you did to him. At least she would have put him out of his misery. You took his future. He has nothing left, and he’s going to have to live with that for the rest of his life.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Isabel demanded. “I’m going to marry him and spend the rest of my life with him, yet you’re making it sound like I’m going to leave him. He knows me better than that. He knows that my past means nothing to me, that I would never leave him.”

“Maria’s look softened, but there was still steel in her voice as she asked, “When he gave you the translation, that’s what you told him?”

Isabel thought back a moment, and a look of panic crossed her face.

“Michael told me he was staying the moment he heard about the book,” Maria explained, her voice returning to normal. “Same with Max. He spent last night on Liz’s roof, reassuring her that he wasn’t going to do anything rash.” She studied the tall blonde’s face. “You did tell him?”

“On no!” Isabel gasped as she ran for the door.


Isabel went directly to Alex’s house, pain seeping from every pore. She didn’t know if she was mad at him, herself, or life in general. She had seen how unresolved misunderstandings within their group could linger for weeks and months, making everyone involved miserable. This one was going to get solved right now. If she couldn’t resolve this in the next ten minutes, heaven help them both. Isabel saw that Alex’s parents car was gone, ‘Good thing they’re not here,’ she thought, ‘Because this is going to get messy.’ She climbed the stairs shouting Alex’s name, “Where are you? Alex? Come out here right now! Don’t make me go looking for you.”

“I just want to hear three little words from you,” he shouted through his closed bed room door.

“Open the God damned door,” she demanded.

“Wrong answer,” Alex replied, unable to hide the hurt in his voice.

Without warning Isabel blew the door off it’s hinges, knocking it onto his bed room floor. She entered his room and stood on the shattered door facing him. “What’s this crazy idea you have that I’m going to leave you?”

“All I’ve ever heard is this destiny thing,” Alex snapped. “Your destiny. Well there it is in black and white, your destiny.”

“You never heard that from me. Not once have I ever said anything about going home and being one of the Royal Four, Not Once!” Isabel’s anger was tempered with pain, but she had to give him credit. He was standing less than a foot away from her, giving as good as he got in the intimidation department.

“You didn’t have to,” Alex replied, his voice breaking. “When I gave you the book you could have said something. All I needed to hear is that it didn’t matter to you. Instead you turned your back on me and walked away.”

“This is about the book?” Tears were running down her face, her anger gone, replaced by the loss of the only person in life that mattered to her. “Curse that book, it has been nothing but trouble. Where is it? In your computer?” Isabel raised her hand and fired a burst of energy into the computer, which exploded and burned on his desk. “Did I miss? I can’t see too well,” she explained, her tears flowing freely now, but that didn’t stop her from proceeding to systematically destroy every other piece of computer equipment she could find.

Alex recoiled from the destruction, not knowing what to do or how to stop her.

“You don’t believe me. If I have too destroy everything to prove that book means nothing I will.” She aimed at the papers and books on his desk. They exploded into flames. “I’ll destroy the granolith to prove to you that I’m not going anywhere.”

“Izzy, stop!” Alex pleaded, dismayed by her pain.

“No, not until you trust me. Not until you believe that I love you, that I will never leave you.” She aimed at her reflection in his mirror. “What happens if I do this Alex? If you don’t love me, I don’t care.”

“No! Alex pulled her arm down, I do trust you, almost as much as I love you.” He kissed her. “Besides, you can’t destroy the granolith, you would probably incinerate parts of three states.”

A new voice boomed out, “What the hell is going on here?”

They turned and saw Mr. Whitman standing in the shattered doorway.

********
Maria wandered into her house, distracted and dismayed by her conversation with Isabel. While initially she had been so sure that Isabel had intentionally hurt Alex again, she was not so sure about that after seeing Isabel’s reaction. As a result she was not prepared for the scene that awaited her in the kitchen.

“I was hoping you would be home before dinner got cold,” Amy said pleasantly.

“Dig in, It’s really great,” Jim agreed, with a sense of belonging that made Maria uncomfortable. “Hot garlic bread, fresh salad, and this is the best lasagna I’ve had in years.”

Amy gushed under the praise while Maria looked around. “Michael?” Maria asked in confusion.

“Hey, don’t ask me,” Michael quipped. “Command appearance,” he added as he folded a piece of garlic bread and stuffed it into his mouth. “Good eats. You should stock up while the getting’s good.”

Maria shook her head at Michael’s table manners, but sat down and cut herself a piece of one of her mothers best dishes. As the meal progressed, the conversation gradually shifted to the teens experiences over the weekend. Soon Maria and Michael were trying to top each other with stories of the difficulties that they had faced over the weekend.

“So I’m glad you enjoyed yourselves,” Amy teased.

“But Mrs. Albright got her Inderol, right?” Jim asked with concern.

“How did you know about that?” Maria shouted.

“Busted,” Amy laughed.

Maria reached over and slapped Michael on the shoulder. “Did you hear that? Why are you just sitting there?”

“Because your mom has a newspaper within reach and I don’t want her to start hitting me with it,” Michael replied reasonably.

“Yes you were set up,” Jim confessed.

“But everything that happened this weekend was real. So real in fact that you never questioned it,” Amy stated earnestly. “Right?”

“Yea,” Maria grudgingly agreed. “But Michael had to clean up dog crap,” she whined in his defense.

“I have to clean up dog crap at least once a week,” Amy explained. “We are in the middle of a desert here, and the majority of my business depends on customers shopping on impulse. If I kick the dog out of my shop I loose that customer as well.”

“Why did you do this?” Michael asked of the man who he was beginning to see as a father figure in his life. “Obviously you got together and had some kind of plan.”

“Yes we did,” Jim admitted, deferring to Amy.

“I want you to see what kind of a life a high school education gets you,” Amy said softly. “Do you want to work retail for the rest of your life?”

“Mom,” Maria replied, “It hasn’t been all that bad for you, I mean, you own your own business.

“Do you think this is what I wanted out of life?” Amy asked. “Do you think this is the life I planned for myself? I got pregnant on Prom night, married as soon as I graduated, and was a single mom in my early twenties. Now don’t get me wrong. I love you Maria, and I’m already coming to love the new additions to my family. I am happy with my life, but I haven’t taken a vacation in more than five years, and I have always been just one problem away from the poor house. I want more for you. I want the two of you to college and have a shot at a better life.”

“I guess you’re wondering why I’m here,” Jim interjected.

“I think Mrs. DeLuca’s comment about the men in her life covers that,” Michael answered, a little overwhelmed at the intensity of the conversation.

“I have to admit that I find Amy’s kind words a pleasant surprise,” Jim admitted modestly, eliciting a blush from the hostess, “But no, I’m a little more involved in this conspiracy than just lending support.” Jim looked at Michael and girded himself for his next statement. “I don’t think anyone would disagree with me when I say that you got screwed over by the system Michael,,,”

Michael started to protest, but held his tongue when the older man held his hand up in a ‘wait a minute’ gesture.

“We think it’s time that the system did something right by you,” Jim explained while nervously running his hand through his hair. “So after talking this over with Phillip Evans, and a couple of the community leaders, I’m happy to say that, if you want it, you should be eligible for a grant to any of the colleges in the state’s university system.”

Maria grabbed her boyfriend’s hand as she squirmed in her seat in glee, while Michael looked like a deer caught in a set of headlights.

“Now we don’t want to tell you what to do with your life,” Amy stammered. “But we, I mean we all think that you deserve a better shot at life than you’ve been given so far.”

“Michael. Promise me one thing,” Jim asked in a soft voice that still managed to convey his sense of conviction. “Please think about this before you make a decision.”

********
Charles stood in the doorway, his hands on his hips, and a look of utter disbelief on his face. “I asked a question! What’s going on here?”

Alex faced his father, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, while he struggled to find a way to extricate themselves from the mess Isabel’s little fit had placed them in. “Pops,,,” he muttered.

Isabel meanwhile could not believe that she had exposed herself in such a juvenile manner. She had allowed Maria’s misconception to pique her anger, then compounded that mistake by indulging her insecurities and letting her ire run amok. In doing so, she had exposed them all, placing those that she most wanted to protect at risk. Within moments she had compounded the loss of her future family and increased it to the point where she did not have a future at all.

Alex felt dismay wash over his mate. He realized that since Isabel had been at the end of her emotional rope before his father had shown up, she must be past the breaking point by now.

Charles leaned with his shoulder against the door frame and his arms crossed, looking over the smoking ruins of his sons room.

“I love you,” Alex said softly. “And I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“He knows Alex. I did something stupid and now your father knows,” Isabel gasped. “I can’t believe I did that.”

“I’m waiting,” Charles continued patiently.

“I love you Izzy,” Alex said earnestly, taking her hand and sitting next to her on his bed. “And I AM going to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“All five minutes of it! What if he doesn’t understand? What if I have to run?” Isabel moaned, on the verge of panic.

“Downstairs, Now!” Charles commanded.

“First, Pops loves you. He wouldn’t do anything to hurt you,” Alex explained confidently. “And I hope you realize by now that if you ever do have to run, I will be right besides you.”

Charles was sitting on the couch when the teens came down stairs. “Sit down,” he commanded in a voice that would brook no argument. “I don’t want any bullshit, and I don’t want any evasions,” he demanded in a voice that belied his military career. “Your mother is going to be home in a couple of minutes, so I am only going to ask this once. What happened upstairs?”

Alex could sense Isabel’s panic, so he reached over and drew her second hand into his grasp. “About that Pops,,,”

“I don’t want to hear anything about a freak power surge,” Charles interrupted. “Not unless it came from your hand,” he added, staring at Isabel.

“We don’t have anything to say,” Alex stated defensively. He started to stand, pulling on Isabel’s hand.

“Sit!” Charles demanded.

Seeing that Isabel showed no intention of moving, Alex settled back down.

Charles sighed and wiped his face with his hands. “Okay, lets try this again,” he said much more calmly. He looked at the young couple, and seeing that no one was going to say anything, he decided to go first. “Listen. I haven’t spent the past ten years in Roswell working for the Air Force and then the GSA (General Services Administration) without picking up a couple of things.” He looked at Isabel. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

“Pops!” Alex exclaimed. “This is Isabel! You know, the girl you said you loved like a daughter,,,”

“Still do!” Charles broke in. “I’m also confident that she loves you. Based on the fact despite standing in the middle of a free fire zone you weren’t afraid,,,”

“Mister Whitman, I would,,,” Isabel exclaimed.

“It’s still Charles,” Charles corrected.

“Charles, I would never do anything to hurt your son,” Isabel explained earnestly. “I love him more than life itself.,,,”

“Really?” Alex teased, relishing in this turn in the conversation. “I love this part,,,”

“Alex! I crossed time and space to be here with you right now,” Isabel snapped testily.

“Okay, I guess that’s an admission without saying so,” Charles murmured unnoticed.

“Took you long enough to figure that out,” Alex said with a sarcastic undertone and an evil looking grin. “You had me worried for a while.”

“Aaaggghhh,” Isabel moaned in frustration, her mind momentarily removed from the crisis at hand. “Careful Whitman, I still have a blast with your name on it.”

“You would never do that. You love me,” he quipped with his head tilted to the side as he batted his eyes suggestively.

“Man do you have a lot to learn about women,” Charles commented, jumping back into the conversation.

“Pops,” Alex implored, snapping back to the present. “I,,, We,,,” he paused and looked at Isabel, his love for her visible in his eyes as well as flowing through their connection. He took a deep breath and turned back to his father. “This is a day I prayed would never come.”

“May I ask why?” Charles asked softly.

“Because it’s the day that I have to choose Isabel over my family. It’s the day we have been found out, and we have to run. It’s the only way I can keep her safe,” Alex stated dejectedly. “I just ask that you give us a good head start.”

“Well I wish you the best of luck,” Charles replied with a gleam in his eyes. “But Isabel stay’s here.”

“What?” Isabel asked, her voice hesitant.

“Isabel,” Charles said reassuringly. “I mean it when I say that I consider you the daughter we never had, and there is no way that I’m letting you leave. Nor will I let anyone hurt you. All I care about is the fact that love my son and he loves you back.”

“You mean,,,” Isabel stammered.

“Welcome to the family,” Charles gushed, standing and holding his arms open.

Isabel leapt into his arms, her relief palpable. Alex watched the scene from the couch, knowing that his father wasn’t much of a hugger, present company excepted. Isabel drank in her fill of Charles’ acceptance of her, an action that ended much too quickly for her current state of mind.

Alex caught their attention as Charles stepped back. “Mom’s going to be home any moment,” he warned.

Charles headed for the stairway. “I’ll get my tool box and see what I can do to hide the damage. You two stay down here and stall your Mom.”

“Have no fear,” Alex quipped, taking Isabel’s hand. “We have all the tools we need right here.”

“Come and be amazed,” Isabel joined in. “I’m going to show you something that’s better than make up sex.”

Hearing his father gasp, and more importantly, seeing his face turn red, Alex turned to his mate. “You had to poke the bear, didn’t you?”

“The bear,” Isabel gasped, looking around. “Gloria’s not home, is she?”

“It figures my daughter takes after my wife,” Charles muttered as he followed them up the stairs, “Which is amazing since they just met!”

Alex paused at the top of the stairs, and then followed them into his room. “Pops, help me lift the door into place. Isabel, the wall?”

“I don’t know what you think we’re going to accomplish,” Charles gasped as he lifted the door while Isabel flattened her hand against the wall behind Alex’s computer. “We’re going to have to go to Home Depot to get a new casing and paint to hide those scorch marks,,,” Charles’s protest dies on his lips as a fresh coat of paint, or at least a fresh coat of color spread from Isabel’s hand. She then stepped closer and ran her hand down the length of the door casing repairing it as she went.

“Izzy,” Alex sighed. “You got the wall a shade too dark and not glossy enough.”

Isabel stood from where she had just repaired his Blade server. “You dare question me about decor?” Isabel belted out, slamming her suddenly clenched fist into her hips. “I’ll have you know this is apache white in eggshell. Exactly what was there an hour ago.”

“Alex,” Charles said softly. “Maybe you shouldn’t piss her off. You know the whole lightning flying from her fingertips,,,”

“What’s this? Izzy!” Alex moaned as he pounded on an unresponsive power button on the server. “Our entire future is on this machine.”

“It’s fine,” Isabel replied nervously. “Just look at it.”

“I bet that would hurt,” Charles advised, “Like when your mom resorts to the frying pan,,,”

Alex plopped into his chair and propelled himself across his room, slamming into his desk in front of his workstation. Isabel reached down, grabbing his inner thigh, she pivoted him towards her. She settled on his leg and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. “Okay, what’s going on Sweetie.”

“First thing’s first,” Alex replied, slipping into work mode, a rather enjoyable work mode as he was feeling complete with Isabel being in physical contact . “Power?” He fiddled with several controls. “None! Can you reach the UPS and reset the breaker?”

“Yea, it took a reset,” Isabel replied, also slipping into Aries mode. “It’s self testing.” Forgetting their audience, she turned to her mate, “Alex, I am so sorry about all this,,,”

“What? The machinery?” Alex asked with surprise. He tried to turn to face her directly, which didn’t really work since as he moved her position on his lap meant that she moved with him. “It’s nothing but plastic and metal Izzy. I don’t care about this the way I care about you.”

“Well now that everything seems to be under control,,,” Charles said, pretty much to himself.

“The UPS is showing on-line and fully charged. But your dad,,,” Isabel hesitated.

“The monitor lights up, and the KVM switch is working. Pops is cool,” Alex replied confidently. “He keeps secrets for a living. You don’t think that if he really spent all his time leasing space for the post office that he would have been put in charge of the 9-11 rescue efforts, do you? He has more going on than he lets on.”

“That doesn’t look good,” Isabel moaned as she saw that the Blade wasn’t booting.

Alex popped the cover off and looked inside. “Smoked,” he sighed.

“Here goes nothing,” Isabel said dejectedly as she tried to repair the workstation a second time.

“Looks good, but it still won’t fire,” Alex said, struggling to keep his voice level. “Oh well, it was only a matter of time before we had to replace it anyways. We’ll just have to replace it earlier than we thought.”

“How about the Win-Tel server?” Isabel asked. “Did I get that one also?”

Alex simply poked at the power switch in response.

“I can’t fix it,” Isabel moaned in despair. “I can make it look good, but I can’t make it work.” She stood and started pacing the room while Alex tried the LaserJet printer. He found it to be fried also.

“Isabel, Alex. Dinner,” Charles instructed from the door. “Were you able to get everything running?” he asked.

“No,” Isabel answered, visibly upset.

“Do you have an old surge strip or anything like that?” he asked.

“Sure Pops,” Alex answered uncertainly.

“Have Isabel blow it up. You’re going to have to tell your mother something,” he reasoned. “You might just as well try to make the freak power surge story work after all.

**********
Maria watched in dismay as her mom and Jim settled down in the living room with a movie. Obviously she and Michael weren’t going to get any privacy here. “I’m taking Michael home,” she declared, reaching for the keys to the Jetta.

“Be good,” Amy replied absent mindedly.

“We will,” Maria replied offhandedly.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Amy replied, giving Michael a look that made him wonder if she had picked up an alien death ray somewhere.

“Understood,” was all Michael replied.

**********
Less than an hour later Alex and Isabel were on the way over to her house when she pulled into the park and stopped the car. She restlessly climbed out, carefully closing the door behind her. Moments later she was wandering along the dimly lighted paths, holding his hand in a death grip the whole way, finally ending up at her ‘thinking’ bridge.

Alex patiently waited in silence for her to open up to him, but that did not stop him from comforting her through their connection. When she stopped on the center of the bridge, leaning out to gaze at the inky water, he snuggled into her back in am embrace meant to warm her body as well as her soul.

Isabel knew that she had to tell him what had been bothering her ever since she had learned about her future from Liz, but she felt so loved in his arms. She could do nothing to jeopardize the place where she belonged, the home within his arms that she thanked God she had been able to find. So she really would tell him, but not until this hug ended. But she would never leave his arms, so she decided to count backwards from a hundred. She would tell him when she finished.

Alex could feel her anguish. He turned her, taking her face in his hands and looking into her eyes. “You do know that nothing you tell me can possibly change the fact that I love you.”

Hearing again his love for her, Isabel’s face broke and her tears streamed forth, propelled by great wracking sobs that shook her to the bone. “I love you so much,” she choked out as she broke out of his grip and ran away, her flight quickly stopped by a bench, unseen through her tears.

Alex grabbed her from behind, preventing her from hurting herself. Before she could protest, he swung around the end of the bench, seating himself and pulling her into his lap. She landed sideways, her knees off to his side, allowing her to bury herself in the safety of his shoulder while looking into his eyes.

Alex pulled her in tight, rubbing her back and whispering words of reassurance. “Everything’s going to be okay Izzy. I’m not going to be going anywhere. I love you and I’m going to spend the rest of my life proving that to you each and every day.”

Isabel nodded her head in response.

“We’re agreed on that?” Alex asked tenderly. “Okay then, I’m sure we don’t have to worry about Pops. He loves you. He would die for you. In fact he would run me over to get to you if you were in danger.”

In response Isabel just started crying all the harder while shaking her head.

“Is there something else we need to talk about?” Alex asked carefully.

Isabel nodded in reply. “It’s always something with me,” she gasped. “You should leave me and find a nice normal girl,,,”

“And miss out on all the excitement?” Isabel protested. “Every day with you is an adventure. I can’t wait to see you every morning,” he said reassuringly. “I don’t ever want to back to normal if normal means that you’re not in my life.”

“I’m a reject. I’m not human, I’m not Antarian,” Isabel complained.

“You have the best of both worlds,” Alex answered confidently.

“Alex, I wasn’t even born. I have no parents. I’m a demented science experiment gone bad. They made me out of a pile of left over parts from a couple of dead people with a shot of blue slime thrown in for good measure.”

“You have two sets of parents,” Alex replied softly, flooding her with love and calmness through their connection. “One who loved you enough to send you away so that you would be safe and another who took you into their home and opened their hearts for you.”

Alex continued his reply, but was cut off as she placed her hand over his mouth. “You need to find someone else, someone who is real. I’m not, I’m a clone. You have to find someone who is real, who can give you a family.”

Alex gently took her wrist in his hand and gently pulled her away from his mouth. “Izzy Sweetheart. Just tell me what’s going on. I can’t make it right if you don’t tell me what’s upsetting you.”

“You can’t fix this,” Isabel wailed. “I can’t give you the family we want so much. I can’t have children.”

“What?” Alex exclaimed, momentarily stunned. “I don’t understand.”

Isabel took a deep breath to steady her nerves for what had to be the most difficult conversation of her life. The confession that would end her relationship with her soul mate. Her mind jumped back to the whole ‘Vilandra’ admission, a piece of cake compared to what she had to do now. “Liz and I have been trying to find a method of birth control that would work for me. Instead we found out that our systems aren’t compatible.”

“Compatible?” Alex choked out.

“You can’t make me pregnant,” Isabel concluded, her emotions in a total free fall.

Alex realized that he was blowing the most important conversation of his life. “It doesn’t matter,” he replied dismissively.

“What?” Isabel barked out.

“It doesn’t matter,” he replied evenly. “Don’t get me wrong, it hurts. I want children as much as you do. But children or not we are going to be a family.”

“How can you say that?” Isabel demanded, her voice dripping with the pain that she was having trouble containing.

In response Alex awkwardly unbuttoned several more buttons on his shirt, and then took her hand, placing it against his chest over his heart. “Let me in,” he pleaded.

“You are in,” she answered softly.

“Deeper. More,” he asked. Alex reached deep inside of her, until he could feel her heart bounding in her chest. “All the way,” he asked tenderly.

Isabel opened herself fully to him, letting him touch her heart with his own. Alex found himself on a storm tossed sea, with waves crashing all around while sheets of lightning slammed into the sea. “Great!” he shouted. “I’m in love with a space alien who lives in the desert. How in hell did we end up in the middle of the ocean?” He was thrown from the crest of one wave to the trough of the next, while tons of icy cold water pounded down onto him. His face was peppered with sea spray, while the harsh salt caked on his lips and stung his eyes.

Alex struggled to take a breath, but ended up with a mouth full of water instead. But as he spit out the scalding water and gasped for breath, his mind was not on himself. “Izzy!” he screamed. “I’m here.” He could not believe the turmoil that his mate was suffering. Choking on another wave he realized that he had to do something, and quickly. “Izzy! Reach for me!”

Alex watched as a beam of sunlight knifed down several waves over from where he was floundering. “Sunlight? What’s this sunlight crap?” The beam turned from blistering yellow to a cool bluish white column of moonlight. “That’s better,” he decided as he struggled to swim his way to the center of the storm.

Entering the beam of light, Alex’s senses were assailed by a rhythmic pounding that was stirring the sea into a tempest. The deafening pulsations assaulted Alex’s ears as well as his body, the deep throbs resonating in his chest. Alex stopped struggling and surrendered to study a nagging sensation piquing the back of his mind. As he shut out the tympani of sound he realized what was causing the tumult, Isabel’s heartbeat.

“Izzy, Sweetheart,” Alex pleaded. “Reach out to me. Let me in, even deeper. Connect with me.”

“We are connected,” Isabel wailed, her pain palpable in her voice.

“I need more,” he simply answered as he turned out all sensations. He ignored the cold wet feeling of nausea that permeated his body, turning inward. He stopped caring about the pounding swells bombarding his body, he even stopped thinking about his breathing, allowing the realization that he was feeling her bounding heartbeat.

Alex concentrated on holding his heartbeat and respiratory rate steady and then reached out, touching her heart. Her panic stabbed at him, rushing through his system like a narcotic, but he held himself steadfast. “That’s it Izzy. I’ve got you now, and I’m never going to let you go.”

Alex pulled her tight, fitting her body in against his own. He began to stroke her hair with his hand while talking softly. “Everything’s going to be okay Izzy. I promise you. We may have a large family, or we may have a small one. Only time will tell.”

“Promise?” Isabel said between her sniffles.

“I promise,” Alex said confidently.

Isabel buried her face into the side of his neck. “Are you upset?” she asked, her voiced almost a whisper.

Knowing that the slightest slip of the tongue would distress her, Alex pondered his answer carefully. What he did not realize that the mere fact that he hesitated, drove her panic level through the roof. “I am disappointed that we are going to have this uncertainty hanging over our heads until we find a way to resolve this.”

“You don’t think I’m a freak because I can’t even produce one copy of myself,” Isabel choked out between hiccups.

“I think that you are the wonderful person I have ever met, and I thank God every day that you’re going to let me spend the rest of my life with you,” Alex answered as he went back inside.

Alex found himself inky black sea under a blanket of brilliant twinkling stars. He was bobbing over the gentle swells in a coracle, with his feet resting on the gunnels while one hand was over the side dipping into the warm water. “Izzy, are you here?” he asked cautiously.

“I’m right here, Sweetie” Isabel said breathlessly as she snuggled into his side, her hand still inside his shirt.

Alex looked up at the sky, and then looked around. “Where’s the moon,” he questioned. “Isn’t it supposed to be near full?”

“I got rid of it,” Isabel answered. “You can’t see the stars as well when the moon’s out. Aren’t they beautiful?” she asked in awe.

“You are,” he answered, his eyes on her.

“Sweetie! Listen!” she gasped as they noticed a gentle undercurrent of rhythmic sound gradually became audible. “It’s our heartbeats.”

“It figures!” Alex teased. “Mine’s chasing yours.”

“Of course, what do you expect?” Isabel teased as she tenderly stroked his chest. “You save me again, this time by becoming a part of me, taming my restless heart, and calming the tempest in my soul.”

“Izzy,” Alex replied bashfully.

Isabel cut him off. “Sweetie, I don’t know how long we’re going to maintain this, I can feel it tiring you. Let’s just enjoy it.” She burrowed deeper into his embrace, “I don’t think I’ve ever felt this close to you.”

“Did you see that?” Alex exclaimed as their heart beats merged and a streak of light illuminated the horizon.

They could feel their combined heartbeats resonate through the sides of the small boat as spikes of cool light in brilliant colors climbed above the horizon.

“That’s us?” Isabel asked excitedly. “It’s beautiful,” she sighed as the beams of light intensified into sheets of luminescent colors, dazzling to the eyes.

“It looks like the Northern Lights,” Alex explained. “I saw them once while we were at Plattsburg.” (Air Force Base, Upper New York state.)

The young couple basked in the physical manifestation of their love for each other, but maintaining such a deep connection was taking a toll on Alex. Isabel noticed, and taking one last look at the brilliant night sky, recording that perfect moment in her mind forever, she began to back out of the connection.

“Sweetie?” she asked softly.

“I’m fine,” he answered as he stood and took her hand.

“Where we goin’?” Isabel asked as she skipped along side of him.

“We’re going for reinforcements,” Alex replied cryptically.

**********
Maria was in the drivers seat of the Jetta taking Michael home, and as usual for her, she could not wait to pummel her boyfriend with questions. “So? What do you think? Were they on the level?”

“I think you should watch where were going,” Michael replied, snatching the wheel and steering them back onto the pavement.

“Michael,,,” Maria shouted.

“I don’t know? Okay?” he exclaimed. “I need some time to think about this.”

Noticing that Michael was thinking instead of running, she was able to hold her panic in check, then her feelings turned to sympathy for his dilemma as she felt his soothing hand on her thigh. She managed to stay quiet until they were parked and settled on his couch.

Michael sought a sense of normalcy by stroking his hand through her hair as he composed his thoughts. “I have spent my whole life dreaming of my family picking me up in our ship and taking me home. I had the whole thing composed in my mind. How it would happen, what they looked like, even what color the ship was.” He turned to face Maria. “The thing is, I’ve seen the ship, and it looks surprisingly like a Jetta.”

Maria looked into his eyes expectantly.

“When I accepted that my family was here, I thought that I was through making decisions, and I could just settle down and let things happen,” Michael said softly. “But instead, it’s just changed the questions. Where are we going to go, what are we going to do, how am I going to pay for everything?”

“Michael,” Maria said softly, “You don’t have to decide all of this right now.”

“Maybe I don’t have to decide right now, in fact I should say that we don’t have to decide right now,” Michael sighed as he tossed his head back against the couch, “But we have to at least start thinking about it.” Michael snapped bolt upright, his eyes wide open. “Kids want to eat three times a day. How am I going to pay for all that?”

“Kids,” Maria exclaimed. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

“It could happen,” Michael almost shouted, panic evident in his voice. “What happens if we have kids, when we have kids.” He turned to face Maria. “I don’t want to be the kind of parent I had while I was in foster care.”

“Michael,” Maria said calmly, taking his face in her hands. “I have faith in you. You could never be like Hank, because you know that everything he did was wrong. You’ll be a wonderful father.”

“How do you know that when I don’t?” Michael asked disbelievingly.

Maria swiveled so that she ended up sitting in his lap with her arms and legs wrapped around him. “Because I have more faith in you than you do. That despite you’re shortcomings I know that you’re going to make a good dad.”

“Father? Not husband?” Michael teased as he slipped his hands inside of the back of her shirt.

“Lets just say I’m keeping my priorities straight,” Maria sighed in response. “Oh yea, right there. Yea, that’s good.”

**********
Later that night, Phillip sat up in bed as Diane stepped out of her slippers and slipped in besides him. “Do you think she’s going to be alright?” he asked with concern.

“She’s will be,” Diane replied with conviction. “When I looked in on them Alex was brushing her hair. I’ll give two days tops before he isn’t safe being within arms reach of her.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything,” Phillip sighed. “She turned white as a sheet when I sat down and joined in the conversation.”

“No, you did the right thing,” Diane replied with determination. “First, it didn’t come as a complete surprise to her that you knew their secret. I’ve warned her numerous times that I don’t keep secrets from you, but more importantly, they need us right now.” Diane burrowed her way into Phillip’s side, seeking comfort and reassurance.

“They are so much younger than we were,” Phillip sighed. “We were twice their age when we went through the same thing,,,”

“We were out of college, had our house, our practice. We had been living the life of our dreams for years before we found out,,,” her voice trailed away.

“Before we were blessed with our family,” Phillip filled in with determination. “We’re just like every other couple, only you didn’t have to go through the bother of labor before giving me our children,” he continued, his voice returning to their soft level of discussion.

“That’s what has been taking from them. Their dreams, that wonderful anticipation of wondering how things will turn out,” Diane said, her voice cracking.

“Alex is so good for her,” Phillip sighed. “At least if I’m going to loose her, it’s to someone I know will take care of her.”

“You’re not going to loose her,” Diane rebutted, lifting her head to look her husband in the eye. “Alex knew he needed help and he brought her right to us. That’s never going to change. Deep inside she will always be your little girl.”

“Were they still on the couch when you came upstairs?” Phillip asked.

“Yes. Her hair is shining like spun sunlight, and he’s whispering little promises into her ear,” Diane continued, her voice full of concern. “I didn’t want her waking up screaming in the middle of the night, so I told her that they could utilize the nightmare rules, just for tonight.”

“And Iz didn’t drag him upstairs by his hair?” Phillip gasped in amazement.

“She didn’t react at all,” Diane said flatly.

“That’s bad,” Phillip said softly. “We’re going to have to do everything we can for her.”

“And Alex,” Diane replied with determination. “He’s her strength right now. I‘m afraid he’s trying to do too much.”

“He’ll be okay,” Phillip said with assurance. Their newest project at Leprino is complete, and the fire fighters should be back from New York in a week or so, which will allow him to cut back his time with the rescue. Besides, do you think we could hold him back when it comes to Isabel?’’

Diane just chuckled in reply.

**********
Down the hall Alex clasped his mate tightly to his side in his sleep. In her realm he had taken her to the state fair, and was taking her on all the rides. He took a special delight in sharing the front car on the roller-coaster. He watched her face light up with laughter when her golden hair flew behind her as the car rocketed down the hill and slammed into a tight turn. Alex had learned all about the importance of a good list during the years that he had watched her from afar. His current list was full of things for them to do together, as he was determined that she would not shed another tear tonight.

**********
The following afternoon, Max looked around Michaels apartment. “Okay then, no more misunderstandings?” He looked around the room. “We’re all staying, and everyone understands that?” he asked, while giving his sister the eye.

“Old news, Maximilian,” Michael stated impatiently. “Move on.”

“The destiny book,,,” Max started to say.

“You mean the ‘Old People with a Stupid Plan’ book?” Ava interrupted. “I can’t believe that they described me as a defective failure with negligible value even as a last resort.”

“Well at least we now know that they expected the plan to change as a result of unforeseen circumstances,” Liz injected hopefully.

“Unforeseen circumstances,” Alex snickered. “Unforeseen circumstances include running out of Tabasco or landing a couple of miles off course. Now if I remember right, your ship crashed, your pods were captured by and then rescued from the government, while one of your protectors disappeared and the other turned psycho. Then you hatched with no memories or instruction with one member of your four-square missing. You ended up fighting a whole town full of enemies, you’re missing pod mate returned and went postal on us, and last but certainly not least your golden princess fell for the love of a handsome stud. I wouldn’t call that unforeseen circumstances. I’d call that an unmitigated disaster.”

“You’re saying my falling in love with you was a disaster?” Isabel teased.

“Well no,” Alex stammered. “I meant the rest of it. Your falling for the Roswell Romancer was your incredible good luck.”

“Promises, promises, stud,” Isabel moaned.

“Hey, that’s my line,” Alex rebutted.

“Just remember that when I get you home,” Isabel teased, to the catcalls of her friends.

“So that leaves us with the Granolith,” Max concluded.

“Let it rot,” Michael retorted.

Alex saw Isabel’s look of hope turn to panic at her brothers suggestion. “I don’t know if we want to just abandon it,” he quickly interjected. “But we’re going to need time to find the key and more importantly I need to build a computer interface to communicate with it since no one remembers how to speak your native tongue.”

“Fine, I nominate the dream team,” Michael stated dismissively. “I don’t want anything to do with it,” he concluded while looking Maria right in the eyes.

“Anything else?” Max asked. “Good,” he concluded before anyone could object. “Meeting adjourned. I’m hungry.”

“Isabel?” Maria called out as they filed out of Michael’s apartment in search of food. She held the taller teen back until they had a bit of privacy. When they were alone Isabel raised her eyebrows in question.

“I just wanted to say,,,” Maria stammered. “I mean I was kind of harsh the last time I was talking to you,,,”

Isabel interrupted. “I’m glad you did it.”

“What?” Maria asked, astonished.

“I’m glad you stuck up for Alex,” Isabel explained, “Even if it was against me.”

“Is the first time you two,,, you know,,, fought?” Maria probed.

Isabel looked at her friend for a moment, then decided that she did indeed want to answer her. “Well,” she started to say while wringing her hands nervously. “Heaven knows I’ve treated him badly; but yes, this is the first time that I’ve done anything like that since we’ve been a couple. But even more importantly,” she added in a rush as the idea grew on her, ”It’s the first time he has ever stood up for himself and fought back.”

Maria’s face lit up. “Hot make-up sex?” she gushed.

“I wish,” Isabel sighed. “Mister Whitman walked in on us and caught us before anything could get started,” Isabel decided that this was not the time to mention that there were new members in the ‘I know an alien’ club.

“Poor Alex,” Maria teased.

“Poor Alex!” Isabel repeated earnestly. “What about poor Isabel. Alex can have me any time he wants me. All he needs do is ask. In fact he doesn’t even need to ask, I’ll respond to the merest hint that he wants something. In fact if he would just lower his guard for a moment I’ll do all the work for him,” she added wistfully, pivoting on her hips as her face began to glow.

“For God’s sake,” Maria snapped. “Be careful where you sling them things. You’ll put somebody’s eye out.”

“What’s the matter Maria, jealous?” Isabel teased as they returned to familiar territory, thrusting her chest out for added emphasis.

“I’m not jealous,” Maria moaned. “I’m worried for you. I’m afraid your twin peaks will fall out and break or something.”

“Oh sure you’re not jealous,” Isabel said, barely refraining from laughing. “That’s why you ran around Frazer Woods last year with ten pounds of frozen water in your bra?”

“That’s not funny,” Maria gasped. “My nipples were stiff for two weeks after that. I had to wear band-aids on them so they wouldn’t rub themselves raw.”

I’m sure Michael would have helped with some lotions and stuff,” Isabel rebutted with a knowing smile.

“Speaking of boyfriends,” Maria replied, lowering her voice conspiratorially, “I’m going to let you in on a secret.”

“Ewww,” Isabel replied. “Too much information.”

“Not about us,” Maria gasped, slapping her friend on the shoulder. “About Alex.”

“What about Alex?” Isabel asked, obviously confused.

“Well in regards to your trolling for action whenever you’re around him,” Maria teased, pointing at the tall girl’s distended top. “You’re using the wrong bait.”

“What bait?” Isabel challenged.

Maria leaned back against the wall, a smug expression on her face. “During all the years that Alex was following you around, did you ever catch him staring at your chest?”

“No!” Isabel replied instantly. “Alex is a gentleman.”

“That didn’t stop him the last time you wore your leather pants. He was checking out your ass and leaned over so far he fell off the stool he was sitting on,” Maria quipped, but she sobered quickly seeing the look of thunder that crossed her tall friends face. “Isabel, what I’m trying to tell you is that Alex is a leg man. He starts drooling whenever he sees you in a short skirt.”

“Really?” Isabel thought for a moment. “Now that’s not fair! You know I can’t wear a short skirt too often. It isn’t safe. The last time I wore one three of the guys who were following me around the school fell down the stairs and ended up in the nurses office.”

“Well I just thought I’d mention it,” Maria explained, getting ready to leave for work. “Sometimes I think the two of you are just too nice for your own good. You two need to get nasty.”

Isabel smirked at her friend. “How do you know we don’t?”

**********
Early Thursday morning Paramedic Tom Stilwell leaned over the nursing station counter in the Roswell Hospital’s Emergency Department. His eyes bored into Alex as he asked, “How’s the paperwork coming?”

“I’m working on it,” Alex replied as he carefully transcribed the information from his informal run notes checklist onto the official patient record form.

“You make sure you let me review it before you turn it in,” Stilwell commanded. “I don’t want to get my ass reamed out by Captain Baxter because of your mistakes.”

Alex continued on the report. ‘Lets see, patient information, vital signs, incident narrative, treatment given,’ he thought to himself as he worked. Fifteen minutes later he had the form filled out. Once he finished he stuck his head into the on call lounge, catching Stilwell with his feet on the end table watching the Today show. “All set,” Alex stated, unable to completely hide his irritation.

“Both patients?” his better asked.

“Both patients?” Alex asked in confusion. “Didn’t you fill one out?”

“I’m a paramedic,” Stilwell answered arrogantly. “I don’t do paperwork. That’s what we have EMT’s for.”

Alex went back to the spare seat in the nurses station and pulled a second blank form from the back of his clipboard. “I don’t do paperwork,” Alex muttered under his breath as he quickly started filling out the top of the second form.

“Excuse me?” a voice ask from behind him.

Alex turned around and saw a new arrival who had just started to unload her tote bag into one of the drawers behind the counter. “I’m sorry, I was just talking to myself,” Alex admitted.

Let me guess,” the nurse stated, slamming the drawer closed with her hip. “Stilwell!“

“How’d you know?” Alex replied.

“Oh he and I go way back,” she admitted. “Let’s just say that if he isn’t hitting on my nurses he’s dumping his work on his partners.” The charge nurse looked at Alex for another moment. “I know you.”

Alex stood and held out his hand, “Alex Whitman. I think you took care of me the night I took my ride along with Sheriff Valenti.”

“Chris Welch,” the nurse replied, shaking his hand. “So you’ve joined the fire department?”

“Not really,” Alex replied modestly. “I mean, yes I did take my EMT course, but I’m still in high school. I’m just trying to fill in a couple of short shifts while so many of the fire fighters are in New York.”

“I’m sure they appreciate the help,” Chris replied with a smile. “Now let me see, how is your girlfriend, Isabel?”

“You remember her?” Alex asked with surprise.

“Oh I doubt I’ll ever forget her,” Chris replied honestly.

“She does have that effect on people,” Alex agreed, unable to keep a silly grin from his face. “She’s fine.”

Chris noticed the look of rapture wash over the young mans face, but was interrupted as Stilwell approached the counter. “Finished yet Lifesaver?” he teased. “It’s getting late and it near the end of my shift.”

“It is late,” Alex admitted. “You’re going to have to let me off at the school or I’m going to miss my first period class.” Alex signed the form with a flourish, ripped off the second copy inserting the duplicate form back into his clipboard, and came out from behind the counter.

“Drop you off at school?” Stilwell complained. “Do you see yellow paint on my bus?” (Authors note: Ambulances are often referred to as ‘busses,’ as in ‘everyone rides the bus.’)

“I just spent an unpaid ten hour shift doing your scut work. You’ll drop me off at my school and be happy to do so,” Alex demanded.

Whatever other caustic comment Stilwell was going to bellow was expertly cut off by the charge nurse. “Where’s my drug audit Stilwell? You’re already two days late. I want it in my mailbox before the end of my shift.”

“Or what? You’ll call Captain Baxter?” Stilwell answered sarcastically.

“You think I need him to make your life miserable?” Chris laughed in reply.


“Izzy, You up?” Alex asked softly.

“Of course I’m up,” she replied morosely. “Do you think I got any sleep while you were away?”

“Put your hand on your floating heart,” he commanded. “I’m always right there, with you” he added tenderly.

“Awww,” Isabel sighed.

“I’m getting ready to leave the hospital after dropping off a patient,” Alex explained. “There is no way that we’re going to be able to get back to the station in time for me to change before school, so I’m going to have them drop me off on the way back.”

“Okay,” Isabel replied excitedly.

“Can you bring me a shirt for me to wear to Leprino this afternoon?” Alex asked.

“Do I really need to put you in a shirt?” Isabel teased.

“Hey, got to go,” Alex interrupted. “See you at school.”


Phillip looked up from his paper at the sound of a heard of small beasts stomping down the stairs.

“Hi Mommy, Hi Daddy,” Isabel gushed as she bounced into the kitchen. She raided the refrigerator and threw a salad together, tossing her finished lunch into a tote that she had dragged down with her. “Max,” she shouted up the stairs. “Bus leaves in three and-a-half minutes. Get down here or you’re walking.”

“I’m walking?” Max’s voice drifted down the stairs. “It’s my car!”

“Your point being?” Isabel shouted back. She flounced over to her Mom, bent down and kissed her on the cheek. “Love you Mom.” She floated over to Phillip and kissed him on the top of his head, “Love you Daddy.” Moments later she bounced out the door.

“What’s the rush all about?” Max asked curelessly as he ran through the kitchen, shirt tails flying behind him.

“What just happened?” Phillip asked of his bride.

“I think Alex is going to be waiting for her at the school,” Diane said with a smile.

“I didn’t even know she was here,” Phillip commented. “I walked by her room when I got up. Her door was open and her bed was still made,,,”

“You forget that Alex was working the rescue last night,” Diane said with a whimsical expression. “Isabel spent the night in the guest room, sleeping in his bed and wearing his shirt from yesterday.”


Isabel hopped out of the Chevelle, “Thanks Max.”

“Aren’t you coming in?” Max asked as he watched her head towards the bus ring.

“I’ll come inside in a minute,” Isabel answered. “Alex is just around the corner. She stepped out onto the pavement as the rescue rolled to a stop Moments later she was in his arms. “I missed you last night,” she panted breathlessly.

“Me too,” Alex replied. “Can we end the show now?”

“Show?” Isabel questioned.

In response, Alex simply looked at Stilwell, who was watching through the windshield of the rescue, his eyes bugged out in disbelief at the young beauty that had so demonstratively greeted his gofer.

“I’m just taking care of your reputation,” Isabel explained, as she released him, took his hand, and led him into the school. Moments later they were in front of his locker.

Alex, shielded on one side by his locker door and Isabel on the other, quickly pulled off his uniform shirt, and then popped the Velcro sides of his Second Chance vest. He slid the precious garment into his locker and then pulled on the shirt that his girlfriend handed him.

“Now who’s putting on a show?” Isabel asked as she stepped in and opened the top button on his collar.

Ignoring the looks and catcalls of their fellow students he asked, “What show?” Alex kissed her, then took her hand as they walked to their first class. “Where’s your heart?” he asked, noticing that she had decided to wear her Whirlwind Galaxy pendant.

“It’s on my nipple,” she teased. “You get to guess which one.”

“It’s not on your nipple,” Alex replied shaking his head.

“What?” Isabel protested. “You don’t think that’s something I would do?”

“One. It’s not something you would think of this early in the morning,” Alex commented reasonably. “Two. The top your wearing is tight, and it would ruin the smooth contour of your bust line, something you would never do. And third, it’s too big. You can’t fill it and it would fall off.”

“It wouldn’t fall off if you played with me and got me all hot and bothered,” Isabel panted. “You could make my nipples swell up until it filled the heart. In fact you took me into the eraser room and made a woman out of me I would get so swollen I would break it.”

Alex fought to resist her charms. “What’s more likely is that you would swell up, stab yourself on the point at the top of the heart, and then kick me in the nads,” he teased.

“Don’t worry Sweetie,” Isabel gushed. “I have plans for your nads, and they definitely don’t involve my hurting them.” She kissed him and then slipped into her classroom.

“Izzy?” Alex asked as he headed for his own classroom.

“Yea sweetie?” she replied, suddenly not interested in her AP Spanish class.

“You know,” he continued hesitantly, “We don’t have to be at Leprino until two. Do you want to go home for lunch?”

“Sure,” Isabel replied. “I could go for a little someone for lunch.”

Alex simply snickered in reply.

<continued next>

[Stargazer md]

The following afternoon, the young couple were feeling fine. In the past several days they had come to grips with their family crisis, the meeting at Leprino had resulted in another signed purchase order for Aries, and thanks to the Destiny Book translation, they knew to look for crystalline ‘keys’ which would allow them to access the Granolith. “They have to be here somewhere,” Alex sighed as he sat on a camp chair that comprised one of the few luxuries in the pod chamber.

Isabel sat across from him on a folding cot and reached for a bottle of water. She held it in her hand for a moment to chill it and then handed it to her mate.

“You know, Michael’s going to go medieval on us if we deplete his stash,” Alex warned.

“Yea, but just think of what Maria would do to him if she ever finds out he comes up here to hide. Isabel said with a smile. “Stand up a moment.” She then waved her hand over the simple camp stool and transformed it into a luxurious recliner. “He won’t complain,” Isabel replied with a smile. “I’ll just do my magic on the place then use my special pout on him, then everything will be all right.”

“Do you see anything out of the ordinary?” Alex asked. “There must be something here somewhere.”

“What?” Isabel replied. “Where? All I see is a whole lot of nothing.”

“How about this ninja alien eyesight you keep telling me about,” Alex teased. “Can’t you change the spectrum you’re using or something like that?”

Isabel looked down at his crotch with a huge grin. “If I look for heat, I can see right through your clothes.”

“I don’t need help with that, I’ll do things the old fashioned way. I’ll just tell you to take your clothes off,” Alex quipped, momentarily forgetting who he was talking to.

Isabel stood and started to unbutton her blouse.

“What? Wait! We don’t have time for that now,” Alex quickly backpedaled. “We need to get to work.”

“Okay Sweetie,” Isabel said tenderly as she closed her blouse. Once she had finished with her clothing, she stepped closer to him, and while he had not managed to button the top of his shirt, she still took the opportunity to smooth his collar.

The teens held hands as they walked across the cave and squared off in front of the pods. Isabel studied the fibrous structure of the pods and the smaller openings that flanked the actual incubation chambers. She turned her head and moved slightly to look at it from several angles. “There’s something there,” she exclaimed excitedly.

“What?” Alex demanded impatiently.

“I don’t know,” she replied. After a minutes further study she explained, “It looks like there is some kind of void next to each of our pods, and maybe there is something solid inside the spaces.”

Alex took a folding knife out of his pocket. “Where?” he asked.

Isabel took one look at the tool in his hand and shook her head. “No Sweetie,” she said softly. “I know it looks like a dead houseplant covered with dried snot, but it was my home for forty years. It’s a part of me.”

“Okay, sorry,” Alex said, as he put away the knife, suitably abashed.

Isabel walked closer, guided by Alex as her eyes bored into one particular spot. “This was Michael’s pod.”

“Do you see anything?” Alex asked with wonder.

“Yea,” she replied, placing her hand on the fibrous frame that surrounded one of the accessory compartments. “There’s a void right here.” Isabel closed her eyes and concentrated. Moments later her hand started to glow, and she was able to press it into the sinuous structure. “I have something!” she exclaimed.

Alex found his mate’s enthusiasm contagious as he hopped from foot to foot while he watched Isabel slowly draw her hand back from the compartment. She opened her hand and they both looked at what appeared to be a crystal. Alex took it from her and blew the dust off it, revealing a dull translucent earthy color. The key was round, about nine inches (23 cm) long, about an inch (25 mm) in diameter, faceted on both ends.

Isabel then squatted next to one of the lower pods and ran her hand around the edge.

“It looks damaged,” Alex commented.

“Yea,” Isabel agreed. “Maybe during the crash.”

“Look at this,” Alex said softly as he ran his hand over the edge of the chamber next to Isabel’s. “It looks like scar tissue. It must have been able to heal itself.

Isabel’s hand glowed and reached into the second void. “This one’s empty. The crystal must have been lost when the chamber was damaged. Maybe it never made it off the ship.”

“Well hopefully it was destroyed,” Alex pondered. “Most likely we’ll never know.”

Isabel moved over to Max’s chamber. She located the void, concentrated, and inserted her hand. Moments later her face fell as she withdrew several pieces of a broken crystal.

“One left,” Alex quipped hopefully.

“Mine,” Isabel advised as she gently caressed the edge of her incubation chamber. “Hey old friend. Remember me?” Her hand began to glow and moments later she had a second crystal in her hand. “Success,” Isabel exclaimed holding the last crystal up for Alex to see. This one had come out clean, it’s surface brilliantly clear. “It’s alive.”

Alex’s eyes shot up in alarm and he took an involuntary step backwards.

“Don’t worry Sweetie,” Isabel said reassuringly. “It’s not Gandarium. It’s totally inorganic.”

“Then it can’t be alive,” Alex replied with a curious undertone.”

“Tell that to your PDA battery,” Isabel quipped, pointing to his pocket. As she turned her attention back to the crystal, her voice turned serious. “I can feel it. Something’s here. Potential, a sense of purpose,” she tried to explain.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Alex invited, bowing and waving her towards the entrance to the Granolith chamber.

“I don’t know about this,” Isabel countered doubtfully. “I mean, maybe we’re not ready. Maybe we should talk to the others.” She settled into his strong arms and rested her face on his shoulder, opened her connection, and took comfort in him. “I don’t know if I’m ready.”

“Izzy,” Alex whispered. “It’s not like we’re going in there and take it for a spin around the neighborhood, we’re going to have to find a way to communicate with it.” Alex paused and kissed the top of her head, “I’ve already spent months just to get this far. I need,,, I need to give you answers. I can’t bear to watch the uncertainty you’re going through right now.”

“I’m afraid of what we’re going to find out,” Isabel moaned.

“Come on,” Alex said tenderly as he led her forward. “You’ll feel better once we get the ball rolling.”

Alex crawled through the pod chamber first, and then offered Isabel his hand to help her stand. As always the doors to the Granolith chamber opened automatically as they slowly approached, but as they crossed into the room the Royal Seal on Isabel’s shoulder illuminated, visible through her blouse. Alex took her hand as they stopped just inside the doorway, while the soft green light that had backlit the pod chamber for the past half century was supplemented by a stark beam of light that shone down onto the floor in front of the alien artifact.

“Whoa,” Alex said under his breath while he scratched his chest nervously.

A sure sign of Isabel’s freak factor was the fact that she did not notice her mate’s little tell, let alone smack him for it. In fact all of her tells were also present in full force. She was wringing her hands, pivoting on her hips, and gnawing her lower lip.

Alex broke the spell and reached up, touching Isabel on her glowing shoulder. “I think it likes you. It seems to be responding to your Antarian Princess thing, or maybe it knows that you’re the one in power because you have the keys.”

“Power? Please,” Isabel moaned.

“Really,” Alex replied, covering his anxiety with his trademark humor. “Then tell me why I’ve rarely seen, let alone driven my car since I gave you a set of keys. The crystals are the keys Izzy, and keys are power. She who has the keys gets to decide where everyone’s going.”

In response Isabel held up the crystal, which now glowed a bright red, while under the beam of light, a pedestal rose from the floor. The top of the pedestal was sloped like a control panel with four slots on the left side while the right side of the panel was blank.

“I’m going to guess four slots, four crystals,” Isabel stated.

“Sounds good to me,” Alex agreed.

“Start with the broken one,” Isabel commanded. “We have nothing to loose with that one.”

As Alex reached for the panel, the area around the third slot started to glow white. Alex set the pieces of the broken crystal in place, approximating as best he could the way they should fit together. Once the crystal was in place, the slot covered itself over, then the panel went dark again.

“Try the other one,” Isabel demanded.

“Already on it,” Alex replied as he slid the dull crystal into the first slot, which had illuminated. Once again, the panel darkened and nothing else happened.

“Well, here goes nothing,” Isabel said, tempering her expectations as she held up her glowing red crystal. The second slot lit, and Isabel laid the crystal gently in the indicated place. This time the panel surrounding Isabel’s crystal stayed lit as the slot slid closed, and the subliminal hum that flowed through the cave became louder as the machine spooled up.

“Kewl,” Alex exclaimed as he watched a rich variety of colors and patterns begin to swirl through the obsidian cone, but his delight turned to alarm as several more beams of light streamed down, spotlighting the young couple in separate columns of light. “Isabel?” Alex asked with concern as he reached for her with his mind.

“This is wonderful,” she stated in reply as she slowly waved her hand, which caused ripples in the beam. “The light has substance,” she continued as she pressed her hand through the wall of the beam and waved it in the air of the room, before pulling it back in. “I can feel it against my skin. It’s warm, and it has weight.”

Alex, his sense of alarm mollified now that he knew his mate was in no danger, explored his space as well. “It’s almost as if it’s liquid,” he said in wonder. Suddenly a ring of red appeared at the base of his cylinder, and with a whirring sound, it began to rise, washing him in a disk of ruby red light.

“Alex?” Isabel queried in alarm.

“I’m okay,” he replied calmly. “I think it’s scanning me.” he postulated as the red ring paused over his head before it and then slowly lowered itself back to the floor. Once the examination had completed, and the red disk had served it’s purpose, Alex’s beam of light started to dissolve, the outside of the cylinder started to shed, like clumps of snow falling from a snowman on a warm winters day. Once on the floor, the clumps of light jumped and hissed, before boiling away into the ether.

As his ring reached the floor and faded from sight, a second ring appeared at Isabel’s feet and repeated the process.

“Just hang on a minute Izzy,” Alex shouted as he ran over, skidding to a stop mere inches from her cylinder. “It will be over in just a moment.”

“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to resist this,” Isabel gasped as the red disk of light started to climb up her legs. “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to hide myself.” Moments later the disk illuminated her shoulder, causing her Royal Seal to flare to life. Five bolts of white hot fire blazed forth from her shoulder, converging at the edge of the cylinder.

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” he said reassuringly.

The rise of the red disk stalled, and the point where Isabel’s force was concentrated began to sizzle and pop. Suddenly the disk of red exploded, and the cylinder of light melted away.

Alex pulled her into his arms as the remnants of light danced and boiled away. “Wow,” he exclaimed. “I guess rank does have it’s privileges.” Seeing that she was unharmed, he returned to her concern about the scan. “You have nothing to hide from this, in fact it probably knows more about you that you know yourself.”

“Well the Granolith is from our other planet. It was sent here on our ship, so it knows things about us, right?” Isabel asked excitedly.

“I’m pretty sure of that,” Alex answered while he walked around the Granolith, studying it.

“It can answer our questions?” Isabel probed.

“Eventually,” Alex stammered evasively.

“Alex,” Isabel demanded in her frostiest voice. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“I have to find a way to talk to it,” he replied nervously as he completed another circuit of the machine, stopping in front of the control panel.

“I know you can do it Sweetie. Look how far you’ve come already,” she said proudly as she took a gentle bite out of the side of his neck. “There are six billion people and four aliens on this planet, and you’re the only one who knows anything about my native language.”

“Four?” he questioned, thinking.

“Don’t get all analytical on me,” Isabel teased as she slid her hand up his chest, slipping her hand past the buttons on his shirt. “There’s only four of us that count.”

“The hardest part is done, we’ve awoken it,” Alex sighed. “It should be easy from here.”

Isabel looked at the Granolith in amazement. “It gets easy from here?”

“I’m counting on it,” Alex replied confidently. “It’s a product of the more advanced of our two civilizations, so I’m hoping that if I can get it’s attention it will figure out how to communicate with us.” Noticing that she still needed convincing he continued. “Our trips to the moon were the crowning accomplishment of a generation, yet we flew there carrying the computing power of a current day wrist watch, and right now I have more computing power in my handheld PDA that exist on the entire space shuttle fleet. On the other hand your race was FTL more than fifty years ago.”

“FTL?” Isabel asked.

“Faster than light,” Alex explained. “While you were crossing the galaxy and exploring our world, we were flying propeller driven aircraft while on the ground we crashed an early Mark II computer when a moth got caught in one of it’s circuits,,,”

“A moth?” Isabel laughingly interrupted.

“Yea, a moth. You can see a picture of it on the internet,” Alex hung his head in shame. “That was where the term bug comes from. We were pretty primitive back then. We’re still comparatively primitive now,” he added looking at the Granolith in wonder.

“But you’re my primitive,” Isabel said tenderly, snuggling into his side as the swirling colors of the cone reflected off of them. She reached down and whimsically doodled random patterns on the blank side of the control panel.

“Izzy, try your whirlwind galaxy symbol,” Alex asked softly.

She did as he asked, and then recoiled in amazement as the panel morphed to a deep royal blue background color. Black icons raised out of the shimmering edge light. “Did you see that?” she asked of her mate, stepping aside of him so she could watch his reactions better.

“I don’t recognize these symbols,” Alex explained, pointing to the panel. “But this one, I’ve seen before,” he said excitedly as he booted his PDA. Seconds later he was scrolling through the translation program. “I’m reading the symbol as ‘stop’.”

“Great, that’s the one thing we don’t want to do,” Isabel sighed.

“Wait a minute, what do we have here?” he postulated, as a small dark truncated cone materialized on the top of the control panel.

“It looks like an IR (Infra-Red) port,” Isabel said excitedly. “Your PDA is IR capable, do you think it’s trying to beam us?”

Alex looked down at the display in his hand. “It must have noticed the IR signal from the PDA while I was scrolling through the icons. It’s downloading data across the IR link!”

“The translation program? Do you think we’ll be able to talk to it?” Isabel raved.

“Not really,” Alex replied, deep in thought. “There’s not much on here. I’d need the Toshiba before we could even try anything like that. Thank God it was at your house when you blew up everything else,,,” he teased, but as he turned towards her he found her running from the cave.

Ten minutes later Isabel returned with the laptop to find that her mate pounding furiously on his PDA, never having missed her.

**********
The three musketeers were sitting at the table waiting for their friends, and catching up on the little things happening in their lives and relationships. At the moment Maria was in full rant about her mothers little ‘stunt.’ “And now I find out that the whole weekend was rigged. Taking Mrs. Albright to Spaced Drugs, Jennifer quitting, it was all her dirty little plan.”

“Now come on ‘Ria,” Liz teased. “Amy wasn’t the only one who had a plan last weekend.”

“Anyone got any extra mustard?” Alex asked of no one in particular as he flattened his lunch bag and deconstructed his sandwich.

“So when you add all the induced drama to the usual chaos of several busloads of tourist,” Maria raged, “And you can imagine the weekend we had,,,”

“And you’re going to tell me about everything that happened during that weekend,” Liz said with a little giggle.

“Just pretend I’m not here,” Alex quipped while opening a zip lock bag of cheese curls.

“And Michael had to pick up dog crap,,,” Maria whined.

“Ewwww! Gross,” Liz complained as she threw her fork down into the cafeteria’s current version of ‘meatloaf surprise.’

“Eating here,” Alex advised as he finished arranging a layer of cheese curls on top of his open ham sandwich and crushed the top slice of bread down onto it.

“Whach’ya eatin’?” Isabel asked merrily as she led the remainder of the group to the table.

“The Whitman signature ham and cheese pixie sandwich,” Maria answered for him without missing a beat.

“Hey, not just any cheese curl, these are Jax’s” he protested.

“Not the ‘Jax’ thing again,” Isabel muttered indignantly. “And what did I tell you about mutilating food in public?”

“So did Mrs. Albright ever get her medicine?” Liz asked of her pixie friend.

“What’s this Jax thing?” Michael asked as he threw himself into the conversation.

“One of my web polls I ran during freshman year was about cheese curls,” Alex explained. “I tried all of the winners but one, Jax, which I couldn’t get locally.”

“Until we went to Boston,” Isabel moaned. “He fell in love with them. In fact we ended up bringing a case home with us on the airplane. Now he orders them off the internet.”

“Anyone have any mustard?” Ava asked.

“And so we’re back to ham and cheese twist sandwiches,” Liz added, “Which is a whole lot better than the time Gloria trusted him to make his own lunch and he took an egg salad sandwich to school.”

“Five hours in a hot locker and that sandwich was full of nasty critters,” Maria recalled with a laugh.

“Hey, that wasn’t funny,” Alex injected, visibly upset at the memory.

Max tossed a pack of mustard onto the table which Alex almost got before it was snatched up by the quicker hybrid.

“He spent the next three days in the boys room,” Liz explained quietly.

“We need to change the subject,” Max reasoned, looking at his lunch as if it had suddenly become an enemy. “Friday night, I figured Chinese and then we could go out to Black Hole and play a round of miniature golf.”

“Max, do you have any more of that mustard?” Alex asked plaintively.

“Sounds like a good idea,” Michael agreed. “The days are getting shorter, and it’s supposed to be a warm evening Friday. It’s almost October after all, and we’re not going to get many more chances to stay outside that late this year.”

“Mustard?” Max asked, “I just gave you some.

“Who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend?” Maria asked with a dazed expression on her face.

“Owe!” Alex exclaimed in pain. “Who kicked me?”

“Did you hear that Whitman?” Isabel asked as she impatiently tapped her wrist. “It’s almost October. Birthday? Tic-Toc.”

“I just think we should take the chance to go out,” Michael complained.

“’Ria? My ring going to be ready by Friday?” Liz asked innocently.

“Ring?” Max choked out.

“Don’t worry,” Liz said, giggling. “Maria is getting me a thumb ring.”

“Thumb rings were a sign of slavery in ancient Rome,” Alex quipped offhandedly. “Often they were considered a sign of sexual slavery,” he added in a lowered voice.

“Really?” Isabel said, her face suddenly split with a wide grin. “Give me your wallet.”

“Here you go Alex,” Kyle quipped, tossing a pack of ketchup his way.

Alex missed Kyle’s offering as he followed Isabel’s command without raising an eyebrow.

Isabel waved her hand over his wallet, freeing several links from his chain. With a second wave she changed the links into a gold ring which she slipped onto her thumb. As her grin spread to her eyes she looked at her mate. “I’ve been bad Master. You should take me to the eraser room and punish me.”

Alex looked at Isabel with a matching grin, which melted as his gaze expanded and he noticed the stormy countenance on her two brother’s faces.

“No one’s getting punished,” Max stated flatly. “As a matter of fact Isabel’s not doing anything!” he added, starting at Alex.

“Yea Alex, don’t let the fact that I like you make you think I won’t kill you,” Michael added with an evil smile.

“Mustard Alex?” Liz questioned. “Here you go,,, oh nope, it’s empty. Sorry.”

“You guys are eating too much red meat,” Maria boomed out, slapping Michael on the shoulder.

“What are they doing that we don’t do,” Liz teased.

“We’re not doing anything,” Max stammered, his sudden blush rising to his ears. “They’re not doing anything. We’re not doing anything. No one’s doing anything.”

“Mustard Alex? Why didn’t you say so?” Ava asked as she waved her hand over Kyle’s pack of ketchup, changing it to mustard.

Isabel leaned forward, crowding Max’s personal space. “I’ll do whatever I want, brother dearest. I only take orders from one man.” She reached and took Alex’s hand. “Maybe we’ll link our powers and put the entire Quad to sleep and do the nasty right on the table, or maybe I’ll just finish your lunch while you’re in dreamland. At any rate, you’ll never know what happens between us.”

Alex picked up the mustard pack and looked at it wistfully, “I just finished my sandwich,” but his attention snapped to Max. “What you say? I wasn’t paying attention.”

Max fumed while Michael concentrated on Alex as he cracked his knuckles threateningly. “You have no powers, and you’re not going to do anything to my sister,” he said menacingly.

“Chill Michael, cop some zee’s,” Alex said offhandedly, as he turned back to the standoff between the two siblings. “You know she’s just busting your chops, don’t you?” he asked of Max.

“Yea,” Max replied relieved. “She’s been doing that a lot lately,” he replied as the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period.

“You never know,” Isabel teased as she gathered her stuff and stood. She took Alex’s waiting hand and they headed for the building.

“We’re still going out to the desert after school, right?” she asked of the departing couple. Receiving a nod in the affirmative, she then turned to Max. “I’ll see you in the parking lot after class,” she promised, kissing him as she left.

“Hey!” Maria exclaimed. “Something’s wrong with Michael. Spaceboy! Wake up,” she bellowed, poking him in the shoulder as she looked at Alex’s back with wonder.

**********
“Danger Alex Whitman, Danger!” the Granolith chanted as the four hybrids were immediately enclosed in liquid scanning chambers, but unlike the benign white fluid of the day before, these chambers were encrusted with a hard smoky shell that imprisoned the teens. “Danger!!” the Granolith repeated.

Isabel turned, facing first her brothers and then her mate and then Ava. “Alex?” she demanded, her voice rising in panic. “What’s going on?”

“Isabel! What the hell have you gotten is into?” Max called out while Michael raged, slamming himself against the inside of his cage. Ava proved to be too new to the alien abyss, and seemingly didn’t react at all.

“I don’t know?” Alex replied, furiously pounding on the control panel, scrolling through screen after screen of increasingly complex symbols.

“Sweetie,” Isabel said softly, her panic momentarily under control. “It spoke to you.”

Realization struck Alex like a thunderbolt. It did speak. He could understand it. He stepped back from the controls and shouted, “What the hell‘s wrong with you,,,” but as his mind calmed and as he saw that Isabel did not seem to be in any immediate danger, he began to work his way through the problem.

“Alex?” Isabel said with concern as she watched her mate, momentarily silent as his mind worked.

“It’s not responding to me,” Alex moaned.

“I wouldn’t respond either if you talked to me like that,” Isabel said soothingly. “It sounds like a computer, talk to it like one.”

Alex turned back to the Granolith. “State nature of danger!” he barked.

“Recognized, Alex Whitman,” the device boomed out confidently. “Interface with the Granolith. Bonded pair mate of Vilandra.”

“What the hell is a ‘bonded pair mate’ and when did that happen?” Michael shouted at his sister, his imprisonment momentarily forgotten.

Alex, not noticing Michaels life threatening stare in his direction, repeated his command, letting a significant amount of irritation show in his voice.

“Danger Alex Whitman,” the Granolith repeated in as an excited a tone of voice as a mechanical alien device could muster. “Supplemental message received post mission deployment. Message retrieved from memory. ‘Danger! Integrity of the Royal Four Square can not be assured. Suspected tampering and possible contamination by a member or members of the Primary Four Square suspected. Confirm identity of any human-hybrid attempting to access the Granolith.’ Message ends.”

“Wait.” Alex commanded. “What is the Primary Four Square?”

“The Primary Four Square is the first attempt to produce a Royal Four Square to be secreted in the Sol system for the preservation of the Royal Line of Succession for the planet Antar,” the Granolith answered flatly. “Initial testing indicated that the composition of the members of the Primary Four Square was weighted too heavily to the Antarian side. Adjustments were made and the Second Four Square was found to be acceptable. The Second Four Square was given the Royal Seal of Antar and the defective Primary Four Square was sent along as a last ditch back up.”

“There’s that word again,” Ava moaned.

“What, back-up?” Isabel asked.

“No. Defective,” Ava replied dejectedly. “Story of my life.”

Moments later the scanning ring appeared at the base of Isabel’s cylinder, and like the previous time, contact with Isabel’s Royal Seal caused the ring to shatter as she was set free.

“I don’t like this,” Ava muttered unnoticed. “That thing’s going to find out I was raised in a sewer and it’s going to zap me into the twilight zone.”

“Identified. Vilandra. Royal Four Square. Sister of Zan,,,” The voice of the Granolith paused a moment, and then continued, a sense of wonder in it’s voice. “Keeper of the Royal Seal of Antar. First in line of succession to the throne of Antar Prime and the Antarian Planetary Cluster. Bonded pair mate of Alex Whitman.”

Max’s eyebrows shot up as he demanded, “Keeper of the Royal Seal? When did that happen?”

Isabel continued to watch her pod mates with concern, but that did not stop her from walking over to Alex and leaning onto his back as her arms snaked around him. She watched the proceedings from the safety of looking over his shoulder.

Michael could not believe the look on Max’s face and snickered softly, watching the one-time king’s ears turn red in alarm.

Before anyone could react further, the ring appeared at the base of Max’s cylinder and scanned him, making two slow and deliberate circuits, before the cylinder dissolved and the process started again on Michael

“Identified. Zan. Royal Four Square. Titular ruler of the House of Zan. Past King and currently second in the in line of succession to the throne of Antar Prime and the Antarian Planetary Cluster.”

“Somebody tell me what the hell happened?” Max protested as he turned and watched Michael’s scan approach completion. “Second in line? When did that happen?”

“You said you didn’t want to be king,” Liz said softly. “Looks like you got your wish,” she added hopefully.

“Guy’s, I really don’t want to do this, ” Ava said nervously as Michael’s scan completed and the red ring appeared at her feet.

“Identified. Rath. Royal Four Square. Commander of the Antarian Palatial Guard and Supreme General of the Antarian System Forces.”

“Hang on Ava,” Kyle said reassuringly as he stopped within inches of her container. “Everything’s going to be alright.”

Michael reached and took Maria’s hand and they worked their way between Max and Liz, and Isabel and Alex as Ava’s scan completed.

“Identified. Ava. Royal Four Square. Sister of Rath. Past Queen of Antarian Prime and the Antarian Planetary Cluster by way of marriage to Zan.”

“What?” Ava exclaimed as her container melted, freeing her. “I’m part of the Royal Square?” Ava exclaimed while jumping up and down with glee. “Is that true?”

Kyle looked at Isabel and Alex. “You’ve got to find out if this is true.”

Isabel raised her mates hand and kissed the back of it gently. She raised her brows expectantly.

“Granolith!” Alex called out. “Confirm that all members of the Royal Four Square are present.”

“Confirmed!” the Granolith barked out.

“Granolith!” Alex repeated. “Confirm that no members of the duplicate four square are present.”

“Confirmed!” the Granolith agreed.

“Granolith!” Alex continued. “Is there any possibility of error regarding Ava? Justify your findings.”

“Re-analyzing data,” the Granolith responded. “DNA analysis of Ava reveals a Gandarium assisted splice of fifty percent Earth originated and fifty percent Antarian originated genome base pairs. This configuration corresponds with the constitution of the Royal Four Square. The constitution of the Primary Four Square was thirty percent Earth originated and seventy percent Antarian originated genome base pares, a ratio that does not require Gandarium enhancement. Results verified by way of two criteria, the DNA ratio and evidence of Gandarium influenced gene splices. Confirmed. Ava is of the Royal Four Square.”

“I’m not defective!” Ava squealed as she leapt into Kyle’s arms.

“I could have told you that,” Kyle replied with a smile, as he turned so that both he and Ava could face the others.

“What do you think happened?” Ava asked of the group.

“It sounds like Tess’ and Ava’s pods were swapped before we left Antar,” Max observed. “Luckily we seem to have rectified that little problem,” he quipped.

“Little problem,” Isabel snapped, holding her mate tight. “That little problem almost cost Alex his life.

Ava peeled from Kyle’s arms and slowly approached Michael, as Maria watched, barely able to contain her glee. “Hey big brother,” she said cautiously.

“I have a family,” Michael said softly. “I have a sister,” he repeated more strongly as the realization struck home. Suddenly Michael threw his arms wide and bellowed, “I have a family!” He reached out and swept Ava into his arms and swung her around in a giant circle, threatening anyone within close proximity with serious bodily injury.

Ava took delight in her brothers enthusiasm, but soon had enough of his antics. “Put me down,” she asked. “Michael, put me down!”

“I have a sister,” Michael said with glee, “And I’m never putting her down.”

“Michael! So help me God, put me down before I puke all over you!” Ava commanded in a voice that belied her small stature.

Ava felt the spinning slow, but she continued berating her new found brother. “I don’t know if you’ve ever seen what an alien digestive system can do to a jalapeno stuffed cabbage with hot curry sauce, but you’re going to find out if you don’t put me down.”

Michael quickly put her down and held her until her dizziness passed before stepping back.

“Granolith?” Max asked hesitantly.

“Recognized, Zan,” the Granolith answered.

“Oh this is going to get old in a hurry,” Max mumbled.

“I don’t want that thing to be calling me by my old name,” Isabel agreed.

“Granolith,” Alex commanded.

“Recognized, Alex Whitman,” the Granolith answered.

“You need to change the names you use for us,” Alex asked.

“Command not understood,” the Granolith replied.

“Okay, Granolith!” Alex commanded, slipping into programmer mode. “Establish user names and or aliases’ for the following users.”

“Provide user name for primary user Alex Whitman,” the Granolith commanded.

“Alex Whitman is to be refer to as Alex in casual situations and Alex Whitman in formal situations,” Alex commanded. “The default form of reference is to be casual.”

“Command accepted,” the Granolith stated. “Provide user name for user Zan.”

Alex programmed the Granolith to refer to the Royal Square by their proper names, and then introduced the rest of the group.

“Max,” Alex said with deference. “You were saying?”

“Granolith,” Max tried again.

“Yes Max,” the Granolith answered.

“How is it possible that you are speaking English?” he asked.

“Integration of Dragon with decryption iteration series forty-seven allows limited communication in this language,” the Granolith replied.”

“Hugh?” Max asked, turning to Alex.

“The last time we were here the Granolith downloaded the contents of my laptop,” Alex explained. “It took the decryption program which had the contents of your book in it, and it also accessed a speech recognition program that I had installed for another project.”

“So it can carry on a conversation?” Maria asked excitedly.

“Not really,” Isabel answered, looking to Alex for agreement. Upon receiving a nod from him, she continued. “The Granolith only had access to a limited amount of information, the contents of Aries’s laptop. It may be able to understand and speak about the book,” Isabel turned to the Granolith. “Granolith, do you recognize me?

“Recognized. Isabel. Royal,,,” the Granolith answered mechanically.

“Yea, yea.” Isabel interrupted. “What color top am I wearing?”

“Insufficient information to process request,” the Granolith replied.

“You know, her top could be red, blue, green?” Kyle added helpfully.

“Define top, red, blue, green,” the Granolith demanded.

The group looked at Kyle expectantly. “Yea, right.” Turning to the Granolith he mumbled, “Forget about it.”

“Unable to comply,” the Granolith replied flatly. “Command from Isabel, Keeper of the Royal Seal of Antar, may not be cancelled by a lower level user.”

“User?” Maria teased. “How did the Granolith find out about your dating habits?”

“Hey, hey,” Kyle complained defensively. “I’ve changed. I’ve discovered Buddha and become enlightened.”

“It’s more likely you ran out of cheerleaders,” Liz replied, coming to her girlfriends assistance.

“What is it about Kyle and cheerleaders?” Ava asked the group, seeing a chance to get some dirt on her first time boyfriend.

Isabel choked, but recovered quickly. Turning to Alex she asked, “What do I do?”

Without hesitation he answered her. “Say ‘Granolith, cancel request.’”

“Acknowledged,” the Granolith responded to Alex’s words before Isabel could say anything.

Isabel’s brows shot up. “So much for the power of the Royal Seal of Antar,” she quipped.

“I guess we know who wears the pants in that relationship,” Michael observed without thinking, and bringing on himself an icy stare from Isabel that would have frozen solid a lesser man .

“Spaceboy steps in it again,” Maria teased as she reached up and gave his shoulder a squeeze.

“So what are you good for?” Michael challenged, turning attention away from himself.

“Insufficient information to process request,” the Granolith repeated.

“You have a lot of work to do,” Michael quipped, turning to Alex. “Well the both of you.”

“But not today,” Alex replied. “We have classes tonight.”

Michael noticed an arm around his new sister’s waist. He walked over, hooked Kyle by the elbow, and dragged him away from the others. “You do understand that this adds a whole new dimension to our relationship, don’t you?” Michael asked with a sinister grin on his face.

“We’re all part of one big family?” Kyle asked hopefully.

“Gee,” Michael replied sarcastically. “I haven’t thought of that. But don’t think that will protect you if I find out you went all perve on my sister.”

“I’m no perve,” Kyle said innocently.

Isabel choked secretly remembering several of his dreams about Ava, and then buried her face in Alex’s shoulder as the room full of people turned their attention to her.

Michael looked at his new found brother-in-law wanna-be. “If I find out you’re so much as thinking of pulling any of that coma-sumo stuff on my sister they will have to bury your sorry ass in a dust-buster.”

“It’s Kama-Sutra you big lug,” Ava complained, slapping him on the chest. “And don’t limit my options.”

“What the hell do you know about that?” Michael asked, appalled.

“Obviously she realizes that it’s a Hindu thing, not Buddhist,” Kyle quipped.

“I know all about the Kama-Sutra,” confessed Ava. “I memorized Isabel’s copy.”

Michael turned to look at Alex with a new found sense of betrayal.

“Hey don’t look at me like that,” Alex said defensively. “I’m the innocent, not the perve in this relationship.” He quickly turned to Isabel. “Sorry Izzy, I was time constrained on that response. It didn’t come out the way I wanted it to.”

“That’s okay,” Isabel teased. “I’ll throw you over my lap and give you a bare bottomed spanking you’ll never forget and then all will be forgiven.”

Alex walked up to Michael and threw an arm around the warriors shoulder. “Come on back to town with us. We’ll stop at the Taco Shack and I’ll tell you how to stay sane when you have two sisters, both of whom are dating.”

Michael looked over at his sister Isabel as they started for the chamber entrance. “She’s kidding you about the spanking, right?”

Alex shook his head and replied, “I really don’t know.”

**********
The following afternoon, Alex was psyched. He had just completed a rescue run and was at the hospital. Although Paramedic Stilwell had headed for the on call lounge the moment they turned the patient over to the hospital staff, charge nurse Chris Welch had kept Alex close at hand, guiding his performance through a complete admissions exam for his patient, followed by a consult with Doctor Josephs. Alex, under proper supervision, had confirmed his initial suspicions and successfully diagnosed a descending aortic aneurysm. The patient was now on the way to surgery and another chance at life.

Paramedic Stilwell had just finished making himself a coffee and had crashed down onto the recliner in the on call lounge when Alex stuck his head through the door.

“Patients on the way to the O.R, the bus is cleaned out, and the paperwork’s done. Time to head back to the house. My shift’s over at seven and I’m taking Isabel dancing. I don’t want to keep her waiting,” Alex reported efficiently.

“Damned,” Stilwell mumbled while looking at the clock. “Eighteen minutes. This guy’s learning too quick. Normally it takes a month for them to get to the point where they can do all my chores in under a half-hour.”

**********
Meanwhile, Jeff watched Isabel push her half eaten meal away, as she wiped her face pale with her napkin. “Is something wrong with your meal?” he asked, leaning over the counter.

“No!” Isabel exclaimed. “It’s fine. Jose made it just the way I like it,” she explained, her face visibly flushed.

“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Jeff asked again, his voice dripping with concern.

“I don’t know,” Isabel replied.

“Hang on a moment,” Jeff pleaded, and then he rushed over to the ordering window. “Jose!” he commands. Call upstairs and tell Nancy to come down here.”

“Sí, El Jefe,” Jose replied.

Moments later Jeff was back by Isabel’s side. “Oh man, this isn’t good,” he said quietly as he noticed her fingers melting their way through her sundae glass, crushing it as her soda boiled away. “Come on Isabel, I’m going to help you upstairs.” He knocked her glass into the sink to cool it, and then brought it with him, carefully wrapping it with a towel.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Isabel gasped, leaning on the older man for support.

“It’s okay,” he said reassuringly. “We’ll call Liz and Max to take care of you.”

“No,” Isabel protest. “I need Alex!”

“Now’s not a good time for Alex,” Jeff explained patiently, but as they passed through the kitchen, his voice took on a demanding tone. “Jose, Isabel isn’t feeling well, and I’m taking her up to the apartment. I don’t want anyone coming up, understand?”

Jose didn’t understand, but he nodded and obeyed his boss.

Nancy met them at the top of the stairs. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know,” Jeff responds. “Isabel got sick downstairs, and I thought it best to get her out of there. Help her to the couch,” he added as he reached for the phone.

Nancy sat next to Isabel on the couch, holding her hand with concern. “Is there anything I can do? Can I get you some water?”

While Isabel was settling on the couch, Jeff was on the phone. “Liz?” he asked softly when the phone was answered. “Is Max with you? Good. Listen to me. I need you and Max to come home right now. Alone! Right now!”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Isabel complained, as her upper body began to spasm.

“Isabel dear, you’re going to throw up!” Nancy exclaimed as she dragged the teen from the couch towards the bathroom.

“I don’t know how to throw up!” Isabel wailed plaintively.

Nancy stuck her head out from the bathroom as Isabel made a series of disgusting noises in the background. “Would you care to explain to me why you chose to subject me to this wonderful experience?” she asked sarcastically. “You’ve seen the table scrap stir fries she eats. It’s a wonder that this hasn’t happened before.”

In reply, Jeff simply handed her the mangled glass.

“Was this on the grill?” Nancy gasped. “Did she get burned?”

“No,” Jeff replied. “She did this herself. It was in her hand when she got sick. Look at her hand. She doesn’t have a mark on her. You know what this means, don’t you?”

“Yea,” Nancy replied. “You had better get downstairs and make sure that we don’t get any company.”

Jeff reached the base of the stairs just as Liz and Max arrived. “Your sister’s upstairs,” he explained to the young man. “You’re going to have to take a look at her.”

Max bolted up the stairs and then scurried over to the couch, taking his sister’s hand in his, as Liz tried to lead her mother out of the room.

“We didn’t know who to call,” Nancy stammered, “But after everything you went through last year we figured it would be safe to call you and Max.”

Nancy’s explanation was interrupted as Alex ran into the room, skidding to a stop by his mate’s side.

“What are you doing here?” Nancy asked in surprise. “Jeff should have stopped you downstairs.”

“He tried Mrs. P.” Alex commented nonchalantly. “I didn’t hurt him. I made sure he landed on the sofa in the break room.” Recognizing that Max was trying to examine her discretely, he anxiously hovered over the siblings, not wanting to jeopardize his future brother-in-law’s concentration.

“Alex, maybe you should wait downstairs,” Nancy stated nervously. “Isabel needs privacy right now.”

“Isabel needs her family right now, and that includes me,” Alex replied honestly, looking towards Max.

“I don’t know,” Max sighed. “I don’t see anything wrong.”

“Stop hovering over me,” Isabel demanded. “And get me a ginger ale.”

“Mom, what are you talking about?” Liz said, with a touch of panic in her voice. “Not that I’m complaining, but why are you and Dad talking about Isabel the way you are?”

In response Nancy handed her Isabel’s glass. “I hope you will take better care of this than you did with your uniform, I don’t think our special guests want any more attention. I recommend you take a hammer and smash this until there is nothing left but sand.”

“Mom,,,” Liz stammered.

“Don’t act so surprised,” Nancy rebutted with a smile on her face. “After all, I am your Grandmother Claudia’s daughter. She pretty much convinced us that there were visitors among us decades ago, but she never told us how to figure out who they were.”

Meanwhile Alex had taken his place on the couch, or more accurately, he had not resisted his mate when Isabel pulled on his arm until she had him settled down with her head in his lap. But now that he knew she was out of danger, he was tapping furiously on his PDA.

“You’re ignoring me,” Isabel pouted. “I’m lying here dying and you’re playing with your silly toy.”

Alex didn’t pay attention to her first complaint as he had their connection wide open, and the couple had agreed that she wasn’t in any real danger. “I’m not ignoring you,” he added for effect. “I’m talking to our new friend about you,,,”

“Are you sure that’s safe?” Max asked, his voice climbing higher and higher up his own personal panic scale as he watched the possibility of exposure rise exponentially.

“Perfectly,” Alex assured him. “We’re set up a discrete link between it and my PDA utilizing Trithiam technology and a one mega-byte encryption algorithm.”

“Sweetie, lets get back to what’s important here,” Isabel said innocently, setting him up for the burn. “Me!” she snapped.

“Our new database has a secure medical file on you, but it won’t allow me access. For that matter it won’t allow you to access it remotely,” Alex answered with disappointment. “We’re going to have to go out there so I can teach it to show me the proper level of deference out of respect to my being it’s system god, but in the meantime it’s giving me a hint about what’s happening to you.”

“So what do you think is wrong with me?” Isabel asked silently.

“I think you’re getting your period,” Alex exclaimed.

TBC

[KaraGail]

Now Charles knows the truth about Isabel how long will it be before Gloria, a.k.a. the bear, finds out ? :

Loved how Alex put Michael to sleep in the quad. He truly is getting powerful

Isabel is getting her period? I hope Alex can answer the questions she has about herself and that the Granolith will help :

Can't wait for more!

Kara

[Rim]

thank you thank you for my new years update it made my day. now for my first request of the new year. please post another chapter.